Living like Jesus
'Wonderful Youth' is a set of five Biblical sessions based around Ephesians1:1-14 and created for Black History Month to empower young people to become ‘The best that they can be.'
Commissioned by the Baptist Union Racial Justice Group, Wonderful Youth was originally created to be delivered during Black History Month in October 2018, but sessions can be run at any time.
Wonderful Youth provides a window of opportunity for youth groups to explore and celebrate some of the historical and current unique contributions from people of colour.
It is generally believed that Paul wrote this letter whilst in Rome. There is evidence he had visited Ephesus on more than one occasion (Acts 18:18-21, 19:2-7). The letter is more general than some; it is not necessarily only to the church in Ephesus. Maybe this makes us more able to receive it as aimed at ourselves too? The section Wonderful Youth focuses on (Ephesians 1:1-14) is part celebration of God’s saving power, part prayer of praise and part teaching session.
Paul is keen to remind the readers and listeners that they are not just random individuals dealing with life on their own, but have experienced God’s love and grace and have been given special gifts in order to equip them for the work that God has in store for them. The key thing here is that Paul wants the people to keep hold of the knowledge that they are saved, that God has saved them and is giving them all they need, just as the people of the Old Testament were reminded again and again what God had done in the past.
The sense of this passage, which in the original Greek is one long sentence, is along the lines of ‘Let us praise God because…’ So, more specifically, Paul tells the people they are:-
Blessed from heaven and through Jesus (verse 3);
Chosen, picked out by God to do his thing. We are valued by God simply because we are, but he also has a purpose for us (verse 4);
Holy because God has set them apart, and part of his purpose is for us to keep ourselves ‘clean’ (verse 4);
Loved by God, because this is the force at the source of all these blessings and gifts (verse 4-5);
Forgiven through his grace, through the death of Christ on the cross (verse 7).
For the people originally addressed by Paul, and for us today, because of God’s ‘glorious grace’ (verse 6), we can count ourselves as being blessed, chosen, holy, loved, forgiven. And importantly, in this instance our focus with all of these qualities is that they are from God. At this stage in the letter it is not yet about what we do, other than giving thanks and praise to the Creator. The focus is on the fact that we are blessed by God, chosen by God, made to be holy by God, loved and forgiven by God.