Chapter 1
In 2024, read the Isaiah passages first. They are overdue for more attention. (I did, and am already an hour over my allotted time. So I will be reading straight through Ephesians 1 this year. We'll see in 2025, but it is good to focus on first one and then the other. Over an hour behind again today, because of Isa 7. Reading straight through 2.)
Seventh time, 1 on 1/22/24. 2 on 1/23/24. 3 on 1/24/24, Sunday morning. 4 on 11/25/24. 5 on 11/26/24. 6 on 11/28/24, Thanksgiving Day.
Sixth time, 1 on 11/23/23, Thanksgiving morning. 2 on 11/24/23. 3 on 11/25/23. 4 on 11/26/23 on Sunday morning. 5 on 11/28/23. 6 on 11/29/23
Fifth time, 1 on 11/23/22. 2 on 11/24/22, Thanksgiving morning. 3 on 11/25/22. 4 on 11/26/22. 5 on 11/28/22. 6 on 11/29/22.
Fourth time, 2021-2, 1 on 11/23/21, after Isa 5,6, kids here. 2 on 11/24/21. 3 on 11/25/21, Thanksgiving. Just reading through. 4 on 11/26/21. 5 on 11/28/21, Sunday. 6 on 11/29/21
Third time, 2/10/21. Focused on 1-3. Next year get 4-6.
Second time, 2/11/20
MSB Notes on Ephesians
Addressed to the church at Ephesus, capital of the Roman province of Asia. Not all manuscripts mention Ephesus, so some believe the letter was an "encyclical" intended for all the churches in Asia Minor.
Most accept Paul as the author, and that the letter was written between 60-62 AD. It is a "prison epistle" since Paul was a prisoner in Rome when he wrote it. As seen in the Colossians notes, this letter, the letter to Colosse, and the letter to Philemon may have all been brought together by Tychicus directly from Paul in Rome. MSB says the note at the beginning of Philippians discusses in detail the city from which Paul wrote these letters.
Likely the gospel was brought to Ephesus by Priscilla and Aquila. This is the home of the famous Temple of Artemis, or Diana. We've seen much about this place in Acts. It was a very important - huge - commercial center, ranked up there with Alexandria and Antioch. Paul visits Ephesus on his third missionary journey and stays with them, teaching and preaching, for 3 years. Then Timothy preached there for about a year and a half to counter false teaching - some from Hymenaeus and Alexander. Because of these two, who were possibly elders, the church was plagued with "myths and endless genealogies". Also asceticism was practiced to the point of forbidding some to marry and forbidding certain foods. False teachers here were wrong, but they taught with confidence, leading to much speculation instead of the administration of God by faith. 30 years on, John would include the church at Ephesus as one of the seven churches, and tell them they had left their first love.
As an outline, the first three chapters are theological, emphasizing NT doctrine. The last three are practical and focus on Christian behavior.
A familiar introduction.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, [Eph 1:3 ESV] Looked this up in the interlinear. The definite article is there, before God. It feels like heresy to ask, but is there a whole theology that surrounds the fact that God is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ? I have seen this phrasing in many books. This exact phrasing shows up 5 times. Rom 15:6; 2Cor 1:3, 11:31; Eph 1:3, 1 Pet 1:3. This is kind of an "aside" kind of question, and there is no comment in MSB about it at all.
2021 - It is also interesting that these blessings are "in the heavenly places". This sort of compresses all of time into a point. "has blessed", the past, "with blessing", the present, "in the heavenly places" where we will someday reside.
2022 - "Father" is the Greek "pater". It is just plain father. It is about the relationship of The Father to The Son. I think you have to see this as "independent" of each other. This has to be true if Jesus made a choice to be crucified. He had to be able to say no, but chose to go ahead. To be submissive to the Father's plan, in full agreement, even at such a great cost to himself. What is important is that we see this as about the relationship of Father to Son, not about the biology of Father and Son. There is nothing here that references any kind of physical relationship. God is spirit. Spirits don't reproduce - the angels don't! This just isn't what is in view.
This verse:
4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, [Eph 1:4-5 ESV]
Unconditional election. Paul was big on this. How can anyone not be the way this is worded. The MSB note on 1:4 has a whole long lists of references about "the doctrine of election". Would be worth putting them all together in one place. They start in Deuteronomy.
