Exposition on Ephesians

Contents

Reading pages: 0–3.21 · 4.1–5.33 · 6.1–6.24

1. 0Pelagius's argument: Paul writes to believing Jews and Gentiles at Ephesus, first on the incarnation, then on gratitude, then on conduct.
2. 1.1Paul writes as apostle by God's will, not his own merit, to the baptized saints who believe.
3. 1.2Grace avails for those who do not credit their salvation to their merits; Father and Son act as one.
4. 1.3God has given every spiritual blessing in Christ, so we owe him full obedience in return.
5. 1.4God's choosing and predestining is his foreknowledge and purpose that all who will believe become his adopted sons, not a matter of merit or pre-existent souls.
6. 1.6God's grace in Christ made us pleasing to him, so that we praise it.
7. 1.7Christ's blood redeemed us and his forgiveness made us righteous without our labour.
8. 1.8Lemma of Eph 1:8.
9. 1.9God's abundance gave not only forgiveness but knowledge of the mysteries of his will.
10. 1.10Christ restores heaven's joy and fallen humanity; the Jewish believers were called first, by God's reasonable will and not their merits.
11. 1.12The Jewish believers, who first hoped in Christ, are to show God's glory by their lives.
12. 1.13The Gentiles too heard the gospel, believed, and were sealed with the promised Spirit.
13. 1.14The Spirit's present gifts are a down payment on the inheritance promised to all flesh.
14. 1.15The Ephesians' faith is proved by their love for all the saints, though with discernment.
15. 1.16Paul remembers the Ephesians in prayer, his chief delight.
16. 1.17Paul asks for wisdom so that believers may truly know God's power and omnipresence, which keeps them from sin.
17. 1.18Knowing the hope of God's calling makes every earthly hope and inheritance seem worthless.
18. 1.19Lemma of Eph 1:19.
19. 1.20God's greatest work was raising Christ and seating him in honour; "right hand" means honour, not a bodily God.
20. 1.21The risen Christ, the assumed man now one with God, is above every power.
21. 1.22Lemma of Eph 1:22.
22. 1.23The church is Christ's body, which will be complete when all the members have believed.
23. 2.1Paul recalls the believers' former death in sin to spur them to obedience.
24. 2.2The devil works on unbelievers by persuasion, not force.
25. 2.3Jews and Gentiles alike lived in sin; "by nature" means that inherited custom made all seem born to condemnation.
26. 2.4God's great love shows in loving rebels as sons, and he loves the saints still more.
27. 2.5Through baptism God made us sinless with Christ, by grace, apart from our merit.
28. 2.6Our nature, in Christ our head, already sits in heaven, so we may hope with confidence.
29. 2.7God's abundant grace both forgives and exalts believers with Christ.
30. 2.8Salvation comes not by merits of one's former life but by faith alone, as God's gift.
31. 2.9No one should boast that baptism's gift was earned.
32. 2.10Reborn in Christ, believers are to walk in the good works the gospel shows.
33. 2.11Paul reminds the Gentiles of their former lowliness so that they will be grateful.
34. 2.12The Gentiles were once without Christ, outside Israel's covenants, and without the true God.
35. 2.13Gentile believers are now equal with the Jews through Christ's blood.
36. 2.14Christ removed the law's burdens, such as circumcision, which divided Jews and Gentiles.
37. 2.15Christ set aside the ceremonial law, justifying by faith alone and keeping only moral precepts, and made one people.
38. 2.16Faith in the cross alone, easy enough for the dying thief, reconciles Jew and Gentile to God.
39. 2.17Christ came to reconcile humanity to itself and to God.
40. 2.18Through Christ both peoples come to the Father in one Spirit.
41. 2.19Gentile believers are full citizens of God's people, not proselytes.
42. 2.20The church rests on apostles and New Testament prophets, with Christ as foundation and cornerstone.
43. 2.21The church, Christ's temple, must be holier than the Jerusalem temple that prefigured it.
44. 2.22Gentile believers are built with apostles and prophets into God's spiritual house.
45. 3.1Paul's chains confirm the gospel, since he gave up wealth and honour among the Jews for the Gentiles.
