This is from my daily Greek exercise of sight reading a few weeks ago, courtesy of Vincent S Artale Jr.
Our text is Ephesians 1:3. Here’s my translation:
“SENTENCE 3 Εὐλογητὸς [T ὁ θεὸς καὶ πατὴρ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ T]
Blessed is God and Father of our Lord Jesus ChristSENTENCE ‹ ὁ εὐλογήσας ἡμᾶς ἐν πάσῃ εὐλογίᾳ πνευματικῇ ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις ἐν
who bless us and with every spiritual blessing and in the heavenly inΧριστῷ ›”
Christ
Here’s some observation:
- Twice in this verse we see the word “bless.” Paul stating this twice shows this is an important subject in this verse.
- The first “bless” is an adjective to refer to God and the second is a participle describing God as the one who blesses us.
- Note how twice Christ is mentioned.
- Yet also notice how in the Greek God is the subject of this verse since it is in the nominative case and also being the subject of the participle since it in nominative case in simple apposition to “God.”
- In the Greek it is clear that “God and Father” is not two separate individual but two descriptions of one person. God the Father is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
- This verse states God is the one who blesses us “with every spiritual blessing and in the heavenly;” what are those exact blessings? The rest of the book of Ephesians would describe that to the readers!
- Note that the blessings is found in the sphere of Christ. We must trust in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior to recieve these spiritual salvation which Ephesians is going to focus on our spiritual salvation.
Application:
- Do you realize that those who trust in Christ are blessed? What are some of the blessings you know is taught in the book of Ephesians?
- When was the last time you thank God for all your blessings you have received from Him? What can you thank Him for right now?
- Grace-based holiness is the opposite of self-righteous driven attempt to be “holy.” Whereas self-righteousness is centered on pride of self and the attempt to earn God’s favor, Grace-based holiness is driven by the motivation of knowing and loving God for who He is and His grace already given to us. Does your thanksgiving to God fuel you to lovingly obey Him?
- Not the emphasis on Christ even as God the Father is the subject of the verse. Have you trusted in the Person and Work of Jesus Christ as the basis for your access to God and all His spiritual blessings? If not, trust in Him today!
Thank you for the blessing of this post, Pastor Jim!
You’re welcome Maria, thank you Maria for reading this, I hope it would bless God’s people with the post making observation and applications from the verse Ephesians 1:3. I hope you have a blessed day today?
It will!
And you too, brother!
Oh I love this! Thank you! and God Bless
You’re welcome! Your comment encouraged me to write more of these bite size devotionals which I stopped a few weeks ago so visit us again!
I am so glad you will continue…I would love to learn more Greek from the Bible! KEEP GOING!
Reblogged this on Talmidimblogging and commented:
The geekiness of Greek, Amen and Amen 👍🙏
Thanks for the reblog brother! I hope you are doing well
Yankee Whiskey Bravo and I am my friend. How are you doing?
I am doing well, came back from a family trip Thursday and was super tired but I’m blessed beyond what I deserve; its good to hear from you again brother!
Likewise my friend, btw, I’m having issues with Logos Bible Software in terms of posting the Interlinear Greek 😢 trying different things to resolve the issue 🤔
Amen. Well done, Slim. 🙂
Thanks for the short analysis. Yup, we pursue holiness out of joy and gratefulness, not out of guilt.
Amen Tom! How liberating is the Gospel for even our practical holiness? I stand amazed many a moment of how the Gospel not only saves us from hell but drives us to obey Him!
Thankful for all the blessings both spiritual & earthly our Heavenly Father pours our upon us because of His love He has given to us through His Son Jesus Christ.
Amen! It is good to see you comment on here Eliza, its has been a while! May the Lord bless you, so thankful for God’s spiritual and earthly blessings!
Thank you so much the same to you too.
I can’t read Hebrew but really, really blessed…yes, please do more! Blessings today!
Thanks! I appreciate you reading this and commenting, may we behold His glory together through the Word of God that reveals Himself!
Amen and Amen!
I have been wanting to learn how to read Greek. I just don’t quite know where to start.
When I read your comment I was thinking about what Greek text book to recommend; my favorite has been “New Testament Greek made functional” by H. Fred Nofer but it is out of print and is really a self-published thing but it proved to be so much more than the amateur look (talk about not judging a book by its cover). It was so useful to me and the quickest way to learn Greek having gone through Greek both in the universities and seminary. Unfortunately it is not available online. I know a lot of people learned Biblical Greek through Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar: William D. Mounce. Let me know if there is anything I can help with Patrick and I say this as someone still learning Greek.
Thank you sir… I am familiar with Mounce.
I love this.
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I love the book of Ephesians. “In Christ “….So grateful we have been adopted as sons and redeemed by the blood of Jesus.
Thank you for the study
I love the doctrine that we have been redeemed and adopted! One of my favorite teaching on adoption is found here: https://veritasdomain.wordpress.com/2016/08/17/do-you-know-what-is-the-doctrine-of-redemption-propitiation-justification-and-adoption/ I think the second video is worth your time whenever you can listen to the teaching of the doctrine of adoption in its biblical and historical context!
Aww thank you so much. I truly appreciate it.