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TEMPLE MADE WITHOUT HANDS
The temple was set up with a series of courts. The large, paved area surrounding the temple and its inner courts was embedded by a double colonnade of pillars standing 37 feet high. The perimeter of this area measured three quarters of a mile. This outer court was for the Gentiles, and was called the court of the Gentiles. Gentiles were physically prevented from entering into any of the inner courts by a 4.5 foot barrier. There were stone slabs with warnings to the Gentiles and whoever was caught would be faced with death.
This dividing wall had great significance for Paul, who was arrested in Jerusalem for reportedly bringing a Gentile into the inner court of the temple (Acts 21:16-30. Paul and other Jewish followers of Christ recognized that the God who had previously resided in the temple had
entered humanity in the person of Jesus, Yeshua, the Messiah.
Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection had in effect broken down
the dividing wall, effecting spiritual unity between Jews and Gentiles. As a result, Paul knew all people have been granted access to God through saving faith in Yeshua HaMashiach.
Jew and Gentile are one in Messiah because of the finished work of Jesus Christ. We are both now one in the body of Christ. Christ is the head, the cornerstone of the temple that is not built with hands. All true believers are being fit into the spiritual temple
CHRIST, THE GREAT RECONCILER
The Gentiles, Too, Are Included
1 And so God has given life to you Gentiles also, who were once dead in your trespasses and sins,
2 in which you passed your lives after the way of this world, under the sway of the Prince of the Powers of the Air, the spirit who is now working among the sons of disobedience.
Christ Raises the Gentiles to New Life
3 And among them we all once passed our lives, indulging the passions of our flesh, carrying out the dictates of our senses and temperament, and were by nature the children of wrath like all the rest. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even while we were dead in our trespasses, made us live together with Christ (it is by grace you have been saved). 6 together with him He raised us from the dead, and together with Christ Jesus seated us in the heavenly realm, 7 in order that he might show to the ages to come the amazing riches of his grace by his goodness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is God’s gift. 9 It is not of works, so that any one can boast of it; 10 for we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good deeds, which God redestined us to make our daily way of life.
Christ The Great Reconciler
11 Do not forget then, that you Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "uncircumcision" by the "circumcision" made in flesh by man’s hand, 12 were once upon a time without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of the Promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near in the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our Peace, who has made the two of us Jew and Gentile one, and has broken down the party-wall of partition between us. 15 In his own body he
abolished the cause of our enmity, the law of commandments contained in
ordinances, in order to make the two into one new man in himself, so making peace. 16 Thus he reconciled us both in one body to God by his cross, on which he slew our enmity. 17 So he came preaching
"Peace" to you Gentiles who were afar off, and "Peace" to us Jews who were near; 18 because it is through him that we both have access in one spirit to the Father.
A Temple of God Built Out of Diverse Elements
19 Take notice then that no longer are you strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household. 20 You are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone. 21 In him the whole
building, fitly framed together, rises into a holy temple in the Lord;
22 and in him you, too, are continuously built together for a dwelling- place of God through his Spirit.
Eph 2:1-22
(Montgomery NT)
PAUL’S GLORIOUS INTERCESSION IN THE GOSPEL
The Glorious Gospel Entrusted to Paul
1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles - 2 for surely you have heard of the stewardship of the grace of God entrusted to me for you? 3 You have heard how by direct revelation the secret truth was made known to me, as I have already briefly written you. 4 By reading what I have written, you can judge of my insight into that secret truth of Christ 5 which was not disclosed to the sons of men in former generations, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets, 6 namely, that in Christ Jesus the Gentiles form one body with us the Jews, and are coheirs and co-partners in the promise, through the gospel. 7 It is of this gospel I became a minister according to the gift of the power of the grace of God, bestowed on me by the energy of his power.
A Commission to the Gentiles
8 To me, who am less than the least of all saints, has this grace been given, that I should proclaim among the Gentiles the gospel of the unsearchable riches of Christ; 9 and should make all men see the new dispensation of that secret purpose, hidden from eternity in the God
who founded the universe, 10 in order that now his manifold wisdom should, through the church, be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly sphere, 11 according to his eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 In him we have this fearless confidence and boldness of access through our faith in him. 13 So I beg you not to lose heart over my tribulations in your behalf; they are your glory.
Paul’s Great Intercessory Prayer
14 For this cause I bend my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every
fatherhood in heaven and earth is named, 16 praying him to grant you
according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his
Spirit in your inmost being; 17 that Christ may make his home in your hearts through your faith; that you may be so deeply rooted and so
firmly grounded in love, 18 that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is "the breadth," "the length," "the depth," and "the height," 19 and may know the love of Christ which transcends all knowing, so that you may be filled with all the "plenitude" of God.
Infinitely Able to Do Infinitely More
20 Now unto him who, .according to his might that is at work within us, is able to do infinitely more than all we ask or even think, 21 to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, to all generations, world without end, Amen.
Eph 3:1-21
(Montgomery NT)
In “The Message” translation the above passages of
Scripture read as follows:
He Tore Down the Wall
1 It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin.
2 You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about
living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and
then exhaled disobedience. 3 We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. 4 Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, 5 he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! 6 Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah. 7 Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. 8 Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! 9 We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! 10 No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making
and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing. 11 But don't take any of this for granted. It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God's ways 12 had no idea of any of this, didn't know the first thing about the way God works, hadn't the faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God's covenants and promises in Israel, hadn't a clue about what God was doing in the world at large. 13 Now because of Christ—dying that death, shedding that blood—you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything. 14 The Messiah has made things up between us so that we're now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance. 15 He repealed
the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody. 16 Christ brought us together through his death on the Cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility.
17 Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us
insiders. 18 He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father. 19 That's plain enough, isn't it? You're no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You're no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He's using us all—irrespective of
how we got here—in what he is building.20 He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he's using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone 21 that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, 22 all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.
Eph 2:1-22
(MSG)
The Secret Plan of God
1 This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ, having taken up the cause of you outsiders, so-called. 2 I take it that you're familiar with the part I was given in God's plan for including everybody. 3 I got the inside story on this from God himself, as I just wrote you in brief. 4 As you read over what I have written to you, you'll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ. 5 None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God's Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order. 6 The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I've been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board. 7 This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. 8 When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God's way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities. And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. 9 My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. 10 Through Christians like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels! 11 All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. 12 When we trust in him, we're free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go. 13 So don't let my present trouble on your behalf get you down. Be proud!
Eph 3:1-13
(MSG)
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OBJECTS OF GOD'S WRATH (2:1-3)
Two kinds of "walk" are compared throughout the letter: (1) the dead person's walk in sin (2:1-3) and (2) the living person's walk in love (2:4-7; 5:1-2). Prior to regeneration, the Ephesians were spiritually dead (Rom. 5:12). The "mighty prince of the power of the air" (2:2) refers to Satan (6:12; cf. John 12:31). Those "who refuse to obey God" (2:2) are unbelievers who are characterized by disobedience.
EXALTED TO LIFE (2:4-7)
Paul dredged up the dirt from the past only to show the grace of the present. The passage moves from "you were dead" (2:1) to "But God" (2:4) to "Don't forget" (2:11) to "But now you belong to Christ Jesus"
(2:13). The past provides the context for the appreciation of the grace given by God in the present. When God's mercy meets mankind's deadness, his grace brings exalted life. Only that context of past sins can enlighten people's hearts to the wonderful power of God's present grace.
Salvation is based on God's attitude of mercy and motivated by his agape love (2:4; cf. John 3:16). Ephesians 2:5 contains the solution to the
state of spiritual death set forth in 2:1. The parenthesis "by God's special favor that you have been saved" is expanded in 2:8. The key word "seated" (2:6) indicates the believers' position in Christ as partakers of a finished, accomplished redemption. By virtue of the union of believers in Christ, they are positionally already in heaven. Christ's exaltation was their exaltation (2:6). The believers' deep need for grace will form the context for their eternal praise of God in the ages to come (2:7). They will remember their former need so that they can, with perfectly enlightened hearts, praise God.
SALVATION IS GOD'S GIFT (2:8-10)
The "gift from God" (2:8) refers to the salvation promised to all who believe. To get the overall thrust of this section, read 2:11directly after 2:1-2. Salvation is provided through God's grace and received on the basis of faith in God's promise of forgiveness because of Christ's shed blood. Good works are also a gift (2:10) from the God who made all creation. While good works cannot save (2:9), they always accompany salvation and are the result and evidence of a genuine faith.
