Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.

This commentary is taken from my book entitled :Theology That Transforms."

Dedication

I dedicate this book to all those at Harvest Ministries, in Belleville , Ontario , Canada , who have so graciously embraced me and my ministry of teaching the Bible. You are a wonderful group of believers whom I have been united in the Body of Christ.

I also dedicate this book to my long-time friend and brother in the Lord, Timothy Foster . He has been a support to me over the decades. He was by my side in the spring and summer of 2020 when we led the Bible-study class on Ephesians at Harvest Ministries. He has also helped me with the editing of this commentary and his theological input has been welcomed.

Of course, I thank the Lord Jesus Christ, and His Spirit who assists me in understanding the Word of God, the Bible. I can never forget Jesus, my Lord and my Saviour.

Acknowledgement

I was raised in 1950's and 1960's style Evangelical Christianity with its specific approach to Biblical theology and practice. Even though I was raised on Scripture, I have been a serious student of the Bible since 1970 and have gained my Biblical knowledge from multiple sources. There would be far too many of these sources to name here. However, as I have written this version of my commentary on Paul's letter to the Ephesians, here in 2019 and 2020, there are a couple of sources of Biblical instruction and commentary that I would especially like to acknowledge as having been of assistance to me as I have restudied this portion of the Bible.

I would highly recommend Dr. Bob Utley and his online commentaries on both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Both his written and audio commentaries can be found online at: http://www.freebiblecommentary.org.

I recommend the Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on Ephesians. It was published in paperback and hardcover in 2010 and in e-book form in 2011. Its author is Clinton E. Arnold (PhD University of Aberdeen).

I acknowledge John Stott's commentary on Ephesians, entitled "The Message To The Ephesians," published by IVP Academic in 1984. Published in e-book form in 2014.

I acknowledge Richard and Catherine Kroeger and their book entitled "Suffer Not A Woman;" rethinking 1 Timothy 2:11 through 15 in light of ancient evidence. The paperback was published by Baker Academic in 1998. The e-book was published in 2014.

I also recommend Bruce Winter's book entitled "Roman Wives And Roman Widows;" the emergence of the liberated woman in the first century B C. It was published in 2003 by Wm. B. Eardmans Publishing Company.

Another book that has assisted me in writing this commentary is "The Greco-Roman World, written by James S. Jeffers, published by IVP Academics in 1999.

Finally, I thank Timothy Foster , my long-time friend and brother in the Lord for helping me edit this book as well as assisting me in thinking through the theological issues Paul wrote about in his letter to the Ephesians.

Preface

It was September, 2019, when I decided to rewrite my commentary on Paul's letter to the Ephesians. This was due to my pastor and friend, Trevor Hoskins. His Sunday morning message series on Ephesians during the spring and summer of 2019 motivated me to look into Ephesians in detail again. So, in October, 2019, I began to put my fingers to the keyboard, open my Bible, and began to work my way through the first three chapters of the apostle Paul's letter to his Ephesian brothers and sisters in the Lord.

I admit that there are more scholarly and all-encompassing commentaries than mine, and that is fine with me. My hope is to write a commentary that everyone - young, old, educated or uneducated, can easily understand and benefit from. Paul's instructions to the Ephesian Christians are just as important today as they were when this letter was penned, roughly nineteen hundred years ago.

I also admit that being a student of the Bible, I am always learning what the Bible has to say to us. I, therefore, expect to have a better understanding of Biblical truth next year than I have this year. This is always a problem with a Bible teacher. He, or she, may teach something today, but as time passes, may have a clearer understanding of the subject matter. He, or she, might even change his or her mind on what he or she once taught. I certainly have no problem with that. I have had a change of mind on certain Biblical issues over the years. We all must admit to our errors and move on.

Where the problem lies in writing a commentary is that, at a future date, I will surely have a more accurate understanding of what you will read in this book. The best I can do, or, the best any Bible teacher can do, is to teach what he presently knows, and that I will do in the following pages. The best, then, that you can do, is for you to consider what I say as you study the Bible for yourself, which I hope, you are presently doing.

When Paul penned this letter, or really, had another person pen it for him, he was a man very much used and inspired by God. It, thus, is to our benefit to take seriously what he told his Ephesian readers. What he said in this letter has implications for all of time, and really, for all of eternity. We cannot neglect the inspired word of God that was penned by Paul and his associates.

I do not consider myself to be in the same theological league as the apostle Paul, but I do repeat what he told Timothy, his son in the Lord. 2 Timothy 2:7 says this:

"Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things."

So, consider what you read in this book as you continue to study Biblical truth for yourself. I hope and pray that what you will discover in this commentary will be both instructive and inspiring.

The Format Of This Book

One important rule of Biblical interpretation, or hermeneutics, as it is called, is that we must first understand to whom the author of any portion of Scripture was directing his thoughts. Once knowing that, we must, then, attempt to understand his thoughts as he wanted them to be understood. Far too often we approach Bible study with a twenty-first century mindset. We define Biblical words and concepts based on our present cultural usages and definitions. This more often than not misrepresents the Biblical author's intent, and thus, we misunderstand, and then misapply, what the text says.

The Bible was written over a span of several centuries in languages and cultural settings few of us know anything about today. For this reason, some knowledge of the relevant ancient languages and the cultures in which they were spoken or written will assist us immensely in our attempt to understand Biblical truth.

Once we feel somewhat confident, if we can ever be fully confident, in knowing what the author was telling his readers, we can then see how it applies to us today. It is for this reason that I have chosen the format of this commentary.

For the text to be studied, I will first quote it from the Christian Standard Bible (CSB). I will then comment, verse by verse, on the text. After that, I will comment on the present-day relevance of what was learned from the text.

If you read this book from beginning to end you will note at times I am somewhat repetitious. I repeat myself because, when it comes to reading commentaries, most of us tend to look up a particular verse to read what the commentator has written about that verse. We do not always read the entire commentary from cover to cover. That forces the commentator to be repetitious, since certain words and concepts appear in many verses throughout any portion of Scripture. If I leave a comment out because I have commented on it elsewhere, you will fail to understand the full meaning of the verse you are referencing.

The New Testament was originally written in common, every-day, street-level, first-century, Greek. That Greek is known as Koine Greek. It differed from what has been commonly called "Classical Greek," a more scholarly Greek. At times, therefore, I will make reference to certain Greek words and their meanings to help explain a text. I will also make reference to certain Greek verb tenses in an easy to understand way. Both the meaning of words and verb tenses as they were used in the first-century, Greco-Roman, world help us understand the Biblical text. I will attempt to simplify such issues that some might call complicated.

Here is an example of what I am saying. John 3:16 is one of the most well-known verses in the Bible. In this verse, John said that God loved the world so much that He sent His Son into the world. Whosoever would believe in Jesus, God's Son, would not perish but have everlasting life. Here is John 3:16 from the CSB version of the Bible. It reads:

"For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life."

If you understand this verse to be referring to "everyone" who "mentally acknowledges" the reality of Jesus' existence, and especially His divinity, which is the understanding based on today's cultural definition of the word "believe," you will have misunderstood John 3:16. This is a major problem. If you misunderstand what Jesus' words mean as He understood them, you will misapply them to your life, and that will jeopardize your salvation.

The Greek verb translated as "believes" in John 3:16 and elsewhere in the New Testament is "pisteuo." This word has little to do with mentally acknowledging the reality of Jesus' existence. This Greek word means "to trust." It does not mean "to give mental assent to" something, and that includes Jesus being divine. Because this Greek verb is a present active participle in John 3:16, and don't let that scare you, John was saying that everyone who has become a present-day trusting-one in Jesus will not perish but have everlasting life. This verb tense emphasizes one who is a trusting-one and not one who simply trusts from time to time or simply believes in his head. It emphasizes that one, by his very nature, has become a trusting one. You may have to think that through for a while. One becomes a trusting-one because he has become a new creation in Christ, as seen in 2 Corinthians 5:17. The residence of the Holy Spirit in his life makes him someone he once was not. He trusts his life with Jesus because, by virtue of his brand new nature in Christ, he is a trusting-one.

What I have just said is vital to the gospel message we are to proclaim to the culture around us. The emphasis on trusting one’s life with Jesus means more than acknowledging His existence. Mental assent or acknowledgement of the Biblical Jesus saves no one. Even the demons acknowledge Jesus' existence, and they tremble, according to James 2:19. Trusting your life with Jesus is what saves a person. Being a present-day truster-in-Jesus, if I can say it that way, is what saves you. That is what John 3:16 is all about.

Moving onto a new point, Daniel 12:4 says that as this age draws closer to an end, "knowledge will increase." No one will argue over the truth of that statement. Knowledge is increasing exponentially, and that includes historical, cultural, and linguistic knowledge of the days in which the Bible was originally penned. All this new insight helps us to understand the Biblical text today better than we understood it years ago. It is for this reason that you may find some variations between older versions of the Bible and newer versions of the Bible. Hundreds more Biblical manuscripts have been discovered since the King James Bible came into existence in 1611. These additional manuscripts provide us with a more accurate rendering of certain Bible verses. I mention this now because textual issues always arise when we study any book of the Bible. We will first encounter a textual issue that needs some attention in the very first verse of Ephesians.

Studying and interpreting the Bible, as I will do in the following pages, is a matter of what is called "hermeneutics." That word seems to scare people these days, but it shouldn't. Hermeneutics as applied to Biblical study is an attempt to understand the Bible as its original authors meant it to be understood. That is not an easy task. Trying to get into the mind of a man who wrote hundreds of years ago, in a culture and language unfamiliar to most of us, is a difficult task, but it is a task I am attempting to undertake in the following pages.

Defining Theology

In our post-modern, Biblical illiterate, Christian world, the word "theology" gets some bad press. It is like the word "doctrine," which in some Christian circles is a word to be despised. That is a sad commentary on the twenty-first century, western-world church.

We derive our English word "theology" from the Greek word "theologia." This Greek word consists of "theo," (from "theos" meaning god) and "logia," which means an utterance, a saying, or some kind of oracle." In other words, theology is the study of the sayings of God, or, the study of God. That means theology is important. You cannot remove this word from our Christian vocabulary. If you are a serious Christian, and that is the only kind of Christian there is, you want to learn as much about the God you claim to serve, as best you can.

I have written the above to point out that the first three chapters of Ephesians, as many say, are theologically orientated. That is a correct statement, as long as you do not say, as many do, that the last three chapters of Ephesians are not theological but practical. I believe that this might suggests that the theology in the first three chapters is not practical. I suggest that the study of God, the study of theology, is practical, because without it, you will not live the life you should as a Christian. That is simply common sense. It may have been why Paul structured his letter to the Ephesians as he did. That is to say; he taught theology so his readers would know how to live. Without the theological instruction there would be no base of truth to pattern one's life after.

About Paul

There is a misconception among many Christians today concerning Paul's name. Many people think that when Paul became a Christian, Jesus changed his name from Saul to Paul. That was not the case. The simple fact is that Saul was his Hebrew name while Paul was his Roman name. While being raised as a Jew in a Greco-Roman, city, he would have been known by both names. The Roman name Paul means "little," as in "little in stature." The second-century, non-canonical, book entitled "The Acts of Paul and Thecla" describes Paul as short or little in stature. This book also describes him as having crooked legs, a bald head, and eye-brows meeting at his nose. Whether this is an accurate description is debatable, but it became the tradition of the church concerning Paul over the centuries.

From Philippians 3, verses 5 and 6 we learn a few important details concerning Paul. These verses read:

"... circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law, a Pharisee; regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless."

Paul was a Jew, from the tribe of Benjamin. He was also a Pharisee, the leading religious sect of Judaism. Being a good Pharisee, Paul would have held the Law of Moses and the traditions of the Jews in high esteem. In his own words, he believed himself to be blameless in these matters.

Paul was born in the city of Tarsus , the capital of the Roman province of Cilicia , in Asia Minor . Acts 21:39 says:

"Paul said, 'I am a Jewish man from Tarsus of Cilicia, a citizen of an important city. Now I ask you, let me speak to the people.'"

The city of Tarsus , located in the eastern part of modern-day Turkey , was very much a city of higher education. In today's terminology, you might call Tarsus a university city . After Rome and Alexandria , Tarsus was the third-most scholarly city in which one could be raised during Paul's lifetime. No wonder he was such a scholarly, and well-educated person. He certainly knew his Hebrew history and Scripture, but he was also well informed in Roman and Greek academic and philosophic culture. In Acts 17:16 and following, we see Paul debating with the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers of his day. Paul knew enough about these philosophers to the degree that he could quote them, as we read in the following verses.

Acts 17:28 reads:

"For in him we live and move and have our being ..."

1 Corinthians 15:33 reads:

"Do not be deceived: 'Bad company corrupts good morals.'"

Titus 1:12 reads:

"One of their very own prophets said, 'Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.'"

All three of the above quotes are quotes from Greek philosophy.

In his adult life, Paul was a tentmaker by trade. We see that in Acts 18:3, that states:

"... and since they [Pricilla and Aquila ] were of the same occupation, tentmakers by trade, he [Paul] stayed with them and worked."

A study of Greco-Roman history tells us that a boy of around thirteen years of age would have begun his working life as an apprentice. Paul might well have been training as a tentmaker from the age of thirteen to sixteen.

Although Paul was born in Tarsus , he was a Jew. Somewhere around the age of sixteen or so his parents sent him to Jerusalem for his religious training. Acts 22:3 reads:

"He continued, 'I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia but brought up in this city [ Jerusalem ], educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the law of our ancestors. I was zealous for God, just as all of you are today.'"

Paul was a Roman citizen. Acts 22:29 confirms this.

"So those who were about to examine him withdrew from him immediately. The commander too was alarmed when he realized Paul was a Roman citizen and he had bound him."

Roman citizenship was something that many men in Paul's day would have zealously sought after. Paul's Roman citizenship was most likely due to his father or grandfather, for one reason or another, purchasing, in one form or another, Roman citizenship. This would have made Paul a Roman citizen from birth.

Paul was also a citizen of the city of Tarsus (Acts 22:3). Certain cities in the Roman Empire were permitted by Rome to issue legal citizenship of that city. Tarsus was one of those cities. You could then say that Paul had two legal citizenships, that of Rome and that of Tarsus . He would have also claimed to be a citizen of heaven, which he considered his most valuable citizenship. Philippians 3:20 reads:

"... but our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ."

As I stated above, at an early age Paul's parents sent him to Jerusalem for his religious training. He was thoroughly trained by a very prominent Pharisee named Gamaliel. Acts 22:3 reads:

Although the Bible does not tell us this, extra-Biblical Jewish history tells us that Gamaliel was the grandson of Hillel, the founder of the Hillel school of Jewish theology. This was one of the two main theological Jewish schools of the day. The Hillel school of theology was fairly liberal in some aspects of its thinking, and for this reason, some suggest, and it is only a suggestion, that Gamaliel was also a liberal theologian in some matters of the Law of Moses. This might mean, and I do say, "might mean," that Paul was liberal in his Jewish theology as it pertained to the Law of Moses and Jewish tradition prior to becoming a Christian.

As a zealous Pharisee, Paul persecuted the Christian population throughout Judea and Galilee . He probably had some Christians executed. He made this admission in Acts 22:4. That verse says this:

"I persecuted this Way to the death, arresting and putting both men and women in jail,"

Paul stood by in support of Stephen's execution, when he was killed for his association with Jesus. Stephen was the first recorded Christian executed for being a Christian. Acts 7:58 says this:

"They dragged him [Stephen] out of the city and began to stone him. And the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul [Paul]."

Some suggest that Paul might even have been a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling party of the Jews in Jerusalem . Rome had given the Jews in Judea a good measure of autonomy, and the Sanhedrin was thus just as much a political party as it was a religious institution. Many people suggest Paul was a member of the Sanhedrin because it appears that he might have voted as one of its members. Acts 26:10 in the New International Bible reads:

"And that is just what I did in Jerusalem . On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the Lord's people in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them."

Paul became a Christian after Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus . He was on his way to Damascus to persecute the Christians in that city. Acts 9:1 through 19 tells us the story of how Paul became a believer in Jesus.

Paul was an apostle of the Lord, as declared in the opening remarks of many of his letters. An apostle is one whose very life has been set aside by the Lord to proclaim the gospel of Christ wherever Jesus would have him go and preach. Jesus appointed Paul to a specific apostolic mission, as described in Acts 9:15 and 16, which reads as follows.

"But the Lord said to him [Ananias - the man who laid hands on Paul for the restoration of his sight], 'Go, for this man [Paul] is my chosen instrument to take my name to Gentiles, kings, and Israelites. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.'"

Romans 15:28 shows us Paul's desire to preach the gospel in Spain .

"So when I have finished this and safely delivered the funds to them [Jewish believers in Jerusalem ], I will visit you on the way to Spain ."

Bible teachers have wondered for centuries whether Paul actually went to preach the gospel in Spain , as was his desire. I believe there is some good, second-century, written evidence that Paul did make it to Spain , and then on his return trip he was arrested in Rome .

Although the Bible does not tell us this, Paul was executed under the rule of Emperor Nero, in the city of Rome , somewhere around AD 64 to 67.

I believe that Paul is the most influential Christian in history. Through him Jesus was preached in the western part of the Roman Empire , but there is more. His influence has come down to us today through his life and teaching. I have always maintained that if Paul got things wrong, then we as Christians are in sad shape because he has defined the gospel and Christian teaching more than any other New Testament personality, and that includes Jesus Himself.

If you read 2 Corinthians 12:1 through 4 you will note that Paul had numerous revelations from the Lord. It seems he had more than most men.

"... but I will move on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man [Paul] in Christ who was caught up to the third heaven fourteen years ago. Whether he was in the body or out of the body, I don’t know; God knows. I know that this man — whether in the body or out of the body I don’t know; God knows — was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a human being is not allowed to speak ..."

According to Galatians 1:12, what Paul was taught in the faith came directly from Jesus. He wrote this:

"For I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by a revelation of Jesus Christ."

It is a good chance that Paul was taught the gospel by Jesus when he spent considerable time in Arabia after he was saved. Galatians 1:17 says this:

"I did not go up to Jerusalem to those who had become apostles before me; instead I went to Arabia and came back to Damascus ."

The book of Acts records that Paul went on three apostolic mission trips. It has been estimated that he would have travelled at least ten thousand miles in his life on these trips.

There is no doubt about it. Paul was, and is, one very important Christian.

Was Paul Ever Married?

For centuries Bible students and theologians alike have wondered, argued, and debated, whether the apostle Paul had ever been married. There is one thing we know for sure. According to 1 Corinthians 7:7 Paul was a single man when he wrote his letter to the Corinthian believers, but even with that, we have debated over the meaning of what the words "single man" meant in Paul's mind. 1 Corinthians 7:7 reads:

"I wish that all people were as I am [a single man]. But each has his own gift from God, one person has this gift, another has that."

Some people suggest that Paul might not have been legally single. They say he might have been married but living apart from his wife for the sake of the gospel. In 1 Corinthians 7:29 he said that the time was short and that from then on those who had wives should live as if they had no wives. That verse reads:

"This is what I mean, brothers and sisters: The time is limited, so from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none,"

Paul might have been following his own advice and thus living as a single man apart from his wife for the sake of the gospel. Maybe he left his wife at home while he was on his mission trips, even though he had the right, like the Apostle Peter, to take a wife with him on his mission trips. 1 Corinthians 9:5 says this:

"Don’t we have the right to be accompanied by a believing wife like the other apostles, the Lord’s brothers, and Cephas [Peter]?"

