1Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
To the saints in Ephesus,[1] the faithful[2] in Christ Jesus:
2Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Spiritual Blessings in Christ
3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he[3] predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will-- 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace 8that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. 9And he[4] made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment--to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
11In him we were also chosen,[5] having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession--to the praise of his glory.
We’re looking at verses 1-14 of chapter 1, in which Paul introduces himself, greets
the saints of God, and issues one of the most glorious praises found in all of
Scripture. We have the salutation and Paul’s single-sentence praise to God for
blessings in Christ, including election/predestination by the Father,
redemption/forgiveness by the Son, and preservation unto inheritance by the Spirit.
This “queen of the epistles” – the “king” is Romans – is a general letter, considered
by many to be circular, since “Ephesus” in v1 is missing from some early manuscripts.
It was written from prison – house arrest – in Rome, along with other letters, like
Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. Notably, v3-14 serve for us as a fabulous model
prayer. This prayer: (1) is Trinitarian; (2) is Father-focused; (3) is Christ-centered;
(4) is Spirit-appreciative; (5) is praise-oriented; (6) rejoices in God’s reign; and
(7) revels in God’s redeeming work. Let’s take a look.
- V1-2 - Paul begins by giving his apostolic authority to declare the truth within
this letter. He is an apostle of Christ Jesus, an office not granted to every minister
of the gospel (Ephesians 4:11). This has come about not by his own declaration or
appointment – for “no one takes this honor upon himself; he must be called by God”
(Hebrews 5:4) – but by the very will of God – as testified to by Paul’s (then Saul’s)
Damascus Road conversion experience, which is possibly the most clear illustration of
monergism in all of Scripture (Acts 9). As Ligon Duncan points out, “We must listen
to the message of Ephesians with an appropriate attention and humility, because this
message does not come to us from the ideas of man. This message does not come to us
from a private individual acting on his own. This message doesn’t even come to us
from someone who was a gifted teacher, or one of our missionary heroes. This message
comes to us, because God called and set apart and appointed Paul to bring this message
to us; and, therefore, when you hear Paul speaking in this letter, you are in fact
hearing the message of God Himself that God appointed Paul to bring to you.”
If this letter is specific to Ephesus, then it reads at stated, “to the saints
in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ;” however, if Ephesus is absent, as in some
early manuscripts, and the letter is general and circular, then Paul is writing
to “the saints, the believers who are faithful in Christ Jesus.” Either way, he
is defining for us what it means to be a saint. Being a saint and believing in
Christ, having faith in Jesus, are synonymous. So when the Roman Catholic Church
canonizes saints, it is discounting, even denying, what Paul is saying. If you
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you have faith in Him as He is presented
in the Bible, then you are saints. Paul is not the only one who makes this
declaration. See 1 Peter 2:9-12. We who believe in Jesus Christ are not
among those destined for stumbling over Him; rather, we are the chosen
ones of God, called to be holy. And so we, as strangers in the world,
must pursue holiness (distinctness) with nothing less than the whole
of our very lives, unto the glory of God. Paul says that the saints
are faithful, literally, full of faith. But it’s not a faith in faith,
or a faith in sincerity, or a faith in self. It’s a faith “in Christ Jesus.”
When Paul says “in Christ,” he has in mind “union with Christ;” he’s thinking
of the personal, saving union to Christ by grace through faith, which is a work
of the Holy Spirit. And it’s part of the Biblical definition of a Christian.
As is typical with Paul, his salutation includes a benediction, a blessing of
grace and peace from God “our” Father, and from “the Lord” Jesus Christ. It’s
not just a bunch of words; Paul means it. He wants his audience, the saints,
the faithful who believe in Christ, to have the grace and peace of God through
Christ. (You can’t have the peace of God apart from Christ!) Grace refers to
the undeserved favor of God despite our demerit; peace (shalom) is referring
to all the blessings of God, including but not limited to the end of hostility,
as we’ll read in Ephesians 2 that we once were alienated from God as His enemies,
spiritually dead in our sins. God has made us alive, reconciling us to Himself
through Jesus; and the result for us is objective peace – by grace. Peace means
that we experience complete wholeness and satisfaction no matter the circumstances
of life in this world; it’s not subjective. That’s what Paul wants for his audience,
and he’ll spend the rest of this passage cataloging the “peace” of God, the blessings
that we have from God in Christ, the fruits of God’s grace bestowed on us.
- V3-6 - In v3-14, Paul prays a doxology, filled with theology, in one lengthy
sentence in Greek. It’s a life-changing prayer. Calvin says of this prayer, “The
lofty terms in which [Paul] extols the grace of God toward the Ephesians, are
intended to rouse their hearts to gratitude, to set them all on flame, to fill
them even to overflowing with this thought. They who perceive in themselves
discoveries of the Divine goodness, so full and absolutely perfect, and who
make them the subject of earnest meditation, will never embrace new doctrines,
by which the very grace which they feel so powerfully in themselves is thrown
into the shade. The design of the apostle, therefore, in asserting the riches
of divine grace toward the Ephesians, was to protect them against having their
faith shaken by the false apostles, as if their calling were doubtful, or salvation
were to be sought in some other way.”
If we pray this prayer – using it as a model – with understanding, we will see ourselves in light of the holy God of the universe. “There is a God, and you are not Him.” The world doesn’t revolve around you; that’s the first thing we learn in understanding this life-altering prayer. It’s never bad to wonder how we live better lives in Christ. Life application is crucial, but it’s secondary to learning what Scripture teaches us about God. As we come to understand this life-changing prayer, we’ll also put God’s glory first in the prioritization of our lives. What about our lives? They’re important. What about facing trials or suffering or rejoicing in blessings? That’s important. What about being a better spouse and parent? What about worship and prayer? These are crucial things; and the Bible speaks to them. But this prayer of Paul teaches that those peripheral concerns are penultimate. God’s glory is ultimate. Finally, praying this prayer of praise with understanding reorients our lives in the sense that we will not only see God as holy and ourselves as sinners falling short of His glory in that light, we will not only see God’s glory as ultimate, but we will also desire, appreciate, and delight in God’s glory in all things. Our purpose will be ever before us. Satan wants to convince us that God is not worth living for, but this prayer keeps us on track. We see God for who He is, the Triune, eternal, and mighty God. We see His glory as His goal. And we come to desire and delight in His glory, living to praise His grace and His amazing love.
