Ephesians 4–6

Here we come to the practical part of the letter. Verse 1 refers back to the end of Ephesians 2. In Ephesians 3:1 the apostle began with, "For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles." Then he went off into a long parenthesis, which runs to the end of the chapter. This is not unusual in his letters. Here he takes up the thread: "I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you..."

The beginning of chapter 4 connects with the end of chapter 2. There we see that we are the habitation of God, the dwelling of God. This is the calling of which it says, "I... urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called." In such a position we are always humble. This is what enables us to walk worthy of the calling revealed.

Now the apostle was in prison for the testimony he had borne to this truth. He had maintained and preached the privileges God had granted to the Gentiles. In particular, he preached that by faith they form, together with believing Jews, one body united to Christ. In his exhortation he uses this fact as a touching motive.

Christian duties (and there are such) flow from the new relationship formed by grace, and in Christ. We must first be in the relationship before the duties are there. People make a serious blunder here. They treat the duties as a way of getting into relationship with God... You cannot fulfil the duties of a child until you are one, or show the love of one either... God makes us His children, and then says, Now imitate your Father.

God does not call them to become saints by a saintly walk. He urges them to a saintly walk because they are saints through His calling.

Paul urges us three times in his letters to "walk worthy." In 1 Thessalonians 2:12 we are to "walk in a manner worthy of God." He is the living and true God. God had called the Thessalonians to serve Him instead of idols. In Colossians 1:10 it is "walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him." That letter dwells much on Christ's authority and headship. Here it is "worthy of the calling to which you have been called." Chapters 1 and 2 have unfolded that calling. It involves new nature and relationship, access to the Father, God's habitation in the Spirit, and union with the exalted Christ in one body.

It is striking that he goes straight on to lowliness and meekness. This is the walk that is worthy of the calling. We would feel our own nothingness if we thought of this place... He has made us all one by the Spirit. We are all built together like stones in a house. He looks to us to walk in that unity and the spirit of peace.

The most humbling thing in the world is receiving boundless and undeserved favour... Now God never calls it lowliness and meekness to doubt the truth of His word, or the efficacy of Christ's work. On the contrary, He counts it pride and presumption.

Paul unfolds the calling, and then calls on us to walk worthy of it, in the first part of chapter 4. God has brought us very close to Himself, and the necessary effect of that is lowliness and meekness. How could it be otherwise? The greatness of the grace makes nothing of self. This is not easy. You see it clearly in Christ's life, and in Philippians too.

What is the difference between lowliness and meekness? Lowliness does not give offense, and meekness does not take offense. Both are needed if we are not to quarrel with our brothers and sisters. Third comes long-suffering, and fourth, "bearing with one another in love." All four qualities are meant to help us live at peace with each other, and to carry the suffering others may cause us.

Lowliness and meekness are to mark us: how else can we walk together? ... If we let self have its way, fellowship becomes impossible. Resentment and strife are sure to follow. But suppose that, while we display lowliness and meekness, we find others are not like that? Then comes the opportunity of exercising long-suffering and forbearance in love.

We may have to put up with insults and rejection, and bear with those who treat us that way. But note the warning: this forbearance must be shown in love. It is possible to bear with much in the spirit of pride that treats an offending brother with contempt. If we have to be silent, let it be with love that grieves over unworthy conduct.

The instructions in the first part of chapter 4, down to verse 16, have our calling in view. They speak to us not one by one, but as members of the body of Christ, the church. In the gatherings of the saints, how often friction occurs! A little experience of assembly life is enough to convince us that this is so. Here then is an immense field for cultivating the beautiful graces listed in verse 2.

Nothing is more fitting in a believer than "lowliness and meekness," but perhaps nothing is more misunderstood. In too many cases Satan's craft turns these beautiful graces into doubts. Those doubts dishonour God and destroy the believer's peace. God never calls it lowliness and meekness to doubt the truth of His word, or the effectiveness of Christ's work. On the contrary, He counts it pride and presumption.

Our blessed Lord rises before our eyes. He Himself says, "I am gentle and lowly in heart" (Matthew 11:29). It touches the heart to think of "the mighty God," the eternal Son of God. He made countless wonders and holds up the whole universe. Yet He came down and became a man, so fully that He could say those words. We may well seek to follow in His steps.

This unity is what we have to keep. We are urged to be "eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" — to keep in practice what already exists in fact. We are not to make a unity, but to keep, by the bond of peace, the unity that exists through the presence of the Holy Spirit in the one body.

We are to aim at more than agreement. We could all be of one mind, in the sweetest agreement, in favour of something completely wrong! We are to give all diligence to keeping the unity of the Spirit — not Paul's unity, not Peter's, not yours or mine, but the unity the Spirit has produced. We did not make this unity, and we cannot break it. The Spirit made it, and we are to keep it in practice in the bond of peace.

What then is the great leading principle of a walk worthy of our wonderful calling? The place this has in our hearts and lives will serve to test how far we are in unison with the mind of God for the glory of Christ in the Assembly; it is seen in Ephesians 4:3, which literally translated reads: "Using diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace"; but we must not overlook the moral conditions in which alone, even in the brightest days of the Assembly, such a path could be maintained.

People often ask what it means to be "eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph. 4:3), and they pass over the first two verses… You cannot get to verse 3 without going through verse 2 and learning it in practice. We need all the humility, gentleness, patience, and bearing with one another in love, to keep the unity of the Spirit.

Peace is spoken of here not so much for our own souls before God, but for enjoying and furthering union among God's people in practice. The flesh is anxious and restless. A peaceful spirit is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and it does much to bind hearts together in practice.

This unity cannot be kept where man's mind and will are in control. It is kept only where the Spirit is free to make known the mind and will of God, and where there is a settled effort to carry out what God has said. No one can force such a state. It is the fruit of communion, so the words "in the bond of peace." How far this is from the common desire, even among true believers, for peace at any price. If we give up divine principles for the sake of peace, that is not the peace of the unity of the Spirit.

Scripture never allows that it is impossible for God's people to walk in fellowship with God's Spirit and to hold on to the truth. That is always possible. The Spirit of God assumes there will be evil and dangerous days. Even so, God commands us to be "eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," and He commands nothing impossible. We can never restore anything to what it was. But we can walk in obedience to the word, and in the company of the Spirit of God.

Notice now the three circles the apostle presents: "There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call" (v. 4). That shows us the circle of divine reality. That one Body and Spirit embrace every Christian, every child of God on earth at this moment, even as the hope is one, of which the Spirit is the source and power.

In the first circle, one body shuts out all human organisations. The One Spirit excludes the flesh and its activities. And earthly hopes give way to the heavenly hope of our calling.

The outward condition of the church gives us anything but a true picture of the body. God's word is emphatic in saying "there is one body," or it might read simply "one body" (Ephesians 4:4). It is as though God would press on our hearts the thought held in those two words. That verse again ties the oneness of the body to the "one Spirit." There is only one Holy Spirit, and His work produces only one body.

The one body is an actual existing fact on this earth. It was formed by the baptism of the Spirit: this 1 Corinthians 12:13 shows. This baptism took place on the day of Pentecost, so someone may wonder why Acts 2 does not reveal and state the fact. But one essential feature is that the body includes both Jews and Gentiles. So it was fitting for that revelation to wait until Gentiles too were baptised into the body.

Then we hear the particulars, and in a very orderly manner. This verse states the intrinsic unity that never passes away. It begins with the fact of "one body." Then comes the power that produces it, one Spirit. Last comes the cause of it all, the calling of grace. Nothing touches these.

All this fits the calling of the saints with one hope in view — the coming of the Lord for all His saints. No one who is His own can be shut out of this hope, for there is only "one hope." In scripture, hope always carries the thought of something future but certain, never mere wishful thinking.

There is only one Christian calling. "Our calling" is not sectarian. Scripture knows nothing of a special "calling" for a particular class or company of Christians. Some Christians understand their calling better than others. Some may walk more fully in its truth and shape their conduct to match it. But this is in no sense a different calling.

We are to give all diligence to keeping the unity of the Spirit. It is not Paul's unity, not Peter's, not yours or mine, but the unity which the Spirit has produced. We did not make the unity, and we cannot break the unity. The Spirit made it and we are to keep it in a practical way in the uniting bond of peace.

That grand statement sets out the only true ground on which believers can gather: "There is one body and one Spirit." And again, "Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body." (Eph. 4:4; 1 Cor. 10:17) If God declares that there is only "one body," then many bodies, sects, or denominations must be contrary to His mind.

The apostle speaks of a sevenfold unity in Ephesians 4. Within it we can clearly see a threefold sphere of blessing, based on the relationships of the Godhead to us... There are here three concentric circles: that of the Church, that of the kingdom, and that of creation.

The unity in this verse differs from the unity in verse 4. It is the unity of the Christian profession, which is not necessarily living and everlasting. It is excellent in itself. But those who have the outward privileges might not themselves be born of God.

In Ephesians 4:5 Christ is marked off as "one Lord" from the Father, and 1 Corinthians 8:6 does the same. This takes nothing away from His own divine glory. It shows us another glory instead: the glory He receives as the exalted man made Lord and Christ.

This is the circle of profession, marked by one authority, the Lord; one profession of belief, the faith; and one baptism, which brings us into it. Authority and administration belong to the Lord. Recognising that there is one Lord shuts out the authority of man and rules out all independent action. If we admit that there is "one Lord", we cannot say it is right for one assembly to ignore discipline that another assembly has genuinely carried out in the Name of the Lord.

Faith here is the truth of the doctrine we profess. It is not personal living faith, because then he could not say one faith. One faith is the one thing believed, and in holding it true we own the Lord.

Some have thought this is the baptism of the Spirit. But the Spirit's baptism forms the body, so it would belong to the first circle. There it would be needless, since one Spirit joined with one body already says everything. Also, "baptism" on its own naturally means the rite. When the word carries another sense, other words are added to explain it.

The outward ceremony is probably not in view here. Remember that the Church in its unity is still the subject the Apostle has in mind. The Church, as a body, has been baptized once for all by the Holy Spirit. That baptism took place at Pentecost, when God openly claimed as His own the cleansed worshippers who trusted in the name of Jesus (Acts 2).

Verse 5 marks the circle of public profession and acknowledgement of Christ as Lord. That is wide enough, and large enough. Many are baptized, but are their sins forgiven? If not, they are merely in the circle of profession, and that is a sad condition to be in.

Simon Magus believed and was baptized; he was never of the body of Christ. This unity has to do with professed Christianity on the earth.

"One Lord" excludes the many lords of the pagan nations. "One faith" excludes all schools of merely human thought. "One baptism" excludes the many baptisms of the law. The believer professed discipleship to the one Lord by one baptism.

Ephesians 4:4-6 presents three circles. (1) The circle of reality—"One body, one Spirit, one hope of your calling." (2) The circle of profession—"One Lord, one faith, one baptism." (3) The circle of that which is universal—"One God and Father of all."

God is called Father of all as the Originator of all, in the sense of being Creator. He is supreme, for He is over all and works through all, but He is only "in us all" — the believing company. This company is in all three circles. Because of natural birth they are in circle 3. Because they have owned Jesus as Lord and have been baptised they are in circle 2. As sealed with the Spirit they are members of the one body, so they are in circle 1.

So He is the "one God and Father of all." That does not mean the Father of believers only — that is a mistake about the force of the words — but of all without exception. Earlier, in Ephesians 3:15, we were told that every family in heaven and earth is named from Him. Every family draws its being from this one universal source — Jews or Gentiles, rulers or powers alike.

But God being Father of all in this way only makes man's wickedness and unbelief harder to excuse, and more ruinous. It has to do with nature only. That nature is now fallen and sinful, and it proved itself God's enemy by rejecting His Son, whom He sent to save. Salvation is in no other than Christ Jesus, His only begotten Son, and our Lord. Only then are we who believe His sons by grace.

That is, this is a personal God. It is not at all the idea that everything is God — Pantheism — which is unbelief in its worst form. We own "one God," not many gods like the Gentiles, but "one God and Father of all." The Jew did not believe He was the Father of all. He did not even think of Him as Father to Israel, the chosen nation, but as their Governor, Jehovah. The Christian revelation shows God in a far larger character, and one far closer to us.

"Above all" — supremacy; "through all" — permeation; "in you all" — Christianity.

The apostle had traced inner, living unity in verse 4, and outward unity in verse 5. He closes with the unity of the God and Father of all. God is supreme over everything and present through everything, and yet He is most intimate with "us all" — and that is limited to us all, that is, those who believe. No careless writer, still less a forger, could have hit on a shade of truth so unexpected, yet so weighty and welcome once it is stated.

That He is in all His believing people was newly declared when the Holy Spirit came from heaven. That coming is the triumphant proof that the work of redemption is complete, and by it saved sinners have become the dwelling place of His holiness. This teaching states the height of the believer's security and blessedness. God was in Christ. He is in the man who now, by faith, confesses that Name.

What mighty bonds of unity! The Spirit of God, the lordship of Christ, the presence of God everywhere, even the Father Himself — each is a divine centre, and each draws into one those who are joined to it. We cannot have faith, or enjoy hope, or live the Christian life in any form at all, without holding the same faith and the same hope as the rest. Our one task is to keep that unity in practice.

In the third circle all the anxious care of the natural man is met by the realisation that as believers we are united together as having one God and Father who is "above all" that we have to meet down here; who is working out His ways "through all" circumstances, and who is "in us all," seeing that, as His children, we share His nature.

The Apostle has been speaking of what is common to all. In contrast, there is what is given to "each one." The one Spirit of verse 4 and the one Lord of verse 5 rule out independence; "each one" of verse 7 keeps our individuality. While every member has its special function, all serve the unity and good of the whole body.

Does the oneness that Scripture insists on so strongly imply a lifeless uniformity? The very picture Scripture uses for it proves the exact opposite. In the human body no two parts are alike. The endless differences in its bones, veins, muscles and ligaments all help the whole body work in health. Different kinds of action do not mean splits and division.

The word "gift" has a double sense. If you miss this, you might read verse 7 as if Christ Himself were the gift. It means the giving as well as the thing given. Grace here is simply a favour given — a special grace granted when Christ qualifies a man for service.

This is not simply a question of qualities a person already has. Still less is it a matter of something achieved, however well meant the wish may be to honour the Holy Spirit. It is a new thing given, the positive result of grace. It is the fruit of the Lord's free favour, and in these things He acts according to His own sovereign will and for the glory of God.

Christ, as Head and Lord, gives certain gifts according to His own good pleasure. Note that this is how the Holy Spirit presents ministry in Ephesians. No one, I need hardly say, is brought into such clear prominence as Christ. In Corinthians, on the contrary, the Holy Spirit is more prominent than Christ. Both aspects are necessary to God's glory and equally perfect in their place; but they are not the same thing.

Every true Christian has something given to him for service in the body — maybe only a little wisdom. Everybody has something for service to the body, like a hand or a foot or an eye. But not everybody has a prominent gift, such as a pastor or an evangelist.

In His goodness, the Lord has given each one of us some part to play. So we ought to realise that we are of service to Him. It is this that gives dignity and character to every little bit of service to Christ.

On this last point, the measure of the gift, let me say this. I do not doubt that people would recognise many a Christian's gift if he did not go beyond his measure in it. Everything past that is flesh and pushing himself forward. People feel it, and they reject his whole gift — all because he never learned to keep within his measure.

I shall badly fail if I try to imitate another's gift. My gift is measured out by Christ in glory... One may be decidedly limited in a certain line, another in a different line, but our limitations ought to be heeded: they are a reminder of our dependence, and should certainly keep us humble.

It is the privilege of each one to contribute his share to the common treasury of gift with which Christ has endowed His Church. In fact, the one who does not contribute is holding back what he owes the whole family of God. And no one with a single talent has the right to wrap it in a napkin for that reason: it would be plain unfaithfulness and unbelief.

Notice that the Spirit of God, in quoting this passage, has changed and widened its scope a little. The psalm, after declaring Christ's victory, says: "You have received gifts for men," or, "in the man." The apostle quotes it this way: "and gave gifts to men." The Old Testament shows Christ, as man, receiving gifts because of His triumph. But in the New Testament the Holy Spirit applies the passage to show these gifts actually handed out to those for whom He won them… In the epistle Christ hands out these gifts before that reign and that time of earthly blessing begin. He gives them in the sphere of His present interests, "to every one of us."

When the Holy Spirit quotes Scripture in the New Testament, the quotation is as much Scripture in its New Testament place as in its Old. Any change the Holy Spirit makes in the quotation is itself Scripture.

The expression first occurs in Judges 5:12. There it means that Barak was called to lead captive those who had oppressed Israel in their pride. Psalm 68:18 does the same. It celebrates the risen and ascended Lord in the language of war, as victor over the mightiest powers of evil… it says plainly and strongly how completely He beat them. Colossians 2:15 describes the same victory over him who had the power of death, and over his angels… The cross cancels their might. It looked like Christ's defeat, but it is the ground of His triumph.

When He came into this world He found Satan the captor, and man chained, so to speak, to the wheels of his victory chariot. Man was in captivity, led or driven through the scene by the devil. Now the whole thing is turned around… He is risen from the dead, the mighty Victor, and Satan is chained to the wheels of His chariot… Satan beaten, and man set free to become Christ's willing servant.

In ascending, Christ led captive the evil powers that had held man captive before. It had nothing to do with the Old Testament saints or any others. After His death the Lord went to Paradise, where His Father received His Spirit… When the converted robber died, he joined the Lord in Paradise.

Thus exalted, He has received gifts in man, that is, in His human character (compare Acts 2:33). It is in this way, "in man," that Psalm 68 puts it, and the quotation comes from there. Here, having received these gifts as the Head of the body, Christ is the channel of their communication to others. They are gifts for men.

The Lord Jesus led captivity captive, went up on high, and from there gave gifts to men. Psalm 68:18. These were apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the building up of the body of Christ. Here persons are the gifts, δόμα… Another list is given in 1 Corinthians 12, where the word is χάρισμα, "grace, favour."

He makes you the holder of a certain gift, and then He takes you, gift and all, and makes a present of you to His church.

Here is another weighty fact. His going up to heaven did not interrupt the gifts. Ephesians 4:8-10 proves that they were given only from Him on high… Outward power in testimony may not adorn the church when it is unfaithful… Yet the love of Christ cannot refuse all that is needed for the perfecting of the saints.

In Ephesians 4:9-10, the eighteenth verse of Psalm 68 is quoted, and then comes the comment that His ascent means He first descended into the lower parts of the earth. The descent came first in time. But it gets only a passing mention, because His triumphant ascension is the main point before the mind of the Spirit.

To say that He ascended means that He first descended into the lower parts of the earth. The point He departs from here is not heaven but earth. When He came down from heaven He came only as far as earth. He came here to reveal the Father and bring the love of God to men. But when men would have nothing to do with Him, He went down further, even into the lower parts of the earth. He said in the day of His rejection: "For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Matt. 12:40).

Ephesians 4:9 gives no support to any descent of the Lord to carry the departed saints on high. True, the verse does not speak of His descent as the Son from heaven to become man. It goes no further than His descent to the grave, as a man on earth. He tasted death, truly died, and was buried. Jehovah would not leave His soul in Sheol or Hades, nor let His holy One see corruption. He who descended so low ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.

He had the highest place above, if I may say so, naturally and in His own being. It belonged to Him as the Son of God, who was equal with God by right; yet He stooped to be made flesh. God's purpose required that He should be man. Without His becoming man there could have been no undoing of the whole ruin of mankind, and of the dishonour done to God by sin. There could have been no defeat of Satan, and no full and righteous deliverance for man... To have stooped to become man, and to live as He lived, rejected and humbled on earth, would have been much. But what is that compared to the cross? He went down to the very lowest, and because of that humiliation He is now, as man, exalted to the highest.

This Deliverer has proved Himself not only mighty in this way, but glorious. He fills all things. He has both descended and ascended. He has been in the lower parts of the earth — the grave, the very stronghold of the Captor. He is now far above all heavens... He carried out the deliverance in the lower parts of the earth. Now, in the highest places, far above all heavens, He has received gifts for those who were once the victims of the Serpent. He has handed them out.

Perhaps some have already asked: Will this ever end? Will the assembly one day be left without building up? But then we look into the open heaven and see Christ there. He is still there, and He is still the One who gives the gifts. He so loved the assembly that He descended into the lower parts of the earth. So the ministry which those gifts carry out cannot stop while Christ is there!

