This sublime epistle was written by the Holy Ghost through Paul, probably in the year of our Lord, 62. The Apostle had been a prisoner in Rome for at least twelve months and, while there, had been previously led by the Spirit to indict the epistle to Philemon, and the epistle to the Colossians. The account of his remarkable labors in Ephesus, a splendid and renowned city of Asia Minor near the seacoast, is given in the Acts of the Apostles. There we learn that after his stay in Corinth for a year and six months, he visited Ephesus (Acts 18:19-28), and after a brief sojourn took his departure, with the promise of returning. This promise he fulfilled at the beginning of his third missionary journey, and remained "by the space of two years; so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks." Acts 19:10.
The effect of his preaching in the power of the Holy Ghost was so great, that the idolatrous worship practiced in the famous temple of Diana was threatened with extinction. One Demetrius, who earned his living by the sale of silver shrines, brought it as a charge against him in a public assembly, "that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that they be no gods, which are made with hands"; "so mightily grew the word of God and prevailed." The uproar that followed caused the Apostle to depart into Macedonia, but on his last visit to Jerusalem, "he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church" to meet him on the coast. The touching farewell address which he delivered to them presents a lovely portrait of a faithful gospel minister, and can scarcely be read at this day by a true Christian without tears (Acts 20:16-38).
Then came the arrest in Jerusalem, the two years' imprisonment in Caesarea, the perilous voyage to Rome, the confinement there for more than a year, awaiting his trial, when his heart was stirred by the Spirit of God to write to the beloved Ephesians in the loftiest strains of divine revelation. In none of his other epistles does he soar to such heights, or make known such wondrous truth, showing that he must have carried their thoughts over a magnificent range in his preaching to them, and that they had been prepared by the diligent study of God’s Word for the unfolding of the deep things brought to view in the epistle.
Christ the measure of the believer's standing and blessing, is the general subject, or as it may be put in another form, Christ in the believer, the believer in Christ, and the result manifested in the daily life. The expression, "in Christ," or its equivalent occurs twenty-eight times in the first chapter, and this is the key-note to the epistle, which may be divided as follows. First, God's eternal and electing love to us individually (Ch. 1). Second, what we were when God so loved us (Ch. 2). Third, God's love to us corporately, Christ and the Church (Ch. 3). Fourth, our walk toward the Church in view of this love and unity (Ch. 4:1-16). Fifth, our walk toward Christ, in view of His love and of our union with Him (Ch. 4:17-32; 5:1-21). Sixth, the relative duties of husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants, springing out of relation to Him (Ch. 5:22-33; 6:1-9). Seventh, we are to maintain our high standing, clad in the whole armor of God (Ch. 6:10-24).
The thoughts that crowd upon the mind in the perusal of the epistle are altogether too numerous and too great for utterance, and it should be studied verse by verse, and word by word. Thus in the first chapter we have election, redemption, inheritance, the Spirit as the seal, as the earnest, God's calling, the body of Christ; it involves His sovereign choice, adoption, our acceptance, forgiveness, hope, resurrection, and reigning.
In the second chapter we have our death, captivity, misery, guilt, ruin, helplessness, and low estate, set over against life, liberty, God's mercy, grace, love, strength, and our sitting together with Christ in the heavenlies. Gentile sinners are described as uncircumcised, without Christ, aliens, strangers, without hope, without God in the world, but believers are made as nigh by the blood of Christ to God as He is, for He is so entirely our peace, it may be truly said that He brought it, He made it, He preached it, He gives it, He preserves it, He is the source of it, He is the channel by which it is conveyed.
In the third chapter the mystery is not Christ, nor the Church, but Christ and the Church, which leads the Apostle into a contemplation of His love that is like an ocean without a bottom and without a shore. He conducts our thoughts into infinity, and abruptly stops. But such love should make manifest the unity of the saints, secure their personal loyalty and holiness, and dignify and sanctify every relation of life, as set forth in the remainder of the epistle.
It is sad to know that, years afterward, a church honored with such a revelation was rebuked by our Lord, because it had left its first love (Rev. 2:1-7), and started that downward course of the professing Christian body, that is now fast hastening to a shameful and melancholy end. The candlestick has long been removed out of its place in Ephesus, and the most advanced saint will walk in darkness, unless he keeps his eye singly and steadily fixed upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
J. Brookes