Ephesians 2:11-22 – Reconciliation with God and Fellow Human Beings

BIBLE TEXT

Ephesians 2:11-22

Summary

Just as God through the power of the gospel reconciled Gentiles to God’s self, the Christians in Ephesus are called to extend reconciliation to their neighbors. The love of God and all God’s essence are lived out in a horizontal and vertical manner. Simply put, God’s offer of reconciliation is an invitation and call to believers to implement the gift to their fellow human beings. God commands believers to live in reconciliation, peace, and love (2:1-10). 

ANALYSIS

The author extends the lesson that was started in Ephesians 2:1-10 about God’s offer of salvation to the undeserving Gentiles who were included in the family of the gospel by God whose salvific actions in the death and resurrection of Jesus made it possible to have Gentiles be part of the resurrection story. In essence, the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his ascension became theirs by believing in the gospel. Without God’s extension of love to the Gentiles, their lives would be defined by death and spiritual bankruptcy. As adopted sons and daughters of God, Gentiles are privileged to enter a relationship with God, and as such they too should accept and welcome others who were outsiders by nationality, ethnicity, and skin color. Indeed, their former lives as Jews and Gentiles were redefined by God’s love of Jesus Christ. Reconciliation as a theological treatise in Ephesians is profoundly contingent on God and God’s incarnation in Jesus Christ. Spiritually and lovingly, God offers salvation to spiritually dead people who by faith believe in Jesus Christ. The gift of salvation paved the way for enemies to become brothers and sisters in Christ, making it possible for all to be saved by grace through faith in the Messiah (2:10).

The text highlights the work and love of God in Jesus Christ where the two enemies once lived in isolation due to their sinful nature but are now one in Christ as siblings and kinfolk. While God’s promises were only for the Children of Israel, the death and resurrection of Jesus drew Gentiles into the promises of God. Through the cross, the two nationalities and presumably strangers became one (2:13-16), reconciling them into a new family. However, the author of the passage teaches that God’s work of love and reconciliation comes at a cost to those who have been saved. Their reconciliation by God and to each other has vertical and horizontal implications and these are well-spelled out and named for both Jews and Gentiles. In other words, their relationship was not only with God, but they were to live out the meaning of being saved with their neighbors and all peoples, nations, tribes, and ethnicities of the world (2:11-22). 

In warring nations, and particularly in South Africa, colonialism and apartheid brought untold wounds and death to the inhabitants of these African nations. Yet, Christian leaders of the caliber of Bishop Desmond Tutu realized urgently that there is no peace and forgiveness without reconciliation. The gospel message was built on letters such as Ephesians and the prophets where the theological teachings are primarily about nations, colonies, and indigenous people living together as members of a diversified family whose lives are determined by resisting the spiritual forces of racism, white supremacy, prejudice, and segregation. God’s reconciliation, when it is properly believed and lived out among nations, will build an alternative holy temple and a holy church in which God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit dwell in miraculous ways (2:18-19). This is one of the greatest theological teachings of Ephesians to a 21st-century global world agonizing with hate, and the death of innocent women, children, and men. It would be naïve to assert that this dream of God has been achieved in our time, but when it is done, it will indeed be the greatest reversal for all nations, peoples, and ethnicities of the world. In God’s time, all nations and people will be co-heirs with Christ. The goal of Ephesians is both a prayer and proclamation of the Gospel whose main goal is to inaugurate a new creation where God will dwell among God’s people (Ephesians 2:10; 3:9; 4:13, 22, 24; Revelation 21:1-8).