St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians: A Practical Exposition

'But while this cannot be too strongly said, it is not the whole truth. Character is influenced at every point by social conditions; and active conscience, in an industrial society, will look for moral guidance on industrial matters.

'Economic science does not claim to give this, its task being to inform but not to determine the conscience and judgement. But we believe that Christ our Master does give such guidance by His example and teachings, and by the present workings of His Spirit; and therefore under Him Christian authority must in a measure do the same, the authority, that is, of the whole Christian body, and of an enlightened Christian opinion. This is part of the duty of the Christian Society, as witnessing for Christ and representing Him in this present world, occupied with His work of setting up the Kingdom of God, under and amidst the natural conditions of human life. In this work the clergy, whose special duty it is to ponder the bearings of Christian principles, have their part; but the Christian laity, who deal directly with the social and economic facts, can do even more.

'The Committee believe that it would be wholly wrong for Christian authority to attempt to interfere with the legitimate evolution of economic and social thought and life by taking a side corporately in the debates between rival social theories or systems. It will not (for example), at the present day, attempt to identify Christian duty with the acceptance of systems based respectively on collective or individual ownership of the means of production.

'But they submit that Christian social duty will operate in two directions: —

'1. The recognition, inculcation, and application of certain Christian principles. They offer the following as examples: —

(a) The principle of Brotherhood. This principle of Brotherhood, or Fellowship in Christ, proclaiming, as it does, that men are members one of another, should act in all the relations of life as a constant counterpoise to the instinct of competition.

(b) The principle of Labour. That every man is bound to service – the service of God and man. Labour and service are to be here understood in their widest and most inclusive sense; but in some sense they are obligatory on all. The wilfully idle man, and the man who lives only for himself, are out of place in a Christian community. Work, accordingly, is not to be looked upon as an irksome necessity for some, but as the honourable task and privilege of all.

(c) The principle of Justice. God is no respecter of persons. Inequalities, indeed, of every kind are inwoven with the whole providential order of human life, and are recognized emphatically in our Lord's words. But the social order cannot ignore the interests of any of its parts, and must, moreover, be tested by the degree in which it secures for each freedom for happy, useful, and untrammelled life, and distributes, as widely and equitably as may be, social advantages and opportunities.

(d) The principle of Public Responsibility. A Christian community, as a whole, is morally responsible for the character of its own economic and social order, and for deciding to what extent matters affecting that order are to be left to individual initiative, and to the unregulated play of economic forces. Factory and sanitary legislation, the institution of Government labour departments and the influence of Government, or of public opinion and the press, or of eminent citizens, in helping to avoid or reconcile industrial conflicts, are instances in point.

'2. Christian opinion should be awake to repudiate and condemn either open breaches of social justice and duty, or maxims and principles of an un-Christian character. It ought to condemn the belief that economic conditions are to be left to the action of material causes and mechanical laws, uncontrolled by any moral responsibility. It can pronounce certain conditions of labour to be intolerable. It can insist that the employer's personal responsibility, as such, is not lost by his membership in a commercial or industrial Company. It can press upon retail purchasers the obligation to consider not only the cheapness of the goods supplied to them, but also the probable conditions of their production. It can speak plainly of evils which attach to the economic system under which we live, such as certain forms of luxurious extravagance, the widespread pursuit of money by financial gambling, the dishonesties of trade into which men are driven by feverish competition, and the violences and reprisals of industrial warfare.

'It is plain that in these matters disapproval must take every different shade, from plain condemnation of undoubted wrong to tentative opinions about better and worse. Accordingly any organic action of the Church, or any action of the Church's officers, as such, should be very carefully restricted to cases where the rule of right is practically clear, and much the larger part of the matter should be left to the free and flexible agency of the awakened Christian conscience of the community at large, and of its individual members.

'If the Christian conscience be thus awakened and active, it will secure the best administration of particular systems, while they exist, and the modification or change of them, when this is required by the progress of knowledge, thought, and life.