This passage is quite difficult to translate into English because of its lengthy interwoven structure, as your numerous footnotes may reveal, but Paul focuses on the Father’s election and predestination in eternity past, the Son’s redemption and forgiveness in the present, and the Spirit’s present application of redemption, which is a guarantee of inheritance and glory in the future. We’ll do our best to work through it bit by bit all the while keeping in mind the entire context, which is a prayer of praise to God for blessings all of the saints – “we” – receive in Christ. We’ll look first at v3-4, in which Paul, according to Ligon Duncan, calls us to seven things: first, to bless God; second, to bless God as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; third, to praise God as the source of every blessing we receive by the Holy Spirit; fourth, to realize that we are recipients of every spiritual blessing; fifth, to realize that every spiritual blessing comes only in Christ; sixth, to understand that God has blessed us in Christ before creation; and seventh, to realize that God chose us so that we would be holy before His face. That’s v3-4. Let’s look.
Paul begins by praising God. He is speaking of God as the highest good. Some consider pleasure to be the highest good. Others consider wealth to be the goal. Paul says that God is the greatest. In Him resides the most blessedness, and we respond to that understanding by living for His glory, worshipping Him with our entire being, all day every day. The Westminster Shorter Catechism begins with this question and answer: “What is the chief end of man?” “To glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.” Notice that Paul praises the Father specifically for His blessings toward those of us in Christ through Christ (v3). Let those words sink in. In the same statement, Paul uses the phrases “with every spiritual blessing” and “in the heavenly places.” The first phrase makes a radical claim – that Christians already have every spiritual blessing, that is to say, “Through the fullness of the indwelling Holy Spirit, we who have been made alive in and united with Christ by grace through faith possess the very fullness of God and have been possessed by God Himself.” Consider that! The second phrase, which occurs six times in this letter, refers to the complete and full extent of glory and exaltation. Amazingly, we have already been seated there, as in Ephesians 2:6. Paul wants us to see God as Father, and the ideal father is one who blesses. God, our Father, is also the Father of our Savior, Jesus Christ. And it is God His Father, who blesses both Him and us through the Holy Spirit by exalting us in union with Christ by grace through faith – unto His own glory and the glory of His Son.
In v4, Paul first praises God the Father for having chosen us – that is, those in Christ – in Him – that is, “in Christ” – before the creation of the world. In other words, God chose us to be in Christ; He did not foresee those would be in Christ and then choose them (see 1 Corinthians 1:26-31; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Timothy 1:9; Deuteronomy 7:7-8; Romans 9:16; Revelation 13:8). Humanity did not choose to be in Adam, though we are (1 Corinthians 15:22; Romans 5:12-21); neither does any human choose to be in Christ, yet God places us in Him (1 Corinthians 1:27-30). Paul is talking about the doctrine of election as a reason for praising God, whereas election is often something Christians argue about and divide over. That should not be! Why does God bless us? Because He has chosen us! In other words, we can look back at our conversion and praise God, for our conversion – if genuine – can be attributed only to God’s pre-creation election of us to come to faith in Christ. We would not have experienced conversion to faith in Christ had God not chosen us before creation; and furthermore, none that God chose before creation will fail to come to faith in Christ in His time. This is a high doctrine, a teaching that must be carefully explained and not taken lightly. But simply put, we all must praise God that we believe the Gospel. There is no room in Christianity for a faith wrought by a sinner. The faith you have is indeed your faith; but you did not conjure it up. Rather God bestowed it upon you, and your perseverant exercise of that faith in no less by grace than the bestowing of it in the first place. Paul’s point is that Christians are the objects of an eternal choice. What great assurance of salvation and the gracious mercy of God this doctrine of election provides!
So often this doctrine is explained that God gets a vote, Satan gets a vote, and you cast the deciding ballot – that’s election. That’s wrong; it’s never taught anywhere in the Bible. But, even if it were right, it’s not what Paul is talking about here. He’s not talking about an election, a choice that you make; he’s talking about an election that God makes – a choice that God makes from before the foundation of the world, so it can’t be based on anything that you have done. Paul does not explain why God chose “us” and not others, but more importantly, he does disclose the immediate, though not the chief, purpose of God’s choice – that we who are chosen would be “holy and blameless in His sight [in love].” The order here is vital (Romans 8:29-30). God does not choose us because we are holy; He chooses us in order that we would be holy. We are blessed by God to be holy; we do not pursue holiness in order to be blessed by God. We are chosen to, towards, unto holiness, not chosen because of our holiness, and that difference makes all the difference in the world. If your pursuit of holiness in the Christian life is to get God to love you, to be assured of God’s love for you, then you’ll never proceed far in the pursuit of holiness or in the security and assurance of the Christian life. However, realizing that God has not chosen you because of your holiness but because of His love in Jesus Christ, if your pursuit of godliness is based on the realization that God has made you for holiness and that He delights in His glory displayed in your holiness, it will make all the difference in the world when it comes to security and assurance in the Christian life.
