PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Ephesians
Findlay, George G. (George Gillanders) · 128,236 words · 187 reading sections
_The Two Human Types._
To see the new and the old man side by side was enough to assure one that the future lay with Jesus. Corruption and decrepitude marked every feature of Gentile life. It was gangrened with vice,--"wasting away in its deceitful lusts." St Paul had before his eyes, as he wrote, a conspicuous type of the decaying Pagan or…
763 wordsSECTION 122_The Two Human Types._
The passions which carry men and nations to their ruin are "lusts _of deceit_." The tempter is the liar. Sin is an enormous fraud. "You shall not die," said the serpent in the garden; "Your eyes will be opened, and you will be as God!" So forbidden desire was born, and "the woman _being deceived_ fell into transgressio…
706 wordsSECTION 123_The Two Human Types._
Borne on the stream of his evil passions, we saw "the old man" in his "former manner of life," hastening to the gulf of ruin. For the man renewed in Christ the stream of life flows steadily in the opposite direction, and with a swelling tide moves upward to God. His knowledge and love are always growing in depth, in re…
696 wordsSECTION 124Footnotes:
A religious temper, a reverent mind marks the true child of grace. His soul is full of the loving fear of God. In the new humanity, in the type of man that will prevail in the latter days when the truth as in Jesus has been learnt by mankind, justice and piety will hold a balanced sway. The man of the coming times will…
359 wordsSECTION 125_Discarded Vices._
"Wherefore, having put away falsehood, 'speak ye truth each one with his neighbour': for we are members one of another. "'Be ye angry, and sin not': let not the sun go down upon your provocation: neither give place to the devil. "Let him that stole steal no more; but rather let him labour, working with his hands t…
841 wordsSECTION 126_Discarded Vices._
St Paul applies here the words of Zechariah viii. 16, in which the prophet promises to restored Israel better days on the condition that they should "speak truth each with his neighbour, and judge truth and the judgement of peace in their gates. And let none of you," he continues, "imagine evil in his heart against his…
660 wordsSECTION 127_Discarded Vices._
Still the apostle says: "_Be angry_, and sin not." He does not condemn anger in itself, nor wholly forbid it a place within the breast of the saint. Wrath is a glorious attribute of God,--perilous, indeed, for the best of men; but he who cannot be angry has no strength for good. The apostle knew this holy passion, the …
731 wordsSECTION 128_Discarded Vices._
Not that St Paul requires all Christian speech to be grave and serious. Many a true word is spoken in jest; and "grace" may be "given to the hearers" by words clothed in the grace of a genial fancy and playful wit, as well as in the direct enforcement of solemn themes. It is the mere talk, whether frivolous or pompous-…
713 wordsSECTION 129_Discarded Vices._
_Kindness_ in act, _tenderheartedness_ of feeling are to take the place of malice with its brood of bitter passions. Where injury used to be met with reviling and insult retorted in worse insult, the men of the new life will be found "forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave" them. Here we touch the spring …
659 wordsSECTION 130_Discarded Vices._
St Paul has stigmatized this already in the burning words of verse 19. There we saw this vice in its intrinsic loathsomeness; here it is set in the light of Christ's love on the one hand (ver. 2), and of the final judgement on the other (vv. 5, 6). Thus it is banished from the Christian fellowship in every form--even i…
676 wordsSECTION 131Footnotes:
"Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell From heaven." The apostle classes the covetous man with the fornicator and the unclean, amongst those who by their worship of the shameful idols of the god of this world exclude themselves from their "inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." A serious warning this…
322 wordsSECTION 132_Doctrine And Ethics._
"We are members one of another.... "Let the thief labour ... that he may have whereof to give to him that hath need.... "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption.... "Forgive each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you. Be ye imitators of God, as beloved children…
