Eph 1:1-2 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are also faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 
	Last week, we considered some of the aspects of this introductory sentence. We looked at the name of Jesus Christ, the Anointed One of God. We also spent considerable time in terms of being the saints of God, called by God and set apart, by Him, unto Himself. We touched on aspects of God’s grace and peace in the fact that we are called into one body in Christ. As such, we belong to Christ and are the expression of His Great Love to all in our lives. As a fellowship, as the saints of God’s choosing, we need to now live our lives in accordance with the Word of God, in complete obedience to the Holy Spirit. Our lives are no longer our own. We belong to Jesus Christ, and the lives that we now live must be completely consecrated to Him as Our Lord and Master.
These were some of the key elements that we had before us last week. I realize that there are many more aspects of Christ Jesus and the relationship that we now have in Him expressed in this letter. Again, as I stated, there is no way that we can even hope to finish any consideration of the breadth and length and height and depth of all that has been accomplished in Our Lord Jesus Christ. This is something that we each need to take before the Lord in our hearts, with a clear focus on that which would please Him. We need to be in earnest prayer that the Lord would open up, in reality, the great truths of Christ in us.
In our time together, however, we will continue our look at a few more of the key terms in this introduction. There is still more that we need to see in respect to our being the saints of God’s calling. We will also spend some time with the terms faithful, grace, and peace. There is so much held within the life that is now ours in Christ as expressed through these key terms that we dare not take any of them for granted.
 In continuation of last week, the Apostle Paul addresses his readers as saints who are also faithful in Christ Jesus. We saw that as set apart ones unto God, our lives now need to express the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We are set apart from this world. Our lives are no longer governed by the dictates and the lies of this age. We are no longer held captive in the chains of sin and the curse of death. We are no longer dead in sin and trespass. We are made alive unto God in Jesus Christ, Our Lord, through the effective, life-giving ministry of the Holy Spirit. 
It is a theme that the Apostle Paul expands later in Eph 5:1-4. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. But fornication and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is fitting among saints. Let there be no filthiness, nor silly talk, nor levity, which are not fitting; but instead let there be thanksgiving. 
The course of human nature makes it is so easy to look at all the negative aspects of life. We have the tendency to concentrate on the Thou Shalt Not’s and the if you do this, you will suffer the consequences. Please do not misunderstand. We should be aware of the cost of each of our actions. This was highlighted as we considered Gal 6:7 Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. But once again, the tendency is to see this from the negative aspect of punishment, rather than from the spiritual truth of the goodness and the love of God. When we sow His love in the lives of others, sowing unto the Spirit as urged by the Apostle, we reap the life of Christ in more and more abundance.
That is the manner in which we need to live our lives before God, as His saints, His set apart ones. In the life of Jesus Christ, we are set apart from even the legalistic and negative attitudes of this age. Look once more, with the truth of the Love of God, at what Eph. 5:1-4 has to say to us. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. We should conduct ourselves as the beloved children of God. As we live in this world, our actions, and our conversations, and our endeavors, and our thoughts must always be ones that are honoring to Our Heavenly Father. We should be living lives that are acceptable as the beloved children of God. That is a great responsibility, yes, but it is an even greater weight of love and compassion for those whom God so loves. 
Consider that we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit, Who shows us the manner in which we are to deal with others. We are guided into truth, with love and compassion, and should treat all others in the same manner. We are blessed with the Word of God, expressing Jesus Christ, in life, through the work of the Holy Spirit. He opens the actual Heart of God Almighty unto us so that we are now enabled to see and to live in the mystery of the ages, Christ in us, the hope of glory. Even more, the Holy Spirit is our wisdom in the manner in which we are to conduct all our interactions with others. 
As parents, we must always remember this when our children, our beloved children, disappoint us, disobey us, reject us, curse us, and direct insolence and impertinence at us. How does God deal with us, His beloved children? He doesn’t meet curse with curse, violence with violence, hatred and rejection with anger and frustration. He loves us, loves to such an overwhelming depth that we cannot help but be fully drawn again to that love. We actually become miserable, sometimes as miserable even as unto death without the knowledge of His Love covering us. We crave that sweet place of fellowship which is ours in Christ, fully open to us as we seek to have God restore that relationship of being in our lives. It is not that He rejected us. It is that He so loves us, even when we reject His guidance, His wisdom, His love, and seek to make our way without Him. His Love is so manifested unto us that, even as we run away, we realize that we must return to Him or we lose the will to go on in this life. We find that we really have no other place to turn. This world, with all its empty glamour and temptations disappoints at every level. Just as the prodigal son returned to the loving embrace of his father, so we return to the joy of the Lord as we repent and seek Him to more and more fully become the very lives that we live on this earth. Therefore, as parents, as the parents set apart unto God, we should love our children. The Apostle states this in Eph 6:4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. 
As children, we must keep our eyes on the Lord in how to deal with our parents. There is a shared need after Christ in all of us that includes even our parents. Let us seek after the Lord to open, in our hearts, the Love that Christ lived unto His Heavenly Father. Our lives, as the children of our parents, should be with the very same heart of love that guided the steps Our Lord Jesus Christ on this earth.  John 5:19 Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever he does, that the Son does likewise. We know that our parents are not perfect, but we must still honor them because they are the specific parentage that God has chosen for us. They should be considered as God’s gift to us, as we are God’s gift to them. Matt 15:4 For God commanded, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die.' 
Here too, the Apostle Paul deals with this relationship in our lives, as the saints that are set apart unto God. Eph 6:1-3 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. "Honor your father and mother" (this is the first commandment with a promise), "that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth." 
