Opening words
1
📚Paul, an apostle 📖 of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints 📖 who are in Ephesus 📖 and faithful 📖 in Christ Jesus: 2 📚Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.The believer’s position in Christ
3 📚Blessed be the God and Father 📖 of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us 📖 with all spiritual blessings 📖 in the heavenly places in Christ,
They are God’s chosen ones
4 📚even as he has chosen 📖 us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 📚he predestined 📖 us to the adoption as children to himself, by Jesus Christ, in accordance with the good pleasure of his will, 6 📚to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he has made us accepted 📖 in the Beloved.
They have forgiveness of sins
7 📚In him we have redemption 📖 through his blood, the forgiveness 📖 of sins, according to the riches of his grace
They have God’s revelation
8 📚which he has lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.
1:8 See the word “lavished”. God is not reluctant or miserly in giving blessings to men. We need not try to force Him to give us any of these riches. We need no saints in heaven to intercede on our behalf in order to obtain them. God sent His own Son to die for us so that He could pour His grace on us. Compare Rom 8:32. God can no more stop giving than He can stop being God. He will continue throughout eternity to lavish on believers the riches of His grace – Eph 2:7.
Redemption, forgiveness, and all other such blessings God gives with “all wisdom and understanding”. This could possibly mean that in all His gracious dealings with us God acted in perfect wisdom. This is certainly true. But Paul probably means that in Christ God has made available to believers complete spiritual wisdom and discernment. Compare Col 1:9; 2:2-3; 1 Cor 2:7-10.⚜
9 📚He has made known to us the mystery 📖 of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself, 10 📚that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might bring everything together in Christ, both things in heaven and on earth, in him.
11 📚In Him also we have obtained an inheritance 📖, being predestinated 📖 according to the purpose 📖 of him who works all things according to the counsel of his own will, 12 📚so that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
They have God’s Holy Spirit
13 📚You also 📖 trusted in him, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and upon believing you received a seal 📖 in him, the Holy Spirit of promise 📖, 14 📚who is the pledge guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of his glory 📖.
1:14 God the Father gives His Spirit to believers as a “pledge” or “deposit” or “guarantee of purchase” (as some other translations have it). Compare 2 Cor 5:5. This means He guarantees that He will complete the work He has begun in us (Phil 1:6), that He will give us the inheritance He has promised (Rom 8:17; Col 1:12; Heb 6:12; 9:15; 1 Pet 1:4), and that He will keep us as His possession until He redeems our bodies (Rom 8:23), and forever (John 14:16). Believers are God’s possession (1 Cor 6:19-20). So it follows that He will guard them with great care and lose none of them. Compare John 6:39-40; 10:27-28; 17:11-12. The knowledge that we have received His Spirit should give us the assurance that all this is true.⚜
Paul prays that believers will better understand their position in Christ
15 📚Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith 📖 in the Lord Jesus and love for all the saints, 16 📚do not cease to give thanks 📖 for you, mentioning you in my prayers 📖. 17 📚I ask 📖 that the God 📖 of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit 📖 of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 📚the eyes 📖 of your understanding being enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope 📖 of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance 📖 in the saints, 19 📚and what is the exceeding greatness of his power 📖 toward us who believe, in accordance with the working of his mighty power
1:18-19 God wants us not only to know Him but to know the things He has prepared for us as believers.⚜
20 📚which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, 21 📚far above all sovereignty, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come,
1:20-21 In the resurrection and ascension of Christ we see the greatest display of God’s power in the history of mankind – Matt 28:6; Mark 16:6, 19; Luke 24:6-7, 51; Acts 1:3, 9; 2:32-33; Rom 1:4; Phil 2:9-11; Heb 1:3. Christ sits on the throne of His Father, exalted far above all the created universe with its powers and authorities – Col 2:10; Rev 1:5. There is no man, no angel whoever lived, or who lives now, who can come anywhere near to Jesus in power, authority, glory and honor.
And the same power of God which raised Him there is at work for us and in us – v 19. This is how we can be more than conquerors – Rom 8:37. This is how we can truly serve Christ in a hostile world, overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil, and finish our earthly life with joy. If we do not, it will be because we fail to use the power available to us.⚜
They have Christ as their Head and they are Christ’s body
22 📚and put all things under his feet 📖, and gave him as the head 📖 over everything to the church, 23 📚which is his body, the fulness 📖 of him who fills all in all.