Praise for God's Plan; Prayer for Understanding

Greeting (1-2) 

After Paul's somewhat abnormal introduction, the letter begins with an eruption of praise, and the chapter ends in the depths of prayer. He wanted the Ephesians to know that the power of Christ was not some dark, hidden, and powerless secret like the black magic surrounding them. God's power through Christ was unrivaled. The Ephesians had no cause for being intimidated, for while magic seeks to curse, Jesus Christ is devoted to blessing, and His blessing is ultimately more powerful. 

Paul identified himself as not just an apostle of the church but as one of Christ's personal apostles. Paul was one who stood on the same footing as the twelve disciples and James, the Lord's brother. 

Paul wrote to “saints,” saints in the Greek being the plural form of “holy.” They were called to be formed by the same devotion that shaped Jesus.

He wrote to the “saints” and the “faithful,” meaning those devoted to God were one and the same with those who have given Christ their absolute loyalty, their complete devotion (1).

Next, Paul played with an introduction. Ordinarily, in Greek letters, the greeting would be “chairein” or “rejoice.” Paul changed the greeting to sound a bit like rejoice but was “charis,” which means “grace.” Paul developed a new greeting, borrowing a bit from the Greeks and the Jews when he added the word “peace,” with shadows of the Hebrew word “shalom,” thus “grace and peace.” He went on to use these words 16 more times throughout the letter. 

In a world of insane turmoil, he commissioned them to live in grace so they could be at peace—the grace and peace given by the Father and Jesus and that they were to give the world (2). 

Outline to Paul’s Outburst of Praise (3-14)

In this outburst of praise, Paul told the story of God's beginning before creation and ended with the summing up of the new creation in Christ.  

• God’s Blessing Celebrated (3-6)

• Redemption and Revelation Celebrated (7-10)

• Our Purpose Celebrated (11-14)

God’s Blessing Celebrated (3-6)

Verses 3-14 are essentially all one sentence. Paul’s praise explodes with thanksgiving for having been given “every” spiritual blessing in the heavenly places “in Christ.” Nothing left out, nothing missing, all given to Jesus, and Jesus lavishing what He has been given on His followers. “In Christ” will be repeated in some form eleven times in Paul’s outburst of praise. 

You will find in this passage three forms of the Greek root “eulog,” which means “good word” and is often translated “bless” in some form. In verse three, it works something like this: “Bless God, for God has blessed us, with heavenly blessings.” God did something good; He gave us something good, and that goodness becomes the foundation of saying good things to God in praise. All praise works this way. God has done something, and we praise. Finally, our blessings, all our blessings, come from the heavenly realms where Christ is seated and rules, where no one can embezzle God’s blessings for each of us (3). 

Paul then elaborated on those blessings: He (God) chose the Ephesians and all saints before the world ever began, and He chose them to be holy. A thing holy is a thing devoted; to be chosen to be holy is to be chosen to express faithful covenant loyalty just like Jesus did. He chose them to be blameless, like a sacrificial lamb, without defect. We may not be able to live in sinless perfection, but we can, again and again, give our lives to Jesus perfectly as a person fully surrendered (4). Because God is covenant-faithful, He can love, and love is the power to determine worth. What Paul was seeking to tell the Ephesians was that God so loved us, meaning valued us, and He determined we would be His children. This means we inherit all the Father had given to Jesus, for He wills us to be His sons and daughters through Jesus. All of this was an act of His grace; grace because we, with the Ephesians, do not get what we deserve, and we receive what we could never earn. Paul wrote and worded this not to create theological debate concerning predestination and free will but so the Ephesians and we would praise our hearts out (5-6). 

You will see “in Christ” in some form repeatedly in Paul’s writings, which does not mean so much a location as it does the manner or through which God makes things happen. It is in Christ’s kingly authority that we share His life, His presence, His many blessings. 

