Commentary on Ephesians

Contents

In a few places the lemma printed in a passage belongs to a neighbouring verse (the digital text misnumbers verses); the passage keeps its staged number.

Reading pages: 0.1–2.21 · 3.1–3.20 · 4.1–4.32 · 5.1–6.21

1. 0.1The prologue says Paul strengthened rather than founded the Ephesian church and wrote to them from custody in Rome.
2. 1.1Paul greets the Ephesians and blesses God, who blesses believers in Christ with heavenly, eternal blessing by grace rather than merit.
3. 1.4God chose in Christ before creation those he foreknew would believe and persevere, Jews and gentiles alike.
4. 1.5God decreed that believers be adopted as sons under Christ, the true Son.
5. 1.6God's grace given in his beloved Son redounds to his glory.
6. 1.7Christ both redeemed believers by his blood and forgave their sins.
7. 1.8To redemption God adds wisdom in spiritual things.
8. 1.9God's purpose was to restore all creation, heavenly and earthly, from error by making Christ known.
9. 1.11The apostles were chosen from Jews who first hoped in Christ; gentiles who believed were sealed with the Spirit as pledge of the inheritance, if they persevere.
10. 1.15Paul thanks God for the Ephesians' faith and love, by which gentiles share Israel's promise.
11. 1.17Paul prays that the Ephesians may know the hope of their calling; God is Christ's God and Father in a unique sense, as God from God.
12. 1.20Christ's resurrection and exaltation above all powers is the pattern of believers' glory; as Son by nature he is head of all creation, which is filled when it confesses him.
13. 2.1Before faith the Ephesians were dead in sin, led by the devil, ruler of the air, into worshipping many gods.
14. 2.3The 'desires of the flesh' mean unbelief and idolatry; nature becomes 'of wrath' by an evil will, not by its substance, and is restored by returning to God.
15. 2.4God's rich mercy reaches those who did not seek him, because he loves what he made.
16. 2.5God, who made us through Christ, has re-formed us in him as members of which he is head and author of life.
17. 2.6Gentiles too are saved by Christ's grace.
18. 2.7Believers, gentiles included, will be where Christ their head is.
19. 2.8In the age to come God will show the unimaginable riches prepared for believers.
20. 2.9Salvation is God's gift through faith, not from works, so all boasting is in God, who recreated us for good works.
21. 2.11Gentiles should remember that they were once without Christ and the promises, and thank God for making them sharers.
22. 2.13Christ's blood brought the gentiles near to God; his self-offering obliges believers to endure death for him.
23. 2.14Christ's passion removed the enmity between Jew and gentile; the ceremonial law, given for a time, ceased with Christ.
24. 2.15Christ abolished the ceremonial law, a burden, to make Jew and gentile one new man.
25. 2.16By the cross Christ reconciled Jew and gentile to each other and to God in one body.
26. 2.17Christ's death killed the enmity, giving Jews and gentiles access to the Father in one Spirit; gentile believers become fellow citizens like those granted Roman citizenship.
27. 2.20The church is built on the apostles and prophets, that is, on both Testaments, with Christ as cornerstone; the 'rock' of Matt 16:18 is the confession of faith.
28. 2.21Christ joins the two peoples like a cornerstone holding two walls, into a temple for God.
29. 3.1Paul, a prisoner for the gentiles, was sent by Christ far away to them.
30. 3.2Paul received by revelation the mystery of grace for the gentiles, which he has written about briefly.
31. 3.5The newly revealed mystery is that gentiles share the promise in Christ without circumcision or the Law's observances.
32. 3.7Paul's ministry made known God's decree to save the gentiles without the works of the Law.
33. 3.8Paul calls himself least of the saints though chosen to bring the gentiles the riches of Christ, salvation by faith without works.
34. 3.9Paul was sent to teach the gentiles that Christ was always with God and that salvation comes in Christ alone, without the Law.
35. 3.10Through the church even the spiritual powers learn the mystery of the one God in Christ, the King of glory of Psalm 24, who conquered death.
36. 3.11God revealed his mystery in Christ at the appointed age, giving believers freedom and confidence through faith.
37. 3.13Paul asks the Ephesians not to be shaken by his sufferings and prays that the Father strengthen them by the Spirit.
38. 3.17Through faith and the Spirit, who is of the Father and of Christ, Christ dwells in believers' hearts.
39. 3.18Love enables believers to grasp God's infinity, pictured as a sphere equal in all dimensions yet exceeding all bounds.
40. 3.19Christ's love in becoming man and dying for sinners surpasses knowledge; the fulness of faith honours the Son equally with the Father.
41. 3.20Glory belongs to the Father, who gives all through Christ and is glorified in the Son and the church.
42. 4.1Paul urges the Ephesians to live worthily of their calling, as a physician urges patients to take care.
43. 4.2Humility, gentleness, and patience preserve unity and peace, while contention breeds discord.
44. 4.4Because the church is one body with one faith, its people should be of one mind.
45. 4.5One Lord, faith, baptism, and God and Father require one mind in the church; the Father dwells in believers by confession and the Spirit.
46. 4.7Diverse gifts of office given by Christ do not harm unity, since they differ in office, not nature.
47. 4.8Christ, triumphing over death on the cross, freed the willing captives of the underworld and gave gifts; the risen saints of Matthew 27 testify to it.
48. 4.9Christ descended to the underworld, not to remain like others held by sentence, but to preach to the dead and rise with those who longed for him.
49. 4.10The one who descended from heaven, became man, and went down to the dead rose and ascended above all heavens.