Others say that Paul might have been married prior to his conversion. This assumption is based on the culture in which he was raised. From the earliest age it was ingrained in the Jewish male psyche that young men must marry, have children, and carry on the family lineage. Marriage for a young Jewish man could have taken place as early as the age of sixteen years. It was very important for Jews. That would have been Paul's frame of reference concerning marriage and family.

Another reason why some believe Paul was once married is found in Philippians 3:4 to 6 where he said that when it came to being Jewish, he was blameless. Part of being a blameless male Jew would have included having a wife. In verse 8 he said that he had lost all things for the sake of Christ. Some suggest that one of the things he lost was a wife who rejected his new life in Jesus.

Acts 26:10 tells us that Paul voted to persecute Christians. To some, voting suggests that he was a member of the Sanhedrin, the rulers of Israel . This is possible since he was a disciple of Gamaliel. Gamaliel was a leading member of the Sanhedrin. Membership in this select group of men required being married. So, if Paul was a member of the Sanhedrin, he would have been married. Acts 26:10 in the New International Version reads as follows:

"And that is just what I did in Jerusalem . On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the Lord’s people in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them."

This next argument is intriguing; at least it is to me. Paul was raised in Tarsus as a child but sent to Jerusalem as a teenager to further his religious education. He became a disciple of the Pharisee, Gamaliel, and "was thoroughly trained by him." Acts 22:3 says:

"He continued, 'I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia but brought up in this city, educated at the feet of Gamaliel according to the law of our ancestors. I was zealous for God, just as all of you are today.'"

Gamaliel was a doctor of the Law and a member of the Sanhedrin, as seen in Acts 5:34. That verse reads:

"But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law who was respected by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered the men to be taken outside for a little while."

Gamaliel was the grandson of Hillel, the founder of the Hillel School of Theology who interpreted the divorce law found in Deuteronomy 24:1 to 4 very liberally. This school of thought believed a man could lawfully divorce his wife for any and every reason. Like his grandfather Hillel, Gamaliel appears to many to have been a liberal scholar, although some suggest that he was more moderate than Hillel because he recommended that the Jews not be too harsh on the Christians. He said that if the Christians were of God they, the Jewish leaders, could not win a fight with God. On the other hand he said, if the Christians were not of God, they would soon disappear into obscurity. Acts 5:38 and 39 reads:

"'So in the present case, I tell you, stay away from these men and leave them alone. For if this plan or this work is of human origin, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even be found fighting against God.' They were persuaded by him."

If Gamaliel was a liberal theologian as it pertains to marriage and divorce, and since Paul was thoroughly trained by him, this suggests to some that Paul might have been a liberal theologian as it pertains to marriage and divorce prior to his conversion to Jesus. If this is so, Paul would have married and would have had no problem divorcing his wife on a whim. In fact he might have been married more than once, depending on his age at his conversion. That being said, in Acts 7:58 we see that Paul was a young man when he watched Stephen being stoned. The words "young man" can easily give reason for debate. Paul might have been too young to have had more than one wife, or maybe too young even to have been married. Acts 7:58 reads:

"They [the Jews] dragged him [Stephen] out of the city and began to stone him. And the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul [Paul]."

I cannot say for sure that Paul was ever married. To date, no one can prove he was or was not married. From my study to date I don't believe we can discount the idea that he might have been married. Until we unearth more details, we will have to wait until the next life to ask Paul about his marriage situation.

Authorship Of Ephesians

Although there are a few who do not believe that Paul wrote this letter, the overwhelming view among Evangelical Christian Bible scholars is that it was penned by the apostle Paul.

There are sufficient second-century writings that attest to the fact that the apostle Paul was the author of this letter. Ignatius (bishop of Antioch - born AD 35 - died AD 108) wrote a letter to the believers in the city of Ephesus near the end of the first or the beginning of the second century. Ignatius quoted from Ephesians and said that Paul was the author of that letter. Clement of Rome (born 35 AD) wrote a letter in and around 95 AD where he mentioned Paul being the author of the letter to the Ephesians. Polycarp (born 65 - died 155 AD) wrote that Paul was the author of this letter. The Muratorian Fragments, a list of canonical books of the Bible (around 170 AD) attests that Paul wrote the letter to the Ephesians.

All the way through the second century and beyond, there was little to no doubt that Paul wrote this letter.

Destination Of The Letter

Although most, but not all, of our English Bibles record this letter to have been written to the church at Ephesus, there is some question about to whom it was really written. In the mid eighteen hundreds there were five manuscripts of this letter discovered. Three of these manuscripts, which have since been deemed to be three of the better manuscripts we presently possess, have no distinct destination mentioned in the letter. That is to say, the words "at Ephesus ," in the phrase "To the faithful saints in Christ Jesus at Ephesus ," in verse 1, do not exist.

Prior to the mid eighteen hundreds, and after the Christian Reformation, in church history, the general consensus was that this letter was written to the Christians in the city of Ephesus . Since the discovery of these five manuscripts, there has been some doubt in the minds of some and much debate over to whom this letter was actually written. That being said, as early as the third century AD there was some, not a lot, of debate over to whom Paul wrote this letter. Irenaeus (born AD 130 - died AD 202) believed Paul wrote this letter to the church at Ephesus .

Tertullian (born AD 155 - died AD 220) made comment on this issue to refute Marcion's (heretic - born AD 85 - died AD 160) claim that Paul did not write this letter to the believers at Ephesus . Tertullian believed this letter was sent to the city of Ephesus .

Origen (born AD 184 - died AD 253) also made some comment concerning the dispute over the destination of this letter. Likewise, Jerome (born AD 347 - died AD 420) made comment concerning the destination of Paul's letter.

One of the more important reasons why we might believe this letter was written to the Ephesian church is that Ignatius (bishop of Antioch - born AD 35 - died AD 108) wrote a letter to the church at Ephesus at the end of the first or the beginning of the second century. His letter reads very similar, in its wording, to what Paul wrote in his letter. Many, thus, conclude that the Ephesian Christians had already seen and had Paul's letter read to them.

Can we be certain that this letter was directed to the church at Ephesus , which would have consisted of a number of home churches? That might be a debatable issue. It is a difficult question to answer. There are probably many credible reasons why some manuscripts omit the words "at Ephesus ," in verse 1, but we cannot know for sure why this omission was made. It is a good possibility that this letter was duplicated for other church communities in and around the city of Ephesus .. For this reason the words "in Ephesus " might have been not written into the copy that would have been distributed to other believers in other near-by cities.

In my opinion, it does not really matter to whom this letter was written. It had great significance to whoever it was directed to, and, it has the same great significance to us today.

From my understanding I choose to believe that this letter from Paul was written to the believers in Ephesus and surrounding towns and villages.

Date Of This Letter

As with most things when attempting to determine background information about Biblical books and their authors, including the date of their writing, there is some debate over just when Paul penned this letter. The most common dating of this letter is in-or-around AD 60 to AD 62.

Paul said that he penned this letter while in chains (Ephesians 6:20). To help determine, then, the date this letter was written we would have to know when Paul was in prison. 2 Corinthians 11:23 states that he was in prison many times. That verse reads:

"Are they servants of Christ? I’m talking like a madman — I’m a better one: with far more labors, many more imprisonments, far worse beatings, many times near death."

The book of Acts records Paul being put in prison three times. He was imprisoned in Philippi overnight, as seen in Acts 16:23. He was imprisoned in Caesarea for a couple of years. See Acts 23, 24, and 25. Paul was also in chains, that is, in house-arrest, in Rome (Acts 28:30). Due to many reasons, most Bible teachers believe the appropriate dating would be when Paul was in house arrest in Rome , as is described at the end of the book of Acts.

The City Of Ephesus

When Paul wrote this letter, the city of Ephesus , which would include the area just beyond the city's wall, most likely had a population of about two hundred and fifty thousand people. Some even suggest the population could have been as high as four hundred thousand. This would mean that the church at Ephesus consisted of many home groups.

Ephesus was the largest city in the Roman province of Asia . It was the fourth largest city in the Roman Empire, was located in Asia Minor, now present-day Turkey . The largest city in the empire was Rome , followed by Alexandria and then Antioch of Syria. Ephesus was probably the third most important city of the first-century Roman Empire . Rome was the most important city while Alexandria would have been the second most important city.

Ephesus came into existence in 1044 BC.

Ephesus is what was called a "free city" in the Roman Empire . There were a few cities in the Roman Empire that Rome allowed to be governed by themselves. Ephesus would have had its own ruling senate that ruled the city.

The province of Asia Minor was one of the most influential and economically prosperous provinces of the day in the Roman Empire . This province was located on the northern shore of the Mediterranean Sea in what is presently known as Turkey . Ephesus was located at the far western side of Asia, on the shore of what is now called the Aegean Sea .

The city had an outdoor stadium that is estimated to have seated a minimum of at least twenty-four thousand people. Some suggest it might have sat up to fifty thousand people. The stadium is still in existence today and concerts are sometimes held there.

Religion In Ephesus

The citizens of Ephesus were polytheistic pagans, meaning they worshipped multiple gods and goddesses. The prominent god of the city was the goddess of sex and fertility. Her Greek name was Artemis while her Roman name was Diana. The reason why this goddess had both a Greek and Roman name was due to the fact that when Rome conquered Greece , many of the Greek and Roman gods were combined into one god.

The Temple of Artemis was one of the Seven Wonders of the World back in the first-century, Greco-Roman, world. It was constructed around 350 BC.

Two other important goddesses around Ephesus were Cybele and Isis. Men giving themselves to these goddesses would often castrate themselves, dress like women, and live as best they could as a woman. They would subject themselves to the female priestesses and allow women to dominate their lives. In past centuries some men were actually killed as an act of worship and service to the goddess. In Paul's day, men were symbolically killed as an act of ritual worship to these female goddesses.

The teaching of goddess-worship became a problem for the first-generation church because some older Christian women, as seen in extra-Biblical literature, mixed Christian teaching with paganism. This would include Eve being the source of Adam, thus giving woman the right to dominate man. The Hebrew name translated into English as "Eve" means "life."

It has been estimated that there were at least fifty other gods and goddesses that were worshipped in Ephesus . Magic was very much fundamental to pagan worship in Ephesus . If you read Acts 19, you will see this to be the case. Pagan magic was something the first generation church had to confront.

Gnosticism was also prevalent throughout the Roman Empire . The word "Gnostic" comes from the Greek word meaning "to know." Gnostics claimed they had special secret knowledge that others did not have. Gnostics had a philosophical approach to life that was a mixture of paganism and Christianity, with a bit of Judaism mixed in as well. It was birthed in Paul's day but was more formalized in the second century. Gnostics believed their spirits were pure and their flesh was evil, and nothing could change that. For this reason, they gave in to the lusts of their bodies that led to much immorality. They did not believe in the Deity of Christ, that is, that Jesus was fully God and fully human. They could not believe in Jesus' divinity because a pure holy God could not unite Himself with a sinful material body. They believed that Jesus was an angel-like being that was one of many such beings who protected a pure God from an impure humanity. Many more things could be said about Gnosticism, but I will leave it at this. Paul was constantly confronting Gnostic influence on the church.

In short, there were three major religious aspects of life in Ephesus that challenged the church. They were paganism, magic, and Gnosticism.

Setting And Background Of The Letter

From Luke's account in Acts, chapters 17 and 18, we learn that Paul left Corinth and went to Ephesus where he met up with Pricilla, Aquila , and Apollos. He spent three years in the city. The dating of his stay in Ephesus is commonly understood to be around AD 52 to AD 55. Three years would have been a long time for Paul to have stayed in one city.

Paul's Readers

The city of Ephesus was very much a multi-cultural and multi-religious city. It has been estimated that the population of Ephesus might have consisted of ten percent Jews. If that were so, the Christian population of Ephesus might have been anywhere from twenty five thousand to forty thousand people. Paul's readers would have been both Jews and Gentiles.

The Gentile Christians would have come from a polytheistic, pagan, and philosophically-influenced background with all of their immoral and unbiblical lifestyles. You can see that some of what Paul wrote had this Gentile background in mind. On the other hand, there would have been converts from Judaism, and thus, we also see some Jewish considerations in this letter.

Theme Of The Letter

I suppose there are just as many themes to this letter as there are commentators who comment on the letter. If I was pinned down and asked what I thought the theme of this letter is, I would suggest the following.

Since Paul spent the first half of this letter discussing the great and magnificent truths of God, and then spent the last half of his letter explaining how these truths were worked out into the lives of the believers, I suggest the letter's theme to be "theology that transforms," and thus the title of my commentary.

Let us now look into the text of Paul's letter to the Ephesian believers.

Ephesians 1:1 - 2

The Text

1 - Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will: To the faithful saints in Christ Jesus at Ephesus . ²Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

My Commentary

Verse 1

"Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will: To the faithful saints in Christ Jesus at Ephesus ."

As I mentioned in my introductory remarks, the name "Paul" was Paul's Greco-Roman name. "Saul" was Paul's Hebrew name. It only makes sense that Paul would have used his Greco-Roman name while traveling through the Greco-Roman world. People often believe that Jesus changed Saul's name to Paul, but that was not the case. There is no Biblical passage to support this thinking.

Paul said that He was an apostle. The simplest meaning of the word "apostle" is "one who is sent." Paul was called by God to be sent throughout the known world to proclaim the gospel of Christ. You read his calling and mission from God in Acts 9:15 and 16. The text reads:

"But the Lord said to him [Ananias], 'Go, for this man [Paul] is my chosen instrument to take my name to Gentiles, kings, and Israelites. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.'"

Paul had a pretty lofty calling. I am sure you would agree with me on that point. Galatians 1:15 and 16 also show us something of God's call on the life of Paul. It reads:

"But when God, who from my mother’s womb set me apart and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me, so that I could preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone."

Even though it was God who called Paul to his apostolic mission, man played a part in the sending of Paul. Acts 13:2 and 3 say this:

"As they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.' Then after they had fasted, prayed, and laid hands on them, they sent them off."

The pronoun "they" in the above passage refers to certain prophets and teachers in the Antioch community of believers, as seen in Acts 13:1. They might well have been the elders, or some of the elders, in the church at Antioch . These men heard the Holy Spirit's call on the lives of Paul and Barnabas, so they sent them on their first missionary trip. I mention this to say that man, or elders, have a part to play in the sending of those whom God has called. You might say that man publically recognizes what God has already determined for a person. God is the one who calls a person to service. Man is the one who recognizes that call and proclaims that appointing, or, as we say it today, publically ordains man to service for all to recognize.

The public acknowledgement of church leadership is important because it is necessary for those in church to know who is leading the church. Such recognition provides the stamp of approval on those recognized so the body of believers can trust and respect their leaders.

Note the name "Jesus" and the title "Christ" in verse 1. "Jesus" means "God is salvation." It was the name the angel Gabriel told Mary her son should have. Luke 1:31 reads:

"Now listen: You [Mary] will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus."

The title "Christ" is not Jesus' last name. It is a title, just as the word "Lord" is a title. "Christ" means "anointed one." An anointed one is one who has been chosen to be someone with a specific mission. Jesus, as His name implies, was chosen to be the Saviour of all who would hand their lives over to Him.

As I said, some people speak as if Christ was Jesus' last name. People did not have last names in that era. In earthly, human, terms, Jesus would have been known as "Jesus of Nazareth" or "Jesus, son of Joseph." It was not until the second century that some began to speak the title Christ as if it was Jesus' last name.

The title Lord is important because of how Paul would have understood that title in his day. Lord would have meant more than a king to Paul and first-century believers. Lord meant God Himself, making Jesus God in a human form.

Note the word "saints" in verse 1. Paul used this word nine times in his letter to the Ephesians. The word "saints" is translated from the Greek word "hagios" that means "separated ones," or, "holy ones." The words "saints" and "holy" do not really have a moral implication as many think. If you are a saint or a holy one, you have been separated, or taken out of the general population as one belonging to God.

The word "saint" has been distorted by Catholicism over the centuries when Catholics deem special Christians to be saints. The Catholic doctrine on this issue is not Biblical. If you are a truly born-again, of the Spirit, Christian, and that is the only kind of Christian there is, then you are a saint.

You can refer to my introductory notes on the words "at Ephesus " that are used in verse 1. These two words are not found in some of the best Greek manuscripts from which we translate our New Testament. Because this letter was probably rewritten for further distribution to other near-by cities, the words "at Ephesus " might well have been omitted.

Verse 2

^"Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

In verse 2 Paul opened his letter with a Hebrew greeting by using the words "grace" and "peace." Both of these words each have two meanings, as seen in the Bible.

The most well-known meaning of grace is God's unmerited or undeserved favour that He bestows upon us. That simply means that God extends love and mercy towards us, even though we do not deserve it.

The second meaning of grace is defined to be God's divine ability given to us to accomplish His will in our lives. Here is one example how that meaning of grace is used in the New Testament. 2 Corinthians 12:9 reads:

"But he [God] said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you for my power is perfected in weakness.'"

If you think about it, grace, as unmerited favour, does not fit Paul's use of the word in the above verse. Instead, grace, as God's ability to have His will performed in Paul's life, despite his trials, does fit in this verse.

The word "peace" also has two definitions. They are: one having "peace with God," and, one having "peace in, or, of God." Romans 5:1 speaks of having "peace with God," meaning, we are no longer enemies with God. The text reads:

"Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Philippians 4:7 speaks of having peace in God, or, the peace of God in one's heart and life. That verse reads:

"And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."

Once we have peace with God, that is, that we are on His side, He, through His Spirit within us, gives us an underlying, inner peace that sustains us through all of life.

The words "from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" are vitally important. Linking Jesus with God supports the conclusion that Jesus was divine. If both grace and peace come from, or originate from, both God and Jesus, both God and Jesus are divine.

Paul, and others, always connected Jesus with God His Father. Understanding that God is in fact the Father of Jesus, tells us that Jesus is divine. This is the foundation of the theological term, "the Deity of Christ." If you believe in a Jesus who is not divine, you do not believe in the Jesus of the Bible, and, you cannot be considered a Christian.

I know that I will repeat myself in this paragraph, but it is important. As I said above, the name "Jesus" means "God is Saviour," or similar wording. The title "Christ" tells us that God has anointed, or chosen, Jesus to be the Saviour of all of those who would hand their lives over to Him. The title "Lord," in Biblical terms means more than one being just a king. The equivalent Hebrew term for our English word "Lord" speaks about God, and thus Jesus, as being divine. In other words, when Paul or any other New Testament author used the title "Lord" in reference to Jesus, they were saying that Jesus was God in human form.

Present-day Relevance

You might think that understanding some of the more technical aspects of Scripture, like meanings of names and titles has no practical use. I strongly disagree. Anything and everything we can learn that helps us understand the Bible will help us understand what our Lord wants us to know. Understanding what Jesus wants us to know is foundational to doing what we are supposed to do.

Believing, or handing your life over to the real Jesus, is what being a Christian is all about. People have debated for two thousand years over whether Jesus was, and is, divine. The Deity of Christ is the most basic thing you can believe about Jesus, and thus, it must be included in the gospel message you proclaim. If you leave out the Deity of Christ from the gospel message, you are not preaching the real Jesus. In fact, you are preaching a different gospel, and look at what Paul wrote about that in Galatians 1:8.

"But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, a curse be on him!"

It is evident that we must preach the real Jesus, not one who does not fit the description seen in the Bible.

God's grace and peace should be evident in your life. His undeserved favour that He has bestowed on you and flows from God to you, should then flow out of you to others. Giving grace to another fallen human being is primary in building good and healthy relationships.

