In this collection, Sam Storms draws upon 38 years of experience as a professor, a pastor, and an author to provide accessible and insightful commentaries, as well as general Bible reading tips. For every book of the Bible covered here, he includes detailed introductions, personal commentaries, and suggestions for further reading; for Psalms, Corinthians, and Revelations, he also includes guides for daily devotions and meditations. Through this series of hundreds of articles, Storms helps readers get more out of the Bible by giving interpretive clues and discussing controversial issues such as divorce and remarriage, infant deaths, the power of demons, and more. This book contains an introduction to Ephesians, commentaries on specific verses, and a list of recommended commentaries.
“We aren’t born (or born again) with the armor on! We must put it on. Also, once put on, the armor should never be taken off, even if we think hostilities have subsided. Walk in it, work in it, sleep in it, eat in it! It is never safe to disrobe. Talking about the armor, describing the armor, declaring the importance of the armor, is never enough.” (Ephesians 6:21–24)
“When we say to Jesus: ‘Who were we that led you to do this for us?’ Jesus does not then says: ‘You were a treasure hidden to yourself but seen by Me.’ When we ask, ‘Who were we that led you to do this for us?’ the only answer is: ‘You were hell-deserving rebels who had no claim on anything in Me other than to be the recipients and objects of eternal wrath. I did this for you not because you were a treasure or because of anything in you; indeed it was in spite of what was in you. I did this for you solely because of what was in Me, namely, sovereign and free and gracious love for those who deserved only to be hated.’” (Ephesians 2:4–6)
“‘to renew, arrange under one head, reduce to one sum,’ or ‘to reunify,’ re-establish harmony where discord and chaos and division once existed (cf. Col. 1:19–20). The idea is that the discordant and disintegrating elements in the creative realm will be renewed and unified under the Lordship of Jesus.” (Ephesians 1:10)
“Redemption is actually three-fold: past (at the time of Christ’s death; Heb. 9:12, 15); present (in the sense that it is a possession we now have; this is the emphasis of Eph. 1:7; see also Rom. 3:24; 1 Cor. 1:30; Col. 1:14); and future (final deliverance = glorification of the body; Rom. 8:23; Eph. 1:14; 4:30).” (Ephesians 1:7a)