Ephesians 1:13-14

"God choose us in Christ, before the world was made, to be holy and faultless before him in love."

This letter opens with the greeting commonly used by Paul: "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." But the letter is not addressed to any particular church, as are the other letters in the New Testament attributed to Paul. It is a general letter that perhaps was sent to more than one church, by Paul or by others closely associated with his ministry. Some versions of Ephesians insert the words "at Ephesus" in verse 1, which reads: "To the saints who are also faithful in Christ Jesus." But the earliest copies of the letter have simply the general form of address.

The reading for today affirms that God is eternal and is working out purposes conceived, at least from our perspective, in an earlier time. Thinking in the language of modern physics, we might say that time, for God, is like another dimension of space and thus does not "pass," as it does for us, but is always present. Reality, for us, is space and a particular time, with a past behind us and a future in front of us. For God reality may be more like a space-time continuum. The past and future, for God, are present in a way beyond our experience.

It is in this sense that the letter speaks of Christ as being before the world was made, and of God choosing us "in Christ." Christians, the letter explains, are to be loving because they have been chosen by God and redeemed by Jesus Christ to be witnesses, in word and deed, to the loving creation that is God's eternal purpose.

Grace and peace...Bob