Eph 1:1 | KingComments | STEP | The letter to the believers in Ephesus is a special one. There is a huge difference between this letter and the previous one, the letter to the Galatians, really the difference between heaven and earth. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul had to point out to the Galatian believers in an almost cool and sober manner, their deviation from the truth of the gospel. Although, you can certainly read between the lines his great compassion and emotional involvement with them. Considering what was at stake, Paul warned them how much they were risking to be robbed from every blessing and even fall from grace ( ). By accepting the law again in their life, the believers in Galatia gave room again to the “elemental things of the world” ( ). How totally different is the content of the letter to the Ephesians. This letter shows you as a Christian: 1. what your real blessings are, 2. where to find them and 3. where they come from. By reading this letter you discover that the blessings of the Christian 1. are spiritual, 2. are found in heaven and 3. have their origin in the heart of God. However, in this letter you will not only find the blessing for the individual Christian. The believers together make up the church and the church as a whole has also received tremendous blessings. Paul also writes a lot about the height and the depth of these blessings in this letter. It is because of its connection with its glorified Head in heaven, Jesus Christ, that the church receives these blessings. In Ephesians 3 the apostle calls this connection a “mystery” ( ). A comparison with the letter to the Romans clarifies still more what the issue is of this letter to the Ephesians. In the last mentioned letter, written around the year 62 when Paul was in captivity in Rome, he writes about what he calls in Romans 16 “the revelation of the mystery” ( ). In the letter to the Romans Paul could not elaborate on this, but he indeed wanted to mention that there was more than righteousness by faith, about which he wrote in detail to the Roman believers. That’s why he lightly touched on the mystery before he ended his letter to them. But in his letter to the Ephesians he writes in detail about the mystery. To point at a subject briefly in one letter and circumstantiate it in another has to do with the special purpose each of these letters has. The letter to the Romans teaches us what God has done to meet us in our misery in which we were living due to sin and because of our sins. In that letter man in his need is centered. The letter to the Ephesians shows us the heart of God. In that letter God is centered with His purpose, and His desire to bless us without any motive that has to do with man or man in his need. If you read and reread this letter you will be more and more impressed by the greatness of God’s heart. Nobody else than God alone could think of blessing sinners – who were spiritually dead, living at the same time rebellious against Him ( ) – with enormous riches, instead of consuming them by His righteousness and holiness. One of those riches is that we have put on the new man “which according to God is created in true righteousness and holiness” ( Darby Translation). This is totally different than being consumed by His righteousness and holiness. The following example might be helpful to illustrate what this letter tells us about God. A rich man could do a favor to a poor street-boy if he paid the fine for the crime he has committed. That would be very kind of that man. Due to this kindness the boy also escapes the punishment for not paying the fine. The kindness of this man would go further if he would give this boy the opportunity to an education in order to liberate him from ignorance. If the man would also provide his livelihood the boy would no longer be poor. That all would be kindness in view of the misery the boy lived in. But, if the man would adopt the boy as a son and therefore have him close to him and provide the boy with wealth and influence, it would have nothing to do at all with the misery the boy lived in. That would only show the nature and the mind of the rich man, and what he enjoys himself. That is indeed how God is presented in the letter to the Ephesians. Everything in this letter comes from God, from His thoughts and counsels. What man needs or would like to have is entirely not the issue. There is one more picture that illustrates what the letter to the Ephesians teaches us. You can find this picture in the Old Testament, in the journey of Israel from Egypt through the wilderness to the promised land, Canaan. In the book of Exodus you see the ‘picture’ of what the letter to the Romans teaches us. In Egypt the people of God are in bondage and are being delivered from that after keeping the Passover. That deliverance you find back in the letter to the Romans. There a man is presented to us who is living in the bondage of sin and is being saved from that through the blood and the cross of Jesus Christ. After the Passover the people leave Egypt and come in the wilderness through the Red Sea. There the people get the tabernacle, wherein God dwells amongst His people. They are also given a sacrificial service through which they can draw near to God and remain connected to Him. This is being described in the book of Leviticus. After Leviticus comes Numbers where the journey through the wilderness is being described and the means God provides for that journey. The pictures of the book of Leviticus you can find in the New Testament, in the teachings of the letter to the Hebrews and the pictures of the book of Numbers you find back in the two letters to the Corinthians. Before the people enter the promised land, they camped for a certain time in the plains of Moab. That is where Moses held his big speech. You find that in the book of Deuteronomy. In the first chapters of that book he gives a review, thereafter he looks forward, to everything that was awaiting the people in the promised land. In the New Testament you then come to the letter to the Philippians. That letter is about the Christian who is still yet on earth, but his whole heart is focused on heaven. After the book of Deuteronomy comes the book of Joshua. The people went through the Jordan and entered the land of Canaan. In the New Testament you find this in the letter to the Ephesians. Just as Israel had to take possession of the land that God gave, you are being taught in the letter to the Ephesians to take possession of what your spiritual property is in the heavenly places. All blessings that are presented in this letter have been given to you in Christ. However, only when you have taken them in possession by yourself spiritually, with your heart, will you be able to say that they have really become your spiritual property. We can only say that a truth has become our spiritual property when not only we have given that truth a place in our