Daily Bible Reading 1st September 2024 // Ephesians 1:1-10
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus:
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
It will be helpful at this point to look at the account in Acts of the founding of the church at Ephesus, to give us something of the flavour of the place and of the background to this epistle. There is a brief reference in Acts 18:19ff to a visit paid to Ephesus at the end of the second missionary journey, with the promise of an early return visit, recorded in Acts 19, which begins with the story of the twelve disciples who were clearly, in Paul's estimation, seriously lacking in authentic experience. It is enormously encouraging that these disciples were the first members of the church founded in that strategic city. There is hope for any of us, isn't there, in the light of how they ultimately shaped! That incident may well shed some light on the concern Paul shows that the believers in Ephesus might enter into the fullness of their inheritance in Christ. The sequence of teaching in the epistle bears this out, from the statement in 1:13, 14 about being sealed by the Spirit, then the prayer in 1:17ff, that the eyes of their understanding might be opened to know the immeasurable greatness of the power at work in their lives; then the statement in 2:22 about being 'an habitation of God through the Spirit'; then the prayer in 3:17 'that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith ... that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God' - and then in 5:18 'Be filled with the Spirit' as if to say 'Let that gracious indwelling be all it was meant by God to be'. Paul was determined to leave no stone unturned in establishing them on a true and solid foundation. He was a true pastor to his people.