Chapter 1:1-2: Salutation.
The apostle Paul, now a prisoner in Rome, addresses the assembly of Christians at Ephesus, whom he had last seen about six years previously.1 In the opening verse, he states his apostleship as being by the will (thelema) of God. No one could take to himself the title and authority of an apostle of Jesus Christ without the special call unique to an apostle. This calling included sign-gifts (2 Cor. 12:12) and witnessing the resurrected Lord (cf. Acts 1:22; 1 Cor. 9:1). In 2:20, the apostles and New Testament prophets are called the foundation upon which the household of God rests.
In some of his epistles (e.g. Phil.; 1 & 2 Thess.), Paul does not feel the need to state his apostleship at the head of the letter. Here however, where deep teaching about the plan and purpose of God for the Church is being put across, he perhaps saw a need to stamp it with apostolic authority from the start.
Paul writes to, the saints (hagiois - separated [holy] ones), and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Ephesians is written to all Christians; those at Ephesus, but also, we think, to churches around that city2 and, because of its universal character (see esp. 3:15), to all God’s people.
Grace be to you, and peace…(v. 2). Both the words, grace and peace, are important words within this letter.3 The reason we can know peace is because of God’s grace (cf. Rom. 5:1-2).
In the ancient world, letters usually began with a short salutation, not unlike the ones that Paul uses for his epistles. The author’s name and that of the addressee, and a short greeting was the usual way for letters to begin (e.g. Acts 15:23ff, 23:26). However, Paul makes of this characteristic greeting an address from God, the Bestower of a Christian’s blessings.
Chapter 1:3-14: Paul’s Thanksgiving.
This magnificent flood of praise to the Father4 comes from the wellspring of joy Paul feels when trying to communicate to the Ephesians what God has done for them. It is important for Christians to see that all of their many spiritual blessings—past, present, and future—are theirs because they are Christ’s: or, to use Paul’s own language, because they are in Christ. In the far reaches of eternity, God blessed us with all spiritual blessings. There is no reason to think that this equates to immaterial blessings only. We must be careful not to too strongly associate the spiritual with the non-substantial (e.g. 1 Cor. 15:42-49). These blessings are spiritual (not spiritualized!) because God is [a] Spirit, and all His children are fundamentally spiritual as well as corporeal creatures (cf. Phil. 3:3).
The blessings include joy, peace, faith, love, strength for the day, hope, and fellowship, in this life. These are perfected and conjoined with glorification, sinlessness, and as yet undefined ‘treasures’ in the future. The heavenly places (Gk. “Heavenlies” -1:20, 2:6, etc.) probably refer to the spiritual realm of the kingdom of Christ (cf. Col. 1:13), and not just to Heaven. If the phrase referred only to Heaven, it would mean one could not know any of these blessings while still on earth.
Just as our blessings were held in store for us, even so our very choosing and destination were enacted in Christ before the foundation of the world (v.4). That is to say, we were chosen in Christ in eternity past to be holy, blameless, and loving, in imitation of our Divine Father. This implies that the creation was one in which service was integral to the perfecting of God’s world. The fall did not catch God unawares. It was within the Plan from the very beginning. The corruption and profanation of the original creation was no less evil because foreknown by God. God did not make man disobedient. And God did not forsake man in disobedience. Creation was a project from the start (Gen. 1:26-30), and the intrusion of sin has not altered God’s purpose. In line with this the verse clearly shows that God does not save simply to rescue, but to use (cf. 2:10; Tit. 2:14).
We cannot accede to the view that the phrase, “chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world” be construed in the Arminian sense of God simply foreseeing who would believe. Of course, that is part of it, but it is not the whole story, and cannot be. The Lord God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. That is, He knows all things, He empowers and upholds all things, and He observes all things. God knows all true states of affairs. If He predicts the naming of Cyrus, or the date and place of Jesus’ birth, or the demise of Satan; all of which were or are future events, these things must be utterly certain. They are not probabilities but pre-planned eventualities, designated by the mere will of the Almighty. God must never be thought of as One who must exert Himself in an impressive effort at keeping a universe full of plates spinning. They spin by the collusion of God’s will and power. We may say that the power of God is ‘pre-informed’ by the decision of God (though they are really one).
Nothing in creation operates outside the constraints of God’s power (i.e. His providence), since “He upholds all things by His powerful word” (Heb.1:2-3). There are no rogue facts out there, which have not been fully known about by Him. And since where God’s power is, He is, it stands to reason that whatever occurs happens because he wills it to happen, and that includes many things He hates!
Paul can elsewhere teach that, “whom He did foreknow (proegno), He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom. 8:29), and these same individuals, “He also glorified.” (Rom. 8:30). If the end result of foreknowledge is a still future glorification, then the Greek word prognosis means more than “to know beforehand.” It carries with it the connotation of involvement or relationship with what is foreknown; a meaning which is carried over from the Hebrew term yada. This, indeed, is its theological usage in the NT. Thus, I do not see how it cannot refer to God’s fore-choosing of individuals. And we do not feel compelled, either by Scripture or by reason, to back away from the fact that God’s omniscience is expressed in time in His Decree5,
In this passage (1:4-5), God’s children then, are to be holy and without blame before Him in love, because we have been ‘chosen’ (v.4) and ‘adopted’ (v. 5) into His family. In adopting us, the Father has taken on the responsibility of bringing us up as sons within His household, a responsibility He will not shirk (Heb. 12:5‑10), nor give up upon (cf. Phil. 1:6, 1 Cor. 1:8).
It is useless to argue that because the apostle employs a plural pronoun (humas – ‘us’) to define the objects of election he had to have been referring only to corporate election. As Hoehner points out, “The recipients of the choice, “us,” comprise a body or group of believers. Still, chosen make up this group. As individuals receive the blessings of verse 3 and individually are sealed in verse 13, so individuals are the objects of God’s election.” (H. Hoehner, Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary, 176). Keep reading →