Separation: Unification (2:11-22)
PEACE BETWEEN JEW AND GENTILE (2:11-18)
In the rest of chapter
2, Paul expounded on the unity of mankind in Christ. He wrote first of the
alienation of Jew and Gentile (2:11-12) and then of their reconciliation by the blood of Christ (2:13-16). He showed how believing Gentiles had entered into the family of believing Israel by faith, so that there was, as a result, one people of God united in the one body of Christ.
Paul used Isaiah 57:19 (quoted in 2:17) and Psalm 118:22 or Isaiah 28:16(alluded to in 2:20) to show how Christ, as the cornerstone,
brought those who were near and far together into one holy temple in the Spirit.
The words "But now" (2:13) introduce a contrast with the Gentile's
previous position (2:11-12). Christ brought peace (2:14) by joining the two groups into one. The "wall" (2:14) is an allusion to the wall on the temple
grounds that separated the court of the Gentiles from the court that only Jews could enter. The death penalty would be inflicted if a Gentile passed that barrier. That wall of hostility had been broken down in Christ.
THE RESULTANT EFFECT (2:19-22)
Both Gentiles and Jews are now members of God's household (2:19). On the contrast with "citizens" (2:19), see 2:12. A "cornerstone" (2:20) provided the proper angles and perspective for a building's construction. It can refer to a stone in the foundation, the keystone of an arch, or the capstone of a pyramid. It is the stone that brings unity and completion.
STRENGTHENING:
PRESENT TRIBULATION (3:1-21)
Prison:
Strengthening the Heart (3:1-13)
THE GIFT OF A MYSTERY (3:1-7)
Paul was a prisoner on the readers' behalf (3:1). The thought is interrupted from 3:2-13 and resumes in 3:14. Paul wrote this epistle while he was a
prisoner in Rome (Acts 28:16). Paul's "special ministry" (3:2) was the message of God's grace given to him as the apostle to the Gentiles (Gal. 2:7). Paul next began to develop the concept of the "secret plan" that he introduced in 1:9. Paul made no claim to be the sole recipient of this revelation (3:5). His digression on the place of the Gentiles in Christ stressed their equality in the mystery of Christ. The "plan" (3:4) was not that Gentiles would someday be included in salvation. That had been known since Genesis 12:3("all the families of the earth"). The mystery, or "secret plan," centered on Gentile status as fellow heirs (3:6) to God's promises to the Jews. Note the words "both" and "together" in 3:6 to drive the point of equality home. The mystery was not that Gentiles would receive spiritual blessing (cf. Joel 2:28; Amos 9:12), but that Jew and Gentile would be united on an equal basis in one body, sharing a spiritual inheritance in the promises of God.
A WORD ABOUT PAUL'S PURPOSE (3:8-13)
Paul went on to point out that sufferings are a glory, not something to be avoided. In light of all that God had done for the believing Gentiles (3:2-12), Paul asked that they not let his problems cause them to lose heart. Instead he enlightened their hearts to the glory hidden in tribulation. Paul also spoke of not losing heart in 2 Corinthians 4:1, 16.
Prayer:
Strengthening the Inner Person (3:14-19)
The first section of the epistle (Eph. 1-3) concludes with the apostle's second prayer for the spiritual lives of the believers. He returned to the themes of power (3:18; cf. 1:19) and the importance of a Christ-indwelling
heart (3:19; cf. 1:18). It takes the power of the Spirit to allow the
unhindered dwelling of Christ in the heart. Sin is unsettling. To "understand" (3:18.19) the love of Christ could only come from the settled presence of Christ in the believers' lives. That fullness is the purpose of this letter regarding "hearts . . . flooded with light" (1:18).
Praise:
For Unrequested Power (3:20-21)
Paul's praise of God and his power pushed the perspective of his readers beyond what they could ask and conceive—to the infinite capabilities of God's power. God can do far more with and through those who believe in him than those people can ask for or even think about.
WALKING WORTHILY (4:1-6:9)
Overview: In Ephesians 1-3 Paul revealed the wonderful
benefits of believing in Christ: the unity found in the Spirit, the heavenly
dimension of the Christian walk, and edifying speech and behavior among
believers. All of these characteristics were modeled by Paul, and at this point (4:1-6:9) Paul urged the readers to live out the benefits of salvation. Paul desired that the lives and "walk" of the believers would be worthy of their calling as Christians.
Gifted for Maturity (4:1-16)
CALLED IN THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT (4:1-6)
This section is built around Christ's ascension (4:8), an event that marked the believers' ascension as well (2:6). Ephesians 4:1introduces the exhortations that build on the doctrines set forth in chapters 1-3. The key word is "lead" (4:1), a term used frequently by Paul to describe the
believers' manner of life. Paul's main point was that believers should conduct themselves in a manner worthy of their high calling in Christ.
The believers' high calling in Christ called for unity in the body of Christ (4:2-6). Believers were in fact united positionally through their spiritual bond in Christ. They needed to be diligent to maintain this unity (John 17:21), allowing its implications to be lived out in their lives. The unity demanded of Christians comes from the "Holy Spirit" and with
"peace" (4:3). This builds on earlier words about the "Holy Spirit,"
the divine seal of redemption (1:13-14), and "peace," that wholeness with humans and God bought by Christ's blood (2:13-14). The unity of believers is grounded on what they share in common through Christ. The "baptism" (4:5) referred to here is the baptism by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13).
VARIOUS GIFTS FOR THE UNITY OF THE FAITH (4:7-8)
Paul used Psalm 68:18 to describe the resultant gift-giving of
Christ's ascension. Here Paul discussed spiritual gifts—the abilities given by God for service in the Christian community (cf. 1 Cor. 12-14). Although there is unity in the body (4:1-6), there is a diversity of gifts given by Christ for the edification of the body (4:7, 11). Paul quoted and somewhat adapted Psalm 68:18 to show the biblical basis for the giving of
spiritual gifts. There are two possible backgrounds for this quote:
(1) A victorious warrior is elevated when he returns with a group of prisoners. Having received gifts from the conquered people, he distributes them to his followers.
(2) The Levites were taken from among the Israelites as captives for God's
service and given as gifts to Aaron to serve the priesthood (cf. Num. 8:6, 19). At Christ's exaltation (Acts 2:33) his gifts were spiritual. The point is that the believers needed to be enlightened concerning their experience of the Spirit. The grace they all experienced was a direct evidence of the gifts given by Christ.
CHRIST'S DESCENT AND ASCENT (4:9-10)
Paul again presented Christ's humble life on earth, by which readers would better appreciate Christ's exaltation (John 3:13; 6:38; 16:28). Christ's exaltation came after his time of humiliation, and the same will be true for his followers. This is the meaning of Paul's statement in 3:13.
The parenthetical comment in 4:9-10 on "he ascended" (4:8) was written to show that only Christ fits the description. Some interpret 4:9 as evidence of a descent into hell by Christ between his death and resurrection (cf. 1 Pet. 3:19-20). More likely, 4:9simply refers to Christ's coming down from heaven to earth. He descended to the "lowly" regions of the universe, that is, the "world." The phrase is used in Isaiah 44:24 for the earth; Psalm 139:15 for the womb; Ezekiel 32:24 for the netherworld; and Psalm 63:9 for the grave. The point is, however, that Christ alone
fits the description of one who both "descended" and "ascended." Thus, he is able to give gifts to men.
GIFTS THAT BRING MATURITY FOR STABLE GROWTH (4:11-16)
These are the gifts of Christ (4:7, 8, 11, "has given" and "gave"). The purpose of mentioning the gifts was to enlighten the readers to the value of the people mentioned in 4:11. They were literally Christ's gift to the church. Some hold that the terms "pastors" and "teachers" represent one gifted person, not two. Elsewhere, however, the ministries are separated (Rom. 12:7; 1 Pet. 5:2). Certainly a pastor should be able to teach (1 Tim. 3:2; 5:17), but there may be teachers in the church who do not function in the office or role of pastor. The purpose of these gifts is
to equip the saints for ministry. The phrase "helps the other parts grow"
(4:16), or "build itself up" (niv), is used in ancient medical literature of setting a bone. It has the idea of "making fit." The Ephesians were being told that the way out of cunning, craftiness, and deceitful scheming (4:14) is to benefit from Christ's gifts to the church.
Putting on the New Self (4:17-24)
THE NEGATIVE ASPECT (4:17-19)
Paul had prayed for the enlightenment of their hearts in 1:18. The related concepts here are "minds" (4:18, 23, "thoughts"), "shut their minds" and "hardened their hearts" (4:18). One of Satan's goals is to so conform
believers to the ways of the world that no one will know they are Christians. Paul described the believers' walk as a different walk. He contrasted the conduct of Christians with that of unbelieving Gentiles (cf. also Matt. 6:7).
