Ephesians 1:2

Gracebe to you, and peace So in the opening words of Rom., 1 Cor., 2 Cor., Gal., Phil., Col., 1 Thess., 2 Thess., Philem., 1 Pet., 2 Pet., and Rev. In the Pastoral Epistles, and in 2 John, the remarkable addition "mercy" appears; in Jude, "mercy, peace, and love." In these salutations, "Grace" is all the free and loving favour of God in its spiritual efficacy; "Peace" is specially the complacency of reconciliation with which He regards His people, but so as to imply also its results inthem; repose, serenity of soul; spiritual happiness, in the largest sense. See further on Ephesians 6:23-24 below.

from God our Father To St Paul God is the Pater Nosterof Christians, in the inner sense of their union by faith with His Son. The Scriptures, while not ignoring a universal Fatherhood of God towards mankind, always tend to put into the foreground the Fatherhood and Sonship of special connexion; that of covenant, of grace, of faith. Among many leading passages see, in N. T., John 1:12; Romans 8:14, &c.; Galatians 3:26; 1 John 3:1-2.

andfrom the Lord Jesus Christ He, equally with His Father, is the Giver of eternal blessing, and the Lord of the soul. Incidental phrases of this kind form a testimony to the Proper Deity of the Saviour weightier, if possible, than even that of direct dogmatic passages. They indicate the drift of the main current of apostolic belief. See further on Ephesians 3:19 below.