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In this chapter we want to see the crucial points in Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians.
Ephesians 1:3 says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.” This particular, crucial point comprises verses 3 through 14 of chapter 1. In this portion of the Word are the Father’s selection and predestination, speaking forth God’s eternal purpose (vv. 3-6), the Son’s redemption, speaking forth the accomplishment of God’s eternal purpose (vv. 7-12), and the Spirit’s sealing and pledging, speaking forth the application of God’s accomplished purpose (vv. 13-14). God’s blessings to the church comprise the Father’s being and doing, the Son’s being and doing, and the Spirit’s being and doing. The main thing that issues from this threefold blessing is the sonship. Ephesians 1:5 tells us that the Father has predestinated us unto sonship. The Father’s selection and predestination are for sonship, are unto sonship. Sonship is the goal of His selection and predestination. The Son’s redemption is also to bring forth the sonship, and the Spirit’s sealing and pledging are for the purpose of sonship. Thus, the threefold blessing of the Triune God is for sonship, to produce the sonship.
The apostle Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:15-23 is magnificent. Paul prays that we might have “a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him” (v. 17). Such a spirit is given to us by God that we may have wisdom and revelation to know Him and His economy. Verses 18 through 23 tell us that the eyes of our heart need to be enlightened that we may know three marvelous things: the hope of His calling, the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe (vv. 18-19). This magnificent prayer as a crucial point of the truth in Ephesians has been more than adequately covered in the footnotes of the Recovery Version and the Life-study messages of Ephesians.
Before we were saved, we were dead. Being “dead” (2:1) refers to the death of our spirit that pervades our entire being. Being dead in our offenses and sins, we “once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, of the spirit which is now operating in the sons of disobedience; among whom we also all conducted ourselves once in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest” (vv. 2-3). This world refers to the satanic system composed of many ages. Hence, the age here refers to a part, a section, an aspect, the present and modern appearance, of the system of Satan, which is used by him to usurp and occupy people and keep them away from God and His purpose. When we were dead in offenses and sins, we walked according to the age, the modern appearance, the present course, of the world, the satanic system.
When we were dead in offenses and sins, we also behaved according to the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires not only of the flesh but also of the thoughts. Three evil things — the age of this world outside of us, the ruler of the aerial authority above and within us, and the lusts of our flesh in our fallen nature — dominated our life. From these evil things we have been saved to be the Body of Christ.
This crucial point is covered in 2:4-10. To make us alive is the initial step of God’s salvation in life. Following this, God raised us up from the death position. From our standpoint we have been raised up from our death position one by one. But in God’s view we were all raised up together, just as all the Israelites were raised up together from the death waters of the Red Sea (Exo. 14). The third step of God’s salvation in life is to seat us together in the heavenlies. He not only raised us up from the death position, but He also seated us in the highest place in the universe. When we were dead, we were “in the tomb.” Now we are not in the tomb but in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. The heavenlies not only indicates the heavenly place but also the heavenly nature, state, characteristic, and atmosphere. The sphere, atmosphere, condition, and reality that we are in now are heavenly.
Eventually, we become the masterpiece of God (Eph. 2:10). Paul tells us in verse 10 that we are His workmanship. The Greek word for workmanship can also be translated “masterpiece.” This Greek word is poiema, which means “something which has been made, a handiwork, or something which has been written or composed as a poem.” This is not only poetic writing but also any work of art that expresses the maker’s wisdom and design. We, the church, the masterpiece of God’s work, are also a poem, expressing God’s infinite wisdom and divine design. We, the church, as the masterpiece of God’s work, are an absolutely new item in the universe, a new invention by God. We have been created by God in Christ through regeneration to be His new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). Our being made alive is so that we might become God’s new creation, His masterpiece.
This crucial point is covered in Ephesians 2:11-22. Christ broke down the middle wall of partition between the Jews and the Gentiles by abolishing the law of the commandments in ordinances. When He was crucified on the cross, all the ordinances were nailed there. The law spoken of in 2:15 is not the law of the moral commandments, but the law of the ritual commandments, such as the ordinances of circumcision, keeping the Sabbath, and eating certain foods.
When Christ died on the cross, He not only dealt with sins, the old man, Satan, and the world; He also dealt with the ordinances. On the cross Christ abolished in His flesh the law of the commandments in ordinances. Therefore, by His death on the cross, Christ dealt with five categories of things: sins, the old man, Satan, the world, and the ordinances. We cannot be all right until the ordinances have been dealt with. The ordinances, the different ways of living and worshipping, had to be abolished by Christ on the cross so that He could create in Himself the one new man.
The new man, which is the church, is corporate and universal. There are many believers, but there is only one new man in the universe. All the believers are the components of this one corporate and universal new man.