This is the One, the same One, the only One. He has left His memorial in "the lower parts of the earth," and borne it with Him upward, "far above all the heavens." He fills all things. God has been here; Man is there. In earlier days faith was told that God was here on earth in full glory — the Son among the children of men. In these days faith is told that Man is now in heaven. He entered there from the slight and the scorn, the weakness and the humiliation of the scene here.

He went down into the lower parts of the earth, the grave, but hades for His soul. He went into the under world, the lower parts of the earth, and then He is far above all the heavens. He has been below creation, for death and hades are in a sense below it. Then He is above it. In this way He fills all things. We see Christ in His redemption power filling everything. All service and ministry have their place in that, and they flow from it.

"Far above all the heavens" is a remarkable expression. In Mark 16 we have the Divine Servant "taken up into heaven." In Hebrews 4 the great High Priest has "passed through the heavens." Here the victorious Man has "ascended far above all the heavens." The very heaven of heavens is His. And it is His so that He may "fill all things" — another remarkable word. Even today each believer should be filled with the Spirit, as we see a little further on in this letter. A believer filled with the Spirit must be filled with Christ, and so Christ comes out of him. The day is coming when Christ will fill all things, and then all things will display Him and His glory. The "all things" spoken of here means everything that in any way comes under His headship — everything within the universe of blessing.

The fullness of Him that fills all in all is not just Godhead, but Christ in redemption. Ephesians 4:10 leads one to this. It is redemption. He who went into the lower parts of the earth is now far above all the heavens.

We may not be able to fathom this profound language. Still, it cannot mean less than this. Because Christ humbled Himself, and because of the work He then carried out to accomplish the purposes of God, He will one day flood the whole universe with His own redemption-glory. And this, and nothing short of this, will be God's answer to the humiliation of His beloved Son.

If Christ has ascended on high, it must mean that He first descended into the lower parts of the earth. He has been into death, and from that lowest place He has ascended far above all the heavens. So He has passed through "all things." In doing so He has gained, as Man, perfect knowledge of every circumstance of life and death the believer may have to pass through... Knowing "all things," He can give gifts that meet our every need as we travel through this world of sorrow and trial on our way to glory.

He has gone right down to the very depths where He overcame Satan, and ascended to God's right hand. His present position and His glory give Him this privilege: He makes those who were Satan's captives the vessels of His power to deliver others... God fills the whole horizon of the soul here with Christ. Look as deep down as you like, He has been there. Look as high as you like, He is there.

The answer is in verse 11 of Ephesians 4: "He gave." Who is the He? The person who ascended and took His seat at God's right hand. And before telling us that He gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, the Holy Spirit turns aside to tell us who this person is — "He who ascended is the same also that descended into the lower parts of the earth, that he might fill all things." Before He touches the question of ministry, He fixes our eyes on this person, on some sides of His divine and moral glory.

I do not know any scripture that gives ministry according to God stronger divine backing than this. All true ministry — that is to say, gifts, persons, remember, not qualifications — flows from Him, the Head in heaven. Notice that Ephesians 4 speaks of persons: "He gave, some apostles." An apostle is a person, a pastor is a person, an evangelist is a person. It is not a question of the qualification at all. He gave the persons.

Why were the prophets given? Because the written Scriptures were not yet complete. Now that they are complete, we do not have such gifts. The apostles and prophets are at the bottom of the building. You do not put the foundation stones of a building in the middle. You put them at the bottom. The apostles and prophets are the foundation — the Church began with them — and Jesus Christ Himself is the chief corner stone. I say this because some people who call themselves Christians tell us they have the power to appoint apostles. They must be false apostles, for you do not find apostles at the top of the building. They are at the bottom.

Evangelists go out to bring others in and so enlarge the building. Pastors and teachers care for what is inside… Clearly the pastor has the people more in view, while the teacher is taken up more with the truth.

Only it is important to see that the pastor and teacher are joined in one person — "some pastors and teachers", not "some pastors and some teachers". It is a double gift in one individual. This matters greatly. Many teachers have almost become mere scholars and theorists, and many pastors almost philanthropists. The pastor's practical work keeps the gift of teaching wise and useful in practice.

They are given for the whole Church, not for one part of it only. An evangelist or a teacher is given for the whole Body of Christ. No denomination can claim them. No local assembly can keep their service to itself. A pastor may never work outside one assembly, yet he is a gift for the whole Body.

But apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are different. They are Christ's gifts and need no permission from man… The evangelists call people in from the world to God, and those people become members of Christ. The pastors and teachers then build them up in His grace and truth, holy and beloved. Notice that bishops or elders, like deacons, are not "gifts" and never appear among them… But the gifts that build up come from the ascended Christ. They are as sure today as on the day of Pentecost, and they last until the last members of His body who need them are brought in.

The primary and full object was the perfecting of the saints — their being formed and fashioned according to the pattern of this fulness and into it; but there was a formal and instrumental object as the medium of this. As to this in its twofold character, the Greek preposition is changed, and the article omitted: "for [pros] the perfecting of the saints; with a view to [eis] the work of the ministry, with a view to [eis] the edifying of the body of Christ." This ministerial work was clearly merely ancillary, and the edifying of the body of Christ, for the perfect enjoyment of the fulness by the saints, is the direct and positive object.

There is another word, katartizo, which is sometimes translated "makes perfect" or "perfection." In other places it carries the thought of "mending" nets (Matthew 4:21). Christians were to be "perfectly joined together" (1 Corinthians 1:10). Someone caught in a fault was to be "restored" in a spirit of gentleness (Galatians 6:1). A body was "prepared" for the Son (Hebrews 10:5). The worlds were "framed" by the word of God.

Here in Ephesians the individual saints are the first object: "for (pros) the perfecting of the saints." Then it adds, "for (eis) the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ." The first thing is that each saint should grow up to Him who is the head, that is, Christ. There are three objects... You must not lose sight of the individual when you get into the body.

This affords us a most important principle. The gifts were not bestowed upon the Church, but upon men for the benefit of the Church. So those who have received them are responsible for their exercise, not to the Church, but to the Lord. So it is impossible for the Church to appoint pastors and teachers, or any of the gifts named. The Church's responsibility is to receive the ministry of everyone the Lord has qualified to build it up.

The gifts are for the perfecting of the saints. The ministry may fail, but the Lord never fails in accomplishing His end. It may happen in a slower way, and some of it may be very weak and even distressing. But He accomplishes His purposes... These two latter clauses come in as subordinate to the first. It is a wonderful thing to see the saints acting together. But the work of the ministry may fail or be spoiled in man's hands. The great end that the Lord commits Himself to, and for which He gave these gifts, is carried through despite everything.

The object that God had in committing all this administration to Christ is at the present time the perfecting of the saints. If you understand that, you will see that Christianity did not come into the world to make the earth better. The whole service of Christ now, and His whole administration now, is for the perfecting of the saints, not for the improvement of the world. The way He carries it on is by constant ministry from Himself... The evangelist is just as much for the perfecting of the saints as the apostle. The evangelist who thinks he is only there to save souls is mistaken... If there were no evangelists there would be no saints to perfect.

There are two kinds of gifts entirely distinct... when I come to Ephesians 4, I find no gifts that are signs at all. After the foundation of apostles and prophets, I find evangelists, pastors and teachers — those the Lord uses to build up His church, "until we all come." I see Christ caring for His own body to build it up, and also the plain statement that these gifts go on to the end.

His ascension to heaven did not interrupt these gifts. Ephesians 4:8-10 shows the opposite: only from Him on high were they given, and given until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God… to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. No right-minded Christian will claim we have reached this yet, so neither should he doubt the unfailing grace of Christ… the love of Christ cannot refuse all that is needed for the perfecting of the saints, for ministerial work, for building up His body.

The faith the apostle speaks of is the whole system of Christian truth. The unity is not agreement on a creed, and not an alliance that people arrange. It is a unity of mind and heart, produced by grasping the truth as God teaches it in His word.

The unity of the faith, in verse 13, is another matter. The activity of the gifts has the building up of the body of Christ in view, to this end: "Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God." We must not confuse the two. The unity of the faith is objective — something the saints are to arrive at. The unity of the Spirit is more subjective, and involves the living oneness of the members of the body of Christ.

This knowledge is not a mere taking in of truth. It is a personal acquaintance with the Person of the Son of God. And it is knowing Him not only as Saviour, but as Son of God. The world will know Him as Judge and King, the Jew as Messiah; our special privilege is far above their knowledge. Take any gathering of believers: where you find some measure of this knowledge of the Son of God, you may be sure there is a matching measure of the unity of the faith.

I do not think that means until every person is perfect. The point is not that I become a perfect man on my own. It is the full-grown man: the one body, made up of all its living members, grown to its fullest extent, so that it gives a full and well-proportioned picture of the life of Christ.

Adding the knowledge of the Son of God was necessary, because it is up to His stature, known in this way, that we are to grow… The perfect man simply means the state: a full-grown man. But the measure of the stature of a full-grown man in Christ is Christ Himself. All the fulness that is in Him is worked into the soul, and the soul takes its shape from it. The soul becomes like Him and is filled with Him in all its thoughts. Christ's outward fulness measures and forms the soul's inward state, so that there is no mismatch and no separation from Him — the believer grown up to Him in everything.

The perfection spoken of here seems not to be perfection in glory, where all will no doubt be according to Christ. It seems to be a state of full growth on earth, in contrast with the infancy and weakness of verse 14.

The gifts will continue until the Church is complete in heaven, and until the building up of the body reaches its finished state: the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. No partial perfection reached before then can fill out the meaning of this verse.

"That from now on we may no longer be children (infants), tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, by which they lie in wait to deceive." (Eph. 4:14.) This exhortation involves the fact of growth. The immature, easily-imposed-upon state is looked at as the one out of which believers should emerge.

The first result of this maturity in Christ is a soundness of judgment in spiritual things. It makes even the least educated believer proof against the clever arguments of the human mind. It is important to notice how we gain this ground. It is not by human learning, or by skill in argument. This verse connects with the one just before it. Our stability among the shifting currents of human opinion and speculation is the result of being full-grown in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God. That means an intelligent acquaintance with the word of God, and a heart acquaintance with the blessed Lord Himself. Scripture proposes no other safeguards against error and false doctrine, and none that man sets up is of the smallest use.

The effect of this full growth would be that we should no longer be babes in Christian knowledge. While we are ignorant, we are liable to be "tossed and carried about by every wind of that teaching which is in the sleight of men, in unprincipled cunning with a view to systematized error." Sadly, there are those in the Christian profession who, with sleight and cunning craftiness, are ready to deceive those not established in the truth. Whenever someone in the history of God's people plainly denies a great truth, or puts forward some special error about the Person of Christ, you will usually find a whole system of error behind that one wrong doctrine.

"The sleight of men" is set in this passage against the wisdom of God, and the method of deceit against the counsel of saving truth in Christ. Men are indeed the actors in this intricate plot of craft and falsehood; but Satan is its first inventor, and the ruling mover of its action.

God wants His saints firmly established in His grace and truth, and in the knowledge of His Son. Then they will be proof against the ever-changing tricks of the enemy. The church of God will never be without souls needing help on to full growth. So the ever faithful Head will continue the gifts of His grace until the end: "till we all come." Christ does not give gifts to make the saints helplessly dependent on them. It is the opposite: by means of the gifts the saints become firmly rooted and grow up into Him who is the Head — Christ.

You are aware that at an early date false doctrines and heresies of all kinds came in. What was the resource of good men in those days? They invented creeds and confessions by which they tried to test suspected persons. But where was the authority for this course? Or was it found that these defences kept the evil out? Never, at any time or place. There is only one power for maintaining truth and love — Christ Himself.

We do not escape error by enquiring into all the details of the error, but by the knowledge of the truth. The Lord can say of His sheep, "A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers" (John 10:5). Our safety, then, is found not in investigating evil, but in holding the truth in love.

It is "being truthful in love," not just "speaking the truth in love." Speaking the truth is a very important part of being truthful, but it is not everything. We all know it is quite possible to be untruthful in thought and feeling while the words are perfectly correct. "Being truthful in love" implies truth in the inward parts.

Knowing the truth in your head is not enough. You must hold it in your affections and show it in your life. Only then can we grow up to Christ, the Head, in whom every feature of the truth exists.

The Christian is to grow up in line with all that Christ reveals, and to keep growing more like his Head. He uses love and truth for his own soul — the two things Christ expresses perfectly. Christ is our pattern, and our pattern as One who has overcome and gone up to heaven. He is our Head, and we are members of His body, joined to Him. From this Head, through its members, flows the grace we need to do the work of becoming like Him.

There are plenty of people ready to do Satan's deceptive work. They scheme, manipulate and make excuses, always on the watch to trap others and undermine any honest faith in the living God. But God has made provision to keep us safe from this, in the positive instructions of verse 15... Such growth needs a settled decision to hold the truth God has given us securely, in mind and in practice — not in a harsh, legal way, but in genuine love.

The measure of the stature of a full-grown man in Christ is Christ Himself. It is all the fullness that is in Him worked into the soul. The soul is then shaped by that fullness, made like Him, and filled with Christ in all its thoughts. Its inner state is measured and formed by the fullness that really is in Christ, so that there is no gap and no separation from Him. The saint has grown up to Him in everything.

As I understand it, this is a growing together; the "all" of verse 13 growing up to Christ as one. How harmonious! If a man grows on one side only, we call him a hideous sight, a monstrosity... But holding the truth in love we are to grow up to Him in all things, until we come under the influence of the Head in every direction. Private life with God, service in the church, family life, business life — in every circle we learn to own the Lord Jesus Christ as the mind that directs us.

Everybody has his or her part in God's Assembly, the ministry of each member in its place tending to the building up of the body in love... Perhaps you will say, My part is a very small one. Never mind. Do the thing the Lord gives you; it might be only to give a cup of cold water — that would be a very useful thing to a thirsty soul.

All the power for growth, all the supplies, come from the Head. So the whole is said to be "from," or "out of" Him. But the "compacting" of the whole is through — not from — what every joint supplies. This happens according to the working in its measure of each part. Though everything comes from Christ, each believer still takes his proper place. So through him, in his measure, the cementing and filling up of the body goes on.

The body is not only united to Christ the Head. It is also fitted together by divine workmanship. All the members depend on one another, and the living Head controls and supplies them. So that the supply from the Head might reach every member of the body, He has provided the body with the joints of supply. … How different this divine idea and formation is from man's thoughts about the church. We are not held together by a loose human bond that people can alter. We are not in the church by our own choice, or with companions we picked for ourselves. The body of Christ is not a mixture of believers and unbelievers. Only those who share the life of their living, heavenly Head belong to it, because they are joined to Him in a living way.

In verse 16 we move on from what the Lord is graciously doing through the gifts. Now we learn what He Himself is doing as the Head of the body. What every joint supplies is not the exercise of gift, because the gifts are not given to everyone. But every true Christian has something given from the Head to pass on to fellow members of the body. In the human body, if every member is under the direct control of the head, all the members work together for the good of the whole. In the same way, if every member of the body of Christ were under the direct control of Christ, the body would increase and build itself up in love.

Of course, we are meant to grow together. But it happens according to the effective working in its measure of every part. I wish I knew how to convey to you the comfort of that phrase. There are some who seem to be dormant Christians, some who seem to be silent Christians. You wonder whether it could be said of them that each one is working according to the measure of his part. So much depends on your filling the role assigned to you by the Head in glory.

I have said "makes for itself," because the form of the Greek expression implies it. However that may be, the teaching is clear. The whole body, acting through its members, gains and produces its own increase. The body is there. It grows, but it is a body all along, and it grows here on earth, not in heaven.

Notice too the place love has in the self-edification of the body. Without love nothing can be achieved among the saints of God. This is not only implied here, it is taught forcefully in 1 Corinthians 13. Love is the great builder! Knowledge may puff up, but love will build up.

People have too often put all the responsibility of the church on those who labour in the Word. They have been content just to receive whatever such men have to give. If that changed, would there not be more real fellowship and a more general care for the increase of the body? … Are we longing for the increase of the body of Christ, and helping it forward as far as we can?

Verse 17 begins a distinct new division in the letter to the Ephesians. This section stresses personal responsibility, resting on the solid, precious truth we have already considered. Paul urged the Ephesians to no longer walk as the unsaved masses of Gentiles walked. Their new Christian condition and position stood in contrast to that of the nations, and their conduct should stand in contrast too. He describes the condition and walk of the ungodly to show that it is the complete opposite of the walk of faith. The unsaved are turned only toward vanity — emptiness or futility — which comes to nothing of any value.

In verse 17 the practical exhortations take a different shape. In verses 1-16 the instruction concerns mainly our shared walk as one body; here it is individual. He presses a fitting and separate walk. The apostle puts it solemnly: "Now this I say and testify in the Lord." He knows the dangers the believers faced everywhere, and that the Lord's honour was bound up with them. That is why his tone is so striking.

The apostle has shown how a believer can walk worthy of the calling he has received in the church. He now shows how the believer should carry out the same principle towards other people, whether believers or unbelievers. He does not put Gentile converts under law. He does not bring them onto Jewish ground, yet he does remove them from Gentile ground.

Here he begins with what is inside. Our tendency is to busy ourselves and others with something outward. But the apostle goes to the root of the evil walk of the Gentiles. Their minds were vain and empty. So is every mind that does not keep God clearly, firmly and knowingly in view, whatever it is dealing with. These Gentiles had God before them in nothing; they were "without God in the world." So there was nothing left but the empty, boasting mind and mouth of man, imagining one thing and saying another.

So we learn that the evil lives men live harden the heart. The hardened heart darkens the understanding. The darkened understanding leaves men a prey to every vanity.

At this point the exhortations to walk in separation begin. Here we are shown once more what Gentiles are in their natural condition, and how solemn that description is! The grace of God takes the believer out of these conditions and gives us power to "no longer walk as the Gentiles do." And we must not overlook this: beneath the thin veneer of the civilization we boast in, which rejects Christ and the gospel, there is the same darkened understanding, the same alienation from God, the same blindness and uncleanness that these words describe.

Here he begins with the inner thing. We tend to busy ourselves and others with something outward. But the apostle goes to the root of the evil walk of the Gentiles. Their minds were empty. That must be true of anyone who does not have God clearly, firmly and knowingly before them in anything at all... These are various descriptions, not of the outward walk, but of the root of all the evil fruit they bore. God was not in all their thoughts.

"Blindness" is a very strong word. It means being hardened like a stone. The noun in Romans 11:25 is a medical term, "callus" — the hardening of skin. This is the moral state of God's earthly people. And it is not limited to Israel. Ephesians 4:18 uses the same word for the condition of the Gentiles.

It is terrible ignorance, certainly, but it is the result of the hardness of their own hearts. Ignorance is not just a lack of knowledge; it is ignoring facts that can be known. For example, people will work out their tax returns carefully to their own advantage. They will plan their business affairs to get the most out of them... Yet at the same time they tell us that the marvellous organization of the whole universe required no mind at all — it just happened to come together!

So we learn that the evil lives men live harden the heart. The hardened heart darkens the understanding. And the darkened understanding leaves men easy prey to every empty thing.

We get right to the bottom of things when we find that we have been "alienated from the life of God." Tied to this alienation are things like emptiness, darkness, ignorance, blindness, sensuality and impurity. That is no surprise, for the life of God is the exact opposite of all of them. Sin has alienated us from God, and so has cut us off from everything that makes up life according to Him.

If he is a religious man he may pride himself on not being an unbeliever. But his heart is as dark as the heart of the worst unbeliever could be. The life of God, where he sees it in the children of God, is hateful to him... He may do his best to hide his disgust at it, but the hostility is there, though covered up.

It is a remarkable expression for the state of man in nature: "alienated from the life of God"... Someone will say, "You do not mean that I am to walk down here as having the life of God?" Yes. "God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." From that time they were called to walk, not as good men, but as having the life of God... I have taken off the uniform of Satan and put on the uniform of Christ.

They do not know God because the evil lives they live have hardened their hearts, for such people have given themselves over to sensuality. So we learn this: the evil lives men live harden the heart; the hardened heart darkens the understanding; and the darkened understanding leaves men easy prey to every empty thing.

"Past feeling" (v. 19) means a seared and hardened conscience, with no sense of their own sensuality.

Corrupt appetites, followed without restraint, soon deaden the conscience and poison the affections, so that every right natural feeling dies... They are "past feeling." Conscience no longer restrains them, and neither does decency... So it was with the world before the flood, when corruption and violence filled the whole earth. So it was with the cities of the plain, until God rained fire and burning sulphur on them from heaven.