From Paul’s language, we can say that God’s choice was out of love. Being one long sentence, it’s hard to tell what Paul intends to modify with his clauses. “In love” could go with either or both the preceding or subsequent thought; the later thought seems more likely, given the language of Ephesians 2:1-5. His loving choice was so that we would be sanctified – set apart, holy and made pure, or blameless. Since God’s choice was made before creation, we conclude that His foreknowledge was complete, for there would be no need to choose some to be holy and blameless apart from the fall of mankind. We can also proceed from this understanding that God mysteriously purposed the fall of man (v11) unto His desired end – the praise of His glory (v12, v14). Calvin points out three causes for our salvation from v3-6: “The efficient cause is the good pleasure of the will of God, the material cause is Jesus Christ, and the final cause is the praise of the glory of His grace.”
In v5, Paul elaborates on the praise of God for His electing grace (v6) by saying that, in love, “we” – “us saints” – were predestined by the Father “to be adopted as sons.” Paul doesn’t write, “as sons and daughters,” because in that culture, only adopted sons were treated as sons; adopted daughters really were more like slaves. They had no rights. But adopted sons would be full heirs. And so Paul says that whether you’re a son or a daughter in Christ, you’re predestined “to be adopted as sons.” Through Jesus Christ, the natural Son, you’re a full heir with all His privileges. There is no contradiction between predestination and the exercise of faith. And once again, there would be no need for this adoption apart from the fall; thus the pre-creation election and predestination of God applied to certain individuals must be explained in light of God’s overarching, albeit sometimes mysterious (v9), good desire. And, wouldn’t you know it, that’s exactly what Paul says – that God’s predestining the saints to be adopted as sons through faith in Jesus is indeed according to His “pleasure and will.” Again, Paul does not explain why God predestined “us” to be adopted and not others, but more importantly, he does reveal God’s chief reason for predestination – to exalt His glorious grace. We saw that holiness was the immediate purpose of election; and now we learn that God’s glory is the ultimate purpose of predestination.
Calvin offers an analogy: “The design of building is, that there should be a house. This is the immediate design, but the convenience of dwelling in it is the ultimate design… The glory of God is the highest end, to which our sanctification is subordinate.” Vincent Cheung says, “The doctrine of predestination is indeed controversial, not because Scripture is unclear or that there are good arguments on all sides, but it is controversial chiefly because sinful man, taught by Satan, demands salvation from God and yet refuses to give him all the glory. Instead, he reserves a determinative role for himself, asserting that God makes salvation at best possible, but actual for no one until the person permits God to save him.”
In v6, on which Paul will expound in Ephesians 2:1-10, we learn more about God’s pleasure and will. God pleasure is the praise of His glorious grace. God’s unchanging eternal will, pre-creation throughout eternity, is that His glorious grace would be praised. How amazing! Paul adds to that rather abstract thought an even more amazing concrete reality: God has given “us” His glorious grace “in the One He loves” – Jesus Christ. God’s grace is freely given though expensively bought. In paying the penalty for sin, Jesus did not get the Father to love you; rather, His paying the penalty for sin was because the Father loves you. The doctrine of predestination helps us understand that and praise God for that. We don’t just marvel at the eternal plan and purpose and pleasure and will of God; we experience His grace and praise Him for it. Of course, no praising of grace, and no grace of measure, would exist apart from purposed sin and forgiveness and predestined grace and redemption. And so that’s what Paul turns to next.
- V7-10 - Paul continues to praise God the Father in v7, for in Christ “we have redemption through His blood.” Paul is praising God the Father for His eternal plan and purpose, for His most costly grace, which included the redemptive work, the life, death, burial, and resurrection, of His Son, Jesus Christ. Praise God for redemption in Christ. Now redemption is essentially defined here as “the forgiveness of sins” – Calvin says, “We are redeemed, because our sins are not imputed to us” – but Paul has in mind a deliverance by paying a ransom. William Barclay, in The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians, Revised Edition (Westminster John Knox Press, 1976, pg. 81), says redemption “is the delivering of a man from a situation from which he was powerless to liberate himself or from a penalty which he himself could never have paid.” This costly grace, this redemption, the forgiveness of sins, came freely to the called “through His blood” – the blood of Christ (Leviticus 17:11; Hebrews 9:22, 10:4) – “in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us.” We didn’t have to pay for it; we couldn’t have. The message of praise to God here is all about the riches of His glorious grace (v11-12) lavished (overflowing) on us bought by Jesus’ blood.
Paul goes on in v8-9 to say that in His infinite wisdom (philosophical / theological knowledge) and understanding (practical application of the knowledge), God the Father has made known to the saints the mystery of His will; God’s revelation, bestowed to His people in superabundant grace, is sufficient for a correct (Biblical) worldview. As the Holy Spirit instructs us from within on the Scriptures, we are thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:17). Paul is talking here about our calling, which follows foreknowledge and predestination (election) in the golden chain of salvation (Romans 8:29-30).
For Paul, a mystery is simply something revealed that was once concealed, and he will elaborate on this concept in Ephesians 2-3. Paul tells us in Romans 1:18-32 that all men know that there is a God; all men know that that God is to be worshiped; all men know something of the attributes of God; all men know that God has a right and a wrong, and that He will judge the wrong and He will reward the right. But Paul also tells us here that not everyone knows the fullness of God’s redeeming plan. That is something that God in His grace and mercy has revealed in the gospel, and as Paul proclaims the gospel, it falls upon ears that could not have understood it apart from the grace of God in announcing it and making it known (the doctrine of calling). Understanding salvation is a blessing, to see the truth of God’s redeeming plan revealed in the gospel, learned through the Holy Spirit. Vincent Cheung says, “Faith is not something by which you obtain the benefits of the atonement, but faith is something by which God applies the benefits of the atonement to you.”
