005. An Exposition of the First Chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians

AN EXPOSITION of the FIRST CHAPTER OF THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS A PREMISE CONCERNING THIS EPISTLE

Something of custom uses to be premised by interpreters concerning the epistles or books they interpret, touching the argument, division of the whole, and occasion of the writing, and about the persons written to.

I shall only speak of two of these, as most necessary.

1. The excellency of this epistle.

2. The occasion of Paul’s writing of it. In the handling of which two, I shall yet wrap up all those other mentioned briefly.

1. For the excellency thereof,—It hath been esteemed among the choicest, and in accordingly placed in the midst of his epistles; as the most sparkling gem useth to be in a carkanet of many jewels: or, as Hierom’s comparison of it is, Quomodo cor animalis in medio est; as the heart in the midst of the body, so he likened it, for the difficulties he observeth in it: but I rather, because, as the heart in the prime seat and fountain of spirits, and the fullest thereof; so this Epistle contains more of the spirits, the quintessence of the mysteries of Christ, than any other, and is made up of the most quickening cordials to the inward man. I shall say only, that I. find our Apostle himself boasting, as it were, of none of his other writings but of this; and let his own judgment cast it, by what himself esteemed his masterpiece. Thus expressly in the third chapter of this epistle, at the third verse, he mentioning the grace of God vouchsafed him, in that rich treasury of knowledge dispensed to him as a steward for others, (as that word signifies,) and that transcendant way he came by it, more extraordinary than other Apostles, (who yet were in part taught it by Christ on earth,) Have you not heard (says he, by the common report went of it,) ‘how that by revelation (namely immediate) he made known to me the mystery?’ And thus far, indeed, I find him elsewhere speaking, as well as here, Galatians 1:12. But then in the following words he goes on yet further, and makes this very epistle the highest instance of this his knowledge and revelation: ‘As I wrote afore,’ προέγραψα ἐν ὀλίγῳ, a little afore, (namely in the two first chapters hereof especially this first,) whereby in the reading you may understand ‘my knowledge in the mystery of Christ;’ that is, yourselves, not by hearsay only, as afore, but by and upon your own knowledge. There is not the like speech uttered by himself of any of his epistles; he makes this very epistle at once the most full evidence and demonstration of that transcendant way of his receiving the gospel by immediate revelation. And so sublime was the matter contained in it, as it argued this original, and that it could come no other way but by immediate revelation, as afore he had affirmed of it, and likewise withal refers unto it, as the highest specimen of the depth and profoundness of his knowledge, and as his choicest exercise to shew his Christian learning by; so that, as elsewhere he professed to these same Ephesians that he had (when present with them) declared all the counsel of God to them, Acts 26:27, so now absent, to have singled out to utter in this epistle the utmost depths of that counsel. But what the reason should be, why Paul was thus more profoundly enlarged to them than others of the Gentiles to whom he also wrote, is worth our inquiry and observance. Some attribute the difference unto Paul’s (the author’s) own spirit, and the condition he was then in. It smells, say they, of the prison; Paul was a prisoner, as Acts 4:1, and so more enlarged when most straitened, as in sufferings our spirits use to be. But I rather ascribe it to some difference in these Ephesians written to. Philostratus gives testimony of this city of Ephesus, that it excelled all other cities in wisdom and learning, and over-abounded in thousands of learned men.^[34] And this their exquisiteness in human learning and search after knowledge was that which made them so addicted to curious arts, (as the Holy Ghost, speaking of these very Ephesians, calleth them, Acts 19:19,) which were partly human, but vain, partly magical and devilish, as the Syriac renders the words; whence also Ephesinæ literæ, the letters of Ephesus, grew into a proverb. And Chrysostom says that, even unto his time, it abounded with philosophers above any other city, and that the chiefest philosophers and wise men of Asia had had their original and dwelling therein, and allegeth (in his preface of this epistle) that as the reason why Paul should write this epistle with more study and exactness, and why he uttered more profoundness of knowledge to them than unto others. But sure this his reason falls short of that which may theologically be supposed the true ground of his sublimeness therein, and it will be useful to improve it higher. To me it seems that that supereminent self-denial which appeared in many of these converted Ephesians, even in point of knowledge, in their renouncing all that excellency of learning which was then the glory of that city in the eyes of all the nations, the great Diana, of their brains and hearts, (as the goddess was of their blind devotions,) as a testimony whereof they sacrificed the very books themselves unto the fire; as the Holy Ghost hath given testimony to their self-denial in this particular, Acts 19:19;—this might be the reason why God honoured them with an epistle so sublime, by way of recompense. And it affords us this observation, grounded upon like instances—