heart, but when we have worshiped God for that truth. That is just what God desires according to the truths in the letter you now have before you. . Just as in the four previous letters, Paul presents himself here as “an apostle”. And just as in the second letter to the Corinthians he adds “of Christ Jesus by the will of God”. In some of the letters he also mentions a co-sender. He doesn’t do that in this one. God had announced to Paul, and to him alone, the mystery of the unity between Christ and the church. Considering the purpose of this letter, it must be plain and clear from which position Paul is speaking. That’s why he presents himself as an apostle, which means ‘sent one’. It means that he comes on behalf of Somebody else, a Superior, and he comes with a message of that Superior. He is an apostle of Christ Jesus, Who is his Sender. To practice his apostleship, his eyes are continuously focused on Jesus Christ. By Him, Who is the glorified Man in heaven, he is also called to be an apostle ( ). The origin of his apostleship lies in “the will of God” and not in his own will or the will of whosoever. Any human appointment was excluded. God was going to use Paul as an apostle. And what God wants, will be done. The authorization of Paul as an apostle is, as it were, marked by the signatures of Christ Jesus and of God. What Paul writes is therefore clothed with the authority of two Divine Persons. Just one more detail of the apostleship of Paul. There is a difference between his apostleship and that of the twelve. The distinction is in both the calling and the practice. The twelve are called by the Lord Jesus when He was on earth ( ). Paul is called by the glorified Lord in heaven ( ). To him the apostleship toward the Gentiles was committed and to the twelve the apostleship to the people of Israel ( ). The calling of Paul by the glorified Lord in heaven also clarifies the nature of his service. That is aimed at telling the church what her connection is with Christ in heaven. As it has already been noticed, that is the issue of this letter. After the sender, we read about the addressees. It is not just ‘to the church in Ephesus’. There is a lot more. The believers there are addressed as “saints” and “faithful”. This tells a lot about their life as believers and about the spiritual condition of the church in Ephesus. That spiritual condition is significant in regard to what Paul writes in this letter. Could Paul, if he had to address them as ‘fleshly’ ( ), have spoken to them about such elevated blessings? If he had written the profound truths to the Corinthians, which he writes to the Ephesians, then there could have been two possible responses: 1. either they would simply not have understood what Paul was talking about and would have dismissed it as a speech of someone who has his head in the clouds; 2. or if they would have understood Paul intellectually, they would have surely become more proud. They already rejoiced in the many gifts they had received and these blessings came on top of that. This makes clear that each church receives a letter that matches its spiritual condition. That condition is determined by the behavior, attitude and mind of the individual members of the church. That’s why this is also applicable to you and me as individual Christians. In order to fully enjoy the wonderful things Paul unfolds in this letter, you and I must be in a spiritual condition that justifies the qualification of ‘saints’ and ‘faithful’. In the situation of the Ephesians these marks give a striking reflection of the condition which is necessary, not only to receive the message in this letter, but to understand it, to enjoy it and finally to praise God for it. The teaching in this letter will also shape further the practice of their faith life. The qualification of “saints” indicates that the believers in Ephesus were set apart for God. Basically that counts for every child of God that he or she is sanctified, which means that he or she is set apart for God from the unbelieving world. For the Ephesians it was not only a position, but it was also obvious that in their daily life they were set apart for God. They did not join the world, but they were obviously distinct from it. The qualification of “faithful” shows they were faithful to God and to the Lord Jesus. They did not deviate from the way God wanted them to go. The Greek word ‘faithful’ can also be translated as ‘believers’. The believers in Ephesus were faithful and that’s why Paul could write them this letter. Also the addition “in Christ Jesus” is significant. This indicates that their sanctified and faithful life is anchored in the position they had in Christ Jesus. It was not about them, but about Him. Many times the term “in” Him appears in the letter. In this chapter you find it eight times. It is well worth the effort to check it yourself. The letter is written to the church “at Ephesus”. In Acts 18-20 you can read a lot about this city. Paul proclaimed the gospel there. He stayed there for three years ( ) and met with great resistance ( ). When he departed from there he did not leave them to their fate. He gave them after-care through Timothy ( ) and when Timothy could not stay longer there he sent Tychicus ( ). He also experienced how at last the church in Ephesus deviated from the life that was in accordance with the special privileges it possessed. He personally felt the pain because among those who were in Asia and who turned away from him, there were also believers from Ephesus that was in the province of Asia ( ). The last remark of the church of Ephesus we find in the letter of the apostle John in the book of Revelation 2 ( ). What John writes there, shows how the corruption started, the corruption that through the ages would penetrate the Christian church, a penetration which almost is complete know. It connects to what Paul predicted and against which he warned the church in Ephesus in Acts 20 ( ). He must have kept that in mind when he wished the saints and faithful “grace … and peace”. Not just grace and peace, but “grace … and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”. In Acts 20 he also had entrusted them to “God and the word of His grace” ( ). He knew that when it comes to holding on to the wonderful blessings which are reflected in this letter, the future did not look good. But what an encouragement for you and for me that grace will always be abundantly present. When you live in a living connection with God as Father and with Jesus as Lord and Christ, you can be sure that you are surrounded by that grace. The result is that you will experience peace in your heart that will give you light in your darkest days. The letter begins and also ends with grace and peace ( ). Isn’t it beautiful to see that this letter is thereby enveloped, as it were, by “grace” and “peace”? Now read Ephesians 1:1-2 again. Reflection: What do ‘grace’ and ‘peace’ mean to you?

