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  EPHESIAN STUDIES EXPOSITION
  by Handley C.G. Moule
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Moule's expository studies on Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, treating it as
divine Scripture worthy of careful attention and practical application. He
combines historical background with devotional insight to illuminate this
profound epistle.

  Chapters: 19

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS
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    1. 0.3. Preface
    2. Chapter 01. Introductory
    3. Chapter 02. Greeting, and Praise for Divine Salvation
    4. Chapter 03. The Apostle's Prayer That They May Realize What They Possess
    5. Chapter 04. The Salvation of the Ephesians; An Instance of the Work of Redeeming Grace
    6. Chapter 05. The Ephesians, Once "Remote," Now "Made Nigh," with Eternal Glory in Prospect
    7. Chapter 06. A Digression: The Gospel, and Its World-Wide Scope
    8. Chapter 07. The Main Theme Resumed: Prayer for the Indwelling and the Fulness: Doxology
    9. Chapter 08. A Retrospect and Review
   10. Chapter 09. Holy Results of Heavenly Blessing: Humility, Love, Harmony
   11. Chapter 10. Holy Results of Heavenly Blessing: Diversity and Harmony of Gifts and Service
   12. Chapter 11. Holy Results of Heavenly Blessing: The Old Man and the New
   13. Chapter 12. Holy Results of Heavenly Blessing: Total Abstinence from Sinning in the Forgiven Life
   14. Chapter 13. Holy Results of Heavenly Blessing: The Works of Darkness and the Fruit of Light
   15. Chapter 14. Holy Results of Heavenly Blessing: The Christian's Watchfulness, Temperance, and Song
   16. Chapter 15. Holy Results of Heavenly Blessing: The Christian Home; Husband and Wife
   17. Chapter 16. Holy Results of Heavenly Blessing: The Christian Home: Parent and Child, Master an...
   18. Chapter 17. The Christian Home; Conclusion the Spiritual Conflict
   19. Chapter 18. Salutation: Benediction

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  CHAPTER 1: 0.3. PREFACE
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Preface

"This Epistle is full to the brim of thoughts and doctrines sublime and
momentous. For the things which scarcely anywhere else he utters, these he here
makes manifest." —Chrysostom, Preamble to the Homilies The present Volume
completes a series of expository "Studies" upon the Epistles of St Paul known as
the Epistles of the First Roman Imprisonment. As in dealing with the Epistles to
Philippi, Colossæ, and Philemon, so with this to Ephesus, or more properly (as
we shall see) to Asia, the author has sought, as his one aim, to exhibit
something of the treasures of "edification, exhortation, and comfort," lodged
for us by the Inspiring Master in the wonderful work of the inspired Servant. To
this everything else has been subsidiary, alike the brief historical and
critical introduction and the occasional grammatical discussions. The highest
ambition of the interpreter has been to bring the reader into closer contact
with the "Celestial Letter" itself, and with the mind and message of God in it.
May His mercy be pleased to make some use of the work for His ends in His
Church.

Cambridge, Lent, 1900.


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  CHAPTER 2: CHAPTER 01. INTRODUCTORY
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Chapter 1. Introductory

"Farewell Pembroke Hall, of late myne owne Colledge, my cure and my charge. In
thy Orchard (the wals, buts, and trees, if they could speake, would beare me
witnes) I learned without booke almost all Paules epistles, yea, and I weene all
the Canonicall epistles, saue only the Apocalyps. Of which study, although in
time a great part did depart from me, yet the sweete smell thereof I trust I
shall cary with me into heauen: for the profite thereof I thinke I haue felt in
all my lyfe tyme euer after.’ —Nicholas Ridley, Bishop and Martyr, 1555 ON a
spring day of mingled shower and sunshine, March 5th, 1897, I stepped for the
first time on the shore of Asia. Landing at Smyrna, we travelled by rail, a
large company, from the port through a fine and fertile country, to a roadside
station bearing the name Aya Salouk. At this place we left the train, and for
some hours traversed the neighbouring hills and fields, making our way from
fragment to fragment of a vast scene of ruins. Here was a Byzantine church,
there a track, scarcely to be called a road, bordered with Greek sarcophagi. On
the western side of a commanding hill in the midst of the region was the
grass-grown hollow of a Greek theatre, the steps of the seats still traceable
under the vegetation, the structures of the stage a confused mass of ruin.
Sitting there a little while alone, I looked over the landscape at my feet as it
stretched towards the Gulf of Smyrna and the westering sun. A small river shone
with its broken silver reaches along the middle of the scene, and noble hills
bounded the broad vista, right and left; those on the right, northward, lying at
a considerable distance. Not very far off upon the plain in that direction was
visible, as I moved a little from the nook where I sat, a wide hollow in the
general level, a sort of small sunken field, overgrown with thorn-bushes, and
heaped with the confused of wreckage walls, columns, and steps. A few birds were
singing near me; "the breezy whispers of the hill" were heard in tune with them;
now and then a fellow-traveller’s voice at a little distance was audible;
otherwise the scene was one of beautiful’ but pathetic silence and repose, the
quiet of a vast cemetery of the ancient days.

It was all that remains of Ephesus. Aya Salouk is Hagios Theologos, the Holy
Divine, St John. The place where I sat was once the Theatre where for two long
hours that dense throng stood shouting, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians." And
yonder hollow field, with its thorns and its stones, what is it? It is the site,
determined at last, of the great Temple of Artemis herself, "the Ephesian
Miracle," the world’s wonder, where stood the adored image, grotesque and
barbaric, of the prolific Nature-Power, and along with it the Diopetes, "the
Thing fallen from Zeus," from Jupiter; whatever it was, meteoric stone or not.
There "all Asia and the world" were wont to worship.

Many and heart-moving were the memories which arose during that walk, during
that quiet session in the cavea of the Theatre. But the one commanding and
inspiring memory was St Paul. Here was his well-known Ephesus. Here for the
space of three complete years—a unique length of stationary work for him—he had
lived and laboured, not as the apostolic missionary only but as the apostolic
pastor. Here he had taken that critical and momentous step, the "separation" of
the disciples from the Synagogue to a distinct place of teaching and no doubt of
worship, "the school of one Tyrannus," the lecture-hall, we may suppose, of a
friendly professor in what we may call the Ephesian University. Here he had
laboured, watched, and wept, for both the community and individuals. Here he had
met and influenced visitors from every part of the Asian Province, till his
power for Christ was felt in every district, yes, even in the remote valley of
the river Lycus, from which Laodicean, Hieropolitan, and Colossian citizens,
finding their way to the capital, had been found by Paul’s Lord and won to Him.
Here he had built up the Church till its presbyters were a large group, men of
the Holy Spirit, and devotedly attached to himself as father and leader (Acts
20). Yonder, where the sea shines under the declining sun, he had, on a
memorable occasion, summoned them to meet him at Miletus, and they had obeyed,
travelling probably down the great ship-canal which then connected the spacious
inland haven of the city with the distant coast. And in later years it was to
this Ephesus that the Missionary addressed, from Rome, the wonderful Letter
which we are about to study.

There I sat in 1897, with the Epistle to the Ephesians in my hand. That Epistle
was written not improbably in 63, eighteen hundred and thirty-four years before.
Yet it was new that day; a "fallen leaf that kept its green," its immortal
green; aye, and not fallen either; for its true Author is not dead, though His
servant who wrote the Letter for Him sleepeth. He, and therefore His Word,
"liveth and abideth for ever."

Solemn and inspiring is the contrast, in a case like that of Ephesus, between
the total decay of the place and the everlasting youth and newness of the
Scripture. It has an indescribable pathos, and a heart-searching warning, from
one point of view; but it is full from another of "everlasting comfort, and good
hope through grace." So we approach the Epistle to the Ephesians, for a series
of spiritual "Studies." The word "Studies" I half deprecate while I use it; it
may so easily seem to mean something quite other than what is offered here. It
may suggest original research, critical discussion, minute enquiry. As a fact I
pretend only to provide the reader with a careful paraphrase or running
rendering of the Epistle, accompanied with a simple development of its main
spiritual and practical lessons. But after all I will not apologize for the word
"Studies" in such a connexion. The purely spiritual use of the Holy Scriptures,
if it is what it should be, calls as truly as any critical handling does for
care, for reverent attention, for the watchful while devout use of reason; we
may use the word "Study" for an attempt to read the Bible thus. As we take up
this wonderful writing, let us pause for a few moments to reflect upon the fact
that it is an Epistle, a Letter. Has the reader ever appreciated the
significance, the value, of the fact that so large a mass of the New Testament
is in Letter form? I cannot forbear quoting on this subject. Its importance is
well presented in that masterly book, Canon T. D. Bernard’s Bampton Lectures,
The Progress of Doctrine in the New Testament; a full extract will prove none
too long. The passage is introduced by an enquiry into the place and function of
the apostolic Epistles ("the Apostle," as the Fathers often call them
collectively) in the plan of Revelation. Attention is drawn to the evidence
given by our Lord’s words, and by the nature of the case, to the divine
intention that the Apostles should develope and complete the personal teaching
of their Master; were it otherwise we should (provably) have to face the riddle
of a delivery of doctrine by Christ which assumed, which promised, a sequel and
completion, but never received it. Accordingly we are right to read the Epistles
with the same reverent confidence which we bring to the Gospels and their
Discourses; they are equally, and with a profound purpose, the message of the
King.

Canon Bernard now proceeds[1]:

"The Lord recognized this necessity. He met it by the living voice of His
Apostles; and their Epistles remain as the permanent record of this part of
their work. They are the voice of the Spirit, speaking within the Church to
those who are themselves within it, certifying to them the true interpretations
and applications of the principles of thought and life which as believers in
Jesus they have received.... The form in which this teaching is given to us is
very significant. ’The epistolary form,’ says Bengel, ’is a pre-eminence of the
Scriptures of the New Testament as compared with those of the Old.’ It is a
suggestive remark, reminding us of that open communication and equal
participation of revealed truth which is the prerogative of the later above the
former dispensation; indicating too that the teacher and the taught are placed
on one common level in the fellowship of truth. The Prophets delivered oracles
to the people, but the Apostles wrote letters to the brethren, letters
characterised by all that fulness of unreserved explanation, and that play of
various feeling, which are proper to that form of intercourse. It is in its
nature a more familiar communication between those who are, or should be,
equals. That character may less obviously force upon us the sense, that the
light which is thrown on all subjects is that of a divine inspiration; but this
is only the natural effect of the greater fulness of that light; for so the
moonbeams fix the eye upon themselves, as they burst through the rifts of
rolling clouds, catching the edges of objects, and falling on patches of the
landscape; while under the settled brightness of the genial and universal day,
it is not so much the light that we think of as the varied scene which it shews.

"But the fact that the teaching of the Apostles is represented by their letters,
is a peculiarity, not only in comparison with the teaching of the Prophets, but
with ancient teaching in general, which is perpetuated either in regular
treatises or conversations preserved in writing. The form adopted in the New
Testament combines the advantages of the treatise and the conversation. The
letter may treat important subjects with accuracy and fulness, but it will do so
in immediate connection with actual life. It is written to meet an occasion. It
is addressed to particular states of mind. It breathes the heart of the writer.
In these respects it suits well with a period of instruction in which the Word
of God is to be given to men, not so much in the way of information as in the
way of education; or in other words, in which the truth is to be delivered, not
abstractedly, but with a close relation to the condition of mind of its
recipients. "Thus it is delivered in the Epistles. Christ has been received;
Christian life has been commenced; Christian communities have been formed; and
men’s minds have been at work on the great principles which they have embraced.
Some of these principles in one place, and others of them in another, have been
imperfectly grasped, or positively perverted, or practically misapplied, so as
to call for explanation or correction; or else they have been both apprehended
and applied so worthily, that the teacher... feels able to open out the
mysteries of God.... These conditions of mind were not individual accidents.
Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, supplied examples of different tendencies of
the human mind in connection with the principles of the Gospel—tendencies which
would ever recur, and on which it was requisite for the future guidance of the
Church that the Word of God should pronounce. It did pronounce in the most
effectual way, by those letters which are addressed by the commissioners of
Christ, not to possible but to actual cases, with that largeness of view which
belongs to spectators at a certain distance from the scene, and with that
closeness of application which personal acquaintance dictates and personal
affection inspires." A little below, Canon Bernard speaks of the method of
apostolic teaching, as in perfect harmony with this its form. "It is a method of
companionship rather than of dictation. The writer does not announce a series of
revelations, or arrest the enquiries which he encounters in men’s hearts by the
unanswerable formula, ’Thus saith the Lord.’ He... utters his own convictions,
he pours forth his own experience, he appeals to others to ’judge what he says,’
and commends his words ’to their conscience in the sight of God.’ He confutes by
argument rather than by authority.... Such a method necessarily creates a
multitude of occasions for hesitation or objection; and it has been proposed to
meet these difficulties by the principle that we are bound to accept the
conclusions as matters of revelation, but not to assent to the validity of the
arguments or the applicability of the quotations. The more we enter into the
spirit of the particular passages which have been thought to require that
qualification, the more we feel that it can only have seemed necessary, from a
want of real and deep harmony with the mind of Scripture." The extract is long;
my temptation was to make it longer, so valuable is the whole context. What has
been quoted will be felt, I think, to be altogether to the point as we address
ourselves to the study not only of an Epistle but of this Epistle; so rich in
revelations of the very arcana of the Gospel, yet conveying them in a form so
entirely full of the personality and sympathies of the writer, and with such
close and tender application to the realities of human life. But let us actually
take up the Epistle.

It is not my business here to conduct the reader at length through the question
of its genuineness and authenticity. It will be enough to remind ourselves of a
few outstanding facts in this connexion. We note that the early external
evidence to the Pauline authorship is abundant and absolutely unanimous.
Irenaeus, the learned and careful theologian of the second century, expressly
and repeatedly cites the Epistle, and as St Paul’s. In the patristic literature
as a whole, perhaps no book of the New Testament is more largely quoted. If the
external evidence is inadequate, then we certainly have no adequate evidence
that Virgil wrote the Georgics, or Horace the Odes, or Augustine the
Confessions. And to this let us confidently add the internal evidence.
"Ephesians," says the late Dr Hort, a severely critical student of such a
problem, "bears the impress of St Paul’s wonderful mind" "No one but St Paul
could have been the writer," says the late Dean Howson, a man who, if any man of
our time, had made himself personally acquainted with St Paul. His words will
bear inspection, bold as they are. For what is the problem to be solved,
supposing St Paul not to be author? It is, how to find room within the required
limits for another personality strong and illuminated enough to produce the
Epistle, and at the same time low enough in moral perception to be willing to
pass it off as St Paul’s. It was written, it was reverenced as Scripture, long
before Irenaeus wrote; this leaves no broad margin for the supposed date of the
"great Unknown." And it sounds the depths and climbs without an effort the
heights of Christian idea; the "Unknown" was "great" indeed, great in thought,
great in spiritual insight. And it not only bears the name Paul in its first
sentence; it elaborately interweaves his life and his affections with its whole
texture; it means, beyond a doubt, to pass for his. The human heart protests
against the theory that fabrication, personation, in such a context, is credible
for a moment.

Renan may presume to call the Epistle une épître banale, a third-rate
composition.[2] The criticism, read in the light first of the Epistle itself,
then of the verdict of all Christendom, can only convict the subtle literary
critic of a spiritual paralysis which fatally affects even literary insight
where the theme is spiritual. A greater than Renan, Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
subtlest of critics, and at the same time both philosopher and Christian, in a
single brief sentence pronounces the Epistle to be "one of the divinest
compositions of man."[3] A true testimony, yet after all how inadequate! "A
divine composition of man" is a phrase perfectly justifiable in theory, as used
of a book of Scripture. Yet it rings somewhat out of tune; for the words might
be used to describe a work of sanctified genius which yet made no pretence to be
an oracle of God; and if there is a writing which implicitly claims to be that
or nothing, it is the Epistle to the Ephesians. But Coleridge meant the phrase
soundly, and we may take it so, as one witness among many to that supreme
quality in the Epistle which is an evidence to its origin weightier than even
all the quotations of the Fathers. We have in it the ipsissima verba of the
Chosen Vessel. We receive it, delivered at our doors, as a Letter about Christ’s
glory from the man whom He expressly moulded, conquered and commissioned, to
tell us of Himself and His salvation.

Another question, altogether lower in its importance, but of peculiar interest,
attaches to the Epistle. Is it, after all, an Epistle to the Ephesians? The
reader of only the Authorized Version will be surprised by the question. Is not
the Epistle entitled, To the Ephesians? Does not the first sentence direct it to
the saints which are at Ephesus? It is so; but the margin of the Revised Version
informs us that in that first sentence "some very ancient authorities omit at
Ephesus!" The "authorities" referred to are, among manuscripts, three important
copies, the Vatican, the Sinaitic, and another.[4] But these "authorities,"
considerable as they are, take us up no further, at furthest, than early in the
fourth century, and their weight could not possibly of itself counteract that of
the whole catalogue of other ancient transcripts. What gives it an importance
not its own is that certain of the Fathers, and among them Tertullian, whose
activity began in the second century, give clear indications that they were
aware of a problem attaching to these words. It is certain that Origen in the
third century, and Basil in the fourth, and Epiphanius and Jerome in the fourth
and fifth, knew of many copies of the Epistle, (Basil calls them "the older
copies,") in which the first verse ran, "to the saints which are, and to the
faithful in Christ Jesus." Origen, characteristically, sees a mystery in the
phrase, and thinks that the Apostle is intimating the vital connexion of
believers with the I am; joined to Him, they become "those that are."

Archbishop Ussher in the seventeenth century, and Bishop Lightfoot in our own,
have offered a solution of this phenomenon which appears to combine all the
facts, or almost all. Ussher[5] suggested that the Epistle was indeed "to the
Ephesians," but that it was not intended for them alone. "In some ancient
copies," he writes, "this Epistle was addressed in general terms,... ’To the
saints who are... and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.’ As if the letter had
been sent first to Ephesus, as the chief metropolis of Asia; to be transmitted
thence to the other Churches of the same province, the name of each being
inserted in its instance."[6]

Lightfoot[7] adopts this conjecture of Ussher’s, only emphasizing the
probability that many copies would carry in their address the words "at
Ephesus,"[8] and that in copies made from specimens where a blank was left after
the word "are," that blank would easily disappear.

If I may quote words of my own,[9] in which a summing up of the case has been
attempted: "Something more than I find in Bishop Lightfoot’s remarks seems to be
needed to account for the practically universal tradition of the Ephesian
destination of the Epistle. May not this be somewhat as follows? St Paul did
indeed mean the Epistle for Asia ultimately. But the very close connexion[10]
between Ephesus and the Province led him to address it in the first instance to
Ephesus. But it was to Ephesus not as the mission station but as the provincial
capital; the trustee for the outlying missions. For them transcripts would of
course be made, at Ephesus; and in many of these, if not all, the ἐνἘφέσῳ would
be omitted, perhaps without any substitute; the blank might be supplied at each
place tacitly."

It is obvious to remark, in support of Ussher’s theory, that the Epistle is
singularly devoid of allusions to persons and circumstances in the place to
which it is addressed; and this although Ephesus had been, as we have already
remembered, the scene of a work, more perhaps than any other in St Paul’s life,
pastoral and particular.

If we may return for a moment to our point of view on the ruined steps of the
Ephesian Theatre, and open the Epistle there once more, we must not only scan
the Ephesian plain to call up memories of the first readers of the Epistle; we
must climb behind the cavea to the top of Mount Prion, and survey the vast
horizon, even to the snowy top of the Phrygian Olympus, and think of the copies
which were sped by faithful hands to Smyrna, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, to
Pergamus, to Thyatira, and, not least, to Laodicea, the queen of the valley of
the Lycus, thence to be sent on to Hierapolis and to old Colossæ in its
glen.[11] But now, it comes even unto us. That blank space shall be filled in by
us with the name nearest to ourselves; the land, the church, the town, the home,
which to us makes life to be what it is. And the message sent, from the Roman
prison immediately, from the heaven of heavens ultimately, shall be read as by
those who know that what it says of Christ, of the Church, of grace, of
holiness, of glory, is addressed to us by Paul, and countersigned to us by our
Lord Jesus Christ.

[1]Lect. vi., p. 135, ed. 1873.

[2]Saint Paul,p. xviii.

[3]Table Talk,p. 82, ed. 1852.

[4]The "cursive" copy known as "67 of St Paul,"

[5]Annales N. Testamenti,under the year of the world 4068.

[6]I may be permitted to refer to my edition of Ephesians (Cambridge Bible), and
to myGrace and Truth,pp. 26-33.

[7]See hisBiblical Essays,§ x.

[8]May we not think it very likely that the original document itself, dictated
by St Paul, would do so? We may add that copies for the public use of the Church
would be more likely to be taken from themetropolitanspecimens than from others.

[9]Grace and Truth,p. 32.

[10]It was as a fact singularly close.

[11]SeeColossians 4:16. It is more than probable that "the letter from Laodicea"
means, the copy of "Ephesians" sent there, to be passed on to the minor stations
of the district.


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  CHAPTER 3: CHAPTER 02. GREETING, AND PRAISE FOR DIVINE SALVATION
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Chapter 2. Greeting, and Praise for Divine Salvation Ephesians 1:1-14

"Dark with excess of bright Thy skirts appear, Yet dazzle heaven, that brightest
Seraphim Approach not, but with both wings veil their eyes." —Milton THE Epistle
has been completed in the lodging of St Paul at Rome; it has been carried safely
over sea and land, till it has travelled up from the Ægæan shore, by the long
ship-canal, and found its way to Ephesian hands.

We recollect that it has travelled not alone. Two other apostolic messages go by
the same bearers; a letter to the outlying mission-church of Colossæ, on some
special dangers just now present there and at Laodicea, and a shorter missive, a
note rather than a letter, for an individual Colossian, Philemon; it commends to
him his slave Onesimus, once a runaway and perhaps a thief besides, now
"begotten" to the new life in the miracle of a true conversion, and returning at
all costs to duty. Our reasons for the assertion that these three memorable
Letters were carried by the same hands and at the same time are as simple as
interesting. The Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians are near akin in
respect of subject-matter; the most rapid inspection shews this. Closer
examination tells us that the connexion extends to phraseology as well, in a
degree which makes it quite certain morally that they not only passed through
the same mind but passed through it and from it at about the same time. Let the
reader take the two Epistles, and compare (as a few examples out of many) the
following passages: Ephesians 1:22 with Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 4:16 with
Colossians 2:19; Ephesians 2:1 with Colossians 2:13; Ephesians 1:7 with
Colossians 1:14; Ephesians 4:22-24 with Colossians 3:9-10; Ephesians 5:16 with
Colossians 4:5; Ephesians 5:19 with Colossians 3:16. On a more extended scale,
let him compare the domestic paragraphs of the two Epistles, Ephesians 5:22 to
Ephesians 6:9 with Colossians 3:18 to Colossians 4:1. Then let him note that the
one friend or follower named by St Paul in Ephesians is Tychicus ( Ephesians
6:21), and that this name appears also in Colossians ( Ephesians 4:7), in a
sentence of close verbal similarity. Taking both Epistles as the genuine
utterances of St Paul, we may say with absolute confidence that they belong to
the same moment of his ministry, and were meant for recipients intimately
connected with one another. Then we turn to the letter to Philemon, and we find
abundant evidence for a close relation between it and the letter to the
Colossians. Philemon indeed is not called a Colossian, nor does his name occur
in the Colossian Epistle. But Onesimus (the name of his slave) is "one of the
Colossians" ( Ephesians 4:9). And Archippus, who in the private letter is named
in close connexion with Philemon (Philemon 1:2), receives in Colossians (for who
can doubt the identity of the person, looking at the whole context?) a solemn
charge ( Colossians 4:17). And when St Paul enumerates the other friends around
him as he dictates, and sends their greetings, we find the same names in both
Epistles; Epaphras, Aristarchus, Marcus, Lucas, Demas; only one such name,
"Jesus, who is called Justus" ( Colossians 4:11), fails to occur in the two
documents alike. We are left without a reasonable doubt; the letters to Philemon
and to the Colossians were sent together, and together accompanied that which we
know as the Epistle to the Ephesians.

"To the Ephesians," we may be tolerably sure, it was in the first instance
delivered, whatever its after-destination may have been.[1] To them first it
would be read aloud; see Colossians 4:16 for such a "reading in the church," in
the assembly of the disciples. Perhaps in the "school of Tyrannus," perhaps in
some large private room furnished by a leading disciple, the reader gave to the
listening throng of saints, sentence by sentence, uttered for that first time in
ears representing universal Christendom, this glorious oracle of God through His
chosen Vessel. Can we not almost see the scene, and catch the accent and the
cadence, and watch the audience—perhaps the very large audience—with their eager
faces, and many a look and perhaps many an exclamation of wonder and worship, as
that scroll is slowly opened and, column by column, poured into their ears and
hearts?

Let us take our seat beside them, for we are of the same family, and let us
listen too, as those who have never heard before.

Ephesians 1:1. Paul, apostle of Christ Jesus,[2] envoy of Him who is first the
Hope of Israel and then of the world, through God’s will, commissioned by
nothing less than His fiat, to the holy ones who live at Ephesus and faithful in
Christ Jesus; the men and women separated from sin to God (ἁγίοις) and living
the life of saving reliance (πιστοῖς) in their union with (ἐν) His Son; persons
thus wonderfully enabled for that twofold life which is lived "in Ephesus,"

Ephesians 1:2. externally, "in Christ Jesus," spiritually. Grace to you and
peace, free and benignant divine favour, and its fair resultants of
reconciliation with the Holy One and inward rest through His presence in the
heart, from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. For such is Jesus
Christ, that though He was known, amply within living memory, as dwelling with
men in Palestinian villages and towns, spending human life and dying human death
in uttermost literal experience, yet, as truly as the Eternal Father, He, "this
same Jesus," is the Giver of spiritual gifts to every recipient soul of man.

Such is the Salutation; and perhaps the Reader pauses for a moment in the
assembly. Now for the message:

Ephesians 1:3. Blessed, praised with worshipping love, be the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ; He "who inhabiteth eternity," "dwelling in the light
unapproachable," unknown and unknowable in His "perfection," but knowable, and
known, and near, and dear, in this respect, that our risen Lord called Him, in
human hearing ( John 20:17), "My Father and your Father, My God and your God
"[3]; He whoblessed us (for the Blessed loves to bless, with an act of blessing
"which divinely effects the good it speaks") in, with a purpose expressed in,
all spiritual benediction; spiritual, as shed from Him who "is Spirit" ( John
4:2) upon the inmost spirit of His creatures, for their spiritual birth, and
life, and glory; in the celestial regions, in Christ. Yes, He blessed us as He
sate there, upon the throne of love, viewing us sinners as also there, above all
earthly place, before all human time; for we were represented there already "in"
our blessed Head, in foreseen union with Him. Wonderful benediction! but it is
only in correspondence and harmony with its occasion, which itself was an act of
immeasurable and uncaused love.

Ephesians 1:4. For it took place according as He chose us out, from fallen
humanity, in Him, in Christ; chose us, selected us, His followers, His company
who believe and love; chose us "not according to our works"; for reasons
infinitely good, but hidden wholly in Himself; before the world’s foundation,
aye, before this universe in its most aboriginal beginning began to be. So
sovereign, so sublime, so immeasurably antecedent to ourselves, was that decree
for our salvation; so ante-mundane in date, so supra-mundane in sphere and
scope. And what was to be its issue? That we should be holy and blameless before
His face in love; given, by His love, a perfect "standing" in His presence,
welcomed there in faultless title as His very own.[4] This "choosing out" is to
be described, from another side, as a destination beforehand; a definite divine
intention of privilege and blessing antecedent to the very being of its objects.
For He chose us out,

Ephesians 1:5. marking us out beforehand (προρίσας), writing down as it were our
names for that happy future,[5]to an adoption, an instatement into the position
of sons (υἱοθεσία), through Jesus Christ, unto Himself; for it is "through" the
Son that we reach sonship, and so come to be related "unto" the Father in that
wonderful position; His very own, to belong to Him, to know Him, to serve Him,
"to glorify Him, and to enjoy Him fully for ever." And how came all this to be?
What are we that thus, in an eternity above all time, we were seen, and loved,
and blessed, after this celestial sort? "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good
in Thy sight." It was according to, conditioned and caused by, the good
pleasure, the royal and benignant resolve, of His will—that ultimate mystery and
glory, that secret of good behind all good, the Will of God. And so its issue
was and is to be good indeed, with a good unattainable

Ephesians 1:6. by any lower cause; unto the praise of the glory of His grace; so
that He may receive from His adoring creatures the "praise" due to His "glory,"
His own manifested Character, manifested in this form of entrancing beauty, His
"grace." It is that grace in regard to which[6]He accepted us in His (τῷ)
Beloved One[7]; making us one with Him, as limb is one with head, as bride with
bridegroom, and so giving us real part and lot in Christ’s own welcome to the
Father’s heart.

Thrice blessed by us be the Εὐλογητός, the "Blessed," who thus loved, and chose,
and welcomed. Thrice blessed be the Ἠγαπημένος, the "Beloved," who gave Himself
in that deep eternity to be not only the Deliverer of us sinners, but our Head,
articulating us into Himself, identifying Himself with us for ever. And now we
are not to forget that by the Blessed Father and the Beloved Son this boundless
gift given to us was not wrought by a mere edict, however omnipotent. It was a
matter not of power only, nor even only of love, but of law too; it must
harmonize the holiness of Him who "is consuming fire" with the tenderness of the
same God, who "is love." So now the majestic sentences, like Him of whom they
speak, "come down from heaven," and take us from the Throne to the mortal Cross.
There was no other way, no easier way, to make actual the eternal blessing,
uttered "before the world’s foundation." Were we to be justified, and
sanctified, and glorified? Then must the Father, constrained by His own
holiness, "not spare His own Son, but deliver Him over for us all" ( Romans
8:32). And the Son, under the same constraint, infinitely free of all other
compulsion, but compelled by the fact that love, to be divine, must be holy,
must not spare Himself—" becoming obedient, even to the length of death" ( Php
2:8). So, in Him

Ephesians 1:7. we have our (τήν) redemption; we possess (ἔχομεν) in happy
certainty our position as His rescued ones, rescued by His ransom paid for us;
through His blood, for that was the price; "without blood-shedding, no
remission" ( Hebrews 9:22); without inflicted death, no peace with broken law.
"Remission" it was indeed; the remission, the forgiveness, the wonderful
amnesty, of our trespasses; according to, in the plan and on the immense scale
of, the wealth of His grace, "not grudgingly," but with a "cheerful giving"
correspondent to the boundless resource of His free favour. Did the Father so
purpose and so provide? He also took merciful care in due time to reveal. This

Ephesians 1:8. grace, this loving favour He made overflow (ἐπερίσσευσεν) to us,
from the deep well of His love, in all wisdom and intelligence; that is, He let
it shew itself "in" our being by Him enabled to understand His purpose, to feel
His heart of mercy, to approve and to concur with His redeeming plan, as men
"made wise unto salvation." He "made His

Ephesians 1:9. grace overflow" thus, when He made known (γνωρίσας) to us, in His
Son, and in the Gospel of His Son, the secret (μυστήριον) of His will; that
bright secret, meant not for the darkness but the light, the hidden treasure
which is in fact Jesus Christ; according to, true to the plan of, His good
pleasure, His gracious resolve, which He proposed to Himself in Him (ἐν αὐτῷ),
that is to say, in His Son. For the Son was its place and sphere; it moved and
worked "in" the Son; it was to take effect wholly through Him, and to do so by
bringing us into union with Him. Aye, and the whole process has regard to a
consummation which will indeed take effect "in" Him. It looks forward,

Ephesians 1:10. with a view to the stewardship of the fulness of the seasons.
The Son is the great "Steward" of the Father’s house; the keys of all its life
and history are in His hands. And His "management" will at length conduct the
whole operation to a goal, placed and dated by God’s own prescient wisdom. Then
all the "seasons" of the story of redemption will attain their "fulness," will
be fulfilled, accomplished, so that the actual result shall correspond to the
divine ideal.

What is that ideal? It is the glorification of Christ as the Head of all things;
Centre, Ruler, Life, of whatsoever He has blessed. It is, to sum up all things
in Christ as Head (ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι... εἰς Χριστόν), the things in[8]the
heavens and the things on the earth; the angelic host above, (which also, as
well as we, has in some unknown way felt His gracious power,) and us mortals
here below, "redeemed from the earth"; chosen angels and chosen men; glorious
concentric

Ephesians 1:11. circles around Him the vital Sun.[9]In whom we were as a fact
(καί) taken into the inheritance, so as to become "the Lord’s portion" (
Deuteronomy 32:9), not only in purpose but in act; foreordained as we were, to
this happy position, according to the purpose of Him who is working
everything[10]in us according to the counselof His will; the "counsel" which is
directed full upon

Ephesians 1:12. that wonderful object—upon our being to the praise of His glory,
our being so saved and so transfigured as to win adoring admiration for His
Character seen in our redemption; us, who had hoped, who had trusted, beforehand
in His (τῷ) Christ. The "beforehand" has regard to His Second Coming, when we
"shall appear with Him in glory." Then, finally and fully, we shall be the
occasion for "the praise of His glory." And we shall be what then we shall be,
as having "relied in advance," by faith, not sight, upon His promises, as yet
unfulfilled in their ultimate splendour.

Now the message comes closer to the immediate listeners, the saints of Ephesus.
Hitherto the Apostle has spoken generally of the redeemed. "We," "us," "our,"
have been as inclusive as possible. Now the whole facts of grace and glory are
applied to the particular instance:

Ephesians 1:13. In whom, in Christ the Head, "in" Him by covenant inclusion and
by vital cohesion, you also are,[11] having found entrance into Him on hearing
(ἀκούσαντες) the message of the truth, the Good News of your salvation; in whom
also, on believing, you were sealed with the Spirit of the Promise, the Holy
One; the gifts and power of the Paraclete were made yours at once on your union
with the Christ of God,[12] and their presence and their fruit "sealed" you as
genuine subjects of salvation, and also as the actually purchased property of
your Lord.

Ephesians 1:14. Thanks be to God for that sealing Gift; for it (ὅ) is an
earnest, an arrhâbôn,[13] a part-payment given as promise of the whole, a
pledge, of our inheritance, our coming "weight of glory," pending (εἰς) the
redemption, the final emancipation from the last relics of evil, of the
Acquisition, the purchased Property of God, even us His saved ones; to the
praise of His glory.

We may well pause here for a little while. The golden passage forms so closely
linked a chain that I knew not how to break its continuity by closing our
"study" earlier. But this gold from the celestial mines weighs heavy, with the
weight of mercies, graces, glories unspeakable. Reverently let us lay it down
here, and gaze upon it as it lies, and give thanks in worshipping wonder. A few
links in that chain, radiant even above the rest, we will as it were touch and
handle for a moment.

I. We note the splendid title of the recipients of the letter. They are, "the
saints," the saints who live in Ephesus. The word "saint" shines starry bright
with associations of heaven; habitually, for ages, it has been used in the
Church to denote the glorified. But the usage of Scripture tends rather to
attach it to the pilgrims of the Lord, not yet at home. They already, if His
indeed, are "the holy ones," οἱ ἅγιοι, His votaries, His devotees, for so we may
fairly explain the word. True, they may too often live below what, in Christ,
they are. But let not this pull down the glorious word, as if it were a mere
pale synonym for "member of a community called Christian." Let it rather lift up
the bearer of the title, to recollect its glory, and, in Christ, to live it.

II. Let us recollect with humblest reverence the wonderful words of the Epistle,
that is to say, of the Heavenly Spirit, about the sovereignty of grace. "Blessed
in the celestial regions in Christ"; "chosen out in Him before the universe was
founded"; "foreordained to adoption"; such are some of the phrases in which the
believer is reminded that behind all his believing, and all his receiving, lies
this glowing mystery, the "everlasting love." It is the infinite Free-Will of
God, (even more sacred than the free-will of man;) a purpose and a plan older
than the oceans and the skies. Who does not know the awful-ness of the shadows
that lie close to this glory—the dread questionings of the mind over the
election of God? But these shadows are cast, as shadows always are, by light.
And the purpose of the light is, not to cast shadows but to guide our steps. Do
we indeed believe on the Son of God? Have we indeed been "sealed with the Spirit
of the Promise "? Then let us leave absolutely to the Lord the unknown of the
matter; we shall not be disappointed when He lets us know more about it, another
day. But let us boldly grasp for our strength and joy the known of the matter;
the sovereign grace that lies behind the sinner’s repentance, faith, hope, and
love; the covenant, the purpose, the counsel, the will.

III. Lastly, let us adore and rejoice, as we contemplate the Trinity of Eternal
Love coming forth here "for us men and for our salvation" in the threefold
action of grace. Behold the Father, "God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."
He is no half-adverse Power, needing the persuasions of a more benignant Son to
draw Him over to the side of mercy. He is the Fountain of the whole redeeming
work; blessing, choosing, accepting, working all things in the line of His own
benignant will. Behold the Son, the Beloved One. He gives Himself in the past
Eternity to be already our all-sufficient Representative, so that we were dealt
with even there and then "in Him." He gives Himself, "on earth abased," to
death, to sanguinary death, to shed the streaming blood of sacrifice, that we
might have a redemption as secure as it is merciful, a "forgiveness of sins"
quite as holy as it is divinely generous. He lives to be the "Head" of His
people; their Source of life, their Secret of power, their unifying Centre; and
the day is coming when that Headship will be seen as the centre of a whole
Universe of holy life. Look again, and behold the Spirit!

"Behold Him dwell in all the saints, And seal the heirs of heaven."

He comes, the Promise of the Father. Contact, in humblest faith, with Christ
implies reception of the Spirit, the Lord, the Life-giver, the Sanctifier. And
He is the Pledge of a "glory to be revealed in us," before whose brightness not
only "the sufferings of this present time" but its experiences of grace will so
fade in the comparison that it will be as if they had scarcely been at all. "The
purchased possession" of our God will be so emancipated then into the eternal
freedom that it will be as if its "redemption" had but just been achieved.

Great and wonderful are the promises. It is undertaken for believing sinners
that here they shall be, in the Beloved One, the very "sons of God," walking and
pleasing Him. It is undertaken for them that hereafter, when their Lord’s time
shall come, they shall "appear with Him in glory," such a glory that "it doth
not yet appear what they shall be." "How can these things be?" The effect is
great; but the Cause is greater.

"Of Father, Son, and Spirit we Extol the threefold care, Whose love, whose
merit, and whose power, Unite to lift us there."

"Tout vient de Dieu, et l’homme n’en a pas moins quelque chose a faire. C’est au
nom de ceux qui croient que l’Apôtre rend grâces. C’est ceux qui croient qui
sont prédestinés, qui sont élus, qui sont bénis, qui sont reḉus en grâce, qui
sont faits héritiers, qui sont scellés du Saint-Esprit, qui sont réservés pour
la rédemption finale. Lecteur, avez-vous cru? En êtes-vous bien sûr?" —Adolphe
Monod.

[1]See above, Chapter 1.

[2]This is the best attested order here, not "Jesus Christ." It is peculiar to
St Paul.

[3]Note that this infinitely precious designation of Him occurs also verbatim2
Corinthians 1:3,1 Peter 1:3.

[4]I venture, though not without hesitation, to recommend this interpretation of
the wordsεἶναι...ἐνἀγάπῃ. It is obviously possible to explain them not of
thepositionbut rather of theconditionof the saints, as that condition will be
finally perfected by grace. But the context seems to plead rather for the other
reference; the emphasis of the context is upon our welcome to all the love of
the Father just because of our most mercifully givenunion with the Son.See
further, note here in theCambridge Bible.

[5]The Latin versions of the New Testament give the wordsprædestinare,
prædestinatio,forπροορίζειν,προόρισις. By an accident of language, "destiny"
(destinatio) has come to be connected in thought with blind, impersonal,
mechanicalfate.And nothing can be further than that idea from theπροόρισιςof
infinite love and wisdom (quite as much as of infinite power). Hence, for
ordinary purposes, the wordpredestinationis to be used sparingly, and with
explanation; "foreordain," "mark out beforehand," are better phrases for
practical use. But this is not to sweep away the mystery of the thing; it is
only to remind us that the mystery, "dark with excess of bright," a sovereign
"choosing," "ordaining," and "blessing," of us unworthy sinners, in Christ, is
in the hands of personal and infinitely trustworthy Love.

[6]Ἧςstands by "attraction" forἥν. See againbelow,Ephesians 1:8.

[7]Read,ἧςἐχαρίτωσενἡμᾶς, κ.τ.λ.. I venture to retain the A.V. rendering
forἐχαρίτωσεν. It is indeed rather a paraphrase than a rendering, but the
context seems to justify it. "Made us recipients of grace" would properly
renderἐχαρίτωσενἡμᾶς. But the context tends to suggest the "grace" specially
ofacceptance; God’s love expressing itself specially in a paternalwelcome.

[8]Perhaps readτὰ ἐπὶτοῖς οὐρανοῖς, lit. "onthe heavens"; the heavens regarded
as a country "on" which walk the glorified. Cp. the adjectiveἐπουράνιος.

[9] It will be seen that I so far limit theτὰπάνταas to refer the words not to
existence in its universality but to the "things" which the context suggests. In
that light, the reference is not, surely, to the universe at large. Meanwhile
Colossians 1 gives a notable intimation of the fact that the Son of God is the
"Head" also of the whole created Cosmos.

[10]Τὰπάνταἐνεργοῦντος:Τὰπάνταis theπάνταin question, the all-thingsof
salvation.Ἐνεργεῖνsuggestsby its form the rendering given above, the "inward"
working of God in the soul and in the Church. But usage forbids us to press this
without reserve.

[11]Ἐνᾧκαὶ ὑμεῖς: the above rendering is grammatically safe, and simplifies an
otherwise complex construction. Still, in view of St Paul’s often complicated
style (complicated by a boundless fulness of matter) itmaybe well to explain the
Greek as if he had intended to write, simply, "In whom you too, believing, were
sealed"; but had then conceived the thought expressed in the
clausesἀκούσαντες...σωτηρίαςὑμῶν, and woven this in as he went. The general
import, however, is but little affected by the doubt.

[12]Those gracious gifts may indeed need the believer’s constantly
advancinguse,and his growing discovery of what they are. But in covenant
provision they arehis at once"in Christ."

[13]To this day in Palestine the wordarraboonis used of such payments, e.g. in
the hire of a conveyance.


