"From death to life" is the appropriate heading of this section. The author of Ephesians pulls no punches in summing up the condition of people before the gift of new life in Christ: "dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived." Their spiritual condition was so bereft of substance that they were not just spiritually sick, but completely lifeless.

Death had been brought about by the usual human cause sin. Without a living relationship with God, these men and women had simply followed "the course of this world" a course this Pauline writer clearly defines as evil and wholly self-absorbed. The writer's grammatical emphasis on the "aion of this world" is so specific that he practically personifies this evil pattern of life.

The writer does identify the director of this world'…