EPHESIANS: In Love
EPHESIANS Number 6:
In Love
Remember that I mentioned that verses 3-14 are a single sentence in Greek? The next two words in our text bring that to the forefront. They are “in love.” Here’s the verse again, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:” (Ephesians 1:4, KJV 1900)
This Greek sentence is so long that it is almost impossible to render in a readable fashion in English unless it is divided up somehow. The King James Bible breaks the sentence us using a period at the end of verse six along with a multitude of colons and semicolons. You’ll notice the first colon in this passage is in this verse (4).
Greek scholars and Bible translators have long been unclear about how best to understand the way these two words relate to the phrases that surround them. The King James Bible renders them as part of verse 4, which leads us to interpret them as meaning that Father’s choosing of us to be holy was done in love. That is certainly true. Many scholars and translators think these two words are more correctly understood as being related to the phrase that follows in verse 5. Let’s look at that verse now.
“Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,” (Ephesians 1:5, KJV 1900)
Some translations attach “In Love” at the beginning of this expression, yielding “In love having predestined us...” I personally tend to prefer this form because it reads more smoothly in English, but in the end it doesn’t matter much. All that Father has done, He has done in love. Here’s what I mean.
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8, KJV 1900)
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13, KJV 1900)
So, whether it is the choosing of us or the predestinating of us, God has done it all as an expression of His vast love for us.
