Ephesians 1:2

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Ephesians 1:2 Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (KJV)

  • Grace – G5485, charis. It is used 155 times. It means grace but it is used also as a gift and various associated ideas.
  • To you – hymin G4771,
  • Peace – G1515, Eirene. It is used 92 times. It means peace but has other uses like safety and health.
  • From – apo G575,
  • Father – G3962, pater. It is used 413 times. It is used for God and man.
  • Of us – hemon G1473, our
  • Lord – G2424, kyrios
  • Christ – G5547, Christos

Ephesians 1:1 and 1:2 is Paul’s greeting to the Church. Please, do not gloss over these two verses, I have been guilty. Paul puts interesting information in his greetings. (There are many books, posts, and pages that do detailed breakdowns of these introductions, so I will not.) I will ask you to compare this greeting to what the Lord says about the Ephesians in Revelations 2. The elapsed time between the two may be 30 to 50 years, timelines vary. Take a Muse Moment and reflect on your own life. How does your spiritual condition compare and contrast from the beginning to now?

A little history– When Paul wrote Ephesians there was still an earthly Temple and Jerusalem. When John wrote Revelations. The Temple and Jerusalem had been destroyed. Paul was dead and John was very old and in prison at the writing of Revelations.

A study task – Paul will use many of these words again. Look, highlight, circle, or underline God, Father, Lord, Jesus, and Christ in the first two chapters.

Use the links below to explore all of the words in the passage in Ephesians.

Ephesians 1 MOUNCE – Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the – Bible Gateway

Ephesians 1 Interlinear Bible (biblehub.com)

Ephesians 1:1

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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: (KJV)

Use the links below to explore all of the words in the passage in Ephesians.

  • Paul – G3972, it is a name but the meaning of the word is little. Contrast with the name Saul G4569 which means ask for or dedicated to God.
  • Apostle – G652, one sent or messengers. Terms are added behind this first requirement. The modern Church has limited that to only the ones picked by Jesus or a position of leadership in their denomination. References connected to the Ephesian Church – 1:1, 2:20, 3:5, 4:11, Revelations 2:2. Jesus was called an apostle in Hebrews 3:1 because the Father sent Him. The 14 Jesus called, the first 12, Matthis was 13 and Paul was 14, but what about the messengers that churches sent out?
  • Will – G2307, thelēma is used 62 times. You know it from Matthew 6:10, “Your kingdom come, Your WILL be done.”
  • God – G2316, theos is used 1317 times. We use it to refer to the One True God, but it can also mean a deity or idol.
  • Saints – G39 and 40, hagios is used 233 times. It refers to the Christians but means separate from common conditions and use. It can refer to a sanctuary, like the church in Istanbul, Hagia Sophia.
  • Faithful – G4103, pistos is used 67 times. There are a variety of uses.

Ephesians 1 MOUNCE – Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the – Bible Gateway

Ephesians 1 Interlinear Bible (biblehub.com)

Ephesians

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Welcome to my study on Ephesians. My objective as I study Ephesians is to learn some Greek as I explore the thoughts Paul gave to the church where he invested two-plus years of his life. I want to use the words and phrases to hear the loving advice that a father/pastor gave his children, and not just dogma and doctrine. What caught my attention were the Greek “one-use” and “limited use” words in the first chapter. God bless translators, but I want to personally restore study to a verb and not limit it to a noun. I studied this Book for months a looong time ago; now for a second look.

To study the Book of Ephesians well, we should start with an overview of the city in the corpus of the New Testament and in the life of Paul. It is possible that the first contact that Ephesus had with the Gospel came on the Day of Pentecost. There were visitors from Asia (Acts 2:9), which is where Ephesus was located. It was a port city and Paul used that during his second and third trips to preach the Gospel.

I believe that Paul used his traditions as a tool to strengthen his relationship with God. I do not believe they replaced his mission or fellowship with the Father and Jesus. Customs and traditions did not become fig leaves and bushes for Paul. The Holy Spirit used his heritage to bring him toward God and did not let them become a stopping point.

In Acts 18:18, Paul, Priscilla, and Aquila had sailed from Corinth and arrived at Ephesus. Paul continued his habit of going to the local synagogue and preaching. After a successful first contact with the people, Paul left Priscilla and Aquila there as he continued to Israel and Jerusalem to fulfill his vow.

Acts 19 is a series of vignettes of Paul’s two-plus years in Ephesus. Verse one reminds me that we do not have “perfect knowledge” of everything Paul did. Meticulous Luke gave us a vague timestamp that may imply this was associated with his trip back from Jerusalem/Israel or it was a “walk about” in the region of Ephesus. (Enough minutia.) Is this chapter an exemplar of Paul going into cities?

  1. Find people who are interested in the ways of God. John baptized to prepare people’s hearts for the coming of Jesus.
  2. Give them the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
  3. Teach publicly.
  4. Have signs and wonders witness to the spoken and taught Word.
  5. People attempt to imitate what the Holy Spirit is doing.
  6. A deep repentance followed by an outpouring of the Lord.
  7. Nonbelievers who are angry at God take it out on believers.

Acts 20 – Paul was in a hurry, and may not have wanted to start another riot, sails past Ephesus but sends for the elders of the church. This intense goodbye has elements that will be seen again in the Book to the Ephesians and the writing in Revelations.  

