“At the beginning God, as it were, walks into the church assembled for worship and breathes His blessing upon it. He remains throughout and at the close of the worship service walks out again, not out of the church, but out with the church.” So wrote William Hendriksen as the opening paragraph to his commentary on Ephesians.[1]
As I have reflected on Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, Hendriksen’s vivid picture of God breathing His blessing on His people and then going out with them into the world gives me great hope in the power found in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
In an age where it seems that church attendance is falling and the rise of the “nones” gets all the attention, it’s important to remember that Jesus is still the Head of the church. His promises in Matthew 16:18, 19 remain true regardless of the historical era or circumstances: “On this rock (the confession that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God) I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
This is a letter about God’s purposes for the Body of His Son Jesus, the church universal in time, place, and the eternal heavenly realm.
It’s important to keep in mind that this letter was meant for the church in Ephesus, as well as possibly the surrounding congregations in Asia Minor. If you haven’t read the Introduction to this Ephesians study in my blog, I encourage you to read it to see the significance of Ephesus and Paul’s ministry in this part of modern western Turkey.[2]
In the ancient world, letters began with a salutation from the person who wrote the letter and then followed the addressee. This common pattern is noted in the next paragraph when Paul referred to himself as “an apostle.” This spiritual gift, further mentioned in Ephesians 4:11, was the language of someone being sent by another as in someone sent as an ambassador representing another ruler. The apostles were sent by Christ through the Holy Spirit to represent the kingdom of God to the kingdoms of this world.
Paul introduced himself as “an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God” (Ephesians 1:1). This was like the way he introduced himself in other letters to churches (Romans 1:1; 1 Corinthians 1:1; 2 Corinthians 1:1; Galatians 1:1; Philippians 1:1 (absent reference to apostleship); Colossians 1:1; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:1 (both without reference to apostleship); 1 Timothy 1:1; 2 Timothy 1:1; Titus 1:1).
Before leaving Paul’s reference as an apostle of Jesus Christ, I want to mention that the IPHC has historically recognized the gift of apostle, defined with clear Biblical, theological, and historical criteria, as continuing in the life of the Body of Christ.[3]
IPHC British theologian Noel Brooks provided a framework for understanding apostles in 1984, “It is useful to define ‘the Twelve’ and Paul as primary apostles, and the rest as secondary apostles” (Brooks emphasis). He added these instructive words, “An apostle, of whatever rank (primary or secondary), is not a self-employed person. He does not go forth on his own initiative. He has been sent forth at someone else’s will, someone who is his superior. This is why Paul qualifies his claim to be ‘an apostle of Jesus Christ’ by the phrase “by the will of God.” The making of an apostle is as exclusively a divine work as the making of a child of God. It is neither a do-it-yourself job nor a church appointment or election. Apostleship, like salvation, is of the Lord. An apostle is neither self-made nor church-made. All that the church can do is recognize the God-made man and endorse his ministry. It must, however, distinguish between true apostles and “false” (2 Corinthians 11:13-15), by the application of Biblical criteria.”[4]
After defining himself “as an apostle by the will of God,” Paul used two terms to describe the people he knew in Ephesus and the surrounding area. Remember, he had spent over two years operating what I refer to as a Bible College in the Hall of Tyrannus (Acts 19:9, 10). By the personal names mentioned at the close of Ephesians, Colossians, 1 Corinthians, and 2 Timothy, it is clear Paul knew a lot of people, their lives, and the call of God upon them. Thus, he called them “saints” and “faithful” because he had personal knowledge of them.
In my view, both terms are because these people are “in Christ Jesus.” Paul used this phrase, “in Christ,” and forms of it, seventy times in his letters. We are redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ and made new creatures in Him. In salvation, we become members of the Body of Christ. We are called “holy” (the meaning of saints) because we are in Christ, who is made to us “righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30). Hebrews 2:11 affirms that “both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren.” Did you read that last phrase? Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brethren!
