THE CHRISTIAN DEFINED IN TWO WORDS
Paul speaks of all the blessings God gives His children Vs 3, how they are CHOSEN Vs 4, ADOPTED as sons Vs 5, REDEEMED Vs 7, ENLIGHTENED Vs 8, promised an INHERITANCE Vs 11-12, and SEALED in Christ Vs 13. |||||
Now Paul says: For this reason, because I have heard of your FAITH in the Lord Jesus and your LOVE toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, Vs 15-16. |||||
Paul gives thanks to God for the saints themselves. He highlights the two leading graces of the Christian character. Faith and love are the hallmarks of a true bornagain Christian. |||||
Paul repeats this again and again in his epistles: 1 Thes 1:2-3 (work of faith and labour of love), 2 Thes 1:3 (your faith is growing and the love everyone of you have . . . is increasing), 1 Tim 1:5 (love that issues from a pure heart . . . and sincere faith), 1 Tim 1:12-14 (overflowed in faith and love that are in Christ Jesus). Faith and love go together like a horse and carriage, you can’t have one without the other. They are the graces and fundamentals of true Christianity. No person can be a child of God without these two pearls of grace. |||||
People say so much about faith that it is confusing. What is true Christian faith? Heb 11:1-3 gives a good definition. It is being sure of what we hope for. It is being certain of (not guessing) what we do not see. We know that the world was made by God speaking it into existence. In Genesis we read about how God created the world. God says: “Let there be,” and there was. So many people say that they do not believe in creation. But when God gives you the saving faith, then you are convinced that God made the world. Christian faith is something that is sure and certain. We are not 90% sure. We are 100% certain. |||||
TO WHOM IS THIS FAITH DIRECTED? Paul heard of their faith IN THE LORD JESUS
This faith was in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is saving faith. True Christianity is not a system of religion. It is not dependant on a pastor or priest or pope or a people. Our faith is bound to the second person of the Trinity.
I need no other argument, / I need no other plea; / It is enough that Jesus died, / And that He died for me. |||||
This faith believes that this same Lord Jesus will come back and take His people, both those who have already died and also those who are alive at the time. So this faith believes in all that Jesus has done in the past and for all that is yet to come. |||||
There is one God and one Mediator the Man Christ Jesus, who Himself said: I am the Way the Truth and the Life. What is our faith like? Is it based on Christ alone—nothing added or subtracted. |||||
FOR WHOM IS THEIR LOVE DIRECTED? Paul thanks God for their love FOR THE SAINTS. If you have faith in Jesus, one of the fruits is that you will love the believers. This was stressed by the apostle John in his epistle. 1Jn 3:11 (For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.) 1 Jn 3:14 (We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers.) 1Jn 3:17 (But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?) 1Jn 3:23 (And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.) 1Jn 4:19-21 ( We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.)
In the account in Mark 12:28-34, we see that Jesus said that one must love one’s neighbour as oneself. Here Jesus included unbelievers too. But Christians must have a special love for the children of God. You cannot be a Christian and not love the saints. |||||
In the opening verses of Ephesians 1, Paul is grateful for God’s blessings to His children. And here in vs 15-16, Paul is thanking God for the Christians’ faith and love.