confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God
raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved!" Let the hearer respond,
"I do so confess and believe," on the strength of this confession he is
baptized, and in the conjoint act of faith and baptism--in the
_obedience_ of faith signified by his baptism--he is saved from his past
sins and made an heir of life eternal. The rite is the simplest and most
universal in application one can conceive. In heathen countries baptism
recovers its primitive significance, as the decisive act of rupture with
idolatry and acceptance of Christ as Lord, which in our usage is often
overlaid and forgotten.
This interpretation gives a key to the obscure text of St Peter upon the
same subject (1 Ep. iii. 21): "Baptism saves you--not the putting away
of the filth of the flesh, but the questioning with regard to God of a
good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ." The vital
constituent of the rite is not the application of water to the body, but
the challenge which the word makes therein to the conscience respecting
the things of God,--the inquiry thus conveyed, to which a sincere
believer in the resurrection of Christ makes joyful and ready answer. It
is, in fine, _the appeal to faith_ contained in baptism that gives to
the latter its saving worth.
The "word" that makes Christian ordinances valid, is not the past
utterance of God alone, which may remain a dead letter, preserved in the
oracles of Scripture or the official forms of the Church, but that word
alive and active, re-spoken and transmitted from soul to soul by the
breath of the Holy Spirit. Without this animating word of faith, baptism
is but the pouring or sprinkling of so much water on the body; the
Lord's Supper is only the consumption of so much bread and wine.
All the nations will at last, in obedience to Christ's command, be
baptized into the thrice-holy Name; and the work of baptism will be
complete. Then the Church will issue from her bath, cleansed more
effectually than the old world that emerged with Noah from the deluge.
Every "spot and wrinkle" will pass from her face: the worldly passions
that stained her features, the fears and anxieties that knit her brow or
furrowed her cheek, will vanish away. In her radiant beauty, in her
chaste and spotless love, Christ will lead forth His Church before His
Father and the holy angels, "as a bride adorned for her husband." From
eternity He set His love upon her; on the cross He won her back from her
infidelity at the price of His blood. Through the ages He has been
wooing her to Himself, and schooling her in wise and manifold ways that
she might be fit for her heavenly calling. Now the end of this long task
of redemption has arrived. The message goes forth to Christ's friends in
all the worlds: "Come, gather yourselves to the great supper of God!
The marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready!
He hath given her fine linen bright and pure, that she may array
herself. Let us rejoice and exult, and give to Him the glory!" Through
what cleansing fires, through what baptisms even of blood she has still
to pass ere the consummation is reached, He only knows who loved her and
gave Himself for her. He will spare to His Church nothing, either of
bounty or of trial, that her perfection needs.
II. Concerning Christ's lordly _authority_ over His Church we have had
occasion to speak already in other places. A word or two may be added
here.
We acknowledge the Church to be "subject to Christ in everything." We
proclaim ourselves, like the apostle, "slaves of Christ Jesus." But this
subjection is too often a form rather than a fact. In protesting our
independence of Popish and priestly lords of God's heritage, we are
sometimes in danger of ignoring our dependence upon Him, and of
dethroning, in effect, the one Lord Jesus Christ. Christian communities
act and speak too much in the style of political republics. They assume
the attitude of self-directing and self-responsible bodies.
The Church is no democracy, any more than it is an aristocracy or a
sacerdotal absolutism: it is a _Christocracy_. The people are not rulers
in the house of God; they are the ruled, laity and ministers alike. "One
is your Master, even the Christ; and all ye are brethren." We
acknowledge this in theory; but our language and spirit would oftentimes
be other than they are, if we were penetrated by the sense of the
continual presence and majesty of the Lord Christ in our assemblies.
Royalties and nobilities, and the holders of popular power--all whose
"names are named in this world," along with the principalities in
heavenly places, when they come into the precincts of the Church must
lay aside their robes and forget their titles, and speak humbly as in
the Master's presence. What is it to the glorious Church of Jesus Christ
that Lord So-and-so wears a coronet and owns half a county? or that
Midas can fill her coffers, if he is pleased and humoured? or that this
or that orator guides at his will the fierce democracy? He is no more
than a man who will die, and appear before the judgement-seat of Christ.
The Church's protection from human tyranny, from schemes of ambition,
from the intrusion of political methods and designs, lies in her sense
of the splendour and reality of Christ's dominion, and of her own
eternal life in Him.
III. We come now to the profound mystery disclosed, or half-disclosed at
the end of this section, that of _the origination of the Church from
Christ_, which accounts for His love to the Church and His authority
over her. He nourishes and cherishes the Church, we are told in verses
29, 30, "because we are members of His body."
Now, this membership is, in its origin, as old as creation. God "chose
us in Christ before the world's foundation" (i. 4). We were created in
the Son of God's love, antecedently to our redemption by Him. Such is
the teaching of this and the companion epistle (Col. i. 14-18). Christ
recovers through the cross that which pertains inherently to Him, which
belonged to Him by nature and is as a part of Himself. From this
standpoint the connexion of verses 30 and 31 becomes intelligible.[145]
It is not, strictly speaking, "on account of this"; but "in
correspondence with this"[146] says the apostle, suiting the original
phrase to his purpose. The derivation of Eve from the body of Adam, as
that is affirmed in the mysterious words of Genesis, is analogous to the
derivation of the Church from Christ. The latter relationship existed in
its ideal, and as conceived in the purpose of God, prior to the
appearance of the human race. In St Paul's theory, the origin of woman
in man which forms the basis of marriage in Scripture, looked further
back to the origin of humanity in Christ Himself.
The train of thought that the apostle resumes here he followed in 1
Corinthians xi. 3-12: "I would have you know that the head of every man
is the Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of
Christ is God.... Man is the image and glory of God: but the woman is
the glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of
the man." So it is with Christ and His bride the Church.
"The LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept;
and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof:
and the rib which the LORD God had taken from the man, made He a woman,
and brought her to the man. And the man said,
This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh:
She shall be called Woman [_Isshah_], because she was taken out
of Man [_Ish_].
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall
cleave unto his wife:
And they shall be one flesh" (Gen. ii. 21-24).
Thus the first father of our race prophesied, and sang his wedding song.
In some mystical, but real sense, marriage is a _reunion_, the
reincorporation of what had been sundered. Seeking his other self, the
complement of his nature, the man breaks the ties of birth and founds a
new home. So the inspired author of the passage in Genesis explains the
origin of marriage, and the instinct which draws the bridegroom to his
bride.
But our apostle sees within this declaration a deeper truth, kept secret
from the foundation of the world. When he speaks of "this great
_mystery_," he means thereby not marriage itself, but _the saying of
Adam about it_. This text was a standing problem to the Jewish
interpreters. "But for my part," says the apostle, "I refer it to Christ
and to the Church." St Paul, who has so often before drawn the parallel
between Adam and Christ, by the light of this analogy perceives a new
and rich meaning in the old dark sentence. It helps him to see how
believers in Christ, forming collectively His body, are not only grafted
into Him (as he puts it in the epistle to the Romans), but were derived
from Him and formed in the very mould of His nature.
What is affirmed in Colossians i. 16, 17 concerning the universe in
general, is true in its perfect degree of redeemed humanity: "_In Him_
were created all things," as well as "through Him and for Him." Eve was
created in Adam; and Adam in Christ. We are "partakers of a Divine
nature," by our spiritual origin in Him who is the image of God and the
root of humanity. The union of the first human pair and every true
marriage since, being in effect, as Adam puts it, a restoration and
redintegration, symbolizes the fellowship of Christ with mankind. This
intention was in the mind of God at the institution of human life; it
took expression in the prophetic words of the Book of Genesis, whose
deeper sense St Paul is now able for the first time to unfold.
