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G. Findlay + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Expositor's Bible: Ephesians + +Author: G. G. Findlay + +Editor: W. Robertson Nicoll + +Release Date: March 18, 2012 [EBook #39196] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE: EPHESIANS *** + + + + +Produced by Marcia Brooks, Colin Bell, Nigel Blower and +the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian +Libraries) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="notes"> +<p>This e-text includes characters that will only display in UTF-8 (Unicode) +file encoding, including Greek words, e.g. <span class="greek" title="ho logos">ὁ λόγος</span>. +If any of these characters do not display properly, or if the apostrophes and quotation marks +in this paragraph appear as garbage, you may have an incompatible browser or unavailable fonts. +First, make sure that the browser’s “character set” or “file encoding” +is set to Unicode (UTF-8). You may also need to change your browser’s +default font. All Greek words have mouse-hover transliterations.</p> + +<p>A few minor typographical errors have been silently corrected. +All advertising material has been moved to the end of the text.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_i" id="Page_i">[i]</a></span></p> + +<h1>THE EXPOSITOR’S BIBLE.</h1> + +<p class="center"><span class="titlesmaller">EDITED BY THE REV.</span><br /> +<span class="titlebigger">W. ROBERTSON NICOLL, M.A., LL.D.</span><br /> +<i>Editor of “The Expositor,” etc.</i></p> + +<p class="center gaptop"><span class="titlebigger">THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS</span></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="titlesmaller">BY THE REV. PROFESSOR</span><br /> +<span class="titlebigger">G. G. FINDLAY, B.A.</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Headingley College, Leeds</span></p> + +<p class="center gaptop">London<br /> +<span class="titlebigger">HODDER AND STOUGHTON,</span><br /> +27, PATERNOSTER ROW<br /></p> + +<hr class="titlerule" /> + +<p class="center"><span class="titlesmaller">MDCCCXCVIII</span></p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii"></a></span> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii">[iii]</a></span></p> + +<h1><span class="titlesmaller">THE</span><br /> +EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS</h1> + +<p class="center"><span class="titlesmaller">BY THE REV. PROFESSOR</span><br /> +<span class="titlebigger">G. G. FINDLAY, B.A.</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Headingley College, Leeds</span></p> + +<p class="center gaptop"><span class="titlesmaller">THIRD EDITION</span></p> + +<p class="center gaptop">London<br /> +<span class="titlebigger">HODDER AND STOUGHTON,</span><br /> +27, PATERNOSTER ROW<br /></p> + +<hr class="titlerule" /> + +<p class="center"><span class="titlesmaller">MDCCCXCVIII</span></p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">[iv]</a></span> +<i>Printed by Hazell, Watson, & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury.</i></p> + +<hr /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS.</h2> + +<table summary="Contents"> +<tr> +<td class="consec" colspan="2">INTRODUCTION.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conseq" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> i. 1, 2.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER I.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">THE WRITER AND READERS.</td> +</tr><tr> +<th class="conpgh"> </th> +<th class="conpgh">PAGE</th> +</tr><tr> +<td>Contrast of Galatians and Ephesians—Pauline qualities of +Ephesians: intellectual, historical, theological, spiritual, +ethical—The Idea of the Church—The Person of Christ—Ephesians +and Colossians—Style of Ephesians—Circular +Hypothesis—Epistle from Laodicea—Designation +of the Readers—Faithful Brethren</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="consec" colspan="2">PRAISE AND PRAYER.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conseq" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> i. 3–19.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER II.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">THE ETERNAL PURPOSE.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td>The Apostle’s Hymn of Praise—Blessed be God!—Blessing +spiritual, heavenly, Christian—In the Beginning the +Election of Grace—The World and its Founder—Redemption +embedded in Creation—God’s prescient +Choice—Our Holiness His Purpose—Divine Adoption—Who +are the Elect?</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER III.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">THE BESTOWMENT OF GRACE.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[vi]</a></span> +Structure of the Paragraph—Grace an Experience—Christ +the Beloved—Forgiveness and its Price—The Value +of Forgiveness—Wisdom a Gift of Grace—The Gospel +as an intellectual Force—God’s Will the Goal of human +Thought—Sonship and Heritage—The Fulness of the +Times—The Christian Inventory of the Universe—Reconciliation +and Reconstitution—Gathering in and +Gathering out</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER IV.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">THE FINAL REDEMPTION.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td>Mutual Inheritance—Jewish and Gentile Heirs—Uses of the +Seal—The Stamp of Sanctity—Promise fulfilled and to +be fulfilled—Hearing and Believing—Salvation by the +Truth—Salvation for the Gentiles—Faith and the Holy +Spirit—The two Redemptions—The encumbered Property—The +Earnest of our consummate Life</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_50">50</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER V.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">FOR THE EYES OF THE HEART.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td>Thanksgiving for the Readers—The God of Christ, the +Father of Glory—Christian Enlightenment—Seeing with +the Heart—What is our Hope?—God’s Wealth in Men—The +true Standard of Value—The Power of Christ’s +Resurrection</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="consec" colspan="2">THE DOCTRINE.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conseq" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> i. 20—iii. 13.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER VI.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">WHAT GOD WROUGHT IN THE CHRIST.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td>Prayer and Teaching—Historical Effect of Christ’s Resurrection—The +Stages of His Exaltation—Christianity without +Miracles—The efficient Cause of Christianity—The +perfect Resurrection—The First-begotten out of the +Dead—The Risen One, the Holy One—Resurrection +and Ascension—Ascension to Rule—Christ and the +Angels—Christ glorified God’s Gift to the Church—Christ +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span>the Fulness of God</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER VII.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">FROM DEATH TO LIFE.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td>Raised with Christ—Sin is Death—Jesus Christ in a dead +World—Alive in Body, dead in Spirit—Religious Difficulties—Antipathy +to God—The Power of the Air—God’s +Anger against Sinners—The Soul’s Awaking—Consciousness +of God—Fellowship in Salvation</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_95">95</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER VIII.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">SAVED FOR AN END.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td>Beginning and End of God’s Plan—Mercy, Love, Kindness, +Grace and Gift—Not of Works—Boasting excluded—Evangelical +Assurance—In the heavenly Places—Grace +a Task-master—Creation and Redemption—The apostolic +Church and the coming Times</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_109">109</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER IX.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">THE FAR AND NEAR.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td>Wherefore remember!—Sudden and gradual Conversion—The +Gentile World: Godless, hopeless, Christless—Away +with the Atheists!—The double Pessimism—The +Uncircumcision—Nigh in the Blood of Christ—Reunion +in Guilt and in Pardon</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_120">120</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER X.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">THE DOUBLE RECONCILIATION.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td>The Jewish War—The two Parties in the Church—The +Jewish Enmity typical—The new Christian Humanity—The +Church in the first Century and the nineteenth—Hindrances +to Unity: external, internal—The Ground +of Reconciliation—Enemies of God—The Atonement +of the Cross—Moral Communism—Personal Faith—The +Fraternization of Mankind</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_131">131</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XI.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">GOD’S TEMPLE IN HUMANITY.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[viii]</a></span> +The Divine Occupant—The Service of Man and of God—One +Temple and many Buildings—The Variety of the +apostolic Church—The primitive Catholicism—Church +and Dissent—Union by Approximation—Our Lord’s +Prayer for Unity—The apostolic Basis—The Builder +Spirit—The sure Foundation Stone</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_143">143</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XII.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">THE SECRET OF THE AGES.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td>St Paul’s Style of Composition—Christ the Mystery of God—Christ +in the Old Testament—The Exploration of +Christ—The Portion of the Gentiles in Israel—The +Organs of the new Revelation—The unique Office and +Influence of the Apostle Paul</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_155">155</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIII.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">EARTH TEACHING HEAVEN.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td>Christ the Bond of Angels and Men—Our Lord and theirs—Jesus +of Nazareth the Lord of the Ages—The Reality +of the Angels—Their Interest in the Church—The +Peculiarity of the human Problem—The Docility of the +heavenly Potentates—The angelic Standpoint—The +Grandeur of Christianity inspires Courage</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_167">167</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="consec" colspan="2">PRAYER AND PRAISE.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conseq" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> iii. 14–21.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIV.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">THE COMPREHENSION OF CHRIST.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td>Contents of St Paul’s Prayer—The Father of Angels and +of Men—Strength of Spirit and of the Spirit—Christ +abiding in the Heart—Christ and the Christ—Christ’s +Claim on the Intellect—Neglect of Theology—Dimensions +of God’s Building—Strength to grasp the Magnitude +of Christianity—The true Broad Churchman</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_183">183</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XV.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">KNOWING THE UNKNOWABLE.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span> +Knowledge in the Growth—Paul’s Study of the Love of +Christ—Christ’s manifested Love—God’s Fulness our +final Aim—The Fulness more than Love—Praise out-soaring +Prayer—God’s Gifts beyond our Requests—The +Divine Power immanent in Men—The Inspirer of Prayer +its Fulfiller—The Union of the Church and Christ in +God’s Praise—The eternal Glory</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_197">197</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="consec" colspan="2">THE EXHORTATION.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="consc2" colspan="2">ON CHURCH LIFE.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conseq" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> iv. 1–16.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XVI.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">THE FUNDAMENTAL UNITIES.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td>The Prisoner in the Lord—The Foes of Church Peace: +Low-mindedness, Ambition, Resentfulness—The Basis +of Unity: sevenfold, threefold—One Body despite +Divisions—One Spirit makes one Body—Unity of Life +and Hope—One Lord in all Churches—Baptism a Sign +of Christ’s Rule, the Seal of a corporate Life—The one +God, and the many</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_213">213</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XVII.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">THE MEASURE OF THE GIFT OF CHRIST.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td>Unity in Diversities—Christ the Administrator—The Ascension +of David and of David’s Son—Height and Breadth—The +Giving of Jesus—Christ’s Descent and Ascent—The +Warfare of Christ—The Spoils of His Victory—The +Enlistment of His Prisoners—Apostles and Prophets, +Evangelists and Pastors—Paul, Augustine, Luther, +Knox, Wesley—The Demands of the Future—Individual +Responsibility</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_227">227</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XVIII.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">THE GROWTH OF THE CHURCH.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td>The Aim of the Christian Ministry—A perfect Manhood—Sleight +or Sport?—Junctures of Supply—Reunion in the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[x]</a></span> +Knowledge of the Son of God—The Stature of Christ +our Standard—The Dangers of Childishness—Speculative +Error—Gnosticism and Agnosticism—Conditions of +Safety—Church Organization—The Framework of the +Body of Christ—Its Continuity of Tissue</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_244">244</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="consc2" colspan="2">ON CHRISTIAN MORALS. +</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conseq" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> iv. 17–v. 21.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XIX.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">THE WALK OF THE GENTILES.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td>The old World and the old Man—Impotence of Gentile Reason—Science +and Pessimism—Loss of the Life of +God—Ignorance the Mother of Indevotion—Induration +of Heart—Impudicity of Paganism</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_261">261</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XX.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">THE TWO HUMAN TYPES.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td>Defective Views of Christ amongst Paul’s Readers—The +historical Jesus the true Christ—Paul and the Tradition +of Jesus—Jesus the human Model—Nero a Type of the +Pagan Order—The Fraud of Sin—The Growth and the +Birth of the new Man—Righteousness and Holiness</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_275">275</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXI.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">DISCARDED VICES.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td>The seven Gentile Sins—Truthfulness and the Truth—The +Perils of Anger—The Antidote to Theft—Sinfulness of +vain Speech—Malice and its Brood—Imitation of the +Divine Love—Filthiness and Jesting—The golden +Leprosy</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_290">290</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXII.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">DOCTRINE AND ETHICS.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td>The Intrinsic and Experimental in Morals—Originality of +Christian Ethics—Ethical Art and Science—Four Principles +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[xi]</a></span> +of Pauline Ethics—Personality and Morals—Ethical +Character of Christ’s Forgiveness—Auguste +Comte and the Gospel—The moral Import of the Resurrection—And +of the Atonement</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_305">305</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXIII.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">THE CHILDREN OF THE LIGHT.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td>Right the Fruit of Light—All Virtue from one Source—Unbelief +and Immorality—Christian Goodness—The Way +of Righteousness—Truth the Hall-mark of Sanctity—Verity +and Veracity—Specialists in Virtue—Reproof of +open and of hidden Sins—Manifestation and Transformation</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_321">321</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXIV.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">THE NEW WINE OF THE SPIRIT.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td>Soberness and Excitement—The heedful Look—Evil Days +for the Asian Christians—Wisdom to know God’s Will—Wine +and social Pleasure—The Craving for Excitement—Fulness +of the Spirit—The Rise of Christian +Psalmody—The Music of the Heart—Enthusiasm and +Order</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_336">336</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="consc2" colspan="2">ON FAMILY LIFE.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conseq" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> v. 22–vi. 9.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXV.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td>The Divine Character of Marriage—Religious Equality of +the Sexes—The Glory of the Man—Women’s Rights—Christ’s +undivided Headship—Masculine Selfishness—Greek +Terms for Love—The Husband and the Priest—The +double Self—Indelibility of Wedlock</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_353">353</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXVI.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">CHRIST AND HIS BRIDE.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[xii]</a></span> +Marriage and the Doctrine of the Church—The Individual +and the Church—The Glory of the vicarious Death—Christ +the Sanctifier of His Church—The Signification +of Baptism—The Water and the Word—The Bride +made ready—The Church a Christocracy—Adam’s +Wedding-song—The Church inherent in Christ</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_366">366</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXVII.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">THE CHRISTIAN HOUSEHOLD.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td>Children in the Church—The initial Form of Duty—Commandment +and Promise—Gentleness of fatherly Rule—Spoilt +Children—The Lord’s Nurture—Greek and +Roman Slaves—The Church and the Slaves—Christ a +Pattern for Slaves—Servants of Society—Care, Honesty, +Heartiness in Work—The heavenly Master’s Reward—Responsibility +of the earthly Master</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_380">380</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="consc2" colspan="2">ON THE APPROACHING CONFLICT.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conseq" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> vi. 10–18.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXVIII.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">THE FOES OF THE CHURCH.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td>Henceforth be strong!—The two Panoplies—The Personality +of Satan—The Devil and his Angels—Paul’s Demonology—The +spiritual Combat—Interior Temptations—Persecution +and Heresy—The Region of the Struggle—The +Siege of the heavenly City</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_397">397</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXIX.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">THE DIVINE PANOPLY.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td>The coming evil Day—Comparison with Revelation ii., iii.—The +Girdle of Truth—The Breastplate of Righteousness—Shoes +of Gospel Readiness—The great Shield of +Faith—Fire-tipped Darts—The Helmet of Salvation—The +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[xiii]</a></span> +Spirit’s Sword—The Weapon of All-prayer</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_410">410</a></td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="consec" colspan="2">THE CONCLUSION.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conseq" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> vi. 19–24.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="conchp" colspan="2">CHAPTER XXX.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td class="concht" colspan="2">REQUEST: COMMENDATION: BENEDICTION.</td> +</tr><tr> +<td>Paul’s Need of the Church’s Prayers—Christ’s Ambassador +before the Emperor—Speaking the Word given—Good +News for the Asian Churches—Character and Services +of Tychicus—Peace to the Brethren—Love with Faith—Love +toward Christ and Grace from God—The Love +incorruptible</td> +<td class="conpag"><a href="#Page_427">427</a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv"></a></span> +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="section">THE INTRODUCTION.</h2> +<h4 class="section"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> i. 1, 2.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> +<span class="greek" title="Ou monon Ephesou alla schedon pasês tês Asias +ho Paulos houtos peisas metestêsen hikanon ochlon"> +Οὐ μόνον Ἐφέσου ἀλλὰ σχεδὸν +πάσης τῆς Ἀσίας ὁ Παῦλος οὗτος +πείσας μετέστησεν ἱκανὸν +ὄχλον</span> (Demetrius the Silversmith).</p> + +<p class="ref"> +<span class="smcap">Acts</span> xix. 26. +</p></div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> +<h4>THE WRITER AND READERS.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the +saints, who are indeed faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace +from God our Father and the Lord Jesus +Christ.”<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1" +class="fnanchor">[1]</a>—<span class="smcap">Eph.</span> i. 1, 2.</p></div> + +<p>In passing from the Galatian to the Ephesian epistle +we are conscious of entering a different atmosphere. +We leave the region of controversy for that of meditation. +From the battle-field we step into the hush and +stillness of the temple. Verses 3–14 of this chapter constitute +the most sustained and perfect act of praise that +is found in the apostle’s letters. It is as though a door +were suddenly opened in heaven; it shuts behind us, and +earthly tumult dies away. The contrast between these +two writings, following each other in the established +order of the epistles, is singular and in some ways +extreme. They are, respectively, the most combative +and peaceful, the most impassioned and unimpassioned, +the most concrete and abstract, the most human and +divine amongst the great apostle’s writings.</p> + +<p>Yet there is a fundamental resemblance and identity +of character. The two letters are not the expression +of different minds, but of different phases of the same +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> +mind. In the Paul of Galatians the Paul of Ephesians +is latent; the contemplative thinker, the devout mystic +behind the ardent missionary and the masterly debater. +Those critics who recognize the genuine apostle only in +the four previous epistles and reject whatever does not +conform strictly to their type, do not perceive how much +is needed to make up a man like the apostle Paul. +Without the inwardness, the brooding faculty, the +power of abstract and metaphysical thinking displayed +in the epistles of this group, he could never have +wrought out the system of doctrine contained in those +earlier writings, nor grasped the principles which he +there applies with such vigour and effect. That so +many serious and able scholars doubt, or even deny, +St Paul’s authorship of this epistle on internal grounds +and because of the contrast to which we have referred, +is one of those phenomena which in future histories of +religious thought will be quoted as the curiosities of +a hypercritical age.<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>Let us observe some of the Pauline qualities that are +stamped upon the face of this document. There is, in +the first place, the apostle’s intellectual note, what has +been well called his <i>passion for the absolute</i>. St Paul’s +was one of those minds, so discomposing to superficial +and merely practical thinkers, which cannot be content +with half-way conclusions. For every principle he +seeks its ultimate basis; every line of thought he +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> +pushes to its furthest limits. His gospel, if he is to +rest in it, must supply a principle of unity that will +bind together all the elements of his mental world.</p> + +<p>Hence, in contesting the Jewish claim to religious +superiority on the ground of circumcision and the +Abrahamic covenant, St Paul developed in the epistle +to the Galatians a religious philosophy of history; he +arrived at a view of the function of the law in the +education of mankind which disposed not only of the +question at issue, but of all such questions. He established +for ever the principle of salvation by faith and of +spiritual sonship to God. What that former argument +effects for the history of revelation, is done here for the +gospel in its relations to society and universal life. The +principle of Christ’s headship is carried to its largest +results. The centre of the Church becomes the centre +of the universe. God’s plan of the ages is disclosed, +ranging through eternity and embracing every form of +being, and “gathering into one all things in the Christ.” +In Galatians and Romans the thought of salvation by +Christ breaks through Jewish limits and spreads itself +over the field of history; in Colossians and Ephesians +the idea of life in Christ overleaps the barriers of +time and human existence, and brings “things in +heaven and things in earth and things beneath the +earth” under its sway.</p> + +<p>The second, historical note of original Paulinism we +recognize in the writer’s <i>attitude towards Judaism</i>. We +should be prepared to stake the genuineness of the +epistle on this consideration alone. The position and +point of view of the Jewish apostle to the Gentiles are +unique in history. It is difficult to conceive how any +one but Paul himself, at any other juncture, could have +represented the relation of Jew and Gentile to each +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +other as it is put before us here. The writer is a Jew, +a man nourished on the hope of Israel (i. 12), who had +looked at his fellow-men across “the middle wall of +partition” (ii. 14). In his view, the covenant and the +Christ belong, in the first instance and as by birthright, +to the men of Israel. They are “the near,” who live +hard by the city and house of God. The blessedness +of the Gentile readers consists in the revelation that +they are “fellow-heirs and of the same body and joint-partakers +with us of the promise in Christ Jesus” (iii. 6). +What is this but to say, as the apostle had done before, +that the branches “of the naturally wild olive tree” +were “against nature grafted into the good olive tree” +and allowed to “partake of its root and fatness,” along +with “the natural branches,” the children of the stock +of Abraham who claimed it for “their own”; that “the +men of faith are sons of Abraham” and “Abraham’s +blessing has come on the Gentiles through +faith”?<a name="FNanchor_3" id="FNanchor_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>For our author this revelation has lost none of +its novelty and surprise. He is in the midst of the +excitement it has produced, and is himself its chief +agent and mouthpiece (iii. 1–9). This disclosure of +God’s secret plans for the world overwhelms him by +its magnitude, by the splendour with which it invests +the Divine character, and the sense of his personal +unworthiness to be entrusted with it. We utterly +disbelieve that any later Christian writer could or would +have personated the apostle and mimicked his tone and +sentiments in regard to his vocation, in the way that the +“critical” hypothesis assumes. The criterion of Erasmus +is decisive: <i>Nemo potest Paulinum pectus effingere.</i></p> + +<p>St Paul’s doctrine of <i>the cross</i> is admittedly his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> +specific theological note. In the shameful sacrificial +death of Jesus Christ he saw the instrument of man’s +release from the curse of the broken +law;<a name="FNanchor_4" id="FNanchor_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> +and through this knowledge the cross which was the “scandal” +of Saul the Pharisee, had become Paul’s glory and its +proclamation the business of his life. It is this doctrine, +in its original strength and fulness, which lies behind +such sentences as those of chapter i. 7, ii. 13, and v. 2: +“We have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness +of our trespasses—brought nigh in the blood of +Christ—an offering and sacrifice to God for an odour +of sweet smell.”</p> + +<p>Another mark of the apostle’s hand, his specific +spiritual note, we find in the <i>mysticism</i> that pervades +the epistle and forms, in fact, its substance. “I live +no longer: Christ lives in me.” “He that is joined to the Lord is one +spirit.”<a name="FNanchor_5" id="FNanchor_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> +In these sentences of the earlier letters we discover the spring of St Paul’s +theology, lying in his own experience—<i>the sense of +personal union through the Spirit with Christ Jesus</i>. +This was the deepest fact of Paul’s consciousness. Here +it meets us at every turn. More than twenty times +the phrase “in Christ” or its equivalents recur, applied +to Christian acts or states. It is enough to refer to +chapter iii. 17, “that the Christ may make His dwelling +in your hearts through faith,” to show how profoundly +this mysterious relationship is realized in this letter. +No other New Testament writer conceived the idea in +Paul’s way, nor has any subsequent writer of whom we +know made the like constant and original use of it. +It was the habit of the apostle’s mind, the index of his +innermost life. Kindred to this, and hardly less conspicuous, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> +is his conception of “God in Christ” (2 Cor. +v. 19) saving and operating upon men, who, as we +read here, “chose us in Christ before the world’s +foundation—forgave us in Him—made us in Him to +sit together in the heavenly places—formed us in Christ +Jesus for good works.”</p> + +<p>The ethical note of the true Paulinism is the conception +of the <i>new man</i> in Christ Jesus, whose sins were +slain by His death, and who shares His risen life unto +God (Rom. vi.). From this idea, as from a fountainhead, +the apostle in the parallel Colossian epistle (ch. iii.) +deduces the new Christian morality. The temper and +disposition of the believer, his conduct in all social +duties and practical affairs are the expression of a “life +hid with Christ in God.” It is the identical “new +man” of Romans and Colossians who presents himself +as our ideal here, raised with Christ from the dead and +“sitting with Him in the heavenly places.” The newness +of life in which he walks, receives its impulse and +direction from this exalted fellowship.</p> + +<p>The characteristics of St Paul’s teaching which we +have described—his logical thoroughness and finality, +his peculiar historical, theological, spiritual, and ethical +standpoint and manner of thought—are combined in the +conception which is the specific note of this epistle, viz., +its idea of <i>the Church</i> as the body of Christ,—or in +other words, of <i>the new humanity</i> created in Him. This +forms the centre of the circle of thought in which the +writer’s mind moves;<a name="FNanchor_6" id="FNanchor_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> +it is the meeting-point of the various lines of thought that we have already traced. +The doctrine of personal salvation wrought out in the +great evangelical epistles terminates in that of social +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +and collective salvation. A new and precious title is +conferred on Christ: He is “Saviour of <i>the body</i>” +(v. 23), <i>i.e.</i>, of the corporate Christian community. +“The Son of God who loved <i>me</i> and gave up Himself +for <i>me</i>” becomes “the Christ” who “loved <i>the Church</i> and gave up Himself for +<i>her</i>.”<a name="FNanchor_7" id="FNanchor_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> +“The new man” is no longer the individual, a mere transformed <i>ego</i>; +he is the type and beginning of a new mankind. A +perfect society of men, all sons of God in Christ, is +being constituted around the cross, in which the old +antagonisms are reconciled, the ideal of creation is +restored, and a body is provided to contain the fulness +of Christ, a holy temple which God inhabits in the +Spirit. Of this edifice, with the cross for its centre and +Christ Jesus for its corner-stone, Jew and Gentile form +the material—“the Jew first,” lying nearest to the +site.<a name="FNanchor_8" id="FNanchor_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></p> + +<p>The apostle Paul necessarily conceived the reconstruction +of humanity under the form of a reconciliation of +Israel and the Gentiles. The Catholicism we have here is +Paul’s Catholicism of <i>Gentile engrafting</i>—not Clement’s, +of <i>churchly order and uniformity</i>; nor Ignatius’, of <i>monepiscopal +rule</i>. It is profoundly characteristic of this +apostle, that in “the law” which had been to his own +experience the barrier and ground of quarrel between +the soul and God, “the strength of sin,” he should +come to see likewise the barrier between men and men, +and the strength of the sinful enmity which distracted +the Churches of his foundation (ii. 14–16).</p> + +<p>The representation of the Church contained in this +epistle is, therefore, by no means new in its elements. +Such texts as 1 Corinthians iii. 16, 17 (“Ye are God’s +temple,” etc.) and xii. 12–27 (concerning the <i>one body +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +and many members</i>) bring us near to its actual expression. +But the figures of the <i>body</i> and <i>temple</i> in these +passages, had they stood alone, might be read as mere +passing illustrations of the nature of Christian fellowship. +Now they become proper designations of the +Church, and receive their full significance. While in +1 Corinthians, moreover, these phrases do not look +beyond the particular community addressed, in Ephesians +they embrace the entire Christian society. This epistle +signalizes a great step forwards in the development of +the apostle’s theology—perhaps we might say, the last +step. The Pastoral epistles serve to put the final +apostolic seal upon the theological edifice that is now +complete. Their care is with the guarding and furnishing +of the “great house”<a name="FNanchor_9" id="FNanchor_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> +which our epistle is engaged in building.</p> + +<p>The idea of the Church is not, however, independently +developed. Ephesians and Colossians are companion +letters,—the complement and explanation of +each other. Both “speak with regard to Christ and the +Church”; both reveal the Divine “glory in the Church and in Christ +Jesus.”<a name="FNanchor_10" id="FNanchor_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> +The emphasis of Ephesians falls on the former, of Colossians on the latter of these +objects. The doctrine of the Person of Christ and +that of the nature of the Church proceed with equal +step. The two epistles form one process of thought.</p> + +<p>Criticism has attempted to derive first one and +then the other of the two from its fellow,—thus, in +effect, stultifying itself. Finally Dr. Holtzmann, in his <i>Kritik der Epheser-und +Kolosserbriefe</i>,<a name="FNanchor_11" id="FNanchor_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> +undertook to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +show that each epistle was in turn dependent on the +other. There is, Holtzmann says, a Pauline nucleus +hidden in Colossians, which he has himself extracted. +By its aid some ecclesiastic of genius in the second +century composed the Ephesian epistle. He then returned +to the brief Colossian writing of St Paul, and +worked it up, with his own Ephesian composition lying +before him, into our existing epistle to the Colossians. +This complicated and too ingenious hypothesis has not +satisfied any one except its author, and need not detain +us here. But Holtzmann has at any rate made good, +against his predecessors on the negative side, the unity +of origin of the two canonical epistles, the fact that they +proceed from one mint and coinage. They are <i>twin</i> +epistles, the offspring of a single birth in the apostle’s +mind. Much of their subject-matter, especially in the +ethical section, is common to both. The glory of the +Christ and the greatness of the Church are truths +inseparable in the nature of things, wedded to each +other. To the confession, “Thou art the Christ, the +Son of the living God,” His response ever is, “<i>I will +build my Church</i>.”<a name="FNanchor_12" id="FNanchor_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> +The same correspondence exists between these two epistles in the dialectic movement +of the apostle’s thought.</p> + +<p>At the same time, there is a considerable difference +between the two writings in point of style. M. Renan, +who accepts Colossians from Paul’s hand, and who +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +admits that “among all the epistles bearing the name +of Paul the epistle to the Ephesians is perhaps that +which has been most anciently cited as a composition +of the apostle of the Gentiles,” yet speaks of this +epistle as a “verbose amplification” of the other, “a +commonplace letter, diffuse and pointless, loaded with +useless words and repetitions, entangled and overgrown +with irrelevancies, full of pleonasms and +obscurities.”<a name="FNanchor_13" id="FNanchor_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p>In this instance, Renan’s literary sense has deserted +him. While Colossians is quick in movement, terse +and pointed, in some places so sparing of words as to be almost hopelessly +obscure,<a name="FNanchor_14" id="FNanchor_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> +Ephesians from beginning to end is measured and deliberate, exuberant +in language, and obscure, where it is so, not from the +brevity, but from the length and involution of its +periods. It is occupied with a few great ideas, which +the author strives to set forth in all their amplitude +and significance. Colossians is a letter of discussion; +Ephesians of reflection. The whole difference of style +lies in this. In the reflective passages of Colossians, as indeed in the earlier +epistles,<a name="FNanchor_15" id="FNanchor_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> +we find the stateliness of movement and rhythmical fulness of expression which +in this epistle are sustained throughout. Both epistles +are marked by those unfinished sentences and <i>anacolutha</i>, +the grammatical inconsequence associated with close +continuity of thought, which is a main characteristic of St Paul’s +style.<a name="FNanchor_16" id="FNanchor_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> +The epistle to the Colossians is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +like a mountain stream forcing its way through some +rugged defile; that to the Ephesians is the smooth +lake below, in which its chafed waters restfully expand. +These sister epistles represent the moods of conflict +and repose which alternated in St Paul’s mobile +nature.</p> + +<p>In general, the writings of this group, belonging to +the time of the apostle’s imprisonment and advancing +age,<a name="FNanchor_17" id="FNanchor_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> +display less passion and energy, but a more +tranquil spirit than those of the Jewish controversy. +They are prison letters, the fruit of a time when the +author’s mind had been much thrown in upon itself. +They have been well styled “the afternoon epistles,” +being marked by the subdued and reflective temper +natural to this period of life. Ephesians is, in truth, +the typical representative of the third group of Paul’s +epistles, as Galatians is of the second. There is +abundant reason to be satisfied that this letter came, +as it purports to do, from <i>Paul, an apostle of Christ +Jesus through God’s will</i>.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>But that it was addressed to “the saints which are +<i>in Ephesus</i>” is more difficult to believe. The apostle +has “heard of the faith which prevails amongst” his +readers; he presumes that they “have heard of the +Christ, and were taught in Him according as truth is +in Jesus.”<a name="FNanchor_18" id="FNanchor_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> +He hopes that by “reading” this epistle +they will “perceive his understanding in the mystery +of Christ” (iii. 2–4). He writes somewhat thus to the +Colossians and Romans, whom he had never +seen;<a name="FNanchor_19" id="FNanchor_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> +but can we imagine Paul addressing in this distant and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +uncertain fashion his children in the faith? In Ephesus +he had laboured “for the space of three whole years” +(Acts xx. 31), longer than in any other city of the +Gentile mission, except Antioch. His speech to the +Ephesian elders at Miletus, delivered four years ago, +was surcharged with personal feeling, full of pathetic +reminiscence and the signs of interested acquaintance +with the individual membership of the Ephesian Church. +In the epistle such signs are altogether wanting. The +absence of greetings and messages we could understand; +these Tychicus might convey by word of mouth. But +how the man who wrote the epistles to the Philippians +and Corinthians could have composed this long and +careful letter to his own Ephesian people without a +single word of endearment or +familiarity,<a name="FNanchor_20" id="FNanchor_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> +and without the least allusion to his past intercourse with them, we +cannot understand. It is in the destination that the +only serious difficulty lies touching the authorship. +Nowhere do we see more of <i>the apostle</i> and less of <i>the +man</i> in St Paul; nowhere more of <i>the</i> Church, and +less of <i>this or that</i> particular church.</p> + +<p>It agrees with these internal indications that the +local designation is wanting in the oldest Greek copies +of the letter that are extant. The two great manuscripts +of the fourth century, the Vatican and Sinaitic +codices, omit the words “in Ephesus.” Basil in the +fourth century did not accept them, and says that “the +old copies” were without them. Origen, in the beginning +of the third century, seems to have known +nothing of them. And Tertullian, at the end of the +second century, while he condemns the heretic Marcion +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +(who lived about fifty years earlier) for entitling the +epistle “To the Laodiceans,” quotes only the <i>title</i> +against him, and not the text of the address, which he +would presumably have done, had he read it in the +form familiar to us. We are compelled to suppose, +with Westcott and Hort and the textual critics generally, +that these words form no part of the original address.</p> + +<p>Here the <i>circular hypothesis</i> of Beza and Ussher +comes to our aid. It is supposed that the letter was +destined for a number of Churches in Asia Minor, +which Tychicus was directed to visit in the course of +the journey which took him to +Colossæ.<a name="FNanchor_21" id="FNanchor_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> Along with +the letters for the Colossians and Philemon, he was +entrusted with this more general epistle, intended for +the Gentile Christian communities of the neighbouring +region at large. During St Paul’s ministry at +Ephesus, we are told that “all those that dwell in +Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and +Greeks” (Acts xix. 10). In so large and populous an +area, amongst the Churches founded at this time there +were doubtless others beside those of the Lycus valley +“which had not seen Paul’s face in the flesh,” some +about which the apostle had less precise knowledge +than he had of these through Epaphras and Onesimus, +but for whom he was no less desirous that their +“hearts should be comforted, and brought into all the +wealth of the full assurance of the understanding in +the knowledge of the mystery of God” (Col. ii. 1, 2).</p> + +<p>To which or how many of the Asian Churches +Tychicus would be able to communicate the letter +was, presumably, uncertain when it was written at +Rome; and the designation was left open. Its conveyance +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +by Tychicus (vi. 21, 22) supplied the only +limit to its distribution. Proconsular Asia was the +richest and most peaceful province of the Empire, so +populous that it was called “the province of five hundred +cities.” Ephesus was only the largest of many +flourishing commercial and manufacturing towns.</p> + +<p>At the close of his epistle to the Colossians St Paul +directs this Church to procure “from Laodicea,” in +exchange for their own, a letter which he is sending +there (iv. 16). Is it possible that we have the lost +Laodicean document in the epistle before us? So +Ussher suggested; and though the assumption is not +essential to his theory, it falls in with it very aptly. +Marcion may, after all, have preserved a reminiscence +of the fact that Laodicea, as well as Ephesus, shared in +this letter. The conjecture is endorsed by Lightfoot, +who says, writing on Colossians iv. 16: “There are +good reasons for the belief that St Paul here alludes to +the so-called epistle to the Ephesians, which was in fact +a circular letter, addressed to the principal Churches +of proconsular Asia. Tychicus was obliged to pass +through Laodicea on his way to Colossæ, and would +leave a copy there before the Colossian letter was +delivered.”<a name="FNanchor_22" id="FNanchor_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> +The two epistles admirably supplement +each other. The Apocalyptic letter “to the seven +churches which are in Asia,” ranging from Ephesus to +Laodicea (Rev. ii., iii.), shows how much the Christian +communities of this region had in common and how +natural it would be to address them collectively. For +the same region, with a yet wider scope, the “first +catholic epistle of Peter” was destined, a writing that +has many points of contact with this. Ephesus being +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> +the metropolis of the Asian Churches, and claiming a +special interest in St Paul, came to regard the epistle +as specially her own. Through Ephesus, moreover, it +was communicated to the Church in other provinces. +Hence it came to pass that when Paul’s epistles were +gathered into a single volume and a title was needed +for this along with the rest, “To the Ephesians” was +written over it; and this reference standing in the +title, in course of time found its way into the text of +the address. We propose to read this letter as <i>the +general epistle of Paul to the Churches of Asia</i>, or <i>to +Ephesus and its daughter Churches</i>.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>But how are we to read the address, with the local +definition wanting? There are two constructions open +to us:—(1) We might suppose that a space was left +blank in the original to be filled in afterwards by +Tychicus with the names of the particular Churches to +which he distributed copies, or to be supplied by the +voice of the reader. But if that were so, we should +have expected to find some trace of this variety of +designation in the ancient witnesses. As it is, the +documents either give Ephesus in the address, or +supply no local name at all. Nor is there, so far as +we are aware, any analogy in ancient usage for the +proceeding suggested. Moreover, the order of the +Greek words<a name="FNanchor_23" id="FNanchor_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> +is against this supposition.—(2) We<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +prefer, therefore, to follow +Origen<a name="FNanchor_24" id="FNanchor_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> +and Basil, with some modern exegetes, in reading the sentence straight +on, as it stands in the Sinaitic and Vatican copies. It +then becomes: <i>To the saints, who are indeed faithful in +Christ Jesus</i>.</p> + +<p>“The saints” is the apostle’s designation for Christian +believers generally,<a name="FNanchor_25" id="FNanchor_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> +as men consecrated to God +in Christ (1 Cor. i. 2). The qualifying phrase “those +who are indeed faithful in Christ Jesus,” is admonitory. +As Lightfoot says with reference to the parallel qualification +in Colossians i. 2, “This unusual addition is full +of meaning. Some members of the [Asian] Churches +were shaken in their allegiance, even if they had not +fallen from it. The apostle therefore wishes it to +be understood that, when he speaks of the saints, +he means those who are true and steadfast members +of the brotherhood. In this way he obliquely hints +at the defection.” By this further definition “he +does not directly exclude any, but he indirectly warns +all.” We are reminded that we are in the neighbourhood +of the Colossian heresy. Beneath the calm +tenor of this epistle, the ear catches an undertone +of controversy. In chapter iv. 14 and vi. 10–20 this +undertone becomes clearly audible. We shall find the +epistle end with the note of warning with which it +begins.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>The Salutation is according to St Paul’s established +form of greeting.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> +The translation given in this volume is based upon the Revised +Version, but deviates from it in some particulars. These deviations +will be explained in the exposition.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> +The case against authenticity is ably stated in Dr. S. Davidson’s +<i>Introduction to the N. T.</i>; see also Baur’s <i>Paul</i>, Pfleiderer’s <i>Paulinism</i>, +Hilgenfeld’s <i>Einleitung</i>, Hatch’s article on “Paul” in the <i>Encyclopædia +Britannica</i>. The case for the defence may be found in Weiss’, Salmon’s, +Bleek’s, or Dods’ <i>N. T. Introduction</i>—the last brief, but to the point; +in Reuss’ <i>History of the N. T.</i>; Milligan’s article on “Ephesians” in +<i>Encycl. Brit.</i>; Gloag’s <i>Introduction to the Pauline Epp.</i>; Meyer’s, or +Beet’s, or Eadie’s <i>Commentary</i>; Sabatier’s <i>The Apostle Paul</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> +Rom. xi. 16–24; Acts xiii. 26; Gal. iii. 7, 14.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4" id="Footnote_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> +Gal. iii. 10–13; 2 Cor. v. 20, 21, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5" id="Footnote_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> +Gal. ii. 20; 1 Cor. vi. 17.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6" id="Footnote_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> +See ch. i. 9–13, ii. 11–22, iii. 5–11, iv. 1–16, v. 23–32.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7" id="Footnote_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> +Gal ii. 20; Eph. v. 25.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8" id="Footnote_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> +Rom. i. 16; Eph. ii. 17–20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9" id="Footnote_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> +1 Tim. iii. 15, 16; 2 Tim. ii. 20, 21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10" id="Footnote_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> +Eph. iii. 21, v. 32.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11" id="Footnote_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> +<i>Kritik d. Epheser-u. Kolosserbriefe auf Grund einer Analyse ihres +Verwandtschaftsverhältnisses</i> (Leipzig, 1872). A work more subtle and +scientific, more replete with learning, and yet more unconvincing than +this of Holtzmann, we do not know. +</p><p> +Von Soden, the latest interpreter of this school and Holtzmann’s +collaborateur in the new <i>Hand-Commentar</i>, accepts Colossians in its +integrity as the work of Paul, retracting previous doubts on the subject. +Ephesians he believes to have been written by a Jewish disciple of +Paul in his name, about the end of the first century.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12" id="Footnote_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> +Matt. xvi. 15–18; John xvii. 10: <i>I am glorified in them.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13" id="Footnote_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> +See his <i>Saint Paul</i>, Introduction, pp. xii.–xxiii.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14" id="Footnote_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> +See Col. ii. 15, 18, 20–23.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15" id="Footnote_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> +<i>E.g.</i>, in Rom. i. 1–7, viii. 28–30, xi. 33–36, xvi. 25–27.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16" id="Footnote_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> +See the Winer-Moulton <i>N. T. Grammar</i>, p. 709: “It is in writers +of great mental vivacity—more taken up with the thought than with the +mode of its expression—that we may expect to find anacolutha most +frequently. Hence they are especially numerous in the epistolary style +of the apostle Paul.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17" id="Footnote_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> +Eph. iii. 1; Phil. i. 13; Philem. 9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18" id="Footnote_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> +Ch. i. 15, iv. 20, 21.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19" id="Footnote_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> +Col. i. 4, ii. 1; Rom. xv. 15, 16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20" id="Footnote_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> +“My brethren” in ch. vi. 10 is an insertion of the copyists. Even +the closing benediction, ch. vi. 23, 24, is in the <i>third person</i>—a thing +unexampled in St Paul’s epistles.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21" id="Footnote_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> +Ch. vi. 21, 22; Col. iv. 7–9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22" id="Footnote_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> +Compare Maclaren on <i>Colossians and Philemon</i>, p. 406, in this +series.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23" id="Footnote_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> +<span class="greek" title="Tois hagiois tois ousin ... kai pistois en Christô Iêsou"> +Τοῖς ἁγίοις τοῖς οὖσιν ... καὶ πιστοῖς ἐν Χριστῳ Ἰησοῦ</span>. The interposition +of the heterogeneous attributive between <span class="greek" title="hagiois"> +ἁγίοις</span> and <span class="greek" title="pistois"> +πιστοῖς</span> is +harsh and improbable—not to say, with Hofmann, “quite incredible.” +The two latest German commentaries to hand, that of Beck and of +von Soden (in the <i>Hand-Commentar</i>), interpreters of opposite schools, +agree with Hofmann in rejecting the local adjunct and regarding +<span class="greek" title="pistois"> +πιστοῖς</span> as the complement of <span class="greek" title="tois ousin"> +τοῖς οὖσιν</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24" id="Footnote_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> +Origen, in his fanciful way, makes of <span class="greek" title="tois ousin"> +τοῖς οὖσιν</span> a predicate by +itself: “the saints <i>who are</i>,” who possess real being like God Himself +(Exod. iii. 14)—“called from non-existence into existence.” He compares +1 Cor. i. 28.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25" id="Footnote_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> +See, <i>e.g.</i>, ver. 18, ii. 19, iii. 18, iv. 12, v. 3.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="section">PRAISE AND PRAYER.</h2> +<h4 class="section"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> i. 3–19.</h4> + +<div class="pcenter"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="greek stanza" title="Hous proegnô, kai proôrisen +symmorphous tês eikonos tou huiou autou, +eis to einai auton prôtotokon en pollois adelphois; +hous de proôrisen, toutous kai ekalesen; +kai hous ekalesen, toutous kai edikaiôsen; +hous de edikaiôsen, toutous kai edoxasen."> +<span class="i4">Οὓς προέγνω, καὶ προώρισεν<br /></span> +<span class="i0">συμμόρφους τῆς εἰκόνος τοῦ υἱοῦ αὐτοῦ,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">εἰς τὸ εἶναι αὐτὸν πρωτότοκον ἐν πολλοῖς ἀδέλφοις;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">οὕς δὲ προώρισεν, τούτους καὶ ἐκάλεσεν;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">καὶ οὓς ἐκάλεσεν, τούτους καὶ ἐδικαίωσεν;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">οὓς δὲ ἐδικαίωσεν, τούτους καὶ ἐδόξασεν.<br /></span> +</div> +<span class="ref"><span class="smcap">Rom.</span> viii. 29, 30.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> +<h4>THE ETERNAL PURPOSE.</h4> + +<p>We enter this epistle through a magnificent +gateway. The introductory Act of Praise, +extending from verse 3 to 14, is one of the most +sublime of inspired utterances, an overture worthy of +the composition that it introduces. Its first sentence +compels us to feel the insufficiency of our powers for +its due rendering.</p> + +<p>The apostle surveys in this thanksgiving the entire +course of the revelation of grace. Standing with the +men of his day, the new-born community of the sons +of God in Christ, midway between the ages past and +to come,<a name="FNanchor_26" id="FNanchor_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> +he looks backward to the source of man’s +salvation when it lay a silent thought in the mind +of God, and forward to the hour when it shall have +accomplished its promise and achieved our redemption. +In this grand evolution of the Divine plan three stages +are marked by the refrain, thrice repeated, <i>To the praise +of His glory, of the glory of His grace</i> (vv. 6, 12, 14). +St Paul’s psalm is thus divided into three strophes, +or stanzas: he sings the glory of redeeming love in +its past designs, its present bestowments, and its future +fruition. The paragraph, forming but one +sentence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +and spun upon a single golden thread, is a piece of +thought-music,—a sort of <i>fugue</i>, in which from eternity +to eternity the counsel of love is pursued by Paul’s +bold and exulting thought.</p> + +<p>Despite the grammatical involution of the style here +carried to an extreme, and underneath the apparatus of +Greek pronouns and participles, there is a fine Hebraistic +lilt pervading the doxology. The refrain is in the +manner of Psalms xlii.–xliii., and xcix., where in the +former instance “health of countenance,” and in +the latter “holy is He” gives the key-note of the +poet’s melody and parts his song into three balanced +stanzas. In such poetry the strophes may be unequal +in length, each developing its own thought freely, and +yet there is harmony in their combination. Here the +central idea, that of God’s actual bounty to believers, +fills a space equal to that of the other two. But there +is a pause within it, at verse 10, which in effect resumes +the idea of the first strophe and works it in as a <i>motif</i> +to the second, carrying on both in a full stream till +they lose themselves in the third and culminating +movement. Throughout the piece there runs in varying +expression the phrase “in Christ—in the Beloved—in +Him—in whom,” weaving the verses into subtle +continuity. The theme of the entire composition is +given in verse 3, which does not enter into the threefold +division we have described, but forms a prelude to it.</p> + +<p> +“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: who hath blessed us,<br /> +In every blessing of the spirit, in the heavenly places, in Christ.”<br /> +</p> + +<p><i>Blessed be God!</i>—It is the song of the universe, in +which heaven and earth take responsive parts. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> “When +the morning stars sang together and all the sons of +God shouted for joy,” this concert began, and continues +still through the travail of creation and the sorrow and +sighing of men. The work praises the Master. All +sinless creatures, by their order and harmony, by the +variety of their powers and beauty of their forms and +delight of their existence, declare their Creator’s glory. +That praise to the Most High God which the lower +creatures act instrumentally, it is man’s privilege to +utter in discourse of reason and music of the heart. +Man is Nature’s high priest; and above other men, the +poet. Time will be, as it has been, when it shall be +accounted the poet’s honour and the crown of his art, +that he should take the high praises of God into his +mouth, making hymns to the glory of the Supreme +Maker and giving voice to the dumb praise of inanimate +nature and to the noblest thoughts of his fellows +concerning the Blessed God.</p> + +<p><i>Blessed be God!</i>—It is the perpetual strain of the +Old Testament, from Melchizedek down to Daniel,—of +David in his triumph, and Job in his misery. But not +hitherto could men say, Blessed be <i>the God and Father +of our Lord Jesus Christ</i>! He was “the Most High God, +the God of heaven,”—“Jehovah, God of Israel, who +only doeth wondrous things,”—“the Shepherd” and +“the Rock” of His people,—“the true God, the living +God, and an everlasting King”; and these are glorious +titles, which have raised men’s thoughts to moods of +highest reverence and trust. But the name of <i>Father</i>, +and <i>Father of our Lord Jesus Christ</i>, surpasses and +outshines them all. With wondering love and joy unspeakable +St Paul pronounced this <i>Benedictus</i>. God +was not less to him the Almighty, the High and +Holy One dwelling in eternity, than in the days of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +his youthful Jewish faith; but the Eternal and All-holy +One was now his Father in Jesus Christ. Blessed be His +name: and let the whole earth be filled with His glory!</p> + +<p>The apostle’s psalm is a psalm of thanksgiving to +God <i>blessing and blessed</i>. The second clause rhythmically +answers to the first. True, our blessing of +Him is far different from His blessing of us: ours in +thought and words; His in mighty deeds of salvation. +Yet in the fruit of lips giving thanks to His name +there is a revenue of blessing paid to God which He +delights in, and requires. “O Thou that inhabitest +the praises of Israel,” grant us to bless Thee while we +live and to lift up our hands in Thy name!</p> + +<p>By three qualifying adjuncts the blessing which the +Father of Christ bestowed upon us is defined: in +respect of its <i>nature</i>, its <i>sphere</i>, and its <i>personal ground</i>.</p> + +<p>The blessings that prompt the apostle’s praise are +not such as those conspicuous in the Old Covenant: +“Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and in the field; +in the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, +and the increase of thy kine; blessed shall be thy +basket, and thy kneading-trough” (Deut. xxviii. 3–5). +The gospel pronounces beatitudes of another style: +“Blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed the meek, the +merciful, the pure in heart, the persecuted.” St Paul +had small share indeed in the former class of blessings,—a +childless, landless, homeless man. Yet what +happiness and wealth are his! Out of his poverty he +is making all the ages rich! From the gloom of his +prison he sheds a light that will guide and cheer the +steps of multitudes of earth’s sad wayfarers. Not +certainly in the earthly places where he finds himself +is Paul the prisoner of Christ Jesus blessed; but “in +spiritual blessing” and “in heavenly places” how +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> +abundantly! His own blessedness he claims for all +who are in Christ.</p> + +<p>Blessing <i>spiritual</i> in its nature is, in St Paul’s conception +of things, blessing in and of the Holy +Spirit.<a name="FNanchor_27" id="FNanchor_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> +In His quickening our spirit lives; through His indwelling +health, blessedness, eternal life are ours. In +this verse justly the theologians recognize the Trinity +of the Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit.—Blessing +<i>in the heavenly places</i> is not so much blessing coming +from those places—from God the Father who sits +there—as it is blessing which lifts us into that supernal +region, giving to us a place and heritage in the world +of God and of the angels. Two passages of the companion +epistles interpret this phrase: “Your life is hid +with Christ in God” (Col. iii. 3); and again, “Our +citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. iii. 20).—The decisive +note of St Paul’s blessedness lies in the words “in +Christ.” For him all good is summed up there. +Spiritual, heavenly, and Christian: these three are one. +In Christ dying, risen, reigning, God the Father has +raised believing men to a new heavenly life. From +the first inception of the work of grace to its consummation, +God thinks of men, speaks to them and deals +with them <i>in Christ</i>. To Him, therefore, with the +Father be eternal praise!</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">“As He chose us in Him before the world’s foundation,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That we should be holy and unblemished before Him:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">When in love He foreordained us<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To filial adoption through Jesus Christ for Himself,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">According to the good pleasure of His will,—<br /></span> +<span class="i10">To the praise of the glory of His grace” (vv. 4–6a).<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>Here is St Paul’s first chapter of Genesis. <i>In +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +beginning was the election of grace.</i> There is nothing +unprepared, nothing unforeseen in God’s dealings with +mankind. His wisdom and knowledge are as deep as +His grace is wide (Rom. xi. 33). Speaking of his own +vocation, the apostle said: “It pleased God, who set +me apart from my mother’s womb, to reveal His Son +in me” (Gal. i. 15, 16). He does but generalize this +conception and carry it two steps further back—from +the origin of the individual to the origin of the race, +and from the beginning of the race to the beginning +of the world—when he asserts that the community of +redeemed men was chosen in Christ before the world’s +foundation.</p> + +<p>“The world” is a work of time, the slow structure +of innumerable yet finite ages. Science affirms on its +own grounds that the visible universe had a beginning, +as it has its changes and its certain end. Its structural +plan, its unity of aim and movement, show it to be the +creation of a vast Intelligence. Harmony and law, all +that makes science possible is the product of thought. +Reason extracts from nature what Reason has first +put there. The longer, the more intricate and grand +the process, the farther science pushes back the beginning +in our thoughts, the more sublime and certain +the primitive truth becomes: “In the beginning God +created the heavens and the earth.”</p> + +<p>The world is a system; it has a method and a plan, +therefore a foundation. But before the foundation, +there was <i>the Founder</i>. And man was in His thoughts, +and the redeemed Church of Christ. While yet the +world was not and the immensity of space stretched +lampless and unpeopled, <i>we</i> were in the mind of God; +His thought rested with complacency upon His human +sons, whose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +“name was written in the book of life +from the foundation of the world.” This amazing +statement is only the logical consequence of St Paul’s +experience of Divine grace, joined to his conviction of +the infinite wisdom and eternal being of God.</p> + +<p>When he says that God “chose us in Christ <i>before +the foundation of the world</i>”—or <i>before founding the +world</i>—this is not a mere mark of time. It intimates +that in laying His plans for the world the Creator had +the purpose of redeeming grace in view. The kingdom +which the “blessed children” of the Father of Christ +“inherit,” is the kingdom “<i>prepared</i> for them <i>from the +foundation of the world</i>” (Matt. xxv. 34). Salvation +lies as deep as creation. The provision for it is eternal. +For the universe of being was conceived, fashioned, +and built up “in Christ.” The argument of Colossians +i. 13–22 lies behind these words. The Son of God’s +love, in whom and for whom the worlds were made, +always was potentially the Redeemer of men, as He was +the image of God (Col. i. 14, 15). He looked forward +to this mission from eternity, and was in spirit “the +Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev. +xiii. 8). Creation and redemption, Nature and the +Church, are parts of one system; and in the reconciliation +of the cross all orders of being are concerned, +“whether the things upon the earth or the things in +the heavens.”</p> + +<p>Evil existed before man appeared on the earth to +be tempted and to fall. Through the geological record +we hear the voice of creation groaning for long æons +in its pain.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i6">“Dragons of the prime,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That tare each other in their slime,”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>grim prophets of man’s brutal and murderous passions, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> +bear witness to a war in nature that goes back far +towards the foundation of the world. And this rent +and discord in the frame of things it was His part to +reconcile “in whom and for whom all things were +created.” This universal deliverance, it seems, is +dependent upon ours. “The creation itself lifts up its +head, and is looking out for the revelation of the sons of +God” (Rom. viii. 19). In founding the world, foreseeing +its bondage to corruption, God prepared through +His elect sons in Christ a deliverance the glory of +which will make its sufferings to seem but a light thing. +“In thee,” said God to Abraham, “shall all the kindreds +of the earth be blessed”: so in the final “adoption,—to +wit, the redemption of our body” (Rom. viii. 23), +all creatures shall exult; and our mother earth, still +travailing in pain with us, will remember her anguish +no more.</p> + +<p>The Divine election of men in Christ is further +defined in the words of verse 5: “Having in love predestined +us,” and “according to the good pleasure of +His will.” <i>Election</i> is selection; it is the antecedent +in the mind of God in Christ of the preference which +Christ showed when He said to His disciples, “I have +chosen you out of the world.” It is, moreover, a <i>fore-ordination +in love</i>: an expression which indicates on +the one hand the disposition in God that prompted and +sustains His choice, and on the other the determination +of the almighty Will whereby the all-wise Choice is put +into operation and takes effect. In this pre-ordaining +control of human history God “determined the fore-appointed +seasons and the bounds of human habitation” +(Acts xvii. 26). The Divine prescience—that “depth +of the wisdom and knowledge of God”—as well as His +absolute righteousness, forbids the treasonable thought +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +of anything arbitrary or unfair cleaving to this pre-determination—anything +that should override our free-will +and make our responsibility an illusion. “Whom +He did <i>foreknow</i>, He also did predestinate” (Rom. viii. +29). He foresees everything, and allows for everything.</p> + +<p>The consistence of foreknowledge with free-will is +an enigma which the apostle did not attempt to +solve. His reply to all questions touching the justice +of God’s administration in the elections of grace—questions +painfully felt and keenly agitated then as +they are now, and that pressed upon himself in the +case of his Jewish kindred with a cruel force (Rom. +ix. 3)—his answer to his own heart, and to us, lies in +the last words of verse 5: “according to the good +pleasure of His will.” It is what Jesus said concerning +the strange preferences of Divine grace: “Even so, +Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight.” What +pleases Him can only be wise and right. What pleases +Him, must content us. Impatience is unbelief. Let us +wait to see the end of the Lord. In numberless instances—such +as that of the choice between Jacob and Esau, +and that of Paul and the believing remnant of Israel as +against their nation—God’s ways have justified themselves +to after times; so they will universally. Our +little spark of intelligence glances upon one spot in a +boundless ocean, on the surface of immeasurable depths.</p> + +<p>The purpose of this loving fore-ordination of believing +men in Christ is twofold; it concerns at once their +<i>character</i> and their <i>state</i>: “He chose us out—that we +should be holy and without blemish in His sight,” and +“unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ for +Himself.” These two purposes are one. God’s sons +must be holy; and holy men are His sons. For this +end “we” were elected of God in the beginning. Nay, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +with this end in view the world was founded and the +human race came into being, to provide God with such +sons<a name="FNanchor_28" id="FNanchor_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> +and that Christ might be “the firstborn among +many brethren” (Rom. viii. 28–30).</p> + +<p>“That we should be holy”—should be <i>saints</i>. This +the readers are already: “To the saints” the apostle +writes (ver. 1). They are men devoted to God by +their own choice and will, meeting God’s choice and +will for them. Imperfect saints they may be, by no +means as yet “without blemish”; but they are already, +and abidingly, “sanctified in Christ Jesus” (1 Cor. i. 2) +and “sealed” for God’s possession “by the Holy +Spirit” (vv. 13, 14). In this fact lies their hope of +moral perfection and the impulse and power to attain it. +Their task is to “perfect” their existing “holiness” +(2 Cor. vii. 1), “cleansing themselves from all defilement +of flesh and spirit.” Let no Christian say, “I do +not pretend to be a saint.” This is to renounce your +calling. You <i>are</i> a saint if you are a true believer in +Christ; and you are to be an unblemished saint.</p> + +<p>Thus the Church is at last to be presented, and +every man in his own order, “faultless before the +presence of His glory, with exceeding +joy.”<a name="FNanchor_29" id="FNanchor_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> +God could not invite us in His grace to anything inferior. +A blemished saint—a smeared picture, a flawed marble—this +is not like His work; it is not like Himself. Such +saintship cannot approve itself “before Him.” He must +carry out His ideal, must fashion the new man as he +was created in Christ after His own faultless image, +and make human holiness a transcript of the Divine +(1 Peter i. 16).</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +Now, this Divine character is native to the sons of +God. The ideal which God had for men was always +the same. The father of the race was made in His +image. In the Old Testament Israel receives the +command: “You shall be holy, for I, Jehovah your +God, am holy.” But it was in Jesus Christ that +the breadth of this command was disclosed, and the +possibility of our personal obedience to it. The +law of Christian sonship, manifest only in shadow in +the Levitical sanctity, is now pronounced by Jesus: +“You shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” +Verses 4 and 5 are therefore strictly parallel: +God elected us in Christ to be perfect saints; for He +predestined us through Jesus Christ to be His sons.</p> + +<p>Sonship to Himself is the Christian status, the rank +and standing which God confers on those who believe +in His Son; it accrues to them by the fact that they +are in Christ.<a name="FNanchor_30" id="FNanchor_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> +It is defined by the term <i>adoption</i>, which +St Paul employs in this sense in Romans viii. 15, 23, +as well as in Galatians iv. 5. Adoption was a peculiar +institution of Roman law, familiar to Paul as a citizen +of Rome; and it aptly describes to Gentile believers +their relation to the family of God. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> “By adoption +under the Roman law an entire stranger in blood +became a member of the family into which he was +adopted, exactly as if he had been born in it. He +assumed the family name, partook in its system of +sacrificial rites, and became, not on sufferance or at +will, but to all intents and purposes a member of the +house of his adopter.... This metaphor was St Paul’s +translation into the language of Gentile thought of +Christ’s great doctrine of the New Birth. He exchanges +the physical metaphor of regeneration for the legal +metaphor of adoption. The adopted becomes in the +eye of the law a new creature. He was born again +into a new family. By the aid of this figure the Gentile +convert was enabled to realize in a vivid manner the +fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of the faithful, the +obliteration of past penalties, the right to the mystic +inheritance. He was enabled to realize that upon this +spiritual act ‘Old things passed away and all things +became new.’”<a name="FNanchor_31" id="FNanchor_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a></p> + +<p>This exalted status belonged to men in the purpose +of God from eternity; but as a matter of fact it +was instituted “through Jesus Christ,” the historical +Redeemer. Whether previously (Jewish) servants in +God’s house or (Gentile) aliens excluded from it (ii. +12), those who believed in Jesus as the Christ received +a spirit of adoption and dared to call God <i>Father</i>! +This unspeakable privilege had been preparing for +them through the ages past in God’s hidden wisdom. +Throughout the wild course of human apostasy the +Father looked forward to the time when He might +again through Jesus Christ make men His sons; and +His promises and preparations were directed to this +one end. The predestination having such an end, +how fitly it is said: “<i>in love</i> having foreordained us.”</p> + +<p>Four times, in these three verses, with exulting +emphasis, the apostle claims this distinction for “us.” +<i>Who</i>, then, are the objects of the primordial election +of grace? Does St Paul use the pronoun distributively, +thinking of individuals—you and me and so +many others, the personal recipients of saving grace? +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +or does he mean the Church, as that is collectively +the family of God and the object of His loving ordination? +In this epistle, the latter is surely the thought +in the apostle’s mind.<a name="FNanchor_32" id="FNanchor_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> +As Hofmann says: “The body +of Christians is the object of this choice, not as composed +of a certain number of individuals—a sum of +‘the elect’ opposed to a sum of the non-elect—but as +the Church taken out of and separated from the world.”</p> + +<p>On the other hand, we may not widen the pronoun +further; we cannot allow that the sonship here signified +is man’s natural relation to God, that to which he was +born by creation. This robs the word “adoption” of +its distinctive force. The sonship in question, while +grounded “in Christ” from eternity, is conferred +“through” the incarnate and crucified “Jesus Christ”; +it redounds “to the praise of the glory of His <i>grace</i>.” +Now, grace is God’s redeeming love toward sinners. +God’s purpose of grace toward mankind, embedded, as +one may say, in creation, is realized in the body of redeemed +men. But this community, we rejoice to believe, +is vastly larger than the visible aggregate of Churches; +for how many who knew not His name, have yet +walked in the true light which lighteth every man.</p> + +<p>There lies in the words “in Christ” a principle of +exclusion, as well as of wide inclusion. Men cannot +be in Christ against their will, who persistently put +Him, His gospel and His laws, away from them. +When we close with Christ by faith, we begin to enter +into the purpose of our being. We find the place +prepared for us before the foundation of the world in +the kingdom of Divine love. We live henceforth +“to the praise of the glory of His grace!”</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26" id="Footnote_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> +Ch. ii. 7, iii. 5, 21; Col. i. 26.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27" id="Footnote_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> +Vv. 13, 14; Rom. viii. 2–6, 16; 1 Cor. ii. 12; Gal v. 16, 22–25.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28" id="Footnote_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> +<span class="greek" title="eis auton">εἰς αὐτόν</span>, <i>for Him</i>; +not <span class="greek" title="autô">αὐτῳ</span>, <i>to Him</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29" id="Footnote_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> +Ch. v. 25–27; Col. i. 27–29; Jude 24.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30" id="Footnote_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> +On <i>sonship</i>, see Chapters XV.–XVII. and XIX. in <i>The Epistle to +the Galatians</i> (Expositor’s Bible).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31" id="Footnote_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> +From a valuable and suggestive paper by W. E. Ball, LL.D., on +“St Paul and the Roman Law,” in the <i>Contemporary Review</i>, August +1891.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32" id="Footnote_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> +See vv. 12, 13, where Jews and Gentiles, collectively, are distinguished; +and ch. ii. 11, 12, iii. 2–6, 21, iv. 4, 5, v. 25–27.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> +<h4>THE BESTOWMENT OF GRACE.</h4> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i6">“Which grace He bestowed on us, in the Beloved One:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In whom we have the redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses,<br /></span> +<span class="i12">According to the riches of His grace:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, making known to us the mystery of His will,<br /></span> +<span class="i12">According to His good pleasure:<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Which He purposed in Him, for dispensation in the fulness of the times,<br /></span> +<span class="i6"><i>Purposing</i> to gather into one body all things in the Christ—<br /></span> +<span class="i6">The things belonging to the heavens, and the things upon the earth—yea, in Him,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In whom also we received our heritage, as we had been foreordained,<br /></span> +<span class="i12">According to purpose of Him who worketh all things<br /></span> +<span class="i12">According to the counsel of His will,—<br /></span> +<span class="i16">That we might be to the praise of His +glory.”<a name="FNanchor_33" id="FNanchor_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a><br /></span> +<span class="ref"><span class="smcap">Eph.</span> i. 6<i>b</i>–12<i>a</i>.<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>The blessedness of men in Christ is not matter +of purpose only, but of reality and experience. +With the word <i>grace</i> in the middle of the sixth verse +the apostle’s thought begins a new movement. We +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +have seen Grace hidden in the depths of eternity in +the form of sovereign and fatherly election, lodging its +purpose in the foundation of the world. From those +mysterious depths we turn to the living world in our +own breast. There, too, Grace dwells and reigns: +“which grace He imparted to us, in the Beloved,—in +whom we have redemption through His blood.”</p> + +<p>The leading word of this clause we can only paraphrase; +it has no English equivalent. St Paul perforce +turns <i>grace</i> into a verb; this verb occurs in the New +Testament but once besides,—in Luke i. 28, the angel’s +salutation to Mary: “Hail thou that art highly favoured +(made-an-object-of-grace).”<a name="FNanchor_34" id="FNanchor_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> +If we could employ our verb <i>to grace</i> in a sense corresponding to that of the +noun <i>grace</i> in the apostle’s dialect and nearly the opposite +of <i>to disgrace</i>, then <i>graced</i> would signify what he +means here, viz., <i>treated with grace</i>, made its recipients.</p> + +<p>God “showed us grace <i>in the Beloved</i>”—or, to render +the phrase with full emphasis, “in that Beloved One”—even +as He “chose us in Him before the world’s +foundation” and “in love predestined us for adoption.” +The grace is conveyed upon the basis of our relationship +to Christ: on that ground it was conceived in the +counsels of eternity. The Voice from heaven which +said at the baptism of Jesus and again at the transfiguration, +“This is my Son, the Beloved,” uttered God’s +eternal thought regarding Christ. And that regard of +God toward the Son of His love is the fountain of His +love and grace to men.</p> + +<p>Christ is the Beloved not of the Father alone, but of +the created universe. All that know the Lord Jesus +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +must needs love and adore Him—unless their hearts +are eaten out by sin. Not to love Him is to be anathema. +“If any man love me,” said Jesus, “my Father will +love him.” Nothing so much pleases God and brings +us into fellowship with God so direct and joyous, as our +love to Jesus Christ. About this at least heaven and +earth may agree, that He is the altogether lovely and +love-worthy. Agreement in this will bring about agreement +in everything. The love of Christ will tune the +jarring universe into harmony.</p> + +<p>1. Of grace bestowed, the first manifestation, in the +experience of Paul and his readers, was <i>the forgiveness +of their trespasses</i> (comp. ii. 13–18). This is “the +redemption” that “we <i>have</i>.” And it comes “through +His <i>blood</i>.” The epistles to the Galatians and +Romans<a name="FNanchor_35" id="FNanchor_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> +expound at length the apostle’s doctrine touching the +remission of sin and the relation of Christ’s death to +human transgression. To <i>redemption</i> we shall return +in considering verse 14, where the word is used, as +again in chapter iv. 30, in its further application.</p> + +<p>In Romans iii. 22–26 “the redemption that is in +Christ Jesus” is declared to be the means by which we +are acquitted in the judgement of God from the guilt +of past transgressions. And this redemption consists +in the “propitiatory sacrifice” which Christ offered in +shedding His blood—a sacrifice wherein we participate +“through faith.” The language of this verse contains +by implication all that is affirmed there. In this connexion, +and according to the full intent of the word, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> +redemption is <i>release by ransom</i>. The life-blood of +Jesus Christ was the <i>price</i> that He paid in order to +secure our lawful release from the penalties entailed by +our trespasses.<a name="FNanchor_36" id="FNanchor_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> +This Jesus Christ implied beforehand, +when He spoke of “giving His life a ransom for many”; +and when He said, in handing to His disciples the cup +of the Last Supper: “This is my blood, the blood of +the covenant, which is shed for many for the remission +of sins.” Using another synonymous term, St Paul +tells us that “Christ <i>bought us out of</i> the curse of the +law”; and he bases on this expression a strong practical +appeal: “You are not your own, for you were bought +with a price.”<a name="FNanchor_37" id="FNanchor_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> +These sayings, and others like them, +point unmistakably to the fact that our trespasses as +men against God’s inflexible law, apart from Christ’s +intervention, must have issued in our eternal ruin. By +His death on the cross Christ has made such amends +to the law, that the awful sentence is averted, and our +complete release from the power of sin is rendered +possible.</p> + +<p>On rising from the dead our Saviour commissioned +the apostles to “proclaim in His name repentance and +remission of sins to all nations” (Luke xxiv. 47). It +was thus He proposed to save the world. This proclamation +is the “good news” of the gospel. The +announcement meets the first need of the serious and +awakened human spirit. It answers the question which +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +arises in the breast of every man who thinks earnestly +about his personal relations to God and to the laws of +his being. We cannot wonder that St Paul sets the +remission of sins first amongst the bestowments of God’s +grace, and makes it the foundation of all the rest.</p> + +<p>Does it occupy the like position in modern Christian +teaching? Do we realize the criminality of sin, the fearfulness +of God’s displeasure, the infinite worth of His +forgiveness and the obligations under which it places +us, as St Paul and his converts did? or even as our +fathers did a few generations ago? “It is my impression,” writes +Dr. R. W. Dale,<a name="FNanchor_38" id="FNanchor_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> +“that both religious people and those who do not profess to be religious +must be conscious that God’s Forgiveness, if they ever +think of it at all, does not create any deep and strong +emotion.... The difference between the way in which +we think of the Divine Forgiveness and the way in +which it was thought of by David and Isaiah, by Christ +Himself, by Peter, Paul, and John; by the saints of all +Christian Churches in past times, both in the East and +in the West; ... by the leaders of the Evangelical +Revival in the last century—the difference, I say, +between the way in which the Forgiveness of sins was +thought of by them, and the way in which we think +of it, is very startling. The difference is so great, it +affects so seriously the whole system of the religious +thought and life, that we may be said to have invented +a new religion.... The difference between our religion +and the religion of other times is this—that we do not +believe that God has any strong resentment against sin +or against those who are guilty of sin. And since His +resentment has gone, His mercy has gone with it. We +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> +have not a God who is more merciful than the God of +our fathers, but a God who is less righteous; and a +God who is not righteous, a God who does not glow +with fiery indignation against sin, is no God at all.”</p> + +<p>These are solemn words, to be deeply pondered. +They come from one of the most sagacious observers +and justly revered teachers of our time. We have made +a real advance in breadth and human sympathy; and +there has been throughout our Churches a genuine and +much needed awakening of philanthropic activity. But +if we are <i>departing from the living God</i>, what will this +avail us? If “the redemption through Christ’s blood, +the forgiveness of our trespasses,” is no longer to us the +momentous and glorious fact that it was to the apostles, +then it is time to ask whether our God is in truth the +same as theirs, whether He is still the God and Father +of our Lord Jesus Christ—whether we are not, haply, +fabricating for ourselves another gospel. Without a +piercing sense of the shame and ruin involved in human +sin, we shall not put its remission where St Paul does, +at the foundation of God’s benefits to men. Without +this sentiment, we can only wonder at the passionate +gratitude with which he receives the atonement and +measures by its completeness the riches of God’s grace.</p> + +<p>II. Along with this chief blessing of forgiveness, +there came another to the apostolic Church. With the +heart the mind, with the conscience the intellect was +quickened and endowed: “which [grace] He shed +abundantly upon us <i>in all wisdom and intelligence</i>.”</p> + +<p>This sequel to verse 7 is somewhat of a surprise. +The reader is apt to slur over verse 8, half sensible of +some jar and incongruity between it and the context. +It scarcely occurs to us to associate wisdom and good +sense with the pardon of sin, as kindred bestowments +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +of the gospel. Minds of the evangelical order are often +supposed, indeed, to be wanting in intellectual excellencies +and indifferent to their value. Is it not true +that “not many wise after the flesh were called”? Do +we not glory above everything in preaching a “simple +gospel”?</p> + +<p>But there is another side to all this. “Christ +was made of God unto us <i>wisdom</i>.” This attribute +the apostle even sets first when he writes to the +wisdom-seeking Greeks, mocked by their worn-out and +confused philosophies (1 Cor. i. 30). To a close +observer of the primitive Christian societies few things +must have been more noticeable than the powerful +mental stimulus imparted by the new faith. These +epistles are a witness to the fact. That such letters +could be addressed to communities gathered mainly +from the lower ranks of society—consisting of slaves, +common artizans, poor women—shows that the moral +regeneration effected in St Paul’s converts was accompanied +by an extraordinary excitement and activity of +thought. In this the apostle recognised the work of +the Holy Spirit, a mark of God’s special favour and +blessing. “I give thanks always for you,” he writes +to the Corinthians, “for the grace of God that was +given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were +enriched by Him, in all word and all knowledge.” +The leaders of the apostolic Church were the profoundest +thinkers of their day; though at the time the +world held them for babblers, because their dialect +was not of its schools. They drew from stores of +wisdom and knowledge hidden in Christ, which none +of the princes of this world knew.</p> + +<p>Of such wisdom our epistle is full, and God “has +made it to abound” to the readers in these inspired +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> +pages. Paul’s “understanding in the mystery of +Christ” was always deepening. In his lonely prison +musings the length and breadth of the Divine counsels +are disclosed to him as never before. He sees the +course of the ages and the universe of being illuminated +by the light of the knowledge of Christ. And what +he sees, all men are to see through him (iii. 9). +Blessed be God who has given to His Church through +His apostles, and through the great Christian teachers +of every age, His precious gifts of wisdom and +prudence, and made His grace richly to overflow from +the heart into the mind and understanding of men!</p> + +<p>This intellectual gift is twofold: <i>phronēsis</i> as well +as <i>sophia</i>,—the bestowment not only of deep spiritual +thought, but of moral sagacity, good sense and thoughtfulness. +This is a choice <i>charism</i>—a mercy of the +Lord. For want of it how sadly is the fruit of other +graces spoilt and wasted. How brightly it shines in +St Paul himself! What luminous and wholesome +views of life, what a fund of practical sense there is +in the teaching of this letter.</p> + +<p>St Paul rejoices in these gifts of the understanding +and claims them for the Church, having in his +view the false knowledge, the “philosophy and vain +deceit” that was making its appearance in the Asian +Churches (Col. ii. 4, 8, etc.). Our safeguard against +intellectual perils lies not in ignorance, but in deeper +heart-knowledge. When the grace that bestows redemption +through Christ’s blood adds its concomitant +blessing of enlightenment, when it elevates the mind +as it cleanses the heart, and abounds to us in all wisdom +and prudence, the winds of doctrine and the waves of +speculation blow and beat in vain; they can but bring +health to a Church thus established in its faith.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +Verses 9 and 10 describe the object of this new +knowledge. They state the doctrine which gave this +powerful mental impulse to the apostolic Church, disclosing +to it a vast field of view, and supplying the +most fertile and vigorous principles of moral wisdom. +This impulse lay in the revelation of God’s purpose +to reconstitute the universe in Christ. The declaration +of “the mystery of His will” comes in at this point +episodically, and by the way; and we reserve it for +consideration to the end of the present Chapter.</p> + +<p>But let us observe here that our wisdom and prudence +lie in the knowledge of God’s will. Truth is not to +be found in any system of logical notions, in schemes +and syntheses of the laws of nature or of thought. +The human mind can never rest for long in abstractions. +It will not accept for its basis of thought that +which is less real and positive than itself. By its +rational instincts it is compelled to seek a Reason and +a Conscience at the centre of things,—a living God. +It craves to know <i>the mystery of His will</i>.</p> + +<p>III. Verse 11 fills up the measure of the bestowment +of grace on sinful men. The present anticipates the +future; faith and love are lifted to a glorious hope. +“In whom also—<i>i.e.</i>, in Christ—<i>we received our heritage</i>, +predestinated [to it], according to His purpose who +works all things according to the counsel of His will.”</p> + +<p>Following Meyer and other great interpreters, we +prefer in this passage the rendering of the English +Authorized Version (<i>we obtained an inheritance</i>) to that +of the Revised (<i>we were made a +heritage</i>).<a name="FNanchor_39" id="FNanchor_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +“Foreordained” carries us back to verse 5—to the phrase +“foreordained to sonship.” The believer cannot be +predestinated to sonship without being predestinated +to an inheritance.<a name="FNanchor_40" id="FNanchor_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> +“If children, then heirs” (Rom. +viii. 17). But while in the parallel passage we are +designated heirs <i>with</i> Christ, we appear in this place, +according to the tenor of the context, as heirs <i>in</i> Him. +Christ is Himself the believer’s wealth, both in possession +and hope: all his desire is to gain Christ (Phil. iii. +8). The apostle gives thanks here in the same strain as +in Colossians i. 12–14, “to the Father who qualified us +[by making us His sons] to partake of the inheritance +of the saints in the light.” In that thanksgiving we +observe the same connexion as in this between our +<i>forgiveness</i> (ver. 7) and our <i>enfeoffment</i>, or investment +with the forfeited rights of sons of God +(vv. 5, 11).<a name="FNanchor_41" id="FNanchor_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a></p> + +<p>The heritage of the saints in Christ is theirs already, +by actual investiture. The liberty of sons of God, +access to the Father, the treasures of Christ’s wisdom +and knowledge, the sanctifying Spirit and the moral +strength and joy that He imparts, these form a rich +estate of which ancient saints had but foretastes and +promises. In the all-controlling +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> “counsel of His will,” +God wrought throughout the course of history to convey +this heritage to us. We are children of “the fulness +of the times,” heirs of all the past. For us God has +been working from eternity. On us the ends of the +world have come. Thus from the summit of our +exaltation in Christ the apostle looks backward to the +beginning of Divine history.</p> + +<p>From the same point his gaze sweeps onward to the +end. God’s purpose embraces the ages to come with +those that are past. His working will not cease till +the whole counsel is fulfilled. What we have of our +inheritance, though rich and real, holds in it the promise +of infinitely more; and the Holy Spirit is the “earnest +of our inheritance” (ver. 14). God intends “that we +should be to the praise of His glory.” As things are, +His glory is but obscurely visible in His saints. “It +doth not yet appear what we shall be,”—and it will +not appear until the unveiling of the sons of God (Rom. +viii. 18–25). One day God’s glory in us will burst +forth in its splendour. All beholders in heaven and +earth will then sing <i>to the praise of His glory</i>, when it +is seen in His redeemed and godlike sons.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>Verses 9 and 10 (<i>which He purposed ... upon the +earth</i>) are, as we have said, a parenthesis or episode +in the passage just reviewed. Neither in structure nor +in sense would the paragraph be defective, had this +clause been wanting. With the “in Him” repeated +at the end of verse 10, St Paul resumes the main +current of his thanksgiving, arrested for a moment +while he dwells on “the mystery of God’s will.”</p> + +<p>This last expression (ver. 9), notwithstanding what he +has said in verses 4 and 5, still needs elucidation. He +will pause for an instant to set forth once more the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +eternal purpose, to the knowledge of which the Church +is now admitted. The communication of this mystery +is, he says, “according to God’s good pleasure which +He purposed in Christ [comp. ver. 4], for a dispensation +of the fulness of the times, intending to gather +up again all things in the Christ—the things in the +heavens, and the things upon the earth.”</p> + +<p>God formed in Christ the purpose, by the dispensation +of His grace, in due time to re-unite the universe +under the headship of Christ. This mysterious design, +hitherto kept secret, He has “made known unto us.” +Its manifestation imparts a wisdom that surpasses all +the wisdom of former ages.<a name="FNanchor_42" id="FNanchor_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> +Such is the drift of this profound deliverance.</p> + +<p>The first clause of verse 10 supplies a datum for +its interpretation. The <i>fulness of the times</i>, in St Paul’s +dialect, can only be the time of +Christ.