In whom you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,
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Didymus the Blind
AD 398
One who takes on discipline and virtue receives in his own character the seal and form of the knowledge that he puts on. So one who is made a partaker of the Holy Spirit becomes likewise spiritual and holy through disciplined fellowship with him.
In whom you. Were sealed Having been regenerated in baptism, you have received the Holy Spirit and the supernatural gifts which he communicates, by which he has, as it were, impressed upon you the seal of your sanctification and the pledge of your salvation. It is not an external impression, such as that by which soldiers are marked by their sovereigns, nor circumcision, as of old, but it is a mark within you
the grace with which you are filled
which shows itself outwardly by miraculous effects (Calmet)
Some refer these words, in whom you were sealed, to the sacrament of baptism; others to confirmation: both, with the sacrament of holy orders, confer a character, or mark, of which St. Paul seems to speak whenever he speaks of God sealing us.
It is no small praise for the Ephesians that they have heard not preaching as such but “the word of truth.” Remember that we read in another letter that there is a great distance between preaching and the word of truth. .
By this seal God shows great forethought for humanity. He not only sets apart a people and gives them an inheritance but secures it as well. It is just as if someone might stamp his heirs plainly in advance; so God set us apart to believe and sealed us for the inheritance of future glory. .
What does “in the Spirit of promise” mean? That we have now received him according to his promise. There are two promises, first through the prophets and finally through the Son. .
And the others also he sent into the tower, those, namely, who had returned branches that were green and had offshoots but no fruit, having given them seals.
Hence the apostle refers the statement to himself, that is, to the Jews, in order that he may draw a distinction with respect to the Gentiles, (when he goes on to say: ) "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel (of your salvation); in whom ye believed, and were sealed with His Holy Spirit of promise."
