The Grace Bible Ephesians – first look inside

The fifth installment of the Grace Bible series will be released on Amazon at the end of August 2024. That’s right, The Grace Bible: Ephesians is finished and ready to launch! In fact, advance review copies are available now on Patreon and on the E2R Supporters’ page.

With nearly 700 entries covering every verse and phrase, The Grace Bible: Ephesians is the biggest and best book in the series so far. Here’s a taste:

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 1:1)

Paul’s letter to the saints in Ephesus was written while he was under house arrest in Rome in the early AD60s (Eph. 3:1). It is one of four “prison letters.” The others are Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon. The letter to the Ephesians was delivered by Paul’s good friend, Tychicus (Eph. 6:21).

Saints. Christians. A saint is not just a kind of person, but a new kind of species, a member of the new creation family of God (2 Cor. 5:17, Gal. 3:28).

The original adjective (hagios) is often translated holy. Along with every other believer, you are holy and sanctified because Jesus makes you so (John 17:19, Heb. 10:14). One with the Lord, you are as holy as the Holy One himself (1 Cor. 6:11). “If the root is holy, so are the branches” (Rom. 11:16). You are the holy temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16). Throughout scripture, Christians are consistently referred to as holy or sanctified saints.

Ephesus. The busy seaport of Ephesus was the front door to the Roman province of Asia. The city was a gateway to the east, and a crossroads for travelers and pilgrims. Paul’s first visit to Ephesus was a brief stop on his way to Judea (Acts 18:19). Later, he stayed in Ephesus for almost three years (Acts 20:31).

The church in Ephesus had a special place in Paul’s heart because he planted it (Acts 18:19, 20:31). He preached the gospel in an Ephesian synagogue for three months, and then in a rented hall for about two years (Acts 19:8–10). When Paul left Ephesus, the church he planted was possibly led by Priscilla and Aquila (Acts 18:19), and later Timothy (1 Tim. 1:3). According to church tradition, the apostle John may have led the church for a while (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, 3.3.4). This was a church with a good heritage.

It makes sense that Paul would send his Ephesian friends a letter. What is less clear is whether his letter was meant solely for the Ephesians. The words Ephesus and Ephesians are not found in the earliest manuscripts. (The first mention of Ephesus may have been a margin note added by copyists, then later inserted here into verse 1.) Our best guess is that Paul intended for his letter to be carried to Ephesus, and then circulated among the churches of Asia and the neighboring regions (see entry for Eph. 3:2). His letter was passed around, much as Jesus’ letters were circulated among the seven churches of Revelation (Rev. 1:4).

Who are faithful. If the word Ephesus was not in Paul’s original letter, this can be read as “to the saints, and those who are faithful in Christ Jesus.” Paul’s letter is for Christians everywhere, including us.

What message does Paul have for us in this letter? Although it is a short letter, Ephesians is a weighty and inspiring document. In it Paul covers the full sweep of God’s plan to rescue you, restore creation, and reunite heaven and earth under one head. Ephesians is packed with power and wisdom. It unveils mysteries and stirs our faith. It explains what God is doing and how he is doing it. It is a practical letter that reveals God’s design for healthy marriages, families, and workplaces.

We can divide the letter into two halves. The first three chapters are about the big picture—God’s eternal purposes and how we fit in them. Paul reveals that God is building a big, beautiful family (the church, Christ’s body on earth) through which he displays his manifold wisdom and all-conquering power (Eph. 1:5, 6-11, 3:10–11). Heaven and earth will be reunited under Christ (Eph. 1:10), and you get to be part of that through your union with the Lord (Eph. 1:3, 19, 3:20–21).

The last three chapters show us how to walk as children of God and stand strong in the faith (Eph. 4:1, 5:1, 6:10–17). Here we learn how to have fruitful churches (Eph. 4:11–32), healthy marriages (Eph. 5:21–33), strong families (Eph. 6:1–4), and productive workplaces (Eph. 6:5–9). As a citizen of a heavenly kingdom, Paul refused to conform to the norms of the age in which he lived. He championed the rights of women (Eph. 5:25–29), children (Eph. 6:4), and slaves (Eph. 6:9). In a world of rampant discrimination, he revealed a God who shows no partiality.