During my senior year of high school, each student was given a writing assignment: What is the good life? It was a tradition at my school for each graduating senior to reflect on what they believed made a good life, almost like a farewell address to this chapter of their life. Then, we had to stand before a faculty board and support our theses. We were being held accountable for the ideals of the good life we believed in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I centered my thesis around Acts 20:24 where Paul wrote, \u201cMy purpose is to finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of God\u2019s grace.\u201d Everything else that made up the good life I imagined, like finding the right vocation, establishing healthy friendships, creating a Christ-centered family, and maintaining a walk with Jesus, were all motivated by finishing the course Jesus gave me. My good life was to be a testament to the grace of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul\u2019s farewell address to the Ephesians reminds me of his own personal paper on what he believed was the good life. Before he left the Ephesians, he reminded them of all he had done on behalf of Jesus. He had taught the hope of Jesus fearlessly and had held the church accountable to the truth of Jesus\u2019s word. He encouraged them to continue to build a life around the same biblical values that he demonstrated for them\u2014never shrinking back from living a bold life for Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Looking back, I see why our teachers asked us to write the paper. It wasn\u2019t so that we could walk into the adult world with a perfect path toward our own version of the good life. It was to give us an opportunity to decide for ourselves what truths we would stand by when things got hard and our morals were tested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the same way, Paul knew when he left the Ephesian church, \u201csavage wolves\u201d would hide amongst them and try to twist God\u2019s truth (Acts 20:29). It was necessary for them to be alert, remembering Paul\u2019s example so that they would not turn away from everything he had taught them about Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you were to give your final address, what would you point to in your life that demonstrated what was most valuable to you? Would it sound a lot like Paul\u2019s address\u2014a life dedicated to the message of Jesus? My prayer for us is this: \u201cAs citizens of heaven, live your life worthy of the gospel of Christ\u201d (Philippians 1:27). If you build a legacy for Jesus, I have no doubt your life will be a \u201cgood\u201d one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
During my senior year of high school, each student was given a writing assignment: What is the good life? It was a tradition at my school for each graduating senior to reflect on what they believed made a good life, almost like a farewell address to this chapter of their life. Then, we had to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":72914,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[308],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-acts26"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[73104],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"#SheReadsTruth","devotional_text":"PAUL'S FAREWELL ADDRESS TO THE EPHESIANS<\/b>
\r\nby Bailey Hurley<\/i>
\r\n
During my senior year of high school, each student was given a writing assignment: What is the good life? It was a tradition at my school for each graduating senior to reflect on what they believed made a good life, almost like a farewell address to this chapter of their life. Then, we had to stand before a faculty board and support our theses. We were being held accountable for the ideals of the good life we believed in.<\/p>
\r\n
I centered my thesis around Acts 20:24 where Paul wrote, \u201cMy purpose is to finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of God\u2019s grace.\u201d Everything else that made up the good life I imagined, like finding the right vocation, establishing healthy friendships, creating a Christ-centered family, and maintaining a walk with Jesus, were all motivated by finishing the course Jesus gave me. My good life was to be a testament to the grace of God.<\/p>
\r\n
Paul\u2019s farewell address to the Ephesians reminds me of his own personal paper on what he believed was the good life. Before he left the Ephesians, he reminded them of all he had done on behalf of Jesus. He had taught the hope of Jesus fearlessly and had held the church accountable to the truth of Jesus\u2019s word. He encouraged them to continue to build a life around the same biblical values that he demonstrated for them\u2014never shrinking back from living a bold life for Jesus.<\/p>
\r\n
Looking back, I see why our teachers asked us to write the paper. It wasn\u2019t so that we could walk into the adult world with a perfect path toward our own version of the good life. It was to give us an opportunity to decide for ourselves what truths we would stand by when things got hard and our morals were tested.<\/p>
\r\n
In the same way, Paul knew when he left the Ephesian church, \u201csavage wolves\u201d would hide amongst them and try to twist God\u2019s truth (Acts 20:29). It was necessary for them to be alert, remembering Paul\u2019s example so that they would not turn away from everything he had taught them about Jesus.<\/p>
\r\n
If you were to give your final address, what would you point to in your life that demonstrated what was most valuable to you? Would it sound a lot like Paul\u2019s address\u2014a life dedicated to the message of Jesus? My prayer for us is this: \u201cAs citizens of heaven, live your life worthy of the gospel of Christ\u201d (Philippians 1:27). If you build a legacy for Jesus, I have no doubt your life will be a \u201cgood\u201d one.<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"31","scripture":"Acts 20:1-38, 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, Romans 15:18-19","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}