Category Archives: Commentary

Ephesians 1:6

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To the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

Ephesians

Ephesians 1:6

And what was the purpose of all of the actions of God described here? So that His glorious grace would be praised. The word “blessed” in this verse is very closely related to the word “grace.” So we could almost say, “To the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has graced us.” God’s grace is multi-faceted. God wants everyone to see how grand and glorious His grace is.


This grace has made us accepted! Think about that. Accepted. Some versions use the word “accepted” where the ESV uses blessed. Most of us try hard to be accepted. We do this both consciously and subconsciously, but we do it. Sometimes we wear ourselves out trying to become accepted. But we are accepted by God! And it is by grace. There is no effort involved. Because we are in Christ, God says, “I accept you. You belong to me.” There is no checklist or achievement program to maintain. We are accepted!


And all of this, as in the previous verses, is in the Beloved. In his beloved son. As I said in a previous comment, when God gave us Christ, he gave us everything. As Paul told the Corinthians, “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 9:20 AM September 14, 2020.

Ephesians 1:5

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He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

The phrase “in love” may belong to the previous sentence about being holy and blameless, or it may belong with verse 5. Either way, all of the things that God has accomplished on our behalf were carried out because of God’s great love for us, his creatures made in His image.
In verse 5 we are told by Christ’s emissary, that God predestined us for adoption. He designated, or appointed something to happen ahead of time. What did he predestine? That we would be adopted as sons of God through Jesus Christ and his saving work on our behalf. Don’t just read past this. God was determined to have adopted children, who, we learn in Romans 8:17, are co-heirs with Jesus Christ. If you’ve trusted Christ, you are one of those co-heirs!


The last part of the verse tells us that God did this according to the purpose of his will. In other words, because he wanted to. God can do what he wants, and this is something he wanted to do, to adopt a group of people to be his children along with his son, Jesus Christ. And, since God doesn’t change, if this is something He wants to do now, then it’s something He has always wanted to do.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 5:10 PM September 13, 2020.

Ephesians 1:4

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…even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love

Just as he has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ, he chose us in Christ. Notice how the word “in” is repeated in this passage. This is a description of what we have “in Christ.”

He chose us in him before the foundation of the world. When you read the story of the creation event and Adam and Eve, before this took place, he chose us in Christ. And there was a goal in that choosing. His goal was that we would be holy and blameless before him. God doesn’t need a plan B. He knew Adam would fall and the whole world would be fallen and depraved from birth. And yet, before all of this happened, he chose us to be holy and blameless before him. He planned to rescue people from the lost condition they were in, and to pour out his grace on them in such a way that they would be holy. That means set apart, and blameless before God. God knows everything about us. He knows all of our faults and failures. And yet, when Christians come before God, they are blameless.

Remember that today when you come before God through His word and in prayer. If you’ve trusted Christ as your savior, He sees you blameless. What a blessing!

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 11:49 AM September 3, 2020.

Ephesians 1:3

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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

Ephesians

Ephesians 1:3

What Paul is exclaiming here is that God is worthy of being praised. Blessed be God! Which God, Paul, are you talking about? Specifically, He is the God of the Bible, the God and Father of Jesus Christ.

Paul, who had been a persecutor of Christians and who denied that Jesus was Lord, now is blessing the God who is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And what has this God done? He has blessed us! He has blessed us in Christ. In giving Christ to us, God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. See for example 1 Corinthians 1:30-31. There are no additional blessings that we are missing. In other words, we don’t need anything other than Christ. If we have Him and are in Him, we have every blessing heaven has to offer!

Think about that the next time you are tempted to murmur or complain. Think about that the next time you feel like you’ve been short-changed and want to ask for additional blessings from God. We’ve been blessed with every spiritual blessing.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 10:53 AM August 29, 2020.

Ephesians 1:2

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Ephesians 1:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace and peace. This is common in Paul’s salutations, and we usually read right over it. But think about what it is saying. Unmerited favor and the peace of God and peace with God are being offered both from God and from Jesus Christ our Lord. This is more than a salutation. It is a promise from God through the mouth of his apostle. It is a promise to all those whose faith and trust are in Jesus Christ.

God has promised us His grace. We are, after all, saved by grace and not through any merit we could achieve. He has promised that His mercies are new every single morning!

And He has given us peace. Jesus said, My peace I give to you, not like the peace the world gives. (John 14:27 paraphrase.) And note that it is His peace. God is at rest. Nothing disturbs Him. His peace He gives to us.

Grace and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 10:23 AM August 29, 2020.

Ephesians 1:1

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A while back I decided that in order to keep my focus on the study of the Bible and not just the reading, I would write my thoughts on the book of Ephesians verse by verse. It will be sort of a simplified commentary.

Ephesians 1:1

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus:

Paul declares himself to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. An apostle is one who is sent as an emissary to give out the message that the sender wants people to hear, in this case, to the holy, set apart people in Ephesus.

This is the same Paul who persecuted the church and threw people in jail and even approved of their murder. This is the person who Christ sent to be a messenger.
Paul told the Galatian Christians that God had set him apart for this responsibility while in his mother’s womb. (Galatians 1:15) But, when the time was right, God revealed Christ to him on the road to Damascus.

Paul calls the people in Ephesus saints and faithful. Perhaps he means people who are believers i.e. full of faith. But saints? Holy ones. These are just ordinary people that he addresses as saints. All of those who trust Christ and have faith in Him are saints. Have you trusted Christ? Then you, too, are a saint. Hard to believe, isn’t it? Finally, note here as well that they are in Christ Jesus. This theme is found throughout Ephesians. They are in Christ. That is the only safe place to be. How do we get “in Christ”? By the work of the Holy Spirit when we believe on Christ. He places us into the body of Christ. (1 Corinthians 12:13)

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 9:55 AM August 29, 2020.