Commentary on Ephesians 5-6
by Dave Brown
Ephesians Introduction Page
Ephesians 1-3
Ephesians 4
Commentary on Ephesians 5
1 Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children;
[There is no break in the thought here either in this verse or the next. In fact, it would have been more logical to have the chapter break between verses 2 and 3 below, since there is a major change from positive exhortations to negative warnings. But no matter; we understand that neither the chapters nor the verse numbers were inspired. What in particular about God are we to imitate? Looking at the last few verses of Chapter 4 we see that the specific is forgiveness out of love. And so Paul is urging them to forgive others as God has forgiven those who are now in Christ. The simile “as beloved children” is indicative of children imitating their parents. “Beloved” – when they love their parents they are more apt to imitate them. And the theme of love carries over into the next verse …]
2 and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell.
[The thought actually starts in verse 31 and it should be read as a unit. As we follow God’s example in forgiveness, we do it out of love, following the example of Christ. We know that this sacrifice is referring to Jesus’ death on the cross, which he calls an offering and a sweet smell. The odor of a sweet smell is a metaphor for the burning of sweet incense that accompanied many of the Old Testament sacrifices.]
3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as becomes saints;
4 nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, or jesting, which are not befitting: but rather giving of thanks.
[As contrasted to these wonderful attributes of Christ that we are to imitate are the filthy things of this world. These things should be as repugnant to the Christian as they are to God, but most of us have to work on getting these things out of our lives – we have to learn to hate them in our lives. Do we know what they are? Let us consider them one by one:
5 For this ye know of a surety, that no fornicator, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
[Obviously this not an exhaustive list, but it is a very definitive statement regarding the persons involved. This is not being written to non-believers speaking of the people of the world, although certainly they would be included in being lost, having never even come to Christ. But it is important for us to realize that in this context Paul has been speaking of the behavior of Christians. Thus, verse five is not pointing the finger out at the world – what would be the point in that? No, he is saying that if saved people turn and become these things, they will not have any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God – which is obviously heaven itself and eternal life with God. This is talking about our eternal salvation. If our behavior makes us fall into any of these classifications, we will not inherit eternal life. Those who believe in once-saved-always-saved cannot believe this simple statement given by our Lord through the apostle Paul (recall 1 Cor. 14:37). This verse does not make an exception for those who have had some “salvation experience.” Quite to the contrary, it is speaking to those who, at this point in their lives at least, have given themselves to Christ and are thus saved. To those who are guilty of any of these things, we plead with you to repent and obtain forgiveness as indicated in 1 John 2:1-2. If you are not a Christian, see what the will of Jesus is for you.]
6 Let no man deceive you with empty words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience.
[Again recognize that these words are being written to Christians – so it is plain that we should all beware of the fact that we can be deceived with empty words. An interesting metaphor – words that appear on the surface to have great promise and yet, there is nothing behind or within them – they are empty. “These things” is referring to the fact that the “sons of disobedience” (see Eph. 2:2) are caught up and given to these and comparable similar vices, and that they will have no part in the inheritance of the saints. Here the same wrath of God that will come to the sons of disobedience will come to unrepentant Christians. Anything that would dispel this truth is deceptive and empty, and we are commanded not to be deceived by such rhetoric.]
7 Be not ye therefore partakers with them;
8 For ye were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord: walk as children of light
9 (for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth),
10 proving what is well-pleasing unto the Lord;
[We will not belabor the fact that Paul is pleading with them not to go back to their old manner of life and have spiritual fellowship (sharing) with those who they had previously turned from. He calls those who escaped this degenerate lifestyle “light in the Lord” in the sense that if Christians do not provide the light of Christ to this world, then there will be no light at all. This should be a great compliment, but also a terribly sobering thought. In John 1 it says that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the light. Here we learn that if we escape our sins we can now be light in the Lord as He was. And so he commands them to “walk as children of light proving what is well-pleasing unto the Lord.” (Bypassing the parenthetical for a moment.) What does it mean to prove it (verse 10)? Surely the same thing that it meant in Romans 12:2: “And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, and ye may PROVE what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Can we prove there is a God? Can we prove that the scriptures are the will of God? If we view the proving not as a courtroom proof but rather the proving of fine gold, or the proving of the recipe for a cake. The only way to do that is to bake the cake with the ingredients exactly as specified. The proof may not hold up with anyone else, and perhaps that is good, for their proof should not be in your experience; it should be in their own. If you have given the gospel of Jesus Christ a chance in your life, then you know that it is valid. It will become inconceivable for you to accept any other spiritual reality. But if you refuse to live the life and reject God’s word, then it will never be possible to prove anything, and you may be much like Festus, not just thinking Paul was a bit misguided, but going to far as to accuse him of being a mad man (Acts 26:24). So he commands (this time with the parenthetical): “walk as children of light, for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.” There is no fruit of the light that is in any way evil; as Christians we need to escape the evil.]
11 and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them;
[Fellowship is sharing – giving to it and taking from it. Surely we know what these things are – if you do not know, ask one of the sons of disobedience and he will tell you. How is it that those who populate the bars can tell a hypocrite a mile away? Oh, for sure they do not know the doctrine we teach or the songs that we sing, but there is within them (at least some of the time) a basic “knowledge of good and evil” that seems to have been passed down from the Garden to all men. Do not give in to them or give them any comfort in their sins; but rather lead them out of those sins to the “light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). Do not take anything from them or you will be sucked down into the same quicksand that they are in – for this is also an absolute statement with absolutely no exceptions: “Be not deceived: Evil companionships corrupt good morals” (1 Cor 15:33).
12 for the things which are done by them in secret it is a shame even to speak of.
[And yet, is he not speaking of them now? The point is that they need not and should not be mentioned in detail, and when they are mentioned they might even cause us to sin in our thoughts. Some things just do not need to be articulated; and those that do not need to be spoken of because of their obvious evil, should not be brought up, because in so doing we could bring shame upon ourselves. When we do refer to them we can follow Paul’s example here – we know what he is talking about. And yet some Christians seem to glory in explaining all of their sinful exploits prior to becoming a Christian. When you hear someone say “this was before I became a Christian,” chances are you are going to hear something that is a shame to even speak of. Let us control ourselves in this regard and not get into a wrestling match in the pig slime. This does not mean that mature spiritual people should intentionally remain ignorant of all of the sordid variations of wickedness. Elders in particular are commanded to be vigilant of such things, and there are ways in this day and age that we can learn about them without having to go to the darkest places in our communities. “Speaking of” them and knowing about them are two different things. But let us also be aware of the dangers of the deceptions on the Internet, and not be ensnared by any temptation to participate.]
13 But all things when they are reproved are made manifest by the light: for everything that is made manifest is light.
[When in total darkness it is impossible to tell what is in front of you – very few times have any of us ever been in TOTAL darkness. But when only a small amount of light is shed on something, it is still not “made manifest” – it is still not quite clear what it is in detail. But as the bright light is focused on it, all doubt is gone and we perceive it clearly and in detail. And so it is that we bring spiritual light to bear when we reprove evil. Recall that we are the lights in Jesus Christ as we walk in His will.
14 Wherefore (he) saith, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee.
[Continuing the figure of the light and lights, our lights are not sourced within us -- they are merely a reflection of Jesus Christ. Our part, however, is to stop letting life pass us by as if we were asleep. If we have evil works we need to put them totally away and allow the light of Jesus to have its full effect. See 2 Corinthians 4:6: “Seeing it is God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”]
15 Look therefore carefully how ye walk, not as unwise, but as wise;
16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
[“Therefore” refers back to the previous verse. Don’t just wake up, but watch out how you walk. Wisdom comes from God and we need to pray for it (James 1:5). God’s divine providence can lead us to a better understanding of life itself so that we know better how to apply His word to our every decision (here called a “walk”). The idea of redeeming something is that of buying it back when it has been put in jeopardy. And indeed, when we waste our time and do not plan on spending it wisely but rather on our own pleasure, then it is in jeopardy of being lost forever, and we need to buy it back – to get it under the control of Jesus Christ.]
17 Wherefore be ye not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
[This is a command and there should be the full expectation that we can obey it. The only ones who cannot obey it are those who are foolish. They may trivialize it by saying: “everyone knows that!” They may rationalize that it is too difficult to understand. They may just choose to ignore it because they really do not want to know what it says. How foolish! Soon our days are over and the things of this world will matter no more. Woe to the person who must face death as a fool.]
18 And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit;
[Some who claim to be filled with the Holy Spirit might just as well be drunk. Being filled with the Spirit is not a physical thing. See Romans 8. We fill ourselves with the Spirit when we allow the word of God to dwell in us richly, and when we allow it to determine the courses of our lives. To make this into some experience (like getting drunk) not only trivializes it, it completely violates the true meaning of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Recall in Acts how in most cases when people were stated to be filled with the Holy Spirit that they immediately spoke the truth of God’s word. This is what the Holy Spirit compels us to do, and if we are not doing that, then we are not under His influence, and we can hardly claim that we are filled with the gift of the Holy Spirit that all true believers have (Acts 5:32).]