One aspect of the mystery of God’s will revealed in this letter to the Ephesians is that process of salvation; another is that the Gentiles are being welcomed into God’s family along with believing Jews. The revealed mystery here in v10, according to Paul, is God’s grand purpose to bring all things under the headship of Christ, that God’s wisdom, understanding, will, purpose, and pleasure find their unison in making Jesus Christ the head of all things in heaven and on earth. This will “be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment.” God, in His good and kind purposes, which must be all the answer we require when confounded by these high doctrinal truths, has brought His saving plan to pass at just the right time, at just the right place, in just the right way (Galatians 4:4; Hebrews 9:15). The battle was won with Jesus’ death and subsequent resurrection (Christus Victor), and so there is an already sense of Christ’s kingdom; but the not-yet sense of His kingdom (“Thy Kingdom Come”) will commence with His return in glory (see Galatians 4:4; Colossians 1:15-20; Acts 2:32-36). It is a grace to know that no matter what is going on in your life in any of its circumstances, the grand purpose of God is the exaltation of Jesus Christ, and the bringing of all things under His rule and under His headship. That truth is life re-orienting. For His glory, God is bringing this whole universe under the orderly and perfect, eternal rule of Jesus Christ. Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus!
- V11-12 - Remember we’re still in the midst of this single sentence of praise from Paul, but here he gets repetitive. Perhaps he’s summarizing, but he’s still in the same sentence. Paul again states our having been chosen as heirs, our having been predestined just as God had planned in eternity-past. And again Paul states that the reason for God’s pre-creation electing and predestining us – to praise His glory. There’s a blessing (we are God’s possession of inheritance), the method of receiving the blessing (we are chosen, having been predestined by God), and the reason for being granted the blessing (to the praise of God’s glory). In every blessing of God, there is both delight and duty. We take joy in the blessing, but we are obligated to use it wisely. To whom much is given, much is required; those who have been forgiven much love much (Luke 7:47).
V11 begins with, “In Him.” Paul will never allow his readers to forget that the promises of God find their “yes” in Christ alone. Paul talks about election and predestination, but those high doctrinal truths do not exclude faith in Christ. Faith is essential to Christianity. Not only have we obtained the other things that Paul has mentioned thus far – every spiritual blessing, everlasting love, adoption, predestined unto holiness, but we have also obtained, or become, an inheritance. Translators and commentators struggle with Paul’s language and order here. There’s no doubt that “we” were chosen by God; there’s no doubt that we are God’s possession; there’s no doubt that we receive an inheritance; and there’s no doubt that we have been made God’s inheritance. All of that is conveyed in Paul’s language, though there is some confusion as far as best recording it in English – keep in mind that v3-14 is one lengthy sentence for Paul. David Wells sums up Paul’s thought here, “It is the inextinguishable knowledge of being owned by the transcendent God that forms our character, and His ownership challenges every other contender, so that we know that we belong to God, and that changes everything.” There’s delight and duty in this blessing.
Next, we see the method of becoming, or obtaining, this blessing. How did you become the inheritance of God? By God’s will; God chose you. You didn’t become the inheritance of God by chance or by your own choice; you became the inheritance of God by His choice, His will (John 1:12-13). Some argue that His unconditioned choice must be arbitrary and thus, unjust. But there is no injustice with God (Romans 9:6-24). Note the importance of v11b. Paul says that God works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will. Calvin says, “The circumlocution employed in describing the Supreme Being deserves attention. [Paul] speaks of Him as the sole agent, and as doing everything according to His own will, so as to leave nothing to be done by man. In no respect, therefore, are men admitted to share in this praise, as if they brought anything of their own. God looks at nothing out of Himself to move Him to elect them, for the counsel of His own will is the only and actual cause of their election. This may enable us to refute the error, or rather the madness, of those who, whenever they are unable to discover the reason of God’s works, exclaim loudly against His design.” Do you find fault with any of chapter 3 of the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646):
- “God from all eternity, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of His own will, freely, and unchangeably ordain whatsoever comes to pass; yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin, nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures; nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established.”
- “Although God knows whatsoever may or can come to pass upon all supposed conditions; yet has He not decreed anything because He foresaw it as future, or as that which would come to pass upon such conditions.”
- “By the decree of God, for the manifestation of His glory, some men and angels are predestinated unto everlasting life; and others foreordained to everlasting death.”
- “These angels and men, thus predestinated, and foreordained, are particularly and unchangeably designed, and their number so certain and definite, that it cannot be either increased or diminished.”
- “Those of mankind that are predestinated unto life, God, before the foundation of the world was laid, according to His eternal and immutable purpose, and the secret counsel and good pleasure of His will, has chosen, in Christ, unto everlasting glory, out of His mere free grace and love, without any foresight of faith, or good works, or perseverance in either of them, or any other thing in the creature, as conditions, or causes moving Him thereunto; and all to the praise of His glorious grace.”
- “As God has appointed the elect unto glory, so has He, by the eternal and most free purpose of His will, foreordained all the means thereunto. Wherefore, they who are elected, being fallen in Adam, are redeemed by Christ, are effectually called unto faith in Christ by His Spirit working in due season, are justified, adopted, sanctified, and kept by His power, through faith, unto salvation. Neither are any other redeemed by Christ, effectually called, justified, adopted, sanctified, and saved, but the elect only.”
- “The rest of mankind God was pleased, according to the unsearchable counsel of His own will, whereby He extends or withholds mercy, as He pleases, for the glory of His sovereign power over His creatures, to pass by; and to ordain them to dishonor and wrath for their sin, to the praised of His glorious justice.”
- “The doctrine of this high mystery of predestination is to be handled with special prudence and care, that men, attending the will of God revealed in His Word, and yielding obedience thereunto, may, from the certainty of their effectual vocation, be assured of their eternal election. So shall this doctrine afford matter of praise, reverence, and admiration of God; and of humility, diligence, and abundant consolation to all that sincerely obey the Gospel.”
Paul has revealed the blessing, the method of obtaining, or becoming, the blessing, and now, as v12 declares, he shows the reason for having been granted the blessing. God ordains everything ultimately for His own glory – specifically that we, who were the first to hope in Christ (Jews), might praise His goodness. Could it be that the Jews will praise God for in-grafting Gentiles into His body? Paul will elaborate in Ephesians 2:11-22 and Ephesians 3:2-6. See also Romans 9-11.
