Ephesians 2.19a-Gentile Christians Are No Longer Foreigners and Foreign Citizens
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday February 6, 2024
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 2:19a-Gentile Christians Are No Longer Foreigners and Foreign Citizens
Lesson # 123
Ephesians 2:11 Therefore, each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to make it your habit of remembering that formerly each of you who belong to the Gentile race with respect to the human body, specifically, those who receive the designation “uncircumcision” by the those who receive the designation “circumcision” with respect to the human body performed by human hands, 12 each one of you used to be characterized as without a relationship with Christ. Each one of you used to be alienated from the nation of Israel’s citizenship. Specifically, each of you used to be strangers to the most important promise, which is the product of the covenants. Each of you used to not possess a confident expectation of blessing. Consequently, each one of you used to be without a relationship with God in the sphere of the cosmic world system. 13 However, because of your faith in and your union and identification with Christ Jesus each and every one of you as a corporate who formerly were far away have now been brought near by means of the blood belonging to this same Christ. 14 For He Himself personifies our peace. Namely, by causing both groups to be one. Specifically, by destroying the wall, which served as the barrier, that is, that which caused hostility (between the two). 15 In other words, by nullifying by means of His human nature the law composed of the commandments consisting of a written code of laws in order that He might cause the two to be created into one new humanity by means of faith in Himself at justification and union and identification with Himself through the baptism of the Spirit at justification. Thus, He caused peace to be established (between the two and God). 16 In other words, in order that He would reconcile both groups into one body to God (the Father) through His cross. Consequently, He put to death the hostility (between the two and the two with God) by means of faith in Himself at justification and union and identification with Himself through the baptism of the Spirit at justification. 17 Correspondingly, He as a result came proclaiming peace for the benefit of each and every one of you, namely, those who were far off likewise peace to those were near. 18 Consequently, through the personal intermediate agency of Himself each and every one of us as a corporate unit, namely, both groups are experiencing access by means of the omnipotence of the one Spirit to the presence of the Father. 19 Indeed therefore, each and every one of you as corporate unit are no longer foreigners (to the covenants of promise), that is, foreign citizens. But rather each and every one of you as a corporate unit are fellow citizens with the saints, that is, members of God’s household. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 2:19 is composed of the following:
(1) emphatic inferential clause Ara oun ouketi este xenoi kai paroikoi (Ἄρα οὖν οὐκέτι ἐστὲ ξένοι καὶ πάροικοι), “Indeed therefore, each and every one of you as corporate unit are no longer foreigners (to the covenants of promise), that is, foreign citizens.” (Author’s translation)
(2) strong adversative clause allʼ este sympolitai tōn hagiōn kai oikeioi tou theou (ἀλλʼ ἐστὲ συμπολῖται τῶν ἁγίων καὶ οἰκεῖοι τοῦ θεοῦ), “But rather each and every one of you as a corporate unit are fellow citizens with the saints, that is, members of God’s household.” (Author’s translation)
In Ephesians 2:19, the apostle Paul employs two metaphors to describe Gentile Christians not only in relation to the Jewish Christian community but in relation to every believer in every Old Testament dispensation in the past.
The first metaphor is that Gentile Christians are citizens in a city and the second is that they are members of a family.
He uses these two metaphors in order to emphatically emphasize that they are share equal status in the kingdom of God with Jewish believers in past Old Testament dispensations and with those believers who lived in the dispensations before the establishment of the nation of the Jewish race, which was through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
In other words, Paul is stating in emphatic terms to the Gentile Christian community that they are no second rate citizens.
Therefore, we can see that these two metaphors present an emphatic contrast between the unregenerate state of these Gentile church age believers and their present regenerate state as justified sinners who are in union with Jesus Christ and identified with Him in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.
Therefore, we can see that in Ephesians 2:19 the emphatic inferential clause is asserting that each and every of the recipients of this epistle, who are identified in Ephesians 2:11 as Gentile church age believers, are no longer foreigners, that is foreign citizens.
It is the result of an inference from the previous assertions in Ephesians 2:11-18. Thus, it presents a summarizing statement with regards to the contents of Ephesians 2:11-18.
As was the case in Ephesians 2:12, the adjective xenos (ξένος), “foreigners” here in this emphatic inferential clause in Ephesians 2:19 is used to describe Gentile Christians as being strangers to the Mosaic covenant as well as the four unconditional covenants of promise, which were given by God to His covenant people, Israel.
These four unconditional covenants were the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic and New covenants.
David MacLeod writes “The word ‘strangers’ (ξένοι, xenoi) means foreigners. Such people were visitors in a Greek city like Ephesus. They were there on sufferance, that is, by the permission of the citizens of the city. Strangers were viewed as different, hard to fathom, unsettling, sinister. To the stranger the new environment was disturbing and threatening. There was mutual fear and distrust. The lot of the “stranger” in a Greek city was not an easy one. One wrote home, ‘It is better for you to be in your own homes, whatever they may be like, than to be in a strange land.’”
The adjective paroikos (πάροικος), “foreign citizens” pertains to someone who lives in a particular nation in which they are without the right of citizenship.
Specifically, here in Ephesians 2:19, the word describe the members of the Gentile Christian community as no longer being foreigner citizens.
The adjective xenos (ξένος), “foreigners” describes a person who is a foreigner in a land which has given travelling rights throughout the country whereas the adjective paroikos (πάροικος), “foreign citizens” describes a person who is legally a resident alien and possesses a residence visa.
David MacLeod writes “The word ‘aliens’ (πάροικοι, paroikoi) actually speaks of resident aliens. Such a person had taken up residence in the city but had never become a naturalized citizen. He paid a tax for the privilege of living in a city that was not his own. He could be legally evicted on a moment’s notice, however, as in the case of the outbreak of war. In short, the status of an alien was always provisional. In 1955 the writer’s parents moved their family of three sons from Nova Scotia, Canada to Massachusetts in the United States. For a number of years we were resident aliens with an alien registration card. In fact, one of the older boys in the neighborhood felt he could push the new boys around because they were ‘foreigners.’ On December 7, 1961, however, the MacLeod family became naturalized citizens. They became ‘fellow citizens’ with all other Americans. Even then, however, they were denied one or two privileges possessed only by natural-born citizens. For example, the writer does not have the privilege of running for the office of President of the United States.”