Adopted

In ancient Rome, the practice of exposure is common. After a child is born, the baby is presented to the father. If the father accepts the child, he lifts the baby into his arms. If he rejects the child—often due to poverty, disability or even gender—the child is abandoned. Many of these children are left to die or sold into slavery. Some believers in Ephesus likely know this kind of rejection firsthand. Paul reminds the Ephesians that what is most true about them is not their past rejection, but their acceptance in Christ. So, adoption is a powerful theme in Paul’s letter. Through Jesus, God chooses them, welcomes them and adopts them into his family. Their identity is no longer defined by what others did to them, but by what God has done for them.