Ephesians 1:1,2 - Paul, an apostle of Christ

1:1

Paul, as is common, introduces himself as “an apostle of Christ Jesus”.  Paul was sent by Christ to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. We see this dramatically in Acts 10 when Paul encounters Christ on the Damascus road. Jesus chose Paul and told him what he was going to do. Paul’s task is to make Christ known. “By the will of God”. The sovereignty of God is a key theme of this letter. Things happen according to God’s plan. Predestination and the sovereignty of God cause some people big problems. They think that the sovereignty of God somehow negates human responsibility, or means that what we do with our lives really has no effect. The Bible never teaches this, some Calvinists (ones who don’t really understand Calvin) may give this impression, but the Bible does not. The Bible is clear that what we do with our lives matters. So we should live our lives in the light of the sovereignty of God. 

Not all manuscripts have “in Ephesus”, but some do. It may have been that the letter originally went to Ephesus and was then circulated to neighbouring churches. Paul refers to the recipients as “God’s holy people”, or “saints”. This means we are set apart for God’s purposes. Then he refers to them as “the faithful in Christ Jesus”. If we want to understand ourselves and understand our lives we need to appreciate that we have been set apart for God and our identity is in Christ.

1:2

“Grace and peace to you” is a common greeting of Paul. And this “grace and peace” comes from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So we see an equivalence of the Father and the Son. We need to appreciate that God’s attitude towards us is one of “grace and peace”. We so often live in fear and anxiety. We need to renew our minds and be transformed. We live in the grace and peace of Jesus Christ. The destiny and direction of our lives is not determined by what we deserve, but by Christ’s undeserved favour towards us. By nature we are unChristlike, the grace of God is changing this, making us evermore Christlike. And this happens because of the goodness of Christ.