Ephesians 1:15-16 Thank God for New Converts CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO
In this passage, Paul tells the Ephesians of his prayers for them. The first prayer on the list is Thanksgiving (v. 16) and the things he is thankful for are:
- Their faith in Jesus
- Their love of the saints
So often, we see those you profess to have enough faith to get saved but not enough faith to grow beyond their initial confession. That really makes it tough on soul winners because you’re not sure they really got saved or, if they did, these converts become the reason other souls with whom you deal don’t “see” much to Christianity.
Thus, it was cause for great Thanksgiving to see Paul’s converts grow. They grew in their:
Faith in Jesus
- Heb 11:1, there ought to be some evidence growing out of your faith in Christ
- Col 1:23, you should be grounded and settled
- Col 2:5-7, you should become steadfast, rooted, built up, established, Ps 78:8, I Cor 15:58
- I Th 1:3, this kind of faith is a working faith
- I Th 1:8, thus kind of faith gets spread abroad
- II Th 1:3, this kind of faith groweth exceedingly
- II Th 1:4, this kind of faith thrives in persecution and tribulations
Love of the brethren
- Jn 13:34 you are to love them as Jesus did which is even stronger than the 2nd commandment, Matt 22:39, I Jn 3:23
- I Jn 4:19-20, if you truly love the Lord, you will truly love your brothers; and if you don’t love them then you really don’t love God as much as you think you do
- I Th 4:9 – you are taught of God to love your brothers – Sam Jones said that some are good towards God and bad toward man and some vice versa, but “I assure you, and by the grace of God, I don’t intend to be like either one. I am going to do right toward God, and I’m going to do right toward man, and there’s the whole man.”
Now when you find these two things in people that you have led to the Lord, then you truly have something to thank God about, 1 Pet 1:22