A Paragraph of Prayer. The writer, who has been informed (by letter?) of the Christian faith and love of his correspondents, reciprocates their thanksgiving and prayers (Ephesians 1:15 f.); he beseeches God, the glorious Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, to bestow on them the Spirit, giver of wisdom, revealer in the knowledge of God (Ephesians 1:17); that the eyes of their hearts may be opened, so that they may know the hope implied in God's calling, the wealth of glory involved in God's inheritance in His people, and the overwhelming greatness of His power towards believers, as displayed in the working of His strong might wrought in Christ (Ephesians 1:18-20): whom God raised from the dead and made assessor of His own throne in the heavenly sphere, supreme over every rule, authority, power, and lordship, and over every existent or nameable being, whether in the present or in the future age (Ephesians 1:20 f.): all things God subjected beneath the feet of Christ, and gave Him as supreme Head to the Church which is His embodiment, the fulfilment of Him who in all things universally is being fulfilled (Ephesians 1:22 f.).
Ephesians 1:15 f. I also, having heard. cease not: the form of expression is such as would be used in replying to a letter: though this may be explained as a literary device. and which: follow mg.
Ephesians 1:16. making. prayers: cf. 1 Thessalonians 1:2; Romans 1:9; Philemon 1:4. The evidence of papyri found in Egypt shows that some such phrase in beginning a letter was a recognised usage of the time.
Ephesians 1:17. Beware of taking spirit in the modern weakened sense as an attitude of mind: the text means a teaching Spirit, not (as we might say) a teachable spirit or a wise disposition. Revelation or apocalypse is the correlative of mystery; the Divine secret needs a Divine unveiling; cf. Ephesians 3:3.
Ephesians 1:21. rule. dominion: cf. Colossians 1:16. These were all terms for celestial hierarchies and different angelic orders derived from the language of Jewish apocalypse. Cf. Enoch 61, And He will call on all the host of the heavens and all the holy ones above, and the host of God, the Cherubim, Seraphim, and Ophanim (i.e. wheels; cf. Ezekiel 1:15), and all the angels of principalities, and the Elect One (i.e. the Messiah) and the other powers on the earth and over the water on that day. every name that is named: a Hebraism. In Heb. idiom being called anything implies being that thing. Cf. Isaiah 9:6 and Enoch 48:3, where we read (of the Son of Man), Before the sun and the signs were created. his name was named before the Lord of Spirits (i.e. he existed before the creation of the sun and stars). So here the meaning will be every being that exists. this world. that which is to come: the familiar eschatological antithesis. For world read age (mg.).
Ephesians 1:22 f. the church which is his body: cf. 1 Corinthians 12:12; 1 Corinthians 12:27. The phrase emphasizes: (a) the organic unity of all Christians in Christ; (b) the thought of the Church as the organ whereby the life of the risen Christ now operates, the present embodiment of Christ on earth. the fulness.. filleth: read, the fulfilment of him that is being fulfilled. The word translated that filleth (pleroumenou) is really a passive participle: and the thought is apparently that Christ, as manifested in the Church, awaits His fulfilment in the completion of the Divine purpose.