In such a state people cast off all feeling. Things that ought to move them no longer touch them. Instead they give in to the pull of bodily desire, with its moral uncleanness and greed. Sometimes this surrender looks plainly disgusting. Sometimes it hides under a thin coat of refinement and apparent dignity, and then it has simply added deceit to everything else.

The word pleonexia (from pleon, "more," and echo, "to have") is not limited to money, and it often goes with open wickedness. Its force is "desiring more than is necessary," and so "an over-reaching to get." It is therefore applied to the lusts of the flesh, Rom. 1:29; Eph. 4:19, where it is translated "greediness"; Eph. 5:3; and so on. It is declared to be idolatry, Col. 3:5.

Grossness and hardness of heart lead them to cast off every refined and even proper natural feeling. As a result they give themselves up to sensuality, while unsatisfied lust drives them all the more eagerly to work every kind of uncleanness and greed. They still share the life of the old self, which corrupts itself through deceitful desires. Those who share in the mystery have put off the old self and put on the new, and the new is created in "true righteousness and holiness."

This is the truth about man, whoever he is and wherever he lives. The light of Christianity may hold him back, so that he shows his true character only in secret. But everything said here about the Gentiles is true of the whole Christless world, whatever people profess.

All the practical evil of the Gentiles came from their ignorance of God. Heart, mind and walk were all wrong, and getting worse. So now God's deliverance from all evil — root, branch and fruit — is Christ. Christ is the way, as well as the truth. The one great means that fits every case, and gives the surest deliverance, is Christ Himself. Here Christ Himself is the One who deals directly with the soul. It is as if we listened to Christ ourselves.

Grace had brought the Ephesians out of this state of things. They had another guide, as far from mere natural conscience on one side as from law on the other... These Ephesians had learned, not law, but Christ.

The Ephesians had "learned Christ" in the only way in which He can be learned. The natural man may learn of Christ; the spiritual man alone can learn Him. For "the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Cor. 2:14). There must be the hearing ear before Christ's words can be understood.

There is a real emphasis in this expression. It implies there is more than one way of learning Christ in name only. There are false disciples and false brothers, as well as true ones. There are some, again, who are always learning but who never come to a knowledge of the truth. There are also those who turn the grace of God into an excuse for sin, and so deny the One they claim in vain to know. There is, indeed, only one way of receiving Christ, and so of learning Him truly. It is by living faith in His Person.

"Christ" is His official title (v. 20). As we learn more of Him exalted at God's right hand, we value and understand practical truth better, because we see it in the whole way He lived as a Man on earth. Learning Christ is learning Him as the Object of my adoration high above me. But "as the truth is in Jesus" is learning Him as my practical Example, come down to earth.

Now we have to learn Christ. Has Christ had such a place in your hearts today that what comes from Christ has come out of you?... Are you learning Christ like this day by day?... There is for us this continual learning of Christ... It is not an effort to get more like Christ. It is that nothing in me should go against the knowledge of Him I have received.

To have learned Christ, then, is this: the old man is put off — corrupt through deceitful desires, our former way of life. The spirit of our mind is renewed. The new man is put on, created according to God in truthful righteousness and holiness... We never could have put him off ourselves; it would have been our own eternal condemnation.

All the practical evil of the Gentiles came from their ignorance of God. The heart, the mind, the walk were all wrong, and grew worse. So now God's deliverance from all evil, root, branch and fruit, is Christ… The one great means that fits every case and gives the surest deliverance, is Christ Himself. "You have not so learned Christ." He makes Him, on purpose, the one who deals directly with the soul… It is as if we listened to Christ ourselves. "If indeed you have heard Him" — not about Him; they were taught in Him also, "as the truth is in Jesus."

The marks of a true disciple are now given: "if — or, since — you have heard Him, and have been taught in Him"… The gospel may be listened to, and yet Christ Himself not heard. But, for the believer, the Lord is in His word. Multitudes have heard the report of Him as doctrine, who never gave their hearts to Him in love.

Now we have learned Christ. We have not only heard Him and believed in Him as a result. We have also been "taught by Him," or, as it can be read, "instructed in Him." He is not only our Teacher but our Lesson Book. He is not only our Lesson Book but our Example. The truth is in Jesus: that is, He Himself when here on earth was the perfect display of everything required of us.

The apostle brings in a verse: "as the truth is in Jesus" (Eph. 4:21). So far as I know, that is the only reference to the life of Jesus here on earth which we find in the Ephesian letter… The moral features of Christianity were seen in the Person of Christ here as Man.

Take any truth you like — for example, man. Where shall I learn the truth about man? Shall I look for it in Adam? He listened to his wife after she had listened to the devil. When God came down, he ran away from Him, and even dared to insult God by laying the blame on Him… It would all end there, but for the Second Adam. In every step He took, in every word He said, in everything that flowed from His heart and showed in His ways, I find One who never did His own will.

They had another guide, as far removed from mere natural conscience on the one side as from law on the other… These Ephesians had learned, not law, but Christ. They had by faith heard Him, and been taught by — or rather in — Him. His own life as man had been the perfect and divine display of that truth. "The truth as it is in Jesus" does not mean the doctrinal truth of salvation, but the perfect, holy walk of truth, as shown in His person.

"As the truth is in Jesus" — it is not doctrine, though doctrine is contained in it. The truth as it is in Jesus is the having put off the old man and put on the new, this having been done by faith. Then he adds, "and being renewed in the spirit of your mind." The putting off and the putting on are not in the present tense. Being renewed in the spirit of your mind is. The truth is that you have put off the old man, but you do need renewing… The renewing of the spirit of your mind is a thing that is always going on.

The truth that we have been taught and learned in Him is that, in the cross, we have put off the old man and have put on the new. In the light of this great truth we are in our daily path, as a present thing, being renewed in the spirit of our minds. Instead of the mind of the flesh, which is hostile to God, we have a renewed mind marked by righteousness and holiness. It refuses evil and chooses good. The new man does not mean the old man changed, but an entirely new man; and the "renewing" refers to the daily life of the new man.

Then comes the renewing of the spirit of the mind. We cannot have it unless we judge the old man. The wording hints that the renewal is a present process, going on step by step, as Christ fills the spirit of the mind. The putting off and putting on are not present things, but one act complete in itself, once for all.

We use the word "new" in English in two senses. We speak of a "new fashion," and of a "new coat." "Renewed in knowledge" in Colossians 3:10 is a completely new thing, like a new fashion. "Renewed in the spirit of your minds," in Ephesians 4:23, is like a new coat, constantly renewed by the grace and Spirit of God.

At the very start, God began His work in us — the work which He will carry on and complete. Then a renewing of an eternal character took place with us, done once and done for ever. Scripture names it in only one place, and there it happens in the spirit of the mind (Eph. 4:23). It uses a different word for renewing there, ananeō, for it is new in a lasting sense. In Romans 12:2 the word is anakainōsis, to be renewed in a fresh way.

A man's mind leads him; and some ruling object governs his mind in its turn. Self is that object to the natural mind; to the renewed mind it is Christ. To live no longer to ourselves, but to Him who died for us and rose again, is the desire of the inner man. But direct exhortation helps this desire in its fight against the opposite pulls of the flesh. Obedient watchfulness on our part is to develop the mind of Christ within us.

He has been renewed in the spirit of his mind: the attitude of his mind has changed. Though the fleshly nature remains in him, this no longer dominates him. There is a new controlling factor.

If we have put on the new man and are to show the features of Christ, we must guard our minds. What objects engage us? What things keep coming into our minds? Do we continue to think of the old path in which we walked before we believed the gospel? Do the interests of this world engage our thoughts, or do the interests of Christ engage them?

"Though our outer self is wasting away," he writes, "our inner self is being renewed day by day" (2 Cor. 4:16); and what he says right after gives us the secret of this: "We look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." Those unseen things took up all his attention, for Christ is the Centre of them all.

Let us not try to look new, or even to feel new, but let us be renewed in the spirit of our minds.

Note the word "created"; God has caused to exist in me what was not there once. See Colossians 3:10: the new man is "renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him." The word suits Ephesians well, because this letter views man as dead… The new man loves righteousness and holiness of truth. He never wants to wallow in filth. The practical display of these features is the proof of life.

It is not just a change of practice. There is a thorough setting aside of the old corrupt man, a fresh spirit of the mind, and a putting on of the new man, created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth. It is not an improvement or "better ways," as people say, but a new creation; and we have taken this place.

There was neither holiness nor righteousness before the fall. The original state was something distinct from both. Adam was innocent, but not properly righteous or holy. God is holy. He sees what is bad and hates it. That is what holiness is, at least on its negative side. A righteous man judges what is contrary to justice, and hates it. An innocent man did not know good and evil as things in themselves. Of course, he knew it was his duty to obey God… He lost innocence, and we never get it back. But God renews us after the second Adam.

There is no return to innocence — to the state in which Satan found man and deceived him. But God makes all things new… The new creation is the knowledge of good and evil, together with the life of God and His indwelling Spirit. As a result, we dwell in the light and love of God's nature.

The fleshly nature remains in him, but it no longer rules him. There is a new controlling factor: he has put on the new man, which is consistent with God's own nature. Righteousness is acting rightly in keeping with whatever relationship we may be in. Holiness is the love of what is good and the hatred of evil. But it is the truth of God that decides what is good and what is evil, not merely people's consciences or opinions.

The new man is after God. That is, it is like God, and is "created in righteousness and true holiness."… The Christian, who has the truth as it is in Jesus, has put off the old man and put on the new man, which is after God. God Himself is the pattern, and it is in Christ that we learn what He is.

The putting off and the putting on are not a present process. They are the act in itself, once for all… They had the new man, of course. But this is putting on the new man in practice — the outward showing of the new man that was already inside them. It is well to bear in mind that this is "righteousness and holiness of truth." It is the truth here again that produces it.

Then we have put on the new man. We now live according to the truth of new creation. There holiness and righteousness mark everything, and these features spring from the nature and character of God. What follows shows how practical the truth is. These great truths are to affect us in every relationship here, and in every detail of our lives.

In verse 23 the apostle speaks of the new man these believers had put on. He tells us that "after God" it was "created in righteousness and true holiness," or, literally, holiness of the truth. So all falsehood is shut out. It can have no part in this new creation of God… "lying," or "falsehood," means everything that has the character and nature of falsehood. It is abstract: what has this quality, not just the act of lying. We should keep this in mind, because it may search many of us who would never be caught telling outright untruths. A look, a gesture, our manner, unclear speech, evasion, compliments and many other things can fall under this sense of lying.

Lying is natural to us all. Men are said to go astray from the womb, speaking lies (Ps. 58:3). And even believers are ready to forget, when they twist the truth, that they are only following the devil, who did not stand in the truth and who became the originator of falsehood (John 8:44). We should not lie to anyone. But when we are all members of one body, how horrible it is to bring in deception, and so bring corruption into the body of Christ.

Lying is both an instrument of selfishness and a confession of personal wretchedness. No happy spirit can ever be a false one. It is the instinctive refuge of a guilty conscience. So it should have no place in a heart that the precious blood of Jesus has cleansed from an evil conscience. Falsehood and faith stand in essential opposition. Faith feeds on truth, because it trusts in God; while it is the absence of that trust that gives a lie its power over the human soul.

We are too apt to treat falsehood on the human basis of honour. Many a man would not lie on moral grounds. Another would be too proud to tell a lie. A godly man, with a certain fear of God before his eyes, would not lie, because it is a practical denial of God. It is as good as saying that God does not hear… But this is not enough for a Christian. It matters greatly for our souls that we walk well and righteously. But the motive, character and extent must be according to God too.

Moral philosophy never gave a reason anything like the one given here… Who can imagine falsehood from the lips of Him whose words were the words of God, and whose truth was the truth of God? One who walked in His spirit and showed His life could no more speak falsehood.

Nothing could be more horrible than one member of the body trying to deceive the others. No one could be guilty of such wickedness if he had any real sense of the oneness of that spiritual body… But who ever saw the parts of a man's body fighting each other in bitterness and anger? If I deceive the members of the body, I deceive myself. If I quarrel with them, I quarrel with myself. For though we are many members, the body is one, and we are all one body in Christ.

If we speak truth, we speak what is helpful, what builds up, refreshes and encourages, and what is good in the sight of God… We should speak truth at all times because we have put off the old man. But there is one more reason for it here: the close and living links that bind us to all the saints.

Have you noticed, in the letter that reveals the church more than any other, which is the first command? … And read carefully every word that follows to the end of the chapter. If all believers walked according to these commands, division would be impossible.

This instruction follows naturally from the one before. An angry man is only a tool of Satan. Cain, who killed his brother in his anger, belonged to that wicked one. But in a far wider sense the devil is behind all that stirs up the evil feelings and passions of the old nature.

Many have agreed to go a mile with Satan who never intended to go two. So Satan leads poor creatures down into the depths of sin by a winding staircase. They never see the bottom they are heading for. First he presents something that stirs a few thoughts. These thoughts set the affections on fire. The heated affections cloud the understanding. Now Satan dares to show himself a little more, and boldly urges the person to do what he would once have refused outright. Give no place to Satan! Not an inch, not in his first suggestions. A beggar who is modest outside the door will command the house once he is let in.

This verse shows us that we ought not to open the door to Satan. If it is the flesh that is acting, then the wicked one can touch us; but he cannot touch the new man, he cannot entice it (1 John 5:18). If I give way to a thought which is not of God, then I give place to Satan; if I give way to anger, the enemy is there. We are then hindered in service, troubled in prayer; and that is no surprise.

We are warned that by acting in the flesh, whether in anger or in any other way, we open the door for the devil. Peter, by his self-confidence, made room for the devil to lead him into a denial of the Lord.

The Lord says, "Vengeance is mine." Rather leave room for the wrath of God (Romans 12), and "give no opportunity to the devil" (Ephesians 4). But if you do not leave room for God's wrath, you will give room to the devil. Shall we lose anything by being quiet and taking things patiently?

The Christian should keep this truth always in mind, and here he is encouraged to resist the devil. We overcome him by standing firm in the faith (1 Peter 5:9). He works most powerfully as the accuser of God's people, after first leading them into sin. But by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony they will certainly prevail (Revelation 12:10-11).

The Christian ends his day with a mind free from irritation. I once asked an aged Christian how he had been able to live so long, having been so often unjustly attacked. He replied that for forty-five years he had been able to leave everything with the Lord each day, in deep rest of mind. He did this despite the indignation often stirred in him by so much wickedness. This takes the opportunity away from the enemy, who has often taken advantage of an irritated spirit.

The word is not exactly "him who stole," but "the stealer." "Thief" would be too strong, and "he who stole" is too weak. The apostle was led to choose a term wide enough to take in every shade of such dishonesty. Do you think the caution needless? Beware, or your self-confidence and your slighting of any word God has written will trap you. The Spirit who inspired the letter clearly judged this warning necessary for all believers, not only for the Ephesians. Yet nowhere do we find a church more happy, flourishing, and blessed of God than the church in Ephesus.

Remember that the early churches were made up of people just brought out of paganism, with all its horrors. Some of them were slaves, an oppressed and degraded class, and among them theft was common, with no guilt or shame attached to it. The exhortation also goes beyond open theft. In principle it condemns every kind of unfair advantage — the sort that even the fuller morality of our own day often condemns only weakly.

For an employee to take small things from where he works is no less than stealing. Many do this without thinking, but a believer must take care never to take anything that does not belong to him.

Idleness is neither right nor safe. So the Spirit cheers and directs the man whose hands were once used in unworthy ways. So He opens a happy path where grace can prove its power, despite a dishonest nature and habit. Only the work must be good and honest. It is no use pleading that money gained dishonestly went to a kind or religious purpose! No job that goes against God's will is good for a Christian; he should give it up at once.

People have often pointed to verse 28 as a display of the true energy of Christianity. The thief becomes a giver — and not only a giver out of his plenty, but one who works to earn the means of giving to others. What a wonderful transformation! Paul needed spiritual energy to stay up making tents for his own needs and for the needs of others — and he had not been a thief before his conversion. Only the Holy Spirit can produce active virtues and true devotion, the very opposite of what came before.

The thief is to become a worker and even a giver, for grace transforms. The law required the thief to pay back what he took, but grace makes him actively generous.

Law forbids evil; grace delights in doing good. Law is what God demands from man; grace is what God is in Himself.

That a man who once robbed others should become the willing and hardworking servant who hands out Christ's gifts to the needy — that would beautifully adorn the grace that saved him.

Throw worthless language away as you would throw away spoiled fruit. If such a word is on your tongue, let it go no further. Unclean talk we will find named and forbidden in the next chapter. Here I think the circle is wider. Many people would never speak or listen to dirty talk. Yet they often have to grieve over talk that does no good, and over those who approve it. It is better to say nothing than to speak when there is nothing good to build others up.

Here we see the contrast between the old self and the new. One or the other speaks: either it complains, or it gives thanks. The mature Christian would only speak to build others up. The new self, moved by the Spirit, will only take part in what builds up.

The point is not only that corrupt talk stops. Positive good comes out — words that build up according to the need. Not only good language, but good for the occasion, and this assumes the Holy Spirit's power. We have often said things that were good in themselves but not needed at the time. I once saw a man give away food and medicines. The gifts were excellent, but he paid no attention to what the people receiving them actually needed.

Christian conversation calls for a constant remembrance that God is present. That memory holds back the outbursts of our sinful nature. Nothing that we cannot say with confidence in that presence is fit for the ears of one another. We would do well to remember that if our words do not edify, they are harmful. Whatever does not have the flavour of Christ has the flavour of the world. Talk like that does not strengthen God's building; it pulls it down.

It is not enough for the believer to avoid corrupt talk. That kind of talk belongs to "the old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires." The believer has put on the new self, and Christ is its perfect pattern. Did Christ merely refrain from evil in His conversation? No; His words, like His life, gave grace to those who heard. And so will the words of one who is in communion with Christ.

If we walk carelessly, letting corrupt talk come out of our mouth, we will by that very thing grieve the Holy Spirit. When that happens, in His infinite mercy He brings a cloud over us. He gives us a sense of our folly and sin, and our conscience gives us no rest. The normal work of the Spirit is to show us the beauty of Christ and fill our hearts with Him. But if we grieve Him, He must turn our attention to ourselves and our sin. That lasts until we confess and He restores us.

A reference to Ephesians 4:30 may be helpful — "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption." The Holy Spirit is sometimes called the Third Person of the Trinity, but we must be careful to avoid any thought of inequality in the Godhead. The Holy Spirit is God — a blessed Person. We must not think of Him merely as an influence (great as His influence undoubtedly is) — one cannot grieve an influence!

In what way can the Spirit be grieved? Every allowance of the flesh in the walk and ways of the believer grieves the Spirit. The verses around this passage show that we grieve the Spirit mostly through our tongues. The tongue lets out what is inside. So Scripture warns us against corrupt words from our mouths, and against bitterness, wrath, anger, shouting, evil speaking and malice. The believer must put these things far away. It is when we find the flesh in others that we so quickly find the flesh rising in ourselves.

Here we are exhorted on the settled ground of our being "sealed." He does not say, "Grieve not the Spirit, lest you be eternally lost." Such would not be in keeping with the true character of divine exhortation. We "are sealed," not as long as we behave ourselves, but "until the day of redemption." It is absolutely done, and this is the powerful reason why we are not to grieve the Holy Spirit.

He comes to redeem the bodies of His saints, and redemption is never a question of human faithfulness, but of the power and grace of God. We have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of God "to the day of redemption" (Eph. 4:30). Every true believer is sealed with that great day in view. Our faithfulness, or lack of it, will greatly affect our place in the coming kingdom, but redemption lies on another plane altogether.

He will never withdraw Himself from the one sealed; that would be to falsify the whole truth of redemption. But when He is grieved, He does withdraw joy and power from the Christian's life. That lasts until the man confesses the fault and judges the state of mind that let the old nature act again. A Christian out of communion is wretched inside, even if he looks calm outside. The reason is not that the Spirit has abandoned him. It is that He will not abandon him, and so He must take away his happiness until the man returns to his Lord in broken confession.

It is important to see that the exhortation does not refer to any conduct of the individual believer towards the Spirit who dwells in him; as, for instance, when it is said in Ephesians 4:30, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption." But it refers to anything that, whether by human arrangement or the like, would interfere with His operation in gift in the Church.

What answers to this glory of Christ is the presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, and sealing us for the day of redemption, when we shall be like Him and bear His image. So grieving the Spirit, not breaking the law, becomes the other measure of right and wrong for us.

