Non-Jews in the community

The letter to the Ephesians was written by Paul at the end of his life. He has been in service for many decades. Wisdom of life and wisdom of faith need time to develop. The apostle experienced this. His message has also been adapted. In Ephesians we find, as it were at the end of a long development, a strange and liberating message for the gentiles. He writes:

“Therefore remember that you were once of the Gentiles according to the flesh – called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision (which is made in the flesh with hands) – that at that time you were separated from Christ, strangers to the citizenship of Israel and sojourners from the promises of the covenant, having no expectation and being without God in the world.”
Eph 2:11-12

Here Paul is speaking explicitly to gentiles, the non-Jewish believers in the church. It is not about all people in the church, nor about all non-Jews worldwide, but about a group of believers from the church that he addresses directly in his letter: “You from the nations according to the flesh”. This is a rough classification of socially relevant and well-known groups. He writes this with equally familiar expressions: “called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision (made in the flesh with hands)”. Immediately afterwards, he describes the Jews as the “so-called circumcision (made in the flesh with hands)”. Flesh here means something like “by birth” or “descent”. It’s not about spiritual things or highfalutin self-assessments, but about what is in front of our eyes. It describes a situation for the non-Jewish believers at that time and refers to the socially relevant groups.

Where did the believers from the nations stand back then? Paul addresses the church in his letter, but introduces generally known group designations. How should we understand this mix in Paul’s words?

Separated from Christ

Among other things, it says that they were “separated from Christ at that time”. This is only said of the believers from the nations, not of the Jewish believers. Were Jewish believers not separated from Christ? What does Paul refer to? What time is this talking about?

The reflex in many interpretations is now to place “separated from Christ” in opposition to the current state of faith. One refers, so to speak, to a time when this group was not “believers”. In the same passage we even read that they “were without God in the world”. The leap to the interpretation that this “certainly” refers to a time of unbelief seems logical at first glance. As soon as they are believers, they belong to Christ, don’t they?

However, there is a problem here: people draw conclusions from today to then, from situations that are perhaps common or conceivable today to the Bible, and from themselves to the people of that time. That is unfortunate. This solution is “simple and clean, but wrong”. From today’s perspective, does this not also apply to Jewish believers? You were once “without Christ, according to today’s understanding”, weren’t you? So this is the problem: One draws conclusions from oneself and from today’s understanding to others and to other circumstances. One starts from today’s conclusions and not from the text and the context.

Pausing for a moment and letting the text speak for itself produces astonishing results. It is incomprehensible why this should be said specifically to believers from the nations. However, the Jewish members of the community are omitted here. Why? Another interpretation is also possible. It depends on how you interpret the text in your own context.

Paul describes an affiliation based on an external characteristic of the body (men were circumcised or uncircumcised). Paul is not talking here about believing in secret or in the heart. That is far too pious. He does not refer to internal ideas, but to pragmatic external characteristics. It is not about supposedly deep insights into faith, but about pragmatic visibility. It’s about belonging. In doing so, he addresses well-known groups in society. He speaks of Jews and non-Jews.

Jews have their beliefs and those from the nations had other ideas. This is not about an assessment along the lines of today’s ideas. It is about an external affiliation known at the time. Jews were circumcised, but people from the nations were not. It was therefore very easy to distinguish between the two groups because of this custom of circumcising men (Gen 17:1-14).

It was neither about circumcision nor about circumcision, but about the position of these groups, each with their own additional characteristics. Outwardly, these groups were different, but in relation to the God of Israel, the Jews had advantages that non-Jews lacked. At the time, that was “the state of things”. You only have to imagine what that meant back then. The development of church history up to the present day was unknown. There were no Reformed, Catholics or Evangelicals. The situation was different.

You only have to imagine what that meant back then.

If it’s about outward appearances, what does “separated from Christ” mean? And when was that? Here is one possibility: those who believed at that time had no share in the typical promises for Israel. Christ was not the Messiah for the believers from the nations. They were, as Paul describes it, “without God in the world” (Eph 2:12; compare Acts 14:16). Insofar as these people from the nations joined the church and stood in faith, they nevertheless – as people from the nations – had no such history as Israel. They were still stuck in the old pattern of “without God in the world”. The situation of the believers from the nations had not yet been fully clarified. Those from the nations who came to a living faith did not automatically have an intimate relationship with God. The intimacy belonged to Israel, not to the nations.

The believers from the nations had come to know the grace of God. However, not everything was immediately clear. There were noticeable differences between the groups. But what is true in the community now? Paul was dealing with these questions here.

