June 23, 2011 – Ephesians 2:11 – 3:21

In looking at this and doing some reading about this letter in my study Bible, it mentions that the tone of Paul’s discussion on the unity between Jewish and Gentile Christians is different here than in earlier letters. It says that this is a later letter, written just before he was martyred or even afterward by one of his followers. Either way, they point to the different tone as proof that the division between the two groups had subsided from where is had been while Paul wrote letters to the Corinthians or Romans. What does this mean or what can we take from this. First, that a decision had been finalized about the relationship and what things would be like going forward. We see in Acts that at the Jerusalem council Peter speaks on the decision to not force Gentiles to become Jewish first, but we see in Paul’s letters and in Acts that the decision took some time to implement or was not followed consistently. It appears that this was not an issue at around year 66. Second, we don’t see that Paul speaks of a second church or different Christians, but one. So those that wanted to be Christians were evidently following the rules set down by those that had authority to make them. We don’t see Paul saying follow me and not the other Christians, but he talks about the unity under Christ that was not there before.

And whatever people might say about some invisible Christian unity between all the churches, Paul says they are a body, something physically united, not a spiritual unity. And I have also talked before about the unity could not have contradictory teachings. This whole concept of a church that had a dispute, settled the dispute, moved on based on what the authority had set as the rule, and was now united behind that understanding and authority paints a different picture than some nondenominational church of Christians at the time the Paul was being martyred.