Overview of Ephesians

Ephesians is the first of the disputed Pauline letters. While attributed to Paul there are many scholars who argue that against Paul being the author of Ephesians. Depending on where you look one-half to two-thirds of scholars lean against Pauline authorship.

This shouldn’t be a concern for us. This practice was well known to the Greco-Roman audience and is called pseudonymous writing. Someone might write pseudonymously under Paul's name to lend authority to their teachings, ensuring they were seen as consistent with Paul’s teaching.

We saw a similar thing with Isaiah, where we reflected on how disciples of Isaiah living in the exile and then after the exile may have taken the message and ideas of Isaiah and repurposed them for their context, adding them to Isaiah’s existing material.

Either way, the letter was written by Paul or by someone who would like their letter to be treated as though it was written by Paul so, for our purposes, we’ll treat them as the same. If the letter was written by Paul, it was likely around 62 CE while Paul was imprisoned in Rome. If not, then it was likely written between 70-95 CE.

We read as Paul planted the church in Ephesus in Acts 19. Ephesus was a large port city on the coast of the Roman province of Asia, modern day Turkey. It was fiercely loyal in its worship of the Greek goddess Artemis, which lead to the riot that caused Paul to leave town.

Ephesians 1-3 - The theology of unity

• Ephesians 1:1-2 - Greetings
• Ephesians 1:3-14 - The blessing
• Ephesians 1:15-23 - Prayer for the Ephesians
• Ephesians 2:1-10 - The Ephesians’ salvation in Jesus
• Ephesians 2:11-22 - The new humanity in Jesus
• Ephesians 3:1-13 - Paul’s gospel
• Ephesians 3:14-21 - Prayer for the Ephesians

Ephesians 4-6 - The practice of unity

• Ephesians 4:1-16 - The body of Christ

• Ephesians 4:17-5:20 - Living as new humans

• Ephesians 5:21-6:9 - Unity in Christians households: marriage, parenting, and the slave-master relationship

• Ephesians 6:10-20 - The armour of God

• Ephesians 6:21-24 - Closing greetings

The primary focus of the letter to the Ephesians is the importance of unity. In Romans, Paul unpacked the needs for the Jewish and Gentile Christians to be united together, but he was primarily addressing there the division between the two.

Here, Paul, or one of his disciples, is promoting the value of unity generally. This letter doesn’t just cover unity between Jews and Gentiles, but in every area of life. From others in the church, others outside the church, and even in the Ephesians’ own families and household.

Jesus’ work on the cross united believers as one together in a new humanity. More than that, he reconciled all creation together. This unity is to be reflected in how believers conduct themselves, living lives worthy of their calling, especially in relationships within the church and within the household.

Ephesians 1-2

Paul opens his letter with his usual greetings, introducing himself as an apostle of Jesus, and the Ephesians as saints who are faithful in Jesus. He offers them a quick blessing and then moves on to a much larger blessing over God.

This blessing may have been a hymn that was well known to the Ephesians, or it may have been something unique to Paul. In it, Paul sets the themes of his letter.

One of the key themes is the union with Christ. Not how many times that ‘in Christ’, ‘in him’ or ‘through Christ’ are used. Paul is establishing a unity that believers have with Christ that will then shape the theology and practice of the rest of the letter.

In Christ, believers have been blessed with every spiritual blessing and were chosen before the foundations of the world. Paul then goes on to name some of these spiritual blessings.

The believer has been adopted as children through Jesus Christ. They are now one family in him.

The believer has redemption through the blood of Jesus, which means forgiveness of sins.

God has revealed to the believers the mystery of his will, which is to gather up all things together under him, united once again.

Because believers have been chosen and redeemed, they can now obtain an inheritance in Jesus, and part of that inheritance is to live in a way that glorifies God.

Finally, the believers are sealed by the Holy Spirit in this truth and gospel that they have heard.

And through all these things, Paul weaves the idea that God does this out of his ‘good pleasure’ and that it had always been his plan to do so.

Having blessed God, Paul then prays over the Ephesians. He lets them know that he has heard of their faithfulness and love and has been thanking God for them whenever he prays.

So now he prays that God may give them greater wisdom and revelation so that they may know God better. This wisdom and revelation is to help them better know the hope which they have been called, the inheritance they have, and the greatness of Jesus’ power in us.

