There is one other subject that I think should be discussed before we start to look at Ephesians in detail, and that is the parallels with Paul's epistle to the Colossians.
As we noted in the last study, Colossians was written about the same time as Ephesians, and it is still a matter of debate amongst scholars as to which was written first. That is not an issue for us in this series, the important point being that they were written practically simultaneously, and therefore it is natural that we would expect to find similar subjects treated.
This is exactly what we do find, and the interesting thing is that quite often, while many subjects in Ephesians are repeated in Colossians, they are dealt with in a slightly different way. This is very helpful in arriving at the meaning of some passages, or on the other hand, the different treatment gives us a deeper understanding of the subject. I mention this now because I will be noting some of these passages as we come to them, and readers will then understand why it is being done.
Let us look at a couple of examples now.
In Eph.1:6-10 we read:
To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.
Then in Col. 1:13-15 we have:
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: Who is the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature.
Without trying to be exhaustive in treating these two passages, note two common subjects - redemption through His blood and the forgiveness of sins.
Now look at some of the differences. The Ephesians passage talks about such things as the riches of His grace, the dispensation of the fullness of times, gathering together all things in Christ, and then goes on to such things as the redemption of the purchased possession, and the mighty power of God demonstrated in the raising of Christ from the dead and setting Him in the absolutely superior position in the Heavenly places, where He is the Head of the Church which is His body, and where He who fills all in all is, Himself, filled full by the Church which is His Body.
The Colossians passage, however, speaks of the translation of the believer from the power of darkness into the Kingdom of the Son of His love, and goes on to show Christ as the creator of all things, and the Head of the Body, the Church, and then having the pre-eminence in all things, not only the realm of creation, but also in the spiritual realm. I suggest that as we note the similarities and contrasts in passages such as these, and give them prayerful thought, we will come to a greater and deeper comprehension of what the Lord is telling us than by reading only passages from the one epistle at a time.
A second example is from Eph. 5:18-20:And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The parallel passage is in Col. 3:16:
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
The only comment I wish to make here is that the Colossians verse helps me to understand better what it means to sing and make melody in my heart to the Lord.
I hope that those two examples will suffice for now.
Ephesians 1:1
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:
Paul opens this epistle, as he usually does, and as was the custom in his day, by nominating who the epistle is from and who it is to.
One might expect that we could get through the first verse, especially when it contains such ordinary things, without finding much to comment on, but straight away we are confronted with a number of issues that need consideration.
There has never been any argument from anyone down throughout the centuries that it was indeed Paul who wrote Ephesians. We can be grateful for that, because it has been quite fashionable for several centuries, for various scholars to question the authorship of different parts of the Bible. So we can pass on to the next point.
Paul calls himself an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. We know from passages such as Galatians chs. 1 & 2, and 1 Corinthians 9, and 2 Cor. 12 that Paul's apostleship was from time to time under question. He claims that he has fulfilled all the requirements of apostleship such as having seen the Lord, and having been called by Him personally, and also that he has exhibited the marks of an apostle, such as the performing of signs and wonders, the disciplining of believers and others, and having the care of all the churches, rather than being concerned with just one assembly.
I think it can be truthfully said that from the beginning, Paul's ministry was beset by opposition and controversy. And I have found in my own experience over forty years as a Christian, that Paul is still attacked and maligned and opposed, or just ignored, in some Christian circles. It puzzled me when I was younger as to why Paul and his writings aroused so much opposition, and in some cases, outright hatred. But then I gradually realised that it was only to be expected, as Paul was appointed the Apostle to the Gentiles by the ascended Lord Jesus, and it is in Paul's writings that we find not only the glorious basic truths of our faith, such as justification by faith, but also the further revelations about the Headship of Christ and the Church which is His Body.We must remember that Satan is a defeated foe and cannot rob believers of their life in Christ. But he can, if we allow him, turn believers away from knowing the deeper truths about God's purposes for His elect, and by so doing, detract somewhat from the glory and honour that belongs to our Lord and Head, and which should come to Him through our faithful walk according to the Word of Truth rightly divided.
Paul says in 2 Tim. 1:15, that "all they which are in Asia be turned away from me". It is not hard to hear the disappointment in his words. It has often been said before, but it bears repeating, that as the church in the wide sense, turned away from Paul, Christendom slipped into the Dark Ages. And it wasn't until Paul's writings - and more importantly the truths they teach - were rediscovered by the early reformers, that the darkness of superstition and corruption in the church receded. The truth of the Lord Jesus Christ, as taught through Paul, brought salvation and liberty to millions. It still does today, although it seems to me that once more Christendom is turning away from the only one appointed by the Lord as the apostle and teacher of the Gentiles.
Those responsible for the production of this magazine, and I hope, each reader of it, give Paul his proper place, the place given to him by the Lord Jesus. This means that we accept his inspired writings as "thus and thus sayeth the Lord", and that being the case, as Gentile believers we must not only pay attention to what he says, but obey his instructions, for he speaks with the authority of the Lord who commissioned him.
