New Testament · Paul's Letters
The church from heaven's side, dead made alive, walls torn down, armor issued.
The most serene of Paul's letters, with no crisis to fix and no opponents named, which is one reason many scholars think it was circulated to several churches rather than sent to one. The first three chapters are a single sustained view from above, chosen before the foundation of the world, raised and seated with Christ, and the wall between Jew and Gentile pulled down in his flesh. The second three come down to the floor: how to speak, how to work, how to be married, how to handle anger before sundown. Its most quoted passage is the armour of God, and it is worth noticing that every piece is defensive except one, and that the struggle is explicitly said not to be against flesh and blood.
If you remember one thing
Three chapters of what is true, then three of how to live because of it. The hinge is the word therefore at the start of chapter 4.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast.”
Ephesians 2:8-9
Ephesians 5:22-33
Wives submit, husbands love. Read by some as a household order and by others as a mutual submission introduced by verse 21, and the passage carries real pastoral weight either way.
Ephesians 6:5-9
Instructions to slaves and masters, which the letter regulates rather than abolishes. Christians have argued about the significance of that for centuries.
Named here rather than skipped. Where Christians read a passage differently, we say so instead of choosing for you.
Everyone here has a write-up, drawn from the same records that explain the names while you read the text.
A Pharisee trained under Gamaliel who persecuted the church until he was stopped on the road to Damascus. He then spent thirty years planting churches across the Roman world and writing the letters that make up roughly a third of the New Testament. He was a Roman citizen by birth, which is why he could appeal to Caesar.
A quiz for Ephesians is on the workbench. In the meantime, the games for the judges, the kings, and the prophets are open.
