Ephesians 3:1-21

Context

The body of the letter continues in chapter 3. If it were not for chapters 4-6, we could even believe that Paul was about to close this letter after we read what appears to be a benediction in vs. 20-21. Perhaps false endings don’t only happen in sermons!

Mission Connection

The Greek word ethnos appears 3 times in the first 8 verses of chapter 3. It appears a total of 5 times in Ephesians (2:11; 3:1, 6, 8; 4:16) and every time it is translated as “Gentiles.” This is the most common translation in the New Testament. The second most common translation is “nations” (cf. Matt. 28:19; Gal. 3:8; Rev. 7:9). It’s important to remember that for the Jews of Jesus’ day, there were Jews and everyone else—Gentiles.…