Ephesians 1:3-14

A paean of doctrinal praise

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,*The full name of Jehovah the Son is now ‘The Lord Jesus Christ’. Where ‘Lord’ occurs without the definite article or a possessive pronoun I often render ‘Sovereign’. who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms*"In the heavenly realms" appears to be a synonym for Heaven; the blessings are there, ready to be distributed. in Christ;*The blessings are only for those who are in Christ. Unbelievers may receive some spinoff benefits. 4 just as He[F]*Here the pronoun refers to the Father, not ‘Christ’. Below, whenever the referent changes I will indicate this by [F] or [S], which will be good until the next change. chose us in Him[S] before the foundation of the world,*This one is difficult for our poor little finite minds to handle. If I was chosen before Creation, then I am part of a PLAN that antedates that Creation, just like the slain Lamb (1 Peter 1:19-20). So He knows who I am and calls me by name (John 10:3). When faced with a ‘God-thing’ that exceeds our understanding, we can either accept or reject—I choose to accept [there are consequences]. And let’s not forget to give thanks. that we should be holy and blameless before Him[F], in love,*The syntax is ambiguous: does "in love" go with the preceding clause, or the following one? If the preceding, then it would be our love for Him; if the following, His love for us. When the Text is ambiguous I like to allow for both possibilities, which is why I place a comma before and after. Since both are true, why not teach both? 5 having predestined us into an adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, into Him[S], according to the good pleasure of His[F] will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He graced us in the Beloved; 7 in whom we have the redemption through His[S] blood,*Without the shed blood of God’s Lamb there is no redemption. the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His[F] grace, 8 that He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and intelligent design,*I take it that many people, as they contemplate the mess the world is in, doubt that the Creator [if He exists] knew what He was doing. One day we will agree that the design is marvelous. 9 having made known to us the ‘secret’ of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Him[S], 10 with a view to administering the fullness of the times,*The reference is not so much to chronological time as to occasions or epochs. Believe it or not, human history is being "administered". so as to bring all things together under one head in Christ—those on the heavens*"On the heavens"—that is what the Text says. I take the reference to be to beings and things that are not an integral part of Heaven, temporary appendages—of course any beings and things on the earth are not an integral part of Heaven either. They all will jointly be subordinated to the Christ. and those on the earth—in Him[S], 11 in whom we were also assigned an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him[F] who works all things according to the decision of His will, 12 so that we should be to the praise of His glory,*This is the main point of the whole exercise—the praise of His glory! (Isaiah 43:7.) we who first trusted in the Christ; 13 about whom, to be sure, we had heard the true Word*A majority of the Greek manuscripts, including the best line of transmission, have "we", rather than the familiar ‘you’. Being unexpected, many scribes may have made the change (of one letter) almost without thinking. The Gospel of Christ is ‘the true Word’.—the Gospel of your salvation; by whom, since you also believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the down payment on our inheritance until the release of the possession,*We receive "the release of the possession" in Glory. From the beginning of the epistle both the Father and the Son have been referred to repeatedly—here the Holy Spirit is introduced. to the praise of His glory.*Verses 3-14 form a single sentence in the Greek Text, which is why I translate the same way.