INTRODUCTION
Paul’s first visit to Ephesus is related in Act_18:19-21. The work commenced then was carried on by Apollos. On Paul’s second visit he remained three years. Later, on his way to Jerusalem, he held an affecting interview at Miletus with the elders of the Ephesian church. This Epistle was addressed to that church about four years afterward, during the early part of his imprisonment at Rome, and immediately after that to the Colossians, to which it bears a close resemblance. The foundation, course and destiny of the Church are the sublime subjects with which the Epistle deals, and the style is of a correspondingly elevated character.
{e-Sword Note: The following material was presented at the end of Ephesians in the printed edition}
OUTLINE OF THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESSIANS
The High Calling of God in Christ Jesus
SALUTATION
CREATED IN CHRIST JESUS THE PRAISE OF HIS GLORIOUS GRACE
The Work of the Father
1. What is this Epistle sometimes called? What is the condition of a blessed life?
GREETING
Paul, an apostle (special messenger, personally chosen representative) of Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed), by the will of God [that is, by His purpose and choice], To the saints (God’s people) who are at Ephesus and are faithful and loyal and steadfast in Christ Jesus:
Grace to you and peace [inner calm and spiritual well-being] from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS IN CHRIST
Blessed and worthy of praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ,
just as [in His love] He chose us in Christ [actually selected us for Himself as His own] before the foundation of the world, so that we would be holy [that is, consecrated, set apart for Him, purpose-driven] and blameless in His sight. In love
He predestined and lovingly planned for us to be adopted to Himself as [His own] children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with the kind intention and good pleasure of His will–
to the praise of His glorious grace and favor, which He so freely bestowed on us in the Beloved [His Son, Jesus Christ].
In Him we have redemption [that is, our deliverance and salvation] through His blood, [which paid the penalty for our sin and resulted in] the forgiveness and complete pardon of our sin, in accordance with the riches of His grace
which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and understanding [with practical insight]
He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ,
with regard to the fulfillment of the times [that is, the end of history, the climax of the ages]–to bring all things together in Christ, [both] things in the heavens and things on the earth.
In Him also we have received an inheritance [a destiny–we were claimed by God as His own], having been predestined (chosen, appointed beforehand) according to the purpose of Him who works everything in agreement with the counsel and design of His will,
so that we who were the first to hope in Christ [who first put our confidence in Him as our Lord and Savior] would exist to the praise of His glory.
In Him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the good news of your salvation, and [as a result] believed in Him, were stamped with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit [the One promised by Christ] as owned and protected [by God]. [Joh_7:39; Act_2:33]
The Spirit is the guarantee [the first installment, the pledge, a foretaste] of our inheritance until the redemption of God’s own [purchased] possession [His believers], to the praise of His glory.
Comments by
F.B.Meyer
On
Ephesians 1:1-14
OUR RICHES IN CHRIST
This has been called the “Epistle of In-ness,”because it is so full of the preposition in. Saints are flesh and blood like ourselves, and we may be saints. The word means “set apart.” We are in Christ and He is in us, and any goodness we have is due to our giving room and scope to Him to realize His own ideals. To be in the heavenlies, Eph_1:3, means to live a spiritual life and to draw our reinforcements from the unseen and eternal world, which is focused in our Lord. We are in Him so far as justification is concerned-that is our standing; and He is in us for sanctification-that is the source of a holy and useful life. The condition of a blessed life is the conscious maintenance of this oneness.
The source of all we are, and have, and hope to be, so far as salvation is concerned, is the will of God for us; but the stream flows to us through our Lord, and the end to which all things are moving is the summing-up of all in Christ. As He was the Alpha, so He will be the Omega. The sealing of the Holy Spirit is of incalculable advantage, because it means that we are stamped with the likeness of Christ and so kept inviolate among all the vicissitudes of life. See Est_8:8; Joh_6:27.
Pastor Jeff Arthur.
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