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  CHAPTER 4: CHAPTER 03. THE APOSTLE'S PRAYER THAT THEY MAY REALIZE WHAT THEY POSSESS
========================================================================

Chapter 3. The Apostle’s Prayer That They May Realize What They Possess
Ephesians 1:15-23

"Dieu est bon et Dieu est puissant, il veut et il peut: deux petits articles,
qui renferment tout ce qui peut consoler une âme. Heureux qui les croit
reellement." —Adolphe Monop

ST PAUL has led us up to the heavens for the facts of eternal redemption. He has
led us down again to Asia for the certainty of the possession of its blessings
by the converts there. But even so his thought cannot rest. Nothing can satisfy
him short of the assurance that those converts are fully "possessing their
possessions" ( Obadiah 1:18). His soul goes up for them in warm thanksgiving,
but also in prayer, strong and importunate, that they may know, with a
supernatural insight, where they are and what they have.

It must be so, the Gospel being what it is. The life eternal is "to know the
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent"

( John 17:3). They who have it are indeed to "rest and be thankful," in respect
of the Rock beneath their feet; they are to taste, and to evidence, the deep
repose born of the discovery of the Summum Bonum itself. But they are to be
thankful and never to rest in respect of the realization of what they have
discovered. "He who says Enough" writes Augustine somewhere, "is already a lost
man." If the Christian man is indeed one who has caught a genuine glimpse of
"the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" ( 2 Corinthians 4:6), how can he
not be sure that he has still before him indefinitely greater discoveries there,
"from glory to glory"? His root is settled, and for ever; he will never find a
substitute for the Cross. But his branches will extend themselves, and for ever,
in that place of root and rest, to receive more and more the living powers of
the light and air around, and to bring forth more fruit and yet more for the
heavenly Planter.

Ephesians 1:15. On this account, because so great and wonderful is your
redemption, so heavenly in its origin, so divine in its possibilities, so full,
so present, I also, I as well as others who love you and pray for you, on
hearing, as I have done, (it was no doubt through Epaphras of Colossæ,) of the
faith, the reliance, prevalent among you (καθ’ὑμᾶς), in the Lord Jesus, resting
in Him as anchor rests in ground,[1]and of the love[2]which you shew towards all
the saints, all your fellow-believers, that love which is the sweet fruit of
faith the living

Ephesians 1:16. root; am incessantly giving thanks on your behalf, making
mention of you[3]on occasion of (ἐπὶτῶν, at the times of) my prayers, naming you
before the throne of grace, individually or collectively; asking that you may
know more, because you have much, and have already learnt to use your wealth so
well. In another moment, he will be telling them what are the terms and special
directions of his petition. Let us prepare ourselves to listen the better by
recollecting how beautifully characteristic of him is this line of address. In
seven of his Epistles besides this he speaks to the recipients first about his
glad thanksgivings, and then about the prayers which, as it were, spring out of
them. Writing to Rome ( Romans 1:8), he "thanks his God through Jesus Christ for
them all, that their faith is spoken of throughout the whole world," and "makes
mention of them without ceasing in his prayers." To the Corinthians ( 1
Corinthians 1:4) he writes how he "thanks God always on their behalf for the
grace of God which is given them in Christ Jesus," and then prays that they may
grow in the grace of holy unity of spirit. He "thanks God upon every remembrance
of" the Philippians ( Php 1:3), "always in every prayer for them all making
request with joy." For the Colossians ( Colossians 1:3) he "gives thanks to God
and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for them, that they may
be filled with the knowledge of His will." To the Thessalonians, earliest
recipients of his Epistles, he writes repeatedly of his thanksgivings: "We give
thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers" ( 1
Thessalonians 1:3); "We thank God for you without ceasing" ( 1 Thessalonians
2:13); "We are bound to thank God always for you, because your faith groweth
exceedingly, and the love of you all towards each other aboundeth; wherefore
also we pray always for you... that the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be
glorified in you and you in Him" ( 2 Thessalonians 1:3, 2 Thessalonians
1:11-12); "We are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth" ( 2 Thessalonians 2:13).
For Philemon 1:4; Philemon 1:6 he "thanks God, making mention of him always in
his prayers... that the communication of his faith may become effectual" as a
witness for his Redeemer. To his beloved Timothy, writing under the shadow of
the end, he blends thanks and yearning into one pathetic thought ( 2 Timothy
1:3): "I thank God... that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my
prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see thee."

Everywhere we find the deep sympathy which rejoices and is grateful over the
attained and present blessing. Everywhere also appears that holy insight which
cannot rest without the spiritual progress and full consistency of those who
call out the thanksgivings. The Prayers of St Paul have been made the subject of
extended spiritual treatises. The study of them can never be complete without
the study also of their connexion with his Thanksgivings. But now, how does his
soul go up in prayer for the richly-blest recipients of this Letter? He prays
that they may have supernatural light shed upon the gold of their supernatural
wealth:

Ephesians 1:17. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, His God, inasmuch as He,
the Son, took the created Nature to Him, and became Son of Man,[4]the Father of
the glory, Origin of all that is meant by heavenly and holy glory, all divine
holiness, might, majesty, beauty; above all, the Father of Him who is the true
Shechinah, "the Lord of Glory," crucified and risen; may give you, as His
promised Gift, the Spirit[5]of wisdom and unveiling, the Holy One who imparts
new insight and lifts the veil higher and higher from the fair face of the
eternal Love, in full knowledge (ὲνἐπιγνώσει) of Him, of this ever-blessed
Father, "whom to know is to live."[6] For philosophy comes to man with the
message, Know thyself; the Gospel meets him also with the far more glorious and
fruitful watchword, Know thy God.[7] Yes,

Ephesians 1:18. may He grant you this, granting you illumination of the eyes of
your heart,[8] that is of all your inner powers, alike of affection, thought and
will, so that on the whole "inner man" shall shine the smile of "the Father of
Glory"; with a view to your knowing, with a deep and developed insight and
experience, what is the hope of His calling, the eternal prospect opened up when
He effectually calls man to union with Himself in Christ[9]; and what is the
wealth of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, the rich, boundless life
destined, in the final state, for those whom "He hath chosen for His own
inheritance" ( Psalms 33:12), His "purchased possession," His "acquisition"
(above, Ephesians 1:14); so that His property is, as it were, lodged "in" them;
and

Ephesians 1:19. what is the surpassing greatness of His power, in the whole
process of salvation, both in sanctification now and beatification in eternity,
that power which is put forth towards us, the believing ones, and so the
recipients of a strength not our own. And what is the scale, the measure, of
"the greatness of that power"? It is according to, to be calculated by, the
working of the strength of His might, (for only such accumulations

Ephesians 1:20. of phrase can indicate its energy,) which working He put forth
in His (τῷ) Christ, "in" Him as its sublime Object, raising Him from the dead,
and seating[10]Him on His right hand, as Sharer of His

Ephesians 1:21. throne, in the heavenly regions; far above[11]every government,
and authority, and power, and lordship, all ranks and orders of celestial
greatness in "the mighty kingdoms angelical"[12]; aye, and every name that can
be named (ὀνομαζομένου) with fame and awe, not only in the present Age but also
in the coming, the Age of the everlasting Life ( Mark 10:30); so that in that
"world" also the exalted Christ of God will be "the Prince of the Kings," not of
earth only ( Revelation 1:5) but

Ephesians 1:22. of heaven; and all things, the whole created universe, He did
put under His feet, in that great "act and deed" of exaltation. Its full
realization awaits indeed the hour of His final triumph, but in the fiat of the
Father it is already fact So this wonderful Risen One sits supreme on "the
throne of God and of the Lamb" ( Revelation 22:1), Commander of the hosts of
angelic loyalty, and Conqueror of all the dark powers of rebellion, who are
destined for "His footstool." And now, what of man, what of us believers, what
of our company and body? The Christ, thus related to the angelic Universe, has
received a mighty exaltation in regard of us and our salvation: And Him,[13] Him
and no other, He gave as Head, as at once Chief to rule and Life-Centre to
vivify, over all things, infinitely above all other imaginable claimants to
Headship, for the Church, the human Company joined and organized into communion
by spiritual union with

Ephesians 1:23. Him; that Church which is His Body, as He is its Head; His Body,
as animated by His life, and the tangible vehicle and implement of His thought
and will; that Church which is the Fulness, the Fulfilment, the Realization of
the grace, power, and glory of Him, this blessed Christ, who is richly
filling[14]all things in all; the Replenisher of all the capacities for blessing
of all His members.

"What shall we say then to these things?" Perhaps the first and best response is
the Amen of holy silence. May I even suggest to the reader (and to myself) that
after the perusal of such a passage we should on purpose be quiescent for a
time, not from thought altogether, but as much as may be from discursive
thought? Let us "sit before the Lord," and be still and passive. These sentences
were written first and supremely to be believed, received, and—in a worshipping
and serving life—lived out. Let us hear them, in a hush of the soul, without
haste, and without talk. But in due time it is our part to examine and to
remark, "What shall we say then to these things?"

I. First, assuredly, let us note and admire this great phenomenon, the glory of
the Christ of God, who was dead, and is upon the throne. Think of the paradox.
The Apostle is speaking of a Personage of history, of recent, of almost
contemporary, history. He had once, at Jerusalem, met and conversed with a
Galilean religious teacher, "James, the Lord’s brother" ( Galatians 1:19). That
man was a member of the same family circle, in a small town of Northern
Palestine, with "Jesus, which is called Christ." In the same sense in which
James was brother of Jesus, Jesus was brother of James. It was notorious that
Jesus had been an inhabitant for several years of such a district and such a
town, and that He was related to such and such people, men and women, by ties of
blood and ties of law. He had worked with His hands, He had walked from place to
place like other men, and many could no doubt accurately describe His look and
manner when He talked. At last He had died, under circumstances profoundly
impressive indeed, but still such as were also matter of human procedure;
circumstances which had called in the prosaic authority of a Roman magistrate
and the physical force of Roman soldiers. Well, but to the writer of this
letter, while all these aspects of "Jesus, the brother of James," are present to
his mind, what is this same Jesus on the other hand? With quite the same
certainty, as a matter of quite equal fact, He is now "seated at the right hand
of"

Almighty God, on His very throne, "in the heavenly regions," "aloft above" all
the ranks and orders of the powers of heaven. He is the ruling and life-giving
"Head" of a vast multitude of human beings who absolutely belong to Him, and
absolutely live by Him. They are His Body; they exist, collectively, to be His
limbs and implements. They are "His Fulness," the Pleroma in which this sublime
Person actualizes His will. He is their "Fulfiller"; all that is receptive of
spiritual life and power in them, it is He who makes it and keeps it full.

He is such that He is the Source of all grace, and the Hope of all glory, for
fallen man. Yet He was also "the brother of James." Paul knows all about Him in
both characters.

God, the Son of God; Man, the Son of Man! It is the old truth of the Creed, old
and eternal. But, that we may grasp it the more firmly and comprehensively, let
us recollect it thus once more in its light as a fact of history. Look at it as
it was to St Paul and to those first disciples. And, as you read the Apostle’s
words about Christ glorified, words glowing indeed, but absolutely sane and
practical in manner, reflect upon the self-evidencing tone of the whole
utterance. Here is either the very wildest delusion ever generated by a
disturbed brain, or—the Incarnation of the Eternal Word. And it is not usual in
history to find wild delusions, by their originators, or first victims, stated
in terms of majestic tranquillity, and at the same time applied to the very
highest and the most practically beneficial ends in human life.

"God manifest in Flesh" is fact.

II. Then, "feeling the rock beneath our feet," assured yet again that we are not
"following cleverly devised myths" ( 2 Peter 1:16), we look up into heaven,
where this wonderful "brother of James" is seated. The "region," to use that
noble old word, is seen full of hosts and ranks of light around Him. "Thrones,
Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers," behold them there.[15] It is indeed a
scene of power; "His Angels, that excel in strength"; we trace their
irresistible steps in many a scene of the story of Redemption. But they are "all
His servants." "Angels and authorities and powers are made subject unto Him";
with a subjection in which they find their eternal law of liberty and joy. What
then is He, so "far aloft above them"? Is He not to us, poor things on earth,
"throned inaccessible"? Wonderful thought, it is so far from being thus that we
are here called in to make the crown and climax of His prerogatives and glories.
For what has the Apostle to tell us about Him as His last and highest function
"at the Right Hand"? It is that He is given to be Head above all things—to the
Church, to the Assembly, the Community of men, men once "dead in trespasses and
sins," and still exposed to all the temptations and all the sorrows of time, and
still compelled to cry, "Enter not into judgment with Thy servants, O Lord."

Yes, this is here given as the final glory of the infinitely exalted Christ.
Angels and archangels are subject unto Him. But believing men are joined to Him,
with a union such that He and they, by this same messenger of His, are called
elsewhere ( 1 Corinthians 12:12) one "Christ."

"What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?" ( Psalms 8:3). In himself, he is
the mere creature of the sovereign will. Of himself, as he has ruined himself,
he is a sinful wreck. But in the Christ of God, man is a being raised to the
heavenly regions, living by the life of his Head, crowned with glory and honour.
"And it doth not yet appear what he shall be."

III. Lastly, in this passage we have men, these greatly favoured men, presented
to us not individually but in community. The Christ is "given as Head to the
Churchy His "Body" is the Church. The Church is His Pleroma, His Plenitude, the
sphere in which His blessed attributes are to be realized and displayed through
the graces of His people.

It is a momentous word, Church, Ecclesia. Around it many a great controversy has
been fought. Claims have been advanced in its name, as by the Roman power, but
not by it only, which would make it as it were an almost substitute for the
Lord. It has been presented as a vast organized republic, or oligarchy, or
monarchy, worked and managed through an elaborate machinery of human officers.
So given, the word Church has too often been the motto for repression and
persecution. The individual conscience has been too often overawed and
browbeaten because of it. Individual spiritual history, individual access to
God, individual work and witness for Him, has again and again been discredited
and hindered under the maxims of "corporate life," "Church life," and supposed
necessary principles of Unity. It has come in many quarters to be assumed or
asserted that a unity of order is a more important thing than a close adherence
to scriptural conclusions about the individual’s acceptance before God in Christ
and spiritual conformity in life to Him. By an inevitable reaction the word
Church has become to many Christians an unwelcome and distasteful word, hard and
narrow, beclouded with ideas of officialism, I had almost said of bureaucratic
tyranny. In view of both the distortion and the reaction against it the Church
doctrine of this Epistle is inestimably precious. The word Church occurs
frequently. We have it here, in a connexion high as the heavens, and full of the
very deepest spiritual suggestions. We have it below, Ephesians 3:10, where "the
Church" is beheld as the scene in which, even now, "the governments and the
authorities in the celestial regions" get informed of "the variegated wisdom of
God, according to His purpose of the ages." We have it again Ephesians 3:21,
where "glory" is given to the Eternal Father, "in the Church, in Christ Jesus,"
throughout eternity. And in the fifth chapter ( Ephesians 5:23, Ephesians 5:24,
Ephesians 5:25, Ephesians 5:27, Ephesians 5:29, Ephesians 5:32) we have it set
fully before us as the Bride and Spouse of the Lord Himself. He is the Church’s
Head, the Saviour of the Body; it is subject to Him, with wifely reverence; He
loved it, He gave Himself for it, to hallow it, to cleanse it "by the bathing of
the water attended by an utterance," to present it to Himself glorified,
spotless, holy. He nourishes it and cherishes it. He and His Spouse are one.

Here is on the one hand an Ecclesia which is lifted for our view far above mere
terrestrial and visible limitations. The one allusion to the external is the
reference to "the water," but even this is at once connected so with the
"utterance" (ῥῆμα) of the everlasting Covenant as to point us straight through
the ordinance to the heavenly blessing which it seals. The whole conception
soars in the high air of direct spiritual relations between the Lord and a
redeemed Company whose units are all joined in an ineffable reality of faith and
love to Him, and so member to member. We may call it the Ideal Church. We may
call it the Invisible, in the sense of invisibility which points to an Organism
seen in its true limits and relations by God alone. But however, it is a
something which refuses to be really identified with any one organization, or
aggregate of organizations, officered and tabulated by human ministers. It is
related more nearly, may we not say? to heaven than to earth. It is, in its
essence, with Christ where He is. It is the wonder of angels. It is the sphere
within which glory is given to God as much in eternity ( Ephesians 3:21) as in
time. It (not parts of it, but it) is to be presented to its Lord at last in the
heavenly light. Let us beware of lowering the radiant sublimity of the
conception by definitions of the Church essentially conditioned by time.

Meantime, we have a correction here to any mere individualism in Christian life
on earth. The individual’s spiritual blessings are here shewn to us as
profoundly connected, for their true development, with his recollection that he
is not an isolated entity but the limb of a Body, of a Bride. He is intended as
truly to live not unto himself but unto others as he is intended to live unto
the Lord. And as regards a true place, in our thought about the Church, for
temperate ideas of visible cohesion and order, we have a deep suggestion here.
It lies in the words which describe the Church as the Body and the Plenitude of
Christ. For those words suggest that the Church exists not only to enjoy mystic
union with Him but to be of practical service to Him. And that thought, though
it can never justify narrow definitions of the Church, must assuredly always
bear towards all possible practical cohesion, with a view to co-operation, among
its members. To adjust with perfect logic the ideal of the Ecclesia, that is to
say its ultimate truth, with a right understanding of the possible in organized
and united Christian life, is, I hold, beyond our power. But the Church doctrine
of our Epistle will be a safe and holy guide to us in the direction of
adjustment.

"Hail, glorious Head of all Thine own, Our equal Source of peace and power;

Thou for our sins didst once atone, Thou art our Life of Life this hour.

"Then, Lord, in strong communion still, O bind us faster, to be free, * Thou
working out by us Thy will, We working out Thy will by Thee."

[1]For the construction cp.Mark 1:15,πιστεύετεἐν τῷεὐαγγελίῳ, andJeremiah
12:6(Septuagint),μὴπιστεύσῃςἐν αὐτοῖς.

[2]Some very important MSS. (A Bℵ*) omit the wordsτὴνἀγάπην, and thus
referπίστινto "the saints" as well as to the Lord. But the external evidence for
retention is strong.All the chief ancient versionsgive the words, and so do the
uncial MSS. D3G2, and the immense majority of "cursive" mss. And it is surely
very unlikely that St Paul, who writes, to the Colossians (i. 4),τήν
πίστινὑμῶνἐν Χρ.Ἰησοῦκαὶτὴνἀγάπην τὴν εἰς πάντας τούς, should in this Epistle,
perhaps on the same day, have varied that natural phrase for one so difficult
(giving two senses ofπίστιςin one clause) as this. An early mistake of
transcription is the probable cause of the various reading here.

[3]The wordὑμῶνis probably to be omitted, but we must supply it mentally.

[4]So that He not only cried "Eli, Eli," upon the Cross, but on one memorable
occasion, at Sychar (John 4:22), called Himself aworshipper: "We know whatwe
worship."Yet He receives worship addressed to Himself with all the calm majesty
of the supreme King (John 20:29).

[5]Lit. "a spirit,"πνεῦμα, notτὸπνεῦμα: and so the Revised Version. But I
venture to retain the Authorized Version. In the case of great and well-known
words, such asΘεός, Κύριος, the article is often omitted as unneeded for
definition. So, if I read aright, it often is withπνεῦμα.

[6]Quem nosse vivere; the ancient original (in a prayer of cent. v.) of the
beautiful phrase in the Morning Collect of the English Church, "in knowledge of
whom standeth (consisteth) our eternal life."

[7]I quote from Adolphe Monod, in his excellent Commentary on the Epistle. He
says (referring to Pascal in a note),"La philosophie, prennant nécessairement
l’homme pour centre, lui a dit: Connais-toi; mais la Parole inspirée, pouvant
seule partir de Dieu, a seule aussi pu dire: Connais Dieu; et cette connaissance
renferme, avec l’unique connaissance salutaire de nous-mêmes et de notre misère,
celle de l’unique remède capable de la réparer."

[8]Πεφωτισμένους τοὺςὀφθαλμούς: lit. "the eyes
illuminated."—Readκαρδίαςcertainly.—"Heart" in Scripture "includes intelligence
without excluding affections."

[9]Κλῆσις: the word in the Epistles probably refers not only to the general
benignant invitation of the Gospel but to the voice of grace as it
mercifully—not forces but—decidesthe will for God. See particularly1 Corinthians
1:24, where the Apostle draws a marked distinction between the rejecting and
hostile hearers of the Gospel and theκλητοί, who find Christ to be all in all.
Archbishop Leighton, on1 Peter 2:9, writes of the inner call: "It is an
operative word, that effects what it bids. God calls man; He works with him
indeed as a reasonable creature; but sure He likewise works as Himself, as an
almighty Creator. His call... doth, in a way known to Himself, twine and wind
the heart which way He pleaseth." So, "whom Hecalled,them He justified, and...
glorified" (Romans 8:28).

[10]Read

[11]Ὑπεράνω: the wordmaymean merely "above," by general usage. But St Paul’s
marked love for compounds withὑπέρ, to energize ideas, makes it certain
that"farabove" is the right rendering here.

[12]I borrow the phrase from an isolated paragraph in S. T. Coleridge’sOmniana:
"To Thee Cherubim and Seraphim continually do cry.The mighty kingdoms angelical,
like the thin clouds at dawn, receiving and hailing the first radiance, and
singing and sounding forth their blessedness, increase the rising joy in the
heart of God, spread wide and utter forth the joy arisen, and in innumerable
finite glories interpret all they can of infinite bliss."

[13]Αὐτόνis emphatic by position.

[14]Πληρουμένου: the middle voice enriches and deepens the idea.

[15]Surely the Apostle is here affirming, though passingly, the real existence
ofἀρχαί,ἐξουσίαι,δυνάμεις,κυριότητες, and not merely taking up the terms of an
unauthorized angelology to brush those terms away. In a passage like this, the
glory of the Saviour may be said todemand the realityof the existences over
which He is said to be supreme. The majestic line of Milton quoted above has
learning in it as well as poetry. It is based on the "Celestial Hierarchy,"
written under the name of "Dionysius the Areopagite," cent. v. or vi.
"Dionysius" ranked the Orders, down from the highest, in threeTrines;Seraphim,
Cherubim, Thrones; Dominations, Virtues, Powers; Principalities, Archangels,
Angels.


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  CHAPTER 5: CHAPTER 04. THE SALVATION OF THE EPHESIANS; AN INSTANCE OF THE WORK OF REDEEMING GRACE
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Chapter 4. The Salvation of the Ephesians; An Instance of the Work of Redeeming
Grace Ephesians 2:1-10

"La connaissance de Dieu sans celle de notre misère fait l’orgueil. La
connaissance de notre misère sans celle de Jésus-Christ fait le désespoir. Mais
la connaissance de Jésus-Christ nous exempte et de l’orgueil et du désespoir,
parce que nous y trouvons Dieu, notre misère, et la voie unique de la réparer."
—Pascal OUR last Study was much occupied "concerning Christ and the Church."
First the glory of the Lord, the Head, then the transcendent privileges of His
true Body, "the blessed Company of all faithful people"—these were our lines of
contemplation. We sought to follow the Apostle along them, not only to learn,
but also to worship and to pray. For we found him addressing the Ephesians not
as the lecturer or expositor, but as the evangelist whose soul burned with
thanksgiving for the victories of grace among them, and who also, who therefore,
prayed with intense supplication that they might realize yet more what they
possessed in being joined in that Body to that Head.

He has by no means exhausted the theme. There is a great deal yet to be said
about salvation in general, and the Ephesians’ salvation in particular. Among
other things, he has to dilate upon the miracle of mercy in the matter; the
converts are to be reminded what they have been delivered from, as well as what
they have been lifted into. The must be led to look down again into the pit,
into the grave, from which grace called them out and set them free. So shall
they be both the happier and the more secure, because the more humble, on the
astonishing height to which that grace has borne them up, "seating them in the
heavenly regions," where their Lord is set.

Thus we come to one of the great evangelic passages of the whole New Testament,
deeply characteristic of the primeval Gospel in its essence. For never for a
moment does the Gospel, in its eagle-flights into the sky of grace and glory,
forget the wonder, the miracle, the mercy, of our having access to that sky at
all. "Other Gospels, which are not other," may and often do ignore that side of
things, till we hear little about the horror, guilt, and doom of man’s sin, and
the absolute gratuitousness of the grant of a rescue from it. We might almost
think of man, of "humanity," as they present him, rather as of an unfortunate
traveller upon some bye-road of the universe, fallen among thieves, "more sinned
against than sinning," cruelly robbed and maimed, with nothing to blame but his
enemies and his circumstances; so that the supreme King stands in some sense
obliged to redress him, and to recover him, and to comfort him after his long
calamities. Is not this, too often, not the language to be sure but the spirit
of what passes current as Christian teaching? But it is not the Gospel of the
Lord and His Apostles. True, while they ply no high-flown rhetoric about "the
enthusiasm of humanity," they do unfold in radiant colours "the philanthropy of
God our Saviour" ( Titus 3:4); the love of God for "the world" ( John 3:16); the
movement of the eternal Heart towards the human Nature made in the divine Image.
But all this goes close along with the unceasing recollection that that nature
has itself fallen by its own iniquity, and lies not only wounded but guilty on
the wayside. Man is not merely a sufferer; he is a runaway, a criminal, a rebel,
a conspirator. Eternal Love regards him. But eternal Law, lodged in the same
Will with eternal Love lays its arrest upon him, and shews the death-warrant.
And meanwhile, as part of the phenomenon of man’s mysterious self-ruin, he lies
there not only guilty and arrested, but alienated and resisting still. His
destruction of himself expresses itself above all in this—that, in the Fall, he
does not love God, he does not choose God. He "forsakes his own mercy." He lays
the blame anywhere but on his own head. He loves himself best. Of himself, he is
not contrite, penitent, submissive, believing. He is dead to his true life,
which is to know God in His redeeming Son.

Let us ask for an entire sympathy with God’s law against ourselves as guilty,
and for just such a sight of ourselves, as self-alienated from love of the
eternal Love, as shall make us feel the mercy of salvation. Only so, I dare to
think, shall we ever fully respond to the real message of the New Testament. It
is written ( Acts 5:31) of our glorified Saviour that He is "exalted, to give
repentance and remission of sins," not one gift only, but the two. And
repentance means little if it does not mean the complete renunciation of the
dream of self-wrought claims, and the recognition of salvation as wonderful
mercy, from first to last.

I linger upon this side of truth, not as if I could forget the glorious other
side; what would life be without it? But I am sure that this side is what the
Christian world is forgetting far and wide, while salvation is either taken all
too indolently, (a very different thing from taking it simply,) or is
practically put aside as what "humanity" can do without. In the course of my
ministry I have known impressive examples to the point; one such is present to
me at this hour. I have seen hearts actually resist and reject the most
benignant offers made by Jesus Christ, in His character of Mediator and
Advocate, because God ought not to need an Advocate for His unfortunate
"children"; He ought to keep them safe, and bring them home. So it thought, that
heart, a little while ago. But now, drawn by a grace divine indeed, it has come
to see itself, in the light of an infinite Holiness; and lo, the perplexities
and the resistance have fallen like leaves from the autumnal trees, and the
"anxious enquirer" has asked that very old-fashioned question, What must I do to
be saved? And the glory of Christ has shone upon the whole being, and repentance
has kindled into joy unspeakable and full of glory.

Let us be sure of it, that species of joy is inseparably connected with "the
broken and contrite heart." Let the Church come to be strange to the experience
of conviction of sin; it will come to be equally strange to that of "joy in God
through our Lord Jesus Christ." Let the Gospel of "the enthusiasm of humanity"
take the place of that of our ruin in sin, our redemption by Christ Jesus, and
our regeneration by the Holy Ghost, and the "enthusiasm" will have very little
in it of the victory which overcomes the world, and in which we go forth to
bless the world by commending to it "the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ."

"Never was there a heresy, but it had something to do with an insufficient
estimate of sin." And an insufficient estimate of the "thing which God hateth"
is not only the parent of speculative error; it is the secret death of true
spiritual joy. So the Apostle is bent upon reminding the Ephesians of their
past, and of the absolute mercy which had lifted them out of it into such a
present, and for such a future.

"He teaches all the mercy, for he shews them all the sin."

Ephesians 2:1. And you He brought to life[1] (from His viewpoint, it was when
Christ rose again; from yours, it was when you believed on Him), being, as you
then were, dead men, devoid of life spiritual and eternal, and wholly unable to
generate it from within, in respect of your (τοῖς) trespasses and your sins
(read ὑμῶν), your manifold forms of discord with the will of God, things which
were at once the conditions and the results of that "death";

Ephesians 2:2. in which sins once on a time you walked,[2] as on a path, as in a
region, moving from thing to thing in the course of life, determined by (κατά)
the course[3]of this world, this present order of human things,[4] aye, and by a
dark personal power behind it and working through it, even by the ruler of the
authority of the air,[5] or, in other words, of the spirit now at work,[6] as
once it was at work in you, in the sons of disobedience, the human beings
characterized by moral alienation from the will of God, and whose attitude
therefore gives foothold and opportunity for the subtle "working" of His enemies
and theirs.[7] As they are, so you were, nay, so we were; I the Jew, you the
Greeks, were all alike in this, till grace found us out. As we look upon the
pagans around us, we must say, with

Ephesians 2:3. contrite memory, Among whom we too all lived our life,[8]once on
a time, in the desires of our flesh, the bias and preferences of the self-life,
whatever form they took, gross or subtle,[9]doing the willings of the flesh and
of the thoughts, the volitions of the fallen self, whether coming out in
concrete action or lurking in unholy imaginations; and were by nature, not by
circumstance only, not by exterior accident and disadvantage, because of bad
example or invitation only, but by the inward wrongness of our own condition,
antecedent to the grace of God, children of wrath; naturally, normally, exposed,
as are also the rest of men, to the moral displeasure of the eternal Holy
One.[10]

Such was our position, as mysterious as possible, but as much as possible a
matter of fact. Beings profoundly personal, conscious in our depths of moral
differences, able to say I will, able to know I ought;—our will was in its
depths at discord with our duty; we preferred darkness to light, we followed
self-will rather than the will of God. The manifestations of the mischief were
infinitely various. One person plunged into bodily profligacy, another followed
the star of knowledge, a third worshipped sensuous rather than sensual pleasure,
a fourth set himself aflame with religious zealotry. But the root of the
mischief was ultimately the same in all. We chose ourselves rather than our God;
our will was sweeter to us than His law. And this was "by nature." The disease
was indeed of the person, of the individual; but somehow it lay deeper, it was
in the state of his nature. Here were no isolated accidents, under which very
many human wills were wrong with God. There was a dark "law" in the phenomenon;
it was a universal case; all human wills were wrong with Him. And so (how could
it be otherwise?) His holiness was displeased with us all; we were "children of
His wrath." No tyrannic heat and violence lay in that awful "wrath"; no blind
jealousies and unregulated inflictions surged out of that dark but immaculate
depth. It was the sinless aversion of Holiness from sin. Yet none the less it
was displeasure, personal and incalculably formidable. And beneath its celestial
frown we lay.[11]

What was to be done? Was the fate of man, his nature’s self-inflicted fate,
sealed and hopeless? No—because of God. "Thou hast destroyed thyself; but

Ephesians 2:4. in Me is thy help" ( Hosea 13:9). But our (ὁ) God, being as He
is, in His blessed state "by nature," wealthy in mercy, moved by nothing but
Himself, because of His much love with which[12]He loved us, His Church to be,
albeit our condition was repulsive to His holiness

Ephesians 2:5. in a degree to us inconceivable, aye (καί) when we were—as just
now I said you were, but it was the same with me, with all—dead men in respect
of our (τοῖς) trespasses, brought us to life along with His (τῷ) Christ, when
the Head lived again for us, and then when we, believing, were made the Members
of the Head; (yes, along with Christ, wholly because of His Sacrifice, His
Victory, His Covenant; for never forget that not because of any claim on God but
by grace, by a pure, free bounty of His goodness, you have been saved
(σεσωσμένοι), brought into an actual rescue and

Ephesians 2:6. safekeeping by union with your Lord[13];) and raised you from the
grave along with Christ, bringing the new life out into manifestation, as when
the living One stepped forth into the morning air in Joseph’s Garden; and seated
us along with our Head[14]in the heavenly regions in Christ Jesus. For this
glorious "in" must be recorded, to explain the wonderful "with"; we are beside
Him there upon His seat of victory and dominion, because we are embodied in Him,
by the Spirit’s power and in the bond of faith. So astonishing is the revolution
of our condition; from wrath to a wealth of mercy; from death in sin to
resurrection-life; from a walk among the sons of disobedience to a session with
and in the Lord upon His heavenly throne, looking down from thence on our old
miseries and on our terrible but now impotent adversaries. And why was it all
done? Assuredly, as we have seen, for pure love to us, but also so as to secure
God’s own glorification in His creatures’ view for ever; for He, being what He
is, cannot but work for the infinite

Ephesians 2:7. End of His own glory: That He may demonstrate in the ages that
are coming on, in the long dispensations of the eternal Future, the overwhelming
wealth of His grace seen in kindness showered upon us in Christ Jesus; "in Him,"
because on Him for ever descends the Father’s love, and so on all that is "found
in Him." For, solemnly to recite again that great formula

Ephesians 2:8. of blessing, by His (τῇ) grace you have been saved, by means of
faith—by the reliance on His word which makes the provision a possession; and
even that, the faith, the fact of your having come to trust Him, is not of
yourselves, not generated merely of your unaided will; God’s is the gift of
salvation, in all its parts, including the fact that "thy faith hath saved
thee"[15]; it is not the resultant of (ἐξ) works, not the outcome of your moral
fitness and your moral efforts, (for you were dealt with as "dead men in respect
of your trespasses";) so that no one may boast. Yes, the process was divinely
steered all along on purpose to keep the saved ones off the quicksands of
self-complacency, as if either their strength or their insight were to thank for
their blessings; they were to be landed on the firm conviction that "all things
are of God," and so to give thanks, now and for ever, to "Him who worketh all
things in all" His people.

It shall be reiterated, it shall be summed up, once

Ephesians 2:9. more: For His making (ποίημα) are we, and in no sense our own;
not in the least degree is our regenerate state the issue of our unregenerate
"works." Our works, that are good works at all, are not the condition up to our
faith but the blessed consequent upon it. For we, "His making," were
constituted, placed in a totally new state and order, in Christ Jesus, in and by
our union with Him, with a view to (ἐπί with the dative) good works, with them
as the Maker’s aim and end, works which our (ὁ) God prepared beforehand, long
before our resurrection out of spiritual death, for all was ordered in His
eternal purpose, that in them we may walk. The passage which we have just
paraphrased is, as we remembered above, one of the great passages of all
Scripture. The last three verses in particular stand in the front of those brief
pregnant oracles which, scattered over the Book of God, seem given on purpose to
put in its most concentrated form the message of the Gospel. From the age of the
Reformation more particularly those sentences have been often on the lips and in
the hearts of believers. For the Reformation was above all things, in its true
spiritual aspect, the time of the re-discovery and of the developed apprehension
of the apostolic doctrine of Gratuitous Salvation. Then at length, as never
before for ages,[16] the Church heard again the glorious paradox of the
Apostles, the Evangelium indeed, the promise of life present and eternal to
"whosoever believeth on the Son," justification complete and immediate because
the Lord has died and risen, and the sinner has "received Him, believing on His
Name." Then it was announced far and wide in European Christendom that such is
Jesus Christ, and such His work for us, that we are to find in Him a salvation
not conveyed to us through our works, but given to us with sovereign simplicity
for His sake, in order that now and therefore our works "may be done in God."
And so a paragraph like this became inestimably precious, as a divine
compendium. In its few lines, what did it not contain? A salvation present and,
from the Lord’s viewpoint, completed; σεσωσμένοιἐστέ: a salvation whose every
golden link, from eternal purpose to eternal glory, was "by grace; not of works,
not of you"; a salvation conveyed to the saved one not by labours and through a
process, but "through faith," through taking God at His word in Christ. In that
salvation the saved one rests in the noble passiveness of the recollection that
he is "God’s making, constituted anew in Christ Jesus"; and then rises up in the
blessed activity of one who knows what he possesses, and Who possesses him, and
that before him now lies an ordered path of "good works"—the "next thing" of the
will of God, and then the next, prepared for the traveller who is now prepared
for it. To us, as to our fathers, and to our fathers’ fathers, may Ephesians
2:8-9, Ephesians 2:10, be a watchword, a talisman, of truth, peace and joy, for
rest, for labour, for life, for death, and forever. For "the good works prepared
for us to walk in" are a path which runs unbroken through the stream of death
and up into the hills of immortality; "His servants shall serve Him, and they
shall see His face."

Meantime our paragraph leads us to this lofty and memorable close by steps which
claim, each of them, the Christian’s deepest thought. The wonder as well as the
splendour of the true Gospel is before us in them. Forget not, believing soul,
thy original "death in respect of thy trespasses." Thank God if the symptoms of
it were so restrained that the ill of it for others was not what it might have
been; but do not forget that once, whatever the form and colour of thy conduct,
towards God thou wast dead. Thy personality, thy consciousness, understanding,
will, affections, all were there, God’s glorious gifts; but thou didst not
"know" (as He means knowing) "the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He had
sent"; and that, and that alone, is "the life eternal" ( John 17:3). Thou wast
dead, needing nothing less than a miracle of resurrection. And an enemy sat at
the door of thy grave; "the Prince of the authority of the air," the dread
personal antagonist of Christ and ruthless enemy of man; a person, however much
human speculation may (surely to his own satisfaction) deny it, ridicule it,
ignore it; and personally bent upon thy abiding spiritual death. And over that
guarded sepulchre hung the cloud of the displeasure of the Eternal, His
abomination of all things at discord with His holiness.

Remember this; ponder the extremity of the ruin. But then with new surprise, and
with new assurance, remember that the mercy and the love are facts as certain,
and as tangible, and all for thee. As a fact, thou art risen with thy risen
Lord, and seated with Him where He sits, a monument of the "kindness" of His
Father and thine. As a fact, by grace thou hast been saved. As a fact, thy feet
are set upon the rock of the way of holiness, the path to glory. Remember, and
rejoice.

[1]The verb is supplied, as in A.V. and R.V., from ver. 5 below, where the
wording is repeated nearly verbatim:ὄνταςἡμᾶς νεκροὺς...συνεζωοποίησε τῷΧριστῷ.

[2]Περιεπατήσατεthe aorist gathers up the whole experience into a point of
thought.

[3]Αἰών, "age": the word is rendered"course"in A.V. and R.V., and it would be
difficult to suggest a better English. We sometimes use "period" in nearly the
same derived sense—a timeand its influences.

[4] Such seems to be the meaning ofκόσμοςhere. It certainly is not (as in
e.g.John 11:9,τὸφῶς τοῦκ. τούτουthe physical universe; nor again merely mankind,
but mankind as conditioned by sin, or rather this present sinful order of human
life. So very often in N.T., notably in St John’s First Epistle.

[5]"The great personal Evil Spirit, Satan; whose existence, sparingly indicated
in the O.T., is largely dwelt upon in the N.T.... For St Paul’s recognition of
[his existence], cp.Acts 13:10,Acts 26:18;Romans 16:20;1 Corinthians 5:5,1
Corinthians 7:5;2 Corinthians 2:11,2 Corinthians 11:14;1 Thessalonians 2:18; 2
Thess,1 Thessalonians 2:9;1 Timothy 1:20,1 Timothy 3:6-7,1 Timothy 5:15;2
Timothy 2:26, and below [in Eph.]Ephesians 4:27,Ephesians 6:11."—"The authority
of the air" appears to mean the organized power of the world of unholy spirits,
here indicated as having their abode not precisely on earth but about it. "We
must seek a meaning of ’air’ literal and local, rather than otherwise, looking
at St Paul’s usage elsewhere (e.g.1 Thessalonians 4:17).... On the whole we
gather, as the revelation of this passage, that as earth is the abode of
embodied spirits, mankind, so the airy envelope of earth is the abode, for the
purposes of action on man, of the spirits of evil, which, if not bodiless, have
not ’animal’ bodies.... Observe our Lord’s use of ’thebirds of the sky’(Luke
8:5) as the figure for the Tempter in the parable of the Sower." (Notes in
theCambridge Bible.)

[6]Τοῦπνεύματος, κ.τ.λ.: this genitive puts theπνεῦμαin grammatical apposition
not with "the ruler" (ἄρχοντα) but with the "authority" (ἐξουσίας). It is a
startling phrase, perhaps best explained by taking it here to be a collective
singular; theπνεῦμαis in fact theπνεύματαgathered into one idea, or regarded in
the oneness of their malign influence.

[7]"Sonsof disobedience": a familiar Hebraism; cp.2 Peter 2:14, where the
literal rendering is, "children of a curse"; and just below, ver.
3,τέκναὀργῆς)?. "Disobedience" rendersἀπείθειαbetter than "unbelief"; though the
two ideas are, in spiritual experience, closely connected.

[8]Ἀνεστράφημεν: again an aorist, gathering a long experience into one idea.

[9]In St Paul,σάρξ"means human nature as conditioned by the Fall, or, to word it
otherwise, either the state of the unregenerate being, in which state the sinful
principle dominates, or the state of that element of the regenerate being in
which the principle, dislodged, as it were, from the centre, still lingers and
is felt; not dominant in the being, but present." (Note in theCambridge Bible.)

[10]"It has been suggested that ’children of wrath’ may mean no more than
’beings prone to violent anger,’ or even to ’ungoverned impulse’ generally. But
the word ’wrath’ is frequent with St Paul, and in 13 out of the 20 places it
unmistakably means the divine wrath.... Add to this that this passage deals with
the deepest and most general facts, and thus it is unlikely that any one special
phase of sin would be instanced." (Note in theCambridge Bible.)

[11]On the great mystery and great fact summed up in the Christian doctrine of
Original Sin, there are some pregnant remarks in the late Prof. J. B.
Mozley’sLectures and Theological Papers(§ ix., pp. 136, etc.). "Original sin is,
fundamentally, simplyuniversalsin.... Nobody supposes that anything takes place
universally by chance;... we know there must be some law working in the case....
What wecallthe law is a secondary question." I may refer further to my small
manual,Outlines of Christian Doctrine(pp. 173, etc.); and to Prof.
Shedd’sSermons to the Natural Man,especially Nos. V. and XIV. Browning’s lines
are worthy of note:

"I still, to suppose it" [the Christian faith] "true, for my part, See reasons
and reasons; this, to begin, ’Tis the faith that launched point-blank her dart
At the head of a lie—taught Original Sin, The Corruption of Man’s Heart." Gold
Hair, a Story of Pornic(1864).

[12]Ἥν: the accusative takes the place of the dative, by "attraction" toἀγάπην.

