Ephesians 1:1-10
Chapter 1
Greeting
I Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by God’s will, to the saints in Ephesus, to you who share the Christian faith:receive grace and peace from God our Father, and from Jesus, the Lord.
Blessings
Blessed be God the Father of Christ Jesus our LORD,
who, in Christ, has blessed us from heaven with every spiritual blessing.
God chose us in Christ before the creation of the world,
to be holy, and without sin in his presence.
From eternity, he has destined us in love,
to be his adopted sons and daughters through Christ Jesus,
thus fulfilling his free and generous will.
This goal suited him:
that his loving-kindness, which he granted us in his beloved,
might finally receive all glory and praise.
In him we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of our trespasses
according to the riches of his grace,
that he lavished on us.
In all wisdom and insight,
he has made known to us his mysterious design,
in accordance with his loving-kindness set forth in Christ
as a plan for the fullness of time,
to gather up all things in him,
things in heaven and things on earth.
Commentaries
Greeting.
The letter is addressed to the “consecrated,” or saints, a title referring to believers called to be part of God’s holy people. The greeting is as usual: “Grace and peace,” with all the new meaning that Christians have already given to the word peace: the salvation that comes freely from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessings.
This passage, one of the most challenging to translate in the entire New Testament, should be heard during the assembly’s prayer rather than just read. It reveals the wonder of God’s salvation plan, which is like a “dialogue of love” among the three divine persons, who, emerging from the vast horizon of eternity, overflow into the creation of the world and humanity, and reveal themselves in history “in the fullness of time” (10), through the person of Christ.