Introduction: The book of Ephesians, which has been called the queen of the Pauline epistles, is the Apostle Paul’s unveiling of the church as the mystery and eternal purpose of God.
Ephesians 1:1 — The words “in Ephesus” are omitted in the three oldest manuscripts of the New Testament, which leads us to believe that Ephesians was a circular letter or encyclical. Although carried to Ephesus first, it was intended for all the saints and churches of Asia.
Paul wrote Ephesians, the so-called “Queen of his epistles,” to all the saints, not only in all places, but also at all times. Therefore, if you are one of “the faithful in Christ Jesus,” this epistle is addressed to you!
Ephesians 1:2 — Any student of Paul’s writings will recognize that this greeting flowed from the apostle’s inspired pen. It is identical to salutations in eight other Pauline epistles and similar to salutations in four others.
You’ll never experience peace—peace with God, true peace with others, or peace with yourself—until you’ve experienced the grace of God in Jesus Christ.
Ephesians 1:3 — Although we are not yet blessed with our glorified and heavenly bodies, we are already blessed with all the spiritual blessings of Heaven. Our bodies are yet to be redeemed, but our spirits, in every respect, are redeemed and renewed already.
You don't have to wait to go to Heaven to enjoy its spiritual blessings, but can already enjoy this part of Heaven right here and now on earth.
Ephesians 1:4 — The Christian’s choice of Christ on the day of salvation is a consequence of Christ’s prior choice of the Christian before the days of creation.
It is the contemporary church’s unfamiliarity with the doctrine of election that makes it so unappreciative of the miracle of salvation.
Ephesians 1:5 — Predestination is a controversial teaching in Scripture; yet, it is scriptural. It may be baffling, but it's nonetheless Biblical. Therefore, we must not try to bend what the Bible says to our understanding, but believe it, whether we can understand it or not.
God predestines us to be adopted as His children not only because He loves us, but also because He wanted to and was pleased to do so.
Ephesians 1:6 — All that we have from the Father’s hand is not only made possible by His grace, but can only be possessed in His Son, which explains why Paul praises God for His glorious grace and for accepting us in His beloved Son.
How grateful we should be that our acceptance with God is based on His beloved Son and not on our sinless behavior, that it has nothing to do with who we are or with what we've done, but everything to do with who Jesus is and what He has done for us, which we could have never done for ourselves.
Ephesians 1:7 — Thanks to the inestimable riches of God's grace, we've been redeemed by the shed blood of His Son, Jesus Christ.
Not only were we purchased, bought back and redeemed by the shed blood of Christ on the cross of Calvary, but we were also pardoned, forgiven of our sins, when Christ paid our sin debt in full by dying in our place, suffering our punishment, and paying off our penalty.
Ephesians 1:7-8 — It not only took God lavishing on us an abundance of His amazing grace, but also all the wisdom and understanding of His omniscience, for Him to come up with a masterplan for the redemption and forgiveness of fallen man.
How thankful we should be that God is rich in grace and not stingy with His riches!
Ephesians 1:9-10 — Though formerly a mystery, God's will and good pleasure has now been revealed in Jesus Christ. It is simply to sum up all things in Christ and to put Christ over all things.
In New Testament times, when a column of figures were added up, the sum was always put at the top, never at the bottom. Therefore, it is God's plan to sum up all things in Christ and to put Christ on the top over all things.
It is Jesus Christ who makes the universe a cosmos rather than a chaos, since it is all sustained by Him and all summed up in Him.
Ephesians 1:11-12 — God, who is working out all things in perfect accordance with His divine plan, has commenced summing up all things in Christ with Christians, who are, to the praise of God's glory, the first to come to Christ and confess Him as Lord.
As the first to come to Christ and to confess Him as Lord, Christians should not only be the first to praise Christ, but also to bring praise to Christ from others as well.
Ephesians 1:13 — When Christians believe in Christ, they are sealed by the Holy Spirit, not only as proof that their salvation has been transacted, but also to preserve them until their salvation is consummated.
Besides being God's seal, which proves and preserves our salvation, the Holy Spirit is also God's mark, which brands us as His possession and serves as His signature upon us, authenticating us as His personal artwork.
Ephesians 1:14 — The Holy Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance; that is, God’s deposit, which guarantees us that the rest of our salvation is to come. All God has promised us is assured to us by His promised Spirit that He has already given us.
The Greek word Paul uses for "earnest" in this verse was used in Paul's day for an engagement ring, which served as a solemn pledge that a marriage was soon to follow. This explains why Paul taught that the church, which is the bride of Christ, is betrothed to Christ (2 Corinthians 11:2). Being pledged to Christ, as the Holy Spirit proves, we are to remain chaste for Him, by staying out of bed with the world, until we set down with Him at the soon coming Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:6-9).
Ephesians 1:18 — Christ’s glorious inheritance will be a glorified church and the saints who comprise it will forever serve as His chosen and cherished possession.
Ephesians 1:23 —The fullness of all things is found in Christ. Apart from Him nothing is fulfilled. Christ, however, reckons His fullness to be found in His body, the church, apart from which He sees Himself, who is the fulness of all in all, inscrutably unfulfilled.
