Ephesians 3

High Priest in the heavens, one so merciful and gracious—one who has shared my griefs and carried my sorrows; one who in his unparalleled misery never forgot my wants, and who now, in his wonderful joy, is still touched with a feeling of my infirmities—I now come boldly unto the throne of grace. I cry, Abba, Father; I feel at a Father’s feet, and am at rest. C. B.

20-22. In other places the individual believer is represented as a temple of God; but here, by a change of figure which beautifully and expressively brings forward the fellowship, multitude, and union of believers, the whole are set before us as compacted into one perfect structure. The stones are no longer masses of granite, marble, or porphyry, but men, redeemed and sanctified, and hereafter to be perfected and glorified. Every saint has his appointed place. The temple comprises all the righteous, who have been, are, and shall be to the end of time. It was meet that the Son of God should take humanity in order that he might be the foundation of this human temple. It rests on him for its coherence, beauty, grandeur, and very existence. Its walls are cemented by his precious blood. Every lively stone in the pile bears his image, and is fashfashioned after the headstone of the corner. His truth is the basis of all faith in the Church. His righteousness is the ground of all pardon, acceptance, and title to life. His Spirit prepares and adorns each individual member, brings him into the structure, and keeps him there. Each soul, and all conjoined, rest and rely on Jesus Christ alone as the source of strength, union, and perfection. J. W. A.

20. Absolutely, Christ is called the foundation of the Church, besides which no other can be laid; but, in a secondary or relative sense, so are the apostles also, whom Christ uses as his instruments. Hence it is said of the saints, that they “are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone”; and hence the twelve foundations of the New Jerusalem bear the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb (Rev. 21 : 14). P. S.—To the Christians at Ephesus, dwelling under the shadow of the great temple of Diana, and daily seeing its outward grandeur, the allusions in this Epistle to that mystic building, of which Christ was the corner-stone, the apostles the foundations, and himself and his fellow Christians portions of the august superstructure, must have spoken with a force, an appropriateness, and a reassuring depth of teaching that can not be overestimated. S.

1. For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if ye have heard of 2 the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: how that by revela- 3 tion he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, whereby, when 4 ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) which in other ages 5 was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and 6 prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and 7 partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. 8 Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach 9 among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, 10 who created all things by Jesus Christ: to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of 11 God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: in 12 whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. Wherefore I desire 13 that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this cause I bow my 14 knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and 15 earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strength- 16 ened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by 17 faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all 18 saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of 19 Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now 20 unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according 21 to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus through- out all ages, world without end. Amen.

“THAT ye may be rooted and grounded in love,” says the apostle—grounded on it, as the temple on the base; rooted in it, as the tree in the soil, to which it is attached by myriad ties, and from which it drinks its nourishing life. Every pillar, and wall, and arch, and spire in the personal attainment will then manifest the permanence and reveal the uplifting and molding power of this love which is beneath. Every branch, and bloom, and leaf, and fruit in the complex character will exhibit the beauty and throb with the life of this permeating force. How essential and how immense the change which is thus prefigured as the anticipated fruit of the gospel in each who receives it! A change in the outward habit not only, or in the intellectual views and beliefs, but in the sovereign passion of the heart; a change not transient, but enduring as life; not limited in its influence, but extending in the force that radiates from it to all the powers, and even to each particular of the conduct; a change that will shed through the soul itself, and through the activity in which that is expressed, the inspiration of such a love as breathed throughout the works and words of Christ, and was uttered with absolute energy in his cross; of such as reigns eternally in God, the source of his felicity, and the moral ground of his dominion. Christianity proposes to take the humblest man—ignorant, weak, sinful, condemned, darkened in mind, vitiated in heart, and inwardly severed from goodness and from God—and to make him that which Paul prefigured, which Paul now is. It is to make Christ dwell within him; to ground and root his character in love; to fill him in spirit with all that is divine unto the fullness of God himself! How necessary faith in the Divine Master as the means by which the soul in man shall open to and appropriate these heavenly treasures, and make them all at last its own! Not faith in teachers, faith in opinions, faith in a church; we need for this that faith in Christ which he demanded; which apostles proclaimed the condition in each of the life everlasting; which is the element of victory on earth, of serenity in death, and of the vision that comes beyond. R. S. S.

