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DIVINITY SCHOOL
TROWBRIDGE LIBRARY

THE BIBLE FOR HOME AND SCHOOL
SHAILER MATHEWS, General Editor
PROFESSOR OF HISTORICAL AND COMPARATIVE THEOLOGY
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

THE EPISTLES TO THE COLOSSIANS
AND TO THE EPHESIANS
GROSS ALEXANDER

THE BIBLE FOR

HOME AND SCHOOL

SHAILER MATHEWS, General Editor

GENESIS

By Professor H

G. Mitchell

ACTS

By Professor George H. Gilbert

GALATIANS

By Professor B.

W. Bacon

EPHESIANS AND COLOSSIANS

By Reverend Gross Alexander

HEBREWS

By Professor E.
J. Goodspeed
VOLUMES IN PREPARATION
DEUTERONOMY
By Professor W
. G. Jordan
I SAMUEL
By Professor L.
W. Batten
JUDGES By Professor Edward L. Curtis
JOB By Professor George A. Barton
PSALMS
By Reverend J.
P. Peters
ISAIAH
By Professor John E. McFadyen
AMOS, HOSEA, AND MICAH
By Professor J.
M. P. Smith
MARK
By Professor M
W. Jacobus
JOHN By Professor Shailer Mathews
ROMANS
By Professor E.
I. Bosworth
MATTHEW
By Professor A.
T. Robertson
THE BIBLE FOR HOME AND SCHOOL
THE
EPISTLES TO THE COLOSSIANS
AND TO THE EPHESIANS

BY
GROSS ALEXANDER, S.T.D.

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1910
All rights reserved

Copyright, 1910,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.

Set up and electrotyped. Published January, 1910.

The references in the foot-notes marked " S.V." are to the American Standard
Edition of the Revised Bible. Copyright, 1901, by Thomas Nelson & Sons.
By permission of the Publishers.

Narfoonti 50resa
J. S. Ousting Co. — Berwick & Smith Co.
£J or wood, Mass., U.S.A.

THE MEMORY
OF MY BROTHER
H. CLAY ALEXANDER
A GIFTED SURGEON
A NOBLE MAN

CONTENTS
PAGE
Introduction to Colossians  i
I. The Colossian Church  i
II. The Occasion of the Epistle  2
III. The Authorship and Date  5
IV. Analysis of the Epistle  6
V. Bibliography  8
Text and Commentary  11
Introduction to Ephesians  55
I. To Whom Addressed  55
II. Authorship of the Epistle  56
III. Destination and Purpose of the Epistle . . 58
IV. Analysis of the Epistle  63
V. Bibliography  64
Text and Commentary  67
Note I. The Relation between Colossians and Ephe
sians  127
Note II. The Relation of Ephesians to Other New
Testament Books  128
Index  131

Yll

COLOSSIANS
GROSS ALEXANDER

INTRODUCTION
The Epistle to the Colossians is comparatively brief; but
it is unique among the writings of the New Testament, and
its importance and value are out of all proportion to its
brevity. In consequence of the difficulty of its main sub
ject and the obscurity of the form of false teaching which
it was intended to guard against, it has not received the
attention and appreciation to which it is entitled. In short,
it has been comparatively neglected.
I. The Colossian Church
The church at the city of Colossae on the banks of the
Lycus in Asia Minor was not founded by Paul ; for several
passages of the episde imply that he had never seen them,
that he was personally unknown to them (i : 4 and 2:1).
Moreover, there is no mention of a visit of Paul to Colossae
in the accounts of his missionary journeys in the book of
Acts. It is probable that the founder of the church was
Epaphras (an abbreviated form of Epaphroditus). This
is implied in 1 : 7, where it is said, "since ye heard of the true
grace of God, even as ye learned it of Epaphras." It is
likely that Epaphras had learned it from Paul. It is certain
that he preached Paul's gospel. In several passages of
the epistle Paul strongly expresses his approval of the way
that Epaphras had taught the Colossians. He refers to
him in the opening paragraph as "our beloved fellow-
servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf."
The pronoun here used practically implies that Epaphras
was a representative, possibly an actual appointee of Paul.
As to the complexion of the church at Colossae, it was
B I

INTRODUCTION

evidently composed of Gentiles. This is indicated by the
general tone and tenor of the epistle, and it is specifically
implied in such passages as i : 21, 27, and 2 : 13. This is
not disproved by the fact that the doctrines of the false
teachers which are so vigorously opposed in the epistle were
of a Jewish character. The same is true of the epistle to
the Galatians, though it is certain that the churches in
Galatia were composed entirely of Gentiles.
II. The Occasion of the Epistle
We learn from the epistle itself that Epaphras had gone
to Rome and was with Paul when he wrote it, for in 4 : 12
he is mentioned as one of those who send greetings to the
Colossians, "Epaphras, who is one of you, saluteth you."
Doubtless he had gone to Rome for the very purpose of
laying before Paul "the state of the church" and especially
to tell him of the danger to which the believers there were
exposed on account of the false teachings of certain propa
gandists of some new-fangled system which they were trying
to persuade them to accept instead of the gospel as they
had learned it from Epaphras. Paul refers to them in 2 : 4,
where he says, "Let no one delude you with persuasiveness
of speech." Still more clear and specific is his reference to
them in 2 : 8, "Take heed lest there shall be any one that
maketh spoil of you through his philosophy and vain deceit,"
and in 2 : 18, "Let no man rob you of your prize by a volun
tary humility and worshipping of the angels . . . vainly
puffed up by his fleshly mind and not holding fast the Head."
The appearance of these false teachers and their energetic
efforts to seduce the Colossian Christians from the gospel
they had heard and received were the occasion of the epistle ;
and the character of their teachings gives the key-note to the
letter and furnishes the key to its interpretation. It becomes
important, then, to ascertain, if possible, what this new
teaching was.
Bishop Lightfoot holds that it was a form of Gnosticism

INTRODUCTION

with Jewish modifications; and he makes a very ingenious
and able argument in support of this view. But it is claimed
by later writers that it is not necessary to assume the presence
of Gnosticism in order to explain the contents of the epistle.
All the passages and references which, according to Light-
foot, require the assumption of Gnostic teaching can be
explained, it is claimed, by what we know of the views that
were prevalent among the Jews of that day concerning an
gels. The New Testament is itself, in large part, the source
of this knowledge. What is there said will be a matter of
surprise to one who has never had occasion to look up the
various references and put them together; but it is not
necessary to cite them here.
As Lightfoot and those who follow him, as Moule and
others, have doubtless made too much of Gnosticism in
their setting and interpretation of the epistle, those who
reject that view have erred, and very naturally, in going too
far in the other direction and have made too much of their
angelology and angelolatry. They even go so far as to hold
"that "the elements of the world," referred to by Paul in Col.
2 : 8, are "the elemental spirits which animate all material
things and are so called from the elements which they ani
mate"; and they are called "dominions, principalities,
powers," etc., from their sphere of authority. (See Peake's
Commentary on Colossians in the Expositor's Greek Testa
ment and the article by Massie on "Elements" in Hastings'
Dictionary of the Bible.)
If Lightfoot and his followers are too specific and explicit
on the one hand, the angelologists are too explicit and
specific on the other. They all know too much. Chrysos-
tom somewhere says tEaFif_is""often wiser not to know
than to know, the aptness and force of which one can appre
ciate when reading Peake and Massie. The following state
ment is about as definite as can he safely risked, and it
probably gives the correct view :/The false system which
was promulgated at Colossae and which Paul so vigorously
and so vehemently opposed was on its doctrinal side aj
3

INTRODUCTION

mixture of Jewish Kabbalistic views with current oriental
speculation and theosophy, of which Asia Minor was and
had been a hotbed from the time whereof the memory of
man ran not to the contrary. It appears to have taught
the mediation of angels and other mysterious powers of the
unseen world in the creation of the world, the giving of the
law, the work of redemption, and the processes of salvation;
and so it obscured, if it did not exclude, Christ altogether.
On its practical side, it combined a merciless asceticism
(Col. 2 : 23) and a strict observance of Jewish rites (2 : 11,
16) with the worship of angels (2 : 18) and an arrogant
claim to special and superior enlightenment (2 : 8, 18). Its
/tone special danger lay in the fact that it obscured or even
/ denied the unique glory of Christ, the ground and agent and
! goal of creation, and the sole mediator through faith in whom
the Christian was delivered from under the power of dark
ness (1 : 13), raised into newness of life (3 : 1), and made
partaker of his glory (3 14).
Any attempt to go further than this, to fix definitely the
false teaching, to identify it with any one definite system, or
to give it a single specific name is attended with difficulties
and sure to be misleading.
At any rate the character of the heresy and the serious
danger which it threatened were such as to make it neces-
sary for Paul, the tireless watchman of the infant Church,
to make an explicit, strong, full, formal statement of the
supremacy of Christ, — of his relation to God, to creation, to
the universe, and to the Church. That is the theme of the
epistle. It bears the same relation to the other epistles
that the Fourth Gospel bears to the other Gospels. It is
the Christological epistle as that is the Christological gospel.
A heresy doctrinally and substantially similar to that
which made it necessary to write the Colossian epistle and
to make the statement and exposition there found of the
supremacy of Christ, made it necessary to write the Fourth
Gospel in order to set forth the God-consciousness and
supremacy of Jesus as there found. — -
4

INTRODUCTION

This does not mean that Paul had developed a new view
and doctrine of Christ, different from that which he pre
viously held and taught. By no means. /~We~know from
his previous epistles that he held all along substantially the
view of Christ which he states and expounds in Golossians. |
If any one doubts this, let him read carefully Gal. i : 16;
2 : 20; Rom. 1 : 3, 4; 1 Cor. 8 : 6; 2 Cor. 4:458 ro;
Phil. 2 : 6, 9-1 1. In all these passages he assumes the
supremacy of Christ as a matter of course.
The last passage is here cited with the others because,
though it was not written as long before Colossians as the
other epistles quoted, it was written without any polemical
purpose and in such a way as to make it manifest that it ex
pressed the view of Christ which was taken for granted, not
only by Paul himself, but by the churches which he had
founded or taught. There is not in the passage a word or a
suggestion which would betray that this view of Christ was
neW or strange to Paul or his readers. The self-evident reason
why he did not make in the previous epistles an express and
"formal statement of the deity and supremacy of Christ js
precisely this, that it was universally accepted .and so.no
occasion had Wen arisen forit, as.hacLnow arisen in the.
ColossIarTchurch by reason of the presence and teachings
there bFthose who "sought to ignore, obscure, or deny the
deity of Paul's Lord and Christ. This consideration, let it
be said incidentally, is sufficient to refute the notion of some
few (as Holtzmann, Von Soden, etc.) that the Christological
passages of our epistle were not written by Paul.
III. Authorship and Date
Indeed, the epistle is so characteristically and evidently
Pauline that it is now accepted as Paul's with practical
unanimity among the best scholars. To undertake to
show exhaustively that it is Pauline, in its point of view,
its fundamental conceptions, its spirit, its style, its
grammatical peculiarities, its figures, and, in view of its
S

INTRODUCTION

date and subject-matter, even in its vocabulary, would be
to quote practically the whole epistle and to anticipate the
exposition. As to place and date, the epistle was certainly written at
Rome and probably in the year 62 or 63. Jiilicher, who is
by no means a conservative, but who is recognized as per
haps the foremost living writer on New Testament Intro
duction, says (Introduction to the New Testament, p. 131),
"We must assign a common date to Philemon, Colossians,
and Ephesians, and in all probability Paul wrote them at
Rome in the year 62 or 63."
IV. Analysis of the Epistle
Structural symmetry and regular logical arrangement
are hardly to be expected in a letter; but it may be
helpful, in tracing the course of the Apostle's thought, to
have a general outline of the contents of the epistle,
something like this: .*
I. The Salutation (1 : 1, 2). \ i\
II. Thanksgiving for the cheering news brought to him
by Epaphras of their participation in the bless-
^^cbQtCJ,;r,1ngs of the universal gospel, their faith in
Christ, and their love toward all Christians
(1 = 3-8).
III. The assurance of his unceasing prayer that they
might have complete knowledge of the will of
God in order that they might live in a manner
that would in all things be pleasing to him
(1 : 9-14). y>
IV. The relations of ttim through whom they have re
ceived and experienced the blessings of re
demption, to God, to the universe, and to the
Church (1 : 15-20), and this in implied contrast
with the fictitious angelic mediators: II
1. He is the visible manifestation of the invisible!
God (1 : 15a). 6

INTRODUCTION

2. He not only existed prior to creation, he is the
ground, and the agent and the goal of creation,
as he is the head and upholder of the universe
(i : isb-17).
3. He is the head also of the new spiritual creation,
the Church (1 : 18).
4. He is the embodiment of the totality of the attri
butes and powers of deity (1 : 19).
5. He is the one mediator through whom God recon
ciles all beings and things in the universe unto
himself (1 : 20).
y. The actual experience of reconciliation on the part of
the Colossians and the meaning and purpose of
it (1 : 2i-23a).
VI. This leads up to a statement of Paul's personal
agency in the reconciliation of the Gentile
world to God (1 : 23^29).
VII. The emptiness and futility of the false teaching in con
trast with the all-sufficiency of Christ (2 : 1-23).
1. Paul's agony of anxiety for them in view of the i
danger they were in (2 : 1-8).
2. The absolute fulness of Christ (2 : 9) and the
full provision for all their needs in him (2 : 10-
15)-
3. This in contrast with the absolute emptiness of s
the so-called "philosophy" of the theosophists
(2 : 8) and the absolute futility of all those n
observances, practices, and asceticisms which
they imposed (2 : 16-23).
VIII. What is involved in their experience of having died
with Christ to the world (2 : 20) and having
been raised with him into new life (3 : 1-17).
1. Heavenly-mindedness, "Seek heaven, think
; , heaven" (3 : 1-4)- p
2. Things to be abandoned for good and all (3 : 5- .,
3. Things to be made part of character (3 : 12-17).

INTRODUCTION

IX. Social relations, especially domestic relations, to be
regulated in accordance with our subjection to
Jesus as Lord (3 : 18-4 : 1).
1. Wives to be in subjection to their husbands (3 :
18).
2. Husbands to love their wives (3 : 19).
3. Children to be obedient to their parents (3 :
20).
4. Fathers to be patient and kind to their children
(3 = 21).
5. Slaves to render hearty obedience to their masters
(3 : 22-25).
6. Masters to treat their slaves with justice and
equality (4 : 1).
X. Practical instructions (4 : 2-6).
1. Perseverance in prayer (4 : 2-4).
2 . Their conduct and bearing toward those who were
not believers (4 : 5, 6).
XL Conclusion (4 : 7-18).
1. The mission and messages of Tychicus and Ones-
imus (4 : 7-9).
2. Greetings from Paul and those brethren who were
with him at Rome (4 : 10-17).
3. Paul's own personal good-by written with his own
manacled hand (4 : 18).

Bibliography
Lightfoot, J. B. Commentary on the Epistle to the Colossians.
New York. The Macmillan Co.
His interpretation is too much influenced by his view that
the Colossian heresy was Gnosticism. Still, he is great. But
see Hort's Judaistic Christianity, pp. 120 ff.
Peake, A. S. The Epistle of Paul to the Colossians. The Ex
positor's Greek Testament. New York. Dodd, Mead & Co.
A little diffuse, of unequal value in different parts, but on the
whole very good. He defends the theory of the Jewish angel
hierarchy as against Gnosticism. But he pushes the theory too
far and proves nothing by proving too much.
8

INTRODUCTION

Abbott, T. K. Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle
to the Colossians. The International Critical Commentary.
New York. Charles Scribner's Sons.
Abbott is very good, but his matter and style are both cumber
some. His Commentary is a haystack, but there are many fine
needles in it, if one can spare the time to find them.
Meyer, H. A. W. Critical and Exegetical Handbook to the Epistle
to the Colossians. English translation. New York. Funk &
Wagnalls Co.
Meyer is always great. He has done more for the exegesis of
the New Testament than any other one man in ancient or modern
times. All who have come after him are indebted to him. It
is easy to trace his influence through them all. He never dodges
or shirks. He always faces the problem squarely. In this sense
you can say of Meyer what Paul says of charity — he never
faileth. But he is not infallible. He does not always give the
right interpretation. In Colossians, for example, he is too much
influenced by the eschatological point of view — the parousia, etc.
A. Maclaren. The Epistle to the Colossians. The Expositor's
Bible. New York.
The qualities that make this work a delight are spiritual in
sight, ample scholarship, evangelical spirit, lucid exposition,
literary charm.
Eadie, John. Commentary on the Greek Text of the Epistle to
the Colossians. Edinburgh, 1884.
Klopper, A. Der Brief an die Kolosser. Berlin, 1882.
Beet, J. A. Commentary on Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians,
and Philemon. London, 1890.
Barry, A. See bibliography on Ephesians.
Mottle, H. G. C. See bibliography on Ephesians.
Oltramare, H. See bibliography on Ephesians.
Von Soden, H. See bibliography on Ephesians.
Hatjpt. Colossians in latest edition of Meyer.
See article on Colossians in Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
and sections on Colossians in the N. T. Introduction of Zahn,
Jiilicher, etc. See also treatment of Colossians in history of
Apostolic Age by Weizsacker, and by McGiffert.
Holtzman, H. J., as in bibliography of Ephesians. Works on New
Testament Theology as under Ephesians.
See also especially Denney, Jesus and the Gospel, pp. 31-36.

THE EPISTLE TO THE
COLOSSIANS
I. The Salutation, i : i, 2
1. Paul, °an apostle of Christ Jesus °through the will of 1:1
2. God, °and Timothy 'our brother, O2to the saints and

1 Gr. the brother. 3 Or, to those that are at Colossa, holy and faithful brethren in
Christ

The Theme of the Epistle: The Deity, the Supremacy, and the All-
sufficiency of Jesus Christ
1. An apostle. This is the word by which Paul designates himself
in all his epistles except i and 2 Thes., at the time of the writing of
which he had not come into a consciousness of the full significance
of his position as it was later brought home to him by outward events
and inward experiences; and Phil, and Philem., both of which were
letters of personal friendship rather than official communications.
Through the will of God. Through an act of God's selection and
appointment, which was an expression of his will. This also is usual,
though not invariable, in Paul's salutations. It was intended to indi
cate the divine source of his commission, to justify his going before
men with such a message as his was, and to give weight to his authority
especially among those who composed the churches. This was much
needed, for example, at Colossse, as we shall see. And Timothy.
Who was with Paul in prison at Rome, as is shown by the similar
greeting in Phil, and Philem.
2. To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ. This rendering
takes the adjective which means holy as a noun and translates it
saints, which is quite in accordance with Paul's usage. But as it is
here closely coupled with another adjective, namely , faithful, it is
better to render it as in the margin, or still better, to the holy and
11

i : 3 COLOSSIANS

faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colossae : ° Grace
to you and peace from God our Father.
II. Thanksgiving foe the Cheering News of their
Faith and Love, 1:3-8
3. °We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus
4. Christ, "praying always for you, °having heard of your
faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have
5. toward all the saints, "because of the hope which is laid

faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossce. In other places where
the word here translated saints is joined with another adjective, it is
taken as an adjective and is translated holy. See 1 : 22; 3 : 12; Eph.
1 : 4. Grace to you and peace. This is exactly the order of the
words in Greek. Here grace is "the merciful kindness in virtue of
which God exercises his holy influence upon the souls of believers,
keeps and strengthens them in Christian faith, knowledge, and love,
and moves them to the practice of all Christian virtues." Peace is
"the tranquillity of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ and
so fearing nothing from God, and content with its earthly lot of what
soever sort that may be."
3. We give thanks. It was Paul's all but invariable habit, when
writing either to a church or an individual, to express his gratitude
to God for their faith and love. He did this, not because it was a
habit, but because he was so deeply in earnest in extending the
knowledge of the Gospel among men and bringing them to salvation
that he was overjoyed when he got good news from them — and he
poured out his heart in thanksgiving. Praying always for you.
The word always can better be taken with give thanks; the rendering
then would be: We always give thanks to God when we pray for you.
4. Having heard. Since the time when we heard. Of your faith
. . . and the love. Their love was the effect of their faith and a proof
of the genuineness of it. This is essentially the principle which under
lies what is said in i John 3 : 14, "We know we have passed from
death unto life because we love the brethren." Their love was a proof
of their regeneration, and their regeneration was the effect of their faith.
5. Because of the hope. If these words were taken with those which
immediately precede, it would mean that their heavenly reward was
the motive of their love, i.e., they had love because they were going to
be rewarded for it, which would be to assign a selfish motive for that
which is the essence of unselfishness — love. This would be self-

COLOSSIANS

up for you in the heavens, "whereof ye heard before
6. °in the word of the truth of the gospel, "which is come Jn. 17 : 17;
unto you; even as it is also in all the world °bearing 2\i^'2]3'
fruit and increasing, °as it doth in you also, "since the 15; Jas. 1:

day ye heard "and knew the grace of God °in truth;
contradictory. These words because of the hope are to be taken with
we give thanks and the meaning is this: We thank God that there is a
glorious reward laid up for those who have such faith and love as we
have heard you have. Whereof ye heard before. Of which hope
you heard when the gospel was first preached to you by Epaphras.
In the word of the truth of the gospel. The proclamation of the
glorious hope was a part of the message which was contained in the
true gospel which you have heard.
6. Which is come unto you; even as it is also in all the world.
The gospel which was preached to the Colossians at the first by Epa
phras was not that perverted caricature of it which was taught in that
particular locality by certain false teachers; it was the true gospel,
the same which had been preached everywhere in the world. Bear
ing fruit and increasing. It was not only preached everywhere in
the world, it was everywhere vindicating itself by the way it was
bearing fruit and extending its widening influence, by its inner work
ing and its outward extension. "The gospel is not like plants that
exhaust themselves in bearing fruit and then wither away." And
its external extension is in keeping with its internal vitality. As it
doth in you also. Before, he had said the gospel had come to them;
here he says it was bearing fruit and increasing among them. It was
the true and the ecumenical gospel they had received formerly from
Epaphras, and it was, according to the report that Epaphras had
brought him, also producing fruit among them and diffusing itself
through them, as everywhere else it was doing. Since the day ye
heard. Both the fruits and the progress of the gospel had been con
tinuous among the Colossians since the day they heard its glad
tidings. And knew the grace of God. Not only had they heard it,
they understood it, they had apprehended it in its true sense as a
message of the free grace of God, and not a system of outward observ
ances and of self-imposed asceticisms, such as the false teachers were
trying to introduce. Just as the Galatians had been tempted by in
truding theological vagabonds to substitute obsolete rites and out
ward forms for the gospel of God's grace and the grace of God's
gospel, and so had "fallen from grace" (Gal. 5 : 4), even so at Colossi
a school of theological heresy peddlers were trying to draw away
believers from the gospel of grace and the grace of the gospel to a
system of ascetic practices and outward observances. In truth.
13

18.

1 : 7 COLOSSIANS

7. "even as ye learned of Epaphras our beloved fellow-
servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ "on *our
8. behalf, "who also declared unto us "your love in the
Spirit.
III. The Assurance of his Prayer for them, i : 9-14
9. "For this cause we also, since the day we heard it,
do not cease "to pray and make request for you, "that
1 Many ancient authorities read your.
The emphasis with which Paul insists that they had heard the true
gospel implies his hitherto unexpressed sense of the presence at
Colossal of a false system and false teachers.
7. Even as ye learned of Epaphras. Paul cannot be too explicit
and emphatic in assuring them that the gospel which they had heard
and accepted was the true gospel, the only gospel; and now still
more narrowly to identify it he adds: It is the very gospel that Epa
phras taught you. Epaphras is here in prison with me now as I
write these words (cf. 4:12 and Philem. 23). He has told me all
about the gospel he preached to you and all about the fruits it has
produced among you. On our behalf. The reading our is better
attested than your, and it means that Epaphras in his ministry had
accomplished a work that was in accord with and furtherance of
Paul's mission as apostle to the Gentiles. It is more than possible
that he had himself been converted under Paul's ministry.
8. Who also declared unto us. Here Paul declares in so many
words that it was from their own evangelist and pastor that he had
gotten at first hand the knowledge of the situation in the Colossian
church which called forth this epistle. Your love in the Spirit. This
is a testimony to that supernatural spiritual love which was one of
the fruits of the gospel at Colossae; and it is here distinguished from
any kind of natural human love by the expression, in the Spirit.
9. For this cause. Because of the good news which Paul had
received through Epaphras concerning the Colossian believers. This
refers probably to all that precedes from verse 4. To pray and make
request for you. The former is the general word for prayer, the latter
is specific. It is here followed by the mention of the specific thing
which Paul specifically asks for them, namely, that ye may be filled
with the knowledge of his will. Literally translated these words
mean, that ye may be filled as to, in respect to, the knowledge, etc. ;
that is, that your knowledge of his will may be full, or, that you may
14

COLOSSIANS

ye may be filled with the knowledge °of his will "in
ro. all spiritual wisdom and understanding, °to walk worth
ily of the Lord O1unto all pleasing, "bearing fruit
1 Or, unto all pleasing, in every good work, bearing fruit and increasing &*c.
have full knowledge of his will. The words "fill," "filling," "fulness,"
are used with striking frequency in this and the epistle to the Ephe
sians. One reason probably is that Paul himself had doubtless
reached a richer, fuller stage of spiritual experience at this time. He
certainly says in Phil. 3:12 that he was pressing on. What he
teaches in these later epistles, what he exhorts his readers to seek, and
what he prays for for them was doubtless the reflex of his own deep
ening experience. This consideration will afford much help in the in
terpretation of his words. The word here used by Paul for knowledge
is stronger than the simple, ordinary word. It signifies knowledge
that is true and thorough. " Knowledge which grasps and penetrates
its object" (Meyer); "it is precise and correct knowledge" (Thayer).
The simple word and the stronger word are used in order in 1 Cor.
13 : 12, "Now I know in part, but then I shall know," etc. The
simple word in Rom. 1 : 21, the stronger word in Rom. 1 : 28. Of
his will. The ability always to discern and interpret the will of God
in one's inner experiences and in the practical affairs of life more
than anything else marks and measures the differences among men
in respect to their real ethical and spiritual state and character.
Hence the insistent emphasis that Paul everywhere puts on knowing
the will of God. See Rom. 12 : 2; Eph. 5 : 10, 17; compare also Jn.
7 : 17 and Heb. 5 : 14. In all spiritual wisdom and understanding.
That is, consisting in or manifesting itself in. The word "spiritual "
belongs to both nouns. "Wisdom" is the general word and means
knowledge of practical affairs applied to practical ends, while "under
standing" is more specific and means that close discernment which
sees the relative bearings and implications of things. Literally, it
means a bringing or putting things together, instead of seeing each one
in isolation and without relation.
10. To walk worthily of the Lord. Their being filled with knowl
edge of the will of God and with all wisdom and understanding was
not an end in itself. It had another and an intensely practical end :
it was in order to right living, high living, living that would do no
dishonor to, but be worthy of, the Lord himself. To have knowledge
and discernment is not character ; to live in a manner worthy of him
who is our Lord is. Unto all pleasing, so as to please him, not in some
things and in some ways, as nearly everybody does, but in every way
and in everything, as Paul did. Bearing fruit. This participle
IS

i:ii COLOSSIANS

"in every good work, "and increasing Hn the knowledge
n. of God; " 2 strengthened 3with all power, "according
to the might of his glory, "unto all patience and long-
12. suffering "with joy; "giving thanks unto the Father,
1 Or, by 3 Gr. made powerful. 3 Or, in
and the three which follow define four ways in which they are to live
worthily of the Lord and to please God. In every good work. This
defines the way in which they are to bear fruit, namely, in every form
of good work. It includes all outward activity. And increasing in
the knowledge of God. This refers to progress in the inner life which
may all be comprehended in the expanding knowledge of God. As
was to be expected, the stronger word for knowledge is here used.
The participle may be more closely related to the preceding one,
bearing fruit, than with the two following ; that is, it may be in a way
subordinate to it with this meaning : Bearing fruit in every form of
good work and so, by that means, increasing in the knowledge of God.
"If any man wills to do his will he shall know," etc. Obedience is, at
least, an organ of knowledge.
n. Strengthened with all power. This participle has a certain
hortatory force from the preceding context, as the other participles
in this group have; and so it is middle rather than passive voice, and
it means "getting yourselves strengthened" or at any rate, "letting
yourselves be strengthened." At the same time that you bear fruit
and increase in the knowledge of God, you are to get yourself continu
ally strengthened or to let yourself be continually strengthened, or,
more strictly, empowered or made powerful (as the margin) with all
the power that is available, all the power that God has to give. Ac
cording to the might of his glory. That is, power is to be supplied in
a manner correspondent with the might that befits the glory of God.
Unto all patience and longsuffering. This equipment with divine
power is not, as we might have expected, said to be given with a view
to deeds of prowess and heroism, but for the practice of the passive
virtue of patient endurance and perseverance as opposed to cowardice
or despondency, and humble meekness and forbearance as opposed to
retaliation or revenge. These really put the greater strain on the
Christian's strength, while the possession and exemplification of
them work a deeper impression and conviction in its beholders than
brilliant deeds of heroism. With joy. And all this not in a spirit of
sourness or sullenness, but of joyfulness. For this they would need
the empowering that God works, but it would be a demonstration of
overcoming the world.
12. Giving thanks unto the Father. This is the last of the four
16

COLOSSIANS

"who made x us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
13. "of the saints in light; "who delivered us out of the
power of darkness, "and translated us into the king-
14. dom of the Son of his love; "in whom we have our
redemption, the forgiveness of our sins :
1 Some ancient authorities read you.
ways in which they are to walk worthily of the Lord and to please him,
He here calls God the Father in order to stimulate thanksgiving by
reminding the Colossians of what he is to them, as he does in the words
immediately following by reminding them of what he has done for them,
namely, who made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance. We may
well be thankful to him who is our Father, to him who has fitted us
for the inheritance of the saints, as he has fitted the inheritance for
us (verse 5). Of the saints in light. The phrase in light seems to be
in a sense local — the lot of the saints which is in the realm of light.
13. Who delivered us out of the power of darkness. This and the
following clause define how the Father qualified us for the inheritance
of the saints and so add other reasons for thankfulness to him. The
preceding mention of light suggests the darkness of their pre-Christian
condition. But not only had they been in a state of moral darkness,
they were in a sense under the power of darkness (cf. Lk. 22 : 53).
This vivid way of conceiving darkness as a power Jesus had used.
And translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love. But- the
Father had done more than deliver them out of, he transported them
into. Or, to speak more exactly, he delivered them from under one
dominion and brought them under another. For there is here not
only the antithesis of darkness and light; there is also the antithesis
between one dominion and another — the dominion of darkness, the
dominion (kingdom) of him who is the Son of the Father's love.
This antithesis is stated with greater clearness by Paul in his address
before King Agrippa (Acts 26 : 18). The double antithesis is well
brought out by Lightfoot: "We were slaves in the realm of darkness;
God the Father rescued us from this thraldom. He transported us
thence and settled us as free citizens in the kingdom of his Son — the
realm of light."
14. In whom we have our redemption. The clauses of the preced
ing verse contain a description of the actual experience of the Colos
sians (and Paul: note the first person plural). In this verse he presents
their deliverance as redemption, gives the ground of that redemption,
and further identifies it as the forgiveness of our sins. Our redemp
tion is grounded in Christ, the Son of the Father's love ; and it is actu
alized in individual experience in the consciousness of forgiveness;
C 17

I : is COLOSSIANS

IV. The Nature, Rank, and All-Sufficiency of the
Son, through Whom Redemption has
come, i : 15-20
15. who is "the image of the invisible God, "the firstborn
1. He is the visible manifestation of the invisible (unknowable) God,
1 : i5a
15. In the preceding verses (13, 14), Paul has recalled to the
Colossian Christians, about whom Epaphras has given him full in
formation, the facts of their own experience: They have been deliv
ered from the power of darkness; they have been deported arjd have
come under the gracious sway of the Son of God's love; thuy have
had actual experience of the redemption which has its ground, in him,
receiving the forgiveness of their sins. So much, at least, you know
about him through the facts of your own experience, Paul wo'dld say.
But I will tell you more at length who and what he is, so thc.t you
may not be misled by the false teachers there, who would fain turn
you away from him and persuade you that it is necessary to trust in
other mediators. I will show you that he is supreme and all-suffi
cient, and that, because all the plenitude of deity is in him. The
image of the invisible God. The word "invisible" is here clearly
the antithesis of image, so that the meaning is, who is the visible em
bodiment, incarnation, manifestation, of the invisible God. The
present tense in this sentence does not limit Paul's statement to the
exalted Christ, as some hold. The statement is one of general scope :
The fact holds good of Christ that he is the image of God. The whole
passage views Christ, not "divided" into preincarnate, incarnate, and
exalted, but as one Christ in his undivided totality, so to speak.
The thought of Paul is contained substantially in John's gospel : "No
man has ever at any time seen God. . . . He that hath seen me hath
seen the Father." The firstborn of all creation. He is the one born
before all creation. The word creation is not the partitive genitive,
which would imply that Christ was part of creation himself ; it is the
genitive of comparison after the word "first" in firstborn. There are
two instances of this in Jn. 1 : 15, 30. In later Greek the word
"first," which is a superlative, is used with the genitive where the
comparative of the same word might have been expected (Thayer).
Moreover, notice that, in contrast with all other things and beings in
heaven and on earth, Christ is born, not created. He is thus in
nature different from all else, just as a woman's child, which is born
18

