Homilies on Ephesians 1

'Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.'

'Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.'

Behold, the word 'through' he has assigned to the Father.

What then? Shall we call Him inferior? By no means.

'To the saints,' he says, 'which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.'

Behold, he calls them saints—men who had wives and children and households and servants.

That it is these whom he thus addresses is plain from the end of the Epistle, as when he says:

'Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands';

and again, 'Children, obey your parents';

and, 'Servants, obey your masters.'

Let us consider how great is the sloth that now prevails, and how scarce are the things of virtue, and how great was then the abundance of the virtuous—so great that even men of the world were called saints and faithful.

'Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.'

He spoke of grace, and he called God Father;

for this is a proof of that grace.

How so? Hear him saying elsewhere:

'And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.'

For it was for our sake that Christ came to be, and was seen in the flesh.

'Blessed be God,' he says, 'even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.'

Behold, He is God of the One who was made flesh.

But if you will not have it so, then He is Father of God the Word.

'Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.'

Here he is hinting at the Jewish blessing.

For that too was indeed a blessing, but it was not a spiritual one.

For what did it say? 'May God bless you.'

He will bless the fruit of your womb, and He will bless your going in and your going out.

But here it is not so; rather, what does it say? 'With every spiritual blessing.'

For what is yet lacking to you? You have become immortal, you have become free, you have become a son, you have become righteous, you have become a brother, you have become a joint-heir; you reign together with Him, you are glorified together with Him.

How shall He not, with Him, also freely give us all things? Your first-fruits is worshipped by angels, by the Cherubim, by the Seraphim.

What is yet lacking? 'With every spiritual blessing.'

For this reason He set aside all those earthly things when He said, 'In the world you shall have tribulation,' thus leading us on to these heavenly ones.

For just as those who cling to carnal things were unable to give ear to spiritual things,

so too those who would obtain spiritual things cannot attain to them, unless they first withdraw from the carnal ones.

What is 'a spiritual blessing in the heavenly places'? Not upon the earth, he says, as it was among the Jews: 'You shall eat the good things of the land.'

Into a land flowing with milk and honey.

God will bless your land.

But here there is nothing of the sort; rather, what? 'He that loves Me will keep My commandments, and I and the Father will come to him, and will make Our abode with him.'

Whoever hears these My words and does them shall be likened to a prudent man, who built his house upon the rock; and the winds blew, and the rivers came, and beat against that house, and it fell not;

for it had been founded upon the rock.

And what is the rock, if not the heavenly things, which are above all change? 'For whoever shall confess Me before men,' He says, 'him will I also confess before My Father who is in the heavens.'

And, 'Whoever shall deny Me, him will I also deny.'

And again, 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.'

And again, 'Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.'

And again, 'Blessed are you who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for your reward is great in the heavens.'

Do you see how everywhere it is the heavens, nowhere the earth nor the things upon the earth? And again, 'Our commonwealth exists in the heavens, from whence also we await the Saviour, the Lord Jesus.'

And again, 'Not minding the earthly things, but the things in the heavens.'

That is to say, this blessing was through Christ Jesus, not through Moses.

So that we differ not only in the quality of the blessing, but also in the Mediator, just as he says also in the Epistle to the Hebrews:

And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house, as a servant, for a testimony of the things to be spoken; but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house are we.

Even as He also chose us in Him, he says, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before Him.

But what he says means something like this:

Through Him by whom He blessed us, through Him also He chose us.

He Himself, then, will give us those things there; He Himself is the Judge, and He will say:

'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.'

And again: 'Where I am, I will that these also may be.'

And in nearly all his Epistles he is at pains to show this: that the things concerning us are not something new, but were thus shaped from the beginning, not out of any afterthought, but were so ordered and foreordained.

And this too is a mark of great providential care.

What does it mean, 'In Him He chose us'? Through faith in Him, he says, Christ accomplished this, before we came into being — or rather, before the world was founded.

And well did he say 'foundation' (katabolē), showing it as something cast down from some great height.

For great and unspeakable is the height of God —

not in respect of place, but in the utter remoteness of His nature; and great is the distance between creature and Creator.

Let the heretics be ashamed when they hear these things.

And for what did He choose us? 'That we should be holy and blameless before Him.'

Therefore, lest, on hearing 'He chose us,' you should suppose that faith alone suffices, he adds the manner of life as well:

For this reason, he says, He chose us, and to this end, that we should be holy and blameless.

He chose the Jews also once upon a time.

How? This nation, he says, He chose out of the nations.

But if men, when they choose, choose what is best, how much more does God.

And to have been chosen is a proof both of God's love for mankind and of their own virtue; for assuredly He chose them as approved.

for assuredly He chose them as tried and approved.

He Himself made us holy, but we must also remain holy.

He is holy who partakes of the faith;

he is blameless who pursues a life beyond reproach.

But he does not simply require holiness and blamelessness, but that we appear such 'before Him.'

For there are those who are holy and blameless — but only reckoned so by men — who are like whitewashed tombs, like those clad in the fleeces of sheep.

