Explanation:

Most of Paul’s letters begin with a prescript wherein he identifies himself, his colleagues, and his audience. This is often followed by an introductory thanksgiving. Paul alters this pattern in 2 Corinthians and in our passage, where the prescript is followed by a common Hebrew blessing, known as a berakah (ברכה). The berakah is known to anyone familiar with the Old Testament, and examples can be found in Psalm 66:20 (Blessed be God) and Psalm 41:13 (Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel).⁴ Bruce points out that each berakah is followed by an adjective clause that reveals the reason God is blessed. The formula is as follows: (A) Praise God (B) because... For example, 1 Kings 1:48 states, [A] Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, [B] who has granted one of my offspring to sit on my throne this day. In our passage, Paul Christianizes the first part of the berakah by adding of our Lord Jesus Christ, before revealing why God is to be praised. The reason, Paul says, is because God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Still, the berakah continues as Paul expands on the nature of the spiritual blessings until the end of Ephesians 1:14. We can be fairly certain that the berakah does not conclude until the end of Ephesians 1:14, for two reasons. First, in the Greek text, Ephesians 1:3–14 is one sentence. Second, the thanksgiving that Paul normally includes after the prescript follows the berakah in Ephesians 1:15. This transition indicates that the berakah is complete. Our passage takes the following form:

[A] Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord…
[B] who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing…
[B] that we should be holy and blameless…
[B] we have redemption…
[B] appointed to live for the praise of his glory…
[B] sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, which is the guarantee…

Counterargument:

When Paul identifies that the reason God is blessed/praised is because he has blessed us with every spiritual blessing, he modifies the statement every spiritual blessing with the prepositional phrase in the heavenly places. In other words, the spiritual blessings seem to be spiritual blessings that are in the heavenly places. It is hard to see how one could characterize God’s election to holiness, or the notion that believers would be his sons and daughters, as spiritual blessings that are in the heavenly places.⁵ Rather, spiritual blessing that is in the heavenly places sounds more like the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23). These are the spiritual blessings in which the members who dwell in the heavenly places participate.

Response to counterargument:

It is true that Paul modifies every spiritual blessing with in the heavenly places. He does this not because the spiritual blessings we receive through Christ are the fruit of the Spirit currently present in the heavenly places and then shared with us. Rather, his point is that blessings such as being elected to holiness, being called sons and daughters of God, having redemption and forgiveness, and so on, are, in a sense, otherworldly spiritual blessings, best categorized as heavenly. God transcends the earthly, and the spiritual blessings he bestowed on us in Christ are from a heavenly dimension.⁶ Since we are united with Christ through faith, we partake in these blessings already now, but we do so in a diminished sense compared to our full participation when we finally go to the room that Jesus has prepared for us (John 14:2–3).⁷

Explanation:

Although short berakahs seem to be more common in the Old Testament, there is at least one occasion when we encounter a fairly lengthy formula. It comes to us from 2 Samuel 22:47–49, near the end of a passage known as David’s psalm. In it, David praises God for delivering him from the hands of his enemies, including Saul. As the psalm nears it close, David writes,

“[A] Blessed be my rock...
[B] the God who gave me vengeance...
[B] brought peoples under me...
[B] brought me out of my enemies...
[B] did exalt me above my adversaries...
[B] did deliver me from men of violence...”

David is full of enthusiasm for God, and cannot help but list the many reasons why God is blessed. Paul seems to do something similar in Ephesians 1:3–14. Given the lengthy sentence, his obvious zeal for the Lord, and the unspeakably rich content he shares, it is not hard to conclude that Paul’s enthusiasm for God drips onto this lengthy berakah.

Counterargument:

Often the berakahs in the Old Testament are short (Genesis 14:20; 1 Kings 5:7; Psalm 124:6–7). When we apply this observation to Ephesians 1:3, we get a similar result. Paul blesses God, and the reason for this is because God has “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” That is all. Paul goes on to explain important aspects of God’s historical redemptive plan (election, redemption, etc.), but these are doctrinal matters. The blessings from God are spiritual, having to do with the Holy Spirit, not doctrine.

Response to counterargument:

Even if there were no examples of long berakahs in the Old Testament, this would not rule one out in our passage. Rather, it would simply mean that our passage is the only example of a long berakah in Scripture (which it is not). Of course, we do not have to worry about this, because there is another long berakah, namely, 2 Samuel 22:47–49. This, along with the fact that Ephesians 1:3–14 is one long sentence packed with what are normally thought of as spiritual blessings, gives us good reason to think that the blessings listed in Ephesians 1:3–14 are the likely candidates for the spiritual blessings from God.

If Paul wants us to understand that the spiritual blessings given by God are the very same blessings listed in Ephesians 1:4–14, he is not clear about this. In the lengthy berakah in the psalm of David (2 Samuel 22:47–49), there is no doubt that when David lists his reasons for blessings/praising God, the list contains multiple unique blessings. This is not as obvious in Ephesians 1:3–14. We know Paul is familiar with the berakah, so why not offer his reader a clear formula? For example, Paul uses the conjunction “just as” to connect Ephesians 1:3 to Ephesians 1:4 and following. If Paul wanted his reader to connect Ephesians 1:4–14 with the reason for blessing God, it might have been clearer if he used the more common conjunction “and.”

