Letters from Paul

A taste of the study room coming with Paul — pull open whatever you'd like to sit with.

The reading — Ephesians 2:11-22

¹¹Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “uncircumcision” by that which is called “circumcision”, (in the flesh, made by hands); ¹²that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ. ¹⁴For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of partition, ¹⁵having abolished in his flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace; ¹⁶and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility thereby. ¹⁷He came and preached peace to you who were far off and to those who were near. ¹⁸For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, ²⁰being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone; ²¹in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord; ²²in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.

World English Bible

The words behind the words

When I wrote that Christ "is our peace, who has made us both one" (Ephesians 2:14), the word I reached for is not a feeling but a settled thing — a wall of hostility torn down, two peoples made into one new humanity. And when I called you who were "far off" now "brought near by the blood of Christ" (Ephesians 2:13), hear the nearness rightly: you were once outside, strangers to the covenants, without hope and without God in the world — and now you are inside, and it cost blood to bring you there.

Where else you say this

I take up this same thread in Galatians, where I insist there is neither Jew nor Greek, for you are all one in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:28). I return to it in Colossians, where he has reconciled all things to himself, making peace by the blood of his cross (Colossians 1:20). And I labored over the whole mystery of Israel and the nations at length (Romans 11:17-24), where the wild branch is grafted in.

The situation

I wrote to Gentile believers who had come to Christ, but the old division ran deep — Jew and Gentile separated by the law's commandments, by circumcision, by a temple whose very courts kept the nations at a distance. Some would have told these Gentiles they stood on lower ground, second-class in the household of God. I write to tell them they are not guests but citizens, fellow members, stones built into one temple (Ephesians 2:19-22). And I write it as a prisoner — I who once guarded that dividing wall as a Pharisee now sit in chains for preaching that Christ has broken it down.

The hard question

You may ask: if the wall is torn down and we are one, why does division still cut through the church, even now? The honest answer is that Christ has already made us one — this is done in him — and yet we are told to be diligent "to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:3). Go back and see it: the oneness is a gift accomplished at the cross, but the keeping of it is your daily labor. Do not use what he has finished as an excuse to neglect what he has commanded.

This is a small window into what a study room with Paul will hold — word by word, letter by letter, and the maps and journeys behind them. Get notified when it opens →

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