Ephesians 2, Part 2
There was a big problem in the early church. It’s still a problem in the contemporary American church. Paul introduces the problem in Ephesians 1, verse 11:
“Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)”
Did you hear the problem Paul brings up? No? Let me explain.
In verse 11, Paul addresses Gentiles. Non-Jews. The Christian churches in the first century Roman Empire included non-Jews. In the contemporary American church, most Christians are also non-Jews, Gentiles.
Why is Paul referring to non-Jews? Because in Paul’s day, he had spread the Good News about Jesus to non-Jews throughout many areas of the Roman Empire, and they became followers of Jesus, and were now part of the churches.
Paul then introduces a label for the non-Jews. In verse 11, he says they are called “uncircumcised.” Paul himself is not labeling non-Jews that way. He is simply saying that others have given the non-Jews the label “uncircumcised.”
For people who are new to reading the New Testament epistles, it can be a bit unsettling to hear Paul talking about circumcision. He refers to it in numerous letters. In our culture, circumcision is a very private matter, one that usually only enters conversation when a baby boy is born. We know that Paul is referring to a physical, anatomical, medical procedure, because he notes that it “is done by human hands.” Scholars have researched this, and have concluded that most non-Jewish males in the first-century Roman Empire were not circumcised. And when you consider that anesthetics were not invented at that time, you can understand.
This label “the uncircumcised,” also has religious. Paul will explain that religious side of circumcision in verse 12. Let’s stay in verse 11 for a moment longer.
After introducing the non-Jewish, uncircumcised Gentile group in the church, he then refers to the other group by the label “the circumcision.” The circumcision are people of Jewish heritage who became Christians. In our day and age, we call them Messianic Jews.
When we consider the fact that Christianity is a global faith numbering in the billions, the percentage of Messianic Jews in the church is tiny. I suspect many Christians do not know any Messianic Jews, and when we hear about how Messianic Jews incorporate Hebrew and the Old Testament rituals into their worship services, it can sound like a very unique, different, and rare way to approach Christianity. Totally fine if Messianic Jews want to practice worship that way, but very different from non-Jewish practices of worship. Thus the way non-Jews worship seems to us to be the more common way.
Not so in the early church. The early church started out 100% Jewish. Jesus was Jewish, as were all the disciples and first followers, and the location of the church was in Jerusalem for likely the first five or so years. Slowly, the Holy Spirit pushed the church beyond the geographical borders of Israel, primarily through the missionary trips of the Apostle Paul. In the account of Paul’s mission trips which we can read in Acts, Paul himself continued to emphasize outreach to Jews first, and then secondarily to non-Jews. In these various cities, towns, and regions where he and his missionary team visited, both Jews and non-Jews became followers of Jesus.
In the same church there were two different ethnicities. In the same church there were groups of people with very different worldviews, histories, belief systems. And that led to problems.
In verse 11, Paul refers to the problem when he writes that the people in the circumcision group, the Jews, labeled the Gentile non-Jews the “uncircumcised.”
One group of people are saying that they are the “in group,” and they are labeling the others as the “out group.” “We are included, and you are excluded.” The Jews are saying, “We are in, and you are out.” The mark of the “in group” was circumcision, going back to the Jews’ ancestor Abraham, and his covenant with God. Jews were uniquely in covenant relationship with God, and male circumcision was the physical sign of that relationship. To our modern sensibilities, that might sound odd. But for the Jews, circumcision was of utmost importance.
Why? Are the Jews right?
In verse 12 Paul further describes the non-Jew uncircumcision group: “remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.”
Paul is explaining here the rationale and mindset of the Jewish Christians. It is true that before the non-Jews became Christians, those non-Jews were outsiders. Look at the words Paul uses: “separate, excluded, foreigners, without hope,” and why? They are “without God.”
Paul is saying that the Jewish Christians have a point. There was a time when the non-Jews were outside of covenant relationship with God. That is very serious.
Yet, what is the tense of verbs Paul has used to describe the position of the non-Jews as “out”? He has been using the past tense. The non-Jews were “out,” but only in the past.
Then something happened. Something changed. There is a new reality. We learn about that in the next post.
Photo by Ozkan Guner on Unsplash
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