COLOSSIANS

16. of all creation; "for in him were all things created, "in
the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and
things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or prin
cipalities or powers; "all things have been created
of her, differs from something that is made by her. The word (first
born), then, implies that in some way, inscrutable and incompre
hensible, Christ is derived from God, the Father. This is involved
in the word "only begotten," also, in Jn. i : 18. The word "first
born" is used in Hebrews also (i : 6). "When he bringeth in the
firstborn into the world."
2. Be is the ground, the agent, and the goal of creation, the head and
upholder of the universe, i : 16, 17
16. For in him were all things created. Here is the proof of his
priority to all creation, namely, that in him creation had its origin,
its ground, its realization; which is to say, that apart from him and
but for him, there would have been no ground of creation, no motive
for creation, no justification of creation, and no creation. The em
phasis on the words "in him" is exclusive — it was in him and not
in any other that creation had its ground. "The conditioning cause
of creation resided in him " (Abbott). And what is this but what we call
"TheChristian View of the World" ? This relation of Christ to creation
is acceptable to our reason and reasonable to our understanding.
Blot out Christ and creation becomes a failure, a. blunder, a crime.
"Apart from Christ there would have been no creation, with him
creation was a necessity" (Haupt). In the heavens and upon the
earth. What Paul would say is this: When I said all things I meant
all things in the most unqualified, absolute sense, with no limitation
or exception. I meant the whole universe, all that is, notonly what
is on earth but what is in the heavens, not only what is visible but all
that is invisible, such, for example, as those beings that compose the
hierarchy of the unseen, by whatever name or title they may be
designated, thrones, dominions, principalities, powers. There is no
doubt that Paul has reference here to those angelic beings or Gnostic
eons, as the case may have been, which the propagandists of error
believed in and preached among the Christian believers of Colossae.
All things have been created through him. Not only was Christ the
conditioning cause of creation, the raison d'Ure of creation, it was
through his agency that creation actually took place. It was through
his agential act or activity that the cosmos emerged out of vacuity.
If it is reasonable, as we have seen, that without Christ there would
have been no justifying reason of creation and no creation, why should
19

1 : 17 COLOSSIANS

17. through him, "and unto him; "and he is before
18. all things, "and in him all things * consist. "And
1 That is, hold together.

it be thought a thing incredible that he should have accomplished it?
It is not any greater to be the agent of creation than to be the con
ditioning cause of creation, and no harder to believe Christ was the
one than the other. And unto him. This does not mean that it was
for Christ's advantage or glorification or any such thing. It means
that creation took place with reference to what Christ was going to
be to it and do for it in the course of the ages. It was effected for his
future relation to it and his future effects upon it. Of course, it was for
the revelation of himself, for he was brought out of the hidden depths
and made known both in creation and redemption, of which process
incarnation was a part. Thus Christ is the cause, the agent, and the
goal of creation. " Tout a. 6te cree a cause de lui, par lui, et pour
lui." All men are coming to see, some slowly and confusedly to be
sure, that the kingdom of God, as pictured by Christ, is the goal of
history, the final end of creation, indeed; and we know that Christ
himself is the creator, the life, the centre, the head of this kingdom,
which being translated into contemporary thought and interpreted
in contemporary terms means, " The Christian View of the World" —
the world was made for the kingdom.
17. And he is before all things. The word "before" does not here
denote priority in time. That would be only a tame repetition of
what has already been strongly said in verse 15. This difficulty is
probably the explanation of the curious construction of Lightfoot,
followed by Westcott and Hort, who take "is" as the predicate with
the meaning "he exists," a construction which is indefensible for at
least three good reasons. The word "before" is here used of rank.
This occurs in classical Greek, though there is no certain instance of it
in the New Testament. What Paul here asserts is that he, Christ
(with emphasis), is still at the head of the universe, as he was when
he created it at the beginning. This is an advance in thought upon
anything that has previously been said, and it aptly and admirably
prepares the way for the declaration that follows, namely, and in
him all things consist. Not only is he still the head of the universe,
he is the cohesive force that holds it together in its cosmical complete
ness and order, "maintaining the relations of things and combining
them into an ordered whole so that there is cosmos and not chaos."
This also is an advance on what Paul has said before and follows with
beautiful appositeness the assertion that he is still the head of all
things.

COLOSSIANS 1:18

he is the head of the body, the church: "who is
the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; "'that
in all things "he might have the preeminence.
1 Or, that among all he might have
3. He is the head of the new spiritual creation, the church
18. Paul now passes to the relation of Christ to the new creation,
that is, the church. And he is the head of the body, the church. As
he was the creator and is the supreme executive of the universe, the
natural creation, so he, the same, is the creator and head of the
church, which is the new spiritual creation. When the apostle
comes to speak of Christ's relation to the church, he uses words differ
ent from those employed to show his relation to the world, words
that express a more intimate and vital relation — he is the head of
the church. This does not mean that he is to the church what the
mayor is to the city, or the president to the nation — its ruler and
director, but what the head is to the body, the seat of its life, the
centre and mainspring of all its activities. This is why he uses the
strange form of expression here found. Why did he not say simply,
he is the head of the church? Because that would have meant no
more than that he is ruler and director of the church. He had to say,
he is head-to-the-body of the church, or he is body-head to the
church, or he is the church's body-head, which means, he is to the
church what the head is to the body. This idea is brought out with
greater clearness and fulness in chap. 2 : 19, where, speaking of the
false teachers, he says, "Not holding fast the Head from whom all the
body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands,
increaseth with the increase of God." Who is the beginning. " In that
he is." The word here translated "beginning" means much more
than that, it means primal source, life-principle, beginning of being.
So that Christ is not only the beginning of the church in the sense of
priority in time, he is the source of its life, he is its /ores et origo;
being, as he was, the first to rise from the dead, and so having abol
ished death, he is Lord and giver of life — a life-giving spirit (1 Cor.
15 : 45). That in all things. In the church as well as in the universe;
in the spiritual as well as in the natural order. He might have the
preeminence. He is author, upholder, and sovereign of the universe.
But more, he is now, since the completion of his work of redemption,
in the fact of his resurrection, the head of the church, which is indeed
his very body; and this in order that he might thereby complete in
all realms, spiritual as well as natural, the absoluteness of his primacy
and so of his supremacy. 21

i;ig COLOSSIANS

19. " 1 For it was the good pleasure of the Father "that in
20. him should all the fulness dwell ; "and through him to
reconcile all things 2unto 3 himself, "having made peace
1 Or, For the whole fulness of God was pleased to dwell in him a Or, unto him
3 Or, him
4. He is the embodiment of the totality of the divine attributes and
powers, 1 : 19
19. For it was the good pleasure of the Father. Some commenta
tors (as Weiss, Ellicott, Von Soden, Abbott) adopt the construction
of the margin: For the whole fulness of God was pleased to dwell in
him. This is not only harsh, it does not suit the following words to
reconcile : all the fulness was pleased to reconcile, etc. It is therefore
rejected by most commentators. That in him should all the fulness
dwell. These words seem to mean that not only a part of what con
stituted divinity or deity, but the whole of it, and this by the will of the
Father. They remind us of the word of Jesus himself in John's gos
pel, " I and the Father are one." It is possible, as some one has said,
that the false teachers held that the Lord had only a part of " the ful
ness," the pleroma. In opposition to this Paul declares that it was
the good pleasure of the Father that the totality of the divine attri
butes and powers should dwell in Christ. For "all that is his own
right is his Father's pleasure and is ever referred to that pleasure by
himself" (Alford).
5. He is the mediator through whom God reconciles all things and
beings in heaven and on earth unto himself, 1 : 20
20. And through him to reconcile all things unto himself. This
clause is grammatically dependent on the leading verb of verse 19,
thus: It was the Father's good pleasure also through Christ to reconcile
unto, or bring again all things into harmony with, himself. But it is
closely connected with verse 19 in meaning also. For only one in
whom all the fulness of the godhead dwelt could do this work of
reconciliation. Doubtless Paul here had in mind the interposition
of the angelic or Gnostic mediators taught by the false teachers.
These mediators were ineffective because neither human nor divine.
The true mediator must be both human and divine. It was necessary
that in him all the plenitude of the godhead should dwell; and it was
necessary also that he should be born into the world and live and
suffer as a man. Having made peace through the blood of his cross.
This rendering obscures the relation and meaning of the participle,

COLOSSIANS

through the blood of his cross; "through him, I say.
whether things upon the earth^or things in the heavens!) -
V. The Actual Experience of Reconciliation on the
Part of the Colossians: the Meaning
and End of it, i : 2i-23a
21. "And you, "being in time past alienated "and enemies
having made peace. It does not express action antecedent to the act
of reconciling. It rather expresses the means and way of reconciling,
and the action expressed by it is not only simultaneous, it is identical
with the act of reconciling: He reconciled all things to God by mak
ing peace or harmonizing them with God through his blood. And
this was to be effected through the sacrifice of himself which he made
on the cross. Here then is the full conception: The one in whom
dwelt all the fulness of deity, shedding his blood on the cross to recon
cile the universe back to God. This was the objective fact and
factor in the process of reconciliation. Through him, I say, whether
things upon the earth, or things in the heavens. This striking addition
carries a twofold emphasis: it emphasizes by repetition the assertion
that it was through Christ and no other, and it emphasizes the uni
versal extent of the reconciliation by the specification of the things in
the heavens as well as on the earth. Reconciliation was not brought
about by any of those manufactured mediators whom the intruding
propagandists preached. Indeed, those whom they accepted for
themselves and urged upon others as mediators needed themselves
to be reconciled; and as a matter of fact, Paul says, Christ was
reconciler for them as well as for men. If these mediators were the
"angels" of Jewish theology, then they too needed reconciliation.
This may be the intent of the passage. But if not, then who or what
were the "things in the heavens" that Christ is said to have recon
ciled? Beyond some vague hints such as those in Acts 3:21; Rom.
8 : 21; and Eph. 1 : 10, we know nothing, and perhaps, as Lightfoot
says, "It were vain to speculate." But see on Eph. 1 : 10.
21. And you. In verses 12-14 he referred to the experience of
Christians in general, including the Colossians and himself; now he
refers specifically to the experience of the Colossians as no doubt
Epaphras had described it to him. You are, Paul would say, you
yourselves are an example of Christ's reconciling work. Being in
time past alienated. When you were formerly in a state of estrange
ment and alienation. And enemies in your mind. They were more
than alienated, they were actively hostile to God in the attitude
23

i : 22 COLOSSIANS

in your mind "in your evil works, "yet now * hath he
22. reconciled "in the body of his flesh "through death, "to
present you holy and without blemish and unreprove-
23. able "before him: "if so be that ye continue in the
faith, "grounded and stedfast, "and not moved away
"from the hope of the gospel "which ye heard, which
was preached in all creation under heaven;
1 Some ancient authorities read ye have been reconciled.
toward him of their mind and thought. A good commentary on this
may be found in Rom. 8 : 7, "The mind of the flesh is enmity to
God." In your evil works. In the practice of, or while ye went on
practising, evil deeds.
22. Yet now hath he reconciled. He has, as you know by experi
ence, actually brought you into a state of harmony and peace with
himself. In the body of his flesh. His literal physical body, thus
described to prevent confusion with what he had said in verse 18
about the church as the body of Christ. It is possible that Paul had
in mind the false teachers also who thought reconciliation could be
effected by spiritual beings only, and who made of little or no ac
count the literal death of the body of Christ. Through death. This
defines the words "in the body of his flesh" and shows how he
effected reconciliation in the body of his flesh — it was through the
death of that body. To present you holy and without blemish and
unreproveable. This is the purpose of his reconciling you. These
terms are not to be taken in a forensic sense, but express moral and
spiritual character, the first being positive, the other two negative.
Before him. These words are to be taken with "present," to present
you before him.
23. If so be that ye continue in the faith. By the exercise of faith
in the gospel, as it was preached to them by Epaphras, they had
actually been brought into harmony and peace with God. The
condition of their being presented at last before God holy and without
blemish and without blame was that they continue in the (same)
faith instead of following the false teachers away from Christ. The
gospel does not need to be changed or supplemented. Grounded and
stedfast. These words, one a participle and the other an adjective,
may be taken as complementary to the verb "continue," thus: If ye
continue grounded and stedfast in the faith; or they may be taken
as a sort of appositional addition, as the Revised Version. And not
moved away. This is a. present participle and denotes progress or
process — not moving or shifting away to the empty vagaries of the
24

COLOSSIANS

VI. This Leads up to a Fuller Statement of Paul's
Relation to the Gospel and his Agency
in Disseminating it, i : 23D-29
"whereof I Paul was made a minister.
24. "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, "and
fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflic-
heretics. From the hope of the gospel. The hope which the gospel
gives. Which ye heard, which was preached in all creation under
heaven. This is the gospel which you heard; and the gospel which
you heard is that which has been universally preached; and it is the
gospel of which I Paul was appointed a minister. It is not likely that
you will be wrong in cleaving to this gospel, having, as it does, such
credentials as these. It is not likely that it is a false gospel or that
it is defective. It is not likely that that scheme which the Jewish
angel worshippers and Gnostic propagandists have hatched up and
patched up, there in that little corner of the world, is the true gospel
and that I, Paul, and all the rest of the church universal are wrong.
Whereof I Paul was made a minister. I, Paul, was commissioned
as a minister of this gospel by God who is its author. I received it
not from man, nor through man, but from God.
24. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. This sentence
breaks in very abruptly. The abruptness of it has puzzled all readers
of the epistle from the copyists of the manuscripts down to the latest
commentator. It indicates excited emotion on the part of Paul. It
was nothing new for him to rejoice in his sufferings and to say so, as
he did in 2 Cor. 12 : 9, 10; Phil. 2 : 17. But there is something new
here, something he has nowhere else said; most probably it had never
occurred to him before. And the thought is so startling that it
affects his language and disturbs the even tenor of his style. It is
this: that in the sufferings which, as a prisoner, he was then under
going for the sake of the Colossians and other Gentiles, he was actually
supplementing and completing the afflictions of Christ! And fill up
on my part that which is lacking. In what sense was there any lack
in the sufferings of Christ? Certainly Paul would have been the last
to say that they were defective in any sacrificial sense. It was in
this sense : that many and severe afflictions (the word used by Paul)
were necessary, inevitable, in bringing Christ to the knowledge and
commending him to the acceptance of the Gentiles, as was illustrated
in the career of Paul and all through the history of Acts. These
necessary afflictions had to be endured by somebody. Christ himself
25

1 : 25 COLOSSIANS

tions of Christ "in my flesh for his body's sake, "which
25. is the church; "whereof I was made a minister, "ac
cording to the 1 dispensation of God which was given
26. me to you-ward, to fulfil the word of God, "even the
mystery which hath been hid 2 from all ages and gener-
1 Or, stewardship a Qr.from the ages and from the generations.

could not endure them in his own person, for he was no longer in the
world. Those who voluntarily accepted and endured these afflictions
were, then, in a very real sense, doing it in Christ's stead. Jesus said
to Saul on the Damascus road, "Why persecutest thou me f" Others
explain the words of Paul on the ground of his doctrine of the mystical
identification of believers with Christ. In my flesh for his body's
sake. A very striking collocation — in ray flesh for his body. It is
equivalent to in my body for his body. The afflictions are endured in
my body, but it is for his body. Paul probably uses the word " flesh "
for the sake of vividness, realism. Which is the church. Added to
prevent confusion between Christ's mystical body and his literal
physical body.
25. Whereof I was made a minister. In verse 23 he said he had
been made a minister of the gospel ; here of the church. He served
the church in ministering the gospel; and he served the cause of the
gospel in ministering to the church. According to the dispensation
of God. He here amplifies the implication of verse 1 into a full and
formal statement of his commission as an apostle: his stewardship,
trusteeship, of the gospel was by direct gift, bestowment, appointment,
of God himself. Surely, then, he ought to know what the gospel was
and what it was not.
26. Even the mystery which hath been hid. The word " mystery "
simply means something which is not known until it is revealed,
which cannot be known except by revelation, in short, a secret. To
Paul it was given to make this secret known, namely, that the whole
world of Gentiles is made fellow-sharer of salvation in Christ, as
Paul says at length in Eph. 3 : 4, 8, 9. The undisputed fact that it
was he who gave the gospel to the world of Gentiles is a confirmation
of his statement that it was he to whom the revelation of this secret
and the commission to make it known were intrusted. "Paul
always catches fire whenever he is brought to think or speak of the
world-wide destination of the gospel and the honor bestowed on him
in intrusting him with the task of transforming the church from a
Jewish sect to a world-wide communion. There is no greater revolu
tion in the history of the world than that accomplished through him 
26

COLOSSIANS

ations : "but now hath it been manifested to his saints,
27. "to whom God was pleased "to make known "what is the
riches of the glory of "this mystery among the Gen-
28. tiles, "which is Christ in you, "the hope of glory : "whom
we proclaim, "admonishing "every man and teaching

cutting Christianity loose from Judaism and widening the church to
include the race" (Maclaren). But now hath it been manifested
to his saints. It has now become "an open secret," for it has been
made known to God's people and so to all the world. The chief agent
to whom and through whom it was made known, especially in its full
scope and significance, was Paul. Compare Eph. 3:8, 9.
27. To whom God was pleased = inasmuch as it was to them that
God willed. To make known. In their experience of salvation.
What is the riches of the glory. Not how glorious is the riches, but
how rich is the glory, for glory is the principal idea here. The con
ception of the inclusion of all the Gentile peoples of ihe whole world
in the hitherto undisclosed plan of God is so inspiring to Paul that he
has to strain language to its utmost to express his sense of it. A
good commentary on this part of Colossians is to be found in Eph.
3 : 2-10, which is evidently an amplification of this. This mystery
among the Gentiles. It is this now open secret of the gospel offered
freely to and experienced by the Gentiles that has so taken possession
of Paul that he lingers on it and is loath to let it go.
28. Which (secret) is Christ in you. This does not mean Christ
among you. That does not agree with what follows, which is a sub
jective, inner experience, namely, the hope of glory. " The indwell
ing Christ is a pledge of future glory." "If we have the experience
of his dwelling in our hearts, we have in that very experience of his
peace and power a quickener of the hope that it will continue after
death and forever. One who habitually has Christ dwelling in him
cannot believe that death will end such a union." What is the glory
of which the indwelling of Christ creates the hope? See Col. 3 : 4;
Rom. 5:258:17. Whom we proclaim. Paul here refers to the false
teachers and their doctrines. The pronoun "we" is emphatic. In
contrast with what they teach, we, Paul and those of his mind, we
proclaim Christ. Admonishing . . . and teaching. We need not
suppose that this refers to warning the disciples against false teach
ing, as Paul is doing in this epistle. It was his regular habit to warn
men, to awaken them, and to teach men. This is the natural order.
We do not need to distinguish the words further. Every man. Paul's
gospel was not for any special class. He slighted no man, he passed
by no man. He preached a gospel that was for every single indi-
27

i : 29 COLOSSIANS

every man "in all wisdom, "that we may present every
29. man perfect "in Christ; "whereunto I labour also,
"striving "according to his working, which worketh in
me l mightily.
VII. The Emptiness and Futility of the False
Teaching in Contrast with the All-
Sufficiency of Christ, 2 : 1-23
2. "For I would have you know how greatly I strive for
1 Or, in power
vidual man, the possibility of whose salvation he recognized and
undertook to secure. And we know this was his actual practice. He
not only believed in "individual work for individuals," he undertook
it. Read Acts 20 : 31, and especially the beautiful and pathetic
letter to Philemon about an individual, a runaway slave. Paul knew
no hopeless classes and no hopeless cases. In all wisdom. That is,
by using every form of wisdom and tact, adapting it to "every man,"
to each individual case. That we may present every man perfect.
Present to whom? God, of course. Paul then preaches and labors
(see next verse) with the hope and purpose of bringing every man to
maturity in faith and character. In Christ. For Paul knows no other
way; and he has absolutely no hope of doing it apart from Christ.
29. Whereunto I labour also. Better, whereunto I actually toil.
With a view to which end, namely, that I may, by seasonable warning
and patient teaching, in the use of every form of wisdom, develop
every man to the state of maturity in faith and Christian life, I actu
ally toil. The word expresses toil carried to the point of weariness.
Striving. Straining like an athlete in the contest. According to his
working, which worketh in me mightily. The toil and striving are
not of a merely human sort, not in proportion to his own natural powers,
but to the energy of him who energizes in him in mighty power.
Compare Eph. 3 : 20: "According to the power that worketh in us."
1. His intense anxiety for them in view of the danger threatening
them, 2 : 1-8
1. For I would have you know how greatly I strive for you. Better
in how severe a struggle I am engaged in your behalf. This is by way
of confirming what he had said in the previous verse (1 : 29). It
28

COLOSSIANS

you, "and for them at Laodicea, "and for as many as
2. have not seen my face in the flesh ; "that their hearts
may be comforted, "they being knit together in love,
"and unto all riches of the xfull assurance of under
standing, "that they may know the mystery of God,
3. 2 even Christ, "in whom "are all the treasures of wisdom
1 Or, fulness * The ancient authorities vary much in the text of this passage.
may be also a. justification of his having used such strong words.
This class of words is to be found in every group of Paul's epistles,
but are nowhere else in the New Testament. And for them at Laod
icea. Laodicea was near to Colossae (eleven miles), and its church
had the same pastor (4 : 13). And for as many as have not seen my
face in the flesh = and in short for all who, etc. These words imply
what is confirmed by the tone of the epistle throughout, as well as by
the absence of any mention of Colossal in Acts, that Paul had never
visited Colossae.
2. That their hearts may be comforted, or rather that their hearts
may be encouraged and strengthened. They needed encouragement
more than they needed comfort. They being knit together in love.
That is, that they may be bound together in love. This would guard
them against the divisive tendencies of the false teaching. And unto
all riches of the full assurance of understanding. It is the further
object of his agonizing struggle in prayer that their hearts may be
comforted and united so as to bring them into the enjoyment of all
that wealth which consists in the full assurance, the absolutely un
questioning, unwavering certitude, which either meets and answers
all the questions of the understanding or so satisfies and fills the heart
that there are no questions to ask. The thought is similar to that
in Phil. 4:7: "The peace of God which passeth all understanding."
That they may know the mystery of God, even Christ. This is par
allel to the preceding words, namely, Unto all the riches of the full
assurance of understanding, which is the same as to say, that they
may fully know Christ, God's secret; for full knowledge of him will
give full assurance and satisfaction to the understanding.
3. In whom. This refers to Christ, who is the secret of God. Are
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The false teachers as
sumed that they had a knowledge higher and deeper than that of
ordinary Christian believers; otherwise they would not have pro
posed to teach them. As a sweeping refutation of all these assump
tions and pretensions Paul declares at once that all wisdom and
knowledge are to be found in Christ, and they do not need therefore
29

2 : 4 COLOSSIANS

i Cor. 1:3 4. and knowledge "hidden. "This I say, "that no one
5. may delude you with persuasiveness of speech. For
though I am absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in
the spirit, "joying and beholding "your order, and the
6. stedfastness of your faith in Christ.
"As therefore ye received Christ Jesus the Lord,
7. °so walk in him, "rooted "and builded up in him,
to seek it elsewhere. Hidden. This has a double reference: to the
secret, esoteric knowledge professed by the false teachers, on the one
hand; and to Christ as the secret of God, on the other. For the knowl
edge that is in Christ is hidden, so to speak, and has to be revealed
before it can be made available. 1 Cor. 2 : 6-10 is an illuminating
commentary on this.
4. This I say. Referring to the preceding assertion that all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge are in Christ. That no one may
delude you with persuasiveness of speech. That no one may mislead
you by his plausible sophistry. This is the first explicit reference to
the false teachers, and this description of them reveals at once their
sinister motives and their subtle methods. Delude. Seduce you
away from your attitude of steadfast faith and your solid unanimity
in Christ, which, though absent, I behold, and beholding, rejoice.
5. Joying and beholding. Rejoicing with you and beholding.
Your order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ. He had
learned from Epaphras that, so far, none of the Colossian Christians
had been led away. These are military figures, and the meaning
seems to be, "Your orderly array and the solid unbroken front which
your faith in Christ presents against the assaults of the deceivers."
We should bear in mind that Paul was in daily contact with drilling
soldiers in the barracks at Rome, Eph. 6 : 10-17.
6. Therefore. What I am driving at is this, Do not turn away
from Christ to follow the new but dangerous scheme of the deceivers.
As ye received Christ Jesus the Lord. They had learned the gospel
from Epaphras (1 : 7), whose conception of the gospel was the same as
Paul's. Christ. He says Christ instead of the gospel because the
fundamental error of the false teachers was their misconception of
Christ. Jesus. "In whom the true conception of the Christ was
realized." Cf. Eph. 3 : 11; 4 : 20, 21. So walk in him. Live your
life, regulate your whole conduct, in accordance with the way you
learned Christ, and in union with him.
7. Rooted. This, being the perfect tense, expresses the settled state
of their life with reference to Christ. And builded up in him. This,
being the present tense, expresses the continual development which is
3°

COLOSSIANS

"and stablished * in your faith, even as ye were taught,
8. abounding 2 in thanksgiving.
°3Take heed lest there shall be any one "that
maketh spoil of you "through his philosophy and
vain deceit, "after the tradition of men, "after the
9. 'rudiments of the world, "and not after Christ: "for
1 Or, by a Some ancient authorities insert in it. 3 Or, see whether * Or, elements
always advancing, but still and always, in him. And stablished in
your faith. This also is a present participle, denoting, not a fixed,
unchanging state, but a continuous process. They were to become
continuously more and more firmly established in, not by, their faith,
as the margin reads.
8. Take heed lest there shall be any one. Here again is a direct
reference to the men who were trying to deceive them by subtle, artful
sophistry into adopting their system in place of the gospel they had
received at first. That maketh spoil of you. Take possession of
you and carry you off as his spoil. This, then, is what they were en
gaged in trying to do. Through his philosophy arid vain deceit.
Here Paul directly attacks the false teaching. "Philosophy" is what
they called their system. An empty delusion and sham is what Paul
called it, and what it was. It was false and it was empty. There
was absolutely nothing to it. In these heated words we see again
the jealous and fiery defender of the faith who wrote the epistle to
the Galatians. After the tradition of men. This so-called "philoso
phy" of theirs was a man-made scheme. God had nothing to do with
it; it had in reality nothing to do with God. It was originated en
tirely by men and is handed along from men to men. The stream
rises no higher than its source. After the rudiments of the world. As
to its origin, it is altogether of man; as to its subject-matter, it con
cerns itself with what is of this world. As to what is meant specifi
cally by the expression "the rudiments of the world," it isnot easy
to determine. It may mean worldly in the sense of material as op
posed to spiritual things. Or it may mean elements with which the
world concerns itself, namely, puerile questions of the world. Sev
eral recent commentators take it to mean personal elemental spirits
(see Introduction). And not after Christ. Not having Christ for its
subject-matter. 2. The fulness of Christ and their fulness in him, 2 : 9-15
9. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead. The word
"for" introduces the reason or ground of a thought which is left to be
31

2: io COLOSSIANS

in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead "bodily,
10 "and in him ye are made full, "who is the head of all
n. principality and power: "in whom ye were also cir
cumcised with a circumcision not made with hands,
supplied by the reader, as is often the case in Paul. The connection
is something like this: The system or gospel that has not Christ for its
subject-matter and centre is false, which implies that the true gospel
has Christ for its subject-matter; and conversely, the gospel which
has Christ for its centre and substance is true — for in him dwells all
the fulness of the Godhead. In him, standing at the beginning of the
sentence, is emphatic. Dwelleth. Some say that this present tense
implies that the reference is to the present exalted state of Christ.
Not necessarily so. It may be a general statement of what is true
of Christ throughout. In any case it was sufficient to make plain the
truth that Paul wanted to utter, and to serve his purpose. All the
fulness. That is, not a part of what constituted deity, but the am
plitude of it. Of the Godhead. Not only divine powers or attributes,
but the divine nature itself. This word means deity, not divinity;
that is another Greek word. Bodily. Some refer this to the incarna
tion and take it to mean corporeally, "bodily-wise" (Lightfoot).
Others take it to mean : The fulness dwells in the exalted Christ as
a complete and organic whole. In this case it refers to the fulness
and not to Christ.
io. And in him ye are made full. You are the body of Christ,
incorporate with him, so that in him the fulness is yours, ideally ; and
practically, you find in Christ the full satisfaction of every spiritual
want and do not need the help of any other mediator or power. Being
in him, you are filled from his fulness as a smaller vessel within a
larger one is filled from the fulness of the larger one. It is filled to
its own full capacity, yet not so as to receive all the fulness. Who
is the head of all principality and power. Better, of every principality.
He who is your head is universal head of all that is called, of all that
is, rule and authority in the universe. He is the head of all those
intermediate beings the false teachers are trying to persuade you to
put your trust in. As they themselves are inferior to and dependent
on Christ, they have nothing that you have not already at first hand
and in all its fulness in Christ.
n. In whom ye were also circumcised. What does he mean by
dragging in circumcision here? Where is the relevancy of any such
reference? Paul has just made a sweeping assertion of the absolute.
fulness of Christ, the divine fulness of Christ, in general, and followed
it by an unqualified declaration that his fulness is theirs, that they have
the full satisfaction of every spiritual need in him. But this is a
32

COLOSSIANS

"in the putting off of the body of the flesh, "in the cir-
12. cumcision of Christ; "having been buried with him in
general undefined statement. He now wishes to give some concrete
instance of this general truth and that in terms of their own actual
experience, one which they have the means of verifying. So he cites
and describes their experience of actual deliverance from the domin
ion and corruption of their carnal nature. But for some reason he
chooses to do this under the figure of circumcision. Why? Doubt
less because the false teachers, among other things, insisted on their
being circumcised, not perhaps as a condition of salvation, as in the
case of the Gentile believers at Antioch (Acts 15 : 1) and the Gala
tians (Gal. 6 : 12), but probably as conferring and indicating a higher
degree of sanctity. So, Paul says, by virtue of your union with Christ,
you have already been circumcised in the true sense of that sym
bolic observance. For true circumcision was not done with hands.
What could that do toward the renewing of a man's evil nature and
transforming him in character? In the putting off of the body of the
flesh. Circumcision had a symbolic meaning for Paul. It meant
the complete putting off, not of a part of the body, but of the entire
body of the flesh, that is, rendering inactive, unresponsive, and dead
the body in so far as it is the seat or organ of sinful passion; as he
says in Rom. 6 : 6, "That the body of sin might be done away." This
then, is what, as a matter of experience, Christ had done for the Colos
sians, as Epaphras had informed Paul; he had done for them the
wonderful, the impossible thing that he had years ago done for Paul
himself as related in Rom. 7 : 24, 25, and 8 : 2. Now, then, why
should they turn aside to the weak and beggarly elements of the
world and consent to be brought into dependence on them and
bondage to them? The situation in Galatians is similar to this (see
Gal. 3 : 3 and 4:9). In the circumcision of Christ. The circum
cision which is brought about by Christ by virtue of union with him,
as opposed to the hand-made circumcision of the Jewish patriarchs
and Moses.
12. Having been buried with him in baptism. The sudden mention
of circumcision in the preceding verse was so abrupt as to be almost
startling. The introduction of baptism here seems more so. What
connection has baptism with the subject he is discussing? It is
probably introduced to mark the epoch in their own life when they
had the experience of deliverance called in the preceding verse cir
cumcision. It specifies the time when the circumcision was brought
about. But it has a further and deeper meaning here. It introduces
the other, the positive, element of their experience of salvation,
namely, their resurrection to a new life. Circumcision represented
the deliverance from the bondage and corruption of the old carnal
d 33

