Ephesians / Question
Ephesians says God “chose us in him before the foundation of the world” with the stated aim that believers would be holy and blameless before him. The statement is presented as part of God’s purpose in Christ. See Ephesians 1:4.
In Ephesians 1:3–6 Paul opens with praise to God, presenting God as the source of a comprehensive set of “spiritual” benefits given to “us” in connection with Christ. He then traces those benefits back before creation: God chose “us” in Christ with a goal that “we” would be holy before him, marked by love. These verses begin a long opening outpouring of praise that runs through 1:14, where Paul stacks connected phrases to describe what God has done and why. Rather than shifting topics, he keeps circling one main movement: God acted “in Christ,” with a purpose, and the appropriate response is praise.
Paul starts with praise directed to God as “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (explicit). The reason given is that God has already “blessed us” with “every spiritual blessing” (explicit), and these blessings are tied to union with Christ (“in Christ”) and described as belonging to “the heavenly places” (explicit).
A common mistake is to turn the wording into a slogan. The better reading keeps the phrase tied to the passage, the speaker, and the problem the book is addressing.
Start with Ephesians 1:4, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
4even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without blemish before him in love;