Chapter 09. Holy Results of Heavenly Blessing: Humility, Love, Harmony

Chapter 9.
Holy Results of Heavenly Blessing: Humility, Love, Harmony

Ephesians 4:1-7 "The invisible world with thee hath sympathized; Be thy affections raised and solemnized."

—Wordsworth THE First Part of the Epistle is now concluded, and the Second opens. We pass from the revelation of doctrine to the development of practice. Of course this must be said with some qualification. In the First Part we have had practice implied and alluded to; as where ( Ephesians 2:8) St Paul tells us that we were "created in Christ Jesus unto good works" and indeed in the manifest holy bearing of the entire exposition. And in the Second Part we shall find passage upon passage where doctrine is announced and enforced; some of these passages are as important as any of their kind in the New Testament. Altogether we find truth and life, here in Ephesians, as generally in Scripture, so closely, so vitally interwoven that it is impossible to treat either of the two as really isolated. Doctrine runs of itself into practice, in the mind of the Apostles, and practice always feels its footing in doctrine.

Let the suggestion given us by this fact never be forgotten by the Christian teacher. Does he really mean to be a messenger of the Gospel? Then let him often remind himself of this double phenomenon of the Good Tidings—that its end is "our sanctification" ( 1 Thessalonians 4:3), in the most practical sense possible, and that it seeks that end through the supernatural means of the message of Christ for us and Christ in us. It is only too possible to forget one or the other of these two sides of the nature of the Gospel. Sometimes we forget that practical holiness, conformity to God’s will in real life, and not only security and spiritual enjoyment, is its aim; and a seriously one-sided type of teaching must result from this. On the other hand it is sometimes forgotten that the grand peculiarity of the Good Tidings, properly so called, is to reveal a way towards this aim which is of grace, not nature, of God, not man. It takes man from the hands of the Law, convinced and humbled, silenced into self-despair, conscious to the heart that he can save himself neither from his Judge nor from himself. And then it shews him that wonderful Secret which it was not at all the business of the Law to shew him—the secret of redemption in the blood of the Lamb, and of purity and power in the gift of the Holy Ghost. This, and nothing else nor less, is the Gospel. What leads up to it, by burning into us the sense of the need of it, is not the Gospel, properly; it is the Law, whether it be the Law as written at Sinai or as spoken in the Sermon on the Mount.[1]

I have heard of great preachers whose perpetual message in the pulpit was the sinfulness of sin, and the profound ramification of sin in the human heart. In all true preaching that stern element should be present; for the minister of the Gospel is also the vindicator and assertor of the Law. But the teaching which is all conviction is not Gospel teaching. In a strict sense, it is not Christian teaching; not distinctively Christian. For the peculiarity, the "difference," of the Christian message is not its detection of the disease but its revelation of the remedy. The most soul-searching ministry becomes a ministry of the Gospel only as it goes on to set out the Lord Christ and the power of the eternal Spirit as the hope and liberty of the sinner. Aye, and to be a Gospel ministry indeed it must not only set Christ out but magnify Him, glorify Him, dilating and dwelling upon His "unsearchable riches" in their application to every need of man. But we have digressed a little, while considering the structure of our Epistle, and the vital inter-texture of its two parts. Let us come back, and observe again (what is obvious) that this inter-texture still leaves the two parts broadly distinguished. On the whole, the first three chapters are doctrinal all along, and the last three are very largely the practical application of the doctrine. If we ask for the picture of the true Christian, for his tangible character, as we shall see it and feel it in life, it is to the second part that we go, not to the first. Come hither then, and watch the Apostle as he draws that portrait.

What will be the first steps of the process? A painter commonly thinks first of the natural attitude and aspect of his sitter, before coming to the details of feature. What, in this immortal portrait, will be the chosen and characteristic position, the sic sedebat, sic se gerebat, of the Ephesian Christian? The question is the more interesting after our study of the man’s position and possessions, particularly after that last stage of our view of them, in which we saw that he was called to live as one "filled unto all the fulness of God." How will he bear himself under such astonishing conditions? Behold him yonder! His walk, his look, his manner, whatever else they are, denote one who has indeed learned the humility of love.

