Ephesians Chapter 1
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus:
Paul was clear about what God’s will for him was – to be an apostle.
What about you? If you have been a Christian for a while, and you still don’t know what God has called you to do for His kingdom, then you have a serious problem. You are like an adult without a job. I don’t want you to feel condemned, but I want you to be useful to God, so that on the Day of Judgment you may not have any regrets. For this reason, I would ask you to stop and ask God why God has not given you a piece of the action, and if the fault is yours then I would urge you to fix it. One little hint: the fault is not God’s.
An apostle is one who is sent out to start a church in a place that has no true church before (Rom 15:20; Gal 1:15,16; 2 Cor 10:15:16).
A saint is a person who is saved. Such a person is set apart for holiness.
This letter was written to mature believers (saints who are faithful (Eph 1:1)) in Christ Jesus.
Are you faithful in the matters concerning Jesus? To be faithful means to do what you told God you would do. This includes your marriage vows, and any other things you told God you would do.
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
In most of Paul’s letters he wishes grace and peace upon the recipients. Why does Paul do this?
First, when one wishes something for someone who is dear, they always wish the best. So grace and peace from God were something that Paul must have thought very important for a Christian to have.
Grace is help from God to overcome temptation (Heb 4:15-16).
Peace is the ability to handle anything that comes your way. Peace helps us to not be troubled, afraid or anxious (Jn 14:27) even in times of tribulation (Jn 16:33, Jn 20:19,21,26, Phil 4:7).
This peace is the opposite of war with God; instead, it is having God on your side. Peace from God allows us to be fruitful because God is not opposing us.
Peace with God starts with justification (Rom 5:1). That is, when we get saved, we escape the wrath of God, and can now be a peace with God as long as we are humble. God opposes the proud, and so, only if we are humble we can have peace with God.
The kingdom of God is righteousness (through grace), peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom 14:17).
So we see that Paul considered it important for a Christian to be able to overcome temptation and to have peace from God that would allow him to handle anything that comes his way and to be fruitful.
Verse two also tells us that God is our Father. It is easy to gloss over this fact, but if you don’t have the deep security that comes from knowing that God is your Father and that He cares for you deeply – so deeply that He is always looking out for you – then you will engage in all sorts of undesirable behavior; you will be jealous and envious and bitter and resentful and petty and be drawn to addiction and so on. Human beings are made to be loved, and when you are convinced that God loves you then you won’t go looking for love in the wrong places.
Verse two also tells us that Jesus is our Lord. That is, you belong to Jesus, and He has the right to tell you how to spend your time and your money. As Lord, He also owns your body and therefore He can tell you what to do, and what to not do, with it.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
Verse three tells us that Jesus is the Son of God. Verse two and three show that Jesus is our brother! Jesus was made like His brethren in all things (Heb 2:14-18). For an explanation of why, please refer the my verse-by-verse study on the book of Hebrews.
The first topic that the author speaks about is the most important thing on his mind. The first thing that Paul wants to tell the Ephesians is about their spiritual blessing. So that must have been playing heavily on his mind. That is what he wants them to know. There must have been a very good reason as to why Paul wanted the Ephesians to know this. We will find the reason later.
If Paul wanted the Ephesians to know this then we can be sure that that is what he would want all Christians to know it too. That is why we should pay careful attention to the book of Ephesians.
To get the importance of it, imagine Paul coming in for today’s Bible study and saying, “Guys, did you know that you have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,” and then proceeding to explain what they are.
We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
Every spiritual blessing – God has held back nothing. He has given us everything that there is to give that can bless our spirit. That is why Paul is so ecstatic about the grace of God in the later verses. Think about it. It cannot get any better (otherwise ‘every’ is not the correct word to use).
A spiritual blessing is one that blesses (or makes better) our spirit. The opposite of a blessing is a curse. What has been a curse to our spirit? It is sin. So all the spiritual blessings that God has given us are to solve the problems that we have created by our sin.
What are the spiritual blessings that we are blessed with?
- We are chosen to be holy and blameless before God. This is the summary of the blessing – a reversal of the sin problem (Eph 1:4).
- Our sins are forgiven, and our spirit is saved from the wrath of God (Eph 1:7).
- The Holy Spirit dwells in us to give us power over sin and seal us (i.e. to identify us as belonging to Christ) and show us what Christ is like (Eph 1:13,14).
- We are given spiritual wisdom and understanding – an ability to understand things concerning the spiritual realm and the knowledge of God’s will, so that we may please God in the way we walk, and get the maximum reward in eternity (Col 1:9,10).
- Through the baptism in the Holy Spirit we have been given spiritual gifts to build the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:1).
- When Jesus comes again we will receive a spiritual body – one that is incorruptible (1 Cor 15:44).
All these blessings are in Christ. Apart from Christ we have nothing. We of ourselves contribute nothing. Meditating on this will keep us humble because we will have nothing to boast about.
