The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians: Expository Commentary from Sermons by Dr Peter Masters

Bible Commentary on the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians

by Dr Peter Masters, Metropolitan Tabernacle (adapted from sermons) with content from Bible Notes

Ephesus was in Asia Minor – modern day Turkey – a wealthy city, the fourth largest in the Empire with a population of between 200,000 and 500,000. It was situated on important trade routes, and the Roman governor of Asia Minor lived there. It had a 24,000 seat stadium and that was the great theatre into which some of Paul’s fellow labourers were dragged by a screaming, angry mob. It was a university city, one of the great seats of learning at the time. It was famous for the Temple of Artemis or Temple of Diana, which in its final form (started in 4^th century BC) was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, being four times the size of the Parthenon and measuring 450 × 225 feet and having 127 columns, 60 foot high. It was the largest trading port in the Roman province of Asia, on the Aegean seashore. Paul resided there two years and the gospel work made tremendous progress. Converted magicians voluntarily burned their books, and idolaters destroyed their idols, so much so that the silversmiths grew alarmed at the loss of trade, so great was the advance of the gospel.

The apostle Paul wrote this letter to the church at Ephesus from prison in Rome. We read about that in Acts 28:16, and during that Roman imprisonment, he also wrote Colossians. It is not surprising that there are some parallel or similar passages between the two epistles, both being written from the same location, and delivered on the same journey by Tychicus to those churches in about AD 60 to 62.

The church was founded in Ephesus on the second missionary journey, when the apostle Paul left Priscilla and Aquilla, and they began spiritual work in earnest in the town. Then on the third missionary journey Paul himself greatly enlarged and consolidated the work through his preaching as described in Acts 19. He was there for almost three years as evangelist and as pastor and when he left, he was succeeded by Timothy for some time, some unspecified time, between one and two years. It is some years later that this Ephesian epistle is penned.

The letter is a testimony to their enduring faith. They had resisted tremendous powers which were against them. It is a great joy and a great blessing to hear of conversions but when people stand for the Lord in the circumstances that people such as those at Ephesus endured, it is even more encouraging. There were trade guilds. If you had a trade, you had to belong to a guild. Those trade guilds, of course, were idolatrous and it involved you going regularly to idol feasts and worshipping idols. As Christians you wouldn’t do it, so you didn’t go, so you were dismissed from your trade and you had to take up menial and lowly work. You suffered greatly; there were great temptations.

For those who were intellectually inclined, Greek philosophy was the great rage at the time and they resisted that and turned away from it, and because of that they were regarded as fools. Then there were others who had prospered by different means. Ephesus was a wealthy place but they resisted affluence and wealth and possessions; they lived reasonable lifestyles and they shared with others. Their faith stood and they magnified Christ and worshipped him and made him known in extensive witness. How the apostle Paul rejoices!

It was a wonderful church but it was a church that later was afflicted with error. People came into it, very fluent people, who began to preach fables of their own invention. Then there were those who preached works, salvation by works – Judaisers they are called in some places. They were rather extreme people, and some inclined towards Gnosticism, who had very strange teachings, forbidding people to marry, proclaiming celibacy as being alone pleasing to God, and forbidding a certain range of food stuffs.

So the church needed exhortation and deliverance from time-to-time which Paul instructs Timothy to give (1 Timothy 1:3-4). Sadly, by the time of the Book of Revelation, we find that it is Ephesus that had left her first love. It was still sound – well, largely so, anyway – and worshipping correctly, yet the believers’ hearts were not warm as they once had been to the Lord. Yet overall it was a grand church.

This epistle, is really quite wonderful in its structure. The first part of it is doctrinal, with tremendous teaching about grace. Then the second part is application, conduct, behaviour for Christians. So it has that perfect balance. The Epistle to the Ephesians gives probably the fullest picture in the New Testament of the church. It has metaphors both of the universal and the local church, metaphors of the body, the bride, the temple, and the family. It says much about the roles of the members of the triune God, and it teaches us about human depravity, God’s predestination and election, about irresistible grace, and the perseverance of saints.

It speaks much of the wonders of grace and the doctrines of grace. It reveals God’s plan for the universal church: Jew and Gentile, now together. Even to this day some people, and many good Bible believers, don’t understand this. They think the Jews have the primary place in the purposes of God and that the Gentiles have only been included because the Jews refused the gospel. Right now they are away from God, but one day God will bring them back and they will have a very special place. Well, there may indeed be a great revival among Jews, but the effect will be to bring them into the Christian church, because now Jew and Gentile, as this epistle explains very powerfully, are one. God makes no distinction; Jews who are converted and Gentiles who are converted are on exactly the same footing and are equal in Christ Jesus.

It exhorts us to strive for spiritual maturity and how this affects every aspect of our lives. It teaches us about Christian marriage and the duties of husbands, wives, and children within the family, and it sets out the standards for believing servants and masters.

Then this epistle has much in it about the Christian warfare and how we need to be aware we are in a warfare and the devil is trying to tear us down and bring us down. Even though he cannot cause us to lose our salvation – he thinks he can achieve that but Scripture teaches that he cannot – he can still take away our joy and peace in believing, our service for the Lord, our effectiveness. What a tragedy that would be! So we have to fight against him in the Christian warfare. He can take away our assurance and all kinds of things, if we let him. Here is the precious, priceless instruction on how to conduct ourselves in that warfare with the enemy of our souls. It is one of the crowning letters of the New Testament, which Calvin called, a golden letter.