Ephesians 3

Ephesians 3:1-12

arther to recommend the gospel to the regard of these Gentile converts, the apostle strongly expresses the sense he had of the Divine goodness in committing it to his trust, though he was called to sacrifice his liberty in its defence. Eph. III. 1—12.

EPHESIANS III. 1.

FOR this cause, and for my faithful testimony to this glorious gospel, the plan of which is so extensive, so wise, and so benevolent, how little soever it may suit the narrow minds of my bigotted countrymen, I Paul [am] the prisoner of Jesus Christ; being brought under this calamity, the loss of my liberty, for the sake of you Gentiles, and in consequence of that firm attachment which I am known to have to your cause and interest. For this I am persuaded you will consider as the occasion of my bonds, since I well know you have heard, and are acquainted with, the dispensation of the adorable grace of God, which by his special favour to myself, and those to whom I am the herald of it, hath been given to me in your behalf; my zeal for which has been the means of stirring up the

I Paul [am] the prisoner, &c.] This is often alleged as an instance of an extraordinary length of sentence in the original, supposing that what begins the first verse of this chapter is resumed again at ver. 14, and not ended till the close of chap. iv. 3. So that the sense runs, “For this cause, I Paul, the prisoner of Christ for you Gentiles, — for this cause [I say,] I bow my knees, &c. — [even] I the prisoner of the Lord beseech you therefore that ye walk worthy, &c.” Yet as the easy supposition that was understood would make the construction much more obvious and plain, I have therefore inserted the word [am.] But if I were sure the sentence in the original was of the utmost length that any have maintained, I should think the division of it in any translation very pardonable, especially in a paraphrase. I have often broke one period into many, as being much more concerned to give the true sense as intelligibly as possible, than to preserve the grammatical construction of every word in the version where this might occasion obscurity; and it will not be easy for any who have not been exercised in works of this kind, to imagine the difficulty which this precaution has often

brought upon me. Compare note b on chap. i. 3, sect. i. p. 100.

b Since I well know you have heard, &c.] So I translate the words ἰγία πκασατία, for I think it cannot be imagined that they had never heard, during his long abode at Ephesus, from him, and from many others, an account of the extraordinary revelation of the gospel which he had received. As for the inference that some would draw from hence, that this epistle (if it was not written to some other church where he had never preached) was written before Paul came to live at Ephesus, I think it absolutely inconclusive; not only considering that the particle was not so properly rendered, Ye have hear [of] the dispensation, &c. which determines the sense to what they might have learned by report from others; they may as well express their having heard this dispensation from his own mouth.

For them he was intrusted with the mystery ?

malice of the Jews against me: And I am confident you cannot forget what you have often heard, that to prepare and furnish me for this important work to which the Lord hath called me, he made known to me by immediate revelation, and not by the instrumentality of any human testimony, the great mystery which had so long been concealed; as I have briefly wrote before, and hinted more than once in this epistle, (chap. i. 9, 10; ii. 11, and seq.) in passages which, though they contain not a full illustration of the matter, yet suggest some material hints with regard to it; By which when you read what I have laid before you, and attentively consider and review [it,] you may observe and form some notion of my understanding in the mystery of Christ, which so many still remain ignorant of, and so many others are unwilling to acknowledge and admit.

This I with great propriety call a mystery, it being a most astonishing and glorious system of Divine truth, which in other preceding generations was not made known to the sons of men, having neither been discovered to the Gentiles, who were wholly strangers to it, nor manifested under any former dispensation to those whom God had taken for his people, with any such perspicuity, as that with which it is now revealed

c By which when you read.] Dr. Whitby would render the phrase ἀγαθοῦ ἀρχινοσυγκένετο, by attending to which: but as ἀρχινοσυγκένετο signifies to read and review, or (as we vulgarly speak) to con a thing over in the mind, to root it there, which must suppose frequent reading, I chose to retain the common translation.

d You may observe my understanding in the mystery of Christ.] This Dr. Goodwin thinks to be the highest encomium made by the apostle on any of his own writings; whence he concludes, that this is the richest and noblest of all the epistles, and thinks it was peculiarly intended to be so, to reward the generous zeal of the Ephesians in burning their curious books, by a book of Divine knowledge, incomparably more valuable than any or all of them. (See Acts xix. 19.) I pretend not absolutely to decide on the comparative excellency of his epistles, but could not forbear mentioning so remarkable and ingenious a thought. See Goodwin’s Works, Vol. I p. 2.

