Bible Commentaries
Ephesians

Contents

Let’s Revel in Ephesians

We are now starting a study of the Book of Ephesians and I trust, as we do so, the cry of your heart and mine will be that God will increase our ca­pacity to know Christ Jesus our Lord. Oh, to be like Paul when he could say, “I count everything but loss just to know Him. The things that were gain to me, the things that I used to run after, I count them just the refuse of the streets.”

God grant that today you and I might have an in­creasing passion to know the Lord Jesus. And may I say, He will not make Himself known apart from His Word. The full revelation of Christ is found in the Scriptures, but I’ll never know it unless I take the time to search and to meditate on the Word of God. The Spirit of God will then reveal to you and to me the wonders of His wisdom, of His knowledge, of His counsel.

Oh, friends, God grant in these days of uncer­tainty, days of lack of peace, days so full of perplexi­ty, that we can turn to Him and know that He will direct, that He will reveal to us His purpose and His counsel—even for us today.

Now, I would like to go through Paul’s prison epistles, starting with Ephesians, then Philippians and finally Colossians. My reason for that is this: In the book of Romans we were dealing with the mar­velous revelation of the grace of God—of how God could take men and women who were fit for hell and so transform them, so fit them to stand in the presence of a holy, righteous God, that they are ac­ceptable to Him.

God also gave to the Apostle Paul another reve­lation and that is the revelation of the church which is the body of Christ. This is found in the book of Ephesians. We have a great need to know the pur­pose of God for the church and for this age. There is so much confusion even among God’s people today with respect to the church and to Israel, between law and grace, between works and faith until in so many places it is all jumbled up. I do not believe that God intended for us to be jumbled up in our belief. I be­lieve the Lord is very exact in everything He says.

In the book of Acts 15:14-16, I find it stated that God at the first did visit the Gen­tiles to take out of them a people for His name; and that, when He is through doing that, He is going to return and rebuild the tabernacle of David which is fallen down. He will come and fulfill the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David. But in be­tween this time element, between the resurrection of our Saviour and until He comes for His own, He is doing a special work in the world.

You see, my friends, before the flood there was one people, one language. There were no nations as far as we know. Then from the flood to the cross we have Jews and Gentiles, just two groups in the world. Either you were the descendants of Abra­ham, Isaac and Jacob or you were a Gentile.

Most of your Old Testament, indeed I would say from the 12^th chapter of Genesis right through to the end of the Gospels and the crucifixion of Christ, is given over to God’s dealing with the people Israel. Then, after the resurrection of Christ until the Lord returns, we have another group, the church, the body of Christ.

Paul, writing to the Corinthian church in 1 Co­rinthians 10:32, declares—“Give none offence, nei­ther to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor the church of God.” One finds this revelation of the church, its nature, its destination, its life, its responsibilities giv­en to the Apostle Paul in the book of Ephesians.

Now He gave this to the church of Ephesus, pos­sibly one of the most spiritual churches of the first century. Its history can be found in Acts chapters 19 and 20. It is also mentioned in Revelation 2:1-29 and in 1 Corinthians 15:32. In Acts 19:1-41, Paul went on to Ephe­sus and the Lord used him in the transformation of lives there. Indeed, you find in that wonderful chap­ter that God wrought special miracles by the hands of the Apostle Paul.

Now, why at Ephesus?

Ephesus, as you know, was the great city where the devotees of Diana worshiped. It was a city of sorcery, of magic, of all connected with her worship. Yet it was here that Paul spent three years. It was here that God wrought special miracles through this man, and it was here that the Word of God grew and multiplied.

When you come to Acts 20:1-38, the Apostle Paul is on his way back to Jerusalem; and at the end of the chapter he meets the Ephesian elders on the shore at Miletus. He reiterates all that God has done for him and through him in Ephesus. It’s a marvelous pas­sage.

And then in Revelation 2:1-29, the Apostle John speaks of the Ephesian church and greatly com­mends it. God had only one thing against the Ephe­sian church and that was that these people had lost their first love. That is, they had lost their fervent love for the Saviour. It’s so easy, is it not, for you and for me to lose that fervency of love for Christ. It’s so easy to become indifferent and cold at heart concerning Him. This was true of the Ephesian church.

