The Message of Ephesians

We shall not be able to acquiesce in low standards which fall far short of the New Testament ideals for God’s new society,

Christian faith and Christian life, what God has done through Christ and what we must be and do in consequence.

The whole letter is thus a magnificent combination of Christian doctrine and Christian duty

Therefore we are to demonstrate plainly and visibly by our new life the reality of this new thing which God has done

The letter focuses on what God did through the historical work of Jesus Christ and does through his Spirit today, in order to build his new society in the midst of the old.

we are citizens of two kingdoms.

ll Christian people are saints and believers, and live both in Christ and in the secular world

t bears witness to a living experience, that Christ has given us on the one hand a new life (with a sensitive awareness of the reality of God, and a love for him and for his people) and on the other a new victory (with evil increasingly under our feet). We were dead, but have been made spiritually alive and alert. We were in captivity, but have been enthroned.

By virtue of their union with Christ they have actually shared in his resurrection, ascension and session.

We must rather understand that ‘the ruler of the kingdom of the air’ is also ‘the ruler of the spirit which works in disobedient people’.