in Christ after they had heard the word of truth, the Gospel of their salvation. When one believes things about Christ he knows that Christ is trustworthy and he is ready to commit himself to the Lord in His offices as Saviour, De liverer, Intercessor, Advocate, and Help er. The people with whom Paul dealt needed no persuasion to believe. They had already believed. In Ephesus it meant something for them to believe. It had cost them blood and sacrifice. Now Paul was speaking to those who had believed. Christian history has times of persuasion and times of en lightenment. Both are vitally impor tant, but this epistle is for our en lightenment and not for our persua sion. In this great book we are led back into the eternities and forward into the eternities, and we are made to sit in heavenly places with Christ Jesus at the present time. Our view extends over the ages and we catch something of the great plan of the infinite God. “Faithful” actually implies a loyalty to Christ in action. Let us not omit the faithfulness included in this word. There were those in Ephesus who had stood with Paul during his controversy in the synagogue, during his disserta tions in the school of Tyrannus and during the great riot when his life was in jeopardy because of Demetrius the silversmith. They knew what it meant to be faithful in action. Once when Paul wrote from Rome and his prison he mentioned that One- siphorus was not ashamed of his bonds and that Luke was still with him. Luke believéd in Paul. He believed sufficiently to tarry with him in the hour of his tribulations. The classic illustration of this great truth, of course, is Abraham, as his experience is narrated in Romans 4 and James 2. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteous ness. He might very well have been addressed as “the faithful,” for that word would comprehend both his faith, by which he was justified, and his ac tions, which led from faith to obedience to the commandments of God and which, proved that Abraham actually 34
TUESDAY/THURSDAY STUDIES (cant.) what to believe. They had. the doctrine in the Book of Romans, but now they were to pass on to new heights of rev elation given to believing individuals. The word “faithful” also points to an act of the will, namely, “believing.” Be lieving as an act of the will is a self committal leading to conversion. Paul spoke about this several times in the THE LOVE OF CHRIST How broad is His love? Oh, as broad as man's trespass. A s wide as the need of the world can be; And yet to the need of one soul it can narrow; He came to the world and He came to me. How long is His Love? Without end or beginning Eternal as Christ and His life it must be; For to everlasting as from everlasting He loveth the world and He loveth me. How deep is His Love? Oh, as deep as man's sinning, As low as that uttermost vileness can be; fn the fathomless gulf of the Father's forsaking, He died for the world and He died for me. How high is His love? It is high as the heavens. As high as the throne of His Lord' must be; And yet from that height He has stooped to redeem us, He "so " loved the world and He "so " loved me. How great is His Love? Oh, it passes all knowledge, No man's comprehension its measure can be; It filleth the world, yet each heart may contain it, He "s o " loved the world and He "so " loved me. — Annie Johnson Flint epistle describing Christians as those “who first trusted in Christ.” Then he also spoke about the Ephesians trusting
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