Text -- Ephesians 6:13-24 (NET)

6:13 For this reason, take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand your ground on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand. 6:14 Stand firm therefore, by fastening the belt of truth around your waist, by putting on the breastplate of righteousness, 6:15 by fitting your feet with the preparation that comes from the good news of peace, 6:16 and in all of this, by taking up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 6:17 And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 6:18 With every prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit, and to this end be alert, with all perseverance and requests for all the saints. 6:19 Pray for me also, that I may be given the message when I begin to speak– that I may confidently make known the mystery of the gospel, 6:20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may be able to speak boldly as I ought to speak.

Farewell Comments

6:21 Tychicus, my dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will make everything known to you, so that you too may know about my circumstances, how I am doing. 6:22 I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts. 6:23 Peace to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 6:24 Grace be with all of those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

Robertson: Eph 6:13

Take up ( analabete ).

Second aorist active imperative of analambanō , old word and used (analabōn ) of "picking up"Mark in 2Ti 4:11.

Robertson: Eph 6:13

That ye may be able to withstand ( hina dunēthēte antistēnai ).

Final clause with hina and first aorist passive subjunctive of dunamai with antistēnai (second aorist active infinitive of anthistēmi , to stand face to face, against).

Robertson: Eph 6:13

And having done all to stand ( kai hapanta katergasa menoi stēnai ).

After the fight (wrestle) is over to stand (stēnai ) as victor in the contest. Effective aorist here.

Robertson: Eph 6:14

Stand therefore ( stēte oun ).

Second aorist active imperative of histēmi (intransitive like the others). Ingressive aorist here, "Take your stand therefore"(in view of the arguments made).

Robertson: Eph 6:14

Having girded your loins with truth ( perizōsamenoi tēn osphun humōn en alētheiāi ).

First aorist middle participle (antecedent action) of perizōnnuō , old verb, to gird around, direct middle (gird yourselves) in Luk 12:37; but indirect here with accusative of the thing, "having girded your own loins."So endusamenoi (having put on) is indirect middle participle.

Robertson: Eph 6:14

The breast-plate of righteousness ( ton thōraka tēs dikaiosunēs ).

Old word for breast and then for breastplate. Same metaphor of righteousness as breastplate in 1Th 5:8.

Robertson: Eph 6:15

Having shod ( hupodēsamenoi ).

"Having bound under"(sandals). First aorist middle participle of hupodeō , old word, to bind under (Mar 6:9; Act 12:8, only other N.T. example).

Robertson: Eph 6:15

With the preparation ( en hetoimasiāi ).

Late word from hetoimazō , to make ready, only here in N.T. Readiness of mind that comes from the gospel whose message is peace.

Robertson: Eph 6:16

Taking up ( analabontes ).

See Eph 6:13.

Robertson: Eph 6:16

The shield of faith ( ton thureon tēs pisteōs ).

Late word in this sense a large stone against the door in Homer, from thura , door, large and oblong (Latin scutum ), aspis being smaller and circular, only here in N.T.

Robertson: Eph 6:16

To quench ( sbesai ).

First aorist active infinitive of sbennumi , old word, to extinguish (Mat 12:20).

Robertson: Eph 6:16

All the fiery darts ( panta ta belē ta pepurōmena ).

Belos is an old word for missile, dart (from ballō , to throw), only here in N.T. Pepurōmena is perfect passive participle of puroō , old verb, to set on fire, from pur (fire). These darts were sometimes ablaze in order to set fire to the enemies’ clothing or camp or homes just as the American Indians used to shoot poisoned arrows.

Robertson: Eph 6:17

The helmet of salvation ( tēn perikephalaian tou sōtēriou ).

Late word (peri , kephalē , head, around the head), in Polybius, lxx, 1Th 5:8; Eph 6:17 alone in N.T.

Robertson: Eph 6:17

Which is the word of God ( ho estin to rēma tou theou ).

Explanatory relative (ho ) referring to the sword (machairan ). The sword given by the Spirit to be wielded as offensive weapon (the others defensive) by the Christian is the word of God. See note on Heb 4:12 where the word of God is called "sharper than any two-edged sword."

Robertson: Eph 6:18

At all seasons ( en panti kairōi ).

"On every occasion."Prayer is needed in this fight. The panoply of God is necessary, but so is prayer.

Robertson: Eph 6:18

@@"Satan trembles when he sees, The weakest saint upon his knees."

Robertson: Eph 6:19

That utterance may be given unto me ( hina moi dothēi logos ).

Final clause with hina and first aorist passive subjunctive of didōmi , to give. See a like request in Col 4:3. Paul wishes their prayer for courage for himself.

Robertson: Eph 6:20

For which I am an ambassador in chains ( huper hou presbeuō en halusei ).

"For which mystery"of the gospel (Eph 6:19). Presbeuō is an old word for ambassador (from presbus , an old man) in N.T. only here and 2Co 5:20. Paul is now an old man (presbutēs , Phm 1:9) and feels the dignity of his position as Christ’ s ambassador though "in a chain"(en halusei , old word halusis , from a privative and luō , to loosen). Paul will wear a chain at the close of his life in Rome (2Ti 1:16).

Robertson: Eph 6:20

In it ( en autōi ).

In the mystery of the gospel. This is probably a second purpose (hina ), the first for utterance (hina dothēi ), this for boldness (hina parrēsiasōmai , first aorist middle subjunctive, old word to speak out boldly). See note on 1Th 2:2. See note on Col 4:4 for "as I ought."

Robertson: Eph 6:21

That ye also may know ( hina eidēte kai humeis ).

Final clause with hina and second perfect subjunctive active of oida . For Tychicus, see note on Col 4:7.

Robertson: Eph 6:22

That ye may know ( hina gnōte ).

Second aorist active subjunctive of ginōskō . Just as in Col 4:8 he had not written hina eidēte in Eph 6:21.

Robertson: Eph 6:22

Our state ( ta peri hēmōn ).

"The things concerning us,"practically the same as ta kat' eme of Eph 6:21. See both phrases in Col 4:7, Col 4:8.

Robertson: Eph 6:23

Love and faith ( agapē meta pisteōs ).

Love of the brotherhood accompanied by faith in Christ and as an expression of it.

Robertson: Eph 6:24

In uncorruptness ( en aphtharsiāi ).

A never diminishing love. See note on 1Co 15:42 for aphtharsia .||

Vincent: Eph 6:13

Wherefore

Because the fight is with such powers.

Vincent: Eph 6:13

Take unto you ( ἀναλάβετε )

Lit., take up , as one takes up armor to put it on. So Rev.

Vincent: Eph 6:13

The whole armor

An interesting parallel passage, evidently founded upon this, occurs in Ignatius' Epistle to Polycarp, 6. " Please the captain under whom ye serve, from whom also ye shall receive your wages. Let no one of you be found a deserter. Let your baptism abide as your shield; your faith as your helmets; your love as your spear; your patience as your whole armor. Let your good works be your savings (τὰ δεπόσιτα deposita ), that you may receive what is justly to your credit." Gibbon relates how the relaxation of discipline and the disuse of exercise rendered the soldiers less willing and less able to support the fatigues of the service. They complained of the weight of their armor, and successively obtained permission to lay aside their cuirasses and helmets (ch. 27).

Vincent: Eph 6:13

Withstand

With has the sense of against , as appears in the older English withsay , to contradict ; Anglo-Saxon, widstandan , to resist . Compare German, wider and Widerstand , resistance .

Vincent: Eph 6:13

Having done all

Everything which the crisis demands.

Vincent: Eph 6:14

Having your loins girt about ( περιζωσάμενοι τὴν ὀσφὺν )

The verb is middle, not passive. Rev., correctly, having girded . Compare Isa 11:5. The principal terms in this description of the christian armor are taken from the Septuagint of Isaiah.

Vincent: Eph 6:14

Truth ( ἀληθείᾳ )

The state of the heart answering to God's truth; inward, practical acknowledgment of the truth as it is in Him: the agreement of our convictions with God's revelation.

The loins encircled by the girdle form the central point of the physical system. Hence, in Scripture, the loins are described as the seat of power. " To smite through the loins" is to strike a fatal blow. " To lay affliction upon the loins" is to afflict heavily. Here was the point of junction for the main pieces of the body-armor, so that the girdle formed the common bond of the whole. Truth gives unity to the different virtues, and determinateness and consistency to character. All the virtues are exercised within the sphere of truth.

Vincent: Eph 6:14

Breastplate of righteousness ( θώρακα τῆς δικαιοσύνης )

Compare Isa 59:17. Righteousness is used here in the sense of moral rectitude . In 1Th 5:8, the breastplate is described as of faith and love . Homer speaks of light-armed warriors armed with linen corsets; and these were worn to much later times by Asiatic soldiers, and were occasionally adopted by the Romans. Thus Suetonius says of Galba, that on the day on which he was slain by Otho's soldiers, he put on a linen corset, though aware that it would avail little against the enemy's daggers (" Galba," 19). Horn was used for this purpose by some of the barbarous nations. It was cut into small pieces, which were fastened like scales upon linen shirts. Later, the corset of metal scales fastened upon leather or linen, or of flexible bands of steel folding over each other, was introduced. They appear on Roman monuments of the times of the emperors. The Roman spearmen wore cuirasses of chain-mail. Virgil mentions those in which the linked rings were of gold (" Aeneid," iii., 467). The stiff cuirass called στάδιος standing upright , because, when placed upon its lower edge it stood erect, consisted of two parts: the breastplate, made of hard leather, bronze, or iron, and a corresponding plate covering the back. They were connected by leathern straps or metal bands passing over the shoulders and fastened in front, and by hinges on the right side.

The breastplate covers the vital parts, as the heart.

Vincent: Eph 6:15

Preparation ( ἑτοιμασίᾳ )

Only here in the New Testament. The Roman soldier substituted for the greaves of the Greek (metal plates covering the lower part of the leg) the caligae or sandals , bound by thongs over the instep and round the ankle, and having the soles thickly studded with nails. They were not worn by the superior officers, so that the common soldiers were distinguished as caligati . Ἑτοιμασία means readiness ; but in Hellenistic Greek it was sometimes used in the sense of establishment or firm foundation , which would suit this passage: firm-footing . Compare Isa 52:7.

Vincent: Eph 6:16

Above all ( ἐπὶ πᾶσιν )

Ambiguous. It may mean over all, or in addition to all . The latter is correct. Rev., withal .

Vincent: Eph 6:16

The shield of faith ( τὸν θυρεὸν τῆς πίστεως )

Θυρεόν shield , is from θύρα door , because shaped like a door. Homer uses the word for that which is placed in front of the doorway . Thus of the stone placed by Polyphemus in front of his cave (" Odyssey," ix., 240). The shield here described is that of the heavy infantry; a large, oblong shield, four by two and a half feet, and sometimes curved on the inner side. Sculptured representations may be seen on Trajan's column. Compare " Compass him as with a shield," Psa 5:12. It was made of wood or of wicker-work, and held on the left arm by means of a handle. Xenophon describes troops, supposed to be Egyptians, with wooden shields reaching to their feet (" Anabasis," i., 8, 9). Saving faith is meant.

Vincent: Eph 6:16

Fiery darts ( τὰ βέλη τὰ πεπυρωμένα )

Lit., the darts , those which have been set on fire . Herodotas says that the Persians attacked the citadel of Athens " with arrows whereto pieces of lighted tow were attached, which they shot at the barricade" (viii., 52). Thucydides: " the Plataeans constructed a wooden frame, which they set up on the top of their own wall opposite the mound.... They also hung curtains of skills and hides in front: these were designed to protect the woodwork and the workers, and shield them against blazing arrows" (ii. 75). Livy tells of a huge dart used at the siege of Saguntum, which was impelled by twisted ropes. " There was used by the Saguntines a missile weapon called falarica , with the shaft of fir, and round in other parts, except toward the point, whence the iron projected. This part, which was square, they bound around with tow and besmeared with pitch. It had an iron head three feet in length, so that it could pierce through the body with the armor. But what caused the greatest fear was that this weapon, even though it stuck in the shield and did not penetrate into the body, when it was discharged with the middle part on fire, and bore along a much greater flame produced by the mere motion, obliged the armor to be thrown down, and exposed the soldier to succeeding blows" (xxi. 8). Again, of the siege of Ambracia by the Romans: " Some advanced with burning torches, others carrying tow and pitch and fire-darts, their entire line being illuminated by the blaze" (xxxviii. 6). Compare Psa 7:13, where the correct rendering is, " His arrows He maketh fiery arrows." Temptation is thus represented as impelled from a distance. Satan attacks by indirection - through good things from which no evil is suspected. There is a hint of its propagating power: one sin draws another in its track: the flame of the fire-tipped dart spreads. Temptation acts on susceptible material. Self-confidence is combustible. Faith, in doing away with dependence on self, takes away fuel for the dart. It creates sensitiveness to holy influences by which the power of temptation is neutralized. It enlists the direct aid of God. See 1Co 10:13; Luk 22:32; Jam 1:2; 1Pe 4:12; 2Pe 2:9.

Vincent: Eph 6:17

Take the helmet of salvation ( τὴν περικεφαλαίαν τοῦ σωτηρίου δέξασθε )

Compare Isa 59:17; 1Th 5:8. Take is a different word from that used in Eph 6:13, Eph 6:16. It is receive as from God. The meaning is the helmet which is salvation . The protection for the head . The helmet was originally of skin, strengthened with bronze or other metal, and surmounted with a figure adorned with a horsehair crest. It was furnished with a visor to protect the face.

Vincent: Eph 6:17

Sword of the Spirit ( μάχαιραν τοῦ πνεύματος )

See on Rev 6:4. The word of God serves both for attack and to parry the thrusts of the enemy. Thus Christ used it in His temptation. It is the sword of the Spirit , because the Spirit of God gives it and inspires it. The Spirit's aid is needed for its interpretation. Compare Joh 14:10; Heb 4:12, in which latter passage the image is sacrificial.

Vincent: Eph 6:17

Word of God ( ῥῆμα θεοῦ )

See on Luk 1:37. See Luk 3:2; Luk 4:4; Rom 10:17; Heb 6:5; Heb 11:3.

Vincent: Eph 6:18

Always ( ἐν παντὶ καιρῷ )

Incorrect. It means on every occasion . Rev., at all seasons . Compare Luk 21:36.

Vincent: Eph 6:18

With all prayer and supplication ( διὰ πάσης προσευχῆς καὶ δεήσεως )

Prayer is general, supplication special. Διά with is literally through ; that is, through the medium of . All , lit., every . Prayer is of various kinds, formal, silent, vocal, secret, public, petitionary, ejaculatory - shot upward like a dart ( jaculum ) on a sudden emergency. Compare Psa 5:1, Psa 5:2.

Vincent: Eph 6:18

Watching thereunto ( εἰς αὐτὸ ἀγρυπνοῦντες )

Compare Col 4:2. For watching , see on Mar 13:33, Mar 13:35. Thereunto , unto prayer, for occasions of prayer, and to maintain the spirit of prayer. One must watch before prayer, in prayer, after prayer.

Vincent: Eph 6:18

Perseverance ( προσκαρτερήσει )

Only here. The kindred verb προσκαρτερέω to continue , occurs often. See on Act 1:14.

Vincent: Eph 6:19

Boldly

Connect with to make known , as Rev.; not with open my mouth , as A.V.

Vincent: Eph 6:19

Mystery

See on Rom 11:25; see on Col 1:26.

Vincent: Eph 6:20

I am an ambassador in bonds ( πρεσβεύω ἐν ἁλύσει )

The verb to be an ambassador occurs only here and 2Co 5:20. See on Phm 1:9. In bonds , lit., in a chain : the particular word for the coupling-chain by which he was bound to the hand of his guard.

Vincent: Eph 6:21

That ye also may know, etc.

Compare Cicero to Atticus: " Send us some letter-carrier, that both you may know how it goes with us, and that we may know how you fare and what you are going to do" (v., 18).

Vincent: Eph 6:21

Tychicus

See on Col 4:7.

Vincent: Eph 6:21

A beloved brother

Rev., correctly, the beloved brother. Tychicus is referred to as well known.

Vincent: Eph 6:24

In sincerity ( ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ )

Rev., correctly, in incorruptness : who love Christ with an imperishable and incorruptible love.

Wesley: Eph 6:13

The war is perpetual; but the fight is one day less, another more, violent. The evil day is either at the approach of death, or in life; may be longer or shorter and admits of numberless varieties. And having done all, to stand - That ye may still keep on your armour, still stand upon your guard, still watch and pray; and thus ye will be enabled to endure unto the end, and stand with joy before the face of the Son of Man.

Wesley: Eph 6:14

That ye may be ready for every motion.

Wesley: Eph 6:14

Not only with the truths of the gospel, but with "truth in the inward parts;" for without this all our knowledge of divine truth will prove but a poor girdle "in the evil day." So our Lord is described, Isa 11:5. And as a girded man is always ready to go on, so this seems to intimate an obedient heart, a ready will. Our Lord adds to the loins girded, the lights burning, Luk 12:35; showing that watching and ready obedience are the inseparable companions of faith and love.

Wesley: Eph 6:14

The righteousness of a spotless purity, in which Christ will present us faultless before God, through the merit of his own blood. With this breastplate our Lord is described, Isa 59:17. In the breast is the seat of conscience, which is guarded by righteousness. No armour for the back is mentioned. We are always to face our enemies.

Wesley: Eph 6:15

Let this be always ready to direct and confirm you in every step. This part of the armour, for the feet, is needful, considering what a journey we have to go; what a race to run. Our feet must be so shod, that our footsteps slip not. To order our life and conversation aright, we are prepared by the gospel blessing, the peace and love of God ruling in the heart, Col 3:14-15. By this only can we tread the rough ways, surmount our difficulties, and hold out to the end.

Wesley: Eph 6:16

As a sort of universal covering to every other part of the armour itself, continually exercise a strong and lively faith. This you may use as a shield, which will quench all the fiery darts, the furious temptations, violent and sudden injections of the devil.

Wesley: Eph 6:17

1Th 5:8. The head is that part which is most carefully to be defended. One stroke here may prove fatal. The armour for this is the hope of salvation. The lowest degree of this hope is a confidence that God will work the whole work of faith in us; the highest is a full assurance of future glory, added to the experimental knowledge of pardoning love. Armed with this helmet, the hope of the joy set before him, Christ "endured the cross, and despised the shame," Heb 12:2. And the sword of the Spirit, the word of God - This Satan cannot withstand, when it is edged and wielded by faith. Till now our armour has been only defensive. But we are to attack Satan, as well as secure ourselves; the shield in one hand, and the sword in the other. Whoever fights with the powers of hell will need both. He that is covered with armour from head to foot, and neglects this, will be foiled after all. This whole description shows us how great a thing it is to be a Christian. The want of any one thing makes him incomplete. Though he has his loins girt with truth, righteousness for a breastplate, his feet shod with the preparation of the gospel, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit; yet one thing he wants after all. What is that? It follows,

Wesley: Eph 6:18

At all times, and on every occasion, in midst of all employments, inwardly praying without ceasing.

Wesley: Eph 6:18

Through the influence of the Holy Spirit.

Wesley: Eph 6:18

With all sort of prayer, public, private, mental, vocal. Some are careful in respect of one kind of prayer, and negligent in others. If we would have the petitions we ask, let us use all. Some there are who use only mental prayer or ejaculations, and think they are in a state of grace, and use a way of worship, far superior to any other: but such only fancy themselves to be above what is really above them; it requiring far more grace to be enabled to pour out a fervent and continued prayer, than to offer up mental aspirations.

Wesley: Eph 6:18

Repeating and urging our prayer, as Christ did in the garden.

Wesley: Eph 6:18

Inwardly attending on God, to know his will, to gain power to do it, and to attain to the blessings we desire.

Wesley: Eph 6:18

Continuing to the end in this holy exercise.

Wesley: Eph 6:18

Wrestling in fervent, continued intercession for others, especially for the faithful, that they may do all the will of God, and be steadfast to the end. Perhaps we receive few answers to prayer, because we do not intercede enough for others.

Wesley: Eph 6:19

Removing every inward and every outward hinderance.

Wesley: Eph 6:20

The ambassadors of men usually appear in great pomp. How differently does the ambassador of Christ appear!

Wesley: Eph 6:21

As well as others.

Wesley: Eph 6:22

By relating the supports I find from God, and the success of the gospel.

Wesley: Eph 6:23

This verse recapitulates the whole epistle.

Wesley: Eph 6:24

Or in incorruption; without corrupting his genuine gospel, without any mixture of corrupt affections. And that with continuance, till grace issue in glory.

JFB: Eph 6:13

Not "make," God has done that: you have only to "take up" and put it on. The Ephesians were familiar with the idea of the gods giving armor to mythical heroes: thus Paul's allusion would be appropriate.

JFB: Eph 6:13

The day of Satan's special assaults (Eph 6:12, Eph 6:16) in life and at the dying hour (compare Rev 3:10). We must have our armor always on, to be ready against the evil day which may come at any moment, the war being perpetual (Psa 41:1, Margin).

JFB: Eph 6:13

Rather, "accomplished all things," namely, necessary to the fight, and becoming a good soldier.

JFB: Eph 6:14

The repetition in Eph 6:11, Eph 6:14, shows that standing, that is, maintaining our ground, not yielding or fleeing, is the grand aim of the Christian soldier. Translate as Greek, "Having girt about your loins with truth," that is, with truthfulness, sincerity, a good conscience (2Co 1:12; 1Ti 1:5, 1Ti 1:18; 1Ti 3:9). Truth is the band that girds up and keeps together the flowing robes, so as that the Christian soldier may be unencumbered for action. So the Passover was eaten with the loins girt, and the shoes on the feet (Exo 12:11; compare Isa 5:27; Luk 12:35). Faithfulness (Septuagint, "truth") is the girdle of Messiah (Isa 11:5) : so truth of His followers.

JFB: Eph 6:14

Greek, "having put on."

JFB: Eph 6:14

(Isa 59:17), similarly of Messiah. "Righteousness" is here joined with "truth," as in Eph 5:9 : righteousness in works, truth in words [ESTIUS] (1Jo 3:7). Christ's righteousness inwrought in us by the Spirit. "Faith and love," that is, faith working righteousness by love, are "the breastplate" in 1Th 5:8.

JFB: Eph 6:15

Translate, "Having shod your feet" (referring to the sandals, or to the military shoes then used).

JFB: Eph 6:15

Rather, "the preparedness," or "readiness of," that is, arising from the "Gospel" (Psa 10:17). Preparedness to do and suffer all that God wills; readiness for march, as a Christian soldier.

JFB: Eph 6:15

(compare Luk 1:79; Rom 10:15). The "peace" within forms a beautiful contrast to the raging of the outward conflict (Isa 26:3; Phi 4:7).

JFB: Eph 6:16

Rather, "Over all"; so as to cover all that has been put on before. Three integuments are specified, the breastplate, girdle, and shoes; two defenses, the helmet and shield; and two offensive weapons, the sword and the spear (prayer). ALFORD translates, "Besides all," as the Greek is translated, Luk 3:20. But if it meant this, it would have come last in the list (compare Col 3:14).

JFB: Eph 6:16

The large oblong oval door-like shield of the Romans, four feet long by two and a half feet broad; not the small round buckler.

JFB: Eph 6:16

Not merely, "ye may." The shield of faith will certainly intercept, and so "quench, all the fiery darts" (an image from the ancient fire-darts, formed of cane, with tow and combustibles ignited on the head of the shaft, so as to set fire to woodwork, tents, &c.).

JFB: Eph 6:16

Rather "of the EVIL ONE." Faith conquers him (1Pe 5:9), and his darts of temptation to wrath, lust, revenge, despair, &c. It overcomes the world (1Jo 5:4), and so the prince of the world (1Jo 5:18).

JFB: Eph 6:17

A different Greek word from that in Eph 6:13, Eph 6:16; translate, therefore, "receive," "accept," namely, the helmet offered by the Lord, namely, "salvation" appropriated, as 1Th 5:8, "Helmet, the hope of salvation"; not an uncertain hope, but one that brings with it no shame of disappointment (Rom 5:5). It is subjoined to the shield of faith, as being its inseparable accompaniment (compare Rom 5:1, Rom 5:5). The head of the soldier was among the principal parts to be defended, as on it the deadliest strokes might fall, and it is the head that commands the whole body. The head is the seat of the mind, which, when it has laid hold of the sure Gospel "hope" of eternal life, will not receive false doctrine, or give way to Satan's temptations to despair. God, by this hope, "lifts up the head" (Psa 3:3; Luk 21:28).

JFB: Eph 6:17

That is, furnished by the Spirit, who inspired the writers of the word of God (2Pe 1:21). Again the Trinity is implied: the Spirit here; and Christ in "salvation" and God the Father, Eph 6:13 (compare Heb 4:12; Rev 1:16; Rev 2:12). The two-edged sword, cutting both ways (Psa 45:3, Psa 45:5), striking some with conviction and conversion, and others with condemnation (Isa 11:4; Rev 19:15), is in the mouth of Christ (Isa 49:2), in the hand of His saints (Psa 149:6). Christ's use of this sword in the temptation is our pattern as to how we are to wield it against Satan (Mat 4:4, Mat 4:7, Mat 4:10). There is no armor specified for the back, but only for the front of the body; implying that we must never turn our back to the foe (Luk 9:62); our only safety is in resisting ceaselessly (Mat 4:11; Jam 4:7).

JFB: Eph 6:18

Greek, "in every season"; implying opportunity and exigency (Col 4:2). Paul uses the very words of Jesus in Luk 21:36 (a Gospel which he quotes elsewhere, in undesigned consonance with the fact of Luke being his associate in travel, 1Co 11:23, &c.; 1Ti 5:18). Compare Luk 18:1; Rom 12:12; 1Th 5:17.

JFB: Eph 6:18

That is, every kind of.

JFB: Eph 6:18

A sacred term for prayer in general.

JFB: Eph 6:18

A common term for a special kind of prayer [HARLESS], an imploring request. "Prayer" for obtaining blessings, "supplication" for averting evils which we fear [GROTIUS].

JFB: Eph 6:18

To be joined with "praying." It is he in us, as the Spirit of adoption, who prays, and enables us to pray (Rom 8:15, Rom 8:26; Gal 4:6; Jud 1:20).

JFB: Eph 6:18

Not sleeping (Eph 5:14; Psa 88:13; Mat 26:41). So in the temple a perpetual watch was maintained (compare Anna, Luk 2:37).

JFB: Eph 6:18

"watching unto" (with a view to) prayer and supplication.

JFB: Eph 6:18

Greek, "in." Persevering constancy ("perseverance") and (that is, exhibited in) supplication are to be the element in which our watchfulness is to be exercised.

JFB: Eph 6:18

As none is so perfect as not to need the intercessions of his fellow Christians.

JFB: Eph 6:19

A different Greek preposition from that in Eph 6:18; translate, therefore, "on my behalf."

JFB: Eph 6:19

Rather, "that there may be given to me 'utterance,' or 'speech' in the opening of my mouth (when I undertake to speak; a formula used in set and solemn speech, Job 3:1; Dan 10:16), so as with boldness to make known," &c. Bold plainness of speech was the more needed, as the Gospel is a "mystery" undiscoverable by mere reason, and only known by revelation. Paul looked for utterance to be given him; he did not depend on his natural or acquired power. The shortest road to any heart is by way of heaven; pray to God to open the door and to open your mouth, so as to avail yourself of every opening (Jer 1:7-8; Eze 3:8-9, Eze 3:11; 2Co 4:13).

JFB: Eph 6:20

Greek, as in Eph 6:19, "On behalf of which."

JFB: Eph 6:20

A paradox. Ambassadors were held inviolable by the law of nations, and could not, without outrage to every sacred right, be put in chains. Yet Christ's "ambassador is in a chain!" The Greek is singular. The Romans used to bind a prisoner to a soldier by a single chain, in a kind of free custody. So Act 28:16, Act 28:20, "I am bound with this chain." The term, "bonds" (plural), on the other hand, is used when the prisoner's hands or feet were bound together (Act 26:29); compare Act 12:6, where the plural marks the distinction. The singular is only used of the particular kind of custody described above; an undesigned coincidence [PALEY].

JFB: Eph 6:21

As I have been discussing things relating to you, so that ye also may know about me (compare Col 4:7-8). NEANDER takes it, "Ye also," as well as the Colossians (Col 4:6).

JFB: Eph 6:21

Greek, "the things concerning me."

JFB: Eph 6:21

How I fare.

JFB: Eph 6:21

An Asiatic, and so a fit messenger bearing the respective Epistles to Ephesus and Colosse (Act 20:4; 2Ti 4:12).

JFB: Eph 6:21

Greek, "the beloved brother"; the same epithet as in Col 4:7.

JFB: Eph 6:21

That is, servant.

JFB: Eph 6:21

In the Lord's work.

JFB: Eph 6:22

Greek, "for this very purpose." Col 4:8 is almost word for word the same as this verse.

JFB: Eph 6:22

Greek, "the things concerning us," namely, concerning myself. "Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, and Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas" (Col 4:10).

JFB: Eph 6:23

Faith is presupposed as theirs; he prays that love may accompany it (Gal 5:6).

JFB: Eph 6:24

Contrast the malediction on all who love Him not (1Co 16:22).

JFB: Eph 6:24

Greek, "in incorruption," that is, not as English Version, but "with an immortal (constant) love" [WAHL]. Compare "that which is not corruptible" (1Pe 3:4). Not a fleeting, earthly love, but a spiritual and eternal one [ALFORD]. Contrast Col 2:22, worldly things "which perish with the using." Compare 1Co 9:25, "corruptible . . . incorruptible crown." "Purely," "holily" [ESTIUS], without the corruption of sin (See on 1Co 3:17; 2Pe 1:4; Jud 1:10). Where the Lord Jesus has a true believer, there I have a brother [BISHOP M'IKWAINE]. He who is good enough for Christ, is good enough for me [R. HALL]. The differences of opinion among real Christians are comparatively small, and show that they are not following one another like silly sheep, each trusting the one before him. Their agreement in the main, while showing their independence as witnesses by differing in non-essentials, can only be accounted for by their being all in the right direction (Act 15:8-9; 1Co 1:2; 1Co 12:3).

Clarke: Eph 6:13

Wherefore - Because ye have such enemies to contend with, take unto you - assume, as provided and prepared for you, the whole armor of God; which armor if you put on and use, you shall be both invulnerable and immortal. The ancient heroes are fabled to have had armor sent to them by the gods; and even the great armor-maker, Vulcan, was reputed to be a god himself. This was fable: What Paul speaks of is reality. See before on Eph 6:11 (note)

Clarke: Eph 6:13

That ye may be able to withstand - That ye may not only stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free, but also discomfit all your spiritual foes; and continuing in your ranks, maintain your ground against them, never putting off your armor, but standing always ready prepared to repel any new attack

Clarke: Eph 6:13

And having done all, to stand - Και ἁπαντα κατεργασαμενοι στηναι· rather, And having conquered all, stand: this is a military phrase, and is repeatedly used in this sense by the best Greek writers. So Dionys. Hal. Ant., lib. vi., page 400: Και παντα πολεμια εν ολιγῳ κατεργασαμενοι χρονῳ· "Having in a short time discomfited all our enemies, we returned with numerous captives and much spoil."See many examples in Kypke. By evil day we may understand any time of trouble, affliction, and sore temptation

As there is here allusion to some of the most important parts of the Grecian armor, I shall give a short account of the whole. It consisted properly of two sorts

1.    Defensive armor, or that which protected themselves

2.    Offensive armor, or that by which they injured their enemies. The apostle refers to both

I. Defensive Armo

Περικεφαλαια, the Helmet; this was the armor for the head, and was of various forms, and embossed with a great variety of figures. Connected with the helmet was the crest or ridge on the top of the helmet, adorned with several emblematic figures; some for ornament, some to strike terror. For crests on ancient helmets we often see the winged lion, the griffin, chimera, etc. St. Paul seems to refer to one which had an emblematical representation of hope

Ζωμα, the Girdle; this went about the loins, and served to brace the armor tight to the body, and to support daggers, short swords, and such like weapons, which were frequently stuck in it. This kind of girdle is in general use among the Asiatic nations to the present day

Θωραξ, the Breast-Plate; this consisted of two parts, called πτερυγες or wings: one covered the whole region of the thorax or breast, in which the principal viscera of life are contained; and the other covered the back, as far down as the front part extended

Κνημιδὲ‚, Greaves or brazen boots, which covered the shin or front of the leg; a kind of solea was often used, which covered the sole, and laced about the instep, and prevented the foot from being wounded by rugged ways, thorns, stones, etc

Χειριδες, Gauntlets; a kind of gloves that served to defend the hands, and the arm up to the elbow

Ασπις, the clypeus or Shield; it was perfectly round, and sometimes made of wood, covered with bullocks’ hides; but often made of metal. The aspis or shield of Achilles, made by Vulcan, was composed of five plates, two of brass, two of tin, and one of gold; so Homer, Il. U. v. 270: -

- επει πεντε πτυχας ηλασε Κυλλοποδιων

Τας δυο χαλκειας, δυο δ ’ ενδοθι κασσιτεροιο

Την δε μιαν χρυσην.

Five plates of various metal, various mold

Composed the shield; of brass each outward fold

Of tin each inward, and the middle gold

Of shields there were several sorts

Γερῥων or γερρα, the gerron ; a small square shield, used first by the Persians

Λαισηΐον, Laiseion ; a sort of oblong shield, covered with rough hides, or skins with the hair on

Πελτη, the Pelta ; a small light shield, nearly in the form of a demicrescent, with a small ornament, similar to the recurved leaves of a flower de luce, on the center of a diagonal edge or straight line; this was the Amazonian shield

Θυρεος, the scutum or Oblong Shield; this was always made of wood, and covered with hides. It was exactly in the shape of the laiseion , but differed in size, being much larger, and being covered with hides from which the hair had been taken off. It was called θυρεος from θυρα, a door, which it resembled in its oblong shape; but it was made curved, so as to embrace the whole forepart of the body. The aspis and the thureos were the shields principally in use; the former for light, the latter for heavy armed troops.

II. Offensive Armor, or Weapons;
the Following Were Chief

Εγχος, enchos , the Spear; which was generally a head of brass or iron, with a long shaft of ash

Δορυ, the Lance; differing perhaps little from the former, but in its size and lightness; being a missile used, both by infantry and cavalry, for the purpose of annoying the enemy at a distance

Ξιφος, the Sword; these were of various sizes, and in the beginning all of brass. The swords of Homer’ s heroes are all of this metal

Μαχαιρα, called also a sword, sometimes a knife; it was a short sword, used more frequently by gladiators, or in single combat. What other difference it had from the xiphos I cannot tell

Αξινη, from which our word Axe; the common battle-axe

Πελεκυς, the Bipen ; a sort of battle-axe, with double face, one opposite to the other

Κορυνη, an iron club or mace, much used both among the ancient Greeks and Persians

Τοξον, the Bow; with its pharetra or quiver, and its stock or sheaf of arrows

Σφενδονη, the Sling; an instrument in the use of which most ancient nations were very expert, particularly the Hebrews and ancient Greeks

The arms and armor mentioned above were not always in use; they were found out and improved by degrees. The account given by Lucretius of the arms of the first inhabitants of the earth is doubtless as correct as it is natural

Arma antiqua manus, ungues, dentesque fuere

Et lapides, et item silvarum fragmina rami

Et flammae, atque ignes postquam sunt cognita primum

Posterius ferri vis est, aerisque reperta

Sed prius aeris erat quam ferri cognitus usus

Quo facilis magis est natura, et copia major

De Rerum Nat., lib. v. ver. 1282

Whilst cruelty was not improved by art

And rage not furnished yet with sword or dart

With fists, or boughs, or stones, the warriors fought

These were the only weapons Nature taught

But when flames burnt the trees and scorched the ground

Then brass appeared, and iron fit to wound

Brass first was used, because the softer ore

And earth’ s cold veins contained a greater store

Creech

I have only to observe farther on this head

1.    That the ancient Greeks and Romans went constantly armed

2.    That before they engaged they always ate together; an

3.    That they commenced every attack with prayer to the gods for success.

Clarke: Eph 6:14

Stand therefore - Prepare yourselves for combat, having your loins girt about with truth. He had told them before to take the whole armor of God, Eph 6:13, and to put on this whole armor. Having got all the pieces of it together, and the defensive parts put on, they were then to gird them close to their bodies with the ζωμα or girdle, and instead of a fine ornamented belt, such as the ancient warriors used, they were to have truth. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the truth of God; unless this be known and conscientiously believed no man can enter the spiritual warfare with any advantage or prospect of success. By this alone we discover who our enemies are, and how they come on to attack us; and by this we know where our strength lies; and, as the truth is great, and must prevail, we are to gird ourselves with this against all false religion, and the various winds of doctrine by which cunning men and insidious devils lie in wait to deceive. Truth may be taken here for sincerity; for if a man be not conscious to himself that his heart is right before God, and that he makes no false pretences to religion, in vain does he enter the spiritual lists. This alone can give him confidence: -

Hic murus aheneus esto

Nil conscire sibi, nulla pallescere culpa

Let this be my brazen wall; that no man can reproach me with a crime, and that I am conscious of my own integrity

The breast-plate of righteousness - What the θωραξ or breast-plate was, see before. The word righteousness, δικαισυνη, we have often had occasion to note, is a word of very extensive import: it signifies the principle of righteousness; it signifies the practice of righteousness, or living a holy life; it signifies God’ s method of justifying sinners; and it signifies justification itself. Here it may imply a consciousness of justification through the blood of the cross; the principle of righteousness or true holiness implanted in the heart; and a holy life, a life regulated according to the testimonies of God. As the breast-plate defends the heart and lungs, and all those vital functionaries that are contained in what is called the region of the thorax; so this righteousness, this life of God in the soul of man, defends every thing on which the man’ s spiritual existence depends. While he possesses this principle, and acts from it, his spiritual and eternal life is secure.

Clarke: Eph 6:15

Your feet shod - The κνημιδες, or greaves, have been already described; they were deemed of essential importance in the ancient armor; if the feet or legs are materially wounded, a man can neither stand to resist his foe, pursue him if vanquished, nor flee from him should he have the worst of the fight

That the apostle has obedience to the Gospel in general in view, there can be no doubt; but he appears to have more than this, a readiness to publish the Gospel: for, How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth Peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! Isa 52:7; Rom 10:15

The Israelites were commanded to eat the passover with their feet shod, to show that they were ready for their journey. And our Lord commands his disciples to be shod with sandals, that they might be ready to go and publish the Gospel, as the Israelites were to go to possess the promised land. Every Christian should consider himself on his journey from a strange land to his own country, and not only stand every moment prepared to proceed, but be every moment in actual progress towards his home

Clarke: Eph 6:15

The preparation of the Gospel - The word ἑτοιμασια which we translate preparation, is variously understood: some think it means an habitual readiness in walking in the way prescribed by the Gospel; others that firmness and solidity which the Gospel gives to them who conscientiously believe its doctrines; others, those virtues and graces which in the first planting of Christianity were indispensably necessary to those who published it

Should we take the word preparation in its common acceptation, it may imply that, by a conscientious belief of the Gospel, receiving the salvation provided by its author, and walking in the way of obedience which is pointed out by it, the soul is prepared for the kingdom of heaven

The Gospel is termed the Gospel of peace, because it establishes peace between God and man, and proclaims peace and good will to the universe. Contentions, strife, quarrels, and all wars, being as alien from its nature and design, as they are opposed to the nature of Him who is love and compassion to man.

Clarke: Eph 6:16

Above all, ( Επι πασιν, over all the rest of the armor), taking the shield of faith - In the word θυρεος, thureos , the apostle alludes to the great oblong shield, or scutum , which covers the whole body. See its description before. And as faith is the grace by which all others are preserved and rendered active, so it is properly represented here under the notion of a shield, by which the whole body is covered and protected. Faith, in this place, must mean that evidence of things unseen which every genuine believer has, that God, for Christ’ s sake, has blotted out his sins, and by which he is enabled to call God his Father, and feel him to be his portion. It is such an appropriating faith as this which can quench any dart of the devil

Clarke: Eph 6:16

The fiery darts of the wicked - Βελος, a dart, signifies any kind of missile weapon; every thing that is projected to a distance by the hand, as a javelin, or short spear; or by a bow, as an arrow; or a stone by a sling

The fiery darts - Τα βελη τα πεπυρωμενα . It is probable that the apostle alludes to the darts called falarica , which were headed with lead, in or about which some combustible stuff was placed that took fire in the passage of the arrow through the air, and often burnt up the enemy’ s engines, ships, etc.; they were calculated also to stick in the shields and set them on fire. Some think that poisoned arrows may be intended, which are called fiery from the burning heat produced in the bodies of those who were wounded by them. To quench or extinguish such fiery darts the shields were ordinarily covered with metal on the outside, and thus the fire was prevented from catching hold of the shield. When they stuck on a shield of another kind and set it on fire, the soldier was obliged to cast it away, and thus became defenceless

The fiery darts of the wicked, του πονηρου, or devil, are evil thoughts, and strong injections, as they are termed, which in the unregenerate inflame the passions, and excite the soul to acts of transgression. While the faith is strong in Christ it acts as a shield to quench these. He who walks so as to feel the witness of God’ s Spirit that he is his child, has all evil thoughts in abhorrence; and, though they pass through his mind, they never fix in his passions. They are caught on this shield, blunted, and extinguished.

Clarke: Eph 6:17

Take the helmet of salvation - Or, as it is expressed, 1Th 5:8, And for a helmet, the hope of salvation. It has already been observed, in the description of the Grecian armor, that on the crest and other parts of the helmet were a great variety of emblematical figures, and that it is very likely the apostle refers to helmets which had on them an emblematical representation of hope; viz. that the person should be safe who wore it, that he should be prosperous in all his engagements, and ever escape safe from battle. So the hope of conquering every adversary and surmounting every difficulty, through the blood of the Lamb, is as a helmet that protects the head; an impenetrable one, that the blow of the battle-axe cannot cleave. The hope of continual safety and protection, built on the promises of God, to which the upright follower of Christ feels he has a Divine right, protects the understanding from being darkened, and the judgment from being confused by any temptations of Satan, or subtle arguments of the sophistical ungodly. He who carries Christ in his heart cannot be cheated out of the hope of his heaven

Clarke: Eph 6:17

The sword of the Spirit - See what is said before on ξιφος and μαχαιρα, in the account of the Greek armor (Eph 6:13 (note)). The sword of which St. Paul speaks is, as he explains it, the word of God; that is, the revelation which God has given of himself, or what we call the Holy Scriptures. This is called the sword of the Spirit, because it comes from the Holy Spirit, and receives its fulfillment in the soul through the operation of the Holy Spirit. An ability to quote this on proper occasions, and especially in times of temptation and trial, has a wonderful tendency to cut in pieces the snares of the adversary. In God’ s word a genuine Christian may have unlimited confidence, and to every purpose to which it is applicable it may be brought with the greatest effect. The shield, faith, and the sword - the word of God, or faith in God’ s unchangeable word, are the principal armor of the soul. He in whom the word of God dwells richly, and who has that faith by which he knows that he has redemption, even the forgiveness of sins, need not fear the power of any adversary. He stands fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made him free. Some suppose that του Πνευματος, of the Spirit, should be understood of our own spirit or soul; the word of God being the proper sword of the soul, or that offensive weapon the only one which the soul uses. But though it is true that every Christian soul has this for its sword, yet the first meaning is the most likely.