The Book of Ephesians

Like his farewell in Acts 20, Paul has prayers, reminders, and useful information in this Letter. As I look at my circles, highlights, and what I underlined Paul includes many references to God, Father, Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. That lets you know what and who he thought was important. He also mentions that he is a prisoner several times as a wakeup for the Church.

Jesus’ Statement in Revelations

The thoughts of the Spirit in this last mention of Ephesus are in agreement with Acts 20 and Paul’s Letter. There is no clear or easy segway from Paul to John when it comes to Ephesus. There are many dates out there as to when they showed up in the city and they will leave you confused. The Spirit decided to not give us those. From Priscilla and Aquila to Paul, and through John God worked and used Ephesus to spread His word in Asia/Turkey.

I know people love to go cryptic in this Book, but John wrote all of this with 1:19 in mind. I am not completely sure that we as later believers in Jesus were to know everything that Jesus referred to in His praises and warnings to this and the other churches.

Moses’ Psalms – Part 2

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In Part 2, I will look/focus on Moses’ Psalms or Songs outside of the Book of Psalms. I believe that Moses and his Chief Songwriter, the Holy Spirit, crafted these songs to help the people reflect where he and they had been and where they were going. In Part 1 I focused on his songs that were in Psalms.

One way to read the works of Moses (Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and his songs) is to see his personal growth, victories, and failures in his writings and songs. In the first third of his life, he knew his history but was trained in the ways of Egypt. In the second third of his life, he had the influence of a priest of Midian, so who knows what he heard. His final third starts off with a burning bush and a showdown with the Egyptian court that raised him; all of that in less than two years.

Exodus 15 – I have to wonder if lines and verses of this song started coming to him as soon as he got word from Pharoah to leave. Hear the joy in this song but do not miss his personal vindication as he shouts, “He is my God, and I will praise Him”.

The mighty Egyptian army was crushed by the very thing that saved the people, the Red Sea. Moses stresses God’s mighty right hand and His arm, both symbols of strength. He is given a prophetic element in verses 14 and 15 against the people they are going to conquer. This song ends with a vision of the good land to come.

Miriam, his older sister, quickly grabs a small part of the song and turns it into a catchy dance tune.  

Numbers 21:17-18

17 Then Israel sang this song: Spring up, well—sing to it!
18 The princes dug the well; the nobles of the people hollowed it out
with a scepter and with their staffs. (HCSB)

I am giving Moses credit for this song. You will need to give some leeway on this song and the “well”. Either there was an unrecorded water source, or this is the water from Exodus 17:6. If it is Exodus 17, verse 18 has a lot of imagery and imagination in comparison to what we think happened. I have a feeling that it was sung every time they came to a water source.

This is near the end of the years of wandering. Moses had just made the bronze snake and the defeat of Sihon and Og was about to take place, followed by a huge test that was orchestrated by Balaam and the Midianites.    

Psalm 111

Before you rush to write a “wait a minute” comment, please let me explain. Book V in Psalms (107-150) was possibly assembled to reflect Moses’ fifth book – Deuteronomy. It has songs of ascent (121 to 134), the longest Psalm (119), and the shortest Psalm (117), some are read during Passover (113 – 118), and many have no author. A footnote in the NIV has Psalms 98 and 111 as being quoted in the Song of Moses and the Lamb in Revelation.

Read this Psalm; you can hear Moses singing this to teach Israel about its God. (See Part 1.) He uses many ideals past and future to strengthen the people’s faith in their God. It is an acrostic psalm, which is another excellent way to teach people.     

Deuteronomy 32

I believe this is Moses’ opus reflecting on the last forty years of his time with Israel and his time in the physical presence of his Rock. You can’t help but hear the regret in this song about him not speaking to the rock.

Before you read Chapter 32 it would do you good to read 31:19-22. Moses wrote this song as a testament against Israel in the future. These are not a “light” read but the song has plenty of God’s thoughts for and about His people.

Revelation 15:3 and 4

3 And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints. 4 Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest. (KJV)

Phrases in this song are drawn from Psalm 111:2,3; Deut. 32:4; Jer. 10:7; Psalms 86:9; 98:2. All of the verse below are from the NIV. The footnote is in Revelation 15 in Bible Gateway.

Psalm 111: 2 Great are the works of the Lord; they are pondered by all who delight in them. 3 Glorious and majestic are his deeds, and his righteousness endures forever.

 Deut. 32:4  He is the Rock, his works are perfect,
    and all his ways are just.
A faithful God who does no wrong,
    upright and just is he.

Jer. 10:7  Who should not fear you,
    King of the nations?
    This is your due.
Among all the wise leaders of the nations
    and in all their kingdoms,
    there is no one like you.

Psalms 86:9  All the nations you have made
    will come and worship before you, Lord;
    they will bring glory to your name.

Psalms 98:2  The Lord has made his salvation known
    and revealed his righteousness to the nations.

The placement of this song in Chapter 15 is interesting. The people who sing it have conquered the beast and his image. After they have sung the song, the Tabernacle of the Testimony is opened, and the final seven plagues will be released. (This Tabernacle is what Moses saw to make his copy for Israel.)