We’ve spent a lot of time in these first fourteen verse of Ephesians, but before we move on, I’d like to spend a bit of time considering the overall theme for the series, ‘Life in Christ,’ and what these first fourteen verses have to say about it. The fixed expression ‘in Christ’, or similar wordings … Continue reading ‘In Christ’ in Ephesians 1.1-14
Ephesians 1.3-14 is a liturgical blessing in praise of what God has done for us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. But, throughout the Blessing, Paul uses a lot of vocabulary that is unusual in the New Testament and that, put together, sets it apart as being particularly ‘cosmic’ in scope. Though the teaching … Continue reading Cosmic Questions in Ephesians 1.3-14
The most recent post in this Bible Study series on Ephesians looked at the wonderful liturgical blessing (1.3-14) with which Paul begins the letter. It’s a beautiful passage that boldly describes both God’s activity on our behalf and our vocation to become “holy and blameless in love” in response. But, some of the language Paul … Continue reading On Election and Predestination: Ephesians 1.4-6
It is customary for Paul’s letters to begin with an often dense exploration of the theological themes that he will unpack in the rest of the text. In this way, Ephesians is no exception, as 1.3-14, the passage we’ll look at today (and in the next few posts), is a single, complicated, two-hundred-word sentence in … Continue reading Blessing God: Ephesians 1.3-14
In the previous post in this series on Ephesians, we looked at who we meet in the text: who the author is, and who the recipients are — and what the author has to say about both. Today, we’ll explore the second half of the greeting, which can be found in 1.2: Grace to you … Continue reading On Grace and Peace: Ephesians 1.2
Matthew Root 