Christmastide
December 30, 2021
Scripture Reading: Ephesians 1:3-14
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. –Ephesians 1:3-10
English is a complicated language with the same word sometimes having several usages. For example, the term “bless” is a verb the word “blessed” can be either an adjective or noun. When I read the above scripture, a weird question popped into my mind: who could bless God? So, I checked dictionaries and got way in over my head. However, I was pleased to read in Merriam-Webster, when used as an adjective, blessed could mean worthy of adoration. God certainly is. The first word of the scripture quoted above, translated as “Blessed,” is derived from the Greek word eulogētós, and this is its only use in Bible.
2128 /eulogētós (“blessed”) is only used of God the Father and Christ (God the Son), showing the Godhead is worthy of all our commitment. Indeed, only God is inherently praiseworthy, deserving every “good acknowledgment“!
We are a blessing to God when we fulfill our commitments to God to the very best of our ability. We attain that by first making a commitment to God. In our world, we might think of that as a contract. In such instances, one entity agrees to do this if the other does something in return. God, however, prefers to work in covenant with people.
Covenant: the promises of God as revealed in the Scriptures conditioned on certain terms on the part of humanity (as obedience, repentance, and faith): such as
a: an agreement regarded as having been made between God and Israel whereby Israel was to be faithful to God and God was to protect and bless his faithful people
b: a promise regarded as having been enacted by God and granting redemption and salvation to humanity through the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ***
With Jesus Christ, we entered into a New Covenant, a promise of redemption by God to people as individuals rather than as a nation and on the basis of God’s grace rather than a person’s adherence to the law***.
As we prepare for a new year, let us take the time to make and review our commitments to God, map out our way to meet those commitments, and follow through with the plan while maintaining a close relationship with the Holy Spirit to guide and direct us through the whole process.
Prayer: Lord, here am I send me. Amen.
*https://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/blessed
**https://biblehub.com/greek/2128.htm
***https://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/covenant
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.