[13]"Have beensaved": so just below,Ephesians 2:8. Much more commonly our
salvation is represented as aprocess going on,σώζεσθε, σωζόμενοι. But here the
work of eternal mercy is, as it were, seen from the divine viewpoint, from which
"that is afait accompliwhich from the human point of view is a thing in
process." Or, to put it otherwise, the being already "has been saved" which is
in the hands of an omnipotent and unfailing Saviour, though He has much yet to
do with it while it is in His hands on the way to glory.

[14]It seems clearly best, in the context, to referσυνήγειρε, συνεκάθισε, to our
unionwith Christrather thanwith one another.

[15]It is of course possible to refer the words "and that, not of
yourselves,etc.," not to the thought that we "have been savedthrough faith"but
to the more general statement that we have been saved"by grace."This is the more
possible, becauseτοῦτοis neuter, andπίστιςfeminine; we might have
expectedδιὰταύτηςif the reference were to "faith." Accordingly many expositors,
including Calvin, one of the wisest and most impartial of all interpreters, do
take"and that,etc.," to refer to the whole previous thought of our grace-given
salvation. Yet I still advocate the special reference to "faith"; and for the
main reason thatκαὶτοῦτοis a phrase which always denotes somemarked
additionalelement in the statement. Such an addition, if I am right, can only be
found here by bringing in the thought thateven our believingis "by grace." But
for the grace of God, opening our eyes, we should not see the infinite
trustworthiness of Christ, and so be (not driven by force, but)decidedto trust
Him. Thus explaining the clause, we must explainτοῦτοto refer not to the
feminine nounπίστιςprecisely, but to the fact of our exercisingπίστις.—For
"faith" as a "gift," cp.Php 1:29.

[16]I refer of course to the public and prevalent teaching of the Christian
Churches. All along the centuries a bright stream can be traced of personal,
individual faith of the noblest evangelic type. And in such writers at St Anselm
and St Bernard utterances occur than which nothing could be more true to the
teaching of St Paul. But the medieval "Gospel" in its prevalent form was a
sorrowful distortion.


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  CHAPTER 6: CHAPTER 05. THE EPHESIANS, ONCE "REMOTE," NOW "MADE NIGH," WITH ETERNAL GLORY IN PROSPECT
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Chapter 5. The Ephesians, Once "Remote," Now "Made Nigh," with Eternal Glory in
Prospect Ephesians 2:11-22 "Tunsionibus, pressuris, expoliti lapides Suis
coaptantur locis; per manus artificis Disponuntur permansuri sacris ædificiis.

"Angulare Fundamentum Lapis Christus missus est, Qui compage parietum in utroque
nectitur, Quem Syon sancta suscepit, in quo credens permanet."

—From an Anonymous Poem, cent. viii. or x.

Ephesians 2:11. Wherefore remember that once you, the Nations, the Gentiles,
members of the outside races,[1]in the flesh, as regards your physical descent
and the absence of the physical sign of covenant, circumcision; called, as you
were, and are, the Uncircumcision by that body which is called the
Circumcision—only in the flesh, wrought

Ephesians 2:12. by hand[2]—remember, I say, that you were at that time, the time
of your "death in trespasses and sins," separate from Christ, out of saving
connexion with Israel’s Messiah, the world’s Saviour. Yes, the Pharisee was
cruelly wrong in his spirit of scorn and indifference towards you; but he had
just so much right in his wrong, that you were as yet isolated from actual
contact with the Redeemer’s promises and power; having been alienated (for you
were fallen men, and manhood, in the fall, did alienate itself from all its true
blessings) from the commonwealth, the spiritual State, of Israel, the people of
God[3]; and strangers, "outlanders," to the covenants of the Promise, the many
gracious compacts, as with Abraham, Moses, Levi, David, all connected with the
great Promise of Redemption.

Such was your position in relation to Revelation and its blessings. And
meanwhile as to your experience, as to the condition of your souls, you were
conscious of no hope,[4]and Godless in the world; roving in the dark wilderness
of sin and sorrow, without "the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ." Gods many, and lords many, you had; a pantheon with,
perhaps, a vast and shadowy Somewhat at its back, as the supreme Power; but not
God, not the Holy One, not the eternal Love.

Ephesians 2:13. But now, in the blessed actual state of the case, as that
eternal Love has ordered it, now, in Christ Jesus, in that living union with Him
to which the Gospel has called you, you, the once remote, banished so far from
the "commonwealth" of grace, did become near,[5] so near as to be embodied into
the very life of the true Israel; in the blood of our (τοῦ) Christ; "in" it, as
your sacrificial warrant and instrument; for He suffered to "sanctify His people
with His own blood," the blood of death, of expiation, nay, of wonderful
propitiation; and you now, believing in His Name, take place among His people,
the people of His covenant.

Marvellous is this transition from far to near; but the reason is adequate for
the effect. The blood has power indeed, because of Him who shed it; for He

Ephesians 2:14. is our peace, and nothing less than He. His ever-blessed
Personality, giving essence and virtue to His atoning Work, is our
reconciliation to God, for Jew and Gentile alike, and so it is our
reconciliation to one another. Pagan and Pharisee, we embrace each other, for
God has embraced us both in His dear Son, who made both the things one thing,
amalgamating in Himself our several positions and relations, till all is unified
into one happy Community; and did take down the parting-wall of the Fence, (the
Law, that great bulwark between Israel and the Nations, dividing them—till He
fulfilled it, and so brought to an end its

Ephesians 2:15. typical and separating enactments[6];)—the personal enmity
between Jew and Gentile, in His flesh, in the Manhood in which He bore His great
reconciling Suffering, even the law of the commandments couched in decrees, in
positive revealed edicts, annulling. Even so; He found us separated, race from
race. And the separation was intensified and emphasized by those institutions
which were, in part, designed to isolate Israel from the world, till the fit
time for the wider blessing. And He "annulled" them, by fulfilling them, in His
sacrificial work; thus at once reconciling man to God and man to man. So did the
Lord suffer, so did He triumph, in order that He might[7]create, might
sovereignly constitute, the two parties, Israel and the Nations, in Himself,[8]
in the union of each with Him, into one new man, as it were one collective
Personality, all being in Him one Body; making peace, as we have seen, between
man and man, as the glorious issue of the work whereby He made peace between man
and God. For this supreme blessing lay at the root of the matter. He

Ephesians 2:16. suffered and overcame[9]in order that He might also reconcile
both the parties, in one body, to God, by means of the Cross, killing the enmity
in, by, it. His precious Death was borne in order to "reconcile to God" Israel
and the Nations alike; that is to say, to bring them penitent to a pardoning
God, who accepts the great atonement and welcomes the believing sinner.[10]
There they meet, in the divine forgiveness, procured by the sacrifice of the
Son, which was provided by the love of the Father. Meeting so, they come not
only to God but to one another, in a union unimaginable before. The wounds of
the Crucifixion, for those who have become "one body" with the Crucified, have
been the death-wounds first of "the enmity" of the unpardoned rebel towards his
blessed King, and then, and so, of "the enmity" of the unhumbled and unchanged
human heart towards fellow-men. And when the work of Propitiation and Peace was
effected by the great Peace-Maker, He rose up to be

Ephesians 2:17. the Messenger of His own blessings. And coming, coming from the
Cross and from the Tomb, coming back from the Unseen "in the power of an endless
life," He preached, He "gospelled," peace, peace with one another because of
peace with God, peace to you the remote, and peace[11]to the near, the believers
of the old Israel. Such was, in fact, the first word of the Risen One to His
gathered followers ( John 20:19), "Peace be unto you." "God, having raised up
His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless" us ( Acts 3:26), "preaching peace by Jesus
Christ; He is Lord of all" ( Acts 10:36). And peace it is indeed, for it means
nothing less than our entrance, hand in hand, into the inmost presence of a
welcoming, loving, rejoicing God.

Ephesians 2:18. Because by means of Him, this blessed Christ in His atoning
work, we have our (τήν) introduction, both parties of us (οἱ ἀμφότεροι), in one
Spirit, unto the Father.There we are united indeed, fused into a wonderful
harmony and cohesion in that secret place of blessing. "Both parties of us" are
"in one Spirit"; quickened, animated, possessed, surrounded, by one "Holy Spirit
of promise." "Both" have one Lord to be their ground of acceptance, and their
Conductor into the inmost chamber of the spiritual home. "Both" find one Father
there, welcoming and embracing all His people with equal love, in the Name of
His one Beloved. Wonderful unification, deep and living as the heart of man, and
as the heart of God; rooted in the Atonement, and made to live in us, and grow,
and bear the fruits of Paradise, by the indwelling Spirit. The holy fact,
contemplated again, lifts the Apostle into a strain of loving joy. This
"Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee," cannot rest without chanting to these Asians,
these recent worshippers of Artemis and Cybele, the solemn triumph-song of their
equal place with Israel

Ephesians 2:19. in God’s present and eternal grace. So then you are no longer,
as once you were, mere strangers and aliens, tolerated sojourners at best upon
the territory of hope. No, you are[12]fellow-citizens of the saints; sharers
with all who belong to God in all the privileges of His eternal City, enrolled
now in the bright register of the heavenly Zion with Abraham, and Moses, and
David, and Isaiah, with prophets, with apostles, and hereafter to "sit down
with" them, in actual presence, within its starry walls; and members of the
family of God, "children at home" with Him, by birth and by adoption too, as
truly as "Israel His firstborn." All this you are, as having taken your stand
upon the Gospel of Christ,

Ephesians 2:20. proclaimed to you by His messengers; having been built upon the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, the "foundation" which consists of
them, inasmuch as their doctrine is the basis of your faith, and so of your
unity[13]; the Cornerstone, the great Stone in the angle of the substructure,
where the walls meet, their mighty Bond and Unity,[14]"being Christ
Jesus[15]Himself; for all the ranges of saving truth ever set before you by
Apostle or by Prophet meet in Him, and get all their

Ephesians 2:21. significance and symmetry from Him; in whom, in vital union with
whom, in His work and life, all the building,[16]getting in all its parts framed
together, drawing as it were closer within itself, into a deeper solidity and
coherence, as the union of each saint and of all of them with their Lord
developes, is growing, with each new insertion into its living structure, into a
holy sanctuary,[17] a place for the manifestation for ever of the eternal
Presence; in the Lord, the Lord Christ, who is the Secret, as we have seen, of
the coherence of the Sanctuary, and of its growth;

Ephesians 2:22. in whom you also, you as well as all the saints beside, are
being built up together, to form (εἰς) a permanent abode (κατοικητήριον) of our
(τοῦ) God, in the Spirit,[18] by whose sacred power you have received the life
which makes you "living stones," and who now permeates the whole structure with
His combining presence.

Again we pause, at the close of a long and closely connected paragraph. Not
often, even in St Paul, even in this Epistle, do we find clause springing out of
clause, thought out of thought, in such extended succession. My paraphrase has
here and there attempted to relieve attention by making a pause where the Greek
barely indicates an occasion for it; but even so the reader will have followed
the thread with a sense of its close continuity throughout. The comment now
shall take a very simple line. Let us first reflect a little upon the splendid
close of the paragraph, and then note some of the steps which have led up to it.
This order of thought will have its message for us in the end.

I. What a climax is reached in Ephesians 2:22! Here is the eternal destiny of
the true Church of God. It is not only that it is to be "saved in Christ for
ever," ineffable as is the wonder of that fact. It is not only that it is "to
enjoy God fully for ever," though that amazing prospect is so amply and
definitely revealed. It is—to be a "holy Sanctuary," a Shrine, a divine
Presence-Chamber; "a permanent Habitation of God." In measure, the wonderful
fact has already begun to be; already He "dwells in" His people, "and walks in
them" (see 2 Corinthians 6:16); already, as we shall see later in this Epistle (
Ephesians 3:17), the eternal Son resides in the very heart of the true member of
the Church, by faith. But all this is as when some building, planned already by
the master in its final glory, is slowly rising, and beginning to shew, amidst
fragments and dust, and the noise of the workmen, some hints and outlines of
what it is to be; the owner, the intending dweller in it, walks in and out
amidst the vast beginnings, and perhaps rests and shelters himself under the
unfinished walls and roofs. It will be otherwise when the last stone is in
place, and the last splendid equipment of the chambers is completed, and he
receives his admiring friends in the banquet-chamber, and shines out amidst the
shining of his palace, himself the central splendour of it in all his dignity of
wealth and welcome. So it is with the saints, and with their common life as the
Church of God. Wonderful are the beginnings. Amidst all the apparent confusions
of the field where the building is in progress, its form and scale begin to shew
themselves, across the perspective of centuries and continents. And when the
stones already in place are scrutinized, it is found that each of them is a
miniature of the whole; a shrine, a home of the presence of the Lord, by faith.
But a day of inauguration is drawing on when "we shall see greater things than
these." Then the divine indwelling in each "living stone" will be complete and
ideal, "for sinners there are saints indeed." And as for the community, it will
cohere and be one thing with a unity and symmetry unimaginable now.

"There all the millions of His saints Shall in one song unite, And each the
bliss of all shall view With infinite delight." And the everlasting Father will
perfectly reveal Himself, to all the watchers of all the regions of the eternal
world, not anyhow but thus—in His glorified Church, in the Race, the Nature,
once wrecked and ruined, but rebuilt into this splendour by His grace. In the
Church of the Firstborn, in the Bride, the Lamb’s Wife, the blessed Universe
shall see for ever God present, God resident. A transfigured Creation shall be
His temple-courts; a beatified human Church shall be His sanctuary. That
sanctuary shall reflect without a flaw its Indweller’s glory; our union and
communion with Him shall be, in other words, perfect, absolute, ideal. And the
crowning thought, for the soul which loves God, is this, that we shall be His
Abode; He shall somehow find His home, His shrine, His throne, in our happy
congregated being.

"It doth not yet appear," no, not yet. It is coming. Every evangelization, every
conversion, every spiritual union and combination now, is a contribution to that
result. It is coming. But what will it be when it is come? Then at length the
desire of God will be fulfilled, and His eternal joy will be felt through all
the once "groaning and travailing creation." Then, and therefore, will be at
length fulfilled the innermost desire of every one of His true children; they
shall all consciously contribute to the existence of what He has planned and, in
the mystery of His ways, has waited for—a perfect "sanctuary," a perfect
"habitation,"for Him the blessed King. "Built on the Son, in the Spirit, for the
Father," and finished to the last stone with the skill of infinite love, that
will be indeed a Sanctuary, for manifestation, for oracles, for worship, to the
endless ages.

II. Now let us recall what the paragraph presents to us as some of the steps of
truth leading up to this climax of blessing.

First, we reverently remark the uncompromising remembrance, over again, of the
mercy of salvation. The Apostle cannot let the Ephesians forget the past, lest
they mistake the blissful present. He is indeed in the act of reminding them
that they have been brought not only into a place of mercy but into all the
wealth of covenanted privilege. They are incorporated, out and out, into the
true Israel of all the promises; no mere resident aliens, lodged in the suburbs
of the holy Zion, but full citizens of the place, aye, members of the royal
family of its King. They are one body with patriarchs, and prophets, and
high-priests, and psalmists, and with the apostles of the Lamb; they cannot be
nearer to God, for they are in His Christ. But then, all this is emphatically,
and in their case even eminently, a gift of mere original mercy. They were
outsiders once. They had not the slightest claim upon salvation. Not only as
they were men, fallen and sinful, but also as they were "Gentiles," they stood
upon ground where redemption found them outcast and outlawed. Sovereign mercy
(it was such, of course,) had given Israel long ago a standing in a place of
light, hope, and promise; but they were not there. And who should dare to say
that the Eternal would have been unrighteous had He left them where they were,
"dead" as they were "in trespasses and sins," at "enmity" with infinite
Holiness? It was mercy from first to last; they must remember this, step by
step, as they ascend, in their new life, from strength to strength, from grace
to glory. It must be reiterated to them, now in this form of thought, now in
that, "lest they forget"; lest their Christian life fatally degenerate by an
oblivion of what went before.

III. Then, the great paragraph is full, in its central utterances, of the glory
of the Atoning Work. Mercy has come to them, and lifted them up indeed to God.
But it has not come anyhow; its channel is the blessed Cross. Here only in the
Epistle is the Cross explicitly mentioned. "By means of the Cross" did the Lord
"reconcile the two parties, in one body." "In the blood of Christ" did "the
remote" become "the nigh." "In His flesh," here with a manifest reference to
"the body of His flesh, in death," He "annulled the law of commandments,"
delivering us from its condemning power; "buying us out from its curse, becoming
for us a curse" ( Galatians 3:13). Not by the mere and solitary glory of His
Incarnation, no, but by "His meritorious Cross and Passion," the wonderful
change of our position was effected. That, and nothing less, lies at the root of
our peace, and so at the root of all the blessings which issue from our peace;
among them, our spiritual cohesion with our fellow-believers, our growth into a
deeper union with them, and so into a larger fitness to become "the habitation
of God."

Let this not be forgotten. It comes to us with a peculiar impressiveness, this
glorification of the Lord’s dying work, in the Epistle to the Ephesians. No part
of the New Testament deals more than this Epistle does with the inmost, the most
spiritual, the most transcendent views of our salvation. We might have imagined
a priori that it would soar away altogether, or nearly so, from the blood of
Golgotha, and the grave at its foot, and deal rather with the serene glories of
the Person of the enthroned Redeemer. But it is far otherwise. The Epistle will
not let us forget that in order to our salvation the primal need was a righteous
dealing with the broken law, a reconciliation of us to God,[19] a proclamation
of "peace." And the sine quâ non to that immoveable requisite was the Lord’s
Cross, the Lord’s Blood, the atonement of His Death. That is the rock on which
is set the ladder of our ascent to heaven.

IV. Next, let us notice the prominence in this passage of the deep and living
truth of our Union with the Lord Jesus Christ. For us He died, vicariously, in
expiation, standing in our place. But that truth can never be rightly taken,
never be fully seen in its tender glory, if it is held alone, if it is taught
without a perpetual reference to the truth of our living incorporation with Him.
"In Christ Jesus, ye became nigh"; "the two were constituted one new man in
Him"; "in the Lord, the whole building is growing to be a holy sanctuary." The
work done for us, once for all, was done with a view to our being spiritually
united to the Worker. And it is only as we are, in that spiritual Union, "very
members incorporate in His mystical body," "joined unto the Lord, one Spirit,"
that the finished Work actually avails for our present and eternal safety.

V. Then, let us not forget but prize as a chief treasure of the paragraph, its
doctrine of the Blessed Spirit. "In the Spirit," surrounded and penetrated by
Him, the Lord, the Giver of the eternal life, the Maker to us of the reality and
presence of Christ, "we have our introduction to the Father." The Saviour leads
us in; but He leads us in as those who have in them the Spirit who glorifies Him
to us, and makes us one with Him. And so "in the Spirit" the saints are "being
built together" for the final Sanctuary of God. That structure and cohesion may
have for its scaffolding the sacred order of the Church in her visible aspect.
But the cement is not of these things; it is wholly divine; it is the Spirit,
possessing each saint for God, and binding them all together by articulating
them all to their Head. In these days, when longings for the outward unification
of Christendom are much in the air around us, it will be well to hold this
Ephesian passage in thoughtful remembrance. May we never be found in opposition
to the idea of external unity, to the utmost degree in which it may be lawfully
possible, without sacrifice of revealed truth, without compromise with the
unrenewed world. The idea is sacred, and should be a continual guide, among
other guiding lines, for our purposes and action. But let us not forget that the
true growth of "the holy sanctuary" is only "in the Lord"; the "habitation of
God" arrives at its perfection, stone by stone, only "in the Spirit."

[1]Hebrew,הַגּוֹיִם,haggôyim. "Rabbinic Judaism regarded them with feelings akin
to those with which an old-fashioned high-caste Hindoo regards a European....
Meanwhile, these gross distortions had behind them the spiritual fact here given
by St Paul, that ’the Gentiles,’ before the Gospel, were on areallydifferent
level from Israel as to covenant with God in Christ. Pharisaism took a totally
wrong line, but it started from a point of truth." (Note in theCambridge Bible.)

[2]He means to suggest the fact that the contempt of the Pharisee for the
Gentile shewed that the Pharisee was unspiritual, and so that his circumcision
was not, what it ought to be, the seal of spiritual promises and blessings, but
a thing valueless for those higher uses. It wasto hima thingmerely
physical.Compare the close of Romans 2.

[3] It is as if he would intimate that, ideally, MAN was the "chosen people,"
the original "Israel"; but that he fell, and then from his ruins was taken a
minor chosen race, to bear the privileges from which the race as a whole had
fallen. The peculiar phrase,"having been alienated from,etc.," seems to demand
this; for "alienation" implies some sort of previous connexion.

[4]So I venture to renderἐλπίδα μὴ ἔχοντες.Μή, notοὐ, indicates here not only
fact but consciousness. Not only was there actually no bright future for them,
in their path of condemnation and sin; theyfelthopeless. It was mournfully thus,
as a fact, as all readers of classical literature know. Even in the better
regions of ancient pagan life and thought an awful uncertainty and misgiving is
seen to underlie the anticipation of the future. An affecting illustration is to
be found in the Lapidarian Gallery at Rome, where, on opposite sides, pagan and
Christian epitaphs are arranged. The Christian mourner is full of peace and joy;
the pagan lamentations are as from hearts "having no hope."

[5]"’Nigh’ and ’far’ were familiar terms with the Rabbis, in the sense of having
or not having part in the covenant.... ’A woman came to Rabbi Eliezer, to be
made a proselyte, saying to him,Rabbi, make me nigh.’"(Note in theCambridge
Bible.)

[6]Perhaps theμεσότοιχον τοῦφραγμοῦis a phrase suggested by theChêl,the barrier
in the Temple, dividing the Court of the Gentiles from the rest. A fragment of
the veryChêlof St Paul’s time is now in the Sultan’s Museum at Constantinople.

[7]Lit. "that Hemay,"ἵνα κτίσῃ). But it is a frequent idiom in N.T. Greek to
speak of a past purpose in present terms.

[8]Probably read,ἐν αὐτῷ, "inHim." But the reference in either case is certainly
to Christ Himself.

[9]Theκαίwith which ver. 16 begins is omitted for the purposes of the
paraphrase, in which its meaning is however conveyed.

[10]Such assuredly is the true account of the meaning of "reconciliation," as
the word is used in Scripture. To reconcile man to God means, primarily, not to
persuade man to yield to God, but to make it possible for God (if the words may
be used with reverence) to accept guilty man with peace. I may refer to
myOutlines of Christian Doctrine,p. 79.

[11]Readεἰρήνηνa second time.

[12]Readἀλλ’ἐστέ.

[13]I explain "the prophets" here of the prophets not of the Old Testament but
of the New. This seems to be best, in view of the use of the word
below,Ephesians 3:5,Ephesians 4:11. It is plain that the Christian "prophet"
occupied a place of impressive importance in the primitive Church, second to
that of the apostle, but only, apparently, in his not being necessarily "a
witness of the Resurrection" and not taking a first place in
government.—Meantime the whole New Testament makes it clear that the prophetsof
the Old Testamentwere, for our Lord and the Apostles, "evangelists before the
time," giving oracles full of Christ.—"The mention of [the N.T. prophets] here
is in special point, because public faith and doctrine is in question. The work
of the ’prophets’ had doubtless greatly contributed to the wide spread of the
truth of the free acceptance in Christ ofallbelievers, Gentiles with Jews.
Observe that inActs 15:32it is two ’prophets,’[Judas and Silas,] who ’exhort and
confirm’ (the Greek word suggests preciselysettlement on a foundation) the
Gentile believers at Antioch, in the very crisis of the conflict between
Pharisaic limits and the universality of the Gospel." (Note in theCambridge
Bible.)

[14]Cp.Isaiah 28:16.The Septuagint rendering there is quoted nearly verbatim in
the parallel to this passage,1 Peter 2:6, and it runs, "I layamong the
foundationsof Sion a stone, etc." St Peter’s use of the words directs the
thought not upon anapexbut upon abasis.And so it seems best to take it here.

[15]ReadΧριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ.

[16]"R.V., ’each several building,’as if the great Temple were viewed for the
moment in its multiplicity of porches, courts, and towers; each connected with
the great bond of the substructure.—An interesting grammatical question arises
over the reading here, and this rendering, and will occur againEphesians
3:15:—does the Greek phrase, in the best attested reading [πᾶσα οἰκοδομή,
notπᾶσαἡοἰκοδομή]demandthe rendering of the R.V. as against that of the A.V.? We
incline to the reply that it does not. The law of the definite article... is
undoubtedly somewhat less exact in the Greek of the Scriptures than in that of
the classics. And this leaves us free to use (with caution) the context to
decide problems which in the classics would be decided by pure grammar. Such a
case we take this to be; and the question to ask is, Does the context favour the
imagery ofdetailor that oftotal?Surely the latter. The idea points to one great
building, getting completed within itself, rising to its ideal." (Note in
theCambridge Bible.)

[17]Ναός, more limited and more sacred thanἱερόν. At Jerusalem the whole
precinct of the Temple-buildings was theἱερόν, the Holy House itself was
theναός.

[18]Ἐν πνεύματι: both A.V. and R.V. render this, "in (through, A.V.)theSpirit";
surely rightly, in view of the prominence through the whole Epistle of the work
of the Holy Ghost.

[19]And in the phraseology of Scripture (seeaboveonEphesians 2:16) "to reconcile
to God" means, to provide a way by which God can justly pardon man, and so by
which man, coming in repentance to plead that way, can receive salvation.


========================================================================
  CHAPTER 7: CHAPTER 06. A DIGRESSION: THE GOSPEL, AND ITS WORLD-WIDE SCOPE
========================================================================

Chapter 6. A Digression: The Gospel, and Its World-Wide Scope Ephesians 3:1-13
"All, all as one we praise Thee, Great Giver of salvation I Whose equal grace
nor time, nor place, Nor language knows, nor nation.

We praise, and wait imploring Thy hour of final favour;

Gall in Thine own, reveal Thy throne, And o’er us reign for ever." IN the
paragraph just closed, we have seen the vision of the spiritual Temple of God.
The saints of the Asian Churches have appeared in that vision as stones built
one by one into the wonderful structure. Rising upon their foundation in Christ,
and compacted in Him their Corner Stone, they are destined at length to form,
for ever, the complete and faultless Sanctuary to be inhabited by the eternal
Presence, the Shrine for the manifestation of God to the universe in the endless
ages.

Toward that "far-off divine event" moves all the work of the Gospel. The labours
of the evangelist and the pastor are indeed inestimably precious as they affect
the salvation and development of the redeemed individual. Assuredly, did there
exist only one human being, a unique specimen, race and individual at once, made
in the image of God, and fallen from Him, the Gospel which should bring to bear
on that one soul the saving powers of the world to come would do a work worthy
of God. But as the case is, the Gospel has innumerable souls to deal with. And
it has to deal with them not only as the individual multiplied, but as the
saved, vivified, sanctified, glorified Community. Its result is to be not only a
vast collection of chiselled marbles, but those marbles, each faultless in
itself, constructed into a Temple, with its courts, and towers, and Holy Place.
If the metaphor may be changed for a moment, the saints are not to be strewn as
scattered pearls or rubies upon the floor of heaven; they are to be "made up" (
Malachi 3:17) by the great Artificer into one glorious brilliant, in which jewel
shall shine upon jewel, and each set off the whole.

Great and splendid then is the aim which is to animate the Christian evangelist.
He is working amidst dust and turmoil, but it is for no less a result than the
completed Temple of the heavenly Solomon, When that temple is inaugurated at
last, he shall be permitted to look upon its symmetry and grandeur, and to
think, I too was used in the production of the Habitation of God.

Such surely is the thought of the Apostle at this point in the writing of his
Letter. If I read correctly the opening of the third chapter, he was just about
to follow up here the theme of the Habitation. But then he turns aside on a
sudden to the theme of the Gospel, and of his own part in its enterprise for the
world. He was about to say something like this: "You are being built together
into the eternal Shrine, the Holy Place, for the residence of God for ever.
Therefore, because of such a future, my prayers are going up for you that you
may have a corresponding blessing in the present. You are being collected and
erected into one Temple, for the abode (κατοικητήριον) of God. I pray therefore
that your individual hearts may even now, each one of them, be nothing short of
an abode (κατοικῆσαι, Malachi 3:17) of Christ, as the way to your full fruition
of every spiritual gift and power. I pray that you may be individually
sanctified by the Indwelling now, in order to your being collectively glorified
by the Indwelling hereafter." This seems to be the ultimate connexion between
the close of the second chapter, with its κατοικητήριον, (followed by the τούτου
χάριν of Malachi 3:1,) and the close of the third chapter, with its τούτου χάριν
( Ephesians 3:14) and its κατοικῆσαι. But here comes in this great and memorable
digression. He touches now the thought of his apostolic commission, his call to
gather in "the Nations "to be built up into the spiritual shrine. And that touch
irresistibly impels him to further utterances about that commission, and the
grandeur of his message, and the wonder in his own eyes that he, unworthy,
should be called to carry it to the world. So we have to wait awhile for the
precious sentences about the residence of Christ in the heart by faith, and the
love which surpasses knowledge, and the fulness of God. But while we wait we
listen to an interlude full of spiritual music. St Paul has to tell us of "the
unsearchable wealth of Christ" poured out upon "the Gentiles," free as the
golden sunshine, and of a "fellowship" for them all in the long-hidden "mystery"
of His salvation, and of the angelic princes of the heavenly world watching the
Church to read there their brightest, deepest lesson in the "variegated wisdom
of God," and how, in view of such a glory of grace, he sees himself to be "less
than least of all the saints."

It is a digression quite abnormal on strict rhetorical principles. But it is of
a kind which carries with it its own peculiar eloquence and impression. Such
tangents and excursions of thought are characteristic of overflowing minds, from
St Paul of old to Thomas Chalmers in a recent generation; Chalmers wrote his
sermons, because he could never reach the end of any great subject without the
curb of manuscript, so strong was the impulse to diverge into the rich fields
beside the road. And where is the parenthesis of St Paul that does not give the
Church some conspicuous treasures of revelation?

Let us listen then, while we wait:

Ephesians 3:1. On this account, in view of such a goal of all my work, and of
all your hopes, I Paul, yes, no other than this conscious Ego,[1] wonderful as
that fact is to myself, I, the prisoner of our (τοῦ) Christ Jesus, (His
prisoner, because my captivity is due to the fact that I belong to Him, and in
that captivity am wholly His possession still,) on behalf of, in the interests
of the Gospel for, you, the Nations, (for in you I see, by representation, "the

Ephesians 3:2. Gentiles" as a whole;) if, if indeed (εἴγε), you did ever hear of
the stewardship of that grace of God which was given me toward you, even the
grace, the sovereign gift, of apostolic commission for labour among the
Nations[2]—:

Here on purpose I leave a broken sentence as the close of a paragraph. For it is
just here that the line of thought quits the circle at the tangent. The Apostle
begins here to dilate on the glory of the Gospel for "the Nations," and the
wonder of his own commission, postponing the account of the prayer in which he
beseeches for his converts that they may all experience the indwelling of Christ
in the heart. That account is suspended till Ephesians 3:14, where at length we
see him on his knees to the Father, asking for the promised Spirit, that the
saints may each receive the fulness of the blessing of the Son. Let us leave the
soul-disturbed construction as it stands, and proceed:

Ephesians 3:3. I assume then that you did once hear that, revelation-wise, by no
mere cogitations, reasonings, aspirations of my own, but by the personal,
supernatural information of my Lord, there was made known[3]to me the mystery,
the Secret, undiscoverable except as revealed[4]; as I have written above in
brief,[5]referring

Ephesians 3:4. to which utterance (πρὸςὅ) you are able, you have the materials,
as you read the words over, to perceive my intelligence (σύνεσιν), my God-given
insight, in the mystery, the Secret, of our (τοῦ) Christ; the hidden wisdom, the
long-buried treasures, stored in His work and glory. And what is that Secret? It
is the divine

Ephesians 3:5. purpose which in[6]other, different (ἑτέραις), generations was
not made known to the sons of men, Jewish or Gentile, as (on the scale and with
the unreserved distinctness with which) it has now been unveiled[7]to His holy
apostles and prophets,[8] the recipients of His developed message of salvation,
who receive it and proclaim it in the Spirit, in the possessing power, in the
revealing light, of the Holy Ghost. And now, once more, what is this deep Secret
of the loving will of God? It is no astounding but unprofitable curiosity of the
unseen world; nothing which appeals to man except as man is conscious of himself
as a sinner, and awake to his need of peace and amity with eternal Holiness, and
athirst for present purity and immortal glory to follow. But let man be thus
awake, and then indeed the Secret of the Lord is wonderful to him, and is
welcome. Let him be some "Gentile," European, or Asiatic, or from African Cyrene
or Abyssinia, who knows himself at all, and who has heard indeed of a God of
truth and glory, but only through the message of the Pharisee; he wonders
whether after all there is room for him in the house of salvation, for him, with
all his secular and uncovenanted conditions; for him, on the wrong side of that
awful "wall of partition" within which Israel walks in supernatural privilege,
on the way to an endless heaven. Let such be the hearer of the apostolic news,
(and the heathen world then, even as now, was scattered all over with souls in
just such a wistful mood, whatever special form it took in its expression,) and
indeed he would hail the Secret as life from the dead. For it is this:

Ephesians 3:6. That the Nations are, in God’s purpose now at last revealed,
after the long age of discipline and reserve, co-heritors of the spiritual
estate of a common Father, for they are made His children in His Son, and
co-members[9] in the one Body animated by the new life, and co-partakers of the
Promise in Christ, the Promise of the full blessing of Abraham, laid up for all
who are bound up with Abraham’s Lord and Seed, Messiah. And this union with Him
has become a fact for them by means of the Gospel; that life-bringing message of
a Saviour and of a Holy Ghost, by which ( 1 Corinthians 4:15) man, believing, is
"begotten again," and so passes into all that is meant by living union with God
in Christ. For it is the message which unfolds at last "the end," the final
cause, of that "Law" which seemed as if it were only the barrier between "the
Nations" and eternal life. It shews the wonderful Christ, who was, as it were,
prepared and developed within that barrier, now rising and overflowing it, and
pouring Himself, like the rivers of Paradise, upon all the world, for the
blessing of "whosoever will." This Gospel presents Him to "the Gentile" as no
mere casual and accidental, however wonderful, Gift of heavenly compassion; He
is the eternally-intended Lord of a Covenant "ordered in all things and sure."
Israel was for a season the solitary trustee of that Covenant. But the time has
come now for its unreserved conveyance to "all the seed, not to that which
belongs to the Law only, but to that which belongs to Abraham’s faith" ( Romans
4:16).

Wonderful Gospel, wonderful in this universality of its covenant-scope! How
little do we, so long used to its abundant blessings, understand its wonder! But
those primeval heathen converts did. And we too begin again to do so whenever,
under conviction of sin, we get a real conviction of mercy, and own that all
might have been utterly otherwise. The Eternal might have dealt with a disloyal
race "according to their works." But He has dealt with them "according to His
abundant mercy," according to "the Son of His love," whom He "gave for the life
of the world." The thought of that Gospel fires more and more the heart and
utterance of the Apostle.

Ephesians 3:7. Of which message I became minister,διάκονος, working servant and
agent, according to, in the spirit and with the strength of, the free giftδωρεά,
the benignant boon, of commission and inspiration in my apostleship; the gift
of, conferred on me by, the grace which was given me, according to the working
of His power; yes, according to nothing less than that divine inward resource. I
was made the Apostle of the Nations, "according to a gift" as regarded my
illumination and commission, and "according to His power" as regarded my
capacity to carry through the vast work in all its weight and fulness. Woe to me
if I sent myself; but He sent me. Woe yet more to me if I seek to sustain myself
in self-born energies and enthusiasm; but He is in me, "working His works" (
John 14:10). With such a power lodged within me, there is no discouragement,
while there is unspeakable humiliation, in the fact that the "vessel" is so
truly "earthen," in itself so immeasurably unworthy of its contents.

Ephesians 3:8. To me, even me (the emphatic ἐμοί), the less than least[10]of all
saints,—seen by my inmost self, in all I know of myself, to be no more than
that, (a "saint," yes, a true limb of Christ, a genuine devotee to Him; but the
really unworthiest among them all,)—has been given this grace, this sovereign,
unearned bounty—to the Nations[11]to tell as Gospel the unsearchable, the
"untrackable," the labyrinthine ἀνεξιχνίαστον, wealth of our (τοῦ) Christ; the
boundless source and resource in Him for all that man needs for the bliss of his
whole being, in time, in eternity, in

Ephesians 3:9. life, in death, in glory; and to illuminate all men, to pour
round them, whoever they may be, a flood of sunlight, as to what is, in its
amazing fact and character, the dispensation,[12] the worldwide distribution, as
God designs it, through His servants, of the mystery, the Secret of a world’s
covenant-blessing in Christ, which has been hidden away, since the ages began,
in the God, our God, who created all things,[13] and who in His plan of
Redemption has not forgotten that fact of His universal Creatorship. And this
"worldwide distribution" of the tidings of such a mercy, what is it to do? It is
to gather in a Church of believers out of universal man. And the work of that
Church, what is it to be? A work for extension indeed! It is not only even to
illuminate the human world; it is to cast a reflected glory upwards, to the eyes
of the watchers of the world above; that

Ephesians 3:10. now, now at last, in the Gospel age, to the governments and the
authorities, the "princes" ( Daniel 10:21, etc.) of the angelic host,
representatives of that host itself, in the celestial regions, may be made
known, intimated, given as information (γνωρισθῇ), by means of the Church, by
that great object-lesson in what omnipotent Love can do with the material of a
ruined race, the variegated, the versatile, the manifold, wisdom of God; the
"wisdom" which is never at a loss to carry out its purposes of grace, be the
problems presented by its subject what they may.

It is a wonderful scene, as the Apostle lifts the veil, and bids us, like
Elisha’s lad at Dothan, see the invisible around us and above. Behold "the
Church," "the company of the faithful." "Whence came they?" From the Fall, from
the death of sin, from the city of destruction, from a profound preference of
self to God. Each one of that company, if interrogated, will say that he, that
she, was antecedently as unworthy as possible of grace, justly under sentence,
"in the flesh," in which "no good thing dwelleth." "Whence came they?" From the
real circumstances of mortal life; from the scenes of common toil, and prosaic
incident, and everyday intercourse; from the hopes and fears, the laughter and
weeping, the births and deaths of time, just as we know them. They have come to
Christ "in the body," "in this tabernacle," "being burthened." They have been
received by Him so, and kept by Him so, and under these conditions joined
together in Him in the wonderful organism of the limbs of the living Head. Men,
women, children, behold them there, upon the earth; not in the heavenly future
only, as they shall be, but "now" in the present, as they are. And then above
them see, bending to the contemplation, "the governments and the authorities in
the celestial regions." The spirits of immortality are intently studying the
mortal scene below them. They possess in their own ethereal consciousness the
experience of all the past since they "sang together" ( Job 38:7) over creation.
They live where the vision of God is given to them as it is not given yet to us;
they "always behold His face"; they "stand in His presence." What then have they
to learn from us? Ah, they have to learn something which makes them watch us
with wonder and with awe. They see in us indeed all our weakness, and all our
sin. But they see a nature which, wrecked by itself, was yet made in the image
of their God and ours. And they see this God at work upon that wreck to produce
results not only wonderful in themselves but doubly wonderful because of the
conditions.

It is a thought to inspire the weakest and the least advanced disciple, that he,
just as "a man in Christ," is a specimen, an instance, a part and member, of
this Object of the attention of "our elder brethren of the sky." The "angel that
excels in strength" has things to learn here which he cannot learn from all he
sees among his own bright peers of the celestial Order. He has to learn what
grace can do with the mortal nature, and under the burthen of the flesh, as it
is carried about perhaps by some poor and despised disciple, some young convert
in the lanes of the English city, or in the kraal of the African wilderness. His
cloudless intelligence finds matter for profound reflection in the phenomenon of
firm and reasonable faith exercised by the man who knows God by grace but is
utterly unable, from his earthly point of view, to see through some riddle of
his Providence, or to comprehend some dark saying of His Word. In his own
immortality, never touched by one drop of our cold river, it is instructive to
him beyond all our thought to see his God triumphing over pain and death in some
sufferer in the fire of martyrdom, or in the torture of cancer, or in the
shipwreck, or just in the silent awe of any form of our departure from the body.
"In all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us."
And what He who loved us is, in His "multifold wisdom," is seen thus "through
the Church," as nowhere else in the universe, by the Principalities and Powers.

All this, moreover, this education of heaven through earth, if we may dare to
phrase it so, is a matter of

Ephesians 3:11. the plan and will of God; it is according to the purpose, the
programme, of the ages, the long "dispensations" of the slow history of
Redemption leading up to the Church Universal of living saints; the purpose
which He, the Father, formed, in the Christ, even Jesus our Lord. For all was
planned, as all was to be carried out, "in Him"; "both Idea and Working were
altogether bound up with Him. ’In Christ’ God was to ’reconcile the world’; ’in
Christ’ the saints were to ’have redemption, in His blood’; ’in Him’ to be
’rooted and built up’; ’complete in Him’; ’abiding in Him’; ’walking in Him’;
’dying in the Lord’; ’in Christ made alive.’"

"So God hath greatly purposed." And the Principalities and Powers see God
working that purpose out in a material that only illustrates to the utmost, by
its difficulty, His glory. And now what do they see as the innermost wonder of
the phenomenon they study? They see these fallen and mortal beings, this
Community of the lost and saved, not only bearing and doing for God here on
earth, but spiritually present with Him in the Holy of Holies above. The
"saints" are in Christ, who is in God. So they are the intimates of their
Father’s heart; His subjects, His vassals, His bondmen, on the one side, but on
the other, His own dear children, who can say anything to Him. For they are one
with the

Ephesians 3:12. Well-Beloved, in whom we have our (τήν) freedom of utterance,
παῤῥησίαν, our unreserved leave of intercourse, and our introduction, through
our (τῆς) faith in Him (αὐτοῦ). For this whole wonderful life is "from faith to
faith." To rely, to confide, to act upon the promise, is the secret and the
means, alike when the penitent comes first to the feet of divine Compassion, and
when the disciple goes deepest into the recesses of "the secret of the
Presence."

Ephesians 3:13. Wherefore I ask you,[14] I appeal to you, not to lose heart, as
in your loving sympathy you might do, as if you had to feel with me under a
failure,amidst (ἐν) my troubles suffered on your behalf; for this (ἥτις) is your
glory. In the propagation of such a Gospel the messenger may well be willing to
suffer for the sake of the converts, and they in their turn may well not be
discouraged when they see him suffer for them. And such a Gospel supplies the
very motive to the spirit breathing here, the spirit which cannot pause to
contemplate its own "troubles" as such, but thinks only of those for whom they
are endured, and of their need of hope and cheer. So closes the long and
magnificent digression. It has roved from the immediate theme in hand, but not
for a moment has it stepped outside of Christ. It is a sudden turn taken in a
green labyrinth. But the labyrinth is all alike the ἀνεξιχνίαστος πλοῦτος, "the
wealth not to be tracked by footprints," of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us return
now, with St Paul, to the original matter of the context. But let us only the
more involve ourselves, as to faith and love, in the glorious Maze of Him whose
Name, with all that it contains, is a boundless Paradise of the believing soul.