BEING RENEWED IN MIND (4:20-24)
Paul made the contrasts between the old and new self and darkened and renewed minds. "Throw off" (4:22, 25, "put away") means changing the "former manner of life" to a manner conforming to the "righteous, holy, and true" (4:24) likeness of God. That is only possible based on the prayers of 1:18-19 and 3:14-21.
Laying Aside Sins (4:25-5:14)
SEPARATE FROM SINFUL DEEDS (4:25-5:2)
Paul presented a contrast between the old and new manners of life. The new manner is directed in each case toward giving grace (4:29; cf. 4:7) to another person (4:25, "we belong to each other"; 4:28, "need";4:29, "helpful"; 4:32, "forgiving"). This is based on God's grace toward believers (4:32). They were to be appropriately angry over sin (4:26) like Paul was in 1 Corinthians 5:3-5, 12-13. But they were not to sin by not seeking to
bring about forgiveness and restoration like the Corinthians did in 2 Corinthians 2:5-11. There is a place for a proper anger, that is,
a righteous indignation, but one must be careful to avoid giving the devil
opportunity. One of the Ten Commandments prohibited stealing (4:28; Exod. 20:15).
Paul warned against causing the Holy Spirit pain and sorrow through sin and a refusal to follow his leading (4:30). Christians grieve the Spirit when they do not "encourage" (4:29) themselves or others. Although the Spirit can be grieved by believers' sins, he will never abandon those who belong to him (Rom. 8:9).
As children imitate their earthly fathers, so believers are to imitate their heavenly Father (5:1), and 5:2 tells how. The exhortation of 5:2 could be translated, "Keep on walking in love." The words "fragrant offering" (5:2) look back to the sweet savor offerings of Leviticus 1-3, which prefigured Christ's voluntary sacrifice of himself.
SEPARATE FROM SINFUL PEOPLE (5:3-14)
"Those who disobey" (5:6) are unbelievers who are characterized by disobedience to God. Paul admonished the believers to walk in the light, a metaphor for a life of holiness. While spiritual darkness is the realm of unbelievers, light is the realm of Christians (Col. 1:12-13; John 8:12; 12:35). Believers "expose" the things of darkness (5:11) by living differently (4:17-24), walking with God (1 John 1:7), being a light (Matt. 5:14-16), and rebuking sin (2 Tim. 3:16). Paul's quotes in Ephesians 5:14were probably taken from Isaiah 26:19 and60:1. This verse contains a sample of how one might reprove a sinner.
Wise Submission (5:15-6:9)
Overview: The essential elements of a renewed walk
as Paul presented them were: (1) unity in love, (2) gifts in proper use, (3) a
renewed mind, (4) separation from sin, and (5) submission. It was the last one, submission, that Paul focused on in Ephesians 5:15-6:9.
IN LIGHT OF EVIL DAYS (5:15-17)
Since the time is short and the days are evil, a Christian's use of time needs redeeming or he will use it as most do—for evil. "Make the most of every opportunity" (5:16; "Redeeming the time," kjv) means to "buy it
back"—to use wisely the short time that believers do have (cf. John 9:4). This demands an understanding of what evil is in the first place and an understanding of God's will. From this knowledge should follow action; Christians should use their time pursuing that which avoids evil and works to fulfill God's will.
AS A RESULT OF FULLNESS (5:18-21)
Paul had already shown that the Spirit's power was behind the Christians' victories (1:13-14;1:19-21; 2:18; 3:16; 4:4, 30). Ephesus was a center for the cult of Dionysus (Greek, "Bacchus"), the god of wine. Celebrations in honor of Dionysus emphasized fertility, sex, and intoxication. Intoxication would allow Dionysus to control the body of the worshiper. Thus the worshiper would do the will of the deity. Paul was saying in 5:18, "Don't be filled with the spirit of Dionysus through wine, but be filled with the true and living God by his Spirit." Paul's key illustration of being wise was to be filled with the Spirit for all the behaviors he described in 5:19-6:9. Paul described that fullness in several ways:
speaking and singing (5:19), thankfulness (5:20), and submission (5:21).
The last point, submission, receives detailed development (submission in marriage, 5:22-33; submission of children to parents, 6:1-4; submission of slaves to masters, 6:5-9). In each area of submission Paul was careful to exhort those commanding the submission to show love to those under them, not to abuse them (husbands, 5:25-33; fathers, 6:4; masters, 6:9).
This passage further explains what Paul meant by laying aside the old self and putting on the new self (4:22-25). The acts of speaking, thankfulness, and submission show what believers should "put on" in the fullness of the Spirit's power and intention for their "walk" with God in Christ. They are visible manifestations of the grace and power that belong to believers in the "heavenly realms." Paul desired that the believers wake up and, with enlightened hearts, realize the power for life that God has given (3:14-21). All Christians possess God's fullness through Christ (1:23).
In 5:21many have thought that Paul was teaching the
principle of mutual submission of all believers to each other. Rather, Paul
enjoined believers to submit themselves to and obey rightful authorities. He then proceeded to give some specific examples of proper submission—wives to husbands, children to parents, slaves to masters (5:22-6:9)—examples that ought not be reversed.
FOCUSED ON WIVES AND HUSBANDS (5:22-24)
The submission of the wife to her husband does not suggest inequality, for Christ was in submission to the Father but was also his equal (John 14:9; 17:22; 1 Cor. 11:3; Phil. 2:6-8). The relationship between the husband and wife is one governed by unselfish love, where both meet the needs of
each other.
FOCUSED ON HUSBANDS AND WIVES (5:25-33)
Husbands are to have a Christ-like passion to bring their wives into deeper purity and holiness before God. Christ's sacrificial love for the church is set forth as the pattern for the husband's love for his wife. Husbands ought to consider whether they are loving their wives according to this pattern. Paul quoted Genesis 2:24, the scriptural basis for marriage (5:31). There is a symbolic purpose in marriage (5:32). The union is designed to be a reflection of the relationship between Christ and his church.
FOCUSED ON CHILDREN AND PARENTS (6:1-4)
Obedience to parents can amount to obedience to God (Exod. 20:12; cf. also Deut. 5:16). A child's obedience led to a long life. This was especially true in the Old Testament where disobedience leads to death (Exod. 21:15,17). Paul also described the father's proper relationship to his children (6:4). Fathers are to be gentle and patient like the Lord and are to avoid provoking their children.
FOCUSED ON SLAVES AND MASTERS (6:5-9)
The Bible does not advocate slavery but rather assumes it as part of the cultural setting. Slavery was not instituted by God but by sinful and fallen man. What God does through his word is to regulate this evil until such a time as it is recognized as morally wrong and is changed. What Paul emphasized is one's perspective on slavery (cf. Gal. 3:28; 1 Cor. 7:20-23). Paul's word of admonition to the masters is like his word to fathers in Ephesians 6:4. Paul added a command for seeing the position of master in perspective. Paul reminded them that slave and slave owner alike are servants to the Master in heaven.
STANDING FIRMLY (6:10-20)
The Focus of Strength and Attack (6:10-12)
What kind of armor is available to protect believers from the evil in this world? (cf. 6:14-20). The armor comes from the "Lord's mighty
power" (6:10). Paul called believers to arms so that they would be
able to stand firm against the attacks of the devil. The God who calls believers to receive blessings in the "heavenly realms" (cf. 1:3) also provides armor for the struggle with evil in that same realm (see note on 1:3).
Alert and in Armor (6:13-20)
Note the pervasive use of the Old Testament throughout this section: Isaiah 11:5 and 59:17 in 6:14; Isaiah 52:7 in 6:15; Psalm 7:10, 13 in 6:16; Isaiah 59:17 in 6:17; and Isaiah 49:2 in 6:17. These passages speak of God's great and promised redemption through his Messiah. The armor of God is not something the believers put on to fight on their own. The armor is Christ himself. Putting on the armor is equivalent to putting on Christ. The power of Christ is sufficient to stand against all evil and temptation that a believer will encounter.
Paul wrote this letter from Rome where he was under the custody of Roman soldiers (cf. Acts 28:16). Knowing that his readers would be familiar with the dress and armor of Roman soldiers, Paul used this
imagery to communicate a spiritual message. Roman soldiers used a sturdy belt (6:14) to fasten their sword to their body. A soldier girded in such a manner would be recognized as being on active duty. Paul wanted believers to gird themselves with "truth," the foundation for all spiritual activity.
