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Ephesians

Ephesianschapter 1

23 verses · BSBEphesians book hub →

Speaks with:Colossians 1×92 Corinthians 1×4Colossians 2×4Romans 8×3Philippians 2×31 Peter 1×2

Summary

Chapter summary

Paul blesses the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Chosen in him before the foundation of the world; predestinated unto adoption. Redemption through his blood; the mystery of his will made known; an inheritance sealed by the Spirit. Paul prays that the eyes of their understanding be enlightened to know the hope of his calling, the riches of the glory of his inheritance, and the exceeding greatness of his power. Calvin reads the chapter as the believer's treasury inventoried.

Context

Epistle · Paul — Ephesians overview

  • A. 1–6 Chosen Before the Foundation of the World
  • B. 7–14 Redeemed, Let In on the Mystery, Sealed With the Spirit
  • C. 15–23 Paul Prays You Would See the Power That Raised Him

The outline

  1. A.Chosen Before the Foundation of the Worldvv. 1 to 6

    Read vv. 1 to 6 →

  2. B.Redeemed, Let In on the Mystery, Sealed With the Spiritvv. 7 to 14

    Read vv. 7 to 14 →

  3. C.Paul Prays You Would See the Power That Raised Himvv. 15 to 23

    Read vv. 15 to 23 →

Threads

Each of these runs on past this chapter. The passage you have just read is marked.

In heavenly places

Pattern

Ephesians names the heavenly places five times: blessed there, Christ seated there, believers seated there with him, the principalities schooled there by the church, and the wrestling there against spiritual wickedness.

The five beats are the letter's own map of the unseen realm. The same sphere holds the believer's blessing and the believer's battle, and the seating of chapter 2 comes before the wrestling of chapter 6.

  1. Ephesians 1:3 you are here

    Blessed in heavenly places

    Every spiritual blessing is located there, in Christ, before any command is given.

  2. Ephesians 1:20 you are here

    Christ seated there

    Raised from the dead and set at God's own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power.

  3. Ephesians 2:6

    Seated there with him

    Believers are raised up together and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

  4. Ephesians 3:10

    The principalities taught by the church

    The manifold wisdom of God is made known by the church to the principalities and powers in heavenly places.

  5. Ephesians 6:12

    The wrestling there

    We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness in high places, the same word as the other four beats.

The mystery made known

Pattern

In Ephesians and Colossians the mystery is a secret now published, not a puzzle: made known by revelation, the Gentiles fellowheirs of the same body, Christ and the church, hid from ages but now manifest, and Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Musterion in these letters means what God has now revealed, and Paul names its content plainly. Reading the word as Paul uses it guards the reader from hunting hidden knowledge where the apostle is announcing open good news.

  1. Ephesians 1:9 you are here

    The mystery of his will

    Made known unto us according to his good pleasure, purposed in himself.

  2. Ephesians 3:3-6

    The Gentiles fellowheirs

    By revelation he made known the mystery, and its content is stated: the Gentiles fellowheirs, of the same body, partakers of the promise in Christ.

  3. Ephesians 5:32

    Christ and the church

    This is a great mystery: Genesis 2:24 read onto Christ and the church by Paul himself.

  4. Colossians 1:26-27

    Hid from ages, now made manifest

    The mystery among the Gentiles is named: Christ in you, the hope of glory.

  5. Colossians 2:2

    The acknowledgement of the mystery

    All riches of the full assurance of understanding rest in the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ.

The earnest of the Spirit

Pattern

Three times Paul calls the indwelling Spirit the earnest, a down payment that binds the payer to complete the purchase: twice in 2 Corinthians, and in Ephesians 1, where the seal and the earnest stand together.

A down payment pledges the full sum. The figure grounds assurance in God's own commitment: the Spirit given now is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.

  1. 2 Corinthians 1:22

    Sealed, and given the earnest

    The word is arrabon, a buyer's down payment; God hath sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

  2. 2 Corinthians 5:5

    Wrought for the selfsame thing

    The earnest is given with the resurrection body in view, mortality swallowed up of life.

  3. Ephesians 1:13-14 you are here

    The earnest of our inheritance

    Sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession.

The world behind this chapter

Ephesians 1
When
Paul's imprisonment, traditionally at Rome · c. AD 60–62 on the traditional view that Paul wrote it from Roman custody; many critical scholars question Pauline authorship and date it later
Where
A letter opening that runs as one enormous blessing before it reaches its first full stop.
Who first heard it
Believers in the province of Asia — possibly a circular letter, since the words "in Ephesus" are missing from the earliest manuscripts.

The history

The manuscript detail is worth stating plainly: the oldest copies we have lack a place name in the opening line, which has long suggested this was written to be carried around a circuit of churches with the destination filled in locally. That would explain the absence of personal greetings in a city where Paul had spent three years.

The opening section follows the shape of a Jewish berakah — a blessing prayer that begins "Blessed be God" and then recounts what he has done. Synagogue prayers used the form daily, and the whole passage runs as a single sentence in Greek.

Two commercial images anchor it. A seal was a wax or clay impression from a signet ring, stamped on cargo and documents to mark ownership and guarantee that nothing had been tampered with in transit. And the Spirit as a down payment uses the term for the deposit that legally bound a purchase.

"In the heavenly places" recurs through this letter. Asia was thick with astrology, magic, and a sense of unseen powers governing daily fortunes; the phrase stakes out where the real authority sits.

What it meant to them

For believers surrounded by shrines to fate and fortune, the message was that they had been chosen before the foundation of the world, adopted, redeemed, forgiven, and sealed — none of it their achievement, all of it to the praise of his glory.

The prayer that follows asks for exactly what such a congregation needed: eyes of the heart enlightened to know the hope of his calling, and the greatness of the power that raised Christ and seated him far above every rule and authority and power and dominion.

Sources cited

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on Ephesians 1. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →

This page draws on 9 works.

This page draws on Charles Hodge, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians; Charles Hodge, An Exposition of 2 Corinthians; J. B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary and Michael Heiser, The Unseen Realm.

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