Lesson 6 - Mystery of Unity in Christ (Part 2)
Ephesians 2:11-22 - 3:1-13
Drawing Near
It is part of sinful human nature to build protective barriers that shut out other people.
What examples of disunity and division, segregation and schism, have you observed
within the last month?
Context
Every since the rebellion in Eden shattered the relationship between humans and God,
people have found it difficult to coexist peacefully. Every marriage, family, church
(including Ephesus), community, and nation struggles to maintain harmony and peace.
Humanity’s fallenness creates powerful feelings of alienation and suspicion, leading to
prejudice, misunderstandings, disagreements, conflicts and even outright war.
It was no different in Paul’s day. The early church consisted of Jewish people who
believed in Jesus. Yet they still struggled to overcome prejudice against the Gentiles, the
non-Jews, who were becoming Christians. Paul showed them that Christ is the Prince of
Peace and the key to unity in the church. He alone can bring us into right relationship
with God. He alone can shatter the walls of prejudice and malice that separate humans.
Keys to Text
Gentiles – The Greek word used here is ethnos, from which we get our English term
ethnic, and it signifiers the non-Jewish world. In Paul’s day, the Gentiles (the
“uncircumcision”) experienced two types of alienation. The first was social, resulting
from the animosity that had existed between Jews and Gentiles for thousands of years.
Jews considered Gentiles to be outcasts, objects of derision, and reproach. The second
and more significant type of alienation was spiritual, because Gentile as a people were
cut off from God in five different ways: (1) They were “without Christ,” the Messiah,
having no Savior and Deliverer and without define purpose or destiny. (2) They were
“aliens from the commonwealth of Israel.” God’s chosen people, the Jews, were a nation
whose supreme King and Lord was God Himself, and from whose unique blessing and
protection they benefited. (3) Gentiles were “strangers from the covenants of promise,”
not able to partake of God’s divine covenants in which He promised to give a His people
a land, a priesthood, a people, a nation, a kingdom, and a King – and to those who
believe in Him, eternal life and heaven. (4) They had “no hope” because they been given
no divine promise. (5) They were “without God in the world.”
Unleashing the Text
Read Ephesians 3:1-13
Going Deeper
Consider how the following the passage from 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 relates to the
message of Ephesians 2:11-3:13?
Pious Jews (the “circumcision”) considered all non-Jews ceremonially unclean. They
thought of themselves as pure and clean because of their national heritage and religious
ceremonies. Paul pointed out that all Jews Gentiles alike were unclean before God and
needed to be cleansed by Christ in order to realize how great a gift salvation is. We need
to remember our former natural unclean condition. Have you ever felt separate,
excluded, and hopeless? No one is alienated from Christ’s love or from the body of
believers.
Christ has destroyed the barriers people build between themselves. There are many
barriers that can divide us from other Christians: age, appearance, intelligence, political
persuasion, economic status, race, theological perspective. The Holy Spirit helps us to
look beyond the barriers
1. If Christ is the great reconciler, and we are his “ambassadors”, what does this
mean? What does an ambassador do? (v2:14)
2. What act of reconciliation do you sense God leading you to pursue as a result of
this study?
3. In your own words, summarize the mystery revealed to Paul….3:vs.2-6
4. What was Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians?
5. Why are verses 20-21 referred to as a doxology?