2: 13 COLOSSIANS

baptism, "wherein "ye were also raised with him
"through faith in the working of God, "who raised him
13. from the dead. "And you, "being dead "through your
trespasses "and the uncircumcision of your flesh, "you, I
say, "did he quicken together with him, "having for-
life; baptism represented the introduction into the new resurrection
life of holiness and service. Wherein. That is, at the time of bap
tism, though some refer this to Christ, meaning in whom. Ye were
also raised with him. This view of the symbolic significance of
baptism is a prominent Pauline conception and is drawn out at
length in Rom. 6:3,4, which is a good commentary on this. Through
faith in the working of God. The literal translation of the Greek
would be through the faith of the working of God, which may mean
either the faith which is the effect of the working of God, or faith
directed toward, exercised in, the working of God, as the R.V. renders
it. This last seems to be more in agreement with the usage of Paul.
Who raised him from the dead. The resurrection of Jesus was with
Paul the great example of the efficacy of the working of God, as in
Eph. 1 : 19, 20.
13. And you. That is, you as well as Christ. Being dead. That
is, though you were dead, or while you were dead. In the former ap
peal to their experience, 1 : 21, he referred to their prechristian con
dition as one of estrangement from and hostility to God. Here he
goes further, he says they were dead to all good. Through your
trespasses. In t : 21 it was in their evil deeds, in the practice of
wrong-doing; here it is through, by means or by reason of their tres
passes. See a similar thought in Jn. 3 : 19 and Rom. 7 : 9. And
the uncircumcision of your flesh. The unrenewed state of your carnal
nature, which prompted the transgressions. You, I say. Repeated
to emphasize the personal appeal to them on the ground of their ex
perience. Did he quicken together with him. God is the subject
of the verb "quicken" (cf. verse 12). Paul does not here mean to
say that when God raised Christ from the dead, he potentially raised
them, i.e., made provision for their being raised into spiritual life,
though that is true; but that he actually raised them into spiritual
life (at their conversion) even as he raised Christ. There is a passage
in Romans (6 : 4, 5) which is parallel to this and a good commentary
on it. The passage here refers to their spiritual resurrection, the
regeneration of their moral being, as is shown by what follows,
namely, having forgiven us all our trespasses. This still refers to
God as subject. It means forgiving us our trespasses in the act of
quickening. Note the change from the second to the first person —
from "you" to "us." 34

COLOSSIANS

14. given us all our trespasses; "having blotted out 'the
bond written in ordinances "that was against us, "which
was contrary to us: "and he hath taken it out of the
1 Or, the bond that was against us by its ordinances
14. Having blotted out the bond written in ordinances. The state
ment of the preceding verse is made of God. It was he who quickened
them into new life, having forgiven them all their trespasses. But
the declarations of verses 14 and 15 are made of Christ, as is shown by
the parallel passage in Eph. 2 : 15. The bond was the law which the
Jews were under obligation to keep, so that it was of the nature of a
contract or bond. The law consisted, in part at least, of rules and
regulations concerning the minutest details of life. This is probably
what Paul means by "ordinances." That was against us = which
stood against us. This refers to "the validity of the bond itself."
Which was contrary to us. This describes its actual oppression of
us. It was of binding force against us and it was oppressive in its
operation on us. And he hath taken it out of the way, nailing it to
the cross. Christ not only removed the condemnation of the law
(Rom. 8 : 1), he actually blotted it out, cancelled it; nay, he absolutely
destroyed the document itself — he pinned it with nails to the cross
and left it to rot and perish. These are words of intolerant resent
ment and unqualified condemnation. What do they mean? Could
Paul, who wrote of the moral law in terms of such profound rever
ence as he does in Rom. 7 : 12-22, have used these words of unquali
fied condemnation and unrelieved severity of that same law? In
order to meet this difficulty must we not suppose that, though Paul
nowhere expressly makes a distinction between the ceremonial and
the moral precepts of the law, yet he does, in this passage, have the
difference in mind and he does here refer to the former? It seems
very likely that when he speaks of the bond written in ordinances,
or consisting of ordinances, he has in mind that part of the law which
prescribes rules and regulations concerning external matters. (1) The
word "ordinances" itself suggests this (cf. verse 21). (2) Paul no
where else speaks with such feeling or in such terms of the moral
law, but always with respect and reverence (cf. Rom. 7 : 12, 22).
(3) Those prescriptions of the false teachers which in verses 16 and
21 he enjoins the Colossians to ignore and repudiate have reference
solely to external observances. (4) In Phil. 3 : 6, Paul declares that
"touching the righteousness which is in the law" he was in his pre-
christian state "found blameless." If this refers to what is known as
the ceremonial law, then this passage is reconcilable with what he
says in Rom. 7 : 14, 22, 23, about his helpless inability to keep the
35

2 : 15 COLOSSIANS

15. way, nailing it to the cross; Q1 having put off from
himself the principalities and the powers, he made a
show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
16. "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink,
or in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a sabbath
17. day: "which are a shadow of the things to come ; "but
18. the body is Christ's. "Let no man rob you of your
1 Or, having put off from himself his body, he made a show of the principalities and
powers &°c.
law (the moral law). Otherwise the two passages are flatly con
tradictory and absolutely irreconcilable.
15. Having put off, etc. This verse is one of the most obscure and
difficult in the epistle, or indeed in the whole New Testament. It is
probable that the text here has been corrupted, increasing the diffi
culty. Lightfoot's paraphrase is as follows: "Having stripped off
and put away the powers of evil, he made a public display of them,
leading them as captives or trophies in a triumphal procession by
means of the cross. The convict's gibbet becomes the victor's car."
But see Abbott, pp. 258-261, and Peake, p. 569.
16. Let no man therefore. Since the bond is cancelled and de
stroyed and the law of precepts and prohibitions is thus abolished, do
not let any man bring you into bondage to it again. It seems clear
that here Paul has in mind those "ordinances" of the law which
gave minute directions concerning external unessential matters, such
as meats, drinks, feast days, etc. Moreover, he had the example
and authority of Christ himself for repudiating the ceremonial part
of the law. On this point Christ was not less explicit and not less
insistent than Paul, as one may see inMk. 7 : 6-19, especially verses
14, 18, 19. This is then a new emancipation proclamation of the
great Apostle, declaring once more the absolute freedom of Christian
believers, as to all external matters, which, under somewhat similar
circumstances, he had declared in his ringing message to the Gala
tians. And the same great principle is involved in Paul's treatment
of the question of eating meat that had been offered to idols (in Rom.
14 : 14, 20, and 1 Cor. 8:4, 8).
17. Which are a shadow of the things to come. We use the same
figure when we say, "Coming events cast their shadows before."
The "ordinances" of the old dispensation foreshadowed that which
was the coming reality. But the body is Christ's. The realities
typified by those observances are to be found in Christ. Why should
we go back to the shadow when we have the substance?
36

COLOSSIANS

prize 01 by a voluntary humility "and worshipping of the
angels, °2 dwelling in the things which he hath 3seen,
19. "vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, "and not

1 Or, of his own mere will, by humility cVe. 3 Or, taking his stand upon 3 Many
authorities, some ancient, insert not.

18. Let no man rob you of your prize. Let no man assuming to act
as umpire decide against you as holding wrong views, and so deprive
you of the prize, the prize of salvation and the hope of eternal life
(1:5). By a voluntary humility. That is, by practising a sort of
mortification imposed upon himself by his own will and choice. And
worshipping of the angels. In which their self-imposed and false
humility displays itself. It seems from the connection here that the
false teachers made much of this self-assumed humility from an idea
that men were unfit to approach God himself and must therefore
avail themselves of the mediation of angels. The explicit mention
of angel worship gives color to the contention of those who hold that
it was a Jewish cult and not Gnosticism that Paul was opposing.
But see Introduction. Dwelling in the things which he hath seen.
Some ancient witnesses insert the word "not" before "seen"; but
the best manuscripts and the editors omit it. Without it the meaning
seems to be that they, the false teachers, busy themselves with what
they claim to have seen, with their visions. The text, as well as the
meaning of some of the principal words in verse 18, is very uncertain,
which makes it one of the most difficult verses in the epistle. Puffed
up by his fleshly mind. This is a fine touch. These teachers, Paul
says, instead of being really humble, as they professed, were really
puffed up, and were proud of their professed humility. By his fleshly
mind. Literally, by the mind of the flesh. This is one of those
characteristic expressions of Paul which glance deep into human nature
and condense a whole anthropology in a single phrase. In verse 1 1
¦ of this chapter he spoke of the body of the flesh; here, of the mind of
the flesh. The fleshly nature dominates the body and it dominates the
mind also; so that a man's thinking and thoughts are tinctured, satu
rated, dominated, by the passions of the fleshly nature. Vainly. In
2 : 8 Paul called the so-called "philosophy" of these interlopers "an
empty sham"; nevertheless, they were greatly puffed up over it.
But they were puffed up without reason. There was nothing in it.
19. And not holding fast the Head. Not maintaining their con
nection with the head, evidently because they had substituted others
for him who is the head. They were thus separated from the head;
and being severed from the head, that is, having no longer their
thought fixed on Christ as the only source of life, and having ceased
37

2 : 20 COLOSSIANS

holding fast the Head, "from whom "all the body,
"being supplied and knit together through the joints
and bands, "increaseth with the increase of God.
20. "If ye died with Christ "from the * rudiments of the
1 Or, elements
to trust him as head, and having no longer any feeling of dependence
on him as head, they were as lifeless as a headless body would be.
From whom. Note, it is from whom and not from which, because
Paul is thinking of Christ. All the body. As every part of the whole
body depends for life and efficiency on its being in connection with
the head, and if severed from the head would be dead, just so abso
lutely does every member of the spiritual body depend on Christ.
Christ himself so taught, but under a different figure, that of the vine
and the branches, Jn. 15 : 1-11. Being supplied and knit together
through the joints and bands. Both these participles are present and
the meaning is, being continuously supplied and knit together. The
word here translated joints means touch or contact. The verb is
used in verse 21, touch not. Every part of the body, then, is supplied
(with vitality, sensibility, and the power of activity) through the
system of contacts which keep it in touch with the head (the brain).
As some one has suggested, Paul may have gained this bit of informa
tion concerning the central and vital function of the brain from
Doctor Luke, who was with him (4 : 14). And bands. The various
parts of the body are united into an organic whole through the
muscles, nerves, tendons, "any of the connecting bands which
strap the body together." Thus Christ is the source of all nourish
ment and the bond of all unity. Increaseth with the increase of God.
When the various parts of the church-body are in vital relation with
Christ as head, then, the condition of growth being fulfilled, God
effects the growth; for "it is God that giveth the increase."
20. If ye died with Christ. This is Paul's way of presenting the
negative side of the process of spiritual renewal. It is drawn out
more fully in Rom. 6:2-5. Ir ve died with Christ, ye died from the
world : ye severed your connection and ceased your relations with it
as having anything to do with your salvation. From the rudiments
of the world. It seems strained, not to say far-fetched and fanciful,
to consider these the elemental spirits or "angels," as some recent
commentators hold. By the elements of the world Paul probably
means the elementary, or a-b-c methods, the kindergarten methods,
of making people righteous, as, for example, by means of the law.
People could not be made righteous by legislation, especially by
legislation concerning external observances, any more then than now.
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COLOSSIANS

world, "why, as though living in the world, "do ye
21. subject yourselves to ordinances, "Handle not, nor
22. taste, nor touch ("all which things are to perish with
the using), "after the precepts and doctrines of men?
23. "Which things "have indeed a show of wisdom "in
will- worship, "and humility, "and severity to the body;
Why, as though living in the world. This is similar in spirit and form
to Paul's earnest question in Rom. 6 : 2, "We who died to sin, how
shall we any longer live therein?" So here: If, when ye became
Christians, ye were as really separated from the world's notions
and ways of seeking salvation as if ye had died, then why, as if you
were still living according to these notions and ways, do ye subject
yourselves to ordinances ? The word is radically the same as that in
verse 14. The ordinances have been abolished, and ye became dead
to them. How foolish to rake up those old, defunct ordinances
and seek to be in bondage to them again ! Similarly in Gal. 3: 1-3.
21. Handle not, nor taste, nor touch. Note the gradation here —
do not handle; no, do not taste; do not even touch. These are speci
mens of the ascetic prohibitions of the false teachers.
22. All which things are to perish with the using. The things for
bidden in their prohibitions are used, and that is the end of them.
What folly to suppose that they affect character or have anything to
do with salvation? This is in perfect agreement with what Jesus
himself said on the same subject inMk. 7 : 14-19. After the precepts
and doctrines of men. These words are to be taken with Why do you
subject yourselves to ordinances? What comes between is a paren
thesis proper. Precepts refer to commandments; doctrines, to sys
tematic teaching.
23. Which things. That is, such precepts and teachings. Have
indeed a show of wisdom. Rather, they are in repute as wisdom,
they pass for wisdom. They seem to be very reasonable and wise
precepts, etc. In will-worship = worship which men offer of their
"mere will" (cf. 2 : 18). They just take it into their head to offer
as worship or service something which they take a notion to; and
naturally it is likely to be something that will appeal to some selfish
principle or gratify some selfish desire. It is likely to be also some
thing not prescribed or required by God and contrary to the nature
and contents of faith in Christ. So it was with the self-devised and
self-imposed observances and asceticisms of the false teachers at
CoIossk. And humility. The word "will" is probably to be taken
with this word also. It was not a genuine humility, but a self-devised
and self-imposed humility and of a sort not required or recognized by
God or in harmony with faith in Christ. And severity to the body,
39

3 : I COLOSSIANS

"but are not of any 1 value against the indulgence of
the flesh.
VIII. What is Involved in the Experience of having
died with Christ to the World (2 : 20)
and having been raised with
him into Newness of Life
(3 : 1) 3 : 1-17
3. "If then ye were raised together with Christ, "seek
the things that are above, "where Christ is, "seated on
1 Or, lumour
The word literally means unsparingness. It is used of an extreme
asceticism, which did not spare the body, which unsparingly afflicted
the body, either to acquire merit or to conquer passion. But are not
of any value against the indulgence of the flesh. These words are
very difficult, among the most difficult in the epistle, on a par, in this
respect, with verse 15 of this same chapter. It is believed by some
very able scholars (Hort, Haupt, and others) that the text is corrupt.
This is true of yet other parts of this chapter. Another view of the
meaning of the words, as they stand, seems more in keeping with the
preceding context; it is this : "but are not of any value, because they
serve only for the satisfaction of the flesh."
1. Heavenly •^mindedness, 3 : 1-4
1. If then ye were raised together with Christ. In 2 : 20 ff. Paul
sets forth what should follow if they had died with Christ; here, what,
if they had been raised up with Christ. If you did realize in your
experience what is the meaning of dying with Christ, then you died
from the things that belong to the world's ways of thinking anddoing,
and you have no more to do with them; let them alone. This is the
negative side. If you realized in your experience the meaning of
being raised up with Christ, it was a resurrection to another life and
another world, namely, the heavenly. This is the positive side.
Seek the things that are above. The things that are above are per
haps the same that Paul means by "the spiritual blessings in the
heavenly places" in Eph. 1 : 3; 2 : 6. It includes all the blessings
that belong to the higher, the spiritual life. Where Christ is. " It is
proper that the thoughts and desires of the members should beamed
to where the Head already is." Seated on the right hand of Gjft A
40

COLOSSIANS

2. the right hand of God. "Set your mind on the things
that are above, "not on the things that are upon the
3. earth. "For ye died, "and your life is hid with Christ
4. in God. When Christ, °who is l our life, shall be
manifested, then shall ye also with him be manifested
5. in glory.
° 2 Mortify therefore "your members which are
1 Many ancient authorities read your a Gr. Make dead.
figurative description, frequently found in the New Testament, of
Christ's present exalted state and rank: subordinate to the Father,
but sovereign over all else.
2. Set your mind on the things. Same word is used in Rom. 8 : 5.
"Not only seek heaven, think heaven." Let your mind and heart
be filled and permeated with the things that belong to heaven. The
modern word for it is heavenly •^mindedness — which in these days
is often disparaged, sometimes ridiculed ; but, all the same, it is a
potent secret of overcoming this present world of evil and of serving
unselfishly the world of men. Not on the things that are upon the
earth. A realistic description of those who mind earthly things is
given by Paul in Phil. 3 : 18, 19.
3. For ye died. Not ye are dead, for they had risen again to a
new life, which was spiritual and heavenly. This way of looking at
it is not only Pauline, it is peculiar to Paul. See again Rom. 6 : 3-1 1,
and compare Gal. 2 : 20 and 6 : 14. These words are given as the
reason for the exhortation of verse 2. And your life is hid with Christ
in God. Christ, according to the teachings of the whole New Testa
ment, is now hidden from human sight with God; and since Christ is
the life of believers and their life is in him, their life is thus hidden in
God also. In God. These words imply Christ's union with God and
our union, though not in the same sense, with God in him.
4. Who is our life. Paul's words in Gal. 2 : 20 and Phil. 1 : 21
form a good commentary on this; and a good commentary on the
whole verse is found in 1 Jn. 3 : 2.
2. Things to be put off and away, 3 : 5-1 1
5. Mortify therefore. Since this is the ideal of your new condition
and relations, — dead to the things that are upon the earth and your
real life now in union with God, — you are to realize this ideal by
actually putting to death whatever is at war with this ideal. You
are to carry out this principle of death to the world. Your members
4i

3 : 6 COLOSSIANS

upon the earth; "fornication, uncleanness, passion,
evil desire, "and covetousness, the which is idolatry;
6. for which things' sake cometh the wrath of God x upon
7. the sons of disobedience ; °2 in the which ye also walked
8. aforetime, when ye lived in these things. "But now
"put ye also away all these; "anger, "wrath, "malice,
"railing, "shameful speaking "out of your mouth:
1 Some ancient authorities omit upon the sons of disobedience. See Eph. 5 : 6.
3 Or, amongst whom
which are upon the earth. That is, your hand, your eye (cf. Matt.
5 : 29, 30), or any bodily organ in so far as it is the seat or organ of
lust and sin (Rom. 7 : 23) is to be made dead. This is in perfect
accord with the way that Paul speaks of the body as a whole, Rom.
6 : 6, "that the body of sin might be destroyed." <• It is practically the
same in Col. 2 : 11. Fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire.
Paul does not mean that fornication, uncleanness, passion, and evil
desire are the members that are to be put to death; that is, these
words are not in apposition with the word "members," as some take
them. Others make them the object of the word "put away" in
verse 8, below. This is not necessary. They may be taken as the
accusative of general reference, thus: your members, the members of
your body, are to be put to death, i.e., made as good as dead, so far
as fornication is concerned, and not only so far as fornication is con
cerned, but dead as to any form or degree of lustful impurity, heat
of carnal passion, or unchaste longing. And covetousness, the which
is idolatry, or, since it is idolatry. This vividly recalls the words of
Jesus in Mt. 6 : 24, "the lust for wealth sets riches in the place of
God." Carnal impurity and covetousness were the two principal
vices of the ancient world — and of the modern world.
7. In the which. In the practice of which vices ye too, Christians
though you now are, formerly indulged, when your life was spent in
the midst and atmosphere of such things.
8. But now. Since you have become Christians. Ye also. You
as well as other Christians. Put away. Put off, lay aside, have done
with, these things once for all. Anger. A settled state of ill feeling.
Wrath. An outburst of passion. Malice. A vicious disposition
nursing a grudge and seeking an opportunity to commit injury.
Railing. Evil speaking, slander. Shameful speaking. Abusive
language. Out of your mouth. These words are to be taken with
railing and shameful speaking, and vividly picture these as pouring
out of the mouth. 42

COLOSSIANS

9. "lie not one to another; seeing that ye have put off
10. "the old man with his doings, "and have put on the
new man, "which is being renewed unto knowledge
11. "after the image of him that created him: "where
there cannot be "Greek and Jew, "circumcision and
uncircumcision, "barbarian, Scythian, "bondman, free-
12. man: "but Christ is all, and in all.
9. Lie not one to another. In Eph. 4 : 25 this is differently and
more softly said: " Putting away falsehood, speak ye truth each one
with his neighbor." The old man. A characteristically Pauline con
ception, found in Rom. 6 : 6. The old man, representing the pre-
Christian moral state as personified, was in each case put off, re
nounced, by the individual through his conversion to Christ.
10. And have put on the new man. The positive aspect of the
transformation realized at the time of conversion. The new man is
the new Christian moral state conceived as personified and spoken
of objectively and as becoming individually assumed under the figure
of being put on. This putting off of the old man and putting on of
the new is a total change of mind and attitude and is not essentially
different from what takes place in repentance and faith. Which is
being renewed unto knowledge. This participle also is the present
and expresses a continuous process and progress of renewal. The
continuous result of this continuous renewal is the continuous increase
of knowledge. The same thought, substantially, is found in Rom.
12 : 2 and Col. 1 : 9. After the image of him that created him.
Probably a reference to Gen. 1 : 26-28.
1 1 . Where there cannot be. That is, where the old nature has been
laid aside and the new put on, all are essentially the same, and there
can no longer be the differences that men have in mind when they
think and speak of Greek and Jew, etc. All such distinctions as
would repel and separate men from each other disappear in their
essential likeness as Christians. Greek and Jew. Distinction of race
and nationality. Circumcision and uncircumcision. Distinction of
religious ceremonial. Barbarian, Scythian. The usual antithesis of
barbarian is Greek; but as that has already been used as the antithesis
of Jew, he here uses a climax instead of an antithesis, and draws a
distinction in the degree of barbarism. There is, for those who have
put on the new nature, no distinction of barbarous and more barbarous,
of savage and lowest savage. Bondman, freeman. He returns to
the use of antithesis. What is here meant is more fully elaborated in
what he says to slaves and masters in 3 : 22-4 : 1. But Christ is
all. Christ is everything. If He is in a man, that supplies the lack
43

3 : 13 COLOSSIANS

"Put on "therefore, "as God's elect, holy and be
loved, "a heart of compassion, "kindness, "humility,
13. "meekness, "longsuff ering ; "forbearing one another,
and "forgiving each other, "if any man have a com
plaint against any ; "even as 1 the Lord forgave you,
14. so also do ye: "and above all these things put on
15. love, "which is the bond of perfectness. "And let
1 Many ancient authorities read Christ.
of everything else, such as culture, pedigree, freedom. If Christ is in
a slave, that slave is a freeman; if Christ is in a Scythian savage,
that makes him a nobleman as good as a Roman patrician or a Greek
philosopher. 3. Things to be put on, 3 : 12-17
12. Put on. The following verses present the positive aspect, as
verses 5-10 presented the negative aspect, of the moral transforma
tion they were to seek and to realize. Therefore. Since you have put
on the new man (verse 10), it would be a contradiction not to put on
those dispositions and virtues which constitute the new character.
As God's elect. You now constitute a new order of nobility among
men; you are the chosen ones of God. As members of this new and
heavenly order also, noblesse oblige. And since all conventional and
worldly distinctions are done away and you must realize and illustrate
the unity of the people of God, it will be necessary in everyday life
to have and practice the new virtues of self-effacement and mutual
forbearance, such as, a heart of compassion = tenderness and sym
pathy. Kindness is the opposite of severity. Humility. Not toward
God but toward each other. It is the opposite of haughtiness.
Meekness. The opposite of hardness, roughness. The last two are
the words that Jesus used of himself (Matt. 11 : 29). Longsuff ering.
The opposite of resentment or revenge.
13. Forbearing one another. The virtues just mentioned are to
manifest themselves in active conduct. Forgiving each other. Your
forbearance is to go to the extent of forgiving wrongs done your
selves. If any man have a complaint against any. The order in Greek
is more striking, // any against any have a complaint. Even as the
Lord forgave you, so also do ye. A good commentary on this is con
tained in the words of Jesus, Matt. 18 : 23 ff.
14. And above all these things. Love is to be put on like an upper
garment. Which is the bond of perfectness. In view of what Paul
elsewhere says of love (Rom. 13 : 10, Gal. 5 : 14) the meaning of this
44

COLOSSIANS

3:17

the peace of Christ * rule in your hearts, "to the which
also ye were called in one body : "and be ye thankful.
16. "Let the word of 2 Christ "dwell in you richly "in all
wisdom; "teaching and admonishing 3 one another
"with psalms and hymns and spiritual "songs, "singing
17. with grace in your hearts unto God. And whatso-
= Gr. arbitrate. a Some ancient authorities read the Lord: others, God.
^ Or, yourselves
passage is something like this: Love is the one thing that includes,
binds in one, all that goes to make up perfection; and this is beauti
fully shown in that classic of St. Paul, 1 Cor. 13.
15. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Let the peace
which Christ has put in your hearts be the ruling principle that shall
determine all questions and settle all doubts for you. Do nothing,
determine on nothing, think nothing, tolerate nothing, that would
destroy or disturb that peace. It is the test of everything, by it
everything is to be determined. In Phil. 4 : 7 the meaning is prac
tically the same, though the figure is different. There the inward
peace of Christ is the sentinel that gives warning of danger and
guards from evil; here it is the umpire which decides all questions
and determines all conduct. To the which also ye were called in one
body. Unto which (peace) ye were called so as to become one body,
or so that ye are one body as being ruled and led by one spirit. This
idea and the ideal of unity are beautifully elaborated in the later of
these twin epistles (Eph. 4 : 1-13), an illuminating parallel. And be
ye thankful. More exactly, continually become thankful. Another
note of Paul's thanksgiving habit.
16. Let the word of Christ = the message about Christ, which is
equivalent to the gospel and its whole content. " The gospel is the
word of Christ" (Meyer). Dwell in you. Let it be continually in
your minds and hearts. This could be done by regular habitual
reading, hearing, meditation, study, contemplation, and especially
by obedience. In all wisdom. These words are best taken with
those which follow, namely, teaching and admonishing one another.
You are to teach and faithfully to advise and warn one another in
the use of every sort of wisdom. With psalms and hymns, etc. These
words are not to be construed with teaching and admonishing, but
with the words that follow. Psalms are probably those in the Old
Testament. Hymns are songs of praise to God. Songs. This
word in itself means any kind of song, hence the word spiritual has
to be added to restrict its meaning here. Singing with grace in your
45

3 : 18 COLOSSIANS

ever ye do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the
Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through
him.
IX. The Relations of the Family Life are to be
regulated with recognition of our
Subjection to Jesus as Lord,
3 : 18-4 : 1
18. "Wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is
19. fitting in the Lord. "Husbands, love your wives, and
hearts. Singing with the realization and under the inspiration of the
grace of God in your hearts. Coming from Paul, this is a great tribute
and testimony to the value and power of song.
Verse 17 is a general rule for life. All things, everything whatso
ever, is to be done, everything is to be said, in the name, that is, in
recognition of the authority, and in dependence on the help, of him
who is Lord of all — Jesus. Our actions in all the relations of life are
to be done in the recognition and under the direction of this rule, as,
for example, the domestic relations: ±. Wives, 3 : 18; 2. Husbands,
3 : 19; 3. Children, 3 : 20; 4. Fathers, 3 : 21; 5. Slaves, 3 : 22—25;
6. Masters, 4 : 1. Why does Paul stop to give such minute directions
concerning the relations and duties of the home life? Because doubt
less he recognized that if the home life is rightly ordered and regulated
and made ideal, it would make the rest easy. Hence he specifies
each of the relations of the family life and would keep them all in
proper subjection and regulation by the enthronement of Jesus as
Lord and Ruler there. It is well to be reminded that Paul not only
did not overlook the home and the home life, he took the pains to
give special and earnest instructions for the realization of an ideal
home life.
18. Wives, be in subjection to your husbands. This and the follow
ing injunctions are examples under the general exhortation of verse
17. This command to wives is considerably elaborated in the parallel
passage in Eph. 5 : 22-24, while that to husbands is drawn out to
much greater length in Eph. 5 : 25-33, indicating that Colossians was
written first.
19. Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them. It
is difficult to say which, in some instances, is more difficult, whether
for wives to be in subjection to their husbands, or for the husbands to
love their wives; but both have to be done as a matter of subjection
46

COLOSSIANS

20. be not bitter against them. "Children, obey your
parents in all things, for this is well-pleasing "in the
21. Lord. "Fathers, provoke not your children, "that they
22. be not discouraged. 01 Servants, obey in all things
them that are "your 2 masters according to the flesh ;
"not with eyeservice, "as men-pleasers, "but in single-
23. ness of heart, fearing the Lord: "whatsoever ye do,
1 Gr. Bond-servants. a Gr. lords.
to the Lord. The full and hearty recognition of his authority would
settle many difficulties in practical life.
20. Children, obey your parents . . . for this is well-pleasing.
The obedience of children is a well-pleasing thing, an agreeable thing,
an ethically beautiful thing. In the Lord. It is an especially well-
pleasing and winsome thing when it is done with the spirit and
motive that are inspired by a consciousness of its being done in Christ
and in obedience to his will.
21. Fathers, provoke not your children. The word "irritate" is
better. This irritation is caused by unjust or oversevere treatment,
which the child, though provoked to anger, must bear without any
hope of relief. Note that this prohibition is directed to fathers. This
was partly because in the Grsco-Roman world they were in control of
the family and partly because they were more likely to cause irritation
by severity than mothers. Or possibly the word "fathers" was
meant to include both parents. That they be not discouraged. Under
protracted irritation the child is likely to become despondent, hope
less, sullen, losing all courage and spirit and giving up all effort to
obey. 22. Servants. The word is the regular Greek word for slaves.
They were present and heard the letter read, including the things said
especially to them as well as to their masters. Your masters accord
ing to the flesh. These words imply another relation, belonging to
the higher spiritual sphere where Christ is master. Not with eye-
service. This compound word, coined perhaps by Paul, is in the
plural number and denotes acts of service done under the eye of the
master, implying faithlessness in the master's absence. As men-
pleasers. This word implies that there was One higher than men
whom they were to seek to please. But in singleness of heart,
fearing the Lord. With the single purpose of serving the Lord in
such a way as to be pleasing to him, and with fear lest in your service
to your masters you come short of pleasing the Lord.
23. Whatsoever ye do. In everything, no matter how difficult,
47

; 24 COLOSSIANS

"work 'heartily, as unto the Lord, and not unto men;
24. "knowing that from the Lord ye shall receive the
recompense of the inheritance: "ye serve the Lord
25. Christ. "For he that doeth wrong shall 2 receive again
for the wrong 2 that he hath done : "and there is no
4. respect of persons. "Masters, render unto your ser
vants that which is just and 3 equal; "knowing that
ye also have a Master in heaven.
1 Gr. from the soul. 3 Gr. receive again the wrong. 3 Gr. equality.
disagreeable, or painful. Work heartily, as unto the Lord, and not
unto men. The presence and approval of the Lord is more strongly
urged by Paul in the case of slaves than of others because their situa
tion was more difficult and they needed more the inspiration of an
unusual motive. The word here translated "work" means to carry
out, to complete.
24. Knowing = Since ye know. If you do not get any recognition
or reward from your earthly master for your honest and faithful ser
vice, you know that you will get a full recompense from your master
in heaven. And that recompense will consist in the future possession
of eternal blessedness — the inheritance of the saints in glory. Ye
serve the Lord Christ. Many very able commentators take this as
imperative, Serve ye the Lord Christ. But the indicative suits the
connection better. The meaning is this: In serving your earthly
masters, as I have said, you are serving him who is the Lord Christ,
and therefore you may rest assured that you shall by no means lose
your reward.
25. For he that doeth wrong shall receive again for the wrong.
This evidently refers to the masters, though it is said to the slaves
for the purpose of assuring them that any unjust treatment they
might have to endure from their masters would be punished by the
Lord of slave and master. And there is no respect of persons. Before
that tribunal master and slave stand on the same footing, and each
one will be dealt with in absolute accordance with his conduct and
character, and without reference to the social relation he may have
occupied by accident in this world. In Eph. 6 : 9 this is said to the
masters by way of preventing them from mistreating their slaves.
What an impression these words would make when read in the hear
ing of the whole church, where masters and slaves were gathered
together and heard them read at the same time!
1. Masters. The injunctions to masters are amplified and strength
ened in the corresponding paragraph in Ephesians (6:9). Knowing
48

