Paul continues to show the immeasurable nature of God’s redeeming grace by noting the context in which it took place.  It is as if he provides the reader with a snapshot or summary of the whole story from beginning to end.  It is because we were dead in our trespasses that God would have to forgive us by means of redeeming us from sin’s debt (1:7).  Verses 2 and 3 describe the state of what all once were prior to their adoption as sons and daughters (1:5).

Verses 1 through 3 do not distinguish between male or female, Jew or Gentile, bond or free.  All are in the same dead state brought on by trespass and sin.  Paul highlights the enemies of grace: the world, the devil, and the flesh.  All three work to overthrow and undercut the provision of God for the inability of man.  Verse 4 acts as a sharp contrast to the initial three verses.  It functions as an explosion of hope.  In contrast to all that we are, here stands God who is rich in mercy and great in love.  He does not allow us to continue as we were but sets us on a path of life and light.  Because of who God is in essence, all His actions are inseparably linked to and flowing from this abundant resource.

The text speaks to our past, what we once were (vv. 1-3).  It then addresses the present by noting how we are alive together with Christ and have been raised up with Him and seated with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (vv. 5, 6).  We often fail to appreciate the already-not yet aspect of faith.  We are already alive, raised, and seated, yet there is more.

Verse 7 paints a picture of the future.  The Church is a trophy of His surpassing grace, a grace marked by richness and kindness.  There is something lavish about what God does for those whom He loves.

Everything the church enjoys is a result of a freely bestowed gift (v. 8-10).  This gift as such was incapable of being earned through works, thus no one can boast.  The Church is the work of His hands and through which He works His good work.  This is the story God wrote beforehand and it is in this story we are to walk.

Throughout this short letter, Paul speaks of God’s superabundant activities flowing from Himself to His people.  Such words as “rich, lavish, surpassing greatness, surpassing riches, unfathomable riches, surpasses knowledge and far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think” (1:7, 8, 18, 19; 2:4, 7; 3:8, 16, 18, 19, 20) are employed in an attempt to capture the magnitude of God’s person and work to redeem His people from sin’s debt and to adopt them as sons.  All of this was written by Him into His story (1:4, 5, 9, 11, 21; 2:7, 10; 3:11).

Paul’s opening sentence reaches from verse 3 to verse 14.  Here is an avalanche of descriptive words that unveil what God did in the securing of His people for Himself.  Here we read of God as a tri-unity working (energy) to secure for Himself worshipping sons and daughters.  Our passage speaks of God the Father blessing (v. 3), choosing (v. 4) and adopting (vv. 5, 6) trespassers into His family.  We can equally note the activity of the Son to redeem slaves by forgiving debt by means of His own substitutionary and voluntary death (vv. 7, 8).  It is the Son who makes known to us the mystery of their eternal purpose (vv. 9, 10), how from rebellion, division, and damnation He brings peace, harmony, and life.  It is through Him and in Him all things created find the object that silences the rage from within and the loneliness that robs and destroys.  What is the outcome, the inheritance of His activity?  Through Him, the alienated are adopted, the rebel is restored, the indebted are pardoned and the forsaken are chosen.

None of this is left to the recipient.  The work, all of it in every area, is left to the free bestowal and lavish dispensing of His grace.  He seals His people with the Holy Spirit of promise.  This pledge, the seal, determines ownership and guarantees the outcome (vv. 13, 14).

God’s end game is that all things would be “to the praise of His glory” (vv. 6, 12, 14).  A means to that end, at least in Ephesians, is by the redeeming of His people from sin and the adopting of the same as sons and daughters.  These redeemed trespassers constitute His body, the Church.  It is this Church that now becomes the means whereby God is glorified by all things outside of Himself.  God did/does what no one else could do.  He redeemed those who trespassed against Him, and He was fully engaged, in His essence and economy, in and during the entire process.

In this initial assault on our sensibility, there are hints given as to the extremity of His activity.  Words such as bless assumes a state of being cursed; chosen assumes rejection, adoption presupposes abandonment, redemption takes for granted debt,  making known demands previous blindness, inheritance speaks to disenfranchised, sealing and pledge contrasts with uncertainty and ambiguity.

All of the negatives are descriptive of a previously existing condition.  There was nothing the cursed, rejected, abandoned, indebted, blind, disenfranchised and unstable could do to undo their preexisting condition.  It is only as the Trinitarian God freely bestows and lavishly dispenses His resources without condition that the abandoned can become sons through adoption.

