Sometimes reading Paul makes the grammar nazi in me twitch abundantly. This is one of those times.
Mark 6:14-29; Ephesians 1:3-14; Psalm 85:8-13; Amos 7:7-15
I tend to be a bit of a grammar nerd. In large part, I blame one of my high school English teachers, who was both quite strict and picky. For example, he hated a “comma splice”. For those who don’t know, a comma splice is when a single comma combines to complete sentences; it’s also grammatically incorrect. If you could read my notes, you’d see that I used a semicolon for that last thought; had I used a comma, I would have committed a “comma splice”. So this particular teacher, with the vast disregard he had for the comma splice, gave you one free, after that he’d dock a letter grade for each comma splice he found in your paper, regardless of the quality of the rest of it.
Because of his extreme aversion to comma splices, I, and for that matter the rest of the class, did everything I could to keep grammar mistakes out of my paper, lest it doom me to a significantly lower grade. This teacher also had the tendency to take grammatically incorrect excerpts from our papers, put them on a sheet (without names, of course), and make the whole class figure out the error. Since then, I’ve had the bad habit of correcting grammar mistakes when I see them. Run-on sentences, comma splices, poor word choice — all of it drives me nuts, especially when I read it in professionally written articles.
Of course, this means that our reading from Ephesians today make the grammar nut in me twitch a bit. You see, while our translation makes Ephesians 1:3-14 into seven sentences, in Greek it is one. Eleven verses equals one sentence. It reads almost as if Paul started with one thought, got carried away into another, then took a rabbit trail down to a third, only to remember the first thing he said and turn back around to it in the end. So let’s take a look.
Paul begins, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ…”, which is a safe enough way to start just about anything, and is a fantastic first thought. It reminds us that, basically, we should always begin everything we do praising God. Then he starts getting carried away: “who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ…” So far we’re safe — Paul is still somewhat reigned in and focused on praising God for how the Father has blessed us.
Now’s when I start getting twitchy: “…for he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight; in love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will — to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves…” Remember, this is still one sentence. The content is fantastic however, as Paul is reminding his readers and us of more of the amazing things God has done, like adopting us as his sons and daughters through grace given because he loves us.
Paul continues: “…in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding, and he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the time will have reached their fulfillment — to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ…” That’s a mouthful, but there’s a lot going on here as well. Now Paul is shifting his focus toward the second person of the Trinity, namely the things that Jesus has done for us or have been done for us through Jesus: forgiveness through grace given with his wisdom and understanding, and the kingship of Christ which we will experience when the time is right.
And yet he still isn’t done, “…in him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory, and you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation…” Now Paul is starting to talk about our job which, again, is to praise God first and foremost. We do this through following God, not unlike what Jesus said to his first disciples, “Follow me.”
Paul finishes by telling us, “…having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession — to the praise of his glory.” Yay, the ever-long sentence is over! But we’re also now talking about the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, who is the deposit of the final reward we will have when Jesus comes again in power. Finally Paul wraps it all up with another reminder to praise God.
So in this super long sentence we can sum it up into a few points:
1) We are set apart as adopted children of God, through the work of Jesus Christ.
2) This adoption gives us knowledge of God’s will, brings us to participation in His will, and sets us up in the world people who glorify God above all else.
3) The Holy Spirit effects this change in us, and serves as the deposit on a greater gift to come.
This is all the more amazing in that God does all of this for us and more, not because we’re so good and special, but instead because we are neither good nor special, for we read in other places that it was while we were against God that God did all of this for us. This opening in Ephesians is a reminder of how God has blessed us even though we didn’t deserve it, and that our response is to praise and follow Him.