Introduction
The periscope of the letter of the Ephesians is a battle cry from Apostle Paul that was originally written to expound on the spiritual needs facing the people at the church of Ephesus. The book of Ephesians generally aims at answering the question in regard to how the Christian church ought to look like and how the members of the church should behave. In fact, Ephesians 1: 1-14 acts as the primary event that portrays the doctrine of theistic determination referred to as Calvinism. Apart from the books of Roman 9 and John 6, it is one of the principle passages that Calvinists normally lean on to establish their teachings. Pauls main idea in this letter becomes evident in the beginning when he states that those God has predestined according to His power will ultimately obtain an inheritance as a result of Christ work. This exegetical paper will seek to expound on the book of Ephesians in regard to aspects such as its purpose, historical criticism and the prevalent situation that it was written under.
Also known as the Epistles to the Ephesians, the book of Ephesians is the Tenth book of the New Testament and was authored by Apostle Paul. Paul has been traditionally accredited with writing these epistles until the year 1792 when it was reportedly challenged as Deutero-Pauline, meaning that a later author wrote the book in Paul’s name since he had been greatly influenced by Pauls thoughts. Nonetheless, it is told that Paul wrote the Ephesian while still under house arrest as a prisoner in Rome.
Recipient
This book was authored for the Christians at Ephesus. Ephesus was the capital city of the then roman province known as Asia, modern day west Turkey. This locality was also a worship centre for the pagan goddess Artemis.
Exposition
When one is reading through these epistles, it is practically impossible to notice that he largely uses the first person plural: we, us, our in all the verses. 3:3-4
3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.4. just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,
He brilliantly did this so as to include himself to be part of the group that he is addressing to. Most commentaries suggest that there is of great significance as it was aimed at including the Ephesian readers in the context of these verses. From the beginning of this epistle, Paul, from the bottom of his heart prays that all the Ephesians will come together and serve God. At verse 14 and 15 of chapter 3, Paul kneels down, and he embarks on a prayer, not to pray for himself but the Ephesians. He prays power that God may strengthen his followers in their inner being, and offer them salvation.
Looking at verse 11, Paul starts by Praising God, “He has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessingand he chooses us in Him”. Paul continues to say“ we have gained an inheritance through him”. According to the New King James Version (NKJV) and the English standard Version (ESV), translates the verse into “In him we were also chosen”. In light of this explanation, the word Kleroo as explained by Klein (2006), refers to “obtain, or appoint through the use of lot”. According to Klein, if Apostle Paul uses the notion of “appoint”, then he was referring to the aspect of Christ appointing us to become his possession or inheritance, but if he “chose obtain”, then Paul would be meaning that Christ the church has eventually obtained it inheritance (p.53).
In conclusion, it is evident that the epistles to the Ephesians is an extensive biblical book that cannot exhausted or analyse fully. However, the common concept that is characteristic of all the other chapters is that of worshipping God for the many gracious works. Paul insists that worshiping God should consist giving Him praises and thanks. In general, the worship of God according to Paul is the reflection of the believer’s obedience to living holy lives and believing in God (Ephesians 1:4). He finalises the book by saying that it is God who saves us, and the spirit seal and guarantees our inheritance. Therefore, we should worship him through actions, words, thoughts, intentions and motivations.
Bibliography
Arnold, Clinton E. Ephesians. Grand Rapids, Mich: Zondervan, 2010.
Best, Ernest. Ephesians: A Shorter Commentary. London [u.a.]: T & T Clark, 2003.
Hoehner, Harold W. Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary. Grand Rapids, Mich: Baker
Academic, 2002
Elwell, Walter A.; Yarbrough, Robert W. Encountering the New Testament. Grand Rapids:
Baker, 2005.
Klein, William W. “Ephesians” in Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Ephesians—Philemon,
vol. 12. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006.