<a name="FNanchor_43" id="FNanchor_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> The dispensation +which God designed of old is that in which the +apostle himself is now engaged;<a name="FNanchor_44" id="FNanchor_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> +it is the dispensation, +or administration (<i>economy</i>), of the grace and truth +that came by Jesus Christ, whether God be conceived +as Himself the Dispenser, or through the stewards of +His mysteries. The Messianic end was to Paul’s +Jewish thought the dénouement of antecedent history. +How long this age would continue, into what epochs +it might unfold itself, he knew not; but for him the +fulness of the times had arrived. The Son of God was +come; the kingdom of God was amongst men. It was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +the beginning of the end. It is a mistake to relegate +this text to the dim and distant future, to some far-off +consummation. We are in the midst of the Christian +reconstruction of things, and are taking part in it. The +decisive epoch fell when “God sent forth His Son.” +All that has followed, and will follow, is the result of +this mission. Christ is all things, and in all; and we +are already complete in Him.</p> + +<p>What, then, signifies this <i>gathering-into-one</i> or <i>summing-up</i> +of all things in the Christ? Our <i>recapitulate</i> +is the nearest equivalent of the Greek verb, in its etymological +sense. In Romans xiii. 8, 9 the same word is +used, where the several commands of the second table +of the Decalogue are said to be “comprehended in this +word, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” +This summing up is not a generalization or +compendious statement of the commands of God; it +signifies their reduction to a fundamental principle. +They are unified by the discovery of a law that underlies +them all. And while thus theoretically explained, +they are made practically effective: “For love is the +fulfilling of the law.”</p> + +<p>Similarly, St Paul finds in Christ the fundamental +principle of the creation. For those who think with him, +God has by the Christian revelation already brought all +things to their unity. This summing up—the Christian +inventory and recapitulation of the universe—the +apostle has formally stated in Colossians i. 15–20: +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +“Christ is God’s image and creation’s firstborn. In +Him, through Him, for Him all things were made. He +is before them all; and in Him they have their basis +and uniting bond. He is equally the Head of the +Church and the new creation, the firstborn out of the +dead, that He might hold a universal presidence—charged +with all the fulness, so that in Him is the +ground of the reconciliation no less than of the creation +of all things in heaven and earth.” What can we +desire more comprehensive than this? It is the theory +and programme of the world revealed to God’s holy +apostles and prophets.</p> + +<p>The “gathering into one” of this text includes the +“reconciliation” of Colossians i. 20, and more. It +signifies, beside the removal of the enmities which are +the effect of sin (ii. 14–16), the subjection of all powers +in heaven and earth to the rule of Christ +(vv. 21, 22),<a name="FNanchor_45" id="FNanchor_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> +the enlightenment of the angelic magnates as to God’s +dealings with men (iii. 9, 10),—in fine, the rectification +and adjustment of the several parts of the great whole +of things, bringing them into full accord with each +other and with their Creator’s will. What St Paul +looks forward to is, in a word, the organization of the +universe upon a Christian basis. This reconstitution +of things is provided for and is being effected “in the +Christ.” He is the rallying point of the forces of peace +and blessing. The organic principle, the organizing +Head, the creative nucleus of the new creation is +there. The potent germ of life eternal has been introduced +into the world’s chaos; and its victory over the +elements of disorder and death is assured.</p> + +<p>Observe that the apostle says “in <i>the +Christ</i>.”<a name="FNanchor_46" id="FNanchor_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> He +is not speaking of Christ in the abstract, considered in +His own Person or as He dwells in heaven, but in His +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> +relations to men and to time. The Christ manifest in +Jesus (iv. 20, 21), the Christ of prophets and apostles, +the Messiah of the ages, the Husband of the Church +(v. 23), is the author and finisher of this grand restoration.</p> + +<p>Christ’s work is essentially a work of <i>restoration</i>. +We must insist, with Meyer, upon the significance of +the Greek preposition in Paul’s compound verb (<i>ana</i>-, +equal to <i>re</i>-in <i>restore</i> or <i>resume</i>). The Christ is not +simply the climax of the past—the Son of man and the +recapitulation of humanity, as man is of the creatures +below him, summing up human development and lifting +it to a higher stage—though He is all that. Christ +<i>rehabilitates</i> man and the world. He re-asserts the +original ground of our being, as that exists in God. +He carries us and the world forward out of sin and +death, by carrying us back to God’s ideal. The new +world is the old world repaired, and in its reparation +infinitely enhanced—rich in the memories of redemption, +in the fruit of penitence and the discipline of suffering, +in the lessons of the cross.</p> + +<p><i>All things</i> in heaven and earth it was God’s good +pleasure in the Christ to gather again into one. Is this +a general assertion concerning the universe as a whole, +or may we apply it with distributive exactness to each +particular thing? Is there to be, as we fain would +hope, no single exception to the “all things”—no +wanderer lost, no exile finally shut out from the Holy +City and the tree of life? Are all evil men and demons, +willing or against their will, to be embraced somehow +and at last—at last—in the universal peace of God?</p> + +<p>It is impossible that the first readers should have +so construed Paul’s words (comp. v. 5). He has not +forgotten the “unquenchable fire,” the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> “eternal punishment”; +nor dare we. “If anything is certain about +the teaching of Christ and His apostles, it is that they +warned men not to reject the Divine mercy and so to +incur irrevocable exile from God’s presence and joy. +They assumed that some men would be guilty of this +supreme crime, and would be doomed to this supreme +woe” (Dale). There is nothing in this text to warrant +any man in presuming on the mercy or the sovereignty +of God, nothing to justify us in supposing that, deliberately +refusing to be reconciled to God in Christ, we +shall yet be reconciled in the end, despite ourselves.</p> + +<p>St Paul assures us that God and the world will +be reunited, and that peace will reign through all +realms and orders of existence. He does not, and he +could not say that none will exclude themselves from +the eternal kingdom. Making men free, God has made +it possible for them to contradict Him, so long as they +have any being. The apostle’s words have their note +of warning, along with their boundless promise. There +is no place in the future order of things for aught that +is out of Christ. There is no standing-ground anywhere +for the unclean and the unjust, for the irreconcilable +rebel against God. “The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of +His kingdom all things that offend and them that do +iniquity.”</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p> +<a name="Footnote_33" id="Footnote_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> +The arrangement above made of the lines of this intricate passage +is designed to guide the eye to its elucidation. Our disposition of the +verses has not been determined by any preconceived interpretation, +but by the parallelism of expression and cadences of phrase. The +rhythmical structure of the piece, it seems to us, supplies the key to +its explanation, and reduces to order its long-drawn and heaped-up +relative and prepositional clauses, which are grammatically so +unmanageable.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34" id="Footnote_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> +<span class="greek" title="Chaire, kecharitômenê">Χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη</span>. It is impossible to reproduce in English the +beautiful assonance—the <i>play</i> of sound and sense—in Gabriel’s greeting, +as St Luke renders it.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35" id="Footnote_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> +See Rom. i. 16–18, iii. 19–v. 21, vi. 7, vii. 1–6, viii. 1–4, 31–34, +x. 6–9; 1 Cor. xv. 3, 4, 17, 56, 57; 2 Cor. v. 18–21; Gal. ii. 14–iii. 14, +vi. 12–14. The latter passages the writer has endeavoured to expound +in Chapters X. to XII. and XXVIII. of his Commentary on <i>Galatians</i> +in this series.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36" id="Footnote_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> +It is an error to suppose, as one sometimes hears it said, that <i>trespasses</i> +or <i>transgressions</i> are a light and comparatively trivial form of sin. +Both words denote, in the language of Scripture, definite offences +against known law, departures from known duty. Adam’s sin was the +typical “transgression” and “trespass” (Rom. v. 14, 15, etc.; comp. +ii. 23; Gal. iii. 19).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37" id="Footnote_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> +Gal. iii. 13; 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38" id="Footnote_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> +See <i>The Evangelical Revival, and other Sermons</i>, pp. 149–170, on +“The Forgiveness of Sins.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39" id="Footnote_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> +Bishop Ellicott, who advocates the latter rendering, objects to +Meyer’s interpretation that it is “doubtful in point of usage.” <i>Pace +tanti viri</i>, we must retort this objection upon the new translation. <i>To +obtain by lot, to have (a thing) allotted to one</i>, is the meaning regularly +given to <span class="greek" title="klêrousthai"> +κληροῦσθαι</span> in the classical dictionaries; and in O.T. usage the +<i>lot</i> (<span class="greek" title="klêros">κλῆρος</span>) +becomes the <i>inheritance</i> (the thing <i>allotted</i>). The verb is +repeatedly used by Philo with the meaning <i>to obtain</i>, or <i>receive an +inheritance</i>; whereas there seems to be no real parallel to the other +rendering. It is true that <span class="greek" title="klêrousthai"> +κληροῦσθαι</span> in the sense of the A.V. requires +an object; but that is virtually supplied by <span class="greek" title="en hô"> +ἐν ᾧ</span>: “we had our inheritance +allotted <i>in Christ</i>.” Comp. Col. i. 12, “the lot of the saints <i>in +the light</i>,” which signifies not the locality, but the nature and content +of the saints’ heritage.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40" id="Footnote_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> +See Gal. iii. 22—iv. 7; and Chapters XV.—XVII. in the <i>Expositor’s +Bible</i> (Galatians), on Sonship and Inheritance in St Paul.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41" id="Footnote_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> +Compare Acts xxvi. 18, which also speaks to this association of +ideas in St Paul’s mind, with vers. 4, 5, 7, and 11 in this chapter.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42" id="Footnote_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> +Vv. 8, 9, ch. iii. 4, 5; comp. Col. ii. 2, 3; 1 Cor. ii. 6–9.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43" id="Footnote_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> +“The fulness of the time,” Gal. iv. 4; “in due season,” Rom. v. 6; +“in its own times,” 1 Tim. ii. 6. These are all synonymous expressions +for the Messianic era. Comp. Heb. i. 2, ix. 26; 1 Pet. i. 20.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44" id="Footnote_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> +Ch. iii. 8, 9; Col. i. 25; 1 Cor. iv. 1; 1 Tim. i. 4, i. 7; 2 Tim. i. +9–11; and especially Rom. xvi. 25, 26.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45" id="Footnote_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> +Comp. ch. v. 5; 1 Cor. xv. 24–28; Phil. ii. 9–12; Heb. ii. 8; Rev. +i. 5, xi. 15, xvii. 14; Dan. vii. 13, 14.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46" id="Footnote_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> +One wonders that our Revisers, so attentive to all points of Greek +idiom, did not think it worth while to discriminate between <i>Christ</i> and +<i>the Christ</i> in such passages as this. In Ephesians this distinction is +especially conspicuous and significant. See vv. 12, 20 iii. 17, iv. 20, +v. 23; similarly in 1 Cor. xv. 22; Rom. xv. 3.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> +<h4>THE FINAL REDEMPTION.</h4> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i8">“[That we might be to the praise of His glory:]<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We who had before hoped in the Christ, in whom also ye <i>have hoped</i>,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">Since ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In whom indeed, when ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Which is the earnest of our inheritance, till the redemption of <i>God’s</i> possession,—<br /></span> +<span class="i16">To the praise of His glory.”<br /></span> +<span class="ref"><span class="smcap">Eph.</span> i. 12–14.<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>When the apostle reaches the “heritage” conferred +upon us in Christ (ver. 11), he is on +the boundary between the present and the future. +Into that future he now presses forward, gathering +from it his crowning tribute “to the praise of God’s +glory.” We shall find, however, that this heritage +assumes a twofold character, as did the conception +of the inheritance of the Lord in the Old Testament. +If the saints have their heritage in Christ, partly +possessed and partly to be possessed, God has likewise, +and antecedently, His inheritance in them, of which He +too has still to take full +possession.<a name="FNanchor_47" id="FNanchor_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +Opening upon this final prospect, St Paul touches +on a subject of supreme interest to himself and that +could not fail to find a place in his great Act of Praise—viz., +<i>the admission of the Gentiles</i> to the spiritual +property of Israel. The thought of the heirship of +believers and of God’s previous counsel respecting it +(ver. 11), brought before his mind the distinction between +Jew and Gentile and the part assigned to each +in the Divine plan. Hence he varies the general refrain +in verse 12 by saying significantly, “that <i>we</i> might +be to the praise of His glory.” This emphatic <i>we</i> is +explained in the opening phrase of the last strophe: +“that have beforehand fixed our hope on the Christ,”—the +heirs of Israel’s hope in “Him of whom Moses +in the law and the prophets did write.” With this +“we” of Paul’s Jewish consciousness the “ye also” of +verse 13 is set in contrast by his vocation as Gentile +apostle. This second pronoun, by one of Paul’s +abrupt turns of thought, is deprived of its predicating +verb; but that is given already by the “hoped” of +the last clause. “The Messianic hope, Israel’s ancient +heirloom, in its fulfilment is <i>yours</i> as much as ours.”</p> + +<p>This hope of Israel pointed Israelite and Gentile +believer alike to the completion of the Messianic era, +when the mystery of God should be finished and His +universe redeemed from the bondage of corruption +(vv. 10, 14). By the “one hope” of the Christian +calling the Church is now made one. From this point +of view the apostle in chapter ii. 12 describes the +condition in which the gospel found his Gentile readers +as that of men cut off from Christ, strangers to the +covenants of promise,—in a word, “having no hope”; +while he and his Jewish fellow-believers held the +priority that belonged to those whose are the promises. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +The apostle stands precisely at the juncture where +the wild shoot of nature is grafted into the good olive +tree. A generation later no one would have thought +of writing of “the Christ in whom <i>you</i> (Gentiles) <i>also</i> +have found hope”; for then Christ was the established +possession of the Gentile Church.</p> + +<p>To these Christless heathen Christ and His hope +came, when they “heard the word of truth, the gospel +of their salvation.” A great light had sprung up for +them that sat in darkness; the good tidings of salvation +came to the lost and despairing. “To the Gentiles,” +St Paul declared, addressing the obstinate Jews of +Rome, “this salvation of God was sent: they indeed +will hear it” (Acts xxviii. 28). Such was his experience +in Ephesus and all the Gentile cities. There were +hearing ears and open hearts, souls longing for the +word of truth and the message of hope. The trespass +of Israel had become the riches of the world. For this +on his readers’ behalf he gives joyful thanks,—that his +message proved to be “the gospel of <i>your</i> salvation.”</p> + +<p>Salvation, as St Paul understands it, includes our +uttermost deliverance, the end of death itself (1 Cor. +xv. 26). He renders praise to God for that He has +sealed Gentile equally with Jewish believers with the +stamp of His Spirit, which makes them His property +and gives assurance of absolute redemption.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>There are three things to be considered in this +statement: <i>the seal</i> itself, <i>the conditions</i> upon which, +and <i>the purpose</i> for which it is affixed.</p> + +<p>I. A seal is a token of proprietorship put by the owner +upon his property;<a name="FNanchor_48" id="FNanchor_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> +or it is the authentication of some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +statement or engagement, the official stamp that gives +it validity;<a name="FNanchor_49" id="FNanchor_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> +or it is the pledge of inviolability guarding +a treasure from profane or injurious +hands.<a name="FNanchor_50" id="FNanchor_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> There is +the protecting seal, the ratifying seal, and the proprietary +seal. The same seal may serve each or all of +these purposes. Here the thought of possession predominates +(comp. ver. 4); but it can scarcely be +separated from the other two. The witness of the +Holy Spirit marks men out as God’s <i>purchased right</i> in +Christ (1 Cor. vi. 19, 20). In that very fact it guards +them from evil and wrong (iv. 30), while it ratifies +their Divine sonship (Gal. iv. 6) and guarantees their +personal share in the promises of God (2 Cor. i. 20–22). +It is a bond between God and men; a sign at once +of what we are and shall be to God, and of what He +is and will be to us. It secures, and it assures. It +stamps us for God’s possession, and His kingdom and +glory as our possession.</p> + +<p>This seal is constituted by <i>the Holy Spirit of the promise</i>,—in +contrast with the material seal, “in the flesh, +wrought by hand,”<a name="FNanchor_51" id="FNanchor_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> +which marked the children of the +Old Covenant from Abraham downwards, previously +to the fulfilment of the promise (Gal. iii. 14). We +bear it in the inmost part of our nature, where we are +nearest to God: “The Spirit witnesseth to our spirit.” +“The Israelites also were sealed, but by circumcision, +like cattle and irrational animals. We were sealed by +the Spirit, as sons” (Chrysostom). The stamp of God +is on the consciousness of His children. “We know +that Christ abides in us,” writes St John, “from the +Spirit which He gave us” (1 Ep. iii. 24). Under +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +this seal is conveyed the sum of blessing comprised +in our salvation. Jesus promised, “Your heavenly +Father will give His Holy Spirit to them that ask” +(Luke xi. 13), as if there were nothing else to ask. +Giving us this, God gives everything, gives us Himself! +In substance or anticipation, this one bestowment contains +all good things of God.</p> + +<p>The apostle writes “the Spirit of the promise, <i>the +Holy</i> [Spirit],” with emphasis on the word of quality; +for the testifying power of the seal lies in its character. +“Beloved, believe not every spirit; but try the spirits, +whether they are of God” (1 John iv. 1). There are +false prophets, deceiving and deceived; there are +promptings from “the spirit that works in the sons +of disobedience,” diabolical inspirations, so plausible +and astonishing that they may deceive the very elect. +It is a most perilous error to identify the supernatural +with the Divine, to suppose mere miracles and communications +from the invisible sphere a sign of the +working of God. Antichrist can mimic Christ by +his “lying wonders and deceit of unrighteousness” +(2 Thess. ii. 8–12). Jesus never appealed to the power +of His works in proof of His mission, apart from their +ethical quality. God’s Spirit works after His kind, and +makes ours a holy spirit. There is an objective and subjective +witness—the obverse and reverse of the medal +(2 Tim. ii. 19). To be sealed by the Holy Spirit is, +in St Paul’s dialect, the same thing as to be <i>sanctified</i>; +only, the phrase of this text brings out graphically the +promissory aspect of sanctification, its bearing on our +final redemption.<a name="FNanchor_52" id="FNanchor_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a></p> + +<p>When the sealing Spirit is called the Spirit <i>of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> +promise</i>, does the expression look backward or forward? +Is the apostle thinking of the past promise now fulfilled, +or of some promise still to be fulfilled? The +former, undoubtedly, is true. <i>The</i> promise (the article +is significant<a name="FNanchor_53" id="FNanchor_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a>) +is, in the words of Christ, “the promise +of the Father.” On the day of Pentecost St Peter +pointed to the descent of the Holy Spirit as God’s seal +upon the Messiahship of Jesus, fulfilling what was +promised to Israel for the last days. When this +miraculous effusion was repeated in the household of +Cornelius, the Jewish apostle saw its immense significance. +He asked, “Can any one forbid water that +these should be baptized, who have received the Holy +Spirit as well as we?” (Acts x. 47). This was the predicted +criterion of the Messianic times. Now it was +<i>given</i>, and with an abundance beyond hope,—<i>poured +out</i>, in the full sense of Joel’s words, <i>upon all flesh</i>.</p> + +<p>Now, if God has done so much—for this is the +implied argument of verses 13, 14—He will surely +accomplish the rest. The attainment of past hope is +the warrant of present hope. He who gives us His +own Spirit, will give us the fulness of eternal life. The +earnest implies the sum. In the witness of the Holy +Spirit there is for the Christian man the power of an +endless life, a spring of courage and patience that can +never fail.</p> + +<p>II. But there are very definite conditions, upon which +this assurance depends. “When you heard the word +of truth, the gospel of your salvation”—there is the +outward condition: “when you believed”—there is +the inward and subjective qualification for the affixing +of the seal of God to the heart.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +How characteristic is this antithesis of <i>hearing</i> and +<i>faith</i>!<a name="FNanchor_54" id="FNanchor_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> +St Paul delights to ring the changes upon +these terms. The gospel he carried about with him +was a message from God to men, the good news about +Jesus Christ. It needs, on the one hand, to be effectively +uttered, proclaimed so as to be heard with the +understanding; and, on the other hand, it must be +trustfully received and obeyed. Then the due result +follows. There is salvation,—conscious, full.</p> + +<p>If they are to believe unto salvation, men must be +made to <i>hear</i> the word of truth. Unless the good news +reaches their ears and their heart, it is no good news +to them. “How shall they believe in Him of whom +they have not heard? how shall they hear without +a preacher?” (Rom. x. 14). The light may be true, +and the eyes clear and open; but there is no vision +till both meet, till the illuminating ray falls on the +sensitive spot and touches the responsive nerve. How +many sit in darkness, groping and wearying for the +light, ready for the message if there were any to speak +it to them! Great would Paul’s guilt have been, if +when Christ called him to preach to the heathen, he had +refused to go, if he had withheld the gospel of salvation +from the multitudes waiting to receive it at his lips. +Great also is our fault and blame, and heavy the +reproach against the Church to-day, when with means +in her hand to make Christ known to almost the whole +world, she leaves vast numbers of men within her +reach in ignorance of His message. She is not the +proprietor of the Christian truth: it is God’s gospel; +and she holds it as God’s trustee for mankind,—that +through her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +“the message might be fully preached, +and that all the nations might hear” (2 Tim. iv. 17). +She has St Paul’s programme in hand still to complete, +and loiters over it.</p> + +<p>The nature of the message constitutes our duty to +proclaim it. It is “the word <i>of truth</i>.” If there be +any doubt upon this, if our certainty of the Christian +truth is shaken and we can no longer announce it with +full conviction, our zeal for its propagation naturally +declines. Scepticism chills and kills missionary fervour, +as the breath of the frost the young growth of spring. +At home and amongst our own people evangelistic +agencies are supported by many who have no very +decided personal faith, from secondary motives,—with +a view to their social and reformatory benefits, out of +philanthropic feeling and love to “the brother whom we +have seen.” The foreign missions of the Church, like +the work of the Gentile apostle, gauge her real estimate +of the gospel she believes and the Master she serves.</p> + +<p>But if we have no sure word of prophecy to speak, +we had better be silent. Men are not saved by illusion +or speculation. Christianity did not begin by +offering to mankind a legend for a gospel, or win +the ear of the world for a beautiful romance. When +the apostles preached Jesus and the resurrection, they +declared what they knew. To have spoken otherwise, +to have uttered cunningly devised fables or pious +phantasies or conjectures of their own, would have +been, in their view, to bear false witness against God. +Before the hostile scrutiny of their fellow-men, and in +prospect of the awful judgement of God, they testified +the facts about Jesus Christ, the things that they had +“heard, and seen with their eyes, and which their +hands had handled concerning the word of life.” They +were as sure of these things as of their own being. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span> +Standing upon this ground and with this weapon of +truth alone in their hands, they denounced “the wiles +of error” and the “craftiness of men who lie in wait +to deceive” (iv. 14).</p> + +<p>And they could always speak of this word of truth, +addressing whatsoever circle of hearers or of readers, +as “the good news of <i>your salvation</i>.” The pronoun, +as we have seen, is emphatic. The glory of Paul’s apostolic +mission was its universalism. His message was +to every man he met. His latest writings glow with +delight in the world-wide destination of his +gospel.<a name="FNanchor_55" id="FNanchor_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> +It was his consolation that the Gentiles in multitudes +received the Divine message to which his countrymen +closed their ears. And he rejoiced in this the more, +because he foresaw that ultimately the gospel would +return to its native home, and at last amid “the fulness +of the Gentiles all Israel would be saved” (Rom. +xi. 13–32). At present Israel was not prepared to +seek, while the Gentiles were seeking righteousness by +the way of faith (Rom. ix. 30–33).</p> + +<p>For it is upon this question of <i>faith</i> that the whole +issue turns. Hearing is much, when one hears the +word of truth and news of salvation. But faith is +the point at which salvation becomes ours—no longer +a possibility, an opportunity, but a fact: “in whom +indeed, <i>when you believed</i>, you were sealed with the +Holy Spirit.” So characteristic is this act of the new +life to which it admits, that St Paul is in the habit of +calling Christians, without further qualification, simply +<i>believers</i> (“those who believe,” or “who believed”). +Faith and the gift of the Holy Spirit are associated +in his thoughts, as closely as Faith and Justification. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> +“Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” +was the question he put to the Baptist’s disciples whom +he found at Ephesus on first arriving there (Acts xix. +2). This was the test of the adequacy of their faith. +He reminds the Galatians that they “received the +Spirit from the hearing of faith,” and tells them that +in this way the blessing and the promise of Abraham +were theirs already (Gal. iii. 2, 7, 14). Faith in the +word of Christ admits the Spirit of Christ, who is +in the word waiting to enter. Faith is the trustful +surrender and expectancy of the soul towards +God; it sets the heart’s door open for Christ’s incoming +through the Spirit This was the order of +things from the beginning of the new dispensation. +“God gave to them,” says St Peter of the first +baptized Gentiles, “the like gift as He did also unto +us, when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. The +Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning” +(Acts xi. 15–18). Upon our faith in Jesus Christ, the +Holy Spirit enters the soul and announces Himself +by His message of adoption, crying in us to God, +<i>Abba, Father</i> (Gal. iv. 6, 7).</p> + +<p>In the chamber of our spirit, while we abide in faith, +the Spirit of the Father and the Son dwells with us, +witnessing to us of the love of God and leading us +into all truth and duty and divine joy, instilling a +deep and restful peace, breathing an energy that is +a fire and fountain of life within the breast, which +pours out itself in prayer and labour for the kingdom +of God. The Holy Spirit is no mere gift to receive, +or comfort to enjoy; He is an almighty Force in the +believing soul and the faithful Church.</p> + +<p>III. The end for which the seal of God was affixed +to Paul’s Gentile readers, along with their Jewish +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +brethren in Christ, appears in the last verse, with +which the Act of Praise terminates: “sealed,” he says, +“with the Holy Spirit, which is the earnest of our +inheritance, <i>until the redemption of the possession</i>.”</p> + +<p>The last of these words is the equivalent of the Old +Testament phrase rendered in Exodus xix. 5, and elsewhere, +“<i>a peculiar treasure</i> unto me”; in Deuteronomy +vii. 6, etc., “a <i>peculiar</i> people” (<i>i.e.</i>, people of <i>possession</i>). +The same Greek term is employed by the +Septuagint translators in Malachi iii. 17, where our +Revisers have substituted “a peculiar treasure” for +the familiar, but misleading “jewels” of the older +Version. St Peter in his first epistle (ii. 9, 10) transfers +the title from the Jewish people to the new Israel +of God, who are “an elect race, a royal priesthood, +a holy nation, a people <i>for God’s own possession</i>.” In +that passage, as in this, the Revisers have inserted the +word <i>God’s</i> in order to signify whose possession the +term signifies in Biblical use. In the other places +in the New Testament where the same Greek noun +occurs,<a name="FNanchor_56" id="FNanchor_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> +it retains its primary active force, and denotes +“<i>obtaining</i> of the glory,” etc., “<i>saving</i> of the soul.” +The word signifies not the possessing so much as the +<i>acquiring</i> or <i>securing</i> of its object. The Latin Vulgate +suitably renders this phrase, <i>in redemptionem +acquisitions</i>,—“till the redemption of the acquisition.”</p> + +<p>God has “redeemed unto Himself a people”; He +has “bought us with a price.” His rights in us are +both natural and <i>acquired</i>; they are redemptional +rights, the recovered rights of the infinite love which in +Jesus Christ saved mankind by extreme sacrifice from +the doom of death eternal. This redemption +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> “we +have, in the remission of our trespasses” (ver. 7). +But this is only the beginning. Those whose sin is +cancelled and on whom God now looks with favour +in Christ, are thereby redeemed and saved (ii. 5, +8).<a name="FNanchor_57" id="FNanchor_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> +They are within the kingdom of grace; they have +passed out of death into life. They have but to +persist in the grace into which they have entered, and +all will be well. “Now,” says the apostle to the +Romans, “you are made free from sin and made +servants to God; you have your fruit unto holiness, +and the end eternal life.”</p> + +<p>Our salvation is come; but, after all, it is still to +come. We find the apostle using the words “save” and +“redeem” in this twofold sense, applying them both to +the commencement and the consummation of the new +life.<a name="FNanchor_58" id="FNanchor_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> +The last act, in Romans viii. 23, he calls “the +redemption of the body.” This will reinstate the man +in the integrity of his twofold being as a son of God. +Hence our bodily redemption is there called an <i>adoption</i>. +For as Jesus Christ by His resurrection was “marked +out [<i>or</i> instated] as Son of God in power” (Rom. i. 4), +not otherwise will it be with His many brethren. Their +reappearance in the new “body of glory” will be +a “revelation” to the universe “of the sons of God.”</p> + +<p>But this last redemption—or rather this last act of +the one redemption—like the first, is through the blood +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> +of the cross. Christ has borne for us in His death +the entire penalty of sin; the remission of that penalty +comes to us in two distinct stages. The shadow of +death is lifted off from our spirits now, in the moment +of forgiveness. But for reasons of discipline it remains +resting upon our bodily frame. Death is a usurper +and trespasser in the bounds of God’s heritage. +Virtually and in principle, he is abolished; but not in +effect. “I will ransom them from the power of the +grave,”<a name="FNanchor_59" id="FNanchor_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> +the Lord said of His Israel, with a meaning +deeper than His prophet knew. When that is done, +then God will have redeemed, in point of fact, those +possessions in humanity which He so much prizes, +that for their recovery He spared not His Son.</p> + +<p>So long as mortality afflicts us, God cannot be +satisfied on our account. His children are suffering +and tortured; His people mourn under the oppression +of the enemy. They sigh, and creation with them, +under the burdensome and infirm tabernacle of the +flesh, this body of our humiliation for which the +hungry grave clamours. God’s new estate in us is +still encumbered with the liabilities in which the sin +of the race involved us, with the “ills that flesh is +heir to.” But this mortgage—that we call, with a +touching euphemism, <i>the debt of nature</i>—will at last +be discharged. Soon shall we be free for ever from +the law of sin and death. “And the ransomed of the +Lord shall return and come with singing to Zion, and +everlasting joy shall be upon their heads: they shall +obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall +flee away.”</p> + +<p>To God, as He looks down upon men, the seal +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +of His Spirit upon their hearts anticipates this full +emancipation. He sees already in the redeemed spirit +of His children what will be manifest in their glorious +heavenly form. The same token is to ourselves as +believing men the “earnest of our inheritance.” Note +that at this point the apostle drops the “you” by +which he has for several sentences distinguished between +Jewish and Gentile brethren. He identifies +them with himself and speaks of “<i>our</i> inheritance.” +This sudden resumption of the first person, the self-assertion +of the filial consciousness in the writer +breaking through the grammatical order, is a fine trait +of the Pauline manner.<a name="FNanchor_60" id="FNanchor_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a></p> + +<p><i>Arrhabon</i>, the <i>earnest</i> (<i>fastening penny</i>), is a Phœnician +word of the market, which passed into Greek and +Latin,—a monument of the daring pioneers of Mediterranean +commerce. It denotes the part of the price +given by a purchaser in making a bargain, or of the +wages given by the hirer concluding a contract of +service, by way of assurance that the stipulated sum +will be forthcoming. Such pledge of future payment +is at the same time a bond between those concerned, +engaging each to his part in the transaction.</p> + +<p>The earnest is the seal, and something more. It +is an instalment, a <i>token in kind</i>, a foretaste of the +feast to come. In the parallel passage, Romans viii. 23, +the same earnest is called “the firstfruit of the Spirit.” +What the earliest sheaf is to the harvest, that the +entrance of the Spirit of God into a human soul is +to the glory of its ultimate salvation. The sanctity, +the joy, the sense of recovered life is the same +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +in kind then and now, differing only in degree and +expression.</p> + +<p>Of the “earnest of the Spirit” St Paul has spoken +twice already, in 2 Corinthians i. 22 and v. 5, where +he cites this inner witness to assure us, in the first +instance, that God will fulfil to us His promises, “how +many soever they be”; and in the second, that our +mortal nature shall be “swallowed up of life”—assimilated +to the living spirit to which it belongs—and that +“God has wrought us for this very thing.” These +earlier sayings explain the apostle’s meaning here. +God has made us His sons, in accordance with His +purpose formed in the depths of eternity (ver. 5). As +sons, we are His heirs in fellowship with Christ, and +already have received rich blessings out of this heritage +(ver. 11). But the richest part of it, including that +which concerns the bodily form of our life, is still +unredeemed, notwithstanding that the price of its +redemption is paid.</p> + +<p>For this we wait till the time appointed of the Father,—the +time when He will reclaim His heritage in us, +and give us full possession of our heritage in Christ. +We do not wait, as did the saints of former ages, +ignorant of the Father’s purpose for our future lot. +“Life and immortality are brought to light through +the gospel.” We see beyond the chasm of death. +We enjoy in the testimony of the Holy Spirit the foretaste +of an eternal and glorious life for all the children +of God—nay, the pledge that the reign of evil and +death shall end throughout the universe.</p> + +<p>With this hope swelling their hearts, the apostle’s +readers once more triumphantly join in the refrain: <span class="smcap">To +the praise of His glory</span>.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47" id="Footnote_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> +Exod. xix. 3–6; Deut. iv. 20, 21; 1 Kings viii. 51, 53; Ps. lxxviii. +71, etc. With the above comp. Gen. xv. 8; Numb. xviii. 20; Jos. xiii. 33; +Ps. xvi. 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48" id="Footnote_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> +Ch. iv. 30. The “seal” of 2 Tim. ii. 19 has both the first and +third of these meanings.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49" id="Footnote_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> +Rom. iv. 11; 1 Cor. ix. 2; John iii. 33, vi. 27.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50" id="Footnote_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> +Matt. xxvii. 66; Rev. v. 1, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51" id="Footnote_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> +Ch. ii. 11; comp. Rom. i. 28, 29; Gal. v, 5, 6; Phil. iii. 2, 3.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52" id="Footnote_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> +Comp. Rom. viii. 9–11; 2 Cor. v. 1–5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53" id="Footnote_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> +Acts i. 4, ii. 33, 39, xiii. 32, xxvi. 6; Rom. iv. 13–20; Gal. iii. +14–29.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54" id="Footnote_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> +See Rom. x. 14–18; Gal. iii. 2, 5; Col. i. 6, 23; 1 Thess. ii. 13; +2 Tim. i. 13.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55" id="Footnote_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> +1 Tim. ii. 1–7, iv. 10; Tit. ii. 11.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56" id="Footnote_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> +1 Thess. v. 9; 2 Thess. ii. 14; Heb. x. 39.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57" id="Footnote_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> +Comp. Chapter VIII.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58" id="Footnote_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> +For the former usage see, along with ver. 7 and ch. ii. 5, 8; +Rom. iii, 24, x. 9; Titus iii. 5; 2 Tim. i. 9; Col. i. 14; Heb. ix. 15; +for the latter, ch. iv. 30; Luke xxi. 28; Rom. v. 9, 10, viii. 23; +Phil. ii. 12; 1 Thess. v. 8, 9; 2 Tim. ii. 10, iv. 18. It may be +doubted whether St Paul ever uses these terms to denote present salvation +or redemption without the final issue being also in his thoughts. +Perhaps he would have called the redemption of ver. 7, in contrast +with that of Rom. viii. 23, “the redemption of the spirit.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59" id="Footnote_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> +Hosea xiii. 14; Isa. xxv. 8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60" id="Footnote_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> +The same incoherence occurs in Gal. iv. 5–7: “that <i>we</i> might +receive the adoption of sons. And because <i>ye</i> are sons, God sent +forth the Spirit of His Son into <i>our</i> hearts.”</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<h4>FOR THE EYES OF THE HEART.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“For this cause I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus +which is among you, and which <i>ye shew</i> toward all the saints, cease not +to give thanks for you, making mention <i>of you</i> in my prayers:</p> + +<p>“That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give +unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him; +having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is +the hope of His calling, what the riches of the glory of His inheritance +in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of His power toward us +who believe, according to that working of the might of His strength, +which He wrought in the Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, +and made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly <i>places</i>.”—<span class="smcap">Eph.</span> +i. 15–20.</p></div> + +<p><i>Because of this</i>: because you have heard the glad +tidings, and believing it have been sealed with the +Holy Spirit (vv. 13, 14). <i>I too</i>: I your apostle, with so +great an interest in your salvation, in return give thanks +for you. Thus St Paul, having extolled to the uttermost +God’s counsel of redemption unfolded through the +ages, claims to offer especial thanksgiving for the faith +of those who belong to his Gentile province and are, +directly or indirectly, the fruit of his own ministry +(iii. 1–13).</p> + +<p>The intermediate clause of verse 15, describing the +readers’ faith, is obscure. This form of expression +occurs nowhere else in St Paul; but the construction +is used by St Luke,—<i>e.g.</i>, in Acts xxi. 21: +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> “All the +Jews <i>which are among</i> the Gentiles,” where it implies +diffusion over a wide area. This being a circular letter, +addressed to a number of Churches scattered through +the province of Asia, of whose faith in many cases St +Paul knew only by report, we can understand how he +writes: “having heard of the faith that is [spread] +amongst you.”—<i>The love</i>, completing <i>faith</i> in the +ordinary text (as in Col. i. 4), is relegated by the +Revisers to the margin, upon evidence that seems +conclusive.<a name="FNanchor_61" id="FNanchor_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> +The commentators, however, feel so strongly +the harshness of this ellipsis that, in spite of the ancient +witnesses, they read, almost with one +consent,<a name="FNanchor_62" id="FNanchor_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> “<i>your +love</i> toward all the saints.” The variation of the former +clause prepares us, however, for something peculiar in +this. In verse 13 we found St Paul’s thought fixed +on the decisive fact of his readers’ <i>faith</i>. On this he +still dwells lingeringly. The grammatical link needed +between “faith” and “unto all the saints” is supplied +in the Revised Version by <i>ye show</i>, after the analogy of +Philemon 5. Perhaps it might be supplied as grammatically, +and in a sense better suiting the situation, +by <i>is come</i>. Then the co-ordinate prepositional phrases +qualifying “faith” have both alike a local reference, +and we paraphrase the clause thus: “since I heard of +the faith in the Lord Jesus which is spread amongst +you, and whose report has reached all the saints.”</p> + +<p>We are reminded of the thanksgiving for the Roman +Church,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +“that your faith is proclaimed throughout the +whole world.”<a name="FNanchor_63" id="FNanchor_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> +The success of the gospel in Asia +gave encouragement to believers in Christ everywhere. +St Paul loves in this way to link Church to Church, +to knit the bonds of faith between land and land: in +this letter most of all; for it is his catholic epistle, the +epistle of the Church œcumenical.</p> + +<p>In verse 16 we pass from praise to prayer. God is +invoked by a double title peculiar to this passage, as +“the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of +glory.” The former expression is in no way difficult. +The apostle often speaks, as in verse 3, of “the God +and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”: intending to +qualify the Divine Fatherhood by another epithet, he +writes for once simply of “<i>the God</i> of our Lord Jesus +Christ.” This reminds us of the dependence of the +Lord Jesus upon the eternal Father, and accentuates the +Divine sovereignty so conspicuous in the foregoing Act +of Praise. Christ’s constant attitude towards the Father +was that of His cry of anguish on the cross, “My God, +my God!” Yet He never speaks to men of <i>our</i> God. +To us God is “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,” as +He was to the men of old time “the God of Abraham +and of Isaac and of Jacob.”</p> + +<p>The key to the designation <i>Father of glory</i> is in +Romans vi. 4: “Christ was raised from the dead +through <i>the glory of the Father</i>.” In the light of this +august manifestation of God’s power to save His lost +sons in Christ, we are called to see light (vv. 19, 20). +Its glory shines already about God’s blessed name +of Father, thrice glorified in the apostle’s praise (vv. +3–14). The title is the counterpart of “the Father of +compassions” in 2 Corinthians i. 3.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +And now, what has the apostle to ask of the Father of +men under these glorious appellations? He asks “a +spirit of wisdom and revelation in the +full-knowledge<a name="FNanchor_64" id="FNanchor_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> +of Him,—the eyes of your heart enlightened, in order that +you may know,” etc. This recalls the emphasis with +which in verses 8 and 9 he set “wisdom and intelligence” +amongst the first blessings bestowed by Divine +grace upon the Church. It was the gift which the Asian +Churches at the present juncture most needed; this is +just now the burden of the apostle’s prayers for his +people.</p> + +<p>The <i>spirit of wisdom and revelation</i> desired will proceed +from the Holy Spirit dwelling in these Gentile +believers (ver. 13). But it must belong to their own +spirit and direct their personal mental activity, the +spirit of revelation becoming “the spirit of their mind” +(iv. 23). When St Paul asks for “a spirit of wisdom +and <i>revelation</i>,” he desires that his readers may have +amongst themselves a fountain of inspiration and share +in the prophetic gifts diffused through the +Church.<a name="FNanchor_65" id="FNanchor_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> +And “the knowledge—the full, deep knowledge of +God” is the sphere “in” which this richer inspiration +and spiritual wisdom are exercised and nourished. +“Philosophy, taking man for its centre, says, <i>Know +thyself</i>: only the inspired word, which proceeds from +God, has been able to say, <i>Know God</i>.”<a name="FNanchor_66" id="FNanchor_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a></p> + +<p>The connexion of the first clause of verse 18 with the +last of verse 17 is not very clear in St Paul’s Greek; +there is a characteristic incoherence of structure. The +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> +continuity of thought is unmistakable. He prays that +through this inspired wisdom his readers may have +their reason enlightened to see the grandeur and +wealth of their religion. This is a vision for “the eyes +of the heart.” It is disclosed to the eye behind the +eye, to the heart which is the true discerner.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i6">“The seeing eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">See best by the light in the heart that lies.”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>Yonder is an ox grazing in the meadow on a bright +summer’s day. Round him is spread the fairest landscape,—a +broad stretch of herbage embroidered with +flowers, the river gleaming in and out amongst the +distant trees, the hills on both sides bounding the quiet +valley, sunshine and shadows chasing each other as +they leap from height to height. But of all this what +sees the grazing ox? So much lush pasture and cool +shade and clear water where his feet may plash when +he has done feeding. In the same meadow there stands +a poet musing, or a painter busy at his easel; and on +the soul of that gifted man there descends, through +eyes outwardly discerning no more than those of the +beast at his side, a vision of wonder and beauty which +will make all time richer. The eyes of the man’s heart +are opened, and the spirit of wisdom and revelation is +given him in the knowledge of God’s work in nature.</p> + +<p>Like differences exist amongst men in regard to the +things of religion. “So foolish was I and ignorant,” +says the Psalmist, speaking of his former dejection +and unbelief, “I was as a beast before Thee!” There +shall be two men sitting side by side in the same house +of prayer, at the same gate of heaven. The one sees +heaven opened; he hears the eternal song; his spirit +is a temple filled with the glory of God. The other +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span> +sees the place and the aspect of his fellow-worshippers; +he hears the music of organ and choir, and the +sound of some preacher’s voice. But as for anything +besides, any influence from another world, it is no +more to him at that moment than is the music in the +poet’s soul or the colours on the painter’s canvas to +the ox that eateth grass.</p> + +<p>It is not the strangeness and distance of Divine +things alone that cause insensibility; their familiarity +has the same effect. We know all this gospel so well. +We have read it, listened to it, gone over its points +of doctrine a hundred times. It is trite and easy to +us as a worn glove. We discuss without a tremor +of emotion truths the first whisper and dim promise of +which once lifted men’s souls into ecstasy, or cast them +down into depths of shame and bewilderment so that +they forgot to eat their bread. The awe of things +eternal, the mystery of our faith, the Spirit of glory and +of God rest on us no longer. So there come to be, as +one hears it said, <i>gospel-hardened</i> hearers—and gospel-hardened +preachers! The eyes see—and see not; the +ears hear—and hear not; the lips speak without feeling; +<i>the heart is waxen fat</i>. This is the nemesis of grace +abused. It is the result that follows by an inevitable +psychological law, where outward contact with spiritual +truth is not attended with an inward apprehension and +response. How do we need to pray, in handling these +dread themes, for a true sense and savour of Divine +things,—that there may be given, and ever given +afresh to us “a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the +knowledge of God.”</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>Three things the apostle desires that his readers +may see with the heart’s enlightened eyes: the <i>hope to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> +which God calls them</i>, the <i>wealth that He possesses in +them,</i> and the <i>power which He is prepared to exert upon +them as believing men</i>.</p> + +<p>I. What, then, is our <i>hope</i> in God? What is the +ideal of our faith? For what purpose has God called +us into the fellowship of His Son? What is our +religion going to do for us and to make of us?</p> + +<p>It will bring us safe home to heaven. It will deliver +us from the present evil world, and preserve us unto +Christ’s heavenly kingdom. God forbid that we should +make light of “the hope laid up for us in the heavens,” +or cast it aside. It is an anchor of the soul, both +sure and steadfast. But is it <i>the</i> hope of our calling? +Is this what St Paul here chiefly signifies? We are +very sure that it is not. But it is the one thing which +stands for the hope of the gospel in many minds. “We +trust that our sins are forgiven: we hope that we shall +get to heaven!” The experience of how many Christian +believers begins and ends there. We make of +our religion a harbour of refuge, a soothing anodyne, +an escape from the anguish of guilt and the fear of +death; not a life-vocation, a grand pursuit. The definition +we have quoted may suffice for the beginning +and the end; but we need something to fill out that +formula, to give body and substance, meaning and +movement to the life of faith.</p> + +<p>Let the apostle tell us what he regarded, for himself, +as the end of religion, what was the object of his +ambition and pursuit. “One thing I do,” he writes +to the Philippians, opening to them all his heart,—“One +thing I do. I press towards the mark for the +prize of my high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” And +what, pray, was that mark? +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>—“that I may gain Christ +and be found in Him!—that I may know Him, and +the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of +His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if by +any means I may attain unto the final resurrection +from the dead.” Yes, Paul hopes for heaven; but he +hopes for something else first, and most. It is through +Christ that he sees heaven. To know Christ, to +love Christ, to serve Christ, to follow Christ, to be like +Christ, to be with Christ for ever!—that is what St +Paul lived for. Whatever aim he pursues or affection +he cherishes, Christ lies in it and reaches beyond it. +In doing or in suffering, in his intellect and his heart, +in his thoughts for himself or for others, Christ is all +things to him and in all. When life is thus filled with +Christ, heaven becomes, as one may say, a mere circumstance, +and death but an incident upon the way,—in +the soul’s everlasting pursuit of Christ.</p> + +<p>Behold, then, brethren, the hope of our calling. +God could not call us to any destiny less or lower than +this. It would have been unworthy of Him,—and may +we not say, unworthy of ourselves, if we are in truth +His sons? From eternity the Father of spirits has +predestined you and me to be holy and without blemish +before Him,—in a word, to be conformed to the image +of His Son. Every other hope is dross compared to +this.</p> + +<p>II. Another vision for the heart’s eyes, still more +amazing than that we have seen: “what is,” St Paul +writes, “the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance in +the saints.”</p> + +<p>We saw, in considering the eleventh and fourteenth +verses, how the apostle, in characteristic fashion, plays +upon the double aspect of the <i>inheritance</i>, regarding it +now as the heritage of the saints in God and again as +His heritage in them. The former side of this relationship +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> +was indicated in the “hope of the Divine calling,”—which +we live and strive for as it is promised us +by God; and the latter comes out, by way of contrast, +in this second clause. Verse 18 repeats in another +way the antithesis of verse 14 between our inheritance +and God’s acquisition. We must understand that God +sets great store by us His human children, and counts +Himself rich in our affection and our service. How +deeply it must affect us to know this, and to see the +glory that in God’s eyes belongs to His possession +in believing men.</p> + +<p>What presumption is all this, some one says. How +preposterous to imagine that the Maker of the worlds +interests Himself in atoms like ourselves,—in the +ephemera of this insignificant planet! But moral +magnitudes are not to be measured by a foot-rule. +The mind which can traverse the immensities of space +and hold them in its grasp, transcends the things it +counts and weighs. As it is amongst earthly powers, +so the law may hold betwixt sphere and sphere in the +system of worlds, in the relations of bodies terrestrial +and celestial to each other, that “God has chosen the +weak things to put to shame the mighty, and the +things that are not to bring to nought the things that +are.” Through the Church He is “making known to +the potentates in the heavenly places His manifold +wisdom” (iii, 10). The lowly can sing evermore with +Mary in the Magnificat: “He that is mighty hath +magnified me.” If it be true that God spared not His +Son for our salvation and has sealed us with the seal +of His Spirit, if He chose us before the world’s foundation +to be His saints, He must set upon those saints +an infinite value. We may despise ourselves; but He +thinks great things of us.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> +And is this, after all, so hard to understand? If the +alternative were put to some owner of wide lands and +houses full of treasure: “Now, you must lose that fine +estate, or see your own son lost and ruined! You +must part with a hundred thousand pounds—or with +your best friend!” there could be no doubt in such a +case what the choice would be of a man of sense and +worth, one who sees with the eyes of the heart. Shall +we think less nobly of God than of a right-minded +man amongst ourselves?—Suppose, again, that one of +our great cities were so full of wealth that the poorest +were housed in palaces and fared sumptuously every +day, though its citizens were profligates and thieves +and cowards! What would its opulence and luxury +be worth? Is it not evident that <i>character</i> is the only +possession of intrinsic value, and that this alone gives +worth and weight to other properties? “The saints +that are in the earth and the excellent” are earth’s +riches.</p> + +<p>So far as we can judge of His ways, the great God +who made us cares comparatively little about the upholstery +and machinery of the universe; but He cares +immensely about men, about the character and destiny +of men. There is nothing in all that physical science +discloses for God to <i>love</i>, nothing kindred to Himself. +“Hast thou considered my servant Job?” the Hebrew +poet pictures Him saying before heaven and hell!—“Hast +thou considered my servant Job?—a perfect +man and upright: there is none like him in the earth.” +How proud God is of a man like that, in a world like +this. Who can tell the value that the Father of glory +sets upon the tried fidelity of His humblest servant here +on earth; the intensity with which He reciprocates the +confidence of one timid, trembling human heart, or the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +simple reverence of one little child that lisps His +awful name? “He <i>taketh pleasure</i> in them that fear +Him, in those that hope in His mercy!” Beneath +His feet all the worlds lie spread in their starry splendour, +our sun with its train of planets no more than +one glimmering spot of light amongst ten thousand. +But amidst this magnificence, what is the sight that +wins His tender fatherly regard? “To that man will +I look, that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that +trembles at my word.” Thus saith the High and Lofty +One that inhabiteth eternity. The Creator rejoices in +His works as at the beginning, the Lord of heaven +and earth in His dominion. But these are not His +“inheritance.” That is in the love of His children, in +the character and number of His saints. <i>We</i> are to +be the praise of His glory.</p> + +<p>Let us learn, then, to respect ourselves. Let us +not take the world’s tinsel for wealth, and spend our +time, like the man in Bunyan’s dream, scraping with +“the muck-rake” while the crown of life shines above +our head. The riches of a Church—nay, of any human +community—lies not in its moneyed resources, but in +the men and women that compose it, in their godlike +attributes of mind and heart, in their knowledge, their +zeal, their love to God and man, in the purity, the +gentleness, the truthfulness and courage and fidelity +that are found amongst them. These are the qualities +which give distinction to human life, and are beautiful +in the eyes of God and holy angels. “Man that is in +honour and understandeth not, is like the beasts that +perish.”</p> + +<p>III. One thing more we need to understand, or what +we have seen already will be of little practical avail. +We may see glorious visions, we may cherish high +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +aspirations; and they may prove to be but the dreams of +vanity. Nay, it is conceivable that God Himself might +have wealth invested in our nature, a treasure beyond +price, shipwrecked and sunk irrecoverably through our +sin. What means exist for realizing this inheritance? +what power is there at work to recover these forfeited +hopes, and that glory of God of which we have come +so miserably short?</p> + +<p>The answer lies in the apostle’s words: “That ye +may know what is the exceeding greatness of His +power toward us that believe,”—a power measured by +“the energy of the might of His +strength<a name="FNanchor_67" id="FNanchor_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> which He +wrought in the Christ, when He raised Him from the +dead and set Him at His right hand in the heavenly +places.” This is the power that we have to count +upon, the force that is yoked to the world’s salvation +and is at the service of our faith. Its energy has +turned the tide and reversed the stream of nature—in +the person of Jesus Christ and in the course of human +history. It has changed death to life. Above all, it +certifies the forgiveness of sin and releases us from +its liabilities; it transforms the law of sin and death +into the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.</p> + +<p>We preachers hear it said sometimes: +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> “You live in +a speculative world. Your doctrines are ideal and +visionary,—altogether too high for men as they are and +the world as we find it. Human nature and experience, +the coarse realities of life are all against you.”</p> + +<p>What would our objectors have said at the grave-side +of Jesus? “The beautiful dreamer, the sublime +idealist! He was too good for a world such as ours. +It was sure to end like this. His ideas of life were +utterly impracticable.” So they would have moralized. +“And the good prophet talked—strangest fanaticism of +all—of rising again on the third day! One thing at +least we know, that the dead are dead and gone from +us. No, we shall never see Jesus or His like again. +Purity cannot live in this infected air. The grave ends +all hope for men.” But, despite human nature and +human experience, He has risen again, He lives for +ever! That is the apostle’s message and testimony to +the world. For those “who believe” it, all things are +possible. A life is within our reach that seemed far +off as earth from heaven. <i>You</i> may become a perfect +saint.</p> + +<p>From His open grave Christ breathed on His disciples, +and through them on all mankind, the Holy +Spirit. This is the efficient cause of Christianity,—the +Spirit that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. The +limit to its efficacy lies in the defects of our faith, +in our failure to comprehend what God gave us in +His Son. Is anything now too hard for the Lord? +Shall anything be called impossible, in the line of God’s +promise and man’s spiritual need? Can we put an +arrest upon the working of this mysterious force, upon +the Spirit of the new life, and say to it: Thus far shalt +thou go, and no farther?</p> + +<p>Look at Jesus where He was—the poor, tortured, +wounded body, slain by our sins, lying cold and still +in Joseph’s grave: then lift up your eyes and see Him +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +<i>where He is</i>,—enthroned in the worship and wonder of +heaven! Measure by that distance, by the sweep and +lift of that almighty Arm, the strength of the forces +engaged to your salvation, the might of the powers +at work through the ages for the redemption of +humanity.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61" id="Footnote_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> +See Westcott and Hort’s <i>New Testament in Greek</i>, vol. ii., pp. +124, 125.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62" id="Footnote_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> +Dr. Beet abides by the critical text. He solves the difficulty by +giving <span class="greek" title="pistis"> +πίστις</span> a double sense: “the faith among you in the Lord Jesus, +and the <i>faithfulness</i> towards all the saints.” See his Commentary on +<i>Ephesians, etc.</i>, pp. 284–6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63" id="Footnote_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> +In 1 Thess. i. 7–9; 2 Thess. i. 4, the same thought enters into Paul’s +thanksgiving; comp. 2 Cor. ix. 2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64" id="Footnote_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> +This is the emphatic <span class="greek" title="epignôsis"> +ἐπιγνῶσις</span>, so frequent in the later epistles. See +Lightfoot’s <i>note</i> on Col. i. 9; or Cremer’s <i>Lexicon to N.T. Greek</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65" id="Footnote_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> +See ch. iii. 3–5, iv. 11; and comp. 1 Cor. xiv. 26–40, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66" id="Footnote_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> +Adolphe Monod: <i>Explication de l’épître de S. Paul aux Éphésiens</i>. +A deeply spiritual and suggestive Commentary.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67" id="Footnote_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> +In this amplitude of expression there is no idle heaping up of +words. The four synonyms for <i>power</i> have each a distinct force in the +sentence. <span class="greek" title="Dynamis"> +Δύναμις</span> is <i>power</i> in general, as that which is able to effect some +purpose; <span class="greek" title="energeia"> +ἐνέργεια</span> is <i>energy</i>, power in effective action and operation; +<span class="greek" title="kratos"> +κράτος</span> is <i>might</i>, <i>mastery</i>, sovereign power,—in the New Testament +used chiefly of the power of God; <span class="greek" title="ischys"> +ἰσχύς</span> is <i>force</i>, <i>strength</i>, power resident +in some person and belonging to him. This is the order in which the +words follow each other. Compare vi. 10 in the Greek.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="section"><a name="THE_DOCTRINE" id="THE_DOCTRINE"></a>THE DOCTRINE.</h2> +<h4 class="section"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> i. 20–iii. 13.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> +<span class="greek" title="Hypsêlôn sphodra gemei tôn noêmatôn kai hyperonkôn. Ha gar mêdamou +schedon ephthenxato, tauta entautha phêsin."> +Ὑψηλῶν σφόδρα γέμει τῶν νοημάτων καὶ ὑπερόγκων. +Ἃ γὰρ μηδαμοῦ σχέδον ἐφθέγξατο, ταῦτα ἐνταῦθά φησιν.</span></p> + +<p class="ref"> +<span class="smcap">John Chrysostom</span>: <i>In epistolam ad Ephesios.</i><br /> +</p> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<h4>WHAT GOD WROUGHT IN THE CHRIST.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“He raised Him from the dead, and made Him to sit at His right +hand in the heavenly <i>places</i>, far above all rule, and authority, and +power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this +world, but also in that which is to come: and He put all things in +subjection under His feet, and Him He gave—the head over all things—to +the Church which is His body,—the fulness of Him that filleth all +in all.”—<span class="smcap">Eph.</span> i. 20–23.</p></div> + +<p>The division that we make at verse 20, marking +off at this point the commencement of the Doctrine +of the epistle, may appear somewhat forced. The great +doxology of the first half of the chapter is intensely +theological; and the prayer which follows it, like that +of the letter to the Colossians, melts into doctrine +imperceptibly. The apostle teaches upon his knees. +The things he has to tell his readers, and the things +he has asked on their behalf from God, are to a great +extent the same. Still the writer’s attitude in the +second chapter is manifestly that of teaching; and his +doctrine there is so directly based upon the concluding +sentences of his prayer, that it is necessary for logical +arrangement to place these verses within the doctrinal +section of the epistle.</p> + +<p>The resurrection of Christ made men sensible that a +new force of life had come into the world, of incalculable +potency. This power was in existence before. In +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +prelusive ways, it has wrought in the world from its +foundation, and since the fall of man. By the incarnation +of the Son of God it took possession of human +flesh; by His sacrificial death it won its decisive +triumph. But the virtue of these acts of Divine grace +lay in their hiding of power, in the self-abnegation +of the Son of God who emptied Himself and took a +servant’s form, and became obedient unto death.</p> + +<p>With what a rebound did the “energy of the might of +God’s strength” put forth itself in Him, when once this +sacrifice was accomplished! Even His disciples who +had seen Jesus still the tempest and feed the multitude +from a handful of bread and call back the spirit to its +mortal frame, had not dreamed of the might of Godhead +latent in Him, until they beheld Him risen from +the dead. He had promised this in words; but they +understood His words only when they saw the fact, +when He actually stood before them “alive after His +passion.” The scene of Calvary—the cruel sufferings of +their Master, His helpless ignominy and abandonment +by God, the malignant triumph of his enemies—gave to +this revelation an effect beyond measure astonishing +and profound in its impression. From the stupor of +grief and despair they were raised to a boundless hope, +as Jesus rose from the death of the cross to glorious +life and Godhead.</p> + +<p>Of the same nature was the effect produced by His +manifestation to Paul himself. The Nazarene prophet +known to Saul by report as an attractive teacher and +worker of miracles, had made enormous pretensions, +blasphemous if they were not true. He put Himself forward +as the Messiah and the very Son of God! But +when brought to the test, His power utterly failed. God +disowned and forsook Him; and He +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> “was crucified of +weakness.” His followers declared, indeed, that He had +returned from the grave. But who could believe them, +a handful of Galilean enthusiasts, desperately clinging to +the name of their disgraced leader! If He has risen, why +does He not show Himself to others? Who can accept +a crucified Messiah? The new faith is a madness, +and an insult to our common Judaism! Such were +Saul’s former thoughts of the Christ. But when his +challenge was met and the Risen One confronted him +in the way to Damascus, when from that Form of insufferable +glory there came a voice saying, “I am Jesus, +whom thou persecutest!” it was enough. Instantly +the conviction penetrated his soul, “He liveth by the +power of God.” Saul’s previous reasonings against +the Messiahship of Jesus by the same rigorous logic +were now turned into arguments for Him.</p> + +<p>It is “<i>the</i> Christ,” let us observe, in whom God +“wrought raising Him from the dead”: the Christ of +Jewish hope (ver. 12), the centre and sum of the Divine +counsel for the world (ver. 10),<a name="FNanchor_68" id="FNanchor_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> +the Christ whom in +that moment never to be forgotten the humbled Saul +recognized in the crucified Nazarene.</p> + +<p>The demonstration of the power of Christianity Paul +had found in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The +power which raised Him from the dead is the working +energy of our faith. Let us see what this mysterious +power wrought in the Redeemer Himself; and then we +will consider how it bears upon us. There are two +steps indicated in Christ’s exaltation: He was raised +<i>from the death of the cross to new life amongst men</i>; and +again from the world of men He was raised <i>to the throne +of God in heaven</i>. In the enthronement of Jesus Christ +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +at the Father’s right hand, verses 22, 23 further distinguish +two separate acts: there was conferred on Him +<i>a universal Lordship</i>; and He was made specifically +<i>Head of the Church</i>, being given to her for her Lord +and Life, He who contains the fulness of the Godhead. +Such is the line of thought marked out for us.</p> + +<p>I. <i>God raised the Christ from the dead.</i></p> + +<p>This assertion is the corner-stone of St Paul’s life +and doctrine, and of the existence of Christendom. Did +the event really take place? There were Christians at +Corinth who affirmed, “There is no resurrection of the +dead.” And there are followers of Jesus now who with +deep sadness confess, like the author of <i>Obermann once +more</i>:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">“Now He is dead! Far hence He lies<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In the lorn Syrian town;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And on His grave, with shining eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The Syrian stars look down.”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>If we are driven to this surrender, compelled to think +that it was an apparition, a creation of their own +passionate longing and heated fancy that the disciples +saw and conversed with during those forty days, an +apparition sprung from his fevered remorse that arrested +Saul on the Damascus road—if we no longer believe +in Jesus and the resurrection, it is in vain that we still +call ourselves Christians. The foundation of the Christian +creed is struck away from under our feet. Its spell +is broken; its energy is gone.</p> + +<p>Individual men may and do continue to believe in +Christ, with no faith in the supernatural, men who are +sceptics in regard to His resurrection and miracles. +They believe in Himself, they say, not in His legendary +wonders; in His character and teaching, in His +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> +beneficent influence—in the <i>spiritual</i> Christ, whom no +physical marvel can exalt above His intrinsic greatness. +And such trust in Him, where it is sincere, He accepts +for all that it is worth, from the believer’s heart. But +this is not the faith that saved Paul, and built the +Church. It is not the faith which will save the world. +It is the faith of compromise and transition, the faith +of those whose conscience and heart cling to Christ +while their reason gives its verdict against Him. Such +belief may hold good for the individuals who profess +it; but it must die with them. No skill of reasoning +or grace of sentiment will for long conceal its inconsistency. +The plain, blunt sense of mankind will decide +again, as it has done already, that Jesus Christ was +either a blasphemer, or He was the Son of the eternal +God; either He rose from the dead in very truth, or +His religion is a fable. Christianity is not bound up +with the infallibility of the Church, whether in Pope or +Councils, nor with the inerrancy of the letter of Scripture: +it stands or falls with the reality of the facts +of the gospel, with the risen life of Christ and His +presence in the Spirit amongst men.</p> + +<p>The fact of Christ’s resurrection is one upon which +modern science has nothing new to say. The law of +death is not a recent discovery. Men were as well +aware of its universality in the first century as they are +in the nineteenth, and as little disposed as we are ourselves +to believe in the return of the dead to bodily life. +The stark reality of death makes us all sceptics. +Nothing is clearer from the narratives than the utter +surprise of the friends of Jesus at His reappearance, +and their complete unpreparedness for the event. +They were not eager, but “<i>slow</i> of heart to believe.” +Their very love to the Master, as in the case of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +Thomas, made them fearful of self-deception. It is +a shallow and an unjust criticism that dismisses the disciples +as interested witnesses and predisposed to faith +in the resurrection of their dead Master. Should we +be thus credulous in the case of our best-beloved dead? +The instinctive feeling that meets any thought of the +kind, after the fact of death is once certain, is rather that +of deprecation and aversion, such as Martha expressed +when Jesus went to call her brother from his grave. In +all the long record of human imposture and illusion, no +resurrection story has ever found general credence +outside of the Biblical revelation. No system of faith +except our own has ever been built on the allegation +that a dead man rose from the grave.</p> + +<p>Christ’s was not the only resurrection; but it is the +only <i>final</i> resurrection. Lazarus of Bethany left his tomb +at the word of Jesus, a living man; but he was still a +mortal man, doomed to see corruption. He returned from +the grave on this side, as he had entered it, “bound hand +and foot with grave-clothes.” Not so with the Christ. +He passed through the region of death and issued on the +immortal side, escaped from the bondage of corruption. +Therefore He is called the “firstfruits” and “the firstborn +<i>out of</i> the dead.”<a name="FNanchor_69" id="FNanchor_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> +Hence the alteration manifest +in the risen form of Jesus. He was “changed,” as St +Paul conceives those will be who await on earth their +Lord’s return (1 Cor. xv. 51). The mortal in Him was +swallowed up of life. The corpse that was laid in +Joseph’s tomb was there no longer. From it another +body has issued, recognized for the same person by +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +look and voice and movement, but indescribably +transfigured. Visible and tangible as the body of the +Risen One was—“Handle me, and see,” He said—it +was superior to material limitations; it belonged to a +state whose laws transcend the range of our experience, +in which the body is the pliant instrument of the +animating spirit. From the Person of the risen +Saviour the apostle formed his conception of the +“spiritual body,” the “house from heaven” with +which, as he teaches, each of the saints will be clothed—the +wasted form that we lay down in the grave being +transformed into the semblance of His “body of glory, +according to the mighty working whereby He is able +to subdue all things to Himself” (Phil. iii. 20, 21).</p> + +<p>The resurrection of the Christ inaugurated a new +order of things. It was like the appearance of the first +living organism amidst dead matter, or of the first +rational consciousness in the unconscious world. He +“is,” says the apostle, the “beginning, first-begotten +out of the dead” (Col. i. 18). With the harvest filling +our granaries, we cease to wonder at the firstfruits; +and in the new heavens and earth Christ’s resurrection +will seem an entirely natural thing. Immortality will +then be the normal condition of human existence.</p> + +<p>That resurrection, nevertheless, did homage to the +fundamental law of science and of reason, that +every occurrence, ordinary or extraordinary, shall +have an adequate cause. The event was not more +singular and unique than the nature of Him to whom +it befell. Looking back over the Divine life and deeds +of Jesus, St Peter said: “It was not possible that He +should be holden of death.” How unfitting and repugnant +to thought, that the common death of all men +should come upon Jesus Christ! There was that in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> +His Person, in its absolute purity and godlikeness, +which repelled the touch of corruption. He was +“marked out,” writes our apostle, “as Son of God, +<i>according to His spirit of holiness</i>, by His resurrection +from the dead” (Rom. i. 4). These two signs of Godhead +agree in Jesus; and the second is no more superhuman +than the first. For Him the supernatural was +natural. There was a mighty working of the being of +God latent in Him, which transcended and subdued to +itself the laws of our physical frame, even more completely +than they do the laws and conditions of the +lower realms of nature.</p> + +<p>II. The power which raised Jesus our Lord from the +dead could not leave Him in the world of sin and +death. Lifting Him from hades to earth, by another +step it exalted the risen Saviour above the clouds, +and <i>seated Him at God’s right hand in the heavens</i>.</p> + +<p>The forty days were a halt by the way, a condescending +pause in the operation of the almighty power that +raised Him. “I ascend,” He said to the first that saw +Him,—“I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my +God and your God.” He must see His own in the +world again; He must “show Himself alive after His +passion by infallible proofs,” that their hearts may be +comforted and knit together in the assurance of faith, +that they may be prepared to receive His Spirit and to +bear their witness to the world. Then He will ascend +up where He was before, returning to the Father’s +bosom. It was impossible that a spiritual body should +tarry in a mortal dwelling; impossible that the familiar +relations of discipleship should be resumed. No +new follower can now ask of Him, “Rabbi, where +dwellest Thou,” under what roof amid the homes of +men? For He dwells with those that love Him always +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> +and everywhere, like the Father (John xiv. 23). From +this time Christ will not be known after the flesh, but as +the “Lord of the Spirit” (2 Cor. iii. 18).</p> + +<p>“In the heavenlies” now abides the Risen One. +This expression, so frequent in the epistle as to be +characteristic of it,<a name="FNanchor_70" id="FNanchor_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> +denotes not locality so much as +condition and sphere. It speaks of the bright and +deathless world of God and the angels, of which the +sky has always been to men the symbol. Thither +Christ ascended in the eyes of His apostles on the +fortieth day from His rising. Once before His death +its brightness for a moment had irradiated His form +upon the Mount of Transfiguration. Clad in the like +celestial splendour He showed Himself to His future +apostle Paul, as to one born out of due time, to make +him His minister and witness. Since then, of all the +multitudes that have loved His appearing, no other has +looked upon Him with bodily eyes. He dwells with +the Father in light unapproachable.</p> + +<p>But rest and felicity are not enough for Him. Christ +sits at the right hand of power, that He may <i>rule</i>. In +those heavenly places, it seems, there are thrones +higher and lower, names more or less eminent, but His +stands clear above them all. In the realms of space, +in the epochs of eternity there is none to rival our +Lord Jesus, no power that does not owe Him tribute. +God “hath put all things under His feet.” <i>The Christ</i>, +who died on the cross, who rose in human form from +the grave, is exalted to share the Father’s glory and +dominion, is filled with God’s own fulness, and made +without limitation or exception “Head over all things.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +In his enumeration of the angelic orders in verse 21, +the apostle follows the phraseology current at the time, +without giving any precise dogmatic sanction to it. The +epistle to the Colossians furnishes a somewhat different +list (ch. i. 16); and in 1 Corinthians xv. 24 we find +the “principality, dominion, and power” without the “lordship.” As Lightfoot +says,<a name="FNanchor_71" id="FNanchor_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> +St Paul “brushes away all these speculations” about the ranks and titles of the +angels, “without inquiring how much or how little truth +there may be in them.... His language shows a spirit +of impatience with this elaborate angelology.” There +is, perhaps, a passing reproof conveyed by this sentence +to the “worshipping of the angels” inculcated at the +present time in Colossæ, to which other Asian Churches +may have been drawn. “Paul’s faith saw the Risen +and Rising One passing through and beyond and above +successive ranks of angelic powers, until there was in +heaven no grandeur which He had not left behind. +Then, after naming heavenly powers known to him, +he uses a universal phrase covering ‘not only’ those +known by men living on earth ‘in the’ present ‘age, but +also’ those names which will be needed and used to +describe men and angels throughout the eternal future” +(Beet).</p> + +<p>The apostle appropriates here two sentences of +Messianic prophecy, from Psalms cx. and viii. The +former was addressed to the Lord’s Anointed, the King-Priest +enthroned in Zion: “Sit thou on my right hand, +until I make thine enemies thy footstool!” The latter +text describes man in his pristine glory, as God formed +him after His likeness and set him in command over +His creation. This saying St Paul applies, with an +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> +unbounded scope, to the God-man raised from the dead, +Founder of the new creation: “Thou madest Him to +have dominion over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast +put all things under His feet.” To the former of these +passages St Paul repeatedly alludes; indeed, since our +Lord quoted it in this sense, it became the standing +designation of His heavenly +dignity.<a name="FNanchor_72" id="FNanchor_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> The words of +Psalm viii. are brought in evidence again in Hebrews +ii. 5–10, and expounded from a somewhat different +standpoint. As the writer of the other epistle shows, +this coronation belongs to the human race, and it falls +to the Son of man to win it. St Paul in quoting the +same Psalm is not insensible of its human reference. +It was a prophecy for Jesus and His brethren, for +Christ and the Church. So it forms a natural transition +from the thought of Christ’s dominion over the +universe (ver. 21) to that of His union with the +Church (ver. 22<i>b</i>).</p> + +<p>III. The second clause of verse 22 begins with an +emphasis upon the <i>object</i> which the English Version +fails to recognize: “and <i>Him</i> He gave”—the Christ +exalted to universal authority—“<i>Him</i> God gave, Head +over all things [as He is], to the Church which is His +body,—the fulness of Him who fills all things in all.”</p> + +<p>At the topmost height of His glory, with thrones +and princedoms beneath His feet, <i>Christ is given to the +Church</i>! The Head over all things, the Lord of the +created universe, He—and none less or lower—is the +Head of redeemed humanity. For the Church “is His +body” (this clause is interjected by way of explanation): +she is the vessel of His Spirit, the organic instrument +of His Divine-human life. As the spirit belongs to its +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> +body, by the like fitness the Christ in His surpassing +glory is the possession of the community of believing +men. The body claims its head, the wife her husband. +No matter where Christ is, however high in heaven, +He belongs to us. Though the Bride is lowly and of +poor estate, He is hers! and she knows it, and holds +fast His heart. She recks little of the people’s ignorance +and scorn, if their Master is her affianced Lord, and she +the best-beloved in His eyes.</p> + +<p>How rich is this gift of the Father to the Church +in the Son of His love, the concluding words of the +paragraph declare: “Him He gave ... to the Church ... [gave] +the fulness of Him that fills all in all.” In +the risen and enthroned Christ God bestowed on men +a gift in which the Divine plenitude that fills creation is +embraced. For this last clause, it is clear to us, does +not qualify “the Church which is His body,” and +expositors have needlessly taxed their ingenuity with +the incongruous apposition of “body” and “fulness”; +it belongs to the grand Object of the foregoing description, +to “the Christ” whom God raised from the dead +and invested with His own prerogatives. The two +separate designations, “Head over all things” and +“Fulness of the All-filler,” are parallel, and alike point +back to <i>Him</i> who stands with a weight of gathered +emphasis—heaped up from verse 19 onwards—at the +front of this last sentence (ver. 22<i>b</i>). There has been +nothing to prepare the reader to ascribe the august +title of the <i>pleroma</i>, the Divine fulness, to the Church—enough +for her, surely, if she is His body and He God’s +gift to her—but there has been everything to prepare +us to crown the Lord Jesus with this glory. To that +which God had wrought in Him and bestowed on Him, +as previously related, verse 23 adds something more +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span> +and greater still; for it shows what God makes the +Christ to be, not to the creatures, to the angels, to the Church, <i>but to God +Himself</i>!<a name="FNanchor_73" id="FNanchor_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a></p> + +<p>Our text is in strict agreement with the sayings +about “the fulness” in Colossians i. 15–20 and ii. 9, 10; +as well as with the later references of this epistle, in +chapter iii. 19, iv. 13; and with John i. 16. This title +belongs to Christ as God is in Him and communicates +to Him all Divine powers. It was, in the apostle’s view, +a new and distinct act by which the Father bestowed +on the incarnate Son, raised by His power from the +dead, the functions of Deity. Of this glory Christ had +of His own accord “emptied Himself” in becoming +man for our salvation (Phil. ii. 6, 7). Therefore when +the sacrifice was effected and the time of humiliation +past, it “was the Father’s pleasure that all the fulness +should make its dwelling in Him” (Col. i. 19). At no +point did Christ exalt Himself, or arrogate the glory +once renounced. He prayed, when the hour was come: +“Now, Father, <i>glorify Thou me</i> with Thine own self, +with the glory which I had with Thee before the world +was.” It was for the Father to say, as He raised and +enthroned Him: “Thou art my Son; I to-day have +begotten Thee!” (Acts xiii. 33).</p> + +<p>Again there was poured into the empty, humbled +and impoverished form of the Son of God the brightness +of the Father’s glory and the infinitude of the Father’s +authority and power. The majesty that He had foregone +was restored to Him in undiminished measure. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span> +But how great a change meanwhile in Him who +received it! This plenitude devolves not now on the +eternal Son in His pure Godhead, but on the Christ, +the Head and Redeemer of mankind. God who fills +the universe with His presence, with His cherishing +love and sustaining power, has conferred the fulness of +all that He is upon our Christ. He has given Him, so +replenished and perfected, to the body of His saints, +that He may dwell and work in them for ever.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68" id="Footnote_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> +See the note upon this definite article on p. 47.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69" id="Footnote_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> +<span class="greek" title="Prôtotokos ek tôn nekrôn"> +Πρωτότοκος ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν</span>, Col. i. 18: comp. Rom. vi. 13, x. 7, for +the force of the preposition. Hence the peculiar +<span class="greek" title="exanastasin tên ek nekrôn"> +ἐξανάστασιν τὴν ἐκ νεκρῶν</span> of Phil. iii. 10, 11,—the <i>out-and-out</i> resurrection, which will +utterly remove us from the sphere of death.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70" id="Footnote_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> +Ver. 3, ch. ii. 6, iii. 10, vi. 12; nowhere else in the New Testament. +Comp., however, 1 Cor. xv. 40, 48; Phil. ii. 10; Heb. viii. 5, ix. 23, +xi. 16, xii. 22, where the adjective has the same kind of use.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71" id="Footnote_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> +<i>Note</i> on Col. i. 16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72" id="Footnote_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> +Matt. xxii. 41–46, also in Mark and Luke; Acts ii. 34, 35; Rom. +viii. 34; Col. iii. 1; Heb. i. 13; 1 Peter iii. 22, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73" id="Footnote_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> +The reader of the Old Testament, unless otherwise advertized, must +inevitably have referred the words <i>who filleth all things in all</i> to the +Supreme God. See Jer. xxiii. 24; Isai. vi. 1, 3; Hag. ii. 7; Ps. xxxiii. +5, etc.; Exod. xxxi. 3. “That filleth all in all” is an attribute belonging +to “the same God, that worketh all in all” (1 Cor. xii. 6). Comp. iv. 6.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<h4>FROM DEATH TO LIFE.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“And you <i>did He quicken</i>, when ye were dead through your trespasses +and sins, wherein aforetime ye walked according to the course of +this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit +that now worketh in the sons of disobedience; among whom we also +all once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and +of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest:—but +God, being rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved +us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, quickened us +together with the Christ (by grace have ye been saved), and raised us +up together and made us to sit together in the heavenly <i>places</i> in Christ +Jesus.”—<span class="smcap">Eph.</span> ii. 1–6.</p></div> + +<p>We pass by a sudden transition, just as in +Colossians i. 21, 22, from the thought of that +which God wrought in Christ Himself to that which +He works through Christ in believing men. So God +raised, exalted, and glorified His Son Jesus Christ +(i. 19–23)—<i>and you</i>! The finely woven threads of +the apostle’s thought are frequently severed, and awkward +chasms made in the highway of his argument by +our chapter and verse divisions. The words inserted +in our Version (<i>did He quicken</i>) are borrowed by anticipation +from verse 5; but they are more than supplied +already in the foregoing context. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span> “The same almighty +Hand that was laid upon the body of the dead Christ +and lifted Him from Joseph’s grave to the highest seat +in heaven, is now laid upon your soul. It has raised +<i>you</i> from the grave and death of sin to share by faith +His celestial life.”</p> + +<p>The apostle, in verse 3, pointedly includes amongst +the “dead in trespasses and sins” himself and his +Jewish fellow-believers as they “once lived,” when +they obeyed the motions and “volitions of the flesh,” +and so were “by birth” not children of favour, as Jews +presumed, but “children of anger, even as the +rest.”<a name="FNanchor_74" id="FNanchor_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a></p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>This passage gives us a sublime view of the event +of our conversion. It associates that change in us +with the stupendous miracle which took place in our +Redeemer. The one act is a continuation of the other. +There is an acting over again in us of Christ’s crucifixion, +resurrection and ascension, when we realize +through faith that which was done for mankind in Him. +At the same time, the redemption which is in Christ +Jesus is no mere legacy, to be received or declined; it +is not something done once for all, and left to be appropriated +passively by our individual will. It is a “<i>power</i> +of God unto salvation,” unceasingly operative and effective, +that works “of faith and <i>unto faith</i>” that summons +men to faith, challenging human confidence wherever +its message travels and awakening the spiritual possibilities +dormant in our nature.</p> + +<p>It is a supernatural force, then, which is at work +upon us in the word of Christ. It is a resurrection-power, +that turns death into life. And it is a power +instinct with love. The love which went out towards +the slain and buried Jesus when the Father stooped +to raise Him from the dead, bends over us as we +lie in the grave of our sins, and exerts itself with a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span> +might no less transcendent, that it may raise us from +the dust of death to sit with Him in the heavenly +places (vv. 4–6).</p> + +<p>Let us look at the two sides of the change effected +in men by the gospel—at the death they leave, and +the life into which they enter. Let us contemplate the +task to which this unmatched power has set itself.</p> + +<p>I. <i>You that were dead</i>, the apostle says.</p> + +<p>Jesus Christ came into a dead world—He the one +living man, alive in body, soul, and spirit—alive to God +in the world. He was, like none besides, aware of +God and of God’s love, breathing in His Spirit, “living +not by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded +from His mouth.” “This,” He said, “is life eternal.” +If His definition was correct, if it be life to know God, +then the world into which Christ entered by His +human birth, the world of heathendom and Judaism, +was veritably dying or dead—“dead indeed unto God.”</p> + +<p>Its condition was visible to discerning eyes. It was +a world rotting in its corruption, mouldering in its +decay, and which to His pure sense had the moral +aspect and odour of the charnel-house. We realize +very imperfectly the distress, the inward nausea, the +conflict of disgust and pity which the fact of being in +such a world as this and belonging to it caused in the +nature of Jesus Christ, in a soul that was in perfect +sympathy with God. Never was there loneliness such +as His, the solitude of life in a region peopled with the +dead. The joy which Christ had in His little flock, +in those whom the Father had given Him out of the +world, was proportionately great. In them He found +companionship, teachableness, signs of a heart awakening +towards God—men to whom life was in some +degree what it was to Him. He had come, as the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +prophet in his vision, into “the valley full of dry +bones,” and He “prophesied to these slain, that they +might live.” What a comfort to see, at His first words, +a shaking in the valley,—to see some who stirred at +His voice, who stood upon their feet and gathered +round Him—not yet a great army, but a band of living +men! In their breasts, inspired from His, was the life +of the future. “I am come,” He said, “that they +might have life.” It was the work of Jesus Christ to +breathe His vital spirit into the corpse of humanity, to +reanimate the world.</p> + +<p>When St Paul speaks of his readers in their heathen +condition as “dead,” it is not a figure of speech. He +does not mean that they were like dead men, that their +state resembled death; “nor only that they were in +peril of death; but he signifies a real and present +death” (Calvin). They were, in the inmost sense and +truth of things, <i>dead men</i>. We are twofold creatures, +two-lived,—spirits cased in flesh. Our human nature +is capable, therefore, of strange duplicities. It is +possible for us to be alive and flourishing upon one +side of our being, while we are paralyzed or lifeless +upon the other. As our bodies live in commerce with +the light and air, in the environment of house and food +and daily exercise of the limbs and senses under the +economy of material nature, so our spirits live by the +breath of prayer, by faith and love towards God, by +reverence and filial submission, by communion with +things unseen and eternal. “With Thee,” says the +Psalmist to his God, “is the fountain of life: in Thy +light we see light.” We must daily resort to that +fountain and drink of its pure stream, we must faithfully +walk in that light, or there is no such life for us. The +soul that wants a true faith in God, wants the proper +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span> +spring and principle of its being. It sees not the light, +it bears not the voices, it breathes not the air of that +higher world where its origin and its destiny lie.