{"id":26163,"date":"2020-11-06T13:17:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-06T13:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/2021\/01\/13\/preaching-on-ephesians\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T17:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T17:12:11","slug":"preaching-on-ephesians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/preaching-on-ephesians\/","title":{"rendered":"Preaching on Ephesians"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Historical Background<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The epistle to the Ephesians holds a unique position among the New Testament letters in providing a summary of Christian faith, inclusive of worship and prayer, Jesus\u2019 saving work and the establishing of the church, the call to Christian character and reality of spiritual warfare, and much more. John Chrysostom, the golden-tongued preacher of fourth century Constantinople, said in the introduction to his homilies on Ephesians, \u201cThe Epistle itself is full of sublime thoughts and doctrines.\u201d Reformation preacher John Calvin is not alone among Christians in prizing Ephesians as his favorite letter in the New Testament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ephesians divides relatively neatly into two halves. The first half (Chapters 1-3) includes extensive prayer and praise intermingled with theological truths about the nature of salvation and the church. The second half (Chapters 4-6) exhorts the church as a whole and the individual Christian to live out the implications of the theological truths outlined in the first half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since it is general in nature, with relatively few personal references either to a specific church or to Paul, Ephesians serves as a very succinct summary of the Pauline vision of God revealed in Christ, the gospel that creates a new community, and the Christian life lived in community, everyday behavior, and interpersonal relationships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three important issues must be addressed when preaching from Ephesians: 1) authorship; 2) recipients; and 3) relationship to Colossians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ephesians begins by identifying the author as \u201cPaul, an apostle of Christ Jesus\u201d (1:1). Pauline authorship was attested, referenced, or alluded to in the early writings of Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, and Polycarp. It was not until the late 18th century and afterwards that Pauline authorship was questioned. The questions arose due to the impersonal nature of the letter, language, and style differences from that in other Pauline letters, similarities to Colossians, and the relatively common practice at the time of pseudonymous authorship. Each of these issues must be considered thoughtfully when preaching the letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This leads directly into the question of who the recipients of the letter were. While the introduction addresses \u201cGod\u2019s holy people in Ephesus\u201d (1:1), many early manuscripts do not have the phrase \u201cin Ephesus.\u201d Some scholars and pastors make a strong case for the letter being sent directly to the church in Ephesus, bringing in the background of Paul\u2019s extensive ministry in Ephesus, as mentioned in Acts 18-20. Others see \u201cin Ephesus\u201d as a later insertion, suggesting that perhaps the letter was intentionally more general in nature, originally sent as a circular letter around Asia Minor, or at least to a grouping of churches in and around the area of Ephesus. The understanding of the letter\u2019s recipients greatly shapes the preacher\u2019s approach to relevant background material for each sermon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related to these previous two issues lies the matter of the strong interrelationship between Ephesians and Colossians. No scholar debates whether a relationship exists between Ephesians and Colossians. Rather, the debates here revolve around the nature<\/em> of that relationship. Some see Ephesians as dependent on an earlier-written Colossians, while others see Colossians as deriving from Ephesians. Some hold that Paul wrote both Epistles, while others believe that perhaps Paul wrote one Epistle but was imitated by someone composing the other. This is a difficult issue to resolve because we do not know the time delay between the writing of the Epistles, which Epistle was written first or, if they were written at roughly the same time, and whether terminology is clearly being used in different ways between the letters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With all these issues mentioned, this present preaching guide is written from the perspective that Paul did write Ephesians, that the similarities to Colossians reflect Paul\u2019s desire to share those truths with a broader audience, and that he did so by composing a more general Epistle in Ephesians to serve as a circular letter for churches in Asia Minor near Ephesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ephesians typifies Pauline frameworks for epistles with two major sections, as well as an introduction and conclusion (adapted from Lincoln, Ephesians<\/em>, and Hoehner, Ephesians<\/em>):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Introduction (1:1-2)<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Thanksgiving for the Church (1:3-3:21)\n\t\n\t\n