COLOSSIANS

X. Practical Instructions and Conclusion, 4 : 2-18
2. "Continue stedfastly in prayer, "watching therein
3. "with thanksgiving; "withal praying for us also, "that
God may open unto us a door for the word, "to speak
that ye also have a Master in heaven. And treat your slaves as you
would that that Master should treat you — an application to a special
relation of the general principle of that "rule" which comprehends all
conduct and summarizes the ethics of all human relations. The
disproportionate length of the advice given to slaves in the paragraph
on domestic relations and duties is not due, as some suppose, to the
case of Onesimus and Paul's desire to impress him with the duties of
a slave. The same proportion is observed in Ephesians, where Ones
imus was not known. Furthermore, Onesimus had already been
reconstructed and brought by Paul in person to the right view and
the right spirit, as we may see in the charming epistle which Paul
wrote to his master, Philemon. It was because of his sympathy for
slaves that Paul devoted more space in the letter to them. Con
cerning slavery in Paul's day, Dr. Bruce, in his able work on "The
Kingdom of God," has these wise words to say: " Christianity does
not say that slavery is wrong and follow up the assertion by an agi
tation for abolition and by stirring up a servile insurrection. It says,
'A slave is a man and may be a noble man,' and leaves the idea to
work as a leaven, slowly but surely toward emancipation and free
dom." 1. Perseverance in prayer, 4 : 2-4
2. Continue stedfastly in prayer. Continuing steadfast is the
opposite of growing weary, fainting, giving it up. Watching therein.
Since holding on in prayer often tends to produce listlessness, Paul
puts them on their guard against this tendency. This does not mean
what Jesus meant when he said, "Watch and pray." With thanks
giving. Here is Paul's thanksgiving habit again. He joins thanks
giving with "everything" and commends it in everything, but espe
cially prayer. There are two very striking examples, one in Phil.
4 : 6, one in 1 Thess. 5 : 17.
3. Withal praying for us also. A beautiful example of Paulas
confidence in his brother Christians and his dependence on their
cooperation and help. That God may open unto us a door for the
word. That is, for the gospel. Paul did not ask their prayers for his
personal benefit, or for his comfort, or even for relief and deliverance
from affliction and suffering, but only that God would give him an
opportunity to make known the glad tidings. To speak the mystery
of Christ. The gospel had come to Paul as the unveiling of a secret
E 49

4:4 COLOSSIANS

the mystery of Christ, "for which I am also in bonds;
4. "that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.
5. "Walk in wisdom "toward them that are without,
6. 01 redeeming the time. "Let your speech be always
1 Gr. buying up the opportunity.
which before was hidden. That secret was Christ, Christ the life-
giving spirit. In order to understand this one must recall what Paul
said about not knowing Christ after the flesh (2 Cor. 5 : 16) and what
he says about God's revealing his Son in him (Gal. 1: 16) and as a
life-giving spirit (1 Cor. 15 : 45). In his capacity and office of life-
giving spirit, men cannot discern, cannot discover, cannot know,
Christ. He must be revealed. Compare 1 Cor. 2 : 10, 12. Thus
Christ was Paul's secret, Paul's gospel, Paul's all in all. For which
I am also in bonds. These words indicate what he probably meant
when he asked them to pray that God would open unto him a door for
the word, i.e., the gospel. He tells Philemon that he hoped through
the prayers of himself and the other Colossians to be liberated,
Philem. 22.
4. That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak. He still has
in mind the conception of Christ as a mystery, an unrevealed secret.
He asks them to pray not only that God would give him an opportunity
for preaching the glad tidings, but that he will enable Paul to unveil,
make manifest, the secret in the way that he ought. How unfailing and
Jaow beautiful is Paul's humility!
z. Their duty toward those who were not believers, 4 : 5-6
5. Toward them that are without. His request concerning an
opportunity to make Christ known has turned his heart toward them
that are outside the church and without the knowledge of Christ.
So he reminds the Colossians of their relation and debt to the out
siders. Walk in wisdom. Conduct yourselves wisely. So conduct
yourselves and your way and manner of living as to attract, impress,
convince, convict outsiders. Redeeming the time. The marginal
rendering is not only more accurate, it is incomparably better every
way. They are to pay the cost, whatever it may be, of improving
the opportunity, as it occurs, in every case (note the definite article),
the opportunity of winning those who are still unsaved. This will
cost something. It will sometimes cost selfish ease, personal con
venience, comfort, reputation, money; in any case, in every case,
however, they are to pay the price, purchase for themselves the
opportunity, and save their unsaved neighbors or friends.
6. Let your speech be always. The tactful use of speech was an
example of the means by which they were to conciliate and win to
5°

COLOSSIANS

"with grace, "seasoned with salt, "that ye may know
7. "how ye ought to answer each one. 4
All my affairs "shall Tychicus make known unto
you, the beloved brother and faithful minister and
8. fellow-servant in the Lord: whom I have sent unto
you for this very purpose, that ye may know our estate,
9. and that he may comfort your hearts ; "together with
Onesimus, the faithful and beloved brother, "who is one
faith those who were still unbelievers. With grace. With pleasing-
ness. Compare Rom. 15 : 2, "Let each one of us please his neighbor
for his good and unto his edification." By the winsomeness of their
conversation they were to try to win their heathen friends. Seasoned
with salt. Who has not heard of the Attic salt? Brightness, clever
ness, wit, is, in this sense, the salt of language. It gives it flavor,
makes it taste. But Paul hardly means that here. He has already
commended pleasingness of speech, and does not need to do it again.
Salt is the common antiseptic of the world. It preserves from cor
ruption and renders wholesome. The opposite would be that which
Paul forbids in his directions about conversation in Eph. 4 : 29, "Let
no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth." Their conversation
was to be pleasing, gracious, but it was also to be pure and whole
some. That ye may know. In short, he says, the thing is to know.
How ye ought to answer each one. Your conversation is to be fitting
in each particular case, exactly adapted to each individual person.
What a standard ! and yet within the reach of e-?ry Christian who
has the disposition and the willingness to do what Paul here commends.
3. The mission and messages of Tychicus and Onesimus, 4 : 7-9
7. Shall Tychicus make known unto you. Tychicus was the bearer
of the epistle to the Ephesians (so called) as well as of this epistle. In
Eph. 6 : 21, 22 almost the same language is used as here.
9. Together with Onesimus. Onesimus was the runaway slave
of Philemon. He had become a Christian while with Paul in Rome,
and he was sent back to his master by Paul. The full history of the
case is given in the beautiful letter which Paul wrote to Philemon and
sent by the hand of Onesimus at the same time that the epistle to the
Colossians and that to the Ephesians (so called) were sent. Who is
one of you. Onesimus had lived at Colossae before he ran away and
went to Rome. This is proof that Philemon lived at Colossae and
was one of them, though his name is not mentioned in the epistle to
the Colossians. Si

4: io COLOSSIANS

of you. They shall make known unto you all things
that are done here.
io. Aristarchus my fellow-prisoner saluteth you, and Mark,
the cousin of Barnabas (touching whom ye received
commandments; if he come unto you, receive him),
n. and Jesus, which is called Justus, who are of the circum
cision: these only are my fellow- workers unto the
kingdom of God, men that have been a comfort unto
12. me. "Epaphras, who is one of you, a 1 servant of Christ
Jesus, saluteth you, always striving for you in his
prayers, that ye may stand perfect and fully assured in
13. all the will of God. For I bear him witness, that he
hath much labour for you, and "for them in Laodicea,
14. and for them in Hierapolis. Luke, the beloved physician,
15. and Demas salute you. "Salute the brethren that are
1 Gr. bond-servant.
4. Greetings from Paul and those who were with him, 4 : 10-17
10. Aristarchus, Mark, Demas, and Luke are mentioned in the
letter to Philemon, verses 23 and 24. Aristarchus was aThessalonian
and a travelling companion of Paul (Acts 19 : 29; 27 : 2). Mark,
who on a former occasion (Acts 15 : 37, 38) deserted Paul, was now
again with him in prison and is commended to the Colossians. Epa
phras, who is one of you. We learn from chap. 1 : 7 that Epaphras,
who was the founder of the church of Colossae and had for some time
been their pastor, was with Paul in prison at Rome when this letter was
written. It was he who had told Paul about the situation at Colossae
which occasioned the writing of the present epistle (chap. 1:8).
Whether he was detained as a prisoner at Rome or chose to remain
there with Paul of his own accord cannot be known. However, he was
still interested in the Colossians to such an extent that he was unceas
ingly engaged in " agonizing " prayer for them. For them in Laodicea,
and for them in Hierapolis. Epaphras had evidently been pastor of
the churches at Laodicea and Hierapolis as well as of that at Colossae.
He seems to have been a sort of circuit-rider with a circuit of three
appointments. Salute the brethren that are in Laodicea. Why Paul
did not send his salutations to the church at Hierapolis also, we do not
know. 52

COLOSSIANS

in Laodicea, and * Nymphas, and the church that is in
16. 2 their house. And "when 3 this epistle hath been read
among you, cause that it be read also in the church
of the Laodiceans; "and that ye also read the epistle
17. from Laodicea. And "say to Archippus, Take heed
to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord,
that thou fulfil it.
18. "The salutation of me Paul with mine own
hand. "Remember my bonds. "Grace be with you.
1 The Greek may represent Nympha. 9 Some ancient authorities read her. 3 Gr. the
16. When this epistle hath been read among you. That is, when it
had been read publicly in the hearing of the assembled church of
the Colossians, they were to send it to Laodicea, about eleven miles
distant, and have it read to the assembled church at that place. And
that ye also read the epistle from Laodicea. This is a clause of keen
interest. It has led many able scholars to the belief that the letter
referred to is that which is called the epistle to the Ephesians. This is
probably the case. The so-called letter to the Ephesians was evi
dently not a letter for the Ephesians only, but a circular letter which
was to be sent to different churches in that part of Asia Minor where
Ephesus and Laodicea were situated. One copy of the letter would
be — and was — sent to Ephesus, and another to Laodicea, and so on.
The reason why Paul tells the Colossians to get and read the letter from
Laodicea and not from Ephesus was that Laodicea was nearer. But
see the Introduction to the epistle to the Ephesians in this volume.
17. Say to Archippus. Who was Archippus? He is mentioned by
Paul in the opening sentence of his epistle to Philemon in such a way
as to suggest that he was in some sense a member of Philemon's
household. He is called by Paul "our fellow-soldier." But he seems
to be a little slow, and Paul here sends him a special warning to the
effect that he'd better wake up and attend to the special ministry which
was committed to him. He may have been the successor of Epaphras
as pastor of the Colossian church.
18. The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand. When Paul
goes to send his own greetings, he takes the pen from the amanuensis
and writes this sentence with his own hand. Feeling the weight of
the handcuff on his arm, he adds, pathetically, Remember my bonds.
But instantly he forgets himself and thinks of them with the prayer,
Grace be with you, a great prayer when we recall what grace meant
to Paul and what it means in his noble epistles.
S3

INTRODUCTION
I. To Whom was "Ephesians" Addressed?
It is a misnomer and quite misleading to call this the
epistle to the Ephesians. The so-called epistle to the Ephe
sians was not written to the Ephesians — or for the Ephesians,
— alone. If so, it could not have been written by Paul. We
must give up either our belief that it was written for the
Ephesians or our belief that it was written by Paul. If Paul
wrote it, it could not have been written for the Ephesians,
as the following considerations will show:
i. We know that Paul preached at Ephesus (Acts 18 : 19) ;
that he returned there a second time (Acts 19 : 1) ; that he
preached for three months in the synagogue at Ephesus
(Acts 19 : 8) ; that he then preached there two years longer
in a public hall and with such success that " all they which
dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and
Greeks " (Acts 19:10). It is probable also that he remained
there some time after this (Acts 19 : 22; 20 : 1). At any
rate he himself reminds the elders of the church at Ephesus
that he spent three years as their pastor and the personal
friend and adviser of each one of the members of the church
there (Acts 20 : 31): "Remember," he says, "that by the
space of three years I ceased not to admonish every one
night and day." His personal relation to the elders of the
church was so intimate and affectionate that their final
separation from him makes one of the most pathetic scenes
in the New Testament (Acts 20 : 36-38). If we may judge
by the history that we have in the book of Acts, Paul's rela
tion with the church at Ephesus was more personal, more
intimate, more tender and affectionate, than with any other
church. 55

INTRODUCTION

2. We know in general that Paul's personal attachments
were very strong and tender. It was especially so at Ephe
sus, if we may trust the beautiful story of Acts 20 : 36-38.
He knew and he loved men, not by the mass, but by the man :
Acts 20 : 31, "every one of you with tears."
3. We know that on this account and as a matter of
fact when he wrote letters to various churches he was in the
habit of mentioning people by name and sending special
personal greetings or messages to them. On account of his
long and peculiarly intimate association with the members
of the church at Ephesus, we should naturally and con
fidently expect to find more personal greetings and messages
in a letter written to them than in any other of all his epistles.
But such is not the case in this so-called epistle to the Ephe
sians. In it we do not find the slightest personal reference
to a single individual from beginning to end. He does not
once address them as "brethren." The letter does not
betray the slightest intimation that he ever had the slightest
personal association with them, whether as a church or as
individuals. 4. Indeed what he says in the epistle itself implies that
his knowledge of them was by hearsay and not of a per
sonal character at all: Eph. 1 : 15; 4 : 20, 21.
5. What he says in 3 : 2-4 implies that their knowledge
of him was by hearsay and not personal. All of which
would be not only unnatural and unaccountable, but in
conceivable, in a letter written to and for the church at
Ephesus by the Apostle Paul.
II. Authorship of the Epistle
Two suppositions are open to us; two explanations are
possible. 1. Paul did not write the epistle.
2. Paul wrote it to some other church or churches. Let
us examine the first of these suppositions.
(1) The letter purports to have been written by Paul.
56

INTRODUCTION

His name is the first word in it and it opens with his regular
form of salutation, 1:1,2. Of course, this does not prove
that Paul wrote it. But it excludes the doubt of the Pauline
authorship which the absence of this regular Pauline formula
would suggest.
(2) He speaks again in his own name in a passage of
considerable length and of extraordinary significance, the
whole substance, spirit, style, and language of which are
vibrant with his unique and compelling individuality.
This is the remarkable paragraph in 3 : 1-13. Undesigned
echoes of this same Pauline sort occur at 4:1, "I the
prisoner in the Lord," and at 6 : 20, " For which I am an
ambassador in chains." The epistle has the unmistakable
Pauline throb throughout.
(3) It is, throughout, in full, unbroken accord with what
we know of St. Paul's unique position in the second third
of the first century. The contents of the epistle suit Paul's
relation to the Gentile world as their apostle; his relation
to the question of Jew and Gentile as shown in Acts and
Romans; and the relation of Jewish and Gentile believers,
as may be seen in a comparison of Eph. 2 : 11-22 with
Rom. 11 : 17, 18. The epistle claims for the Gentiles an
equality and union with the Jews in entire harmony with
Paul's position as shown in Romans and Galatians, but
inconceivable in the second century, when the Gentiles had
attained not only a recognized position but a predominance
in the church.
(4) The epistle is saturated, not only with the spirit of
Paul, but with the great outstanding conceptions which are
characteristically, uniquely, Pauline.
Take out of the epistle all that is Pauline, and about all
that will be left will be the punctuation points and the
figures that indicate chapter and verse. Nobody ever
claimed that Paul wrote these. Here are some of the
great "Paulinisms" of the epistle: election, foreordination,
adoption, redemption through the blood of Christ, the
sovereignty of God, the grace of God, salvation by faith,
S7

INTRODUCTION

repudiation of works and exclusion of boasting, the aboli
tion of the law, the inclusion and call of the Gentiles, the
revelation to him of this secret, his office as apostle of the
Gentiles, the fulness of the times, Christ the head of the body,
the church Christ's body, the members of the church mem
bers of one another, the unity of the spirit, diversity of gifts
and functions, the condition of unregenerate heath nism
and of unregenerate Judaism, the old man, the new man,
the new creation in Christ, his Christian mysticism, the
believer is in Christ and Christ in the believer, his ethical
ideal and the way of realizing it, his emphasis on thanks
giving, his philosophy of history, his "passion for the abso
lute," his peculiarities of style, long involved sentences,
broken grammatical constructions, his digressions, his
figures, his mixing of figures, the church a body, a building,
a temple, his fondness for martial figures.
(5) It is now universally agreed that Colossians was
written by Paul. That being so, then everything in Colos
sians that is reproduced in Ephesians or assumed in Ephe
sians, though not elsewhere found in Paul's epistles, is
Pauline. (6) It is now generally accepted also that the epistle men
tioned in Col. 4 : 16 as the epistle from Laodicea is our
epistle; and if so, it was written by Paul.
(7) The Pauline authorship of the epistle is now accepted
by practically all scholars, such as Harnack, Jiilicher, etc.
(See Jiilicher, Introduction, pages 146, 147, New York,
G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1904.)
If Paul did not write it, there must have been two Pauls ;
as some one said concerning the Phado: if Plato did not
write the Phado, there were two Platos.
III. Destination and Purpose of the Epistle
Explanation No. 1 then falls to the ground. Paul did
write the epistle. It remains to examine explanation No. 2,
namely, that it was not written for the Ephesians alone, but
58

INTRODUCTION

for others than the Ephesians or others with the Ephesians.
But on that supposition how are we to explain the words at
Ephesus in the very first verse? It will be noticed that a
note in the margin of the Revised Version records the fact
that "Some very ancient authorities omit the words at
Ephesus." The two oldest and best uncial manuscripts in
existence omit them. These are the Vatican manuscript
(B) and the Sinaitic manuscript (K). Besides these, there
is also a cursive manuscript which is designated 672 that
omits them. These, though few in number, are of such great
value and authority that so great a scholar as Bishop Light
foot says that a reading in St. Paul's epistles supported by X
and B and 672 almost always represents the original text
itself. Basil, a church father of the fourth century, expressly
rejects the words at Ephesus. Speaking of the text with
these words omitted, he says, " Thus did our predecessors
hand it down to us and thus we have found it in the old
witnesses or copies." Origen in the third century distinctly
says the words at Ephesus were not in the text which he
used; and he proceeds to give a metaphysical sense to the
remaining words as they stand without them. Tertullian
in the second century says that Marcion, a great Gnostic
teacher of the same century (about 145 to 150 a.d.), called
this the epistle to the Laodiceans ; and in refuting that view
Tertullian does not cite these words in the text, as he cer
tainly would have done had they been in his text, but quotes
only the title, " To the Ephesians," which, of course, is and
was no part of the epistle itself.
These witnesses, bearing their own testimony and repre
senting authorities more ancient and numerous than them
selves, make it practically certain that the words at Ephesus
were not in the original text. In other words Paul did not
write them there at all. In this view practically all
the textual critics and the editors agree. Furthermore,
if the words at Ephesus had been in the original, we can
think of no reason for leaving them out. On the other hand,
if they were not in the original, it is easy to see why and how
59

INTRODUCTION

they would get into some manuscripts and so be handed
down in some manuscripts. Besides, if Paul himself wrote
them or had them written in the original, that meant that
the letter was intended for the Ephesians alone, as the
epistle to the Colossians was intended for the Colossians
alone; and we could never understand or explain why he
should write to the church which he knew more intimately
and affectionately than any other a letter totally destitute of
any personal allusion or tender expression.
The probability, then, is that this was a circular letter
intended for the various churches of the Roman province
of Asia, including Laodicea, Hierapolis, Smyrna, Sardis,
Philadelphia, Ephesus, and others; and a copy of it was
sent by Tychicus to each one of these congregations (6 : 20,
21). The seven churches to whom the letters in Revelation,
chapters II and III, were addressed belonged doubtless to
the same group. And similarly, Peter addresses his first
epistle to the churches of the region of Asia Minor as a cir
cular letter : " Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the elect
who are sojourners of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia,
Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia" (1 Pt. 1:1).
Moreover, in the epistle to the Colossians Paul directs
them to cause that epistle to be read in the church of the
Laodiceans and charges them to get and read "the epistle
from Laodicea" (Col. 4 : 16). This " letter from Laodicea"
was in all probability our so-called epistle to the Ephesians.
But in writing to the Colossians Paul directed them to get
the copy of it which had been sent to Laodicea, because
Laodicea was not far from Colossas, being only about eleven
miles distant. Lightfoot expresses the now generally ac
cepted view on this subject when he says : " There are good
reasons for believing that St. Paul here (Col. 4 : 16) alludes
to the so-called epistle to the Ephesians, which was, in fact, a
circular letter addressed to the principal churches of pro
consular Asia. Tychicus was obliged to pass through Laod
icea on his way from Rome to Colossas and would leave a copy
of the letter there before the Colossian letter was delivered."
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INTRODUCTION

How, then, did the letter come to be called the epistle to
the Ephesians? As the first copy of the letter would
naturally be delivered at Ephesus by Tychicus going from
Rome to Colossae; as Ephesus was the metropolis of pro
consular Asia and its church would therefore stand first in
that whole region; and as the church at Ephesus had been
founded by Paul, had had specially intimate relations with
Paul and a special claim on him, — she would very naturally
come to regard the epistle as specially her own. This
would as naturally be conceded; and when Paul's epistles
were collected together and a designation was needed for
this one, nothing would be more natural and appropriate
than that the Ephesians should be allowed to call it theirs.
So " To the Ephesians " was written over it for a title. This
title soon found its way into the text in some copies and so
it stands in some, but not in the very best, manuscripts, to
this day. The second epistle to the Corinthians was ad
dressed by Paul " to the church which is at Corinth with all
the saints which are in the whole of Achaia" (Greece),
2 Cor. i : i. And yet when a title was needed for this
epistle, it was "To the Corinthians B," and not to the
Christians of Achaia. A very instructive parallel is this.
But how are we to read the verse with the words at Ephe
sus left out?
Some suppose that a blank space was left in the original
copies of the letter, in which the name of each particular
church was to be written as Tychicus delivered it, or was to
be supplied orally by him who read the letter to the as
sembled church. On this supposition, however, we should
expect to find some manuscripts with one or another of these
local designations, whereas there is not one. It is either
Ephesus or none. Moreover, there is a manifest incon
gruity in saying " the saints who are at Ephesus [or Laod
icea] and faithful, in Christ Jesus." Being at Ephesus and
being faithful in Christ Jesus are heterogeneous thoughts
which it is harsh to couple together. It is better to read the
sentence thus : " To the saints who are-also (or indeed) faithful
61

INTRODUCTION

in Christ Jesus "; though this is not entirely free from diffi
culty. The collocation of these words in Col. i : 2 is
similar but not identical. The words "who are also faith
ful in Christ Jesus " seem to be intended as a more exact
description, a closer identification, of those he has called
saints; for that word, meaning set apart for God, might
be used also of the Jews (see 2 : 19). At any rate, the
sentence is capable of a grammatical construction and yields
a good sense without the words at Ephesus. We should
then cease to think of this epistle as the epistle to the Ephe
sians and think of it as one which, free from local associa
tions or limitations or personal interests, was written for
and addressed to Paul's beloved Gentiles, whose Apostle
he was and rejoiced to be. Take a few sentences of the
epistle : " Wherefore remember that aforetime ye, the Gentiles,
were separate from Christ," etc. This whole paragraph
(2 : 11-22) pulsates with the interest which he feels for
his Gentiles. Take 3 : 1-13, " For which cause, I Paul
the prisoner of Christ Jesus in behalf of you Gentiles," etc.
This paragraph fairly throbs with the joyful consciousness
he has of the supreme honor and yet fearful responsibility
of his selection and consecration by God to the task of mak
ing effective the revelation that the Gentiles were included
equally with the Jews in God's gracious provision of salva
tion. Looked at from this new point of view, it becomes
a new epistle. It might well be called The Epistle of Paul
to the Gentile Christians of Asia.
With this view of its destination we are better prepared
to understand the breadth and length and height and depth
of its scope. Having succeeded in his long and earnest
effort to preserve in unity the two conflicting elements of
the Christian church, and having in the epistle to the Colos
sians met the new and final doctrinal emergency with a full,
explicit, formal statement of the nature, person, and relations
of Christ, his mind is free, and he has the leisure in his Ro
man imprisonment to expound what is his final conception of
the meaning and aim of the Christian revelation. And this
62

INTRODUCTION

he does in a manner worthy of the theme and worthy of the
man in our noble epistle.
If the Christians of this day have no mind to study, no
capacity to appreciate, and no disposition to realize in life
the contents of this transcendent letter of the noblest and
deepest of Christ's interpreters, those of some future day
will have; and Paul and the Holy Ghost have not written
it in vain, Acts 15 : 28.
IV. Analysis of the Epistle
If it had occurred to Paul that, some two thousand years
after he had written this epistle, men would be engaged in
efforts to analyze it, he might have made it more formal;
but inevitably he would have made it less vital, as our
modern preachers do in their formal " discourses." But as
vitality without formality is better than formality without
vitality, we may well be thankful that we have this great
epistle as it is, even though it baffle our attempts to give a
formal analysis of it.
Its main outlines may be indicated in a general way as
follows :
I. The salutation, 1 : 1, 2.
II. An outburst of lofty praise to God for redemption
and its blessings, 1 : 3-14. See further analy
sis of this paragraph on pages 68, 69, 70 of
commentary.
III. Thanksgiving for what the Gentile Christians were
and prayer for what the Apostle wanted them
to be, 1 : 15-23.
IV. The supernatural work which God had wrought in
them ; and this in order that they might spend
their lives in work for him — and all through
his grace, 2 : 1-10.
V. The reconciliation and reunification of the two
sundered parts of humanity — Jews and Gen
tiles — through the cross of Christ, 2 : 11-22.
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INTRODUCTION

VI. Paul's unique and God-appointed relation to and
part in the reuniting of disunited humanity in
Christ, 3 : 1-13.
VII. Paul's lofty prayer and prophetic doxology for them,
3 : 14-21-
VIII. The lofty motives he urges on them for realizing this
unity, and the means God has provided for
realizing it, 4 : 1-16.
IX. The manner of life they are to live in correspondence
with the lofty origin, plan, and motives of their
salvation, 4 : 17-6 : 9.
1. Contrast with their former darkened life as Gen
tiles, 4 : 17-19.
2. Necessity of experiencing thorough renewal of
their inward nature and thorough transforma
tion of the outward life, 4 : 20-24.
3. The details, positive and negative, intermingled
all through, first the one, then the other, 4 : 25-
5 : 2I\
4. The Christian subordination and regulation of
three domestic relations — the most vital and
determinative of all human relations, 5 : 22-
6:9.
X. Farewell appeal and closing word, 6 : 10-24.

V. Bibliography
Salmond, S. D. F. The Epistle to the Ephesians. The Expositor's
Greek Testament. New York. Dodd, Mead & Co. 1903.
This work is practically exhaustive in philological analysis
and the history of interpretation. It is a monument to the
scholarship, patience, industry, and thoroughness of its
author.
Meyer. Critical and Exegetical Handbook to the Epistle to the
Ephesians. English translation. Funk & Wagnalls. New
York. Meyer is always great, but later scholars have improved on his
work. The latest editions are by Schmidt (1886) and Haupt
(1897). Haupt shows deep insight.
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INTRODUCTION

Abbott, T. K. Critical and Exegetical Commentary oh the Epistle
to the Ephesians. New York. Charles Scribner's Sons.
1905. Abbott is good, but he spends too much time and space on
things that are not worth while. There are many needles in his
haystack, if one can take time to find them.
Robinson, J. Armitage. St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians.
London. Macmillan & Co. 1907.
This volume is externally uniform with Lightfoot's volumes on
Galatians, Philippians, Colossians; and while internally it is
not up to the high level of Lightfoot, still it is a notably good
work. It is fashioned somewhat after the method of Lightfoot
and is very helpful.
Findlay, George G. The Epistle to the Ephesians. The Ex
positor's Bible. New York. A. C. Armstrong & Son. 1908.
This follows the method of the Expositor's Bible and is exposi
tory rather than exegetical. It is rich in spiritual suggestion.
Von Soden. Die Briefe an die Kolosser, Epheser, Philemon in
Hand-Commentar zum N. T., von H. T. Holtzman, R. A. Lipsius,
etc. Freiburg & Leipzig, 1893.
Klopper. Der Brief an die Epheser. Gottingen, 1891.
Eadie. Commentary on the Greek Text of the Epistle of Paul to
the Ephesians.
Lightfoot. Biblical Essays, pp. 375-396; Notes on Epistles _ of
St. Paul from Unpublished Commentaries, pp. 307-324, contains
notes on Eph. 1 : 1-14. London, 1895. Robinson refers to
these notes in his work. ,
Oltramare. Commentaire sur les Epitres de S. Paul aux Colos-
siens, aux Ephesiens et a Philemon. Paris, 1891.
Beck. Erklarung des Briefes Pauli an die Epheser. Guterslob,
1891.
Barry. Commentary on Ephesians and Colossians. Ellicott's
New Testament Commentary for English Readers.
Mottle. The Epistle to the Ephesians. Cambridge Bible for
Schools. See also works of General Introduction: Zahn, Jiilicher;
Works on the Apostolic Age, such as Weizsacker's and
McGiffert's; special monographs such as H. J. Holtzmann's
Kritik der Epheser- und Kolosser-Briefe, and F. J. A. Hort's
Prolegomena to St. Paul's Epistles to the Romans and the
Ephesians. See also the works on Biblical Theology, as Weiss, Beyschlag,
Stevens, Gould.
See Articles on Ephesians in Hastings' Dictionary of the
Bible and in Cyclopedia Biblica.

