A.T. Lincoln, Paradise Now and Not Yet (SNTSMS 43, Cambridge, 1981), 135-36, describes Ephesians as a “liturgical homily” intended to be read at worship services on the occasion of the baptism of new converts and functioning simultaneously to remind other believers of the meaning of their baptism. Gnilka (Der Epheserbrief [1971]), 33, describes Ephesians as a “liturgical homily,” but does not see it as written to “neophytes.” Rather, he views it as directed to baptised believers who were instructed on the theme of the church and their relationship to it by a sermon designed to remind them of the significance of their baptism.
Clinton E. Arnold, Power
and Magic: The Concept of Power in Ephesians (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker
Books, 1997), 207 n. 33.
I think this should be
kept in mind when it comes to pericopes such as Eph 2:8-10 (cf. my post on Titus 3 and baptismal regeneration which shows that baptism is not a “work” of man,
but an act of God that uses instrumentality).