In our union through grace and faith with Christ crucified, we realize
again the original design of our being. Christ has purchased by His
blood no new or foreign bride, but her who was His from eternity,--the
child who had wandered from the Father's house, the betrothed who had
left her Lord and Spouse. In regard to this "mystery of our coherence in
Christ," Richard Hooker says, in words that suggest many aspects of this
doctrine: "The Church is in Christ, as Eve was in Adam. Yea, by grace we
are every one of us in Christ and in His Church, as by nature we are in
our first parents. God made Eve of the rib of Adam. And His Church He
frameth out of the very flesh, the very wounded and bleeding side of the
Son of man. His body crucified and His blood shed for the life of the
world are the true elements of that heavenly being which maketh us such
as Himself is of whom we come. For which cause the words of Adam may be
fitly the words of Christ concerning His Church, 'flesh of my flesh and
bone of my bones--a true native extract out of mine own body,' So that
in Him, even according to His manhood, we according to our heavenly
being are as branches in that root out of which they grow."[147]
FOOTNOTES:
[141] Compare pp. 47, 83, 169, 189.
[142] Heb. ii. 9-12, ix. 14, 15, x. 5-22, xiii. 12.
[143] See Rom. vi. 1-11; Col. ii. 11, 12; 1 Cor. x. 2, xii. 13.
[144] =En rhêmati=. =Logos= is word as expressive of _thought_. =Rhêma=,
the utterance of a living voice,--a _sentence_, _pronouncement_,
_message_; it is the Greek term employed in all the passages here cited.
[145] The words "of His flesh and of His bones," following "members of
His body" in the A.V., appear to be an ancient gloss adopted by the
Greek copyists, which was suggested by Gen. ii. 23. They are unsuitable
to the idea of a spiritual union, and interrupt rather than help the
apostle's exposition.
[146] St Paul changes the =Heneken toutou= of the original to =Anti
toutou=, which conveys the idea that marriage has its counterpart in the
fact that we are members of Christ.
[147] _Ecclesiastical Polity_; v. 56 7.
CHAPTER XXVII.
_THE CHRISTIAN HOUSEHOLD._
"Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. 'Honour
thy father and mother,' which is a first commandment, _given_ in
promise,--'that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long
on the earth.' And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath:
but nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord.
"Servants, be obedient to them that according to the flesh are your
lords, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto
the Christ; not in the way of eye-service, as men-pleasers; but as
servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the soul; with good
will doing service, as unto the Lord, and not unto men: knowing that
whatsoever good thing each one doeth, the same shall he receive
again from the Lord, whether _he be_ bond or free. And, ye lords, do
the same things unto them, and forbear threatening: knowing that
both their Lord and yours is in heaven, and there is no respect of
persons with Him."--EPH. vi. 1-9.
The Christian family is the cradle and the fortress of the Christian
faith. Here its virtues shine most brightly; and by this channel its
influence spreads through society and the course of generations.
Marriage has been placed under the guardianship of God; it is made
single, chaste and enduring, according to the law of creation and the
pattern of Christ's union with His Church. With parents thus united,
family honour is secure; and a basis is laid for reverence and
discipline within the house.
I. Thus the apostle turns, in the opening words of chapter vi., from the
husband and wife to the _children_ of the household. He addresses them
as present in the assembly where his letter is read. St Paul accounted
the children "holy," if but one parent belonged to the Church (1 Cor.
vii. 14). They were baptized, as we presume, with their fathers or
mothers, and admitted, under due precautions,[148] to the fellowship of
the Church so far as their age allowed. We cannot limit this exhortation
to children of adult age. The "discipline and admonition of the Lord"
prescribed in verse 4, belong to children of tender years and under
parental control.
_Obedience_ is the law of childhood. It is, in great part, the child's
religion, to be practised "in the Lord." The reverence and love, full of
a sweet mystery, which the Christian child feels towards its Saviour and
heavenly King, add new sacredness to the claims of father and mother.
Jesus Christ, the Head over all things, is the orderer of the life of
boys and girls. His love and His might guard the little one in the
tendance of its parents. The wonderful love of parents to their
offspring, and the awful authority with which they are invested, come
from the source of human life in God.
The Latin _pietas_ impressed a religious character upon filial duty.
This word signified at once dutifulness towards the gods, and towards
parents and kindred. In the strength of its family ties and its deep
filial reverence lay the secret of the moral vigour and the unmatched
discipline of the Roman commonwealth. The history of ancient Rome
affords a splendid illustration of the fifth commandment.
_For this is right_, says the apostle, appealing to the instincts of
natural religion. The child's conscience begins here. Filial obedience
is the primary form of duty. The loyalties of after life take their
colour from the lessons learnt at home, in the time of dawning reason
and incipient will. Hard indeed is the evil to remove, where in the
plastic years of childhood obedience has been associated with base fear,
with distrust or deceit, where it has grown sullen or obsequious in
habit. From this root of bitterness there spring rank growths of hatred
toward authority, jealousies, treacheries, and stubbornness. Obedience
rendered "in the Lord" will be frank and willing, careful and constant,
such as that which Jesus rendered to the Father.
St Paul reminds the children of the law of the Ten Words, taught to them
in their earliest lessons from Scripture. He calls the command in
question "_a first_ [or _chief_] commandment"--just as the great rule,
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God," is _the_ first commandment; for this
is no secondary rule or minor precept, but one on which the continuance
of the Church and the welfare of society depend. It is a law fundamental
as birth itself, written not on the statute-book alone but on the tables
of the heart.
Moreover, it is a "command _in promise_"--that takes the form of
promise, and holds out to obedience a bright future. The two
predicates--"first" and "in promise"--as we take it, are distinct. To
merge them into one blunts their meaning. This commandment is primary in
its importance, and promissory in its import. The promise is quoted from
Exodus xx. 12, as it stands in the Septuagint, where the Greek
Christian children would read it. But the last clause is abbreviated; St
Paul writes "upon _the earth_" in place of "the good land which the Lord
thy God giveth thee." This blessing is the heritage of dutiful children
in every land. Those who have watched the history of godly families of
their acquaintance, will have seen the promise verified. The obedience
of childhood and youth rendered to a wise Christian rule, forms in the
young nature the habits of self-control and self-respect, of diligence
and promptitude and faithfulness and kindliness of heart, which are the
best guarantees for happiness and success in life. Through parental
nurture "godliness" secures its "promise of the life that now is."
Children are exhorted to submission: fathers to _gentleness_. "Do not,"
the apostle says, "anger your children"; in the corresponding place in
Colossians, "Do not irritate your children, lest they be disheartened"
(ch. iii. 21). In these parallel texts two distinct verbs are rendered
by the one English word "provoke." The Colossian passage warns against
the chafing effect of parental exactions and fretfulness, that tend to
break the child's spirit and spoil its temper. Our text warns the father
against angering his child by unfair or oppressive treatment. From this
verb comes the noun "wrath" (or "provocation") used in chapter iv. 26,
denoting that stirring of anger which gives peculiar occasion to the
devil.
Not that the father is forbidden to cross his child's wishes, or to do
anything or refuse anything that may excite its anger. Nothing is worse
for a child than to find that parents fear its displeasure, and that it
will gain its ends by passion. But the father must not be exasperating,
must not needlessly thwart the child's inclinations and excite in order
to subdue its anger, as some will do even of set purpose, thinking that
in this way obedience is learnt. This policy may secure submission; but
it is gained at the cost of a rankling sense of injustice.
Household rule should be equally firm and kind, neither provoking nor
avoiding the displeasure of its subjects, inflicting no severity for
severity's sake, but shrinking from none that fidelity demands. With
much parental fondness, there is sometimes in family government a want
of seriousness and steady principle, an absence in father or mother of
the sense that they are dealing with moral and responsible beings in
their little ones, and not with toys, which is reflected in the caprice
and self-indulgence of the children's maturer life. Such parents will
give account hereafter of their stewardship with an inconsolable grief.
