God’s Glory Is Displayed Most Visibly through Healthy Churches

In Ephesians 1, all the spiritual blessings God the Father gave his people—choosing us in Christ, adoption, redemption through Christ’s blood, forgiveness, inheritance, sealing of the Holy Spirit, etc. (Eph 1:3–14)—were all for the praise of God’s glory (Eph 1:6, 12, 14). God is saving his people for his glory. In this great redemptive work, God saves people dead in their sins only by his grace through faith (2:1–9) to display his grace in Christ (2:7). God gathers all the redeemed and unites them together as one body in Christ—Jews and Gentiles together—to make up the church (2:11–22).

Paul preaches the gospel of grace “so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known” to all heavenly beings (Eph 3:10). One way that God displays his glory is through the church because it is composed of redeemed sinners that exhibit God’s grace and wisdom. So Paul writes, “to [God] be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Eph 3: 21).

Having explained the role of the church, Paul exhorts the Ephesian church to display the glory of God through…

• their unity (4:1–6)
• godly leaders with gifts for preaching, evangelism, and discipleship (4:7–11)
• a culture of discipleship and sound doctrine (4:12–16)
• walking in holiness (4:17)
• meaningful membership (including church discipline) (5:1–14)
• corporate worship (5:19–21)
• family relations (5:22—6:9)
• fighting against sin (6:10–20).

In a sentence, Paul encourages the Ephesian church to be a healthy church because God’s glory is displayed most visibly through healthy churches. For this reason, we are toiling through the slow but good work of support-raising and are excited to help build healthy churches in the Philippines.