ACC ~ Ephesians 1 v4a

CALLED TO PERSEVERE. AMBROSIASTER: God, foreknowing all, knew who were going to believe in Christ…. Therefore those whom God is said to call will persevere in faith. These are the ones whom he elected before the world in Christ, so that they might be blameless before God through love—that is, so that the love of God might give them holy lives. For no one can show greater respect toward another than when he obeys in love. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.4.

HE CHOSE US IN HIM. CHRYSOSTOM: What he means is this: The one through whom he has blessed us is the one through whom he has elected us. … Christ chose us to have faith in him before we came into being, indeed even before the world was founded. The word foundation was well chosen, to indicate that it was laid down from some great height. For great and ineffable is the height of God, not in a particular place but rather in his remoteness from nature. So great is the distance between creature and Creator. HOMILY ON EPHESIANS 1.1.4.

OUT OF NOTHING. JEROME: Paul, wishing to show that God made all things out of nothing, ascribed to him not the “composition,” the “creation” or the “making” but the katabolē, that is, the inception of the foundation. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.1.4.

Eph