Bible workout - Ephesians One
Ephesians: Knowing Who You Are Before You Learn What To Do
Many Christians spend years trying to live right before they truly understand what has already happened to them spiritually. The book of Ephesians was written to correct that exact problem.
The letter was written by the Apostle Paul around AD 60–62 while he was under house arrest in Rome. It belongs to the group often called the “prison letters,” written in the same period as Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon. Paul is not writing as a distant theologian but as a spiritual father and church planter helping believers become stable and mature.
The recipients were believers in and around Ephesus — a large Roman port city in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). It was a center of trade, culture, idolatry, and occult practices, and the church there existed in strong spiritual opposition (Acts 19). Many of the believers were Gentile converts, along with Jewish believers, and a number of them had never personally met Paul. This helps explain the tone of the letter: less correction, more foundation.
Paul’s purpose is clear. He wants believers to know who they are in Christ, to unite Jews and Gentiles into one church, and to move Christians from conversion to maturity and then to holy living.
The structure of the book is deliberate:
Chapters 1–3 — Doctrine (what God has done)
Our position, salvation, inheritance, and the mystery of the church.
Chapters 4–6 — Duty (how we now live)
Character, relationships, conduct, and spiritual warfare.
Romans explains salvation. Ephesians explains the new life created by salvation.
The repeated language in the letter reveals its emphasis: “in Christ,” grace, body, unity, heavenly places, walk, and mystery. Ephesians teaches what God has made you, where you now stand spiritually, and how you must live because of it.
What We Have Seen So Far — Ephesians 1:1–14
The first fourteen verses form one long statement in the original Greek. Paul is not giving scattered ideas; he is constructing the Christian identity from its foundation.
1. Already Blessed
Paul begins by saying believers are already blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. This is past tense. The Christian life does not begin by trying to earn God’s blessing — it begins by discovering the blessing that already exists in Christ.
Those blessings are in “heavenly places.” That means they are secure. They exist above principalities, powers, and dominions. No devil, no sin, and no spiritual opposition can reach what God has established in Christ.
2. Chosen and Made Holy
Paul teaches that God chose us before the foundation of the world. This does not present a cold doctrine — it reveals intention. God did not stumble into saving you; He purposed it.
The goal of that choice is important:
God is working so that we would be holy and blameless.
Holiness is not first a human achievement. It is a divine work. God is not waiting for us to make ourselves holy; He is actively making His people holy.
3. Adoption — God Wanted You
Paul says we were predestined to adoption. Adoption is relational language. Salvation is not merely legal forgiveness — it is family placement.
And the Bible says He did this according to the good pleasure of His will.
God does not redeem reluctantly. He enjoys redeeming. He takes pleasure in saving people.
Christians sometimes think God forgives like a judge forced to pardon. Scripture says the opposite. God delights in showing grace so that His grace would be seen as glorious.
4. Accepted in the Beloved
Paul then makes a powerful statement: we are accepted in the Beloved.
This means rejection has been healed at its root.
Our acceptance is not based on performance, history, personality, or success — it is based on Christ Himself. God accepts us because we are in His Son.
He has forgiven us. He has redeemed us. The Christian is not trying to become accepted; the Christian lives from acceptance.
5. Redemption and the Mystery Revealed
Through Christ’s blood we have redemption and forgiveness of sins. But Paul goes further — he speaks about a mystery now revealed.
The mystery is God’s redemption plan:
How God would redeem mankind
How Gentiles would be brought in
How Jews and Gentiles would become one people
How ultimately everything would be gathered together in Christ
At the end of time God intends to restore all things in Christ. In simple terms: God wants His creation back.
This creates a mission for believers. We participate in redemption on a smaller scale. A man in Christ begins redeeming what sin damaged — his marriage, his family, his thinking, and his stewardship. What was once under sin is brought under the obedience of Christ.
6. Trusting Christ — Our Response
Throughout these verses Paul repeatedly says: in Him, by Him, through Him, for Him. Nothing is credited to human effort.
Only in verse 12 do we see our role:
we trusted and believed.
The Christian work is faith — trusting that what Christ has done is enough. We enter Christ by believing Him.
Paul’s Prayer — Ephesians 1:15–23
After establishing identity, Paul prays. This is important: information alone is not enough.
He prays for a spirit of wisdom and revelation and that the eyes of their understanding would be enlightened. He wants believers to know:
The hope of His calling
The riches of His inheritance in the saints
The exceeding greatness of His power toward us
Paul is saying God’s power cannot be grasped by mental agreement alone. It requires spiritual revelation. Christ is too vast to be understood by intellect only.
He describes that power: it is the same power that raised Christ from the dead. That resurrection power now works in believers.
Christ is seated above every principality and power, and all authority is under His feet. The church is His body. Therefore, in Christ, believers stand above the dominion of sin and spiritual opposition because they are united to the One who rules over all.
Living in the Reality of Ephesians 1
This chapter is a treasury of spiritual truth. But it only changes a life when it moves from information to revelation.
To walk in what Ephesians 1 teaches:
Read the Word
Meditate on the Word
Pray for revelation
Speak these truths over your life
You do not become blessed by effort.
You discover blessing by knowing Christ.