God's Letter To The Ephesians

By Roger Henri Trepanier

Every book of God’s word contains truth that is unique, which is also true in this letter from God. God begins by telling us all that He has done for believers in and through His Son, The Lord Jesus Christ, from eternity past and on into eternity to come. Then God closes His letter by calling on believers to live in accordance with the truth He has just made known! A great journey of discovery!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Roger Henri Trepanier
• Release date: Feb 27, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005690137

Roger Henri Trepanier

Roger Henri Trepanier is an evangelist, author, and counselor, who has been serving God on his field of service since 1999. One hundred and seven books have been published so far in five different series, all available in print format and as an eBook for any type of eBook reader. He is a widower with three adopted children, all now married.The author's two websites have been closed. To access the author's books, please type, "Roger Henri Trepanier, books" in any search engine. All the author's books are available in print and ebook formats for all devices.

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The Word Of God Library

God’s Letter

To The Ephesians

Copyright 2021 by Roger Henri Trepanier

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2021 by Roger Henri Trepanier

All Rights Reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the author. An exception is granted to a reviewer who wishes to quote a brief passage or two as part of a public review of this book.

Scripture taken from

THE NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE ®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

This book is dedicated to all believers on earth, especially those who may be waning in their faith in God as we wait for our time of glorification in these dark last days of the present age. May what God tells us at Hebrews 4:14 and 12:2, and also at Psalm 50:15 be a source of encouragement and comfort to us all:

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession… fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God… Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me.

CONTENTS

Introduction

GOD’S LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

SECTION 1

EPHESIANS 1 TO 3

Chapter 1

1:1-23

Chapter 2

2:1-22

Chapter 3

3:1-21

SECTION 2

EPHESIANS 4 TO 6

Chapter 4

1:1-32

Chapter 5

1:1-33

Chapter 6

1:1-24

Addendum A

The four ages of time

Addendum B

The two comings from Heaven to earth of God’s Son, The Lord Jesus Christ

Addendum C

Chosen of God for a purpose

Addendum D

The new creation of God in time

Addendum E

The raising of the nation of Israel by God in the second age of time

Addendum F

God’s rule through the believers of earth as His church in the third age of time

Addendum G

God’s resurrection program in time

Addendum H

The relation of apostles and prophets, and of evangelists and shepherd/teachers to elders in a local church

Addendum I

For those who may not as yet know God

Next Book

End pages

INTRODUCTION

This is the seventeenth book in the series titled, The Word of God Library. God is leading His servant to have a few commentaries published which are the result of over 40 years of study, combined with practical experience. And while these commentaries are expository in nature (that is, explained in some detail), they are still intended to be devotional, heartwarming, and as practical as possible, to help believers live out their faith in these last days of the present age.

This particular book, which is, God’s Letter To The Ephesians, has six chapters, which naturally divide into two sections, which have two aims, which God seeks to accomplish in giving us this letter, which was written down for us by the apostle Paul. In Ephesians Chapters 1 to 3 then, God pulls the curtain back and reveals to believers all that He has done for us in and through His Son, The Lord Jesus Christ, as a work of His grace and power alone, of what is in Heaven and spiritual in nature! Then in Ephesians Chapters 4 to 6, and in light of what God has revealed to believers in the first three chapters, God now asks believers to walk on earth by the supernatural life of God that He imparted to us at salvation through His Son by The Holy Spirit indwelling in our spirit!

And there are four things that we should be aware of at the outset. The first thing is that the Biblical text that God gave, and which makes up the letter to the Ephesians, will be included as part of the text of this book, so that the reader will not have to turn to the Bible to read that text. It will appear in italics. Then secondly, each chapter has been broken into smaller sections, which will begin with italicized text, with a brief explanation supplied as a help of what is covered in that particular section. And thirdly, whenever an added word appears in the Biblical text that was supplied by the translators from the original Greek into English as a help to the reader, it will be noted. Then fourthly, at times comments are supplied by the author, which will be in brackets in the text of God’s word as an additional help to the reader.

