The new identity Ephesians construc

The new identity Ephesians constructs for the non-Israelite Christfollowers
requires new culture and cultural remodelling. Christ-followership
is here explained as a harmonious orientation and confessional unity,
and likened to a physical union of its different members of the body to the
divine head, ‘Christ’. In other words, Christianness is here imagined as an
ideological unity and cultural similarity among Christ-followers, using
prototypical language which makes any suggestion of discord or deviance
intensely harmful for the corporate body-image. This brings together
three important communal theses: social unity, ideological conformity
and lifestyle of holiness characterized by ingroup orientation and organic
relationship with its other members, leaders and the spiritual head.
Although cohesion may be like the cement that links and joins community
members together (Schachter 1951), Ephesians’ organic imagery itself
provides excellent ways of imagining communality. While the body
imagery in 4.7-16 allows for diversity it also requires ongoing membership
as each member requires the connection to survive.