Clarke: Eph 6:18

Praying always - The apostle does not put praying among the armor; had he done so he would have referred it, as he has done all the rest, to some of the Grecian armor; but as he does not do this, therefore we conclude that his account of the armor is ended, and that now, having equipped his spiritual soldier, he shows him the necessity of praying, that he may successfully resist those principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, and the spiritual wickednesses in heavenly places, with whom he has to contend. The panoply, or whole armor of God, consists in

1.    the girdle

2.    the breast-plate

3.    the greaves

4.    the shield

5.    the helmet; an

6.    the sword. He who had these was completely armed

And as it was the custom of the Grecian armies, before they engaged, to offer prayers to the gods for their success, the apostle shows that these spiritual warriors must depend on the Captain of their salvation, and pray with all prayer, i.e. incessantly, being always in the spirit of prayer, so that they should be ever ready for public, private, mental, or ejaculatory prayer, always depending on Him who can alone save, and who alone can destroy

When the apostle exhorts Christians to pray with all prayer, we may at once see that he neither means spiritual nor formal prayer, in exclusion of the other. Praying, προσευχομενοι, refers to the state of the spirit as well as to the act

Clarke: Eph 6:18

With all prayer - Refers to the different kinds of prayer that is performed in public, in the family, in the closet, in business, on the way, in the heart without a voice, and with the voice from the heart. All those are necessary to the genuine Christian; and he whose heart is right with God will be frequent in the whole. "Some there are,"says a very pious and learned writer, who use only mental prayer or ejaculations, and think they are in a state of grace, and use a way of worship far superior to any other; but such only fancy themselves to be above what is really above them; it requiring far more grace to be enabled to pour out a fervent and continued prayer, than to offer up mental aspirations."Rev. J. Wesley

Clarke: Eph 6:18

And supplication - There is a difference between προσευχη, prayer, and δεησις, supplication. Some think the former means prayer for the attainment of good; the latter, prayer for averting evil. Supplication however seems to mean prayer continued in, strong and incessant pleadings, till the evil is averted, or the good communicated. There are two things that must be attended to in prayer

1.    That it be εν παντι καιρῳ, in every time, season, or opportunity

2.    That it should be εν Πνευματι, in or through the Spirit - that the heart should be engaged in it, and that its infirmities should be helped by the Holy Ghost

Clarke: Eph 6:18

Watching thereunto - Being always on your guard lest your enemies should surprise you. Watch, not only against evil, but also for opportunities to do good, and for opportunities to receive good. Without watchfulness, prayer and all the spiritual armor will be ineffectual

Clarke: Eph 6:18

With all perseverance - Being always intent on your object, and never losing sight of your danger, or of your interest. The word implies stretching out the neck, and looking about, in order to discern an enemy at a distance

Clarke: Eph 6:18

For all saints - For all Christians; for this was the character by which they were generally distinguished.

Clarke: Eph 6:19

And for me, that utterance may be given unto me - Ἱνα μοι δοθειη λογος . Kypke has proved by many examples that λογον διδοναι signifies permission and power to defend one’ s self in a court of justice; and this sense of the phrase is perfectly applicable to the case of St. Paul, who was an ambassador in bonds, (Eph 6:20), and expected to be called to a public hearing, in which he was not only to defend himself, but to prove the truth and excellency of the Christian religion. And we learn, from Phi 1:12-14, that he had his desire in this respect; for the things which happened to him fell out to the furtherance of the Gospel, so that his bonds in Christ were manifest in all the palace, and in all other places. Thus God had enabled him to make a most noble defense, by which the Gospel acquired great credit

Clarke: Eph 6:19

The mystery of the Gospel - The whole doctrine of Christ, not fully revealed previously to that time.

Clarke: Eph 6:20

An ambassador in bonds - An ambassador being the representative of his king, his person was in all civilized countries held sacred. Contrary to the rights of nations, this ambassador of the King of heaven was put in chains! He had however the opportunity of defending himself, and of vindicating the honor of his Master. See above

Clarke: Eph 6:20

As I ought to speak - As becomes the dignity and the importance of the subject.

Clarke: Eph 6:21

That ye also - As well as other Churches to whom I have communicated the dealings both of God and man to me

Clarke: Eph 6:21

May know my affairs - May be acquainted with my situation and circumstances

Clarke: Eph 6:21

And how I do - How I employ my time, and what fruit there is of my apostolical labors

Clarke: Eph 6:21

Tychicus, a beloved brother - We learn, from Act 20:4, that Tychicus was of Asia, and that he was a useful companion of St. Paul. See the note on Act 20:4

This same person, and with the same character and commendation, is mentioned in the Epistle to the Colossians, Col 4:7. He is mentioned also in Tit 3:12, and in 2Ti 4:12; from all these places it is evident that he was a person in whom the apostle had the highest confidence, and that he was a very eminent minister of Christ.

Clarke: Eph 6:22

Whom I have sent - for the same purpose - Namely, that the Ephesians might know his affairs, and those of the Church at Rome: messengers of this kind frequently passed between the Churches in those ancient times

Clarke: Eph 6:22

Comfort your hearts - By showing you how powerfully he was upheld in all his tribulations, and how God turned his bonds to the furtherance of the Gospel. This must have been great consolation to all the followers of God; and particularly to those in Ephesus or Laodicea, or to whomsoever the epistle was directed. The question, To whom was it sent? is divided between the Ephesians and the Laodiceans. Dr. Lardner has argued strongly in favor of the former; Dr. Paley not less so in favor of the latter.

Clarke: Eph 6:23

Peace be to the brethren - If the epistle were really sent to the Ephesians, a people with whom the apostle was so intimately acquainted, it is strange that he mentions no person by name. This objection, on which Dr. Paley lays great stress, (see the preface to this epistle), has not been successfully answered

Clarke: Eph 6:23

Peace - All prosperity, and continual union with God and among yourselves; and love to God and man, the principle of all obedience and union; with faith, continually increasing, and growing stronger and stronger, from God the Father, as the fountain of all our mercies, and the Lord Jesus Christ, through whose sacrifice and mediation they all come.

Clarke: Eph 6:24

Grace be with all them - May the Divine favor, and all the benedictions flowing from it, be with all them who love our Lord Jesus Christ, who has so loved us as to give his life to redeem ours, and to save us unto life eternal

Clarke: Eph 6:24

In sincerity - Εν αφθαρσια· In incorruptibility. Those who show the genuineness of their love, by walking before him in holiness of life. Many profess to love our Lord Jesus who are corrupt in all their ways; on these the grace or favor of God cannot rest; they profess to know him, but in works deny him. Such can neither expect favor here, nor hereafter

Clarke: Eph 6:24

Amen - This is wanting in ABFG, and some others. It is, however, more likely to be a genuine subscription here than most others of its kind. The apostle might have sealed his most earnest wish by this word, which means not so much, so be it! or may it be so! but rather implies the faithfulness of him who had given the promises, and whose prerogative it was to give effect to the prayers which his own Spirit had inspired

The principal subscriptions to this epistle are the following: To the Ephesians. The Epistle to the Ephesians is finished. To the Ephesians, written from Rome. To the Ephesians, written from Rome by Tychicus. (This is the subscription which we have followed; and it is that of the larger number of modern MSS. and editions.) The Epistle to the Ephesians, written from Rome, and sent by Tychicus - Syriac. To the Ephesians. - aethiopic. Vulgate, no subscription. The end of this epistle, which was written from Rome by Tychicus. Praise be to God for ever. Amen. - Arabic. Written at Rome, and sent by Tychicus. - Coptic. The Sahidic is defective. The Epistle to the Ephesians is ended, which was written at Rome by Tychicus. - Philoxenian Syriac

We have had already occasion to observe that the subscriptions to the sacred books were not written by the authors themselves, but were added in a much later age, and generally by unskillful hands. They are consequently not much to be depended on, and never should be quoted as a part of the Divine oracles

1.    It may be supposed that on the principal subject of this concluding chapter, the armor of God, I should have been much more diffuse. I answer, my constant aim is just to say enough, and no more, on any point. Whether I attain this, in general, or not, I can still say it is what I have desired. As to the Christian armor, it does not appear to me that the apostle has couched such a profusion of mystical meaning in it as to require a huge volume to explain. I believe the Ephesians did not understand it so; nor did the primitive Church of God. Men of rich imaginations may write large volumes on such subjects; but when they come to be fairly examined, they will be found not to be explanations of the text, on which they professedly treat, but immense bodies of divinity, in which the peculiar creed of the writer, both with respect to doctrine and discipline, is amply set forth. Mr. Gurnal’ s Christian Armor contains a great many excellences; but surely it does not require such a volume to explain the five verses of this chapter, in which the apostle speaks of the spiritual armor. The grand design of the apostle was to show that truth, righteousness, obedience to the Gospel, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, a well grounded hope of salvation, a thorough knowledge of the word of God, and a continual dependence on and application to him by prayer, were essentially necessary to every soul who desired to walk uprightly in this life, and finally to attain everlasting blessedness. This is the obvious meaning of the apostle; in this sense it was understood by the Ephesians, and by the primitive Church; we may amplify it as we please

2.    In two or three places, in the preceding notes, I have referred to a piece on a very remarkable rule relative to the Greek article, to be introduced at the end. From the labors of several learned men this subject has acquired considerable importance, and has excited no small interest among Biblical critics. The late benevolent, learned, and excellent Mr. Granville Sharp was, I believe, the first who brought this subject fairly before the public; he was followed by the Rev. Dr. Wordsworth, a learned and intelligent clergyman of the Established Church

The Rev. Dr. Middleton, late bishop of Calcutta, has presented the subject in all its force and excellence, fortified by innumerable proofs, and a great variety of critical disquisition. The principal design of these writers was to exhibit a new and substantial mode of proving the Divinity of our Lord and Savior. Their works are before the public, and within the reach of all who are capable of judging of this mode of proof

The piece which I now subjoin is the result of the researches of one of my literary friends, H. S. Boyd, Esq., author of Translations from Chrysostom, etc., who has read the Greek writers, both sacred and profane, with peculiar attention; and has collected a vast number of additional examples, both from prose and poetic writers, for the confirmation and illustration of the rule in question, and in support of the great doctrine of the Godhead of Christ

The critical reader, who has entered into this subject, will be glad to see such a number of pointed examples brought within his reach, which at once serve the purpose both of philology and divinity. The learned author has transmitted them to me for the purpose of insertion in this place; but want of room has obliged me to omit several of his quotations.

I would not wish the reader to suppose that these are the only proofs of the grand doctrine of the Godhead of Christ; they are not: the Holy Scripture, in its plain, obvious meaning, independently of such criticism, affords the most luminous and convincing proofs of the doctrine in question; but this is no sufficient reason that we should reject any additional light which may come to us in the way of Divine Providence

Finished the correction for a new edition, Dec. 15th, 1831

Calvin: Eph 6:13

13.Wherefore take unto you Though our enemy is so powerful, Paul does not infer that we must throw away our spears, but that we must prepare our minds for the battle. A promise of victory is, indeed, involved in the exhortation, that ye may be able. If we only put on the whole armor of God, and fight valiantly to the end, we shall certainly stand. On any other supposition, we would be discouraged by the number and variety of the contests; and therefore he adds, in the evil day. By this expression he rouses them from security, bids them prepare themselves for hard, painful, and dangerous conflicts, and, at the same time, animates them with the hope of victory; for amidst the greatest dangers they will be safe. And having done all. They are thus directed to cherish confidence through the whole course of life. There will be no danger which may not be successfully met by the power of God; nor will any who, with this assistance, fight against Satan, fail in the day of battle.

Calvin: Eph 6:14

14.Stand therefore Now follows a description of the arms which they were enjoined to wear. We must not, however, inquire very minutely into the meaning of each word; for an allusion to military customs is all that was intended. Nothing can be more idle than the extraordinary pains which some have taken to discover the reason why righteousness is made a breastplate, instead of a girdle. Paul’s design was to touch briefly on the most important points required in a Christian, and to adapt them to the comparison which he had already used.

Truth, which means sincerity of mind, is compared to a girdle. Now, a girdle was, in ancient times, one of the most important parts of military armor. Our attention is thus directed to the fountain of sincerity; for the purity of the gospel ought to remove from our minds all guile, and from our hearts all hypocrisy. Secondly, he recommends righteousness, and desires that it should be a breastplate for protecting the breast. Some imagine that this refers to a freely bestowed righteousness, or the imputation of righteousness, by which pardon of sin is obtained. But such matters ought not, I think, to have been mentioned on the present occasion; for the subject now under discussion is a blameless life. He enjoins us to be adorned, first, with integrity, and next with a devout and holy life.

Calvin: Eph 6:15

15.And your feet shod The allusion, if I mistake not, is to the military greaves; for they were always reckoned a part of the armor, and were even used for domestic purposes. As soldiers covered their legs and feet to protect them against cold and other injuries, so we must be shod with the gospel, if we would pass unhurt through the world. It is the gospel of peace, and it is so called, as every reader must perceive, from its effects; for it is the message of our reconciliation to God, and nothing else gives peace to the conscience. But what is the meaning of the word preparation? Some explain it as an injunction to be prepared for the gospel; but it is the effect of the gospel which I consider to be likewise expressed by this term. We are enjoined to lay aside every hinderance, and to be prepared both for journey and for war. By nature we dislike exertion, and want agility. A rough road and many other obstacles retard our progress, and we are discouraged by the smallest annoyance. On these accounts, Paul holds out the gospel as the fittest means for undertaking and performing the expedition. Erasmus proposes a circumlocution, ( ut sitis parati ,) that ye may be prepared; but this does not appear to convey the true meaning.

Calvin: Eph 6:16

16.Taking the shield of faith Though faith and the word of God are one, yet Paul assigns to them two distinct offices. I call them one, because the word is the object of faith, and cannot be applied to our use but by faith; as faith again is nothing, and can do nothing, without the word. But Paul, neglecting so subtle a distinction, allowed himself to expatiate at large on the military armor. In the first Epistle to the Thessalonians he gives both to faith and to love the name of a breastplate, — “putting on the breastplate of faith and love,” (1Th 5:8.) All that was intended, therefore, was obviously this, — “He who possesses the excellencies of character which are here described is protected on every hand.”

And yet it is not without reason that the most necessary instruments of warfare — a sword and a shield — are compared to faith, and to the word of God. In the spiritual combat, these two hold the highest rank. By faith we repel all the attacks of the devil, and by the word of God the enemy himself is slain. If the word of God shall have its efficacy upon us through faith, we shall be more than sufficiently armed both for opposing the enemy and for putting him to flight. And what shall we say of those who take from a Christian people the word of God? Do they not rob them of the necessary armor, and leave them to perish without a struggle? There is no man of any rank who is not bound to be a soldier of Christ. But if we enter the field unarmed, if we want our sword, how shall we sustain that character?

Wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the darts But quench appears not to be the proper word. Why did he not use, instead of it, ward off or shake off, or some such word? Quench is far more expressive; for it is adapted to the epithet applied to darts The darts of Satan are not only sharp and penetrating, but — what makes them more destructive — they are fiery Faith will be found capable, not only of blunting their edge, but of quenching their heat.

“This,” says John, “is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” (1Jo 5:4.)

Calvin: Eph 6:17

17.And take the helmet of salvation In a passage already quoted, (1Th 5:8,) “the hope of salvation” is said to be a helmet, which I consider to be in the same sense as this passage. The head is protected by the best helmet, when, elevated by hope, we look up towards heaven to that salvation which is promised. It is only therefore by becoming the object of hope that salvation is a helmet.

Calvin: Eph 6:18

18.Praying always with all prayer Having instructed the Ephesians to put on their armor, he now enjoins them to fight by prayer. This is the true method. To call upon God is the chief exercise of faith and hope; and it is in this way that we obtain from God every blessing. Prayer and supplication are not greatly different from each other, except that supplication is only one branch of prayer

With all perseverance We are exhorted to persevere in prayer. Every tendency to weariness must be counteracted by a cheerful performance of the duty. With unabated ardor we must continue our prayers, though we do not immediately obtain what we desire. If, instead of with all perseverance, some would render it, with all Earnestness, I would have no objection to the change.

But what is the meaning of always? Having already spoken of continued application, does he twice repeat the same thing? I think not. When everything flows on prosperously, — when we are easy and cheerful, we seldom feel any strong excitement to prayer, — or rather, we never flee to God, but when we are driven by some kind of distress. Paul therefore desires us to allow no opportunity to pass, — on no occasion to neglect prayer; so that praying always is the same thing with praying both in prosperity and in adversity.

For all saints There is not a moment of our life at which the duty of prayer may not be urged by our own wants. But unremitting prayer may likewise be enforced by the consideration, that the necessities of our brethren ought to move our sympathy. And when is it that some members of the church are not suffering distress, and needing our assistance? If, at any time, we are colder or more indifferent about prayer than we ought to be, because we do not feel the pressure of immediate necessity, — let us instantly reflect how many of our brethren are worn out by varied and heavy afflictions, — are weighed down by sore perplexity, or are reduced to the lowest distress. If reflections like these do not rouse us from our lethargy, we must have hearts of stone. But are we to pray for believers only? Though the apostle states the claims of the godly, he does not exclude others. And yet in prayer, as in all other kind offices, our first care unquestionably is due to the saints.

Calvin: Eph 6:19

19.And for me For himself, in a particular manner, he enjoins the Ephesians to pray. Hence we infer that there is no man so richly endowed with gifts as not to need this kind of assistance from his brethren, so long as he remains in this world. Who will ever be better entitled to plead exemption from this necessity than Paul? Yet he entreats the prayers of his brethren, and not hypocritically, but from an earnest desire of their aid. And what does he wish that they should ask for him? That utterance may be given to me. What then? Was he habitually dumb, or did fear restrain him from making an open profession of the gospel? By no means; but there was reason to fear lest his splendid commencement should not be sustained by his future progress. Besides, his zeal for proclaiming the gospel was so ardent that he was never satisfied with his exertions. And indeed, if we consider the weight and importance of the subject, we shall all acknowledge that we are very far from being able to handle it in a proper manner. Accordingly he adds,

Calvin: Eph 6:20

20.As I ought to speak; meaning, that to proclaim the truth of the gospel as it ought to be proclaimed, is a high and rare attainment. Every word here deserves to be carefully weighed. Twice he uses the expression boldly, — “that I may open my mouth boldly, ” “that therein I may speak boldly. ” Fear hinders us from preaching Christ openly and fearlessly, while the absence of all restraint and disguise in confessing Christ is demanded from his ministers. Paul does not ask for himself the powers of an acute debater, or, I should rather say, of a dexterous sophist, that he might shield himself from his enemies by false pretences. It is, that I may open my mouth, to make a clear and strong confession; for when the mouth is half shut, the sounds which it utters are doubtful and confused. To open the mouth, therefore, is to speak with perfect freedom, without the smallest dread.

But does not Paul discover unbelief, when he entertains doubts as to his own stedfastness, and implores the intercession of others? No. He does not, like unbelievers, seek a remedy which is contrary to the will of God, or inconsistent with his word. The only aids on which he relies are those which he knows to be sanctioned by the Divine promise and approbation. It is the command of God, that believers shall pray for one another. How consoling then must it be to each of them to learn that the care of his salvation is enjoined on all the rest, and to be informed by God himself that the prayers of others on his behalf are not poured out in vain! Would it be lawful to refuse what the Lord himself has offered? Each believer, no doubt, ought to have been satisfied with the Divine assurance, that as often as he prayed he would be heard. But if, in addition to all the other manifestations of his kindness, God were pleased to declare that he will listen to the prayers of others in our behalf, would it be proper that this bounty should be slighted, or rather, ought we not to embrace it with open arms?

Let us therefore remember that Paul, when he resorted to the intercessions of his brethren, was influenced by no distrust or hesitation. His eagerness to obtain them arose from his resolution that no privilege which the Lord had given him should be overlooked. How absurdly then do Papists conclude from Paul’s example, that we ought to pray to the dead! Paul was writing to the Ephesians, to whom he had it in his power to communicate his sentintents. But what intercourse have we with the dead? As well might they argue that we ought to invite angels to our feasts and entertainments, because among men friendship is promoted by such kind offices.

Calvin: Eph 6:21

21.But that, ye also may know Uncertain or false reports frequently produce uneasiness, chiefly, no doubt, in weak minds, but sometimes also in thoughtful and steady persons. To prevent this danger, Paul sends Tychicus, from whom the Ephesians would receive full information. The holy solicitude which Paul felt about the interests of religion, or, to use his own language, “the care of all the churches,” (2Co 11:28,) was thus strikingly evinced. When death stood constantly before his eyes, neither the dread of death, nor anxiety about himself, prevented him from making provision for the most distant churches. Another man would have said, “My own affairs require all the attention I can give. It would be more reasonable that all should run to my assistance, than that they should expect from me the smallest relief.” But Paul acts a different part, and sends in every direction to strengthen the churches which he had founded.

Tychicus is commended, that his statements may be more fully believed. A faithful minister in the Lord. It is not easy to say, whether this refers to the public ministry of the church, or to the private attentions which Paul had received from Tychicus. This uncertainty arises from these two expressions being connected, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord. The former refers to Paul, to whom the second may be supposed also to apply. I am more inclined, however, to understand it as denoting the public ministry; for I do not think it probable that Paul would have sent any man who did not hold such a rank in the church, as would secure the respectful attention of the Ephesians.

Calvin: Eph 6:23

23.Peace be to the brethren I consider the word peace, as in the salutations of the Epistles, to mean prosperity. Yet if the reader shall prefer to view it as signifying harmony, because, immediately afterwards, Paul mentions love, I do not object to that interpretation, or rather, it agrees better with the context. He wishes the Ephesians to be peaceable and quiet among themselves; and this, he presently adds, may be obtained by brotherly love and by agreement in faith From this prayer we learn that faith and love, as well as peace itself, are gifts of God bestowed upon us through Christ, — that they come equally from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Calvin: Eph 6:24

24.Grace be with all The meaning is, “May God continue to bestow his favor on all who love Jesus Christ with a pure conscience!” The Greek word, which I follow Erasmus in translating sincerity, (ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ,) signifies literally uncorruptedness, which deserves attention on account of the beauty of the metaphor. Paul intended to state indirectly, that, when the heart of man is free from all hypocrisy, it will be free from all corruption. This prayer conveys to us the instruction, that the only way of enjoying the light of the Divine countenance is to love sincerely God’s own Son, in whom his love toward us has been declared and confirmed. But let there be no hypocrisy; for most men, while they are not unwilling to make some professions of religion, entertain exceedingly low notions of Christ, and worship him with pretended homage. I wish there were not so many instances in the present day to prove that Paul’s admonition, to love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity is as necessary as ever.

END OF THE COMMENTARIES ON THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS.

Defender: Eph 6:14

The "whole armour of God" (Eph 6:11, Eph 6:13) involves seven units, all of which are vital if we are to prevail lastingly in the spiritual conflict with the great enemy of our souls. We must, first of all, be strongly girded about with truth - the Word of God, and all its counsel (Joh 17:17; Act 20:27) - if we hope to stand against the father of lies (Joh 8:44).

Defender: Eph 6:14

The "breastplate of righteousness," protecting the heart and lungs which provide life and breath to carry on the fight, does not cover personal righteous behavior (always imperfect at best) but His righteousness, imputed to us and in us (1Co 1:30; 2Co 5:21) through faith by grace and thus eternally impregnable."

Defender: Eph 6:15

The feet also must be prepared, shod with footgear able to move quickly and as far as the gospel requires. "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace" (Rom 10:15). Satan would bring doubt and rebellion and death, but the whole gospel, from creation to redemption to consummation, brings assurance and peace and life."

Defender: Eph 6:16

The Roman shield was metallic and thus invulnerable to the ignited missiles often fired by opponents, especially when the entire phalanx mounted shield adjacent to shield, giving a solid wall of advancing metal. The shield is faith, and faith in God's promises is "the victory that overcometh the world," especially that promise that the Creator, the Son of God, has also become, in Jesus Christ, our eternal Savior and Lord (1Jo 5:4, 1Jo 5:5)."

Defender: Eph 6:17

This helmet is called "the hope of salvation" in 1Th 5:8, and such a hope is, indeed, a hope involving "full assurance ... unto the end" (Heb 6:11). Salvation involves an eternal future salvation as well as a past acceptance and present assurance thereof. It is that certain hope that protects the believer's mind as he would, in this spiritual warfare, seek continually to be "casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (2Co 10:5).

Defender: Eph 6:17

The "sword of the Spirit" is not the logos (the Word as a whole) but the rhema (the individual text, or "saying," of the Word) that is applicable in each particular situation and Satanic attack (Heb 4:12). Thus Jesus defeated Satan merely by citing the appropriate Scripture (Mat 4:4, Mat 4:7, Mat 4:10)."

Defender: Eph 6:18

Persevering prayer, not just for personal deliverance, but also in supplication for others, is the invisible, but powerful, weapon that assures that God Himself, with His angels, is also fighting for us."

Defender: Eph 6:19

Once again (Eph 1:9; Eph 3:3, Eph 3:4, Eph 3:9; Eph 5:32), as he closes the epistle, Paul speaks of that past mystery hidden in God since creation, which he now wants boldly to make fully known."

TSK: Eph 6:13

take : Eph 6:11-17; 2Co 10:4

the whole : Πανοπλια [Strong’ s G3833], a complete suit of armour, both offensive and defensive, from παν , all, and οπλον [Strong’ s G3696], armour.

in the : Eph 5:6, Eph 5:16; Ecc 12:1; Amo 6:3; Luk 8:13; Rev 3:10

done all : or, overcome all

to stand : Mal 3:2; Luk 21:36; Col 4:12; Rev 6:17

TSK: Eph 6:14

having : Eph 5:9; Isa 11:5; Luk 12:35; 2Co 6:7; 1Pe 1:13

the breastplate : The θωραξ [Strong’ s G2382], or breastplate, consisted of two parts; one of which covered the whole region of the thorax or breast, and the other the back, as far down as the front part extended. Isa 59:17; 1Th 5:8; Rev 9:9, Rev 9:17

TSK: Eph 6:15

your : Deu 33:25; Son 7:1; Hab 3:19; Luk 15:22

the gospel : Isa 52:7; Rom 10:15; 2Co 5:18-21

TSK: Eph 6:16

the shield : The θυρεος [Strong’ s G2375] was a large oblong shield, or scuta, like a door, θυρα [Strong’ s G2374], made of wood and covered with hides. Gen 15:1; Psa 56:3, Psa 56:4, Psa 56:10,Psa 56:11; Pro 18:10; 2Co 1:24, 2Co 4:16-18; Heb 6:17, Heb 6:18; Heb 11:24-34; 1Pe 5:8, 1Pe 5:9; 1Jo 5:4, 1Jo 5:5

to quench : 1Th 5:19

TSK: Eph 6:17

the helmet : 1Sa 17:5, 1Sa 17:58; Isa 59:17; 1Th 5:8

the sword : Isa 49:2; Heb 4:12; Rev 1:16, Rev 2:16, Rev 19:15

which : Mat 4:4, Mat 4:7, Mat 4:10,Mat 4:11; Heb 12:5, Heb 12:6, Heb 13:5, Heb 13:6; Rev 12:11

TSK: Eph 6:18

Praying : Eph 1:16; Job 27:10; Psa 4:1, Psa 6:9; Isa 26:16; Dan 6:10; Luk 3:26, Luk 3:37, Luk 18:1-7; Luk 21:36; Act 1:14, Act 6:4, Act 10:2, Act 12:5; Rom 12:12; Phi 4:6; Col 4:2; 1Th 5:17; 2Ti 1:3

supplication : 1Ki 8:52, 1Ki 8:54, 1Ki 8:59, 1Ki 9:3; Est 4:8; Dan 9:20; Hos 12:4; 1Ti 2:1; Heb 5:7

in the : Eph 2:22; Zec 12:10; Rom 8:15, Rom 8:26, Rom 8:27; Gal 4:6; Jud 1:20

watching : Mat 26:41; Mar 13:33, Mar 14:38; Luk 21:36, Luk 22:46; Col 4:2; 1Pe 4:7

all perseverance : Gen 32:24-28; Mat 15:25-28; Luk 11:5-8, Luk 18:1-8

supplication : Eph 6:19, Eph 1:16, Eph 3:8, Eph 3:18; Phi 1:4; 1Ti 2:1; Col 1:4; Phm 1:5

TSK: Eph 6:19

for : Rom 15:30; 2Co 1:11; Phi 1:19; Col 4:3; 1Th 5:25; 2Th 3:1; Phm 1:22; Heb 13:18

utterance : Act 2:4; 1Co 1:5; 2Co 8:7

that I : Act 4:13, Act 4:29, Act 4:31, Act 9:27, Act 9:29, Act 13:46, Act 14:3, Act 18:26, Act 19:8, Act 28:31; 2Co 3:12 *marg. 2Co 7:4; Phi 1:20; 1Th 2:2

the mystery : Eph 1:9, Eph 3:3, Eph 3:4; 1Co 2:7, 1Co 4:1; Col 1:26, Col 1:27, Col 2:2; 1Ti 3:16

TSK: Eph 6:20

I am : Pro 13:17; Isa 33:7; 2Co 5:20

bonds : or, a chain, Eph 3:1, Eph 4:1; 2Sa 10:2-6; Act 26:29, Act 28:20; Phi 1:7, Phi 1:13, Phi 1:14; 2Ti 1:16, 2Ti 2:9; Phm 1:10

therein : or, thereof

boldly : Eph 6:19; Isa 58:1; Jer 1:7, Jer 1:8, Jer 1:17; Eze 2:4-7; Mat 10:27, Mat 10:28; Act 5:29, Act 28:31; Col 4:4; Phi 1:20; 1Th 2:2; 1Jo 3:16; Jud 1:3

TSK: Eph 6:21

that : Phi 1:12; Col 4:7

Tychicus : Act 20:4; 2Ti 4:12; Tit 3:12

beloved : Col 4:9; Phm 1:16; 2Pe 3:15

faithful : 1Co 4:17; Col 1:7; 1Ti 4:6; 1Pe 5:12

TSK: Eph 6:22

Phi 2:19, Phi 2:25; Col 4:7, Col 4:8; 1Th 3:2; 2Th 2:17

TSK: Eph 6:23

Peace : Rom 1:7; 1Co 1:3; Gen 43:23; 1Sa 25:6; Psa 122:6-9; Joh 14:27; Gal 6:16; 1Pe 5:14; Rev 1:4

and love : Gal 5:6; 1Ti 1:3, 1Ti 5:8; 2Th 1:3; 1Ti 1:14; Phm 1:5-7

TSK: Eph 6:24

Grace : 1Co 16:23; 2Co 13:14; Col 4:18; 2Ti 4:22; Tit 3:15; Heb 13:25

love : Joh 21:15-17; 1Co 16:22

in sincerity : or, with incorruption, Mat 22:37; 2Co 8:8, 2Co 8:12; Tit 2:7

Amen : Mat 6:13, Mat 28:20

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

Barnes: Eph 6:13

In the evil day - The day of temptation; the day when you are violently assaulted.

And having done all, to stand - Margin, "or overcome."The Greek word means, to work out, effect, or produce; and then to work up, to make an end of, to vanquish. Robinson, Lexicon. The idea seems to be, that they were to overcome or vanquish all their foes, and thus to stand firm. The whole language here is taken from war; and the idea is, that every foe was to be subdued - no matter how numerous or formidable they might be. Safety and triumph could be looked for only when every enemy was slain.

Barnes: Eph 6:14

Stand therefore - Resist every attack - as a soldier does in battle. In what way they were to do this, and how they were to be armed, the apostle proceeds to specify; and in doing it, gives a description of the ancient armor of a soldier.

Having your loins girt about - The "girdle, or sash,"was always with the ancients an important part of their dress, in war as well as in peace. They wore loose, flowing robes; and it became necessary to gird them up when they traveled, or ran, or labored. The girdle was often highly ornamented, and was the place where they carried their money, their sword, their pipe, their writing instruments, etc.; see the notes on Mat 5:38-41. The "girdle"seems sometimes to have been a cincture of iron or steel, and designed to keep every part of the armor in its place, and to gird the soldier on every side.

With truth - It may not be easy to determine with entire accuracy the resemblance between the parts of the armor specified in this description, and the things with which they are compared, or to determine precisely why he compared truth to a girdle, and "righteousness"to a breast-plate, rather than why he should have chosen a different order, and compared righteousness to a girdle, etc. Perhaps in themselves there may have been no special reason for this arrangement, but the object may have been merely to specify the different parts of the armor of a soldier, and to compare them with the weapons which Christians were to use, though the comparison should be made somewhat at random. In some of the cases, however, we can see a particular significancy in the comparisons which are made; and it may not be improper to make suggestions of that kind as we go along. The idea here may be, that as the girdle was the bracer up, or support of the body, so truth is suited to brace us up, and to gird us for constancy and firmness. The girdle kept all the parts of the armor in their proper place, and preserved firmness and consistency in the dress; and so truth might serve to give consistency and firmness to our conduct. "Great,"says Grotius, "is the laxity of falsehood; truth binds the man."Truth preserves a man from those lax views of morals, of duty and of religion, which leave him exposed to every assault. It makes the soul sincere, firm, constant, and always on its guard. A man who has no consistent views of truth, is just the man for the adversary successfully to assail.

And having on the breast-plate - The word rendered here as "breastplate" θώρἀξ thōrax denoted the "cuirass,"Lat.: lorica , or coat of mail; i. e., the armor that covered the body from the neck to the thighs, and consisted of two parts, one covering the front and the other the back. It was made of rings, or in the form of scales, or of plates, so fastened together that they, would be flexible, and yet guard the body from a sword, spear, or arrow. It is referred to in the Scriptures as a "coat of mail"1Sa 17:5; an "habergeon"Neh 4:16, or as a "breast-plate."We are told that Goliath’ s coat of mail weighed five thousand shekels of brass, or nearly one hundred and sixty pounds. It was often formed of plates of brass, laid one upon another, like the scales of a fish. The following cuts will give an idea of this ancient piece of armor.

Of righteousness - Integrity, holiness, purity of life, sincerity of piety. The breast-plate defended the vital parts of the body; and the idea here may be that the integrity of life, and righteousness of character, is as necessary to defend us from the assaults of Satan, as the coat of mail was to preserve the heart from the arrows of an enemy. It was the incorruptible integrity of Job, and, in a higher sense, of the Redeemer himself, that saved them from the temptations of the devil. And it is as true now that no one can successfully meet the power of temptation unless he is righteous, as that a soldier could not defend himself against a foe without such a coat of mail. A want of integrity will leave a man exposed to the assaults of the enemy, just as a man would be whose coat of mail was defective, or some part of which was missing. The king of Israel was smitten by an arrow sent from a bow, drawn at a venture, "between the joints of his harness"or the "breast-plate"(margin), 1Ki 22:34; and many a man who thinks he has on the "Christian"armor is smitten in the same manner. There is some defect of character; some want of incorruptible integrity; some point that is unguarded - and that will be sure to be the point of attack by the foe. So David was tempted to commit the enormous crimes that stain his memory, and Peter to deny his Lord. So Judas was assailed, for the want of the armor of righteousness, through his avarice; and so, by some want of incorruptible integrity in a single point, many a minister of the gospel has been assailed and has fallen. It may be added here, that we need a righteousness which God alone can give; the righteousness of God our Saviour, to make us perfectly invulnerable to all the arrows of the foe.

Barnes: Eph 6:15

And your feet shod - There is undoubtedly an allusion here to what was worn by the ancient soldier to guard his feet. The Greek is, literally, "having underbound the feet;"that is, having bound on the shoes, or sandais, or whatever was worn by the ancient soldier. The protection of the feet and ankles consisted of two parts:

(1) The sandals, or shoes, which were probably made so as to cover the foot, and which often were fitted with nails, or armed with spikes, to make the hold firm in the ground: or.

\caps1 (2) w\caps0 ith "greaves"that were fitted to the legs, and designed to defond them from any danger. These "greaves,"or boots 1Sa 17:6, were made of brass, and were in almost universal use among the Greeks and Romans.

With the preparation - Prepared with the gospel of peace. The sense is, that the Christian soldier is to be prepared with the gospel of peace to meet attacks similar to those against which the ancient soldier designed to guard himself by the sandals or greaves which he wore. The word rendered "preparation"- ( ἑτοιμασία hetoimasia ) - means properly readiness, fitness for, alacrity; and the idea, according to Robinson (Lexicon), is, that they were to be ever ready to go forth to preach the gospel. Taylor (Fragments to Calmet’ s Dic., No. 219) supposes that it means, "Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel; not iron, not steel - but patient investigation, calm inquiry, assiduous, laborious, lasting; or with "firm footing"in the gospel of peace."Locke supposes it to mean,"with a readiness to walk in the gospel of peace."Doddridge supposes that the allusion is to "greaves,"and the spirit recommended is that peaceful and benevolent temper recommended in the gospel, and which, like the boots worn by soldiers, would bear them safe through many obstructions and trials that might be opposed to them, as a soldier might encounter sharp-pointed thorns that would oppose his progress.

It is difficult to determine the exact meaning; and perhaps all expositors have erred in endeavoring to explain the reference of these parts of armor by some particular thing in the gospel. The apostle figured to himself a soldier, clad in the usual manner. Christians were to resemble him. One part of his dress or preparation consisted in the covering and defense of the foot. It was to preserve the foot from danger, and to secure the facility of his march, and perhaps to make him firm in battle. Christians were to have the principles of the gospel of peace - the peaceful and pure gospel - to facilitate them; to aid them in their marches; to make them firm in the day of conflict with their foes. They were not to be furnished with carnal weapons, but with the peaceful gospel of the Redeemer; and, sustained by this, they were to go on in their march through the world. The principles of the gospel were to do for them what the greaves and iron-spiked sandals did for the soldier - to make them ready for the march, to make them firm in their foot-tread, and to be a part of their defense against their foes.

Barnes: Eph 6:16

Above all - Ἐν πᾶσιν En pasin . Not "above all"in point of importance or value, but "over"all, as a soldier holds his shield to defend himself. It constitutes a protection over every part of his body, as it can be turned in every direction. The idea is, that as the shield covered or protected the other parts of the armor, so faith had a similar importance in the Christian virtues.

The shield - note, Isa 21:9. The shield was usually made of light wood. or a rim of brass, and covered with several folds or thicknesses of stout hide, which was preserved by frequent anointing. It was held by the left arm, and was secured by straps, through which the arm passed, as may be seen in the annexed figures. The outer surface of the shield was made more or less rounding. Item the center to the edge, and was polished smooth, or anointed with oil, so that arrows or darts would glance off, or rebound.

Of faith - On the nature of faith, see the notes on Mar 16:16. Faith here is made to occupy a more important place than either of the other Christian graces. It bears, to the whole Christian character, the same relation which the shield does to the other parts of the armor of a soldier. It protects all, and is indispensable to the security of all, as is the case with the shield. The shield was an ingenious device by which blows and arrows might be parried off, and the whole body defended. It could be made to protect the head, or the heart, or thrown behind to meet all attack there. As long as the soldier had his shield, he felt secure; and as long as a Christian has faith, he is safe. It comes to his aid in every attack that is made on him, no matter from what quarter; it is the defense and guardian of every other Christian grace; and it secures the protection which the Christian needs in the whole of the spiritual war.

Wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked - Or, rather, "of the wicked one"- τοῦ πονηροῦ tou ponērou . The allusion is undoubtedly to the great enemy of the people of God, called, by way of eminence, the "wicked one;"compare 2Th 3:3. Mr. Locke renders this, "Wherein you may receive, and so render ineffectual,"etc. There seems a little incongruity in the idea of "quenching"darts by "a shield."But the word "quench,"here, means only that they would be "put out"by being thrown "against"the shield, as a candle would by being thrown against anything. "The fiery darts"that were used in war were small, slender pieces of cane, which were filled with combustible materials, and set on fire; or darts around which some combustible material was wound, and which were set on fire, and then shot "slowly"against a foe. The object was to make the arrow fasten in the body, and increase the danger by the burning; or, more frequently, those darts were thrown against ships, forts, tents, etc., with an intention to set them on fire. They were in common use among the ancients. Arrian (Exped. Alexan. 11) mentions the πυρφορα βελη purphora belē , the fire-bearing weapons; Thucydides (ii. c. 75), the πυρφοροι ὀΐστοι purphoroi oistoi , the fire-bearing arrows; and Livy refers to similar weapons as in common use in war; lib. xxi. c. 8. By the "fiery darts of the wicked,"Paul here refers, probably, to the temptations of the great adversary, which are like fiery darts; or those furious suggestions of evil, and excitements to sin, which he may throw into the mind like fiery darts. They are - blasphemous thoughts, unbelief, sudden temptation to do wrong, or thoughts that wound and torment the soul. In regard to them, we may observe:

(1)\caps1     t\caps0 hat they come suddenly, like arrows sped from a bow;

(2)\caps1     t\caps0 hey come from unexpected quarters, like arrows shot suddenly from an enemy in ambush;

(3)\caps1     t\caps0 hey pierce, and penetrate, and torment the soul, as arrows would that are on fire;

(4)\caps1     t\caps0 hey set the soul on fire, and enkindle the worst passions, as fiery darts do a ship or camp against which they are sent.

The only way to meet them is by the "shield of faith;"by confidence in God, and by relying on his gracious promises and aid. It is not by our own strength; and, if we have not faith in God, we are wholly defenseless. We should have a shield that we can turn in any direction, on which we may receive the arrow, and by which it may be put out.

Barnes: Eph 6:17

And take the helmet - The helmet was a cap made of thick leather, or brass, fitted to the head, and was usually crowned with a plume, or crest, as an ornament. Its use was to guard the head from a blow by a sword, or war-club, or battle-axe. The cuts will show its usual form.

Of salvation - That is, "of the hope of salvation;"for so it is expressed in the parallel place in 1Th 5:8. The idea is, that a well-founded hope of salvation will preserve us in the day of spiritual conflict, and will guard us from the blows which an enemy would strike. The helmet defended the head, a vital part; and so the hope of salvation will defend the soul, and keep it from the blows of the enemy. A soldier would not fight well without a hope of victory. A Christian could not contend with his foes, without the hope of final salvation; but, sustained by this, what has he to dread?

And the sword - The sword was an essential part of the armor of an ancient soldier. His other weapons were the bow, the spear, or the battle-axe. But, without a sword, no soldier would have regarded himself as well armed. The ancient sword was short, and usually two-edged, and resembled very much a dagger.

Of the Spirit - Which the Holy Spirit furnishes; the truth which he has revealed.

Which is the word of God - What God has spoken - his truth and promises; see the notes on Heb 4:12. It was with this weapon that the Saviour met the tempter in the wilderness; Matt. 4. It is only by this that Satan can now be met. Error and falsehood will not put back temptation; nor can we hope for victory, unless we are armed with truth. Learn, hence:

(1)    That we should study the Bible, that we may understand what the truth is.

(2)\caps1     w\caps0 e should have texts of Scripture at command, as the Saviour did, to meet the various forms of temptation.

(3)\caps1     w\caps0 e should not depend on our own reason, or rely on our own wisdom.

A single text of Scripture is better to meet a temptation, than all the philosophy which the world contains. The tempter can reason, and reason plausibly too. But he cannot resist a direct and positive command of the Almighty. Had Eve adhered simply to the Word of God, and urged his command, without attempting to "reason"about it, sire would have been safe. The Saviour Mat 4:4, Mat 4:7,Mat 4:10, met the tempter with the Word of God, and he was foiled. So we shah be safe if we adhere to the simple declarations of the Bible, and oppose a temptation by a positive command of God. But, the moment we leave that, and begin to parley with sin, that moment we are gone. It is as if a man should throw away his sword, and use his naked hands only in meeting an adversary. Hence,

\caps1 (4) w\caps0 e may seethe importance of training up the young in the accurate study of the Bible. There is nothing which will furnish a better security to them in future life, when temptation comes upon them, than to have a pertinent text of Scripture at command. Temptation often assails us so suddenly that it checks all "reasoning;"but a text of Scripture will suffice to drive the tempter from us.

Barnes: Eph 6:18

Praying always - It would be well for the soldier who goes forth to battle to pray - to pray for victory; or to pray that he may be prepared for death, should he fall. But soldiers do not often feel the necessity of this. To the Christian soldier, however, it is indispensable. Prayer crowns all lawful efforts with success and gives a victory when nothing else would. No matter how complete the armor; no matter how skilled we may be in the science of war; no matter how courageous we may be, we may be certain that without prayer we shall be defeated. God alone can give the victory; and when the Christian soldier goes forth armed completely for the spiritual conflict, if he looks to God by prayer, he may be sure of a triumph. This prayer is not to be intermitted. It is to be always. In every temptation and spiritual conflict we are to pray; see notes on Luk 18:1.

With all prayer and supplication - With all kinds of prayer; prayer in the closet, the family, the social meeting, the great assembly; prayer at the usual hours, prayer when we are specially tempted, and when we feel just like praying (see the notes, Mat 6:6) prayer in the form of supplication for ourselves, and in the form of intercession for others. This is, after all, the great weapon of our spiritual armor, and by this we may hope to prevail.

"Restraining prayer, we cease to fight;

Prayer makes the Christian armor bright,

And Satan trembles when he sees.

The meanest saint upon his knees."

In the Spirit - By the aid of the Holy Spirit; or perhaps it may mean that it is not to be prayer of form merely, but when the spirit and the heart accompany it. The former idea seems, however, to be the correct one.

