Ephesians 1:13Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"The word of truth," he says, not a word of image or likeness. "The Gospel of your salvation." He rightly calls this Gospel the Gospel of our salvation, pointing on the one hand to the law, and on the other to future punishment. What else does preaching mean, if not the good tidings of salvation, that is, that He no longer destroys those worthy of perdition?

"And having believed in Him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the pledge of our inheritance." Again this sealing shows great providence. It is not only separation, nor only inheritance, but precisely sealing. Just as someone might mark with a sign those who had fallen to him by lot, so that afterward he could recognize them, so God set them apart to receive faith in Him and sealed them for the inheritance of future blessings.

Do you see how, with the passage of time, God makes them wondrous? As long as they were only in foreknowledge, they were known to no one. But when they received sealing, they became known, though not as we are. They will be known, except for a few. The Israelites also received sealing, but through circumcision, like cattle and irrational animals. We have been sealed as sons, by the Spirit.

What does "the promised Holy Spirit" mean? It means that we received Him according to promise. There were two promises, one through the prophets and the other from the Son. I said: through the prophets. Listen to what Joel says: "I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions" (Joel 2:28).

Then listen to what Christ says: "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

Although one ought to believe Him as God, Paul does not insist strongly on this. Rather, he conducts the inquiry as though speaking about a man. As in the Epistle to the Hebrews he says: "That by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation," so here he presents what has already been given as proof of the fulfillment of the promise concerning future blessings.

And again: "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-control" (2 Tim 1:7). Here he calls the gracious gift "spirit," as also when he says: "You were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit" (Eph 1:13).

Where is it written about the Spirit of promise? Paul says: "Having the same spirit of faith" (2 Cor 4:13) and of promise, that is, the gracious gift of the Spirit. Thus there is the spirit of faith and the spirit of promise.

If someone is meek and humble in heart, he has received the gift of meekness. This is God's gracious gift. Paul speaks of this: "If a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of meekness" (Gal 6:1), that is, by the gracious gift of meekness. "Watching yourself," Scripture says, "lest you also be tempted" (Gal 6:1). This is the spirit of meekness.

To another is given the sanctification of soul and body, and this is called the spirit of holiness. So the Apostle says: "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle, set apart for the Gospel of God, which God promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures" (Rom 1:1-2, 4), according to the Spirit of holiness.

He said this in reverse order. The meaning of his words is: "Paul, who became an Apostle according to the Spirit of holiness." Many, following the first saying, thought that Paul was speaking about the Son of God, who was predestined "according to the Spirit of holiness." But in fact this is not so. On the contrary, in this passage it is said that Paul was appointed as an Apostle "according to the Spirit of holiness." When was he appointed? After the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Since the other Apostles were chosen before Christ's sufferings, while he was chosen after Christ's resurrection, it is therefore said: "according to the Spirit of holiness."

I will say something else as well. When, during the holy Mysteries, we all begin to say: "Our Father, who art in heaven" (Mt 6:9), it means that we have received the gift: the spirit of adoption as sons, that is, the gracious gift of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit is called the spirit of zeal, as Paul says: "So also you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts" (1 Cor 14:12), that is, you have zeal for spiritual gifts. "Be zealous for the greater gifts," that is, for the gifts of grace, "and I will show you a still more excellent way" (1 Cor 12:31). "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am nothing" (1 Cor 13:1-2). That is, love is greater than every gracious gift.

The Jews were sealed by circumcision, as irrational creatures receiving a bodily seal. But we, as sons of God, have been sealed by the Spirit, which is higher than a fleshly sealing.

He calls Him the promised Spirit either because He was given according to promise. For through Joel, God promised: “I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh” (Joel 2:28).

And Christ says: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you” (Acts 1:8).

Or He is so called because the Spirit confirms the promise of the good things to come. For by the very fact that He has been sent down to us, assurance of the future is given.

Therefore He is also called a pledge. Listen to what follows next.

‘By Spirit here he means energy (ἐνέργεια),’ as golden-tongued John said. Therefore Paul also called Him ‘the Spirit of promise,’ recalling God’s promise through the prophet Joel: ‘I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh.’