</p> + +<p>The man who walks the earth a sinner against God, +becomes by the act and fact of his transgression a dead +man. He has imbibed the fatal poison; it runs in his +veins. The doom of sin lies on his unforgiven spirit. +He carries death and judgement about with him. They +lie down with him at night and wake with him in the +morning; they take part in his transactions; they sit +by his side in the feast of life. His works are “dead +works”; his joys and hopes are all shadowed and +tainted. Within his living frame he bears a coffined +soul. With the machinery of life, with the faculties +and possibilities of a spiritual being, the man lies +crushed under the activity of the senses, wasted and +decaying for want of the breath of the Spirit of God. +In its coldness and powerlessness—too often in its +visible corruption—his nature shows the symptoms of +advancing death. It is dead as the tree is dead, cut +off from its root; as the fire is dead, when the spark is +gone out; dead as a man is dead, when the heart stops.</p> + +<p>As it is with the departed saints sleeping in Christ,—“put +to death, indeed, in the flesh, but living in the +spirit,”—so by a terrible inversion with the wicked in +this life. They are put to death, indeed, in the spirit, +while they live in the flesh. They may be and often +are powerfully alive and active in their relations to the +world of sense, while on the unseen and Godward side +utterly paralyzed. Ask such a man about his business +or family concerns; touch on affairs of politics or trade,—and +you deal with a living mind, its powers and susceptibilities +awake and alert. But let the conversation +pass to other themes; sound him on questions of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span> +inner life; ask him what he thinks of Christ, how he +stands towards God, how he fares in the spiritual +conflict,—and you strike a note to which there is no +response. You have taken him out of his element. +He is a practical man, he tells you; he does not live +in the clouds, or hunt after shadows; he believes in +hard facts, in things that he can grasp and handle. +“The natural man perceiveth not the things of the +Spirit of God. They are foolishness to him.” They +are pictures to the eye of the blind, heavenly music +to the stone-deaf.</p> + +<p>And yet that hardened man of the world—starve and +ignore his own spirit and shut up its mystic chambers +as he will—cannot easily destroy himself. He has not +extirpated his religious nature, nor crushed out, though +he has suppressed, the craving for God in his breast. +And when the callous surface of his life is broken +through, under some unusual stress, some heavy loss +or the shock of a great bereavement, one may catch a +glimpse of the deeper world within of which the man +himself was so little conscious. And what is to be seen +there? Haunting memories of past sin, fears of a conscience +fretted already by the undying worm, forms of +weird and ghostly dread flitting amid the gloom and dust +of death through that closed house of the spirit,—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">“The bat and owl inhabit here:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The snake nests on the altar stone:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The sacred vessels moulder near:<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The image of the God is gone!”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>In this condition of death the word of life comes to +men. It is the state not of heathendom alone; but of +those also, favoured with the light of revelation, who +have not opened to it the eyes of the heart, of all who +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> +are “doing the desires of the flesh and the thoughts”—who +are governed by their own impulses and ideas +and serve no will above the world of +sense.<a name="FNanchor_75" id="FNanchor_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a> +Without distinction of birth or formal religious standing, “all” +who thus live and walk are dead while they live. Their +<i>trespasses and sins</i> have killed them. From first to last +Scripture testifies: “Your sins have separated between +you and your God.” We find a hundred excuses for our +irreligion: there is the cause. There is nothing in +the universe to separate any one of us from the love and +fellowship of his Maker but his own unforsaken sin.</p> + +<p>It is true, there are other hindrances to faith, intellectual +difficulties of great weight and seriousness, that +press upon many minds. For such men Christ has +all possible sympathy and patience. There is a real, +though hidden faith that “lives in honest doubt.” +Some men have more faith than they suppose, while +others certainly have much less. One has a name to +live, and yet is dead; another, perchance, has a name +to die, and yet is alive to God through Jesus Christ. +There are endless complications, self-contradictions, +and misunderstandings in human nature. “Many are +first” in the ranks of religious profession and notoriety, +“which shall be last, and the last first.” We make +the largest allowance for this element of uncertainty +in the line that bounds faith from unfaith; “The Lord +knoweth them that are His.” No intellectual difficulty, +no mere misunderstanding, will ultimately or for long +separate between God and the soul that He has made.</p> + +<p>It is <i>antipathy</i> that separates. “They did not like +to retain God in their knowledge”; that is Paul’s +explanation of the ungodliness and vice of the ancient +world. And it holds good still in countless instances. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span> +“Numbers in this bad world talk loudly against religion +in order to encourage each other in sin, because they +need encouragement. They know that they ought to +be other than they are; but are glad to avail themselves +of anything that looks like argument, to overcome their +consciences withal” (Newman). The fashionable scepticism +of the day too often conceals an inner revolt +against the moral demands of the Christian life; it is +the pretext of a carnal mind, which is “enmity against +God, because it is not subject to His law.” Christ’s +sentence upon unbelief as He knew it was this: “Light +is come into the world; and men love darkness rather +than light, because their deeds are evil.” So said the +keenest and the kindest judge of men. If we are +refusing Him our faith, let us be very sure that this +condemnation does not touch ourselves. Is there no +passion that bribes and suborns the intellect? no desire +in the soul that dreads His entrance? no evil deeds +that shelter themselves from His accusing light?</p> + +<p>When the apostle says of his Gentile readers that +they “once walked in the way of the age, according to +the course of this world,<a name="FNanchor_76" id="FNanchor_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a> +according to the prince of +the power of the air,” the former part of his statement +is clear enough. The age in which he lived was +godless to the last degree; the stream of the world’s +life ran in turbid course toward moral ruin. But the +second clause is obscure. The “prince” (or “ruler”) +who guides the world along its career of rebellion is +manifestly Satan, the spirit of darkness and hate whom +St Paul entitles “the god of this world” (2 Cor. iv. 4), +and in whom Jesus recognized, under the name of “the +prince of the world,” His great antagonist (John xiv. 30).</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span> +But what has this spirit of evil to do with “the +air”? The Jewish rabbis supposed that the terrestrial +atmosphere was Satan’s abode, that it was peopled by +demons flitting about invisibly in the encompassing +element. But this is a notion foreign to Scripture—certainly +not contained in chapter vi. 12—and, in its +bare physical sense, without point or relevance to this +passage. There follows in immediate apposition to +“the domain of the air, <i>the spirit</i> that now works in +the sons of disobedience.” Surely, <i>the air</i> here partakes +(if it be only here) of the figurative significance +of <i>spirit</i> (i.e. <i>breath</i>). St Paul refines the Jewish idea +of evil spirits dwelling in the surrounding atmosphere +into an ethical conception of <i>the atmosphere of the world</i>, +as that from which the sons of disobedience draw their +breath and receive the spirit that inspires them. Here +lies, in truth, the dominion of Satan. In other words, +Satan constituted the <i>Zeitgeist</i>.</p> + +<p>As Beck profoundly remarks upon this +text:<a name="FNanchor_77" id="FNanchor_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a> +“The +Power of the air is a fitting designation for the prevailing +spirit of the times, whose influence spreads itself +like a miasma through the whole atmosphere of the +world. It manifests itself as a contagious nature-power; +and a <i>spiritus rector</i> works within it, which takes possession +of the world of men, alike in individuals and +in society, and assumes the direction of it. The form +of expression here employed is based on the conception +of evil peculiar to Scripture. In Scripture, evil +and the principle of evil are not conceived in a purely +spiritual way; nor could this be the case in a world of +fleshly constitution, where the spiritual has the sensuous +for its basis and its vehicle. Spiritual evil exists as a +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span> +power immanent in cosmical +nature.”<a name="FNanchor_78" id="FNanchor_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a> Concerning +great tracts of the earth, and large sections even of +Christianized communities, we must still confess with +St John: “The world lieth in the Evil One.” The air +is impregnated with the infection of +sin;<a name="FNanchor_79" id="FNanchor_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a> its germs +float about us constantly, and wherever they find +lodgement they set up their deadly fever. Sin is the +malarial poison native to our soil; it is an epidemic +that runs its course through the entire “age of this +world.”</p> + +<p>Above this feverous, sin-laden atmosphere the apostle +sees God’s anger brooding in threatening clouds. For +our trespasses and sins are, after all, not forced on us +by our environment. Those offences by which we +provoke God, lie in our nature; they are no mere +casual acts, they belong to our bias and disposition. +Sin is a constitutional malady. There exists a bad +element in our human nature, which corresponds but +too truly to the course and current of the world around +us. This the apostle acknowledges for himself and his +law-honouring Jewish kindred: “We were by nature +children of wrath, even as the rest.” So he wrote in +the sad confession of Romans vii. 14–23: “I see a +different law in my members, warring against the law +of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law +of sin which is in my members.”</p> + +<p>It is upon this “other law,” the contradiction of His +own, upon the sinfulness beneath the sin, that God’s +displeasure rests. Human law notes the overt act: +“the Lord looketh upon the heart.” There is nothing +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +more bitter and humiliating to a conscientious man than +the conviction of this penetrating Divine insight, this +detection to himself of his incurable sin and the hollowness +of his righteousness before God. How it confounds +the proud Pharisee to learn that he <i>is</i> as other men +are,—and even as this publican!</p> + +<p>“The sons of disobedience” must needs be “children +of wrath.” All sin, whether in nature or practice, is +the object of God’s fixed displeasure. It cannot be +matter of indifference to our Father in heaven that His +human children are disobedient toward Himself. Children +of His favour or anger we are each one of us, and +at every moment. We “keep His commandments, +and abide in His love”; or we do not keep them, and +are excluded. It is His smile or frown that makes the +sunshine or the gloom of our inner life. How strange +that men should argue that God’s love forbids His +wrath! It is, in truth, the cause of it. I could neither +love nor fear a God who did not care enough about me +to be angry with me when I sin. If my child does +wilful wrong, if by some act of greed or passion he +imperils his moral future and destroys the peace and +well-being of the house, shall I not be grieved with +him, with an anger proportioned to the love I bear +him? How much more shall your heavenly Father—how +much more justly and wisely and mercifully!</p> + +<p>St Paul feels no contradiction between the words of +verse 3 and those that follow. The same God whose +wrath burns against the sons of disobedience while +they so continue, is “rich in mercy” and “loved us +even when we were dead in our trespasses!” He +pities evil men, and to save them spared not His Son +from death; but Almighty God, the Father of glory, +hates and loathes the evil that is in them, and has +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span> +determined that if they will not let it go they shall +perish with it.</p> + +<p>II. Such was the death in which Paul and his readers +once had lain. But God in His “great love” has +“<i>made them to live</i> along with the Christ.”</p> + +<p>How wonderful to have witnessed a resurrection: to +see the pale cheek of the little maid, Jairus’ daughter, +flush again with the tints of life, and the still frame +begin to stir, and the eyes softly open—and she looks +upon the face of Jesus! or to watch Lazarus, four days +dead, coming out of his tomb, slowly, and as one dreaming, +with hands and feet bound in the grave-clothes. +Still more marvellous to have beheld the Prince of Life +at the dawn of the third day issue from Joseph’s grave, +bursting His prison-gates and stepping forth in new-risen +glory as one refreshed from slumber.</p> + +<p>But there are things no less divine, had we eyes for +their marvel, that take place upon this earth day by +day. When a human soul awakes from its trespasses +and sins, when the love of God is poured into a heart +that was cold and empty, when the Spirit of God +breathes into a spirit lying powerless and buried in the +flesh, there is as true a rising from the dead as when +Jesus our Lord came out from His sepulchre. It was +of this spiritual resurrection that He said: “The hour +cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice +of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.” +Having said that, He added, concerning the bodily +resurrection of mankind: “Marvel not at this; for the +hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall +hear His voice, and shall come forth!” The second +wonder only matches and consummates the first (John +v. 24–28).</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> +“This is life eternal, to know God the Father,”—the +life, as the apostle elsewhere calls it, that is +“life indeed.” It came to St Paul by a new creation, +when, as he describes it, “God who said, Light +shall shine out of darkness, shined in our hearts, to +give the light of the knowledge of His glory in the +face of Jesus Christ.” We are born again—the God-consciousness +is born within us: an hour mysterious +and decisive as that in which our personal consciousness +first emerged and the soul knew itself. Now +it knows God. Like Jacob at Peniel it says: “I have +seen God face to face; and my life is preserved.” God +and the soul have met in Christ—and are reconciled.</p> + +<p>The words the apostle uses—<i>gave us life</i>—<i>raised us +up</i>—<i>seated us in the heavenly places</i>—embrace the whole +range of salvation. “Those united with Christ are +through grace delivered from their state of death, not +only in the sense that the resurrection and exaltation +of Christ redound to their benefit as Divinely imputed +to them; but by the life-giving energy of God they are +brought out of their condition of death into a new and +actual state of life. The act of grace is an act of the +Divine power and might, not a mere judicial declaration” +(Beck). This comprehensive action of the Divine +grace upon believing men takes place by a constant and +constantly deepening union of the soul with Christ. +This is well expressed by A. Monod: “The entire +history of the Son of man is reproduced in the man +who believes in Him, not by a simple moral analogy, +but by a spiritual communication which is the true +secret of our justification as well as of our sanctification, +and indeed of our whole salvation.”</p> + +<p>There is no repetition in the three verbs employed, +which are alike extended by the Greek preposition <i>with</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> +(<i>syn</i>). The first sentence (raised us up <i>with the Christ</i>) +virtually includes everything; it shows us one with Christ +who lives evermore to God. The second sentence gathers +into its scope all believers—the <i>you</i> of verse 1 and the +<i>we</i> of verse 3: “He raised us up together, and together +made us sit in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” +Nothing is more characteristic of our epistle than this +turn of thought. To the conception of our <i>union with +Christ</i> in His celestial life, it adds that of our <i>union +with each other in Christ</i> as sharers in common of that +life. Christ “reconciles us in one body unto God” +(ver. 16). We sit not alone, but together in the +heavenly places. This is the fulness of life; this +completes our salvation.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74" id="Footnote_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> +For the antithesis of “you” and “we,” comp. vv. 11–18, ch. i, +12, 13; also Rom. iii. 19, 23 (<i>For there is no distinction</i>), Gal. ii. 15.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75" id="Footnote_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> +<span class="greek" title="Poiountes ta thelêmata tês sarkos kai tôn dianoiôn"> +Ποιοῦντες τὰ θελήματα τῆς σαρκὸς καὶ τῶν διανοιῶν</span> (ver. 3).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76" id="Footnote_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> +Perhaps this double rendering may bring out the force of <span class="greek" title="kata ton aiôna tou kosmou toutou"> +κατὰ τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ κόσμου τούτου</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77" id="Footnote_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> +In the posthumous <i>Erklärung des Briefes Pauli an die Epheser</i>—a +valuable exposition, marked by Beck’s theological acumen and lucidity.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78" id="Footnote_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> +The <span class="greek" title="physei"> +φύσει</span> of verse 3 thus corresponds to the <span class="greek" title="exousia tou aeros"> +ἐξουσία τοῦ ἀέρος</span> of +verse 2. “Sin entered into <i>the world</i>” (<span class="greek" title="kosmos"> +κόσμος</span>), Rom. v. 12, which +signifies more than the nature of individual men.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79" id="Footnote_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> +I John iii. 8; comp. John viii. 41–44.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<h4>SAVED FOR AN END.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of +His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace have ye +been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, <i>it is</i> the gift of +God: not of works, that no man should glory. For we are His workmanship, +created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore +prepared that we should walk in them.”—<span class="smcap">Eph.</span> ii. 7–10.</p></div> + +<p>The plan which God has formed for men in Christ +is of great dimensions every way,—in its length +no less than in its breadth and height. He “raised us +up and seated us together [Gentiles with Jews] in the +heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that <i>in the ages which +are coming on</i> He might show the surpassing riches of +His grace.” All the races of mankind and all future +ages are embraced in the redeeming purpose, and are +to share in its boundless wealth. Nor are the ages +past excluded from its operations. God “afore prepared +the good works in which” He summons us to +walk. The highway of the new life has been in +building since time began.</p> + +<p>Thus large and limitless is the range of “the purpose +and grace given us in Christ Jesus before times +eternal” (2 Tim. i. 9). But what strikes us most in +this passage is the exuberance of the grace itself. +Twice over the apostle exclaims, “By grace you are +saved”: once in verse 5, in an eager, almost jealous +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> +parenthesis, where he hastens to assure the readers of +their deliverance from the fearful condition just described +(vv. 1–3, 5). Again, deliberately and with full +definition he states the same fact, in verse 8: “For by +grace you are saved, through faith; and this is not of +yourselves, it is the gift of God. It does not come of +works, to the end that none may boast.”</p> + +<p>These words place us on familiar ground. We recognize +the Paul of Galatians and Romans, the dialect +and accent of the apostle of salvation by faith. But +scarcely anywhere do we find this wonder-working grace +so affluently described. “God being rich in mercy, for +the great love wherewith He loved us—the exceeding +riches of His grace, shown in kindness toward us—the +gift of God.” <i>Mercy</i>, <i>love</i>, <i>kindness</i>, <i>grace</i>, <i>gift</i>: what a +constellation is here! These terms present the character +of God in the gospel under the most delightful aspects, +and in vivid contrast to the picture of our human state +outlined in the beginning of the chapter.</p> + +<p><i>Mercy</i> denotes the Divine pitifulness towards feeble, +suffering men, akin to those “compassions of God” to +which the apostle repeatedly +appeals.<a name="FNanchor_80" id="FNanchor_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a> It is a constant +attribute of God in the Old Testament, and fills much +the same place there that grace does in the New. +“Of mercy and judgement” do the Psalmists sing—of +mercy most. Out of the thunder and smoke of Sinai +He declared His name: “Jehovah, a God full of compassion +and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in +mercy and truth, keeping mercy for thousands.” The +dread of God’s justice, the sense of His dazzling holiness +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> +and almightiness threw His mercy into bright relief and +gave to it an infinite preciousness. It is the contrast +which brings in “mercy” here, in verse 4, by antithesis +to “wrath” (ver. 3).<a name="FNanchor_81" id="FNanchor_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a> +These qualities are complementary. +The sternest and strongest natures are the most +compassionate. God is “<i>rich</i> in mercy.” The wealth +of His Being pours itself out in the exquisite tendernesses, +the unwearied forbearance and forgivingness +of His compassion towards men. The Judge of all the +earth, whose hate of evil is the fire of hell, is gentler +than the softest-hearted mother,—rich in mercy as He +is grand and terrible in wrath.</p> + +<p>God’s mercy regards us as we are weak and miserable: +His <i>love</i> regards us as we are, in spite of trespass +and offence, His offspring,—objects of “much love” +amid much displeasure, “even when we were dead +through our trespasses.” What does the story of the +prodigal son mean but this? and what Christ’s great +word to Nicodemus (John iii. 16)?—<i>Grace</i> and <i>kindness</i> +are love’s executive. Grace is love in administration, +love counteracting sin and seeking our salvation. +Christ is the embodiment of grace; the cross its +supreme expression; the gospel its message to mankind; +and Paul himself its trophy and +witness.<a name="FNanchor_82" id="FNanchor_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a> The +“overpassing riches” of grace is that affluence of +wealth in which through Christ it “superabounded” to +the apostolic age and has outdone the magnitude of sin +(Rom. v. 20), in such measure that St Paul sees future +ages gazing with wonder at its benefactions to himself +and his fellow-believers. Shown “in <i>kindness</i> toward +us,” he says,—in a condescending fatherliness, that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +forgets its anger and softens its old severity into comfort +and endearment. God’s kindness is the touch +of His hand, the accent of His voice, the cherishing +breath of His Spirit. Finally, this generosity of the +Divine grace, this infinite goodwill of God toward men, +takes expression in <i>the gift</i>—the gift of Christ, the gift +of righteousness (Rom. v. 15–18), the gift of eternal +life (Rom. vi. 23); or—regarded, as it is here, in +the light of experience and possession—<i>the gift of +salvation</i>.</p> + +<p>The opposition of <i>gift</i> and <i>debt</i>, of gratuitous salvation +through faith to salvation earned by works of law, +belongs to the marrow of St Paul’s divinity. The teaching +of the great evangelical epistles is condensed into +the brief words of verses 8 and 9. The reason here +assigned for God’s dealing with men by way of gift and +making them absolutely debtors—“lest any one should +boast”—was forced upon the apostle’s mind by the +stubborn pride of legalism; it is stated in terms identical +with those of the earlier letters. Men will glory in +their virtues before God; they flaunt the rags of their +own righteousness, if any such pretext, even the +slightest, remains to them. We sinners are a proud +race, and our pride is oftentimes the worst of our sins. +Therefore God humbles us by His compassion. He +makes to us a free gift of His righteousness, and +excludes every contribution from our store of merit; +for if we could supply anything, we should inevitably +boast as though all were our own. We must be content +to receive mercy, love, grace, kindness—everything, +without deserving the least fraction of the immense +sum. How it strips our vanity; how it crushes us to +the dust—“the weight of pardoning love!”</p> + +<p>Concerning the office of <i>faith</i> in salvation we have +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> +already spoken in Chapter IV.<a name="FNanchor_83" id="FNanchor_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a> +It is on the objective fact rather than the subjective means of salvation that +the apostle lays stress in this passage. His readers +do not seem to have realized sufficiently what God has +given them and the greatness of the salvation already +accomplished. They measured inadequately the power +which had touched and changed their lives (i. 19). +St Paul has shown them the depth to which they were +formerly sunk, and the height to which they have been +raised (vv. 1–6). He can therefore assure them, and he +does it with redoubled emphasis: “You <i>are saved</i>; By +grace you are saved men!”<a name="FNanchor_84" id="FNanchor_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a> +Not, “You will be saved”; nor, “You were saved”; nor, “You are in course of +salvation,”—for salvation has many moods and tenses,—but, +in the perfect passive tense, he asserts the glorious +accomplished <i>fact</i>. With the same reassuring emphasis +in chapter i. 7 he declared, “We have redemption in +His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.”</p> + +<p>Here is St Paul’s doctrine of Assurance. It was +laid down by Christ Himself when He said: “He that +believeth on the Son of God hath eternal life.” This +sublime confidence is the ruling note of St John’s +great epistle: “We know that we are in Him.... We +know that we have passed out of death into life.... +This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our +faith.” It was this confidence of present salvation +that made the Church irresistible. With its foundation +secure, the house of life can be steadily and calmly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> +built up. Under the shelter of the full assurance of +faith, in the sunshine of God’s love felt in the heart, +all spiritual virtues bloom and flourish. But with a +faith hesitant, distracted, that is sure of no doctrine in the +creed and cannot plant a firm foot anywhere, nothing +prospers in the soul or in the Church. Oh for the clear +accent, the ringing, joyous note of apostolic assurance! +We want a faith not loud, but deep; a faith not born of +sentiment and human sympathy, but that comes from +the vision of the living God; a faith whose rock and +corner-stone is neither the Church nor the Bible, but +Christ Jesus Himself.</p> + +<p>Greatly do we need, like the Asian disciples of Paul +and John, to “assure our hearts” before God. With +death confronting us, with the hideous evil of the world +oppressing us; when the air is laden with the contagion +of sin; when the faith of the strongest wears the cast +of doubt; when the word of promise shines dimly +through the haze of an all-encompassing scepticism and +a hundred voices say, in mockery or grief, Where is +now thy God? when the world proclaims us lost, our +faith refuted, our gospel obsolete and useless,—then is +the time for the Christian assurance to recover its first +energy and to rise again in radiant strength from the +heart of the Church, from the depths of its mystic life +where it is hid with Christ in God.</p> + +<p><i>You are saved!</i> cries the apostle; not forgetting that +his readers have their battle to fight, and many hazards +yet to run (vi. 10–13). But they hold the earnest of +victory, the foretaste of life eternal. In spirit they sit +with Christ in the heavenly places. Pain and death, +temptation, persecution, the vicissitudes of earthly +history, by these God means to perfect that which He +has begun in His<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> +saints—“if you continue in the faith, +grounded and firm” (Col. i. 23). That condition is +expressed, or implied, in all assurance of final salvation. +It is a condition which excites to watchfulness, but can +never cause misgiving to a loyal heart. God is for us! +He justifies us, and counts us His elect. Christ Jesus +who died is risen and seated at the right hand of God, +and there intercedes for us. <i>Quis +separabit?</i><a name="FNanchor_85" id="FNanchor_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a></p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>This is the epistle of the Church and of humanity. +It dwells on the grand, objective aspects of the truth, +rather than upon its subjective experiences. It does +not invite us to rest in the comforts and delights of +grace, but to lift up our eyes and see whither Christ has +translated us and what is the kingdom that we possess +in Him. God “quickened us together with the Christ”: +He “raised us up, He made us to sit <i>in the heavenly +places in Christ Jesus</i>.” Henceforth “our citizenship +is in heaven” (Phil. iii. 20).</p> + +<p>This is the inspiring thought of the third group of +St Paul’s epistles; we heard it in the first note of his +song of praise (i. 3). It supplies the principle from +which St Paul unfolds the beautiful conception of the +Christian life contained in the third chapter of the +companion letter to the Colossians: “Your life is hid +with the Christ in God”; therefore “seek the things +that are above, where He is.” We live in two worlds +at once. Heaven lies about us in this new mystic +childhood of our spirit. There our names are written; +thither our thoughts and hopes resort. Our treasure is +there; our heart we have lodged there, with Christ in +God. <i>He</i> is there, the Lord of the Spirit, from whom +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +we draw each moment the life that flows into His +members. In the greatness of His love conquering +sin and death, time and space, He is with us to the +world’s end. May we not say that we, too, are with +Him and shall be with Him always? So we reckon +in the logic of our faith and at the height of our high +calling, though the soul creeps and drudges upon the +lower levels.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">“With Him we are gone up on high,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Since He is ours and we are His;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With Him we reign above the sky,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">We walk upon our subject seas!”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>In his lofty flights of thought the apostle always has +some practical and homely end in view. The earthly +and heavenly, the mystical and the matter-of-fact were +not distant and repugnant, but interfused in his mind. +From the celestial heights of the life hidden with Christ +in God (ver. 6), he brings us down in a moment and +without any sense of discrepancy to the prosaic level +of “good works” (ver. 10). The love which viewed us +from eternity, the counsels of Him who works all things +in all, enter into the humblest daily duties.</p> + +<p>Grace, moreover, sets us great tasks. There should +be something to show in deed and life for the wealth +of kindness spent upon us, some visible and commensurate +result of the vast preparations of the gospel plan. +Of this result the apostle saw the earnest in the work +of faith wrought by his Gentile Churches.</p> + +<p>St Paul was the last man in the world to undervalue +human effort, or disparage good work of any sort. It +is, in his view, the end aimed at in all that God bestows +on His people, in all that He Himself works in them. +Only let this end be sought in God’s way and order. +Man’s doings must be the fruit and not the root of his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> +salvation. “Not <i>of</i> works,” but “<i>for</i> good works” +were believers chosen. “This little word <i>for</i>” says +Monod, “reconciles St Paul and St James better than +all the commentators.” God has not raised us up to +sit idly in the heavenly places lost in contemplation, +or to be the useless pensioners of grace. He sends us +forth to “walk in the works, prepared for us,”—equipped +to fight Christ’s battles, to till His fields, to labour in +the service of building His Church.</p> + +<p>The “workmanship” of our Version suggests an idea +foreign to the passage. The apostle is not thinking of +the Divine art or skill displayed in man’s creation; but +of the simple fact that “God made man” (Gen. i. 27). +“We are His <i>making</i>, created in Christ Jesus.” The +“preparation” to which he refers in verse 10 leads us +back to that primeval election of God’s sons in Christ +for which we gave thanks at the outset (i. 3). There +are not two creations, the second formed upon the ruin +and failure of the first; but one grand design throughout. +Redemption is creation re-affirmed. The new +creation, as we call it, restores and consummates the +old. When God raised His Son from the dead, He +vindicated His original purpose in raising man from +the dust a living soul. He has not forsaken the work +of His hands nor forgone His original plan, which +took account of all our wilfulness and sin. God in +making us meant us to do good work in His world. +From the world’s foundation down to the present +moment He who worketh all in all has been working +for this end—most of all in the revelation of His grace +in Jesus Christ.</p> + +<p>Far backward in the past, amid the secrets of +creation, lay the beginnings of God’s grace to mankind. +Far onward in the future shines its lustre revealed in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> +the first Christian age. The apostle has gained some +insight into those “times and seasons” which formerly +were veiled from him. In his earliest letters, to the +Thessalonians and Corinthians, St Paul echoes our +Lord’s warning, never out of season, that we should +“watch, for the hour is at hand.” <i>Maran atha</i> is his +watchword: “Our Lord cometh; the time is short.” +Nor does that note cease to the end. But when in +this epistle he writes of “the ages that are coming on,” +and of “all the generations of the age of the ages” +(iii. 21), there is manifestly some considerable period of +duration before his eyes. He sees something of the +extent of the world’s coming history, something of the +magnitude of the field that the future will afford for the +unfolding of God’s designs.</p> + +<p>In those approaching æons he foresees that the +apostolic dispensation will play a conspicuous part. +Unborn ages will be blessed in the blessing now +descending upon Jews and Gentiles through Christ +Jesus. So marvellous is the display of God’s kindness +toward them, that all the future will pay homage to it. +The overflowing wealth of blessing poured upon St +Paul and the first Churches had an end in view that +reached beyond themselves, an end worthy of the Giver, +worthy of the magnitude of His plans and of His +measureless love. If all this was theirs—this fulness of +God exceeding the utmost they had asked or thought—it +is because God means to convey it through them to +multitudes besides! There is no limit to the grace that +God will impart to men and to Churches who thus +reason, who receive His gifts in this generous and +communicative spirit. The apostolic Church chants +with Mary at the Annunciation: +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> “For, behold, from +henceforth all generations shall call me blessed!”</p> + +<p>Never was any prediction better fulfilled. This spot +of history shines with a light before which every other +shows pale and commonplace. The companions of +Jesus, the humble fraternities of the first Christian +century have been the object of reverent interest and +intent research on the part of all centuries since. +Their history is scrutinized from all sides with a zeal +and industry which the most pressing subjects of the +day hardly command. For we feel that these men +hold the secret of the world’s life. The key to the +treasures we all long for is in their hands. As time +goes on and the stress of life deepens, men will turn +with yet fonder hope to the age of Jesus Christ. “And +many nations will say: Come, and let us go up to the +mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of +Jacob. And He will teach us of His ways; and we +will walk in His paths.”</p> + +<p>The stream will remember its fountain; the children +of God will gather to their childhood’s home. The +world will hear the gospel in the recovered accents of +its prophets and apostles.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80" id="Footnote_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> +Rom. xii. 1; 2 Cor. i. 3; Phil. i. 8, ii. 1; comp. Luke i. 78. The +<span class="greek" title="oiktirmoi tou Theou, splanchna kai oiktirmoi"> +οἰκτιρμοὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ, σπλάγχνα καὶ οἰκτιρμοί</span>, rendered in our Version +“mercies of God,” denotes something even more affecting,—God’s sense +of the woefulness of human life,—“the pitying tenderness Divine.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81" id="Footnote_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> +Comp. Rom. ix. 22, 23.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82" id="Footnote_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> +On <i>grace</i>, comp. <i>The Epistle to the Galatians</i> (Expositor’s Bible), +Chapter X.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83" id="Footnote_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> +Compare also, on Faith, <i>The Epistle to the Galatians</i> (Expositor’s +Bible), Chapters X.–XII. and XV.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84" id="Footnote_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> +<span class="greek" title="Este sesôsmenoi"> +Ἐστὲ σεσωσμένοι</span>: for the peculiar emphasis of this form of the +verb, implying a settled fact, an assured state, compare ver. 12, +<span class="greek" title="ête ... apêllotriômenoi"> +ἢτε ... ἀπηλλοτριωμένοι</span>; Col. ii. 10; Gal. ii. 11, iv. 3; 2 Cor. +iv. 3, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85" id="Footnote_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> +Rom. viii. 31–39; comp. vv. 9–17; also 1 Thess. v. 23, 24; 2 +Thess. iii. 3–5; 1 Cor. i. 4–9; Phil. i. 6, iii. 13, 14; 2 Tim. i. 12, iv. 18, +for St Paul’s doctrine of Assurance.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<h4>THE FAR AND NEAR.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“Wherefore remember, that aforetime ye, the Gentiles in the flesh, +who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision in +the flesh, made by hands; that ye were at that time separate from +Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers +from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in +the world: but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometime were far off are +made nigh in the blood of Christ.”—<span class="smcap">Eph.</span> ii. 11–13.</p></div> + +<p>The apostle’s <i>Wherefore</i> sums up for his readers +the record of their salvation rehearsed in the +previous verses. “You were buried in your sins, +sunk in their corruption, ruined by their guilt, living +under God’s displeasure and in the power of Satan. +All this has passed away. The almighty Hand has +raised you with Christ into a heavenly life. God has +become your Father; His love is in your heart; by the +strength of His grace you are enabled to walk in the +way marked out for you from your creation. <i>Wherefore +remember</i>: think of what you were, and of what +you are!”</p> + +<p>To such recollections we do well to summon ourselves. +The children of grace love to recall, and on fit occasions +recount for God’s glory and the help of their fellows, +the way in which God led them to the knowledge of +Himself. In some the great change came suddenly. +He “made speed” to save us. It was a veritable +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> +resurrection, as signal and unlooked for as the rising +of Christ from the dead. By a swift passage we were +“translated from the power of darkness into the +kingdom of the Son of His love.” Once living without +God in the world, we were arrested by a strange providence—through +some overthrow of fortune or shock +of bereavement, or by a trivial incident touching unaccountably +a hidden spring in the mind—and the whole +aspect of life was altered in a moment. We saw +revealed, as by a lightning flash at night, the emptiness +of our own life, the misery of our nature, the folly of +our unbelief, the awful presence of <i>God</i>—God whom +we had forgotten and despised! We sought, and +found His mercy. From that hour the old things +passed away: we lived who had been dead,—made +alive to God through Jesus Christ.</p> + +<p>This instant conversion, such as Paul experienced, +this sharp and abrupt transition from darkness to light, +was common in the first generation of Christians, as it +is wherever religious awakening takes place in a society +that has been largely dead to God. The advent of Christianity +in the Gentile world was much after this fashion,—like +a tropical sunrise, in which day leaps on the earth +full-born. This experience gives a stamp of peculiar +decision to the convictions and character of its subjects. +The change is patent and palpable; no observer can +fail to mark it. And it burns itself into the memory +with an ineffaceable impression. The violent throes +of such a spiritual birth cannot be forgotten.</p> + +<p>But if our entrance into the life of God was gradual, +like the dawn of our own milder clime, where the light +steals by imperceptible advances upon the darkness—if +the glory of the Lord has thus risen upon us, our certainty +of its presence may be no less complete, and our +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> +remembrance of its coming no less grateful and joyous. +One leaps into the new life by a single eager bound; +another reaches it by measured, thoughtful steps: but +both are <i>there</i>, standing side by side on the common +ground of salvation in Christ. Both walk in the same +light of the Lord, that floods the sky from east to west. +The recollections which the latter has to cherish of the +leading of God’s kindly light—how He touched our +childish thought, and checked gently our boyish waywardness, +and mingled reproof with the first stirrings +of passion and self-will, and wakened the alarms of +conscience and the fears of another world, and the sense +of the beauty of holiness and the shame of sin,—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">“Shaping to truth the froward will<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Along His narrow way,”—<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>such remembrances are a priceless treasure, that grows +richer as we grow wiser. It awakens a joy not so +thrilling nor so prompt in utterance as that of the soul +snatched like a brand from the burning, but which +passes understanding. Blessed are the children of +the kingdom, those who have never roamed far from +the fold of Christ and the commonwealth of Israel, +whom the cross has beckoned onwards from their +childhood. But however it was—by whatever means, +at whatever time it pleased God to call you from darkness +to His marvellous light, <i>remember</i>.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>But we must return to Paul and his Gentile readers. +The old death in life was to them a sombre reality, +keenly and painfully remembered. In that condition +of moral night out of which Christ had rescued them, +Gentile society around them still remained. Let us +observe its features as they are delineated in contrast +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> +with the privileges long bestowed on Israel. The +Gentile world was <i>Christless</i>, <i>hopeless</i>, <i>godless</i>. It had +no share in the Divine polity framed for the chosen +people; the outward mark of its uncircumcision was +a true symbol of its irreligion and debasement.</p> + +<p>Israel had a <i>God</i>. Besides, there were only “those +who are called gods.” This was the first and cardinal +distinction. Not their race, not their secular calling, +their political or intellectual gifts, but their faith formed +the Jews into a nation. They were “the people of +God,” as no other people has been—of <i>the</i> God, for +theirs was “the true and living God”—Jehovah, the +I AM, the One, the Alone. The monotheistic belief +was, no doubt, wavering and imperfect in the mass of +the nation in early times; but it was held by the ruling +minds amongst them, by the men who have shaped the +destiny of Israel and created its Bible, with increasing +clearness and intensity of passion. “All the gods of +the nations are idols—vapours, phantoms, nothings!—but +Jehovah made the heavens.” It was the ancestral +faith that glowed in the breast of Paul at Athens, +amidst the fairest shrines of Greece, when he “saw +the city wholly given to idolatry”—man’s highest art +and the toil and piety of ages lavished on things that +were no gods; and in the midst of the splendour of a +hollow and decaying Paganism he read the confession +that God was “unknown.”</p> + +<p>Ephesus had her famous goddess, worshipped in the +most sumptuous pile of architecture that the ancient +world contained. Behold the proud city, “temple-keeper +of the great goddess Artemis,” filled with +wrath! Infuriate Demos flashes fire from his thousand +eyes, and his brazen throat roars hoarse vengeance +against the insulters of “her magnificence, whom all +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +Asia and the world worshippeth”! Without God—<i>atheists</i>, +in fact, the apostle calls this devout Asian +population; and Artemis of Ephesus, and Athené, and +Cybelé of Smyrna, and Zeus and Asclepius of Pergamum, +though all the world worship them, are but “creatures +of art and man’s device.”</p> + +<p>The Pagans retorted this reproach. “Away with +<i>the atheists</i>!” they cried, when Christians were led to +execution. Ninety years after this time the martyr +Polycarp was brought into the arena before the magistrates +of Asia and the populace gathered in Smyrna +at the great Ionic festival. The Proconsul, wishing to +spare the venerable man, said to him: “Swear by the +Fortune of Cæsar; and say, Away with the atheists!” +But Polycarp, as the story continues, “with a grave +look gazing on the crowd of lawless Gentiles in the +stadium and shaking his hand against them, then +groaning and looking up to heaven, said, <i>Away with +the atheists</i>!” Pagan and Christian were each godless +in the eyes of the other. If visible temples and images, +and the local worship of each tribe or city made a god, +then Jews and Christians had none: if God was a +Spirit—One, Holy, Almighty, Omnipresent—then polytheists +were in truth atheists; their many gods, being +many, were no gods; they were idols,—<i>eidola</i>, illusive +shows of the Godhead.</p> + +<p>The more thoughtful and pious among the heathen +felt this already. When the apostle denounced the +idols and their pompous worship as “these vanities,” +his words found an echo in the Gentile conscience. +The classical Paganism held the multitude by the force +of habit and local pride, and by its sensuous and artistic +charms; but such religious power as it once had was +gone. In all directions it was undermined by mystic +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +Oriental and Egyptian rites, to which men resorted in +search of a religion and sick of the old fables, ever growing +more debased, that had pleased their fathers. The +majesty of Rome in the person of the Emperor, the +one visible supreme power, was seized upon by the +popular instinct, even more than it was imposed by +state policy, and made to fill the vacuum; and temples +to Augustus had already risen in Asia, side by side +with those of the ancient gods.</p> + +<p>In this despair of their ancestral religions many +piously disposed Gentiles turned to Judaism for +spiritual help; and the synagogue was surrounded in +the Greek cities by a circle of earnest proselytes. +From their ranks St Paul drew a large proportion of +his hearers and converts. When he writes, “Remember +that you were at that time <i>without God</i>,” he is +within the recollection of his readers; and they will +bear him out in testifying that their heathen creed was +dead and empty to the soul. Nor did philosophy +construct a creed more satisfying. Its gods were the +Epicurean deities who dwell aloof and careless of men; +or the supreme Reason and Necessity of the Stoics, +the <i>anima mundi</i>, of which human souls are fleeting +and fragmentary images. “Deism finds God only +in heaven; Pantheism, only on earth; Christianity +alone finds Him both in heaven and on earth” (Harless). +The Word made flesh reveals <i>God in the world</i>.</p> + +<p>When the apostle says “without God <i>in the world</i>,” +this qualification is both reproachful and sorrowful. To +be without God in the world that He has made, where +His “eternal power and Godhead” have been visible +from creation, argues a darkened and perverted +heart.<a name="FNanchor_86" id="FNanchor_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> +To be without God in the world is to be in the wilderness, +without a guide; on a stormy ocean, without +harbour or pilot; in sickness of spirit, without medicine +or physician; to be hungry without bread, and weary +without rest, and dying with no light of life. It is to +be an orphaned child, wandering in an empty, ruined +house.</p> + +<p>In these words we have an echo of Paul’s preaching +to the Gentiles, and an indication of the line of his +appeals to the conscience of the enlightened pagans +of his time. The despair of the age was darker than +the human mind has known before or since. Matthew +Arnold has painted it all in one verse of those lines, +entitled <i>Obermann once more</i>, in which he so perfectly +expresses the better spirit of modern scepticism.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">“On that hard Pagan world disgust<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And secret loathing fell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Deep weariness and sated lust<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Made human life a hell.”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>The saying by which St Paul reproved the Corinthians, +“Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we +die,” is the common sentiment of pagan epitaphs of +the time. Here is an extant specimen of the kind: +“Let us drink and be merry; for we shall have no +more kissing and dancing in the kingdom of Proserpine. +Soon shall we fall asleep, to wake no more.” Such +were the thoughts with which men came back from +the grave-side. It is needless to say how depraving +was the effect of this hopelessness. At Athens, in +the more religious times of Socrates, it was even considered +a decent and kindly thing to allow a criminal +condemned to death to spend his last hours in gross +sensual indulgence. There is no reason to suppose that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> +the extinction of the Christian hope of immortality would +prove less demoralizing. We are “saved by hope,” +said St Paul: we are ruined by despair. Pessimism +of creed for most men means pessimism of conduct.</p> + +<p>Our modern speech and literature and our habits of +feeling have been for so many generations steeped in +the influence of Christ’s teaching, and it has thrown so +many tender and hallowed thoughts around the state +of our beloved dead, that it is impossible even for +those who are personally without hope in Christ +to realize what its general decay and disappearance +would mean. To have possessed such a treasure, and +then to lose it! to have cherished anticipations so +exalted and so dear,—and to find them turn out a +mockery! The age upon which this calamity fell would +be of all ages the most miserable.</p> + +<p>The hope of Israel which Paul preached to the +Gentiles was a hope for the world and for the nations, +as well as for the individual soul. “The commonwealth +[or <i>polity</i>] of Israel” and “the covenants of +promise” guaranteed the establishment of the Messianic +kingdom upon earth. This expectation took +amongst the mass of the Jews a materialistic and even +a revengeful shape; but in one form or other it +belonged, and still belongs to every man of Israel. +Those noble lines of Virgil in his fourth +Eclogue<a name="FNanchor_87" id="FNanchor_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a>—like +the words of Caiaphas, an unintended Christian +prophecy—which predicted the return of justice and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> +the spread of a golden age through the whole world +under the rule of the coming heir of Cæsar, had been +signally belied by the imperial house in the century +that had elapsed. Never were human prospects darker +than when the apostle wrote as Nero’s prisoner in +Rome. It was an age of crime and horror. The +political world and the system of pagan society seemed +to be in the throes of dissolution. Only in “the +commonwealth of Israel” was there a light of hope +and a foundation for the future of mankind; and of +this in its wisdom the world knew nothing.</p> + +<p>The Gentiles were “alienated from the commonwealth +of Israel,”—that is to say, treated as aliens +and made such by their exclusion. By the very fact +of Israel’s election, the rest of mankind were shut out +of the visible kingdom of God. They became mere +<i>Gentiles</i>, or <i>nations</i>,—a herd of men bound together only +by natural affinity, with no “covenant of promise,” no +religious constitution or destiny, no definite relationship +to God, Israel being alone the acknowledged and +organized “<i>people</i> of Jehovah.”</p> + +<p>These distinctions were summed up in one word, +expressing all the pride of the Jewish nature, when +the Israelites styled themselves “the Circumcision.” +The rest of the world—Philistines or Egyptians, Greeks, +Romans, or Barbarians, it mattered not—were “the +Uncircumcision.” How superficial this distinction was +in point of fact, and how false the assumption of moral +superiority it implied in the existing condition of +Judaism, St Paul indicates by saying, “those who are +<i>called</i> Uncircumcision by that which is <i>called</i> Circumcision, +in flesh, wrought by human hands.” In the +second and third chapters of his epistle to the Romans +he exposed the hollowness of Jewish sanctity, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> +brought his fellow-countrymen down to the level of +those “sinners of the Gentiles” whom they so bitterly +despised.</p> + +<p>The destitution of the Gentile world is put into a +single word, when the apostle says: “You were at +that time <i>separate from Christ</i>”—without a Christ, +either come or coming. They were deprived of the +world’s one treasure,—shut out, as it appeared, for +ever<a name="FNanchor_88" id="FNanchor_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a> +from any part in Him who is to mankind all +things and in all.—<i>Once far off!</i></p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>“But now in Christ Jesus ye were <i>made nigh</i>.” +What is it that has bridged the distance, that has +transported these Gentiles from the wilderness of +heathenism into the midst of the city of God? It is +“the blood of Christ.” The sacrificial death of Jesus +Christ transformed the relations of God to mankind, +and of Israel to the Gentiles. In Him God reconciled +not a nation, but “a world” to Himself (2 Cor. v. 19). +The death of the Son of man could not have reference +to the sons of Abraham alone. If sin is universal and +death is not a Jewish but a human experience, and if +one blood flows in the veins of all our race, then the +death of Jesus Christ was a universal sacrifice; it +appeals to every man’s conscience and heart, and puts +away for each the guilt which comes between his soul +and God.</p> + +<p>When the Greeks in Passion week desired to see +Him, He exclaimed: “I, if I be lifted up from the +earth, will draw <i>all</i> unto me.” The cross of Jesus +was to draw humanity around it, by its infinite love +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> +and sorrow, by the perfect apprehension there was in +it of the world’s guilt and need, and the perfect submission +to the sentence of God’s law against man’s sin. +So wherever the gospel was preached by St Paul, it +won Gentile hearts for Christ. Greek and Jew found +themselves weeping together at the foot of the cross, +sharing one forgiveness and baptized into one Spirit.</p> + +<p>The union of Caiaphas and Pilate in the condemnation +of Jesus and the mingling of the Jewish crowd +with the Roman soldiers at His execution were a tragic +symbol of the new age that was coming. Israel and +the Gentiles were accomplices in the death of the +Messiah—the former of the two the more guilty partner +in the counsel and deed. If this Jesus whom they +slew and hanged on a tree was indeed the Christ, +God’s chosen, then what availed their Abrahamic +sonship, their covenants and law-keeping, their proud +religious eminence? They had killed their Christ; +they had forfeited their calling. His blood was on +them and on their children.</p> + +<p>Those who seemed nigh to God, at the cross of +Christ were found far off,—that both together, the far +and the near, might be reconciled and brought back +to God. “He shut up all unto disobedience, that He +might have mercy upon all.”</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86" id="Footnote_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> +Rom. i. 19–23; comp. John i. 10: “He [the true Light] was <i>in +the world</i>, and the world knew Him not.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87" id="Footnote_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a></p> +<div class="poem foot"> +<span class="i0">Magnus ab integro sæclorum nascitur ordo.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Jam nova progenies cœlo demittitur alto.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Tu modo nascenti puero, quo ferrea primum<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Desinet, ac toto surget gens aurea mundo,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Casta, fave, Lucina.<br /></span> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88" id="Footnote_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> +Observe the perfect participle <span class="greek" title="apêllotriômenoi"> +ἀπηλλοτριωμένοι</span>, which signifies an +abiding fact or fixed condition. Similar is the turn of expression in +ch. iii. 9, and in Col. i. 26, Rom. xvi. 25, Matt. xiii. 35.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<h4>THE DOUBLE RECONCILIATION.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“For He is our peace, who made both one, and brake down the +middle wall of partition, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, <i>even</i> +the law of commandments <i>contained</i> in ordinances, that He might +create in Himself of the twain one new man, <i>so</i> making peace; and +might reconcile them both in one body unto God through the cross, +having slain the enmity thereby: and He came and preached good +tidings of peace to you that were far off, and peace to them that were +nigh: for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit unto the +Father.”—<span class="smcap">Eph.</span> ii. 14–18.</p></div> + +<p><i>Peace, peace—to the far off, and to the near!</i> Such +was God’s promise to His scattered people in the +times of the exile (Isai. lvii. 19). St Paul sees that +peace of God extending over a yet wider field, and +terminating a longer and sadder banishment than the +prophet had foreseen. Christ is “our peace”—not for +the divided members of Israel alone, but for all the +tribes of men. He brings about a universal pacification.</p> + +<p>There were two distinct, but kindred enmities to +be overcome by Christ, in preaching to the world +His good tidings of peace (ver. 17). There was the +hostility of Jew and Gentile, which was removed in its +cause and principle when Christ “in His flesh” (by His +incarnate life and death) “abolished the law of commandments +in decrees”—<i>i.e.</i>, the law of Moses as it +constituted a body of external precepts determining the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> +way of righteousness and life. This abolition of the +law by the evangelical principle “dissolved the middle +wall of partition.” The occasion of quarrel between +Israel and the world was destroyed; the barrier disappeared +that had for so long fenced off the privileged +ground of the sons of Abraham (vv. 14, 15). But +behind this human enmity, underneath the feud and +rancour existing between the Jews and the nations, +there lay the deeper quarrel of mankind with God. +Both enmities centred in the law; both were slain by +one stroke, in the reconciliation of the cross (ver. 16).</p> + +<p>The Jewish and Gentile peoples formed two distinct +types of humanity. Politically, the Jews were insignificant +and had scarcely counted amongst the great +powers of the world. Their religion alone gave them +influence and importance. Bearing his inspired +Scriptures and his Messianic hope, the wandering +Israelite confronted the vast masses of heathenism and +the splendid and fascinating classical civilization with +the proudest sense of his superiority. To his God +he knew well that one day every knee would bow and +every tongue confess. The circumstances of the time +deepened his isolation and aggravated to internecine +hate his spite against his fellow-men, the <i>adversus +omnes alios hostile odium</i> stigmatized by the incisive +pen of Tacitus. Within three years of the writing of +this letter the Jewish war against Rome broke out, +when the enmity culminated in the most appalling and +fateful overthrow recorded in the pages of history. +Now, it is this enmity at its height—the most inveterate +and desperate one can conceive—that the apostle proposes +to reconcile; nay, that he sees already slain by +the sacrifice of the cross, and within the brotherhood +of the Christian Church. It was slain in the heart +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> +of Saul of Tarsus, the proudest that beat in Jewish +breast.</p> + +<p>In his earlier writings the apostle has been concerned +chiefly to guard the position and rights of the two parties +within the Church. He has abundantly maintained, +especially in the epistle to the Galatians, the claims of +Gentile believers in Christ against Judaic assumptions +and impositions. He has defended the just prerogative +of the Jew and his hereditary sentiments from the +contempt to which they were sometimes exposed on the part of the Gentile +majority.<a name="FNanchor_89" id="FNanchor_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a> +But now that this has been done, and that Gentile liberties and Jewish +dignity have been vindicated and safeguarded on both +sides, St Paul advances a step further: he seeks to +amalgamate the Jewish and Gentile section of the +Church, and to “make of the twain one new man, so +making peace.” This, he declares, was the end of +Christ’s mission; this a chief purpose of His atoning +death. Only by such union, only through the burying +of the old enmity slain on the cross, could His Church +be built up to its completeness. St Paul would have +Gentile and Jewish believers everywhere forget their +differences, efface their party lines, and merge their +independence in the oneness of the all-embracing and +all-perfecting Church of Jesus Christ, God’s habitation +in the Spirit. Instead of saying that a catholic ideal +like this belongs to a later and post-apostolic age, we +maintain, on the contrary, that a catholic mind like +St Paul’s, under the conditions of his time, could not +fail to arrive at this conception.</p> + +<p>It was his confidence in the victory of the cross +over all strife and sin that sustained St Paul through +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> +these years of captivity. As he looks out from his +Roman prison, under the shadow of Nero’s palace, +the future is invested with a radiance of hope that +makes the heart of the chained apostle exult within +him. The world is lost, to all outward seeming: +he knows it is saved! Jew and Gentile are about to +close in mortal conflict: he proclaims peace between +them, assured of their reconcilement, and knowing that +in their reunion the salvation of human society is +assured.</p> + +<p>The enmity of Jew and Gentile was representative +of all that divides mankind. In it were concentrated +most of the causes by which society is rent asunder. +Along with religion, race, habits, tastes and culture, +moral tendencies, political aspirations, interests of +trade, all helped to widen the breach. The cleavage +ran deep into the foundations of life; the enmity was +the growth of two thousand years. It was not a case +of local friction, nor a quarrel arising from temporary +causes. The Jew was ubiquitous, and everywhere was +an alien and an irritant to Gentile society. No antipathy +was so hard to subdue. The grace that conquers +it, can and will conquer all enmities.</p> + +<p>St Paul’s view embraced, in fact, a world-wide +reconcilement. He contemplates, as the Hebrew prophets +themselves did, the fraternization of mankind +under the rule of the Christ. After this scale he laid +down the foundation of the Church, “wise master-builder” +that he was. It was destined to bear the weight +of an edifice in which all the races of men should dwell +together, and every order of human faculty should find +its place. His thoughts were not confined within the +Judaic antithesis. “There is no Jew and Greek,” he +says in another place; yes, and “no barbarian, Scythian, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +bondman, freeman, male or female. Ye are all one +in Christ Jesus.”<a name="FNanchor_90" id="FNanchor_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> +Birth, rank, office in the Church, +culture, even sex are minor and subordinate distinctions, +merged in the unity of redeemed souls in Christ. +That which He “creates in Himself of the twain” is +<i>one new man</i>—one incorporate humanity, neither Jew +nor Gentile, Englishman nor Hindu, priest nor layman, +male nor female; but simply <i>man</i>, and <i>Christian</i>.</p> + +<p>At the present time we are better able to enter into +these views of the apostle than at any intervening +period of history. In his day almost the whole visible +world, lying round the Mediterranean shores, was +brought under the government and laws of Rome. This +fact made the establishment of one religious polity a +thing quite conceivable. The Roman empire did not, +as it proved, allow Christianity to conquer it soon +enough and to leaven it sufficiently to save it. That +huge construction, the mightiest fabric of human polity, +fell and covered the earth with its ruins. In its fall +it reacted disastrously upon the Church, and has bequeathed +to it the corrupt and despotic unity of Papal +Rome. Now, in these last days, the whole world is +opened to the Church, a world stretching far beyond +the horizon of the first century. Science and Commerce, +those two strong-winged angels and giant +ministers of God, are swiftly binding the continents +together in material ties. The peoples are beginning to +realize their brotherhood, and are feeling their way in +many directions towards international union; while +in the Churches a new, federal catholicity is taking +shape, that must displace the false catholicism of +external uniformity and the disastrous absolutism inherited +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span> +from Rome. The spread of European empire +and the marvellous expansion of our English race are +carrying forward the world’s unification with enormous +strides,—towards some end or other. What end is +this to be? Is the kingdom of the world about to +become the kingdom of our Lord and His Christ? and +are the nations preparing to be “reconciled in one +body unto God”?</p> + +<p>If Christendom were worthy of her Master and her +name, this question would be answered with no doubtful +affirmative. The Church is well able, if she were +prepared, to go up and possess the whole earth for her +Lord. The way is open; the means are in her hand. +Nor is she ignorant, nor wholly negligent of her opportunity +and of the claims that the times impose upon her. +She is putting forth new strength and striving to overtake +her work, notwithstanding the weight of ignorance +and sloth that burdens her. Soon the reconciling cross +will be planted on every shore, and the praises of the +Crucified sung in every human language.</p> + +<p>But there are dark as well as bright auguries for +the future. The advance of commerce and emigration +has been a curse and not a blessing to many heathen +peoples. Who can read without shame and horror the +story of European conquest in America? And it is a +chapter not yet closed. Greed and injustice still mark +the dealings of the powerful and civilized with the +weaker races. England set a noble example in the +abolition of negro slavery; but she has since inflicted, +for purposes of gain, the opium curse on China, putting +poison to the lips of its vast population. Under our +Christian flags fire-arms are imported, and alcohol, +amongst tribes of men less able than children to resist +their evils. Is this “preaching peace to those far off”? +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span> +It is likely that the commercial profits made in the +destruction of savage races as yet exceed all that our +missionary societies have spent in saving them. One +of these days Almighty God may have a stern reckoning +with modern Europe about these things. “When +He maketh inquisition for blood, He will remember.”</p> + +<p>And what shall we say of ourselves at home, in our +relation to this great principle of the apostle? The +old “middle wall of partition,” the temple-barrier that +sundered Jew and Gentile, is “broken down,”—visibly +levelled by the hand of God when Jerusalem fell, as it +had been virtually and in its principle destroyed by the +work of Christ. But are there no other middle walls, +no barriers raised within the fold of Christ? The rich +man’s purse, and the poor man’s penury; aristocratic +pride, democratic bitterness and jealousy; knowledge +and refinement on the one hand, ignorance and rudeness +on the other—how thick the veil of estrangement +which these influences weave, how high the party walls +which they build in our various Church communions!</p> + +<p>It is the duty of the Church, as she values her existence, +with gentle but firm hands to pull down and to +keep down all such partitions. She cannot abolish the +natural distinctions of life. She cannot turn the Jew +into a Gentile, nor the Gentile into a Jew. She will +never make the poor man rich in this world, nor the +rich man altogether poor. Like her Master, she +declines to be “judge or divider” of our secular inheritance. +But she can see to it that these outward +distinctions make no difference in her treatment of the +men as men. She can combine in her fellowship all +grades and orders, and teach them to understand and +respect each other. She can soften the asperities and +relieve many of the hardships which social differences +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span> +create. She can diffuse a healing and purifying influence +upon the contentions of society around her.</p> + +<p>Let us labour unweariedly for this, and let our meeting +at the Lord’s table be a symbol of the unreserved +communion of men of all classes and conditions in the +brotherhood of the redeemed sons of God. “<i>He</i> is our +peace”; and if He is in our hearts, we must needs be +sons of peace. “Behold the secret of all true union! +It is not by others coming to us, nor by our going over +to them; but it is by both them and ourselves coming +to Christ” that peace is made (Monod).</p> + +<p>Thus within and without the Church the work of +atonement will advance, with Christ ever for its preacher +(ver. 17). He speaks through the words and the lives +of His ten thousand messengers,—men of every order, +in every age and country of the earth. The leaven of +Christ’s peace will spread till the lump is leavened. +God will accomplish His purpose of the ages, whether +in our time, or in another worthier of His calling. +His Church is destined to be the home of the +human family, the universal liberator and instructor +and reconciler of the nations. And Christ shall sit +enthroned in the loyal worship of the federated peoples +of the earth.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>But the question remains: What is the foundation, +what the warrant of this grand idealism of the apostle +Paul? Many a great thinker, many an ardent reformer +before and since has dreamed of some such millennium +as this. And their enthusiastic plans have ended too +often in conflict and destruction. What surer ground +of confidence have we in Paul’s undertaking than in +those of so many gifted visionaries and philosophers? +The difference lies here: his expectation rests on the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span> +word and character of God; his instrument of reform +is the cross of Jesus Christ.</p> + +<p>God is the centre of His own universe. Any reconciliation +that is to stand, must include Him first of all. +Christ reconciled Jew and Gentile “both in one body +<i>to God</i>.” There is the meeting point, the true focus of +the orbit of human life, that can alone control its movements +and correct its wild aberrations. Under the +shadow of His throne of justice, in the arms of His +fatherly love, the kindreds of the earth will at last find +reconciliation and peace. Humanitarian and secularist +systems make the simple mistake of ignoring the +supreme Factor in the scheme of things; they leave +out the All in all.</p> + +<p>“Be ye <i>reconciled to God</i>,” cries the apostle. For +Almighty God has had a great quarrel with this world +of ours. The hatred of men towards each other is +rooted in the “carnal mind which is enmity against God.” +The “law of commandments contained in ordinances,” +in whose possession the Jew boasted over the lawless +and profane Gentile, in reality branded both as culprits.</p> + +<p>The secret disquiet and dread lurking in man’s conscience, +the pangs endured in his body of humiliation, +the groaning frame of nature declare the world unhinged +and out of course. Things have gone amiss, +somehow, between man and his Creator. The face of +the earth and the field of human history are scarred +with the thunderbolts of His displeasure. God, the +Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and the King of the +ages, is not the amiable, almighty Sentimentalist that +some pious people would make Him out to be. The +men of the Bible felt and realized, if we do not, +the grave and tremendous import of the Lord’s controversy +with all flesh. He is unceasingly at war +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[140]</a></span> +with the sins of men. “God is <i>love</i>”—oh yes; but +then He is also “a consuming fire”! There is +no anger so crushing as the anger of love, for there +is none so just; no wrath to be feared like “the +wrath of the Lamb.” God is not a man, weak and +passionate, whom a spark of anger might set all on +fire, burning out His justice and compassion. “In His +wrath He remembers mercy.” Within that infinite +nature there is room for an absolute loathing and +resentment towards sin, in consistence with an immeasurable +pity and yearning towards His sinful +children. Hence the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.</p> + +<p>Look at it from what side you will (and it has many +sides), propound it in what terms you may (and it +translates itself anew into the dialect of every age), you +must not explain the cross of Christ away nor cause +its offence to cease. “The atonement has always been +a scandal and a folly to those who did not receive it; it +has always contained something which to formal logic +is false and to individualistic ethics immoral; yet in +that very element which has been branded as immoral +and false, has always lain the seal of its power and +the secret of its truth.” The Holy One of God, the +Lamb without spot and blemish, He died by His own +consent a sinner’s death. That sacrifice, undergone by +the Son of God and Son of man dying as man for men, +in love to His race and in obedience to the Divine will +and law, gave an infinite satisfaction to God in His +relation to the world, and there went up to the Divine +throne from the anguish of Calvary a “savour of sweet +smell.” The moral glory of the act of Jesus Christ in +dying for His guilty brethren outshone its horror and +disgrace; and it redeemed man’s lost condition, and +clothed human nature with a new character and aspect +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span> +in the eyes of God Himself. “Now therefore there +is no more condemnation to them that are in Christ +Jesus.” The mercy of God, if we may so say, is +set free to act in forgiveness and restoration, without +any compromise of justice and inflexible law. No +peace without this: no peace that did not <i>satisfy God</i>, +and satisfy that law, deep as the deepest in God, that +binds suffering to wrong-doing and death to sin.</p> + +<p>Perhaps you say: This is immoral, surely, that the +just should suffer for the unjust; that one commits the +offence, and another bears the penalty.—Stay a moment: +that is only half the truth. We are more than individuals; +we are members of a race; and vicarious +suffering runs through life. Our sufferings and +wrong-doings bind the human family together in an +inextricable web. We are <i>communists in sin and +death</i>. It is the law and lot of our existence. And +Christ, the Lord and centre of the race, has come +within its scope. He bound Himself to our sinking +fortunes. He became co-partner in our lost estate, +and has redeemed it to God by His blood. If He was +true and perfect man, if He was the creative Head and +Mediator of the race, the eternal Firstborn of many +brethren, He could do no other. He who alone had +the right and the power,—“<i>One</i> died for all.” He took +upon His Divine heart the sin and curse of the world, +He fastened it to His shoulders with the cross; and He +bore it away from Caiaphas’ hall and Pilate’s judgement-seat, +away from guilty Jerusalem; He took away the +sin of the world, and expiated it once for all. He +quenched in His blood the fires of wrath and hate it +kindled. He slew <i>the enmity</i> thereby.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>Still, we are individuals, as you said, not lost after +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span> +all in the world’s solidarity. Here your personal right +and will must come in. What Christ has done for you +is yours, so far as you accept it. He has died your +death beforehand, trusting that you would not repudiate +His act, that you would not let His blood be spilt in +vain. But He will never force His mediation upon +you. He respects your freedom and your manhood. +Do you now endorse what Jesus Christ did on your +behalf? Do you renounce the sin, and accept the +sacrifice? Then it is yours, from this moment, before +the tribunal of God and of conscience. By the witness +of His Spirit you are proclaimed a forgiven and reconciled +man. Christ crucified is yours—if you will have +Him, if you will identify your sinful self with the sinless +Mediator, if as you see Him lifted up on the cross +you will let your heart cry out, “Oh my God, He dies +for <i>me</i>!”</p> + +<p>Coming “in one Spirit to the Father,” the reconciled +children join hands again with each other. Social +barriers, caste feelings, family feuds, personal quarrels, +national antipathies, alike go down before the virtue of +the blood of Jesus.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i6">“Neither passion nor pride<br /></span> +<span class="i8">His cross can abide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But melt in the fountain that streams from His side!”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>“Beloved,” you will say to the man that hates or has +wronged you most,—“Beloved, if God so loved us, we +ought also to love one another.” In these simple +words of the apostle John lies the secret of universal +peace, the hope of the fraternization of mankind. +Nations will have to say this one day, as well as men.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89" id="Footnote_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> +See to this effect such passages as Rom. i. 16 (<i>to the Jew first</i>), +ix. 4, 5; and especially xi. 13–32.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90" id="Footnote_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> +Gal. iii. 28; Col. iii. 11. Comp. John x. 16, xi. 52. See <i>The +Epistle to the Galatians</i> (Expositor’s Bible), Chapter XV.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<h4>GOD’S TEMPLE IN HUMANITY.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“So then ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but ye are fellow-citizens +with the saints and of the household of God, being built upon +the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being +the chief corner stone; in whom each several building, fitly framed +together, groweth into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are +builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.”—<span class="smcap">Eph.</span> ii. 19–22.</p></div> + +<p>Not unfrequently it is the last word or phrase +of the paragraph that gives us the clue to St +Paul’s meaning and discloses the point at which he has +aimed all along. So in this instance. “For a habitation +of God in the Spirit”: behold the goal of God’s +ways with mankind! For this end the Divine grace +has wrought through countless ages and has made its +great sacrifice. For this end Jew and Gentile are +being gathered into one and compacted into a new +humanity.</p> + +<p>I. The Church is a house built for an <i>Occupant</i>. Its +quality and size, and the mode of its construction are +determined by its destination. It is built to suit the +great Inhabitant, who says concerning the new Zion as +He said of the old in figure: “This is my rest for ever! +Here will I dwell, for I have desired it.” God, who is +spirit, cannot be satisfied with the fabric of material +nature for His temple, nor does “the Most High dwell +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span> +in houses made by men’s hands.” He seeks our spirit +for His abode, and</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i16">“Doth prefer<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before all temples the upright heart and pure.”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>In the collective life and spirit of humanity God claims +to reside, that He may fill it with His glory and His +love. “Know you not,” cries the apostle to the once +debased Corinthians, “that you are God’s temple, and +that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”</p> + +<p>Nothing that is bestowed upon man terminates in +himself. The deliverance of Jewish and Gentile +believers from their personal sins, their re-instatement +into the broken unity of mankind and the destruction +in them of their old enmities, of the antipathies generated +by their common rebellion against God—these +great results of Christ’s sacrifice were means to a +further end. “Hallowed be Thy name” is our first +petition to the Father in heaven; “Glory to God in the +highest” is the key-note of the angels’ song, that runs +through all the harmonies of “peace on earth,” through +every strain of the melody of life. Religion is the mistress, +not the handmaid in human affairs. She will never +consent to become a mere ethical discipline, an instrument +and subordinate stage in social evolution, a ladder +held for men to climb up into their self-sufficiency.</p> + +<p>The old temptation of the Garden, “Ye shall be as +gods,” has come upon our age in a new and fascinating +form, “You shall be as gods,” it is whispered: “nay, +you <i>are</i> God, and there is no other. The supernatural +is a dream. The Christian story is a fable. There is +none to fear or adore above yourselves!” Man is to +worship his collective self, his own humanity. “I am +the Lord thy God,” the great idol says, “that brought +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span> +thee up out of animalism and savagery, and me only shalt +thou serve!—Love and faithful service to one’s kind, a +holy passion for the welfare of the race, for the relief of +human ignorance and poverty and pain, this is the true +religion; and you need no other. Its obligation is +instinctive, its benefits immediate and palpable; and it +gives a consecration to individual life that dignifies and +chastens, while it calls into exercise all our faculties.”</p> + +<p>Yes, we willingly admit, such human service is +“religion pure and undefiled, <i>before our God and +Father</i>.” If service is rendered to our kind as worship +to the Father of men; if we reverence in each man the +image of God and the shrine of His Spirit; if we are +seeking to cleanse and adorn in men the temple where +the Most High shall dwell, the humblest work done for +our fellows’ good is done for Him. The best human +charity is rendered for the love of God. “Thou shalt +love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and +strength. This,” said Jesus, “is the first and great +commandment. And the second is <i>like unto it</i>: Thou +shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two +commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” +On these two hangs the welfare of men and nations.</p> + +<p>But the first commandment must come first. The +second law of Jesus never has been or will be kept to +purpose without the first. Humanitarian sentiments, +dreams of universal brotherhood, projects of social +reform, may seem for the moment to gain by their independence +of religion a certain zest and emphasis; but +they are without root and vitality. Their energy fails, +or spends itself in revolt; their glow declines, their +purity is stained. The leaders and first enthusiasts +trained in the school of Christ, whose spirit, in vain +repudiated, lives on in them, find themselves betrayed +and alone. The coarse selfishness and materialism of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> +the human heart win an easy triumph over a visionary +altruism. “Without me,” says Jesus Christ, “ye can +do nothing.”</p> + +<p>In the light of God’s glory man learns to reverence +his nature and understand the vocation of his race. +The love of God touches the deep and enduring springs +of human action. The kingdom of Christ and of God +commands an absolute devotion; its service inspires +unfaltering courage and invincible patience. There is +a grandeur and a certainty, of which the noblest secular +aims fall short, in the hopes of those who are striving +together for the faith of the gospel, and who work to +build human life into a dwelling-place for God.</p> + +<p>II. God’s temple in the Church of Jesus Christ, while +it is one, is also manifold. “In whom <i>each several +building</i> [or <i>every part of the +building</i><a name="FNanchor_91" id="FNanchor_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a>], +while it is compacted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.”</p> + +<p>The image is that of an extensive pile of buildings, +such as the ancient temples commonly were, in process +of construction at different points over a wide area. +The builders work in concert, upon a common plan. +The several parts of the work are adjusted to each +other; and the various operations in process are so +harmonized, that the entire construction preserves the +unity of the architect’s design. Such an edifice was +the apostolic Church—one, but of many parts—in its +diverse gifts and multiplied activities animated by +one Spirit and directed towards one Divine purpose.</p> + +<p>Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, Rome—what +a various scene of activity these centres of Christian +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span> +life presented! The Churches founded in these great +cities must have differed in many features. Even in +the communities of his own province the apostle did +not, so far as we can judge, impose a uniform administration. +St Peter and St Paul carried out their plans +independently, only maintaining a general understanding +with each other. The apostolic founders, inspired by +one and the self-same Spirit, could labour at a distance, +upon material and by methods extremely various, with +entire confidence in each other and with an assurance +of the unity of result which their teaching and +administration would exhibit. The many buildings +rested on the one foundation of the apostles. “Whether +it were I or they,” says our apostle, “so we preach, +and so you believed.” Where there is the same Spirit +and the same Lord, men do not need to be scrupulous +about visible conformity. Elasticity and individual +initiative admit of entire harmony of principle. The +hand may do its work without irritating and obstructing +the eye; and the foot run on its errands without mistrusting +the ear.</p> + +<p>Such was the catholicism of the apostolic age. The +true reading of verse 21, as it is restored by the Revisers, +is an incidental witness to the date of the epistle. +A churchman of the second century, writing under +Paul’s name in the interests of catholic unity as it was +then understood, would scarcely have penned such a +sentence without attaching to the subject the definite +article: he must have written “all the building,” as +the copyists from whom the received text proceeds +very naturally have done. From that time onwards, +as the system of the ecclesiastical hierarchy was +developed, external unity was more and more strictly +imposed. The original “diversity of operations” +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span> +became a rigid uniformity. The Church swallowed up +the Churches. Finally, the spiritual bureaucracy of +Rome gathered all ecclesiastical power into one centre, +and placed the direction of Western Christendom in +the hands of a single priest, whom it declared to be the +Vicar of Jesus Christ and endowed with the Divine +attribute of infallibility.</p> + +<p>Had not Jerusalem been overthrown and its Church +destroyed, the hierarchical movement would probably +have made that city, rather than Rome, its centre. +This was in fact the tendency, if not the express +purpose of the Judaistic party in the Church. St Paul +had vindicated in his earlier epistles the freedom of +the Gentile Christian communities, and their right of +non-conformity to Jewish usage. In the words “each +several building, fitly framed together,” there is an +echo of this controversy. The Churches of his mission +claim a standing side by side with those founded by +other apostles. For himself and his Gentile brethren +he seems to say, in the presence of the primitive +Church and its leaders: “As they are Christ’s, so also +are we.”</p> + +<p>The co-operation of the different parts of the body +of Christ is essential to their collective growth. Let +all Churches beware of crushing dissent. Blows aimed +at our Christian neighbours recoil upon ourselves. +Undermining their foundation, we shake our own. +Next to positive corruption of doctrine and life, nothing +hinders so greatly the progress of the kingdom of God +as the claim to exclusive legitimacy made on behalf of +ancient Church organizations. Their representatives +would have every part of God’s temple framed upon +one pattern. They refuse a place on the apostolic +foundation to all Churches, however numerous, however +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span> +rich in faith and good works, however strong the +historical justification for their existence, however clear +the marks they bear of the Spirit’s seal, which do +not conform to the rule they themselves have received. +Their rites and ministry, they assert, are those alone +approved by Christ and authorized by His apostles, +within a given area. They refuse the right hand of +fellowship to men who are doing Christ’s work by their +side; they isolate their flocks, as far as possible, from +intercourse with the Christian communities around them.</p> + +<p>This policy on the part of any Christian Church, or +Church party, is contrary to the mind of Christ and +to the example of His apostles. Those who hold aloof +from the comity of the Churches and prevent the many +buildings of God’s temple being fitly framed together, +must bear their judgement, whosoever they be. They +prefer conquest to peace, but that conquest they will +never win; it would be fatal to themselves. Let the +elder sister frankly allow the birthright of the younger +sisters of Christ’s house in these lands, and be our +example in justice and in charity. Great will be her +honour; great the glory won for our common Lord.</p> + +<p>“Every building fitly framed together <i>groweth into +a holy temple</i> in the Lord.” The subject is distributive; +the predicate collective. The parts give place to the +whole in the writer’s mind. As each several piece of +the structure, each cell or chapel in the temple, spreads +out to join its companion buildings and adjusts itself +to the parts around it, the edifice grows into a richer +completeness and becomes more fit for its sacred purpose. +The separate buildings, distant in place or +historical character, approximate by extension, as they +spread over the unoccupied ground between them and as +the connecting links are multiplied. At last a point is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span> +reached at which they will become continuous. Growing +into each other step by step and forming across the +diminishing distance a web of mutual attachment constantly +thickening, they will insensibly, by a natural +and vital growth, become one in visible communion as +they are one in their underlying faith.</p> + +<p>When each organ of the body in its own degree is +perfect and holds its place in keeping with the rest, we +think no longer of their individual perfection, of the +charm of this feature or of that; they are forgotten in +the beauty of the perfect frame. So it will be in the +body of Christ, when its several communions, cleansed +and filled with His Spirit, each honouring the vocation +of the others, shall in freedom and in love by a spontaneous +movement be gathered into one. Their +strength will then be no longer weakened and their +spirit chafed by internal conflict. With united forces +and irresistible energy, they will assail the kingdom of +darkness and subjugate the world to Christ.</p> + +<p>For this consummation our Saviour prayed in the +last hours before His death: “that they all may be +one, as Thou, Father, art in me and I in Thee, that +they also may be in us, that the world may believe +that Thou didst send me” (John xvii. 21). Did He +fear that His little flock of the Twelve would be parted +by dissensions? Or did He not look onward to the +future, and see the “offences that must come,” the +alienations and fierce conflicts that would arise amongst +His people, and the blood that would be shed in His +name? Yet beyond these divisions, on the horizon +of the end of the age, He foresaw the day when the +wounds of His Church would be healed, when the sword +that He had brought on the earth would be sheathed, +and through the unity of faith and love in His people +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span> +all mankind would at last come to acknowledge Him +and the Father who had sent Him.</p> + +<p>III. To appearance, we are many rather than one +who bear the name of Christ. But we are one notwithstanding, +if below the variety of superstructure +our faith rests upon the witness of the apostles, and +the several buildings have Christ Jesus Himself for +chief corner-stone. The <i>one foundation</i> and the <i>one +Spirit</i> constitute the unity of God’s temple in the +Church.</p> + +<p>“The apostles and prophets” are named as a single +body, <i>the prophets</i> being doubtless, in this passage and +in chapters iii. 5 and iv. 11, the existing prophets of +the apostolic Church, whose inspired teaching supplemented +that of the apostles and helped to lay down +the foundation of revealed truth. That foundation has +been, through the providence of God, preserved for later +ages in the Scriptures of the New Testament, on which +the faith of Christians has rested ever since. Such a +prophet Barnabas was in the first days (Acts xiii. 1), +and such was the unknown, but deeply inspired writer +of the epistle to the Hebrews; such prophets, again, +were SS. Mark and Luke, the Evangelists. Prophecy +was not a stated gift of office. Just as there were +“teachers” in the early Church whose knowledge and +eloquence did not entitle them to bear rule, so prophecy +was frequently exercised by private persons and carried +with it no such official authority as belonged in the +highest degree to the apostles.</p> + +<p>It is thought surprising that St Paul should write +thus, in so general and distant a fashion, of the order to +which he belonged (comp. iii. 5). This, it is said, is +the language of a later generation, which looks back +with reverence to the inspired Founders. But this +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span> +letter is written, as we observed at the outset, from a +peculiarly objective and impersonal standpoint. It +differs in this respect from other epistles of St Paul. +He is addressing a number of Churches, with some of +which his personal relations were slight and distant. +He is contemplating the Church in its most general +character. He is not the only founder of Churches; +he is one of a band of colleagues, working in different +regions. It is natural that he should use the plural +here. He sets his successors an example of the recognition +due to fellow-labourers whose work bears the +seal of Christ’s Spirit.</p> + +<p>These men have laid <i>the foundation</i>—Peter and Paul, +John and James, Barnabas and Silas, and the rest. +They are our spiritual progenitors, the fathers of our +faith. We see Jesus Christ through their eyes; we +read His teaching, and catch His Spirit in their words. +Their testimony, in its essential facts, stands secure +in the confidence of mankind. Nor was it their word +alone, but the men themselves—their character, their +life and work—laid for the Church its historical foundation. +This “glorious company of the apostles” formed +the first course in the new building, on whose firmness +and strength the stability of the entire structure depends. +Their virtues and their sufferings, as well as the revelations +made through them, have guided the thoughts and +shaped the life of countless multitudes of men, of the +best and wisest men in all ages since. They have +fixed the standard of Christian doctrine and the type of +Christian character. At our best, we are but imitators +of them as they were of Christ.</p> + +<p>In regard to the chief part of their teaching, both as +to its meaning and authority, the great bulk of Christians +in all communions are agreed. The keen disputes +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span> +which engage us upon certain points, testify to the +cardinal importance which is felt on all hands to attach +to the words of Christ’s chosen apostles. Their living +witness is in our midst. The self-same Spirit that +wrought in them, works amongst men and dwells in the +communion of saints. He still reveals the things of +Christ, and guides into truth the willing and obedient.</p> + +<p>So “the firm foundation of God standeth”; though +men, shaken themselves, seem to see it tremble. On +that basis we may labour confidently and loyally, with +those amongst whom the Master has placed us. Some +of our fellow-workmen disown and would hinder us: +that shall not prevent us from rejoicing in their good +work, and admiring the gold and precious stones that +they contribute to the fabric. The Lord of the temple +will know how to use the labour of His many servants. +He will forgive and compose their strife, who are jealous +for His name. He will shape their narrow aims to His +larger purposes. Out of their discords He will draw +a finer harmony. As the great house grows to its +dimensions, as the workmen by the extension of their +labours come nearer to each other and their sectional +plans merge in Christ’s great purpose, reproaches will +cease and misunderstandings vanish. Over many who +followed not with us and whom we counted but as +“strangers and sojourners,” as men whose place within +the walls of Zion was doubtful and unauthorized, we +shall hereafter rejoice with a joy not unmixed with self-upbraiding, +to find them in the fullest right our fellow-citizens +amongst the saints and of the household of +God.</p> + +<p>The Holy Spirit is the supreme Builder of the +Church, as He is the supreme witness to Jesus Christ +(John xv. 26, 27). The words <i>in the Spirit</i>, closing the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span> +verse with solemn emphasis, denote not the mode of +God’s habitation—that is self-evident—but the agency +engaged in building this new house of God. With one +“chief corner-stone” to rest upon and one Spirit to +inspire and control them, the apostles and prophets +laid their foundation and the Church was “builded +together” for a habitation of God. Hence its unity. +But for this sovereign influence the primitive founders +of Christianity, like later Church leaders, would have +fallen into fatal discord. Modern critics, reasoning +upon natural grounds and not understanding the grace +of the Holy Spirit, assume that they did thus quarrel +and contend. Had this been so, no foundation could +ever have been laid; the Church would have fallen to +pieces at the very beginning.