Ephesians 1 and the Small Word That Changes the Pronoun

Verses 3 through 12 of Ephesians 1 are all "us" and "we." He hath blessed us, chosen us, predestinated us, made us accepted, abounded toward us, made known unto us. Then verse 13 opens with "In whom ye also trusted," and the pronoun changes hands in the middle of what is, as far as I know, one long sentence in the Greek.

I never noticed that "ye also" until this morning, at the cabin with the kettle going for somebody's herbal tea. Once I had, it changed how I hear the part of the chapter everybody argues about. Here's the verse.

In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
(Ephesians 1:13)

Who is the "us" in verse 4?

The answer is in verse 12, which reads "That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ." Paul is a Jew writing to a church in a Greek city, and the ones who first trusted are the people Paul came from. Verse 13 then turns to the Ephesians, who are mostly Gentiles (chapter 2 says so outright), and tells them they were in it too. Same Christ, same sealing, same inheritance. "Ye also."

The second chapter describes where the Ephesians stood before, and it makes the "ye also" heavier. Verse 12 calls them "aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise." Verse 13 says that "now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh." Paul isn't being polite to newcomers. He is telling people who were strangers to the covenants that the promise had been written with them in view.

So when verse 4 says "he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world," the "us" is wider than I had ever pictured it. I had it as a short list, something like the roster taped inside a dugout, names in order and a line ruled under the last one.

Paul spends ten verses saying us and we, and then verse 13 turns to his readers and says they were counted as well.

Ephesians opens with a blessing and keeps blessing for a dozen verses, and by verse 16 Paul is telling them he gives thanks for them and mentions them in his prayers. Galatians, which I wrote about in Galatians 1 and the letter with no thank-you in it, skips the thanks completely. Same apostle, a very different first page.

Chosen in him

Paul can hardly say anything in this stretch without attaching it to Christ. In Christ in verse 3, in him in verse 4, in the beloved in verse 6, in whom we have redemption in verse 7, in himself in verse 9, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance in verse 11. I stopped counting somewhere past eight.

The things he attaches are blessings (verse 3), choosing (verse 4), acceptance (verse 6), redemption (verse 7) and inheritance (verse 11), and he never describes the choosing as a decision about a set of names. He puts it "in him," and every one of those gifts has the same address.

What does "predestinated" mean to a reader who comes to it cold? The Church's reading of it in verse 5 is foreordination, and Alma 13 is where I go to see how that works. Alma 13:3 says priests "were ordained" in the first place "being called and prepared from the foundation of the world according to the foreknowledge of God, on account of their exceeding faith and good works," and adds, "in the first place being left to choose good or evil." Two verses later they "were on the same standing with their brethren." I read that as choosing that follows people's own choosing, with foreknowledge sitting behind both. The Greek behind "predestinated" is a compound that means something like marking out beforehand, and a lexicon will tell you the same, so I'm not claiming the KJV picked a bad word. Only that Alma's commentary fits the text better than a closed list does.

A lot of other Christians hear a closed list in verses 5 and 11, and fair enough, they have the same words in front of them. Nothing in the chapter says who is left out, though. Verse 13 spends all its words on who was brought in.

Sealed, and what the earnest is

Verses 13 and 14 are the part of the chapter I follow least. "Ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession."

An earnest is a deposit. Paul uses the same picture in 2 Corinthians 1:22, where God "hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." My work is payments, so I know what a deposit is for. It isn't the price. It tells the other side that you mean it, and it gets forfeited if you walk away. Nobody mistakes the deposit for the whole sum, and nobody who has paid one thinks it was nothing. The Spirit, in Paul's picture, is the first installment on something that isn't finished yet, "until the redemption of the purchased possession." The deposit comes before the redemption in the verse, not after.

In the Church the phrase "Holy Spirit of promise" carries its own weight. Doctrine and Covenants 76:53 speaks of those "sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, which the Father sheds forth upon all those who are just and true," and Doctrine and Covenants 132:7 describes covenants being ratified by it. Both revelations use the same phrase Paul does. Ephesians 4:30 is the other place I'd read, because it says "grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption," and a stamp on a letter can't be grieved.

The prayer at the end

Paul turns to prayer in verse 15 and asks for one thing, really. That "the eyes of your understanding" would be "enlightened," so they might know three things: the hope of his calling, the riches of the glory of his inheritance and the exceeding greatness of his power. He has just spent a dozen verses listing blessings and he doesn't ask for more of them. He asks for eyes. Of the three things he wants them to know, the first two are about what they already have, the hope of the calling and the riches of the inheritance, and the third is about the power behind it, which verse 20 says is the same power that raised Christ from the dead. Nothing in the prayer asks God to add to the gift. It asks that they see what was handed over.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does "chosen before the foundation of the world" mean in Ephesians 1:4?

In the Church's reading it's foreordination: God knew us before this life and prepared things for us in advance. Alma 13 ties that calling to foreknowledge and to the choices people make. What Paul stresses is where the choosing happens. It's in Christ. He says very little about who is on a list.

What are the "spiritual blessings in heavenly places" in verse 3?

Paul lists them himself in verses 4 through 14: being chosen, adopted, accepted, redeemed, told God's will, given an inheritance and sealed. Church teaching connects these to covenants and temple ordinances, and that seems a fair reading to me. I'd start with Paul's own list before adding anything to it, since he is already generous enough.

What does it mean to be sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise?

Start with what Paul says. The Spirit confirms that a promise holds, and he calls it the earnest, a down payment on the inheritance. Then read Ephesians 4:30 and Doctrine and Covenants 76:53, because the first speaks of grieving the Spirit and the second of those who are just and true, and both belong in the picture.

Is Ephesians 1 teaching predestination?

Many Christians read it that way and the Church doesn't. The Church reads "predestinated" as foreordination, with agency intact and the blessings conditional on faith. Whichever side you're on, go back to verse 13, because "ye also" is hard to square with a closed list.

Where I'd like to hear from you

When you first read verse 4, did you picture a short list or a crowd, and what was that picture based on?

— D.