And watching thereunto - Watching for opportunities to pray; watching for the spirit of prayer; watching against all those things which would hinder prayer; see the Mat 26:38, note, 41, note; compare 1Pe 4:7.

With all perseverance - Never becoming discouraged and disheartened; compare notes, Luk 18:1.

And supplication for all saints - For all Christians. We should do this:

\caps1 (1) b\caps0 ecause they are our brethren - though they may have a different skin, language, or name.

\caps1 (2) b\caps0 ecause, like us, they have hearts prone to evil, and need, with us, the grace of God.

\caps1 (3) b\caps0 ecause nothing tends so much to make us love others and to forget their faults, as to pray for them.

\caps1 (4) b\caps0 ecause the condition of the church is always such that it greatly needs the grace of God. Many Christians have backslidden; many are cold or lukewarm; many are in error; many are conformed to the world; and we should pray that they may become more holy and may devote themselves more to God.

\caps1 (5) b\caps0 ecause each day many a Christian is subjected to some special temptation or trial, and though he may be unknown to us, yet our prayers may benefit him.

\caps1 (6) b\caps0 ecause each day and each night many Christians die. We may reflect each night as we lie down to rest, that while we sleep, some Christians are kept awake by the prospect of death, and are now passing through the dark valley; and each morning we may reflect that "today"some Christian will die, and we should remember them before God.

\caps1 (7) b\caps0 ecause we shall soon die, and it will be a comfort to us if we can remember then that we have often prayed for dying saints, and if we may feel that they are praying for us.

Barnes: Eph 6:19

And for me - Paul was then a prisoner at Rome. He specially needed the prayers of Christians:

\caps1 (1) t\caps0 hat he might be sustained in his afflictions; and,

\caps1 (2) t\caps0 hat he might be able to manifest the spirit which he ought, and to do good as he had opportunity. Learn hence that we should pray for the prisoner, the captive, the man in chains, the slave. There are in this land (the United States) about ten thousand prisoners - husbands, fathers, sons, brothers; or wives, mothers, daughters. True, they are the children of "crime,"but they are also the children of sorrow; and in either case or both they need our prayers. There are in this land not far from three million of slaves - and they need our prayers. They are children of misfortune and of many wrongs; they are sunk in ignorance and want and we; they are subjected to trials, and exposed to temptations to the lowest vices. But many of them, we trust, love the Redeemer; and whether they do or do not, they need an interest in the prayers of Christians.

That utterance may be given unto me - Paul, though a prisoner, was permitted to preach the gospel; see the notes, Act 28:30-31.

That I may open my mouth boldly - He was in Rome. He was almost alone. He was surrounded by multitudes of the wicked. He was exposed to death. Yet he desired to speak boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and to invite sinners to repentance. A Christians in chains, and surrounded by the wicked, may speak boldly, and "may"have hope of success - for Paul was not an unsuccessful preacher even when a captive at Rome; see the notes on Phi 4:22.

The mystery of the gospel - notes, Eph 1:9.

Barnes: Eph 6:20

For which I am an ambassador in bonds - In chains (see the margin); or in confinement. There is something especially touching in this. He was "an ambassador"- sent to proclaim peace to a lost world. But he was now in chains. An ambassador is a sacred character. No greater affront can be given to a nation than to put its ambassadors to death, or even to throw them into prison. But Paul says here that the unusual spectacle was witnessed of an ambassador seized, bound, confined, imprisoned; an ambassador who ought to have the privileges conceded to all such people, and to be permitted to go everywhere publishing the terms of mercy and salvation. See the word "ambassador"explained in the notes on 2Co 5:20.

That therein - Margin, or "thereof."Greek, ἐν αὐτῷ en autō - "in it;"that is, says Rosenmuller, in the gospel. It means that in speaking the gospel he might be bold.

I may speak boldly - Openly, plainly, without fear; see the notes on Act 4:13; Act 9:27, note; Act 13:46, note; Act 14:3, note; Act 18:26, note; Act 19:8, note; Act 26:26, note.

As I ought to speak - Whether in bonds or at large. Paul felt that the gospel ought always to be Spoken with plainness, and without the fear of man. It is remarkable that he did not ask them to pray that he might be released. "Why"he did not we do not know; but perhaps the desire of release did not lie so near his heart as the duty of speaking the gospel with boldness It may be of much more importance that we perform our duty aright when we are afflicted, or are in trouble, than that we should be released.

Barnes: Eph 6:21

But that ye also may know my affairs - May understand my condition, my feelings, and in what I am engaged. To them it could not but be a subject of deep interest.

And how I do - Greek, "What I do; that is how I am employed.

Tychicus - Tychicus was of the province of Asia, in Asia Minor, of which Ephesus was the capital; see Act 20:4. It is not improbable that he was of Ephesus, and that he was well known to the church there. He also carried the letter to the Colossians Col 4:7, and probably the Second Epistle to Timothy; 2Ti 4:12. Paul also proposed to send him to Crete to succeed Titus; Tit 3:12. He was high in the confidence of: Paul, but it is not known when he was converted, or why he was now at Rome. The Greeks speak of him as one of the seventy disciples, and make him bishop of Colophon, in the province of Asia.

Barnes: Eph 6:22

Whom I have sent unto you - The churches where Paul had preached, would feel a great interest in his welfare. He was a prisoner at Rome, and it was doubtful what the result would be. In this situation, he felt it proper to despatch a special messenger to give information about his condition; to state what was doing in Rome; to ask the prayers of the churches; and to administer consolation to them in their various trials. The same sentiment in regard to the embassy of Tychicus, is expressed in the Epistle to the Colossians, Col 4:7-8. No small part of the consolation which he would impart to them would be found in these invaluable letters which he bore to them from the apostle.

Barnes: Eph 6:23

Peace be to the brethren - The Epistle is closed with the usual salutations. The expression "peace to you,"was the common form of salutation in the East (see the Mat 10:13 note; Luk 24:36 note; Rom 15:33 note; compare Gal 6:16; 1Pe 5:14; 3Jo 1:14), and is still the "salam"which is used - the word "salam"meaning "peace."

And love with faith - Love united with faith; not only desiring that they might have faith, but the faith which worked by love.

From God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ - The Father and the Son are regarded as equally the author of peace and love; compare notes on 2Co 13:14.

Barnes: Eph 6:24

Grace be, ... - note, Rom 16:20.

That love our Lord Jesus Christ - see the notes on 1Co 16:22.

In sincerity - Margin, "with incorruption."With a pure heart; without dissembling; without hypocrisy. There could not be a more appropriate close of the Epistle than such a wish; there will be nothing more needful for us when we come to the close of life than the consciousness that we love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. To writer and reader may this be equally the inestimable consolation then! Better, far better then will be the evidence of such sincere love, than all the wealth which toil can gain, all the honors which the world can bestow - than the most splendid mansion, or the widest fame. The subscription to this Epistle, like those affixed to the other epistles, is of no authority, but in this instance there is every reason to believe that it is correct. Compare notes at the end of the Epistle to the Romans and 1 Corinthians.

Poole: Eph 6:13

In the evil day times of temptation, and Satan’ s greatest rage: see Eph 5:16 .

Having done all all that belongs to good soldiers of Jesus Christ, all that we can do being little enough to secure our standing.

To stand as conquerors do that keep the field, not being beaten down, nor giving way.

Poole: Eph 6:14

Stand therefore: standing here (in a different sense from what it was taken in before) seems to imply watchfulness, readiness for the combat, and keeping our places, both as to our general and particular callings: if soldiers leave their ranks they endanger themselves.

Having your loins girt about with truth: having exhorted to put on the whole armour of God, he descends to the particulars of it, both defensive and offensive. We need not be over curious in inquiring into the reason of the names here given to the several parts of a Christian’ s armour, and the analogy between them and corporal arms, the apostle using these terms promiscuously, 1Th 5:8 , and designing only to show that what bodily arms are to soldiers, that these spiritual arms might be to Christians; yet some reason may be given of these denominations. He begins with the furniture for the loins, the seat of strength, and alludes to the belt or military girdle, which was both for ornament and strength; and so is

truth understood either of the truth of doctrine, or rather, (because that comes in afterward under the title of the sword of the Spirit), of soundness, and sincerity of heart, than which nothing doth more beautify or adorn a Christian. He alludes to Isa 59:17 : see 2Co 1:12 1Ti 1:5,19 .

And having on the breastplate of righteousness righteousness of conversation, consisting both in a resolvedness for good, and repentance for evil done, which is as a breastplate (that piece of armour which covers the whole breast and belly) to a Christian; that resolvedness against sin fencing him against temptation, and the conscience of well-doing against the accusations of men and devils: see 1Co 4:3,4 1Jo 3:7 .

Poole: Eph 6:15

Your feet shod in allusion to the greaves or military shoes with which soldiers covered their feet and legs. A Christian’ s way lies through rough places, through briers and thorns, and therefore he needs this piece of armour. He must be prepared to hold the faith, and confess Christ in the most difficult times.

With the preparation of the gospel of peace with that furniture which the gospel affords him, which being a

gospel of peace and bringing the glad tidings of reconciliation to God by Christ, prepares men best to undergo the troubles of the world: see Joh 16:33 .

Poole: Eph 6:16

Above all chiefly, Col 3:14 : this he sets, as the principal part of the Christian armour, against the greatest temptations, fiery darts, 1Pe 5:8,9 1Jo 5:4 .

Taking the shield of faith: faith, as receiving Christ and the benefits of redemption, is compared to a shield, (under which soldiers were wont to shelter themselves against their enemies’ darts), as being a sort of universal defence covering the whole man, and guarding even the other parts of our spiritual armour.

Fiery darts it seems to be an allusion to the poisoned darts some barbarous nations were wont to use, which inflamed the bodies they hit. By them he means all those violent temptations which inflame men’ s lusts. These fiery darts of temptations faith is said to quench, when, by the help of grace obtained of Christ, it overcomes them.

Of the wicked the devil, Mat 13:19 .

Poole: Eph 6:17

Take the helmet of salvation : salvation, for the hope of salvation, 1Th 5:8 . This follows faith, and is of kin to it. Soldiers dare not fight without their helmet: despair, to which the devil tempts us, makes us quit our combat; whereas hope of salvation makes us lift up our heads in the midst of temptations and afflictions. This likewise alludes to Isa 59:17 .

The sword of the Spirit either the spiritual sword, the war being spiritual, and the enemy spiritual, or rather the sword which the Spirit of God furnisheth us with, and makes effectual in our hands.

Which is the word of God the doctrine of God in the Scripture, called a two-edged sword, Rev 1:16 2:12 ; which enters into the soul, and divides between the most inward affections, Heb 4:12 , and cuts the sinews of the strongest temptations, Mat 4:4,7,10 ; and conquers the devil, while it rescues sinners from under his power. This relates to Isa 49:2 .

Poole: Eph 6:18

Praying always i.e. in every opportunity, so often as our own or others’ necessities call us to it, 1Th 5:17 .

With all prayer and supplication prayer, when opposed to supplication, seems to signify petitioning for good things, and supplication the deprecating of evil, 1Ti 2:1 .

In the Spirit either our own spirit, with which we pray, so as not to draw nigh to God with our mouth only, as Isa 29:13 ; or rather, the Holy Spirit of God, by whose assistance we pray, Rom 8:26,27 Jude 1:20 .

Watching thereunto to prayer, in opposition to sloth and security: see Mat 26:41 Col 4:2 1Pe 4:7 .

With all perseverance constancy and continuance in prayer in every condition, adverse as well as prosperous, though prayer be not presently answered, Luk 18:1 .

And supplication for all saints not only for ourselves, but for our brethren in the world, none being in so good a condition but they may need our prayers.

Poole: Eph 6:19

Utterance or speech, viz. both the things I am to speak, and the faculty of speaking as becomes the matter I deliver.

That I may open my mouth or, in or unto the opening of my mouth, i.e. full and free profession of the truth, without shame or fear.

Boldly either, freely and confidently, the same as before in other words; or, openly and plainly, in opposition to speaking closely and in secret, Mar 8:32 Joh 11:14 ; and so it may have respect to the removing of his bonds, which were the present impediment of his so speaking.

Poole: Eph 6:20

For which I am an ambassador in bonds for which gospel I still continue, though a prisoner, in the embassy committed to me by Christ.

That therein I may speak boldly this may imply not only free speaking, but free acting in all things whereby the gospel may be propagated.

Poole: Eph 6:21

But that ye also as well as other churches,

may know my affairs how I am used by the Romans in my bonds.

How I do or rather, what I do, i.e. how I behave myself: see Act 28:30,31 .

Faithful minister : minister is here taken in a large sense, for any that labour in the gospel, such as were not only ordinary pastors, but evangelists and apostles themselves.

Poole: Eph 6:22

That ye might not faint at my tribulations, Eph 3:13 . It might be a comfort to them to hear that Paul was well used, (setting aside his bonds), and had liberty to preach to those that came to him.

Poole: Eph 6:23

He prays for their continuance and increase in these graces, which already were begun in them.

Poole: Eph 6:24

This is more extensive than the former, he prays here for all true believers every where.

In sincerity or, with incorruption, i.e. so as that nothing can draw them off from the love of Christ, and so it implies constancy as well as sincerity.

Written from Rome unto the Ephesians by Tychicus

PBC: Eph 6:13

See Philpot: THE WHOLE ARMOUR OF GOD

PBC: Eph 6:19

Brethren, I want you to think about my needs, that they'll all be met.  I want you to think about my situation so that the path will be a little smoother, that the Lord will make things a little easier for me?  No! 

Look what he's asking them to pray for regarding his own effort.  Pray for me that utterance may be given unto me, that the Lord may bless me in my speaking, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in bonds that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.  I want to have utterance.  I want to have the blessing and anointing of the Spirit of God that I may be able to speak.

Haydock: Eph 6:14

Your loins....with truth, both as to doctrine and a good life, keeping your baptismal promises. ---

Having on the breastplate of justice, not only of the particular virtue of justice, but of all virtues in general. (Witham)

Haydock: Eph 6:15

Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel; i.e. prepared to walk in the ways of the gospel, as a soldier must be prepared and in readiness to march or fight. (Witham)

Haydock: Eph 6:16

The shield of faith. A lively faith working by charity, which will enable you to conquer your greatest enemies, and to escape their fiery darts, their greatest temptations, and attacks. (Witham)

Haydock: Eph 6:24

Who love our Lord Jesus Christ. Literally, "in incorruption;" with purity of heart and mind. (Witham)

====================

Gill: Eph 6:13

Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God,.... This is a repetition of the exhortation in Eph 6:11; which repetition seems necessary by reason of the many powerful enemies mentioned in the preceding verse, and serves to explain what is meant by putting it on: and leads on the apostle to give an account of the several parts of this armour: the end of taking it is much the same as before,

that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day; that is, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles and stratagems of Satan, against his power and might, to oppose his schemes, and resist his temptations: and so the Syriac version renders it, "that ye may be able to meet the evil one"; to face him, and give him battle, being accoutred with the whole armour of God; though the Greek copies, and other versions, read, "in the evil day"; in which sin and iniquity abound, error and heresy prevail, Satan is very busy, trials and afflictions come on, persecution arises because of the word, and God's judgments are in the earth:

and having done all to stand; or having overcome, having routed the enemy, stand as conquerors; or rather, having took and put on the whole armour of God, in order to stand, and withstand the enemy.

Gill: Eph 6:14

Stand therefore,.... Keep your ground, do not desert the army, the church of Christ, nor his cause; continue in the station in which you are placed, keep your post, be upon your watch, stand upon your guard:

having your loins girt about with truth; by which is meant the Gospel, and the several doctrines of it; see Eph 1:13; and to have the loins girt with it, shows, that it should be near and close to the saints, and never departed from; and that it is a means of keeping them close to God and Christ, and of strengthening them against the assaults and attacks of Satan; and is of great use in the Christians' spiritual conflict with their enemies; the girdle is a part of armour, and so considerable as sometimes to be put for the whole, Isa 5:27; and here it is mentioned in the first place:

and having on the breastplate of righteousness; in allusion to Isa 59:17, meaning not works of righteousness done by men, though these are a fence when rightly used against the reproaches and charges of the enemy, as they were by Samuel, 1Sa 12:3, but rather the graces of faith and love, 1Th 5:8, though faith has another place in the Christian armour, afterwards mentioned; wherefore it seems best to understand this of the righteousness of Christ, which being imputed by God, and received by faith, is a guard against, and repels the accusations and charges of Satan, and is a security from all wrath and condemnation.

Gill: Eph 6:15

And your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. The Gospel is so called, because it makes men to be of peaceable tempers and behaviour, and gives peace to distressed minds: it directs the way to eternal peace, and publishes peace made by the blood of Christ; and has a much better claim to this name, and epithet, than the law has, which is often called "peace" by the Jews ^l: the "preparation" of it does not design a promptitude or readiness to preach the Gospel, or to receive it, or profess it, or to give a reason of faith in it, or to endure reproach and persecution for it; nor that readiness which the Gospel is a means of, as for every good work, for the spiritual warfare, for the Christian's journey heavenward, or for heaven itself: but the word ετοιμασια signifies a "base", or foundation; and so it is used by the Septuagint interpreters on Zec 5:11; and here it designs a firm and solid knowledge of the Gospel, as it publishes peace by Jesus Christ, which yields a sure foundation for the Christian soldier to set his foot upon, and stand fast on; it being that to him, as the shoe is to the foot, its base or foundation: and for the feet to be "shod with" it, does not mean the outward conversation being agreeably to the Gospel, though such a walk and conversation is very beautiful and safe, and such may walk and war with intrepidity: but it designs the constant and firm standing of believers in the faith of the Gospel, and so striving and contending for it, without being moved from it, that it may continue with them. Shoes or boots, which were sometimes of iron, and sometimes of brass, are reckoned among the armour of soldiers ^m.

Gill: Eph 6:16

Above all, taking the shield of faith,.... Which may be understood either of the grace of faith, which is like a golden shield, precious, solid, and substantial; and like a shield of mighty men, by which mighty things are done, and by which the believer not only repels, but conquers the enemy. The Jews say ⁿ, that repentance and good works are as a shield against divine vengeance: or rather of the object of faith, that which faith makes use of as a shield; so God himself is a shield, Gen 15:1; his divine perfections, as his power, faithfulness, truth, and immutability, which encompass the saints as a shield, and are opposed by faith to the temptations of Satan; also the love and favour of God, Psa 5:12; and particularly God in his word, Pro 30:5, which is a shield against false doctrines, and the wiles of Satan. Moreover, Christ is a shield, Psa 84:11; and faith makes rise of him as a shield, his person, blood, righteousness, and sacrifice; which it holds up and opposes to all the charges and objections of Satan; and who is the saints' protection, and security from the wrath of God, divine justice, and eternal death. The disciples of the wise men are said to be ^o תריסון, "shielded men", who, as the gloss says fight in the war of the law; but they are not like Christ's disciples, who have on the shield, and fight the fight of faith: and this is "above all" to be taken, as being the most useful part of the Christian armour; or "with all", with the rest, this is to be taken, and by no means to be neglected; and it is to be used "in all"; in every temptation of Satan, in every conflict with that enemy, or any other.

Wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked; of the wicked one, Satan; who was the first wicked one, and the tempter of others to wickedness; and is emphatically the wicked one, being wickedness itself; and his temptations are "fiery darts": they may be compared to "darts", because they sometimes come suddenly and swiftly and thick and fast, are very numerous, and where they stick are very troublesome and grieving; see Gen 49:23. And they may be said to be "fiery", because they serve to inflame the mind, and excite to sin, as lust, anger, revenge, and the like; and were they not repelled, would be the occasion of bringing into everlasting burnings. The allusion is to βελεσι πεπυρωμενοις, "the fiery darts", cast by enemies into towns, and upon houses, in order to burn them ^p. Mention is also made of גירי דאשא, "fiery darts", with the Jews ^q, and of Satan's casting a dart at David ^r: from these customs, and ways of speaking, the apostle borrows his phrases; and suggests, that the shield of faith is of use to quench the fiery darts of Satan's temptations; so that they may not have the malignant influence they are designed for; which is chiefly done by faith's dealing with the blood of Christ. And there were ways of quenching the fiery darts alluded to; which was done by skins and hides of beasts made wet, or anointed with alum ^s.

Gill: Eph 6:17

And take the helmet of salvation,.... Meaning either Christ himself, the Saviour; and so the Arabic version renders it, "the helmet of the Saviour": or the salvation itself, which he is the author of, and a well grounded hope of it; see 1Th 5:8; the allusion is to Isa 59:17; and such an hope of salvation by Christ is a defence of the head against false doctrines; for the helmet is a piece of armour for the head; and it is an erecter of the head in times of difficulty, affliction, and distress; and it covers the head in the day of battle, when engaged with Satan, the enemy of souls:

and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; the word of God is compared to a "sword", for its two edges, the law and Gospel; the one convicts of sin, and cuts to the heart for it, and the other cuts down all the goodliness of man; and the Scriptures in general are a sharp sword, in convincing of sin, reproving for it, and threatening with wrath and ruin, in refuting error and heresy, and repelling Satan's temptations, and will be used in the destruction of antichrist: and this word may be called "the sword of the Spirit", because it is not carnal, but of a spiritual nature; and is used by the spiritual man; and because the Holy Spirit, as the Ethiopic version here expresses it, is the author of it; and which he furnishes the saints with, and teaches them how to make use of, and makes it powerful and effectual. So the Jews say ^t, the words of the law are like to a sword, and speak of חרב תורה "the sword of the law" ^u.

Gill: Eph 6:18

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit,.... The last weapon is prayer, and takes in all sorts of prayer, mental and vocal, public and private; and every branch of it, as deprecation of evils, petitions for good things, and thanksgiving for mercies: and which should be used always: this stands opposed to such who pray not at all, or who have prayed, but have left it off; or who pray only in distress, and it suggests, that a man should pray as often as he has an opportunity; and particularly, that he should make use of it in times of darkness, desertion, and temptation: and this, when performed aright, is performed "in the Spirit"; with the heart, soul, and spirit engaged in it; it is put up with a true heart, and a right spirit, and without hypocrisy; in a spiritual way, and with fervency, and under the influence, and by the assistance of the Spirit of God.

And watching thereunto; either to the word, as a direction for prayer, or to prayer itself; for opportunities to pray for the assistance of the Spirit in prayer, for an answer of it, and to return thanks for blessings when bestowed; and against all dependence on it, and against Satan's temptations, and our own corruptions with respect to it:

with all perseverance; in it, notwithstanding what Satan and an unbelieving heart may suggest to the contrary:

and supplication for all saints; of every nation, age, sex, and condition, in all places, and of every denomination. So Christ taught his disciples to pray, saying, our Father, suggesting, that they were not only to pray for themselves, but for all the children of God.

Gill: Eph 6:19

And for me,.... This shows the great humility of the apostle, and the sense he had of the greatness of the work of the ministry; and that it is the duty of people to pray for their ministers; and that no man is perfect in this life; and that the more superior members need the assistance of the inferior ones; for this request is made by the apostle not in dissimulation, or as feigning humility and modesty; but in the sincerity of his heart, and from a real sense of his need of fresh supplies of gifts and grace, to fit him for the work and service of Christ:

that utterance may be given unto me, or "that the word"; meaning not the subject matter of the ministry, the word of the Gospel, the word of faith, truth, and reconciliation, for that was committed to him; unless he should mean an increase of light and knowledge in it; but rather a faculty of speaking it freely and aptly, and what is commonly called elocution; not speaking with the enticing words of man's wisdom, but with the words of the Holy Ghost: or else an opportunity of preaching the word, and liberty to do it, as follows;

that I may open my mouth boldly; or "in the opening of my mouth"; the phrase is Rabbinical. The Jews ^w say, that when Moses came to write that passage, "let us make man in our image", &c. Gen 1:26, he said before the Lord of the world, why dost thou give פתחון פה, "opening of the mouth", to heretics? i.e. an occasion to them of speaking, objecting to us, and of reproving and convincing us with respect to a plurality of persons in the Deity: and a little after they say,

"wherever you פתחון פה, "an opening of the mouth to heretics", you will find an answer by its side, or along with it.''

Now the apostle desired he might have something to say, to object to, and to reprove and convince the unbelieving Jews; that he might do this with boldness, with all faithfulness with Courage, and intrepidity, and with freedom of speech; or "openly" and "publicly", as the Syriac version renders it:

to make known, the mystery of the Gospel; or the mysterious doctrines of it, such as the doctrines of a trinity of persons, of the union of the two natures in Christ, justification by his righteousness, regeneration by his Spirit and grace, the saints' union to Christ, and communion with him, the resurrection of the dead, &c. which are called mysteries, because they were hid until revealed; and though revealed, the "modus" and "ratio" of them are not to be accounted for. Now the apostle's work was to make known these mysteries, to prove the truth of them from the word of God, and to defend them against the opposers of them; and that he might be able to do this he entreats the prayers of the saints.

Gill: Eph 6:20

For which I am an ambassador in bonds,.... The character the apostle bore was that of an ambassador; and he was an ambassador from and for Christ, in his room and stead; he represented him, he was sent by him, and entrusted by him with the Gospel; he gave him it, and a commission to preach it, and furnished him with qualifications for it; such as knowledge and faithfulness wisdom and prudence, courage and greatness of mind; and made his embassy successful: and he was chiefly an ambassador to the Gentiles, which showed great condescension in Christ to send him to them, and base ingratitude in the despisers and rejecters of the Gospel, for which he was an ambassador; for the embassy Christ's ministers are sent on, is the embassy of the Gospel of peace: their business is to declare that men by nature are enemies to God; that peace is made by the blood of Christ for such; by which means they are made useful to conciliate the minds of men to God's way of salvation and to bring them to submit to his government and laws: and when he adds, "in bonds", or "in a chain", he means, that he was in such circumstances, not for any crime, but for the Gospel, for which he was an ambassador; and therefore was not ashamed of his bonds, or chain, but rather gloried in them; and he makes mention of them to engage persons to a regard to him as an ambassador, and to his embassy; for an ambassador, especially an ambassador of Christ, that comes with his Gospel, and more especially that is suffering for it, ought to be received, heard, and honoured.

That therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak; that is, the apostle beseeches the saints to pray for him, that since he was an ambassador for the Gospel, and in bonds, that he might speak in it, or rather of it boldly and freely; that he might have both liberty from his bonds, and liberty in his soul, and freedom of speech; and that he might use boldness in delivering his message, as became an ambassador of Jesus Christ.

Gill: Eph 6:21

But that ye also may know my affairs, and how I do,.... Both his temporal and spiritual affairs; as that he was in bonds, and how he was supported under them, and of what use they were to others; how that he preached in his own hired house, and with what success; and what ministering brethren he had with him to assist him; and in what condition was the church at Rome where he now was: the apostle's life and actions would bear the light, and what he did was worthy of imitation, and must be both delightful and useful to know; and the account he sends, by a messenger hereafter named, of whom he gives the following character, that credit might be the more readily given to his relation:

Tychicus, a beloved brother, and faithful minister in the Lord,

shall make known to you all things. This Tychicus was of Asia, who accompanied the apostle in his travels, and went with him to Rome, from whence he sent him to several places to relate his case, and to know the state of the churches, Col 4:7. He calls him "a beloved brother": he was a "brother", because he was a partaker of the same grace, was of the same family and household of God, and was of the same function, being a minister of the Gospel, and was a "beloved" one: he was beloved of God and Christ, and of all the saints that knew him, and especially a brother beloved of the Apostle Paul; and where there is brotherhood, there should be love: he also styles him a "faithful minister in the Lord"; he was a "minister" in the work and service of the Lord, in things pertaining to him; he was one of his appointing, qualifying, and sending; and he preached Christ, and him crucified; and was a "faithful" one, to his Lord or master, in whose name he ministered, to the Gospel which he ministered, and to the souls of men to whom he ministered; and a greater character he could not well have; and therefore it need not be doubted but that he would faithfully relate all things concerning the apostle, and what he said might be depended on as truth.

Gill: Eph 6:22

Whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose,.... Which shows the great concern the apostle had for the churches, being willing to inform them of everything that might be for their use and service:

that ye might know our affairs; temporal and spiritual, and not only the apostle's affairs, but the affairs of those that were with him, who were concerned in the same common cause:

and that he might comfort your hearts; both by such a relation, and by the ministry of the Gospel to them: believers in Christ are sometimes disconsolate, by reason of indwelling sin, Satan's temptations, the hidings of God's face, afflictions and persecutions, their own sufferings, and those of others; and it is the business of the ministers of Christ to comfort them; their commission is to speak comfortably to them; and they are qualified for it, by inward comforts in their own souls; the Gospel they preach, and the message they bring, is of a comfortable nature; the Spirit of God acts by them, and with them as a comforter; and sad indeed is the state of Zion, or the church of Christ, when it has no comforters.

Gill: Eph 6:23

Peace be to the brethren,.... The members of the church at Ephesus, who stood in a spiritual relation to each other; meaning all prosperity outward and inward, temporal, spiritual, and eternal; especially peace of conscience under the sprinklings of the blood of Christ, and a view of peace made with God by that blood:

and love with faith from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ; that is, an increase of these graces, and of the exercise of them, is wished for; for otherwise these brethren had both these graces, faith and love; see Eph 1:15; which go together; faith works by love, and love discovers faith, and both are imperfect; faith has something lacking in it, and love is apt to grow cold, and need reviving and increasing; and these, and the increase of them, are from God the Father, who is the God of all grace, and from Jesus Christ, in whom all fulness of grace is; and these things are equally desired from the one as from the other, and shows a plurality of persons in the Godhead, and the equality of Christ with the Father; and such a wish expresses the apostle's great love and affection for the brethren, and points out the things they stand in need of; and which, being asked for such, might be expected to be enjoyed.

Gill: Eph 6:24

Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ,.... Christ is the object of love, and a lovely object he is: he is to be loved because of the loveliness of his person, and the transcendent excellencies that are in him; because of his suitableness and fulness as a Saviour; and because of his great love shown to his church and people; and because of the relations he stands in to them, and the communion they have with him: love to Christ is a grace of the Spirit, and is in all believers; and though it is imperfect, and sometimes cold, it will abide for ever; it ought to be universal and superlative; all of Christ is to be loved, and he is to be loved above all: and it shows itself in a value for his Gospel, and the truths of it; in an esteem of his ordinances, and a regard to his commands; in parting with all for Christ, when called for; and in bearing all for his sake; in a well pleasedness in his company and presence, and in a concern for his absence, and in an uneasiness until he is enjoyed again: it should be fervent, and constant, and cordial, and, as here said,

in sincerity; from the heart, and with all the heart, and without hypocrisy; not in word only, but in deed and in truth; which appears when he is loved, as before observed: and the apostle wishes "grace" to all such sincere and hearty lovers of him; by which may be meant a fresh discovery of the free grace, love, and favour of God in Christ to them; and a fresh supply of grace from the fulness of it in Christ; and a larger measure of the grace of the Spirit to carry on the good work begun in them; as well as a continuation of the Gospel of the grace of God with them, and an increase of spiritual gifts. Grace may be connected with the word translated "sincerity", and be rendered "grace with incorruption": or incorruptible grace, as true grace is an incorruptible seed; or "grace with immortality": and so the apostle wishes not only for grace here, but for eternal happiness and glory hereafter; and then closes the epistle with an Amen, as a confirmation and asseveration of the truth of the doctrines contained in it, and as expressive of his earnest desire that the several petitions in it might be granted, and of his faith and confidence that they would be fulfilled.

The subscription,

written from Rome to the Ephesians by Tychicus, seems to be right; for that this epistle is written to the Ephesians, the inscription shows; and that it was written when the apostle was at Rome, appears from Eph 3:1; and that it was sent by Tychicus, seems very likely from Eph 6:21.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Eph 6:13

¹ tn The term ἀνθίστημι (anqisthmi) carries the idea of resisting or opposing something or someone (BDAG 80 s.v.). In Eph 6:13, when used in combination with στῆναι (sthnai; cf. also στῆτε [sthte] in v. 14) and in a context of battle imagery, it seems to have the idea of resisting, standing firm, and being able to stand your ground.

NET Notes: Eph 6:14

¹ sn The four participles fastening… putting on…fitting…taking up… indicate the means by which believers can take their stand against the devil and his schemes. The imperative take in v. 17 communicates another means by which to accomplish the standing, i.e., by the word of God.

² tn Grk “girding your waist with truth.” In this entire section the author is painting a metaphor for his readers based on the attire of a Roman soldier prepared for battle and its similarity to the Christian prepared to do battle against spiritually evil forces. Behind the expression “with truth” is probably the genitive idea “belt of truth.” Since this is an appositional genitive (i.e., belt which is truth), the author simply left unsaid the idea of the belt and mentioned only his real focus, namely, the truth. (The analogy would have been completely understandable to his 1st century readers.) The idea of the belt is supplied in the translation to clarify the sense in English.

NET Notes: Eph 6:15

¹ tn The definite article τοῖς (tois) was taken as a possessive pronoun, i.e., “your,” since it refers to a part of the physical body.

² tn Grk “gospel.” However, this is not a technical term here.

³ tn Grk “in preparation of the gospel of peace.” The genitive τοῦ εὐαγγελίου (tou euangeliou) was taken as a genitive of source, i.e., “that comes from….”

NET Notes: Eph 6:16

¹ tn Grk “in everything.”

² sn The Greek word translated shield (θυρεός, qureos) refers to the Roman soldier’s large rectangular wooden shield, called in Latin scutum, about 4 ft (1.2 m) high, covered with leather on the outside. Before a battle in which flaming arrows might be shot at them, the soldiers wet the leather covering with water to extinguish the arrows. The Roman legionaries could close ranks with these shields, the first row holding theirs edge to edge in front, and the rows behind holding the shields above their heads. In this formation they were practically invulnerable to arrows, rocks, and even spears.

NET Notes: Eph 6:17

¹ sn An allusion to Isa 59:17.

² sn The Greek term translated sword (μάχαιρα, macaira) refers to the Roman gladius, a short sword about 2 ft (60 cm) long, used for close hand-to-hand combat. This is the only clearly offensive weapon in the list of armor mentioned by the author (he does not, for example, mention the lance [Latin pilum]).

NET Notes: Eph 6:18

¹ tn Both “pray” and “be alert” are participles in the Greek text (“praying…being alert”). Both are probably instrumental, loosely connected with all of the preceding instructions. As such, they are not additional commands to do but instead are the means through which the prior instructions are accomplished.

² tn Grk “and toward it.”

NET Notes: Eph 6:19

¹ tn To avoid a lengthy, convoluted sentence in English, the Greek sentence was broken up at this point and the verb “pray” was inserted in the English translation to pick up the participle προσευχόμενοι (proseuxomenoi, “praying”) in v. 18.

² tn Grk “that a word may be given to me in the opening of my mouth.” Here “word” (λόγος, logo") is used in the sense of “message.”

³ tn The infinitive γνωρίσαι (gnwrisai, “to make known”) is functioning epexegetically to further explain what the author means by the preceding phrase “that I may be given the message when I begin to speak.”

NET Notes: Eph 6:21

¹ tn Grk “the.” The Greek article ὁ (Jo) was translated with the possessive pronoun, “my.” See ExSyn 215.

² tn Grk “the things according to me.”

NET Notes: Eph 6:22

¹ tn Grk “the things concerning us.”

NET Notes: Eph 6:23

¹ tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” or “fellow Christians” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited).

NET Notes: Eph 6:24

¹ tn Or “is.”

² tc Most witnesses (א² D Ψ Ï it sy) have ἀμήν (amhn, “amen”) at the end of the letter. Such a conclusion is routinely added by scribes to NT books because a few of these books originally had such an ending (cf. Rom 16:27; Gal 6:18; Jude 25). A majority of Greek witnesses have the concluding ἀμήν in every NT book except Acts, James, and 3 John (and even in these books, ἀμήν is found in some witnesses). It is thus a predictable variant. The earliest and best witnesses (Ì⁴⁶ א* A B F G 0278 6 33 81 1175 1241 1739* 1881 sa) lack the particle, giving firm evidence that Ephesians did not originally conclude with ἀμήν.

tn Grk “without corruption.” The term “love” is not found at the end of the sentence, but is supplied to clarify the sense in English. The term “undying” which modifies it captures the sense of the kind of love the author is referring to here. He is saying that God’s grace will be with those whose love for Jesus never ceases.

Geneva Bible: Eph 6:13

^{( 14 )} Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the ^{( i )} evil day, and having done all, to stand.

^{( 14 )} He shows that these enemies are put to flight only with the armour of God, that is, with uprightness of conscience, a godly and holy life, knowledge of the Gospel, faith, and to be short, with the word of God. And that daily earnest prayer must be made for the health of the Church, and especially for the steadfast faithfulness of the true, godly, and valiant ministers of the word.

^{( i )} See (Eph 5:16).

Geneva Bible: Eph 6:15

And your feet shod with the ^{( k )} preparation of the gospel of peace;

^{( k )} The preparation of the Gospel may be as it were shoes to you: and it is very fitly called the Gospel of peace, because, seeing we have to go to God through most dangerous ranks of enemies, this may encourage us to go on bravely, in that you know by the doctrine of the Gospel, that we are travelling to God who is at peace with us.

Geneva Bible: Eph 6:18

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the ^{( l )} Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

^{( l )} That holy prayers may proceed from the Holy Spirit.

Geneva Bible: Eph 6:21

^{( 15 )} But that ye also may know my affairs, [and] how I do, Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things:

^{( 15 )} A familiar and very amiable declaration of his state, together with a solemn prayer, with which Paul is accustomed to end his epistles.

Geneva Bible: Eph 6:24

Grace [be] with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ ^{( m )} in sincerity. Amen. "[To [the] Ephesians written from Rome, by Tychicus.]"

^{( m )} Or to immortality, to life everlasting.

Commentary -- Verse Range Notes

TSK Synopsis: Eph 6:1-24

1 The duty of children towards their parents;

5 of servants towards their masters.

10 Our life is a warfare, not only against flesh and blood, but also spiritual enemies.

13 The complete armour of a Christian;

18 and how it ought to be used.

21 Tychicus is commended.

Combined Bible: Eph 6:13

Here then is "the full armor of God" for the Saint...It is given that you "may be able to stand...and having done everything you know to do, to remain standing." The picture is one of victory.  

  

"Truth"...is a belt around the waist. On this belt the weapons of battle are carried. Our strength then is to come from God who is Truth. We are to be armed with His very character.  

  

"Righteousness"...is our breastplate. It protects us where we are the most vulnerable. To know the righteousness of God is to stand on the ground of peace with Him. It is only in that position that we have assurance of life.  

  

"Readiness"...is our pair of boots. As God's army, we are to be prepared to move across whatever ground is before us, carrying the Gospel of peace. In order to gain this degree of preparation we must "study to show ourselves approved unto God...rightly dividing the Word of Truth".  

  

"Faith"...is our shield. Where the breastplate protects in hand-to-hand close combat, the shield protects from those assaults lobbed from long range. In other words, "righteousness" protects from those enemies, which we see, but "faith" protects from those enemies, which we cannot see. It is "righteousness" which dictates our behavioral choices as we are confronted daily. It is faith that keeps us when we do not understand even the direction from which the testing is coming. Righteousness dictates that we are not drunkards or slovenly in our work attitudes; faith gives us the courage to continue without bitterness when loved ones hurt or our pathway is difficult.  

  

"Salvation"...is our helmet. We are saved on the basis of what God has revealed to us of Christ; on the basis of what we "know". Our will is now submissive to His will.  

  

"Word of God"?is the sword used by the Holy Spirit in battle. This does not simply refer to the Bible, but to the living Word, the ascended Lord Jesus.  

  

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Eph 6:13-17  

  

  

Combined Bible: Eph 6:18

Following the context of the previous verse, prayer "in the Spirit" is prayer within the sphere of the Word of God. It is not possible to read into this phrase a charismatic utterance. Our prayers and requests are to flow out of our alert minds and concern for other believers. We are to apply the Word of God actively "on all occasions" and in all manners of requests, but always within the revealed Word of God. Again, that speaks against ecstatic utterance or untranslated instruction. That means that we must know the Word and the intent of God regarding events in our lives and in the lives of other saints. Absent that specific knowledge, we should first pray for understanding and the revelation of His work and will.  

  

  

Combined Bible: Eph 6:19

Look at the examples given by Paul of what the believers in Ephesus should be praying for regarding his needs... "that words may be given". This is for specific knowledge for ministry of the Gospel, and for a spirit of "fearlessness" in the declaration of the Gospel. Nothing of relief or protection, for those are givens in the walk of the believer. And certainly not prayer for ease or prosperity.  

  

  

Combined Bible: Eph 6:21

Paul is sending them a report in order that they might know how he is and what his work consists of. He is not partitioning for assistance or support. This is a testimony of God's provision specifically for their encouragement. How different this is from the media evangelists and preachers to lace every time of testimony with requests and dire reports of need of funds in order to continue their work. Perhaps if it was truly the Lord's work instead of their own, there would not be such angst.  

  

  

Combined Bible: Eph 6:23

Note that "faith" is from "God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." This is an important statement. "Peace and love" are declared to be their due as saints. "Peace" is their standing before God the Father in the Son. There is no more any animosity between the Father and the believer. "Love" is the substance of what they are, for "in Christ" we are joined to Him who is love. "Grace" is the summation of God's provision for all who love the Lord Jesus Christ and are found in Him on the ground of peace.  

  

  

Maclaren: Eph 6:13

The Panoply Of God

Take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.'--Eph. 6:13.

THE military metaphor of which this verse is the beginning was obviously deeply imprinted on Paul's mind. It is found in a comparatively incomplete form in his earliest epistle, the first to the Thessalonians, in which the children of the day are exhorted to put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. It reappears, in a slightly varied form, in the Epistle to the Romans, where those whose salvation is nearer than when they believed, are exhorted, because the day is at hand, to cast off, as it were, their night-gear, and to put on the armour of light'; and here, in this Epistle of the Captivity, it is most fully developed. The Roman legionary, to whom Paul was chained, here sits all unconsciously for his portrait, every detail of which is pressed by Paul into the service of his vivid imagination; the virtues and graces of the Christian character, which are the armour of light,' are suggested to the Apostle by the weapon which the soldier by his side wore. The vulgarest and most murderous implements assume a new character when looked upon with the eyes of a poet and a Christian. Our present text constitutes the general introduction to the great picture which follows, of the panoply of God.'

I. We Must Be Ready For Times Of Special Assaults From Evil.

Most of us feel but little the stern reality underlying the metaphor, that the whole Christian life is warfare, but that in that warfare there are crises, seasons of special danger. The interpretation which makes the evil day' co-extensive with the time of life destroys the whole emphasis of the passage: whilst all days are days of warfare, there will be, as in some prolonged siege, periods of comparative quiet; and again, days when all the cannon belch at once, and scaling ladders are reared on every side of the fortress. In a long winter there are days sunny and calm followed, as they were preceded, by days when all the winds are let loose at once. For us, such times of special danger to Christian character may arise from temporal vicissitudes. Joy and prosperity are as sure to occasion them as are sorrows, for to Paul the evil day' is that which especially threatens moral and spiritual character, and these may be as much damaged by the bright sunshine of prosperity as by the midwinter of adversity, just as fierce sunshine may be as fatal as killing frost. They may also arise, without any such change in circumstances, from some temptation coming with more than ordinary force, and directed with terrible accuracy to our weakest point.

These evil days are ever wont to come on us suddenly; they are heralded by no storm signals and no falling barometer. We may be like soldiers sitting securely round their camp fire, till all at once bullets begin to fall among them. The tiger's roar is the first signal of its leap from the jungle. Our position in the world, our ignorance of the future, the heaped-up magazines of combustibles within, needing only a spark, all lay us open to unexpected assaults, and the temptation comes stealthily, as a thief in the night.' Nothing is so certain as the unexpected. For these reasons, then, because the evil day' will certainly come, because it may come at any time, and because it is most likely to come when we look not for it,' it is the dictate of plain common sense to be prepared. If the good man of the house had known at what hour the thief would have come, he would have watched; but he would have been a wiser man if he had watched all the more, because he did not know at what hour the thief would come.

II. To Withstand These We Must Be Armed Against Them Before They Come.

The main point of the exhortation is this previous preparation. It is clear enough that it is no time to fly to our weapons when the enemy is upon us. Alder-shot, not the battlefield, is the place for learning strategy. Belshazzar was sitting at his drunken feast while the Persians were marching on Babylon, and in the night he was slain. When great crises arise in a nation's history, some man whose whole life has been preparing him for the hour starts to the front and does the needed work. If a sailor put off learning navigation till the wind was howling and a reef lay ahead, his corpse would be cast on the cruel rocks. It is well not to be over-exquisite,' to cast the fashion of uncertain evils,' but certain ones cannot be too carefully anticipated, nor too sedulously prepared for.

