This Bible reading plan takes you through most of the Holy Scriptures each weekday of the year. Each day has three Bible readings:
You're welcome to read one, two, or all three of the readings every weekday. And if you fall behind, don't worry! You can either use the weekends to catch up or you can simply dive in to the reading for that day, even if you've missed a few days, weeks, or even months!
1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful1 in Christ Jesus:
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us2 for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known3 to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ4 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth in him.
11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee5 of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it,6 to the praise of his glory.
15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love7 toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
[1] 1:1
[2] 1:5
[3] 1:9
[4] 1:9
[5] 1:14
[6] 1:14
[7] 1:15
(ESV)
Our reading for today from Ephesians 1 addresses one of Scripture's most infamous doctrines: predestination. As with other difficult theological questions, many people have a tendency to fall into one of two traps: a trap of anger or a trap of avoidance. Those tending toward the former trap become fixated on the controversial doctrines of Scripture and angrily decry anyone who would disagree with them, even if a disagreement has some Scriptural merit. Those tending to the latter trap offhandedly dismiss the tough doctrines of Scripture, no matter how salutary they might be. Of course, both responses to difficult doctrinal questions are unhelpful and, finally, ungodly. For we are called to engage with Scripture both humbly and intently. What follows is an attempt to do just that with the doctrine of predestination.
Because of the complexity of this doctrine, I thought it might be helpful to offer my best definition of predestination, gleaned from Ephesians 1, and then comment on the individual components of this definition. Here, then, is my definition of the doctrine: Predestination is when, to his praise, God chooses, by his grace, you for salvation.
"To his praise... " Predestination is doxological.
In the face of a doctrine which all too often invokes self-righteous anger on the one hand and timid avoidance on the other, Paul offers a different response to predestination: the response of praise. "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ... " (verse 3). This doctrine is so precious to Paul that it makes him burst out in a song of celebration. The Greek word for "praise" is eulogia, meaning, "to speak well." In Greek, Paul uses this word twice more in this one verse. Thus, Paul's intent in speaking of predestination is to speak well of this doctrine.
"God chooses... " Predestination is unilateral.
Predestination is not of ourselves. It is wholly and unilaterally God's work. God chooses us. We do not choose God. This becomes clear when one considers the timing of predestination: "God chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight" (verse 4). Before we were born - yes, even before the world was created - God chose us to be his own. This stands contrary to those who hold to Arminiasm, which teaches that the human will cooperates with the divine will to choose salvation. As Augustine pointedly says: "God chose us according to the good pleasure of his will, so that nobody might glory concerning his own will, but about God's will towards himself" (On The Predestination of the Saints, Ch. 37). Predestination finds its beginning and end in God's will, not in humanity's.
"By his grace... " Predestination is evangelical.
By saying that predestination is "evangelical," I mean to say that predestination is of the gospel. Indeed, the Greek word for "gospel" is euangelion. That predestination is of the gospel seems to be precisely Paul's assertion in this chapter. For Paul lumps predestination together with other terms commonly associated with the gospel: "love," "adopted," "grace," "redemption," "blood," "forgiveness of sins" (cf. verses 4-7). Predestination, then, is simply another way to describe God's good news: that God saved us when we could not save ourselves. He chose us to be his own. As Gerhard Forde aptly states: "Justification by faith and predestination are simply two sides of the same coin... Predestination is merely the article of justification stated with respect to God" (Justification by Faith: A Matter of Death and Life, 67).
"You for salvation... " Predestination is personal.
People's problems with predestination often center on the doctrine's philosophical corollaries rather than on the actual doctrine itself, as it is given to us in Scripture. Here's what I mean. If predestination is wholly God's choice, decree, and work, then that means we are trapped in a divinely wrought determinism, headed for either heaven or hell, helpless and hapless in the face of God's whim. All we can do, then, is cry, "Que sera sera." For we are merely puppets in the hands of a mysterious and capricious God. Indeed, this is the stance of Calvinism, which teaches a "double predestination" - that God, in his mysterious sovereignty, chooses some for salvation and some for damnation. Which one are you? Que sera sera.
This is not the way Paul speaks of predestination. As I have already mentioned above, predestination is connected to salvation, not to damnation. "Yes," someone might protest, "But if God chooses people for salvation, but not everyone is saved, doesn't that mean that God has, by default, chosen some for damnation?" Paul dispenses with such questions in short order by declaring:
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession - to the praise of his glory. (verses 13-14)
Paul, rather than quibbling over the philosophical difficulties of this doctrine, simply says, "Predestination is not a philosophical theory, it is a theological and personal reality! You are included in salvation! God has chosen you! How do you know you are God's predestined child? You have the Holy Spirit. He is your guarantee of salvation."
Predestination, then, is not meant to be a doctrine which sends our heads spinning and our hearts worrying; rather, it is meant to be a doctrine which comforts us in our salvation and assures us of God's love. For God loves us so much that he has taken care of every detail, even the detail of our choice. Rather than leaving our salvation up to our choice, God went through the trouble of choosing for us. And the best part is, God has chosen you.
