Lessons from Prepositions

Over the past two months, I have been slowly memorizing Ephesians chapter 1. I’m trying to get every word perfect. But the prepositions are killing me!

A preposition is a word that is usually before a noun or pronoun that expresses a relation to another word in the clause. They are words like “about,” “before,” and “in.”

Paul, an apostle OF Christ Jesus BY God’s Will, TO the faithful saints OF Christ Jesus, AT Ephesus

So many prepositions! Why couldn’t he just say, “From Paul to the saints?”

The entire chapter is written like that. Paul is constantly adding prepositional phrases like “For He chose us IN Him, BEFORE the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless IN love BEFORE Him.

His prepositions teach us a lot about God. Paul repeatedly uses the phrases “In Him” or “In Christ” to emphasize Jesus’ role in our salvation. He reiterates that everything is being brought together in Christ. That everything centers on Him.

And everything is done in love – not just ordinary love – but love so perfect that you and I are brought back to a right relationship with God because of it.

I’m thankful for these prepositions. I’m thankful that I’m IN Christ. That He chose me to be holy and blameless IN love. If you haven’t read Ephesians chapter 1 in a while, I encourage you to read it now – and pay special attention to the prepositions.

I’d love to hear from you – how has memorizing Scripture brought special attention to examples like this in your life? How do you best encourage yourself to make Scripture memorization a habit? Comment below or contact me on social media.