The Pulpit Commentary — Ephesians — Section 168

appointed to bring the Church forward to maturity, and therefore it is concerned to carry it safely through the intermediate stages. We are consequently warned not to continue children, but to advance steadfastly towards manhood, There are two faults hintai at by the apostle. I. Clm.DREN ARE APT _TO BE UNSTABLE, "Tossed to and fro and carried about by e.e.ry wind of doctrine." They have not become so firmly rooted in the truth as to be r~c•.'(. 8s:,<Tl\inst unsettling influences either within or without them. Consequently, they a_re like "a ~ve of the sea driven of the wind and ~ssed." 1. The warning implies tllat truth is a matter of supreme moment. Holmess of character is impossible without it. Believers ought to be well founded in tho truth; not mere babes, but such as " a.re of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil" (Heb. v. 14). 2. They are warned against the tendency to be blown about by the winds of doctrine that blow from every quarter. The munsel is much needed in this age of startling suggestion, radical denial, and deep unsettlement. There are men who go the rounds of all the sects, swingino-0 from side to side with a movement which indicates that they are true to nothing but the love of change. It is hard for unstable natures to hold the poise of their judgment in the midst of such terrible cross-fires of theological and philosophical speculation. • II. Cmr.D&EN ARE A.PI' TO BE DECEIVED. Their want of knowledge leaves them open to imposition and deception. The apparatus of theological seduction is always at hand. The language of the apostle implies: 1. That there were errorists either at Ephesus or elsewhere, identified with the Christian co=nnion, marked by "the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive." It is a nere dream to suppose that the primitive Church was perfectly pure either in doctrine or practice.. The apostle's farewell address to the Ephesian elders at Miletus antici- pated the rise of serious error (.Acts xx.. 29). 2. That snch "false teachers" were marked by sel.fuhness, deceit, and malignity. This is the character which the apostle r:.;;uilly ascribes to so.eh men (Rom. xvi. 17, 18; Col ii 18; Gal. ii. 4; 2 Cor. ii. 17). Error is, therefore, not harmless, though it may appear to be the mere sword-play of a speculative temperament. False teachers are not innocent. Yet our jadgment in all cases of this sort must be exercised with charity and meekness, because men may be better than their creed, and may be influenced by the sounder parts of it. 3. That Sa.tan often succeeds in seducing the unwary by the dexterous tricks of such teachers, who cunningly mingle the truth with such error as robs it of its healing virtues.-T. C. Vers. 15, 16.-The true method and conditions of Christian growth. The apostle sees the conditioill! of Christian stability in a faith that worketh by love-the love being at once the sphere and the means of our spiritual growth. The expressive figure used by the apostle sets forth several important truths concerning the Church and its development. L THE SotrnCE OF ITS GROWTH-CHRIST THE HEAD. A.s the Church is a spiritual body, so the characteristics of the natural body are found in it. It is a body divinely framed as trnly as the natural body, and designed to bring greater glory to God than the body which types it. Its Head is the Lord himself. It has its being and form in him as well as all its nurture such as its life and light, grace and joy, strength and fr-.:..idumess; it dt:pendB upon the Head for subsistence anci. for safety; it is united to tie Head by a bond that is both close and indissoluble. IL THE AGO,. OF ITS GBOWTB-'l'JIE HoLY SPmIT. For "by one Spirit were we all bap~i.wi imo one body" (1 Cor. xii 12). A.s the one spirit of man wields at will all the f:illctioitS of the bodv, and concentrates the various members upon its purposes as they a..--ise, so the Holy Spirit gives each member of the mystic body its peculiar action and power in the divinely appointed diversity which contributes to its eventual unity. Ill. THI: RELATION OF THE llE?dBERS TO EACH OTHEB. "'l'he whole body is fitly juined together and compacted by that which every joint supplicth." Each member is in relation with all other members as well as with the Head. Each is dependcut upon the other. No member can dismiss another as useless; none is so great as· not to be indebted to the least. "God has tempered the body together." Now, just as the parts of the human frame arc necessarily of different functions, and set, some in superior, some in inferior, places, yet all act together in the fullest sympathy; so all the on. 1v. 1-32.] 'l'HE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS. 167