Holy & Blameless
IN OUR STUDY OF THE GREAT BOOK OF EPHESIANS, WE HAVE COME TO v. 4 where we read that we as Christians are to be “Holy and Blameless” in our earthly conduct…
NAS Ephesians 1:3-4 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, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love
“THE PURPOSE FOR THOSE CHOSEN BY GOD IS TO BE HOLY AND without blame.” – Hoehner…
“ELECTION DOES BRING PRIVILEGE, BUT IT ALSO CARRIES RESPONSIBILITY.” –O’Brien…
NOTICE IN YOUR BIBLES HOW THE CLAUSE IS TRANSLATED: “that we should be holy and blameless.” The word “that” indicates purpose: chosen that we should be holy and blameless; chosen for the purpose we should be holy and blameless. (For Greek students this is not a ἵνα [hee-na] clause but a present active infinitive indicating purpose, “to be,” chosen to be holy and blameless. The present tense of the infinitive suggests the state of holiness and blamelessness is supposed to be continuous}…
“HOLY AND BLAMELESS”… We will take these two significant, fundamental words in order…
LET ME FIRST REMIND YOU OF THE BIBLICAL DEFINITON OF “HOLY”… The biblical definition is not the same as the world’s definition…
“A GOOD WAY OF LOOKING A BEING HOLY IS TO SEE HOLINESS AS ‘wholeness’… Wholeness in the sense of being restored to the useful function for which we were originally created. Physical wholeness prevails when the body works the way it was originally intended to work, and spiritual wholeness results when our entire being functions as God designed it to function. When we are spiritually whole, we are holy.” – rewritten slightly from Steadman…
THE GREEK WORD FOR “HOLINESS” IS ἅγιος (ha-gee-os); it literally means set apart. Set apart as being designated for God’s service. I often pray that will help me to live a life that is distinctive from the lives of unbelievers…
BEING “HOLY” UNTO GOD MEANS LIVING A LIFE THAT IS DIFFERENT than those of our ungodly, immoral culture…
NAS 1 Peter 1:15-16 but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; 16 because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
NAS 2 Peter 3:11 Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,
“A NATION THAT IS HOLY IS TO BE DIFFERENT FROM OTHER NATIONS, a place that is holy such as the Jewish tabernacle or temple is to be different from other places, God who is holy is different from all other gods, and so people who are holy are to be different from other people. Since God has elected the believer to be His possession, the believer should reflect God’s character. Both in the O.T. and the N.T. (Lev 11:44; 1 Peter 1:16) the believer is enjoined to be holy because God is holy.” – Steadman.
“GOD DID NOT CHOOSE ANYONE BECAUSE THEY WERE HOLY BUT He chose them in order that they might become holy.” – Hoehner…
“BEFORE HIM” IS PROBABLY BEFORE GOD THE FATHER. I believe, however, a good case could be made for the “Him” being Christ. If you look at the end of v. 3, you see the words “in Christ.” God the Father has blessed believers with “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ.” As I said in the blog entitled “In Christ,” this is the spiritual sphere or area of our blessings. Everything we have and do as Christians may be said to be “in Christ.”…
SCHOLARS, HOWEVER, ARE IN ALMOST UNANIMOUS AGREEMENT THAT the “Him” is God the Father, so I must respect that…
“CHRISTIANS POSSESS EVERY SPIRITUAL BLESSING IN THE HEVENLY PLACES because they are in Christ.” – MacArthur…
“IN CHRIST” IS ANOTHER WAY OF REFERRING TO OUR RELATIONSHIP with Christ…
ESV 1 Corinthians 6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
”IN CHRIST” IS THE BEST PLACE IN THE WOLRD TO BE. Outside of Christ or apart from Christ is the worst place in the world to be…
“CHRIST’S RICHESARE OUR RICHES, His resources are our resources, His righteousness is our righteousness, and His power is our power. His position is our position: where He is, we are. His privilege is our privilege: what He is we are. His possession is our possession: what He has we have.” – MacArthur…
NAS Romans 8:16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.