Where does this lead us?  This leads us to the foot of His cross and to the glory of His throne.  There is only one response that is appropriate and it is one of humble adoration and praise.  We have no boast but the cross.  He is our life and our living.  What can we do but praise Him.  He is the substance from which life makes sense.  May we the redeemed gladly and openly declare our eternal indebtedness to the One whose essence and economy secures us from sin’s debt and adopts us as sons.

1. Paul’s first visit to Ephesus happened in Acts 18:18-21.

This is the first occurrence of the word in the New Testament.

2. In Paul’s absence, Priscilla and Aquila instructed Apollos (Acts 18:24-28).

When you read the narrative it is straightforward and clear.

3. Paul returned to Ephesus, taught the disciples and evangelized the unbelieving (Acts 19)

1. Taught on Spirit baptism (Acts 19:1-7)

2. Taught on the kingdom God for two years (Acts 19:8-10)

3. God performed extraordinary miracles through Paul (Acts 19:11-22)

4. Challenged the cult of Artemis of the Ephesians and experienced a violent mob (Acts 19:23-20:1 [perhaps this is what Paul alluded to when he wrote, “I fought with wild beasts at Ephesus {1 Cor. 15:32}]).

4. Paul returns to Ephesus and addresses the Elders of the local churches (Acts 20:17-21:1).

Paul wished to encourage the weak and to guard them against the savage wolves who would teach perverse things.

5. Paul wrote 1 Corinthians from Ephesus (1 Cor. 16:8).

Remember the content of 1 Corinthians.  Problems exist inside the community of faith and the book/letter contains his response to their questions and problems.

6. Paul encouraged Timothy to remain on at Ephesus so that he might instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines (1 Tim. 1:3).

First and Second Timothy speak to the shepherd to protect the flock of God.  Both address the ideas of biblical structure and mission.  We must note the similarity between the charges given in Acts 20:17ff and what is found in 1 and 2 Timothy.

7. Paul also speaks well of Onesiphorus who aided Paul while imprisoned (2 Tim. 1:16-18) and Tychicus who was a co-laborer (2 Tim. 4:12).

Paul was often accompanied by co-workers who labored with him in the strengthening of existing churches and the establishing of new ones.

8. The apostle John also writes specifically to the church in Ephesus (Rev. 1:11; 2:1-7).  Their orthodoxy (i.e. right belief) was impeccable, but their orthoproxy (i.e. right behavior) was challenged.  It is here we read, “You have left your first love.”

The pastoral letters are written near the end of Paul’s life (AD 64).  Thirty years later John is encouraged by their theological purity and defense of the gospel, but warns and cautions against a theology that is devoid of Christ.  It is not enough for people to know what you are against; they must know what you are for.  People should know what we are for long before they come to understand what we are against.  Neither Paul nor John would argue against doctrinal purity.  Both have much to say as it relates to correct thinking, but both are equally passionate about correct fervor manifesting itself in correct behavior.  The question they would ask and we are confronted by is simply, “Do you love Jesus?”  “Is He first in your theology, your thinking and your life?”  That thought must dominate our doctrinal discussion, and from it must flow our “good works.”

Paul had told Timothy to stay and teach in Ephesus when Paul went to Macedonia (1 Tim. 1:3). During the third journey, Paul had done the opposite, staying in Ephesus himself, and sending Timothy with Erastus to Macedonia (Acts 19:22). So First Timothy was written around 64-65 AD during a period of liberty after Paul’s Roman imprisonment of 61-63 AD. Paul said he was hoping to come to Timothy in Ephesus shortly, but may have to tarry long (1 Tim. 3:14-15). Timothy was in Ephesus where he received both 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy (1 Tim. 1:3, 2 Tim. 1:16-18, 4:14, 4:19, Acts 19:33, and 1 Tim. 1:20).

Second Timothy was apparently written from prison (2 Tim. 1:8) with Paul ready to die (2 Tim. 4:6-8), possibly about 66 AD. Yet he asks Timothy to come to him before winter (2 Tim. 4:9 and 21). Paul was probably martyred sometime around 67 AD.

The Book of Ephesians will open up to us the Word of God to the Church of God.  It is imperative that we have ears to hear.  Let us pray to the Holy Spirit to open our ears and eyes to the majesty of truth that we will encounter within the passages of holy write.