Then we are to also note that there is an Addenda at the back of the book with nine sections. In Addendum A, there is a brief outline of the four ages of time, for any reading the book who might not be familiar with this information. Then in Addendum B, there is a brief outline of the two comings from Heaven to earth in time of God’s Son, The Lord Jesus Christ, for any who may not be familiar with this information either. In Addendum C, we have, Chosen of God for a purpose, which deals with the subject of God choosing some for salvation in time from before creation took place. In Addendum D, we have The new creation of God in time, which a believer becomes in God’s sight at salvation. In Addendum E, we have an outline of how and why God raised up the nation of Israel during the second age of time. In Addendum F, we have an outline of God’s rule through all the believers of earth as His church in the third age of time. In Addendum G, we have an outline of God’s resurrection program in time. At Addendum H, we have a presentation of what the relation is in a local church between elders and those ministers referred to as apostles, as prophets, as evangelists, and as shepherd/teachers. And then in Addendum I, we have a presentation of the gospel, which is the good news that God gives in His word regarding His Son, The Lord Jesus Christ, for any readers who might not have as yet this vital personal relationship with God, through faith in His Son.

What should also be mentioned before closing this Introduction, because we are all somewhat curious by nature, is that after completing 21 years of formal education and then spending almost 28 years working in Project Engineering and Management in the Corporate offices of two large utility companies, God called His servant as a non-denominational evangelist in early 1999, and then sent him out over two thousand miles, away from family and friends, to the place of service God assigned, which is where His servant has been and is still serving Him as evangelist, author, and counselor. The author is a widower with three adopted children, all now married with a family of their own.

Please note the two websites listed below, which have been established for the purpose of interacting with readers and for gospel ministry:

http://www.pilgrimpathwaypublications.com

http://servantofmosthigh.com

And now my prayer is that God will richly bless you as you read this book, and greatly minister to your every need in your life, as only God can! To Him be all praise, honor, and glory, with thanksgiving, both now and forevermore! Amen.

SECTION 1

Ephesians chapters 1 to 3

God pulls the curtain back and reveals to believers all that He has done for us, of what is in Heaven and is spiritual in nature, in and through His Son, The Lord Jesus Christ, as a work of His grace and power alone!

CHAPTER ONE

Ephesians 1:1-23

Ephesians 1:1,2, God’s introductory comments, letting us know whom He has given this letter through, and also who the original recipients of this letter were

As we begin God’s letter to the Ephesians, we note that God has some introductory comments, as we now read at Ephesians 1:1,2, [1] Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus: [2] Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul is led of God to identify himself as having been chosen of God to write down this letter for us, since all the letters making up the Bible, both the Old Testament and New Testament portions of it, were given by God, noting for instance what God says at 2 Timothy 3:16, All Scripture is inspired by God (literally ‘God-breathed’) and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness…

Then Paul continues and says that he is an apostle of Christ Jesus, with the word apostle being Apostolos in the original Greek that this letter was written in when given by God through Paul, which word means ‘one sent forth.’ Paul was not one of the Twelve chosen by God’s Son while on earth at His first coming from Heaven to earth, since he was yet an unbeliever the whole time that God’s Son was on earth, not having come to faith in God’s Son, The Lord Jesus Christ, until God’s Son had returned to Heaven again in the ascension, after His death at the cross, His burial, and resurrection from the dead again. God tells us of the apostle Paul’s conversion experience starting at Acts 9, while he was still called Saul.

Then Paul is led of God to add that it was by the will of God that he had been made an apostle of God’s Son while on earth. In other words, this was not something that the apostle Paul sought for himself, but rather was a position that God had ordained he would have once he had become a child of God in salvation. Let us note what God says to a believer named Ananias at Acts 9:15 in part, regarding the apostle Paul, …he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel…

What God says in regards to the apostle Paul here is true of any position of leadership in God’s church on earth during the present third age of time, namely that one MUST be called of God, due to it being the will of God, before one serves God in such a position. One is never self-appointed to anything relating to God’s work. When we see those in leadership in the local church at Antioch in Syria place their hands on Saul (not officially called ‘Paul’ until Acts 13:9) at Acts 13:1-4, it was not that they were doing the appointing, but rather they were simply indicating, by the laying on of hands, that they were in agreement and identified with all that God was in the process of doing in the lives of the apostles’ Paul and Barnabas, since God had confirmed in their own spirit by The Holy Spirit that this was His will.

Then as God continues, we see that that this letter was being sent to the believers of the local church at Ephesus, here called saints by God, which simply means ‘holy ones,’ as those who have been cleansed of all sins by God and set apart to carry out His will only at salvation and who are now going on with God with no known unconfessed sins in their lives. Therefore, the word saint is a term that God uses for EVERY BELIEVER BAR NONE, after one has come to personally know God in salvation!

