Ephesians 1:4 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

In him— That is, in Christ. See the preceding verse, which, together with this, makes up the following sense: "As it was in consideration of Christ alone that God heretofore, before the foundation of the world, designed us Gentiles to be his people; so now that the Messiah is come, all the blessings and benefits which we are to receive in his heavenly kingdom, are laid up in him, and to be had only by our faith and dependance on him, without any respect to the law of Moses." The Apostle cannot be understood to intimate here, that every one of the persons who belonged to the Church of the Ephesians, or elsewhere to other Christian societies, in the bonds of external communion, was, by a particular decree of God, personally chosen to eternal life: for he could have no evidence that this was the case with regard to each, without such a revelation as none, we believe, ever pretended to, and as would very ill agree with other passages relating to the apostacy of some, who once made a very forward profession; and with the many exhortations and cautions which every where occur in his writings. We conclude, therefore, that he speaks of whole societies in general, as consisting of saints and believers, because this was the predominant character. The word rendered foundation is spoken of the foundation of a building, and is here applied to the creation of the world. The Jews date their election from Abraham; but, in the divine dispensations, Christ was prior to Abraham; and it is declared in other places of the New Testament, as well as this, that, even before the creation of Adam, the divine mercy had provideda remedy for his fall. In love means, particularly here, "to all the saints," as appears from Ephesians 1:15.—comp. also Colossians 1:4. Love is very often insisted on in this Epistle; the reason of which is, perhaps, to intimate, that now, when the partition wall was broken down, (see ch. Ephesians 2:14; Ephesians 2:22,) it was of the highest importance to cultivate mutual affection, without any regard to the Jewish or Gentile character.