</p> + +<p>In the hands of these faithful and wise stewards +of God’s dispensation, “the stone which the builders +rejected was made the head of the corner.” Their work +has been tried by fire and by flood; and it abides. +The rock of Zion stands unworn by time, unshaken by +the conflict of ages,—amidst the movements of history +and the shifting currents of thought the one foundation +for the peace and true welfare of mankind.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91" id="Footnote_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> +<span class="greek" title="Pasa oikodomê">Πᾶσα οἰκοδομή</span>, +according to the well-established critical reading. +For <span class="greek" title="pas">πᾶς</span> without the article, implying a various whole, compare +<span class="greek" title="pasês ktiseôs">πάσης κτίσεως</span> in Col. i. 15; +<span class="greek" title="pasa graphê">πᾶσα γραφή</span>, 2 Tim. iii. 16; +<span class="greek" title="en pasê anastrophê">ἐν πάσῃ ἀναστροφῇ</span>, 1 Peter i. 15; and +<span class="greek" title="Theos pasês charitos">Θεὸς πάσης χάριτος</span>, 1 Peter v. 10.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<h4>THE SECRET OF THE AGES.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus in behalf of you +Gentiles,—if so be that ye have heard of the dispensation of that grace +of God which was given me toward you; how that by revelation was +made known unto me the mystery (as I wrote afore in few words, +whereby, when ye read, ye can perceive my understanding in the +mystery of Christ), which in other generations was not made known +unto the sons of men, as it hath now been revealed unto His holy +apostles and prophets in the Spirit; <i>to wit</i>, that the Gentiles are fellow-heirs, +and fellow-members of the body, and fellow-partakers of the +promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, whereof I was made a +minister, according to the gift of that grace of God which was given me +according to the working of His power. Unto me, who am less than +the least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach unto the Gentiles +the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to bring to light what is the +dispensation of the mystery which from all ages hath been hid in God +who created all things.”—<span class="smcap">Eph.</span> iii. 1–9.</p></div> + +<p>Verses 2–13 are in form a parenthesis. They +interrupt the prayer which appears to be commencing +in the first verse and is not resumed until +verse 14. This intervening period is parenthetical, +however, in appearance more than in reality. The +matter it contains is so weighty and so essential to the +argument and structure of the epistle, that it is impossible +to treat it as a mere <i>aside</i>. The writer intends, +at the pause which occurs after the paragraph just +concluded (ii. 22), to interpose a few words of prayer +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span> +before passing on to the next topic. But in the act +of doing so, this subject of which his mind is full—viz., +that of his own relation to God’s great purpose +for mankind—forces itself upon him; and the prayer +that was on his lips is pent up for a few moments +longer, until it flows forth again, in richer measure, in +verses 14–19.</p> + +<p>Like chapter i. 3–14, this passage is an extreme +instance of St Paul’s amorphous style. His sentences +are not composed; they are spun in a continuous +thread, an endless chain of prepositional, participial, +and relative adjuncts. They grow under our eyes +like living things, putting forth new processes every +moment, now in this and now in that direction. Within +the main parenthesis we soon come upon another +parenthesis including verses 3<i>b</i> and 4 (“as I wrote +afore,” etc.); and at several points the grammatical +connexion is uncertain. In its general scope, this +intricate sentence resolves itself into a statement of +<i>what God has wrought in the apostle</i> toward the accomplishment +of His great plan. It thus completes the +exposition given already of that which <i>God wrought in +Christ for the Church</i>, and that which <i>He has wrought +through Christ in Gentile believers</i> in fulfilment of the +same end.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>Verses 1–9 speak (1) of the mystery itself—God’s +gracious intention toward the human race, unknown +in earlier times; and (2) of the man to whom, above +others, it was given to make known the secret.</p> + +<p>I. <i>The mystery</i> is defined twice over. First, it consists +in the fact that “in Christ Jesus through the +gospel the Gentiles are co-heirs and co-incorporate and +co-partners in the promise” (ver. 6); and secondly, it +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span> +is “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (ver. 8). The +latter phrase gathers to a point what is diversely +expressed in the former.</p> + +<p>Christ is, to St Paul, the centre and the sum of +the mysteries of Divine truth, of the whole enigma of +existence. In the parallel epistle he calls Him “the +mystery of God—in whom are all the treasures of +wisdom and knowledge hidden” (Col. ii. 2, 3: R.V.). +The mystery of God, discovered in Christ, was hidden +out of the sight and reach of previous times. Now, +by the preaching of the gospel, it is made the common +property of mankind (Col. i. 25–28).</p> + +<p>In close connexion with these statements, St Paul +speaks there, as he does here, of his own heavy sufferings +endured on this account and the joy they gave +him. He is the instrument of a glorious purpose +worthy of God; he is the mouthpiece of a revelation +waiting to be spoken since the world began, that is +addressed to all mankind and interests heaven along +with earth. The greatness of his office is commensurate +with the greatness of the truth given him to +announce.</p> + +<p>The mystery, as we have said, consists in <i>Christ</i>. +This we learned from chapter i. 4, 5, and 9, 10. In +Christ the Eternal lodged His purpose and laid His +plans for the world. It is His fulness that the fulness +of the times dispenses. The Old Testament, the +reservoir of previous revelation, had Him for its close-kept +secret, “held in silence through eternal times” +(Rom. xvi. 25–27). The drift of its prophecies, the +focus of its converging lights, the veiled magnet towards +which its spiritual indications pointed, was “Christ.” +He “was the spiritual rock that followed” Israel in +its wanderings, from whose springs the people drank, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span> +as it answered to the touch of one and now another of +the holy men of old. The revelation of Jesus Christ +gives unity, substance, and meaning to the history of +Israel, which is otherwise a pathway without goal, a +problem without solution. Priest and prophet, law +and sacrifice; the kingly Son of David, and the suffering +Servant of Jehovah; the Seed of the woman with bruised +foot bruising the serpent’s head; the Lord whom His +people seek, suddenly coming to His temple; the Stone +hewn from the mountains without hands, that grows +till it fills the earth—the manifold representations of +Israel’s ideal, centre in the Lord Jesus Christ. The +lines of the great figure drawn on the canvas of +prophecy—disconnected as they seemed and without +a plan, giving rise to a thousand dreams and speculations—are +filled out and drawn into shape and take life +and substance in Him. They are found to be parts of +a consistent whole, sketches and studies of this fragment +or of that belonging to the consummate Person +and the comprehensive plan manifest in the revelation +of Jesus Christ.</p> + +<p>But while Christ gathers into Himself the accumulated +wealth of former revelation, His fulness is not +measured thereby or exhausted. He solves the problems +of the past; He unseals the ancient mysteries. But +He creates new and deeper problems, some explained +in the continued teaching of His Spirit and His providence, +others that remain, or emerge from time to time +to tax the faith and understanding of His Church. +There are the mysteries surrounding His own Person, +with which the Greek Church struggled long—His +eternal Sonship, His pre-incarnate relation to mankind +and the creatures, the final outcome of the mediatorial +reign and its subordination to the absolute sovereignty +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span> +of God. These depths St Paul sounded with his +plummet; but he found them unfathomable. Theological +science has explored and defined them, and +illuminated them on many sides, but cannot reach to +their inmost mystery. Then there is the problem of +the atonement, with all the cognate difficulties touching +the origin of sin, its heredity and its personal guilt, +touching the adjustment of law and grace, the method +of justification, the extent and efficacy of Christ’s redeeming +work, touching the future destiny and eternal +state of souls. Another class of questions largely +occupies the minds of thoughtful men to-day. They +are studying the relation of Christ and His Church +to nature and the outward world, the bearings of +Christian truth upon social conditions, the working of +the Spirit of God in communities, and the place of man’s +collective life in the progress and upbuilding of the +kingdom of Christ.</p> + +<p>For such inquiries the Spirit of wisdom and revelation +is given to those who humbly seek His light. +He is given afresh in every age. Out of Christ’s unsearchable +riches ever-new resources are forthcoming +at His Church’s need, new treasures lying hidden in +the old for him who can extract them. But His riches, +however far they are investigated, remain unsearchable, +and inexhaustible however largely drawn upon. God’s +ways may be tracked further and further in each generation; +they will remain to the end, as they were to the +mind of Paul at the limit of his bold researches, “past +finding out.” The inspired apostle confesses himself +a child in Divine learning: “We know in part,” he +says, “we prophesy in part.” Oh the depths of “hidden +wisdom” unimagined now, that are in store for us in +Christ, “foreordained before the worlds unto our glory!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span> +The particular aspect of the mystery of Christ with +which the apostle is concerned, is that of His relationship +to the Gentile world. “The grace of God,” he +says in verse 2, “was given me <i>for you</i>.” Such is +“the dispensation” in which God is now engaged. +Upon this lavish and undreamed-of scale He is dealing +forth salvation to men. St Paul describes this revelation +of God’s goodness to the Gentiles by three parallel +but distinct terms in verse 6. They “are fellow-heirs”—a +word that carries us back to chapter i. 11–13, and +assures the Gentile readers of their final redemption +and heavenly glory.<a name="FNanchor_92" id="FNanchor_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> +They “are of the same body”—which +sums up all that we have learnt from chapter ii. +11–22. And they “are fellow-partakers of the promise”—receiving +upon a footing of equal privilege with +Jewish believers the gift of the Spirit and the blessings +promised to Israel in the Messianic kingdom.</p> + +<p>In virtue of the dispensation committed to him, St +Paul formally proclaims the incorporation of the Gentiles +into the body of Christ, their investiture with the franchise +of faith. The forgiveness of sins is theirs, the +light of God’s smile, the breath of His Spirit, the +worship and fellowship of His Church, the tasks and +honours of His service. The incarnation of Christ is +theirs; His life, teaching, and miracles; His cross is +theirs, His resurrection and ascension, and His second +coming, and the glories of His heavenly kingdom—all +made their own on the bare condition of a penitent +and obedient faith. The past is theirs—is ours, along +with the present and the future. The God of Israel +is our God. Abraham is our father, though his sons +after the flesh acknowledge us not. Their prophets +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span> +prophesied of the grace that should come unto us. +Their poets sing the songs of Zion to Gentile peoples +in a hundred tongues. They lead our prayers and +praises. In their words we find expression for our +heart-griefs and joys. At the wedding-feast or by +the grave-side, amidst “the multitude that keep holy +day” and in “dry lands” where the soul thirsts for +God’s ordinances, we carry the Psalmists with us and +the teachers of Israel.</p> + +<p>What a boundless wealth we Gentiles, taught by +Jesus Christ, have discovered in the Jewish Bible! +When will the Jewish people understand that their +greatness is in Him, that the light which lightens the +Gentiles is their true glory? When will they accept +their part in the riches of which they have made all +the world partakers? The mystery of our participation +in their Christ has now been “revealed to the sons of +men” long enough. Is it not time that they themselves +should see it, that the veil should be lifted from the +heart of Israel? The disclosure was in the first +instance so astounding, so contrary to their cherished +expectations, that one can scarcely wonder if it was +at first rejected. But God the King of the ages has +been asserting and re-asserting the fact in the course +of history ever since. How vain to fight against Him! +how useless to deny the victory of the Nazarene!</p> + +<p>II. But there was in Israel an election of grace,—men +of unveiled heart to whom the mystery of ages was +disclosed. “The secret of Jehovah is with them that +fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.” +Such is the rule of revelation. To the like effect +Christ said: “The pure in heart shall see God. He +that willeth to do His will shall know of the doctrine.”</p> + +<p>The light of God’s universal love had come into the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span> +world; but where it fell on cold or impure hearts, it +shone in vain. The mystery “was made manifest to +His <i>saints</i>,” writes the apostle in Colossians i. 26. So +in this passage: “revealed to His <i>holy</i> apostles and +prophets in the Spirit.” The pure eye sees the true +light. This was the condition which made it possible +for Paul himself and his partners in the gospel to be +the bearers of this august revelation. It needed sincere +and devoted men, willing to be taught of God, willing to +surrender every prejudice and the preconceptions of +flesh and blood, in order to receive and convey to the +world thoughts of God so much larger and loftier than +the thoughts of men. To such men—true disciples, +loyal at all costs to God and truth, holy and humble +of heart—Jesus Christ gave His great commission +and bade them “go and make disciples of all the +nations.”</p> + +<p>The secret was further disclosed to Peter, when he +was taught at the house of Cornelius “not to call any +man common or unclean.” He saw, and the Church +of Jerusalem saw and confessed that God “gave the +like gift” to uncircumcised Gentiles as to themselves +and had “purified their hearts by faith.” Many prophetic +voices, unrecorded, confirmed this revelation. Of +all this Paul is thinking here. It is to his predecessors +in the knowledge of the truth rather than to himself +that he refers when he speaks of “holy apostles and +prophets” in verse 5. His readers would naturally +turn to them in coming to this plural expression. The +original apostles of Jesus and witnesses of His truth +first attested the doctrine of universal grace; and that +they did so was a fact of vital importance to Paul and +the Gentile Church. The significance of this fact is +shown by the stress which is laid upon it and the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> +prominence given to it in the narrative of the Acts of +the Apostles.</p> + +<p>The apostle frequently alludes to revelations made +to himself; he never claims that this chief matter +was <i>revealed</i> personally to himself. It was an open +secret when Saul entered the Church. “Whereof,” he +says, in verse 7, “I <i>became minister</i>”; again, “to me +was this grace given, to <i>preach to the Gentiles</i> Christ’s +unsearchable riches.” The leaders of the Jewish +Christian Church knew well that their message was +meant for all the world. But the abstract knowledge +of a truth is one thing; the practical power to +realize it is another. Until the new apostle came upon +the field, there was no man ready for this great task +and equal to it. It was at this crisis that Paul was +raised up. Then “it pleased God to reveal His Son” +in him, that he might “preach Him among the +Gentiles.”</p> + +<p>The effect of this summons upon Paul himself was +overwhelming, and continued to be so till the end of +life. The immense favour humbles him to the dust. +He strains language, heaping comparative upon superlative, +to describe his astonishment as the import of his +mission unfolds itself: “To me, less than the least of +all the saints, was this grace given.” That Saul the +Pharisee and the persecutor, the most unworthy and +most unlikely of men, should be the chosen vessel to +bear Christ’s riches to the Gentile world, how shall +he sufficiently give thanks for this! how express his +wonder at the unfathomable wisdom and goodness that +the choice displays in the mind of God! But we can +see well that this choice was precisely the fittest. A +Hebrew of the Hebrews, steeped in Jewish traditions +and glorying in his sacred ancestry, none knew better +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span> +than the apostle Paul how rich were the treasures +stored in the house of Abraham that he had to make +over to the Gentiles. A true son of that house, he was +the fittest to lead in the aliens, to show them its precious +things and make them at home within its walls.</p> + +<p>To himself the office was an unceasing delight. The +universalism of the gospel—a commonplace of our +modern rhetoric—had burst upon his mind in its unspoilt +freshness and undimmed splendour. He is sailing out +into an undiscovered ocean, with a boundless horizon. +A new heaven and earth are opened to him in the revelation +that the Gentiles are partakers of the promise in +Christ Jesus. He is entranced, as he writes, with the +largeness of the Divine purpose, with the magnificent +sweep and scope of the designs of grace. These verses +give us the warm and genuine impression made upon +the hearts of its first recipients by the disclosure of +the universal destination of the gospel of Christ.</p> + +<p>St Paul’s work, in carrying out the dispensation of +this mystery, was twofold. It was both external and +internal. He was a “herald and apostle”; he was +also “teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth” +(1 Tim. ii. 7). He had in the former capacity to carry +the good tidings from one end to the other of the +Roman empire, to spread it abroad as far as his feet +could travel and his voice reach, and thus “to fulfil the +gospel of Christ.” But there was another, mental +task, as necessary and still more difficult, which likewise +fell to his lot. He had to <i>think out</i> the gospel. +It was his office to unfold and apply it to the wants of +a new world, to solve by its aid the problems that confronted +him as evangelist and pastor,—questions that +contained the seed and beginning of the intellectual +difficulties of the Church in future times. He had to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span> +free the gospel from the swaddling-bands of Judaism, +to emancipate the spirit from the letter of a mechanical +and legal interpretation. On the other hand, he had +equally to guard the truth as it is in Jesus from the +dissolving influences of Gentile scepticism and theosophy. +Fighting his way through fierce and incessant +opposition on both sides, the apostle Paul led the mind +of the Church onwards and guides it still in the faith +and knowledge of the Son of God. These noble epistles +are the fruit and record of St Paul’s theological work. +Through them he has left a deeper mark on the conscience +of the world than any one man besides, except +the Master of truth who was more than man.</p> + +<p>The apostle was not unaware of the vast influence +he now possessed, and that must accrue to him in the +future from the transcendent interest of the doctrines +committed to his charge. There is no false modesty +about this splendidly gifted man. It is his not only +to “preach to the Gentiles the good news of Christ’s +unsearchable riches”; but more than that, “to bring to +light what is the administration of the mystery that has +been hidden away from the ages in God who created +all things.” The great secret was out while Saul of +Tarsus was still a persecutor and blasphemer. But +as to the <i>management</i> and <i>dispensation</i> of the mystery, +the practical handling of it, as to the mode and way in +which God would convey and apply it to the world +at large, and as to the bearings and consequences of +this momentous truth,—the apostle Paul, and no one +but he, had all this to expound and set in order. He +was, in fact, the architect of Christian doctrine.</p> + +<p>Theologically, Peter and John himself were Paul’s +debtors; and are included amongst the “all men” of +verse 9 (if this reading of the text is correct). St John +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span> +had, it is true, a more direct intuition into the mind of +Christ and rose to an even loftier height of contemplation; +but the labours and the logic of St Paul provided +the field into which he entered in his ripe old age +spent at Ephesus. John, who absorbed and assimilated +everything that belonged to Christ and found for +everything its principle and centre in the Master of his +youth—“the way, the truth, and the life”—passed +through the school of Paul. With the rest, he learnt +through the new apostle to see more perfectly “what +is the dispensation of the mystery hidden from the +ages in God.”</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>Well persuaded is our apostle that all readers of this +letter in the Asian towns, if they have not known it +before, will now “perceive” his “understanding in the +mystery of Christ.” All ages have discerned it since. +And the ages to come will measure its value better +than we can do now.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92" id="Footnote_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> +See Gal. iii. 7, v. 5; Rom. viii. 14–25; 1 Peter i. 4, 5.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<h4>EARTH TEACHING HEAVEN.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in the +heavenly <i>places</i> might be made known through the Church the manifold +wisdom of God, according to the purpose of the ages which He +formed in the Christ, <i>even</i> Jesus our Lord: in whom we have boldness +and access in confidence through our faith in Him. Wherefore I ask +that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which are your glory.”—<span class="smcap">Eph.</span> +iii. 10–13.</p></div> + +<p><i>The mystery hidden since the ages began, in God +who created all things</i>: so the last paragraph concluded. +The added phrase “through Jesus Christ” +is a comment of the pious reader, that has been incorporated +in the received text; but it is wanting in the +oldest copies, and is out of place. The apostle is not +concerned with the prerogatives of Christ, but with the +scope of the Christian economy. He is displaying the +breadth and grandeur of the dispensation of grace, +the infinite range of the Divine plans and operations +of which it forms the centre. Its secret was cherished +in the Eternal Mind. Its foundations are laid in the +very basis of the world. And the disclosure of it now +being made brings new light and wisdom to the +powers of the celestial realms.</p> + +<p>“There is nothing covered,” said Jesus, “which shall +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span> +not be revealed, and hidden which shall not be known.” +The mysteries which God sets before His intelligent +creatures, are promises of knowledge; they are drafts, +to be honoured in due time, upon the treasures of +wisdom hidden in Christ. So this great secret of the +destiny of the Gentile world was “from all ages hidden, +in order that now through the Church it might be made +known,” and by its means God’s wisdom, to these +sublime intelligences. This intention was a part of +the “plan of the ages” formed in Christ (ver. 11). +God designed by our redemption to bless higher races +along with our own. The elder sons of God, those +“morning stars” of creation, are schooled and instructed +by what is transpiring here upon earth.</p> + +<p>To some this will appear to be mere extravagance. +They see in such expressions the marks of an unrestrained +enthusiasm, of theological speculation pushed +beyond its limits and unchecked by any just knowledge +of the physical universe. This censure would be +plausible and it might seem that the apostle had +extended the mission of the gospel beyond its province, +were it not for what he says in verse 11: This “purpose +of the ages” God “made in <i>the Christ</i>, even <i>Jesus +our Lord</i>.” Jesus Christ links together angels and +men. He draws after Him to earth the eyes of heaven. +Christ’s coming to this world and identification with it +unite to it enduringly the great worlds above us. The +scenes enacted upon this planet and the events of its +religious history have sent their shock through the +universe. The incarnation of the Son of God gives to +human life a boundless interest and significance. It is +idle to oppose to this conviction the fact of the littleness +of the terrestrial globe. Spiritual and physical +magnitudes are incommensurable. You cannot measure +a man’s soul by the size of his dwelling-house. Science +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span> +teaches us that the most powerful forces may exist and +operate within the narrowest space. A microscopic +cell may contain the potential life of a world. If our +earth is but a grain of sand to the astronomer, it has +been the home of Godhead. It is the world for which +God spared not to give His own Son!</p> + +<p>Here, then, lies the centre of the apostle’s thoughts +in this paragraph: <i>God’s all-comprehending purpose in +Christ</i>. The magnitude and completeness of this plan +are indicated by the fact that it embraces in its +purview <i>the angelic powers and their enlightenment</i>. So +understanding it, our <i>human faith gains confidence and +courage</i> (vv. 12, 13).</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>I. The textual critics restore the definite article +which later copyists had dropped before the word +<i>Christ</i> in verse 11. We have already remarked the +frequency of “the Christ” in this epistle.<a name="FNanchor_93" id="FNanchor_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a> +Once besides this peculiar combination of the names of our +Saviour occurs—in Colossians ii. 6, where Lightfoot +renders it <i>the Christ, even Jesus the Lord</i>. So it +should be rendered in this place. St Paul sets forth +the purpose of “God who created all things.” He is +looking back through “the ages” during which the +Divine plan was kept secret. God was all the time +designing His work of mercy, pointing meanwhile the +hopes of men by token and promise to the Coming One. +The Messiah was the burden of those prophetic ages. +That inscrutable Christ of the Old Testament, the +veiled mystery of Jewish hope, stands manifested +before us and challenges our faith in the glorious +person of “Jesus our Lord.” This singular turn of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[170]</a></span> +expression identifies the ideal and the real, the promise +and fulfilment, the dream of Old Testament prophecy +and the fact of New Testament history. For Jesus +our Lord is the very Christ to whom the generations +before His coming looked forward out of their twilight +with wistful expectancy.</p> + +<p>Not without meaning is He called “Jesus <i>our Lord</i>.” +The “principalities and powers” of the heavenly places +are in our view (ver. 10). These potentates some of +the Asian Christians were fain to worship. “See ye +do it not,” Paul seems to say. “Jesus, the Christ of +God, is alone our Lord; not these. He is our Lord +<i>and theirs</i> (i. 21, 22). As our Lord He commands +their homage, and gives them lessons through His +Church in God’s deep counsels.” Everything that the +apostle says tends to exalt our Redeemer and to +enhance our confidence in Him. His position is +central and supreme, in regard alike to the ages of +time and the powers of the universe. In His hand is +the key to all mysteries. He is the Alpha and Omega, +the beginning, middle, and end of God’s ways. He is +the centre of Israel, Israel of the world and the human +ages; while the world of men is bound through Him +to the higher spheres of being, over which He too +presides.</p> + +<p>There is a splendid intellectual courage, an incredible +boldness and reach of thought in St Paul’s conception +of the sovereignty of Christ. Remember that He of +whom these things are said, but thirty years before died +a felon’s death in the sight of the Jewish people. It is +not <i>our</i> Lord Jesus Christ, whose name is hallowed by +the lips of millions and glorified by the triumphs of +centuries upon centuries past, but the Nazarene with +the obscurity of His life and the cruel shame of Calvary +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span> +fresh in the recollection of all men. With what +immense force had the facts of His glorification wrought +upon men’s minds—His resurrection and ascension, the +witness of His Spirit and the virtue of His gospel—for +it to be possible to speak of Him thus, within a +generation of His death! While “the foolishness of +preaching” such a Christ and the weakness in which +He was crucified were patent to all eyes, unrelieved by +the influence of time and the glamour of success, how +was it that the first believers raised Jesus to this limitless +glory and dominion? It was through the conviction, +certified by outward fact and inward experience, +that “He liveth by the power of God.” Thus Peter +on the day of Pentecost: “By the right hand of God +exalted, He hath shed forth this which ye now see and +hear.” The resurrection from the dead, the demonstration +of the Spirit proved Jesus Christ to be that +which He had claimed to be, the Saviour of men and +the eternal Son of God.</p> + +<p>The supremacy here assigned to Christ is a consequence +of the exaltation described at the close of the +first chapter. There we see the height, here the +breadth and length of His dominion. If He is raised +from the grave so high that all created powers and +names are beneath His feet, we cannot wonder that the +past ages were employed in preparing His way, that +the basis of His throne lies in the foundation of the +world.</p> + +<p>II. The universe is one. There is a solidarity of +rational and moral interests amongst all intelligences. +Granting the existence of such beings as the angels +of Scripture, we should expect them to be profoundly +concerned in the redeeming work of Christ. They are +the “watchers” and “holy ones” spoken of by the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span> +later Isaiah and Daniel, whom the Lord has “set upon +the walls of Jerusalem” and who survey the affairs +of nations. Such was “the angel who talked” with +Zechariah in his vision, and whom the prophet overheard +pleading for Jerusalem. In the Apocalypse, +again, we find the angels acting as God’s unseen executive. +We decline to believe that these superhuman +creatures are nothing more than apocalyptic machinery, +that they are creations of fancy employed to give a +livelier aspect to spiritual truth. “Cannot I pray to +my Father, and He shall presently give me more than +twelve legions of angels?” So Jesus said, in the most +solemn hour of His life. And who can forget His tender +words concerning the little children, whose “angels do +always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven”?</p> + +<p>The apostle Paul, who denounces “worship of the +angels” in the fellow epistle to this, earnestly believed +in their existence and their interest in human affairs. +If he did not write the words of Hebrews i. 14, he +certainly held that “they are ministering spirits sent +forth to do service for the sake of them that shall +inherit salvation.” Most clearly is their relationship +to the Church affirmed by the words of the revealing +angel to the apostle John: “I am a fellow-servant with +thee and with thy brethren the prophets, and with them +that keep the words of this book.”</p> + +<p>Christ’s service is the high school of wisdom for the +universe. These princes of heaven win by their +ministry to Christ and His Church a great reward. +Their intelligence, however lofty its range, is finite. +Their keen and burning intuition could not penetrate +the mystery of God’s intentions toward this world. +The revelations of the latter days—the incarnation, the +cross, the publication of the gospel, the outpouring of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span> +the Spirit—were full of surprises to the heavenly +watchers. They sang at Bethlehem; they hid their +faces and shrouded heaven in blackness at the sight +of Calvary. They bent down with eager observation +and searching thought “desiring to look into” the +things made known to men (1 Peter i. 12),—close and +sympathetic students of the Church’s history. The +apostle felt that there were other eyes bent upon him +than those of his fellow-men, and that he was acting +in a grander arena than the visible world. “We are +a spectacle,” he says, “<i>to angels</i> and to men.” So he +enjoins faithfulness on Timothy, and with Timothy on +all who bear the charge of the gospel, “before God and +Christ Jesus, and the elect angels.” What is public +opinion, what the applause or derision of the crowd, +to him who lives and acts in the presence of these +august spectators?</p> + +<p>“Through the Church,” we are told, the angels of +God are “now” having His “manifold wisdom made +known” to them. It is not from the abstract scheme +of salvation, from the theory or theology of the Church +that they get this education, but through the living +Church herself. The Saviour’s mission to earth created +a problem for them, the development of which they +follow with the most intense and sympathetic interest. +With what solicitude they watch the conflict between +good and evil and the varying progress of Christ’s +kingdom amongst men! Many things, doubtless, that +engage our attention and fill a large space in our Church +records, are of little account with them; and much that +passes in obscurity, names and deeds unchronicled by +fame, are written in heaven and pondered in other +spheres. No brave and true blow is struck in Christ’s +battle, but it has the admiration of these high spectators. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span> +No advance is made in character and habit, in Christian +intelligence and efficiency and the application of the +gospel to human need, but they notice and approve. +When the cause of the Church and the salvation of +mankind go forward, when righteousness and peace +triumph, the morning stars sing together and the sons +of God shout for joy. The joy that there is in the +presence of the angels of God over the repenting sinner, +is not the joy of sympathy or pity only; it is the delight +of growing wisdom, of deepening insight into the ways +of God, into the heart of the Father and the love that +passes knowledge.</p> + +<p>One would suppose from what the apostle hints, +that our world presents a problem unique in the +kingdom of God, one which raises questions more complicated +and crucial than have elsewhere arisen. The +heavenly princedoms are learning through the Church +“the <i>manifold</i> wisdom of God.” His love, in its pure +essence, those happy and godlike beings know. They +have lived for ages in its unclouded light. His power +and skill they may see displayed in proportions immensely +grander than this puny globe of ours presents. +God’s justice, it may be, and the thunders of His law +have issued forth in other regions clothed with a +splendour of which the scenes of Sinai were but a faint +emblem. It is in the combination of the manifold +principles of the Divine government that the peculiarity +of the human problem appears to lie. The delicate +and continuous balancing of forces in God’s plan of +dealing with this world, the reconciliation of seeming +incompatibilities, the issue found from positions of +hopeless contradiction, the accord of goodness with +severity, of inflexible rectitude and truth with fatherly +compassion, afford to the greatest minds of heaven +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span> +a spectacle and a study altogether wonderful. So +amongst ourselves the child of a noble house, reared +in cultured ease and shielded from moral peril, in visiting +the homes of poverty in the crowded city finds a +new world opened to him, that can teach him Divine +lessons if he has the heart to learn. His mind is +awakened, his sympathies enriched. He hears the +world’s true voice, “the still, sad music of humanity.” +He measures the heights and depths of man’s nature. +A host of questions are thrust upon him, whose urgency +he had scarcely guessed; and wide ranges of truth are +lighted up for him, which before were distant and +unreal. The highest have ever to learn from the lowest +in Christ’s school, the seeming-wise from the simple; +even the pure and good, from contact with the fallen +whom they seek to save.</p> + +<p>And “the principalities and the powers in the +heavenly places” are, it seems, willing to learn from +those below them. As they traced the course of human +history in those “eternal times” during which the +mystery lay wrapped in silence, the angel watchers +were too wise to play the sceptic, too cautious to +criticize an unfinished plan and arraign a justice they +could not yet understand. With a dignified patience +they waited the uplifting of the curtain and the unravelling +of the entangled plot. They looked for the +coming of the Promised One. So in due time they +witnessed and, for their reward, assisted in His manifestation. +With the same docility these high sharers +of our theological inquiries still wait to see the end of +the Lord and to take their part in the dénouement of +the time-drama, in the revelation of the sons of God. +Let us copy their long patience. God has not made us +to mock us. “What thou knowest not now,” said the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> +great Revealer, the Master of all mysteries, to His +disciple, “thou shalt know hereafter.”</p> + +<p>These wise elder brothers of ours, rich in the lore of +eternity, foresee the things to come as we cannot do. +They are far above the smoke and dust of the earthly +conflict. The doubts that shake the strongest souls +amongst us, the cries of the hour which confuse and +deceive us, do not trouble them. They behold us in +our weakness, our fears and our divisions; but they +also look on Him who “sits expecting till His enemies +are made His footstool.” They see how calmly He +sits, how patiently expectant, while the sound of clashing +arms and the rage and tumult of the peoples go up +from the earth. They mark the steadiness with which +through century after century, in spite of refluent +waves, the tide of mercy rises, and still rises on the +shores of earth. Thrones, systems, civilizations have +gone down; one after another of the powers that strove +to crush or to corrupt Christ’s Church has disappeared; +and still the name of Jesus lives and spreads. It has +traversed every continent and sea; it stands at the head +of the living and moving forces of the world. Those +who come nearest to the angelic point of view, and +judge of the progress of things not by the froth upon +the surface but by the trend of the deeper currents, are +the most confident for the future of our race. The +kingdom of Satan will not fall without a struggle—a +last struggle, perhaps more furious than any in the past—but +it is doomed, and waning to its end. So far has +the kingdom of Christ advanced, so mightily does the +word of God grow and prevail in the earth, that faith +may well assure itself of the promised triumph. Soon +we shall shout: “Alleluia! The Lord God Omnipotent +reigneth!”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span> +III. Suddenly, according to his wont, the apostle +drops down from the heights of contemplation to the +level of ordinary fact. He descends in verse 12 from +the thought of the eternal purpose and the education +of the angels to the struggling Church. The assurance +of its life in the Spirit corresponds to the grandeur of +that Divine order to which it belongs. “In whom,” +he says—in this Christ, the revealed mystery of ages +past, the Teacher of angels and archangels—“we have +our freedom and confident access to God through faith +in Him.”</p> + +<p>If it be “Jesus our Lord” to whom these attributes +belong, and He is not ashamed of us, well may we +draw near with <i>confidence</i> to the Father, unashamed in +the presence of His holy angels. We have no need to +be abashed, if we approach the Divine Majesty with +a true faith in Christ. His name gives the sinner +access to the holiest place. The cherubim sheathe +their swords of flame. The heavenly warders at this +passport open the golden gates. We “come unto +Mount Sion, the city of the living God, and to an +innumerable company of angels.” Not one of these +mightinesses and ancient peers of heaven, not Gabriel +or Michael himself, would wish or dare to bar our +entrance.</p> + +<p>“We <i>have</i> boldness and access,” says the apostle, as +in chapter i. 7: “We have redemption in His blood.” +He insists upon the conscious fact. This freedom of +approach to God, this sonship of faith, is no hope or +dream of what may be; it is a present reality, a filial +cry heard in a multitude both of Gentile and Jewish +hearts (comp. ii. 18).</p> + +<p>This sentence exhibits the richness of synonyms +characteristic of the epistle. There is <i>boldness</i> and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span> +<i>access</i>, <i>confidence</i> as well as <i>faith</i>. The three former +terms Bengel nicely distinguishes: “libertatem <i>oris</i> in +orando,” and “admissionem in fiducia <i>in re</i>, et <i>corde</i>”—freedom +of <i>speech</i> (in prayer), of <i>status</i>, and of <i>feeling</i>. +The second word (as in chapter ii. 18 and Romans +v. 2) appears to be active rather than passive in its +force, denoting <i>admittance</i> rather than <i>access</i>. So +that while the former of the parallel terms (<i>boldness</i>) +describes the liberty with which the new-born Church +of the redeemed address themselves to God the Father +and the unchecked freedom of their petitions, the latter +(<i>admittance</i>) takes us back to the act of Christ by +which He introduced us to the Father’s presence and +gave us the place of sons in the house. Being thus +admitted, we may come with confidence of heart, though +we be less than the least of saints. Accepted in +the Beloved, we are within our right if we say to the +Father:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">“Yet in Thy Son divinely great,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">We claim Thy providential care.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Boldly we stand before Thy seat;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our Advocate hath placed us there!”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>“Wherefore,” concludes the imprisoned apostle, “I +beg you not to lose heart at my afflictions for you.” +Assuredly Paul did not pray that <i>he</i> should not lose +heart, as some interpret his meaning. But he knew +how his friends were fretting and wearying over his +long captivity. Hence he writes to the Philippians: +“I would have you know that the things which have +happened to me have turned out rather to the furtherance +of the gospel.” Hence, too, he assures the +Colossians earnestly of his joy in suffering for their +sake (ch. i. 24).</p> + +<p>The Church was fearful for Paul’s life and distressed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span> +by his prolonged sufferings. It missed his cheering +presence and the inspiration of his voice. But if +the Church is so dear to God as the pages of this +letter show, and grounded in His eternal purposes, +then let all friends of Christ take courage. The ark +freighted with such fortunes cannot sink. St Paul is +a martyr for Christ, and for Gentile Christendom! +Every stroke that falls upon him, every day added to +the months of his imprisonment helps to show the +worth of the cause he has espoused and gives to it +increased lustre: “my afflictions for you, which are +your glory.”</p> + +<p>Those that love him should <i>boast</i> rather than grieve +over his afflictions. “We make our boast in you +amongst the Churches of God,” he wrote to the distressed +Thessalonians (2 Ep. i. 4), “for your patience +and faith in all your persecutions and afflictions”; so +he would have the Churches think of him. When +good men suffer in a good cause, it is not matter for +pity and dread, but rather for a holy pride.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_93" id="Footnote_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> +See note on p. 47; also pp. 83, 189.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180"></a> +<a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="section">PRAYER AND PRAISE.</h2> + +<h4 class="section"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> iii. 14–21.</h4> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="center"><span class="greek" +title="To hyperechon tês gnôseôs Christou Iêsou tou Kyriou mou."> +Τὸ ὑπερέχον τῆς γνώσεως Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ τοῦ Κυρίου μου.</span>—<span class="smcap">Phil.</span> iii. 8.</p></div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<h4>THE COMPREHENSION OF CHRIST.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, from whom every +family in heaven and upon earth is named, that He would grant you, +according to the riches of His glory, that ye may be strengthened with +power through His Spirit in the inward man; that the Christ may +dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that ye, being rooted +and grounded in love, may be strong to comprehend with all the saints +what is the breadth and length and height and depth.”—<span class="smcap">Eph.</span> iii. 14–18.</p></div> + +<p>In verse 14 the prayer is resumed which the apostle +was about to offer at the beginning of the chapter, +when the current of his thoughts carried him away. +The supplication is offered “for this cause” (vv. 1, 14),—it +arises out of the teaching of the preceding pages. +Thinking of all that God has wrought in the Christ, +and has accomplished by means of His gospel in +multitudes of Gentiles as well as Jews, reconciling +them to Himself in one body and forming them together +into a temple for His Spirit, the apostle bows +his knees before God on their behalf. So much he +had in mind, when at the end of the second chapter he +was in act to pray for the Asian Christians that they +might be enabled to enter into this far-reaching purpose. +Other aspects of the great design of God rose +upon the writer’s mind before his prayer could find +expression. He has told us of his own part in disclosing +it to the world, and of the interest it excites +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span> +amongst the dwellers in heavenly places,—thoughts +full of comfort for the Gentile believers troubled by his +imprisonment and continued sufferings. These further +reflections add new meaning to the “For this cause” +repeated from verse 1.</p> + +<p>The prayer which he offers here is no less remarkable +and unique in his epistles than the act of praise +in chapter i. Addressing himself to God as the Father +of angels and of men, the apostle asks that He will +endow the readers in a manner corresponding to <i>the +wealth of His glory</i>—in other words, that the gifts He +bestows may be worthy of the universal Father, worthy +of the august character in which God has now revealed +Himself to mankind. According to this measure, St +Paul beseeches for the Church, in the first instance, two +gifts, which after all are one,—viz., <i>the inward strength +of the Holy Spirit</i> (ver. 16), and <i>the permanent indwelling +of Christ</i> (ver. 17). These gifts he asks on his readers’ +behalf with a view to their gaining two further blessings, +which are also one,—viz., <i>the power to understand +the Divine plan</i> (ver. 18) as it has been expounded in +this letter, and so <i>to know the love of Christ</i> (ver. 19). +Still, beyond these there rises in the distance a further +end for man and the Church: <i>the reception of the entire +fulness of God</i>. Human desire and thought thus reach +their limit; they grasp at the infinite.</p> + +<p>In this Chapter we will strive to follow the apostle’s +prayer to the end of the eighteenth verse, where it +arrives at its chief aim and touches the main thought +of the epistle, expressing the desire that all believers +may have power to realize the full scope of the salvation +of Christ in which they participate.</p> + +<p>Let us pause for a moment to join in St Paul’s +invocation: “I bow my knees to the Father, of whom +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span> +[not <i>the whole family</i>, but] <i>every family</i> in heaven and +upon earth is named.” The point of St Paul’s original +phrase is somewhat lost in translation. The Greek +word for <i>family</i> (<i>patria</i>) is based on that for <i>father</i> +(<i>pater</i>). A distinguished father anciently gave his name +to his descendants; and this paternal name became +the bond of family or tribal union, and the title which +ennobled the race. So we have “the sons of Israel,” +the “sons of Aaron” or “of Korah”; and in Greek +history, the Atridæ, the Alcmæonidæ, who form a family +of many kindred households—a <i>clan</i>, or <i>gens</i>, designated +by their ancestral head. Thus Joseph (in Luke ii. 4) +is described as “being of the house and family [<i>patria</i>] +of David”; and Jesus is “the Son of David.” Now +Scripture speaks also of <i>sons of God</i>; and these of two +chief orders. There are those “in heaven,” who form +a race distinct from ourselves in origin—divided, it may +be, amongst themselves into various orders and dwelling +in their several homes in the heavenly places.</p> + +<p>Of these are “the sons of God” whom the Book +of Job pictures appearing in the Divine court and +forming a “family in heaven.” When Christ promises +(Luke xx. 36) that His disciples in their immortal state +will be “equal to the angels,” because they are “sons +of God,” it is implied that the angels are already +and by birthright sons of God. Hence in Hebrews +xii. 22, 23 the angels are described as “the festal +gathering and assembly of <i>the firstborn</i> enrolled in +heaven.” We, the sons of Adam, with our many +tribes and kindreds, through Jesus Christ our Elder +Brother constitute a new family of God. God becomes +our Name-father, and permits us also to call ourselves +His sons through faith. Thus the Church of believers +in the Son of God constitutes the “family on earth +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span> +named” from the same Father who gave His name +to the holy angels, our wise and strong and brilliant +elder brothers. They and we are alike God’s offspring. +Heaven and earth are kindred spheres.</p> + +<p>This passage gives to God’s Fatherhood the same +extension that chapter i. 21 has given to Christ’s Lordship. +Every order of creaturely intelligence acknowledges +God for the Author of its being, and bows to +Christ as its sovereign Lord. In God’s name of Father +the entire wealth of love that streams forth from Him +through endless ages and unmeasured worlds is hidden; +and in the name of sons of God there is contained the +blessedness of all creatures that can bear His image.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>I. What, therefore, shall the universal Father be +asked to give to His needy children upon earth? They +have newly learnt His name; they are barely recovered +from the malady of their sin, fearful of trial, weak to +meet temptation. <i>Strength</i> is their first necessity: +“I bow my knees to the Father of heaven and earth, +praying that He may grant you, according to the riches +of His glory, to be strengthened by the entering of the +Spirit into your inward man.” The apostle asked them +in verse 13, in view of the greatness of his own calling, +to be of good courage on his account; now he entreats +God so to reveal to them His glory and to pour into +their hearts His Spirit, that no weakness and fear +may remain in them. The <i>strengthening</i> of which he +speaks is the opposite of the <i>faintness of heart</i>, the +failure of courage deprecated in verse 13. Using the +same word, the apostle bids the Corinthians “Quit +themselves like men, <i>be strong</i>” (1 Ep. xvi. 13). He +desires for the Asian believers a manful heart, the +strength that meets battle and danger without quailing.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span> +The source of this strength is not in ourselves. We +are to be “strengthened <i>with</i> [or <i>by</i>] <i>power</i>,”—by +“the power” of God “working in us” (ver. 20), the +very same “power, exceeding great,” that raised Jesus +our Lord from the dead (i. 19). This superhuman +might of God operating in men is always referred to +the Holy Spirit: “by power made strong,” he says, +“<i>through the Spirit</i>.” Nothing is more familiar in +Scripture than the conception of the indwelling Spirit +of God as the source of moral strength. The special +power that belongs to the gospel Christ ascribes altogether +to this cause. “Ye shall receive power,” He +said to His disciples, “after that the Holy Spirit is +come upon you.” Hence is derived the vigour of a +strong faith, the valour of the good soldier of Christ +Jesus, the courage of the martyrs, the cheerful and +indomitable patience of multitudes of obscure sufferers +for righteousness’ sake. There is a great truth expressed +when we describe a brave and enterprising man as +a <i>man of spirit</i>. All high and commanding qualities +of soul come from this invisible source. They are +inspirations. In the human will, with its <i>vis vivida</i>, its +elasticity and buoyancy, its steadfastness and resolved +purpose, is the highest type of force and the image of +the almighty Will. When that will is animated and +filled with “the Spirit,” the man so possessed is the +embodiment of an inconceivable power. Firm principle, +hope and constancy, self-mastery, superiority to pleasure +and pain,—all the elements of a noble courage are +proper to the man of the Spirit. Such power is not +neutralized by our infirmities; it asserts itself under +their limiting conditions and makes them its contributories. +“My grace is sufficient for thee,” said Christ +to His disabled servant; “for power is perfected in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span> +weakness.” In privation and loneliness, in old age +and bodily decay, the strength of God in the human +spirit shines with its purest lustre. Never did St Paul +rise to such a height of moral ascendency as at the +time when he was “smitten down” and all but destroyed +by persecution and affliction. “That the excellency +of the power,” he says, “may be of God, and not from +ourselves” (2 Cor. iv. 7–11).</p> + +<p>The apostle points to “the inner man” as the seat +of this invigoration, thinking perhaps of its secrecy. +While the world buffets and dismays the Christian, +new vigour and joy are infused into his soul. The +surface waters and summer brooks of comfort fail; but +there opens in the heart a spring fed by the river of +life proceeding from the throne of God. Beneath the +toil-worn frame, the mean attire and friendless condition +of the prisoner Paul—a mark for the world’s scorn—there +lives a strength of thought and will mightier than +the empire of the Cæsars, a power of the Spirit that +is to dominate the centuries to come. Of this omnipotent +power dwelling in the Church of God, the +apostle prays that every one of his readers may +partake.</p> + +<p>II. Parallel to the first petition, and in substance +identical with it, is the second: “that the Christ may +make His dwelling through faith in your hearts.” +Such, it seems to us, is the relation of verses 16 and 17. +Christ’s residence in the heart is to be viewed neither +as the result, nor the antecedent of the strength given +by the Spirit to the inward man: the two are simultaneous; +they are the same things seen in a varying +light.</p> + +<p>We observe in this prayer the same vein of Trinitarian +thought which marks the doxology of chapter i., +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span> +and other leading passages in this +epistle.<a name="FNanchor_94" id="FNanchor_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a> +The Father, the Spirit, and the Christ are unitedly the +object of the apostle’s devout supplication.</p> + +<p>As in the previous clause, the verb of verse 17 bears +emphasis and conveys the point of St Paul’s entreaty; +he asks that “the Christ may <i>take up His abode</i>,—may +<i>settle</i> in your hearts.” The word signifies to <i>set up one’s +house</i> or <i>make one’s home</i> in a place, by way of contrast +with a temporary and uncertain sojourn (comp. ii. 19). +The same verb in Colossians ii. 9 asserts that in Christ +“<i>dwells</i> all the fulness of the Godhead”; and in +Colossians i. 19 it declares, used in the same tense as +here, how it was God’s “pleasure that all the fulness +should <i>make its dwelling</i> in Him” now raised from the +dead, who had emptied and humbled Himself to fulfil +the purpose of the Father’s love. So it is desired that +Christ should take His seat within us. He is never +again to stand at the door and knock, nor to have a +doubtful and disputed footing in the house. Let the +Master come in, and claim His own. Let Him become +the heart’s fixed tenant and full occupier. Let Him, if +He will thus condescend, make Himself at home within +us and there rest in His love. For He promised: “If +any man love me, my Father will love him; and we will +come unto him, and make our abode with him.”</p> + +<p>And “<i>the</i> Christ,” not Christ alone. Why does the +apostle say this? There is a reason for the definite article, as we have found +elsewhere.<a name="FNanchor_95" id="FNanchor_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a> +The apostle is asking for his Asian brethren something beyond that +possession of Christ which belongs to every true Christian,—more +even than the permanence and certainty of +this indwelling indicated by the verb. “The Christ” +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span> +is Christ in the significance of His <i>name</i>. It is Christ +not only possessed, but understood,—Christ realized +in the import of His work, in the light of His relationship +to the Father and the Spirit, and to men. It is +the Christ of the Church and the ages—known and +accepted for all this—that St Paul would fain have +dwelling in the heart of each of his Gentile disciples. +He is endeavouring to raise them to an adequate comprehension +of the greatness of the Redeemer’s person +and offices; he longs to have their minds possessed +by his own views of Christ Jesus the Lord.</p> + +<p><i>The heart</i>, in the language of the Bible, never denotes +the emotional nature by itself. The antithesis of “heart +and head,” the divorce of feeling and understanding in +our modern speech is foreign to Scripture. The heart +is our interior, conscious self—thought, feeling, will in +their personal unity. It needs the whole Christ to fill +and rule the whole heart,—a Christ who is the Lord of +the intellect, the Light of the reason, no less than the +Master of the feelings and desires.</p> + +<p>The difference in significance between “Christ” or +“Christ Jesus” and “the Christ” in such a sentence +as this, is not unlike the difference between “Queen +Victoria” and “the Queen.” The latter phrase brings +Her Majesty before us in the grandeur and splendour +of her Queenship. We think of her vast dominion, of +her line of royal and famous ancestry, of her beneficent +and memorable reign. So, to know the Christ is to +apprehend Him in the height of His Godhead, in the +breadth of His humanity, in the plenitude of His nature +and His powers. And this is the object to which the +teaching and the prayers of St Paul for the Churches +at the present time are directed. Understanding in +this larger sense the indwelling of the Christ for which +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> +he prays, we see how naturally his supplication +expands into the “height and depth” of the ensuing +verse.</p> + +<p>But however large the mental conception of Christ +that St Paul desires to impart to us, it is to be grasped +“through faith.” All real understanding and appropriation +of Christ, the simplest and the most advanced, +come by this channel,—through the faith of the heart +in which knowledge, will and feeling blend in that one +act of trustful apprehension of the truth concerning +Jesus Christ by which the soul commits itself to +Him.</p> + +<p>How much is contained in this petition of the apostle +that we need to ask for ourselves, Christ Jesus +dwells now as then in the hearts of all who love Him. +But how little do we know our heavenly Guest! how +poor a Christ is ours, compared to the Christ of Paul’s +experience! how slight and empty a word is His name +to multitudes of those who bear it! If men have once +attained a sense of His salvation, and are satisfied of +their interest in His atonement and their right to hope +for eternal life through Him, their minds are at rest. +They have accepted Christ and received what He has +to give them; they turn their attention to other things. +They do not love Christ enough to study Him. They +have other mental interests,—scientific, literary, political +or industrial; but the knowledge of Christ has no +intellectual attraction for them. With St Paul’s +passionate ardour, the ceaseless craving of his mind +to “know Him,” these complacent believers have no +sympathy whatever. This, they think, belongs only +to a few, to men of metaphysical bias or of religious +genius like the great apostle. Theology is regarded as +a subject for specialists. The laity, with a lamentable +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[192]</a></span> +and disastrous neglect, leave the study of Christian +doctrine to the ministry. The Christ cannot take His +due place in His people’s heart, He will not reveal to +them the wealth of His glory, while they know so little +and care to know so little of Him. How many can be +found, outside the ranks of the ordained, that make +a sacrifice of other favourite pursuits to meditate on +Christ? what prosperous merchant, what active man +of affairs is there who will spare an hour each day +from his other gains “for the excellency of the knowledge +of Christ Jesus my Lord”?—“If at the present +time the religious life of the Church is languid, and +if in its enterprises there is little of audacity and +vehemence, a partial explanation is to be found in +that decline of intellectual interest in the contents of +the Christian Faith which has characterized the last +hundred or hundred and fifty years of our +history.”<a name="FNanchor_96" id="FNanchor_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a></p> + +<p>It is a knowledge that when pursued grows upon the +mind without limit. St Paul, who knew so much, for +that reason felt that all he had attained was but in the +bud and beginning. “The Christ” is a subject infinite +as nature, large and wide as history. With our enlarged +apprehension of Him, the heart enlarges in capacity +and moral power. Not unfrequently, the study of +Christ in Scripture and experience gives to unlettered +men, to men whose mind before their conversion was +dull and uninformed, an intellectual quality, a power of +discernment and apprehension that trained scholars +might envy. By such thoughtful, constant fellowship +with Him the vigour of spirit and courage in affliction +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span> +are sustained, that the apostle first asked from God +on behalf of his anxious Gentile friends.</p> + +<p>III. The prayers now offered might suffice, if St Paul +were concerned only for the individual needs of those +to whom he writes and their personal advancement in +the new life. But it is otherwise. <i>The Church</i> fills his +mind. Its lofty claims at every turn he has pressed +on our attention. This is God’s holy temple and the +habitation of His Spirit; it is the body in which Christ +dwells, the bride that He has chosen. The Church is +the object that draws the eyes of heaven; through it +the angelic powers are learning undreamed-of lessons +of God’s wisdom. Round this centre the apostle’s +intercession must needs revolve. When he asks for +his readers added strength of heart and a richer fellowship +with Christ, it is in order that they may be the +better able to enter into the Church’s life and to +apprehend God’s great designs for mankind.</p> + +<p>This object so much absorbs the writer’s thoughts +and has been so constantly in view from the outset, +that it does not occur to him, in verse 18, to say precisely +<i>what</i> that is whose “breadth and length and +height and depth” the readers are to measure. The +vast building stands before us and needs not to be +named; we have only not to look away from it, not to +forget what we have been reading all this time. It +is <i>God’s plan for the world in Christ</i>; it is the purpose +of the ages realized in the building of His Church. +This conception was so impressive to the original +readers and has held their attention so closely since +the apostle unfolded it in the course of the second +chapter, that they would have no difficulty in supplying +the ellipsis which has given so much trouble to the +commentators since.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span> +If we are asked to interpret the four several +magnitudes that are assigned to this building of God, +we may say with Hofmann<a name="FNanchor_97" id="FNanchor_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a>: +“It stretches <i>wide</i> over all the world of the nations, east and west. In +its <i>length</i>, it reaches through all time unto the end +of things. In <i>depth</i>, it penetrates to the region where +the faithful sleep in death [comp. iv. 9]. And it rises +to heaven’s <i>height</i>, where Christ lives.” In the like +strain Bernardine à Piconio, most genial and spiritual +of Romanist interpreters: “<i>Wide</i> as the furthest limits +of the inhabited world, <i>long</i> as the ages of eternity +through which God’s love to His people will endure, +<i>deep</i> as the abyss of misery and ruin from which He has +raised us, <i>high</i> as the throne of Christ in the heavens +where He has placed us.” Such is the commonwealth +to which we belong, such the dimensions of this city +of God built on the foundation of the apostles,—“that +lieth four-square.”</p> + +<p>Do we not need to be <i>strong</i>—to “gain full strength,” +as the apostle prays, in order to grasp in its substance +and import this immense revelation and to handle it +with practical effect? Narrowness is feebleness. The +greatness of the Church, as God designed it, matches +the greatness of the Christ Himself. It needs a firm +spiritual faith, a far-seeing intelligence, and a charity +broad as the love of Christ to comprehend this mystery. +From many believing eyes it is still hidden. Alas +for our cold hearts, our weak and partial judgements! +alas for the materialism that infects our Church theories, +and that limits God’s free grace and the sovereign +action of His Spirit to visible channels and ministrations +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span> +“wrought by hand.” Those who call themselves +Churchmen and Catholics contradict the titles they +boast when they bar out their loyal Christian brethren +from the covenant rights of faith, when they deny +churchly standing to communities with a love to Christ +as warm and fruitful in good works, a gospel as pure +and saving, a discipline at least as faithful as their own. +Who are we that we dare to forbid those who are +doing mighty works in the name of Christ, because +they follow not with us? When we are fain to pull +down every building of God that does not square with +our own ecclesiastical plans, we do not apprehend +“what is the breadth!”</p> + +<p>We draw close about us the walls of Christ’s wide +house, as if to confine Him in our single chamber. +We call our particular communion “the Church,” and +the rest “the sects”; and disfranchise, so far as our +word and judgement go, a multitude of Christ’s freemen +and God’s elect, our fellow-citizens in the New +Jerusalem—saints, some of them, whose feet we well +might deem ourselves unworthy to wash. A Church +theory that leads to such results as these, that condemns +Nonconformists to be strangers in the House of God, +is self-condemned. It will perish of its own chillness +and formalism. Happily, many of those who hold the +doctrine of exclusive Roman or Anglican, or Baptist +or Presbyterian legitimacy, are in feeling and practice +more catholic than in their creed.</p> + +<p>“With <i>all</i> the saints” the Asian Christians are called +to enter into St Paul’s wider view of God’s work in +the world. For this is a collective idea, to be shared +by many minds and that should sway all Christian +hearts at once. It is the collective aim of Christianity +that St Paul wants his readers to understand, its mission +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span> +to save humanity and to reconstruct the world for a +temple of God. This is a calling for <i>all the saints</i>; but +only for <i>saints</i>,—for men devoted to God and renewed +by His Spirit. It was “revealed to His <i>holy</i> apostles +and prophets” (ver. 5); and it needs men of the same +quality for its bearers and interpreters.</p> + +<p>But the first condition for this largeness of sympathy +and aim is that stated at the beginning of the verse, +thrown forward there with an emphasis that almost +does violence to grammar: “in love being fast rooted +and grounded.” Where Christ dwells abidingly in the +heart, love enters with Him and becomes the ground +of our nature, the basis on which our thought and +action rest, the soil in which our purposes grow. <i>Love</i> +is the mark of the true Broad Churchman in all +Churches, the man to whom Christ is all things and +in all, and who, wherever he sees a Christlike man, +loves him and counts him a brother.</p> + +<p>When such love to Christ fills all our hearts and +penetrates to their depths, we shall have strength to +shake off our prejudices, strength to master our intellectual +difficulties and limitations. We shall have the +courage to adopt Christ’s simple rule of fellowship: +“Whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in +heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.”</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_94" id="Footnote_94"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> +See ch. i. 17, ii. 18, 22, and especially ch. iv. 4–6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_95" id="Footnote_95"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> +See pp. 47, 83, 169.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_96" id="Footnote_96"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> +<i>Lectures on Ephesians</i>, pp. 235–8. No one who has read Dr. +R. W. Dale’s noble Lectures on this epistle, can write upon the same +subject without being deeply in his debt.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_97" id="Footnote_97"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> +<i>Der Brief Pauli an die Epheser</i>, p. 138. Hofmann is one of those +writers from whom one constantly learns, although one must as often +differ from him as agree with him.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<h4>KNOWING THE UNKNOWABLE.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“[I pray] that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong +to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and +height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, +that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God.”—<span class="smcap">Eph.</span> iii. 17–19.</p></div> + +<p>We were compelled to pause before reaching the +end of the apostle’s comprehensive prayer. +But we must not let slip the thread of its connexion. +Verse 19 is the necessary sequel and counterpart of +verse 18. The catholic love which embraces “all the +saints” and “comprehends” in its wide dimensions +the extent of the Redeemer’s kingdom, admits us to +a deeper knowledge of Christ’s own love. The breadth +and length, the height and depth of the work of Christ +in men and the ages give us a worthier conception +of the love that inspired and sustains it. “In the +Church” at once “and in Christ Jesus” God’s glory +is revealed. Our Church views react upon our views +of Christ and our sense of His love. Bigotry and +exclusiveness towards His brethren chill the heart +towards Himself. Our sectarianism stints and narrows +our apprehensions of the Divine grace.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>I. St Paul prays that we may “<i>know</i> [not <i>comprehend</i>] +the love of Christ”; for it “passes knowledge.” +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span> +Amongst the Greek words denoting mental +activity, that here employed signifies knowledge in +the acquisition rather than possession—<i>getting to know</i>. +Hence it is rightly, and often used of things Divine +that “we know in part,” our knowledge of which falls +short of the reality while it is growing up to it. Thus +understood, the contradiction of the apostle’s wish +disappears. We know the unknowable, just as we +“clearly see the invisible things of God” (Rom. i. 20). +The idea is conveyed of an object that invites our +observation and pursuit, but which at every step outreaches +apprehension, each discovery revealing depths +within it unperceived before. Such was the knowledge +of Christ to the soul of St Paul. To the Philippians +the aged apostle writes: “I do not reckon myself to +have apprehended Him. I am in pursuit! I forget the +past; I press on eagerly to the goal. I have but one +object in view and sacrifice everything for it,—that I +may <i>win Christ</i>!”</p> + +<p>In all the mystery of Christ, there is nothing more +wonderful and past finding out than His love. For +nigh thirty years Paul has been living in daily fellowship +with the love of Christ, his heart full of it and +all the powers of his mind bent upon its comprehension: +he cannot understand it yet! At this moment +it amazes him more than ever.</p> + +<p>Great as the Christian community is, and large as +the place and part assigned to it by this epistle, that +is still finite and a creation of time. The apostle’s +doctrine of the Church is not beyond the comprehension +of a mind sufficiently loving and enlightened. +But though we had followed him so far and had well +and truly apprehended the mystery he has revealed +to us, the love of Christ is still beyond us. Our +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span> +principles of judgement and standards of comparison +fail us when applied to this subject. Human love has +in many instances displayed heroic qualities; it can +rise to a divine height of purity and tenderness; but +its noblest sacrifices will not bear to be put by the side +of the cross of Christ. No picture of that love but +shows poor and dull compared with the reality; no +eloquence lavished upon it but lowers the theme. Our +logical framework of doctrine fails to enclose and hold +it; the love of Christ defies analysis and escapes +from all our definitions. Those who know the world +best, who have ranged through history and philosophy +and the life of living men and have measured most +generously the possibilities of human nature, are filled +with a wondering reverence when they come to know +the love of Christ. “Never man spake like this man,” +said one; but verily never man loved like Jesus Christ. +He expects to be loved more than father or mother; +for His love surpasses theirs. We cannot describe +His love, nor delineate its features as Paul saw them +when he wrote these lines. Go to the Gospels, and +behold it as it lived and wrought for men. Stand and +watch at the cross. Then if the eyes of your heart +are open, you will see the great sight—the love that +passeth knowledge.</p> + +<p>When, turning from Christ Himself in His own +person and presence, before whom praise is speechless, +we contemplate the manifestations of His love to +mankind; when we consider that its fountain lies in +the bosom of the Eternal; when we trace its footsteps +prepared from the world’s foundation, and perceive it +choosing a people for its own and making its promises +and raising up its heralds and forerunners; when at +last it can hide and refrain itself no longer, but comes +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span> +forth incarnate with lowly heart to take our infirmities +and carry our diseases—yea, to put away our sin by +the sacrifice of itself; when we behold that same Love +which the hands of men had slain, setting up its cross +for the sign of its covenant of peace with mankind, +and enthroned in the majesty of heaven waiting even +as a bridegroom joyously for the time when its +ransomed shall be brought home, redeemed from +iniquity and gathered unto itself from all the kindreds +of the earth; and when we see how this mystery of +love, in its sufferings and glories and its deep-laid +plans for all the creatures, engages the ardent study +and sympathy of the heavenly principalities,—in view +of these things, who can but feel himself unworthy +to know the love of Christ or to speak one word on +its behalf? Are we not ready to say like Peter, +“Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord”?</p> + +<p>This is a revelation that searches every man’s soul +who looks into it. What is there so confounding to +our reason and our human self-complacency as the +discovery: “He loved me; He gave Himself up for +me”—that He should do it, and should <i>need</i> to do it! +It was this that went to Saul’s heart, that gave the +mortal blow to the Jewish pride in him, strong as it +was with the growth of centuries. The bearer of this +grace and the ambassador of Christ’s love to the +Gentiles, he feels himself to be “less than the least +of all the saints.” We carry in our hands to show to +men a heavenly light, which throws our own unloveliness +into dark relief.</p> + +<p>II. The <i>love of Christ</i> connects together, in the +apostle’s thoughts, <i>the greatness of the Church</i> and <i>the +fulness of God</i>. The two former conceptions—Christ’s +love and the Church’s greatness—go together in our +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span> +minds; knowing them, we are led onwards to the +realization of the last.</p> + +<p>The “fulness [<i>pleroma</i>] of God,” and the “filling” +(or “completing”) of believers in Christ are ideas +characteristic of this group of epistles. The first of +these expressions we have discussed already in its +connexion with Christ, in chapter i. 23; we shall meet +with it again as “the fulness of Christ” in chapter iv. +13. The phrase before us is, in substance, identical +with that of the latter text. Christ contains the Divine +plenitude; He embodies it in His person, and conveys +it to the world by His redemption. St Paul desires +for the Asian Christians that they may receive it; it is +the ultimate mark of his prayer. He wishes them to +gain the total sum of all that God communicates to +men. He would have them “filled”—their nature made +complete both in its individual and social relations, +their powers of mind and heart brought into full +exercise, their spiritual capacities developed and replenished—“filled +unto all the plenitude of God.”</p> + +<p>This is no humanistic or humanitarian ideal. The +mark of Christian completeness is on a different and +higher plane than any that is set up by culture. The +ideal Christian is a greater man than the ideal citizen +or artist or philosopher: he may include within himself +any or all of these characters, but he transcends them. +He may conform to none of these types, and yet be a +perfect man in Christ Jesus. Our race cannot rest in +any perfection that stops short of “the fulness of God.” +When we have received all that God has to give in +Christ, when the community of men is once more a +family of God and the Father’s will is done on earth +as in heaven, then and not before will our life be +complete. That is the goal of humanity; and the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span> +civilization that does not lead to it is a wandering from +the way. “You are complete in Christ,” says the +apostle. The progress of the ages since confirms the +saying.</p> + +<p>The apostle prays that his readers may know the +love of Christ. This is a part of the Divine plenitude; +nor is there anything in it deeper. But there is more +to know. When he asks for “<i>all</i> the fulness,” he +thinks of other elements of revelation in which we are +to participate. God’s <i>wisdom</i>, His <i>truth</i>, His <i>righteousness</i>, +along with His <i>love</i> in its manifold forms,—all +the qualities that, in one word, go to make up His +<i>holiness</i>, are communicable and belong to the image +stamped by the Holy Spirit on the nature of God’s +children. “Ye shall be holy, for I am holy” is God’s +standing command to His sons. So Jesus bids His +disciples, “Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is +perfect.” St Paul’s prayer “is but another way of +expressing the continuous aspiration and effort after +holiness which is enjoined in our Lord’s precept” +(Lightfoot).</p> + +<p>While the holiness of God gathers up into one +stream of white radiance the revelation of His character, +“the fulness of God” spreads it abroad in its many-coloured +richness and variety. The term accords with +the affluence of thought that marks this supplication. +The might of the Spirit that strengthens weak human +hearts, the greatness of the Christ who is the guest of +our faith, His wide-spreading kingdom and the vast +interests it embraces and His own love surpassing all,—these +objects of the soul’s desire issue from the +fulness of God; and they lead us in pursuing them, +like streams pouring into the ocean, back to the eternal +Godhead. The mediatorial kingdom has its end; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span> +Christ, when He has “put down all rule and authority,” +will at last “yield it up to His God and Father”; and +“the Son Himself will be subjected to Him that put +all things under Him, that God may be all in all” +(1 Cor. xv. 24–28). This is the crown of the Redeemer’s +mission, the end which His love to the Father seeks. +But when that end is reached, and the soul with immediate +vision beholds the Father’s glory, the Plenitude +will be still new and unexhausted; the soul will then +begin its deepest lessons in the knowledge of God +which is life eternal.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>St Paul is conscious of the extreme boldness of +the prayer he has just uttered. But he protests that, +instead of going beyond God’s purposes, it falls short +of them. This assurance rises, in verses 20 and 21, +into a rapture of praise. It is a cry of exultation, a +true song of triumph, that breaks from the apostle’s +lips:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">“Now unto Him that is able to do above all things,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, far exceedingly beyond what we ask or think,—<br /></span> +<span class="i4">According to the power that worketh in us:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unto all generations of the age of the ages.—Amen!”<br /></span> +<span class="i24">(vv. 20, 21).<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>Praise soars higher than prayer. When St Paul +has reached in supplication the summit of his desires, +he sees the plenitude of God’s gifts still by a whole +heaven outreaching him. But it is only from these +mountain-tops hardly won in the exercise of prayer, +in their still air and tranquil light, that the boundless +realms of promise are visible. God’s giving surpasses +immeasurably our thought and asking; but there must +be the asking and the thinking for it to surpass. He +puts always more into our hand and better things than +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span> +we expected—when the expectant hand is reached out +to Him.</p> + +<p>Man’s desires will never overtake God’s bounty. +Hearing the prayer just offered, unbelief will say: +“You have asked too much. It is preposterous to +expect that raw Gentile converts, scarcely raised above +their heathen debasement, should enter into these +exalted notions of yours about Christ and the Church +and should be filled with the fulness of God! Prayer +must be rational and within the bounds of possibility, +offered ‘with the understanding’ as well as ‘with the +spirit,’ or it becomes mere extravagance.”—The apostle +gives a twofold answer to this kind of scepticism. He +appeals to the Divine omnipotence. “With men,” you +say, “this is impossible.” Humanly speaking, St +Paul’s Gentile disciples were incapable of any high +spiritual culture; they were unpromising material, with +“not many wise or many noble” amongst them, some +of them before their conversion stained with infamous +vices. Who is to make saints and godlike men out of +such human refuse as this! But “with God,” as Jesus +said, “all things are possible.” <i>Fæx urbis, lux orbis</i>: +“the scum of the city is made the light of the world!” +The force at work upon the minds of these degraded +pagans—slaves, thieves, prostitutes, as some of them +had been—is the love of Christ; it is the power of the +Holy Ghost, the might of the strength which raises +the dead to life eternal.</p> + +<p>Let us therefore praise Him “who is able to do +beyond all things”—beyond the best that His best +servants have wished and striven for. Had men ever +asked or thought of such a gift to the world as Jesus +Christ? Had the prophets foreseen one tenth part +of His greatness? In their boldest dreams did the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span> +disciples anticipate the wonders of the day of Pentecost +and of the later miracles of grace accomplished by +their preaching? How far exceedingly had these +things already surpassed the utmost that the Church +asked or thought.</p> + +<p>St Paul’s reliance is not upon the “ability” alone, +upon the abstract omnipotence of God. The force +upon which he counts is lodged in the Church, and is +in visible and constant operation. “According to the +power <i>that worketh in us</i>” he expects these vast results +to be achieved. This power is the same as that he +invoked in verse 16,—the might of the Spirit of God in +the inward man. It is the spring of courage and joy, +the source of religious intelligence (i. 17, 18) and +personal holiness, the very power that raised the dead +body of Jesus to life, as it will raise hereafter all the +holy dead to share His immortality (Rom. viii. 11). +St Paul was conscious at this time in a remarkable +degree of the supernatural energy working within his +own mind. It is of this that he speaks to the Colossians, +in language very similar to that of our text, when he +says: “I toil hard, striving according to His energy +that works in me in power.” As he labours for the +Church in writing that epistle, he is sensible of another +Power acting within his spirit and distinguished from +it by his consciousness, which tasks his faculties to the +utmost to follow its dictates and express its meaning.</p> + +<p>The presence of this mysterious power of the Spirit +St Paul constantly felt when engaged in prayer,—“The +Spirit helpeth our infirmities”; He “makes intercession +for us with groanings that cannot be uttered” +(Rom. viii. 26, 27). On this point the experience of +earnest Christian believers in all ages confirms that +of St Paul. The sublime prayer to which he has just +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span> +given utterance, is not his own. There is more in it +than the mere Paul, a weak man, would have dared to +ask or think. He who inspires the prayer will fulfil it. +The Searcher of hearts knows better than the man +who conceived it, infinitely better than we who are +trying for our own help to interpret it, all that this +intercession means. God will hear the pleading of +His Spirit. The Power that prompts our prayers, +and the Power that grants their answer are the same. +The former is limited in its action by human infirmity; +the latter knows no limit. Its only measure is the +fulness of God. To Him who works in us all good +desires, and works far beyond us to bring our good +desires to good effect, be the glory of all for ever!</p> + +<p>In such measure, then, shall glory be to God “in +the Church and in Christ Jesus.” We see how the +Church takes up the foreground of Paul’s horizon. +This epistle has taught us that God desires far more +than our individual salvation, however complete that +might be. Christ came not to save men only, but +mankind. It is “in the Church” that God’s consummate +glory will be seen. No man in his fragmentary +self-hood, no number of men in their separate capacity +can conceivably attain “unto the fulness of God.” +It will need all humanity for that,—to reflect the +full-orbed splendour of Divine revelation. Isolated +and divided from each other, we render to God a +dimmed and partial glory. “With one accord, with +one mouth” we are called to “glorify the God and +Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Wherefore the +apostle bids us “receive one another, as Christ also +received us, to the glory of God” (Rom. xv. 6, 7).</p> + +<p>The Church, being the creation of God’s love in +Christ and the receptacle of His communicative fulness, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span> +is the vessel formed for His praise. Her worship is +a daily tribute to the Divine majesty and bounty. The +life of her people in the world, her witness for Christ +and warfare against sin, her ceaseless ministries to +human sorrow and need proclaim the Divine goodness, +righteousness and truth. From the heavenly places +where she dwells with Christ, she reflects the light of +God’s glory and makes it shine into the depths of evil +at her feet. It was the Church’s voice that St John +heard in heaven as “the voice of a great multitude, +and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of +mighty thunders, saying, Hallelujah: for the Lord our +God, the Almighty reigneth!” Each soul new-born +into the fellowship of faith adds another note to make +up the multitudinous harmony of the Church’s praise +to God.</p> + +<p>Nor does the Church by herself alone render this +praise and honour unto God. The display of God’s +manifold wisdom in His dealings with mankind is +drawing admiration, as St Paul believed, from the +celestial spheres (ver. 10). The story of earth’s +redemption is the theme of endless songs in heaven. +All creation joins in concert with the redeemed from +the earth, and swells the chorus of their triumph. “I +heard,” says John in another place, “a voice of many +angels round about the throne, and the living creatures, +and the elders, saying with a great voice, Worthy is +the Lamb that hath been slain! And every created +thing which is in the heaven, and on the earth, +and under the earth, and on the sea, and all things +that are in them, heard I saying:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">Unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Be blessing and honour and glory and dominion—<br /></span> +<span class="i24">For ever and ever.”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span> +But the Church is the centre of this tribute of the +universe to God and to His Christ.</p> + +<p><i>The Church and Christ Jesus</i> are wedded in this +doxology, even as they were in the foregoing supplication +(vv. 18, 19). In the Bride and the Bridegroom, +in the Redeemed and the Redeemer, in the many +brethren and in the Firstborn is this perfect glory to +be paid to God. “In the midst of the congregation” +Christ the Son of man sings evermore the Father’s +praise (Heb. ii. 12). No glory is paid to God by men +which is not due to Him; nor does He render to the +Father any tribute in which His people are without a +share. “The glory which thou hast given me I have +given them,” said Jesus to the Father praying for His +Church, “that they may be one, even as we are one” +(John xvii. 22). Our union with each other in Christ +is perfected by our union with Him in realizing the +Father’s glory, in receiving and manifesting the fulness +of God.</p> + +<p>The duration of the glory to be paid to God by Christ +and His Church is expressed by a cumulative phrase +in keeping with the tenor of the passage to which it +belongs: “unto all generations of the age of the ages.” +It reminds us of “the ages to come” through which +the apostle in chapter ii. 7 foresaw that God’s mercy +to his own age would be celebrated. It carries our +thoughts along the vista of the future, till time melts +into eternity. When the apostle desires that God’s +praise may resound in the Church “unto <i>all generations</i>,” +he no longer supposes that the mystery of +God may be finished speedily as men count years. +The history of mankind stretches before his gaze +into its dim futurity. The successive “generations” +gather themselves into that one consummate “age” +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span> +of the kingdom of God, the grand cycle in which all +“the ages” are contained. With its completion time +itself is no more. Its swelling current, laden with +the tribute of all the worlds and all their histories, +reaches the eternal ocean.</p> + +<p>The end comes: God is all in all. At this furthest +horizon of thought, Christ and His own are seen +together rendering to God unceasing glory.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210"></a> +<a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="section"><a name="THE_EXHORTATION" id="THE_EXHORTATION"></a>THE EXHORTATION.</h2> + +<h4 class="section"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> iv. 1—vi. 20.</h4> + +<h3 class="section">ON CHURCH LIFE.</h3> + +<h4 class="section"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> iv. 1–16.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span> +<p>“It is good we return unto the ancient bond of unity in the Church +of God, which was <i>one faith</i>, <i>one baptism</i>, and not <i>one hierarchy</i>, <i>one +discipline</i>; and that we observe the league of Christians, as it was +penned by our Saviour Christ, which is in substance of doctrine this: +<i>He that is not with us is against us</i>; and in things indifferent and but +of circumstance this: <i>He that is not against us is with us</i>.”—<span class="smcap">Lord +Bacon</span>: <i>Certain Considerations touching the better Pacification and +Edification of the Church of England</i>, addressed to King James I.</p></div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<h4>THE FUNDAMENTAL UNITIES.</h4> + +<div class="poem">“I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily +of the calling wherewith ye were called, with all lowliness and meekness, +with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; giving diligence +to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.<br /> +<span class="i12">“There is one body, and one Spirit,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">Even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling;<br /></span> +<span class="i12">One Lord, one faith, one baptism,<br /></span> +<span class="i14">One God and Father of all,<br /></span> +<span class="i10">Who is over all, and through all, and in all.”<br /></span> +<span class="ref"><span class="smcap">Eph.</span> iv. 1–6.<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>This Encyclical of St Paul to the Churches of Asia +is the most formal and deliberate of his writings +since the great epistle to the Romans. In entering +upon its hortatory and practical part we are reminded +of the transition from doctrine to exhortation in that +epistle. Here as in Romans xi., xii. the apostle’s +theological teaching, brought with measured steps to +its conclusion, has been followed by an act of worship +expressing the profound and holy joy which fills his +spirit as he views the purposes of God thus displayed +in the gospel and the Church. In this exalted mood, +as one sitting in heavenly places with Christ Jesus, +St Paul surveys the condition of his readers and +addresses himself to their duties and necessities. His +homily, like his argument, is inwoven with the golden +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span> +thread of devotion; and the smooth flow of the epistle +breaks ever and again into the music of thanksgiving.</p> + +<p>The apostle resumes the words of self-description +dropped in chapter iii. 1. He appeals to his readers +with pathetic dignity: “I the prisoner in the Lord”; +and the expression gathers new solemnity from that +which he has told us in the last chapter of the mystery +and grandeur of his office. He is “<i>the</i> prisoner”—the +one whose bonds were known through all the Churches +and manifest even in the imperial palace (Phil. i. +12–14). It was “in the Lord” that he wore this heavy +chain, brought upon him in Christ’s service and borne +joyfully for His people’s sake. He is now a martyr +apostle. If his confinement detained him from his +Gentile flock, at least it should add sacred force to the +message he was able to convey. The tone of the +apostle’s letters at this time shows that he was sensible +of the increased consideration which the afflictions of +the last few years had given to him in the eyes of the +Church. He is thankful for this influence, and makes +good use of it.</p> + +<p>His first and main appeal to the Asian brethren, as +we should expect from the previous tenor of the letter, +is an exhortation to <i>unity</i>. It is an obvious conclusion +from the doctrine of the Church that he has taught +them. The “oneness of the Spirit” which they must +“earnestly endeavour to preserve,” is the unity which +their possession of the Holy Spirit of itself implies. +“Having access in one Spirit to the Father,” the antipathetic +Jewish and Gentile factors of the Church are +reconciled; “in the Spirit” they “are builded together +for a habitation of God” (ii. 18–22). This unity +when St Paul wrote was an actual and visible fact, +despite the violent efforts of the Judaizers to destroy it. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span> +The “right hands of fellowship” exchanged between +himself and James, Peter, and John at the conference +of Jerusalem were a witness thereto (Gal. ii. 7–10). But +it was a union that needed for its maintenance the +efforts of right-thinking men and sons of peace everywhere. +St Paul bids all who read his letter help to +keep Christ’s peace in the Churches.</p> + +<p>The conditions for such pursuing and preserving of +peace in the fold of Christ are briefly indicated in verses +1 and 2. There must be—</p> + +<p>(1) <i>A due sense of the dignity of our Christian calling</i>: +“Walk worthily,” he says, “of the calling where +with you were called.” This exhortation, of course, +includes much besides in its scope; it is the preface to +all the exhortations of the three following chapters, the +basis, in fact, of every worthy appeal to Christian men; +but it bears in the first instance, and pointedly, upon +Church unity. Levity of temper, low and poor conceptions +of religion militate against the catholic spirit; +they create an atmosphere rife with causes of contention. +“Whereas there is among you jealousy and +strife, are ye not carnal and walk as men?”</p> + +<p>(2) Next to low-mindedness amongst the foes of +unity comes <i>ambition</i>: “Walk with all lowliness of +mind and meekness,” he continues. Between the low-minded +and the lowly-minded there is a total difference. +The man <i>of lowly mind</i> habitually feels his +dependence as a creature and his unworthiness as a +sinner before God. This spirit nourishes in him a +wholesome self-distrust, and watchfulness over his +temper and motives.—The <i>meek</i> man thinks as little of +his personal claims, as the humble man of his personal +merits. He is willing to give place to others where +higher interests will not suffer, content to take the lowest +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span> +room and to be in men’s eyes of no account. How +many seeds of strife and roots of bitterness would be +destroyed, if this mind were in us all. Self-importance, +the love of office and power and the craving for applause +must be put away, if we are to recover and keep the +unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.</p> + +<p>(3) When St Paul adds “with longsuffering, forbearing +one another in love,” he is opposing a cause +of division quite different from the last,—to wit, <i>impatience +and resentfulness</i>. A high Christian ideal and +a strict self-judgement will render us more sensitive to +wrong-doing in the world around us. Unless tempered +with abundant charity, they may lead to harsh and +one-sided censure. Gentle natures, reluctant to condemn, +are sometimes slow and difficult in forgiveness. +Humbleness and meekness are choice graces of the +Spirit. But they are self-regarding virtues at the best, +and may be found in a cold nature that has little of +the patience which bears with men’s infirmities, of the +sympathetic insight that discovers the good often lying +close to their faults. “Above all things”—above +kindness, meekness, longsuffering, forgivingness—“put +on love, which is the bond of perfectness” +(Col. iii. 14). Love is the last word of St Paul’s +definition of the Christian temper in verse 2; it is the +sum and essence of all that makes for Christian unity. +In it lies a charm which can overcome both the lighter +provocations and the grave offences of human intercourse,—offences +that must needs arise in the purest +society composed of infirm and sinful men. “Bind thyself +to thy brother. Those who are bound together in +love, bear all burdens lightly. Bind thyself to him, and +him to thee. Both are in thy power; for whomsoever +I will, I may easily make my friend” (Chrysostom).</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span> +Verses 1–3 exhibit the temper in which the unity of +the Church is to be maintained. Verses 4–6 set forth +the basis upon which it rests. This passage is a brief +summary of Christian doctrine. It defines the “foundation +of the apostles and prophets” asserted in +chapter ii. 20,—the groundwork of “every building” +in God’s holy temple, the foundation upon which Paul’s +Gentile readers, along with the Jewish saints, were +growing into one holy temple in the Lord. Seven +elements of unity St Paul enumerates: one <i>body</i>, <i>Spirit</i>, +<i>hope</i>; one <i>Lord</i>, <i>faith</i> and <i>baptism</i>; one <i>God and Father +of all</i>. They form a chain stretching from the Church +on earth to the throne and being of the universal +Father in heaven.