To take them one by one: "all bitterness," I think, means every form of the sharp, unsparing mood which drives souls away instead of winning them. It makes the most of the real or imagined faults of others. The "wrath and anger" that follow are the outburst of passion, and the more settled vindictive resentment, which indulged sourness gives rise to. "Clamour and evil speaking" are their matching counterparts in words. All of them flow from the deep-seated fountain of "all malice," which the verse condemns last.

In Scripture this does not always refer to speaking evil of God, though today the word is used only in that sense. The same Greek word is translated 'railing' in 1 Timothy 6:4 and Jude 9, and 'evil speaking' in Ephesians 4:31. It could well be translated that way in other places too.

In the first part of the chapter the call to a worthy walk flows from a great truth: believers together are the dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit. Here we are reminded that each of us is sealed by the Spirit. God has marked us out as His own in view of the day of redemption by giving us the Spirit. We are to beware of grieving the Holy Spirit by allowing bitterness, the heat of passion, wrath and noisy clamour, injurious language and malice.

Verse 31 speaks of the things that result from nursing bad feeling in the heart — bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, and evil speaking, together with malice. These sinful attitudes and practices are to be judged without sparing, and firmly put away. There is no place for them among the saints of God. We must not allow ourselves the slightest excuse for such things breaking out. They come from sin, not from weakness.

Where such things as these are allowed — and to some extent they are found everywhere among saints — how can the comfort of the Spirit be known? Allowing such things paralyses all spiritual perception. We no longer see how serious it is to have given the flesh such a loose rein, and discord and division take the place of harmony.

No one whose heart is fed on the love of Christ can think or speak with bitterness. Nor can we noisily seek our own if we stay mindful of the kind of calling we have. Malice dies out when faith is strong. Who can be malicious if he remembers how it was that, when we were enemies, God reconciled us to Himself? Still, all these things are contrary to the new man, and our conscience condemns them without hesitation. Even so, we do not escape them without effort. We are told to put them away. And if it is asked how we may best do this — the answer is, by practising the opposite virtues in the energy of the Spirit.

As brought to God, I have learned what God is in His ways of grace... Did God come and clamour against you in justice? He sent His Son to give Himself for you, and has forgiven you. There is a man who wronged me. I am going to forgive him, as God forgave me — and, if I am near enough to God to do it, to show out what we have been learning as the joy of our souls.

As with the earlier verses, it is not enough just to hold back the mind and workings of the flesh. There is the activity of good in Christ, and the Spirit both produces this in the Christian and calls for it. So the apostle adds, "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." Clearly, then, it is a question of showing grace; and the pattern of it all is God in Christ, not the law — holy, just and good though the commandment is.

"Forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." This is a change from the Lord's Prayer — the prayer Jesus taught. There God measures Himself by you: "forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors." Here it is quite the reverse; I am to measure myself by God: "forgiving, as God has forgiven you."

The verse does not say, as the older translation does, "as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you." It says, "as God in Christ." Here the apostle presents God in the riches of His grace. God acts from no motive outside Himself, so nothing has to talk Him into forgiving. He acts from His own heart. What He does simply shows what He is, as we see it in redemption. But he presents Him this way as our standard, and so he says, "Be imitators of God as beloved children."

God has not forgiven us only because Christ pleads for us. God Himself is the blessed Author of the forgiving grace shown to us in the person of the Lord Jesus and in His unmatched sacrifice of love. God delights to forgive, as seen in the sending of His beloved Son.

This does not mean we must always say out loud that we forgive those who have sinned against us. But in our own hearts we are always to be in a state of forgiveness. We are never to hold on inside to the sin of a brother. No matter how badly someone sins against us, before God we are to forgive at once. Then, when the one who did the wrong comes and says, "I repent" (Luke 17), we are to grant him forgiveness.

To forgive another's wrongs is not enough for a Christian. No doubt it is a giving up of self, and so the fruit of divine grace. But in Ephesians God wants us to imitate His own ways as they have shone out in Christ… What has God done? He has forgiven you in Christ; and you are called to do the same. But was that all? Was there not positive love, far beyond forgiveness? And what is the display of love? Not the law, but Christ.

The "therefore" of the first verse connects this portion with the last verse of the preceding chapter. God has acted towards us in kindness and grace, and now we should act towards one another as God has acted towards us. So we are urged to be imitators of God "as dear children". We are not to try to imitate God to become children, but because we are children. Walking as "dear" children implies a walk governed by affection. A servant may obey correctly because the law requires it, but a child should obey out of love. We are not servants but sons.

God becomes the pattern of our imitation the moment we accept, by faith, the gracious declaration of His love to us in Christ. To aim at that likeness while still knowing nothing of His free forgiveness of our sins is nothing but proud folly from a darkened mind. Only those born of God can really imitate what God does.

The imitation enjoined is not artificial but natural. Here are children playing in the market-place. They hold an imaginary court. This little girl, dressed in cheap finery, is pretending to be a queen. She copies a queen's manners as best she can, but it is all crude and put on. Nearby a small boy is watching his father. Soon friends smile and remark how like his father he is. He hardly knows he is doing it, and it is completely natural: he is his father's son, with his father's life and nature. Now it is as children of God that we are called upon to be imitators of God.

What a mighty principle opens up here for believers! What limits can there be if we are urged to imitate God Himself! This is not a demand pressed on man, as the law was, when man stood before God on his own responsibility as a creature. God has revealed Himself in grace. Still He is God and no one else. And since He has given us His own nature, there could be no lesser or lower standard. That would dishonour Him and the very grace He has shown us.

Having accepted us in the Beloved, the title which naturally could be only His is now by grace applied to all His saints. It is as "dear children" that we are called to show to one another some faint reflection of that love which He has so abundantly bestowed on us in Christ.

If He says to me, "Dear child," what a thought I have of Him and what a wonderful condition I am in! Suppose a father says, "Dear child" — the expression gives consciousness of the love. He may have done all kinds of things for me, but the very word conveys to me where I am.

We are light in this way — as His imitators. This light has come to us in the person of Christ, so we keep our eye on Him. We are to "walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us." So it is God we imitate. But it is Christ who brought the knowledge of God to us, and that makes Christ our pattern. He is our light, because He has faithfully and perfectly presented God before our soul.

Asa's history reveals his weaknesses. God, in His comments on his character, gives no hint of them. He loves to commend whatever is lovely in His servants' lives, and only when necessary exposes their failures and follies. May we in this, as in all things else, be "imitators of God"!

We are to walk in love. This is not natural to us as the children of Adam, but it is natural to us as born of God, for God is love. Walking in love simply shows the Divine nature in practice. So it adds, "as Christ loved us," because in Christ the Divine nature appeared in all its fullness and perfection.

If we are accepted in the Beloved, we are now urged to "walk in love" (Eph. 5:2). We ought to walk in a way that matches our high place. Responsibility flows from relationship... But to imitate anyone, we must know that person. Now God has made Himself known to us. He has placed us in His presence and given us His mind.

The burnt offering pictures Christ — He freely offered up His life to God as a sweet savour... When divine love comes down here, it always returns upward as self-sacrifice. God acts in love; Christ walked in love; and divine love acting in a person offers itself to God as a sweet savour.

He gave Himself for us, yet His blessed offering and sacrifice was to God. As an offering, it speaks of the value of the gift in God's eyes. As a sacrifice, it shows how great a thing Christ gave up for the glory of God. His sacrifice has the character of both the peace offering and the burnt offering. The peace offering brings us into sweet agreement with God in Christ, and the burnt offering rises to God to delight His heart of infinite love.

Here we see the sacrifice of Christ on its burnt offering side. It was a sweet smelling savour, and — blessed be His name — it was "for us." In 1 Peter 2:24 we get the trespass offering side of His cross. There "a sweet savour" could not be said. He bore our sins, and drank the cup of divine wrath that our sins deserved.

The death of Christ was a propitiatory offering, and we cannot follow Him in that. But we can imitate Him in the love that would lead us to lay down our lives for the brothers and sisters (1 John 3:16). Paul mentions two saints of God who risked their own necks for his life. If one risks his life for another, that is the same as laying it down.

Such love goes far beyond what the law demands, that a man love his neighbour as himself. Christ did more, for He gave Himself to God for us. This is the love we are asked to imitate... In its little measure, like the infinite love of Christ, it will go up as a sweet savour to God.

Still, the sweeter and more blessed it is, the closer it stands to evil — unless divine power and self-judgment keep it. It brings people together. It awakens spiritual affections. But what begins in the Spirit may end in corruption of the flesh, as we see at Corinth... These lusts of the flesh were not merely forbidden; they were not even to be named. They were God's holy ones, saints; and the question now was what is fitting for saints, not merely for men.

There is danger even among the saints of God. The devil can come in and turn love between believers into a snare. He does this not only when we allow open evil to break out, but through the unjudged leaning towards it... The Lord in no way forbids the happy cheerfulness which He loves in His saints. He does not call us to be monks. That is man's way of keeping the flesh under restraint, and only another form of self. We may have self in a legal form and self in a lax form. Under any form it is not Christ, and the only thing which God values now is Christ.

The things listed in verse 3 appeal to instincts rooted deep in man's fallen nature. We do well to avoid the things themselves, and also the contamination that comes from thinking about them. We cannot talk about them without thinking of them, even if we condemn them in our talking. Therefore let us not talk about them.

The apostle Paul's confession in 1 Timothy 1:13 is a model. It is not "sharing" but a confession meant to praise the grace of God in reaching such a sinner as he was. Notice that his confession does not go into indecent details. He speaks only of how he opposed God — his blasphemy against God's truth and the harm he did to His people. As for confessing sexual matters in public, Scripture emphatically forbids this.

This means that we should not mention these things frivolously and so make little of them... The Bible does not use the word fornication only for prostitution. It covers all sexual relations outside marriage — even where the couple mean to marry, and even if it happens only once.

It is not limited to money, and it is often linked with open wickedness. The word means "desiring more than is necessary," and so "reaching out to grab." That is why it is applied to the lusts of the flesh. It is declared to be idolatry (Col. 3:5).

Elsewhere (Eph. 5:3; Col. 3:5), and especially in the first passage, covetousness and fornication are spoken of together. Fornication really springs out of covetousness, as the tenth commandment had already taught.

Since believers are "called saints" (Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:2), their ways should be such as are suitable for saints... They are not called to become saints by a holy walk. They are urged to a holy walk because God's calling has already made them saints... How unfit it is for people set apart like this to walk in uncleanness! And how wrong for followers of Him who was rich, and became poor for our sakes, to be clutching at the riches of this world!

They are not called to become saints by a holy walk. They are urged to a holy walk because they are saints through God's calling. The apostle says these things "are not convenient" — that is, not suitable. … It is not only in deed, but in word, that believers are to act in a way that suits saints.

He does not limit his warning to unrestrained immorality, or to the greedy desire for whatever pleases man. He extends it to unholy language too, whether openly shameful or hidden under a veil of refinement… Here again he brings in not only the absence of what is improper in the Christian, but the positive side as well: the heart turns to God's goodness, and that breaks out in thanksgiving.

The Lord in no way forbids the happy cheerfulness which He loves in His saints. He does not call us to be monks, which is man's way of keeping the flesh under restraint, and only another form of self. Self can take a strict, rule-keeping form, and self can take a loose form. In any form it is not Christ, and the only thing God values now is Christ.

In the presence of Christ we will find joking unsuitable. This does not mean that the one who walks in the light of God's face is unhappy. No cloud hangs over the joy of the person who is in God's presence. But such a Christian feels which things do not suit someone called to imitate God.

Things like those listed in verse 3 appeal to instincts deeply rooted in man's fallen nature. We do well to avoid the things themselves, and also the stain that comes from thinking about them. We cannot talk about them without thinking of them, even if we condemn them as we talk. So let us not talk about them… A Christian is neither a fool nor a jester, so let us not appear as either in our conversation.

We will soon find that refusing to join in foolish talking and jesting will bring plenty of scorn, and make us a spectacle. A quick wit or a clever reply is a natural ornament! But harmless as it may seem to us, there is very grave danger of defilement lurking here.

Scripture is positive as well as negative; if folly is not to flow from our lips, giving of thanks should. Happy occupation! The heart is so satisfied with divine grace, and so taken up with Christ, that out of its abundance thanksgiving wells up to Him.

Nothing is truly pleasant to the Spirit but Christ. In a saint, joy in the Holy Spirit should take the place of the thoughtless merriment that is natural to us. We are to trade the mirth that so often leaves a sting for that pure and precious gladness in which God Himself has a part.

What is the remedy? Here it is — a heart filled with the peace of Christ, the word of Christ, Christ Himself. Nothing else will do. We must begin with the heart. Where the heart is fully occupied with heavenly things, we will make very short work of every attempt at evil speaking, foolish talking and jesting.

In Ephesians 5:5 the true reading brings both Greek words for knowing together: iste (from oida) and ginoskontes. Knowledge gained from outside had passed into inward, conscious knowledge. It was what they were well aware of, and knew. In the way the words are used, that process could not run the other way.

Covetousness involves no dishonesty. It is not even hard or sharp dealing. It is no more than the desire for more — the very spring of modern effort, the drive to better yourself that everyone is urged to have, from the workman to the millionaire. So the creature becomes the object, not God; and so covetousness is called idolatry. It is man looking down, not up in dependence on God.

You do not need to bow down to a piece of wood or stone to be an idolater. Whatever commands the heart is an idol. Giving the heart to that thing is idolatry, and the one who gives it is an idolater… What is covetousness? It is either a desire to get more, or the love of what we have… But whether it is the desire to grasp or the desire to hoard, either way it is idolatry.

These are things for use. They are exhortations, not merely to apply to other people, to measure them by, but to take home to ourselves. They are for saints, not for the world. No doubt we find the evil warned against in the world. Our hearts ought to feel for those who will have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. But remember that the main purpose of the Holy Spirit was to warn and guard the saints themselves.

It is most important to remember this. Let sovereign grace do all it will. Let it reach the worst. Let it cleanse the most defiled. Still God's moral ways do not bend. His nature does not change. He hates and can never tolerate wickedness. His love may find — and has found — a glorious solution to that difficulty in the cross of Christ. But God and sin can never walk or live together.

The believer is a joint-heir with Christ, for in Him "we have obtained an inheritance." But to have a part in the kingdom of Christ and of God, our character must suit it. Seen in Christ, we are already fit to share the inheritance of the saints in light. Here, though, the question is not so much one of standing as of conduct.

A child of God may fall and commit some of these things, but no true believer will continue to live in them.

Those marked by uncleanness, covetousness and idolatry will not only miss the blessings of the coming kingdom of Christ and of God. Being disobedient to the gospel, they will also come under the wrath of God. Unlike this present evil world, the kingdom of God will be a place where love rules and lust is shut out. What will be true of the coming kingdom should mark the family of God today.

The apostle warns us not to let empty words deceive us. So men with their philosophy and science will excuse lust. They try to dress sin up in poetry and romance to make it look attractive. Even so, because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience. The "sons of disobedience" are those who have heard the truth but have rejected it.

Man's empty philosophy might indeed try to twist the teaching of grace into permission for immorality. But the apostle warns them against such corruptions of the truth... There is no need for a long argument. This teaching approves the very practices that bring God's judgment on the children of disobedience. Its emptiness is clear at once.

Sons are those who show the typical or distinctive traits of their fathers. Scripture often uses this idea of a child standing for a parent in moral matters. So the "sons of disobedience" (Eph. 2:2) are those whose conduct shows disobedience as plainly as a son resembles a father.

Here God explains the reason for His final judgment on Saul. It is the same reason as His judgment on every sinful man: disobedience and departure from God. And these are the very words we find again in Ephesians 2, the chapter that declares the sinner's condition of death: "sons of disobedience" and "without God in the world."

We think it very unsound and dangerous to teach that people will only be judged for rejecting the gospel. "For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words: for because of these things [and not merely because of their rejection of the gospel] the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience."

Men might deceive them with empty words. They might chatter about Christian liberty and anything else. But "because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience." He is speaking, of course, of the world, and not of Christians. He does not threaten Christians with the wrath of God. At the same time, this wrath really does come upon the children of disobedience, and that makes the warning deeply solemn. Christians, therefore, must not be in any sense partakers with them. There must be the fullest possible separation.

The firm and decisive way in which the Apostle draws the line in verses 5 and 6 is very striking. The kingdom of Christ and of God is marked by holiness. The unholy are outside that kingdom and subject to the wrath of God. There was to be no mistake about this. Then as now, some wished to blur this sharp line and excuse unholy living. Other scriptures show that a true believer may fall into any of these sins. But no true believer is marked by any of them. Whatever people say about themselves, no one marked by such sins should be counted a true Christian.

Human philosophy might try to twist the teaching of grace into permission for immorality. But the apostle warns them against such corruptions of the truth. There is no need for a long argument. You can see at once how empty such teaching is. These were the very practices that bring God's judgment on the children of disobedience. They had been in that condition themselves. But God called them out of it. How could He bear to see them walk in the very acts He delivered them from?

God's wrath is revealed from heaven against all the unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness (Rom. 1:18). It hangs above all over those who keep sinning against the holy light of gospel truth. Such people are called here the children of disobedience (or unbelief). True faith and willing obedience are one and the same in principle, and this shows it. Faith is an active principle, and works by love. Men hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ but do not receive the truth in the love of it. That is when they become liable to the special condemnation announced here.

Whatever they claim to be, they have no part in the kingdom of God. So we, who have an inheritance in the kingdom, can have no part with them. This is what verse 7 so plainly states. Notice too that the last word of that verse is them. We are not only to avoid the sins, but also to avoid all participation with the sinners. The persons as well as the evils are to be avoided. The difference between us and them is as great and as distinct as that between light and darkness.

People may assume that because God is love, the grace of God is indulgent toward these sinful things, but it is not so. These very things are why the wrathful judgment of God falls on the children of disobedience (v.6). Will a believer let himself share in any way with such people? These things are so glaring today on radio, TV and in newspapers and magazines. Saints must be very careful and watchful against such contamination.

You know that just doing what is right would never satisfy your renewed conscience. You must have the springs of action purified. It is what Christ has done that asks it of you. These unclean things, as I read in verse 3, do not suit saints. Am I to put uncleanness aside because it is uncleanness? No; I put it aside because it does not suit saints... I refuse to take part in uncleanness, because I was in darkness, but now I am transformed. I am a new creature, a child of light.

It is not enough for our souls to refuse to be partakers with the children of disobedience, as in verses 6, 7. We must have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even expose them (v. 11). It is all part of our wonderful place and responsibility as children of light. This is not law, which only condemns by a standard applied from outside. It is an inward divine capacity that searches everything. Love is its source and its end, yet it spares evil even less than law does, and it brings in good by the Holy Spirit in Christ.

Now we were what is contrary to His character, we were darkness; not only in the dark, but darkness in our nature, the opposite of God who is light. Not one ray of what He is was found in our will, our desires, our understanding. We were morally destitute of it.

It is not simply that we were in the dark, ignorant of God. Our nature itself was darkness, because it found its pleasure in everything that is against God. Now we are partakers of the divine nature, and that nature is marked by love and light.

The Lord was light in Himself; we are not light in ourselves, but in the Lord. And the exhortation is, "Walk as children of light." God has taken us out of darkness. Think of it. The more we feel in our souls that we are in the light, as God is in the light, the more we will want a walk that suits it. But we measure all responsibility by our relationship. We are in the light to start, and our responsibility flows from that fact.

Since the change is so complete, the word is "walk as children of light." Be consistent with what you are, not merely with what you ought to be. We are light — yes, light in the Lord. That is at once the ground, the character, and the measure of what suits our ways as Christians. So let us walk accordingly. How comforting is the call of grace to holy ways! God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we are His children, we are children of light. How completely law disappears as the motive or the pattern of our walk.

If you are outside today, you will be in the sunshine, as long as the sun is shining. You can turn your back on the sun so that you do not see it, but you are still walking in the sunshine, even if you do not enjoy it. This is what can happen in our lives. We cannot return to a walk in darkness because we have been taken out of darkness into His wonderful light, but we can walk as children of darkness. That is why it is said, "Walk as children of light". We are to walk in accordance with the position which we have been given by grace.

But we are no longer darkness, nor in darkness, but are children of light: the fruit of the light — that is, the practical result of knowing God fully revealed — should be shown in all "goodness and righteousness and truth."

I refuse to take part in uncleanness, because I was in darkness, but now I am transformed. I am a new creature, a child of light.