46. 3.2Paul received a stewardship of teaching among the Gentiles, like the faithful servant.
47. 3.3Paul received by revelation the mystery that Jews and Gentiles are one in Christ.
48. 3.4Paul wrote as much as his readers could grasp, not with worldly eloquence.
49. 3.5The prophets foresaw the Gentiles' calling but not their full equality with the Jews.
50. 3.6The Gentiles share fully in the inheritance, the body, and the promise through the gospel.
51. 3.7Paul's ministry comes from God's grace and power, not his merit.
52. 3.8Paul, last in time but not in labour, was given to preach Christ's unsearchable riches.
53. 3.9The mystery, hidden in God the Creator, is now opened to all, against Marcion's separation of the Creator from God.
54. 3.10Lemma of Eph 3:10.
55. 3.11God determined that, when no other way remained, people should be saved by faith in Christ alone.
56. 3.12Access to God is through faith in Christ, not our own righteousness.
57. 3.13Paul's sufferings should encourage, not discourage, his readers, since they show his sure hope.
58. 3.14Lemma of Eph 3:14.
59. 3.15All fatherhood takes its name from God the Father.
60. 3.16Paul prays that God strengthen them by knowledge of his glory.
61. 3.17Christ dwells where faith strengthens the inner man, and love of him extends to all his members.
62. 3.18Only the holy can grasp the dimensions of God's wisdom, which some read as the broad way, eternal life, heaven, and hell.
63. 3.19Christ's love grows from knowledge and surpasses it; believers are to be perfected in his virtues.
64. 3.20God often gives more than we know how to ask.
65. 3.21Paul closes the doctrinal half with praise and turns to moral instruction for the church.
66. 4.1Paul urges his readers to live worthily of their calling as God's sons.
67. 4.2Humility, meekness, patience, and loving forbearance preserve the Spirit's unity.
68. 4.4Lemma of Eph 4:4.
69. 4.6One body, faith, and baptism mean one standard of holiness for all believers, whatever their worldly station.
70. 4.7Each receives grace according to Christ's gift and the capacity he prepares in himself.
71. 4.8Christ took the devil's captives for life when he ascended.
72. 4.9Christ, everywhere as God, descended in the form of a servant to hell and ascended body and soul.
73. 4.11The same ministries are given by the Father and by Christ, against the Arians; pastors are priests, teachers any who can instruct.
74. 4.12Ministers are given to perfect the saints and build up the church.
75. 4.13Knowing the Son means not sinning and imitating Christ's perfect virtue.
76. 4.14Mature faith is not tossed by every teaching that the cunning spread.
77. 4.15Each member grows in love in its own place, and so the whole body grows.
78. 4.17Christians must differ in conduct from the Gentiles as much as God differs from the devil.
79. 4.18The Gentiles have natural understanding, darkened by ignorance, which breeds contempt of God.
80. 4.19Despair of judgment drives people to pleasure and every vice.
81. 4.21Truly learning Christ means sharing no vice with the Gentiles and walking in new life.
82. 4.22The old man is put off by leaving former errors and changing one's mind and conduct.
83. 4.23Renewal of the mind is the new heart and spirit the prophet commands.
84. 4.24The new man is the image of God: righteous, holy, and truthful.
85. 4.25Truthfulness follows from our being members of one body.
86. 4.26Anger must become measured correction of a brother's sin, not revenge.
87. 4.27Sin opens the door to the devil, righteousness to the Holy Spirit.
88. 4.28The former thief must work honestly and give to the needy, avoiding evil trades.
89. 4.29Christian speech should build up faith and give grace to hearers.
90. 4.30Sin grieves the Spirit received at baptism; in God such "passions" are chosen dispensations, not sufferings.
91. 4.31Paul lists the sins that grieve the Spirit, from bitterness to malice.
92. 4.32Believers must forgive as God forgave, since they are God's sons by imitation, not nature.
93. 5.2Christ gave himself freely for sinners, and believers are to love as he loved.
94. 5.3Sexual immorality and greed, the roots of sin, must not even be named among the saints.
