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Analysis Of Ephesians 4, By The Apostle Paul Essay

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Upon our arrival to Ephesians 4, we come to an epistle that many believe was penned by the Apostle Paul while being held in prison. In writing this letter, his primary audience is to a group of churches in 1st century Ephesus. It is important to note that in the historical context in which this letter is written, Christianity was not the popular religious belief of the nation. But rather, Ephesus was an extremely diverse culture in its religious practices throughout the city. As a result of this cultural norm, seemingly anything and everything was deemed acceptable, and any attempt of creating a moral compass was met with vast opposition by the majority culture. This cultural paradigm eventually began to infiltrate the church as well in several ways, both implicit and explicit. For due to the plethora of moral doctrines sweeping the culture, many who inhabited the city of Ephesus found themselves being exposed to beliefs, doctrines and practices that were plain heretical in nature simply because in OT language, “everyone (was doing) what was right in their own eyes.” (Judg. 21:25) Consequently, many of those who attended the church found themselves wavering in their theological foundations. In doing so, Paul writes this narrative in an attempt to challenge the church at Ephesus to redirect their lifestyle focus back to the Word and ways of the God who, by grace, saved them. The literary structure of Ephesians is one similar to other Pauline epistles in that it both commences

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