LASTLY, CHRIST’S PRACTICE IS TO BE OUR PRACTICE: what He does we are to do – within our human limitations, of course. Because He is “Holy and Blameless,” and because we are “In Christ,” we are also to be “Holy and Blameless”…
WE ARE THESE THINGS AND WE HAVE THESE THINGS AND we do these things because we have been graced; we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing…
“BLAMELESS” IS THE GREEK WORD ἄμωμος (a-mo-mos), which means what you doubtlessly think “blameless” means. BDAG, the leading Greek lexicon in the world today, defines ἄμωμος (a-mo-mos), being without defect or blemish, unblemished; being without fault and therefore morally blameless, blameless…
THE GREEK WORD ἄμωμος (a-mo-mos) IS FOUND 8 TIMES IN THE N.T., including v. 4. It is used 4 of those 8 times by Paul. A look at these other uses of the word is most helpful in our study. One of the best ways to understand a word is to study the use of that word in other parts of the Bible. Blameless is found again in Ephesians in 5:27…
NAS Ephesians 5:27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless.
IT IS USED BY PAUL IN PHILIPPIANS 2:15…
NAS Philippians 2:15 that you may prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,
AND AGAIN IN COLOSSIANS 1:22…
NAS Colossians 1:22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach–
NOTICE HOW PAUL ALWAYS COUPLES THE WORD “BLAMELESS” WITH “HOLY” or “innocent” in describing the scriptural relationship of believers…
“BLAMELESS” IS USED IN HEBREWS 9:14…
NAS Hebrews 9:14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
IN 1 PETER 1:19…
NAS 1 Peter 1:19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
AGAIN IN 2 PETER 3:14…
NAS 2 Peter 3:14 Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless,
NAS Jude 1:24 Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy,
AND FINALLY, “BLAMELESS” IS FOUND IN REVELATION 14:5, referring to the 144,000…
NAS Revelation 14:5 And no lie was found in their mouth; they are blameless.
WITH THE EXCEPTION OF HEBREWS 9:14 AND 1 PETER 1:19, where ἄμωμος (a-mo-mos) refers to the Lord Jesus as the unblemished sacrificial Lamb of God, the word is always used in the N.T. to describe the behavior of believers…
I FIND THIS ABSOLUTELY FASCINATING: “IN THE SEPTUAGINT (the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew O.T., the translation Jesus Himself and the apostles used – TAR) it is used of sacrificial animals; only those without blemish could be offered to God.” – Hoehner…
THE BASIC MEANING OF THE WORD “BLAMELESS” REFERS TO sacrificial animals… It is convicting, is it not, to consider that Paul uses a word that refers to sacrificial animals to describe how believers ought to live? Here’s the translation from the LXX:
LXE Exodus 29:37 Seven days shalt thou purify the altar and sanctify it; and the altar shall be most holy, every one that touches the altar shall be hallowed. 38 And these are the offerings which thou shalt offer upon the altar; two unblemished {ἄμωμος (a-mo-mos)} lambs of a year old daily on the altar continually, a constant offering.
SACRIFICIAL ANIMALS IN THE RELGIOUS SYSTEM OF JUDAISM were to be holy and without blemish. We are to be “Holy and Blameless” today…
NAS Ezekiel 43:22 ‘And on the second day you shall offer a male goat without blemish for a sin offering; and they shall cleanse the altar, as they cleansed it with the bull.
THIS IMAGERY IS APPLIED METAPHORICALLY IN THE N.T. TO BELIEVERS…
NKJ Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.
