Ephesians 1:3-6 – Our Heavenly Father deserves all the praise

Verses 3-14 appear in one single complex sentence in the Greek text. With one breath, Paul gave everything without punctuating this long sentence. It consists of a long praise or a doxology. It was as if Paul was unable to contain everything within him when he thought of the blessing that God had bestowed on the believers. In this long doxology, Paul seemed to deliberately refer to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. In these 12 verses, Paul gave us the reason why believers should live for God’s praise. To fully digest all that Paul had said, we will look at these 12 long verses section by section. 

In verse 3, Paul tells us that God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the source and origin of all the blessings we have. He has indeed blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. The phrase “to the praise of His glory …” appeared three times from verses 3-14. It gives the natural break of ideas for this paragraph. Paul deliberately put it there to demarcate the works of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

What was Paul conveying when he used the phrase “to the praise of His glory”? How do believers live to the praise of His glory? Paul was basically telling believers to live their lives in such a way whereby God will receive the praise. In other words, the way believers lived should cause God’s name to be praised.

Interestingly, the words “blessed” and “blessings” come from the word where we get our English word “eulogy,” meaning “to speak well of.” Verse 3 can be seen this way: Praise is to be given to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has enriched our lives with every blessing through the Holy Spirit in the spiritual realm. This indicates that the blessing which believers are bestowed upon is not material but distinctively spiritual. This blessing is heavenly not earthly; it is eternal not temporal.

The plan for man’s redemption began long before time began. God conceived the plan before the creation of the world. This plan indicates that in the eternity past, God thought of a plan to redeem mankind. This plan had the objective of making man holy and blameless. It presupposes that man was unholy and blameworthy outside of this plan. This plan concerns Christ His begotten Son and us. We are chosen in Him. This sovereign choice involved making us His adopted sons and daughters with the rights to His inheritance.

What a blessed thought! God initiated a plan that had me in mind. He already planned to make us His sons and daughters at the beginning of time. Truly we ought to live our lives in ways that would magnify His name. For He had chosen us so that He could sanctify us and make us His holy and blameless people. Let’s live to reflect that purpose!