1:1 The word of the LORD that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
2 When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.” 3 So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
4 And the LORD said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5 And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”
6 She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the LORD said to him, “Call her name No Mercy,1 for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. 7 But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the LORD their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”
8 When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. 9 And the LORD said, “Call his name Not My People,2 for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”3
10 4 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children5 of the living God.” 11 And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head. And they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
2:1 6 Say to your brothers, “You are my people,”7 and to your sisters, “You have received mercy.”8
2 “Plead with your mother, plead—
for she is not my wife,
and I am not her husband—
that she put away her whoring from her face,
and her adultery from between her breasts;
3 lest I strip her naked
and make her as in the day she was born,
and make her like a wilderness,
and make her like a parched land,
and kill her with thirst.
4 Upon her children also I will have no mercy,
because they are children of whoredom.
5 For their mother has played the whore;
she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
who give me my bread and my water,
my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
6 Therefore I will hedge up her9 way with thorns,
and I will build a wall against her,
so that she cannot find her paths.
7 She shall pursue her lovers
but not overtake them,
and she shall seek them
but shall not find them.
Then she shall say,
‘I will go and return to my first husband,
for it was better for me then than now.’
8 And she did not know
that it was I who gave her
the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and who lavished on her silver and gold,
which they used for Baal.
9 Therefore I will take back
my grain in its time,
and my wine in its season,
and I will take away my wool and my flax,
which were to cover her nakedness.
10 Now I will uncover her lewdness
in the sight of her lovers,
and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.
11 And I will put an end to all her mirth,
her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths,
and all her appointed feasts.
12 And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,
of which she said,
‘These are my wages,
which my lovers have given me.’
I will make them a forest,
and the beasts of the field shall devour them.
13 And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals
when she burned offerings to them
and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry,
and went after her lovers
and forgot me, declares the LORD.
[1] 1:6
[2] 1:9
[3] 1:9
[4] 1:10
[5] 1:10
[6] 2:1
[7] 2:1
[8] 2:1
[9] 2:6
(ESV)
Hosea was the last prophet that God sent to the Northern Kingdom of Israel before it fell to Assyria in 722 BC. A period of peace and prosperity among God's people had led to idolatry and moral decay. God therefore commanded Hosea to act out in his own life the drama that was unfolding in Israel. God told Hosea to go and marry "a wife of whoredom," in other words, the prophet was to take a prostitute as his own wife. This was to illustrate the spiritual adultery that Israel was committing against the LORD. Hosea's wife, Gomer, bore him a son, who was named "Jezreel" meaning "God scatters," indicating the punishment that God was going to inflict on Israel. Their second child, a girl, was named "Lo-Ruhammah" which meant "no mercy" for God was going to stop showing love to Israel, even though He would continue to show love to Judah, the Southern Kingdom. Their third child, a son, was named "Lo Ammi" meaning "not my people," which was a complete negation of the covenant promise. Immediately, however, in the face of judgment God offered hope, assuring His people that He would keep His promise to Abraham, and promising to restore His scattered people and call them "children of the living God." The "one head" who would be appointed over them was the Messiah, and as a united people, all of Israel and Judah "shall go up from the land" to Jerusalem to worship the LORD. God commanded these people to greet one another with reminders of God's grace to them, "You are my people," and "You have received mercy." Immediately then, the tone changes once again from reminders of grace to a summons to repent. The covenant relationship is compared to marriage, and the wife of whoredom is urged by her children to "put away her whoring." God threatens to strip her naked in utter disgrace as would be done to a wife guilty of adultery before stoning her to death. The children of whoredom will not be spared either. God's people had been deliberate and defiant in their adultery saying, "I will go after my lovers." God declared that He would "hedge up her way with thorns" so that she would not be able to successfully pursue her lovers. As a result, the wayward wife would say, "I will go and return to my first husband," thinking she had been better off with him. But God threatened to take back all that he had given her, and "uncover her lewdness" to disgrace her in front of her lovers. Her punishment would leave her desolate and forgotten, even as she had forgotten the LORD because of the Baals that she worshiped.
4 Riches do not profit in the day of wrath,
but righteousness delivers from death.
5 The righteousness of the blameless keeps his way straight,
but the wicked falls by his own wickedness.
6 The righteousness of the upright delivers them,
but the treacherous are taken captive by their lust.
7 When the wicked dies, his hope will perish,
and the expectation of wealth1 perishes too.
8 The righteous is delivered from trouble,
and the wicked walks into it instead.
9 With his mouth the godless man would destroy his neighbor,
but by knowledge the righteous are delivered.
10 When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices,
and when the wicked perish there are shouts of gladness.
11 By the blessing of the upright a city is exalted,
but by the mouth of the wicked it is overthrown.
12 Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense,
but a man of understanding remains silent.
13 Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets,
but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered.
14 Where there is no guidance, a people falls,
but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.
15 Whoever puts up security for a stranger will surely suffer harm,
but he who hates striking hands in pledge is secure.
16 A gracious woman gets honor,
and violent men get riches.
17 A man who is kind benefits himself,
but a cruel man hurts himself.
[1] 11:7
(ESV)