The Jewish-Christian author of Ephesians never ceases to be amazed at God's unifying and uplifting grace, offering in today's text a kind of comparative "before" and "after" picture of all humanity. The line of demarcation, of course, is Jesus Christ.

The "before" picture portrayed by the Ephesian author is grim. All those who think they are "living" without Christ are instead declared "dead" by this text (v.1). This death had been brought about by humanity's natural inclination to "follow" both "the course of this world" and "the ruler of the power of the air." The "course," or more literally "the age of this world," refers to the general malevolence of the various celestial powers. In pagan cosmology, there were no such things as simply benign spirits; rather, a general animosity against…