Ephesians 6:21-24: Final Encouragement

Overview

We come now to the end of the book of Ephesians. This is one of Paul’s denser letters as it focused us on God’s work of building the church. Where Romans is a tour de force of the Gospel, Ephesians is considered Paul’s tour de force of the church. In concluding our sermon series let me attempt to give a view from 30 000 feet. The basic thrust of the letter is God’s work in Christ to make a new humanity for a new creation. Firstly, let me give the large sections that we covered. After the introduction of 1:1-2 we see a description of the new life we have in Christ in 1:3-2:10; then Paul describes the new family that we are in Christ in 2:11-3:21, in particular the idea of Jews and Gentiles in one body; then in 4:1-5:21 that new standards that we are to live by in Christ; 5:22-6:9 describes our new relationships in Christ, and 6:10-20 our new struggle with the devil in Christ.