Ephesians 1:3

Ephesians 1:3. Blessed. The word here used is applied to God only in the N. T., and with a few exceptions in the LXX. also. The primary signification is that of speaking or promising good; our blessing God is praise and thanksgiving; His blessing us includes doing us good also. Both senses occur in this verse.

Be. The verb is omitted in the original, as is usual in such doxologies. We may understand ‘be' as a wish, or as an imperative, i.e., a formal pronouncing of blessing. The latter is perhaps preferable.

The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; or, as some prefer to render this formula, ‘God and the Father,' etc. Either view is grammatically tenable, and to neither can there be any doctrinal objection (in Ephesians 1:17, we find: ‘the God of our Lord Jesus Christ'). But we prefer to join ‘of our Lord Jesus Christ' to both nouns. ‘To be God and to be Father are not ideas which exclude each other, nor do they appear as two, but as a unity. He is here praised who is not only the God or the Incarnate One, but is also the Father of this Lord, of the only begotten, whom he has given; thus is indicated the God-man by whom the blessings of redemption are mediated' (Braune).

Who blessed us. Active, efficient blessing is here spoken of, as summed up in one past act, that being the force of the tense used. It here ‘refers to the counsels of the Father as graciously completed in the redemption ' (Ellicott). ‘Us' means all Christians, as the context plainly shows.

In all (or, ‘every') spiritual blessing, i.e. every kind of blessing which can be termed ‘spiritual.' But ‘spiritual' in the N. T. ‘always implies the working of the Holy Spirit, never bearing merely our modern inaccurate sense of spiritual as opposed to bodily' (Alford). Comp. on Romans 7:14. The Holy Spirit is the Agent in the bestowal of the ‘blessing,' and under it we include all the privileges spoken of in what follows.

In the heavenly places. Strictly speaking this defines the preceding phrase, ‘all spiritual blessing.' It has a local sense, but a broad and comprehensive one; ‘every spiritual blessing which we have received springs from a higher world, is to be sought in a heavenly region, and thence to be obtained' (Braune). Some refer it to the ‘heaven of grace' on earth, into which the believer is introduced; while the absence of any noun in the original has allowed many to supply ‘possessions' instead of ‘places.' But in all the other instances the local sense is the correct one (Ephesians 1:20; Ephesians 2:6; Ephesians 3:10; Ephesians 6:12); hence we prefer it here.

In Christ. Here, as always, the idea of fellowship is the prominent one; every spiritual blessing we have received, the heavenly places in which they are received, are ours, only through our fellowship with Christ. It seems to quality all that precedes, rather than any one phrase. In this section especially, the words ‘in Christ' form ‘the centre and heart-beat of the Apostle's view.' The thought recurs in varying forms eight times in this section alone. In this verse is suggested, what is afterwards unfolded, that Father, Son, and Spirit are concerned in the one blessing we receive.