Ephesians 4:1. I appeal to you,[2]therefore, I the prisoner in the Lord, the man whose captivity is due to his union with his Master and yours, and who has thus a sacred claim on your attention, to set out on life’s walk[3]in a way worthy of, in moral correspondence with, the calling with which you were called, when the heavenly message reached you, and the heavenly grace drew you to close with it.[4] Yes, I appeal to you to take care that your actual tone and bearing answers to the inward transfiguration, to your new standing and your new endowments as the called ones of your redeeming King. Great and wonderful that standing and those endowments are. My exposition of them will aid you to get some yet larger view of them than you had before; yet even so, they are "gifts unspeakable," "wealth unsearchable," a "love passing knowledge," wonders "far above all we ask or think." But then, the grander your place and your resources, the more conspicuous is the sovereign mercy which has conferred them. You look around, and find yourselves "called" to all the peace and all the power of a living union with Christ, planned for you in the deep eternity, realized now in your living persons, so that you are "seated together with Him in the heavenly places." But you remember instantly how you are so seated, and so enriched. You were dead, and a boundless mercy has bid you live. You were excommunicated aliens, and God has been pleased in His glorious freedom to give you the citizenship, yea, the nobility of the Israel of God. Ponder your magnificence of condition, till you begin in some true sense to realize it. But remember how you reached it, and each reflection upon it, while it rejoices your souls with a joy full of glory, and educates you already for the exaltations of the life to come, will only set you lower in your own esteem. "Lord, is it I?" "What have I that I did not receive," even as the destitute wanderer receives the bounty of a prince? So the very greatness of the Christian’s elevation, seen in the light of the Lord, tends directly to his personal humility. It is the profound secret of an abasement (not debasement) which cannot possibly be a matter for merely theoretical estimates; it must lay the man so low in his own esteem before God that he cannot possibly be other than softened and chastened before his fellow-men. He has been trusted with the riches of his King, and he feels them in his hands. But he remembers that his King has first forgiven him a hopeless debt, many more than ten thousand talents. He is "seated with the princes of His people." But he deserved, in law, to be "delivered unto the tormentors." Are his eyes really open to the greatness of his salvation? Then he sees his own demerit as he could not see it in the light of a salvation smaller and less divinely generous, The first, the deepest, the all-pervading effect upon character, which must issue from a real insight into the glory of our "calling," is holy humbleness. The really illuminated Christian must be humble, and that in ways which men around him must find out without mistake. So the Apostle proceeds:

Ephesians 4:2. With all lowly-mindedness, with an unreservedly (πάσης) humble estimate of self,[5]and meekness, an unreserved, simple-hearted, submission under trial, in whatever form it comes,[6] at once prostrate and at peace beneath the will of God; with longsuffering, the enduring, unweariable "spirit" (θυμός, μακροθυμία), which knows how to outlast pain or provocation in a strength learnt only at the Redeemer’s feet[7]; the noble opposite to the "short temper" which soon gives way, and whose outbursts are only sinful weakness under the thinnest mask. "With" these fair, tender graces, attended and escorted as it were by their strong gentleness, live up to your "calling," forbearing one another, allowing each for the others’ frailties and mistakes, aye, when they turn and wound you, in love, "finding your joy in the felicity of others," and so finding it easy to see with their eyes and, if need be, to take sides with them against yourselves. And let all this be done not only as right in itself, but in connexion with a far-reaching purpose, affecting your whole community; bear, and forbear, and love,

