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, (Ephesians 1:3). I once heard a preacher remark on the opening verse to his congregants, “Your mansion you’ve been waiting for is in the heavenly places. You simply have to pull…

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, (Ephesians 1:3). First, a reminder of the context of this verse. Paul starts his letter to the Ephesians by reminding them who they are (saints, faithful and people who are united with…

In this article we come onto the last of three descriptions that Paul uses in Ephesians 1:1 to describe who a Christian is – “in Christ”. A cursory look at the New Testament will reveal that this description is one of the commonest that the New Testament writers use to convey the glorious state of…

In our previous post we considered the first of three terms that Paul uses to describe who a Christian is. In this article, we will go on to look at the second — “faithful”. The proper meaning of the root word used here is that of one who exercises faith or is a believer — someone…

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus:” (Eph 1:1). How easy it is for us to glide over Paul’s introductory salutation to the Christians at Ephesus when we read an epistle like this! There is the temptation for…