Ephesians 3

The content of this chapter continues the lesson of the last chapter, namely that grace, while given as a gift, should also be understood as a further calling. This chapter uses the example of Paul and talks about how he was so called.

Paul describes himself as being the “prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles,” or that his salvation had a purpose that benefited the Gentiles. This we of course know as his ministry, perhaps the most successful in history. (Of course, Jesus’ calling of all believers is more successful because it includes all Christian efforts in history. I am only speaking of human ministries.) God dispensed his grace to Paul so that he could further dispense it to others.

This is the essence of Paul’s purpose: to tell the Gentiles of God as he had revealed himself to the Jews already. Peter was given the task of preaching to the Jews, and indeed Jesus had already done so. (Not all sermons are preached with words, and the death of God the Son would be a compelling sermon indeed.) Paul was made a minister of the Word by grace, just as he was saved by grace. This was, of course, so that God could dispense grace to many more.

Certainly this was undeserved. Paul was, of course, no friend of Christians at the time of his salvation, and he put that here. Despite his mission, the largest of all of the tasks that Jesus assigned, Paul was hardly worthy. He calls himself “the least of all saints,” and he is truly that. Many modern believers have an idea that we are “more moral” than others, but Paul had no such misconception. He knew perfectly well that he was a murderer and a legalist. His point here was this: if God can use the most despicable to do his greatest and hardest work, certainly he could use the rest of us.

Paul then speaks about his trials. He had been imprisoned for a while, and the Ephesians most certainly knew it. He asks the Ephesians not to be weary because of his suffering, but to press on. Paul knew that they might be discouraged, but he himself asked them to rejoice that God would send him to suffer on their behalf, similar to the joy that we have because Christ suffered. Regarding this passage, Matthew Henry said, “Observe, not only the faithful ministers of Christ themselves, but their people too, have some special cause for joy and glorying, when they suffer for the sake of dispensing the gospel.”

Paul and this church both know that they received a great blessing. Paul prays for them further, asking for power through the Holy Spirit, “according to the riches of his glory.” He also asks that they would better understand the fullness of God’s love. He knows that they cannot fully receive this, for it is too great for us now to comprehend. But we can know that we will know soon.

Editor’s note: Forgive the delay since the last article. I’m still here.

Ephesians 2

The second chapter of Ephesians starts with a description of one who is still a slave to sin. Paul doesn’t use the word hopeless or impure or many of the descriptions of the sinner that we might use today. He uses the word dead here, and it truly works best, especially in this chapter. Dead people, of course, cannot help themselves. This is true for physical death, but it is also true for spiritual death.

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us,” did not wish to leave us in such a state. When we were dead, God made us alive together with Christ, which we know as grace. We are not deserving of this grace, but he gives it to us anyway. It is a gift, not earned, not deserved, but received anyway.

This gift was given completely out of love. But the fact that we are saved by this grace, rather than by works, also serves a practical purpose—to prevent us from boasting in our salvation. Imagine hearing, in church, something like “I’ve gone on more missions than you!” Great. I can go on a hundred missions and not pay the slightest bit of attention to God. I can follow the law to the letter, and add a few extra rules (hey, being “more moral” can never hurt), and still be an unregenerate sinful man—the Pharisees pulled it off.

Paul likely thought of this “apparent morality” when writing these words. After all, he was one of the Pharisees, and quite impressive among them as well. He was taught under Gamaliel, he followed the law, and he persecuted the believers of the time. When the Lord called him, he was on his way to Damascus to arrest Christians there.

God ignored all of this. He simply declared Paul saved, and called him to service. He was in no position to boast of his morality anymore; he called himself “the worst of all sinners.” But regardless of our past state, God has appointed good works for us. They do not save, no, but anyone who is under grace should recognize their value.

Circumcision was one of these “good works.” It determined who could belong to the community of Israel and who could not, and the “Circumcision” used it as proof that the “Uncircumcision” was without God. We, the Gentiles, had no hope. Yes, this is true. But now our hearts have been circumcised, and we can belong to the community and be a part of a new, greater covenant with God. This is peace.

