the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
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Bible Dictionaries
Ephesians, Epistle to the
Morrish Bible Dictionary
or Paul first visited Ephesus on his way from Corinth to Syria: he did not stay then, but left Priscilla and Aquila there, who were afterwards joined by Apollos. Acts 18:18-24 . Paul soon returned and stayed there two years. There was thus time for the saints to be grounded in the truth. The opposition was so great in the synagogue that Paul separated the disciples, and they met daily in the school of Tyrannus. The word grew mightily and prevailed. Acts 19:1-20 .
In 1 Corinthians 15:32 Paul speaks of having fought with beasts at Ephesus, doubtless alluding to the strong opposition manifested towards him there by the Jews. In Acts 20:17 , etc., Paul exhorts the elders of Ephesus, as overseers, to feed the church of God. He warns them that grievous wolves would enter in, and some from among themselves would speak perverse things to draw away disciples after them. As their resource he commends them to God and the word of His grace. Following this was the Epistle he wrote to them during the two years he was a prisoner at Rome.
In 1 Timothy 1:3 Paul says he had besought Timothy to abide at Ephesus, and to exhort them to teach no other doctrine, and not to give heed to fables and endless genealogies. In 2 Timothy 1:15 there is the sad intelligence that 'all they which are in Asia' (which must have included Ephesus) had 'turned away from' Paul, doubtless signifying that they had given up the truth as taught by Paul, and settled down with a lower standard. In 2 Timothy 4:12 Tychicus had been sent to Ephesus. The great care and watchfulness with which Paul laboured for their welfare is very manifest. In Revelation 2:1-7 we have the address to this church, in which much is said in their favour, though the solemn charge had also to be made that they had left their first love, and the warning is given that if they did not repent their candlestick would be removed.
The Epistle to the Ephesians is remarkable in setting forth the counsels of God with regard to His people as connected with Christ. It is from this standpoint that they are viewed, rather than that of their need as sinners, and how it has been met. This latter is developed in the Epistle to the Romans. The state of the Ephesian believers enabled them to receive a communication of such a nature as this Epistle, in which glorious unfoldings of the mind of God about His own are given in the greatest fulness.
The key note is struck in Ephesians 1:3 , where God is blessed as "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" — the God , when our Lord Jesus Christ is looked at as man; the Father, when He is viewed as Son of God. Christians are brought in Christ into these very relationships, as stated by the Lord Himself when risen from the dead, "Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and yourGod." It will be seen that the prayer at the close of Ephesians 1 is founded on the title 'the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,' while that in Ephesians 3 is on the title 'Father.' The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has blessed believers with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. He has marked them out for adoption to Himself, that is, their beingbrought into the full position of sons in Christ Jesus, according to the good pleasure of His will. Brought into favour in the Beloved, they have in Him redemption, the forgiveness of sins. The mystery of God's will is set forth — to head up all things, whether heavenly or earthly, in the Christ for the administration of the fulness of times. Jews and Gentiles are the subjectsof salvation according to the purpose of God, believers from among both beingsealed by the Holy Spirit, who is also the earnest of their inheritance — aninheritance which will be to the praise of God's glory when everything is headed up in Christ.
The prayer at the close of Ephesians 1 is that the saints might have the spiritof wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of the God of the Lord Jesus Christ: that they might know the hope of His calling, His inheritance in the saints, and the greatness of the power towards them which He wrought in raising Christ (a Man) from the dead, and setting Him at His right hand in the heavenly places (cf. Psalm 8 .). He being head over all things to the body, which is the fulness of Him who fills all in all.
Ephesians 2 . This same power had wrought toward the saints (as shown by the subject being continued without a break from Ephesians 1 : to Ephesians 2 .), in that having been dead in sins they had been quickened with Christ, had been raised up together (Jew and Gentile), and made to sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. There is a new creation in Christ by God as regards His people. The apostle would have the Gentile Christians contrast their present privileges with their former hopeless state. Jew and Gentile believers had access by one Spirit to the Father, while the latter were now fellow-citizens of the saints, and were of the household of God, being part of the holy temple He was building. They were also built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.
Ephesians 3 . This chapter, in a parenthesis, unfolds the administration of the mystery, hid in God, but now revealed by the Spirit, namely, that the Gentiles should be joint heirs and a joint body and joint partakers of His promise in Christ Jesus. A mystery is that which is understood only by the initiated. In the public dealings of God with men this mystery had no place; it is connected (though administered upon earth) with Christ while hid in the heavens, and the saints united to Him there; by its administration would be made known to principalities and powers in heavenly places the all various wisdom of God. A prayer follows that the saints might be strengthened inwardly by the Spirit; that the Christ might dwell through faith In their hearts; that they might apprehend the breadth, and length, and depth, and height and might know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, so as to be filled unto all the fulness of God. Christ is here presented as the centre of all the counsels of God, and His love is to be known in all its fulness by the hearts of His people.
Ephesians 4 . The apostle applies what is given in the earlier part of the epistle, particularly at the close of Ephesians 2 — the bringing together in one in a new and heavenly manner of those who on earthly ground had been at enmity. The saints were to endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Gifts are alluded to as given by the Head, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all arrive at the unity of the faith, and the full knowledge of the Son of God, at the full grown man, and at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ. Everything necessary for the body is derived from the Head. All is to grow up into Christ. Practical exhortations follow in Ephesians 4:17 . The truth 'in Jesus' is the having put off the old man and having put on the new: consequently all that characterised the old man must be put off, and what is of the new cultivated.
Ephesians 5 and Ephesians 6 . Believers are to be imitators of God as dear children. They are light in the Lord, and are to walk as children of light. They are to be filled with the Spirit. Earthly relationships are now referred to: wives, husbands, children, fathers, bondmen, masters. Each relationship is to be taken up as in the Lord. Blessed instruction as to the mystery of Christ and the church is given in connection with the word to wives and husbands.
In view of the nature of the spiritual conflict waged in heavenly places, Christians are exhorted to put on the panoply of God. Without this they cannot stand. The apostle asks the prayers of the saints that he might make known the mystery of the glad tidings with boldness; and closes this remarkable epistle with a benediction.
The 'heavenlies' characterise the epistle: cf. Ephesians 1:3,20; Ephesians 2:6; Ephesians 3:10; Ephesians 6:12 . In the Epistle to the Romans man is taken up as alive in his sins, and grace meets his need: in Ephesians it is God's quickening power on behalf of those dead in sins, as displayed in raising Christ up from among the dead. In Colossians the saints are looked at as risen with Christ, but on earth with their hope in heaven: in the Ephesians the saints are seated in Christ in the heavenlies.
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Morrish, George. Entry for 'Ephesians, Epistle to the'. Morrish Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/mbd/e/ephesians-epistle-to-the.html. 1897.