This verse also tells us that there are heavenly places (Eph 1:20; 2:6: 3:10. What are they?
- There are more than one heavens (Gen 2:1).
- Outer space is the first heaven (Gen 1:8).
- aradise (the place where God dwells) is the third heaven (2 Cor 12:2-4).
- God has given the earth to the children of men (Ps 115:16).
- The (first) heaven and the heaven of heavens (third heaven) is the Lord’s (Deut 10:14, 1 Ki 8:27).
- The heavens are the dwelling place of God (2 Chr 6:33; Ps 2:4; Ps 123:1).
- A time will come when the heavens and earth will be no more (Job 14:12, Is 13:13, 34:4, 51:6, Ez 32:7, Joel 2:10, Hag 2:6, Mt 24:29; 2 Pet 3:7-13).
- There will be a new heavens and a new earth (Is 65:17).
- God’s glory is above (or more than) that of the heavens (Ps 8:1).
- The rulers and authorities (evil spirit?) must reside in the second heaven (Eph 6:12). Perhaps, for now, God has given the second heaven to the evil spirits (Eph 3:10, Lk 10:18, Is 14:12).
It is only after a man has seen that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing that he is able to honestly say what Paul said in Phil 3:7-11 – that he could count all things as garbage …
4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love
Verse four tells us when God chose us, and why.
God chose us in Christ. Note the centrality of Christ. Take Him out and we have nothing. Some cults have become cults because they forget this. Christ is the center of Christianity. No Christ, no Christianity. Because God chose us we have nothing to boast about (Eph 2:8,9) when it comes to spiritual things.
God chose us (to be holy and blameless) before the foundation of the world. One way to understand this in the light of an impartial God is to realize that God transcends time and He knew what we would be like and do even before the foundation of the world, and so He could choose us even at that time.
His purpose in choosing us was that we should be holy and blameless before Him, not merely that we should be in heaven or saved from the wrath of hell.
5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,
6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
We are predestined, not to salvation from God’s wrath, but to adoption as sons.
To be adopted as sons involves the redemption of our body (Rom 8:23) – an exchange in which we give away our corruptible body and get an incorruptible body (one that is not even tempted to sin) (1 Cor 15:35-58). This will actually happen when Jesus comes again. It is then we will truly be children of God – we will have a nature just like Him.
God did not have to do this, but He did it, and that shows how wonderful He is – that is what is meant by ‘to the praise of the glory of His grace’.
The indwelling Holy Spirit is a down payment for the inheritance that we will get at the redemption of our body. It is like how when we want to assure the builder that we want to buy a house from him we do that by giving him a down payment. It is like God giving us a sample of the fullness of God.
God does this to assure us that He will indeed make us like Him (in character) in the end.
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace
8 which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight
9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him
10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him
Another spiritual blessing is the forgiveness of our sins.
In a very wise and insightful way God told us of His plan, and brought it to pass at the appropriate time.
God’s plan was to sum up everything in (or putting everything under) Christ. This was because Christ humbled Himself the most (Phil 2:8-11). This is according to a spiritual law that operates in the kingdom of heaven – the humblest shall be the greatest (Mt 18:1-4).
11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,
12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.
God works all things according to His will. In other words, He is sovereign. What He wants to make happen, He makes happen. No one can thwart His plans. That is why we should not be anxious about anything. If God is on our side, who can be against us?
As per His will, God predestined the apostles, who were the first to hope in Christ, to get an inheritance.
13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,
14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory.
All the rest of us, heard the gospel, believed, and were then sealed (marked in such a way to be identified) with the Holy Spirit. This is in contrast to what Calvinism teaches – that the Holy Spirit comes in first, enabling us to believe when we hear the gospel.
15 For this reason I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your love for all the saints,
16 do not cease giving thanks for you, while making mention of you in my prayers;
The characteristic mark of a true believer is that he exhibits faith in God, and love for all the saints. Jesus said that if we love one another we are His disciples.
We should be thankful to God for people like that – people who have faith and who love all the saints.
17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.
18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might
This is the only place in the Bible that God is called the ‘Father of glory’. In Ac 7:2 He is called the ‘God of glory’, and in 1Cor 2:8 Jesus is called the ‘Lord of glory’. ‘Glory’ refers to something that is worth being in awe of, and these expressions tell us that the greatness of God is such that He is worthy of awe.
The Ephesians lacked something. Paul prayed that God would fill that lack. Their lack was that they didn’t have spiritual wisdom (i.e. wisdom about spiritual things). Spiritual wisdom involves understanding the nature of God (i.e. the knowledge of God). It comes by revelation from God.
If you understand the nature of God, one of the things you will also understand is God’s attitude to sin.
Paul prays that the Ephesians understand the hope that they have. Paul is not talking about an intellectual understanding but a spiritual understanding (i.e. the eyes of the heart must be enlightened).
To bring about this hope God will exert the same amazing power he exerted when He raised Christ from the dead.