e Which in other generations was not made known, &c.] The following verse so plainly determines this passage to the calling of the Gentiles into the church, that I think there can be no controversy as to the general sense of it; though it seemed to me, that the apostle’s explaining it in the manner he presently does, rendered it improper to anticipate that explication in the paraphrase. It was indeed known long before, that the Gentiles should be added to the church; but it was not known that they should be heirs of the same inheritance, and partakers of the promise of the Spirit. The Jews rather thought of their being slaves to them; and least of all did they imagine, that the middle wall of their ceremonies should be broken down, and the Gentiles admitted to the full privileges of God’s people, without circumcision and obedience to the Mosaic law; which the Christian converts among them heard of at first with great amazement. Acts x. 45, xi. 18.

Gentiles should be joint heirs with the Jews.

by the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets of the New Testament dispensation, who have the word of wisdom and of knowledge given to them. (1 Cor. xii. 8.) And what I chiefly have in view, as one very material part of it, is this, that the Gentiles should be joint heirs with the Jews in spiritual privileges, and should be members of the same body with them, and partakers together of his promise in Christ; particularly of the communication of the Holy Spirit, in token of their sharing in all the other blessings of the Messiah’s kingdom, which the Jews have fondly imagined to be peculiar to themselves, but which are now freely proposed to the Gentile nations by the gospel which we are commissioned every where to preach.

This is the gospel of which I was made a minister, not of my own motion or seeking, nor at all on account of any worthiness in me, but according to the free gift of the grace of God, which in so extraordinary and remarkable a manner was given to me, calling me forth to the apostleship by the energy of his power, which wrought so great a change in me as to prepare and qualify me for that high and holy office; to the purposes of which no man living can be more averse than I once was. And when I think of this I am covered with confusion, and know not how to speak of myself in any terms of sufficient abasement: for such was the astonishing condescension of the great God, and such his favour to a worthless creature, that unto me, who am so unworthy of the honour of being called an apostle, that I am less than the least of all saints, and look upon myself, on account of what I formerly was, as below the very meanest among them, this grace was given, that I should be employed to preach among the

t of all saints.] It has there, that the apostle which, as grammari- he comparative degree o. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x. x.

there be, (as Dr. Goodwin thinks, 1 p. 3.) any reference to his name F which in the Roman language sig [little,] and at the same time to th ness of his stature, which occasioned C ostom’s calling him πριτηχη αβρα man three cubits high, I do not pret say; and only hint at what Sigonius that Emilius Paulus obtained his ad al name from his low stature.

The wisdom o God is shewn to the angels y

Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; which while I am endeavouring to trace out in their particular contents, I am quite lost in rapturous amazement, and all my most elevated conceptions are swallowed up in that unfathomable fulness which can never be exhausted. Yet to this honourable and important office am I graciously appointed, to enlighten and instruct as well the Gentiles as the Jews, (Acts xxvi. 18,) and to make all men see, in some affecting measure and degree, what [is] the happiness arising from the communication of the mystery of the calling of the Gentiles to be joint heirs with the Jews, which from eternal ages was hid, being concealed in the secret counsels of the ever blessed and incomprehensible God, who, as he at first created all things by Jesus Christ, his Divine Son, (John i. 3,) hath new created also all that are in him by a lively faith, and by him raised them to the prospect of complete holiness and happiness. And this is now revealed and set in a new light, after the more imperfect intimations of it that were given before, that the manifold wisdom of God, discovering itself in such a beautiful and well ordered variety of dispensations, might now more fully be made known, and be displayed in all its brightness to the principalities and powers in heavenly [places,] even to all the various orders of angelic beings, by means of what is done for the church, which is the

