Hi everyone,

I’ve been looking forward to preaching through Ephesians for a while. It’s a letter with a huge vision of what God is doing in the world, and nearly every paragraph has something that makes me want to stop, dig deeper, and talk about it.

The problem is, there’s no way all of that is making it into a Sunday sermon!

So I’m starting something new called Pastor’s Cut. Each week, I’ll share a couple short thoughts from Sunday’s passage—something that ended up on the cutting room floor or deserves a little more attention.

This week, there are two things I want you to notice.

First, Ephesians 1:3–14 is essentially one enormous sentence in the original Greek. Paul moves from one thought to another as he celebrates everything God has done. God has chosen us in Christ, adopted us, redeemed us, forgiven us, revealed his purposes to us, and given us his Spirit. You can almost feel Paul’s excitement building as he writes. His theology leads him into worship. He wants these Christians to stand in awe of everything God has done for them in Christ.

Second, pay attention to the pronouns. Paul repeatedly uses “we” and “us.” Then we reach verse 13 and he writes, “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation.” You also. One helpful way to understand this movement is that Paul is speaking first from the perspective of Jewish believers and then turns toward the Gentiles who have now believed in Jesus. You heard the gospel. You believed. You received the Spirit. You belong, too.

Keep watching those pronouns as we move through Ephesians. Paul will talk about “we,” “one body,” and “one new humanity.” Jesus is creating a new people and bringing together people who once seemed impossibly far apart.

Here’s a simple exercise for this week. Read Ephesians 1 again and circle every “we,” “us,” and “you.” Pay attention to the story Paul is telling about what God has done for his people and our place within that story.

There’s so much more to discover in Ephesians. I’m excited to keep digging into it together.

See you Sunday,

Pastor Ben