‏ Ephesians 1:1

Introduction

The letter to the believers in Ephesus is a special one. There is a huge difference between this letter and the previous one, the letter to the Galatians, really the difference between heaven and earth. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul had to point out to the Galatian believers in an almost cool and sober manner, their deviation from the truth of the gospel. Although, you can certainly read between the lines his great compassion and emotional involvement with them.

Considering what was at stake, Paul warned them how much they were risking to be robbed from every blessing and even fall from grace (Gal 5:4). By accepting the law again in their life, the believers in Galatia gave room again to the “elemental things of the world” (Gal 4:3 ; 9b).

How totally different is the content of the letter to the Ephesians. This letter shows you as a Christian:

1. what your real blessings are,

2. where to find them and

3. where they come from.

By reading this letter you discover that the blessings of the Christian

1. are spiritual,

2. are found in heaven and

3. have their origin in the heart of God.

However, in this letter you will not only find the blessing for the individual Christian. The believers together make up the church and the church as a whole has also received tremendous blessings. Paul also writes a lot about the height and the depth of these blessings in this letter. It is because of its connection with its glorified Head in heaven, Jesus Christ, that the church receives these blessings. In Ephesians 3 the apostle calls this connection a “mystery” (Eph 3:3 ; 9).

A comparison with the letter to the Romans clarifies still more what the issue is of this letter to the Ephesians. In the last mentioned letter, written around the year 62 when Paul was in captivity in Rome, he writes about what he calls in Romans 16 “the revelation of the mystery” (Rom 16:25).

In the letter to the Romans Paul could not elaborate on this, but he indeed wanted to mention that there was more than righteousness by faith, about which he wrote in detail to the Roman believers. That’s why he lightly touched on the mystery before he ended his letter to them. But in his letter to the Ephesians he writes in detail about the mystery.

To point at a subject briefly in one letter and circumstantiate it in another has to do with the special purpose each of these letters has. The letter to the Romans teaches us what God has done to meet us in our misery in which we were living due to sin and because of our sins. In that letter man in his need is centered. The letter to the Ephesians shows us the heart of God. In that letter God is centered with His purpose, and His desire to bless us without any motive that has to do with man or man in his need.

If you read and reread this letter you will be more and more impressed by the greatness of God’s heart. Nobody else than God alone could think of blessing sinners – who were spiritually dead, living at the same time rebellious against Him (Eph 2:1-2) – with enormous riches, instead of consuming them by His righteousness and holiness. One of those riches is that we have put on the new man “which according to God is created in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph 4:24 Darby Translation). This is totally different than being consumed by His righteousness and holiness.