It is almost superfluous to insist on the apostle's exhortation to treat
children kindly. For them these are days of Paradise, compared with
times not far distant. Never were the wants and the fancies of these
small mortals catered for as they are now. In some households the danger
lies at the opposite extreme from that of over-strictness. The children
are idolized. Not their comfort and welfare only, but their humours and
caprices become the law of the house. They are "nourished" indeed, but
not "in the discipline and admonition of the Lord." It is a great
unkindness to treat our children so that they shall be strangers to
hardship and restriction, so that they shall not know what real
obedience means, and have no reverence for age, no habits of deference
and self-denial. It is the way to breed monsters of selfishness,
pampered creatures who will be useless and miserable in adult life.
"Discipline and admonition" are distinguished as positive and negative
terms. The first is the "training up of the child in the way that he
should go"; the second checks and holds him back from the ways in which
he should not go. The former word (_paideia_)--denoting primarily
_treating-as-a-boy_--signifies very often "chastisement";[149] but it
has a wider sense, embracing instruction besides.[150] It includes the
whole course of training by which the boy is reared into a
man.--_Admonition_ is a still more familiar word with St Paul.[151] It
may be reproof bearing upon errors in the past; or it may be warning,
that points out dangers lying in the future. Both these services parents
owe to their children. Admonition implies faults in the nature of the
child, and wisdom in the father to see and correct them.
"Foolishness," says the Hebrew proverb, "is bound up in the heart of a
child." In the Old Testament discipline there was something over-stern.
The "hardness of heart" censured by the Lord Jesus, which allowed of two
mothers in the house, put barriers between the father and his offspring
that rendered "the rod of correction" more needful than it is under the
rule of Christ. But correction, in gentler or severer sort, there must
be, so long as children spring from sinful parents. The child's
conscience responds to the kindly and searching word of reproof, to the
admonition of love. This faithful dealing with his children wins for the
father in the end a deep gratitude, and makes his memory a guard in
days of temptation and an object of tender reverence.
The child's "obedience _in the Lord_" is its response to "the discipline
and admonition _of the Lord_" exercised by its parents. The discipline
which wise Christian fathers give their children, is the Lord's
discipline applied through them. "Correction and instruction should
proceed from the Lord and be directed by the Spirit of the Lord, in such
a way that it is not so much the father who corrects his children and
teaches them, as the Lord through him" (Monod). Thus the Father of whom
every family on earth is named, within each Christian house works all in
all. Thus the chief Shepherd, through His under-shepherds, guides and
feeds the lambs of His flock. By the gate of His fold fathers and
mothers themselves have entered; and the little ones follow with them.
In the pastures of His word they nourish them, and rule them with His
rod and staff. To their offspring they become an image of the Good
Shepherd and the Father in heaven. Their office teaches them more of
God's fatherly ways with themselves. From their children's humbleness
and confidence, from their simple wisdom, their hopes and fears and
ignorances, the elders learn deep and affecting lessons concerning their
own relations to the heavenly Father.
St Paul's instruction to fathers applies to all who have the charge of
children: to schoolmasters of every degree, whose work, secular as it
may be called, touches the springs of moral life and character; to
teachers in the Sunday school, successors to the work that Christ
assigned to Peter, of shepherding His lambs. These instructors supply
the Lord's nurture to multitudes of children, in whose homes Christian
faith and example are wanting. The ideas which children form of Christ
and His religion, are gathered from what they see and hear in the
school. Many a child receives its bias for life from the influence of
the teacher before whom it sits on Sunday. The love and meekness of
wisdom, or the coldness or carelessness of the one who thus stands
between Christ and the infant soul, will make or mar its spiritual
future.
II. From the children of the house the apostle proceeds to address the
_servants_--slaves as they were, until the gospel unbound their chains.
The juxtaposition of children and slaves is full of significance; it is
a tacit prophecy of emancipation. It brings the slave within the
household, and gives a new dignity to domestic service.[152]
The Greek philosophers regarded slavery as a fundamental institution,
indispensable to the existence of civilized society. That the few might
enjoy freedom and culture, the many were doomed to bondage. Aristotle
defines the slave as an "animated tool," and the tool as an "inanimate
slave." Two or three facts will suffice to show how utterly slaves were
deprived of human rights in the brilliant times of the classic humanism.
In Athens it was the legal rule to admit the evidence of a slave only
upon torture, as that of a freeman was received upon oath. Amongst the
Romans, if a master had been murdered in his house, the whole of his
domestic servants, amounting sometimes to hundreds, were put to death
without inquiry. It was a common mark of hospitality to assign to a
guest a female slave for the night, like any other convenience. Let it
be remembered that the slave population outnumbered the free citizens of
the Roman and Greek cities by many times; that they were frequently of
the same race, and might be even superior in education to their masters.
Indeed, it was a lucrative trade to rear young slaves and train them in
literary and other accomplishments, and then to let them out in these
capacities for hire. Let any one consider the condition of society which
all this involved, and he will have some conception of the degradation
in which the masses of mankind were plunged, and of the crushing tyranny
that the world laboured under in the boasted days of republican liberty
and Hellenic art.
No wonder that the new religion was welcome to the slaves of the Pagan
cities, and that they flocked into the Church. Welcome to them was the
voice that said: "Come unto me, all ye that are burdened and heavy
laden"; welcome the proclamation that made them Christ's freedmen,
"brethren beloved" where they had been "animated tools" (Philem. 16). In
the light of such teaching, slavery was doomed. Its re-adoption by
Christian nations, and the imposition of its yoke on the negro race, is
amongst the great crimes of history,--a crime for which the white man
has had to pay rivers of his blood.
The social fabric, as it then existed, was so entirely based upon
slavery, that for Christ and the apostles to have proclaimed its
abolition would have meant universal anarchy. In writing to Philemon
about his converted slave Onesimus, the apostle does not say, "Release
him," though the word seems to be trembling on his lips. In 1
Corinthians vii. 20-24 he even advises the slave who has the chance of
manumission to remain where he is, content to be "the Lord's freedman."
To the Christian slave what mattered it who ruled over his perishing
body! his spirit was free, death would be his discharge and
enfranchisement. No decree is issued to abolish bond-service between man
and man; but it was destroyed in its essence by the spirit of Christian
brotherhood. It melted away in the spread of the gospel, as snow and
winter melt before the face of spring.
"Ye slaves, obey your lords according to the flesh." The apostle does
not disguise the slave's subservience; nor does he speak in the language
of pity or of condescension. He appeals as a man to men and equals, on
the ground of a common faith and service to Christ. He awakens in these
degraded tools of society the sense of spiritual manhood, of conscience
and loyalty, of love and faith and hope. As in Colossians iii. 22-iv. 1,
the apostle designates the earthly master not by his common title
(_despotes_), but by the very word (_kyrios_) that is the title of the
_Lord_ Christ, giving the slave in this way to understand that he has,
in common with his master (ver. 9), a higher Lord in the spirit. "Ye are
slaves to the Lord Christ!" (Col. iii. 24). St Paul is accustomed to
call himself "a slave of Christ Jesus."[153] Nay, it is even said, in
Philippians ii. 7, that Christ Jesus "took the form of a slave!"
How much there was, then, to console the Christian bondman for his lot.
In self-abnegation, in the willing forfeiture of personal rights, in his
menial and unrequited tasks, in submission to insult and injustice, he
found a holy joy. His was a path in which he might closely follow the
steps of the great Servant of mankind. His position enabled him to
"adorn the Saviour's doctrine" above other men (Tit. ii. 9, 10).
