Ephesians — Chapter 1

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1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus:

2Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.

4For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love

5He predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will,

6to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the Beloved One.

7In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace

8that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.

9And He has made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ

10as a plan for the fullness of time, to bring all things in heaven and on earth together in Christ.

11In Him we were also chosen as God’s own, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything by the counsel of His will,

12in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, would be for the praise of His glory.

13And in Him, having heard and believed the word of truth—the gospel of your salvation—you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,

14who is the pledge of our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession, to the praise of His glory.

15For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,

16I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers,

17that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in your knowledge of Him.

18I ask that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope of His calling, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints,

19and the surpassing greatness of His power to us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of His mighty strength,

20which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms,

21far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

22And God put everything under His feet and made Him head over everything for the church,

23which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

1Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus:

2Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

4According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:

5Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

6To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

7In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

8Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;

9Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:

10That in the dispensation of the fulness 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:

11In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

12That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

13In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

14Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

15Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,

16Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;

17That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:

18The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

19And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,

20Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,

21Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:

22And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,

23Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the saints that are at Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus:

2Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly [places] in Christ:

4even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love:

5having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

6to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved:

7in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,

8which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,

9making known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him

10unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth; in him, [I say,]

11in whom also we were made a heritage, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his will;

12to the end that we should be unto the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ:

13in whom ye also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation,-- in whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,

14which is an earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of [God`s] own possession, unto the praise of his glory.

15For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which [ye show] toward all the saints,

16cease not to give thanks for you, making mention [of you] in my prayers;

17that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him;

18having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

19and what the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might

20which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly [places],

21far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:

22and he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church,

23which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

1From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints [in Ephesus], the faithful in Christ Jesus.

2Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

3Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ.

4For he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love.

5He did this by predestining us to adoption as his legal heirs through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure of his will—

6to the praise of the glory of his grace that he has freely bestowed on us in his dearly loved Son.

7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our offenses, according to the riches of his grace

8that he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight.

9He did this when he revealed to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ,

10toward the administration of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ—the things in heaven and the things on earth.

11In Christ we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, since we were predestined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will

12so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, would be to the praise of his glory.

13And when you heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation)—when you believed in Christ—you were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit,

14who is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.

15For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,

16I do not cease to give thanks for you when I remember you in my prayers.

17I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, will give you spiritual wisdom and revelation in your growing knowledge of him,

18—since the eyes of your heart have been enlightened—so that you can know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints,

19and what is the incomparable greatness of his power toward us who believe, as displayed in the exercise of his immense strength.

20This power he exercised in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms

21far above every rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

22And God put all things under Christ’s feet, and gave him to the church as head over all things.

23Now the church is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus:

2Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ;

4even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before him in love;

5having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire,

6to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved,

7in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,

8which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,

9making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him

10to an administration of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things on the earth, in him;

11in whom also we were assigned an inheritance, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who does all things after the counsel of his will;

12to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ.

13In him you also, having heard the word of the truth, the Good News of your salvation—in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,

14who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.

15For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which you have toward all the saints,

16don’t cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers,

17that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him;

18having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

19and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might

20which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places,

21far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.

22He put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things for the assembly,

23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

Summary
Authorship & Background
Map & Geography
Commentary
Videos
Articles
Reflection

Summary

Paul greets the believers at Ephesus and breaks into praise of God for the spiritual blessings given in Christ — chosen before the world's foundation, predestined for adoption as sons, and given redemption and forgiveness through Christ's blood (vv. 1-7). God has revealed the mystery of His will: to unite all things in heaven and earth in Christ, and in Him believers have obtained an inheritance, sealed with the promised Holy Spirit as a guarantee of what's to come (vv. 8-14). Paul then tells them he constantly thanks God for their faith and love, praying that God would give them wisdom to know Him better — the hope of His calling, the riches of His inheritance in the saints, and the greatness of His power toward believers (vv. 15-19). That power is the same power God used to raise Christ from the dead and seat him far above every authority, making him head over all things for the church, his body, which is filled by him who fills everything (vv. 20-23).