But it is not such that He seeks, but such as the Prophet speaks of:

'And according to the cleanness of my hands.'

What kind of holiness? He seeks the holiness that is before His eyes, which the eye of God beholds.

He has spoken of their good deeds, and again he ascends to grace, and says:

For this comes not from labors nor from good deeds, but from love — yet not from love alone, but also from our own virtue.

For if indeed it were from love alone, all would have had to be saved;

but if again it were from our own virtue alone, then His coming would be superfluous, along with all that has been dispensed.

But it is neither from love alone, nor from our own virtue, but from both together.

For 'He chose us,' he says;

and he who chooses knows what it is that he chooses.

'In love,' he says, 'having predestined us.'

For virtue would have saved no one, had love not been present.

For tell me, what benefit would Paul have gained, what would he have displayed, had He not called him from above and, loving him, drawn him to Himself? And besides, to be counted worthy of so many gifts was of love, not of our own virtue.

For that we became virtuous, and believed, and drew near — this too was of Him who called, though it was also ours in part;

but that, having drawn near, we were counted worthy of such great honors, so as to be led at once from enmity into adoption — this was of love truly surpassing.

'In love,' he says, 'having predestined us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto Himself.'

Do you see how nothing is apart from Christ? how nothing is apart from the Father? The one predestined, the other brought near.

And he sets these things down to exalt what has taken place, just as elsewhere too he says:

'And not only so, but we also glory through our Lord Jesus Christ.'

For great indeed were the gifts given, but they become far greater in that they were given through Christ;

since He sent not one of the servants to the servants, but the Only-begotten Himself.

'According to the good pleasure,' he says, 'of His will.'

That is, because He vehemently willed it.

His desire, as one might say, is this very thing;

for everywhere 'good pleasure' means the will that takes precedence.

For there is also another will;

for instance, a first will, that sinners should not perish;

a second will, that those who have become evil should perish.

For it is not necessity that punishes them, but will.

Such a thing may be seen in Paul's case also, as when he says:

'I would that all men were even as I myself';

and again, 'I will that the younger women marry, bear children.'

By 'good pleasure,' then, he means the first will, the vehement will, the will accompanied by desire, the fixed determination;

for I shall not refuse to use even a more common word for the sake of clarity to the simpler folk;

for thus we too, when signifying the intensity of the will, say, 'according to our fixed resolve.'

He earnestly longs, He vehemently desires our salvation.

For what reason, then, does He so love us, and whence does He thus cherish us? From goodness alone;

for grace is of goodness.

For this reason he says, 'He predestined us unto adoption,' willing it, and vehemently purposing this, that the glory of His grace might be shown.

'According to the good pleasure of His will,'

he says, 'unto the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He made us gracious in the Beloved.'

'That the glory of His grace might be shown,' he says, 'wherein He made us gracious in the Beloved.'

Therefore, if He made us gracious unto this end — unto the praise of the glory of His grace, and that He might show forth His grace — let us abide in it.

What is this? That someone should praise Him? that someone should glorify Him? we, angels, archangels, nay all creation? And what is this to Him? Nothing.

For what reason, then, does He desire to be praised and glorified by us? That our love toward Him might become more fervent within us.

For He desires nothing that is ours, but only our salvation—not service, not glory, nor anything else; and it is for this that He does all things.

For he who praises and marvels at the grace bestowed upon himself will become more attentive and more earnest.

'Wherewith He hath made us gracious,' he says.

He did not say, 'Which He freely bestowed,' but, 'He made us gracious';

that is, He not only delivered us from our sins, but also made us objects of love.

It is as if someone were to take a man scabby, wasted by pestilence and disease, by old age, poverty, and famine, and at once make him comely and young, surpassing all men in beauty, sending forth a dazzling radiance from his cheeks and eclipsing the beams of the sun with the glances of his eyes; then were to establish him in the very flower of his prime, and after this to clothe him with purple and diadem and all the royal adornment.

In just this way He has fashioned our soul, and made it beautiful, desirable, and lovely.

For angels long to look upon such a soul, and archangels, and all the other powers.

Thus He has made us both full of grace, and desirable to Himself.

'For the King shall desire thy beauty,' he says.

For consider what harmful things we uttered before this, and what gracious words we now utter.

No longer do we marvel at wealth, no longer at things here below, but at things heavenly and the things that are in the heavens.

Do we not say that that child is charming which, together with the bloom of its body, has also much grace in its words? Such are the faithful.

See what things the initiated utter.

For what could be more gracious than that mouth which sends forth those wondrous words, and with a pure heart and pure lips partakes of so great a mystical table with much splendor and boldness? What is more gracious than the words by which we renounce the devil? By which we join ourselves to Christ? Than that confession which precedes the washing? Than that which follows the washing? Let us consider, as many of us as have corrupted our baptism, and let us groan, that we may be able to receive it again.

'Through the Beloved,' he says, 'in whom we have redemption through His blood.'

How? Not only in that He gave the Son—a wondrous thing—but also in that He did so in this manner, so that the Beloved Himself was slain.

He gave the Beloved on behalf of those who were hated.