19 speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;
[Why would we expect that this would be any exception to the rule? When filled with the Holy Spirit what are we compelled to do? In this case the speaking is in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. These things, of course are of a musical nature, and while psalms might come primarily from the book of Psalms, they might still be hymns and spiritual songs. We know of no good reason to make a distinction between them, but suggest that the three terms are used for emphasis and completeness. (We have known of cases where some have arbitrarily made such a distinction and went on to try to bind that all three of these be done in every service. We would wonder that if someone wishes to be contentious, why would they not make an issue over something that might be of true concern as opposed to something so totally trivial.) The word “singing” should be clear enough, but if not, then “making melody with your heart” is even more definitive. We can make melody with an instrument of music and our heart might be in it, but that is NOT making melody WITH the heart. And to what extent can a musical instrument “speak to one another?” The history of instrumental music in the Roman Catholic church and the denominations should also add weight to the fact that this is an innovation that was not a practice in the first century when the church was under the complete direction of the Holy Spirit through the apostles and the prophets. We must respect the silence of the scriptures and not bind anything that is not clearly given. The objections that we launched with this should also speak loudly – is it worth splitting a local church over such a questionable practice that cannot be substantiated by scripture? Those who do it will have to pay a dear price for their liberty; we do not care to be among them. But that aside, here we have a positive command of Christians to glorify God and teach each other through song. What a wonderful thing to give God praise and thanksgiving for all that He has done for us. To those who have been blessed with wonderful voices, we thank you for your zeal. But God does not judge the quality of worship on such skill. “Make a joyful noise!” and sometimes all we can do is to make joyful noise unto the Lord. How beautiful are the sounds as they are enriched in its journey into heaven.]
20 giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;
21 subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ.
[Do we stop giving thanks in song when bad things happen? Do we have faith that all things work together for good to those who love God (Rom. 8:28)? Or, do we hedge? Perhaps “all” here does not mean “all?” Can we see that the loss of a loved one might motivate us to want to join them in heaven? … or avoid their fate in hell? Or that bad health is a warning to us of the brevity of life, and hence a great blessing? Just some food for thought. But the message here is that we are to continue in our praise of God regardless of the circumstances, recognizing that God knows when we have sorrows and losses, trouble and turmoil. Yes it comes into all of our lives, albeit in different measure.]
[We might see “subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ as being an exhortation that goes with our group worship. Indeed, the person who does not sing the lead but may sing base (or other parts) brings something to the worship that is not so easily discerned. It is in a sense being done in subjection, clearly not to exalt that individual but to anonymously benefit the entire local church. But this clause should also be viewed as an introduction to a number of passages on the subject of subjection. In a sense it qualifies them all: we are first to be in subjection to everyone else – everyone – not just the ones that are going to be mentioned below. We will continue with this theme as we discuss these various relationships.]
22 Wives, (be in subjection) unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
[The discussion begins with the most intimate of relationships. That instruction along these lines is important for the wife not subjecting herself to her husband is not of recent origin. We wonder if things would have been different had Eve sought permission from as opposed to leading her husband (see 1 Timothy 2:13). The definition of what it means to be in subjection is relevant here. It certainly does not mean ceasing to be an autonomous free will agent. So, should the husband require the wife to do something that violated God’s will, or to have a part in his violating God’s will, that is not what is required here. From the previous verse we see that there is an obligation for the husband to be in subjection to the wife. We urge that this entire passage of scripture going right into the next chapter be taken as a unit, and our discussion of it will also try not to press more out of a given verse than what the Holy Spirit intended.]
23 For the husband is the head of the wife, and Christ also is the head of the church, (being) himself the savior of the body.
[Is this just an instruction to the wife? Is it not also an instruction to the husband as well. Did Jesus ever command anything of the church that was purely self-serving? Did Jesus expect more from the church than what he gave to it? Headship is not talking about arbitrary dictatorial power. Jesus commands to us are for our own good, and they are infinitely perfect and good in this regard. There is nothing selfish about them. The husband has considerable responsibility in this regard as well to make his request to his wife for her benefit and happiness as much as (if not more than) for his.]
24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so (let) the wives also (be) to their husbands in everything.
[When we compare this to the commands to the husband we will see that there is a reason for the differences. Wives have a problem with this for which there may be many reasons. Generally they are not spelled out in the scriptures (possible exception 2 Tim. 2:12-15). But maintaining the husband in his proper role seems to be the desired result. It should not be the desire of the wife to take the ultimate lead in the home. She certainly can and will have influence and lead in certain areas, but she needs to draw the line at the point that her influence turns into his renouncing his rightful role as the head of the home, and out of frustration just lets her have her way. This is a very unnatural and uncomfortable situation for the wife to get in, despite the fact that Satan has lured her into it with promise of great rewards. But experience the joy that comes from the release of responsibility – “I have discussed it and made my case, but now that he has decided, I will support him and never mention it again.” And never mention it! Especially if it does not work out.]
25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it;
[We infer from this that the major issue with the husband is a lack of proper love for his wife. He may be taking the right actions as far as subjection to and serving her is concerned, but at the same time these actions might not be motivated by love. So Paul goes into some detail here as to just what it means for a husband to love your wife as Christ loved the church. First, he gave himself for it – is that why you are taking the actions that you are taking? Are you giving yourself up for your wife and your family? Remember, Jesus did this while still exercising headship over it.]
26 that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word,
27 that he might present the church to himself a glorious (church), not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
[The reason that he gave himself for the church is so that he could set it apart (sanctify it) from the evil that is in the world. This is protection. The husband should want to protect his wife both physically and spiritually. The church is cleansed as individual members added to it are cleansed. We are baptized into Christ (Rom. 6:3) and thereby cleansed from the deeds of the old man, which are crucified and go into the grave with Jesus, but never come out in the resurrection, as we are born again to walk in newness of life, having an entirely new life in Jesus. This is not just a matter of getting wet – a mere ritualistic technicality that has to be attended to when we get around to it – it is done in His name and thus by His authority – the authority of the word of God. If it were not a command of God and stated to be for the remission of sins (Acts 2:37), then it would just be a matter of getting wet. But “with the word” the washed members are now presented to Jesus as a glorious bride, not having spot or wrinkle (or any such thing), but holy and without blemish. Can we not envision the physical analogy here of the wife who is pure and chaste and without blemish.]
28 Even so ought husbands also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He that loves his own wife loves himself:
29 for no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ also the church;
30 because we are members of his body.
[Paul now gives reasons that husbands should love their own wives. The degree of love should be equivalent or beyond the degree of love that we have for ourselves. The reasoning is that, since “the two are one flesh” to love his wife is equivalent with loving himself. Of course there are exceptions to the general rule that no men hate their own flesh – there are those who cut themselves, to say nothing of those who smoke, drink alcohol or abuse other drugs. Some would sacrifice their physical flesh for other things. But the subject here appeals to the norm, not the ultra-exceptions. In the normal case, men take care of their flesh and have a high regard for it – they nourish it and cherish it. So should be the physical and spiritual regard for our wives. This is the regard that Christ has for members of his body, the church. Jesus has promised to give us anything that we need to help us in the fight against Satan (Mt. 7:7; Lk. 11:9). Should a man withhold anything beneficial from his wife?]
[Let us take the opportunity here to say a word about subjection. What can we say when a man changes his child’s diaper, or for that matter brings home a salary and uses it to take care of his family? Is he not subjecting himself to them? The word subjection means “to be brought under the power of another.” In the normal family relationship we find all of the family members allowing themselves to be brought under the power of each other at various times and in various circumstances. We must conclude that these instructions to the wife, husband (and to children and servants as we get into the next chapter) are special edicts. Obviously, they are being given because they need to be given. We tend to be lax and need to take special effort with regard to these things and not just fall back on what is considered to be normal for all people.]
31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh.
[For what cause? This is a direct quotation of Gen. 2:24 as well as Jesus’ restatement of it in Mt. 19:5. So the cause must be discerned from the context of Gen. 2:24 and not from the verses above. If we look at either Genesis 2 or Matthew 19 we see that the cause was that this was the way God created them – they were created for each other. And because they were created for each other, a man should leave the dictates and authority of the family in which he grew up and start a new family by cleaving to his wife. The two becoming one flesh is not some mystical statement that we have to wonder about. It is a pure statement of fact. God said it and that makes it so. We know it is not speaking physically, for they still are two distinct bodies with distinctly different DNA. They are not the same flesh literally, but what would make us think that they were? So this is speaking in a profoundly spiritual sense using their offspring for an analogy, since in that instance we do have the two becoming one flesh.]
