2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and [the] Lord Jesus Christ.
3 Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ; 4 according as he has chosen us in him before [the] world's foundation, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love; 5 having marked us out beforehand for adoption through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 to [the] praise of [the] glory of his grace, wherein he has taken us into favour in the Beloved: 7 in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of offences, according to the riches of his grace; 8 which he has caused to abound towards us in all wisdom and intelligence,
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Ephesians 1:2-8
Commentary on Ephesians 1:1-2
(Read Ephesians 1:1-2)
All Christians must be saints; if they come not under that character on earth, they will never be saints in glory. Those are not saints, who are not faithful, believing in Christ, and true to the profession they make of relation to their Lord. By grace, understand the free and undeserved love and favour of God, and those graces of the Spirit which come from it; by peace, all other blessings, spiritual and temporal, the fruits of the former. No peace without grace. No peace, nor grace, but from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ; and the best saints need fresh supplies of the graces of the Spirit, and desire to grow.
Commentary on Ephesians 1:3-8
(Read Ephesians 1:3-8)
Spiritual and heavenly blessings are the best blessings; with which we cannot be miserable, and without which we cannot but be so. This was from the choice of them in Christ, before the foundation of the world, that they should be made holy by separation from sin, being set apart to God, and sanctified by the Holy Spirit, in consequence of their election in Christ. All who are chosen to happiness as the end, are chosen to holiness as the means. In love they were predestinated, or fore-ordained, to be adopted as children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, and to be openly admitted to the privileges of that high relation to himself. The reconciled and adopted believer, the pardoned sinner, gives all the praise of his salvation to his gracious Father. His love appointed this method of redemption, spared not his own Son, and brought believers to hear and embrace this salvation. It was rich grace to provide such a surety as his own Son, and freely to deliver him up. This method of grace gives no encouragement to evil, but shows sin in all its hatefulness, and how it deserves vengeance. The believer's actions, as well as his words, declare the praises of Divine mercy.