If, while we hated Him and were enemies, He even gave the Beloved—

what then will He not do for the future, when we have been reconciled to Him through grace? 'The forgiveness,' he says, 'of our trespasses.'

Having first spoken of adoption, and sanctification, and our being blameless, he then speaks of the Passion—not diminishing it, nor bringing his discourse down from the great to the small, but ascending from the small to the great.

For nothing is so great as that the blood of God should be poured out for us;

and this is greater than the adoption and the other gifts—that He did not even spare the Son.

For it is a great thing to be forgiven our sins, but greater still that this should come through the blood of the Master.

For that this is by far greater than all things, observe how here also he cried aloud, saying:

'According to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us.'

For that was riches indeed, but this is far more so.

'Which He lavished,' he says, 'upon us.'

Both 'riches' and 'He lavished,' that is, it was poured out unspeakably.

It is not possible to set forth in words the things which we have experienced through the works themselves.

For it is riches, riches abounding, riches not of men, but of God,

so that from every side it is impossible to describe it.

And showing how He gave it unto abundance, 'In all wisdom and prudence,' he says, 'having made known unto us the mystery of His will';

that is, having made us wise and prudent with the wisdom that is real, the prudence that is real.

For he says that He tells us His mysteries.

'Of His will,' he says;

as one might say, He made known unto us the things that are in His heart.

For this is the mystery that is full of all wisdom and prudence.

For what will you name as equal to this wisdom? Those who were worthy of nothing—these He found a way to raise up unto riches.

What is equal to this contrivance? The enemy, the hated one—this very man has suddenly been raised on high.

And not this only, but also at this particular season;

and this too was a mark of wisdom, even that it was through the cross.

It would be a long discourse here to show how this was of wisdom, and how He made us wise.

Wherefore again, 'According to His good pleasure,' he says, 'which He purposed in Him.'

That is, this He desired, this He travailed for, that He might be able to declare unto us the mystery.

And of what sort is this? That He wills to seat man on high.

And this came to pass, 'unto a dispensation of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth, in Him.'

The things in heaven, he says, had been severed from the things on earth; they had not one Head.

For according to the principle of creation there was indeed one God;

but according to the principle of appropriation, no longer so, since the error of the Greeks had been poured abroad, and they had been severed from obedience to Him.

'Unto a dispensation,' he says, 'of the fullness of the times.'

He called it the fullness of the times.

See how precisely he speaks.

And having shown the beginning to be from the Father—the purpose, the counsel, the first impulse—and the fulfillment through the works to be through Christ, nowhere does he name Him a servant.

'He chose us,' he says, 'in Him, having foreordained us unto adoption through Jesus Christ unto Himself, and unto the praise of the glory of His grace, in whom we have redemption through His blood, which He purposed in Him unto a dispensation of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ.'

And nowhere did he call Him a servant. But if the 'in' and the 'through' belong to a servant, observe whither he turns the matter.

For beginning the Epistle at once, he said, 'Through the will of the Father.'

The Father willed, he says; the Son wrought.

But neither, because the Father willed, is the Son excluded from the working;

nor, because the Son wrought, is the Father deprived of the willing; but all things are common to the Father and the Son.

'For all Mine are Thine,' He says, 'and Thine are Mine.'

And the fullness of the times was His presence.

Since then He had done all things both through angels, and through prophets, and through the law, and nothing more came of it, but man was in danger of having come into being in vain, of having been brought forth in vain, or rather even unto evil, as all were perishing utterly, and in greater measure than at the time of the flood, He found this dispensation which is through grace, that man might not have come into being in vain nor to no purpose.

This he calls the fullness of the times, and wisdom.

How? Because at the very time when they were most about to perish, then were they saved.

What does 'to sum up' mean? To knit together.

Nevertheless, let us be earnest to come near to the truth itself.

For among us, even in common usage, a 'summing up' is spoken of—both the compressing into a brief compass of things said at length, and the saying concisely of all things that are said through many words.

For the things dispensed through long ages He summed up in Himself, that is, He compressed together.

For finishing the work, and cutting it short in righteousness, He both comprehended those former things, and added others.

This is what 'recapitulation' means.

But there is also another thing that is being signified.

What is this? He set one head over all, both angels and men—namely Christ according to the flesh.

That is, He gave one head to the angels and one to men: to the latter, Christ according to the flesh; to the former, God the Word.

As one might say of a house that has some parts decayed and others sound.

He rebuilt the house—that is, he made it stronger, he laid a stronger foundation beneath it.

So too here He brought all under one head.

For thus would there be union, thus an exact conjoining—when all are brought under one head, having some necessary bond from above.

Having therefore been deemed worthy of so great a gift, so great an honor, so great a love toward mankind, let us not put to shame the One who has done us good, let us not make so great a grace of no effect, but let us display an angelic life, angelic virtue and conduct.

Yes, I beg and implore you, that all these things may not become for us a judgment or a condemnation, but rather an enjoyment of good things.

May it be granted to us all to obtain these, by the grace and love toward mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, dominion, and so forth.