g What is the communication of the mystery, &c.] Some would translate the following clause (τὸ ἀποκρίμην ἀπὸ τῶν αἰώνων,) which has been hid from the ages, that is, from the former ages of the world: but as in ver. II it is called ἀπέβασιν τῶν αἰώνων, an eternal purpose, and is here said to be hid in God, I apprehend no need of varying the translation, where the phrase is the same, though to be sure this interpretation includes the sense of the other. It is evident, that here is an allusion to the burning a treasure in some secret place; (compare Josh. vii. 21; and Mat. xiii. 44; where the same word is used;) as there may also be in the word ἀνεξήχησεν, ver. 8, which properly signifies what cannot be traced out: and it is certain, that though something is now known concerning this glorious mystery, yet there is an incompar-

ably greater part concerning which we only know in the general that it is a rich treasure, without particularly knowing either what, how much, or where it is.

h Created all things by Jesus Christ.] Mr. Locke pleads, as Diodate had done before, that this refers, not to the creation of the world, but to the renovation of it; and so may be considered as an intimation that God always intended Christ should have the honour of forming all things anew, and therefore concealed the mystery in himself till after he was come. But the words, if taken in the most extensive sense, contain both a certain and a pertinent truth.

i Be made known to the principalities and powers in heavenly [places.] &c.] The prophecies of the Old Testament gave strong intimations, at least, of the intended calling

e have access to God by faith in Christ.

happy object of a love that hath produced effects beyond what the spirits of heaven could otherwise have conceived or apprehended ; and in the contemplation of it they are furnished with new motives to adore that grace, which by the manifestations of it to the church displays new glories, unparalleled in all the history of heaven, in the surprising methods taken to complete the number of its blessed inhabitants : All which gracious operations proceed in perfect harmony with the original plan adjusted in the Divine Mind ; according to the eternal purpose which he formed before all ages in Christ Jesus our Lord, both to be executed by him, and to terminate in him ; which as his well beloved Son he was appointed to effect, and all the benefits of which he has secured to be communicated to the church ; Even that blessed Mediator, through whom we have freedom of speech in our approaches to the throne of grace, and have access with confidence of being heard, as being assured of audience and acceptance by the faith of him ; in a reliance upon whom we may address ourselves to God with the humble cheerful liberty of children whom he hath adopted into his family, and united to himself in the dearest and most indissoluble bonds.

IMPROVEMENT.

ST. PAUL’s understanding in the mystery of Christ is just matter verse of perpetual joy to the whole Christian world, and especially to the Gentile churches, which have derived from thence so much of their knowledge and of their hope. Let us congratulate our- 4

of the Gentiles into the church ; and the angels seem expressly to refer to it in what they said to the shepherds, and in their anthem at the nativity of Christ. (Luke ii. 10, 14.) I apprehend therefore, that the apostle here would lead the thoughts of his readers to the series of Divine dispensations as gradually opening this great discovery, and not merely to what he preached concerning it; though to be sure that greatly illustrated the scheme. It is strangely unnatural to explain this clause as Mr. Locke would do, of the Jewish principalities and powers ; by which he is driven to the hard shift of connecting to the eighteenth with the wisdom of God, which the first reading of the

words in the original will shew how little they will bear.

k According to the eternal purpose, &c.] Mr. Locke would render the eighteenth and eighteenth, &c. according to that predisposition of the ages, or several dispensations, which he made in Christ Jesus, which by the preordination of God’s purpose were all regulated and constituted in him ; and Dr. Whitby taking it in the same sense, explains it of his being promised in the first age to Adam, typified in the second to the Jews, and in the last age preached to all the world. But perhaps this interpretation may coincide more with a sense they are so solicitous to avoid, than either of these learned authors was aware.

VOL. 5.

Reflections on the glorious scheme of our redemption.

selves and each other on the propagation of so glorious a system of Divine truth, which had so long been concealed from ages and generations. The apostles and prophets were raised up by God to receive and reveal it: and we are entered on the blessed fruit of their labours. (John iv. 38.) Let us learn from them to set a due value on our participation in that inheritance, on our union to that body to which by the gospel we are called.

May it particularly teach us that humility which was so conspicuous, so amiable, so admirable in St. Paul. This excellent man, this distinguished favourite of heaven, who stood in the foremost rank of Christians, of ministers, of apostles, yet labours for words to express the sense he had of his own meanness and unworthiness, and commits a kind of solecism in language, that he might lay himself as low as possible; using the most diminutive term that could be, to describe himself as one who in his own esteem was less than the least of all saints! And shall we then exalt ourselves, and be proud of the trifling distinctions that raise our obscure heads a little above some of our brethren?