Explanation:

A word study of Paul’s use of the term blessing reveals that he sometimes uses the term to denote benefits received from God.⁸ For example, in Romans 15:29 he states that he will visit the church in Rome in the fullness of the blessing of Christ. This can be taken to mean in the fullness of the benefits bestowed on Paul through Christ. In Galatians 3:14 we have an even clearer example, as Paul indicates that the contents of the blessing that we receive in Christ are the benefits promised to Abraham. So, we know that blessing often has to do with receiving benefits. What kind of blessings are these in Ephesians 1:3? The term spiritual is used twenty-one times in the New Testament, and on all but one occasion (1 Peter 2:5) it is used by Paul. He uses the term in a variety of contexts, including to characterize songs (Ephesians 5:19), bodies (1 Corinthians 15:44), and gifts (1 Corinthians 12:1). In whatever context Paul applies the term, he often brings out its meaning by contrasting it with natural/material/earthly things (Romans 7:14; Romans 15:27; 1 Corinthians 3:1; 1 Corinthians 9:11; 1 Corinthians 15:44; Galatians 6:1). Paul’s point is that spiritual matters have their origin in God, while natural matters have their origin in humans.⁹ Paul also knows that through faith in Christ, humans share in benefits that have divine origin. These might be spiritual wisdom and understanding (Colossians 1:9), gifts of prophecy (1 Corinthians 14:1), and other spiritual truths that the natural person cannot understand (1 Corinthians 2:13).

Counterargument:

Paul uses the phrase “spiritual” to refer to a number of things, including songs, persons, and the body. He also uses it to encapsulate the promises of the gospel that were first given to the Israelites (Romans 15:27). Paul seems to outline the nature of those promises in Ephesians 1:4–14, including being elected to holiness, and being called sons and daughters. Arguably, Paul uses the term “spiritual blessing” similarly, to capture the content of the promises to Israel, and then he reveals that content in the verses that follow (Ephesians 1:4–14).

Response to counterargument:

While it is true that Paul uses the term “spiritual” in Romans 15:27 to refer to Israel’s spiritual blessings, he is not clear what these blessings entail. He could be referring to God’s overarching plan of salvation, as he explains it in Ephesians 1:4–14, or he could be referring to the spiritual gifts of wisdom, renewal, and the desire to repent and seek after God. The point is that the content of the spiritual blessings referred to in Romans 15:27 is not articulated clearly enough to inform the content of the spiritual blessings in Ephesians 1:3.

Explanation:

When Paul describes the blessing for which he praises God, he modifies it with two adjectives, including every and spiritual. This implies that Paul is including every spiritual benefit that has God as its source, whether it’s a grand redemptive blessing (elected to holiness), as well as blessings that apply to daily living (increased wisdom or patience).¹⁰ This means that Ephesians 1:4–14 captures only some of the spiritual blessings bestowed on us by God, while Paul is praising God for every spiritual blessing.

Counterargument:

Hendriksen argues that the best way to get at the content of these blessings is to consider them within the context. When we do this, we notice that Ephesians 1:4–14 describes a host of spiritual benefits, including being elected to holiness, being called sons and daughters of God, and receiving forgiveness. This further qualifies what Paul means when he says every spiritual blessing. What he means to say is every blessing, as in all the blessings he is about to list.¹¹

Response to counterargument:

In Ephesians 1:10 Paul uses the same modifier all, every to indicate that in the fullness of time, God’s purpose in Christ is to unite all things in heaven and on earth. This is further confirmation that when Paul says every spiritual blessing in Ephesians 1:3, he means to encapsulate every blessing that has God as its source. This might include the fruit of the Spirit, the promises of salvation, or any other spiritual blessing of which humans might be able to partake.¹² While it is true that Paul lists some of the specific spiritual blessings (elected to holiness, the seal of the Holy Spirit, etc.), he only means to offer a handful of examples that are included in every spiritual blessing. Paul does something similar in other places, including Ephesians 1:3, where he offers an incomplete list that is meant as a list of specific examples of a grander thought.

The one possible weakness of this view is that it is not held by the majority. This does not diminish the plausibility that the view is correct, but an exegete is careful to note when he is going against the grain. Most of the authors surveyed think that Paul is referring to the specific blessings listed in Ephesians 1:4–14. These blessings seem to be grand redemptive-historical blessings from God, and not specific daily living blessings such as patience and kindness. That is not to say that daily living spiritual blessings are excluded. But in this passage, Paul’s aim is to emphasize the grand scheme of salvation.

Explanation:

Paul explains that for all the benefits that Christ has secured, it is the Holy Spirit who guarantees our participation in them (Ephesians 1:13–14). This implies that unless we are sealed with the blessing of the Holy Spirit, we are unable to enjoy every spiritual blessing bestowed by God. Paul says something similar in 2 Corinthians 5:5, where he states that the Holy Spirit is the one who guarantees future promise in God, even as we suffer anxiety in this mortal body.

Counterargument:

It is not prudent to try and rank aspects of salvation as more or less important than others. For example, the ground of our salvation is Christ’s death on the cross, but we only participate in this through faith. Further, without the Holy Spirit we would fall away, even after our repentance. It seems then that spiritual blessing and salvation cannot be reduced to one all-important aspect. Salvation requires the involvement of each member of the Trinity, and humans partake in salvation when they put their faith in Jesus Christ.

The problem with this view is that by trying to identify one ultimate spiritual blessing, it risks excluding others that are equally essential. This creates theological dangers by elevating the work of one person of the Trinity (sanctification through the Holy Spirit) over the work of another (atonement through Jesus Christ). Scripture teaches that the persons of the Trinity work in harmony, and we do well when our perspective on salvation reflects this.