Exegetical Paper ( Ephesians 4:25-32 - Essay Example

31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Main Idea: The passage talks of the newness of life after we have followed teachings of Jesus to the letter. There are many things Christians consider rules, which are said in phrases with ‘should’ and ‘must’, but the outcome of this is the love that one feels and experiences after following Jesus’ words.

In verses 17-19, Paul asks us to break from the immoral conduct of the Gentiles. He warns the Christians against the conduct of these people who were living in sin and immorality. Before one has to live a new life, he must depart from the things of the world. After the departure, Paul tells them to train their minds and thoughts into the newness of life. If this is new, then all that is old – sin and all its outcomes and complexities – have to erased and disregarded, or washed away from its old body in order to become new.

Ephesians tells the Christians to be the opposite of the Gentiles, who at that time were enjoying the “art of magic”1. Their thoughts, words, actions should be focused to Jesus Christ as the head of the One Body.2 Christians should give up the former self and give way to the “new self”. There are those who believe that Ephesians is not Paul’s writing, but many also believe that it is an original Pauline writing. The style of writing is impersonal, yet he had lived and worked in this community for more than 2 years, during the years 55 to 57 AD.

This letter must have been addressed not only to the Christians of Ephesus, but more widely to the community of the valley of Lycus, Hierapolic, Laodicea (Col 4:13 and 16) and Colussus which had been evangelized by Paul’s co-preachers and companions, in particular by Epaphras (Col 1:7). Moreover, this could not