32 This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church.
[The mystery is not the two becoming one flesh, nor is it of a husband loving his wife and the wife subjecting herself to him as both are required. Indeed while 50% of marriages might end up in divorce, the other 50% still stand, not always, but in many cases of being the ideal situation for the involved man, woman and the resulting family. This is no mystery, since this is something that can be understood and has been understood from the beginning. We see it working itself out in the ideal of sound family relationships today. The mystery is in regard to Christ and the church. For only if we can understand the perfect relationship between a man and his wife and a wife and her husband can we begin to understand the relationship that we have with Christ when we are a member of his eternal and sanctified body. To solve the mystery requires that we reason from the known to the unknown. Known here are the blessings of the ideal marriage, despite the fact that few might attain to that ideal. The unknown is the relationship between Christ and the church. But hopefully by this analogy even that can be understood.]
33 Nevertheless do ye also severally love each one his own wife even as himself; and (let) the wife (see) that she fear her husband.
[Back to the original subject, the command of Jesus to those of us who are married is very clear. Fear here is respect. I heard a preach say once: “all that men want from their wives is a little respect.” I was surprised that he would say such a thing in an informal setting with his wife sitting right next to him. I expect that this was not the first time she had heard him say that.]
Commentary on Ephesians 6
6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
[In this final chapter Paul continues with his instructions regarding subjection, love and obedience. He has talked to husbands and wives, now he turns to the children and appeals first to what is right. While we are in their home, as long as our parents do not tell us to do things that are contrary to God’s law, we are to yield ourselves to them and obey them. In the Lord – our obedience to them should not go beyond what is good and right.]
2 Honor thy father and mother (which is the first commandment with promise),
3 that it may be well with thee, and thou may live long on the earth.
[The promise: “…that thy days may be long in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee” (Ex. 20:12). Some say that being obedient would keep them safe, and thus the promise. That could be part of it, but it was a small part. The connection with the Promised Land makes this more than some natural consequence. If children honor their parents, chances are much better that they will honor God. It is a matter of children understanding and subjecting themselves to authority. That is what this entire passage is all about. But in this case, the habitual subjection to their parents will make the continued subjection to God all the easier in that it will be perceived as it is – God’s wish to make our lives better – and not as an arbitrary constraint on our freedom.]
4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord.
[This is a not-but statement. If nurturing and chastening them in the admonition of the Lord provokes them, then so be it. That is not the important aspect of this command. The thrust of it is that more success can be attained by bringing children up in positive reinforcement to the word of God than can be attained by punishment. The one leads to wrath, the other to service. But we cannot expect them to follow the Lord when we are not serving the Lord ourselves.]
5 Servants, be obedient unto them that according to the flesh are your masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;
[Bondservants were effectively slaves, although it well could be that this was a temporary thing to work off a debt that could not be resolved (at that time) in any other way. Slavery then was as much a part of their economy as earning an hourly wage is by most today. The major difference was the control that the slave owner had over the life of the slave. But there is a likeness in that a portion of our lives are effectively sold to a master, and if we want to keep our jobs we had better be obedient to him (or her). But this command is not just a practical one – it is one given by God to maintain the general order of their society at that time. Be obedient, have respect, and serve your master – in most cases it would go extremely well for them if they did. For what motivation would a master have for punishing a slave who is very faithful and working hard? Again, this command goes beyond these practical (and quite logical) considerations to state that your master is to be treated as though he were Christ. This is repeated for emphasis again in verse 7. When we work we are not to think that we are serving our master (or in today’s economy, our boss). We are to view the boss as being Jesus Christ. That puts an entirely different view on things; for while we might do as little as we can get by with for our boss, we would hardly treat Jesus this way—would we? (We know of some religious doctrines that do just that, so we cannot over-generalize here.) We know how we would serve Jesus if he were our boss, and this is how we are to serve our temporal boss today. More instructions are given …]
6 not in the way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers; but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;
7 with good will doing service, as unto the Lord, and not unto men:
[See the article on economic immorality. All of the goods and services that you see around you are the product of someone’s labor. It is only right that, if you are going to take advantage of all of these things that our society provide, that YOU DO YOUR PART to provide the fruit of your labor to others, or we might say, to society in general. When you fail to work up to your capacity you not only cheat your boss or your company, but you are cheating others in society out of the fruits of your labor. You are running the entire economy down. Do not rationalize and say it is not that much so it just cannot matter. It does matter because when you slack off so do dozens of others who follow your example. And then it gets to the point where everyone says: “what’s the point? why should I be any different?” And our entire economy suffers. This happened recently in Russia, and it has happened throughout history in many other countries. Don’t just work hard when the boss is around. Men-pleasers are those who will hypocritically act like they are supporting the boss until he is no longer around, and then they do their mischief. Our work in serving others should be as if it were doing God’s will (because it is), and unless our service to God comes from the heart, it is just vain effort for nothing.]
8 knowing that whatsoever good thing each one doeth, the same shall he receive again from the Lord, whether (he be) bond or free.
[In fact, his reward might have been even better if he was a bondservant. God is no respecter of persons. We look at the clothes people wear and the cars that they drive. God does not see these things – he looks down into the heart of the man and knows whether he is motivated by love. Our service on the job should be out of love to God and to our fellow man, knowing that the more we produce the more others will have to satisfy their necessities and to enjoy. It is good to work hard and to be an honest and trustworthy employee. David said: “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread” (Ps. 37:25). And why not? How many hard workers are there out there? How many honest, trustworthy people are there out there? Why will you be resented when you work hard and are honest? Is it not because the boss will make special note of you, and when the others get laid off he will make sure that you will still be around. There are great rewards here on this earth for doing God’s will, but the Christian does not do it for these rewards; he does it because he knows it is God’s will and that is good enough.]
9 And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, and forbear threatening: knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no respect of persons with him.
[In other words, don’t think that because you are a master that it cuts anything with God. If you abuse those who work for you, threaten them and treat them with contempt, you will have your reward. “Do the same things unto them” – this means to treat them with the same respect as they are commanded to have for you. We are all in the brotherhood of mankind, and we all share in the benefits of our labors, and we are commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves. The various positions and stations in life are necessary to maintain the organization of our society. Do not resent it; work hard and you will be given a supervisory position before you know it. At that point you will see that ruling over others has its downside as well.]
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might.
[This is a pivotal verse – he is finalizing the theme of subjection and at the same time starting a theme of domination. We need to subject ourselves to one another as long as that is consistent with our service to the Lord. At the same time, we need to arm ourselves against the onslaughts of Satan and never allow ourselves to come either under his subjection. Since his weapons are spiritual in nature, it is essential that we arm ourselves with the spiritual weapons that are at our disposal – what Paul calls “the whole armor of God.”]
11 Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual (hosts) of wickedness in the heavenly.
[What are these powers, world-rulers of darkness and spiritual hosts of wickedness? We are tempted to think that they are the rulers of this world, since generally our assessment of them is not that they are the most righteous people in this world. But the statement is made up front” “our wrestling is not against flesh and blood.” So our participation in any physical battle is not what is being called for. We are not saying that nations do not have the God-given right to protect their citizens, since it is clear that God has established governmental power (see Romans 13) to protect us by providing a level of order as opposed to anarchy. We readily admit that there are some areas of this world that are in complete chaos and anarchy, but we appeal to the fact that these are exceptions rather than the rule.]
[So if this is not a call to physical arms, who are these enemies of the truth? Let us appeal once again to the phrase “in the heavenly,” which we saw clearly in verses 1:3. 1:20, 2:6 and 3:10 clearly referred to the realm of spiritual things. In those cases we might say the term was used positively – of the Lord’ church, of heaven and of those impacted by the truth. Now it is referring to the dark side – but it is still a spiritual battle of those who are saved against the spiritual forces of Satan. Let us never doubt that there are such evil spirits who would love nothing more than to devour our souls. “It is against such spirits, and all their malignant influences, that Christians are called to contend. In whatever way their power is put forth-whether in the prevalence of vice and error; of superstition and magic arts; of infidelity, atheism, or antinomianism; of evil customs and laws; of pernicious fashions and opinions, or in the corruptions of our own hearts, we are to make war on all these forms of evil, and never to yield in the conflict.” -- Albert Barnes]
[We can see even more power in this passage when we consider what is driving the evil forces of our world today toward war, pedophilia, child sacrifice and cannibalism. At the extreme is the Satanist concept that to force Jesus to come back into this world, the maximum extent of evil must be practiced – as if there were some checklist of all of the most sordid wickedness that must all be “checked off” before Jesus can return. Of course, this is as absurdly counter to the teachings of the New Testament as one can get, but to withstand God’s truth is the objective. While we recognize this is just a rationalization for sin, perhaps to give some excuse for horrendous behavior, we cannot deny that there are many who have been so swept up by it. And even to those not consciously given to it, it accounts for much of the evil that we see in the world around us. While this is the extreme, its source has to be in what Jesus called the “deep things of Satan” (Revelation 2:24). Some major leaders in our society have turned their lives over to Satan much like Judas Iscariot did (Luke 22:3) thinking that it is the answer to all of their wishes. As Christians we must recognize that the only (and certainly the most effective) weapon to counter such depravity is the truth of God’s word (6:17, below). Their end in this regard is certain: “…and the rest were killed with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, (even the sword ) which came forth out of his mouth : and all the birds were filled with their flesh” Revelation 19:21).
