You too … we too

Paul begins the second chapter with the following statement:

“Even you who are dead to your offenses and sins, in which you once walked according to the eon of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of rebellion
(among whom also we all once walked in the lusts of our flesh, carrying out the will of the flesh and our way of thinking, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest).”
Eph 2:1-3

Two groups: you and us. As explained in the last article, and as can be seen from the rest of this chapter, there are two groups of people within the community. “You” refers to the believers from the nations and “we” refers to the Jewish believers in the church, including Paul.

There was some tension in the air between the two groups right from the start. Based on the privileges of the Jews (compare Romans 3:1-2 and Romans 9:4-5) and the impossibility of meeting the gentiles as a Jew (compare Acts 11:3 and Acts 22:21-22), these words of Paul were of great importance. He has now addressed both groups, breaking something of a taboo.

Paul compares the two groups, which he tells us more about in the following verses. It is worth noting that he does not begin with positive words or divine instructions. On the contrary, it is based on the shared experience of these two groups. It is important to remember that these are believers. He speaks to her about her human experience.

The common theme that the apostle addresses here is the experience of offenses and sins against God and the way of life up to that point. This was “according to the eon of this world”. They behaved as if there were no God in this world, but lived “according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of rebellion”. One corresponds to the other. Neither is particularly good. Your life has produced offenses (which hurt the heart) and sins (missed targets).

The Jewish believers, despite all their advantages and blessings, did not really have a different status. Paul speaks of the “desires of our flesh” and of how they “carried out the will of the flesh and our way of thinking, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest”. Jews and non-Jews had had the same experience in life. This version is also strongly reminiscent of Romans 3, where Paul declares that no man is righteous.

Old and new humanity

Later in the letter, Paul returns to this experience. This is in the second part of the letter. Just as the first part speaks about “teaching” (chapters 1-3), the second part of the letter supplements this teaching with the way of life based on it (chapters 4-6). We have just heard about this shared experience, which the apostle mentions as a connecting element between gentiles and Jews in the church. When he later talks about his lifestyle, he refers back to this experience as a contrast:

“This therefore I command and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the nations walk (in the vanity of their minds), who are darkened in their way of thinking and are strangers to the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Thus jaded, they have given themselves over to debauchery and pursue all kinds of impurity in greed.

But you have not come to know Christ in such a way, if you have heard Him and have been taught in Him (as in Jesus is truth), that you put off the former behavior, the old humanity (which brings itself to ruin through seductive desires), and are rejuvenated in the spirit of your mind and put on the new humanity, which is created according to God in righteousness and the gracious holiness of truth. Therefore put away lying, and speak truth every man to his neighbor; for we are members one of another.”
Eph 4:17-25

Paul not only mentions the shared experience here, but also points to the contrast with the current experience of faith. The human experience corresponded to an “old humanity”. In return, believers should now put on a “new humanity” with new characteristics. Paul does not say here that we have to be “born again”, because nowhere in Paul’s writings do we find a “rebirth” like that of the apostle John in the Gospels. On the other hand, he speaks of an old and a new humanity. This is crucial for his understanding.

We also find this new man in the second chapter of Ephesians, albeit a few verses later. The apostle describes this as follows:

“To create the two into one new humanity (by making peace) and to reconcile the two in one body to God through the cross.”
Eph 2:15-16

In Ephesians we first read that the two (Jews and non-Jews) were created into a new humanity. They are both reconciled in one body with God through the cross. This new humanity therefore eliminates previous differences. They are reconciled with each other and with God.

The shared experience

We have now seen that Paul uses a common experience to place Jews and non-Jews on an equal footing. When he then brings these two groups together in the next verses, the basis is founded in sobriety and modesty. Neither religious advantages nor supposed superiority count in experience. In experience, all people are equal.

Paul proceeds wisely. In terms of argumentation, he lays the foundation here for a decisive further development in his preaching, in which he clearly describes Jews and non-Jews as equal in the congregation for the first time. For the Jews, the supposed advantages based on their ancestry are no longer there, but the non-Jews come much closer to a dignified integration in the community from all nations.