The manner in which this preparation is to be carried out is distinctly marked here. The armour is to be put on before the conflict begins. Now, without anticipating what will more properly come in considering subsequent details, we may notice that such a previous assumption implies mainly two things--a previous familiarity with God's truth, and a previous exercise of Christian virtues. As to the former, the subsequent context speaks of taking the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and of having the loins girt with truth, which may be objective truth. As to the latter, we need not elaborate the Apostle's main thought that resistance to sudden temptations is most vigorous when a man is accustomed to goodness. One of the prophets treats it as being all but impossible that they who have been accustomed to evil shall learn to do well, and it is at least not less impossible that they who have been accustomed to do well shall learn to do evil. Souls which habitually walk in the clear spaces of the bracing air on the mountains of God will less easily be tempted down to the shut-in valleys where malaria reigns. The positive exercise of Christian graces tends to weaken the force of temptation. A mind occupied with these has no room for it. Higher tastes are developed which makes the poison sweetness of evil unsavoury, and just as the Israelites hungered for the strong, coarse-smelling leeks and garlic of Egypt, and therefore loathed this light bread,' so they whose palates have been accustomed to manna will have little taste for leeks and garlic. The mental and spiritual activity involved in the habitual exercise of Christian virtues will go far to make the soul unassailable by evil. A man, busily occupied, as the Apostle would have us to be, may be tempted by the devil, though less frequently the more he is thus occupied; but one who has no such occupations and interests tempts the devil. If our lives are inwardly and secretly honeycombed with evil, only a breath will be needed to throw down the structure. It is possible to become so accustomed to the calm delights of goodness, that it would need a moral miracle to make a man fall into sin.

III. To Be Armed With This Armour, We Must Get It From God.

Though it consists mainly of habitudes and dispositions of our own minds, none the less have we to receive these from above. It is the panoply of God,' therefore we are to be endued with it, not by exercises in our own strength, but by dependence on Him. In old days, before a squire was knighted, he had to keep a vigil in the chapel of the castle, and through the hours of darkness to watch his armour and lift his soul to God, and we shall never put on the armour of light unless in silence we draw near to Him who teaches our hands to war and our fingers to fight. Communion with Christ, and only communion with Christ, receives from Him the life which enables us to repel the diseases of our spirits. What He imparts to those who thus wait upon Him, and to them only, is the Spirit which helps their infirmities and clothes their undefended nakedness with a coat of mail. If we go forth to war with evil, clothed and armed only with what we can provide, we shall surely be worsted in the fray. If we go forth into the world of struggle from the secret place of the Most High, no weapon that is formed against us shall prosper,' and we shall be more than conquerors through Him that loved us.

But waiting on God to receive our weapons from Him is but part of what is needful for our equipment. It is we who have to gird our loins and put on the breastplate, and shoe our feet, and take the shield of faith, and the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit. The cumbrous armour of old days could only be put on by the help of another pulling straps, and fixing buckles, and lifting and bracing heavy shields on arms, and fastening helmets upon heads; but we have, by our own effort, to clothe ourselves with God's great gift, which is of no use to us, and is in no real sense ours, unless we do. It takes no small effort to keep ourselves in the attitude of dependence and receptivity, without which none of the great gifts of God come to us, and, least of all, the habitual practice of Christian virtues. The soldier who rushed into the fight, leaving armour and arms huddled together on the ground, would soon fall, and God's giving avails nothing for our defence unless there is also our taking. It is the woful want of taking the things that are freely given to us of God, and of making our own what by His gift is our own, that is mainly responsible for the defeats of which we are all conscious. Looking back on our own evil days, we must all be aware that our defeats have mainly come from one or other of the two errors which lie so near us all, and which are intimately connected with each other--the one being that of fighting in our own strength, and the other being that of leaving unused our God-given power.

IV. The Issue Of Successful Resistance Is Increased Firmness Of Footing.

If we are able to withstand in the evil day,' we shall stand' more securely when the evil day has stormed itself away. If we keep erect in the shock of battle, we shall stand more secure when the wild charge has been beaten back. The sea hurls tons of water against the slender lighthouse on the rock, and if it stands, the smashing of the waves consolidates it. The reward of firm resistance is increased firmness. As the Red Indians used to believe that the strength of the slain enemies whom they had scalped passed into their arms, so we may have power developed by conflict, and we shall more fully understand, and more passionately believe in, the principles and truths which have served us in past fights. David would not wear Saul's armour because, as he said, I have not proved it,' and the Christian who has come victoriously through one struggle should be ready to say, I have proved it'; we have the word of the Lord, which is tried, to trust to, and not we only, but generations, have tested it, and it has stood the tests. Therefore, it is not for us to hesitate as to the worth of our weapons, or to doubt that they are more than sufficient for every conflict which we may be called upon to wage.

The text plainly implies that all our life long we shall be in danger of sudden assaults. It does contemplate victory in the evil day, but it also contemplates that after we have withstood, we have still to stand and be ready for another attack to-morrow. Our life here is, and must still be, a continual warfare. Peace is not bought by any victories; There is no discharge in that war.' Like the ten thousand Greeks who fought their way home through clouds of enemies from the heart of Asia, we are never safe till we come to the mountaintop, where we can cry, The Sea!' But though all our paths lead us through enemies, we have Jesus, who has conquered them all, with us, and our hearts should not fail so long as we can hear His brave voice encouraging us: In the world ye have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.'

Maclaren: Eph 6:14

The Girdle Of Truth'

Stand, therefore, having girded your loins with truth.'--Eph. 6:14. (R.V.).

THE general exhortation here points to the habitual attitude of the Christian soldier. However many conflicts he may have waged, he is still to be ever ready for fresh assaults, for in regard to them he may be quite sure that to-morrow will bring its own share of them, and that the evil day is never left behind so long as days still last. That general exhortation is followed by clauses which are sometimes said to be contemporaneous with it, and to be definitions of the way in which it is to be accomplished, but they are much rather statements of what is to be done before the soldier takes his stand. He is to be fully equipped first: he is to take up his position second. We may note that, in all the list of his equipment, there is but one weapon of offence--the sword of the Spirit; all the rest are defensive weapons. The girdle, which is the first specified, is not properly a weapon at all, but it comes first because the belt keeps all the other parts of the armour in place, and gives agility to the wearer. Having girded your loins (R.V.) is better than having your loins girded (A.V.), as bringing out more fully that the assumption of the belt is the soldier's own doing.

I. We Must Be Braced Up If We Are To Fight.

Concentration and tension of power is an absolute necessity for any effort, no matter how poor may be the aims to which it is directed, and what is needed for the successful prosecution of the lowest transient successes will surely not be less indispensable in the highest forms of life. If a poor runner for a wreath of parsley or of laurel cannot hope to win the fading prize unless all his powers are strained to the uttermost, the Christian athlete has still more certainly to run, so as the racer has to do,' that he may obtain.' Loose-flowing robes are caught by every thorn by the way, and a soul which is not girded up is sure to be hindered in its course. This one thing I do' is the secret of all successful doing, and obedience to the command of Jesus, let your loins be girded about,' is indispensable, if we would avoid polluting contact with evil. His other command associated with it will never be accomplished without it. The lamps will not be burning unless the loins are girt. The men who scatter their loves and thoughts over a wide space, and to whom the discipline which confines their energies within definite channels is distasteful, are destined to be failures in the struggle of life. It is better to have our lives running between narrow banks, and so to have a scour in the stream, than to have them spreading wide and shallow, with no driving force in all the useless expanse. Such concentration and bracing of oneself up is needful, if any of the rest of the great exhortations which follow are to be fulfilled.

It may be that Paul here has haunting his memory our Lord's words which we have just quoted; and, in any case, he is in beautiful accord with his brother Peter, who begins all the exhortations of his epistle with the words, Wherefore, girding up the loins of your mind, be sober, and set your minds perfectly upon the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.' Peter, indeed, is not thinking of the soldier's belt, but he is, no doubt, remembering many a time when, in the toils of the fishing-boat, he had to tighten his robes round his waist to prepare for tugging at the oar, and he feels that such concentration is needful if a Christian life is ever to be sober, and to have its hope set perfectly on Christ and His grace.

II. The Girdle Is To Be Truth.

The question immediately arises as to whether truth here means objective truth--the truth of the Gospel, or subjective truth, or, as we are accustomed to say, truthfulness. It would seem that the former signification is rather included in the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and it is best to regard the phrase with (literally "in") truth' here as having its ordinary meaning, of which we may take as examples the phrases,' the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth'; love rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth'; whom I love in truth.' Absolute sincerity and transparent truthfulness may well be regarded as the girdle which encloses and keeps secure every other Christian grace and virtue.

We do not need to go far to find a slight tinge of unreality marring the Christian life: we have only to scrutinise our own experiences to detect some tendency to affectation, to saying a little more than is quite true, even in our sincerest worship. And we cannot but recognise that in all Christian communities there is present an element of conventionalism in their prayers, and that often the public expression of religious emotions goes far beyond the realities of feeling in the worshippers. In fact, terrible as the acknowledgment may be, we shall be blind if we do not recognise that the average Christianity of this day suffers from nothing more than it does from the lack of this transparent sincerity, and of absolute correspondence between inward fact and outward expression. Types of Christianity which make much of emotion are, of course, specially exposed to such a danger, but those which make least of it are not exempt, and we all need to lay to heart, far more seriously than we ordinarily do, that God' desires truth in the outward parts.' The sturdy English moralist who proclaimed' Clear your mind of cant' as the first condition of attaining wisdom, was not so very far from Paul's point of view in our text, but his exhortation covered but a small section of the Apostle's.

This absolute sincerity is hard to attain, and still harder to retain. Hideous as the fact of posing or attitudinising in our religion may be, it is one that comes very easily to us all, and, when it comes, spreads fast and spoils everything. Just as the legionary's armour was held in its place by the girdle, and if that worked loose or was carelessly fastened, the breastplate would be sure to get out of position, so all the subsequent graces largely depend for their vigorous exercise on the prime virtue of truthfulness. Righteousness and faith will be weakened by the fatal taint of insincerity, and, on the other hand, conscious truthfulness will give strength to the whole man. Braced up and concentrated, our powers for all service and for all conflict will be increased. The bond of perfectness' is, no doubt, Love,' but that perfect bond will not be worn by us, unless we have girded our loins with truthfulness.

It may be that in Paul's memory there is floating Isaiah's great vision of the Branch' out of the stock of Jesse, on whom the Spirit of the Lord was to rest, and on whom it was proclaimed that faithfulness (or as it is rendered in the Septuagint, by the same phrase which the Apostle here employs, in truth') was to be the girdle of his reins; but, at all events, that which the prophet saw to be in the ideal Messiah, the Apostle sees as essential to all the subjects of that King.

III. Our Truthfulness Is The Work Of God's Truth.

We have already pointed out that the expression in the text may either be taken as referring to the subjective quality of truthfulness, or to the objective truth of God as contained in the Gospel, but these two interpretations may be united, for the main factor in producing the former is the faithful use of the latter and an honest submission to its operation. The Psalmist of old had learned that the great safeguard against sin was the resolve, Thy word have I hid in my heart.' That word brings to bear the mightiest motives that can sway life. It moves by love, by fear, by hope: it proposes the loftiest aim, even to imitate God as dear children; it gives clear directions, and draws straight and plain the pilgrim's path; it holds out the largest promises, and in a measure fulfils them, even in the narrowest and most troubled lives. If we have made God's truth our own, and are faithfully applying it to the details of daily life and submitting our whole selves to its operation, we shall be truthful and shall instinctively shrink from all unreality. If we know the truth as it is in Jesus, and walk in it, that truth will make us free,' and if thus we are in Him that is true, even in His Son, Jesus Christ,' that truth abiding in us, and with us, for ever, will make us truthful. In a heart so occupied and filled there is no room for the make-believes which are but too apt to creep into religious experience. Such a soul will recoil with an instinct of abhorrence from all that savours of ostentation, and will feel that its truest treasure cannot be shown. It is our duty not to hide God's righteousness within our hearts, but it is equally our duty to hide His word there. We have to seek to make manifest the savour of His knowledge in every place,' but we have also to remember that in our hearts there is a secret place, and that not easily forgiven are they who draw back the curtains,' and let a careless world look in. It is not for others to pry into the hidden mysteries of the fellowship of a soul with the indwelling Christ, however it may be the Christian duty to show to all and sundry the blessed and transforming effects of that fellowship.

But God's truth must be received and its power submitted to, if it is to implant in us the supreme grace of perfect truthfulness. Our minds and hearts must be saturated with it by many an hour of solitary reflection, by meditation which will diffuse its aroma like a fragrant perfume through our characters, and by the habit of bringing all circumstances, moods, and desires to be tested by its infallible criterion, and by the unreluctant acceptance of its guidance at every moment of our lives. There are many of us who, in a real though terribly imperfect sense, hold the truth, but who know nothing, or next to nothing, of its power to make us truthful. If it is to be of any use to us, we must make it ours in a far deeper sense than it is ours now; for many of us the girdle has been but carelessly fastened and has worked loose, and because, by our own faults, we have not abode in the truth,' it has come to pass that there is no truth in us.' We have set before us in the text the one condition on which all Christian progress depends, and if by any slackness we loosen the girdle of truthfulness, and admit into our religious life any taint of unreality, if our prayers say just a little more than is quite true, and our penitence a little less, we shall speedily find that hypocrisy and trivial insincerity are separated by very narrow limits. God's truth in the Gospel cleanses the inner man, but not without his own effort, and, therefore, we are commanded to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness, in the fear of the Lord.'

The Breastplate Of Righteousness'

Having put on the breastplate of righteousness'--Eph. 6:14.

THERE can be no doubt that in this whole context the Apostle has in mind the great passage in Isaiah 59. where the prophet, in a figure of extreme boldness, describes the Lord as arming Himself to deliver the oppressed faithful, and coming as a Redeemer to Zion. In that passage the Lord puts on righteousness as a breastplate--that is to say, God, in His manifestation of Himself for the deliverance of His people, comes forth as if arrayed in the glittering armour of righteousness. Paul does not shrink from applying the same metaphor to those who are to be imitators of God as beloved children,' and from urging upon them that, in their humble degree and lowly measure, they too are to be clothed in the bright armour of moral rectitude. This righteousness is manifested in character and in conduct, and as the breastplate guards the vital organs from assault, it will keep the heart unwounded.

We must note that Paul here gathers up the whole sum of Christian character and conduct into one word. All can be expressed, however diversified may be the manifestations, by the one sovereign term righteousness,' and that is not merely a hasty generalisation, or a too rapid synthesis. As all sin has one root and is generically one, so all goodness is at bottom one. The germ of sin is living to oneself: the germ of goodness is living to God. Though the degrees of development of either opposite are infinite, and the forms of its expression innumerable, yet the root of each is one.

Paul thinks of righteousness as existent before the Christian soldier puts it on. In this thought we are not merely relying on the metaphor of our text, but bringing it into accord with the whole tone of New Testament teaching, which knows of only one way in which any soul that has been living to self, and therefore to sin, can attain to living to God, and therefore can be righteous. We must receive, if we are ever to possess, the righteousness which is of God, and which becomes ours through Jesus Christ. The righteousness which shines as a fair but unattainable vision before sinful men, has a real existence, and may be theirs. It is not to be self-elaborated, but to be received.

That existent righteousness is to be put On. Other places of Scripture figure it as the robe of righteousness; here it is conceived of as the breastplate, but the idea of assumption is the same. It is to be put on, primarily, by faith. It is given in Christ to simple belief. He that hath faith thereby has the righteousness which is through faith in Christ, for in his faith he has the one formative principle of reliance on God, which will gradually refine character and mould conduct into whatsoever things are lovely and of good report. That righteousness which faith receives is no mere forensic treating of the unjust as just, but whilst it does bring with it pardon and oblivion from past transgressions, it makes a man in the depths of his being righteous, however slowly it may afterwards transform his conduct. The faith which is a departure from all reliance on works of righteousness which we have done, and is a single-eyed reliance on the work of Jesus Christ, opens the heart in which it is planted to all the influences of that life which was in Jesus, that from Him it may be in us. If Christ be in us (and if He is not, we are none of His), the spirit is life because of righteousness,' however the body may still be dead because of sin.'

But the putting on of the breastplate requires effort as well as faith, and effort will be vigorous in the measure in which faith is vivid, but it should follow, not precede or supplant, faith. There is no more hopeless and weary advice than would be the exhortation of our text if it stood alone. It is a counsel of despair to tell a man to put on that breastplate, and to leave him in doubt where he is to find it, or whether he has to hammer it together by his own efforts before he can put it on. There is no more unprofitable expenditure of breath than the cry to men, Be good! Be good! Moral teaching without Gospel preaching is little better than a waste of breath.

This injunction is continuously imperative upon all Christian soldiers. They are on the march through the enemy's country, and can never safely lay aside their armour. After all successes, and no less after all failures, we have still to arm ourselves for the fight, and it is to be remembered that the righteousness of which Paul speaks differs from common earthly moralities only as including and transcending them all. It is, alas; too true that Christian righteousness has been by Christians set forth as something fantastic and unreal, remote from ordinary life, and far too heavenly-minded to care for common virtues. Let us never forget that Jesus Himself has warned us, that except our righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, we shah in no wise enter the Kingdom of Heaven. The greater orbit encloses the lesser within itself.

The breastplate of righteousness is our defence against evil. The opposition to temptation is best carried on by the positive cultivation of good. A habit of righteous conduct is itself a defence against temptation. Untilled fields bear abundant weeds. The used tool does not rust, nor the running water gather scum. The robe of righteousness will guard the heart as effectually as a coat of mail. The positive employment with good weakens temptation, and arms us against evil. But so long as we are here our righteousness must be militant, and we must be content to live ever armed to meet the enemy which is always hanging round us, and watching for an opportunity to strike. The time will come when we shall put off the breastplate and put on the fine linen clean and white,' which is the heavenly and final form of the righteousness of Saints.

Maclaren: Eph 6:15

A Soldier's Shoes

Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.'--Eph. 6:15.

PAUL drew the first draft of this picture of the Christian armour in his first letter. It is a finished picture here. One can fancy that the Roman soldier to whom he was chained in his captivity, whilst this letter was being written, unconsciously sat for his likeness, and that each piece of his accoutrements was seized in succession by the Apostle's imagination and turned to a Christian use. It is worth noticing that there is only one offensive weapon mentioned--the sword of the Spirit.' All the rest are defensive--helmet, breastplate, shield, girdle, and shoes. That is to say, the main part of our warfare consists in defence, in resistance, and in keeping what we have, in spite of everybody, men and devils, who attempt to take it from us. Hold fast that thou hast; let no man take thy crown.'

Now, it seems to me that the ordinary reader does not quite grasp the meaning of our text, and that it would be more intelligible if, instead of preparation,' which means the process of getting a thing ready, we read preparedness,' which means the state of mind of the man who is ready. Then we have to notice that the little word of' does duty to express two different relations, in the two instances of its use here. In the first case--the preparedness of the Gospel '--it states the origin of the thing in question. That condition of being ready comes from the good news of Christ. In the second case--the Gospel of peace '--it states the result of the thing in question. The good news of Christ gives peace. So, taking the whole clause, we may paraphrase it by saying that the preparedness of spirit, the alacrity which comes from the possession of a Gospel that sheds a calm over the heart and brings a man into peace with God, is what the Apostle thinks is like the heavy hob-nailed boots that the legionaries wore, by which they could stand firm, whatever came against them.

I. The First Thing That I Would Notice Here Is That The Gospel Brings Peace:

I suppose that there was ringing in Paul's head some echoes of the music of Isaiah's words,' How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good!' But there is a great deal more than an unconscious quotation of ancient words here; for in Paul's thought, the one power which brings a man into harmony with the universe and to peace with himself, is the power which proclaims that God is at peace with him. And Jesus Christ is our peace, because He has swept away the root and bitter fountain of all the disquiet of men's hearts, and all their chafing at providences -- the consciousness that there is discord between themselves and God. The Gospel brings peace in the deepest sense of that word, and, primarily, peace with God, from out of which all other kinds of tranquillity and heart-repose do come--and they come from nothing besides.

But what strikes me most here is not so much the allusion to the blessed truth that was believed and experienced by these Ephesian Christians, that the Gospel brought peace, and was the only thing that did, as the singular emergence of that idea that the Gospel was a peace-bringing power, in the midst of this picture of fighting. Yes, it brings both. It brings us peace first, and then it says to us, Now, having got peace in your heart, because peace with God, go out and fight to keep it.' For, if we are warring with the devil we are at peace with God; and if we are at peace with the devil we are warring with God. So the two states of peace and war go together. There is no real peace which has not conflict in it, and the Gospel is the Gospel of peace,' precisely because it enlists us in Christ's army and sends us out to fight Christ's battles.

So, then, dear brother, the only way to realise and preserve the peace of God which passes understanding' is to fling ourselves manfully into the fight to which all Christ's soldiers are pledged and bound. The two conditions, though they seem to be opposite, will unite; for this is the paradox of the Christian life, that in all regions it makes compatible apparently incompatible and contradictory emotions. As sorrowful'-and Paul might have said therefore' instead of yet' --as sorrowful yet always rejoicing; as having nothing yet '--therefore--possessing all things'; as in the thick of the fight, and yet kept in perfect peace, because the soul is stayed on God. The peace that comes from friendship with Him, the peace that fills a heart tranquil because satisfied, the peace that soothes a conscience emptied of all poison and robbed of all its sting, the peace that abides because, on all the horizon in front of us nothing can be seen that we need to be afraid of--that peace is the peace which the Gospel brings, and it is realised in warfare and is consistent with it. All the armies of the world may camp round the fortress, and the hurtling noise of battle may be loud in the plains, but up upon the impregnable cliff crowned by its battlements there is a central citadel, with a chapel in the heart of it; and to the worshippers there none of the noise ever penetrates. The Gospel which laps us in peace and puts it in our hearts makes us soldiers.

II. Further, This Gospel Of Peace Will Prepare Us For The March.

A wise general looks after his soldiers' boots. If they give out, nothing else is of much use. The roads are very rough and very long, and there need to be strong soles and well-sewed uppers, and they will be none the worse for a bit of iron on the heels and the toes, in order that they may not wear out in the midst of the campaign. Thy shoes shall be iron and brass,' and these metals are harder than any of the rock that you will have to clamber over. Which being translated into plain fact is just this--a tranquil heart in amity with God is ready for all the road, is likely to make progress, and is fit for anything that it may be called to do.

A calm heart makes a light foot; and he who is living at peace with God, and with all disturbance within hushed to rest, will, for one thing, be able to see what his duty is. He will see his way as far as is needful for the moment. That is more than a good many of us can do when our eyes get confused, because our hearts are beating so loudly and fast, and our own wishes come in to hide from us God's will. But if we are weaned from ourselves, as we shall be if we are living in possession of the peace of God which passes understanding, the atmosphere will be transparent, as it is on some of the calm last days of autumn, and we shall see far ahead and know where we ought to go.

The quiet heart will be able to fling its whole strength into its work. And that is what troubled hearts never can do, for half their energy is taken up in steadying or quieting themselves, or is dissipated in going after a hundred other things. But when we are wholly engaged in quiet fellowship with Jesus Christ we have the whole of our energies at our command, and can fling ourselves wholly into our work for Him. The steam-engine is said to be a very imperfect machine which wastes more power than it utilises. That is true of a great many Christian people; they have the power, but they are so far away from that deep sense of tranquillity with God, of which my text speaks, that they waste much of the power that they have. And if we are to have for our motto Always Ready,' as an old Scottish family has, the only way to secure that is by having our feet shod with the preparedness' that comes from the Gospel that brings us peace. Brethren, duty that is done reluctantly, with hesitation, is not done. We must fling ourselves into the work gladly and be always ready for all Thy perfect will.'

There was an English commander, who died some years ago, who was sent for to the Horse Guards one day and asked, How long will it take for you to be ready to go to Scinde?' Half an hour,' said he; and in three-quarters he was in the train, on his road to reconquer a kingdom. That is how we ought to be; but we never shall be, unless we live habitually in tranquil communion with God, and in the full faith that we are at peace with Him through the blood of His Soul. A quiet heart makes us ready for duty.

III. Again, The Gospel Of Peace Prepares Us For Combat.

In ancient warfare battles were lost or won very largely according to the weight of the masses of men that were hurled against each other; and the heavier men, with the firmer footing, were likely to be the victors. Our modern scientific way of fighting is different from that. But in the old time the one thing needful was that a man should stand firm and resist the shock of the enemies as they rushed upon him. Unless our footing is good we shall be tumbled over by the onset of some unexpected antagonist. And for good footing there are two things necessary. One is a good, solid piece of ground to stand on, that is not slippery nor muddy, and the other is a good, strong pair of soldier's boots, that will take hold on the ground and help the wearer to steady himself. Christ has set our feet on the rock, and so the first requisite is secured. If we, for our part, will keep near to that Gospel which brings peace into our hearts, the peace that it brings will make us able to stand and bear unmoved any force that may be hurled against us. If we are to be steadfast, unmovable,' we can only be so when our feet are shod with the preparedness of the Gospel of peace.

The most of your temptations, most of the things that would pluck you away from Jesus Christ, and upset you in your standing will come down upon you unexpectedly. Nothing happens in this world except the unexpected; and it is the sudden assaults that we were not looking for that work most disastrously against us. A man may be aware of some special weakness in his character, and have given himself carefully and patiently to try to fortify himself against it, and, lo! all at once a temptation springs up from the opposite side; the enemy was lying in hiding there, and whilst his face was turned to fight with one foe, a foe that he knew nothing about came storming behind him. There is only one way to stand, and that is not merely by cultivating careful watchfulness against our own weaknesses, but by keeping fast hold of Jesus Christ manifested to us in His Gospel. Then the peace that comes from that communion will itself guard us.

You remember what Paul says in one of his other letters, where he has the same beautiful blending together of the two ideas of peace and warfare: The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall garrison your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.' It will be, as it were, an armed force within your heart which will repel all antagonism, and will enable you to abide in that Christ, through whom and in whom alone all peace comes. So, because we are thus liable to be overwhelmed by a sudden rush of unexpected temptation, and surprised into a sin before we know where we are, let us keep fast hold by that Gospel which brings peace, which will give us steadfastness, however suddenly the masked battery may begin to play upon us, and the foe may steal out of his ambush and make a rush against our unprotectedness. That is the only way, as I think, by which we can walk scatheless through the world.

Now, dear brethren, remember that this text is part of a commandment. We are to put on the shoes. How is that to be done? By a very simple way: a way which, I am afraid, a great many Christian people do not practise with anything like the constancy that they ought. For it is the Gospel that brings the peace, and if its peace brings the preparedness, then the way to get the preparedness is by soaking our minds and hearts in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

You hear a good deal nowadays about deepening the spiritual life, and people hold conventions for the purpose. All right; I have not a word to say against that. But, conventions or no conventions, there is only one thing that deepens the spiritual life, and that is keeping near the Christ from whom all the fulness of the spiritual life flows. If we will hold fast by our Gospel, and let its peace lie upon our minds, as the negative of a photograph lies upon the paper that it is to be printed upon, until the imago of Jesus Christ Himself is reproduced in us, then we may laugh at temptation. For there will be no temptation when the heart is full of Him, and there will be no sense of surrendering anything that we wish to keep when the superior sweetness of His grace fills our souls. It is empty vessels into which poison can be poured. If the vessel is full there will be no room for it. Get your hearts and minds filled with the wine of the kingdom, and the devil's venom of temptation will have no space to get in. It is well to resist temptation; it is better to be lifted above it, so that it ceases to tempt. And the one way to secure that is to live near Jesus Christ, and lot the Gospel of His grace take up more of our thoughts and more of our affections than it has done in the past. Then we shall realise the fulfilment of the promise: He will not suffer thy foot to be moved.'

Maclaren: Eph 6:16

The Shield Of Faith

Above all, taking the shield of faith, whereby ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.'--Eph. 6:16.

THERE were two kinds of shields in use in ancient warfare--one smaller, carried upon the arm, and which could be used, by a movement of the arm, for the defence of threatened parts of the body in detail; the other large, planted in front of the soldier, fixed in the ground, and all but covering his whole person, it is the latter which is referred to in the text, as the word which describes it clearly shows. That word is connected with the Greek word meaning door,' and gives a rough notion of the look of the instrument of defence --a great rectangular oblong, behind which a man could stand untouched and untouchable. And that is the kind of shield, says Paul, which we are to have--no little defence which may protect some part of the nature, but a great wall, behind which he who crouches is safe.

Above all' does not mean here, as superficial readers take it to mean, most especially and primarily, as most important, but it simply means in addition to all these other things. Perhaps with some allusion to the fact that the shield protected the breastplate, as well as the breastplate protected the man, there may be a reference to the kind of double defence which comes to him who wears that breastplate and lies behind the shelter of a strong and resolute faith.

I. Now, Looking At This Metaphor From A Practical Point Of View, The First Thing To Note Is The Missiles, The Fiery Darts Of The Wicked.'

Archaeologists tell us that there were in use in ancient warfare javelins tipped with some kind of combustible, which were set on fire, and flung, so that they had not only the power of wounding but also of burning; and that there were others with a hollow head, which was in like manner filled, kindled, and thrown into the ranks of the enemy. I suppose that the Apostle's reason for specifying these fiery darts was simply that they were the most formidable offensive weapons that he had ever heard of. Probably, if he had lived to-day, he would have spoken of rifle-bullets or explosive shells, instead of fiery darts. But, though probably the Apostle had no further meaning in the metaphor than to suggest that faith was mightier than the mightiest assaults that can be hurled against it, we may venture to draw attention to two particulars in which this figure is specially instructive and warning. The one is the action of certain temptations in setting the soul on fire; the other is the suddenness with which they assail us.

The fiery darts.' Now, I do not wish to confine that metaphor too narrowly to any one department of human nature, for our whole being is capable of being set on fire, and set on fire of hell,' as James says. But there are things in us all to which the fiery darts do especially appeal: desires, appetites, passions; or--to use the word which refined people are so afraid of, although the Bible is not,' lusts--which war against the soul,' and which need only a touch of fire to flare up like a tar-barrel, in thick foul smoke darkening the heavens. There are fiery darts that strike these animal natures of ours, and set them all aflame.

But, there are other fiery darts than these. There are plenty of other desires in us: wishes, cowardices, weaknesses of all sorts, that, once touched with the devil's dart, will burn fiercely enough. We all know that.

Then there is the other characteristic of suddenness. The dart comes without any warning. The arrow is invisible until it is buried in the man's breast. The pestilence walks in darkness, and the victim does not know until its poison fang is in him. Ah! yes I brethren, the most dangerous of our temptations are those that are sprung upon us unawares. We are going quietly along the course of our daily lives, occupied with quite other thoughts, and all at once, as if a door had opened, not out of heaven but out of hell, we are confronted with some evil thing that, unless we are instantaneously on our guard, will conquer us almost before we know. Evil tempts us because it comes to us, for the most part, without any beat of drum or blast of trumpet to say that it is coming, and to put us upon our guard. The batteries that do most harm to the advancing force are masked until the word of command is given, and then there is a flash from every cannon's throat and a withering hail of shot that confounds by its unexpectedness as well as kills by its blow. The fiery darts that light up the infernal furnace in a man's heart, and that smite him all unawares and unsuspecting, these are the weapons that we have to fear most.

II. Consider Next, The Defence: The Shield Of Faith.'

Now, the Old Testament says things like this: Fear not, Abraham; I am thy Shield.' The psalmist invoked God, in a rapturous exuberance of adoring invocations, as his fortress, and his buckler, and the horn of his salvation, and his high tower. The same psalm says, The Lord is a shield to all them that put their trust in Him'; and the Book of Proverbs, which is not given to quoting psalms, quotes that verse. Another psalm says, The Lord God is a sun and shield.'

And then Paul comes speaking of the shield of faith: What has become of the other one? The answer is plain enough. My faith is nothing except for what it puts in front of me, and it is God who is truly my shield; my faith is only called a shield, because it brings me behind the bosses of the Almighty's buckler, against which no man can run a tilt, or into which no man can strike his lance; nor any devil either. God is a defence; and my trust, which is nothing in itself, is everything because of that with which it brings me into connection. Faith is the condition, and the only condition, of God's power flowing into me, and working in me. And when that power flows into me, and works in me, then I can laugh at the fiery darts, because greater is He that is with us than all they that are with them.'

So all the glorification which the New Testament pours out upon the act of faith properly belongs, not to the act itself, but to that with which the act brings us into connection. Wherefore, in the first Epistle of John, the Apostle, who recorded Christ's saying, Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world,' translates it into, This is the victory that overcometh the world' --not, our Christ, but--even our faith.' And it overcomes because it binds us in deep, vital union with Him who has overcome; and then all His conquering power comes into us.

That is the explanation and vindication of the turn which Paul gives to the Old Testament metaphor here, when he makes our shield to be faith. Suppose a man was exercising trust in one that was unworthy of it, would that trust defend him from anything? Suppose you were in peril of some great pecuniary loss, and were saying to yourself, Oh! I do not care. So-and-so has guaranteed me against any loss, and I trust to him,' and suppose he was a bankrupt, what would be the good of your trust? It would not bring the money back into your pocket. Suppose a man is leaning upon a rotten support; the harder he leans the sooner it will crumble. So there is no defence in the act of trust except what comes into it from the object of trust; and my faith is a shield only because it grasps the God who is the shield.

But, then, there is another side to that thought. My faith will quench, as nothing else will, these sudden impulses of fiery desires, because my faith brings me into the conscious presence of God, and of the unseen realities where He dwells. How can a man sin when God's eye is felt to be upon him? Suppose conspirators plotting some dark deed in a corner, shrouded by the night, as they think; and suppose, all at once, the day were to blaze in upon them, they would scatter, and drop their designs. Faith draws back the curtain which screens off that unseen world from so many of us, and lets in the light that shines down from above and shows us that we are compassed about by a cloud of witnesses, and the Captain of our Salvation in the midst of them. Then the fiery darts fizzle out, and the points drop off them. No temptation continues to flame when we see God.

They have contrivances in mills that they call' automatic sprinklers.' When the fire touches them it melts away a covering, and a gas is set free that puts the fire out. And if we let in the thought of God, it will extinguish any flame. The sun puts out the fire in our grates,' the old women say. Let God's sun shine into your heart, and you will find that the infernal light has gone Out. The shield of faith quenches the fiery darts of the' wicked.'

Yes! and it does it in another way. For, according to the Epistle to the Hebrews, faith realises the things hoped for,' as well as unseen.' And if a man is walking in the light of the great promises of Heaven, and the great threatenings of a hell, he will not be in much danger of being set on fire, even by the fiery darts of the wicked.' He that receives into his heart God's strength; he that by faith is conscious of the divine presence in communion with him; he that by faith walks in the light of eternal retribution, will triumph over the most sudden, the sharpest, and the most fiery of the darts that can be launched against him.

III. The Grasp Of The Shield.

Taking the shield,' then, there is something to be done in order to get the benefit of that defence. Now, there are a great many very good people at present who tell Christian men that they ought to exercise faith for sanctifying, as they exercise it for justifying and acceptance. And some of them--I do not say all--forget that there is effort needed to exercise faith for sanctifying; and that our energy has to be put forth in order that a man may, in spite of all resistance, keep himself in the attitude of dependence. So my text, whilst it proclaims that we are to trust for defence against, and victory over, recurring temptations, just as we trusted for forgiveness and acceptance at the beginning, proclaims also that there must be effort to grasp the shield, and to realise the defence which the shield gives to us.

For to trust is an act of the heart and will far more than of the head, and there are a great many hindrances that rise in the way of it; and to keep behind the shield, and not depend at all upon our own wit, our wisdom, or our strength, but wholly upon the Christ who gives us wit and wisdom, and strengthens our fingers to fight--that will take work! To occupy heart and mind with the object of faith is not an easy thing.

So, brethren, effort to compel the will and the heart to trust; effort to keep the mind in touch with the verities and the Person who are the objects of our faith; and effort to keep ourselves utterly and wholly ensconced behind the Shield, and never to venture out into the open, where our own arm has to keep our own heads, but to hang wholly upon Him--these things go to taking' the shield of faith. And it is because we fall in these, and not because there are any holes or weak places in the shield, that so many of the fiery darts find their way through, and set on fire and wound us. The Shield is impregnable, beaten as we have often been. This is the victory that overcometh the world '--and the devil and his darts--even our faith.'

Maclaren: Eph 6:17

The Helmet Of Salvation'

Take the helmet of salvation.'--Eph. 6:17.

WE may, perhaps, trace a certain progress in the enumeration of the various pieces of the Christian armour in this context. Roughly speaking, they are in three divisions. There are first our graces of truth, righteousness, preparedness, which, though they are all conceived as given by God, are yet the exercises of our own powers. There is next, standing alone, as befits its all-comprehensive character, faith which is able to ward against and overcome not merely this and that temptation, but all forms of evil. That faith is the root of the three preceding graces, and makes the transition to the two which follow, because it is the hand by which we lay hold of God's gifts. The two final parts of the Christian armour are God's gifts, pure and simple--salvation and the word of God. So the progress is from circumference to centre, from man to God. From the central faith we have on the one hand that which it produces in us; on the other, that which it lays hold of from God. And these two last pieces of armour, being wholly God's gift, we are bidden with especial emphasis which is shown by a change in construction, to take or receive these.

I. The Salvation.

Once more Old Testament prophecy suggests the words of this exhortation. In Isaiah's grand vision of God, arising to execute judgment which is also redemption, we have a wonderful picture of His arraying Himself in armour. Righteousness is His flashing breastplate: on His head is an helmet of salvation. The gleaming steel is draped by garments of retributive judgment, and over all is cast, like a cloak, the ample folds of that zeal' which expresses the inexhaustible energy and intensity of the divine nature and action. Thus arrayed He comes forth to avenge and save. His redeeming work is the manifestation and issue of all these characteristics of His nature. It flames with divine fervour: it manifests the justice which repays, but its inmost character is righteousness, and its chief purpose is to save. His helmet is salvation; the plain, prose meaning of which would appear to be that His great purpose of saving men is its own guarantee that His purpose should be effected, and is the armour by which His work is defended.

The Apostle uses the old picture with perfect freedom, quoting the words indeed, but employing them quite differently. God's helmet of salvation is His own purpose; man's helmet of salvation is God's gift. He is strong to save because He wills to save; we are strong and safe when we take the salvation which He gives.

It is to be further noticed that the same image appears in Paul's rough draft of the Christian armour in Thessalonians, with the significant difference that there the helmet is the hope of salvation,' and here it is the salvation itself. This double representation is in full accord with all Scripture teaching, according to which we both possess and hope for salvation, and our possession determines the measure of our hope. That great word negatively implies deliverance from evil of any kind, and in its lower application, from sickness or peril of any sort. In its higher meaning in Scripture the evil from which we are saved is most frequently left unexpressed, but sometimes a little glimpse is given, as when we read that we are saved from wrath through Him,' or' saved from sin.' What Christ saves us from is, first and chiefly, from sin in all aspects, its guilt, its power, and its penalty; but His salvation reaches much further than any mere deliverance from threatening evil, and positively means the communication to our weakness and emptiness of all blessings and graces possible for men. It is inward and properly spiritual, but it is also outward, and it is not fully possessed until we are clothed with' salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.'

Hence, in Scripture our salvation is presented as past, as present, and as future. As past it is once for all received by initial faith in Christ; and, in view of their faith, Paul has no scruples as to saying to the imperfect Christians whose imperfections he scourges, Ye have been saved,' or in building upon that past fact his earnest exhortations and his scathing rebukes. The salvation is present if in any true sense it is past. There will be a daily growing deliverance from evil and a daily growing appropriation and manifestation of the salvation which we have received. And so Paul more than once speaks of Christians as being saved.' The process begun in the past is continued throughout the present, and the more a Christian man is conscious of its reality even amidst flaws, failures, stagnation, and lapses, the more assured will be his hope of the perfect salvation in the future, when all that is here, tendency often thwarted, and aspirations often balked, and sometimes sadly contradicted, will be completely, uninterruptedly, and eternally realised. If that hope flickers and is sometimes all but dead, the reason mainly lies in its flame not being fed by present experience.

II. The Helmet Of Salvation.

This salvation in its present form will keep our heads in the day of battle. Its very characteristic is that it delivers us from evil, and all the graces with which Paul equips his ideal warrior are parts of the positive blessings which our salvation brings us. The more assured we are in our own happy consciousness of possessing the salvation of God, the more shall we be defended from all the temptations that seek to stir into action our lower selves. There will be no power in our fears to draw us into sin, and the possible evils that appeal to earthly passions of whatever sort will lose their power to disturb us, in the precise measure in which we know that we are saved in Christ. The consciousness of salvation will tend to damp down the magazine of combustibles that we all carry within us, and the sparks that fall will be as innocuous as those that light on wet gunpowder. If our thoughts are occupied with the blessings which we possess they will be guarded against the assaults of evil. The full cup has no room for poison. The eye that is gazing on the far-off white mountains does not see the filth and frivolities around. If we are living in conscious possession and enjoyment of what God gives us, we shall pass scatheless through the temptations which would otherwise fall on us and rend us. A future eagerly longed for, and .already possessed in germ, will trill a Present that would otherwise appeal to us with irresistible force.

III. Take The Helmet.

We might perhaps more accurately read receive salvation, for that salvation is not won by any efforts of our own, but if we ever possess it, our possession is the result of our accepting it as a gift from God. The first word which the Gospel speaks to men and which makes it a Gospel, is not Do this or that, but Take this from the hands that were nailed to the Cross. The beginning of all true life, of all peace, of all self-control, of all hope, lies in the humble and penitent acceptance by faith of the salvation which Christ brings, and with which we have nothing to do but to accept it.

But Paul is here speaking to those whom he believes to have already exercised the initial faith which united them to Christ, and made His salvation theirs, and to these the exhortation comes with special force. To such it says, See to it that your faith ever grasps and feeds upon the great facts on which your salvation reposes--God's changeless love, Christ's all-sufficient sacrifice and ascended life, which He imparts to us if we abide in Him. Hold fast and prolong by continual repetition the initial act by which you received that salvation. It is said that on his death-bed Oliver Cromwell asked the Puritan divine who was standing by it whether a man who had once been in the covenant could be lost, and on being assured that he could not, answered, I know that I was once in it'; but such a building on past experiences is a building on sand, and nothing but continuous faith will secure a continuous salvation. A melancholy number of so-called Christians in this day have to travel far back through the years before they reach the period when they took the helmet of salvation. They know that they were far better men, and possessed a far deeper apprehension of Christ and His power in the old days than is theirs now, and they need not wonder if God's great gift has unnoticed slipped from their relaxed grasp. A hand that clings to a rock while a swollen flood rushes past needs to perpetually be tightening its grip, else the man will be swept away; and the present salvation, and, still more, the hope of a future salvation, are not ours on any other terms than a continual repetition of the initial act by which we first received them. But there must also be a continually increased appropriation and manifestation in our lives of a progressive salvation that will come as a result of a constantly renewed faith; but it will not come unless there be continuous effort to work into our characters, and to work out in our lives, the transforming and vitalising power of the life given to us in Jesus Christ. If our present experience yields no sign of growing conformity to the image of our Saviour, there is only too abundant reason for doubting whether we have experienced a past salvation or have any right to anticipate a perfect future salvation.

The last word to be said is, Live in frequent anticipation of that perfect future. If that anticipation is built on memory of the past and experience of the present, it cannot be too confident. That hope maketh not ashamed. In the region of Christian experience alone the weakest of us has a right to reckon on the future, and to be sure that when that great to-morrow dawns for us, it shall be as this day and much more abundant.' With this salvation in its imperfect form brightening the present, and in its completeness filling the future with unimaginable glory, we can go into all the conflicts of this fighting world and feel that we are safe because God covers our heads in the day of battle. Unless so defended we shall go into the fight as the naked Indians did with the Spanish invaders, and be defeated as they were. The plumes may be shorn off the helmet, and it may be easily dinted, but the head that wore it will be unharmed. And when the battle and the noise of battle are past, the helmet will be laid aside, and we shall be able to say, I have fought a good fight, henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness.'