“BLAMELESS” IS A WONDERFUL WORD TO STUDY. It is a significant word for us to consider. It tells us how we are to be, how we are to think of ourselves…
THE WORD ἄμωμος (a-mo-mos) IS USED IN EPEHESIANS 1:4 BY PAUL in a religious, moral sense to describe how believers are to conduct themselves in this world…
“’BLAMELESS,’ OF COURSE, DOES NOT MEAN SINLESS, because as Romans 3:23 tells us, ‘all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.’ But thanks be to God, though we are sinful, we can still be blameless. While it is not in our power to go back in time and undo the sins we have done, we can still accept the righteousness of Jesus and the forgiveness of the Father as a covering and cleansing for our sin. When God lifts the blame and shame of sin from us, we become blameless.” – Steadman…
PAUL SAYS WE ARE TO BE “HOLY AND BLAMELESS” “BEFORE HIM.” Here I believe the “Him” refers not to God the Son but God the Father. We must remember that these opening verses of Paul’s introduction mainly deal with the work of God the Father. Emphasis will then be placed on God the Son and them on God the Holy Spirit. Paul’s introduction is a clear testimony of the reality of the Trinity…
“SINCE THE WHOLE EXPRESSION IS DEALING WITH THE GOAL OF ELECTION, that is, their full perfection in Christ, it is likely that the day of the Lord Jesus (that is, the Second Coming – TAR) is in view. God chose His people in Christ with the ultimate goal that they would be holy and blameless before Him (that is, God the Father – TAR) when they appear in His (Christ’s – TAR) presence.” – O’Brien…
AND YET, HERE AGAIN, I THINK A GOOD CASE CAN BE MADEFOR THE “HIM” being Christ…
THIS IS YET ANOTHER OF THE MANY EXAMPLES IN THE N.T. WHERE it is very
difficult if not at times impossible to say for certain whether the personal pronoun refers to God the
Father or God the Son…
IF THIS COMMENTATOR IS CORRECT, THEN THE EMPHASIS ON “HOLY AND Blameless” is future. It is looking forward to that day when the Lord returns. This does not, however, mean that there is consequently no concern for holiness and blamelessness in our lives today…
ANOTHER COMMENTATOR WROTE, “BEFORE HIM IMPLIES consciousness that God’s presence and God’s approval are one’s ultimate environment.” – Lincoln…
I THINK IT IS BOTH/AND, JUST LIKE OUR LIVES ARE. As Christians we are to be future oriented, always looking forward to the day when we will be with the Lord, either first in the Rapture or at death. We are also always while we are here on earth to be concerned about our daily walk with the Lord. I think it is best to see “before Him” as both/and. Christians are always before God. So often in my reading I find commentators taking one side or the other on these types of arguable points when it seems to me that both points of view can be seen to be included in the writer’s words…
“ELECTION IS NOT JUST TO SALVATION, BUT TO HOLINESS OF LIFE. We were ‘created in Christ Jesus,’ Paul says in 2:10…” – Foulkes…
NAS Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
THAT MEANS NOW, NOT FUTURE. I must agree with the commentators who say that the
phrase “before Him” has an eschatological (future) reference, but it also, I think, must be seen as a
statement intended for the present. Christians are both/and people…
“THE LIFE OF THE CHRISTIAN IS TO BE ‘HOLY AND WITHOUT BLEMISH,’ NOT merely by human standards but ‘before Him’ who is the witness of all that anyone does, and thinks, and says. We live every moment in the sight of God.” – Foulkes…
FINALLY, LET ME TALK TO YOU ABOUT LOVE. Look again at your Bibles at v. 4. If you have a NAS, ESV, or NIV translation, you will see that there is a period before the words “In love,” indicating that in their estimation the phrase goes better with v. 5…
NAS Ephesians 1:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,
IN THE NAS, ESV, AND NET BIBLES, THE INTERPRETATION IS THAT GOD predestined us to adoption as sons…
(YOU WILL REMEMBER THAT IN THE ANCIENT GREEK TEXT there are no periods in vv. 3-14 until the end of v. 14; these verses comprise one extended sentence. Our English translations for the sake of clarity have punctuated this passage so that there are eight sentences.)
