SCRIPTURE READING
Eph 2:1-3 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following
the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at
work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh,
carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the
rest of mankind.
Paul begins his teaching by reminding the Ephesians that they were spiritually dead in their
disobedience and sins and in a state of utter desolation and misery. We often fail to be the
person God wants us to be, we do not live as God wants us to live, we do things wrong, we do
things that we shouldn’t do – all of this is a result of sin. We all have a sin nature as a result of
Adam’s sin. Our nature is to walk in the ways of the world, following the prince of the air which
refers to Satan. We are by our very nature bond-slaves to sin, living in the passions of our
flesh.
Disobedience and sin is a universal problem, no one is immune. Every Christian at one time
has walked according to the passions of the flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and mind
and was doomed to suffer God’s wrath. What a picture Paul paints of us in these verses! What
a sordid, despicable, ugly picture. Dead, walking according to the course of a world steeped in
sin, walking according to the dictates of the devil, following the spirit of disobedience, refusing
to obey. Yet we must know where we came from in order to fully see the greatness of God’s gift
to us. Tomorrow we see how this is not the end of the story. We don’t have to live like this any
longer. In verses one through three Paul paints the picture of us as sinners; but in spite of our
wretchedness, GOD loved us! We’ll look at that tomorrow!
PRAYER and MEDITATION
1. Ask God to give you a picture of your sin nature, how desperately enslaved our flesh it to sin.
2. Ask God to show you a picture of how your sin has separated you from God.
3. In listening prayer, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you any unconfessed sin in your life.
Spend some time in personal confession, asking God to forgive you.