2021 - Interesting that the last two words of vs 4 are actually the first two words of vs 5. At least according to the ESV and the NASB. In the KJV, NKJV, and the ASV, there is a period in vs 4 AFTER the word love. In those it reads "...we should be holy and blameless before him in love." So are we the ones who love Him, or is - as the ESV implies - His love for us that is in view. Seems like another trivial question that I have this morning. I keep going down rabbit trails with 6 chapters to read...The depth of this passage is found in its use as a proof text for what many call "predestination", what Calvin called Unconditional Election. It is most certainly about election and the time of election. The unconditional part is implied in that we were chosen by God before we had done anything at all to deserve that election. We never do deserve it, and the timing of God's choice highlights that part. If I was going to argue this, I would say that God also knew what our every action would be even before he started creating the world - since His will is determinative - and so He elected only those He knew would make the right choice about Him. In fact...you don't even have to make his will determinative, you can just say He knows beforehand who will choose Him. And He does know that, He must know that, or He is no longer omniscient. So we have election, irresistible grace, and then to all that, we add adoption.
2022 - I can see vs 4 as being about God's plan for the redemption of man without being specific as to individual cases. I can see making the argument - if I am Armenian - that this is not even about limited vs unlimited atonement but the foresight and plan of God for all history. In fact, this goes on al the way through vs 10. Surely vs 10 implies that the whole long sentence is about God's eternal plan for mankind through Christ to bring all created things - corrupt man and corrupt planet - back into harmony with Him.
2022 - I might even go further and say that vs 11 shows that Paul is speaking of his experience separately from the experience of the saved in Ephesus. The "we" in vs 11 could be understood as referencing the apostles - Paul and the 12 - and not rank and file Christians. We see him make this contrast in vs 12, where he says "we who were the first", and vs 13 where he says "you also". You can take it generically, but you can also "divide" it to specifically referencing predestination of the apostles as the first proclaimers with the position of the first hearers. I don't think it means this...but how do you argue against it?
2022 - Observations - vss 7-10 are a single sentence. Vss 15-21 are a single sentence. It is very very long. Maybe some kind of record!
In vs 7, through Jesus we have redemption through his blood and forgiveness of our trespasses. Two very different things. Debt paid, sins forgiven. So justice was done, because God is just, and then the "bill" was wiped clean. God does not remember our sins. BUT, MSB says otherwise. Says the word used for redemption is the word that relates to "paying the required ransom" to God for the release of a person from bondage. MSB goes on to say that Christ's sacrifice paid that price for every elect person enslaved by sin...that is a statement of limited atonement. We were the slaves, and the saved are bought out of iniquity. The price was death, Jesus paid it. 2021 - Unlike the conviction of a thief, who must still repay what he stole, unlike today's US version of justice where the convicted must make some sort of monetary reparations for damage done and so on, Jesus served the required sentence for the crime - death on the cross - and also paid the agreed on "settlement" that was required by the (victim does not seem like a good word to use here, nor does injured party, nor does the one harmed by the crime, yet each of these is true in its own way. 2023 - the one offended works.) one against whom the crime was perpetrated. The way to see this, maybe, is that if our house is broken into, we suffer loss of material things, but we ourselves are likely not personally harmed. Our sins against God can only be "property crimes". We can never "harm" God by our actions. 2023 - Terrible analogy. Property crimes are not capital crimes.
As to the forgiveness of sin, MSB says redemption brings limitless grace and forgiveness. It also brings divinely bestowed understanding.
This verse:
9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ [Eph 1:9 ESV]
Paul again uses this word, separating the supernatural will, predetermination, justice, and forbearance of God from "natural", man-determined arguments. If this is truly the order that these letters were written, then we say yesterday, in Colossians, and in fact all the way back to Romans, that Paul's strategy for defeating the skilled rhetorician's arguments is to say that God's work is a mystery - not a traceable, logical, completely discoverable sequence within the grasp of man's intellect.
2023 - I think there is a bigger point in verse 9. "making known to us the mystery of his will" is another way of saying "divine revelation". The "us" to whom Paul refers is himself. He is not saying that all Christians receive divine revelation. Now, what is to say that he isn't referencing the gospel itself, which we could think of as mysterious throughout the OT times, only to be revealed to all in the NT? And I think the answer to that is in this verse, where we change from we/us/our to YOU: 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, [Eph 1:13 ESV]. For Paul, the mystery was "made known" but the Ephesians "heard" the mystery. This equates "the mystery of his will" with "the word of truth, the gospel". I would need to look up all uses of mystery and make sure this equivalence holds up. BUT, at this time, I am convinced that verses 3-12 are Paul speaking of HIMSELF, and then in 13 he talks about what he has in common with the hearers. What are the implications of looking at it this way?
The blessings in the heavenly places go to Paul, not to the hearers.
Paul was chosen before the foundation of the world.
Paul is to be adopted as a son.
Paul is blessed in the Beloved. (what does that even mean. I've never noticed that before..)
Hmm...I notice that vs 7 changes from US to WE. What is included there?
We have redemption through his blood
We have the forgiveness of our trespasses.
And then in vs 9 we go back to "us" for the revelation of the mystery of his will. And then in 11, it is again about "we".
