Ephesians is the epistle par excellence concerning the church.(1) 'What we read here is truth that sings, doctrine set ot music ... the most contemporary book in the Bible' since it promises community in a world of disunity, reconciliation in place of alienation and peace instead of war. (2)

The first three chapters unfold Paul's conception of 'unity in Christ'. The last three chapters deal with the church's role in bringing about that unity. First, who we are, then what we do; doctrine and ethics; belief and behaviour; grace and action. Our response to the truths of chapters 1-3 has to be one of 'giving thanks to God' (1:160; and to those of chapters 4-6: 'Be imitators of God' (5:1).

1. RENEWAL OF THE COSMOS - EPH. 1:3-14

Paul's 'Big Idea' is that a divided world will be united in Christ. Every person is a walking civil war - with tensions between good and evil, passion and reason, instinct and will. Jesus came to gather all into one. Indeed history has been moving to this climax. This planning (oikonomia household management under the supervision of a steward) is the working out of God's purpose for the world, an idea not grasped until Christ came. 'As Paul sees it, it is the great task of the church to work out that purpose of unity, which is the purpose of God, revealed in Jesus Christ'. (3) 'The kingdom of God is coming, and to the extent that this coming occurs in history before the return of Christ, God's plan is to be accomplished through the church .... What God is doing in Jesus Christ and what he is doing in and through the church are part of one whole'. (4)

Paul begins his letter (1:1,2) with the only two claims to fame he possessed: (i) he was an apostle of Christ (he belonged to Christ, was commissioned by Christ, any power he possessed was delegated by Christ), and (ii) he was an apostle through the will of God (not a matter of pride, but rather of amazement). Paul addresses his letter to people who lived both in Ephesus and in Christ: 'every Christian has a human address and a divine address'. (5) In the Greek, 1:3-14 is a single sentence. It is not so much a reasoned statement as a lyrical song of praise: 'gift after gift and wonder after wonder from God' enter Paul's mind. (6)

How does the church as the Body of Christ embrace the whole of the new universe, 'the fullness of him who is filled, all in all' 1:23? Paul's answer: by understanding seven spiritual blessings, benefits spiritual (pneumatikos) in nature because they are communicated to us through the Holy Spirit. (7)

1. Election (1:4) the call of God's chosen ones, is a source of wonder for Paul (Df John 15:16). God has taken the initiative here, not us. David Watson addresses a common problem in our churches at this point: 'The Christian church today suffers because so many of its members feel that they have "made a decision for Christ", or that they have chosen to join a certain church..... We (should) see ourselves as chosen, called, and commissioned by Christ...' (8)

Why are we chosen? To be blessed, and to be a blessing. We are chosen to be holy and blameless. 'Holy (hagios) carries the idea of 'difference', 'separation'. 'It is the simple fact of the matter that if enough Christians became hagios, different, answerable solely to Christ, they would revolutionize society.' (9)

The word 'blameless' (amomos) is a Jewish sacrificial word: a sacrificial victim was inspected, and if any blemish was found it was rejected. So a Christian should aim to make his or her life an unblemished offering to God; we should not be content with second best; our aim is to satisfy the scrutiny of God.

The picture of the church as the bride of Christ (5:25-27) carries the idea that no ugly spots or lines of age disfigure the appearance of the bride. The church becomes what it was intended to be - holy and blameless (1:4). All this is possible only because Christ is the Saviour of his body (5:23). (10)

2. Adoption (1:5-6) In the Roman world, patria potestas (the father's power) gave a father absolute power over his living children: he could sell them as slaves, or even kill them.

'When the adoption was complete it was complete indeed. The person who had been adopted had all the rights of a legitimate son in his new family, and completely lost all rights in his old family. In the eyes of the law he was a new person. So new was he that even all debts and obligations connected with his previous family were cancelled out and abolished as if they had never existed. This is what Paul says God has done for us .... we have passed from the family of the world and of evil into the family of God.' (11)

3. Forgiveness (1:7-8): our redemption by an event in time - i.e. the death of Jesus. The word Paul uses (aphesis) is the most common NT word for forgiveness, and carries the idea of 'sending away', 'letting go'. The Judeo-Christian religion is the only one to describe a God who takes the initiative to forgive his creatures' sins (eg Hosea 14:4, Ephesians 4:32, 2 Corinthians 12:13, Colossians 2:13). The story of the prodigal son (or, better, 'The Waiting Father') is an illustration par excellence of our Father's ready willingness to forgive. Our redemption and forgiveness are constant reminders of the grace of God. Further, there ought to be a concomitant desire to forgive others - without limit (Luke 17:4, Matthew 18:22).

4. Revelation (1:9-10; cf 1:23, 4:10, Romans 16:25). History is moving towards a God-appointed climax. 'At present there is still discord in the universe, but in the fullness of time the discord will cease, and that unity for which we long will come into being under the headship of Jesus Christ ... Paul seems to be referring ... to that cosmic renewal, that regeneration of the universe, that liberation of the groaning creation, of which he has already written to the Romans (Romans 8:18 ff; cf Matthew 19:28; 2 Peter 3:10-13) ... In the fullness of time, God's two creations, his whole universe and his whole church, will be unified under the cosmic Christ who is the supreme head of both'. (12) A 'mystery' in Pauline usage is not something hard to understand as such, but a 'riddle' which the uninitiated find incomprehensible. The 'mystery' is that the gospel is open to Gentiles as well as Jews (Ephesians 3:6).

5. Salvation (1:11-13a): the choice of Israel to be God's own, a witness in the world of the messianic hope. Paul, being a Jew, here uses 'we'. The church is now God's 'inheritance' just as Israel was in the past.

But - an example of the unity Christ brings - non-Jews are called to share the salvation that had, until then, been reserved for Jews. There are three stages - receiving the word, being sealed by the Spirit, and ultimately inheriting complete redemption. The 'Word' is truth, and 'good news'.

6. The Holy Spirit (1:13b-14a). That the Gentiles will be saved is proved by the fact that they receive the Spirit as was promised. With the Holy Spirit we are 'sealed': a seal indicates to whom a product belongs: the gift of the Spirit guarantees that we belong to God: the Holy Spirit both showing us God's will and enabling us to do it. (13)

The Spirit is the arrabon - the foretaste of the joys of heaven; the guarantee that we will inherit that possession fully. God has whet our appetites for more.

Paul completes his trinitarian account of God's plan with the Spirit, since the giving of the Spirit shows the plan has reached its final stage. Nevertheless, though this gift has already begun, it is given only in a hidden way while the unspiritual world lasts, and will be given fully only when the kingdom of God is complete and Christ comes in glory (cf Luke 24:49; John 1:33; 14:26). (14)

7. Freedom (1:14b). This is one of the occasions Paul widens an OT concept 'the chosen people' (;like 'blessing', 'saint', 'choice', 'adoption', 'share', 'promise') buy applying it to the Church as the new Israel and the body of the saved. (15)

Jesus came to proclaim liberty to the captives, to set free the oppressed. Freedom is not licence or anarchy, doing one's own thing. (Wasn't it Aldous Huxley who said our worst difficulties begin when we are able to do as we like?) Rather it is the antithesis of legalism. Victor Frankl has pointed out that when we are faced with choices we often don't know how to respond. So, we resort to conformism, doing what others do, or totalitarianism, doing what others wish us to do. Neither is randomness - the tyranny of unfulfilment - freedom. The notion of freedom has to be counterpointed with the idea of submission. As Luther's well-known dictum puts it: 'A Christian is the most free lord of all, and subject to no one; a Christian is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to everyone'. Paul was both free and a slave of Christ; so are we.