Ephesians Lesson 2

Ephesians Chapter 1:15 to Chapter 2:10

This week Paul continues with intercession; tremendous and anointed intercession.  Consider that Paul is writing a letter and he has started with praise to God for is work in the Ephesians’ life and now he moves on to intercession for the Ephesians.  Remember that this is a letter to the Ephesians.  

Ephesians 1:15-16 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,  I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers.  

Stott points out that the best manuscripts omit “your love” and I was thinking about the use of these words.  I think I may understand what happened because of Stotts discussion of the apparently double meaning in the word translated faithful.    This combined idea of faithful and full of faith may be in play again and perhaps in the way the Ephesians used the Greek word translated faith.  Imagine that the verse was originally written to be read something like this, “For this reason, ever since I heard about your fidelity to the Lord Jesus and all the saints.”  My fidelity to the Lord is fundamentally different than my fidelity to the saints.  My fidelity to the Lord is that I would submit myself a living sacrifice.  My fidelity to the saints is, by and large, and expression of agape love in my life.  However, if the use the word fidelity was somewhat idiosyncratic to the gentile believers it makes sense that a later copyist would reword it in a more generally understood manner.  I think when we find something like this that is puzzling we may often find that it was so obvious to the original writers and copiers that they didn’t really struggle with it.  Sort of a, “well duh factor.”  If I was writing to my kids who are part of “Generation X,” I might use terms like “bad” and even some “Super Mario Brothers” references that if you wanted to understand in 50 years (or for some of you right now) you would need to rephrased in a more common manner.

Ephesians 1:17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.  

What is the reason we seek wisdom (the right understanding and application of knowledge) and the revelation provided by scripture?  The purpose of Paul’s prayer is so that we may know him better.  Our knowledge of God should increase throughout our lives.  That is the expected process in a normal Christian’s life.  A major thrust of Ephesians is an explanation of God’s work in your life and what He did to save you.  This is so that you may know Him better and become aware of His will and His Glory.  Keep in mind that although a greater and greater knowledge of God is expected it isn’t always common.  In addition, a greater and greater knowledge of God should be transforming rather than an accumulation of facts.  The Spirit of wisdom and revelation is fundamentally transforming because … we are talking about Spirit with a capital “S”.  Also in passing note the Trinitarian nature evident again in this verse.

Ephesians 1:18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,  

This wisdom and revelation enlightens our heart.  The enlightening causes us to know the hope to which we are called.  Paul doesn’t pray for something new but rather he prays we would realize what we have right now.  You were called by Grace and you were not called because of something in you that was better than what was in someone else; however, you were called with purpose.  God has called you to something and certainly hasn’t called you to nothing.  He has a plan for your life.  The “inheritance” in both Greek and English could be God’s or ours.  He calls us an inheritance and has just finished calling us His possession but the context here seems to mean our inheritance in Him.  On the other hand both are true for us.  We need to know how we exist as His possession and inheritance but we also need to know what we inherit as His children.  In this place and in some others in Scripture I find what I call “purposeful ambiguity”.  I think when we find some of these portions of Scripture that read both ways that God intended it that way.  Here is a word you don’t hear very often, “parsimonious”.  It means being frugal and is generally in a cheap way but I don’t mean the following in any negative way.  Having worked in biology for a long time and read scripture for a long time I feel that both the general revelation of creation and the special revelation of scripture teach that God is parsimonious.  It is as if He really likes things to work in more than one way at the same time.  It doesn’t seem to me that He does it motivated by “cheap”, it seems more to me that He does it because He finds it “fun”.  

Ephesians 1:19-20 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,  

His resurrection power is present in us.  It had to be present to resurrect our dead hearts but we tend to forget that.  Stott says that God’s call looks back to our beginning, His inheritance for us looks forward to our end, and His power covers both beginning and end and everything in between.  He has given us a demonstration in Christ of His power.

Ephesians 1:21 far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.  

His power has beaten sin and death.  Those are our two big enemies.  Christ’s position is not just greater but is, “far above all” and the position is for all time.  It is important that we see Christ in his exalted position as we move into the next verse.

Ephesians 1:22-23 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church,  which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

We see our Head, the Head of the Church in supreme authority.  We see His headship in the Universe but the point of being Head of the Church is that depth of authority that is His too.  He is Lord of your heart.  He is Lord of the fine detail not just the big and general.  Stott discusses the phrase, “the fullness of Him who fills all in all” and his third option (that he seems to feel is most true to scripture) is consistent with what I’m expressing.  Christ fills the Church in fullness or indwelling and fills every nook and cranny with His Lordship.  If you’ve got any closets you might as well invite Him in.


Ephesians 2:1-2 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,  in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.

And once again God reminds us of where we were when He resurrected us and made us part of His Body the Church.  I was dead and I willingly followed the ways of the ruler of this world.  I was a willing slave to my transgressions and sins.  To my commissions of rebellion and omission of my duty to God I was a willing participant and also I followed the ruler of the kingdom of the air.  

Ephesians 2:3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.  

All of us (Jews) also were just as lost.  We all lived according to our nature.  We were fallen creatures living in sin by nature.  We were living consistently with our sinful nature.  Our wills were not violated since we always chose according to our strongest inclination at the moment.  We have no excuse because we were living exactly like we wanted to live and then, naturally, we were objects of God’s wrath since we lived in willful disobedience.  Remember however that we are not saying that we were all as bad as we could be.  We are also not saying we can blame Adam.  We each would have fallen as Adam did so we can not blame him or Eve.  

Ephesians 2:4-5 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,  made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.  

This is a tremendous contrast with the previous verse.  God tells us where we were and then He tells us what He has done. His reason is love and mercy.  He made us alive by grace (undeserved blessing).

Ephesians 2:6-7 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,  in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.  

Remember that theme we keep seeing “His Grace His Glory” over and over.  We who were by nature objects of wrath were raised up and made to sit with Him in Christ Jesus.  We were dead and by nature objects of wrath but He made us alive and raised us up to be seated with Christ.

Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.  

This is the Gospel in a nutshell and contains Grace, saved, and faith.  The entirety of this grace saving you through faith is all a gift of God.  No works of yours so that you have nothing to boast in.   What you have is wonderful and it is freely given to you.  

Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Paul reminds us that we aren’t just saved to sit we are His workmanship, created in Christ to do good works according to His plan.

He made us alive, raised us up, made us sit in the heavenly places, and given us purpose as His possession.