Text -- Ephesians 6:23 (NET)

6:23 Peace to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)

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.

Wesley: Eph 6:23

This verse recapitulates the whole epistle.

JFB: Eph 6:23

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

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.

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.

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

Commentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)

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.

Poole: Eph 6:23

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

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.

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

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).

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 6:23

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 6:23

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 6:19-24

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 6:19-24

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 6:21-24

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 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

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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Simpson, E. K. Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians. In Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians and to the Colossians by E. K. Simpson and F. F. Bruce. New International Commentary on the New Testament series. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1968.

Stam, Cornelius R. Acts Dispensationally Considered. 4 vols. Chicago: Berean Bible Society, 1954.

Stifler, James M. The Epistle to the Romans. Chicago: Moody Press, 1960.

Stott, John R. W. The Message of Ephesians. The Bible Speaks Today series. Reprint ed. Leicester, England and Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1979.

Strauss, Richard L. "Like Christ: An Exposition of Ephesians 4:13." Bibliotheca Sacra 143:571 (July-September 1986):260-65.

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Thiessen, Henry Clarence. Introduction to the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1962.

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Walvoord, John F. The Millennial Kingdom. Findlay, OH: Dunham Publishing Co., 1959.

Wedderburn, A. J. M. "Some Observations on Paul's Use of the Phrases In Christ' and With Christ'." Journal for the Study of the New Testament 25 (October 1985):83-97.

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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

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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