</p> + +<p>Closely considered, we find that the seven unities +resolve themselves into three, centring in the names +of the Divine Trinity—the Spirit, the Lord, and the +Father. The Spirit and the Lord are each accompanied +by two kindred uniting elements; while the one God +and Father, placed alone, in Himself forms a threefold +bond to His creatures—by His sovereign power, pervasive +action, and immanent presence: “Who is over +all, and through all, and in all” (comp. i. 23).</p> + +<p>The rhythm of expression in these verses suggests +that they belonged to some apostolic Christian song. +Other passages in Paul’s later epistles betray the same +character;<a name="FNanchor_98" id="FNanchor_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a> +and we know from chapter v. 19 and +Colossians iii. 16 that the Pauline Church was already +rich in psalmody. This epistle shows that St Paul +was touched with the poetic as well as the prophetical +afflatus. He expected his people to sing; and we +see no reason why he should not, like Luther and the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[218]</a></span> +Wesleys afterwards, have taught them to do so by +giving voice to the joy of the new-found faith in +“hymns and spiritual songs.” These lines, we could +fancy, belonged to some chant sung in the Christian +assemblies; they form a brief metrical creed, the confession +of the Church then and in all ages.</p> + +<p>I. <i>One body</i> there is, <i>and one Spirit</i>.</p> + +<p>The former was a patent fact. Believers in Jesus +Christ formed a single body, the same in all essentials +of religion, sharply distinguished from their Jewish and +their Pagan neighbours. Although the distinctions +now existing amongst Christians are vastly greater +and more numerous, and the boundaries between the +Church and the world at many points are much less +visible, yet there is a true unity that binds together +those “who profess and call themselves Christians” +throughout the world. As against the multitudes of +heathen and idolaters; as against Jewish and Mohammedan +rejecters of our Christ; as against atheists and +agnostics and all deniers of the Lord, we are “one +body,” and should feel and act as one.</p> + +<p>In missionary fields, confronting the overwhelming +forces and horrible evils of Paganism, the servants of +Christ intensely realize their unity; they see how +trifling in comparison are the things that separate the +Churches, and how precious and deep are the things +that Christians hold in common. It may need the +pressure of some threatening outward force, the sense +of a great peril hanging over Christendom to silence +our contentions and compel the soldiers of Christ to +fall into line and present to the enemy a united +front. If the unity of believers in Christ—their oneness +of worship and creed, of moral ideal and discipline—is +hard to discern through the variety of human +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span> +forms and systems and the confusion of tongues that +prevails, yet the unity is there to be discerned; and +it grows clearer to us as we look for it. It is +visible in the universal acceptance of Scripture and the +primitive creeds, in the large measure of correspondence +between the different Church standards of the +Protestant communions, in our common Christian literature, +in the numerous alliances and combinations, local +and general, that exist for philanthropic and missionary +objects, in the increasing and auspicious comity of the +Churches. The nearer we get to the essentials of +truth and to the experience of living Christian men, +the more we realize the existence of one body in the +scattered limbs and innumerable sects of Christendom.</p> + +<p>There is “one body and one Spirit”: one body +because, and so far as there is one Spirit. What is it +constitutes the unity of our physical frame? Outward +attachment, mechanical juxtaposition go for nothing. +What I grasp in my hand or put between my lips is +no part of <i>me</i>, any more than if it were in another +planet. The clothes I wear take the body’s shape; +they partake of its warmth and movement; they give +its outward presentment. They are not of the body for +all this. But the fingers that clasp, the lips that touch, +the limbs that move and glow beneath the raiment,—these +are the body itself; and everything belongs to it, +however slight in substance, or uncomely or unserviceable, +nay, however diseased and burdensome, that is +vitally connected with it. The life that thrills through +nerve and artery, <i>the spirit</i> that animates with one +will and being the whole framework and governs its +ten thousand delicate springs and interlacing cords,—it +is this that makes <i>one body</i> of an otherwise inert and +decaying heap of matter. Let the spirit depart, it is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span> +a body no more, but a corpse. So with the body of +Christ, and its members in particular. Am I a living, +integral part of the Church, quickened by its Spirit? or +do I belong only to the raiment and the furniture that are +about it? “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, +he is none of His.”</p> + +<p>He who has the Spirit of Christ, will find a place +within His body. The Spirit of Jesus Christ is a communicative, +sociable spirit. The child of God seeks out +his brethren; like is drawn to like, bone to bone and +sinew to its sinew in the building up of the risen body. +By an instinct of its life, the new-born soul forms +bonds of attachment for itself to the Christian souls +nearest to it, to those amongst whom it is placed in +God’s dispensation of grace. The ministry, the community +through which it received spiritual life and that +travailed for its birth claim it by a parental right that +may not be disowned, nor at any time renounced +without loss and peril.</p> + +<p>Where the Spirit of Christ dwells as a vitalizing, +formative principle, it finds or makes for itself a body. +Let no man say: I have the spirit of religion; I can +dispense with forms. I need no fellowship with men; +I prefer to walk with God.—God will not walk with +men who do not care to walk with His people. He +“loved the world”; and we must love it, or we displease +Him. “This commandment have we from Him, +that he who loves God love his brother also.”</p> + +<p>The oneness of communion amongst the people of +Christ is governed by a unity of aim: “Even as also +you were called in <i>one hope</i> of your calling.” Our +fellowship has an object to realize, our calling a prize +to win. All Christian organization is directed to a +practical end. The old Pagan world fell to pieces +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span> +because it was “without hope”; its golden age was in +the past. No society can endure that lives upon its +memories, or that contents itself with cherishing its +privileges. Nothing holds men together like work and +hope. This gives energy, purpose, progress to the +fellowship of Christian believers. In this imperfect +and unsatisfying world, with the majority of our race +still in bondage to evil, it is idle for us to combine for +any purpose that does not bear on human improvement +and salvation. The Church of Christ is a society for +the abolition of sin and death. That this will be +accomplished, that God’s will shall be done on earth +as in heaven, is <i>the hope of our calling</i>. To this +hope we “were called” by the first summons of the +gospel. “Repent,” it cried, “for the kingdom of +heaven is at hand!”</p> + +<p>For ourselves, in our personal quality, Christianity +holds out a splendid crown of life. It promises our +complete restoration to the image of God, the redemption +of the body with the spirit from death, and our +entrance upon an eternal fellowship with Christ in +heaven. This hope, shared by us in common and +affecting all the interests and relationships of daily life, +is the ground of our communion. The Christian hope +supplies to men, more truly and constantly than Nature +in her most exalted forms,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">“The anchor of their purest thoughts, the nurse,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The guide, the guardian of their heart, and soul<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of all their moral being.”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>Happy are the wife and husband, happy the master +and servants, happy the circle of friends who live and +work together as “joint-heirs of the grace of life.” +Well says Calvin here:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span> “If this thought were fixed +in our minds, this law laid upon us, that the sons of +God may no more quarrel than the kingdom of heaven +can be divided, how much more careful we should be +in cultivating brotherly goodwill! What a dread we +should have of dissensions, if we considered, as we +ought to do, that those who separate from their +brethren, exile themselves from the kingdom of God.”</p> + +<p>But the hope of our calling is a hope for mankind,—nay, +for the entire universe. We labour for the regeneration +of humanity. “We look for a new heavens +and earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness;” for the +actual gathering into one in Christ of all things in +all worlds, as they are already gathered in God’s +eternal plan. Now if it were merely a personal salvation +that we had to seek, Christian communion might +appear to be an optional thing, and the Church no more +than a society for mutual spiritual benefit. But seen +in this larger light, Church membership is of the +essence of our calling. As children of the household +of faith, we are heirs to its duties with its possessions. +We cannot escape the obligations of our spiritual any +more than of our natural birth. One Spirit dwelling +in each, one sublime ideal inspiring us and guiding all +our efforts, how shall we not be one body in the +fellowship of Christ? This hope of our calling it is +our calling to breathe into the dead world. Its virtue +alone can dispel the gloom and discord of the age. +From the fountain of God’s love in Christ springing +up in the heart of the Church, there shall pour forth</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">“One common wave of thought and joy,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lifting mankind again!”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>II. The first group of unities leads us to the second. +If one Spirit dwells within us, it is <i>one Lord</i> who reigns +over us. We have one hope to work for; it is because +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span> +we have <i>one faith</i> to live by. A common fellowship +implies a common creed.</p> + +<p>Thus Christ Jesus the Lord takes His place fourth +in this list of unities, between hope and faith, between +the Spirit and the Father. He is the centre of centres, +the Lamb in the midst of the throne, the Christ in the +midst of the ages. United with Christ, we are at unity +with God and with our fellow-men. We find in Him +the fulcrum of the forces that are raising the world, the +corner-stone of the temple of humanity.</p> + +<p>But let us mark that it is the one <i>Lord</i> in whom we +find our unity. To think of Him as Saviour only is +to treat Him as a means to an end. It is to make +ourselves the centre, not Christ. This is the secret +of much of the isolation and sectarianism of modern +Churches. Individualism is the negation of Church +life. Men value Christ for what they can get from +Him for themselves. They do not follow Him and +yield themselves up to Him, for the sake of what He +is. “Come unto me, all ye that are burdened, and +I will give you rest”: they listen willingly so far. But +when He goes on to say “Take my yoke upon you,” +their ears are deaf. There is a subtle self-seeking and +self-pleasing even in the way of salvation.</p> + +<p>From this springs the disloyalty, the want of affection +for the Church, the indifference to all Christian interests +beyond the personal and local, which is worse than +strife; for it is death to the body of Christ. The +name of the “one Lord” silences party clamours and +rebukes the voices that cry, “I am of Apollos, I of +Cephas.” It recalls loiterers and stragglers to the +ranks. It bids each of us, in his own station of life +and his own place in the Church, serve the common +cause without sloth and without ambition.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span> +Christ’s Lordship over us for life and death is signified +by our <i>baptism</i> in His name. We have received, +most of us in infancy through our parents’ reverent +care, the token of allegiance to the Lord Christ. The +baptismal water that He bade all nations receive from +His apostles, has been sprinkled upon you. Shall this +be in vain? Or do you now, by the faith of your +heart in Christ Jesus the Lord, endorse the faith of +your parents and the Church exercised on your behalf? +If so, your faith saves you. Your obedience is at once +accepted by the Lord to whom it is tendered; and the +sign of God’s redemption of the race which greeted you +at your entrance into life, assumes for you all its significance +and worth. It is the seal upon your brow, +now stamped upon your heart, of your eternal covenant +with Christ.</p> + +<p>But it is the seal of a <i>corporate</i> life in Him. Christian +baptism is no private transaction; it attests no +mere secret vow passing between the soul and its +Saviour. “For in one Spirit we were all baptized <i>into +one body</i>, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or +free; and were all made to drink of one Spirit” (1 Cor. +xii. 13). Our baptism is the sign of a common faith +and hope, and binds us at once to Christ and to His +Church.</p> + +<p><i>One</i> baptism there has been through all the ages +since the ascending Lord said to His disciples: “Go, +make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into +the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the +Holy Spirit.” The ordinance has been administered +in different ways and under varying regulations; but +with few exceptions, it has been observed from the +beginning by every Christian community in fulfilment +of the word of Christ, and in acknowledgement of His +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span> +dominion. Those who insist on the sole validity of +this or that mode or channel of administration, recognize +at least the intention of Churches baptizing otherwise +than themselves to honour the one Lord in thus confessing +His name; and so far admit that there is in +truth “one baptism.” Wherever Christ’s sacraments +are observed with a true faith, they serve as visible +tokens of His rule.</p> + +<p>In this rule lies the ultimate ground of union for +men, and for all creatures. Our fellowship in the faith +of Christ is deep as the nature of God; its blessedness +rich as His love; its bonds strong and eternal as His +power.</p> + +<p>III. The last and greatest of the unities still remains. +Add to our fellowship in the one Spirit and confession +of the one Lord, our adoption by the <i>one God and Father +of all</i>.</p> + +<p>To the Gentile converts of the Asian cities this was +a new and marvellous thought. “Great is Artemis +of the Ephesians,” they had been used to shout; or +haply, “Great is Aphrodité of the Pergamenes,” or +“Bacchus of the Philadelphians.” Great they knew +was “Jupiter Best and Greatest” of conquering Rome; +and great the <i>numen</i> of the Cæsar, to which everywhere +in this rich and servile province shrines were rising. +Each city and tribe, each grove or fountain or sheltering +hill had its local <i>genius</i> or <i>daimon</i>, requiring worship +and sacrificial honours. Every office and occupation, +every function in life—navigation, midwifery, even +thieving—was under the patronage of its special deity. +These petty godships by their number and rivalries +distracted the pious heathen with continual fear lest one +or other of them might not have received due observance.</p> + +<p>With what a grand simplicity the Christian conception +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span> +of “the one God and Father” rose above this +vulgar pantheon, this swarm of motley deities—some +gay and wanton, some dark and cruel, some of supposed +beneficence, all infected with human passion and baseness—which +filled the imagination of the Græco-Asiatic +pagans. What rest there was for the mind, what peace +and freedom for the spirit in turning from such deities +to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!</p> + +<p>Here is no jealous Monarch regarding men as +tribute-payers, and needing to be served by human +hands. He is the Father of men, pitying us as His +children and giving us all things richly to enjoy. Our +God is no local divinity, to be honoured here but not +there, tied to His temple and images and priestly +mediators; but the “one God and Father of all, who is +above all, and through all, and in all.” This was the +very God whom the logic of Greek thought and the +practical instincts of Roman law and empire blindly +sought. Through ages He had revealed Himself to +the people of Israel, who were now dispersed amongst +the nations to bear His light. At last He declared His +full name and purpose to the world in Jesus Christ. +So the gods many and lords many have had their day. +By His manifestation the idols are utterly abolished. +The proclamation of one God and Father signifies the +gathering of men into one family of God. The one +religion supplies the basis for one life in all the world.</p> + +<p>God is <i>over all</i>, gathering all worlds and beings under +the shadow of His beneficent dominion. He is <i>through +all</i>, and <i>in all</i>: an Omnipresence of love, righteousness +and wisdom, actuating the powers of nature and of +grace, inhabiting the Church and the heart of men. +You need not go far to seek Him; if you believe in +Him, you are yourself His temple.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_98" id="Footnote_98"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> +See ch. v. 14; 1 Tim. i. 17, ii. 5, 6, vi. 15, 16; 2 Tim. ii. +11–13.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<h4>THE MEASURE OF THE GIFT OF CHRIST.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the +measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore He saith: ‘When He ascended +on high, He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.’ Now this, +‘He ascended,’ what is it but that He also descended into the lower parts +of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended far +above all the heavens, that He might fill all things. And He gave some +<i>to be</i> apostles; and some, prophets; and some evangelists; and some, +pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints for work of ministration, +for the building up of the body of Christ.”—<span class="smcap">Eph.</span> iv. 7–12.</p></div> + +<p>In verse 7 the apostle passes from the unities of the +Church to its diversities, from the common foundation +of the Christian life to the variety presented in its +superstructure. “To each single one of us was the +grace given.” The great gift of God in Christ is +manifold in its distribution. Its manifestations are +as various and fresh as the idiosyncrasies of human +personality. There is no capacity of our nature, no +element of human society which the gospel of Christ +cannot sanctify and turn to good account.</p> + +<p>All this the apostle keeps in view and allows for in +his doctrine of the Church. He does not merge man in +humanity, nor sacrifice the individual to the community. +He claims for each believer direct fellowship with Christ +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span> +and access to God. The earnestness with which in his +earlier epistles St Paul insisted on the responsibilities +of conscience and on the personal experience of salvation, +leads him now to press the claims of the Church with +equal vigour. He understands well that the person +has no existence apart from the community, that our +moral nature is essentially social and the religious life +essentially fraternal. Its vital element is “the <i>communion</i> +of the Holy Spirit.” Hence, to gather the real +drift of this passage we must combine the first words +of verse 7 with the last of verse 12: “To each single +one of us was the grace given—in order to build up the +body of Christ.” God’s grace is not bestowed upon us +to diffuse and lose itself in our separate individualities; +but that it may minister to one life and work towards +one end and build up one great body in us all. The +diversity subserves a higher unity. Through ten +thousand channels, in ten thousand varied forms of +personal influence and action, the stream of the grace +of God flows on to the accomplishment of the eternal +purpose.</p> + +<p>Like a wise master in his household and sovereign +in his kingdom, the Lord of the Church distributes +His manifold gifts. His bestowments and appointments +are made with an eye to the furtherance of +the state and house that He has in charge. As God +dispenses His wisdom, so Christ His gifts “according +to plan” (iii. 11). The purpose of the ages, God’s +great plan for mankind, determines “the measure of +the gift of Christ.” Now, it is to illustrate this <i>measure</i>, +to set forth the style and scale of Christ’s bestowments +within His Church, that the apostle brings in +evidence the words of Psalm lxviii. 18. He interprets +this ancient verse as he cites it, and weaves it into +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span> +the texture of his argument. In the original it reads +thus:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">“Thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led Thy captivity captive,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou hast received gifts among men,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yea, among the rebellious also, that the +<span class="smcap">Lord</span> God might dwell with them.” (R.V.)<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>Let us go back for a moment to the occasion of +the old Hebrew song. Psalm lxviii, is, as Ewald +says, “the greatest, most splendid and artistic of the +temple-songs of Restored Jerusalem.” It celebrates +Jehovah’s entry into Zion. This culminating verse +records, as the crowning event of Israel’s history, the +capture of Zion from the rebel Jebusites and the +Lord’s ascension in the person of His chosen to take +His seat upon this holy hill. The previous verses, in +which fragments of earlier songs are embedded, describe +the course of the Divine Leader of Israel through +former ages. In the beat and rhythm of the Hebrew +lines one hears the footfall of the Conqueror’s march, +as He “arises and His enemies are scattered” and +“kings of armies flee apace,” while nature trembles +at His step and bends her wild powers to serve His +congregation. The sojourn in the wilderness, the +scenes of Sinai, the occupancy of Canaan, the wars of +the Judges were so many stages in the progress of +Jehovah, which had Zion always for its goal. To +Zion, the new and more glorious sanctuary, Sinai must +now give place. Bashan and all mountains towering +in their pride in vain “look askance at the hill which +God has desired for His abode,” where “Jehovah will +dwell for ever.” So the day of the Lord’s desire has +come! From the Kidron valley David leads Jehovah’s +triumph up the steep slopes of Mount Zion. A train +of captives defiles before the Lord’s anointed, who +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span> +sits down on the throne that God gives him and +receives in His name the submission of the heathen. +The vanquished chiefs cast their spoil at his feet; it +is laid up in treasure to build the future temple; while, +upon this happy day of peace, “the rebellious also” +share in Jehovah’s grace and become His subjects.</p> + +<p>In this conquest David “gave to men” rather than +“received”—gave even to his stubborn enemies (witness +his subsequent transaction with Araunah the Jebusite +for the site of the temple); for that which he took from +them served to build amongst them God’s habitation: +“that,” as the Psalmist sings, “the Lord God might +dwell with them.” St Paul’s adaptation of the verse +is both bold and true. If he departs from the letter, +he unfolds the spirit of the prophetic words. That +David’s <i>giving</i> signified a higher <i>receiving</i>, Jewish +interpreters themselves seem to have felt, for this +paraphrase was current also amongst them.</p> + +<p>The author of this Hebrew song has in no way +exaggerated the importance of David’s victory. The +summits of the elect nation’s history shine with a +supernatural and prophetic light. The spirit of the +Christ in the unknown singer “testified beforehand +of the glory that should follow” His warfare and +sufferings. From this victorious height, so hardly +won, the Psalmist’s verse flashes the light of promise +across the space of a thousand years; and St. Paul +has caught the light, and sends it on to us shining +with a new and more spiritual brightness. David’s +“going up on high” was, to the apostle’s mind, a +picture of the ascent of Christ, his Son and Lord. +David rose from deep humiliation to a high dominion; +his exaltation brought blessing and enrichment to his +people; and the spoil that he won with it went to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span> +build God’s house amongst rebellious men. All this +was true in parable of the dispensation of grace to +mankind through Jesus Christ; and His ascension +disclosed the deeper import of the words of the ancient +Scripture. “Wherefore God saith” (and St Paul takes +the liberty of putting in his own words <i>what</i> He saith)—“wherefore +He saith: He ascended on high; He led +captivity captive; He gave gifts to men.”</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>The three short clauses of the citation supply, in +effect, a threefold measure of the gifts of Christ to His +Church. They are gifts <i>of the ascended Saviour</i>. They +are gifts bestowed <i>from the fruit of His victory</i>. And +they are gifts <i>to men</i>. Measure them, first, by the +height to which He has risen—from what a depth! +Measure them, again, by the spoils He has already +won. Measure them, once more, by the wants of +mankind, by the need He has undertaken to supply.—As +He is, so He gives; as He has, so He gives; as +He has given, so He will give till we are filled unto +all the fulness of God.</p> + +<p>I. Think first, then, of Him. Think of what, and +<i>where</i> He is! Consider “what is the height” of His +exaltation; and then say, if you can, “what is the +breadth” of His munificence.</p> + +<p>We know well how He gave as a poor and suffering +man upon earth—gave, with what affluence, pity and +delight, bread to the hungry thousands, wine to the +wedding-feast, health to the sick, sight to the blind, +pardon to the sinful, sometimes life to the dead! Has +His elevation altered Him? Too often it is so with +vain and weak men like ourselves. Their wealth increases, +but their hearts contract. The more they +have to give, the less they love to give. They go up +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span> +on high as men count it, and climb to places of power +and eminence; and they forget the friends of youth +and the ranks from which they sprang—low-minded +men. Not so with our exalted Friend. “It is not +one that went down, and another that went up,” says +Theodoret. “He that descended, <i>it is He</i> also that +ascended up far above all the heavens!” (ver. 10). +Jesus of Nazareth is on the throne of God,—“the same +yesterday and to-day!” But now the resources of the +universe are at His disposal. Out of that treasure He +can choose the best gifts for you and me.</p> + +<p>Mere authority, even Omnipotence, could not suffice +to save and bless moral beings like ourselves; nor +even the best will joined to Omnipotence. Christ +gained by His humiliation, in some sense, a new fulness +added to the fulness of the Godhead. This gain of +His sufferings is implied in what the apostle writes +in Colossians i. 19 concerning the risen and exalted +Redeemer: “It was well-pleasing that <i>all</i> the fulness +should make its dwelling in Him.” His plenitude is +that of the Ascended One <i>who had descended</i>. “If +He ascended, what does it mean but that He also +descended into the under regions of the earth?” (ver. 9). +If He went up, why then He had been down!—down +to the Virgin’s womb and the manger cradle, wrapping +His Godhead within the frame and the brain of a little +child; down to the home and the bench of the village +carpenter; down to the contradiction of sinners and +the level of their scorn; down to the death of the +cross,—to the nether abyss, to that dim populous +underworld into which we look shuddering over the +grave’s edge! And from that lower gulf He mounted +up again to the solid earth and the light of day and +the world of breathing men; and up, and up again, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span> +through the rent clouds and the ranks of shouting +angels, and under the lifted heads of the everlasting +doors, until He took His seat at the right hand of the +Majesty in the heavens.</p> + +<p>Think of the regions He has traversed, the range of +being through which the Lord Jesus passed in descending +and ascending, “that He might fill all things.” Heaven, +earth, hades—hades, earth, heaven again are His; not +in mere sovereignty of power, but in experience and +communion of life. Each He has annexed to His +dominion by inhabitation and the right of self-devoting +love, as from sphere to sphere He “travelled in the +greatness of His power, mighty to save.” He is Lord +of angels; but still more of men,—Lord of the living, and +of the dead. To them that sleep in the dust He has +proclaimed His accomplished sacrifice and the right of +universal judgement given Him by the Father.</p> + +<p>Nor did Abraham alone and Moses and Elijah have +the joy of “seeing His day,” but all the holy men of +old, who had embraced its promise and “died in faith,” +who looked forward through their imperfect sacrifices +“which could never quite take away sins” to the better +thing which God provided for us, and for their perfection +along with us.<a name="FNanchor_99" id="FNanchor_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a> +On the two side-posts of the +gate of death our great High Priest sprinkled His +atoning blood. He turned the abode of corruption +into a sweet and quiet sleeping chamber for His saints. +Then at His touch those cruel doors swung back upon +their hinges, and He issued forth the Prince of life, +with the keys of death and hades hanging from His +girdle. From the depths of the grave to the heaven of +heavens His Mastership extends. With the perfume +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span> +of His presence and the rich incense of His sacrifice +Jesus Christ has “filled all things.” The universe is +made for us one realm of redeeming grace, the kingdom +of the Son of God’s love.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">“So there crowns Him the topmost, ineffablest, uttermost crown;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And His love fills infinitude wholly, nor leaves up nor down<br /></span> +<span class="i0">One spot for the creature to stand +in!”<a name="FNanchor_100" id="FNanchor_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a><br /></span> +</div> + +<p>So “Christ is all things, and in all.” And we are +nothing; but we have everything in Him.</p> + +<p>How, pray, will He give who has thus given Himself,—who +has thus endured and achieved on our behalf? +Let our hearts consider; let our faith and our need +be bold to ask. One promise from His lips is enough: +“If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it.”</p> + +<p>II. A second estimate of the gifts to be looked for +from Christ, we derive from <i>His conquests already +won</i>. David as he entered Zion’s gates “led captivity +captive,”—led, that is in Hebrew phrase, a great, a +notable captivity. Out of the gifts thus received he +enriched his people. The resources that victory placed +at his disposal, furnished the store from which to build +God’s house. In like fashion Christ builds His Church, +and blesses the human race. With the spoils of His +battle He adorns His bride. The prey taken from the +mighty becomes the strength and beauty of His sanctuary. +The prisoners of His love He makes the +servants of mankind.</p> + +<p>This “captivity” implies a warfare, even as the +ascent of Christ a previous descending. The Son of +God came not into His earthly kingdom as kings are +said to have come sometimes disguised amongst their +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span> +subjects, that they might learn better of their state and +hear their true mind; nor as the Greeks fabled of their +gods, who wandered unknown on earth seeking adventure +and wearied haply of the cloying felicities of heaven, +suffering contempt and doing to men hard service. +He came, the Good Shepherd, to seek lost sheep. He +came, the Mighty One of God, to destroy the works of +the devil, to drive out “the strong one armed” who +held the fortress of man’s soul. He had a war to wage +with the usurping prince of the world. In the temptations +of the wilderness, in the strife with disease and +demoniac powers, in the debate with Scribes and +Pharisees, in the anguish of Gethsemane and Calvary +that conflict was fought out; and by death He abolished +him who holds the power of death, by His blood He +“bought us for God.” But with the spoils of victory, +He bears the scars of battle,—tokens glorious for Him, +humbling indeed to us, which will tell for ever how they +pierced His hands and feet!</p> + +<p>For Him pain and conflict are gone by. It remains +to gather in the spoil of His victory of love, the +harvest sown in His tears and His blood. And what +are the trophies of the Captain of our salvation? what +the fruit of His dread passion? For one, there was +the dying thief, whom with His nailed hands the +Lord Jesus snatched from a felon’s doom and bore +from Calvary to Paradise. There was Mary the +Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons, +the first to greet Him risen. There were the three +thousand whom on one day, in the might of His +Spirit, the ascended Lord and Christ took captive in +rebel Jerusalem, “lifted from the earth” that He might +draw all men unto Him. And there was the writer of +this letter, once His blasphemer and persecutor. By +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span> +a look, by a word, Jesus arrested Saul at the height +of his murderous enmity, and changed him from a +Pharisee into an apostle to the Gentiles, from the +destroyer into the wise master-builder of His Church.</p> + +<p>St Paul’s own case suggested, surely, the application +he makes of this ancient text of the Psalter and +lighted up its Messianic import. In the glory of His +triumph Jesus Christ had appeared to make him +captive, and put him at once to service. From that +hour Paul was led along enthralled, the willing bond-slave +of the Lord Jesus and celebrant of His victory. +“Thanks be unto God,” he cries, “who ever triumphs +over us in the Christ, and makes manifest through us +the savour of His knowledge in every +place.”<a name="FNanchor_101" id="FNanchor_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a></p> + +<p>Such, and of such sort are the prisoners of the +war of Jesus; such the gifts that through sinners +pardoned and subdued He bestows upon mankind,—“patterns +to those who should hereafter believe.” +Time would fail to follow the train of the captives of +the love of Christ, which stretches unbroken and ever +multiplying through the centuries to this day. We, +too, in our turn have laid our rebel selves at His feet; +and all that we surrender to Him, by right of conquest +He gives over to the service of mankind.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">“His love the conquest more than wins;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To all I shall proclaim:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Jesus the King, the Conqueror reigns;<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Bow down to Jesu’s name!”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>He gives out of the spoil of His war with evil,—gives +what He receives. Yet He gives not <i>as</i> He receives. +Everything laid in His hands is changed by their +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span> +touch. Publicans and Pharisees become apostles. +Magdalenes are made queens and mothers in His +Israel. From the dregs of our streets He raises up +a host of sons to Abraham. From the ranks of +scepticism and anti-Christian hate the Lord Christ wins +new champions and captains for His cause. He coins +earth’s basest metal into heaven’s fine gold. He takes +weak things of the earth and foolish, to strike the +mightiest blows of battle.</p> + +<p>What may we not expect from Him who has led +captive such a captivity! What surprises of blessing +and miracles of grace there are awaiting us, that shall +fill our mouth with laughter and our tongue with singing—gifts +and succours coming to the Church from unlooked-for +quarters and reinforcements from the ranks +of the enemy. And what discomfitures and captivities +are preparing for the haters of the Lord,—if, at least, +the future is to be as the past; and if we may judge +from the apostle’s word, and from his example, of the +measure of the gift of Christ.</p> + +<p>III. A third line of measurement is supplied in the +last word of verse 8, and is drawn out in verses +11 and 12. “He gave gifts <i>to men</i>—He gave some +apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some +pastors and teachers, with a view to the full equipment +of the saints for work of ministration, for +building up of the body of Christ.” Yes, and some +martyrs, some missionaries, some Church rulers and +Christian statesmen, some poets, some deep thinkers +and theologians, some leaders of philanthropy and +helpers of the poor; all given for the same end—to +minister to the life of His Church, to furnish it with +the means for carrying on its mission, and to enable +every saint to contribute his part to the commonwealth +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span> +of Christ according to the measure of Christ’s gift to +each.</p> + +<p>Comparison with verse 16 that follows and with +verse 7 that precedes, seems to us to make it clear that +we should read, without a comma, the second and third +clauses of verse 12 as continuations of the first. The +“work of ministering” and the “building up of the +body of Christ” are not assigned to special orders of +ministry as their exclusive calling. Such honour have +all His saints. It is the office of the clergy to see that +the laity do their duty, of “the ministry” to make +each saint a minister of Christ, to guide, instruct and +animate the entire membership of Christ’s body in +the work He has laid upon it. Upon this plan the +Christian fellowship was organized and officered in +the apostolic times. Church government is a means +to an end. Its primitive form was that best suited to +the age; and even then varied under different circumstances. +It was not precisely the same at Jerusalem +and at Corinth; at Corinth in 58, and at Ephesus in +66 <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> That is the best Church system, under any +given conditions, which serves best to conserve and +develope the spiritual energy of the body of Christ.</p> + +<p>The distribution of Church office indicated in verse +11 corresponds closely to what we find in the Pastoral +epistles. The apostle does not profess to enumerate +all grades of ministry. The “deacons” are wanting; +although we know from Philippians i. 1 that this order +already existed in Pauline Churches. <i>Pastors</i> (shepherds)—a +title only employed here by the apostle—is +a fitting synonym for the “bishops” (<i>i.e.</i>, overseers) of +whom he speaks in Acts xx. 28, Philippians i. 1, and +largely in the epistles to Timothy and Titus, whose +functions were spiritual and disciplinary as well as +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span> +administrative. Addressing the Ephesian elders at +Miletus four years before, St Paul bade them “shepherd +the Church of God.”</p> + +<p>In 1 Peter v. 1, 2 the same charge is laid by the +Jewish apostle upon his “fellow-elders,” that they +should “shepherd the flock of God, making themselves +examples” to it; Christ Himself he has previously +called “Shepherd and Bishop of souls” (1 Pet. ii. 25). +The expression is derived from the words of Jesus +recorded in John x., concerning the true and false +shepherd of God’s flock, and Himself the Good Shepherd,—words +familiar and dear to His disciples.</p> + +<p>The office of <i>teaching</i>, as in 1 Timothy v. 17, is conjoined +with that of shepherding. From that passage +we infer that the freedom of teaching so conspicuous +in the Corinthian Church (1 Cor. xiv. 26, etc.) was +still recognized. Teaching and ruling are not made +identical, nor inseparable functions, any more than in +Romans xii. 7, 8; but they were frequently associated, +and hence are coupled together here.—Of apostolic +<i>evangelists</i> we have examples in Timothy and the +second Philip;<a name="FNanchor_102" id="FNanchor_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a> +men outside the rank of the apostles, +but who, like them, preached the gospel from place +to place. The name apostles (equivalent to our <i>missionaries</i>) +served, in its wider sense, to include ministers +of this class along with those directly commissioned +by the Lord Jesus.<a name="FNanchor_103" id="FNanchor_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a></p> + +<p>The <i>prophets</i>,<a name="FNanchor_104" id="FNanchor_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a> +like the apostles and evangelists, +belonged to the Church at large, rather than to one +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[240]</a></span> +locality. But their gift of inspiration did not carry +with it the claim to rule in the Church. This was the +function of the apostles generally, and of the pastor-bishops, +or elders, locally appointed.</p> + +<p>The first three orders (apostles, prophets, evangelists) +linked Church to Church and served the entire body; +the last two (pastors and teachers) had charge of local +and congregational affairs. The apostles (the Twelve +and Paul), with the prophets, were the founders of the +Church. Their distinctive functions ceased when the +foundation was laid and the deposit of revealed truth +was complete. The evangelistic and pastoral callings +remain; and out of them have sprung all the variety +of Christian ministries since exercised. Evangelists, +with apostles or missionaries, bring new souls to Christ +and carry His message into new lands. Pastors and +teachers follow in their train, tending the ingathered +sheep, and labouring to make each flock that they +shepherd and every single man perfect in Christ Jesus.</p> + +<p>Marvellous were Christ’s “gifts for men” bestowed +in the apostolic ministry. What a gift to the Christian +community, for example, was Paul himself! In his +natural endowments, so rich and finely blended, in +his training and early experience, in the supernatural +mode of his conversion, everything wrought together +to give to men in the apostle Paul a man supremely +fitted to be Christ’s ambassador to the Pagan world, +and for all ages the “teacher of the Gentiles in faith +and truth.” “A <i>chosen vessel</i> unto me,” said the Lord +Jesus, “to bear my name.”</p> + +<p>Such a gift to the world was St Augustine: a man +of the most powerful intellect and will, master of the +thought and life of his time. Long an alien from the +household of faith, he was saved at last as by miracle, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span> +and utterly subdued to the will of Christ. In the +awful crisis of the fifth century, when the Roman +empire was breaking up and the very foundations of +life seemed to be dissolved, it was the work of this +heroic man to reassert the sovereignty of grace and to +re-establish faith in the Divine order of the world.</p> + +<p>Such another gift to men was Martin Luther, the +captive of justifying grace, won from the monastery and +the bondage of Rome to set Germany and Europe free. +What a soul of fire, what a voice of power was his! to +whose lips our Lord Christ set the great trumpet of +the Reformation; and he blew a blast that waked the +sleeping peoples of the North, and made the walls of +Babylon rock again to their foundation. Such a gift +to Scotland was John Knox, who from his own soul +breathed the spirit of religion into the life of a nation, +and gave it a body and organic form in which to dwell +and work for centuries.</p> + +<p>Such a gift to England was John Wesley. Can we +conceive a richer boon conferred by the Head of the +Church upon the English race than the raising up of +this great evangelist and pastor and teacher, at such +a time as that of his appearance? Standing at the +distance of a hundred years, we are able to measure +in some degree the magnitude of this bestowment. In +none of the leaders and commanders whom Christ has +given to His people was there more signally manifest +that combination of faculties, that concurrence of providences +and adjustment to circumstances, and that +transforming and attempering influence of grace in all—the +“effectual working in the measure of each single +part” of the man and his history, which marks those +special gifts that Christ is wont to bestow upon His +people in seasons of special emergency and need.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span> +We are passing into a new age, such as none of +these great men dreamed of, an age as exigent and +perilous as any that have gone before it. The +ascendency of physical science, the political enfranchisement +of the masses, the universal spread of education, +the emancipation of critical thought, the gigantic growth +of the press, the enormous increase and aggregation +of wealth, the multiplication of large cities, the world-wide +facilities of intercourse,—these and other causes +more subtle are rapidly transforming human society. +Old barriers have disappeared; while new difficulties +are being created, of a magnitude to overtask the faith +of the strongest. The Church is confronted with +problems larger far in their dimensions than those +our fathers knew. Demands are being made on her +resources such as she has never had to meet before. +Shall we be equal to the needs of the coming times?—Nay, +that is not the question; but will <i>He</i>?</p> + +<p>There is nothing new or surprising to the Lord +Jesus in the progress of our times and the developments +of modern thought, nothing for which He is +not perfectly prepared. He has taken their measure +long ere this, and holds them within His grasp. The +government is upon His shoulders—“the weight of all +this unintelligible world”—and He can bear it well. +He has gifts in store for the twentieth century, when +it arrives, as adequate as those He bestowed upon +the first or fifth, upon the sixteenth or the eighteenth +of our era. There are Augustines and Wesleys yet +to come. Hidden in the Almighty’s quiver are shafts +as polished and as keen as any He has used, which +He will launch forth in the war of the ages at the +appointed hour. The need, the peril, the greatness of +the time will be the measure of the gift of Christ.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span> +There is a danger, however, in waiting for great +leaders and in looking for signal displays of Christ’s +power amongst men. His “kingdom comes not with +observation,” so that men should say, Lo here! or +Lo there! It steals upon us unforeseen; it is amongst +us before we know. “We looked,” says Rutherford, +“that He should take the higher way along the mountains; +and lo, He came by the lower way of the valleys!” +While men listen to the earthquake and the wind +rending the mountains, a still, small voice speaks the +message of God to prepared hearts. Rarely can we +measure at the first the worth of Christ’s best gifts. +When the fruit appears, after long patience, the world +will haply discover when and how the seed was sown. +But not always then.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">“The sower, passing onward, was not known;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all men reaped the harvest as their own.”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>Those who are most ready to appraise their fellows +are constantly at fault. Our last may prove Christ’s +first; our first His last! “Each of us shall give +account of himself to God”: each must answer for his +own stewardship, and the grace that was given to each. +“Let us not therefore judge one another any more.” +But let every man see to it that his part in the building +of God’s temple is well and faithfully done. Soon the +fire will try every man’s work, of what sort it is.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_99" id="Footnote_99"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> +Comp. Hebrews x. 1, 2, 10–14 with xi. 13–16, 39, 40, xii. 23, 24; +also vi. 12.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_100" id="Footnote_100"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> +The words of David in Browning’s <i>Saul</i>, turned from the future +tense into the present.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_101" id="Footnote_101"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> +2 Cor. ii. 14; comp. Eph. ii. 6, 7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_102" id="Footnote_102"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> +2 Tim. iv. 5; Acts viii. 26–40, xxi. 8.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_103" id="Footnote_103"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> +In Acts xiv. 4, 14, <i>Barnabas and Paul</i> are “apostles”; 1 Thess. +ii. 6, <i>Paul and Silas and Timothy</i>. Comp. Rom. xvi. 7; 2 Cor. viii. +23, xi. 13; Phil. ii. 25; Rev. ii. 2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_104" id="Footnote_104"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> +Comp. ch. ii. 20, iii. 5 for the association of <i>prophets</i> with <i>apostles</i>.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<h4>THE GROWTH OF THE CHURCH.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith and of the full knowledge +of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of +the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we may be no more children, +tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine in +the sport of men, in craftiness, unto the scheme of error; but dealing +truly, in love may grow up in all things into Him, which is the head, +<i>even</i> Christ; from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together, +through that which every juncture supplieth, according to the working +in <i>due</i> measure of each several part, maketh the increase of the body +unto the building up of itself in love.”—<span class="smcap">Eph.</span> iv. 13–16.</p></div> + +<p>We must spend a few moments in unravelling +this knotty paragraph and determining the +relation of its involved clauses to each other, before +we can expound it. This passage is enough to prove +St Paul’s hand in the letter. No writer of equal +power was ever so little of a literary craftsman. His +epistles read, as M. Renan says, like “a rapid conversation +stenographed.” Sometimes, as in several +places in Colossians ii., his ideas are shot out in disjointed +clauses, hardly more continuous than shorthand +notes; often, as in this epistle, they pour in a +full stream, sentence hurrying after sentence and +phrase heaped upon phrase with an exuberance that +bewilders us. In his spoken address the interpretation +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> +of tone and gesture, doubtless, supplied the +syntactical adjustments so often wanting in Paul’s +written composition.</p> + +<p>The gifts pertaining to special office in the Church +were bestowed to promote its corporate efficiency and +to further its general growth (vv. 11, 12). Now, the +purpose of these endowments sets a <i>limit</i> to their use. +“Christ gave apostles, prophets,” and the rest—“<i>till we +all arrive</i> at our perfect manhood and reach the stature +of His fulness.” Such is the connexion of verse 13 +with the foregoing context. The aim of the Christian +ministry is to make itself superfluous, to raise men +beyond its need. Knowledge and prophesyings, +apostolates and pastorates, the missions of the evangelist +and the schools of the teacher will one day cease; +their work will be done, their end gained, when all +believers are brought “to the unity of faith, to the +full knowledge of the Son of God.” The work of +Christ’s servants can have no grander aim, no further +goal lying beyond this. Verse 14, therefore, does not +disclose an ulterior purpose arising out of that affirmed +in the previous sentence; it restates the same purpose. +To make men of us (ver. 13) and to prevent our +being children (ver. 14) is the identical object for +which apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers are called +to office. The goal marked out for all believers in +the knowledge and the moral likeness of Christ (ver. 13), +is set up that it may direct the Church’s course +through dangers shunned and enemies vanquished +(ver. 14) to the attainment of her corporate perfection +(vv. 15, 16). The whole thought of this section +turns upon the idea of “the perfecting of the saints” +in verse 12. Verse 16 looks backward to this; verse 7 +looked forward to it.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span> +So much for the general construction of the +period. As to its particular words and phrases, we +must observe:—</p> + +<p>(1) The “perfect [full-grown] man” of verse 13 is +the <i>individual</i>, not the generic man, not “the one +[collective] new man” of chapter ii. 15. The Greek +words for <i>man</i> in these two places +differ.<a name="FNanchor_105" id="FNanchor_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a> The +apostle proposes to the Christian ministry the end +that he was himself pursuing, viz., to “present <i>every man</i> perfect in +Christ.”<a name="FNanchor_106" id="FNanchor_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a></p> + +<p>(2) “<i>Sleight</i> of men” (A.V. and R.V.) does not +seem to us to express the precise meaning of the +word so translated in verse 14. <i>Kubeia</i> (from <i>kubos</i>, +a cube, or die) occurs only here in the New Testament; +in classical Greek it appears in its literal sense +of <i>dice-play</i>, <i>gambling</i>. The interpreters have drawn +from this the idea of <i>trickery</i>, <i>cheating</i>—the common +accompaniment of gambling. But the kindred verb +(<i>to play dice</i>, <i>to gamble</i>) has another well-established +use in Greek, namely, <i>to hazard</i>: this supplies for St +Paul’s noun the signification of <i>sport</i> or <i>hazarding</i>, +preferred by Beza among the older expositors and by +von Soden amongst the newest. <i>In the sport of men</i>, +says von Soden: “conduct wanting in every kind of +earnestness and clear purpose. These men <i>play</i> with +religion, and with the welfare of Christian souls.” +This metaphor accords admirably with that of the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span> +restless waves and uncertain +winds<a name="FNanchor_107" id="FNanchor_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a> just preceding +it; while it leads fittingly to the further qualification +“in craftiness,” which is almost an idle synonym after +“sleight.”</p> + +<p>(3) Another rare word is found in this verse, not +very precisely rendered as “wiles”—a translation suiting +it better in chapter vi. 11. Here the noun is +singular in number: <i>methodeia</i>. It signifies <i>methodizing</i>, +<i>reducing to a plan</i>; and then, in a bad sense, +<i>scheming</i>, <i>plotting</i>. “Error” is thus personified: it +“schemes,” just as in 2 Thessalonians ii. 7 it “works.” +Amid the restless speculations and the unscrupulous +perversions of the gospel now disturbing the infant +faith of the Asian Churches, the apostle saw the outline +of a great system of error shaping itself. There +was a method in this madness. <i>Unto the scheme of +error</i>—into the meshes of its net—those were being +driven who yielded to the prevailing tendencies of +speculative thought. With all its cross currents and +capricious movements, it was bearing steadily in one +direction. Reckless pilots steered ignorant souls this +way and that over the wind-swept seas of religious +doubt; but they brought them at last to the same +rocks and quicksands.</p> + +<p>(4) As the contrast between manhood and childhood +links verses 13 and 14, so it is by the contrast of error +and craftiness with <i>truth</i> that we pass from verse 14 to +verse 15. “<i>Speaking</i> truth” insufficiently renders the +opening word of the latter verse. The “<i>dealing</i> truly” +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span> +of the Revised margin is preferable. In Galatians +iv. 16 the apostle employs the same verb, signifying +not truth of speech alone, but of deed and life (comp. +Eph. v. 9). The expression resembles that of 1 John +iii. 19: “We are <i>of the truth</i>, and shall assure our +hearts before Him,” where truth and love are found in +the like union.</p> + +<p>(5) The last difficulty of this kind we have to deal +with, lies in the connexion of the clauses of verse 16. +“Through every joint of supply” is an incongruous +adjunct to the previous clause, “fitly framed and knit +together,” although the rendering “joint” gives this +connexion a superficial aptness. The apostle’s word +means <i>juncture</i> rather than +<i>joint</i>.<a name="FNanchor_108" id="FNanchor_108"></a><a href="#Footnote_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a> +The <i>points of contact</i> between the members of Christ’s body form the channels +of supply through which the entire frame receives +nourishment. The clause “through every juncture of +the supply”—an expression somewhat obscure at the +best—points forwards, not backwards. It describes +the means by which the Church of Christ, compacted +in its general framework by those larger ligatures +which its ministry furnishes (vv. 11, 12), builds up its +inward life,—through a communion wherein “each +single part” of the body shares, and every tie that +binds one Christian soul to another serves to nourish +the common life of grace. We may paraphrase the +sentence thus: “Drawing its life from Christ, the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span> +entire body knit together in a well-compacted frame, +makes use of every link that unites its members and +of each particular member in his place to contribute +to its sustenance, thus building itself up in love evermore.”</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>These difficult verses unfold to us three main conceptions: +<i>The goal of the Church’s life</i> (ver. 13), <i>the +malady which arrests its development</i> (ver. 14), and <i>the +means and conditions of its growth</i> (vv. 15, 16).</p> + +<p>I. The mark at which the Church has to arrive is +set forth, in harmony with the tenor of the epistle, +in a twofold way,—in its <i>collective</i> and its <i>individual</i> +aspects. We must all “unitedly attain the oneness +of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God”; +and we must attain, each of us, “a perfect manhood, +the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”</p> + +<p>The “one faith” of the Church’s foundation (ver. 5) +is, at the same time, its end and goal. The final unity +will be the unfolding of the primal unity; the implicit +will become explicit; the germ will be reproduced in +the developed organism. “The faith” is still, in St +Paul, the <i>fides qua credimus</i>, not <i>quam credimus</i>; it is +the living faith of all hearts in the same Christ and +gospel.<a name="FNanchor_109" id="FNanchor_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a> +When “we all” believe heartily and understandingly +in “the word of truth, the gospel of our +salvation,” the goal will be in sight. All our defects +are, at the bottom, deficiencies of faith. We fail to +apprehend and appropriate the fulness of God in Christ. +Faith is the essence of the heart’s life: it forms the +common consciousness of the body of Christ.</p> + +<p>While faith is the central organ of the Church’s life, +<i>the Son of God</i> is its central object. The dangers +assailing the Church and the divisions threatening its +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span> +unity, touched His Person; and whatever touches the +Head, vitally affects the health of the body and the +well-being of every member in it. Many had believed +in Jesus as the Christ and received blessing from Him, +whose knowledge of Him as the Son of God was defective. +This ignorance exposed their faith to perversion +by the plausible errors circulating in the Churches +of Asia Minor.<a name="FNanchor_110" id="FNanchor_110"></a><a href="#Footnote_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a> +The haze of speculation dimmed +His glory and distorted His image. Dazzled by the +“philosophy and empty deceit” of specious talkers, +these half-instructed believers formed erroneous or +uncertain views of Christ. And a divided Christ +makes a divided Church. We may hold divergent +opinions upon many points of doctrine—in regard to +Church order and the Sacraments, in regard to the +nature of the future judgement, in regard to the mode +and limits of inspiration, in regard to the dialect and +expression of our spiritual life—and yet retain, notwithstanding, +a large measure of cordial unity and find +ourselves able to co-operate with each other for many +Christian purposes. But when our difference concerns +the Person of Christ, it is felt at once to be fundamental. +There is a gulf between those who worship and those +who do not worship the Son of God.</p> + +<p>“Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of +God, God abideth in him and he in God” (1 John iv. 15). +This is the touchstone of catholic truth that the apostles +have laid down; and by this we must hold fast. The +kingship of the Lord Jesus is the rallying-point of +Christendom. In His name we set up our banners. +There are a thousand differences we can afford to sink +and quarrels we may well forget, if our hearts are one +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span> +towards Him. Let me meet a man of any sect or +country, who loves and worships my Lord Christ with +all his mind and strength, he is my brother; and who +shall forbid us “with one mind and one mouth to +glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”? +It is nothing but our ignorance of Him, and of each +other, that prevents us doing this already. Let us set +ourselves again to the study of Christ. Let us strive +“all of us” to “attain to the full knowledge of the Son +of God”; it is the way to reunion. As we approach +the central revelation, and the glory of Christ who is +the image of God shines in its original brightness upon +our hearts, prejudices will melt away; the opinions and +interests and sentiments that divide us will be lost +in the transcendent and absorbing vision of the one +Lord Jesus Christ.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">“Names and sects and parties fall:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou, O Christ, art all in all!”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>The second and third <i>unto</i> of verse 13 are parallel +with the first, and with each other. A truer faith +and better knowledge of Christ uniting believers to +each other, at the same time develope in each of +them a riper character. Jesus Christ was the “perfect +man.” In Him our nature attained, without +the least flaw or failure, its true end,—which is to +glorify God. In His fulness the plenitude of God +is embodied; it is made human, and attainable to +faith. In Jesus Christ humanity rose to its ideal +stature; and we see what is the proper level of our +nature, the dignity and worth to which we have to rise. +We are “predestinated to be conformed to the image +of God’s Son.” All the many brethren of Jesus +measure themselves against the stature of the Firstborn; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span> +and they will have to say to the end with St +Paul: “Not as though I had attained, either were +already perfect. I follow after; I press towards the +mark.” A true heart that has seen perfection, will +never rest short of it.</p> + +<p>“Till we arrive—till we <i>all</i> arrive” at this, the work +of the Christian ministry is incomplete. Teachers +must still school us, pastors shepherd us, evangelists +mission us. There is work enough and to spare for +them all—and will be, to all appearance, for many a +generation to come. The goal of the regenerate life +is never absolutely won; it is hid with Christ in God. +But there is to be a constant approximation to it, both +in the individual believer and in the body of Christ’s +people. And a time is coming when that goal will be +practically attained, so far as earthly conditions allow. +The Church after long strife will be reunited, after long +trial will be perfected; and Christ will “present her +to Himself” a bride worthy of her Lord, “without +spot or wrinkle or any such thing.” Then this world +will have had its use, and will give place to the new +heavens and earth.</p> + +<p>II. The goal that the apostle marked out, did not +appear to him to be in immediate prospect. The +childishness of so many Christian believers stood in +the way of its attainment. In this condition they were +exposed to the seductions of error, and ready to be +driven this way and that by the evil influences active +in the world of thought around them. So long as the +Church contains a number of unstable souls, so long +she will remain subject to strife and corruption. +When he says in verse 14, “that we may be <i>no longer +children</i> tossed to and fro,” etc., this implies that many +Christian believers at that time were of this childish +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span> +sort, and were being so distracted and misled. The +apostle writes on purpose to instruct these “babes” +and to raise them to a more manly style of Christian +thought and life.<a name="FNanchor_111" id="FNanchor_111"></a><a href="#Footnote_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a></p> + +<p>It is a grievous thing to a minister of Christ to see +those who for the time ought to be teachers, fit for +the Church’s strong meat and the harder tasks of her +service, remaining still infantile in their condition, +needing to be nursed and humoured, narrow in their +views of truth, petty and personal in their aims, +wanting in all generous feeling and exalted thought. +Some men, like St Paul himself, advance from the +beginning to a settled faith, to a large intelligence and +a full and manly consecration to God. Others remain +“babes in Christ” to the end. Their souls live, but +never thrive. They suffer from every change in the +moral atmosphere, from every new wind of doctrine. +These invalids are objects full of interest to the moral +pathologist; they are marked not unfrequently by fine +and delicate qualities. But they are a constant anxiety +to the Church. Till they grow into something more +robust they must remain to crowd the Church’s +nursery, instead of taking part in her battle like brave +and strenuous men.</p> + +<p>The appearance of false doctrine in the Asian +Churches made their undeveloped condition a matter for +peculiar apprehension to the apostle. The Colossian +heresy, for example, with which he is dealing at this +present moment, would have no attraction for ripe and +settled Christians. But such a “scheme of error” was +exactly suited to catch men with a certain tincture of +philosophy and in general sympathy with current +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span> +thought, who had embraced Christianity under some +vague sense of its satisfaction for their spiritual needs, +but without an intelligent grasp of its principles or +a thorough experience of its power.</p> + +<p>St Paul speaks of “every wind of <i>the</i> doctrine,” +having in his mind a more or less definite form of +erroneous teaching, a certain “plan of error.” Reading +this verse in the light of the companion letter to +Colossæ and the letters addressed to Timothy when +at Ephesus a few years later, we can understand its +significance. We can watch the storm that was rising +in the Græco-Asiatic Churches. The characteristics +of early Gnosticism are well defined in the miniature +picture of verse 14. We note, in the first place, its +protean and capricious form, half Judaistic, half philosophical—ascetic +in one direction, libertine in another: +“tossed by the waves, and carried about with every +wind.” In the next place, its intellectual spirit,—that +of a loose and reckless speculation: “in the +hazarding of men,”—not in the abiding truth of God. +Morally, it was vitiated by “craftiness.” And in its +issue and result, this new teaching was leading “to +the scheme of error” which the apostle four years +ago had sorrowfully predicted, in bidding farewell +to the Ephesian elders at Miletus (Acts xx.). This +scheme was no other than the gigantic Gnostic system, +which devastated the Eastern Churches and inflicted +deep and lasting wounds upon them.</p> + +<p>The struggle with legalism was now over and past, +at least in its critical phase. The apostle of the +Gentiles had won the battle with Judaism and saved +the Church in its first great conflict. But another +strife is impending (comp. vi. 10); a most pernicious +error has made its appearance within the Church +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span> +itself. St Paul was not to see more than the commencement +of the new movement, which took two +generations to gather its full force; but he had a +true prophetic insight, and he saw that the strength +of the Church in the coming day of trial lay in the +depth and reality of her knowledge of the Son of +God.</p> + +<p>At every crisis in human thought there emerges +some prevailing method of truth, or of error, the +resultant of current tendencies, which unites the +suffrages of a large body of thinkers and claims to +embody the spirit of the age. Such a method of error +our own age has produced as the outcome of the +anti-Christian speculation of modern times, in the +doctrines current under the names of Positivism, Secularism, +or Agnosticism. While the Gnosticism of the +early ages asserted the infinite distance of God from +the world and the intrinsic evil of matter, modern +Agnosticism removes God still further from us, beyond +the reach of thought, and leaves us with material nature +as the one positive and accessible reality, as the basis +of life and law. Faith and knowledge of the Son of +God it banishes as dreams of our childhood. The +supernatural, it tells us, is an illusion; and we must +resign ourselves to be once more without God in the +world and without hope beyond death.</p> + +<p>This materialistic philosophy gathers to a head the +unbelief of the century. It is the living antagonist of +Divine revelation. It supplies the appointed trial of +faith for educated men of our generation, and the test +of the intellectual vigour and manhood of the Church.</p> + +<p>III. In the midst of the changing perils and long +delays of her history, the Church is called evermore +to press towards the mark of her calling. The conditions +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span> +on which her progress depends are summed up +in verses 15 and 16.</p> + +<p>To the craft of false teachers St Paul would have his +Churches oppose the weapons only of <i>truth and love</i>. +“Holding the truth in love,” they will “grow up in all +things into Christ.” Sincere believers, heartily devoted +to Christ, will not fall into fatal error. A healthy life +instinctively repels disease. They “have an anointing +from the Holy One” which is their protection (1 John +ii. 20–29). In all that belongs to godliness and a noble +manhood, such natures will expand; temptation and +the assaults of error stimulate rather than arrest their +growth. And with the growth and ripening in her +fellowship of such men of God, the whole Church grows.</p> + +<p>Next to the moral condition lies the spiritual condition +of advancement,—viz., the full recognition of <i>the +supremacy and sufficiency of Christ</i>. Christ assumes +here two opposite relations to the members of His +body. He is the Head <i>into</i> (or <i>unto</i>) which we grow +in all things; but at the same time, <i>from</i> whom all the +body derives its increase (ver. 16). He is the perfect +ideal for us each; He is the common source of life and +progress for us all. In our individual efforts after +holiness and knowledge, in our personal aspirations and +struggles, Jesus Christ is our model, our constant aim: +we “grow into Him” (ver. 15). But as we learn to +live for others, as we merge our own aims in the life +of the Church and of humanity we feel, even more +deeply than our personal needs had made us do, our +dependence upon Him. We see that the forces which +are at work to raise mankind, to stay the strifes and +heal the wounds of humanity, emanate from the living +Christ (ver. 16). He is the head of the Church and +the heart of the world.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span> +The third, practical condition of Church growth is +brought out by the closing words of the paragraph. +It is <i>organization</i>: “all the body fitly framed [comp. ii. +21] and knit together.” Each local <i>ecclesia</i>, or assembly +of saints, will have its stated officers, its regulated and +seemly order in worship and in work. And within this +fit frame, there must be the warm union of hearts, the +frank exchange of thought and feeling, the brotherly +counsel in all things touching the kingdom of God, by +which Christian men in each place of their assembling +are “knit together.” From these local and congregational +centres, the Christian fellowship spreads out its +arms to embrace all that love our Lord Jesus Christ.</p> + +<p>A building or a machine is <i>fitted</i> together by the +adjustment of its parts. A body needs, besides this +mechanical construction, a pervasive life, a sympathetic +force <i>knitting</i> it together: “knit together in love,” the +apostle says in Colossians ii. 2; and so it is “in love” +that this “body builds up itself.” The tense of the +participles in the first part of verse 16 is present (continuous); +we see a body in process of incorporation, +whose several organs, imperfectly developed and imperfectly +co-operant, are increasingly drawn to each other +and bound more firmly in one as each becomes more +complete in itself. The perfect Christian and the +perfect Church are taking shape at once. Each of them +requires the other for its due realization.</p> + +<p>The rest of the sentence, following the comma that +we place at “knit together,” has its parallel in Colossians +ii. 19: “All the body, through its junctures and +bands being supplied and knit together, increaseth with +the increase of God.” According to St Paul’s physiology, +the “bands” knit the body together, but the +“junctures” are its means of supply. Each point of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span> +contact is a means of nourishment to the frame. In +touch with each other, Christians communicate the life +flowing from the common Head. The apostle would +make <i>Christian intercourse a universal means of grace</i>. +No two Christian men should meet anywhere, upon any +business, without themselves and the whole Church +being the better for it.</p> + +<p>“Wherever two or three are met together in my +name,” said Jesus, “there am I in the midst.” In the +multitude of these obscure and humble meetings of +brethren who love each other for Christ’s sake, is the +grace supplied, the love diffused abroad, by which the +Church lives and thrives. The vitality of the Church +of Christ does not depend so much upon the large and +visible features of its construction—upon Synods and +Conferences, upon Bishops and Presbyteries and the +like, influential and venerable as these authorities may +be; but upon the spiritual intercourse that goes on +amongst the body of its people. “Each several part” +of Christ’s great body, “according to the measure” of +its capacity, is required to receive and to transmit the +common grace.</p> + +<p>However defective in other points of organization, +the society in which this takes place fulfils the office of +an ecclesiastical body. It will grow into the fulness +of Christ; it “builds up itself in love.” The primary +condition of Church health and progress is that there +shall be an unobstructed flow of the life of grace from +point to point through the tissues and substance of +the entire frame.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_105" id="Footnote_105"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> +<span class="greek" title="Eis hena kainon anthrôpon">Εἰς ἕνα καινὸν ἄνθρωπον</span> +(<i>homo</i>), ch. ii. 15; similarly in iv. 22, +24; Rom. vi. 6; 1 Cor. xv. 45, 47, etc. Here +<span class="greek" title="eis andra teleion">εἰς ἄνδρα τέλειον</span> +(<i>vir</i>); comp. 1 Cor. xiii. 11; James iii. 2. To call the Church +<span class="greek" title="anêr">ἀνήρ</span> +would be highly incongruous, in view of ch. v. 23, etc.; comp. 2 Cor. +xi. 2.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_106" id="Footnote_106"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> +Col. i. 22, 28, 29; 2 Tim. ii. 10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_107" id="Footnote_107"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> +For this association of metaphor, comp. Shakespeare: <i>Julius +Cæsar</i>, Act V., Scene 1:—</p> +<div class="poem foot"> +<span class="i0">“Blow, wind; swell, billow; and swim, bark!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The storm is up; and all is on the hazard!”<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_108" id="Footnote_108"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> +Vulgate: <i>per omnem juncturam ministrationis</i>. St Paul’s word +here is <span class="greek" title="dia pasês haphês">διὰ πάσης ἁφῆς</span>, +<i>through every touching</i>. See Lightfoot’s valuable +note on the medical and philosophical use of the word by Greek authors, +in his Commentary on Colossians (ii. 19).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_109" id="Footnote_109"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> +Comp. ch. i. 13: “in whom you also [Gentiles, along with us +Jews] found hope”; also Rom. iii. 29, 30; Tit. i. 4, “my true child +according to <i>a common faith</i>.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_110" id="Footnote_110"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_110"><span class="label">[110]</span></a> +See the connexion of thought in Col. ii. 8–10, 18, 19.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_111" id="Footnote_111"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_111"><span class="label">[111]</span></a> +Compare 1 Cor. ii. 6, iii. 1–3, xiv. 20, xvi. 13; Gal. iv. 19; +Heb. v. 11–14.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span></p> + +<h3 class="section"><a name="ON_CHRISTIAN_MORALS" id="ON_CHRISTIAN_MORALS"></a>ON CHRISTIAN MORALS.</h3> + +<h4 class="section"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> iv. 17—v. 21.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span> +<p class="center"> +<span class="greek" title="En kainotêti zôês peripatêsômen."> +Ἐν καινότητι ζωῆς περιπατήσωμεν.</span>—<span class="smcap">Rom.</span> vi. 4.</p> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + +<h4>THE WALK OF THE GENTILES.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye no longer +walk as the Gentiles also walk, in the vanity of their mind, being +darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because +of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their +heart; who being past feeling gave themselves up to lasciviousness, to +work all uncleanness with greediness.”—<span class="smcap">Eph.</span> iv. 17–19.</p></div> + +<p>Christ has called into existence and formed +around Him already a new world. Those who +are members of His body, are brought into another +order of being from that to which they had formerly +belonged. They have therefore to walk in quite +another way—“no longer as the Gentiles.” St Paul +does not say “as the other Gentiles” (A.V.); for his +readers, though Gentiles by birth (ii. 11), are now of +the household of faith and the city of God. They +hold the franchise of the “commonwealth of Israel.” +As at a later time the apostle John in his Gospel, +though a born Jew, yet from the standpoint of the new +Israel writes of “the Jews” as a distant and alien +people, so St Paul distinguishes his readers from “the +Gentiles” who were their natural kindred.</p> + +<p>When he “testifies,” with a pointed emphasis, “that +<i>you</i> no longer walk as do indeed the Gentiles,” and +when in verse 20 he exclaims, “But <i>you</i> did not thus +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span> +learn the Christ,” it appears that there were those +bearing Christ’s name and professing to have learnt of +Him who did thus walk. This, indeed, he expressly +asserts in writing to the Philippians (ch. iii. 18, 19): +“Many walk, of whom I told you oftentimes, and now +tell you even weeping,—the enemies of the cross of +Christ; whose god is their belly, and their glory in +their shame, who mind earthly things.” We cannot +but associate this warning with the apprehension +expressed in verse 14 above. The reckless and unscrupulous +teachers against whose seductions the +apostle guards the infant Churches of Asia Minor, +tampered with the morals as well as with the faith of +their disciples, and were drawing them back insidiously +to their former habits of +life.<a name="FNanchor_112" id="FNanchor_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a></p> + +<p>The connexion between the foregoing part of this +chapter and that on which we now enter, lies in the +relation of the new life of the Christian believer to the +new community which he has entered. The old world +of Gentile society had formed the “old man” as he then +existed, the product of centuries of debasing idolatry. +But in Christ that world is abolished, and a “new man” +is born. The world in which the Asian Christians once +lived as “Gentiles in the flesh,” is dead to +them.<a name="FNanchor_113" id="FNanchor_113"></a><a href="#Footnote_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a> +They are partakers of the regenerate humanity constituted +in Jesus Christ. From this idea the apostle +deduces the ethical doctrine of the following paragraphs. +His ideal “new man” is no mere ego, devoted to his +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span> +personal perfection; he is part and parcel of the +redeemed society of men; his virtues are those of a +member of the Christian order and commonwealth.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>The representation given of Gentile life in the three +verses before us is highly condensed and pungent. It +is from the same hand as the lurid picture of Romans +i. 18–32. While this delineation is comparatively brief +and cursory, it carries the analysis in some respects +deeper than does that memorable passage. We may +distinguish the main features of the description, as they +bring into view in turn the <i>mental</i>, <i>spiritual</i>, and <i>moral</i> +characteristics of the existing Paganism. Man’s intellect +was confounded; religion was dead; profligacy was +flagrant and shameless.</p> + +<p>I. “The Gentiles walk,” the apostle says, “in <i>vanity +of their mind</i>”—with reason frustrate and impotent; +“being <i>darkened in their understanding</i>”—with no clear +or settled principles, no sound theory of life. Similarly, +he wrote in Romans i. 21: “They were frustrated +in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was +darkened.” But here he seems to trace the futility further +back, beneath the “reasonings” to the “reason” (<i>nous</i>) +itself. The Gentile mind was deranged at its foundation. +Reason seemed to have suffered a paralysis. +Man has forfeited his claim to be a rational creature, +when he worships objects so degraded as the heathen +gods, when he practises vices so detestable and +ruinous.</p> + +<p>The men of intellect, who held themselves aloof from +popular beliefs, for the most part confessed that their +philosophies were speculative and futile, that certainty +in the greatest and most serious matters was unattainable. +Pilate’s question, “What is truth?”—no jesting +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span> +question surely—passed from lip to lip and from one +school of thought to another, without an answer. Five +centuries before this time the human intellect had a +marvellous awakening. The art and philosophy of +Greece sprang into their glorious life, like Athené born +from the head of Zeus, full-grown and in shining +armour. With such leaders as Pericles and Phidias, +as Sophocles and Plato, it seemed as though nothing +was impossible to the mind of man. At last the genius +of our race had blossomed; rich and golden fruit would +surely follow, to be gathered from the tree of life. But +the blossoms fell, and the fruit proved as rottenness. +Grecian art had sunk into a meretricious skill; poetry +was little more than a trick of words; philosophy, a +wrangling of the schools. Rome towered in the majesty +of her arms and laws above the faded glory of Greece. +She promised a more practical and sober ideal, a rule +of world-wide justice and peace and material plenty. +But this dream vanished, like the other. The age of +the Cæsars was an age of disillusion. Scepticism and +cynicism, disbelief in goodness, despair of the future +possessed men’s minds. Stoics and Epicureans, old +and new Academics, Peripatetics and Pythagoreans +disputed the palm of wisdom in mere strife of words. +Few of them possessed any earnest faith in their own +systems. The one craving of Athens and the learned +was “to hear some new thing,” for of the old things +all thinking men were weary. Only rhetoric and +scepticism flourished. Reason had built up her noblest +constructions as if in sport, to pull them down again. +“On the whole, this last period of Greek philosophy, +extending into the Christian era, bore the marks of +intellectual exhaustion and impoverishment, and of +despair in the solution of its high problem” (Döllinger). +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span> +The world itself admitted the apostle’s reproach that +“by wisdom it knew not God.” It knew nothing, +therefore, to sure purpose, nothing that availed to +satisfy or save it.</p> + +<p>Our own age, it may be said, possesses a philosophic +method unknown to the ancient world. The +old metaphysical systems failed; but we have relaid +the foundations of life and thought upon the solid +ground of nature. Modern culture rests upon a basis +of positive and demonstrated knowledge, whose value +is independent of religious belief. Scientific discovery +has put us in command of material forces that secure +the race against any such relapse as that which took +place in the overthrow of the Græco-Roman civilization. +<i>Pessimism</i> answers these pretensions made for +physical science by her idolaters. Pessimism is the +nemesis of irreligious thought. It creeps like a slow +palsy over the highest and ablest minds that reject the +Christian hope. What avails it to yoke steam to our +chariot, if black care still sits behind the rider? to +wing our thoughts with the lightning, if those thoughts +are no happier or worthier than before?</p> + +<p>“Civilization contains within itself the elements of a +fresh servitude. Man conquers the powers of nature, +and becomes in turn their slave” (F. W. Robertson). +Poverty grows gaunt and desperate by the side of +lavish wealth. A new barbarism is bred in what +science grimly calls the <i>proletariate</i>, a barbarism more +vicious and dangerous than the old, that is generated +by the inhuman conditions of life under the existing +regime of industrial science.</p> + +<p>Education gives man quickness of wit and new capacity +for evil or good; culture makes him more sensitive; +refinement more delicate in his virtues or his vices. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span> +But there is no tendency in these forces as we see them +now in operation, any more than in the classical discipline, +to make nobler or better men. Secular knowledge +supplies nothing to bind society together, no force +to tame the selfish passions, to guard the moral interests +of mankind. Science has given an immense impetus to +the forces acting on civilized men; it cannot change or +elevate their character. It puts new and potent instruments +into our hands; but whether those instruments +shall be tools to build the city of God or weapons for +its destruction, is determined by the spirit of the +wielders. In the midst of his splendid machinery, +master of the planet’s wealth and lord of nature’s forces, +the civilized man at the end of this boastful century +stands with a dull and empty heart—without God. +Poor creature, he wants to know whether “life is +worth living”! He has gained the world, but lost his +soul.</p> + +<p>In vanity of mind and darkness of reasoning men +stumble onwards to the end of life, to the end of time. +The world’s wisdom and the lessons of its history give +no hope of any real advance from darkness to light +until, as Plato said, “We are able more safely and +securely to make our journey, borne on some firmer vehicle, on some Divine +word.”<a name="FNanchor_114" id="FNanchor_114"></a><a href="#Footnote_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a> +Such a vehicle those who believe in Christ have found in His teaching. The +moral progress of the Christian ages is due to its +guidance. And that moral progress has created the +conditions and given the stimulus to which our material +and scientific progress is due. Spiritual life gives +permanence and value to all man’s acquisitions. Both +of this world and of that to come “godliness holds the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> +promise.” We are only beginning to learn how much +was meant when Jesus Christ announced Himself as +“the light of the world.” He brought into the world +a light which was to shine through all the realms of +human life.</p> + +<p>II. The delusion of mind in which the nations walked, +resulted in a settled state of <i>estrangement from God</i>. +They were “alienated from the life of God.”</p> + +<p>“Alienated from the commonwealth of Israel,” St +Paul said in chapter ii. 12,<a name="FNanchor_115" id="FNanchor_115"></a><a href="#Footnote_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a> +using, as he does here, the Greek perfect participle, which denotes an abiding fact. +These two alienations generally coincide. Outside the +religious community, we are outside the religious life. +This expression gathers to a point what was said in +verses 11, 12 of chapter ii., and further back in verses +1–3; it discloses the spring of the soul’s malady and +decay in its separation from the living God. When +shall we learn that in God only is our life? We may +exist without God, as a tree cast out in the desert, or +a body wasting in the grave; but that is not <i>life</i>.</p> + +<p>Everywhere the apostle moved amongst men who +seemed to him dead—joyless, empty-hearted, weary of +an idle learning or lost in sullen ignorance, caring only +to eat and drink till they should die like the beasts. +Their so-called gods were phantasms of the Divine, in +which the wiser of them scarcely even pretended to +believe. The ancient natural pieties—not wholly untouched +by the Spirit of God, despite their idolatry—that +peopled with fair fancies the Grecian shores and +skies, and taught the sturdy Roman his manfulness and +hallowed his love of home and city, were all but extinguished. +Death was at the heart of Pagan religion; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[268]</a></span> +corruption in its breath. Few indeed were those who +believed in the existence of a wise and righteous Power +behind the veil of sense. The Roman augurs laughed +at their own auspices; the priests made a traffic of their +temple ceremonies. Sorcery of all kinds was rife, as +rife as scepticism. The most fashionable rites of the +day were the gloomy and revolting mysteries imported +from Egypt and Syria. A hundred years before, the +Roman poet Lucretius expressed, with his burning +indignation, the disposition of earnest and high-minded +men towards the creeds of the later classic times:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">“Humana ante oculos fœde cum vita jaceret,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In terris oppressa gravi sub religione,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Quæ caput e cœli regionibus ostendebat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Horribili super aspectu mortalibus instans,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Primum Graius homo mortalis tollere contra<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Est oculos ausus primusque obsistere +contra.”<a name="FNanchor_116" id="FNanchor_116"></a><a href="#Footnote_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a><br /></span> +<span class="i16"><i>De Rerum Natura</i>: Bk. I., 62–67.<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>How alienated from the life of God were those who +conceived such sentiments, and those whose creed +excited this repugnance. And when amongst ourselves, +as it occurs in some unhappy instances, a similar bitterness +is cherished, it is matter of double sorrow,—of +grief at once for the alienation prompting thoughts so +dark and unjust towards our God and Father, and for +the misshapen guise in which our holy religion has +been presented to make this aversion possible.</p> + +<p>The phrase “alienated from the life of God” denotes +an objective position rather than a subjective disposition, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span> +the state and place of the man who is far from God and +and his true life. God exiles sinners from His presence. +By a necessary law, their sin acts as a sentence of +deprivation. Under its ban they go forth, like Cain, +from the presence of the Lord. They can no longer +partake of the light of life which streams forth evermore +from God and fills the souls that abide in His love.</p> + +<p>And this banishment was due to the cause already +described,—to the radical perversion of the Gentile mind, +which is re-affirmed in the double prepositional clause +of verse 18: “because of the ignorance that is in them, +because of the hardening of their heart.” The repeated +preposition (<i>because of</i>) attaches the two parallel clauses +to the same predicate. Together they serve to explain +this sad estrangement from the Divine life; the second +<i>because</i> supplements the first. It is the ingrained +“ignorance” of men that excludes them from the life of +God; and this ignorance is no misfortune or unavoidable +fate, it is due to a positive “hardening of the +heart.”</p> + +<p>Ignorance is not the mother of devotion, but of +indevotion. If men knew God, they would certainly +love and serve Him. St Paul agreed with Socrates +and Plato in holding that virtue is knowledge. The +debasement of the heathen world, he declares again and +again, was due to the fact that it “knew not +God.”<a name="FNanchor_117" id="FNanchor_117"></a><a href="#Footnote_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a> +The Corinthian Church was corrupted and its Christian +life imperilled by the presence in it of some who “had +not the knowledge of God” (1 Cor. xv. 33, 34). At +Athens, the centre of heathen wisdom, he spoke of the +Pagan ages as “the times of ignorance” (Acts xvii. 30); +and found in this want of knowledge a measure of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span> +excuse. But the ignorance he censures is not of the +understanding alone; nor is it curable by philosophy +and science. It has an intrinsic ground,—“existing <i>in</i> +them.”</p> + +<p>Since the world’s creation, the apostle says, God’s +unseen presence has been clearly visible (Rom. i. 20). +Yet multitudes of men have always held false and +corrupting views of the Divine nature. At this present +time, in the full light of Christianity, men of high +intellect and wide knowledge of nature are found proclaiming +in the most positive terms that God, if He +exists, is unknowable. This ignorance it is not for us +to censure; every man must give account of himself to +God. There may be in individual cases, amongst the +enlightened deniers of God in our own days, causes +of misunderstanding beyond the will, obstructing and +darkening circumstances, on the ground of which in +His merciful and wise judgement God may “overlook” +that ignorance, even as He did the ignorance of earlier +ages. But it is manifest that while this veil remains, +those on whose heart it lies cannot partake in the life +of God. Living in unbelief, they walk in darkness to +the end, knowing not whither they go.</p> + +<p>The Gentile ignorance of God was attended, as St +Paul saw it, with an <i>induration of heart</i>, of which it +was at once the cause and the effect. There is a wilful +stupidity, a studied misconstruction of God’s will, which +has played a large part in the history of unbelief. The +Israelitish people presented at this time a terrible +example of such guilty callousness (Rom. xi. 7–10, 25). +They professed a mighty zeal for God; but it was a +passion for the deity of their partial and corrupt imagination, +which turned to hatred of the true God and +Father of men when He appeared in the person of His +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span> +Son. Behind their pride of knowledge lay the ignorance +of a hard and impenitent heart.</p> + +<p>In the case of the heathen, hardness of heart and +religious ignorance plainly went together. The knowledge +of God was not altogether wanting amongst them; +He “left Himself not without witness,” as the apostle +told them (Acts xiv. 17). Where there is, amid whatever +darkness, a mind seeking after truth and right, +some ray of light is given, some gleam of a better hope +by which the soul may draw nigh to God,—coming +whence or how perhaps none can tell. The gospel of +Christ finds in every new land souls waiting for God’s +salvation. Such a preparation for the Lord, in hearts +touched and softened by the preventings of grace, its +first messengers discovered everywhere,—a remnant in +Israel and a great multitude amongst the heathen.</p> + +<p>But the Jewish nation as a whole, and the mass of +the pagans, remained at present obstinately disbelieving. +They had no perception of the life of God, and felt no +need of it; and when offered, they thrust it from them. +Theirs was another god, “the god of this world,” who +“blinds the minds of the unbelieving” (2 Cor. iv. 3, 4). +And their “ungodliness and unrighteousness” were +not to be pitied more than blamed. They might have +known better; they were “holding down the truth in +unrighteousness,” putting out the light that was in +them and contradicting their better instincts. The +wickedness of that generation was the outcome of a +hardening of heart and blinding of conscience that had +been going on for generations past.</p> + +<p>III. By two conspicuous features the decaying +Paganism of the Christian era was distinguished,—its +unbelief and its <i>licentiousness</i>. In his letter to the +Romans St Paul declares that the second of these +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span> +deplorable characteristics was the consequence of the +former, and a punishment for it inflicted by God. +Here he points to it as a manifestation of the hardening +of heart which caused their ignorance of God: +“Having lost all feeling, they gave themselves up to +lasciviousness, so as to commit every kind of uncleanness +in greediness.”</p> + +<p>Upon that brilliant classic civilization there lies a +shocking stain of impurity. St Paul stamps upon it +the burning word <i>Aselgeia (lasciviousness)</i>, like a brand +on the harlot’s brow. The habits of daily life, the +literature and art of the Greek world, the atmosphere +of society in the great cities was laden with corruption. +Sexual vice was no longer counted vice. It was +provided for by public law; it was incorporated into +the worship of the gods. It was cultivated in every +luxurious and monstrous excess. It was eating out +the manhood of the Greek and Latin races. From the +imperial Cæsar down to the horde of slaves, it seemed +as though every class of society had abandoned itself +to the horrid practices of lust.</p> + +<p>The “greediness” with which debauchery was then +pursued, is at the bottom self-idolatry, self-deification; +it is the absorption of the God-given passion and will +of man’s nature in the gratification of his appetites. +Here lies the reservoir and spring of sin, the burning +deep within the soul of him who knows no God but +his own will, no law above his own desire. He plunges +into sensual indulgence, or he grasps covetously at +wealth or office; he wrecks the purity, or tramples on +the rights of others; he robs the weak, he corrupts the +innocent, he deceives and mocks the simple—to feed +the gluttonous idol of self that sits upon God’s seat +within him. The military hero wading to a throne +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span> +through seas of blood, the politician who wins power +and office by the sleights of a supple tongue, the dealer +on the exchange who supplants every competitor by +his shrewd foresight and unscrupulous daring, and +absorbs the fruit of the labour of thousands of his +fellow-men, the sensualist devising some new and +more voluptuous refinement of vice,—these are all the +miserable slaves of their own lust, driven on by the +insatiate craving of the false god that they carry within +their breast.</p> + +<p>For the light-hearted Greeks, lovers of beauty and +of laughter, self was deified as Aphrodité, goddess of +fleshly desire, who was turned by their worship into +<i>Aselgeia</i>,—she of whom of old it was said, “Her house +is the way to Sheol.” Not such as the chaste wife and +house-keeping mother of Hebrew praise, but Laïs with +her venal charms was the subject of Greek song and +art. Pure ideals of womanhood the classic nations had +once known—or never would those nations have become +great and famous—a Greek Alcestis and Antigoné, +Roman Cornelias and Lucretias, noble maids and +matrons. But these, in the dissolution of manners, had +given place to other models. The wives and daughters +of the Greek citizens were shut up to contempt and +ignorance, while the priestesses of vice—<i>hetæræ</i> they +were called, or <i>companions</i> of men—queened it in their +voluptuous beauty, until their bloom faded and poison +or madness ended their fatal days.</p> + +<p>Amongst the Jews whom our Lord addressed, the +choice lay between “God and Mammon”; in Corinth +and Ephesus, it was “Christ or Belial.” These ancient +gods of the world—“mud-gods,” as Thomas Carlyle +called them—are set up in the high places of our populous +cities. To the slavery of business and the pride of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span> +wealth men sacrifice health and leisure, improvement +of mind, religion, charity, love of country, family affection. +How many of the evils of English society come +from this root of all evil!