Co-Heirs

 DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

CO-HEIRS

Eph 3:1-6

3:1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—

2 Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, 3 that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. 4 In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. 6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

NIV

It is a little strange that for thousands of years that God was the God of all creation dealing with man in general. Then at some time, God determined to call one man, Abraham, a gentile or just a general man, meaning Abraham was not Israel, but just a man of God’s making, like all men. But God decided to use Abraham to establish a people that would be known as God’s chosen people, Israel. God used Israel to reveal Himself fully so that man would once again know Him. But all that time, it was only Israel who God dwelt with, then came Moses, and all that followed in order that the Israelites would become that nation who lived in the place God gave them. However, it was all Israel, and the rest of mankind were thought of as gentiles, non-Israel. Paul is now telling us Gentiles that God decided when to reveal His Son to the world. It had been a mystery until Jesus came to earth in the form of man. But now through Jesus, both Israel and Gentile are one people in Christ. This truth was revealed by Jesus to God’s holy apostles and prophets. This applies to us, as we are now one people in Christ. It does not matter our racial background or our nationality, if we are in Christ, if someone accepts Jesus as their Lord and Savior then they are one with us as all who believe have the right to be called children of God. Yet, it does puzzle us why there are so many divisions in the body of Christ. We have divided ourselves into various denominations because we could not agree on some interpretation of some portion of the scriptures. We see the truth of God differently and thus we have separated ourselves into many people. We have left the brother and sister concept far behind, with some even having a certain level of contempt for those who think or believe differently. Should not all believers be heirs together, as Paul tells the Ephesians they are heirs together with Israel? Do not all of us who believe belong to one body, with Jesus being the head? Is debate approved by God? It is also interesting that over the years, within the various churches we have attended that we have found even in the local church, we have witnessed divisions among the people. We have seen jealousy, envy, pride, boasting, gossip, and even little cliques form, holding others at bay from being in their little group. How does all that reflect being one body with Jesus being the head? We understand the concept of different personalities and how different we can be as people, but when we become a child of God, should not any of our differences blend so that we all are being built together into the holy temple of God, one in Christ, co-heirs?