The soldier's body armor (6:14), made of bronze scales or plates sewn on
leather, protected his front and sometimes his back. Paul exhorted believers to find their protection in righteousness.
Roman soldiers prepared for battle by putting on shoes that had short nails in their soles (6:15). These enabled them to stand firm and avoid slipping on the ground. Paul wanted believers to prepare themselves for spiritual battle with the gospel of peace. The Old Testament allusion is to Isaiah 52:7.
Two types of shields were used by Roman soldiers: a large shield that protected the whole body and was carried by the infantry, and a smaller shield, made of wood overlaid with leather, which was carried by the archers (6:16). Paul wanted the believers to take up the shield that consists of faith.
In 6:17Paul quoted Isaiah 59:17. The soldier's helmet, made of
metal or leather, was designed to protect his head, the most vital part of the body. The helmet of "salvation" is the helmet that consists of salvation and protects the believer's spiritual destiny. The sword, a two-foot, double-edged blade, was the soldier's most important weapon. He was trained to stab instead of swing and cut. The "sword of the Spirit" is the only offensive weapon mentioned. It is supplied by the Holy Spirit and is identified as the utterance or spoken word of God (cf. Heb. 4:12). Although Paul was under house arrest during his Roman imprisonment (Acts 28:16), he was probably chained to a Roman soldier and had these images before him as he wrote this letter (Acts 28:20).
PAUL'S MESSENGER OF COMFORT: TYCHICUS (6:21-22)
Tychicus apparently carried the letter to the readers in Ephesusand
Asia Minor for Paul (6:21; Col. 4:7). Paul's report as to how he was doing was linked to his situation as "God's ambassador" in "chains" (3:1; 4:1; 6:20). Paul, who was in a situation that most would consider difficult, was sending a letter and messenger to bring encouragement and comfort to the Ephesian Christians.
BENEDICTION
(6:23-24)
Paul wished that the Ephesians would have "love with faith" (6:23). The readers had faith, but they needed love with it. Paul's final benediction (6:24) summarized all the important elements of life
in Christ.
—Tyndale Concise Bible Commentary
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 Ver. 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
Ver. 15. typical and separating enactments ;)--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 create,
might sovereignly constitute, the two parties, Israel and the Nations,
in Himself, 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
Ver. 16. suffered and overcame 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. 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 Ver. 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 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.
Ver. 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
Ver. 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 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,
Ver. 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 ; the Cornerstone, the great Stone in the angle of the substructure, where the walls meet, their mighty Bond and Unity, "being Christ Jesus Himself; for all the ranges of saving truth ever set before you by Apostle or by Prophet meet in Him, and get all their Ver. 21. significance and symmetry from Him; in whom, in vital union with whom, in His work and life, all the building, 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, 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; Ver. 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, 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 ver. 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 Cor. 6:16); already, as we shall see laterin this Epistle (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 bu 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 HisAbode; 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.
—Ephesian Studies
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.
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."
—Ephesian Studies
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" (Mal. 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,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 3:1,) and the close of the third chapter, with its τούτου
χάριν (ver. 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:
Ver. 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, 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 Ver. 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 —:
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 ver. 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:
Ver. 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 to me the mystery, the Secret, undiscoverable except as revealed ; as I have written above in brief, referring
Ver. 4. to which utterance (πρὸς ὅ) 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 Ver. 5. purpose which in 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 to His holy apostles and prophets, 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:Ver. 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-membersin 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 Cor. 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" (Rom. 4:16).
—Ephesian Studies
"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" (Rev. 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 Ephesusas at Corinth, where
"Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be counterfeits, castaways"
(ἀδόκιμοι: 2 Cor. 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, andHe 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 Pet. 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" (Rom. 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 Paulhad 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."
"Lord, we ask it, hardly knowing
What this wondrous gift may be;
Yet fulfill 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."
—Ephesian Studies
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."
—Ephesian Studies
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 "allspiritual 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" (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 illuminatiindeed. 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 themthat 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 (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.
—Ephesian Studies
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." 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 speakour 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."
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.
—Ephesian Studies
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 over shone, 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."
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 Paulhere 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 visibleChurch 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.
—Ephesian Studies
-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.
o- the Apostle proceeds:
Ver. 2. With all lowly-mindedness, with an unreservedly (πάσης)
humble estimate of self, and meekness, an unreserved, simple-hearted,
submission under trial, in whatever form it comes, 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 ; 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, Ver. 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 (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 Ver. 4. better be realized in life. Remember--One
body, 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. Yes, in view of your possessions and your privileges, everything contributes to the weight of this
Ver. 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, 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 (Matt. 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
Ver. 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, 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 watch word 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.
—Ephesian Studies
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 thisthe 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."
—Ephesian Studies
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The temple was set up with a series of courts. The large, paved area surrounding the temple and its inner courts was embedded by a double colonnade of pillars standing 37 feet high. The perimeter of this area measured three quarters of a mile. This outer court was for the Gentiles, and was called the court of the Gentiles. Gentiles were physically prevented from entering into any of the inner courts by a 4.5 foot barrier. There were stone slabs with warnings to the Gentiles and whoever was caught would be faced with death.
This dividing wall had great significance for Paul, who was arrested in Jerusalem for reportedly bringing a Gentile into the inner court of the temple (Acts 21:16-30. Paul and other Jewish followers of Christ recognized that the God who had previously resided in the temple had
entered humanity in the person of Jesus, Yeshua, the Messiah.
Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection had in effect broken down
the dividing wall, effecting spiritual unity between Jews and Gentiles. As a result, Paul knew all people have been granted access to God through saving faith in Yeshua HaMashiach.
Jew and Gentile are one in Messiah because of the finished work of Jesus Christ. We are both now one in the body of Christ. Christ is the head, the cornerstone of the temple that is not built with hands. All true believers are being fit into the spiritual temple
CHRIST, THE GREAT RECONCILER
The Gentiles, Too, Are Included
1 And so God has given life to you Gentiles also, who were once dead in your trespasses and sins,
2 in which you passed your lives after the way of this world, under the sway of the Prince of the Powers of the Air, the spirit who is now working among the sons of disobedience.
Christ Raises the Gentiles to New Life
3 And among them we all once passed our lives, indulging the passions of our flesh, carrying out the dictates of our senses and temperament, and were by nature the children of wrath like all the rest. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even while we were dead in our trespasses, made us live together with Christ (it is by grace you have been saved). 6 together with him He raised us from the dead, and together with Christ Jesus seated us in the heavenly realm, 7 in order that he might show to the ages to come the amazing riches of his grace by his goodness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is God’s gift. 9 It is not of works, so that any one can boast of it; 10 for we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good deeds, which God redestined us to make our daily way of life.
Christ The Great Reconciler
11 Do not forget then, that you Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "uncircumcision" by the "circumcision" made in flesh by man’s hand, 12 were once upon a time without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of the Promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near in the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our Peace, who has made the two of us Jew and Gentile one, and has broken down the party-wall of partition between us. 15 In his own body he
abolished the cause of our enmity, the law of commandments contained in
ordinances, in order to make the two into one new man in himself, so making peace. 16 Thus he reconciled us both in one body to God by his cross, on which he slew our enmity. 17 So he came preaching
"Peace" to you Gentiles who were afar off, and "Peace" to us Jews who were near; 18 because it is through him that we both have access in one spirit to the Father.
A Temple of God Built Out of Diverse Elements
19 Take notice then that no longer are you strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household. 20 You are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone. 21 In him the whole
building, fitly framed together, rises into a holy temple in the Lord;
22 and in him you, too, are continuously built together for a dwelling- place of God through his Spirit.
Eph 2:1-22
(Montgomery NT)
PAUL’S GLORIOUS INTERCESSION IN THE GOSPEL
The Glorious Gospel Entrusted to Paul
1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles - 2 for surely you have heard of the stewardship of the grace of God entrusted to me for you? 3 You have heard how by direct revelation the secret truth was made known to me, as I have already briefly written you. 4 By reading what I have written, you can judge of my insight into that secret truth of Christ 5 which was not disclosed to the sons of men in former generations, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets, 6 namely, that in Christ Jesus the Gentiles form one body with us the Jews, and are coheirs and co-partners in the promise, through the gospel. 7 It is of this gospel I became a minister according to the gift of the power of the grace of God, bestowed on me by the energy of his power.