</p> + +<p>Hard by the temple of Mammon stands that of Belial. +Their votaries mingle in the crowded amusements of the +day and rub shoulders with each other. Aselgeia flaunts +herself, wise observers tell us, with increasing boldness +in the European capitals. Theatre and picture-gallery +and novel pander to the desire of the eye and the lust of +the flesh. The daily newspapers retail cases of divorce +and hideous criminal trials with greater exactness than +the debates of Parliament; and the appetite for this +garbage grows by what it feeds upon. It is plain to +see whereunto the decay of public decency and the +revival of the animalism of pagan art and manners will +grow, if it be not checked by a deepened Christian faith +and feeling.</p> + +<p><i>Past feeling</i> says the apostle of the brazen impudicity +of his time. The loss of the religious sense blunted +all moral sensibility. The Greeks, by an early instinct +of their language, had one word for <i>modesty</i> and <i>reverence</i>, +for self-respect and awe before the Divine. There +is nothing more terrible than the loss of shame. When +immodesty is no longer felt as an affront, when there +fails to rise in the blood and burn upon the cheek the +hot resentment of a wholesome nature against things +that are foul, when we grow tolerant and familiar +with their presence, we are far down the slopes of hell. +It needs only the kindling of passion, or the removal +of the checks of circumstance, to complete the descent. +The pain that the sight of evil gives is a divine shield +against it. Wearing this shield, the sinless Christ +fought our battle, and bore the anguish of our sin.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_112" id="Footnote_112"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_112"><span class="label">[112]</span></a> +“The persons here denounced,” says Lightfoot on Phil. iii. 18, +“are not the Judaizing teachers, but the antinomian reactionists.... +The stress of Paul’s grief lies in the fact that they degraded the true +doctrine of liberty, so as to minister to their profligate and worldly +living.” Comp. 1 Peter iv. 3, 4; 2 Peter ii. 18–22.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_113" id="Footnote_113"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_113"><span class="label">[113]</span></a> +Comp. Col. ii. 20–iii. 4; Gal. vi. 14, 15.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_114" id="Footnote_114"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_114"><span class="label">[114]</span></a> +<i>Phæao</i>: § xxxv.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_115" id="Footnote_115"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_115"><span class="label">[115]</span></a> +See p. 129.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_116" id="Footnote_116"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_116"><span class="label">[116]</span></a> +“When human life to view lay foully prostrate upon earth, crushed +down under the weight of religion, who showed her head from the +quarters of heaven with hideous aspect lowering upon mortals, a man of +Greece ventured first to lift up his mortal eyes to her face and first to +withstand her to her face” (Munro).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_117" id="Footnote_117"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_117"><span class="label">[117]</span></a> +1 Thess. iv. 5; 2 Thess. i. 8; Gal. iv. 8, 9.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2> + +<h4>THE TWO HUMAN TYPES.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“But ye did not so learn the Christ; if so be that ye heard Him, +and were taught in Him, even as truth is in Jesus: that ye put away, +as concerning your former manner of life, the old man, which waxeth +corrupt after the lusts of deceit; and that ye be renewed in the spirit of +your mind, and put on the new man, which after God hath been created +in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”—<span class="smcap">Eph.</span> iv. 20–24.</p></div> + +<p><i>But as for you!</i>—The apostle points us from +heathendom to Christendom. From the men of +blinded understanding and impure life he turns to the +cleansed and instructed. “Not thus did <i>you</i> learn +the Christ”—not to remain in the darkness and filth +of your Gentile state.</p> + +<p>The phrase is highly condensed. The apostle, in +this letter so exuberant in expression, yet on occasion +is as concise as in Galatians. One is tempted, as Beza +suggested<a name="FNanchor_118" id="FNanchor_118"></a><a href="#Footnote_118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a> +and Hofmann insists, to put a stop at this +point and to read: “But with you it is not +so:<a name="FNanchor_119" id="FNanchor_119"></a><a href="#Footnote_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a> you +learned the Christ!” In spite of its abruptness, this +construction would be necessary, if it were only “the +Gentiles” of verse 17 with whose “walk” St Paul +means to contrast that of his readers. But, as we +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span> +have seen, he has before his eye a third class of men, +unprincipled Christian teachers (ver. 14), men who +had in some sense learnt of Christ and yet walked in +Gentile ways and were leading others back to +them.<a name="FNanchor_120" id="FNanchor_120"></a><a href="#Footnote_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a> +Verse 20, after all, forms a coherent clause. It points +an antithesis of solemn import. There are genuine, +and there are supposed conversions; there are true +and false ways of learning Christ.</p> + +<p>Strictly speaking, it is not <i>Christ</i>, but <i>the Christ</i> +whom St Paul presumes his readers to have duly +learnt.<a name="FNanchor_121" id="FNanchor_121"></a><a href="#Footnote_121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a> +The words imply a comprehending faith, that +knows who and what Christ is and what believing in +Him means, that has mastered His great lessons. To +such a faith, which views Christ in the scope and +breadth of His redemption, this epistle throughout +appeals; for its impartation and increase St Paul +prayed the wonderful prayer of the third chapter. +When he writes not simply, “You have believed in +Christ,” but “You have <i>learned the Christ</i>,” he puts +their faith upon a high level; it is the faith of approved +disciples in Christ’s school. For such men the “philosophy +and vain deceit” of Colossæ and the plausibilities +of the new “scheme of error” will have no charm. +They have found the treasures of wisdom and knowledge +that are hidden in Christ.</p> + +<p>The apostle’s confidence in the Christian knowledge +of his readers is, however, qualified in verse 21 in a +somewhat remarkable way: “If verily it is He whom +you heard, and in Him that you were taught, as truth +is in Jesus.” We noted at the outset the bearing of +this sentence on the destination of the letter. It would +never occur to St Paul to question whether the <i>Ephesian</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span> +Christians were taught Christ’s true doctrine. If there +were any believers in the world who, beyond a doubt, had +heard the truth as in Jesus in its certainty and fulness, +it was those amongst whom the apostle had “taught +publicly and from house to house,” “not shunning to +declare all the counsel of God” and “for three years +night and day unceasingly with tears admonishing each +single one” (Acts xx. 18–35). To suppose these words +written in irony, or in a modest affectation, is to credit +St Paul with something like an ineptitude. Doubt was +really possible as to whether all his readers had heard +of Christ aright, and understood the obligations of their +faith. Supposing, as we have done, that the epistle +was designed for the Christians of the province of Asia +generally, this qualification is natural and intelligible.</p> + +<p>There are several considerations which help to +account for it. When St Paul first arrived at Ephesus, +eight years before this time, he “found certain disciples” +there who had been “baptized into John’s +baptism,” but had not “received the Holy Spirit” nor +even heard of such a thing (Acts xix. 1–7). Apollos +formerly belonged to this company, having preached +and “taught carefully the things about Jesus,” while +he “knew only the baptism of John” (Acts xviii. 25). +One very much desires to know more about this Church +of the Baptist’s disciples in Asia Minor. Its existence +so far away from Palestine testifies to the power of +John’s ministry and the deep impression that his witness +to the Messiahship of Jesus made on his disciples. +The ready reception of Paul’s fuller gospel by this little +circle indicates that their knowledge of Jesus Christ +erred only by defect; they had received it from Judæa +by a source dating earlier than the day of Pentecost. +The partial knowledge of Jesus current for so long at +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span> +Ephesus, may have extended to other parts of the +province, where St Paul had not been able to correct +it as he had done in the metropolis.</p> + +<p>Judaistic Christians, such as those who at Rome +“preached Christ of envy and strife,” were also disseminating +an imperfect Christian doctrine. They +limited the rights of uncircumcised believers; they +misrepresented the Gentile apostle and undermined his +influence. A third and still more lamentable cause of +uncertainty in regard to the Christian belief of Asian +Churches, was introduced by the rise of Gnosticizing +error in this quarter. Some who read the epistle had, +it might be, received their first knowledge of Christ +through channels tainted with error similar to that +which was propagated at Colossæ. With the seed of +the kingdom the enemy was mingling vicious tares. +The apostle has reason to fear that there were those +within the wide circle to which his letter is addressed, +who had in one form or other heard a different gospel +and a Christ other than the true Christ of apostolic +teaching.</p> + +<p>Where does he find the test and touchstone of the +true Christian doctrine?—In the historical Jesus: “as +there is truth <i>in Jesus</i>.” Not often, nor without distinct +meaning, does St Paul use the birth-name of the +Saviour by itself. Where he does, it is most significant. +He has in mind the facts of the gospel history; he +speaks of “the Jesus”<a name="FNanchor_122" id="FNanchor_122"></a><a href="#Footnote_122" class="fnanchor">[122]</a> +of Nazareth and Calvary. The Christ whom St Paul feared that some of his +readers might have heard of was not the veritable +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span> +<i>Jesus</i> Christ, but a shadowy and notional Christ, lost +amongst the crowd of angels, such as was now being +taught to the Colossians. This Christ was neither +the image of God, nor the true Son of man. He +supplied no sufficient redemption from sin, no ideal +of character, no sure guidance and authority to direct +the daily walk. Those who followed such a Christ +would fall back unchecked into Gentile vice. Instead +of the light of life shining in the character and words +of Jesus, they must resort to “the doctrines and commandments +of men” (Col. ii. 8–23).</p> + +<p>Amongst the Gnostics of the second century there +was held a distinction between the human (fleshly and +imperfect) <i>Jesus</i> and the Divine <i>Christ</i>, who were +regarded as distinct beings, united to each other +from the time of the baptism of Jesus to His death. +The critics who assert the late and non-Pauline authorship +of the epistle, assert that this peculiar doctrine +is aimed at in the words before us, and that the +identification of Christ with Jesus has a polemical +reference to this advanced Gnostic error. The verses +that follow show that the writer has a different and +entirely practical aim. The apostle points us to our +true ideal, to “the Christ” of all revelation manifest in +“the Jesus” of the gospel. Here we see “the new man +created after God,” whose nature we must embody in +ourselves. The counteractive of a false spiritualism +is found in the incarnate life of the Son of God. The +dualism which separated God from the world and +man’s spirit from his flesh, had its refutation in “the +Jesus” of Paul’s preaching, whom we see in the Four +Gospels. Those who persisted in the attempt to graft +the dualistic theosophy upon the Christian faith, were +in the end compelled to divide and destroy the Christ +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span> +Himself. They broke up into <i>Jesus and Christ</i> the +unity of His incarnate Person.</p> + +<p>It is an entire mistake to suppose that the apostle +Paul was indifferent to the historical tradition of Jesus; +that the Christ he taught was a product of his personal +inspiration, of his inward experience and theological +reflection. This preaching of an abstract Christ, distinct +from the actual Jesus, is the very thing that he condemns. +Although his explicit references in the epistles +to the teaching of Jesus and the events of His earthly +life are not numerous, they are such as to prove that +the Churches St Paul taught were well instructed in +that history. From the beginning the apostle made +himself well acquainted with the facts concerning Jesus, +and had become possessor of all that the earlier +witnesses could relate. His conception of the Lord +Jesus Christ is living and realistic in the highest +degree. Its germ was in the visible appearance of the +glorified Jesus to himself on the Damascus road; but +that expanding germ struck down its roots into the +rich soil of the Church’s recollections of the incarnate +Redeemer as He lived and taught and laboured, as He +died and rose again amongst men. Paul’s Christ was +the Jesus of Peter and of John and of our own +Evangelists; there was no other. He warns the +Church against all unhistorical, subjective Christs, the +product of human speculation.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>The Asian Christians who held a true faith, had +received Jesus as the Christ. So accepting Him, +they accepted a fixed standard and ideal of life for +themselves. With Jesus Christ evidently set forth +before their eyes, let them look back upon their past +life; let them contrast what they had been with what +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span> +they are to be. Let them consider what things they +must “put off” and what “put on,” so that they may +“be found in Him.”</p> + +<p>Strangely did the image of Jesus confront the pagan +world; keenly its light smote on that gross darkness. +There stood the Word made flesh—purity immaculate, +love in its very self—shaped forth in no dream of +fancy or philosophy, but in the veritable man Christ +Jesus, born of Mary, crucified under Pontius Pilate,—truth +expressed</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i6">“In loveliness of perfect deeds,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">More strong than all poetic thought.”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>And this life of Jesus, living in those who loved Him +(2 Cor. iv. 11), ended not when He passed from earth; +it passed from land to land, speaking many tongues, +raising up new witnesses at every step as it moved +along. It was not a new system, a new creed, but <i>new +men</i> that it gave the world in Christ’s disciples, men +redeemed from all iniquity, noble and pure as sons of +God. It was the sight of Jesus, and of men like Jesus, +that shamed the old world, so corrupt and false and +hardened in its sin. In vain she summoned the gates +of death to silence the witnesses of Jesus. At last</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">“She veiled her eagles, snapped her sword,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And laid her sceptre down;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her stately purple she abhorred,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And her imperial crown.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She broke her flutes, she stopped her sports,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Her artists could not please;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She tore her books, she shut her courts,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">She fled her palaces;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lust of the eye and pride of life—<br /></span> +<span class="i2">She left it all behind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And hurried, torn with inward strife,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The wilderness to find” (<i>Obermann once more</i>).<br /></span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span> +The Galilean conquered! The new man was destined +to convict and destroy the old. “God sending His +Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned +sin in the flesh” (Rom. viii. 3). When Jesus +lived, died, and rose again, an inconceivable revolution +in human affairs had been effected. The cross was +planted on the territory of the god of this world; its +victory was inevitable. The “grain of wheat” fell into +the ground to die: there might be still a long, cruel +winter; many a storm and blight would delay its +growth; but the harvest was secure. Jesus Christ was +the type and the head of a new moral order, destined +to control the universe.</p> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>St Paul had before his eyes, as he wrote, a conspicuous +type of the decaying Pagan order. He had +appealed as a citizen of the empire to <i>Cæsar</i> as his +judge. He was in durance as <i>Nero’s</i> prisoner, and was +acquainted with the life of the palace (Phil. i. 13). +Never, perhaps, has any line of rulers dominated mankind +so absolutely or held in their single hand so completely +the resources of the world as did the Cæsars of +St Paul’s time. Their name has ever since served to +mark the summit of autocratic power. It was, surely, +the vision of Tiberius sitting at Rome that Jesus saw +in the wilderness, when “the devil showed Him all +the kingdoms of the world and their glory; and said, +All this hath been delivered to me, and to whomsoever +I will I give it.” The Emperor was the topstone of +the splendid edifice of Pagan civilization, that had been +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span> +rearing for so many ages. And Nero was the final +product and paragon of the Cæsarean house!</p> + +<p>At this epoch, writes M. +Renan,<a name="FNanchor_123" id="FNanchor_123"></a><a href="#Footnote_123" class="fnanchor">[123]</a> +“<i>Nero and Jesus</i>, Christ and Antichrist, stand opposed, confronting +each other, if I may dare to say so, like heaven and +hell.... In face of Jesus there presents itself a +monster, who is the ideal of evil as Jesus of goodness.... +Nero’s was an evil nature, hypocritical, vain, +frivolous, prodigiously given to declamation and display; +a blending of false intellect, profound wickedness, cruel +and artful egotism carried to an incredible degree of +refinement and subtlety.... He is a monster who has +no second in history, and whose equal we can only find +in the pathological annals of the scaffold.... The +school of crime in which he had grown up, the execrable +influence of his mother, the stroke of parricide forced +upon him, as one might say, by this abominable woman, +by which he had entered on the stage of public life, +made the world take to his eyes the form of a horrible +comedy, with himself for the chief actor in it. At the +moment we have now reached [when St Paul entered +Rome], Nero had detached himself completely from the +philosophers who had been his tutors. He had killed +nearly all his relations. He had made the most shameful +follies the common fashion. A large part of Roman +society, following his example, had descended to the +lowest level of debasement. The cruelty of the ancient +world had reached its consummation.... The world +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span> +had touched the bottom of the abyss of evil; it could +only reascend.”</p> + +<p>Such was the man who occupied at this time the +summit of human power and glory,—the man who +lighted the torch of Christian martyrdom and at whose +sentence St Paul’s head was destined to fall, the Wild +Beast of John’s awful vision. Nero of Rome, the son +of Agrippina, embodied the triumph of Satan as the +god of this world. Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of +Mary, reigned only in a few loving and pure hearts. +Future history, as the scroll of the Apocalypse unfolded +it, was to be the battle-field of these confronting powers, +the war of Christ with Antichrist.</p> + +<p>Could it be doubtful, to any one who had measured +the rival forces, on which side victory must fall? St +Paul pronounces the fate of the whole kingdom of evil +in this world, when he declares that “the old man” is +“perishing, according to the lusts of deceit.” It is an +application of the maxim he gave us in Galatians vi. 8: +“He that soweth to his own flesh, shall of the flesh +reap corruption.” In its mad sensuality and prodigal +lusts, the vile Roman world he saw around him was +speeding to its ruin. That ruin was delayed; there +were moral forces left in the fabric of the Roman State, +which in the following generations re-asserted themselves +and held back for a time the tide of disaster; +but in the end Rome fell, as the ancient world-empires +of the East had fallen, through her own corruption, +and by “the wrath” which is “revealed from heaven +against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.” +For the solitary man, for the household, for the body +politic and the family of nations the rule is the same. +“Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”</p> + +<p>The passions which carry men and nations to their +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span> +ruin are “lusts <i>of deceit</i>.” 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 <i>being deceived</i> fell into transgression.”</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">“So glistered the dire Snake, and into fraud<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Led Eve, our credulous mother, to the tree<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of prohibition, root of all our woe.”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>By its baits of sensuous pleasure, and still more by +its show of freedom and power to stir our pride, sin +cheats us of our manhood; it sows life with misery, +and makes us self-despising slaves. It knows how +to use God’s law as an incitement to transgression, +turning the very prohibition into a challenge to our +bold desires. “Sin taking occasion by the commandment +deceived me, and by it slew me.” Over the +pit of destruction play the same dancing lights that +have lured countless generations,—the glitter of gold; +the purple robe and jewelled coronet; the wine moving +in the cup; fair, soft faces lit with laughter. The +straying foot and hot desires give chase, till the inevitable +moment comes when the treacherous soil yields, +and the pursuer plunges beyond escape into sin’s +reeking gulfs. Then the illusion is over. The gay +faces grow foul; the glittering prize proves dust; the +sweet fruit turns to ashes; the cup of pleasure burns +with the fire of hell. And the sinner knows at last +that his greed has cheated him, that he is as foolish as +he is wicked.</p> + +<p>Let us remember that there is but one way of escape +from the all-encompassing deceit of sin. It is in +“learning Christ.” Not in learning <i>about</i> Christ, but +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span> +in learning <i>Him</i>. It is a common artifice of the great +deceit to “wash the outside of cup and platter.” The +old man is improved and civilized; he is baptized in +infancy and called a Christian. He puts off many of +his old ways, he dresses himself in a decorous garb and +style; and so deceives himself into thinking that he +is new, while his heart is unchanged. He may turn +ascetic, and deny this or that <i>to</i> himself; and yet never +deny <i>himself</i>. He observes religious forms and makes +charitable benefactions, as though he would compound +with God for his unforsaken sin. But all this is only +a plausible and hateful manifestation of the lusts of +deceit. To learn the Christ, is to learn the way of the +cross. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me,” +He bids us; “for I am meek and lowly in heart.” Till +we have done this, we are not even at the beginning +of our lesson.</p> + +<p>From the perishing old man the apostle turns, in +verses 23, 24, to the new. These two clauses differ +in their form of expression more than the English +rendering indicates.<a name="FNanchor_124" id="FNanchor_124"></a><a href="#Footnote_124" class="fnanchor">[124]</a> +When he writes, “that ye be +renewed in the spirit of your mind,” it is a <i>continual +rejuvenation</i> that he describes; the verb is present in +tense, and the newness implied is that of recency and +youth, newness in point of age. But the “new +man” to be “put on” (ver. 24) is of a <i>new kind and +order</i>; and in this instance the verb is of the aorist +tense signifying an event, not a continuous act. The +new man is put on when the Christian way of life is +adopted, when we enter personally into the new +humanity founded in Christ. We “put on the Lord +Jesus Christ” (Rom. xiii. 14), who covers and absorbs +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span> +the old self, even as those who await in the flesh His +second advent will “put on the house from heaven,” +when “the mortal” in them will be “swallowed up of +life” (2 Cor. v. 2–4). Thus two distinct conceptions of +the life of faith are placed before our minds. It consists, +on the one hand, of a quickening, constantly +renewed, in the springs of our individual thought and +will; and it is at the same time the assumption of +another nature, the investiture of the soul with the +Divine character and form of its being.</p> + +<p>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 +refinement, in energy and joy. Thus it was with the +apostle in his advancing age. The fresh impulses of +the Holy Spirit, the unfolding to his spirit of the +mystery of God, the fellowship of Christian brethren +and the interests of the work of the Church renewed +Paul’s youth like the eagle’s. If in years and toil he is +old, his soul is full of ardour, his intellect keen and +eager; the “outward man decays, but the inward man +is renewed day by day.”</p> + +<p>This new nature had a new birth. The soul reanimating +itself perpetually from the fresh springs that are in +God, had in God the beginning of its renovated life. +We have not to create or fashion for ourselves the +perfect life, but to <i>adopt</i> it,—to realize the Christian +ideal (ver. 24). We are called to put on the new type +of manhood as completely as we renounce the old +(ver. 22). The new man is there before our eyes, +manifest in the person of Jesus Christ, in whom we +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span> +live henceforth. When we “learn the Christ,” when we +have become His true disciples, we “put on” His nature +and “walk in Him.” The inward reception of His Spirit +is attended by the outward assumption of His character +as our calling amongst men.</p> + +<p>Now, the character of Jesus is human nature as +God first formed it. It existed in His thoughts from +eternity. If it be asked whether St Paul refers, in +verse 24, to the creation of Adam in God’s likeness, or +to the image of God appearing in Jesus Christ, or to the +Christian nature formed in the regenerate, we should +say that, to the apostle’s mind, the first and last of +these creations are merged in the second. The Son of +God’s love is His primeval image. The race of Adam +was created in Christ (Col. i. 15, 16). The first model +of that image, in the natural father of mankind, was +marred by sin and has become “the old man” corrupt +and perishing. The new pattern replacing this broken +type is the original ideal, displayed “in the likeness of +sinful flesh”—wearing no longer the charm of childish +innocence, but the glory of sin vanquished and sacrifice +endured—in the Son of God made perfect through +suffering. Through all there has been only one image +of God, one ideal humanity. The Adam of Paradise +was, within his limits, what the Image of God had been +in perfectness from eternity. And Jesus in His human +personality represented, under the changed circumstances +brought about by sin, what Adam might have +grown to be as a complete and disciplined man.</p> + +<p>The qualities which the apostle insists upon in the +new man are two: “<i>righteousness</i> and <i>holiness</i> [or <i>piety</i>] +of the truth.” This is the Old Testament conception +of a perfect life, whose realization the devout Zacharias +anticipates when he sings how God has “shown mercy +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span> +to our fathers, in remembrance of His holy covenant, ... +that we being delivered from the hand of our +enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and +righteousness before Him all the days of our life.” +Enchanting vision, still to be fulfilled! “Righteousness” +is the sum of all that should be in a man’s +relations towards God’s law; “holiness” is a right +disposition and bearing towards God Himself. This +is not St Paul’s ordinary word for holiness (<i>sanctification</i>, +<i>sanctity</i>), which he puts so often at the head of his +letters, addressing his readers as “saints” in Christ +Jesus. That other term designates Christian believers +as devoted persons, claimed by God for His +own;<a name="FNanchor_125" id="FNanchor_125"></a><a href="#Footnote_125" class="fnanchor">[125]</a> +it signifies holiness as a calling. The word of our +text denotes specifically the holiness of temper and +behaviour—“that becometh saints.” The two words +differ very much as <i>devotedness</i> from +<i>devoutness</i>.<a name="FNanchor_126" id="FNanchor_126"></a><a href="#Footnote_126" class="fnanchor">[126]</a></p> + +<p>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 not be atheistic or agnostic: he will be +devout. He will not be narrow and self-seeking; +he will not be pharisaic and pretentious, practising the +world’s ethics with the Christian’s creed: he will be +upright and generous, manly and godlike.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_118" id="Footnote_118"></a><a href="#FNanchor_118"> +<span class="label">[118]</span></a> +Quid si post <span class="greek" title="houtôs">οὕτως</span> +distinctionem ascribas? <i>Vos autem non ita</i> (subaudi +<i>facere convenit</i>), <i>qui didicistis</i>, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_119" id="Footnote_119"></a><a href="#FNanchor_119"> +<span class="label">[119]</span></a> +Comp. Numb. xii. 7; Ps. i. 4; Luke xxii. 26, for this Hebraistic +turn of expression.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_120" id="Footnote_120"></a><a href="#FNanchor_120"> +<span class="label">[120]</span></a> +Comp. Phil. iii. 2, 18; Titus i. 16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_121" id="Footnote_121"></a><a href="#FNanchor_121"> +<span class="label">[121]</span></a> +See pp. 47, 83, 169, 189.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_122" id="Footnote_122"></a><a href="#FNanchor_122"> +<span class="label">[122]</span></a> +<span class="greek" title="Estin alêtheia en tô Iêsou.">Ἐστὶν ἀληθεία ἐν τῷ Ἰησοῦ.</span> +The article with the proper name is +most significant. It points to the definite image of Jesus, in His actual +person, that was made familiar by the preaching of Paul and the other +apostles.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_123" id="Footnote_123"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_123"><span class="label">[123]</span></a> +<i>L’Antéchrist</i>, pp. i. ii. 1, 2. This is a powerful and impressive +work, of whose value those who know only the <i>Vie de Jésus</i> can have +little conception. Renan’s faults are many and deplorable; but he is a +writer of genius and of candour. His rationalism teems with precious +inconsistencies. One hears in him always the Church bells ringing under +the sea, the witness of a faith buried in the heart and never silenced, +to which he confesses touchingly in the Preface to his <i>Souvenirs</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_124" id="Footnote_124"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_124"><span class="label">[124]</span></a> +<span class="greek" title="ananeousthai de tô pneumati tou noos hymôn, +kai endysasthai ton kainon anthrôpon, ton kata Theon ktisthenta."> +ἀνανεοῦσθαι δὲ τῷ πνεύματι τοῦ νοὸς ὑμῶν, +καὶ ἐνδυσασθαι τὸν καίνον ἄνθρωπον, +τὸν κατὰ Θεὸν κτισθέντα.</span></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_125" id="Footnote_125"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_125"><span class="label">[125]</span></a> +Comp. pp. 29, 30.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_126" id="Footnote_126"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_126"><span class="label">[126]</span></a> +It is important to distinguish the Greek adjectives <span class="greek" title="hagios">ἅγιος</span> +and <span class="greek" title="hosios">ὅσιος</span>, +with their derivatives. See Cremer’s <i>N. T. Lexicon</i> on these words, and +Trench’s <i>N. T. Synonyms</i>, § lxxxviii. Of the latter word, 1 Thess. +ii. 10; 1 Tim. i. 9, ii. 8; 2 Tim. iii. 3; Tit. i. 8 are the only examples in +St Paul.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> + +<h4>DISCARDED VICES.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“Wherefore, having put away falsehood, ‘speak ye truth each one +with his neighbour’: for we are members one of another.</p> + +<p>“‘Be ye angry, and sin not’: let not the sun go down upon your +provocation: neither give place to the devil.</p> + +<p>“Let him that stole steal no more; but rather let him labour, working +with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have whereof +to give to him that hath need.</p> + +<p>“Let no worthless speech proceed out of your mouth, but such as is +good for edifying as the need may be, that it may give grace to them that +hear. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed +unto the day of redemption.</p> + +<p>“Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and railing +be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, +tenderhearted, forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave +you. Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children; and +walk in love, even as the Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up +for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odour of a sweet +smell.</p> + +<p>“But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not +even be named among you, as becometh saints; nor filthiness, nor +foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not befitting: but rather giving of +thanks. For this ye know of a surety, that no fornicator, nor unclean +person, nor covetous man, which is an idolater, hath any inheritance +in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no man deceive you with empty +words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the +sons of disobedience.”—<span class="smcap">Eph.</span> iv. 25—v. 6.</p></div> + +<p>The transformation described in the last paragraph +(vv. 17–24) has now to be carried into detail. +The vices of the old heathen self must be each of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span> +them replaced by the corresponding graces of the new +man in Christ Jesus.</p> + +<p>The peculiarity of the instructions given by the +apostle for this purpose does not lie in the virtues +enjoined, but in the light in which they are set and the +motives by which they are inculcated. The common +conscience condemns lying and theft, malice and uncleanness; +they were denounced with eloquence by +heathen moralists. But the ethics of the New Testament +differed in many respects from the best moral +philosophy: in its direct appeal to the conscience, in +its vigour and decision, in the clearness with which it +traced our maladies to the heart’s alienation from God; +but most of all, in the remedy which it applied, the +new principle of faith in Christ. The surgeon’s knife +lays bare the root of the disease; and the physician’s +hand pours in the healing balm.</p> + +<p>Let us observe at the outset that St Paul deals with +the actual and pressing temptations of his readers. +He recalls what they had been, and forbids them to be +such again. The associations and habits of former life, +the hereditary force of evil, the atmosphere of Gentile +society, and added to all this, as we discover from +chapter v. 6, the persuasions of the sophistical teachers +now beginning to infest the Church, tended to draw +the Asian Christians back to Gentile ways and to break +down the moral distinctions that separated them from +the pagan world.</p> + +<p>Amongst the discarded vices of the forsaken Gentile +life, the following are here distinguished: <i>lying</i>, <i>theft</i>, +<i>anger</i>, <i>idle speech</i>, <i>malice</i>, <i>impurity</i>, <i>greed</i>. These may +be reduced to sins of temper, of word, and of act. +Let us discuss them in the order in which they are +brought before us.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span> +1. “The falsehood”<a name="FNanchor_127" id="FNanchor_127"></a><a href="#Footnote_127" class="fnanchor">[127]</a> +of verse 25 is the antithesis +of “the truth” from which righteousness and holiness +spring (ver. 24). In accepting the one, Paul’s Gentile +readers “had put off” the other. When these heathen +converts became Christians, they renounced the great +lie of idolatry, the system of error and deceit on which +their lives were built. They have passed from the +realm of illusion to that of truth. “Now,” the apostle +says, “let your daily speech accord with this fact: you +have bidden farewell to falsehood; <i>speak</i> truth each +with his neighbour.” The true religion breeds truthful +men; a sound faith makes an honest tongue. Hence +there is no vice more hateful than jesuitry, nothing +more shocking than the conduct of those who defend +what they call “the truth” by disingenuous arts, by +tricks of rhetoric and the shifts of an unscrupulous +partizanship. “Will you speak unrighteously for God, +and talk deceitfully for Him?” <i>As Christ’s truth is in +me</i> cries the apostle, when he would give the strongest +possible assurance of the fact he wishes to +assert.<a name="FNanchor_128" id="FNanchor_128"></a><a href="#Footnote_128" class="fnanchor">[128]</a> +The social conventions and make-believes, the countless +simulations and dissimulations by which the game of +life is carried on belong to the old man with his lusts +of deceit, to the universal lie that runs through all +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span> +ungodliness and unrighteousness, which is in the last +analysis the denial of God.</p> + +<p>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 +neighbour; and love no false oath. For all these things +do I hate, saith the Lord.” Such is the law of the New +Covenant life. No doubt, St Paul is thinking of the +intercourse of Christians with each other when he +quotes this command and adds the reason, “For we +are <i>members one of another</i>.” But the word <i>neighbour</i>, as +Jesus showed, has in the Christian vocabulary no limited +import; it includes the Samaritan, the heathen man and +publican. When the apostle bids his converts “Follow +what is good towards one another, and towards all” +(1 Thess. v. 15), he certainly presumes the neighbourly +obligation of truthfulness to be no less comprehensive.</p> + +<p>Believers in Christ represent a communion which in +principle embraces all men. The human race is one +family in Christ. For any man to lie to his fellow is, +virtually, to lie to himself. It is as if the eye should +conspire to cheat the hand, or the one hand play +false to the other. Truth is the right which each man +claims instinctively from his neighbour; it is the tacit +compact that binds together all intelligences. Without +neighbourly and brotherly love perfect truthfulness is +scarcely possible. “Self-respect will never destroy +self-seeking, which will always find in self-interest +a side accessible to the temptations of falsehood” +(Harless).</p> + +<p>2. Like the first precept, the second is borrowed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span> +from the Old Testament and shaped to the uses of the +New. “<i>Be ye angry</i>, and sin not”: so the words of +Psalm iv. 4 stand in the Greek version and in the +margin of our Revised Bible, where we commonly read, +“Stand in awe, and sin not. Commune with your own +heart upon your bed, and be still.” The apostle’s +further injunction, that anger should be stayed before +nightfall, accords with the Psalmist’s words; the calming +effect of the night’s quiet the apostle anticipates in the +approach of evening. As the day’s heat cools and its +strain is relaxed, the fires of anger should die down. +With the Jews, it will be remembered, the new day +began at evening. Plutarch, the excellent heathen +moralist contemporary with St Paul, gives this as an +ancient rule of the Pythagoreans: “If at any time they +happened to be provoked by anger to abusive language, +before the sun set they would take each other’s hands +and embracing make up their quarrel.” If Paul had +heard of this admirable prescription, he would be +delighted to recognize and quote it as one of those +many facts of Gentile life which “show the work of the +law written in their hearts” (Rom. ii. 15). The passion +which outlives the day, on which the angry man sleeps +and that wakes with him in the morning, takes root in +his breast; it becomes a settled rancour, prompting ill +thoughts and deeds.</p> + +<p>There is no surer way of tempting the devil to tempt +us than to brood over our wrongs. Every cherished +grudge is a “place given” to the tempter, a new +entrenchment for the Evil One in his war against the +soul, from which he may shoot his “fire-tipped darts” +(vi. 16). Let us dismiss with each day the day’s vexations, +commending as evening falls our cares and griefs +to the Divine compassion and seeking, as for ourselves, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span> +so for those who may have done us wrong forgiveness +and a better mind. We shall rise with the coming light +armed with new patience and charity, to bring into the +world’s turmoil a calm and generous wisdom that will +earn for us the blessing of the peacemakers, who shall +be called sons of God.</p> + +<p>Still the apostle says: “<i>Be angry</i>, 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 flame of Jehovah that burns unceasingly +against the false and foul and cruel. But he knew +its dangers—how easily an ardent soul kindled to +exasperation forgets the bounds of wisdom and love; +how strong and jealous a curb the temper needs, lest +just indignation turn to sin, and Satan gain over us a +double advantage, first by the wicked provocation and +then by the uncontrolled resentment it excites.</p> + +<p>3. From anger we pass to <i>theft</i>.</p> + +<p>The eighth commandment is put here in a form +indicating that some of the apostle’s readers had been +habitual sinners against it. Literally his words read: +“Let him <i>that steals</i> play the thief no more.” The +Greek present participle does not, however, necessarily +imply a pursuit now going on, but an habitual or +characteristic pursuit, that by which the agent was +known and designated: “Let the thief no longer steal!” +From the lowest dregs of the Greek cities—from its +profligate and criminal classes—the gospel had drawn +its converts (comp. 1 Cor. vi. 9–11). In the Ephesian +Church there were converted thieves; and Christianity +had to make of them honest workmen.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[296]</a></span> +The words of verse 28, addressed to a company of +thieves, vividly show the transforming effect of the +gospel of Christ: “Let him toil, working with his hands +what is good, that he may have wherewith to give to +him that is in need.” The apostle brings the loftiest +motives to bear instantly upon the basest natures, and +is sure of a response. He makes no appeal to self-interest, +he says nothing of the fear of punishment, +nothing even of the pride of honest labour. Pity for +their fellows, the spirit of self-sacrifice and generosity +is to set those pilfering and violent hands to unaccustomed +toil. The appeal was as wise as it was bold. +Utilitarianism will never raise the morally degraded. +Preach to them thrift and self-improvement, show them +the pleasures of an ordered home and the advantages +of respectability, they will still feel that their own way +of life pleases and suits them best. But let the divine +spark of charity be kindled in their breast—let the man +have love and pity and not self to work for, and he is +a new creature. His indolence is conquered; his meanness +changed to the noble sense of a common manhood. +Love never faileth.</p> + +<p>4. We have passed from speech to temper, and from +temper to act; in the warning of verses 29, 30 we +come back to speech again.</p> + +<p>We doubt whether <i>corrupt talk</i> is here intended. That +comes in for condemnation in verses 2 and 3 of the next +chapter. The Greek adjective is the same that is used +of the “<i>worthless</i> fruit” of the “<i>worthless</i> [<i>good-for-nothing</i>] +tree” in Matthew xii. 33; and again of the +“<i>bad</i> fish” of Matthew xiii. 48, which the fisherman +throws away not because they are corrupt or offensive, +but because they are useless for food. So it is against +<i>inane</i>, inept and useless talk that St Paul sets his face. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span> +Jesus said that “for <i>every idle word</i> men must give +account to God” (Matt. xii. 36).</p> + +<p>Jesus Christ laid great stress upon the exercise of +the gift of speech. “By thy words,” He said to His +disciples, “thou shalt be justified, and by thy words +condemned.” The possession of a human tongue is an +immense responsibility. Infinite good or mischief lies +in its power. (With the tongue we should include the +pen, as being the tongue’s deputy.) Who shall say +how great is the sum of injury, the waste of time, the +irritation, the enfeeblement of mind and dissipation of +spirit, the destruction of Christian fellowship that is due +to thoughtless speech and writing? The apostle does +not simply forbid injurious words, he puts an embargo +on all that is not positively useful. It is not enough +to say: “My chatter does nobody harm; if there is no +good in it, there is no evil.” He replies: “If you cannot +speak to profit, be silent till you can.”</p> + +<p>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—spoken +from the pulpit or the easy chair—the incontinence +of tongue, the flux of senseless, graceless, unprofitable +utterance that St Paul desires to arrest: “let +it not proceed out of your mouth.” Such speech must +not “escape the fence of the teeth.” It is an oppression +to every serious listener; it is an injury to the utterer +himself. Above all, it “grieves the Holy Spirit.”</p> + +<p>The witness of the Holy Spirit is the seal of God’s +possession in us;<a name="FNanchor_129" id="FNanchor_129"></a><a href="#Footnote_129" class="fnanchor">[129]</a> +it is the assurance to ourselves that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span> +we are His sons in Christ and heirs of life eternal. +From the day it is affixed to the heart, this seal need +never be broken nor the witness withheld, “until the +day of redemption.” Dwelling within the Church as +the guard of its communion, and loving us with the +love of God, the Spirit of grace is hurt and grieved by +foolish words coming from lips that He has sanctified. +As Israel in its ancient rebellions “vexed His Holy +Spirit” (Isai. lxiii. 10), so do those who burden Christian +fellowship and who enervate their own inward life +by speech without worth and purpose. As His fire is +quenched by distrust (1 Thess. v. 19), so His love is +vexed by folly. His witness grows faint and silent; +the soul loses its joyous assurance, its sense of the +peace of God. When our inward life thus declines, +the cause lies not unfrequently in our own heedless +speech. Or we have listened willingly and without +reproof to “words that may do hurt,” words of foolish +jesting or idle gossip, of mischief and backbiting. The +Spirit of truth retires affronted from His desecrated +temple, not to return until the iniquity of the lips is +purged and the wilful tongue bends to the yoke of +Christ. Let us grieve before the Holy Spirit, that He +be not grieved with us for such offences. Let us pray +evermore: “Set a watch, O Jehovah, before my mouth; +keep the door of my lips.”</p> + +<p>5. In his previous reproofs the apostle has glanced +in various ways at love as the remedy of our moral disorders +and defects. Falsehood, anger, theft, misuse of +the tongue involve disregard of the welfare of others; if +they do not spring from positive ill-will, they foster and +aggravate it. It is now time to deal directly with this +evil that assumes so many forms, the most various of +our sins and companion to every other: “Let all bitterness, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span> +and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and railing be +put away from you, with all malice.”</p> + +<p>The last of these terms is the most typical. <i>Malice</i> +is badness of disposition, the aptness to envy and hatred, +which apart from any special occasion is always ready +to break out in bitterness and wrath. <i>Bitterness</i> is +malice sharpened to a point and directed against the +exasperating object. <i>Wrath</i> and <i>anger</i> are synonymous, +the former being the passionate outburst of resentment +in rage, the latter the settled indignation of the aggrieved +soul: this passion was put under restraint already in +verses 26, 27. <i>Clamour</i> and <i>railing</i> give audible expression +to these and their kindred tempers. Clamour is +the loud self-assertion of the angry man, who will make +every one hear his grievance; while the railer carries +the war of the tongue into his enemy’s camp, and vents +his displeasure in abuse and insult.</p> + +<p>These sins of speech were rife in heathen society; +and there were some amongst Paul’s readers, doubtless, +who found it hard to forgo their indulgence. Especially +difficult was this when Christians suffered all +manner of evil from their heathen neighbours and +former friends; it cost a severe struggle to be silent +and “keep the mouth as with a bridle” under fierce +and malicious taunts. Never to return evil for evil and +railing for railing, but contrariwise blessing,—this was +one of the lessons most difficult to flesh and blood.</p> + +<p><i>Kindness</i> in act, <i>tenderheartedness</i> 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 of Christian virtue, the master motive in the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span> +apostle’s theory of life. The cross of Jesus Christ is +the centre of Pauline ethics, as of Pauline theology. +The sacrifice of Calvary, while it is the ground of our +salvation, supplies the standard and incentive of moral +attainment. It makes life <i>an imitation of God</i>.</p> + +<p>The commencement of the new chapter at this point +makes an unfortunate division; for its first two verses +are in close consecution with the last verse of chapter iv. +By kindness and pitifulness of heart, by readiness to +forgive, God’s “beloved children” will “show themselves +imitators” of their Father. The apostle echoes +the saying of his Master, in which the law of His +kingdom was laid down: “Love your enemies, and +do good, and lend never despairing; and your reward +shall be great, and you shall be called children of the +Highest: for He is kind to the thankless and evil. +Be ye therefore pitiful, as your Father is pitiful” +(Luke vi. 35, 36). Before the cross of Jesus was set +up, men could not know how much God loved the +world and how far He was ready to go in the way +of forgiveness. Yet Christ Himself saw the same love +displayed in the Father’s daily providence. He bids +us imitate Him who makes His sun shine and His +rain fall on the just and unjust, on the evil and the +good. To the insight of Jesus, nature’s impartial +bounties in which unbelief sees only moral indifference, +spoke of God’s compassion; they proceed from +the same love that gave His Son to taste death for +every man.</p> + +<p>In chapter iv. 32–v. 2 the Father’s love and the +Son’s self-sacrifice are spoken of in terms precisely +parallel. They are altogether one in quality. Christ +does not by His sacrifice persuade an angry Father +to love His children; it is the Divine compassion in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span> +Christ that dictates and carries into effect the sacrifice. +At the same time it was “an <i>offering</i> and a <i>sacrifice</i> +to God.” God is love; but love is not everything in +God. Justice is also Divine, and absolute in its own +realm. Law can no more forgo its rights than love +forget its compassions. Love must fulfil all righteousness; +it must suffer law to mark out its path of +obedience, or it remains an effusive, ineffectual sentiment, +helpless to bless and save. Christ’s feet followed +the stern and strait path of self-devotion; “He humbled +Himself and became obedient,” He was “born under +law.” And the law of God imposing death as the +penalty for sin, which shaped Christ’s sacrifice, made +it acceptable to God. Thus it was “an odour of a +sweet smell.”</p> + +<p>Hence the love which follows Christ’s example, is +love wedded with duty. It finds in an ordered devotion +to the good of men the means to fulfil the all-holy +Will and to present in turn its “offering to God.” +Such love will be above the mere pleasing of men, +above sentimentalism and indulgence; it will aim +higher than secular ideals and temporal contentment. +It regards men in their kinship to God and obligation +to His law, and seeks to make them worthy of their +calling. All human duties, for those who love God, +are subordinate to this; all commands are summed +up in one: “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” +The apostle pronounced the first and last word of his +teaching when he said: <i>Walk in love, as the Christ +also loved us.</i></p> + +<p>6. Above all others, one sin stamped the Gentile +world of that time with infamy,—its <i>uncleanness</i>.</p> + +<p>St Paul has stigmatized this already in the burning +words of verse 19. There we saw this vice in its +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span> +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 +in the lightest, where it glances from the lips +in words of jest: “Fornication and all uncleanness, +let it not even be named among you.” Along with +“filthiness, foolish talk and jesting” are to be heard +no more. Passing from verse 2 to verse 3 by the +contrastive <i>But</i>, one feels how repugnant are these +things to the love of Christ. The perfume of the +sacrifice of Calvary, so pleasing in heaven, sweetens +our life on earth; its grace drives wanton and selfish +passions from the heart, and destroys the pestilence +of evil in the social atmosphere. Lust cannot breathe +in the sight of the cross.</p> + +<p>The “good-for-nothing speech” of chapter iv. 29 +comes up once more for condemnation in the <i>foolish +speech</i> and <i>jesting</i> of this passage. The former is +the idle talk of a stupid, the latter of a clever man. +Both, under the conditions of heathen society, were +tainted with foulness. Loose speech easily becomes +low speech. Wit, unchastened by reverence, finds a +tempting field for its exercise in the delicate relations +of life, and displays its skill in veiled indecencies and +jests that desecrate the purer feelings, while they avoid +open grossness.</p> + +<p>St Paul’s word for “jesting” is one of the singular +terms of this epistle. By etymology it denotes +a <i>well-turned</i> style of expression, the versatile speech +of one who can touch lightly on many themes and +aptly blend the grave and gay. This social gift was +prized amongst the polished Greeks. But it was a +faculty so commonly abused, that the word describing +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span> +it fell into bad odour: it came to signify banter and +persiflage; and then, still worse, the kind of talk here +indicated,—the wit whose zest lies in its flavour of +impurity. “The very profligate old man in the <i>Miles +Gloriosus</i> of Plautus (iii. I. 42–52), who prides himself, +and not without reason, upon his wit, his elegance +and refinement [<i>cavillator lepidus</i>, <i>facetus</i>], is exactly +the <span class="greek" title="eutrapelos">εὐτράπελος</span>. +And keeping in mind that <span class="greek" title="eutrapelia">εὐτραπελία</span>, +being only once expressly and by name forbidden in +Scripture, is forbidden to Ephesians, it is not a little +notable to find him urging that all this was to be +expected from him, being as he was an Ephesian by +birth:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">Post <i>Ephesi sum natus</i>; non enim in Apulia, non +Animulæ.”<a name="FNanchor_130" id="FNanchor_130"></a><a href="#Footnote_130" class="fnanchor">[130]</a><br /></span> +</div> + +<p>In place of senseless prating and wanton jests—things +unbefitting to a rational creature, much more +to a saint—the Asian Greeks are to find in <i>thanksgiving</i> +employment for their ready tongue. St Paul’s rule +is not one of mere prohibition. The versatile tongue +that disported itself in unhallowed and frivolous utterance, +may be turned into a precious instrument for +God’s service. Let the fire of Divine love touch the +jester’s lips, and that mouth will show forth His praise +which once poured out dishonour to its Maker and +shame to His image in man.</p> + +<p>7. At the end of the Ephesian catalogue of vices, +as at the beginning (iv. 19), uncleanness is joined +with <i>covetousness</i>, or <i>greed</i>.</p> + +<p>This, too, is “not even to be named amongst you, +as becometh saints.” <i>Money! property!</i> these are the +words dearest and most familiar in the mouths of a +large class of men of the world, the only themes on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span> +which they speak with lively interest. But Christian +lips are cleansed from the service both of Belial and +of Mammon. When his business follows the trader +from the shop to the fireside and the social circle, and +even into the Church, when it becomes the staple subject +of his conversation, it is clear that he has fallen into +the low vice of covetousness. He is becoming, instead +of a man, a money-making machine, an “idolater” of</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">“Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From heaven.”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>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.”</p> + +<p>A serious warning this for all who handle the world’s +wealth. They have a perilous war to wage, and an +enemy who lurks for them at every step in their path. +Will they prove themselves masters of their business, +or its slaves? Will they escape the golden leprosy,—the +passion for accumulation, the lust of property? +None are found more dead to the claims of humanity +and kindred, none further from the kingdom of Christ +and God, none more “closely wrapped” within their +“sensual fleece” than rich men who have prospered +by the idolatry of gain. Dives has chosen and won +his kingdom. He “receives in his lifetime his good +things”; afterwards he must look for “torments.”</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_127" id="Footnote_127"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_127"><span class="label">[127]</span></a> +<span class="greek" title="Dio apothemenoi to pseudos.">Διὸ ἀποθέμενοι τὸ ψεῦδος.</span> Despite the commentators, we must +hold to it that <i>the lie</i>, <i>the falsehood</i> is objective and concrete; not <i>lying</i>, +or <i>falsehood</i> as a subjective act, habit, or quality,—which would have +been rather <span class="greek" title="pseudologia">ψευδολογία</span> +(comp. <span class="greek" title="môrologia">μωρολογία</span>, v. 4; and 1 Tim. iv. 2, +<span class="greek" title="pseudologôn">ψευδολόγων</span>), or +<span class="greek" title="to pseudes">τὸ ψευδές</span>. +So in Rom. i. 25, <span class="greek" title="to pseudos">τὸ ψεῦδος</span> is “the [one +great] lie” which runs through all idolatry; and in 2 Thess. ii. 11 it +denotes “the lie” which Antichrist imposes on those ready to believe +it,—viz., that he himself is God. Accordingly, we take the participle +<span class="greek" title="apothemenoi">ἀποθέμενοι</span> +to signify not what the readers are to do, but what they <i>had +done</i> in renouncing heathenism. The apostle requires consistency: +“Since you are now of the truth, be truth-speaking men.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_128" id="Footnote_128"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_128"><span class="label">[128]</span></a> +2 Cor. i. 18, 19, xi. 10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_129" id="Footnote_129"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_129"><span class="label">[129]</span></a> +See ch. i. 13, 14, and 18 (last clause).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_130" id="Footnote_130"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_130"><span class="label">[130]</span></a> +Trench: <i>N. T. Synonyms</i>, § xxxiv.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2> + +<h4>DOCTRINE AND ETHICS.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“We are members one of another....</p> + +<p>“Let the thief labour ... that he may have whereof to give to him +that hath need....</p> + +<p>“Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto +the day of redemption....</p> + +<p>“Forgive each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you. Be +ye imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, even as +the Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and +a sacrifice to God....</p> + +<p>“No fornicator, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, which is an +idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.”—<span class="smcap">Eph.</span> +iv. 25–v. 6.</p></div> + +<p>The homily that we have briefly reviewed in the +last Chapter demands further consideration. It +affords a striking and instructive example of St Paul’s +method as a teacher of morals, and makes an important +contribution to evangelical ethics. The common vices +are here prohibited on specifically Christian grounds. +The new nature formed in Christ casts them off as +alien and dead things; they are the sloughed skin of +the old life, the discarded dress of the old man who +was slain by the cross of Christ and lies buried in His +grave.</p> + +<p>The apostle does not condemn these sins as being +contrary to God’s law: that is taken for granted. But +the legal condemnation was ineffectual (Rom. viii. 3). +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span> +The wrath revealed from heaven against man’s unrighteousness +had left that unrighteousness unchastened +and defiant. The revelation of law, approved and +echoed by conscience, taught man his guilt; it could +do no more. All this St Paul assumes; he builds on +the ground of law and its acknowledged findings.</p> + +<p>Nor does the apostle make use of the principles of +philosophical ethics, which in their general form were +familiar to him as to all educated men of the day. He +says nothing of the rule of nature and right reason, of +the intrinsic fitness, the harmony and beauty of virtue; +nothing of expediency as the guide of life, of the +inward contentment that comes from well-doing, of +the wise calculation by which happiness is determined +and the lower is subordinated to the higher good. St +Paul nowhere discountenances motives and sanctions +of this sort; he contravenes none of the lines of argument +by which reason is brought to the aid of duty, +and conscience vindicates itself against passion and +false self-interest. Indeed, there are maxims in his +teaching which remind us of each of the two great +schools of ethics, and that make room in the Christian +theory of life both for the philosophy of experience and +that of intuition. The true theory recognizes, indeed, +the experimental and evolutional as well as the fixed +and intrinsic in morality, and supplies their synthesis.</p> + +<p>But it is not the apostle’s business to adjust his +position to that of Stoics and Epicureans, or to unfold +a new philosophy; but to teach the way of the new +life. His Gentile disciples had been untruthful, passionate +in temper, covetous, licentious: the gospel +which he preached had turned them from these sins +to God; from the same gospel he draws the motives +and convictions which are to shape their future life and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span> +to give to the new spirit within them its fit expression. +St Paul has no quarrel with ethical science, much less +with the inspired law of his fathers; but both had +proved ineffectual to keep men from iniquity, or to +redeem them fallen into it. Above them both, above +all theories and all external rules he sets the law of +the Spirit of life in Christ.</p> + +<p>The originality of Christian ethics, we repeat, does +not lie in its detailed precepts. There is not one, it +may be, even of the noblest maxims of Jesus that had +not been uttered by some previous moralist. With +the New Testament in our hands, it may be possible +to collect from non-Christian sources—from Greek +philosophers, from the Jewish Talmud, from Egyptian +sages and Hindoo poets, from Buddha and Confucius—a +moral anthology which thus sifted out of the +refuse of antiquity, like particles of iron drawn by the +magnet, may bear comparison with the ethics of Christianity. +If Christ is indeed the Son of man, we +should expect Him to gather into one all that is +highest in the thoughts and aspirations of mankind. +Addressing the Athenians on Mars’ Hill, the apostle +could appeal to “certain of your own poets” in support +of his doctrine of the Fatherhood of God. The noblest +minds in all ages witness to Jesus Christ and prove +themselves to be, in some sort, of His kindred.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i2">“They are but broken lights of Thee;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And Thou, O Lord, art more than they!”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>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 and of the race; He is the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span> +image of God in which we were made. The life-blood +of mankind flowed in Him as in its heart, and poured +forth from Him as from its fountain in sacrifice for +the common sin. Jesus gathered into Himself and +restored the virtue of humanity broken into a thousand +fragments; but He did much more than this. While +He re-created in His personal character our lost manhood, +by His death and resurrection He has gained for +that ideal a transcendent power that seizes upon men +and regenerates and transforms them. “With unveiled +face beholding in the mirror the glory of the Lord, we +are changed into the same image, [receiving the glory +that we see] as from the Lord of the Spirit” (2 Cor. +iii. 18).</p> + +<p>There is, therefore, an evangelical ethics, a Christian +science of life. “The law of the Spirit of life in +Christ Jesus” has a system and method of its own. +It has a rational solution and explanation to render +for our moral problems. But its solution is given, +as St Paul and as his Master loved to give it, in +practice, not in theory. It teaches the art of living to +multitudes to whom the names of ethics and moral +science are unknown. Those who understand the +method of Christ best are commonly too busy in its +practice to theorize about it. They are physicians +tending the sick and the dying, not professors in some +school of medicine. Yet professors have their use, as +well as practitioners. The task of developing a Christian +science of life, of exhibiting the truth of revelation in +its theoretical bearings and its relations to the thought +of the age, forms a part of the practical duties of the +Church and touches deeply the welfare of souls. For +other times this work has been nobly accomplished +by Christian thinkers. Shall we not pray the Lord of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span> +the harvest that He will thrust forth into this field fit +labourers; that He will raise up men mighty through +God to overthrow every high thing that exalts itself +against His knowledge, and wise to build up to the +level of the times the great fabric of Christian ethics +and discipline?</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>There emerge in this exhortation four distinct principles, +which lay at the basis of St Paul’s views of +life and conduct.</p> + +<p>I. In the first place, the fundamental truth of <i>the +Fatherhood of God</i>, “Be imitators of God,” he writes, +“as beloved children.” And in chapter iv. 24: “Put +on the new man, which <i>was created after God</i>.”</p> + +<p>Man’s life has its law, for it has its source, in the +nature of the Eternal. Behind our race-instincts and +the laws imposed on us in the long struggle for +existence, behind those imperatives of practical reason +involved in the structure of our intelligence, is the +presence and the active will of Almighty God our +heavenly Father. His image we see in the Son of +man.</p> + +<p>Here is the fountainhead of truth, from which the +two great streams of philosophical thought upon morals +have diverged. If man is the child of a Being +absolutely good, then moral goodness belongs to the +essence of his nature; it is discoverable in the instincts +of his reason and will. Were not our nature warped +by sin, such reasoning must have commanded immediate +assent and led to consistent and self-evident +results. Again, if man is the <i>child</i> of God, the finite +of the Infinite, his moral character must, presumably, +have been in the beginning germinal rather than complete, +needing—even apart from sin and its +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span> +malformations—development and education, the discipline of a +fatherly providence, inculcating the lessons and forming +the habits which belong to his ripe manhood and +full-grown stature. Intuitional morals bear witness +to the God of creation; experimental morals to the +God of providence and history. The Divine Fatherhood +is the keystone of the arch in which they meet.</p> + +<p>The command to “be imitators of God” makes +<i>personality</i> 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, <i>Father</i> and <i>love</i> are meaningless terms +applied to the Supreme and religion dissolves into +an impalpable mist. Is the universe governed by +personal will, or by impersonal force? Is reason, or +is gravitation the index to the nature of the Absolute? +This is the vital question of modern thought. The +latter is the answer given by a large, if not a preponderant +body of philosophical opinion in our own +day,—as it was given, virtually, by the natural philosophers +of Greece in the dawn of science. Man’s +triumphs over nature and the splendour of his discoveries +in the physical realm bewilder his reason. +The scientists, like other conquerors, have been +intoxicated with victory. The universe, it seemed, +was about to yield to them its last secrets; they were +prepared to analyze the human soul and resolve the +conception of God into its material elements. Religion +and conscience, however, prove to be intractable +subjects in the physical laboratory; they are coming +out of the crucible unchanged and refined. We are +able by this time to take a more sober measure of the +possibilities of the scientific method, and to see what +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span> +inductive logic and natural selection can do for us, +and what they cannot do. We can walk in the light +of the new revelation, without being dazzled by it. +Things are less altered than we thought. The old +boundaries reappear. The spirit resumes its place, +and rules a wider realm than before. Reason refuses +to be the victim of its own success, and to immolate +itself for the deification of material law. “Forasmuch +as we are God’s offspring,” we ought not to think, +and we will not think that the Godhead is like to blind +forces and reasonless properties of matter. Love, +thought, will in us raise our being above the realm of +the impersonal; and these faculties point us upward +to Him from whom they came, the Father of the spirits +of all flesh.</p> + +<p>The great tide of joy, the victorious energy which +the sense of God’s love brings into the life of a +Christian, is evidence of its reality. The believer is +a child walking in the light of his Father’s smile—dependent, +ignorant, but the object of an Almighty +love. A thousand tokens speak to him of the Divine +care; his tasks and trials are sweetened by the confidence +that they are appointed for wise ends beyond +his present knowledge. To another in that same +house there is no heavenly Father, no unseen hand +that guides, no gleam of a brighter and purer day +lighting up its dull chambers. There are human +companions, weak, erring and wearying like oneself. +There is work to do, with the night coming swiftly; +and the brave heart girds itself to duty, finding in the +service of man its motive and employment—but, alas, +with how poor success and how faint a hope!</p> + +<p>It is not the loss of strength for human service, +nor the dying out of joy which unbelief entails, that is +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span> +its chief calamity; but the unbelief itself. The sun +in the soul’s heaven is put out. The personal relationship +to the Supreme which gave dignity and worth to +our individual being, which imparted sacredness and +enduring power to all other ties, is destroyed. The +heart is orphaned; the temple of the spirit desolate. +The mainspring of life is broken.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">“Make haste to answer me, O Jehovah; my spirit faileth!<br /></span> +<span class="i8">Hide not Thy face from me,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit!”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>II. <i>The solidarity of mankind in Christ</i> furnishes the +apostle with a powerful lever for raising the ethical +standard of his readers. The thought that “we are +members one of another” forbids deceit. That he +may “have whereof to give to the needy” is the +purpose that provokes the thief to industry. The +desire to “give grace” to the hearers and to “build +them up” in truth and goodness imparts seriousness +and elevation to social intercourse. The irritations +and injuries we inflict on each other, with or without +purpose, furnish occasion for us to “be kind one to +another, good-hearted, <i>forgiving yourselves</i>”—for this +is the expression the apostle uses in chapter iv. 32, +and in Colossians iii. 13. Self is so merged in the +community, that in dealing censure or forgiveness to an +offending brother the Christian man feels as though +he were dealing with himself—as though it were the +hand that forgave the foot for tripping, or the ear +that pardoned some blunder of the eye.</p> + +<p><i>Showing-grace</i> is what the apostle literally says here, +speaking both of human and Divine +forgiveness.<a name="FNanchor_131" id="FNanchor_131"></a><a href="#Footnote_131" class="fnanchor">[131]</a> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span> +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 +their amendment. He identifies himself with the +wrong-doer, weighs his temptation and all that drew +him into error. Such forgiveness, while it never ignores +the wrong, admits every qualifying circumstance and +just extenuation. This is the kind of pardon that +touches the sinner’s heart; for it goes to the heart of +the sin, isolating it from all other feelings and conditions +that are not sin; it takes the wrong upon itself +in understanding and perception; it puts its finger +upon the aching, festering spot where the criminality +lies and applies to that its healing balm.</p> + +<p>“Even as God in Christ forgave you.” And how +did God forgive? Not by a grand imperial decree, as +of some monarch too exalted to resent the injuries of +men or to inquire into their futile proceedings. Had +such forgiveness been possible to Divine justice, it +could have wrought in us no real salvation. Our +forgiveness is that of God in Christ. The Forgiver +has sat down by the prisoner’s side, has felt his misery +and the force of his temptations, and in everything but +the actual sin has made Himself one with the sinner, +even to bearing the extreme penalty of his guilt. In +the act of making sacrifice, Jesus prayed for those +that slew Him: “Father, forgive them; they know +not what they do!” This intercession breathed the +spirit of the new forgiveness. There is a real remission +of sins, a release granted justly and upon +due satisfaction; but it is the act of justice charged +with love, of a justice as tender and considerate as it +is strong, and which eagerly takes account of all that +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span> +bespeaks in the offender a possibility of better things. +It is a forgiveness that does justice to the humanity +as well as the criminality in the sinner.</p> + +<p>To proclaim by word and deed this forgiveness of +God to the sinful world is the vocation of the Church. +And where she does thus declare it, by whatever means +or ministry, Christ’s promise to her is verified: “Whose-soever +sins ye remit, they are remitted to them.” We +may so reconcile men to ourselves, as to bring them +back to God. Has some one done you a wrong? there +is your opportunity of saving a soul from death and +hiding a multitude of sins. Thus Christ used the +great wrong we all did Him. It is your privilege to +show the wrong-doer that you and he are made one +by the blood of Christ.</p> + +<p>“Walk in love,” St Paul says, “as the Christ also +loved us and gave up Himself for us a sacrifice.” +When the apostle writes <i>the Christ</i>, he points us along +the whole line of the revelation of the +cross.<a name="FNanchor_132" id="FNanchor_132"></a><a href="#Footnote_132" class="fnanchor">[132]</a> We +think of the Christhood of Jesus, of the Christliness +of such love as this. Christ’s was a representative +and exemplary love, with its forerunners and its +followers all walking in one path. “The Christ +loved <i>and gave</i>”; for love that does not give, that +prompts to no effort and puts itself to no sacrifice, is +but a luxury of the heart,—useless and even selfish. +And He “gave up <i>Himself</i>”—the only gift that could +suffice. The rich who bestow many gifts in furtherance +of humanitarian and religious work and still do not +bestow themselves, their sympathetic thought, their +presence and personal aid, are withholding the best +thing, the one thing required to make their bounties +efficacious. In what we give and forgive, it is the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span> +accent of sympathy, the giving of the heart with it that +adds grace to the act. “Though I dole out all my +goods, though I give my body to be burned, and have +not love, it profiteth me nothing.” We do a thousand +things to serve and benefit our fellow-men, and yet +evade the real sacrifice,—which is simply to love them.</p> + +<p>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 Christ +knits all flesh into one redeemed family. The continents +and races of mankind are members one of another, +with Jesus Christ for head. We are brothers and sisters +of humanity: He our elder brother, and God our +common Father in heaven,—His Father and ours.</p> + +<p>Auguste Comte writes in his <i>System of Positive +Polity</i>: “The promises of supernatural religion appealed +exclusively to man’s selfish instincts.... The sympathetic +instincts found no place in the theological +synthesis.”<a name="FNanchor_133" id="FNanchor_133"></a><a href="#Footnote_133" class="fnanchor">[133]</a> +It would be impossible to affirm anything more completely +at variance with the truth, anything more +absolutely opposed to the doctrine of Christ and the +theological synthesis of the apostles. And yet it was +upon this ground that the great French thinker renounced +Christianity, proposing his new religion of +humanity as a substitute for a selfish and effete supernaturalism! +Why did he not go to the New Testament +itself to find out what Christianity means? “To combine +permanently concert with independence,” Comte +excellently says, “is the capital problem of society, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span> +a problem which religion alone can solve, by love +primarily, then by faith on a basis of +love.”<a name="FNanchor_134" id="FNanchor_134"></a><a href="#Footnote_134" class="fnanchor">[134]</a> Precisely +so; and this is the solution offered by Jesus Christ. +His self-sacrificing love is the basis on which our faith +rests; and that faith works by love in all those who +truly possess it. This is the evangelical theory. The +morale of the Church, it is true, has fallen shamefully +below its doctrine; but this doctrine is, after all, the +one fruitful and progressive moral force in the world; +and it is certain to be carried into effect.</p> + +<p>In the darkest hour of Israel’s oppression and of +international hate, one of her great prophets thus +described the triumph of supernatural religion: “In +that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and +Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth; for that +the <span class="smcap">Lord</span> of hosts hath blessed them, saying, Blessed +be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my +hands, and Israel my inheritance” (Isai. xix. 24, 25). +This is our programme still.</p> + +<p>III. Another of St Paul’s ruling ideas lying at the +basis of Christian ethics, is his conception of <i>man’s +future destiny</i>. The apostle warns his readers that +they “grieve not the Holy Spirit, in whom they were +sealed till the day of redemption.” He tells them that +“the impure and the covetous have no inheritance in +the kingdom of Christ and God.”</p> + +<p>There is thus disclosed a world beyond the world, +a life growing out of life, an eternal and invisible +kingdom of whose possession the Spirit that lives in +Christian men is the earnest and firstfruits. This +kingdom is the joint inheritance of the sons of God, +brethren with Christ and in Christ, who are conformed +to His image and found worthy to “stand before the +Son of man.” Those are excluded from the inheritance, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span> +who by their moral nature are alien to it: “Without +are dogs, sorcerers, whoremongers, idolaters, and every +one that loveth and maketh a lie.” This revelation has +had a most powerful influence on the progress of ethics. +It has given a momentous importance to individual +conduct, a new grandeur to the moral issues of the +present life. “Man’s life,” viewed in the light of the +Christian gospel, “has duties that are alone great, that +go up to Heaven, and down to Hell.” The tangled +skein is at last to be unravelled, the mysterious problem +of mortal life will have its solution at the judgement-seat +of Jesus Christ.</p> + +<p>It is true that the wicked flourish and spread themselves +like green trees in the sunshine; and the +covetous boast of their hearts’ desire. To see this +was the trial of ancient faith; and the good man had +to charge himself constantly that he should not fret +because of evil-doers. It required an heroic faith +to believe in God’s kingdom and righteousness, when +the visible course of things made all against them, +and there was no clear light beyond. God’s saints +had to learn first that God is Himself the sufficient +good, and must be trusted to do right. But this +was the faith of defence rather than of victory,—of +endurance, not enthusiasm. In the knowledge of +Christ’s victory over death and entrance on our behalf +into the heavenly world, “in hope of life eternal +which God who cannot lie hath promised,” men have +fought against their own sins, have struggled for +the right and spent themselves to save their fellows +with a vigour and success never witnessed before, and +in numbers far exceeding those that all other creeds +and systems have enlisted in the holy cause of humanity.</p> + +<p>Human reason had guessed and hope had dreamed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span> +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 +a pagan life. “The body is not for fornication, but for +the Lord, and the Lord for the body. God who raised +up the Lord Jesus, will raise us also through His +power. Your bodies are limbs of Christ, ... a temple +of the Holy Spirit which you have from God.... Glorify +God in your body.” So St Paul exhorts the Christians +of Corinth (1 Ep. vi.), living in the centre and shrine +of heathen vice. This doctrine of the sanctity of the +body has been the salvation of the family. It has saved +civilization from perishing through sexual corruption, +and is still our chief defence against this fearful evil.</p> + +<p>Our bodily dress, we now learn, is one with the spirit +that it infolds. We shall lay it aside only to resume +it,—transfigured, but with a form and impress continuous +with its present being. This identical self, the +same both in its outward and inward personality, will +appear before the tribunal of Christ, that it may “receive +the things done in the body.” This announcement +gives reasonableness and distinctness to the expectation +of future judgement. The judgement assumes, with its +solemn grandeur, a matter-of-fact reality, an immediate +bearing on the daily conduct of life, which lends +a powerful reinforcement to the conscience, while it +supplies a fitting and glorious conclusion to our course +as moral beings.</p> + +<p>IV. Finally, <i>the atonement of the cross</i> stamps its +own character and spirit on the entire ethics of +Christianity. The Fatherhood of God, the unity and +solidarity of mankind, the issues of eternal life or death +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span> +awaiting us in the unseen world—all the great factors +and fundamentals of revealed religion gather about the +cross of Christ; they lend to it their august significance, +and gain from it new import and impressiveness.</p> + +<p>The fact that Christ “gave Himself up for us an +offering and sacrifice to God”—gave Himself, as it is +put elsewhere, “for our sins”—throws an awful light +upon the nature of human transgression. The blood +spilt in the strife with our sin and shed to wash out +its stain, reveals its foulness and malignity. All that +inspired men had taught, that good men had believed +and felt and penitent men confessed in regard to the +evil of human sin, is more than verified by the sacrifice +which the Holy One of God has undergone in order to +put it away. It was felt that “the blood of bulls and +goats could never take away sins,” that the sacrifices +man could offer for himself, or the creatures on his +behalf, were ineffectual; the guilt was too real to be +expiated in this fashion, the wound too deep to be +healed by those poor appliances. But who had suspected +that such a remedy as this was needed, and +forthcoming? How deep the resentment of eternal +Justice against the transgressions of men, if the blood +of God’s own Son alone could make propitiation! How +rank the offence against the Divine holiness, if to purge +its abomination the vessel containing the most sweet +fragrance of His sinless nature must be broken! What +tears of contrition, what cleansing fires of hate against +our own sins, what scorn of their baseness, what stern +resolves against them are awakened by the sight of +the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ!</p> + +<p>This negative side of the ethical bearing of Christ’s +sacrifice is implied in the words of the apostle in the +second verse, and in the contrast indicated between +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span> +its sweet savour and those unclean things whose very +names it should banish from our midst (ver. 3). On +its positive effects—the love and self-devotion it inspires, +the conformity of our lives to its example—we have +dwelt already. Let us add, however, that the sacrifice +of Christ demands from us, above all, <i>devotion to Christ +Himself</i>. Our first duty as Christians is to love Christ, +to serve and follow Christ. “He died for all,” says +the apostle, “that the living should live no longer to +themselves, but to Him that died for them and rose +again.” When Mary of Bethany poured on the Saviour’s +head her box of precious ointment, the Master accepted +the tribute and approved the act; and the poor have +been gainers by it a thousand times the pence which +Judas deemed wasted on the head he was watching to +betray. There is no conflict between the claims of +Christ and those of philanthropy, between the needs +of His worship and the needs of the destitute and +suffering in our streets. Every new subject won to +the kingdom of Christ is another helper won for His +poor. Every act of love rendered to Him deepens the +channel of sympathy by which relief and blessing come +to sorrowful humanity.</p> + +<p>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 ploughshares +and pruning hooks. Its scattered races and +nations will be reunited in the obedience of faith, and +formed into one Christian confederacy and commonwealth +of the peoples, a peaceful kingdom of the Son +of God’s love.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_131" id="Footnote_131"></a><a href="#FNanchor_131"> +<span class="label">[131]</span></a> +<span class="greek" +title="Charizomenoi eautois, kathôs kai ho Theos en Christô echarisato hymin.">Χαριζόμενοι ἐαυτοῖς, +καθὼς καὶ ὁ Θεὸς ἐν Χριστῷ ἐχαρίσατο ὑμῖν.</span> +So in Col. ii. 13, iii. 13; Rom. viii. 32; 2 Cor. ii. 7, 10; Luke vii. +42, 43.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_132" id="Footnote_132"></a><a href="#FNanchor_132"> +<span class="label">[132]</span></a> +Comp. pp. 47, 83, 169, 189.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_133" id="Footnote_133"></a><a href="#FNanchor_133"> +<span class="label">[133]</span></a> +Vol. iv., pp. 22, 41 (Eng. Trans.).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_134" id="Footnote_134"></a><a href="#FNanchor_134"> +<span class="label">[134]</span></a> +Comte, vol. iv., p. 30.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2> + +<h4>THE CHILDREN OF THE LIGHT.</h4> + +<div class="poem">“Be not ye therefore partakers with them; for ye were once darkness, +but are now light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the +fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth), proving +what is well-pleasing unto the Lord; and have no fellowship with the +unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them. For the +things which are done by them in secret it is a shame even to speak of; +but all things when they are reproved are made manifest by the light: +for everything that is made manifest is light. Wherefore He saith:—<br /> +<span class="i8">‘Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead;<br /></span> +<span class="i10">And the Christ shall shine upon thee.’”<br /></span> +<span class="ref"><span class="smcap">Eph.</span> v. 7–14.<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>The contrast between the Christian and heathen +way of life is now, finally, to be set forth under +St Paul’s familiar figure of <i>the light and the darkness</i>. +He bids his Gentile readers not to be “joint-partakers +with them”—with the sons of disobedience upon whom +God’s wrath is coming (ver. 6)—for he has hailed +them already, in chapter iii. 6, as “joint-partakers of +the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” +“Once” indeed they shared in the lot of the disobedient; +but for them the darkness has past, and the +true light now shineth.</p> + +<p>In wrath or promise, in hope of life eternal or in +the fearful looking for of judgement they, and we, must +partake. This future participation depends upon present +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[322]</a></span> +character. “Do not,” the apostle entreats, “cast in +your lot again with the unclean and covetous. Their +ways you have renounced, and their doom you have +exchanged for the heritage of the saints. Let no +vain words deceive you into supposing that you may +keep your new inheritance, and yet return to your +old sins. Show yourselves worthy of your calling. +Walk as children of the light, and you will possess the +eternal kingdom.” Each man carries with him into +the next state of being the entail of his past life. That +heritage depends on his own choice; yet not upon his +individual will working by itself, but on the grace and +will of God working with him, as that grace is accepted +or rejected. He has light: he must walk in it; and +he will reach the realm of light. Thus the apostle, +in verses 7 and 8, concludes his warning against +relapse into heathen sin.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>Verses 9 and 10 delineate <i>the character of the children +of the light</i>: verses 11–14 set forth <i>their influence upon +the surrounding darkness</i>. Into these two divisions the +exposition of this paragraph naturally falls.</p> + +<p>I. “The fruit <i>of the light</i>” (not <i>of the Spirit</i>) is the +true text of verse 9, as it stands in the older Greek +copies, Versions, and Fathers. Calvin showed his +judgement and independence in preferring this reading +to that of the received Greek text. Similarly +Bengel,<a name="FNanchor_135" id="FNanchor_135"></a><a href="#Footnote_135" class="fnanchor">[135]</a> +and most of the later critics. The sentence is parenthetical, +and contains a singular and instructive figure. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span> +It is one of those sparks from the anvil, in which +great writers not unfrequently give us their finest utterances,—sentences +that get a peculiar point from the +eagerness with which they are struck off in the heat +and clash of thought, as the mind reaches forward to +some thought lying beyond. The clause is an epitome, +in five words, of Christian virtue, whose qualities, origin +and method are all defined. It sums up exquisitely +the moral teaching of the epistle. Galatians v. 22, 23 +(<i>the fruit of the Spirit</i>) and Philippians iv. 8 (<i>Whatsoever +things are true</i>, etc.) are parallel to this passage, as +Pauline definitions, equally perfect, of the virtues of a +Christian man. This has the advantage of the others +in brevity and epigrammatic point.</p> + +<p>“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 +all goodness and righteousness and truth. Walk in +these ways; let your life bear this fruit; and you will +be true children of the light of God. So living, you +will find out what it is that pleases God, and how +joyful a thing it is to please Him (ver. 10). Your life +will then be free from all complicity with the works of +darkness. It will shine with a brightness clear and +penetrating, that will put to shame the works of darkness +and transform the darkness itself. It will speak +with a voice that all must hear, bidding them awake +from the sleep of sin to see in Christ their light of +life.” Such is the setting in which this delightful +definition stands.</p> + +<p>But it is more than a definition. While this sentence +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[324]</a></span> +declares what Christian virtue is, it signifies also +whence it comes, how it is generated and maintained. +It asserts the connexion that exists between Christian +character and Christian faith. The fruit cannot be +grown without the tree, any more than the tree can +grow soundly without yielding its proper fruit. <i>Right +is the fruit of light.</i></p> + +<p>The principle that religion is the basis of moral +virtue, is one that many moralists disputed in St Paul’s +time; and it has fallen into some discredit in our +own. In philosophical theory, and to a large extent +in popular maxim and belief, it is assumed that faith +and morals, character and creed, are not only distinct +but independent things and that there is no necessary +connexion between the two. Christians are themselves +to blame for this fallacy, through the discrepancy not +seldom visible between their creed and life. Our +narrowness of view and the harshness of our ethical +judgements have helped to foster this grave error.</p> + +<p>Great Christian teachers have spoken of the virtues +of the heathen as “splendid sins.” But Christ and +His apostles never said so. He said: “Other sheep +I have, which are not of this fold.” And they said: +“In every nation he that feareth God and worketh +righteousness, is accepted of Him.” The Christian +creed has no jealousy in regard to human excellence. +“Whatsoever things are true and honourable and just +and pure,” wherever and in whomsoever they are +found, our faith honours and delights in them, and +accepts them to the utmost of their worth. But then +it claims them all for its own,—as the fruit of the one +“true light which lighteth every man.” Wherever +this fruit appears, we know that that light has been, +though its ways are past finding out. Through secret +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span> +crevices, by subtle refractions and multiplied reflections, +the true light reaches many a life lying far outside its +visible course.</p> + +<p>All goodness has one source; for, said Jesus, “there +is none good but one, that is God.” The channels +may be tortuous, obstructed and obscure: the stream +is always one. There is nothing more touching, and +nothing more encouraging to our faith in God’s universal +love and His will that all men should be saved, than to +see, as we do sometimes under conditions most adverse +and in spots the most unlikely, features of moral beauty +and Christlike goodness appearing like springs in the +desert or flowers blooming in Alpine snows,—signs of +the universal light,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">“Which yet in the absolutest drench of dark<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ne’er wants its witness, some stray beauty-beam<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To the despair of hell!”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>The action of God’s grace in Christ is by no means +limited to the sphere of its recognized working. All +the more earnestly on this account do we vindicate +this grace against those who deny its necessity or +the permanence of its moral influence. The fruit, +in the main, they approve. But they would cut down +the plant from which it came; they seek to quench +the light under which it grew. They are like men +who should take you to some lofty tree that has +flourished for ages rooted in the rock, and who should +say: “See how wide its branches and how stout its +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span> +stem, how firmly it stands upon its native soil! Let +us cut it loose from those dark and ugly roots—that +mysterious theology, those superstitions of the past. +The human mind has outgrown them. Virtue can +support itself on its own proper basis. It is time to +assert the dignity of man, and to proclaim the independence +of morality.” If these men have their way, +and if European society renounces the authority of +God, how quickly will that tree of the Lord’s planting, +the vast growth of Christian virtue and beneficence, +wither to its topmost bough; and the next storm will +bring it to the ground, with all its stately strength and +summer beauty. Unbelief in God lays the axe at the +root of human society. Our life—the life of individuals, +of families and nations—is rooted in the unseen and +hid with Christ in God. Thence it draws its vitality +and virtue, through those spiritual fibres by which we +are linked to God and lay hold on eternal life. Since +Christ Jesus our forerunner entered the heavenly places, +the anchor of human hopes has been cast within the +veil; if that anchor drags, there is no other that will +hold. The rocks are plain to see on which our richly +freighted ship of life will founder. Without the +religion of Jesus Christ, our civilization is not worth a +hundred years’ purchase.</p> + +<p>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 +fruit in the immorality of the next, or the next after +that; the unbelief and cynicism of the teacher in the +vice of his disciple. Such fruit of blasting and mildew +the decay of faith has never failed to bear.</p> + +<p>The corresponding truth will be at once acknowledged. +There is no real religion without virtue. If the godly +man is not a good man, if he is not a sincere and pure-hearted +man, “that man’s religion is vain”: no matter +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span> +what his professions or his emotions, no matter what +his services to the Church. He is one of those to +whom Jesus Christ will say: “I know you not; depart +from me, all ye that work iniquity.” There is a flaw +in him somewhere, a rift within the lute that spoils all +its music. “A good tree cannot bring forth corrupt +fruit.”</p> + +<p>In Christ’s garden there forms in clustered beauty +and perfectness the ripe growth of virtue, which in the +sunshine of His love and under the freshening breath +of His Spirit sends forth its spices and “yieldeth its +fruit every month.” In it there abide <i>goodness</i>, <i>righteousness</i>, +<i>truth</i>—these three; and who shall say which +of them is greatest?</p> + +<p>I. <i>Goodness</i> stands first, as the most visible and +obvious form of Christian excellence,—that which every +one looks for in a religious man, and which every one +admires when it is to be seen. Righteousness, regarded +by itself, is not so readily appreciated. There is something +austere and forbidding in it. “For a righteous +man scarcely would one die”—you respect, even revere +him; but you do not love him: “but for the good man +peradventure, one would even dare to die.”</p> + +<p>Christian goodness is the sanctification of the heart +and its affections, renewed and governed by the love +of God in Christ. It is, notwithstanding, but seldom +inculcated in the New +Testament;<a name="FNanchor_136" id="FNanchor_136"></a><a href="#Footnote_136" class="fnanchor">[136]</a> +because it is referred to its spring and principle in <i>love</i>. Goodness is love +embodied. Now love, as the Christian knows it, is of +God. “We love,” says the apostle John, “because He +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span> +first loved us.... He loved us, and sent His Son to +be the propitiation for our sins.” This is the faith that +makes good men,—the best the world has ever known, +the best that it holds now. Vanity, selfishness, evil +temper and desire are shamed and burnt out of the soul +by the holy fire of the love of God in Jesus Christ our +Lord. In the warm, tender light of the cross the heart +is softened and cleansed, and expanded to the widest +charity. It becomes the home of all generous instincts +and pure affections. So “the fruit of the light is in +all goodness.”</p> + +<p>2. And <i>righteousness</i>.