'It appears to follow from what precedes that the great need of the Church, in this connexion, is the growth and extension of a serious, intelligent, and sympathetic opinion on these subjects, to which numberless Christians have as yet never thought of applying Christian principles. There has been of late no little improvement in this respect, but much remains to be done, and with this view the Committee desire to make the following definite recommendation.

'They suggest that, wherever possible, there should be formed, as a part of local Church organization, Committees consisting chiefly of laymen, whose work should be to study social and industrial problems from the Christian point of view, and to assist in creating and strengthening an enlightened public opinion in regard to such problems, and promoting a more active spirit of social service, as a part of Christian duty.

'Such Committees, or bodies of Church workers in the way of social service, while representing no one class of society, and abstaining from taking sides in any disputes between classes, should fearlessly draw attention to the various causes in our economic, industrial, and social system, which call for remedial measures on Christian principles.'

Abundant illustration of the kind of matters with which such Committees might deal will be found in the report.

1

The Committee of the Conference of Bishops at Lambeth, 1897, in a report commended by the bishops as a body to the 'consideration of all Christian people,' write: 'Your committee do not hold that a true view of Holy Scripture forecloses any legitimate question about the literary character or literal accuracy of different parts or statements of the Old Testament.'

2

Acts xxiv 14; xxvi. 6, 7, 22, 23; 2 Tim i. 3.

3

Eph. ii. 12-19.

4

1 Thess. ii. 14-16.

5

Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Romans.

6

See app. note C, p. 257.

7

Acts ix. 20; 1 Cor. viii. 6; Rom. ix. 5; 2 Cor. viii. 9; Gal. iv. 4.

8

Colossians, Ephesians, Philippians, Philemon.

9

Col. ii. 18: 'by a voluntary humility (or 'taking delight in humility') and worshipping of the angels.'

10

See i. 13-20; ii. 2, 3, 9-23; iii. 11. Cf. i. 27-28.

11

Hort, Judaistic Christianity (Macmillan, 1894), p. 125.

12

Cf. app. note C, p. 257.

13

Cf. Hort, Prolegomena to Romans and Ephesians (Macmillan, 1895), p. 100.

14

Col. iv. 2-4; Philemon 22; Phil. i. 12-14.

15

Ramsay, Paul the Traveller (Hodder and Stoughton, 1895), pp. 130 ff.

16

Ramsay, l. c. p. 132.

17

See Mommsen, Provinces of Roman Empire (Eng. trans.), i. 344 ff.; Lightfoot, Ign. and Polyc. iii. pp. 404 ff.

18

App. note A, p. 251.

19

Tatian, Ad Graecos, 28, 32.

20

Ramsay, l. c. p. 135.

21

Rom. xiii. 1-7; cf. ii. Thess. ii. 6.

22

1 Tim. ii. 1, 2.

23

Acts xxv. 12.

24

Ramsay, l. c. p. 147.

25

Lightfoot, Galatians, 'St. Paul and Seneca,' pp. 287 ff.

26

See app. note B, p. 253.

27

'The zeal of its inhabitants for philosophy and general culture is such that they have surpassed even Athens and Alexandria and all other cities where schools of philosophy can be mentioned. And its pre-eminence in this respect is so great because there the students are all townspeople, and strangers do not readily settle there.' Strabo, xiv. v. 13. I do not suppose that St. Paul received any formal education in Greek schools at Tarsus. But I think we must assume that at some period St. Paul had sufficient contact with Gentile educated opinion, whether at Tarsus or elsewhere, to be acquainted with widely-spread religious and philosophical tendencies.

28

Cf. Hort, Christian Ecclesia, p. 143.

29

Acts xix. 21.

30

Rom. i. 15, 16.

31

Acts xxiii. 11.

32

Acts xxvii. 24.

33

Acts xxviii. 15.

34

Acts xx. 29, 30.

