Contents
Introduction............................................................................................................................1
Historical.................................................................................................................................1
Cultural...................................................................................................................................2
Literary....................................................................................................................................3
1
Introduction
This exegesis will break down Paul’s letter to the church of Ephesus, with special focus
on Ephesians 4:7-16. The passage is pivot for life as a disciple of Christ as it educates on unity
amongst believers, spiritual growth, and how the church should function in the overall context of
the Christian faith. This exegesis will examine the historical, cultural, and literary context of the
passage, with an objective to develop a conceptual meaning of this section of Paul’s letter and
understand its relevance to modern day Christian theology and practice. Ephesians 4:7-16
provides insight into how Christ’s love can unify the church (body of Christ), when each member
uses their spiritual gifts to increase the maturity and growth amongst believers.
Historical
As previously stated, Ephesians 4:7-16 is in a letter (epistle) the Apostle Paul wrote to the
church of Ephesus. Though a specific timeframe of when the letter was written has been debated
by biblical scholars, the prevalent belief is that the letter was written somewhere around 59-63
AD: which means Paul likely wrote the letter while in a prison in Rome. However, there is no
debate how prominent early Christianity’s growth was in Ephesus for near 200 years.1 Ephesus,
whose ruins are located near modern day Turkey, was an ancient Greek city serving under
Roman authority, with a population size of approximately 200,000 – 250,000.2 As the capital of
the Roman territory of Asia, Ephesus was a major center for trading (Wall Street), and its
breathtaking architectural design, including the Temple of Artemis. It was the architectural
design of the city’s building that the towns people revealed how much they admired their city.3
1 Paul Trebilco, The Early Christians in Ephesus from Paul to Ignatius (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019), 1,
ProQuest Ebook Central.
2
Ibid., 17.
3
2
Cultural
Ephesus was a progressive city in terms of religion and culture. Though the early
Christian church in Ephesus was small, but it was rapidly beginning to spread throughout Rome,
and took roots in the coastal city. Due to Christianity being an illegal practice in the Roman
Empire believers faced constant persecution, and had to conceptualize what the church of Christ
should look like: what did Christians believe, why did they believe, and what were the proper
way to practice those beliefs? Paul acknowledges this fact throughout the letter, more
specifically commending and praising the church’s steadfastness in Christ even under the
circumstances (Ephesians 1:15, New Living Translation). Due to Ephesus being a melting pot,
the religious culture reflected as such. There were various deities of worship across the city “but
the most significant and powerful deity in the city was Artemis of Ephesus,4 (commonly known
as Diana) the goddess of fertility. Artemis of Ephesus was the center of the religion in the city,
but was hardly the only as Ephesus hosted a plethora of philosophical and religious movements.
These movements included secret societies who offer individual deliverance, and schools that
examined the purpose of the world and human creation.
In addition to the temptations of idolatry and poly theism practiced in Ephesus, the
internal strife between Jews and Gentiles presented a huge conflict for the earlier church. The
Jews in the city isolated themselves from the Gentiles, forming their own synagogues, focused
on and followed their own religious traditions: “earliest Christianity continued to interact with,
and be affected by, Judaism long after it became a Gentile movement”.5
Trebilco, The Early Christians in Ephesus, 15.
4
Ibid., 19.
5 Oskar, Skarsaune, In the Shawdow of the Temple: Jewish Influences on Early Christianity (Downers
Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press, 2002), 444.
3
Literary
The literary genre of Ephesians is an epistle, which is a long-formed formal letter.
Ephesians 4 is the fourth chapter of the continuous letter to the church of Ephesus written by the
Apostle Paul, though early manuscripts do not include Ephesus. Presumably, it is the
presentation of unity for Jews and Gentiles (Eph. 2:14-16, Eph. 3:6) that Paul addresses in the
first three chapters that indicate he is speaking to the church of Ephesus who has discourse
between Jews and Gentiles. Repeatedly, there are examples of Paul affirming the Gentiles that
they too inherit God’s kingdom because they are saved by grace (Eph. 1:13, Eph. 2:11-13, 2:18-
22). The first three chapters serve as a reminder to both the Jews and the Gentiles who they are in
Christ (Eph. 2:20-21), and the gift that God has given them (Eph. 2: 8-9). There is also a
revelation of a plan that God has revealed to Paul that was not revealed to any of the apostle and
prophets of the Old Testament (Eph. 3:1-13). “One might also say that the writer moves from the
immanent trinity to the economic trinity, from God as worshipped to God as working, from the
question of what God means to us to question of what we mean to God, from believing in the
Trinity to participating in the Trinity, from the fullness of God to being filled with the fullness of
God, from the mission of God to the mission of the church. Of course, the movement between
these thoughts must not be held rigidly, for they are closely interrelated.”6 Simply stated, the first
three chapters reveal the doctrine of Christianity, while the last three chapters, chapter 4
included, reveal the divine application (God’s vision) of the doctrine of Christianity. It is the
fourth chapter of Ephesians that Paul pleads for the church to “lead a life worthy of your calling,
for you have been called by God” (Eph. 4:1, New Living Translation), and reiterates to them that
6 Isam E. Ballenger, “Ephesian 4:1-16: A Journal of Bible and Theology,” Interpretation 51, no. 3 (1997):
292-5. https://go.openathens.net/redirector/liberty.edu?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-
journals/ephesians-4-1-16/docview/202705809/se-2
4
together they make up the body of Christ, which is under the authority of God the Father (Eph.
4:4-6, NLT). Fitting for the diverse state of the city of Ephesus, Ephesians 4: 7-16 begins to
develop how God intends to create unity amongst his followers with Paul explaining the
diversity amongst the gifts that Christ gives to his body. The purpose of the spiritual gifts is for
the necessary spiritual growth and maturity of believers in the constant face of affliction. He
informed the church that “as each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so
that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love” (Eph. 4:16, NLT). Chapters 5 and 6
continue to lay the ground rules of application to living as one unified body, loving each other in
truth, preserving the family, and staying strong in God by cloaking themselves in “God’s full
armor” in order to “stand firm against all strategies of the devil” (Eph. 6:11, NLT).
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