Knowing the fact that grace also means that God's divine ability has been given to you to accomplish His will is something else that is vitally important for a Christian today. Many Christians do not even think in terms that God has a purpose for their lives, and those who believe God does have a purpose for their lives struggle to both know that purpose and live that purpose out. The fact of the matter is that there is no real excuse, because, grace is the ability that is available for you to both know and to do God's will.

If you are indeed a Christian, you should know that you have peace with God, that is, that you are on His side. You have been reconciled to Him. If this reality is not burned into your heart and soul, you will not mature as a Christian. Your doubts will block your path of maturity. Once understanding your relationship with God, there is an inner peace that is available to you from the Holy Spirit. Without this peace, you will find it difficult to manoeuvre your way through the trials of life.

Understanding the theology of these two introductory verses, and then, allowing that theology to sink into your soul where it becomes the conviction of your life, will transform who you are. This is theology that indeed does transform.

Ephesians 1:3 - 14

The Text

3 - Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ. ⁴For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him. ⁵He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, ⁶to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One. ⁷In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace ⁸that he richly poured out on us with all wisdom and understanding. ⁹He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he purposed in Christ ¹⁰as a plan for the right time — to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth in him. ¹¹In him we have also received an inheritance, because we were predestined according to the plan of the one who works out everything in agreement with the purpose of his will, ¹²so that we who had already put our hope in Christ might bring praise to his glory. ¹³In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed. ¹⁴The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.

My Commentary

Verse 3

"Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ."

It is noteworthy that this whole section, from verse 3 through verse 14, is one long sentence. Most editors today would reject this sentence and re-write it.

The Greek word "eulogetos" is translated here into English as "blessed." This word finds its roots n a Greek word meaning "speaking well" of someone or something: thus, God is spoken well of. We derive our English word "eulogy" from this Greek word.

Note again that Paul links God the Father with the Lord Jesus Christ. This implies that God is the Father of Jesus, thus making Jesus divine. The divinity of Jesus is the most fundamental fact that you must know about Him. If you do not believe that Jesus is divine, then, you do not believe in the Jesus of the New Testament, and thus, you are not an authentic Christian.

Once again we see the term "the Lord Jesus Christ." This tells us that Jesus is both Lord and Christ, as Peter proclaimed in the very first Christian sermon ever preached. Acts 2:36 in the King James Bible reads:

"Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ."

Note that newer versions of the Bible use the word "Messiah" where the KJV uses the word "Christ." Our English word "Messiah" is rooted in the Hebrew language while our English title "Christ" finds its roots in the Greek language.

As Lord, Jesus is God, to whom we must submit. As Christ, Jesus is the Saviour, from whom we receive salvation. The title "Lord" implies that we give ourselves to Jesus while the title "Christ" implies that He gives Himself to us.

I believe the word "our" is significant in verse 3. The word "our" personalizes what Paul is saying. The Lord Jesus Christ is ours. Paul could have written the word "the," as in, "the Lord Jesus Christ," but he did not. In my thinking, there is a major difference between "the Lord Jesus Christ," and "our Lord Jesus Christ." If you are a true Christian, you belong to Jesus and Jesus, in one sense of the word belongs to you. The thought here is possessive. God possesses us, and in the good sense of the word, we possess God. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 6:20 told his readers, and us too, that we have been bought with a price. That verse reads:

"… for you were bought at a price. So glorify God with your body."

The words "who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing" is important. As Christians we often feel the need to ask God for things, such as spiritual blessings. Here, Paul tells his readers that they have been blessed with every spiritual blessing. In fact, they are spiritually-blessed ones. I do not discount that at times we need to ask God for things, but, more often than not, we already have the blessing we are asking for, as seen in this verse. We simply need to get in tune with the Holy Spirit who resides within us and implement the blessing we desire or need. The Biblical fact is that we have these blessings because we have the Holy Spirit within us.

Paul qualified what kind of blessings he is writing about. They are not material blessings. This must be understood in our very materialistic, western-world Christianity. The Greek word translated as "spiritual" is "pneumatikos." You will see the Greek word "pneuma" in this word. It is the word that is translated as "spirit" throughout the New Testament. It is notable that the Greek word "pneumatikos" only occurs in the New Testament after the giving of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. Read Acts 2 to see the events that unfolded on the Day of Pentecost. Inherent in this Greek word, then, is the idea that these blessings are invisible to the human eye, and they are from the Holy Spirit. These blessings can be anything from joy and peace in our hearts to the power, authority, and ability, to do God's will.

The phrase, "in the heavens, in Christ" also qualifies these blessings. They come from heaven and they are found in Christ. They originate with Jesus and are given to the believer. They are not earthly nor material. This is where some have gone astray in recent years. When that which has been called the "Prosperity Movement" understands these blessings to include material wealth, they misrepresent Scripture.

Verse 4

"For he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in love before him."

The pronoun "He" in verse 4 refers to "God"as it does in verse 3.

Having been chosen ones, by God, we are to be holy and blameless. Holy means that we have been set apart unto God, and once set apart, we are, with the help of the Spirit of God, to live a blameless life.

We often think that holiness is a moral attribute. We think living a holy life means living a good, righteous, and godly life, but that is not exactly the meaning of holiness. Holiness means to be set apart unto God. Only as a result of this setting apart, do you then also live a good moral and godly life.

The words "in him." are in reference to Jesus. Christians have been chosen to, as Paul often puts it, to be "in Him" or to be "in Christ." I believe a simple way of understanding being in Christ is this: because Jesus represents us to God, when God sees Jesus, seeing Him at His side, He in fact sees us as well.

The words "before the foundation of the world" might sound like the doctrine of Predestination. That is to say, God has predetermined some to salvation, or, to be in Christ. He, then, has predetermined others not to be saved, or, to be in Christ. Some Christians do believe in the doctrine of Predestination, but not me. From day one, man has always had free will to choose. Adam was given the freedom to choose whether to eat from the restricted tree or not. He chose to eat.

What I believe Paul was saying here is that God, even before He created the material world, desired a people to be seen by Him as being in Christ. This has nothing to do with predetermining some to be saved and some not to be saved. It has everything to do with God's plan for all to be saved, and, saved through the involvement of Jesus, despite the fact that not all would respond to His salvation.

If you think through what I have just said, it might well cause you to think a bit more differently about what transpired in the first three chapters of Genesis. It was no surprise to God that the serpent tempted Eve and deceived her. It was no surprise to God that Adam sinned. I believe it was all part of God's will and plan prior to creating our material world, including us humans. It is why God planted the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden in the first place. What I am saying, and it is my belief, the fall of man was in the will of God. It demonstrated that a perfect and righteous God can love faulty and unrighteous sinners. Anyone can love the lovely, but not everyone can love the unlovely, but God can, and does.

I believe Romans 8:29 and 30 help explain my view of how God has predetermined, or predestined, certain things. These verses read:

"For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; and those he called, he also justified; and those he justified, he also glorified."

I can certainly understand how you could derive the teaching of predestination (God choosing some, but not all to salvation) from these two verses. In my thinking, Paul is stating things from God's perspective only. He is not stating any of our responses to God's call on our lives. When Paul said that those God predestined, or, predetermined, He called: that means God calls everyone. If any respond to His calling in a positive way, then, God justifies that person, and those He justifies, He will glorify. This way of thinking incorporates all of the "whosoever will believe will be saved" verses that bring the debate over predestination into a balanced way of thinking.

Verse 5

"He predestined us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ for himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,"

We see the word "predestined" again. You can refer to my notes on this word where it was also found back in verse 4. The specific predetermining by God that Paul sets forth in this verse is that it has always been God's desire to have adopted sons and daughters. The words "for Himself" doubly emphasizes the point that God wants sons and daughters, specifically, that belong to Him, that He can love and cherish. This should add to our understanding of Genesis 1 and 2 in that it gives us at least one reason why God created man in the first place, something we do not read in the Genesis account.

Of course, Jesus is God's One and Only son. He was not adopted. In human terminology, Jesus was God's biological son, because God's spiritual DNA resides in Jesus. Yes, Jesus had an earthly mother, and His father was God. Look at what Romans 8:29 says.

"For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters."

According to Paul, God had predetermined to have human beings transformed into the very likeness and image of Jesus. This transformation will occur at the return of Jesus to earth. In a moment of time true believers in Jesus will be instantaneously transformed, or recreated, to be just like who Jesus presently is.

We should note that Adam and Eve were created in the likeness and image of God. Genesis 1:26 reads:

"Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness ..."

As a human being, we are each conceived and born into God's shadowy, image. I used the word "shadowy" because when Genesis 1:26 states that man were created in God's likeness and image, the Hebrew texts suggest a shadowy image, not an exact image. For the Christian, our shadowy image of God will become the exact image of Jesus (1 John 3:2), understanding, that Jesus is still the One and Only Son of God, the only divine being who took on human flesh. 1 John 3:2 reaeds:

"Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is."

Paul said that our full adoption will happen because of "the good pleasure of His will." It pleases God to have us become like His Son Jesus. Knowing that we, as Christians, bring joy and pleasure to God should cause us to be very humbled.

Verse 6

"… to the praise of his glorious grace that he lavished on us in the Beloved One."

We see some very powerful words in this verse. They are; praise, glorious, grace, and lavished.

In some respects the words "praise" and "glorious," or "glory," have similar meaning. In New Testament Greek, praise simply implies "speaking well" of a person or thing. Glory implies "having a high opinion of a person or thing." As Christians, God's grace is both praise-worthy and glorious. We should speak highly of His love towards us, even though we do not deserve His love and His grace.

God, through the life of Jesus, has lavished His grace upon the believer. God's grace flows through Jesus and no one else. If anyone wants to have God's grace lavished, and lavished is a powerful word, upon them, they have to receive it through Jesus. Jesus is the doorway to the grace of God. There is no other door.

The words "in the Beloved One" are in reference to Jesus: thus my analogy of Jesus being the doorway that allows God's grace to flow into us as humans.

The phrase "in the Beloved One" is similar to the phrase "in Christ" that Paul often used throughout his writing. This is how I understand the term "in Christ." Right now, in real time, Jesus is situated alongside God His Father as our representative. Since Jesus represents us to God, when God looks at Jesus, in one sense of the word, He sees us as well as Jesus. In a simple Sunday school way of thinking, God sees the believer "inside of Christ's body," or, "in Christ."

Verse 7

"In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace ..."

We read the word "redemption" here in verse 7. There are two Greek words that have been translated as "redemption" or "redeem" in our English Bible. The Greek word used here is a form of the Greek word "lytroo." This word denotes the purchasing of one's freedom by means of a payment, with the emphasis on the actual release. The other Greek word that is translated into English as "redemption" or "redeem" is "exagorazo." This Greek word places the emphasis on the actual price that was paid for the release.

Paul said that it was the blood of Jesus that purchased our redemption. When you see the term "blood of Jesus" in the New Testament, it is simply referring to the death of Jesus. Jesus experienced death, the punishment of God, and He did so, in our place. You would rightly say, then, that Jesus Himself was the price paid for our freedom, our salvation.

The question must be asked: "What have we been set free from." I maintain that the number one thing we have been set free from is God's wrath that would have doomed us for all of eternity. In one sense of the word, then, you might say that we have been freed from God's wrath in order to be loved by Him. Of course, there are other things that we have been set free from as seen in the New Testament. For example, Romans 3:21 and following verses state that Christians have been set free from the Law of Moses, and in fact, any and all law proposed to make one righteous, or, to be a means of being declared in right standing with God.

The next phrase in this verse is "the forgiveness from our trespasses." Note the word "trespasses." In this instance Paul did not use the word "sin" as he does elsewhere. Although the word "trespass" and the word "sin" are similar in meaning, there is a clear distinction between the two words. The word "trespass" carries the meaning of a misstep, a blunder, or a false move. The word "sin" means "to miss the mark of what God requires for our lives." Paul used both of these words throughout his writings in relation to forgiveness.

God has forgiven, or deleted, our deliberate sin from His records. Most of us understand that, but what many fail to understand is that God has forgiven our trespasses. By that I mean He has forgiven our missteps, our unintentional wrong moves, and our blunders that lead us in the wrong direction, away from God. That is surely good to know. That means God views the born-again of the Spirit believer as having no sin. In other words, as being totally good and righteous.

The word "forgiveness" and the word "forgive" are important, and very misunderstood words in the minds of Christians today. Here is how I understand Biblical forgiveness.

Merriam-Webster defines the word "forgive" this way. To forgive is "to cease to feel resentment." Our western-world, twenty-first century concept of forgiveness is to rid ourselves of anger, hostility, resentment, and other such feelings and emotions we hold against another. I suggest that this is not the meaning of Biblical forgiveness.

The Greek word translated as "forgive" in the New Testament is "aphiemi." Aphiemi means "to send away, cancel, or delete," or something similar. In the first-century, Greco-Roman world, aphiemi was often used as an accounting or bookkeeping term. If you owed a debt, and if the debt was cancelled, that would be aphiemi, or forgiven.

God has an accounting system where our sins are recorded, until such time that He cancels or deletes our sins and transfers our names into the Lamb's Book of Life, where there is no sin associated with our names. Biblical forgiveness is not the sending away, cancelling, or deleting of resentment, anger, hostility, from our lives. Aphiemi, as understood in terms of our relationship with God, is the cancelation or the deletion of our sins from the heavenly record. In God's mind, sin is a debt against Him, as I believe is seen in the Lord's Prayer. Matthew 6:12 reads:

"And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors."

The prerequisite to God forgiving our sins is repentance and faith in Jesus. Luke 13:5 shows the importance of repentance.

"I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."

The Bible teaches that there is no forgiveness of sins from God without repentance, so I ask. If God does not cancel sin without repentance, does He expect us to cancel a sin against us without the offender repenting? Does God expect us to do something He Himself does not do? I believe the answer is "no." If, however, our offender repents, we are obligated to cancel that sin in our minds, as if the sin never occurred. Luke 17:4 says this:

"And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and comes back to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him."

Jesus requires us to cancel a debt of sin when the offender repents. If he does not repent, we cannot cancel his sin from our minds.

Revelation 1:6 states that a Christian is a priest. It reads:

"... and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father — to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."

As priests of God, we have the priestly authority to proclaim the cancelation of sin on behalf of Jesus. John 20:23 reads:

"If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

Jesus has paid the price for sins to be forgiven. He has authorized us to proclaim forgiveness when the sinner repents and believes in Jesus. At that point, the sinner's sins are stricken from the heavenly record.

When it comes to personal relationships, forgiveness is conditional upon repentance. Love, however, is unconditional. We love the offender whether he repents or not. Love is meant to lead the offender to acknowledge his offense and repent of it. Once the offense is forgiven, deleted, as if it had never happened, then, the relationship can be restored because the sin has been removed. Forgiveness always precedes reconciliation. Simply ridding yourself of bitterness due to an offense does not deal with the offense and does not restore the relationship. Reconciliation is a two-way street, involving both the offender and the offended. Repentance and forgiveness are the first steps towards reconciliation.

God has forgiven, or deleted, our trespasses and sins from His heavenly record, and why? He has done so because He is rich in grace. These are powerful words. God is extremely wealthy when it comes to His grace. He has so much grace that He just lavishes it all over us. How amazing that is. If you think about it, it is beyond our imagination to know the riches of His grace that we will experience throughout eternity.

Verse 8

"... that he richly poured out on us with all wisdom and understanding."

Not only does God have an over-abundance of grace, He pours out His grace upon us in much abundance. Just because someone is financially rich does not mean he gives a lot of his money away. This is not so with God. He is rich in grace and He gives His grace in liberal abundance. I believe this is what Jesus meant when He told His disciples that they could experience the abundant life. John 10:10 says this:

"A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance."

Some believers understand John 10:10 to be material abundance, but that is incorrect. If Peter, for example, thought Jesus was speaking about material abundance he would have been severely disappointed, because His association with Jesus did not produce material abundance. It actually made him poorer. Peter was a successful businessman in the local fishing industry. He left much material potential to follow Jesus.

Note the qualifying words "wisdom and understanding" in verse 8. God does not just pour out His grace on us because it feels good to do so. This pouring out of the abundance of grace is premised upon His divine wisdom and understanding. Much thought has gone into the cross of Christ and the love and grace He has to offer us. The giving of His grace to us has a divine purpose.

You might think about what I have just said this way. You see a poor beggar. It is easy to simply throw a couple of dollars his way, but that giving is not in relationship to wisdom. Giving in accordance with wisdom will go beyond the couple of dollars thrown at him. It will determine why he is poor, and then, help him out of his poverty.

When thinking of all this tremendous grace God lavishes on us, I ask this question. Do we accept or receive this grace or are we so busy with life that we fail to receive what Jesus has for us? Our western-world Christian lives are so busy working our way through our cluttered lives that we do not benefit from the grace God is presently offering us.

Verse 9

"He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he purposed in Christ ..."

I believe the pronoun "us" would refer to Paul and the first generation of believers. This would mean that God's will, that was once a mystery in Old Testament times, had then been revealed in New Testament times. Paul, because of his multitude of visions and personal interactions with the Lord, had these mysteries made known to him, and thus, he passed them along to the believers. Paul will explain these mysteries in the next few verses.

Much of Christian theology is based on the teachings of Paul. Paul based his teaching on his understanding of the Old Testament and the revelation of God given to Him. I maintain that if Paul got it wrong, then we, as Christians, are in one huge mess. Of course, I certainly do not believe that Paul got anything wrong.

The rest of verse 9 tells us two things. The first thing is that it pleased God in these New Testament times to reveal His will to believers. It is something that God has been anticipating. It is something that He really wanted to do. He just had to wait until the right time.

The second thing we learn from the second part of this verse is that these mysteries have everything to do with the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is what the Jewish leadership in Paul's day could not accept. To them, these so-called mysteries that Paul was teaching were considered blasphemous. They were the product of Paul's corrupted, heretical mind, a mind that needed to be done away with. Of course, for the Christian, all that Paul taught about these mysteries are the foundation of Christian doctrine.

Verse 10

"... as a plan for the right time — to bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and things on earth in him."

We see part of the mystery that has now been revealed to us, and I might add, through Paul. It is to bring all things together, just at the right time, under the authority and management of Jesus. That day has not yet come, but at some future point, when Jesus returns to earth, we will experience what Paul wrote about here.

The Greek word "oikonomia" is translated as "bringing everything together." This Greek word is made up of two Greek words meaning, "house" and "management." Thus, just at the right time, Jesus will have put all things under His management. When that time comes, as 1 Corinthians 15:28 states, Jesus will hand all things over to God, His Father. That verse reads:

"When everything is subject to Christ, then the Son himself will also be subject to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all."

Note that it is not just the earthly creation that will come under the management of Jesus. It is all that is in the heavenly realm as well that will submit to Jesus. That would include the demonic world that Paul spoke about later in this letter. At this present time, Jesus is the Lord of all there is, both material and spiritual, but, not all things in both realms are under His full management. There will come a day, when all things in heaven and earth will be subject to Jesus. At that time, Jesus will hand all things over to God, His Father, and that includes Himself. That day might be the day when the unbeliever is thrown into the Lake of Fire , along with the demonic world. It is then that, as Revelation 21:1 says, God will create a new heaven and a new earth. That verse reads:

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more."

There are some who understand this verse to say that in the end, all will be saved, both human beings and spirit beings, which, would include the devil. They derive this thinking from the word "subject," as in, all things will be subject to Jesus. Just because all things are subject under the rule of Jesus does not mean all things have been redeemed into compliant subjects. The devil, the demons, and the unsaved, will be subject, under the control of Jesus, while they spend eternity in the Lake of Fire .