The following example might be helpful to illustrate what this letter tells us about God. A rich man could do a favor to a poor street-boy if he paid the fine for the crime he has committed. That would be very kind of that man. Due to this kindness the boy also escapes the punishment for not paying the fine. The kindness of this man would go further if he would give this boy the opportunity to an education in order to liberate him from ignorance. If the man would also provide his livelihood the boy would no longer be poor. That all would be kindness in view of the misery the boy lived in.

But, if the man would adopt the boy as a son and therefore have him close to him and provide the boy with wealth and influence, it would have nothing to do at all with the misery the boy lived in. That would only show the nature and the mind of the rich man, and what he enjoys himself.

That is indeed how God is presented in the letter to the Ephesians. Everything in this letter comes from God, from His thoughts and counsels. What man needs or would like to have is entirely not the issue. There is one more picture that illustrates what the letter to the Ephesians teaches us. You can find this picture in the Old Testament, in the journey of Israel from Egypt through the wilderness to the promised land, Canaan. In the book of Exodus you see the ‘picture’ of what the letter to the Romans teaches us. In Egypt the people of God are in bondage and are being delivered from that after keeping the Passover. That deliverance you find back in the letter to the Romans. There a man is presented to us who is living in the bondage of sin and is being saved from that through the blood and the cross of Jesus Christ.

After the Passover the people leave Egypt and come in the wilderness through the Red Sea. There the people get the tabernacle, wherein God dwells amongst His people. They are also given a sacrificial service through which they can draw near to God and remain connected to Him. This is being described in the book of Leviticus. After Leviticus comes Numbers where the journey through the wilderness is being described and the means God provides for that journey. The pictures of the book of Leviticus you can find in the New Testament, in the teachings of the letter to the Hebrews and the pictures of the book of Numbers you find back in the two letters to the Corinthians.

Before the people enter the promised land, they camped for a certain time in the plains of Moab. That is where Moses held his big speech. You find that in the book of Deuteronomy. In the first chapters of that book he gives a review, thereafter he looks forward, to everything that was awaiting the people in the promised land. In the New Testament you then come to the letter to the Philippians. That letter is about the Christian who is still yet on earth, but his whole heart is focused on heaven.

After the book of Deuteronomy comes the book of Joshua. The people went through the Jordan and entered the land of Canaan. In the New Testament you find this in the letter to the Ephesians. Just as Israel had to take possession of the land that God gave, you are being taught in the letter to the Ephesians to take possession of what your spiritual property is in the heavenly places.

All blessings that are presented in this letter have been given to you in Christ. However, only when you have taken them in possession by yourself spiritually, with your heart, will you be able to say that they have really become your spiritual property. We can only say that a truth has become our spiritual property when not only we have given that truth a place in our heart, but when we have worshiped God for that truth. That is just what God desires according to the truths in the letter you now have before you.

Sender, Recipients, Blessing

Eph 1:1. Just as in the four previous letters, Paul presents himself here as “an apostle”. And just as in the second letter to the Corinthians he adds “of Christ Jesus by the will of God”. In some of the letters he also mentions a co-sender. He doesn’t do that in this one. God had announced to Paul, and to him alone, the mystery of the unity between Christ and the church. Considering the purpose of this letter, it must be plain and clear from which position Paul is speaking. That’s why he presents himself as an apostle, which means ‘sent one’. It means that he comes on behalf of Somebody else, a Superior, and he comes with a message of that Superior.

He is an apostle of Christ Jesus, Who is his Sender. To practice his apostleship, his eyes are continuously focused on Jesus Christ. By Him, Who is the glorified Man in heaven, he is also called to be an apostle (Acts 9:1-18). The origin of his apostleship lies in “the will of God” and not in his own will or the will of whosoever. Any human appointment was excluded. God was going to use Paul as an apostle. And what God wants, will be done. The authorization of Paul as an apostle is, as it were, marked by the signatures of Christ Jesus and of God. What Paul writes is therefore clothed with the authority of two Divine Persons.

