Ephesians 1:15 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Wherefore, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus That is, of your perseverance and increase therein. For the apostle's manner of speaking does not imply that he received by report an account of their first believing in the Lord Jesus, and therefore that he wrote this epistle to them before he had been at Ephesus in person, or was personally acquainted with them. He wrote in the same terms to the Thessalonians, who were his converts, (1 Thessalonians 3:4; 1 Thessalonians 3:6,) and to his convert Philemon, Ephesians 1:4-5. Therefore, as his saying that he heard of the faith and love of the Thessalonians and of Philemon, does not mean that he was ignorant of these things till they were reported to him, but only that he had heard of their persevering in the true faith of the gospel, and in their love to the saints; so the faith of the Ephesians, which he says he had heard of, was not their first faith, or their conversion to Christianity, but their continued and increasing faith, evidencing itself by the fruit here spoken of. Love unto all the saints Namely, whether circumcised or uncircumcised. For, by praising the Ephesians for their love to all the saints, the apostle seems to intimate that they were free from that narrow, bigoted spirit, which prevailed in some other churches, where difference in opinion about the necessity of circumcision had interrupted love. I cease not In all my solemn addresses to God; to give thanks for you On account of your perseverance in the true faith of the gospel, and in your love to all Christ's disciples; making mention of you in my prayers So he did of all the churches, Colossians 1:9. That the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory Of which he is eternally and immutably possessed; from whom all glory proceeds, and to whom it returns; and whose glory shines in the face of Christ his beloved Son; or, as the expression might have been rendered, the glorious Father; may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation This Spirit, termed the Spirit of promise, (Ephesians 1:13,) they had already received, in a great measure, for he had sealed them, as is there signified, and was an earnest of their inheritance in their hearts; but the apostle here prays that the same Spirit might be still more largely communicated to them, revealing more fully the deep things of God, and rendering them still more wise in all matters that concerned their own salvation, and the salvation of others. In the knowledge of him Of Christ, of his person and offices, of his wonderful process in accomplishing the work of man's redemption; of his humiliation and exaltation, his grace and glory, which he termed, (Philippians 3:8,) the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord, for whom he had willingly suffered the loss of all things, and accounted them despicable, in comparison of this knowledge of him. Some commentators understand the clause as signifying the acknowledgment of him, namely, by professing faith in him and his gospel, whatever persecution such a profession might expose them to.