You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
12 That[hoti] at[en] that[ekeinos] time[kairos] ye were[en] without[choris] Christ,[Christos] being
aliens[apallotrioo] from the commonwealth[politeia] of Israel,[Israel] and[kai] strangers[xenos] from the
covenants[diatheke] of promise,[epaggelia] having[echo] no[me] hope,[elpis] and[kai] without God[atheos] in[en] the world:[kosmos]KJV-Interlinear
12 remember
that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth
of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and
without God in the world. NASB
The remembrance continues. The remembrance that at one time in your life you were an unbeliever.
Remember also, that Paul is speaking to both Jews and Gentiles, not only in this letter directly in his day, but throughout the generations of the last 2000 years since then.
And Paul lists five things that are true of unbelievers, but also five things that unbelievers do not have.
First, without Christ. No Christ means no salvation. No salvation means no eternal life. Christ is the only means of gaining eternal life. There is no other means, no other method, no other option for advancing into eternity with God, except by means of faith in Christ.
Second, all unbelievers are aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. And what exactly does that mean? This does not mean that they were not Jews, because Paul was speaking to both Jews and Gentiles.
Israel is an actual nation. It was formed by the twelve tribes, which were derived out of the sons of Jacob.
The line of the Messiah, which is also called the line of promise, was defined through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to distinguish it from the many Arabic lines that were in existence and developing at the time.
The nation of Israel was representative of the chosen nation of God, made up of the chosen people of God, which is symbolic of those who believed in the promised Savior, who is Jesus Christ. Salvation was by faith in the Savior, just as it is today. Christ is the one and only Savior.
Anyone who is a believer in Christ, is a member of the Family of God, but also, they are citizens of the nation of God, which is symbolically described as Israel.
Anyone who has rejected Christ, has not believed in Christ, then is not a citizen of Gods nation, but is an alien, and stranger, a foreigner, and that is exactly what alien and stranger, 'apallotrioo,' and 'xenos' mean. This is a reference to strangers, or those who are not members of the family, and aliens, or those who are not citizens of the chosen nation.
From the covenants of promise, comes from the many descriptions and promises from God, which belong only to those who are members of His family and nation. All of Gods promises and blessings and future destiny confidences, are for believers only. Unbelievers have nothing, absolutely nothing.
And having no hope means exactly that.
This world offers absolutely no hope, no confidence, no assurance of any kind that will carry the unbeliever into eternity, much less through this life.
Most folks place their hopes and dreams on things. They hope for weekend fun, for school graduation, for a job or a marriage, or family, for a retirement, or things accumulated in life and so forth. Whatever your hopes in life have been, you can add them to this list. And these things are not hopes at all, because this life and this world is temporary and nothing more.
Hope comes through confidence and confidence comes only through Christ, who is the one and only person who can accomplish true hope. True hope is attached to eternity and because life, true life, will never end, but will go on and on forever.
True hope begins with eternal life which comes only through salvation. Since unbelievers have no hope then they have no salvation. Since they have no salvation, then they have only eternal death, or the Lake of Fire.
Without God in the world, is a descriptive phrase that eliminates all religions, all gods, all philosophies, all beliefs as alternatives to the one true God, Jesus Christ. None of these other so called belief systems are real. They are all false. And anyone who subscribes to any of them, is subscribing to having absolutely nothing.
There is no such thing as an honorable religion, or an honorable belief. There is no such thing as a worthy system of thought that is derived out of this world. All of these things are a fools pursuit, and a fools self-destruction.
While a person rejects Christ, he is an unbeliever. And this means a person who has never believed in Christ, this does not refer to people who have believed and then at some later time decide to unbelieve themselves. You cannot undo or unthink a thought that you have already had.
Anyway, all unbelievers have nothing and never will have anything. Whatever they have in this world is irrelevant, because when a person dies, their possessions, be they vast or not, will vanish to them, and they enter the next life with nothing. This life may last several decades at best, but the next life will last forever into the gazillions and gazillions and gazillions of years and beyond.
Rejection of Christ is a bad decision. Faith in this world is a bad investment.
