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Introduction
to Ephesians
This summary of the book of Ephesians provides information about
the title, author(s), date of writing, chronology, theme, theology, outline, a
brief overview, and the chapters of the Book of Ephesians.
The author identifies himself as Paul (1:1; 3:1; cf. 3:7,13; 4:1; 6:19-20). Some have taken the absence of the
usual personal greetings and the verbal similarity of many parts to Colossians,
among other reasons, as grounds for doubting authorship by the apostle Paul.
However, this was probably a circular letter, intended for other churches in addition
to the one in Ephesus (see notes on 1:1,15; 6:21-23). Paul may have written it about the
same time as Colossians, c. a.d. 60, while he was in prison at Rome (see 3:1; 4:1; 6:20; see also chart, p. 2261).
Ephesus was the most important city in western Asia Minor (now
Turkey). It had a harbor that at that time opened into the Cayster River (see
map, p. 2429), which in turn emptied into the Aegean Sea (see map, p. 2599).
Because it was also at an intersection of major trade routes, Ephesus became a
commercial center. It boasted a pagan temple dedicated to the Roman goddess
Diana (Greek Artemis);
cf. Ac 19:23-31. Paul made Ephesus a center for
evangelism for about three years (see note on Ac 19:10), and the church there
apparently flourished for some time, but later needed the warning of Rev 2:1-7.
Unlike several of the other letters Paul wrote, Ephesians does not
address any particular error or heresy. Paul wrote to expand the horizons of
his readers, so that they might understand better the dimensions of God's
eternal purpose and grace and come to appreciate the high goals God has for the
church.
The letter opens with a sequence of statements about God's
blessings, which are interspersed with a remarkable variety of expressions
drawing attention to God's wisdom, forethought and purpose. Paul emphasizes
that we have been saved, not only for our personal benefit, but also to bring
praise and glory to God. The climax of God's purpose, "when the times will
have reached their fulfillment," is to bring all things in the universe
together under Christ (1:10). It is crucially important that Christians
realize this, so in 1:15-23 Paul prays for their understanding (a
second prayer occurs in 3:14-21).
Having explained God's great goals for the church, Paul proceeds
to show the steps toward their fulfillment. First, God has reconciled
individuals to himself as an act of grace (2:1-10). Second, God has reconciled these saved
individuals to each other, Christ having broken down the barriers through his
own death (2:11-22). But God has done something even beyond
this: He has united these reconciled individuals in one body, the church. This
is a "mystery" not fully known until it was revealed to Paul (3:1-6). Now Paul is able to state even more
clearly what God has intended for the church, namely, that it be the means by
which he displays his "manifold wisdom" to the "rulers and
authorities in the heavenly realms" (3:7-13). It is clear through the repetition of
"heavenly realms" (1:3,20; 2:6; 3:10; 6:12) that Christian existence is not merely on
an earthly plane. It receives its meaning and significance from heaven, where
Christ is exalted at the right hand of God (1:20).
Nevertheless, that life is lived out on earth, where the practical
daily life of the believer continues to work out the purposes of God. The
ascended Lord gave "gifts" to the members of his church to enable
them to minister to one another and so promote unity and maturity (4:1-16). The unity of the church under the
headship of Christ foreshadows the uniting of "all things in heaven and on
earth" under Christ (1:10). The new life of purity and mutual
deference stands in contrast to the old way of life without Christ (4:17 -- 6:9). Those who are "strong in the
Lord" have victory over the evil one in the great spiritual conflict,
especially through the power of prayer (6:10-20; see note on 1:3).
I.
Greetings (1:1-2)
A.
Salvation of Individuals by Grace (2:1-10)
V.
Practical Ways to Fulfill God's Purpose in the Church (4:1;6:20)
VI.
