Biblion Bible Commentary
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Once Far Off
Ephesians 2:11-13
11 Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “uncircumcision” by that which is called “circumcision” (in the flesh, made by hands), · WEB
The readers are told to remember what they were, and the list of what they lacked ends with the two bleakest words in the letter.
Therefore remember. The command is unusual and deliberate: people who have just been told they are seated in the heavenly places are instructed to recall their former standing. The letter treats forgetting as the danger.
What they were is named plainly: the Gentiles in the flesh, called uncircumcision by those called circumcision. And the parenthesis Paul adds to the second title is dismissive — in the flesh, made by hands. He is not endorsing the labels; he is quoting them.
Verse 12 lists five deprivations, and the order runs from the specific to the total. Separate from Christ. Alienated from the commonwealth of Israel — excluded from a citizenship. Strangers to the covenants of the promise. Then the last two, which are the bleakest words the letter contains: having no hope, and without God in the world.
That is a description of the ancient religious world written by someone who lived in it, and it does not pretend the temples were empty. What it says is that with all of them, there was no hope and no God.
Verse 13 answers with the same construction the chapter used at verse 4: but now. And the change is stated as a change of position — you who once were far off are made near.
The means is named in three words, in the blood of Christ, which is the second time the chapter has grounded a reversal in something done rather than something learned. Near and far are the categories the next verse will demolish Ephesians 2:14.
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