Ephesians 1:8 - With all wisdom and understanding

1:8

“That He lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding”. God’s grace was not given reluctantly, but was lavished upon us, poured out upon us in abundance. We can sometimes look at our lives with despondency, we can look at the future with fear. We should not do so, and have no need to do so. God’s grace has been poured out upon us without limit. His grace is sufficient for whatever circumstances we are in at present, and whatever we may face in the future. “With all wisdom and understanding”. As mentioned earlier, 1:3-14 is one long sentence in the original Greek, so there is no full stop here, but different English versions put punctuation in different places, indicating that they are not sure whether this phrase should be taken with what has just been said, or with what is about to follow. Given that Paul used one long sentence it may well be that he intended it to be taken with both. So let’s take it here with “He lavished upon us”. His grace was poured out freely upon us, but is was not done so without consideration. We need unlimited grace, but we also need carefully targeted grace, purposeful grace. In general terms, ie the forgiveness of sins,  the actions proceeding from that grace (ie the cross and resurrection) came just at the right time and in the right way. In specific terms (ie relating directly to our individual lives) that grace is equally well targeted and purposeful. God does just the right thing at just the right time in just the right way.