apostle Paul, v.1
TO WHOM? The book was written to the church at
Ephesus, and perhaps was also meant to be a circulatory letter for other congregations in Asia Minor.
ABOUT WHAT? The book of Ephesians concerns church
truth, as it relates to the church as an institution, local, visible; not universal or invisible; Eph 1:22,23; 3:6,9,10,21.
WHEN? The book was written about A.D. 64, the first in
order of the Prison Epistles.
[ Others say that the book was written either in 61 or 62. He did not arrive in Rome until the Spring of 61 and then was there for two whole years, according to Luke’s account.
More concerning these dates will be considered when an examination is given to the events that seem to have occurred after those two years. JFR]
WHAT WAS THE OCCASION? The occasion was to
confirm the church regarding her exalted position in
salvation and commission responsibility as custodian of the
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gospel; to certify that the church, called from among Gentiles, racially made up of Jews and Gentiles, was the body (assembly) of Jesus Christ, to bear His message and carry His program of work to all nations; and to direct the
members of the body (congregational body) to walk
according to their position of high calling.
The term "body," when used regarding "the church" is always used in the organized, institutional sense, to refer to any organized local congregation, and in a similar sense that the term "body" may be used to refer to the "student body,"
the "legislative body," or the "judicial body," meaning an authorized, existing, functioning, orderly assembly of people
--- never an invisible, mysterious, ethereal composite of spirits or souls of all the saved.
The term "body" is also used to refer to the physical body of Christ in which He "bore our sins in His body," in the body of His flesh, the cross body on Calvary; Eph 2:15,16.
Salvation, redemption, and reconciliation, when said to be received in or through His "body" always refer to the "cross body," not His "church body." The church is not a Savior nor is salvation obtained by getting "into". His church body; Col 1:20-22.
When Jesus is said to be the Savior (deliverer) of the body,
"church body," it is simply meant that He is the preserver and deliverer of the New Testament assembly, institution which He instituted to be a custodian agency to bear His message of salvation and program of service until He
returns, to which He pledged His preserving fidelity to the
extent that the gates of hell should not prevail against or destroy or put her out of existence; Eph 5:23; Mt 28:18-20;
16:18,19; Eph 3:21. While Jesus is the Savior of the "body,"
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the church; He is not the Savior, deliverer of the "church body" only, as is supposed by some.
EPHESIANS
OUTLINE OF THE BOOK