13 Wherefore take up the whole armor of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.
[Because you are in a war with these spiritual forces of evil, the only hope for you is to avail yourself of the armor that God has made available to you. The “whole armor of God” – not just part of it. Not just the part that we might be enamored of. The “evil day” is a day in which we can expect an attack from these evil spirits upon our spirit. Since they are constantly attending to their mischief, we should expect the evil day to overtake us when we least expect it. “Having done all” brings with it the idea of fighting the battle to the best of our abilities, depending on God’s power and God’s weapons to get us through and to remain standing when the fight is over.]
14 Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
[Some commentators have taken these weapons and mapped them to physical weapons of either offense or defense, showing how each is appropriate to specific spiritual task. This is an interesting exercise, but we feel that no such analysis was ever intended, and that the parts of the body protected merely serve to organize the various weapons. The first one is truth. Later another will be “the word of God.” I do not perceive any great difference between truth and the word of God except that we become instruments of the truth when we rely on nothing other than God’s word. So the first might be looking toward something that we would live out in our lives as opposed to something that we would preach. Next comes righteousness as a breastplate. How many darts of Satan do we deflect with this armor? And how easy is it for Satan to inflict great harm upon us when we stray from it. The next one is that which is said to protect our feet “the preparation of the gospel of peace.” The gospel of peace is to prepare us. Certainly this is the same gospel that is called the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16). But why of peace? We cannot help but think that this alludes back to Chapter 3 where the specific mystery of the gospel then revealed was the conversion of the Gentiles -- Eph 2:15: “… having abolished in the flesh the enmity, (even) the law of commandments (contained) in ordinances; that he might create in himself of the two one new man, (so) making peace; …” The peace is between the Jew and the Gentile, and its model of peace among all men. What a changed world we would have if all would follow after it.]
16 withal taking up the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil (one).
[How does faith enable us to fend off the fiery darts of Satan? These darts usually come off of the tongues of our fellow man, and we all too often allow them to penetrate our spiritual skin to the point that we respond in kind creating at least double the evil, and usually much, much more. Our faith makes the most vicious of attacks seem trivial. Proverbs 15:1: “A soft answer turns away wrath; but a grievous word stirs up anger.” Consider the application of this proverb – does is require faith? How about Romans 12:20: “But if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him to drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head.” Can we see why FAITH is so necessary to quench the darts. Quench: think of putting red hot metal into a pan of cold water … that is what quenching is all about.]
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
[The final two pieces of armor. When we truly visualize our salvation, we realize how powerful it is in turning the spirits of evil away. James 4:7: “Be subject therefore unto God; but resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” The helmet of salvation – that which protects our head … perhaps our thoughts. Can we think about salvation and plot evil at the same time? The final piece of armor is the only offensive piece. To this point all of the armor has been defensive in nature. This is the first and only offensive weapon. If we think about it, the only thing that we can do to overcome an evil spirit is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. The word is pictured as a sword in Hebrews 4:12 and Revelation 1:16. Jesus is the Word of God in John 1 … John 1:14: “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth.” Jesus never used physical power to preach the gospel, nor did the apostles. Jesus was so much different in this regard than Mohammed that it is strange that the Koran would even give Jesus the status of a prophet. This difference extends even to the use of any political force or coercion in the preaching of the gospel – something that latter day denominational people tend to forget. It is really a matter of faith – God does not need any military or political forces to win the battle for Him. The information in the Word of God is sufficient for all of our offensive needs.]
18 with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints,
[This verse related to all of the pieces of armor. We might preface it with: “Put on the whole armor of God … with all prayer and supplication …” The armor is not complete without God’s intervention – God’s hand is involved in all of man’s affairs, and all of your activities – His eye is on the sparrow (Mt. 10:29). Our prayer must be in the Spirit – this is not a command to jump around with emotion – being full of the Holy Spirit is to be full of the word of God (see Romans 8). As we pray we watch and stay aware, for if we fail to watch (be diligent – 1 Tim. 4:15) we will not persevere but will be swept up with the powers of darkness. Our prayers should be for all Christians, for we all need God’s help to overcome; we dare not even think that we can do it on our own.
19 And on my behalf, that utterance may be given unto me in opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel,
20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.
[Recall from Eph. 3:6 that the specific aspect of the gospel that was a particular mystery was: “… that the Gentiles are fellow-heirs, and fellow-members of the body, and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, …” And further, we resolved in that context that it was Paul’s proclamation of the entry in of the Gentiles that ended up putting him in prison (in chains). We will not repeat that reasoning here – just bring it to your attention since it seems to once again be on Paul’s mind. But this is not the subject here – the subject has to do with their prayer for Paul, which he is encouraging so that he might have the help of God in further proclaiming the gospel to all men everywhere.]
21 But that ye also may know my affairs, how I do, Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things:
22 whom I have sent unto you for this very purpose, that ye may know our state, and that he may comfort your hearts.
[While this is clearly a personal note to them it should not be lightly discarded. All scripture is beneficial and all examples apply in some way. It should not be difficult to see how this example applies to us today. Do we know a Tychicus today? Someone who is a “beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord?” We certainly should know of several. If we were in peril, would they be willing to carry word to others who loved us of the state of our welfare? Paul’s concern for them involves their concern for him. He had great confidence that they loved him and that they would wonder how thing were with him, especially in the perilous state that he was in. And so he shows his concern for them (being concerned for him) in sending Tychicus, in all probability to deliver this letter, to comfort their hearts (their feelings of fear that he might be killed).]
23 Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
[Peace is a subtheme of this letter – especially the peace between Jew and Gentile (1:2; 2:14-17; 4:3; 6:15). If these cultural differences can become irrelevant in the Lord’s church it will, in itself, be a proclamation that Christ is with them. This can only be accomplished by “love with faith” – knowing God’s will and doing it in recognition of the great benefits to ourselves and those around us (1 Jn. 3:5). His blessing to them is from the only source that it can possibly come from – God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.]
24 Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ with (a love) incorruptible.
[Grace may be an even greater subtheme than is peace (1:2, 6-7; 2:5-8; 3:2; 3:7-8; 4:7, 29). Paul’s prayer here is that God’s grace through which we have our salvation be with them that not only have the same love for Jesus, but that this love be incorruptible – which refers to its both being everlasting and sincere (without flaw).]
by Dave Brown
Ephesians Introduction Page
Ephesians 1-3
Ephesians 4
Commentary on Ephesians 5
1 Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children;
[There is no break in the thought here either in this verse or the next. In fact, it would have been more logical to have the chapter break between verses 2 and 3 below, since there is a major change from positive exhortations to negative warnings. But no matter; we understand that neither the chapters nor the verse numbers were inspired. What in particular about God are we to imitate? Looking at the last few verses of Chapter 4 we see that the specific is forgiveness out of love. And so Paul is urging them to forgive others as God has forgiven those who are now in Christ. The simile “as beloved children” is indicative of children imitating their parents. “Beloved” – when they love their parents they are more apt to imitate them. And the theme of love carries over into the next verse …]
2 and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell.
[The thought actually starts in verse 31 and it should be read as a unit. As we follow God’s example in forgiveness, we do it out of love, following the example of Christ. We know that this sacrifice is referring to Jesus’ death on the cross, which he calls an offering and a sweet smell. The odor of a sweet smell is a metaphor for the burning of sweet incense that accompanied many of the Old Testament sacrifices.]
3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as becomes saints;
4 nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, or jesting, which are not befitting: but rather giving of thanks.
[As contrasted to these wonderful attributes of Christ that we are to imitate are the filthy things of this world. These things should be as repugnant to the Christian as they are to God, but most of us have to work on getting these things out of our lives – we have to learn to hate them in our lives. Do we know what they are? Let us consider them one by one:
- Fornication – any sexual act outside of a legitimate and scriptural marriage.