Conclusion, Final Greetings and Benediction (6:21-24)
──《New
International Version》
Introduction to Ephesians
The epistle to the Ephesians gives us the richest
exposition of the blessings of the saints individually, and of the assembly,
setting forth at the same time the counsels of God with regard to the glory of
Christ. Christ Himself is viewed as the One who is to hold all things united in
one under His hand, as Head of the assembly. We see the assembly placed in the
most intimate relationship with Him, as those who compose it are with the
Father Himself, and in the heavenly position dispensed to her by the sovereign
grace of God. Now these ways of grace to her reveal God Himself, and in two
distinct characters; as well in connection with Christ as with Christians. He
is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the God of Christ, when
Christ is looked at as man; the Father of Christ when Christ is looked at as
the Son of His love. In the first character the nature of God is revealed; in
the second, we see the intimate relationship which we enjoy to Him who bears
this character of Father, and that according to the excellence of Christ's own
relationship to Him. It is this relationship to the Father, as well as that in
which we stand to Christ as His body and His bride, that is the source of
blessing to the saints and to the assembly of God, of which grace has made us
members as a whole.
The form even of the epistle shews how much the apostle's mind was
filled with the sense of the blessing that belongs to the assembly. After
having [1] at
Ephesus from God, the Father of true Christians, and from Jesus Christ their
Lord, he begins at once to speak of the blessings in which all the members of
Christ participate. His heart was full of the immensity of grace; and nothing
in the state of the Ephesian Christians required any particular remarks adapted
to that state. It is nearness of heart to God that produces simplicity, and
that enables us in simplicity to enjoy the blessings of God as God Himself
bestows them, as they flow from His heart, in all their own excellence-to enjoy
them in connection with Him who imparts them, and not merely in a mode adapted
to the state of those to whom they are imparted; or through a communication
that only reveals a part of these blessings, because the soul would not be able
to receive more. Yes, when near to God, we are in simplicity, and the whole
extent of His grace and of our blessings unfolds itself as it is found in Him.
It is important to remark two things here in passing:
first, that moral nearness to God, and communion with Him, is the only means of
any true enlargement in the knowledge of His ways and of the blessings which He
imparts to His children, because it is the only position in which we can
perceive them, or be morally capable of so doing; and, also, that all conduct
which is not suitable to this nearness to God, all levity of thought, which His
presence does not admit of, makes us lose these communications from Him and
renders us incapable of receiving them. (Compare John 14:21-23). Secondly, it
is not that the Lord forsakes us on account of these faults or this
carelessness; He intercedes for us, and we experience His grace, but it is no
longer communion or intelligent progress in the riches of the revelation of
Himself, of the fulness which is in Christ. It is grace adapted to our wants,
an answer to our misery. Jesus stretches out His hand to us according to the
need that we feel-need produced in our hearts by the operation of the Holy
Ghost. This is infinitely precious grace, a sweet experience of His
faithfulness and love: we learn by this means to discern good and evil by
judging self; but the grace had to be adapted to our wants, and to receive a
character according to those wants, as an answer made to them; we have had to
think of ourselves.
In a case like this the Holy Ghost occupies us with
ourselves (in grace, no doubt), and when we have lost communion with God, we
cannot neglect this turning back upon ourselves without deceiving and hardening
ourselves. Alas! the dealings of many souls with Christ hardly go beyond this
character. It is with all too often the case. In a word, when this happens the
thought of sin having been admitted into the heart, our dealings with the Lord
to be true must be on the ground of this sad admission of sin (in thought, at
least). It is grace alone which allows us again to have to do with God. The
fact that He restores us enhances His grace in our eyes; but this is not
communion. When we walk with God, when we walk after the Spirit without
grieving Him, He maintains us in communion, in the enjoyment of God, the
positive source of joy-of an everlasting joy. This is a position in which He
can occupy us-as being ourselves interested in all that interests Him-with all
the development of His counsels, His glory, and His goodness, in the Person of
Jesus the Christ, Jesus the Son of His love; and the heart is enlarged in the
measure of the objects that occupy it. This is our normal condition. This, in the
main, was the case with the Ephesians.
