Summary of Ephesians, Chapter 1

Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, wishes grace and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the holy and faithful ones in Christ Jesus, who are at Ephesus. Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed Paul and the Ephesians with every spiritual blessing in heavenly things, just as He chose them in Him, in Christ, before the world began, so Paul and they may be holy and without blame before Him in love. He predestined them to be adopted sons through Jesus Christ, for Himself, according to His own good pleasure, for the praise of the glory of His grace with which He favored them in His beloved one. In Christ they have redemption through His blood and the remission of sins, according to the riches of His love, which He caused to abound in them in all wisdom and understanding. He made known to them the mystery of His will according as it pleased Him, as He planned in advance to be realized in Christ, to be carried out in the fullness of time, in order to recapitulate all things in Christ -- things in the heavens and things on the earth -- to do it in Him in whom we were chosen and predestined according to the decision of Him who brings all things about according to the plan of His will. He did this so that they who have hoped in Christ, might praise His glory. In Christ they too, after hearing the word of truth, that is, the Gospel of their salvation, and after believing, were sealed by the promised Holy Spirit, who is the pledge of our inheritance, for the redemption of the people of God, for the praise of His glory.

For this reason Paul too, since he has heard of their faith in the Lord Jesus and the love they have for all the holy ones, does not stop giving thanks for them, remembering them in his prayers, in order that the God of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give them the spirit of wisdom and manifestation in knowing Him, causing the eyes of their heart to be enlightened, so that they may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance among the holy ones, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power to them who believed, according to the working of the power of His strength. He exerted this strength in Christ, raising Him from the dead, seating Him at His right hand in heavenly places, above every principality and power and virtue and domination and every name that is named -- not only in this age, but in the age to come. He made all things subject under the feet of Christ, and caused Him to be Head over all things, for the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who is filled in all things.

Comments on Chapter 1

At Romans 8:29ff., we saw Paul speaking of God's providential arrangement -- predestination -- to make people full members of His Church. (We said "full" since there can be a lesser degree, as we saw in Romans 2:14-16). It has been common in the past to think Paul spoke of predestination to heaven. But if we notice the context -- both in Ephesians 1 and in Romans 8:29, Paul is speaking of full membership in the people of God, the Church. God made this decision before the world began. This means, it was not based on merits. It was based on the "good pleasure" eudokia of His will. We saw in comments on Romans 9 -- as well as here -- that God's decision is not based on human merits. Why positively He made this decision we discussed in comments on 1 Corinthians 1:25-30. We said it was chiefly that those who need more help to be saved get more.

The mystery of His will here, as in Colossians, is that both Jew and gentile are called to belong to the people of God, that is, His Church.

What is meant by the words "to recapitulate all in Christ" is debated. 1) Some say it means that all things are made new in Christ. 2) Or: Christ is the new Adam, all is brought under His headship. 3) Or: To reunite all things in Christ as in a center. Probably we should combine some features and say all things are brought into Christ as their center and head and reach their summit in Him. When Paul says in verse 10 "all things" it seems to mean all creation, not just human beings. This would be the thought of Romans 8:19 that all creation, including even things below humans, is at the end to be made new, brought back to its original state in Christ. St. Irenaeus makes this recapitulation theme the center of his theology: all receive a new Head, Christ. He adds that Mary is the New Eve with the New Adam. He also extends the idea of recapitulation to evil: the great Antichrist will be the head of all the forces of evil, and all creation at the end will be renewed.

Paul adds that God chose us to give glory to Him, to praise Him. This is true, but we must not forget that He wills to attain His own glory -- in which He gains nothing at all -- by way of doing good to us.¹ He has tied together His glory and our good, in His will they are inseparable, and His glory is to be obtained through doing good to us.

Paul speaks also of the Holy Spirit as the pledge of salvation. In the beatific vision, God joins Himself directly to the soul, without even an image in between. In the souls of the just, the Holy Spirit is already present as a pledge of the fuller good to be given in the world to come. He spoke of the Spirit as the seal and pledge in 2 Corinthians 1:22. The Fathers of the Church picked up the notion of the seal, and said by Baptism we are sealed, that is, marked as God's property, and so should never break the seal by any further sin.

In verse 18 Paul speaks of the Spirit of Wisdom and manifestation in knowing Him. This is of course the Holy Spirit, by whom we are enabled to know and understand the things of God, which the merely natural man cannot grasp.² We have underlined words about knowledge and wisdom in this Epistle as we did in Colossians to help notice the stress Paul puts on knowledge -- a suggestion that his opponents may be gnostic or something like gnostics. This idea is further strengthened by Paul's mention in verse 21 of principalities, powers, virtues, dominations. Christ is above all of them, and so there is no need to honor them: to worship Christ is enough.

At the end of this chapter the concept of pleroma, fullness, reappears as we saw it in Colossians. The Father fills Christ, and Christ fills His Church and the members of the Church, His body.