Verse 11

"In him [Jesus] we have also received an inheritance, because we were predestined according to the plan of the one [God] who works out everything in agreement with the purpose of his [God's] will ..."

I understand the pronoun "him" in the first phrase of this verse to be in reference to Jesus because I believe "him" refers back to the previous verse that speaks of Jesus.

The first part of this verse, the part about the "inheritance" presents us with a problem. That is because of the Greek grammatical construction of the phrase. Some scholars say that we, as Christians, have received an inheritance, as the CSB version of this verse implies. Other scholars and translations of the Bible say that we, as Christians, are God's inheritance. I believe both views are theologically correct, but, only one of these views can be what Paul was meaning in this particular instance.

At the moment, I lean towards how the CSB translates this verse. As Christians, we have an inheritance, which is yet to come at a future date. That being said, we have the down-payment of this inheritance, which is, the Holy Spirit, as we will see when we come to the next few verses.

We see the word "predestined" once again in this verse. As I have said, this word has caused mush debate and division over the centuries. It divided the Reformation Movement of the fifteen hundreds into two camps. Some people believe that God has predestined, or predetermined, who would be saved and who would not be saved. The main problem with this thinking is that it ignores the concept of individual choice, that I believe is seen in all of the "whosoever will believe will be saved verses," and there are many of those verses.

I will certainly not end the debate here, but look at what Paul is saying in this verse. The very concept that we have received an inheritance, or if you believe, we are God's inheritance, was what was predestined by God. That which was predetermined by God was to have a people belonging to Himself. What was not predetermined by God was who would become members of God's people. That, in part, is our choice.

The verb "who works" is in the present tense. This tells me, right now, whatever things may be looking like in the world, God is working out His universal plan for all that He has created. That means we as Christians should not get bent out of shape over all that we see happening in our surrounding culture. Far too often we get overly involved in cultural concerns that distract us from our mission at hand, and that is, to introduce Jesus to the world around us.

What I see in the last half of this verse is that God is more active in the affairs of His creation, and that includes the affairs of men and nations, than what we might think. Christians are not Deists. A Deist is one who believes in the existence of God, but does not believe God has any interaction with His creation. Deists believe that God created all things and then stepped back from creation and let creation evolve over time. A Christian cannot be a Deist because that would mean God did not interact with His creation by becoming human, in the form of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse 12

"... so that we who had already put our hope in Christ might bring praise to his glory."

The words "we who had already" is what is a present infinitive active Greek verb. An infinitive verb is a verbal noun that is meant to convey a goal that has been reached by a prior action. Paul was saying that "we," he and those to whom he was writing, had already put their hope in Jesus. The goal of that action was to be people who would exhibit praise to God in their lives. This is an aspect of the revealed mystery Paul has been writing about. That is to say, both Jews and Gentiles alike, as one unified body, can be recognized by their lifestyle that gives praise to God.

Note the word "hope" in this verse. It is my opinion that hope is often overshadowed by faith in Christian theology. I define hope as a certain expectation of a future reality. Biblical hope has nothing to do with the idea conveyed when we say; "I hope to win the lottery." In that sense of the word, hope implies doubt. Biblical hope does not imply doubt. Biblical hope is an assurance that God will fulfill each and every promise that He has made, concerning our personal future, the future of the church, and really, the future of all creation.

Verse 13

"In him you also were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed."

What Paul wrote here is vitally important in knowing that one is truly a Christian. The word "sealed" in this verse means the stamp of God's approval on your life that you are, in deed, a true Christian. You, in all certainty, belong to Jesus. The seal is the Holy Spirit Himself. If you are truly a born-again-of-the-Spirit Christian, there would have been a moment in time when the Holy Spirit came into your very being. It is that point in your life that Paul was writing about here. It is when you actually crossed the line from being an unsaved person to being a saved person.

The concept of a seal would have been well understood by Paul's readers. Slaves were branded with a seal that meant they belonged to their owner. In like fashion, the Holy Spirit is the branding seal that confirms the Christian as belonging to God. You might even compare this seal to a lawyer's seal today that validates the legitimacy of a document.

For these Ephesian believers, Paul said when they heard the gospel preached to them, and, when they first believed, they were sealed with the Holy Spirit. This tells me that the general rule for this sealing is that one must first repent and believe. If one has genuine faith, that one should then subsequently receive the Holy Spirit into his life. That means, as with the Samaritan's in Acts 8, sometimes when one first believes and when one receives the Holy Spirit into his life, are at different times. For this reason, I say that initial salvation is a process, a process of the Holy Spirit drawing you to Jesus, to repenting, to trusting Jesus, and finally, receiving the Holy Spirit.

Note too that the specific aspect of the gospel Paul was writing about was the gospel of "truth." That would have been a dramatic way to have put it, as it would be today. In our day, when truth is relative, varying from person to person, from place to place, and from time to time, saying that the gospel of Christ is the absolute universal truth, is not culturally or religiously correct. In Paul's day, the belief in multiple gods would suggest that there were varying truths, similar to our relativism today.

Verse 14

"The Holy Spirit is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory."

The one thing we know for sure from this verse is that the Holy Spirit given to the believer is in fact a down payment of a future reality. The future reality is when we will actually be recreated into the likeness and form that Jesus is right now. 1 John 3:2 states that some day, we will be as Jesus is. It reads:

"Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is."

In Romans 8:29 Paul also told his readers that Jesus is the first born among the dead. This means that Christians will follow Jesus as being second, third, fourth, and so on, born from the dead people who have been raised from the dead just as Jesus was raised from the dead. Once raised from death, we will be born into a new state of being. Romans 8:29 reads:

"For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren."

The words "until the redemption" is in reference to the day we are completely and fully redeemed; the very day written about in these above two verses.

There are two aspects to redemption as seen in the New Testament and they are based on two different Greek words translated as "redeemed" in our English New Testament. One aspect emphasizes the payment that Jesus made to release (redeem) us from bondage. The other aspect emphasizes the actual release from bondage that Jesus paid for. The Greek word used here, in this verse, emphasizes the actual release from bondage that Jesus paid for.

This question needs to be asked at this point. From what is the Christian released? I would suggest that we have been released from many things, not the least of which, is the wrath of God that is seen in the Book of Revelation. We are released from the eternal suffering of the Lake of Fire .

We have also been released from the inherent tendency to serve self. This release takes the form of a transformation in our lives by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God being made real in our lives. This means that we have been released from serving self so we can serve Jesus.

We have been released from any satanic hold that might be upon on lives. We have been released from the community of the world in order to be placed into the Community of Christ. The list could go on, but, the most basic release is that we have been released from the wrath of God that will be experienced by the unbeliever in what the book of Revelation calls the Lake of Fire ; that place of eternal divine judgment.

According to the way the CSB reads, the Christian has a future inheritance. Some Bible scholars say it should read that Christians are in fact the inheritance of God. Whatever way you think, both concepts are Biblical.

Present-day Relevance

Paul said a lot in this portion of his letter to the Ephesian believers. It is hard to summarize all that he wrote in just a couple of paragraphs. Much of what Paul wrote in this section concerns how the believer benefits from belonging to God. As Christians, we tend to ask Jesus for many things to help us mature as Christians. The fact of the matter is that much of what we ask for, as Paul lists here, is already in our possession. This is one Biblical truth that Christians often miss. Peter, in 2 Peter 1:3 makes this point by saying the following:

"His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness."

Both Paul and Peter agree. We already have what we need to live as Christians. We simply need to be in fellowship with Jesus, through His Spirit, to have worked out in our lives that which we already have.

Here is the list of benefits we possess in our lives that Paul said we have in Christ in this section of his letter.

We have all kinds of spiritual blessings.
We exist in the heavenly realm.

We have been chosen by God prior to creation.

We are adopted sons and daughters of God.

We are to the praise and glory of God.

We are recipients of God's abundant grace.

We have been redeemed, released from God's wrath.

We have forgiveness of sins.

We belong to God's new community of people.

We are a vital part of God's universal plans.

We have received the Spirit of the Almighty God

We have been marked as belonging to God.

We are God's inheritance.

God has given us a down payment of our inheritance.

Now that is quite a list to ponder over. When these theological truths enter your mind, and then, sink deep within your soul, they will transform your life. Without these truths you will not live the life you should live as a Christian, which I believe, is the sad fact for many western-world Christians today.

This is the theology that does transform.

Ephesians 1:15 - 23

The Text

15 - This is why, since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, ¹⁶I never stop giving thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. ¹⁷I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. ¹⁸I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the mighty working of his strength. ²⁰He exercised this power in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens — ²¹far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come. ²²And he subjected everything under his feet and appointed him as head over everything for the church, ²³which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.

My Commentary

Verse 15

"This is why, since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,"

In this verse Paul spoke about the Ephesian believers' faith, in the Lord, that he had heard about. We should know that the word "faith" is translated from the Greek word "pistis" that means "to trust." This means that Paul had heard of the Ephesian believers’ trust that they had in Jesus, a trust that was not just for their salvation, but for their very lives, their very daily existence.

Paul had also learned that these Ephesian believers had love for the saints. The Greek word "agape" is translated here as "love." Agape is one of about six Greek words that could be translated into "love" in English. All six of these words have a different kind of love in mind. The word "agape," meaning sacrificial love, is the most common Greek word that we read in the Greek New Testament. These believers were, thus, exhibiting sacrificial love for one another. Agape is the very kind of love that Jesus showed us. It is that love which causes us to sacrifice ourselves for our brothers and sisters in Christ. As Jesus has sacrificed His life for us, so we ought to sacrifice our lives for each other as Christians.

Note the word "saints" in this verse. We should not understand the word "saints" as it is understood in Catholicism. Saints are not a special, more holy, sector of Christians. All true Christians are saints. The Greek word "hagios" is translated as "saints" here, and that word simply means those who have been separated from the general public, and thus, belong to Jesus.

The word "separated" is all what being holy is about. We often think that the word "holy" suggests some kind of moral quality, but that is not the basic meaning of the word. All Christians are holy, and thus are saints, because Jesus has separated them from the general public so that they now belong to Him. Once separated, via the indwelling Holy Spirit, a saint should live a good moral life, but that life is a by-product of being holy. It is not holiness in itself.

Verse 16

"I never stop giving thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers."

We see the sincerity of Paul here, especially as it has to do with his prayer life. Paul is always praying for those God has given him the responsibility to care for.

A study of the concept of prayer in the Bible shows us that there are different kinds of prayer, from simple heart-felt requests, that may or may not be the will of God, to heavy-duty intercession on behalf of someone or something. I would think that the type of prayer Paul is writing about here is more the intercessory type of prayer. I say that because it is based on his genuine love and concern for those he has been given responsibility to pray for.

The specific type of prayer Paul mentioned here is a prayer of thanksgiving. This tells us something of Paul's love and affection for these believers. I wonder how many Christian leaders today thank God for those they have been called to lead.

The verbal phrase "never stop giving thanks" is a middle voice, Greek verb. A middle voice verb is an action that is both being done to the subject of the sentence, and also by the subject of the sentence. This suggests that the motivation for these prayers has come upon him from without which in turns motivates Paul from within to pray. The mere fact of knowing these believers as Paul would have known them, would cause Paul to pray for them. These prayers would have been inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is these kinds of prayers that should be clearly evident in all of our lives, especially those, like Paul who are leaders in the church.

Verse 17

"I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him."

The first thing we note from this verse is the God to whom Christians have given themselves. Specifically speaking, He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christians do not believe in one generic god. We believe in one God, who is both the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That would clearly distinguish the god of Islam, or the gods of other world religions, from the God of Christians.

I have maintained over the years that as western-world Christians we have come to speak more about God than Jesus. This is problematic in that if we do not define what God we speak about, our culture is left to guess what god we are talking about, and, they will often guess wrong. We need to be specific and clear in the way in which we speak. We need to make known that we have given our lives to the God, who is the Father of Jesus, who is both Lord and Christ.

Our culture allows us to speak about God as much as we like, but, our culture gets upset when we say that there is only one God and He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is Jesus that separates the Christian from all other people, and when you insert the name of Jesus into the cultural conversation, that creates a problem for Christians. We are seen as being intolerant and divisive in a so-called tolerant world.

In parts of what we call church in the western world, some leaders are promoting the concept that all world religions eventually lead to the same God. Biblically speaking, and even logically speaking, that cannot be true. This thinking actually reverts us back to the first-century, Greco-Roman, world of polytheism, the belief in multiple gods. For Prophetic Futurists who believe in the re-emergence of the Roman Empire as the last great empire of the age, this prevalent concept of multiple gods would fit in that end-time scenario.

When it comes to uniting Islam with Christianity, saying, both religions worship the same God; that is not true. Islam believes that god does not have a son. Christians believe that their God has a son, and He is Jesus. This fact alone tells us that Islam and Christianity do not serve the same God.

We see the word "spirit" in this verse. I don't believe Paul was talking about the Holy Spirit in here, although the Holy Spirit plays a very important part in that which Paul was writing about.

The word "spirit" can be understood in two ways. Spirit can be thought of in terms of "a being," like an angel or the Holy Spirit. The word "spirit" can also be understood in terms of "the spirit or nature of the matter." In this sense we are not thinking of some kind of spiritual being.

You might think that because the CSB version of the Bible capitalizes the word "Spirit" that Paul was in fact thinking in terms of the Holy Spirit. The capitalization of the word "Spirit" is an arbitrary decision that the translators made. There are no capital letters in the Greek text. The problem with thinking that the spirit here is the Holy Spirit is that Paul was praying for them to receive the spirit, something these people already had in their lives. One cannot receive the Spirit when he already has the Spirit. There is no logic in thinking that "spirit" should be capitalized in this verse. Most versions of the Bible, including the KJV and newer versions of the NIV correctly do not capitalize the word "spirit" in this verse.

Paul was praying that these believers would receive the "spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of Him." Although it might be debatable, I think the context suggests that the pronoun "him" refers to God. Therefore, a spirit of revelation, meaning, revealing Jesus to the believers in all wisdom, will help the believer come to a better knowledge and understanding of the God they serve, a God that cannot be known apart from such a spiritual revelation. Revelation, here, is in the sense of an uncovering, or an unveiling of something that has not been known or understood.

Paul's prayer for these Ephesian believers should be our prayer for our lives. God is so far beyond our human comprehension that we constantly need our understanding and knowledge of Him updated, and that only comes from the Holy Spirit giving to us the spirit of wisdom and knowledge that we need to mature in our relationship with God.

Knowledge and wisdom are two completely separate things. Knowledge is knowing about something, while wisdom is understanding how to implement what you know. Far too often Christians do not wisely implement what we know, assuming they do actually know what they claim to know.

I believe that knowledge precedes wisdom. That is to say, we first know something and then we can wisely implement what we know. It is difficult to believe that some one could be very wise but be ignorant of the facts at the same time. There is no logic to that.

Verse 18

"I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints,"

This verse opens with the words "I pray." There is no corresponding Greek word in the Greek text for the words "I pray." Due to their context, these words are assumed, and probably rightly so, to be in the mind of Paul as he penned this letter.

The term "eyes of your heart" is a metamorphic term. It is picture language that is meant to convey the thought that part of you, that is, your heart, is that part that perceives issues. Paul wants that part of his readers' lives that perceives and understands issues to be clearly working. He wants no dullness in their understanding; a dullness that I believe prevails throughout western-world Christianity these days.

The words "may be enlightened" are a Greek perfect passive participle. The word "perfect" suggests a completed action. The word "passive" suggests an action that is done to a person. The person is not doing the action. A participle modifies either a noun or a verb in the sentence. The way our English text reads seems to suggest that Paul is praying that his readers' capability to know will find its completion through the enlightening process from God Himself.

The Greek word "photizo" that is translated into English as "enlightened" finds its roots in the Greek word "phos," meaning light. This is where our English word "photo" originates. Phos means light. Our hearts and our understanding need God's light to shine into them in order to bring clarity to our lives.

The specific knowing that Paul is writing about is twofold. It concerns our calling and inheritance as Christians. Christians are called, or invited, by God to many things, not the least of which is Jesus Himself. We also have an inheritance, and that we will fully realize in the next life.

The word "hope" is associated with the word "calling" in this verse. These words would naturally be linked to each other. If someone is called to do something or be something, there is a hope that this calling would be realized in the life of the one called.

Biblically speaking, Christians are called to many things. We are called both to be and to do. We are called to be sons and daughters of God and all of what that means. For example we are called to be righteous. We have also been called, or invited, to a mission while we exist on earth. For example, we have been called to proclaim the gospel. All of that which the words "call" and "calling" represent, and that is a lot, Paul wanted realized in his readers lives. The same would apply to you and me today, and all who have been invited to participate in the service of the Lord.

Note the word "saints." Once again, all true believers are saints. A saint is simply one who has been set aside from the world and belongs to Jesus. There is no inherent moral quality associated with the word "saints." That is to say, Catholics are in error when they view certain Christians to be more holy than others. We cannot separate Christians into two classes, saints and ordinary Christians.

There is a problem concerning the word "inheritance" in this verse and it has to do with the somewhat obscure grammatical construction of this verse. Some suggest that Christians are the inheritance Paul is referencing here. That is to say, that we, as Christians, are God's inheritance. The other view is that God has given Christians an inheritance, as seems to be expressed in the CSB version of the New Testament. Although both concepts are Biblically correct, I cannot say for sure which concept Paul had in mind when he penned these words. It is somewhat of a matter of the translator's presuppositions and thinking as he translates this verse.

Verse 19

"and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the mighty working of his strength."

Paul spoke about the "immeasurable greatness of His power." The word "immeasurable" is a pretty lofty word, but a very good word to use in this context. The Greek word "hyperballo" is translated into English here as "immeasurable." This Greek word comes from the Greek word "hyper," meaning over, as in "over the top." It is also from "ballo," meaning "to throw." There are two things you might notice here. Our English word "hyper" comes from the Greek word "hyper" while our English word "ball" comes from the Greek word "ballo."

Our English word "great" here is translated from the Greek word "megethos" that is rooted in the Greek word "megas." You can see that our English word "mega" comes from this Greek word.

Our English word "power" in this verse is translated from the Greek word "dynamis." Our English word "dynamite" comes from this Greek word. Dynamite suggests what this Greek word means. That is to say, "dynamis" is one very explosive power.

To put all of the above together, Paul was telling his readers, and us too, that the massive explosion of God's dynamic power is beyond our ability to measure. Really, our human, finite minds cannot understand all of who God is and what He is capable of doing.

Paul does not stop at commenting on God's immeasurable power. He says that it has been directed towards us who believe. That would mean, all of who God is, right now, in real time, is available for us in order to work out His will, not our will.

Paul is not the only one that made mention of God's ability being directed towards us. The apostle Peter says something similar. 2 Peter 1:3 reads:

"His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness."

Paul continued in the same thought process to finish this verse. He wrote, "according to the mighty working of His strength." The English word "working" is translated from the Greek word "energeia," from which we derive our English word "energy." Simply put, God has a tremendous amount of energy and it is powerfully strong. The creation of the material and spiritual universe shows this to be true. I might even add that God's very essence is pure energy. You can read the book of Revelation, and there, you will see God's energy expressed in divine judgment.

Verse 20

"He exercised this power in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens —"

The pronoun "He" in the beginning of this verse refers to God.

The verb "He exercised" is a Greek aorist, active, indicative verb. As an aorist verb this exercising of power took place at one given time in human history. As an active verb, it was God's doing. He actively exercised His power. As indicative, this exercising of power was a certain fact.

