The New Testament has 27 books, 21 of which are letters of five or six authors1. Having recently finished a series of lessons on 1 John the opening verse of Ephesians evokes a bit of a smile.
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus: (Ephesians 1:1–ESV)
Why a smile? It tells us to whom the letter is written! Woo-hoo! That may make you think, “Ok, where is he going with this? I don’t see any humor there. Maybe I won’t read more from this fellow.” Hold on! See, to glean an author’s intention one does well to know their audience. That context enriches the text. While not absolutely essential, the focus more properly pops2 into place when the background simmers underneath it all.
It’s like walking into a house at dinner time. You know it is time to eat, but the aroma of the lasagna gives the moment a pleasing background.
Also, there are many times when as a teacher I find it convenient to say, “The Ephesians needed to hear thus and so,” or the Romans, or the Corinthian church, etc. Without that do I say? The readership? Yeah, that is what I said back in 1 John, but it always felt odd. Too, as I found that term on someone else’s website3 it always tweaked, perhaps unreasonably so, a plagiarism trigger in my brain.
So, “Ahhh….” goes my mind when I read verse 1. Paul is writing to the Ephesians. It is like word-lasagna for my Bible teaching.
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