◄ Ephesians 1 Devotional Commentary ►

Ephesians 1:1

Like other apostles, Paul was a special messenger who was called, chosen, and authorised by God to receive hidden revelation for the Church, and to lay down foundational doctrine and godly principles for the Body of Christ. He met the biblical requirement for apostleship (being an eyewitness of Christ), as he met with the resurrected Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus.

Paul was also unique among Christ's apostles, for unlike the read more...

Ephesians 1:2

I don't think there is a more meaningful greeting or significant salutation given to man, than this duet of grace and peace found in all Paul's letters. "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

The grace of God, which brings peace with God, is the most important element in the whole of Scripture, for it is only through the grace of God that all His other read more...

Ephesians 1:3

When we bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we offer Him the praise and worship He deserves. We praise Him for Who He is and all that He has done for the children of men. Before the foundation of the world, He knew each one that would believe on His Son and expressed His attitude of love and grace towards us, and showered upon us mercy and untold blessings.

It is God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Who is to read more...

Ephesians 1:4

How we praise and glorify God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for He has poured out every single blessing in the heavenly realms upon us, simply because we are united with Christ by faith and are One with Himself. How we rejoice, for this is one facet of the cut diamond of His immeasurable grace with which God has chosen to bless us.

It was not happenstance or fate, good luck, or a happy fluke that rendered us so blessed, but a beautiful showering read more...

Ephesians 1:5

Throughout Scripture, we discover verse after verse that reminds us that the love of God caused Him to send His only begotten Son to die on the Cross for our redemption, and it was by the grace of God that His free gift of eternal life is given to whosoever will believe on Jesus Christ as Saviour. 

God gave man free will to choose or to reject His gracious offer of read more...

Ephesians 1:6

There is probably no higher pinnacle of praise to the glorious grace of God than the first few chapters of Ephesians, and there is possibly no more staggering truth for believers than to be accepted in the Beloved: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ."

What astonishing truths are bound within its pages. He chose us read more...

Ephesians 1:7

God created man in His own image and likeness, and man enjoyed unbroken fellowship with His Creator God, and walked and communed with Him in the cool of the evening. However, through man's owns foolish rebellion and disobedience, we became servants of a cruel task-master, estranged from the God Who made us, and entrapped by Satan. We forever became slaves to sin and destined to an everlasting death (eternal separation from God).

read more...

Ephesians 1:8

The focus of this glorious passage of Scripture is the beloved Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the great grace that has been poured out on all who trust in His name. He is the object of God's love; the One with Whom the Father is fully, finally, and eternally satisfied, and thirty-five times we are told in the book of Ephesians that we who believe in His name are IN CHRIST. We are positioned in Him and as such are eternally secure and eternally loved.

Ephesians 1:9

The coming of the Messiah was no hidden mystery for it was foretold by the prophets of Israel, but God had kept secret one peculiar aspect of His marvellous plan which He had purposed in Himself before the world was created.

The mystery that was kept hidden from men and angelic beings alike, was about the unsearchable riches of God's grace, which He purposed towards whosoever would trust in His only begotten Son. All believers, read more...

Ephesians 1:10

There is probably no more vital truth for the Christian than to understand our current position in Christ and our future relationship to Him. Before time began, God determined to gather all things together in Christ, unite everything together in Him, to sum-up and bring into one final whole, all things in Jesus Christ the Messiah of God.

Before the creation of the world, there was no time, and there is a day, yet future, when the read more...

Ephesians 1:11

The first chapter of Ephesians is weighed down and running over with countless spiritual blessings in heavenly places, which God our Father has freely given to us by grace through faith in His only begotten Son.

He chose us before the foundation of the world. He adopted and accepted us in Christ Jesus our Lord. He redeemed us from slavery to sin and forgave us all our sins, and He also revealed to us who have been made His read more...

Ephesians 1:12

God has always worked through a little remnant, and the apostle Paul was one of a small group of believing Jews who first trusted Christ as Saviour, and through whom the grace of God was made manifest to a world of lost sinners, to the praise of His holy name.

