Ephesians 6

Ephesians 6:1

And so likewise all children and subjects must be obedient to their parents and princes now under the gospel: for this is commanded by the law in the Old Testament, which Christ came not to evacuate, but to confirm.

Ephesians 6:2

For so are the words of the fifth commandment of the Decalogue, Honour thy father and mother, not only thy natural, but civil parents, and all other placed over thee by God, or the laws under which God hath placed thee. And this is the first commandment of the second table, and that with a promise annexed to it,

Ephesians 6:3

viz. of prosperity and long life in the land of Canaan, as it concerned the Jews, and to all others of prosperous peaceable living upon earth, (toward which obedience to superiors is ordinarily an eminent means of security, see Matt. v. 5,) and of eternal bliss in heaven by the promise of Christ.

Ephesians 6:4

And parents likewise are to behave themselves lovingly and gently toward their children, and not to tempt them, by tyrannical usage of their power, to disobedience, but use all care to bring them up in the knowledge of their duty to Christ.

Ephesians 6:5

And do not think that Christianity hath set all servants at liberty, or given them any privilege of disobeying those whose servants they are, according to the course of this world, be they heathens, &c.

¹⁷ fear, φοβῆται. χρόνιος ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς.

¹ just, δίκαιον. ² thou shalt have a long time on the land, ἴση μακρο- ³ discipline and nurture, παίδεσμ καὶ νουθεσίᾳ

Ephesians 6:6

And this not only to avoid the displeasures of their masters, (which will extend no further than to those things which they can see whether they be done or omitted, and consequently punish in them,) but upon sense of obligation to the law of Christ, who can see the secrets of the hearts, and so must be served accordingly;

Ephesians 6:7

viz. with uprightness and cheerfulness, a volun-tary obedience, which may approve itself to Christ, and not a forced one, which arises from fear of man, and so extends no further than the master can see and punish:

Ephesians 6:8

Knowing that as all other performances of duty, so his faithful service to his master shall be rewarded in him by God.

Ephesians 6:9

And the masters must use their servants, as fathers were appointed to use their children, ver. 4, not wrathfully and imperiously, but calmly and gently, either as knowing that they themselves have a master to obey, who commands them to do thus, or knowing that you and they are but fellow-servants in respect of Christ, and indeed that if masters do not their duty, they shall be as punishable before God as any others of the most inferior degree, God favouring or sparing none upon so slight considerations as these, of their being greater men in this world than others.

Ephesians 6:10

Finally, brethren, consider the all-sufficiency and omnipotence of his might, who is able to sustain you against all opposition of men or devils, and con-firm yourselves in the faith, and cheer up yourselves with that consideration.

Ephesians 6:11

And make use of all the defensatives and weapons that Christ hath afforded you, to the repel-ling of all the temptations and stratagems of the devil, that ye may be able to hold out against all his as-saults, both of force and cunning.

Ephesians 6:12

For the combat for which we are to be forti-fied, is not against any ordinary human enemies, but

[a] high places] What ἐπουράνια signifies here will be soon discerned, first, by remembering that the several regions of the air, and all above the globe of the earth, is in the Hebrew styled שמים, and in the Greek of these books οὐρανοί, heavens, and so ἐπουράνια will signify those places, the several regions of the air; 2dly, that the Syriac reading for πνευματικά, spiritual parts, πνεύματα, spirits, and the phrase spirits of wickedness, readily signifying wicked spirits, and those oft used to denote devils, the spirits of wickedness in heavenly places will be no more than the powers of the air under their ἄρχων or prince, ch. ii. 2, that is, devils under Beelzebub the prince of the devils. These are here distinguished from the κοσμοκράτορες τοῦ σκότους τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου, the worldly rulers of the darkness of this age. Noting several sorts of devils, either in respect of their mansions, ἀερίων καὶ ἐπιγείων πνευμάτων, saith Ignatius ad Ephes., “aërial or earthy spirits;” or else of the inclinations which they suggest. The earthy devils suggesting grosser carnal appetites, filthiness of the flesh, &c., the aërial, pride, vainglory, malice, &c., the filthiness of the spirit. And the Gnostic heretics, by power of sorcery seducing men to both sorts of these filthinesses, all fleshly abominable lusts, and all malice and rancour against the orthodox Christians, it is here truly said, that they were to contend with both sorts of evil spirits, terrestrial and aërial, the terrestrial that ruled among the heathen dark parts of the age, and the aërial wicked spirits.

