Are Paul's letters a progressive revelation like the Bible as a whole?
Yes. Paul's writings are a progressive revelation, just as the Bible as a whole is progressive. His earlier letters mention the Body of Christ only once in Romans and once or twice in 1 Corinthians, but Ephesians, written later as a prison epistle, reveals far more about the Body of Christ and the believer's position in it.
Les teaches that Paul's writings are a progressive revelation, just like the Bible as a whole. When Paul first begins his letters, he does not make a big deal over the Body of Christ — in Romans there is just that one mention, and in 1 Corinthians only one or two. But coming into Ephesians, Paul has had further revelations. Ephesians is one of the prison epistles, written after he had been sitting in prison in Caesarea for a year and a half, and all of these deeper things came. That is why more is seen about the Body in Ephesians than in Romans and Corinthians. It is part of the greater revelation of our position in the Body, which is in Christ, as Ephesians 4:12 speaks of the perfecting of the saints, the work of the ministry, and the edifying of the Body of Christ.