Paul had just told the Ephesians what the spiritual blessing that God gave them were. But he knew that that wasn’t enough. He knew that God had to open their eyes to see, understand, and act upon the knowledge of what they had. That was what he prayed for regarding them. That is what we should also pray for and seek for regarding ourselves and others in the church – that we may understand the value of what God has done to rid our spirit of sin.
To understand this we have to first understand what would have happened if we did not receive those blessings.
For example, consider a man on death row. Of what use it is to him if he has all the money in the world or all the love of a woman of his choice. His time is limited, and there is nothing that he can do about it. The same thing holds for a man with an incurable disease. That is how it is with physical death. The same thing holds for spiritual death. Nothing matters if you know that you are going to go to hell and that there is nothing that you can do about it. This situation is hopeless. Only because God forgave us our sins (which is a spiritual blessing) can we have a hope for a future in heaven.
Another spiritual blessing is our incorruptible body – a body without the flesh. This is the hope of our calling i.e. the thing that we believers are hoping to get in the future. This blessing allows us to spend eternity not fighting against temptation. If we didn’t have this blessing, we would never be able to have a guarantee that we would never fall at some point in eternity and be cast away forever from the presence of God. The angels who fell, and became demons, fell because they have a flesh for eternity.
Paul describes our incorruptible body as the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. One’s glory is the best thing about them. The riches of one’s glory refers to the best of the best of that person. So what Paul is saying here is that our incorruptible body is the best of the best of what God has (which is His character) – and God is going to give it to us! The term ‘His inheritance in the saints’ doesn’t mean that when we die God gets something valuable – the dust of our body is not valuable, and our spirit already came from God in the first place. Rather, it means that because Jesus died for us we are predestined to get this wonderful gift from God – it is ‘His inheritance’ in the sense that He gives it, and it is ‘in the saints’ in the sense that when He gives it, it will belong to us.
There is a ‘surpassing greatness of His power towards us who believe’. In the physical realm, we know of the great power that is unleashed with an atom of uranium is split, or when two hydrogen atoms are fused. In the spiritual realm, when you believe God, He unleashes great power on your behalf, and for your spiritual benefit. We see a little bit of that in the gospels, where people believed and were healed. Jesus said that all thing (in the spiritual realm) are possible if you can believe. Spiritual stumbling blocks the size of mountains can be removed from your life just by believing God.
Once we understand the value of our spiritual blessings we will have no problem with our desire to be obedient to God or to serve Him. Paul knew that and that is why he first tells the Ephesians about their spiritual blessing, and then (in the later chapters) exhorts them to obey and serve God.
To really appreciate what Paul is saying so far one has to have an appreciation for the realities of sin its implications.
For example, if you were to give a monkey a bag containing a million dollars in cash he will not be as thrilled as if you were to give him a banana. This is because he doesn’t realize that what is in the bag can provide him and his entire tribe bananas for the rest of their lives.
In the same way, when we understand God’s attitude to sin, and the depth of our sin, and the price that God had to pay to save us from sin, then we understand the value of what God has done for us.
Paul prayed that God would give the Ephesians this insight, and if Paul were here today and watch the Christians today, I have a feeling he would pray the same thing for all of us too.
20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
God did a mighty thing in raising the man Jesus Christ from the dead. You see, as man, Jesus was dead – physically and spiritually, and this is the lowest place you can be. But then, God raised Him up, restored His powers, and placed Him at the top! Just like that, Jesus went from the bottom to the top. That is what God is able to do for you too, if you believe God the way Jesus did.
It is because Christ was raised from the dead we can be confident that God will raise us too (1 Pet 1:3-5). Think about it, if we are not raised from the dead, then once our life here is done, that’s it for us. We have no future. So it is a great thing to know that our life on earth is temporary, and there is a future for us in heaven. Knowing this is the key to being victorious no matter what trials we face (Rom 8:35-38).
Verse 21 shows that there are rulers and powers and authorities and dominions in the heavenly places. This is true for this age, and for the age to come. We need to realize that our fight is not with flesh and blood but with these powers (Eph 6:12). Why? Because our kingdom is not of this earth, but in heaven (Jn 18:36).
22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church,
23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Christ is the ultimate ruler. This is a great comfort as good triumphs in the end. No need for us to take revenge. As yet, all things are not subject, but they will be when He comes again, and we eagerly wait for that day (1 Cor 15:20-28).
Christ is the head of the church, not the Pope, or any other man. Also see Col 1:13-23 for who Christ is.
The church is the body of Christ. What is the implication of this? It is that the church obeys Christ. It operates based on what God said in the Bible, not based on human ideas and traditions. When we mix Christianity with traditions we are moving away from the headship of Christ and are following another headship. This is not the way of God. It is like a wife who goes and does her own thing independent of what the husband has said.
It is those who can see that Christ is head over all who can also say what Paul said in 2 Tm 4:16-18 when he was in prison.
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