"Our Garden is a Labyrinth too, Whose paths no clue can tell;

It spreads about us, ever new, A wealth unsearchable."

[1]He frequently writesἐγὼΠαῦλος. So2 Corinthians 10:1, "I Paul myself beseech
you";Galatians 5:2, "Behold I Paul say unto you";Colossians 1:23, "whereof I
Paul am made a minister." This is no commonplaceegotism; it is the voice of an
intense and powerful personality, filled with a vivid consciousness of relation
and responsibility.

[2]Εἴγεἠκούσατε. As I understand this "if," it is the expression of a certain
graciousirony.The commission of St Paul to "the Gentiles" had been well known
through the whole circle of his missions for years, and was notorious of course
at Ephesus, and generally in Asia (it was at Ephesus that he first definitely
withdrew the converts from the synagogue,Acts 19:8-9). And just this notoriety
of the fact gives occasion for a gentle, an almostpleasant,hypothetical allusion
to it: "You may possibly have heard of such a thing as my being the Apostle of
the Gentiles!"

Τῆς χάριτος...τῆς δοθείσης. Observe that he speaks here not of the "stewardship"
but of the "grace" as the "gift." See for comment the wordsbelow,Ephesians 3:8,
"to me... was this grace given, to preach, etc." So probablyPhp 1:7, "partakers
of my grace," i.e. of my apostolic work and suffering.

[3]Readἐγνωρίσθη, notἐγνώρισε.

[4]Such is always the meaning ofμυστήριονin the N.T. See onEphesians 1:9.

[5]Προέγραψαἐνὀλίγῳ. The Greek aorist is here best represented by our perfect,
as the "writing" was so recent. He refers to previous passages in this
Epistle,Ephesians 1:9, etc.,Ephesians 2:11, etc. Hence our "above" seems better
as a rendering than "before."

[6]’Probably omitἐν. But the English will be the same.

[7]Νῦνἀπεκαλύφθη. Again an aorist, but demanding the English perfect to
represent it, as the reference is to a recent past whose results are present.

[8]Beyond doubt here the reference is to the "prophets" of the Christian Church,
like Silas and Agabus.See above,Ephesians 2:20, and remarks there.

[9]ΣύσσωμαI sacrifice a literal rendering to preserve the balance in form of the
termsσυγκληρονόμα, σύσσωμα, κ.τ.λ.

[10]Ἐλαχιστοτέρῳ, literally "leaster"; a "comparative superlative" coined by his
glowing thought for this unique use.

[11]Readτοῖςἔθνεσιν, notὲν τ.ἐ.

[12]Certainly readοἰκονομία, notκοινωνία

[13]Omitδιὰ ἸησοῦΧριστοῦ.

[14]It seems far better to explainαἰτοῦμαιthus than of prayer to God.Thatis
spoken of in the next sentence, and in much stronger terms.


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  CHAPTER 8: CHAPTER 07. THE MAIN THEME RESUMED: PRAYER FOR THE INDWELLING AND THE FULNESS: DOXOLOGY
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Chapter 7. The Main Theme Resumed: Prayer for the Indwelling and the Fulness:
Doxology Ephesians 3:14-21 "My prayer hath power with God; the grace Unspeakable
I now receive;

Through faith I see Thee face to face, I see Thee face to face, and live: In
vain I have not wept and strove;

Thy nature and Thy name is Love."

—C. Wesley

I HAVE already attempted to explain the structure of this part of the Epistle.
If I see it aright, we have in the paragraph, Ephesians 3:1-13, a digression
from a main line of thought, of which line the characteristic note is Divine
Indwelling. If the digression had not taken place, we should have seen the
Apostle pass at once from the Indwelling as it concerns the whole Church, and
the eternal future, to the Indwelling as it concerns the individual heart, and
the present hour; this second theme being connected vitally with the first,
because to the the Indwelling in the Church hereafter for ever the great, the
glorious, preparatory step is the Indwelling in the heart now. But the
digression broke in upon this sequence, though it did so only to give us a view,
among other things, of an "unsearchable wealth" in Christ of which we shall
presently speak again. But now, it is over. The stream of thought has run its
majestic circuit at the side, and once more it flows straight onward, onward to
the sea, to the deep. For it will conduct us to "all the fulness of God," to a
power which can, and will, do wonders in us and for us "above all that we ask or
think." And on its way to that Ocean it will waft us into the blessedness of the
Indwelling of Christ in the Heart.

Look then, and listen. The Apostle is at prayer, "bowing his knees." The
Pretorian at his side may or may not kneel also; he may be a pagan scoffer, but
quite possibly he may be a convert and a brother. Disciples like Epaphras and
Luke may be there, to kneel too; or it may be some time when all such friends
are absent. But however, Paul is on his knees, and pouring out his innermost
heart for the Asians. And what he asks for them, he asks for us; for it is for
them as Christians that he prays. Let us thankfully remember here the marked
absence of the local and the temporal in the allusions of our Epistle; it will
bring home the truth and glory of the message more fully upon our own souls. Not
for believers of one generation, or race, or station, or grade of civilization,
or even of experience, is this man praying here. He is praying for Christians
simply as such. And that means, for us.

We will give ear indeed. And we will remember that it is not only St Paul at
prayer. The Lord is in him, that he may intercede. Never was he more inspired
than now. It is not he that speaks about the heart, about the Presence, about
the blessing; it is "the Spirit that maketh intercession." We are in the very
line, in each petition, of the will of God.

Ephesians 3:14. For this cause, for the sake of your present blessedness, and
your coming unimaginable glory as the Habitation of God, the "cause" present to
my mind when that same phrase (τούτου χάριν) was used before ( Ephesians 3:1), I
bow my knees towards, as looking up towards, the Father,[1] the ultimate and
eternal

Ephesians 3:15. Fountain of all blessing, Him from whom, out of whom (ἐξ οὗ), as
by a sacred derivation of thought and word, all the Family[2] (πατριά) in the
heavens and upon earth, all the company, all the body, of believers here and of
the blessed ones above, human and angelic spirits alike, gets its name,πατριά.
And now, what is the petition? It is altogether for the disciples’ hearts, and
for the Saviour’s glory, through the Spirit:

Ephesians 3:16. That He would give to you, (for it is a sovereign gift, under
His own covenant of free grace,[3]) according to, on the scale and in the style
of, the wealth of His glory, the resources of His ever-blessed Nature,
manifested to us, to be with power made mighty,[4]by means of His Spirit, the
Holy Spirit of Promise, the Lord of Pentecost, "Spirit of counsel and of might,"
deep in the inner man,[5] the region where the new life moves and grows, the
regenerate consciousness itself. So the prayer is for power, divine in kind,
and, as to its operation, penetrating to the depths of manhood. To what issue
and effect? Is the result to be convulsive and formidable? Is the operation to
come out in words and works of miracle, alarming the world into submission? No;
it is a power full of life, life infinite and eternal, but so deep that it is
still, with the peace of God Himself, and with a joy which is but heavenly love
in movement. This "making mighty with power" is to have for its first and main
effect just the opening of the heart’s inmost door to the personal presence of
the Saviour, and then, and so, the full apprehension. of His salvation:

Ephesians 3:17. So that our (τόν) Christ may take up His lasting
habitation,[6]by means of faith, in your hearts; coming to them in a sense, in a
respect, so deep and great, as to constitute a practically new arrival, and
remaining where He so arrives not as a Guest, precariously detained, but as a
Master resident in His proper home; and this, "by faith," "by your (τῆς) faith,"
through your taking Him at His word, taking Him for granted, and opening the
door without misgiving to His entrance. Then, at once the ideas of resultant
blessing develope themselves from this glorious germ; that, in love rooted and
founded,[7] having stricken your root deep into the soil of the Love of God,
having built your house of salvation firm upon its rock, you may

Ephesians 3:18. achieve strength (ἐξισχύσητε) to grasp,[8] in the insight and
appropriation of the soul, with all the saints, with an experience all the
deeper because consciously one with that of "the whole Family," what is the
breadth, and length, and depth, and height of that mighty Love just mentioned,
and just to be mentioned again, that Universe of blessing, with its vast
horizons and its boundless sphere, its Purpose, Work, and

Ephesians 3:19. Covenant of glorious grace[9]; and to know, with an intelligence
now wonderfully developed,[10]the knowledge-transcending love of our (τοῦ)
Christ; yes, transcending for ever, while it invites and allures for ever, all
that we call knowing, for it is infinite; so that, as the crown and issue of the
whole blissful process of Indwelling, of Intuition, you may be filled[11]unto,
up to, all the fulness of our (τοῦ) God; your whole happy nature flooded, as it
were, with all which, being Grace in Him the Giver, can become Grace in us the
receivers of the Gift. Is this too much to hope, to ask, to take? No,

Ephesians 3:20. because He is in the question. But to Him who is able to do
beyond all things, to carry His work of blessing to lengths indefinite indeed,
vastly beyond all[12]we ask or understand of His wealth and His ways, yet, all
the while, according to the power of the Spirit

Ephesians 3:21. which is already at work in us; to Him be the glory, in the
Church, (not by the Church only, but in it, for it is the occasion and matter of
the ascription,) and in Christ Jesus,[13] who is supremely the Father’s Gift,
and therefore supremely the Occasion of His Glory; unto all the generations of
the age of the ages. Amen. Even so be it, even so shall it be, through that
interminable Future which lies waiting for us in His Eternity; that "age," that
"sum and circumference of ages," ages which again will themselves contain
periods faintly imaged by the "generations" which make up the centuries of Time.
So ends the Prayer, the "bowing of the knees," and then the Doxology, which
seems to come less to close it than to waft it aloft into eternity. This is one
of the great Scriptures, the Holy Spirit’s words of the first order. Let us
recall it, let us ponder it, to be ourselves uplifted, and then abased, but only
to be the better uplifted again in the power of God.

Adolphe Monod, in his unpretending but precious "Explanation" of the Epistle,
writes thus of the profound paragraph before us:

"After the grandest promises which human language can express, the Holy Ghost
here closes by declaring that all which can be expressed is infinitely below the
reality which is in God. In vain we mount, even in the track of an Apostle; we
can only contemplate, after all, ’parts of the ways of God’ ( Job 26:14), and we
must always conclude with ’groanings that cannot be uttered’ ( Romans 8:26)..
Yes, and nothing other can suffice us than this avowal of insufficiency; nothing
less could respond to the vague and vast need of our heart. All that the mind
comes to seize distinctly (netternent), and the mouth to enunciate with
precision, is incapable of satisfying us. This conclusion accordingly,
astonishing and unexpected, is just what we required.

"Nothing can restrain or bound the power of God towards us; nothing in Him,
nothing even in us; no limits set to His power, for it knows no limits; not even
the weakness of our prayers, and the imperfection of our knowledge, for He is
able to transcend all our demands and all our conceptions.

"But alas for us, if this language, infinitely below the reality which is in
God, should be infinitely above the reality which is in us! Imagine a practical
Christianity conceived according to the text of the Scriptures only, and
irrespective of the personal experience of believers; and then imagine a
practical Christianity conceived only according to the experience of believers,
and irrespective of the written Word. Should we not say that here were two
different religions? To pass from Scripture to our experience seems like a fall
from heaven to earth—not to say, sometimes, to hell! Let us class (assortissons)
our Christianity aright. And may the Lord teach us how to bring our experience
into harmony with His promises. Truly, we have need of a new baptism of the Holy
Spirit."[14]

Reflections like these, the reflections of a saint such as Monod, at once abased
and profoundly animated by the words we have studied, may well seem the best
commentary upon them. The whole passage calls the believer away from a mere
discussion of phrases to the inner chamber of faith and prayer. "You have your
Bible, and you have your knees; use them"; so said a venerable Christian, my
godfather, Carr John Glyn, who died in 1896, within twenty months of his hundred
years. Let us "use them" indeed, that the treasures of this Ephesian paragraph
may become in some measure the current coin of our lives. But this very end may
be advanced by just such attention to the phrases in detail as may send us to
our knees with more articulate aims and hopes. So let me take up some few out of
the great words of the paragraph, and point to them, in all earnest, for faith
and for expectant prayer.

I. "I bow my knees to the Father... that He would grant you." So then this is a
matter of divine, personal, benignant gift. Free as the gift of pardon, of
justifying righteousness, of adoption, of incorporation, is the gift of the
Indwelling and its attendant bliss. For the moment, put away other aspects,
other sides, other truths; they will be sure to be remembered in their place, if
we are using "our Bible and our knees." Think just now of just this; "that He
would grant you," "that He would give"ἵνα δῷ. "Cease from thine own works";
"cease from thine own wisdom." This is a gift, free and sovereign; address
thyself in simplicity—to receive.

II. "To be with power made mighty... that Christ may take up His habitation in
your hearts." This is to be the Spirit’s operation, "with power to make you
mighty," that you may—not shake the earth, but receive the Indweller. And why do
we need a supreme empowering just in order to receive our Life, our Light? Does
the hungry wanderer need power in order to eat the food without which he will
soon sink? Does the bewildered manner need power to welcome on to his deck the
pilot who alone can steer him to the haven of his desire? No; but there is
another aspect of the matter here. For the heart, though it immeasurably needs
the blessed Indweller, has that in it which dreads His absolute Indwelling. Can
it trust Him with complete internal authority? Will He not use it to purposes
terrible to the human heart, asserting His position by some infliction, some
exaction, awful and unpitying? So the hand, stretched out to "open the door" (
Revelation 3:20), the inner door—for the King is supposed to be already received
into the porch, and hall, and more public chambers of the being—falls again, and
shrinks from that turning of the key which is to set the last recess quite open
to the Master. Here is the need for the Spirit’s empowering work. Come, Holy
Ghost, and shew to the hesitating heart "the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ," that lovely glory, shewn in that fair Countenance; then it shall
hesitate no more. Beholding His love in His look it shall not dread His power in
His grasp. It shall be strong to welcome Him wholly in, for it shall see, in the
light of the Spirit, that "in His presence is the fulness of joy," that "to
serve Him is to reign."

III. "That Christ may take up His habitation in your hearts" What, has He not
been in residence before? Can the Ephesian be a Christian indeed, with Christ
still absent out of him? Is it not at Ephesus as at Corinth, where "Jesus Christ
is in you, except ye be counterfeits, castaways" (ἀδόκιμοι: 2 Corinthians 13:5)?
Well, all that side is vitally true, but there is another side. The Lord must,
for our salvation at all, be so in living union with us that we are in Him, and
He in us. But His presence in us has its degrees and advances, its less and
more, its outer and inner. To drop metaphor, a life may be truly Christian and
yet far from fully Christian; the man may have come really to Christ, and have
really cast anchor on Him, and have really confessed Him, and be really seeking
to serve Him, yet be keeping back, perhaps quite unconsciously, whole regions of
the life from Him. He may be living rather as His ally than as His vassal. He
may be rather treating Him as an august Visitor in His servant’s house than
behaving as the loving bondservant in a house where Christ is always the Master
at home. And St Paul cannot rest about the Ephesians till they have, all of
them, accepted the Lord simply on His own terms in this matter. They will never
satisfy their Apostle, for they cannot possibly satisfy the Lord, if they do not
welcome the blessed, the beloved, the adorable Indweller to the heart, not only
to the convictions, or even to the conduct, but to the heart. He must be
inducted into the central chamber, for it is His proper place. And He must be
always there.

"Christ" must be "hallowed as Lord in the heart" ( 1 Peter 3:15; the true
reading). "Though all of us is a temple for Him," says the old Puritan pastor,
Bayne, of Cambridge, on this passage, "yet the heart is the choir, where He
properly sitteth."

There let Him sit, supreme and at the centre. In many a Christian’s experience
it is as if the Christian life began anew, and in an almost heaven, when the
will is "with power made mighty" deliberately and without reserve to seat Him
there.

IV. "By faith"; "by means of your (τῆς) faith." Take fullest notice of that
phrase, so strong in its simplicity. The Indwelling is, from one side, the
sovereign gift of God. From the other, it is a matter for the simplest and most
personal reception by man. And then, the form of that reception is just
this—faith; reliance, submissive trust; not animated action, not exalted
aspiration, but acceptance. Wonderful "faith," pregnant of all imaginable
blessings, but itself single and simple; pathway to all virtues, but itself no
virtue, for it is just the taking of the infinitely Trustworthy at His word; is
not this the mere act of reasonable self-preservation?

True, faith is the gift of God—but in order that it may be the act of man. Let
it be our act today.

V. "In love rooted and grounded,... that you may know the knowledge-transcending
love of Christ." "From faith to faith" ( Romans 1:17) is the order of the Gospel
from one side; from love to love is its order from another. The Apostle prays
that in the Eternal Love (I think we have adequately seen already that it is of
that Love he is speaking) they may so feel their "root and foundation" that they
may look around from it and contemplate in peace the universe of salvation, and
that now, in particular, they may "grasp the love of Christ." As if the
apprehension of His love were something very different from only the vestibule
and introduction to the Eternal Love in its highest aspects; rather, the soul is
seen advancing from an enjoyment of the divine love in general to that of the
special love of Christ, as to a sanctuary within the temple.

Wonderful is the testimony of the words, so placed, to the divine glory of the
Redeemer. Such is His love in kind that to "know" it is the very hope of the
soul. Such is it in measure that it for ever transcends all our knowing. If St
Paul had written down in so many words, "Christ is God of God, Light of Light,
very God of very God," he could not have preached His Deity more fully. But let
us not take the words only as a contribution to a true Christology. Let us so
receive the Indweller by faith that we may be for ever knowing this love of
His—yes, His love even to us, just as we are—which yet we can never wholly know.

"O Son of God, who lovest me, I will be Thine alone; And all I have and all I am
Shall henceforth be Thine own."

VI. "Filled, unto all the fulness of God." No fanatical rhetoric is here, nor
the least dream of a mingling and confusion of the finite and the Infinite.
"Neither the Church, nor the soul, can contain the Infinite. But they can
receive the whole, the plenitude (πλήρωμα), of those blessings which the
Infinite One is willing and able at each moment to bestow upon the finite
recipient." "The idea is of a vessel connected with an abundant source external
to itself, and which will be filled, up to its capacity, if the connexion is
complete."[15] "Lord, we ask it, hardly knowing What this wondrous gift may be;

Yet fulfil to overflowing;

Thy great meaning let us see.

"Make us, in Thy royal palace, Vessels worthy of the King; From Thy fulness fill
our chalice, From Thy never-failing spring.

"Father, by this blessed filling, Dwell Thyself in us, we pray;

We are waiting, Thou art willing;

Fill us with Thyself today."[16] So we shut the Apostle’s letter once more. Let
us do so with that great word of his doxology upon our lips, τῷδυναμένῳ, "To Him
who is able." To read such a passage, and to look to ourselves, is despair. To
read it, and to look "to Him who is able," is "everlasting comfort and good hope
through grace." May it be with us somewhat as it was, a hundred years ago and
more, with Dr William Conyers, Vicar of Helmsley, in Yorkshire. Earnest,
conscientious, but as yet spiritually unilluminated, he toiled among his
parishioners with vast diligence, but always inwardly disappointed. One day,
reading his Bible, he lit upon those words which we studied a little in our last
chapter, "The unsearchable riches of Christ" They struck him with a profound
surprise, and a strange misgiving; could the Christ, who had seemed to him
hitherto a Figure in his theology so august yet so intelligible, so familiar, be
the Christ of those words? And he did not rest till he had found Him indeed in
the glory of His salvation, and had felt life transfigured in His light.

You may think, perhaps rightly, that you stand further on in the knowledge of
the Lord than Conyers did when he read of the wealth unsearchable. But you can
never be so far advanced in it that new worlds cannot yet open before you. For
Christ, as to His riches, is a Labyrinth no clue can traverse; and as to His
love, it passeth knowledge.

"Thou art able; we adore Thee;

We ascribe to Thee the power, And glad anthems to Thy glory We would sing each
day and hour;

While the joy of now possessing In Thyself each promised blessing Is our glad
unending dower."

Miss J. S. Pigott.

[1]The wordsτοῦΚ.ἡμῶνἸ. Χ.. must certainly be omitted. The evidence of MSS. and
patristic quotations is against them, and St Jerome expressly says that the
"Latin copies" which contain them are in error. And context favours the
omission; theΠατήρis here regarded, immediately and mainly, in His relation not
to the blessed Son but to the redeemed Family. That relation is indeed only "in"
the Son. But it can be contemplated occasionally by itself; and so it is here.

[2]Πατήρ, πατριά: it is a real misfortune that in English we cannot keep the
verbal point of the Greek, by words which have a verbal kinship. We might
perhaps renderπατριά, "father’s-house,"or"father’s-family"; but it would be
cumbersome at best. The R.V. here renders "every family," or (margin)
"fatherhood." And this would no doubt be right in view of classical usage,
according to which "the whole family" would almost certainly demandπᾶταἡπατριά.
But the usage of N.T. Greek is not so strict, and we may and must accordingly
consult context along with wording. What does context say? Does the Apostle seem
most likely here to take up the thought of God’s spiritual Fatherhood as the
archetype of all family unions, spiritual or not, in earth and heaven?orthe
thought of the family oneness of saints and angels under the "Father of
spirits"? To me the answer seems clear for thesecondalternative. All through
this great passage he is full of the thought of the spiritual
anduniversalcommunity. The phrase, "in heaven and earth," itself (compared
withEphesians 1:10) suggests such thoughts rather than those of "families" in
detail. I advocate therefore the Authorized Version. The Rabbis called the
angels "the upper family" and Israel "the lower." The parallel with St Paul’s
language is not perfect, but it is near enough for illustration; the phrases may
be as old as St Paul’s time, and may have partially moulded his language here.

[3]See, on the mightygift to the heartunder the New Covenant,Jeremiah 31:31, and
the related passages in N.T.;2 Corinthians 3,Hebrews 8, 10. See also the close
of the present chapter of this book.

[4]Κραταιωθῆναι: observe the aorist, with its suggestion of decision and crisis.

[5]Εἰς τὸνἔσωἄνθρωπον: lit. "intothe inner man." My translation may fairly
represent this; the thought is of the inward direction of the Gift; no
surface-work.

[6]Κατοικῆσαι: observe the compound, and the tense. It is to be
asettledresidence,κατοικεῖν. And it is to be a decisive,
critical,beginning—indicated by the aorist.

[7]Ἐνἀγάπῃ ἐῤῥιζωμένοι καὶτεθεμελιωμένοι: placed here at the beginning of a new
sentence, the words seem to amount almost to a sentence by themselves, as if he
had said, "that you may be in love rooted, etc., and so may be able,
etc."—Ἐνἀγάπῃ: the reference seems almost certainly to be to the Eternal Love.
Nothing less in the way ofἀγάπῃcould be thesoilof the Christian’s root,
therockof his foundation.

[8]Observe again the significant aorists,ἐξισχύσητε, καταλαβέσθαι,

[9]"Some curiosities of interpretation attach to this verse. Severianus (cent.
4, 5)... finds here an allusion to the shape of the Cross, and in that shape to
the Lord’s Godhead (’height’) and Manhood (’depth’), and to the extent of the
apostolic missions (’length and breadth’). St Jerome in his Commentary here
interprets the words at some length, and finds in the’height’the holy angels, in
the’depth’the evil spirits, in the ’length’ those of mankind who are on the
upward path, and in the ’breadth’ those who are ’sinking towards vices. Forbroad
and ample is the way which leadeth to death.’The Calvinist Zanchius adopts from
Photius (cent. 9) the explanation that the reference is to ’the mystery of the
free salvation through Christ of the Gentiles and the whole human race’;
calledlong,because decreed from eternity;broad,because extended to
all;deep,because of the descent of Christ to Hades, and because of the
resurrection of the dead;high,because Christ ascended above all heavens." (Note
in theCambridge Bible.)

[10]Γνῶναι: again remark the aorist. The whole passage is full of the thought of
"new departures" in the life of grace.

[11]Once more an aorist,πληρωθῆτε

[12]Construct togetherὑπερεκπερισσοῦ ὧν. Observe this grandly characteristic
passage, with its repeatedὑπέρ.

[13]Almost certainly readκαὶ ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ.

[14]Explication de l’Éfître aux Ephésiens,pp. 206, 207.

[15]Notes in theCambridge Bible.

[16]Miss F. R. Havergal.


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  CHAPTER 9: CHAPTER 08. A RETROSPECT AND REVIEW
========================================================================

Chapter 8. A Retrospect and Review "Through the meadows, past the cities, still
the brimming streams are roll’d, Now in torrent, now expanding into silver lakes
and gold, Wafting life and increase with them, wealth and beauty manifold.

"Whence descends the ceaseless fulness, ever giving, never dry?

Yonder, o’er the climbing forest, see the shining Cause on high—

Mountain-snows their watery treasures pouring everlastingly."

WE have touched the middle point of the Epistle. The close of the third chapter
and the beginning of the fourth mark that point, not precisely in respect of
space, for the last three chapters make a considerably longer section than the
first three, but in respect of subject-matter. With some obvious qualifications,
the first three chapters treat of doctrine, and the last three of practice; the
first lead us to the secrets and resources of the Christian life, and the last
to its exercise in the Church and in the world. The connexion of the two
sections is vital and profound; this hardly needs to be explained. But it cannot
be too earnestly pressed on the attention of the believing reader. For it is a
grand illustration of the truth that, in the Gospel, all the doctrine bears upon
practice, and all the practice is rooted in doctrine. Or, to put it in terms
more living, more personal, more fully true; all the revelation of God in Christ
is for the sake of His people’s life and service before Him; all the Christian’s
life and service depends, for its peace, purity, and power, upon his revealed
Lord and God, known, trusted, invoked, and used. But of this we shall see much
more when we travel forward into the latter section of the Epistle. Meanwhile,
and that we may follow up this theme the better in its place, let us pause a
little while here, and look back upon the ground already traversed. We have as
it were reached the top of a mountain road; the place invites to rest, and also
to retrospect. We shall soon move on towards the plains and cities. Let us sit
still for a time under the quiet sky, and contemplate the everlasting hills
among which we have ascended, as they lift their heads heavenwards and pour
their waters down the pass at our feet, towards the scenes of human life.

What on the whole then is the view of Christian life, in its source and secret,
given us in the first three chapters of our Epistle?

I. We notice first, as we have done before, that the view, whatever it is, has
to do not with some disciples, but with all. This is particularly noteworthy,
when we remember that in the second part of the Epistle we have a full
recognition of the varieties of human duty. There we shall find the totally
different functions of spouse, parent, child, servant, master, each treated
explicitly and apart. But in the first section nothing of the kind occurs. The
streams are many, the fountain is one. Whoever and whatever the disciple is, the
greatest truths are true for him, for her. The highest, the deepest, the holiest
privileges are his or her possession, in the plan of God. And he and she are
called, each one, to "possess these possessions" to the full, and to enter in
experience into the very sanctuary of blessing. This is a perfectly simple
assertion, and manifestly true. Only, it is so sorrowfully in contrast with the
current facts of actual Christian life, (or to speak more exactly, of the actual
life of Christians,) that it needs continual restatement, to keep it really
alive as a practical force upon us.

I do not now refer to our nominal, visible "Christendom" in its larger sense, to
the multitudes of the "christened" in our own and other regions where the Faith
is accepted as the current creed. Rather, I have in view circles which by
comparison are near the centre; the people who in Evangelical parlance would be
recognized as "converted," as "decided," as really "in earnest." Is it not true
that among Christians thus described, and in whose lives there is much to
respect, there appears too often a strange contrast when they compare their
inner creed and their deepest experience with St Paul’s account here of the
"grace and peace" of—not remarkable Christians, but—Christians? Not in formula,
no doubt, but practically, have we not allowed ourselves to be content with a
life of the soul lived rather in the suburbs than in the sanctuary? A life lived
on "religion "rather than on Jesus Christ? At best, a life lived near Him rather
than in Him, and in which it would be difficult to find a congenial place for
such words as "in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus," "Christ dwelling in the
heart by faith"?

Yet the Apostle writes those surpassing phrases with the whole Asian mission in
his view. Of every one, without exception, who truly calls upon the Lord, he
affirms that the Father has raised that man with His dear Son, and has seated
him in Christ in the heavenly places. For all the disciples, without reserve, he
bows his knees in importunate and expectant prayer that they may be so dealt
with by the Spirit that they may, every one of them, have Christ resident in the
heart by faith"—with all the wonderful sequel of that experience.

Let us not be content with observing, or with owning, this difference, this
contrast. Assortissons notre Christianisme, as Monod says in the extract quoted
in our last chapter. "Let us class our Christianity aright." Is it apostolic, or
is it something quite different? And if not apostolic, in its convictions, and
(in some genuine measure) in its experience, let us make haste in our turn to
"bow our knees unto the Father." "I will not let Thee go except Thou bless me.
For I am a Christian, O my Lord, and Thou meanest the fulness of Thy blessing
for every one of Thy disciples."

II. We observe next, coming into detail, that the apostolic doctrine of the
Christian life is that it is a life wholly and sublimely heavenly in its source.
Truly, as in the warm language of some of our beautiful old hymns, the eternal
world is its home of birth:

"Rise, my soul, and stretch thy wings, Thy better portion trace;

Rise, from transitory things, Toward heaven, thy native place."

I do not think that either John Cennick, in that heart-moving song of faith, or
St Paul here, means to tell us that we had a personal pre-existence, and lived
in heaven before we were born of our mothers here below. But they do mean, the
Apostle does tell us, that we believers did exist to the eternal Mind "before
the foundation of the world"; that then and there we were "chosen in Christ";
"predestinated to the adoption of children by means of Jesus Christ"; "blessed
with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus."

Let us look from our hill-top upon that great Alp of truth, shining all over
with the sunshine of everlasting love. It has its precipices, it has indeed.
Cave praecipitium, "Beware of the edge," was well said by Augustine, great
teacher of the sovereignty of grace, and of the mystery of the eternal purpose.
But the mountain is as beautiful as it is steep and massive, viewed from the
foot of the Cross, and seen as part of the great landscape and system of
Redemption. It has no frown then for any human soul which in the least degree is
seeking God. And for the soul which has found Him in Christ, it only smiles and
radiates blessing from all its peaks and glaciers, with the assurance of a
salvation nothing less than eternal in its origin, its purpose, and its end. It
is the light of Christ which shines upon those steeps and summits. He looks out
upon the believing soul from the mysteries of the choice, and the
foreordination, and the blessing, and the acceptance. It is no law of fate, no
iron destiny, with which we deal; it is the will of the Father, manifested and
effected in the Son; nothing there can be alien, really and ultimately, from
eternal Love. So let us dwell in due time and measure, on the revelations of the
first great paragraph of the Epistle, with glad and thankful hearts. In the
words of the Seventeenth Article of the English Church, "the godly consideration
of predestination and our election in Christ is full of sweet, pleasant, and
unspeakable comfort to" (note the deep conditioning words) "godly persons, and
such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ, mortifying the
works of the flesh, and their earthly members, and drawing up their minds to
high and heavenly things."[1]

III. Another grand aspect of the inner Christian life, as seen in this section
of the Epistle, is that it is a life of supernatural illumination. For his
Ephesian converts, for all of them, (let us note that point with renewed
recollection,) the Apostle prays that the Holy Ghost may so work as the Lord of
Light that they may supernaturally see the present and the coming grandeur and
wonder of salvation; "the hope of the calling," "the riches of the glory of
God’s inheritance, consisting of His saints," and also the mysterious force
working in them now, even His resurrection-power, the same power which called
their Lord from His grave, and set Him on the throne, and made Him Head of the
Body.

Let this be observed, as a divine suggestion for the life of all true
Christians. The Ephesians are viewed by St Paul, evidently, as already
abundantly alive in the spiritual sense. "When ye believed, ye were sealed with
that Holy Spirit of promise"; "You did He make alive, dead as you were in your
trespasses and your sins"; aye, "He made you sit together in the heavenly places
in Christ Jesus." What more did they want? In one respect, nothing more at all,
for they had "received Christ Jesus the Lord," as their eternal Life, by the
Life-Giver’s power; and "all spiritual blessings" are "in Christ Jesus," and
therefore are in them in whom He is. But this may be true in covenant, in
provision, and very far as yet from true in experience, in conscious possession.
So, for these Spirit-sealed disciples, the Apostle prays for the Spirit—not as
for a fresh personal advent of the Holy Ghost to them, but as for a fresh
putting forth of His power upon them. And the special result of this is to be
that they know what they possess. Their "heart’s eyes" ( Romans 1:18) are to be
lighted up, to see the landscape of glory before them, and also the golden
treasures, wrought out of the mines of heaven, actually in their hands for
present use upon the way. He wants them to be nothing short of "enlightened
Christians" in the highest sense of the term; to be illuminati indeed. They are
to be simple as infants in the sense of need, in the tenderness of penitence, in
directness of reliance, and in gladness of obedience, yet to be "wiser than the
aged" all the while in God-given insight into the mighty "reason of their hope,"
and into the secrets of God, "revealed to babes," for His people’s present power
and joy. This was the Apostle’s standard for common Christian life in Asia; and
the Apostle was no visionary. He meant anything in the world but fanaticism, and
fitful ecstasies, and the reveries of an abstract pietism. But he knew well that
for the fulness of human life in a sinful world nothing can be more practically
useful than the fulness of the Spirit of God, as He fully manifests to the
believer the depth of man’s need and the magnificence of the Lord’s supply. As
then, so now. An illuminated Christian life is "revealed unto babes" in the
nineteenth century, as in the first. To the young, to the uneducated, to the
naturally slow, the Spirit in our day, as in that day, "takes of the things of
Christ and shews them," in a way indescribably different from that of the mere
literary and verbal exegesis of the student. Only a few weeks ago a Christian
friend, widely experienced in the realities of life, was talking to me of a man
singularly illuminated, filled to a remarkable degree with divine light, light
shed upon the fulness of Christ, "the hope of His calling," and the "greatness
of His power" in the hearts of His disciples. This person’s life was outwardly
so consistent with its manifest inward brightness that he was a proverb in his
neighbourhood for all that was happy and helpful. And who was he, who is he? A
workman, a labourer, employed under the County Council of London to cleanse the
sewers in a district of the East. I have myself sat, time after time, by the bed
of an old man, once the bailiff of a small farmer in Dorset, and supposed for
many a year to be the type of all that was dull and ignorant. But Christ,
through a saint of His, found the old man in his latter days, as he lay decayed
and blind in a little room, in a back yard, in a dark lane. And on the Spirit’s
work of conviction and regeneration came down the Spirit’s work of "enlightening
the eyes of the heart," with a wonderful insight into the hope of the calling,
and the greatness of the power. I have listened to that feeble old peasant as he
got upon his favourite and wonderful theme of salvation; self-consciousness was
utterly absent from the tone, the manner, the phrase; humbly, very quietly,
never glibly, the words would come. But the Lord spoke through them; His light
was in them. Truly, He had "given understanding to the simple," supernatural
understanding of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, the inner verities of our
salvation. Shall we too covet the working within us of "the Spirit of wisdom and
revelation in the knowledge of Him"? Shall we go upon the Saviour’s explicit
promise ( Luke 11:13) and "ask the Father"? "Ask Him!" Such is the brief
inscription of a card which, day by day, meets my eye as I sit at my
study-table; it was given me not long ago by a Christian friend. Out of the
Lord’s promise it takes the implied precept. "He shall give the Holy Spirit to
them that—ask Him"; therefore, "ask Him." For every department of the revealed
work of the Comforter—" ask Him." Ask the Father, in the Name of the Son, at the
instance of the Son, on the warrant of His word. Then we too shall live the life
which was to be the normal life of all the Asian disciples, the life of those
who supernaturally see their hope of glory, and supernaturally experience "the
greatness of His power to usward who believe."

IV. But the Apostle, as we have seen, has even more to pray for in the interest
of the Ephesians. And again, it is in the interest of all of them that he prays.
His thought about any of them cannot be satisfied without this supreme result of
the Holy Spirit’s work within them—"Christ dwelling in their hearts, by faith."
In the proper place I translated that passage ( Luke 3:14, etc.), and gave some
comments on its expressions in detail, and on its general message. Here I
attempt no fresh particulars of exposition; I only point my reader’s attention
to two manifest facts in the passage. The first is that the "coming of Christ to
reside in the heart, by faith," is presented as a definite thing in itself; a
blessing, a gift, an experience, not to be confused with the Christian life in
general, but which the truly living Christian may yet greatly need to seek. The
other fact is that, unmistakably, St Paul here views this blessing, this
experience, as by no means reserved for a select few among the disciples. He is
thinking of the whole Church. He is "bowing his knees," with the whole
mission-community upon his heart. The people whom he addresses in the last
paragraphs of the Epistle are all equally before him here; the husbands and
wives of Asia, the fathers and mothers, the sons and daughters, the masters and
the slaves. His prayer is that every one of them, in all the days of their
commonplace human life, in all the strong temptations of that life to live apart
from God, may so live close to God that this shall be the description, the
formula, of that life—"Christ dwelling in the heart by faith." So it was a
definite blessing, and it was a blessing urgently to be sought for by them all.
Observe further that it stood related on the one side to purely miraculous
divine action, and on the other side to quite simple human reception. It
required on the one side that the Christian convert should be "strengthened with
might by the Spirit in the inward man"; no power short of that could enable the
being to enter upon this "secret of the Lord." On the other side, the reception
of Christ as Indweller was to be simply "by faith"; that is, by the personal
reliant welcome of the human affections and will, opening the door without
reserve, bidding "my Lord the King to come to His own house in peace." Is there
need that we should remind one another that these are truths for our century as
much as for the first? There should be no need to do so, but indeed there is.
With simplicity and humility I do remind my reader, and God knows I would be
daily reminded myself, that every one of us is divinely intended to live a
Christian life of which the inmost secret is this, Christ dwelling in the heart,
by faith; the Spirit strengthening us thereto in the inner man.

I shrink from an elaborate attempted analysis of the blessed mystery in itself.
I would only say a little about what must assuredly be some of its results where
it has begun to be. It must produce a deep and absolutely genuine humility. It
must produce an inner calm which shall greatly tell upon the air and manner of
outward life, aye, on look, and on tone of discourse. It must produce an abiding
"Christ-consciousness," at the back, so to speak, of the manifold experiences of
life; with this presence in the heart, by faith, we shall not find it a
chimerical hope, day by day, and hour by hour, to "do all to the glory of God."
Our life in its activities and interests may, and very possibly will, go on as
before; we shall walk, and talk, and work, and rest, and sigh, and smile, as men
really living in a real society. People will find us doing, not dreaming;
attentive, active, full of the sense of duty and responsibility—only, kept
amidst it all, by a power not our own, in a tone and temper which mean that "the
Lord is there."

"I sit here and talk to you," said Tersteegen to his friend Evertsen, "but
within my heart is the eternal adoration, unceasing and undisturbed. I thank God
that He has given me a little chamber into which no creature has entered
besides."[2] Tersteegen lived a real and useful life. He did not shun his kind.
His mind was fully open to his period; he astonished Frederick the Great by the
manly good sense and high ability of a written criticism on one of the King’s
anti-Christian writings. But behind it all, Christ dwelt in his heart, by faith;
and the Indwelling only made his life more real. Have we not known our
Tersteegens?

One word more in closing this line of reflection. It is suggested by the words
just quoted; "within my heart is the eternal adoration." Yes, this also will
assuredly be one precious result and evidence of the Indwelling. Within the
heart will be adoration. If indeed "the Lord is there," He will be felt there to
be the Lord. All His fair characters and attributes will in their measure be
made known to us; but all will be overshadowed, or rather overshone, with
this—it is the Lord. "My Master, O my Master!" Only, "Lord" seems to say more
than even "Master"; the Lord is the Master who is the Maker too; who is not to
be served only, even with the most entire surrender, but to be worshipped all
the while.

He knows our frame; He knows that we cannot be perpetually, with each breath,
formulating an articulate Te Deum to Him in explicit words, or even thoughts.
But He can keep our inmost being, as to its spiritual attitude, for ever upon
its knees. And He only knows how greatly He can enable us to speak our worship
too, with an instinctive readiness and frequency which once we could not have
imagined.

"Christ dwelling in the heart by faith." Let us clasp and cherish the words, and
use them in the most practical needs of life. "Not I, but Christ liveth in me";
"Christ dwelleth in me." I listened lately with deep attention to a Christian
man’s quiet narrative, given to me in private, of his experience of discovery in
this matter, "The fear of man" had been a burthen to him. It was brought home to
him that the secret of deliverance was to recollect that his Lord was in him,
and that his Lord was not afraid. Sudden and wonderful was the revolution
within. Some circumstances attended it which I cannot for a moment think to be,
in God’s purpose, normally meant for all believers. But the essence of the
thing—is it not meant for all? For it is but an extension and application, in
the light of the Holy Spirit, of the truth of the Indwelling in the heart, by
faith.

Come in then, Lord, oh come, and dwell, and let Thy presence evermore expand
within.

"O Jesus Christ, grow Thou in me, And all things else recede; My heart be daily
nearer Thee, From sin be daily freed."[3]

I thus conclude this chapter of retrospect and review. After all, I have only
taken a few great specimens from the treasures of our Epistle, to illustrate its
view of the inner Christian life. I have said nothing, for example, of the
teachings of St Paul here upon the ideal of the Christian Church, in relation to
the soul of the Christian man. But let this at least be remembered, in that
direction. We are living in a period of deep and complicated unrest and
perplexity in the visible Church of Christ. There is much to rejoice us in many
quarters and many aspects of the life of Christendom. But there are those of us
whose hearts often fail them when they contemplate the phenomena, within the
Church of England for example, of doubt, of worldly conformity, of grotesque and
retrograde superstition, of altogether unchastened wrangling. No thoughtful
Christian can look on unmoved; few but must think often over the problem of
practical measures for reformation. But let the Ephesian Epistle teach us this,
that the deepest of all secrets for strength and cohesion in social Christian
life is the extension far and wide in individual Christians of the life hid with
Christ in God, the Spirit’s light shed in the soul upon the glories of
salvation, faith’s welcome to the Lord’s own Dwelling in the heart.

"Make my life a bright outshining Of Thy life, that all may see Thine own
resurrection-power Mightily shewn forth in me;

Ever let my heart become Yet more consciously Thy home."

Miss J. S. Pigott.

