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A narrated teaching walk through Ephesians 1:1–6 — about 37 minutes. Press Begin the lesson and the slides advance with the narration; or explore silently with the arrow buttons.
Ephesians 1:1–6 · A Teaching Walk Through the Passage
Blessed, Chosen, and Adopted in Christ
Before the world began, the Father chose and predestined his people in Christ for holiness and adoption, to the praise of his glorious grace.
Opening Prayer
Open our eyes, that we may behold wonderful things
Gracious and eternal Father, we come as those who have nothing to bring and everything to receive. Send your Holy Spirit to open our eyes. Show us Christ, in whom you have blessed us with every spiritual blessing; show us the love that chose us before the foundation of the world; and show us the grace that adopted rebels as sons. Where this passage exposes pride, convict us; where it finds us anxious or ashamed, comfort us; and by the same Word, transform us. In the name of the Beloved, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Timeline Context
A letter from a Roman prison to the churches of Asia
- Written by Paul under house arrest in Rome, about AD 60–62, and carried by Tychicus.
- Ephesus: chief city of Roman Asia, home of the temple of Artemis, where Paul taught for three years (Acts 19).
- The letter’s shape: chapters 1–3, what God has done; chapters 4–6, how we therefore walk (Ephesians 4:1).
- Our passage: the greeting (vv. 1–2) plus the first movement of one long sentence of praise (vv. 3–14).
Timeline Context
From a Roman prison to the churches of Asia
Timeline Context
Ephesus, the great city of Asia
Timeline Context
The oldest copy of Paul’s letters
- Papyrus 46 is the oldest surviving collection of Paul’s letters, copied around AD 200.
- On this very leaf, three lines down, you can read ΤΥΧΙΚΟΣ — Tychicus, the brother who carried the letter (Ephesians 6:21).
- In this manuscript, and in the earliest copies of Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, the words “in Ephesus” (1:1) are absent.
- Many therefore read Ephesians as a circular letter to the churches of Asia; on either reading the readers are “the saints.”
Ephesians 1:1–2 (ESV)
The greeting
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
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.
Ephesians 1:3–6 (ESV)
One sentence of praise
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
Ephesians 1:3–14
One sentence, three movements, one refrain
Expanded Outline
Five movements
- An apostle by God’s will to the saints who are faithful (v. 1)
- Grace and peace from the Father and the Son (v. 2)
- Blessed be the God who has blessed us in Christ (v. 3)
- Chosen in him before the foundation of the world (v. 4)
- Predestined for adoption, to the praise of his glorious grace (vv. 5–6)
Section 1 — Key Insight · Ephesians 1:1
An apostle by God’s will to the saints who are faithful
- Apostle (apostolos): Christ’s commissioned envoy, not a freelance teacher; his authority rests on the will of God (Galatians 1:1).
- Saints (hagioi): Israel’s covenant title, now given to ordinary believers: a saint is someone God has claimed, not someone who has arrived.
- Faithful: those who have trusted Christ and go on trusting him; one Greek article shows the saints and the faithful are the same people.
- Everything is located in Christ Jesus, the first of a dozen “in Christ” phrases in the eulogy and the letter’s master key.
Section 1 — Application · Ephesians 1:1
Live from your identity, not toward it
- Think of yourself first by God’s verdict: a saint, set apart for God in Christ (1 Corinthians 6:11).
- Receive Ephesians as God’s word through his apostle, reading to obey and expecting to be changed (1 Thessalonians 2:13).
- Treat faithfulness as daily reliance on Christ; the Ephesian church later lost its first love (Revelation 2:4).
- A warning: “saint” does not mean sinless, and “by the will of God” is not a licence for anyone to claim unaccountable authority.
Ask yourself: Do you think of yourself first as a saint, set apart by God in Christ, or first as a sinner, a failure, or a performer?
Section 2 — Key Insight · Ephesians 1:2
Grace and peace from the Father and the Son
- Paul changes one word of the ordinary Greek greeting and makes it a blessing: grace (charis), God’s free favour to the undeserving, the keyword of the letter.
- Peace (eirēnē, the Hebrew shalom) always follows grace, because peace with God is the fruit of his grace (Romans 5:1).
- A benediction, not a wish: the readers are told to receive peace, not to achieve it.
- One preposition names the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ together as a single source of blessing, a quiet testimony to Christ’s deity.
- Christ can give peace because he is our peace (Ephesians 2:14).
Section 2 — Application · Ephesians 1:2
Receive grace first, and let peace follow
- Begin each day by receiving grace, not manufacturing calm (Lamentations 3:22–23).
- Let your first words to family, church, and coworkers be blessing rather than complaint or demand (Colossians 4:6).
- Carry the peace you have received into conflict as a peacemaker (Matthew 5:9).
- A warning: grace is not leniency that leaves sin untouched, and peace without the cross is a false peace (Jeremiah 6:14).
Ask yourself: Where are you currently seeking peace, in circumstances, control, or approval, rather than receiving it as a gift that flows from God’s grace in Christ?
Section 3 — Key Insight · Ephesians 1:3
Blessed be the God who has blessed us in Christ
- Verse 3 opens a berakah, a Jewish blessing of God, and begins one Greek sentence of praise that runs to v. 14.
- Threefold wordplay, eulogētos · eulogēsas · eulogia: we bless God with praise because he has first blessed us with benefits.
