Ephesians 4.1c-The Effectual Call of the Recipients of the Epistle to Live in Manner Worthy of Their Calling
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday October 22, 2024
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 4:1c-The Effectual Call of the Recipients of the Epistle
Lesson # 194
Ephesians 4:1 Therefore, I myself, the prisoner because of the Lord’s will, exhort and encourage each and every one of you as a corporate unit to live your lives in a manner worthy of your effectual calling with which each and every one of you as a corporate unit have been effectually called. (Lecturer’s translation)
Now, as was the case in Ephesians 1:18, the noun klēsis (κλῆσις), “your effectual call” here in Ephesians 4:1 is referring to the conversion of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle or in other words, the moment of justification.
The word “effectual” is used of that which produces the effect desired or intended or a decisive result.
Thus, the Father’s calling of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle produced the effect He desired, or intended from them and the decisive result, namely, faith in His Son Jesus Christ, which resulted in the Father imputing His Son’s righteousness to them and declaring them justified.
The verb kaleō (καλέω) refers to an act of summoning which effectively evokes from those addressed the response which it invites.
The word refers to the “effective evocation” of faith through the presentation of the gospel by the Holy Spirit which unites the sinner to Christ according to the Father’s gracious purpose in election and it is related to the adjective klētos (κλητός), which means, “chosen one” and appears in Romans 8:28 with the same idea.
Like the adjective klētos (κλητός), the noun klēsis (κλῆσις), and the verb kaleō (καλέω) do not refer to the “call of God,” which is related to “common grace” meaning grace given to all sinners by God in the form of being exposed to the gospel.
In other words, it does not refer to the “invitation” to receive the gift of salvation by trusting in Jesus Christ as Savior.
Rather, it refers to those sinners who have responded to the divine invitation or call of God when they were presented the gospel and have exercised faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Thus, it is an “effectual call” as many commentators describe it.
Therefore, in Ephesians 4:1, the verb kaleō (καλέω) refers to the “effective evocation” of faith through the presentation of the gospel by the Holy Spirit who united the believer to Christ according to the Father’s electing them to privilege and His gracious eternal purpose and predetermined plan.
The verb refers to not only the Father’s invitation to salvation for the Christian through the presentation of the gospel by the Holy Spirit, but it also refers to their acceptance of this invitation by faith and which invitation originates from eternity past.
The passive voice of this verb kaleō (καλέω) means that the subject receives the action of the verb from either an expressed or unexpressed agency.
In context, the subject is the recipients of this epistle and the unexpressed agency is implied from the contents of Ephesians 1:18 and is the Father.
Ephesians 1:15 For this reason, after I myself heard about the faith among each and every one of you in the one and only Lord Jesus as well as you are practicing divine-love, which is on behalf of each and every one of the saints, 16 I never permit myself to cease regularly expressing thanks to the one and only God because of each and every one of you. I do this while disciplining myself to make it my practice of remembering each and every one of you during my prayers. 17 I make it a habit of occupying myself with praying that God, that is, the glorious Father of the one and only Lord ruling over each and every one of us as a corporate unit, who is Jesus Christ, would cause each and every one of you to receive divine wisdom, specifically, divine revelatory wisdom provided by the one and only Spirit with respect to an experiential knowledge of Himself. 18 Namely, that the eyes of your heart are enlightened in order that each and every one of you would possess the conviction of what constitutes being the confident expectation of blessing produced by His effectual call, what constitutes His glorious, rich inheritance residing in the person of the saints. (Author’s translation)
As was the case in Ephesians 4:1, the noun klēsis (κλῆσις), “effectual call” has the same meaning and referent in Ephesians 1:18 and thus refers to the “effective evocation” of faith through the presentation of the gospel by the Holy Spirit which unites the sinner to Christ according to the Father’s gracious purpose in election and results in the justification of the sinner by the Father.
So therefore, as was the case in Ephesians 4:1, in Ephesians 1:18, the noun klēsis (κλῆσις) is referring to the conversion of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle or in other words, the moment of justification.
Paul asserts that this effectual call is the Father’s possession because He is the one who declared them justified when they trusted in His Son, Jesus Christ, which in turn manifested the fact that in eternity past He elected them to the privilege of possessing an eternal relationship and fellowship with Him, the Son and the Spirit.
