Ephesians

Introduction Ephesians 4:11-16 covers some very important topics that we, as Christians, should live by. The apostle Paul talks about a couple very different things. For example, he talks a lot about spiritual gifts and how they help us grow both individually and also as the church body. Paul also talks about how spiritual gifts exist so that we can be unified in faith and in our knowledge of God. Spiritual gifts also help us become mature and reach the fullness of God. After this, we won’t be like infants tossed back and forth, but we will be wise, and we will be able to recognize deceitful schemes. And we will also grow as a mature body through speaking the truth. Of course this probably seems very out of context, so to understand it better, I will explain the historical, cultural and literary context.
Historical and cultural context As is pretty obvious, Paul is the one who wrote the book of Ephesians. He wrote this to the church in Ephesus. Ephesus was located in western Asia Minor. It was one of the most popular cities. Ephesus had many great qualities that attracted a lot of people to it. First off, there was the Temple of Artemis there. The Temple of Artemis was the center of the town. Most of the people in Ephesus went there to worship Artemis. Because of the amount of people who worshipped Artemis this was a

This letter was one of the 13 that Paul wrote in the New Testament. Our passage falls in chapter 4. In chapters 1-3 Paul had mostly been talking about how believers were chosen in Christ. Paul then went through the truths that followed. When Paul comes to our passage he shifts gears and talks about how Christians should live now that they are chosen in Christ. In chapter 4 of Ephesians Paul talks about how Christ has given us all spiritual gifts. He then talks about different things that occur thanks to those gifts. But we will get into those verses and everything that follows in depth, so let us