---
title: Ephesians 1:2
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/ephesians-1-2/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/ephesians-1-2.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Ephesians 1:2
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Ephesians 1:2

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

## NWT Wording of the Key Phrase

- NWT (2013 revision): "May you have undeserved kindness and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

## JW Usage

Read as the customary greeting, with "undeserved kindness" understood in Watchtower teaching as Jehovah's generosity toward those who serve him — favour that is genuinely unmerited in origin, but which must then be maintained through faithfulness, meeting attendance and the ministry.

## Protestant Usage

Two things here, and the second is the more pastoral. First, the pattern: one preposition, two names, as in every other Pauline opening. Ephesians is the letter that goes on to say salvation is by undeserved kindness through faith, and not from yourselves, it is God's gift, not from works (2:8-9) — so the greeting sets up the letter's own theme. Second, the phrase itself. The NWT translates charis as "undeserved kindness," which is a good and vivid rendering — it says plainly that nothing was earned. Take a Witness at their own translation's word. If the kindness is undeserved at the start, what changes it into something to be kept up afterwards? Ephesians 2:8-9 in their Bible says the whole thing is a gift and not from works, so that no one should boast. That is a gentle question, and it does not require winning any argument about the Trinity first. Many Witnesses are tired, and the news that the kindness was never being earned is worth offering on its own. Compare Galatians 1:3, Philippians 1:2, Ephesians 1:11.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Paul's Greeting Puts Jesus Beside the Father](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/pauline-greeting-formula.md) — Galatians 1:1-3 — Co-Source of Grace and Peace [Deity of Christ]