Boice on How to Read Ephesians 1:1-2

It is an interesting feature of Ephesians that the earliest manuscripts of the letter do not have the word “Ephesus” (“to the saints in Ephesus”) in the first verse. This is probably because Ephesians was a circular letter that Paul wrote to a number in Asia Minor and the various copies of the letter would have had names of different cities as their destinations: “to the saints and Smyrna,” “to the saints at Pergamon,” “to the saints at Laodicea,” and so on. This fact universalizes the letter and suggests this helpful exercise. Before you being your personal study of Ephesians write the name of your own church or city as the appropriate place in verse 1 and then read everything in the letter as the explicit word of God to you and your fellowship. If you do, your understanding of the work of God in you and your church will be profoundly strengthened.

(Boice. Ephesians. Baker. 1997, x)