Redemption and Revelation Celebrated (7-10)

When humans got off-track, rebelled, and went their own way, God, with amazing wisdom, redeemed—that is, purchased—the world, with Christ's blood. By saying redeemed or purchased, Paul meant God paid the ransom price. We use the word “ransom” when we substitute money for someone kidnapped; Paul used it when money was substituted to free a slave. Paul viewed those lost to God as being slaves to idols, man-sculpted visions of good and evil. Idolatry leads to addiction to an assortment of sins, and those sins lead to death. God in Jesus not only forgave and delivered the Ephesians from sin and enslavement to idolatry, but He also made them sons and daughters (7-8). 

God not only took action to redeem, but He also took the mystery out of all He had been planning by revealing what He was up to—uniting Heaven and Earth once again in the Person of and the death, Resurrection, and ascension of Jesus (9-10). 

Our Purpose Celebrated (11-14)

The fullness of time had come on that weekend when Jesus died and rose, and Paul was in the middle of euphoric praise, thanking God for it. Paul told the Ephesians that Jesus didn't stop with mere forgiveness of sin; He determined beforehand to give them an inheritance in the age to come. He explains that a bit better at the end of the chapter, but right here in the text, He was calling for the Ephesians to be what they were destined to be: those filled with hope and radiant with praise (11-12).

Paul then defined how God moved the Ephesians and all followers from being separated from blessing to being receivers of it. First, Jesus enabled preachers like Paul to preach the gospel; next Jesus enabled the listeners to believe, and then He sealed them and us with the Holy Spirit.

Jesus sealing people with the Holy Spirit was His way of giving them a small portion of the new Heaven and new Earth inheritance in the present. With the Holy Spirit, they were receiving all of God, Jesus' faithful covenant loyalty He possessed for His Father, and the absolute expectation of a whole new resurrection body to come. The Holy Spirit was the guarantee: the rest is coming.

So, Paul informed the Ephesians that the Holy Spirit they were receiving was their eternal guarantee of what they would one day possess in fullness (13-14).

A Prayer for the Ephesians (15-23)

Paul had been hearing of the Ephesians' faith (allegiance) in Jesus and their love (sacrificial commitment) for those who were devoted to Christ. Taken by both their allegiance and sacrifice, Paul prayed not just a prayer to fulfill a duty, but a ceaseless prayer; they were on his mind endlessly.

He prayed that they would receive a spirit of wisdom so they would be able to understand the mystery of what God was going to do through Jesus. It is not that what Jesus was going to do was so complex; the difficulty was that what Jesus was going to do was so simple and so outrageous that it took God's opening the heart and revealing it to the spirit for people to believe God could be so amazingly good. Paul realized that people tend to be dull and hard of heart, so he devoted himself to praying for the Ephesians without ceasing, constantly remembering them as he prayed (15-16).

It is one thing to know something that before was hidden (God becoming the King of the world in Jesus and uniting Heaven and Earth in Jesus, one soul at a time); it is another thing to understand what it all means, all that it includes, how far-reaching His dominion, and what it all affects (17). Once they began to understand the outrageous and far-reaching implications of the mystery (Jesus the King), Paul told them then they would experience genuine hope. This was what would take them through dark times of persecution and even death. 

With hope, they would begin to fathom the measureless enormity of their inheritance, and they would know the unbelievable power they presently possessed. They would know it all came from Jesus their King (18). The word “inherit” has the thought of “right of possession.” God was saying, “All I have given My Son, He has a right to possess. All who are 'in My Son' have a right to possess what I have given Him.” Paul knew eyes needed to be opened to see what was given, what was guaranteed. 

Here is how great God's power was working for them/us: 

• It cannot be measured (19).

• It was expressed in time and history in the great Christ event (20).

• It raised Jesus from the dead (20).

• It enthroned Jesus to take His seat at God's right hand (20).

• It gave Jesus a throne of might over and above all other authority, dominion, name, and power—nothing can or could rival Jesus (21).

• It placed everything, every created thing, under Jesus’ feet—all will submit to His authority (22).

• It placed Jesus as the ultimate Ruler, as the Lord of the Church and the world (22).

• It enabled Him to fill the Church with Himself (23).

His power and dominion will reign for all ages.

In essence, what Paul was saying was, “What God did when He released His power in Jesus is beyond all comprehension—all who even begin to understand need a revelation.”