Eph. 2:1 b

2: 1 b You were dead.

Can we honestly say that people who are trying desperately to do good, helping out where they are able, living exemplary lives – can we list them as dead in trespasses and sin? The answer to that is to be found, not in making that judgment, but by considering the cost that God, the Trinity, paid for our redemption. If people can be spiritually good as God is good, without loving God, then why all that cosmic struggle that brought Jesus to life from the dead and raised him above all names?

As I read this passage I am made aware of the fact that the purpose of mankind is not to improve one’s self, but to walk humbly with God.

Conversion precedes ethics. The changed heart will long to please God. This is the proper place of ethics in the Kingdom of God. It is a sign, not an end. The end is to be one with God through Christ, enabled by the Holy Spirit.

Paul explains what sin is, it is pushing God aside and then trying to be good or bad by employing the ways of “this world,” to live a happy and prosperous lives by self-effort. The ways of “this world” are the ways of Satan.

Paul observes that the one who dominates “this world” discourages obedience to God. The sin is disobedience to God. Our Maker. That is the mother of all sins.