Affectionate, gentle, bearing injury with joyful courage, the Christian
slave held up to that hardened and jaded Pagan age the example which it
most required. God chose the base things of the world to bring to nought
the mighty.
* * * * *
The relations of servant and master will endure, in one shape or other,
while the world stands. And the apostle's injunctions bear upon servants
of every order. We are all, in our various capacities, servants of the
community. The moral worth of our service and its blessing to ourselves
depend on the conditions that are here laid down.
1. There must be _a genuine care for our work_.
"Obey," he says, "with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart,
as unto the Christ." The fear enjoined is no dread of human displeasure,
of the master's whip or tongue. It is the same "fear and trembling" with
which we are bidden to "work out our own salvation" (Phil. ii. 12). The
inward work of the soul's salvation and the outward work of the busy
hands labouring in the mine or at the loom, or in the lowliest domestic
duties,--all alike are to be performed under a solemn responsibility to
God and in the presence of Christ, the Lord of nature and of men, who
understands every sort of work, and will render to each of His servants
a just and exact reward. No man, whether he be minister of state or
stable-groom, will dare to do heedless work, who lives and acts in that
august Presence,--
"As ever in the great Task-master's eye."
2. The sense of Christ's Lordship ensures _honesty in work_.
So the apostle continues: "Not with _eye-service_, as _men-pleasers_."
Both these are rare compound words,--the former indeed occurring only
here and in the companion letter, being coined, probably, by the writer
for this use. It is the common fault and temptation of servants in all
degrees to observe the master's eye, and to work busily or slackly as
they are watched or not. Such workmen act as they do, because they look
to men and not to God. Their work is without conscience and
self-respect. The visible master says "Well done!" But there is another
Master looking on, who says "Ill done!" to all pretentious doings and
works of eye-service,--who sees not as man sees, but judges with the act
the motive and intent.
"Not on the vulgar mass
Called 'work' must sentence pass,
Things done, which took the eye and had the price."
In His book of accounts there is a stern reckoning in store for
deceitful dealers and the makers-up of unsound goods, in whatever
handicraft or headcraft they are engaged.
Let us all adopt St Paul's maxim; it will be an immense economy. What
armies of overlookers and inspectors we shall be able to dismiss, when
every servant works as well behind his master's back as to his face,
when every manufacturer and shopkeeper puts himself in the purchaser's
place and deals as he would have others deal with him. It was for the
Christian slaves of the Greek trading cities to rebuke the Greek spirit
of fraud and trickery, by which the common dealings of life in all
directions were vitiated.
3. To the carefulness and honesty of the slave's daily labour he must
even add _heartiness_: "as slaves of Christ doing the will of God from
the soul, with good will doing service, as to the Lord and not to men."
They must do _the will of God_ in the service of men, as Jesus Christ
Himself did it,--and with His meekness and fortitude and unwearied love.
Their work will thus be rendered from inner principle, with thought and
affection and resolution spent upon it. That alone is the work of a man,
whether he preaches or ploughs, which comes from the soul behind the
hands and the tongue, into which the workman puts as much of his soul,
of himself, as the work is capable of holding.
4. Add to all this, the servant's _anticipation of the final reward_. In
each case, "whatsoever one may do that is good, this he will receive
from the Lord, whether he be a bondman or a freeman." The complementary
truth is given in the Colossian letter: "He who does wrong, will receive
back the wrong that he did."
The doctrine of equal retribution at the judgement-seat of Christ
matches that of equal salvation at the cross of Christ. How trifling and
evanescent the differences of earthly rank appear, in view of these
sublime realities. There is a "Lord in heaven," alike for servant and
for master, "with whom is no respect of persons" (ver. 9). This grand
conviction beats down all caste-pride. It teaches justice to the mighty
and the proud; it exalts the humble, and assures the down-trodden of
redress. No bribery or privilege, no sophistry or legal cunning will
avail, no concealment or distortion of the facts will be possible in
that Court of final appeal. The servant and the master, the monarch and
his meanest subject will stand before the bar of Jesus Christ upon the
same footing. And the poor slave, wonderful to think, who was faithful
in the "few things" of his drudging earthly lot, will receive the "many
things" of a son of God and a joint-heir with Christ!
* * * * *
"_And_, _ye lords_, do the same things towards them"--be as good to your
slaves as they are required to be towards you. A bold application this
of Christ's great rule: "What you would that men should do to you, do
even so to them." In many instances this rule suggested _liberation_,
where the slave was prepared for freedom. In any case, the master is to
put himself in his dependant's place, and to act by him as he would
desire himself to be treated if their positions were reversed.
Slaves were held to be scarcely human. Deceit and sensuality were
regarded as their chief characteristics. They must be ruled, the
moralists said, by the fear of punishment. This was the only way to keep
them in their place. The Christian master adopts a different policy. He
"desists from threatening"; he treats his servants with even-handed
justice, with fit courtesy and consideration. The recollection is ever
present to his mind, that he must give account of his charge over each
one of them to his Lord and theirs. So he will make, as far as in him
lies, his own domain an image of the kingdom of Christ.
FOOTNOTES:
[148] We cannot absolutely _prove_ infant baptism from the New Testament
texts adduced on its behalf; but they afford a strong presumption in its
favour, which is confirmed on the one hand by the analogy of
circumcision, and on the other by the immemorial usage of the early
Church. Titus i. 6 shows that stress was laid on the faith of children,
and that discrimination was used in their recognition as Church members.
[149] 1 Cor. xi. 32; Heb. xii. 5, 11, etc.
[150] Acts vii. 22, xxii. 3; Rom. ii. 20; 2 Tim. ii. 25, iii. 14.
[151] 1 Cor. x. 11; Col. i. 28, iii. 16; 1 Thess. v. 14, etc.
[152] The word _family_ (Latin _familia_) denoted originally the
servants of the establishment, the domestic slaves. Its modern usage is
an index to the elevating influence of Christianity upon social
relations.
[153] Rom. i. 1; 2 Cor. iv. 5; Gal. i. 10, etc.
_ON THE APPROACHING CONFLICT._
CHAPTER vi. 10-20.
=Idou ho Satanas exêtêsato hymas, tou siniasai hôs to siton.=
LUKE xxii. 31.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
_THE FOES OF THE CHURCH._
"From henceforth be strong in the Lord, and in the might of His
strength. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to
stand against the wiles of the devil. 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 _places_."--EPH.
vi. 10-12.
We follow the Revised reading of the opening word of this paragraph, and
the preferable rendering given by the Revisers in their margin. The
adverb is the same that is found in Galatians vi. 17 ("_Henceforth_ let
no man trouble me"); not that used in Philippians iii. 1 and elsewhere
("_Finally_, my brethren," etc.). The copyists have conformed our text,
seemingly, to the latter passage. We are recalled to the circumstances
and occasion of the epistle. High as St Paul soars in meditation, he
does not forget the situation of his readers. The words of chapter iv.
14 showed us how well aware he is of the dangers looming before the
Asian Churches.
The epistle to the Colossians is altogether a letter of conflict (see
ch. ii. 1 ff.). In writing that letter St Paul was wrestling with
spiritual powers, mighty for evil, which had commenced their attack upon
this outlying post of the Ephesian province. He sees in the sky the
cloud portending a desolating storm. The clash of hostile arms is heard
approaching. This is no time for sloth or fear, for a faith half-hearted
or half-equipped. "You have need of your best manhood and of all the
weapons of the spiritual armoury, to hold your ground in the conflict
that is coming upon you. _Henceforth be strong in the Lord, and in the
might of His strength._"
It is the apostle's call to arms!--"Be strengthened in the Lord," he
says (to render the imperative literally: so in 2 Timothy ii. I). _Make
His strength your own._ The strength he bids them assume is _power_,
_ability_, strength adequate to its end.[154] "The might of His
strength" repeats the combination of terms we found in chapter i. 19.