Paul then used Hellenistic and Hebrew greetings with “grace (to Greeks) and peace (Hebrew shalom)” to them “from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” In the uniqueness of His eternal personhood as Three in One (the Trinity), it is God who speaks the word of Grace and the word of Shalom.
Ephesians 1:3, which closes this post, is actually the beginning of a lengthy Greek sentence that goes through verse 14. In the Nestle Aland Greek text, there are 202 words in one long sentence. The New King James Version contains 265 English words to convey the Greek. In school, I loved to diagram sentences. You can explain what diagramming is to your children and grandchildren! But, trying to diagram Ephesians 1:3-14 in English, much less Greek, is daunting![5]
Putting that aside, notice that Paul told the Ephesians, and tells us today, that God is blessed as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and that through God’s own blessing we are blessed “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” Three times in this one verse Paul used words we translate as blessing. The first use, eulogetos, is an adjective; the second is the verb eulogeo; the third is the noun eulogia. You have probably made a connection to the use of this Greek word in English: eulogy. A eulogy is a speech where good things are said about a person. Whether adjective, verb, or noun, the Greek is formed from the prefix eu, which means good, and logia, which means word.
We need to view Paul’s use of this word as something more than his good thoughts about God and the Ephesians. The Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint (abbreviated LXX), translated the Hebrew barak in Genesis 12:2, 3 with the same word used in Ephesians 1:3. Five times in Genesis 12:2, 3, God promised to bless Abraham and all who bless him. Three times in Ephesians 1:3, Paul used the same word used in the LXX translation of Genesis 12:2, 3. I believe Paul had Genesis 12:2, 3 in mind as he saw the divine blessings to Abraham and to the nations as continuing in Jesus Christ. God’s great mission to redeem the world, a mission that began in Genesis, finds its continuation in the fullness found in Christ. This is why Paul began with God being the object of being blessed in Ephesians 1:3. It is an expression of deep worship and adoration to praise and bless God. Noel Brooks wrote that to bless the Lord is “a glorious and holy exercise.”[6] When we praise God, we are eulogizing Him, not as one who has died but as One who is eternally alive and above all.
We bless God because we are conscious that He has blessed us and given us “good words” in the Gospel with “every spiritual blessing.” God is generous and seeks to pour out His abundant love and blessings upon His children. Later in Ephesians, we will find Paul using the word “rich, riches,” 6 times to describe the abundance of mercy, grace, and love we have in Christ Jesus. These blessings are established “in the heavenly places in Christ.” This is the first of five uses of “heavenly places” in Ephesians (1:3, 20; 2:6; 3:10; 6:12).
The “heavenly places” are “in Christ.” It is not a mythical, fantasy, or magical world. It is a real spiritual dimension where Christ is, whether enthroned at the right hand of the Father or present with us in worship and life.
As we close this post, may the Holy Spirit make us aware of the munificence of God and the abundance of His blessings to us in Jesus Christ. May this awareness enrich our understanding of what we do when we “bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name!” (Psalm 103:1).[7]
[1] William Hendriksen, Galatians and Ephesians (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1979) page 69 of the Ephesians Commentary section.
[2] (https://iphc.org/gso/2025/01/07/ephesians-the-victory-of-prayer-for-the-church/).
[3] Doug Beacham, Rediscovering the Role of Apostles and Prophets (Franklin Springs, GA: LifeSprings Resources, 2003). Also the IPHC position paper on apostles at https://iphc.org/position-papers/.
[4] Noel Brooks, Ephesians Outlined and Unfolded (Franklin Springs, GA: Advocate Press, 1984) pages 11, 12. The use of bold characters is from Brooks.
[5] You can find an example of the Greek diagram of Ephesians 1:3-14 at https://x.com/between2worlds/status/1270064403342295040?mx=2
[6] Brooks, page 17.
[7] I encourage you to read these Psalm references which “Bless the Lord,” and make them part of your devotional prayer life: Psalms 16:7; 34:1; 66:8; 103:1, 2, 20, 21, 22; 134:1, 2; 135:19, 20; 145:1, 2.