The word apostle is familiar to any reader of the Bible, but it is not an English word. It is a Greek word that has come over into English, through its use in the Bible, almost unchanged. It is made up of two parts, a preposition - apo - meaning from or away from, and a verb - stello - meaning I send, or as we would put it in English - to send. So an apostle is one sent from another, and in the Scriptural sense, means a messenger who speaks on behalf of, and with the authority of, the one who sends.
The word is used in a very restricted sense in classical Greek, which is fortunate, because it has left the way open for the New Testament writers to use the word in their special way, without it having any useless baggage from general usage attached to it.
The way the Holy Spirit uses the word in Scripture is what is important, so let us look at a few examples.
We find the word in its verbal form in Matt. 10:5:
These twelve Jesus SENT forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:We could translate this as "These twelve Jesus apostled ..." except that some might think it meant that the Lord gave them an important position. He did that, of course, but the meaning is as we have it translated in our English Bibles, that is, they were sent out as His emissaries or envoys, and the account shows that they indeed went with His power and authority.
We find the word used again in Mark 1:2 where it is applied to John the Baptist.
As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I SEND my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
John was sent from God as the forerunner of the Messiah, and so we could rightly call John the Baptist an apostle. I don't mean to suggest by this that John was one of the Twelve.
Romans 10:15 gives another example:
And how shall they preach, except they be SENT? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!
Except they be apostled! The quote from Isaiah 52:7 presents a lovely picture of part of an apostle's work.
The word is used of Paul in Acts 26:17, where Paul recounts for King Agrippa the experience of his conversion and call by the Lord many years before:
Delivering thee from the People, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I SEND thee.
These are not all the occurrences of the word, but I think they are enough to show the its meaning. There are several other references which we must note to complete the picture. Firstly, please read for yourself 1 John 4:9 - 14. I will quote several phrases from this passage:
v. 9. God sent His only begotten Son into the world.
v. 10. God ... loved us ... and sent His Son.
v. 14. The Father sent the Son.
In each of the above cases, the word "sent" is the correct grammatical form of the Greek word "apostello".
Now please look at Hebrews 3:1:
Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Jesus Christ.Above all others, the Lord Jesus Christ is THE APOSTLE. All others who claim the title of apostle, whether they be of the Twelve, or the later order of apostles beginning with Paul, commissioned by the ascended Lord, each take their authority and power from Him, and He is their example supreme.
So, all these thoughts should be in our minds when we read Paul's words in the opening verse of Ephesians, or any of his other epistles, where he claims the title and position of Apostle.
I would like to remind readers now, of a point made by Brian in his series on Acts. One of the responsibilities of an apostle was the disciplining of people whether they were believers or just unbelieving members of Israel.
We see Peter exercise this authority when he brings about the immediate deaths of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5, and in Paul's case it is demonstrated when he strikes Elymas the sorcerer blind in Acts 13:4-12. Then there is the case of Hymenaeus and Alexander in 1 Tim. 1:20, whom Paul handed over to Satan for a while. This is one side of an apostle's work that receives little attention.
Paul claims not only to be an apostle - that by itself would not mean much - but an apostle of Jesus Christ. It is significant that in the Greek texts the words "Jesus Christ" are in the reverse order - "Christ Jesus". There are many occasions in the Authorised Version (AV) where this is the case. And sometimes it is the other way around - where they have "Christ Jesus" it should be "Jesus Christ".
So what, some reader may be thinking. If, with me, you believe that the words of Scripture are inspired by the superintendence of the Holy Spirit, then it follows that if the Spirit chooses to have Jesus Christ in some instances and Christ Jesus in others, we should pause, heed and consider.
For some unaccountable reason, the words of an old advertisement for a shoe polish came into my mind a little while ago. Speaking of a pair of shoes, the ad said: "They are well worn, but they have worn well." No English speaker needs to be told what the difference is between well worn and worn well. I use this only as an example of how the meaning can change when the same words are used in a different order.
Readers who have a Companion Bible will find notes in the margins at the appropriate places where you will be referred to an Appendix dealing with the subject. But let me state the case briefly.
When the order of the words is "Jesus Christ", the emphasis is on the first word "Jesus". Jesus was His name as the Word become flesh, while He tabernacled amongst His people, and was humble amongst them and indeed humiliated by them. This order stresses the lowly Jesus who was indeed the Christ, the Messiah of Israel, and was as such later exalted by God. But the emphasis is not on the later exaltation, but on the lowly position.