‘It is not the Divinity that is poured out, according to the men wise in God, but the gift.’

Here, of course, we receive His Holy Spirit in part and as in the form of a pledge. Him we shall later contemplate more wholly and more clearly.

It is of Him that it is said that He is the Kingdom of Heaven within us. For through the Holy Spirit, though born on earth, we call ourselves heavenly.

With the help of the Holy Spirit, we reign in the heavens with Christ. In Him we find all the fullness of the Godhead, and in us it is from the fullness of the Godhead.

Therefore we do not become gods according to essence, but are deified according to the energy and gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles III.48. See St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of John, PG 59, 174. Spuria of St. John Chrysostom, On the Holy Spirit, PG 52, 826.

At the same time, as St. John Chrysostom observes, we have received only the pledge, not the whole inheritance, because we have not fulfilled all that is required of us.

The sealing itself by the Holy Spirit is not performed in the Mystery of Baptism, although there too the grace of the Holy Spirit is given.

This grace regenerates man into holy and spiritual life. Rather, the sealing is performed in the Mystery of Chrismation.

In Chrismation the gifts are imparted that make one grow and strengthen one in the same spiritual life. Therefore it is wholly distinct from the Mystery of Baptism.

It is self-evident that the birth of a son, a natural act, differs from his father’s recognition of him as his son.

This recognition grants him the rights of inheritance and is a juridical act. So too spiritual birth, Baptism, differs from our confirmation by the heavenly Father through the seal of the Holy Spirit.

It differs from Chrismation. The doubt of Protestants and other sectarians concerning this distinction springs from their unwillingness to recognize Chrismation as a separate and independent Mystery.

And St. John Chrysostom says: “This sealing by the Spirit shows a great manifestation. If someone marked those who fell to him by lot with a certain sign, he would recognize them afterward.

So also God, having set them apart for the reception of faith in Him, sealed them for the inheritance of future blessings.

The Israelites too received a seal, but through circumcision, like irrational animals. We too have been sealed, but as children, by the Spirit.”

“The Apostle calls the Holy Spirit the betrothal, or pledge, of our salvation. A pledge is security for the whole. He purchased our salvation for us, but for now He gave only the pledge.

Why did He not grant everything at once? Because we, on our part, have not fulfilled everything. We believed; this is only the beginning. And He gave the pledge, that is, the beginning.

But when we show faith in works, then He will present to us the whole.”

“Perfect deliverance will be accomplished in the life to come. For now we live in the midst of the world and have dealings with the impious.

When there will be neither sins nor human passions, and when the impious will no longer be together with the saints, then perfect deliverance will come.

For now only the pledge has been given. Nevertheless, even now one must withdraw from earthly things, because our fatherland is not on earth.

Even now we must be free from what is here, for we are still sinners.”

“Certainly God does everything for His own sake. Yet He also requires corresponding actions from us.

If He says, ‘Those who glorify Me I will glorify, and he who dishonors Me shall be dishonored,’ then we must understand that something is also required on our side: the praise of His glory.”

We Jews were already chosen and appointed beforehand to be Christ's portion. You, though not directly appointed, were nevertheless received into the same portion because you believed. Christ has placed His seal upon you also, the gift of the Holy Spirit, so that all, both heavenly and earthly, may know that you now belong to Him and not to anyone else.

Thus you have in no way been left without a share in comparison with us. You have received the same thing we have, for the sake of your faith and obedience to the Gospel.

"The word of truth" is the teaching of Christ, the word about faith in Him. It is undoubtedly true and contains the first and most necessary truth of all truths: how to be saved. Whoever receives this in his heart, even if he knows nothing else, will possess the truth of life, which can bring him by the true path to true blessedness.

"The Gospel of salvation," the good tidings of salvation, explains the content of the word of truth. In this consisted the whole preaching. The Apostles said to all: you are perishing, and you will remain in perdition if you stay as you are. If you wish to be saved, here is the only means for you: believe in the Lord Jesus Christ crucified.