Just one more detail of the apostleship of Paul. There is a difference between his apostleship and that of the twelve. The distinction is in both the calling and the practice. The twelve are called by the Lord Jesus when He was on earth (Lk 6:13). Paul is called by the glorified Lord in heaven (Acts 26:16-18). To him the apostleship toward the Gentiles was committed and to the twelve the apostleship to the people of Israel (Gal 2:8). The calling of Paul by the glorified Lord in heaven also clarifies the nature of his service. That is aimed at telling the church what her connection is with Christ in heaven. As it has already been noticed, that is the issue of this letter.

After the sender, we read about the addressees. It is not just ‘to the church in Ephesus’. There is a lot more. The believers there are addressed as “saints” and “faithful”. This tells a lot about their life as believers and about the spiritual condition of the church in Ephesus. That spiritual condition is significant in regard to what Paul writes in this letter. Could Paul, if he had to address them as ‘fleshly’ (1Cor 3:1), have spoken to them about such elevated blessings? If he had written the profound truths to the Corinthians, which he writes to the Ephesians, then there could have been two possible responses:

1. either they would simply not have understood what Paul was talking about and would have dismissed it as a speech of someone who has his head in the clouds;

2. or if they would have understood Paul intellectually, they would have surely become more proud. They already rejoiced in the many gifts they had received and these blessings came on top of that.

This makes clear that each church receives a letter that matches its spiritual condition. That condition is determined by the behavior, attitude and mind of the individual members of the church. That’s why this is also applicable to you and me as individual Christians. In order to fully enjoy the wonderful things Paul unfolds in this letter, you and I must be in a spiritual condition that justifies the qualification of ‘saints’ and ‘faithful’.

In the situation of the Ephesians these marks give a striking reflection of the condition which is necessary, not only to receive the message in this letter, but to understand it, to enjoy it and finally to praise God for it. The teaching in this letter will also shape further the practice of their faith life.

The qualification of “saints” indicates that the believers in Ephesus were set apart for God. Basically that counts for every child of God that he or she is sanctified, which means that he or she is set apart for God from the unbelieving world. For the Ephesians it was not only a position, but it was also obvious that in their daily life they were set apart for God. They did not join the world, but they were obviously distinct from it.

The qualification of “faithful” shows they were faithful to God and to the Lord Jesus. They did not deviate from the way God wanted them to go. The Greek word ‘faithful’ can also be translated as ‘believers’. The believers in Ephesus were faithful and that’s why Paul could write them this letter.

Also the addition “in Christ Jesus” is significant. This indicates that their sanctified and faithful life is anchored in the position they had in Christ Jesus. It was not about them, but about Him. Many times the term “in” Him appears in the letter. In this chapter you find it eight times. It is well worth the effort to check it yourself.

The letter is written to the church “at Ephesus”. In Acts 18-20 you can read a lot about this city. Paul proclaimed the gospel there. He stayed there for three years (Acts 20:31) and met with great resistance (Acts 19:23-31). When he departed from there he did not leave them to their fate. He gave them after-care through Timothy (1Tim 1:3) and when Timothy could not stay longer there he sent Tychicus (2Tim 4:12).

He also experienced how at last the church in Ephesus deviated from the life that was in accordance with the special privileges it possessed. He personally felt the pain because among those who were in Asia and who turned away from him, there were also believers from Ephesus that was in the province of Asia (2Tim 1:15).

The last remark of the church of Ephesus we find in the letter of the apostle John in the book of Revelation 2 (Rev 2:1-7). What John writes there, shows how the corruption started, the corruption that through the ages would penetrate the Christian church, a penetration which almost is complete know. It connects to what Paul predicted and against which he warned the church in Ephesus in Acts 20 (Acts 20:29-30).

He must have kept that in mind when he wished the saints and faithful “grace … and peace”. Not just grace and peace, but “grace … and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”. In Acts 20 he also had entrusted them to “God and the word of His grace” (Acts 20:32). He knew that when it comes to holding on to the wonderful blessings which are reflected in this letter, the future did not look good. But what an encouragement for you and for me that grace will always be abundantly present.

When you live in a living connection with God as Father and with Jesus as Lord and Christ, you can be sure that you are surrounded by that grace. The result is that you will experience peace in your heart that will give you light in your darkest days. The letter begins and also ends with grace and peace (Eph 6:23-24). Isn’t it beautiful to see that this letter is thereby enveloped, as it were, by “grace” and “peace”?

Now read Ephesians 1:1-2 again.

Reflection: What do ‘grace’ and ‘peace’ mean to you?