50. 4.11Ambrosiaster identifies the offices of Eph 4:11 with the church's orders and explains that the freer practice of the earliest church (all baptizing and preaching, presbyters called bishops) later gave way to ordered offices.
51. 4.13The church's ordering lasts until all reach unity of faith, which means holding Christ to be perfect and full God.
52. 4.14Believers should stand firm in the catholic faith that Peter confessed and not be tossed by heresies that disguise error as truth.
53. 4.15Truth in love means subjecting all to Christ as head and holding firm to the catholic faith against its opponents.
54. 4.16The 'body' with Christ as head includes the whole ordered hierarchy of angelic powers, distinct in nature yet united in confessing the Creator.
55. 4.17Believers must not live like the gentiles, darkened by idolatry and estranged from God.
56. 4.19Despair of the resurrection blinds the gentiles and leads them to impurity and greed.
57. 4.20Those who truly learned Christ know the resurrection to life or judgment and hope beyond death.
58. 4.22The 'old man' is the same person living by former vices; one becomes 'new' by changed understanding and conduct, not substance.
59. 4.23Putting on the new man, who is Christ, means living the life Christ taught, created anew in righteousness and truth.
60. 4.25Reborn in baptism as members of one body, believers must put away lying and speak truth to one another.
61. 4.26Anger is natural but must be moderated and not kept past sundown, lest it lead to excessive punishment or give the devil a foothold.
62. 4.28The former thief must not only stop stealing but work to give to the needy, which alone earns merit.
63. 4.29A servant of God must keep his speech pure and edifying, since words justify or condemn.
64. 4.30The impassible Spirit is 'saddened' when disobedience makes him leave those he sealed and sanctifies.
65. 4.31Anger leads step by step to blasphemy; all such passions, and hidden malice too, must be removed.
66. 4.32Forgiven by God in Christ, believers must forgive one another, or lose the mercy they received.
67. 5.1Believers who imitate God are his dearest children.
68. 5.2Christ's death pleased God not because he was killed but because he kept righteousness to death; God 'handed him over' by permitting his willing killers, who remain guilty.
69. 5.3Greed, ranked with sexual immorality, is a grave sin incompatible with holiness.
70. 5.4Servants of God must avoid base and foolish jesting, since every idle word will be judged, and speak what builds up and praises God.
71. 5.5Greed is idolatry because it hoards for oneself what God gave for all; believers must not be deceived by pagan appeals to ancient custom.
72. 5.8Converts have passed from the darkness of paganism, whose mysteries are held in caves, to the light of God.
73. 5.9Sons of light act openly, since sin hides in secret.
74. 5.10Holiness and mercy are what please God.
75. 5.11Believers must not share by consent in evil deeds.
76. 5.12Believers should reprove hidden sins, which, once exposed by reproof, can no longer be excused.
77. 5.14Those asleep in error are called to rise from spiritual death and share in Christ.
78. 5.15Christians should reprove prudently, especially under a hostile ruler, confessing their faith when asked but not provoking blasphemy.
79. 5.17The Lord's will is that rebuke be given peaceably and gently, to avoid strife.
80. 5.18Sobriety gives the authority to reprove, while drunkenness leads to debauchery.
81. 5.19Those who live well are filled with the Spirit and praise God in song from the heart, not the lips alone.
82. 5.20Believers give thanks to the Father through Christ and submit to one another in humility.
83. 5.22Wives are to be subject to husbands by natural law as the church to Christ, though the wife, unlike the church, shares her husband's nature.
84. 5.25Husbands must love their wives as Christ loved the church, even to death; being one flesh, a man loves himself in his wife and sins against himself by sexual immorality.
85. 5.29A husband should nourish and cherish his wife as his own flesh, as Christ does the church.
86. 5.30Believers are Christ's members spiritually, since he is the head from whom all spiritual creation subsists.
87. 5.31The one-flesh union of husband and wife, a great mystery, images Christ and the church; the husband must love his wife as himself, and the wife, subordinate in condition but equal in nature, respect him.
88. 6.1Children must obey and honour the parents through whom they exist.
89. 6.3Honouring parents is the 'first' commandment as the first of the second tablet, concerning duties to people.
90. 6.4Fathers must raise children in the Lord's discipline without provoking them, remembering that they too were sons.
91. 6.5Christians, though their faith is supreme, must fulfil the duties of their station, so that masters and slaves alike are drawn to the faith.
92. 6.6Slaves serve God when they serve their masters faithfully, awaiting God's reward, and their example can win their masters.
93. 6.8Masters must treat slaves as they would wish to be treated, since God their common Lord judges impartially.
94. 6.10Paul urges the Ephesians to be strong in God's power against the enemy's storms.
95. 6.11The armour of God is steadfast faith, needed because persecution is the work of the devil and his spiritual forces in the heavens.
96. 6.13Against spiritual enemies believers must arm themselves with sobriety, prayer, and the virtues of the armour of God.
97. 6.18Praying in the spirit means praying with a pure conscience; Paul asks prayer for boldness, since God's envoy is in chains though envoys are protected by the law of nations.
98. 6.21Paul sends Tychicus with news and closes by wishing peace, love, and grace, which remains only with those who believe rightly about Christ.