Verse 9 explains what will shine out. The correct reading is not "the fruit of the Spirit," but "the fruit of the light." Three words sum up that fruit — goodness, righteousness, truth. The opposites — evil, iniquity, unreality — should be entirely shut out of our lives. Walking this way as children of light, we prove what is pleasing to God. We prove it not by reasoning, but by practical experience. We put things to the test, and so learn it for ourselves.

No doubt these are the marks of the Spirit's gracious work. That may be what put "the Spirit" in place of "light" in the common text. But there can be no reasonable question that the true thought and word in verse 9 is "the light"... In Galatians 5 it is the fruit, not of the light, but of the Spirit. There it stands against the works of the flesh... Here the contrast is not with legal tendencies and the workings of flesh, which the law both provokes and condemns. It is with the darkness which we once were when we were without the Lord.

Verse 9 is a parenthesis. Light produces goodness, righteousness and truth. Goodness is that which actively seeks the good of others. Righteousness is carrying out properly the duties of whatever relationship we are in. Truth is transparent honesty.

We are to walk in keeping with the position grace has given us. So we are called to something wonderful: to walk as children of light and show the fruit of light, which is in all goodness. This has the character of love. Only then do righteousness and truth follow. These would be more the characteristics of light, but goodness leads us to the love of God.

The works of darkness bear no fruit. But those who walk in the light, as He is in the light, bear precious fruit. Goodness, righteousness and truth are out of reach for the natural man. They are found in the way of those whom the Spirit, through faith, shapes into practical likeness to Christ. He is Himself the essence and fulness of these things. By staying close to Him, we reflect what we enjoy in Him. Our fruit, whether scanty or abundant, must savour of the Root that bears us.

This is all part of our marvellous place and responsibility as children of light. It is not law, which only condemns by an outward standard applied from without. It is an inward and most searching divine capacity. Love is its source and its end, yet it spares evil even less than the law does, and it brings in good by the Holy Spirit in Christ... Light by its nature reveals itself and everything else. This is just as true in spiritual things as in nature.

This verse is connected with what is said about light in verse 8; verse 9 is in parentheses. This is what we have to learn in our conduct. People often say it is hard to find out the will of God. But this is because we are not ready to face difficulties, and then we cannot find out His will. In this verse we see the state of soul that loves to please. It enters into the spirit of the walk, and it takes in the wishes of God, so as to be acceptable to Him.

euarestos (literally 'well-pleasing,' from eu, 'well,' and aresko, 'to please') means 'acceptable' to God, Rom. 14:18; 'agreeable' to the Lord, Eph. 5:10; 'well-pleasing' to Him, Col. 3:20. These passages show that the older rendering "we may be accepted of him" in 2 Cor. 5:9 is wrong: it should be "agreeable to him."

He was certain that he was accepted. Yet he never forgot that he had to stand before the judgment seat of Christ… So for Paul, being accepted and being acceptable were two different questions, and both mattered greatly. He knew by the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ that God had accepted him. He worked hard to be acceptable. So the teaching of grace was not weakened, even though he never lost sight of his responsibility.

Being light in the Lord, we are to walk as children of light. That walk will show itself in "all that is good and right and true", for these things are the fruit of light. Walking this way, we shall prove in our own circumstances what is acceptable to the Lord… One writer said: "A child watches his father and learns what pleases him. He knows what his father would want in the situations that come up."

The discernment of a Christian depends on his spiritual and moral state, and God means it to be so. He will not simply be a director who hands us decisions. He makes us depend on our spiritual state even to know what His will is. This is not a set of higher rules for a select few. The discernment of the inward life makes what it sees both a delight and a duty at once.

Is this our simple purpose? … In any common act of life, our question should be: is this acceptable to the Lord? When buying an item of clothing, it should not simply be, will this suit me? but, is it acceptable to the Lord, does it suit Him?

To please Him who gave Himself for our sins is both the duty and the desire of the new man… We are no longer our own, but His who bought us. We please Him when we trust Him and obey His words. A Christian's business in the world is Christ, and nothing else. That word covers every lawful kind of situation and work. If we cannot do something wholeheartedly for Him, we should not do it at all.

In walking as children of light we prove in experience what is acceptable to the Lord. Since He has no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, neither should we. He reproves them and so should we. We are not to argue about them or against them. We are to reject them plainly.

Instead he should expose them — not necessarily by attacking the world's practices head on, but by a consistent godly life that reproves wrongdoing. Men's secret sins have as large a place now as in Paul's days. They are too shameful even to name. But the light exposes them and declares their true character, for light makes everything visible. Such exposing will not bring love to the witness, but rather hatred, as our Lord Jesus said: the world hates Him because He testifies that its works are evil (John 7:7). In His case the darkness hated the light; it was too much for them.

This word, reprove, occurs again, you will notice, in verse 13. Its meaning is not exactly admonish or rebuke, but rather expose. It is to expose, as by light, the true character of the works in question. If a believer shines out in his true character, his whole life will have that effect. His Master's life did this in the highest measure. Still, of course, there may be many times when words of rebuke are needed.

We are not to argue about them or against them. We are simply and clearly to reject them. Even to talk about the vices practised in secret by the ungodly is a shame. The believer has far more profitable things to engage his thoughts and conversation.

It is a great thing for the Christian to be in the habit of living in what is good. We live in a world where we must deal with what is evil… But it will not do to be always occupied with it. It defiles even when we judge it. Think of the man who handled the ashes of the red heifer in Numbers 19. He was doing a service by gathering them up and laying them outside the camp. Yet he was unclean until evening, and the same was true of the man who applied them. It is soiling to our minds even to be judging evil.

We are to hate the unnoticed, quiet activities of the flesh as much as those that are openly filthy and corrupt. We are to loathe the secret, refined ways of selfishness as much as those that are open and shameless. To the Christian, Christ is the perfect model.

To speak of the things that the flesh can do in secret is shame. The light of Christ reproves the evil that it exposes. Where Christianity has shaped a land, people cannot publicly commit the gross sins that others commit openly elsewhere. The light in Christians is too strong. Sadly, as the light declines, sins again become more public and open.

Notice that this word, reprove, comes again in verse 13. It does not quite mean warn or rebuke. It means expose. It is to expose the true character of the works in question, the way light does. If a believer shines out in his true character, his whole life will have that effect, just as his Master's life did, in the highest measure of all. Of course there will still be many times when words of rebuke are needed.

It is not law, condemning by an outward standard held up against us. It is an inward and deeply searching divine capacity. Love is its source and its end, yet it spares evil even less, and it brings in good by the Holy Spirit in Christ... It belongs to light to show itself and everything else, and that is just as true in spiritual things as it is in nature.

I have no doubt that this translation of Ephesians 5:13 is wrong. "Whatever is made manifest is light" is not only untrue; it is also not the point of the passage. The passage speaks of things being made manifest by the light. I admit the passage is difficult. But I believe the sense is, "what makes everything manifest is light," or, "it is the light which makes everything manifest." The form of the Greek word is found only here, and it would be a middle with an active sense.

The last clause of this verse changes its meaning. It depends on whether you take the word translated "manifest" in an active or a passive sense. Either way it states an obvious truth. On the whole, the light seems meant to do more than detect. It also subdues and gives life.

Instead he should expose them. He need not attack the world's practices head on. A consistently godly life is itself a reproof of wickedness. People's secret sins fill as much room now as in Paul's day. They are too shameful even to name. But the light exposes them and declares their true character, for light shows up all things. Such exposing will not bring the witness love. It will bring him hatred, as our Lord Jesus said: the world "hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil" (John 7:7). In His case the darkness hated the light: it was too much for them.

In verse 13 Paul continues along the line of holiness, righteousness and truth. But it is very important to see that the light of God never contradicts His love... Christ is always the true light. We have no light in ourselves, so even if we as Christians are called light it can only be light "in the Lord".

Bright sunlight shows up every detail of natural things. In the same way, the true light of God shows the real character of everything in the spiritual and moral realm. Are we willing to turn that light on our own conduct? And on popular religious schemes that compromise more and more of the truth of Scripture?

In both of these Scriptures the spirit, not the letter, is what applies to the point in hand. Used this way, it carried divine authority. So in the passage from Ephesians there can be little doubt that Isaiah 60:1 was in Paul's mind. There we read, "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you."

In verse 14, a sleeping man is called to "awake," not a dead man: he is a believer, but sadly, in what a state. A man asleep is no better than a dog asleep. Neither one notices anything around them.

The Scriptures alluded to seem to be Isaiah 52 and 60. But the application here is clearly to believers, sleeping among dead men or dead things. They are called to arise, so that Christ may give them light — not life, which would be their first need as unbelievers.

Sorrowful condition for a saint to slip into! What use is a sleeper as a witness to God and the truth? Thanks be to God, such are not dead. The spark of divine life is there, and nothing can put it out. But they have sunk into a state of spiritual numbness. They have lost their enjoyment of heavenly grace and their usefulness in testimony.

The unbeliever is dead to God. The true believer, if he does not pay attention to these exhortations, may fall into a condition of sleep. In that sleep he is like a dead man. In such a condition he will not profit from the light of Christ. … It has been well said, "It is Christ Himself who is the source, the expression, and the measure of light for the soul that is awake."

Awake, rise and open the shutters of your dark chamber of deathlike sleep. Then the sun can shine in, and Christ can give you light. And if there is in your heart some secret idol-chamber — love of money, or worldliness, or something else that has slipped in between Christ and you and taken His place in your heart — open the door. Let the light of Christ and His word shine in and expose the idol in all its ugliness.

It is a solemn thing that this call goes to the company who know more than many, as at Ephesus. They had the highest truth, and were in danger of going to sleep over it.

In Scripture, folly and wisdom are not just matters of intellect. They always have a moral character. It is the fool who says in his heart, "There is no God." The fear of the Lord is called the beginning of wisdom. The believer as a child of light has "the mind of Christ"; he has the Holy Spirit to teach him the deep things of God. He may have little worldly wisdom or knowledge, yet he has "an anointing from the Holy One," and so has the mind of God in all that concerns His things. But the flesh is always there to fight against the Spirit. So it takes careful watchfulness to walk as wise men, and not as fools.

Wisdom, as well as light, is a distinctive attribute of the new man. The Greek philosopher searched for wisdom in vain. It has come, unasked, to the awakened sinner. Christ, who is the wisdom of God in the eyes of our faith, has also been made our wisdom by God. By the counsels of that wisdom we are taught to walk... Moreover, we need wisdom to use rightly what we know. Careful watchfulness always goes with true wisdom. Those whose road to the kingdom runs through many temptations need it. In a land of danger, we must walk with measured steps... We are in the path of folly the moment we begin to walk at our own discretion.

Uprightness is not enough. If I have to cross a bog, I may be perfectly sincere in seeking a house on the other side. But if I do not look about me, I may sink in the bog. I must look about me. It takes wisdom to go through this world — I mean as a Christian.

The main force of this warning seems to be aimed at the deception that would make exact conduct a matter of indifference, so long as soundness of doctrine is kept up. This lowest of fallacies can still be a danger to us, if we are not kept near to God in the spirit of our minds.

This is not only about avoiding certain things. There is something to gain: divine wisdom to live Christ. We have to walk with all the wisdom of God. Satan is seeking to trip us up, to dim our testimony, to cause that to be seen in us which is not Christ.

We are urged to walk wisely. The first fourteen verses teach that the true measure for a right walk is God's nature of light and love. We are to profit by that teaching, and "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise." In an evil world the Christian will need wisdom, but this wisdom is in regard to what is good. So, in another letter, the Apostle can write, "be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil" (Romans 16:19).

For though a believer is not a fool, yet he may be unwise and not use his time to advantage.

Our neighbours who reject Christ still hold us responsible for Christian conduct. So we find exhortations in other parts of the Bible that tell us, in principle, that we have to take heed to what we do. Think for example of Ephesians 5:15... I am sure we all see how necessary this warning is. Our "doings" should match our words and be a bright testimony for the Lord.

Folly and wisdom in Scripture are not merely intellectual qualities, but have always a moral character. It is the fool who says in his heart, "There is no God." Scripture calls the fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom. The believer as a child of light has "the mind of Christ"; he has the Holy Spirit to teach him the deep things of God. However little gifted in worldly wisdom or knowledge, he has "an anointing from the Holy One," and so has the mind of God in all that concerns His things.

It is to weigh something, consider it carefully, and so grasp its meaning.

A believer is not a fool, yet he may be unwise and not use his time well. He should not be like that. He should understand what the will of the Lord is for him (v.17). To understand is not simply to know, but to see rightly what he knows. The will of the Lord is always spiritually profitable.

Our wisdom will show itself in redeeming the time and understanding what the will of the Lord is. The days are evil. If the devil could have his way, there would never be a time or an opportunity for what pleases the Lord. To do good we will have to seize the moment from the enemy... Nehemiah learned the will of the Lord for His people by prayer and fasting. So when the opportunity came, standing before king Artaxerxes, he seized it (Nehemiah 1:4; Nehemiah 2:1-5). A person can know a great deal about evil and still not know the will of the Lord, and so still be "unwise".

"Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." I will never know what the will of the Lord is if I am not near Him in the daily life of my soul. That is a clear case. A man who is doing the will of God is not living for himself. His only thought is to do what God wishes.

The Lord deals with us morally. He will not let me find out His way unless there is in me the spirit of obedience... "If anyone's will is to do God's will," says our Lord, "he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority," John 7:17.

A servant may hear his master say, Do this, or, Don't do that, and share nothing of his master's reasons for either one. The child is under far greater obligation to complete and unquestioning obedience, yet he obeys in a different way. He knows his father's character and habits. He knows his father's purposes and plans. So he is expected to sense at once what will please his father and what will give his father joy.

I think all that follows rests on this verse 17 — that we understand what the will of the Lord is for us. Once we understand that, the rest will follow. Then nothing in this world will intoxicate us. It need not be wine. Ambition can intoxicate us. So can desires that people around us count as completely acceptable — not gross evil, but things that take us away from the will of the Lord.

It is one thing to be indwelt by the Spirit, and another to be filled with the Spirit. All believers are indwelt; but how few, sadly, are filled! ... To be filled with the Spirit is to be under the direct energy of the Spirit's action. It stands here in contrast with the forced, natural cheerfulness that wine causes. Instead of that, the believer should have the joy and happiness that the Holy Spirit pours into his heart. This will find its suitable outlet in expressions of joy; not the foolish songs of the world, but the psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs.

There is a vessel filled with the Spirit. It is the very same vessel, only changed. It was once filled with wine; now, in a spirit of thanksgiving, it is bubbling up with melody to the Lord.

The word psalm means a sacred song sung with a stringed instrument. Hymns are songs of praise to God, and the word clearly covers many of the psalms too. Still, not all psalms are hymns, and hymns are not always psalms. Spiritual songs covers more than praise. It includes songs of spiritual experience, songs celebrating events in Scripture, and songs of meditation on its various truths.

The Old Testament Psalms cannot carry true worship. In them worship goes to Jehovah, and not to the Father and the Son. A finished redemption was not yet known. And the psalms that call down judgment are quite out of keeping with the spirit of the New Testament. So the psalms of Ephesians 5:19 cannot be the Psalms of the Old Testament. They must be psalms written for Christian worship.

There is no supply of psalms, hymns, or spiritual songs written by inspiration for the Christian; for the Jew there is a very large one. Do you wonder at this? ... The Jew needed such praises made for him; the Church does not. The Christian and the Church have the Holy Spirit, which the Jew did not have, and so have within them a full spring for making melody in the heart.

Personal worship is the first effect of being filled with the Spirit, and the fellowship of believers naturally follows it and carries it on... Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs are the audible expressions of a melody that begins in secret, in the heart where Christ dwells. When we are in the Spirit and speak to ourselves, we speak of Jesus; when we answer one another, it is in the Lord's song... There is no melody for Christ if our hearts are still far from Him, even though the words we use may have come from His Spirit.

Believers here are told not to sing only, and not to make melody in the heart only, but to do both. No amount of melody with the voice can take the place of melody in the heart.

Singing is audible, but making melody in your heart is more vital. This is surely an encouragement to those who have trouble carrying a tune!

We should always make sure our hymns and songs of praise are directed to God. Faith and the energy of the Spirit turn the heart straight to Him. Most religious singing today is probably aimed at people instead.

The world's joy expresses itself in a physical way; it is mere natural excitement, such as that caused by wine. The believer's is to be the opposite of this. It is not the lift given by natural causes, but the deeper delight ministered by the Spirit of God. It is one thing to be indwelt by the Spirit, and another to be filled with the Spirit. All believers are indwelt; but how few, sadly, are filled!

This is not a mere duty. I need not say we cannot deny the duty part. But it is clear the Holy Spirit assumes the saints will feel and understand this: it directs the heart rather than demanding something from it... Our hearts are naturally so legal that we tend to turn the words of our God to us into a law we must bend to. That happens even with the knowledge of God we have. Instead we should see that this is the good portion God has given us. Thanksgiving always for all things is then the natural expression of the heart taught by the Holy Spirit.

Thanksgiving is not optional on our part. The apostle declares that it is "the will of God in Christ Jesus" that we should "give thanks in all circumstances."

It is not giving thanks in everything that we do. It is more. No matter what God does, or permits to be done, I am entitled by faith to receive it as a blessing to my soul. So I give thanks for it. Whatever the trial may be — disappointment, scorn, distraction, the thousand influences that come from an evil world — I am not to thank Him for these. I thank Him for the blessing that God designs for me through them.

A man must know he has a good portion who can rejoice always in all things, who can give thanks always for all things. The natural man cannot receive such a word as this... God seems to say in this passage, My child, you will never be in any circumstances, or in any position, in which you have no cause to give thanks... This giving of thanks is not one or two links of a chain, then broken off; no, it is continuous and unbroken and lasting.

He could and did give thanks in the hour of deepest trial. In Matthew 11 and Luke 10 we see Him rejected by men... The dark shadows of the cross were already falling across His path. Then we read: "At that time" — mark it well. At that time, when all was darkest and He had unspeakable anguish ahead, "Jesus rejoiced" and said, "I thank you, Father." Oh, for grace to imitate Him in this — not only in subjection to the will of God, but in receiving the heaviest trials from the Father's hand, knowing that all is for eventual blessing.

He was occupied with circumstances, and not with the God of circumstances.

Redemption has set the believer in a position of eternal obligation to the God of grace... Everything, then, is to be acknowledged thankfully. The thing received, whether good or bad, matters less than the hand that gives it... Notice the deliberate precision in the language of this verse. Its many-sided purpose is to keep us from falling below the true level of spiritual worship when we give thanks.

This constantly thankful spirit will have both a preserving and a fruitful effect. It will make submission to one another in the fear of God simpler for us. So we will recognise God as being in control, rather than the will of man dominating.

The first three chapters show the believer's standing in Christ, and God's thoughts about the Church. The practical teaching that follows falls into four groups. They match the believer's relationship with the Church (Eph. 4:1‑16), the world (Eph. 4:17‑5:21), the family (Eph. 5:21 — Eph. 6:9), and the powers of darkness (Eph. 6:10‑17). In each of these positions, the rule of conduct given to him matches his standing, shown earlier in the letter.

Another word is added here that seems a little out of place: "Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God." The cheerfulness stirred up by wine is quarrelsome and self-assertive. The gladness of heart poured out by the Spirit is not. The deep sense of grace that calls forth praise and thanksgiving to God humbles instead of exalting. The fuller the heart is of praise to God, the lower it will be in its own esteem. So comes submission to one another. It does not come merely out of kindness and good nature, but out of the deep sense of the fear of God. That fear never stops filling the heart occupied with His goodness and love.

Submitting myself to another means accepting and taking a lower place under another person's lawful authority over me. Obedience means behaving and acting according to that place. I do that by submitting my will to the will of the one who has authority over me. It holds whether I am there by my own choice or by necessity, such as birth. Naturally speaking, the two are not always the same. There may be an outward submission without real obedience. In the Christian sense, both are a matter of the heart, as being done to the Lord.

Then you get a spirit of grace, "submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ." It does not mean submitting to do evil if you ask me to. It means that faith has no will of its own. If you want me to do wrong, I cannot do it, because it is not God's will; but in everything where my own will is concerned, I give way to you. We are to submit to one another in the fear of Christ. It is what sitting in heavenly places produces on earth.

Now look at the second part of our verse. It tells us that such submission of one to another is to be "in the fear of Christ." That is the correct reading, not "in the fear of God," as the common version has it. The fear of God is all-important. It marks the beginning of God's work in a soul, as with the thief on the cross. It also marks the Christian's walk in holiness of life (2 Cor. 7:1). Yet in this passage, as in Colossians 3, the Spirit of God delights to set Christ Himself fully before the eye of faith as Head of the Church — the second Person of the Godhead, the Father's well-beloved.

