Personal Meditations

Ephesians — The Epistle of Grace

These thoughts are purely personal, so the first personal pronoun will be used from time to time throughout, without a great deal of concern about good rhetorical principles. Any other Christian, musing on these same epistles, will find other key thoughts in them, and such meditations will be just as valid. Obviously, we cannot confine any piece of literature to a single word, yet I have found inner joy from thinking on Paul's post-Acts epistles with this question in mind: “What is the chief thought the Holy Spirit is seeking to impress upon us through the Apostle in this epistle?” I share my thoughts with you in these studies.

May we never lose sight of the precious truth that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is for us. Wherever we read, we find pictures of Christ and profitable contemplation. Most believers in the right division of the Word recognise, however, that the epistles of the Apostle Paul have a special place in our study, for Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles. When we follow this truth a bit further, we can surely see that while all of his epistles are important for us, his seven early epistles, written during the Acts period, were written during the time that he was still going to the Jew first (cf. Romans 1:16, 17), performing miracles of healing, raising the dead, speaking with tongues, observing Jewish days and ceremonies (even offering sacrifices, or being willing to do so) and the letters he wrote during that period of his ministry reflect these things.

When we come to the seven epistles he wrote after the close of the book of Acts, however, we reach the pinnacle of God's revelation concerning the Church which is the Body of Christ. We find the full revelation of truth that concerns us—the truth of the mystery, kept secret in other ages, but made known to and through the Apostle Paul. I like to meditate upon these seven epistles (Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon) and try to find the one word, or the particular truth, the epistle brings to me. This, of course, is in addition to serious, detailed, word by word study of the epistles that is necessary and profitable. May you, the reader, find these epistles more meaningful after thinking on them along these lines. Better still, why not study them diligently and make your own summary?

Ephesians—The Epistle of Grace
What is the key word or key message of Ephesians? There are differences of opinion, of course. Dr. Norman B. Harrison, in his fine little devotional commentary on the book of Ephesians, builds his outline around the three-fold nature of the truths revealed in the book; he lists “seven significant words” that he feels are key words, namely: grace, spiritual, heavenlies, mystery, body, walk, and in. Dr. W.B. Riley, in his Bible of the Expositor and Evangelist , Volume 12 , on Ephesians, builds his commentary on the three-fold teaching of the book, but his approach is different from that of Dr. Harrison.

Pastor Charles Welch, of London, in his excellent book, The Testimony of the Lord's Prisoner , shows the two-fold division of the book, three doctrinal chapters and three practical chapters, each section balancing the other, and turning on the pivotal word, “worthy” of Ephesians 4:1.

These books are all helpful for study purposes, but I think if I were to select the one word that Ephesians brings to me, it would be the word grace. From the salutation (1:2) to the benediction (6:24) we are confronted with the grace of God. Our acceptance in the Beloved is to the praise of the glory of His grace (1:5); our position is possible because of the riches of His grace (1:7); our salvation itself, in its every facet, is by grace (2:5, 8); in the ages to come, He will, through our salvation, show the exceeding riches of His grace (2:7). This epistle reveals in all of its fulness and profundity the truth concerning the dispensation of grace (3:2, 7, 8). The same grace that saves us enables us to serve the Lord (4:7, 29). Truly, Ephesians is the “grace” epistle, and those of us who love the gospel of the grace of God and the truth of the mystery should search and ponder this epistle frequently.