768 wordsSECTION 133_Doctrine And Ethics._
"They are but broken lights of Thee; And Thou, O Lord, art more than they!" It is Christ in us, it is the personal fellowship of the soul with Him and with the living God through Him, that forms the vital and constitutive factor of Christianity. Here is the secret of its moral efficacy. The Christ is the centre root …
717 wordsSECTION 134_Doctrine And Ethics._
The command to "be imitators of God" makes _personality_ the sovereign element in life. If consciousness is a finite and passing phenomenon, if God be but a name for the sum of the impersonal laws that regulate the universe, for the "stream of tendency" in the worlds, _Father_ and _love_ are meaningless terms applied t…
802 wordsSECTION 135_Doctrine And Ethics._
_Showing-grace_ is what the apostle literally says here, speaking both of human and Divine forgiveness.[131] In this lies the charm and power of true forgiveness. The forgiver after the order of grace does not pardon like a judge moved by magnanimity or pity for transgressors, but in love to his own kind and desire for…
700 wordsSECTION 136_Doctrine And Ethics._
In studying this epistle, we have felt increasingly that the Church is the centre of humanity. The love born and nourished in the household of faith goes out into the world with a universal mission. The solidarity of moral interests that is realized there, embraces all the kindreds of the earth. The incarnation of Chri…
830 wordsSECTION 137_Doctrine And Ethics._
Human reason had guessed and hope had dreamed of the soul's immortality. Christianity gives this hope certainty, and adds to it the assurance of the resurrection of the body. Man's entire nature is thus redeemed. Chastity takes its due place amongst the virtues, and becomes the mark of a Christian as distinguished from…
844 wordsSECTION 138_The Children Of The Light._
Let the gospel of Christ's kingdom be preached in word and deed to all nations, let the love of Christ be brought to bear upon the great masses of mankind, and the time of the world's salvation will be come. Its sin will be hated, forsaken, forgiven. Its social evils will be banished; its weapons of war turned to ploug…
776 wordsSECTION 139_The Children Of The Light._
"You are light in the Lord," the apostle said; "walk as children of the light." But his readers might ask: "What does this mean? It is poetry: let us have it translated into plain prose. How shall we walk as children of the light? Show us the path."--"I will tell you," the apostle answers: "the fruit of the light is in…
968 wordsSECTION 140_The Children Of The Light._
Moral effects do not follow upon their causes as rapidly as physical effects: they follow as certainly. We live largely upon the accumulated ethical capital of our forefathers. When that is spent, we are left to our intrinsic poverty of soul, to our faithlessness and feebleness. The scepticism of one generation bears f…
749 wordsSECTION 141_The Children Of The Light._
This also, this above all is "the fruit of the light." Two watchwords we have from the lips of Jesus, two mottoes of His own life and mission,--the one given at the end, the other at the beginning of His course: "Greater _love_ hath none than this, that one lay down his life for his friends"; and, "Thus it becometh us …
989 wordsSECTION 142_The Children Of The Light._
"In _all_ goodness and righteousness and truth," says the apostle. Let us seek them all. We are apt to become specialists in virtue, as in other departments of life. Men will endeavour even to compensate by extreme efforts in one direction for deficiencies in some other direction, which they scarcely desire to make goo…
674 wordsSECTION 143_The Children Of The Light._
This manifestation leads to a transformation: "For everything that is made manifest _is light_" (ver. 13). "You are light in the Lord," St Paul says to his converted Gentile readers,--you who were "once darkness," once wandering in the lusts and pleasures of the heathen around you, without hope and without God. The lig…
476 wordsSECTION 144_The New Wine Of The Spirit._
[135] Mr. Wesley adopted this and other emendations from Bengel, "that great light of the Christian world," in the translation accompanying his _Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament_. He there supplied the Methodist preachers with many of the most valuable improvements made in the Revised Version, a hundred years b…