Christian humility of mind willingly takes the lowest seat at God's great feast of mercy. It knows how unworthy it is of what it is so freely called to share. So it gladly lets God's other guests go first. If the heart is in its right state, it will always see the Lord in His people. Then showing them deference in love becomes an easy and welcome duty. This habitual turning to God is what keeps Christian fellowship from sinking into ordinary human company.

This Scripture shows that the position of the wife is one of subjection. The wife is indeed told to obey, but the ground of it is the place she holds. A word or two added in the translation has somewhat hidden this. We read, "As the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be." But leave out the word "let." The italics show it was added. Then we have a simple statement of fact: "As the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives to their own husbands in everything." This matters. The obedience asked of the wife then flows out of the position she is set in — the natural fruit of the relationship. In other words, obedience to her husband is not left to the wife's choice; it is to be given because of her relative place.

The apostle speaks of the place where the church has been set, that of subjection to her Head. He is not speaking of her actual practice. Sadly, how much self-will and losing sight of the Headship of Christ has spoiled that practice! But the truth stands: "the church is subject to Christ." He is her glorified Head. The Christian wife is to learn the great principle and act on it.

Such is the general principle. But then, you will notice, there is always a measure and a guard in every such word of Scripture. It is not simply said, "Therefore, let the wives be subject in everything to their own husbands," but "Therefore, as the Church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be." So Christ's own blessed way of caring for the church, and of dealing with it in its due subjection to the Lord, becomes the pattern for wives towards their own husbands.

There seems to be one limit to this statement. The words in Colossians show it: "Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord" (Col. 3:18). Suppose the husband's will interferes with the wife's own responsibility to the Lord. Suppose it clashes with the Lord's will as given in His word. If she must choose between obeying her husband and disobeying the Lord, then the Lord must have the supreme claim. With this one exception her submission to her husband must be complete.

Wives are told to submit to their husbands. Husbands are never pressed to keep their wives in subjection. The duty pressed on them is to love their wives.

The subjection of the believer to the Lord, or of the Church to Christ, is no curse or bondage. These are now the models for the wife's subjection. She is to be subject to her own husband, "as to the Lord," and as "the Church is subject to Christ." How beautiful to see a human relationship turned into a picture of the mystery — and a relationship that draws part of its character from the fall! In that mystery God displays His "manifold wisdom" to "the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places."

Husbands are not told to rule. That is not where they are likely to fail. They are told to love. Wives are not addressed this way. With them, love is not as likely to be weak as submission is. So what is put before the husband? "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her." Once we take this in, it lifts us above the merely natural level. God's own love is our heavenly pattern.

Natural affection is recognised here, but a far higher kind of love is brought in. It re-shapes an earthly relationship after a heavenly pattern. The past, present, and future love of Christ for the church are all brought to bear on the husband's duty to his wife.

The first thing of all is His own love, which nothing outside Himself caused. "He loved the church" — perfectly, as God loves, without limit. Here we see how complete His love is. "He gave Himself." He did not only do something for it: "He gave Himself!" ... The self-sacrifice of Christ was absolute: it was Himself, all He is, and all He was in His perfection. Everything in His nature was behind it: "He gave Himself."

He then gave Himself; and He could give no more.

Let us remember that He did not first make the church worthy to be loved, then love it and give Himself for it. He loved it as it was, then gave Himself for it, and now works to make it suitable to Himself. ... Christ loved the church in all its deep need, and gave Himself for it; then, having made it His own, He cleanses it and makes it fit for Himself. None of us is content when someone we love is not what we would wish. Christ will not be content until the church suits Him completely.

Husbands are to love their own wives by no lower standard than Christ's love for the church (v.25). He gave Himself for it. He did not just give many gifts; He gave Himself. If one is not willing to give himself for an intended wife, he ought not to marry her. Notice what this whole section stresses: love works for the greatest good of the one it loves, and it pays for that itself.

Think of a Christian husband who has spent a hard, stormy day resting his heart on Christ's love and warming himself in it. He does not come home and frown his wife into silence, submission, and obedience. He loves her into it. The only force he uses is his own example — his submission to Christ the Head, his dependence on Him, and his obedience to His Word.

Christ Jesus Himself is woven through every part of it. He Himself is the beginning, He Himself the end, He Himself all the way through. He gave Himself as the beginning; and He presents it to Himself as the end. Meanwhile He tenderly cares for the church.

But what is the object of Christ's love in the future? "That He might present it to Himself" — not to another. Not, here, to display it to the world, but "TO HIMSELF," "a glorious church." Yes, not a church in shame, but glorious, "not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing," but "holy and blameless" (Eph. 1:4; 5:27).

In paradise, when God built the woman, He presented her to Adam: this is what will happen concerning the church; Eph. 5:27. He has given His life for her. He washes her by His word. He will present her to Himself glorious, with the same glory He Himself has as risen and glorified. This will be the marriage supper of the Lamb. The church is the bride united to Jesus in glory. She is justified, purified, and glorified. A bride in a lowly body is not fit for a Bridegroom in a glorious body.

This is the complete account of what Christ does: He cleanses the Church as well as sanctifies it. All defilement has to go, and in both cases God uses the washing of water by the word. But there is a third and future fruit of His love — "that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing." There we have the complete blessing of the Church. Cleansing will no longer be in question. All the love of Christ will have its perfect effect, and the Church will be glorious according to His own likeness.

There are two things by which beauty is marred: spots and wrinkles. The first show defilement. The second come from passion, or from worry and age. Both are the effects of sin — the first directly, the second indirectly. If there were no sin in the world, there would be no spots and no wrinkles. Everyone dislikes wrinkles, clean or not. But only a clean person avoids spots. Someone with dirty habits does not mind them.

So at the rapture we shall all be without spot for ever. Second, we shall be without wrinkle, without any marks of decay. Third, we shall be fully holy in nature. Fourth, without blemish… These four marks mean we shall be stainless, ageless, sinless and blameless in the day that is coming when He presents us collectively to Himself. Nothing less than His own standard will do…

It will have no spot, that is, no defect of any sort. No wrinkle, that is, no sign of age or decay, "nor any such thing," that is, no other defect of any imaginable kind. Could language be stronger or more sweeping? How could that fit the idea that the Lord will catch up only some of the many who make up the church when He comes? In that case He would indeed present to Himself mutilated fragments rather than a church without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.

Yet they do give us a very different idea of the reality of things from what we often think when we come together, twenty or more of us, let us say, to break bread. All of us are very weak, all failing, all apt to make mistakes. Not one of us is anything to be proud of. We think, "What a poor lot we are!" And it is true. But when we read verses like these, we see that a work of the Lord is in progress upon us.

The Spirit of God here assumes a necessary way of nature, and assumes it with approval. That regard for one's self which each of us is ready enough to give has God's own approval. And then, on this very principle of nature, the apostle goes on to set out the Lord's nourishing care of the Church... So if I can understand my love for myself, I may understand Christ's love to me. My Lord owns the duty I owe myself as a duty He owes to me. He can only nourish and cherish me, as I would nourish and cherish myself.

He is now taking up the common instinct that men naturally avoid pain and take care of themselves. He is speaking only of the fact. He says: look upon your wife as a part of yourself. Anything that would wrong her is that much wrong done to your own body.

And what are nourishing and cherishing? Nourishing is food, and cherishing is warmth of affection. You have the truth ministered by the gifts the Lord gives — that is the nourishment, and saints need nourishment... not just the ministry of all that He is to our souls to form us like Himself; He also leaves out no detail of tender care for His own.

Not only has Christ a heavenly aim, but His love performs the work which, so to speak, is natural to it. He cares tenderly for the church here below; He nourishes it, He cherishes it. The church's needs, weaknesses, difficulties and anxieties are only openings for Christ to show His love... If the end is heaven, He does not leave the church abandoned here. She learns His love where her heart needs it.

It is a great comfort to know this is true of the Church as it is now, when we think of the ruin all around. Does Christ ever cease to nourish what belongs to Him? Impossible. In spite of all the ruin, He has the same care for His people.

Scripture never speaks of Him as Lord in relation to the Church. That clause in Ephesians 5:29, when read rightly, stands: "even as the Christ the Church." To the Church, whether seen as His body or His bride, He is head, not Lord. Lord of course He is; God made Him such... Headship and Lordship both belong to Him, but they are not interchangeable terms. As Lord, He stands apart from all others; as head, He is in close association with what He is joined to.

Christ's care of the church does not flow from prerogative only, but His care and tenderness are exercised over it... The love we have to learn is not supremacy in love, but caring, as it were, for Himself.

Christ's love in cleansing the Church is set here before the Christian husband. That is not so that he should set to work and do the same with his wife. It is so that he may, in a general way, learn from our loving Head in glory to show his love to his wife in tender concern for everything that touches her welfare... There are not a few who show great willingness (I do not say skill) for washing their wives' feet, but let them starve at the same time. If you do not know how to nourish and cherish your wife, as your own body, you are not fit to wash her feet.

What heights and depths this comparison holds! It shows that the debt of love is never paid, but always owed. And yet that love delights to own the debt, and to keep paying it, lavishing care and tenderness on her who has become one with him in God's view.

No one, he says, ever hated his own flesh; he nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. This is the precious side of Christ's love for the present time, which the apostle presents here. His love does the work which, so to speak, is natural to it. He cares tenderly for the church here below. Her wants, weaknesses, difficulties and anxieties are only opportunities for Christ to exercise His love.

Sanctifying and cleansing look on to the presentation in glory. Nourishing and cherishing belong to our journey on earth. His love not only looks on to the glory. It also watches over us on the way there, as we pass through this dark world from which He is absent. He knows the circumstances we are in and the trials we have to meet. He knows our weaknesses and infirmities. In them all He cares for us and meets our needs.

God Himself approves the regard for oneself that each of us is ready enough to give. The apostle says Christ acts towards us on this instinctive verdict of nature: a man is to love his own body. So if I can understand my love for myself, I may understand Christ's love to me. My Lord acknowledges the duty I owe myself as owed by Him to me.

We are, as it were, a part of Himself. We have our existence and our being from Him, as Eve had hers from Adam. He can say, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting."

We must not take this literally here. But could language set out the mystical union of Christ and His Church more clearly or more forcibly? These words come from Adam's cry of wonder when he woke from his deep sleep. That sleep pictures the death of Christ for His redeemed, so that He might have a Bride for His affections. When Adam looked at his bride he said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh." That was literally true of Adam and Eve. It is used as a symbol of Christ and His Church.

The verse is sometimes applied to Christ's becoming man; but it is the reverse of that. It does not mean Christ taking our flesh and bone, but our being made members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. It is our relationship to Christ risen from the dead, not Christ's relationship to us as a man on earth. We are really a part of Himself, united to Him as He now is in the presence of God.

So it is clearly the raised and ascended man who is made head of the body, and set over all things. There was no such man until the ascension. So where people set up the church before Pentecost in their imagination, union loses all its reality and the church loses all true existence. "He who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him." We are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. All of this assumes the man Christ, and Christ ascended, when union is spoken of — and that is union by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Adam falls into a deep sleep. God takes a rib out of his side and builds a woman from it. Then God Himself marries our first parents. Is not this a beautiful picture of Christ and the church? He falls into the deep sleep of death, and through His death He forms His Bride. Thousands of years later the believers at Ephesus read in Paul's letter how a husband should behave towards his wife. Yet that was not the main thought. Paul used their earthly relationship as a picture of Christ and His church... But if we throw doubt on Genesis, we throw doubt on Ephesians too.

Marriage begins a new estate. Father and mother are to be loved and honoured still, but relied on no longer as protectors. The man departs from his state of dependence as a son to become himself the head of a new house.

Before a man marries, his chief relationship is that of a son. His responsibility is towards his parents. But when he marries he leaves his father and mother and holds fast to his wife. From then on she becomes his chief care, for he and she are no longer two but one flesh.

God established marriage as the first of human relationships. He makes it clear for all later generations that a man should leave his father and mother and cling to his wife. It is just as clear that the woman should leave her parents to become fully devoted to her husband. The word "cling" is beautiful here. It involves the reality of love, of devotedness and of faithfulness.

I hardly need to say that this verse rules out everything opposed to complete confidence in such a relationship. The husband, if he acts in the spirit of it, has no secret from the one who is part of himself.

The man who loves his wife loves himself, and he is to leave other relationships to be joined to his wife. The Apostle quotes from Genesis. But he states clearly that this is a great mystery about Christ and the church. Christ, as Man, left all relations with Israel according to the flesh to secure His church.

This is sometimes applied to Christ's becoming man, but it is the opposite of that. It does not mean Christ taking our flesh and bone; it means our being made members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. It is our relationship to Christ risen from the dead, not Christ's relationship to us as a man on earth... It is our union with Him, not His incarnation.

The mystery is no longer "hidden in God"; it is disclosed. You must always keep this in mind when you read about the mystery — it is now revealed and nothing is left in the dark. God sets the secret out in His own light, and He expects the simplest Christian to receive it. Could any words do more to destroy the common idea that a mystery means something we cannot understand, and that a godly person dare not look into?

Here we have a special part only: the union of the Church with Christ, as of His body, His bones and His flesh. This union sets the Church in its own special and wonderful place, when all was headed up in Christ in heaven and earth. It is a special mystery to itself.

The emphasis of the Apostle's language is very remarkable. All the mysteries of God are the subject of His stewardship. Even so, the only other place where he speaks of a great mystery is where he describes the coming of the Living One in flesh, and its effects, under the title of the "mystery of godliness." Only one wonder is greater: the Son of God taking our flesh. Next to it stands this mystery, which declares the Church to be the acceptable spouse of Christ.

The relationship of husband and wife is not simply a convenient illustration. Ephesians 5 makes it clear that God modelled marriage on what He had in His mind: the relationship of Christ and the church. That relationship of Christ and His church was in the Divine mind in eternity, and in time God set up the relationship of husband and wife.

The particular way God made Eve out of Adam gives marriage a special holiness. The husband is to cherish his wife as part of his own being. It also supplies a beautiful picture of Christ's relationship with the Church. As Adam was not complete without Eve, so Christ, though Head over all, is not complete without the Church... As Adam fell into a deep sleep, so Christ went into death. As Eve was formed out of Adam, so the Church is given life with Christ, and has His own life.

The word "sacrament" comes from the Latin sacramentum, the oath of loyalty taken by Roman soldiers. So it is a church term, not a Scriptural one. The Latin translation uses it for the Greek word mysterion, mystery. It does so in Eph. 5:32, where the Apostle speaks of marriage. From this, the Roman Catholic church makes marriage a sacrament. The absurdity of this is clear. If the Greek word mysterion always meant a sacrament, the usual church sense of the word would be gone. Think of "the mystery of the gospel," "the mystery of godliness," "the mystery of iniquity." And if it does not always mean that, then on what authority in Eph. 5:32?

The full union is still only a hope. Yet the Christian husband or wife believes that such a relationship exists, and that belief is to govern their feelings about the merely natural tie. Loving from principle, in the power of faith, is something different from obeying a natural instinct... Here we are taught that among Christians, Christ is to be the one rule that governs every relationship a member of His body may be called to fill.

The apostle's "nevertheless" is very important. It has wide application. Clearly the Holy Spirit saw the need for such a qualifying, moderating, regulating clause when, having commented on the heavenly side of the subject of marriage, He adds the words of this verse.

Are not husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants, earthly relationships? Unquestionably. True, they are formed on a heavenly model and to be carried out after a heavenly pattern... Still they are relationships in nature, formed on the earth and to be carried out in daily life. There will be no such relationships in heaven.

Of what use is it for a man to speak of lofty theories about the heavenly relationship of Christ and the church while he fails every day of his life in his earthly relationship as a husband? His wife is neglected. She may be treated coldly or harshly. She is not nourished, cherished, sustained and ministered to according to the heavenly model of Christ and His church.

The marriage relationship is set forth in the highest possible light... We are to walk in this light, and so the Christian husband is to love his wife as he loves himself — no small standard, that! — and the wife to reverence her husband.

The wife, being "one flesh" with him, he must nourish and cherish her, even as Christ the church. What heights and depths this comparison contains! It shows indeed that the debt of love is never paid, but always owed. And yet love delights to recognise it, and to be always paying it, lavishing care and tenderness on her who has become one with him in the view of God.

The word "fear" is the same as the one translated "reverence" in Ephesians. It teaches that her behaviour should recognise the position the husband holds in God's order and appointment. There is no thought of slavish dread, but simply the loving reverence which seeks to please and fears to offend. This grows naturally out of giving her husband his true place — his place as her head. So when she gives him respect, she also honours God's appointment.

Let her see that she reverences or, literally, fears her husband... Whatever the confidence of a wife in her husband, it is surely a fitting thing for a wife to fear him. Nor is this in the least incompatible with love... Here it is the fear that dreads to offend, and earnestly seeks the husband's honour... The principle always holds. As nothing justifies a husband in not loving his wife, so nothing justifies a wife in not reverencing her husband.

She reverences her husband (it might read, "Fear the husband," Eph. 5:33), while she knows that he loves her as Himself.

We are not to forget that the husband is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to reverently fear her husband. Here lies the true secret of married happiness, and it is because these scriptural exhortations are not heeded that so much sorrow and distress are found in many homes.

The subjection of children to their parents is part of God's order as seen in nature. Under the law, God attached a special blessing to keeping the commandment that required this duty. Christianity takes up the obligation, but transplants it from natural ground to divine ground... So the obligation of children, like that of wives, is tied to "the Lord." It is not just what nature dictates, though that is perfectly right. It is the acknowledgment of the Lord's claims as represented in the parents. The Lord Himself, who "learned obedience," was the beautiful example of this. It is recorded that in His life on earth He went with His parents to Nazareth and "was submissive to them."

Each of us acknowledges Christ as Lord, and we are to carry out the responsibilities of every relationship in the fear of the Lord. The wife is to be subject to her own husband "as to the Lord" (v. 22). Children are to obey their parents "in the Lord" (Ephesians 6:1). Fathers are to train their children in the "admonition of the Lord" (Ephesians 6:4). Servants are to do "service as to the Lord" (Ephesians 6:7). And masters are to remember that they have a Master in heaven.

A Christian household runs easily where the young obey — above all, where they "obey in the Lord." Natural affection is sweet, and the lack of it is a sign of the dangerous last days. But it is not enough. Conscience is not enough either. It matters greatly in its place, but it is not an adequate guard, and it cannot be a spring of power. The Lord is. And how blessed it is when duty is clothed with Him and absorbed in Him!

Obedience is urged on two grounds. First, "For this is right" (Eph. 6:1). That is, God declares that obedience is a righteous thing for children to give their parents. It suits the place of a parent to command, and the place of a child to obey.

Even a little acquaintance with life shows that the first step in a downward career has often begun with disobedience to parents. Write the histories of all the poor prodigal sons and daughters who are now trying to satisfy their hunger with the "pods that the pigs ate." You will find that the root of all their misery goes back to self-will and refusal to submit in their father's home.

It is of the first importance to notice that children are set in direct personal responsibility to the Lord. They are placed under parental authority. At the same time they are under responsibility to Christ, and so they are to obey "in the Lord." This at once defines both the character and the limit of their duty. The commands of the parent, when rightly given, have God's authority behind them, so the child obeys not only the parent but also the Lord. On the other hand, no command could be binding if the child could not obey it in the Lord.

There may be very unusual circumstances in which a parent asks a child to do something morally wrong — stealing, cheating, or worshipping an idol. This would be a plain exception. In that case the child should refuse to obey the parent, firmly but without defiance. Ephesians 6:1 reads, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord." So the child should always obey unless he is told to disobey the Lord.

Obedience describes what children owe in conduct and action. "Honour" expresses something else — the settled feeling they should carry towards their parents. It is an unusually solemn word. It is the same word our blessed Lord uses when He says, "that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him." (John 5:23.) … To honour their parents, children must not only accept their position and their right to control them. They must also value and deeply respect them, as those the Lord has set in their place of authority.

Children being subject to their parents is part of God's order as seen in nature. Under the law God attached a special blessing to keeping the commandment that laid down this duty. Christianity takes up the obligation, but moves it from natural to divine ground… So the duty of children, like that of wives, is tied to "the Lord." It is not merely what nature dictates, though nature is perfectly right here. It is the recognition of the Lord's claims, as represented in the parents. The Lord Himself, who "learned obedience," was the beautiful example of this. Scripture records that in His lifetime He went with His parents to Nazareth and "was submissive to them."… The law appears here not to show that believers are under it, but to prove the special value God attached to this duty. He even stepped outside the ordinary character of law by joining a promise to it — a promise that shows the link between this duty and earthly blessing.

