These two chapters (2 & 3) are very helpful to us if we read them carefully. They are made up of seven letters written to seven different cities where believers lived. In each a different spiritual condition exists. Just as in the case of individuals. The Spirit of God has shown us that all these seven letters are telling the then future from the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came down to earth, right until the day the Lord Jesus comes for the believers. All written before it took place! Now a word about “the church”. First read the following Scriptures (1 Cor. 12:12-13, also 10:16-17). Connect these with Ephesians 1:22-23; 4:15-16; 5:23. If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are in the one and only church which scripture allows. You are also in the one body too, for the church and the body are the same thing. Ephesians 1:22-23 says it plainly. Think about that carefully.
V.7, 11, 17, 29 and chapter 3:6, 13, 22 have the same words. Only true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ have spiritual ears to understand the message of Scripture. But are we using them?
V.1-7 Ephesus is our first letter. This assembly or church is mentioned in Acts 20:17-38; 1 Cor. 15:32; 1 Tim. 1:3; 2 Tim. 1:18 and of course the whole book of Ephesians. The Lord tells us that He could see something very seriously wrong — they had left their first love. When we first accept Christ as Savior, there is great love in our heart toward Him. But, unless we are careful, this love grows cold. When this happens, discernment, joy and power go out of our life.
V.1-3 A blessing is promised to each one of us who reads and hears this book.
In history, the period covered by this letter, took place in the first centuries after Pentecost.