Let us not forget our relationships with our spouses. This, too, is an area where whatever is brought our way must be met with love and with honor and with respect. There are times that we are the guilty, selfish ones, and as our spouses do nothing other than love us and keep us in prayer and stand before God on our behalf, we come into a deeper and deeper love that is opened by God. Sometimes it is our spouse who needs all the love and honor and prayer and supplication for his or her place in our hearts before the Lord. Marriage is a growing together into a oneness of being that transcends any other earthly union. It is so precious to God because it is the earthly type of the union that we, the saints have with Jesus Christ, the union of man with God in the Son.
 The Apostle Paul also addresses this great testimony of the saints in marriage in Eph 5:28 Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. And in Eph 5:33, he writes however, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. 
We will doubtless spend much more time in these truths as we consider the fifth and sixth chapters of this letter. We are still only in the introductory stage of our reflection on this writing of the Apostle Paul. Suffice it to say that we could never interact with all the members of our families, the small unit of relationship that God has made us, without the love, and the grace, and the mercy, and the patience, and the guidance, and the heart of God worked in us by the Holy Spirit. 
As we need God’s manifest love at work in us for, the sake of our family relationships, so the more, do we need Him at work in us with regard to our spiritual relationship with one another in Christ. Paul addresses some of the issues that are faced within the church community. Returning to Eph 5:1-4, even as the Apostle lists some of the major elements that should no longer be part of our lives, as God’s set apart ones, individually or corporately, he does so with a view toward the holiness of God that now is our lives in Christ. But fornication and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is fitting among saints. Let there be no filthiness, nor silly talk, nor levity, which are not fitting; but instead let there be thanksgiving. He doesn’t approach this with the negative aspect, which only serves to challenge humanity to do what is forbidden. He rather puts it on the proper level of the fact that these things no longer have any place within our lives as saints. He simply points out that now, since we are made alive in Jesus Christ, these elements, which were formerly part of the chain of sin and death that entrapped us in this world, have now been fully dealt with in Christ. He does it with the gentle encouragement to live our lives in the power of Christ’s death and resurrection, which left all of this filth on the death side of the cross on our behalf. 
This is a pastor encouraging his flock with the soothing words of what is now true in their lives, being now indwelled by the very nature of Christ Jesus. Yes, these things and desires were part of the old nature, but that is now gone from us, forever put to death in us by Jesus Christ. Now, we need to recognize the truth of our lives hid in Christ and just live in our new nature. We need to know that Christ has put all that other entire residue of death behind us because, in Him, it no longer has any claim on us.
Paul even expounds upon the manner in which we are to face that residue of self, those desires that try to insinuate themselves into our lives where they no longer belong. Eph 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Paul knew that we could not fight this fight by ourselves. He knew that if we relied upon our own strength, we would soon find that we were unable to bear with the insinuations, the temptations, the self-desires that would surround us. 
Therefore, in chapter 6, Paul gives us the manner in which we are to face all these attacks of the flesh. Eph 6:11-17 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.  Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the equipment of the gospel of peace; besides all these, taking the shield of faith, with which you can quench all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Note the key manner in which we deal with all that is attacking us – stand, withstand, stand, stand therefore. Also note what is our protection as we stand firmly planted in the Lord – the whole armor of God, girded with truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Lord which is the Word of God.
What are we urged to do? – to stand in the victory of Christ Jesus, the victory that He has already accomplished in our lives. How are we to stand? - through no effort or protection of ourselves. We rely completely on the Lord to be our protection, to be our strength, to be our defense, to be our mighty warrior, to be our peace and our righteousness. We stand firmly planted in Him, never giving in to the waves of deceit, the rumors of defeat, the insinuations of stupidity, the weak and feeble attacks that assault the holiness of God that now is our very life in Christ.
We are the saints of God, the ones set apart completely unto God for His plan and purpose. In considering the new life of a saint, Wuest points out, quote, It is easy to see that this set apart position of separateness demands a separation of life in his experience, separation from the age system of evil, separation in his own sphere of life from everything that would interfere in the least from the worship and service which is due to the God to whom he is set apart. End of Quote (from Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament, Copyright 1940-55 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Copyrights © renewed 1968-73 by Jeannette I. Wuest. All rights reserved.)
Listen once more to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ as He tells us that which is now true of each of us in Him. John 14:20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. We are one with each other in Jesus Christ and as such, we are now in union with Him in the heart of Our Heavenly Father. Our lives are the expression of the Love of God on this earth. We must, therefore, show forth the holiness, and the virtue of the One Who now indwells us to the very depths of the fiber of our lives. We need to seek after Him to make us that complete, set apart sacrifice of praise and honor and glory unto Him, Alone. We are to be a sacrifice of unhindered praise and thanksgiving and adoration and worship because of His great Love with which He so fully and amazingly lavished upon these hearts in Christ Jesus. We are called into fellowship with the Lord God Almighty, in Jesus Christ, and are fully included in the Beloved of God. 
We are the saints who are faithful in Jesus Christ. It is through God’s grace and in His peace that this is true of us. Don’t wait for some day in the future, as many wait for heaven in order to see Christ. See Him now on His regal throne, the throne of our hearts. Live today in Him, as we will live in Him for eternity. Many think eternity starts with death. Our eternity started when we were set apart unto God in Jesus Christ. May the Lord make Himself known this day and every day as Almighty God, the Lord of all Creation, the expressed Being of the Love of God. Let every one of our hearts and lives so express that truth of the Lordship of Jesus Christ to the compete glory of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Amen 
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are also faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

Our benediction today is from Phil 2:5-11 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Amen