Ephesians 4:3. as those who are giving diligence, aiming in earnest (σπουδάζουτες), to preserve, with a watchful (τηρεῖν) custody, the oneness of the Spirit, the community, the identity, of feeling and of aim, generated by your common experience of the grace and power of the Holy Ghost, in the bond of our peace (τῆς εἰρήνης). That "peace" with God, and in Him with one another, which is in fact Christ Himself ( Ephesians 2:14), in His sacrifice and His presence, is to form the "bond" which shall maintain you in a holy union of spiritual hope and aim. To animate the thought, think on the mighty facts connected with this deep oneness; so will they the

Ephesians 4:4. better be realized in life. Remember—Onebody, and one Spirit; one Organism, and one only, consisting of the regenerated and living members of the one Head, all animated by the One eternal Spirit who first brought each into vital contact with the Lord, and now maintains each and all in Him; even as you were actually (καί) called, converted, (by this same divine Agent,) in one hope of your calling; so as to find yourselves, whatever your natural diversities as individuals, all included and united "in" the one glorious prospect (ἐλπίς opened up in Christ. The eternal future, with its oneness, is to bear upon the trials and duties of the present, and to draw the believing Church together in view of it.[8] Yes, in view of your possessions and your privileges, everything contributes to the weight of this

Ephesians 4:5. holy watchword, Unity; one Lord Christ Jesus, the same and undivided, Owner and King equally of all His people; one faith, one identical secret for peace and power, a saving reliance on His one Name,[9] a secret equally necessary and equally open for you all; one baptism, the same God-given symbol and seal, in every case, upon the one saving faith—the same in the sacred simplicity of its Rite, in the holiness of the Triune Name ( Matthew 28:19) named therein, and in the riches of the Covenant of which it is the initiation and lastly, crowning all, as the ultimate and infinite glory

Ephesians 4:6. of all true unity, one God and Father of all, of all His individual children equally, of all to whom, in His Son, He has "given authority to become children of God, even to them that believe on the name" of Christ ( John 1:12); the Father who is over all His people, presiding, ruling, owning, and, through them all, working out His will by them as His means, and in them all,[10] dwelling in their hearts, and in their community, as in His shrine, His home.

Thus far we have the argument for humbleness and love derived from the watchword Unity. Now the Apostle turns to the opposite while vitally related truth, Diversity, and draws the same inference from that side also. The Asian believer (and the English) is to "give diligence," the diligence of thoughtful recollection and patient watchfulness, to cultivate the true "solidarity" of Christian life, because its root is one. He is to do this also, and to do it the better, because meantime its branches, leaves, and fruits are many. He is to be prepared for a wide diversity in the manifestations of it, and in the functions of those who equally share in it. He is to be more than prepared for this; it is to be his happiness to observe and welcome it, for it is the result of his Lord’s use of the individualities of His people for the more complete manifestation of Himself.

Let us take the first sentence of this new paragraph, the better to put the complementary truths in their harmony before us; the paragraph as a whole must be deferred for another chapter of exposition.

Ephesians 4:7. But to each one of us was given, when the Master called His servant, when the Head brought the limb into touch and union, grace, the free gift alike of work to do[11] and of power to do it, not in any fortuitous or merely general fashion, but with perfect distributive skill, according to the measure, in a calculated adjustment, of the gift of our (τοῦ) Christ. The "grace" was the "gift," free, full, and sovereign; it was "the gift of Christ," absolutely His to provide and to dispense. Its allotment, the dealing out of the "talents" from the one great fund, was governed by His own deep design, manifold in detail, one in end.

Let each happy recipient take his "gift," and use it, and be glad. And as for the Householder’s assignment to a fellow-servant, "What is that to thee? Follow thou Me."

We pause once more in our translation and exposition. In the passage just traversed, what messages emerge as the most conspicuous and weighty? We would fain "hear what God the Lord will speak" in this word of His.