A Commission to the Gentiles
8 To me, who am less than the least of all saints, has this grace been given, that I should proclaim among the Gentiles the gospel of the unsearchable riches of Christ; 9 and should make all men see the new dispensation of that secret purpose, hidden from eternity in the God
who founded the universe, 10 in order that now his manifold wisdom should, through the church, be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly sphere, 11 according to his eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 In him we have this fearless confidence and boldness of access through our faith in him. 13 So I beg you not to lose heart over my tribulations in your behalf; they are your glory.
Paul’s Great Intercessory Prayer
14 For this cause I bend my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every
fatherhood in heaven and earth is named, 16 praying him to grant you
according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his
Spirit in your inmost being; 17 that Christ may make his home in your hearts through your faith; that you may be so deeply rooted and so
firmly grounded in love, 18 that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is "the breadth," "the length," "the depth," and "the height," 19 and may know the love of Christ which transcends all knowing, so that you may be filled with all the "plenitude" of God.
Infinitely Able to Do Infinitely More
20 Now unto him who, .according to his might that is at work within us, is able to do infinitely more than all we ask or even think, 21 to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus, to all generations, world without end, Amen.
Eph 3:1-21
(Montgomery NT)
In “The Message” translation the above passages of
Scripture read as follows:
He Tore Down the Wall
1 It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin.
2 You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about
living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and
then exhaled disobedience. 3 We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. 4 Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, 5 he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! 6 Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah. 7 Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. 8 Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! 9 We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! 10 No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making
and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing. 11 But don't take any of this for granted. It was only yesterday that you outsiders to God's ways 12 had no idea of any of this, didn't know the first thing about the way God works, hadn't the faintest idea of Christ. You knew nothing of that rich history of God's covenants and promises in Israel, hadn't a clue about what God was doing in the world at large. 13 Now because of Christ—dying that death, shedding that blood—you who were once out of it altogether are in on everything. 14 The Messiah has made things up between us so that we're now together on this, both non-Jewish outsiders and Jewish insiders. He tore down the wall we used to keep each other at a distance. 15 He repealed
the law code that had become so clogged with fine print and footnotes that it hindered more than it helped. Then he started over. Instead of continuing with two groups of people separated by centuries of animosity and suspicion, he created a new kind of human being, a fresh start for everybody. 16 Christ brought us together through his death on the Cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility.
17 Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us
insiders. 18 He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father. 19 That's plain enough, isn't it? You're no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You're no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He's using us all—irrespective of
how we got here—in what he is building.20 He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he's using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone 21 that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, 22 all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.
Eph 2:1-22
(MSG)
The Secret Plan of God
1 This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ, having taken up the cause of you outsiders, so-called. 2 I take it that you're familiar with the part I was given in God's plan for including everybody. 3 I got the inside story on this from God himself, as I just wrote you in brief. 4 As you read over what I have written to you, you'll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ. 5 None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God's Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order. 6 The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I've been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board. 7 This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. 8 When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God's way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities. And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. 9 My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. 10 Through Christians like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels! 11 All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. 12 When we trust in him, we're free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go. 13 So don't let my present trouble on your behalf get you down. Be proud!
Eph 3:1-13
(MSG)
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OBJECTS OF GOD'S WRATH (2:1-3)
Two kinds of "walk" are compared throughout the letter: (1) the dead person's walk in sin (2:1-3) and (2) the living person's walk in love (2:4-7; 5:1-2). Prior to regeneration, the Ephesians were spiritually dead (Rom. 5:12). The "mighty prince of the power of the air" (2:2) refers to Satan (6:12; cf. John 12:31). Those "who refuse to obey God" (2:2) are unbelievers who are characterized by disobedience.
EXALTED TO LIFE (2:4-7)
Paul dredged up the dirt from the past only to show the grace of the present. The passage moves from "you were dead" (2:1) to "But God" (2:4) to "Don't forget" (2:11) to "But now you belong to Christ Jesus"
(2:13). The past provides the context for the appreciation of the grace given by God in the present. When God's mercy meets mankind's deadness, his grace brings exalted life. Only that context of past sins can enlighten people's hearts to the wonderful power of God's present grace.
Salvation is based on God's attitude of mercy and motivated by his agape love (2:4; cf. John 3:16). Ephesians 2:5 contains the solution to the
state of spiritual death set forth in 2:1. The parenthesis "by God's special favor that you have been saved" is expanded in 2:8. The key word "seated" (2:6) indicates the believers' position in Christ as partakers of a finished, accomplished redemption. By virtue of the union of believers in Christ, they are positionally already in heaven. Christ's exaltation was their exaltation (2:6). The believers' deep need for grace will form the context for their eternal praise of God in the ages to come (2:7). They will remember their former need so that they can, with perfectly enlightened hearts, praise God.
SALVATION IS GOD'S GIFT (2:8-10)
The "gift from God" (2:8) refers to the salvation promised to all who believe. To get the overall thrust of this section, read 2:11directly after 2:1-2. Salvation is provided through God's grace and received on the basis of faith in God's promise of forgiveness because of Christ's shed blood. Good works are also a gift (2:10) from the God who made all creation. While good works cannot save (2:9), they always accompany salvation and are the result and evidence of a genuine faith.
Separation: Unification (2:11-22)
PEACE BETWEEN JEW AND GENTILE (2:11-18)
In the rest of chapter
2, Paul expounded on the unity of mankind in Christ. He wrote first of the
alienation of Jew and Gentile (2:11-12) and then of their reconciliation by the blood of Christ (2:13-16). He showed how believing Gentiles had entered into the family of believing Israel by faith, so that there was, as a result, one people of God united in the one body of Christ.
Paul used Isaiah 57:19 (quoted in 2:17) and Psalm 118:22 or Isaiah 28:16(alluded to in 2:20) to show how Christ, as the cornerstone,
brought those who were near and far together into one holy temple in the Spirit.
The words "But now" (2:13) introduce a contrast with the Gentile's
previous position (2:11-12). Christ brought peace (2:14) by joining the two groups into one. The "wall" (2:14) is an allusion to the wall on the temple
grounds that separated the court of the Gentiles from the court that only Jews could enter. The death penalty would be inflicted if a Gentile passed that barrier. That wall of hostility had been broken down in Christ.
THE RESULTANT EFFECT (2:19-22)
Both Gentiles and Jews are now members of God's household (2:19). On the contrast with "citizens" (2:19), see 2:12. A "cornerstone" (2:20) provided the proper angles and perspective for a building's construction. It can refer to a stone in the foundation, the keystone of an arch, or the capstone of a pyramid. It is the stone that brings unity and completion.
STRENGTHENING:
PRESENT TRIBULATION (3:1-21)
Prison:
Strengthening the Heart (3:1-13)
THE GIFT OF A MYSTERY (3:1-7)
Paul was a prisoner on the readers' behalf (3:1). The thought is interrupted from 3:2-13 and resumes in 3:14. Paul wrote this epistle while he was a
prisoner in Rome (Acts 28:16). Paul's "special ministry" (3:2) was the message of God's grace given to him as the apostle to the Gentiles (Gal. 2:7). Paul next began to develop the concept of the "secret plan" that he introduced in 1:9. Paul made no claim to be the sole recipient of this revelation (3:5). His digression on the place of the Gentiles in Christ stressed their equality in the mystery of Christ. The "plan" (3:4) was not that Gentiles would someday be included in salvation. That had been known since Genesis 12:3("all the families of the earth"). The mystery, or "secret plan," centered on Gentile status as fellow heirs (3:6) to God's promises to the Jews. Note the words "both" and "together" in 3:6 to drive the point of equality home. The mystery was not that Gentiles would receive spiritual blessing (cf. Joel 2:28; Amos 9:12), but that Jew and Gentile would be united on an equal basis in one body, sharing a spiritual inheritance in the promises of God.
A WORD ABOUT PAUL'S PURPOSE (3:8-13)
Paul went on to point out that sufferings are a glory, not something to be avoided. In light of all that God had done for the believing Gentiles (3:2-12), Paul asked that they not let his problems cause them to lose heart. Instead he enlightened their hearts to the glory hidden in tribulation. Paul also spoke of not losing heart in 2 Corinthians 4:1, 16.
Prayer:
Strengthening the Inner Person (3:14-19)
The first section of the epistle (Eph. 1-3) concludes with the apostle's second prayer for the spiritual lives of the believers. He returned to the themes of power (3:18; cf. 1:19) and the importance of a Christ-indwelling
heart (3:19; cf. 1:18). It takes the power of the Spirit to allow the
unhindered dwelling of Christ in the heart. Sin is unsettling. To "understand" (3:18.19) the love of Christ could only come from the settled presence of Christ in the believers' lives. That fullness is the purpose of this letter regarding "hearts . . . flooded with light" (1:18).
