The Pulpit Commentary — Ephesians — Section 15

HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vera. 1. 2;...:..Phe salutation. .The apostle introduces his Epistle by a duplicate order of ideas: e. double blessing-" grace· and peace;" a double 11ource of blessing-" God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ;" e. double designation of the Christian people- "saints and faithful in Christ Jesus;", and a double source of authority-" an apostle of Jesus Christ by the ,will of God. 1' ,L, T.BE AUTHOl\. "Paul, an apostle of .Jesus Christ by the will of God." Ae one standing :outside the, circle of the twelve, who overshadowed all others by his immense authority, it was necessary he should preface his Epistle by the mention of his independent apostleship. Yet in no spirit of vanity or self-assertion does be use the high language ,of ,apostolic authority and inspired conviction. He disclaims all personal mel'it in bis call. His apostleship was linked ,with grace in its original bestowal; therefore he speaks of " grace and apostleship" in the same breath (Rom. i. 5); it was ".by the will of God," not by the suggestion or call of man, that be found his place in the service of all the Churches. For us the interest of our author's name hns a. profound significance; for, though in language of the deepest humility he speaks of himself as "the least of the apostles" and "less than the least of all saints/' he stands before all coming ages as the great apostle of the Gentiles, whose pe1110nal history and writings fill one-third of the. New Testament Scriptures, and who, more than any other apostle, has shaped the theology of Christendom in its best periods, supplying at once the bone and marrow of the evangelical system of thought. II. THE PERSONS ADDRESSED. "The saints which are at Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus." 1. This double title seems to suggest the objective nnd subjective sic.es of Christian ,life; for if it.is God's work to make saints, "it is man's to believe;" we are chosen to salvation "through !\3nctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth" (2 'l'hess. ii. 13). God has joined these two principles together: let not man put them asunder. 2. It is in Christ, we o\l,tain our ,standing both as saints and as believers. He is made unto \IS "wisdum 1 and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption" (1 Cor. i. 30). The expression, "in Christ," wbich occurs here for the first time in this Epistle, is found thirty-three times in the New Testament. Christian life, like revela- tion, is Christo-centric. 3. The Christians at Ephesus had grown from twelve disciples (Acts xix. 1) into a large and influential community, worshipping the Lord under tbe very shadow of the great Temple of Diana. The apostle has a deep personal interest in the fortunes of a Church established in the very acropolis of paganism-the first of the seven Churches of ,Asia-forming the tLird capital of Christianity, as Antioch was tte second and Jerusalem the first. He remembers the three years of untiring and anxious labour he had spent in the city, as well as the interest of the Ephesian Christians in himself and his work which he seeks shortly to intensify by the projected visit of" 11 beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord" (eh. vi. 21, 22). 'l'ho Apostle Paul :w&s unique among the apostles of Christ for his quickness in finding out a common 12 THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS.