Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

Ephesians 1:3

Our greatest joy is to praise God, the One God who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who pours out spiritual blessings on us through Christ.

Paul lived in Ephesus for three years.  It was his final public ministry before the series of events that landed him in Rome, awaiting trial.  I think we can assume that Paul wrote this letter when he was in Rome, awaiting trial.

The Jewish leaders were convinced that Paul had left the “faith” and was offering full salvation to all, including Gentiles who had no Jewish blood whatsoever, nor Jewish tutelage.  The fact that Jews and Gentiles could alike give their hearts to Jesus in repentant faith dominated Paul’s ministry.  This meant that in Ephesus there was only one Body of Christ, made up of both Jewish and Gentile believers.

We recall that the leaders of the Jewish synagogue in Ephesus denounced the work of Paul, so those who believed in the new reality, the Kingdom of God, met in homes, workplaces, and so on, where both Jews and Gentiles could live as one in faith, if not in a living culture.  Paul insisted that both Jews and Gentiles can fully enjoy the salvation that Jesus came to offer, without regard to cultural demands.  This was so new that people could barely understand what was going on.

The message exploded ethnic concepts.  Paul’s heart is touched, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.  He does not even touch on ethnicity, nor history.  The “us” he refers to includes Jews and Gentiles who are one in the new Body of Christ, or Kingdom of God.  This is new, entirely new, on the earth.  People who were not followers of Jesus could not comprehend what this meant.

It is the appearance of the Kingdom of God among us.