Historical Background

The epistle to the Ephesians holds a unique position among the New Testament letters in providing a summary of Christian faith, inclusive of worship and prayer, Jesus’ saving work and the establishing of the church, the call to Christian character and reality of spiritual warfare, and much more. John Chrysostom, the golden-tongued preacher of fourth century Constantinople, said in the introduction to his homilies on Ephesians, “The Epistle itself is full of sublime thoughts and doctrines.” Reformation preacher John Calvin is not alone among Christians in prizing Ephesians as his favorite letter in the New Testament.

Ephesians divides relatively neatly into two halves. The first half (Chapters 1-3) includes extensive prayer and praise intermingled with theological truths about the nature of salvation and the church. The second half (Chapters 4-6) exhorts the church as a whole and the individual Christian to live out the implications of the theological ...