We should also note here that SOME of the early manuscripts of the New Testament do not have the words Ephesus at verse 1:1, although we will be taking the view in this book that this letter was indeed given by God for the local church at Ephesus, which was a city in Asia Minor, which is present day Turkey. We note from Acts 20:17 that there definitely was a local church at Ephesus, as we there read, From Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called to him the elders of the church. God also addresses the local church at Ephesus at Revelation 1:11, saying, Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea, and again at Revelation 2:1 in part, To the angel of the church in Ephesus write…

The reason that God gave this letter through the apostle Paul was due to the fact that he was likely the vessel that God used to bring the gospel to Ephesus, resulting in some people being saved, with a local church thereby springing up there. We see from Acts 18:19 that we have the first mention of the city of Ephesus in God’s word, this being when the apostle Paul first went there with two other believers, that being Aquila and his wife Priscilla, whom the apostle Paul left at Ephesus after ministering only a very short time there. We do see from Acts 18:24-26 that another believer named Apollos also came to Ephesus for a short while, while the apostle Paul was away. Then at Acts 19, we see the apostle Paul returning again to Ephesus and this time remaining there for more than two years.

In is interesting to note that as God continues His letter to the Ephesians at verse 1:1, He says to the believers there, who are faithful in Christ Jesus. This is an interesting comment by God here, Who is saying this through the apostle Paul around 60 AD. For what we are to further see here is that only thirty years later, around 90 AD, when God writes to the same local church through the apostle John, He there says at Revelation 2:4,5, But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place — unless you repent. The reference to their having left their first love here was in regards to having stopped living by the truth of God’s written word!

After God’s Son had returned to Heaven again in the ascension forty days after His resurrection from the dead (noting Acts 1:1-3,9-11), those who were His followers on earth would be showing their love for Him in Heaven by obeying His word, which He had given them, and which were then contained in the gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and then expanded upon through the rest of the letters of the New Testament! Let us note what God’s Son, The Lord Jesus Christ, told his followers at John 14:15 and 23, If you love Me, you will keep My commandments… If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.

We further see from verse 1:2 that because these believers at Ephesus were now children of God through salvation, then it was God’s will that His grace and his peace rest upon each one of them. The apostle Paul was led of God to mention grace and peace here because this is what every believer enters into at the very moment of salvation – which is when one personally comes to know God, for at that moment one receives the forgiveness of sins and eternal life for believing in God through faith in His precious Son – noting here for instance what God says about grace and peace at Romans 5:1,2, [1] Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have PEACE with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, [2] through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this GRACE in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.

The word grace here is Charis in the Greek and refers to God's unmerited favor, which rests upon every believer from the moment of salvation onwards. And the word peace here is Eirene in the Greek and is used in two separate contexts relating to both God and believers in the New Testament. At Romans 5:1 above, we have mention of peace WITH God, which a believer has from the moment of salvation onwards, due to having gone from being under the wrath of God to being under the grace of God, noting Ephesians 2:3 with Romans 6:14, by virtue of having had all of one's sins forgiven by God for believing that God's precious Son, The Lord Jesus Christ, bore one's sins at the cross of Calvary, also taking upon Himself there all of God's wrath that was due every human being. Therefore, at the moment of salvation, a believer moves from an experience of fear of God, due to one's sins, to having peace with God, due to one's sins being forgiven, so that the believer now no longer fears the wrath of God in judgment.

The other context of peace a believer has with God at salvation is seen at Philippians 4:6,7, where God says to us, [6] Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace OF God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. And so we see that at the moment of salvation, a believer also comes to experience in one's life the peace OF God, which is the reverse of being constantly in a state of anxiousness as an unbeliever. So instead of being anxious, God wants His own to live after salvation by the REST of spirit, soul, and body that the peace of God brings.

Before going further here, it would be beneficial to note that one makes peace with God at the moment of salvation, which is a one-time event which never needs repeating. However, a believer can lose the peace of God after salvation, which occurs the moment a believer sins, and until that sin is confessed to God. Therefore, the peace of God is to be seen as the fruit which God manifests in the life of a believer (noting Galatians 5:22), as a believer walks with God with no known unconfessed sins in one's life, thereby only living by God's righteousness, that is, by His imparted eternal life by which He Himself ever lives.