Vincent Cheung paraphrases: “The mystery of His will is that He will sum up all things under Christ. When it comes to His people, He has predestined some of us Jews to first believe in Christ, but He has predestined some of you Gentiles to also believe in Christ and be saved. By giving us faith in the same gospel, God has placed you Gentile believers ‘in Christ’ in the same way that He has for us Jewish believers.” You may be familiar with this prayer of praise: “Glory be to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and evermore shall be, world without end. Amen!” Revelation 5:13 says, “Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: ‘To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!’” Why are we saved? It is good in God’s sight.
- V13-14 - According to Ligon Duncan, one of the paradoxes of the Christian life is that “it is not until God is at the center that we experience true exaltation, for until we become last we are not in the position to be exalted with Jesus Christ; until we are humbled, we cannot be raised. And it is when God is at the center, when God is at the center of life, that we are best off, and our deepest and realest needs are most attended to.” We learn that reality throughout this prayer of praise. Paul has been praising God the Father for all kinds of spiritual blessings in Christ. He’s been using “us” and “we,” speaking primarily of “first-fruits” Christians (“we who were the first to hope in Christ”), including mostly Jewish believers, as the beneficiaries of these blessings. But knowing that the gospel is for all generations of believers, both Jews and Gentiles, Paul switches to “you.” The churches of Asia Minor, including at Ephesus, were a mixed bunch of people, of whom many were new to the faith, compared to the apostles and “first-fruits” Christians. So Paul’s message, first to the Jew and then to the Gentile, is that newer believers (mostly Gentiles) are saved in the same way regarding foreknowledge, predestination (election), and calling, and are now every bit as complete in Christ, thanks to the indwelling Holy Spirit, as “first-fruits” believers (mostly Jews).
Paul will elaborate in Ephesians 2-3. But for now, he is detailing the blessings that are bestowed to every one of God’s chosen people. It’s as if he says, “You were also included in everything that I just said about the blessings of God the moment you heard the gospel and believed it.” Paul is effectively saying that election and predestination have no impact on a person until they hear the gospel, because it is a blessing of God to be able to hear the truth – not only to simply hear it audibly, but also to hear it with understanding (calling). Jesus, in the Parable of The Sower (The Four Soils), makes it clear that not everyone who comes in contact with the word of God really hears it and understands it and embraces it. Paul is saying that his audience, thanks to God’s grace, really heard the gospel. If you stop the sentence after hearing, you’d think that was enough. “You were included when you heard.” But Paul doesn’t start or stop there with “hearing.”
Remember, it’s one long sentence. And Paul is really saying that hoping (from v12) and hearing with understanding (from v13) and believing (from v13) go hand in hand. No one hears with understanding and fails to believe (Hebrews 6:4-12). Thus, Paul says, “Having believed, you were marked with a seal.” The gospel must be heard with understanding and believed to affect its audience. Being “elect” is insignificant until you come to faith; being “predestined” is worthless until you are a believer in Christ. The Holy Spirit’s calling (regeneration) is what unites these critical aspects of the golden chain of salvation. No one can claim the benefits of election and predestination apart from faith in Christ. But once you believed, then election and predestination reveal a truth that is meant to be humbling and glorious. You walked through the doorway – Christ – by hearing and believing the gospel of your salvation, and when you turned around, you saw on the doorpost a sign that said God chose you to walk through that doorway from before creation. That sign, that understanding, gives new meaning to the word “love.” Paul is saying, “You, new believer, Gentile believer, are every bit a child of God as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, and even Jesus Himself. God gave you His Spirit to prove it, as a down-payment to guarantee your inheritance.” By placing His seal – the Holy Spirit – on us, or in us, God is claiming ownership of us. No one can tamper with God’s seal; He’ll protect us until the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30; 1 Corinthians 1:21-22, 5:5; 2 Corinthians 1:21-22).
Next, notice that Paul specifies the means of coming to faith as “the word of truth” and “the gospel of your salvation.” Satan wants us to doubt or despise the word of God, and Paul speaks to both of those errors. First the word of God is true; we don’t doubt it. Unbelievers sadly, according to 2 Timothy 3:7, are “always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.” Second the word of God is unto our salvation; we certainly don’t despise it (Romans 1:16). We rejoice in the gospel as Horatio Spafford did in 1873 when he wrote these lyrics sailing over the spot in the Atlantic where his four daughters had drowned just a week earlier, “My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought! / My sin, not in part but the whole / Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more / Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!”
Regeneration and faith meet through the promised Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 6:16-18), who calls us and is given to us as a deposit, as a seal of guarantee. Calvin notes, “Seals, which among men have the effect of removing doubt, …give validity both to charters and to testaments; anciently, they were the principal means by which the writer of a letter could be known; and, in short, a seal distinguishes what is true and certain, from what is false and spurious.” The Holy Spirit, promised to the Gentiles in the Jewish sacred text – our Old Testament – is like a brand that God places on all of His children, the wheat that grows up with the chaff. The Holy Spirit is a confirmation of the promise of God to bring you to new life, eternal life, a life in the presence of God, saved from His wrath, and a life of inheritance as a co-heir with Christ of all things.
The Holy Spirit is in you – if you trust Christ with genuine saving faith. He is your guarantee. If you don’t have Him – if He doesn’t have you (we are “God’s possession;” see Exodus 19:5-6; Deuteronomy 7:6; 2 Timothy 2:19; 1 Peter 2:8-10) – there’s no guarantee of salvation or inheritance. To realize that we belong to God, that we are God’s special possession, ought to change the way that we approach life. Calvin says, “The true conviction which believers have of the word of God, of their own salvation, and of religion in general, does not spring from the judgment of the flesh, or from human and philosophical arguments, but from the sealing of the Spirit, who imparts to their consciences such certainty as to remove all doubt. The foundation of faith would be frail and unsteady, if it rested on human wisdom; and therefore, as preaching is the instrument of faith, so the Holy Spirit makes preaching efficacious.” When we thank God for His blessings toward us, the gift of the Holy Spirit ought to top the list; He is the deposit of glory as we wait for the redemption spoken of earlier – to the praise of the glory of God.
