Having quoted this verse yesterday, we conclude our week with two further reflections from Ephesians 1:3-4:
‘It’s the hope that kills you.’ You’ll hear this phrase often on the lips of a sports fan. The great joy – and curse – of following a team is that success is only ever temporary. It makes the wins all the sweeter, knowing that defeat is inevitable at some point – probably next week!
That sense of impending doom, a glass half empty, the sense that things will always go wrong in the end, is often thought to be a ‘mature’ way of looking at the world. What we experience in the fantasy world of sport becomes our mantra in life, too. If something seems too good to be true – well, it probably is. Life will come back to bite to you in the end.
St Paul would be entitled to feel like that more than most people. Walking away from a privileged upbringing and rapid career rise through the religious ranks in adult life, he’d spent the last 25 years or so being rejected by his own people, thrown out of towns and cities, beaten up, stoned, occasionally betrayed by friends, and in and out of numerous prisons. He even writes this current letter under permanent house arrest.
And yet, what is his perspective on life? Cynical? World weary? Tired of hope? ‘Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.’ Every spiritual blessing. Not just a few, or even plenty – but all we need. Whatever life throws at him, Paul’s perspective is that there are deeper things, hidden realities, firm foundations, eternal truths which outlast anything we face here on this earth. In Christ, we can overcome, because these spiritual realities, these blessings, are ours.
There’s a lot to be fearful or depressed about in the world at present. And those things aren’t going away anytime soon. But, when I read this wonderful verse, I find myself thinking: ‘I want a bit of what he has.’ In fact, I want a lot of it. A hope which runs deeper, holds faster than anything else.
Over the next few days, we’ll look in detail at the blessings Paul names – and there are plenty! But today, let’s receive this verse as an invitation: to believe that, whatever our daily challenges, or the bigger problems in our world, we really do have every spiritual blessing in Christ. May that word be written on our hearts. And, like Paul, may it cause us to praise our great God today. Amen.