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    Exploring the Word of God: The Epistle to the Ephesians
    Exploring the Word of God: The Epistle to the Ephesians
    Exploring the Word of God: The Epistle to the Ephesians
    Ebook112 pages1 hour

    Exploring the Word of God: The Epistle to the Ephesians

    By Lorenzo Arroyo

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    About this ebook

    In 13 lessons, Lorenzo Arroyo guides you through the Epistle to the Ephesians, with questions designed to help you explore what this book meant and what it means today. Chapters 2 and 5 are explored with commentary by Michael Morrison.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGrace Communion International
    Release dateSep 4, 2013
    ISBN9781301690367
    Exploring the Word of God: The Epistle to the Ephesians

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      Book preview

      Exploring the Word of God - Lorenzo Arroyo

      Exploring the Word of God:

      The Epistle to the Ephesians

      By Lorenzo Arroyo

      Copyright 2013, 2015

      Published by Grace Communion International

      Cover photo http://imagespublicdomain.wordpress.com/tag/ephesus/.

      Scripture quotations, unless noted, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

      Table of Contents

      Introduction

      The Divine Purpose in Christ (1:3-14)

      The Divine Knowledge and Power in Christ (1:15-23)

      The Divine Grace in Christ (2:1-10)

      The Divine Reconciliation in Christ (2:11-22)

      The Divine Mystery in Christ (3:1-13)

      The Divine Love in Christ (3:14-21)

      The Call to Unity in Christ (4:1-16)

      The Call to Ministry in Christ (4:7-16)

      The Call to Good Conduct in Christ (4:17-32)

      The Call to Example in Christ (5:1-20)

      The Call to Submission in Christ (5:21-33)

      The Call to Submission in Christ (6:1-9)

      The Call to Armor in Christ (6:10-20)

      Grace and Peace (Ephesians chapter 2)

      Christian Life and Marriage (Ephesians chapter 5)

      About the Authors

      About the Publisher

      Grace Communion Seminary

      Introduction: This project began in the mid 1990s. The first volume of Exploring the Word of God was published in 1995. We were not able to print any more volumes, but we continued to study and write articles about Scripture. Lorenzo wrote these studies before 2002, but they were edited in 2003 and posted on our website. The last two chapters were written by Michael Morrison. We have gathered these articles and are publishing them as e-books. We hope you find these studies useful and encouraging.

      ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

      Ephesians

      The Divine Purpose in Christ

      Introduction

      And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ (Ephesians 1:9-10).

      General introduction

      The Epistle to the Ephesians stands out as one of the great masterpieces of Pauline theology. Ironically, this theology is one reason that some liberal scholars question the authorship of the letter as one genuinely written by the apostle Paul. Those scholars suggest that a disciple of Paul or a Pauline school of disciples are responsible for the work. One of the reasons given is the almost collection-like grouping of Paul’s best theological teachings. Ephesians is loaded with Paul’s greatest thoughts, which they believe to have been further developed by Paul’s disciples! However, this letter is so Pauline that it could not have been written by anybody else but the great apostle himself.

      Paul wrote this letter along with several others while he was imprisoned in Rome about A.D. 60. After writing to the Colossians about a particular problem that they were dealing with, Paul apparently next wrote Ephesians. Both letters have many of the same themes in common. However, Ephesians focuses on similar Christological issues as applied to the church as a whole, rather than at the local level. This is also the reason why several scholars see the Epistle to the Ephesians as not written to address any particular problem at Ephesus, but as a circular letter sent to all the surrounding churches in general.

      Special attention needs to be paid to the small phrase in Christ that so often appears in Paul’s writings, as is the case with Ephesians. It is a reference to every believer’s incorporation into all the spiritual blessings available in Christ via the Holy Spirit. The blessings possessed in Christ are not any less real because they are spiritual. It is because of the spiritual realm where Christ reigns in heavenly places that we can be assured of victory today and of the promise of a glorious inheritance, of which we have only begun to taste!

      The theme of Ephesians is the disclosure of God’s eternal divine purpose, which is the uniting together and reconciliation of all things in and through the person and work of Jesus Christ. In God’s plan of reconciliation, Jesus Christ is at the heart and center of all that the Father wills. And at the heart and center of Christ’s work is his church. Christ as its Head has given the church an awesome responsibility and role as the redeemed organism by which he brings unity to this alienated, fragmented and fallen world. As the body of Christ, the church is to live out the purposes for which it was called. The church’s calling is to exemplify before the world the unity and love of reconciliation for which Christ died and rose. The gospel of God’s grace has bestowed upon believers a higher calling in Christ. Therefore, believers as a body and as individuals are to conduct themselves in this fallen world accordingly in Christ to his glory.

      ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

      back to table of contents

      The Divine Purpose in Christ

      Ephesians 1:3-14

      Key text: And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment – to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ (Ephesians 1:9-10).

      Lesson objective: To understand that God’s ultimate purpose is to unite all things alienated in the universe into one harmonious whole through the one cosmic event of the reconciling work of Christ from which all blessings flow.

      Introduction: Ancient epistles typically had a prescript and blessing at the beginning; Ephesians 1:1-14 is in this literary format. Of all the letters of the apostle Paul, this particular prescript is the most enigmatic.

      The prescript is the salutation or greeting at the beginning of most ancient letters. In the letter to the Ephesians, it consists of the first two verses, where the author of the letter identifies both himself and those to whom the letter is addressed. And although the prescript identifies Paul and the saints (believers) he is writing to, the words in Ephesus are missing in the best ancient manuscripts. To whom, then, was this letter originally addressed?

      Paul was in prison (3:1), most likely in Rome, when he wrote this letter. Several scholars believe that Paul wrote this letter as a follow-up to the letter he sent the Colossians. However, instead of sending it to any specific local church, he sent it as a circular letter, to be read by all the churches under his apostolic jurisdiction. Sometime after Paul’s death, when his letters were all collected, this circular letter somehow became

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