Our English word "exercised" is translated from the Greek word "energeia" that I wrote about above. This exercising was in fact a release of Godly energy. As humans, we cannot fully understand the nature of God, even though we make many attempts. You might say, and maybe this is more scientific than anything else, but part of who God is, is pure energy. If that is true, then this exercising of power, is in fact, God exercising Himself in Jesus' resurrection.

It is quite possible that the earthquake mentioned in Matthew 28:2 was due to God's exercising of His great explosive energy. Matthew 28:2 reads:

"There was a violent earthquake, because an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and approached the tomb. He rolled back the stone and was sitting on it."

We see this same explosive power when Jesus gave up His last human breath. Matthew 27:54 reads:

"When the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they were terrified and said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!"

The resurrection of Jesus is a central truth of Christian doctrine, but the scenario does not end there. As we read in Acts 1, Jesus ascended through the clouds. Here, in Ephesians, Paul told his readers that Jesus ascended right up to heaven, where He sits at the right hand of God.

The term "right hand" had a metamorphic meaning in the first-century Greco-Roman world. If someone was seated at the right hand of one in authority, it meant the one so seated shared the authority with the one he was seated beside. This tells us that Jesus has just as much authority as God Himself, and, as Matthew 28:18 states, Jesus has been given ultimate, universal, authority. Matthew 28:18 reads:

"Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth."

Jesus will exercise this authority until such time that He has conquered all things and put all things in order under His rule and authority. At that time, He will hand all things, including Himself, over to God, His Father. 1 Corinthians 15:28 states that fact. It reads:

"When everything is subject to Christ, then the Son himself will also be subject to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all."

Whether Jesus is actually seated in a throne beside God in a physical sense might well be debatable. This might well be picture language to help us understand that right now, in real time, Jesus rules alongside of God.

You might want to ask yourself a couple of questions at this point. Does God, who is spirit, have a right hand? Does He sit on a throne that a human would sit on? Does Jesus sit on a throne as a human would sit on? I believe this is picture language, symbolism, that makes a point, and I believe the first-century, Greco-Roman usage of the term "right hand" makes that point clear.

Verse 21

"... far above every ruler and authority, power and dominion, and every title given, not only in this age but also in the one to come."

In this verse Paul tells us of the extent of Jesus' rule. Jesus' rule and His authority are over every ruler, every authority, every power, and every dominion. We have four words listed here, each of which, I believe, represents an aspect of human and spiritual authority. There is debate whether these are four separate realms of authority or just four different aspects of one authority. I believe Paul had four different realms of authority in his mind when he penned these words.

The word "power" suggests a slightly different thing than the other three words. It's translated from the Greek word "dynamis" that I have mentioned earlier. This power is an explosion of dynamite-style energy. It could mean an authority figure with some kind of weaponry.

The words "ruler and authority" could mean a number of different kinds of local or regional authorities. The word "dominion" suggests a king or an emperor.

All of the above being said, if you read other passages of Paul's, like Ephesians 6:10 and following, you will note that these four words can also apply to spiritual beings as well as human beings.

With the addition of the words "every title given," we learn that Paul could have listed other titles given to people or spirit beings with some kind of authority. Paul was covering all of the bases here.

Paul went on to say, that no matter what authority there is, whether in this age or the next, Jesus rules supreme.

There might be debate over what the next age is that Paul had in mind. If you are a Prophetic Futurist, you might think the next age is the thousand year rule of Christ on earth, and that might well have been Paul's thinking. On the other hand, if you do not believe in a literal thousand-year rule of Jesus on earth, you might think that the next age is in fact the age of the new earth, as seen at the end of the book of Revelation. Verse 21:1 reads:

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more."

I tend to believe at the moment, the next age is the thousand-year rule of Jesus on earth as you also see in the book of Revelation. Revelation 20:4 reads:

"Then I saw thrones, and people seated on them who were given authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and who had not accepted the mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years."

Verse 22

"And he subjected everything under his feet and appointed him as head over everything for the church,"

Paul said that God subjected everything under the feet of Jesus. Again, we saw this above. Matthew 28:18 tells us that all authority had been given to Jesus, which would have been given Him by God, His Father.

The Greek word "hypotaso" is translated here as "subjected." This word will come up again in our study of Ephesians in connection with wives submitting to their husbands. "Hypotaso" simply means "to rank under the authority of another." It was often used in military circles where one soldier would fall under the authority of another. In practical terms, this word in its common usage was somewhat of a cold-hearted, harsh, dictatorial word, as seen in its military use. It is important to know, as I will remind us of later, that some Greek words have a slightly different meaning in their New Testament context.

When "hypotaso" is used in a Christian sense, when it is used in relation to Jesus and His authority, it is a much softer, kind-hearted word. So, as Paul said here, all things are now subject to Jesus, but, as His authority applies to believers, He does not rule from a cold-hearted, harsh, dictatorial fashion. He rules from love, and that is agape, sacrificial love. He rules from a motivation where He wants the best for that which He rules over.

Paul said that Jesus is head over everything. Here again there is some debate over the word "head." Some believe this means that Jesus is the source over all things while others believe He is the brain, or, the mastermind over all things. I lean to Jesus being the brain over all things. That would mean that Jesus has more input over all of creation than what we probably think. Christians are not Deists. We do not believe that God is creator and then He stepped back from His creation and no longer interacts with that which He created. Christians believe that God does interact with His creation, as seen, for example, in God becoming human in the form of the Lord Jesus Christ. We also see this in the fact that God has given His Spirit to the believer.

I believe the word "head" here suggests that place where direction, instruction, and wisdom originates, thus, as the church, and as believers, our direction for life comes from our head, who is Jesus. We are instructed by Him and find our wisdom in Him.

On the other hand, there is no doubt about it. Jesus is in fact the head, or, the source of the church. Again, it has been debated over what concept of headship Paul had in mind. Both views could apply to this passage. You can choose for yourself.

It is really hard to get into the mind of Paul, or any other Biblical author. When it comes to the word "head" in this verse and other verses in Paul's writing, both concepts of head - mastermind and source - are correct concepts concerning Jesus. Just which concept Paul exactly had in mind is debatable.

The words "for the church" are hard to understand. Some versions say "to the church." The New Living Translation says "for the benefit of the church," even though there is no corresponding Greek word for the English word "benefit." That being said, the NLT Bible might correctly portray Paul's thought here. Jesus has been given final authority over all things, whether material or spiritual, for the benefit of those who belong to Him.

The English word "church" is translated from the Greek word "ekklesia" here, and elsewhere throughout the New Testament. An ekklesia was simply a group of people taken out of a larger group of people for a specific reason; to fulfill a specific purpose. A senate or a parliament could be considered an ekklesia. The church is Jesus' ekklesia. It is His ekklesia because the church is people who Jesus has taken out of the general population of the world to serve Him and His cause.

Verse 23

"... which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way."

In the previous verse, Paul spoke of the church. Here, Paul wrote that the church is in fact Jesus' body. We see the word "body" in 1 Corinthians 12 as well in relation to the church. Paul taught that the church, people belonging to Jesus and to each other, is the present-day body of Jesus on earth. I like to say it this way. Since Jesus is no longer on earth in the physical form of a human body, He is now on earth in His new physical form, that is, the body of people who are collectively known as the Body of Christ, the church.

The concept of the Body of Christ is important because it clearly states what church is all about. As Paul taught in 1 Corinthians 12, each believer has been immersed, by the Spirit of God, into the lives of those with whom Jesus has placed him in the Body of Christ, the church. We have been joined to others in supportive relationships in order to function as parts of a healthy body. As in one's physical body, when each body part does his or her job in the Body of Christ, the church will function healthily as it is meant to function. Our difficulty in the western-world church is that we do not see ourselves as that living, replacement body that Jesus lives in. For that reason, much of the western church is disabled and dysfunctional.

The words "the fullness of the one who fills all things" needs some thought. This phrase comes right after Paul speaks of the present-day Body of Christ, wherein lies the fullness of the one, God, who fills all things. God is omnipresent. He is everywhere at all times. He fills all things everywhere. In the Body of Christ, the church, is found the full nature of God. The sad fact is that the western church does not exhibit the reality of this. Jesus is the head of the church, and, His Spirit fills His present-day earthly body. We do Jesus and ourselves a disservice by neglecting the soul of the church, that is, Jesus Himself.

Present-day Relevance

There is so much in this particular passage that it is very difficult to provide a brief summary, but I will try.

The Ephesian believers, like believers today, were those who had the Holy Spirit living within them. He is the down payment of a future reality when we will become like Jesus presently is. Even though Paul's readers have the Holy Spirit, he still continually prayed for them that they will receive a spirit (not the Holy Spirit – but spirit in a generic sense) of revelation and wisdom. If you are truly a born-again of the Spirit believer, then what Paul taught these Ephesians, he is teaching you as you read his words.

When a person receives the Holy Spirit into his life, that event is just the beginning of a life-long relationship where he continues to receive from God more knowledge, more wisdom, and more enlightenment of the One he serves. This process never ends until the day we are recreated into the very likeness of who Jesus presently is.

At this present time, Jesus sits alongside His Father, where He has been given universal authority over all things spiritual and all things material. He will rule until such time that He hands all that He has ruled over, back to God, His Father.

Knowing that Jesus sits in this place of final authority is important because Paul taught that, right now, we as Christians sit with Him in the heavenly realm. We, thus, should understand our victorious position as believers and live accordingly. We have all that is necessary to live the life that Jesus requires of us. If we fail in this matter, it is our own fault. We are to live as those who have been elevated far above the mundane and sinful in which our surrounding culture exists.

If you can understand the theology that Paul taught in this section of his letter to the Ephesians, and, if you allow it to sink into your soul, it will be theology that transforms your life.

Ephesians 2:1 - 10

The Text

1 - And you were dead in your trespasses and sins ²in which you previously lived according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. ³We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. ⁴But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, ⁵made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! ⁶He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, ⁷so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— ⁹not from works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

My Commentary

Verse 1

"And you were dead in your trespasses and sins ..."

Paul points out to his Ephesian readers that in the past they were dead. They were not physically dead, but they were spiritually dead because of both their trespasses and their sins. A human is not only a material being. He has been created to also be a spiritual being. If your spirit is dead, then you, as a human, are not fully alive. In Paul's mind, you are dead. It is sin and trespasses that have killed your spirit.

The Greek word "paraptoma" is translated here as "trespasses." This Greek word simply means "a misstep," as when one trips over something and falls. A misstep is not an act of one's will. One does not mean to trip over something. Tripping is simply a matter of us being fallen people, living in a fallen world. Missteps lead us away from where we want to go. They sidetrack us. They lead us away from God. They put us on the wrong path of life, separating us from the spiritual life which we were intended to live.

The Greek word "hamartia" is translated as "sin." This Greek word means "to miss the mark." As fallen human beings, meaning that we are born apart from God, we consistently miss the mark of a godly life that He requires of us. This missing the mark can be deliberate or we can miss the mark without even knowing it. This has often been called known and unknown sin. Some sin we know we commit. Other sins we don't know we commit, that is, we act intentionally but not understanding that it is sin.

Beyond this basic meaning of "sin" that is derived from the Greek word "hamartia" there are some sub-definitions defined by the New Testament. One such definition is found in Romans 14:23. It reads:

"But whoever doubts stands condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith, and everything that is not from faith is sin."

Paul said that anything done apart from faith, that is, from trusting Jesus, is sin. This is quite a broad definition of sin and includes more than most think. Many simply believe that just disobeying the Ten Commandments is sin, but that is not the case. One may not outwardly commit adultery, but one can inwardly lust after another of the opposite sex. Jesus called that lust adultery of the heart. Matthew 5:28 reads:

"But I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart."

The apostle John also provides a sub-definition of sin. 1 John 5:17 reads:

"All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin that doesn't lead to death."

I will not comment on John's point that there is sin that does not lead to death. You can read my commentary on 1 John to see my remarks about that. I simply point out that John agrees with Paul when he said that all unrighteousness, or, everything done apart from right relationship with God, is sin. That too is a broad definition of sin and includes more than most think.

The basic meaning of the word "righteousness" as it pertains to God is to be in right relationship with Him. We often think that righteousness is a moral issue, but that is not its fundamental definition. Moral righteousness is a by-product, a result, of being in right relationship with God.

Romans 6:23 reads:

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

In Romans 6:23 Paul said what he said here in Ephesians 2:1. Sin leads to death. It results in death. Sin is associated with death all the way through the Bible. That is clearly seen in the very first command that God gave to a human. In connection with God commanding Adam not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Genesis 2:16 reads:

"... but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die."

The simple Biblical fact is that sin, or in Adam's case, disobedience which is sin, leads to death. Adam did not die physically right away, but he did die spiritually right away, and he did eventually die physically as well.

Verse 2

"... in which you previously lived according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient."

Paul reminded his readers that the way they used to live, that is, in sin and trespasses, is the way of the world. The non-Christian culture that surrounds us all is consumed with sin and trespasses, and it is so, more than most of us think. Our culture is sinful because all human beings, at the core of who they are, are corrupt and sinful. Jeremiah 17:9 makes that clear.

"The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable - who can understand it?"

Our culture believes that everyone is inherently good, or, that at least most people are inherently good. The Bible says otherwise.

The second half of verse 2 makes it clear who is behind cultural wickedness. It is the "ruler of the power of the air who is working in the disobedient." That ruler is the devil. He is the ruler of the power of the air. The word "air" speaks about the spiritual atmosphere that surrounds any culture. The word "power" is translated from the Greek word "exousia," which means "authority." Our English word "working" is translated from the Greek word "energeo." We derive our English word "energy" from this Greek word. Putting all of this together, Satan is the authority figure who powerfully energizes all cultures, cultures that consist of disobedient people.

In my thinking, Paul is saying that if one is disobedient, he is susceptible to satanic influence. The opposite would, thus, be true. If you are obedient to the Lord, you will not fall prey to the devil's devices.

Verse 3

"We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also."

Paul recognized that he and his associates, like the Ephesian believers, once lived their lives according to their fleshly desire. The Greek verb "previously lived" in the Greek text is a passive Greek verb. This means that Paul's flesh, not his newly created in Christ being, was doing the action to Paul. It means that Paul gave into the desires of his sinful flesh so those desires could do whatever they wanted with Paul.

The word "flesh" is a broad term to denote anything that has to do with one's body and mind. The word "desires" suggests lust or a covetousness. Our human, fallen, bodies, which includes our minds, crave things that kill our relationship with God. Paul wrote about this in Romans 7, where, he called the flesh his sinful nature. We all, from birth, have a nature that drives us to sin in one form or another.

Notice the word "thoughts" in this verse. Our thoughts are included when thinking of our flesh. Christians may think they live a somewhat good moral life because they do not do certain things. I have heard Christian men say that they have never committed adultery, but in their thoughts, they have. What you think really is who you are. Life, whether good or bad, begins in our thoughts. Paul would have said that everyone's thoughts are a product of a sinful, fallen, nature.

Concerning our thoughts, look at what Paul said about our thought life in 2 Corinthians 10:5.

"... and every proud thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ."

According to the above verse, every thought that we have in our minds should be made captive to Jesus. That is, our thought life should be in the process of being put into submission to Jesus, which in turn will show up in the way you live life here on earth.

Paul spoke about our sinful nature when he said that "we were by nature children of wrath." From the moment that Adam disobeyed God, inherent in everyone ever to be born is a sinful nature. The very core of who we are is sinful and is in defiance of God, our creator. It is for this reason that we "are children of wrath." Children of wrath means that all non-Christians are under, and subject to, the wrath of God that sends people to the Lake of Fire, as seen at the end of the Book of Revelation. Becoming a true born again of the Spirit Christian rescues us from God's wrath that will eventually culminate in the Lake of Fire .

God is just, and because He is just, sin must be accounted for and punished. If God did not account for our sin, then, He would not be just. Inherent in the meaning of justice is the fact that wrong must be recognized, accounted for, and punished. The Biblical fact of the matter is that Jesus became accountable for our sin. It was Jesus who took our punishment on our behalf. He suffered the wrath of God in our place. Those who reject what Jesus has done for them will suffer an intense form of God's wrath in the next life. Rejecting Jesus' supreme act of love is the worst sin anyone can commit.

I distinguish between anger and wrath. I believe that wrath is an explosive, more intense, form of anger, something that Christians will not experience in the next life because Jesus has suffered God's wrath while on the cross in our place. 1 Thessalonians 5:9 makes this point.

"For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,"

Verse 4

^"But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us,"

Paul said that God is "rich in mercy." The Greek word "elios" is translated here as mercy. The concept of mercy is the practical display of pity on one who has a need. It implies that the one who has pity on the needy has the ability to supple the need of the needy. Human beings are very needy, needier than we ever will know, at least in this life. It is God, who has great abundance of whatever is necessary to help us in our need.

Why does God have such pity on us? There are many reasons that could be given to answer this question but the one Paul provides here is that God loves us. The Greek word "agape" is translated here as "love." Agape is sacrificial love. It is the setting aside of one's self to give to another. It's the love that is demonstrated through sacrifice. By His very nature, God is, sacrificial love.

The English verb "he had" in the Greek text is actually "He loved" and "He loved" is an aorist active indicative verb. This suggests a specific act of sacrificial love that has been completed by God Himself, and there is no doubt about its reality. Paul might well have had Jesus’ one time-death on the cross in mind when he penned these words.

Verse 5

"... made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!"

God, who is rich in both mercy and love, made us alive with Christ. One becomes alive with Christ when one receives the Spirit of Christ into his very being. In Evangelical vernacular, it is called being born again of the Spirit. Paul's view of our existence apart from the Holy Spirit in our lives is that it is death. We may be physically alive, but without the Holy Spirit in our lives, it is not much of a life. Of course, this is hard for one without the Holy Spirit to comprehend. To him, this makes absolutely no sense, but it is Biblical truth. Those without the Holy Spirit within them have nothing to compare life with. That is to say, a Christian knows both what it is like to live without the Holy Spirit and to live with the Holy Spirit. He experiences a clear difference in his life, something that the non-Christian cannot comprehend.

Paul then said that even when we were dead in trespasses, God made us alive. That shows us how much mercy God has for us. He sees our need and does something about it. Our need here is described in terms of living in trespasses. The word "trespass" means a misstep, or, a slip-up. We trip and fall in life and get off the track that God would have us on. Once off the track we cannot get back on it so God, picks us up and does what is necessary, by His Spirit, and puts us on His path, the path of real life.

All of this is a matter of grace. There are two definitions of grace. The first is more common, and that is God's love demonstrated to us who do not deserve His love. It's called "unmerited favour." The second definition is God's divine ability to do His will. A person apart from Jesus is in sad shape. He has no ability to be as he was created to be. So, God's love is demonstrated to that person, who does not deserve God's love. God's sacrificial love reaches down, places the needy on the right path and then enables him to stay on the right path.

In the next few verses Paul will explain what being alive in Christ is all about.

Verse 6

"He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus,"

In the last verse Paul said that we, the believers, have been made alive in Christ, but here he clarifies this a bit. We have been both made alive in Christ by being raised from the dead in Him, and we also, beyond that, have been raised up with Him into the heavenly realm. This is something that modern Christian understanding seems to be missing. If you have the Holy Spirit living within you, and you must have Him within you, or else you are not a Christian, then you live in two worlds. In physical form you live in the material world. In spiritual form, you are seated alongside Jesus in the heavenly world. Yes, right now, it is just as much a reality to be seated alongside Jesus as it is to be seated beside a person here on earth. If you do not understand this, you are not living the life of a Christian. If you do understand this present reality but fail to live it, you also are not living the life of a real Christian.

