1:4a–c Because he chose us in him before the foundation of the world (καθὼς ἐξελέξατο ἡμᾶς ἐν αὐτῷ πρὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου). Throughout the remainder of this passage (1:4–14), Paul gives a series of reasons why God is so worthy to be praised. The first refers to God’s choosing of his people in eternity past.

The conjunction he uses to introduce this (καθώς) is often interpreted as a comparative adverb, its most common function: “just as he chose us …” (NASB; NRSV) or “even as he chose us …” (ESV). But it makes better contextual sense to take it as a causal conjunction (so the TNIV and NIV, which translate with “for”) and see it as giving the basis for the praise.⁶ The force of this “because” carries throughout 1:4–14 with the rest of the passage providing important reasons why God is so worthy of blessing and praise.

The principal reason for the praise is that “he [God] chose us” (ἐξελέξατο). This term was commonly used in the LXX for God’s choice of individuals: He chose Abraham (Neh 9:7), Aaron (Ps 105:26 [104:26]), Moses (Sirach 45:4), David (1 Kings 11:34; Ps 78:70 [77:70]), and Eli’s father (1 Sam 2:28). Most importantly, he chose Jacob/Israel (Isa 41:8; 44:1–2) to set his love upon him and his descendants (Deut 7:7; 10:15) and for Jacob to be his own special possession (14:2). The verb is also used to speak of God’s choosing Christ. When God spoke from the cloud at the scene of the transfiguration, he said, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him” (Luke 9:35). The latter case, of course, does not mean that God has chosen Christ to experience redemption and the forgiveness of sins as is in view for the elect here, but that he chose Christ to fulfill a particular and indispensible role for securing salvation.

The usage of the verb suggests that God chooses individuals and together they comprise the group (“us”; ἡμᾶς). Throughout this letter there is an oscillation between the individual and the group. In the ethical exhortation of chapters 4–6, Paul addresses the group (“you”; second person plural), but implicit with each admonition is the personal responsibility of each individual member of the group. Thus, when he admonishes them to “speak truth” (4:25), “be kind” (4:32) or “walk in love” (5:2) using the second person plural, each individual is expected to receive this as a command directly to him or her and to bring their conduct in line with these virtues. At times, Paul can make this more explicit, such as when he says “speak truth, each one of you” (4:25), but this is for emphasis. An individual application is present with each second person plural exhortation.

Similarly, the election, redemption, and salvation truths of Ephesians 1–2 are stated to be true of the corporate group of believers whom Paul addresses (“we” [Paul and his readers] and “you” [the readers, or sometimes, the Gentile readers]), but there is always implicit an individual application. To say, then, that “the concept of election and destining here is corporate”⁹ is correct in what it affirms, but wrong in what it denies. Paul is affirming that his believing readers have been chosen by God, but he is not denying that God has individually chosen them to be in a relationship with himself, as the choice of the verb strongly suggests. Individual election is also necessitated by the metaphor of adoption that he uses two lines later (1:5a). In the Roman world, groups were not adopted by a paterfamilias, only individuals. Nevertheless, the Father is forming these individuals into a family; thus, a strong corporate element is retained, but not to the exclusion of the individual.

When Paul says that God chose us “in him” (ἐν αὐτῷ), he is referring to Christ’s participation in God’s act of choosing. Just as Christ was involved with the Father in the creation of the world (“by him all things were created”; Col 1:16; see also John 1:3), so also Christ participated with the Father in choosing people for himself.

Because this sovereign and gracious act took place “before the foundation of the world,” the text therefore implicitly teaches the preexistence of Christ. God’s choosing took place in eternity past. John uses the same expression (πρὸ καταβολῆς κόσμου) to speak of the love of the Father for the Son prior to his creation of the universe (John 17:24). Peter uses it to describe God’s foreknowledge of how he would save the world through his Son (1 Pet 1:20).

The idea of God choosing a people for himself in eternity past is taught elsewhere in the Bible. The psalmist prays that God will “remember the people you purchased long ago (ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς)” (Ps 74:2 TNIV [73:2 LXX]). The Greek prepositional phrase could be rendered, “from the beginning of time”; the corresponding Hebrew expression (qedem) is best rendered, “from prehistoric times.”

A variety of Jewish texts also speak of God’s choosing his people before creation. Joseph and Asenath 8:9, for instance, speaks of Israel as “your people whom you have chosen before all (things) came into being.” The idea of God’s choosing people in a pretemporal period may also be present in Rev 13:8, where one reading of the syntax is that the names of believers are written in the book of life before the foundation of the world (ESV [“everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain”]; NLT; NASB; NRSV).¹⁴ The fact that God did his choosing in this pretemporal period strongly underlines his initiative and grace in salvation.

 Clinton E. Arnold, Ephesians, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010), 79–81.