[1]I quote a few sentences written on this subject in some notes on the Epistle
to the Romans prepared for a Bible-reading Union:" The sovereignty of grace is a
side of revelation full of awe.... Only, we are well assured that it is notthe
whole.

[2]Mrs Sevan,Sketches of the Quiet in the Land,p. 430, [3]From the German of
Lavater:O Jesu Christe, wachs in mir.The English will be found inHymns of
Consecration and Faith.


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  CHAPTER 10: CHAPTER 09. HOLY RESULTS OF HEAVENLY BLESSING: HUMILITY, LOVE, HARMONY
========================================================================

Chapter 9. Holy Results of Heavenly Blessing: Humility, Love, Harmony

Ephesians 4:1-7 "The invisible world with thee hath sympathized; Be thy
affections raised and solemnized."

—Wordsworth THE First Part of the Epistle is now concluded, and the Second
opens. We pass from the revelation of doctrine to the development of practice.
Of course this must be said with some qualification. In the First Part we have
had practice implied and alluded to; as where ( Ephesians 2:8) St Paul tells us
that we were "created in Christ Jesus unto good works" and indeed in the
manifest holy bearing of the entire exposition. And in the Second Part we shall
find passage upon passage where doctrine is announced and enforced; some of
these passages are as important as any of their kind in the New Testament.
Altogether we find truth and life, here in Ephesians, as generally in Scripture,
so closely, so vitally interwoven that it is impossible to treat either of the
two as really isolated. Doctrine runs of itself into practice, in the mind of
the Apostles, and practice always feels its footing in doctrine.

Let the suggestion given us by this fact never be forgotten by the Christian
teacher. Does he really mean to be a messenger of the Gospel? Then let him often
remind himself of this double phenomenon of the Good Tidings—that its end is
"our sanctification" ( 1 Thessalonians 4:3), in the most practical sense
possible, and that it seeks that end through the supernatural means of the
message of Christ for us and Christ in us. It is only too possible to forget one
or the other of these two sides of the nature of the Gospel. Sometimes we forget
that practical holiness, conformity to God’s will in real life, and not only
security and spiritual enjoyment, is its aim; and a seriously one-sided type of
teaching must result from this. On the other hand it is sometimes forgotten that
the grand peculiarity of the Good Tidings, properly so called, is to reveal a
way towards this aim which is of grace, not nature, of God, not man. It takes
man from the hands of the Law, convinced and humbled, silenced into
self-despair, conscious to the heart that he can save himself neither from his
Judge nor from himself. And then it shews him that wonderful Secret which it was
not at all the business of the Law to shew him—the secret of redemption in the
blood of the Lamb, and of purity and power in the gift of the Holy Ghost. This,
and nothing else nor less, is the Gospel. What leads up to it, by burning into
us the sense of the need of it, is not the Gospel, properly; it is the Law,
whether it be the Law as written at Sinai or as spoken in the Sermon on the
Mount.[1]

I have heard of great preachers whose perpetual message in the pulpit was the
sinfulness of sin, and the profound ramification of sin in the human heart. In
all true preaching that stern element should be present; for the minister of the
Gospel is also the vindicator and assertor of the Law. But the teaching which is
all conviction is not Gospel teaching. In a strict sense, it is not Christian
teaching; not distinctively Christian. For the peculiarity, the "difference," of
the Christian message is not its detection of the disease but its revelation of
the remedy. The most soul-searching ministry becomes a ministry of the Gospel
only as it goes on to set out the Lord Christ and the power of the eternal
Spirit as the hope and liberty of the sinner. Aye, and to be a Gospel ministry
indeed it must not only set Christ out but magnify Him, glorify Him, dilating
and dwelling upon His "unsearchable riches" in their application to every need
of man. But we have digressed a little, while considering the structure of our
Epistle, and the vital inter-texture of its two parts. Let us come back, and
observe again (what is obvious) that this inter-texture still leaves the two
parts broadly distinguished. On the whole, the first three chapters are
doctrinal all along, and the last three are very largely the practical
application of the doctrine. If we ask for the picture of the true Christian,
for his tangible character, as we shall see it and feel it in life, it is to the
second part that we go, not to the first. Come hither then, and watch the
Apostle as he draws that portrait.

What will be the first steps of the process? A painter commonly thinks first of
the natural attitude and aspect of his sitter, before coming to the details of
feature. What, in this immortal portrait, will be the chosen and characteristic
position, the sic sedebat, sic se gerebat, of the Ephesian Christian? The
question is the more interesting after our study of the man’s position and
possessions, particularly after that last stage of our view of them, in which we
saw that he was called to live as one "filled unto all the fulness of God." How
will he bear himself under such astonishing conditions? Behold him yonder! His
walk, his look, his manner, whatever else they are, denote one who has indeed
learned the humility of love.

Ephesians 4:1. I appeal to you,[2]therefore, I the prisoner in the Lord, the man
whose captivity is due to his union with his Master and yours, and who has thus
a sacred claim on your attention, to set out on life’s walk[3]in a way worthy
of, in moral correspondence with, the calling with which you were called, when
the heavenly message reached you, and the heavenly grace drew you to close with
it.[4] Yes, I appeal to you to take care that your actual tone and bearing
answers to the inward transfiguration, to your new standing and your new
endowments as the called ones of your redeeming King. Great and wonderful that
standing and those endowments are. My exposition of them will aid you to get
some yet larger view of them than you had before; yet even so, they are "gifts
unspeakable," "wealth unsearchable," a "love passing knowledge," wonders "far
above all we ask or think." But then, the grander your place and your resources,
the more conspicuous is the sovereign mercy which has conferred them. You look
around, and find yourselves "called" to all the peace and all the power of a
living union with Christ, planned for you in the deep eternity, realized now in
your living persons, so that you are "seated together with Him in the heavenly
places." But you remember instantly how you are so seated, and so enriched. You
were dead, and a boundless mercy has bid you live. You were excommunicated
aliens, and God has been pleased in His glorious freedom to give you the
citizenship, yea, the nobility of the Israel of God. Ponder your magnificence of
condition, till you begin in some true sense to realize it. But remember how you
reached it, and each reflection upon it, while it rejoices your souls with a joy
full of glory, and educates you already for the exaltations of the life to come,
will only set you lower in your own esteem. "Lord, is it I?" "What have I that I
did not receive," even as the destitute wanderer receives the bounty of a
prince? So the very greatness of the Christian’s elevation, seen in the light of
the Lord, tends directly to his personal humility. It is the profound secret of
an abasement (not debasement) which cannot possibly be a matter for merely
theoretical estimates; it must lay the man so low in his own esteem before God
that he cannot possibly be other than softened and chastened before his
fellow-men. He has been trusted with the riches of his King, and he feels them
in his hands. But he remembers that his King has first forgiven him a hopeless
debt, many more than ten thousand talents. He is "seated with the princes of His
people." But he deserved, in law, to be "delivered unto the tormentors." Are his
eyes really open to the greatness of his salvation? Then he sees his own demerit
as he could not see it in the light of a salvation smaller and less divinely
generous, The first, the deepest, the all-pervading effect upon character, which
must issue from a real insight into the glory of our "calling," is holy
humbleness. The really illuminated Christian must be humble, and that in ways
which men around him must find out without mistake. So the Apostle proceeds:

Ephesians 4:2. With all lowly-mindedness, with an unreservedly (πάσης) humble
estimate of self,[5]and meekness, an unreserved, simple-hearted, submission
under trial, in whatever form it comes,[6] at once prostrate and at peace
beneath the will of God; with longsuffering, the enduring, unweariable "spirit"
(θυμός, μακροθυμία), which knows how to outlast pain or provocation in a
strength learnt only at the Redeemer’s feet[7]; the noble opposite to the "short
temper" which soon gives way, and whose outbursts are only sinful weakness under
the thinnest mask. "With" these fair, tender graces, attended and escorted as it
were by their strong gentleness, live up to your "calling," forbearing one
another, allowing each for the others’ frailties and mistakes, aye, when they
turn and wound you, in love, "finding your joy in the felicity of others," and
so finding it easy to see with their eyes and, if need be, to take sides with
them against yourselves. And let all this be done not only as right in itself,
but in connexion with a far-reaching purpose, affecting your whole community;
bear, and forbear, and love,

Ephesians 4:3. as those who are giving diligence, aiming in earnest
(σπουδάζουτες), to preserve, with a watchful (τηρεῖν) custody, the oneness of
the Spirit, the community, the identity, of feeling and of aim, generated by
your common experience of the grace and power of the Holy Ghost, in the bond of
our peace (τῆς εἰρήνης). That "peace" with God, and in Him with one another,
which is in fact Christ Himself ( Ephesians 2:14), in His sacrifice and His
presence, is to form the "bond" which shall maintain you in a holy union of
spiritual hope and aim. To animate the thought, think on the mighty facts
connected with this deep oneness; so will they the

Ephesians 4:4. better be realized in life. Remember—Onebody, and one Spirit; one
Organism, and one only, consisting of the regenerated and living members of the
one Head, all animated by the One eternal Spirit who first brought each into
vital contact with the Lord, and now maintains each and all in Him; even as you
were actually (καί) called, converted, (by this same divine Agent,) in one hope
of your calling; so as to find yourselves, whatever your natural diversities as
individuals, all included and united "in" the one glorious prospect (ἐλπίς
opened up in Christ. The eternal future, with its oneness, is to bear upon the
trials and duties of the present, and to draw the believing Church together in
view of it.[8] Yes, in view of your possessions and your privileges, everything
contributes to the weight of this

Ephesians 4:5. holy watchword, Unity; one Lord Christ Jesus, the same and
undivided, Owner and King equally of all His people; one faith, one identical
secret for peace and power, a saving reliance on His one Name,[9] a secret
equally necessary and equally open for you all; one baptism, the same God-given
symbol and seal, in every case, upon the one saving faith—the same in the sacred
simplicity of its Rite, in the holiness of the Triune Name ( Matthew 28:19)
named therein, and in the riches of the Covenant of which it is the initiation
and lastly, crowning all, as the ultimate and infinite glory

Ephesians 4:6. of all true unity, one God and Father of all, of all His
individual children equally, of all to whom, in His Son, He has "given authority
to become children of God, even to them that believe on the name" of Christ (
John 1:12); the Father who is over all His people, presiding, ruling, owning,
and, through them all, working out His will by them as His means, and in them
all,[10] dwelling in their hearts, and in their community, as in His shrine, His
home.

Thus far we have the argument for humbleness and love derived from the watchword
Unity. Now the Apostle turns to the opposite while vitally related truth,
Diversity, and draws the same inference from that side also. The Asian believer
(and the English) is to "give diligence," the diligence of thoughtful
recollection and patient watchfulness, to cultivate the true "solidarity" of
Christian life, because its root is one. He is to do this also, and to do it the
better, because meantime its branches, leaves, and fruits are many. He is to be
prepared for a wide diversity in the manifestations of it, and in the functions
of those who equally share in it. He is to be more than prepared for this; it is
to be his happiness to observe and welcome it, for it is the result of his
Lord’s use of the individualities of His people for the more complete
manifestation of Himself.

Let us take the first sentence of this new paragraph, the better to put the
complementary truths in their harmony before us; the paragraph as a whole must
be deferred for another chapter of exposition.

Ephesians 4:7. But to each one of us was given, when the Master called His
servant, when the Head brought the limb into touch and union, grace, the free
gift alike of work to do[11] and of power to do it, not in any fortuitous or
merely general fashion, but with perfect distributive skill, according to the
measure, in a calculated adjustment, of the gift of our (τοῦ) Christ. The
"grace" was the "gift," free, full, and sovereign; it was "the gift of Christ,"
absolutely His to provide and to dispense. Its allotment, the dealing out of the
"talents" from the one great fund, was governed by His own deep design, manifold
in detail, one in end.

Let each happy recipient take his "gift," and use it, and be glad. And as for
the Householder’s assignment to a fellow-servant, "What is that to thee? Follow
thou Me."

We pause once more in our translation and exposition. In the passage just
traversed, what messages emerge as the most conspicuous and weighty? We would
fain "hear what God the Lord will speak" in this word of His.

I. All through, as with "the pleasant voice of the Mighty One," He speaks to His
people the blissful law of love. That is to say, He bids each disciple forget
himself and remember others, in the magic power of "so great salvation." There
are many things in Christian life. "But one thing is needful." There are gifts
eminent and shining. But there is always one "more excellent way"; it is the way
of holy love. Not love anyhow, but love learnt of the love of God in Jesus
Christ our Lord; love "worthy of the calling wherewith we were called." Such a
love must, if true to itself, be true to its cause. It must be lowly, it must be
meek, it must be longsuffering and forbearing. No doubt on occasion it will
abundantly prove itself to be brave, to be active, resourceful, practical; "not
in word and in tongue, but in deed and in truth." But all its courage and all
its workfulness will have at the very heart of them that grace which the world
cannot give, humbleness, meekness, the spirit which has learnt self-abasement in
"the secret of the presence" of a perfect Saviour. Be this remembered by us all
in these days of hurry, of unchastened liberty, and abundant self-advertisement.
Alas, such "days are evil" for close intercourse with God in Christ, and deep
insights into His covenant-treasures, as by souls which "have an unction from
the Holy One." Therefore all the more those who seek to be disciples indeed must
watch, and pray, and ponder the often neglected Word, that they may "know the
hope of their calling," and then may "walk worthy of their calling"—with the
walk of humbleness and love.

II. The paragraph speaks to us all along of the deep sacredness of Christian
Unity. "Behold, how good and pleasant a thing!" From every point of view the
happy duty is enforced, of "giving diligence," of being in earnest, for unity.
Its deadly enemy, the spirit of self, is here commanded to depart in the name of
our "heavenly calling," which, "calling" us to Christ, calls us immeasurably
above the miserable self-seeking and self-assertion which dislocate and
disintegrate the union of souls. The celestial friends of unity are here called
to the front—the recollected oneness of our new life in Christ, of our faith
within, of our baptism without, of our Master, of our Father.

Beyond question, the Apostle means a unity which is tangible, practical,
working. His mention of our Baptism may remind us of this, if we need it; the
oneness of the sacred outward Rite suggests at once a community of life which in
some measure must express itself externally and publicly. "One baptism!" said a
venerable Hindoo convert a few years ago to a Christian visitor, who, sitting by
the old man’s sick-bed in the mud-hut in Bengal, had just recited to him the
words of this Ephesian passage. The Englishman reached the phrase, "one faith";
the ex-Brahmin, who had been literally worshipped till he was baptized, and then
at once treated "as the offscouring of all things," quietly, but with
indescribable impressiveness, took up the next words, "one baptism!"

Indeed the Apostle has in view a unity which does not satisfy itself with
sentiment. It prizes all possible actual coherence of order, and organization;
all such methods of worship as may best aid the believing company to enjoy a
public fellowship together before God as true and general as possible. Easy and
ill-considered separations, even in things most external, are assuredly wounds
to such unity, and in that respect are sins. The Christian Church should reflect
as much as may be outwardly the holy inward principle and power of unity in
Christ.

Yet let us on the other hand earnestly remember that the context and the terms
of this passage alike lead us, for the heart of the matter, to a region of
things far other than that of authority, administration, succession. For his
basis of unity the Apostle goes to the height of heaven and to the depth of the
sanctified soul. He has in his deepest thought not a Society founded by Christ
on earth to convey His grace, but the Church written in heaven, and the Lord of
it present in His every member’s heart, welcomed in by personal faith, under the
power of the eternal Spirit, in response to imploring prayer.

Such was our Master’s own thought of Unity, in the great High Priestly
Prayer:—"that they may be one in Us; that they may be one even as We are One."
Poor and unsatisfying are the results where "Unity," "Corporate Life," and the
like, are the perpetual watchwords, but where they bear a primary reference to
order, function, and succession in the ministry of the Church. One cannot but
ask the question sometimes, when contemplating phenomena of an ardent
ecclesiasticism, is this the worthy goal of ten thousand efforts, of innumerable
assertions of "catholicity"—this spirit and tone, these enterprises and actions,
so little akin either to the love or to the simplicity, the openness, of the
heavenly Gospel? Suppose such "unity" to be attained to the uttermost, beyond
even the dreams of Rome. Would it contribute at all to making "the world believe
that the Father hath sent the Son, and hath loved us even as He loved Him" (
John 17:23)? No, it would not. But the manifestation of the presence of the Lord
in all who bear His Name, so that they forget themselves in Him, would do so to
a degree now inconceivable. It would tend more than all ecclesiastical schemes
to an external and operative cohesion. But it would do so not by policy, but by
grace; not by the universal acceptance of a hierarchical programme, but by "the
life of Jesus manifested in mortal flesh."

"Partakers of the Saviour’s grace, The same in mind, in heart, Nor joy nor
grief, nor time nor place, Nor life nor death can part."

C. Wesley.

[1]The Sermon on the Mount may be described as "the Law glorified." It is an
inestimable statement of the essentials of a holy life, "piercing even to the
thoughts and intents of the heart." But it is not the Gospel; "no flesh shall be
saved"by the Sermon on the Mount.In order to carry out its precepts, in any real
sort, we need all the Gospel of the Cross and the Spirit.

[2]Παρακαλῶ: perhaps the above rendering is better than "beseech,"
asπαρακαλεῖνusually means "to exhort," "to encourage," and the like. But I am
doubtful.—For a close and beautiful parallel seeRomans 12:1.

[3]Περιπατῆσαι: the aorist perhaps justifies my rather elaborate rendering. It
is notπεριπατεῖν, the continuous course, buta a pointin it; a "new departure" of
more assured and conscious consistency. But I do not press this as if it were
the only possible exposition; the aorist sometimes gathers up an idea into a
point rather than marks a point of time.

[4]See above, onEphesians 1:18, for remarks on the proper meaning ofκαλεῖν
κλῆσις, in the Epistles. Practically, our common use of the word "conversion"
nearly conveys the meaning; only with the difference that, while "conversion"
rather emphasizes the human side in the great change, "calling" rather draws
attention to the divine side, the Voice of prevailing power.

[5]"Ταπεινοθροσύνη... is a distinctively Christian grace, viewed as a thing
always to be sought and cherished. Pagan ethics, at best, just recognized it as
right where necessary, but not as good and happyper se.The Gospel puts its
obligation and its blessedness on the same footing for all believers, as being
all absolutely dependent for all true good upon the mercy of Another.—The
corresponding adjective [ταπεινός] is used (Matthew 11:29) by our Lord of
Himself. Trench [Synonyms,s.v.ταπεινοφροσύνη, πραότης] remarks that we have Him
there recognizing His entire dependence as Man on the Father. Not moral defect,
but ’creatureliness,’ he says, is the thought there. ’In His human nature He
must be the pattern of all... creaturely dependence.’" (Note in theCambridge
Bible.)

[6]See againMatthew 11:29, where our blessed Master describes Himself asπρᾶος.
His supreme exercise ofπραότηςwas when He yielded Himself to the prospect of
suffering in the Garden, and to the outrages of His enemies at His trial and
crucifixion.

[7]An attempt was made, in the seventeenth century, to naturalize in English the
wordlonganimity(likemagnanimity), to representμακροθυμία. The Vulgate here
haslonganimitas.

[8]Cp.Colossians 1:4for a parallel. There "the hope laid up for you in heaven"
is presented as areason why(διὰτὴνἐλπίδα) for "the love ye have towards all the
saints." Great indeed is meant to be the binding power of a common eternal hope.

[9]Πίστιςis here explained not of the Christian’screedbut of the
Christian’strust.I believe this to be required, or at least strongly suggested,
by the general use of the wordπίστιςin the writings of St Paul. Hardly ever, if
ever, does he use it distinctly in the sense of creed. Of course some "creed,"
however brief, is required in order to "trust," if it is to be trust in the
trustworthy Object. But this is not in question where we are examining the use
of the wordπίστις.

[10]Readἐν πᾶσιν, notἐν π.ὑμῖνand probably notἐν π.ἡμῖν. But the reference is
unmistakable.

[11]Χάριςis often used by St Paul in reference to thegrant of duty,though always
in connexion with the grant of faculty for it. See e.g.Php 1:7, and
above,Ephesians 3:8.


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  CHAPTER 11: CHAPTER 10. HOLY RESULTS OF HEAVENLY BLESSING: DIVERSITY AND HARMONY OF GIFTS AND SERVICE
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Chapter 10. Holy Results of Heavenly Blessing: Diversity and Harmony of Gifts
and Service Ephesians 4:7-16

"Saint Paul in his Epistles has written more fully and wisely of virtues and
good works than all the philosophers." —Luther

Ephesians 4:7. But to each one of us was given grace, according to the measure
of the gift of our Christ; in perfect correspondence to His plan for each and
for all, and as

Ephesians 4:8. His own sovereign endowment. Wherefore, (because the spiritual
fact and the Scripture promise of it must tally,) it saith, the prophetic Oracle
saith, as with a living voice,[1]Ascending on high, He led captive a captivity,
a host of captives, and gave gifts to men, to mankind, τοῖςἀνθρώποις. Words
whose phraseology lends itself, in the light of Christ, to an interpretation
exactly appropriate to Him who, for our salvation, came so immeasurably far
down, that He might then and

Ephesians 4:9. therefore mount so immeasurably high: Nowthe phrase, "He
ascended," what is it, what does it mean, if not that He also descended,[2] aye,
to the lower regions of the earth, to the subterranean Sepulchre, and to that
hidden Separate State of which the Sepulchre is the

Ephesians 4:10. portal and the type?[3]The Descender, He, He and none other
(αὐτός), and He because He descended, is also the Ascender, the Conqueror who
went up, far above all the heavens, all the spheres and regions of blessed
creature-life, to the Uncreated Glory itself, to the Throne, to the Majesty on
high; that He might[4]fill all things, the Universe and its contents,
τὰπάντα—fill them with the presence and the power of One who, being God over
all, is now also the Son of Man, and

Ephesians 4:11. the Lamb that was slain.[5]And He, none other than He (αὐτός),
this wonderful Descending and now Ascended Christ, in the virtue and the
prerogative of His Sufferings and His Glory, forthwith "gave," as we have seen (
Ephesians 4:8), "gifts unto men." What were those gifts? In brief, they were a
Spirit-filled Ministry, with a view to the development of a Spirit-filled
Church, united in the Spirit to the Lord Himself. And He gave some men as
apostles, some as prophets, prophets of the Christian order, some as
evangelists, devoted expressly to the extension of the Church rather than to its
internal edification,[6]some as shepherds and teachers—two sides of one work;
men who were set over the local "flocks" of believers to be their leaders and
instructors in the Lord. And these "gifts" were given not to terminate in the
ministers themselves, but altogether for the sake of the Church at large. And
they were given for the Church at large on purpose that the Ministry" might not
absorb or monopolize ministration, but might promote its exercise through the
whole Body. For what do we read as the aim and object of the giving? With

Ephesians 4:12. a view to the equipment, the adjustment, the adaptation and
furnishing (καταρτισμόν), of the saints, of all the true members of the Head,
for work of service, for active and fruitful enterprise and labour in their
Lord’s Name and for His glory; all summed up in the parallel phrase, for the
upbuilding of the Body of our (τοῦ) Christ; for the winning of new "members" to
the living Organism, and for the deepening and developing of the cohesion of the
whole, by all holy influences of word and work. A noble process, with a glorious
goal! All was to be aimed at nothing short of the production of an ideal
community of ideal members, each and all alike animated and sanctified by saving
reliance on the Head

Ephesians 4:13. and sanctifying acquaintance with Him; till we attain
(καταντήσωμεν), the whole number of us (οἱπάντες), to (εἰς) the unity of, the
unity generated and conditioned by, our (τῆς) faith in and our (τῆς) true
knowledge (ἐπιγνώσεως) of the Son of God, (in whom we too are the sons of the
Eternal Father;) yes, (to put the same prospect in more concrete terms,) to a
full-grown (τέλειον) man, a "man" in the sense not of humanity only (ἄνθρωπον)
but of matured and strong humanity (ἄνδρα); even to the measure, the standard,
of the stature of the fulness of Christ. For nothing short of this is to satisfy
our hopes; the Christian is to grow, and the Church is to grow, in spiritual
maturity, till the result is no less than "the fulness of Christ," the attained
ideal of all that is meant by "Christ." And what is that? It is that which shall
be when the glorious Head shall have for the vehicle of His action a mystical
Body complete and perfected, faultless and immortally mature.[7]

Such is the grand maturity, the developed and full-grown "manhood," of the ideal
Body, as it shall be. And it is to be always more and more approached and
realized even now. Even now the purpose and the process are to issue in a noble
relative strength and

Ephesians 4:14. fulness of holy character; that we may be no longer infants,
"childish" in respect of ignorance and the weakness of ignorance, borne on
billows and drifted about by every wind of the teaching which would beguile us,
in, in the sphere and influence of, the dice-play, the unscrupulous religious
cozenage, of men, (these mere men, who have no Christ, no God, behind them;) in
their cunning, with a view to, to reach the ends of, the scheming of their (τῆς)
deceit. For alas, there are those around you who not only do lead you astray,
but mean to do it, laying deliberate traps, and arranging well-drawn methods, on
purpose to guide you away from the Christ whom they do not love. The purpose of
the great Giver’s plan is the opposite to this; it is, as we have seen, that you
should not be exposed helpless

Ephesians 4:15. to these wiles, but, being followers of truth,[8]in love, not in
bitterness and prejudice, but purely seeking the glory of God and the good of
man, should grow, with an ever deepening and more vivifying contact, into Him,
in all respects, as to your whole being and your whole life—into Him who is the
Head, our (ὁ) Christ. The more you thus "grow into Him," with an ever closer
cohesion of faith, and hope, and love, the nearer will your union with one
another be, and the better the

Ephesians 4:16. whole condition of your organism; for out of Him,[9] with
resources ever drawn from His fulness, all the Body, getting[10]adjusted
together, and getting braced together, through every joint of, every nexus which
is a channel for, the supply of life and power from the Head, according to His
working, in the measure of each part, effects (ποιεῖται, a fuller word than
ποιεῖ) the increase of the Body, its development alike in stature and in
strength, to the upbuilding of itself, in love. For love is the inmost condition
of the whole work—"the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord," the
sunshine in which the true life basks and grows.

Here is indeed a paragraph pregnant of truth and life. The comment shall take
the form of detached remarks upon some of its greater contents.

I. What strikes us first is the citation from the Psalm, made to illuminate and
enforce the thought that grace, in its oneness and its variety, is "the gift of
Christ." The Apostle takes us back, for a prophetic verification, to Psalm
lxviii., and shews us the Conqueror ascending, after battle, to the throne. He
leads a host of captives with Him, helpless beneath His mighty hand, to vex His
people no more. And He "gives gifts to men." Here, says St Paul, in effect, is
Christ—Christ who went down first from His throne on the eternal hills to the
plain, nay, to the dark valley of the conflict, and who thence returned,
Incarnate and Glorified, to His heavenly seat again, and from that seat
dispensed the gifts of Pentecost, and particularly now the gift of the
Pentecostal, Ministry in the Pentecostal Church.

Two problems present themselves. The first is one of translation; for the
Hebrew, as familiar to St Paul as the Authorized Version, or the Prayer Book
Version, is to us, runs here: "Thou didst take gifts in man"; that is, "amongst
men" The path to St Paul’s rendering (which is not that of the Septuagint) is
smoothed by that of the Chaldee Targum, or Paraphrase, perhaps of the Apostle’s
date: "Thou hast given to them gifts, even to the sons of men." And the key to
these renderings may well lie in the. thought that the Conqueror took that He
might give; He gave what He first had won. "In man," that is, among His human
subjects, He distributed the spoils of victory. His bounty was not only bounty;
it was conquest first. The other difficulty is a more general one. Does the
sixty-eighth Psalm, as we read it, claim (so to speak) a Messianic reference?
Are we to think that the Psalmist, David or whoever he was, foresaw the Lord,
and sang of Him? I should for myself be very slow to answer that question. To
say that he did not do so would be to say what we cannot possibly be sure of.
Some sorts of modern criticism glide much too easily into theories of the
composition of Scripture which practically eliminate all supernormal conditions
from the consciousness of its writers. But literature, far outside the Bible,
offers abundant evidence for the possibility of totally supernormal conditions
in human minds, foreseeing and foretelling; the records of the "Second Sight"
are full of such things. I cannot say but that the author of this wonderful
Psalm really was lifted above the horizon of time, and saw Messiah, however far
off, in His glory, in His victory, and then sung about Him in mysterious verse.
But I am not careful to assert this. After all, his "first reference" may have
been to some great event of his own time, some triumph of the old Israel, in
relation to which he seemed to see, above the rejoicings on earth, above all the
festal chorus of the Temple, with its minstrels and singers, and shouting
people, the everlasting King Himself, Israel’s true Lord, leading His triumph in
the skies. But all the while the Poet’s true Possessor and Inspirer would have
had His view beyond the temporal horizon, and under the veil of the national
story would have indicated in His own way the coming Triumph of Redemption. The
"consciousness" of Psalmists and Prophets is a deeply interesting study, so far
as it is possible. But it is secondary. The primary thing is the "consciousness"
of their Inspirer. And our Lord Jesus, in His risen life

, as much at least as before He suffered, bore abundant witness to the fact that
the Inspirer filled the Old Scriptures, the Psalms included, with "things
concerning Himself" (Luke 24). "We feel free to recognize any ’first reference’
fairly provable; but also bound to believe that the Divine Author worked through
the human author, so as to convey eternal and permanent truth through his
imagery and words, and so as to make the whole terminate on Christ, whether the
human author was aware of it or not."[11] II. We take note of some remarkable
data presented to us here, for true views of the Christian Ministry.

We have, first, its Divine Institution. From the Apostle to the Pastor-Teacher,
it is "the gift of Christ." Perfectly true then is that view of the Ministry
(only it must be rightly applied) which sees in it, as to its essence, not an
emergence from below, a mere product of the needs of the Church, developed in
merely "natural" ways, but a gift from above. Let that thought both awe and
animate the true Minister, and give the private Christian a due sense of
honouring love towards the Pastorate. On the other hand we observe that the
emphasis of the passage lies upon the truth that the ideal Ministry is a
Ministry of spiritual power. We have here, of course, indications of grade and
order; and the thought of the distribution and difference of functions is the
main thought of the context. But the "gifts" are all alike in this, that they
are given by the. just-ascended Lord; they are Pentecostal gifts. This calls
attention supremely to the witnessing work of the Christian Ministry. That
Ministry has many sides to its duties and commission; the "shepherd" must needs
be in some sense the guardian, and the "teacher" the guide. But the Pentecostal
"gift" was above all things a gift for witness’, "Ye shall receive power, by the
coming of the Holy Ghost upon you, and ye shall be witnesses of Me" ( Acts 1:8).
Again and again in the Acts the Apostles themselves appear as, above all things,
witnesses. Such, to the end, is the Christian minister, in his true idea. His
characteristic function is profoundly different from that of the Aaronic priest.
Distinctively, (let me deliberately say it, with the New Testament open,) it is
not "sacerdotal" at all. It is prophetic; it is the function of the
Christ-given, Spirit-filled, witness to the Lord and His Word, before the Church
and before the world.

We observe again, as another and most momentous side of the matter, that a
Ministry so conditioned cannot possibly absorb into itself the spiritual
functions of the Church. Rather, it will quicken and develope in the Church the
sense and exercise of spiritual functions. The one purpose of the Ministry
mentioned here by the Apostle, its one great raison d’être in his view here, is
this. Note the translation of Ephesians 4:12 : "With a view to (πρός) the
equipment of the saints for (εἰς) work of service." Who are "the saints"?
Briefly, all believers. A saint, in the Epistles, is just the Christian as he
should be; the disciple assumed to be true to Christ and ( Romans 8:9) possessed
of His Holy Spirit. He may or may not bear public office in the Church. But is
he a member, a limb, of it? Then he exists for "work of service"; he is to
"yield himself unto God, and his members as instruments of righteousness unto
Him." Whatever the details of practice, this is the principle. And the function
of the true pastor and teacher is to help him, to equip him, for such a life; to
do all he can to quicken the "saint’s" conscience in the work of the Lord, and
to animate his zeal, and to welcome his activity, and in all wise and kindly
ways to seek to make the most of it by guiding and combining it. In the modern
Church countless illustrations of this truth happily exist. More and more, in
many quarters, it is being recollected that "the laity," ὁλαός, the holy People,
are the Church, for which the Ministry exists, and that the Christian layman,
and woman, has an all-important place in "work of service"; not only in the
"serving of tables," but in witnessing and teaching. But there is still grave
need for a larger recognition of that fact, alike by the pastorate and the
laity.

There certainly was once a time when pious men of strict Church opinions dreaded
the least approach to such work of service. A veteran Christian, a layman of
high position and culture, told me lately that fifty years ago he asked an
Oxford friend what he thought of his (the narrator’s) work among his poor
neighbours as a voluntary Scripture-reader. Might he read the Bible to an old
cottager? Yes, certainly. Might he, if she said she did not understand, explain
it to her? No, certainly not; that would be usurping the work of the priesthood.
Did Priscilla then ( Acts 18:26) usurp it? Assuredly not, in St Luke’s opinion;
she was doing "work of service" as a member of the Church of God.

Meanwhile, let this passage remind us that the ideal of the matter is that "the
saints" should indeed do "work of service," and contribute their labour and
witness to "the upbuilding of the body of Christ"; but that they should not
therefore slight order, cohesion, and the loving guidance of the spiritual
Ministry. I am very far from saying that there is no place in the Lord’s work
for the "free lance" worker; lives upon which His blessing manifestly abides are
evidence enough to the contrary. But I do say that this is the anomaly, not the
rule; Scripture and reason alike assure us of this. "Prophet, evangelist,
pastor-teacher," are, in the rule of the Master’s will, necessary to "the
saints" for their "work of service"; as on the other hand "the saints" are
utterly indispensable to the full work of the Christian minister.

How easy, in view of these remarks, to suggest problems of difficulty, and cases
of impossibility, on either side! Yes, but the principles abide, and their
silent influence, under the Lord and the Spirit, will be of infinite value in
the Church Visible, with all its confusions and distresses. Solvetur ambulando
cum Deo.

III. The passage gives us some invaluable messages upon Christian maturity. The
Apostle glides from the topic of work—the work of the spiritual Ministry and the
work of the believing Church—to that of character, the character of the
Community. To be sure, the character of the individual is not forgotten; it is
impossible to read Ephesians 4:13-15 and not to feel that what is true of the
Body must be true also of the member; for no community can be really mature and
stable in spirit and tone unless it consists, prevalently at least, of mature
and stable individuals. But the main thought is of the Body. And St Paul, we
see, views the Christian Body as one which is to be always growing towards an
ideal whose great features are an adult and well-grounded fidelity to the
revealed Gospel, such as to resist and throw off the assaults of subtle error,
while yet maintaining a spirit of love, full of the love of God.

There is a point of view from which the Christian character cannot be too
child-like—at the Master’s feet. But there are points from which alike the man
and the Church must avoid to the utmost the childish in thought and faith. For
the Lord’s work and witness, there is an urgent need of the mature, the
intelligent, the man-like, if the cause of Christ is to be adequately maintained
and advanced in "this naughty world." St Paul evidently strove to cultivate this
spirit (the opposite of conceit and self-importance) in his converts. "I speak
as to thoughtful persons; judge you what I say" ( 1 Corinthians 10:15); such are
his words to the Corinthian community, over a matter of profound doctrinal and
practical moment. Alike towards the "pastor-teacher" within, and towards the
advocate of "another Gospel" from without, he would have their attitude to be
that of men; men conscious of their maturity, aware of their reasons and their
convictions, while at the same time sobered and humbled by an adult sense of
their responsibility and their imperfections.

I do not forget that the bright ideal of ver. 13 cannot be fully realized till
the pilgrim Church steps into the world of glory. There only, most assuredly,
will be actually attained "the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ";
bright, magnificent, blessed hope! Yet the context here bears mainly not upon
eternity but upon time. It deals mainly with a period when errors and dangers
are still around, and when the Body is still in process of "upbuilding." Its
reference, then, is to an "adultness" rather relative than absolute. It animates
us with the thought of a manhood in Christ attainable now, while yet from
another aspect it is only a step to the full and immortal manhood of heaven. iv.
Lastly, here as everywhere, we find all that is said of Ministry, and of Saints,
and of Body, and of corporate Life, ruled and glorified by what is said of Jesus
Christ. Ephesians 4:15-16, take us altogether to Him. The remarkable imagery of
Ephesians 4:16 does this in a way peculiar to itself. For it puts before us the
Body, in its multiplicity of articulation; yet it suggests the thought that each
limb lives by a contact with the Head, immediate and personal. The material
figure bursts, as it were, and gives way, and leaves to us the view of an
organism such that the limb does not live, ultimately, by its contact with other
limbs, however full of life, but by having its own "joint of supply," its own
individual point of contact with the Head. So it grows, and thrives, and works.
And He is also the secret of growth and energy for all its fellow-limbs.
Therefore, because of Him, as the inmost Secret, there is cohesion, continuity,
harmony, in the whole organism.

After all, the supreme requisite for life and labour is personal and immediate
union with the Lord.

Wonderful picture—a Church, a Body, indeed! It is alive all over. Everywhere
there is "work of service," promoted in every limb by those limbs whose function
is in any special sense that of leadership. Everywhere there is a steady growth
of adult intelligence and purpose. Everywhere there is the pulse of love, as the
whole Organism feels the vital warmth of the eternal Love. And the secret of the
whole is the blessed Head, "into" whom the limbs "grow" with ever-deepening
contact, and from whom they draw all His fulness for all their need.

"To know, to do, the Head’s commands, For this the Body lives and grows;

All speed of feet and skill of hands Is for Him spent, and from Him flows."

[1]It seems better to explainλέγειthus than by "Hesaith," as in A.V.—For an
example of the many passages in which, in Scripture, Scripture is almost
personified, cp.Galatians 3:8: "The Scripture,foreseeing..., preachedbefore the
Gospel unto Abraham."

[2]Probably the word "first,"πρῶτον, of the Received Text is to be omitted. It
is most likely an early explanatory note.

[3]Some have interpretedτὰκατώτερα μέρη τῆς γῆςto mean merelythe
earth,considered as a region lower than the heavens; "the lower parts,
consisting of the earth." So Bp Pearson. But the reference to the Grave seems
both more suitable to the context and more congenial to the phrase. Cp.Psalms
63:9: "They shall go into the lower parts of the earth." And see the grand
spiritually-parallel passage,Philippians 2, where the Saviour’s Exaltation
follows upon His "obedience even to the length ofdeath."

[4]Lit. "may,"πληρώσῃ: but usage favours our rendering.

[5]"There is no reference here to a diffused and ubiquitous corporeity, but to a
pervading and energizing omnipresence.... Christ is perfect God, and perfect and
glorified Man; as the former He is present everywhere; as the latter He can be
presentanywhere" (Bp Ellicott).

[6]"This passage would lead us to think of the Evangelists as standing between
the [apostles and prophets, pastors and teachers;] sent forth, as missionary
preachers of the Gospel, by the first, and as such preparing the way for the
labours of the second" (Smith’sDiet. Bibl,s.v.Evangelist).This would fairly
describe, from one point of view, what appears to have been the function of the
"evangelist"Timothy(2 Timothy 4:5).

[7]"Cp. the phrases, ’fulness of the Gentiles’ (Romans 11:25), and ’fulness of
the time’ (Galatians 4:4). The phrase here appears to be analogous:the total, at
length attained, of what is meant by Christ.And ’Christ’ in this passage (so
full of the idea of the oneness, in and with the Lord, of His mystical Body) is,
in effect, Christ and His Church... as in1 Corinthians 12:12, ’as the body is
one, and hath many limbs, so alsois Christ.’The Lord the Son becomes in
accomplished fact all that He wills, and is willed, to be, only when He is the
Head of a perfected mystical Body which lives by His sacred Life and is His
incorporate ’limbs.’... So He and they are guardedly and reverently spoken of as
One Christ; with full reservation, from other Scriptures, of the truth of the
undying personality of each individual ’limb’ of the glorious Head, and of His
divine Personality." (Note in theCambridge Bible.)

[8]Ἀληθεύοντες: Alford renders the word as above. It certainly means more than
"truth-sweating,"though of course it includes it. It surely points,in this
context,to "theTruth"of the Gospel and the Christian’s devotion to it.

[9]I change the relative (ἐξ οὗ) here into the demonstrative, to relieve the
length of the sentence as paraphrased.

[10]Observe the present participles here.

[11]Note in theCambridge Bible.


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  CHAPTER 12: CHAPTER 11. HOLY RESULTS OF HEAVENLY BLESSING: THE OLD MAN AND THE NEW
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Chapter 11. Holy Results of Heavenly Blessing: The Old Man and the New Ephesians
4:17-24

"A Christian praises God for His justice, and yet fears Him for His mercy. He is
so ashamed as that he dares not open his mouth before God, and yet he comes with
boldness to God, and asks Him anything he needs. He is so humble as to
acknowledge himself to deserve nothing but evil, and yet believes that God means
him all good. He is the most lowly-minded, yet the greatest aspirer; most
contented, yet ever craving." —Bacon: Characters of a Christian in Paradoxes

ST PAUL pursues the theme of practical Holiness. He draws nearer and nearer, as
he pursues it, to the duties of the common day, to the application of eternal
principle, eternal blessing, in the intercourse of the city, the street, the
home. He has led us, as we saw in the last chapter but one, from the mysteries
and bliss of our heavenly life with Christ and His living presence in us, to the
resultant precepts of humility, of mutual forbearance, of watchful avoidance of
the separatism which comes of selfishness. In view of the oneness of believers
in their glorious Head, he has gone on, as we saw in our last chapter, to speak
of a living unity whose growth and exercise are aided by the diversity of the
members in their gifts and functions in the Body. Alike their spiritual fulness
in Christ, and their limits and imperfections of experience, and their
differences of practical gift and mission, are to draw them nearer to Him, and
nearer to one another. "Growing into Him," they will indeed each individually
grow, with a rich maturity of the soul, and they will mutually contribute each
to the whole Body’s growth, in its cohesion and its capacity.

He now draws closer to the thought of "holiness in common things." He cannot
speak only of the larger aspects of life and relation; he must deal in minute
but firm touches with the individual’s call to purity, and truthfulness, and
fidelity, and the spirit of forgiveness. It will not do only to soar into true
conceptions of the mystical Body, and to remain aloft; we must come down to be
"sweet at home." The close practicality of the appeal, meanwhile, will have all
along the support of the recollection of eternal truths; it will root itself in
the doctrine of the Old Man and the New.