When Christ was rejected by the leaders of Israel and condemned to die at the hands of their cruel Roman overlords, it was through this tiny company of godly Jews that the read more...

Ephesians 1:13

Faith comes by hearing the pure message of truth in the Word of God, the gospel of our salvation. And Paul rejoiced that when this group of Christians HEARD this message of truth, they BELIEVED, and when they believed they were immediately SEALED with the promised Holy Spirit.

The moment that a sinner believes the gospel of salvation he is sealed with the Spirit, Who is promised by the Father to all who believe in Christ. What read more...

Ephesians 1:14

Contracts, treaties, and engagements can be all broken. People can renege on their promises and can even forego a financial down-payment to wriggle out of a commitment or covenant. But this is not the case with God. We have been purchased for God with the blood of Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit is His down-payment to us.

It is the indwelling Holy Spirit that has been given by the Father, to every newborn believer at the point read more...

Ephesians 1:15

Imagine receiving a letter from the apostle Paul. He had been chosen as God's apostle to the Gentiles and had been entrusted with the mysteries of Christ and the Church, which had been kept hidden for ages and generation.

What joy it must have been to have been a member of the Ephesian congregation, and to read: "I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love towards all the saints." What a thrill it read more...

Ephesians 1:16

Paul is a man who recognises the importance of lifting up other believers in prayer to the Father so that we may be spiritually enlightened and spiritually enabled to come to a deeper understand of who we are in Christ and what He has done for us. Paul's teaching equips us to live our "new life in Christ," to His praise and glory, not only in what we do but in who we are.

Paul is a man who demonstrates the godly principle read more...

Ephesians 1:17

Paul's ongoing and continuous prayer for all God's children is that we may grow in grace and wisdom. He prayed that we would increase in understanding and knowledge, and be granted greater illumination and spiritual revelation of our Father in heaven and His anointed Son, Jesus Christ, Who died for our sins and rose again the third day to give us His abundant life, according to the riches of His grace.

God began to reveal His read more...

Ephesians 1:18

All believers have been called by grace, out of darkness and into His glorious light. We have been called by grace, to glory. We have been called, chosen, justified, and glorified, for we are saved by grace through faith in Christ and are become his chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. We are God's very special possession - His glorious inheritance.

Sometimes familiarly with the glorious superlatives of our heavenly read more...

Ephesians 1:19

There is no god like unto our God. The infinite strength of His pre-eminent might and His superlative power is unsurpassed in time, through space, and into eternity. And this surpassing greatness of His power is directed towards one group of blessed people, a peculiar people who were once dead in trespasses and sins, a little flock who have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour.

How important that our hearts are read more...

Ephesians 1:20

The love of God is demonstrated to believers through the glorious inheritance that is ours in Christ. God's love is evidenced by the glorious position that we have in Him, the glorious future that we have been promised, and the glorious hope we have as His precious possession, for we were bought with a price.

Our privileges and our position, our hope, and our read more...

Ephesians 1:21

Ephesians is sometimes referred to as a 'mountaintop' book, full of wonderful truths, both about God Himself and who we are in Him. Chapter one talks about God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

The Father's gracious promises towards His children and the surpassing greatness of His mighty power towards all who believe in Him, is the confident hope that we have in Christ Jesus our Lord, which was accomplished when read more...

Ephesians 1:22

Because we are in Christ and have become members of His Body, we have been lavished with all kinds of spiritual blessings, by grace through faith.

Because of His willing obedience to live in total dependence on the Father and become our sin substitute at Calvary, the Lord Jesus has been given a name that is above every name and He has been given a position that is far above all principalities and power, not only in this age but read more...

Ephesians 1:23

Christ laid aside His heavenly glory to live in humble submission to the Father, doing only those things that He heard from Him so that we might be forgiven and become a new creation in Christ. And because of His obedience, God made Him universal ruler placing ALL things under His feet.

Christ's perfect sacrifice on the Cross forgave us of our sins (past, present, and future), saving us from the penalty of sin and returning us read more...