679 wordsSECTION 145_The New Wine Of The Spirit._
According to the preferable (Revised) order of the words, the qualifying adverb "carefully" belongs to the "look," not to the "walk." The circumspect _look_ precedes the wise step. The spot is marked on which the foot is to be planted; the eye ranges right and left and takes in the bearings of the new position, forecas…
770 wordsSECTION 146_The New Wine Of The Spirit._
When men amid evil days and portents of danger must be told not to be "foolish" nor "drunken with wine," one is disposed to tax them with levity. It was difficult for these Asian Greeks to take life seriously, and to realize the gravity of their situation. St Paul appeals to them by their duty, still more than by their…
718 wordsSECTION 147_The New Wine Of The Spirit._
The eastern coast of the Aegean is an ancient home of the vine. And the Greeks of the Asian towns, on those bright shores and under their genial sky, were a light-hearted, sociable race. They sought the wine-cup not for animal indulgence, but as a zest to good-fellowship and to give a freer flow to social joys. This wa…
765 wordsSECTION 148_The New Wine Of The Spirit._
The words of verses 19, 20 show that St Paul is thinking of that presence of the Spirit in the Christian community, which is the spring of its affections and activities. The Spirit of Jesus, the Son of man, is a kindly and gracious Spirit, the guardian of brotherhood and friendship, the inspirer of pure social joys and…
884 wordsSECTION 149_The New Wine Of The Spirit._
"Singing and _playing_," says the apostle. For music aided song; voice and instrument blended in His praise whose glory claims the tribute of all creatures. But it was "with the heart," even more than with voice or tuneful strings, that melody was made. For this inward music the Lord listens. Where other skill is wanti…
648 wordsSECTION 150_Christian Marriage._
[138] See ch. i. 5-11, ii. 21, iii. 11, v. 10, vi. 6; comp. Col. i. 9, 27, iv. 12; Phil. ii. 13,--epistles of the same group. =Thelô de hymas eidenai hoti pantos andros hê kephalê ho Christos estin, kephalê de gynaikos ho anêr, kephalê de tou Christou ho Theos.=--1 COR. xi. 3. "And pure Religion breathing household…
826 wordsSECTION 151_Christian Marriage._
St Paul rightly gives to this subject a conspicuous place in this epistle of Christ and the Church. The corner-stone of the new social order which the gospel was to establish in the world lies here. The entire influence of the Church upon society depends upon right views on the relationship of man and woman and on the …
771 wordsSECTION 152_Christian Marriage._
Shall we say that this law of St Paul is that laid down specifically for _Christian_ women? is it not rather a law of nature--the intrinsic propriety of sex, whose dictates are reinforced by the Christian revelation? The apostle takes us back to the creation of mankind for the basis of his principles in dealing with th…
697 wordsSECTION 153_Christian Marriage._
II. The apostle alludes to submission as the wife's duty; for she might, possibly, be tempted to think this superseded by the liberty of the children of God. Love he need not enjoin upon her; but he writes: "Husbands, _love your wives_, even as the Christ also loved the Church and gave up Himself for her" (comp. Col. i…
866 wordsSECTION 154_Christian Marriage._
The selfishness of the stronger sex, supported by the force of habit and social usage, was hard to subdue in the Greek Christian Churches. Through some eight verses St Paul labours this one point. In verse 28 he adduces another reason, added to the example of Christ, for the love enjoined. "So ought men indeed to love …
771 wordsSECTION 155Christ And His Bride.
[139] See Dr. Maclaren's admirable words on this subject in _Colossians and Philemon_ (Expositor's Bible), pp. 336-40; and Dr. Dale's _Lectures on Ephesians_, Lect. xix., "Wives and Husbands." [140] In verse 24 St Paul resumes with =alla=, the _but_ of opposition and not mere contrast, indicating a case where the clai…
669 wordsSECTION 156Christ And His Bride.
This Christ "gave Himself up for the Church,"--yielded Himself to the death which the sins of His people merited and brought upon Him. Under the same verb, the apostle says in Romans iv. 25: He "_was delivered_ because of our trespasses, and raised up because of our justification"--the sacrifice being there regarded on…
901 wordsSECTION 157Christ And His Bride.
