IN CHRIST, BY GOD: Ephesians 1:1-5

"of Christ Jesus by the will of God”

English Standard Version Chapter 1

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,

Paul is an apostle and is writing this letter both by the will of God, which we will see as the root cause of all things. What is his “will?”

“The will” of God (θελήματος/thelematos) in reference here —

Biblico-Theological Lexicon of New Testament Greek Θέλημα

Θέλημα, τος, τό, an Hellenistic word foreign to profane Greek, even still in the Christian era, LXX. = חֵפֶץ and רָצוֹן, and

— psychological inference leads us to believe that this isn’t something that “just happened” so it is thus “his will,” but this was his express desire for his own good purpose—it brought God joy to make Paul an apostle and brought him joy to spur Paul to write to the Ephesians. His will here is literally the expression of his pleasure. What happens to Paul is what he desires to happen.

Paul did not become an Apostle, nor did he write this letter because God literally commanded him to by placing his hand on Paul’s neck and placing him at a writing desk. That is not God’s will when we refer to “thelematos.” Paul wrote this letter because God’s heart desired for him to, and thus, through God’s will operating in Paul, Paul was inspired to write.

As we will come to see, God’s pleasure in his decision-making is going to be a pillar of the theology of Ephesians, and it is not by accident that this small “tinge” of God’s absolute control over the destiny of creation is laced even into this seemingly innocuous greeting.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus:

2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

A standard greeting of Paul and often thought to have been written in or around the same time as many of his other letters, including Colossians, Philemon, and Philippians during his imprisonment in Rome. Ephesus is in modern day Turkey. Paul and his companions were persecuted here while its local church was still being establish by followers of Artemis (Acts 19:28-40).

Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible Date, Origin, and Destination > Ephesians, Letter to The

Date, Origin, and Destination.

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