Let those in particular, who have the honour of being called to the sacred office of the ministry, consider how reasonable it is, that instead of being puffed up with it they should rather be humbled, when they reflect how unworthy the best of men are of it, and in how defective a manner the most faithful discharge it; while yet the grace is given them to preach the riches of Christ, his unsearchable riches. Let these be made the frequent subject of their preaching; and let all the course of it be directed, in a proper manner, to the illustration of that subject. Let the well chosen phrase which the apostle uses here, teach them and all Christians to search more and more, into this unfathomable abyss; as still sure to discover new wonders in the variety and fulness of its inexhaustible contents beyond what they have known before, and to find new pleasures in tracing again those already known.

This glorious theme is worthy of the contemplation of angels; and we are elsewhere told, that these celestial spirits desire to look into it, (1 Pet. i. 12,) and to learn new displays of the Divine attributes from the church. Let us then hear and worship, as under their inspection; and let not our hearts be cold to these sacred truths which are our own salvation, while they rejoice in them only on the general principles of piety and benevolence.

All that is done in the prosecution of the glorious design of our redemption now, is the result of those counsels of peace which God from eternal ages formed in his own compassionate mind. To that source, after the example of the apostle, let us frequently trace all with the most exalted gratitude; recollecting that we receive this adoption in Christ, who is the great Mediator of our access unto God. Let us therefore, on the one hand, take all our encouragements in prayer from views to him; and on the other, having such a foundation for it, let us come with an

should not be discouraged by his sufferings.

the Divine throne, that so we may obtain the which we daily and hourly need.

Ephesians 3:13

presents the earnestness with which he prayed for ent in Christianity, as the best wish the most fercould dictate for them. Eph. III. 13, to the end.

EPHESIANS III. 13.

SUCH and so great are the privileges to which the gospel raises us; wherefore, as I have been the happy instrument of bringing it among you, though, (as I said before, ver. 1,) I am now a prisoner for you Gentiles, yet I desire, my dear brethren, that ye faint not, or be in any degree discouraged at my affliction for you, which when it is thoroughly considered upon what account I endure these sufferings, must be acknowledged to be so far from any reason to dishearten you, that it may rather serve for the encouragement and confirmation of your faith, and is indeed your glory: for it is really an honour that God does you, in employing his faithful servant to lay out his time and strength, and even to sacrifice his liberty in your cause; and that courage and cheerfulness in which God is pleased to support me in the midst of all these hardships, shews his farther regard for you, and may justly be esteemed as intended by him, not for my comfort only, but for an additional honour to you.

For this cause, that the great work in which I am engaged may more successfully be carried on, and that the purposes of these my sufferings may be answered in your consolation and the Divine glory, while I am here in the retirements of my prison, I am daily pouring out my soul to God on your account, and with the most affectionate concern for your establishment, I bend my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; Even of that great and glorious Redeemer, of whom the whole family both in heaven and on earth is named, by whom angels and

a Of whom the whole family in heaven the words of [of whom,] it seems most on earth is named.] As Christ is the reasonable to interpret this clause as reerson last mentioned, immediately before ferring to him; though others rather

ic apost e prays or their establishment in grace,

men are incorporated into one society, and as well those who are gone before to the possession of the heavenly inheritance, as those who are here on earth, receive a more excellent name than that of children of Abraham, and are united in one happy family, of which he is the Head. And the great petition I am addressing to his Father and ours, is this; that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, out of those redundant stores of goodness in his gracious heart which can never be exhausted, to be mightily strengthened by the effectual operation of his Spirit, invigorating and increasing every grace, and carrying on his work with abundant success, in the inner man, that is, in all the various powers of your souls; so as thereby to fortify you under every trial, and animate you more and more to every good work: And as it is from Christ as our common Head, that all these blessings of the Holy Spirit are imparted, I am daily importunate with God, that Christ may dwell in your hearts, that he may take up his stated residence in your souls, by the continual exercise of a lively faith, by means of which a constant intercourse with him will be maintained, and an assurance given you of your interest in him: being also rooted and grounded in love, steadfastly fixed and settled, not only in the knowledge of his love to you, but in the exercise of a fervent love to him and to each other, which will so greatly tend both to nourish and establish the soul; That, under the influence of these united principles of faith and love, ye may be enabled with all saints in every place, to whom,

