Charles Ellicott Commentary Ephesians 1:18

"having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints," — Ephesians 1:18 (ASV)

The eyes of your understanding. The true reading is of your heart, for which the words “of your understanding” have been substituted to yield a simpler and easier expression. The heart is similarly spoken of in relation to spiritual perception in Romans 1:21, 1 Corinthians 2:9, and 1 Corinthians 4:5. It signifies the inner man in his entirety; and the phrase used here seems to convey the all-important truth that for the knowledge of God, all the faculties of understanding, conscience, and affection must be energized by the gift of the light of God.

That you may know. The knowledge which St. Paul here desires for the Ephesians, in accordance with the whole tone of this Epistle, is a knowledge of heavenly things, experienced only in part on earth—with an experience, however, sufficient to be an earnest of the hereafter. The succession of ideas follows the order of conversion: first, “calling;” then, acceptance to “inheritance;” and lastly, “inward working of divine power” in the accepted. To each, the concept of looking forward is attached: to the “calling,” “hope;” to the “inheritance,” “glory;” and to the “power,” the exaltation of Christ (and of us with Him) to the right hand of God.

The hope of his calling. (See Ephesians 4:4.) That is, probably, “the thing hoped for,” because promised at our calling (Colossians 1:5; Titus 2:3; Hebrews 6:18; and perhaps 1 Timothy 1:1), for the other objects of knowledge with which it is joined here are certainly objective or external to ourselves. This hope is of the perfection of all, which we are called to enjoy really, but imperfectly, here.

The riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. Compare Colossians 1:27: the riches of the glory of this mystery . . . which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. The inheritance of God is the unity with Christ, in which lies the earnest and hope of glory. “Among the saints” is best connected with the word “inheritance,” showing that our personal inheritance of Christ gives us a place in the kingdom of heaven here and hereafter.