65

THE EPISTLE TO THE
EPHESIANS
I. The Salutation, i : i, 2
1. °Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of 1:1
God, °to the saints which are ° 1 at Ephesus, "and the
1 Some very ancient authorities omit at Ephesus.
1. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, through the will of God. These
opening words are exactly the same as in the twin epistle to the Col.
(1 : 1), where see comment. The name of Timothy, which is asso
ciated with that of Paul in Colossians, is omitted here. As this is a
general epistle, a final comprehensive statement of the meaning and
aim of the Christian revelation from the point of view of the ideal and
the absolute, Paul doubtless wanted it to have as little as possible of
the personal or the incidental. To the saints. The epistle was not
written for the general public, for just anybody and everybody, but
for a certain class of people, a small select circle, the members of which
had a common secret, a common experience; who had been en
lightened with a new light, initiated into a new life and order; who
had been called out, set apart; citizens of a commonwealth not of
this world, but of heaven. At Ephesus. These words were not
written by St. Paul and were not in the original copy. They were
afterwards introduced into this place by a process which is described
in the Introduction. See also comment on Col. 4 : 16. This letter
was for the Gentile Christians of a certain region. And the faithful
in Christ Jesus. Leaving out the words at Ephesus, these words are
to be taken in close connection with the word saints, and they give a
more specific description, a closer identification, of those called
saints. For the word saints means those set apart for God, and
might be applied to the Jews. Compare 2 : 19. So he says, " To the
saints, those who are also faithful in (or believers in, Acts 16 : 1;
2 Cor. 6 : 15) Christ Jesus." 67

1:2 EPHESIANS

2. faithful in Christ Jesus: °Grace to you and peace from
God our Father "and the Lord Jesus Christ.
II. An Outburst of Lofty Praise to God for
Redemption and its Blessings, i : 3-14.
3. "Blessed be "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
2. Grace to you and peace. Same as in Col. i : 2, where see defi
nition of these words. And the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is
here joined with God as the source of grace and peace. Such distinc
tion is never bestowed upon angels or any other being except Christ.
This is perfectly natural to one to whom Christ was what he is shown
to be in the epistle to the Colossians, written immediately before this
one. God is the Father of Christian believers, having made them
his children by giving them through his Spirit the nature and the
feeling of children (Rom. 8 : 15, 16). Christ is Lord, having become
the Head of the church (1 : 22; Col. 1 : 18) and having won the right
to their submission and obedience.
This outburst of praise extends through twelve verses in a single
intricately yet skilfully constructed sentence of fathomless import.
At first we fail to find a trace of order or method. " It is like the pre
liminary flight of the eagle, rising and wheeling round, as though for
a while uncertain what direction in his boundless freedom he shall
take. The Apostle seems to be swept along by his theme, hardly
knowing whither it is bearing him. He cannot order his conceptions
or close his sentences. And so this swelling doxology runs on and on;
in Christ ... in whom ... in Him ... in Him ... in whom
... in whom ... in whom. . . . The will of God, the will of God,
working itself out to some glorious issue in Christ — this is his theme."
After the prelude of praise in verse 3, Paul sets forth the glorious
salvation in Christ:
(1) As already predestined by God in his love, in eternity, verses
4, 5-
(2) As brought about by the death of Christ and realized in the
conscious experience of believers, 6, 7.
(3) Made known to them as being in fulfilment of the divine pur
pose to reunite the universe in Christ, 8-10.
(4) As realized according to the predestination of God, through
their faith and the sealing of the Holy Spirit, both by Christians in
general and the readers in particular, 11-13.
(5) As issuing in final redemption, 14.
" Standing midway between the eternity past and to come, the Apos
tle looks backward to the primary source of man's salvation when it lay
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EPHESIANS

Christ, who hath blessed us "with every spiritual
4. blessing "in the heavenly places "in Christ: "even as
a silent thought in the mind of God, and forward to the time when it
shall have fulfilled its promise and become an eternal consummation.
In this grand evolution of the divine plan three stages are marked by
a refrain, thrice repeated, To the praise of his glory, to the praise of
the glory of his grace (6, 12, 14). St. Paul's anthem is thus divided
into three strophes: He sings the glory of redeeming love in its past
conception, its present bestowments, and its future fruition. The
paragraph, forming but one sentence and spun upon a single golden
thread, is a piece of thought-music — a sort of fugue in which from
eternity to eternity the counsel of love is pursued by St. Paul's bold
and exulting thought. The middle thought, 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 motif to the second, carry
ing on both in full volume 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 whole into subtle continuity. The theme of
the entire composition is given in verse 3, which forms no part of the
threefold division we have described, but stands as a prelude to it as
follows: 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: who
hath blessed us: In every blessing of the Spirit, in the heavenly
places, in Christ' " (Findlay on Ephesians in the Expositor's Bible).
This verse is a sort of prelude to the lofty strain that follows through
verse 14, a comprehensive summary, containing implicitly all that is
unfolded in order in the verses following.
3. Blessed be the God . . . who hath blessed us. Paul pro
nounces his blessing on God because God has bestowed his blessings
on us. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The same
designation is used by Paul in Rom. 15 : 6; 2 Cor. 1:3; 11:31. See
also Jn. 20 : 17. For meaning see comment on verse 17 of this
chapter. With every spiritual blessing. The word spiritual defines
the kind and nature of the blessings bestowed by God on those who
believe in Christ. They are spiritual as opposed to natural, material,
or temporal. They belong to the invisible realm of the spirit rather
than the visible realm of nature and sense. The word every measures
the scope of the blessings and includes, objectively, every gift or
bestowment from the grace that first "conceived the plan" to final
glorification; and subjectively, in experience, everything from pre-
venient grace to complete sanctification. In the heavenly places.
There is no word in the original for places. The Greek delighted in a
69

1 : 4 EPHESIANS

he chose us "in him before the foundation of the world,
"that we should be holy and without blemish before
certain suggestive indefiniteness, while we practical moderns are
intolerant of anything that does not define to the utmost details.
This phrase of Paul, thus defined, probably means blessings that
belong to the realm of the heavenly as opposed to the earthly. There
is an example of the contrast fully stated in Phil. 3 : 19, 20. In
Christ. These blessings have their ground in Christ; that is, apart
from him there would be no such blessings for us. They include
the favorite Pauline conception of union with Christ : these blessings
have no ground apart from Christ and can be realized, experienced,
only on condition of union with Christ: the blessings, then, that
God has blessed believers with are spiritual as opposed to material or
temporal, they belong to the realm of the heavenly and not of this
world, and they are objectively grounded in Christ and can be sub
jectively experienced only on condition of union with Christ.
In verses 4, 5, 6a, Paul declares what God did for believers in eternity
past, before the creation of man or the foundation of the world. In
verses 6b-i2 he enumerates the actual bestowments of the grace of
God in the experience of believers in time. In verses 13 and 14 he
turns his thought to the hope of the future and the God-sealed cer
tainty of final fruition.
4. Even as he chose us. Let it not be forgotten that Paul is writing
in a sort of confidential intimacy to those who had responded to the
call of God, who had " come out from among them and were separate,"
who were thus God's set apart ones, who had been enlightened, who
had had a common but revolutionary and transforming experience,
who had been initiated into the new order of those that knew the secret
of God. So he is talking secrets, the sacredest secrets, secrets that
the world did not know and could not know because they were ap
prehended through a spiritual sense, as Paul says in 1 Cor. 2 : 14-16.
He is writing secret things to those who could understand, just as
Jesus spoke secrets to the inner circle of the Eleven in the Upper
Room, as he could not have spoken to the promiscuous crowd without.
Without keeping this in mind, it is impossible to enter into the spirit
and meaning of this transcendent passage or indeed of the epistle
as a whole.
The words, as he chose us, are to be taken in connection with and
dependence upon those going before, thus : He blessed us with every
spiritual blessing in accordance with and pursuance of the previous
fact, that he chose us in eternity. He chose us, and then in accord
ance with that choice he blessed us with all spiritual blessing. And
he chose us that we should be holy and without blemish before him.
This was the purpose for which he chose us. In him. That is, he
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EPHESIANS

5. 1him °in love: "having foreordained us "unto adoption
as sons "through Jesus Christ unto himself, "according
1 Or, him: having in love foreordained us
chose us as being in Christ, he chose those who would come into
union with Christ by faith. It is God that maketh righteous, not
only in the sense of justification but also in the sense of sanctification.
But he does this only on condition of union with Christ by faith. So
it is a perfectly proper way of putting it to say that he selected those
who, he foreknew, would thus come into identification with Christ by
faith, with the purpose of their being holy and without blemish before
him. In other words, he selected these as the ones he would make
holy and blameless. That is to say, God was going to make some
body holy and blameless, a thing none but God could do. Who
should it be? Whom should he select? What would be the ground
of his choice? As everywhere appears in Paul's writings, it was to be
those who realized their guilt, their sinfulness, and their utter inability
to help themselves, or to make themselves holy; in otherwords, those
who would accept salvation and righteousness as a gift of grace from
God on a condition prescribed by God. The condition prescribed by
God was that men should trustfully commit themselves to Christ for
forgiveness of sins and for deliverance from the power of sin and evil.
This is the gist of what Paul says in Rom. chaps. 9-1 1, where he is
treating this very same subject of election. See especially Rom. 9 : 6,
11; 10 : 3, 4; 11:5. And this is everywhere the consistent teaching
of Paul. So that it is a qualitative election rather than a personal
election. But of course any who answer the description and who are
of the described quality are included and of them it may be said that
they were elected, as here Paul says of his readers and himself, even
as he chose us; but even so, he adds in him to indicate the reason why
he could say that they were elected.1 In love. These words are to
be taken with those that follow, thus : having in love foreordained
us, thus making it God's love and not ours. This is much more in
accord with the spirit of the whole passage, which is concerned with
what God has done for us and is to us rather than what we are or have
done. The word translated good pleasure in verse 5 does not denote
benevolence or love, but simply the free self-determination of God's will.
1 As to the absoluteness of election it is worth while to note that Paul in Rom. 8:29
makes God's foreknowledge antecedent to foreordination. And in 1 Pt. 1 : 2 (an
epistle which has many affinities and coincidences both with Romans and Ephesians)
"the election has its ground and norm in the foreknowledge of the Father," as Dr.
Salmond says. He says again, " It is also to be noticed that in both Romans (8 : 29)
and in 1 Peter (1 : 2) it is the foreknowledge and not the foreordination that is repre
sented as antecedent to the election or as forming its ground." See Salmond on
Ephesians in Expositor's Greek Testament, vol. iii, pp. 240-251.
71

1 : 6 EPHESIANS

6. to the good pleasure of his will, "to the praise of the
glory of his grace, ° 1 which he freely bestowed on us
1 Or, wherewith he endued us
5. Having foreordained us. This is practically equivalent to: "And
he foreordained us unto adoption as sons." Strictly construed, it is this :
he chose us in him, at the same time foreordaining us unto adoption
as sons. It states the significance of God's act toward us from
another point of view. For those who are holy are God's sons and
those who are God's sons are holy. Holiness is sonship. Others
take having foreordained as temporally antecedent to he chose us,
thus: Having foreordained us unto adoption as sons, he chose us that
we should be holy, etc. "God elected us in Christ to be perfect saints,
for he predestined us through Christ to be his sons" (Findlay).
This is grammatically correct, but if foreordination to sonship is the
primary thing and election the subsequent and subordinate thing,
why should Paul have put election in the chief place in his sentence
and foreordination in the subordinate construction and place?
However, what's the difference? Unto adoption as sons. This is a
favorite conception of Paul. It bulks large in his view of the state of
those who are saved, Rom. 8 : 15; Gal. 4 : 5, 6. He does not speak
of the new birth or of being born again, which is John's favorite figure,
but of a new creation and a new creature; his view of sonship is that
it is subsequent to re-creation and one of adoption. Through Jesus
Christ. Our predestined relation to God as sons was to be realized
through the mediation of Jesus Christ and not otherwise. So that
election is in him and adoption is through him. According to the good
pleasure of his will. The word translated good pleasure does not
here mean benevolence; that was expressed by a much stronger
word in verse 4, namely, in love. It is here the free self-determination
of his will, his own absolute sovereign good pleasure and counsel, un
moved by any cause or consideration outside of himself. It occurs
with the same meaning in Christ's words in Matt. 11 : 26: "Even so,
Father, for such was thy good pleasure," that is,it was thy good pleasure
to reveal the truth to babes and to conceal it from "philosophers."
These words refer to all that he has said in verses 3, 4, and 5. God
blessed, God chose, God foreordained, in accordance with the deter
mination of his own will. And what do these words express? Merely
the absolute independence and sovereignty of God in these acts of his.
There is a faint suggestion here of what Paul says about the sover
eignty of God in Rom. 9 : 14-21. What is the object of Paul in writ
ing these strong words about the absolute and independent sover
eignty of God and his acts of election and predestination of his people
in the depths of eternity before the universe was? It was to show
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EPHESIANS

7. °in the Beloved : "in whom "we have our redemption
"through his blood, "the forgiveness of our trespasses,
that the thought of man and man's salvation by grace was absolutely
primary in the mind of God, anterior and superior to the universe
itself. Paul has already said in Colossians that the universe itself
was grounded in Christ with a view to the new universe that was to
be reconstructed and reconditioned in Christ. Indeed, this daring
and startling thought is boldly broached in this epistle and in this
very paragraph of it, see verse 10. The design of Paul was to dignify
and glorify the grace of God which created the universe for and
grounded it upon the purpose of man's redemption and salvation
through Christ. Before Paul became a Christian the same thought
substantially was expressed by Christ himself, "Come, ye blessed of
my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world" (Mt. 25 : 34). Incidentally, and subordinately, these
thrilling revelations of God's precreationai plan of man's salvation
and his precreationai acts of election and adoption would give to
his readers an inspiring, uplifting sense of their worth and dignity
and of their security and welfare for the eternal future.
6. To the praise of the glory of his grace. See above on verse 5.
As there said, the supreme end to which all that God wills, provides,
and does in Christ for the redemption of men is the manifestation
and recognition of the glory, the splendor, of his grace — that men and
any and all intelligent beings in the universe may come to know the
real nature and character of God, and how glorious his grace is.
" The glorifying of the divine love (which, as it refers to sinful beings,
is here called grace) is the divinely conceived ultimate aim" of the
plan of redemption. Which he freely bestowed on us. The words in
the original have a force and beauty which cannot be reproduced in
English. It is something like this: his favor with which he graciously
favored us. Does the verb bestowed refer to God's gracious provision
of redemption for men, or to his making his grace effective in the
actual inward experience of believers? When and in what sense
does Paul mean that God bestowed his grace on them? It seems in
their actual experience. For he has already brought out the other
thought, substantially, in what precedes; and in what immediately
follows he does describe their actual experience of forgiveness, par
don. In the Beloved. By virtue of our union with him who is the
Beloved. This describes Jesus absolutely as the Beloved One of
God. In Col. 1 : 13 he is called "the son of his love." Cf.Mt. 3 : 17;
17 : 5. This may be a messianic title. See detached note in Robin
son on Ephesians.
7. In whom. Here it is again, in Christ: Everything is in Christ.
We have our redemption. The word in Paul's epistles " denotes the
73

1 : 8 EPHESIANS

8. "according to the riches of his grace, 0l which he made
9. to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, °hav-~
ing made known unto us the mystery of his will,
1 Or, wherewith he abounded
deliverance accomplished, at the cost of Christ's death, from the
penalty of sin." Through his blood. A more specific definition of
the meaning in this connection of in whom. The forgiveness of our
trespasses. This is in apposition with our redemption, defining what
that consists in as realized in our experience and reported in our
consciousness. According to the riches of his grace. What God
provided and did/or us in eternity before the creation of the universe
is referred to as showing the glory of his grace, what he does i\ us
in the conscious forgiveness of sins as showing the riches of his grace.
And "as grace served to wind up one section of this great passage
concerning what God provided for us from eternity, and to begin
another in verse 6, so it serves here to connect and continue what
God has done in us as a matter of experience, namely, what God has
done in us in the consciousness of forgiveness and the inner enlighten
ment in the form of wisdom and prudence." How rich is his grace !
Compare the hymn of John Newton :
"Amazing grace! How sweet the sound I
That saved a wretch like me."
8. Which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and pru
dence. Here Paul takes up the revelatory aspect of grace, and he is
so inspired and fired that he goes on using words of great import.
With St. Paul the word "wisdom" belongs specially to the region of
the secret (or mystery) of God and its revelation, while prudence is
that practical understanding which relates to the practical affairs of
life. In the letters of this period and group Paul lays great stress on
wisdom, though in writing to the Corinthians at an earlier period he
rebuked their devotion to what they called wisdom, by which he
meant an intellectual subtlety akin to the spirit of Greek philosophy.
He refused to gratify their desire for this sort of thing and would not
impart to them in their carnal state of ambition and strife his own
wisdom in the deeper things of God. However, he declared to them
most positively that he had a wisdom, though one that belonged to
mature men and not to babes (1 Cor. 2 : 1-7). And this is the wis
dom (or philosophy of the universe, if you please to call it so) which
we have in this transcendent epistle and in its twin epistle, that to the
Colossians. Compare Robinson on Ephesians, in loc.
9. Having made known unto us the mystery of his will = in that he
made known to us the hitherto unrevealed secret of his will, his hitherto
74

EPHESIANS

"according to his good pleasure "which he purposed in
io. him "unto a dispensation of the fulness of the x times,
"to sum up all things in Christ, "the things 2in the
1 Gr. seasons. 3 Gr. upon.
unrevealed will and purpose. Verses 9 and 10 are explanatory of the
statement of verse 8. According to his good pleasure = in pursuance
of his free self-determination (cf. verse 5)- Which he purposed in
him. This relative clause is inserted to serve as a means of attaching
the following words, namely:
10. Unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times. " With a view
to a dispensation belonging to the fulness of the times." That is, the
purpose and plan of God looked to a dispensation or arrangement or
order which was to be ushered in by him when the times were ripe
for it. Compare Gal. 4:3,4," But when the fulness of the time came,
God sent forth his son," etc. A preparatory period and process were
necessary until the time should come when all things should be ripe
and ready for the revelation of his secret, i.e., hitherto unrevealed,
plan, namely, the dispensation or economy of the divine saving grace,
which was to be put into execution by Christ — in other words, the gos
pel plan of salvation. Somehow there is a sort of suggestion here
that the fulness of the times included the production of a man with
a full capacity, spiritual, intellectual, temperamental, to grasp the
full scope and meaning of the new revolutionary revelation and dis
pensation, and the qualities of courage and endurance which would
enable him to establish it in the earth before his death. Did God
have to wait for Paul? At any rate there has never been but one Paul;
and what would Christianity have been without this one? To sum up
all things in Christ. A great and unexplorable saying! Perhaps as
good a paraphrase as has been made of it is the following: To bring
together again for himself all things and beings hitherto disunited by
sin into one combined state of fellowship and unity in him who is the
universal bond, Christ. This is the consummation that swims into
view in this great epistle, which is the crowning revelation of the New
Testament. It contemplates nothing less than the rehabilitation of the
universe in Jesus Christ and the reconstitution of the universe on a
Christian basis. This process of cosmic reunification has already had
its beginning in the unification of the two separated and irreconcilable
portions of mankind, the Jews and the Gentiles, in Christ Jesus, as Paul
sets forth in this epistle : " That he might reconcile them both in one
body unto God" (2 : 16); "For through him (Christ) we both have
our access in one Spirit unto the Father" (2 : 18). And this idea and
ideal of unity is more fully set forth in the great classic on Christian
75

i:ii EPHESIANS

n. heavens, and the things upon the earth; "in him, I say,
"in whom also we were made a heritage, "having been
foreordained "according to the purpose "of him who
12. worketh all things after the counsel of his will; "to the
end that we should be unto the praise of his glory, "we

unity in chap. 4 : 3-16, which is too long to be quoted in full here,
but which ought to be read in connection with this great saying of
Paul. The things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth.
That is, the sum total of created objects, whether things or beings,
wherever found. See Col. 1 : 20 and the note thereon, and compare
the suggestive sayings of Acts 3 : 21, and especially Rom. 8 : 20-22.
11. In him, I say. A repetition both for emphasis and to serve as
a means of transition to, and connection with, what follows. In
whom also we were made a heritage. In whom, as the causal ground,
we have also, or actually, been made partakers of the inheritance;
for he is telling what God has done for us rather than what we have
been made to God. And the Greek word has this meaning, as well
as the one given in the text. Having been foreordained. That is, to
this participation in the inheritance. According to the purpose.
Our foreordination was in accordance with and in pursuance of the
purpose of God and not an accidental thing, or due to or dependent on
ourselves. Of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his
will. This seems to be added to express the absolute sovereignty,
and so the absolute efficiency and sufficiency, of God, on whom our
salvation depends and in whose hands it is.
12. To the end that we should be unto the praise of his glory. These
words are to be taken in connection with the words having been fore
ordained in verse 11. The similar phrase in verse 5 is so construed
there. They express the ultimate end which God had in view in
foreordaining us to be made partakers of the inheritance. We who
had before hoped in Christ. These words are taken by some of the
best commentators to refer to the Jews. They do no such thing.
There is no conceivable reason for drawing here the distinction be
tween Jews and Gentiles or for speaking here of the Jews as distin
guished from the Gentiles. Besides, if Paul had intended to refer to
the Jews here in a distinctive way, he certainly could have made it
plain, as he does in chap. 2 : 11-22. This is certainly a very vague
and hazy way of indicating the Jews. The language, in agreement
with the whole context, refers to Christians in general. The "we,"
as in the preceding verse, simply means all Christian believers; and
the whole sentence is to be thus interpreted: To the end that we
should be to the praise of his glory, we, who before the full manif esta-
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EPHESIANS

13. who * had before hoped in Christ: "in whom ye also,
°having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your
salvation, — in whom, having also believed, "ye were
14. sealed with the Holy Spirit "of promise, "which is an
earnest of our inheritance, "unto the redemption of
God's own possession, unto the praise of his glory.
1 Or, have
tion of that glory (at the parousia) have reposed our hope in Christ.
(The reading have in the margin probably has this meaning.) And
this interpretation is in accordance with the fact that the word hope
is generally used by Paul as referring to the final consummation of
our salvation and final glorification.
13. In whom ye also. This is, by those commentators mentioned
above, supposed to mean: Ye Gentile believers as well as the Jews.
Not so. It simply means, You, to whom I am writing, as well as
all other Christian believers. Exactly the same thing occurs in Eph.
2 : 22, and in Rom. 1 : 6; and practically the same thing in Col. 1 : 21
and 2 : 13. The words declare of the readers in particular what was
true of Christians in general, and is not for the purpose of distinguish
ing them as Gentiles from Jews. Having heard the word of the truth.
The construction of this sentence is broken. Probably Paul had it in
mind to say, "In whom ye also having heard the word of the truth,
believed and were sealed," etc. But instead of this, he repeats the
relative with a second participle, namely, having also believed, etc.,
Ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit. That is, by the impartation of
the Holy Spirit, which was to them and in them a matter of experience,
as in Rom. 5 : 5. The sealing was the assurance of salvation attested
to their own consciousness by the Holy Spirit, as in Rom. 8 : 16.
The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are children
of God. Of promise. The Holy Spirit was the object of the promise
of God.
14. Which is an earnest of our inheritance. This statement is of the
nature of a parenthesis, coming between a verb (ye were sealed) and
the temporal prepositional adjunct which modifies it (unto or until the
consummation of redemption). In receiving the Spirit (as they had
done, else'all this would have absolutely no meaning for them) they
had a guarantee, as earnest money is a guarantee of future payment,
that they should become actual possessors of the final inheritance, of
future salvation. Unto the redemption. These words are to be con
strued with ye were sealed, and they are temporal, as is shown by the
words in 4 : 30, " In whom (the Holy Spirit) ye were sealed unto the
77

i:iS EPHESIANS
III. Thanksgiving for what they Were and Prayer
FOR WHAT HE WANTED THEM TO Be, I : 1 5-23
15. "For this cause "I also, "having heard of "the faith in
the Lord Jesus which is ' among you, "and 2 which ye
1 Or, in ¦ Many ancient authorities insert the love.
day of redemption." These words then will influence the interpretation
of the meaning of sealing. God's gift of the Holy Spirit to them is a
proof that they are his, it is his assurance to them of the reality of the
process that has made them his, it is his proprietary stamp; and it is
thus implicitly a guarantee that he will keep them unto the day of
final redemption. By the impartation of his Spirit, accomplishing
their inward moral and spiritual transformation and giving them
the consciousness of sonship, their final salvation is pledged and as
sured so far as God is concerned. As has been quaintly said, "By
putting heaven in us he guarantees that he will some day put us in
heaven." There is a striking parallel to this and commentary on
this in Phil. 1:6: " He which began a good work in you will perfect it
until the day of Jesus Christ." But this does not exclude the possibility
of a believer's separating himself from God and losing salvation.
Compare 1 Cor. 9 : 27. Unto the redemption of God's own possession.
The word God's is not in the original. The original is simply, unto the
redemption of the possession, and this, according to the run of the con
text, probably means sealed unto redemption, which will give actual
possession (Abbott).
15. " Only after he has freed his heart by the preceding outburst
does he reach what in other epistles he begins with," namely, thanks
giving on behalf of his readers. For this cause. Refers to verses 13
and 14, because you also are included among the saints, because
you have heard and believed the gospel and have received the seal
of God in the experiences he has wrought in you. I also. I want
you to know and to feel that, as you give thanks and pray for your
selves and for each other, I, Paul, also do the same. Having heard
of the faith. This suggests, though it does not prove, that Paul had
never seen them; for he could receive news of their continuing or
growing in faith, as in the case of Philemon, whom he did know,
Philem. 5, 19. The faith which is among you. This is practically
the same as your faith, though some think it means that true faith
existed among them, though not all of them had it (Alford). And
which ye shew toward all the saints. The words ye shew are not in
the Greek text here at all; but according to the best text, which omits
the words the love, some such words need to be supplied.
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EPHESIANS

16. shew toward all the saints, "cease not to give thanks
17. for you, "making mention of you in my prayers; "that
the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, "the Father of glory,
"may give unto you "a spirit of wisdom and revelation
18. "in the knowledge of him; "having the eyes of your
16. Cease not to give thanks for you. This does not mean that
he spent all his time in giving thanks for them, nor is it "an affec
tionate hyperbole," as Bishop Ellicott calls it; it means that he did
not fail to give thanks for them from time to time. Making mention
of you in my prayers. The words of you are not in the original and
there is no need for supplying them. It was not of his readers that
he means to say he made mention, but of the thing that he most
wished for them. At the time of my prayers I make it a matter of
special mention, namely:
17. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ himself, in the
consciousness of his relation of subordination to and dependence on
God the Father, calls him "my God," Mt. 27 : 46; Jn. 20 : 17. Or
the words may here mean, the God whom our Lord Jesus Christ re
vealed. The Father of glory. The Father to whom the glory par
excellence belonged. Compare such phrases as "the Father of mer
cies." To translate the words here the glorious Father would weaken
the thought. These rather singular designations are chosen with
special reference to the contents of the prayer which follows: He who
is the God of Christ and your Father, to whom glory belongs (power
and might and majesty), may surely be expected to do that which
the cause of Christ requires, which his children need, and which will
serve to show his power and manifest his glory. May give unto you.
This is what Paul said he made special mention of. A spirit of wisdom
and revelation. Better, the spirit of wisdom, etc., for it is the Holy
Spirit that is meant, as is usual in the New Testament when spirit is
spoken of as given. "It is a teaching Spirit rather than a teachable
spirit." He is called the spirit of wisdom and of revelation because
he gives wisdom and revelations, as in Rom. 8 : 2 he is called the
spirit of life because he gives life. In 1 Cor. 2 : 10 Paul declares that
the secrets of God are revealed through his Spirit. And without reve
lation they cannot be known; without it, indeed, these secrets, even
when declared to men in their unregenerate state, are incredible or
they seem foolish (1 Cor. 2 : 14). In the knowledge of him. It is not
in the sphere of the knowledge of things in general that Paul asks for
them the spirit of wisdom and revelation, but of the knowledge, full,
true, and thorough knowledge, of God.
18. Having the eyes of your heart enlightened. This is not a mere
intellectual enlightenment, but is of the heart, which is conceived as
79

i : 19 EPHESIANS

heart enlightened, "that ye may know "what is the hope
of his calling, "what the riches of the glory of his in-
19. heritance "in the saints, "and what the exceeding great-

the seat of the feelings and the will. It is the will especially that
determines character and hence has most to do with the capacity of
moral perception, discernment, as in Jn. 7 : 17. That ye may know.
These words express the object, either of the giving of the spirit of
wisdom and revelation, thus: in order that ye, being enlightened as
to the eyes of your heart, may know; or of the enlightening of the eyes
of the heart, thus : the eyes of your heart being enlightened that ye
may know, etc. The grammatical construction of the first is easier.
At any rate it is necessary for them to have a divine illumination in
order that they may have effective and adequate comprehension of
the three things that follow, namely, the hope of God's calling, the
object of that hope, the greatness of the power that is pledged for its
realization. What is the hope of his calling. Note that it is God's
calling. That calling involves a hope, and we should know the full
significance and power of a hope that is involved in being called of
God. This we cannot realize in its full scope and meaning without the
quickening and illumination of the divine Spirit, whose very function
it is to give wisdom and make revelations to believers. The hope is
not here put for the thing hoped for, as in Col. 1:5. The thing hoped
for is the subject of the next clause, as follows : What the riches of the
glory of his inheritance. As it was God's calling, so it is his inheritance
or heritage. " The Lord's portion is his people, . . . the lot of his
inheritance." Paul wished and longed and prayed that his readers
might be enabled, empowered, to understand, not how glorious is the
riches, but how rich would be the glory which God would take pride
in bestowing upon the people whom he had chosen as his own portion
and heritage. This they could not do unless he gave and they re
ceived his Spirit of wisdom and revelation. Evidently, Paul himself
understood this, and hence his eagerness that his readers might have
the same inspiration. In the saints. That is, God's heritage consists
in the saints, for "the Lord's portion is his people," even as one of
them had said, " The Lord is my portion." The fact that Christians
are not fired with a Pauline enthusiasm and Christendom is not trans
figured, is proof that they do not know the riches of the glory of being
God's heritage.
19. And what the exceeding greatness of his power. After the
reference to the object of the great hope comes the description in
detail of that power by means of which the hope is to be realized,
namely, the exceeding great power of God as shown, in the first place,
in the resurrection of Christ from the dead and his exaltation and
80

EPHESIANS

ness of his power "to us-ward who believe, "according
20. to that working of the strength of his might "which
he wrought in Christ, "when he raised him from the
dead, "and made him to sit at his right hand "in the
21. heavenly places, "far above all rule, and authority,
and power, and dominion, "and every name that is

glorification at the right hand of God. To us-ward who believe.
That is, in its relation and application to us believers. Now Paul
is here speaking, not primarily of the power of God as already mani
festing itself in tbe experience of believers in this life, but of that power
as manifesting itself or to be manifested in the case of believers at the
parousia, when the mighty working of that power which was displayed
in Christ's resurrection and exaltation will, in virtue of their fellow
ship with Christ, bring about the fulfilment of their hope, namely,
the realization of the wealth of glory which belongs to the saints as
the chosen and beloved heritage of God (Rom. 8 : 17). But note
carefully the comment on chap. 2 : 1, below. According to that
working of the strength of his might. This is adduced as the means
of measuring or estimating the greatness of the power of God pledged
for the fulfilment of the hope of believers, and so as the ground of
"knowing" it ("that ye may know"). The accumulation of words
for power in this passage illustrates how Paul had to struggle with
language in order to give expression to the surging thoughts within
him. 20. Which he wrought in Christ = which he effectively exercised
in the case of Christ. When he raised him from the dead. Better, in
that he raised him from the dead, or in the act of raising him from
the dead. And made him to sit at his right hand. This exaltation of
Christ is cited as a distinct instance and proof of what the energetic
working of the power of God has done, can do. In the heavenly
places. Here apparently a specification of place. Compare Mt. 6:9;
24 : 30; 25 : 31; Acts 7 : 55; Phil. 3 : 20.
21. Far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion.
Whether Paul himself believed in or held to any graduated order of
angelic beings such as is found in the Jewish literature of his day, or
whether his lists of such orders (as here and Rom. 8 : 38; Col. 1 : 16;
Eph. 3 : 10) are quotations of the opinions of others or of current
theories, we cannot definitely say. At any rate, he probably means
something like this: "Whatever beings or powers or dignities there
may be, by whatever names they may be called, Christ is exalted far
above them all." And every name that is named. As if he would say,
"and whatever other orders than those I have named or by whatever
G 81

i: 22

EPHESIANS

named, "not only in this 1 world, but also in that which
22. is to come: "and he put all things in subjection under
his feet, "and gave him to be head over all things to the
23. church, "which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth
all in all. * Or, age
name they may be called, Christ is sovereign over them too." There
seems to be a suggestion here that they were after all nothing but
names. Not only in this world (or age), but also in that which is to
come. Paul is determined to exhaust the universe, future as well as
present, for his words embrace all beings that now exist and all that
may exist in any possible future. Whatever name they may bear,
whatever world or age they may belong to, Christ is Lord of all.
This recalls his sweeping language in Col. 1 : 16, 17.
22. And he put ail things in subjection under his feet. He has
already set forth most exhaustively the exaltation of Christ above all
things, but he does not leave the subjection of all things to Christ
to be inferred; he distinctly states it. All that has been created God
has subjected to the will and rule of Christ. Nor is this conception
peculiar to Paul. Already Christ himself has said in so many words:
"All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth,"
Mt. 28 : 18. And gave him to be head over all things to the church.
Strictly it is: And him, head over all things, as being head overall
things, God gave to the church (of course, to be its head also) . The
word him stands at the beginning of the sentence and has the primary
emphasis, thus: Him, the one exalted and ruling over all in heaven
and on earth, him God gave to the church, i.e., God in giving Christ
to the church gave him as the one who is Head over all things. It
is implied, of course, that God gave him who is Head over all things,
to the church to be its Head also — a view which is confirmed by
the following clause, " which is his body."
23. Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
This has been called "the most remarkable expression in the whole
epistle." The church is here called, not only the body of Christ, but
the fulness, that is, the completion of Christ. It is that without which
Christ is not complete, as the head is not complete without the body.
The Apostle looks upon Christ as in a sense wanting completeness
and destined to find completeness in the church. In the sense in
which the body is the completion of the head, the church is the com
pletion of Christ. That is, the church is that through which Christ
lives and works here on earth. This is a matter of fact, and it suits
the conception of the church as Christ's body. And as the church
82

EPHESIANS

IV. The Supernatural Work which God had
WROUGHT IN THEM; AND THIS THAT THEY
MIGHT WORK FOR HlM — AND ALL
through His Grace, 2 : 1-10
2. "And you did he quicken, "when ye were dead through
2. your trespasses and sins, "wherein aforetime ye walked
"according to the 1 course of this world, "according to
1 Gr. age
grows toward completion, Christ grows toward completion. This
interpretation illuminates and is illuminated by an almost equally
remarkable passage in Colossians (i : 24), where Paul says, "I am
filling up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ
in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church."
1. And you did he quicken. The greatness of God's power toward
believers has already been illustrated and measured by what he
wrought in raising Christ from the dead and exalting him to God's
right hand, supreme over all authority and rule. In the next place,
Paul tells his readers that they have had experience of that power at
work in themselves. Through it they also had been raised from the
dead. So that the description of the greatness of God's power in
chap. 1, verses 19, 20, 21, 22, is not to be understood as applying
exclusively to the realization of their hope at the time of the parousia.
It applies to rhe present inward experience of believers here in this
life also. For Paul here describes the spiritual quickening and
resurrection to new life of his readers as an actual experience which
they had already realized. When ye were dead. That is, morally and
spiritually dead; and this state of deadness to spiritual things was
brought about by means of their sins. Similarly, Paul speaks of his
own experience of sin causing his death, in a statement of singular
significance in Rom. 7 : 9, 10.
2. Wherein aforetime ye walked. This sentence affords a good
example of the way in which Paul "goes off at a word." The word is
"sins." It leads him away into a digression occupying the whole of
verses 2 and 3: But according to his custom he returns to the original
thought in verse 4 and completes it. In this digression he pauses to
explain how his readers had gotten into a state of deadness to moral
and spiritual truth and reality. It was because they had lived in
habitual practice of sin. This was what had killed them. According
to the course of this world. Literally, according to the age of this
83

