Reading… and Thinking

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we would walk in them.

– Ephesians 2:10 (NJKV)

There are five key terms in this verse. Three describe God’s creative activity: “workmanship”, “created”, “prepared beforehand”. Two describe our response: “good works”, “walk”.

The Greek word for “workmanship” is poiema (from which we get our English word poem). It refers to something that has been made, the result of craftsmanship. A poem, a piece of embroidery, a meal, pottery, a house. This is how God views us – as the artistic work that He has put His talent and effort into. “Created” (ktizo) means just what the English word means – built or created, brought into being. Before God built us, we were not. He created something where before there was nothing.

The two English words “prepared beforehand” come from one Greek work (proetoimazo), and once again mean just what they appear to. This tells us that God got things ready for us ahead of time. Which indicates a strong, specific purpose was in His mind. Creating us was not a whim, not something He did to fill in the time, not something that He wondered afterwards what He would do with.

The response Paul describes is clearly the purpose that God had in mind. We aren’t simply “art for art’s sake”, a demonstration of God’s creative ability. Like a piece of pottery, we were conceived, designed, and made with a specific use in mind. We were created for something: “good works”. The word for “works” is ergon, and means to do, to exert effort. And “good” (agathos) means just that. So God exerted creative effort to make us, in order that we would be able to exert effort in doing good. He got us ready ahead of time, so that we would “walk” in those good deeds. “Walk” (peripateo) means the literal action of transporting yourself on your own feet, but is frequently used (as in this case) to refer to our behavior, the conduct of our lives.

We haven’t actually uncovered any meaning in this verse that isn’t right there to be seen – if we read carefully. But there are so few words, and it’s so easy to just read over them, that the force of these words may be missed. We do well to occasionally look very closely at a small verse like this.

One of the major themes of the book of Ephesians is purpose. God reveals to us in this letter what He is about. And that tells us what we are about. A rather important thing for us to know.

Now, when Paul describes us as God’s workmanship, His creation, is he talking about the original creation, or the new creation in Christ? Surely both! Doing good is what God had in mind for mankind from the beginning. But mankind failed in that original purpose, and like our first ancestors Adam and Eve, we fail to “walk” in the way that God prepared beforehand for us. Not to be thwarted in His purpose, God has determined to re-create us. So now in Christ we are a new creation. For what purpose? The very same, to walk in good works.