</p> + +<p>This second and central definition applies a searching +test to all spurious forms of goodness, superficial or +sentimental,—to the goodness of mere good manners, +or good nature. The principle of righteousness, fully +understood, includes everything in moral worth, and +is often used to denote in one word the entire fruit of +God’s grace in man. For righteousness is the sanctification +of the conscience. It is loyalty to God’s +holy and perfect law. It is no mere outward keeping +of formal rules, such as the legal righteousness of +Judaism, no submission to necessity or calculation of +advantages: it is a love of the law in a man’s inmost +spirit; it is the quality of a heart one with that law, +reconciled to it as it is reconciled to God Himself in +Jesus Christ.</p> + +<p>At the bottom, therefore, righteousness and goodness +are one. Each is the counterface and complement of +the other. Righteousness is to goodness as the strong +backbone of principle, the firm hand and the vigorous +grasp of duty, the steadfast foot that plants itself on the +eternal ground of the right and true and stands against +a world’s assault. Goodness without righteousness is +a weak and fitful sentiment: righteousness without +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span> +goodness is a dead formality. He cannot love God +or his neighbour truly, who does not love God’s law; +and he knows nothing aright of that law, who does +not know that it is the law of love.</p> + +<p>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 <i>love</i> hath none than this, that one lay down +his life for his friends”; and, “Thus it becometh us to +fulfil all <i>righteousness</i>.” By a double flame was He +consumed a sacrifice upon the cross,—by the passion +of His zeal for God’s righteousness, and by the passion +of His pity for mankind. In that twofold light we see +light, and become “light in the Lord.” Therefore the +fruit of the light, the moral product of a true faith in the +gospel, is in all <i>goodness and righteousness</i>.</p> + +<p>There is a danger of merging the latter in the former +of these attributes. Evangelical piety is credited with +an excess of the sentimental and emotional disposition, +cultivated at the expense of the more sterling elements +of character. High principle, scrupulous honour, stern +fidelity to duty are no less essential to the image of +Christ in the soul than are warm feeling and zealous +devotion to His service. <i>Jesus Christ the righteous</i>, as +His apostles loved to call Him, is the pattern of a manly +faith, up to which we must grow in all things. “<i>He</i> is +the propitiation for our sins.” Never was there an act of +such unswerving integrity and absolute loyalty to the +law of right as the sacrifice of Calvary. God forbid +that we should magnify love at the expense of law, or +make good feeling a substitute for duty.</p> + +<p>3. <i>Truth</i> comes last in this enumeration, for it signifies +the inward reality and depth of the other two.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span> +Truth does not mean veracity alone, the mere truth of +the lips. Heathen honesty goes as far as this. Men of +the world expect as much from each other, and brand +the liar with their contempt. Truth of words requires +a reality behind itself. The acted falsehood is excluded, +the hinted and intended lie no less than that expressly +uttered. Beyond all this, it is the truth of the man that +God requires—speech, action, thought, all consistent, +harmonious and transparent, with the light of God’s +truth shining through them. Truth is the harmony +of the inward and the outward, the correspondence of +what the man is in himself with that which he appears +and wishes to appear to be.</p> + +<p>Now, it is only children of the light, only men +thoroughly good and upright who can, in this strict +sense, be men of truth. So long as any malice or +iniquity is left in our nature, we have something to +conceal. We cannot afford to be sincere. We are +compelled to pay, by very shame, the degrading tribute +which vice renders to virtue, the homage of hypocrisy. +But find a man whose intellect, whose heart and will, +tried at whatever point, ring sound and true, in whom +there is no affectation, no make-believe, no pretence or +exaggeration, no discrepancy, no discord in the music +of his life and thought, “an Israelite indeed, in whom +is no guile”—there is a saint for you, and a man of +God; there is one whom you may “grapple to your +soul with hoops of steel.”</p> + +<p>Truth is the hall-mark of entire sanctification; it is +the highest and rarest attainment of the Christian life. +It is equally the charm of an innocent, unspoilt childhood, +and of a ripe and purified old age. The apostle +John, “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” is the most +perfect embodiment, after his Master, of this consummating +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span> +grace. In him righteousness and love were +blended in the translucence of an utter simplicity and +truth.</p> + +<p>We must beware of giving a subjective and merely +personal aspect to this divine quality. While truth is +the unity of the outward and inward, of heart and act +and word in the man, it is at the same time the agreement +of the man with the reality of things as they exist +in God. The former kind of truth rests upon the +latter; the subjective upon the objective order. The +truth of God makes us true. We magnify our own +sincerity, until it becomes vitiated and pretentious. In +our eagerness to realize and express our own convictions, +we give too little pains to form them upon a +sound basis; we make a great virtue of <i>speaking out</i> +what is in our hearts, but take small heed of what +<i>comes in</i> to the heart, and speak out of a loose self-confidence +and idolatry of our own opinions. So the +Pharisees were true, who called Christ an impostor. +So every careless slanderer, and scandalmonger credulous +of evil, who believes the lies he propagates. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span> +“Imagination has pictured to itself a domain in which +every one who enters should be compelled to speak +only what he thought, and pleased itself by calling such +domain the Palace of Truth. A palace of veracity, if +you will; but no temple of the truth. A place where +each one would be at liberty to utter his own crude +unrealities, to bring forth his delusions, mistakes, half-formed, +hasty judgements; where the depraved ear would +reckon discord harmony, and the depraved eye mistake +colour; the depraved moral taste take Herod or +Tiberius for a king, and shout beneath the Redeemer’s +cross, ‘Himself He cannot save!’ A temple of the +truth? Nay, only a palace echoing with veracious +falsehoods, a Babel of confused sounds, in which +egotism would rival egotism, and truth would be each +man’s own lie.”<a name="FNanchor_137" id="FNanchor_137"></a><a href="#Footnote_137" class="fnanchor">[137]</a> +In the pride of our veracity, we miss +the verity of things; we are true only to our blind self, +false to the light of God. “Every one that is of the +truth heareth my voice:” so said He who was Truth +incarnate, making His word a law for all true men.</p> + +<p>“In <i>all</i> 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 good. So +they grow out of shape, into oddities and moral malformations. +There is a want of balance and of finish +about a multitude of Christian lives, even of those who +have long and steadily pursued the way of faith. We +have sweetness without strength, and strength without +gentleness, and truth spoken without love, and words +of passionate zeal without accuracy and heedfulness.</p> + +<p>All this is infinitely sad, and infinitely damaging to +the cause of our religion.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">“It is the little rift within the lute<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That by-and-by will make the music mute,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And ever widening slowly silence all;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The little rift within the lover’s lute,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Or little pitted speck in garnered fruit,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">That rotting inward slowly moulders all.”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>Let us judge ourselves, that we be not judged by the +Lord. Let us count no wrong a trifle. Let us never +imagine that our defects in one kind will be atoned for +by excellencies in another. Our friends may say this, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span> +in charity, for us; it is a fatal thing when a man begins +to say so to himself. “May the God of peace sanctify +you fully. May your whole spirit, soul, and body in +blameless integrity be preserved to the coming of the +Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. v. 23).</p> + +<p>II. The <i>effect</i> upon surrounding darkness of the light +of God in Christian lives is described in verses 11–14, +in words which it remains for us briefly to examine.</p> + +<p>Verse 12 distinguishes “the things secretly done” by +the Gentiles, “of which it is a shame even to speak,” +from the open and manifest forms of evil in which they +invite their Christian neighbours to join (ver. 11). Instead +of doing this and “having fellowship with the +unfruitful works of darkness,” they must “rather reprove +them.” Silent absence, or abstinence is not enough. +Where sin is open to rebuke, it should at all hazards +be rebuked. On the other hand, St Paul does not +warrant Christians in prying into the hidden sins of +the world around them and playing the moral detective. +Publicity is not a remedy for all evils, but a great aggravation +of some, and the surest means of disseminating +them. “It is a shame”—a disgrace to our common +nature, and a grievous peril to the young and innocent—to +fill the public prints with the nauseous details of +crime and to taint the air with its putridities.</p> + +<p>“But all things,” the apostle says—whether it be +those open works of darkness, profitless of good, which +expose themselves to direct conviction, or the depths of +Satan that hide their infamy from the light of day—“all +things being reproved by the light, are made +manifest” (ver. 13). The fruit of the light convicts +the unfruitful works of darkness. The daily life of a +Christian man amongst men of the world is a perpetual +reproof, that tells against secret sins of which no word +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span> +is spoken, of which the reprover never guesses, as well +as against open and unblushing vices.</p> + +<p>“This is the condemnation,” said Jesus, “that light is +come into the world.” And this condemnation every +one who walks in Christ’s steps, and breathes His +Spirit amid the corruptions of the world, is carrying on, +more frequently in silence than by spoken argument. +Our unconscious and spontaneous influence is the +most real and effective part of it. Life is the light +of men—words only as the index of the life from which +they spring. Just so far as our lives touch the conscience +of others and reveal the difference between +darkness and light, so far do we hold forth the word +of life and carry on the Holy Spirit’s work in convincing +the world of sin. “Let your light so shine.”</p> + +<p>This manifestation leads to a transformation: “For +everything that is made manifest <i>is light</i>” (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 light of the gospel disclosed, and then dispelled the +darkness of that former time; and so it may be with +your still heathen kindred, through the light you bring +to them. So it will be with the night of sin that is +spread over the world. The light which shines upon +sin-laden and sorrowful hearts, shines on them to change +them into its own nature. <i>The manifested is light</i>: in +other words, if men can be made to see the true nature +of their sin, they will forsake it. If the light can but +penetrate their conscience, it will save them. “Wherefore +He saith:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">Awake, O sleeper; and arise from out of the dead!<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And the Christ shall dawn upon thee!”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span> +The speaker of this verse can be no other than God, +or the Spirit of God in Scripture. The sentence is no +mere quotation. It re-utters, in the style of Mary’s +or Zechariah’s song, the promise of the Old Covenant +from the lips of the New. It gathers up the import of +the prophecies concerning the salvation of Christ, as +they sounded in the apostle’s ears and as he conveyed +them to the world. Isaiah lx. 1–3 supplies the basis +of our passage, where the prophet awakens Zion from +the sleep of the Exile and bids her shine once more in +the glory of her God and show forth His light to the +nations: “Arise,” he cries, “shine, for thy light is +come!” There are echoes in the verse, besides, of Isaiah +li. 17, xxvi. 19; perhaps even of Jonah i. 6: “What +meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, and call upon thy +God!” We seem to have here, as in chapter iv. 4–6, +a snatch of the earliest Christian hymns. The lines +are a free paraphrase from the Old Testament, formed +by weaving together Messianic passages—belonging to +such a hymn as might be sung at baptisms in the +Pauline Churches. Certainly those Churches did not +wait until the second century to compose their hymns +and spiritual songs (comp. ver. 19). Our Lord’s +sublime announcement (John v. 25), already verified, +that “the hour had come when the dead should hear +the voice of the Son of God, and they that heard should +live,” gave the key to the prophetic sayings which +promised through Israel the light of life to all nations.</p> + +<p>With this song on her lips the Church went forth, +clad in the armour of light, strong in the joy of salvation; +and darkness and the works of darkness fled +before her.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_135" id="Footnote_135"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_135"><span class="label">[135]</span></a> +Mr. Wesley adopted this and other emendations from Bengel, +“that great light of the Christian world,” in the translation accompanying +his <i>Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament</i>. He there +supplied the Methodist preachers with many of the most valuable +improvements made in the Revised Version, a hundred years before +the time.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_136" id="Footnote_136"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_136"><span class="label">[136]</span></a> +The word belongs to Paul’s vocabulary; it is found besides in +2 Thess. i. 11; Rom. xv. 14; and Gal. v. 22. See the Commentary +on this last epistle in the <i>Expositor’s Bible</i>, pp. 384, 385.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_137" id="Footnote_137"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_137"><span class="label">[137]</span></a> +F. W. Robertson: <i>Sermons</i> (First Series), xix., on “The Kingdom +of the Truth.”</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2> + +<h4>THE NEW WINE OF THE SPIRIT.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“Look therefore carefully how ye walk, not as unwise, but as wise; +redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not +foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.</p> + +<p>“And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with +the Spirit; speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual +songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; giving +thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to +God, even the Father; subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear +of Christ.”—<span class="smcap">Eph.</span> v. 15–21.</p></div> + +<p>Very solemnly did the moral homily to the Asian +Christians begin in chapter iv. 17: “This therefore +I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no +longer walk as the Gentiles walk.” So much has now +been said and testified in the intervening paragraphs, +by way both of dehortation and exhortation. Here the +apostle pauses; and casting his eye over the whole +pathway of life he has marked out in this discourse, he +bids his readers: “Look then carefully how you walk. +Show that you are not fools, but wise to observe your +steps and to seize your opportunities in these evil +times,—days so perilous that you need your best +wisdom and knowledge of God’s will to save you from +fatal stumbling.”</p> + +<p>So far St Paul’s renewed exhortation, in verses +15–17, inculcates care and wary discretion,—the skill +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span> +that in the strategy of life finds its vantage in unequal +ground, that makes opposing winds help forward the +seafarer. In this sober wisdom it is likely the Asian +Christians were deficient. In many ways, both directly +and indirectly, the need of increased thoughtfulness +on the readers’ part has been indicated. But there is +another side to the Christian nature: it has its moods +of exhilaration, as well as of caution and reflection; +ardent emotion, eager speech and exultant song are +things proper to a high religious life. For these the +apostle makes room in verses 18–20, while the three +foregoing verses enjoin the circumspection and vigilance +that become the good soldier of Christ Jesus.</p> + +<p>A striking contrast thus arises between the <i>sobriety</i> +and the <i>excitement</i> that mark the life of grace. We see +with what strictness we must watch over ourselves, +and guard the character and interests of the Church; +and with what joyousness and holy freedom we may +take our part in its communion. Temperament and +constitution modify these injunctions in their personal +application. The Holy Spirit does not enable us all +to speak with equal fervour and freedom, nor to sing +with the same tunefulness. His power operates in the +limbs of Christ’s body “according to the measure of +each single part.” But the self-same Spirit works in +both these contrasted ways,—in the sanguine and the +melancholic disposition, in the demonstrative and in +the reserved, in the quick play of fancy and the brightness +and impulsiveness of youth no less than in the +sober gait and solid sense of riper age. Let us see +how the two opposite aspects of Christian experience +are set out in the apostle’s words.</p> + +<p>I. First of all, upon the one side, <i>heedfulness</i> is +enjoined. The children of light must use the light to +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span> +see their way. To “stumble at noonday” is a proof +of folly or blindness. So misusing our light, we shall +quickly lose it and return to the paths of darkness.</p> + +<p>According to the preferable (Revised) order of +the words, the qualifying adverb “carefully” belongs +to the “look,” not to the “walk.” The circumspect +<i>look</i> 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, +forecasting its possibilities. “Look before you +leap,” our sage proverb says. According to the carefulness +of the look, the success of the leap is likely +to be.</p> + +<p>There is no word in the epistle more apposite than +this to</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i16">“our day<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of haste, half-work, and disarray.”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>We are too restless to think, too impatient to learn. +Everything is sacrificed to speed. The telegraph and +the daily newspaper symbolize the age. The public +ear loves to be caught quickly and with new sensations: +a premium is set on carelessness and hurry. Earnest +men, eager for the triumph of a good cause, push +forward with unsifted statements and unweighed denunciations, +that discredit Christian advocacy and +wound the cause of truth and charity. Time, thus +wronged and driven beyond her pace, has her revenge; +she deals hardly with these light judgements of the +hour. They are as the chaff which the wind carrieth +away. After all, it is still truth that lives; thorough +work that lasts; accuracy that hits the mark. And +the time-servers are “unwise,” both intellectually and +morally. They are most unwise who think to succeed +in life’s high calling without self-distrust, and without +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span> +scrupulous care and pains in all work they do for the +kingdom of God.</p> + +<p>In the evil of his own times St Paul sees a special +reason for heedfulness: “Walk not as unwise, but as +wise, buying up the opportunity, <i>because the days are +evil</i>.” In Colossians iv. 5 the parallel sentence shows +that in giving this caution he is thinking of the relation +of Christians to the world outside: “Walk in wisdom +toward those without, buying up the opportunity.” +Evil days they were, when Paul lay in Nero’s prison; +when that wild beast was raging against everything +that resisted his mad will or reproved his monstrous +vices. With supreme power in the hands of such a +creature of Satan, who could tell what fires of persecution +were kindling for the people of Christ, or +what terrible revelation of God’s anger against the +present evil world might be impending. At Ephesus +the spirit of heathenism had shown itself peculiarly +menacing. Here, too, in the rich and cultivated province +of Asia where the currents of Eastern and +Western thought met, heresy and its corruptions made +their first decided appearance in the Churches of the +Gentiles. Conflicts are approaching which will try to +the uttermost the strength of the Christian faith and +the temper of its weapons (vi. 10–16).</p> + +<p>As wise men, reading thoughtfully the signs of the +times, the Asian Christians will “redeem the [present] +season.” They will use to the utmost the light given +them. They will employ every means to increase their +knowledge of Christ, to confirm their faith and the +habits of their spiritual life. They are like men expecting +a siege, who strengthen their fortifications and +furbish their weapons and practise their drill and lay +up store of supplies, that they may “stand in the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span> +evil day.” Such wisdom Ecclesiastes preaches to the +young man: “Remember now thy Creator in the days +of thy youth, or ever the evil days come.”</p> + +<p>Within a year after this epistle was penned, Rome +was burnt and the crime of its burning washed out, +at Nero’s caprice, in Christian blood. In four years +more St Paul and St Peter had died a martyr’s death +at Rome; and Nero had fallen by the assassin’s hand. +At once the Empire was convulsed with civil war; +and the year 68–69 was known as that of the Four +Emperors. Amid the storms threatening the ruin of +the Roman State, the Jewish war against Rome was +carried on, ending in the year 70 with the capture of +Jerusalem and the destruction of the Jewish temple +and nationality. These were the days of tribulation +of which our Lord spoke, “such as had not been since +the beginning of the world” (Matt. xxiv. 21, 22). The +entire fabric of life was shaken; and in the midst of +earthquake and tempest, blood and fire, Israel met its +day of judgement and the former age passed away. In +the year 63, when the apostle wrote, the sky was everywhere +red and lowering with signs of coming storm. +None knew where or how the tempest might break, or +what would be its issue.</p> + +<p>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 +danger: “Be not foolish, but understand what <i>the will +of the Lord</i> is.” As he bade the Thessalonians consider +that chastity was not matter of choice and of their own +advantage only, it was “God’s will” (1 Ep. iv. 3), so +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span> +the Ephesians must understand that Christ is no mere +adviser, nor the Christian life an optional system that +men may adopt when and so far as it suits them. He +is our Lord; and it is our business to understand, in +order that we may execute, His designs. For this +Christ’s servants require a watchful eye and an alert +intelligence. They must be no dullards nor simpletons, +who would enter into the Divine Master’s plans; no +triflers, no creatures of sentiment and impulse, who are +to be the agents of His will. He can and does employ +every sincere heart that gives itself in love to Him. +But His nobler tasks are for the wise taught by His +Spirit, for those who can “understand,” with penetrating +sympathy and breadth of comprehension, +“what the will of the Lord is.” Hence the distinction +of St Paul himself, and of John the beloved disciple, +amongst His ministers and witnesses,—men great in +mind as they were in heart, whose thoughts about +Christ were as grand as their love to Him was fervent.</p> + +<p>Nowhere does the apostle say so much of “the will +of God” in regard to the dispensation of grace as he +does in this epistle.<a name="FNanchor_138" id="FNanchor_138"></a><a href="#Footnote_138" class="fnanchor">[138]</a> +For he sees life and salvation +here in their largest bearings and proportions. He +prayed at the outset that the Gentile readers might +realize the value that God puts upon them, and the +mighty forces He has set at work for their salvation +(i. 18–20); and again, that they might comprehend +the vast dimensions of His plan for the building of the +Church (iii. 18). Now that he has shown the relation +of this eternal purpose to the character and everyday +life of the converted Gentiles, “the will of God” +becomes matter of immediate import; it is revealed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span> +in its bearing upon conduct, upon the affairs of +business and society. It is not the purpose, the +promises, the doctrine of the Lord alone, but “the +<i>will</i> of the Lord” that they have to understand, +as it touches their spirit and behaviour day by day. +They must realize the practical demands of their +religion,—how it is to make them truthful, gracious, +pure and wise. They must translate creed into life +and act. Such is the wisdom which their apostle +strives to instil into the Asian Christians. Their first +need was spiritual enlightenment; their second need +was moral intelligence. Might they only have sense +to understand and loyalty to obey the will of Christ.—And +oh may we!</p> + +<p>II. There were converted thieves in the Ephesian +Church, who still needed to be warned against their +old propensities (iv. 28); there were men who had +been sorcerers and fortune-tellers (Acts xix. 18, 19). +It appears that there were in this circle converted +<i>drunkards</i> also, men to whom the apostle is obliged +to say: “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is riot.”</p> + +<p>In view of the following context (vv. 19–21), and +remembering how the Lord’s table was defiled by excess +at Corinth (1 Cor. xi. 17–34), it seems to us probable +that the warning of verse 18 had special reference to the +Christian assemblies. The institution of the common +meal, the <i>Agapé</i> or Lovefeast accompanying the Lord’s +Supper, suited the manners of the early Christians, +and was long continued. The cities of Asia Minor +were full of trade-guilds and clubs for various social +and religious purposes, in which the common supper, or +club-feast, furnished usually by each member bringing +his contribution to the table, was a familiar bond of +fellowship. This afforded to the Church a natural and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span> +pleasant means of intercourse; but it must be purified +from sensual indulgence. <i>Wine</i> was its chief danger.</p> + +<p>The eastern coast of the Ægean 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 was +the influence that ruled their feasts, that loosened their +tongues and inspired their gaiety. Hence their wit +was prone to become ribaldry (ver. 4); and their +songs were the opposite of the “spiritual songs” that +gladden the feasts of the Church (ver. 19). The +quick imagination and the social instincts of the +Ionian Greeks, the aptness for speech and song native +to the land of Homer and Sappho, were gifts not to +be repressed but sanctified. The lyre is to be tuned +to other strains; and poetry must draw its inspiration +from a higher source. Dionysus and his reeling +Fauns give place to the pure Spirit of Jesus and the +Father. “The Aonian mount” must now pay tribute +to “Sion hill”; and the fountain of Castalia yields its +honours to</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i6">“Siloa’s brook that flowed<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fast by the oracle of God.”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>Our nature craves excitement,—some stimulus that +shall set the pulses dancing and thrill the jaded frame, +and lift the spirit above the taskwork of life and the +dreary and hard conditions which make up the daily lot +of multitudes. It is this craving that gives to strong +drink its cruel fascination. Alcohol is a mighty +magician. The tired labouring man, the household +drudge shut up in city courts refreshed by no pleasant +sight or cheering voice, by its aid can leave fretted +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span> +nerves and aching limbs and dull care behind, and +taste, if it be only for a feverish moment, of the joy +of bounding life. Can such cravings be hindered from +seeking their relief? The removal of temptation will +accomplish little, unless higher tastes are formed and +springs of purer pleasure opened to the masses for +whom our civilization makes life so drab and colourless. +“One finds traces of the primitive greatness of our +nature even in its most deplorable errors. Just as +impurity proceeds at the bottom from an abuse of the +craving for love, so drunkenness betrays a certain +demand for ardour and enthusiasm, which in itself is +natural and even noble.... Man loves to <i>feel</i> himself +alive; he would fain live twice his life at once; and he +would rather draw excitement from horrible things than +have no excitement at all” (Monod).</p> + +<p>For the drunkards of Ephesus the apostle finds a cure +in the joys of the Holy Ghost. The mightiest and +most moving spring of feeling is in the spirit of man +kindred to God. There is a deep excitement and +refreshment, a “joy that human thought transcends,” +in the love of God shed abroad in the heart and the +communion of true saints, which makes sensuous +delights cheap and poor. Toil and care are forgotten, +sickness and trouble seem as nothing; we can glory in +tribulation and laugh in the face of death, when the +strong wine of God’s consolations is poured into the soul.</p> + +<p>“Be filled with the Spirit,” says the apostle—or +more strictly, “filled <i>in</i> the Spirit”; since the Holy +Spirit of God is the element of the believer’s life, surrounding +while it penetrates his nature: it is the +atmosphere that he breathes, the ocean in which he +is immersed. As a flood fills up the river-banks, as +the drunkard is filled with the wine that he drains +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span> +without limit, so the apostle would have his readers +yield themselves to the tide of the Spirit’s coming and +steep their nature in His influence. The Greek imperative, +moreover, is present, and “describes this +influence as ever going forth from the Spirit” (Beet). +This is to be a continual replenishment. Paul has +prayed that we may “be filled unto all the fulness of +God” (iii. 19), and has bidden us grow “to the measure +of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (iv. 13) in +whom we “are made full” (Col. ii. 9): in the replenishment +of the Spirit the fulness of God in Christ is +sensibly imparted. God’s fulness is the hidden and +eternal spring of all that can fill our nature; Christ’s +fulness is its revelation and renewed communication +to the race; the Holy Spirit’s fulness is its abiding +energy within the soul and within the Church. Thus +possessed, the Church is truly the body of Christ (iv. 4), +and the habitation of God (ii. 21, 22).</p> + +<p>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 genial converse. The joy in the Holy Ghost +that in its warmth and freshness filled the hearts of +the first Christians, soared upward on the wings of +song. Their very talk was music: they “spoke to +each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, +singing and making melody with their heart to the +Lord.” Love loves to sing. Its joys</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i8">“from out our hearts arise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And speak and sparkle in our eyes,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And vibrate on our tongue.”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span> +All exalted sentiment tends to rhythmical expression. +There is a mystical alliance, which is amongst the +most significant facts in our constitution, between +emotion and art. The rudest natures, touched by +high feeling, will shape themselves to some sort of +beauty, to some grace and refinement of expression. +Each new stirring of the pulse of man’s common life +has been marked by a re-birth of poetry and art. The +songs of Mary and Zechariah were the parents and +patterns of a multitude of holy canticles. In the +Psalms of Scripture the New Testament Church found +already an instrument of wide compass strung and +tuned for her use. We can imagine the delight with +which the Gentile Christians would take up the Psalter +and draw out one and another of its pearls, and would +in turn recite them at their meetings, and adapt them +to their native measures and modes of song. After +a while, they began to mix with the praise-songs +of Israel newer strains—“hymns” to the glory of +Christ and the Father, such as that with which this +epistle opens, needing but little change in form to make +it a true poem, and such as those which break in upon +the dread visions of the Apocalypse; and added to +these, “spiritual songs” of a more personal and incidental +character, like Simeon’s <i>Nunc dimittis</i> or Paul’s +swan-song in his last letter to Timothy. In verse 14 +above we detected, as we thought, an early Church +paraphrase of the Old Testament. In later epistles +addressed to Ephesus, there are fragments of just such +artless chants as the Asian Christians, exhorted and +taught by their apostle, were wont to sing in their +assemblies: see 1 Timothy iii. 16, and 2 Timothy ii. +11–13.</p> + +<p>Upon this congenial soil, we trace the beginnings of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span> +Christian psalmody. The parallel text of Colossians +(iii. 16) discloses in the songs of the Pauline Churches +a didactic as well as a lyric character. The apostle bids +his readers “<i>teach and admonish</i> one another by psalms, +hymns, spiritual songs.” The form of the sentence +of chapter iv. 4–6 in this letter, and of 1 Timothy iii. 16, +suggests that these passages were destined for use as +a chanted rehearsal of Christian belief. Thus “the +word of Christ dwelling richly” in the heart, poured +itself freely from the lips, and added to its grave +discourse the charms of gladdening and spirit-stirring +song.</p> + +<p>As in their heathen days they were used to “speak +to each other,” in festive or solemn hours, with hymns +to Artemis of the Ephesians, or Dionysus giver of the +vine, or to Persephoné sad queen of the dead—in +songs merry and gay, too often loose and wanton; +in songs of the dark underworld and the grim Furies +and inexorable Fate, that told how life fleets fast and +we must pluck its pleasures while we may;—so now +the Christians of Ephesus and Colossæ, of Pergamum +and of Smyrna would sing of the universal Father +whose presence fills earth and sky, of the Son of His +love, His image amongst men, who died in sacrifice +for their sins and asked grace for His murderers, of +the joys of forgiveness and the cleansed heart, of life +eternal and the treasure laid up for the just in the +heavenly places, of Christ’s return in glory and the +judgement of the nations and the world quickly to +dissolve and perish, of a brotherhood dearer than +earthly kindred, of the saints who sleep in Jesus and +in peace await His coming, of the Good Shepherd who +feeds His sheep and leads them to fountains of living +water calling each by his name, of creation redeemed +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span> +and glorified by His love, of pain and sorrow sanctified +and the trials that make perfect in Christ’s discipline, +of the joy that fills the heart in suffering for +Him, and the vision of His face awaiting us beyond +the grave. So reciting and chanting—now in single +voice, now in full chorus—singing the Psalms of David +to their Greek music, or hymns composed by their +leaders, or sometimes improvised in the rapture of the +moment, the Churches of Ephesus and of the Asian +cities lauded and glorified “the name of our Lord +Jesus Christ” and the counsels of redeeming love. +So their worship and fellowship were filled with gladness. +Thus in their great Church meetings, and in +smaller companies, many a joyous hour passed; and +all hearts were cheered and strengthened in the Lord.</p> + +<p>“Singing and <i>playing</i>,” 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 wanting and neither voice nor hand can take its +part in the concert of praise, He hears the silent +gratitude, the humble joy that wells upward when the +lips are still or the full heart cannot find expression.</p> + +<p>But the Spirit who dwelt in the praises of the new +Israel, was not confined to its public assemblings. The +people of Christ should be “<i>always giving thanks</i>, for +all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” It +is one of St Paul’s commonest injunctions. “In <i>everything</i> +give thanks,” he wrote to the Thessalonians in +his earliest extant letter (1 Ep. v. 18). “For all +things,” he says to the Ephesians,—“though fallen on +evil days.” Do we not “know that to them that love +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span> +God all things work together for good”—evil days as +well as good days? Nothing comes altogether amiss +to the child of God. In the heaviest loss, the severest +pain, the sharpest sting of injury—“in everything” the +ingenuity of love and the sweetness of patience will +find some token of mercy. If the evil is to our eyes +all evil and we can see in it no reason for thanksgiving, +then faith will give thanks for that which we “know not +now, but shall know hereafter.”</p> + +<p><i>Always</i>, the apostle says,—<i>for all things</i>! No room +for a moment’s discontent. In this perfecting of praise +he had himself undergone a long schooling in his four +years’ imprisonment. Now, he tells us, he “has learnt +the secret of contentment, in whatsoever state” (Phil. +iv. 12). Let us try to learn it from him. These words, +which we treat, almost unconsciously, as the exaggeration +of homiletical appeal, state no more than the sober +possibility, the experience attained by many a Christian +in circumstances of the greatest suffering and deprivation. +The love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord suffices +for the life and joy of man’s spirit.</p> + +<p>The twenty-first verse, which seems to belong to a +different line of thought, in reality completes the foregoing +paragraph. In the Corinthian Church, as we +remember, with its affluence of spiritual gifts, there +were so many ready to prophesy, so many to sing and +recite, that confusion arose and the Church meetings +fell into disedifying uproar (1 Cor. xiv. 26–34). The +apostle would not have such scenes occur again. Hence +when he urges the Asian Christians to seek the full +inspiration of the Spirit and to give free utterance in +song to the impulses of their new life, he adds this word +of caution: “being subject to one another in fear of +Christ.” He reminds them that “God is not the author +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span> +of confusion.” His Spirit is a spirit of seemliness and +reverence. “In fear of Christ,” the unseen witness and +president of its assemblies, the Church will comport +herself with the decorum that befits His bride. The +spirits of the prophets will be subject to the prophets. +The voices of the singers and the hands of them that +play upon the strings of the harp or the keys of +the organ, will keep tune with the worship of Christ’s +congregation. Each must consider that it is his part +to serve and not rule in the service of God’s house.</p> + +<p>In our common work and worship, in all the offices +of life this is the Christian law. No man within +Christ’s Church, however commanding his powers, may +set himself above the duty of submitting his judgement +and will to that of his fellows. In mutual subjection +lies our freedom, with our strength and peace.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_138" id="Footnote_138"></a><a href="#FNanchor_138"><span class="label">[138]</span></a> +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.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span></p> + +<h3 class="section"><a name="ON_FAMILY_LIFE" id="ON_FAMILY_LIFE"></a><i>ON FAMILY LIFE.</i></h3> + +<h4 class="section"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> v. 22–vi. 9.</h4> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p><span class="greek" title="Thelô de hymas eidenai hoti pantos andros hê kephalê ho Christos estin, +kephalê de gynaikos ho anêr, kephalê de tou Christou ho Theos."> +Θέλω δὲ ὑμᾶς εἰδέναι ὅτι παντὸς ἀνδρὸς ἡ κεφαλὴ ὁ Χριστός ἐστιν, +κεφαλὴ δὲ γυναικὸς ὁ ἀνήρ, κεφαλὴ δὲ τοῦ Χριστοῦ ὁ Θεός.</span>—1 <span class="smcap">Cor.</span> xi. 3. +</p> + +<p class="gaptop center">“And pure Religion breathing household laws.”</p> +<p class="ref"><span class="smcap">W. Wordsworth.</span></p> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2> + +<h4>CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“Wives, <i>be in subjection</i> to your own husbands, as unto the Lord. +For the husband is the head of the wife, as the Christ also is the head of +the Church, <i>being</i> Himself the saviour of the body. But as the Church +is subject to the Christ, so let the wives also <i>be</i> to their husbands in +everything.</p> + +<p>“Husbands, love your wives, even as the Christ also loved the Church, +and gave Himself up for her; that He might sanctify her, having +cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might +present the Church to Himself a glorious <i>Church</i>, not having spot or +wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and without +blemish.</p> + +<p>“Even so ought husbands also to love their wives as their own bodies. +He that loveth his wife loveth himself: for no man ever hated his own +flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Christ also the +Church; because we are members of His body. ‘For this cause shall +a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and +the twain shall become one flesh.’ This mystery is great: but I speak +in regard of Christ and of the Church. Nevertheless do ye also severally +love each one his own wife even as himself; and <i>let</i> the wife <i>see</i> that she +fear her husband.”—<span class="smcap">Eph.</span> v. 22–33.</p></div> + +<p>In mutual subjection the Christian spirit has its +sharpest trials and attains its finest temper. “Be +subject one to another,” was the last word of the +apostle’s instructions respecting the “walk” of the +Asian Churches. By its order and subjection the gifts +of all the members of Christ’s body are made available +for the upbuilding of God’s temple. The inward fellowship +of the Spirit becomes a constructive and organizing +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span> +force, reconstituting human life and framing the world +into the kingdom of Christ and God. “In fear of +Christ” the loyal Christian man submits himself to the +community; not from the dread of human displeasure, +but knowing that he must give account to the Head of +the Church and the Judge of the last day, if his self-will +should weaken the Church’s strength and interrupt her +holy work. “For the Lord’s sake” His freemen submit +to every ordinance of men. This is such a fear as +the servant has of a good master (vi. 5), or the true +wife for a loving husband (ver. 33),—not that which +“perfect love casts out,” but which it deepens and +sanctifies.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>Of this subjection to Christ the relationship of +marriage furnishes an example and a mirror. St Paul +passes on to the new topic without any grammatical +pause, verse 22 being simply an extension of the +participial clause that forms verse 21: “Being in subjection +to one another in fear of Christ—ye wives to +your own husbands, as to the Lord.” The relation +of the two verses is not that of the particular to +the general, so much as that of image and object, of +type and antitype. Submission to Christ in the Church +suggests by analogy that of the wife to her husband in +the house. Both have their origin in Christ, in whom +all things were created, the Lord of life in its natural +as well as in its spiritual and regenerate sphere +(Col. i. 15–17). The bond that links husband and wife, +lying at the basis of collective human existence, has in +turn its ground in the relation of Christ to humanity.</p> + +<p>The race springs not from a unit, but from a united +pair. The history of mankind began in wedlock. The +family is the first institution of society, and the mother +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span> +of all the rest. It is the life-basis, the primitive cell +of the aggregate of cities and bodies politic. In the +health and purity of household life lies the moral +wealth, the vigour and durability of all civil institutions. +The mighty upgrowth of nations and the great achievements +of history germinated in the nursery of home +and at the mother’s breast. Christian marriage is not +an expedient—the last of many that have been tried—for +the satisfaction of desire and the continuance of +the human species. The Institutor of human life laid +down its principle in the first frame of things. Its +establishment was a great prophetic mystery (ver. 32). +Its law stands registered in the eternal statutes. And +the Almighty Father watches over its observance with +an awful jealousy. Is it not written: “Fornicators +and adulterers God will judge”; and again, “The Lord +is an avenger concerning all these things”?</p> + +<p>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 ethics of marriage.</p> + +<p>In wedlock there are blended most completely the +two principles of association amongst moral beings,—viz., +authority and love, submission and self-surrender.</p> + +<p>I. On the one side, <i>submission to authority</i>.</p> + +<p>“Wives, be in subjection, as to the Lord,”—as is fitting +in the Lord (Col. iii. 18). Again, in 1 Timothy ii. +11, 12, the apostle writes: “I suffer not a woman to +teach, nor to have dominion,” or (as the word may +rather signify) “to act independently of the man.” +Were these directions temporary and occasional? +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span> +Were they due, as one hears it suggested, to the +uneducated and undeveloped condition of women in +the apostle’s time? Or do they not affirm a law that +is deeply seated in nature and in the feminine constitution? +The words of 1 Corinthians xi. 2–15 show that, +in the apostle’s view of life, this subordination is fundamental. +“The head of woman is the man,” as “the +head of every man is the Christ” and “the head of +Christ is God.” “The woman,” he says, “is of the +man,” and “was created because of the man.” Whether +these sentences square with our modern conceptions or +not, there they stand, and their import is +unmistakable.<a name="FNanchor_139" id="FNanchor_139"></a><a href="#Footnote_139" class="fnanchor">[139]</a> +They teach that in the Divine order of things it is the +man’s part to lead and rule, and the woman’s part to +be ruled. But the Christian woman will not feel that +there is any loss or hardship in this. For in the +Christian order, ambition is sin. To obey is better +than to rule. She remembers who has said: “I am +amongst you as he that serveth.” The children of the +world strive for place and power; but “it shall not be +so amongst you.”</p> + +<p>Such subordination implies no inferiority, rather the +opposite. A free and sympathetic obedience—which is +the true submission—can only subsist between equals. +The apostle writes: “Children, obey; ... Servants, +obey” (vi. 1, 5); but “Wives, submit yourselves to +your own husbands, as to the Lord.” The same word +denotes submission within the Church, and within the +house. It is here that Christianity, in contrast with +Paganism, and notably with Mohammedanism, raises +the weaker sex to honour. In soul and destiny it +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span> +declares the woman to be man, endowed with all rights +and powers inherent in humanity. “In Christ Jesus +there is no male and female,” any more than there is +“Jew and Greek” or “bond and free.” The same +sentence which broke down the barriers of Jewish +caste, and in course of time abolished slavery, condemned +the odious assumptions of masculine pride. +It is one of the glories of our faith that it has enfranchised +our sisters, and raises them in spiritual calling +to the full level of their brothers and husbands. Both +sexes are children of God by the same birthright; both +receive the same Holy Spirit, according to the prediction +quoted by St Peter on the day of Pentecost: “Your +sons and your daughters shall prophesy.... Yea, on +my servants and on my handmaidens in those days +will I pour out of my Spirit, saith the Lord” (Acts ii. +17, 18). This one point of headship, of public authority +and guidance, is reserved. It is the point on which +Christ forbids emulation amongst His people.</p> + +<p>Christian courtesy treats the woman as “the glory +of the man”; it surrounds her from girlhood to old +age with protection and deference. This homage, duly +rendered, is a full equivalent for the honour of visible +command. When, as it happens not seldom in the +partnership of life, the superior wisdom dwells with +the weaker vessel, the golden gift of persuasion is not +wanting, by which the official ruler is guided, to his own +advantage, and his adviser accomplishes more than she +could do by any overt leadership. The chivalry of the +Middle Ages, from which the refinement of European +society takes its rise, was a product of Christianity +grafted on the Teutonic nature. Notwithstanding the +folly and excess that was mixed with it, there was a +beautiful reverence in the old knightly service and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[358]</a></span> +championship of women. It humanized the ferocity +of barbarous times. It tamed the brute strength of +warlike races and taught them honour and gentleness. +Its prevalence marked a permanent advance in civilization.</p> + +<p>Shall we say that this law of St Paul is that laid +down specifically for <i>Christian</i> 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 this subject +(ver. 31). The new commandments are the old +which were in the world from the beginning, though +concealed and overgrown with corruption. Notwithstanding +the debasement of marriage under the non-Christian +systems, the instincts of natural religion +taught the wife her place in the house and gave rise +to many a graceful and appropriate custom expressive +of the honour due from one sex to the other. So the +apostle regarded the man’s bared and cropped head and +the woman’s flowing tresses as symbols of their relative +place in the Divine order (1 Cor. xi. 13–15). These and +such distinctions—between the dignities of strength +and of beauty—no artificial sentiment and no capricious +revolt can set aside, while the world stands. St Paul +appeals to the common sense of mankind, to that which +“nature itself teaches,” in censuring the forwardness +of some Corinthian women who appeared to think that +the liberty of the gospel released them from the limitations +of their nature.</p> + +<p>Some earnest promoters of women’s rights have +fallen into the error that Christianity, to which they +owe all that is best in their present status, is the +obstacle in the way of their further progress. It is an +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span> +obstacle to claims that are against nature and against +the law of God,—claims only tolerable so long as they +are exceptional. But the barriers imposed by Christianity, +against which these people fret, are their main +protection. “The moment Christianity disappears, the +law of strength revives; and under that law women +can have no hope except that their slavery may be +mild and pleasant.” To escape from the “bondage +of Christian law” means to go back to the bondage of +paganism.</p> + +<p>“As unto the Lord” gives the pattern and the +principle of the Christian wife’s submission. Not +that, as Meyer seems to put it, the husband in virtue +of marriage “represents Christ to the wife.” Her relation +to the Lord is as full, direct, and personal as his. +Indeed, the clause inserted at the end of verse 23 seems +expressly designed to guard against this exaggeration. +The qualification that Christ is “Himself Saviour of the +body,” thrown in between the two sentences comparing +the marital headship to that which Christ holds towards +the Church, has the effect of limiting the +former.<a name="FNanchor_140" id="FNanchor_140"></a><a href="#Footnote_140" class="fnanchor">[140]</a> The +subjection of the Christian wife to her husband reserves +for Christ the first place in the heart and the undiminished +rights of Saviourship. St Paul indicates a real, +and not unfrequent danger. The husband may eclipse +Christ in the wife’s soul, and be counted as her all in +all. Her absorption in him may be too complete. +Hence the brief guarding clause: “He Himself [and +no other] Saviour of the body [to which all believers +alike belong].” As the Saviour of the Church, Christ +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span> +holds an unrivalled and unqualified lordship over every +member of the same.</p> + +<p>“Nevertheless, as the Church is subject to the +Christ, so also wives [should be] to their husbands in +everything” (ver. 24). Again, in verse 33: “Let the +wife see that she fear her husband”—with the reverent +and confiding fear which love makes sweet. As the +Christian wife obeys the Lord Christ in the spiritual +sphere, in the sphere of marriage she is subject to her +husband. The ties that bind her to Christ, bind her +more closely to the duties of home. These duties +illustrate for her the submissive love that Christ’s +people, and herself as one of them, owe to their Divine +Head. Her service in the Church, in turn, will send +her home with a quickened sense of the sacredness +of her domestic calling. It will lighten the yoke of +obedience; it will check the discontent that masculine +exactions provoke; and will teach her to win by +patience and gentleness the power within the house +that is her queenly crown.</p> + +<p>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, +<i>love your wives</i>, even as the Christ also loved +the Church and gave up Himself for her” (comp. Col. +iii. 18, 19).</p> + +<p>The danger of selfishness lies on the masculine side. +The man’s nature is more exacting; and the self-forgetfulness +and solicitous affection of the woman may +blind him to his own want of the truest love. Full +of business and with a hundred cares and attractions +lying outside the domestic circle, he too readily forms +habits of self-absorption and learns to make his wife +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span> +and home a convenience, from which he takes as his +right the comfort they have to give, imparting little of +devotion and confidence in return. This lack of love +denies the higher rights of marriage; it makes the +wife’s submission a joyless constraint. Along with this +selfishness and the uneasy conscience attending it, there +supervenes sometimes an irritability of temper that +chafes over domestic troubles and makes a grievance +of the most trifling mishap or inadvertence, ignoring +the wife’s patient affection and anxiety to please. Too +often in this way husbands grow insensibly into family +tyrants, forgetting the days of youth and the kindness +of their espousals. “There are many,” says Bengel +(on this point unusually caustic), “who out of doors +are civil and kind to all; when at home, toward their +wives and children, whom they have no need to fear, +they freely practise secret bitterness.”</p> + +<p>“Love your wives, <i>even as the Christ loved the Church</i>.” +What a glory this confers upon the husband’s part in +marriage! His devotion pictures, as no other love can, +the devotion of Christ to His redeemed people. His love +must therefore be a spiritual passion, the love of soul +to soul, that partakes of God and of eternity. Of the +three Greek words for love,—<i>eros</i>, familiar in Greek +poetry and mythology, denoting the flame of sexual +passion, is not named in the New Testament; <i>philia</i>, +the love of friendship, is tolerably frequent, in its verb +at least; but <i>agapé</i> absorbs the former and transcends +both. This exquisite word denotes love in its spiritual +purity and depth, the love of God and of Christ, and of +souls to each other in God. This is the specific Christian +affection. It is the attribute of God who “loved +the world and gave His Son the Only-begotten,” of +“the Christ” who “loved the Church and gave up +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span> +Himself for her.” Self-devotion, not self-satisfaction, +is its note. Its strength and authority it uses as +material for sacrifice and instruments of service, not +as prerogatives of pride or titles to enjoyment. Let +this mind be in you, O husband, toward your wife, +which was also in Christ Jesus, who was meek and +lowly in heart, counting it His honour to serve and His +reward to save and bless.</p> + +<p>From verse 26 we gather that Christ is the husband’s +model, not only in the rule of self-devotion, but in the +end toward which that devotion is directed: “that He +might sanctify the Church,—that He might present her +to Himself a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle,—<i>that +she might be holy and without blemish</i>.” The +perfection of the wife’s character will be to the religious +husband one of the dearest objects in life. He will +desire for her that which is highest and best, as for +himself. He is put in charge of a soul more precious +to him than any other, over which he has an influence +incomparably great. This care he cannot delegate to +any priest or father-confessor. The peril of such +delegation and the grievous mischiefs that arise when +there is no spiritual confidence between husband and +wife, when through unbelief or superstition the head of +the house hands over his priesthood to another man, are +painfully shown by the experience of Roman Catholic +countries. The irreligion of laymen, the carelessness and +unworthiness of fathers and husbands are responsible for +the baneful influences of the confessional. The apostle +bade the Corinthian wives, who were eager for religious +knowledge, to “ask their husbands at home” (1 Cor. +xiv. 35). Christian husbands should take more account +of their office than they do; they should not be strangers +to the spiritual trials and experiences of the heart so +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span> +near to them. It might lead them to walk more worthily +and to seek higher religious attainments, if they considered +that the shepherding of at least one soul devolves +upon themselves, that they are unworthy of the name +of husband without such care for the welfare of the +soul linked to their own as Christ bears toward His +bride the Church. Those who have no father or +husband to look to, or who look in vain to this quarter +for spiritual help, St Paul refers, beside the light and +comfort of Scripture and the public ministry and +fellowship of the Church, to the “aged women” who +are the natural guides and exemplars of the younger +in their own sex (Titus ii. 3–5).</p> + +<p>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 their wives as their own bodies. He that +loveth his wife loveth himself.” The “So” gathers +its force from the previous example. In loving us +Christ does not love something foreign and, as it were, +outside of Himself. “We are members of His body” +(ver. 30). It is the love of the Head to the members, +of the Son of man to the sons of men, whose race-life +is founded in Him. Jesus Christ laid it down as the +highest law, under that of love to God: “Thou shalt +love thy neighbour <i>as thyself</i>.” His love to us followed +this rule. His life was wrapped up in ours. By such +community of life self-love is transfigured, and exalted +into the purest self-forgetting.</p> + +<p>Thus it is with true marriage. The wedding of a +human pair makes each the other’s property. They +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span> +are “one flesh” (ver. 31); and so long as the flesh +endures there remains this consciousness of union, +whose violation is deadly sin. As the Church is not +her own, nor Christ His own since He became man +with men, so the husband and wife are no longer +independent and self-complete personalities, but incorporated +into a new existence common to both. +Their love must correspond to this fact. If the man +loves himself, if he values his own limbs and tends +and guards from injury his bodily frame (ver. 29), +he must do the same equally by his wife; for her +life and limbs are as a part of his own. This the +apostle lays down as an obvious duty. Nature teaches +the obligation, by every manly instinct.</p> + +<p>The saying the apostle quotes in verse 31 dates from +the origin of the human family; it is taken from the +lips of the first husband and father of the race, while +as yet unstained by sin (Gen. ii. 23, 24). Christ infers +from it the singleness and indelibility of the marriage +covenant. But this doctrine, natural as it is, was not +inferred by natural religion. The cultivated Greek +took a wife for the production of children. Her +rights put no restriction upon his appetite. Love +was not in the marriage contract. If she received the +maintenance due to her rank and the mistress-ship of +the house, and was the mother of his lawful children, +she had all that a free-born woman could demand. +The slave-woman had no rights. Her body was at +her owner’s disposal. Nothing in Christianity appeared +more novel and more severe, in comparison with the +dissolute morals of the time, than the Christian view +of marriage. Even Christ’s Jewish disciples seemed +to think the state of wedlock intolerable under the +condition He imposed. This want of reverence and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span> +constancy between the sexes was a main cause of the +degeneracy of the age. All virtues disappear with +this one. Roman manliness and uprightness, Greek +courtesy and courage, filial piety, civic worth, loyalty +in friendship—the qualities that once in a high degree +adorned the classic nations, were now rare amongst +men. In the most exalted ranks infamous vices +flourished; and purity of life was a cause for odium +and suspicion.</p> + +<p>Amidst this seething mass of corruption the Spirit +of life in Christ Jesus created new hearts and new +homes. It kindled a pure fire on the desecrated +hearth. It taught man and woman a chaste love; and +their alliances were formed “in sanctification and +honour, not in the passion of lust as it is with the +Gentiles who know not God” (1 Thess. iv. 3–6). +Every Christian house, thus based on an honourable +and religious union, became the centre of a leaven that +wrought upon the corrupt society around. It held +forth an example of wedded loyalty and domestic joy +beautiful and strange in that loveless Pagan world. +Children grew up trained in pure and gentle manners. +From that hour the hope of a better day began. The +influence of the new ideal, filtrating everywhere into +the surrounding heathenism and assimilating even +before it converted the hostile world, raised society, +though gradually and with many relapses, from the +extreme debasement of the age of the Cæsars. Never +subsequently have the morals of civilized mankind +sunk to a level quite so low. The Christian conception +of love and marriage opened a new era for mankind.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_139" id="Footnote_139"></a><a href="#FNanchor_139"><span class="label">[139]</span></a> +See Dr. Maclaren’s admirable words on this subject in <i>Colossians +and Philemon</i> (Expositor’s Bible), pp. 336–40; and Dr. Dale’s <i>Lectures +on Ephesians</i>, Lect. xix., “Wives and Husbands.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_140" id="Footnote_140"></a><a href="#FNanchor_140"><span class="label">[140]</span></a> +In verse 24 St Paul resumes with <span class="greek" title="alla">ἀλλά</span>, +the <i>but</i> of opposition and not mere contrast, indicating a case where the claims of husband and +Saviour may, conceivably, be in competition.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2> + +<h4>CHRIST AND HIS BRIDE.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“The Christ is the head of the Church, <i>being</i> Himself the Saviour +of the body.... The Church is subject to the Christ in everything....</p> + +<p>“The Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself up for her; that +He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water +with the word, that He might present the Church to Himself a glorious +<i>Church</i>, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she +should be holy and without blemish....</p> + +<p>“The Christ [nourisheth and cherisheth] the Church; because we +are members of His body. ‘For this cause shall a man leave his father +and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the twain shall become +one flesh.’ This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and +of the Church.”—<span class="smcap">Eph</span>. v. 23–32.</p> +</div> + +<p>We have extracted from the apostle’s homily upon +marriage the sentences referring to Christ and +His Church, in order to gather up their collective +import. The main topic of the epistle here again +asserts itself; and under the figure of marriage St +Paul brings to its conclusion his doctrine on the subject +of the Church. This passage answers, theologically, a +purpose similar to that of the allegory of Hagar and +Sarah in the epistle to the Galatians: it lights up +for the imagination the teaching and argument of the +former part of the epistle; it shows how the doctrine +of Christ and the Church has its counterpart in nature, +as the struggle between the legal and evangelical spirit +had its counterpart in the patriarchal history. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span> +The three detached paragraphs present us three +considerations, of which we shall treat the second first +in order of exposition: Christ’s <i>love to the Church</i>; +His <i>authority over the Church</i>; and <i>the mystery of the +Church’s origin in Him</i>.</p> + +<p>I. “Husbands, love your wives, even as the Christ +also loved the Church, and gave up Himself for her.” +This is parallel to the declaration of Galatians ii. 20: +“He loved me; He gave up Himself for me.” The +sacrifice of the cross has at once its personal and its +collective purpose. Both are to be kept in mind.</p> + +<p>On the one hand, we must value infinitely and joyfully +assert our individual part in the redeeming love +of the Son of God; but we must equally admit the +sovereign rights of the Church in the Redeemer’s +passion. Our souls bow down before the glory of the +love with which He has from eternity sought her for +His own. There is in some Christians an absorption +in the work of grace within their own hearts, an +individualistic salvation-seeking that, like all selfishness, +defeats its end; for it narrows and impoverishes +the inner life thus sedulously cherished. The Church +does not exist simply for the benefit of individual souls; +it is an eternal institution, with an affiance to Christ, +a calling and destiny of its own; within that universal +sphere our personal destiny holds its particular place.</p> + +<p>It is “the Christ” who stands, throughout this context +(vv. 23–29), over against “the Church” as her +Lover and Husband; whereas in the context of +Galatians ii. 20 we read “Christ”—the bare personal +name—repeated again and again without the distinguishing +article. <i>Christ</i> is the Person whom the soul +knows and loves, with whom it holds communion in +the Spirit. <i>The Christ</i> is the same regarded in the wide +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span> +scope of His nature and office,—the Christ of humanity +and of the ages. “The Christ” of this epistle expands +the Saviour’s title to its boundless significance, and +gives breadth and length to that which in “Christ” is +gathered up into a single +point.<a name="FNanchor_141" id="FNanchor_141"></a><a href="#Footnote_141" class="fnanchor">[141]</a></p> + +<p>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 +“<i>was delivered</i> because of our trespasses, and raised up +because of our justification”—the sacrifice being there +regarded on its passive side. Here, as in Galatians +ii. 20, the act is made His own,—a voluntary surrender. +“No man taketh my life from me,” He said (John x. 18). +In His case alone amongst the sons of men, death was +neither natural nor inevitable. His surrender of life +was an absolute sacrifice. He “laid down His life for +His friends,” as no other friend of man could do—the +One who died for all. The love measured by this +sacrifice is proportionately great.</p> + +<p>The sayings of verses 25–27 set the glory of the +vicarious death in a vivid light. Of such worth was +the person of the Christ, of such significance and +moral value His sacrificial death, that it weighed against +the trespass, not of a man—Paul or any other—but of +a world of men. He “purchased through His own +blood,” said Paul to the Ephesian elders, “the Church +of God” (Acts xx. 28)—the whole flock that feeds in +the pastures of the Great Shepherd, that has passed +or will pass through the gates of His fold. Great was +the honour and glory with which he was crowned, +when led as victim to the altar of the world’s atonement +(Heb. ii. 9). Who will not say, as the meek +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span> +Son of man treads so willingly His mournful path to +Calvary, “Worthy is the Lamb!” Is not the heavenly +Bridegroom worthy of the bride, that He consents to +win by the sacrifice of Himself!</p> + +<p>He is worthy; and <i>she must be made worthy</i>. “He +gave up Himself, that He might sanctify her,—that He +might Himself present to Himself a glorious Church, +not having spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind,—that +she may be holy and without blemish.” The +sanctification of the Church is the grand purpose of +redeeming grace. This was the design of God for His +sons in Christ before the world’s foundation, “that we +should be holy and unblemished before Him” (i. 4). +This, therefore, was the end of Christ’s mission upon +earth; this was the intention of His sacrificial death. +“For their sakes,” said Jesus concerning His disciples, +“I sanctify myself, that they also may be sanctified in +truth” (John xvii. 19). His purchase of the Church +is no selfish act. To God His Father Christ devotes +every spirit of man that is yielded to Him. As the +Priest of mankind it was His office thus to consecrate +humanity, which is already in purpose and in essence +“sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus +Christ once for all” (Heb. x. 10).</p> + +<p>Only in this passage, where the apostle is thinking +of the preparation of the Church for its perfect union +with its Head, does he name Christ as our <i>Sanctifier</i>; +in 1 Corinthians i. 2 he comes near this expression, +addressing his readers as men “sanctified in Christ +Jesus.” In the epistle to the Hebrews this character +is largely ascribed to Him, being the function of His +priesthood. One in nature with the sanctified, Jesus +our great Priest “sanctifies us through His own blood,” +so that with cleansed consciences we may draw near +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span> +to the living God.<a name="FNanchor_142" id="FNanchor_142"></a><a href="#Footnote_142" class="fnanchor">[142]</a> +As Christ the Priest stands towards +His people, so Christ the Husband towards His Church. +He devotes her with Himself to God. He cleanses her +that she may dwell with Him for ever, a spotless bride, +dead unto sin and living unto God through Him.</p> + +<p>“That He might sanctify her, <i>having cleansed her</i> in +the laver of water by the word.” The Church’s purification +is antecedent in thought to her sanctification +through the sacrifice of Christ; and it is a means thereto. +“Ye were washed, ye were sanctified,” writes the +apostle in 1 Corinthians vi. 11, putting the two things +in the same order. It is the order of doctrine which +he has laid down in the epistle to the Romans, where +sanctification is built on the foundation laid in justification +through the blood of Christ. Through the virtue +of the sacrificial death the Church in all her members +was washed from the defilements of sin, that she might +enter upon God’s service. Of the same initial purification +of the heart St John writes in his first epistle +(i. 7–9): “The blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses us +from all sin.... He is faithful and just, that He should +forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” +This is “the redemption through Christ’s +blood,” for which St Paul in his first words of praise +called upon us to bless God (i. 7). It is the special +distinction of the New Covenant, which renders possible +its other gifts of grace, that “the worshippers once +cleansed” need have “no further consciousness of +sins” (Heb. x. 2, 14–18). In the theological use here +made of the idea of <i>cleansing</i>, St Paul comes into +line with St John and the epistle to the Hebrews. +The purification is nothing else than that which he has +elsewhere styled <i>justification</i>. He employs the terms +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span> +synonymously in the later epistle to Titus (ii. 14; +iii. 7).</p> + +<p>“Having cleansed” is a phrase congruous with the +figure of <i>the laver</i>, or <i>bath</i> (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 withal +refreshing virtues of water made it an obvious symbol of +regeneration. The emblem is twofold; it pictures at once +the removal of guilt, and the imparting of new strength. +One goes into the bath exhausted, and covered with +dust; one comes out clean and fresh. Hence the baptism +of the new believer in Christ had, in St Paul’s view, a +double aspect.<a name="FNanchor_143" id="FNanchor_143"></a><a href="#Footnote_143" class="fnanchor">[143]</a> +It looked backward to the old life of +sin abandoned, and forward to the new life of holiness +commenced. Thus it corresponded to the burial of +Jesus (Rom. vi. 4), the point of juncture between death +and resurrection. Baptism served as the visible and +formal expression of the soul’s passage through the +gate of forgiveness into the sanctified life.</p> + +<p>Along with this older teaching, a further and kindred +significance is now given to the baptismal rite. It +denotes the soul’s affiance to its Lord. As the maiden’s +bath on the morning of her marriage betokened the +purity in which she united herself to her betrothed, so +the baptismal laver summons the Church to present +herself “a chaste virgin unto Christ” (2 Cor. xi. 2). +It signifies and seals her forgiveness, and pledges her +in all her members to await the Bridegroom in garments +unspotted from the world, with the pure and faithful +love which will not be ashamed before Him at His +coming. For this end Christ set up the baptismal laver. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span> +Upon our construction of the text, the words “that He +might sanctify her” express a purpose complete in itself—viz., +that of the Church’s consecration to God. Then +follow the means to this sanctification: “having cleansed +her in the water-bath through the word,”—which washing, +at the same time, has its purpose on the part of the +Lord who appointed it—viz., “that He might present +her to Himself” a glorious and spotless Church.</p> + +<p>At the end of verse 27 the sentence doubles back upon +itself, in Paul’s characteristic fashion. The twofold +aim of Christ’s sacrifice of love on the Church’s behalf—viz., +her consecration to God, and her spotless purity +fitting her for perfect union with her Lord—is restated +in the final clause, by way of contrast with the “spots +and wrinkles and such-like things” that are washed +out: “but that she may be holy and without blemish.”</p> + +<p>We passed by, for the moment, the concluding +phrase of verse 26, with which the apostle qualifies his +reference to the baptismal cleansing; we are by no +means forgetting it. “Having cleansed her,” he writes, +“by the laver of water <i>in</i> [<i>the</i>] <i>word</i>.” This adjunct is +deeply significant. It impresses on baptism a spiritual +character, and excludes every theurgic conception of +the rite, every doctrine that gives to it in the least +degree a mechanical efficacy. “Without the word +the sacrament could only influence man by magic, outward +or inward” (Dorner). The “word” of which +the apostle speaks,<a name="FNanchor_144" id="FNanchor_144"></a><a href="#Footnote_144" class="fnanchor">[144]</a> +is that of chapter vi. 17, “God’s +word—the Spirit’s sword”; of Romans x. 8, “the word +of faith which we proclaim”; of Luke i. 37, “the +word from God which shall not be powerless”; of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span> +John xvii. 8, etc., “the words” that the Father had +given to the Son, and the Son in turn to men. It is +the Divine utterance, spoken and believed. In this +accompaniment lies the power of the laver. The +baptismal affusion is the outward seal of an inward +transaction, that takes place in the spirit of believing +utterers and hearers of the gospel word. This saving +word receives in baptism its concrete expression; it +becomes the <i>verbum visibile</i>.</p> + +<p>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 of faith and baptism—in the <i>obedience</i> of faith signified +by his baptism—he is saved from his past sins and +made an heir of life eternal. The rite is the simplest +and most universal in application one can conceive. +In heathen countries baptism recovers its primitive +significance, as the decisive act of rupture with idolatry +and acceptance of Christ as Lord, which in our usage +is often overlaid and forgotten.</p> + +<p>This interpretation gives a key to the obscure text +of St Peter upon the same subject (1 Ep. iii. 21): +“Baptism saves you—not the putting away of the filth +of the flesh, but the questioning with regard to God of +a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus +Christ.” The vital constituent of the rite is not the +application of water to the body, but the challenge +which the word makes therein to the conscience +respecting the things of God,—the inquiry thus conveyed, +to which a sincere believer in the resurrection +of Christ makes joyful and ready answer. It is, in +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span> +fine, <i>the appeal to faith</i> contained in baptism that gives +to the latter its saving worth.</p> + +<p>The “word” that makes Christian ordinances valid, is +not the past utterance of God alone, which may remain +a dead letter, preserved in the oracles of Scripture or +the official forms of the Church, but that word alive and +active, re-spoken and transmitted from soul to soul by +the breath of the Holy Spirit. Without this animating +word of faith, baptism is but the pouring or sprinkling +of so much water on the body; the Lord’s Supper is +only the consumption of so much bread and wine.</p> + +<p>All the nations will at last, in obedience to Christ’s +command, be baptized into the thrice-holy Name; and +the work of baptism will be complete. Then the +Church will issue from her bath, cleansed more effectually +than the old world that emerged with Noah from +the deluge. Every “spot and wrinkle” will pass from +her face: the worldly passions that stained her features, +the fears and anxieties that knit her brow or furrowed +her cheek, will vanish away. In her radiant beauty, +in her chaste and spotless love, Christ will lead forth +His Church before His Father and the holy angels, +“as a bride adorned for her husband.” From eternity +He set His love upon her; on the cross He won +her back from her infidelity at the price of His blood. +Through the ages He has been wooing her to Himself, +and schooling her in wise and manifold ways that she +might be fit for her heavenly calling. Now the end +of this long task of redemption has arrived. The +message goes forth to Christ’s friends in all the worlds: +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span> +“Come, gather yourselves to the great supper of God! +The marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath +made herself ready! He hath given her fine linen +bright and pure, that she may array herself. Let us +rejoice and exult, and give to Him the glory!” +Through what cleansing fires, through what baptisms +even of blood she has still to pass ere the consummation +is reached, He only knows who loved her +and gave Himself for her. He will spare to His +Church nothing, either of bounty or of trial, that her +perfection needs.</p> + +<p>II. Concerning Christ’s lordly <i>authority</i> over His +Church we have had occasion to speak already in other +places. A word or two may be added here.</p> + +<p>We acknowledge the Church to be “subject to +Christ in everything.” We proclaim ourselves, like +the apostle, “slaves of Christ Jesus.” But this subjection +is too often a form rather than a fact. In +protesting our independence of Popish and priestly +lords of God’s heritage, we are sometimes in danger of +ignoring our dependence upon Him, and of dethroning, +in effect, the one Lord Jesus Christ. Christian communities +act and speak too much in the style of +political republics. They assume the attitude of self-directing +and self-responsible bodies.</p> + +<p>The Church is no democracy, any more than it is +an aristocracy or a sacerdotal absolutism: it is a +<i>Christocracy</i>. 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 and spirit would oftentimes be other than +they are, if we were penetrated by the sense of the +continual presence and majesty of the Lord Christ in +our assemblies. Royalties and nobilities, and the +holders of popular power—all whose “names are +named in this world,” along with the principalities in +heavenly places, when they come into the precincts of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span> +the Church must lay aside their robes and forget their +titles, and speak humbly as in the Master’s presence. +What is it to the glorious Church of Jesus Christ that +Lord So-and-so wears a coronet and owns half a +county? or that Midas can fill her coffers, if he is +pleased and humoured? or that this or that orator +guides at his will the fierce democracy? He is no +more than a man who will die, and appear before +the judgement-seat of Christ. The Church’s protection +from human tyranny, from schemes of ambition, +from the intrusion of political methods and designs, lies +in her sense of the splendour and reality of Christ’s +dominion, and of her own eternal life in Him.</p> + +<p>III. We come now to the profound mystery disclosed, +or half-disclosed at the end of this section, that of +<i>the origination of the Church from Christ</i>, which accounts +for His love to the Church and His authority over her. +He nourishes and cherishes the Church, we are told in +verses 29, 30, “because we are members of His body.”</p> + +<p>Now, this membership is, in its origin, as old as +creation. God “chose us in Christ before the world’s +foundation” (i. 4). We were created in the Son of +God’s love, antecedently to our redemption by Him. +Such is the teaching of this and the companion epistle +(Col. i. 14–18). Christ recovers through the cross that +which pertains inherently to Him, which belonged to +Him by nature and is as a part of Himself. From +this standpoint the connexion of verses 30 and 31 +becomes intelligible.<a name="FNanchor_145" id="FNanchor_145"></a><a href="#Footnote_145" class="fnanchor">[145]</a> +It is not, strictly speaking,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span> “on +account of this”; but “in correspondence with +this”<a name="FNanchor_146" id="FNanchor_146"></a><a href="#Footnote_146" class="fnanchor">[146]</a> +says the apostle, suiting the original phrase to his +purpose. The derivation of Eve from the body of +Adam, as that is affirmed in the mysterious words of +Genesis, is analogous to the derivation of the Church +from Christ. The latter relationship existed in its ideal, +and as conceived in the purpose of God, prior to the +appearance of the human race. In St Paul’s theory, +the origin of woman in man which forms the basis of +marriage in Scripture, looked further back to the origin +of humanity in Christ Himself.</p> + +<p>The train of thought that the apostle resumes here +he followed in 1 Corinthians xi. 3–12: “I would have +you know that the head of every man is the Christ, and +the head of the woman is the man, and the head of +Christ is God.... Man is the image and glory of +God: but the woman is the glory of the man. For +the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the +man.” So it is with Christ and His bride the Church.</p> + +<p>“The <span class="smcap">Lord</span> God caused a deep sleep to fall upon +the man, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, +and closed up the flesh instead thereof: and the rib +which the <span class="smcap">Lord</span> God had taken from the man, made He +a woman, and brought her to the man. And the man +said,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i4">This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh:<br /></span> +<span class="i4">She shall be called Woman [<i>Isshah</i>], because she was taken out of Man [<i>Ish</i>].<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife:<br /></span> +<span class="i6">And they shall be one flesh” (Gen. ii. 21–24).<br /></span> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span> +Thus the first father of our race prophesied, and +sang his wedding song. In some mystical, but real +sense, marriage is a <i>reunion</i>, 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 passage in Genesis explains the origin of +marriage, and the instinct which draws the bridegroom +to his bride.</p> + +<p>But our apostle sees within this declaration a deeper +truth, kept secret from the foundation of the world. +When he speaks of “this great <i>mystery</i>,” he means +thereby not marriage itself, but <i>the saying of Adam +about it</i>. This text was a standing problem to the +Jewish interpreters. “But for my part,” says the +apostle, “I refer it to Christ and to the Church.” +St Paul, who has so often before drawn the parallel +between Adam and Christ, by the light of this analogy +perceives a new and rich meaning in the old dark +sentence. It helps him to see how believers in Christ, +forming collectively His body, are not only grafted into +Him (as he puts it in the epistle to the Romans), but +were derived from Him and formed in the very mould +of His nature.</p> + +<p>What is affirmed in Colossians i. 16, 17 concerning +the universe in general, is true in its perfect degree of +redeemed humanity: “<i>In Him</i> were created all things,” +as well as “through Him and for Him.” Eve was +created in Adam; and Adam in Christ. We are +“partakers of a Divine nature,” by our spiritual origin +in Him who is the image of God and the root of +humanity. The union of the first human pair and +every true marriage since, being in effect, as Adam +puts it, a restoration and redintegration, symbolizes the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span> +fellowship of Christ with mankind. This intention was +in the mind of God at the institution of human life; it +took expression in the prophetic words of the Book of +Genesis, whose deeper sense St Paul is now able for +the first time to unfold.</p> + +<p>In our union through grace and faith with Christ +crucified, we realize again the original design of our +being. Christ has purchased by His blood no new or +foreign bride, but her who was His from eternity,—the +child who had wandered from the Father’s house, the +betrothed who had left her Lord and Spouse. In +regard to this “mystery of our coherence in Christ,” +Richard Hooker says, in words that suggest many +aspects of this doctrine: “The Church is in Christ, as +Eve was in Adam. Yea, by grace we are every one of +us in Christ and in His Church, as by nature we are +in our first parents. God made Eve of the rib of Adam. +And His Church He frameth out of the very flesh, the +very wounded and bleeding side of the Son of man. +His body crucified and His blood shed for the life of +the world are the true elements of that heavenly being +which maketh us such as Himself is of whom we come. +For which cause the words of Adam may be fitly the +words of Christ concerning His Church, ‘flesh of my +flesh and bone of my bones—a true native extract out +of mine own body,’ So that in Him, even according +to His manhood, we according to our heavenly being +are as branches in that root out of which they +grow.”<a name="FNanchor_147" id="FNanchor_147"></a><a href="#Footnote_147" class="fnanchor">[147]</a></p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_141" id="Footnote_141"></a><a href="#FNanchor_141"><span class="label">[141]</span></a> +Compare pp. 47, 83, 169, 189.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_142" id="Footnote_142"></a><a href="#FNanchor_142"><span class="label">[142]</span></a> +Heb. ii. 9–12, ix. 14, 15, x. 5–22, xiii. 12.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_143" id="Footnote_143"></a><a href="#FNanchor_143"><span class="label">[143]</span></a> +See Rom. vi. 1–11; Col. ii. 11, 12; 1 Cor. x. 2, xii. 13.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_144" id="Footnote_144"></a><a href="#FNanchor_144"><span class="label">[144]</span></a> +<span class="greek" title="En rhêmati">Ἐν ῥήματι</span>. +<span class="greek" title="Logos">Λόγος</span> is word as expressive of <i>thought</i>. +<span class="greek" title="Rhêma">Ῥῆμα</span>, the +utterance of a living voice,—a <i>sentence</i>, <i>pronouncement</i>, <i>message</i>; it is +the Greek term employed in all the passages here cited.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_145" id="Footnote_145"></a><a href="#FNanchor_145"><span class="label">[145]</span></a> +The words “of His flesh and of His bones,” following “members +of His body” in the A.V., appear to be an ancient gloss adopted by +the Greek copyists, which was suggested by Gen. ii. 23. They are +unsuitable to the idea of a spiritual union, and interrupt rather than help +the apostle’s exposition.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_146" id="Footnote_146"></a><a href="#FNanchor_146"><span class="label">[146]</span></a> +St Paul changes the <span class="greek" title="Heneken toutou">Ἕνεκεν τούτου</span> +of the original to <span class="greek" title="Anti toutou">Ἀντὶ τούτου</span>, +which conveys the idea that marriage has its counterpart in the fact +that we are members of Christ.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_147" id="Footnote_147"></a><a href="#FNanchor_147"><span class="label">[147]</span></a> +<i>Ecclesiastical Polity</i>; v. 56 7.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2> + +<h4>THE CHRISTIAN HOUSEHOLD.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. ‘Honour +thy father and mother,’ which is a first commandment, <i>given</i> in promise,—‘that +it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the +earth.’ And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but +nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord.</p> + +<p>“Servants, be obedient to them that according to the flesh are your +lords, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto the +Christ; not in the way of eye-service, as men-pleasers; but as servants +of Christ, doing the will of God from the soul; with good will doing +service, as unto the Lord, and not unto men: knowing that whatsoever +good thing each one doeth, the same shall he receive again from the +Lord, whether <i>he be</i> bond or free. And, ye lords, do the same things +unto them, and forbear threatening: knowing that both their Lord and +yours is in heaven, and there is no respect of persons with Him.”—<span class="smcap">Eph.</span> +vi. 1–9.</p></div> + +<p>The Christian family is the cradle and the fortress +of the Christian faith. Here its virtues shine +most brightly; and by this channel its influence spreads +through society and the course of generations. Marriage +has been placed under the guardianship of God; it is +made single, chaste and enduring, according to the law +of creation and the pattern of Christ’s union with His +Church. With parents thus united, family honour is +secure; and a basis is laid for reverence and discipline +within the house.</p> + +<p>I. Thus the apostle turns, in the opening words of +chapter vi., from the husband and wife to the <i>children</i> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span> +of the household. He addresses them as present in the +assembly where his letter is read. St Paul accounted +the children “holy,” if but one parent belonged to the +Church (1 Cor. vii. 14). They were baptized, as we +presume, with their fathers or mothers, and admitted, +under due precautions,<a name="FNanchor_148" id="FNanchor_148"></a><a href="#Footnote_148" class="fnanchor">[148]</a> +to the fellowship of the Church +so far as their age allowed. We cannot limit this exhortation +to children of adult age. The “discipline and +admonition of the Lord” prescribed in verse 4, belong +to children of tender years and under parental control.</p> + +<p><i>Obedience</i> is the law of childhood. It is, in great +part, the child’s religion, to be practised “in the Lord.” +The reverence and love, full of a sweet mystery, which +the Christian child feels towards its Saviour and +heavenly King, add new sacredness to the claims of +father and mother. Jesus Christ, the Head over all +things, is the orderer of the life of boys and girls. His +love and His might guard the little one in the tendance +of its parents. The wonderful love of parents to their +offspring, and the awful authority with which they are +invested, come from the source of human life in God.</p> + +<p>The Latin <i>pietas</i> impressed a religious character +upon filial duty. This word signified at once dutifulness +towards the gods, and towards parents and +kindred. In the strength of its family ties and its deep +filial reverence lay the secret of the moral vigour and +the unmatched discipline of the Roman +commonwealth.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span> +The history of ancient Rome affords a splendid illustration +of the fifth commandment.</p> + +<p><i>For this is right</i>, 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 evil +to remove, where in the plastic years of childhood +obedience has been associated with base fear, with +distrust or deceit, where it has grown sullen or obsequious +in habit. From this root of bitterness there +spring rank growths of hatred toward authority, +jealousies, treacheries, and stubbornness. Obedience +rendered “in the Lord” will be frank and willing, +careful and constant, such as that which Jesus rendered +to the Father.</p> + +<p>St Paul reminds the children of the law of the Ten +Words, taught to them in their earliest lessons from +Scripture. He calls the command in question “<i>a first</i> +[or <i>chief</i>] commandment”—just as the great rule, +“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,” is <i>the</i> first commandment; +for this is no secondary rule or minor +precept, but one on which the continuance of the +Church and the welfare of society depend. It is a law +fundamental as birth itself, written not on the statute-book +alone but on the tables of the heart.</p> + +<p>Moreover, it is a “command <i>in promise</i>”—that takes +the form of promise, and holds out to obedience a bright +future. The two predicates—“first” and “in promise”—as +we take it, are distinct. To merge them into one +blunts their meaning. This commandment is primary +in its importance, and promissory in its import. The +promise is quoted from Exodus xx. 12, as it stands +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span> +in the Septuagint, where the Greek Christian children +would read it. But the last clause is abbreviated; +St Paul writes “upon <i>the earth</i>” in place of “the good +land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” This blessing +is the heritage of dutiful children in every land. +Those who have watched the history of godly families +of their acquaintance, will have seen the promise +verified. The obedience of childhood and youth +rendered to a wise Christian rule, forms in the young +nature the habits of self-control and self-respect, of +diligence and promptitude and faithfulness and kindliness +of heart, which are the best guarantees for happiness +and success in life. Through parental nurture +“godliness” secures its “promise of the life that +now is.”</p> + +<p>Children are exhorted to submission: fathers to +<i>gentleness</i>. “Do not,” the apostle says, “anger your +children”; in the corresponding place in Colossians, +“Do not irritate your children, lest they be disheartened” +(ch. iii. 21). In these parallel texts two distinct +verbs are rendered by the one English word “provoke.” +The Colossian passage warns against the chafing effect +of parental exactions and fretfulness, that tend to break +the child’s spirit and spoil its temper. Our text warns +the father against angering his child by unfair or +oppressive treatment. From this verb comes the noun +“wrath” (or “provocation”) used in chapter iv. 26, +denoting that stirring of anger which gives peculiar +occasion to the devil.</p> + +<p>Not that the father is forbidden to cross his child’s +wishes, or to do anything or refuse anything that may +excite its anger. Nothing is worse for a child than to +find that parents fear its displeasure, and that it will +gain its ends by passion. But the father must not be +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span> +exasperating, must not needlessly thwart the child’s +inclinations and excite in order to subdue its anger, as +some will do even of set purpose, thinking that in this +way obedience is learnt. This policy may secure submission; +but it is gained at the cost of a rankling sense +of injustice.</p> + +<p>Household rule should be equally firm and kind, +neither provoking nor avoiding the displeasure of its +subjects, inflicting no severity for severity’s sake, but +shrinking from none that fidelity demands. With much +parental fondness, there is sometimes in family government +a want of seriousness and steady principle, an +absence in father or mother of the sense that they +are dealing with moral and responsible beings in their +little ones, and not with toys, which is reflected in the +caprice and self-indulgence of the children’s maturer +life. Such parents will give account hereafter of their +stewardship with an inconsolable grief.</p> + +<p>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 that of over-strictness. The children are idolized. +Not their comfort and welfare only, but their humours +and caprices become the law of the house. They are +“nourished” indeed, but not “in the discipline and +admonition of the Lord.” It is a great unkindness to +treat our children so that they shall be strangers to +hardship and restriction, so that they shall not know +what real obedience means, and have no reverence +for age, no habits of deference and self-denial. It is +the way to breed monsters of selfishness, pampered +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[385]</a></span> +creatures who will be useless and miserable in adult +life.</p> + +<p>“Discipline and admonition” are distinguished as +positive and negative terms. The first is the “training +up of the child in the way that he should go”; the +second checks and holds him back from the ways in +which he should not go. The former word (<i>paideia</i>)—denoting +primarily <i>treating-as-a-boy</i>—signifies very often +“chastisement”;<a name="FNanchor_149" id="FNanchor_149"></a><a href="#Footnote_149" class="fnanchor">[149]</a> +but it has a wider sense, embracing +instruction besides.<a name="FNanchor_150" id="FNanchor_150"></a><a href="#Footnote_150" class="fnanchor">[150]</a> +It includes the whole course of +training by which the boy is reared into a man.—<i>Admonition</i> +is a still more familiar word with St +Paul.<a name="FNanchor_151" id="FNanchor_151"></a><a href="#Footnote_151" class="fnanchor">[151]</a> +It may be reproof bearing upon errors in the past; or +it may be warning, that points out dangers lying in +the future. Both these services parents owe to their +children. Admonition implies faults in the nature of +the child, and wisdom in the father to see and correct +them.</p> + +<p>“Foolishness,” says the Hebrew proverb, “is bound +up in the heart of a child.” In the Old Testament +discipline there was something over-stern. The “hardness +of heart” censured by the Lord Jesus, which +allowed of two mothers in the house, put barriers +between the father and his offspring that rendered “the +rod of correction” more needful than it is under the +rule of Christ. But correction, in gentler or severer +sort, there must be, so long as children spring from +sinful parents. The child’s conscience responds to the +kindly and searching word of reproof, to the admonition +of love. This faithful dealing with his children wins +for the father in the end a deep gratitude, and makes +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span> +his memory a guard in days of temptation and an +object of tender reverence.</p> + +<p>The child’s “obedience <i>in the Lord</i>” is its response +to “the discipline and admonition <i>of the Lord</i>” exercised +by its parents. The discipline which wise +Christian fathers give their children, is the Lord’s +discipline applied through them. “Correction and +instruction should proceed from the Lord and be +directed by the Spirit of the Lord, in such a way +that it is not so much the father who corrects +his children and teaches them, as the Lord through +him” (Monod). Thus the Father of whom every +family on earth is named, within each Christian house +works all in all. Thus the chief Shepherd, through +His under-shepherds, guides and feeds the lambs of +His flock. By the gate of His fold fathers and mothers +themselves have entered; and the little ones follow +with them. In the pastures of His word they nourish +them, and rule them with His rod and staff. To their +offspring they become an image of the Good Shepherd +and the Father in heaven. Their office teaches them +more of God’s fatherly ways with themselves. From +their children’s humbleness and confidence, from their +simple wisdom, their hopes and fears and ignorances, +the elders learn deep and affecting lessons concerning +their own relations to the heavenly Father.