- All uncleanness – perhaps the idea is all other types of uncleanliness, since fornication would certainly be one of them. But certainly we can be unclean in our thoughts (Mt. 5:28), and this would certainly cause the man to become unclean (Mt. 15:18-20). And there is no reason to limit these unclean thoughts to those of sexual immorality. Would we not become unclean when our emotions run amuck and cause us to hate those who we should love most? Uncleanness here is that which stains the soul and renders it unfit to be in the presence of God. Note that “unclean” is an Old Testament term that had many physical causes attached to it, e.g., touching a dead body or someone with leprosy. Generally these things have not be brought into the New Testament to define who is clean and unclean; instead these extremely repugnant things are allegorical to spiritual uncleanness, which is what this word is referencing in this context.
- Covetousness – do we understand that this is a cancer of the emotions? Perhaps seeing it grouped together with those sins that we classify as being extremely evil helps us to understand its sordid nature. It certainly includes envy and jealousy (the inordinate desire for that which belongs to others, and the inordinate fear of losing something that we do have, respectively). But these vices go deeper into our emotional state as well, and only the individual can measure them within himself or herself – perhaps that is the reason that this sin is so often overlooked as causing depravity. Do we ever feel good when others are caused to suffer? Or, do we suffer emotionally when we see others rejoice and prosper? If so, do not be deceived, these are the hallmarks of envy, jealousy and covetousness, and there is no greater cause of evil than are these things. These are the emotions that motivate armies and dictators to delight in the shedding of innocent blood, something that is ranked with the greatest abominations to our God (Prov. 6:16-17). Let us fight this seemingly natural response within us with the help of God so that it does not destroy us, as it has so many. We see in the next verse that covetousness is idolatry – we should not have to explain that statement … what are you worshipping when you are covetous?
- Filthiness – see unclean. Could there be any difference? Hardly in English, but let’s check the Greek. Uncleanness is referring to impurity; filthiness is referring to that which is shameful such as obscenity. The person who is unclean is in that state … it is not an action. Filthiness implies more of the action that the sinful person takes to make himself impure. There seems to be in this context the general theme of sins of the tongue, and we would think that the filthy person would be that person (as we say today) whose mind is constantly in the gutter.
- Foolish talking – back in Eph. 4:29 corrupt speech was condemned. Speech can be corrupted by many things – profanity, deception, improper criticism of others, hypocrisy, etc. The emphasis here seems to be that the talking is being done for no positive reason. It is idle and vain with not good purpose – perhaps it is even meant to be hurtful to others for no positive redeeming reason. The words of Jesus are indeed sobering: "that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment;" Matt 12:36. Words are important and should not be just thrown around without due thought. The next verse is: Matt 12:37: “For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” How many times have things slipped out that we regretted the next day … or perhaps, for the rest of our lives?
- Jesting – this certainly does not condemn our enjoyment of innocent humor, although we find little that Jesus uttered that can be construed to be humorous. We are commanded to be sober in about six places in the New Testament (e.g., 2 Cor. 5:13; 1 Pet. 5:8). Those who want to make everything into a joke (to the point of being overbearing) cannot get their minds around the seriousness of spiritual things. Those comedians of the world who would think that anything is fair game as long as it makes people laugh certainly illustrate this evil gone to seed. Christians will seek to balance their words in this regard and never take advantage of another person’s spiritual weakness to get a laugh. This is a deep subject and requires considerable thought and meditation – the mature Christian will take it to heart.
5 For this ye know of a surety, that no fornicator, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
[Obviously this not an exhaustive list, but it is a very definitive statement regarding the persons involved. This is not being written to non-believers speaking of the people of the world, although certainly they would be included in being lost, having never even come to Christ. But it is important for us to realize that in this context Paul has been speaking of the behavior of Christians. Thus, verse five is not pointing the finger out at the world – what would be the point in that? No, he is saying that if saved people turn and become these things, they will not have any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God – which is obviously heaven itself and eternal life with God. This is talking about our eternal salvation. If our behavior makes us fall into any of these classifications, we will not inherit eternal life. Those who believe in once-saved-always-saved cannot believe this simple statement given by our Lord through the apostle Paul (recall 1 Cor. 14:37). This verse does not make an exception for those who have had some “salvation experience.” Quite to the contrary, it is speaking to those who, at this point in their lives at least, have given themselves to Christ and are thus saved. To those who are guilty of any of these things, we plead with you to repent and obtain forgiveness as indicated in 1 John 2:1-2. If you are not a Christian, see what the will of Jesus is for you.]
6 Let no man deceive you with empty words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience.
[Again recognize that these words are being written to Christians – so it is plain that we should all beware of the fact that we can be deceived with empty words. An interesting metaphor – words that appear on the surface to have great promise and yet, there is nothing behind or within them – they are empty. “These things” is referring to the fact that the “sons of disobedience” (see Eph. 2:2) are caught up and given to these and comparable similar vices, and that they will have no part in the inheritance of the saints. Here the same wrath of God that will come to the sons of disobedience will come to unrepentant Christians. Anything that would dispel this truth is deceptive and empty, and we are commanded not to be deceived by such rhetoric.]
7 Be not ye therefore partakers with them;
8 For ye were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord: walk as children of light
9 (for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth),
10 proving what is well-pleasing unto the Lord;
[We will not belabor the fact that Paul is pleading with them not to go back to their old manner of life and have spiritual fellowship (sharing) with those who they had previously turned from. He calls those who escaped this degenerate lifestyle “light in the Lord” in the sense that if Christians do not provide the light of Christ to this world, then there will be no light at all. This should be a great compliment, but also a terribly sobering thought. In John 1 it says that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the light. Here we learn that if we escape our sins we can now be light in the Lord as He was. And so he commands them to “walk as children of light proving what is well-pleasing unto the Lord.” (Bypassing the parenthetical for a moment.) What does it mean to prove it (verse 10)? Surely the same thing that it meant in Romans 12:2: “And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, and ye may PROVE what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” Can we prove there is a God? Can we prove that the scriptures are the will of God? If we view the proving not as a courtroom proof but rather the proving of fine gold, or the proving of the recipe for a cake. The only way to do that is to bake the cake with the ingredients exactly as specified. The proof may not hold up with anyone else, and perhaps that is good, for their proof should not be in your experience; it should be in their own. If you have given the gospel of Jesus Christ a chance in your life, then you know that it is valid. It will become inconceivable for you to accept any other spiritual reality. But if you refuse to live the life and reject God’s word, then it will never be possible to prove anything, and you may be much like Festus, not just thinking Paul was a bit misguided, but going to far as to accuse him of being a mad man (Acts 26:24). So he commands (this time with the parenthetical): “walk as children of light, for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.” There is no fruit of the light that is in any way evil; as Christians we need to escape the evil.]
11 and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even reprove them;
[Fellowship is sharing – giving to it and taking from it. Surely we know what these things are – if you do not know, ask one of the sons of disobedience and he will tell you. How is it that those who populate the bars can tell a hypocrite a mile away? Oh, for sure they do not know the doctrine we teach or the songs that we sing, but there is within them (at least some of the time) a basic “knowledge of good and evil” that seems to have been passed down from the Garden to all men. Do not give in to them or give them any comfort in their sins; but rather lead them out of those sins to the “light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). Do not take anything from them or you will be sucked down into the same quicksand that they are in – for this is also an absolute statement with absolutely no exceptions: “Be not deceived: Evil companionships corrupt good morals” (1 Cor 15:33).
12 for the things which are done by them in secret it is a shame even to speak of.
[And yet, is he not speaking of them now? The point is that they need not and should not be mentioned in detail, and when they are mentioned they might even cause us to sin in our thoughts. Some things just do not need to be articulated; and those that do not need to be spoken of because of their obvious evil, should not be brought up, because in so doing we could bring shame upon ourselves. When we do refer to them we can follow Paul’s example here – we know what he is talking about. And yet some Christians seem to glory in explaining all of their sinful exploits prior to becoming a Christian. When you hear someone say “this was before I became a Christian,” chances are you are going to hear something that is a shame to even speak of. Let us control ourselves in this regard and not get into a wrestling match in the pig slime. This does not mean that mature spiritual people should intentionally remain ignorant of all of the sordid variations of wickedness. Elders in particular are commanded to be vigilant of such things, and there are ways in this day and age that we can learn about them without having to go to the darkest places in our communities. “Speaking of” them and knowing about them are two different things. But let us also be aware of the dangers of the deceptions on the Internet, and not be ensnared by any temptation to participate.]
13 But all things when they are reproved are made manifest by the light: for everything that is made manifest is light.
[When in total darkness it is impossible to tell what is in front of you – very few times have any of us ever been in TOTAL darkness. But when only a small amount of light is shed on something, it is still not “made manifest” – it is still not quite clear what it is in detail. But as the bright light is focused on it, all doubt is gone and we perceive it clearly and in detail. And so it is that we bring spiritual light to bear when we reprove evil. Recall that we are the lights in Jesus Christ as we walk in His will.