[34] ‘Abundat bonarum artium studiis, philosophis, oratoribusque redundat, ut vere dict possit eam civitatem non equitum robore, sed clarorum hominum millibus cæteras superare, in eâque plurimum vigere sapientiam.’—Lib. 8,de Vitz. Apol. cap. 3.

Obs.—Whatever excellency any one hath been eminent in, or prized most, afore conversion, but now doth undervalue, and, as Christ’s word is, hates and forsakes for Christ’s sake, in that very thing Christ as apparently maketh recompense an hundred-fold.—These Ephesians forsook the most exquisite wisdom earthly, yea, the deepest that hell afforded; ‘depths of Satan,’ as John speaks in another case; and God therefore honours them with this divine epistle, made as public as their self-denial, to all the world, in which God from heaven enlarged this Apostle’s heart, to make a professed discovery of the sublimest and deepest mysteries that heaven affordeth, that were to be communicated to any of the sons of men, and that were lawful to be uttered, as himself speaks, 2 Corinthians 12, by him that was in heaven. They burn their very books, valued at many thousands, (for their price is on purpose valued, Acts 19:19,) and therefore our Apostle’s heart is enlarged towards them, to bring forth the bottom of that ‘treasure of knowledge hid in Christ,’ ‘the unsearchable riches of Christ,’ as ver. 8 of the third chapter (Ephesians 3:8). He calls them thus also himself, (the author of it,) having reckoned his learning when a Pharisee, wherein he profited above many of his equals, at so high a rate, as the account of the world then went; but now when converted, he accounting all but as dung and dogs’ meat, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ, Php 3:8, was therefore accordingly enlarged and tilled with an excellency in this knowledge above his fellow-apostles; though he complains of himself as born out of time, and as one put to this school long after them. Thus Moses also, undervaluing the Egyptian learning wherein he excelled, Acts 7:22, as well as the pleasures of that court, having an eye to the recompense of reward to come, was accordingly in a proportion recompensed even in this life; as with being exalted to be a king over the people of God, a greater dignity than Egypt afforded, Deuteronomy 33:5, for his leaving the Egyptian court, so with being made the prophet of the Old Testament for his renouncing of their learning; to whom God revealed himself and his law, as never to any other prophet, Numbers 12:6. He was the giver of that law, which by the confession of all the heathens excelled theirs; and therein made such an eminent type of Christ’s prophetical office as no prophet was afore or after him, Deuteronomy 18:15. And so much for the excellency of this epistle. Yet let me add this, that of all epistles, that to the Colossians comes nearest to it in the matter and argument thereof; and in many things the one is a comment upon the other; only in the doctrine of God, free grace, and everlasting love, which is that mystery of the mystery of Christ, this far excels it.

