Ephesians 1:22-23

Day 11

“And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” Ephesians 1:22-23

We come to the final sentence of Paul’s introduction to this letter. Following the standard Greco-Roman letter form, Paul finally completed the perfunctory initial remarks. And what an introduction!  The form letter contained the author followed by the recipient followed by a blessing with a prayer. Usually the blessing and prayer combined would have taken a few sentences. Paul’s blessing in Ephesians unfolds massive, transcendent, triune, glorious truths. He then wrote a prayer for the church, a prayer Paul prayed regularly for them. Paul prayed with great confidence because he knew the God who listened and answered prayers. He knew that the God who brought about such an amazing plan of salvation would listen and care about the believers in Jesus. In fact, we see in these last two verses of chapter 1, the final words of the introduction, God’s gracious gift to the church.

Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the One through whom the world was made. He also rendered up His life as a redemption price for us. After completing all that He needed to complete for our salvation, He sat down at the right hand of God the Father, in the heavenly realm where He reigns. He will return to claim His people, to finalize our redemption by providing resurrected bodies, a home for us to dwell, and an everlasting fellowship with no more sin, pain, sorrow, or death. He reigns and will bring us to Himself in order that we may share in His eternal inheritance. These are just some of the blessings and hopeful truths that Paul articulated in the introduction. Now Paul concludes this section by listing one more blessing that comes to believers.

The church functions as the ministering presence and witness of Jesus Christ. The church is comprised of all believers in Jesus. The global church spans continents and nations, reaching across people groups and languages. The primary expression of this global church is the local gathering of believers in a church congregation or community. For Matthew Road, we gather weekly to serve, study, pray, encourage, fellowship, praise, and celebrate what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. The local congregation seeks to administer its ministries modeled after the biblical mandate for churches. We have offices such as pastor and deacons. We have administrative offices over various aspects of ministry. The staff, deacons, and committees administer the workings of the church. This begs the question sometimes, who’s in charge of what?  Though we have a church constitution and bylaws, even though we have a staff, deacons, and committees, the ultimate head of the church is Jesus Christ.

Paul’s final words of encouragement in his introduction was to communicate this additional blessing. God gave us so much already but now there is one more gift. God did not appoint a pastor or deacon or committee as the ultimate authority over the church. God didn’t appoint an angel or an apostle or a preacher as head of the church. Matthew Road has One ultimate authority, the Lord Jesus Christ. God gave Christ to be our authority, our head. Notice how Paul constructed this. God the Father “gave Him as head over all things” to be the head over the church. The sovereign ruler of heaven and earth, the Son of God, the One the Father honors by subjecting everything to His authority, He is the One God appointed as the head of the church.

Practically this is lived out in the church by constantly seeking the lordship of Jesus over everything we do as a church. We belong to Him. He is our head. That means we ask the question with every choice, what would our authority, Jesus Christ, want our church to do?  What does He desire for the church week by week as we serve together?  What things honor Him and proclaim His greatness?

What an amazing gift of God to give us His Son for our salvation. What an amazing gift to gift the church His Son for our ultimate authority. Let us continuously live in submission to His authority, seeking Him in all things for His honor and glory.

Suggested prayer: Lord Jesus, be the head of my life. Be the head of our church. May all we do honor you.

Ephesians