14 Wherefore (he) saith, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee.
[Continuing the figure of the light and lights, our lights are not sourced within us -- they are merely a reflection of Jesus Christ. Our part, however, is to stop letting life pass us by as if we were asleep. If we have evil works we need to put them totally away and allow the light of Jesus to have its full effect. See 2 Corinthians 4:6: “Seeing it is God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”]
15 Look therefore carefully how ye walk, not as unwise, but as wise;
16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
[“Therefore” refers back to the previous verse. Don’t just wake up, but watch out how you walk. Wisdom comes from God and we need to pray for it (James 1:5). God’s divine providence can lead us to a better understanding of life itself so that we know better how to apply His word to our every decision (here called a “walk”). The idea of redeeming something is that of buying it back when it has been put in jeopardy. And indeed, when we waste our time and do not plan on spending it wisely but rather on our own pleasure, then it is in jeopardy of being lost forever, and we need to buy it back – to get it under the control of Jesus Christ.]
17 Wherefore be ye not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
[This is a command and there should be the full expectation that we can obey it. The only ones who cannot obey it are those who are foolish. They may trivialize it by saying: “everyone knows that!” They may rationalize that it is too difficult to understand. They may just choose to ignore it because they really do not want to know what it says. How foolish! Soon our days are over and the things of this world will matter no more. Woe to the person who must face death as a fool.]
18 And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit;
[Some who claim to be filled with the Holy Spirit might just as well be drunk. Being filled with the Spirit is not a physical thing. See Romans 8. We fill ourselves with the Spirit when we allow the word of God to dwell in us richly, and when we allow it to determine the courses of our lives. To make this into some experience (like getting drunk) not only trivializes it, it completely violates the true meaning of being filled with the Holy Spirit. Recall in Acts how in most cases when people were stated to be filled with the Holy Spirit that they immediately spoke the truth of God’s word. This is what the Holy Spirit compels us to do, and if we are not doing that, then we are not under His influence, and we can hardly claim that we are filled with the gift of the Holy Spirit that all true believers have (Acts 5:32).]
19 speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;
[Why would we expect that this would be any exception to the rule? When filled with the Holy Spirit what are we compelled to do? In this case the speaking is in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. These things, of course are of a musical nature, and while psalms might come primarily from the book of Psalms, they might still be hymns and spiritual songs. We know of no good reason to make a distinction between them, but suggest that the three terms are used for emphasis and completeness. (We have known of cases where some have arbitrarily made such a distinction and went on to try to bind that all three of these be done in every service. We would wonder that if someone wishes to be contentious, why would they not make an issue over something that might be of true concern as opposed to something so totally trivial.) The word “singing” should be clear enough, but if not, then “making melody with your heart” is even more definitive. We can make melody with an instrument of music and our heart might be in it, but that is NOT making melody WITH the heart. And to what extent can a musical instrument “speak to one another?” The history of instrumental music in the Roman Catholic church and the denominations should also add weight to the fact that this is an innovation that was not a practice in the first century when the church was under the complete direction of the Holy Spirit through the apostles and the prophets. We must respect the silence of the scriptures and not bind anything that is not clearly given. The objections that we launched with this should also speak loudly – is it worth splitting a local church over such a questionable practice that cannot be substantiated by scripture? Those who do it will have to pay a dear price for their liberty; we do not care to be among them. But that aside, here we have a positive command of Christians to glorify God and teach each other through song. What a wonderful thing to give God praise and thanksgiving for all that He has done for us. To those who have been blessed with wonderful voices, we thank you for your zeal. But God does not judge the quality of worship on such skill. “Make a joyful noise!” and sometimes all we can do is to make joyful noise unto the Lord. How beautiful are the sounds as they are enriched in its journey into heaven.]
20 giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father;
21 subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ.
[Do we stop giving thanks in song when bad things happen? Do we have faith that all things work together for good to those who love God (Rom. 8:28)? Or, do we hedge? Perhaps “all” here does not mean “all?” Can we see that the loss of a loved one might motivate us to want to join them in heaven? … or avoid their fate in hell? Or that bad health is a warning to us of the brevity of life, and hence a great blessing? Just some food for thought. But the message here is that we are to continue in our praise of God regardless of the circumstances, recognizing that God knows when we have sorrows and losses, trouble and turmoil. Yes it comes into all of our lives, albeit in different measure.]
[We might see “subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ as being an exhortation that goes with our group worship. Indeed, the person who does not sing the lead but may sing base (or other parts) brings something to the worship that is not so easily discerned. It is in a sense being done in subjection, clearly not to exalt that individual but to anonymously benefit the entire local church. But this clause should also be viewed as an introduction to a number of passages on the subject of subjection. In a sense it qualifies them all: we are first to be in subjection to everyone else – everyone – not just the ones that are going to be mentioned below. We will continue with this theme as we discuss these various relationships.]
22 Wives, (be in subjection) unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
[The discussion begins with the most intimate of relationships. That instruction along these lines is important for the wife not subjecting herself to her husband is not of recent origin. We wonder if things would have been different had Eve sought permission from as opposed to leading her husband (see 1 Timothy 2:13). The definition of what it means to be in subjection is relevant here. It certainly does not mean ceasing to be an autonomous free will agent. So, should the husband require the wife to do something that violated God’s will, or to have a part in his violating God’s will, that is not what is required here. From the previous verse we see that there is an obligation for the husband to be in subjection to the wife. We urge that this entire passage of scripture going right into the next chapter be taken as a unit, and our discussion of it will also try not to press more out of a given verse than what the Holy Spirit intended.]
23 For the husband is the head of the wife, and Christ also is the head of the church, (being) himself the savior of the body.
[Is this just an instruction to the wife? Is it not also an instruction to the husband as well. Did Jesus ever command anything of the church that was purely self-serving? Did Jesus expect more from the church than what he gave to it? Headship is not talking about arbitrary dictatorial power. Jesus commands to us are for our own good, and they are infinitely perfect and good in this regard. There is nothing selfish about them. The husband has considerable responsibility in this regard as well to make his request to his wife for her benefit and happiness as much as (if not more than) for his.]
24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so (let) the wives also (be) to their husbands in everything.
[When we compare this to the commands to the husband we will see that there is a reason for the differences. Wives have a problem with this for which there may be many reasons. Generally they are not spelled out in the scriptures (possible exception 2 Tim. 2:12-15). But maintaining the husband in his proper role seems to be the desired result. It should not be the desire of the wife to take the ultimate lead in the home. She certainly can and will have influence and lead in certain areas, but she needs to draw the line at the point that her influence turns into his renouncing his rightful role as the head of the home, and out of frustration just lets her have her way. This is a very unnatural and uncomfortable situation for the wife to get in, despite the fact that Satan has lured her into it with promise of great rewards. But experience the joy that comes from the release of responsibility – “I have discussed it and made my case, but now that he has decided, I will support him and never mention it again.” And never mention it! Especially if it does not work out.]
25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it;
[We infer from this that the major issue with the husband is a lack of proper love for his wife. He may be taking the right actions as far as subjection to and serving her is concerned, but at the same time these actions might not be motivated by love. So Paul goes into some detail here as to just what it means for a husband to love your wife as Christ loved the church. First, he gave himself for it – is that why you are taking the actions that you are taking? Are you giving yourself up for your wife and your family? Remember, Jesus did this while still exercising headship over it.]
26 that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word,
27 that he might present the church to himself a glorious (church), not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
[The reason that he gave himself for the church is so that he could set it apart (sanctify it) from the evil that is in the world. This is protection. The husband should want to protect his wife both physically and spiritually. The church is cleansed as individual members added to it are cleansed. We are baptized into Christ (Rom. 6:3) and thereby cleansed from the deeds of the old man, which are crucified and go into the grave with Jesus, but never come out in the resurrection, as we are born again to walk in newness of life, having an entirely new life in Jesus. This is not just a matter of getting wet – a mere ritualistic technicality that has to be attended to when we get around to it – it is done in His name and thus by His authority – the authority of the word of God. If it were not a command of God and stated to be for the remission of sins (Acts 2:37), then it would just be a matter of getting wet. But “with the word” the washed members are now presented to Jesus as a glorious bride, not having spot or wrinkle (or any such thing), but holy and without blemish. Can we not envision the physical analogy here of the wife who is pure and chaste and without blemish.]
28 Even so ought husbands also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He that loves his own wife loves himself:
29 for no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ also the church;
30 because we are members of his body.