Praise:
For Unrequested Power (3:20-21)
Paul's praise of God and his power pushed the perspective of his readers beyond what they could ask and conceive—to the infinite capabilities of God's power. God can do far more with and through those who believe in him than those people can ask for or even think about.
WALKING WORTHILY (4:1-6:9)
Overview: In Ephesians 1-3 Paul revealed the wonderful
benefits of believing in Christ: the unity found in the Spirit, the heavenly
dimension of the Christian walk, and edifying speech and behavior among
believers. All of these characteristics were modeled by Paul, and at this point (4:1-6:9) Paul urged the readers to live out the benefits of salvation. Paul desired that the lives and "walk" of the believers would be worthy of their calling as Christians.
Gifted for Maturity (4:1-16)
CALLED IN THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT (4:1-6)
This section is built around Christ's ascension (4:8), an event that marked the believers' ascension as well (2:6). Ephesians 4:1introduces the exhortations that build on the doctrines set forth in chapters 1-3. The key word is "lead" (4:1), a term used frequently by Paul to describe the
believers' manner of life. Paul's main point was that believers should conduct themselves in a manner worthy of their high calling in Christ.
The believers' high calling in Christ called for unity in the body of Christ (4:2-6). Believers were in fact united positionally through their spiritual bond in Christ. They needed to be diligent to maintain this unity (John 17:21), allowing its implications to be lived out in their lives. The unity demanded of Christians comes from the "Holy Spirit" and with
"peace" (4:3). This builds on earlier words about the "Holy Spirit,"
the divine seal of redemption (1:13-14), and "peace," that wholeness with humans and God bought by Christ's blood (2:13-14). The unity of believers is grounded on what they share in common through Christ. The "baptism" (4:5) referred to here is the baptism by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13).
VARIOUS GIFTS FOR THE UNITY OF THE FAITH (4:7-8)
Paul used Psalm 68:18 to describe the resultant gift-giving of
Christ's ascension. Here Paul discussed spiritual gifts—the abilities given by God for service in the Christian community (cf. 1 Cor. 12-14). Although there is unity in the body (4:1-6), there is a diversity of gifts given by Christ for the edification of the body (4:7, 11). Paul quoted and somewhat adapted Psalm 68:18 to show the biblical basis for the giving of
spiritual gifts. There are two possible backgrounds for this quote:
(1) A victorious warrior is elevated when he returns with a group of prisoners. Having received gifts from the conquered people, he distributes them to his followers.
(2) The Levites were taken from among the Israelites as captives for God's
service and given as gifts to Aaron to serve the priesthood (cf. Num. 8:6, 19). At Christ's exaltation (Acts 2:33) his gifts were spiritual. The point is that the believers needed to be enlightened concerning their experience of the Spirit. The grace they all experienced was a direct evidence of the gifts given by Christ.
CHRIST'S DESCENT AND ASCENT (4:9-10)
Paul again presented Christ's humble life on earth, by which readers would better appreciate Christ's exaltation (John 3:13; 6:38; 16:28). Christ's exaltation came after his time of humiliation, and the same will be true for his followers. This is the meaning of Paul's statement in 3:13.
The parenthetical comment in 4:9-10 on "he ascended" (4:8) was written to show that only Christ fits the description. Some interpret 4:9 as evidence of a descent into hell by Christ between his death and resurrection (cf. 1 Pet. 3:19-20). More likely, 4:9simply refers to Christ's coming down from heaven to earth. He descended to the "lowly" regions of the universe, that is, the "world." The phrase is used in Isaiah 44:24 for the earth; Psalm 139:15 for the womb; Ezekiel 32:24 for the netherworld; and Psalm 63:9 for the grave. The point is, however, that Christ alone
fits the description of one who both "descended" and "ascended." Thus, he is able to give gifts to men.
GIFTS THAT BRING MATURITY FOR STABLE GROWTH (4:11-16)
These are the gifts of Christ (4:7, 8, 11, "has given" and "gave"). The purpose of mentioning the gifts was to enlighten the readers to the value of the people mentioned in 4:11. They were literally Christ's gift to the church. Some hold that the terms "pastors" and "teachers" represent one gifted person, not two. Elsewhere, however, the ministries are separated (Rom. 12:7; 1 Pet. 5:2). Certainly a pastor should be able to teach (1 Tim. 3:2; 5:17), but there may be teachers in the church who do not function in the office or role of pastor. The purpose of these gifts is
to equip the saints for ministry. The phrase "helps the other parts grow"
(4:16), or "build itself up" (niv), is used in ancient medical literature of setting a bone. It has the idea of "making fit." The Ephesians were being told that the way out of cunning, craftiness, and deceitful scheming (4:14) is to benefit from Christ's gifts to the church.
Putting on the New Self (4:17-24)
THE NEGATIVE ASPECT (4:17-19)
Paul had prayed for the enlightenment of their hearts in 1:18. The related concepts here are "minds" (4:18, 23, "thoughts"), "shut their minds" and "hardened their hearts" (4:18). One of Satan's goals is to so conform
believers to the ways of the world that no one will know they are Christians. Paul described the believers' walk as a different walk. He contrasted the conduct of Christians with that of unbelieving Gentiles (cf. also Matt. 6:7).
BEING RENEWED IN MIND (4:20-24)
Paul made the contrasts between the old and new self and darkened and renewed minds. "Throw off" (4:22, 25, "put away") means changing the "former manner of life" to a manner conforming to the "righteous, holy, and true" (4:24) likeness of God. That is only possible based on the prayers of 1:18-19 and 3:14-21.
Laying Aside Sins (4:25-5:14)
SEPARATE FROM SINFUL DEEDS (4:25-5:2)
Paul presented a contrast between the old and new manners of life. The new manner is directed in each case toward giving grace (4:29; cf. 4:7) to another person (4:25, "we belong to each other"; 4:28, "need";4:29, "helpful"; 4:32, "forgiving"). This is based on God's grace toward believers (4:32). They were to be appropriately angry over sin (4:26) like Paul was in 1 Corinthians 5:3-5, 12-13. But they were not to sin by not seeking to
bring about forgiveness and restoration like the Corinthians did in 2 Corinthians 2:5-11. There is a place for a proper anger, that is,
a righteous indignation, but one must be careful to avoid giving the devil
opportunity. One of the Ten Commandments prohibited stealing (4:28; Exod. 20:15).
Paul warned against causing the Holy Spirit pain and sorrow through sin and a refusal to follow his leading (4:30). Christians grieve the Spirit when they do not "encourage" (4:29) themselves or others. Although the Spirit can be grieved by believers' sins, he will never abandon those who belong to him (Rom. 8:9).
As children imitate their earthly fathers, so believers are to imitate their heavenly Father (5:1), and 5:2 tells how. The exhortation of 5:2 could be translated, "Keep on walking in love." The words "fragrant offering" (5:2) look back to the sweet savor offerings of Leviticus 1-3, which prefigured Christ's voluntary sacrifice of himself.
SEPARATE FROM SINFUL PEOPLE (5:3-14)
"Those who disobey" (5:6) are unbelievers who are characterized by disobedience to God. Paul admonished the believers to walk in the light, a metaphor for a life of holiness. While spiritual darkness is the realm of unbelievers, light is the realm of Christians (Col. 1:12-13; John 8:12; 12:35). Believers "expose" the things of darkness (5:11) by living differently (4:17-24), walking with God (1 John 1:7), being a light (Matt. 5:14-16), and rebuking sin (2 Tim. 3:16). Paul's quotes in Ephesians 5:14were probably taken from Isaiah 26:19 and60:1. This verse contains a sample of how one might reprove a sinner.
Wise Submission (5:15-6:9)
Overview: The essential elements of a renewed walk
as Paul presented them were: (1) unity in love, (2) gifts in proper use, (3) a
renewed mind, (4) separation from sin, and (5) submission. It was the last one, submission, that Paul focused on in Ephesians 5:15-6:9.
IN LIGHT OF EVIL DAYS (5:15-17)
Since the time is short and the days are evil, a Christian's use of time needs redeeming or he will use it as most do—for evil. "Make the most of every opportunity" (5:16; "Redeeming the time," kjv) means to "buy it
back"—to use wisely the short time that believers do have (cf. John 9:4). This demands an understanding of what evil is in the first place and an understanding of God's will. From this knowledge should follow action; Christians should use their time pursuing that which avoids evil and works to fulfill God's will.
