Being Built

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

BEING BUILT

Eph 2:14-22

14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. 19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

NIV

Now we can get to the” Consequently” since we have been drawn from afar and brought near by the blood of Jesus, and thus through the cross we have been reconciled to God and are at peace with Him. Consequently, we are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household. When we consider being a foreigner and an alien we think about how that applies in our world. Because we have citizenship here in the United States of America, we do not have citizenship in another country and do not know their language, at least for the most part. Once we held citizenship in this world and were an alien to God. Knowing what we do now, we cannot understand why anyone would what to be a citizen in the kingdom of Satan, and a foreigner to the kingdom of God. Although is it some people can hold dual citizenship in two countries, it is impossible for us to be both a citizen of this world and a citizen in the kingdom of God. But we were aliens but as such we died, losing our citizenship in the world and we were born again accepting our citizenship in the kingdom of God. Of course, now we understand the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, and we comprehend that Jesus is the cornerstone for the whole of the foundation, everything is built upon Jesus. Just as the temple was built square based on the cornerstone, Jesus, because we are the temple of the living God, and our lives are built on Jesus, our cornerstone, we are all squared away, to use an old army term. Our lives are all in order, everything in its place because our lives are built on Jesus. This takes us right back to living by faith in Jesus or trying to live by some commandments and regulations that Jesus abolished with his flesh. However, as the temple of God, having been and is still being built together with others, into a dwelling for the Spirit of God, we will see how we fit into this temple. We are living stones being placed in the temple by the Spirit of God just the way he wants us. Some would argue that as the temple of the Holy Spirit, we should refrain from consuming certain things, mainly smoking and drinking wine and even some coffee, thus caring for the temple or our bodies. Some would argue that by abiding by certain rules and regulations we are caring for the body of Christ. Yet, no matter how well we think we are caring for our bodies, they are corruptible, mortal, and perishable. However, our spirits are not, which is who we really are. Therefore, we think it would be far better to be concerned about our spiritual body which is truly the temple of the spirit. How well is our spirit? What is the health of our Spirit as we are being built into the temple of God? We know that it is God who started this work in us, this beginning, this construction of his temple, and it is God who will complete this work, this construction of us into a temple fit for a King. Our responsibility is to allow him to break us, melt us, mold us into His temple, and fill us to the brim with His Spirit. All the work is God’s as we are being built.