The Sword Of The Spirit'

The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.'--Eph. 6:17.

WE reach here the last and only offensive weapon in the panoply. The of' here does not indicate apposition, as in the shield of faith,' or the helmet of salvation,' nor is it the of' of possession, so that the meaning is to be taken as being the sword which the Spirit wields, but it is the of' expressing origin, as in the armour of God'; it is the sword which the Spirit supplies. The progress noted in the last sermon from subjective graces to objective divine facts, is completed here, for the sword which is put into the Christian soldier's hand is the gift of God, even more markedly than is the helmet which guards his head in the day of battle.

I. Note What The Word Of God Is.

The answer which would most commonly and almost unthinkingly be given is, I suppose, the Scriptures; but while this is on the whole true, it is to be noted that the expression employed here properly means a word spoken, and not the written record. Both in the Old and in the New Testaments the word of God means more than the Bible; it is the authentic utterance of His will in all shapes and applying to all the facts of His creation. In the Old Testament' God said' is the expression in the first chapter of Genesis for the forthputting of the divine energy in the act of creation, and long ages after that divine poem of creation was written a psalmist re-echoed the thought when he said For ever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in the heavens. Thou hast established the earth and it abideth.'

But, further, the expression designates the specific messages which prophets and others received. These are not in the Old Testament spoken of as a unity: they are individual words rather than a word. Each of them is a manifestation of the divine will and purpose; many of them are commandments; some of them are warnings; and all, in some measure, reveal the divine nature.

That self-revelation of God reaches for us in this life its permanent climax, when He who at sundry times and in divers manner spake unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by a Son.' Jesus is the personal word of God,' though that name by which He is designated in the New Testament is a different expression from that employed in our text, and connotes a whole series of different ideas.

The early Christian teachers and apostles had no hesitation in taking that sacred name--the word of the Lord--to describe the message which they spoke. One of their earliest prayers when they were left alone was, that with all boldness they might speak Thy word; and throughout the whole of the Acts of the Apostles the preached Gospel is designated as the word of God, even as Peter in his epistle quotes one of the noblest of the Old Testament sayings, and declares that the word of the Lord' which' abideth for ever' is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.'

Clearly, then, Paul here is exhorting the Ephesian Christians, most of whom probably were entirely ignorant of the Old Testament, to use the spoken words which they had heard from him and other preachers of the Gospel as the sword of the Spirit. Since he is evidently referring to Christian teaching, it is obvious that he regards the old and the new as one whole, that to him the proclamation of Jesus was the perfection of what had been spoken by prophets and psalmists. He claims for his message and his brethren's the same place and dignity that belonged to the former messengers of the divine will. He asserts, and all the more strongly, because it is an assertion by implication only, that the same Spirit which moved in the prophets and saints of former days is moving in the preachers of the Gospel, and that their message has a wider sweep, a deeper content, and a more radiant light than that which had been delivered in the past. The word of the Lord had of old partially declared God's nature and His will" the word of God which Paul preached was in his judgment the complete revelation of God's loving heart, the complete exhibition to men of God's commandments of old; longing eyes had seen a coming day and been glad and confidently foretold it, now the message was the coming one has come.'

It is as the record and vehicle of that spoken Gospel, as well as of its earlier premonitions, that the Bible has come to be called the word of God, and the name is true in that He speaks in this book. But much harm has resulted from the appropriation of the name exclusively to the book, and the forgetfulness that a vehicle is one thing and that which it carries quite another.

II. The Purpose And Power Of The Word.

The sword is the only offensive weapon in the list. The spear which played so great a part in ancient warfare is not named. It may well be noted that only a couple of verses before our text we read of the Gospel of peace, and that here with remarkable freedom of use of his metaphors, Paul makes the word of God, which as we have seen is substantially equivalent to the preached Gospel, the one weapon with which Christian men are to cut and thrust. Jesus said I come not to send peace, but a sword,' but Paul makes the apparent contradiction still more acute when he makes the very Gospel itself the sword. We may recall as a parallel, and possibly a copy of our text, the great words of the Epistle to the Hebrews which speak of the word of God as living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword.' And we cannot forget the magnificent symbolism of the Book of Revelation which saw in the midst of the candlestick one like unto a Sow of Man, and' out of His mouth proceeded a sharp, two, edged sword.' That image is the poetic embodiment of our Lord's own words which we have just quoted, and implies the penetrating power of the word which Christ's gentle lips have uttered. Gracious and healing as it is, a Gospel of peace, it has an edge and a point which cut down through all sophistications of human error, and lay bare the thoughts and intents of the heart.' The revelation made by Christ has other purposes which are not less important than its ministering of consolation and hope. It is intended to help us in our fight with evil, and the solemn old utterance, with the breath of His mouth He will slay the wicked,' is true in reference to the effect of the word of Christ on moral evil Such slaying is but the other side of the life-giving power which the word exercises on a heart subject to its influence. For the Christian soldier's conflict with evil as threatening the health of his own Christian life, or as tyrannising over the lives of others, the sword of the Spirit is the best weapon.

We are not to take the rough-and-ready method, which is so common among good people, of identifying this spirit-given sword with the Bible. If for no other reason, yet because it is the Spirit which supplies it to the grasp of the Christian soldier, our possession of it is therefore a result of the action of that Spirit on the individual Christian spirit; and what He gives, and we are to wield, is the engrafted word which is able to save our souls.' That word, lodged in our hearts, brings to us a revelation of duty and a chart of life, because it brings a loving recognition of the character of our Father, and a glad obedience to His will. If that word dwell in us richly, in all wisdom, and if we do not dull the edge of the sword by our own unworthy handling of it, we shall find it pierce to the dividing asunder of joints and marrow,' and the evil within us will either be cast out from us, or will shrivel itself up, and bury itself deep in dark corners.

Love to Christ will be so strong, and the things that are not seen will so overwhelmingly outweigh the things that are seen, that the solemn majesty of the eternal will make the temporal look to our awed eyes the contemptible unreality which it really is. They who humbly receive and faithfully use that engrafted word, have in it a sure touchstone against which their own sins and errors are shivered. It is for the Christian consciousness the true Ithuriel's spear, at the touch of which upstarts in his own shape the fiend' who has been pouring his whispered poison into an unsuspicious ear. The standard weights and measures are kept in government custody, and traders have to send their yard measures and scales thither if they wish them tested; but the engrafted word, faithfully used and submitted to, is always at hand, and ready to pronounce its decrees, and to cut to the quick the evil by which the understanding is darkened and conscience sophisticated.

III. The Manner Of Its Use.

Here that is briefly but sufficiently expressed by the one commandment, take,' or perhaps more accurately, receive.' Of course, properly speaking, that exhortation does not refer to our manner of fighting with the sword, but to the previous act by which our hand grasps it. But it is profoundly true that if we take it in the deepest sense, the possession of it will teach the use of it. No instruction will impart the last, and little instruction is needed for the first. What is needed is the simple act of yielding ourselves to Jesus Christ, and looking to Him only, as our guide and strength. Before all Christian warfare must come the possession of the Christian armour, and the commandment that here lies at the beginning of all Paul's description of it is Take.' Our fitness for the conflict all depends on our receiving God's gift, and that reception is no mere passive thing, as if God's grace could be poured into a human spirit as water is into a bucket. Hence, the translation of this commandment of Paul's by take' is better than that by receive,' inasmuch as it brings into prominence man's activity, though it gives too exclusive importance to that, to the detriment of the far deeper and more essential element of the divine action. The two words are, in fact, both needed to cover the whole ground of what takes place when the giving God and the taking man concur in the great act by which the Spirit of God takes up its abode in a human spirit. God's gift is to be received as purely His gift, undeserved, unearned by us. But undeserved and unearned as it is, and given without money and without price,' it is not ours unless our hand is stretched out to take, and our fingers closed tightly over the free gift of God. There is a dead lift of effort in the reception; there is a still greater effort needed for the continued possession, and there is a life-long discipline and effort needed for the effective use in the struggle of daily life of the sword of the Spirit.

If that engrafted word is ever to become sovereign in our lives, there must be a life-long attempt to bring the tremendous truths as to God's will for human conduct which it plants in our minds into practice, and to bring all our practice under their influence. The motives which it brings to bear on our evils will be powerless to smite them, unless these motives are made sovereign in us by many an hour of patient meditation and of submission to their sweet and strong constraint. One sometimes sees on a wild briar a graft which has been carefully inserted and bandaged up, but which has failed to strike, and so the strain of the briar goes on and no rosebuds come. Are there not some of us who profess to have received the engrafted word and whose daily experience has proved, by our own continual sinfulness, that it is unable to save our souls'?

There are in the Christian ranks some soldiers whose hands are too nerveless or too full of worldly trash to grasp the sword which they have received, much less to strike home with it at any of the evils that are devastating their own lives or darkening the world. The feebleness of the Christian conflict with evil, in all its forms, whether individual or social, whether intellectual or moral, whether heretical or grossly and frankly sensual, is mainly due to the feebleness with which the average professing Christians grasp the sword of the Spirit. When David asked the priests for weapons, and they told him that Goliath's sword was lying wrapt in a cloth behind the ephod, and that they had none other, he said, There is none like that, give it me.' If we are wise, we will take the sword that lies in the secret place, and, armed with it, we shall not need to fear in any day of battle.

We do well that we take heed to the word of God, as unto a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawn,' when swords will be no more needed, and the Word will no longer shine in darkness but be the Light that makes the Sun needless for the brightness of the New Jerusalem.

Maclaren: Eph 6:23

Peace, Love, And Faith

Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith.'--Eph. 6:23.

THE numerous personal greetings usually found at the close of Paul's letters are entirely absent from this Epistle. All which we have in their place is this entirely general good wish, and the still more general and wider one in the subsequent verse.

There is but one other of the Apostle's letters similarly devoid of personal messages, viz. the Epistle to the Galatians, and their absence there is sufficiently accounted for by the severe and stern tone of that letter. But it is very difficult to understand how they should not appear in a letter to a church with which the Apostle had such prolonged and cordial relations as he had with the church at Ephesus. And hence the absence of these personal greetings is a strong confirmation of the opinion that this Epistle was not originally addressed to the church at Ephesus, but was a kind of circular intended to go round the various churches in Asia Minor, and only sent first to that at Ephesus. That opinion is further confirmed by the fact known to many of you that in some good ancient manuscripts the words at Ephesus' are omitted from the first verse of the letter; which thus stands without any specific address.

Be that as it may, this trinity of inward graces is Paul's highest and best wish for his friends. He has no earthly prosperity to wish for them. His ambition soars higher than that; he desires for them peace, love, faith.

Now, will you take the lesson? There is no better test of a man than the things that he wishes for the people that he loves most. He desires for them, of course, his own ideal of happiness. What do you desire most for those that are dearest to you? You parents, do you train up your children, for instance, so as to secure, or to do your best to secure, not outward prosperity, but these loftier gifts; and for yourselves, when you are forming your wishes, are these the things that you want most? Set your affections on things above,' and remember that whoso has that trinity of graces, peace, love, faith, is rich and blessed, whatsoever else he has or needs. And whoso has them not is miserable and poor.

But I wish especially to look a little more closely at these three things in themselves and in their relation to one another. I take it that the Apostle is here tracking the stream to its fountain; that he is beginning with effects and working backwards and downwards to causes; so that to get the order of nature and of time we must reverse the order here, and begin where he ends and end where he begins. The Christian life in its higher vigour and excellence is rooted in faith. That faith associates to itself, and is inseparably connected with love, and the faith and love together issue in a deep restful tranquillity which nothing can break.

Now let us look at these three things as the three greatest blessings that any can bear in their hearts, and wring out of time, sorrow, and change.

I. First, The Root Of Everything Is A Continuous And Growing Trust.

Remember that this prayer or wish of my text was spoken in reference to brethren; that is to say, to those who, by the hypothesis, already possessed Christian faith. And Paul wishes for them, and can wish for them, nothing better and more than the increase and continuousness of that which they already possess. The highest blessing that the brethren can receive is the enlargement and the strengthening of their faith.

Now we talk so much in Christian teaching about this faith' that, I fancy, like a worn sixpence in a man's pocket, its very circulation from hand to hand has worn off the lettering. And many of us, from the very familiarity of the word, have only a dim conception of what it means. It may not be profitless, then, to remind you, first of all, that this faith is neither more nor less than a very familiar thing which you are constantly exercising in reference to one another--that is to say, simple confidence. You trust your husband, your wife, your child, your parent, your friend, your guide, your lawyer, your doctor, your banker. Take that very same emotion and attitude of the mind by which you put your well-being, in different aspects and provinces, into the hands of men and women round about you; lift the trailing flowers that go all straggling along the ground, and twine them round the pillars of God's throne, and you get the confidence, the trust, of the praises and glories of which the New Testament is full. There is nothing mysterious in it, it is simply the exercise of confidence, the familiar cement that binds all human relationship together, and makes men brotherly and kindred with their kind. Faith is trust, and trust saves a man's soul.

Then, remember further that the faith which is the foundation of everything is essentially personal trust reposing upon a person, upon Jesus Christ. You cannot get hold of a man in any other way than by that. The only real bond that binds people together is the personal bond of confidence, manifesting itself in love. And it is no mere doctrine that we present for a man's faith, but it is the person about whom the doctrine speaks. We say, indeed, that we can only know the person on whom we must trust by the revelation of the truths concerning Him which make the Christian doctrines; but a man may believe the whole of them, and have no faith. And what is the step in advance which is needed in order to turn credence into faith--belief in a doctrine into trust? In one view it is the step from the doctrine to the person. When you grasp Christ, the living Christ, and not merely the doctrine, for yours, then you have faith.

Only remember, my brother, if you say you trust Christ, the question has immediately to be asked: What Christ is it that you are trusting? Is it the Christ that died for your sins on the Cross, or is it a Christ that taught you some great moral truths and set you a lovely example of life and conduct? Which of the two is it? for these two Christs are very different, and the faith that grasps the one is extremely unlike the faith that grasps the other. And so I press upon you this question: What Christ is it to Whom your confidence turns, and for what is it that you are looking to Him? Is it for help and guidance of some vague kind; is it for pattern or example, or is it for the salvation of your sinful souls, by the might of His great sacrifice?

Then, remember still further, that this personal outgoing of confidence, which is the action both of a man's will and of a man's intellect, to the person revealed to us in the great doctrines of the Gospel--that this faith, if it is to be worth anything, must be continuous. Paul could desire nothing better for his Ephesian friends than that they should have that which they had--faith; that they should continue to have it, and that it should be perennial and increasing all through their lives. You can no more get present good from past faith than the breath you drew yesterday into your lungs will be sufficient to oxygenate your blood at this moment. As soon as you break the electric contact, the electric light goes out, and no matter how long a man has been living a life of faith, that past life will not in the smallest degree help him at the present moment unless the faith is continuous. Remember this, then, a broken faith is a broken peace; a broken faith is a broken salvation; and so long, and only so long, as you are knit to Jesus Christ by the conscious exercise of a faith realised at the moment, are you in the reception of blessing from Him at the moment.

And, still further, this faith ought to be progressive. So Paul desired it to be with these people. If there is no growth, do you think there is much life? I know I am speaking to plenty of people who call themselves Christians, whose faith is not one inch better to-day than it was when it was born--perhaps a little less rather than more. Oh! the hundreds and thousands of professing Christians, average Christians, that clog and weaken all churches, whose faith has no progressive element in it, and is not a bit stronger by all the discipline of life and by their experience of its power. Brethren! is it so with us? Let us ask ourselves that; and let us ask very solemnly this other question: If my faith has no growth, how do I know that it has got any life?

And so let me remind you further that this faith, the personal outgoing of a man's intellect and will to the personal Saviour revealed in the Scriptures as the sacrifice for our sins, and the life of our spirits, which ought to be continuous and progressive, is the foundation of all strength, blessedness, goodness, in a human character; and if we have it we have the germ of all possible excellence and growth, not because of what it is in itself, for in itself it is nothing more than the opening of the heart to the reception of the celestial influences of grace and righteousness that He pours down. And, therefore, this is the thing that a wise man will most desire for himself, and for those that are dearest to him.

Depend upon it, whether it is what we want most or not, it is what God wants most for us. He does not care nearly so much that our lives should be joyful as that they should be righteous and full of faith; and He subjects us to many a sorrow and loss and disappointment in order that the life of nature may be broken and the life of faith may be strong. If we rightly understand the relative value of outward and of in ward things, we shall be thankful for the storms that drive us nearer to Him; for the darkening earth that may make the pillar of cloud glow at the heart into a pillar of fire, and for all the discipline, painful though it may be, with which God answers the prayer, Lord, increase our faith.'

II. And Now, Next, Notice How Inseparably Associated With A True Faith Is Love.

The one is effect that never is found without its cause; the other is cause which never but produces its effect. These two are braided together by the Apostle as inseparable in reality and inseparable in thought. And that it is so is plain enough, and there follow from it some practical lessons that I desire to lay upon your hearts and my own.

There are, then, here two principles, or rather two sides of one thought; no faith without love, no love without faith.

No faith is genuine and deep which does not at once produce in the heart where it is lodged an answering love to God. That is clear enough. Faith is, as I have said, the recognition and the reception of the divine love into the heart; and we are so constituted as that if a man once knows and believes in any real sense the love that God has to him, he answers it back again with his love as certainly as an echo which gives back the sound that reaches it.

Our faith is, if I may so say, like a burning-glass, which concentrates the rays of the divine love upon our hearts, and focuses them into a point that kindles our hearts into flame. If we have the confidence that God loves us, in any real depth, we shall answer by the gush of our love to Him.

And so here is a test for men's faith. You call yourselves Christians. If I were to come to you and ask you, Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?' most of you would say, Yes!' Try your faith, my friend, by this test: Does it make you love Him at all? If it does not, it is more words than anything else; and it needs a wonderful deepening before it can have any real power in your hearts. There is no faith worthy the name unless its child, all but as old as itself, be the answer of the heart to Him, pouring itself out in thankful gratitude.

No love without faith; we love Him because He first loved us.' God must begin, we can only come second. Man's natural selfishness is only overcome by the clearest demonstration of the love of God to him; and until that love, in its super best because its lowliest form, the form of the sacrifice on the Cross, has penetrated into a man's heart through his faith, there will be no love.

So then, dear friends, there is a test for your love. We hear a great deal said nowadays, as there has always been a great deal said, about the essence of all religion consisting in love to God; and about men rejecting the cumbrous dogmas of the New Testament, and falling back upon the great and simple truths, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God With all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength; and thy neighbour as thyself,' and saying that is their religion.' Well, I venture to say that without the faith of the heart in, not the cumbrous dogmas, but the central fact of the New Testament, that Christ died on the Cross for me, you will never get the old commandment of love to God with heart and soul and strength and mind really kept and carried out; and that if you want men to have their hearts and wills bound into loving fellowship with God, it is only by the path of faith in Him who is the sacrifice for sin that such fellowship is reached. Hence there follows a very plain, practical advice. Do you want your heart's love to be increased? Learn the way to do it. You cannot work yourselves into a fervour of religious emotion of any valuable kind. A man cannot get to love more by saying, I am determined I will.' We have no direct control over our affections in that fashion. You cannot make water boil except by one way, and that is by putting plenty of fire under it; and you cannot make your affections melt and flow except by heating them by the contemplation of the truth which is intended to bring them out. That is to say, the more we exercise our minds on the contemplation of Christ's great love to us, and the more we put forth the energies of our souls in the act of simple self-distrust and reliance upon Him, the more will our love be fervent and strong. You can only increase love by increasing the faith from which it comes. So do you see to it, if you call yourselves Christians, that you try to deepen all your Christian affections by an honest, meditative, prayerful contemplation and grasp of the great love of God in Jesus Christ. And do not wonder if your Christian life be, as it is in so many of us, stunted, not progressive, bringing no blessing to ourselves, and little good to anybody else. The explanation is easy enough. You do not look at the Cross of Christ, nor live in the contemplation and reception of His great grace.

III. And Now, Lastly, These Two Inseparably Associated Graces Of Faith And Love Bring With Them, And Lead To, The Third, Peace.

It seems to be but a very modest, sober-tinted wish which the Apostle here has for his brethren that the highest and best thing he can ask for them is only quiet. Very modest by the side of joy and excitement, in their coats of many colours, and yet the deepest and truest blessing that any of us can have--peace. It comes to us by one path, and that is by the path of faith and love.

These two bring peace with God, peace in our inmost spirits, the peace of self-annihilation and submission, the peace of obedience, the peace of ceasing from our own works, and entering, therefore, into the rest of God. Trust is peace. There is no tranquillity like that of feeling I am not responsible for this: He is; and I rest myself on Him.'

Love is peace. There is no rest for our hearts but on the bosom of some one that is dear to us, and in whom we can confide. But ah, brother! every tree in which the dove nestles is felled down sooner or later, and the nest torn to pieces, and the bird flies away. But if we turn ourselves to the undying Christ, the perpetual revelation of the eternal God, then, then our love and our faith will bring us rest. There will be peace in trusting Him whom we never can trust and be put to shame. There will be peace in loving Him who is more than worthy of and able to repay the deep and perennial love of all hearts.

Self-surrender is peace. It is our wills that trouble us. Disturbance comes, not from without, but from within. When the will bows, when I say, Be it then as Thou wilt,' when in faith and love I cease to strive, to murmur, to rebel, to repine, and enter into His loving purposes, then there is peace.

Obedience is peace. To recognise a great will that is sovereign, and to bow myself to it, not because it is sovereign, but because it is sweet, and sweet because I love it, and love Him whose it is--that is peace. And then, whatever may be outward circumstances, there shall be peace subsisting at the heart of endless agitation'; and deep in my soul I may be tranquil, though all about me may be the hurly-burly of the storm.

The Christian peace is an armed peace, paradoxical as it appears; and according to the great word of the Apostle, is a sentry which garrisons the beleaguered heart and mind, surrounded by many foes, and keeps them in Christ Jesus.

There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked,' he is as a troubled sea which cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt'; but over the wildest commotion one Voice, low, gentle, omnipotent, says: Peace! be still!' and the heart quiets itself, though there may be a ground swell, and the weather clears. He is your peace, trust Him, love Him, and you cannot but possess the peace of God which passeth understanding.'

The Wide Range Of God's Grace

Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.' Eph. 6:24.

IN turning to the great words which I have read as a text, I ask you to mark their width and their simplicity. They are wide; they follow a very comprehensive benediction, with which, so to speak, they are concentric. But they sweep a wider circle. The former verse says, Peace be to the brethren.' But beyond the brethren in these Asiatic churches (as a kind of circular letter to whom this epistle was probably sent) there rises before the mind of the Apostle a great multitude, in every nation, and they share in his love, and in the promise and the prayer of my text. Mark its simplicity everything is brought down to its most general expression. All the qualifications for receiving the divine gift are gathered up in one--love. All the variety of the divine gifts is summed up in that one comprehensive expression--grace.'

I. So Then, Note, First, The Comprehensive Designation Of The Recipients Of Grace.

They are all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption.' Little need be said explanatory of the force of this general expression. We usually find that where Scripture reduces the whole qualification for the reception of the divine gift, and the conditions which unite to Jesus Christ, to one, it is faith, not love, that is chosen. But here the Apostle takes the process at the second stage, and instead of emphasising the faith which is the first step, he dwells upon the love which is its uniform consequence. This love rests upon the faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Then note the solemn fulness of the designations of the object of this faith-born love. Jesus Christ our Lord'--the name of His humanity; the name of His office; the designation of His dominion. He is Jesus the Man. Jesus is the Christ, the Fulfiller of all prophecy; the flower of all previous revelation; the Anointed of God with the fulness of His Divine Spirit as Prophet, Priest, and King. Jesus Christ is the Lord--which, at the lowest, expresses sovereignty, and if regard be had to the Apostolic usage, expresses something more, even participation in Deity. And it is this whole Christ, the Jesus, the Christ, the Lord; the love to whom, built upon the faith in Him in all these aspects and characteristics, constitutes the true unity of the true Church.

That Church is not built upon a creed, but it is built upon a whole Christ, and not a maimed one. And so we must have a love which answers to all those sides of that great revealed character, and is warm with human love to Jesus; and is trustful with confiding love to the Christ; and is lowly with obedient love to the Lord. And I venture to go a seep further, and say, --and is devout with adoring love to the eternal Son of the Father. This is the Apostle's definition of what makes a Christian: Faith that grasps the whole Christ and love that therefore flows to Him. It binds all who possess it into one great unity. As against a spurious liberalism which calls them Christians who lay hold of a fragment of the one entire and perfect chrysolite, we must insist that a Christian is one who knows Jesus, who knows Christ, who knows the Lord, and who loves Him in all these aspects. Only we must remember, too, that many a time a man's heart outruns his creed, and that many a soul glows with truer, deeper, more saving devotion and trust to a Christ whom the intellect imperfectly apprehends, than are realised by unloving hearts that are associated with clearer heads. Orchids grow in rich men's greenhouses, fastened to a bit of stick, and they spread a fairer blossom that lasts longer than many a plant that is rooted in a more fertile soil. Let us be thankful for the blessed inconsistencies which knit some to the Christ who is more to them than they know.

There is also here laid down for us the great principle, as against all narrowness and all externalism, and all so-called ecclesiasticism, that to be joined to Jesus Christ is the one condition which brings a man into the blessed unity of the Church. Now it seems to me that, however they may be to be lamented on other grounds, and they are to be lamented on many, the existence of diverse Churches does not necessarily interfere with this deep-seated and central unity. There is a great deal said to-day about the reunion of Christendom, by which is meant the destruction of existing communions and the formation of a wider one. I do not believe, and I suppose you do not, that our existing ecclesiastical organisations are the final form of the Church of the living God. But let us remember that the two things are by no means contradictory, the belief in, and the realising of, the essential unity of the Church, and the existence of diverse communions. You will see on the side of many a Cumberland hill a great stretch of limestone with clefts a foot or two deep in it--there are flowers in the clefts, by the bye--but go down a couple of yards and the divisions have all disappeared, and the base-rock stretches continuously. The separations are superficial; the unity is fundamental. Do not let us play into the hands of people whose only notion of unity is that of a mechanical juxtaposition held together by some formula or orders; but let us recognise that the true unity is in the presence of Jesus Christ in the midst, and in the common grasp of Him by us all.

There is a well-known hymn which was originally intended as a High Church manifesto, which thrusts at us Nonconformists when it sings:

We are not divided,All one body we.'

And oddly enough, but significantly too, it has found its way into all our Nonconformist hymn-books, and we, the sects,' are singing it, with perhaps a nobler conception of what the oneness of the body, and the unity of the Church is, than the writer of the words had. We are not divided,' though we be organised apart. All one body we,' for we all partake of that one bread, and the unifying principle is a common love to the one Jesus Christ our Lord.

II. Mark The Impartial Sweep Of The Divine Gifts.

My text is a benediction, or a prayer; but it is also a prophecy, or a statement, of the inevitable and uniform results of love to Jesus Christ. The grace will follow that love, necessarily and certainly, and the lovers will get the gift of God because their love has brought them into living contact with Jesus Christ; and His life will flow over into theirs. I need not remind you that the word grace' in Scripture means, first of all, the condescending love of God to inferiors, to sinners, to those who deserved something else; and, secondly, the whole fulness of blessing and gift that follow upon that love.

And, says Paul, these great gifts from heaven, the one gift in which all are comprised, will surely follow the opening of the heart in love to Jesus Christ.

Ah, brethren! God's grace makes uncommonly short work of ecclesiastical distinctions. The great river flows through territories that upon men's maps are painted in different colours, and of which the inhabitants speak in different tongues. The Rhine laves the pine-trees of Switzerland, and the vines of Germany, and the willows of Holland; and God's grace flows through all places where the men that love Him do dwell. It rises, as it were, right over the barriers that they have built between each other. The little pools on the sea-shore are separate when the tide is out, but when it comes up it fills all the pot-holes that the pebbles have made, and unifies them in one great flashing, dancing mass; and so God's grace comes to all that love Him, and confirms their unity.

Surely that is the true test of a living Church. When Barnabas came, and saw the grace of God, he was glad.' It was not what he had expected, but he was open to conviction. The Church where he saw it had been very irregularly constituted; it had no orders and no sacraments, and had been set a-going by the spontaneous efforts of private Christians, and he came to look into the facts. He asked for nothing more when he saw that the converts had the life within them. And so we, with all our faults--and God forbid that I should seem to minimise these--with all our faults, we poor Nonconformists, left to the uncovenanted mercies, have our share of that gift of grace as truly, and, if our love be deeper, more abundantly, than the Churches that are blessed with orders and sacraments, and an unbroken historical continuity.' And when we are unchurched for our lack of these, let us fall back upon St. Augustine's Where Christ is, there the Church is'; and believe that to us, even to us also, the promise is fulfilled, Lo! I am with you always, even to the end of the world.'

III. Lastly, Note The Width To Which Our Sympathies Should Go.

The Apostle sends out his desires and prayers so as to encircle the same area as the grace of God covers and as His love enfolds. And we are bound to do the same.

I am not going to talk about organic unity. The age for making new denominations is, I suppose, about over. I do not think that any sane man would contemplate starting a new Church nowadays. The rebound from the iron rigidity of a mechanical unity that took place at the Reformation naturally led to the multiplication of communities, each of which laid hold of something that to it seemed important. The folly of ecclesiastical rulers who insisted upon non-essentials lays the guilt of the schism at their doors, and not at the doors of the minority who could not, in conscience, accept that which never should have been insisted upon as a condition. But whilst we must all feel that power is lost, and much evil ensues from the isolation, such as it is, of the various Churches, yet we must remember that re-union is a slow process; that an atmosphere springs up round each body which is a very subtle, but none the less a very powerful, force, and that it will take a very, very long time to overcome the difficulties and to bring about any reconstruction on a large scale. But why should there be three Presbyterian Churches in Scotland, with the same creed, confessions of faith, and ecclesiastical constitution? Why should there be half a dozen Methodist bodies in England, of whom substantially the same thing may be said? Will it always pass the wit of man for Congregationalists and Baptists to be one body, without the sacrifice of conviction upon either side? Surely no! You young men may see these fair days; men like me can only hope that they will come and do a little, such as may be possible in a brief space, to help them on.

Putting aside, then, all these larger questions, I want, in a sentence or two, to insist with you upon the duty that lies on us all, and which every one of us may bear a share in discharging. There ought to be a far deeper consciousness of our fundamental unity. They talk a great deal about the rivalries of jarring sects.' I believe that is such an enormous exaggeration that it is an untruth. There is rivalry, but you know as well as I do that, shabby and shameful as it is, it is a kind of commercial rivalry between contiguous places of worship, be they chapels or churches, be they buildings belonging to the same or to different denominations. I, for my part, after a pretty long experience now, have seen so little of that said bitter rivalry between the Nonconformist sects, as sects, that to me it is all but non-existent. And I believe the most of us ministers, going about amongst the various communities, could say the same thing. But in the face of a cultivated England laughing at your creed of Jesus, the Christ, the Lord; and in the face of a strange and puerile recrudescence of sacerdotalism and sacramentarianism, which shoves a priest and a rite into the place where Christ should stand, it becomes us Nonconformists who believe that we know a more excellent way to stand shoulder to shoulder, and show that the unities that bind us are far more than the diversities that separate.

It becomes us, too, to further conjoint action in social matters. Thank God we are beginning to stir in that direction in Manchester--not before it was time. And I beseech you professing Christians, of all Evangelical communions, to help in bringing Christian motives and principles to bear on the discussion of social and municipal and economical conditions in this great city of ours.

And there surely ought to be more concert than we have had in aggressive work; that we should a little more take account of each other's action in regulating our own; and that we should not have the scandal, which we too often have allowed to exist, of overlapping one another in such a fashion as that rivalry and mere trade competition is almost inevitable.

These are very humble, prosaic suggestions, but they would go a long way, if they were observed, to sweeten our own tempers, and to make visible to the world our true unity. Let us all seek to widen our sympathies as widely as Christ's grace flows; to count none strangers whom He counts friends; to discipline ourselves to feel that we are girded with that electric chain which makes all who grasp it one, and sends the same keen thrill through them all. If a circle were a mile in diameter, and its circumference were dotted with many separate points, how much nearer each of these would be if it were moved inwards, on a straight line, closer to the centre, so as to make a circle a foot across. The nearer we come to the One Lord, in love, communion, and likeness, the nearer shall we be to one another.

THE END

Philippians

MHCC: Eph 6:10-18

Spiritual strength and courage are needed for our spiritual warfare and suffering. Those who would prove themselves to have true grace, must aim at all grace; and put on the whole armour of God, which he prepares and bestows. The Christian armour is made to be worn; and there is no putting off our armour till we have done our warfare, and finished our course. The combat is not against human enemies, nor against our own corrupt nature only; we have to do with an enemy who has a thousand ways of beguiling unstable souls. The devils assault us in the things that belong to our souls, and labour to deface the heavenly image in our hearts. We must resolve by God's grace, not to yield to Satan. Resist him, and he will flee. If we give way, he will get ground. If we distrust either our cause, or our Leader, or our armour, we give him advantage. The different parts of the armour of heavy-armed soldiers, who had to sustain the fiercest assaults of the enemy, are here described. There is none for the back; nothing to defend those who turn back in the Christian warfare. Truth, or sincerity, is the girdle. This girds on all the other pieces of our armour, and is first mentioned. There can be no religion without sincerity. The righteousness of Christ, imputed to us, is a breastplate against the arrows of Divine wrath. The righteousness of Christ implanted in us, fortifies the heart against the attacks of Satan. Resolution must be as greaves, or armour to our legs; and to stand their ground or to march forward in rugged paths, the feet must be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Motives to obedience, amidst trials, must be drawn from a clear knowledge of the gospel. Faith is all in all in an hour of temptation. Faith, as relying on unseen objects, receiving Christ and the benefits of redemption, and so deriving grace from him, is like a shield, a defence every way. The devil is the wicked one. Violent temptations, by which the soul is set on fire of hell, are darts Satan shoots at us. Also, hard thoughts of God, and as to ourselves. Faith applying the word of God and the grace of Christ, quenches the darts of temptation. Salvation must be our helmet. A good hope of salvation, a Scriptural expectation of victory, will purify the soul, and keep it from being defiled by Satan. To the Christian armed for defense in battle, the apostle recommends only one weapon of attack; but it is enough, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. It subdues and mortifies evil desires and blasphemous thoughts as they rise within; and answers unbelief and error as they assault from without. A single text, well understood, and rightly applied, at once destroys a temptation or an objection, and subdues the most formidable adversary. Prayer must fasten all the other parts of our Christian armour. There are other duties of religion, and of our stations in the world, but we must keep up times of prayer. Though set and solemn prayer may not be seasonable when other duties are to be done, yet short pious prayers darted out, always are so. We must use holy thoughts in our ordinary course. A vain heart will be vain in prayer. We must pray with all kinds of prayer, public, private, and secret; social and solitary; solemn and sudden: with all the parts of prayer; confession of sin, petition for mercy, and thanksgiving for favours received. And we must do it by the grace of God the Holy Spirit, in dependence on, and according to, his teaching. We must preserve in particular requests, notwithstanding discouragements. We must pray, not for ourselves only, but for all saints. Our enemies are mighty, and we are without strength, but our Redeemer is almighty, and in the power of his mighty we may overcome. Wherefore we must stir up ourselves. Have not we, when God has called, often neglected to answer? Let us think upon these things, and continue our prayers with patience.

MHCC: Eph 6:19-24

The gospel was a mystery till made known by Divine revelation; and it is the work of Christ's ministers to declare it. The best and most eminent ministers need the prayers of believers. Those particularly should be prayed for, who are exposed to great hardships and perils in their work. Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith. By peace, understand all manner of peace; peace with God, peace of conscience, peace among themselves. And the grace of the Spirit, producing faith and love, and every grace. These he desires for those in whom they were already begun. And all grace and blessings come to the saints from God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Grace, that is, the favour of God; and all good, spiritual and temporal, which is from it, is and shall be with all those who thus love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, and with them only.

Matthew Henry: Eph 6:10-18

Here is a general exhortation to constancy in our Christian course, and to encourage in our Christian warfare. Is not our life a warfare? It is so; for we struggle with the common calamities of human life. Is not our religion much more a warfare? It is so; for we struggle with the opposition of the powers of darkness, and with many enemies who would keep us from God and heaven. We have enemies to fight against, a captain to fight for, a banner to fight under, and certain rules of war by which we are to govern ourselves. " Finally, my brethren (Eph 6:10), it yet remains that you apply yourselves to your work and duty as Christian soldiers."Now it is requisite that a soldier be both stout-hearted and well armed. If Christians be soldiers of Jesus Christ,

I. They must see that they be stout-hearted. This is prescribed here: Be strong in the Lord, etc. Those who have so many battles to fight, and who, in their way to heaven, must dispute every pass, with dint of sword, have need of a great deal of courage. Be strong therefore, strong for service, strong for suffering, strong for fighting. Let a soldier be ever so well armed without, if he have not within a good heart, his armour will stand him in little stead. Note, spiritual strength and courage are very necessary for our spiritual warfare. Be strong in the Lord, either in his cause and for his sake or rather in his strength. We have no sufficient strength of our own. Our natural courage is as perfect cowardice, and our natural strength as perfect weakness; but all our sufficiency is of God. In his strength we must go forth and go on. By the actings of faith, we must fetch in grace and help from heaven to enable us to do that which of ourselves we cannot do, in our Christian work and warfare. We should stir up ourselves to resist temptations in a reliance upon God's all-sufficiency and the omnipotence of his might.

II. They must be well armed: " Put on the whole armour of God (Eph 6:11), make use of all the proper defensitives and weapons for repelling the temptations and stratagems of Satan - get and exercise all the Christian graces, the whole armour, that no part be naked and exposed to the enemy."Observe, Those who would approve themselves to have true grace must aim at all grace, the whole armour. It is called the armour of God, because he both prepares and bestows it. We have no armour of our own that will be armour of proof in a trying time. Nothing will stand us in stead but the armour of God. This armour is prepared for us, but we must put it on; that is, we must pray for grace, we must use the grace given us, and draw it out into act and exercise as there is occasion. The reason assigned why the Christian should be completely armed is that he may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil - that he may be able to hold out, and to overcome, notwithstanding all the devil's assaults, both of force and fraud, all the deceits he puts upon us, all the snares he lays for us, and all his machinations against us. This the apostle enlarges upon here, and shows,

1. What our danger is, and what need we have to put on this whole armour, considering what sort of enemies we have to deal with - the devil and all the powers of darkness: For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, etc., Eph 6:12. The combat for which we are to be prepared is not against ordinary human enemies, not barely against men compounded of flesh and blood, nor against our own corrupt natures singly considered, but against the several ranks of devils, who have a government which they exercise in this world. (1.) We have to do with a subtle enemy, an enemy who uses wiles and stratagems, as Eph 6:11. He has a thousand ways of beguiling unstable souls: hence he is called a serpent for subtlety, an old serpent, experienced in the art and trade of tempting. (2.) He is a powerful enemy: Principalities, and powers, and rulers. They are numerous, they are vigorous; and rule in those heathen nations which are yet in darkness. The dark parts of the world are the seat of Satan's empire. Yea, they are usurping princes over all men who are yet in a state of sin and ignorance. Satan's is a kingdom of darkness; whereas Christ's is a kingdom of light. (3.) They are spiritual enemies: Spiritual wickedness in high places, or wicked spirits, as some translate it. The devil is a spirit, a wicked spirit; and our danger is the greater from our enemies because they are unseen, and assault us ere we are aware of them. The devils are wicked spirits, and they chiefly annoy the saints with, and provoke them to, spiritual wickednesses, pride, envy, malice, etc. These enemies are said to be in high places, or in heavenly places, so the word is, taking heaven (as one says) for the whole expansum, or spreading out of the air between the earth and the stars, the air being the place from which the devils assault us. Or the meaning may be, " We wrestle about heavenly places or heavenly things;"so some of the ancients interpret it. Our enemies strive to prevent our ascent to heaven, to deprive us of heavenly blessings and to obstruct our communion with heaven. They assault us in the things that belong to our souls, and labour to deface the heavenly image in our hearts; and therefore we have need to be upon our guard against them. We have need of faith in our Christian warfare, because we have spiritual enemies to grapple with, as well as of faith in our Christian work, because we have spiritual strength to fetch in. Thus you see your danger.

2. What our duty is: to take and put on the whole armour of God, and then to stand our ground, and withstand our enemies.

(1.) We must withstand, Eph 6:13. We must not yield to the devil's allurements and assaults, but oppose them. Satan is said to stand up against us, 1Ch 21:1. If he stand up against us, we must stand against him; set up, and keep up, an interest in opposition to the devil. Satan is the wicked one, and his kingdom is the kingdom of sin: to stand against Satan is to strive against sin. That you may be able to withstand in the evil day, in the day of temptation, or of any sore affliction.

(2.) We must stand our ground: And, having done all, to stand. We must resolve, by God's grace, not to yield to Satan. Resist him, and he will flee. If we distrust our cause, or our leader, or our armour, we give him advantage. Our present business is to withstand the assaults of the devil, and to stand it out; and then, having done all that is incumbent on the good soldiers of Jesus Christ, our warfare will be accomplished, and we shall be finally victorious.