A father may be hard and cruel, but his children are still to honor him. A mother may even be irresponsible, but her children are to honor her — that is, to show proper respect. This is not a legal commandment for believers today, yet Ephesians 6:1 shows it still carries moral weight. Our motive is not to submit to legal demands, but to delight in pleasing God.

The command to honour father and mother was the first commandment with promise, as the apostle says when writing to the Ephesians. Other commandments had the threat of death attached to them. This one carried the promise of long life on the earth. The apostle's reasoning is this: if a Jewish child was not only bound, but encouraged by such a promise, to deeply respect his parents, how much more should a Christian child obey them — not merely in the law, but in the Lord.

There is no real difficulty about the force and limits of this command. The relationship it deals with belongs to this life, and so does the promise. What the land was to the Israelite by natural descent, the word of grace now is to those who share in the heavenly calling. For them, godliness holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come (1 Tim 4:8).

There is no doubt a government of God going on through all the present time, and in it these things are fulfilled in a measure… As Christians, they may be taken from the earth when, simply as obedient children, they would have been kept on it. But the Christian's loss is gain, as we know.

The penalty announced against the "stubborn and rebellious son," who would not "obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother," may seem very severe to us. But it shows how much importance God puts on this fifth commandment. If everyone kept it faithfully, there would be very little breaking of the five commandments that follow it.

Children being subject to their parents is part of God's order as seen in nature. Under the law, God attached a special blessing to keeping the commandment that laid down this duty. Christianity takes up the obligation, but moves it from natural ground to divine ground... The law is not brought in here to show that believers are under it. It is brought in to prove how much value God placed on this duty. He even stepped outside the ordinary character of law by joining the command to a promise, and that promise shows the link between this duty and earthly blessing.

If that is how God valued a child's honour for his parents under law, is it worth less now — now that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ makes His nature known and calls us into the relationship of sons to Himself? Respect for that old word met with His approval and reward in the righteous government of God. He watched over and prospered those who honoured their parents. So did His revelation of Himself in grace loosen the obligation for His children? Did it make the love that prompts and sustains such honour less precious in His own eyes now?

The apostle quotes the commandment along with the promise God attached to it in the Old Testament. He does not quote it as something absolutely true for the present time, but to show how important God held it to be... The promise reads "that it may go well with you and that you may live long on the earth" — or "in the land," which the connection would rather suggest. There is no doubt a government of God going on all through the present time, and in it these things have a measure of fulfilment... As Christians, they may be taken from the earth when, simply as obedient children, they would have been kept on it; but the Christian's loss is gain.

Paul refers to this promise, which has often been a difficulty to some, as though temporal promises now belonged to a certain line of conduct. The citation only shows us how much God valued obedience under the law. However, I believe there is a blessing belonging to obedience to parents. But in the order of the government of God, in the ways of God with us personally in this world, there are important things which modify this.

There is no real difficulty about the force and limits of this command. The relationship it deals with belongs to this life, and so does the promise. What the land was to the Israelite by natural descent, the word of grace now is to the one who shares the heavenly calling. For such a person, godliness holds a promise for the life that is now, as well as for the life to come. It is well with us, and we know and enjoy the Father's favour, as long as we are walking as obedient children in His light.

Israel soon failed badly here. Absalom, son of David, rebelled against his father and tried to kill him, and his days were not long on the earth. A father may be hard and cruel, but his children are still to honour him. A mother may even be irresponsible, but her children are to honour her — that is, to show proper respect... Our motives are not to be those of submitting to legal demands, but of delighting to please God.

This next group in the household is unlike the others. Society, not nature, set up the relationship. The servants named here were slaves. Whether slavery is right or wrong, humane or cruel, is not the point here. Christianity takes people in the social position where it finds them, and shows how they may live Christ in that place. Its work is not to remodel society, but to teach the believer to display Christ.

Even if the care of God had not provided such an answer, one thing would still hold. Conditions are easier for servants now. To use that as a reason to deny their duty to their masters would be ungrateful and base. The ideas of liberty in our day have changed the state of husbands and wives, and of parents and children, almost as much as that of masters and servants. But wherever the relationship exists, the duty remains for each and all.

The same principle applies to employees in any business. They are to take honest care to carry out every duty of their working relationships faithfully, with a sincere heart, as to Christ. If Christ is the Object of our service, it will never become a burden.

As you might expect from the very name, the primary duty of the servant is obedience... and, as with children, the obedience required is almost unlimited... The only limit lies in their higher obligations to the Lord. Scripture does not state this outright, but it clearly implies it when it says, "You are serving the Lord Christ." Up to that limit the servant owes full obedience — so long as the command does not intrude on what he owes to the Lord as His servant... In truth it is the Lord's rule in the household, worked out through the master, whom He holds responsible for its order.

The words "with fear and trembling" do not in the least mean the slavish fear of man that lays a snare. That hardly needs saying. Such service could not be done "with a sincere heart," nor "as you would Christ." Besides, the next words rule this out too: servants are not to work only when watched, as people-pleasers, but as servants of Christ.

I would point to Philippians 2 and 1 Corinthians 2, and places like them. They show that we ought not to lower "with fear and trembling" to mere dread of punishment. It is a sense of our own weakness, joined with a sense of solemn responsibility before God.

The similar noun aplotees occurs eight times, and is translated in different ways: three times as "simplicity," twice as "singleness of heart," twice as "liberality," once as "bountifulness." It means literally "one-foldedness," a single, simple structure. So its meaning in Scripture is that there should be no hidden motive and no double-dealing in what a Christian does. He should be what people call "transparently honest."

Here again the obligation moves out of the range of the old creation and links to Christ in glory. Like wives and children, the servants are called to give their obedience "as you would Christ." That at once lifts their duties above the legal force of the old system and above the legal contract of today. Even a slave's duties gained dignity and sweetness the moment he could say, "I am doing this to please Christ, not for reward and not to escape punishment."

How good it is to know that our God graciously stoops to connect His name and His glory with the humblest duties of ordinary home life! This is what gives dignity, interest and freshness to every little act, from morning till night... It is not working for wages, but serving the Lord Christ.

"Not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers." The worker's eye is not to be on the master's face. If it is, he will be tempted to please the master, and so become a people-pleaser. The smallest duty loses its value before God if he does it for men instead of for Him. That would be walking by sight, and not by faith.

This guards against a common fault the apostle calls "eye-service." A Christian who wants to please the Lord works with the same energy and faithfulness behind his employer's back as in front of his face. He will not waste time because his master is away, or the foreman is in the next room. He will not put a fine shine on the boots he makes while the soles are mostly brown paper.

What then guards against this eye-service that only pleases men? The lifting thought that we serve the Lord Christ. Our work is for the eye of the Lord in heaven, not only for the eye of the master on earth. Even the dullest work of the lowliest slave is still work done for the Lord of all.

Here again the duty belongs no longer to the old order of this world, but to Christ in glory. Like wives and children, the servants are told to obey as they would obey Christ. That at once lifts their duties above both the force of the old law and the work contract of today. A slave's duties became noble and sweet at once if he could say, "I am doing this, not for reward, and not to escape punishment, but to please Christ."

So the servants stand in the Lord's presence. They are the servants of Christ. They are to do the will of God from the heart, and to keep their eye on the Lord alone. Remembering this is the secret of all happy, cheerful service and of all true obedience. It also frees them from depending on what their masters are like. Christian servants would avoid many traps if they kept this in mind.

Is it not worth noticing how wide and deep the liberty in Christ is? There is nothing violent here, and nothing revolutionary. Yet the change is complete, absolute, and final in its principle and character. A person still has to grow in valuing it and showing it. That growth matters, because it is Christianity worked out in practice… What a gift this is to the Christian slave! What a strong motive for a man who already knows he is free in Christ, with a freedom far above his circumstances.

The grace of God, which brings salvation to men of all ranks and degrees, does not need a change in a person's position in life. It teaches us how to make every position beautiful… People cannot help thinking of Christ when they see His people doing the hardest and most tiring work cheerfully, and without fault, for His sake. Self-interest pushes people to work well. A Christian should work better still, and more sincerely, out of love for Christ.

Nowhere is the honour of Christ so closely tied to the conduct of the believer as in the case of the servant. The hardships of his lot, and the injustice and cruelty he might suffer, only made the power of the life of Christ in him stand out more. And no one else receives so clear a promise of reward: "knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free." What comfort for the suffering slave! He can look past the drudgery and unpaid labour of his lot here, and know that faithful work done gladly for the Lord's sake is not, and never will be, forgotten.

Did they serve unreasonable and cruel men? How lifting and steadying it was, then, to look past the man to the Lord, knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive it back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or free. If the reward fails here, it will surely come at the judgment seat of Christ. Christians are not called to reform the world as they pass through it, but to behave as heavenly people in the middle of it. These principles, though addressed to slaves, apply just as strongly to employed servants.

This principle applies to the poor slave, who is now Christ's servant and so truly free. Suppose the Lord has given him a lowly and trying service. That will be no dishonour to him in the day of final reward. Servant and master will stand together before their common Master. He will reward them not according to the place they filled, but according to the faithfulness with which they filled it. The Master then will be One who Himself took the very lowest place to serve us all.

All service, whatever its character, carries responsibility to the Lord, and here lies the encouragement. His eye is on the faithful servant. He marks his discouragements, trials and sorrows. He holds him up by His approval now, and by the hope of "the reward of the inheritance" he will receive at last from his Lord's hands. Soon He will settle accounts with all His servants. At His judgment seat (2 Cor. 5:10) each of us will receive what is due for what we have done in the body, whether good or bad.

Hope and fear each have their healthy influence as springs that regulate conduct. Verse 8 states the first of these clearly. It reminds the Christian slave, and encourages him in doing good: whatever good anyone does, he will receive it back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or free. On the other hand, the next verse warns the master that there is One in heaven whom he also serves, and who shows no partiality.

Not even the cup of cold water given in His name will be forgotten on that coming day. It is not in the heart of Christ to forget the least thing, however simple, done by the humblest of His disciples out of love to His name. And even if the service never gets done, He remembers the honest desire to serve and please Him. Love rewards, but working for reward and working for love are two different things. The labourer in the vineyard who worked for his coin got his coin, but he did not get his master's smile. It is the Christian's happy privilege to work for love.

A Christian master and mistress may realise in their consciences the authority of their Master in heaven, and in their hearts His goodness and kindness. As far as they do, they will "do the same things" to their servants that they wish their servants would do to them. They will give their servants "that which is just" — a matter of conscience towards Christ. And not only what is just, but also what is "equal" (or "fair"), as a matter of the heart in kindness.

Wilful neglect or careless work displeases a master. Everyone knows how strongly he is then tempted to speak harshly, and even to threaten punishment. How many masters have dismissed a valuable servant this way! Feelings rose, the words came out, and pride, it may be, refused to take them back. So the servant has left. The Scriptures show a better way — refraining from threats.

Masters should not use threats either. Threats usually come out of temper. If the master does not carry them out, his authority grows weaker. If he does carry them out to keep his authority, it often hurts both master and servant.

This verse should read, I believe, "their Master and yours is in the heavens." That adds a point of importance: both master and servant are responsible to the one Lord, and will stand together at the same judgment seat.

They will govern, and govern firmly, as they should, because God has entrusted their authority to them. But they will remember that those under them answer directly to their Master in heaven. Along with themselves, those servants are the Lord's servants. So in this respect there is equality, despite the difference in their positions on earth.

The words "knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven" make the principle clear. The Lord's authority limits the authority of masters, and indeed masters are subject to it. So masters are supreme in their own area, and may call for obedience that far. But if they try to push into the wider circle where the Lord alone is supreme, their servants are released from their obligations.

Earth recognises and permits social distinctions, but they have no existence in Christ's judgment. Even a Christian master might forget that. Master and servant will all answer to Him. A low position might cause discouragement; to that person He holds out the prospect of reward for faithful service. A high position might lead to oppression; to that person He holds out the judgment that will follow an abuse of power.

The Christian religion has found its way into the middle of evil, and given liberty where there was none. It has given liberty even to poor slaves, without taking them out of their state of bondage. The gospel does not touch that position. Paul acknowledges slavery as a right when he sends the slave Onesimus back to his owner. He tells that owner that in grace he would treat this slave as a brother.

Believing bosses should be just with their employees and give them fair wages. They should give what is just for the body, the soul and the spirit of the employee. These commands reflect the thoughts of the Lord Jesus Christ for the workplace.

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might." This is like the first sound of a trumpet. To what does it call the saints — does it call you? Not to survey the enemy's stronghold, or to show you what you have to overcome, but to turn all your thoughts gently to the Lord Himself. Before it says a word about enemies or conflicts, it calls you to survey your strength. That strength is the mighty Lord, seated at the right hand of God in the heavenly places.

The Apostle points our thoughts to the power that is for us. Only then does he describe the power against us. To face this conflict we must always remember that all our strength is in the Lord. Our difficulty is often to realise that we have no strength in ourselves. We would like to be strong in numbers, strong in gifts, or strong in the power of some forceful leader. But our real and only strength is "in the Lord and in the strength of His might".

The word "Finally" (older translations read "Finally, my brothers") shows that what we have considered leads up to this climax. On our own we are no match for the enemy. But the Lord has met him and overcome him. If we are strong in Him, our very weakness makes room for the one power that can defeat him. He showed the might of His strength when He went down into the enemy's territory, overcame him, and led a host of captives. We have to meet a foe whose power the Lord has broken, but who still tries to overcome us by his tricks.

"Be strong in the Lord" means: be wholly subject to the Lord's authority. That subjection is true strength. It opens to us the power of His might — an inward, living strength that evil cannot overcome, even when we look weak.

The prayer of the first chapter brings before us the power of God's might. God has raised Christ from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in heavenly places, "far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come". Now, says the Apostle, that is the "immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe". The power against us is far greater than our own. But the power toward us surpasses every power that opposes us.

The real idea here is a passive one. "Be strengthened in the Lord." There can be no real difficulty in understanding this. Who has not talked over their troubles with a friend, and come away stronger for the sympathy and advice? It is far more true of the Lord. When we keep coming to Him, His power flows into us — power greater than anything that can stand against us in the spiritual battle.

All our blessings are in the heavenly places in Christ. Satan and his angels are still there, so we have to fight for every bit of ground we hold... God gave the whole land of promise to Israel... But they had to fight for every inch of it to hold it in practice. So the heavenly places are ours — but how much have we laid hold of?

The enemy contests the highest position hardest. Where we are most clearly Christian, he will oppose us with all his power... When Israel reached Canaan, the land God had given them, that was exactly where they had to fight. They had to fight to possess what God had already made theirs. So we must remember what this conflict is about. We will hardly feel it unless we are set on possessing what is already ours.

We have to stand, not so much against the devil's strength — Christ dealt with that — as against his tricks. The truth is that the cross made him a defeated enemy for us, and we always have the right to treat him that way... His tricks are what we should always fear most. To resist them we need to put on the full armour of God.

Many people can stand his roar, yet his tricks beat them. Israel could look calmly at the high walls of Jericho, because they knew God was with them. But the crafty Gibeonites, a neighbouring people who fooled them, beat them completely. How treacherous our poor hearts are! We cannot trust them!

A trick is something that looks fair and innocent, and yet lures the soul away from the path of obedience. How often the devil tries to lead those who have the truth into a side-path. At the start it turns away so slightly that objecting to it would seem fussy. Each of us can ask one simple question that exposes every trick: "If I follow this course, where will it lead me?"

God gives this armour to the Christian, so that he may be for God in the very place where the devil's tricks are at work. Not one piece of it is against God, not one piece stands between the soul and Him. God puts Himself behind the armour, as if He said, "I am here behind the armour with you." It comes from Him, to be used for Him.

But there is a full suit of armour that He Himself made. It can resist every weapon the enemy's craft has forged against us. No part of it is like the gear made to stop physical weapons. You cannot buy it in a shop and put it on like a coat or a hat. It is all shaped in the soul, and is spiritual in nature, and no weapon of the enemy can pierce any part of it.

The armour has to be "put on". Being Christians does not mean we have put it on. The armour is provided for us as Christians, but it remains with us to put it on. It is not enough to look at the armour, or to admire it, or to be able to describe it.

It is no good having part of it on and another part missing. Satan will be quick to notice the gap, and we cannot be rightly for God if we are not for Him in every way.

But there are times when the enemy makes special attacks on God's people. He wants to rob them of particular truths. Such attacks make an evil day for the people of God. To meet them we need to have on the whole armour of God. It is too late to be putting on the armour in the middle of the struggle.

First, we are told to remember that it is not against flesh and blood that we wrestle. The devil may indeed use men and women to oppose the Christian and deny the truth. But we have to look past those people and see the one who is using them. At Philippi, a city where Paul preached, a human woman opposed him. But Paul saw the evil spirit that was moving her. In the power of the Name of Jesus Christ he took up the fight with that spiritual wickedness. He commanded the evil spirit to come out of her (Acts 16:16-18).

The translators showed how strange the thought was to them. They put "high" into the text instead of "heavenly." But here the devil and his angels stand where the armies of Canaan stood when Joshua and Israel fought them.

The conflict, then, is against Satan and his hosts, whatever the instrument used. Principalities and powers are spiritual beings in a position of rule with power to carry out their will... Toward the world they are the rulers of the darkness of this world. Toward Christians they are the "spiritual power of wickedness in the heavenly places". The world is in darkness. It does not know God. These spiritual beings rule and direct that darkness — the darkness of paganism, philosophy, so-called science and unbelief. They direct the superstitions, corruptions and modern errors of the Christian world too. The Christian is brought into the light... So the opposition to the Christian has a religious character. Spiritual beings try to rob him of the truth of his heavenly calling. They try to draw him into a path that denies that truth, or into conduct that does not match it.

For us, the fight is not with flesh and blood, as Israel's fight was. Our blessings are spiritual in the heavenly places... Israel had passed through the wilderness — had crossed the Jordan; the manna had stopped; they ate the grain of the land... So it is with the Christian... We are sitting in the heavenly places in Him, so that we may enjoy the things of heaven as the fruit of our own country. But conflict is before us, if we want to enjoy them practically... The enemy is subtle. We have to withstand his tricks even more than his power.

Let us name a few of these tricks. Teaching that breeds unbelief. Empty superstitions. Evil doctrines. False ideas about where the world's history is going. Here we are not dealing with our own desires. We are in conflict with the enemy's direct attacks... Here we stand face to face with Satan, with the deceit of unrighteousness, and with false teaching. These are the things we are to resist.

There are "the rulers of the darkness of this world." A closer rendering is "the world-rulers of this darkness." These are Satanic authorities and powers that rule this world of darkness. We might well fear them if we were not under the protection of the Lord Almighty. The word translated Almighty is literally the All-ruler. The world-rulers may be great. But they are nothing in the presence of the All-ruler. It is like this world: great to us, yet tiny beside all things — the mighty universe of God.

The first thing to notice is that the Holy Spirit calls on us to take up the full armour of God. Neither the strength nor the wisdom of man is of any use in this conflict. Since we have to do with the hosts of Satan on the one hand, we need on the other "the whole armour of God." Our natural character and habits may not matter where the Spirit of God is at work to save our souls in His grace. But they matter greatly in the presence of a foe who knows how to take advantage of every unguarded opening.

It is of the greatest importance for us to understand that this armour is given to us on God's part, given to the Christian by God so that he may be for God in the very place where the wiles of the devil are at work. Not one bit of the armour is against God, not one bit of it stands between the soul and Him. God puts Himself, as it were, behind the armour, as if He said, "I am here behind the armour with you."

The armour has to be "put on." It by no means follows that because we are Christians we have put on the armour. It remains with us to put it on. It is not enough to look at the armour, or to admire it, or to be able to describe it; we must "put on the whole armour of God."

Here the apostle repeats the exhortation of verse 11. His own mind is deeply impressed with the frightful array of our foes... "Therefore take to yourselves the whole armour of God." No part must be left unguarded. The enemy knows how to take advantage of the smallest opening.

In a general sense the whole period of Christ's absence is an "evil day" for the believer. There are, however, occasions when the enemy makes special attacks upon the people of God, seeking to rob them of special truths. Such attacks constitute for the people of God an evil day. To meet these we need to have on the whole armour of God.