When I was a child, I thought that the word Christ was the Lord's surname. My name was Athol Walter, and my friend's name was Bill James, and Jesus' name was Jesus Christ. But I learned as I grew up, that the word Christ is a title. In fact, like apostle, it is a Greek word brought over into English. They say Christos, we say Christ. Christos, as many readers will know, is Greek for the Hebrew word that comes into English as Messiah. And the meaning of the two words is The Anointed One. And the Messiah, God's Anointed, is the Deliverer, sent (there is that word again!) by God to deliver and save and restore the people of Israel.Now when the word order is reversed - Christ Jesus - the emphasis is still on the first word, but this time it is the word Christ, or Messiah. So the meaning is not Jesus the lowly one who was the Messiah, but the exalted and risen Messiah, who in the days of His flesh was the lowly Jesus.
I hope that what I have said makes some sense to you, and I would like to suggest that whenever you read the words "Jesus Christ" or "Christ Jesus" in Paul's writings, that you do a little digging and make sure just which way the words were written by the Holy Spirit's inspiration.
I said "in Paul's writings" in the last paragraph, because it is only Paul who uses the term "Christ Jesus". If any reader wishes to check this out, you will need to use the revised version of your Interlinear Greek, or English translations made from the revised text. And it is interesting to note that the term is not used in the epistle to the Hebrews.
Given that these facts are true, it means that the term "Christ Jesus" is not used in parts of Scripture that relate to the nation of Israel, but only in the parts of Scripture that relate either to the remnant of Israel, who occupy a special place, or to the Church which is His Body, whose members also occupy a special, though different, place. I leave you to a prayerful consideration of this matter.
The next phrase Paul uses is "by the will of God". This is milder than the opening to Galatians (which I hope you will look at), where he is making a very strong case for his independent apostleship. Galatians was written quite early in his ministry, and there were then many who were only too happy to spread all sorts of untruths about Paul. In most of the other epistles which he writes by himself, he uses the same or a similar phrase to this one in Ephesians.
The last part of v. 1 mentions the addressees, "... to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus". The last two words are in the right order this time.
Readers may be aware that in some early copies of this epistle the word "Ephesus" is left out, and this has caused some teachers to say that Ephesians is a circular letter, and the space was left for the names of different churches to be inserted. I don't intend to go into this point, as it is not of great significance to us. Any reader wishing to follow it up will find a fairly full discussion of it on pages 14-16 in Charles Welch's book "In Heavenly Places". This book is available from the BBFA Book Agent and is recommended.
I think that we can take it that the letter was addressed by Paul to the believers in the assembly at Ephesus, and I intend to proceed on that basis. Let me quote Charles Welch in the above mentioned book:
"We are not ... very concerned about the precise geographical destination of this letter, its importance for us is that, while originally addressed by Paul to a specific company, it was given by inspiration of God, and preserved for all time because it was the Divine intention that this letter should form a part of Holy Scripture. The addressees therefore are a wider company than the believers who lived in Ephesus, or who lived at the time of writing".
In Ephesians 2:11,12, we read that Paul is talking to Gentiles who were at one time without hope, without Christ and without God. Paul tells them that once they would have been called the Uncircumcision, aliens and strangers. And whether our readers realise it or not, that is exactly the position we were in before the grace of God brought us into the Kingdom of the Son of His love. So we can rightly take the epistle to be referring to us.
Now we must look at the terms "saints" and "the faithful in Christ Jesus".It has become the practise of some denominations over the centuries to canonise certain people, or in other words, to officially designate them as saints. But this is not the way the word is used in the New Testament, nor was it the practise of the early church.
One of the strengths of the English language is that it is so rich in synonyms, that is, it has many different words which can be used for the same or similar things. But this can be a problem, especially when we are not as familiar with our language as we should be. It means that we can miss some point in Scripture because we do not know that the same subject is being spoken about, in spite of different words being used.
And the subject of "saints" in the New Testament is a case in point.
I was well into adulthood before I realised the connection between the words "saint, sanctification and sanctify". They are really only different forms of the same word. Further, the words righteousness and sanctification are practically synonymous. But while we can say in English that someone has been sanctified, we can't say that they have been righteous-ified, although the meaning is exactly the same. We would have to say that they have been made righteous. And another word that comes into this is holiness.
The Greek word translated "saint" is "hagios". The same word is also translated as "holy".
There is no problem with understanding the word "faithful". Our only problem is being it. But the two words "saints" and "faithful" - I should use the full phrase - "faithful in Christ Jesus", complement each other and must be taken together. They suggest the twofold aspect of our Christian experience. Our life in Christ is not, and never can be, in question. We are redeemed and sanctified (that is, made saints) by the finished work of Christ, and by nothing else. But salvation is unto good works, and we are expected by the Lord, to walk worthily of Him and His calling of us, or in other words to be faithful.
In the New Testament sense, every believer is a saint, but it is possible for a saint to walk in an unfaithful manner, or in other words, to be a bad saint. But the bad saint is still a saint. This epistle, however, is addressed not only to saints, but to saints who are faithful in Christ Jesus. And as we go through the epistle, we will see more and more that being faithful in Christ Jesus is all wrapped up with walking worthily of Him who is not only our Saviour, and not only our Lord, but who is also Head of the Church which is His Body, of which we, by the grace of God, are a small part.
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