The Epistle to the Ephesians Ephesians 1:1~2/6:21~24 In Greek culture, they will always write down the author

and the date on the literature, so that the reader read in peace, feel trusted, because they would know who they are reading this from. Ephesus, a Greek city, was influenced by the Romans. So, Paul clearly states who he is and who hes writing to. This is a way to show the writer being responsibility. 1. Who wrote the epistle? Paul; by the will of God (a man living by the will of God), to be an apostle Paul states a fact that his whole life is now by the will of God. He knows what God wants him to do. Having simply the will of God is not enough. God will give you a purpose and an identity to carry out this will. In the archaic Greek word, apostle means servant. So, Paul is stating that he is the servant of God, serving according to the will of God (Acts 9). Paul was chosen as a servant to serve the Gentiles, but he was also chosen to bring the Gospel to many other; kings, government officials, Jews, etc, An apostle will know exactly what his mission is. Paul writes to many people in places far away. He expresses his concern for so many churches. When he expresses his concern for these people, he brings to them a message from God. 2. To whom was the epistle written to? Some manuscripts do not have the word Ephesus. Many believe that the epistle was written to many churches in Asia minor, Ephesus being the larges church amongst all. Paul also states he is writing to a group of people separated to be for God, to be Holy. He looks at the church in a very different point of view. He looks in Gods point of view; these people are Gods people. God sanctified us to be His, even if we were imperfect. In the eyes of God, we are His Holy people, not by our looks, not by our values, but by the grace of God. Paul describe the Holy People as faithful. We can say it means being loyal, or we can explain it as having faith. Both ways work because being loyal is actually a response of faith. They remain loyal/faithful to this Faith, to this Belief. 3. By whom was the epistle sent? Tychichus This person sent at least four of Pauls thirteen epistles. He has to send the letter, tell them everything of how Pauls doing, and lastly to encourage. It is not easy to tell everything of how Pauls doing. You might have something added, or deleted, yet this person is described as faithful by Paul. Reporting these things creates a link between Paul and Ephesus who worry each other. We must learn how to report in the right way, and express clearly and precisely. Why the Ephesians needed to be encouraged? The Ephesians heard about things concerning Paul in Rome which worried them.

4. When was it written? 60~62 AD when Paul was in Jail. 5. Where was the epistle written? In Rome, In Jail 6. What is the main focus of the epistle when it was written? 7. Why did the writer write this? 8. How can we understand the authors line of thoughts?

In the frist journey, Paul wrote Galatians to explain salvation. In the second journey he wrote both epistles to the thesalonians explaining the coming of Christ. In his third journey, he wrote I Corinthians, Romans, II Corinthians in this respective order, explaining how Christians should live, salvation, and life of a servant of God, respectively. In His four years in jail, he wrote, Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon, Philippians, Ephesians 1:3~14 After Paul salutes and greets the Holy people, he begins to praise God from the bottom of his heart. For a person locked up in jail, being depressed or seeming without hope, we normally dont see them praising with such contempt, yet here, Paul praises God. His praises surpasses the limitations created by his surroundings upon his physical body. Paul tells us that in Christ, God gave us many blessings and so because of this, Paul praises God. This verse mentions to us that the God Paul serves is a God who gives blessings. Such similarity can be seen in Jeremiah when he mentions that God says, For I know the plan I have for you,. In times of hardship, Jeremiah saw things differently through Gods point of view. Jesus became the medium through which we received all these blessings from God. God gives us many blessings. Every blessing is different. Do we ever give thanks to God? In verse four, Paul continues to describe the characteristics of these blessings. It was predestined for us before creation as a part of Gods plan to bless us. Through Christ, God chose us to become holy and blameless. What is to become holy and blameless? Before Creation, God predestined for us to become His. Also, furthermore, we must be adopted into sonship as mentioned in verse five. Furthermore, Gods plan was continued to be manifested throughout history. Through the blood of Christ, we have redemption and forgiveness of sin. He is our savior but more importantly He is our Lord. He also gives us the mystery of His will. This mystery refers to the fact mentioned in verse 10; to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. All this has happened, thus we can look forward to the coming of what Paul mentions in verse eleven where we must inherit.

Ephesians 1:15~23 In verse thirteen and fourteen, Paul mentions the Holy Spirit as a seal or a sign, but how can we show it? How can people see it? Paul goes on by saying in verse 15 that the Ephesians have faith in the Lord and show love for Gods people. This is how they show the work of the Holy Spirit. We cannot take out the Holy Spirit like it something in our pocket and do a show/tell. However, we can and we must show the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives to other people. Paul is excited for them, happy for them, yet he also feels that there is so much room for them to grow, so he continues to pray for them. When we live in Christ, we believe in Him, but when we live for Christ, most of the time we simply think about what big things we want to do. The spirit of wisdom and revelation allows us to know God better. This seems to be most important for Paul. The Holy Spirit helps us to open the eyes of our heart, aligns our eyes so that we see what God wants us to see. Paul understand what it means and how important it is to have the eyes of our heart enlightened. So even though we never know what tomorrow hold for us, yet we know and we hope for what is on the Last Day. We should let our goal be that Last Day and go on towards that goal. Let the Holy Spirit guide us. Next we must know that the power that God exerted on Christ will also be given to us. In the same way Gods power manifested on Christ, so shall that same power be manifested in us. Christ is seated at the right hand of the father: meaning Christ is enthroned. He has all under His feet: meaning that he rules all. He is above all powers, no matter the spiritual world or the physical world. Ephesians 2:1~10 In chapter two, Paul begins to tell us how Gods incomparable power is being manifested in the church. Verses one to ten describes how God creates a new life. Verse eleven tells us God creates a new group. Just as God created something out of something else. It is not by the works of man, but totally by God. To be saved, means to bring about a change. This is also a new creation. We are saved so that we may do the good works of God for the coming ages to see. Paul looks upon mankind from Gods point of view; from above. So when Paul looks upon mankind, he says that mankind were sinful. In verse one, Paul is referring to the Saints amongst the Gentiles. Disobedience resulted in us being dead in our transgressions and sinfulness. Paul describes all these as a secular culture opposing God. When Paul switches to we referring to those of Jewish background, he says that they too were amongst all this chaos. We were all facing the wrath of God. But as mentioned in verse four, Paul says God is full of love and merciful, and when we were dead in our transgression and sinfulness, He made us alive with Christ. The result of being saved bring about life; we

are made alive, we must do good works of God, and we must testify. This mystery that we partake in should not be bottled up inside us waiting for people to find out on their own. It should be shared with those who have not known. Ephesians 2:11~22