Ephesians — Chapter 2

Authorship & Background

Deep Dive

Setting: Paul writes from prison (3:1; 4:1; 6:20), most likely in Rome around AD 60–62, to the church he spent about three years building in Ephesus (Acts 19–20). Several early manuscripts lack "in Ephesus" in 1:1, so many scholars think the letter was meant to circulate among the churches of the province of Asia. Chapter 1 ended with God's power raising Christ from the dead and seating him "far above all rule and authority" (1:20–21). Chapter 2 shows that same power at work in people: first raising the spiritually dead to life (vv1–10), then joining Jews and Gentiles into one people and one temple (vv11–22). The man writing was arrested because a crowd thought he had taken a Gentile past the temple barrier (Acts 21:28–29). Here he writes that Christ has torn that wall down.

By Grace Through Faith (vv1–10)

• "And you were dead" (v1). The sentence that begins in v1 does not reach its main verb until v5. Paul piles up the bad news first so that "But God" lands with full force. "Dead" is spiritual death: cut off from the life of God while still physically alive (4:18). Colossians 2:13 uses the same picture.
• "Trespasses and sins" (v1). The two words overlap heavily. Many teachers draw a distinction: a trespass is stepping over a line, a sin is missing a mark. Paul's point is that the whole range of wrongdoing is covered.
• "In which you once walked" (v2). "Walk" is Paul's word for a way of life. Watch for it again in v10. The chapter moves from one walk to another.
• Three pressures (vv2–3). Paul names the world ("the course of this world," literally "the age of this world"), the devil ("the prince of the power of the air"), and the flesh ("the passions of our flesh"). Christian teaching has long summed up the enemies of the soul this way.
• "The prince of the power of the air" (v2). The word for air, aēr, meant the lower atmosphere around the earth. The lexicon notes its use here for the realm of demons. Many ancient people pictured the air as full of spirits. Paul does not endorse a map of the sky. He names Satan as a real ruler with real reach, "now at work" (compare 6:12; 2 Cor 4:4). Ephesus was a city soaked in magic (Acts 19:19), so this was not abstract to the first readers.
• "Sons of disobedience" (v2). A Hebrew way of speaking: people whose defining trait is disobedience, the way "son of peace" means a peaceful person.
• "Among whom we all once lived" (v3). Paul shifts from "you" Gentiles to "we all." The Jew raised under the law was in the same condition. This prepares for the second half of the chapter, where Jew and Gentile meet as equals.
• "By nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind" (v3). "Children of wrath" is another Hebrew idiom: people under God's just anger against sin (Rom 1:18; 5:9). "By nature" means by what people are, not only what they do. Traditions weigh this differently. Reformed and Lutheran readers see a strong statement of inherited sin (Ps 51:5; Rom 5:12). Others read "by nature" more loosely, as the natural state of fallen people. All agree that no one starts out neutral.
• "But God" (v4). Two of the most important words in the letter. Everything before is human ruin. Everything after is divine action. Note the reasons Paul gives: God is "rich in mercy" and acts "because of the great love with which he loved us." The cause sits wholly in God, not in anything attractive in those he saved (Rom 5:8).
• Made alive, raised, seated (vv5–6). Three Greek verbs, each built with the prefix syn-, "together with." Syzōopoieō, "make alive together with," occurs only here and Colossians 2:13. What God did for Christ in 1:20 (raised him, seated him) he has done for believers "in Christ Jesus." Believers are not yet in heaven bodily. But by union with Christ, their life and standing are already anchored where he is (Col 3:1–3).
• "By grace you have been saved" (v5). Paul cannot wait for v8 and breaks into his own sentence to say it. The Greek tense (perfect) points to a completed act with lasting results: saved and still standing saved.
• "In the coming ages" (v7). The purpose of salvation reaches past the saved. Believers become an eternal display of "the immeasurable riches of his grace." God's kindness to sinners will be on show forever.
• "For by grace you have been saved through faith" (v8). Grace is the source, faith the channel. Faith is not a work that earns, but the empty hand that receives.
• "And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God" (v8). What does "this" refer to? In Greek, "this" (touto) is neuter, while "grace" and "faith" are both feminine nouns. So most commentators, ancient and modern, take "this" to mean the whole package, salvation by grace through faith, rather than faith alone. Some, especially in the Reformed tradition, still see faith itself included as God's gift (compare Phil 1:29; Acts 18:27). Others, including many Arminian and Wesleyan readers, stress that God enables faith but the person truly believes, and that the verse's point is salvation as a gift. Either way, the conclusion is the same: "so that no one may boast" (v9).
• "Not a result of works" (v9). Paul shuts the door on any human contribution to being saved (Rom 3:27–28; Titus 3:5). Boasting is ruled out not by a rule but by the nature of a gift.
• "For we are his workmanship" (v10). The Greek poiēma means "that which is made, a work." It appears in the New Testament only here and Romans 1:20, where it describes creation itself. The word is the root of English "poem," and classical Greek could use it for poetry. Paul's point, though, is not artistry but authorship: believers are something God has made, a new creation (2 Cor 5:17).
• "Created in Christ Jesus for good works" (v10). Here is the order. Works are not the root of salvation but its fruit. God "prepared beforehand" the good works, "that we should walk in them." The chapter's opening "walk" in sin (v2) gives way to a new walk in good works (v10). Paul and James are not at odds (Jas 2:17–18). Paul denies that works save. James denies that saving faith stays alone.
• Commentators: All three agree that vv1–3 describe real spiritual death and that salvation springs entirely from God. Henry: "Sin is the death of the soul," and "all men, being naturally children of disobedience, are also by nature children of wrath." JFB likewise reads v3 as an incidental proof of original sin, with "children" meaning by birth, not only by imitation. On v8 the three differ in emphasis. Guzik follows the grammar and takes "the gift" to be salvation, yet adds that faith also comes as God's enabling. JFB sets "of yourselves" against "the gift of God" and insists that faith's start and growth are the Spirit's work. Henry declines to split them: "both that faith and that salvation on which it has so great an influence are the gift of God." On v10, Guzik leans on poiēma as "poem" or "work of art." The lexicon gives the New Testament sense simply as "something made, a work," so the "poem" idea is an illustration, not the word's meaning here. JFB is closer: "a thing of His making"; "handiwork." JFB sums up v10 well: "We are not saved by, but created unto, good works."