Ephesians 2:6 — Christians who are seated in Christ in heavenly places need never be stressed out over earthly problems!
Ephesians 2:6 — Being positionally seated with Christ in heavenly places, makes it possible for us to live above all earthly problems.
Ephesians 2:8-9 — Salvation has nothing to do with our goodness, but everything to do with God’s grace.
Ephesians 2:8-9 — Salvation is not earned by our good works for God, but graciously given by God to all who believe in the sufficiency of Christ’s atoning work for us.
Ephesians 2:19-22 — Christians are corporately and individually the temple of God in the world today. Corporately, as the church, we are God’s holy habitation, but individually, each of us is a temple of God ourself, within whom God’s Spirit dwells. (1 Corinthians 3:16; 2 Corinthians 6:16)
As God’s temple in Christ’s day ceased to be a building and became the physical body of Christ, so in our day it has ceased to be the physical body of Christ and become the spiritual body of Christ—His church!
Ephesians 3:14-15 — The whole family of God is in Heaven or on earth, none are sleeping in the grave or suffering in Catholicism’s purgatory.
There is no such thing as soul sleep or purgatory, a halfway house to Heaven, which serves as a woodshed between Heaven and Hell where Christ chastens unfit Christians.
Ephesians 3:20 — Too many pray for crutches when they ought to pray for wings.
Ephesians 4:3 — As Christians we are to first and foremost preserve the unity of the Spirit, which is found in the fact that the same Jesus lives in every Christian in the person of the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 4:15 — Not only is the Christian to speak the truth in love, but true love always speaks the truth. It never speaks lies, in the hope of sparing someone’s feelings, but always speaks the truth, in the hope of saving someone’s soul.
While the truth may hurt, it's better to be cut and corrected by it than to be coddled and comforted by a lie. After all, the truth may be distressful, but a lie can be deadly.
Ephesians 4:15 — You speak the truth in love when you are more concerned about people’s souls being saved than their feelings being spared.
If others are offended at the message, that's their fault, but if others are offended at the messenger, that's our fault.
Ephesians 5:5-7 — Don’t be deceived by those who use vain words to validate wrongdoing and to veneer wickedness. All who partake in such deception will, like their deceivers, incite God’s wrath and have no inheritance in God’s kingdom.
Ephesians 5:8-14 — To walk as the children of light, our life should be an affirmation of all that is acceptable to the Lord and a renunciation of all that is appalling to the Lord, in order to manifestly prove to others that we have awakened from spiritual drowsiness and arisen from spiritual death to live everlastingly in the light of Christ.
Ephesians 5:15 — Christians should walk circumspectly—cautiously and carefully—through this fallen world, lest they foolishly step in a snare of Satan and suddenly find themselves dangling by their heels to the giggles and glee of the imps of Hell. (2 Timothy 2:26)
Ephesians 5:15 — To sidestep Satan’s snares the saints must watch their step. We must walk wisely; that is, circumspectly, carefully watching every step we take.
Ephesians 5:15-17 — To walk in wisdom is to walk circumspectly, with utmost care not to walkabout foolishly, waste any time, or wander at all from God’s will.
Ephesians 5:15-17 — In evil days, it is more important than ever not to waste our time with foolish steps, but to walk wisely in the will of the Lord, carefully planting our feet and planning our steps so as to make the most of every fraught and fleeting moment.
Ephesians 5:18 — The Christian is not to be filled (intoxicated) with wine, living under its mortifying influence and control, but filled (inebriated) with the Holy Spirit of God, living under His miraculous influence and control!
Ephesians 5:18 —To stay filled with wine and intoxicated under its influence a drunkard must continuously imbibe. To stay filled with the Spirit and intoxicated under His influence the Christian must continuously abide.
Ephesians 5:20 — An ungrateful child of God is not a peculiarity, but an impossibility.
The more we worship, the less we worry.
Ephesians 5:20 — Christianity calls for more than an annual day of Thanksgiving; it calls for daily "thanks living."
Ephesians 5:22-28 — If husbands loved their wives as Christ loves His church, wives would have no problem submitting to their husbands as the church does to Christ.
Much of what is wrong in today's America can be attributed to America's absentee fathers and decapitated homes!
Ephesians 5:31-32 — That Christ chose marriage, the most intimate of human relationships, to symbolize His relationship with His church, speaks to us of the intimacy Christ desires to have with each and every Christian.
As physical intimacy joins a husband and wife together as one, spiritual intimacy joins Christ and His church, both individually and cooperatively, together as one.
Ephesians 6:1-3 — A child who is insubordinate to parental authority will grow up to be insubordinate to all authority, including God, the ultimate authority.
No society will last long if its children do not heartily respect parents, highly regard government, and humbly revere God!
Ephesians 6:10-13 — It is imperative that we stand our ground under the onslaught of Satan and while awaiting divine orders. To fall back in cowardice or to march forward without command is to assure our spiritual defeat.
Ephesians 6:11 — If we are to obey the Biblical admonition to stand against the wiles of the devil, we must be particularly on guard against his greatest wile, which is “wait awhile.”
Ephesians 6:18 — For you to pray in the Spirit is for the Spirit to pray through you.
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