If you were to ask the apostle Paul, "Which of your works best portrays the church in action?" I believe he would have had no hesitation pointing to his letter to the Ephesians. If one book in the Bible adequately describes and prescribes a community of believers—inherited (Jews) and adopted (Gentiles)—working and living for each other by God’s Spirit and in his love (as demonstrated by Jesus’ sacrifice) and so withstanding the spiritual attacks of Satan, then it is Ephesians. It is Paul’s opus magnum! Yes, even more than Romans.… Let me explain.

In Ephesians, we see a Church that accepts the unity God meticulously created with his own hand, through Jesus Christ, that will grow (be magnanimous) in spiritual strength. We cannot create unity; we can only accept it. We won’t survive it, only thrive through it.

Paul processes this concept on at least three different levels:

1. Language (grammar);
2. Concepts of "in Christ" and "in the Spirit"; and
3. Images

Let us look at language. In the letter, two moods of verbs are particularly used to process the readers: the verb of reality (indicative) and the verb of command (imperative). The mood of reality describes how things are. It describes things that have taken place, are taking place, or will take place as facts. Therefore, Paul expresses what God has, is, and will do in the mood of reality. It is fact.

The verbal mood of command is expressed when one requires obedience from another. It is used when one imposes one’s will upon another. Thus, God requires obedience from us, his believers. How does this pan out in Ephesians? This is best demonstrated by looking at the distribution of the uses of the verbs of commands.

Between chapters 1 and 3, there is only one verb of command, which is, incidentally, a mild command, remember—"remember what your lives were before Christ." However, between chapters 4 and 6 there are forty-one verbs of commands.1 This balance in favor of chapters 3 through 6 is significant. Paul appears to be saying that God only requires obedience (chs. 4–6) after telling us who we are (chs. 1–3).

In chapters 1 through 3, he tells us who we are (mood of reality). We are chosen to be holy in love (1:4). We are redeemed and forgiven (1:7); privy to his revealed will (1:9); sealed with his Spirit (1:13); made alive in Christ (2:1–6); recreated for good deeds (2:10); at peace in him (2:14); unified into one body (2:14–16); a family harmonized with the universe (3:15) that Christ might dwell in us and thereby enable us to grasp for ourselves the extent of his love (3:16–19). This is who we are—blessed by the Blessed who delights in blessings (1:3).2

Only then (from 4:1 onward), does Paul begin to make demands (by use of the verbal mood of commands). He commands us to behave worthily of the calling with which we were called in love (4:1, 2)—unity, body, gifts, (4:3–16)—not in the ignorance of our former life (4:17–22), but by being renewed in the spirit of our minds (4:23). Then he commands us to put off, put on, be imitators, walk in, be filled with, don’t let anyone, let each one, don’t do this, be this, see to it, submit, love, obey, don’t provoke, bring them up, be strong, speak, sing, take up, stand! Notice then, we act (chs. 4–6) after knowing who we are (chs. 1–3) and not before.

Ephesians as a letter of two halves is also born out in Paul’s concepts of "in Christ" and "in the Spirit." Briefly, phrases related to "in Christ" occur 158 times in Pauline epistles.3 Of those, the highest incidence is found in Ephesians—thirty-seven times.4 (It occurs only twenty-one times in Romans, for example.) Of the occurrences in Ephesians, the majority lie in the first half of the book (chs. 1–3). Here, Paul establishes the fact that the whole history of salvation is accomplished through Christ (1:10), rendering our existence in Christ (for example, 1:1, 3, 4, 7, 11, 12, 13, 15, 20—just to draw from ch. 1).

Now, to be "in the Spirit" in Pauline theology is to be "in Christ" (Rom. 8:9b; 1 Cor. 15:45). However, in Ephesians, Paul is careful to command us to live "in the Spirit," since he wants to distinguish between what Christ has done to make us who we are and the compulsion for us to live by the unifying presence of the Spirit ("be filled by means of the Spirit," 5:18).

Finally, Paul uses four images to transport his theology: a church that works together grows together. The images are evenly distributed: a temple and a body (chs. 1–3), which we together are; family relationships and a soldier (chs. 4–6), which we (together) must adopt.5 Thus, in the letter of two halves, together is the operative word, the binding word.

For Paul, church is then a community (body/temple) of all types of believers who have accepted the unity in Christ that has already been created. This is fact! She is then able, by means of the Spirit, to respond to God’s commands through submissive relationships (the family) and by fighting side-by-side (as soldiers do) against the common forces of evil.

This we must do!

Notes

1. There are actually forty-two imperatival structures if one takes into account the infinitive, to walk (4:1).
2. The Blessed blesses blessings (1:3)!!
3. This does not include the book of Hebrews.
4. Cognate phrases like: in Jesus Christ, in him, in the Lord, in whom.
5. The family relationships are of wife and husband (5:21–33); children and parents (6:1–4); and slaves and masters (6:5–9). Notice that slaves and masters were considered family in the first century Greco-Roman period.

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