I. All through, as with "the pleasant voice of the Mighty One," He speaks to His people the blissful law of love. That is to say, He bids each disciple forget himself and remember others, in the magic power of "so great salvation." There are many things in Christian life. "But one thing is needful." There are gifts eminent and shining. But there is always one "more excellent way"; it is the way of holy love. Not love anyhow, but love learnt of the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord; love "worthy of the calling wherewith we were called." Such a love must, if true to itself, be true to its cause. It must be lowly, it must be meek, it must be longsuffering and forbearing. No doubt on occasion it will abundantly prove itself to be brave, to be active, resourceful, practical; "not in word and in tongue, but in deed and in truth." But all its courage and all its workfulness will have at the very heart of them that grace which the world cannot give, humbleness, meekness, the spirit which has learnt self-abasement in "the secret of the presence" of a perfect Saviour. Be this remembered by us all in these days of hurry, of unchastened liberty, and abundant self-advertisement. Alas, such "days are evil" for close intercourse with God in Christ, and deep insights into His covenant-treasures, as by souls which "have an unction from the Holy One." Therefore all the more those who seek to be disciples indeed must watch, and pray, and ponder the often neglected Word, that they may "know the hope of their calling," and then may "walk worthy of their calling"—with the walk of humbleness and love.

II. The paragraph speaks to us all along of the deep sacredness of Christian Unity. "Behold, how good and pleasant a thing!" From every point of view the happy duty is enforced, of "giving diligence," of being in earnest, for unity. Its deadly enemy, the spirit of self, is here commanded to depart in the name of our "heavenly calling," which, "calling" us to Christ, calls us immeasurably above the miserable self-seeking and self-assertion which dislocate and disintegrate the union of souls. The celestial friends of unity are here called to the front—the recollected oneness of our new life in Christ, of our faith within, of our baptism without, of our Master, of our Father.

Beyond question, the Apostle means a unity which is tangible, practical, working. His mention of our Baptism may remind us of this, if we need it; the oneness of the sacred outward Rite suggests at once a community of life which in some measure must express itself externally and publicly. "One baptism!" said a venerable Hindoo convert a few years ago to a Christian visitor, who, sitting by the old man’s sick-bed in the mud-hut in Bengal, had just recited to him the words of this Ephesian passage. The Englishman reached the phrase, "one faith"; the ex-Brahmin, who had been literally worshipped till he was baptized, and then at once treated "as the offscouring of all things," quietly, but with indescribable impressiveness, took up the next words, "one baptism!"

Indeed the Apostle has in view a unity which does not satisfy itself with sentiment. It prizes all possible actual coherence of order, and organization; all such methods of worship as may best aid the believing company to enjoy a public fellowship together before God as true and general as possible. Easy and ill-considered separations, even in things most external, are assuredly wounds to such unity, and in that respect are sins. The Christian Church should reflect as much as may be outwardly the holy inward principle and power of unity in Christ.

Yet let us on the other hand earnestly remember that the context and the terms of this passage alike lead us, for the heart of the matter, to a region of things far other than that of authority, administration, succession. For his basis of unity the Apostle goes to the height of heaven and to the depth of the sanctified soul. He has in his deepest thought not a Society founded by Christ on earth to convey His grace, but the Church written in heaven, and the Lord of it present in His every member’s heart, welcomed in by personal faith, under the power of the eternal Spirit, in response to imploring prayer.

Such was our Master’s own thought of Unity, in the great High Priestly Prayer:—"that they may be one in Us; that they may be one even as We are One." Poor and unsatisfying are the results where "Unity," "Corporate Life," and the like, are the perpetual watchwords, but where they bear a primary reference to order, function, and succession in the ministry of the Church. One cannot but ask the question sometimes, when contemplating phenomena of an ardent ecclesiasticism, is this the worthy goal of ten thousand efforts, of innumerable assertions of "catholicity"—this spirit and tone, these enterprises and actions, so little akin either to the love or to the simplicity, the openness, of the heavenly Gospel? Suppose such "unity" to be attained to the uttermost, beyond even the dreams of Rome. Would it contribute at all to making "the world believe that the Father hath sent the Son, and hath loved us even as He loved Him" ( John 17:23)? No, it would not. But the manifestation of the presence of the Lord in all who bear His Name, so that they forget themselves in Him, would do so to a degree now inconceivable. It would tend more than all ecclesiastical schemes to an external and operative cohesion. But it would do so not by policy, but by grace; not by the universal acceptance of a hierarchical programme, but by "the life of Jesus manifested in mortal flesh."

