Ephesians Theme • What Is in Your Treasure Chest?

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Do you have a place in your house where you keep a special little box or shelf that contain mementos from your past? Those usually remind us of who we once were and who we are now. This is post #1 in the Ephesians blog series. We’re going to learn that everything we already have in Christ is more powerful and valuable for successful living than anything we can and do substitute for Him. This first post will be an introduction to the book of Ephesians and see the similarities between the culture of Ephesus with our modern culture regarding what we consider valuable. Ready to learn? Let’s go.

Listen to this post as a similar podcast from the Seek the Treasure Bible Study covering Ephesians in the New Testament. (8 lessons)

A Treasure Chest

Do you have a place in your house where you keep your personal treasures? Some of us have a special little box or shelf that contain mementos from our past that remind us of who we once were and who we are now. Do you have one of those? My husband has one. I don’t know what’s in it. But every once in a while, he’ll pull something out of it that reminds him of all the pieces that make up who he is. We all love the idea of some kind of treasure in a treasure chest.

Two thousand years ago, God took in a rebel named Paul, gave him the treasure of Himself and sent him out to invite others to receive that treasure, also. Some of those who responded lived in the region of Ephesus on the west coast of modern Turkey. The letter we call Ephesians was originally written by Paul to the people in that area.

About Paul

Birth and upbringing

Paul was born in Tarsus, a major Roman city on the coast of southeast Turkey. Tarsus was famous for its tent-making industry. Paul was trained in that craft as his primary paying profession.

In the Bible, he is known by two names: Saul, which was his Hebrew name, and Paul, which was his Roman name. To keep things simple, we will call him by his Roman name Paul because that’s what he mainly used in his travels and ministry.

Life change and mission

Paul was a highly-educated and zealous Jew. As a young man, he was so zealous that he became determined to wipe out all the Christians. Period. Wipe them out! Then, one day, Jesus Christ knocked him flat and grabbed his attention. The account of what happened is in Acts chapter 9. It’s pretty dramatic!

Read about Paul’s changed life in the blog, “Acts 8-12 • Paul, A Misdirected Life Transformed.”

After believing in Jesus Christ as his Savior, Paul was sent by Jesus as His apostle to take the gospel to the people who were not Jews. The Bible calls them Gentiles. This was an amazing turn around for someone who once had nothing to do with the dirty Gentiles. Paul wrote about this commission in Ephesians chapter 3,

Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, (Ephesians 3:8)

Boundless riches. That sounds like an overflowing treasure chest, doesn’t it?

The letters

When Paul wrote the letter that we know as Ephesians, he had been a Christian for more than 20 years. He had already gone on two mission trips to central Turkey and Greece, establishing churches in major towns. We have letters in our New Testament that he wrote to those churches.

After a brief time of rest back home, Paul headed to the city of Ephesus. He spent three years there. A few years later, on a visit to Jerusalem, he was falsely accused and arrested. After a long time of waiting to be released, he finally appealed to Caesar and was sent to Rome. From Ephesians chapter 3:1, we find out that’s where Paul was when he wrote this letter—imprisoned in Rome, chained to a Roman soldier 24/7. But he was given the freedom to have visitors and write letters. We have four of those letters in our New Testament. They are a treasure for us. Ephesians is one of those letters.

We learn from Ephesians chapter 6 that a man named Tychicus delivered the letter along with news about Paul’s situation. Then, he returned to Paul with news about the Ephesians. Later, Paul wrote two more letters to his close friend Timothy who was serving as a pastor in Ephesus.

Read the blogs associated with those letters, “1 Timothy & Titus Blog Series” and “2 Timothy Blog Series

It helps to have a little background of a place to understand the people and how that might affect Paul’s ministry to them. When I did a little digging, I found out that the Ephesians were treasure seekers—always seeking something to put in their own treasure chests.

The Ephesians and Their Treasure Chest

Prominent and obsessed

Two words described Ephesus—prominent and obsessed.

Prominent: The city was prominent because of its location along major highways, its commercial prosperity, and its large population of ~250,000 people. It also had impressive buildings, including the Roman governor’s office. Ephesus was prominent.

Obsessed: Ephesus was a city obsessed with the supernatural, especially the power of evil spirits that could make life miserable. The city was filled with magicians, psychics, and astrologers. The people tried anything that would defeat the enemy and guarantee a “successful” life.

Focused on power sources

Prominent and obsessed are both related to power. For the Ephesians, life was all about power. Who or what had the most power?

And their identity came from their power sources. That was reflected in their treasure chests. They had magic formulas, self-help scrolls, and figurines of their superhero goddess named Artemis. Those things were what the Ephesians had in their treasure chests, often kept in a secret place in their houses. They thought all that was powerful enough and valuable enough to satisfy their spiritual needs.

Then, God introduced them to Jesus Christ through Paul. They soon found out that their own treasure chests were worthless compared to what God offered them.

Seeking Treasure for Our Treasure Chests Today

Here we are two thousand years later. We humans are still fascinated by treasure-seeking. Look at all the TV shows about seeking treasure under the sea, in caves, and buried deep in the earth. People spend millions of dollars seeking legendary treasure, and we watch as they do it.

Personal treasure chests

We also have our personal treasure chests. I’m not talking about our keepsakes here. I’m talking about what we consider vitally important. And we seek to fill our treasure chests with whatever will make us successful in life.

Modern teaching tries to convince us that we are in what’s called the age of reason now so there’s no devil, no supernatural, and no need for God. We are told that science will find the answer to everything. In the grips of the Covid-19 pandemic, I saw an online ad that said exactly this, “Science will bring us back to normal.” Science is the new god. Just listen to the experts and don’t bother to seek any treasure that is supernatural.

But everyday people like you and I know differently. The supernatural is real. There are things that just cannot be explained by reason. And you know what? That is tantalizing!

Drawn to the supernatural

Our culture in this age of reason is drawn to supernatural power though not necessarily God’s power. Consider all the TV shows and movies that deal with anything supernatural and all those super heroes. We are drawn to that. Westerners are interested in the supernatural not because we admit to being afraid of evil spirits like the Ephesians were and like some parts of our world still are. But as a culture, and really as humans everywhere, we seek anything that will satisfy the spiritual hunger in our souls and “guarantee” successful living.

Trying to fill the spiritual hunger

God intended that hunger to be filled with Himself. Yet, instead of relying on God, we shop around at different sources to see what we want to put in our treasure chest. Will it work to make me lucky? Or solve my problem? Or make my soul happy?

There are so many things out there on the web or in social media that we can try. We look for the latest thing that guarantees success at … whatever. Then, we go for it. These can be powerful influences on us as women, but they are substitutes for the real thing, similar to the cultural world of Ephesus.

Your Heart Will Be Where Your Treasure Is

In Matthew chapter 6. Jesus told His followers this,

“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.” (Matthew 6:19-21, NLT)

Where your treasure is, that’s where the desires of your heart will be. Dear reader, where is your treasure chest? What’s in it? What are you relying on for success in your life?

Everything that we already have in Christ is more powerful and valuable for successful living than any of those substitutes. The problem is this: We have to recognize that substitute treasure is worthless.

Together, as we study Ephesians, we will learn how to recognize substitute treasure. We will also see that our God offers us the most wonderful treasure we could ever want in Christ.

In the next post, we will learn that we begin our treasure hunt with looking at Jesus Christ.

Let Jesus satisfy your heart with the confidence that the treasure you have in Him is more powerful and valuable than anything you could substitute for Him.

All of the above information is covered in the Seek the Treasure Bible Study covering Ephesians in the New Testament.

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