[Paul now gives reasons that husbands should love their own wives. The degree of love should be equivalent or beyond the degree of love that we have for ourselves. The reasoning is that, since “the two are one flesh” to love his wife is equivalent with loving himself. Of course there are exceptions to the general rule that no men hate their own flesh – there are those who cut themselves, to say nothing of those who smoke, drink alcohol or abuse other drugs. Some would sacrifice their physical flesh for other things. But the subject here appeals to the norm, not the ultra-exceptions. In the normal case, men take care of their flesh and have a high regard for it – they nourish it and cherish it. So should be the physical and spiritual regard for our wives. This is the regard that Christ has for members of his body, the church. Jesus has promised to give us anything that we need to help us in the fight against Satan (Mt. 7:7; Lk. 11:9). Should a man withhold anything beneficial from his wife?]
[Let us take the opportunity here to say a word about subjection. What can we say when a man changes his child’s diaper, or for that matter brings home a salary and uses it to take care of his family? Is he not subjecting himself to them? The word subjection means “to be brought under the power of another.” In the normal family relationship we find all of the family members allowing themselves to be brought under the power of each other at various times and in various circumstances. We must conclude that these instructions to the wife, husband (and to children and servants as we get into the next chapter) are special edicts. Obviously, they are being given because they need to be given. We tend to be lax and need to take special effort with regard to these things and not just fall back on what is considered to be normal for all people.]
31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh.
[For what cause? This is a direct quotation of Gen. 2:24 as well as Jesus’ restatement of it in Mt. 19:5. So the cause must be discerned from the context of Gen. 2:24 and not from the verses above. If we look at either Genesis 2 or Matthew 19 we see that the cause was that this was the way God created them – they were created for each other. And because they were created for each other, a man should leave the dictates and authority of the family in which he grew up and start a new family by cleaving to his wife. The two becoming one flesh is not some mystical statement that we have to wonder about. It is a pure statement of fact. God said it and that makes it so. We know it is not speaking physically, for they still are two distinct bodies with distinctly different DNA. They are not the same flesh literally, but what would make us think that they were? So this is speaking in a profoundly spiritual sense using their offspring for an analogy, since in that instance we do have the two becoming one flesh.]
32 This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church.
[The mystery is not the two becoming one flesh, nor is it of a husband loving his wife and the wife subjecting herself to him as both are required. Indeed while 50% of marriages might end up in divorce, the other 50% still stand, not always, but in many cases of being the ideal situation for the involved man, woman and the resulting family. This is no mystery, since this is something that can be understood and has been understood from the beginning. We see it working itself out in the ideal of sound family relationships today. The mystery is in regard to Christ and the church. For only if we can understand the perfect relationship between a man and his wife and a wife and her husband can we begin to understand the relationship that we have with Christ when we are a member of his eternal and sanctified body. To solve the mystery requires that we reason from the known to the unknown. Known here are the blessings of the ideal marriage, despite the fact that few might attain to that ideal. The unknown is the relationship between Christ and the church. But hopefully by this analogy even that can be understood.]
33 Nevertheless do ye also severally love each one his own wife even as himself; and (let) the wife (see) that she fear her husband.
[Back to the original subject, the command of Jesus to those of us who are married is very clear. Fear here is respect. I heard a preach say once: “all that men want from their wives is a little respect.” I was surprised that he would say such a thing in an informal setting with his wife sitting right next to him. I expect that this was not the first time she had heard him say that.]
Commentary on Ephesians 6
6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
[In this final chapter Paul continues with his instructions regarding subjection, love and obedience. He has talked to husbands and wives, now he turns to the children and appeals first to what is right. While we are in their home, as long as our parents do not tell us to do things that are contrary to God’s law, we are to yield ourselves to them and obey them. In the Lord – our obedience to them should not go beyond what is good and right.]
2 Honor thy father and mother (which is the first commandment with promise),
3 that it may be well with thee, and thou may live long on the earth.
[The promise: “…that thy days may be long in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee” (Ex. 20:12). Some say that being obedient would keep them safe, and thus the promise. That could be part of it, but it was a small part. The connection with the Promised Land makes this more than some natural consequence. If children honor their parents, chances are much better that they will honor God. It is a matter of children understanding and subjecting themselves to authority. That is what this entire passage is all about. But in this case, the habitual subjection to their parents will make the continued subjection to God all the easier in that it will be perceived as it is – God’s wish to make our lives better – and not as an arbitrary constraint on our freedom.]
4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord.
[This is a not-but statement. If nurturing and chastening them in the admonition of the Lord provokes them, then so be it. That is not the important aspect of this command. The thrust of it is that more success can be attained by bringing children up in positive reinforcement to the word of God than can be attained by punishment. The one leads to wrath, the other to service. But we cannot expect them to follow the Lord when we are not serving the Lord ourselves.]
5 Servants, be obedient unto them that according to the flesh are your masters, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;
[Bondservants were effectively slaves, although it well could be that this was a temporary thing to work off a debt that could not be resolved (at that time) in any other way. Slavery then was as much a part of their economy as earning an hourly wage is by most today. The major difference was the control that the slave owner had over the life of the slave. But there is a likeness in that a portion of our lives are effectively sold to a master, and if we want to keep our jobs we had better be obedient to him (or her). But this command is not just a practical one – it is one given by God to maintain the general order of their society at that time. Be obedient, have respect, and serve your master – in most cases it would go extremely well for them if they did. For what motivation would a master have for punishing a slave who is very faithful and working hard? Again, this command goes beyond these practical (and quite logical) considerations to state that your master is to be treated as though he were Christ. This is repeated for emphasis again in verse 7. When we work we are not to think that we are serving our master (or in today’s economy, our boss). We are to view the boss as being Jesus Christ. That puts an entirely different view on things; for while we might do as little as we can get by with for our boss, we would hardly treat Jesus this way—would we? (We know of some religious doctrines that do just that, so we cannot over-generalize here.) We know how we would serve Jesus if he were our boss, and this is how we are to serve our temporal boss today. More instructions are given …]
6 not in the way of eyeservice, as men-pleasers; but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;
7 with good will doing service, as unto the Lord, and not unto men:
[See the article on economic immorality. All of the goods and services that you see around you are the product of someone’s labor. It is only right that, if you are going to take advantage of all of these things that our society provide, that YOU DO YOUR PART to provide the fruit of your labor to others, or we might say, to society in general. When you fail to work up to your capacity you not only cheat your boss or your company, but you are cheating others in society out of the fruits of your labor. You are running the entire economy down. Do not rationalize and say it is not that much so it just cannot matter. It does matter because when you slack off so do dozens of others who follow your example. And then it gets to the point where everyone says: “what’s the point? why should I be any different?” And our entire economy suffers. This happened recently in Russia, and it has happened throughout history in many other countries. Don’t just work hard when the boss is around. Men-pleasers are those who will hypocritically act like they are supporting the boss until he is no longer around, and then they do their mischief. Our work in serving others should be as if it were doing God’s will (because it is), and unless our service to God comes from the heart, it is just vain effort for nothing.]
8 knowing that whatsoever good thing each one doeth, the same shall he receive again from the Lord, whether (he be) bond or free.
[In fact, his reward might have been even better if he was a bondservant. God is no respecter of persons. We look at the clothes people wear and the cars that they drive. God does not see these things – he looks down into the heart of the man and knows whether he is motivated by love. Our service on the job should be out of love to God and to our fellow man, knowing that the more we produce the more others will have to satisfy their necessities and to enjoy. It is good to work hard and to be an honest and trustworthy employee. David said: “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread” (Ps. 37:25). And why not? How many hard workers are there out there? How many honest, trustworthy people are there out there? Why will you be resented when you work hard and are honest? Is it not because the boss will make special note of you, and when the others get laid off he will make sure that you will still be around. There are great rewards here on this earth for doing God’s will, but the Christian does not do it for these rewards; he does it because he knows it is God’s will and that is good enough.]
9 And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, and forbear threatening: knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no respect of persons with him.
[In other words, don’t think that because you are a master that it cuts anything with God. If you abuse those who work for you, threaten them and treat them with contempt, you will have your reward. “Do the same things unto them” – this means to treat them with the same respect as they are commanded to have for you. We are all in the brotherhood of mankind, and we all share in the benefits of our labors, and we are commanded to love our neighbors as ourselves. The various positions and stations in life are necessary to maintain the organization of our society. Do not resent it; work hard and you will be given a supervisory position before you know it. At that point you will see that ruling over others has its downside as well.]
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might.
[This is a pivotal verse – he is finalizing the theme of subjection and at the same time starting a theme of domination. We need to subject ourselves to one another as long as that is consistent with our service to the Lord. At the same time, we need to arm ourselves against the onslaughts of Satan and never allow ourselves to come either under his subjection. Since his weapons are spiritual in nature, it is essential that we arm ourselves with the spiritual weapons that are at our disposal – what Paul calls “the whole armor of God.”]
11 Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual (hosts) of wickedness in the heavenly.
