Ephesians 2:12a – The Gratitude Attitude

… remember that at that time you were separate from Christ …

Summary: Paul is a unique individual. Privileged from birth, Paul was raised to be one of the elite members of society. Then he met Jesus.

So far, in verse eleven, Paul has reminded us that we are Gentiles by birth. Then he reminds the males among us that we are “uncircumcised.” Now, he points out that because of these two things, being born a Gentile and being uncircumcised, we were separate from Christ.

Are you getting the picture?

Paul is writing from the perspective of someone who was born a Jew. More than that, he was “circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee” (Philippians 3:5). It is sometimes said, “Membership has its privileges.” Paul is everything a Gentile is not.

Paul was a member not only of the Jews and the Pharisees, but he was also a Roman Citizen. Paul was born and raised in the city of Tarsus, about four hundred miles due north of Jerusalem. Tarsus was the Roman equivalent of a “big city” in those days. Picture Seattle, LA, or New York in ancient times overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, and you have a pretty good idea of where Paul was born.

Being raised in the cosmopolitan environment of Tarsus gave Paul many advantages. Tarsus was an important center for trade. People from all over the ancient world lived there and traveled through Tarsus. Being a Roman city, Paul was granted Roman citizenship at birth.

Even though he was born in a Roman city, Paul’s parents were Jews. (Jews had the freedom to practice their religion under Roman rule as a result of supporting Caesar in the conflict with Pompey.¹) Paul was raised in a world of privileges, and when he was old enough, his parents sent him to Jerusalem to study to be a Pharisee.

One of the amazing things about Paul is that he rarely mentioned his Roman citizenship (See Acts 22: 22-29). Even being a Pharisee meant nothing to him after he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus. Yet, many Jews struggled with the idea that God would accept Gentiles unconditionally. Surely, at the very least, God would want them to be circumcised!

Paul said, “No!” “No” to circumcision and “no” to enslaving the Gentiles to the Mosaic Laws. But that doesn’t mean we Gentiles have a free pass to sin. Instead of binding us with external measures of God’s “do’s and don’t’s,” Paul chooses a different path. He wants us to abide by God’s Law (Matthew 22:37-40) out of gratitude for God’s saving us rather than any expectation that we can justify our salvation by doing certain good works. The key to this approach is our passage today:

“Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ.”

Application: Remember that none of us were born into our faith in Christ.

Food for Thought: What does it mean to be “separate from Christ?”

¹ – https://www.worldhistory.org/Tarsus/