"Having cleansed" is a phrase congruous with the figure of _the laver_, or _bath_ (comp. again Tit. iii. 5-7),--an image suggested, as one would think, by the bride-bath of the wedding-day in the ancient marriage customs. To this St Paul sees a counterpart in baptism, "the laver of water in the word." The cleansing and…
650 wordsSECTION 158Christ And His Bride.
The "word" in question is defined in Romans x. 8, 9: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved!" Let the hearer respond, "I do so confess and believe," on the strength of this confession he is baptized, and in the conjoint act o…
726 wordsSECTION 159Christ And His Bride.
The Church is no democracy, any more than it is an aristocracy or a sacerdotal absolutism: it is a _Christocracy_. The people are not rulers in the house of God; they are the ruled, laity and ministers alike. "One is your Master, even the Christ; and all ye are brethren." We acknowledge this in theory; but our language…
683 wordsSECTION 160Christ And His Bride.
Thus the first father of our race prophesied, and sang his wedding song. In some mystical, but real sense, marriage is a _reunion_, the reincorporation of what had been sundered. Seeking his other self, the complement of his nature, the man breaks the ties of birth and founds a new home. So the inspired author of the p…
585 wordsSECTION 161_The Christian Household._
[141] Compare pp. 47, 83, 169, 189. [142] Heb. ii. 9-12, ix. 14, 15, x. 5-22, xiii. 12. [143] See Rom. vi. 1-11; Col. ii. 11, 12; 1 Cor. x. 2, xii. 13. [144] =En rhêmati=. =Logos= is word as expressive of _thought_. =Rhêma=, the utterance of a living voice,--a _sentence_, _pronouncement_, _message_; it is the Greek …
704 wordsSECTION 162_The Christian Household._
_For this is right_, says the apostle, appealing to the instincts of natural religion. The child's conscience begins here. Filial obedience is the primary form of duty. The loyalties of after life take their colour from the lessons learnt at home, in the time of dawning reason and incipient will. Hard indeed is the evi…
717 wordsSECTION 163_The Christian Household._
It is almost superfluous to insist on the apostle's exhortation to treat children kindly. For them these are days of Paradise, compared with times not far distant. Never were the wants and the fancies of these small mortals catered for as they are now. In some households the danger lies at the opposite extreme from tha…
776 wordsSECTION 164_The Christian Household._
II. From the children of the house the apostle proceeds to address the _servants_--slaves as they were, until the gospel unbound their chains. The juxtaposition of children and slaves is full of significance; it is a tacit prophecy of emancipation. It brings the slave within the household, and gives a new dignity to do…
741 wordsSECTION 165_The Christian Household._
How much there was, then, to console the Christian bondman for his lot. In self-abnegation, in the willing forfeiture of personal rights, in his menial and unrequited tasks, in submission to insult and injustice, he found a holy joy. His was a path in which he might closely follow the steps of the great Servant of mank…
654 wordsSECTION 166_The Christian Household._
They must do _the will of God_ in the service of men, as Jesus Christ Himself did it,--and with His meekness and fortitude and unwearied love. Their work will thus be rendered from inner principle, with thought and affection and resolution spent upon it. That alone is the work of a man, whether he preaches or ploughs, …
511 wordsSECTION 167_The Foes Of The Church._
[148] We cannot absolutely _prove_ infant baptism from the New Testament texts adduced on its behalf; but they afford a strong presumption in its favour, which is confirmed on the one hand by the analogy of circumcision, and on the other by the immemorial usage of the early Church. Titus i. 6 shows that stress was laid…
790 wordsSECTION 168_The Foes Of The Church._
Let us review the forces marshalled against us,--their _nature_, their _mode of assault_, and _the arena of the contest_. 1. The Asian Christians had to "stand against _the wiles_ [_schemes_, or _methods_[155]] _of the devil_." Unquestionably, the New Testament assumes the personality of Satan. This belief runs count…
