The uplifting, heartening passage from today's epistle reading presents a vision of unity for which we can all pray a unity in Christ that issues in the formation of "one humanity."

Before this author reveals and celebrates the new creation of this unity, however, he demonstrates why Ephesians is classified with the genre of "remembrance literature." Verse 12 offers the single negative note in this whole passage by recalling for the reader the "bad old days" when the Gentiles were completely cut off from God as a result of their uncircumcised state and ignorance of the law. But the writer quickly leaves this negative behind, preferring to focus on the new, upbeat message that believers must now recall and reclaim. Verse 13 encapsulates this new situation by describing God's saving action t…