1-21. The Aim and End of the Church in the Spirit.—Mainly set forth in the revelation to it of the mystery of Christ, through the ministry, working in the Spirit; and primarily as regarded these Ephesians by himself. Thus: 1. Of his office as apostle of the Gentiles (vs. 1-13). 2. Under the form of a prayer for them, of the aim and end of that office as respected the Church; its becoming strong in the power of the Spirit (vs. 14-19). Then (vs. 20, 21) a doxology concludes this first portion of the Epistle. A.

8. The apostle declares he was commissioned as an ambassador from God to proclaim “among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ”; to tell them of the justice, the judgment, the mercy, and love of God; of the justice that pronounces sentence on sinners, but which Christ has satisfied; of the judgment that is to be executed on them, but which Christ has borne; of the mercy that they have for ever forfeited, but which Christ has purchased for them; to tell them of the wisdom that devised, the faithfulness that carried out, and the love that began, continued, and carries on the glorious plan of salvation for a guilty world; and call them thus to turn from their idols and their vanities to serve the living God. M’Ghee.—As he turns from gazing at the page of his commission, on which a single name fills all with its radiance, the name of Jesus, to look at what he was, what he is, he is amazed and overwhelmed that such a one as he should have this honor. He looks at the treasure of which he is a steward, the Riches of Christ, well so called; riches of his nature, of his grace, of his atonement, of that love which passeth knowledge; riches of its consequences, in the wealthy bliss of millions of overflowing vessels of mercy. Unsearchable riches! incalculable in number, in height, in depth. A river of life flowing from the throne of God and of the

Lamb, unsearchable in its sovereign source, immeasurable and unfathomable in its ocean flow. J. W. A.

10. “By the Church,” said the apostle—and remember that he was writing to the poor converts of the earliest century, very imperfect in their character, very limited in their influence, who were gathered at Ephesus and the various near commercial cities—“by the Church,” made up of the ignorant and the weak, of slaves and of the outcast—“by the Church may be made known”—made known to whom? to the world around it? Nay, verily! “by the Church may be made known to principalities and powers in heavenly places the manifold wisdom of God”! And, however humble the Church may be, by its agency in bringing men to Christ—through its ministry of the truth, when that is accompanied by the grace of the Highest—the manifold wisdom of the Creator is revealed, even to angels in heavenly places; is so revealed as it could not be in all the wonders of creation and all the mighty order of Providence. R. S. S.

Unto principalities and powers. Conceive of them as spectators of the fall and the first measures of God for the restoration of man. Something yet remains in this world-history to satisfy these minds, for which they wait in faith. At length the full solution comes, in Christ incarnate and suffering. Now they burst into rapturous joy and learn new wisdom, and become more faithful to righteousness, as they see the mystery of grace unfolded. T. D. W.—The manifold wisdom of God. Heaven can not lack for evidences of the divine wisdom; but, if it would see this attribute in its glory, it must come down to earth. Justice vindicated, and mercy triumphant; sin punished, and the sinner saved; heaven bestowed upon the guilty and the vile, and the recipient not elated, but humbled; Satan vanquished by the seed of the woman; death turned into a fountain of life; the cross not merely transfigured into the brightest crown of the Son of God, but multiplied into as many such crowns as there will be ransomed sinners in heaven—this is the wisdom which streams forth from redemption, and bathes cherubim and seraphim, no less than man, with its splendors. H. A. B.

12. Access with confidence. What we all of us need to learn more is how to walk with God hour by hour as a man with his friend; not so much to be continually going in and out of his presence as to be always living in it, without effort thinking of him, without insincerity consulting him, without hesitation obeying him, without embarrassment speaking of him. Surely he prefers the simple trustfulness of kinsfolk to the distant homage of strangers; and if we made it more our endeavor to bring every thought, every word, every habit, every employment, every recreation, every commonest act of life into captivity to Christ, and so into harmony and fellowship with him, it would not violently interrupt us, as it often does, to lay down the task of the moment, to hold intercourse with Him. A. W. T.