As Christ stood in the midst of the church (and I quote Revelation 2:1-29), He commended it for so much. And then He said—I have somewhat against thee be­cause thou hast left thy first love. . . . Repent and do the first works.

First love produces first works. Oh, what a need for this today. I’m sure that if the Apostle Paul and the Apostle John were in the Christian church in our country today, they would inform us that we had lost our first love, that joyful anticipation, that living in expectation of the coming of the Lord and longing to see Him whom having not seen we love.

The book of Ephesians is one of the most as­tounding epistles in the whole New Testament. It has been called the Book of the Heavenlies. We’re hea­venly in our calling, heavenly in our walk and hea­venly in our warfare. I would say that the book of Ephesians is comparable to the book of Joshua in the Old Testament. Joshua took the people of Israel, crossed the river Jordan and came into the land that was full of pomegranates and flowing with milk and honey. He had warfare, and God told him that occu­pation was by possession.

Likewise, when we come to Ephesians, we read that we have been blessed with every spiritual bless­ing in the heavenlies in Christ. It’s as if the Spirit of God were saying to us as He did to Joshua, “Go in and possess your possessions.” This is a wonderful, marvelous revelation of the church, the body of Chr­ist.

God expects us to walk on earth just as He would expect us to walk in heaven.

But you say, “”Mr. Mitchell, we’re living on earth in weak bodies.”

I know that, but do you think God has two walks for His people? One in heaven and one on earth? God does not have two standards for His people. If you boast of the fact that you are a son of one who is God, then walk that way. The book of Ephesians tells you how to do it.

If I were to take Ephesians, Philippians and Co­lossians, I would put it this way: In Ephesians you have Christ ascended, in Philippians it is Christ satisfied, in Colossians it is Christ complete. We have the truth stated in Ephesians, we have the truth practiced in Philippians, we have the truth guarded in Colos­sians.

In the book of Ephesians, we see the will of a sovereign God. You can’t read the epistle without realizing something of the fact that our salvation be­gins with God, is continued by God, is going to be finished by God, and He’s going to do the whole business according to His good pleasure.

In this book, we are seeing an eternity past and eternity future. I want you to see the scope of this book. Take, for example 1:4—According as He has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world. In Ephesians 2:7, let me use my own transla­tion here, “That to all created intelligences He is going to make known in eternal ages the wisdom of God through the church.”

Here we see the hand and the will of a sove­reign God. To me this is an astounding thing. It is as if God were pulling back the shades, the curtains and allowing us to look way back into eternity before the world was ever made; and then He makes us look the other way into the eternity to come and see His pur­pose accomplished.

The marvelous thing is that you are a part of that purpose. He chose you in Christ before the founda­tion of the world. In the ages to come, He still sees you.

May I say this to you? God saw you and me in Christ before the foundation of the world, and through eternal ages He is going to show forth the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us by Christ Jesus. Why should you and I worry about the next 24 hours?

You know, it is a strange thing about us Chris­tians. We trust our eternal souls to God, but we can’t trust Him for our need for the next 24 hours. You say, one is intangible and the other is tangible. Not necessarily so. God’s Word is enough. God has spo­ken. The eternal, sovereign God, full of grace and truth, rich in mercy and great in love has manifested His will in eternity past and He will reveal it to us in eternity future; and in the between times as He has promised, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper (Hebrews 13:5-6).

As we enter this book of Ephesians, it is going to be with real expectation of blessing.

Notice in chapters 1, 2 and 3, you have some positive facts that God has accomplished in His people. I’m giving you three R’s so you will remem­ber them. In the first chapter it is a question of re­demption. In chapter 2 it’s a question of reconcilia­tion. In chapter 3 it is a matter of revelation. These have to do with our position in Christ, with some positive facts that God has accomplished.

Now in the last three chapters, especially 4:1 through 6:9, we have the practical side of it, our walk in Christ. God beseeches us to walk worthy of our vocation. For example, we are to walk in the unity of the Spirit. We are to walk in new creation. We are to walk in love. We are to walk in light. We are to walk in wisdom, and we are to walk in submission.

After you get through that, in chapter 6:10 to the end you have our warfare. We have a heavenly posi­tion, we have a heavenly walk and then we have a heavenly warfare as Paul says that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against wicked spirits in the heaven-lies.

Now, let’s look at Ephesians verse by verse.