Albert Barnes Commentary Ephesians 1:15

"For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which [ye show] toward all the saints," — Ephesians 1:15 (ASV)

For this reason I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus (Ephesians 1:15). This is one of the passages usually relied on by those who suppose that this epistle was not written to the Ephesians. The argument is that he writes to them as if they were strangers to him, and that it is not language such as would be used in addressing a people among whom he had spent three years.

See the Introduction § 5. But this inference is not conclusive. Paul had been some years absent from Ephesus when this epistle was written. Given the difficult communication between distant places in those times, it should not be supposed that he would hear often from them. Perhaps he had heard nothing after the time when he bade farewell to the elders of Ephesus at Miletus (Acts 20), until the time referred to here.

It would be, therefore, a matter of great interest to him to hear from them. When, in some way, intelligence of a very gratifying character about their growth in piety was brought to him at Rome, he says that his anxiety was relieved, and that he did not cease to give thanks for what he had heard and to commend them to God in prayer.