Ephesians 2:19 Commentary and Bible Study

Paul speaks to Gentiles. It was largely a Gentile church in Ephesus. And the Judaising heretics were around, saying, ‘You cannot know God simply by referring to Christ. You must also adopt the Jewish ceremonies.’ They wanted to make Jews out of Gentile believers, and claimed that being Christian did not gain you this access. But the apostle Paul heads them off.‘Now therefore ye are no more strangers.’ The word translated ‘strangers’ is actually the word for foreigners. You are no more foreigners in the land. In the Old Testament Israel was a nation that was especially blessed by God. They were the ‘typical’ church but only a minority of them were truly converted. Yet national pride made them regard themselves as entitled to God’s favour, and they regarded the Gentiles as foreigners, outsiders. That is the way the Jews treated Gentiles! They would make proselytes and they would be happy for Gentiles to submit to the Jewish faith, but they always stayed in the Court of the Gentiles; they were always third-rate people, kept the other side of the wall. They were never insiders with rights, but remained ‘strangers and foreigners.’ Those are the people that Paul has in mind. You are no more foreigners to them. If you are truly converted, you are citizens of the same kingdom. You are all one church. You are not just guests in the house. You Ephesians are truly converted. You have birthright in the house. You are born again into the same family.And we are not only ‘fellow-citizens’, with the same nationality as Jewish Christians, in the church of Christ, but we are of the ‘household’ [that is, the family] of God. The family of God, as insiders, brought right into the house as sons and daughters, brothers and sisters. They are ‘saints’, called out ones, holy ones, separated from the world. We fall into sin, and it grieves us, and we repent, and cry out to God for help.