Father, we give you thanks for studying the Word of God and give you praise for the desire of your children to apply what they learn from reading this stabilizing letter which your son Paul wrote to characterize our relationship with your son Jesus. We give you praise!

Ephesus, A city of the Roman province of Asia, near the mouth of the Cayster River, 3 miles from the western coast of Asia Minor, and opposite the island of Samos, was a mixture of oriental and Greek culture, its harbor was favorably graced by God and provided the best of economic conditions for shipping and a host of other economic factors.

Ephesus and Pergamos, the capital of Asia, were the two great rival cities of the province. Though Pergamos was the center of the Roman religion and of the government, Ephesus was the more accessible, the commercial center and the home of the native goddess Diana; and because of its wealth and situation it gradually became the chief city of the province. It is to the temple of Diana, however, that its great wealth and prominence are largely due. Like the city, it dates from the time of the Amazons, yet what the early temple was like we now have no means of knowing. Of its history we know little excepting that it was seven times destroyed by fire and rebuilt, each time on a scale larger and grander than before.

The wealthy king Croesus supplied it with many of its stone columns, and the pilgrims from all the oriental world brought to it of their wealth. In time the temple possessed valuable lands; it controlled the fisheries; its priests were the bankers of its enormous revenues. The people stored their money for safe-keeping because of its strength; and it became to the ancient world practically all that the Bank of England is to the modern world.

Into this maelstrom of economic activity came the apostle Paul on his second missionary journey (Acts 18:19-21) when he first visited the city. Then, on his third journey (Acts 19:8-10; 20:31), he remained there for two years preaching in the synagogue (Acts 19:8, 10), in the school of Tyrannus (Acts 19:9) and in private houses (Acts 20:20).

Paul was probably not the first to bring Christianity to Ephesus, for Jews had long lived there (Acts 2:9; 6:9), he was the first to make progress against the worship of Diana. As these pilgrims carried the fame of his teachings to their distant homes, his influence extended to every part of Asia Minor. In time the pilgrims, with decreasing faith in Diana, came in fewer numbers; the sales of the shrines of the goddess fell off; Diana of the Ephesians was no longer great; a Christian church was founded there and flourished, and one of its first leaders was the apostle John. Finally in 262 AD, when the temple of Diana was again burned, its influence had so far departed that it was never again rebuilt. Diana was dead. Ephesus became a Christian city, and in 341 AD a council of the Christian church was held there.

Chapter 1

I. The believer's position in Christ. 1:1-3:21.

    A. Salutation. 1:1, 2.

    B. All spiritual blessings. 1:3-14.

        1. Chosen by the Father. 1:3-6.

        2. Redeemed by the Son. 1:7-12.

        3. Sealed by the Holy Spirit. 1:13, 14.

    C. Paul's first prayer. 1:15-23.

Ephesians 1:1-2 [KJV]

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:

This is commonly called the salutation of the letter that Paul uses in a number of his writings. When we read these words and see the deep truths that are within them it is an indicator of the wonderful ways that the Spirit of the Lord Jesus speak to us in the remainder of this letter. For instance, the word "by" in this first verse is unique to all of scripture According to AT Robertson’s A New Testament Greek Grammar in The Light of Historical Research. The word "by" means "to be so closely identified with the will of God as to be difficult to differentiate between the two" or in other words Paul was hidden behind the will of God.

Prepositions such as this are amazing indeed! As we study the basic theme of these two verses we find a vast treasure of truth stored into the tiniest of words.

Most scholars agree that there is internal evidence from the letter to the Ephesians and other portions of Scripture to suggest there was more than one letter to the Ephesians and that there was between Paul and the Ephesians a close camaraderie. These were his friends. His desire was to give them personal instruction about their place in Christ and their guidance on everyday life

Ephesians 1:2

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

What a wonderful connection here. It shows the identity of the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ in their very essence.

It is amazing how the Holy Spirit who inspired the apostle Paul to write the letter to the Ephesians even placed the words in order of importance "Grace" followed by peace, for truly how can we understand the peace which the Lord Jesus gives without first experiencing the grace or His unmerited favor?

Ephesians 1:3-6 [KJV]

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

4 According 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:

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

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

These four verses together form a rich orientation from which a kind of ecclesiastical hierarchy exists.

What a wonderful statement he uses to bring attention to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. In order to appreciate this set of verses as indeed all verses of Holy Scripture we should assume that every word from Scripture is full of the most wondrous treasure that could be contained in the Bible.

We have all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. We were chosen from the foundation of the world, that we should be holy. We are his adopted sons and daughters, we are accepted in the beloved. O such value we have in the kingdom of God. Talk about self-esteem, this is how God sees us, so do we need anyone else’s opinion?