👉 Okay, let’s tackle Ephesians! Now, Ephesians—you might immediately think of a really lovely young woman named Ephesians, perhaps a vicarage social secretary with impeccable floral arrangements and a very gentle cardigan collection. That's... not quite right.
(Disclaimer: It is neither accurate nor advisable to actually look for a young woman named Ephesians. Please refrain. Diocesan committees are already busy enough.) Let’s be brutally frank, Ephesians in the Bible is essentially referring to the letter Paul wrote to the Ephesians—a city that was basically Ephesus upon Romney, now Smyrna. Paul, a famously exasperated-sounding dude who spent a lot of his time yelling at people about following rules, decided to pen an epistle (fancy word for a letter, by the way – he clearly wasn't messing around when he wrote letters!) specifically addressed to folks living there and their cousins, who apparently had also emigrated. The Ephesians in Ephesians are the Ephesians—the Ephesians of Ephesus. They were Gentiles! That meant they weren’t originally part of God's chosen nation (Israel… which was then a bit prickly about the whole "outsider" thing). Paul is basically laying down the groundwork here for, frankly, really elaborate Christian doctrine and some very specific instructions on how to be good Ephesians—and therefore, according to Paul, how you should be a good Christian. Think of it like Paul sending out a really long-overdue, very insistent, and
