Metaphors Of Ephesians 1

Ephesians 3:14-21 “For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with the power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in

When examining the Book of Revelation, one gets an impression God is sympathetic towards the world because He shows the heavens in advance. He demands someone to record what is happening so the rest of the world can acknowledge what awaits them in the afterlife. Consequently, John who is invited to Heaven is likewise the author of the Book and uses metaphors and simple ideas to describe what he witnessed on that fateful day .

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

A literary analysis is the practice of looking closely at small parts to see how they affect the whole. Literary analysis focuses on how word techniques are used by the author to create meaning. One of the reasons that Paul penned his letters in Ephesians was to bolster areas that were weak in the church. In addition to that, Paul wanted to clarify central beliefs that may not have been well-defined. Probing Paul’s letter with such a supposition, reveals several frailties among the Ephesian that Paul needed to encourage and reinforce. One of these weaknesses are amalgamated with the word riches, which is present throughout the letter in Ephesians. In this portion of the essay I will break a portion of the text down into parts, in order to examine the different elements of this piece of literature, by analyzing a portion of the text.

Predestination, in the dictionary, is said to be "the doctrine that God in consequence of his foreknowledge of all events infallibly guides those who are destined for salvation." Scripture has 2 very good passages for defining what predestination is: Jeremiah 1:5 which says "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." God is talking about Jeremiah in this passage and how God chose him before time; he was predestined for his job. Romans 8:28-30 "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed

While discussing the Biblical narrative metaphors in class, one that resonated with me was the metaphor of builder, as often the discussion in many of my engineering classes was that of unfolding and flourishing creation, and ensuring that the designs that we might make are shalom seeking as well as free of a negative bias. This brings up the Biblical image of Bezalel building the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 25), or Huram-abi designing and building Solomon’s Temple (2 Chronicles 2). These men were skilled in metals, and could design and craft with a variety of other materials. They built the most important buildings for Israel, and used their gifts and desire to glorify God, turning gold and other precious metals from ores to decorations to demonstrate the riches that God blessed them with, both financially as well as spiritually.

9. Have you remembered the forgiveness you have in Christ and drawn on His grace to resolve this dispute, or have you been working in your own wisdom and strength? Who will you depend on from this point on?

Instructions: After reading the passage from Scripture, please make five “I believe” statements about the application of the passage to a specific behavior related to your choices in the arts. Please provide the specific verse that you are drawing your statement from. These statements should be distinct from the statements that you will write for the other assigned passages.

Vivid images, from visions, to detailed explanation and accounts of places and events, to symbolic imagery used to explain parables, or teach and encourage the first century churches are driving forces within the Biblical text. Metaphorical language, by virtue of the fact that it preserves the literal meaning of the symbol, while intending an analogical secondary meaning, is able to communicate profound truths about reality, mainly by creating an alternative, symbolic way of seeing and understanding the world. (Liubinskas, Susann. 404) Throughout the New Testament of the Bible the most commonly used images are the: body of Christ, and vine imagery. These images work together to create a powerful example of the necessity for unity among individual believers, and that unity tying them Christ.

According to the Church of the Nazarene articles of faith, The Church exists as local congregations and as a universal body. The mission of The Church is to share Christ through the power of the Spirit. “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it” (1 Corinthians 12:27). Jesus died so that we could be a part of the body of Christ.

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.

Believers have been unified in salvation by grace and are called to live like Christ.

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.

In my passage Ephesian 1:15-23, this is Pauls prayer to Jesus of giving thanks, God has given us so much, and when God gives us a lot our perception can be changed based on how much we get from God, but we are blind because we can never be satisfied so we ask for more. We can build a wall of ungratefulness and never see the “light of God”.