Commentary on Ephesians (Commentary on the New Testament Book #10)

Robert H. Gundry

• Publisher: Baker Academic
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781441237675
• eBook ISBN: 9781441237675
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

Delve Deeper into God's Word

In this verse-by-verse commentary, Robert Gundry offers a fresh, literal translation and a reliable exposition of Scripture for today's readers.

This letter contains a meditation on the high privileges of Christian believers, plus instruction on how they should conduct themselves in the face of hostile spiritual forces.

Pastors, Sunday school teachers, small group leaders, and laypeople will welcome Gundry's nontechnical explanations and clarifications. And Bible students at all levels will appreciate his sparkling interpretations.

This selection is from Gundry's Commentary on the New Testament.

Ephesians

GREETINGS
Ephesians 1:1–2

1:1–2: Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through God’s will, to the saints who are . . . and [who are] believers in Christ Jesus: 2Grace and peace to you from God, our Father, and the Lord, Jesus Christ. Paul’s self-designation matches his self-designation in 2 Corinthians 1:1; Colossians 1:1; 2 Timothy 1:1 exactly, but see the comments on 1 Corinthians 1:1 for the meanings of the terms used. As usual, “the saints” describes the addressees as consecrated by God to himself. The very earliest and best manuscripts lack the phrase “in Ephesus” after “we are”—hence the elliptical dots (“. . .”)—and this lack corresponds to Paul’s having “heard” about the addressees’ faith (1:15) and to their having “heard” about his ministry (3:2). By contrast, he’d evangelized the city of Ephesus for more than two years and therefore knew the Ephesian Christians intimately, as they also knew him (Acts 18:18–21; 19:1–20:1, 17–38). Probably, then, so-called Ephesians was a letter circulated from Ephesus to outlying churches, so that the geographical location of the saints was to be filled in by the reader in accordance with the city where they were living. Compare Colossians 4:16, where Paul refers to a letter (quote possibly our very “Ephesians”) that’s coming to Colossae from Laodicea, in which case the reader in Laodicea would have filled the blank with “to the saints who are in Laodicea,” and the reader in Colossae would have filled the blank with “to the saints who are in Colossae.” Paul balances his description of the addressees as consecrated by God with a description of them as “believers,” which refers to their exercise of faith. “In Christ Jesus” locates their faith and thus the believers themselves (compare 1:13, 15 and see the comments on Romans 8:8–11 for the meaning and rationale of believers’ location in Christ Jesus). The placement of “Christ” before “Jesus” gives “Christ” the connotation of a title: “Messiah Jesus.” For the rest of the greeting, see the comments on Romans 1:7; 1 Peter 1:2; 2 John 3.

THE PRIVILEGES OF CHRISTIANS
Ephesians 1:3–3:21

Roughly the first half of Ephesians (after the greeting) deals with the privileges of Christians as a basis for exhortations in the second half.

BLESSING GOD FOR BLESSINGS PLANNED BY GOD THE FATHER, ACCOMPLISHED BY HIS BELOVED SON, AND APPLIED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT
Ephesians 1:3–14

1:3–6: Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who [referring to God] has blessed us in every Spiritual blessing in the heavenly [realms] in Christ, 4just as he [God] selected us in him [Christ] before the founding of the world that we might be sacred and blameless in his sight in love, 5by predestining us for adoption as [his] sons through Jesus Christ for himself [that is, for God] in accordance with the good pleasure of his will, 6for the praise of the glory of his grace, with which he graced us in [his] beloved [Son] . . . . Here begins a sentence that extends all the way though 1:14. The very length of the sentence indicates how much God deserves to be blessed for the blessings he has bestowed on us, the saints, the believers, of 1:1. “Blessed [be] . . .” doesn’t mean only that God deserves to be blessed, though. It means also that God is being blessed in what Paul writes throughout 1:3–14. To bless God is to favor him with praise (see the comments on 1 Peter 1:3 concerning the whole initial phrase). For him to bless “us” (referring to the addressees, Paul, and all other Christians) is for him to shower favors on us, so that those favors constitute the very environment in which we live—hence, “in every Spiritual blessing,” the first of three successive “in”-phrases telling the location of us the saints. “Every Spiritual blessing” means every kind of favor bestowed by God through the agency of his Spirit, as specified in the rest of 1:3–14.