748 wordsSECTION 169_The Foes Of The Church._
In contrast with the "angels of light" (2 Cor. xi. 14) and "ministering spirits" of the kingdom of God (Heb. i. 14), the angels of Satan have constituted themselves _the world-rulers of this darkness_. We find the compound expression _cosmo-krator_ (world-ruler) in later rabbinical usage, borrowed from the Greek and ap…
656 wordsSECTION 170_The Foes Of The Church._
It is true that the Asian Churches had visible enemies arrayed against them. There were the "wild beasts" with whom St Paul "fought at Ephesus," the heathen mob of the city, sworn foes of every despiser of their great goddess Artemis. There was Alexander the coppersmith, ready to do the apostle evil, and "the Jews from…
737 wordsSECTION 171_The Foes Of The Church._
III. The last clause of verse 12, _in the heavenly places_, refuses to combine with the above description of the powers hostile to the Church. The heavenly places are the abode of God and the blessed angels. This is the region where the Father has blessed us in Christ (i. 3); where He seated the Christ at His own right…
813 wordsSECTION 172Footnotes:
[154] =Endynamousthe= [from =dynamis=] =en Kyriô kai en tô kratei tês ischyos autou.= See the note on these synonyms, on p. 76. Comp., for this verb, Col. i. II; 2 Tim. iv. 17; Phil. iv. 13: =Panta ischyô en tô endynamounti me=,--"I have strength for everything in Him that _enables_ me."] [155] Comp. remark on =method…
344 wordsSECTION 173_The Divine Panoply._
"Wherefore take up the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having conquered all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the readiness of the gospel of peace; withal tak…
713 wordsSECTION 174_The Divine Panoply._
When we turn to the epistle to the Seven Churches (Rev. ii., iii.) written in the next ensuing period, we find a fierce battle raging, resembling that for which this letter warns the Asian Churches to prepare. The storm which our apostle foresees, had then burst. The message addressed to each Church concludes with a pr…
728 wordsSECTION 175_The Divine Panoply._
2. Having girt his loins, the soldier next fastens on his _breastplate_, or cuirass. This is the chief piece of his defensive armour; it protects the vital organs. In the picture drawn in 1 Thessalonians v. 8, the breastplate is made "of faith and love." In this more detailed representation, faith becomes the outlying…
734 wordsSECTION 176_The Divine Panoply._
4. With his body girt and fenced and his feet clad with the gospel shoes, the soldier reaches out his left hand to "take up withal the _shield_," while his right hand grasps first the helmet which he places on his head, and then the sword that is offered to him in the word of God. The shield signified is not the small…
678 wordsSECTION 177_The Divine Panoply._
The "helmet of salvation" is worn by the Lord Himself, as He is depicted by the prophet coming to the succour of His people (Isai. lix. 17). This helmet, on the head of Jehovah, is the crest and badge of their Divine champion. Given to the human warrior, it becomes the sign of his protection by God. The apostle does no…
739 wordsSECTION 178_The Divine Panoply._
7. We have surveyed the Christian soldier with his harness on. From head to foot he is clothed in arms supernatural. No weapon of defence or offence is lacking, that the spiritual combat needs. Nothing seems to be wanting: yet everything is wanting, if this be all. Our text began: "Be strong in the Lord." It is _prayer…
553 wordsSECTION 179CHAPTER vi. 19-24.
[168] Comp. Rom. viii. 37, xvi. 20. _To bring down_, _overpower_, _conquer_ is the military sense of =katergazomai=,--not found elsewhere in the New Testament, but, as it seems to us, unmistakable here. It occurs in Ezek. xxxiv. 4 (LXX), and 1 Esdr. iv. 4. [169] Col. i. 23, ii. 5; Phil. i. 27-30, iv. 1: comp. 1 Thess.…
254 wordsSECTION 180_Request: Commendation: Benediction._
"And [pray] on my behalf, that the word may be given unto me in opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. "But that ye also may know my affairs, how I do, Tychicus, the beloved brother and fai…
815 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.