Prepared by Patrick J. Griffiths © 2009 – pastorpat@waukeshabible.org

There is an element of perplexity offered to us in the text.  Is it possible for those who have the inheritance to become disinherited?  Is it possible for those who are citizens of His kingdom to be expelled from its realm?  There is a weight to what faces us in this text that must not and cannot be negated.  Paul speaks to the Ephesians and reminds them that if in Adam behavior characterizes their lives then they are in real danger of losing their inheritance and becoming outcasts of His kingdom.

Let us attempt to put his charge in its literary context.  Paul speaks of those whom God as a Trinity secured to become sons and daughters by fully engaging all that He is in His essence and all He has at His disposal.  All the resources of God were deployed for the purpose of redeeming the sinner’s debt and adopting the orphaned.  Everything in chapters 1 through 3 speaks to the new man created when God acted.  It is from this tree that unity, purity and charity now flow.  In the absence of individual purity and charity, the unity secured by the cross is in jeopardy of failing.  This failure refers to its manifestation in the community of faith.  Nothing can ever undo what God did.  Yet it is possible to speak and live so poorly as to significant obscure the manifestation of the cross in one’s community of faith.

The characteristics of what all once were in Adam no longer identify those who are in Christ.  We are to parrot God, follow God, because we are His loved children.  He loves us and the consequence of this love is unmerited adoption.  What this looks like in His children is love.  He explains what this love looks like through two venues.  First, love is explained by the cross.  Second, love is explained by contrast.

Everything about the Christian life is a consequence of the cross.  The cross causes the relationship one has with God.  The consequences of that relationship is both verbal (i.e. what you say and how you speak) and visual (i.e. how you behave).  Because you are now in Christ and have become His body, everything about you has changed forever.  If this is true, how are we to take the charge and warning of Ephesians 5:1-6?

My understanding of this is progressing, but first there is the idea expressed in Galatians where one is “severed from Christ” (Gal. 5:4).  I believe this speaks of apostasy whereby initial faith is abandoned through a persistent verbal denial.  This person once professed Christ, but through open and continued verbal denial they have abandoned Christ and have thus fallen from grace and are severed from Christ.

The second idea is of one who through their actions openly and consistently shows their in Adam identity.  There are several passages that speak to this idea.  I will note only a handful.

First, some clarity can come from the parable of the wise man building his house on the rock (Please read Matt. 7:24-29).  What is of interest is to see the parallel between hearing and doing and building on the rock.  The unwise hear but fail to do and thus build their entire lives on nothing more stable than sand.  The issue is not on how well either one built, but on what they built.  It is only because of the rock that the one stood and the other failed.

Second, some clarity can come from the parable of the four soils (Please read Mark 4:1-20).  The first three soil types did not produce an enduring crop.  As a consequence they all failed.  It is only the fourth soil that produced an enduring crop.  In the absence of this notable and enduring fruit, there can be no certainty.

Third, some clarity can come from the illustration of the dog returning to its vomit (Please read 2 Pet. 2:20-22).  This question of endurance presented in Ephesians 5:1-6 is persistent.  Matthew, Mark and Peter speak to it.  Peter’s employs two ancient proverbs, “A DOG RETURNS TO ITS OWN VOMIT”, and, “a sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.”  In both cases the issue is one of nature.

It is neither fair nor right for us to be dismissive with the exhortation and warning found in Ephesians 5:1-6.  It would be tragic for anyone to discharge debase behavior by assuming the lavish nature of God’s grace.  When the grace of God is promoted as an opportunity for the flesh and rank lasciviousness, then Paul warns them of God’s wrath and disinheritance.  When grace is used as an excuse, then the danger of disbarring is real.  Yet the grace of God receives the prodigal (Luke 15), releases the defiled (John 8), and restores the rejected (Mark 1:40ff).  May we flee from the wrath to come, and may we find comfort and rest in the enormity of God’s immeasurable grace.

By Pastor Patrick J. Griffiths.  For more information see the Waukesha Bible Church series on Ephesians.

The intent of this article is to show how what we once were in Adam we no longer are, but still have.  Paul’s point from the beginning of the letter all the way through chapter 3 is to note how those who were once in sin’s debt and alienated from God are now redeemed from sin and adopted into God’s family.  He is their Father and they are His children.

