Ephesians Series: Ephesians 2:2a-The Recipients of the Ephesian Letter Lived By Means of Their Transgressions and Sins Prior to Their Justification
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Ephesians 2:1 Now, correspondingly, even though, each and every one of you as a corporate unit were spiritually dead ones because of your transgressions, in other words, because of your sins. 2 Each and every one of you formerly lived by means of these in agreement with the standard of the unregenerate people of this age, which is the production of the cosmic world system, in agreement with the standard of the sovereign ruler, namely the sovereign governmental authority ruling over the evil spirits residing in the earth’s atmosphere. Specifically the spirit who is presently working in the lives of those members of the human race who are characterized by disobedience. (Lecturer’s translation)
The contents of Ephesians 2:2 continues Paul’s thought from Ephesians 2:1 because both speak of the transgressions or sins committed against God by the recipients of the Ephesian epistle prior to their justification.
As we noted, in the latter, these pre-justification transgressions or sins were the reason why these Gentile Christians were spiritually dead, however, in the former, they are the means by which they lived their lives prior their justification.
Ephesians 2:2 contains a declarative statement which is modified three prepositional phrases.
The third prepositional phrase is modified by an appositional clause, which contains an articular participle, which is modified by a prepositional phrase.
The declarative statement en hais pote periepatēsate (ἐν αἷς ποτε περιεπατήσατε), “Each and every one of you formerly lived by means of these” refers to the lifestyle of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle prior to the Father declaring them justified by faith in His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.
The first prepositional phrase en hais (ἐν αἷς), “by means of these” is fronted in order to link the contents of Ephesians 2:1-2.
It indicates the means by which these Gentile Christians lived their lives prior to the Father declaring them justified through faith in His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.
It expresses the idea that these Gentile Christians lived their lives “by means of their transgressions” or in other words, “by means of their sins.”
The second prepositional phrase kata ton aiōna tou kosmou toutou (κατὰ τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ κόσμου τούτου), “in agreement with the standard of this age, which is the production of this cosmic world system” also modifies the declarative statement.
This is indicated by the fact that it reveals that the unregenerate lifestyle of these Gentile Christians was “in agreement with the standard of” the unregenerate people of this present age, which is the work of the cosmic world system.
The third prepositional phrase kata ton archonta tēs exousias tou aeros (κατὰ τὸν ἄρχοντα τῆς ἐξουσίας τοῦ ἀέρος), “in agreement with the standard of the sovereign ruler, namely the sovereign governmental authority ruling over the evil spirits residing in the earth’s atmosphere” advances upon the previous prepositional phrase.
This is indicated by the fact that the unregenerate lifestyle of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle was in agreement with the standard in which the sovereign governmental ruler of this cosmic world system lives, who is the ruler over the evil spirits residing in the earth’s atmosphere and thus planet earth itself.
Lastly, the appositional clause tou pneumatos tou nyn energountos en tois huiois tēs apeitheias (τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ νῦν ἐνεργοῦντος ἐν τοῖς υἱοῖς τῆς ἀπειθείας), “Specifically the spirit who is presently working in the lives of those members of the human race who are characterized by disobedience” is modifying the third prepositional phrase.
It identifies or describes the sovereign ruler or sovereign governmental authority of the cosmic world system.
He is the spirit who during the present age is working in the lives of those members of the human race who are characterized by disobedience to God.
Now, as we noted, the temporal clause pote periepatēsate (ποτε περιεπατήσατε), “Each and every one of you formerly lived” is modified by the prepositional phrase en hais (ἐν αἷς), “by means of these.”
Together, they assert that the recipients of the Ephesian epistle, who were Gentile Christians, prior to their justification, lived their lives by means of their transgressions or in other words, lived their lives by means of their sins.
In other words, their lifestyle was by means of these transgressions, i.e. by means of these sins.
The prepositional phrase we noted is composed of the dative feminine plural form of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς), which is the object of the preposition en (ἐν).
We also noted that the referent of the former is the articular dative neuter plural form of the nouns paraptōma (παράπτωμα), “because of your transgressions” hamartia (ἁμαρτία), “because of your sins,” which appear in Ephesians 2:1, since both of these words agree in gender (feminine), number (plural) and case (dative) with this relative pronoun.
The preposition en (ἐν) is a marker of means indicating the means by which the recipients of the Ephesian epistle lived their lives prior to their conversion.
As we noted in our study of Ephesians 2:1, the articular dative neuter plural form of the noun paraptōma (παράπτωμα), “because of your transgressions” refers to deliberate violations of God’s laws.
The word refers to the transgressions of the recipients of this epistle prior to their justification.
In other words, it refers to their deliberate violations of God’s laws before justification, which for these Gentile Christians would be deliberately violating the Ten Commandments, which are written in the soul of every human being as Paul asserts they are in Romans 2:14-15.
We also noted in our study of Ephesians 2:1 that the articular dative feminine plural form of the noun hamartia (ἁμαρτία), “because of your sins” is used with reference to mental, verbal and overt acts of personal sin from the perspective that these acts miss the mark of the absolute perfection of God’s character, i.e. His holiness.
This word speaks of any thought, word or action, which is in disobedience to God’s laws.
Furthermore, we noted that these two words are forming the figure of hendiadys, which means that the conjunction kai (καί) is used to connect together the nouns paraptōma (παράπτωμα) and hamartia (ἁμαρτία).
Therefore, this figure indicates that the nouns paraptōma (παράπτωμα) and hamartia (ἁμαρτία) are not referring to two different concepts.
Rather, they are referring to one since both of these words speak of the thoughts, words and actions of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle were in disobedience to the Father’s will and contrary to His holy character and nature before the Father declared them justified through faith in His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.
This figure would indicate that the noun hamartia (ἁμαρτία) is intensifying or advancing upon the idea expressed by the noun paraptōma (παράπτωμα) in the sense that the noun hamartia (ἁμαρτία) is defining the meaning of the noun paraptōma (παράπτωμα).
Therefore, this indicates that when Paul asserts that the recipients of the Ephesian epistle were spiritually dead because of their paraptōmasin(παραπτώμασιν), “transgressions,” he means that they were spiritually dead because of their hamartiais (ἁμαρτίαις), “sins.”
This is indicated by the fact that sin is the transgression of God’s law.
Therefore, the prepositional phrase en hais (ἐν αἷς), “by means of these” is identifying the transgressions or sins committed against God by these Gentile Christians prior to the Father declaring them justified through faith in His one and only Son, Jesus Christ as the means by which they lived their lives.
Therefore, this prepositional phrase indicates that the recipients of this epistle lived their lives by means of their transgression, or in other words, they lived their lives by means of their sins.
In this declarative statement, the verb peripateō (περιπατέω) is used in a figurative sense with reference to the lifestyle of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle prior to their justification.
This is modified by the indefinite temporal particle temporal particle pote(ποτέ), which speaks of a period of time prior to these Christians being declared justified by the Father through faith in His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.
Thus, it refers to their pre-conversion portion of their lives as human beings on planet earth.