Paul unpacks what that power looks like. God put this power to work by raising Jesus from the dead and seating him at his right hand. This placed Jesus above any rule, authority, power, dominion, and name forever.

Everything that sets itself up against God is now under Jesus. They are under his feet. And Jesus now serves as the head of the church, while the church are his body. If these powers are under Jesus’ feet, and the church are his body, then these powers are now underneath the feet of the church as well.

Paul then steps back and explains what this means for the Ephesians. Where they were and where they now are in Jesus.

Before, the Ephesians were dead in their sin. They lived in this in the power of this sin, following along with the course of the world, which was shaped by ‘the ruler of the power of the air’. This is likely Satan, the embodiment of the powers of evil at work in the world.

The Ephesians previously lived under this, consumed by the desires of their flesh, which we know from previous letters is Paul’s way of describe the power of sin inside us.

But because of God’s great love and mercy, he brought the Ephesians from death in their sin to life in Jesus, just like he had raised Jesus to life. And then, in the same way that the power of God lifted Jesus to sit in at his right hand, God now does the same for the Ephesians and other believers.

The reason God has done this is to show of his incredible grace and kindness in Jesus. And this was not done because of the Ephesians' good work. This was done as a gift of God through faith.

This then leads Paul to the crux of the theology of this letter, the unity that believers now have in Christ.

Previously, the Ephesians who were Gentiles were separated from the Jews. The Jews were circumcised, and the Gentiles were not. Though Paul makes a point of noting that the Jews’ circumcision was one ‘made in the flesh by human hands’ (Ephesians 2:11). He wants to make clear there is nothing special about the Jews’ circumcision.

At that point, the Ephesians were without Jesus and were considered foreigners without hope. But now, in Jesus, while the Ephesians were previously far away, they have now been brought near. Where there were previously two groups, now there is one. Where there was previously hostility, now there is none.

The law has been abolished and a new humanity has been created to reconcile both Jew and Gentile to God. This is why God has caused the gospel to be spread to the Gentiles and the Jews, because both now have access to the same Spirit.

This means that believers are members of God’s household. They are one family. They are bricks that make up the one building, where Jesus is the foundation, and God’s spirit dwells in his new temple.

Paul has built the theology of this letter up to this key idea: the unity that all believers now share in Jesus.

Psalm 6

This psalm is attributed to king David, and falls into the category of lament psalm, specifically a psalm of sickness. We see many of the familiar themes with lament psalms; turning to God, bringing the complaint, making a request of God, and then declaring trust in God. Though in this psalm, many of the steps are blended together.

Psalm 6:1-3 - A cry for mercy, asking God to be gracious as the psalmist is wasting away

Psalm 6:4-5 - Appeal to God’s love and glory

Psalm 6:6-7 - Further mention of the psalmist’s struggles

Psalm 6:8-10 - Declaration of trust in God

The psalm opens with a cry out to God. This person is wasting away and they feel like they can’t take it any more. They beg God to stop what feels like rebuke and discipline, and ask him to be gracious to them instead. They ask the common question ‘how long?’ How long must we suffer before God answers us?

Then the psalmist makes an appeal to who God is. First, to his steadfast love. Our God is a faithful and loving God, and so the psalmist asks God to be true to his character and save them because of this love. Secondly, he appeals to God’s glory. God’s glory deserves our praise, but how can the psalmist praise God if he’s dead? The psalm reminds us of the importance of focusing on who God is in our prayers. We then let that truth shape what we pray for.

The psalmist then lapses back into their suffering. They are struggling with real loss, grief, and mourning. All too often, we can skip over this section in our own prayers. Yes, God is bigger than our problems, but we don’t need to diminish our problems to make God seem even bigger. When we properly accept the difficulty and the magnitude of what we’re going through, it actually exalts God even more when we then declare that God is greater.

Which is where the psalmist ends up. Having taken time to grieve with God, the psalm now allows us to be lifted back up in the confidence of God’s deliverance. As they finished mentioning that their opponents are making them weak, the psalmist then tells those same foes where to go. Our God hears and responds to his people. One day, he will come and turn the boasting of the wicked into shame. The contrast we are meant to pick up is that he will also turn the shame of those who call out to him in to boasting. In Psalm 6:2-3 it was the psalmist’s bones and soul that were greatly troubled. Now in Psalm 6:10 it is his enemies that are greatly troubled.