Right now, Jesus is sitting beside His Father. Whatever that may look like, it means that Jesus is ruling all things material and all things spiritual alongside of God. Read what Paul wrote in Colossians 3:1.

"So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God."

Paul clearly said that Jesus sits at God's right hand. In the first-century Greco-Roman world, to sit at someone's right hand was a metamorphic term, picture language, to mean one rules with the one he sits beside. Right now, Jesus rules at God's side, and, because we sit beside Jesus, we rule with Jesus. The true Christian has been authorized by Jesus to perform certain tasks on behalf of Jesus, here on earth. We see this expressed to a degree in the Great Commission of Matthew 28:18 and 19, which reads:

"Jesus came near and said to them, 'All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit ..."

The Biblical fact from verse 6 is that as Christians we exist in the heavenly world just as much as we exist in the material world. From this heavenly world, we have been given the responsibility to perform certain tasks on behalf of Jesus. We are not just seated with Jesus for the enjoyment of fellowshipping with Him. We are seated with Him to receive instructions and the ability to do His will here in the material world.

My point is simple. Jesus has His job to do and we have our job to do. If we do not do our job, we limit Jesus in doing His job. We are co-workers with Jesus. It is about mutual co-operation.

Verse 7

"... so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus."

Note the word "ages" in this verse. It is the plural form of the Greek word "ion," that signifies an era. We should understand this Greek word, not in terms of a specific duration of time but time as it relates to some kind of character trait.

The Jews understood that there were only two ages. Those were the present age and the next age, that is, the age of the Messiah. Here Paul wrote about multiple ages. It is difficult to get into the mind of Paul, but it seems that he was saying that God's great and immeasurable grace and kindness would be demonstrated to us forever. The character traits of these ages, however long they are, are God's love and grace, being given to those who belong to Him.

The Greek word "charis" is translated here and elsewhere in the New Testament as grace. This means God's love given to us who do not deserve His love. It also means God's divine ability given to the believer to accomplish God's will.

Paul spoke about God's grace and kindness as being immeasurable and rich. We have seen the words "immeasurable" and "rich" earlier in this letter. The word "immeasurable" is translated from the Greek word “hyperballo," meaning, "to throw over the top." We derive our English word "ball" from the Greek word "ballo." The word "rich" is translated from the Greek word "ploutus." It denotes any kind of abundance, either spiritual or material.

Paul's point in this verse is this: God's grace and kindness, which are really beyond our knowing, will be shown to those who belong to Him forever and ever. This is something to meditate on, especially when we understand the sinfulness of our human nature and the perfect righteousness of who God is. We certainly do not deserve anything that God's gives us through His provision of grace.

Verse 8

"For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift,"

Verse 8 is one of the most well-known verses in the Bible. The important words in this verse are, "saved," "grace," "faith," and "gift."

We should understand being saved, or, salvation, is a broad term that expresses many things. It incorporates the idea that all of creation will be saved, in as much as the book of Revelation closes with the creation of a new heaven and earth. In this instance, in verse 8, Paul was writing about what I call personal salvation. There are many things that the Christian is saved from, but the primary thing is that he is saved from God's wrath that will be exhibited in the Lake of Fire .

This personal salvation is a result of God's grace and our faith. God's grace was seen in the cross of Christ where Jesus paid the price for our salvation. It is through our faith, or, our trust in Jesus and what He has done for us, that we receive this personal salvation. We should understand the word "faith" to mean "trust" because that is what its Greek equivalent "pistis" means. We should also understand that we do not have the ability to fully put our trust in both Jesus and what He has done for us. We, thus, need His help in the process of trusting Him. Look at what Romans 12:3 says.

"For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one."

According to the above verse, it is God, not us, who generates faith. It is God who distributes faith, or the ability to trust Him, into the life of the believer.

Verse 9

"… not from works, so that no one can boast."

Paul had just told his readers that salvation was a matter of faith, or, trusting, in God's grace. It is my thinking that the word "faith," so basic to Christian belief and doctrine, demands our attention. It is sad to say, but many western-world Christians do not even understand one of the basic words that they claim to be a vital word in the Christian vocabulary. Faith is trust. It is not a commodity that you can get more of. If you want more faith, or, more trust, with the co-operation of the Holy Spirit, you trust Jesus more. In fact, one does not just trust Jesus for his salvation, one trusts Jesus for his entire life, which includes one's salvation.

In verse 9, Paul tells us why our salvation is not a matter of works, which is, our own ability. If we could obtain salvation through anything we could do, then sinful, human nature would boast about our own efforts in obtaining salvation.

The word "works" in this particular context can be understood in broad terms. Works, would thus be, any activity we as human beings would do in the attempt to receive salvation from God. In a more narrow sense of the word, which I don't believe Paul was using here, works can be considered works of the Law of Moses that the Jews understood must be obeyed in order to be made right in the sight of God.

Paul was speaking to a community of believers that consisted of more Gentiles than Jews. Jews would have been taught that by obedience to the Law of Moses, and, to the rabbinical laws that were added to the Law of Moses, one could be accounted righteous in the sight of God. In Paul's day some were teaching that salvation was a product of both obeying the Law of Moses and Jesus. Paul maintained that was not the case. Salvation was strictly a matter of the believer trusting in God's grace, and nothing else.

The concept that no human effort was needed to obtain favour from the gods was a foreign idea in the Gentile world also. Polytheistic (belief in multiple gods) paganism was full of human effort. The pagans had to do all sorts of things to appease their pagan gods and remove the wrath of their gods from their lives.

So, the broad definition of the word "works" would fit the religious thinking of both the Jews and the Gentiles in Paul's day. I believe it would also fit into the definition of works as seen in much of the Evangelical Christian world in times past, as well as today, when it was thought church rules would have to have been maintained in order to stay saved.

Verse 10

^"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do."

Paul is not finished with the idea of good works. He wrote more about it, here in verse 10, but before we get to that, let us look at the word "workmanship." This word is translated from the Greek word "poiema." This word means "to make or to create." We derive our English word "poem" from this Greek word.

Paul said that we are, right now in the present time, His, or God's, workmanship. We are God's creation. We are God's tool, but from the creation account of Genesis 1 and 2 on, we as humans have failed miserably as God's tool. It is for this reason that we have been recreated, or, reborn, in Christ Jesus. This recreation takes place when the Holy Spirit comes into one's life. Paul mentioned this in 2 Corinthians 5:17. That verse reads:

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!"

When the Holy Spirit comes into one's life, it is the Holy Spirit that enables us to do good works. We do not do these good works in our own human strength, and if we do, they may be meaningful to the recipients of the good works, but they will do nothing in relation to your standing before God. The good works that Paul was writing about here were good works inspired and empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Paul then said that our Holy Spirit-empowered good works was something that God had planned for the believer prior to his salvation. I believe this was in the mind of God when He created man in the first place.

It was no mistake on God's part that Adam disobeyed God and brought all of creation, including man, into a need for ultimate salvation. When God planted the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden, He did so for a purpose. I speculate that God knew Adam would fall from His grace and that might well have been His plan in order for Him to enter sinful humanity and to demonstrate sacrificial love to a sinful world.

Present-day Relevance

As a Christian you should remember that prior to being born again of the Spirit of God, you were dead. You were obviously physically alive, but without the Spirit of God in your life, life as you were meant to experience was dead. You were, in fact, a slave to both yourself and to the demonic world around you. This is how you should view your pre-Christian life. It is also how you should view all of those that you know have not been born again of the Holy Spirit. This may not sound culturally correct these days, but according to the above passage, it is Biblically correct.

If you do not experience a noticeable difference between your pre-Christian life and your Christian life, one of two things might be taking place. First, you may not actually be a born-again Christian. If you are indeed a born-again Christian, then you are not living in the realm of the Holy Spirit as you should be. Your life is grievous to God, meaning, you are grieving the Spirit as Paul said we should not do, in Ephesians 4:30. That verse reads:

"And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by him for the day of redemption."

We should also know that while dead in sin, before we gave our lives to Jesus, we were "objects of God's wrath," as Paul put it. All that changed when you became a Christian. True Christians do not, and never will, experience God's wrath. By trusting in the love and grace of Jesus, which is what the word "faith" means, we have been set free from experiencing the wrath of God as the unbeliever will experience it in the Lake of Fire.

You were saved, totally by God's grace. There is nothing that you can do to get saved and there is nothing you can do to stay saved. Just think about it. What possibly can a sinner, who is a sinner at the core of who he is, do to find acceptance of God.

Christianity has struggled over the years with its concept of staying saved. Our human nature causes us to think that staying saved is a matter of obeying rules, whether they are God's rules or our own man-made ecclesiastical rules. No rule can keep you saved. If you attempt to stay saved by what Paul called "human effort" in Galatians 3, you will surely fail at being a Christian.

In contrast to our inability to get saved and stay saved, God is rich in grace. As sinful as we are, God is by far more graceful than we are sinful. He, therefore, extends his unmerited favour, which is grace, towards us. Beyond that, His grace, meaning, His divine ability given to us to do His will, can keep us saved.

God has predetermined that we will not be counted in right standing with Him apart from His grace. That being said, God has recreated us as born-again believers to be His good workmanship. Our very lives should exhibit the Holy Spirit's ability within us to be God's good work. In other words, we do not simply do good works on His behalf because of our relationship with God, we are His good work.

People have often thought that the apostles James and Paul differed on the concept of good works as they relate to faith. I see no difference of opinion between these men. Both speak of genuine faith that leads to genuine good works. Good works do not save anyone, but, anyone who has been saved, will accomplish good works. I believe that both Paul and James would say that genuine faith will produce genuine good works. Good works is thus a result of faith. Good works do not precede faith, as in, they do not save you.

Ephesians 2:11 - 22

The Text

11 - So then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh — called "the uncircumcised" by those called "the circumcised," which is done in the flesh by human hands. ¹²At that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel , and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. ¹³But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh, ¹⁵he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. ¹⁶He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death. ¹⁷He came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, ²⁰built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. ²¹In him the whole building, being put together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. ²²In him you are also being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.

My Commentary

Verse 11

"So then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh — called 'the uncircumcised' by those called 'the circumcised,' which is done in the flesh by human hands."

In this verse Paul reminded his readers that they were once Gentiles according to the flesh. They were so named by the Jews, who were Jews according to the flesh. The word "flesh" in this verse obviously is in reference to circumcision. Gentile men were not circumcised while Jewish men were circumcised. In Jewish thought, circumcision was one of the main distinctions between a Jew and a non-Jew.

We read that God told Abraham that circumcision was to be instituted for him and all of his male descendents. It would be a sign, a symbol, of the covenant that Abraham had entered with God. This covenant is called the Abrahamic Covenant. It was an agreement that God made with Himself to bless Abraham and his descendents, which would become Israel . We read the ratification of this covenant in Genesis 15. Genesis 17:11 states the reason for circumcision.

"You [Abraham] must circumcise the flesh of your foreskin to serve as a sign of the covenant between me and you."

The insertion of the idea that physical circumcision was done by "human hands" is in contrast to the concept of one being circumcised in the heart, as seen in Romans 2:20:

"On the contrary, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart — by the Spirit, not the letter. That person's praise is not from people but from God."

Much can be said about Romans 2:20 as it applies to the Jews and the nation of Israel . That is a subject for another day and another book. The point I want to make here is that Paul's thinking throughout his letters was that circumcision of the flesh, as it pertains to one's acceptance with God and living a good moral life, has no relevance. It is the circumcision of the heart that is the important thing. Circumcision of the heart takes place when the Holy Spirit comes into one's life and He, not men, cuts away the sinfulness from our lives.

In Paul's mind, whether one is circumcised or not makes no difference, as Galatians 4:15 states.

"For both circumcision and uncircumcision mean nothing; what matters instead is a new creation."

In New Testament Christian terms, what matters is that when one receives the Holy Spirit into his life, he becomes a new creation. It is then that the Holy Spirit, not a knife used by the hand of man, will cut away the sin from one's life. He is not the one who he once was. That is only common sense. If the Spirit of the Almighty creator God joins Himself to you, you cannot help but be someone entirely new.

One thing this verse tells us about the makeup of the Ephesian church is that it consisted primarily of Gentile believers. It has been estimated by many that the Ephesian church could have been made up of ninety percent Gentiles and ten percent Jews. This estimation is based on the Jewish population of the city of Ephesus .

Verse 12

"At that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel , and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world."

Paul continued by saying that these Gentiles, in their prior life, were without Christ. Note here that Paul did not say "without Jesus." He said "without Christ," Christ being a title of Jesus, not part of His name. The context might, and I say might, suggest that Paul used the title "Christ" instead of the name "Jesus" because he was thinking of the atoning blood of Jesus, which we will see in the next verse. As the meaning of the title Christ implies, Jesus was chosen by God to offer His life on the cross, and He did so, on our behalf.

As Gentiles, Paul said that there were three things that distinguished them from the Jews, that is, Israel . The first distinction is that these Gentiles were excluded from the "citizenship of Israel ." That simply means they were not a part of the family of God as seen in Old Testament times.

The word "citizenship" in this verse is translated from the Greek word "politieia." We derive our English word "politics" from this Greek word. Politeia is in reference to how an individual stands in relation to the state. Gentiles had no standing as it pertained to Israel , the children or family of God.

The second point that Paul made concerning these Gentile believers prior life was that they were separated from the "covenants of promise." Note that the word "covenants" is plural. Paul is talking about more than one covenant, and just what ones he had in mind, might be debatable.

I am sure Paul would have had the Abrahamic Covenant in mind as one of these covenants. In short, the Abrahamic Covenant was an agreement that God made with himself to bless Abraham and his descendents. It is important to note that this covenant was not made between God and Abraham. God actually put Abraham to sleep while the covenant was ratified, as seen in Genesis 15. The fact that this covenant was an agreement that God made with Himself means that Abraham, nor his descendents, had anything to do with the fulfillment of the covenant. God would bring about the promises of the covenant no matter what Abraham or Israel did in response to what God promised in the covenant.

For a detailed explanation of the Abrahamic Covenant, you can refer to my book entitled, "Irrevocable Promises." It is available on all Amazon web sites.

Paul also probably had in mind the Mosaic Covenant, which unlike the Abrahamic Covenant, was an agreement made between God and Israel . Both God and Israel had their specific responsibilities to perform, and, if either God or Israel defaulted on their responsibilities, the covenant would be nullified and judgment would fall on the party not doing his job.

The Mosaic Covenant consisted of roughly six hundred and thirteen guidelines to follow. If Israel followed these guidelines, they would be blessed, but if not, they would be cursed, and cursed they ended up being.

There is the Davidic Covenant where God promised Israel that He would provide a king, a Messiah, who would rescue Israel from its enemies and from the curses of the Mosaic Covenant. Paul might well have had that covenantal agreement in mind as well.

The third point Paul made concerning the Gentiles prior life without Jesus concerned their hope in God. In Old Testament times the Jews had much hope and this hope was based in their God and the covenants mentioned above. Since the Gentile world was not a part of these covenants, they had no hope as it related to God. They were simply hopeless, lost in their sins, that would lead to eternal judgment. That all changed when Jesus came to earth to fulfill His Messianic mission. Although Jesus' earthly ministry was directed to the Jews, His sacrificial death was meant for all people, everywhere. Both Jews and Gentiles could thus find an eternal hope in Jesus. Both Jews and Gentiles could now find acceptance with God through one eternal sacrifice, thus nullifying all of the Old Testament sacrifices that were meant to cover over the sins of the Jews.

Verse 13

"But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ."

It was Jesus who has brought hope to the Gentile world. We should understand hope in Biblical terms, not in our western-world cultural terms. Hope is not seen as "I hope to win the lottery." Biblical hope is the certain expectation of a future reality. Hope is closer to real faith than many think. Biblical hope certainly does not suggest doubt or uncertainty.

Paul said that his Gentile readers were once far away, as in, far away from God and His promises. Now, because of Christ Jesus, that has all changed. They have been brought near by the blood of Jesus. The verb "brought near" is a Greek aorist passive indicative verb. Aorist means that their being brought near was a one-time, completed, action. Passive means that these Gentiles had no part in the process of being brought near. They were brought near by an outside action, and that was the Lord Himself. Indicative means this being brought near is a certainty. In short, and in context, these Gentile believers had been brought into the people belonging to God where they could be recipients of the covenantal promises, and have the same hope as the Jews. This status was placed upon them because of their trust in Jesus and His shed blood, as the passive verb suggest. The blood of Jesus is in reference to the death of Jesus on the cross.

Concerning the shed blood of Jesus, most Bible teachers will tell you that Jesus did not shed all of His blood while on the cross, as many have thought over the years. When the sword pierced His side as seen in John 19:34, both blood and water sprang from his body, but medical people would say that Jesus would not have lost all of His blood when the sword punctured His skin.

The concept of Gentiles becoming Jews, or, Gentiles becoming citizens of Israel has been a very controversial issue over the centuries. Some people believe that national Israel has been replaced by what they call Spiritual Israel, and Spiritual Israel consists of both Christian Jews and Christian Gentiles. They derived their thinking, at least in part, from verses like Romans 2:20, that reads:

"On the contrary, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart — by the Spirit, not the letter. That person's praise is not from people but from God."

A surface reading of Romans 2:20 suggests that there is a new Israel , and, it is not national Israel as seen in the Old Testament. When taking Romans 2:20 in context of all of Romans, especially Romans 9, 10, and 11, where Paul speaks of national Israel's restoration, I conclude that the nation ofIsrael still has prophetic significance in the mind of God.

God promised many things to national Israel in the Abrahamic Covenant. God is not one who revokes a promise, as seen in Romans 11:29.

"... since God’s gracious gifts and calling are irrevocable."

In the context of Romans 11, the above reference concerns the future restoration of national Israel . I maintain that the national state of Israel still has prophetic and historic significance in the mind of God. He has not replaced national Israel with spiritual Israel . National Israel will be restored as promised in the Abrahamic Covenant. Until the time Israel is restored, there is a spiritual Israel that consists of both Christian Jews and Christian Gentiles, as Paul was writing about here.

When the last Gentile who is to be saved is in fact saved, then the restoration of Israel , as predicted in the Old Testament will take place. I believe this is seen in Romans 11:25.

"I don't want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you will not be conceited: A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in."

Note the words "partial hardening." This leaves the door open for individual Jews to find salvation through Jesus, but Israel as a whole, is still hardened. When the last Gentile is saved, the move towards the restoration of national Israel begins.

Verse 14

"For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility In his flesh,"

Note the pronoun "he" in this verse. It is a Greek personal, possessive, pronoun. Some translations, thus read, "He Himself is our peace." We know that God is love from such passages as 1 John 4:8, which reads:

"The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love."

Just as the very nature of God is love, so, peace is also who God is. God, and thus, Jesus, is ultimate peace. Jesus is the source of peace and He belongs to the believer and the believer belongs to Him. Yes, He provides the believer with peace, but the way in which He provides us with peace is by giving Himself, via His Spirit, to us.

There are two aspects of peace found in the Bible. The one aspect is what I have just mentioned. When the Spirit of peace enters your life, you have an inner peace that can keep you through the rough times of life.

The other aspect of peace is that the believer is no longer an enemy of God. He is at peace with God. Sin, that had once separated the believer from God, making him an enemy, has been set aside because of the forgiveness that Jesus procured on the believer's behalf.

The two groups Paul mentioned in this verse are the circumcised and the uncircumcised. These are the Gentiles and the Jews. Jesus, by His sacrificial death on the cross abolished the two groups in the eyes of God. There is no longer any dividing wall of hostility, which in this context, was the Law of Moses given to the Jews as a constitution by which they could live.

