Ephesians 1:1-6 "By the Will of God' 6/2/24

Paul is writing this letter from Rome, where he is under house arrest from about 60 to 62 AD.
This letter to the Ephesians is one of four letters that he wrote:
Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon which have become known as the “Prison Epistles.”
This letter has changed and impacted many lives over the years… Let's pray that we are changed by the time we finish studying it.
Ephesians tells us “Who we are in Christ” and the blessings we have in Him.
It tells us “How to live” our lives in Christ and " how to stand” against the enemy who tries to stumble us.
This opening dialog, from verses 1-14, is the longest run-on verses in the Bible.
Breaks have been put in to help us read it…but this is Paul’s continuous thought process for who we are in Christ.
Just a little history of Paul in Ephesus:
Paul had briefly stopped in Ephesus on his second missionary journey and left Aquilla and Priscilla behind when he left.
He returned for a much longer period of time on his third missionary journey.
While there, he was teaching in the synagogue for three months.
He spoke boldly there, reasoning and persuading the Jews that Jesus is the Messiah.
The word reasoning means disputing and arguing, and persuading means convincing through argument.
So, Paul is arguing daily in the synagogue for the gospel.