The Pulpit Commentary — Ephesians — Section 61

condition, not bece.use we have not the seal, but because we are too blinded with fears to ree.d it, or because we are looking for a different kind of seal. 3. They are preserved by God. The seal is a security. All the authority of its owner accompanies it. Christians being once owned will never be deserted by God. II. THE CONDITION ON wmcH Cml1sTIANB ABE SEALED. This ia faith. As a pre- liminary, the gospel must be heard. But all who hear are not sealed. We must, individually and voluntarily, yield submission to the truth we have received. Two motives for faith may be gathered from the words of St. Paul, viz.: 1. The daims ef troth. It is "the Word of the truth" that we have heard. Truth is royal and authoritative, and rightly demands obedience. 2. Our own salvation. This "Word of the truth" is also "the gospel of your salvation." Our highest interest lies in our accepting the gospel and giving our faith to it. III. THE METHOD BY wmcH CHRISTIANS ARE SEALED. It is "with the Holy Spirit of promise." The early Christians were endued with the Holy Spirit after they had given their faith to Christ. None but those who were thus "believers" received it. 'l'he gift was, therefore, a, sign of true faith. \Ve do not have it in the same. form-as a gift of tongues, of healing, etc. But we receive it in spiritual graces. Christians are still endued by the Holy Spirit, and, as a consequence, realize their sonship to God (Rom. viii. 16, 17), and enjoy communion with God (Rom. viii. 26, 27). The reality of these things and of the spiritual gifts from which they flow is proved by the result- ing fruits of the Spirit (Gal. v. 22, 23). IV. THE PURPOSE FOB WHICH CHmSTIANS ARE SEALED. They are sealed by a Spirit of promise. The blessings assured by the Divine recognition are as yet chiefly future. We are heirs, not owners; or, regarding it from another point of view, God has paid the ransom for hia own possession, but the redemption of, it is not yet fully accom- plished. Yet he has so far claimed it as to set his seal upon it. Christians bear the mark of God's ownership, though they are not wholly recovered to him. Their present condition is an assurance of final recovery. It ia an earnest of redemption. Enough ~ace is already given to result in some measure of redemption. If we have not this foretaste of heaven, these first droppings of the showers of blessings, we have no right to expect more. But if we have, the beginning points on to the fulfilment, when God will be glorified in our perfect redemption.-W. F. A. Vere. 15, 16.-Spiritual prosperity. Although St. Paul could soar into strange heights of contemplation, his interest was not confined to cold theological abstraction~. H he meditated on the final consummation of all things, he was never negligent of the spiritual condition of the Christians of his day. No man could show more den, earnest, personal concern for those committed to his charge, than the great apostle evinced for the Churches of which he had the oversight. They were ever in his thoughts and in his prayers. Their prosperity or adversity was his joy or sorrow. It was happy when, as in the case of the Christians of Asia, to which the Epistle to the Ephesians was addressed, St. Paul had little to blame and much to rejoice over. We may leam something by considering what, in St. Paul's estimation, were the marks of Christian .prosperity, and how he regarded that prosperity. l.· 'l'HE TRUE PROSPERITY OF A OHURCH CONSISTS IN THE GROWTH OF !IPIBITUAL GRACES AMONG THE MEMBERS. We make much of numbers, as though prosperity were a matter of arithmetic. "The statistics of the Churches" will never serve as a divining rod with which to discover the precious metal of piety. St. Paul cared less for the number of adherents to Christianity than for the quality of the true Christians. While we busy ourselves in counting the attendants at chnrch, who is to measure the growth or decrease of spiritual life? Then St. Paul's idea of prosperity was not accumulating wealth, the creation of more imposing buildings, a higher social status- things about which some of us are so greatly concerned. All he cared for was spiritual progress. The t\vo essential elements of this are growing faith in Christ and growing love towards one another. II. THE GROWTH OF BPIBITUAL PROSPERITY IS DESERVING OF JOYFUL RECOGNITION A.ND THANKSGIVING. If St. Paul is fearless in rebuking where rebukes are necessary, he is uncrrudging in his congratulations where these are earned. Some people seem &o be afr~id of provoking the vanity of others in praising them, if they are not prevented  58 THE EPISTLB TO THE EPHESIANS. [cu. 1. 1-98.