Paul is clear in verses 17 through 22 as to what this in Adam condition looks like both as a state and as a function.  I would like us to consider the graphic nature of Paul’s language in describing those apart from Christ.  There are several descriptive phrases that help us mark the unbelieving state and practice.

First, there is the futility of their mind (v. 17).  The word “futility” speaks to vanity, emptiness.  “The word contains the idea of aimlessness, the leading to no object or end.”[1] It is the same word used in Romans 8:20 (“For the creation was subjected to futility. . .”) and in 2 Peter 2:18 (“For speaking out arrogant words of vanity. . . ”).  There is emptiness to the conclusion drawn by those who do not and will not acknowledge God.  Because there is no fear of God within their thinking, they have no wisdom (Ps. 111:10; Prov. 9:10).  This is the manner of life that characterizes the unbelieving.

Second, they are darkened in their understanding (v. 18a).  The emphasis is on the continuing condition.  This is the stated condition of all those who are without Christ.  Notice the following verses in their depiction of the state of the unbelieving.

“to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me” (Acts 26:18).

“For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Rom. 1:21).

Apart from Christ their understanding is without light.

Third, they are excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them (v. 18b).  Like their darkness, so also their alienation.  Emphasis is placed on the continuing state or existence.  “It does not imply that they had at one time enjoyed that life; it means simply being aliens from it.”[2] It is the same word used in Ephesians 1:12 (“remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world”) and in Colossians 1:21 (“And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds”).

Fourth, there is the hardness of their heart (v. 18c).  The hardening of heart is used throughout the New Testament to describe those who insensitive toward God.  The imagery is that of a callous.  “[It] signifies a thickening of the outward skin of any particular part, especially on the hands and feet, by repeated exercise or use, through which such parts are rendered insensible.”[3]

Fifth, they are calloused (v. 19a).  Here the idea of insensitivity is heightened.  This is the consequence of the hardness noted in verse 18.  Like the darkness and the alienation so also the insensitivity.  It is habitual and marks the state of the unbelieving.  “The translation ‘past feeling’ expresses the sense accurately.  The lack of moral feeling and discernment means that inability to exercise any restraint.”[4] This is why the following thought is true.

Sixth, they have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness (v. 19b).  This is the outcome of their calloused existence.  Their existence is marked by an “insatiable craving greed, consuming ambition, giving reign to appetites and desires which are against the laws of God and man.”[5] This idea finds fuller exposure in Romans 1.  They are neither master nor lord, but mere pawns to their fleshly appetites.  Theirs is a tragic existence whose end is marked by an eternal alienation from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Finally, they are being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit (v. 22).  Again, this statement marks the ongoing state of those who are apart from Christ.  “The whole character representing the former self was not only corrupt but growing ever more and more corrupt.  Every trait of the old man’s behavior is putrid, crumbling, or inflated like rotting waste or cadavers, stinking, ripe for being disposed of and forgotten.”[6]

The fruit produced by the unbelieving is a natural consequence of their in Adam standing.  They can do nothing less than this.  Yet those who are in Christ still sin.  This sin is a result of the old in Adam self.  But it is no longer the tree that it once was.  This tree has been given a fatal blow at Calvary.  It is no longer capable of producing, in quantity or kind, the toxic fruit of sin.  There is a new tree growing in the believing from the seed of God, and it is this tree of life that now produces the fruit of the Holy Spirit (1 John 3:9).

This is what the unbelieving are in Adam.  Paul is not describing the believing.  Friend, what great cause we have to celebrate all God as a Trinity did for His people.  Yet I believe we mishandle this idea significantly.  Herein is my struggle.  I cannot state it any more emphatically, no Christian can be described in the manner Paul describes the unbelieving.  Because you still have what you once were there is a struggle against the old self, but this old self and its vices do not identify the Christian.  It isn’t that they cannot; they simply do not.  This is not what they are.

It is said, “If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck and waddles like a duck, chances are it’s a duck.”  Even if the duck behaves like a squirrel or a dog, it is still a duck.  Christians can never be anything other than what they are in Christ.  Because of their old self, the flesh, they still sin, but this sin does not make them anything more or less than what they are in Christ.  The reason why the unbelieving behave like unbelievers is because they are unbelievers.  This is what the Ephesian Gentiles once were but they no longer are.

Paul does note how we are to put off those expressions of our old self whether it is falsehood, anger, stealing, corrupt speech and all the rest (vv. 25-32).  But none of these acts can ever undo what God has done.  They cannot cause us to be hardened or insensitive to the Spirit’s work.  Such things as these do grieve the Holy Spirit because they will ultimately divide relationships within the body of Christ.  But they cannot alienate us from God for His people are in Christ.  This does not lessen the seriousness of the call to holiness, but it must put it in perspective.

For you and me to behave in a manner that is reflective of the old self is complete unbefitting of our identity in Christ.  We should and must flee from these things.  Let us not fear the outcome of our struggle against sin knowing that God has already won the victory.  The struggle against our old self is real, but so is the victory that is ours in Christ.  May this open our eyes to what we already have in Christ, and may we not waver in our pursuit of Him and our struggle against the old self.

[2] Rogers and Rogers, 441.

[3] Adam Clarke’s Commentary on Ephesians 4:18.

[4] Rogers and Rogers, 441.

[5] Rogers and Rogers, 442.

[6] Rogers and Rogers, 442.

By Pastor Patrick J. Griffiths.  For more information see the Waukesha Bible Church series on Ephesians.

In order to treat this passage appropriately, it must be read in light of what was just stated in 1:3-14: God as a trinity in the totality of His essence and energy redeemed His people from sin’s debt by forgiving their sins and then adopted them as His sons and daughters.  All of this was freely bestowed and lavishly dispensed.

As those who are sons and daughters, Paul now prays for their continued growth in the knowledge of Him.  Just as God can bless because He is blessed, so can He now give knowledge of His glory because He is the Father of glory.

Whatever the weight of the information given in verses 3-14 it is now expressed along three distinct petitions.  The two ideas (vv. 3-14 and vv. 17-23) must be seen as complimentary and parallel.  First, Paul prays that his audience would know the person of Christ.  Christ as the agent through whom the Godhead works and reveals is central to the entire story.  Unless and until we grasp this, nothing else matters.  And when we do grasp this, nothing else matters.  It is impossible to overstate the issue.  If Jesus is not the centerpiece of one’s own personal story, then there is nothing but ultimate darkness and despair.  The story of God was written in such a way that it cannot make sense apart from Jesus Christ as the cornerstone on which the entire structure rests, or as the linchpin that keeps the wheels from falling off the axle of life.

The second petition Paul brings is for them to know the promise of the inheritance.  Again, this thought parallels that expressed in verses 11-14.  The big idea is the principle of “already-not yet.”  What we currently possess as the redeemed, adopted sons and daughters of God, is fully sufficient for now, and yet . . . there is more.  The very idea of inheritance speaks of something that is still yet future.  An inheritance is capable of being possessed in the present, but there is more.  An inheritance was once future.  For the believer the work of God planned in eternity past and begun in time still has a future installment.  There is more.  It is this future installment that provides hope in the moment.  It tells us that the best is yet to come.  In looking to the future, we cannot forget either the past or the present.  There is a real and tangible aspect of our present possession that speaks to the moment.  Yet it is the future inheritance that provides hope to those who live in the context of despair.  It is this future inheritance that provides healing to those who live with disease and addresses wholeness where there is only dysfunction.

Paul’s final request is for his audience to know the power of God.  It is this last request that puts all the rest in perspective.  It is only because of God’s immeasurable greatness of power working toward us who believe that we can know the person of Christ and the promise of the inheritance.  This immeasurable power is so vast that it raised Christ from the dead and placed all things created under His feet.  The word “immeasurable” speaks to our inability to measure or quantify just how vast the resources of God are which He has placed at our disposal so that we might know.

All this sits within His body, the Church.  It is in and through the Church that the risen and reigning Christ works to the community, the nation and the world.  The Church is the agent through which His kingdom will come on earth even as it is in heaven.

We see the visible church as a highly imperfect and at times dysfunctional entity, yet the church is His body in which and through which He is working reconciliation/peace.  It is from the peace secured by the cross that He now works peace to the world.

Oh the weight of such a task in the light of our glaring weakness!  Yet Paul celebrates the weakness because it is only as we are weak that we find the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe (2 Cor. 12:9).

May we pray with Pauline passion for His people, the body of Christ, His church.  May we see past our personal pettiness and petition Him with powerful utterances that reflect the very heart of God for us.

By Pastor Patrick J. Griffiths.  For more information see the Waukesha Bible Church series on Ephesians.