Ephesians 2

1 dead. Destitute of real spiritual life, under the power of sinful propensities and habits. To “quicken” is to bring from death to life."

2 the prince of the power (authority) of the air. This is clearly Satan (cp. vi. 12); but there is no exact parallel to this text elsewhere in the New Testament. It suggests an influence that is felt, but not seen, over the whole world, pervading, so to speak, its moral atmosphere: see vi. 12, and notes.

children of disobedience. (Lit., “sons”): according to Hebrew idiom, those having this character.

3 conversation. Rather, “mode of life”: see note on Psa. xxxvii. 14.

others. Rather, “the rest,” as R.V.

4 for His great love. “Because of that great love of His.”

5 even when we were dead in sins (“through our trespasses,” R.V.). To be connected with the following clause, “quickened,” etc.

by grace ye are saved. Rather, “by grace have ye been saved” (R.V.). So also in ver. 8. The apostle here introduces the believer’s actual and present salvation (see Rom. viii. 1) by God’s free favour, as a subject which he could never lose sight of, and which he would have Christians always remember.

6 together. That is, together with Christ, as in 5: cp. i. 20.

heavenly [places]. See note on i. 3.

7 the ages to come. “The ages that are coming”; i.e., through all the future history of the Church.

through Christ Jesus. Rather, “in Christ Jesus”; in whom the riches of Divine grace are treasured up. The repetition of His name shows emphatically that all these blessings are to be found in Him alone.

8 by grace. On the connexion between “grace” as the source, and “faith” as the means of salvation, see notes on Rom. iii. 27; iv. 4, 14.

and that not of yourselves. “And this salvation is not of yourselves.”

10. For we are His workmanship. This is a proof that salvation must be of grace, and not of works; for our renewed nature, with all its actings, is God’s own handiwork; and good works are not the cause of our new creation, but the end of it, provided for beforehand by God Himself.

11. Gentiles in the flesh. “By physical descent” (Speaker’s Commentary).

12 covenants of (the) promise. See note on Rom. ix. 4.

13 sometimes. An antiquated form for “some time”; i.e., “formerly.”

by. Rather, “in.” It is “in Christ,” or more specifically in His blood, His sacrificial death, that you have reconciliation and access to God (16-18).

14. For He is our peace. Here, and in ver. 13, we have an allusion to Isa. lvii. 19 and Micah v. 5; on which see notes. Christ is “our peace” in its widest sense. In reconciling us to God, He makes both Jews and Gentiles one, having in His death put an end to the Mosaic law of rites and ordinances, which separated the Jew from the Gentile, like the partition in the Temple between the court of Israel and the court of the Gentiles.

15 the enmity. That is, the enmity between Jew and Gentile. The “twain” are reconciled to each other, because both are reconciled to God.

17 preached peace. Better, “brought glad tidings of peace.” See Isa. lvii. 19.

20 prophets. A comparison with iii. 5 and iv. 11 seems to show that the “prophets” here spoken of are not those of the Old Testament, but inspired preachers of the gospel: see also Acts xiii. 1; Rom. xii. 6; 1 Cor. xii. 10. “The foundation of the apostles and prophets” may mean, either that which they laid in their ministry, or, that of which (like Peter, through his great confession, Matt. xvi. 16-18) they form a part. In either case, Jesus Christ is the “chief corner stone.”

22 a habitation of God. God, who dwelt in the Temple in visible glory, now dwells in His Church “in the Spirit”: ep. 2 Cor. vi. 16. There is here a marked progression: the Church is not only a state, but a family (19); not only a family, but a temple (21).