"Partakers of the Saviour’s grace, The same in mind, in heart, Nor joy nor grief, nor time nor place, Nor life nor death can part."

C. Wesley.

^[1]The Sermon on the Mount may be described as "the Law glorified." It is an inestimable statement of the essentials of a holy life, "piercing even to the thoughts and intents of the heart." But it is not the Gospel; "no flesh shall be saved"by the Sermon on the Mount.In order to carry out its precepts, in any real sort, we need all the Gospel of the Cross and the Spirit.

^[2]Παρακαλῶ: perhaps the above rendering is better than "beseech," asπαρακαλεῖνusually means "to exhort," "to encourage," and the like. But I am doubtful.—For a close and beautiful parallel seeRomans 12:1.

^[3]Περιπατῆσαι: the aorist perhaps justifies my rather elaborate rendering. It is notπεριπατεῖν, the continuous course, buta a pointin it; a "new departure" of more assured and conscious consistency. But I do not press this as if it were the only possible exposition; the aorist sometimes gathers up an idea into a point rather than marks a point of time.

^[4]See above, onEphesians 1:18, for remarks on the proper meaning ofκαλεῖν κλῆσις, in the Epistles. Practically, our common use of the word "conversion" nearly conveys the meaning; only with the difference that, while "conversion" rather emphasizes the human side in the great change, "calling" rather draws attention to the divine side, the Voice of prevailing power.

^[5]"Ταπεινοθροσύνη... is a distinctively Christian grace, viewed as a thing always to be sought and cherished. Pagan ethics, at best, just recognized it as right where necessary, but not as good and happyper se.The Gospel puts its obligation and its blessedness on the same footing for all believers, as being all absolutely dependent for all true good upon the mercy of Another.—The corresponding adjective [ταπεινός] is used (Matthew 11:29) by our Lord of Himself. Trench [Synonyms,s.v.ταπεινοφροσύνη, πραότης] remarks that we have Him there recognizing His entire dependence as Man on the Father. Not moral defect, but ’creatureliness,’ he says, is the thought there. ’In His human nature He must be the pattern of all... creaturely dependence.’" (Note in theCambridge Bible.)

^[6]See againMatthew 11:29, where our blessed Master describes Himself asπρᾶος. His supreme exercise ofπραότηςwas when He yielded Himself to the prospect of suffering in the Garden, and to the outrages of His enemies at His trial and crucifixion.

^[7]An attempt was made, in the seventeenth century, to naturalize in English the wordlonganimity(likemagnanimity), to representμακροθυμία. The Vulgate here haslonganimitas.

^[8]Cp.Colossians 1:4for a parallel. There "the hope laid up for you in heaven" is presented as areason why(διὰτὴνἐλπίδα) for "the love ye have towards all the saints." Great indeed is meant to be the binding power of a common eternal hope.

^[9]Πίστιςis here explained not of the Christian’screedbut of the Christian’strust.I believe this to be required, or at least strongly suggested, by the general use of the wordπίστιςin the writings of St Paul. Hardly ever, if ever, does he use it distinctly in the sense of creed. Of course some "creed," however brief, is required in order to "trust," if it is to be trust in the trustworthy Object. But this is not in question where we are examining the use of the wordπίστις.

^[10]Readἐν πᾶσιν, notἐν π.ὑμῖνand probably notἐν π.ἡμῖν. But the reference is unmistakable.

^[11]Χάριςis often used by St Paul in reference to thegrant of duty,though always in connexion with the grant of faculty for it. See e.g.Php 1:7, and above,Ephesians 3:8.