Note that the specific dividing wall which Paul references is circumcision. Circumcision was the sign of the Abrahamic Covenant that was placed into the Mosaic Law. Male circumcision was an outward sign that the Jews were God's people. According to Paul, that was no longer the case.

The words "dividing wall" might also have a symbolic reference to the one and a half metre wall in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem that separated the Jews from the Gentiles. Gentiles were not permitted to go beyond the wall, and if they did, they could be executed.

This verse ends with the words "in the flesh." I will comment on this phrase as part of my commentary on the next verse, because grammatically speaking, it is part of that verse.

Verse 15

"... he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace."

This is one very important verse in understanding how New Testament Christians should relate to the Old Testament Law of Moses that was given to the Jews. The law Paul wrote about here is the Law of Moses. The Law of Moses was specifically given to the Jews, and not to Gentiles. You might say it was the constitution for the Jewish nation of Israel .

The Law of Moses was in fact a covenant between God and Israel that Israel agreed to keep. There were blessings and curses associated with the law. If Israel kept the law, they would be blessed. If Israel defaulted on their responsibilities of the law, they would be cursed, as they are today. All of the curses set forth and predicted in the law would come on the nation of Israel . I believe that not all of those curses have been completely fulfilled, and that is why I believe Israel is still under a curse today.

Paul said here, and elsewhere, that the Law of Moses has been abolished, and it was abolished when Jesus was punished for the sins of humanity on the cross. Colossians 2:14 reads:

"He [Jesus] erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it away by nailing it to the cross."

The certificate of death refers to the Law of Moses in Colossians 2:14. Paul said it was nailed to the cross with Jesus. Now read Romans 10:4.

"For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes,"

Here, Paul also made it clear. The Law of Moses has no more significance when it comes to being in right standing with God. Jesus put an end to that, and, as Paul said in Romans 10:4, we find right standing before God in Jesus. In other words, Jesus has replaced the Law of Moses. Much more can be said about this, but as Ephesians 2:15 states, one result of the Law's abolition is that there is now just one group of people who can be considered people of God. No longer do we have Jews and Gentiles. We have, what we now call, Christians.

Concerning the Law of Moses being cancelled, you might ask me, then why do I say that Israel is still under the curses of the Mosaic Law. I believe that the Law of Moses has its prophetic elements, and, those prophetic parts, still need to be fulfilled. When it comes to being made right in the sight of God, the Law of Moses has no significance in these New Testament days.

All of this has raised a major debate among Christians. Because God's people are those who have handed their lives over to Jesus, whether Jew or Gentile, where is national Israel in God's scheme of things?

In terms of salvation, in this present age of grace, there is only one people of God, and that is those who have given their lives to Jesus. That, however, does not nullify the promises that God spoke to Abraham about his descendents, that became Israel . God is not capable of breaking a promise. National Israel will be restored as predicted once all of the Old Testament prophecies about Israel are fulfilled. Once the last curse of the Law of Moses is placed on national Israel , all Israel will be saved. This is what Romans 9 through 11 is all about. Read Romans 11:25 and 26.

"I don’t want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you will not be conceited: A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved ..."

Paul said that at some future date all Israel will be saved. All Israel does not mean all Jews of all time. It means all Jews who survive what we call the Great Tribulation. Zechariah 13:8 states that two thirds of the Jews will be lost during the Great Tribulation. It is the remaining one third of Jews that will be saved. That verse reads:

"In the whole land [ land of Israel ] — this is the LORD’s declaration — two-thirds will be cut off and die, but a third will be left in it."

Now read Romans 11:28 and 29.

"Regarding the gospel, they [Jews] are enemies for your advantage, but regarding election, they are loved because of the patriarchs, since God’s gracious gifts and calling are irrevocable."

The patriarchs that Paul mentioned in the above verse are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They were promised many things, including nationhood. Paul said that God will not revoke these promises. He cannot revoke what He promised, nor can He change His mind. God is faithful. It is not in Him to promise something and not fulfill His promise.

The result of all this is that in this present New Testament age there is no distinction between Jews and Gentiles when it comes to salvation. There is, however, a distinction between the nation of Israel and the nations of the world concerning prophetic history as it applies to the Jews, who were promised to be restored some day.

Verse 16

"He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death."

In verse 16 Paul said that Jesus, while on the cross, did what was necessary to reconcile "both." The word "both" refers to both Jews and Gentiles. There was great enmity between the Jew and the Gentile. The cross of Christ removed that in the sight of God. Jews and Gentiles could now live together in one body, the family of God.

This enmity was in part due to God Himself. The very fact that He created a special class of people known as the Jews caused this separation. That being said, the plan of God all along would unite both Jew and Gentile into one body. This is the teaching of the New Testament. It is what we see in 1 Corinthians 12 through 14 where Paul teaches on the Body of Christ.

We must understand that the cross of Christ is a multi-faceted historic event. More than forgiveness of sin was purchased for us by Jesus dying on the cross. Many things took place on the cross, all of which can be implemented in our lives.

The reason why the wall was broken down between the Jew and the Gentile was because, as I have previously written, the Law of Moses died with Jesus. Jesus replaced the Law of Moses, and without the Law, there was no wall of separation. That Law was the wall that separated the Jew from the Gentile. The Law of Moses, or any other law, could not transform a person from a sinful life to a holy life. Only Jesus, as He entered a person via His Spirit could such a transformation take place.

Verse 17

"He came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near."

The gospel message, or the "good news," as Paul said it here, was the good news of peace. The word "peace" in this context must be understood as peace between the Jews and the Gentiles. The word "peace" is used a few ways in the New Testament. One can have peace with God, meaning, he has been reconciled to God. He is no longer an enemy of God. One can also have the peace of God in his life that keeps him through the tough days of life. Here we see that Gentiles can have peace with Jews, something that is new to the New Testament era. Jews and Gentiles throughout the Old Testament times were at odds with one another.

Verse 18

"For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father."

John 14:18 says this:

"I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you."

Just days before Jesus died, He told some of His disciples that He would not leave them alone. He would return to them. Jesus was not talking about His second coming back to earth. He was talking about coming to them in the form of the Holy Spirit, which He did, on the Day of Pentecost, as seen in Acts 2. It was for this reason why Jesus provided forgiveness of sins for us on the cross. Our sins had to be forgiven before we could be reconciled to God. Reconciliation takes place when Jesus, via the Holy Spirit comes into one's life. This is what Paul is getting at here.

The way in which we can have access to God, the Father, or, be in right relationship with Him, is through His Spirit who lives within the true believer. There is no access to God apart from the Holy Spirit of God. Apart from the Holy Spirit it is all humanism, and human effort gets us nowhere with God. Paul expanded on this point in Galatians 3.

Verse 19

"So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household,"

In this verse Paul was writing specifically to the Gentile believers in and around Ephesus . We know that because Gentiles, in days past, in the eyes of God, were strangers and foreigners. That is no longer the case. The true Christian, whether Jew or Gentile, can now be a part of God's family. This is what the Jewish establishment really got worked up about. Paul, a former Pharisee, was teaching that Gentiles, through the cross of Christ, could now be a part of God's family. This was not religiously acceptable to the Jews.

Paul wrote that believing Gentiles were citizens with the saints. Remember, the word "saints' means "separated ones." Believing Gentiles, then, were separated from their natural ethnicities and placed into the citizenship of the saints. In other words, Christian Gentile believers were now citizens of the Kingdom of God .

As Christians we live in two kingdoms. We live in a kingdom of man and we live in the Kingdom of God . Our allegiance is first to God's kingdom, not the nation in which we live. If there is a conflict between the two kingdoms, as there often is, we submit to the Kingdom of God .

During the early 1980's I lived in Virginia, U.S.A. . While living in America I was a landed immigrant in America . I was not a citizen. I was a resident alien as my green card said. When it comes to Gentile believers, they are not resident aliens in the kingdom of God . They are citizens.

Verse 20

"... built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone."

The foundation spoken of here refers back to the household of God, that is, God's New Testament family. The foundation of this new family is both the apostles and the prophets. The word "prophets" here refers to New Testament prophets, not Old Testament prophets. Any time you read the words "apostles and prophets" in the New Testament, especially after the Day of Pentecost as seen in Acts 2, the prophets spoken of are New Testament prophets.

Some parts of the church today do not believe in present-day apostles or prophets, but that is not what the New Testament teaches. Beyond the original twelve apostles, plus Paul, there are other apostles seen in the New Testament. The same applies to prophets. There are prophets mentioned in the New Testament that were not Old Testament prophets. The ministry of the apostle and prophet are for today, although, there as been much abuse of these important ministry callings. Not all who claim to be an apostle or prophet are true apostles and prophets.

Paul then went on to write that Jesus is the cornerstone to this New Testament building that is presently being built. The cornerstone is the most important stone, brick, or block, that any building is built upon. It's the first stone that is placed in the foundation. It is key to the structure of the whole building

Verse 21

"In him the whole building, being put together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord."

The pronoun "him" refers to Jesus in verse 21. It is because of Jesus, and through Him, that in this present age, the true New Testament temple is being put together, and is growing into, a holy temple.

We should understand the church, the Body of Christ, the household of God, is also thought of in terms of a temple, a temple where in fact God lives. The Old Testament temple was a place where God was supposed to live, but for the most part didn't because it was corrupted with sin more often than not.

In 1 Corinthians 3:16 Paul wrote that the body of believers is the New Testament temple. Here is what he wrote.

"Don't you yourselves know that you are God's temple and that the Spirit of God lives in you?"

In 1 Corinthians 6:19 he said that the individual believer was also a temple of God where God lived. He said this.

"Don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,"

The New Testament thus teaches that both the individual Christian and the church as a whole is the temple of God , and as a temple, is where God lives on earth through His Spirit.

When thinking of a temple, we should know that there is no earthly building temple where God lives. While being raised in Evangelical Christianity in the 1950's and 1960's we were told that our church building was the Temple of God , suggesting to me, that God actually lived in our church building. God does not live in buildings made by men as seen by what Paul said in Acts 17:24.

"The God who made the world and everything in it — he is Lord of heaven and earth — does not live in shrines made by hands."

Verse 22

"In him you are also being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit."

Once again, Paul is confirming to the Gentile believers, that right now, in present time, they are being built as a dwelling place for God. This suggests that the building is not yet finished, and, even today, this building is not yet finished. It is still in the process of being built. Romans 11:25 might have something to say about this building project, especially as it relates to the Gentiles. The verse reads:

"I don’t want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you will not be conceited: A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in."

Based on the above verse, many Bible teachers believe that when the last Gentile is saved, the salvation of Jews and their nation will begin. When, therefore, the last Gentile is saved, the New Testament construction of the temple will be complete. The next phase in the plan of God is thus that final restoration of Israel as predicted by the prophets of the Old Testament.

Present-day Relevance

In this section of Paul's letter to the Ephesians Paul was addressing Gentile Christians. He was asking them to remember their prior lives as pagans. This might well be a good exercise for Christians today. That is to say, remember what your life was before you handed it over to Jesus. This would do at least two things in your thought processes. It would distinguish who you once were and who you now are as a Christian. That should make you very thankful to Jesus for the change He has brought into your life. If there has not been any noticeable change, you might not actually be the Christian you claim to be.

The other thing that remembering your past life might do for you is to confirm that you are actually a believer in Jesus. It would remind you just when you did become a Christian. Obviously that would be important to prove that you are, in fact, a true Christian.

If you are a Gentile believer, you have been brought into the citizenship of Israel , as Paul stated. This concept has been heavily debated over the centuries. It is my understanding that the Bible teaches that there is a natural Israel and a spiritual Israel . The natural Israel was birthed in the Old Testament, where God had chosen the descendents of Abraham to be a nation unto themselves that God would bless. These blessings were cemented into history as seen in the Abrahamic Covenant. A close reading of Romans 11 will show that God has not changed his mind concerning the blessings He promised Israel , despite their disobedience to Him. The Old Testament prophets predicted the day when Israel would be restored to God's original intent for the nation. That is yet to take place in history.

The New Testament shows us that there is a spiritual Israel that consists of both Jews and Gentiles, those who have been circumcised in the heart and not the flesh with the reception of the Holy Spirit into their lives. Spiritual Israel , as seen in the present New Testament age, does not mean God has forsaken natural Israel . When the last Gentile becomes a Christian, the move to the restoration of natural Israel will begin. A close study of Romans 11 shows this to be true.

In our present age, if you are a Gentile believer, be thankful that you are counted as one of the important people of God in the age in which we live.

The union of Gentile and Jewish believers into one people of God was facilitated on the cross of Christ. It was then that Jesus nullified the Law of Moses that had been given to the Jews. It was the Law of Moses that Paul said was the dividing wall; the wall that separated the Jew from the Gentile. That law no longer exists for the purpose of being part of the people of God. It was crucified with Jesus on the cross. This is very important if you are a Christian today.

Over the years Evangelical Christians have not properly understood how they as New Testament Christians are to relate to the Law of Moses. They, therefore, have picked parts of the law to obey and have left the rest not to be obeyed. The Law of Moses never permitted such picking and choosing of which laws to obey. The fact of the matter is that the Christian is not obligated to obey the Law of Moses, and that includes such laws as tithing and Sabbath rules. Instead, Christians are to obey Jesus. For a detailed discussion on this, especially as it applies to tithing of money, you can read my book entitled "Should I Tithe?"

All this results in one new race of people that we call church, the Body of Christ, or as some say it, Spiritual Israel.

Paul ends this section by saying that Gentile believers have become part of the New Testament temple of God , where God Himself, lives and exists through His Holy Spirit. It is mandatory that we as Christians understand that both us as individuals and the church as a whole, is actually the dwelling place of God on earth. If this is lacking from your understanding, your concept of church is faulty. This is part of the theology of God that transforms a life into something altogether new.

Ephesians 3:1-13

1 - For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles — ²you have heard, haven’t you, about the administration of God’s grace that he gave to me for you? ³The mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have briefly written above. ⁴By reading this you are able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ. ⁵This was not made known to people in other generations as it is now revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: ⁶The Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and partners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. ⁷I was made a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by the working of his power.

⁸This grace was given to me—the least of all the saints — to proclaim to the Gentiles the incalculable riches of Christ, ⁹and to shed light for all about the administration of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things. ¹⁰This is so that God’s multi-faceted wisdom may now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavens. ¹¹This is according to his eternal purpose accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. ¹²In him we have boldness and confident access through faith in him.^] ¹³So then I ask you not to be discouraged over my afflictions on your behalf, for they are your glory.

My Commentary

Verse 1

"For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles ..."

The words "for this reason" begin this chapter. We need to ask what reason is Paul writing about here. Paul had just finished writing about the Ephesian Gentile believers who had now been included into the family, or, the people of God. It was for this reason that Paul was now in prison.

In order for the Gentiles to be included into the New Testament people of God, Paul had to go into the Gentile world and preach this message of inclusion. It was during this process of preaching the good news to the Gentiles that Paul was arrested and put into prison. If God had not permitted the Gentiles into His family, and, if Paul had not gone into the Gentile world to preach, Paul would most likely not have been in prison at this moment of his life.

Note that Paul did not consider himself a prisoner of the Roman government. He considered himself a prisoner of Jesus, something that would sound strange to many of us today. The fact of the matter is that as I said above, Paul was in prison because of Jesus, and thus, he thought of himself as being His prisoner.

There are three times that we know of when Paul was in prison. He was in prison once for about two years in Caesarea (Acts 23:23 and following, and 24:27), over night in Philippi (Acts 16:16 - 40) and two years of house arrest in Rome (Acts 28:17 and following). He might well have been in prison other times as well but we do not have any record of that.

Note the pronoun "I" in the phrase "I, Paul." Paul was emphasizing the fact that he was indeed in prison.

Verse 2

"... you have heard, haven’t you, about the administration of God’s grace that he gave to me for you?"

Note the word "administration" in the CSB's version of this verse. It is translated from the Greek word "oikonomia." This Greek word consists of two other Greek words. They are "oikos," meaning "house," and, "nomos," meaning "law." This word could also be translated as "management" or "steward." Paul was simply saying that God had given him the responsibility to administer God's grace to the Gentile world. I would think that this is a very important responsibility. This responsibility would mean that Paul would preach the grace of God. This would inform the Gentile world that God's grace was now available to them, but it had to go beyond preaching. It would also include leading people, or, introducing people to Jesus which would include being used in the process of giving the Holy Spirit to those who accepted his preaching. We see this in Acts 19:1 through 6 where Paul laid hands on certain Ephesian men to receive the Holy Spirit. This would be administering God's grace to those men.

This question could be asked. Are all Christians, to one degree or another, ministers of God's grace? I would say they are. That being said, Paul did have a special, life-long calling, to devote himself to the task of administering God's grace to the Gentiles, and that took him across the Roman Empire .

Verse 3

"The mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have briefly written above."

The Greek word "apokalypsis" is translated as "revelation" here and elsewhere in the New Testament. This word means to uncover something that has been previously covered over. The book of Revelation, then, is a book that uncovers things that have not yet been revealed or known to us.

We know that Paul had many revelations which came in the form of visions or some kind of spiritual interaction with God through His Spirit. 2 Corinthians 12:1 reads:

"Boasting is necessary. It is not profitable, but I will move on to visions and revelations of the Lord."

In defence of his ministry, Paul made mention that he had many visions and revelations from the Lord, some of which Paul was not permitted to talk about, as seen in 2 Corinthians 12:4.

"... [Paul] was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a human being is not allowed to speak."

Verse 4

"By reading this you are able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ."

This verse is easy to understand. Paul was simply telling his readers that by telling them about his revelations, they could understand why he had this special insight concerning God's mystery that he was now uncovering.

Verse 5

"This was not made known to people in other generations as it is now revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit:"

Paul said here that in times past, in Old Testament times, the mystery that he was writing about was never known. The contents of the mystery was now being reveal to, and understood by, the apostles and prophets of his day.

As we have seen, the mystery that was hidden in times past was that Gentiles, through trusting their lives with Jesus, were now considered part of the people of God. It was no longer, at least in this present age, the Jews who were God's chosen people.

The first record of this revealing of the mystery is seen in Acts 10 when God revealed to Peter through a vision that Gentiles were now included into the people of God and that he was to go and lead a Gentile family to Jesus.

The word "prophets" here must be understood in terms of New Testament prophets that lived during the days of Paul. They were not Old Testament prophets. That is obvious because Old Testament prophets did not have this mystery revealed to them.

The insertion of New Testament prophets into this verse tells us that there is the prophetic ministry in these New Testament times. Some Christians do not believe that the ministry of the apostle and prophet are for today. They believe those ministries passed away with the first generation church. There is no New Testament support for this view.

Verse 6

"The Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and partners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel."

In one brief statement, here in verse 6, Paul states the mystery that has been revealed.

First of all, Gentiles are "coheirs." Paul does not say who the Gentiles are coheirs with in this sentence but it is clear from the context that the Gentiles are now coheirs with the Jews. The word "coheirs" is in reference to those who are in receipt of an inheritance. The inheritance that Paul probably had in mind was the inheritance promised to Abraham in what is called the "Abrahamic Covenant." That is how a Jew would have thought about being and heir in Paul's day. God made promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and now Paul states that these promises not only apply to Abraham's descendents, but they apply to Gentile believers as well.

The words "members of the same body" means that both believing Jews and Gentiles, who have handed their lives over to Jesus, form one unified body. This is one of Paul's major themes throughout his writings, a theme that the Jewish establishment considered heresy.

