Ephesians Series: Ephesians 1:2-The Greeting of the Epistle

Ephesians 1:2 May the grace originating from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ resulting in peace cause itself to be manifested for the benefit of each and every one of you. (Lecturer’s translation)

While Ephesians 1:1 contains identification of the author and recipients of this epistle, Ephesians 1:2 contains the greeting of this epistle.

Together, verses 1-2 compose the salutation of the Ephesian epistle.

Ephesians 1:2 is Paul’s Spirit inspired desire that the grace originating from God the Father as well as the Lord Jesus Christ would cause itself to enter into the state of being manifested for the benefit of each and every one of the recipients of this epistle.

This grace is in the form of the Spirit inspired contents of Ephesians.

Therefore, Paul’s Spirit inspired desire is that the grace originating from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ in the form of the Spirit inspired contents of this letter would cause itself to enter into the state of being manifested for the benefit of each and every one of the recipients of this epistle.

This would take place when they obey the Spirit requests, commands and prohibitions that Paul issued in this epistle.

In Ephesians 1:2, charis (χάρις), “grace” refers to the means by which grace might be received, namely through the mind and thinking of Christ, the Word of God, which is inspired by the Spirit of God.

The Spirit, through the communication of the Word of God to the believer reveals God the Father’s grace policy to the believer.

This word in Ephesians 1:2 refers to the Holy Spirit speaking through the communication of the Word of God to the believer’s human spirit or new Christ nature regarding the will of the Father.

By responding in faith to the Spirit’s appeal here in Ephesians 1:2, the recipients of this letter would be obedient to the commands in Ephesians 5:18 and Colossians 3:16, which when obeyed produce the same results.

In Ephesians 1:2, we have a figure of speech with this word charis, “grace” which is called metonymy meaning the effect is put for the cause or in other words, the thing effected for the instrument which effects it.

Here grace is put for the Word of God which effects grace.

Therefore, the Spirit of God speaking through the communication of the Word of God to the believer’s human spirit regarding the will of the Father is the means by which grace is received by the believer.

The greeting is more than just that, but rather it is in fact, a Spirit inspired desire that the recipients of this letter, namely the Christian community in the Roman province of Asia would respond to Paul’s apostolic teaching in this epistle regarding the will of the Father for them.

The apostle Paul under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit is appealing to the church to respond to his doctrinal teaching in this epistle, which originates from the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is not speaking of grace at conversion but the grace or God’s provision for after conversion.

The grace of God is God’s provision of eternal salvation relationship and a post-conversion fellowship with Him.

Paul states that the Christian community in the Roman province of Asia would experience the peace of God in and among themselves as a result of appropriating the grace of God as it is communicated by the Spirit through the teaching of the Word of God.

“Peace” (eirēnē) in Ephesians 1:2 refers to the peace of God that is produced by the Spirit in and among believers.

The Spirit does this when believers obey the commands and prohibitions that He guides Paul in issuing them in this epistle.

This peace will be produced in the hearts of the individual members of the Christian community in the Roman province of Asia by the teaching of Christ which is communicated by Paul’s Spirit inspired teaching which he communicated to them when he was present with them and communicated in writing in this epistle.

If they continue to obey this teaching, then they will continue to experience this peace as individuals and when interacting with each other.

Paul’s teaching originates with Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to communicate the teaching of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, by obeying Paul’s Spirit inspired teaching in this epistle, the peace produced by this teaching originating from Christ would rule within the hearts of the recipients of this letter.

Now, here in Ephesians 1:2 Paul informs the recipients of this epistle that this grace, which is manifested through the Spirit inspired contents of Ephesians will result in peace in and among the recipients of this letter originates “from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (apo theou patros hēmōn kai kyriou Iēsou Christou) (ἀπὸ θεοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν καὶ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ).

This means that God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are the “source” of this grace that are expressed through the instructions in this epistle and appropriated by faith in these instructions resulting in obedience.

They are also the source of peace which is produced by the Spirit in them as individuals and when interacting with each other when they obey Paul’s Spirit inspired commands and prohibitions in this epistle.

Ephesians 1:2 is not the only place in Paul’s writings in which he asserts that grace and peace originate from both God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ since he makes this same declaration in all of his letters (see Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:3; 2 Cor. 1:2; Gal. 1:3; Eph. 1:2; Phil. 1:2; Col. 1:2; 2 Thess. 1:2; 1 Tim. 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:2; Titus 1:4; Phlm. 3).

Notice that in all these passages including Ephesians 1:2, the Lord Jesus Christ is presented by Paul as equal to the Father, thus expressing the deity of Jesus Christ since the source of these divine blessings are described as originating from not only the Father but also the Lord Jesus Christ.

God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ are the source of grace and peace, which extend from both of them to every church age believer without exception.

Grace and peace originated from not only God the Father but the Lord Jesus Christ as well since all blessings flow to the believer because of the merits of Jesus Christ and His Finished Work on the Cross as well as the believer’s eternal union with Christ.

The dative second personal plural form of the personal pronoun su (σύ), “to you” refers to the Christian community in the Roman province of Asia as a corporate unit and is used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions expressing Paul, Silvanus and Timothy’s concern for each and every member of this community.

This word is a dative of interest, which indicates the person interested in the verbal action.

Therefore, this indicates that Paul’s Spirit inspired desire is that the grace originating from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ would cause itself to enter into the state of being manifested “for the benefit of” each and every one of the recipients of this epistle when they obey the Spirit inspired contents of this letter.

The conjunction kai means “resulting in” since it functions as a marker of result and is expressing the idea that the recipients of this epistle would experience the peace of God in and among themselves as a result of appropriating God’s grace by faith as it is communicated to them by the Spirit through the teaching of the Word of God.

Paul is using the figure of ellipsis meaning that he is deliberately omitting the third person singular aorist middle optative form of the verb ginomai(γίνομαι), which means “to cause oneself to be manifested.”

Therefore, this would indicate that Paul’s Spirit inspired desire is that the grace originating from God the Father as well as the Lord Jesus Christ, which is expressed through the Spirit inspired contents of Ephesians, would “cause itself to be manifested” among the recipients of this epistle.

This would take place when they obey the Spirit requests, commands and prohibitions that Paul issued in this epistle.

The optative mood of the verb is a voluntative optative, which expresses an obtainable wish or prayer and is frequently an appeal to the will, in particular when used in prayers.

Here it is expressing Paul’s Spirit inspired desire that the grace originating from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ would cause itself to be manifested among the recipients of this epistle when they obeyed his Spirit inspired requests, prohibitions and commands in this epistle.

The aorist tense of this verb is an ingressive aorist emphasizing the beginning of an action or entrance into a state.

Here it is used with reference to the grace originating from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ in the form of the Spirit inspired contents of Ephesians “entering into the state of” causing itself to be manifested among the recipients of this epistle when they apply its contents.

The middle voice of the verb ginomai is a causative middle meaning that the grace originating from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ in the form of the Spirit inspired contents of Ephesians as the subject does something to itself.

Therefore, the causative middle voice of the verb ginomaiis expressing the idea of the grace originating from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ “causing itself” to be manifested among the recipients of this epistle.

This would take place when they obey its Spirit inspired which communicates the grace of God and thus expresses the love of God for the recipients of this letter.