Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul's loving greeting is addressed to the saints at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus, asking that grace and peace come to them from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace are spoken to those who are in Christ, not to souls outside Him, and to those striving to do God's will. The grace and peace promised are for all who accept Christ as personal Saviour and come to Him trusting in Him, and through faith in Him they may become one with God.
Grace is God's free favor and free gift to undeserving people, given because they have sinned, and toward those who respond to Christ's drawing He adopts them as obedient children, providing through the Saviour redemption, regeneration, and heirship with Christ. God loved people before they loved Him, and Christ died for them while they were still sinners, making full provision for redemption. Sinless angels have never needed grace, while God sends grace in search of people and gives it to those who hunger for it, not because they are worthy but because they are unworthy, so their need assures them they may receive it.
Peace comes from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, while sin destroys peace and self-will and uncontrolled passions leave people without rest that human strength cannot overcome. Those who turn to Jesus for help find deliverance, for Christ's grace reconciles them to God, subdues enmity and strife, and brings rest to the heart. By renouncing sin and receiving Christ's love, people share in heavenly peace, live in peace with God and with others, and spread peace through a holy life that leads others to God, and this peace is evidence of connection with heaven and of being children of God.
The verse opens repeated assurances of acceptance running through the whole first chapter, to be studied and claimed in all their depth and fulness. Joined to the verses that follow, it promises blessing with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, choosing in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blame before Him in love, predestination to adoption as children by Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of His will, acceptance in the Beloved to the praise of the glory of His grace, redemption through His blood and forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, and the making known of the mystery of His will. The verse sets forth part of the privileges of the Christian and, with the rest of the opening of Ephesians, carries reliable judgment formed under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, giving pure, elevating, ennobling knowledge and holding precious instruction for every soul.
All success and effectiveness depend on Christ, so faith must rest directly on Him rather than on earthly or human help, and this dependence means abiding in Christ, for as branches bear fruit only by remaining in the vine, believers bear fruit through Christ and apart from Him can do nothing. This faith in the power of God keeps converted men and women, including physicians and teachers, from leaning on the arm of the law and trusting in worldly powers. The first chapter to which the verse belongs shows the Lord's order for work, which means keeping full zeal, fervor and energy in saving souls ready to perish while not consuming all time and means in one line of work and neglecting God's vineyard as a whole. Spending everything on one class that will not honor God brings disproportion, sways the work into wrong lines, and fails to represent the refined, elevated character of the truth.
Paul's loving greeting is addressed to the saints at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus, asking that grace and peace come to them from God the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace are spoken to those who are in Christ, not to souls outside Him, and to those striving to do God's will. The grace and peace promised are for all who accept Christ as personal Saviour and come to Him trusting in Him, and through faith in Him they may become one with God.
Grace is God's free favor and free gift to undeserving people, given because they have sinned, and toward those who respond to Christ's drawing He adopts them as obedient children, providing through the Saviour redemption, regeneration, and heirship with Christ. God loved people before they loved Him, and Christ died for them while they were still sinners, making full provision for redemption. Sinless angels have never needed grace, while God sends grace in search of people and gives it to those who hunger for it, not because they are worthy but because they are unworthy, so their need assures them they may receive it.
Peace comes from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, while sin destroys peace and self-will and uncontrolled passions leave people without rest that human strength cannot overcome. Those who turn to Jesus for help find deliverance, for Christ's grace reconciles them to God, subdues enmity and strife, and brings rest to the heart. By renouncing sin and receiving Christ's love, people share in heavenly peace, live in peace with God and with others, and spread peace through a holy life that leads others to God, and this peace is evidence of connection with heaven and of being children of God.
The verse opens repeated assurances of acceptance running through the whole first chapter, to be studied and claimed in all their depth and fulness. Joined to the verses that follow, it promises blessing with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, choosing in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blame before Him in love, predestination to adoption as children by Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of His will, acceptance in the Beloved to the praise of the glory of His grace, redemption through His blood and forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, and the making known of the mystery of His will. The verse sets forth part of the privileges of the Christian and, with the rest of the opening of Ephesians, carries reliable judgment formed under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, giving pure, elevating, ennobling knowledge and holding precious instruction for every soul.
All success and effectiveness depend on Christ, so faith must rest directly on Him rather than on earthly or human help, and this dependence means abiding in Christ, for as branches bear fruit only by remaining in the vine, believers bear fruit through Christ and apart from Him can do nothing. This faith in the power of God keeps converted men and women, including physicians and teachers, from leaning on the arm of the law and trusting in worldly powers. The first chapter to which the verse belongs shows the Lord's order for work, which means keeping full zeal, fervor and energy in saving souls ready to perish while not consuming all time and means in one line of work and neglecting God's vineyard as a whole. Spending everything on one class that will not honor God brings disproportion, sways the work into wrong lines, and fails to represent the refined, elevated character of the truth.