Barnes New Testament Notes

Verse 11. Wherefore remember. The design of this evidently is to excite a sense of gratitude in their bosoms for that mercy which had called them from the errors and sins of their former lives to the privileges of Christians. It is a good thing for Christians to "remember" what they were. No faculty of the mind can be better employed to produce humility, penitence, gratitude, and love, than the memory. It is well to recall the recollection of our former sins; to dwell upon our hardness of heart, our alienation, and our unbelief; and to remember our wanderings and our guilt, until the heart be affected, and we are made to feel. The converted Ephesians had much guilt to recollect and to mourn over in their former life; and so have all who are converted to the Christian faith.

That ye being in time past. Formerly -- pote.

Gentiles in the flesh. You were Gentiles in the flesh, i.e., under the dominion of the flesh, subject to the control of carnal appetites and pleasures.

Who are called uncircumcision. That is, who are called "the uncircumcised." This was a term similar to that which we use when we speak of "the unbaptized." It meant that they were without the pale of the people of God; that they enjoyed none of the ordinances and privileges of the true religion; and was commonly a term of reproach. Comp. Jud 14:3; 15:18; 1 Sa 14:6; 17:26; 1 Sa 31:4; Eze 31:18.

By that which is called the Circumcision. By those who are circumcised, i.e., by the Jews.

In the flesh made by hands. In contradistinction from the circumcision of the heart. See Barnes "Ro 2:28, See Barnes "Ro 2:29".

They had externally adopted the rites of the true religion, though it did not follow that they had the circumcision of the heart, or that they were the true children of God.