(3.) We must stand armed; and this is here most enlarged upon. Here is a Christian in complete armour: and the armour is divine: Armour of God, armour of light, Rom 13:12. Armour of righteousness, 2Co 6:7. The apostle specifies the particulars of this armour, both offensive and defensive. The military girdle or belt, the breast-plate, the greaves (or soldier's shoes), the shield, the helmet, and the sword. It is observable that, among them all, there is none for the back; if we turn our back upon the enemy, we lie exposed. [1.] Truth or sincerity is our girdle, Eph 6:14. It was prophesied of Christ (Isa 11:5) that righteousness should be the girdle of his loins and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. That which Christ was girded with all Christians must be girded with. God desires truth, that is, sincerity, in the inward parts. This is the strength of our loins; and it girds on all other pieces of our armour, and therefore is first mentioned. I know no religion without sincerity. Some understand it of the doctrine of the truths of the gospel: they should cleave to us as the girdle does to the loins, Jer 13:11. This will restrain from libertinism and licentiousness, as a girdle restrains and keeps in the body. This is the Christian soldier's belt: ungirded with this, he is unblessed. [2.] Righteousness must be our breast-plate. The breast-plate secures the vitals, shelters the heart. The righteousness of Christ imputed to us is our breast-plate against the arrows of divine wrath. The righteousness of Christ implanted in us is our breast-plate to fortify the heart against the attacks which Satan makes against us. The apostle explains this in 1Th 5:8, Putting on the breast-plate of faith and love. Faith and love include all Christian graces; for by faith we are united to Christ and by love to our brethren. These will infer a diligent observance of our duty to God, and a righteous deportment towards men, in all the offices of justice, truth, and charity. [3.] Resolution must be as the greaves to our legs: And their feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, Eph 6:15. Shoes, or greaves of brass, or the like, were formerly part of the military armour (1Sa 17:6): the use of them was to defend the feet against the gall-traps, and sharp sticks, which were wont to be laid privily in the way, to obstruct the marching of the enemy, those who fell upon them being unfit to march. The preparation of the gospel of peace signifies a prepared and resolved frame of heart, to adhere to the gospel and abide by it, which will enable us to walk with a steady pace in the way of religion, notwithstanding the difficulties and dangers that may be in it. It is styled the gospel of peace because it brings all sorts of peace, peace with God, with ourselves, and with one another. It may also be meant of that which prepares for the entertainment of the gospel, namely, repentance. With this our feet must be shod: for by living a life of repentance we are armed against temptations to sin, and the designs of our great enemy. Dr. Whitby thinks this may be the sense of the words: "That you may be ready for the combat, be shod with the gospel of peace, endeavour after that peaceable and quiet mind which the gospel calls for. Be not easily provoked, nor prone to quarrel: but show all gentleness and all long-suffering to all men, and this will certainly preserve you from many great temptations and persecutions, as did those shoes of brass the soldiers from those galltraps,"etc. [4.] Faith must be our shield: Above all, or chiefly, taking the shield of faith, Eph 6:16. This is more necessary than any of them. Faith is all in all to us in an hour of temptation. The breast-plate secures the vitals; but with the shield we turn every way. This is the victory over the world, even our faith. We are to be fully persuaded of the truth of all God's promises and threatenings, such a faith being of great use against temptations. Consider faith as it is the evidence of things not seen and the substance of things hoped for, and it will appear to be of admirable use for this purpose. Faith, as receiving Christ and the benefits of redemption, so deriving grace from him, is like a shield, a sort of universal defence. Our enemy the devil is here called the wicked one. He is wicked himself, and he endeavours to make us wicked. His temptations are called darts, because of their swift and undiscerned flight, and the deep wounds that they give to the soul; fiery darts, by way of allusion to the poisonous darts which were wont to inflame the parts which were wounded with them, and therefore were so called, as the serpents with poisonous stings are called fiery serpents. Violent temptations, by which the soul is set on fire of hell, are the darts which Satan shoots at us. Faith is the shield with which we must quench these fiery darts, wherein we should receive them, and so render them ineffectual, that they may not hit us, or at least that they may not hurt us. Observe, Faith, acted upon the word of God and applying that, acted upon the grace of Christ and improving that, quenches the darts of temptation. [5.] Salvation must be our helmet (Eph 6:17); that is, hope, which has salvation for its object; so 1Th 5:8. The helmet secures the head. A good hope of salvation, well founded and well built, will both purify the soul and keep it from being defiled by Satan, and it will comfort the soul and keep it from being troubled and tormented by Satan. He would tempt us to despair; but good hope keeps us trusting in God, and rejoicing in him. [6.] The word of God is the sword of the Spirit. The sword is a very necessary and useful part of a soldier's furniture. The word of God is very necessary, and of great use to the Christian, in order to his maintaining the spiritual warfare and succeeding in it. It is called the sword of the Spirit, because it is of the Spirit's inditing and he renders it efficacious and powerful, and sharper than a two-edged sword. Like Goliath's sword, none like that; with this we assault the assailants. Scripture-arguments are the most powerful arguments to repel temptation with. Christ himself resisted Satan's temptations with, It is written, Mat 4:4, Mat 4:6, Mat 4:7, Mat 4:10. This, being hid in the heart, will preserve from sin (Psa 119:11), and will mortify and kill those lusts and corruptions that are latent there. [7.] Prayer must buckle on all the other parts of our Christian armour, Eph 6:18. We must join prayer with all these graces, for our defence against these spiritual enemies, imploring help and assistance of God, as the case requires: and we must pray always. Not as though we were to do nothing else but pray, for there are other duties of religion and of our respective stations in the world that are to be done in their place and season; but we should keep up constant times of prayer, and be constant to them. We must pray upon all occasions, and as often as our own and others' necessities call us to it. We must always keep up a disposition to prayer, and should intermix ejaculatory prayers with other duties, and with common business. Though set and solemn prayer may sometimes be unseasonable (as when other duties are to be done), yet pious ejaculations can never be so. We must pray with all prayer and supplication, with all kinds of prayer: public, private, and secret, social and solitary, solemn and sudden; with all the parts of prayer: confession of sin, petition for mercy, and thanksgivings for favours received. We must pray in the Spirit; our spirits must be employed in the duty and we must do it by the grace of God's good Spirit. We must watch thereunto, endeavouring to keep our hearts in a praying frame, and taking all occasions, and improving all opportunities, for the duty: we must watch to all the motions of our own hearts towards the duty. When God says, Seek my face, our hearts must comply, Psa 27:8. This we must do with all perseverance. We must abide by the duty of prayer, whatever change there may be in our outward circumstances; and we must continue in it as long as we live in the world. We must persevere in a particular prayer; not cutting it short, when our hearts are disposed to enlarge, and there is time for it, and our occasions call for it. We must likewise persevere in particular requests, notwithstanding some present discouragements and repulses. And we must pray with supplication, not for ourselves only, but for all saints; for we are members one of another. Observe, None are so much saints, and in so good a condition in this world, but they need our prayers, and they ought to have them. The apostle passes hence to the conclusion of the epistle.

Matthew Henry: Eph 6:19-24

Here, I. He desires their prayers for him, Eph 6:19. Having mentioned supplication for all saints, he puts himself into the number. We must pray for all saints, and particularly for God's faithful ministers. Brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run and be glorified. Observe what it is he would have them pray for in his behalf: " That utterance may be given unto me; that I may be enlarged from my present restraints, and so have liberty to propagate the faith of Christ; that I may have ability to express myself in a suitable and becoming manner; and that I may open my mouth boldly, that is, that I may deliver the whole counsel of God, without any base fear, shame, or partiality." To make known the mystery of the gospel; some understand it of that part of the gospel which concerns the calling of the Gentiles, which had hitherto, as a mystery, been concealed. But the whole gospel was a mystery, till made known by divine revelation; and it is the work of Christ's ministers to publish it. Observe, Paul had a great command of language; they called him Mercury, because he was the chief speaker (Act 14:12), and yet he would have his friends ask of God the gift of utterance for him. He was a man of great courage, and often signalized himself for it; yet he would have them pray that God would give him boldness. He knew as well what to say as any man; yet he desires them to pray for him, that he may speak as he ought to speak. The argument with which he enforces his request is that for the sake of the gospel he was an ambassador in bonds, Eph 6:20. He was persecuted and imprisoned for preaching the gospel; though, notwithstanding, he continued in the embassy committed to him by Christ, and persisted in preaching it. Observe, 1. It is no new thing for Christ's ministers to be in bonds. 2. It is a hard thing for them to speak boldly when that is their case. 3. The best and most eminent ministers have need of, and may receive advantage by, the prayers of good Christians; and therefore should earnestly desire them. Having thus desired their prayers,

II. He recommends Tychicus unto them, Eph 6:21, Eph 6:22. He sent him with this epistle, that he might acquaint them with what other churches were informed of, namely, how he did, and what he did; how he was used by the Romans in his bonds, and how he behaved himself in his present circumstances. It is desirable to good ministers both that their Christian friends should know their state and that they should be acquainted with the condition of their friends; for by this means they may the better help each other in their prayers. - And that he might comfort their hearts, by giving such an account of his sufferings, of the cause of them, and of the temper of his mind and his behaviour under them, as might prevent their fainting at his tribulations and even minister matter of joy and thanksgiving unto them. He tells them that Tychicus was a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord. He was a sincere Christian, and so a brother in Christ: he was a faithful minister in the work of Christ, and he was very dear to Paul, which makes Paul's love to these Christian Ephesians the more observable, in that he should now part with so good and dear a friend for their sakes, when his company and conversation must have been peculiarly delightful and serviceable to himself. But the faithful servants of Jesus Christ are wont to prefer the public good to their own private or personal interests.

III. He concludes with his good wishes and prayers for them, and not for them only, but for all the brethren, Eph 6:23, Eph 6:24. His usual benediction was, Grace and peace; here it is, Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith. By peace we are to understand all manner of peace - peace with God, peace with conscience, peace among themselves: and all outward prosperity is included in the word; as if he had said, "I wish the continuance and increase of all happiness to you." And love with faith. This in part explains what he means in the following verse by grace; not only grace in the fountain, or the love and favour of God, but grace in the streams, the grace of the Spirit flowing from that divine principle, faith and love including all the rest. It is the continuance and increase of these that he desires for them, in whom they were already begun. It follows, from God the Father, etc. All Grace and blessings are derived to the saints from God, through the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ our Lord. The closing benediction is more extensive than the former; for in this he prays for all true believers at Ephesus, and every where else. It is the undoubted character of all the saints that they love our Lord Jesus Christ. Our love to Christ is not acceptable, unless it be in sincerity: indeed there is no such thing as love to Christ, whatever men may pretend, where there is not sincerity. The words may be read, Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption, who continue constant in their love to him, so as not to be corrupted out of it by any baits or seductions whatsoever, and whose love to him is uncorrupted by any opposite lust, or the love of any thing displeasing to him. Grace, that is, the favour of God, and all good (spiritual and temporal), that is, the product of it, are and shall be with all those who thus love our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is, or ought to be, the desire and prayer of every lover of Christ that it may be so with all his fellow-christians. Amen, so be it.

Barclay: Eph 6:10-20

As Paul takes leave of his people he thinks of the greatness of the struggle which lies before them. Undoubtedly life was much more terrifying for the ancient people than it is for us today. They believed implicitly in evil spirits, who filled the air and were determined to work men harm. The words which Paul uses, powers, authorities, world-rulers, are all names for different classes of these evil spirits. To him the whole universe was a battleground. The Christian had not only to contend with the attacks of men; he had to contend with the attacks of spiritual forces which were fighting against God. We may not take Paul's actual language literally; but our experience will tell us that there is an active power of evil in the world. Robert Louis Stevenson once said: "You know the Caledonian Railway Station in Edinburgh? One cold, east windy morning, I met Satan there." We do not know what actually befell Stevenson but we recognize the experience; we have all felt the force of that evil influence which seeks to make us sin.

Paul suddenly sees a picture ready-made. All this time he was chained by the wrist to a Roman soldier. Night and day a soldier was there to ensure that he would not escape. Paul was literally an envoy in a chain. Now he was the kind of man who could get alongside anyone; and beyond doubt he had talked often to the soldiers who were compelled to be so near him. As he writes, the soldier's armour suggests a picture to him. The Christian too has his armour; and part by part Paul takes the armour of the Roman soldier and translates it into Christian terms.

There is the belt of truth. It was the belt which girt in the soldier's tunic and from which his sword hung and which gave him freedom of movement. Others may guess and grope; the Christian moves freely and quickly because he knows the truth.

There is the breastplate of righteousness. When a man is clothed in righteousness he is impregnable. Words are no defence against accusations but a good life is. Once a man accused Plato of certain crimes. "Well then," said Plato, "we must live in such a way as to prove that his accusations are a lie." The only way to meet the accusations against Christianity is to show how good a Christian can be.

There are the sandals. Sandals were the sign of one equipped and ready to move. The sign of the Christian is that he is eager to be on the way to share the gospel with others who have not heard it.

There is the shield. The word Paul uses is not that for the comparatively small round shield; it is that for the great oblong shield which the heavily armed warrior wore. One of the most dangerous weapons in ancient warfare was the fiery dart. It was a dart tipped with tow dipped in pitch. The pitch-soaked tow was set alight and the dart was thrown. The great oblong shield was made of two sections of wood, glued together. When the shield was presented to the dart, the dart sank into the wood and the flame was put out. Faith can deal with the darts of temptation. With Paul, faith is always complete trust in Christ. When we walk close with Christ, we are safe from temptation.

There is salvation for a helmet. Salvation is not something which looks back only. The salvation which is in Christ gives us forgiveness for the sins of the past and strength to conquer sin in the days to come.

There is the sword; and the sword is the word of God. The word of God is at once our weapon of defence against sin and our weapon of attack against the sins of the world. Cromwell's Ironsides fought with a sword in one hand and a Bible in the other. We can never win God's battles without God's book.

Finally, Paul comes to the greatest weapon of all--and that is prayer. We note three things that he says about prayer. (a) It must be constant. Our tendency is so often to pray only in the great crises of life; but it is from daily prayer that the Christian will find daily strength. (b) It must be intense. Limp prayer never got a man anywhere. Prayer demands the concentration of every faculty upon God. © It must be unselfish. The Jews had a saying, "Let a man unite himself with the community in his prayers." I think that often our prayers are too much for ourselves and too little for others. We must learn to pray as much for others and with others as for ourselves.

Finally, Paul asks for the prayers of his friends for himself. And he asks not for comfort or for peace but that he may yet be allowed to proclaim God's secret, that his love is for all men. We do well to remember that ever Christian leader and every Christian preacher needs his people to uphold his hands in prayer.

Barclay: Eph 6:21-24

As we have seen, the letter to the Ephesians was an encyclical letter and the bearer from church to church was Tychicus. Unlike most of his letters, Ephesians gives us no personal information about Paul, except that he was in prison; but Tychicus, as he went from church to church., would tell how Paul was faring and would convey a message of personal encouragement.

Paul finishes with a blessing and in it all the great words come again. The peace which was a man's highest good, the faith which was complete resting in Christ, the grace which was the lovely free gift of God these things Paul calls down from God upon his friends. Above all he prays for love that they may know the love of God, that they may love men as God loves them, and that they may love Jesus Christ with an undying love.

Constable: Eph 4:1--6:21

III. THE CHRISTIAN'S CONDUCT 4:1--6:20

Practical application (chs. 4-6) now follows doctrinal instruction (chs. 1-3).

Constable: Eph 6:10-20

B. Spiritual warfare 6:10-20

That this section is distinct from the five that precede it is evident from two facts. Paul introduced it differently, and the emphasis in it is on God's resources. Earlier Paul urged the strengthening and growth of the body of Christ (4:12, 16). Now he explained the need for this. The body is at war with a spiritual enemy. We do not just walk, but we also war.

"Sooner or later every believer discovers that the Christian life is a battleground, not a playground, and that he faces an enemy who is much stronger than he is--apart from the Lord."¹⁵³

"The image of the cosmic struggle or confrontation with evil is frequent in the book, but it hits its high point here (1:19-23; 2:1-7; 4:7-10; 5:7-14, 17)."¹⁵⁴

6:10 "Finally" means "For the rest" and introduces what remains for the readers to do. "Be strong" is a passive or middle imperative in the Greek text. It probably meant both "allow the Lord to strengthen you" (passive) and "strengthen yourself in the Lord" (middle; cf. 1 Sam. 30:6). It is the Lord who provides the power in both cases. The theme of power introduced earlier in this epistle recurs here (cf. 1:19-20; 2:1; 3:16-21). Three different words for power in this verse, all of which appear in 1:19, remind us that the Lord's might is available to us in our spiritual warfare.

"The strength of his power' is a striking use of two words for might. There is probably no great difference in meaning here, but the combination puts emphasis on the importance of the divine power at work in believers."¹⁵⁵

This may be a figure of speech meaning powerful strength.¹⁵⁶

6:11 To be strong in the Lord (v. 10) the Christian must "put on" (cf. 1 Thess. 5:8) the full armor that is God's. He supplies it for the believer (cf. Isa. 11:5; 59:17).

The purpose of accepting the equipment that God provides for waging spiritual warfare is essentially to withstand all of Satan's attacks. In the context of this epistle the aim of Satan in view primarily has been the disunity of the body of Christ. However what Paul said here doubtless applies to all of Satan's aims and attacks. These offensives come to us from a very intelligent and experienced strategist, and they are frequently deceptive (cf. 4:14).

From other Scripture we know that Satan is behind all of our temptations having received permission to assail us from God (e.g., Job 1-2). He uses the world system and our flesh (sinful nature) as his tools. He also attacks us directly himself and through his angelic emissaries. God has given us specific instruction in Scripture about how to combat these attacks. We are to resist the devil (1 Peter 5:8-9), flee the temptations of the world system (the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; 1 John 2:15-17; 1 Tim. 6:11; 2 Tim. 2:22), and deny the flesh (Rom. 6:12-13; 7:18-24; 8:13). How do we know the source of a given temptation so we can respond to it appropriately?

Satan has consistently aimed his personal attacks at getting people to doubt, to deny, to disregard, and to disobey the revealed will of God (cf. Gen. 3; Matt. 4). The world system seeks to get people to believe that they do not need God but can get along very well without Him (1 John 2). The flesh tempts us to think that we can find satisfaction, joy, and fulfillment on the physical, material level of life alone (Rom. 7).¹⁵⁷

6:12 If we want to obey God and resist the devil, we are in for a struggle. It is not easy to become a mature Christian nor is it automatic. It takes diligent, sustained effort. This is part of our human responsibility in progressive sanctification.

This struggle does not take place on the physical level primarily, though saying no to certain temptations may involve certain physical behavior. It is essentially warfare on the spiritual level with an enemy that we cannot see. This enemy is Satan and his hosts as well as the philosophies he promotes that people implement.

Some commentators believe that Paul described four different orders of angelic beings here. Probably the four terms used of our spiritual enemies in this verse do not identify four separate kinds of adversaries as much as they point out four characteristics of all of them. "Rulers" stresses their authority and "powers" or "authorities" their strength. "World forces of this darkness" or "powers of this dark world" point to their wide influence in the world and forces "of wickedness" or "spiritual forces of evil" to their evil character. They operate in the heavenly realms (1:3, 20; 2:6; 3:10). Presently Satan and his hosts have access to God in the sense that they can communicate with Him but not in the sense that they can coexist in fellowship with Him (cf. Job 1-2).

"Nowhere in the NT do we find a territorial view of demons. Jesus never casts out a territorial demon or attributes the resistance of Nazareth or Jerusalem to such entities. Paul never refers to territorial spirits, nor does he attribute power to them--despite the paganism of cities where he established churches."¹⁵⁸

"In the face of growing citizen militia groups, committed to arming themselves in order to defend personal freedoms, it seems ironic that the church has forgotten that she is spiritually armed for an entirely different battle. As the church, in response to various culture wars, increasingly turns to numerous battles with flesh and blood' rather than to the primary battle with the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places' (Eph. 6:12), one must wonder if we have forgotten the teaching of the New Testament itself."¹⁵⁹

6:13 This verse summarizes what has just preceded. It does not describe the Christian standing in victory after his or her conflict, as is clear from verses 14-18. Probably Paul repeated himself here because of the urgency of our taking up God's provisions in view of the serious struggle we face.

The evil day in view probably describes any day in which the evil forces attack. A less likely possibility is that it is some day yet future that is more evil than the rest, such as the day of the Lord. Every day of temptation is an evil day in this sense for the Christian.

6:14 This verse begins the eighth long sentence in this epistle, and it runs through verse 20 (cf. 1:3-14, 15-23; 2:1-7; 3:1-13, 14-19; 4:1-7, 11-16). The main verbs in this sentence are "stand" (v. 14) and "take" (v. 17). They are imperatives denoting urgency (cf. vv. 11, 13). Four participles follow in verses 14-16 that describe how to stand.

Isaiah described God as a soldier (cf. Isa. 11:5; 59:17; 52:7; 49:2). Paul may have had these descriptions in mind, but he probably used this figure to describe God's protection because armored Roman infantrymen were commonplace throughout the empire. One was probably guarding Paul when he wrote this epistle (cf. Act 28:16). Everyone knew what they looked like.

Paul described the items that the Roman infantryman wore in the order in which he would have put them on. He first put on, over his short tunic, a belt that would hold both the breastplate and scabbard in place. The "truth" could refer to both God's revealed truth that the Christian has believed and the Christian's own truthfulness, specifically a lifestyle that reflects the truth. Full truth is the only adequate basis for a defense against Satan.

"A man of integrity, with a clear conscience, can face the enemy without fear. The girdle also held the sword. Unless we practice the truth, we cannot use the Word of truth. Once a lie gets into the life of a believer, everything begins to fall apart. For over a year, King David lied about his sin with Bathsheba, and nothing went right."¹⁶⁰

"People of that time did not normally wear a belt in the house, but when they faced some vigorous action such as running, or when a soldier was preparing for battle, they raised their loose robes above the knees and fastened them in place with a belt . . . Thus the girding' of the loins meant preparation for physical activity or, as here, for engaging in conflict."¹⁶¹

Likewise righteous conduct seems to be in view as well as the righteousness of Christ that becomes ours at regeneration. The breastplate covered the soldier's body from the neck to the thighs. It was usually bronze or chain mail.¹⁶² It had a back piece, but it was the front part that gave it its name.

6:15 Roman infantrymen wore tough sandals studded with sharp thick nails on the bottoms to increase traction.¹⁶³ The gospel that has brought peace to the Christian enables him or her to stand firmly against temptation. Likewise the gospel is what enables us to move forward against our enemies (cf. Isa. 52:7). The preparation of the gospel of peace probably refers to the gospel the Christian soldier has believed that enables him to stand his ground when attacked. We must be so familiar with the gospel that we can share it with others (cf. 1 Pet. 3:15). That grip on the gospel will enable us to hold our ground and even advance when tempted.

". . . protection comes from reflecting the unity that the gospel provides within the community (shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel,' 6:16 [sic, 6:15], looks back to 2:11-22; it is not a reference to evangelism)."¹⁶⁴

6:16 The Roman soldier's shield was wood covered with leather to make it flame retardant. It was oval in shape and about two and one-half feet wide by four feet long. With it the soldier could protect his whole body. The faith that provides such a defense for the Christian in his or her spiritual warfare is two-fold. It is trust in all that God has revealed and active application of that trust at the moment of spiritual attack.

The first three participles that explain how to stand fast are "having girded" or "buckled" (v. 14), "having put on" or "in place" (v. 14), and "having shod" or "fitted" (v. 15). The fourth participle is "taking up" or "take up" (v. 16).

6:17 The second main verb in this long sentence (vv. 14-20) is "take" or, better, "receive" or "accept" (Gr. dexasthe). In addition to standing firm, having received and having already put on four pieces of armor, we also need to receive and put on two more.

Since Christians are to put this salvation on, the salvation or deliverance in view seems to refer to the present and future deliverance we need when under attack by Satan (cf. 1 Thess. 5:8). We have already received salvation from condemnation. We receive this present salvation (deliverance) as we receive all salvation, namely by calling on God and requesting it (cf. 1:15-23; Joel 2:32; Acts 2:21; Rom. 10:13).

This salvation is evidently similar to a helmet because deliverance involves a mental choice, namely trust in God rather than self, and obedience to Him. Confidence in God becomes our salvation and so protects our thinking when we are under attack.

The sword carried by the Roman infantryman (Gr. machaira) was short and two-edged. Soldiers used it to thrust and to cut in hand-to-hand combat. In Paul's description it is the soldier's only offensive weapon. Infantrymen usually also carried a long spear, but Paul did not mention that in his analogy. The word of God is similar to this short sword for the Christian. "Word" (Gr. rhema) refers to the utterance of God rather than to the written Word or the living Word of God (Gr. logos). It seems most likely to refer to the words of Scripture that we use to counteract the particular temptation we face. It is the appropriate Scripture spoken or put to use by the Christian in a given instance of temptation that is in view (e.g., Matt. 4:4, 6, 10).

"As Jesus used the words of Scripture to repulse the tempter, so must the Christian the words the Spirit has inspired to drive away Satan."¹⁶⁵

The Holy Spirit both gives the word and empowers it as we use it. It is His sword (cf. Isa. 49:2).

6:18 Prayer and alertness (two participles in the Greek text) describe how we should "receive" present salvation and the word appropriate to our trial. We should be in constant prayer in preparation for our spiritual battles and as we engage our enemy. The Spirit prays for us (Rom. 8:26) and enables us to pray, as He enables us to do everything else.

"Prayer" refers to our communication with God generally and "petition" to our supplications specifically. The antecedent of "this" is the first clause of the verse ("With . . . Spirit"). In addition to praying for our own needs we should also, as good soldiers, keep alert to the needs of other fellow soldiers, namely all the saints. We must not fail them but pray for them persistently. The great need for prayer that exists is obvious in Paul's use of the word "all" four times in this verse (cf. 1 Tim. 2:1).

"Prayer is an engine wieldable by every believer, mightier than all the embattled artillery of hell."¹⁶⁶

6:19-20 Paul sensed his own great need for the prayer support of his readers. It was incongruous that an ambassador of Christ should be in chains. He was in heavenly places, but he was also in an earthly dungeon. An encounter with spiritual enemies awaited him when he would make his defense before Caesar. He needed bold utterance in all of his ministry opportunities but especially in the defense he anticipated in the imperial court (cf. Acts 28:30-31).¹⁶⁷

"The word for boldness' is made up of two words meaning all' and speech.' It signifies the attitude when one is completely at home and the words flow freely. Thus it may mean outspokenness,' or frankness.' When a person is speaking in this way, he or she is not in the least afraid, and thus the expression comes to signify boldly.'"¹⁶⁸

"Note that Paul did not ask them to pray for his comfort or safety, but for the effectiveness of his witness and ministry."¹⁶⁹

The mystery of the gospel (i.e., the uniqueness of the church, 2:11-3:11) needed defending in Rome because the Romans viewed Christianity as simply a sect within Judaism (cf. Acts 18:12-17). The Jews saw it as a heretical religion (cf. Acts 21:27-28).

Constable: Eph 6:21-24

IV. CONCLUSION 6:21-24

Paul's anticipation of his defense before Nero brought him back to the present in his thinking. His exposition of the mystery of the church to his readers had ended. He had also explained their proper conduct in view of their calling. All that remained was to share with them some personal information and to pray God's blessing on them.

6:21-22 Tychicus (lit. Chance) accompanied this letter to Ephesus and may have carried it. What Paul wrote about Tychicus and his purpose in sending Tychicus to Ephesus was almost identical with what he wrote in Colossians 4:7-8. Tychicus' mission was to give the Ephesian Christians further information about Paul and to comfort and encourage them (cf. Acts 20:4; Col. 4:7; Titus 3:12; 2 Tim. 4:12).

6:23 Peace, love, and faith are all important communal virtues in the Christian life. Peace was necessary because of the Jewish Gentile problems Paul wrote Ephesians to ameliorate (2:14-16; 3:15, 19; 4:3). Mutual love is the key to peace (1:15; 3:17-18; 4:2, 16). Mutual love rests on a common faith (1:15; 3:17; cf. Gal. 5:6). The ultimate source of all three of these essential qualities is God and Jesus Christ, united here in perfect equality.

6:24 As the apostle opened his epistle by referring to God's grace, so he ended it (1:2). God's grace was the key to the creation of the church and the calling of the Christian. It is also essential to the conduct of the Christian (cf. 1:7; 2:5, 7-8; 3:2, 8; 4:7). Paul wished God's unmerited favor and divine enablement on all who love Jesus Christ purely, without wrong motives or secret disloyalties (cf. 1 Cor. 16:22). As God has poured out His grace to us in all purity, so we should pour out our love to Him in purity.

"Ephesians is ultimately about how God has powerfully equipped the church to experience blessing in Christ, by creating a new community that is able to honor God and resist the forces of evil. No longer does one's Jewish or Gentile identity dominate. They are part of a new, reconciled community, a reconciliation that involves not only God but also one another. All enablement in this new sacred community is rooted in what the exalted Christ has provided for His people. That is why believers can have hope, since they have begun participation in a wealth of benefits distributed from heaven. The church's members are citizens raised and seated with Jesus in a heavenly citizenship, though they represent Him now as light on the earth, fully enabled for the task. In all of this, God is taking steps toward the ultimate summation of all things in Christ."¹⁷⁰

College: Eph 6:1-24

EPHESIANS 6

2. Children and Parents (6:1-4)

¹ Children obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ²"Honor your father and mother" - which is the first commandment with a promise - ³"that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth." ^{a 4} Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

^a 3 Deut. 5:16

6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord,

This is one of the few passages in the Bible addressed specifically to children. The instruction to "obey" (uJpakouvete , hupakouete ) means literally to "hear under," that is, to listen to the parents and to submit to what they say. Disobedience to parents is a mark of depravity (Rom 1:30) and a sign of the evil of the last days (2 Tim 3:2).

The phrase "in the Lord" describes the general sphere in which children offer their obedience. Paul does not mean that they should obey only if their parents are Christian, nor even that they should obey only if the instructions are godly. Paul's emphasis is that when children give obedience to their parents, they are acting in the will of the Lord. There are, in fact, four reasons here for children to obey their parents: (1) it is "in the Lord," (2) it is "right," (3) it is a "commandment" carried over from the O.T., (4) it has a "promise."

for this is right.

Both Roman law and Jewish Scripture agreed on the duty of children to obey their parents. Josephus understood the O.T. to teach that "honor to parents ranks second only to honor to God." Paul agreed with this and confirmed it with a resounding pronouncement: "this is right."

Jesus himself set the standard by submitting to his parents even though he was wiser than they. His parents were not perfect, but he returned with them from Jerusalem to Nazareth and "was obedient to them" (Luke 2:41-51.) He obeyed simply because it was the right thing to do.

6:2 "Honor your father and mother"

In the Ten Commandments the first to deal with human relations is this duty toward parents. To "honor" (tivma , tima ) means to revere, to treat as valuable and precious. When the law was first given through Moses, severe penalties were established for the rebellious son who refused this command. (See Exod 21:15, 17; Deut 21:18-21.)

Jesus came into sharp conflict with the Pharisees over their failure to keep God's will in the way they taught men to neglect their elderly parents. By making a voluntary commitment ("corban") of their estate, they thought they were free to defy the express command of God (Mark 7:11).

-which is the first commandment with a promise-

This is not only the first of the Ten Commandments with a promise, it is the only Commandment with a promise! (See Exod 20:3-17 and Deut 5:7-21). If God's commands should be obeyed simply because God is sovereign, how much more should they be obeyed when there is personal reward to be realized?

6:3 "that it may go well with you

This part of the promise is found only in the Commandment as given in Deut 5:16. In its O.T. setting the promise was in the context of general prosperity and well-being in the Promised Land. Since Paul quoted this promise with approval, it must be assumed that it also applies today. Respectful, obedient children will normally become productive, successful adults.

and that you may enjoy long life on the earth."

"Long life" is promised in the wording of the Commandment in both Exodus and Deuteronomy. (According to the warning in Deut 21:18-21, the extremely disobedient son could expect to have a very short life!) If the reward for the obedient child in the N.T. era is also "on the earth," it is difficult to reconcile the plight of many Christians in the Roman Empire in the second half of the first century A.D. For this reason it is likely that a spiritual fulfillment in heaven is our primary application of the "long life on the earth."

6:4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children;

Parents, specifically fathers, have their duty as well. Even though Roman law and social custom might give them virtually unlimited authority over their children, God sets limits. The wise parents must not "exasperate" (parorgivzete , parorgizete , "make angry, enrage") their children. The word implies being so heavy-handed and unreasonable with children that they are driven to a helpless state of frustration and anger. Paul's similar command in Col 3:21 warns that in such a situation the children will "become discouraged.")

Modern parents, however, often go to the other extreme. They discipline timidly and reluctantly, fearful of incurring the wrath of their spoiled children. They are constantly seeking the approval of their children and avoid any discipline that might displease them. The remainder of this verse shows the balance in parental discipline which God has intended.

instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

As opposed to the kind of hard behavior which causes exasperation, parents are to nurture their children in a supportive manner. They are to "bring them up" (ejktrevfete , ektrephete , "nourish, protect" as in 5:29) in regard to two special concepts. The first is "training" (paideiva , paideia ), which includes the interrelated ideas of education and discipline (see Heb 12:5-11). It includes "punishment for the purpose of improved behavior." The second concept is "instruction" (nouqesiva , nouthesia ), the verbal reprimanding or "warning" which is more appropriate for dealing with older children.

3. Slaves and Masters (6:5-9)

⁵ Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. ⁶ Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. ⁷ Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, ⁸ because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free. ⁹ And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

6:5 Slaves, obey your earthly masters

Having dealt with the wife/husband and child/parent relationships, Paul turns finally to the slave/master situation. The practice of slavery was widespread in the first century. As much as one-third of the population of Rome was made up of slaves. Slaves were considered by both Romans and Jews as a lower level of humanity. Since a slave was classed with immobile goods as a chattel, his master could do with him as he desired; there was no one to stop him. In general, however, slaves were treated reasonably well, if only because the owners had learned this was the best way to get work out of them.

Paul does not call for the outright abolition of slavery. Had he done so, Christianity would have been diminished to a radical (and temporary) social movement to which slaves would come for their own selfish purposes. Moreover, to the extent an abrupt abolition could have been accomplished, the economy of the ancient world would have been thrown into chaos, to the disadvantage of everyone.

Instead, Paul plants the seeds by which slavery would finally be destroyed. Slaves are told to obey their "earthly masters." This affirms the slaves' responsibility to fulfill their necessary role, but includes a subtle reminder that the masters have only an "earthly" (lit., "according to the flesh") authority. Both slaves and masters should remember their Master in heaven. Paul's letter to Philemon, sent with Ephesians from Roman imprisonment, shows in greater detail how Paul worked to end the abuses of slavery.

with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart,

The "respect" (fovbou , phobou , "fear, reverence") and "fear" (trovmou , tromou , "trembling, quivering") are to be understood in the light of the heavenly Master who is represented by the earthly master. A slave's allegiance to Christ does not authorize him to be rude and disrespectful - just the opposite is true. With sincerity (lit., "singleness") of heart the slaves were to serve their masters with devotion and total commitment.

just as you would obey Christ.

Three times Paul will remind slaves that their service is motivated by more than the misfortune of societal demands. Their obedience is:

"as to Christ" (v. 5)

"as slaves of Christ" (v. 6)

"as to the Lord" (v. 7).

The principle of self-denial and submission that all Christians must learn has special meaning for the situation of the slave. He does not best exemplify life in Christ by loudly demanding his "rights."

Mitton suggests that if the obedience is to be done "as to Christ," the master may be thought of as the representative of Christ in the slave's life. This could imply that the master himself is a Christian. But whether the master is a kind Christian or a cruel pagan (see 1 Pet 2:18), the slave can still work as if he were serving Christ.

6:6 Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you,

Unlike the typical slave (or modern employee), the Christian is not motivated by "eye-service" as "men-pleasers." The word for "eye-service" is found nowhere in Greek literature before Paul's use here and in Col 3:22, and was likely coined by Paul. It implies doing extra work to catch the master's attention, but slacking off when his back is turned. The word for "men-pleasers" is almost as rare, found in the LXX but not in classical writers.

but like slaves of Christ,

If a slave or an employee is working to catch the eye of his owner or boss in order to win his favor, he is pleasing the wrong master. The Christian's ultimate Lord is Christ, and whatever is done should be done in his name (Col 3:17).

doing the will of God from your heart.

The slave must remember that to obey his master and serve him faithfully is the will of God for his life. He is to do this "from the soul" (ejk yuch'" , ek psychçs ), giving full-hearted devotion to his task. Though he is a slave, he is a free man in Christ; if a man is a free man, he is a slave of Christ (1 Cor 7:20-22).

6:7 Serve wholeheartedly,

Literally, "serving with a good mind." Robinson characterizes this as "the ready good will, which does not wait to be compelled." The very essence of Christianity is serving, not being served (Matt 20:26-28). Even God's own Son came in the form of a slave (Phil 2:7) and learned obedience through what he suffered (Heb 5:8). His example as a suffering servant made the abuse endured by Christian slaves both tolerable and purposeful (1 Pet 2:18-25).

as if you were serving the Lord, not men,

Consider the plight of the slave: if he serves a pagan master, he sees the fruit of his labor enriching a man who does not serve the true God, but makes votive offerings to an idol. On the other hand, if he serves a Christian master, he wrestles with the thought of being exploited by a brother in Christ. Either way, it would be hard for the slave to feel good about his service. But Paul raises the slave above his menial servanthood. He is not serving men - he is serving God!

6:8 because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does,

Whether slave or free, a man ought to look beyond his paycheck in considering whether he is being adequately paid. The Lord is keeping books, too. The faithful slave who serves well in spite of abuse will be rewarded. Paul does not establish a detailed schedule of the degrees of reward, nor does he hint at what the reward may be. The slave can simply trust the Lord that the reward will make it all worthwhile.

whether he is slave or free.

Ultimately, when people stand before the judgment bar, it will not matter whether they have been slaves or free. What will matter will be how they served their Lord in whatever circumstance they found themselves: Gentile or Jew, slave or free, male or female (Gal 3:28). The Christian household of Paul's day continued to recognize the separate social status of slave and free, but knew that the distinctions were ultimately insignificant.

6:9 And masters, treat your slaves in the same way.

As with the other household relationships, the slave/master duty is two-sided. Just as the slave must do his service as to the Lord, the master must exercise his authority in the realization that God is watching. "And . . . in the same way" emphasizes the mutual responsibilities which masters and slaves have to each other before the Lord. Masters are to treat their slaves with Christian consideration, in the same spirit in which their Christian slaves serve them.

Do not threaten them,

It is a common fault of human nature for people in authority to take out their frustration on those who are under them. Seneca knew that slaves were vulnerable to their masters' moods and urged masters to learn to control their anger. "Threatening" (ajpeilhvn , apeilçn ) may not have been surprising on the lips of the Sanhedrin (Acts 4:17) or venting the murderous rage of Saul of Tarsus (Acts 9:1), but it is out of character for a Christian.

since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven,

This reminder sounds the death knell of slavery. How can a master go on treating his slave as chattel, when they both will stand before the same God to answer for the way they lived? Roman law may have given a master a nearly absolute right to treat his slaves as he wished, but divine law did not. The earthly masters (kuvrioi , kyrioi ) must one day reckon with the Master (kuvrio" , kyrios ) in heaven. God will hold them responsible for the way they treated their slaves.

and there is no favoritism with him.

Civil law made a difference between the rights of free men and the rights of slaves; but God does not. With him there is not any "favoritism" (proswpolhmyiva , prosôpolçmpsia , "face-taking"; see notes on Gal 2:6). When masters and slaves stand before the Judge of all the earth, they will not be divided into two separate lines. Masters will not receive the preferential treatment they had come to expect in life. This sobering thought made Christian masters take a whole new outlook toward their slaves.

D. THE CHRISTIAN IN WARFARE (6:10-24)

1. The Nature of the Enemy (6:10-12)

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord

"Finally" introduces vv. 10-20, the conclusion to Paul's exhortation which began in 4:1. While the expression can point to the future ("for the remaining time"), in this context it seems best to take it in the sense of a final and climactic part of the exhortation.

The picture of the Lord as a mighty warrior who leads and empowers his army is found first in the O.T. (Ps 35:1-3; Isa 42:13; Hab 3:8-9). The armor of God is seen in Isa 59:17, as well as Paul's own description in 1 Thess 5:8. It must be remembered that the verses which follow depict the Christian not as a gladiator, but as a soldier in an army. The Christian is not intended to defeat the enemy single-handedly, but as part of a united, marching army. This army is the church.

The Christian's source of power is the Lord. That is why Paul prayed earlier in this same epistle for his readers to experience God's resurrection power (1:19-20 and 3:16-21). The Greek word for "be strong" (ejndunamou'sqe , endynamousthe ) means to be "empowered" or "strengthened." Paul uses the same word in the beautiful parallel to this verse in Phil 4:13, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength." He also uses this word to encourage Timothy to "be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim 2:1).

and in his mighty power.

Literally, "in the power (kravtei , kratei ) of his strength (ijscuvo" , ischyos )." Barth puts it briefly, "God is their power in person." Apart from their Lord, Christians can do nothing at all (John 15:1-5).

6:11 Put on the full armor of God

Paul exhorts his readers to put on, or "clothe yourselves," with the full armor of God. The "full armor" (panoplivan , panoplian ) calls to mind the suit of armor and weaponry of a Roman soldier, such as the one who stood chained to Paul at this very moment. Other descriptions of the battle-ready legionnaire add greaves (shin guards) and a javelin. A soldier standing guard may not have been equipped the same as a soldier on the battlefield. More importantly, however, Paul's description is influenced by his knowledge of O.T. imagery. The "panoply" is said to be "of God" because God is the source and provider of it.

Putting on the full armor is the functional equivalent of putting on the new nature (4:24) in Christ. The old nature and its vices have been put aside; the renewed image of God takes its place.

so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.

In the struggle with the enemy, the Christian's goal is "that you may be able to stand." This means to stand firm, not surrendering or giving ground to the enemy, but in fact prevailing over him. Like Timothy, all Christians must be empowered by Christ Jesus (2 Tim 2:1), be ready to take their share of suffering as good soldiers (2 Tim 2:3), and fight the good fight of faith (1 Tim 6:12; 2 Tim 4:7).

There is a very real battle going on between the forces of heaven and hell. The devil (diabovlou , diabolou , "accuser") is trying to win control of the minds and hearts of men, and we must go forth to oppose him (2 Cor 10:3-5). He will oppose us with his "schemes" (meqodeiva" , methodeias , as in 4:14), his clever, crafty strategies. He disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14) and is the father of lies (John 8:44). Few of Satan's tactics are openly satanic.

6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood,

The word for our "struggle" (pavlh , palç ) originally meant a wrestling match, but can also stand for "fight" in general. It is appropriate in this context because of its connotation of close-in, hand-to-hand combat. Our opponents in this up-close fighting are not "flesh and blood" (lit., "blood and flesh," as in Heb 2:14), meaning that they are not mere humans.

If the enemy were flesh and blood, we would prepare our bodies for the conflict. If the enemy were of this world, we would use the weapons of this world. But "though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ" (2 Cor 10:3-5). Because the struggle is spiritual, we prepare our spirits.

but against the rulers, against the authorities,

The "rulers" (ajrcav" , archas ) and "authorities" (ejxousiva" , exousias ) were already mentioned in 1:21 (put under Christ's feet) and 3:10 (forced to see that God has wisdom). These powers, already defined as not being flesh and blood, are the angelic/demonic hosts who serve the devil. Christ has already defeated these forces at the cross (Col 2:15), but the battle must be waged for every individual person to see whether he will accept the victory of the cross for himself.

against the powers of this dark world

Literally, against the "world-rulers of this darkness." The world-rulers (kosmokravtora" , kosmokratoras ) are difficult to identify, since the word is rare and appears neither in the LXX, Philo, or anywhere else in the N.T. These are perhaps to be understood as similar to the "prince of Persia" and the "prince of Greece," with whom Michael had to contend in Dan 10:13, 20. The cosmic dimensions of the power of the enemy are also shown when Satan is called the "god of this age" (2 Cor 4:4) and the "ruler of this world" (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11). Satan and his hosts do not actually rule this world, but what power they do have is concentrated here.

The "darkness" has already been identified in Ephesians as the sinful realm outside of life in Christ (5:8, 11). Through his death Christ has rescued us from the "dominion of darkness" (Col 1:13).

and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

The battle of the ages takes place "in the heavenly realms" (see notes at 1:3). There are real forces of evil to be encountered in the spiritual sphere, and they have to be withstood. Because Christians already live with one foot in heaven, we are already participants in the spiritual struggle.

The hosts of Satan are called "spiritual" (pneumatikav , pneumatika ) because they are not blood and flesh; they are called "evil" because they attempt to thwart the will of God. It seems natural to associate these spiritual forces ( pneumatika ) in some way with the unclean spirits ( pneumata ) which Jesus cast out.

2. The Armor of God (6:13-18)

13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

6:13 Therefore put on the full armor of God,

"Therefore," because Paul's readers must fight a foe that is scheming, inhuman, powerful, and evil, they need to be armed and protected with the equipment God supplies. They do not need to invent or manufacture their armaments; they just need to "put on" (lit., "take up") the resources God has already made available. Paul's repetition of the "full armor" of God is a reminder that we need the whole package; every piece is necessary.

so that when the day of evil comes,

In spite of the supernatural foe which Christians face, there is no need to be terrified when the "day of evil" comes. Salvation by grace is secured; protection against Satan is provided. Whether the "day of evil" is a final climactic showdown with Satan, or any occasion when evil must be resisted, is controversial. (If it is only at the end of human history, however, Paul's readers had no urgent need to be prepared for it.) It seems likely, therefore, that Christians in every age have to be ready when their day(s) of evil come. This view also fits Paul's reference to the "evil days" in 5:16.

you may be able to stand your ground,

A Roman centurion, according to Polybius, had to be the kind of man who could be relied upon to stand fast and not give way, even when hard-pressed. Likewise, it is the aim of the Christian soldiers to do their part to hold the battle line, to "withstand" (ajntisth'nai , antistçnai , "stand against") every assault of the enemy. James uses the same word when he says, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (4:7).

and after you have done everything, to stand.

When a battle is over and the dust has settled, only one army is left standing on the field. The other army lies dead or has fled in retreat (cf. James 4:7). "Having done" (kathrgasavmenoi , katçrgasamenoi ) everything, likely carries the military sense the word has outside the N.T. Barth suggests that it means "to carry to victory" or "to finish the job." It is explained by Robinson as "having accomplished all that your duty requires."

6:14 Stand firm then,

Paul's repeated emphasis on "stand" is remarkable (vv. 11, 13 [twice], 14). In other epistles he exhorts his readers to stand firm in their faith (1 Cor 16:13), to stand firm in one spirit, not frightened by the adversaries (Phil 1:27-28), and rejoices in "this grace is which we stand" (Rom 5:2). Even though the enemy is formidable, and even though some comrades may quit, God's soldiers will stand!

with the belt of truth buckled around your waist,

The soldier who expects to stand in final victory will have to have been adequately equipped. As Paul begins writing his analogy of armament, he is probably chained to a Roman soldier (see v. 20). He uses the equipment of the soldier to illustrate his point, listing each piece in roughly the order a soldier would put it on.

The soldier's "belt" was a leather apron worn beneath the other armor like breeches. Since it is listed first, it is not likely the metal-studded belt worn over the armor or the sword-belt. Fastening this tough garment tight around the waist (lit. "girding the loins"), both protected vital inner organs and made rapid movement easier.