Ephesians 6:13

The variety and greatness of the danger being thus considered, makes it reasonable for you to arm yourselves in every part, with all that the Christian faith hath provided you with, that in time of temptation ye may be able to hold out against the contrary allurements of those heretics, and in conclusion to be so far victorious, as not to have been ensnared on any side. 14, 15. Let your military preparations against these assaults be these: first, truth, the doctrine of the gospel in opposition to heathen errors and heretical insinuations, and let that be your military girdle (see note [b] Luke xii.) that keeps on all the other armour, and fits you to make use of it, and withal will restrain you from all libertinism and licentiousness, as a girdle restrains and keeps in the body; secondly, righteousness, sincere faithful obedience to Christ, to guard the whole man from assaults of sin, as the breastplate guards him, Isa. lix. 17; thirdly, the practice of Christian charity and peaceableness, to supply the place of shoes, that ye may go on expeditely in the Christian course, and not fall or miscarry by the way, through the traps that heretics and schismatics lay to wound and gall you, and hinder your progress;

Ephesians 6:15

[b] shod] The use of shoes in the celebration of the passover hath been formerly observed: for so the Israelites were commanded at their eating of it, that they might be ready for their journey, to have each of them their shoes on their feet; so when the apostles, Mark

Ephesians 6:16

Fourthly, faith, or the believing both the promises of Christ to all reformed penitents, and the threats to all impenitent sensual persons; which will keep temptations from entering, and be able to allay the pleasures of those sensual baits proposed to you, either by Satan or any other tempter, which, like poisoned darts, (which are wont to inflame the parts that are wounded with them, and therefore are called fiery darts, as the serpents with poisonous stings are called fiery serpents,) will wound you to death, if the consideration of your duty, the promises and terrors of Christ, received by your faith, do not help to quench them;

Ephesians 6:17

Fifthly, the hope of salvation, which may serve as an helmet, Isa. lix. 17, to bear off any blow (at

⁸ the worldly rulers—of this age, κοσμοκράτορας—τοῦ αἰῶνος. ⁹ spiritual parts, or, spirits:

for the Syriac appears to have read πνεύματα. ¹⁰ in heavenly places. ¹¹ in the readi-

ness. ¹² unto all, ἐκὶ πᾶσιν. ¹³ the wicked one, τοῦ πονηροῦ.

Ephesians 6:18

Praying heartily and fervently (see note [e] Luke ix.) upon every opportunity and time of need, for God’s assistance to enable you to persevere, and for the removal or averting of temptations; not so much for secular as spiritual things, (which Theophylact sets as the meaning of the phrase in the spirit,) and then adding vigilancy to prayer, and so continuing and persevering in a constant performance of that office of prayer, for all virtues and graces that are needful for you, and all means that may tend to the securing or increasing holiness in you.

Ephesians 6:19

And let not these your prayers be wholly confined to yourselves, but let me have my part in them, that I may be enlarged from my present restraint, and so have liberty to propagate the faith of Christ, (see note [b] 1 Cor. i.) and publicly or freely, or with authority, (see note [a] John vii.) to preach to the Gentiles, and instead of the heathen mysteries, wherein all their impieties are acted, to reveal to them the nature of the gospel, to which they are initiated, the purity and holiness which are there required:

[g] psalms and hymns and—] The difference of these three ψαλμοί, ὕμνοι, φδαί, psalms, hymns, songs, must be fetched from the Jews, who have three sorts of Canticles, first, כזכור from זכר, amputavit, “a concise verse,” which is here called ψαλμός, a psalm; 2dly, תהלה, praise, celebration, depredicating of any thing, which is here ὕμνος, hymn; 3dly, שיר, canticum or cantio, whence is שיר השירים, canticum canticorum, “the song of songs,” and to this answers here the φδαί; and the word πνευματικαί added to it, spiritual or Christian, is both in opposition to the εὖα Βάκχε, and the like drunken, sensual songs and ovations in their Bacchanalia, and perhaps in respect of the χάρισμα then among them, as of praying, so of singing also, by that extraordinary gift of the Spirit, 1 Cor. xiv. 26; see note [f] on Jude.

Ephesians 6:20

(For the maintaining of which I am persecuted, and being imprisoned, do still continue to preach it,) that I may by it be emboldened to speak as I ought, ² to give you such an account of my afflictions and imprisonment as may not afflict, but give you matter of rejoicing.

Ephesians 6:23

I beseech God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, to bestow upon your whole church the grace of peaceableness, and charity, and true faith.

Ephesians 6:24

The blessing of God be on all those that continue constant in their love to Christ, and are not corrupted out of it by any of the baits or seductions of these times: (see note [b] Rev. ii.)

Ephesians 6:30

[h] members of his—] It is the manner of the sacred writers to express a complex body by the enumeration of the several parts of it, as the heaven and the earth for the world, evening and morning for the natural day, and many the like; see note [c] on Col. i, and note [b] on 2 Pet. iii.; and so here his flesh and his bones signifies no more than he: and so the whole importance of the verse is, that we are members of Christ, and nothing else, (see note [d] on John vi.)

Ephesians 6:33

The short is, that by the law of our creation confirmed, and not disannulled, by Christ, and exemplified to us in his dealings with his spouse the church; every Christian husband is bound to account of his wife as of a great part of himself, and accordingly to love and care for her, and she back again, as to the head, behave herself reverently toward the husband.

CHILDREN, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.