choose to understand it of the Father, who is indeed the principal subject of the foregoing sentence, nor would I insist upon the sense here given. Both Mr. Locke and Diodate explain it of God the Father, the Lord of the whole family, including all believers, who are jointly with Christ, who is already in heaven, the sons of God; in confirmation of which sense Mr. L’Enfant observes, that we are said to be in the Son, and the Son of the Son; and it is certain Christians are said to belong to the family of God. (Chap. ii. 19.) Mr. Boyle also goes into the same interpretation, in his Four

last Things, p. 588,) and argues from hence, that departed saints are in heaven before the resurrection, or otherwise according to this distribution, as they are not on earth, they would not belong to God’s family. But heaven may here be taken in a greater latitude for all the regions of happiness in the invisible world, though the place in which separate spirits dwell should be different from that which they are to inhabit with Christ after the resurrection. The Jewish writers call heaven the upper, and earth the lower family of God.

their uller knowledge of the love of Christ.

whether known or unknown, I wish this as the most invaluable blessing, to apprehend with greater clearness what [is] the breadth, and length, and depth, and heightᵇ of the great mystery of redeeming love, and to survey with a becoming astonishment, and with some suitable conceptions, the vast dimensions of that glorious plan; that in some measure you may see how wide it extends, even to all nations and ages; how far it reaches, even from everlasting to everlasting; from what an abyss of misery it delivers us, and to what a summit of felicity and glory it exalts us.

This is my earnest and importunate prayer for you, and for all the rest of my Christian brethren; that ye may thus be enabled with greater admiration to contemplate, and more abundantly to know the love of Christ, which, after all we can say or think of it, surpasses by infinite degrees the most advanced knowledge,ᶜ even of the angels themselves, and how much more of mortal men in this imperfect state: but I wish you more enlarged apprehensions of it that so ye may be filled with all the fulness of God,ᵈ that your expanded hearts, being dilated more and more, may be rendered capable of

ᵇ The breadth, and length, and depth, and height.] It has often and very justly been observed, that this text is wonderfully emhatical. Bodies are well known to have only three dimensions, length, and breadth, and thickness: but the apostle Paul divides this last into its depth downwards, and its height upwards, measuring from the middle point; and so makes use of it to express the depth of misery from which the love of Christ delivers us, as well as the height of glory to which it exalts us. See Blackwall’s Sacr. Class. Vol. I. p. 350.

ᶜ To know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.] I can conceive no imaginable reason, with Mr. Locke, to confine the interpretation of this text merely to the love of Christ in calling the Gentiles. Well may we recollect on this occasion all that love which Christ has displayed in redeeming his church out of every nation and kingdom under heaven, Gentiles as well as Jews, from final misery, and exalting it to eternal glory. And this is so remarkable and admirable, that the most extensive

explication of this text must certainly be the most proper. Nor can the phrase of its surpassing knowledge merely signify its exceeding the Jewish dispensation, (which is seldom, if ever, called knowledge,) but its exceeding our most elevated conceptions. The catachresis here used greatly enhances the beauty of the expression on this explication, whereas otherwise it must appear very dry and jejune.

ᵈ That ye may be filled with all the fulness of God.] It is rightly observed by the learned and pious Professor Franckius, (Manud. ad Sac. Script. legend. p. 191,) that there is in these two verses an allusion to the temple; expressing his wish that the foundation might be so extensively and deeply laid, that a superstructure may be raised extending itself to such a magnificent length, and breadth, and height, as to be fitted to receive and lodge the sacr. Guest, that he might dwell as it were uncrowded in their hearts. And in this view it will indeed appear a noble train of thought.

He closes with a grand and suitable doxol

admitting larger degrees than ever of Divine love, and more ample indwellings of Divine consolation; till at length ye arrive at that happy state in which ye shall attain to a full perfection in the knowledge and enjoyment of God, where that which is perfect shall come, and ye shall know even as also ye are known.

