Over the last couple of posts, I have distinguished between ancient Greek speech making and modern American letter writing as we looked at the New Testament letter of Paul to the Ephesians.
And Ephesians is 100% the former and 0% the latter.
The pronouns have told us so, especially that when Paul says “we” or “us” he is referring to his kinfolk the Jews and when he says “you” he addresses the Gentile Ephesians.
If you weren’t persuaded before, check out Paul’s culmination of this opening section of his letter in 3:1-6:
3 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—
2 Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, 3 that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. 4 In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. 6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.
I didn’t have to add “you Gentiles” — it was already there, in the bible, just waiting for us to connect the dots.
As is 3:6, which lets us know that the great mystery the Gospel reveals is not how to get our individual souls to heaven after we die (not that that doesn’t matter; it’s just not here in Ephesians 3); the great Gospel mystery is that Gentiles are legitimate heirs of the promise alongside the Jews.
The ground really is level at the foot of cross.
And at the opening of the tomb.
Jesus loves us this we know for the pronouns told us so.