In Ephesians 2:20-22 is the revelation of the building in two aspects — the universal aspect and the local aspect. Universally, the church is uniquely one, and the church in a particular locality is locally one. In verse 21 we see the universal aspect of the church: “All the building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord.” Then in verse 22 we have the local aspect: “You also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.” Therefore, the holy temple refers to the universal aspect, and the dwelling place of God to the local aspect.
All the local churches are part of the universal church, not something in addition to it or apart from it. All the local churches added together equal the universal church. This means that apart from the local churches there is no universal church. Hence, the building of the local church is the building of the universal church. All the local churches have just one building. The church in Anaheim does not have one building; neither does any other church have one. However, our natural concept of the building is that there is a different building in each locality. In this universe there is just one building with a universal aspect and a local aspect. No matter how many churches there may be on earth, there is still just one building with these two aspects.
The first great crucial point in Ephesians 3 is the mystery of Christ (v. 4). The mystery of God in Colossians 2:2 is Christ; whereas the mystery of Christ is the church. God is a mystery, and Christ, as the embodiment of God to express Him, is the mystery of God. Christ is also a mystery, and the church, as the Body of Christ to express Him, is the mystery of Christ. The church, which is mentioned in Ephesians 3:10, is the mystery of Christ. In order to see the definition of the mystery of Christ, we need to study verses 3 through 11 of chapter 3.
The apostle Paul preached, not the doctrines, but the riches of Christ. The riches of Christ are what Christ is to us, such as light, life, righteousness, and holiness. These riches are unsearchable and untraceable.
This crucial point is in 3:9-11. To fully understand this crucial point you also need to study 1:9-11.
God’s eternal economy is according to His hidden purpose. His purpose is to dispense Himself into His chosen people. Hence, there is the dispensation of the mystery of God. This mystery was hidden in God from the ages (that is, from eternity) and through all past ages, but now it has been brought to light to the New Testament believers.
The church is produced from the unsearchable riches of Christ as revealed in 3:8. When God’s chosen people partake of and enjoy the riches of Christ, these riches constitute them the church, through which God’s multifarious wisdom is made known to the angelic rulers and authorities in the heavenlies. Hence, the church is God’s wise exhibition of all that Christ is.
Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1 is a prayer for revelation. His prayer in chapter 3 is a prayer for experience. We need to experience Christ making His home in our heart, that is, Christ settling down within us. The prayer in chapter 1 ends with the church. In 1:22 Christ is Head over all things to the church. The prayer in chapter 3 also ends with the church as an issue of our experience of Christ making His home in our hearts. We are eventually “filled unto all the fullness of God” (v. 19). In chapter 1 the church is the fullness of the One who fills all in all (v. 23), and in chapter 3 the church is the fullness of God (v. 19). Both of Paul’s prayers in chapters 1 and 3 of Ephesians are great crucial points. Paul’s prayer in chapter 3 may take three or four meetings to be covered adequately. There is much material for you to study in the footnotes of the Recovery Version and in the Life-study messages of Ephesians.
In 4:1-6 is the keeping of the oneness of the Spirit and the base of our oneness. In exhorting us to safeguard the oneness (4:3), the apostle Paul points out seven things as the base, the very foundation, of our oneness: one Body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father. These seven ones are of three groups. The first three can be grouped together: the Spirit with the Body as His expression and the Body related to the one hope. This Body, having been regenerated and being saturated with the Spirit as its essence, has the hope of being transfigured into the full likeness of Christ. The next three can also be grouped together, the Lord with faith and baptism, that we may be joined to Him. Then we have one God and Father, who is the Originator and Source of all. The Spirit as the Executor of the Body, the Son as the Creator of the Body, and God the Father as the Originator of the Body — all three of the Triune God are related to the Body. The third of the Trinity is mentioned first because the main concern here is the Body, and the Spirit is the essence of the Body. Then the course is traced back to the Son and then to the Father.
Through His ascension, Christ gained many captives. “He led captive those taken captive and gave gifts to men” (4:8). “Those” were first the redeemed saints who were taken captive by Satan before they were saved by Christ’s death and resurrection. In His ascension, Christ led them captive; that is, He rescued them from Satan’s captivity and took them to Himself. This indicates that He has conquered and overcome Satan, who captured them by sin and death. After rescuing them from Satan and death through His death and resurrection, Christ in His ascension made the rescued sinners themselves such gifts with His resurrection life and gave them to His Body for its building up. Through Christ’s ascension many captives were made gifted persons, whom Christ gave to His church as the gifts for the building up of His Body. To fully enter into Paul’s thought in this crucial point, we need to study 4:7-16 with the help of the footnotes of the Recovery Version of Ephesians and the Life-study messages.
