Biblical Interp

Step 1

In the first century, the world was divided, just like today, but the basic distinction was between Jew and Gentile. For that reason, some Jewish Christians had trouble accepting Gentile converts--some even said they needed to become Jewish first. Paul shows the Ephesians how God answered the world's plea for oneness--it was in Christ.

The paragraph before my section speaks of the former state of Gentiles and Jews. Jews hated those who were not of their race and called them Gentiles, but the Law affected their bodies and not their hearts; Gentiles were outsiders-excluded from God's people. My section talks of the wall being broken down and the new structure. All people--Jew or Gentile--can come to God through Jesus. In His death He not only brought harmony between man and God, but also between man and his fellowman. The section after mine relates that they can trust Paul knowing God's plan, and that he is the minister to the Gentiles, for he in fact was in prison on the charge of bringing a Gentile into the Temple.

What it meant to these people was that they were now included in God's plan. For so long they were not even allowed to go to the Temple in Jerusalem, and now they are the Temple! It meant putting away centuries of negative feelings towards each other and uniting under Christ.

Step 2

I don't think there is really that big of a gap here. Racial or cultural division between Jew and Gentile was a major issue in the Ephesian church, and we still live in a divided world today-probably not as expressed. The differences for us I guess would be that there were express laws forbidding such intermingling in worship, but there are many underlying prejudices in our world. We have a history of knowing unity in Christ, but this concept was new to them.

Step 3

All people come to God through Christ, whose death destroyed the old barrier of the Law and commandments by making peace for all humanity with God. All that counts is Christ, for in Him all humankind is united in "one new man."

Step 4

This passage calls us to think beyond ourselves as individuals, and catch God's vision of the church as Christ's body; as a people united