Coheirs does not mean that the Gentiles and the Jews split the inheritance in half. Both get all of the inheritance that was originally directed towards the Jews.

In respect to the Abrahamic Covenant, that is, the promises that God spoke to Abraham, we should understand that part of the promises would be realized through one specific offspring of Abraham. Who that offspring is not specifically stated in the covenant, but most believe it is Jesus, as I believe. This might well be what Paul had in mind when he wrote about "being partners of the promise" that he associates with Jesus and the gospel message. For a detailed account of the Abrahamic Covenant you can read my book entitled "Irrevocable Promises."

The gospel message that Paul and others preached was the message that Jesus came to reconcile all peoples of all ethnicities through His life, death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. It was the good news that all peoples could escape eternal damnation in the Lake of Fire .

Verse 7

"I was made a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by the working of his power."

Paul said that he "was made" a servant. This verb is a Greek aorist, passive, indicative verb. This means that the making of a servant of Paul was a one time accomplished action, probably when he met Jesus on the road to Damascus . Passive means that the making of a servant out of him was an action that he did not do. This action was done to him by an outside source, which would have been Jesus. Indicative means that Paul being made a servant was a certain fact or reality.

Our English word "servant" is translated from the Greek word "diakonos." We derive our English word "deacon" from this Greek word. A diakonos was a servant by choice. On the other hand, the Greek word "doulos" that is also translated as servant in the New Testament is a servant, not by choice, but by constraint.

The Greek word "diakonos" suggests one being a servant, and his service relates more to his duties than to his master. Doulos suggests a servant who is more in submission to his master than his work.

Paul was made a servant, but since the Greek word "diakonos" is translated as "servant" here, suggests that he still had a choice in the matter, meaning, he could have refused being a servant upon Jesus making him one.

When the New Testament translates servant from the Greek word "dooulos," as in "the servant of the gospel," doulos should be understood as one preaching the gospel in obedience to his Master.

Paul viewed himself as a servant of the gospel by the gift of God's grace. Grace, in this verse suggests unmerited favour, meaning, Paul did not deserve to be a servant of the gospel of Christ. The other meaning of grace might well fit in here as well. Grace can also be defined as "God's divine ability given to us to accomplish His will." Paul certainly had divine ability given to him to accomplish God's will for his life, and, that ability was a gift from God.

The word "working" is translated from the Greek word "energeia," which I've said is where we derive our English word "energy." The Greek word "dynamis" is translated as "power" in this verse. Paul was simply saying that God's gift of grace was given to him through the dynamic power of God's explosive energy in his life.

Verse 8

"This grace was given to me—the least of all the saints — to proclaim to the Gentiles the incalculable riches of Christ,"

I believe that Paul was, and is, the most important Christian in history. He did not merely lead many people to Jesus in his day on earth, but his influence has come down to us today who still benefit from his life and ministry from his teaching. With that in mind, he was a very humble man as seen in the words "the least of all of the saints." If Paul was a humble man, we have no reason not to be humble as well. If anyone could be proud, it would be Paul, but he was certainly not a proud man.

Notice the word "saints." It is translated from the Greek word "hagios," which means "those who have been separated from the general population." All true Christians are saints because all true Christians have been separated from their surrounding culture and placed into the culture of God. Catholics have it wrong when they designate certain Christians to be saints.

We see the word "proclaim" in this verse . Other versions of the Bible might use the word "preach." proclaim or preach is translated from the Greek word "euaggelizo." We derive our English word "evangelical" from this Greek word.

The word "incalculable" is seen in the CSB version of the Bible is a good word because its Greek equivalent can be understood in terms of mathematics. When we connect the word "incalculable" with the word "riches" we understand that the very nature and essence of Jesus is pure richness. All of whom Jesus is should be considered as abundance, and from this abundance, He gives to us all we need to survive as Christians in an anti-Christ culture. 2 peter 1:3 confirms this. It reads:

"His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness."

Paul had been given grace, that is both, the divine ability to effectively preach the gospel and the undeserved merit to do so.

Verse 9

"... and to shed light for all about the administration of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things."

Our English word "light" in this verse is translated from the Greek word "photizo." This Greek word is rooted in the Greek word "phos," meaning light. We derive our English word "photo" from this Greek word.

It was Paul's ministry, his responsibility, to shed light, or uncover, the mystery that had been covered-over from human eyes in ages past. The word "administration" means that it was now time in human history that God's plan of the ages would now be revealed and begun to be implement. Paul was an important man in the implementation of uncovering, or, making known, God's plan for humanity. We, as Christians, are to follow in Paul's footsteps. We are responsible to make God's will known to the world around us.

According to this verse, Paul understood, as we should too, that it was God who created all things, and I might add, all things spiritual as well as material. The details of His creation are not clearly set forth in the Bible. The information provided us in the Genesis account is extremely limited, and, I do not believe was meant to be understood in scientific terms. This means that we cannot confront Darwinism and defend Creationism from Genesis, chapter 1. Genesis 1 is more of a religious account than a scientific account that many Christians believe it to be.

Verse 10

"This is so that God’s multi-faceted wisdom may now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavens."

I like the term "multi-faceted" as it applies to God's wisdom. I believe that God is multi-faceted in all aspects of His nature. He is far beyond our limited understanding. This is also seen in the cross of Christ which I have always maintained is a multi-faceted historical event. Jesus' death was more than the act of forgiveness of sin than most Christians think. Many things were accomplished by Jesus' death on the cross. In this verse we see that God's wisdom is multi-faceted, and needs to be somehow expressed through the church to the surrounding culture, and especially our surrounding spiritual culture as the words "rulers and authorities" imply.

Part of our duties as the church is to demonstrate to the satanic world by the way we live, preach, and exhibit the reality of the present-day Kingdom of God . Jesus has been given all authority, both in heaven and earth, by God, His Father. He has sent us into the world to represent Him to both the spiritual and material world. It is not that we are proceeding in our own authority. As representatives of Jesus, we carry out our responsibilities under the authority of Jesus. We perform our responsibilities in Jesus' name, not our own name, as many seem to do these days.

Verse 11

"This is according to his eternal purpose accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Note the words "eternal purpose." After God finished creating the material universe, and even before He created the spiritual universe, He had plans and goals in mind. He had an eternal purpose for all that He created, and, this purpose, would be realized in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our English verb "accomplished" is an aorist active indicative verb. This verb tense suggests a completed action performed by Jesus which is a certain fact. This would, then, suggest that the earthly life of Jesus completed what was necessary for God's plan or purpose to be realized. Some might suggest the act of accomplishing might have been the cross of Christ, and maybe it was. On the other hand, the act of accomplishing God's eternal purpose might actually be Jesus' entire earthly life, because, His life, for example, is just as important to our salvation as was His death and resurrection.

The very earthly life of Jesus has set in motion God's eternal purpose.

You might ask this question. Since the verb tense as describe above is a completed action, has God's purpose been totally realized? This might be debatable, but the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, which is a one time event, has a present-day reality that is being worked out in human time and space. In this sense of the word, there might well be an ongoing realization of God's eternal purpose.

The Greek word "aion" is translated in English here and elsewhere as "eternal." This Greek word signifies a period of indefinite time. That is to say, a period of time with no set ending. We should not necessarily understand "aion" as a set period of time, with beginning and ending, but, a period of time as it relates to something. For example, we speak of the age, or aion, of grace. When using that term, we are emphasizing the aspect of grace in that period. We are not suggesting anything about its beginning or end.

Verse 12

"In him we have boldness and confident access through faith in him."

The CSB begins this verse with the words "in him." It also ends the verse with "in him." This is a bit confusing. There are two different Greek words that Paul used here for our English word "him." This verse should be understood in terms of "in whom we have boldness ..." In context, the words "in whom" would be in reference to God, we have the ability to be bold and confident in our faith, or trust, we have in Jesus. As Christians, we are not those who are defeated in our spirits. We have the ability, right now in present time, to access God and all of who He is. This boldness comes from the faith He has inspired us with.

We need to understand faith as trust because that is what the Greek word "pistis" means that is translated as "trust" in the New Testament.

Verse 13

^"So then I ask you not to be discouraged over my afflictions on your behalf, for they are your glory."

Because of what Paul has just said, which includes that bold access we have with the God of all things material and all things spiritual, no Christian should stay in a place of discouragement because of afflictions that come our way. All of us have afflictions at times. We do get discouraged, as did Paul himself. We see his times of discouragement when we read his second letter to the Corinthians. Like Paul, however, we have all it takes from God to work our way out of discouragement.

Present-day Relevance

If you are a Gentile Christian, what Paul said here is very important to you, because, in these New Testament days, you are part of the community of God's people. By saying this, I am not discounting the importance of the nation of Israel as we see in the Old Testament. From my prophetic vantage-point, when this age comes to an end, all of the promises God promised Abraham concerning His descendents Israel will be realized. That means that Israel still has prophetic significance in the mind of God, but, until that day comes, the mystery that Paul revealed was that all people, everywhere, are invited to be citizens of God's New Testament community of people.

Paul was imprisoned a number of times in his life by the Romans. That being said, he did not consider himself to be a prisoner of Rome , but, a prisoner of Christ instead. This was the case because he was put into prison because of the mission Jesus had given him to do. Any hardships incurred along the way, then, would be due to the result of his mission. Paul understood something we should understand. If we have handed our lives over to Jesus, then, Jesus is in control of our lives. The hardships we endure are in compliant with His will.

Paul was responsible for the administration of God's will. Yes, Paul had a very special role in this administration, but, all Christians have some role to play in accomplishing God's will on earth. Like Paul, we should take our personal responsibility seriously. The problem with many Christians is that they have not been serious about their so-called Christian life to even know they have a role to play in this administration of God's plans.

Like Paul, we should consider ourselves as servants of Jesus. In certain parts of the western-world, Evangelical church, the Prosperity Movement has forgotten this concept of being a servant. Those in this unbiblical movement claim to be "Kids of the King," and therefore, deserve the best of everything in life. I think you would agree that Paul did not experience the best this world had to offer him. Paul was a blessed man, but he was not blessed with material blessings. His blessings came from being in right relationship with Jesus.

Another thing that Paul reminded us about is that Jesus is the final authority over all things material and all things spiritual. From this place of authority, He has asked us to work with Him in the implementation of God's will. This is an awesome request that far too many Christians do not take seriously. This is also theology that transforms a life into the very likeness of Jesus.

Ephesians 3:14 - 21

14 - For this reason I kneel before the Father ¹⁵from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. ¹⁶I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit, ¹⁷and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, ¹⁸may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, ¹⁹and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

²⁰Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us— ²¹to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

My Commentary

Verse 14 and 15

"For this reason I kneel before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named."

Note the opening words of this verse. What reason is Paul mentioning here? It would appear from the previous verse that some of the Ephesian believers were being very concerned about Paul's well-being. Paul encouraged them not to worry about him. That was typical Paul. You cannot get a man with a better attitude than Paul. In the midst of all that he was suffering, he told these believers that his suffering was actually for their benefit. Paul had a real heart-felt love for those whom Jesus asked him to care for. If suffering could lead to the Ephesian believer's glory, as he stated, he would gladly suffer.

It was for that reason that the Ephesian believers were worrying about Paul that he pray for them, or as he put it here, "kneeled his knees before the Father." The term "kneel before the Father" clearly denotes serious prayer on Paul's part for those to whom he was writing. A pastor, or a leader in the church, who does not pray for those he leads, is not fulfilling his ministry calling.

There is some debate over the rest of verse 15 to what exactly Paul was getting at. The word "family," according to the Greek word "patria" that is translated as "family" could include extended family or even a tribe.

Paul said that every family, extended family, tribe, and maybe even ethnic peoples, whether in heaven or on earth, derive their name from God. The earthly aspect to these families is not that difficult to figure out. All peoples, including the division of different ethnicities came from the will of God, as we see in Genesis 11. It is there that God separated humankind into various languages, and thus, various ethnic peoples, but Paul did not end there. He said that even the families in heaven derive their name, or their identity as the word "name" suggests, from God.

I'm not sure we can conclude that these heavenly families or tribes can be compared to earthly families or tribes. We know very little about heaven, spiritual beings, or those who have been relocated to heaven through death. All we can safely say is all heavenly beings derive their very existence from God, the Father.

We should realize that the Bible was written to, and written for humans, not angels, demons, or any other spiritual being. We, therefore, only know about the spiritual world around us as it pertains to its interaction with humanity as seen in the Bible. Most all other things we think we know about heaven is speculation, and, much of the dreams and visions people claim to have about heaven these days, are questionable in my opinion.

Verse 16

"I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit,"

Note the words "may grant." The Greek verb tense that Paul used here does not give any reference to time or duration of this granting of strength. In my thinking, Paul was leaving that up to the Lord. In His timing, these believers would receive the needed strength.

This strength would come to these believers because God is rich in such things. This has been one of Paul's themes throughout this letter. That is, despite your outward circumstances, God is rich in whatever you need to get through the trials so that His will can be accomplished in your life.

Note the strength that Paul is praying for is within the inner being of these people. This is important to the health of us all. Our inner self, has a direct correlation to our outer self. If we want to endure the outward trials of life that we all experience, our inner self must be strong, and how does that happen? For the true Christian, the Holy Spirit resides in him. That being true, our inner being can be strengthened by God's Spirit. Paul was certain a prime testimony to God's ability to keep him through the tough times of life.

Verse 17

"... and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love,"

Note the words "may dwell in your hearts." We should not understand these words to suggest that it was Paul's hope the Jesus might dwell in the Ephesians believer's hearts at some future date. It is obvious by verses like Ephesians 1:13 and 14 that these believers already had the Spirit of Christ within them. What I believe Paul was getting at hear was that he wanted these believers to make good used of the Spirit of Jesus who was already living in them, and they could do that by faith, or, by trusting Jesus no matter what situation they found themselves in.

The words "being rooted" in the Greek text suggest that these believers should "be rooted ones." That is, by virtue of their new nature in Christ, they are by that new nature rooted ones. We need to think of the word "established" in the same way. These believers are to be "established ones," or, "grounded in the faith ones.'

Verse 18

" ... may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love,"

The word "comprehend" in the phrase "may be able to comprehend" in the Greek text means "to take hold of something so you can claim it for yourself." Paul's hope and prayer for these people was that they would not only know God's love, but claim it as their own, and thus live accordingly. That is to say, the love God demonstrates to the believer must be firmly planted into the life of the believer so he can legitimately claim that he actually possesses God's love. When one takes ownership of something, he is willing to do whatever is necessary to maintain that which he owns because it belongs to him, and no one else.

Note the words "with all the saints." The love of God shown to the individual is not only an individual thing. It is a corporate thing. The individual believer, along with those to whom Jesus has placed him in the Body of Christ, together must know the love of God and claim His love for the church as a whole.

The words "length, width, height, and depth" are meant to suggest that we strive to know every last aspect of God's love. I would suggest that this is an impossibility in the present life. That does not mean we give up on trying to experience God's love in a way we don't experience today. There is always more to God and what we presently experience. He is so far above our human comprehension that it is an eternal task to develop our relationship with Him.

Verse 19

" ... and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."

In this verse Paul moves away from the love of God to the love of Jesus. He encourages us to know, that is, to experience the love of Jesus, that he also says is beyond knowing. Why would Paul tell us to know the love of Jesus if His love was beyond knowing? Like God Himself, Jesus is eternal. He has no beginning and He has no end. That would mean all of who both God and Jesus are, is eternal. This, then, would mean that the love of God and Jesus is eternal, and beyond humanly knowing. Simply put, Paul was encouraging his readers to devote themselves to Jesus so they could step by step, know the love of Jesus better today than they did yesterday. This is an eternal endeavor for the Christian. Throughout eternity we will be experiencing and knowing even better both the love of God and the love of Jesus.

Verse 20

"Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us— "

Verses 20 and 21 are a doxology, meaning, a statement the expresses the greatness and glory that is God. A doxology usually ends a service or a written document. This doxology ends this section of Paul's letter. The next half of the letter provides written instruction concerning how to live as Christians. Once knowing the theology that Paul expounded upon in the first three chapters, that theology should cause the believer to live as the person God expects, and thus, the instructions provided by Paul.

This is one very lofty doxology. God is more than capable of doing far beyond anything we could ever think of asking of Him. He can do much more than we can ever think, and why? God is eternal. He is unlimited in who He is and what He can do. Humans are limited in every aspect of our lives. For this reason we cannot figure God out. We cannot even begin to comprehend Him, and thus, there is always more to God than what we can ever ask of Him or think to ask. It is for this reason that God came to earth in human form. We can, at least to a degree, understand God through the life of Jesus because Jesus lived a human life.

Does this mean that we should expect to receive all sorts of good things from God in this life-time? I would suggest that the answer to this question is a certain "no." The very life of Paul, the one who wrote these words clearly tell us that the answer to this question is an emphatic "no." Paul did not receive everything He asked of God. Paul did not live a life of ease. Paul did not live what we would call the good life. Paul experienced much pain and anguish in his life, but all of that he considered to be temporary. All of eternity was awaiting Paul, and us as well. Where like Paul, we can experience all of who God is.

Note the words "the power that works in us." First of all, the Greek word "dynamis" is translated as "power" in this verse. This word is where we derive our English word "dynamite." God's dynamite power can work through us, and I would say, more than what we allow. Our human limitations obviously limit God's dynamite power from being expressed in and through us. That means there is much growth for us to experience as Christians.

Verse 21

^"...to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen"

God's glory, the greatness of who He is, should be evident, at least to a degree in the church. This has not always been the case, and isn't the case today. Our divisions destroy the glory of God from being exhibited within the church, a glory that is meant to be seen by the world around us. God has much to say about our disunity and lack of godliness in the church. You can see a glimpse of this in the seven letters from Jesus to seven churches in Revelation, chapter two and three. There, Jesus spares no words when it comes to His dissatisfaction with those communities of believers. I am sure He would say similar things to the church of today.

Present-day Relevance

Paul knew all about suffering for the sake of his Lord. He also knew that Jesus could provide him with the strength, the ability, and all he needed to get through the rough times. As Christians today, we go through our trials. We are certainly not exempt from them, but, even within our trials, God has provided that which is necessary for us to not only survive our trials, but to come out of them victorious.

If you are a true Christian then you will have the Holy Spirit residing within you. Even with the Holy Spirit in your life, there is more to the Holy Spirit and what He desires in your life than what you presently know and realize. It is, thus, important for you to develop a relationship with Jesus through His Spirit within you. Without this, you will not mature as a Christian.

Paul talked about being rooted and grounded in the Lord. The verb tense he used means that we as Christians are to be rooted and grounded ones. Our new nature in Christ should cause this to be just that.

Paul spoke of the eternal glory and nature of God in this section. It is this eternal glory that we have a taste of in this life. Beyond this life, there is an eternal glory that we cannot begin to imagine. It is waiting for us. The very thought of our future can be a present encouragement to us during any trials of life we pass through.

This concludes my commentary on the first three chapters of Paul's letter to the Ephesian believers, often known as the theology chapters. Much of what you have read in these chapters takes much thought to think through. Paul was a thinking man, and in many respects, it takes a thinking person to grasp what he wrote. Thinking is something that many people in our post-modern world don't seem to want to do. The fact of the matter is that God gave us a mind to think, and I conclude that He expects us to use it, as fallen as it has become. Once what the Lord wants us to know has been firmly established in our minds, it should eventually sink down into our souls where it will become the convictions of our lives whereby we live.

May you continue in the knowledge and revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. May you also live a life of devotion to Biblical theology, for it is the theology that transforms.

Go to Part Two of Ephesians
chapters 4, 5 and 6

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