Ephesians 1:15-23

Sometimes one of the greatest gifts from God is the people that he uses to do his will. Paul thought this of the Ephesians. The churches that he established varied greatly, with some (such as the Galatians) having turned their backs completely on their savior and some (for example, the Corinthians) being considered mostly worthy but still in need of doctrinal corrections on some issues.

Ephesus had a church that Paul considered worthy of thanks. Even in an age where communication was slow, Paul had heard of the faith of this church and considered it worthy of commendation. This church also had love, rightly considered of highest importance by Paul, who is fairly well known for 1 Corinthians 13, the famous discourse on the subject.

I’m going to go on a bit of a tangent about love. The Greek language had many words for the subject that primarily differed in intensity. (Pastors and Greek scholars may skip this paragraph.) Phileo could best be translated “friendship”—it is love, and quite a good thing to have, but not as deep as some of the others. Eros is physical love, as between a husband and wife. Agape is what all Christians are to show to all others at all times; it is sacrificial love, consciously aware of this, and the constant direction of one’s efforts to the welfare of the recipient. Agape is what Jesus showed to us when he laid down his life to bear our sins.

Obviously love was a big deal, and lovelessness has been a problem in many churches, ancient (Corinth, Laodicea) and modern churches (you know who you are). But the Ephesian church did not have this problem. Paul did not stop giving thanks for the great gift that this was.

Paul appreciated a loving, faithful church for one reason: that they were useful to the Body of Christ. He prayed that God would give them a spirit of wisdom and revelation. This was not a prayer for an end to persecution, or a wish of physical blessing; it was a prayer of spiritual blessing. He prayed for this because, as Matthew Henry wrote, “If the same Spirit who indited the sacred scriptures do not take the veil from off our hearts, and enable us to understand and improve them, we shall be never the better.”

He further prayed: “that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe.” He prayed that they would know that even in the face of persecution and martyrdom, they had a Father in Heaven who sought to bless them, and that the end of this life means eternal blessing. There is no greater gift than to be released from fear of death, because we will never know death.

The mere fact that Paul can be so thankful for a group of people is a testimony to the greatness of God. That he may regard those who were once sinners as having great faith and love is a testimony to the great transformation that has happened because of the work of Jesus. The last five verses of the chapter cover this, and talk about Christ’s fulfillment of his purpose—to die for us, and then to be resurrected to the right hand of his Father to lead over his church, his very body. And as we are the body, Jesus is both the mind (directing us as he wishes, to do his work) and the immune system, allowing what was once weak and diseased to be filled and strengthened to be used for a greater purpose.

Keep reading; next up is the debate between salvation by faith and works.

Ephesians 1:1-14

Paul starts his letter like always, calling himself “an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.” Even this introduction fits with the theme of election about which he wrote here.

His first statement in the letter proper is one of praise. He praises the Father who sovereignly chose a group of people (the elect) upon whom to pour out his blessing. To the believer, he has given the greatest gift of all—the right to stand at the feet of the Creator and be called “holy and blameless,” or in other words separated for God’s use and clean in God’s eyes.

Let us look at the parts of this gift more carefully, one by one. First, as I already mentioned, he makes us “holy and blameless.” These two work hand in hand—when a person is blameless (that is, when God can find no flaw in him, because Jesus has already cleansed him), he will be more holy (set apart for the Lord’s use). Jesus’ death accomplished both of these.

The next gift is “redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which he lavished upon us.” When we still looked away from God, living without him, he cleaned us. He didn’t make us do half the work. He did not look for the “moral people”; rather, he chose us even before he made the world.

The third gift is that “He made known to us the mystery of His will.” Mystery, of course, refers to something that was unknown that was revealed later. In this case, the revelation was that of God’s plan. This plan—all of history. It fit into his plan that Adam and Eve would sin, because then he would glorify himself by saving their brood by punishing his Son in our place.

This ties in with the fourth gift, our “inheritance.” Our inheritance is to live forever, as was the intention back in the days of Adam. He chose that some would believe, and be restored to what we were like before Genesis 3.

In short, we have been redeemed, regardless of how useless and deserving of death we are. Thanks be to God.