One in Christ (vv11–22)

• "Therefore remember" (v11). The first half showed every person's need. Now Paul turns to the Gentiles' particular position. Remembering the past is meant to deepen gratitude, not shame.
• "Called 'the uncircumcision' by what is called the circumcision" (v11). Jews used "the uncircumcision" as a label, often a contemptuous one, for Gentiles. Paul's wording is pointed: circumcision is "made in the flesh by hands." "Made by hands" is cheiropoiētos, the word the Greek Old Testament uses of idols and the New Testament uses of man-made temples (Mark 14:58; Acts 7:48; 17:24). Paul is not dismissing God's covenant sign (Gen 17:10–14). He is saying an outward mark cannot do what only God can (Rom 2:28–29; Col 2:11).
• Five losses (v12). Gentiles were "separated from Christ," that is, outside the line of the promised Messiah. They were "alienated from the commonwealth of Israel," with no citizenship among God's people. They were "strangers to the covenants of promise," with no share in God's pledges to Abraham, Moses and David. They had "no hope," and they were "without God." That last word is atheos, used only here in the New Testament. It does not mean they denied God. Ephesus was full of gods, the temple of Artemis among them. It means they did not know the true God. The irony: Romans later called Christians atheoi because they refused the gods.
• "But now" (v13). A second turning point, matching "But God" in v4. "You who once were far off have been brought near." Israel's Scriptures used "near" for Israel and "far" for the nations (Deut 4:7; Ps 148:14). Paul says Gentiles now come near not by circumcision but "by the blood of Christ," his sacrificial death (1:7).
• "He himself is our peace" (v14). Not only did Christ make peace, he is the peace. Isaiah promised a coming ruler called "Prince of Peace" (Isa 9:6) and a servant whose punishment would bring us peace (Isa 53:5).
• "The dividing wall of hostility" (v14). The word mesotoichon means a partition wall and appears nowhere else in the New Testament. The temple in Jerusalem had exactly such a barrier: a low stone balustrade separating the Court of the Gentiles from the inner courts. Notices in Greek and Latin warned that any foreigner who passed it would be responsible for his own death. One complete inscription was found in 1871, and a fragment of another in 1935. Paul was arrested on the false charge of taking Trophimus, an Ephesian, past that barrier (Acts 21:29). When he wrote this, the wall was still standing in stone. It came down with the temple in AD 70. But Paul says Christ has already broken it down "in his flesh," at the cross. The visible wall stood for a deeper one: Jew and Gentile divided from each other, and both divided from God.
• "By abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances" (v15). "Ordinances" is dogma, a public decree, used of the Jewish law here and in Colossians 2:14. This is a debated phrase. Paul cannot mean that God's moral will is canceled. He goes on to quote the fifth commandment (6:2), and in Romans 3:31 he says faith upholds the law. Most interpreters take him to mean the law as a system of regulations that fenced Israel off from the nations: food laws, purity rules, festivals and circumcision as a badge of membership. Others say the law's power to condemn is what was abolished (Col 2:14; Rom 8:1). Many hold both. Either way, the law can no longer stand between Jew and Gentile, because Christ fulfilled it (Matt 5:17).
• "One new man in place of the two" (v15). Gentiles do not become Jews, and Jews do not become Gentiles. God makes something new. The word kainos means new in kind or quality, not just recent (compare 2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15). Early Christian writers would later speak of believers as a "third race."
• "Reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross" (v16). Reconciliation runs two ways at once: up to God and across to each other. "Thereby killing the hostility" is a striking image. Christ was put to death, and in his death the hostility itself was put to death.
