When we look upward in our affections, the nobler the object the nobler the affection; when it is downwards, the more unworthy the object, the more pure and absolute the love. Unity and peace were essential (Ephesians 4:3), with Paul noting the importance of one Spirit, hope, Lord, faith, baptism, God, and Father of all (Ephesians 4:5–6). The breath of life in his nostrils was breathed into him by God, and he was responsible for obedience to God in a thing wherein neither good nor evil was to be known, but simply a commandment. There flows from this Head, by means of its members, the grace needed to accomplish the work of assimilation to Himself. Hence the connection between practical godliness, the complete subjugation of the flesh, and the capacity to serve Christ as instruments in the hand of the Holy Ghost, and the vessels of His power. But this is founded on the exaltation of Christ, who, the conqueror of the enemy, has ascended to heaven as man. Paul then quotes from Psalm 68:18 (Ephesians 4:8) as the basis for his next teaching. All Rights Reserved. He overcame him. [4] I have already noticed, that contrast of the new state and the old characterises the Ephesians more than Colossians, where we find more development of life. Law takes up the love of self as the measure of love to others. Therefore Christ says (John 17), "as we are," and "in us.". With regard to the Spirit, His presence unites the body-is the bond between all the members of the body: none but the members of the body-and they, as such-are seen here. Thus also we have seen that, when the apostle speaks of the apostles and prophets, the latter are to him those exclusively of the New Testament, and those who have been made such by Christ after His ascension. Called to belong to Christ. His faithfulness is glorified in our unfaithfulness without excusing it. Afterwards we are light in the Lord. We cannot say we are love, for love is sovereign goodness in God; we walk in it, like Christ. When innocent, he was ignorant of evil in itself. 4:1-3 i). but which flows naturally from the truth that we are made partakers of His nature, and that His Spirit dwells in us. One does not accept that which is contrary to the word, although in certain cases those who are in it ought to be borne with. 12:11-13). Meanwhile, personally exalted as the glorious man, and seated at God's right hand until God shall make His enemies His footstool, He communicates the gifts necessary for the gathering together of those who are to be the companions of His glory, who are the members of His body, and who shall be manifested with Him when His glory shines forth in the midst of this world of darkness. First, subjectively, the truth in Jesus is the having put off the old man and put on the new, which has God for its pattern. It is in the assembly that the nature of God, the counsels of grace, and the efficacious work of Christ are concentrated in their object; and these gifts are the means of ministering, in the communication of these, in blessing to man. Nor can anything be more blessed than the pattern of life here given to the Christian, founded on our being a new creation. [4] between the ignorance of a heart that is blind, and a stranger to the life of God, and consequently walking in the vanity of its own understanding, that is, according to the desires of a heart given up to the impulses of the flesh without God-the contrast, I say, between this state, and that of having learnt Christ, as the truth is in Jesus (which is the expression of the life of God in man, God Himself manifested in the flesh), the having put off this old man, which is corrupt itself according to its deceitful lusts, and put on this new man, Christ. Christ has been revealed in all His fulness: it is according to this revelation that the members of the body are to be formed in the likeness of Christ, known as filling all things, and as the Head of His body, the revelation of the perfect love of God, of the excellency of man before Him according to His counsels, of man the vessel of all His grace, all His power, and all His gifts.
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