Authorship & Background

Author: Paul the Apostle (v.1). Written from prison in Rome (cf. 3:1, 4:1, 6:20), approximately AD 60-62. Ephesians is one of Paul's four "Prison Epistles" (along with Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon).
Recipient: The church at Ephesus — a major city in Asia Minor (modern Turkey), home to the temple of Artemis (one of the Seven Wonders). Paul spent over two years there (Acts 19:10), and the church became a center for the gospel in Asia. Some early manuscripts omit "at Ephesus" (v.1), suggesting this may have been a circular letter to multiple churches.
Purpose: Unlike most of Paul's letters, Ephesians does not address a specific problem. It is a theological masterpiece — a sweeping vision of God's eternal purpose in Christ and the church. Chapters 1-3 are doctrinal (what God has done); chapters 4-6 are practical (how we should live).
Chapter 1 Overview: One of the richest chapters in Scripture. Verses 3-14 are a single sentence in Greek — a breathless doxology covering the work of the Father (vv.3-6), the Son (vv.7-12), and the Spirit (vv.13-14). Verses 15-23 are Paul's prayer for the Ephesians to understand what they have in Christ.
Classification: Epistle — Pauline, Prison Epistle
Key Themes: Blessing chosen before the foundation of the world, adoption and redemption, the mystery of all things gathered up in Christ, the Spirit given as a deposit, and power measured by the resurrection
Greeting, and a Textual Question (vv.1-2): “At Ephesus” is missing from the earliest manuscripts, which has long suggested a circular letter carried among the churches of Asia with the destination left open. The contents fit that reading: no individuals are greeted, no local dispute is addressed, and although Paul spent some three years in Ephesus he writes as though his readers know of him by report (3:2). The result is a letter about the church as such rather than about one congregation.
Chosen Before the Foundation of the World (vv.3-6): Verses 3-14 form a single sentence in Greek, an accumulating blessing rather than a chain of arguments. Election is dated before creation, and its stated purpose is character — “that we should be holy and without blame before him in love” — not status alone. Adoption follows, described as according to God's good pleasure, and the refrain arrives for the first of three times: “to the praise of the glory of his grace”.
Redemption Through His Blood (vv.7-8): Redemption and forgiveness are named together and grounded in blood rather than in decision, measured “according to the riches of his grace”. The verb in v.8 describes grace not merely supplied but lavished, abounding toward its recipients. The scale language matters in a letter that will shortly ask readers to grasp dimensions they cannot measure.
The Mystery Made Known: All Things Gathered Up (vv.9-10): The mystery is not information withheld but a plan now disclosed. “Gather together in one” renders a term used of summing a column of figures and bringing it to a single head, and its stated scope is everything in heaven and on earth. This is the widest horizon in the letter, and Paul states it before asking anything of anyone — the pattern of the whole epistle, three chapters of what is true before three of what to do.
An Inheritance Obtained, a Spirit Given as Deposit (vv.11-14): Jew and Gentile are set deliberately side by side: “we” who first trusted, and “ye also” who heard and believed. The Spirit is called the earnest of the inheritance, a commercial word for a down payment that legally commits the payer to the remainder. Sealing indicates ownership and security together. The long sentence closes with its refrain a third time, “unto the praise of his glory”.
Paul's Prayer: Eyes to See What Is Already True (vv.15-19): Having catalogued the blessings, Paul prays not for additions but for perception: a spirit of wisdom and revelation, “the eyes of your understanding being enlightened”, that they may know the hope, the riches of the inheritance, and the greatness of the power. Nothing requested is new. The prayer assumes the problem is not lack of provision but failure to recognize what has been given.
The Measure of the Power: Raised and Seated (vv.20-23): The power is quantified by an event rather than described in the abstract: the same working that raised Christ and seated Him above every name, in this age and the age to come. The chapter then ties that exalted position to the church, given to Him as a body and called “the fulness of him that filleth all in all”. Headship is exercised on the church's behalf, not merely over it, which is why the argument can move from cosmic authority to ordinary congregations without changing subject.

Map & Geography

  • Ephesus (v.1): Major city in Asia Minor (modern Turkey); location of a key early church.

Places on this map

  • Ephesusnear Selcuk, TurkeyThe largest port of Roman Asia, at the mouth of the Cayster on the west coast of Asia Minor, and home to the temple of Artemis. Its harbour silted up and the ruins now sit several miles inland, which is why a great seaport has no sea. Wikipedia
  • Asia MinorTurkeyThe peninsula between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, a high dry plateau ringed by mountains with the Greek cities on its western coast. Roman Asia, the province Paul worked from Ephesus, was only its western end. Wikipedia

Towns sit on their excavated or traditional site. Regions, rivers and seas are ringed rather than dotted, because for those a single point is only an anchor. Coastlines from Natural Earth.

Commentary

  • Enduring Word (David Guzik): enduringword.com Guzik provides thorough analysis of the Trinitarian doxology (vv.3-14), the blessings "in Christ," election, redemption, sealing, and Paul's prayer.
  • Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871): blueletterbible.org A critical and explanatory commentary on the whole Bible, more concise than Matthew Henry and closer to the Hebrew and Greek, with attention to historical and geographical detail. Public domain.
  • Matthew Henry's Exposition (1710): blueletterbible.org A devotional verse-by-verse commentary in the Puritan tradition, still among the most widely read three centuries on. Public domain.

Videos

Book of Ephesians Summary: A Complete Animated Overview
BibleProject

Ephesians 1 | In Christ | Bible Study
Spoken Gospel

Ephesians: The Bible Explained
Spoken Gospel

Ephesians 1 - The Work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in God's Eternal Plan
David Guzik

Articles

  • Crossway: crossway.org What this letter is preoccupied with that the others are not.
  • GotQuestions.org: gotquestions.org On the whole book: an overview of the book of Ephesians -- who wrote it, when, why, and how it fits the rest of Scripture.

Links open on the publisher's own site. Nothing here is reproduced on this page.

Reflection

  • Every Blessing Already Given (v.3) — Paul opens by declaring that God has already blessed believers with every spiritual blessing in Christ. How does it change your day to know you're working from blessing already given rather than toward blessing you still need to earn?
  • Chosen Before the World Began (v.4) — God's choice of His people predates creation itself, rooted in His purpose rather than anyone's performance. Does knowing your standing with God began before you existed bring you security, or does it raise questions you're still wrestling with?
  • Accepted in the Beloved (v.6) — Believers are accepted by God not on their own merit but because of their union with Christ. Where in your life do you still feel like you have to earn acceptance you've actually already been given?
  • Sealed as God's Own (v.13) — The Holy Spirit is described as a seal marking believers as God's possession and a guarantee of what's still to come. How does knowing you belong to God, sealed and secure, shape how you face uncertainty?
  • Praying to Actually Know It (vv.17-19) — Paul prays that believers would grasp, not just intellectually, the hope, riches, and power that are theirs in Christ. What would change in your daily life if that prayer were fully answered in you?