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No.20.
pp. 157 - 160
Having given a short consideration to the spiritual riches revealed in the Apostle
Paul's prison letters, we will now turn to the first of these, namely the epistle to the
Ephesians, because this was the first letter written after the Divine break with Israel at
Acts 28:, and contains the new revelation concerning an aspect of God's redeeming
purpose which He had kept hidden all the while He was dealing with Israel as His earthly
covenant People (from Gen. 12: to Acts 28:).
We have noted that this was possibly a circular letter, as the words "at Ephesus" are
missing from some Greek manuscripts. If this was so, it would be all in line with the
need to make the new truth known to all the churches, not just to one only. In our
consideration of Ephesians, we do not intend to make it a very detailed and exhaustive
study. Our main aim is to get the general drift of the teaching as simply as possible.
We first take note of the fact that the Apostle addressed the epistle not only to those at
Ephesus, but to "the faithful in Christ Jesus", and he does this again when he writes from
his prison to the Colossian church (Col. 1: 2). We have no right to ignore this
qualification. If we ask ourselves "are all believers in Christ automatically faithful?" the
answer is obviously "no". Some play fast and loose with God's truth, and the N.T. as a
whole has a lot to say about Christians who are disloyal to the Lord. It must be clear at
the outset that, whatever wonders of truth are going to be revealed from this point
onwards, they are not for the unfaithful or untrustworthy. This should make us search
our own hearts and honestly face up to the challenge as to whether we are prepared to be
absolutely loyal to the Lord and to all the truth He chooses to reveal to us in His grace
and love. If we are not, then Ephesians and the epistles to follow will be closed so far as
we are concerned.
After the important introduction of the first two verses, the first section commences
with verse 3 and extends to verse 14. It is sub-divided for us by a recurring phrase
containing the words "praise" and "glory". This will be found in verses 6, 12 and 14.
The three sections thus formed deal with God and the Father (verses 3-5), God the Son
(6-12), and God the Holy Spirit (13, 14) in their gracious dealing with believers who
form the Body of Christ. Let us look at the first section which reveals the Father's will.
In this supreme will we have the Father's choice--us, the Father's object--that we
should be holy and without blemish, and the Father's motive--love (verse 4).
Primarily verse 3 starts, not with God the Father blessing us, but we blessing Him!
This of course is only possible when we have appreciated, in some measure,
experimentally the wonders of revelation that His Divine will contains, and our hearts
then spontaneously respond in praise to Him. We are assured that the Father "hath
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ". Every blessing that is
spiritual is nearer the meaning. Note the quality and the quantity of these blessings, and
where they are to be found, namely "in Christ" and "in heavenly places". Their quality is