The Author's Intention of Ephesians

I'm preparing to lead a study on Ephesians 1. Here are some good quotes from Peter O'Brien's commentary on Ephesians, "The Letter to the Ephesians."

“He [Paul] writes Ephesians to his mainly Gentile Christian readers, for whom he has apostolic responsibilities, with the intention of informing, strengthening, and encouraging them by assuring them of their place within the gracious, saving purpose of God, and urging them to bring their lives into conformity with this divine plan of summing up all things in Christ (1:10). Paul wants to ‘ground, shape and challenge’ his readers in their faith. In other words, the main purpose of his letter is ‘identity formation’. (O’Brien, p. 57) brackets mine

Cosmic reconciliation and unity in Christ are the central message of Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians. (O’Brien, p. 58)

The aorist infinitive ‘to bring all things together’ does not point to the past, but signifies purpose: the summing up of all things is the goal to be achieved. Yet the implementation of the divine plan is already under way. The letter makes it quite plain that significant steps have already been taken to set in motion the achievement of this goal: in particular, it is through Jesus’ saving work that the revelation of the mystery’s content has come about (1:7-9), while God’s placing all things under his feet and appointing him to be head over everything for the church (1:22) is an important step towards the fulfillment of this goal. But the summing up awaits the consummation, which will occur at the end. (O’Brien, p. 60).

O'Brien has a quote by Cargounis about "the summing up of all things." or anakephaloaiosis.

In his stimulating monograph dealing with the mystery in Ephesians, Chrys Caragounis claims that as Paul proceeds to amplify and explain the meaning of the anakephaloaiosis throughout the letter, he concentrates on two main representatives of these spheres, namely, the powers representing ‘the things in heaven’, and the church (particularly in relation to Jews and Gentiles in the body of Christ) representing ‘the things on earth’. Caragounis further suggests that the two obstacles which need to be overcome before the divine purposes of bringing everything back into unity in Christ can be fulfilled are (a) the rebellion of the powers, and (b) the alienation of the Jews from the Gentiles (2:11-22, as well as the estrangement of both from God, 2:16). Much of the rest of Ephesians is given over to explicating, with reference to each of these two spheres, the steps in the process that God has taken in order to ‘bring all things into unity in Christ’.