A Letter Written By The Apostle Paul

The book of Ephesians is one of Paul’s many New Testament letters, or epistles, to the Christian church still in its infancy. At the time of its writing, Paul is in Rome, imprisoned for championing the purposes of Christ and growing the church. We see numerous occurrences where Paul, being a man of little concern for the status quo, is either imprisoned or fleeing capture by Jewish or Roman officials for usurping the latter (Acts 19: 23-41). The date of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is dated 60-61A.D., depending on differing research. While this is certainly one of his epistles known as the “prison letters”, Ephesians was penned prior to Paul’s first roman

Exigence (why was it written) – Paul wishes to introduce himself to these Roman Christians in preparation for a future visitation; gather support for a possible fourth missionary journey to Spain; solicit their prayers for his upcoming visit to Jerusalem; and offer his pastoral counsel regarding any current or future problems that may arise (Powell,

This essay will analyze, and reflect, upon the incarnational ministry which is the model of ministry that Jesus Christ engaged in when he came to earth and" the Word became fresh and dwelt among us (John1:14)." Jesus participated

Reading from Galatians 1:1 Paul explained to them that Jesus Christ and God the Father, who caused Jesus to become alive again after his death, has sent him. They have giving him the authority to be a special worker and teacher on Christ’s behalf. And that it was not of any human form or that, he was not sent by men. In Romans 11:13 “now I am speaking to you Gentiles. God has sent me to be a special worker and teacher on Christ’s behalf. He has sent me to teach the good news about Christ to you Gentiles. And I thank him that he has given this important work to me.” Paul told the Galatians that “the good news that he taught them did not come from any human person. That no human person gave it to him or taught it to him but it was Christ Himself who showed him” Gal.1:11-12. When the apostles who were with Christ saw that Paul had a separate message from what they had. They were led by the Holy Spirit to give to Paul and Barnabas the right of fellowship for them to go the “uncircumcision” while they remain with the “circumcision”. (Gal. 2:6-7). We can see from here that Paul’s apostleship was different from the twelve representing two different gospels.

In this epistle Paul is making the point that God’s desire is that Jews and Gentiles are united in position and privilege in Him. Paul is shedding light on the fact that God wants to establish a new unity where racial and national distinctions disappear in Christ. Christ has broken down the middle wall of hate and division. The dividing wall of racial enmity has been destroyed once and for all. The old enmity of personal and national prejudice, and exclusiveness between Jews and Gentiles was slain at Calvary. God’s purpose is one new people (Christian), Christ’s body the church. It is one new man made up of new men (2Cor 5:17-18).

The Apostle John settled the first Christian community in Ephesus. Paul pastored everywhere including synagogues. It was ranking number three city of Christians after Jerusalem and Antioch. One of the possible reasons for Paul writing the letter is to let the Ephesians know how he was doing in jail. Large crowds were probably in over 20,000, the Temple of Artemis was home to many occult, magic, politics and pagan events. It has also been said about the book of Ephesians, the letter may have been circular and had a wider area than one audience. Paul moved around and had a following when he was not

The purpose of Pauls Letters were to keep in contact with the churches and to resolve any problems or questions they had. Paul mainly wrote to communicate with distant churches, to encourage, to persuade, to inform and to respond to events that he had heard about. Paul’s writings formulated key teachings about the nature of the Church. He taught about how Christ lived in them and by their baptism and the Holy Spirit they were able to contribute to the Christian community. Paul mainly wrote about the issues in society and how to help the churches when they were in need. Paul didn’t believe that the Gentiles need to

The number of roles in the church in this scripture comes down to the interpretations of the conjunctions used in this scripture, the use of πρὸς once and the use of εἰς twice:

The Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians is one of great intriguing distinction. The letter possesses unique properties in comparison its fellow Prison Epistles namely, Philemon, Philippians and Colossians. The author of this work seeks to further expound upon these unique properties and its implications for how one should interpret the Epistle, specifically Ephesians 1:3-14.

The literary genre of the book of Ephesians takes on the form of a letter similar to others in the Bible. This letter took on a different form because it did not include a personal greeting like other letters, but something that does not away from the true meaning of the letter (Abbott, p. 1). The whole book of Ephesians is broken into parts with Paul going from spirituality to practical biblical moral standards. In the first part, (1:1–2:22) Paul describes the blessings of the new life of Christ and reminds the Gentile believers how much God has done for their salvation. In chapter 3, Paul extends his blessings with a prayer to God for strengthen love, and the submission to God the Father. In the chapter 4, Paul describes the Christian morals and how believers should live together in this new life. While in Chapters 5 & 6 Paul describes how Christians should treat each other and how to utilize the armor of God in this new society.

The New Testament was a huge part of my life as a young man as I grew up in the church and my father was a deacon. I have always been drawn to helping others and protecting those who cannot protect themselves, which is why at a young age I joined the United States Marine Corps and served four years before joining the Memphis Police Department for the last twenty years. One passage that has always been a part of my life is from Ephesians 4: 22-28. Furthermore, the literary form used in the Book of Ephesians is the letters although, not directly from Paul they are from under his influence by the school of Pauline, which created the book and disseminated the structure of the church (Harris, 1995). I digress, the passage of Ephesians stated that

In reading this portion of the first letter of Paul to the Corinthian church, a word catches my attention. In verse 18, Paul uses the word (σχίσμα) which is translated as divisions that are present among the Corinthians. This word helps us understand why it is difficult for Paul to commend the Corinthian church. This word is not commonly used in Paul’s letters. It is found only in the first epistle to the Corinthian church. It is used in 1 Corinthians 1:10, 11:18 and 12:25. With Paul’s usage of this word only in 1 Corinthians, it unfolds its importance to the church for the need for unity within the body of Christ. His first use of the word, in 1:10, is a call to the Corinthians to have community among the Christians in that area. Paul opens this letter to address the divisions that have been brought to his attention, because it is important that the ekklesia not be divided.

Colossians was a one of the four Prison Epistles that was written by the Apostle Paul, with the aid of Timothy, while he was imprisoned in Rome around 60-62 A.D. Paul wrote the letter to the church of Colossae and the neighboring churches of Hierapolis and Laodicea, after he received news from Epaphras, about the heresy that was growing throughout the church. Epaphras was also imprisoned so to expedite the letter to Colossae it was transported by Tychicus and Onesimus who were also delivering the letter to Philemon. Paul wrote the letter in a Hellenistic form of a personal letter to address the church about the power of God through Jesus Christ, address the issue of false teachings, and encourage Christian living. Paul wrote that

The book of Ephesians itself is broken down into nine sections. The first section Paul starts off with praising God. “Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Eph. 1:3) Paul praises God for two things, spiritual blessings and the redemption in Christ. (Eph. 1:3-14) Next Paul takes time to give thanks and prays for the Ephesian believers in his letter. He prays for they that might have wisdom and revelation so that they can be encouraged about what God is doing. This of course sets the stage for the rest of his letter. In the third section, Paul talks about reconciliation to God through Jesus. (2:1-10) He mentions that this is achieved by grace

Paul visited Ephesus on his first missionary journey, on the way from Greece to Syria. After his third missionary journey, he stayed there and pastored the Ephesian church for 3 years (Easton, np). “Though Paul was not the first to bring Christianity to Ephesus, for Jews had long lived there, he was the first to make progress against the worship of Diana” (Orr, np). Because of his strong ties to the church, Paul cared deeply about the faith of the believers there (Macarthur, np).