The Pulpit Commentary — Ephesians — Section 227

body, of his fleeb, and of his bones" (vcr. 30). I. This does not refer to the incarna- tion, for the assumption of human nature allied our Saviour to the whole race of man. This membership applies to believers only. 2. Neither does it refer, as Romanists say, to the Lord's Supper, in which, partaking of his flesh, we are flesh of his flesh. 3. It signifies community of life, like that which connected Eve in her creation with the flesh of Adam, We are. elsewhere said to be saved by his flesh ( eh. ii. 15), by his blood (eh. ii. 13), by-his body (Rom. vii. 4), by the body of his flesh (Col. i. i2); and his flesh is called our life, and described as· essential to eternal life. "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you" (John vi. 53, 54). There is, no doubt, great mystery here, and therefore the relation between Christ and his Church may well be called so (ver. 32).-T. C. . Vera. 1-16.-The love and the wrath of God enforeing mO'T'ality. Paul is still working for the unity of the Church and calling for that watchful and pure walk on the part of the Ephesians which can alone promote it. He consequently brings to bear upon them the allied motives of the love and the wrath of God. And here we may remark, in passing, that the moralities which have tried to work themselves without the aid of Divine sanctions have proved practically powerless. No" independent morality" l1as as yet rendered any appreciable service to the world. We still need to be over- shadowed by the Divine. Paul, moreover, begins with love, and then passes on to tho fact of the Divine wrath. And- I. THE LOVE OF GoD PATERNAL AND FRATERNAL SHOULD MOVE US TO MUTUAL LOVE (Vers. 1, 2.) The Ephesians :.~e exhorted to follow_their Divine Father as dear children. The constant love of the heavenly Father lights all the children on. their way and rebukes their want of love. The first motive in this section is, therefore, paternal lovo a call to children of God to be loving like their Father in heaven. But the second motive is from the fraternal love of Christ, which led him out of consideration for us to "give himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odour of a sweet smell" (Revised Version). The self-sacrifice of Christ, we are here taught, was a very precious offering in the F:i.ther's sight. In the cross the Father for the first time saw perfect obedience carried up to the point and in the a1ticle of death. While in one aspect Jesus realized the Father's wrath on the cross, because the Substitute for sinners, in another aspect he was contemplated by the Father with the utmost complacency. Self-sacrifice is fully appreciated by our Father in heaven. Now, if God regarded with infinite delight the self-sacrifice of the only begotten Son for the sn.ke of his brethren, there is no way in which we can delight our Father so much as by followiug in the Elder Brother's footsteps o.nd being 1"eady to sacrifice ourselves out of love to ti,o brethren. What a spirit this would in ruse into our Church lire! Harless notices that in this passage Christ is really represented as both Priest and Victim. In tho saruo way we may delight the mind of God in being victims and priests in our loving relationi; to the brethren. I!, 'l'llE WRATH OF GOD IS A REALITY TOWARDS THE COVETOUS AND UNCLEAN, (Vora. 3-7.) The idea that God will not be angry with wicked men must bo dismissed from all minds. Righteous indignation against certain fo1ms of evil is an experience' of a most imperative and holy character. We should lose our reverence for a God who did not become angry with sinners. It was the more needful to affirm this truth at Ephesus, since the deities of heathenism were supposed to lm adclicled ,to such crimes as uncleanness and covetousness. Olympus wns filled, by the impure imaginations of men, with a set of men nncl women who were for tho most 1iart fit for penitentiaries and state prisons. Morality received no backing from the mythology. But the thought that a God so loving as our heavenly Father is wrathful with the covetous and the unclean, and allows his wrath to burn against them, is surely calcula~d to wean men from such sins. Thero seems to have been insinuations in Paul's time .that the Diviuo wrath against impurity and covetousness was mythical, just as such insinuation prevails at present. llut surely the frightful punishment which these sins entail in the order of nature speak to the spirit of man about the reality of the Divine wrath. Not all the amcliorntions of science cau bring it about that men can so sin with impunity; the unclean nro cursed in tho very nature of things with a grievous curse, anc\ tho covetous sllffcr of necessity  228 '.l'HE EPIS'l.'LE TO THE EPHESIANS. [on. v. 1-3::1.