{"id":2860,"date":"2011-10-27T22:14:49","date_gmt":"2011-10-28T05:14:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.com\/blog\/?p=2860"},"modified":"2011-10-27T22:14:49","modified_gmt":"2011-10-28T05:14:49","slug":"ephesians-314-worship-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/ephesians-314-worship-him\/","title":{"rendered":"Ephesians 3:14 – Worship Him"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

Ephesians 3:14 \u00a0– Worship Him<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,<\/strong><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

God wants us to worship Him.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

The phrase \u201cFor this reason<\/span>\u201d is translated from toutou charin<\/em><\/span>. Toutou<\/em><\/span> means \u201cthis\u201d and charin<\/em><\/span> is the direct object form (accusative case) of charis<\/em><\/span>, which means \u201ca favor or a gift.\u201d When charin<\/em><\/span> is used as a preposition, as it is here, it means \u201cthrough favor of\u201d or \u201cbecause of.\u201d Therefore, toutou charin<\/em><\/span> means \u201cbecause of this\u201d or \u201cfor this reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBow<\/span>\u201d is from kamt\u014d<\/em><\/span>, which means \u201cto bend;\u201d that is, \u201cto bend the knees in homage or worship.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFather<\/span>\u201d is translated from pat\u0113r<\/em><\/span>, which generally refers to \u201cthe male parent.\u201d In its plural form it refers to both father and mother. Here it refers to the first person of the Godhead.<\/p>\n

The phrase, \u201cof our Lord Jesus Christ<\/span>\u201d does not appear in the oldest Greek manuscripts and probably should be omitted.<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Paul started off the first verse of this chapter with the same expression, \u201cFor this reason.<\/span>\u201d He then got side-tracked with an explanation of his ministry of revealing the mystery of the church. Now he finally gets back on track. So, what is Paul referring to when he says, \u201cFor this reason<\/span>?\u201d In order to answer that question, we have to look back at the end of chapter two. There Paul talked about how we Gentiles were once far away from God, without Christ, strangers from God\u2019s covenant promises to Israel, and having no hope since we were without God. He also says that now, through Jesus Christ, we Gentiles have access to God along with the Jews. Then he told us that we are being built as God\u2019s temple as His dwelling place.<\/p>\n

Because of this, because we Gentiles now have the same access to God that the Jews have had, Paul says he bows in humble submission to God the Father. Notice that he does not say that he bows to Jesus, but to \u201cthe Father.\u201d Nowhere in Scripture are we told to worship Jesus, bow to Jesus, or pray to Jesus. Neither are we told to worship, bow to, or pray to the Holy Spirit. Now, before you get out your clubs and prepare to beat me as a heretic, let me be clear that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are each (and all) God. We ARE told to worship God, to humble ourselves to God, and to pray to God. But we are not told specifically to worship Jesus or the Holy Spirit, or to pray to either one of them. Jesus said:<\/p>\n

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father<\/strong> in spirit and truth; for the<\/strong> Father is seeking such to worship Him.<\/strong><\/span> (John 4:23<\/strong><\/span>)<\/p>\n

But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father<\/strong> who is<\/em><\/span> in the secret place<\/span>;<\/em> and your Father<\/strong> who sees in secret will reward you openly.<\/span> (Matthew 6:6<\/strong><\/span>)<\/p>\n

I may be accused of splitting hairs here, but if the Father wants us to worship Him and we are told to pray to Him, then we shouldn\u2019t start our prayers with, \u201cDear Jesus \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Application<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n

Because of what God has done for us, because He has given us access to Himself through the sin-cleansing blood of Jesus Christ, let\u2019s bow to Him and worship Him with all our heart! Without His plan and His work, we would be destined for Hell.<\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2011 Will Krause. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

– \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 \u2013 –<\/p>\n

If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, send an e-mail to:\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ephesians 3:14 \u00a0– Worship Him For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Truth to Learn God wants us to worship Him. Behind the Words The phrase \u201cFor this reason\u201d is translated from toutou charin. Toutou means \u201cthis\u201d and charin is the direct object form (accusative case) of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[1985,2132,2133,626,2134,1076,2135,2136],"class_list":["post-2860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-because-of","tag-bow","tag-charin","tag-father","tag-kamto","tag-pater","tag-this","tag-toutou"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-K8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}