Ephesians 4:17. This then I say and protest (μαρτύρομαι), calling you in as it
were as witnesses, by the response of conscience, to the eternal facts of grace
and duty, in the Lord, (for I am in Him, and you are in Him, living limbs of the
One Head, and therefore related Christ-wise to each other in everything,) that
no longer should you walk, live, act, converse, as once you did (μηκέτι), in the
way in which actually (καί) the Nations[1]are walking all around you. And what
is the character of that "walk"? It is in the vanity of their mind, under an
illusion (ματαιότης)[2] beclouding their reason; for the principles of it can
only seem good to man’s mind when the eternal facts are hidden from it, and sin,
the great failure of all failures, seems to bring freedom and gain. They "walk"
as those who have

Ephesians 4:18. been and are darkened in their (τῇ) understanding,[3] aye, as
alienated from the life of God, dislocated from man’s ideal union and communion
with the blessed Creator who is his true "Life Eternal"; on account of the
ignorance which exists in them, ignorance of their great need and of His fair
surpassing glory of love and holiness; in other words, on account of the
hardening[4]of their heart, the loss of the sensibility of their inner being
(καρδία) towards the Highest Good, under the dreadful anæsthetic, sin. Do we ask
for visible evidence of the existence of such a condition? Look at the
characteristics of the developed grace-less life; they who live it are such
as,[5]

Ephesians 4:19. having got beyond the pain (ἀπηλγηκότες) of doing iniquity, gave
over[6] themselves, yes, themselves by their own act,[7]to wantonness, the scorn
of all moral restraint; ("Who is Lord over us"); resulting in an active dealing
in all impurity, in a spirit of greed; yes, the pursuit of evil becomes in time
a business, a trade (ἐργασία), followed up with all the keen and unscrupulous
pertinacity of the selfish hunter after gold.

It is a tremendous picture. Do we hesitate to accept it as it stands? It is
inevitable that we should feel some difficulty in so accepting it, unless we
read altogether without thought. For who is not aware that, even among the most
abandoned, there are differences in actual sinfulness? And who is not aware that
in heathendom, ancient and modern alike, there have been and are manifestations
of the power of conscience, and exercises of the human will on the side of
virtue, which we cannot possibly put down as so much falsehood and illusion? Are
we indeed to think, in view of all this, that "the Nations," in their countless
numbers, have all "got beyond the pain" of sin, and have "given themselves over
to wantonness"? In reply, we may first remark that assuredly the Apostle is here
speaking broadly and generally, as regards a developed and manifested wickedness
in the world. His own words and actions’ on occasion assure us that he did not
as a fact look upon every pagan person as an advanced and abandoned
transgressor. "I am not mad, most noble Festus"; these are words which indicate,
as they come from an absolutely truthful man, a certain moral regard for the
person addressed. So with Sergius Paulus in Cyprus, so with the Athenians on
Areopagus, so with the Lystrians in their turn; the tone is that of one who
speaks with candour and sympathy, as well as with fidelity and decision, in his
appeal to man for God. It seems reasonable to say that here, to the Ephesians,
he is speaking of a broad phenomenon of open sin, yet with a full recollection,
behind his words, of reserves and exceptions. But then, other things are to be
remembered. First, as regards the actual condition of heathenism, of heathen
society in its mass and its rule. Is it easy to overrate its horrible
corruption? Those of my readers who are familiar with classical literature will
surely bear me out when I answer, No. I appeal for justification not only to
deliberate pictures of wickedness, drawn by Greek or Roman pens, but to passing
allusions to current morals in all kinds of places in the old authors. Is it not
rare to find an amatory poem of theirs which, however beautiful in form, is also
pure? Are not the biographies of even comparatively worthy personages, for
instance, the Galba of Suetonius, defaced with unblushing allusions to sins now
unnamable? Is the taint of even that deep pollution absent from the Platonic
page itself? But if such things can be said of circles where things were at the
best, what must have been the corruption of the mass?

One thing is certain, that the early literary "Defenders of the Faith," the
"Apologists," do not hesitate to appeal to their heathen readers to confess the
conspicuous moral difference between the Christians and "the Nations." Notably
is this the case with Aristides, in the second century; and his witness is the
more impressive because he appears to stand on a sort of border-line, and not
yet to have cast in his lot personally with the Lord and His people. He recites
the sins of "the Greeks" in terms which compel a translator for general readers
to leave frequent gaps in the translation; summing up with the sentence (ch.
26): "I have no doubt that the world stands by reason of the intercession of the
Christians. But the rest of the peoples are deceived and deceivers; and they
grope as if in the dark, and are unwilling to know the truth, and like drunken
men they stagger, and thrust one another, and fall down. The Greeks practise
foul things, and then turn the ridicule of their foulness upon the
Christians."[8] And is the non-Christian world of our own time better than that
old world? I fear it is only an optimistic dream which finds in it anything
greatly to modify the estimate of an Aristides. Everywhere, still, as St James
tells us ( James 3:9), men are "made after the similitude of God," made in the
mystery of a moral personality; conscience and will are present everywhere. But
everywhere man is fallen. And the developments of the fallen state, left really
to themselves, are awful still. As I write, I hear of a recent laborious and
accurate examination, by an American student, of the actual moral condition of
non-Christian peoples, which tends to bring this out in the light of provable
facts; certainly with sufficient fulness to silence in candid hearts the thought
that pagan humanity can do without the Gospel. But before we leave this passage
let us remember that it points, with its deepest meaning, not only at the actual
sinfulness of the dark world but at its potential evil. It speaks, in universal
terms, of gross iniquities. Those iniquities are, in the divine mercy, largely
restrained from their natural developments, even in the non-Christian regions,
by the presence of conscience. But they are all latent, all implicit, in the
awful principle of sin in (not some selected human hearts, exceptionally bad,
but) the human heart, fallen from dependence upon God. Does my reader, in some
real measure, know his own heart? Has he, in serious earnest, I do not mean in a
morbid restlessness of conscience, but with a conscience soberly and fully
awake, learnt to weigh his motives, and to watch the play of his thoughts? Has
God drawn near to him in conviction "of sin, and righteousness, and judgment"?
Then I need not write at any further length to give moral proof of the point.

Before we leave this stern paragraph, let us however remember that even through
its darkness shine the rays of salvation. For what does it imply concerning this
terribly fallen and sinning world? That it is a world, a race, a mankind, which
by the very fact of its fall bears witness to its having been made by a Blessed
Creator for infinitely better things. True, it is lost, it is condemned, it is
dead in trespasses and sins. It is "alienated from the life of God"; "ignorance
is in it"; "blindness of heart." But those very terms imply that in its origin
as a race, in the idea of its being, it was altogether otherwise. "Man," in his
idea, was once in communion with "the life of God," or he could not be said to
be "alienated" from it; who can be alienated from a position he has never
occupied?[9] If so, we have here not only an account of ourselves as men which
should drive us in awe and penitence to the feet of God, crying, "Unclean,
unclean"; we have a hope put already into our hands. Were we but "stones," He
could "raise up of us children to Abraham." But we are not stones. We are ruined
men; and Man was made to be in contact with "the life of God." Will it not be
the Maker’s joy to restore us? Shall it not be to Him no "strange work," but
divinely congenial, to act for us in our awful need, in His Son, and according
to His promise? From the very depth of our discovered iniquity, then, de
profundis, let us look up to Him. We deserve only His death-sentence. But He
created our nature on purpose for life and holiness in contact with Himself. And
in the Second Man He has provided for what is indeed, from one side, a "New
Creation," altogether new, but from another, the Restoration of ruins which
still bear, in their polluted fragments, the impress of His hand. But let us
take up the Apostle’s words again. He has given us a view of the awful darkness;
he passes now to the light, and to the children of the light.

Ephesians 4:20. But you did not so, in such sympathy with the deadly tendencies
of sin, learn our (τόν) Christ, when, in your conversion, you found in Him the
true Subject-matter of His own Gospel, the "hidden wisdom" of

Ephesians 4:21. pardon, holiness, and heaven; if indeed, taking it for granted
that,[10]it was He whom you heard,[11] as the Message spoken to your souls, and
if it was in Him that you were taught, so that your teachers’ words were all
summed up "in" Him, and you, as hearers, found yourselves learning "in" union
with Him as Saviour and Head; even as in our (τῷ) Jesus, and in Him only, truth
is. For indeed there, and only there, is truth to be found; the lines of solid
fact and spiritual reality meet nowhere but in Him, in this divine Christ who is
also "the Man Christ Jesus," as historical as He is eternal. And what line in
particular did the "hearing," and the "teaching," and the "truth," take, for the
purpose before us now, this purpose of practical holiness? It was all with
reference

Ephesians 4:22. to your putting off, your laying aside, (as regards your former
course of life, in "regard" of the need of a revolution and conclusion for that
dark "course,") the Old Man, the old, the former, the now past, state of things
for your humanity, in which, as unrenewed sons of Adam, you were under the
death-sentence of the broken law and under the bondage of sin within; that
"Man," that personified state of you men, which is decaying, corrupting, like a
moral corpse, on its way to final ruin, according to, in the fashion inevitably
due to, the desires of its (τῆς) deceit—the lusts which respond to the wiles of
temptation with which it plays and parleys. And the "teaching" and the "truth"
were not negative only, speaking only of a "putting-off"; they were positive,
with the glorious watchwords of renewal and investiture: with

Ephesians 4:23. reference, on the other side (δέ), to your being renewed, in a
holy process[12] of new development, the bright antithesis to the process of
"decay" now arrested and reversed a "renewal" in respect of the spirit of your
mind—your spiritual life and faculty coming out in mental action; your human
spirit awakened and enabled to grasp saving truth, and so to find the secret of
an abiding blessing. And along with this, the "teaching" had reference to the
fact that you did put on[13]the New Man, the new, the grace-given, state of
things for your humanity, in which, as regenerated members of Christ, you have
exchanged doom for peace and moral bondage for spiritual freedom; that "Man,"
that personified state of you "men in Christ," which, true to God (κατὰΘεόν),
"answering His great idea," was created, constituted, when it was provided in
Christ Jesus, the Second Man, in righteousness, in loyal correspondence to the
Will of God, and sanctity, piety,[14]of the truth, the truth of the Gospel; for
to that truth "sanctity" belongs, as a fruit which the truth ever tends to
produce, and as the fair adornment of its holy stem. The passage thus before us
is important in more than one respect. It is instructive in the first place as
an example of what the Epistle has already so often illustrated to us, the
connexion of doctrine with life. St Paul is intent here upon the practical
holiness of the Ephesians. He is unalterably desirous that in every detail of
daily life they shall "walk uprightly, and work righteousness, and speak the
truth from the heart" ( Psalms 15:2). How does he approach this matter, with all
its infinite importance for the realities of human intercourse? By taking his
disciples inward and upward to the secret things of the grace of God. He
conducts their thought, that he may conduct their faith, straight to the
personal Christ, to the wonderful Lord Jesus, as the meeting-point of all the
lines of truth. And then he reminds them (it is a reminder, not a new
announcement; he must be referring to lessons given long before in "the school
of Tyrannus") of facts and principles which sound at first as visionary and far
away as possible, but which are potent for immediate use. He speaks to them
about an Old Man and a New Man, and about "putting off" the one and "putting on"
the other, as of facts in a mysterious biography of the human spirit.

How dreamy, how exquisitely unpractical, says the wisdom of the world! But the
Apostle is wiser than that wisdom. He is speaking practically, for he is
speaking of facts which are as solid and operative for the spirit as gravitation
and magnetism are for the body. He knows that behind the term "the Old Man" lie
facts, deep as man himself, of sin, righteousness, judgment, guilt, bondage—a
chain which no force of the human will can break, if only because it can have no
adequate fulcrum apart from Christ. And he knows that behind the term "New Man"
lie all the solid treasures of redemption; Christ for us, Christ in us; a
contact with eternal love, and with divine power for victory and freedom in the
soul, which can work with glorious practicality in the hour of present-day
temptation. So he takes the Asian believer in to the hidden place, and bids him
take out of it, clasped firmly in his hands, the facts of his supernatural
salvation, in order to a supernatural result—a life of heavenly purity and love
lived amidst perfectly earthly circumstances. Do we not know in experience, in
our measure, what this means? True it is that nothing is more lifeless than a
theory of life without practice. But nothing is more living than a life really
lived with a strong, sure, theory behind it. The man knows the law of action, as
well as the line of it, and loses no time in fumbling for his resource. He has
learned the nature of his weapon, and the use of it; so far from his being
encumbered by his knowledge, in the hour of conflict, it is just his knowledge
which makes him move and strike with decision. Did we never experience, in our
own inner history, a time when, after long uncertainties and confusions, we came
(perhaps on a sudden) to find that our way to inward conquest was a way quite
definite and quite supernatural, that is to say, Christ used by faith? And was
not that discovery instantly applicable to "the next thing" in the path of
common duty? Was it not our delight to spend it upon the most concrete
difficulties—to find it act upon the next solicitation to impatience, to envy,
to unfaithfulness, to cowardice, to indolence, to impure thought?

Mystery may stand in the closest possible relation to all that is practical. Who
can tell us all about the physical mystery of electricity? But for all that,
there is no unreality about the electric telegraph, and the electric lamp, and
the electric carriage. These are things practical enough to be matters of common
use, commercial investment, and state legislation. In conclusion, we note a
point or two in the phraseology of the passage.

I. "The Old Man"; "the New Man." It seems important to observe that these terms
are not synonyms for "the flesh" and "the Spirit" respectively. They are such
that the Apostle here contemplates our definitely and altogether quitting the
Old Man to enter the New. On the other hand he contemplates (e.g. Galatians
5:16-17) the abiding presence and counteraction in our being of "the flesh" and
"the Spirit," though he expressly reminds us that the divine purpose is that the
Spirit shall be the continuous Conqueror of the flesh.

"The Old Man," "the New Man," are not elements or presences in us; they are,
highly personified, relations and connexions attaching to us. As such the one
may be definitely left, the other definitely entered.

II. "Put off," "put on." If I have understood and expounded aright, the
immediate thought of the Apostle, in the ἀποθέσθαι and ἐνδύσασθαι, deals with
the "accomplished facts" of divine Redemption; the provision for us in the Lord
Jesus Christ of a complete transference and emancipation, so that the believer,
once "in the Lord," has stepped out of the old position and has entered upon the
new, however imperfect his consciousness of it may be, and however much he may
have to learn of the further possibilities of his present position. This is an
aspect of truth which needs often and earnestly to be remembered and used. A
grasp of the facts of the Covenant of God, a handling of our present possessions
in Christ, is one of the mightiest secrets of the disciple’s life of faith.

Only, that aspect will continually translate itself into another; the
recollection of covenant possession will pass on into the action of conscious
acquisition. The man who knows that he possesses Christ will evermore resolve,
in experience, to find Him. The man who knows that, by the grace of God, he has
put the New Man on, will therefore rise up, in working experience, in view of
each hour’s need, to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ."

[1]Probably omit the wordλοιπάbeforeἔθνη.

[2]No idea of "self-conceit"resides in such "vanity." It is the emptiness, the
delusion, the "vain shew" of substance without reality. They mistake lie for
truth, sin for happiness.

[3]"[Διάνοια] may fairly be said to be the reason [νοῦς] in action. Here
accordingly the phrase defines, so to speak, the phrase just previous; the
general illusion of the reason comes out in obfuscated acts of thought"
(Cambridge Bible).—"Have been and are" is an attempt to renderἐσκοτωμένοιὄντες.
(It seems better, in view of rhythm, to connectὄντεςwithἐσκοτωμένοιthan
withἀπηλλοτριωμένοι

[4]Πώρωσις: the word means failure of sensation in general; "blindness" is one
phase of such failure, but only one.

[5]Οἵτινες: "ὅστιςis more thanquiand less thanquippe qui."It does just more than
merelydenote;it borders upondescription.—The translation here is a little
paraphrastic, to bring out the meaning better.

[6]Observe the aorist. An ideal crisis is in view; a definite choice; "evil, be
thou my good." In too many an experience such crises are actual, not only ideal.

[7]Ἑαυτούςis emphatic by position, [8]I quote, somewhat freely, from the
excellent translation of Aristides by Mrs Rendel Harris.

[9]I would be careful not to be misunderstood, as if I could mean that the
individual, I for instance or my reader, began his personal life in harmony with
God, and therefore holy and good, andthenpersonally fell from holiness to sin.
Scripture and consciousness alike witness against the Pelagian theory. But the
Race, the Nature, was "created upright," and fell by its own act. And that most
mysterious fact is as it were reflected in each individual by the equally
mysterious (but not less certain) fact that we freely speak of ourselves as
"fallen"beings. We arewhere our nature was not made to be—in personal sin. And
this is at once an alarm and shame,andthe condition to a blessed hope, for every
individual who looks up to the Restorer.

[10]This is the practical meaning ofεἴγε(as inEphesians 3:2). It does not imply
any doubt, necessarily, but calls the reader to verify the statement.

[11]Αὐτόνis emphatic by position. And the accusative afterἀκούεινsuggests
"hearing Him" rather as Message than as Teacher.

[12]Ἀνανεοῦσθαι: apresentinfinitive.

[13]I paraphrase freely here, to bring out the force of
theaoristinfinitive,ἐνδύσασθαι, and the reference (which I believe to be
intended) to not adutybut afact.The "putting-on," like the "putting-off," is
viewed, I believe, asfait accompli.

[14]Οσιότης: see Trench,N. T. Synonyms,series ii., § xxxviii. It is the virtue
which "reverences everlasting sanctities and owns their obligation,"


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  CHAPTER 13: CHAPTER 12. HOLY RESULTS OF HEAVENLY BLESSING: TOTAL ABSTINENCE FROM SINNING IN THE FORGIVEN LIFE
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Chapter 12. Holy Results of Heavenly Blessing: Total Abstinence from Sinning in
the Forgiven Life Ephesians 4:25toEphesians 5:2

"Je n’ai plus de force que pour m’occuper de l’amour de Dieu. Dieu nous a aimé:
c’est toute la doctrine de l’Évangile. Aimons Dieu: e’en est toute la morale."
—Monod, Adieux "Order my footsteps in Thy Word, And make my heart sincere;

Let sin have no dominion, Lord, But keep my conscience clear."

—Watts IN the last chapter we watched the Apostle’s actual approach to the
treatment of the practical holiness of the disciples, and his first words about
some great details. In particular, he has put his readers face to face with the
awful facts of the corruption of man’s heart apart from God, and so of the
unspeakable corruption of current human life. And he has reminded them that they
"have not so learned our Christ." Yet still we have had to wait for the full
stream of explicit precepts. The Epistle to the Ephesians has been powerfully
characterized, I think by the late Dr C. J. Vaughan, as a writing so full of
eternity that, even when it stoops to the earth, its heavenly wings, by their
slightest waft, bear it aloft again to the regions of transcendent truth. So
here the Apostle, laying down for his converts the rule of purity, rises for a
moment to the mystery of the Old Man and the New, and so to the wonder of our
vital union with "the Second Man" as the ultimate account of our power to be
really holy at all. Here, as everywhere, such digressions upward are pregnant
with the suggestion of the living bond between the really spiritual and the
really practical. Nothing indeed is meant to be more matter-of-fact, or, if I
may use the phrase, more workmanlike, than the Christian’s attention to
right-doing in his common life this hour. Nothing is more remote from his
Master’s mind, or from the mind of his Master’s Apostle, than that he should
think it really a "stoop to the earth" to be careful to be pure and true in the
next little thing, as if it was something greater and higher to muse upon
eternal principles. Yet it is as certain as both revelation and experience can
make it that a sure grasp upon eternal principles is of infinite importance for
the really right doing of the duties of time. Of this we have been just
reminded, then, and we shall have it set before us again and again in the
remaining pages of the Epistle. But now comes in at length the fuller and more
particular treatment of duty. The long wings of the angel of truth are folded,
though ever ready to expand again, and his white feet walk upon the familiar
surface of our common life.

Ephesians 4:25. Wherefore, because you have "learned Christ," and have "put on
the New Man," coming out of the polluted darkness into the clear, clean light,
laying aside decisively ἀποθέμενοι, aorist) the falsehood,τὸψεῦδος, the whole
class of thought and speech which falls under the head of untruth, speak truth
each with his neighbour, particularly now his Christian neighbour, his
fellow-believer; because we are one another’s limbs, one spiritual organism in
our Head, and thus vitally related to each other, with an absolute obligation to
serve each other’s good. To all men, indeed, you will act as under the law of
truth, for you belong to Him who is the Truth itself; your lie, to the veriest
pagan, would belie Him. But this wider circle of duty will be all the better
fulfilled fora special fidelity to the inner circle, the family of faith. So
glorify God by a truthful tongue. Glorify Him also by a kindly temper. Be angry

Ephesians 4:26. and do not sin;[1] if wrath must sometimes be, (and it sometimes
must be, while wrong is in the world,) see to it that it is unsinful wrath,
wrath in the line of God’s will, pure displeasure at evil, not partisanship for
self. And where there has been failure of patience, be prompt to return to love;
let not the sun set upon your exasperation[2]; lay feeling of all grievance at
the Lord’s feet absolutely, before you part for the night; dare not to refuse
your "neighbour" a farewell

Ephesians 4:27. in the peace of Christ; nor give place to the devil, who,
"wherever he finds a heart shut, finds a door open," and who knows too well how
to use it, till he fills the inner chamber with his dreadful presence, and the
man "who hateth his brother knoweth not whither he goeth" ( 1 John 2:11)—from
sin to sin. As with truth of word and gentleness of temper, so

Ephesians 4:28. with honesty and honour. The stealer, the man once used to
pilfer or to plunder as if it were but a foible—" everybody does it!"—let him no
longer steal; let him put a quiet, decisive, close to the whole habit in every
form. Nor only so; let him aim at a positive and not merely a negative
repentance; let him resolve upon a life-long course of reparation, in the way of
active distribution of his own to others[3]; rather than the slightest further
trifling with the old sin, let him be a toiler, labouring hard (κοπιάτω) as for
a main object, working with his own hands (ταῖςἰδίαις χερσίν) what is good,
making honest gains by honest pains, that he may not merely "recover his
character" but have what he may share with the man who is in want,[4] and so
reverse the past into a delightful contrary. Then again, let the disciple
remember to sanctify his tongue. He has been warned already to use it only for
what is true; let him equally take heed to use it only for what is

Ephesians 4:29. pure. All speech corrupt,[5] all talk tainted with moral decay,
the miserable innuendo, the vile double entendre of sin, as well as more avowed
impurity, let it not issue out of your mouth; see that "the Lord’s watch" (
Psalms 141:3) is set before that mouth; that will absolutely bar such outgoings.
But no artificial silence, meanwhile, will be the alternative; the mouth,
perhaps once greatly defiled, will now "give goodly words." While the "speech
corrupt" is for ever hushed, let there issue from you whatever speech is good,
tending to upbuilding in faith and purity, as the need may be,[6]that it may
give grace to those who hear it; "giving," as an instrument in the Lord’s hands
to benefit the souls and wills to which you speak. Thus living, thus speaking,
see to it that you "walk and please God";

Ephesians 4:30. and put not to pain the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, of our (τοῦ)
God, wherein (as you were embraced in His[7] gracious power) you were sealed—as
the purchased property of your King—in view of the day of redemption, that
bright day, the goal of hope, the stimulus of holiness, when He shall claim the
property He has purchased and has sealed, to take it home with Him for ever for
His own heavenly use.[8] As the Apostle pauses, his thought gathers up the whole
matter again into one comprehensive appeal. He calls for a total abstinence from
sins of temper, and of tongue; for the deep secret of the peace of the Church,
and of the home, and of the heart, in a life of love learnt at the Lord’s own
feet.

Ephesians 4:31. All bitterness of spirit and tone, and wrath (θυμός), the
habitual readiness to be inflamed, and anger (ὀργή), the eruption of the habit,
and all outcry of intemperate, uncontrolled, assertion of grievance, and
railing, abusive words against others, aye, even down to the most easily allowed
expressions of harsh and loveless criticism, let it all be taken away from you,
lifted clean out of your lives, as a thing utterly incongruous with a
Christian’s first rules of conduct, with all malice, all the wretched native
soil of these miserable growths, all the underlying unkindness from which spring
the careless anger and the cruel word.[9] Yes, let it be dealt with in a holy
intolerance; in the Lord’s name take it away; bid it be gone; give it over to
Him who knows how to "lift it out of" your spirit and your practice, and to
place Himself

Ephesians 4:32. where it was. And so become, grow ever more and more, in a
developed manifestation of His power within you, towards one another, kindly,
gentle-hearted,[10]mutually forgiving[11]—that duty so easily confessed but
often so impossible to flesh and blood, impossible without a divine motive and a
divine power. And here that need is supplied; just as actually (καί) our (ὁ)
God, in Christ, did forgive you[12]—in that sublime "accomplished fact" of
pardon. It was done in eternity from one viewpoint; it was done at Calvary from
another; from yet another, it was done on your personal coming into union with
Christ by faith; but from all points of view it was an act towards you of
immeasurable and wholly unmerited mercy, which must for ever give tone to all
your thoughts when you have to consider the duty of forgiving. Yes, it calls you
to an "imitation," which shall penetrate to the very springs of life, and shall
always find its possibility in the fact of your own salvation.

Ephesians 5:1.Become ye therefore, with the perpetual "becoming" of a still
developing practice, imitators of our (τοῦ) God, in a life in which (in a sense
of entire reverence and humility) He is reproduced, in His essential Character;
as children beloved, children of such a Father, shewing the family likeness of
the Home

Ephesians 5:2. of Grace; and, in this condition, in the joy and power of this
divinely given relationship, walk along the path of actual human intercourse,
with all it brings to you to do or to bear, in love, the spirit which "seeks its
happiness in another’s good," just as actually (καί) our (ὁ) Christ did love
us,[13] in all our lost and polluted estate, unlovely and unloving, and gave
Himself over on our behalf, an Offering and Sacrifice to our (τῷ) God, for an
odour of fragrancy; "a savour of repose," in the language of the ancient
Law,[14] the vehicle and the token of the wonderful reconciliation of offended
Holiness to us miserable sinners, who now for ever must live as those who owe
all to the mercy and the love which provided, which made, and which accepted,
the Atonement of the Cross.

Here let our paraphrase pause awhile. It is difficult, in this context, to say
of any given sentence that it is the climax of a paragraph, so intimate and
pregnant are the connexions. We go forward at once from this verse, for example,
into precepts about purity which have the closest possible relation to the fact
of our salvation by the mysterious mercy of a holy God who accepted the
sacrifice of "the Son of His Love" on our behalf when we lay condemned. But we
may lawfully pause here, if we remember meantime that the delay is only
provisional. For here, with this second verse of the new chapter of the Epistle,
closes the special reference to the Lord’s Sacrifice, which began to be made at
the end of the chapter previous. And it does so in immediate connexion still
with the theme of forgiving love which was the’ matter of appeal there.

What shall we say then of the messages of the portion now before us? They group
themselves into messages of eternal truth and of minutest present duty. In the
order of statement, the words upon duty come first, and the eternal truths are
given at the close. But let us work backwards in our meditation, and think a
little first of the Apostle’s language upon "the Sacrifice of the Death of
Christ, and the benefits which we receive thereby."

I. We observe first how the whole subject comes in here incidentally, and for a
special and practical purpose. He is wholly intent upon bringing home to their
wills and affections the blessed duty of a loving life, which forgets self and
remembers others, and meets if need be the wrongs done by others with love in
the form of forgiveness, full and free. To give that duty all its sacred weight
upon their hearts he brings in two sublime facts of salvation, infinitely
mysterious, perfectly genuine. The first is the love of the Father, who has
forgiven us, and with so great a forgiveness, nothing less than a forgiveness
lodged "in" His dear Son, and therefore given "in" the gift of Him. The second
is the love of that Son, "our Christ," who, in order to make that forgiveness
actually ours, in fruition, offered Himself up on our behalf, as an
altar-sacrifice.

II. We notice that we are not to expect here a complete and reasoned exposition
of the Atonement; if we seek that, we must go rather to such Scriptures as
Isaiah 53, (holding the lamp of the New Testament to our feet as we traverse
it,) or Romans iii., or large portions of the Epistle to the Hebrews;
remembering that even there we never get, in any one place, the subject treated
from all its sides. Here, manifestly, one side only is prominent in view—the
side of Example, the Example of the Father, and the Example of the Son, as
illustrating the glory of the law of love, and the infinite obligation upon us
to be forgiving. Very little is said here (almost nothing required to be said,
in this view) upon the truth of the Atonement with regard to its eternal
principles, its line of efficacious, action, its precise regard towards God, or
towards our race, as a sacrificial act. All that was needed was the solemn
reminder that it was a process, a work, of immeasurable mercy, springing out of
the depths of divine forgiving love. And may that aspect of it be ever present,
ever living, in our hearts, as a thing far too deep within them to need to be
quickened into operation by a perpetual restatement of the dogmatic certainties
of the sublime "plan" of mercy. May we "walk in love" along our common path, as
those who habitually breathe the air and power of just that fact—I am
wonderfully forgiven; freely, fully, certainly, but withal wonderfully; in the
words of the Moravian hymn, "It is mere mercy;

Remains a wonder Of Christ’s longsuffering, when thereon I ponder, Now and
always."

III. But then all the more observable it is that into such an incidental,
passing, reference to atoning mercy the Apostle cannot help (so to speak)
putting much which illuminates our doctrinal vision of the mystery. Here, for
example, we have emphasized that fact, ever prominent in Scripture, that it is
distinctively the Lord’s Death which is our pardon and our peace. Not
Incarnation per se but the Death of the Incarnate is our redemption. He "gave
Himself over for us"; words which obviously point to that supreme surrender when
He "took the cup of trembling," and willed to die, with all that death meant for
Him, "a ransom for many"; assuredly because, for eternal Holiness, no other and
smoother way was possible to liberate eternal Love upon a rebel race. Further in
the same connexion manifestly, we see Him self-given to be an "offering and
sacrifice to God"; not merely an exhibition of divine love to melt the hard
heart of man, but a sacrifice, an altar-sacrifice, θυσίαν, to God. God-wards
first looks the work of Calvary, that then, and not before, it may look
man-wards. "The savour of rest" must ascend to the throne of violated Holiness,
before the rainbow-shower of infinitely willing forgiveness can come down from
that throne upon our guilty heads.

IV. Then, for the actual possession and fruition of the blessing, that we may
indeed drink in that "great rain of His" love, we have here the revealed law
that we get it only in union with our atoning Lord. "God in Christ did forgive
you." "For Christ’s sake," says our Authorized Version there; and the words are
absolutely true. Their truth depends not so much upon one passage, or upon
several, as upon the whole view given us in Scripture, first of the Father’s
infinite and eternal complacency in the Son, then of the Son’s undertaking our
cause as Propitiation and as Advocate, "the Just for the unjust." "For His sake"
is a phrase inadequate indeed fully to express that truth; but it is true to the
idea. But here we have, in the literal and just rendering, this and more. "In
Christ, He did forgive," The forgiveness is what it is—for His sake. It is
imparted, in all it is, not only for His sake, but—to those who so come to Him
as to be embodied, involved, "in" Him, taken up into membership with Him their
blessed Head. Such is the Son to the Father, that the Father enspheres His
actual mercies all in the Son. Such are we to the Father that He welcomes us,
poor sinners, for pardon, holiness, and heaven, into the depths of union with
the Son; that He may "love us" with no mere benignant amnesty, but "even as He
loveth Him" (see John 17:23).

V. So we come, stepping backwards, to the opening verses of our paragraph, its
precepts of holiness, the holiness of truth, of purity, of kind speech, of
self-forgetting love. As the paraphrase proceeded we have seen something of
their incidence in detail. So our only comments now shall be summary, general,
and of the briefest.

1. Observe afresh, and carry it into every hour of waking life, yes, every hour,
that we are called here to total abstinence from sin; "let all be put away";
"let all be lifted off."

2. Observe, similarly, that we are called, with equal directness, to a positive
practice of good, always, as well as to a perpetual abstinence from evil.

3. Observe, lastly, that the idea of such a life will be the mockery of all our
hopes, and our very Christianity will be embittered by a long inward
disappointment, unless it is lived in the full sunlight of personal forgiveness,
enjoyed in personal union with the Christ of God. Lived there, it will be life
indeed, loving, lasting, overcoming, serving, even to the end.

[1]"The words are verbatim the LXX. version ofPsalms 4:4. The literal Hebrew
there is, ’tremble, and sin not.’And the verb rendered ’tremble’ may denote the
tremor of grief, awe, or anger indifferently. The question of interpretation
thus becomes one of context, and it has been suggested (by Dr Kay) that the
reference is to the temptation to David’s followers, during Absalom’s rebellion,
to give way to unholy wrath against the rebels. Bishop Perowne, though saying
that the LXX. Greek is ’certainly a possible rendering,’ refers the words to the
tremor of awe before God. And he remarks that St Paul gives here the Greek
version ’not in the way of direct citation,’ [but as using its words as the
vehicle of his thought]. This last remark is important. The N.T. does not
necessarily endorse a certain version of the O.T. by adopting its wording for a
special purposewithoutthe decisive formula, ’it is written,’ or the like. Still
the suggestion of Dr Kay is noteworthy in itself, and it would give a peculiar
point and force to the words here." (Note in theCambridge Bible.)

[2]"Wetstein quotes a parallel from Plutarch... who says of the Pythagoreans
that it was their rule, if betrayed into angry reviling, to shake hands before
the sun set." (Note in theCambridge Bible.)

[3]Assuredly St Paul would desire, as in the case of Onesimus (Philemon 1:18),
that, wherever possible, restitution should be made to theinjured party.See
Zaccheus’ words (Luke 19:8);"I restore himfourfold." But he is here concerned
with the widest and most permanent aspects of the case. The man who has ever
been a defrauder of others must all his life now feel bound specially to be the
benefactor of others.

[4]Μεταδιδόναιis not only to "distribute," which might be done by a mere agent
or official; it involves the thought of share-and-share between giver and
receiver.—Ἴναἔχῃ...τῷχρείανἔχοντι. It is just possible that there is an intended
antithesis inἔχῃandἔχοντι—onehasthe need, the otherhasthe supply. But the
phraseχρείανἔχεινis too common to make this very probable.

[5]Σαπρός: lit. "corrupt, putrid." The Latin Versions render simplysermo malus.
And the Greek word is certainly used with considerable latitude. But here,
surely, is the very place for its more proper and narrow meaning. The thought is
of the sort of speech which reeks of moral pollution, coming from "the throat
which is an open sepulchre" (Psalms 5:9), "full of all uncleanness."

[6]Lit. "towards upbuilding of the need"; i.e. towards such spiritual and moral
benefit as the particular occasion calls for.

[7]I do not hesitate to indicate in the paraphrase the Personality of the Holy
Spirit ("Hisgracious power"). Only a Person can be "put to pain" by moral wrong.

[8]See above,Ephesians 1:13.

[9]Κακία: sometimes the word signifies "evil" in a very general sense, as when
we have "the evil of the day," "the trouble the day brings" (Matthew 6:34). But
in a passage like this, where vices are spoken of in some detail, the narrower
meaning is more appropriate; it is "malice," the deepunkindnessof the
self-centred, Christless heart.

[10]Εὔσπλαγχνοι: theσπλάγχναare the "nobler" interior organs of the body,
including the heart. Hence the word and its cognates, in figure, signify much
what we signify by "the heart" and its actions.

[11]Lit. "forgivingyourselves,"ἑαυτοῖς. But the idiom is well known, and
unmistakable here. It differs from the same construction withἀλλήλοιςonly by
somewhat accentuating the "solidarity" of the parties concerned; the forgiveness
would as it were circulate within the complex "self" of the deeply united
community. This however, in view of the familiarity of the construction, must
not be pressed far.

[12]Note the aorist,ἐχαρίσατο, as it points to an act past and done.—"You":
another reading, with considerable support, is us." Internal evidence is in
favour ofὑμῖν.

[13]Another reading, with considerable but not decisive evidence, givesὑμῖν,
"you." But there is no doubt thatἡμῶν, five words below, is the right reading
there; and it is most unlikely that in that short space the Apostle would vary
the reference.Ἡμῖν, "us," should be retained here accordingly.

[14]רֵיחַנִיחֹחַ,rêach nîchôach(see e.g.Leviticus 1:9). The altar-victim was
regarded as emitting, so to speak, its "savour" to the Deity, as a token of
submission and surrender; so the thought of the Deity’s pleasure and
pacification was conveyed under the imagery of a welcome odour, "redolent" of
the "repose" of restored relation between the Deity and the worshipper. "Pagan
sacrificial language has many parallels; see e.g. Homer,Il., viii. 549. Cowper
renders this passage— ’Next the gods With sacrifice they sought, and from the
plain, Upwafted by the wind, the smoke aspires, Savoury, but unacceptable to
those Above, such hatred in their hearts they bore,’ etc." (Note in theCambridge
Bible.)


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  CHAPTER 14: CHAPTER 13. HOLY RESULTS OF HEAVENLY BLESSING: THE WORKS OF DARKNESS AND THE FRUIT OF LIGHT
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Chapter 13. Holy Results of Heavenly Blessing: The Works of Darkness and the
Fruit of Light Ephesians 5:3-14

"He who examines is startled to find that the phrase, ’fear of the Lord,’ is
woven into the whole web of Revelation, from Genesis to the Apocalypse. Well and
blessed would it be for this irreverent and unfearing age, in which the advance
in mechanical arts and vice is greater than that in letters and virtue, if the
popular mind could be made reflective and solemn by this great emotion." —Shedd,
Sermons to the Natural Man, § xvi

Ephesians 5:3. But fornication, a sin so lightly thought of among the heathen as
hardly to be held by them a wrong or shame at all,[1]and all impurity; all,
absolutely all, which falls under the same class, sin of the soul against the
body, all that is unworthy of the "children beloved" of the All-Pure; or greed
of whatever is another’s, but now specially sensual greed, directed towards the
ruin of another’s purity,[2]be it not even named amongst you, as beseems holy
ones, men and women dedicated to the Holy One, His purchased and surrendered
possession. No, let not such things even play upon your lips. True, those lips
may sometimes need to refer to them, quite explicitly, (even as in these very
sentences they are referred to,) to expose, to condemn, to warn. But even so,
let the mentions be as brief and as reserved as may be, or they may hurt both
speaker and hearer; and as for any lighter "naming" of them, any treatment of
them in talk as mere inevitable incidents in human life, or any lingering round
them in conversation, as round what has the slightest attraction to the mind,
any talk such as dresses them in colours of sentiment or romance, beware; put
the thing utterly away. In such "naming" there is always a sinful motive behind,
however little realized; and the "naming" reacts upon the motive, to develope
and to quicken it. All round the circle of such evil let the same absolute rule
prevail; "name" not ever[3]filthiness,

Ephesians 5:4. αἰσχρότητα, vice in its aspect of deformity, hideousness, that
aspect which by a dreadful law of evil sympathy can become positively attractive
to a once tainted imagination; nor fool-talk, the horrible trifling and soulless
"frankness" over what is bad which marks the fool of fools, who makes a toy of
"the abominable thing which God hateth" ( Jeremiah 44:4); nor jesting, the
wretched pleasantry, as different as possible from the play of pure and
wholesome mirth; the pleasantry of unclean badinage, of epigrammatic allusion to
vice, of half-meanings wholly foul, which defile not only common talk but many a
brilliant page of literature; things, all of them, which are not befitting,
unutterably unseemly to the sinner who has become in Christ a saint. And let not
your abstinence, here again, be merely negative. Let your Lord so fill your
hearts that from them to your lips shall rise not only no pollution but the
clear sweet stream of glad thankfulness, pervading all your talk with its light
and life. "Name" not evil, but rather "name," utter, as out of an inner
abundance, thanksgiving.

We rest a few moments upon that word, in its deep significance and fitness here.
Why does St Paul, just in this passage of awful insistence upon purity of
speech, call for a habit of thanksgiving in the Christian’s lips? He does not
mean, of course, that we are never to articulate any words but those which speak
gratitude to God; we have, in the path of duty, to talk upon countless matters,
and often upon matters that sadden the speaker to the heart; the Apostle is at
this moment doing so himself, with that sort of speech which flows through the
pen. But he does plainly mean that our talk is to have a habitual tendency to
the utterance, somehow, of thankful love to God. Is not the reason this, that
"thanksgiving," as a fact, so it be pure and genuine, and not fatally spoiled by
artificial motives, is both a symptom of inner wholesomeness and a means to its
development? It is the positive exercise of spiritual health, the instinctive
movement of holy happiness. It is the outcoming of the "joy of the Lord"; and
that joy is not only our "strength" ( Nehemiah 8:10) for toil and suffering, but
our strength too, in a wonderful measure, against the very subtlest and the very
fiercest forms of temptation. Who that knows at all the power of even one
minute’s joyful consciousness of what the Lord Christ is to him, and he to
Christ, does not understand this without explanation? Is it too much to say that
the Christian is (in a practical sense) invulnerable to the poisoned dart while
he is "giving thanks," with a true heart, for a great and a present redemption,
or rather for a great Redeemer, present in all His fulness to him? The classic
legend is in point here. Orpheus, the minstrel of the Argonauts, when the ship
passed near the island of the Sirens, and their sweet but fatal song was audible
to the mariners, and began to tell upon their wills, struck his harp and raised
his voice aloft in praise of the heavenly Powers. The better song overpowered
the worse, with its pure positive. Let us practise not Orphean but Christian
music in our hearts, and we shall find its power upon the enemy, so that it be
music really learnt from the sight of our Redeemer. Nor let us fail to notice
that the Apostle here is enjoying not only the feeling within but the expression
without. Thanksgiving is to take the place of the "naming" of evil with our
lips. Of course, in this matter, as in every matter, there are rules of wisdom
as well as of love. Circumstances are very easy to conceive in which an audible
utterance of spiritual gratitude would not only do no good but would do much
harm; above all, if that expression were in any degree forced and mechanical.
But far oftener, probably, than we think, the modest but free expression of a
really happy soul would do the deepest good. And it may and it does react in a
wonderful way, rightly exercised, upon the heart from which it comes. The
application of the thought is obvious, meantime, to the united and public
expression of Christian thanksgiving. More will be said of this below by the
Apostle ( Ephesians 5:19-20). Here it is enough to remember that holy hymns,
whether sung in the congregation, or in the home, are powerful means of grace in
the hand of the Spirit, and above all when they are hymns of praising gratitude.