That sovereign power of the Almighty which raised Jesus our Lord from
the dead, belongs to the Lord Christ Himself. From its resources He will
clothe and arm His people. "In the Lord," says Israel evermore, "is
righteousness and strength. The rock of my salvation and my refuge is in
God." The Church's strength lies in the almightiness of her risen Lord,
the Captain of her warfare.
"The _panoply_ of God" (ver. II) reminds us of the saying of Jesus in
reference to His casting out of demons, recorded in Luke xi. 21, 22--the
only other instance in the New Testament of this somewhat rare Greek
word. The Lord Jesus describes Himself in conflict with Satan, who as
"the strong one armed keeps his possessions in peace,"--until there
"come upon him the stronger than he," who "conquers him and takes away
his panoply wherein he trusted, and divides his spoils." In this text
the situation is reversed; and the "full armour" belongs to Christ's
servants, who are equipped to meet the counter-attack of Satan and the
powers of evil. There is a Divine and a Satanic panoply--arms tempered
in heaven and in hell, to be wielded by the sons of light and of
darkness respectively (comp. Rom. xiii. 12). The weapons of warfare on
the two sides are even as the two leaders that furnish them--"the strong
one armed" and the "Stronger than he." Mightier are faith and love than
unbelief and hate; "greater is He that is in you than he that is in the
world."
Let us review the forces marshalled against us,--their _nature_, their
_mode of assault_, and _the arena of the contest_.
1. The Asian Christians had to "stand against _the wiles_ [_schemes_, or
_methods_[155]] _of the devil_."
Unquestionably, the New Testament assumes the personality of Satan. This
belief runs counter to modern thought, governed as it is by the tendency
to depersonalize existence. The conception of evil spirits given us in
the Bible is treated as an obsolete superstition; and the name of the
Evil One with multitudes serves only to point a profane or careless
jest. To Jesus Christ, it is very certain, Satan was no figure of
speech; but a thinking and active being, of whose presence and influence
He saw tokens everywhere in this evil world (comp. ii. 2). If the Lord
Jesus "speaks what He knows, and testifies what He has seen" concerning
the mysteries of the other world, there can be no question of the
existence of a personal devil. If in any matter He was bound, as a
teacher of spiritual truth, to disavow Jewish superstition, surely
Christ was so bound in this matter. Yet instead of repudiating the
current belief in Satan and the demons, He earnestly accepts it; and it
entered into His own deepest experiences. In the visible forms of sin
Jesus saw the shadow of His great antagonist. "From the Evil One" He
taught His disciples to pray that they might be delivered. The victims
of disease and madness whom He healed, were so many captives rescued
from the malignant power of Satan. And when Jesus went to meet His
death, He viewed it as the supreme conflict with the usurper and
oppressor who claimed to be "the prince of this world."[156]
Satan is the consummate form of depraved and untruthful intellect. We
read of his "thoughts," his "schemes," his subtlety and deceit and
impostures;[157] of his slanders against God and man,[158] from which,
indeed, the name devil (_diabolus_) is given him. Falsehood and hatred
are his chief qualities. Hence Jesus called him "the manslayer" and "the
father of falsehood" (John viii. 44). He was the first sinner, and the
fountain of sin (1 John iii. 8). All who do unrighteousness or hate
their brethren are, so far, his offspring (1 John iii. 10). With a realm
so wide, Satan might well be called not only "the prince," but the very
"god of this world" (2 Cor. iv. 4). Plausibly he said to Jesus, in
showing Him the kingdoms of the world, at the time when Tiberius Caesar
occupied the imperial throne: "All this authority and glory are
delivered unto me. To whomsoever I will, I give it." His power is
exercised with an intelligence perhaps as great as any can be that is
morally corrupt; but it is limited on all sides. In dealing with Jesus
Christ he showed conspicuous ignorance.
Chief amongst the wiles of the devil at this time was the "scheme of
error," the cunningly woven net of the Gnostical delusion, in which the
apostle feared that the Asian Churches would be entangled. Satan's
empire is ruled with a settled policy, and his warfare carried on with a
system of strategy which takes advantage of every opening for
attack.[159] The manifold combinations of error, the various arts of
seduction and temptation, the ten thousand forms of the deceit of
unrighteousness constitute "the wiles of the devil."
Such is the gigantic opponent with whom Christ and the Church have been
in conflict through all ages. But Satan does not stand alone. In verse
12 there is called up before us an imposing array of spiritual powers.
They are "the angels of the devil," whom Jesus set in contrast with the
angels of God that surround and serve the Son of man (Matt. xxv. 41).
These unhappy beings are, again, identified with the "demons," or
"unclean spirits," having Satan for their "prince," whom our Lord
expelled wherever He found them infesting the bodies of men.[160] They
are represented in the New Testament as fallen beings, expelled from a
"principality" and "habitation of their own" (Jude 6) which they once
enjoyed, and reserved for the dreadful punishment which Christ calls
"the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." They are here
entitled _principalities_ and _powers_ (or _dominions_), after the same
style as the angels of God, to whose ranks, as we are almost compelled
to suppose, these apostates once belonged.
In contrast with the "angels of light" (2 Cor. xi. 14) and "ministering
spirits" of the kingdom of God (Heb. i. 14), the angels of Satan have
constituted themselves _the world-rulers of this darkness_. We find the
compound expression _cosmo-krator_ (world-ruler) in later rabbinical
usage, borrowed from the Greek and applied to "the angel of death,"
before whom all mortal things must bow. Possibly, St Paul brought the
term with him from the school of Gamaliel. Satan being the god of this
world and swaying "the dominion of darkness,"[161] according to the same
vocabulary his angels are "the rulers of the world's darkness"; and the
provinces of the empire of evil fall under their direction.
The darkness surrounding the apostle in Rome and the Churches in
Asia--"this darkness," he says--was dense and foul. With Nero and his
satellites the masters of empire, the world seemed to be ruled by demons
rather than by men. The frightful wish of one of the Psalmists was
fulfilled for the heathen world: "Set a wicked man over him, and let
Satan stand at his right hand."
The last of St Paul's synonyms for the satanic forces, "the spiritual
[powers] of wickedness," may have served to warn the Church against
reading a political sense into the passage and regarding the civil
constitution of society and the visible world-rulers as objects for
their hatred. Pilate was a specimen, by no means amongst the worst, of
the men in power. Jesus regarded him with pity. His real antagonist
lurked behind these human instruments. The above phrase, "spirituals of
wickedness," is Hebraistic, like "judge" and "steward of
unrighteousness,"[162] and is equivalent to "wicked spirits." The
adjective "spiritual," which does duty for a substantive--"the
spiritual [forces, or elements] of wickedness"[163]--brings out the
collective character of these hostile powers.
St Paul's demonology[164] is identical with that of Jesus Christ. The
two doctrines stand or fall together. The advent of Christ appears to
have stirred to extraordinary activity the satanic powers. They asserted
themselves in Palestine at this particular time in the most open and
terrifying manner. In an age of scepticism and science like our own, it
belongs to "the wiles of the devil" to work obscurely. This is dictated
by obvious policy. Moreover, his power is greatly reduced. Satan is no
longer the god of this world, since Christianity rose to its ascendant.
The manifestations of demonism are, at least in Christian lands, vastly
less conspicuous than in the first age of the Church. But those are more
bold than wise who deny their existence, and who profess to explain all
occult phenomena and phrenetic moral aberrations by physical causes. The
popular idolatries of his own day, with their horrible rites and inhuman
orgies, St Paul ascribed to devilry. He declared that those who sat at
the feast of the idol and gave sanction to its worship, were partaking
of "the cup and the table of demons" (1 Cor. x. 20, 21). Heathen
idolatries at the present time are, in many instances, equally
diabolical; and those who witness them cannot easily doubt the truth of
the representations of Scripture upon this subject.
