Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Praise God for Spiritual Blessings



Ephesians 1:3



o eulognsas hmas - "who has blessed us." 

The reason God is to be praised is because God has blessed us. The verb form is an aorist participle which comes from the word eulogew. This word means "I speak well." It can refer to the ability to speak well but it primarily means  "speaking well of," "praising," or "extolling" someone.

eulogew in the Old Testament

eulogew is used 461 times in the LXX. It is a translation of Hebrew word which has the basic meaning of "to bless." When God is the object of a person's blessing, this word carries the meaning of "praise." When it is used in conjunction with a human being as the object it gives the idea of "happiness, success, an increase of earthly possessions."

When you and I pray and ask God to bless "bless someone" we are actually asking God to grant success to that person. To be blessed by God means to receive benefits from God in the sense of possessions, prosperity, or power.

eulogew in the New Testament

eulogew in the New Testament is used 42 times.

It is used 13 times as "praise" where God is the object
It is used 7 times of people who praise or bless Jesus
It is used 8 times of people blessing other people
It is used 5 times of people who desire to bless or desire good for people who have cursed them
It is used 2 times of Jesus blessing people
It is used 7 times where God is the subject who "provides with benefits."

In our text (verse 3) God is the subject and He provides benefits to "us" (hmas). The "us" refers to believers. Believers are the object of God's blessing, enrichment, or provision of benefits. The us in verse 3 refers to both Paul and the Ephesian believers. The summary of God's activity is what is being referred to in this verse. In other words, believers bless God, or praise God, because God has blessed believers or benefited believers.

With what did God benefit the believer? How did God bless us? 

To be continued...

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Tuesday: "Priceless Pearls" - Stories of Christian Truths

- Weekly Devotions for Disciples

Follow along on Tuesdays as we offer filling and fruitful devotional commentary on various Scriptures.



6 comments:

Larri said...

Thanks for the breakdown and lesson, Gregg. Good stuff! Happy Tuesday! :o)

Michelle said...

"Bless" has always been such a confusing word to me...people here in the south say "Bless the food" or "Say the blessing." And it really doesn't make sense to me for them to say that in a biblical context. To me, I've always looked at God's blessings as spiritual blessings...even the fiery trials are blessings.

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

Thanks for a very well informed post Gregg.

Have a happy day.

Yvonne.

Cathy M. said...

Well, bless your heart, Gregg. In Tennessee, that phrase can mean, "May God deal graciously with you!" or "Oh my! What a pitiable creature!" Of course, I mean it here in the former sense. :-)

Anonymous said...

Ephesians 1:3-6 tells us God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

~Ron

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

Thanks for the visit and comment, must get my iron out before I come to Nashville......only three weeks to D Day,

Yvonne.