2. In the second place, for the occasion of this epistle,—Interpreters are much put to it to find what it should have been; nor need we trouble our thoughts much, if we find not any; for perhaps the Apostle took one, as a good heart is apt when there is no set occasion given, for to do good; which seems all the occasion of that other Apostle’s writing his, 2 Peter 1:13, ‘I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up,’ &c. But for any special one of this, the beat and most probable which I by conjecture can find, is that which the Apostle by the spirit of prophesy foresaw, Acts 20, where calling all the elders of Ephesus together, (even the elders of this church which here he writeth unto, as you may see, Acts 20:17,) he tells them, Acts 20:29, ‘I know this, that after my departure shall grievous wolves enter in among you; also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.’ He forewarns both that some of their own elders should rise up, (for oftentimes so it falleth out in churches,) and also that others from other churches and places should enter in among them, (wolves he calls them,) teaching perverse things. And I know this, says he; he knew it by the same spirit of prophesy and revelation that, Acts 20:25, he says he knew they should see his face no more. And although he perhaps knew not the particular errors which they should teach, yet in general you see he knew that gross errors, overthrowing the foundation of the gospel, should arise among them and be taught. Now therefore, to prevent their being carried away with any of these errors, whatever they might prove to be, he writeth this epistle in a positive way, to establish them aforehand in the greatest truths of the gospel. And what is the great and main argument of this epistle, especially in the first part of it? It is to lay open the doctrine of free grace, and of God’s eternal love in, and redemption by Christ, and the blessings Issuing therefrom, and the dependence that our salvation hath on both. The Apostle not knowing what particular errors should arise, he yet chooseth to teach such doctrines as might be the most universal preventives to all whatever that were of any dangerous consequence; and for this purpose, of all other doctrines, he pitcheth upon this of free grace. The observation then is this—

Obs.—That if Christian judgments be well and thoroughly grounded in the doctrine of God’s free grace and eternal love, and redemption through Jesus Christ alone, and in the most spiritual inward operations of God’s Spirit, which he enumerates to have been experimentally communicated, that will fence them against all errors; you may them even venture them from taking in any falsehood of any great moment;—their souls being well shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, (to use the Apostle’s similitude, as it is in the 6th of this epistle, Ephesians 6:15.) Then, as they are tentation-proof in respect of sin or practical doubtings, (which is the Apostle’s scope there,) so in like manner, when their judgments are thus shod with the doctrine of grace, they are error-proof also, (I speak in respect of taking in any dangerous heresy,) and this fully agrees with what the Apostle directs, Hebrews 13:9; ‘Be not,’ saith he, ‘carried away with divers and strange doctrines.’ He calls them divers, or various doctrines, for though there is but one truth, yet errors about truth are divers; and he calls them strange, that are brought in differing from the faith the Apostles taught, and was ‘once given.’ And he instanceth in one, namely, the putting an holiness in an elective outward abstinence from some meats rather than others, (so in the next words.) But what any one thing was there that would, of all others, fix and balance their minds against this and all other such empty doctrines and waverings towards such superstitions? He adds, ‘for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace.’ Both inherent grace in the soul itself, (for the new creature tastes and discerns truth as the palate doth meat;) as also with the doctrines of free grace without us, in God’s heart toward us, as it is declared and taught in the Scriptures and in this chapter, and in the second of this epistle. And let their hearts be established and ballasted, and made steady with these, and they will not easily be ‘tossed to and fro, and carried away with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men’ &c., as the Apostle speaks, Ephesians 4:14 of this epistle. And the latter sense of grace, in that Hebrews 13, I understand to be principally meant; for the doctrine of God’s grace revealed to us in the gospel is eminently styled ‘the grace of God bringing salvation,’ Titus 2:11. But yet withal, take in those blessings and blessed operations wrought within us which our Apostle here enumerates in chap. 1, and goes on to do it in Ephesians 2:1-11 of that chapter; the working of which in these Ephesians he all along ascribes unto the grace, the exceeding riches of grace, mercy, and love in God, founded in election and redemption; and these, together with his doctrine of grace, will keep you steadfast and immovable.

I should now add, as the custom of expositors likewise is, some more general analysis or division of the whole epistle; but let that suffice which, in going over the particulars, will arise naturally to every man’s observation: that the half of it, to the end of the third chapter, is doctrinal, laying down the mysteries of salvation and man’s misery; the other half, to the end, is wholly practical, exhorting to several duties in all sorts of relations. I hasten to the exposition itself.