AS A RESULT OF FULLNESS (5:18-21)
Paul had already shown that the Spirit's power was behind the Christians' victories (1:13-14;1:19-21; 2:18; 3:16; 4:4, 30). Ephesus was a center for the cult of Dionysus (Greek, "Bacchus"), the god of wine. Celebrations in honor of Dionysus emphasized fertility, sex, and intoxication. Intoxication would allow Dionysus to control the body of the worshiper. Thus the worshiper would do the will of the deity. Paul was saying in 5:18, "Don't be filled with the spirit of Dionysus through wine, but be filled with the true and living God by his Spirit." Paul's key illustration of being wise was to be filled with the Spirit for all the behaviors he described in 5:19-6:9. Paul described that fullness in several ways:
speaking and singing (5:19), thankfulness (5:20), and submission (5:21).
The last point, submission, receives detailed development (submission in marriage, 5:22-33; submission of children to parents, 6:1-4; submission of slaves to masters, 6:5-9). In each area of submission Paul was careful to exhort those commanding the submission to show love to those under them, not to abuse them (husbands, 5:25-33; fathers, 6:4; masters, 6:9).
This passage further explains what Paul meant by laying aside the old self and putting on the new self (4:22-25). The acts of speaking, thankfulness, and submission show what believers should "put on" in the fullness of the Spirit's power and intention for their "walk" with God in Christ. They are visible manifestations of the grace and power that belong to believers in the "heavenly realms." Paul desired that the believers wake up and, with enlightened hearts, realize the power for life that God has given (3:14-21). All Christians possess God's fullness through Christ (1:23).
In 5:21many have thought that Paul was teaching the
principle of mutual submission of all believers to each other. Rather, Paul
enjoined believers to submit themselves to and obey rightful authorities. He then proceeded to give some specific examples of proper submission—wives to husbands, children to parents, slaves to masters (5:22-6:9)—examples that ought not be reversed.
FOCUSED ON WIVES AND HUSBANDS (5:22-24)
The submission of the wife to her husband does not suggest inequality, for Christ was in submission to the Father but was also his equal (John 14:9; 17:22; 1 Cor. 11:3; Phil. 2:6-8). The relationship between the husband and wife is one governed by unselfish love, where both meet the needs of
each other.
FOCUSED ON HUSBANDS AND WIVES (5:25-33)
Husbands are to have a Christ-like passion to bring their wives into deeper purity and holiness before God. Christ's sacrificial love for the church is set forth as the pattern for the husband's love for his wife. Husbands ought to consider whether they are loving their wives according to this pattern. Paul quoted Genesis 2:24, the scriptural basis for marriage (5:31). There is a symbolic purpose in marriage (5:32). The union is designed to be a reflection of the relationship between Christ and his church.
FOCUSED ON CHILDREN AND PARENTS (6:1-4)
Obedience to parents can amount to obedience to God (Exod. 20:12; cf. also Deut. 5:16). A child's obedience led to a long life. This was especially true in the Old Testament where disobedience leads to death (Exod. 21:15,17). Paul also described the father's proper relationship to his children (6:4). Fathers are to be gentle and patient like the Lord and are to avoid provoking their children.
FOCUSED ON SLAVES AND MASTERS (6:5-9)
The Bible does not advocate slavery but rather assumes it as part of the cultural setting. Slavery was not instituted by God but by sinful and fallen man. What God does through his word is to regulate this evil until such a time as it is recognized as morally wrong and is changed. What Paul emphasized is one's perspective on slavery (cf. Gal. 3:28; 1 Cor. 7:20-23). Paul's word of admonition to the masters is like his word to fathers in Ephesians 6:4. Paul added a command for seeing the position of master in perspective. Paul reminded them that slave and slave owner alike are servants to the Master in heaven.
STANDING FIRMLY (6:10-20)
The Focus of Strength and Attack (6:10-12)
What kind of armor is available to protect believers from the evil in this world? (cf. 6:14-20). The armor comes from the "Lord's mighty
power" (6:10). Paul called believers to arms so that they would be
able to stand firm against the attacks of the devil. The God who calls believers to receive blessings in the "heavenly realms" (cf. 1:3) also provides armor for the struggle with evil in that same realm (see note on 1:3).
Alert and in Armor (6:13-20)
Note the pervasive use of the Old Testament throughout this section: Isaiah 11:5 and 59:17 in 6:14; Isaiah 52:7 in 6:15; Psalm 7:10, 13 in 6:16; Isaiah 59:17 in 6:17; and Isaiah 49:2 in 6:17. These passages speak of God's great and promised redemption through his Messiah. The armor of God is not something the believers put on to fight on their own. The armor is Christ himself. Putting on the armor is equivalent to putting on Christ. The power of Christ is sufficient to stand against all evil and temptation that a believer will encounter.
Paul wrote this letter from Rome where he was under the custody of Roman soldiers (cf. Acts 28:16). Knowing that his readers would be familiar with the dress and armor of Roman soldiers, Paul used this
imagery to communicate a spiritual message. Roman soldiers used a sturdy belt (6:14) to fasten their sword to their body. A soldier girded in such a manner would be recognized as being on active duty. Paul wanted believers to gird themselves with "truth," the foundation for all spiritual activity.
The soldier's body armor (6:14), made of bronze scales or plates sewn on
leather, protected his front and sometimes his back. Paul exhorted believers to find their protection in righteousness.
Roman soldiers prepared for battle by putting on shoes that had short nails in their soles (6:15). These enabled them to stand firm and avoid slipping on the ground. Paul wanted believers to prepare themselves for spiritual battle with the gospel of peace. The Old Testament allusion is to Isaiah 52:7.
Two types of shields were used by Roman soldiers: a large shield that protected the whole body and was carried by the infantry, and a smaller shield, made of wood overlaid with leather, which was carried by the archers (6:16). Paul wanted the believers to take up the shield that consists of faith.
In 6:17Paul quoted Isaiah 59:17. The soldier's helmet, made of
metal or leather, was designed to protect his head, the most vital part of the body. The helmet of "salvation" is the helmet that consists of salvation and protects the believer's spiritual destiny. The sword, a two-foot, double-edged blade, was the soldier's most important weapon. He was trained to stab instead of swing and cut. The "sword of the Spirit" is the only offensive weapon mentioned. It is supplied by the Holy Spirit and is identified as the utterance or spoken word of God (cf. Heb. 4:12). Although Paul was under house arrest during his Roman imprisonment (Acts 28:16), he was probably chained to a Roman soldier and had these images before him as he wrote this letter (Acts 28:20).
PAUL'S MESSENGER OF COMFORT: TYCHICUS (6:21-22)
Tychicus apparently carried the letter to the readers in Ephesusand
Asia Minor for Paul (6:21; Col. 4:7). Paul's report as to how he was doing was linked to his situation as "God's ambassador" in "chains" (3:1; 4:1; 6:20). Paul, who was in a situation that most would consider difficult, was sending a letter and messenger to bring encouragement and comfort to the Ephesian Christians.
BENEDICTION
(6:23-24)
Paul wished that the Ephesians would have "love with faith" (6:23). The readers had faith, but they needed love with it. Paul's final benediction (6:24) summarized all the important elements of life
in Christ.
—Tyndale Concise Bible Commentary
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 Ver. 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
Ver. 15. typical and separating enactments ;)--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 create,
might sovereignly constitute, the two parties, Israel and the Nations,
in Himself, 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
Ver. 16. suffered and overcame 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. 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 Ver. 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 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.
Ver. 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
Ver. 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 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,
Ver. 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 ; the Cornerstone, the great Stone in the angle of the substructure, where the walls meet, their mighty Bond and Unity, "being Christ Jesus Himself; for all the ranges of saving truth ever set before you by Apostle or by Prophet meet in Him, and get all their Ver. 21. significance and symmetry from Him; in whom, in vital union with whom, in His work and life, all the building, 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, 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; Ver. 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, 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 ver. 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 Cor. 6:16); already, as we shall see laterin this Epistle (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 bu 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 HisAbode; 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.
—Ephesian Studies
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.
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."
—Ephesian Studies
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" (Mal. 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,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 3:1,) and the close of the third chapter, with its τούτου
χάριν (ver. 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:
Ver. 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, 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 Ver. 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 —:
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 ver. 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:
Ver. 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 to me the mystery, the Secret, undiscoverable except as revealed ; as I have written above in brief, referring
Ver. 4. to which utterance (πρὸς ὅ) 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 Ver. 5. purpose which in 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 to His holy apostles and prophets, 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:Ver. 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-membersin 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 Cor. 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" (Rom. 4:16).