Calvin concludes, “The glory of God may sometimes be concealed, or imperfectly exhibited. But in the Ephesians God had given proofs of His goodness, that His glory might be celebrated and openly proclaimed… The frequent mention of the glory of God ought not to be regarded as superfluous, for what is infinite cannot be too strongly expressed. This is particularly true in commendations of the Divine mercy, for which every godly person will always feel himself unable to find adequate language. He will be more ready to utter, than other men will be to hear, the expression of praise; for the eloquence both of men and angels, after being strained to the utmost, falls immeasurably below the vastness of this subject. We may likewise observe, that there is not a more effectual method of shutting the mouths of wicked men, than by showing that our views tend to illustrate, and theirs to obscure, the glory of God.”
Thanksgiving and Prayer
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. 17I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit[6] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like 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 title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
We’re looking at verses 15-23 of chapter 1, in which Paul extends his prayer of praise from v3-14 to intercession. Paul prays to God for what he would have God do in the lives of God’s people. Interestingly, much of this prayer is a prayer that God would bring about in us a realization of the things that we have just praised Him for in verses 3-14. In other words, Paul prays that God, by His Holy Spirit, would give us an experiential understanding of the truths for which we praise God in our own lives. To consider that this composition is merely a general letter, written from prison – house arrest – in Rome, along with other letters, like Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon, makes it all the more meaningful. Let’s take a look.
- V15-17 - Though Paul was in Ephesus for over two years, he is writing some five to seven years later. Perhaps much has changed. No doubt the church had grown. The circular intent of this letter may be clearly seen in Paul’s wording in v15. He tells his audience that he is thankful for them on account of their faith and love – “generally the whole excellence of Christian character,” according to Calvin. Ligon Duncan says, “By faith, the Apostle Paul refers to both believing the truth of God’s word and trusting in the person of Jesus Christ, and those two things always come together. Saving faith always entails believing the truth of God’s word and trusting in the person of Jesus Christ.”
In v16, Paul implies that he is thankful to God – not to them – for their faith and love. Paul sees faith and love; he’s encouraged by it, but he gives all the praise to God. We are to do the same. When I read this, I see Paul in a great light, but I see myself as faithfulnessless. I lack faithfulness. I have stopped giving thanks for you; I have not remembered you in my prayers. I have not done what Paul does here. How can I live the Christian life without striving for the life that Paul lived? He says to imitate him. But I do not.
In v17, Paul asks God to bless His people with wisdom and revelation (see 1 Corinthians 2:10), specifically “the Spirit [or a spirit] of wisdom of revelation.” Christians know God; He has revealed Himself to them in a special way already. Christians have the Holy Spirit; He indwells their hearts and leads them in this life of transition. Paul knows that one of the crucial works of the Holy Spirit is to bring the truth of God’s word to our hearts; therefore, even as we have just praised God for who He is and what He has done for us in v3-14, now Paul wants the Holy Spirit to bring that truth to our hearts. Those who know God need to know Him better; those who have the Spirit need to be refilled constantly (due to leakiness).
Paul is asking God to grant his readers the intellectual quality of wisdom and revelation, or as he puts it in Colossians 1:9, “spiritual wisdom and understanding.” Thus some translations say, “a spirit,” rather than “the Spirit.” Such wisdom, of course, is the result of the Holy Spirit’s work in the human mind, so either translation fits. One commentator said, “What Paul is praying for is that God might so work in the lives of the Ephesian saints that they will have the spiritual wisdom and a revelation from Him that is the result of the Holy Spirit’s work of energizing their human spirit. That spiritual disposition should characterize these saints.” Ligon Duncan says, “Increase in the knowledge of God, experiential understanding of who God is and what He has done for us, is the key to maturity in the Christian life.”
Vincent Cheung says, “The foundation of such a request can be nothing other than God’s absolute sovereignty over all things. Within the biblical worldview, to pray for wisdom and enlightenment presupposes God’s direct contact with and control over the mind of man. Biblical teaching opposes any idea that God would exercise absolute control over all things but at the same time allow the human mind to control itself by its own free will, as if this is even metaphysically possible... Paul’s priority is intellectual, and his prayer reflects this. A Christian properly operates by intellectual understanding of revealed information. In other words, a Christian should strive to understand and remember biblical doctrines, and then obey them and live by them. A Christian lives and grows by knowledge, and knowledge about the things of God. When Paul prays that his readers would receive spiritual wisdom, that they would receive an intellectual acuity about spiritual things, he is in effect praying that God would open to them the way to real and sustained spiritual blessing and progress.” I read an exposition of 2 Peter 1:3-11 in this context the other day:
3His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. 4Through these He has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 5For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins [the Gospel]. 10Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, 11and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Keeping the gospel ever before our mind’s eyes is the key to living the Christian life. That’s why Paul asks the glorious Father to give his Christian audience the Spirit [or a spirit] of wisdom and revelation, that they might know God better. How do you pray for one another? Do you thank God when you see faith and love displayed in the lives of your fellow Christians? And do you intercede for your brothers and sisters in your local congregation, that they would come to know God in greater and deeper ways? It was Paul’s concern. He thanks God for the spiritual blessings that have been heaped on everyone who is in Jesus Christ, and then he turns around and he asks for all those who truly know God, that they would know Him even better. Paul begins his prayer of intercession with thanksgiving – for the faith and the “faith expressing itself through love” (Galatians 5:6) of the Christian congregations of Asia Minor – and supplication – asking God to give those same Christian congregations “the Spirit [or a spirit] of wisdom and revelation.” He is thankful to God, and he asks for wisdom and revelation so that the Christians of Asia Minor would know God better.