95. 5.4Coarse talk and jesting do not befit Christians, who should give thanks.
96. 5.5Against those who say faith alone suffices, Paul excludes the immoral from God's kingdom.
97. 5.6Faith and baptism do not save those who go on sinning; God's past judgments warn of future wrath.
98. 5.7Sharing the sins of the unbelieving means sharing their punishment.
99. 5.8Believers, now light, must differ from their past as light from darkness.
100. 5.9Knowledge bears the fruit of goodness, righteousness, and truth.
101. 5.10What pleases God is learned from the law, not human claims.
102. 5.11Christians must reject and reprove the works of darkness.
103. 5.12The pagans' secret deeds are too shameful to speak of.
104. 5.13Reproof brings hidden sins to light, and the unbeliever who is exposed becomes light by believing.
105. 5.14The call to wake is a summons to unbelievers to rise from ignorance and sin.
106. 5.15Believers must walk wisely and give no one cause to stumble.
107. 5.16Days are evil only because of human wickedness, so believers must use time wisely.
108. 5.17God's will is to be learned from the law.
109. 5.18The crucified must avoid drunkenness and be filled with the Spirit.
110. 5.19Christians should speak and sing God's words from the heart.
111. 5.20Believers give thanks in good and evil, as Job did.
112. 5.21Mutual submission is to be out of reverence for Christ, not flattery.
113. 5.22Paul insists on wives' submission because, teaching continence within marriage, he did not want it to dissolve marriages.
114. 5.23Lemma of Eph 5:23.
115. 5.24The husband is first and is to be the protector of both, so the wife is subject.
116. 5.25Husbands are to love their wives with a holy love, even to death.
117. 5.26As Christ cleansed the church by water and teaching, husbands are to purify their wives by continence and instruction.
118. 5.27The church is spotless in all members, so the sinful are outside it unless cleansed by repentance.
119. 5.28Husbands are to love their wives as themselves, since the two are one flesh.
120. 5.29Paul does not condemn marriage but urges continence within it.
121. 5.30As members of Christ, believers should imitate him in all things.
122. 5.31The verse is read as an objection raised by those who want marriage to be carnal.
123. 5.32Paul applies the one-flesh text to Christ and the church, so husbands should love their wives spiritually.
124. 5.33Each husband must love his wife and each wife respect her husband.
125. 6.1Children are to obey parents who raise them for God.
126. 6.2Good parents are to be honoured; this is the first commandment of the second table.
127. 6.3The promised land of long life is the land promised to the meek, not this earth.
128. 6.4Fathers must not provoke children but train them in God's law.
129. 6.5Slavery comes from captivity, not nature; Christ did not abolish it, and believing slaves are to serve well so as to win their masters.
130. 6.6Slaves are to serve sincerely in all that does not contradict God's will.
131. 6.7Slaves should serve gladly, not grumbling.
132. 6.8God rewards the good done by slave and free alike.
133. 6.9Masters must treat slaves well and forgive them, since both share one Lord and inheritance.
134. 6.10Paul ends with a general exhortation to be strong in the Lord.
135. 6.11Spiritual enemies require spiritual armour.
136. 6.12The Christian's struggle is against demonic powers ruling through ignorance and sin.
137. 6.13Believers must take God's armour and be perfect in everything.
138. 6.14Truth and righteousness, made of many virtues, are the soldier's belt and breastplate.
139. 6.15The gospel is to be preached boldly.
140. 6.16Faith is the shield without which the other virtues cannot save.
141. 6.17Without the word of God, the sword, every virtue is defenceless.
142. 6.18Prayer must be constant, attentive, and offered by the holy for the holy.
143. 6.19Paul asks prayer for boldness to proclaim the union of Jews and Gentiles in Christ.
144. 6.20Ambassadors of the word suffer, but the word itself cannot be bound.
145. 6.21Lemma of Eph 6:21.
146. 6.22Paul sends Tychicus so that his readers will not lose heart.
147. 6.23Peace, love, and faith together make the perfect Christian.
148. 6.24Grace is for those who love Christ with undivided love.