II. The conflict against these spiritual enemies is essentially a
_spiritual_ conflict. "Our struggle is not against blood and flesh."
They are not human antagonists whom the Church has to fear,--mortal men
whom we can look in the face and meet with equal courage, in the contest
where hot blood and straining muscle do their part. The fight needs
mettle of another kind. The foes of our faith are untouched by carnal
weapons. They come upon us without sound or footfall. They assail the
will and conscience; they follow us into the regions of spiritual
thought, of prayer and meditation. Hence the weapons of our warfare,
like those which the apostle wielded (2 Cor. x. 2-5), "are not carnal,"
but spiritual and "mighty toward God."
It is true that the Asian Churches had visible enemies arrayed against
them. There were the "wild beasts" with whom St Paul "fought at
Ephesus," the heathen mob of the city, sworn foes of every despiser of
their great goddess Artemis. There was Alexander the coppersmith, ready
to do the apostle evil, and "the Jews from Asia," a party of whom all
but murdered him in Jerusalem (Acts xxi. 27-36); there was Demetrius the
silversmith, instigator of the tumult which drove him from Ephesus, and
"the craftsmen of like occupation," whose trade was damaged by the
progress of the new religion. These were formidable opponents, strong in
everything that brings terror to flesh and blood. But after all, these
were of small account in St Paul's view; and the Church need never
dread material antagonism. The centre of the struggle lies elsewhere.
The apostle looks beyond the ranks of his earthly foes to the power of
Satan by which they are animated and directed,--"impotent pieces of the
game he plays." From this hidden region he sees impending an attack more
perilous than all the violence of persecution, a conflict urged with
weapons of finer proof than the sharp steel of sword and axe, and with
darts tipped with a fiercer fire than that which burns the flesh or
devours the goods.
Even in outward struggles against worldly power, our wrestling is not
simply against blood and flesh. Calvin makes a bold application of the
passage when he says: "This sentence we should remember so often as we
are tempted to revengefulness, under the smart of injuries from men. For
when nature prompts us to fling ourselves upon them with all our might,
this unreasonable passion will be checked and reined in suddenly, when
we consider that these men who trouble us are nothing more than darts
cast by the hand of Satan; and that while we stoop to pick up these, we
shall expose ourselves to the full force of his blows." _Vasa sunt_,
says Augustine of human troublers, _alius utitur_; _organa sunt, alius
tangit_.
The crucial assaults of evil, in many instances, come in no outward and
palpable guise. There are sinister influences that affect the spirit
more directly, fires that search its inmost fibres, a darkness that
sweeps down upon the very light that is in us threatening its
extinction. "Doubts, the spectres of the mind," haunt it; clouds brood
over the interior sky and fierce storms sweep down on the soul, that
rise from beyond the seen horizon. "Jesus was led of the Spirit into the
wilderness, to be tempted of the devil." Away from the tracks of men
and the seductions of flesh and blood the choicest spirits have been
tested and schooled. So they are tempered in the spiritual furnace to a
fineness which turns the edge of the sharpest weapons the world may use
against them.
Some men are constitutionally more exposed than others to these interior
assaults. There are conditions of the brain and nerves, tendencies lying
deep in the organism, that give points of vantage to the enemy of souls.
These are the opportunities of the tempter; they do not constitute the
temptation itself, which comes from a hidden and objective source.
Similarly in the trials of the Church, in the great assaults made upon
her vital truths, historical conditions and the external movements of
the age furnish the material for the conflicts through which it has to
pass; but the spring and moving agent, the master will that dominates
these hostile forces is that of Satan.
The Church was engaged in a double conflict--of the flesh and of the
spirit. On the one hand, it was assailed by the material seductions of
heathenism and the terrors of ruthless persecution. On the other hand,
it underwent a severe intellectual conflict with the systems of error
that were rooted in the mind of the age. These forces opposed the
Christian truth from without; but they became much more dangerous when
they found their way within the Church, vitiating her teaching and
practice, and growing like tares among the wheat. It is of heresy more
than persecution that the apostle is thinking, when he writes these
ominous words. Not blood and flesh, but the mind and spirit of the Asian
believers will bear the brunt of the attack that the craft of the devil
is preparing for the apostolic Church.
III. The last clause of verse 12, _in the heavenly places_, refuses to
combine with the above description of the powers hostile to the Church.
The heavenly places are the abode of God and the blessed angels. This is
the region where the Father has blessed us in Christ (i. 3); where He
seated the Christ at His own right hand (i. 20), and has in some sense
seated us with Christ (ii. 6); and where the angelic princedoms dwell
who follow with keen and studious sympathy the Church's fortunes (iii.
10). To locate the devil and his angels _there_ seems to us highly
incongruous; the juxtaposition is out of the question with St Paul.
Chapter ii. 2 gives no real support to this view: supposing "the air" to
be literally intended in that passage, it belongs to _earth_ and not to
heaven.[165] Nor do the parallels from other Scriptures adduced supply
any but the most precarious basis for an interpretation against which
the use of the exalted phrase in our epistle revolts.
No; Satan and his hosts do not dwell with Christ and the holy angels "in
the heavenly places." But the Church dwells there already, by her faith;
and it is in the heavenly places of her faith and hope that she is
assailed by the powers of hell. This final prepositional clause should
be separated by a comma from the words immediately foregoing; it forms a
distinct predicate to the sentence contained in verse 12. It specifies
the _locality_ of the struggle; it marks out the battle-field. "Our
wrestling is ... in the heavenly places."[166] So we construe the
sentence, following the ancient Greek commentators.
The life of the Church "is hid with the Christ in God"; her treasure is
laid up in heaven. She is assailed by a philosophy and vain deceit that
perverts her highest doctrines, that clouds her vision of Christ and
limits His glory, and threatens to drag her down from the high places
where she sits with her ascended Lord.[167] Such was, in effect, the aim
of the Colossian heresy, and of the great Gnostical movement to which
this speculation was a prelude, that for a century and more entangled
Christian faith in its metaphysical subtleties and false mysticism. The
epistles to the Colossians and Ephesians strike the leading note of the
controversies of the Church in this region during its first ages. Their
character was thoroughly transcendental. "The heavenly things" were the
subject-matter of the great conflicts of this epoch.
The questions of religious controversy characteristic of our own times,
though not identical with those of Colossae or Ephesus, concern matters
equally high and vital. It is not this or that doctrine that is now at
stake--the nature or extent of the atonement, the procession of the Holy
Spirit from the Son with the Father, the verbal or plenary inspiration
of Scripture; but the personal being of God, the historical truth of
Christianity, the reality of the supernatural,--these and the like
questions, which formed the accepted basis and the common assumptions of
former theological discussions, are now brought into dispute. Religion
has to justify its very existence. Christianity must answer for its
life, as at the beginning. God is denied. Worship is openly renounced.
Our treasures in heaven are proclaimed to be worthless and illusive.
The entire spiritual and celestial order of things is relegated to the
region of obsolete fable and fairy tales. The difficulties of modern
religious thought lie at the foundation of things, and touch the core of
the spiritual life. Unbelief appears, in some quarters, to be more
serious and earnest than faith. While we quarrel over rubrics and
ritual, thoughtful men are despairing of God and immortality. The
Churches are engaged in trivial contentions with each other, while the
enemy pushes his way through our broken ranks to seize the citadel.
