SATURDAY, MARCH 3
Scripture: Ephesians 1:6, Luke 1:26-33
The plot thickens a little bit in Ephesians 1 as we look further at the Greek word khar-ee-to-o that is used to describe believers. The second and third times the word is used in the Greek New Testament is in Ephesians 1:6. This verse says, “…to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted (khar-ee-to-o) in the Beloved”. Khar-ee-to-o/kar-ee-to-o is used twice in this same verse. It is a picture of the double. It is as if God is saying to us, ‘I have highly favored you with high favor. That could be even more troubling than Luke 1:28 because the angel said to Mary, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you.” Her greeting was with one khar-ee-to-o. What should we expect having two used to describe us? Is this another picture of the double or something else? Mary had a supernatural encounter with the angel Gabriel who delivered the message, maybe the absence of an angel to declare God’s message to us warrants two uses of khar-ee-to-o we see in Ephesians just to carry the same weight or maybe it is repetition to get a point across. The double use of khar-ee-to-o is a mystery that we need to pray out! Will our assignment be twice as hard to walk out as Mary’s? Perhaps the double refers to Acts 2:36 where we must be as proficient at the judicial as we are in evangelism for the sake of breaking deep darkness. The double use of khar-ee-to-o has an application that may vary depending on our gifting and call. If this is so, then we each have to walk it out relationally with the Lord! How?