Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Ephesians 1:4

"even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love:" — Ephesians 1:4 (ASV)

Paul now traces the spiritual blessings of v.3 to their ultimate source in the eternal purpose of God. Christians have been selected in Christ prior to the work of creation. The verb “chose” (GK 1721) is the usual one employed in LXX in connection with God’s choice of Israel. Before the foundations of the world were laid, God had determined that all who believed on his Son should be saved.

Election in Christ has a moral aim in view: to be “holy” (GK 41) and “blameless” (GK 320). “Holy” means to be set apart for God in order to reflect his purity; “blameless” means “free from blemish,” like the sacrificial animals presented on the altar in the old dispensation. The latter word is applied to Christ himself (Hebrews 9:14), to the ideal church (Ephesians 5:27), and to Christians at the end of the age (2 Peter 3:14;Jude 24) and also now .