Similarly in regards to the child of God living under grace, that is, under the unmerited favor of God, this will only be interrupted in the life of a believer when one sins against God and until that sin is confessed to God in accordance with 1 John 1:9, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And because of the importance of the grace and peace of God in the life of every believer, we often see God leading those through whom He gave the letters of the New Testament to open their letters to believers with a similar greeting, as the apostle Paul does here at Ephesians 1:2, noting also Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:3; 2 Corinthians 1:2; Galatians 1:3; Philippians 1:2; Colossians 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 1:1, 2 Thessalonians 1:2; 1 Timothy 1:2; 2 Timothy 1:2; Titus 1:4; Philemon 1:3; 1 Peter 1:2; 2 Peter 1:2; and Revelation 1:4.

Ephesians 1:3-14, The spiritual blessings that God bestows upon believers, which are all in Christ

God begins His letter to the Ephesians proper here at Ephesians 1:3-14, where He now speaks of the spiritual blessings that He has bestowed upon every believer at the moment of one’s salvation, and which are all in Christ. We would do well to remember here, as we look at these spiritual blessings, that God had planned them in eternity past, even before the original creation took place, which when time began to be marked.

What we are to also keep in mind here is that verses 3 to 14 is one long sentence in the original Greek, which the translators from Greek to English have broken down for us in a number of sentences. So let us start looking at this very important passage beginning with Ephesians 1:3, where God says through the apostle Paul, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly (places) in Christ…

We are to notice that we have the word blessed, which is used in relation to God, here meaning that God is ‘to be praised.’ And why? Because He has blessed us, meaning all believers of the present third age of time, with every spiritual blessing. What this means then is that believers are blessed, because entering into a state of spiritual wellbeing while on earth, which renders us full of joy and happiness in knowing God and being partakers of these blessings!

What God then further tells us about these spiritual blessings is that they are all in the heavenly… in Christ. The word places is an added word by the translators here and is not found in the original Greek. What is in view here by the word heavenly is Heaven itself, as God The Father’s eternal and uncreated dwelling!

Then as to the term in Christ, there are four truths that we need to grasp in order to properly understand this term. The first truth we need to know is that this term speaks of our POSITION as believers, as where God The Father placed us from the moment of our salvation onward, which is in Christ. Since God’s Son has now ascended back to His Father in Heaven, after His death at the cross for our sins, His burial, and His resurrection from the dead the third day, then this means that our POSITION IN CHRIST is where He is, which is in Heaven.

Then the second truth we are to realize and remember is that our ACCESS to God The Father is not only THROUGH God’s Son, The Lord Jesus Christ, by means of The Holy Spirit in our spirit, but all that God bestows to us that is spiritual in nature comes THROUGH God’s Son to us by means of The Holy Spirit in our spirit! This means then that God’s Son, The Lord Jesus Christ, is always the intermediary between us and God The Father! That is why God’s Son told His disciples at John 14:6, I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but THROUGH Me, and then also told them at John 16:23, …ask the Father for anything IN MY NAME, He will give it to you.

The third truth that we are to then to realize and remember here is that at the moment of our salvation, God The Father UNITED us to His Son in Heaven, which was A SPIRITUAL UNION, because it was done by God The Father by means of The Holy Spirit, which God gave us in our spirit at the moment of our salvation, when He forgave all of our sins and imparted His own eternal life for us to live by from that moment onward! What this means is that all believers on earth form THE ONE SPIRITUAL BODY of God’s Son on earth, while He is THE HEAD of that spiritual body in Heaven.

God tells us about this truth when He says to us at 1 Corinthians 12:12,13,27, For even as the (physical) body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, SO ALSO IS CHRIST. For by one (Holy) Spirit we were all baptized (that is, immersed) into ONE BODY, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one (Holy) Spirit… Now (from the moment of one’s salvation onward) YOU ARE CHRIST’S (spiritual) BODY (on earth), and individually members of it.

Then the fourth truth we are to grasp is that God wants believers TO LIVE OUT ONE’S LIFE each moment of every day FROM THE POSITION He placed us in at salvation, which is IN CHRIST in Heaven. Let us note here what God tells believers at Colossians 3:1-4, "[1] Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ (and united with Him at the moment of salvation), keep seeking the things above, WHERE CHRIST IS, SEATED AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD. [2] Set your mind on the things above, not