—Ephesian Studies
"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" (Rev. 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 Ephesusas at Corinth, where
"Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be counterfeits, castaways"
(ἀδόκιμοι: 2 Cor. 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, andHe 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 Pet. 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" (Rom. 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 Paulhad 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."
"Lord, we ask it, hardly knowing
What this wondrous gift may be;
Yet fulfill 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."
—Ephesian Studies
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."
—Ephesian Studies
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 "allspiritual 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" (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 illuminatiindeed. 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 themthat 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 (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.
—Ephesian Studies
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." 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 speakour 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."
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.
—Ephesian Studies
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 over shone, 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."
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 Paulhere 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 visibleChurch 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.
—Ephesian Studies
-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.
o- the Apostle proceeds:
Ver. 2. With all lowly-mindedness, with an unreservedly (πάσης)
humble estimate of self, and meekness, an unreserved, simple-hearted,
submission under trial, in whatever form it comes, 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 ; 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, Ver. 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 (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 Ver. 4. better be realized in life. Remember--One
body, 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. Yes, in view of your possessions and your privileges, everything contributes to the weight of this
Ver. 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, 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 (Matt. 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
Ver. 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, 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 watch word 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.
—Ephesian Studies
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 thisthe 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."
—Ephesian Studies
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Symbolism of the Tabernacle
We approach this enticing part of our study with much caution, and only after we have prepared the way for it by a careful analysis of the facts and elements upon which a figurative application of the whole or any of its correlated parts should rest. We are moreover warned, by the extravagant and unseemly mystifications of most predecessors in this attempt, how liable a fertile fancy is to mislead even a well-stored head and a well-disposed heart in a field where so little is fixed by determinative bounds, whether historical, logical, philosophical or artistic. Much that has been given by former writers as symbol on this subject is merely metaphoror figure of speech instead of representation by object. The symbolism of the Tabernacle, as developed briefly by Josephus and Philo, is purely cosmical;and in this they are followed more at length by Bähr. The barrenness and coldness of such an exposition are sufficiently obvious. Later expositors have usually vibrated between this and the merely clerical idea of the Tabernacle symbolism, or else they have gone off on some tangential line suggested by their own subjective inclinations. Such
whims can neither be proved nor disproved. The competent objection to them is their inadequacy and their triviality. They mistake accidental and partial coincidence for designed and sustained correspondence. Scriptural typology must be deduced by rigid exegesis and a broad view of the divine economy, especially in its soteriological relations. This is the core of revelation. The legitimate tests of the symbolism of the Tabernacle, as of that of any Jewish or Christian institution, are natural congruity, spiritual suggestiveness, and biblical sanction. It is not enough to cover the requirements of a perfunctory ritualism, a stolid ecclesiasticism, or a conventional nationalism, much less to satisfy the most obvious demands of an outward naturalism; the deep value of a universal, sempiternal and soul-saving import must be reached. The Tabernacle was the visible hearthstone of the invisible Church, then first laid in a fixed though still (as ever on earth) migratory habitation. It was the type of that "house of God" which was designed to embrace the globe, to be the germ of heaven, and yet to dwell in the humblest heart. Its archetype, modelled in the conclave of the eternal Trinity, and for a brief season disclosed to Moses, still remains in the celestial sphere, to be unveiled at length to the full
satisfaction of all the saints. There we shall forever admire the perfection of the symbol and its object.
The only safe guide, in our judgment, is direct scriptural warrant for the aesthetic analogies and spiritual symbols which this elaborate and elegant structure must have been intended to bring out. This exposition of the true aim and inner moral of such a picture-lesson to the comparatively infantile mind of the Israelites must be sought either in the explicit statements of the sacred text (whether of the Old or the New Testament), or else in the inferences naturally growing out of them, and essential in order to maintain their coherence and symmetry. We, therefore, propose, not mainly to reject, nor polemically to dissect the occult and often microscopic resemblances which most writers on the subject have debatd or fancied in these gorgeous emblems, ranging through earth, air, sea and sky; but to compare, combine and deduce what strikes us as a self-disclosed and tangible system of religious truth modelled into the coincidences and varieties of this remarkable piece of handicraft. We shall find that its doctrine, no less than its composition, is organic and harmonic, especially in its most peculiar features.
In a general way, we may remark, as a preliminary thought, that the Tabernacle, as a whole, being in fact but a tent, is occasionally referred to in the Scriptures as a type of a transient sojourn. Such it was among the nomadic Israelites in the desert, while on their journey to Canaan, which was a symbol of the passage of saints through the stage of mortal probation to their heavenly home. Such it was also to Jehovah, prior to His more permanent residence in the stone structure of the Templeon the permanent site of Jerusalem. In a more special sense, it may perhaps have prefigured the occupancy of a human body by the Messiah during His stay on earth (John 1:14, render "tabernacled" instead of "dwelt;" and
compare Peter's language, Matt. 17:4). It is also an apt figure of the frail abode of every one of His followers on earth (2 Peter 1:13, 14).
—Tabernacle of Israel
We approach this enticing part of our study with much caution, and only after we have prepared the way for it by a careful analysis of the facts and elements upon which a figurative application of the whole or any of its correlated parts should rest. We are moreover warned, by the extravagant and unseemly mystifications of most predecessors in this attempt, how liable a fertile fancy is to mislead even a well-stored head and a well-disposed heart in a field where so little is fixed by determinative bounds, whether historical, logical, philosophical or artistic. Much that has been given by former writers as symbol on this subject is merely metaphoror figure of speech instead of representation by object. The symbolism of the Tabernacle, as developed briefly by Josephus and Philo, is purely cosmical;and in this they are followed more at length by Bähr. The barrenness and coldness of such an exposition are sufficiently obvious. Later expositors have usually vibrated between this and the merely clerical idea of the Tabernacle symbolism, or else they have gone off on some tangential line suggested by their own subjective inclinations. Such
whims can neither be proved nor disproved. The competent objection to them is their inadequacy and their triviality. They mistake accidental and partial coincidence for designed and sustained correspondence. Scriptural typology must be deduced by rigid exegesis and a broad view of the divine economy, especially in its soteriological relations. This is the core of revelation. The legitimate tests of the symbolism of the Tabernacle, as of that of any Jewish or Christian institution, are natural congruity, spiritual suggestiveness, and biblical sanction. It is not enough to cover the requirements of a perfunctory ritualism, a stolid ecclesiasticism, or a conventional nationalism, much less to satisfy the most obvious demands of an outward naturalism; the deep value of a universal, sempiternal and soul-saving import must be reached. The Tabernacle was the visible hearthstone of the invisible Church, then first laid in a fixed though still (as ever on earth) migratory habitation. It was the type of that "house of God" which was designed to embrace the globe, to be the germ of heaven, and yet to dwell in the humblest heart. Its archetype, modelled in the conclave of the eternal Trinity, and for a brief season disclosed to Moses, still remains in the celestial sphere, to be unveiled at length to the full
satisfaction of all the saints. There we shall forever admire the perfection of the symbol and its object.
The only safe guide, in our judgment, is direct scriptural warrant for the aesthetic analogies and spiritual symbols which this elaborate and elegant structure must have been intended to bring out. This exposition of the true aim and inner moral of such a picture-lesson to the comparatively infantile mind of the Israelites must be sought either in the explicit statements of the sacred text (whether of the Old or the New Testament), or else in the inferences naturally growing out of them, and essential in order to maintain their coherence and symmetry. We, therefore, propose, not mainly to reject, nor polemically to dissect the occult and often microscopic resemblances which most writers on the subject have debatd or fancied in these gorgeous emblems, ranging through earth, air, sea and sky; but to compare, combine and deduce what strikes us as a self-disclosed and tangible system of religious truth modelled into the coincidences and varieties of this remarkable piece of handicraft. We shall find that its doctrine, no less than its composition, is organic and harmonic, especially in its most peculiar features.
In a general way, we may remark, as a preliminary thought, that the Tabernacle, as a whole, being in fact but a tent, is occasionally referred to in the Scriptures as a type of a transient sojourn. Such it was among the nomadic Israelites in the desert, while on their journey to Canaan, which was a symbol of the passage of saints through the stage of mortal probation to their heavenly home. Such it was also to Jehovah, prior to His more permanent residence in the stone structure of the Templeon the permanent site of Jerusalem. In a more special sense, it may perhaps have prefigured the occupancy of a human body by the Messiah during His stay on earth (John 1:14, render "tabernacled" instead of "dwelt;" and
compare Peter's language, Matt. 17:4). It is also an apt figure of the frail abode of every one of His followers on earth (2 Peter 1:13, 14).
—Tabernacle of Israel