• "Peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near" (v17). This is a deliberate echo of Isaiah 57:19, "Peace, peace, to the far and to the near." In Isaiah, "far" probably meant scattered Jews in exile. Paul widens it to the Gentiles, as Peter did at Pentecost (Acts 2:39). Christ "came and preached" this peace through his apostles after his resurrection (Acts 10:36).
• "Access in one Spirit to the Father" (v18). A compact statement of the Trinity at work: through the Son, by the Spirit, to the Father. "Access" is prosagōgē, meaning approach or access. Some scholars argue for "introduction," the picture of being presented to a king at court. The lexicon gives both senses and lists "access" first. Gentiles who once stood outside the temple balustrade now have the same entry to God as any Jew.
• "Fellow citizens… members of the household of God" (v19). Paul answers v12 point by point. "Strangers" and "aliens" (paroikos, a resident foreigner without citizen rights) become sympolitai, "fellow citizens," and oikeioi, members of the family. The images move closer each time: from the city, to the house, and then in vv20–22 to the building itself.
• "Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets" (v20). Who are the "prophets"? Most modern scholars think New Testament prophets are meant. Paul lists apostles first and pairs the same two groups in 3:5 and 4:11, both of the church age. Others, including many older commentators, see the Old Testament prophets, so that the whole of Scripture is the foundation. Either way, the foundation is the inspired witness to Christ, not the men themselves.
• "Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone" (v20). The Greek akrogōniaios comes from Isaiah 28:16 in the Greek Old Testament: "a cornerstone, a precious stone, of a sure foundation." The lexicon defines it as "the corner foundation stone," the first stone laid, which set the line of every wall. Psalm 118:22 adds the stone the builders rejected, which Jesus applied to himself (Mark 12:10; compare 1 Pet 2:6–7). A minority of scholars read it as a capstone at the top of an arch. The lexicon and Isaiah's "foundation" support the more common reading.
• "Grows into a holy temple in the Lord" (v21). A building that grows is a mixed metaphor, and a deliberate one. The church is both structure and living body. The irony is plain. In Ephesus stood the famous Temple of Artemis. In Jerusalem stood the temple that kept Gentiles out. Paul tells a mostly Gentile church that they, together with Jewish believers, are the true temple (1 Cor 3:16; 1 Pet 2:5).
• "A dwelling place for God by the Spirit" (v22). The chapter that began with people "dead" and under the power of "the prince of the power of the air" ends with God himself living among them. The Spirit at work "in the sons of disobedience" (v2) gives way to God's Spirit dwelling in his people.
• Commentators: All three read the dividing wall as the separation of Jew from Gentile. Guzik and the Tyndale notes both connect it to the actual temple barrier, and Guzik notes that Paul was imprisoned because of a false charge about that very wall. JFB calls it "the middle wall which parted Jew and Gentile" and adds that it pictured a deeper barrier between humanity and God. Henry identifies it as "the ceremonial law, that made the great feud," and says "the legal ceremonies were abrogated by Christ, having their accomplishment in him." On "one new man," JFB quotes Alford: "we are all in God's sight but one in Christ, as we are but one in Adam." Guzik adds Chrysostom's image of two metals melted into a new alloy, and stresses that neither group is raised to the other's level. On v18 Guzik leans on "introduction" for prosagōgē. That is a real scholarly option, but not the lexicon's primary sense. On v20 the commentators split on the prophets. Guzik, like the Tyndale notes, takes them as New Testament prophets. Henry reads "the prophets of the Old Testament and the apostles of the New." JFB thinks Old Testament prophets are prominent but New Testament ones "are not excluded." Guzik describes the cornerstone as a binding stone at the angle, often carved with the king's name. JFB joins the two ideas: "The same stone is at once the corner-stone and the foundation-stone." Henry on v22: "every true believer is a living temple, is a habitation of God through the Spirit."

