In looking at the great, majestic themes of Ephesians, it is important to remember that Paul wrote this letter from prison.ĭ. Then with his mind still working over the theme of the greatness and glory of Christ, but moving on to consider the place of the Church in the purpose of God, he wrote Ephesians, this time without the limitation of any polemical aims.” (Foulkes) “He wrote to the Colossians to meet a particular situation and danger in the church at Colossae. Since Paul wrote both of them from his Roman imprisonment, his mind may have worked on the same themes when he wrote each letter. Ephesians has many similarities with Paul’s letter to the Colossians. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul also saw the new man and a new society, but he saw it all accomplished by the work of Jesus.Ĭ. Karl Marx wrote about a new man and a new society, but he saw man and society both in almost purely economic terms and offered only economic answers. If the Letter to the Romans focuses more on God’s work in the individual Christian, Ephesians includes the great themes of God’s work in the church, the community of believers.
Whosoever would see Christianity in one treatise, let him ‘read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest’ the Epistle to the Ephesians.” (Spurgeon)ī. In the first chapter you have the doctrines of the gospel in the next, you have the experience of the Christians and before the Epistle is finished, you have the precepts of the Christian faith.
“The Epistle to the Ephesians is a complete Body of Divinity. Paul there is none greater than this, nor any with a character more entirely its own… There is a peculiar and sustained loftiness in its teaching which has deeply impressed the greatest minds and has earned for it the title of the ‘Epistle of the Ascension.” (Salmond) “Among the Epistles bearing the name of St. “It sums up in large measure the leading themes of the Pauline writings… But it does more than that it carries the thought of the earlier letters forward to a new stage.” (Bruce) Ephesians has been called “the Queen of the Epistles,” “the quintessence of Paulinism,” “the divinest composition of man” and even “the Waterloo of commentators.” Some say that Ephesians reads “like a commentary on the Pauline letters” and probably it has been best termed “the crown of Paulinism.” (Bruce) The elevated themes of Ephesians make it highly praised and prized by commentators. Like Romans, Ephesians was not written so much to address problems in a particular church more so, it was written to explain some of the great themes and doctrines of Christianity. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is different compared to many of the other New Testament letters he wrote. The character and themes of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.Ī. Introduction to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.ġ.
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