THE KJV, NKJ, AND NET TRANSLATIONS HAVE CHOSEN NOT TO place a period before “in love,” indicating that the phrase is to be taken with v. 4…
NKJ Ephesians 1:4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,
12 tn The prepositional phrase ἐν ἀγάπῃ (en agapeÒ, “in love”) may modify one of three words or phrases: (1) “chose,” (2) “holy and unblemished,” both in v. 4, or (3) “by predestining” in v. 5. If it modifies “chose,” it refers to God’s motivation in that election, but this option is unlikely because of the placement of the prepositional phrase far away from the verb. The other two options are more likely. If it modifies “holy and unblemished,” it specifies that our holiness cannot be divorced from love. This view is in keeping with the author’s use of ἀγάπη to refer often to human love in Ephesians, but the placement of the prepositional phrase not immediately following the words it modifies would be slightly awkward. If it modifies “by predestining” (v. 5), again the motivation of God’s choice is love. This would fit the focus of the passage on God’s gracious actions toward believers, but it could be considered slightly redundant in that God’s predestination itself proves his love. – NET Notes…
I HAVE STUDIED THIS QUESTION FOR YEARS. We simply cannot know for certain whether “in love” belongs with v. 4 or with v. 5. If I had to make a choice, I would side with the KJV, NKJ, and NET Bibles in placing it with v. 4… (For Greek students, my reasoning is this: “predestined” is an aorist participle; it is not the main verb. The main verb in vv. 4-5 is “chose” [aorist middle indicative]. So “predestined” is modifying “chose.” Therefore, if “in love” [one word in Greek] is meant to refer to God’s action in predestining [as NAS, ESV, and NIV indicate], which is describing more fully how God chose, it would seem more likely that Paul would have placed the phrase “in love” with the main verb, not the secondary participle: “just as He chose us in love in Him” or “just as He chose us in Him in love.”)…
“ON THE WHOLE IT IS PREFERABLETO ATTACH ‘IN LOVE’ TO WHAT PRECEDES so that it is viewed as part of the goal election is intended to achieve, namely, a life before God which is holy and blameless and lived in love.” – O’Brien…
“IF THE PHRASE ‘IN LOVE’ IS INDEED TO BE ATTACHED TO ‘HOLY AND blameless’ (which I favor – TAR), then it adds a specific quality to holiness and blameless: the consummation of holiness and blamelessness is love. The purpose of God is that His people should be marked by holiness and blamelessness with love.” – Bruce…
THE NEW ENGLISH BIBLE (not the NET) TRANSLATES THIS VERSE in this manner, which I have abbreviated for relevance to what I am saying: “He chose us to be dedicated (as in sacrifice – TAR), to be without blemish in His sight, to be full of love.”…
NAS 1 John 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
BY UNDERSTANDING THE PHRASE “IN LOVE” TO BE DESCRIBING “HOLY AND Blameless,” Paul, I believe, is underscoring the unity that is, as we will see, such a major thrust of his letter: unity among believers…
WELL, WE’VE ALREADY LEARNED A LOT IN OUR INDEPTH STUDY OF PAUL’S introduction to the book of Ephesians. We’ve learned a number of important things about who God is, and we’ve learned a number of important things about what He has done for use before the foundation of the world…
TODAY WE HAVE LEARNED ONE OF THE REASONS WHY He has done these things: so that we should be “Holy and Blameless.” What a great message from God’s wonderful Word for us today!…
ה ה יהו ךְ את ברוּ(Hebrew: ba-ruch a-tah A-do-nai), v. 3, Blessed Art Thou, O Lord!…
LORD, BY YOUR ENABLING SPIRIT, HELP US TO LIVE LIVES THAT ARE “Holy and Blameless” before Christ in love for and in unity with other believers…
– Professor Thomas A. Rohm