- Every spiritual blessing: the blessings of the Spirit and the new-covenant age, already given in full (aorist), not yet fully experienced.
- In the heavenly places: the unseen realm where Christ is enthroned and believers are already seated with him (Ephesians 2:6).
- In Christ: the Abrahamic promise of blessing to the nations comes home to us only because we are united to him (Galatians 3:14).
Section 3 — Application · Ephesians 1:3
Make praise your first reflex
- Count your blessings in Christ, not in circumstances, as Paul did from prison (Psalm 103:1–5).
- Set your heart where your blessings are: seek the things above, where Christ is (Colossians 3:1–2).
- Let doctrine become doxology, in worship and at home.
- A warning: “spiritual blessing” neither makes God indifferent to bodily need nor licenses a prosperity gospel; “heavenly places” is no summons to withdraw from earthly duty.
Ask yourself: Paul praises God from a Roman prison. What circumstance in your life currently makes praise hard, and how does “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” speak to it?
Section 4 — Key Insight · Ephesians 1:4
Chosen in him before the foundation of the world
- “Even as” grounds every blessing in election: God blessed us because he chose us for himself (exelexato, aorist middle).
- Before the foundation of the world: there was no “us” yet, no faith, no works, so the choice answered nothing in us (2 Timothy 1:9).
- In him: Christ is the Father’s chosen One, and the mirror in which we contemplate our election rather than peering into the hidden decree.
- That we should be holy and blameless: the language of the unblemished sacrifice; holiness is the fruit of election, never its root (Ephesians 5:27).
- In love: the act of a Father, not a cold decree.
Section 4 — Ephesians 1:4
Where election stands on the line of time
Section 4 — Application · Ephesians 1:4
What election does in a believer
- Humility: nothing in you explains God’s choice, so there is no room to boast (1 Cor. 4:7).
- Assurance: a salvation rooted in God’s eternal will cannot be undone by your failures (Romans 8:30).
- Holiness and evangelism: God chose a people to be holy, and because he has a people the gospel will not return empty (Acts 18:10).
- A crucial warning: election is not for speculating about who is chosen, nor an excuse for passivity or pride; whoever comes to Christ is received (John 6:37).
Ask yourself: If God chose you before the foundation of the world, apart from anything in you, what does that do to your pride when you succeed and to your despair when you fail?
Section 5 — Key Insight · Ephesians 1:5–6
Predestined for adoption, to the praise of his glorious grace
- Predestined (proorisas): God fixed our destination in advance, and he did so “in love.”
- The destination is adoption (huiothesia): full sonship, with the Father’s name, standing, and inheritance.
- The only cause given is the good pleasure of his will: God’s delight in being gracious, not anything in us.
- The end of it all is the praise of his glorious grace, the refrain of the whole eulogy (Ephesians 1:12, 14).
- We are graced in the Beloved: our sonship is a share in Christ’s, our belovedness derived from his (Matthew 3:17).
Section 5 — Application · Ephesians 1:5–6
Live as a son, aimed at his praise
- Pray, obey, and suffer as a son, not a slave: confident in prayer, obedient from love, receiving hardship as a Father’s discipline (Romans 8:15).
- Treat fellow believers as family: the church is a household before it is an institution (Ephesians 2:19).
- Aim every part of life at the praise of God’s grace: work, family, suffering, success (1 Corinthians 10:31).
- A warning: adoption is not God’s universal fatherhood apart from Christ (John 1:12); “the purpose of his will” is not fatalism; God’s glory and our good are not rivals.
Ask yourself: Do you relate to God more like a servant anxious about his standing, or like a son secure in his Father’s love?
The Throughline
Every blessing is in him
Application Questions for Discussion
Questions to take into the week
- Do you think of yourself first as a saint, set apart by God in Christ, or first as a sinner, a failure, or a performer? How does Paul’s address reshape your self-understanding?
- Where are you currently seeking peace, in circumstances, control, or approval, rather than receiving it as a gift that flows from God’s grace in Christ?
- Paul praises God from a Roman prison. What circumstance in your life currently makes praise hard, and how does the phrase “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” speak to it?
Application Questions for Discussion
Questions to take into the week
- If God chose you before the foundation of the world, apart from anything in you, what does that do to your pride when you succeed and to your despair when you fail?
- Do you relate to God more like a servant anxious about his standing or like a son secure in his Father’s love? What concrete habit of prayer or thought would help you live out your adoption this week?
Closing Prayer
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. We thank you, Father, that our salvation did not begin with us but with you, before the world was made; that you chose us in Christ, predestined us in love, and adopted us as your own. We confess how lightly we have held these things. Forgive us for Jesus’ sake, and give us grace to live as the adopted children we are: secure, grateful, humble, and pursuing holiness not to earn your favour but because we already have it. Make our homes, our churches, and our quiet hours echo with the praise of your glorious grace. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Ephesians 1:1–6
To the praise of his glorious grace
Before the world began, the Father chose us in Christ, predestined us for adoption through him, and graced us in the Beloved, so that every blessing we have is ours in Jesus and every breath we draw is owed to the praise of his glorious grace.
The full study, the summary handout, and more passages are at thebereantable.com — examine the Scriptures daily (Acts 17:11).
Keyboard: ← → slides · space play/pause · T transcript. Scripture quotations are from the ESV®.