This is not a typical Paul letter; it will not have your customary greeting, nor does it deal with a particular problem inside or outside the church.  It reads more like a sermon than a letter, focussing on the character of the church.  Yesterday we read about Jesus as the Head of the Church (Colossians), well in Ephesians, we will read about the Body of the Church (Believers).

Paul will state oneness between all believers, even Jews and Gentiles.  By no means does Jesus intend there to be a separate church for Judaism or Christianity. On the contrary, we are fully designed to be one church.  The word Church in Greek is Ecclesia, meaning the assembly of the called-out ones.  In other words, the body of believers.

The city of Ephesus was a RICH port to the Mediterranean Sea.  This huge city contained an enormous theater (holding 25,000 at a time), a town square, a marketplace, public baths, libraries, and several enormous temples (mainly to the fertility goddess, Diana, also called Artemis).

This book is about “actions.”  You will hear cool verses like “learn what pleases the Lord,” and you will read action words that we are to do as Christians like “put off…and put on”.  Not things that we ask the Lord to change in us, but things we are to do ourselves FOR the Lord.   Anyway, this might just be your new favorite book!

Here are some pictures of Ephesus of the Temple in Ephesus.  It held 25,000 people.  Yes, that is a lot, and the sound is incredible (I hear).

If you want to recall Paul’s trip to Ephesus and how he planted the church, click here to return to Acts 19.