"The apostle incites the readers," says Chrysostom, "by the thought of
the prize at stake. When he has said that our enemies are powerful, he
adds thereto that these are great possessions which they seek to wrest
from us. When he says _in the heavenly places_, this implies _for the
heavenly things_. How it must rouse and sober us to know that the hazard
is for great things, and great will be the prize of victory. Our foe
strives to take _heaven_ from us." Let the Church be stripped of all her
temporalities, and driven naked as at first into the wilderness. She
carries with her the crown jewels; and her treasure is unimpaired, so
long as faith in Christ and the hope of heaven remain firm in her heart.
But let these be lost; let heaven and the Father in heaven fade with our
childhood's dreams; let Christ go back to His grave--then we are utterly
undone. We have lost our all in all!
FOOTNOTES:
[154] =Endynamousthe= [from =dynamis=] =en Kyriô kai en tô kratei tês
ischyos autou.= See the note on these synonyms, on p. 76. Comp., for
this verb, Col. i. II; 2 Tim. iv. 17; Phil. iv. 13: =Panta ischyô en tô
endynamounti me=,--"I have strength for everything in Him that _enables_
me."]
[155] Comp. remark on =methodeia= (iv. 14), p. 247.
[156] John xii. 31, xiv. 30, xvi. 11: comp. Luke iv. 5-7; Heb. ii. 14.
[157] 2 Cor. ii. 11, xi. 3; 2 Thess. ii. 9, 10; 2 Tim. ii. 26, etc.
[158] Rev. xii, 7-10; Gen. iii. 4, 5; Zech. iii. 1; Job i.
[159] Ch. iv. 27; 2 Cor. ii. 11; Luke xxii. 31.
[160] Luke x. 17-20, xi. 14-26.
[161] Col. i. 13: comp. Acts xxvi. 18, etc.
[162] Luke xvi. 8, xviii. 6.
[163] =Ta pneumatika tês ponêrias.=
[164] Mr. Moule aptly observes, in his excellent and most useful
Commentary on Ephesians in the _Cambridge Bible for Schools and
Colleges_: St Paul's "testimony to the real and objective existence" of
evil spirits "gains in strength when it is remembered that the epistle
was addressed (at least, among other designations) to Ephesus, and that
Ephesus (see Acts xix.) was a peculiarly active scene of asserted
magical and other dealings with the unseen darkness. Supposing that the
right line to take in dealing with such beliefs and practices had been
to say that the whole basis of them was a fiction of the human mind, not
only would such a verse as this [vi. 12] not have been written, but, we
may well assume, something would have been written strongly
contradictory to the thought of it" (p. 176).
[165] See p. 103.
[166] The objection against the common rendering taken from the absence
of the Greek article (=ta=) before the phrase =en tois epouraniois=,
required to link it to =ta pneumatika tês ponêrias=, is not decisive.
[167] Col. ii. 8-10, iii. 1-4; Phil. iii. 20, 21: comp. Eph. i. 3, ii.
6, 18, iv. 10, 15; Heb. vi. 19, 20, etc.
CHAPTER XXIX.
_THE DIVINE PANOPLY._
"Wherefore take up the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to
withstand in the evil day, and, having conquered all, to stand.
Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put
on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with
the readiness of the gospel of peace; withal taking up the shield of
faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of
the evil _one_. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of
the Spirit, which is the word of God: with all prayer and
supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit, and watching
thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the
saints."--EPH. vi. 13-18.
_Stand_ is the watchword for this battle, the apostle's order of the
day: "that you may be able to _stand_ against the stratagems of the
devil, ... that you may be able to _withstand_ in the evil day, and
mastering all your enemies[168] to _stand_.... _Stand_ therefore,
girding your loins about with truth." The apostle is fond of this
martial style, and such appeals are frequent in the letters of this
period.[169] The Gentile believers are raised to the heavenly places of
fellowship with Christ, and invested with the lofty character of sons
and heirs of God: let them hold their ground; let them maintain the
honour of their calling and the wealth of their high estate, standing
fast in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. _Pro aris et focis_ the
patriot draws his sword, and manfully repels the invader. Even so the
good soldier of Christ Jesus contends for his heavenly city and the
household of faith. He defends the dearest interests and hopes of human
life.
This defence is needed, for an "evil day" is at hand! This emphatic
reference points to something more definite than the general day of
temptation that is co-extensive with our earthly life. St Paul foresaw a
crisis of extreme danger impending over the young Church of Christ. The
prophecies of Jesus taught His disciples, from the first, that His
kingdom could only prevail by means of a severe conflict, and that some
desperate struggle would precede the final Messianic triumph. This
prospect looms before the minds of the New Testament writers, as "the
day of Jehovah" dominated the imagination of the Hebrew prophets. Paul's
apocalypse in 1 and 2 Thessalonians is full of reminiscences of Christ's
visions of judgement. It culminates in the prediction of the evil day of
Antichrist, which is to usher in the second, glorious coming of the Lord
Jesus. The consummation, as the apostle was then inclined to think,
might arrive within that generation (1 Thess. iv. 15, 17), although he
declares its times and seasons wholly unknown. In his later epistles,
and in this especially, it is clear that he anticipated a longer
duration for the existing order of things; and "the evil day" for which
the Asian Churches are to prepare can scarcely have denoted, to the
apostle's mind, the final day of Antichrist, though it may well be an
epoch of similar nature and a token and shadow of the last things.
In point of fact, a great secular crisis was now approaching. The six
years (64-70 after Christ) extending from the fire of Rome to the fall
of Jerusalem, were amongst the most fateful and calamitous recorded in
history. This period was, in a very real sense, the day of judgement for
Israel and the ancient world. It was a foretaste of the ultimate doom of
the kingdom of evil amongst men; and through it Christ appears to have
looked forward to the end of the world. Already "the days are evil" (v.
16); and "the evil day" is at hand--a time of terror and despair for all
who have not a firm faith in the kingdom of God.
Two chief characteristics marked this crisis, as it affected the people
of Christ: _persecution from without_, and _apostasy within the Church_
(Matt. xxiv. 5, 8-12). To the latter feature St Paul refers
elsewhere.[170] Of persecution he took less account, for this was indeed
his ordinary lot, and had already visited his Churches; but it was
afterwards to assume a more violent and appalling form.
When we turn to the epistle to the Seven Churches (Rev. ii., iii.)
written in the next ensuing period, we find a fierce battle raging,
resembling that for which this letter warns the Asian Churches to
prepare. The storm which our apostle foresees, had then burst. The
message addressed to each Church concludes with a promise to "him that
overcometh." To the faithful it is said: "I know thy endurance." The
angel of the Church of Pergamum dwells where is "the throne of Satan,"
and where "Antipas the faithful martyr was killed." There also, says the
Lord Jesus, "are those who hold the teaching of Balaam, and the teaching
of the Nicolaitans," with whom "I will make war with the sword of my
mouth" (comp. Eph. vi. 17). Laodicea has shrunk from the trial, and
grown rich by the world's friendship. Thyatira "suffers the woman
Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce" the
servants of Christ. Sardis has but "a few names that have not defiled
their garments." Even Ephesus, though she had tried the false teachers
and found them wanting (surely Paul's epistles to Timothy had helped her
in this examination), has yet "left her first love." The day of trial
has proved an evil day to these Churches. Satan has been allowed to sift
them; and while some good wheat remains, much of the faith of the
numerous and prosperous communities of the province of Asia has turned
out to be faulty and vain. The presentiments that weighed on St Paul's
mind when four years ago he took leave of the Ephesian elders at
Miletus, and which reappear in this passage, were only too well
justified by the course of events. Indeed, the history of the Church in
this region has been altogether mournful and admonitory.
