Ephesians 1

“For this cause”—because of the blessings just named—Paul has heard of their faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you and love which you have toward all the saints. Trust directed to Christ overflows toward the whole household.

Faith and love are living evidences of a response to grace. Paul does not invent their story; he hears of people who have believed and who love. Such fruit can be nurtured—and must be guarded—under ongoing, resistible grace.

Paul has heard of their faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you and love which you have toward all the saints. Thanksgiving (v. 16) will rest on what God has already wrought in them.

Faith and love are gifts made visible. “Heard of” means the gospel has produced recognizable fruit; the very God who blessed them in Christ (vv. 3–14) is the source of this faith and this love.

Thanksgiving and intercession run together. Paul does not cease to give thanks, remembering them in his prayers. Gratitude is not a substitute for asking.

Arminians hear prayer as partnership with God’s work. What grace has begun, prayer seeks to deepen. Continual thanks and remembrance treat the church as a people still on the way, not a finished product.

Unceasing thanks and prayer locate their story in God. Paul remembers them before the Father because the Father is the Giver.

Thanksgiving is theological. If faith and love have appeared, God deserves the praise; prayer then asks the Giver to give still more (vv. 17–19). Intercession is how the church lives from grace already received.

Paul asks that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, would give a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. Knowledge of God is gift; it is also something to be sought.

In practice: the Spirit who seals (v. 13) also illumines. Wisdom and revelation are sincerely given so that the church may know God truly. Prayer assumes that this gift can be received—and that without it the heart remains dim.

The petition is Trinitarian in shape: the Father of glory, the God of the Lord Jesus, giving a spirit of wisdom and revelation. Knowledge of God is not self-generated insight.

What Paul asks, God loves to give His people. Illumination is the Spirit’s work in those already in Christ; prayer is a means God uses to grant the knowledge He has purposed. The church knows Him because He first makes Himself known.

Enlightened eyes of the heart aim at knowing three things, beginning with the hope of His calling and the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. Calling and inheritance are to be known, not merely listed.

Arminian readers hear calling as God’s sincere summons and hope as the destiny of those who respond. The inheritance “in the saints” is the shared wealth of the holy people—known as the heart is illumined, received as faith continues.

The heart’s eyes must be enlightened by God to know the hope of His calling and the riches of His inheritance in the saints. These are objective goods; ignorance of them is what Paul prays against.

Calling here is effectual—the hope to which He has actually called them. Inheritance “in the saints” is God’s own treasure in His people, as sure as the counsel that named it (v. 11).

Paul wants them to know “the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe,” according to that working of the strength of his might. The power is toward believers; faith is the sphere in which this might is known and received.

Arminians do not shrink the power. They typically stress that it is “toward us who believe”—the immeasurable might meets people in the act of trusting. Enabling grace makes that trust possible; the power is not a force that believes in our place.

The power toward “us who believe” is immeasurable, measured only by the working of God’s great might. Believing is the marker of those toward whom this power is directed.

The same might that raised Christ (v. 20) is the might that creates and sustains faith. “Who believe” describes the objects of effectual power, not a condition we supply to switch the power on. Assurance follows: resurrection force is already toward the church.

That might was worked in Christ when the Father raised him from the dead and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places. Easter and enthronement are the measure of the power offered to the church.

The power toward believers (v. 19) is the very power that raised and seated Jesus. It is not a lesser current. Those who believe are invited to live from this risen Head; the same grace that raises also calls for trust, not passivity.

The working of God’s might is defined by what He did in Christ: resurrection and session at the right hand. The church’s power-source is the already-exalted Son.

This is accomplished fact, not a possibility still waiting on us. The might toward believers is the might already displayed in Christ. Union with the risen and seated Lord means the church’s life is anchored in a finished exaltation.

Christ is far above every rule, authority, power, and dominion, and every name named—in this age and the one to come. No rival, present or future, outranks Him.

Supremacy is comfort and call. The Head who outranks every power sincerely shepherds His people; they need not fear names or ages, and they must not transfer trust to lesser lords.

The stacking of powers and names leaves nothing outside Christ’s supremacy, now and in the age to come. Session (v. 20) is cosmic.

The church’s Head already occupies the place of highest authority. History cannot produce a name that overtakes Him. Comfort follows: the powers that threaten are already under the One who fills the church (vv. 22–23).

The Father put all things under Christ’s feet, and gave him to be head over all things for the assembly. Wesley hears a Head of guidance, government, life, and influence—the whole body and every member drawing from Him as a natural body from its head.

Arminian interpreters gladly confess this living union. Headship is for the church’s good: continual communication of activity, growth, and strength. The relationship is authentic and close; members thrive by remaining in living connection with the Head who is sincerely given to them.

All things in subjection under his feet, and Head over all things “for the assembly” mean the cosmic Christ is the church’s gift. Dominion is not abstract; it is assigned for His people’s sake.

The church does not make Him Head; the Father gave Him as Head. Effectual union with this Head is the body’s life. What is under His feet cannot finally undo those who belong to His body by God’s gift.

The church is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Body language is intimate: the church is not an accessory to Christ but the people in whom His filling is displayed.

Pastorally: fullness language honors the church without flattening Christ. He fills all in all; the body receives what the Head supplies. Union is living—members filled as they remain joined to the One who fills.

Calvin’s astonishment is the point: the Son of God reckons Himself in some measure incomplete until united to us. The church is His body and His fullness—the highest honor of the people of God.

Not until we are with Him does He wish to be regarded as complete. That is consolation, not flattery: our place in the body is by His gift, and His filling of all in all includes His filling of the church He will not finally lack.