I am preparing to preach through Ephesians later this year and was working my way through that great long Greek sentence found in 1:3-14. Immediately one’s attention is drawn to the opening verse in the section with its three different but similar Greek terms. Paul begins by stating in 1:3,

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

Εὐλογητὸς ὁ θεὸς καὶ πατὴρ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, ὁ εὐλογήσας ἡμᾶς ἐν πάσῃ εὐλογίᾳ πνευματικῇ ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις ἐν Χριστῷ

The first term is the adjective blessed is eulogētos (εὐλογητός) and combined with God has the force here, “Blessed be God” or even “Let God be praised.” We have an English word that comes directly from this word, “eulogy,” which basically means a “good word.” When we praise God we speak a good word about him, or in other words, we praise him.

Paul calls us to bless God and he goes on in this verse to describe what God has done for us that should motivate us to bless him: who has blessed us. The verb bless is the verb eulogeō (εὐλογέω) and stresses that God bestows a favor in the sense of providing benefits (BDAG).

And with what has God blessed us that should cause us to bless him? Paul declares God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. The noun blessing is eulogia (εὐλογία) and here denotes the benefit of blessing.

So with an adjective, a verb, and a noun that are all related, Paul opens his glorious letter to the Ephesians with a call for the believer to worship God. And if we were to emphasize the main thrust of Paul in verse 3 it would come out like this:

Bless God who has blessed us with every blessing!!!

Categories: Blessing, Ephesians, Greek, Uncategorized, Worship