“In the heavenly [realms],” a fancy way of saying “in heaven,” plays up our location as saints in heaven. Since Christ is in heaven and we are in him, we too are in heaven. So just as despite our still living on earth God looks on us as crucified, buried, and resurrected with Christ by virtue of our being in Christ (see, for example, Romans 6:4–6; Galatians 2:20), so too God looks on us as exalted in Christ to the heavenly realms despite our still living on earth (compare 2:6; Colossians 3:1–3). Paul traces our Spiritual blessings back to God’s having selected us out of the mass of humanity, and having done so “before the founding of the world,” so that the selection didn’t depend on anything meritorious which we’d done (see Romans 9). “In him” indicates that even our location in Christ was planned by God before his “founding of the world.” The selection’s purpose was Godward: “that we might be sacred [that is, saints, holy, consecrated to him (1:1)] and blameless in his sight [as saints are and will in fact be at the Last Judgment (5:27), because God looks on us as in Christ, who is blameless].” If God sees nothing blameworthy, salvation is assured; and if our sacredness, our consecration, to God and blamelessness are due to his having “selected us in him [Christ],” “in love” is likely to reference God’s loving us because of our sacredness and blamelessness in Christ. The selection of us entailed predestination “for [the purpose of] adoption as [God’s] sons” (compare “our Father” in 1:2; also Romans 8:29).

“Through Jesus Christ” makes him the agent of adoption in that as believers we are in him and in that he is himself God’s Son quite apart from adoption (4:13). “For himself” makes clear that “adoption as sons” means adoption as God’s sons. “In accordance with the good pleasure of his will” personifies God’s will, makes it take pleasure in the predestining of us for adoption, and attributes the predestinating to God’s will as distinct from our will as human beings. “For the praise of the glory of his grace” adds to predestination another purpose besides that of adoption. Grace, God’s ill-deserved favor as shown in the adoption, isn’t the object of praise. “The glory of his grace” is the object, which way of putting it accents God’s grace as glorious. The addition to “his grace” of the clause, “with which he graced us,” doubles the accent on the glory of his grace. “In [his] beloved [Son]” locates us again in Christ, but calls him the one whom God loved to confirm that God loves us because of our sacredness and blamelessness in Christ (compare, for example, Mark 1:11; 9:7; 12:6; 2 Peter 1:17).

Paul’s sentence continues in 1:7–10: in whom [referring to Christ as God’s beloved Son] we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of trespasses in accordance with the wealth of his grace, 8which [grace] he lavished on us in all wisdom and discernment 9when making known to us the secret of his will in accordance with his good pleasure, which he [God] planned in him [Christ] 10for the administration of the fullness of the seasons, [that is,] to head up all things for himself in the Christ—the things in the heavens and the things on the earth . . . . “Redemption” means liberation from slavery. “Through his blood” marks Christ’s blood as the cost of this liberation, and “blood” implies a violent death (compare the connotation of violence in our expression “bloodshed”) and, given his blamelessness, a sacrificial death. As sacrificial, Christ’s death also brings “the forgiveness of trespasses,” which means their discharge, so that the trespasser doesn’t have to suffer punishment for them. Christ suffered it for us. “The forgiveness of trespasses” also suggests that the redemption consists in liberation from slavery to those trespasses (compare Romans 6:12–23). This redemption and forgiveness accord with God’s grace—no, with “the wealth of his grace,” more than enough to provide redemption and forgiveness, as further indicated by his having “lavished” that grace “on us” or, more literally, “into us,” as though filling us to overflowing with a favor that’s ill-deserved because of our trespasses. “In all wisdom and discernment” refers to all the wisdom and discernment required to understand “the secret of his [God’s] will,” a secret he has “made known to us.” Such wisdom and discernment are the mental environment within which God lavished his grace on us. Without this environment we wouldn’t have recognized and received his grace for what it is. The use of two synonyms, “wisdom” and “discernment,” underlines their accompaniment of grace.

Paul mentions “the secret of his [God’s] will” as a teaser that he’ll explain in 2:11–3:13. Meanwhile, the making known “to us” of “the secret” which consists in “his will” enhances “the wealth of his grace.” The accordance of his making the secret known with “his good pleasure” enhances further “the wealth of his grace” by putting a happy face on God in his lavishing the grace (see also the comments on 1:5 for this phrase). That God “planned” his good pleasure “in him [Christ]” dovetails with God’s having “selected us in him [Christ] before the founding of the world” (1:4) and with his having “predestin[ed] us for adoption as [his] sons through Jesus Christ for himself in accordance with the good pleasure of his will” (1:5). The purpose of God’s plan in Christ was “the administration of the fullness of the seasons,” which means the imposition of his government when the epochs of human history have reached their full extent according to God’s plan. He’ll do this “for himself” (in the sense of carrying out his plan) by putting the entirety of creation (“the things in the heavens and the things on the earth”) under the Christ’s headship. “The Christ” adds the formality of a title to his headship.

