This is the 6th meditation in our series. Now we are beginning to walk through 1:3-14 verse by verse and allow the Word of God to provoke us to worship!
Verse three is the fountain of the following 11 verses.
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ."
Verse three is the fountain of the following 11 verses because the next 11 verses provide additional explanations of verse three's amazing assertion!
Paul is answering the question "Who" in verse three. Who should be praised? The answer is God!
In other words, Paul is shouting to his Ephesian readers, "God be praised! Bless God! Bless Him because He's blessed you! God has blessed you with every spiritual blessing by giving you His Son, so bless Him! All of the blessings that were within God's unlimited reach ("in the heavenly places") have come to you in Christ, so bless Him! What are you waiting for? Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!"
In an earlier meditation we've already noted that verses 3-14 is one long sentence in the Greek. The run-on form of this sentence, in my estimation, is an indication of Paul's preoccupation with God (i.e., worship) during the moment he was being the Holy Spirit's inspired conduit of such breathtaking soteriological Himalayas. So my guess is that Paul's emanuensis was probably hearing Paul SHOUT this series of propostitions as he was worshipfully declaring what was to be written. If the Word is intended to compel us to worship God through Christ in the power of the Spirit, then surely the orginal reception of the inspired Word caused the inspired human author to worship too! Oh, that we would be as awe-struck by the Sovereign God of our salvation as Paul was in this text!
Verse three answers "Who" is to be worshipped. The answer is God!
Verse four answers "When" God planned to allow us to enjoy worshipping Him.
"Just as He (God the Father) chose us in Him (Jesus Christ) before the foundation of the world..."
Are you worshipping yet?
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