</p> + +<p>St Paul’s instruction to fathers applies to all who have +the charge of children: to schoolmasters of every degree, +whose work, secular as it may be called, touches the +springs of moral life and character; to teachers in the +Sunday school, successors to the work that Christ +assigned to Peter, of shepherding His lambs. These +instructors supply the Lord’s nurture to multitudes of +children, in whose homes Christian faith and example +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span> +are wanting. The ideas which children form of Christ +and His religion, are gathered from what they see and +hear in the school. Many a child receives its bias for +life from the influence of the teacher before whom it +sits on Sunday. The love and meekness of wisdom, or +the coldness or carelessness of the one who thus stands +between Christ and the infant soul, will make or mar +its spiritual future.</p> + +<p>II. From the children of the house the apostle proceeds +to address the <i>servants</i>—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 +domestic service.<a name="FNanchor_152" id="FNanchor_152"></a><a href="#Footnote_152" class="fnanchor">[152]</a></p> + +<p>The Greek philosophers regarded slavery as a fundamental +institution, indispensable to the existence of +civilized society. That the few might enjoy freedom +and culture, the many were doomed to bondage. +Aristotle defines the slave as an “animated tool,” and +the tool as an “inanimate slave.” Two or three facts +will suffice to show how utterly slaves were deprived +of human rights in the brilliant times of the classic +humanism. In Athens it was the legal rule to admit +the evidence of a slave only upon torture, as that of a +freeman was received upon oath. Amongst the Romans, +if a master had been murdered in his house, the whole +of his domestic servants, amounting sometimes to +hundreds, were put to death without inquiry. It was +a common mark of hospitality to assign to a guest a +female slave for the night, like any other convenience. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span> +Let it be remembered that the slave population outnumbered +the free citizens of the Roman and Greek cities +by many times; that they were frequently of the same +race, and might be even superior in education to their +masters. Indeed, it was a lucrative trade to rear young +slaves and train them in literary and other accomplishments, +and then to let them out in these capacities for +hire. Let any one consider the condition of society +which all this involved, and he will have some conception +of the degradation in which the masses of mankind +were plunged, and of the crushing tyranny that the +world laboured under in the boasted days of republican +liberty and Hellenic art.</p> + +<p>No wonder that the new religion was welcome to +the slaves of the Pagan cities, and that they flocked into +the Church. Welcome to them was the voice that +said: “Come unto me, all ye that are burdened and +heavy laden”; welcome the proclamation that made +them Christ’s freedmen, “brethren beloved” where +they had been “animated tools” (Philem. 16). In the +light of such teaching, slavery was doomed. Its re-adoption +by Christian nations, and the imposition of +its yoke on the negro race, is amongst the great crimes +of history,—a crime for which the white man has had +to pay rivers of his blood.</p> + +<p>The social fabric, as it then existed, was so entirely +based upon slavery, that for Christ and the apostles to +have proclaimed its abolition would have meant universal +anarchy. In writing to Philemon about his +converted slave Onesimus, the apostle does not say, +“Release him,” though the word seems to be trembling +on his lips. In 1 Corinthians vii. 20–24 he even advises +the slave who has the chance of manumission to remain +where he is, content to be “the Lord’s freedman.” +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span> +To the Christian slave what mattered it who ruled over +his perishing body! his spirit was free, death would +be his discharge and enfranchisement. No decree is +issued to abolish bond-service between man and man; +but it was destroyed in its essence by the spirit of +Christian brotherhood. It melted away in the spread +of the gospel, as snow and winter melt before the face +of spring.</p> + +<p>“Ye slaves, obey your lords according to the flesh.” +The apostle does not disguise the slave’s subservience; +nor does he speak in the language of pity or of condescension. +He appeals as a man to men and equals, +on the ground of a common faith and service to Christ. +He awakens in these degraded tools of society the +sense of spiritual manhood, of conscience and loyalty, +of love and faith and hope. As in Colossians iii. 22–iv. +1, the apostle designates the earthly master not +by his common title (<i>despotēs</i>), but by the very word +(<i>kyrios</i>) that is the title of the <i>Lord</i> Christ, giving the +slave in this way to understand that he has, in common +with his master (ver. 9), a higher Lord in the spirit. +“Ye are slaves to the Lord Christ!” (Col. iii. 24). St +Paul is accustomed to call himself “a slave of Christ +Jesus.”<a name="FNanchor_153" id="FNanchor_153"></a><a href="#Footnote_153" class="fnanchor">[153]</a> +Nay, it is even said, in Philippians ii. 7, that +Christ Jesus “took the form of a slave!”</p> + +<p>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 mankind. His position enabled him to “adorn the +Saviour’s doctrine” above other men (Tit. ii. 9, 10). +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[390]</a></span> +Affectionate, gentle, bearing injury with joyful courage, +the Christian slave held up to that hardened and +jaded Pagan age the example which it most required. +God chose the base things of the world to bring to +nought the mighty.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>The relations of servant and master will endure, in +one shape or other, while the world stands. And the +apostle’s injunctions bear upon servants of every order. +We are all, in our various capacities, servants of the +community. The moral worth of our service and its +blessing to ourselves depend on the conditions that are +here laid down.</p> + +<p>1. There must be <i>a genuine care for our work</i>.</p> + +<p>“Obey,” he says, “with fear and trembling, in +singleness of your heart, as unto the Christ.” The +fear enjoined is no dread of human displeasure, of the +master’s whip or tongue. It is the same “fear and +trembling” with which we are bidden to “work out +our own salvation” (Phil. ii. 12). The inward work of +the soul’s salvation and the outward work of the busy +hands labouring in the mine or at the loom, or in the +lowliest domestic duties,—all alike are to be performed +under a solemn responsibility to God and in the presence +of Christ, the Lord of nature and of men, who understands +every sort of work, and will render to each of +His servants a just and exact reward. No man, +whether he be minister of state or stable-groom, will +dare to do heedless work, who lives and acts in that +august Presence,—</p> + +<p> +“As ever in the great Task-master’s eye.”<br /> +</p> + +<p>2. The sense of Christ’s Lordship ensures <i>honesty +in work</i>.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[391]</a></span> +So the apostle continues: “Not with <i>eye-service</i>, as +<i>men-pleasers</i>.” Both these are rare compound words,—the +former indeed occurring only here and in the +companion letter, being coined, probably, by the writer +for this use. It is the common fault and temptation +of servants in all degrees to observe the master’s eye, +and to work busily or slackly as they are watched or +not. Such workmen act as they do, because they look +to men and not to God. Their work is without conscience +and self-respect. The visible master says +“Well done!” But there is another Master looking +on, who says “Ill done!” to all pretentious doings +and works of eye-service,—who sees not as man sees, +but judges with the act the motive and intent.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i10">“Not on the vulgar mass<br /></span> +<span class="i10">Called ‘work’ must sentence pass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Things done, which took the eye and had the price.”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>In His book of accounts there is a stern reckoning in +store for deceitful dealers and the makers-up of unsound +goods, in whatever handicraft or headcraft they are +engaged.</p> + +<p>Let us all adopt St Paul’s maxim; it will be an +immense economy. What armies of overlookers and +inspectors we shall be able to dismiss, when every +servant works as well behind his master’s back as to +his face, when every manufacturer and shopkeeper puts +himself in the purchaser’s place and deals as he would +have others deal with him. It was for the Christian +slaves of the Greek trading cities to rebuke the Greek +spirit of fraud and trickery, by which the common +dealings of life in all directions were vitiated.</p> + +<p>3. To the carefulness and honesty of the slave’s +daily labour he must even add <i>heartiness</i>: “as slaves +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[392]</a></span> +of Christ doing the will of God from the soul, with +good will doing service, as to the Lord and not to +men.”</p> + +<p>They must do <i>the will of God</i> 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, +which comes from the soul behind the hands and the +tongue, into which the workman puts as much of his +soul, of himself, as the work is capable of holding.</p> + +<p>4. Add to all this, the servant’s <i>anticipation of the +final reward</i>. In each case, “whatsoever one may do +that is good, this he will receive from the Lord, whether +he be a bondman or a freeman.” The complementary +truth is given in the Colossian letter: “He who does +wrong, will receive back the wrong that he did.”</p> + +<p>The doctrine of equal retribution at the judgement-seat +of Christ matches that of equal salvation at the +cross of Christ. How trifling and evanescent the differences +of earthly rank appear, in view of these sublime +realities. There is a “Lord in heaven,” alike for +servant and for master, “with whom is no respect of +persons” (ver. 9). This grand conviction beats down +all caste-pride. It teaches justice to the mighty and +the proud; it exalts the humble, and assures the +down-trodden of redress. No bribery or privilege, no +sophistry or legal cunning will avail, no concealment +or distortion of the facts will be possible in that Court +of final appeal. The servant and the master, the +monarch and his meanest subject will stand before +the bar of Jesus Christ upon the same footing. And +the poor slave, wonderful to think, who was faithful +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[393]</a></span> +in the “few things” of his drudging earthly lot, will +receive the “many things” of a son of God and a +joint-heir with Christ!</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>“<i>And</i>, <i>ye lords</i>, do the same things towards them”—be +as good to your slaves as they are required to be +towards you. A bold application this of Christ’s great +rule: “What you would that men should do to you, +do even so to them.” In many instances this rule +suggested <i>liberation</i>, where the slave was prepared for +freedom. In any case, the master is to put himself +in his dependant’s place, and to act by him as he +would desire himself to be treated if their positions +were reversed.</p> + +<p>Slaves were held to be scarcely human. Deceit and +sensuality were regarded as their chief characteristics. +They must be ruled, the moralists said, by the fear of +punishment. This was the only way to keep them in +their place. The Christian master adopts a different +policy. He “desists from threatening”; he treats his +servants with even-handed justice, with fit courtesy +and consideration. The recollection is ever present to +his mind, that he must give account of his charge over +each one of them to his Lord and theirs. So he will +make, as far as in him lies, his own domain an image +of the kingdom of Christ.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_148" id="Footnote_148"></a><a href="#FNanchor_148"><span class="label">[148]</span></a> +We cannot absolutely <i>prove</i> 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 on the faith of +children, and that discrimination was used in their recognition as +Church members.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_149" id="Footnote_149"></a><a href="#FNanchor_149"><span class="label">[149]</span></a> +1 Cor. xi. 32; Heb. xii. 5, 11, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_150" id="Footnote_150"></a><a href="#FNanchor_150"><span class="label">[150]</span></a> +Acts vii. 22, xxii. 3; Rom. ii. 20; 2 Tim. ii. 25, iii. 14.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_151" id="Footnote_151"></a><a href="#FNanchor_151"><span class="label">[151]</span></a> +1 Cor. x. 11; Col. i. 28, iii. 16; 1 Thess. v. 14, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_152" id="Footnote_152"></a><a href="#FNanchor_152"><span class="label">[152]</span></a> +The word <i>family</i> (Latin <i>familia</i>) denoted originally the servants of +the establishment, the domestic slaves. Its modern usage is an index +to the elevating influence of Christianity upon social relations.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_153" id="Footnote_153"></a><a href="#FNanchor_153"><span class="label">[153]</span></a> +Rom. i. 1; 2 Cor. iv. 5; Gal. i. 10, etc.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394"></a><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[395]</a></span></p> + +<h3 class="section">ON THE APPROACHING CONFLICT.</h3> + +<h4 class="section"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> vi. 10–20.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[396]</a></span> +<p><span class="greek" title="Idou ho Satanas exêtêsato hymas, tou siniasai hôs ton siton."> +Ἰδοὺ ὁ Σατανᾶς ἐξῃτήσατο ὑμᾶς, τοῦ σινιάσαι ὡς τὸν σῖτον.</span></p> +<p class="ref"><span class="smcap">Luke</span> xxii. 31.</p> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[397]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2> + +<h4>THE FOES OF THE CHURCH.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“From henceforth be strong in the Lord, and in the might of His +strength. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to +stand against the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is not against +flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against +the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual <i>hosts</i> of wickedness, +in the heavenly <i>places</i>.”—<span class="smcap">Eph.</span> vi. 10–12.</p></div> + +<p>We follow the Revised reading of the opening +word of this paragraph, and the preferable +rendering given by the Revisers in their margin. The +adverb is the same that is found in Galatians vi. 17 +(“<i>Henceforth</i> let no man trouble me”); not that used +in Philippians iii. 1 and elsewhere (“<i>Finally</i>, my +brethren,” etc.). The copyists have conformed our +text, seemingly, to the latter passage. We are recalled +to the circumstances and occasion of the epistle. High +as St Paul soars in meditation, he does not forget the +situation of his readers. The words of chapter iv. 14 +showed us how well aware he is of the dangers looming +before the Asian Churches.</p> + +<p>The epistle to the Colossians is altogether a letter of +conflict (see ch. ii. 1 ff.). In writing that letter St Paul +was wrestling with spiritual powers, mighty for evil, +which had commenced their attack upon this outlying +post of the Ephesian province. He sees in the sky +the cloud portending a desolating storm. The clash of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[398]</a></span> +hostile arms is heard approaching. This is no time for +sloth or fear, for a faith half-hearted or half-equipped. +“You have need of your best manhood and of all the +weapons of the spiritual armoury, to hold your ground +in the conflict that is coming upon you. <i>Henceforth +be strong in the Lord, and in the might of His strength.</i>”</p> + +<p>It is the apostle’s call to arms!—“Be strengthened +in the Lord,” he says (to render the imperative literally: +so in 2 Timothy ii. I). <i>Make His strength your own.</i> +The strength he bids them assume is <i>power</i>, <i>ability</i>, +strength adequate to its +end.<a name="FNanchor_154" id="FNanchor_154"></a><a href="#Footnote_154" class="fnanchor">[154]</a> +“The might of His strength” repeats the combination of terms we found +in chapter i. 19. That sovereign power of the Almighty +which raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, belongs to +the Lord Christ Himself. From its resources He will +clothe and arm His people. “In the Lord,” says +Israel evermore, “is righteousness and strength. The +rock of my salvation and my refuge is in God.” The +Church’s strength lies in the almightiness of her risen +Lord, the Captain of her warfare.</p> + +<p>“The <i>panoply</i> of God” (ver. II) reminds us of the +saying of Jesus in reference to His casting out of +demons, recorded in Luke xi. 21, 22—the only other +instance in the New Testament of this somewhat rare +Greek word. The Lord Jesus describes Himself in +conflict with Satan, who as “the strong one armed +keeps his possessions in peace,”—until there “come +upon him the stronger than he,” who “conquers him +and takes away his panoply wherein he trusted, and +divides his spoils.” In this text the situation is reversed; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[399]</a></span> +and the “full armour” belongs to Christ’s +servants, who are equipped to meet the counter-attack +of Satan and the powers of evil. There is a Divine +and a Satanic panoply—arms tempered in heaven and +in hell, to be wielded by the sons of light and of darkness +respectively (comp. Rom. xiii. 12). The weapons +of warfare on the two sides are even as the two leaders +that furnish them—“the strong one armed” and the +“Stronger than he.” Mightier are faith and love than +unbelief and hate; “greater is He that is in you than +he that is in the world.”</p> + +<p>Let us review the forces marshalled against us,—their +<i>nature</i>, their <i>mode of assault</i>, and <i>the arena of the contest</i>.</p> + +<p>1. The Asian Christians had to “stand against <i>the +wiles</i> [<i>schemes</i>, or +<i>methods</i><a name="FNanchor_155" id="FNanchor_155"></a><a href="#Footnote_155" class="fnanchor">[155]</a>] +<i>of the devil</i>.”</p> + +<p>Unquestionably, the New Testament assumes the +personality of Satan. This belief runs counter to +modern thought, governed as it is by the tendency to +depersonalize existence. The conception of evil spirits +given us in the Bible is treated as an obsolete superstition; +and the name of the Evil One with multitudes +serves only to point a profane or careless jest. To +Jesus Christ, it is very certain, Satan was no figure +of speech; but a thinking and active being, of whose +presence and influence He saw tokens everywhere in +this evil world (comp. ii. 2). If the Lord Jesus “speaks +what He knows, and testifies what He has seen” concerning +the mysteries of the other world, there can be +no question of the existence of a personal devil. If in +any matter He was bound, as a teacher of spiritual +truth, to disavow Jewish superstition, surely Christ was +so bound in this matter. Yet instead of repudiating +the current belief in Satan and the demons, He earnestly +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[400]</a></span> +accepts it; and it entered into His own deepest +experiences. In the visible forms of sin Jesus saw +the shadow of His great antagonist. “From the Evil +One” He taught His disciples to pray that they might +be delivered. The victims of disease and madness +whom He healed, were so many captives rescued from +the malignant power of Satan. And when Jesus went +to meet His death, He viewed it as the supreme conflict +with the usurper and oppressor who claimed to be “the +prince of this world.”<a name="FNanchor_156" id="FNanchor_156"></a><a href="#Footnote_156" class="fnanchor">[156]</a></p> + +<p>Satan is the consummate form of depraved and +untruthful intellect. We read of his “thoughts,” his +“schemes,” his subtlety and deceit and +impostures;<a name="FNanchor_157" id="FNanchor_157"></a><a href="#Footnote_157" class="fnanchor">[157]</a> +of his slanders against God and +man,<a name="FNanchor_158" id="FNanchor_158"></a><a href="#Footnote_158" class="fnanchor">[158]</a> from which, +indeed, the name devil (<i>diabolus</i>) is given him. Falsehood +and hatred are his chief qualities. Hence Jesus +called him “the manslayer” and “the father of falsehood” +(John viii. 44). He was the first sinner, and the +fountain of sin (1 John iii. 8). All who do unrighteousness +or hate their brethren are, so far, his offspring +(1 John iii. 10). With a realm so wide, Satan +might well be called not only “the prince,” but the very +“god of this world” (2 Cor. iv. 4). Plausibly he said +to Jesus, in showing Him the kingdoms of the world, at +the time when Tiberius Cæsar occupied the imperial +throne: “All this authority and glory are delivered +unto me. To whomsoever I will, I give it.” His power +is exercised with an intelligence perhaps as great as +any can be that is morally corrupt; but it is limited +on all sides. In dealing with Jesus Christ he showed +conspicuous ignorance.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[401]</a></span> +Chief amongst the wiles of the devil at this time was +the “scheme of error,” the cunningly woven net of the +Gnostical delusion, in which the apostle feared that the +Asian Churches would be entangled. Satan’s empire +is ruled with a settled policy, and his warfare carried +on with a system of strategy which takes advantage of +every opening for attack.<a name="FNanchor_159" id="FNanchor_159"></a><a href="#Footnote_159" class="fnanchor">[159]</a> +The manifold combinations +of error, the various arts of seduction and temptation, +the ten thousand forms of the deceit of unrighteousness +constitute “the wiles of the devil.”</p> + +<p>Such is the gigantic opponent with whom Christ and +the Church have been in conflict through all ages. But +Satan does not stand alone. In verse 12 there is called +up before us an imposing array of spiritual powers. +They are “the angels of the devil,” whom Jesus set +in contrast with the angels of God that surround and +serve the Son of man (Matt. xxv. 41). These unhappy +beings are, again, identified with the “demons,” or +“unclean spirits,” having Satan for their “prince,” +whom our Lord expelled wherever He found them +infesting the bodies of +men.<a name="FNanchor_160" id="FNanchor_160"></a><a href="#Footnote_160" class="fnanchor">[160]</a> +They are represented in the New Testament as fallen beings, expelled from +a “principality” and “habitation of their own” (Jude 6) +which they once enjoyed, and reserved for the dreadful +punishment which Christ calls “the eternal fire prepared +for the devil and his angels.” They are here +entitled <i>principalities</i> and <i>powers</i> (or <i>dominions</i>), after +the same style as the angels of God, to whose ranks, +as we are almost compelled to suppose, these apostates +once belonged.</p> + +<p>In contrast with the “angels of light” (2 Cor. xi. 14) +and “ministering spirits” of the kingdom of God +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[402]</a></span> +(Heb. i. 14), the angels of Satan have constituted themselves +<i>the world-rulers of this darkness</i>. We find the compound +expression <i>cosmo-krator</i> (world-ruler) in later rabbinical +usage, borrowed from the Greek and applied to “the +angel of death,” before whom all mortal things must +bow. Possibly, St Paul brought the term with him +from the school of Gamaliel. Satan being the god of +this world and swaying “the dominion of +darkness,”<a name="FNanchor_161" id="FNanchor_161"></a><a href="#Footnote_161" class="fnanchor">[161]</a> +according to the same vocabulary his angels are “the +rulers of the world’s darkness”; and the provinces of +the empire of evil fall under their direction.</p> + +<p>The darkness surrounding the apostle in Rome and +the Churches in Asia—“this darkness,” he says—was +dense and foul. With Nero and his satellites the +masters of empire, the world seemed to be ruled by +demons rather than by men. The frightful wish of one +of the Psalmists was fulfilled for the heathen world: +“Set a wicked man over him, and let Satan stand at +his right hand.”</p> + +<p>The last of St Paul’s synonyms for the satanic forces, +“the spiritual [powers] of wickedness,” may have +served to warn the Church against reading a political +sense into the passage and regarding the civil constitution +of society and the visible world-rulers as objects +for their hatred. Pilate was a specimen, by no means +amongst the worst, of the men in power. Jesus +regarded him with pity. His real antagonist lurked +behind these human instruments. The above phrase, +“spirituals of wickedness,” is Hebraistic, like “judge” and “steward of +unrighteousness,”<a name="FNanchor_162" id="FNanchor_162"></a><a href="#Footnote_162" class="fnanchor">[162]</a> +and is equivalent to “wicked spirits.” The adjective “spiritual,” which +does duty for a substantive—“the spiritual [forces, or +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[403]</a></span> +elements] of wickedness”<a name="FNanchor_163" id="FNanchor_163"></a><a href="#Footnote_163" class="fnanchor">[163]</a>—brings +out the collective character of these hostile powers.</p> + +<p>St Paul’s demonology<a name="FNanchor_164" id="FNanchor_164"></a><a href="#Footnote_164" class="fnanchor">[164]</a> +is identical with that of Jesus +Christ. The two doctrines stand or fall together. The +advent of Christ appears to have stirred to extraordinary +activity the satanic powers. They asserted themselves +in Palestine at this particular time in the most +open and terrifying manner. In an age of scepticism +and science like our own, it belongs to “the wiles of +the devil” to work obscurely. This is dictated by +obvious policy. Moreover, his power is greatly reduced. +Satan is no longer the god of this world, since Christianity +rose to its ascendant. The manifestations of +demonism are, at least in Christian lands, vastly less +conspicuous than in the first age of the Church. But +those are more bold than wise who deny their existence, +and who profess to explain all occult phenomena and +phrenetic moral aberrations by physical causes. The +popular idolatries of his own day, with their horrible +rites and inhuman orgies, St Paul ascribed to devilry. +He declared that those who sat at the feast of the idol +and gave sanction to its worship, were partaking of +“the cup and the table of demons” (1 Cor. x. 20, 21). +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[404]</a></span> +Heathen idolatries at the present time are, in many +instances, equally diabolical; and those who witness +them cannot easily doubt the truth of the representations +of Scripture upon this subject.</p> + +<p>II. The conflict against these spiritual enemies is +essentially a <i>spiritual</i> conflict. “Our struggle is not +against blood and flesh.”</p> + +<p>They are not human antagonists whom the Church +has to fear,—mortal men whom we can look in the face +and meet with equal courage, in the contest where hot +blood and straining muscle do their part. The fight +needs mettle of another kind. The foes of our faith are +untouched by carnal weapons. They come upon us +without sound or footfall. They assail the will and +conscience; they follow us into the regions of spiritual +thought, of prayer and meditation. Hence the weapons +of our warfare, like those which the apostle wielded +(2 Cor. x. 2–5), “are not carnal,” but spiritual and +“mighty toward God.”</p> + +<p>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 Asia,” a party of whom all but murdered +him in Jerusalem (Acts xxi. 27–36); there was Demetrius +the silversmith, instigator of the tumult which +drove him from Ephesus, and “the craftsmen of like +occupation,” whose trade was damaged by the progress +of the new religion. These were formidable opponents, +strong in everything that brings terror to flesh and +blood. But after all, these were of small account in +St Paul’s view; and the Church need never dread +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[405]</a></span> +material antagonism. The centre of the struggle lies +elsewhere. The apostle looks beyond the ranks of his +earthly foes to the power of Satan by which they are +animated and directed,—“impotent pieces of the game +he plays.” From this hidden region he sees impending +an attack more perilous than all the violence of persecution, +a conflict urged with weapons of finer proof +than the sharp steel of sword and axe, and with darts +tipped with a fiercer fire than that which burns the +flesh or devours the goods.</p> + +<p>Even in outward struggles against worldly power, +our wrestling is not simply against blood and flesh. +Calvin makes a bold application of the passage when +he says: “This sentence we should remember so often +as we are tempted to revengefulness, under the smart +of injuries from men. For when nature prompts us +to fling ourselves upon them with all our might, this +unreasonable passion will be checked and reined in +suddenly, when we consider that these men who trouble +us are nothing more than darts cast by the hand of +Satan; and that while we stoop to pick up these, we +shall expose ourselves to the full force of his blows.” +<i>Vasa sunt</i>, says Augustine of human troublers, <i>alius +utitur</i>; <i>organa sunt, alius tangit</i>.</p> + +<p>The crucial assaults of evil, in many instances, come +in no outward and palpable guise. There are sinister +influences that affect the spirit more directly, fires that +search its inmost fibres, a darkness that sweeps down +upon the very light that is in us threatening its extinction. +“Doubts, the spectres of the mind,” haunt it; +clouds brood over the interior sky and fierce storms +sweep down on the soul, that rise from beyond the +seen horizon. “Jesus was led of the Spirit into the +wilderness, to be tempted of the devil.” Away from +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[406]</a></span> +the tracks of men and the seductions of flesh and blood +the choicest spirits have been tested and schooled. So +they are tempered in the spiritual furnace to a fineness +which turns the edge of the sharpest weapons the world +may use against them.</p> + +<p>Some men are constitutionally more exposed than +others to these interior assaults. There are conditions +of the brain and nerves, tendencies lying deep in the +organism, that give points of vantage to the enemy of +souls. These are the opportunities of the tempter; +they do not constitute the temptation itself, which +comes from a hidden and objective source. Similarly +in the trials of the Church, in the great assaults made +upon her vital truths, historical conditions and the +external movements of the age furnish the material +for the conflicts through which it has to pass; but +the spring and moving agent, the master will that +dominates these hostile forces is that of Satan.</p> + +<p>The Church was engaged in a double conflict—of +the flesh and of the spirit. On the one hand, it was +assailed by the material seductions of heathenism and +the terrors of ruthless persecution. On the other hand, +it underwent a severe intellectual conflict with the +systems of error that were rooted in the mind of the +age. These forces opposed the Christian truth from +without; but they became much more dangerous when +they found their way within the Church, vitiating her +teaching and practice, and growing like tares among +the wheat. It is of heresy more than persecution that +the apostle is thinking, when he writes these ominous +words. Not blood and flesh, but the mind and spirit +of the Asian believers will bear the brunt of the attack +that the craft of the devil is preparing for the apostolic +Church.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[407]</a></span> +III. The last clause of verse 12, <i>in the heavenly places</i>, +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 hand +(i. 20), and has in some sense seated us with Christ +(ii. 6); and where the angelic princedoms dwell who +follow with keen and studious sympathy the Church’s +fortunes (iii. 10). To locate the devil and his angels +<i>there</i> seems to us highly incongruous; the juxtaposition +is out of the question with St Paul. Chapter ii. 2 gives +no real support to this view: supposing “the air” to +be literally intended in that passage, it belongs to <i>earth</i> +and not to heaven.<a name="FNanchor_165" id="FNanchor_165"></a><a href="#Footnote_165" class="fnanchor">[165]</a> +Nor do the parallels from other +Scriptures adduced supply any but the most precarious +basis for an interpretation against which the use of the +exalted phrase in our epistle revolts.</p> + +<p>No; Satan and his hosts do not dwell with Christ +and the holy angels “in the heavenly places.” But +the Church dwells there already, by her faith; and it +is in the heavenly places of her faith and hope that +she is assailed by the powers of hell. This final prepositional +clause should be separated by a comma from +the words immediately foregoing; it forms a distinct +predicate to the sentence contained in verse 12. It +specifies the <i>locality</i> of the struggle; it marks out the +battle-field. “Our wrestling is ... in the heavenly +places.”<a name="FNanchor_166" id="FNanchor_166"></a><a href="#Footnote_166" class="fnanchor">[166]</a> +So we construe the sentence, following the +ancient Greek commentators.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[408]</a></span> +The life of the Church “is hid with the Christ in +God”; her treasure is laid up in heaven. She is +assailed by a philosophy and vain deceit that perverts +her highest doctrines, that clouds her vision of Christ +and limits His glory, and threatens to drag her down +from the high places where she sits with her ascended +Lord.<a name="FNanchor_167" id="FNanchor_167"></a><a href="#Footnote_167" class="fnanchor">[167]</a> +Such was, in effect, the aim of the Colossian +heresy, and of the great Gnostical movement to which +this speculation was a prelude, that for a century and +more entangled Christian faith in its metaphysical +subtleties and false mysticism. The epistles to the +Colossians and Ephesians strike the leading note of +the controversies of the Church in this region during +its first ages. Their character was thoroughly transcendental. +“The heavenly things” were the subject-matter +of the great conflicts of this epoch.</p> + +<p>The questions of religious controversy characteristic +of our own times, though not identical with those of +Colossæ or Ephesus, concern matters equally high +and vital. It is not this or that doctrine that is now +at stake—the nature or extent of the atonement, the +procession of the Holy Spirit from the Son with the +Father, the verbal or plenary inspiration of Scripture; +but the personal being of God, the historical truth of +Christianity, the reality of the supernatural,—these and +the like questions, which formed the accepted basis and +the common assumptions of former theological discussions, +are now brought into dispute. Religion has to +justify its very existence. Christianity must answer +for its life, as at the beginning. God is denied. Worship +is openly renounced. Our treasures in heaven +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[409]</a></span> +are proclaimed to be worthless and illusive. The entire +spiritual and celestial order of things is relegated to +the region of obsolete fable and fairy tales. The difficulties +of modern religious thought lie at the foundation +of things, and touch the core of the spiritual life. Unbelief +appears, in some quarters, to be more serious +and earnest than faith. While we quarrel over rubrics +and ritual, thoughtful men are despairing of God and +immortality. The Churches are engaged in trivial contentions +with each other, while the enemy pushes his +way through our broken ranks to seize the citadel.</p> + +<p>“The apostle incites the readers,” says Chrysostom, +“by the thought of the prize at stake. When he has +said that our enemies are powerful, he adds thereto +that these are great possessions which they seek to +wrest from us. When he says <i>in the heavenly places</i>, +this implies <i>for the heavenly things</i>. How it must rouse +and sober us to know that the hazard is for great +things, and great will be the prize of victory. Our foe +strives to take <i>heaven</i> from us.” Let the Church be +stripped of all her temporalities, and driven naked as +at first into the wilderness. She carries with her the +crown jewels; and her treasure is unimpaired, so long +as faith in Christ and the hope of heaven remain firm +in her heart. But let these be lost; let heaven and +the Father in heaven fade with our childhood’s dreams; +let Christ go back to His grave—then we are utterly +undone. We have lost our all in all!</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_154" id="Footnote_154"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_154"><span class="label">[154]</span></a> +<span class="greek" title="Endynamousthe">Ἐνδυναμοῦσθε</span> +[from <span class="greek" title="dynamis">δύναμις</span>] +<span class="greek" title="en Kyriô kai en tô kratei tês ischyos autou"> +ἐν Κυρίῳ καὶ ἐν τῷ κράτει τῆς ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ</span>. +See the note on these synonyms, on p. 76. Comp., for this verb, +Col. i. II; 2 Tim. iv. 17; Phil. iv. 13: <span class="greek" title="Panta ischyô en tô endynamounti me"> +Πάντα ἰσχύω ἐν τῳ ἐνδυναμοῦντί με</span>,—“I have strength for everything in Him that <i>enables</i> me.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_155" id="Footnote_155"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_155"><span class="label">[155]</span></a> +Comp. remark on <span class="greek" title="methodeia">μεθοδεία</span> +(iv. 14), p. 247.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_156" id="Footnote_156"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_156"><span class="label">[156]</span></a> +John xii. 31, xiv. 30, xvi. 11: comp. Luke iv. 5–7; Heb. ii. 14.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_157" id="Footnote_157"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_157"><span class="label">[157]</span></a> +2 Cor. ii. 11, xi. 3; 2 Thess. ii. 9, 10; 2 Tim. ii. 26, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_158" id="Footnote_158"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_158"><span class="label">[158]</span></a> +Rev. xii, 7–10; Gen. iii. 4, 5; Zech. iii. 1; Job i.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_159" id="Footnote_159"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_159"><span class="label">[159]</span></a> +Ch. iv. 27; 2 Cor. ii. 11; Luke xxii. 31.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_160" id="Footnote_160"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_160"><span class="label">[160]</span></a> +Luke x. 17–20, xi. 14–26.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_161" id="Footnote_161"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_161"><span class="label">[161]</span></a> +Col. i. 13: comp. Acts xxvi. 18, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_162" id="Footnote_162"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_162"><span class="label">[162]</span></a> +Luke xvi. 8, xviii. 6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_163" id="Footnote_163"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_163"><span class="label">[163]</span></a> +<span class="greek" title="Ta pneumatika tês ponêrias">Τὰ πνευματικὰ tῆs πονηρίας</span>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_164" id="Footnote_164"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_164"><span class="label">[164]</span></a> +Mr. Moule aptly observes, in his excellent and most useful Commentary +on Ephesians in the <i>Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges</i>: +St Paul’s “testimony to the real and objective existence” of evil spirits +“gains in strength when it is remembered that the epistle was addressed +(at least, among other designations) to Ephesus, and that Ephesus (see +Acts xix.) was a peculiarly active scene of asserted magical and other +dealings with the unseen darkness. Supposing that the right line to +take in dealing with such beliefs and practices had been to say that the +whole basis of them was a fiction of the human mind, not only would +such a verse as this [vi. 12] not have been written, but, we may well +assume, something would have been written strongly contradictory to +the thought of it” (p. 176).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_165" id="Footnote_165"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_165"><span class="label">[165]</span></a> +See p. 103.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_166" id="Footnote_166"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_166"><span class="label">[166]</span></a> +The objection against the common rendering taken from the +absence of the Greek article (<span class="greek" title="ta">τά</span>) +before the phrase +<span class="greek" title="en tois epouraniois">ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις</span>, +required to link it to +<span class="greek" title="ta pneumatika tês ponêrias">τὰ πνευματικὰ τῆς πονηρίας</span>, +is not decisive.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_167" id="Footnote_167"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_167"><span class="label">[167]</span></a> +Col. ii. 8–10, iii. 1–4; Phil. iii. 20, 21: comp. Eph. i. 3, ii. 6, +18, iv. 10, 15; Heb. vi. 19, 20, etc.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[410]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2> + +<h4>THE DIVINE PANOPLY.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“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 taking up the shield of +faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the +evil <i>one</i>. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the +Spirit, which is the word of God: with all prayer and supplication +praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all +perseverance and supplication for all the saints.”—<span class="smcap">Eph.</span> vi. 13–18.</p></div> + +<p><i>Stand</i> is the watchword for this battle, the +apostle’s order of the day: “that you may be able +to <i>stand</i> against the stratagems of the devil, ... that +you may be able to <i>withstand</i> in the evil day, and +mastering all your +enemies<a name="FNanchor_168" id="FNanchor_168"></a><a href="#Footnote_168" class="fnanchor">[168]</a> +to <i>stand</i>.... <i>Stand</i> therefore, +girding your loins about with truth.” The +apostle is fond of this martial style, and such appeals +are frequent in the letters of this +period.<a name="FNanchor_169" id="FNanchor_169"></a><a href="#Footnote_169" class="fnanchor">[169]</a> The Gentile +believers are raised to the heavenly places of fellowship +with Christ, and invested with the lofty character +of sons and heirs of God: let them hold their ground; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[411]</a></span> +let them maintain the honour of their calling and the +wealth of their high estate, standing fast in the grace +that is in Christ Jesus. <i>Pro aris et focis</i> the patriot +draws his sword, and manfully repels the invader. +Even so the good soldier of Christ Jesus contends +for his heavenly city and the household of faith. He +defends the dearest interests and hopes of human life.</p> + +<p>This defence is needed, for an “evil day” is at +hand! This emphatic reference points to something +more definite than the general day of temptation that +is co-extensive with our earthly life. St Paul foresaw +a crisis of extreme danger impending over the young +Church of Christ. The prophecies of Jesus taught +His disciples, from the first, that His kingdom could +only prevail by means of a severe conflict, and that +some desperate struggle would precede the final +Messianic triumph. This prospect looms before the +minds of the New Testament writers, as “the day of +Jehovah” dominated the imagination of the Hebrew +prophets. Paul’s apocalypse in 1 and 2 Thessalonians +is full of reminiscences of Christ’s visions of judgement. +It culminates in the prediction of the evil day of Antichrist, +which is to usher in the second, glorious coming +of the Lord Jesus. The consummation, as the apostle +was then inclined to think, might arrive within that +generation (1 Thess. iv. 15, 17), although he declares +its times and seasons wholly unknown. In his later +epistles, and in this especially, it is clear that he +anticipated a longer duration for the existing order +of things; and “the evil day” for which the Asian +Churches are to prepare can scarcely have denoted, +to the apostle’s mind, the final day of Antichrist, +though it may well be an epoch of similar nature and +a token and shadow of the last things.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[412]</a></span> +In point of fact, a great secular crisis was now +approaching. The six years (64–70 after Christ) extending +from the fire of Rome to the fall of Jerusalem, +were amongst the most fateful and calamitous recorded +in history. This period was, in a very real sense, the +day of judgement for Israel and the ancient world. It +was a foretaste of the ultimate doom of the kingdom +of evil amongst men; and through it Christ appears +to have looked forward to the end of the world. +Already “the days are evil” (v. 16); and “the evil +day” is at hand—a time of terror and despair for all +who have not a firm faith in the kingdom of God.</p> + +<p>Two chief characteristics marked this crisis, as it +affected the people of Christ: <i>persecution from without</i>, +and <i>apostasy within the Church</i> (Matt. xxiv. 5, 8–12). +To the latter feature St Paul refers +elsewhere.<a name="FNanchor_170" id="FNanchor_170"></a><a href="#Footnote_170" class="fnanchor">[170]</a> Of +persecution he took less account, for this was indeed +his ordinary lot, and had already visited his Churches; +but it was afterwards to assume a more violent and +appalling form.</p> + +<p>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 +promise to “him that overcometh.” To the faithful +it is said: “I know thy endurance.” The angel of +the Church of Pergamum dwells where is “the throne +of Satan,” and where “Antipas the faithful martyr was +killed.” There also, says the Lord Jesus, “are those +who hold the teaching of Balaam, and the teaching of +the Nicolaitans,” with whom “I will make war with the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[413]</a></span> +sword of my mouth” (comp. Eph. vi. 17). Laodicea +has shrunk from the trial, and grown rich by the +world’s friendship. Thyatira “suffers the woman +Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and to +seduce” the servants of Christ. Sardis has but “a +few names that have not defiled their garments.” +Even Ephesus, though she had tried the false teachers +and found them wanting (surely Paul’s epistles to +Timothy had helped her in this examination), has yet +“left her first love.” The day of trial has proved an +evil day to these Churches. Satan has been allowed +to sift them; and while some good wheat remains, +much of the faith of the numerous and prosperous +communities of the province of Asia has turned out to +be faulty and vain. The presentiments that weighed +on St Paul’s mind when four years ago he took leave +of the Ephesian elders at Miletus, and which reappear +in this passage, were only too well justified by the +course of events. Indeed, the history of the Church +in this region has been altogether mournful and +admonitory.</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>But it is time to look at the <i>armour</i> in which St Paul +bids his readers equip themselves against the evil day. +It consists of seven weapons, offensive or defensive—if +we count prayer amongst them: the <i>girdle of truth</i>, +the <i>breastplate of righteousness</i>, the <i>shoes of readiness to +bear the message of peace</i>, the <i>shield of faith</i>, the <i>helmet +of salvation</i>, the <i>sword of the word</i>, and the continual <i>cry +of prayer</i>.</p> + +<p>1. In girding himself for the field, the first thing the +soldier does is to fasten round his waist the military +<i>belt</i>. With this he binds in his under-garments, that +there may be nothing loose or trailing about him, and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[414]</a></span> +braces up his limbs for action. Peace admits of +relaxation. The girdle is unclasped; the muscles are +unstrung. But everything about the warrior is tense +and firm; his dress, his figure and movements speak +of decision and concentrated energy. He stands before +us an image of resolute conviction, of <i>a mind made up</i>. +Such a picture the words “girt about with truth” +convey to us.</p> + +<p>The epistle is pervaded by the sense of the Church’s +need of intellectual conviction. Many of the Asian +believers were children, half-enlightened and irresolute, +ready to be “tossed to and fro and carried about with +every wind of doctrine” (iv. 14). They had “heard +the truth as it is in Jesus,” but had an imperfect comprehension +of its meaning.<a name="FNanchor_171" id="FNanchor_171"></a><a href="#Footnote_171" class="fnanchor">[171]</a> +They required to add to +their faith knowledge,—the knowledge won by searching +thought respecting the great truths of religion, by a +thorough mental appropriation of the things revealed +to us in Christ. Only by such a process can truth +brace the mind and knit its powers together in “the +full assurance of the understanding in the knowledge +of the mystery of God, which is Christ” (Col. ii, 2, 3).</p> + +<p>Such is the faith needed by the Church, now as then, +the faith of an intelligent, firm and manly assurance. +There is in such faith a security and a vigour of action +that the faith of mere sentiment and emotional impression, +with its nerveless grasp, its hectic and impulsive +fervours, cannot impart. The luxury of agnosticism, +the languors of doubt, the vague sympathies and +hesitant eclecticism in which delicate and cultured +minds are apt to indulge; the lofty critical attitude, +as of some intellectual god sitting above the strife of +creeds, which others find congenial—these are conditions +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[415]</a></span> +of mind unfit for the soldier of Christ Jesus. +He must have sure knowledge, definite and decided +purposes—a soul girdled with truth.</p> + +<p>2. Having girt his loins, the soldier next fastens on +his <i>breastplate</i>, or cuirass.</p> + +<p>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 defensive “shield,” while righteousness +serves for the innermost defence, the rampart +of the heart. But, in truth, the Christian righteousness +is compounded of faith and love.</p> + +<p>This attribute must be understood in its full Pauline +meaning. It is the state of one who is right with God +and with God’s law. It is the righteousness both of +standing and of character, of imputation and of impartation, +which begins with justification and continues in +the new, obedient life of the believer. These are never +separate, in the true doctrine of grace. “The righteousness +that is of God by faith,” is the soul’s main defence +against the shafts of Satan. It wards off deadly blows, +both from this side and from that. Does the enemy +bring up against me my old sins? I can say: “It is +God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?”—Am +I tempted to presume on my forgiveness, and to fall +into transgression once more? From this breastplate +the arrow of temptation falls pointless, as it resounds: +“He that doeth righteousness is righteous. He that is +born of God doth not commit sin.” The completeness +of pardon for past offence and the integrity of character +that belong to the justified life, are woven together into +an impenetrable mail.</p> + +<p>3. Now the soldier, having girt his loins and guarded +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[416]</a></span> +his breast, must look well to his feet. There are lying +ready for him <i>shoes</i> of wondrous make.</p> + +<p>What is the quality most needed in the soldier’s +shoes? Some say, it is <i>firmness</i>; and they so translate +the Greek word employed by the apostle, occurring only +here in the New Testament, which in certain passages +of the Septuagint seems to acquire this sense, under +the influence of Hebrew +idiom.<a name="FNanchor_172" id="FNanchor_172"></a><a href="#Footnote_172" class="fnanchor">[172]</a> But firmness was +embodied in the girdle. <i>Expedition</i> belongs to the +shoes. The soldier is so shod that he may move with +alertness over all sorts of ground.</p> + +<p>Thus shod with speed and willingness were “the +beautiful feet” of those that brought over desert and +mountain “the good tidings of peace,” the news of +Israel’s return to Zion (Isai. lii. 7–9). With such swift +strength were the feet of our apostle shod, when “from +Jerusalem round about unto Illyricum” he had “fulfilled +the gospel of Christ,” and is “ready,” as he says, “to +preach the glad tidings to you also that are in Rome” +(Rom. i. 15). This readiness belonged to His own +holy feet, who “came and preached peace to the far off +and the near” (ii. 17),—when, for example, sitting a +weary traveller by the well-side at Sychar, He found +refreshment in revealing to the woman of Samaria the +fountain of living water. Such readiness befits His +servants, who have heard from Him the message of +salvation and are sent to proclaim it everywhere.</p> + +<p>The girdle and breastplate look to one’s own safety. +They must be supplemented by the evangelic zeal +inseparable from the spirit of Christ. This is, moreover, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[417]</a></span> +a safeguard of Church life. Von Hofmann says +admirably upon this point: “The objection [brought +against the above interpretation] that the apostle is +addressing the faithful at large, who are not all of +them called to preach the gospel, is mistaken. Every +believer should be prepared to witness for Christ so +often as opportunity affords, and needs a <i>readiness</i> +thereto. The knowledge of Christ’s peace qualifies +him to convey its message. He brings it with him +into the strife of the world. And it is the consciousness +that he possesses himself such peace and has it +to communicate to others, which enables him to walk +firmly and with sure step in the way of faith.” When +we are bidden to “<i>stand</i> in the evil day,” that does +not mean to stand idle or content to hold our ground. +Attack is often the best mode of defence. We keep +our faith by spreading it. We defend ourselves from +our opponents by converting them to the gospel, which +breathes everywhere reconciliation and fraternity. Our +Foreign Missions are our grand modern apologetic; +and God’s peacemakers are His mightiest warriors.</p> + +<p>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 <i>shield</i>,” 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.</p> + +<p>The shield signified is not the small round buckler, +or target, of the light-armed man; but the door-like +shield,<a name="FNanchor_173" id="FNanchor_173"></a><a href="#Footnote_173" class="fnanchor">[173]</a> +measuring four feet by two-and-a-half and +rounded to the shape of the body, that the Greek +hoplite and the Roman legionary carried. Joined +together, these large shields formed a wall, behind +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[418]</a></span> +which a body of troops could hide themselves from +the rain of the enemy’s missiles. Such is the office +of faith in the conflicts of life: it is the soldier’s main +defence, the common bulwark of the Church. Like the +city’s outer wall, faith bears the brunt and onset of +all hostility. On this shield of faith the darts of Satan +are caught, their point broken and their fire quenched. +These military shields were made of wood, covered +on the outside with thick leather, which not only +deadened the shock of the missile, but protected the +frame of the shield from the “fire-tipped darts” that +were used in the artillery of the ancients. These +flaming arrows, armed with some quickly burning and +light combustible, if they failed to pierce the warrior’s +shield, fell in a moment extinguished at his feet.</p> + +<p>St Paul can scarcely mean by his “fiery darts” +incitements to passion in ourselves, inflammatory +temptations that seek to rouse the inward fires of +anger or lust. For these missiles are “fire-pointed +darts <i>of the Evil One</i>.” The fire belongs to the enemy +who shoots the dart. It signifies the malignant hate +with which Satan hurls slanders and threats against +the people of God through his human instruments. A +bold faith wards off and quenches this fire even at a +distance, so that the soul never feels its heat. The +heart’s confidence is unmoved and the Church’s songs +of praise are undisturbed, while persecution rages and +the enemies of Christ gnash their teeth against her. +Such a shield to him was the faith of Stephen the +proto-martyr.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">“I heard the defaming of many; there was terror on every side.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But I trusted in Thee, O Jehovah: I said, Thou art my God!”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>To “take up the shield of faith,” is it not, like the +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[419]</a></span> +Psalmist, to meet injuries and threats, the boasts of +unbelief and of worldly power, the poisoned arrows of +the deceitful and the bitter words of unjust reproach, +with faith’s quiet counter-assertion? “Who shall +separate us from the love of Christ?” says the apostle +in the midst of tribulation. “God is my witness, whom +I serve in the gospel of His Son,” he answers when his +fidelity is questioned. No shaft of malice, no arrow of +fear can pierce the soul that holds such a shield.</p> + +<p>5. At this point (ver. 17), when the sentence +beginning at verse 14 has drawn itself out to such +length, and the relative clause of verse 16<i>b</i> makes a +break and eddy in the current of thought, the writer +pauses for a moment. He resumes the exhortation in +a form slightly changed and with rising emphasis, +passing from the participle to the finite verb: “And +take <i>the helmet of salvation</i>.”</p> + +<p>The word <i>take</i>, in the original, differs from the <i>taking +up</i> of verses 13 and 16. It signifies the <i>accepting</i> of +something offered by the hand of another. So the +Thessalonians “<i>accepted</i> the word” brought them by +St Paul (1 Thess. i. 6) and Titus “<i>accepted</i> the consolation” +given him by the Corinthians (2 Cor. viii. 17)—in +each case a welcome gift. God’s hand is stretched +out to bestow on His chosen warrior the helmet of +salvation and the sword of His word, to complete his +equipment for the perilous field. We accept these gifts +with devout gratitude, knowing from what source they +come and where the heavenly arms were fashioned.</p> + +<p>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 +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[420]</a></span> +becomes the sign of his protection by God. The +apostle does not call it “the <i>hope</i> of salvation,” as he +does in 1 Thessalonians v. 8, thinking of the believer’s +assurance of victory in the last struggle. Nor is it the +sense and assurance of past salvation that here guards +the Christian soldier. The presence of his Saviour and +God in itself constitutes his highest safeguard.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">“O Jehovah my Lord, the strength of my salvation,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou hast covered my head in the day of battle.”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>The warrior’s head rising above his shield was frequently +open to attack. The arrow might shoot over +the shield’s edge, and inflict a mortal blow. Our faith, +at the best, has its deficiencies and its limits; but +God’s salvation reaches beyond our highest confidence +in Him. His overshadowing presence is the crown of +our salvation, His love its shining crest.</p> + +<p>Thus the equipment of Christ’s soldier is complete; +and he is arrayed in the full armour of light. His +loins girt with truth, his breast clad with righteousness, +his feet shod with zeal, his head crowned with safety, +while faith’s all-encompassing shield is cast about him, +he steps forth to do battle with the powers of darkness, +“strong in the Lord, and in the might of His strength.”</p> + +<p>6. It only remains that “the <i>sword</i> of the Spirit” +be put into his right hand, while his lips are open in +continual prayer to the God of his strength.</p> + +<p>The “cleansing word” of chapter v. 26, by whose +virtue we passed through the gate of baptism into the +flock of Christ, now becomes the guarding and smiting +word, to be used in conflict with our spiritual foes. Of +the Messiah it was said, in language quoted by the +apostle against Antichrist (2 Thess. ii. 8): “He shall +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[421]</a></span> +smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with +the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked” +(Isai. xi. 4). Similarly, in Hosea the Lord tells how +He has “hewed” the unfaithful “by His prophets, and +slain them by the words of His mouth” (Hos. vi. 5). +From such sayings of the Old Testament the idea of the +sword of the Divine word is derived. We find it again +in Hebrews iv. 12: “The word of God, living and +active, sharper than any two-edged sword”; and in +the “sword, two-edged, sharp,” which John in the +Revelation saw “coming out of the mouth of the Son +of man”: it belongs to Him whose name is “the word +of God,” and with it “He shall smite the +nations.”<a name="FNanchor_174" id="FNanchor_174"></a><a href="#Footnote_174" class="fnanchor">[174]</a></p> + +<p>This sword of the inspired word Paul himself +wielded with supernatural effect, as when he rebuked +Elymas the sorcerer, or when he defended his gospel +against the Judaizers of Galatia and Corinth. In his +hand it was even as</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i16">“The sword<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of Michael, from the armoury of God,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">... tempered so that neither keen<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor solid might resist that edge.”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>With what piercing reproofs, what keen thrusts of +argument, what double-edged irony and dexterous +sword-play did this mighty combatant smite the enemies +of the cross of Christ! In times of conflict never may +such leaders be wanting to the Church, men using +weapons of warfare not carnal, but mighty to “cast +down strongholds,” to “bring down every high thing +that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and +make captive every thought to Christ’s obedience.”</p> + +<p>In her struggle with the world’s gigantic lusts and +tyrannies, the Israel of God must be armed with this +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[422]</a></span> +lofty and lightning-like power, with the flaming sword +of the Spirit. No less in the secret, internal conflicts +of the religious life, the sword of the word is the +decisive weapon. The Son of man put it to proof in +His combat in the wilderness. Satan himself sought +to wrest this instrument to his purpose. With pious +texts in his mouth he addressed our Lord, like an angel +of light, fain to deceive Him by the very Scripture He +had Himself inspired! until, with the last thrust of +quotation, Jesus unmasked the tempter and drove him +from the field, saying, “Get thee behind me, Satan!”</p> + +<p>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 <i>prayer</i> that links the believer with the strength +of God.</p> + +<p>What avails Michael’s sword, if the hand that holds +it is slack and listless? what the panoply of God, if +behind it beats a craven heart? He is but a soldier +in semblance who wears arms without the courage and +the strength to use them. The life that is to animate +that armed figure, to beat with high resolve beneath +the corslet, to nerve the arm as it lifts the strong shield +and plies the sharp sword, to set the swift feet moving +on their gospel errands, to weld the Church together +into one army of the living God, comes from the inspiration +of God’s Spirit received in answer to believing +prayer. So the apostle adds: “With all prayer and +supplication praying at every time in the Spirit.”</p> + +<p>There is here no needless repetition. “Prayer” is +the universal word for reverent address to God; and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[423]</a></span> +“supplication” the entreaty for such help as “on every +occasion”—at each turn of the battle, in each emergency +of life—we find ourselves to need. And Christian +prayer is always “in the Spirit,”—being offered in the +grace and power of the Holy Spirit, who is the element +of the believer’s life in Christ, who helps our infirmities +and, virtually, intercedes for us (Rom. viii. 26, 27). +When the apostle continues, “<i>watching</i> [or <i>keeping awake</i>] +thereunto,” he reminds us, as perhaps he was thinking +himself, of our Lord’s warning to the disciples sleeping +in Gethsemane: “Watch and pray, lest ye enter into +temptation.” The “perseverance” he requires in this +wakeful attention to prayer, is the resolute persistence +of the suppliant, who will neither be daunted by opposition +nor wearied by delay.<a name="FNanchor_175" id="FNanchor_175"></a><a href="#Footnote_175" class="fnanchor">[175]</a></p> + +<p>The word “supplication” is resumed at the end of +verse 18, in order to enlist the prayers of the readers +for the service of the Church at large: “with wakeful +heed thereto, in all persistence and <i>supplication for all +the saints</i>.” Prayer for ourselves must broaden out +into a catholic intercession for all the servants of our +Master, for all the children of the household of faith. +By the bands of prayer we are knit together,—a vast +multitude of saints throughout the earth, unknown by +face or name to our fellows, but one in the love of +Christ and in our heavenly calling, and all engaged in +the same perilous conflict.</p> + +<p>“All the saints,” St Paul said (i. 15), were interested +in the faith of the Asian believers; they were called +“with all the saints” to share in the comprehension +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[424]</a></span> +of the immense designs of God’s kingdom (iii. 18). +The dangers and temptations of the Church are equally +far-reaching; they have a common origin and character +in all Christian communities. Let our prayers, at +least, be catholic. At the throne of grace, let us forget +our sectarian divisions. Having access in one Spirit +to the Father, let us realize in His presence our communion +with all His children.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_168" id="Footnote_168"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_168"><span class="label">[168]</span></a> +Comp. Rom. viii. 37, xvi. 20. <i>To bring down</i>, <i>overpower</i>, <i>conquer</i> +is the military sense of <span class="greek" title="katergazomai">κατεργάζομαι</span>,—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.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_169" id="Footnote_169"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_169"><span class="label">[169]</span></a> +Col. i. 23, ii. 5; Phil. i. 27–30, iv. 1: comp. 1 Thess. v. 8; Rom. +xiii. 11–14; 1 Cor. xvi. 13; 2 Cor. x. 3–6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_170" id="Footnote_170"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_170"><span class="label">[170]</span></a> +2 Thess. ii. 3; Acts xx. 29, 30; 1 Tim. iv. 1; 2 Tim. iii. 1.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_171" id="Footnote_171"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_171"><span class="label">[171]</span></a> +Ch. 1. 17–23, iii. 16–19, iv. 13–15, 20–24.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_172" id="Footnote_172"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_172"><span class="label">[172]</span></a> +<span class="greek" title="Hetoimasia">Ἑτοιμασία</span> +is adopted by the Greek translators as the equivalent of +the Hebrew word for <i>foundation</i>, or <i>base</i>, in Ps. lxxxix. 14; Ezra ii. 68, +iii. 3; Dan. xi. 7, 20, 21. See, however, the note of Meyer, who +thinks that they misunderstood the Hebrew.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_173" id="Footnote_173"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_173"><span class="label">[173]</span></a> +<span class="greek" title="Thyreos">Θυρεός</span>: +Latin <i>scutum</i>; only here in N.T.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_174" id="Footnote_174"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_174"><span class="label">[174]</span></a> +Rev. i. 16, ii. 12, xix. 13–15.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_175" id="Footnote_175"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_175"><span class="label">[175]</span></a> +<span class="greek" title="En pasê proskarterêsei">Ἐν πάσῃ προσκαρτερήσει</span>: +<i>in every kind of persistence</i>,—a perseverance +that tries all arts and holds its ground at every point. The verb +<span class="greek" title="proskartereô">προσκαρτερέω</span> +appears in the parallel passages: Col. iv. 2; Rom. xii. 12; +also in Acts i. 14.</p></div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[425]</a></span></p> + +<h2 class="section"><a name="THE_CONCLUSION" id="THE_CONCLUSION"></a>THE CONCLUSION.</h2> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[426]</a></span></p> + +<h4 class="section"><span class="smcap">Chapter</span> vi. 19–24.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="greek" +title="Pepeismai gar hoti oute thanatos oute zôê oute angeloi oute archai oute +enestôta oute mellonta oute dynameis oute hypsôma oute bathos oute tis +ktisis hetera dynêsetai hêmas chôrisai apo tês agapês tou Theou tês en +Christô Iêsou tô Kyriô hêmôn"> +Πέπεισμαι γὰρ ὅτι οὔτε θάνατος οὔτε ζωὴ οὔτε ἄγγελοι οὔτε ἀρχαὶ οὔτε +ἐνεστῶτα οὔτε μέλλοντα οὔτε δυνάμεις οὔτε ὕψωμα οὔτε βάθος οὔτε τις +κτίσις ἑτέρα δυνήσεται ἡμᾶς χωρίσαι ἀπὸ τῆς ἀγάπης τοῦ Θεοῦ τῆς ἐν +Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τῷ Κυρίῳ ἡμῶν</span>—<span class="smcap">Rom.</span> viii. 38, 39.</p> + +<p class="center">“Love for Christ is immortal.”—<span class="smcap">R. W. Dale.</span></p> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[427]</a></span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX.</h2> + +<h4>REQUEST: COMMENDATION: BENEDICTION.</h4> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“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.</p> + +<p>“But that ye also may know my affairs, how I do, Tychicus, the +beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known +to you all things: whom I have sent unto you for this very purpose, +that ye may know our state, and that he may comfort your hearts.”—<span class="smcap">Eph</span>. +vi. 19–22.</p></div> + +<p>The apostle has bidden his readers apply themselves +with wakeful and incessant earnestness +to prayer (ver. 18). For this is, after all, the chief +arm of the spiritual combat. By this means the soul +draws reinforcements of mercy and hope from the +eternal sources (ver. 10). By this means the Asian +Christians will be able not only to carry on their own +conflict with vigour, but to help all the saints (ver. 18); +and through their aid the whole Church of God will +be sustained in its war with the prince of this world.</p> + +<p>The apostle Paul himself stood in the forefront of +this battle. He was suffering for the cause of common +Christendom; he was a mark for the attack of the +enemies of the gospel.<a name="FNanchor_176" id="FNanchor_176"></a><a href="#Footnote_176" class="fnanchor">[176]</a> +On him, more than on any +other man, the safety and progress of the Church +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[428]</a></span> +depended (Phil. i. 25). In this position he naturally +says: “Watching unto prayer in all perseverance and +supplication for all the saints—<i>and for me</i>.” If his +heart should fail him, or his mouth be closed, if the +word of inspiration ceased to be given him and the +great teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth no +longer spoke as he ought to speak, it would be a heavy +blow and sore discouragement to the friends of Christ +throughout the world. “My afflictions are your glory +(iii. 13). My unworthy testimony to Christ is showing +forth His praise to all men and +angels.<a name="FNanchor_177" id="FNanchor_177"></a><a href="#Footnote_177" class="fnanchor">[177]</a> Pray for me +then, that I may speak and act in this hour of trial +in a manner worthy of the dispensation given to me.”</p> + +<p>Strong and confident as the apostle Paul was, he +felt himself to be nothing without prayer. It is his +habit to expect the support of the intercessions of all +who love him in Christ.<a name="FNanchor_178" id="FNanchor_178"></a><a href="#Footnote_178" class="fnanchor">[178]</a> +He knew that he was helped +by this means, on numberless occasions and in wonderful +ways. He asks his present readers to entreat that +“the word<a name="FNanchor_179" id="FNanchor_179"></a><a href="#Footnote_179" class="fnanchor">[179]</a> +may be given me when I open my mouth, +so that I may freely make known the mystery of the +gospel, on which behalf I serve as ambassador in bonds, +that in it I may speak freely, as I ought to speak.” +This sentence hangs upon the verb “may-be-given.” +Jesus said to His apostles: “It shall be <i>given</i> you in +that hour what you shall speak, when brought before +rulers and kings” (Matt x. 18–20). The apostle stands +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[429]</a></span> +now before the Roman world. He has appealed to +Cæsar, and awaits his trial. If he has not yet appeared +at the Emperor’s tribunal, he will shortly have to do +so. Christ’s ambassador is about to plead in chains +before the highest of human courts. It is not his +own life or freedom that he is concerned about; the +ambassador has only to consider how he shall represent +his Sovereign’s interests. The importance which Paul +attached to this occasion, is manifest from the words +written to Timothy (2 Ep. iv. 17) referring to his later +trial. St Paul has this special need in his thoughts, +in addition to the help from above continually required +in the discharge of his ministry, under the hampering +conditions of his imprisonment (comp. Col. iv. 3, 4).</p> + +<p>The Church must entreat on Paul’s behalf that the +word he utters may be God’s, and not his own. It is +in vain to “open the mouth,” unless there is this higher +prompting and through the gates of speech there issues +a Divine message, unless the speaker is the mouthpiece +of the Holy Spirit rather than of his individual +thought and will. “The words that I speak unto you,” +Jesus said, “I speak not of myself.” The bold apostle +intends to open his mouth; but he must have the +true “word given” him to say. We should pray for +Christ’s ambassadors, and especially for the more public +and eloquent pleaders of the Christian cause, that it +may be thus with them. Rash and vain words, that +bear the stamp of the mere man who utters them and +not of the Spirit of his Master, do a hurt to the cause +of the gospel proportioned to the blessing that comes +from such lips when they speak the word given to them.</p> + +<p>Such inspiration would enable the apostle to “make +known the mystery of the gospel <i>with freedom and +confidence of speech</i>”: the expression rendered +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[430]</a></span> “with +boldness”<a name="FNanchor_180" id="FNanchor_180"></a><a href="#Footnote_180" class="fnanchor">[180]</a> +means all this. Before the emperor Nero, +or the slave Onesimus, he will be able with the same +aptness and dignity and self-command to declare his +message and to vindicate his Master’s name. “The +mystery of the gospel” is no other secret than that +which this epistle unfolds (iii. 3–9), the great fact that +Jesus Christ is the Saviour and the Lord of the whole +world. Jesus proclaimed Himself to Pilate, who represented +at Jerusalem the imperial rule, as the King of +all who are of the truth; and the apostle Paul has +the like message to convey to the head of the Empire. +It needed the greatest boldness and the greatest wisdom +in the ambassador of the Messianic King to play his +part at Rome; an unwise word might make his own life +forfeit, and bring incalculable dangers on the Church.</p> + +<p>St Paul’s trial, we suppose, passed off successfully, as he at this time +anticipated.<a name="FNanchor_181" id="FNanchor_181"></a><a href="#Footnote_181" class="fnanchor">[181]</a> +The Roman government was perfectly aware that the political charge +against their prisoner was frivolous; and Nero, if he +personally gave Paul a hearing on this earlier trial, in +all probability viewed his spiritual pretensions on his +Master’s behalf with contemptuous tolerance. If he did +so, the toleration was not due to any want of courage or +clearness on the defendant’s part. It is possible even +that the courage and address of the advocate of the +“new superstition” pleased the tyrant, who was not +without his moments of good humour nor without the +instincts of a man of taste. The apostle, we may well +believe, made an impression on the supreme court at +Rome similar to that made on his judges in Cæsarea.</p> + +<p>St Paul’s bonds in Christ have now become widely +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[431]</a></span> +“manifest” in Rome (Phil. i. 13). He pleads in circumstances +of disgrace. But God brings good for His +servants out of evil. As he said at a later time, so +he could say now: “They have bound me; but they +cannot bind the word of +God.”<a name="FNanchor_182" id="FNanchor_182"></a><a href="#Footnote_182" class="fnanchor">[182]</a> He was “not +ashamed of the gospel” in the prospect of coming +to Rome years before (Rom. i. 16); and he is not +ashamed now, though he has come in chains as an +evil-doer. Through the intercessions of Christ’s +people all these injuries of Satan are turning to his +salvation and to the “furtherance of the gospel”; and +Paul rejoices and triumphs in them, well assured that +Christ will be magnified whether by his life or death, +whether by his freedom or his chains (Phil. i. 12–26). +The prayers which the imprisoned apostle asks from +the Church were fulfilled. For we read in the last +verses of the Acts of the Apostles, which put into a +sentence the history of this period: “He received all +that came to him, preaching the kingdom and teaching +the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, <i>with all +boldness</i>, none forbidding him.”</p> + +<hr class="thoughtbreak" /> + +<p>The paragraph relating to Tychicus is almost identical +with that of Colossians iv. 7, 8. It begins with a “But” +connecting what follows with the statement the apostle +has just made respecting his position at Rome. As +much as to say: “I want your prayers, set as I am +for the defence of the gospel and in circumstances of +difficulty and peril. But Tychicus will tell you more +about me than I can convey by letter. I am sending +him, in fact, for this very purpose.”</p> + +<p>St Paul knew the great anxiety of the Christians of +Asia on his account. Epaphras of Colossæ had +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[432]</a></span> “shown +him the love in the Spirit” that was felt towards him +even by those in this region who had never seen him +in the flesh (Col. i. 8). The tender heart of the apostle +is touched by this assurance. So he sends Tychicus +to visit as many of the Asian Churches as he may be +able to reach, bringing news that will cheer their hearts +and relieve their discouragement +(iii. 13).<a name="FNanchor_183" id="FNanchor_183"></a><a href="#Footnote_183" class="fnanchor">[183]</a> The note +sent at this time to Philemon indicates the hopeful +tidings that Tychicus was able to convey to Paul’s friends +in the East: “I trust that through your prayers I shall +be given to you” (Philem. 22). To the Philippians he +writes, perhaps a little later, in the same strain: “I +trust in the Lord that I myself shall come shortly” +(Phil. ii. 24). He anticipates, with some confidence, +his speedy acquital and release: it is not likely that +this expectation, on the part of such a man as St Paul, +was disappointed. The good news went round the +Asian and Macedonian Churches: “Paul is likely soon +to be free, and we shall see and hear him again!”</p> + +<p>In the parallel epistle he writes, “that you may +know” (Col. iv. 8); here it is, “that you <i>also</i> may +know my affairs.” The added word is significant. +The writer is imagining his letter read in the various +assemblies which it will reach. He has the other +epistle in his mind, and remembering that he there +introduced Tychicus in similar terms, he says to this +wider circle of Asian disciples: “That you also, as well +as the Churches of the Lycus valley, may know how +things are with me, I send Tychicus to give you a full +report.” It is not necessary, however, to look beyond +the last two verses for the reference of the <i>also</i> of +verse 21: “I have asked your prayers on my behalf; +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[433]</a></span> +and I wish you in turn to know how things go with +me.” Possibly, there were some matters connected +with St Paul’s trial at Rome that could not be fitly or +safely communicated by letter. Hence he adds: “He +shall make known unto you all things.” When he +writes “that ye may know my affairs, how I do,” we +gather that Tychicus was to communicate to those he +visited everything about the beloved apostle that would +be of interest to his Asian brethren.</p> + +<p>The apostle commends Tychicus in language identical +in the two letters, except that in Colossians “fellow-servant” +is added to the honourable designations of +“beloved brother and faithful minister,” under which +he is here introduced. We find him first associated +with St Paul in Acts xx. 4, where “Tychicus and +Trophimus” represent Asia in the number of those +who accompanied the apostle on his voyage to Jerusalem, +when he carried the contributions of his Gentile +Churches to the relief of the Christian poor in Jerusalem. +Trophimus, his companion, is called a “Greek” and an +“Ephesian” (Acts xxi. 28, 29). Whether Tychicus +belonged to the same city or not, we cannot tell. He +was almost certainly a Greek. The Pastoral epistles +show Tychicus still in the apostle’s service in his last +years. He appears to have joined St Paul’s staff and +remained with him from the time that he accompanied +him to Jerusalem in the year 59. From 2 Timothy iv +9–12 we gather that Tychicus was sent to Ephesus +to relieve Timothy, when St Paul desired the presence +of the latter at Rome. It is evident that he was a man +greatly valued by the apostle and endeared to him.</p> + +<p>Tychicus was well known in the Asian Churches, +and suitable therefore to be sent upon this errand. +And the commendation given to him would be very +welcome to the circle to which he belonged. The +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[434]</a></span> +apostle has great tact in these personal matters, the +tact which belongs to delicate feeling and a generous +mind. He calls his messenger “the beloved brother” +in his relation to the Church in general, and “faithful +minister in the Lord” in his special relation to himself. +So he describes Epaphroditus to the Philippians as +“your apostle and minister of my need.” In conveying +these letters and messages, this worthy man was +Paul’s apostle and minister of his need in regard to +the Asian Churches. He is a “<i>minister in the Lord</i>,” +inasmuch as this office lies within the range of his +service to the Lord Christ.</p> + +<p>We observe that in writing to the Colossians the +apostle applies to Onesimus, the converted slave, the +honourable epithets applied here to this long-tried +friend: “the faithful and beloved brother” (Col. iv. 9). +Every Christian believer should be in the eyes of his +fellows a “beloved brother.” And every true servant +of Christ and His people is a “faithful minister in the +Lord,” be his rank high or low, and whether official +hands have been laid upon his head or not. We are +apt, by a trick of words, to limit to the order which +we suitably call “the ministry” expressions that the +New Testament applies to the common ministry of +Christ’s saints (comp. iv. 12). This devoted servant of +Christ is employed just now as a newsman and letter-carrier. +But what a high responsibility it was, to be +the bearer to the Asian cities, and to the Church for all +time, of the epistles of Paul the apostle to the Ephesians, +Colossians and Philemon. Had Tychicus been careless +or dishonest, had he lost these precious documents or +tampered with them, how great the loss to mankind! +We cannot read them without feeling our debt to this +beloved brother and faithful servant of the Church. +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[435]</a></span> +Those who travel upon Christ’s business, who link +distant communities to each other and convey from one +to another the Holy Spirit’s fellowship and grace, are +“the messengers of the Churches and the glory of +Christ” (2 Cor. viii. 23).</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">The Benediction</span>.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">“Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">From God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ<br /></span> +<span class="i24">In incorruption” (vv. 23, 24).<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>Grace and Peace were the first words of the epistle,—the +apostle’s salutation to all his Churches. In +<i>Peace and Grace</i> he breathes out his final blessing. +The benediction is fuller than in most of the epistles, +and exhibits several peculiar features.</p> + +<p>To the Thessalonians (2 Ep. iii. 16) St Paul wished: +“Peace continually, in all ways, from the Lord of peace +Himself”; and he commends the Romans twice to +“the God of peace” (ch. xv. 33, xvi. 20): the Corinthians +he bids to “live in peace,” so that “the God of +love and peace” may be with them (2 Cor. xiii. 11). +There is nothing in the least degree strange or un-Pauline +in the wishes here expressed, except the fact +that they are put in the third person—“<i>Peace to the +brethren</i>,” etc.—instead of being addressed directly to +the readers in the second person, as in all other of the +apostle’s extant closing benedictions. This peculiarity, +as we observed in the first Chapter, is in accordance +with the encyclical and impersonal stamp of the +epistle.<a name="FNanchor_184" id="FNanchor_184"></a><a href="#Footnote_184" class="fnanchor">[184]</a> +It is Paul’s most catholic benediction, his blessing upon +“all the Israel of God” (comp. Gal. vi. 16).</p> + +<p>“With faith,” that “love” is desired whereby, +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[436]</a></span> +according to the Pauline ethics of salvation, faith works +(Gal. v. 6), the love which as a vitalizing organic force +creates the new man, formed in all his doings and dispositions +after the image of Jesus Christ. From chapter +iv. 1–3 we have learnt how “peace” and “love” attend +each other. Love is the source of the forbearance, the +mutual consideration and self-sacrifice, without which +there is no peace within the Church. Peace springs +from love: love waits on faith. Amongst brethren in +Christ, members of the same household of faith, peace +and love have their home. These are the sons of +peace: with good will and good hope, entering or +quitting their abode, we say, “Peace be to this house!”</p> + +<p>The peace that the apostle looks for amongst +Christian brethren is the fruit of peace with God +through Christ. Such “peace guarding the thoughts +and heart” of each Christian man, nothing contrary +thereto will arise amongst them. Calm and quiet +hearts make a peaceful Church. There are no clashing +interests, no selfish competitions, no strife as to who +shall be greatest. Differences of opinion and taste are +kept within the bounds of mutual submission. The +awe of God’s presence with His people, the remembrance +of the dear price at which His Church was +purchased, the sense of Christ’s Lordship in the Spirit +and of the sacredness of our brotherhood in Him, +check all turbulence and rivalry and teach us to seek +the things that make for peace.</p> + +<p>“Peace <i>and love</i>,” the apostle desires. Love includes +peace, and more; for it labours not to prevent contention +only, but to help and enrich in all ways the body +of Christ. By such “toil of love” faith is made +complete. We are bidden indeed, in certain matters, +to “have faith to ourselves before God” (Rom. xiv. 22). +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[437]</a></span> +This maxim holds where one has a special faith in +regard to such things as eating flesh or drinking wine, +in which any one of us may without offence differ from +his brethren. But it is a poor faith that dwells upon +questions of this nature, and makes its religion of +them. The essentials of faith, as we saw them +delineated in chapter iv. 1–6, are things that unite and +not distinguish us.</p> + +<p>As faith grows and deepens, it makes new channels +in which love may flow. “We are bound to thank +God always for you,” writes St Paul to the Thessalonians +(2 Ep. i. 3), “for that your faith groweth exceedingly, +and the love of each one of you all toward +one another multiplieth.” This is the sound and true +growth of faith. Where an intenser faith makes men +disputatious and exclusive; where it fails to breed +meekness and courtesy, we cannot but suspect its +quality. Such faith may be sincere; but it is mixed +with a lamentable ignorance, and a resistance to the +Holy Spirit that is likely to end in grave offence. +“Contending earnestly for the faith” does not mean +contending angrily, with the weapons of satire and censoriousness. +It is well to remember that we are not +the judges of our brethren. There are many questions +raised and discussed amongst us, which we may safely +leave to the judgement of the last day. It is too easy +to fill the air with matters of contention, and to excite +a sore and suspicious temper destructive of peace, +and in which nothing but fault-finding will flourish. +If we must contend, we may surely debate quietly on +secondary matters, while we are one in Christ. If we +have not <i>love with faith</i>, our faith is worthless (1 Cor. +xiii. 2).</p> + +<p>Deep beneath the peace that dwells in the Church +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[438]</a></span> +and the love that fills each believer’s heart, is the +eternal fountain of <i>grace</i>. “Grace be with all those +who love our Lord Jesus Christ,” says the apostle. +Grace is theirs already; and they desire nothing so +much as its increase. Their love to Christ is the fruit +of the grace of God that is with them. This wish +includes all good wishes; it surpasses both our deservings +and desires. All that God prepared for us in His +eternal counsels, and that Christ purchased by His +redeeming love, all of good that our nature can receive +now and for ever, is embraced in this one word: <i>Grace +be with you.</i></p> + +<p>“With all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ,” Paul +says; for it is to lovers of Christ that God gives the +continuance of His grace. If our love to Christ fails, +grace leaves us. God cannot look with favour upon +the man who has no love to His Son Jesus Christ. In +giving his blessing to the Corinthians, St Paul was compelled +to write with his own hand: “If any man love +not the Lord, let him be anathema.” The blessing +involves the anathema. God’s love is not a love of +indifference, an indiscriminate, immoral affection. It +is a love of choice and predilection—“If any man +love me,” said Jesus, “my Father will love him.” Is +not the condition reasonable,—and the inference inevitable? +The Father cannot grant His grace to those who +have seen and hated Him in His Son and image. By +that hatred they refuse His grace, and cast it from them.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, a sincere love to the Lord Jesus +Christ opens the heart to all the rich and purifying +influences of Divine grace. The sinful woman, stained +with false and foul love, who washed the Saviour’s feet +with her tears, attained in that act to a height of purity +undreamed of by the virtuous Pharisee. This new and +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[439]</a></span> +holy flame burns out impure passion from the soul: +it kindles lofty thoughts; it makes crooked natures +straight, and timid and weak natures brave and strong. +“To them that love God, we know, all things work +together for good.” To them that love Christ, all things +contribute blessing; all conditions and events of life +become means of grace. If we love Christ, we shall +love His people,—the Church, the bride of Christ from +whom He will never be parted in our thoughts. If we +love Christ, we shall love the work He has laid upon +us, and the word He has taught us, and the sacramental +pledges He has given us in remembrance of Him and +assurance of His coming. If we love Him, we shall +“keep His commandments,” and He will keep His +promise to send us the “other Helper, to be with us +for ever, even the Spirit of truth.” The gift of the +Holy Spirit is the all-sufficiency of +grace.<a name="FNanchor_185" id="FNanchor_185"></a><a href="#Footnote_185" class="fnanchor">[185]</a> Here is +the innermost sanctuary of our religion, the fountain +and beginning of the soul’s eternal life,—in the love +which joins it to the Lord in one spirit.</p> + +<p><i>In incorruption</i> is the last and sealing word of this +letter, which we have been so long studying together. +It “stands as the crown and climax of this glorious +epistle” (Alford). Like so many other words of the +epistle, at first sight its interpretation is not clear. The +apostle has used the term in several other passages, as synonymous with +<i>immortality</i><a name="FNanchor_186" id="FNanchor_186"></a><a href="#Footnote_186" class="fnanchor">[186]</a> +and denoting the state +of the blessed after the resurrection, when they will +stand before God complete in body and in spirit, with +all that is mortal in them swallowed up of life—“raised +in incorruption.” But there is nothing in this +context<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[440]</a></span> +to lead up to the idea of personal, bodily immortality. +Those who construe the apostle’s words in this sense, +place a comma before the final clause and treat it as +a qualification of the main predicate of the sentence: +“Grace be with all them that love our Lord,—grace +[culminating] in incorruption”—or in other words, +“grace crowned with glory!” But it must be admitted +that this is somewhat strained.</p> + +<p>The rendering of our ordinary version, “in sincerity” +(in the Revised rendering, “uncorruptness”), gives an +ethical sense to the word that is scarcely borne out by +usage. It is a different, though kindred expression that +St Paul employs to express “uncorruptness” in Titus +ii. 7.<a name="FNanchor_187" id="FNanchor_187"></a><a href="#Footnote_187" class="fnanchor">[187]</a></p> + +<p>It appears to us that the term “incorruption,” in its +ordinary significance, applies fitly to the believer’s love +for the Lord, when the word is read in accordance with +the symbolism of the epistle. This love is the life of +the body of Christ. In it lies the Church’s immortality. +The gates of death prevail not against her, rooted and +grounded as she is in love to the risen and immortal +Christ. “May that love be maintained,” the apostle +says, “in its deathless power. Let it be an unspoilt +and unwasting love.”</p> + +<p>Of earthly love we often say with sadness:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<span class="i0">“Space is against thee: it can part!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Time is against thee: it can chill!”<br /></span> +</div> + +<p>Not so with the love of Christ. Neither death nor life +parts the soul from Him. Our love to the Lord Jesus +Christ seats us with Him in the heavenly places,—above +the realm of decay, above this wasting flesh and +perishing world.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_176" id="Footnote_176"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_176"><span class="label">[176]</span></a> +Col. i. 24—ii. 1; Phil. i. 16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_177" id="Footnote_177"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_177"><span class="label">[177]</span></a> +Ch. ii. 7, iii. 10; Phil. i. 20; 2 Tim. iv. 17.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_178" id="Footnote_178"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_178"><span class="label">[178]</span></a> +I Thess. v. 25; 2 Thess. iii. 1; Rom. xv. 30–32; Col. iv. 3, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_179" id="Footnote_179"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_179"><span class="label">[179]</span></a> +Out of the instances in which the English Version renders +<span class="greek" title="logos">λόγος</span> +in St Paul by <i>utterance</i>, the Revisers have substituted <i>word</i> for <i>utterance</i> +only in Col. iv. 3. One wishes they had done so throughout. +For <span class="greek" title="logos">λόγος</span> +surely implies the <i>content</i>, the <i>import</i> of what is said. This +passage reminds us of John xvii. 14: “I have given them Thy word”; +and xiv. 24: “The word which ye hear is not mine, but His.”</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_180" id="Footnote_180"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_180"><span class="label">[180]</span></a> +<span class="greek" title="En parrêsia">Ἐν παρρησίᾳ</span>: +comp. iii. 12; Phil. i. 20; Philem. 8; 2 Cor. vii. 4; +1 Thess. ii. 2, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_181" id="Footnote_181"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_181"><span class="label">[181]</span></a> +Phil. i. 25, 26, ii. 23, 24; Philem. 22.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_182" id="Footnote_182"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_182"><span class="label">[182]</span></a> +2 Tim. i. 7–12, ii. 3–10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_183" id="Footnote_183"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_183"><span class="label">[183]</span></a> +Comp. Phil. i. 24–26.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_184" id="Footnote_184"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_184"><span class="label">[184]</span></a> +See pp. 13–17.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_185" id="Footnote_185"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_185"><span class="label">[185]</span></a> +Ch. i. 14, iv. 30. See Chapter IV., above.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_186" id="Footnote_186"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_186"><span class="label">[186]</span></a> +Rom. ii. 7; 1 Cor. xv. 42, 50, 53, 54; 2 Tim. i. 10. See Alford’s +excellent note on this passage.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_187" id="Footnote_187"></a> +<a href="#FNanchor_187"><span class="label">[187]</span></a> +<span class="greek" title="Aphthoria">Ἀφθορία</span>: +<span class="greek" title="aphtharsia">ἀφθαρσία</span> +is deleted in the critical texts.</p></div> + +</div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="sameauthor"> + +<h4><a name="WORKS_BY_THE_SAME_AUTHOR" id="WORKS_BY_THE_SAME_AUTHOR"></a>WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR.</h4> + +<p><b>THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS</b> (<i>Expositor’s Bible</i>). +Crown 8vo, cloth.</p> + +<p><b>COMMENTARY ON COLOSSIANS</b> (<i>Pulpit Commentary</i>).</p> + +<p><b>COMMENTARY ON I. & II. THESSALONIANS</b> (<i>Cambridge +Bible for Schools and Colleges</i>).</p> + +<p><b>AN ESSAY ON THE PASTORAL EPISTLES</b> (<span class="smcap">Sabatier’s</span> +<i>The Apostle Paul</i>).</p> + +<p><b>THE EPISTLES OF PAUL THE APOSTLE:</b> <i>a Sketch of +their Origin and Contents.</i></p> + +</div> + +<hr /> + +<h2><a name="THE_EXPOSITORS_BIBLE" id="THE_EXPOSITORS_BIBLE"></a>THE EXPOSITOR’S BIBLE.</h2> + +<p class="center"><i>Crown 8vo, cloth, price 7s. 6d. each vol.</i></p> + +<h4 class="series">First Series, 1887–8.</h4> + +<p class="book">Colossians.</p> +<p class="author">By <span class="smcap">A. Maclaren</span>, D.D.</p> + +<p class="book">St. Mark.</p> +<p class="author">By Right Rev. the Bishop of Derry.</p> + +<p class="book">Genesis.</p> +<p class="author">By Prof. <span class="smcap">Marcus Dods</span>, D.D.</p> + +<p class="book">1 Samuel.</p> +<p class="author">By Prof. <span class="smcap">W. G. 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Vol. II.</p> + +<h4 class="series">Sixth Series, 1892–3.</h4> + +<p class="book">1 Kings.</p> +<p class="author">By Very Rev. the Dean of Canterbury.</p> + +<p class="book">Philippians.</p> +<p class="author">By Principal <span class="smcap">Rainy</span>, D.D.</p> + +<p class="book">Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther.</p> +<p class="author">By Prof. <span class="smcap">W. F. Adeney</span>, M.A.</p> + +<p class="book">Joshua.</p> +<p class="author">By Prof. <span class="smcap">W. G. Blaikie</span>, D.D.</p> + +<p class="book">The Psalms.</p> +<p class="author">By <span class="smcap">A. Maclaren</span>, D.D. Vol. II.</p> + +<p class="book">The Epistles of St. Peter.</p> +<p class="author">By Prof. <span class="smcap">Rawson Lumby</span>, D.D.</p> + +<h4 class="series">Seventh Series, 1893–4.</h4> + +<p class="book">2 Kings.</p> +<p class="author">By Very Rev. the Dean of Canterbury.</p> + +<p class="book">Romans.</p> +<p class="author">By <span class="smcap">H. C. G. Moule</span>, M.A., D.D.</p> + +<p class="book">The Books of Chronicles.</p> +<p class="author">By Prof. <span class="smcap">W. H. Bennett</span>, M.A.</p> + +<p class="book">2 Corinthians.</p> +<p class="author">By <span class="smcap">James Denney</span>, D.D.</p> + +<p class="book">Numbers.</p> +<p class="author">By <span class="smcap">R. A. Watson</span>, M.A., D.D.</p> + +<p class="book">The Psalms.</p> +<p class="author">By <span class="smcap">A. Maclaren</span>, D.D. Vol. III.</p> + +<h4 class="series">Eighth Series, 1895–6.</h4> + +<p class="book">Daniel.</p> +<p class="author">By Very Rev. the Dean of Canterbury.</p> + +<p class="book">The Book of Jeremiah.</p> +<p class="author">By Prof. <span class="smcap">W. H. Bennett</span>, M.A.</p> + +<p class="book">Deuteronomy.</p> +<p class="author">By Prof. <span class="smcap">Andrew Harper</span>, B.D.</p> + +<p class="book">The Song of Solomon and Lamentations.</p> +<p class="author">By Prof. <span class="smcap">W. F. Adeney</span>, M.A.</p> + +<p class="book">Ezekiel.</p> +<p class="author">By Prof. <span class="smcap">John Skinner</span>, M.A.</p> + +<p class="book">The Book of the Twelve Prophets.</p> +<p class="author">By Prof. <span class="smcap">G. A. Smith</span>, D.D. Two Vols.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Expositor's Bible: Ephesians, by G. G. 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