Search The Scriptures —Study 0 — Introduction of the book of Ephesians

Search The Scriptures —Study 0 — Introduction of the book of Ephesians

Study 0 From the Book of 1 Ephesians is: The Introduction of the book of Ephesians.

INTRODUCTION

This epistle, together with Philippians, Colossians and Philemon' form a group known as the 'Prison' Epistles, because all four were' as is generally believed, written from Rome when Paul was a prisoner there, as described in Acts 28:16, 30, 31. The words 'at Ephesus' (1:1) are omitted in a number of important manuscripts, and this has led many to suppose that the Epistle was not intended for Ephesus alone, but for all the churches of the Lycus valley, of which the church at Ephesus was the chief.

It was God's purpose from before the foundation of the world to form a people for Himself. But, mankind fell into sin and death, and only when Christ came was it revealed that God's purpose was to find accomplishment through the creation of a new humanity in Christ, made up of both Jew and Gentile, reconciled to God and to one another through the blood of the cross, and indwelt by the Holy Spirit. This 'new man' consists of the whole redeemed community of which Christ is the Head, and stands in contrast to the 'old man' whose head is Adam, and which is under the dominion of the world, the devil and the flesh, and its subject to divine condemnation.

The new humanity in Christ is the theme of the Epistle. The doctrine of individual salvation by faith, as expounded in Romans and Galatians, is here less prominent, and the apostle dwells rather upon the corporate aspects of salvation under the image of the church as the body of Christ, together with the vision of a final oneness of all things in Him.