Verse 15 should read, “from whom every family in heaven and on earth.” It is very difficult to convey in English the apostle’s meaning, which depends on a similarity of words in the original; the word for family (patria) being derived from that for father (pater); that heavenly Pater, from whom every patria in heaven and on earth derives its name and its laws of being. A.—In heaven and earth. The difference betwixt us and them is, not that we are really two, but one body in Christ, in divers places. True, we are below stairs, and they above; they in their holiday, and we in our working-day clothes; they in harbor, but we in the storm; they at rest, but we in the wilderness; they singing, as crowned with joy, we crying, as crowned with thorns. But we are all of one house, one family, and are all the children of one Father. Bun.

16-19. This wondrous prayer of the apostle opens to us the infinite possibilities of the life of faith. Beginning by resting the soul in Christ as the source of its life, faith rises above the range of human wisdom, and looks into the mysteries of redemption, which only the mind of God could unveil; and with this unfolding of spiritual knowledge comes an expansion of love, which, grow as it may, is continually filled and satisfied with the fullness of love that flows from the infinite Father. J. P. T.

16. By his Spirit. Careful walking is produced only by the Holy Spirit; that sweet and loving Spirit who can bend our will, or rather lift it up and direct it toward his own, so that we may be able truly to understand, fervently to love, and effectually to fulfill that will of his. Bernard.—The two great needs of our condition and nature are met by the central provisions of the faith—the atoning sacrifice and the sanctifying Spirit. Through these we are brought to God and made like Him. We can be so raised above ourselves as “to pass our sojourning here” like men that “continually look for their Lord,” so touching all things temporal as not to lose sight or hold of those that are eternal. “Jerusalem the Golden” will be reached at last. T. B.

17. Christ is said to dwell in our hearts by faith. Faith is seated in the whole soul, and accepts of Christ entirely as prophet, priest, and king. To those in whom he dwells, Christ is made of God, wisdom, to cure their ignorance and folly; righteousness, to abolish their guilt; sanctification, to renew their natures; and redemption, to free them at last from the grave, and bring them to glory. Bates.

Rooted in love. The fruit of the Spirit is love: penitence is love, bathing the Saviour’s feet with her tears; patience is love, kissing the rod; prayer is love, holding communion with the Father; praise is the adoration of love; hope is the expectation of love; joy is the delight of love; heaven is the full appreciation of love. Love is the bond that imites the whole family. The harmony of the music that fills the eternal spheres is love; the light that glitters there is the light of love; and our meerness for heaven, and our progress toward the eternal inheritance, is proportioned to our being “rooted and grounded in love.” N. Hall.

19. The love of Christ. Here is a love that weighs not our deservings, comes down to our poor estate, asks not anything that we have, engages to make us worthy of itself, and gives us, even what it exacts, our love again. Wonderful love! Itself both our teacher and our joy—enriching us when we have a sense that we are poor, as it is only then we can enjoy gifts; exalting us when we are humble, as it is only then we can profit by exaltation; strengthening us when we know our weakness, as it is only then we will use his help; returning to us when we will return to him, as it is only then that he can bind us to our duty—such is the love of God to us, giving us all the good that we may safely have, and making us the better for all he gives—our example and our blessedness for evermore! H. H.—Paul calls it (v. 9) a mystery—a secret—which had been hidden from the foundation of the world till then, and was then revealed by God’s Spirit; namely, this boundless love of God, shown by Christ’s dying on the cross. And, he says, his great hope, his great business, the thing on which his heart was set, and which God had sent him in the world to do, was this: to make people know the love of Christ; to look at Christ’s cross,

and take in its breadth, and length, and depth, and height. It passes knowledge, he says. We shall never know the whole of it, never know all that God’s love has done and will do; but, the more we know of it, the more blessed and hopeful, the more strong and earnest, the more good and righteous we shall become. C. K.

daily endeavor to do good as we have opportunity, winning souls to Christ; the daily attention to our business under Christ’s love; the daily subduing and denial of self, in bringing everything to him, for him and not self to stamp and seal it as his own, imbuing it with his Spirit; the daily rejoicing in his goodness, and thanksgiving for his mercy: all these things daily, and all these things each day for itself, and not put off to the morrow, nor the morrow thrown upon to-day. G. B. C.