This He accomplished by predestinating them to adoption as His sons and to be conformed to the image of His Son, Jesus Christ.
In Ephesians 1:18, the articular construction of this noun klēsis (κλῆσις) is employed with the genitive masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός) to denote possession.
The referent of the latter is of course God the Father.
Therefore, this construction indicates that this effectual call of the recipients of the Ephesian letter is the Father’s possession since He is the one who declared them justified when they trusted in His Son, Jesus Christ.
Their justification manifested that He had elected and predestinated them in eternity past to be conformed to the image of His Son and to adoption as His sons.
This word klēsis (κλῆσις) functions as a genitive of production, which means that the word “produces” the noun to which it stands related, which in our context is nominative feminine singular form of the noun elpis (ἐλπίς).
Therefore, this type of genitive is expressing the idea of this confident expectation of blessing is “produced” by the Father effectually calling the recipients of this epistle.
Therefore, in Ephesians 4:1, the passive voice of this verb kaleō (καλέω) indicates that the recipients of this epistle received the action of being effectually called by the Father at the moment of their justification.
Thus, this is another “divine-passive,” which appears in this epistle.
The aorist tense of this verb kaleō (καλέω) is a consummative aorist, which is emphasizing the cessation of the act of the Father effectually calling the recipients of this epistle the moment He declared them justified through faith in His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.
This “effectual call” refers to the “effective evocation” of faith through the presentation of the gospel by the Holy Spirit which unites the sinner to Christ according to the Father’s gracious purpose in election.
It does not refer to the “call of God,” which is related to “common grace” meaning grace given to all sinners by God in the form of being exposed to the gospel or in other words, it does not refer to the “invitation” to receive the gift of salvation by trusting in Jesus Christ as Savior.
Rather, it refers to those sinners who have responded to the divine invitation or call of God when they were presented the gospel and have exercised faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior and thus, it is an “effectual call” as many commentators describe it.
Therefore, this “effectual call” refers to the “effective evocation” of faith through the presentation of the gospel by the Holy Spirit who united the believer to Christ according to the Father’s electing him to privilege and His gracious eternal purpose and predetermined plan.
It refers to not only the Father’s invitation to salvation for the Christian through the presentation of the gospel by the Holy Spirit, but it also refers to their acceptance of this invitation by faith and which invitation originates from eternity past.
So therefore, when Paul in Ephesians 4:1 speaks of the calling of the recipients of epistle with which they have been called, he is referring to God the Father “effectually calling” each of them at the moment of justification.
It is thus referring to their conversion to Christianity or in other words, the moment of justification.
Again, the word “effectual” is used of that which produces the effect desired or intended or a decisive result.
Thus, the Father’s calling of them produced the effect He desired, intended from them and the decisive result, namely, to deliver them from their sins, the indwelling Adamic sin nature, Satan, condemnation from the Law, spiritual and physical death as well as eternal condemnation.
Therefore, in Ephesians 4:1, the infinitival clause axiōs peripatēsai tēs klēseōs hēs eklēthēte (ἀξίως περιπατῆσαι τῆς κλήσεως ἧς ἐκλήθητε), “to live worthily of the calling with which you have been called” (NET) is speaking in a figurative sense of the lifestyle of each member of the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia.
Here it is used of these church age believers living or conducting their lives in a manner worthy of the effectual calling with which the Father effectually called them at justification.
This would require them to be experiencing fellowship with God, which is accomplished by learning and obeying the teaching of the Word of God and thus, they would also be experiencing their sanctification, salvation and eternal life.
Experiencing sanctification is experiencing fellowship with God from the perspective of experiencing being set apart to serve God exclusively while on the other hand, experiencing salvation is experiencing fellowship with God from the perspective of experiencing one’s deliverance from sin and Satan.
Experiencing eternal life is experiencing fellowship with God from the perspective of personally encountering God through the process of learning and obeying His Word, which results in acquiring more of the character of Christ and spiritual wisdom.
This interpretation of experiencing eternal life is indicated by Jesus Christ’s teaching in John 17:3 where He defines eternal life as knowing the Father experientially (ginōskō).