For this crucial point we need to study Ephesians 4:22-24 and Colossians 3:10-11. The new man has already been created and, by regeneration, has been born into our spirit. The need now is for our spirit to become the dominant part of our being. This means that our spirit mingled with the Spirit of God must become the spirit of our mind (Eph. 4:23). If our spirit is the spirit of our mind, then all our living will be by the spirit. Whatever we do will be according to the spirit. This spirit of our mind will then become the renewing spirit. As we are renewed by this spirit, we put on the new man.
Ephesians 4:30 says, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption.” The sealing of the Spirit has a goal, and this goal is the redemption of our body. From the day we receive the Spirit, the Spirit becomes not only a seal to us but a sealing. The Spirit’s indwelling is a sealing, and this sealing is still going on. It never stops because this sealing carries out a purpose to saturate our being with the divine element that we might be transformed and eventually conformed to the image of Christ. Then our body will be fully redeemed. The transfiguration of our body will not be an accident but a result of our being saturated with the Spirit by His sealing of us inwardly. Today the Holy Spirit is sealing within us. For this crucial point we also need to use the entire context of verse 30, namely, verses 25 through 32, to tell people what can grieve the Spirit. If you grieve the Spirit, you frustrate His sealing. He is now within us doing a sealing work, “painting” us with the divine element. We should not do something to frustrate His painting of Himself into our being. All the negative things listed in verses 25 through 32 of chapter 4 are frustrations to the sealing of the Spirit. These frustrations are a grieving. As long as your spirit does not feel happy about a situation, you have to realize that this is a grieving, and that grieving is a kind of frustration to the Spirit’s sealing.
The text for this crucial point is in Ephesians 5:1-15. Verse 2 tells us to walk in love, and verse 8 tells us to walk as children of light. As grace and truth are the basic elements in 4:17-32, so love and light (5:8-9, 13) are the basic elements in the apostle’s exhortation in 5:1-33. Grace is the expression of love, and love is the source of grace. Truth is the revelation of light, and light is the origin of truth. God is love and light (1 John 4:8; 1:5). When God is expressed and revealed in the Lord Jesus, His love becomes grace, and His light becomes truth. After we have, in the Lord, received God as grace and realized Him as truth, we come to Him and enjoy His love and light. Love and light are deeper than grace and truth. Hence, the apostle first takes grace and truth as the basic elements for his exhortation and then love and light. This implies that he wants our daily walk to grow deeper, from the outward element to the inward.
Love is the inner substance of God, whereas light is the expressed element of God. The inner love of God is sensible, and the outer light of God is visible. Our walk in love should be constituted of both the loving substance and the shining element of God. This should be the inner source of our walk. It is deeper than grace and truth. In studying this crucial point it will also help you to refer to the Life-study messages and to footnote 53 in 1 John 1 in the Recovery Version.
In Ephesians 5:18 to be drunk with wine is to be filled in the body, whereas to be filled in the spirit (our regenerated spirit, not God’s Spirit) is to be filled with Christ (1:23), unto the fullness of God (3:19). To be drunk with wine in the body dissipates us, but to be filled with Christ, the fullness of God, causes us to overflow with Him in speaking, singing, psalming, and giving thanks to God (5:19-20) and to subject ourselves to one another (v. 21). The issue of our being filled in spirit is that we will have spirit-filled ethical relationships for the expression of the Body in the normal church life (v. 22—6:9). The proper daily life and family life is the issue of being filled in spirit. This crucial point is covered in 5:18—6:9.
This particular crucial point is covered in Ephesians 5:23-33. In his exhortation in chapter 5, the apostle presents the church as the bride of Christ. This aspect of the church reveals that the church comes out of Christ, as Eve came out of Adam (Gen. 2:21-22), that she has the same life and nature as Christ, and that she, as His counterpart, becomes one with Him, as Eve became one flesh with Adam (v. 24). Christ and the church being one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17), as typified by the husband and wife being one flesh, is the great mystery.
On the positive side, the church is portrayed in many ways in the first five chapters of Ephesians to fulfill God’s eternal purpose. On the negative side, the church is seen in chapter 6 as a warrior to defeat God’s enemy, the devil (vv. 10-20). To do this we need to put on the whole armor of God (v. 11).
To fight the spiritual warfare, we need not only the power of the Lord but also the armor of God. Our weapons do not avail, but God’s armor, even the whole armor of God, does. The whole armor of God is for the entire Body, not for any individual member of the Body. The church is a corporate warrior, and the believers are parts of this unique warrior. Only the corporate warrior, not any individual believer, can wear the whole armor of God. We must fight the spiritual warfare in the Body, not individually. This crucial point is covered in verses 10 through 20 of Ephesians 6.