We have already remarked, that Paul was specially gifted
of God to communicate His counsels and His ways in Christ; as John was gifted
to reveal His character and life as it was manifested in Jesus. The result of this
particular gift in our apostle is naturally found in the epistle we are
considering. Nevertheless we, as being ourselves in Christ, find in it a
remarkable development of our relationships with God, of the intimacy of those
relationships, and of the effect of that intimacy. Christ is the foundation on
which our blessings are built. It is as being in Him that we enjoy them. We
thus become the actual and present object of the favour of God the Father, even
as Christ Himself is its object. The Father has given us to Him; Christ has
died for us, has redeemed, washed, and quickened us, and presents us, according
to the efficacy of His work, and according to the acceptance of His Person,
before God His Father. The secret of all the assembly's blessing is, that it is
blessed with Jesus Himself; and thus-like Him, viewed as a man-is accepted
before God; for the assembly is His body, and enjoys in Him and by Him all that
His Father has bestowed on Him. Individually the Christian is loved as Christ
on earth was loved; he will hereafter share in the glory of Christ before the
eyes of the world, as a proof that he was so loved, in connection with the name
of Father, which God maintains in regard to this (see John 17:23-26). Hence in
general we have in this epistle the believer in Christ, not Christ in the
believer, though that of course be true. It leads up to the privileges of the
believer and of the assembly, more than to the fulness of Christ Himself, and
we find more the contrast of this new position with what we were as of the
world than development of the life of Christ: this is more largely found in
Colossians, which looks more at Christ in us. But this epistle, setting us in
Christ's relationship with God and the Father, and sitting in heavenly places,
gives the highest character of our testimony here.
Now Christ stands in two relationships with God, His Father. He is a
perfect man before His God; He is a Son with His Father. We are to share both
these relationships. This He announced to His disciples ere He went back to
heaven: it is unfolded in all its extent by the words He spoke, "I go to
my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." This precious-this
inappreciable truth is the foundation of the apostle's teaching in this place.
He considered God in this double aspect, as the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; and our blessings are in connection
with these two titles.
But before attempting to set forth in detail the
apostle's thought, let us remark that he begins here entirely with God, His
thoughts and His counsels, not with what man is. We may lay hold of the truth,
so to speak, by one or the other of two ends-by that of the sinner's condition
in connection with man's responsibility, or by that of the thoughts and eternal
counsels of God in view of His own glory. The latter is that side of the truth
on which the Spirit here makes us look. Even redemption, all glorious as it is
in itself, is consigned to the second place, as the means by which we enjoy the
effect of God's counsels.
It was necessary that the ways of God should be
considered on this side, that is, His own thoughts, not merely the means of
bringing man into the enjoyment of the fruit of them. It is the epistle to the
Ephesians which thus presents them to us; as that to the Romans, after saying
it is God's goodness, begins with man's end, demonstrating the evil and
presenting grace as meeting and delivering from it.
[1] The
word translated "faithful" might be rendered "believers."
It is used as a term of superscription both here and in the epistle to the
Colossians. We must remember that the apostle was now in prison, and that
Christianity had been established for some years, and was exposed to all kinds
of attack. To say that one was a believer as at the beginning, was to say that
he was faithful. The word then does not merely express that they believed, nor
that each individual walked faithfully, but that the apostle addressed himself
to those who by grace faithfully maintained the faith they had received.
── John Darby《Synopsis of Ephesians》
Introduction to Ephesians
This epistle was written when St. Paul was a
prisoner at Rome. The design appears to be to strengthen the Ephesians in the
faith of Christ, and to give exalted views of the love of God, and of the
dignity and excellence of Christ, fortifying their minds against the scandal of
the cross. He shows that they were saved by grace, and that however wretched
they once were, they now had equal privileges with the Jews. He encourages them
to persevere in their Christian calling, and urges them to walk in a manner
becoming their profession, faithfully discharging the general and common duties
of religion, and the special duties of particular relations.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Ephesians》
Ephesians General Review
AUTHOR: The apostle Paul (1:1; 3:1). Early sources in church history
that attribute this letter to Paul include: Irenaeus (200 A .D.),Clement of Alexandria 200 A .D.), and Origen (250 A .D.). Polycarp (125A.D.) attests to its canonicity in his own epistle to the Philippians(chapter 12). THE RECIPIENTS: There are reasons to believe that this epistle was not
designed for just one congregation, but intended to be passed around toseveral churches in the area surrounding Ephesus manuscripts do not contain the phrase "in Ephesus epistle itself is in the form of a general treatise rather than as aletter written to a specific church. For example, there are nospecific exhortations or personal greetings. It is thought by some(Conybeare and Howson) that this letter is the epistle that was firstsent to Laodicea churches, including Ephesus Ephesus the region, and the main center of Paul's missionary activity in thearea (cf. Ac 19:1,8-10), it is understandable why later scribes mighthave assigned this epistle to the church at Ephesus it was intended for "the saints ...and faithful in Christ Jesus." (1:1)