Paul’s sentence takes up again in 1:11–12: in him in whom we were also allotted [to God] by being predestined in accordance with the plan of him who is working all things in accordance with the intention of his will 12that we who’ve hoped in the Christ beforehand might be for the praise of his glory . . . . Paul correlated our being in Christ with God’s having blessed us in every Spiritual blessing (1:3), having selected us for consecration and blamelessness (1:4), having graced us (1:6), and having redeemed and forgiven us (1:7). Now Paul correlates our being in Christ with our also having been allotted to God, which means that in his Son, Jesus Christ, God has acquired Christian believers as his own possession (see 1:14). This allotment occurred in conjunction with our being predestined (“for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ” according to 1:5), and this predestination triggered the carrying out of God’s plan. To assure us that the execution of this plan hasn’t been frustrated, Paul refers to God as “him who is working all things in accordance with the intention of his will.” “All things” leaves nothing outside his plan. To stress God’s will as determinative, Paul personifies God’s “will” by ascribing to it an “intention.” There follows a definition of God’s will, namely, that “we . . . might be for the praise of his glory.” Earlier, the glory of God’s grace was to be the object of praise (1:6). Now it’s the glory of God himself that’s to be the object of praise. But why his glory rather than him himself? Because the praise of his glory has to do with the brilliance of his plan and of his working it out (compare Romans 11:33–36). Paul doesn’t say that we are to praise God’s glory. He says that God willed us to be for the praise of his glory. That is to say, our very existence as those “who’ve hoped in the Christ beforehand” is to be for the praise of God’s glory. “Hope” carries the note of confidence in relation to Christ’s return and attendant events, so that “hoped . . . beforehand” means to have put confidence in the Christ prior to his coming back as the one who will come back when “the fullness of the seasons” (1:10) has been reached.

1:13–14: in whom [referring to “the Christ”] also you, when hearing the word of truth, [that is,] the gospel of your salvation, in whom also [you], when believing [the gospel], were sealed with the Spirit of promise, the Holy [Spirit], 14who is the downpayment on our inheritance till the redemption of the acquisition, [which redemption will be] for the praise of his glory. Here we have in Christ a sealing of Christians with the Holy Spirit—quite naturally, since the Spirit is Christ’s Spirit (Romans 8:9). This sealing occurred when they heard “the word of truth” and believed it (in confirmation of the translation “believers” rather than “faithful” in 1:1). Paul identifies this word as the gospel and describes the word as a message containing truth. Then he describes the gospel, which means “good news,” as “of salvation,” which means “of deliverance.” But deliverance from what? Paul reserves the answer to this question till 2:1–10, where salvation turns out to be deliverance from God’s wrath, the just desert of our sins, trespasses, and fleshly lusts. “Your salvation” limits this deliverance to those who’ve heard and believed the gospel. “Also . . . also” doesn’t mean “you as well as us”—rather, hearing and believing as well as hoping (1:12). The temporary shift from “we,” “our,” and “us” to “you” and “your” highlights for the addressees what happened to them at their conversion.

“Were sealed with the Spirit” means being stamped with the Spirit, so to speak, as a sign of being owned by God. “Of promise” is usually interpreted to be describing the Spirit as promised (as, for example, in Galatians 3:14; Luke 24:49; Acts 2:33; Ezekiel 36:26–27; 37:14). In view of the immediately following description of the Spirit as “the downpayment on our inheritance,” however, it’s better to interpret “the Spirit of promise” as the Spirit who, because he’s the downpayment, is himself the promise of our inheritance that’s yet to come in the form of resurrection to eternal life (compare 2 Corinthians 1:22; 5:5). Paul supplements “of promise” with “the Holy” to make the sealing of believers with the Spirit the basis of calling them “saints,” which means “holy ones, consecrated ones” (1:1, 4). “Till the redemption” supplements a past liberation from enslavement to trespasses (1:7) with a future liberation. Paul probably has in mind our liberation from mortality at the resurrection (Romans 8:23), but he avoids defining the liberation in terms of what it will mean for us and thus centers attention on what it will mean for God. It will mean his getting “the praise of his glory” (about which see the comm...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Ephesians
• Notes
• Back Cover