Useful Bible Studies > Ephesians Commentary > chapter 6
At the end of Paul’s letters, Paul blesses the people to whom he is writing. Paul was praying for God to show his grace (kindness) to them; so here he declares that God really will show kindness to them. Peace, which here means a right relationship with God, can only be the result of that grace.
As Paul blesses Ephesus’s Christians, he chooses to emphasise to them the importance of love in their relationship with God. It is very interesting that Paul emphasises love here. The Book of Revelation contains a later letter that Christ told John to send to the church in Ephesus. In that letter, Christ complains that the Christians there had lost their first love (Revelation 2:4). In other words, they did not still love God as they should. Christ urged them to turn back to God.
God’s love is faithful (Psalm 89:1-2 and 89:24). In other words, it is constant; it never fails (Psalm 136). In fact, when Paul blesses the people with ‘love with faith’, he too might mean ‘faithful love’. In the Greek language, faith (which usually means trust in God) is the same word as faithful.
Sadly, our love for God is often much weaker. The devil constantly tempts us to love the things in this world, instead of our love for God. Like those Christians in Ephesus, our love for God can become very weak.
However, the true love that God gives to us is not weak, but strong (Song of Solomon 8:6). That love is the result of God’s love for us (1 John 4:19). The effect of it is that we love both God, and other people (Mark 12:29-31). So God’s grace, or kindness, operates in our lives (1 Corinthians 15:9-10) to show his love in the world. That kind of love never fails (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).
Next part: About the Book of Ephesians - its author, original readers and date.
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© 2019, Keith Simons.