Ephesians 6:24 says, “Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptibility.” We all must ask ourselves what it means to love the Lord in incorruptibility. In 1 Timothy 1:17 Paul says that God is incorruptible, and in 2 Timothy 1:10 he says that the Lord “nullified death and brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel.” First Corinthians 15 tells us that in resurrection the corruptible things will become incorruptible (vv. 50-53). To love the Lord in incorruptibility means to love Him in the new creation. All the things of the old creation are corruptible. This is proved by Romans 8 where we see that the whole creation is groaning under the slavery of corruption (vv. 21-22). Everything of the old creation is corrupting. Only the new creation is not.
Ephesians 6:24 is a total conclusion of the entire book of Ephesians. In the six chapters of Ephesians Paul surely reveals to us the incorruptible things. Christ is incorruptible, the church is incorruptible, and all the positive items related to Christ and the church in chapters 1 through 6 are incorruptible items. We must love the Lord in these incorruptible things. This means we must love the Lord in the new creation and not in the old creation. We have to love the Lord according to the Father’s predestination unto sonship. We have to love the Lord according to the Son’s redemption. We have to love the Lord according to the sealing and the pledging of the Spirit. We have to love the Lord according to the hope of God’s calling, according to the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and according to the surpassing greatness of His power, which made Christ the Head of all things to the church. We have to love the Lord according to Christ’s resurrection, which made us alive, resurrected us, and seated us in the heavens. We have to love the Lord according to all the incorruptible things revealed in the six chapters of Ephesians. We must love the Lord in incorruptibility.
Many times we love the Lord in the way of corruption. We should not love the Lord in a natural way, in the way of the old creation, but in the new creation. When some Christian groups wanted to raise money, they put out a list of those who gave, with the ones giving the most at the top of the list. This is to love the Lord in corruption. What is it to love the Lord in incorruptibility in giving? Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing (Matt. 6:3). To give in the way of making a show is in the old creation. As the kingdom people, our righteous deeds should be kept secret as much as possible (vv. 4, 6, 18). What we do in our spirit, under the heavenly rule to please solely our Father, must not be interfered with by our flesh lusting for man’s glory. The kingdom people’s living is by the Father’s divine life according to their spirit. Thus, they are required to do good things in secret, not in public. Any public exhibition does not correspond with the mysterious, hidden nature of the divine life. In Matthew 6:4 the Lord says that our alms should be in secret, and our Father who sees in secret shall repay us.
To do things in the way of not making a display or a show of oneself is in the new creation. Sometimes when a brother testifies, he testifies because he likes to make a show or a display. When his testifying gets many Amens, he feels glorious. This is to function in corruption because it is in the old creation. When you are testifying, you must remain on the cross. When you are giving a testimony, try your best not to make a show. The Lord Jesus told us that the Pharisees always liked to make a show. Whatever they did, they did to be seen by men (23:5a). The Lord also told us that whenever we fast, “do not be like the sullen-faced hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so that they may appear to men to be fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you may not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you” (6:16-18). This shows us that we should not make a show in anything we do. If we do, we are serving in corruptibility.
To love the Lord in incorruptibility is to love Him in the regenerated, renewed, and indwelt spirit. If you do anything in your flesh, that is in corruption. I believe that when Paul was writing the book of Ephesians and was giving a conclusion to his writing, he was filled with the feeling that whatever he taught in the preceding six chapters was all incorruptible. Then he concluded that we have to love the Lord in incorruptibility.
Many Christians love the Lord concerning the church in corruption. The organization and some of the practices of the denominations are corruptible things, since they are something of the old creation. If one loves the Lord and yet serves the Lord in the denominational way, this is in corruption.
To love the Lord in incorruptibility, we have to love the Lord according to everything revealed in Ephesians. At the end of Ephesians 1 is the church which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all. This surely does not refer to any religious organization. The church is incorruptible, but the religious organizations are corruptible. To stand on the proper ground is something incorruptible. To take any other ground other than that of the unique oneness of the Body of Christ kept and expressed in each local church at its locality (Rev. 1:11) is to take the ground of corruption. We should not love the Lord in corruption; we should love Him in a pure way, in the way of incorruptibility that could stand forever.
Paul concluded his Epistle according to its contents because whatever is revealed in his Epistle to the Ephesians is incorruptible. At the conclusion he charged his recipients to love the Lord in incorruptibility, which means to love the Lord according to what he revealed in the entire book. Paul does not conclude his Epistle by only saying, “Grace be with everyone.” The condition for receiving the grace is that we love the Lord in incorruptibility. For the proper church life we need to love the Lord in incorruptibility, that is, in a condition which is incorruptible. For the church our love toward the Lord must be incorruptible, immortal, and imperishable.
