ephesus-amphitheatre2.jpg

Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians

Bible Studies, Messages, Papers

 

Photograph: The amphitheater of Ephesus, where Paul preached in Acts 19.  His critique of idolatry led the silversmiths to provoke a riot.  Paul spent a total of three years in Ephesus helping to establish the Christian faith there.  His letter to the Ephesians was probably meant to be a circular letter, distilling the main points of his message.  Photo credit: MaxPixel, Creative Commons.

Below are messages, small group leader notes, and exegetical notes on Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians.

 

Messages on Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians 

 

Ephesians 1:3 - 14 How the Father Loves (Boston College 2006)

Ephesians 1:3 - 14 How the Father Loves (Boston College 2015)

Ephesians 1:3 - 6 Our Adoption by the Father

Ephesians 1:6 - 8 Our Redemption by the Son

Ephesians 1:9 - 10 Our Household in the Son

Ephesians 1:11 - 14 Our Security by the Spirit

Ephesians 1:15 - 2:10 The Power You Already Have

Ephesians 2:1 - 3 The Deep Human Problem

Ephesians 2:4 - 10 What God Did:  Resurrected Us Into Royalty

Ephesians 2:11 - 22 We Are God's New Humanity in Christ

Ephesians 2:11 - 13 The Plight of the World & Gifts of the Jews

Ephesians 2:14 - 16 Jesus Tears Down Dividing Walls (Boston College 2011)

Ephesians 2:14 - 16 Reconciliation Happens in Christ (Boston University)

Ephesians 2:14 - 16 Reconciliation Happens in Christ (JEMS AACF)

Ephesians 2:17 - 22 Beyond Near and Far:  Jesus Overcomes Shame and Alienation

Ephesians 3:1 - 13 The Church Has Not Lost

Ephesians 3:4 - 10 What the Nations Should Have Learned from What the Church Should Have Done

Ephesians 3:14 - 21 Filled to the Fullness of God

Ephesians 4:1 - 6 Rooted in a Deeper Strength

Ephesians 4:7 - 13 The Challenge of Unity

Ephesians 4:7 - 13 Spiritual Gifts: An Introduction (Neighborhood Church of Dorchester, Apr 2017)

Ephesians 4:14 - 16 The Challenge of Maturity

Ephesians 4:17 - 24 Living the Changed Life

Ephesians 4:25 - 32 Walking and Speaking Differently

Ephesians 4:25 - 32 How Jesus Heals Male-Female Friendships

Ephesians 4:25 - 32 Friendship for a Healthy Culture of Dating (Rescued Church, Jul 19, 2015) (video)

Ephesians 5:1 - 7 Sex, Greed, and Lies

Ephesians 5:8 - 14 Being Light in Darkness

Ephesians 5:15 - 6:9 Jesus Transforms Our Use of Power and Authority

Ephesians 5:15 - 20 Being Wise and Speaking Well

Ephesians 5:21 - 33 Jesus in the Midst of Marriage

Ephesians 6:1 - 4 Jesus is the True Goal of Parenting

Ephesians 6:5 - 9 Jesus Stands Above Slavery

Ephesians 6:10 - 12 Standing Firm Against Our True Enemy

Ephesians 6:13 - 20 Standing Firm With God's Armor and Weapon

 
 

Small Group Leader Notes on Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians

 

Matthew 3:13 - 4:11 Prelude to Ephesians: Jesus Retells Your Story

Ephesians 1:1 - 14 The First Poem: In Christ, You Are God's Chosen People

Ephesians 1:15 - 2:10 The First Prayer: Power You Already Have

Ephesians 2:11 - 22 The Second Poem:  We Are God's New Dwelling Place in Christ

Ephesians 3:1 - 21 The Second Prayer:  To Be Filled With God's Fullness

Ephesians 4:1 - 16 Jesus' Gifts to His Body

Ephesians 4:17 - 5:16 Walking and Speaking in Christ

Ephesians 5:17 - 6:9 The Symphony of Praise

Ephesians 6:10 - 24 Standing Firm in the Spiritual War

 
 

Notes and Essays on Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians

 

Ephesians:  Conceptual and Grammatical Outlines

Notes highlighting the poetic and literary structures in Ephesians, and a few literary allusions to the Old Testament such as Psalm 1 and Isaiah’s vision of the new temple.