With these prayers am I softening the sorrows of my own imprisonment, and endeavouring to do what I can towards supplying to you and other Christians the deficiency of those public services which my present confinement forbids: and I doubt not but these humble petitions will come up in remembrance before God. Methinks I see them even now descending in blessings on my head and on yours, from the adorable Source of all good; and therefore I cannot forbear adding, To him that is able to do all things for us, not only to the utmost extent of our petitions, but abundantly exceeding all that we [can] ask or conceive, according to the power which is already so illustriously displayed, and worketh so efficaciously in us; To him [be] glory in the whole church both of Jews and Gentiles, the happy society which he hath so wonderfully redeemed, and so bountifully enriched by Christ Jesus its glorious Head, through whom all his blessings descend to us, and our praises ascend to him: and may they ascend throughout all the most distant ages and periods, while earth with its successive generations continues; and may they resound from all his redeemed in the mansions of glory, far beyond the limits of time, even for ever and ever. Amen. Let your hearts with mine consent to it; and in that consent anticipate something of that pleasure, with which we hope for ever to render these praises.

• Throughout all generations for ever and well’s Sacr. Class. Vol. I. p. 83.) Through er.] This is one of St. Paul’s self in- all the successions of an endless eternity may ented and most expressive phrases, ac come something near it; but even this, and not the great public, which emphatical as it may seem, falls vastly learned critic justly defies any version short of the sublimity and spirit of the whatsoever fully to express. (See Black- original.

Reflections on the apostle’s prayer for the Ephesians.

IMPROVEMENT.

LET our eyes be frequently directed to the God and Father of such our Lord Jesus Christ, and our knees be frequently bowed before him, invoking him under this amiable and delightful character as the great Father of that one family which he hath been pleased in infinite mercy to form to himself; a family consisting not only of those who were originally the inhabitants of heaven, who were born in his house, and have never offended him, but of many who have been, and many who are the inhabitants of earth, once the children of the curse, and the heirs of death and destruction.

Let us all remember it is now the family of Christ, our great elder Brother, who, though the Lord of heaven, disdains not to own that humble relation while the angels are adoring him as standing at the head of the society, and esteem it their honour to be related to him. Let us be more affected with the grace extended to us, and consider our relation to him as a bond of union among ourselves. While we are of this family, let not the different garbs we wear, or the different apartments in which we are lodged, alienate our affections from each other; but let us often be thinking of that blessed day when the whole family shall meet above, and let us in the mean time endeavour to behave as worthy members of it, and have its common interests at heart.

And from that eminently faithful and honourable branch of the family, the blessed apostle, whose words we have been reading, let us learn what to wish for ourselves and our brethren: even that God, according to theriches of his grace, would strengthen us with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that we may attain great degrees of vigour and confirmation in religion, by the vital and powerful operations of the Holy Spirit of God upon our hearts; that we may be strong to discharge every duty, to resist temptations, to conquer our enemies, to assist our brethren, and to glorify our Father and our Saviour. Let us earnestly desire, that Christ may not only now and then visit our hearts, but by the habitual and lively exercises of faith may even dwell in them; that we may thus be continually conversant with him as our most honoured and beloved Guest; and that love may take deep root in our hearts, and be solidly grounded there. Let us earnestly pray that, under Divine illuminations, we may be enabled to form more exalted and suitable conceptions than we have ever yet attained of the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of this unfathomable, this inconceivable love of Christ, which surpasses the perfect knowledge even of saints in glory. And O that by these contemplations we may find ourselves daily filled with all

He again reminds them of his being a prisoner.

the fulness of God, so that our hearts may even overflow with vi. the abundant communication of his gifts and graces!

What shall we say in return for the knowledge he hath already given us, for the love which he hath already wrought in our hearts, if we are so happy as to know the grace of God in truth? What! but that believing his power to outdo all it hath already 20 wrought for us, yea to do for us exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or think, we will still confide in him and call upon him; and will humbly endeavour to bare our part with the 21 whole church, in ascribing to our Redeemer, our Sanctifier, and our Father, glory throughout all ages, and even world without end. Amen.