35

Among other articles of commerce, tents made in Ephesus had a special reputation, and St. Paul and Aquila had special opportunities there for the exercise of their trade. Acts xx. 34.

36

Strabo. xiv. 1, 25.

37

Migne, P. L. xxvi. 441.

38

Acts xvi. 6-10.

39

Acts xviii. 19.

40

Hort, Prolegomena, p. 83.

41

Acts xix. 1-7.

42

Ramsay, l. c. p. 143.

43

'From the fifth to the tenth hour' (11 a.m. to 4 p.m.), an early addition to the text of the Acts tells us; i. e. after work hours, when the school would naturally be vacant and St. Paul would have finished his manual labour at tent-making. Ramsay, l. c. p. 276.

44

1 Cor. xv. 32.

45

Acts xix. 23 ff.

46

Prof. Ramsay asserts that instead of 'robbers of temples' (Acts xix. 37), we should translate 'disloyal to the established government.' l. c. p. 282. But the word is used in the former sense in special connexion with Ephesus by Strabo, xiv. 1, 22, and Pseudo-Heracleitus, Ep. 7, p. 64 (Bernays).

47

See app. note B, p. 253, on the contemporary 'letters of Heracleitus.'

48

Acts xx. 17 ff.

49

Col. iv. 16.

50

2 Cor. viii. 23.

51

1 Cor. ix. 1.

52

1 Cor. xv. 8.

53

2 Cor. xii. 11.

54

Gal. i. 1.

55

Tertullian, de An. 39, rightly interprets 1 Cor. vii. 14, 'now are they [the children of whose parents one was a Christian] holy,' as meaning, now are they already consecrated and marked out for baptismal sanctification by the prerogative of their birth.

56

Acts ix. 13, 33.

57

Cf. 1 Cor. viii. 6; Col. i. 16.

58

Rom. ix. 5.

59

Tit. ii. 13.

60

Rom. viii. 29.

61

1 Cor. xv. 23.

62

Eph. iv. 15, 16.

63

Eph. v. 32; Rev. xxi. 9.

64

1 Cor. xv. 45; Rom. v. 12-19.

65

1 Cor. xii. 12.

66

Acts xix. 1-7.

67

Rom. iii. 24-26. I have tried to develope St. Paul's hint.

68

Rom. iii. 25; Acts xiv. 16; Acts xvii. 30.

69

The earliest and simplest expression of the matter is that in St. Paul's earliest epistle (1 Thess. v. 10), Christ 'died for us … that we should live together with him.'

70

Eph. i. 7; cf. ii. 13 ff.

71

Rom. ix. 21.

72

1 Cor. xii. 22 ff.

73

Cf. St. Matt. xiii. 13-15; St. John xii. 39, 40. We are not (Rom. ix. 17) told why Pharaoh was brought out on the stage of history as an example of God's hardening judgement. But no doubt there was a moral reason.

74

Rom. ix-xi.

75

Rom. xi. 29.

76

Rom. xi. 33.

77

1 Tim. ii. 4.

78

1 Cor. ix. 27.

79

Rom. viii. 38, 39

80

I am using the word here not in its Bible sense, for in the Bible God is said to 'know' men in the sense of fixing His choice or approval upon them; and to 'foreknow' is therefore to approve or choose beforehand, as suitable instruments for a divine purpose. I am using the word in its ordinary sense.

81

Rom. viii. 28-30.

82

Phil. i. 6.

83

Amos iii. 2.

84

On the Jewish idea of election, cf. app. note C, p. 261.

85

Col. i. 1.

86

Col. i. 28.

87

See app. note C, p. 257.

88

i. 8.

89

See Col. i. 19; ii. 9; cf. ii. 3, 'in Christ are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden.'

90

Eph. iii. 19; iv. 13. It is not certain that by Him 'who filleth all in all' St. Paul does not mean the Father rather than the Son. But iv. 10 supports the interpretation given above.

91

Col. i. 19; Phil. ii. 9-11.

