Epistle to the Ephesians
We are midway through our sermon series on the Epistle to the Ephesians. We have discussed many of the theological points of the letter in our topics during the previous weeks. We covered family and foreigners, and we will discuss how we are bound together, our peace, and being filled. However, during this break, I wanted to take a moment and discuss some of the overall background of the letter.
The Epistle to the Ephesians is a letter that Paul uses to lay out his basic outline for salvation and the theology of Christ. The first thing of note is how early this letter was written. Like all of Paul's letters, Ephesians was written before any of the gospels. The early Christians who formed the churches like the one in Ephesus could not read about Jesus’s life in the gospel narratives. The only way they had to learn about God was through traveling apostles telling stories and letters that were sent to them like the one Paul wrote to the Ephesians.
As you read through the letters from Paul, you will find that they are not nearly as easy to understand as the gospels. They were not written in a narrative format. There is no story. While the gospels follow a natural progression, from Jesus’ birth or the start of his ministry to the cross and resurrection, the letters do not. They may start with a theological statement based on the resurrection then move on to a statement about Christ’s place in heaven before Adam and Eve’s creation. They have no problem jumping through time to make their theological point. The reason for this is that the letters are not designed to inform the reader about Jesus’s life, like the gospels, but instead to inform the reader about correct theology. They are not about what Christ did, but instead, they care about what Christ's actions mean.
The letter to the Ephesians does just that. It makes claims of what Christ means in our lives. It spends a particularly long time talking about the connections we have as a community in light of Christ's sacrifice and resurrection. It explains how in Jesus we can come together as one in a way that we couldn’t without him, and how we can accept one another as Christ accepted us. It is a deep letter with many different turns.
The depth of this letter is why it takes us five weeks to cover the topic “No Longer Strangers.”
At the end of this month, we will begin another series. The next series will discuss the Epistle of James. The letter from James is a fitting follow up to the Epistle to the Ephesians because of how different it is. Often James’ theology has been seen as a counter to the theology present in Paul’s letters. Scholars have discussed in detail the differences that these two early Christians may have had. Yet, in all the ways they might seem different they both deal with the same God and the same salvation. Listen to all of our current sermon series and our following sermon series online to learn more about these two letters.