How did printing your structural diagram go? Did the download button work? Because that is a new technique for me. Jeremy had to help me figure out how to get that in the article. I’m learning all kinds of new things!
Before we start making lists (and after we’ve prayed), I note what comes before the passage and what comes after. Keeping ourselves rooted in the context of the whole book is necessary for good Bible study.
The ‘before’ notation is easy: I use the summary I just came up with for the preceding passage. For the ‘after’, I look at the verses that immediately follow the passage I’m studying.
For this section then, my observation worksheet looks like this (see image above) at the top. The summary from Ephesians 1:1-2 we came up with was “Paul wrote a letter to Christians in Asia Minor, greeting with favor and absence of hostility from God and Christ.”
And at the bottom, I have this written to describe what comes after. “After: Paul has heard about recipients’ faith and love and prays for them.” (See above)
Now that we’ve made sure we’re grounded in the context, let’s start making lists. When I start to observe, I always start with the basics.
- What does this say about God?
- What does this say about Jesus?
- What does this say about the Holy Spirit?
- What does this say about man?
- What does this say to the recipients?
I may not answer every one of those questions, but those are the ones I start with and see if there is information to answer them.
In case you can’t clearly see the photo of my worksheet, here is my printed list about God.
God
- v3 Father
- v3 blessed us (Paul includes himself with the recipients)
- v3 gives every spiritual blessing
- v4 chose us
- v4 was before world
- v4 has love for us
- v5 predestined us as sons
- v5 made us kids by his plan
- v5 has glorious grace
- v9 his will previously a mystery–now revealed
- v9 purpose set forth in Jesus
- v11 works everything according to his will
Did you list anything else? Reminders about God’s character and nature are beautiful all on their own to meditate on. Pick just one of your observations from your list and sit for a minute dwelling on the reality of the words. I’m serious, stop for a few minutes and do whatever you do to allow truth to overwhelm you–close your eyes, get on the floor and stretch, sip your coffee–do that and let the truth creep into the dark places of your soul. Let the dawn start to rise there.
How we view our Father will change how we view the world. I don’t have time right now to take you to the place in Romans that Paul talks about such things (it changed me). Although, give Paul a minute, he may address that concept in Ephesians.
Next I write a list, going through the entire passage again, to see everything that Paul said about Jesus. Even if some of the same things are said about his Father. After that, I write out a list about the Holy Spirit.
Jesus
- v4 chosen in him to be holy/blameless
- v3 blessed in him with all the blessings
- v4 adopted through him
- v7 redeemed through his blood
- v9-10 plan in him for unification of creation
- v11 got inheritance in him
- v13 believing in him=gospel
Holy Spirit
- v13 promised
- v13 guarantee of inheritance
- v13 is a seal (at this point on my observation worksheet, I’ve added some of my interpretation I subsequently did to my list to answer the question mark I had here. Because what does it mean we are sealed?)
My next list was with regard to the recipients.
Recipients
- v3 blessed with all the blessings
- v4 chosen to be holy/blameless
- v4 loved
- v5 predestined
- v5 are sons
- v6 blessed with glorious grace
- v7 redeemed
- v7 trespasses forgiven
- v7 grace–his riches–lavished
- v8 mystery revealed to us
- v10 will be united to <God> (here was another question I noted–which person of God? The pronouns are fuzzy until I unravel them later in interpretation.)
- v11 have inheritance
- v13 heard word of truth
- v13 believed in him
- v13 sealed with Holy Spirit (my little symbol for the Holy Spirit is a cloud. Clever, huh?)
- v14 inheritance not yet
Have you noticed that not only do I write down observations, I also don’t worry about what I don’t know? Part of the process of observation is noticing that we don’t know things. By definition, observation is what we see. If I don’t understand it yet, I can’t see it. But I can see that I don’t understand something.
When we’ve completed the process of observing for the moment, we will move on to interpreting when we start to answer our questions we’ve collected. And I may or may not explore the question before I move on to another passage. It’s okay to not have all the answers right now.
As I observed this passage, one more question arose. What are God’s actions toward us?
God’s actions toward recipients
- blessed
- chosen
- predestined
- redeemed
- information imparted (revealed mystery)
- reconciled (united)
- received inheritance
- sealed
- fulfilled promise
- future inheritance promised
Those are the lists that I made for this passage. Perhaps you found some other questions to answer. Super! This is all about being in the Word and letting the flavors of it roll around in your spiritual mouth. Letting all the sweetness and saltiness resonant on your tongue.
Resist the temptation to say, “I’m done!” and walk away without praying with a spirit of gratitude for all we were able to see this morning. If we only fill our heads with truth without allowing it to travel the few inches to our hearts, we’ve wasted our time. This process is not about bumper sticker theology–pithy one-liners to throw around. It’s all about marinating in the reality of who God is and letting it change us.
Our Bible Study Bite for today is to embrace the “simple” truths that we think we already know. If we meditate on those truths for even a minute and allow them to tenderize our hearts, we will come to the realization that there are no “simple” truths. Nothing about our glorious God is “simple”.
For Part 2 of Observation, we will discuss the concept of key words and concepts. We will get to color on our worksheets with colored pencils!