- V18-19a - Paul asks for enlightened heart-eyes. It’s not “open” their eyes, but “enlighten” their eyes. Why? Ligon Duncan says, “The eyes are the vehicle, the instrument, through which the desires of our hearts are manifested. We look upon something and we desire it. The desire comes from our hearts, but it’s expressed even in our seeing, so that Jesus can say ‘What your eyes desire tells you a lot about your heart.’.” He goes on to recall the story of Samson:
“After Samson forsakes the Lord, after he betrays his faithfulness to the Lord, he explains his secret to Delilah, she betrays him into the hands of his enemies, the Philistines… What does the Lord have his enemies do to him? Put his eyes out. His eyes had almost been his undoing. He could not resist a beautiful woman. So what does the Lord do? The Lord takes his eyes, because the Lord loves Samson so much. Samson’s eyes could have taken him to hell, and the Lord in His love for him takes Samson’s eyes from him so that in the end, what happens? The eyes of Samson’s heart, instead of being set on these beautiful women, is set again on glorifying God, so that at the last he can say, ‘Show me the pillars of this temple, and Lord, give me the strength to bring it down on Your enemies so that You will be glorified, so that the children of Israel will be glorified. I want Your glory, God.’ … Paul is praying here for us that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened in this way; that we would know God, that we would know His truth, and that we would desire God and that truth above all the false offerings of this world; that we would not be swayed to love mammon; that we would not be swayed to love the world, and the flesh, and the devil; that we would have our hearts set on God. And so he’s saying, ‘Lord God, give them heart enlightenment. Let the deep desires of their hearts be set on You, on Your truth. Make them to have passion for You, long for You; for their hearts to love You above all else; with all their heart and soul and mind and strength to want Your glory; give them heart enlightenment. That’s what Paul is praying for the Ephesians, and that’s what we need to be praying for one another, friends.”
One of the Holy Spirit’s works is to give you an enlightenment of the “eyes of your heart,” so that your heart understands and desires God, His grace, and His blessings beyond anything else in this world. The heart of man is the mind of man. There is no mind/heart distinction (see Colossians 3:1-2); accordingly, the translation could also read, “I pray also that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened.” Therefore, “the eyes of your heart” is just another way of saying, “the understanding of your mind.” Paul is thus praying for his readers to receive an intellectual understanding about spiritual things. Therefore, we do not just pray “open my eyes,” but we pray, “Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in Your law” (Psalm 119:18). Today there are many people who claim that they want to “know God,” but they are unwilling to use the God-ordained means to get to know Him, since many of them are really seeking feelings and experiences instead of real spiritual knowledge. Vincent Cheung suggests, “If a person truly wants to know God better, let him take up a systematic theology or a biblical commentary, and read it with prayer.”
Specifically, Paul wants us to be enlightened for three reasons: first, that we would know the hope to which God has called us; second, that we would know the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints; and third, that we would know His incomparably great power for us who believe. Ligon Duncan says, “To live the Christian life, we need a heart that knows God and is set on God, a heart which is comforted by a God-provided hope, a heart which is captivated by God-provided riches, and a heart which is confident in God-provided power.” Let’s break down those three elements of knowledge.
First is hope. Paul knows that there are hopeless people in this world, but he also knows that Christians ought to realize that they are filled with hope. No Christian need ever be in a hopeless circumstance, because God by His Holy Spirit grounds us in the hope of our calling. God has called us from darkness to light, from bondage to freedom, and from the dominion of Satan into the glorious dominion of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is every reason for us in that calling to be hopeful in this world. Christians are the called ones; we have a role in this world. And so we – now united to Christ – are never to be without hope, like we were before coming to faith (Ephesians 2:12). And we ought to be praying for our brothers and sisters in Christ would know the hope of their calling (Ephesians 4:4) through the enlightenment of the eyes of their hearts by the Holy Spirit.
Second is the riches of inheritance. Now this could be understood two different ways. It could be that we are God’s inheritance. Christians are His treasured possessions for all eternity. He gave everything to buy us; we are like His pearl of great price, His treasure in the field, and His lost coin that is found. And doesn’t that make you feel blessed, that God would think of us this way? Who am I that the Lord of all the earth would care to know my name? Who am I to be loved this way? Amazing love! How can it be that God my King would die for me? Paul could be talking about this, that we are God’s inheritance. Or it could be that Paul is talking about our inheritance of God’s abundant riches. Either way, Paul wants us to see that we have been lavished with mercy and grace and riches from God beyond all comparison. We are God’s inheritance, and God has granted us a rich inheritance in Jesus Christ, but we won’t experience the fullness of that until kingdom come in all its glory. Ligon Duncan again recalls Samson, saying, “As Samson almost got himself eternally killed through his eyes’ desiring the things of this world, so we as believers can get ourselves messed up by desiring the things of this world. And here’s the Apostle Paul saying ‘I want the eyes of your heart to see the riches that God gives, which cannot be corrupted by moth and rust, which cannot be stolen by a thief, which cannot be destroyed by a storm. I want your eyes fixed on those riches, desiring those riches.’” Do you pray that prayer for your brothers and sisters in Christ? Paul did; and we should.
Third is the great power of God. Paul wants the eyes of our heart (our mind) to be enlightened to know the incomparable power of God. We live in a world full of sorrow and tribulation, but it’s the power of God that is at work within us, and Paul is saying that the same power at work in us for our sanctification is what raised Jesus Christ from the dead and seated Him at the right hand of God the Father. It’s a prayer for perseverance that is encouraging us. When we see and feel our weaknesses, Paul is saying, ‘You may find it hard to believe, but it is the same power of God that raised Jesus from the dead that is at work in you making you more like Christ. When you despair that you’ll never be like Christ, I want the eyes of your heart to be enlightened to know that it is the power that raised Christ from the dead that is conforming you to the image of God’s Son. This is what I pray for you, loved ones.’ Our lives, as believers, would be reoriented if we prayed for one another this way and if we understood and desired these things for ourselves.
