Paul, apostle of Jesus Christ by God's will, to the saints and faithful in Christ Jesus who are at Ephesus.
A letter opens with three things: who writes, by what right, and to whom. Paul's first line names all three. Each one sets the tone for the whole letter.
Paul's opening words do more than name the writer.
The very opening presents the great truth that filled the apostle's heart, and it does so in a strikingly high way. "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God." God chose him as an apostle above all for this. He presents his apostleship here not as a question of calling, but as "by the will of God." Everything in this letter flows from the will of God.
One writer sets this opening beside the very different one in Galatians:
This is quite different from the opening of Galatians: "Paul, an apostle—not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead." Both forms of speech match the character of the letter each belongs to. For the Galatians, Paul was careful to make one thing clear. His ministry did not flow from Jerusalem as a centre, and he did not receive his authority through a human channel... In Ephesians he means to show that all blessings for the saints in heavenly places flow from God's will (see chapter 1:5, 9, 11). So he tells us that his apostleship had the same spring.
The word is a description of standing, not a rank earned by achievement or awarded after death.
Every believer is a saint for the simple reason that they belong to the sanctified company. God makes them holy, and they should act in a holy way. The work of Christ is so complete that nothing can dim its glory. It has removed forever all that we were. We stand before God in perfect holiness. Now we can see where all Paul's calls in this letter to do better come from. These Christians are holy. They are a separated company. They are called out. This never alters.
Commentators differ on the second word. Some read it as a description of walk, matching the shape of the letter itself:
Paul addresses the letter "to the saints and to the faithful in Christ Jesus." This does not mean two classes of believers. All believers are saints — separated ones. Yet a saint may not be faithful... The words "to the saints and to the faithful in Christ Jesus" correspond to the two divisions of the letter. In the first three chapters we learn that God has made us His saints in Christ. In the last three chapters he urges us to walk in obedience and be faithful.
Others take the word in its other sense, as "believers," and read both terms as two views of the same people:
Both words, "saints" and "faithful," describe the same people. The first speaks of their condition in relation to the world. The second gives them a special character: they have believed in Christ Jesus.
The address explains why this letter climbs so high instead of correcting problems.
He addresses the Ephesian believers as "the saints… and faithful in Christ Jesus." This implies that the assembly at Ephesus was in a spiritual condition marked by faithfulness to the Lord. That condition prepared them to receive these deep communications. It is possible for a company of saints to be marked by much zeal and activity, and yet to lack faithfulness to the Lord. Indeed, this was the condition this very same assembly fell into in later years, so that the Lord has to say to them, in spite of all their zeal and toil, "I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first… you have fallen."
A named city grounds the letter in a real place.
These saints "are at Ephesus." That points to the particular place where they gathered. It also reminds us of the unity that runs through the whole church of God, which is one body. So the local assembly only supplies the occasion. What comes through it meets their own need, and it is also for the church of God in every place and time.
There is even a question over the words themselves. One writer notes:
In Ephesians 1:1 the two oldest manuscripts leave out the words "at Ephesus." If we accept that omission, the letter has the character of a circular letter.
- Source. The will of God is the spring of Paul's apostleship, and of every blessing named in the letter after it.
- Standing. "Saints" means set apart to God — the settled fact about every believer, never a level reached by effort.
- Character. "Faithful" is the answering side. Commentators read it either as walk or as "believers," but it describes the same people.
- Sphere. Both titles stand "in Christ Jesus": God has made us saints in Christ, and in Christ we have believed.
- Result. Because they were faithful, Paul could write counsel instead of correction. Keep it as a warning: this same assembly later left its first love.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and [the] Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul opens with grace and peace, and he names where both come from. The words look like a courtesy, but commentators read them as a statement of what every believer needs.
One writer, commenting on the same greeting elsewhere, explains why grace is named first:
Notice the order — not peace and grace, but "Grace to you and peace." Peace always flows from grace. We enjoy peace only as far as we grasp divine grace.
Paul does not wish these readers mercy, as some personal letters do. A commentator on Ephesians explains what each word supplies:
Paul assures them of grace, not mercy. Mercy considers someone in circumstances of need, sorrow or misery, as used in some personal letters. But grace lifts one above all circumstances. Grace presents the saints as "in Christ Jesus," the divine title that speaks of the glorified Christ. Peace is added, which is calm tranquility, again above an earthly level. The source of this peace is God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is not the settled peace with God that every believer already has. What Paul asks for here is needed day after day:
It is a mistake to confuse this settled peace with the ordinary apostolic greeting, which asks grace for the saints and "peace from God." We need these day by day. We feel the need all the more because we have peace with God.
The blessing comes from God as Father and from Jesus Christ as Lord. One commentator says we pass over these two names too quickly:
In his letters he always gives the greeting of grace and peace from the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. We often pay too little attention to these names. In the one we have God Himself as Father, known as such in grace. In the other we have the glorified Man, the Son of God. He holds headship over the house and people of God, and He holds it officially. With the one we stand in the relation of children, with the other as servants.
William Kelly sees in that pairing of names a claim about who Christ is:
This is the opening wish or prayer of the apostle, here as in Romans 1:7 — from God in His relation of Father to us, from Jesus Christ as Lord. But joining the two names like this would be impossible in an inspired writing, and offensive anywhere, if they were not one in the unity of the divine nature.
Another writer adds that a right state of heart is not enough by itself:
A right condition of soul is not all. If we are to profit from this letter we shall also need "grace" and "peace" from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what the Apostle desired for these saints.
The same grace greets the readers and sends them off. One writer explains what it is for:
Grace is invoked on the saints at Ephesus, at the beginning of the letter and at the end. Only grace will keep us in the path of the will of God, and acting for Him in a world like this one we are passing through. How encouraging to our poor hearts to know the resources of grace available to us! Our God and Father and our Lord Jesus Christ are waiting for us to use those unlimited, heavenly resources. They can enable us to enjoy all the depths of what this letter reveals.
- Grace, source. Peace never comes first. It flows out of grace, and we enjoy it only as far as we grasp the grace behind it.
- Grace, not mercy. Mercy meets someone in misery. Grace lifts a person above all circumstances, and the peace given with it is calm above an earthly level.
- Grace, daily. The peace asked for here is not peace with God, which is already settled. It is a daily supply, needed all the more because that settled peace is ours.
- Grace, from two. It comes from God as Father and from Christ as Lord. To the one we stand as children, to the other as servants. Naming them together would be impossible unless they are one in the divine nature.
- Grace, throughout. The letter opens and closes with it. Only grace keeps us in God's will and lets us enjoy the depths this letter reveals.