For the Christian soldier the first vital piece of armor is truth. It provides support and braces the soldier ready for action. Since Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44), we cannot expect his weapons to serve our cause. While this "truth" may be the gospel or Jesus himself, it seems more likely in this context to refer to the guileless honor and integrity of the Christian.

with the breastplate of righteousness in place,

The next piece donned by the Roman soldier was his metal breastplate (qwvraka , thôraka ). Both strong and light (17 kg.), it was said that an arrow shot from 20 paces left only a light scratch on it. This piece of frontal armor was vital for protection of the chest, lungs, and heart.

Like God himself (Isa 59:17), the Christian soldier wears a breastplate of righteousness. While this righteousness could be the innocent standing imputed to us by the death of Christ (Rom 3:21-26), it is more likely that Paul has the ethical quality of personal righteousness in view. The imputed righteousness is already taken care of by Christ; the righteousness that must now be taken up is the believer's own personal conduct.

6:15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

The Roman soldier wore a low half-boot with a strong sole and open leather work above. It was studded with sharp nails to ensure a firm grip. His footwear was also designed for mobility, and Roman armies were renowned for their ability to march great distances in a short time.

The "gospel of peace" is the footwear for the Christian soldier. While the firm foundation of the gospel is implied here, Paul's expression "fitted with the readiness" puts most of the emphasis on the preparedness or preparation of the soldier. Without the sandal/boots he is relaxing; with them he is ready for combat. Paul's irony should not be overlooked: the gospel of peace makes us ready for war.

6:16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith,

The word for "shield" (qureovn , thyreon ) is closely related to the Greek word for "door" (quvra , thyra ). While some armies used a small, round shield, the Romans used a large, rectangular one which "covers the whole man like a door." The shield was as wide as a man's body and up to four feet in length. More than just a piece of personal protection, the shields formed a "portable wall" for the protection of the whole army, when soldiers stood side by side.

with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

The Roman shield was made of a wooden frame with as much as seven layers of oxhide, which could easily deflect and extinguish the flaming arrows shot by the enemy. These arrows, dipped in pitch and set ablaze, could strike terror and destruction to an army without such shields. Satan is called "the evil one" only here in Paul's writings.

The Christian soldier is defended by the shield of his faith. Whatever Satan throws at us can be successfully deflected by complete trust in God. Whether the onslaught comes in a heavy barrage of temptation or as an isolated dart of discouragement, depression, or despair, faith is our victory (1 John 5:4). Though Satan would have us throw down our shields and flee in panic, we can have utter confidence that God is able to protect and provide in all circumstances.

6:17 Take the helmet of salvation

The helmet of the legionnaire was made of bronze, often with two hinged cheek-pieces fastened by a chin-band. On marches the helmet was not worn, but slung on a strap. Putting on the helmet marked the beginning of battle.

The Christian soldier is protected by the helmet of salvation. It is this hope (1 Thess 5:8) of eternal life, in one sense already a present reality (Eph 2:8), that gives assurance of final victory.

and the sword of the Spirit,

The Roman sword, unlike the large Thracian weapon, was short enough to be effective in close-quarter, hand-to-hand combat. This sword was very sharp (see Heb 4:12) and is the only offensive weapon listed by Paul.

In switching from defense to offense, Paul also changes the grammar of his expression. Unlike the previous genitive expressions, where shield = faith and helmet = salvation, sword does not equal the Spirit. (Paul will go on to say that the sword of the Spirit equals the word of God.) The phrase "of the Spirit" means that the Holy Spirit is both the source of God's word, and the one who gives effectiveness to its cutting edge (see John 16:8-11).

which is the word of God.

By saying "which is," Paul refers back not just to the Spirit, but to the entire "sword of the Spirit" concept. This sword, the only weapon provided for the Christian warrior, is the "proclaimed word" (rJh'ma , rhçma ) of God, the gospel. By using rhçma instead of logos , Paul calls attention to the word of God in proclamation, not just to a written word lying on the shelf.

Paul's list of the "full armor" includes most of what would have been seen on a Roman soldier in his day. Nothing appears to be provided to protect the back. In John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress when Christian lacked armor for his back at the approach of Apollyon, he had no option but "to venture and stand his ground."

6:18 And pray in the Spirit

The soldier must maintain contact with his commanding officer. Prayer helps keep one in tune with the Lord and his purposes. Perhaps prayer should even be considered a part of the "full armor," because a consistent prayer life is a defense against attacks of Satan and prayer strengthens against temptation. Prayer is said to be "in the Spirit," since it is the Spirit who helps us pray, interceding "with groans that words cannot express" (Rom 8:26). To pray "in the Spirit" in 1 Cor 14:15 is to pray under the influence of the Spirit.

on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.

Paul told the Thessalonians to "pray continually" (1 Thess 5:17). Whatever the occasion, God wants his children to pray regularly, consistently, and frequently. "Prayer" (proseuchv , proseuchç ) is the general word for communication with God, including all aspects of asking, praising, and giving thanks. "Request" (devhsi" , deçsis ) is a more specific word, indicating a special request or entreaty to God. When this word for "request" is found in the N.T., it is most often used in the context of making an entreaty on behalf of someone else.

With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

To "be alert" (ajgrupnevw , agrypneô ) is literally to "keep from falling asleep." Its use in Mark 13:33 shows that the word is synonymous with the word grhgorevw (grçgoreô ) ("watch," "stand guard duty") in Mark 13:35, 37. There is a sense, then, in which the praying Christian is standing guard to ensure the safety of his fellow soldiers. In Samuel's farewell speech to his people he caught the essence of this duty when he said, "And as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against God by failing to pray for you" (1 Sam 12:23).

3. Paul's Own Farewell (6:19-24)

¹⁹ Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰ for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. ²¹ Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you everything, so that you also may know how I am and what I am doing. ²² I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage you. ²³ Peace to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.

6:19 Pray also for me,

Paul's exhortation could be accurately phrased, "Pray concerning all the saints, and (especially) in behalf of me." By changing to a more specific preposition (uJpevr , hyper , in place of the earlier periv , peri ), Paul introduces himself as a special case for prayer. But much as Paul might need prayer in his own behalf, since he is imprisoned and facing possible death, what he actually requests in their prayers in the next clause is somewhat surprising.

that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me

Paul does not crave relief or release; he craves boldness and an opportunity to proclaim the gospel (cf. Col 4:3). Specifically, Paul wants the right "word" or "utterance" to open his mouth. Though a veteran preacher of nearly three decades, Paul still depends upon God for his inspiration.

so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel,

We forget too often that the most fearless preacher of the early church felt "weakness and fear, with much trembling" (1 Cor 2:3). By the help of the prayers of the saints, Paul would be able to speak "fearlessly" (ejn parrhsiva/ , en parrçsia , "in boldness," "in frank, open, honest, joyful confidence").

The "mystery of the gospel" Paul wants to make known is no longer a secret. It is God's plan for the salvation of a united human race, now being openly revealed through his apostles and prophets (Eph 3:3-5, 9).

6:20 for which I am an ambassador in chains.

The very thought of an ambassador being put in chains is contrary to all sense of fairness and all the conventions of warfare. An ambassador can be snubbed or expelled by the nation to which he is sent, but it is quite abnormal for him to be thrown in chains. Even the most hostile nations normally respect the freedom and safety of an ambassador, giving him safe conduct.

Even so, Paul does not lament his present state. Rather, he prays for an opportunity to proclaim an unchained gospel.

Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

As in v. 19, Paul emphasizes again that they must pray that his preaching be done "fearlessly." Apparently the prayers of the saints were answered, for the Acts 28:30-31 record of his imprisonment says Paul continued for two years "boldly and without hindrance" preaching the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul was chained, but his gospel was not! His imprisonment in Rome only served to advance the gospel, which spread throughout the palace guard (Phil 1:12) and Caesar's own household (Phil 4:22).

6:21 Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord,

Tychicus was a native of Asia Minor, and had traveled with Paul on part of the Third Missionary Journey (Acts 20:4). In 2 Tim 4:12 Paul mentions that he had sent Tychicus to Ephesus from his imprisonment in Rome. Tychicus not only carried this epistle, but also carried Paul's letter to the Colossians (Col 4:7-9), apparently at the same time. He also accompanied the runaway slave Onesimus back to his master (Col 4:9), thus carrying the letter to Philemon as well.

will tell you everything, so that you also may know how I am and what I am doing.

Paul apparently did not want to close out his letter with numerous items of purely personal interest. Since this letter would also be sent to many churches which did not know Paul personally (cf. Col 4:16), Paul determined to leave it to his courier Tychicus to inform the brethren in Ephesus about his affairs. Paul's incidental note that "you also" may know is a likely indication that the Christians at Colosse were receiving a letter as well.

6:22 I am sending him to you for this very purpose,

Paul knew how distressed the Christians of Asia Minor were because of his imprisonment. It was especially for their encouragement that he sent Tychicus to tell them first hand how things were going.

that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage you.

This entire verse is identical to Col 4:8. In both places Paul is eager that his messenger should encourage his friends, "to put new heart into the fainthearted."

6:23 Peace to the brothers,

Paul's epistles always begin with a word about "peace" and usually end with "peace" as well. Peace is that sense of well-being in the soul that comes when a person is right with God and right with his fellow man. It is the state in which we live when our alienation from God has ended (Eph 2:1-8). Peace is a dominant theme of Ephesians (see 1:2; 2:14, 15, 17; 4:3; 6:15, 23).

and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Faith and love seem inseparable in the Christian life. Since these are vital parts of that life, Paul wishes for them to appear in abundance in the lives of his readers. Like the word "peace," the word "faith" is also a dominant theme in this epistle (see 1:15; 2:8; 3:12, 17; 4:5, 13; 6:16, 23).

All these concepts - peace, love, and faith - have their source in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus Paul's closing prayer for his readers is much the same as his opening prayer (1:2).

6:24 Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ

Although "grace" begins and ends all of Paul's epistles, it is especially appropriate in Ephesians. Paul's readers, formerly outcast Gentiles, owed all they had to the undeserved favor of God and Christ. Thus they are graciously included among "those who love our Lord Jesus Christ." To those whose very lives were the result of grace, may even more grace be given!

with an undying love.

Love which is "undying" (ajfqarsiva , aphtharsia ) could be either love which cannot be destroyed, or love which cannot be corrupted. Robinson defines it as "that endless and unbroken life in which love has triumphed over death and dissolution." Just as God's eternal grace has made it possible for his saints to have a blessed eternity, so should his saints respond with an undying love.

EPILOGUE

God sees the church as a wonderful possession. For Jesus the church is a beautiful bride, for whom he gladly gave up his life. But how do we see the church?

Do we see the church as a community of those who joyfully share every spiritual blessing? Do we see God's poetry, a people saved by grace and united in love? Do we see the saints of the long-hidden secret, now strengthened by the Spirit, indwelt by Christ, and filled by God? Do we see a body that is united in the bond of peace, growing to be like Jesus and renewed daily into the image of God? Do we see the love, light, and wisdom that make God's people so special? Do we see a marching army, fully equipped and competent to stand against any foe?

If we can just see ourselves with heaven's vision, we can begin to live the heaven-bound life. May we live each day in more complete awareness of who we really are in Christ. And may we live each moment in eager anticipation of the dawn of heaven, when we shall enjoy in Christ the consummation of everything God has created us to be.

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

Commentary -- Other

Evidence: Eph 6:15

Don’t go barefoot . In Eph 6:11 we are told to put on the whole armor of God. Many Christians are truthful. They have their heart free of sin, they are sure of their salvation, they rightly use the Word of God. But they are shoeless—they are not prepared to share the gospel. Those who do not advance the cause of the gospel are stationary soldiers; any evangelistic movement is too painful for them. If they are not seeking to save the lost, they are not taking ground for the kingdom of God. Paul climaxed his admonition to the Ephesians by highlighting what the battle is for. He pleads with them to pray for him to have boldness to reach out to the unsaved, citing his moral responsibility ( Eph 6:20 ).

Evidence: Eph 6:17

" We must thrust the sword of the Spirit into the hearts of men." Charles Spurgeon

Evidence: Eph 6:18

" Let’s move from theology to kneeology! Power for victory in spiritual warfare is found in prayer." Robert R. Lawrence

Evidence: Eph 6:19

Beware of the subtlety of passive prayer . We have been commanded to preach the gospel. Make sure you don’t pacify a guilty conscience by simply praying for the salvation of the lost, but not preaching to them. It is the gospel that is the power of God unto salvation. How shall they hear without a preacher? See Rom 10:14 .

Introduction / Outline

Robertson: Ephesians (Book Introduction)

The Epistle to the Ephesians

From Rome a.d. 63

By Way of Introduction

There are some problems of a special nature that confront us about the so-called Epistle to the Ephesians.

The Authorship

It is not admitted by all that Paul wrote it, though no other adequate explanation of its origin has ever been given. So far as subject matter and vocabulary and style are concerned, if Colossians is Pauline, there is little or nothing to be said against the Pauline authorship of this Epistle.

Relation to Colossians

As we have seen, the two Epistles were sent at the same time, but clearly Colossians was composed first. Ephesians bears much the same relation to Colossians that Romans does to Galatians, a fuller treatment of the same general theme in a more detached and impersonal manner.

The Destination

The oldest documents (Aleph and B) do not have the words en Ephesōi (in Ephesus) in Eph_1:1 (inserted by a later hand). Origen did not have them in his copy. Marcion calls it the Epistle to the Laodiceans. We have only to put here Col_4:16 " the letter from Laodicea" to find the probable explanation. After writing the stirring Epistle to the Colossians Paul dictated this so-called Epistle to the Ephesians as a general or circular letter for the churches in Asia (Roman province). Perhaps the original copy had no name in Eph_1:1 as seen in Aleph and B and Origen, but only a blank space. Marcion was familiar with the copy in Laodicea. Basil in the fourth century mentions some MSS. with no name in the address. Most MSS. were copies from the one in Ephesus and so it came to be called the Epistle to the Ephesians. The general nature of the letter explains also the absence of names in it, though Paul lived three years in Ephesus.

The Date

The same date must be assigned as for Philemon and Colossians, probably a.d. 63.

The Place of Writing

This would also be the same, that is Rome, though Deissmann and Duncan argue for Ephesus itself as the place of writing. Some scholars even suggest Caesarea.

The Character of the Epistle

The same Gnostic heresy is met as in Colossians, but with this difference. In Colossians the emphasis is on the Dignity of Christ as the Head of the Church, while in Ephesians chief stress is placed upon the Dignity of the Church as the Body of Christ the Head. Paul has written nothing more profound than chapters Ephesians 1-3 of Ephesians. Stalker termed them the profoundest thing ever written. He sounds the depths of truth and reaches the heights. Since Ephesians covers the same ground so largely as Colossians, only the words in Ephesians that differ or are additional will call for discussion.

JFB: Ephesians (Book Introduction)

THE headings (Eph 1:1, and Eph 3:1, show that this Epistle claims to be that of Paul. This claim is confirmed by the testimonies of IRENÆUS, [Against Heresies, 5.2,3; 1.8,5]; CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, [Miscellanies, 4, P. 65, and The Instructor, 1.8]; ORIGEN, [Against Celsus, 4,211]. It is quoted by VALENTINUS, A.D. 120, namely, Eph 3:14-18, as we know from HIPPOLYTUS [The Refutation of All Heresies, p. 193]. POLYCARP [Epistle to the Philippians, 12], testifies to its canonicity. So TERTULLIAN [Against Marcion, 5,17]. IGNATIUS [Epistle to the Ephesians, 12], which alludes to the frequent and affectionate mention made by Paul of the Christian state, privileges, and persons of the Ephesians in his Epistle.

Two theories, besides the ordinary one, have been held on the question, to whom the Epistle is addressed. GROTIUS, after the heretic Marcion, maintains that it was addressed to the Church at Laodicea, and that it is the Epistle to which Paul refers in Col 4:16. But the Epistle to the Colossians was probably written before that to the Ephesians, as appears from the parallel passages in Ephesians bearing marks of being expanded from those in Colossians; and Marcion seems to have drawn his notion, as to our Epistle, from Paul's allusion (Col 4:16) to an Epistle addressed by him to the Laodiceans. ORIGEN and CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, and even TERTULLIAN, who refers to Marcion, give no sanction to his notion. No single manuscript contains the heading, "to the saints that are at Laodicea." The very resemblance of the Epistle to the Ephesians, to that to the Colossians, is against the theory; for if the former were really the one addressed to Laodicea (Col 4:16), Paul would not have deemed it necessary that the churches of Colosse and Laodicea should interchange Epistles. The greetings, moreover (Col 4:15), which he sends through the Colossians to the Laodiceans, are quite incompatible with the idea that Paul wrote an Epistle to the Laodiceans at the same time, and by the same bearer, Tychicus (the bearer of our Epistle to the Ephesians, as well as of that to Colosse, Eph 6:21; Col 4:7); for who, under such circumstances, would not send the greetings directly in the letter to the party saluted? The letter to Laodicea was evidently written some time before that to Colosse, Archbishop USHER has advanced the second theory: That it was an encyclical letter headed, as in Manuscript B., "to the saints that are . . . and to the faithful," the name of each Church being inserted in the copy sent to it; and that its being sent to Ephesus first, occasioned its being entitled, as now, the Epistle to the Ephesians. ALFORD makes the following objections to this theory: (1) It is at variance with the spirit of the Epistle, which is clearly addressed to one set of persons throughout, co-existing in one place, and as one body, and under the same circumstances. (2) The improbability that the apostle, who in two of his Epistles (Second Corinthians and Galatians) has so plainly specified their encyclical character, should have here omitted such specification. (3) The still greater improbability that he should have, as on this hypothesis must be assumed, written a circular Epistle to a district, of which Ephesus was the commercial capital, addressed to various churches within that district, yet from its very contents (as by the opponents' hypothesis) not admitting of application to the Church of that metropolis, in which he had spent so long a time, and to which he was so affectionately bound. (4) The inconsistency of this hypothesis with the address of the Epistle, and the universal testimony of the ancient Church. The absence of personal greetings is not an argument for either of the two theories; for similarly there are none in Galatians, Philippians, First and Second Thessalonians, First Timothy. The better he knows the parties addressed, and the more general and solemn the subject, the less he seems to give of these individual notices. Writing, as he does in this Epistle, on the constitution and prospects of Christ's universal Church, he refers the Ephesians, as to personal matters, to the bearer of the Epistle, Tychicus (Eph 6:21-22). As to the omission of "which are at Ephesus" (Eph 1:1), in Manuscript B., so "in Rome" (Rom 1:7) is omitted in some old manuscripts: it was probably done by churches among whom it was read, in order to generalize the reference of its contents, and especially where the subject of the Epistle is catholic. The words are found in the margin of Manuscript B, from a first hand; and are found in all the oldest manuscripts and versions.

Paul's first visit to Ephesus (on the seacoast of Lydia, near the river Cayster) is related in Act 18:19-21. The work, begun by his disputations with the Jews in his short visit, was carried on by Apollos (Act 18:24-26), and Aquila and Priscilla (Act 18:26). At his second visit, after his journey to Jerusalem, and thence to the east regions of Asia Minor, he remained at Ephesus "three years" (Act 19:10, the "two years" in which verse are only part of the time, and Act 20:31); so that the founding and rearing of this Church occupied an unusually large portion of the apostle's time and care; whence his language in this Epistle shows a warmth of feeling, and a free outpouring of thought, and a union in spiritual privileges and hope between him and them (Eph 1:3, &c.), such as are natural from one so long and so intimately associated with those whom he addresses. On his last journey to Jerusalem, he sailed by Ephesus and summoned the elders of the Ephesian Church to meet him at Miletus, where he delivered his remarkable farewell charge (Acts 20:18-35).

This Epistle was addressed to the Ephesians during the early part of his imprisonment at Rome, immediately after that to the Colossians, to which it bears a close resemblance in many passages, the apostle having in his mind generally the same great truths in writing both. It is an undesigned proof of genuineness that the two Epistles, written about the same date, and under the same circumstances, bear a closer mutual resemblance than those written at distant dates and on different occasions. Compare Eph 1:7 with Col 1:14; Eph 1:10 with Col 1:20; Eph 3:2 with Col 1:25; Eph 5:19 with Col 3:16; Eph 6:22 with Col 4:8; Eph 1:19; Eph 2:5 with Col 2:12-13; Eph 4:2-4 with Col 3:12-15; Eph 4:16 with Col 2:19; Eph 4:32 with Col 3:13; Eph 4:22-24 with Col 3:9-10; Eph 5:6-8 with Col 3:6-8; Eph 5:15-16 with Col 4:5; Eph 6:19-20 with Col 4:3-4; Eph 5:22-33; Eph 6:1-9 with Col 3:18; Eph 4:24-25 with Col 3:9; Eph 5:20-22 with Col 3:17-18. Tychicus and Onesimus were being sent to Colosse, the former bearing the two Epistles to the two churches respectively, the latter furnished with a letter of recommendation to Philemon, his former master, residing at Colosse. The date was probably about four years after his parting with the Ephesian elders at Miletus (Acts 20:6-38), about A.D. 62, before his imprisonment had become of the more severe kind, which appears in his Epistle to the Philippians. From Eph 6:19-20 it is plain he had at the time, though a prisoner, some degree of freedom in preaching, which accords with Act 28:23, Act 28:30-31, where he is represented as receiving at his lodgings all inquirers. His imprisonment began in February A.D. 61 and lasted "two whole years" (Act 28:30) at least, and perhaps longer.

The Church of Ephesus was made up of converts partly from the Jews and partly from the Gentiles (Act 19:8-10). Accordingly, the Epistle so addresses a Church constituted (Eph 2:14-22). Ephesus was famed for its idol temple of Artemis or Diana, which, after its having been burnt down by Herostratus on the night that Alexander the Great was born (355 B.C.), was rebuilt at enormous cost and was one of the wonders of the world. Hence, perhaps, have arisen his images in this Epistle drawn from a beautiful temple: the Church being in true inner beauty that which the temple of the idol tried to realize in outward show (Eph 2:19-22). The Epistle (Eph 4:17; Eph 5:1-13) implies the profligacy for which the Ephesian heathen were notorious. Many of the same expressions occur in the Epistle as in Paul's address to the Ephesian elders. Compare Eph 1:6-7; Eph 2:7, as to "grace," with Act 20:24, Act 20:32 : this may well be called "the Epistle of the grace of God" [ALFORD]. Also, as to his "bonds," Eph 3:1, and Eph 4:1 with Act 20:22-23. Also Eph 1:11, as to "the counsel of God," with Act 20:27. Also Eph 1:14, as to "the redemption of the purchased possession," with Act 20:28. Also Eph 1:14, Eph 1:18; Eph 2:20; Eph 5:5, as to "building up" the "inheritance," with Act 20:32.

The object of the Epistle is "to set forth the ground, the course, and the aim and end of THE CHURCH OF THE FAITHFUL IN CHRIST. He speaks to the Ephesians as a type or sample of the Church universal" [ALFORD]. Hence, "the Church" throughout the Epistle is spoken of in the singular, not in the plural, "churches." The Church's foundation, its course, and its end, are his theme alike in the larger and smaller divisions of the whole Epistle. "Everywhere the foundation of the Church is in the will of the Father; the course of the Church is by the satisfaction of the Son; the end of the Church is the life in the Holy Spirit" [ALFORD]. Compare respectively Eph 1:11; Eph 2:5; Eph 3:16. This having been laid down as a matter of doctrine (this part closing with a sublime doxology, Eph 3:14-21), is then made the ground of practical exhortations. In these latter also (from Eph 4:1, onward), the same threefold division prevails, for the Church is represented as founded on the counsel of "God the Father, who is above all, through all, and in all," reared by the "one Lord," Jesus Christ, through the "one Spirit" (Eph 4:4-6, &c.), who give their respective graces to the several members. These last are therefore to exercise all these graces in the several relations of life, as husbands, wives, servants, children, &c. The conclusion is that we must put on "the whole armor of God" (Eph 6:13).

The sublimity of the STYLE and LANGUAGE corresponds to the sublimity of the subjects and exceeds almost that of any part of his Epistles. It is appropriate that those to whom he so wrote were Christians long grounded in the faith. The very sublimity is the cause of the difficulty of the style, and of the presence of peculiar expressions occurring, not found elsewhere.

JFB: Ephesians (Outline)

• INSCRIPTION: ORIGIN OF THE CHURCH IN THE FATHER'S ETERNAL COUNSEL, AND THE SON'S BLOODSHEDDING: THE SEALING OF IT BY THE SPIRIT. THANKSGIVING AND PRAYER THAT THEY MAY FULLY KNOW GOD'S GRACIOUS POWER IN CHRIST TOWARDS THE SAINTS. (Eph. 1:1-23)
• GOD'S LOVE AND GRACE IN QUICKENING US, ONCE DEAD, THROUGH CHRIST. HIS PURPOSE IN DOING SO: EXHORTATION BASED ON OUR PRIVILEGES AS BUILT TOGETHER, AN HOLY TEMPLE, IN CHRIST, THROUGH THE SPIRIT. (Eph. 2:1-22)
• HIS APOSTOLIC OFFICE TO MAKE KNOWN THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST REVEALED BY THE SPIRIT: PRAYER THAT BY THE SAME SPIRIT THEY MAY COMPREHEND THE VAST LOVE OF CHRIST: DOXOLOGY ENDING THIS DIVISION OF THE EPISTLE. (Eph. 3:1-21)
• EXHORTATIONS TO CHRISTIAN DUTIES RESTING ON OUR CHRISTIAN PRIVILEGES, AS UNITED IN ONE BODY, THOUGH VARYING IN THE GRACES GIVEN TO THE SEVERAL MEMBERS, THAT WE MAY COME UNTO A PERFECT MAN IN CHRIST. (Eph. 4:1-32) Translate, according to the Greek order, "I beseech you, therefore (seeing that such is your calling of grace, the first through third chapters) I the prisoner in the Lord (that is, imprisoned in the Lord's cause)." What the world counted ignominy, he counts the highest honor, and he glories in his bonds for Christ, more than a king in his diadem [THEODORET]. His bonds, too, are an argument which should enforce his exhortation.
• EXHORTATIONS TO LOVE: AND AGAINST CARNAL LUSTS AND COMMUNICATIONS. CIRCUMSPECTION IN WALK: REDEEMING THE TIME: BEING FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT: SINGING TO THE LORD WITH THANKFULNESS: THE WIFE'S DUTY TO THE HUSBAND RESTS ON THAT OF THE CHURCH TO CHRIST. (Eph. 5:1-33)
• MUTUAL DUTIES OF PARENTS AND CHILDREN: MASTERS AND SERVANTS: OUR LIFE A WARFARE: THE SPIRITUAL ARMOUR NEEDED AGAINST SPIRITUAL FOES. CONCLUSION. (Eph. 6:1-24)

TSK: Ephesians 6 (Chapter Introduction)

Overview

Eph 6:1, The duty of children towards their parents; Eph 6:5, of servants towards their masters; Eph 6:10, Our life is a warfare, not only against flesh and blood, but also spiritual enemies; Eph 6:13, The complete armour of a Christian; Eph 6:18, and how it ought to be used; Eph 6:21, Tychicus is commended.

Poole: Ephesians 6 (Chapter Introduction)

CHAPTER 6

MHCC: Ephesians (Book Introduction)

This epistle was written when St. Paul was a prisoner at Rome. The design appears to be to strengthen the Ephesians in the faith of Christ, and to give exalted views of the love of God, and of the dignity and excellence of Christ, fortifying their minds against the scandal of the cross. He shows that they were saved by grace, and that however wretched they once were, they now had equal privileges with the Jews. He encourages them to persevere in their Christian calling, and urges them to walk in a manner becoming their profession, faithfully discharging the general and common duties of religion, and the special duties of particular relations.

MHCC: Ephesians 6 (Chapter Introduction)

(Eph 6:1-4) The duties of children and parents.

(Eph 6:5-9) Of servants and masters.

(Eph 6:10-18) All Christians are to put on spiritual armour against the enemies of their souls.

(Eph 6:19-24) The apostle desires their prayers, and ends with his apostolic blessing.

Matthew Henry: Ephesians (Book Introduction)

An Exposition, with Practical Observations, of The Epistle of St. Paul to the Ephesians

Some think that this epistle to the Ephesians was a circular letter sent to several churches, and that the copy directed to the Ephesians happened to be taken into the canon, and so it came to bear that particular inscription. And they have been induced the rather to think this because it is the only one of all Paul's epistles that has nothing in it peculiarly adapted to the state or case of that particular church; but it has much of common concernment to all Christians, and especially to all who, having been Gentiles in times past, were converted to Christianity. But then it may be observed, on the other hand, that the epistle is expressly inscribed (Eph 1:1) to the saints which are at Ephesus; and in the close of it he tells them that he had sent Tychicus unto them, whom, in 2Ti 4:12, he says he had sent to Ephesus. It is an epistle that bears date out of a prison: and some have observed that what this apostle wrote when he was a prisoner had the greatest relish and savour in it of the things of God. When his tribulations did abound, his consolations and experiences did much more abound, whence we may observe that the afflictive exercises of God's people, and particularly of his ministers, often tend to the advantage of others as well as to their own. The apostle's design is to settle and establish the Ephesians in the truth, and further to acquaint them with the mystery of the gospel, in order to it. In the former part he represents the great privilege of the Ephesians, who, having been in time past idolatrous heathens, were now converted to Christianity and received into covenant with God, which he illustrates from a view of their deplorable state before their conversion, ch. 1-3. In the latter part (which we have in the Eph 4:1, Eph 5:1, and Eph 6:1 chapters) he instructs them in the principal duties of religion, both personal and relative, and exhorts and quickens them to the faithful discharge of them. Zanchy observes that we have here an epitome of the whole Christian doctrine, and of almost all the chief heads of divinity.

Matthew Henry: Ephesians 6 (Chapter Introduction)

In this chapter, I. The apostle proceeds in the exhortation to relative duties which he began in the former, particularly he insists on the duties of children and parents, and of servants and masters (Eph 6:1-9). II. He exhorts and directs Christians how to behave themselves in the spiritual warfare with the enemies of their souls; and to the exercise of several Christian graces, which he proposes to them as so many pieces of spiritual armour, to preserve and defend them in the conflict (Eph 6:10-18). III. We have here the conclusion of the epistle, in which he takes his leave of them, recommending himself to the prayers of the believing Ephesians, and praying for them (Eph 6:19-24).

Barclay: Ephesians (Book Introduction)

A GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE LETTERS OF PAUL

The Letters Of Paul

There is no more interesting body of documents in the New Testament than the letters of Paul. That is because of all forms of literature a letter is most personal. Demetrius, one of the old Greek literary critics, once wrote, "Every one reveals his own soul in his letters. In every other form of composition it is possible to discern the writercharacter, but in none so clearly as the epistolary." (Demetrius, On Style, 227.) It is just because he left us so many letters that we feel we know Paul so well. In them he opened his mind and heart to the folk he loved so much; and in them, to this day, we can see that great mind grappling with the problems of the early church and feel that great heart throbbing with love for men, even when they were misguided and mistaken.

The Difficulty Of Letters

At the same time there is often nothing so difficult to understand as a letter. Demetrius (On Style, 223) quotes a saying of Artemon, who edited the letters of Aristotle. Artemon said that a letter ought to be written in the same manner as a dialogue, because it was one of the two sides of a dialogue. In other words, to read a letter is like listening to one side of a telephone conversation. So when we read the letters of Paul we are often in a difficulty. We do not possess the letter which he was answering; we do not fully know the circumstances with which he was dealing; it is only from the letter itself that we can deduce the situation which prompted it. Before we can hope to understand fully any letter Paul wrote, we must try to reconstruct the situation which produced it.

The Ancient Letters

It is a great pity that Paulletters were ever called epistles. They are in the most literal sense letters. One of the great lights shed on the interpretation of the New Testament has been the discovery and the publication of the papyri. In the ancient world, papyrus was the substance on which most documents were written. It was composed of strips of the pith of a certain bulrush that grew on the banks of the Nile. These strips were laid one on top of the other to form a substance very like brown paper. The sands of the Egyptian desert were ideal for preservation, for papyrus, although very brittle, will last forever so long as moisture does not get at it. As a result, from the Egyptian rubbish heaps, archaeologists have rescued hundreds of documents, marriage contracts, legal agreements, government forms, and, most interesting of all, private letters. When we read these private letters we find that there was a pattern to which nearly all conformed; and we find that Paulletters reproduce exactly that pattern. Here is one of these ancient letters. It is from a soldier, called Apion, to his father Epimachus. He is writing from Misenum to tell his father that he has arrived safely after a stormy passage.

"Apion sends heartiest greetings to his father and lord Epimachus.

I pray above all that you are well and fit; and that things are

going well with you and my sister and her daughter and my brother.

I thank my Lord Serapis [his god] that he kept me safe when I was

in peril on the sea. As soon as I got to Misenum I got my journey

money from Caesar--three gold pieces. And things are going fine

with me. So I beg you, my dear father, send me a line, first to let

me know how you are, and then about my brothers, and thirdly, that

I may kiss your hand, because you brought me up well, and because

of that I hope, God willing, soon to be promoted. Give Capito my

heartiest greetings, and my brothers and Serenilla and my friends.

I sent you a little picture of myself painted by Euctemon. My

military name is Antonius Maximus. I pray for your good health.

Serenus sends good wishes, Agathos Daimonboy, and Turbo,

Galloniuson." (G. Milligan, Selections from the Greek Papyri,

36.)

Little did Apion think that we would be reading his letter to his father 1800 years after he had written it. It shows how little human nature changes. The lad is hoping for promotion quickly. Who will Serenilla be but the girl he left behind him? He sends the ancient equivalent of a photograph to the folk at home. Now that letter falls into certain sections. (i) There is a greeting. (ii) There is a prayer for the health of the recipients. (iii) There is a thanksgiving to the gods. (iv) There are the special contents. (v) Finally, there are the special salutations and the personal greetings. Practically every one of Paulletters shows exactly the same sections, as we now demonstrate.

(i) The Greeting: Rom_1:1 ; 1Co_1:1 ; 2Co_1:1 ; Gal_1:1 ; Eph_1:1 ; Phi_1:1 ; Col 2 ; 1Th_1:1 ; 2Th_1:1 .

(ii) The Prayer: in every case Paul prays for the grace of God on the people to whom he writes: Rom_1:7 ; 1Co_1:3 ; 2Co_1:2 ; Gal_1:3 ; Eph_1:2 ; Phi_1:3 ; Col_1:2 ; 1Th_1:1 ; 2Th_1:2 .

(iii) The Thanksgiving: Rom_1:8 ; 1Co_1:4 ; 2Co_1:3 ; Eph_1:3 ; Phi_1:3 ; 1Th_1:3 ; 2Th_1:3 .

(iv) The Special Contents: the main body of the letters.

(v) Special Salutations and Personal Greetings: Rom 16 ; 1Co_16:19 ; 2Co_13:13 ; Phi_4:21-22 ; Col_4:12-15 ; 1Th_5:26 .

When Paul wrote letters, he wrote them on the pattern which everyone used. Deissmann says of them, "They differ from the messages of the homely papyrus leaves of Egypt, not as letters but only as the letters of Paul." When we read Paulletters we are not reading things which were meant to be academic exercises and theological treatises, but human documents written by a friend to his friends.

The Immediate Situation

With a very few exceptions, all Paulletters were written to meet an immediate situation and not treatises which he sat down to write in the peace and silence of his study. There was some threatening situation in Corinth, or Galatia, or Philippi, or Thessalonica, and he wrote a letter to meet it. He was not in the least thinking of us when he wrote, but solely of the people to whom he was writing. Deissmann writes, "Paul had no thought of adding a few fresh compositions to the already extant Jewish epistles; still less of enriching the sacred literature of his nation.... He had no presentiment of the place his words would occupy in universal history; not so much that they would be in existence in the next generation, far less that one day people would look at them as Holy Scripture." We must always remember that a thing need not be transient because it was written to meet an immediate situation. All the great love songs of the world were written for one person, but they live on for the whole of mankind. It is just because Paulletters were written to meet a threatening danger or a clamant need that they still throb with life. And it is because human need and the human situation do not change that God speaks to us through them today.

The Spoken Word

One other thing we must note about these letters. Paul did what most people did in his day. He did not normally pen his own letters but dictated them to a secretary, and then added his own authenticating signature. (We actually know the name of one of the people who did the writing for him. In Rom_16:22 Tertius, the secretary, slips in his own greeting before the letter draws to an end.) In 1Co_16:21 Paul says, "This is my own signature, my autograph, so that you can be sure this letter comes from me" (compare Col_4:18 ; 2Th_3:17 ).

This explains a great deal. Sometimes Paul is hard to understand, because his sentences begin and never finish; his grammar breaks down and the construction becomes involved. We must not think of him sitting quietly at a desk, carefully polishing each sentence as he writes. We must think of him striding up and down some little room, pouring out a torrent of words, while his secretary races to get them down. When Paul composed his letters, he had in his mindeye a vision of the folk to whom he was writing, and he was pouring out his heart to them in words that fell over each other in his eagerness to help.

INTRODUCTION TO THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

The Supreme Letter

By common consent the Letter to the Ephesians ranks very high in the devotional and theological literature of the Christian Church. It has been called "The Queen of the Epistles"--and rightly so. Many would hold that it is indeed the highest reach of New Testament thought. When John Knox was very near his end, the book that was most often read to him was John CalvinSermons on the Letter to the Ephesians. Coleridge said of Ephesians that it was "the divinest composition of man." He went on: "It embraces first, those doctrines peculiar to Christianity, and, then, those precepts common with it in natural religion." Ephesians clearly has a place all its own in the Pauline correspondence.

And yet there are certain very real problems connected with it. These problems are not the product of the minds of over-critical scholars, but are plain for all to see. When, however, these problems are solved, Ephesians becomes a greater letter than ever and shines with an even more radiant light.

The Circumstances Of The Writing Of Ephesians

Before we turn to the doubtful things, let us set down the certainties. First, Ephesians was clearly written when Paul was in prison. He calls himself "a prisoner for Christ" (Eph_3:1 ); it is as "a prisoner for the Lord" that he beseeches them (Eph_4:1 ); he is "an ambassador in chains" (Eph_6:20 ). It was in prison, and very near to the end, that Paul wrote Ephesians.

Second, Ephesians has clearly a close connection with Colossians. It would seem that Tychicus was the bearer of both these letters. In Colossians Paul says that Tychicus will tell them all about his affairs (Col_4:7 ); and in Ephesians he says that Tychicus will give them all information (Eph_6:21 ). Further, there is a close resemblance between the substance of the two letters, so close that more than 55 verses in the two letters are verbatim the same. Either, as Coleridge held, Colossians is what might be called "the overflow" of Ephesians, or Ephesians is a greater version of Colossians. We shall in the end come to see that it is this resemblance which gives us the clue to the unique place of Ephesians among the letters of Paul.

The Problem

So, then, it is certain that Ephesians was written when Paul was in prison for the faith and that it has in some way the closest possible connection with Colossians. The problem emerges when we begin to examine the question of to whom Ephesians was written.

In the ancient days letters were written on rolls of papyrus. When finished, they were tied with thread, and, if they were specially private or important, the knots in the thread were then sealed. But it was seldom that any address was written on them, for the very simple reason that, for the ordinary individual, there was no postal system. There was a government post, but it was available only for official and imperial correspondence and not for the ordinary person. Letters in those days were delivered by hand and therefore no address was necessary. So the titles of the New Testament letters are not part of the original letters at all. They were inserted afterwards when the letters were collected and published for all the Church to read.

When we study Ephesians closely, we find it in the last degree unlikely that it was written to the church at Ephesus. There are internal reasons for arriving at that conclusion.

(a) The letter was written to Gentiles. The recipients were "Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise" (Eph_2:11 ). Paul urges them "no longer to live as the Gentiles do" (Eph_4:17 ). The fact that they were Gentiles did not of itself mean that the letter could not have been written to Ephesus; but it is a fact to note.

(b) Ephesians is the most impersonal letter Paul ever wrote. It is entirely without personal greetings and without the intimate personal messages of which the other letters are so full. That is doubly surprising when we remember that Paul spent longer in Ephesus than in any other city, no less than three years (Act_20:31 ). Further, there is no more intimate and affectionate passage in the whole New Testament than Act_20:17-35 where we have Paulfarewell talk to the elders of Ephesus, before he left Miletus on his last journey. It is very difficult to believe in face of all this that Paul would have sent a letter to Ephesus which was so impersonal.

(c) The indication of the letter is that Paul and the recipients did not know each other personally and that their knowledge of each other came by hearsay. In Eph_1:15 Paul writes: "Because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus." The loyalty of the people to whom he was writing was something which had come to him by information and not by experience. In Eph_3:2 he writes to them: "Assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of Godgrace that was given to me for you." That is to say: "If you have heard that God gave me the special task and office of being the apostle to Gentiles such as you." The Churchknowledge of Paul as the apostle to the Gentiles was something of which they have heard, but not something which they knew by personal contact with him. So, then, within itself the letter bears signs that it does not fit the close and personal relationship which Paul had with the Church at Ephesus.

These facts might be explained; but there is one external fact which settles the matter. In Eph_1:1 none of the great early manuscripts of the Greek New Testament contain the words in Ephesus. They all read: "Paul...to the saints who are also faithful in Christ Jesus." And we know, from the way in which they comment on it, that that was the form in which the early Greek fathers knew the text.

Was Paul The Author?

Some scholars have gone on to find still another difficulty in Ephesians. They have doubted whether Paul was the author of the letter at all. On what grounds do they base their doubts?

They say that the vocabulary, is different from the vocabulary of Paul; and it is true that there are some seventy words in Ephesians which are not found in any other letter written by Paul. That need not trouble us, for the fact is that in Ephesians Paul was saying things which he had never said before. He was travelling a road of thought along which he had not before travelled; and naturally he needed new words to express new thoughts. It would be ridiculous to demand that a man with a mind like Paulshould never add to his vocabulary and should always express himself in the same way.

They say that the style is not the style of Paul. It is true-- we can see it even in the English, let alone in the Greek--that the style of Ephesians is different from that of the other letters. The other letters are all written to meet a definite situation. But, as A. H. McNeile has said, Ephesians is "a theological tract, or rather a religious mediation." Even the use of language is different. Moffatt puts it this way--generally speaking, Paullanguage pours out like a torrent; but in Ephesians we have "a slow, bright stream, flowing steadily along, which brims its high banks." The length of the sentences in Ephesians is astonishing. In the Greek Eph_1:3-14 ; Eph_1:15-23 ; Eph_2:1-9 ; Eph_3:1-7 are each one long, meandering sentence. McNeile very beautifully and rightly calls Ephesians "a poem in prose." All this is very unlike Paulnormal style.

What is to be said to this? There is first the general fact that no great writer always writes in the same style. Shakespeare can produce the very different styles of Hamlet, A Midsummer NightDream, The Taming of the Shrew, and the Sonnets. Any great stylist--and Paul was a great stylist--writes in a style to fit his aim and his circumstances at the time of writing. It is bad criticism to say that Paul did not write Ephesians simply because he has evolved a new vocabulary and a new style.

But there is more. Let us remember how Paul wrote most of his letters. He wrote them in the midst of a busy ministry, when, for the most part, he was on the road. He wrote them to meet a demanding problem which had to be dealt with at the moment. That is to say, in most of his letters Paul was writing against time. Now let us remember that Paul, if he wrote Ephesians, wrote it when he was in prison. That is to say, he had all the time in the world to write it. Is it any wonder that the style of Ephesians; is not the style of the earlier letters?

Moreover, this difference in style, this meditative, poetical quality is most apparent in Eph 1-3, and they are one long prayer, culminating in a great doxology. There is in fact nothing like this in all Paulletters. This is the language of lyrical prayer, not the language of argument or controversy or rebuke.

The differences are far from proving that Ephesians is not by Paul.

The Thought Of The Epistle

Certain scholars wish to go on to say that the thought of Ephesians is beyond the thought of any of the other letters of Paul. Let us see what that thought is. We have seen that Ephesians is intimately connected with Colossians whose central thought is the all-sufficiency, of Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ were hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col_2:3 ); all the fulness of God dwelt in him (Col_1:19 ); in him the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily (Col_2:9 ); he alone is necessary and sufficient for mansalvation (Col_1:14 ). The whole thought of Colossians is based on the complete sufficiency of Jesus Christ.

The thought of Ephesians is a development of that conception. It is summarized in two verses of the first chapter, in which Paul speaks of God as, "having made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fulness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth." (Eph_1:9-10 ).

