Paul's Letter to Ephesus

Background Information

This letter was written from Rome after Paul’s third missionary journey and subsequent imprisonment in Caesarea (Acts 28:30-31).

Paul apparently wrote four New Testament (NT) letters during this imprisonment in Rome. This imprisonment was a kind of “house arrest,” in which Paul – as a prisoner of the state – was confined to a modest living space assigned by the Roman government. In this place, he was under close surveillance by Roman soldiers, perhaps even chained to them at the ankle or wrist at times. In these conditions, however, he was able to receive guests, write and send letters, conduct business, and send willing people on errands (Acts 28:16, 30-31).

This imprisonment was the result of Paul’s request to appeal his case to Caesar, something which Roman citizens had the right to do. The case in question was a set of false accusations by Jewish religious leaders of being a troublemaker, cult leader, and Temple vandalizer. Government officials held Paul in prison for two years, neither charging or absolving him, in an attempt to leverage Paul’s imprisonment for political leverage with the Jewish people.

During this time, Paul had served as his own defense attorney before multiple officials. The last such official was King Agrippa II, who oversaw the larger region on behalf of Rome. He concluded that Paul had done nothing worthy of charges (Acts 26:31-32). Nevertheless, Paul had chosen to request a hearing at the highest court, with Caesar himself, a right of every Roman citizen (Acts 25:11). In doing so, Paul leveraged this right to receive free travel and passage to Rome, where he wanted to go anyway. According to Acts 27-28, however, this trip was a perilous one.

The audience was Christians in the city of Ephesus.

Paul wrote this letter to the church at Ephesus at the same time that he wrote letters to the church at Colosse and the person named Philemon, as well. He wrote these letters early in his imprisonment, then wrote a letter to the church at Philippi near the end of this imprisonment, also. Altogether, we call these four letters the “prison epistles.”

A man named Tychicus delivered the first three prison epistles to their destinations and was accompanied by Onesimus, of whom we’ll learn more when we study Paul’s letter to Philemon (Eph 6:21; Col 4:7-9; Phil 1:10-12).

Paul had a close and extensive relationship with the church at Ephesus. He had spent a brief period there at the end of his second missionary journey, then spend more than two years there again for the greater part of his third missionary journey (Acts 18-19). Through his ministry to this church, he had been instrumental in the conversion of many people to faith in Christ, while also raising increased opposition from others, esp. those who made and sold items for the worship of Artemis. This false Greek god was revered in Ephesus, which featured a massive temple to her, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

The general theme of this epistle is “The Church in Christ.”

While Paul wrote many of his other NT letters to resolve specific problems and answer specific questions, this letter seems to address no particular problems or questions in the church at Ephesus. Instead, it seems to provide and reinforce a high view of the church that would, in turn, encourage a godly approach to the Christian life.

So, through this letter, he hoped to introduce himself, his ministry, and his message to the church in advance, so that they would already be familiar with him and trust him enough to welcome him in and send him onward to Spain, whenever he did get to visit them at last. In other words, Paul wrote with the overall purpose of describing the heavenly glory of Christ so that his glory might be revealed through worship, service, and lives of the church’s members.

A key concept woven throughout this letter is the concept of viewing the Christian life as a “walk,” a word which appears eight times in the letter (Eph 2:2, 10; 4:1, 17; 5:2, 8, 15). This concept emphasizes the importance of consciously (and conscientiously) making real, personal, actionable connections between what we know is true about Christ and the church and our everyday lives, one step at a time.

Also, Paul broadens and deepens our understanding of the church through this letter, by describing it in many ways: the church (1:22; 3:10, 21), Christ’s body (2:16; 4:4, 12, 16), the household of God (2:19), a building (2:21), a holy temple in the Lord (2:21), an habitation of God (2:22), a mystery (3:3-4; 6:19), the whole family in heaven and earth (3:15), the saints (4:12), dear children (5:1), children of light (5:8), and members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones (5:30).

Summary Outline

This letter arranges neatly into two halves.

Doctrinal Exposition (1-3)

• Praise for the redemption Christ provides (1:1-14)
• Prayer to understand the power of God (1:15-23)
• The believer’s position in Christ (2-3:13)

Even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. (2:5-6)

• Prayer to understand the love of God (3:14-21)

Practical Application (4-6)

• Truth applied to unity and ministry (4:1-16)
• Truth applied to a holy lifestyle (4:17-5:21)

Be filled with the Spirit … (5:18)

• Truth applied to close relationships (5:22-6:9)
• Truth applied to spiritual realities (6:10-20)

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (6:12)

Conclusion (6:21-24)