"What else did the preaching contain," says Saint Chrysostom, "if not the good tidings of salvation, that is, that He no longer destroys those worthy of perdition?"

Instead of "our salvation," that is, the salvation of all men, some read "your salvation," that of the Ephesians. The thought would then be: yours as well as ours. Or the Apostle more directly leads them to remember how they believed. Hearing the preaching, they recognized that they were indeed perishing. They felt their ruin, and at the same time that they had nowhere to be saved except in the Lord Jesus Christ. This preaching became for them the indication of the only salvation, which they grasped with all their strength.

In each person saving faith begins to show its power when he makes the salvation common to all in the Lord his own, not by speculation, but by feeling.

"In Him, having believed." It is not enough to hear; one must believe. Faith is the door to receiving all blessings from the Lord. Just as, having ascended into heaven, He sent down the Holy Spirit into the world, so He immediately fills with the Holy Spirit, through the Mysteries, those who cleave to Him by faith.

The path is this: first hearing, then faith from hearing, and finally sealing with the Spirit in baptism and the laying on of hands, or chrismation. These are the stages by which those who were far off are brought near and introduced into Christ's inheritance.

"You were sealed with the Spirit." About the Jews he said: we were made heirs, we entered into the inheritance of blessings in Christ, or into Christ's lot and portion. About the Gentiles he says: you were sealed with the Spirit. This is one and the same. For to be sealed with the Spirit meant that they too had been received into Christ's portion. Likewise, it was impossible for the Jews to be deemed worthy of the blessings in Christ, or to enter Christ's portion, except through the outpouring of the Spirit, according to the promises that the Spirit would be poured out on them and they would thereby be made new.

Theodoret writes: "You not only heard, but also believed. Therefore you were deemed worthy of the grace of the all-holy Spirit. 'You were sealed' is like the prophetic saying: 'The light of Your countenance, O Lord, has been marked upon us' (Ps 4:7). That is, you received the gift of the Spirit as a kind of seal."

Saint Chrysostom says: "This sealing shows great providence. Just as someone might mark those who had fallen to him by lot with a known sign, so as to recognize them afterward, so God, having set them apart to receive faith in Him, sealed them with the Spirit as a sign that they belong to Him, and for the inheritance of future blessings. The Israelites also received sealing, but through circumcision, like irrational animals. We, however, have been sealed as children, with the Spirit."

In the reception of the Holy Spirit, by whom love is poured into our hearts and faith becomes active, the Christian receives for himself and for others a sign, a seal, and assurance that he belongs to Christ (Rom 8:16). In the first times, the presence of the Holy Spirit was testified by manifest and wondrous actions of grace.

Blessed Jerome writes: "The sealing of God consists in this: as the first man was created according to the image and likeness of God, so in the second creation the one deemed worthy of the Holy Spirit is sealed by Him in receiving the image of Him who created him. I think this means that the Holy Spirit makes holy the one upon whom He is poured out. The spirit of wisdom makes him wise; the spirit of understanding, understanding; the spirit of counsel, full of counsel; the spirit of might, strong; the spirit of knowledge, knowing; the spirit of piety, pious; the spirit of the fear of God, God-fearing, working out his salvation with fear and trembling."

"The Spirit of promise." Why did Saint Paul call Him this? Both because He Himself was promised by the prophets and by the Lord, and because He serves as the pledge of future promises.

Saint Chrysostom says: "What does 'the Spirit of promise' mean? It means that we received Him according to promise. There were two promises, one through the prophets and the other through the Son. I said, through the prophets. Listen to what Joel says: 'I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall see dreams, and your young men shall see visions' (Joel 2:28). Then listen to what Christ says: 'You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth' (Acts 1:8)."

Oecumenius and Theophylact, having set forth the same thought, add the following. Oecumenius says: "He is called the Spirit of promise also either because He promises countless blessings, or because through being sealed by Him you will obtain or be deemed worthy of the promises."

Theophylact says: "Or He is the Spirit of promise also because the Spirit confirms the promise of future blessings. Having been given, He thereby assures us of what is to come. Therefore He is also called the pledge."