Pointing to Christ

Every move in this chapter happens "in Christ." The dead are made alive "together with Christ," raised and seated "with him." The far-off are brought near "by the blood of Christ." The wall falls "in his flesh," and the two become one "through the cross." He is the peace, the way of access, and the cornerstone of the temple. Before that temple was finished, he had already said of himself, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19). The wall that once cost a man his life to cross was answered by a man who gave his life, and through him God now makes his home among Jews and Gentiles alike.

Commentary

• Enduring Word (David Guzik): enduringword.com Guzik provides detailed commentary on spiritual death, "But God," salvation by grace, God's workmanship, and the unity of Jew and Gentile in Christ.
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871): blueletterbible.org A critical and explanatory commentary on the whole Bible, more concise than Matthew Henry and closer to the Hebrew and Greek, with attention to historical and geographical detail. Public domain.
• Matthew Henry's Exposition (1710): blueletterbible.org A devotional verse-by-verse commentary in the Puritan tradition, still among the most widely read three centuries on. Public domain.

Videos

Articles

• GotQuestions.org: gotquestions.org Grace, faith and works in two verses, and how they fit together.
• GotQuestions.org: gotquestions.org On the whole book: an overview of the book of Ephesians -- who wrote it, when, why, and how it fits the rest of Scripture.

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Reflection

• Dead, Not Just Struggling (v.1) — Before Christ, Paul says people were spiritually dead in their sins, not merely sick or struggling. How does recognizing your former helplessness change how much gratitude you feel for grace?
• The Hinge of Everything (v.4) — Despite that deadness, God's mercy and love intervened to make believers alive with Christ. Where can you trace a "but God" moment breaking into your own story?
• Saved by Grace Through Faith (v.8) — Salvation is a gift received by faith, not something earned by works. Are you resting in that gift, or still quietly trying to earn favor you already have?
• Made for Good Works (v.10) — Believers are described as God's workmanship, created in Christ for good works He prepared in advance. Are you walking in the specific works God has set before you, or still searching for direction?
• Brought Near by the Blood of Christ (v.13) — Those who were once far off have been brought near through Christ's sacrifice. Do you live like someone brought fully in, or still like an outsider looking through the window?
• Built Together Into God's Dwelling (vv.20-22) — Believers are described as living stones being built together into a temple where God dwells by His Spirit. How does being joined to other believers shape the way you think about church and community?