In most of his epistles Paul began by setting forth foundational truth and then concluded by applying that truth to the lives of his readers. This pattern is very obvious in Ephesians where the first three chapters deal with doctrine (teaching) and the last three with practice (application). Of course, there is some doctrine in the last three chapters and some application in the first three, but generally this is how Paul organized his material.5
The salutation contains Paul's introduction of himself to the original recipients of this letter and his greeting to them.
1:1 Paul referred to himself by name as the writer of this book twice (cf. 3:1). Even though some critics have denied the Pauline authorship of Ephesians, largely because of the vocabulary, style, and doctrine it contains, the early church accepted it without dispute.6
"Ephesians, then, was unhesitatingly assigned to Paul from the time when the New Testament corpus began to be recognized as such in the mid-second century. Since Clement of Rome reflected its language when he wrote to Corinth in A.D. 95, it is likely that this attestation runs back to the first century."7
The New Testament writers used the word "apostle"(lit. "sent one") in a general and in a particular sense. Sometimes it refers generally to anyone sent out as a representative of Jesus Christ (Acts 14:4, 14; 2 Cor. 8:23; Phil. 2:25). Usually it refers to one of the 12 apostles or Paul who saw the risen Christ, as here. The Lord Jesus commissioned and sent Paul out with the gospel message. He received his apostleship on the Damascus road because of God's "will"or decision, not his own choosing (Acts 26:16-18).
The original recipients of this epistle were "saints"(Gr. hagiois, holy ones), people set apart by God for His use. They lived in Ephesus, the capitol of the Roman province of Asia, where Paul had ministered for three years during his third missionary journey (Acts 20:31).
The words "at Ephesus"or "in Ephesus"do not appear in three early Alexandrian (Egyptian) manuscripts. This omission has led some scholars to conclude that Paul originally sent this epistle to several undesignated local churches probably in the province of Asia for the recipients to circulate among them. Advocates of this view have pointed to the absence of any reference to individuals as evidence that Paul meant it to go to several churches rather than just to the Ephesian church. However it seems best to regard the Ephesian church as the original audience for the following reasons. Most ancient manuscripts do contain the words "at Ephesus"or "in Ephesus."Moreover no manuscript contains the name of any other city or even the words "at"or "in."Furthermore all of Paul's other inspired epistles mention the recipients.
Perhaps Paul omitted personal names of Ephesian believers because he felt no need to greet them since this letter would circulate to other churches. Another possible reason may be that if he had named believers he would have had to mention many since he knew so many in the Ephesian church.
It is quite possible that Paul intended Ephesians to be an encyclical letter. All the New Testament writings circulated among the churches, and Paul may have written Ephesians with this in view (cf. Col. 4:16). Since Ephesus was a strategic city in both the Roman Empire and in Paul's ministry, it would have been natural for him to send this letter to that city first.
Not all saints are "faithful,"but the Ephesian believers were. They had been holding fast to the teaching they had received when Paul wrote this epistle (cf. Acts 20:28-32; Rev. 2:1-7).
"In Christ"describes all who are saints. Every believer occupies a location in space. These saints were in Ephesus. However every Christian saint also lives within the sphere of God's family because of Jesus' work, which Paul spoke of as being "in Christ."This phrase was a favorite of Paul's. He used it nine times in 1:1-14 and about 25 times in this epistle. It occurs approximately 130 times in the New Testament. Much of what follows in chapters 1-3 is an explanation of what it means to be "in Christ."
"Thus our being in Christ means that the Lord Jesus surrounds and embraces the believer in His own life, and separates him at the same time from all outside and hostile influences. He protects the believer from all perils and foes, and supplies him with all that is necessary. In Ephesians the meaning of this being in Christ' reaches its highest thought. The peculiar truth in Ephesians is the heavenly nature and divine fullness of this sphere of our new life."8
"That phrase in Christstrikes the keynote of the entire Epistle; from that prolific germ ramifies the branching oak of the forest."9
1:2 Paul greeted his readers by wishing God's grace and peace on them, as he did in all of his other epistles. Grace (Gr. charis) expresses God's unmerited favor and divine enablement, which are the portion of every saint. Peace (Gr. eirene, which translates the Hebrew shalom) is our condition resulting from God's grace to us. We have peace with God and we can experience the peace of God, the fullness of His blessing, because of His grace.
Paul's anticipation of his defense before Nero brought him back to the present in his thinking. His exposition of the mystery of the church to his readers had ended. He had also explained their proper conduct in view of their calling. All that remained was to share with them some personal information and to pray God's blessing on them.
6:21-22 Tychicus (lit. Chance) accompanied this letter to Ephesus and may have carried it. What Paul wrote about Tychicus and his purpose in sending Tychicus to Ephesus was almost identical with what he wrote in Colossians 4:7-8. Tychicus' mission was to give the Ephesian Christians further information about Paul and to comfort and encourage them (cf. Acts 20:4; Col. 4:7; Titus 3:12; 2 Tim. 4:12).
6:23 Peace, love, and faith are all important communal virtues in the Christian life. Peace was necessary because of the Jewish Gentile problems Paul wrote Ephesians to ameliorate (2:14-16; 3:15, 19; 4:3). Mutual love is the key to peace (1:15; 3:17-18; 4:2, 16). Mutual love rests on a common faith (1:15; 3:17; cf. Gal. 5:6). The ultimate source of all three of these essential qualities is God and Jesus Christ, united here in perfect equality.
6:24 As the apostle opened his epistle by referring to God's grace, so he ended it (1:2). God's grace was the key to the creation of the church and the calling of the Christian. It is also essential to the conduct of the Christian (cf. 1:7; 2:5, 7-8; 3:2, 8; 4:7). Paul wished God's unmerited favor and divine enablement on all who love Jesus Christ purely, without wrong motives or secret disloyalties (cf. 1 Cor. 16:22). As God has poured out His grace to us in all purity, so we should pour out our love to Him in purity.
"Ephesians is ultimately about how God has powerfully equipped the church to experience blessing in Christ, by creating a new community that is able to honor God and resist the forces of evil. No longer does one's Jewish or Gentile identity dominate. They are part of a new, reconciled community, a reconciliation that involves not only God but also one another. All enablement in this new sacred community is rooted in what the exalted Christ has provided for His people. That is why believers can have hope, since they have begun participation in a wealth of benefits distributed from heaven. The church's members are citizens raised and seated with Jesus in a heavenly citizenship, though they represent Him now as light on the earth, fully enabled for the task. In all of this, God is taking steps toward the ultimate summation of all things in Christ."170