2 : 3 EPHESIANS

the prince of the power of the air, "of the spirit that now
3. 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 r
 _______
* Gr. thoughts.
world, a pleonasm perhaps for emphasis. According to "the spirit
of the age " is good, but inadequate. The word age here evidently
has an ethical sense. The combination might be paraphrased,
"according to the low moral quality and drift of this world." Accord
ing to the prince of the power of the air. According to some com
mentators Paul means to define literally the locality where the powers
of evil operate — "the superterrestrial but subcelestial region
which seems to be the haunt of evil spirits." Others think he
is using the common parlance of his day which would be familiar
to his readers. The sense is that his readers in their prechristian,
unenlightened condition were under the power and lived according
to the will of the chief of all the powers of evil. This imparts a shade
of deeper darkness to his description of the former state of these now
Christian believers. Of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of
disobedience. The same "prince" is in some sense the ruler of the
spirit of the world (1 Cor. 2 : 12), the spiritual influence which "ener
gizes" in bad men, here with Hebrew picturesqueness called "the
sons of disobedience." It is very significant that in this great epistle,
where Paul ascends to the highest heights and unveils the highest
glories of holiness and purity, he also descends deepest into mystery
of iniquity and unveils its undiscovered sources. Compare the pas
sages, 4 : 17-19; S : 7, 11-12; 6 : 12, all of which are similar in tone
and color to that which we are considering.
3. Among whom. That is, among the sons of disobedience of
whom we were part. Here again Paul " goes off at a word " into an
other digression, making a digression within a digression. We also all.
Here he changes to the first person and adds the word all so as to
make the description include all classes and all men. Once lived.
Formerly had our life and conduct. In the lusts of our flesh. These
are two very bad words. The flesh is human nature apart from God
and under the dominion of sin; the lusts are the lower animal passions
that belong to and dominate this human nature. Doing the desires of
the flesh. They put into acts the desires of their fleshly nature.
And of the mind. Rather, of the thoughts. This is another bad word,
at least it is found in low, bad company in the New Testament. Most
of us do not need to have anybody tell us what bad thoughts are.
We know, alas! too well. And were by nature children of wrath.
84

EPHESIANS
 _^_  . 
4. nature, children of wrath, "even as the rest : — "but God,
"being rich in mercy, "for his great love "wherewith
5. he loved us, "even when we were dead through our
trespasses, "quickened us "together * with Christ
1 Some ancient authorities read in Christ.
This looks at first as if Paul meant that they were, that we were, by
birth and from birth, under the wrath of God; that infants and inno
cent little children, such as Jesus loved and commended, are the
objects of God's anger. But Paul does not mean this or say this. He
would have contradicted what he had already said in 1 Cor. 7 : 14.
The clause preceding this tells what they did, this clause tells what
they had thereby become. The meaning is that they all, Jews and
Gentiles, were by the spontaneous impulses and desires of their
nature, inclined to wrong-doing, to the doing of those things which
would put them under the wrath of God; and as, following the im
pulses of their nature, they had all actually done those things, had
lived in the habitual practice of them, it could be said with truth that
they were in a stateof exposure to the wrathof God as a result of
following tne desires ancTpassions of their nature; that is, they had
come to be by their very nature the objects of God's wrath. Even
as the rest.' TfiafTF, we who are now the happy children of God,
free from the dominion of the lusts of the flesh, we were formerly in
the condition I have just described, just as all the rest of the unregener
ate world were and still are.
4. But God. This introduces the resumption of that sentence which
was begun in verse 1 and then interrupted by the digressions of verses
2 and 3. Being rich in mercy. If there is wrath, there is mercy also,
rich mercy. For his great love. That is, because of his great love,
in order to satisfy it. If there is wrath, there is love, great love. But
is it possible for God to love those with whom he is angry or to be
angry with those whom he loves? Certainly. Parents are sometimes
angry, very angry, with the children whom they love, perhaps some
times even because they love them. Wherewith he loved us. This is
probably not so much for emphasis, as to make a connecting link
with the following words, and is about equivalent to this: the great
love which he had for us even when, etc.
5. Even when we were dead. An emphatic repetition of the similar
clause in verse 1 and presenting the extreme of the case. Quickened
us. It is a pity that the timid conservatism of the revisers would not
let them abandon this archaism for a fresh and faithful translation of
the vivid and picturesque Greek word, he made us alive. Meanwhile,
it should not be forgotten that this act of God is adduced here as a
8S

EPHESIANS

6. ("by grace have ye been saved), and raised us up with
him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places,
7. in Christ Jesus: "that in the ages to come "he might
shew the exceeding riches of his grace °in kindness
8. toward us in Christ Jesus : "for by grace have ye been
saved "through faith; "and that not of yourselves: it

manifestation and an example of "the exceeding greatness of the
power of God to us-ward who believe," as the resurrection and exal
tation of Jesus was adduced for the same purpose. Together with
Christ. Paul has already said (in 1 : 23) that the church is Christ's
body, and by virtue of our union with him as of members with the
head, we share in the resurrection and exaltation of Christ. We have
already had the experience of resurrection into a new spiritual life,
and the sequel, though future, is secure, as good as realized already.
Cf. Rom. 6 : 4-8. By grace have ye been saved. If they were
quickened when they were dead, then it could not have been of them
selves, for dead people can do nothing; it must have been by God's
free grace.
7. That in the ages to come. Literally, the ages that are coming
on — the successively arriving and passing ages from that time for
evermore, as in 3 : 21. He might shew the exceeding riches of his
grace. Practically the same thought as in 1 : 6, "to the praise of the
glory of his grace." But it comes in again here — and everywhere;
for Paul cannot get away from the grace of God. In kindness toward
us in Christ Jesus. Defining how the grace expressed itself, his grace,
which expressed itself in the gracious kindness with which he dealt
with us. Grace is the source of the kindness and Christ Jesus is
the great expression of the grace.
8. For. I am justified in speaking thus of the riches of his grace,
for it is by this grace that you have been saved and are now in a state
of salvation. Through faith. And if it was by grace on God's part, it
was, as it had to be, by faith, for grace and faith are naturally cor
relative and mutually implicative, as in Rom. 4 : 16. And that not
of yourselves: it is the gift of God. To refer the emphatic phrase
"and that" to the preceding statement, that it was by grace they
had been saved through faith, is untenable, because it is, in that case,
practically an unnecessary repetition, a weak redundancy. If they
were saved by grace, of course it was the gift of God; that is what
grace means. Why should it be said over again'and the redundant
word be introduced with a very emphatic phrase? But make and
that refer to faith, and there is an advance in the thought and pro
priety in the emphasis, as well as truth in the statement. Besides, it
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EPHESIANS

9. is the gift of God: "not of works, that no man should
10. glory. "For we are his workmanship, "created in
Christ Jesus "for good works, "which God afore pre
pared that we should walk in them.

is Pauline. In Phil. 1 : 29 Paul says "To you it hath been granted not
only to believe on him," etc. It will not be out of place to say that
this is the view of that great synergistic Arminian, John Wesley,
epigrammatically and emphatically expressed in his sermon on this
very verse. So also Chrysostom, Theodoret, Jerome, Erasmus, Beza,
Bengel, etc. The Greek allows this : see Abbott, Salmond and Rob
inson, in loc.
9. Not of works. That is, salvation through faith does not belong
to the category of works, which give a ground for glorying; so that, as
it is by faith, no one may glory. " That the glory of salvation belongs
wholly to God and has been so planned and effected as to take from
man all ground of boasting, is enforced by Paul again and again with
anxious concern and great plainness of expression."
10. For we are his workmanship. This is the reason why there is
no ground for glorying. What we are as Christians God himself has
made us. Created in Christ Jesus. When Paul said we are God's
work, he was not speaking of the first creation, as, for example, the
Psalmist meant, when he said "It is he that made us and not we
ourselves"; he was speaking of the new creation. What true Chris
tians are is the product of the creative energy and action of God.
Nothing less than a creative agency could produce such an effect.
And this was done, not apart from Christ, bilt through the process
of being brought into vital union with him so as to become sharers of
his life as the branch shares the life of the vine. For good works.
Good works are not left out, they are expressly provided for; but they
come after and as the result of our being created anew in Christ.
If they follow as the result of our salvation, they cannot be the con
dition or the means of our salvation. Which God afore prepared.
It is as unintelligible as it is incorrect to say that God prepared good
works. It is perfectly intelligible and in accordance with the truth
to say that God made preparation for good works, and it is gram
matically correct: We were created in Christ Jesus, then, for good
works, for which God made previous preparation or provision, in
order that we live our lives in the practice of them. We are God's
work and we are God's workmen. Or the construction may be this:
Good works for which God prepared us (understood) by creating us
anew in Christ. 87

2 : ii EPHESIANS

V. The Reconciliation and Reunion of the Two
Sundered Portions of Humanity — Jews
and Gentiles — Through the
Cross, 2 : 11-22
11. "Wherefore remember, that aforetime °ye, the Gen
tiles in the flesh, "who are called Uncircumcision by
that which is called Circumcision, in the flesh, made
12. by hands; "that ye were at that time "separate from
Christ, "alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and
strangers from the covenants of the promise, "having
13. no hope and "without God "in the world. "But now
"in Christ Jesus "ye that once were far off "are made
11. Wherefore remember. One of the worst things that we can do is
to forget. Paul will remind these Christians of Asia, who, only a little
while ago, were sodden heathen, of the hole of the pit whence they
were digged, that they might be more thankful, more humble, more
careful, more diligent, more faithful. Ye, the Gentiles in the flesh.
With respect to the mark in the flesh which distinguished them as
Gentiles from Jews. Who are called Uncircumcision. Called in
contempt Uncircumcision by the so-called Circumcision (that is, the
Jews) in the flesh, a circumcision merely physical and made with hands.
12. That ye were at that time. In verse n Paul went off again
at the word "Gentiles" into a digression running through the verse.
Now he resumes with the word "that," which is repeated in Greek as
in English. Separate from Christ. They were without Christ, apart
from Christ, in the sense that they had never so much as heard of him,
and so had nothing to do with him. Alienated from the common
wealth of Israel. Not only were you without Christ, you did not even
have the advantages and privileges of Jews, with the different cove
nants that were made with them involving the promise of a Christ
and so inspiring in them a hope. Having no hope. The Gentiles did
not have even this hope. Without God. You were atheists — not
exactly in the modern sense of being deniers of God ¦ — they did not
even have a God to deny, as the moderns have. In the world. No
hope, no God, in this dark, desolate world of sin and sorrow.
13. But now. But now! these words alone after the dark picture
of their former condition would be pregnant with vivid suggestive-
ness. In Christ Jesus. Here, as everywhere, Christ, that is, Jesus

EPHESIANS

14. nigh "in the blood of Christ. "For he °is our peace,
"who made both one, "and brake down the middle wall
15. of partition, "having abolished "in his flesh "the enmity,
even the law of commandments "contained in ordinances;

the Christ, is first, for Paul. It is impossible for Paul to forget and
leave him out. These words in Christ Jesus are to be construed with
are made nigh, below. Ye that once were far off. A summary re
statement of the detailed description already given. Are made nigh.
These words likewise are a compendious statement of their present
condition, implying the opposite in every point and detail of their
previous condition. In the blood of Christ. A more specific defini
tion of the phrase in Christ Jesus. It was through his death that the
Gentiles were admitted.
14. For he. Strong emphasis in the Greek = for it is he, in his own
person. Is our peace. That is, he is the bond of reconciliation,
reunion, peace, between Jew and Gentile. Who made both one. He
has harmonized and unified Jew and Gentile. And brake down the
middle wall of partition. That is, the wall which stood in the middle
between Jew and Gentile and served as a partition, keeping them apart.
15. Having abolished. Rather, in that he did abolish. In his
flesh. The parallel passage in Col. 1 : 22 shows that this means by
his crucifixion in the flesh. The enmity, even the law of command
ments. The law which the Jews had and in which they gloried was
that which made the distinction between Jew and Gentile and so
separated them, thus creating the enmity which existed between
them. Contained in ordinances. This describes the form of the law
(see Col. 2 : 14 and the note thereon). The law commanded; it
commanded in the form of "decrees," rules, and regulations, pre
scribing and regulating all the minutest details of the everyday life.
The observance of all these rules was what made the Jew so different
from the Gentile; and the difference made the Jew look down with
contempt and hatred on the Gentile as an alien and a dog ; while it
made the Gentile despise the Jew as a fanatic and a fool. So they
were at enmity. When Paul was writing to the Colossians, he said
nothing of the law as the partition that separated Jew and Gentile.
He wrote of it as a system of prescriptions and ordinances which
would hold them in the bondage of a barren legalism and a fruitless
asceticism, if they allowed the false teachers there to impose it on
them. But in his letter to the various churches of Asia his point of
view is different. He writes from the point of view of the reconcilia
tion of all men of all races, and the ideal unity of the race. This
suggests another aspect and effect of the law of ordinances, which was,
that as long as it was in force, it kept Jew and Gentile effectually and
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2 : 1 6 EPHESIANS

"that he might create in himself of the twain one new
16. man, °so making peace; "and might reconcile them
both "in one body unto God "through the cross, "having
17. slain the enmity thereby: "and he came and 1 preached
'* Gr. preached good tidings of peace.
hopelessly asunder. Hence the abolition of this law would have the
effect of bringing the two together. The Jews were drawn away from
the law and led to abandon the law and take refuge in Christ for
salvation. The Gentiles were drawn away from their sins and sinful
ness and their sense of condemnation to Christ for salvation. In
Christ, then, they meet and are one.
This paragraph (2 : 11-22) is preparatory to the great passage on
ideal unity in 4 : 1-16.
That he might create in himself of the twain one new man.
This translation is obscure and misleading. It is : that he might in
himself create the two into one new man. This states the purpose he
had in view in abolishing the law of ordinances which had served as
a barrier between Jew and Gentile. So Christ, having abolished the
barrier, has created (note the word!) each of the two into a man that
was neither Jew nor Gentile, but a new man. So making peace. It
was by creating of the Jew a new man and of the Gentile (the same
kind of) new man that he made peace between them, brought them
into harmony and union.
16. And might reconcile them both in one body unto God. Not
only was it the purpose and mission of Jesus Christ to reconcile Jew
and Gentile to each other, but in the same act to reconcile them both
together unto God. In one body. This is one of the great dominating
ideas of this epistle. It is expanded and fully treated in the great
passage on unity in chap. 4 : 3-16, where see notes. Compare also
Col. 3 : 15; 1 Cor. 10:17. Through the cross. By his death, as has
been said. But Paul dwells on it and goes over it with loving iteration.
Having slain the enmity thereby. The Jew, despairing of justification
and deliverance from sin through the law, turned from it to Christ,
Rom. 7 and Gal. 3 : 24; the Gentile, convicted of his sins by the
light of the revelations contained in the gospel and made sensible of
the corruption of his nature and the darkness and hopelessness of
his condition, turned to Christ. So that Jew and Gentile meet in
Christ and, experiencing salvation through his reconciling death, are
no longer two but one.
17. And he came and preached peace. He not only made peace
by his death, he came and proclaimed the glad tidings of peace.
This seems to imply that he came and preached it after his death. He
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EPHESIANS

peace "to you that were far off, and peace to them that
18. were nigh : "for through him we both have our access
19. in one Spirit unto the Father. "So then "ye are no
more strangers and sojourners, "but ye are fellow-
citizens with the saints, "and of the household of God,
20. "being built upon the foundation "of the apostles and

came in his own person after his resurrection, but in a truer and
larger way he preached the glad tidings of reconciliation and peace
in the person of the Holy Spirit, who inspired the Apostles and preach
ers of the apostolic age, especially Paul, to preach peace. To you
that were far off. How it must have touched these Gentile Christians
that the great Apostle put them first!
18. For through him we both have our access in one Spirit unto the
Father. This is one of the most beautiful verses of the whole epistle.
It takes in the whole of the Godhead and the whole race of human kind.
It comes in here as a confirmation, from the facts of their own and his
experience, of his previous statements concerning the reuniting of
the race in and by Jesus Christ. Accordingly the emphasis is on the
words through him. For it is through him, as We all well know by
experience, that we both, Jew and Gentile, have conscious access to
and communion with our common Father. The Bible contains no
more striking expression of the reuniting of humanity and their union
with God. To Paul the inclusion of the rest of mankind as fellow-
heirs and on the same terms with the Jews, so that they all were equal
sons of the one Father and brothers of each other, in one spirit of
loving fellowship, ¦ — no more difference, no more distinction, no more
division, — to Paul this was the revelation of the most precious secret
of God, the crowning achievement of his grace.
19. So then. These words introduce the grand summing up that
Paul makes from the foregoing statement of the case of Gentile be
lievers — to conclude the matter, the situation is this: ye are no more
strangers, foreigners, as some of the Gentiles were, and sojourners,
as others of the Gentiles were, who had become proselytes to Judaism.
But ye are fellow-citizens with the saints. The preceding negative
statement is followed by this positive statement. They were full
members of the new theocracy, the greater Israel. And of the house
hold of God. Not only citizens of the commonwealth of the new
Israel, but of the very family of God.
20. Being built upon the foundation. The preceding word "house
hold " suggests to him the idea of a house, a building with its solid
foundation, a favorite figure with Paul. Of the apostles and prophets.
Not consisting of apostles and prophets, but the foundation laid by

2:21 EPHESIANS

prophets, "Christ Jesus himself being the chief corner
21. stone; "in whom 01 each several building, "fitly framed
22. together, "groweth into a holy 2 temple °in the Lord; in
1 Gr. every building. * Or, sanctuary
the apostles and prophets. The prophets here referred to were not
those of the old dispensation, but those of the apostolic day, as is
shown by what he says in 3 : 5 and 4:11. The distinction between
these two classes of Christian workers lay in that the prophets were
primarily inspired teachers, while the apostles, though probably, like
Paul, having the gift of prophecy, could also testify from personal
experience to having "seen the Lord" after his resurrection, and also
had the power of conferring the gift of the Spirit and the authority
to found and oversee churches. Christ Jesus himself being the chief
corner stone. "Christ, the Messiah, who had been called by the old
prophets the corner stone; Jesus the human manifestation of the Christ
in time. He is part of the body which he brings into being, for he is
its head; he is part of the house which he founds, for he is its corner
stone (referring to Is. 28 : 16). And just because he will speak of
Christ in the old prophet's terms as a corner stone, he cannot here
speak of him as the whole foundation."
21. In whom. Here again is Paul's all-controlling thought that
every part and phase of the scheme of redemption has its validity and
value only in the fact that it has Christ as its ground or sphere. Each
several building. Not the whole structure, but each of the several
parts of an extensive pile of building so adjusted as to preserve unity
of design and structure. The reference is to each separate local
congregation or Christian community, as that at Colossae, at Laodicea,
at Hierapolis, at Ephesus. This conception of Paul thus interpreted
is in keeping with the fact that this letter was a circular letter intended
for, and sent to, each of several churches in Asia Minor. Fitly framed
together. _ This is present participle and denotes a process going on.
The idea is that of fitting and adjusting into one complete whole, as,
for example, the different wings of the Capitol at Washington, con
structed at different times, are fitly framed together so as to produce
the harmonious tout ensemble of that imposing structure. Groweth
into a holy temple. This must not be construed so as to mean that
_ each several building" grows into a separate temple, but that it
increases in size and completeness so to as form together with the
others a great whole. In the Lord. Why in the Lord instead of in
Christ? "Where the apostle describes the transcendental relation of
believers to Christ as the ground of their acceptance with God, he uses
the expression 'in Christ'; whereas, when he is speaking of the issues
92

EPHESIANS 3 : 2

whom °ye also "are builded together ° l for a habitation
of God "in the Spirit.
VI. Paul's Unique and God-ordered Relation to
and Part in the Reunion of Disunited
Humanity in Christ, 3 : 1-13
3. "For this cause "I Paul, "the prisoner of Christ
2. Jesus "in behalf of you Gentiles, — "if so be that
1 Gr. into.
of that relation as manifested in life and conduct in this world, he
uses the phrase 'in the Lord.'"
22. Ye also. That is, the congregation to whom this letter was
being read. Are builded together. As one of the several buildings
(verse 21) that are growing together into the temple, you are being
builded together -for a habitation of God. Rather, as the margin has,
into a habitation of God. This is the climax of the ascensive de
scription of the dignity to which these Gentiles had been elevated by
becoming believers in Christ. In the Spirit. " It is by virtue of your
being in the Spirit as the element of your life that ye are being builded
together for a habitation of God."
1. For this cause. Because of the opening of the way in Christ
Jesus for the inclusion of the whole Gentile world, as shown in the
preceding section, 2 : 11-22, he is now led to pray for them, the loftiest
and most comprehensive prayer, with one exception, in the Bible
or out of it. I Paul. This form of speech is not used to emphasize
his authority as an apostle. There is nothing in the whole epistle
to indicate that this was necessary. It was rather to make his readers
sensible of the personal interest that he whom they knew as the great
Apostle of the Gentiles felt in them. Up to this point he has been
unwontedly, almost strangely, impersonal. He has said practically
nothing of himself. One reason for this is that he was writing for
people whom for the most part he had never seen and did not per
sonally know. Another is that he is writing, not about matters of a
personal nature, but in exposition of the greater plan of God which
through the ages runs. "It is only when he reaches a resting place in
his thought that he hears, as it were, the clink of his chain and then
remembers where he is and why he is there." The prisoner of Christ
Jesus. As if Paul would say, it is not the Roman authority that holds
me in captivity and in prison, it is in reality Jesus Christ, but for whom
I should be free, as other men are. In behalf of you Gentiles. It was
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3 : 3 EPHESIANS

ye have heard "of the l dispensation of that grace of
God which was given me "to you- ward; "how that by
1 Or, stewardship

because of his, preaching salvation to the Gentiles that he was ar
rested and at last landed in prison at Rome, Acts 22 : 22 ; 26 : 21-23.
¦j. If so be that ye have heard. Here Paul "goes off at a word"
again, the word "Gentiles," into another one of those digressions
which are so common in his epistles. The thought of his being a
prisoner in behalf of the Gentiles leads him aside to give a fuller
statement to them of his relation to the gospel dispensation and how
it came about. This he does in verses 2-13. Then in verse 14 he
resumes what he started out to say and goes on with his great prayer
for them. This was profoundly psychological and it was profoundly
Pauline. Already he has told how the door was opened for the ad
mission of the Gentiles (2 : 11-22); but he has said nothing about
what he had to do with it. Now is the psychological moment. And
with Paul's temperament, how could he help stopping here to tell the
Gentile Christians, to whom he is writing, of the wonder of the revela
tion which God had made to him and of the wonderful grace of God
in choosing and commissioning him to be the revealer and proclaimer
of that revelation to the world. Though he started out to tell them
how he prayed for them (verses 14-19), he cannot and will not resist
the temptation to linger long enough to explain to them why he prays
for them and indeed to tell them all about it. The thought o': God's
grace in conferring on him this privilege and honor always fires his
heart. If so be that ye have heard. This is a modest way of intro
ducing the subject, but it makes it impossible to hold that this epistle
was intended for, and sent to the Ephesians alone. Would he, could
he, write thus to a church which he himself had founded (Acts 18 : 19 ;
19 : 8, 10), and whose pastor he had been for "the space of three
years" (Acts 20:31)? Of the dispensation = stewardship. The
word, for example, is used in Lk. 16 : 2, 3, 4 of oversight and admin
istration of property; here it is the trusteeship and administration of
grace committed to Paul for the Gentiles. To you-ward. Though it
was given to Paul, it was not for Paul. It was for them, so Paul con
sidered himself a debtor (as he says in so many words in Rom. 1 : 14),
not because of what he had received/row the Gentiles, but because of
what he had received for the Gentiles.
3. How that by revelation. If they had not yet heard, Paul wants
them to know and will now tell them that it was not by any inter
mediate or roundabout way that the secret purpose of God was made
known to him, but by direct revelation. He had said the same thing
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EPHESIANS

revelation was made known unto me "the mystery,
4. "as I wrote afore in few words, "whereby, when ye
read, ye can perceive my understanding in the mystery
5. of Christ; "which in other generations was not made
known unto the sons of men, "as it hath now been re
vealed "unto his holy apostles and prophets in the
6. Spirit; °to wit, "that the Gentiles are fellow-heirs,
in Gal. 1 : 16 and Gal. 1 : 1. The mystery. The till then unrevealed
secret of God. The words mystery and revelation are frequently
used by Paul correlatively, as here. As I wrote afore in few words =
as I have already told you briefly. This does not refer to another
epistle, but to what he said in the preceding part of this epistle, namely,
2 : 11-22.
4. Whereby. In the reading of which you will be able to under
stand the knowledge which I have. He has not given a. full exposi
tion of it, but enough to enable them to see that he has a special knowl
edge of the secret of Christ and therefore special authority to write of
it. Out of modesty he says knowledge in the mystery of Christ.
5. Which in other generations was not made known unto the sons
of men. What that mystery or secret is, is expressly stated in the
next verse; and up to the time of Paul it was, as a matter of fact,
practically unknown to men. As it hath now been revealed. As
said before, the words mystery and revelation are constant correl
atives in this and the companion epistle to the Colossians. The
as here is comparative. The mystery had not been made known
with the fulness and clearness that it has now been revealed. The
ultimate inclusion of the Gentiles was made known in a way to the
ancients. Even to Abraham it was said, "In thy seed shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed." So also with greater clearness in
several of the prophets, particularly Isaiah, chaps. 40-66. Unto his
holy apostles and prophets. The prophets of Paul's day are meant,
as in 4 : n. It was first fully revealed to Paul. Others were slow to
accept it, but afterwards did accept it, Acts 15 and Gal. 2 : 2-10.
Some have gone as far as to say that Paul could never have called the
apostles holy, as he was one of them, and therefore he did not write
this epistle. Holy is the word that has been several times used in
this epistle and translated saints, meaning God's people, set apart
for him. "Not their holiness but God's hallowing was in question."
In verse 8 Paul classes himself among the saints or holy ones, but it is
not inconsistent with modesty, with even humility, there, for he calls
himself less than the least of them.
6. To wit. He here gives a clear, full, explicit statement of what
95

3 : 7 EPHESIANS

"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 mystery or secret is about which he has so much to say. That
the Gentiles are fellow-heirs. Joint possessors with the Jews of the
inheritance of God's people. What a startling statement! What a
revolutionary revelation! And fellow-members of the body. The
Gentiles are incorporated with the Jews into the body of which Christ
is the head, and so they are concorporate with them. This Latin
compound is the exact equivalent, in formation and meaning, of the
Greek word which Paul here uses. And fellow-partakers of the
promise. Joint partakers of that which was promised — salvation
through Christ. The word promise is here used of the thing
promised, as the word hope is often used for the thing hoped for.
In Christ Jesus. By virtue of being brought into union with Christ
Jesus, where alone salvation can be found, whether by Jew or Gentile,
the Gentiles are coheirs, concorporate, copartakers, with the Jews;
all are on an absolute equality, there is no longer any distinction
whatsoever. Through the gospel. By means of which they are
brought into union with Christ. Verse 6, together with the whole
tone and complexion of the epistle, is a plain note of Paul's authorship.
It claims for the Gentiles an equality and union with the Jews in entire
harmony with Paul's position as shown in Romans and Galatians,
but inconceivable in the second century when the Gentiles had at
tained not only a recognized position but a predominance in the church.
7. Whereof I was made a minister. That is, of the gospel, as in
Col. 1 : 23, 24, a closely parallel passage. He not only had the reve
lation of the secret that the Gentiles were included equally with the
Jews, he was authoritatively made a minister of the gospel by the
preaching of which the Gentiles were to be brought in, and actually
had been brought in. According to the gift of that grace of God. As
he did not take this office or honor unto himself, but was appointed
thereto by God, so he was not made a minister in consideration of his
worthiness or merit, but only by the bestowment of God's grace.
Which was given me according to the working of his power. This is a
description of the form in which this grace manifested or expressed
itself in him. It was in the form of energetic effectual inworking of
power, God's power.
8. Unto me. Here he breaks in with an outburst of great emo
tional depth and fervor (cf. Rom. 7 : 25), lest while glorifying his
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EPHESIANS

the least of all saints, "was this grace given, "to preach
unto the Gentiles the "unsearchable riches of Christ;
9. "and to x make all men see what is the 2 dispensation
of the mystery "which from all ages hath been hid in
10. God "who created all things; "to the intent that
"now "unto the principalities and the powers in the
1 Some ancient authorities read bring to light what is. a Or, stewardship
ministry he should seem to be glorifying himself. The pronoun has
double emphasis; it is the emphatic form and it stands first. Who
am less than the least of all saints. Paul here makes a new compara
tive out of an existing superlative. The word in English would be
leaster. Compare the English lesser and chiefest. "Never did a
man more stoutly press his claims; never was a man more conscious
of personal unworthiness." Was this grace given. Note how often
he uses the word grace or words of similar import, in all con
nections. To preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of
Christ. A definition of what the grace consisted in. Unsearch
able riches. These words are but the reflection of Paul's own
experience of what Christ had been to him for more than a. quarter
of a century. While Christ continually satisfies the human heart,
otherwise insatiable, he continually creates new hunger and new
capacity for himself, and so there is no exhausting of him.
9. And to make all men see. The reading of the margin is better
attested and is intrinsically much preferable to that of the text. Thus
it would be, and to bring to light, to bring forth from hiding, to make
clear what is the meaning of that method of administration by which
God has carried out his secret purpose. Which from all ages hath
been hid in God. That is, from all eternity has been known only to
God, implying that not even angels knew the secret. No wonder
Paul is overwhelmed with the favor that was shown him of being
thus taken into the secret counsels of God! Who created all things.
These words link together God's unrevealed purpose of universal
redemption through Christ with the creation of the universe, and at
least suggest that the world was created with reference to the realiza
tion of that purpose. This is elsewhere clearbj intimated by Paul,
as in 1 : 4; Col. 1 : 16, 17.
10. To the intent that . . . might be made known. This is stated
as the object of the bringing to light of the preceding verse. Now.
After so many ages of hiding. Unto the principalities and the powers.
What God does in execution of his eternal purpose for humanity is
to be a demonstration to the beings of the heavenly sphere as well as
H 97

3: ii EPHESIANS

heavenly places might be made known "through the
n. church "the manifold wisdom of God, "according to
the 1 eternal purpose "which he purposed in Christ Jesus
12. our Lord: "in whom we have boldness and access in
13. confidence through 2 our faith in him. "Wherefore I
ask "that '" ye faint not at my tribulations for you,
which ° 4 are your glory.
1 Gr. purpose of the ages. a Or, the faith of him 3 Or, I « Or, is
to men of the wisdom of God. Peter in his first epistle represents
angels as intently studying the meaning of the gospel and the plan of
redemption (1 Pt. 1 : 12). Through the church. The church, the
body of redeemed men, is the visible materialization, so to speak, of
the eternal purpose of God which till now has been eternally hidden
in himself. Perhaps Paul means that the manifestation and realiza
tion of the purpose of God in the body of redeemed humanity, the
church, furnishes the justification of creation and the vindication of
God's wisdom in creation and redemption, which till now was want
ing — a philosophy of history. The manifold wisdom. Practically
the same as Paul's expression in Rom. 11 : 33.
11. According to the eternal purpose. To be taken with might
be made known in verse 10. Which he purposed in Christ Jesus.
Rather, which he executed or accomplished in Christ, since what follows
refers, not to the forming of the purpose, but to its being carried into
effect. 12. In whom we have boldness and access. This is the proof from
their inward actual experience of the preceding declaration that God
did, as a matter of fact, carry into execution his eternal purpose in
Christ Jesus. For it is by virtue of our union with him that we have
the boldness which we, as Christians, have and the access to God
which we have experienced by reason of our confidence, the feeling
of confidence that is brought about as a result of the faith that we have
exercised in him. Practically the same thought as in Rom. 5 : 2.
Compare also Heb. 10 : 19, 22.
13. Wherefore = on account of what he has said in verses 2-12
concerning his relation to the gospel and the grace which bestowed
such honor and happiness on him. That ye faint not at my tribu
lations for you. They might be tempted to feel grieved, humiliated,
disheartened, that they were the cause of the tribulations which he
was forced to undergo. But "no," he answers, "do not feel so, for
these very tribulations are your glory, as they are a source of joy to
me." (So he says in Col. 1 : 24; Phil. 2 : 17, 18; 2 Cor. 12 : 10).

EPHESIANS

VII. Paul's Lofty Prayer and Prophetic Doxology
for Them, 3 : 14-21
14. "For this cause "I bow my knees "unto the Father,
15. "from whom every 1 family in heaven and on earth is
16. named, "that he would grant you, according to the
riches of his glory, "that ye may be strengthened "with
1 Gr. fatherhood.
They were their glory in that they were a testimony to the value set
upon them by him who suffered and by him who appointed him to
suffer in their behalf.
14. For this cause. These words return to verse 1 and take up
what he had there begun to say when he was led away by the word
"Gentiles" into the splendid digression of verses 2-13. This phrase,
then, is the connecting link between his statement (in 2 : 11-22) of
the former and the present condition of his Gentile readers and the
prayer which he now utters for them. Knowing, as he did, their
former and their present condition, he knows also how to pray for
them and therefore does pray for them, thus : I bow my knees. I
prostrate myself in prayer, an unusual form expressing great earnest
ness and intensity. Unto the Father. Used here qualitatively in the
absolute sense.
15. From whom every family. The margin renders this word
"fatherhood." This preserves the play on the words which cannot
be otherwise reproduced in English. It may be roughly imitated
in the rendering, "from whom all fatherhood is named." God is
the prototype of fatherhood, whether in heaven or on earth. It is to
him as Father, as Father of fathers, as Fountain of fatherhood and
all fatherliness, that Paul prays in their behalf who are his children.
16. That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory.
In the prayer in Chap. 1 : 17 ff. is the expression, " Father of glory,"
and Paul evidently here amplifies the content of it into a fuller form.
What was implicit there he makes explicit here. Paul is praying to
him who is his Father in behalf of others who are children of the same
Father; and the measure according to which he asks him to give is
the wealth of that divine Father's glory — whatever that may be
(cf. Rom. 9 : 23). That ye may be strengthened. Here begins the
enumeration of what he asks for them. The first thing he asks for is
strengthening. With power through his Spirit. They were to be
strengthened by means of power infused into them through the
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3 : 17 EPHESIANS

17. power through his Spirit "in the inward man; "that
Christ "may dwell "in your hearts "through faith;
"to the end that ye, being rooted and grounded "in love,

Spirit of God. In the inward man. This is one of those indefinite
phrases of Paul which even the ordinary reader knows the general mean
ing of, but which even the extraordinary reader cannot accurately
define. Perhaps it refers more to the will than any other one thing.
17. That Christ may dwell. Is this clause subordinate to the pre
ceding clause, expressing its purpose or result, and meaning "in order
that Christ may dwell"? Or is it coordinate with the preceding
clause? And if it is coordinate, has it the same meaning as that
clause, though expressed in a different way? Or does it add something
further and something different? The last is probably the correct
view (though all three are grammatically possible, and each one is
held by some interpreters) = "that he may grant you also that Christ
may dwell in your hearts." May dwell in your hearts. This fur
nishes a good instance of what has been said, that the great things
written in this great epistle are the reflex of experiences which the writer
himself had had. In Gal. 2 : 20 he says, "Christ liveth in me." No
one can understand Paul or interpret Paul who has not had in some
measure at least the experiences which he had had. Hence so many
scholars repudiate him to-day. In your hearts. Practically equiva
lent to "the inward man" in the preceding verse. Compare Col. 2 : 27,
"Christ in you." Through faith. This also is a reflex of Paul's
experience, as further given in Gal. 2 : 20. As Christ first enters the
heart on condition and by means of faith, just as truly does he dwell
there on condition of faith consciously and continuously exercised in
him. In love. Some commentators construe these words with what
precedes them, with this sense, namely, that Christ through faith
may dwell in your hearts in love = it is in love that the indwelling of
Christ is manifested. But really this thought is included in the
other construction, which is followed in the text, thus: In order that
ye, being rooted and grounded in love as a consequence of the indwell
ing of Christ, may be strong, etc. Note the combination of figures
in rooted and founded ; so in Col. 2 : 7.
18. To the end that ye . . . may be strong to apprehend. The
object of their being inwardly strengthened by means of power infused
through the Spirit of God, which Paul prays for, and of Christ's dwell
ing in their hearts, which he prays for, is that they may be quite able,
have full capacity, to understand. As has been pointed out, this
prayer of Paul is a fuller expression of the prayer in chap. 1 : 17-21.
There is a close parallel between both the substance and the language.
In each case the prayer is directed to the Father (1:17; 3 : 14) with a
100

EPHESIANS

18. may be strong to apprehend "with all the saints "what
19. 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.
reference to his "glory" (1 : 17; 3 : 16). In each case the prayer is
for the gift of the Holy Spirit (1 : 17; 3 : 16). The sphere of the
action of the Spirit in each case is the heart or the inward man (1 : 18;
3 : 16). And the ultimate aim of all is the knowledge of the fulness
of the divine purpose and the divine love (1 : 18 f.; 3 : 18 f.). "The
prayer to know the mighty power (in 1 : 19) becomes the prayer to
have the mighty power in order to be strong enough to know (3 : 19)."
With all the saints. That ye may share with all the saints the knowl
edge which it is God's will for them to have. What is the breadth
and length and height and depth. As " a parable must not be made to
walk on all fours," so neither must this bold figure of Paul, however
much it may lend itself to that sort of interpretation. It is a vague
expression for vastness, immensity. It is similar in Rom. 8 : 39,
where Paul speaks of "nor height, nor depth."
19. And to know. Does this add a new thought or is it another
and parallel expression of that which immediately precedes? Paul
seems almost to get lost in the vastness of his conceptions and the
vagueness of his constructions in this great prayer. At any rate we
get lost. No exposition has been given that does not leave the prayer
unexplained and the reader unsatisfied. It is probable, though it is
not certain, that the clause and to know is not parallel to the preceding,
thus : That ye may be strong to apprehend the breadth and length and
height and depth of the love of Christ and to know the love of Christ.
This is an anticlimax, so it must be something else the breadth and
length and height and depth of which Paul wants them to apprehend.
It is difficult to say what. It may be God's eternal purpose, or the
secret of his will, or, as is expressed in chap. 1 : 18, the hope of his
tailing, the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, the
exceeding greatness of his power for believers. Or it may be, in
definitely, the magnitude, in all its relations, of God's redemptive
scheme in Christ. And to know the love of Christ which passeth
knowledge = and, especially, to know the love of Christ, though it is
in a sense a knowledge-surpassing love: strictly, it can never be
known. That ye maybe filled unto all the fulness of God. So that,
after all, even knowledge is not the absolutely ultimate end. It is
1 means to the end, namely, that ye may be filled up to all the fulness
of God, that is, up to the limit of all the fulness that God can give.
Compare "increaseth with the increase of God" in Col. 2 : 19. See
also Eph. 4 : 13.

3 : 20 EPHESIANS

20. Now unto "him that is able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think, "according to the power
21. that worketh in us, unto him °be the glory in the church
and in Christ Jesus unto * all generations for ever and
ever. Amen.
VIII. The Motives and the God-provided Means
for Realizing this Ideal Unity, 4 : 1-16
4. "I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, "beseech you
"to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were
1 Gr. all the generations of the age of the ages.
Confidence in God who can do far more than the prayer has
asked draws from the heart of Paul a full and fervent outburst of
praise, a lofty doxology.
20. Him that is able. God is able to do more than we ask, more
than our imagination can conceive. According to the power that
worketh in us. Paul judged of what God could do by what he had
already done in and for them. " It is the conscious experience of the
present working of the divine power that fills him with this exultant
confidence." 21. Be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus. The church is
that by whose greatness and glory the glory of God is demonstrated,
even as it is also in Christ Jesus himself. Indeed, the church is the
organ through which Christ operates among men, as it is the scene
where this glory of God is (or ought to be) most truly displayed among
men. Paul, having expounded the great spiritual truths that were "in
dicated," as the doctors say, by the situation and needs of his readers,
now proceeds to give them practical directions as to how they are to
live and act. And he here uses the three identical words that he used
in introducing the practical section of Romans (12 : 1).
1. I therefore. In view of the glorious provision made by God
for you and the grace actually bestowed by God upon you, as I have
shown you. I, the prisoner in the Lord. The pronoun is emphatic
and gathers up all that he has said about his unique relation to the
revelation of Christ. The additional words, "the prisoner in the
Lord," add a touch of feeling and increase the force of his appeal.
See Col. 4 : 18, "Remember my bonds." Beseech. The word here
means "entreat," "plead with." To walk worthily of the calling =

EPHESIANS

2. called, "with all lowliness "and meekness, "with long-
3. suffering, "forbearing one another "in love; °giving
diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit "in the bond of
4. peace. "There is one body, and one Spirit, "even as
5. also ye were called in one hope of your calling; "one

make your life worthy of your vocation. You have been called up
and apart into a new order. Live worthily of it — noblesse oblige.
2. With all lowliness. This is the initial and, throughout, the
fundamental disposition in the Christian character. It is put at the
beginning and at the bottom in the Master's exposition of what true
righteousness is — poor in spirit. It is radically the same as the
word which Jesus uses to describe his own disposition, namely, / am
lowly in heart (Mt. 11 : 29). In short, it is humility. And meekness.
This is the basis of one of the beatitudes also, as it is another of the
two fundamental traits of Jesus himself — meek and lowly in heart.
But see especially Jn. 13 : 3-5 and Phil. 2:3, 5, 8. With long-
suffering. This is the disposition that bears with patience the failings
or the wrongs of others and is the opposite of revenge or resentment.
Forbearing one another. This is the active expression of the inward
disposition of longsuffering. In love. "Love suffereth long," 1 Cor.
13 : 4. It is the ground of all right dispositions and all right conduct
as regards our fellow-men. For love does no wrong to his neighbor,
Rom. 13 : 10 and 1 Cor. 13 : 4-8. The parallel passage in Colossians
is very striking (Col. 3 : 12). See note there.
3. Giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit. Not merely
endeavoring, as the A. V. has it, but making it a matter of special study
of effort and eagerness. Here Paul reaches what has been called the
dominant note of this great epistle — unity — though he has touched
upon it in previous parts, as in 2 : 18, " We both have access in one
Spirit unto the Father." The unity of the Spirit is the unity of spirit
and aim and disposition brought about by the indwelling and ruling
of the one Holy Spirit of God. In the bond of peace. Manifesting
itself in peace, the uniting bond.
4. There is one body, and one Spirit. Practically equivalent to,
For there is one body just as there is one Spirit, and surely that im
poses the obligation of practical, realized unity. The body, of course,
is the church, which is the body of true believers. The Spirit is the
Holy Spirit. Even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling.
It is one body, vitalized and unified by one Spirit and looking to the
goal of one hope. Here is the first group of three unities, the first
trinity of unities.
5. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. Here is the second group of
i°3

4:6 EPHESIANS

6. Lord, one faith, one baptism, "one God and Father of
7. all, who is over all, and through all, and in all. "But
"unto each one of us was the grace given according to
8. the measure of the gift of Christ. "Wherefore he saith,
When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive,
And gave gifts unto men.
9. (Now this, He ascended, what is it but that he also
10. descended * into the lower parts of the earth ? He that
descended is the same also that ascended far above all

1 Some ancient authorities insert first.

three unities, the second trinity of unities. The one body is depend
ent on the one Lord, who is its head, to whom it is united by one faith
(in Christ) and one baptism (into Christ).
6. One God and Father of all. He rises to find the ultimate source
of all unity in the one God and Father, the all-encompassing Unity
who is transcendent over all, active through all, and immanent in all.
The first group of unities brings to view the Holy Spirit ; the second,
the Lord Christ ; the third, God, the Father.
7. But. Notwithstanding the inward vital unity of the whole, as
just stated, we must now consider each one in his individuality when
it comes to the matter of their functions and duties in life. Unto
each one of us was the grace given. To each individual believer the
same grace has been given, but not to each in the same measure.
Christ gives it in different measures. This is quite Pauline and is
strikingly paralleled in Rom. 12 : 6 ff., "Having gifts differing ac
cording to the grace given us."
8. Wherefore he saith. The bestowment of the various gifts by
Christ reminds him of the passage in Psalm 68 : 18 which describes
the victorious king of Zion returning from battle and ascending the
heights of the citadel with the spoils, from which he bestows gifts on
the people. "Paul in quoting this Psalm was probably guided by
an old Jewish interpretation of it with which he was familiar"
(Driver). 9. As Paul has mentioned the ascension of Christ, he will stop long
enough by way of parenthesis to show that Christ has explored every
part of the universe and fills the whole. His ascent at once implies
a previous descent into the deepest depths and a rising to the highest
heights. He descended to a depth below which there was no deeper,
and he ascended to a height above which there was no higher — this
seems to be the thought of Paul; and the following words seem in
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EPHESIANS

n. the heavens, "that he might fill all things.) , And he gave
some to be "apostles; and some, "prophets; and some,
12. "evangelists; and some, "pastors and teachers; "for the
perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering,
13. "unto the building up of the body of Christ: "till we all
attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge

keeping with this view, namely, that he might fill all things. Compare
1 : 23.
11. Paul now resumes after having introduced the parenthetical
thought suggested by his reference to the ascension of Christ. He
proceeds now to enumerate the "gifts" which the Ascended Con
queror "gave to men" — apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors,
and teachers. Apostles were those who had seen Christ (1 Cor. 9 : 1,2),
were witnesses of his resurrection (Acts 1 : 8, 21-23), na£l a commission
from Christ himself, and had an unrestricted field of activity. Proph
ets were preachers who spoke under the impulse and inspiration of the
Spirit and were not mere interpreters of what others had said. Evan
gelists were travelling missionaries, subordinate to the apostles, and
went about preaching to the heathen under their authority and
direction. Pastors and teachers. Two designations of the same class.
They took care of the flock as shepherds and they taught them also.
They were local and not itinerant as were the other three classes.
They probably include bishops, elders, and deacons.
12. For the perfecting of the saints unto the work of ministering.
This states the purpose for which the ascended Christ gave apostles,
prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. They were not only
to serve themselves, but they were to equip and perfect every one of
the body of believers for the work of serving. Unto the work of min
istering is thus dependent on the preceding clause, and not coordinate
with it as the comma in the text of the R. V. implies. Unto the building
up of the body of Christ. This is the object of all the processes pre
viously described. It is to build up the church. Note here again
the combination of different figures. Here the body is built up, in
2 : 21 the building grows.
13. Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith. This is the goal
they are to aim at and strive for till it is reached, namely, that faith
in and knowledge of the Son of God may be one and the same in all,
and no longer varying according to the influence of different teachers.
The previously described processes are to go on until they shall all
come to a full, accurate, and thorough knowledge of Jesus as the Son of
God and have faith in him accordingly; or rather, till they all come
to ha we faith in him as the Son of God which will ripen into and result
105

4 : 14 EPHESIANS

of the "Son of God, "unto a full-grown man, "unto the
14. measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: "that
we may be no longer children, "tossed to and fro and
carried about "with every wind of doctrine, "by the
sleight of men, "in craftiness, "after the wiles of error;
15. "but * speaking truth in love, "may grow up in all
16. things into him, which is the head, even Christ; "from
whom all the body fitly framed and knit together
1 Or, dealing truly
in a full, accurate, and thorough knowledge of him as the Son of God,
for faith is the condition of knowledge. Unto a full-grown man. This is
parallel and a sort of apposition to the preceding. It is the same as
attaining oneness in faith in and knowledge of Christ as the Son of
God. Unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. This
is only another way of viewing and expressing the same thing as "unto
a full-grown man," as that was another way of expressing what
immediately preceded it. "To the full measure of the complete
stature, or completed maturity, of the fulfilled Christ."
Verse 14 states negatively the design of our attaining to the unity of
the faith (verse 13), and verse 15 positively.
14. That we may be no longer children, as opposed to "full-grown
men." Tossed to and fro and carried about. This is the figure of a
ship abandoned on a tempest-tossed and billowy sea — the symbol of
instability and insecurity. With every wind of doctrine. A very
expressive phrase and very applicable to the confused and confusing
multitude of varying theories and systems at this time. It implies
that the readers of this epistle were exposed to false teachings, as we
know of the Colossians. By the sleight of men. The literal meaning
of the word is dice. It suggests the dexterous handling of the dice and
so means here clever trickery for the purpose of deceiving. In crafti
ness = by craftiness (the same preposition as in the preceding phrase)
by means of craftiness or cunning. After the wiles of error. "Look
ing to the scheming of error."
15. But speaking truth in love. Rather, maintaining the truth in
love, as Paul is doing in this very epistle. May grow up in all things
into him. Our growth in all points in which we grow shall proceed
in relation to him who is head.
16. From whom. That is from Christ, who is the head. He is
the source of the life of the church and of the growth of the church..
As every part of the whole body depends for life and efficiency on its
106

EPHESIANS

° ' through that which every joint supplieth, "according
to the working in due measure of each several part,
maketh the increase of the body "unto the building up
of itself "in love.
IX. The Manner of Life they are to Live in
Correspondence with the Lofty Origin,
Plan, and Motives of their
Salvation, 4 : 17-6 : 9
17. This I say "therefore, "and testify "in the Lord,
that ye no longer walk "as the Gentiles also walk, "in
1 Gr. through every joint of the supply.
being in connection with the head, and if severed from the head
would be dead, so does every member of the spiritual body, the
church, depend on Christ for life. Compare Col. 2 : 19 and Jn. 15 :
1-11. Through that which every joint supplieth = through every con
tact of the supply. This is the means. According to the working.
Denotes the measure. Unto the building up. For the edification of
itself. This expresses the end. In love. This indicates the sphere or
respect in which the building up takes place. And all these clauses
are modifiers of the main clause of the sentence, maketh increase of the
body. 1. Contrast with their former life as Gentiles, 4 : 17-19
17. Therefore. This seems to be a sort of resumption of verse 1,
for the purpose of showing what kind of a life is not worthy of their
calling as children of God. The word this carries special emphasis.
And testify. Better, potest, as in Gal. 5:3. In the Lord. His
appeal to them is not enforced by ordinary prudential considerations,
but has ito ground in the Lord. When Paul is referring to the eternal
purpose 01 God or to the provisions of grace made for the salvation of
men, he speaks of Christ or the Christ; when he refers to the relations
and duties thStJpertain to practical life, he speaks of them as in relation
to or in subjection to him as Lord. As the Gentiles also walk. This
is the second description in this epistle of the unregenerate life of the
heathen. The former was in chap. 2 : 1-3. Here again he uncovers
the hidden springs and processes of the gross immorality, the vice and
the sin, that render repulsive the life of unregenerate heathenism.
In the vanity of their mind. The word literally means emptiness.
107

4 : 1 8 EPHESIANS

18. 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 harden-
19. ing of their heart; "who being past feeling "gave them
selves up to lasciviousness, l to work all uncleanness
20. with 2 greediness. "But ye did not so learn Christ;
1 Or, to make a trade of a Or, covetousness
The verb is used in Rom. 1 : 21 of the reasonings of the heathen.
Their speculations (about God) had no content of truth in them, they
were simply nothing. The adjective of a synonymous word is used
in Col. 2 : 8 in describing the so-called "philosophy" of the false
teachers as "empty fraud."
18. Being darkened in their understanding. Compare Rom. 1 : 21,
" Their foolish heart was darkened." They can but live in the vanity
of their minds since their faculty of discernment has been darkened.
They cannot see right and wrong. Some people are without the power
of living according to the truth; some have lost the power of seeing
the truth. It is the latter that Paul is describing. Alienated from
the life of God. Strictly, being in a state of separation from the life
which God gives, which is wrought by God in those who are enlight
ened, repent, and believe. It is practically the same as "without God"
in chap. 2:12. Because of the ignorance that is in them. The cause
of their alienation is their ignorance, which, in turn, is caused by the
hardening of their hearts, and hence it is their own act and fault.
" The emphasis which he lays on lack of knowledge corresponds with
that which elsewhere in this epistle he lays on true wisdom."
19. Who being past feeling. The state of moral insensibility
when one no longer feels the reproaches of conscience. What a fear
ful description! The estrangement, the utter separation, from the life
of God is by these words proved, in conformity with their actual ex
perience and moral condition = being such as, destitute of feelings of
reproach or remorse or regret, gave themselves up to lasciviousness.
Lasciviousness is here personified. They have surrendered, body
and soul, to the tyranny of Lust, ready now for the pursuit and prac
tice of every form of uncleanness with greediness, " with entire dis
regard of the rights of others" (Lightfoot).
2. They must experience thorough transformation in outward con
duct and thorough renewal in their inward nature, 4 : 20—24
20. But ye did not so learn Christ (the Christ). Ye have learned
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EPHESIANS

21. "if so be that ye heard him, and were taught in him,
22. even as truth is in Jesus: "that ye put away, "as con
cerning your former manner of life, "the old man,
23. "which waxeth corrupt "after the lusts of deceit; "and
24. 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 truth.

1 Or, which is after God, created &*c.

Christ; and in learning him, you learned to renounce ignorance and
darkness and hardness of heart and licentiousness of life.
21. If so be that ye heard him. Assuming, as I do, that you have
heard him and received instruction in him, that is, if he was the sphere
in which you received instruction, even as he is the sphere of truth
itself. Compare Jn. 14 : 6, "I am the truth."
22. That ye put away. Lay off and lay aside and have done with.
The old man. The man that you once were, so called in contrast
with the new man, the new creation, that you are now to be. It is
the moral state or nature of their prechristian life, represented as
a person. As concerning, etc. So far as your former life is con
cerned. Which waxeth corrupt. There is a natural progressiveness
in evil, in bad character. Bad men do not remain bad, they become
worse. After the lusts of deceit. In conformity to those deceitful lusts
which so blind and delude men as to make wrong seem right and bad
seem good.
23. And that ye be renewed. This is present tense and denotes a
continuous process = and that ye be continually renewed by a never-
pausing process. In the spirit of your mind. You must continually
be made new in the tone and temper of all your mental attitudes,
aptitudes, and activities; new, in contrast with what the tone and
temper of your mind and thoughts were before. There must be a
process of continuous creation in- the spirit, soul, and life, as science
tells us there is in nature.
24. And put on the new man. Be a new somebody, living a new
life, from new motives, with new ends in view. Bring your lives into
correspondence with your new nature, your new relations, your new
position. Be new people. Which after God hath been created.
That is, this new character that you are to have, this new person
that you are to be, is a creation new-made in accordance with the type
and image of the One who created him — new-created by God and
now like God. With Paul the moral transformation and renewal of
conversion are conceived as a new creation rather than as a new

109

4 : 25 EPHESIANS

25. "Wherefore, putting away falsehood, speak ye truth
each one with his neighbour: for we are members one
26. of another. "Be ye angry and sin not: "let not the sun
27. go down upon your 'wrath: "neither give place to the
28. devil. 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
29. need. "Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth,
1 Gr. provocation.
birth. In righteousness and holiness of truth. Holiness expresses
our attitude and duty toward God; righteousness, toward men. Of
truth. In verse 21 he spoke of the embodiment of truth in Jesus;
in verse 25 he exhorts his readers to avoid falsehood and to speak
the truth ; here he describes the new being as created to resemble God
in righteousness and holiness, which are of the truth.
3. The details, positive and negative, intermingled all through, first
the one, then the other, 4 : 25-5 : 21
25. Wherefore, putting away falsehood. The Apostle enforces
his general injunction to put off the old nature and put on the new
by several particular prohibitions and precepts. He names and for
bids six of the practices that belong to the old man : falsehood, un
reasonable anger, stealing, bad language, bitterness and malice, lust.
The prohibition of lying is followed by the positive command to speak
always the truth with one's neighbor. The reason given is that they
are members of one another — and to lie to one another, how con
tradictory! 26. Be ye angry. This seems to be a permissive imperative : Ye
may be angry, only do not sin. In anger do not fall into sin. Let not
the sun go down on your wrath. Before evening let your provocation
be over.
27. Neither give place to the devil. Give not the devil an oppor
tunity for doing harm and working mischief by an angry state of mind.
28. Steal no more. Stealing is to give place to honest labor, so
that, instead of taking the property of others, he may have something
to give to others who may be in need — instead of laziness and stealing,
labor and liberality.
29. Let no corrupt speech proceed. The word translated corrupt
means foul, rotten. Paul, then, here gives direction concerning the
no

EPHESIANS

but such as is good for ' edifying as the need may be,
30. "that it may give grace to them that hear. "And
grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, "in whom ye were
31. sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness,
and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and railing, be
32. 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 2 you.
5. "Be ye therefore "imitators of God, "as beloved
1 Gr. the building up of the need. " Many ancient authorities read us.
conversation of his readers. He even considers it a matter of such
importance that he returns to it in 5 : 4, where he is more specific and
strict than here. That it may give grace to them that hear. Their
conversation must not only do no harm, it must be a means of benefit
and a channel of blessing.
30. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. This should not begin a
new sentence as if he had gone on to a different subject. The con
nection is this: Let no filthy words ever proceed out of your mouth,
and do not by such unclean speech grieve the Spirit of God. It is a
matter of fact and experience that the use of filthy language does pro
duce a reflex effect in the heart as if the light had gone out; and a
sense of darkness and shame succeeds. In whom ye were sealed
unto the day of redemption. This is practically a repetition of what
was said in chap. 1 : 13, 14. For the meaning of sealing see the note
on that passage.
Each of Paul's injunctions is enforced by a grave consideration.
Falsehood is inconsistent with membership in the body. Cherished
irritation makes room for the evil spirit. Stealing is the direct opposite
of the honest labor that toils for that with which to help others.
Speech that is corrupt not only breaks down instead of building up,
but it actually grieves and drives away the Spirit of God. The in
junction to put away bitter feelings and the brawling and railing to
which they give rise is enforced by an appeal to the character and
action of God himself. You must forgive each other, he says, be
cause God in Christ has forgiven you all (Robinson).
1. Be ye therefore. Rather, become ye therefore. This is clearly
a close continuation of the preceding verses, 4 : 31, 32, and should
not by any means be put off into a new paragraph, as is done even in
the Revised Version and the American Revision. Much less should
it mark the beginning of a new chapter. In the text of Westcott and
in

S : 2 EPHESIANS

2. children; "and walk in love, even as Christ also loved
you, and gave himself up for 1 us, "an offering and a
3. sacrifice to God for an odour of a sweet smell. "But
fornication, "and all uncleanness, "or covetousness,
"let it not even be named among you, "as becometh
1 Some ancient authorities read you.
Hort there is no break whatever. Imitators of God. In the preced
ing verse he had said "God forgave you"; do ye then be imitators
of God and forgive those who harm you. As beloved children.
Children imitate their parents, so do ye imitate your Father. In the
word "beloved" is couched a tender appeal. If they know they are
beloved of God, it will make it easier to do the hard thing of for
giving those who had wronged them.
i. And walk in love. Walk is the key-note of this whole section
(4 : 1-5 : 21). Let love be the element in which your walk shall be,
even such love as Christ had for you, prompting him to give himself
up for you — a self-sacrificing love. An offering and a sacrifice to
God for an odour of a sweet smell. These words refer to the sacrifice
of Christ, of course, but as they have no theological reference or sig
nificance here, they cannot be used in defence of any special theory
of the atonement. Almost the identical words are used by Paul
of the present which the Philippians sent to him in prison by Epaphro-
ditus. See Phil. 4 : 18, "I am filled, having received from Epaph-
roditus the things that came from you, an odour of a sweet smell,
a sacrifice acceptable, well-pleasing to God."
3. But fornication. There should be no break here; the Apostle
goes right on naming and characterizing those things with which they
are to have nothing to do. He has named five already. This is the
sixth. And all uncleanness. This includes every form of sexual
impurity, whether in word, look, or thought. Or covetousness.
This sin is over and over mentioned by Paul in close connection with
unchastity in its various forms. They were the two prevalent and
common sins of the ancient heathen world, and they are also of the
modern Christian world. Let it not even be named among you. The
five preceding prohibitions stood side by side' in a sort of staccato
style or movement, with no connecting particles to bind them together
or to make transition from one to the other. But when he comes to
the twin sins of fornication and avarice, he introduces them with a
particle having an adversative force, as if to call special attention to
them — but, as to fornication or covetousness let me say they are not
to have the toleration or recognition of even being spoken of by you.
As becometh saints, i.e. not to mention those things. The saints are
112

EPHESIANS

4. saints; "nor filthiness, "nor foolish talking, or jesting,
"which are not befitting: "but rather giving of thanks.
5. "For this ye know of a surety, "that no fornicator, "nor
unclean person, "nor covetous man, which is an idolator,
hath any inheritance "in the kingdom of Christ and God.
6. "Let no man deceive you with empty words: "for be
cause of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the
a new order of purity in the earth and to belong to it imposes a new
order of obligation : noblesse oblige.
4. Nor filthiness. Not merely in words, but however practised,
in word, look, gesture, or act. The context shows that it is filthiness
in connection with sins of the flesh. Nor foolish talking. Idle, aim
less, empty, foolish talk, such as that of the professional laughter-
maker, with a suggestion of vulgarity from the context ; the word is
in bad company. Or jesting. The context and company in which
this word occurs suggest a doubtfully turned witticism, a witticism
suggestive of something unchaste, such as may be heard in any theatre
in these days. Which are not befitting. Are not becoming to saints;
referring to last three words. But rather giving of thanks. A word
which in the Greek sounds very strikingly like the Greek word for
jesting, just preceding, and possibly suggested by this similarity of
sound. Some one has suggested: "Let the grace of wit be super
seded by the higher grace of thanksgiving."
5. For this ye know of a surety. This you are aware of from your
own knowledge. This refers to the statement following: For this
you know your own selves without my telling you, namely, that no
fornicator, one guilty of the deed. Nor unclean person. A person
unchaste in any way or degree short of actual fornication. Nor
covetous man. Again the vice of covetousness is associated with that
of lewdness as in verse 3. In the kingdom of Christ and God. Note
that he does not say the kingdom of Christ and of God, but of Christ and
God. Some take this to mean the kingdom of him who is Christ and
God. But this cannot be maintained here. The passage in 1 Cor.
15 : 24 will show why Paul calls it the kingdom of Christ and God.
The one kingdom belongs to both.
6. Let no man deceive you with empty words. With empty words,
words that have no truth, no reason in them. This warning shows
that they were exposed to danger from false teachers (so also in 4 : 14).
Those here referred to evidently tolerated and palliated the vice
of sensuality, and defended or excused covetousness, and also taught
that these sins would not exclude men from the kingdom of God.
For because of these things. Indeed, says Paul, these are the very
I 113

5 : 7 EPHESIANS

7. sons of disobedience. "Be not ye therefore partakers
8. with them; "for ye were once darkness, "but are now
9. light in the Lord: walk as children of light ("for the
fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness
10. and truth), "proving what is well-pleasing unto the
11. Lord; "and have no fellowship with the "unfruitful
works of darkness, "but rather even x reprove them ;
1 Or, convict
things that bring down the wrath and judgment of God on the diso
bedient even in this world, though not in this world only.
7. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. Become not. The
Apostle warns them not only against being but against becoming
partakers with them, i.e., against allowing themselves to lapse into
their sinful practices.
8. For ye were once darkness. A similar use of the past tense is
found in Rom. 6 : 17, " ye were the servants of sin." It is this very dif
ference between their past and their present that furnishes the reason
why he warned them: As your former experience of darkness is
past, do not return to it; do not lapse again into a participation in
those vices which you have turned away from. Ye were darkness.
A form or figure of speech not unlike that which we use in English —
why, you were once darkness itself. But are now light in the Lord.
The same form of speech. You were formerly darkness itself so
benighted were you; but now, on the contrary, you are the very light
itself, so illuminated and illuminating have you become. Compare
also Mt. 5 : 14. Indeed, you are born of the light; live then in such a
way as will show that you have the nature and characteristics of
your mother — as children of light.
9. For the fruit of the light is in. The products of light consist in.
goodness of every form, righteousness, truth. That is, these are
the products of light. If you then are the children of light and your
selves light, show in your lives the goodness, righteousness, truth,
which are the fruits of the light.
10. Proving what is well-pleasing unto the Lord. This is to be
taken with the words walk as children of light in verse 8. By walk
ing in the light they will test, find out, prove, what is well-pleasing to
God, just as in Rom. 12:2.
n. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.
Practically the same as verse 7, Become not partakers with them.
Unfruitful works of darkness. Light has fruit, goodness, righteous
ness, truth; darkness does works, but bears no such fruit. Compare
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EPHESIANS

12. "for the things which are done by them in secret it is a
13. shame even to speak of. But all things when they are
1 reproved are made manifest by the light: for everything
14. that is made manifest is light. "Wherefore he saith,
Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and
Christ shall shine upon thee.
15. "Look therefore carefully how ye walk, "not as
1 Or, convicted
Gal. 5 : 19, 22. But rather even reprove them. They must not be
content to refrain from participation in the doings of darkness, they
must convict them or expose them. For it is the property of light
to expose what is hidden in the dark or in secret.
12. For . . . it is a shame even to speak of . This gives the reason
why they are to reprove and expose the works of darkness, for they
are so very bad they cannot be talked about and they therefore must
be convicted.
13. The meaning of verse 13 is something like this: "Exposure by
light is manifestation; the manifested is light; even darkness made
manifest is turned to light."
14. Wherefore he saith. This may be an adaptation of the lan
guage of Is. 60 : 1, "Arise, shine; for thy light is come and the glory of
the Lord is risen upon thee," though there are difficulties in this view.
Ellicott says the words quoted by Paul occur in substance in Isaiah,
and that Paul, speaking under inspiration, is expressing in a summary
form the spiritual meaning of the passage. At any rate, this call to
the sons of disobedience to awake out of sleep and to rise from the
death of sin confirms the necessity of reproving or exposing them;
and the promise "Christ shall shine upon thee" confirms the salutary
influence of the light under which the reproof or exposure places
them. 15. Look therefore carefully how ye walk. He has been speaking
about the attitude and duty of believers toward those who are still
in darkness. This is a direct continuation of the same subject and
still has in view outsiders. There should be no break, no beginning
of a new paragraph at verse 15. The word therefore itself shows that
he is treating the same subject. It is the Greek particle of retrospec
tive reference. Not as unwise, but as wise. A more specific definition
of the words of the preceding injunction. The two are combined in
the parallel passage of Colossians, Walk in wisdom toward those that
are without (Col. 4:5). It requires wisdom, some call it tact, to
deal properly and effectively with those who are not Christians.
"5

5 : 16 EPHESIANS

16. unwise, but as wise; ^redeeming the time, "because the
17. days are evil. "Wherefore be ye not foolish, "but un-
18. derstand what the will of the Lord is. "And be not
drunken with wine, "wherein "is riot, "but be filled
19. 2 with the Spirit, speaking 3 one to another in psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making
20. melody with your heart to the Lord; "giving thanks
always for all things "in the name of our Lord Jesus
21. Christ "to * God, even the Father; "subjecting your
selves one to another "in the fear of Christ.
1 Gr. buying up the opportunity. a Or, in spirit 3 Or, to yourselves + Gr.
the God and Father.
16. Redeeming the time. Literally the words mean buying up
for yourselves the opportunity. You are to show yourselves wise by
buying up for yourselves the opportunity for reaching and rescuing
those who are still in the outer darkness. The price to be paid is the
pains and effort required. Because the days are evil. As the op
portunities are so few in such evil days as these, be the more eager to
seize them when they come.
17. Wherefore be ye not foolish. Do not become foolish, or show
yourselves foolish, undiscerning, when the opportunity comes. But
understand what the will of the Lord is. There is a divine purpose
and plan even in the midst of the prevailing evil. If you are truly
the children of light, you will discover it and act accordingly.
18. And be not drunken with wine. This is a particular instance
of what he meant by being foolish, senseless. Wherein. In being
drunk with wine. Is riot. Not excess, as the A. V. has. It is disso
luteness. But be filled with the Spirit. There is a spiritual fulness
brought about by the Holy Spirit. It does not result in dissoluteness
and riot, but "in a gladness of cheerful intercourse, psalm and hymn
and spiritual song, a melody of hearts singing to the Lord."
20. Giving thanks always for all things. Paul had the thanksgiv
ing spirit and habit, and he had the habit of trying to get others to
have it. Thanksgiving is a recurrent note of great frequency in these
later epistles, Ephesians, Colossians, and Philippians; but it is not by
any means wanting in his very first epistle, for he says in 1 Thess. 5:17,
" Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks." In
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. As being believers on him,
disciples of his, in union with him and bearers of his name. To God,
even the Father. To him who is God and Father. Though all
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EPHESIANS

22. Wives, be in subjection unto "your own husbands,
23. "as unto the Lord. For "the husband is the head of
the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, °being
24. himself the saviour of the body. "But as the church
is subject to Christ, Jso °let the wives also be to their
1 Or, so are the wives also
blessings come to us through Christ, they all, including Christ himself,
come from God the Father. Hence our thanksgiving is to be directed
to him.
21. Subjecting yourselves one to another. This is a modal defini
tion parallel to giving thanks and shows what our relation and attitude
to each other are to be, as the participle giving thanks shows what
our attitude to God is to be. In the fear of Christ. This is the motive
of the subordination to each other which he has just enjoined. This
is clearly illustrated in chap. 6 : 5, where he commands slaves to
be obedient to their masters as unto Christ, and still more clearly in
Col. 3 : 22, "Servants, obey your masters in singleness of heart, fear
ing the Lord."
4. The Christian subordination and regulation of three domestic
relations, the most vital and decisive of all human relations,
5 : 22-6 : 9.
22. Having given in verse 21 the general rule of mutual subordi
nation, he now proceeds to apply it to specific relations. Here is the
eternal principle of authority and obedience. And Christ himself
was not exempt from it: "I came not to be ministered unto, but to
minister." "Not my will, but thine be done." The centurion dis
covered this disposition of obedience in Christ when he said, "I also
(as well as thou) am a man under authority." Your own husbands.
The word "own" contains an appeal to the woman's feeling and pride.
As unto the Lord. As though in obeying your husband you were
obeying the Lord Christ.
23. The husband is the head of the wife. Greek — a husband is
head of his wife. Being himself the saviour of the body (the church).
"A man is head of his wife as Christ also is the head of the church,
although there is a great difference, since Christ is himself the saviour
of the body of which he is head."
24. But : Notwithstanding this difference, let the wives be subject
to their husbands in everything. " It is presupposed that the author
ity of the husband is always exercised in accordance with their rela-
117

5 : 25 EPHESIANS

25. husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives,
even "as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself
26. up for it ; "that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it
27. by the 1 washing of water with the word, "that he
might present the church to "himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; "but that
28. it should be holy and without blemish. "Even so ought
husbands to love their own wives as their own bodies.
1 Gr. laver.

tion as corresponding to that between Christ and the church." Paul
does not give the husband authority to compel his wife to obey. He
instructs the wife to do this of her own accord. If she does not, Paul
does not say the husband is to extort it from her. But of course the
wife in that case is answerable to God for disobedience to him.
The amplification of Paul's advice to husbands beyond what he
says in Colossians is one among many proofs that Colossians pre
ceded this epistle. All that he there says to husbands is this: " Hus
bands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them."
25. As Christ also loved the church. That is, so as to give up his
life for it. Chrysostom says on this, "Wouldst thou that thy wife
should be in subjection to thee as the church is to Christ? Then care
for her as Christ for the church."
26. That he might sanctify it. This expresses the purpose of his
giving himself up, in preceding verse. The aim of his death was that
after having brought about for the church the forgiveness of their
prechristian sins, he would make it partaker of holiness by the word
(of the gospel), cf. Jn. 17 : 17.
27. That he might present the church. He means at the parousia.
The remote aim of his giving himself up for the church and the words
immediately depend on, that he might sanctify it. Himself to himself.
Such is the order of the words in Greek. As has been said, "Christ
does not permit attendants to present the bride. He does it himself.
He presents, and he receives." But that it should be holy. That
it should not have spot or wrinkle, but that, etc.
28. Even so. This is probably a wrong construction. More
probably it should be rendered : Husbands ought so to love their own
wives as their own bodies. But not only does he say that husbands
should love their wives as their own bodies; he virtually says that the
wife is the body, for he that loveth his wife loveth his own body.
The man in loving his wife is loving himself.
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EPHESIANS

29. He that loveth his own wife loveth himself: "for no
man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and
30. cherisheth it, even as Christ also the church; "because
31. we are members of his body. "For this cause shall a
man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to
32. his wife; and the twain shall become one flesh. "This
mystery is great : "but I speak in regard of Christ and of
33. the church. "Nevertheless do ye also "severally love
each one "his own wife even as himself; "and let the
wife see that she fear her husband.
29. For no man ever hated his own flesh. For if he hated her, he
would be hating his own flesh, whereas he, on the contrary, nourishes
and cherishes it, even as Christ does the church.
30. Because we are members of his body. This gives the reason
for the preceding words: Christ nourisheth and cherisheth the church
because we are members of his body.
31. For this cause. For what cause? In the passage which Paul
has in mind and which he here quotes, it is because woman was
originally taken from man and was therefore " bone of his bones and
flesh of his flesh" (Gen. 2 : 23, 24). But this is probably not what
Paul means by the phrase "for this cause." He probably adapts
the phrase to the course of his own thought and means because a man
is to love his wife as Christ loved the church and for the sake of the
church left his rank and state of equal association with the Father
and became identified with the church as one body, therefore, for
this cause, shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave
to his wife and they twain shall become one flesh.
32. This mystery is great. That is, the mystery of the closeness
of the relation between husband and wife, which, by the way, implies
a sacredness and an inviolability far above the gross and merely
sexual conceptions of the marriage relation which are common and
growing more so to-day, and which are openly taught in some of the
leading works of fiction of this day. But I speak in regard of Christ
and of the church. But in speaking of the closeness of the marriage
relation, as I have just done, I speak of it in its deeper application,
in reference to Christ and the church.
33. Nevertheless. However, not to insist any further on the
mystical significance of marriage as bearing on the relation of Christ
and the church, but to return to the practical duty of husband and
wife, I will say, do ye also, after the example of Christ. Severally
. . . each one. This would strike every husband that was present
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6 : i EPHESIANS
6. Children, obey your parents "in the Lord : "for this is
2. right. "Honour thy father and mother ("which is the
3. first commandment with promise), "that it may be well
with thee, and thou * mayest live long on the 2 earth.
4. "And, ye fathers, "provoke not your children to wrath :
"but nurture them "in the chastening "and admonition
"of the Lord. 1 Or, shall ' Or, land
and listening to the reading of this letter. His own wife. Paul has
used this form of speech several times in this paragraph to wives
and husbands. It is very significant. It contains a sort of ad homi-
nem appeal — she is your own wife, your very own, you ought to
love her because she is your own. And let the wife. Rather, but the
wife. The particle is slightly contrastive. The husband is to love
his wife even as himself; but the wife is not to forget her duty: let
her see that she fear her husband. Interpreted by the instructions
already given to wives in verses 22—24, this means that the wife is to
recognize in her inward feeling and to respect in outward conduct
and action the authority of her husband.
1. The simple injunction to children to obey their parents, as
found in Colossians (3 : 20), is considerably amplified here. In the
Lord. Of course this does not mean your parents in the Lord, but
describes the spirit in which the obedience is to be given. For this
is right. That is, it is right in itself, as it is also in accordance with
the law of God which says,
2. Honour thy father and mother. Not only obey in outward act,
but let your mental mood and attitude toward them be one of rev
erence and affection. Which is the first commandment with promis'
It is the first commandment that had a promise attached to it. Thi
would appeal to children with a special force, who naturally look to
the future and are pleased at the prospect of getting reward.
3. That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on he
earth (Dt. 5 : 16). A double promise of temporal prosperity and
long life.
4. And, ye fathers. The and shows that the obligation was not
all on one side — and you fathers, there are duties which you owe
to your children. Provoke not your children to wrath. That is,
by requiring of them unreasonable things, by too frequent or too
severe punishment, by nagging them, or in any other way. But nur
ture them. In guarding against irritating them, you must not go to
the other extreme of neglecting training and discipline altogether.

EPHESIANS

5. 1 Servants, be obedient unto them that according to
the flesh are your 2 masters, with fear and trembling, in
6. singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; not in the
way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers ; but as 1 servants
7. of Christ, doing the will of God from the s heart; with
good will doing service, as unto the Lord, and not unto
8. men : knowing that whatsoever good thing each one doeth,
the same shall he receive again from the Lord, whether
9. he be bond or free. And, ye 2 masters, do the same
things unto them, and forbear threatening: knowing
that their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is
no respect of persons with him.
X. Farewell Appeal and Closing Word, 6 : 10-24
10. ° 4 Finally, ° 5 be strong in the Lord, and in the strength
11. of his might. "Put on the whole armour of God,
x Gr. bondservants. a Gr. lords. 3 Gr. soul. * Or, From henceforth
s Gr. be made powerful.
In the chastening. Training by discipline. And admonition.
Training by instruction. Of the Lord. Which is prescribed or in
general indicated by the Lord.
5-9. This paragraph of instructions to slaves is the same, almost
word for word, as that in Colossians (3 : 22-25). See comment on
that passage.
10. Finally. He has come to the close of his great, some say his
greatest, message. After the manner of a chief captain exhorting his
soldiers on the eve of battle, Paul gives his fellow-soldiers a descrip
tion of the foes they are to face, the forces they are to overcome, and
then exhorts them to equip themselves in full armor for the struggle.
Be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might. In the begin
ning the note of strength was touched; at the close it is sounded again.
Recall how the Apostle piled up words for strength, power, might, in
order to show the exceeding greatness of his power toward believers
(1 : 19); and now he exhorts the readers here at the close to avail
themselves of it in order to meet and vanquish the forces that oppose
them. 11. Put on the whole armour of God. The emphasis is on the

6 : 12 EPHESIANS

"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
hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. "Wherefore

word whole, and not on God, as some say. The divineness of the
armor is a matter of course, the completeness of it is what the apostle
stresses. It is not that they need God, they knew that; it is that they
need all that God can give, all the equipment that God can furnish.
That ye may be able to stand. That ye may be able to stand and not
fall in the face of the stratagems of the leader of the forces of evil.
12. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood. Very well did
I speak of the stratagems of the devil, for the struggle that we are
engaged in is not against mere feeble man. It is not against human
but superhuman powers. But against the principalities, against the
powers. Paul here seems to recognize the reality of the hierarchy
of invisible evil powers with their various grades and orders. This
reopens the question as to what he means in chap, i : 21, on which
see comment. Against the world-rulers of this darkness. A fur
ther description of the principalities and powers just mentioned —
the rulers of this world, whose domain is the present darkness, those
who extend their world-wide sway over the present spiritual and
moral darkness (Meyer and Ellicott). Against the spiritual hosts
of wickedness in the heavenly places. Here again Paul goes behind
the scenes and exposes to view the mysterious powers of evil that
work invisibly to hinder the good and increase the wickedness of this
world. See a similar description and the comment, chap. 2 : 2.
In verses 13-17 we have the enumeration of the various parts of the
panoply of God with which he so insistently urges them to arm
themselves, as if the omission of any single part would insure defeat.
Now whether we can discover why he calls truth the girdle, righteous
ness the breastplate, peace the marching sandals, faith the shield,
salvation the helmet, and the word of God the sword of the Spirit,
makes comparatively little difference. One thing is clear apart from
all figures, and this is the essential thing : The panoply of God, or the
full preparation and equipment of the Christian for the struggle which
he must face and fight, consists of truth, righteousness, peace, faith,
salvation, and the word of God. These are the realities behind the
figures. 13. Wherefore take up the whole armour of God. Since we have
such enemies to fight and overcome, you will need and must take on the
complete armor which God supplies. This is the second time he has
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EPHESIANS

take up the whole armour of God, "that ye may be able
to withstand in the evil day, "and, having done all, to
14. stand. "Stand therefore, "having girded your loins
with truth, "and having put on "the breastplate of
15. righteousness, "and having shod your feet with the pre-
16. paration of the gospel of peace; "withal taking up the

said this very thing (see verse n). That ye may be able to withstand.
That ye may be able successfully to meet and overcome in the day of
battle and fierce conflict. And, having done all, to stand. Having
won the victory, to stand, in possession of the field, and not lie pros
trate in defeat.
14. Stand therefore. Stand then, ready for the fight. Stand is
here used in opposition to flee, as it is also in verse 11. Having
girded your loins with truth. The word truth here has no article
and is used in its widest, most general sense, including the truth of
the gospel and inward single-hearted sincerity, or truth objectively
and subjectively considered. As the girdle was primary in the
armor of the soldier, without which no other parts of the armor could
be used to advantage, so if a man was without the truth of the gospel
on the one hand or the quality of sincerity on the other, nothing else
would be of any avail. This was primary, taking precedence of
everything else. And having put on. All these participles are
dependent on the verb stand and denote action antecedent to it.
The breastplate of righteousness. Righteousness as a breastplate.
This means actual righteousness of Christian character. As the breast
plate protects the vital parts and organs, so when a man has a solidly
righteous character, and the strength of the consciousness of that
fact, he is proof against the assaults of sin. Exactly the same truth is
taught by Jesus, though under a different figure, in the last part of
the sermon on the Mount. " Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine
and doeth them shall be like a man who dug deep and builded on the
rock; and. the rain and the floods and the winds beat upon that house;
and it fell not, for it was founded on the rock" (Mt. 7 : 24, 25; Lk. 6 : 48).
15. And having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel
of peace. Soldiers could not march without good, strong, comfortable,
durable military sandals. These formed their preparedness for march
ing, for the endurance necessary for long, arduous, fatiguing journeys.
The preparedness of the Christian soldier for the endurance involved in
the long journey on which he has set out is to be found in or comes from
the gospel which brings to him Deace — the removal of all discord, and
the sense of harmony with God, with himself, and with all the world.
16. Withal taking up the shield of faith = the shield, which is faith.
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6 : 17 EPHESIANS

shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to "quench
17. all the fiery darts of the evil one. "And take the helmet
of salvation, "and the sword of the Spirit, which is the
18. word of God : "with all prayer and supplication pray
ing "at all seasons "in the Spirit, "and watching there
unto "in all perseverance "and supplication for all the

The shield was a large oblong covering of wood, strapped to one arm
of the soldier, which he held in front of himself to "shield" himself
from the missiles of the enemy. Quench all the fiery darts of the
evil one. The reference is to arrows tipped with tow dipped in some
combustible fluid and set on fire. The shields, often covered with
hide, would catch and extinguish these so that they did no harm.
These fiery darts represent fierce temptations. Faith would hold
on patiently in the confidence that they would by yielding get into
more suffering than they would escape, and that in a little while the
temptation would be past. So faith was that which would enable
them to endure temptation. The evil one here probably means
the devil, as in other passages (Mt. 6 : 13; 1 Jn. 5 : 18).
17. And take the helmet of salvation. The helmet, which is sal
vation. In 1 Thess. 5 : 8 Paul says, "putting on for a helmet the hope
of salvation." Here there is no such limitation and he means sal
vation itself; that is, appropriating and realizing salvation is putting
on the helmet. And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
This conception is probably taken from Is. n : 4, 5. Indeed nearly
all these figures of the armor are taken from Isaiah, chaps. 59 : 17 and
n : 4, 5. Compare also Heb. 4 : 12.
18. With all prayer and supplication praying. It would be clearer
if the order were changed thus: Praying with all prayer, etc. The
first is the general word for prayer, the second a more specific kind of
prayer, namely, entreaty. At all seasons. Not only are they to pray
in the use of every form of prayer and entreaty, but at every season,
under all sorts of circumstances, in all moods and conditions, 1 Thess.
5 : 17. In the Spirit. In view of Gal. 4 : 6 and Rom. 8 : 15 this
probably means in the Holy Spirit. In Jude 20 it is explicitly, " pray
ing in the Holy Spirit." And watching thereunto. Since the un
ceasing prayer that Paul has enjoined might tend to weariness and
listlessness, Paul puts them on their guard against such a tendency.
Watching in this sense is different from what Jesus meant when he
said, " Watch and pray lest ye enter into temptation." In all persever
ance. Perseverance is the opposite of growing weary, fainting,
giving up. And supplication for all the saints. This is the word for
request or entreaty again. As Tychicus read these words in the as-
124

EPHESIANS

19. saints, "and on my behalf, "that utterance may be given
unto me o1 in opening my mouth, "to make known with
20. boldness the mystery of the gospel, "for which I am an
ambassador in 2 chains ; "that in it I may speak boldly,
as I ought to speak.
21. But that ye also may know my affairs, how I do,
Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister
1 Or, in opening my mouth with boldness, to make known. 3 Gr. a chain.
sembly of the church, the hearers would be reminded of their brethren,
fellow-believers in Christ and partakers of the same experience and
spirit throughout the world; and it would expand their vision, en
large their hearts, and give them some sense of the unity of which
Paul had said such grand things in the former part of the epistle
(4 : 1-16).
19. And on my behalf. He put himself last, but he put himself in.
This is a beautiful expression of Paul's dependence on the coopera
tion and help of his brother Christians and his confidence in them.
That utterance may be given me. He did not ask their prayers for
his personal advantage or comfort, or even for relief from affliction
and deliverance from prison for its own sake, but only that utterance
might be given him for preaching the glad tidings. What a lesson —
and what a rebuke — to some preachers ! In opening my mouth. On
opening my mouth, i.e., when I open my mouth. To make known
with boldness. That is, that utterance may be given me to make
known with openness, boldness of speech, the mystery or unrevealed
secret which the gospel contains or is.
20. For which I am an ambassador in chains. For which means
for the gospel — in behalf of which. In Colossians (4:3) it is " on
account of which I am also in bonds." His imprisonment and con
finement are what he had in mind when he asked them to pray that
utterance might be given him. I am an ambassador in behalf of the
gospel — but I am in chains and so I am shut off from preaching
it, unless you pray for me that the opportunity of utterance may be
given me. Compare Philem. 22. That in it I may speak boldly.
Practically the same as, "in order that utterance may be given me to
make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel," in the pre
ceding verse.
21, 22. This paragraph is almost word for word the same as the
corresponding paragraph in Colossians (4 : 7-9), the chief differences
being the occurrence of the word also in this one and the mention of
Onesimus in Colossians (4:9). The word also here implies that the
125

6 : 22 EPHESIANS

22. 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-
23. Peace be to the brethren, and "love with faith, from
24. God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace
be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ "in
uncorruptness.
paragraph and epistle to the Colossians had already been written and
the meaning would be here : But that ye also (as well as the
Colossians, to whom I have written the same words) may know my
affairs, etc. Ellicott says that "though the word 'also' per se cannot
safely be relied on as an argument to prove the priority of Colos
sians, still on that hypothesis it admits of an easy and natural
explanation." 23. As he began by wishing them peace and grace from God the
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, so, substantially, he closes. Com
pare 1 : 2. Love with faith. Faith was already there (1 : 15); he
prays that love may be with it; may love be joined with your faith.
24. In uncorruptness = those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with
an incorruptible, imperishable love.
And the epistle closes without a single personal salutation. Surely
it could not have been written as a letter to the Ephesians alone,
whose pastor Paul had been for three years (Acts 20 : 31).

126

APPENDIX I

The Relation between Colossians and Ephesians

The relation between the Epistle to the Colossians and that to the
Ephesians is a question of much interest. Indeed, it has been ascer
tained that in seventy-eight out of the one hundred and fifty-five
verses of Ephesians even the phraseology is almost the same. This
similarity led De Wette to consider Ephesians as practically a ver
bose amplification of Colossians. Lists of parallel passages have
been prepared by De Wette, Meyer, and others, in which the fol
lowing parallel passages are cited:

Col. I
Col. i
Col. i
Col. i
Col. I

: 22 .
: 14 .
: 20 .
¦¦3, 4
27 .

Col. 1 : 16

Col. 1
Col. 1
Col. 2
Col. 2
Col. 1
Col. 1
Col. 1

: 18 f.
: 21 .
: 13 •
14 .
20 .
: 24 .
25 •

Col. 1 : 26
Col. 1 : 23, 25
Col. 1 : 27 .
10 .
12 f.

Col. 1
Col. 3

Col. 3 : 14 f.
Col. 2 : 19 .

Eph. 1
Eph. t
Eph. 1

'• 4
: 7
10
Eph. 1 : 15, 17
. Eph. 1 : 18
. Eph. 1 : 21
Eph. 1 : 22 f.
Eph. 2 : 1, 12
. Eph. 2 : 5
. Eph. 2 : 15
. Eph. 2 : 16
. Eph. 3 : 1
. Eph. 3 : 2
. Eph. 3 : 3
• Eph. 3 : 7
. Eph. 3 : 8 f.
Eph. 4 : 1
Eph. 4 : 2
. Eph. 4 : 3
Eph. 4 : 15 f.

Col. 3 :
Col. 3
Col. 3
Col. 3
Col. 3
Col. 3
Col. 3
Col. 3
Col. 3 :
Col. 3
Col. 4 :
Col. 3
Col. 3
Col. 3
Col. 3
Col. 3
Col. 3
Col. 4
Col. 4
Col. 4 :

1, s ¦

Eph. 4 : 19

8f. .

. Eph. 4 : 22 f.

8f. .

. Eph. 4 : 25 f.

8; 4:

5 . Eph. 4 : 29

8 .

. Eph. 4 : 31

12 f.

. Eph. 4 : 32

S •

¦ Eph. 5 : 3

8 .

Eph. 5 : 4

5 •

¦ Eph. 5 : S

6 .

. Eph. 5 : 6

5 •

. Eph. 5 : 15

16 f.

. . Eph. 5 : 19 f.

18 .

. . Eph. 5 : 21

19

. . Eph. 5 : 25

20 .

. . Eph. 6 : 1

21 .

. . Eph. 6 : 4

22 f.

. . Eph. 6 : 5 f.

1

. . Eph. 6 : 9

2f. .

. Eph. 6 : 18 f.

7f. .

. Eph. 6 : 21 f.

H. J. Holtzmann has built on these parallelisms an elaborate and
complicated theory as to the relations of the two epistles ; but it is
so improbable and fanciful that it is not taken seriously by anybody
but himself. Paul's mind was full of what he had just written to
the Colossians ; and besides, he knew that what he had just written
to one Asiatic church was probably suitable for others as well.
127

APPENDIX II
The Relation of Ephesians to Other New Testament Books
I Peter.
There are many parallelisms between i Peter and Ephesians, both
in matter and phraseology.
The language of i Pet. i : 3 is strikingly similar to that of Eph.
1 : 3. The general structure of the long sentences immediately fol
lowing (1 Pet. 1 : 5-13; Eph. c . 5-15) is quite similar. The em
phasis laid on "hope" in 1 Pet. 1 : 3-5 corresponds with that of
Eph. 1 : 18-20; the object of the hope in both is "the inheritance,"
the ground of it in both is the resurrection of Christ, and in both
the power of God is the means by which it is to be realized. There
is a strong resemblance between 1 Pet. 2 : 4-6 and Eph. 2 : 18-22.
1 Pet. 3 : 18 is like Eph. 2 : 18 in thought and language, while
1 Pet. 3 : 22 is still more like Eph. ± : 20-22. Again, 1 Pet. 1 : 20
is in substance and form like Eph. 3:9: while the unusual thought
of the interest of angels in the plan of redemption is brought out in
1 Pet. 1 : 12 and Eph. 3 : 10. Compare also the paragraphs of
1 Pet. 2 : 18-3 : 7 with those of Eph. 5 : 22-6 : 9. The probability
is that Peter was consciously or unconsciously influenced by the con
tents of Ephesians, and so, consciously or unconsciously, made use
of some of the thoughts and even the expressions therein contained.
But what of it ? There is nothing strange in that. The probability
is that he was similarly impressed by Paul's Epistle to the Romans
also and that this showed itself in parts of his own Epistle ; for there
are striking parallelisms between 1 Peter and Romans. If it be said
that it is not easy to understand how Peter could have been ac
quainted with Ephesians, it may be answered, as it has been answered,
that "if 1 Peter was written by Silvanus (i.e. Silas, who was at other
times an attendant of Paul) under the direction of Peter, which is
probably the meaning of 1 Pet. 5:12, then the use of Paul's thoughts
and language is sufficiently accounted for."
The Gospel of John.
Still more real and vital are the resemblances between the Epistle
to the Ephesians and the Gospel of John. For here the resem
blances are in thought, in the occurrence and recurrence of certain
128

APPENDIX II

great conceptions, such as the contrast between light and darkness,
the dominating emphasis, in both the Epistle and the Gospel, on the
ideas of grace, knowledge, love, the recurrence in both of the word
fulness (pleroma), the relations between Christ and God the Father
"before the foundation of the world" (comp. Jn. 17 : 24 with Eph.
1 : 4, 6). The work of salvation is in both that of sanctifying (cf.
Jn. 17 : 17, 19 and Eph. 5 =26), which is accomplished by means
of the word (Jn. 15 : 3; 17 : 17 and Eph. 5 : 26). The regenera
tion of the soul is in both described as a raising from the dead (Jn.
5 : 21, 25, 28 and Eph. 2 : 5, 6). In both are references to the
descent of Christ from heaven and the ascent of Christ to heaven
(Jn. 3 : 13, 31; 6 : 62 and Eph. 4 : 9, 10). The statement of
Jn. 3 : 34, that the Father "giveth not the Spirit [to the Son] by
measure," becomes intelligible when read in connection with Eph.
4: 7, "unto each one of us was the grace given according to the meas
ure of the gift of Christ."
There is a sustained parallelism of thought between the seven
teenth chapter of John and Ephesians.
There is nothing strange in supposing that "St. John read/ and
valued St. Paul's writings," especially this epistle to the Ephesians,
as John spent many years of his life at Ephesus, where it was pre
served and was well known. Nor is there anything unnatural or
strange in his being influenced by the great conceptions of this "su
preme exposition of the meaning and aim of the Christian revela
tion."

129

INDEX

Abbott, 9, 65.
Adoption, 72.
Analysis of Colossians, 6-8.
of Ephesians, 63-64.
Angelic hierarchy, 81, 97.
Angels, worship of, 37.
Anger, 42.
Archippus, 52.
Aristarchus, 52.
Asceticism of heretics, 36, 39.
"At Ephesus," 59, 61, 62, 67.
Authorship of Colossians, 5.
of Ephesians, 55-38.
Baptism, Christian, 33, 34.
Basil, 59.
Beck, 65.
Beet, 65.
Bruce, Dr. A. B., on slavery, 49.
Characteristics of the Christian life,
44-
Children, duties of, 47.
Christ called, the "Beloved," 73.
Christians died with, 38.
raised with, 40-41, 85-86.
deity of, 5, 18,22,31.
exalted over all in earth and
heaven, 82.
head of universe and of church, 2 1 .
peace of, to rule in heart, 45.
the Reconciler, 22, 23.
relation of, to creation, 19.
resurrection of, 80.
sufficiency of, 32.
Circumcision, Christian, 33.

Colossa?, city of, 1.
Colossians analysis of, 6-8.
Epistie to, 1-8.
faithful, 30.
Conversation, 51.
Dale on Ephesians, 65.
Date of Colossians and Ephesians, 6.
Demas, 52.
Devil, the, 84.
Eadie, 65.
Election, 70.
EUicott, 65.
Epaphras, 1, 2, 14, 30, 52.
Ephesians analysis of, 63-64.
destination of, 62.
Epistle to, 55 ff.
written by Paul, 58-59.
Ephesus, Paul at, 55.
Equality of all in Christ, 43.
Experience, the, of Colossians, 23,
24. 33-
Faith, salvation by, 86.
Fathers, duties of, 47.
Findlay, 65, 68, 69.
Foreordination, 72.
Fornication, 42.
Fulness (pleroma), 15, 22, 32, 75
82.
Gentiles, 62, 75, 88-91, 96, 97.
Gnosticism, 3.
Good works, 87.
Gospel, extension of, 13, 25.
Grace of God, 73, 74.

131

INDEX

Harnack, 58.
Heavenly-mindedness, 40, 41.
Heresy at Colossse, *, 3, 4, 31, 36-37.
Hierapolis, 52.
Hierarchy, the angelic, 81, 97.
Holtzmann, 5, 127.
Hope, 80.
Husbands, duties of, 46.
Hymns and songs, 45.
Impurity, 42.
Infants, state of, 85.
John, Gospel of, relation of Ephe
sians to, Appendix II, 128.
Jiilicher on authorship and date of
Colossians and Ephesians, 6.
Knowledge, 15, 16.
Laodicea, 52.
letter from, 53, 59, 60.
J Law "of ordinances," 35, 89.
Lightfoot, 2, 8, 17, 59.
Luke, 52.
Maclaren, A., 9.
McPherson, 65.
Marcion, 59.
Mark, 52.
Massie on "Elements," 3.
Masters, duties of, 48.
Meyer, 9, 64.
Onesimus, 51.
Origen, 59.
Paul the Apostle, n, 67.
a prisoner, 50, 53.
his anxiety about Colossians, 28.
his prayers, 79, 93.
relation to the Gospel, 26, 27,
88-91, 96, 79.
sufferings, 25.

Peake, 3, 8.
Peter, 1 Epistle of, 60, and Appen
dix II, 128.
Plan of a new universe in Christ,
75-
Plato, 58.
Prayer intercessory, 49.
perseverance in, 49.
Prophets, 91, 92.
Reconciliation through Christ, 22,
23, 75-
Redemption, 73, 77, 78.
Respect of persons, none with
God, 48.
Robinson, J. Armitage, on Ephe
sians, 65.
Salmond on Ephesians, 64.
on predestination, 71.
Sinaitic manuscript, 59.
Slavery, 47-49.
Slaves, duties of, 47.
Songs and hymns, 45.
Tertullian, 59.
Thanksgiving, 12.
Timothy, n.
Tychicus, 51, 60.
Unbelievers, duty of Christians tow
ards, 50.
Unchas'tity, 42.
Vatican manuscript, 59.
Von Soden, 5.
Wisdom, 15
Wives, duties of, 46.
Zahn, 9, 65.

132

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