Chapter 18. Salutation: Benediction

Chapter 18.
Salutation: Benediction Ephesians 6:21-24

Ἐὰν εἰρήνη ᾗ, καὶ ἀγάπη ἔσται· ἐὰν ἀγάπη, καὶ εἰρήνη ἔσται.
—Chryssostom, on Ephesians 6:23

"Qui veut connoître s’il aime vraiment Jésus-Christ d’un amour pur, qu’il examine, 1. s’il estime ce que Jésus-Christ estime, les biens immortels et incorruptibles, et si en le servant il ne cherche point les biens périssables; 2. s’il haët ce que Jésus-Christ haët, la corruption de son propre cœur, et l’injustice du peché. Amen. Qu’il soit ainsi, Seigneur Jésus; mais aimez-moy, afin que je Vous aime, et que Vôtre grâce produise en moy Pamour qu’elle veut couronner."
—Quesnel, on ver. 24

NOTHING now remains but the last messages of greeting and blessing. He has to commend to the disciples a faithful friend, as his messenger and representative. He has to invoke all spiritual good upon the Asians, and upon all true lovers of the Lord.

There is thus no great peroration to crown our wonderful Epistle, such, for example, as that glowing close of the Epistle to the Romans where the Apostle seems to be stirred by the review of his own sublime message into a rhapsody of adoring blessing to the Only Wise. That forms indeed a beautiful conclusion to an apostolic Letter of the first order. But so also does this. Nothing is more like the Gospel, as we have observed so often in this exposition, than its benignant power of coming down with all its wealth of eternal truths to the common ground of human life, to walk in peace and blessing amidst the affections and the connexions which it not only does not disturb but glorifies. So here, from the truths of the Eternal Purpose, and the Great Salvation, and the Headship, and the Celestial Bridal, and from the scene of conflict and triumph where the saints, strong in God, stand "with the dust of principalities and powers beneath their feet," it is with a step perfectly Christian that St Paul comes to a dear personal name, and to a few messages of holy love.

Ephesians 6:21. But that you too, as well as my other friends, may know the things about me, my position and surroundings, how I fare,[1]all shall be communicated to you by Tychicus,[2] your countryman, our (ὁ) beloved brother and faithful working helper[3]in the Lord, in our common union

Ephesians 6:22. with Him; whom I am sending[4]to you for this precise purpose, that of informing you at first hand; that you may know our circumstances, "the things surrounding" us, the Christian circle at Rome, and that he may encourage your hearts, by thus putting you and us into fresh spiritual contact; telling you how "the same afflictions are being carried to their goal" ( 1 Peter 5:9) in your brethren in the great City. For what "encouragement" goes deeper and leads higher than such news of grace, carried from heart to heart, from Church to Church? And now, the sweet, glad benedictions remain to be spoken.

Ephesians 6:23. Peace, the Lord’s full gift, the peace of His reconciliation ( Romans 5:1), amply enjoyed, and the peace of His inward calm, filling the soul, and the peace of mutual accord, blending all souls together, be to the brethren, as the Holy Spirit brings them ever closer to "the Lord of Peace Himself," and so to each other in Him; and love, the divine gift in all its aspects, poured from the very Being of Him who is Love; more consciousness of His eternal love to them, more fulness of responding love to Him, more joy in one another’s holy happiness; with faith, which also "is the gift of God" (see above, Ephesians 2:8). For faith, direct reliance on the faithful Promiser, will at once safeguard the sense of love, guiding it along His sure line, in all its emotion and exercise, and also evermore keep it pure and warm, fed with ceaseless blessings reaped by faith. So may the precious gifts come ever "to the brethren," from God our Father, our Father in His Well-Beloved, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, One with Him, One with us; Giver, and Channel, and Gift at once. That ever-blessed Name, in its sweet majesty, must sound yet once more before the pen is put aside. It is as if the Apostle, thus speaking of Him, with His Father, had a last fair vision opened to him of what He is as Centre of the circle of spiritual love, as Cause of the bliss of all who have found place in that circle, and are linked in love to Him who makes it what it is. The Epistle has been greatly occupied with kindred truths. We hardly need to recall again how Christ and His People in their living union have shone before us all along. But this last sentence shall speak yet again of that union, and in an aspect at once the simplest and the tenderest of all, from the believer’s side. For this last moment, no "mystery" shall be mentioned; the one word shall be love. The happy Church is beheld as just the company of souls who, in the pure immortal sense of loving, love Him "who loved them and gave Himself for them." We have been told already, in previous passages, much indeed about the secrets that lie behind and above—the Purpose, the Grace, the quickening Power, the Sealing, the Presence, But here is the stream from those sacred recesses, running out glad and clear under the sunshine of salvation. Do these souls love the Lord Jesus Christ? Is He their joy and crown? Do they rejoice in His glory? Do they delight in His Name? Do they cherish His will? Do they look for His appearing? Is He to them indeed as Bridegroom to Bride, so that they would fain see Him "making haste upon the mountains of separation"? But above all, is He, this wonderful Being, in their life here and now, dear to them? Is He cherished, as the "Object of their first desire," so that His holy Presence sways their inmost man, "in incorruptibility," in the sense of all that is spiritual and divinely pure? Then there is nothing but benediction for those so related in love to such an Object.

Ephesians 6:24. Grace, "the grace," ἡχάρις, His grace, Himself in living action for their blessing, be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptibility. Amen. So let the Epistle and our Commentary close together, with that note, "most sweet, yet most profound," Love to Jesus Christ our Lord.

"Jesus loves me, and I love Jesus; what more do I want?" So said a veteran student[5] of the religions of our race, rich with great treasures of human learning, richer with the grace of God, as he sank to rest, at Cannes, in April, 1899.

What more do we want? Nothing, O blessed Lord. For this means the possession of Thyself.

"Shew Me thy love, my Mansoul. Love Me against temptation, and I will love thee notwithstanding thine infirmities.

"Remember, O Mansoul, that thou art beloved of Me. As I have therefore taught thee to watch, to fight, to pray, and to make war against my foes; so now I command thee to believe that my love is constant to thee. O my Mansoul, how have I set my heart, my love, upon thee! Watch. Behold, I lay none other burden upon thee than what thou hast already. Hold fast, till I come."
—Bunyan, The Holy War.

^[1]Lit. "what I am doing"; it is an idiom.—In the next clause I paraphrase the active verb into the passive, etc., to keep theorderof the words.

^[2]Cp.Acts 20:4,Colossians 4:7,2 Timothy 4:12,Titus 3:12. He was an Asian, and probably an Ephesian. Evidently he was a man who won the Apostle’s highest confidence, and kept it to the last.—Lightfoot (onColossians 4:7, and in the Introduction to hisPhilippians) shews that the name Tychicus, though not common, does occur in Asian inscriptions.—Observe that this is the one personal name (besides his own, and of course the Lord’s) mentioned by St Paul in this Epistle.

^[3]I attempt to convey the full meaning ofδιάκονος, with its ideas of activity and subordination, by the words "working helper." It seems unlikely that the word here is an official title; Tychicus was too considerable a person, one would think, to be aδιάκονοςin that sense.

^[4]Ἔπεμψα: an "epistolary aorist," giving the writer’s thought as it will appear when the letter is received. Our idiom is otherwise.

^[5]Sir M. Monier Williams, Boden Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford, 1860-1899.