92

And the word rendered 'filleth' may have a middle and not a passive sense, the idea being perhaps suggested that God 'fills all things for his own purpose.'

93

That is, they were 'predestined to an adoption' (Eph. i. 5) which it is implied they have already received.

94

On the virtuous aspect of the contemporary empire, see Renan, Les Apôtres, pp. 306 ff.

95

Rom. ii. 14.

96

See app. note B, p. 255.

97

Is. xxxiii. 14, 15.

98

Cf. app. note C, p. 263, for a similar thought in a contemporary Jewish book.

99

Sanday and Headlam's Romans, pp. 122-124.

100

Hebr. ix. 8.

101

1 Peter ii. 4.

102

1 Thess. v. 14; 1 Cor. v. – vi. 11.

103

Col. i. 28.

104

Luke xii. 42.

105

Gal. iv. 11; v. 1.

106

Col. ii. 20-22.

107

Cor. xi. 2, 16.

108

Tit. iii. 10.

109

John ii. 19-21.

110

Acts xv. 16.

111

See app. note D, p. 264, on the Brotherhood of St. Andrew.

112

Acts xxii. 17-21. 'While I prayed in the temple, I fell into a trance, and saw him saying unto me, Make haste, and get thee quickly out of Jerusalem… Depart: for I will send thee forth far hence unto the Gentiles.'

113

Gal. i. 15. 'It was the good pleasure of God, who separated me, even from my mother's womb, and called me through his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles.'

114

Col. i. 24-29; iv. 3, 4.

115

Col. iii. 11.

116

1 John ii. 7, 8.

117

Phil. 16.

118

Eph. iv. 1-3.

119

Acts xxii. 21; xxvi. 17, 18.

120

Thus the limitation of the term 'brotherhood' to Christians is implied in 1 Pet. ii. 17, 'Honour all men. Love the brotherhood;' and in 2 Pet. i. 7, 'In your love of the brethren supply love' (i.e. in the narrower and closer circle of believers, learn the wider and all embracing attitude towards men as men); and in 1 Cor. v. 11, 'Any man that is named a brother.' The word brother is throughout the New Testament used of Christians only, except where, in the Acts, it is used by Jews of Jews. Our Lord's language about brotherhood applies to the circle of the disciples, except Matt. xxv. 40, 'One of these my brethren,' i.e. the wretched.

121

Acts xvii. 28.

122

Acts xvii. 26.

123

Dr. Hort thinks 'read' is a technical word for reading the Scriptures, and that this reading of the Old Testament Scriptures is to enable them to appreciate St. Paul's 'understanding in the secret of the Christ.' But I doubt if so technical a use of 'read' can be made out.

124

In Epist. Joan, ad Parth. v. 10.

125

And not as Dr. Robertson (Smith's Dict. of Bible, ed. ii. vol. i. pt. ii. p. 951) suggests, to introduce a prayer to God, which is resumed in iii. 14. The 'For this cause' which is repeated in iii. 14 is not nearly so significant as 'the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,' which is taken up again in iv. 1.

126

I have interpreted this word in the light of what is said in verse 16.

127

Tit. iii. 5.

128

Ps. lxviii. 18 (Delitzsch).

129

I do not think St. Paul need refer to the descent into Hades. 'The lower parts of the earth,' Is. xliv. 23, may also refer not to Hades (see Delitzsch in loco) but to 'the earth beneath.'

130

The 'filling all things' is, in the epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians, the characteristic action of the exalted Christ and the result of the reconciliation and atonement won. Cf. 1 Cor. xv. 24-28, 'That God may be all in all.'

131

See Delitzsch's and Perowne's notes.

132

Calvin, in loc.

133

Hil. de Trin. viii. 7-9. The last sentence is condensed.

134

Vol. i. p. 317 (Longmans, 1895).

135

1 Thess. iv. 14.

136

In Ps. lvi. i.