 

Ephesians:  Did Paul Write It?

An argument that the apostle Paul did indeed write Ephesians, based on the semantic and conceptual similarities between Ephesians and the seven letters of Paul broadly accepted as authentically authored by Paul.

 

The Worldview Background of Ephesians

Notes to the cosmological view of Ephesians — conjoined and overlapping heaven and earth — compared to the atheist materialist and pagan views.

 
 
 
 
 

Paul's View of Headship in Marriage: How 1 Corinthians Interprets Ephesians and Colossians

The word "head" (Greek kephale) was normatively defined by 1 Corinthians 11, where women preached, representing the head to the body.  Therefore, people who have not had the experience of sitting under the authority of a female preacher-teacher have an incomplete understanding of headship, and probably an exclusively male understanding, which is defective.  Also, the ethics of marriage taught in 1 Corinthians can be shown to take logical priority (not hermeneutical priority, except in a simplistic sense) over the ethics of marriage taught in Ephesians and Colossians.

 

Slavery in Christianity, Part 1:  Slavery in the Bible, Slavery Today 

Research and slides which explores the Old Testament, then the New Testament. It looks at what the Hebrew "ebed" service meant in context, and then what Greek "duolos" meant and how the New Testament understood the various ways people could enter servitude. It uses a sociological approach, exploring different ways in to becoming an “ebed” or “duolos,” what rights and responsibilities those roles had, and how one could leave and/or escape.

 
 

Other Resources on Paul's Letter to the Ephesians

 

Dennis J. Preato, Empirical Data in Support of Egalitarian Marriages and A Fresh Perspective on Submission and Authority. God's Word to Women, Apr 23, 2004. Preato comments on Cyril, Theodore, and John Chrysostom and their engagement with 1 Corinthians and Ephesians based on an Athanasian view of the Trinity, where the Son is the power of the Father (1 Cor.1:24), rather than an Augustinian view of the Trinity, where the Son has power, but the Father has more

David Instone-Brewer, Bible Scandals: Divorce. BeThinking, 2012. Makes very important considerations for marital abuse cases

Margaret Mowczko, Wives, Mothers, and Female Masters in the NT Household Codes. Marg Mowczko, Mar 31, 2015.

Cynthia Long Westfall, Paul and Gender: Reclaiming the Apostle's Vision for Men and Women in Christ. Baker Academic | Amazon page, Nov 2016.

Jeff Lacine, Marijuana to the Glory of God. Desiring God blog, Jan 7, 2017.

Beth Feller Jones and Amy Peeler, Misusing the Marriage Metaphor from Episode 558: Saddleback vs the SBC & Misusing the Marriage Metaphor with Beth Felker Jones & Amy Peeler. Holy Post Podcast, Mar 29, 2023. Kaitlyn talks with Dr. Beth Felker Jones and Dr. Amy Peeler about Joshua Butler’s controversial article comparing the gospel to marital sex. Jones and Peeler distinguishes between how Ephesians 5 interprets marriage and how 1 Corinthians 7 interprets marital sex. They also correct the “men contribute seed” interpretation of biology with better scientific facts.

Murray Vassar, Yes, Paul Really Taught Mutual Submission. Christianity Today, May 7, 2024. Why Wayne Grudem’s interpretation of Ephesians 5:21 is untenable. Focusing on the word “submission” (Greek hypotasso).

 
 

Bible Studies and Messages from The Anástasis Center: Paul:

 
 

Bible Studies and Messages from The Anástasis Center: The New Testament:

 
 

Bible Studies and Messages from The Anástasis Center: