SOME

think that this epistle to the Ephesians was a circular letter sent to

several churches, and that the copy directed to the Ephesians happened

to be taken into the canon, and so it came to bear that particular

inscription. And they have been induced the rather to think this

because it is the only one of all Paul’s epistles that has nothing in

it peculiarly adapted to the state or case of that particular church;

but it has much of common concernment to all Christians, and especially

to all who, having been Gentiles in times past, were converted to

Christianity. But then it may be observed, on the other hand, that the

epistle is expressly inscribed

(1:1)

to the saints which are at Ephesus; and in the close of it he

tells them that he had sent Tychicus unto them, whom, in

2 Tim. iv. 12,

he says he had sent to Ephesus. It is an epistle that bears date out of

a prison: and some have observed that what this apostle wrote when he

was a prisoner had the greatest relish and savour in it of the things

of God. When his tribulations did abound, his consolations and

experiences did much more abound, whence we may observe that the

afflictive exercises of God’s people, and particularly of his

ministers, often tend to the advantage of others as well as to their

own. The apostle’s design is to settle and establish the Ephesians in

the truth, and further to acquaint them with the mystery of the gospel,

in order to it. In the former part he represents the great privilege of

the Ephesians, who, having been in time past idolatrous heathens, were

now converted to Christianity and received into covenant with God,

which he illustrates from a view of their deplorable state before their

conversion,

ch. 1-3.

In the latter part (which we have in the

4th, 5th, and 6th chapters)

he instructs them in the principal duties of religion, both personal

and relative, and exhorts and quickens them to the faithful discharge

of them. Zanchy observes that we have here an epitome of the whole

Christian doctrine, and of almost all the chief heads of divinity.