All people with this faith-Jews and Gentiles alike-were dead in their transgressions and sins but have been made alive because of the person and work of Jesus Christ. The members of this community have beenĬhosen by God through the work of Christ, adopted as sons and daughters of God, and brought near to the Father through faith in His Son. Paul spent the first three chapters of the letter discussing God’s creation of a holy community by His gift of grace in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul divided his letter to the Ephesians into two clear segments applying the truths of the first makes possible the actions and lifestyle of the second. Important for those churches overrun with legalism, Ephesians deals with topics at the very core of what it means to be a Christian-both in faith and in practice-regardless of any particular problem in the community. While Galatians offers instructions particularly ![]() Ephesians, on the other hand, stands at the opposite end of the spectrum as one of Paul’s most formal letters. ![]() Second Corinthians and Galatians abound with personal touches from Paul, either about his own life or that of the recipients. The others are Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. It was during this time that Paul sat in Rome undergoing his first Roman imprisonment (Ephesians 3:1 4:1), making Ephesians one of the four epistles commonly known as the Prison Epistles. Paul wrote the letter to the Ephesians sometime in AD 60–61, around the same time he wrote Colossians and Philemon, as he sent all three letters by the hand of Tychicus, accompanied by Onesimus (Ephesians 6:21 Ĭolossians 4:7–9 Philemon 1:10–12). The ensuing near-riot led Paul to leave the city, but only after the apostle had done much to stabilize and grow the Christian community there. One prominent silversmith, Demetrius, who made implements for the worship of Artemis, found his business suffering greatly because people were converting to Christianity. During his time in this city that housed the famous temple to the Greek goddess Artemis, Paul saw many converted to faith in Jesus Christ and many others who opposed his preaching in the synagogues and homes. For a brief time at the end of his second missionary journey, and then for more than two years on his third missionary journey, Paul ministered to the church at Ephesus (Acts 18:18–21 19:1–41).
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