See Jeremiah 9:24. God grants what He commands, just as Augustine declared long ago in his prayer, which was offensive to Pelagius. God commands us to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and here, Paul prays that God would make that command be obeyed through the Holy Spirit. My prayer is this: O Lord, you command repentance from sin and faith in Jesus; grant what You command. Bring repentance from sin into my life and the lives of my family members; bestow saving faith, fruitful faith, into our hearts and minds and souls. Help us to love and serve You with all our strength – in Your strength, and for Your glory. Grant us what You command. Amen.
In this portion of Paul’s prayer, he’s wanting the very core of our being – our heart’s eyes (our minds) – to be enlightened, to come to a deeper knowledge of God and to desire Him will all that we are. J.I. Packer wrote Knowing God, and John Piper wrote Desiring God. Those books sum up and elaborate on what Paul prays in these two short verses of Ephesians.
- V19b-23 - Paul begins now to exalt Christ in this prayer for God’s people. (See Colossians 1:18 regarding the eternal and complete supremacy of Christ over all things.) He’s still praying for our enlightenment, that we may know the superabundant (other-worldly), demonstrated (not merely potential) power of God, so that we may see that the power of God is sufficient to carry us in the Christian life. And he declares that the same power that raised Jesus is at work in us. In this prayer of petition, Paul is essentially praying in a poetic way that his readers might know experientially God’s powerful working of His powerful power! The Greek adjectives convey every aspect of powerfulness that you can imagine. Calvin compares the words to the root of a tree (strength), the tree itself (power), and the fruit of the tree (working), all supplemented by the word, “mighty” (v19).
Paul then, in v20-22, gives a long series of evidences of God’s power at work in and through Jesus in order to convince us of the greatness of God’s power at work in and through us. Notice three of these proofs in particular: the resurrection (V20) of Christ, the ascension (v20) of Christ, and the headship (v22) of Christ. In the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we see the power of God to defeat death. Make no mistake, we will die – unless Jesus returns first. But God’s power in us is able to keep us alive and give us true, eternal life. In the ascension of Jesus Christ, we see the power of God to grant authority. Think of Jesus in His humanity – the lowliest of births, a mere carpenter by trade, no power to speak of from a human perspective. And yet God’s power – the same power at work in you – grants Him authority, as v21 says, “far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given.” There is no opposing force in the universe over which Jesus Christ does not reign (Isaiah 9:6). Jesus Christ has pre-eminence, or supremacy, over every being. Indeed, as v22 declares, “God placed all things under His feet.” The sovereignty of Jesus Christ knows no limitations. He is Lord of Lords and King of Kings. In the headship of Jesus Christ, we see the power of God – interestingly – to care for His Church. In v22, Paul declares that Jesus is the “head over everything for the church.” Authority exists for the sake of service. The rule over all things that God has granted to Jesus Christ has been granted for the benefit of those He loves, of those who love Him, of His people, of those who trust in Him – of His church. Jesus rules the world by His word and by His Spirit for the benefit of His people.
Ligon Duncan says, “We will never live the Christians life confidently unless we believe that God has the power to answer our prayers, to protect us, to guide us, and to take us to the end.” In these thoughts in the prayer of Paul for the Church, he has in mind what he’ll talk about in Ephesians 2 – namely the fact that we were brought from death to life (Ephesians 2:1-10) and that we were brought from alienation to inclusion (Ephesians 2:11-22) through the power of God for our good. And we get just a foretaste of this idea in v23. Paul says that the church is the body of Christ, “the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.” Now that’s a challenging verse. What does Paul mean?
When it comes to the physical body, one finger has no direct and inherent relationship with another, and the elbow has no direct and inherent relationship with the knee, but all of these are united by and under one "head." Likewise, people from various cultures and backgrounds may seem to have little in common, and at first may even be hostile to one another; however, they have become one in Christ. This must be at least part of what Paul means by the metaphor (Ephesians 2:14-16). But later, in Ephesians 5:22-24, Paul applies the idea of headship to marriage. Vincent Cheung says, “By applying the head-body metaphor to the marriage relationship, Paul is saying that ‘wives should submit to their husbands in everything.’ And this is what he means when he says that the church is Christ’s body… He is ruling over us! For the church to be Christ’s body means that ‘the church submits to Christ.’” As Jesus taught in John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.” Furthermore, as the body of Jesus experienced hardship in His earthly life, so believers, as the body of Christ, experience hardship in our earthly lives.
Paul will elaborate on the encouraging idea of fullness as we head into chapters 3-4, but one of the things he’s pointing to is God’s purpose to make us mature and grow us up to be like Jesus. One commentator said, “By speaking of the church as Christ’s body and fullness, [Paul] emphatically underlines its significance within God’s purposes. Its glorious place in the divine plan, however, provides no grounds for boasting or arrogance…for the church is wholly dependent on Christ. In itself, it is nothing. Its privileged position comes from its relationship to the One who as head graciously fills it with His presence.” The power of God is determined to fill believers to all the fullness of Him who fills all in all. God will not be thwarted in His purpose to mature us, for we are “predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son” (Romans 8:29). Paul wants us to believe that, and that’s why he’s praying this prayer of petition: that we would understand intellectually, that we would see with the enlightened eyes of our hearts, the incomparably great power of God to us in Jesus Christ.
Footnotes
- 1:1 Some early manuscripts do not have in Ephesus.
- 1:1 Or believers who are
- 1:5 Or sight in love. 5 He
- 1:9 Or us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he
- 1:11 Or were made heirs
- 1:17 Or a spirit
Bible text from
Gospelcom.net. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by
International Bible Society.