"Sing, till you feel your hearts Ascending with your songs;

Sing, till the love of sin departs, And grace inspires your tongues." But let us
return to the Apostle’s text, as he passes from precept to urgent and anxious
warning:

Ephesians 5:5. For this you know with clear recognition,[4] as a tremendous
fact, resting upon eternal and inexorable truth, that every fornicator, without
exception or extenuation, and[5]unclean man, whatever his form of moral
foulness, and greedy man, with the "greed" denoted above ( Ephesians 5:3), which
meansὅ ἐστινidolater, (for his "greed" is a dreadful and debasing worship of the
creature, or rather of his own vile pleasure in the creature,) possesses no
inheritance in the kingdom of ourτοῦChrist and of God. No; let him flatter
himself as he will; his willing sin precludes absolutely his title to entrance
and to place in that kingdom, and as absolutely negatives his capacity for its
life. He cannot possibly be a genuine subject of the holy Saviour and the holy
Father now, happy in that blessed Rule loyally welcomed, and that sovereign
Protection thankfully enjoyed. And when that kingdom passes into its eternal
development, when the throne of God and of the Lamb is the centre of the Holy
City ( Revelation 22:3), and the blessed ones for ever and ever serve around it,
with the Name on their foreheads, "where shall the ungodly and the sinner
appear?" ( 1 Peter 4:18). "I never knew you; depart from Me, ye that work
iniquity" ( Matthew 7:23).[6] The Apostle urges his warning home, for he knows
that there is need. Now from the heart within, now from outward influences, as
conversation, literature, or what not, comes the suggestion that things are not
so bad as the prophets of judgment paint them. Sin is not all that they would
have it; is it not after all an incident of our finite nature? Is it not perhaps
even a step upwards, (though it stumbles on the slope, and finds the ground
miry,) in the development of that nature into a larger experience? Anywise, the
large, the boundless, insight and sympathies of an all-benignant Power will
preclude the "taking of strong measures in the Universe." Tout savoir c’est tout
pardonner.

We are poor unfortunates at the worst, who have gone astray under very dark
skies, on very rough ground. There will be a large indulgence on the part of
"the good God." He will arrange that this world shall somehow be set happily to
rights in the next. So let us walk, though at a moderate pace, along the broad
road still; certainly let us not be too unhappy, too despondent, too full of
forebodings, about those who are upon it, whether or no we go along with them
there.

"Ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil. Ye shall not surely die."

It is remarkable how soon, however, in the depth of some hearts at least, these
"vain words" get hushed into an awful silence, when other words come meet them.
Perhaps it is a record, simple and authentic, of a case of conviction of sin;
possibly of some hour, unutterably dark, within the outskirts of an infinite
night, when a dying man tells those around him that he finds he has put God off
just too long, and no argument of love, no pressure of divine promises upon that
heart, appears to have the least effect, save to evoke answers, terribly
pointed, repelling the inference of mercy. Perhaps it is the very simplest
statement, unattended by the least circumstance of terror, of eternal moral
principles; the absolute and formidable difference of right and wrong; the
distinction between divine Love in its essential harmony with divine Holiness
and a loose benevolence, weak and vague. Perhaps it is a simple re-perusal of
some of our Lord Jesus Christ’s own urgent words about sin and the judgment upon
sin beyond death; above all, His "depart from Me," His "I never knew you." We
may have come to take "liberal" views of the Bible, till we hardly know what it
is to approach the Bible except as its critics. Yet on a sudden this Book turns
upon us, rises as it were in new and awful life from the dissecting-table, and
speaks to us with even more than its old authority about temperance,
righteousness, and judgment to come, till we tremble all through. We begin to
know again that sin is something other than development, or than misfortune, and
that the wrath of God has an awful element in it that is very far from remedial,
and that somehow time has terribly much to do with eternity, and that all this
is true for us. "Vain words" of fallacious reassurance, poor parodies of the
true message of a love and a mercy unspeakable, but holy, can, as I said, sink
into dead silence in face of such replies. But they will be always ready to
revive, and talk again. So we need often to recall the counter-words, the
tender, awful warnings of the holy Book, "lest we forget." Here then is one of
these.

Ephesians 5:6. Let no one deceive you with empty words, true successors of the
fatal words of the primeval Temptation; "empty" of the eternal facts of the
unknown horror of sin, of the sure, tremendous law of retribution, of the dread
reality of divine wrath, of the certainty, deep as all truth, that divine love
will never bend divine holiness aside, no, not for a hair’s-breadth, nor for a
moment. All such words are empty, all such teaching is deceiving. For on account
of these things, because of these lightly tolerated sins, these "frailties,"
these "irregularities," these "falls upward," there is coming—it is already on
its stern, straight way—the wrath of our God, the personal, infinite, energetic
displeasure and hostility of the revealed Holy One against sin and against the
wills that choose it; upon—as a resistless force marches "upon" a doomed
town—the sons of this (τῆς) disobedience, the beings who have linked themselves,
by their choice of evil as their good, to the cause of rebellion against Him.
"As it was in the days of Noah; as it was in the days of Lot." All things looked
"peace and safety"; there was apparently a "silence of God" deep and permanent,
a tolerance, an indifference, an absence. But "the wrath was coming," and at
length, without mistake, it came.

Ephesians 5:7. So do not become sharers along with them; "becoming" such, by
allowing temptation to "become" transgression, and the acts to grow into the
habit; do not become "sharers" of their fatal "disobedience," and so of their
hopeless ruin—"consumed in the iniquity of the city." Let not "empty words"
allure you into that complicity. No, nor let holy words do so, misused to the
purposes of the enemy. Let not the blessed revelations of this very Letter do
so, its messages about an eternal and electing love, and a completed salvation,
and a session with the Lord in heavenly places. Whether or no you apprehend the
sublime harmony, (which there is,) between the song of salvation and the
thunder-voices of warning, listen to each in its turn with the whole heart. And,
however, use the certainty of your Lord’s love and mercy wholly and only in the
interests of your Lord’s will. You have His blessings, and are invited to the
fullest assurance of them; you know what you were, and what you are; therefore
live

Ephesians 5:8. wholly in His will. For you were once darkness; not merely in the
dark, but impregnated and as it were identified with the "darkness" of ignorance
and sin; but now, in the blessed present of the converted life, you are light;
not merely in the light, but filled and as it were identified with the sunshine
of knowledge and of holiness; in the Lord, in your grace-given union with Him
who is the Light; in whom is now your home, your sphere, so that if His radiance
does not consciously fill you it is only that you do not open your eyes to take
it in. So, as Light’s children, walk, live out your real life, in the real world
of duty and temptation, as those who are in living and intense connexion with
the truth and the purity that is for you in Christ. In that "childhood," break
utterly with "the sons of disobedience," and take that narrow path which "is as
the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the

Ephesians 5:9. perfect day" ( Proverbs 4:18). For the fruit of the Light,[7] the
blessed outgrowth of our knowledge of Him in whom we see God, is, consists of,
and is developed in, all goodness, every form of all that is the pure opposite
of evil,[8]and righteousness, holy regard of the rights of others, in respect of
both honesty and purity, and truth, the deep reality and sincerity of purpose
which is the one possible basis for a right life.

Thus "walk," at once in holy liberty and in the exactest correspondence to its
"perfect law" ( James 1:25), the will of God, which alone secures our
emancipated happiness. And as you do so, watch; for on the King’s highway you
still have both clouds and enemies to

Ephesians 5:10. reckon with. So go on, testing by the touchstone of His "sweet,
beloved will," what is well-pleasing to the Lord; that question which will ever
be rising in the heart which loves Him; not with the weary feeling, "What will
be the next restriction, the next imposed chain, the new addition to the load
upon my shoulders?" but with the responsive look of love, the "asking eye" which
would gladly anticipate His perfect purpose and infinitely beautiful desire, so
dear to His loving bondservant’s heart. "How can I please Thee in this thing,
and in that? How can my thought meet Thine, and my will have the joy of being
laid along the line of Thy good pleasure?" Happy they who thus "walk," thus
"testing"! Their souls acquire more and more a holy, prescient instinct; a
sympathy in the very depths with God.

Yet again the Apostle returns upon his warnings; so great is the risk, so
infinitely important the escape.

Ephesians 5:11. And have no part and lot in the barren works[9]of the darkness,
the actions and habits congenial to the life of sin, things awfully "barren,"
for their "harvest is a heap in the day of desperate sorrow" ( Isaiah 17:11);
their "end is death" ( Romans 6:21). Rather even, going beyond a mere
abstinence, however total, bring them to conviction,ἐλέγχετε, bring them to
book, evince their dreadful fallacy and mortal futility by appeals to conscience
in the name of God. There is need for such aggression on "the darkness," and you
will find souls there conscious of their degradation, and so far

Ephesians 5:12. accessible; for of the things secretly done by them, by the
miserable rebels there, it is a shame even to speak; the details could only
defile the teller; "let them not be named."[10] Is such a field hopeless then
for the influence of the Christian? Is it practical to seek to "bring to
conviction" such works of the darkness? Yes, if it is done in the right way,
done by the light, by those who are not merely censors and denouncers, but
"light in the Lord," speaking first and most with the convicting eloquence of
transfigured lives in Christ. It is "a shame to

Ephesians 5:13. speak of the things done in secret." But all things which are
brought to conviction are by the light made manifest; nothing but the light will
do the work; and you are now light, in Him who is pure Light. Therefore, while
you watch and pray against infection from the darkness, shine into it; let the
Lord’s light in upon it, in any way possible, the light of holy truth with holy
love, and then shall the inhabitants of the darkness (such as you once were)
become "light" too; for everything which is being manifested,[11] exposed to the
pure day, is light; that holy Day cannot but transform where it really gets
entrance. Happy they whose word and whose life, acting together, pierce those
shadows and carry there the Lord’s life-giving light!

Ephesians 5:14. Wherefore, in view of this work of life by light, it, the
Scripture, says, Awake, sleeping one, and rise from out of the dead, and our (ὁ)
Christ shall dawn upon thee.[12] So we find a paragraph again, and make pause a
little while. May He who is the everlasting Light, and ’in whom is no darkness
at all,’ so shine in us that the awful darkness may be kept, by His presence,
outside our wills, outside our lives. And may He so shine from us that we may be
the blessed vehicles for carrying His transforming radiance even to the
inhabitants of the night.

"Brightly beams our Father’s mercy From His lighthouse evermore; But to us He
gives the keeping Of the lights along the shore."

Bliss

[1]And too lightly thought of in our modern nominal Christendom, to judge by
much of its public opinion and of its legislation.

[2]See onEphesians 4:19above for the wider and narrower meanings ofπλεονεξία.

[3]The construction is continuous in the Greek:καὶαἰσχρότης, κ.τ.λ.; but I have
broken it for the purposes of the paraphrase.

[4]Τοῦτο γὰρἴστε(notἐστε)γινώσκοντες: "you know (as fact), knowing (with insight
into the reason)."

[5]Lit. "or" (ἤ); and so in the next words. But our idiom seems to require
"and."

[6]"What is the ’Kingdom’ here? On the whole, the glorified state, the goal of
the process of grace. True, the word often, with obvious fitness, includes the
period of grace in this life in which most truly the Christian is a subject of
the King (see e.g.Matthew 11:11. ). But usage often gives the word a special
connexion with the final state, glory; cp. esp.Matthew 25:34. See also the
passages, closely akin to the present,1 Corinthians 6:9-10;Galatians 5:21; where
the’shallnot inherit’... points to the idea ofa coming’Kingdom’... The practical
meaning here then is, ’no such moral rebel can be, while such, a citizen of and
pilgrim to the heavenly city." (Note in theCambridge Bible.)

[7]A.V., "the fruit of theSpirit." SoGalatians 5:22; (where note the phrase,
"thefruitof the Spirit," not"fruits": the graces make one beautiful and perfect
whole). But here the evidence decidedly supports the readingφωτός, notπνεύματος,
"light," not "Spirit." Happily the ultimate message of the two is the same; it
is only by the Spirit that we have Him who is the Light.

[8]Ἀγαθωσύνη: the word tends to the special meaning of kindliness, beneficence.
But its wider original meaning seems more in place here.

[9]Ἔργοις: just before we have hadκαρπὸς τοῦφωτός. Possibly the collocation is
intentional, as inGalatians 5:19,Galatians 5:22, where the weary"works"of the
flesh are contrasted with the genial, living,"fruit"of the Spirit.

[10]Only too well is this charge borne out by many a black line in classical
literature and art. But is not the same charge awfully true in a Christendom
which is all too much "the world," decorated with certain Christian elements in
thought and practice, but at heart in "the darkness" still? See above, Chapter
11.

[11]So certainly we must render; not, "whatsoever doth make manifest."

[12]The passage chiefly in view, we can hardly doubt, isIsaiah 60:1, "Arise,
shine, for thy light is come, etc." But other Scriptures appear to blend with
this in the Apostle’s inspired thought; asIsaiah 52:1-2, "Awake, awake, put on
thy strength, O Zion," andIsaiah 51:17, "Awake, awake, stand up, etc." See Kay
onIsaiah 60:1. And cp. Edersheim,The Temple and its Services,for a possible
reference to Jewish liturgical language at the Feast of Tabernacles. Some have
suggested that we have here the words of a primeval Christian psalm. But the
phrase"it says,"λέγει, seems to prove at least an ultimate reference to
Scripture itself. St Paul writes, "Christshall dawn upon thee." But to him this
would be no unfaithful citation of the words, "the glory of the Lord is risen
upon thee." See St John’s reference toIsaiah 6:1(John 12:41), and St Peter’s
toIsaiah 8:12-13(1 Peter 3:15, where read, "the LordChrist").


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  CHAPTER 15: CHAPTER 14. HOLY RESULTS OF HEAVENLY BLESSING: THE CHRISTIAN'S WATCHFULNESS, TEMPERANCE, AND SONG
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Chapter 14. Holy Results of Heavenly Blessing: The Christian’s Watchfulness,
Temperance, and Song Ephesians 5:15-21

"The first said to him, Thy sins be forgiven thee; the second stripped him of
his rags, and clothed him with change of raiment; the third also set a mark upon
his forehead, and gave him a roll, with a seal upon it, which he bade him look
on as he ran, and that he should give it in at the celestial gate. Then
Christian gave three leaps for joy, and went on singing." —Pilgrim’s Progress
THE Ephesians have learnt much now of the details of the holy life, and the last
words which they (and we) have heard about it have pointed the thought full upon
an element in it which is vital to its health—holy action, holy service. The
believer, "light in the Lord," is to shed the light which he receives. There is
to be a warm hearth-fire in his own soul’s chamber, and a lamp fed with heaven’s
own sunshine is to hang from its ceiling. But it is also to be a radiant point
in the dark world, finding way for its searching beneficent brightness through
the windows of the soul, from the beacon-tower of the life, The range of
penetration may be vast, or it may be very small. It may command a great region
of the earth, or many regions; it may fill an age of time, it may affect all the
ages; such was the range of St Paul’s radiation, for example. Or it may light up
one small neighbourhood, one poor home, the visitors to one sick-room; it may be
limited in time by only a fragment of the disciple’s one short life; such was no
doubt the range of radiation for many an Asian saint then, as it is for many an
English saint now. But the point is that there is intended to be radiation
outward where there is light within. The Master’s service is to be the dear
object of the redeemed life. The sacred light is given indeed for the being’s
own bliss, rich and large; but it is never given to terminate there. And they
best meet the Master’s will who most willingly and most continually so keep the
windows clear that the light within may radiate around, for conviction, and for
gladness, just as freely and as far as may be.

Happy they who, by His grace, so serve Him. Do we not know such lives? They
"cannot be hid"—not because they advertize themselves; that is the very last
thing they do. But it is unmistakable that they are enjoying a great light
within, and it "will out." Such (to keep close to our own time, and to no very
extended circle) were William Pennefather, Arthur Blackwood, Frances Havergal.
Such was that great light-bearer so recently called from us, D. L. Moody. Such
are cherished names still among us, known to thousands who owe them more than
they can ever tell, for the light brought by them into the thick darkness of
worldliness, sin, doubt, and fear. But there have been, and there are, countless
others whom no Christian history will ever name, but who live in transfigured
hearts on which they have shone. Their "record is on high." The Apostle comes
now to a few more lines of general caution and precept, before he approaches his
final topic, the Christian Home. He has to appeal again for a grave remembrance
that the "walk in the light" is no mere promenade, smooth and easy, but a march,
resolved and full of purpose, cautious against the enemy, watchful for
opportunity for the King, self-controlled in every habit, and possible only (if
it is to be a reality) in the power of the eternal Spirit. It is to be a walk,
onward and onward, of holy and habitual praise, of fellowship in spiritual help,
and of a mutual submission which means forgetfulness of self in the recollection
of others, in the Lord.

Ephesians 5:15. See therefore, with eyes spiritually open to the path and its
environment, that you walk (it is the seventh time that this pregnant word has
been written) accurately; recollecting the importance of detail, fully aware
that life is made up of steps and incidents, and that nothing in it lies outside
the claims of God. Spend watchful thought upon duty and opportunity; think
nothing trivial in such matters as use of time, manner of act and speech,
consistency in common things; not as unwise men, blind to the import and
occasions of the passing day, and the relation of time to eternity, but as wise
men, with that holy wisdom which comes of heart-concord with the will of God,
and with a watchful use of thought and of every faculty for its ends. As you
walk, make all you can of the events of life, to use them for Him;

Ephesians 5:16. buying up the opportunity, as it evermore occurs, "buying it
out" ἐξαγοραζόμενοι from alien ownership, from the mere use of self, securing it
for your Master at the expense of self-denying watchfulness.[1] Do this,
remembering that you will need to do it if you are to be really serviceable to
Him; it will not do to let things drift, as if circumstances would take care of
themselves, and automatically serve the Lord’s servant; because the days are
evil; the "days" of your human life in a sinful world do not lend themselves to
holy uses where the man who lives them does not watch for opportunities. This
precept is for all time. No doubt there were special conditions in Asia at that
date which may have led St Paul to write it down with a heart centred upon
peculiar and acute difficulties. In many respects the "days" at Ephesus were
"evil" as they are not now, at least for those of us whose lot is cast in lands
which bear the Christian name, and are full on their surface of the Christian
tradition. But then, to the age, as to the day, "sufficient is the evil
thereof." We have our characteristic obstacles, here and now, to the active
doing of the Master’s work, and to the silent diffusion of His light; among them
is the Christian tradition itself, where it exists along with spiritual death in
men’s wills and afifections. So now, as distinctively as then, "the days are
evil" for the full Christian enterprise. And the "evil" must be reckoned with,
now as ever, by the merchants of the King, "seeking goodly pearls"; they must be
on the watch, and "buy up the opportunity" at a real cost.

We may be sure on the other hand that St Paul does not mean, for in the wisdom
of the Spirit he could not mean, that we are enjoined to force occasions for our
witness or appeal. The imagery of purchase looks just the other way; it points
to a lawful acquisition, though at a real cost. We have need to ask as earnestly
for wisdom as for courage and persistency in life and work for Christ. But then,
that thought is not to be the miserable excuse for a contented silence. Rather,
it is to be our deep motive for such a close personal walk with God, such a
readiness, through the prayer of faith, to spend and be spent for Him, such a
maintained consciousness that His holy service is our true raison d’étre as
Christians, that when the opportunity is ready for us we shall be ready for it.
More than half the price of the "purchase" will thus be paid by our own secret
watching and prayer over our own unhindered communion with God.

"To usefulness and power There is no royal road; The strength for holy service
Is intercourse with God."

Ephesians 5:17. On this account, because you have such a work to do in such a
field, do not become (γίνεσθε) foolish, mindless, witless, as regards duty and
its conditions; do not "become" such, by a permitted habit of forgetfulness,
deepening till it fixes; but understand (συνίετε) what is the will of the Lord;
with that understanding, that intuitive perception, which can be got only in the
way of spiritual Wakefulness and watching, while the disciple does indeed use
"sanctified common sense," yet takes care that it is "sanctified," by nearness
to God and real accord with His will. Then, and only then, will you be humbly
sure that this or that circumstance is the signal of His purpose and His call.

Ephesians 5:18. And do not intoxicate yourselves with wine, in which, as if
lying hidden in that dangerous vehicle, is riot, "dissoluteness" (ἀσωτία), the
miserable licence which bursts the bonds of conscience with dreadful ease, and
breaks up the whole moral order.

It is not apparent at first what brings in this grave precept here. Bengel
strikingly remarks that St Paul "fitly follows up a warning against impurity
with a warning against intemperance"; words which every worker for God among the
"lapsed" will verify from experience. And has not many a worker known something,
in personal experiences of temptation, of the awful relation between the one
evil and the other? But St Paul has not been dealing so explicitly with impurity
in just the last few sentences as to give an obvious place to Bengel’s note. I
would venture to suggest rather that at this moment in the Epistle there already
rose on his mind the subject of the Fulness of the Spirit, as the profound
requisite to a life of light and of light-giving power; "the Spirit’s calm
excess"[2] was present to him; and this suggested, while he was still occupied
with the warning side of truth, this brief, imperative word upon that "excess"
which comes not from heaven but hell. So brought in, and indeed whatever was the
precise suggesting reason, it stands here related to every foregoing appeal; for
the "riot" which lurks in the cup of the drunkard annihilates equally, so far as
it prevails, every bond of duty. All experience tells us that it tends to
obliterate the very faculty to speak the truth; it can harden the heart, however
affectionate by nature, against the nearest, the dearest, the most pathetically
dependent; it can let loose the tongue to speak all sorts of evil; it can fan
the spark of lust into a furnace. "It biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like
an adder" ( Proverbs 23:32), at the very heart of virtue.

I have no purpose here to discuss the grave problem of "total abstinence." For
many long years, in view of the terrific ravages of intemperance in English
life, and wishing to contribute the atom of a personal experience and example on
the other side, I have "totally abstained," till the very reminiscence of any
"self-denial" in the matter has faded away. But I have never dared to lay down
my rule for others, or to think those who take another course to be therefore
unfaithful to their Lord. I cannot forget, nor elaborately explain away, the
frequent allusions in Scripture to a certain use of wine; remembering however
that God has suffered local and temporal conditions to affect the surface of His
holy Scripture, so that it is lawful to qualify such allusions, in their bearing
upon English life, by the thought that "drink" was not the curse in the East
then which it is with us now. But I cannot forget also that this same tolerant
Scripture, with its ample recognition of the genial side of human life, contains
some of the most urgent warnings that can be written against the horror of
intoxication, conveyed sometimes in language which the most intolerant of total
abstainers could not surpass. One such I have quoted just above in part; let me
recite the whole ( Proverbs 23:31-35, R.V.): "Look not thou upon the wine when
it is red, when it giveth its colour in the cup, when it goeth down smoothly: at
the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall
behold strange things, and thine heart shall utter froward things. Yea, thou
shall be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon
the top of a mast. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not hurt;
they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet
again." This was written in the East, where the plague of intemperance is not as
it is with us of the North. Awful is the caution which it conveys to us, for
whom indeed, in this matter, "the days are evil."

Ephesians 5:18. But "be filled, with a fulness habitual, normal,[3] always
supplied and always received, in the Spirit.[4] Let the Holy One, your Sealer
and Sanctifier, so surround and possess you that you shall be as it were vessels
immersed in His pure flood; and then, yielding your hearts without reserve to
Him, you shall be vessels not only immersed but open; "in Him," and "filled" in
Him," as He, continually welcomed, continually occupies and hallows all parts of
your nature, all departments of your life.

Let us remember well that this great clause is not a teaching merely but a
precept. As distinctly as it is enjoined upon us not to be intoxicated with
wine, so is it enjoined upon us to seek, in earnest, "fulness in the Spirit."
May nothing blind us to the fact and the significance of that precept; no, not
the unwise and perhaps even fanatical things which have been sometimes heard in
the Church in connexion with the sacred Fulness. We may be very sure that the
command means nothing which shall "unhinge" the Christian’s life, and cast it
loose from the noblest sanity and the most steadfast order. As a fact, we find
it here imbedded amongst precepts laying down the great laws of self-control,
and it comes just before the special directions which the Apostle gives for the
quiet sanctities of the Christian home. It must be a thing, whatever it is, full
of all that is just, true, lovely, and of good report; full of virtue and of
praise ( Php 4:8). But then, all the while, it is a thing supernatural. It is a
state of man wholly unattainable by training, by reasoning, by human wish and
will. It is nothing less than—God in command and control of man’s whole life,
flowing everywhere into it, that He may flow fully and freely out of it in
effects around.

"O Thou from whom all holy desires do proceed," give us the great gift of the
desire, ever deeper, for "fulness in the Spirit"; that we may with joy lay claim
to the mighty, benignant gift. For Thou hast promised "Thy Holy Spirit to them
that ask Thee." It is the unspeakably vital requisite to the full blessing of
the soul. It is that which the Church needs with a need that cannot be uttered.

We must not forget meanwhile that the thought of this Fulness is here connected,
in a special degree, with that of the joy of the Lord and its expression. As the
miserable exhilaration of the drunkard comes out in the song of "riot," so the
"calm excess" of the man "filled in the Spirit" will come out in song too. It
will come out always in the song of the life, the melody and harmony of a
character and conduct gladdened by the blessed Presence. But it will tend often
too to come out in the song of the lips, and above all when Christians, thus
"filled," meet together before their Lord. So in close connexion, he proceeds;

Ephesians 5:19. Talking one to another[5]in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual
odes; in every variety of sacred song, the Psalms of the elder Church, the
rhythmic praises or meditations of the Church of the Gospel,[6] anything,
everything, that offers itself as a true vehicle for this precious exercise,
"the song of the Lord"; singing and making music,[7]with your heart, to the
Lord. Not that the hymnody was to be only internal, "in the heart"; or how would
they thus "talk to one another"? Voice and perhaps instrument too were to be
fully audible;

"No voice exempt, no voice but well could join Melodious part; such concord is
[from] heaven!" But all was to be internal also. The sounds were but to express
the praising souls. And all this was to be done, not as "music-worship," (God
forbid,) but as worship full of music, paid to the remembered, adored, loved,
present Lord. Such singing—and no other—is audible upon the Throne;

"that God’s own ear Listens delighted."

Such singing—and no other—is a sure means of grace to singers and to listeners;
the Holy Ghost is in it.

Ephesians 5:20. Giving thanks always over all things; for everything has His
love in it, upon or below the surface; "all things work together for good "for
His people; in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, resting on Him, using Him, as
Mediator and Advocate; to our (τῷ) God and Father, "ours" in Him.

We have seen already (ch. 13) the deep connexion between thankfulness and
holiness. Here the sweet subject well recurs, in this passage where the fulness
of the Spirit is seen to issue in the sacrifice of song. And now, in deep and
beautiful connexion, comes one last word, in which the souls so happy in their
Lord, so full of His praise, are found happy in their relations with each other,
in a self-forgetting mutual loyalty:

Ephesians 5:21. Subjecting yourselves to one another, in God’s fear. For nothing
so withers pride as pure thanksgiving.

Happy in God, with a joy full of worshipping "fear" to grieve the all-blessing
Love, the disciples yield, without an effort, each to the other’s claim upon his
help and kindness; loved, and loving; blessed, and blessing.

[1]"The same phrase occurs (Aramaic and Greek)Daniel 2:8: ’I knew of a certainty
that ye wouldbuy the time’; where the meaning plainly is, ’that ye would get
your desired opportunityat the expense ofa subterfuge.’... InColossians 4:5the
special thought is of opportunities in intercourse with ’them that are
without.’" (Note in theCambridge Bible.)—Here surely it is the same. The thought
of seizing occasions to let in "the light" upon "the darkness," that it may
become "light," is still in view.

[2] "Læti bibamus sobriam Ebrietatem Spiritûs." St Ambrose(Splendor paternæ
Gloriæ).

[3]The verbπληροῦσθεis in the present tense, and thus gives the thought of
continuance.

[4]I do not hesitate to supply the definite article,"theSpirit" (so R.V. text).
So above,Ephesians 1:17,Ephesians 2:22. The context assuredly demands it, for we
need a word which shall be an antithesis to the "wine" of the previous clause.
It would be no antithesis if we rendered here (as R.V. margin), "be filled in
spirit," i.e. in the sphere or receptacle of your human spirits; without
specification ofthe thing which was to fill them.

[5]Ἑαυτοῖς: lit."to yourselves."See the noteon the same word and idiom,
above,Ephesians 4:32.

[6]It seems out of place too elaborately to analyse and classify. The Apostle
evidently means here to emphasize variety and comprehension, not to instruct as
to classes of composition.—Some details are given in the note here in
theCambridge Bible.

[7]Ψάλλοντες: properly, the word should refer to instrumental music. And so it
may; strings or pipe would often accompany the Christian hymn.


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  CHAPTER 16: CHAPTER 15. HOLY RESULTS OF HEAVENLY BLESSING: THE CHRISTIAN HOME; HUSBAND AND WIFE
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Chapter 15. Holy Results of Heavenly Blessing: The Christian Home; Husband and
Wife

Ephesians 5:22

"Master Joachim Mörlein has pleased me well today with his sermon, for he spoke
of the office and vocation of a wife, and of a maidservant—namely, that a wife
should think she lives in a Holy Order, and that a servant also may know that
her works are good and holy works." —Luther

SUBJECTING yourselves to one another." So the last paragraph has closed. Now
opens the theme which St Paul seems to have reserved lovingly for the last, in
this Epistle as in that to Colossæ: the theme of the Christian Home. That
sentence about mutual subjection is the fittest possible introduction to it. For
we shall see that the Apostle’s philosophy of the happiness and holiness of Home
is centred precisely here—in the mutual loyalty of its members, the recollection
by each of the others’ claims and of self’s sacred duties.

Here is a subject as pregnant and far-reaching as it is in itself beautiful—the
Christian Home. It is not too much to say that the perfecting of Home is the
masterpiece of the Gospel, in its work of social blessing. Nothing on earth is
so beautiful as a perfect home; and it takes the Name of Christ and the grace of
His Spirit to produce the full phenomenon. And then, where the home is really
perfect, it is beautiful with a beauty which must diffuse itself in good around.
For home is the school of mutual unselfishness and duty, where love is
continually learning its true work, namely, the finding its happiness in the
felicity of another. And such a school cannot but send its scholars forth, in
one way or another, to practise the blessed art outside the doors; carrying on
the campaign of love extended from that happy base. The home where the Lord
reigns is "a watered garden," fresh, fragrant, and in order. It is also "a
spring of water, whose waters fail not," making glad the region around it,[1]
which needs so sorely the gracious stream.

It is with the deepest reason then that the closing paragraphs of an Epistle
like this are devoted in so large a measure to domestic life. At the first
glance there is a surprise about it, a sort of anticlimax. The Epistle, as we
certainly do not need at this stage to prove, is concerned, in an almost unique
degree among the Epistles, first with the most transcendent aspects of
Redemption, as it is seen to be the eternal purpose of the Infinite Mind, and
then with its largest and most comprehensive sphere of realization, in a Church
which is "the fulness of Him who filleth all in all." The first three chapters
are exclusively devoted to such great aspects of the faith and of the life of
Christians. What shall be the climax of such a message? Shall it not be that
unfathomable future where "God shall be all in all"? Shall we not be directed
towards the light of eternal fulfilments, and in it see everything absorbed, as
it were, and blended into the one prospect of the final state, almost losing, in
the vision of the glory of the Throne, all distinct sight even of the multitude
that loves, worships, and serves around it? Instead of such sublime exaltations
of prospect, we have here as a fact just the persons and relations of a little
circle within the doors and walls of an Asian dwelling-place. Even the city
around it, Ephesus, Smyrna, Hierapolis, is left unmentioned, almost unthought
of. The home is for the moment everything; as much as if the whole earth had for
its population just one domestic group, and all human duty and all human hope
were lodged there, and there alone.

Yet this paradox is the truest issue of the glorious antecedent passages. For
this home circle is the genuine and abiding unit of human society. And the
Gospel, in all its depth and wonder, as well as in its simplicity and
tenderness, brings to man a salvation whose blessings can only be fully realized
in social human life. So the glorious rays of the eternal Purpose, and the
achieved Redemption, and the Sealing by the Spirit, and the Life of the Head in
the Body, are all focussed from above upon this one spot, that we may see them
in their fruits just where those fruits shall best be generated and developed,
for the delight of God and man. If we see the process in its lovely efficacy
there, we have the true pledge that it can yet be efficacious everywhere, in all
the true relations of human existence upon earth, in which man is training for
his final and endless life in "the Father’s House," which is also "the Holy
City." This aspect of the matter will be brought before us in a way as tender as
it is sublime, in the paragraph we are about to translate. The immediate subject
is the married state, man and wife in their Christian relation, in a human home
as unfigurative as possible; in Ephesus, in London. But so is the transcendent
truth of the Heavenly Wedlock woven into the whole texture of the passage that
the expositor turns to these sentences almost as much for his doctrine of the
relation of the Church to Christ as for his account of how husband should think
of wife and wife of husband in a mortal home. And why? Not by any accident or
arbitrary juxtaposition of subjects, but by a holy law of truth and thought. How
are those conjugal partners to think of one another in their home-life, day by
day? With all possible practicality of considerateness, with all cordial
devotion of human affection, with a recollected attention to one another which
will regulate their intercourse of word and conduct far more minutely than the
longest code of rules could do. Most true; but that is not the whole of the
matter. This attention, affection, watchful consideration, this mutual loyalty
and love, is to be perfectly human; but also, if it is as. it should be for
Christians, it is to be inspired by what is perfectly divine. The two persons
are genuine man and woman, in an entirely human home-life; no pagan pair can be
more so. But their entire humanity is entirely joined to the Lord their Head, in
that mighty union which His Body, the true Church, has with Him, and which every
member of it has with Him, and through Him with all the others. They are each,
and both, in Christ. They can never therefore think quite truly or fully of one
another apart from that wonderful position and condition. So the
illustration—backward and forward—of their married state by the Heavenly
Wedlock, and of the Heavenly Wedlock by their married state, is not an
accidental thing; it is of the essence of the facts. The life of holy matrimony,
and so the life of the home which is its outcome, is raised to its ideal, to its
truth, not only by general religious considerations but by the profound and
special relation to it of that very mystery of the Eternal Purpose of which the
earlier passages of the Epistle were so full, the relation of the glorified Lord
to the Company of His Saints.

Pregnant indeed is the passage, thus regarded. And never more than in our time
did its sacred lessons touch the very point. Home, that word so dear for long
generations to our English race, is still, God be praised, a mighty factor in
our modern life. But, like everything else established among men, it is
assailed, and from many sides, and not without visible dangers and losses. The
stress and also the manifold dissipations of life in our day, when
arti-conditions affect more and more what we do, are both alike unfavourable to
the full strength and life of the home. Too often parents are too hurried to be
parental, and even children are too hurried to be filial. Sometimes it is the
labour of actual toil, in handicraft or profession, sometimes the labour of
over-wrought school-competition, hardening and hurrying the young existence, to
its lasting loss; sometimes it is the toil and service of what is known as
pleasure. By one means or another innumerable homes are not what their
predecessors were; the world’s loud and open life has thrust the door ajar, and
stands inside it, before the time. What is the best antidote, the true succour,
for the true preservation or restoration of this inestimable thing, God’s own
primeval gift, man’s Home? It is the recollection and use of the glorious
Christian principle of its life. It is the old, eternal story of the Lord Jesus
Christ’s relation to home. We Christian parents must solemnly remember again
before God that our union is the holy counterpart to the Heavenly Wedlock, which
is to govern its action and experience every day. Then we shall be the better
able, by word and very far more by life, life lived in the keen sight of our
sons and daughters, and of our domestic helpers, to hold home in a true unity
together, till it is diffused to reproduce itself in other homes, knit together
by the same invisible but mighty bond. But now, let us come to the Apostle’s
wonderful message. We have talked over it; it waits to speak for itself. St
Paul’s last precious sentence has uttered the far-reaching precept of mutual
"subjection"; the natural attitude of will to will where both have been taken in
hand by the grace which dethrones self-will to install the Lord. So the words go
on to the conjugal case at once.[2] The wife is the first addressed, as the
party of the two who, in the order of nature, appears as rather follower than
leader. But be it observed that the appeal to her, quite as much as to her
husband, is based only on the noblest spiritual truths, presented for the
open-eyed and free acceptance of her spiritual nature. The very precept lifts
her into the altitude of the highest freedom; for it comes to her as one who has
to be approached with no less an argument than the transcendent truth of the
eternal Matrimony. She is called to an allegiance to her partner which is
nothing if not free, with the freedom of regenerate reason. She is asked to
recognize spiritual facts and to assent to them as a spiritual being, fully in
Christ.

Ephesians 5:22. Ye wives, to your own husbands[3]subject yourselves, with a
"subjection" specialized, so to speak, from that which Christian always owes to
Christian (ver. 21); as to the Lord, who is, in some special respects,

Ephesians 5:23. represented to you by them.[4]Because the husband is head of the
wife, as our (ὁ) Christ too is Head of the Church,[5] with a Headship which is
rooted in a living Union, where the two are one, while the One is Leader, with a
leadership infinitely remote from all that is harsh, tyrannous, or alien from
the noble intercourse of highest sympathies. Such, and only such, is to be
"subjection" and "headship" in your conjugal Christian life; its one true norma
is to be seen in that glorious Union, which you both share, with Him who is, for
all His own in their blessed conjunction, "Head" indeed; Himself being Saviour
of the Body,[6] with a Saviourship (of rescue and of safeguard) which has
vitally to do with Leadership; to save, He must be trusted, with the obedience
of

Ephesians 5:24. our faith.[7]But, leaving that thought for the moment, as the
Church subjects herself to her (τῷ) Christ, with an allegiance which is at once
and absolutely the act of inmost love and highest reason, so, with full
reservation of the aspects in which the Lord’s Leadership infinitely, of course,
transcends that of the mortal husband, yet truly "so," within that limit, do you
wives subject yourselves to your husbands in everything.[8]

Now the appeal turns to husbands; and to them too it is still, in its essence,
this—"subject yourselves," in the sense of an entire and self-sacrificing
devotion. Note well that not one syllable is said to them about their rights; no
hint is here of "insisting upon the marital position"; assuredly no sanction of
any "right divine to govern wrong." The whole thought is directed upon the
husband’s sacred and cogent duty, in his high relation, to live "not unto
himself." No denunciation of domestic tyranny (the curse of many a home where
nominally the Lord is acknowledged) could possibly speak so absolute a
condemnation as this appeal does over the morose, selfish, self-indulgent,
capricious, arbitrary, "masterful" man, who has presumed to ask for a woman’s
love and life, and then sinks to the depth of being, in any sense or measure
whatsoever, her oppressor. He is called to be her self-forgetting servant; doing
her the service of "saving," preserving, protecting, love, in the noblest of all
possible fellowships of life.

Ephesians 5:25. Ye husbands, love your wives, with a love warm always with the
first summer of its pure human gladness, but kept high and true meantime by an
ideal great as heaven, just as our (ὁ) Christ too did love the Church, and, such
was that supreme affection, did give Himself over on her behalf, "over" to His
unutterable Passion, that she

Ephesians 5:26. might live; yea, that her, emphatically her, going as it were
out of His sacred Self to her great need, He might[9]hallow, dedicate to union
with Himself, cleansing her by the bath of the water, in, attended and
conditioned by, an utterance, the utterance of that Covenant Name of her
salvation which alone gives significance to the "bath" which seals her
blessing.[10] And this the celestial Bridegroom did with a love not only
self-sacrificing but such as to reach, in its mighty scope and permanence, into
the eternal state; that He

Ephesians 5:27. might Himself[11]to Himself present the Church arrayed in glory,
at the Marriage Feast of heaven; He both bringing her and welcoming her there,
bringing her as her one blessed Rescuer and Preserver, saved wholly by Him from
guilt and from sin for ever, and welcoming her as her eternally faithful Spouse,
"rejoicing over her" ( Isaiah 62:5), as[12]not having spot of wrong, or wrinkle
of decay, or aught of things like these, in that pure eternity, but that she
might he holy and unblemished, completely hallowed to His will, finally like Him
in His spiritual beauty—glorious issue of the supreme Conjugal Fidelity of the
Husband of His redeemed.

Now from the heavens to the earth, but with no moment’s break of continuity, for
the whole thought moves "in Christ."

Ephesians 5:28. So, with a love akin to this, and inspired by nothing less, the
husbands are hound to love their own wives, just as their own bodies, (which
indeed, in a mysterious sense, they are;) "so," for thus Christ has loved the
Church, as at once His Body and His Bride. So devoted, with such sacrifice of
self for the beloved Object, with such an intimacy of sacred union, with such an
indissoluble fidelity—this is the type and kind of the Christian husband’s love.
He who loves his own wife loves his own self, in the fair ideal of their union,
which in Christ can be the real. So are they "sanctified and joined together,"
spirit, soul, and body, that the affection resulting is to be of the order of
sinless, natural, self-love; not the self-love which sins against others by
vanity, or pride, or greed, but the self-love which, by a profound law of being,
recognizes the personality as the living centre from which it looks on all
things, and shrinks with a true and necessary horror from its pollution or

Ephesians 5:29. destruction. For no one ever, under normal and natural
conditions, hated his own flesh[13]; no (ἀλλά), he nourishes it, developes its
good condition, and comforts it, studies its well-being, its healthful comfort;
just as our (ὁ) Christ[14] nourishes and comforts the Church.

Ephesians 5:30. For remember that He has joined us to Himself in a union which
makes it—may we dare to speak the word?—His sacred instinct to deal thus
tenderly and faithfully with "the blessed Company"; limbs are we, nothing less
or more distant than limbs, of His Body, as it were developed out of His flesh,
and out of His bones[15]; produced, in our new life, out of the fact of His
Incarnation. Remember the words of the primeval Scripture ( Genesis 2:24) in
which is shadowed forth, under the holy principle of human wedlock, that yet
greater thing, the Lord’s coming forth from the eternal Home

Ephesians 5:31. to seek His mystical Bride: On this account, in order to realize
the high idea of conjugal union, man shall forsake father and mother, and shall
cleave to his (τῇ)

Ephesians 5:32. wife,[16]and the two shall come to be one flesh. This mystery,
this holy secret, revealed only by God’s Word,[17]is great; its terms lead us
soon beyond our full comprehension; but do not wonder; for I, emphatically I, as
distinguished from any reader who may mistake me,[18]am speaking with reference
to Christ, and to the Church. The immediate theme is the holy marriage of man
with woman; but this stands related to an Archetype which "hath not entered into
man’s heart to conceive," the Bridal of the Lord and His People; at once
sublimely transcending and unspeakably hallowing the thing of which it is the
Archetype. And now, to return again earthward, while still "in Christ":

Ephesians 5:33. Only, leaving the sacred premisses in order to act upon them in
the practical logic of a true married life, do you too, in humble imitation of
your Lord, all and several (οἱκαθ’ἕνα), each love his own wife just as his own
self; while the wife—let her see that she reverences[19]the husband.

[1]SeeJeremiah 31:12.

