At the same time, we can gather that the letter was also intended in a more general sense - to circulate among Christians as a great statement of God’s eternal plan, worked out in the church and in individual Christian lives. Here he had laboured, watched, and wept, for both the community and individuals.” (Moule) Here he had taken that critical and momentous step, the ‘separation’ of the disciples from the Synagogue to a distinct place of teaching and no doubt of worship, ‘the school of one Tyrannus,’ the lecture-hall, we may suppose, of a friendly professor in what we may call the Ephesian University. Here for the space of three complete years - a unique length of stationary work for him - he had lived and laboured, not as the apostolic missionary only but as the apostolic pastor. There is little doubt this letter was intended for Ephesus, and Ephesus was an important city to Paul. Based partly on this, some believe that this letter was actually a circular letter written not to any one congregation, but meant to be passed on to many different congregations in different cities. To the saints who are in Ephesus: In a few ancient manuscripts there is a blank space instead of the words in Ephesus. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ: The opening of the letter is brief, without the more detailed greetings from Paul often found in his other letters.ī. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.Ī. ( Ephesians 1:1-2) Paul’s greeting to the Ephesians. It reveals the things God has prepared for those who love Him.Ģ. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:9-10: But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. In looking at the great, majestic themes of Ephesians, it is important to remember that Paul wrote this letter from prison.ĭ. Then with his mind still working over the theme of the greatness and glory of Christ, but moving on to consider the place of the Church in the purpose of God, he wrote Ephesians, this time without the limitation of any polemical aims.” (Foulkes) “He wrote to the Colossians to meet a particular situation and danger in the church at Colossae. Since Paul wrote both of them from his Roman imprisonment, his mind may have worked on the same themes when he wrote each letter. Ephesians has many similarities with Paul’s letter to the Colossians. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul also saw the new man and a new society, but he saw it all accomplished by the work of Jesus.Ĭ. Karl Marx wrote about a new man and a new society, but he saw man and society both in almost purely economic terms and offered only economic answers. If the Letter to the Romans focuses more on God’s work in the individual Christian, Ephesians includes the great themes of God’s work in the church, the community of believers. Whosoever would see Christianity in one treatise, let him ‘read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest’ the Epistle to the Ephesians.” (Spurgeon)ī. In the first chapter you have the doctrines of the gospel in the next, you have the experience of the Christians and before the Epistle is finished, you have the precepts of the Christian faith. “The Epistle to the Ephesians is a complete Body of Divinity. Paul there is none greater than this, nor any with a character more entirely its own… There is a peculiar and sustained loftiness in its teaching which has deeply impressed the greatest minds and has earned for it the title of the ‘Epistle of the Ascension.” (Salmond) “Among the Epistles bearing the name of St. “It sums up in large measure the leading themes of the Pauline writings… But it does more than that it carries the thought of the earlier letters forward to a new stage.” (Bruce) Ephesians has been called “the Queen of the Epistles,” “the quintessence of Paulinism,” “the divinest composition of man” and even “the Waterloo of commentators.” Some say that Ephesians reads “like a commentary on the Pauline letters” and probably it has been best termed “the crown of Paulinism.” (Bruce) The elevated themes of Ephesians make it highly praised and prized by commentators. Like Romans, Ephesians was not written so much to address problems in a particular church more so, it was written to explain some of the great themes and doctrines of Christianity. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is different compared to many of the other New Testament letters he wrote. The character and themes of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.Ī. Introduction to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.ġ.
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