Renowned biblical scholar N.T. Wright believes Ephesians is a book for this moment.
To show that, he has written a new book on Ephesians, arguing the letter offers a radical vision for church unity that Western Christianity largely has missed. In The Vision of Ephesians: The Task of the Church and the Glory of God, he hopes to reshape how churches see their identity and mission.
Wright’s interest in Ephesians grew from teaching opportunities in New York and Oxford. He first split the letter into two major talks and saw a strong response. “I’ve never thought of Ephesians that way before,” one listener told him. That comment convinced him to expand his material.
Wright has written extensively on Romans, Galatians and the four Gospels. Yet he calls Ephesians “the mountain top” from which the church views God’s larger plan. The letter does not focus on escaping earth for heaven. It presents a vision of heaven and earth brought together in Christ, with the church as a living sign of that unity.
Heaven and earth together
For decades, Western Christians have read Ephesians 1 as teaching predestination for heaven. Wright says that reading misses Paul’s point.
“God’s plan from the beginning was to sum up in Christ all things in heaven and on earth,” he said. Believers are not called to leave the world behind. They are called to live within the new reality inaugurated by Jesus and the Spirit.
“We fight from victory, not for victory.”
This shift changes how readers should understand Paul’s talk of believers being “seated in heavenly places.” Wright said this does not mean Christians live at a distance from the world. It means they are called to fight spiritual battles from a position of victory already won through Christ’s death and resurrection.
“We are recruited to play our part in that ongoing battle,” he said. “We fight from victory, not for victory.” The call to stand against “principalities and powers” flows directly from the believer’s identity in Christ. It is not an optional extra for a few but the daily calling of every follower of Jesus.
Unity and diversity as the church’s calling
Wright argues the Western church has overlooked one of Ephesians’ most pressing themes. “We were so fixated on our souls getting to heaven that we missed the New Testament’s message about the coming together,” he said. For Paul, the unity of Jew and Gentile in one body was not an add-on. It was the visible sign that God’s plan to unite heaven and earth had begun.
The vision has practical consequences. Wright notes that many churches remain divided along ethnic or cultural lines. “Are you not reading the same New Testament as me?” he asked. He believes churches that model unity across differences send a message to the “principalities and powers” that their rule is ending. This unity is not a social experiment. It is a gospel imperative.
Ephesians 3:10 sums up this calling. Paul writes that through the church “the many-colored wisdom of God” is made known to the powers. Wright explains the Greek term for “many-colored” is the word you would use for a garden full of vibrant flowers. The church’s diversity, rightly expressed, is a sign of God’s coming new creation. When the church looks like this and worships Jesus together, embracing people from different contexts and colors, the principalities and powers take notice.
Historical roots of division
Wright traces today’s divisions to decisions made centuries ago. He admires the Reformers for translating Scripture and worship into local languages. Yet this move also fragmented churches along ethnic and national lines. “Unless you’re careful, you end up with a French church, a Portuguese church, a Spanish church, a Polish church,” he said. Paul’s vision in Romans 15 of believers glorifying God with one heart and voice was largely lost.
This theological blind spot helped fuel the rise of slavery and racism in later centuries.
This theological blind spot helped fuel the rise of slavery and racism in later centuries, he said. Western Christians focused on personal salvation while ignoring the church’s call to embody a new kind of humanity.
Wright points to Acts 17, where Paul tells the Athenians God made from one stock all the different varieties of humans to dwell on earth. When Western Christianity took its eye off this message in the 17th and 18th centuries, no voices objected to slavery or racial differentiation.
“The problem is you can’t get the fruits without the roots,” Wright said. “The roots are the Christian gospel itself.” He believes churches must recover Ephesians’ vision of a single family of God made up of many peoples. Only then will they show the world a “different way to be human.”
Holiness and community
Wright highlights Ephesians’ teaching on holiness. Chapters four and five stress that unity and holiness go together. Protestants often fear that talk of holiness sounds like self-justification. Wright calls that fear “absolute rubbish.” The church’s calling is to be a small working model of new creation, a community whose life makes outsiders ask, “How does that happen?” and “How do we get there?”
He compares today’s debates over multiculturalism to a secular attempt to achieve by policy what the gospel offers by grace. The secular world’s emphasis on multiculturalism tries to achieve through secular means what is given in the gospel. When churches live out their unity in Christ, they show the world a model of life that legislation cannot achieve.
Dealing with criticism
Wright is aware that some critics label such teaching “woke.” He rejects that charge.
“If some of the woke people have glimpsed some of the things which we in the church have forgotten, shame on us,” he said. “I am probably one of the least woke people you can imagine. The problem is the church forgot core aspects of its message.”
The answer is not retreat but rediscovery, he asserted. Churches should relearn what the New Testament has taught all along and “outflank their rather threadbare agendas.”
As a scholar, Wright expects criticism and sees it as a growth opportunity. “You put an idea out there and you expect reviews and comments,” he said. But he is concerned about knee-jerk reactions that dismiss biblical teaching on unity as political ideology. He sees this as a symptom of forgetting the church’s core message.
Community that attracts outsiders
Wright believes the early church grew not only because of great theology but because ordinary Christians cared for their neighbors.
“The church is being the church on the street,” he said. Acts of service and mutual care drew people in long before they understood Christian doctrine. He sees the same principle today. Outsiders still long for authentic community.