The situation was challenging precisely because it was not completely clear. However, Paul is here solving the homelessness of the nations. This happens because all people, whether Jew or non-Jew, are accepted as believers into the great family of God. This happened “in Christ”. However Paul has always spoken of it up to this point, it is only here, in Ephesians, that it is expanded in such a way that believers from the nations are fully accepted into this family of God.

Although the Greek “Christ” means the same as the Hebrew “Messiah”, this does not mean that the Greek “Christ” has the same meaning for believers from the nations as the Hebrew “Messiah” has for Jews. The Hebrew concept of the Messiah was understood as a promise for Israel. The nations had nothing to do with this. This is transferred to the believers from the nations whom Paul addresses. You can put it casually like this: “It’s nice that you Jews in the community have such a story with your God, but how do I fit into this story?”. That was the dilemma Paul was addressing here.

The nations had no direct part in the expectation for Israel. This is why Paul can say that the believers from the nations were “separated from Christ”, just as they were “strangers to the citizenship of Israel” and “sojourners in the promises of the covenant”. It all belongs together.

Three things are mentioned:

1. Separated from Christ
2. Strangers to the citizenship of Israel
3. Guests of the covenant promises.

These three things are on the same level of argumentation. Everything belongs together. Therefore, those who were “guests of the covenant promise” also appeared in the other two reasons. This cannot apply to unbelievers. They were not guests and therefore did not stand outside. They were guests, so they were in the house, but with a different status to the landlord. Paul is not addressing unbelievers, but believers who were once “sojourners”, “strangers” and “separated”. This does not speak of a time of unbelief, but of a time of faith.

What is Paul talking about here?

Status change

Paul wrote this letter at the end of his life, when he was a prisoner in Rome. Before that, however, he had founded and visited many churches. It is obvious that he was speaking to believers at the time. The believers from the nations were believers, but they did not have the same prospects as Israel. Bear in mind that in the first decades after the resurrection there were many questions about the nature of the church and what would happen to it.

Here, in Ephesians, Paul adapts this. It is about a change of status and complete integration. First of all, this statement: believers from the nations had no advantages compared to Israel. This was very clear: The believers from the nations were not fully integrated.

The very next verse makes it clear that things are changing:

“But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been made near through the blood of Christ.”
Eph 2:13

For believers from the nations, the separation is abolished at that moment. That is integration. Nothing happens outwardly, in the flesh, but it happens “in Christ Jesus”. This is a spiritual reality. Paul emphasizes this several times in this letter. Where we stand in faith has nothing to do with our ancestry, but with a spiritual reality.

Paul does not ask the believers from the nations to act as if they were Israel. Nor did they have to become a messianic congregation. That is not relevant. In terms of external characteristics, the groups remain as they are. In Christ, however, the differences are abolished.

It can therefore be said that there were indeed differences according to external characteristics such as circumcision. These differences could be interpreted to mean that Israel had many advantages and an expectation of its own in which the other nations had no direct part. But! Then comes the letter to the Ephesians, and “in Christ Jesus” those who were far away became loved ones.

That is special.

From stranger to loved one

It is quite remarkable: first Paul describes that the believers from the nations were “separated from Christ” according to their origin and expectation. But then he makes this group “in Christ Jesus” into loved ones. Here is the difference: the separation from Christ was according to the outward characteristic of circumcision. This happened “in the flesh”, namely on the body. However, what happens anew is “in Christ Jesus” and is therefore to be understood spiritually.

The expression “in Christ”, which we have already encountered particularly frequently in the first chapter of Ephesians, refers to a spiritual reality. God works in and through His Son, known as Christ, and we share in the effects “in Him”. However, what was said in the first chapter is not quite the same as what is mentioned here in the second chapter. In this second chapter, the statements from the first chapter are developed further. New things are said. The term is being expanded. This has a particular impact on believers from the nations.

Earlier, Paul had already mentioned that the Jewish and non-Jewish believers “were made alive together in Christ” (Eph 2:5). This has already been mentioned in detail in a previous article. Now the apostle expands on this and explains a few verses further on that believers from Jews and nations were both “created in Himself into one new humanity” (Eph 2:15). This is the explanation that the apostle is heading for.

Paul summarizes everyone in Christ as equal, not as different. Even if there were differences in descent or promises, these are abolished in Christ.

An equivalent classification for non-Jewish believers does not seem “new” today. At the time, however, it was a revolutionary change. It also became the basis for today’s church with believers from all nations.