137

It is one very noticeable feature of the recent Encyclical of Leo XIII on the Unity of the Church ('satis cognitum') that it assumes that 'only a despotic monarch can secure to any society unity and strength.'

138

Romans x. 9.

139

For example, see Gal. i. 6-9.

140

Acts xv. 23-29.

141

Romans xiv. 56; cf. Phil. iii. 15-16.

142

Cf. Hort, Ecclesia, p. 169, who brings out that all members of the local churches, better and worse, are regarded as members of the universal Church. 'There is no evidence that St. Paul regarded membership of the universal Church as invisible and exclusively spiritual, and shared by only a limited number of the members of the external Ecclesiae.' See also app. note E, p. 267.

143

1 Cor. xii. 13.

144

Acts xix. 1-7.

145

1 Cor. x. 16, 17.

146

See app. note E, p. 269.

147

In ii. 20 and iii. 5, 'Apostles and prophets' are spoken of together almost as one class included under one definite article. And of course the apostle Paul remained also, what he is first called, a prophet (Acts xiii. i). Apostles were also prophets; but not all prophets were apostles. They can be, therefore, grouped apart as they are here (iv. 11).

148

2 Tim. iv. 5.

149

1 Tim. iv. 14; 2 Tim. i. 6.

150

Acts xiv. 23. This is interpreted by the phrase (Acts xx. 28) 'The Holy Ghost made you bishops.' Cf. Titus i. 5, 'I left thee … to appoint elders in every city… For the bishop must be blameless.' I assume here the practical identity of bishops and presbyters, as Acts xx. 28, Tit. i. 5-7, Acts xiv. 23 (with Phil. i. 1) seem to require. But 'the presbyters' or the 'presbyterate' was the more general name for the governing body of a church, and an apostle can therefore call himself a presbyter or include himself in the presbyterate (1 Peter v. 1; 1 Tim. iv. 14), whereas he would hardly call himself a 'bishop.'

151

Rom. xii. 1.

152

1 Cor. xv. 58.

153

Col. iii. 5, 12.

154

Heb. ii. 1; x. 19; xii. 1.

155

An interesting expression of this sort of feeling is to be found in George Crabbe's poem, The Library. On the whole we must have improved since his day in our perception of the connexion of Christian doctrine with Christian practice.

156

2 Pet. iii. 16.

157

Rom. vi. 1 ff.

158

'To work all uncleanness.' Marg. 'to make a trade of.'

159

Rom. vi. 17.

160

Eph. iv. 24, R. V. Marg. 'the new man which is after God, created,' &c.

161

1 Cor. xii. 25, 26.

162

Zech. viii. 16, 17.

163

Ps. iv. 4, according to the LXX. But the English version 'Stand in awe and sin not' is probably correct.

164

2 Thess. iii. 10.

165

Cf. Col. iv. 6: 'Let your speech be always with grace' or 'graciousness'; Luke iv. 22: 'gracious words'; Ps. xlv. 2: 'Grace is poured into thy lips'; Eccles. x. 12: 'The words of a wise man's mouth are gracious'; Ecclus. xxi. 16: 'Grace shall be found in the lips of the wise.'

166

See app. note F, p. 271, The Ethics of Catholicism.

167

See Report of Lambeth Conference, 1897. S.P.C.K., pp. 136 ff.; and app. note G, p. 274.

168

Possibly this expression means 'the kingdom of Him who is at once Christ and God.'

169

2 Cor. vi. 14.

170

1 Cor. i. 20, 21; iii. 18.

171

Rom. xvi. 19.

172

Ecclus. xvi. 21.

173

1 Thess. iv. 6.

174

St. Paul is in part referring to the habit of responsive or antiphonal chanting, which Pliny, the governor of Bithynia, reports as characteristic of the Christians half a century later – 'to sing responsively (secum invicem) a hymn to Christ as a God.'

175

1 Pet. v. 5.

176

1 Chron. xii. 32.

177

Is. liv. 5; Jer. iii. 14.