Integration Paper : Brian Wachter ( Nz ) Essay

The Apostle Paul’s strategic mission of expanding the church and spreading the Gospel was significant considering the challenges he had to conquer. His life and example was and is applicable to modern cross-cultural leaders and organizations. Philippians 2 is a letter written by Paul to the church of Philippi. It was prepared during his imprisonment in Rome for spreading the Gospel of Christ in an area where people predominately and traditionally believed in Judaism. His writing in this passage highlights Christ as the ultimate example of humility and Paul’s encouragement to his followers to keep the unity, as they are the light of the world.

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

Many people can teach the Gospel, but few can present it in a way of compelling and authentic manner. Through his teachings to the Ephesians, Ignatius provides beneficial concepts for Christianity that are crucial for the Church to pursue. He commends the Ephesians to live in unity and communion with God, respect the authority placed over them, and stray from false teachings. His thought-provoking ideas are absent from believers today and should be more vividly displayed in the lives of Christians.

Paul begins his letter by saying he is an apostle not from men nor through man, but Jesus

As I elaborate on the theme, “Equipping Saints for Ministry in the New Millennium”, I will discuss Paul’s words in Ephesians 4 to illustrate

Ephesians is a letter written by the Apostle Paul during his imprisonment in Rome. This is the same Paul who had previously persecuted the church. He is not writing to a particular church body, rather his intended audience was various churches in the surrounding vicinity of Ephesus. To encourage

Our source of knowledge of the apostolic work of Paul comes first from the Book of Acts. The epistles written by Paul serve to further our knowledge of his mission. These letters were written to churches that he had founded or churches that were known to him. Luke’s account of Paul introduces us to the basic facts about this important biblical figure. A more complete understanding of Paul’s journeys can be gleaned from his letters. These epistles were written almost at the time they occurred and they comprise some of the earliest works contained in the New Testament.

The Pauline epistles are the fourteen books in the New Testament traditionally attributed to Paul the Apostle. There is wide consensus in modern New Testament scholarship on a core group of authentic Pauline epistles whose authorship is rarely contested: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, and Philemon. The several other letters allegedly written by Paul lack academic consensus: Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, and Titus. However, both the real and the fake apostle Paul are of great importance to Christianity and played a major role in spreading this new religion. Paul's influence on Christian thinking arguably has been more significant than any other New Testament author. Paul declared that "Christ is the end of the law", exalted the Christian church as the body of Christ, and depicted the world outside the Church as under judgment. It has been said that if it were not for Paul, Christianity would have remained a small unknown branch of Judaism. Paul was the leading missionary to the

The author of this Epistle has been discussed by many scholars but is still undesignated. Even the original title of Hebrews was lost by the end of the first century. As a result in early church tradition around the second to fourth centuries many different opinions were discussed about who may have written Hebrews. The opinion that Paul wrote Hebrews didn’t even become prevalent until the fifth century. Hebrews is definitely so to speak “Entitled” to its place in the New Testament. The title of the book in the oldest Greek manuscript is simply “to the Hebrews”. However, its content reveals that the letter was written to Jewish Christians. The author use of the Septuagint (Which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament) when quoting from

The genre of Ephesians 2:1-10 is an Epistle. The Epistles were letters teaching specific churches or groups of people; often inspired by God. They are split into two categories: Pauline Epistles, written by Paul and traditionally Paul was the first word of the book in Greek, and General Epistles, often referred to as the Catholic epistles and were written to the universal Church. The Pauline Epistles consist of: Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and Philemon. The General Epistles consist of: Hebrews, James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2 and 3 John, and Jude. The interpretive principles of this genre are that it is meant to be read as a whole and in one sitting in order to get the main idea of the passage, one must view the paragraphs as the main unit of thought in the passage, one must know the structure to understand the letter, and one must do background reading to fully comprehend the main concept and the history and culture of the setting.

The second Paul, who became an “apostle” (commissioned to preach) had an agenda to send a list of letters to churches of all believers, from “The High Priest,” of hope for those who were being persecuted. His goal was to reach Jews as well as Gentiles spreading the “gospel” of the good news about Christ Jesus, with

The theme of his letter to the Ephesians is that believers have been unified in salvation by grace and are called to live like Christ. Ephesians 2:1-8 focused mainly

Ephesians 6:10-16: Paul becomes aware of all the evil that stalks the church of Ephesus and he tries to make everybody aware by explaining them their own significance and identity in Christ.

In the beginning of the book of Ephesians, Paul specifically states that he is the author of the letter to Ephesians, though the authenticity of Paul’s authorship has been questioned. Signing the name of an influential person of the period was common practice from “the third century BC to the first century AD.” Though it would not be the first time that Paul’s name was forged, Ephesians is not a controversial letter, so if the author did not want to include his own name, he could have written the letter anonymously; also, given moral influence of the text, the author would not have lied for no cause. Ephesians is a bit different from the other letters of Paul in that it does not follow the normal structure he has previously used: “salutation, thanksgiving, prayer, body, ethical exhortations, greetings.” Paul also makes many personal references throughout the book of Ephesians including sharing that he is in prison.

Ephesians is one of the letters written by St. Paul while he was in prison. Paul was detained by the Roman army, and during his stay in jail, he compared the soldier's armor and the spiritual Armor. He tells the Christians about the tactics and devices that the devil uses against the people of God (2Corinthians 2:11, New International Version) he talks to the people through this verse about the ways of dealing with the stealthy ways of Satan. Paul addresses the people on the ways of dealing with this in the book of Ephesians 6:10-20. He explains to the Ephesians about the wearing the Armor of God. In verse 10 he wrote "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and the power of His might" Paul tries to speak to the Christians about the ways of guarding themselves against the enemy. His message to the people of God according to the book of Ephesians, he was encouraging the people not to fear the devil and his plans. He says “Put on the whole Armor of God, which you may be able to