I worry that I am making too much of this. If I was Arminian, though, I would point out that the whole predestination idea might be about the apostles or the writers of the scriptures in general, but NOT about every person in every time. And therefore, the responsibility for saying yes to salvation is up to US, rather than being some irresistible requirement of God. I would only go there if I was an Armenian. The differentiation between "us" and "we" is real, not just a matter of which one "flows" the best in the translation. They ARE different words. I think Paul is contrasting himself and his experience of salvation by the direct action of the Son on the road to Damascus, with that of those who receive salvation by hearing and believing.
This verse:
10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. [Eph 1:10 ESV]
The wedding feast perhaps, where all will be together at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
2021 - No, more than that. ALL things. The earth itself and all that God ever created - even to the angels - will be one in Christ, as it was ever meant to be, and in fact was so at the very beginning.
vs. 11 repeats the theme of predestination.
2021 - Remember too that this is all by way of introduction to the book. Perhaps it would have been better to read through this introduction, understand it as opening remarks, and then look to the body of the letter - or at least to the three theological chapters - for the explanation, expansion, amplification of the general principles now laid out.
I was afraid of this...every single verse needs it's own paragraph of explanation. (Same thing happened in 2021.) Even so, these two verses:
13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. [Eph 1:13-14 ESV]
Sealed with the Holy Spirit. Sealed. Seals can't be broken except by a higher power. There is no higher power than God. The seal is a guarantee - not a conditional covenant. Once sealed, we are forever sealed. 2023 - And so we add perseverance of the saints to this first chapter also. That's three of the five.
Later, 2022 - In these first 14 verses we need to pay a lot of attention to the pronouns, because there are a number of implications here that never occurred to me before. (The point is made again, and I think even more clearly, in Eph. 3:5. I think this whole pronoun idea is corroborated there.). Here is how I'm seeing it...Vs 1, 2 Paul established that the letter is from him. From Paul. Only from Paul. Vs 2 tells whom he is addressing. Then beginning in vs 3, we find the pronoun "us". Ask yourself who "us" might be? The letter is only from Paul. He didn't mention any others that were with him as he often does, but only himself. So let's assume that Paul is using "us" to refer to himself in the plural. A lot of people do that. "We are not amused" comes to mind. He uses "us" six times, "we" four times, and "our" once in vss 3-12. Always, the pronoun is plural. Then in vs 13, we find this phrase: "In him you also...". Paul is contrasting the plural pronouns with "you", which is also plural, but is clearly a switch from talking about "we/us/our" to "you guys". Paul seems to be contrasting his experience of receiving the gospel and salvation to that of those to whom he writes. Paul is much more elaborate about the implications of his salvation than he goes into about the salvation of the Ephesians. And then in vs 14, he uses "our" again, this time in a very inclusive sense, to say that the Ephesians received the Holy Spirit JUST AS PAUL did, and that they all together stand to receive an inheritance some day. My point is that Paul is separating himself from the rank and file Ephesians based on his revelation (as in Eph 3:3)- not on intense reading and study but revelation. The Ephesians, on the other hand, only know about these things because Paul and certain chosen prophets of the time have told them what God revealed to them. See more in Chapter 3...
Then we get Paul's familiar recounting of his prayers for the recipients of the letter, conveying his love and care for them in prayer, even while he is away. They are out of sight but not out of mind. In this case, he prays that they be given the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him. Probably should be a capital H there. That Paul prays this for them indicates that he thinks they are lacking, that they need more of this. They were being led astray by false teachers. Paul wants them to be wise as to what is true and what is not. Remember that this was before the NT, and before these letters were considered scripture at all. Paul is a "former pastor" urging this flock to mature in their learning and knowledge. Why don't preachers do that today?
2021 - vs 17 again uses the phrase "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ". This has to be important. This has to be trinitarian. It must be understood positionally, not hierarchically. No...not positional...but wrt the role played by each in the plan of the One God. Jesus submitted. Jesus prayed to God. As examples. Can we understand this "dialogue" as a way for God to reveal His will to man, to show us how He also will reveal His will for our own lives to us? Look at the whole of vs 17:
17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, [Eph 1:17 ESV] Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all together, named separately, in a single verse.
Paul makes much of the work and position of Christ starting in vs 20. God raised Christ from the dead, seated him at His right hand, far above any rule, authority, power, and dominion - we are likely talking about the spheres of demonic power on earth being placed under him - for this time and all eternity to come. Christ has all under his feet, and is head of the church - his body. The phrase "until he makes his enemies his footstool" comes to mind. This might be a good study. In fact, this whole paragraph would be a good study. TCR has a ton of lines to be followed. Make this a priority. (2021 - Still haven't even attempted this.)(Nor in 2022 either..., and not in 2023.).