The key thought of Ephesians is the gathering together of all things in Jesus Christ. In nature as it is without Christ there is nothing but disunity and disharmony; it is "red in tooth and claw." Mandominion has broken the social union which should exist between man and the beasts; man is divided from man; class from class; nation from nation; ideology from ideology; Gentile from Jew. What is true of the world of outer nature is true of human nature. In every man there is a tension; every man is a walking civil war, torn between the desire for good and the desire for evil; he hates his sins and loves them at one and the same time. According to both Greek and Jewish thought in the time of Paul, this disharmony extends even to the heavenly places. A cosmic battle is raging between the powers of evil and the powers of good; between God and the demons. Worst of all there is disharmony between God and man. Man, who was meant to be in fellowship with God, is estranged from him.

So, then, in this world without Christ, there is nothing but disunity. That disunity is not Godpurpose but it can become a unity only when all things are united in Christ. As E. F. Scott has it: "The innumerable broken strands were to be brought together in Christ, knotted again into one, as they had been in the beginning." The central thought of Ephesians is the realization of the disunity in the universe and the conviction that it can become unity only when everything is united in Christ.

The Origin Of PaulThought

How did Paul arrive at this great conception of the unity of all things in Jesus Christ? Most likely he came to it in two ways. It is surely the inevitable outcome of his conviction, stated so vividly in Colossians, that Christ is all-sufficient. But it may well be that there was something else which moved Paulmind in this direction. He was a Roman citizen and proud of it. In his journeys Paul had seen a great deal of the Roman Empire, and now he was in Rome, the imperial city. In the Roman Empire a new unity had come to the world. The pax Romana, the Roman peace, was a very real thing. Kingdoms and states and countries, which had struggled and warred with each other, were gathered into a new unity in the Empire which was Rome. It may well be that in his imprisonment Paul saw with new eyes how all this unity centred in Rome; and it may well have seemed to him a symbol of how all things must centre in Christ, if a disunited nature and world and humanity were ever to be gathered into a unity. Surely, so far from being a conception that was beyond his thinking, all Paulthinking and experience would lead him precisely to that.

The Function Of The Church

It is in Eph 1-3 that Paul deals with this conception of the unity in Christ. In the second three chapters he has much to say of the place of the Church in Godplan to bring about that unity. It is here that Paul strikes out one of his greatest phrases. The Church is the Body of Christ. The Church is to be hands to do Christwork, feet to run upon his errands, a mouth to speak for him. So, then, we have a double thesis in Ephesians. First, Christ is Godinstrument of reconciliation. Second, the Church is Christinstrument of reconciliation. The Church must bring Christ to the world; and it is within the Church that all the middle walls of separation must be broken down. It is through the Church that the unity of all the discordant elements must be achieved. As E. F. Scott has it: "The Church stands for that purpose of world-wide reconciliation for which Christ appeared, and in all their intercourse with one another Christians must seek to realize this formative idea of the Church."

Who But Paul?

This is the thought of Ephesians. As we have seen, there are some who, thinking of the vocabulary and the style and the thought of this letter, cannot believe that Paul wrote it. E. J. Goodspeed, the American scholar, has put forward an interesting--but unconvincing--theory. The probability is that it was in Ephesus about the year A.D. 90 that the letters of Paul were first collected and sent out to the Church at large. It is Goodspeedtheory that the man responsible for that collection, some disciple of Paul, wrote Ephesians as a kind of introduction to the whole collection. Surely that theory breaks down on one salient fact. Any imitation is inferior to the original. But so far from being inferior Ephesians might well be said to be the greatest of all the Pauline letters. If Paul did not write it himself, we have to postulate as its writer someone who was possibly greater than Paul. E. F. Scott very relevantly demands: "Can we believe that in the Church of Paulday there was an unknown teacher of this supreme excellence? The natural assumption is surely that an epistle so like the work of Paul at his best was written by no other man than by Paul himself." No man ever had a greater vision of Christ than this which sees in Christ the one centre in whom all the disunities of life are gathered into one. No man ever had a greater vision of the Church than this which sees in the Church Godinstrument in that world-wide reconciliation. And we may well believe that no man other than Paul could rise to a vision like that.

The Destination Of Ephesians

We must now return to the problem which earlier we left unsolved. If Ephesians was not written to Ephesus--to what church was it written?

The oldest suggestion is that it was written to Laodicea. In Col_4:16 Paul writes: "And when this letter has been read among you, have it read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and see that you read also the letter from Laodicea." That sentence makes certain that a letter had gone from Paul to the church at Laodicea. We possess no such letter amongst Paulletters as they stand. Marcion was one of the first people to make a collection of Paulletters, just about the middle of the second century, and he actually calls Ephesians the Letter to the Laodiceans. So from very early times there must have been a feeling in the Church that Ephesians was actually sent in the first instance to Laodicea.

If we accept that interesting and attractive suggestion, we still have to explain how the letter lost its individual address to Laodicea and came to be connected with Ephesus. There could be two explanations.

It may be that, when Paul died, the church at Ephesus knew that the church at Laodicea possessed a wonderful letter from Paul; and wrote to Laodicea asking for a copy. A copy may have been made and sent off, omitting only the words in Laodicea in the first verse, and leaving a blank as the earliest manuscripts have a blank there. Almost thirty years later the letters of Paul were collected for general publication. Now Laodicea was in a district which was notorious for earthquakes, and it may well have been that all its archives were destroyed; and that, therefore, when the collection was made, the only copy of the Letter to the Laodiceans was that which survived in Ephesus. That letter may then have come to be known as the Letter to the Ephesians, because it was in Ephesus that the only extant copy survived.

The second suggested explanation was propounded by Harnack, the great German scholar. In the later days the church in Laodicea sadly fell from grace. In the Revelation there is a letter to Laodicea which makes sad reading (Rev_3:14-22 ). In that letter the church of Laodicea is unsparingly condemned by the Risen Christ, so much so that he says to her in that vivid phrase: "I will spew you out of my mouth" (Rev_3:16 ). Now in the ancient world there was a custom called damnatio memoriae, the condemnation of a manmemory. A man might have rendered many a signal service to the state, for which his name might occur in books, in the state annals, in inscriptions and on memorials. But if such a man ended in some base act, some utter wreck of honour, his memory was condemned. His name was erased from all books, obliterated from all inscriptions, chiselled out of all memorials. Harnack thinks it possible that the church of Laodicea underwent a damnatio memoriae so that her very name was obliterated from the Christian records. If that were so, then the copies of the Letter to Laodicea would have no address at all; and when the collection was made at Ephesus, the name of Ephesus might well have become attached to it.

The Circular Letter

Both these suggestions are possible but still another suggestion is far more likely. We believe that Ephesians was not in fact written to any one church, but was a circular letter to all PaulAsian churches. Let us look again at Col_4:16 . He writes: "And when this letter has been read among you, have it read also in the church at Laodicea; and see that you read also the letter from Laodicea." Paul does not say that the Colossians must read the epistle to Laodicea; they must read the epistle from Laodicea. It is as if Paul said: "There is a letter circulating; at the present moment it has reached Laodicea; when it is sent on to you from Laodicea be sure to read it." That sounds very like as if there was a letter circulating among the Asian churches,. and we believe that letter was Ephesians.

The Quintessence Of Paul

If this be so, Ephesians is Paulsupreme letter. We have seen that Ephesians and Colossians are very close to each other. We believe that what happened was that Paul wrote Colossians to deal with a definite situation, an outbreak of heresy. In so doing he stumbled on his great expression of the all-sufficiency of Christ. He said to himself: "This is something that I must get across to all men." So he took the matter he had used in Colossians, removed all the local and temporary and controversial aspects, and wrote a new letter to tell all men of the all-sufficient Christ. Ephesians, as we see it, is the one letter Paul sent to all the eastern churches to tell them that the destined unity of all men and of all things could never be found except in Christ, and to tell them of the supreme task of the Church that of being Christinstrument in the universal reconciliation of man to man and of man to God. That is why Ephesians is the Queen of the Epistles.

Study Method

In Ephesians Paulargument is very closely woven together. It often proceeds in long complicated sentences which are difficult to unravel. If we are really to grasp his meaning, there are passages where it will be better to read the letter, first in fairly long sections and then break down these sections into shorter passages for detailed study.

FURTHER READING

Ephesians

T. K. Abbott, Ephesians and Colossians (ICC; G)

J. Armitage Robinson, St. PaulEpistle to the Ephesians (MmC; G)

E. F. Scott, The Epistles to Colossians, Philemon and Ephesians (MC; E)

Abbreviations

ICC: International Critical Commentary

MC: Moffatt Commentary

MmC: Macmillan Commentary

NCB; New Century Bible

E: English Text

G: Greek Text

Barclay: Ephesians 6 (Chapter Introduction)

Children And Parents (Eph_6:1-4)

Children And Parents Eph_6:1-4 (Continued)

Masters And Slaves (Eph_6:5-9)

Masters And Slaves Eph_6:5-9 (Continued)

The Armour Of God (Eph_6:10-20)

The Final Blessing (Eph_6:21-24)

Constable: Ephesians (Book Introduction)

Introduction

Historical background

Almost all Christians believed in the Pauline authorship of Ephesians until the nineteenth century when destructive biblical criticism gained influence (cf. 1:1; 3:1). The critics built a case against Pauline authorship from linguistic and stylistic features, literary comparisons chiefly with Colossians, historical evidence, and doctrinal peculiarities.

"When all the objections are carefully considered it will be seen that the weight of evidence is inadequate to overthrow the overwhelming external attestation to Pauline authorship, and the Epistle's own claims."¹

Most conservative New Testament scholars hold to the tradition that Paul wrote Ephesians along with Colossians, Philemon, and Philippians, the other "Prison Epistles," during his first Roman imprisonment, 60-62 A.D. (3:1; 4:1; 6:20; cf. Acts 28:16-31). During this time Paul was under house arrest. He lived in his own rented quarters under guard by Roman soldiers. He could have visitors and could minister without hindrance as far as his confinement permitted (Acts 28:16, 30-31). He was not chained in a prison cell at this time as he was during his second Roman imprisonment when he wrote 2 Timothy (cf. 2 Tim. 1:16). For some interpreters, the reference to Paul having recently sent Tychicus to Ephesus in 2 Timothy 4:12 seems to put the composition of Ephesians in the second imprisonment (cf. Eph. 6:21-22). However the similarities between Ephesians and Colossians have led most scholars to conclude that Paul wrote these two letters at the same time. The evidence for his having written Colossians and Philemon during the first imprisonment is strong.

Paul knew Ephesus and the church in that city well. He had ministered in Asia Minor, the Roman province of which Ephesus was the capitol, with Ephesus as his headquarters for about three years, 53-56 A.D. (Acts 19:1-20:1). It appears that he sent this epistle to the Ephesian church so the Christians there would subsequently circulate it among the other churches.² Three other New Testament books went first to Ephesus: 1 and 2 Timothy, and Revelation (cf. Rev. 2:1). Tychicus evidently delivered this epistle to the Ephesian church (Eph. 6:21-22).

Purpose

Paul's frequent references to the church as a mystery, previously unknown but now revealed, identify the apostle's main purpose in writing as having been the exposition of the mystery of the church (1:9; 3:3-4, 9; 5:32; 6:19). His emphasis on the church as Christ's body in which both Jewish and Gentile believers are one suggests that Paul wrote to promote unity in the Ephesian church and in the universal church. The emphasis on the importance of love is also strong. More than one-sixth of Paul's references to love in his 13 epistles occur in Ephesians. This also shows that he wanted to promote Christian unity in the church.

Message³

The Book of Ephesians enables us to view God's creation from an alpine altitude. When we study this book, it is as though we have climbed a high mountain peak because the book gives us that kind of perspective on what God has created. Recall the opening scenes in The Sound of Music movie where Maria Von Trapp is standing in a high meadow looking over the valleys and mountains beyond. Yet the creation Ephesians opens up to our vision is not the physical creation but the church and its position and importance in the panorama of God's program. The church is the subject of Ephesians.

One of the features of this book that distinguishes it from other Pauline epistles is its universal character. Ephesians deals with matters of perspective that are important to all churches of all ages. Ephesians is not like 1 Corinthians that concerns itself with the situation of one local congregation primarily. It is more like Romans that deals with the great revelations that transcend local church polity.

Ephesians is an exposition of one of the most important statements Jesus ever uttered during His earthly ministry. That statement is in Matthew 16:18: "I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it." Other epistles similarly expound other teachings that Jesus gave while He walked this earth. For example, the Epistle of James is really an exposition of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. John's first epistle is an exposition of Jesus' Upper Room Discourse. Likewise Ephesians explains Jesus' teaching concerning the church. All the New Testament epistles deal with the church, of course. However, Ephesians lifts us above all the other revelation on this subject and puts the church in perspective in the plan of God. Paul developed both the building of the church and the conflict of the church, suggested in Jesus' statement, here.

Paul introduced the central teaching of Ephesians in its first verse. We read, "To the saints . . . in Christ Jesus." This phrase indicates the composition of the church. It alerts us to what will follow in the epistle. The phrase "the saints" reflects the diversity and differences that exist in the church. Paul had much to say in this letter about God's individual blessing of believers (e.g., 1:3-2:10). However the phrase "in Christ Jesus" emphasizes the unification of these individuals in one united church. Paul also had much to say about the corporate calling of believers in this letter (e.g., 2:11-3:19). The church is one organism that God has created from individual believers in this age whom God has united in a vital relationship with Jesus Christ. The figure of the human body with its diverse members controlled by one head (2:14-16) is the perfect illustration of the church.

As we examine the central teaching in Ephesians we can see that it falls into two parts. First, there is revelation concerning the eternal character of the church. Second, there is teaching about the temporal conduct of the church.

Consider first the revelation concerning the eternal character of the church. Ephesians tells us three things about the character of the church.

First, it reveals its conception. The church was in the plan of God from eternity past. It was not something God devised the day Jesus Christ died because the Jews had rejected their Messiah. Some dispensational expositors have referred to the church as a parenthetical part of God's eternal plan. That does not mean the church was an after-thought by God. The church is just as much a part of God's plan for human history as the nation of Israel. God did not reveal it in the Old Testament. It is a mystery, a New Testament revelation not revealed previously. Nevertheless it was always part of God's plan. This is important for us to realize because when we see that God brought the church into existence it is easier to believe that Satan will never destroy the church.

The second thing Ephesians reveals about the eternal character of the church is its construction. Whereas God viewed the church in the past as part of His eternal plan, He is constructing it in the present by His eternal power. In Ephesians there is much emphasis on power, the tremendous power of God. Paul prayed that his readers would grow in their understanding of the eternal power of God, the power that raised Jesus from the grave (1:18-19). Paul used four different Greek words for power in 1:19. This is the same power that has raised the Christian up and seated him or her with Christ in the heavenly realms now (2:4-6). Moreover it is the same power available to you and to me as we engage our spiritual enemy who is trying to tear down the church (6:10-11). Too often the church fails because Christians think it cannot succeed. We fail to appreciate the eternal divine power presently available to build the church and to defeat its foes.

The third thing we learn from this epistle about the character of the church is its consummation. This too involves an eternal perspective. Ephesians reveals that the church will serve the purpose of God throughout eternity future (2:4-7; 3:8-10). The church will demonstrate the richness of God's grace to all beings forever (2:7). It will also demonstrate the richness of God's wisdom to all beings forever (3:10).

In summary, Ephesians reveals the important place the church has in God's eternal plan for history. In the past He conceived of it as part of His eternal plan. In the present He is constructing it with His eternal power. In the future He will bring it to consummation in fulfillment of His eternal purpose.

Whereas the revelation of the church's eternal character constitutes a major portion of this epistle Paul also taught much about the temporal conduct of the church. The church's eternal character has major implications for its temporal conduct (4:1). We can organize this part of the revelation under three headings as well.

The first implication of the character of the church that I want to point out that Paul stressed relates to its construction. Since the church is what it is, the unified body of Christ, it is very important that Christians preserve this unity (4:1-3). Note that this is not a unity among professing Christians that we must achieve. It is a unity among genuine Christians that we must preserve. We must be very careful to avoid causing divisions in the body of Christ. One of the seven things Solomon wrote that the Lord hates is someone who spreads strife among his brothers (Prov. 6:19).

A second implication of the character of the church relates to its confession. The church, Paul urged, must make a confession or give testimony to God. This is the will of God (5:15-17). We do this by sanctifying all of life to God, setting it apart to Him for His honor and glory. Consequently Paul talked about the basic relationships of life--husbands and wives, parents and children, employers and employees. Our faith must have an impact on these relationships. The church makes its confession before the world not primarily by formulating creeds of belief but by demonstrating sanctification in conduct.

Third, another implication of the character of the church that Paul explained relates to its conflict with the forces opposed to God's purposes. We must arm ourselves, stay alert, and take a stand against these spiritual forces (6:10-11).

To summarize, the church must maintain unity as it grows. It must sanctify every relationship as it makes its confession to the world. It must also stand firm against its spiritual enemies as it conflicts with Satan's forces. You see how these points clarify Matthew 16:18: "I will build my church, and the gates of Hades shall not overpower it." The church cooperates with God as He builds it in three ways. It must remain united itself. Second, it must present a message of purity and holiness to the world by its sanctified relationships. Third, it must fight God's enemies after putting on the whole armor of God.

Attempting to summarize the teaching of Ephesians into a short message statement I would phrase it this way. Ephesians reveals that the church is part of God's eternal plan, and it grows as a result of God's power working through believers' lives, overcoming their spiritual enemies.

We come next to the abiding appeal that this letter contains. I said Paul summarized the central revelation of Ephesians in 1:1, "the saints . . . in Christ Jesus." Similarly he summarized the timeless exhortation of this letter in 4:1, "Walk . . . worthy of the calling with which you have been called."

First, we are to walk in view of God's eternal plan. That is, we should live now with God's purposes throughout eternity clearly in view. God chose us before the creation of the world so He could conform us to the image of His Son (1:4; Rom. 8:29). We are to "grow up . . . into Him . . . even Christ" (4:15). The measure in which we are living in holiness and in love is the measure in which we are conforming to God's eternal plan. Paul did not tell us to be holy because decency demands it, or because God may discipline us if we don't. We are to live thinking about God's eternal plan and remembering that God had our individual lives in His mind from eternity past.

We can walk according to God's plan only by appropriating His almighty power. God is able to enable us to walk in this plan by His power. "Now to Him who is able to do exceeding . . ." (3:20-21). We have the power to walk worthily. However, we must allow God's Spirit to control us if we want to walk in harmony with God's will (5:18).

Third, we are to walk opposing God's unseen enemies as well as in view of God's eternal plan and appropriating God's almighty power. We need to balance the passive "be filled with the Spirit" with the active "stand firm" (6:14). Our enemies are not primarily other people but the unseen demonic personalities behind them. In former years, people scoffed at the idea of demons and malignant spiritual forces. Today there is a more realistic awareness of their existence and powerful influence. We must engage spiritual enemies with spiritual arms: truthfulness, righteous conduct, the gospel, trust in God, the Word of God appropriate to the need, and prayer (6:14-18).

Finally let me make application of the message of this epistle to us.

The measure of the church's power to change the world is the measure of her other-worldliness. Many in our day criticize the church for being uninvolved, or at least not involved enough, with the physical problems of people. Ephesians teaches us that the way to help people the most is by dealing with unseen issues: unity, love, holiness, prayer, and evangelism. We do the church's work much more effectively by praying than by picketing, by protesting, and by politicking. The measure of the church's power to help the world is the measure of her other-worldliness. The church must remember her heavenly calling in the eternal plan of God to realize all God purposes for her.

Conversely the measure of the church's other-worldliness is the measure of her influence in the world. If we really see God's purpose for the church, we can never remain unconcerned about or uninvolved with the physical problems of people. Was our Lord insensitive to suffering, unconcerned about injustice, or lacking in compassion toward the oppressed? Never, and He is the Head into whom we are to grow up.

"The church of God can never help God when she ceases to be other-worldly. When she is other-worldly she helps the world; and cannot avoid doing so."⁴

Constable: Ephesians (Outline)

Outline

I. Salutation 1:1-2

II. The Christian's calling 1:3-3:21

A. Individual calling 1:3-2:10

1. The purpose: glory 1:3-14

2. The means: knowledge 1:15-23

3. The motive: grace 2:1-10

B. Corporate calling 2:11-3:19

1. Present unity 2:11-22

2. Past ignorance 3:1-13

3. Future comprehension 3:14-19

C. Doxology 3:20-21

III. The Christian's conduct 4:1-6:20

A. Spiritual walk 4:1-6:9

1. Walking in unity 4:1-16

2. Walking in holiness 4:17-32

3. Walking in love 5:1-6

4. Walking in light 5:7-14

5. Walking in wisdom 5:15-6:9

B. Spiritual warfare 6:10-20

IV. Conclusion 6:21-24

Constable: Ephesians

Ephesians

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Copyright 2003 by Thomas L. Constable

Haydock: Ephesians (Book Introduction)

THE

EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL, THE APOSTLE,

TO THE EPHESIANS.

INTRODUCTION.

Ephesus was a famous city, the metropolis of Asia Minor, upon the Ægean Sea, now called the Archipelago. In it was the temple of Diana, one of the seven wonders of the world. St. Paul had staid there two years, and preached another year thereabouts. See Acts xx. The chief design of this Epistle was to hinder the Ephesians, and others in the neighbouring cities, from being seduced by false teachers, who were come among them. In the first three chapters he extols the grace of God, in mercifully calling the Gentiles. It was written when St. Paul was a prisoner; (see Chap. iv. 1. and vi. 20.) but whether during his first imprisonment, at Rome, an. 62 [in the year A.D. 62], or in the latter imprisonment, as others judge about an. 65, in uncertain. (Witham) ---Ephesus was the capital of Lesser Asia, and celebrated for the temple of Diana, to which the most part of the people of the East went frequently to worship. But St. Paul having preached the gospel there for two years the first time, and afterwards for about a year, converted many. He wrote his Epistle to them when he was a prisoner at Rome, and sent it by Tychicus. He admonishes them to hold firmly the faith which they had received; and warns them, and also those neighbouring cities, against the sophistry of philosophers and the doctrine of false teachers, who were come among them. The matters of faith contained in this Epistle, are exceedingly sublime, and consequently very difficult to be understood. It was written about twenty-nine years after our Lord's ascension. (Challoner) --- Ephesus was the chief city in Asia Minor, much given to superstitions, and not less to debauchery and libertinism. In it was the famous temple of Diana. St. Paul had preached in this place three years; (Acts xx.) so that all, both Jews and Gentiles, heard the word of the Lord, till he was driven away by Demetrius, the silversmith. At his departure, he left Timothy (1 Timothy i.) to maintain the purity of the gospel, and preserve them from the fables, which St. Paul had warned the Ephesians, would be introduced among them by rapacious wolves, and men talking perversely, to lead disciples after them. The Gentile converts held fast to the doctrines they had received from St. Paul: the Jews were the chief innovators. To the former the apostle writes this Epistle, praising their steadfastness, and instructing them more fully in the hidden mysteries of faith, viz. redemption, justification, call of the Gentiles, predestination, and the glorification of Christ, and his body, the Church. In the fourth, and succeeding chapters, he exhorts them to the practice of morality, and to fulfill their respective duties of parents, children, masters, servants, &c. and finally reminds all the soldiers of Christ, to be armed with spiritual weapons against all the assaults of the devil. St. Jerome observes that this Epistle, especially the first three chapters, are intricate and difficult; probably owing to the sublimity of the subject. The last three contain the most interesting morality. (Estius. passim.) See also Acts xviii. 19. et seq. and xix. 1. et sequ. --- When Cardinal Pole was consulted by what method the obscure passages of St. Paul's Epistles could be best unfolded, he replied: Let the reader begin with the latter part, where the apostle treats of morality, and practise that which is delivered there; and then let him go back to the beginning, where points of doctrine are discussed with great acuteness and subtilty.

====================

Gill: Ephesians (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO EPHESIANS

The city of Ephesus is, by Pliny ^a, called the other light of Asia; Miletus was one, and Ephesus the other: it was the metropolis of the lesser Asia, and one of the twelve cities of Ionia, and the first and chief of them: it is said to be built by the Amazons ^b: it was famous for the magnificent temple of Diana; and the inhabitants of it were very much given to superstition and idolatry, and even to devilish arts, Act 19:19. It abounded with orators and philosophers, and men of great wisdom and learning ^c; and was formerly a very rich, trading, flourishing city, but now a village, and a poor desolate place; it retains the name of Efeso, though the Turks call it Aia Salik. Hither the Apostle Paul first went after he had been at Corinth, though he then made but a short stay; when he came thither again, he found twelve disciples, and was the instrument of making a great many more: here he continued two or three years and formed a Gospel church, very large and flourishing, to whom he writes this epistle; and which was written by him when he was a prisoner at Rome, as appears by several passages in it, Eph 3:1, and seems to have been written much about the same time as were the epistles to the Philippians, and to the Colossians, and to Philemon. Dr. Hammond thinks it was written about the year 58, and Dr. Lightfoot places it in 59, and the fifth year of Nero. The occasion of it was the foresight the apostle had of false teachers that would spring up in this church, after his death, and spread their pernicious doctrines, and draw away disciples after them, and do great mischief in the church; wherefore the design of this epistle is to establish the saints in the doctrines of the Gospel, that so they might not be carried away with the errors of the wicked: the subject matter of it is most excellent; it treats of the most sublime doctrines of grace, of divine predestination, and eternal election, of redemption by Christ, and of peace and pardon by his blood, of conversion by the power of efficacious grace, and of salvation by the free grace of God, in opposition to works: it also very largely treats of the nature and usefulness of the Gospel ministry, and of gifts qualifying for it, and of the several duties of religion incumbent on Christians; and the method which is used is exceeding apt and beautiful, for the apostle first begins with the doctrines of the Gospel, which he distinctly handles and explains, and then proceeds to enforce the duties belonging to men, both as men and Christians.

Gill: Ephesians 6 (Chapter Introduction)

INTRODUCTION TO EPHESIANS 6

In this chapter the apostle goes on with his exhortations to relative and domestic duties, and considers those of children and parents, and of servants and masters; and next he exhorts the saints in general to constancy and perseverance in the exercise of grace, and the performance of duty in the strength of Christ, and with the use of the armour of God described by him; entreats them to pray for him; gives the reasons of sending Tychicus, who brought them this epistle, and closes it with his apostolical salutation. He begins with the duties of children to their parents, which are submission and obedience to them, honour, fear, and reverence of them; the arguments engaging thereunto are taken from the light of nature and reason, from the command of God, and the promise annexed to it, Eph 6:1. Then follow the duties of fathers to their children, who are exhorted not to use them with too much rigour, and so provoke them to wrath, but to bring them up in a religious manner, that they may serve the Lord, Eph 6:4. Next he observes the duties of servants to their masters, which are subjection and obedience, which should be done with reverence of them, with simplicity of heart, as unto Christ, not with eyeservice, as menpleasers, but with the heart, and with good will, as doing the will of God, and as if it was to the Lord, and not men; to which they are encouraged by a promise of reward which is given without respect to bond or free, Eph 6:5. And masters, they are exhorted to do what is right and just to their servants, and not terrify them with menaces; to which they are moved by the consideration of their having a master in heaven, who is no respecter of persons, Eph 6:9. From hence the apostle passes to a general exhortation to the saints to behave with firmness and constancy of mind, though they had many enemies, and these mighty and powerful, and more than a match for them; relying on the power and strength of Christ, and making use of the whole armour of God, which he advises them to take, that they might stand and withstand in the worst of times, Eph 6:10, the several parts of which he enumerates, as the girdle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the Gospel of peace, the shield of faith, whereby the fiery darts of Satan are quenched, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit the word of God, and spiritual prayer of every sort for all saints, attended with watching and perseverance, Eph 6:14, which last part of the spiritual armour being mentioned, leads on the apostle to entreat the Ephesians to pray for him, that he might freely and boldly preach the Gospel; which he commends from the mysterious nature and subject of it, from his character as an ambassador for it, or for Christ, the sum and substance of it, and from his being in bonds for it; which showed how great an esteem he had of it, and how heartily concerned he was to preach it without fear, Eph 6:19. And then adds, that the reasons of his sending Tychicus, whom he describes by his relation to him as a brother, and his affection for him, and by his office as a minister, and his faithfulness in it, were, that they might be acquainted with his circumstances, in what state and condition he was, both with respect to things temporal and spiritual, and that their hearts might be comforted by him, Eph 6:21. And the epistle is concluded with the apostle's salutation; and the persons saluted are the brethren of this church, and all that love Christ Jesus sincerely; and the blessings wished for are peace, love, with faith and grace; the persons from whom they are desired are God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, Eph 6:23.

College: Ephesians (Book Introduction)

INTRODUCTION

We are saved by grace through faith! We do not earn our salvation - it is the gift of God. This is the shocking good news of Ephesians. Even though we were dead in sin and fully deserved God's wrath, he saved us and brought us into the body of Christ. It is a glorious privilege to be a part of Christ's body, and it carries with it a glorious responsibility.

We are saved by grace, for good works. God saved us so that he could live in us and work through us. We are filled with his fullness and re-created in his likeness. We are imitators of God. His power works in us, making possible more than we could ever ask or think. We are strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. The message of Ephesians is a message of salvation: God gives it; man lives it.

THE WRITER

From earliest times the church has acknowledged Paul as the author of Ephesians. But while Ephesians has been called "the quintessence of Paulinism," it is now widely denied that Paul wrote the book. Despite the current trend in scholarly criticism, there are good and sufficient reasons for upholding Paul as the author.

Reasons to Support Paul as the Author

1. The letter claims to have been written by Paul (1:1 and 3:1), and has several personal references (1:15-16; 4:1; 6:19-20). Those who deny this claim must assume the burden of proving otherwise.

2. The letter was widely known and accepted in the early church, and no one (not even the heretic Marcion) disputed that Paul was the author.

3. The letter is filled with Pauline features. Is it more likely that an imitator copied Paul's writing style in 90 to 95% of the epistle, or that Paul himself wrote it, diverging from his usual style 5 to 10% of the time?

4. The letter closely parallels Colossians.

5. The practice of writing letters in the name of someone else was not as widely practiced in the early church as some claim.

6. A comparison with the church literature of the period from which a non-Pauline Ephesians is supposed to come (such as 1 Clement) indicates that the letter is far more akin to Paul than to the supposedly contemporary church literature of the late first century.

7. The major themes - justification by faith, grace, atonement by Christ, the place of the Jews and the law - agree with Paul's uncontroverted letters.

8. The nature of the letter accords well with what Paul would have written from prison, as a final summation of what the church is.

Challenges to Pauline Authorship

It must be admitted that many scholars have advanced reasons to reject Paul as the author of Ephesians. Their challenges will be listed and briefly answered:

1. Style and Vocabulary: The sentences are often long and complicated, with heavy use of synonyms and adjectives. Certain words and phrases ("devil," "heavenly realms") are not found in other Pauline letters.

However, it must be seriously questioned whether our collection of Paul's brief letters can establish what his style and vocabulary was. Furthermore, an author must be free to exercise flexibility in his style when he writes to a different audience on a different subject. Finally, "devil" is found in 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus (but the critics deny the Pauline authorship of all three of these as well).

2. Literary Dependence: There are so many parallels between Ephesians and other letters, especially Colossians, that Ephesians must have been copied and expanded by an admirer of Paul. Of the 155 verses in Ephesians it is estimated that 73 have verbal parallels in Colossians.

However, the similarities could more easily result because the letters all had the same author. There is good evidence that Ephesians and Colossians were written at the same time, which would account for their frequent parallels. (It should be noted that the "style and vocabulary" argument is that Ephesians is too different, while the "literary dependence" argument is that Ephesians is too much the same.)

3. Historical Considerations: The Jew/Gentile tension has ceased; the "holy apostles" are revered as in retrospect; and the "dividing wall" at the temple in Jerusalem has been torn down. Therefore, the letter must have been written after Paul had already died.

However, the Jew/Gentile tension was not as big a problem in some locations; the apostles were held in reverence from the very beginning (Acts 2:42; 5:12-13); the symbolic "dividing wall" could still stand in the temple when it had already been torn down in the church.

4. Doctrinal Arguments: The "church" is now universal, rather than local; various themes are handled differently in other Pauline letters; the view of marriage differs from 1 Cor 7.

However, these arguments are more apparent than real. From the beginning Jesus saw his church on a universal scale (Matt 16:18) and nothing prevents Paul from using this concept. Certain themes (such as "the mystery," "in Christ," the Trinity) may be expressed in different terms in Ephesians, but it is foolish to force a strict uniformity on Paul or to prohibit him from adding any insights to what he has already written.

In conclusion, it must be said that those who dispute what the church has accepted from the beginning have not proved their case. There is more than sufficient reason to accept the epistle as from Paul's own hand, and to feel his pulse beating in every line.

THE AUDIENCE

The Recipients of the Letter

There are several reasons to question whether Paul addressed this epistle to the Ephesian saints:

1. Several of the earliest manuscripts do not include the words "in Ephesus" in 1:1.

2. Marcion, while a heretic, referred to it as "the epistle to the Laodiceans" at a very early date (about A.D. 140).

3. Though Paul spent three years in Ephesus, longer than any other location on his missionary journeys, the letter is strangely impersonal. He "has heard" about their faith (1:15). Unlike his other epistles, Paul addresses no local problems, and closes without a single personal greeting.

4. The epistle has the mature, universal tone of a letter sent as an encyclical, in this instance to all the churches of Asia Minor.

At the same time, most manuscripts do include "in Ephesus" and the church has traditionally called this epistle "to the Ephesians." If Paul did intend that the letter be sent to churches throughout Asia Minor, it is logical that it would have been sent first to the leading city, and from there copies would be circulated. It is likely, then, that Paul did send this epistle to the Ephesians, but not to them alone.

The Locale

Ephesus was the most important city in the Roman province of Asia, located on the west coast of what is now Turkey. It was a leading commercial center, situated at the intersection of two major trade routes. It was a city where East met West, with the resulting exchange of ideas and philosophies. Ephesus boasted the temple of Artemis (Diana), one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Four times the size of the famed Parthenon in Athens, this temple also served as the bank of Asia Minor, one of the few places where money could be safely deposited. An enormous theatre in the center of the city could seat from 25,000 to 50,000 people.

Within its population of one-third of a million, Ephesus also had a large colony of Jews. After rejection by the local Jewish community, Paul found it possible to teach daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. From this strategic center the gospel message spread "so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord" (Acts 19:10).

Ephesus and the other cities of Asia Minor to which Paul sent this epistle are also mentioned in Rev 1:4-3:22. By that time the church in Ephesus needed to repent and return to its first love. Ephesus continued as a leading center of Christianity for several centuries.

THE DATE AND PLACE OF WRITING

Proceeding with the conclusion that Paul himself wrote this epistle, it is necessary to identify when and where he did so. We know that Paul wrote from an imprisonment (3:1; 4:1) in which he was confined with chains (6:20). We can safely assume, furthermore, that at this same time Paul also sent letters to the Colossians and to Philemon. But where was Paul imprisoned?

Rome

The traditional - and most likely correct - view is that Paul wrote from the imprisonment in Rome described in Acts 28:16-30. Paul was allowed to live in a private dwelling, with a soldier to guard him. This continued for two years, and during the latter part of this time Paul wrote Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon - and no doubt Philippians, as well. A date around A.D. 62 is likely.

Caesarea

Paul is also known to have spent two years imprisoned in Caesarea (Acts 24:27), before his voyage to Rome. It has been suggested that Onesimus would have been more inclined to escape the 500 miles to Caesarea than to attempt the long voyage to Rome. While this location is possible, yielding a date of A.D. 58-60, no real evidence can be introduced in its support.

Ephesus

Somewhat surprisingly, some critics have attempted to make Ephesus the site of Paul's prison epistles. This would be an even more convenient location for the escape of Onesimus. However, neither the book of Acts nor church history know anything of an imprisonment in Ephesus. Paul did refer to fighting "wild beasts" in Ephesus (1 Cor 15:32), but since the city did not have a coliseum and Paul was a Roman citizen, this is probably a metaphor for the fierce men who opposed him. Because this view has no historical support, it has only its novelty to commend it.

Probable Reconstruction of Events

During his imprisonment in Rome, Paul met and converted the runaway slave Onesimus. Not long afterward, he received troubling news about doctrinal problems in Colosse (Col 1:9), the home town of Onesimus (Col 4:9). Paul determined to send the letter of Colossians to correct their errors, and decided to send Onesimus back to Philemon at the same time. Having penned letters to address these two problems, Paul also wrote a letter to the saints in Ephesus, intending that it be circulated among all the churches of Asia Minor. The resulting epistle has been called "the divinest composition of man."

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abbott, T. K. Epistles to the Ephesians and to the Colossians . Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1897.

Abbott-Smith, G. A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament . Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1937.

Allan, John A. "The 'In Christ' Formula in Ephesians," New Testament Studies 5 (1958-1959) 54-62.

Barclay, William. The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians . Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1958.

. New Testament Words . London: SCM Press, 1964.

Bartchy, S. Scott. First Century Slavery and 1 Corinthians 7:21 . Atlanta: Scholar's Press, 1973.

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Barth, Markus. Ephesians (The Anchor Bible), Vol. 1 and 2. Garden City: Doubleday, 1960.

Bauer, Walter; William F. Arndt; and F. Wilbur Gingrich. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature . 2nd ed. Rev. by F. Wilbur Gingrich and Frederick W. Danker. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979.

Beasley-Murray, G. R. "baptivzw," Dictionary of New Testament Theology (1975) I:144-150.

Bedale, S. "The Meaning of kefalhv in the Pauline Epistles," Journal of Theological Studies n.s. 5 (1954) 211-215.

Bertram, Georg. "paideuvw," Theological Dictionary of the New Tes- tament (1967) V:596-625.

Bietenhard, Hans. "Foreign," Dictionary of New Testament Theology (1975) I:684-690.

. "Lord," Dictionary of New Testament Theology (1976) II:510-519.

Blaikie, W. G. Ephesians . The Pulpit Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1950.

Blass, F.; A. Debrunner; and Robert W. Funk. A Greek Grammar of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature . Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961.

Bruce, F. F. The Epistle to the Ephesians . London: Pickering & Inglis, 1961.

. The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians (NICNT). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1984.

Bόchsel, Friedrich. "ejlevgcw," Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (1964) II:473-476.

Carson, D. A.; Douglas, J. Moo; and Leon Morris. An Introduction to the New Testament . Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992.

Cohen, A. Everyman's Talmud . New York: E. P. Dutton, 1949.

Cottrell, Jack. Baptism: A Biblical Study . Joplin: College Press, 1989.

. What the Bible Says about God the Ruler . Joplin: College Press, 1984.

Coutts, J. "Ephesians 1:13-14 and 1 Peter 1:3-12," New Testament Studies 3 (1956-1957) 115-127.

Dana, H. E. and Julius R. Mantey. A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament . New York: Macmillan, 1955.

Deissmann, Adolph. Light from the Ancient East (Eng. Trans.). New York: Harper, 1927.

Eadie, John. Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians . Grand Rapids: Zondervan, reprint of 1883 edition.

Ebel, Gunther. "oJdov"," Dictionary of New Testament Theology (1978) III:935-945.

Ellicott, Charles John. The Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians . Grand Rapids: Zondervan (reprint).

Esser, Hans-Helmut. "tapeinov"," Dictionary of New Testament Theology (1976) II:259-264.

Fairweather, William. The Background of the Epistles . Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1935.

Fields, Wilbur. The Glorious Church (BST). Joplin: College Press, 1960.

Filson, F. V. "The Christian Teacher in the First Century," Journal of Biblical Literature 60 (1941) 317-328.

Foerster, Werner. "a[swto"," Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (1964) I:506-507.

Foster, J. "The Harp at Ephesus," Expository Times 74 (1963) 156.

Green, E. M. B. "Ephesus," The New Bible Dictionary , ed. by J. D. Douglas. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1962.

Grether, Oskar and Johannes Fichtner. "ojrghv," Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (1967) V:409-412.

Grudem, Wayne. "Does KEPHALE Mean 'Source' or 'Authority Over' in Greek Literature? A Survey of 2,336 Examples," Trinity Journal (1985) 38-59.

Grundmann, Walter. "dovkimo"," Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (1964) II:255-260.

Harder, Gunther. "spoudavzw," Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (1971) VII:559-568.

Hauck, Friedrich and Siegfried Schulz. "prau?"," Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (1968) VI:645-651.

Hendriksen, William. The Epistle to the Ephesians (NTC). Grand Rapids: Baker, 1967.

Howard, G. E. "The Faith of Christ," Expository Times 85 (1973-1974) 212-215.

. "The Head/Body Metaphors of Ephesians," New Testament Studies 20 (1974) 350-356.

Jeremias, Joachim. "ajkrogwniai'o"," Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (1964) I:792-793.

Kittel, Gerhard. "dovxa," Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (1964) II:242-255.

Kφster, Helmut. "splavgcnon," Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (1971) VII:548-559.

Lenski, R. C. H. The Interpretation of St. Paul's Epistles to the Gal- atians, to the Ephesians, and to the Philippians . Columbus, OH: Wartburg Press, 1946.

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Lincoln, Andrew. Ephesians (WBC). Dallas: Word, 1990.

Link, Hans-Georg. "ejlevgcw," Dictionary of New Testament Theology (1976) II:140-142.

Louw, Johannes P. and Eugene Nida. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament . United Bible Societies, 1988.

Malherbe, Abraham J. "Life in the Graeco-Roman World," The World of the New Testament , ed. by Abraham J. Malherbe. Austin: Sweet, 1967.

Metzger, Bruce M. A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament . London: United Bible Societies, 1971.

Michaelis, W. "mimhthv"," Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (1967) IV:659-674.

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Mitton, C. Leslie. Ephesians (NCBC). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1973.

Morris, Leon. The Atonement: Its Meaning and Significance . Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1983.

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Oepke, Albrecht. "panopliva," Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (1967) V:295-315.

Palmer, Edwin H. The Five Points of Calvinism . Grand Rapids: Baker, 1972.

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Robinson, J. A. St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians . London: Macmillan, 1904.

Sanders, J. T. The New Testament Christological Hymns . Cambridge: University Press, 1971.

Schlier, Heinrich. "ajmhvn," Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (1964) I:335-338.

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Schnackenburg, Rudolf. Ephesians: A Commentary . Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1991.

Schweizer, Eduard. "uiJoqesiva," Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (1972) VIII:397-399.

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Thompson, J. A. Archaeology and the New Testament . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1960.

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Vine, W. E. An Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words . Westwood, NJ: Fleming H. Revell, 1940.

Weed, Michael R. The Letters of Paul to the Ephesians, the Colossians, and Philemon . Austin: Sweet, 1971.

Westcott, B. F. St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians . London: Macmillan, 1906.

Wood, A. Skevington. Ephesians . The Expositor's Bible Commentary, ed. by Frank Gaebelein. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1978.

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV

College: Ephesians (Outline)

OUTLINE

I. DOCTRINE: God's Plan for Salvation - Eph 1:1-3:21

A. God's Blessings - 1:1-23

1. Salutation - 1:1-2

2. Present Blessings in Christ - 1:3-14

3. Potential Blessings in Christ - 1:15-23

B. God's Salvation - 2:1-22

1. Saved from Sin - 2:1-10

2. Saved from Separation - 2:11-22

C. God's Participation - 3:1-21

1. God Working in Paul - 3:1-13

2. God Working in All Christians - 3:14-21

II. DUTIES: The Christian's Response to Salvation - 4:1-6:24

A. The Christian in Church Life - 4:1-16

1. Unity in the Body - 4:1-6

2. Diversity in the Body - 4:7-11

3. Maturity in the Body - 4:12-16

B. The Christian in Personal Life - 4:17-5:21

1. The Old Nature vs. the New - 4:17-24

2. Members of One Body - 4:25-32

3. Walking in Love - 5:1-2

4. Walking in Light - 5:3-14

5. Walking in Wisdom - 5:15-21

C. The Christian in Domestic Life - 5:22-6:9

1. Wives and Husbands - 5:22-33

2. Children and Parents - 6:1-4

3. Slaves and Masters -6:5-9

D. The Christian in Warfare - 6:10-24

1. The Nature of the Enemy - 6:10-12

2. The Armor of God - 6:13-18

3. Paul's Own Farewell - 6:19-24

-College Press New Testament Commentary: with the NIV