The Letters
- When
- c. AD 60–62, from prison
- Written by
- Paul
- Chapters
- 6
The big idea
God has made one new people in Christ, Jew and Gentile, saved by grace. Now walk worthy of that calling in unity, in love, in the home and in spiritual battle.
Themes
- Chosen in Christ
- One body
- Saved by grace
- The armor of God
Memory verse
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Key passages
- 1:3–14Every spiritual blessing
- 2:8–10By grace you have been saved
- 4:1–16One body, one Spirit
- 5:21–33Christ and the Church
- 6:10–18The armor of God
Links to other Scripture
- Colossians 1–3A sister letter
- Genesis 2:24The two in one flesh
- Isaiah 59:17The breastplate of righteousness
- Acts 19The church at Ephesus
Read the text
Choose a chapter to read it here in the King James Version. Verses with a dotted underline have notes from Bible scholars. Tap one to open them.
Notes from
Chapters
King James text and the commentaries of Henry, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Gill, Clarke, Calvin, and Keil and Delitzsch are in the public domain. Tyndale Open Study Notes are used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license, from tyndaleopenresources.com. Texts were reformatted for this site.
Journal prompts
Keep a journal or notebook for your study. Write your answers there, in your own words.
- Where do you see Christ in this book?
- Paul lists what you have in Christ: chosen, adopted, forgiven, sealed. Which one do you find hardest to believe?
- You were saved by grace, not works. What are you still trying to earn?
- Read the armor of God (6:10 to 18). Which piece do you most often forget to put on?
- In one sentence, this book is about…