The greatest need of professing Christians today is a better, deeper, and fuller knowledge of Christ. The Christian life can be described as getting to know God better every day. Every Christian should regularly? daily? read the Word of God. We should find time for quiet time or personal devotion. For over 20 years I have been using commentaries in my devotions. The blessings derived from the commentaries is overwhelming. I am writing this commentary to share some of those blessings and lessons I have learned over the years. This verse-by-verse commentary is different from others in two respects. First, it is brief while some commentaries are unnecessarily wordy and verbose. Second, it is Pentecostal in outlook. This implies that we generally adhere to the doctrine of biblical inerrancy and adopt a literalist approach to the interpretation of the Bible. Ephesians ranks very high among the theological literature of the Christian Church. It has been regarded by some as the believer's bank and the treasure house of the Bible. It is perhaps the grandest of all Paul

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Ephesians

A Pentecostal CommentaryBy Matthew N. O. Sadiku

AuthorHouse

Copyright � 2012 Dr. Matthew N. O. Sadiku
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4520-9894-4

Preface................................................................vii1. Greetings (1:1-2)...................................................32. The Will of the Father (1:3-6)......................................73. The Work of the Son (1:7-12)........................................134. The Witness of the Holy Spirit (1:13-14)............................185. The First Prayer for the Saints (1:15-23)...........................216 The Believer's Past, Present, and Future (2:1-7).....................287. Salvation by Grace (2:8-10).........................................338. The Unity of the Body (2:11-22).....................................389. The Mystery of Christ (3:1-13)......................................4510. The Second Prayer for the Saints (3:14-21).........................5311. Walking Worthy of our Calling (4:1-6)..............................6312. Gifts from the Ascended Christ (4:7-11)............................7113. Building Christ's Body (4:12-16)...................................7714. Walking in Newness of Life (4:17-24)...............................8315. The Principles of New Life (4:25-32)...............................8916. Imitating our Father (5:1-7).......................................9817. Walking in the Light (5:8-14)......................................10418. Walking in Wisdom (5:15-20)........................................10819. The Christian Family (I) (5:21-24).................................11320. The Christian Family (II) (5:25-33)................................11821. Children and Parents (6:1-4).......................................12422. Servants and Masters (6:5-9).......................................12923. Spiritual Warfare (6:10-12)........................................13524. The Armor of God (6:13-18).........................................13925. Conclusion (6:19-24)...............................................147Selected Bibliography..................................................151Index..................................................................153

Chapter One

Greetings

Ephesians 1:1-2

The Author

Verse 1a: Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.

1 Greetings are very important in most cultures. For example, Africans regard someone who does not greet as rude. Paul takes the time to greet his readers in a manner that communicates both his love and care for them.

Paul was originally known as Saul (Acts 7:58). He was a Jew, from the tribe of Benjamin (Philippians 3:5) and may have been named after Saul, the first king of Israel. Saul is a Hebrew name which means "prayed or asked for." "Paul" is a fully Romanized name (meaning "small") which is perhaps reflective of his self-designation as the "least of the apostles." The Lion of the tribe of Judah had cut him down to size. The change in name from Saul to Paul took place in Acts 13:9.

Saul of Tarsus became Paul the apostle. Paul saw himself uniquely as the apostle to the Gentiles. An apostle (apostolos, Greek) means "one who is sent." It is what we would call a missionary or an ambassador sent out by one's native country. According to Harold Hoehner, "apostle was an official delegate of Jesus Christ commissioned for the specific tasks of proclaiming authoritatively the message in oral and written form and of establishing and the building up of Churches."

In the Bible, the word "apostle" is used in two different ways. First, it refers to each of the twelve apostles that Jesus called. To be an apostle in this sense, one must have been with the Lord in His earthly ministry and witnessed His resurrection. Second, there are apostles besides the twelve who were not with Jesus in His earthly ministry. These include Paul, Barnabas (Acts14:4,14), Matthias (Acts 1:26), James (the Lord's brother) (Galatians 1:19), Timothy and Silvanus (1 Thessalonians 1:1, 2:6).

When exactly did Paul become an apostle? We know that he was first called an apostle in Acts 14:14 but some believe that Paul became an apostle when he had an encounter with the Lord on the Damascus road (Acts 9). Since apostleship is a spiritual gift, the apostle could have received it at conversion. We know that His apostleship was not of his choosing or of his own merit. It was by the will of God. It was a calling, a vocation. Paul was convinced that God had a plan for his life. Are you?

Paul's reference to his apostleship served two purposes. First, it identified him as one on a commission from the Lord and one representing Him. In other words, he wanted to show that he was sent by Jesus. Second, it showed his authority to speak as a leader or as one representing the Lord.

The Audience

Verse 1b: To the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus

Paul uses two words to describe those he is addressing in the letter: saints and faithful. The word "saints" (hagioi, Greek) means "holy ones." The LXX (Septuagint) used the word for the people of Israel—God's chosen. A saint is one who has been set apart. Sainthood is not an accomplished perfection but a position that we have been given in Jesus Christ. "Every Christian is a saint and every saint is a Christain." You are a saint. You are a child of God. You have royal blood flowing through your veins. You may now have to learn to act and talk like a saint. People tend to become what they think they are.

The word "faithful" (pistos, Greek) means "trustworthy." It refers to our loyal commitment to maintain a good relationship with the Lord. "Believers" is probably a better translation. The saints and the faithful or believers refer to the same group. In togetherness, we are saints and faithful brethren.

The majority of surviving, oldest Greek manuscripts contain the words "in Ephesus." However, these words are missing from only three of them (Sinaiticus, Vaticanus, and a second-century papyrus). It may be that the letter was a circular intended to be read among the various Churches in the Ephesus area or Asia Minor.

The phrase "in Christ" occurs 35 times in Ephesians. Believers are in Ephesus and also in Christ. Every believer has a human address and a divine address. In other words, we operate in two spheres: the human and the divine, the visible and the invisible.

We are in Houston and in Christ.

We are in London and in Christ.

We are in Beijing and in Christ.

Believers today are people of dual citizenship. Though we live in this world, we belong to heaven, where our heavenly Father, our Savior, and our loved ones reside. As citizens of heavenly dominion, we hold all the rights and privileges that citizenship grants, although we are living in a "foreign" land. As Dermot McDonald rightly put it, "the believer has a heaven in which to breathe and an earth on which to live."

The Salutation

Verse 2: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Here Paul combines the greetings of the Western and Eastern worlds. He combines a Greek salutation (grace) with a Jewish salutation (peace). He juxtaposes grace and peace as coming from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace...

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