But there are moments when this power is allowed to show itself in a more particular way. The enemy then uses the world against the saints. He darkens the light which shines in it from God, and he troubles and leads astray the minds of professing Christians and even of believers. Our part is to do all that the confession of His name requires, whatever it costs, and to be found standing when the storm and the evil day are past.

The season of conflict is not the time for putting on the armour. If I am merely trying to grasp and get hold of Christ while in conflict, I cannot have peace of soul. Then there will be no power "to withstand in the evil day." ... You will never fight Satan with energy so long as you are asking, "Am I on the Lord's side or not?" "Is God for me or against me?"

How often the victory of faith is too great for the faith that won it! A believer who has defeated the enemy for a long time, and freshly too, may tire of the struggle and turn aside into a path that looks easier. He then proves his own folly and his very great danger, even if in the end God delivers him by pure mercy. So resisting is not enough. "Having done all," having finished everything required, we are still "to stand."

We are in possession of our place, and our business is to hold it... It is not a matter of gaining ground on Satan as if he were in possession. The object of the enemy is to turn us away from this by whatever trick and manoeuvre. So in conflict the matter is to stand against the wiles, and having done all to stand.

The true sense of these words supposes not only a settled position, but the soul in activity at the call of the Holy Spirit. Much harm has come from treating this passage as if it were about standing. It is something quite different. It is practical arming and conflict. It rests on the most blessed standing anywhere revealed in the New Testament, and it makes a fitting close to the letter that reveals that standing.

Before God our righteousness is perfect. It is Christ Himself, and we are the righteousness of God in Him. But we do not need armour there. We are sitting in the heavenly places: all is peace, all is perfect. But here we need armour, real practical armour, and first of all to have the loins girded with truth. The loins are the place of strength when they are properly girded, but they stand for the intimate affections and movements of the heart. If we let our hearts wander where they like, instead of staying in communion with God, Satan has an easy hold on us.

Girding means applying truth to the soul. The word deals closely with the will and with the movements of the heart. This is arming for conflict in a most practical and effective way. But we must do it in the presence of God, before we meet the enemy. The soldier's belt holds the rest of his armour close to him, so he can march and is strong to fight... There is also a reference to an eastern custom. People there tied their long loose robes up around the waist, so the cloth would not get in the way while they travelled or worked.

To know the truth and be set free by the truth is one thing; to have our loins girded with truth is another. It is the intimate dealing of truth with the soul, so that there is no laxity of heart or indulged will, but instead the affections and judgment braced up to Christ and the things of Christ.

Girding up the loins means getting ready for action. Truth is to set the limits of all we do. The truth is to govern us. God gives us the truth, but we must put it on... God's word is truth. But the truth in the Bible will not defend us. What defends us is truth applied in a practical way to all we do.

The breastplate of righteousness is not divine righteousness. It is uprightness of heart before Him, a clear conscience in simple uprightness in what we are doing... There is no good conscience without it. If you do not have a good conscience, Satan soon knows you have a bad one. He will touch you on that point and play on it, for he is a master of tricks.

The righteousness we have been speaking about is quite different from the righteousness of God. In that righteousness we stand accepted in Christ Jesus. He is our righteousness, complete and unchangeable in the presence of God — but not as a breastplate. All conflict is over there. Here we still need practical righteousness, so that we can fight our enemy the devil and win. Still, the righteousness of God which we are made in Christ Jesus is the foundation of the other.

This armour is not like the armour people once wore on the battlefield. An armourer made that armour for them, and they put it on when they were about to fight. You put this armour on from the inside, like the feathers of a bird. It all has to do with our practical state. So if truth has not girded your loins, you will never wear the armour of righteousness, because this is practical righteousness.

The feet of the soldier of Christ — that is, every believer — must be steadied and strengthened by the preparation the gospel of peace gives. Only then can he hold his ground in such a contest. In short, the believer must have "peace with God," which is the fruit of believing the gospel of peace. Only think of a soldier going into battle badly shod, or with torn boots, especially over stony or muddy ground! How can he hold his ground against the enemy with his feet blistered and wounded?

"Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace." Some insist this means going out to preach the gospel; it is nothing of the kind. It is the soul walking up and down in that blessed avenue "the gospel of peace" — day after day, in real life. You can go out and preach the gospel, and announce it, without being there yourself. God may even bless it. But when He speaks of the armour, He does not mean mere ability to go out and announce it. He means you yourself in the full, blessed, daily, hourly enjoyment of the gospel of peace.

It is a wonderful privilege to carry with us wherever we go the message of the gospel of peace. God has given this privilege to all His saints; it is not the preacher's alone… This preparation is not only for speaking the word of the gospel of peace. It is also so that peace matching the gospel marks every step we take.

This does not mean preaching the gospel to others, Christian service or soul winning. Through the gospel we have perfect peace with God. We know that God is for us; who then can be against us? This perfect peace, in which we stand, is our preparation… Israel wandered over desert rocks and desert sands for forty years with shoes that did not wear out. We too travel through the wilderness with our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. That peace will last as long as God Himself… He cannot touch anyone who rests in the peace of God and trusts in the God of peace.

The peace of the gospel is to apply itself to all the circumstances of the way… And as the shoe would arm us against the defilement of the way, so it guards against its dust and dirt. Can anything better keep us from falling under the power of circumstances — and so inevitably being defiled by them — than the quiet assurance that our God and Father holds them in His hand? To be ruffled and disturbed by them throws us off balance. We then try our own methods of putting things right, and our methods grow less careful as unbelief gains on us.

Selfishness will always be a quarrelsome thing; it says, I must maintain my rights. But the Christian carries peace, because he has peace within; he carries the spirit and character of Christ through the world… A man can walk untouched through everything they can bring against him; his feet are shod.

Our feet must have battle shoes on, for the soles of the feet are sensitive… We need something that protects us against sensitive feelings that can lead us into wrong paths and wrong company. That protection is "the preparation of the gospel of peace"… Let us watch that our shoes are always on our feet. Then we are not so easily hurt by the words, actions or inactions of our brothers and sisters in Christ, or of unbelievers.

The shield was the one defence the soldier could not do without. Without it, the rest of his armour could not protect him from missiles. It is the same in our spiritual warfare. We cannot enjoy truth, righteousness or peace unless faith is in active use.

This is to be "over all". Faith in God, faith in His promises, faith in His Word, simple childlike faith is to cover the head and the body like a great shield.

This means the confidence in God Himself which the soul has every right to hold, and is encouraged to hold. I say, in Himself, because it cannot be separated from the godly and righteous state that the earlier parts of the armour show. Yet it is a confidence that springs only from what God is known to be in His own nature and character.

It is the full assurance of the heart in the love of God, according to the revelation which He has given of Himself. "God for us" should be written across the Christian shield… Notice, this is more than the faith that simply receives God's testimony about Christ for salvation — though of course it rests on that.

FIERY DARTS are darts tipped with material that catches fire in flight or on impact. They burn as well as pierce.

If you put down your shield in front of you, and the man next to you puts down his in front of him, and so on and so on, you have a wall. It is a position that cannot be broken. That seems to be the picture here. Notice that they are fiery darts, not just darts. In Scripture fire often pictures God in judgment: "our God is a consuming fire" (Heb. 12:29).

Faith can quench nothing but its opposite, which is unbelief. All the darts of the Wicked One, fiery as they are, are of that kind… The cruellest wounds the soul can suffer are suggestions of unbelief. Outward trials are nothing next to a dart that is fiery in itself, and whose heat dries up the moisture of the spirit. It does this by cutting off our view of Him who is our only confidence and joy.

Satan's darts are many and varied. They include subtle deceit, insinuation, flattery, intimidation, wrong teaching or wrong emphasis, lack of balance, working on the emotions, enticements to sin, and many more. Only an active, watchful confidence in the Lord will keep us ready to meet and quench these darts as we should.

His wife said to Job, "Curse God and die." That was a cruel thrust. But Job met it with the shield of faith, the very thing our verse describes: "Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?" (Job 2:9-10). And the fiery dart fell to the ground.

The two weapons the Lord used — the Shield of Faith and the Sword of the Spirit — we may use also. Indeed, we are told to take hold of them so that we may "extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one."

You cannot hold up the shield of faith if you do not have the inside armour on. That means the belt of truth around your waist and the gospel of peace under your feet, enjoyed here and now. Then you have power to hold up the shield of faith.

The helmet rests on the head. It covers the head, the place where we think. Assurance of salvation — past, present and future — is this helmet. As we wear it, and as it rules our mind and heart, the devil's tricks cannot land on us. We have a salvation that is secure... It is sad to see thousands of believers without the helmet of salvation. They have no assurance of salvation, so they are easy prey to the devil's tricks.

This surely comes from the Old Testament prophecy which speaks of Christ putting on "righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head" (Isa. 59:17). But with Christ it is the righteousness He carries out in judgment. It is the salvation He brings as the deliverer of His people. With us it is the righteousness and salvation we have in Him.

The helmet of salvation is the bold and joyful awareness of the full deliverance God has worked for us in Christ. This crowns the various parts of the armour already noticed. So what follows is not another means of defence — the defence is complete — but the weapon for attacking the enemy: the sword of the Spirit, God's word. How wise it is to place it last of all!... If we do not know this order in practice, we make the word a mere toy, or a whip for self, instead of the sword of the Spirit; we misuse it and it has no power.

Nothing is more dangerous than to use the word if it has not touched my conscience. I put myself in Satan's hands if I go beyond what I have from God, or beyond what my soul holds.

The helmet comes before the sword: without this confidence, this assurance, we cannot even handle the sword of the Spirit. Without it Satan can use even the word of God to overthrow us. This word is called the sword of the Spirit, not of the understanding, but of the Spirit in us. It is the Spirit of God who alone can handle the sword of the word. It is the Spirit who recalls the suitable passage at the moment of temptation... We may reason about the things of God, but reasoning does nothing for us against the enemy. The Spirit must act in us and apply the word.

Satan knows how to use Scripture against the truth. A piece of Scripture taken out of its connection has kept many a saint in bondage, pressed him hard, and wounded him. That is not the sword of the Spirit. So the Word of God is not always the sword of the Spirit. But the sword of the Spirit must always and only be the Word of God.

The sword of the Spirit is "the word (literally, the saying) of God" — not the word of God in general, but the word that applies, the word spoken at the right time. It is not the whole Bible we are to bring to someone, but the word that fits his actual condition. This needs wisdom and the Spirit's guidance.

The Christian cannot "fight the good fight" by natural wisdom or powers of argument. In the wilderness our Lord defeated Satan by using the sword of the Spirit. Three times He quoted from Deuteronomy, and began each quotation with the words, "It is written." We need to know our Bibles to use our sword.

Last of all comes activity for others, just as before there was dependence for ourselves… What a gracious way to encourage and strengthen believers! It gives them a sense of the value of their prayers, both in God's sight and in fellowship with the most blessed apostle God ever gave the church. … He felt his own need and the need of the work.

No doubt, as an apostle of Christ, he was in one sense independent of their prayers… But he felt two things too deeply: the reality of his own weakness, and the blessing of spiritual fellowship. So he valued with all his heart every genuine expression of sympathy towards him.

Great servant of God though he was, he wanted the prayers of others who were not so great as he was. But he asked for prayer with one aim. Not that he might be let out of prison and his circumstances made easier, but that he might finish his ministry in full, even as a prisoner.

It is beautiful to see the apostle here. He does not rely on having been filled again and again with the Spirit for special testimony. He asks instead that, now as always, he may magnify Christ in his body with all boldness… Notice that he does not ask them to pray that he may be filled with the Spirit, but that he may speak the Word with boldness.

It was not good news with a plain and obvious meaning, as in earlier days — the keeping of promises that belonged to the age or ages of this world. It was the mystery that none of this world's rulers knew, or they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

When he was free he thought of himself more as an ambassador of the Gospel, urging people to be reconciled. Now, as a prisoner, he sees himself as an ambassador of the mystery — the mystery he opened up briefly in the earlier part of the letter. It is called "the mystery of the Gospel" because the one springs out of the other and follows on from it. If we do not understand the Gospel, we cannot understand the mystery.

We learn from this that a particular spiritual gift is not enough to make Christian ministry prosper. Much more is needed. The deep distrust of himself that always stayed with this chosen vessel of God's grace was, in fact, what kept him morally safe… By the phrase "mystery of the Gospel" we are to understand the full teaching of the grace of God in the calling of the Church, which is the most striking display of that grace.

Paul wanted to keep on with this precious ministry, so he asked the saints to pray. He knew well that the enemy would be glad to silence this wonderful truth. In these last days the truth of the mystery is so little known among God's people. Should there not be constant prayer to God that this precious truth may be announced with boldness in the power of the Spirit?

A Christian of Asia who accompanied Paul on his last visit to Jerusalem. The apostle sent him from Rome to the Ephesians and to the Colossians. After Paul's release, he sent him to Ephesus again. Paul describes him as a beloved brother, a faithful minister and fellow-servant in the Lord. So he was the kind of man Paul could send with confidence on these missions to encourage the saints.

Tychicus carried the letter addressed to the Colossians. It was written to correct the evils which had arisen in that church, and to warn them against the wicked doctrines being spread among them. Onesimus the slave carried that beautiful little letter addressed to his master Philemon. And at the same time when Tychicus and Onesimus left Rome, Paul handed to Tychicus the letter to the Ephesians. Never before and never after were such weighty and blessed documents entrusted to human messengers.

There is a temptation to give Ephesians the same date... But I think the visit of Tychicus to Ephesus was a separate one, made at a time when Timothy was not with the apostle at Rome. Timothy is not joined with Paul in the opening address, as he likely would have been if the letter had been written at the same time as Colossians.

Writing to the saints at Ephesus, he describes Tychicus as "a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord" (see also Colossians 4:7). That is no small verdict, above all when we remember that the Holy Spirit inspired it. And it was a remarkable mercy to the aged apostle to have, at this moment, such a servant to send on his behalf to Ephesus.

The service of God can be entrusted only to faithful men. If they are not faithful, how can they be qualified as leaders? So Paul, like Nehemiah, surrounded himself with servants of Christ who had been tested and found faithful (1 Corinthians 4:17; Colossians 4:7, 9; 1 Timothy 1:12).

Walking in full affection himself, he counted on people caring for him; walking as Paul did, this is taken for granted. Here, and in his letter to the saints at Colossae, he speaks of having sent Tychicus to declare his state — so that they might know his affairs, and how he was doing. We also, if we walk in the love of the Spirit, can always count on others being interested in our "affairs." In the world it would be pride to suppose others are anxious about our concerns. But the saint knows the love of the Spirit in the saints, and counts on it.

The mission of Tychicus was not only to deliver this letter safely. Through the presence of a faithful minister in the Lord, the saints at Ephesus were to enjoy a double comfort. They would hear a fuller account of Paul's affairs from the mouth of one who had just left him. They would also have his own ministry in the gospel while he stayed among them. The language of these two verses is interesting, too. It shows the broad distinction between what the apostle wrote under the direct inspiration of God, and what he might say to his brothers by word of mouth through a familiar messenger. No doubt they listened eagerly to what Tychicus might say about Paul and his fellow believers at Rome. But his letter was of another kind of interest. In reading that, they read the word of God.

He himself walked in full affection, so he counted on people caring for him. Anyone walking as Paul did takes this for granted. Here too (vv. 21, 22), and in writing to the believers at Colosse, he says he has sent Tychicus to tell them how he is — "that you may know my affairs, and how I do." He takes their love for granted. We also, if we walk in the love of the Spirit, can always count on others caring about our "affairs." In the world it would be pride to think that others were anxious about our concerns. But the believer knows the love of the Spirit in fellow believers, and counts on it.

He counted on their love — not only in their prayers for him, but in their wanting to know how he was doing… What a contrast to the spirit of men is the mighty, gracious working of divine love in the heart! It counts on the tender concern of believers for the man who served and loved them in the Lord. Man, left to himself, would either be cold and hard, or would fear that people would call him vain, as if his affairs could interest anyone else. But Christ changes everything for the hearts of those who have received Him.

This is where the letter really ends. He simply adds a few words about himself and his own affairs, which he counts on the believers to care about. So Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will tell them everything of this kind. And he has sent him not simply so that they would know his affairs, but so that their own hearts would be encouraged.

Then he tells them that he is sending Tychicus, "that he may encourage your hearts." Oh, if we could be like that! — in prison, yet able to comfort others… That is just like Paul: sending a cheering word from a prison in Rome to the believers at Ephesus. What cannot the Spirit of God work?

Here is a worker who gave Paul nothing but cause for gratitude. Writing to the believers at Ephesus, he describes Tychicus as "a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord" (see also Colossians 4:7). That is no small verdict, and we should remember that the Holy Spirit inspired it. It was a rare mercy for the aged Apostle to have such a servant to send to Ephesus on his behalf at this moment.

It is beautiful to see how tender his care is for the feelings of believers. He counts on their affection. He sends a man who would help them grow in their souls, and who would also meet their anxious longing for news about his own position and circumstances… The personal messages and greetings, so beautiful in some of the letters, are missing here. Tychicus himself probably carried them.

Thankfully, life is NOT all battle. There is conflict, in dead earnest at times, but not always. At the close of this wonderful letter the apostle steps back from the battle, if we may say so, to enjoy the "home of the heart". That home is LOVE, and in these closing verses there are four references to love... In the first two we have love on what we might call the horizontal level. In verse 23 we come to the vertical... Perhaps most of us know that Ephesians is really a letter of love (about 14 times).

He then asks for them peace with love and faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. When He left His own, the Lord left them His peace. Paul wants the saints to enjoy this peace. All that we have is the sovereign gift of God, and comes to us through the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is worth noticing the significant addition of the words "with faith" in this salutation. In this way the Spirit keeps reminding us what our blessings and enjoyments really are: part of the heritage of God. Without the active exercise of faith there can be no felt share in the love of God or in His peace. Both are ours in Him who gave them to us in His Son. But to enjoy them — and so to rise above the corrupting and the discouraging influence of present things day after day — we must walk daily by faith and not by sight.

The closing salutation fits: "Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptness." Without the Father and the Lord, what is anything else? Without incorruptness, even love — or what people call love — would be worthless.

He closes with the salutation: "Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Then he widens it to fit the character of this letter, which is hardly a local one: "Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption."

What a full and beautiful prayer to close this letter! This letter opens up all the purposes of love in God's heart towards us, the wonderful blessedness of our standing "in Christ," the walk that suits our heavenly calling, and the weapons provided for our heavenly warfare. It is doubtful that the "Amen" belongs to the original text. But it will surely be the fitting response of every believing heart.

This greeting does not view them as highly advanced or deeply taught Christians. It does not point to their exalted position, or to God's most wonderful purpose in Christ, which He has made them the subjects of. It simply speaks to them as those who "love our Lord Jesus Christ," and love Him "in sincerity." Grace, he says, be to all such.

"Uncorruptness" goes far beyond "sincerity," because it brings in what is due to God and Christ, and not merely the honest character and way of the man who teaches. The related word is just as weakly represented in Ephesians 6:24; for people might be sincere enough and still spoil the "incorruption" which there qualifies the love of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Notice how Paul qualifies that love. It is to be "in sincerity": pure, genuine, uncorrupted affection for our Lord Jesus Himself. It is not the kiss of a traitorous heart. It is not the gushing words of someone who utters smooth sentiments. It is the warm beating of a soul that cherishes its object, and values it more than position or service or honour of any kind.

Only there must be purity of heart and motive. The last words of verse 24, "in sincerity," or "in incorruption," are a reminder to us. Even in the early days when Paul was writing, what was corrupt had found a way in among those who professed to be Christian. To love the Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption is the hallmark of reality, the fruit of the genuine work of God.

Just as incorruptible seed produces the right fruit, so the Word which makes known divine love produces this too in the hearts of those who believe. It is written, "We love because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). Of such people it is said, "we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us." God expressed that love to us in Christ on Calvary's tree. He shows it toward us "in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." So the knowledge of divine love made known in Him gives birth to that incorruptible love for our Lord Jesus Christ which marks all saints.

Every true believer learns sooner or later that he needs Christ's grace to keep him day by day. As the Lord Himself said when He was here, "apart from me you can do nothing." Love for the Lord Jesus makes us dependent on Him, because it brings us nearer to Him. Near Him we learn the boundless stores of grace that live in Him. Those who only profess Christ pretend to love Him. But where there is no reality there can be no nearness to Christ, and no knowledge of the grace available in Him.

If only this closing word of Paul had been heeded! Then the sad rebuke of unreturned affection — "you have abandoned the love you had at first" — would never have been needed.