[What are these powers, world-rulers of darkness and spiritual hosts of wickedness? We are tempted to think that they are the rulers of this world, since generally our assessment of them is not that they are the most righteous people in this world. But the statement is made up front” “our wrestling is not against flesh and blood.” So our participation in any physical battle is not what is being called for. We are not saying that nations do not have the God-given right to protect their citizens, since it is clear that God has established governmental power (see Romans 13) to protect us by providing a level of order as opposed to anarchy. We readily admit that there are some areas of this world that are in complete chaos and anarchy, but we appeal to the fact that these are exceptions rather than the rule.]
[So if this is not a call to physical arms, who are these enemies of the truth? Let us appeal once again to the phrase “in the heavenly,” which we saw clearly in verses 1:3. 1:20, 2:6 and 3:10 clearly referred to the realm of spiritual things. In those cases we might say the term was used positively – of the Lord’ church, of heaven and of those impacted by the truth. Now it is referring to the dark side – but it is still a spiritual battle of those who are saved against the spiritual forces of Satan. Let us never doubt that there are such evil spirits who would love nothing more than to devour our souls. “It is against such spirits, and all their malignant influences, that Christians are called to contend. In whatever way their power is put forth-whether in the prevalence of vice and error; of superstition and magic arts; of infidelity, atheism, or antinomianism; of evil customs and laws; of pernicious fashions and opinions, or in the corruptions of our own hearts, we are to make war on all these forms of evil, and never to yield in the conflict.” -- Albert Barnes]
[We can see even more power in this passage when we consider what is driving the evil forces of our world today toward war, pedophilia, child sacrifice and cannibalism. At the extreme is the Satanist concept that to force Jesus to come back into this world, the maximum extent of evil must be practiced – as if there were some checklist of all of the most sordid wickedness that must all be “checked off” before Jesus can return. Of course, this is as absurdly counter to the teachings of the New Testament as one can get, but to withstand God’s truth is the objective. While we recognize this is just a rationalization for sin, perhaps to give some excuse for horrendous behavior, we cannot deny that there are many who have been so swept up by it. And even to those not consciously given to it, it accounts for much of the evil that we see in the world around us. While this is the extreme, its source has to be in what Jesus called the “deep things of Satan” (Revelation 2:24). Some major leaders in our society have turned their lives over to Satan much like Judas Iscariot did (Luke 22:3) thinking that it is the answer to all of their wishes. As Christians we must recognize that the only (and certainly the most effective) weapon to counter such depravity is the truth of God’s word (6:17, below). Their end in this regard is certain: “…and the rest were killed with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, (even the sword ) which came forth out of his mouth : and all the birds were filled with their flesh” Revelation 19:21).
13 Wherefore take up the whole armor of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.
[Because you are in a war with these spiritual forces of evil, the only hope for you is to avail yourself of the armor that God has made available to you. The “whole armor of God” – not just part of it. Not just the part that we might be enamored of. The “evil day” is a day in which we can expect an attack from these evil spirits upon our spirit. Since they are constantly attending to their mischief, we should expect the evil day to overtake us when we least expect it. “Having done all” brings with it the idea of fighting the battle to the best of our abilities, depending on God’s power and God’s weapons to get us through and to remain standing when the fight is over.]
14 Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,
15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
[Some commentators have taken these weapons and mapped them to physical weapons of either offense or defense, showing how each is appropriate to specific spiritual task. This is an interesting exercise, but we feel that no such analysis was ever intended, and that the parts of the body protected merely serve to organize the various weapons. The first one is truth. Later another will be “the word of God.” I do not perceive any great difference between truth and the word of God except that we become instruments of the truth when we rely on nothing other than God’s word. So the first might be looking toward something that we would live out in our lives as opposed to something that we would preach. Next comes righteousness as a breastplate. How many darts of Satan do we deflect with this armor? And how easy is it for Satan to inflict great harm upon us when we stray from it. The next one is that which is said to protect our feet “the preparation of the gospel of peace.” The gospel of peace is to prepare us. Certainly this is the same gospel that is called the power of God unto salvation (Rom. 1:16). But why of peace? We cannot help but think that this alludes back to Chapter 3 where the specific mystery of the gospel then revealed was the conversion of the Gentiles -- Eph 2:15: “… having abolished in the flesh the enmity, (even) the law of commandments (contained) in ordinances; that he might create in himself of the two one new man, (so) making peace; …” The peace is between the Jew and the Gentile, and its model of peace among all men. What a changed world we would have if all would follow after it.]
16 withal taking up the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil (one).
[How does faith enable us to fend off the fiery darts of Satan? These darts usually come off of the tongues of our fellow man, and we all too often allow them to penetrate our spiritual skin to the point that we respond in kind creating at least double the evil, and usually much, much more. Our faith makes the most vicious of attacks seem trivial. Proverbs 15:1: “A soft answer turns away wrath; but a grievous word stirs up anger.” Consider the application of this proverb – does is require faith? How about Romans 12:20: “But if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him to drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head.” Can we see why FAITH is so necessary to quench the darts. Quench: think of putting red hot metal into a pan of cold water … that is what quenching is all about.]
17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
[The final two pieces of armor. When we truly visualize our salvation, we realize how powerful it is in turning the spirits of evil away. James 4:7: “Be subject therefore unto God; but resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” The helmet of salvation – that which protects our head … perhaps our thoughts. Can we think about salvation and plot evil at the same time? The final piece of armor is the only offensive piece. To this point all of the armor has been defensive in nature. This is the first and only offensive weapon. If we think about it, the only thing that we can do to overcome an evil spirit is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. The word is pictured as a sword in Hebrews 4:12 and Revelation 1:16. Jesus is the Word of God in John 1 … John 1:14: “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father), full of grace and truth.” Jesus never used physical power to preach the gospel, nor did the apostles. Jesus was so much different in this regard than Mohammed that it is strange that the Koran would even give Jesus the status of a prophet. This difference extends even to the use of any political force or coercion in the preaching of the gospel – something that latter day denominational people tend to forget. It is really a matter of faith – God does not need any military or political forces to win the battle for Him. The information in the Word of God is sufficient for all of our offensive needs.]
18 with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints,
[This verse related to all of the pieces of armor. We might preface it with: “Put on the whole armor of God … with all prayer and supplication …” The armor is not complete without God’s intervention – God’s hand is involved in all of man’s affairs, and all of your activities – His eye is on the sparrow (Mt. 10:29). Our prayer must be in the Spirit – this is not a command to jump around with emotion – being full of the Holy Spirit is to be full of the word of God (see Romans 8). As we pray we watch and stay aware, for if we fail to watch (be diligent – 1 Tim. 4:15) we will not persevere but will be swept up with the powers of darkness. Our prayers should be for all Christians, for we all need God’s help to overcome; we dare not even think that we can do it on our own.
19 And on my behalf, that utterance may be given unto me in opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel,
20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.
[Recall from Eph. 3:6 that the specific aspect of the gospel that was a particular mystery was: “… that the Gentiles are fellow-heirs, and fellow-members of the body, and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, …” And further, we resolved in that context that it was Paul’s proclamation of the entry in of the Gentiles that ended up putting him in prison (in chains). We will not repeat that reasoning here – just bring it to your attention since it seems to once again be on Paul’s mind. But this is not the subject here – the subject has to do with their prayer for Paul, which he is encouraging so that he might have the help of God in further proclaiming the gospel to all men everywhere.]
21 But that ye also may know my affairs, how I do, Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things:
22 whom I have sent unto you for this very purpose, that ye may know our state, and that he may comfort your hearts.
[While this is clearly a personal note to them it should not be lightly discarded. All scripture is beneficial and all examples apply in some way. It should not be difficult to see how this example applies to us today. Do we know a Tychicus today? Someone who is a “beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord?” We certainly should know of several. If we were in peril, would they be willing to carry word to others who loved us of the state of our welfare? Paul’s concern for them involves their concern for him. He had great confidence that they loved him and that they would wonder how thing were with him, especially in the perilous state that he was in. And so he shows his concern for them (being concerned for him) in sending Tychicus, in all probability to deliver this letter, to comfort their hearts (their feelings of fear that he might be killed).]
23 Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
[Peace is a subtheme of this letter – especially the peace between Jew and Gentile (1:2; 2:14-17; 4:3; 6:15). If these cultural differences can become irrelevant in the Lord’s church it will, in itself, be a proclamation that Christ is with them. This can only be accomplished by “love with faith” – knowing God’s will and doing it in recognition of the great benefits to ourselves and those around us (1 Jn. 3:5). His blessing to them is from the only source that it can possibly come from – God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.]
24 Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ with (a love) incorruptible.
[Grace may be an even greater subtheme than is peace (1:2, 6-7; 2:5-8; 3:2; 3:7-8; 4:7, 29). Paul’s prayer here is that God’s grace through which we have our salvation be with them that not only have the same love for Jesus, but that this love be incorruptible – which refers to its both being everlasting and sincere (without flaw).]