[2]And so directly that it is at least likely that we should omit, in the Greek,
the verbὑποτάσσεσθεinEphesians 5:22. It has to be supplied mentally,from
theὑποτασσόμενοιof ver. 21.The R.V. accordingly prints "be in subjection"
(Ephesians 5:22)in italics.

[3]The assumption evidently is that the Christian law
is,onehusband,onewife:τοῖςἰδίοιςcarries this on its face.

[4]"She sees [in the attitude of wifely submission] a special reflection, as it
were, of her relations to the Lord Himself. Her attitude has a special sanction
thus from Him." (Note in theCambridge Bible.) [5]Seeof courseEphesians
1:22above.

[6]Read,αὐτὸς σωτήρ, notκαὶαὐτόςἐστι σωτήρ.

[7]I incline to think that there is a sidelong intimation here that the husband
is likewise to be the wife’s (temporal) "saviour," to the best of his power,
from life’s ills, and so similarly must, in some sense, in order to this, have
her loyal and free allegiance. My note in theCambridge Bibletakes another line.
The question is so far from easy that I speak still with uncertainty.

[8]Here again, as in ver. 22, the verb has to be mentally supplied in the
clauseαἱγυναῖκες, κ.τ.λ.. It may be supplied (from theὑποτάσσεταιjust before)
either in the second or third person. I prefer, on the analogy of ver. 22, to
assume it to beὑποτάσσεσθεrather thanὑποτασσέσθωσαν.—"In everything—":"This
great rule will always, of course, beover-ruled by supreme allegiance to Christ;
but its spirit will never be violated in the Christian home." (Note in
theCambridge Bible.) [9]Lit. "that He may." The Greek idiompresentiatesthe past,
in the thought which is recorded.

[10]Some points in this important verse call for remark in detail. (a)ἵνα
αὐτὴνἁγιάσῃκαθαρίσας: verb and participle are both aorist, and Greek usage
favours our attaching them both to one time or crisis. The "hallowing" and the
"cleansing" are in thought contemporaneous; we may express it by saying that the
"cleansing" of the divine pardon and acceptance isipso factothe "hallowing," the
dedication to God, of the accepted ones, and here of the accepted Church, their
ideal Unity, (b)τὸλουτρὸν τοῦ ὕδατος: "the bath, (or bathing,) of the water."
Baptism is assuredly referred to. The great question remains, what is the
relation of the rite to the blessing in question, which is, here, the spiritual
"cleansing" of the Church—a cleansing, primarily, from the guilt of sin,
remission (1 John 1:7;Hebrews 9:14); the avenue to all covenant blessings. In
the broad light of scriptural teaching in general, we venture to affirm with
confidence that the relation is rather that of seal to promise than that of pipe
or conduit to fluid. It is a natural turn of language to speak, under such a
view, of the rite as if it actually effected the reception of the blessing,
while in fact it (divinely) seals (cp.Romans 4:11on circumcision) the certainty
of its reception by faith direct from the Heavenly Giver. See further, the note
here in theCambridge Bible, (c)ἐνῥήματι: "in an utterance," a word meaning
something more isolated, so to speak, thanλόγος: a declaration or proclamationad
illam rem. The bath is"in"this, i.e., by a familiar Hebraism (see e.g.ἐν
σάλπιγγι,1 Thessalonians 4:16), it is attended, conditioned, by it. Are we not
right in referring here to the great baptismal Commission,Matthew 28:19, where
the rite is to be done "into the Name of" the Triune God of Salvation? The
confession of that "Name," in its glorious saving significance, the proclamation
of its treasures of grace to the believing, is that which makes the "bath" what
it is, not a mere action but a divine embodied warrant of blessing to faith.

[11]Readαὐτός, notαὐτήν.

[12]Μὴ ἔχουσαν: notοὐκ. The negativeμήgives not only the fact, but the fact as a
condition.

[13]It seems almost needless to point out that such a statement allows for (a)
abnormal states of mind, insanity or frenzy; (b) abnormal circumstances in which
(as in the case of martyrs) a man may be called to "hate" his life (Luke 14:26),
in the obvious sense of actingas if he wasits enemy, giving it up to pain and
death. The Apostle states a great law of nature in its broadest aspect.

[14]ReadΧριστός, notΚύριος.

[15]"Three important MSS. (A, B,ℵ), supported by other but not considerable
authority, omit these words, [’out of His flesh, etc.’]. It has been suggested
that they were inserted by transcribers fromGenesis 2:23, as the next verse
certainly is quoted fromGenesis 2:24. But the phrase here is not verbally close
enough to that inGenesis 2:23to make this likely.A transcriberwould probably
have given word for word; while the Apostle would as probably quote with a
difference.... And the difference is significant. ’We’ are not said here to be
’bone of His bone,’ which might... imply that our physical frame is derived from
that of the Incarnate Lord, but, more generally, ’limbs of His body,out of His
flesh,etc’ Our true spiritual life and being is the derivative of... the Second
Adam in a sense so strong and real as to be figured by the spiritual derivation
of Eve from Adam.... ’ We,’ the believing Church, as such, are, as in the case
of Eve and Adam, at once the product of our Incarnate Lord’s existence as Second
Adam, and His Bride." (Note in theCambridge Bible.)

[16]Read,καταλ. ἄνθρωποςπατέρακαὶμητέρα,καὶπροσκ.τῇγυναικί

[17]This is, in brief, whatμυστήριονalways means in N.T. The Vulgate here
hassacramentum(as inEphesians 1:9,Ephesians 3:9). See note in theCambridge
Bible.—Cp. further here Grimm’sN.T. Lexicon(Thayer) under the wordμυστήριον.

[18]Or perhaps, as distinguished from Moses, in the primary reference ofGenesis
2:24.

[19]Φοβῆταιlit. "fears." But the A.V. "reverence" seems best to express the
thoughtin this context.


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  CHAPTER 17: CHAPTER 16. HOLY RESULTS OF HEAVENLY BLESSING: THE CHRISTIAN HOME: PARENT AND CHILD, MASTER AN...
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Chapter 16. Holy Results of Heavenly Blessing: The Christian Home: Parent and
Child, Master and Servant

Ephesians 6:1-9 "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

— Joshua 24:15 "A servant with this clause Makes drudgery divine; Who sweeps a
room, as for Thy laws, Makes that and th’ action fine."

—Herbert THE Christian Husband and the Christian Wife stand now before us; two
noble portraits, making one. We contemplate them again, one in their absolute
mutual loyalty and love, one, in a sense as deep and sacred as it is warm with
affections created by Him who is Love itself, holy and everlasting. We see them
"devoted" to each other, each in the respective conjugal position. We see that
heart "devotion" at once chastened, deepened, and profoundly secured by the
thought all around it of the duties in whose line it moves and glows; a thought
to which every true heart that knows the interior life of Christian wedlock will
respond with joy. Above all, we see them walking along their one path, "one soul
in two bodies," as those who see upon that path, at every step, in all its
relations, its duties, its sorrows and its joys, a glory shed from the "great
mystery" of the Heavenly Wedlock which has joined them each to the Eternal
Bridegroom. Yes, upon their common domestic duties, the affairs of the household
in its. most prosaic aspect, a radiance falls, elevating, purifying, gladdening,
hallowing, from very far aloft, even from where there shines "A light upon the
shining sea, The Bridegroom with His Bride."

It is good for the soul to gaze upon this portrait; it is good for the whole
human heart. For it all illustrates the power of the spiritual Gospel to act
with full benignant force upon the social life of man. It has sometimes been
thrown as a reproach upon the advocates or ambassadors of that Gospel that they
have occupied themselves too much with the message of personal salvation and too
little, or not at all, with the salvation (so to speak) of society. Let them not
be afraid of that reproach if it only means that they have firmly refused to
forget that their first and vital message is to the fallen and sinful soul of
man; "Be reconciled to God." They do well to resolve never to let this be
exchanged for any programmes and enterprises of social reform and amendment
which at all ignore man’s sin and scarcely contemplate his immortality as a
practical prospect in the matter. But let them take good heed to the criticism
if it means that they have not diligently drawn social inferences out of
personal salvation, perpetually reminding those who have believed that they are
"saved to serve," and that out of that fact flows a whole life of social
usefulness as the Redeemer’s will for His redeemed. Let them resolve, if need
be, that if they have neglected this vast side of their work they will do so no
more. And, if they would go the right way to work, let them, in a sense most
particular and definite, "begin at Home." Make the Christian feel that the
inmost and most heavenly truths of his wonderful personal salvation bear direct
and full upon his life at home, upon his married character and conduct, and you
will have taken a long step towards the leavening of all social relations, so
far as that individual can in the least touch them, with the power of Christ. As
we pass on, let us note in this portrait of a Christian married pair what may
escape our notice as a distinctive trait. I mean, the simple injunction to the
man to love his wife. Few of us, perhaps, realize how remote—at least how
separable—from the pagan idea of marriage was the idea of love. There would be
love of brother and sister, of parent and child; there would be the passion of
lovers, alas how often quite apart from the restraints of the law of virtue. But
marriage was essentially a matter of arrangement, contract, convention. It was a
necessity of human society. It was the required antecedent to the succession of
generations and the devolution of property. But it was not at all understood to
involve love, before its consummation, or after, as a thing essential. In Hebrew
life it is far otherwise; who does not remember Jacob and Rachel? And who has
not observed that the teaching of the Old Testament leads directly up to the
truth of the Heavenly Wedlock of Christ and His Church, by the long stream of
appeal and prophecy about the Marriage of the Lord and His Israel, full of the
thought of an eternal conjugal affection? But it needed the consummated
revelation, the full truth, as it shines out in this Epistle, to bring home to a
universal Christendom not only the mystical truth of the supreme Bridal, but
also the hallowed and hallowing affections and tender duties of the married life
of man and woman, here and now. But the Apostle has much yet to say about home.
Necessarily, he has spoken first of its heads and leaders, because the whole
tone of the circle, children and household, must so vitally depend upon what
they are, each in his and her personal life, and both together in their life
mutual and one. Nothing but a miracle of abnormal grace can make the
home-company happy and holy when the Parents are not towards one another living
the full Christian life. So not till that has been depicted does he say one word
about children, or about servants. To them now it is time to come.

Ephesians 6:1. You children, obey, with the listening ear[1] of unhesitating
attention, your Parents, mother as well as father, in the Lord; obeying thus,
with a motive far above that of dread of penalty, or anything which severity can
produce; it must be nothing less than the remembrance that you and your parents
are alike "in the Lord," in covenant union with Christ, limbs of His Body, and
so bound by supernatural relations to the willing, spiritual, acceptance of all
true natural relations. Act thus, as the deep, steadfast, living law of conduct;
for this is righteous. It is not beautiful only, or befitting; it is in the line
of the holy Will and Law of God, alike in Nature and in Revelation. So speaks
that Law, in its twelve-fold Edict of primary human duty.

Ephesians 6:2. ( Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16): Honour thy father and thy
mother, with an "honour" not of emotion only but of practical allegiance; a
commandment such that it is (ἥτιςἐστί) the first of the Ten attended by (ἐν) a
promise, that

Ephesians 6:3. promise which thus runs, That it may prove well for thee; and
thou shalt, thus behaving, be long-lived upon the earth; reaping, in the normal
course of God’s benignant providence, human peace and permanence from loyalty to
His first law of human order. For the promise, made to the national Israel in
special reference to their "promised Land," was but a limited instance of a
universal and perpetual principle, having its bearing not only upon Hebrew
family life, or even upon only Christians, but upon mankind.[2] So St Paul lays
his command, or rather his Lord’s, upon the younger members of the Christian
Home. It seems superfluous to say much upon the weight and point of his words
for our own time. "Disobedience to parents" is repeatedly named in the Bible as
a symptom of formidable evil in human life, as in Romans 1:30, and 2 Timothy
3:2, where it stands as one of a black catalogue of developed evils. Is it too
much to say of this, amongst other phenomena around us, that the Apostles,
"noting down The features of the last degenerate times, Exhibit every lineament
of these "?[3] Is it not too true that in this respect, far and wide in our
modern England, the mournful words are more fully verified than ever, "Fireside,
the heroic wealth of hall and bower, Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness "?[4]

Let no exaggerated word be said about it. There are still among us countless
homes where sons and daughters not merely are "fond of" their parents, but
inwardly reverence them, and actively "obey" their precepts, and also their
example; homes whose children go out in due time to serve God in their own
generation, and their elder friends say of them with joy that they are "treading
in their fathers’ steps." And further, it would be unwisdom indeed to demand
that home "obedience" should be a thing which should forbid and exclude the
least development or modification of word or habit by which a younger generation
can vary upon its predecessor. Never since human life began has such a
mechanical repetition been quite possible, as it has never been desirable;
certainly not since Christian human life began, with its inner principles of
freedom and growth under divine law. But when all due recollections and
allowances are made, it remains true that this command of filial obedience, the
honouring loyalty of sons and daughters towards their parents as such, is at a
very low ebb not only in the world at large but in what is called the Christian
world as a whole. "Development" and "modification" of word and habit too often
mean now a restive or a reckless indifference to the first elements of common
attention and modest bearing towards God’s appointed leaders of young life.
Affection itself too often takes the form rather of a premature and crude
familiarity, as different as possible from the loving, cordial, but yet
"honouring," freedom with which the child is meant to have "access with
confidence" to the parent’s heart. The son or daughter, forgetting all that is
tender and all that is noble in the filial state, is at once "as free "—as "free
and easy"—in manner with father or mother as if the parent were a junior and
less experienced acquaintance, and as strange to the parent’s real heart as if
they had scarcely yet been introduced to one another.

I do not think that I am overstating the facts of many, very many cases, to be
observed and lamented in even Christian family life today. How much we need then
the Apostle’s firm, tender, deep-toned precept, which is but the echo of his
blessed Master’s,[15] and which lays down a rule glorified, beatified, by the
"subjection" of the Son of Mary in the home of Nazareth. When that Example is
out of date, and not till then, shall we have outgrown the Law of Moses and of
the Lamb, "Honour thy father and thy mother." He who set that Example through
long years of home-duty knew that it was for the very life of human
righteousness and happiness.

One further remark is suggested by the wording of this passage. The children of
the Christian home are to "obey" "in the Lord." So it is assumed that they are,
of course, "in the Lord.’ Here I observe that this cannot mean, if the teaching
of the New Testament as a whole is remembered, that every child of such a home
would be, as a fact, necessarily, in that spiritual and inward union with Christ
which only personal holiness can evidence to others. But it does on the other
hand remind us that there is a covenant connexion with the Lord which is to be
taken as a fact in the case of every child of such a home, and to be made
without reserve the ground of spiritual appeals, without waiting for evidence of
heart-conversion to God. To me, this consideration has a plain bearing on the
right of all children of the Church to the Baptism of the Covenant. But on this
I do not dwell here.[6] I refer to the matter only to emphasize the Tightness of
such appeals on Christian principle to our children as children of Christians;
so that it be done with Christian common sense. But the Apostle has an
all-important word for us parents in this matter.

Ephesians 6:4. And you fathers, fathers as the responsible leaders in home
authority, though let not the mother’s inestimable rights and influence be
forgotten,[7]do not irritate your children, by an exercise of your authority
void, for one hour, of sympathy and of love, forgetful of the fact that you were
children once, and should carry the child’s heart in you for ever. Never claim a
right for yourself where you are not manifestly mindful of the sacred right of
your son, your daughter, to your own unselfish affection. Your authority is not
for your gratification, but for their good, entrusted for a season to your
guardian hands. No, bring them up, "educate" them, "lead them out" and on, in
the development of good into better, in the Lord’s discipline and admonition;
using restraint, and using warning, but not what your own caprice dictates; it
must all be "the Lord’s," learnt by you first in His school, and animated with
His love. A brief but priceless word for the parent’s heart. It lays a fresh
stress upon his responsibility, reminding him that he must do his duty in the
guidance and the forewarning of his child; but that the spirit of self must be
banished from the work if it is to be done indeed.[8] The Lord must take its
place. But the home may contain other members, besides father, mother, son, and
daughter. There will be the servants; what about them, and the mutual relation
raised by their existence? Are they mere accidents of the life, "employes"
machines for saving trouble, sometimes at the cost of giving a great deal of
trouble on the other side, beings whose function is to do as much as they must,
and who might preferably be automata if that could be? This is a conception of
the matter absolutely non-Christian. In the principle of the Gospel,
"neighbourhood," whatever be its place, involves "love," whatever be its proper
exercise. The servant is very much a neighbour, above all when the service, as
here, is domestic. The servant therefore is placed by the Gospel within the
love-relations of the Christian home.

I need scarcely remind my reader that the "servant" here in immediate view is
the δοῦλος, the bondservant, the slave. The Gospel found slavery in the world;
and in many regions, particularly the Roman and the Greek, it was a very bad
form of slavery. The Gospel began at once to undermine it, with its mighty
principles of the equality of all souls in the mystery and dignity of manhood,
and of the equal work of redeeming love wrought for all souls by the supreme
Master. But its plan was—not to batter, but to undermine. It absolutely declined
to patronize, still less to stimulate, political or social revolution[9]; its
majestic method is that of social reform, generated from within man, by bringing
him near to God in all his conditions and relations. So while the Gospel in one
respect left slavery alone, it doomed it in another; and one of the fairest
fruits of primeval Christianity, in the eyes of observers from outside,[10] was
the brotherhood manifestly established between Christian masters and their
slaves. That the present passage speaks distinctively of the slave, the bought,
or born, or inherited, human "chattel," must not be forgotten. But it seems
clear that not only is there a possible application and accommodation of the
principles and precepts to the case of voluntary and contracting service, but
that the application to such service is a fortiori. The servant, absolutely free
to contract or not, has chosen to contract, and so far forth has accepted
binding obligations; such obligations are at least as sacred to the Christian
conscience as those due to a despotic necessity. The master on his side has
contracted, under conditions which bring him, of his own will, at least as truly
as if he were the buyer of the person who is to serve him, into "neighbourhood"
with the servant. All then that is said here of fidelity and deference on the
one side and considerateness on the other holds absolutely true, and with added
force, when we pass in thought from slavery to free service.

Ephesians 6:5. Ye bondservants, who have found both liberty and Lord in Christ,
obey your flesh-ward lords, those who own you in all that is not of the Spirit
in your lives with fear and tremor, the deep, sacred anxiety of the will to
fulfil duty in every relation before God, in your heart’s simplicity, the
unaffected desire to do right for its own sake, or rather the Lord’s; as to our
(τῷ) Christ; not in the

Ephesians 6:6. spirit of (κατά) eye-slavery, working only when watched, as
man-pleasers, with no higher aim than to "curry" a fellow-creature’s favour for
your own ends, but as Christ’s bondservants, His to own, to use, and to bless;
doing the will of our (τοῦ) God, as it is expressed in each "next thing" of the
daily duty which that thought sanctifies, from the soul, where the spring of
holy, energetic goodwill to your neighbour, (that is, now, to your master,)
rises and flows always; yes, with goodwill

Ephesians 6:7. doing bondservice, which thus becomes free service, as to the
Lord,your Lord and true Master, and not to men, who are never now the ultimate
objects of your obedience. Do this with a great hope to animate you, a power
undreamt of in your life till you found

Ephesians 6:8. Christ; knowing, as a sure fact revealed, that each one, whatever
good thing he may do, shall get that thing from the Lord, in the sense of
getting the supreme reward which sovereign Love gives to serving love, in its
"Well done, good and faithful; enter into the joy of thy Lord." Yes, this shall
be the blissful lot of each disciple, so serving Him, whether bondservant or
freeman.

Ephesians 6:9. And you lords, owners, holders, employers, remember your duties
before you think of your rights; act upon your obligations to your servants,
remembering their perfect spiritual equality with you; do the same things
towards them, consult their good as you expect them to consult yours; dropping
the threatening too lightly used, the harsh opposite to the brotherhood Christ
has taught you; knowing, with the certainty of revelation, that the Lord of them
and of you alike[11]is in heaven, presiding and observant, and respect of
persons, the partiality which yields one iota of justice to place or power, does
not exist (οὐκἔστι) with Him. So the Gospel leaves its message of absolutely
equal obligation, in Jesus Christ, upon the slave and upon the slave-owner. The
principle will do its work. There is no word of Revolution. There will therefore
be no Reign of Terror. But silently and permanently will emerge a Liberty
Fraternity Egalité, which has its deep secret in mutual human dutifulness rooted
in the Truth of Christ.

[1]Ὑπακούετε: notὑποτάσσεσθε, as above (Ephesians 5:22). So again,Ephesians 6:5,
where the servant also is biddenὑπακούειν. We gather that both child and servant
are to yield an obedience different in some respects from that of the wife; in
her case equality and union give another quality to the "obedience."

[2]It has been remarked that nowhere is family loyalty more universally
honoured, at least in theory, than in China; that "long-lived" Empire, which
seems to tend always to persist and survive, even under such shocks as the last
few years have brought it.

[3]Cowper, in the lofty closing passages ofThe Winter Walk at Noon.

[4]Wordsworth, SonnetTo Milton(written 1802).

[5]See theCorbanpassage,Mark 7:10-13.

[6]I may refer to a brief treatment of the subject inEnglish Church
Teaching(p.109).

[7]Πατέρεςis used ofboth parents(of Moses),Hebrews 11:23.

[8]I seize the opportunity to refer to an admirable chapter in Dr A.
Whyte’sBunyan Characters,in which the fine passage inPilgrim’s Progresswhere
Charity questions Christian about his dealings with his family is developed with
great depth and force. For parents who would fain do their whole duty to their
sons and daughters the suggestions are invaluable.

[9]See Lightfoot’sIntroductionto the Epistle to Philemon (and I may refer to my
own, in theCambridge Bible,and inColossian Studies).See also a masterly tractate
by Mr Goldwin Smith (1863),Does the Bible sanction American Slavery?

"The great Gospel doctrine of the believer’s "slavery" to his Master, Christ,...
would inevitably tend to a peculiar mutualrapprochementbetween Christian masters
and slaves,... and would do infinitely more for the abolition of slavery than
any ’servile war.’... With impartial hands it... sanctifies subordination to
constitutional authority... and meanwhile ennobles the individual, in respect of
all that is highest in the word liberty, by putting him into direct... relations
with God." (Note in theCambridge Bible.) [10]See theApology of Aristides,about
a.d. 130.

[11]Read,αὐτῶν καὶ ὑμῶν.


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  CHAPTER 18: CHAPTER 17. THE CHRISTIAN HOME; CONCLUSION THE SPIRITUAL CONFLICT
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Chapter 17. The Christian Home; Conclusion the Spiritual Conflict Ephesians
6:10-20 "Principalities and powers, Mustering their unseen array, Wait for thy
unguarded hours;

Watch and pray!"

—Miss C. Elliott

WE have now seen the interior of Christian home-life, as it was lived in the
first century, and as it is lived (with differences, in regard of the last of
its relations, due only to its own pure principles working themselves out) in
the nineteenth. Such homes, such households, God be thanked, are scattered over
our own dear Land in numberless points of brightness, radiating good around
them. They are to be found in every Gospel-lighted region of Europe, in the
Western World, in the young countries of the Southern Ocean. They begin to mark
with spots of beauty the darkness of the non-Christian peoples; there is many a
home now, true to the Ephesian model, in the cities and villages of China, in
all the provinces of India, by the rivers and the lakes of what was lately
unknown Africa, and in the islets of the Pacific. And every one of them is a
precious contribution to the true evangelization of the world, and also, all the
while, to its true temporal happiness and order.

"Home, sweet Home!" It is the "garden enclosed" of the Gospel; its nursery, from
which blessing is planted out, even into the utmost wilderness of mankind.

I cannot forbear here the quotation of a poem, well known in Germany, where the
true Home is set before us in lines which are a fit sequel to the Apostle’s
precepts. It is Spitta’s hymn, "The Christian Household."[1] "Oh, happy house!
where Thou art lov’d the best, Dear Friend and Saviour of our race, Where never
comes such welcom’d, honour’d Guest, Where none can ever fill Thy place; Where
every heart goes forth to meet Thee, Where every ear attends Thy word, Where
every lip with blessing greets Thee, Where all are waiting on their Lord.

"Oh, happy house! where two are one in heart, In holy faith and hope are one,
Whom death can only for a little part, Not end the union here begun; Who share
together one salvation, Who would be with Thee, Lord, always, In gladness, or in
tribulation, In happy or in evil days.

"Oh, happy house! where little ones are given Early to Thee, in faith and
prayer,— To Thee, their Friend, who from the heights of heaven Guard’st them
with more than mother’s care.

Oh, happy house! where little voices Their glad hosannas love to raise, And
childhood’s lisping tongue rejoices To bring new songs of love and praise.

"Oh, happy house! and happy servitude! Where all alike one Master own; Where
daily duty, in Thy strength pursued, Is never hard nor toilsome known; Where
each one serves Thee, meek and lowly, Whatever Thine appointment be, Till common
tasks seem great and holy, When they are done as unto Thee.

"Oh, happy house! where Thou are not forgot When joy is flowing full and free;

Oh, happy house! where every wound is brought, Physician, Comforter, to Thee;

Until, at last, earth’s day’s-work ended, All meet Thee in that home above, From
whence Thou earnest, where Thou art ascended, The heaven of glory and of love!"
From this beautiful scene the Apostle leads us now direct to a field of battle,
overhung with clouds. "Arms and the man he sings"; and the man urgently needs
both the arms, and the skill and strength to wield them. For he is beset by the
hosts of evil, under their dreadful king. It will be all he can do to hold his
ground, in unshaken fidelity to his divine Commander.

We approach thus the memorable paragraph which deals in the first place,
explicitly and fully, with the fact of organized assaults on the Christian
company by unseen personal adversaries, banded together, and trying every avenue
of temptation; and then with the parts and details of a panoply which is to
enable the beleaguered saints to meet them, and to overcome. Taken in itself,
the passage is one of extreme interest and significance. But we first ask
ourselves why, being what it is, does it occur just here? Why so immediately
pass from the tranquil duties of home to the very thick of the struggle with
assailing spirits? The answer is, in part, if I am right, that a marked pause of
thought takes place at the close of the previous paragraph. The Apostle is
conscious of the close of his message, and draws his whole mind, as it
approaches, to a closing topic which will leave his readers intensely alive to
the solemn urgency of their position. He has been telling them, from the
beginning onward, of the secrets of eternal grace and love, of the wonder of
their salvation from spiritual death, of their peace and life through faith, of
their sealing by the Blessed Spirit, of their union with Christ their Head, of
His blissful indwelling in their hearts, and then of the resultant life of
humility, purity, love, truth, and every gracious duty of social holiness. In
closing, they must not forget that this beautiful life is all the while to be
lived upon hostile ground. It is the life of a camp in the enemy’s territory, to
be held till the supreme Commander advances to the eternal relief and triumph.
Within, all is to be mutual loyalty and love, a scene of noble order and
fellowship. But the ramparts are not for one moment to be left unwatched, nor is
the saint ever for a moment to live and move unarmed. So this last passage
gathers up the whole previous matter of the Epistle in the sense of an urgent
reminder of the infinitely serious conditions under which the bright secrets of
grace are to be lived out. The Christian is not only a servant but a soldier; he
belongs not only to a home but to a citadel. And to recollect the formidable
surroundings is of course vitally necessary if the life lived amidst them is not
to be swept away in ruin.

Meanwhile this new paragraph, though separated by a solemn pause from the
description of the Christian Home, is not by any means isolated from it, as if
there were no fitness in the succession. For does not common experience bear out
the remark that the evil powers often win their worst advantages against us
Christians on the quiet and common ground of life? Where we are least upon our
guard they are most upon their watch. It is above all for "our unguarded hours"
that they are "waiting." And it is often exactly in the unanxious freedom of
home that spiritual unguardedness comes on, and developes into habit. Just at
home, alas, it is only too easy for the Christian to be inconsiderate in deed
and word, to be quick or sullen in temper, to indulge self in small but
dangerous ways, while yet a tolerable face of consistency is maintained in more
public and exterior matters. So not for nothing does St Paul speak last of life
at home just before passing to this great paragraph about the armed watchman of
the Lord.

Ephesians 6:10. In conclusion,[2]strengthen yourselves always[3]in the Lord,
your one possible Sphere and Magazine of inexhaustible resource, to be drawn
upon by obedient trust, and in the energy of His might, sure so to be put forth
on your behalf; a "strength made perfect in the weakness" ( 2 Corinthians 12:9)
which gives it. room by

Ephesians 6:11. its reliance. Clothe yourselves with the panoply, the armour
cap-à-pieof our (τοῦ) God; personally accepting and appropriating the defence
which is already yours in Him[4]; with a view to your being able, as you thus
shall be, aye, even you, to stand against the stratagems, the subtle "methods"
(μεθοδείας), the calculated crafts and combinations, of the devil, the diabolos,
the dread "Accuser" of the followers of his great Adversary, Christ,[5] always
lying in wait for their unreadiness and failure.

Ephesians 6:12. Because our wrestling, the hand-and-limb encounter of our
Christian life, is not against flesh and blood,[6] that is, against merely human
opponents; no, for even when we have to meet hostility or actual cruelty from
men, there are deeper and darker powers behind them[7];but against the
principalities,[8]against the authorities, against the world-rulers of this
darkness,[9] beings permitted a mysterious empire over the human "world" in its
"darkness" of ignorance and sin[10]; against the spiritual hosts of wickedness
in the heavenly places; the powers which carry on their dark campaign in the
vast unseen, as it were the "birds of the sky" ( Matthew 6:28), hovering over
the landscape of humanity.[11]

Such are the beleaguering forces, represented in their chiefs, which surround
the children of God; at Ephesus then, in our modern life today. Who shall solve
the riddle of their existence, and of its permission? Is it not a deeper thing
than created intelligence can deal with? But are we not surrounded, in nature as
well as in the spiritual world, with problems innumerable "going off into
mystery"[12] where no thought can really follow, but which nevertheless are
problems raised by fads? Our wisdom is to grasp the facts, and to meet them
along lines of certainty, and to leave the ultimate enigma safe in the hands
which alone can hold it, while meantime they are holding us. If these
revelations of an invisible host around us, bent upon our calamity, do nothing
else for us, they may at least render the inestimable service of driving us
home, as for our very life, to personal dealings with our Personal Deliverer. He
can indeed face for us the dreadful personalities marshalled in the shadows that
surround our life. And now, to Him the Apostle bids us come. For is it not to
Him? We shall read, in the splendid picture, of this thing and of that as our
protection. But reduced to its essence, as Jerome remarked long ago,[13] the
"panoply" means—Jesus Christ. The soldier, in other words, appears before us
made strong for a victory which is otherwise impossible—by his relation to his
Lord. He is safe, he is successful, because he is spiritually right with Christ
in God-given "truth" and "righteousness"; because he is sure of Christ beneath
his feet as "the equipment of the Gospel of peace" for his own soul; because he
finds Christ the mighty buckler against the fiery volley when he uses Him in
"faith"; because he "covers his head in the day of battle" with Christ as his
assured "Salvation"; because Christ speaks through "the Word of God," and so
makes Himself His servant’s sword to cut the "accuser" down; because "prayer in
the Spirit" grasps Him, and holds Him fast.[14] Yes, here, to the last hour of
our conflict and our siege, and here only, lies our victory. It is He, not it.
It is the all-sufficient Lord, "objected to the fiend," while the believer
stands safe behind Him.

"Not me the dark foe fears at all, But hid in Thee I take the field;

Now at my feet the mighty fall, For Thou hast bid them yield."

Ephesians 6:13. On this account, take up, as laid before you on the ground by
Him who wrought the weapons, by Him who is the victory, aye, "take up," in a
strong appropriating act,[15]the panoply of our (τοῦ) God, that you may be able,
as you shall be, to withstand these onsets, so formidable but then so vain, in
the evil day, the crisis (as each crisis comes on) of temptation or of terror,
and having accomplished all things which your Captain asks of you, thus armed
with Himself, to stand, unmoved at your post, unshaken in your loyalty, ready to
the last to

Ephesians 6:14. "tread down your enemies" in Him. Stand therefore, with a new
conscious act[16] of spiritual resolve, girding your loins round in a belt of
truth, that is to say, calm and strong in the reality and simplicity, through
grace, of your relations with your King; and clothing yourselves with the
cuirass of righteousness, that is to say, with holy loyalty, the work of God
within you, to His

Ephesians 6:15. all-beloved Will and Law; and shoeing your feet, the feet which
have to stand, "firm on the rock, and strong in Christ,"[17]in, with, the
equipment of the Gospel of His (τῆς) peace, "peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ," and the resultant "peace of God" in heart and thought, embraced
and enjoyed for yourselves, as your feet thus feel certainty and security
beneath them. For there is no "equipment" for the Holy War more needful, and
more effectual, than the possession by the

Ephesians 6:16. warrior of that holy Peace. And then, against all things, to
meet every shifting assault,[18] stand, taking up the great shield[19]of your
faith, your reliance altogether on your Lord, that look wholly outward, Godward,
which is the essence of faith, and which gives it the saving power it has; on
which (ἐνᾧ) you shall (remember the positive promise) be able to quench all the
missiles of the Evil One, those (τά) burning, "kindled" (πεπυρωμένα) missiles of
his,[20] which can enflame the heart with anger, or with lust, "set on fire of
hell."

Ephesians 6:17. And accept, for behold it is offered to your very hands, the
helmet of God’s (τοῦ) Salvation (σωτήριον), even Him who is our Deliverance in
Person, and whose presence and promise "cover the head" indeed as the soldier
faces the battle; and the sword of the Spirit, wrought and edged by the Holy One
Himself, the sword which is God’s utterance, His spoken Truth, to be your one
sure weapon of offence against the enemy, as you, like your Prince before you,
meet him with "It is written," "It is written again."[21] So the soldier is to
dress, and to stand, and to handle shield and sword against the world-rulers of
this darkness and their leader. Meanwhile he is enabled, and he is commanded, to
keep in ceaseless communication with his own blessed Commander—a communication
which no siege can interrupt; the "heliography," the "wireless telegraphy," of
heaven:

Ephesians 6:18. By means of all prayer,[22]and petition, using every variety of
worshipping approach to God (προσευχή) and of definite request from Him
(δέησις), praying on every occasion, at each emerging crisis (καιρός) of need
and trial, from greatest to least; in the Spirit, in contact with the Lord and
Inspirer of supplication "according to the will of God" ( Romans 8:27); and, to
this very end, that you may be "in the Spirit" indeed, keeping wakeful in the
exercise of all, full, unstinted, persistence and petition, "praying and not
fainting"; besetting the throne of grace as those who mean indeed "not to let
Him go except He bless." And here comes in the holy collectivism of the Gospel.
These warriors, sore bestead, would have urgent needs of their own to pray over,
as the hosts of evil would seek to isolate them and bear them down. But through
prayer they were also to maintain touch and continuity not with their Lord only
but with "their brethren which were in the world" ( 1 Peter 5:9), and so to help
both themselves, through the magnetic chain of remembered oneness in Christ, and
them. Their "petitions" were to go up perseveringly—

Ephesians 6:19. Concerning all the saints, in Asia, in Italy, in the new
Christendom at large, and now, amongst others, (for the Apostle is himself
insatiable of intercessory prayer,) on behalf of me; that word, matter and
faculty in the deliverance of the message, may be given me, by the inspiring and
enabling Lord, as shewn in opening of my mouth in freedom,παῤῥησία, unreserved
proclamation of Christ, aye, even in the capital city of the world, to make
known the Secret of the Gospel, the glory of its worldwide scope and its eternal
issues, so long hidden, now

Ephesians 6:20. at length revealed[23]—that Gospel on behalf of which I am on
embassy, as from sovereign Court and Power—in a chain, strange decoration for an
envoy! Yes, pray on for me, for this gift of opportunity and speech, that in it,
"in" the field, "in" the theme, of this blessed Secret, I may, as with a "new
departure" of vigour and effect,[24]speak with freedom, even as it is my duty to
express my tidings. So the long passage of deepest and gravest truth comes home
at last—to the writer himself; but all for the sake of his work, which is the
work of his Lord. He signals to his fellow-soldiers among "the dark mountains"
to cry for him to Heaven, that he in his turn may sound louder and further, from
his post of duty and danger, the silver trumpet call of "the unsearchable riches
of Christ."

[1]O selig Haus, wo man dich aufgenommen. The original is in Spitta’sPsalter und
Harfe.I quote the excellent translation given inHymns from the Land of Luther.

[2]Τὸλοιπόν: "From henceforth," R.V.margin(cp.2 Timothy 4:8). But this does not
so well suit the general tone of the Epistle, which has made no allusion to
spiritualweaknessas the special fault which "henceforth" the readers should
amend.—The wordsἀδελφοίμουshould be omitted from the text.

[3]The verb is in the present tense and suggests a continuous "strengthening."

[4]For the thought of thus "making it our own" by consciously using the
promises, cp.Romans 13:12,Romans 13:14;1 Thessalonians 5:8. We are to "possess
our possessions" (Obadiah 1:18) with the promptitude and certainty of the
simplest recollection and acceptance.—For passages closely akin to this cp. Rom.
and 1 Thess., quoted just above, (both written earlier than this Epistle.) And
see the grand versesIsaiah 59:16-17, and a fine apocryphal passage,Wis 5:17,
etc., which perhaps is the echo of the words of Isaiah. In these latter
passagesthe Lordis the Person who arms Himself with a "panoply."

[5]See aboveonEphesians 2:2for considerations on the revealed personality of
theδιάβολος, "the Accuser."—The Greek word is the regular equivalent in the LXX.
of the HebrewSâtân,"the Adversary."For illustration of the significance of the
wordδιάβολος, see e.g. the opening chapters of Job.

[6]Lit. "blood and flesh"; but usage in English reverses the order. For the
phrase, cp.Matthew 16:17,1 Corinthians 15:50,Galatians 1:16,Hebrews 2:14. It
will be seen that the meaning is not (as sometimes in our popular parlance)our
own feelings,as when we say, "it was hard for flesh and blood to bear";
but,mortal men,supposed to be enemies and opponents. "We have to encounter not
men but spirits."

[7]"See the language ofRevelation 2:10, and Abp Trench’s note upon it (Epistles
to the Seven Churches,p. 104).... The Apostle not merely takes for granted the
objective existence of a world of evil spirits; he carefully distinguishes it
from the world of humanity." (Note in theCambridge Bible.)

[8]See above, onEphesians 1:21,seeEphesians 3:10.—"The reference here...
obviously is to personalevilspirits as members and leaders of an... organization
under its head.... Cp.Matthew 25:41,2 Corinthians 12:7. Note also the ’Legion’
of evil spirits (Mark 5:9,Mark 5:15. ), compared with the ’more than
twelvelegionsof angels’ (Matthew 26:53)." (Note in theCambridge Bible.) [9]Omit
the wordsτοῦαἰῶνοςfrom the text.

[10]"For allusions to the mysterious ’authority’ of the Evil Power over the
human ’world,’ in its ethical aspect at least, cp.Luke 4:6;John 14:30,John
16:11;2 Corinthians 4:4;1 John 5:18." (Note in theCambridge Bible.) [11]I thus
attempt an explanation of a phrase which is still mysterious when all is said.

[12]Omnia abeunt in mysterium,writes Bacon.

[13]In his commentary here: "From what we read in the passage following, and
from the things said in all the Scriptures concerning the Lord our Saviour, it
most clearly results that by ’all the arms of God’... the Saviour is to be
understood."

[14]It will be observed that I explain "truth" and "righteousness" (Ephesians
6:14) as referring to the believer’s sincerity and fidelity in dealing with his
Lord, and not as referring to theLord’s"truth" in His promises and His
"righteousness" in justification. Not without hesitation I do so; for certainly
it would be perfectly in St Paul’s manner to mean justification here by
"righteousness." And we can never too clearly remember that the armour is the
armour "of God"; it is not human character merely but divine grace. ButI
thinkthat the language ofIsaiah 59:16-17, suggests the view advocated here.
Meanwhile the inmost thought all through is that the manreally uses his Lord.

[15]May we, without incongruity, illustrate the thought from Virgil? In the
eighth AEneid, Venus brings the invulnerable armour to her son AEneas, perfect
and prepared: then "He, glorying in the beauteous prize, From point to point
quick darts his eyes With ever-new delight. Now; wondering, ’twixt his hands he
turns The helm that like a meteor burns, The sword that rules the war, The
breastplate shooting bloody rays, As dusky clouds in sunlight blaze Refulgent
from afar, The polished greaves of molten gold, The spear, the shield with fold
on fold, A prodigy of art untold." (Conington’s Version.) Shall our "wonder,"
"delight," anduse,be less?

[16]Observe the aorists in this whole context.

[17]The thought here is not of running the errands of the Master, but of holding
the fort for Him.

[18]So I would explainἐπὶπᾶσιν. although the rendering"overall things," as a
shield is theoutworkof the armour, is of course grammatically possible.

[19]Θυρεόν: "thedoor-shield," the largest sort of shield, about 21/2; by 4 feet
in size.

[20]The metaphor is taken from the fire-arrows of ancient warfare. Sometimes the
"arrow" carried a bulb filled with burning matter. Sometimes the point was
merely wrapped in burning tow.

[21]"Doubtless the reference [of ’God’s utterance’] is not to be limited to the
very words of Scripture.... But the evidence of Scripture itself, as it
indicates historically the principles and practice of the Lord and the Apostles
in regard of the Written Word, is altogether in favour of interpreting the
phrase here, as to its main and permanent meaning, of the believing use, in
spiritual conflict, of the Scriptures; the Written Word, revealing the Living
Word. It is true that when this Epistle was written the Spirit, whose work in
producing Scripture was still in progress, was also speaking direct to the
Church in other modes.... But that this was a greatpassingphase in the Church’s
experience is indicated by1 Corinthians 13:8, and by the broad facts of
history.... Above all observe that the Lord Himself, in His Temptation, the
history of which should be compared carefully with this whole passage, uses
exclusively verbal citations, written ’utterances,’ from the Scriptures, as His
sword; and this, immediately after His Baptism and the Descent ofthe Holy
Spirit....No suggestion could be more pregnant than this as to the abiding
position of the Written Word under the Dispensation of the Spirit." (Note in
theCambridge Bible.)

[22]"So Christian was forced to put up his sword, and betake himself to another
weapon, called All-prayer; so he cried, in my hearing, ’O Lord, I beseech Thee,
deliver my soul.’" (Pilgrim’s Progress.)

[23]See the previous occurrences of the wordμυστήριονin this Epistle:Ephesians
1:9;Ephesians 3:3-4,Ephesians 3:9;Ephesians 5:32.

[24]Observe the aorist,παῤῥησιάσωμαι.


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  CHAPTER 19: CHAPTER 18. SALUTATION: BENEDICTION
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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.


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Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/moule-handley-c-g-ephesian-studies-exposition/
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