Ephesians 1-2: Our Misreading
Many, many Christians have read and been encouraged by Ephesians 1 and 2. It is here we get the Reformation battlecry " sola fide ," "faith alone", from Ephesians 2:8 ("For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— "). It is here that our reformed brothers and sisters (those Christians who lean more Calvinist/Augustinian) hammer the language of being "chosen": "just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world... He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will" (Eph. 1:4). This verse alone has sparked numerous late-night conversations at Denny's as to God's will, free will, the Matrix, robots, automatons, determinism and fixed history. But I would suggest that Western Christianity has not been true to this text. As with almost all things we have turned this text, Ephesians 1-2, into Paul telling