* * * * *
But it is time to look at the _armour_ in which St Paul bids his readers
equip themselves against the evil day. It consists of seven weapons,
offensive or defensive--if we count prayer amongst them: the _girdle of
truth_, the _breastplate of righteousness_, the _shoes of readiness to
bear the message of peace_, the _shield of faith_, the _helmet of
salvation_, the _sword of the word_, and the continual _cry of prayer_.
1. In girding himself for the field, the first thing the soldier does is
to fasten round his waist the military _belt_. With this he binds in his
under-garments, that there may be nothing loose or trailing about him,
and braces up his limbs for action. Peace admits of relaxation. The
girdle is unclasped; the muscles are unstrung. But everything about the
warrior is tense and firm; his dress, his figure and movements speak of
decision and concentrated energy. He stands before us an image of
resolute conviction, of _a mind made up_. Such a picture the words "girt
about with truth" convey to us.
The epistle is pervaded by the sense of the Church's need of
intellectual conviction. Many of the Asian believers were children,
half-enlightened and irresolute, ready to be "tossed to and fro and
carried about with every wind of doctrine" (iv. 14). They had "heard the
truth as it is in Jesus," but had an imperfect comprehension of its
meaning.[171] They required to add to their faith knowledge,--the
knowledge won by searching thought respecting the great truths of
religion, by a thorough mental appropriation of the things revealed to
us in Christ. Only by such a process can truth brace the mind and knit
its powers together in "the full assurance of the understanding in the
knowledge of the mystery of God, which is Christ" (Col. ii, 2, 3).
Such is the faith needed by the Church, now as then, the faith of an
intelligent, firm and manly assurance. There is in such faith a security
and a vigour of action that the faith of mere sentiment and emotional
impression, with its nerveless grasp, its hectic and impulsive fervours,
cannot impart. The luxury of agnosticism, the languors of doubt, the
vague sympathies and hesitant eclecticism in which delicate and cultured
minds are apt to indulge; the lofty critical attitude, as of some
intellectual god sitting above the strife of creeds, which others find
congenial--these are conditions of mind unfit for the soldier of Christ
Jesus. He must have sure knowledge, definite and decided purposes--a
soul girdled with truth.
2. Having girt his loins, the soldier next fastens on his _breastplate_,
or cuirass.
This is the chief piece of his defensive armour; it protects the vital
organs. In the picture drawn in 1 Thessalonians v. 8, the breastplate is
made "of faith and love." In this more detailed representation, faith
becomes the outlying defensive "shield," while righteousness serves for
the innermost defence, the rampart of the heart. But, in truth, the
Christian righteousness is compounded of faith and love.
This attribute must be understood in its full Pauline meaning. It is the
state of one who is right with God and with God's law. It is the
righteousness both of standing and of character, of imputation and of
impartation, which begins with justification and continues in the new,
obedient life of the believer. These are never separate, in the true
doctrine of grace. "The righteousness that is of God by faith," is the
soul's main defence against the shafts of Satan. It wards off deadly
blows, both from this side and from that. Does the enemy bring up
against me my old sins? I can say: "It is God that justifieth; who is he
that condemneth?"--Am I tempted to presume on my forgiveness, and to
fall into transgression once more? From this breastplate the arrow of
temptation falls pointless, as it resounds: "He that doeth righteousness
is righteous. He that is born of God doth not commit sin." The
completeness of pardon for past offence and the integrity of character
that belong to the justified life, are woven together into an
impenetrable mail.
3. Now the soldier, having girt his loins and guarded his breast, must
look well to his feet. There are lying ready for him _shoes_ of wondrous
make.
What is the quality most needed in the soldier's shoes? Some say, it is
_firmness_; and they so translate the Greek word employed by the
apostle, occurring only here in the New Testament, which in certain
passages of the Septuagint seems to acquire this sense, under the
influence of Hebrew idiom.[172] But firmness was embodied in the girdle.
_Expedition_ belongs to the shoes. The soldier is so shod that he may
move with alertness over all sorts of ground.
Thus shod with speed and willingness were "the beautiful feet" of those
that brought over desert and mountain "the good tidings of peace," the
news of Israel's return to Zion (Isai. lii. 7-9). With such swift
strength were the feet of our apostle shod, when "from Jerusalem round
about unto Illyricum" he had "fulfilled the gospel of Christ," and is
"ready," as he says, "to preach the glad tidings to you also that are in
Rome" (Rom. i. 15). This readiness belonged to His own holy feet, who
"came and preached peace to the far off and the near" (ii. 17),--when,
for example, sitting a weary traveller by the well-side at Sychar, He
found refreshment in revealing to the woman of Samaria the fountain of
living water. Such readiness befits His servants, who have heard from
Him the message of salvation and are sent to proclaim it everywhere.
The girdle and breastplate look to one's own safety. They must be
supplemented by the evangelic zeal inseparable from the spirit of
Christ. This is, moreover, a safeguard of Church life. Von Hofmann says
admirably upon this point: "The objection [brought against the above
interpretation] that the apostle is addressing the faithful at large,
who are not all of them called to preach the gospel, is mistaken. Every
believer should be prepared to witness for Christ so often as
opportunity affords, and needs a _readiness_ thereto. The knowledge of
Christ's peace qualifies him to convey its message. He brings it with
him into the strife of the world. And it is the consciousness that he
possesses himself such peace and has it to communicate to others, which
enables him to walk firmly and with sure step in the way of faith." When
we are bidden to "_stand_ in the evil day," that does not mean to stand
idle or content to hold our ground. Attack is often the best mode of
defence. We keep our faith by spreading it. We defend ourselves from our
opponents by converting them to the gospel, which breathes everywhere
reconciliation and fraternity. Our Foreign Missions are our grand modern
apologetic; and God's peacemakers are His mightiest warriors.
4. With his body girt and fenced and his feet clad with the gospel
shoes, the soldier reaches out his left hand to "take up withal the
_shield_," while his right hand grasps first the helmet which he places
on his head, and then the sword that is offered to him in the word of
God.
The shield signified is not the small round buckler, or target, of the
light-armed man; but the door-like shield,[173] measuring four feet by
two-and-a-half and rounded to the shape of the body, that the Greek
hoplite and the Roman legionary carried. Joined together, these large
shields formed a wall, behind which a body of troops could hide
themselves from the rain of the enemy's missiles. Such is the office of
faith in the conflicts of life: it is the soldier's main defence, the
common bulwark of the Church. Like the city's outer wall, faith bears
the brunt and onset of all hostility. On this shield of faith the darts
of Satan are caught, their point broken and their fire quenched. These
military shields were made of wood, covered on the outside with thick
leather, which not only deadened the shock of the missile, but protected
the frame of the shield from the "fire-tipped darts" that were used in
the artillery of the ancients. These flaming arrows, armed with some
quickly burning and light combustible, if they failed to pierce the
warrior's shield, fell in a moment extinguished at his feet.
St Paul can scarcely mean by his "fiery darts" incitements to passion in
ourselves, inflammatory temptations that seek to rouse the inward fires
of anger or lust. For these missiles are "fire-pointed darts _of the
Evil One_." The fire belongs to the enemy who shoots the dart. It
signifies the malignant hate with which Satan hurls slanders and threats
against the people of God through his human instruments. A bold faith
wards off and quenches this fire even at a distance, so that the soul
never feels its heat. The heart's confidence is unmoved and the Church's
songs of praise are undisturbed, while persecution rages and the enemies
of Christ gnash their teeth against her. Such a shield to him was the
faith of Stephen the proto-martyr.
"I heard the defaming of many; there was terror on every side.
But I trusted in Thee, O Jehovah: I said, Thou art my God!"
To "take up the shield of faith," is it not, like the Psalmist, to meet
injuries and threats, the boasts of unbelief and of worldly power, the
poisoned arrows of the deceitful and the bitter words of unjust
reproach, with faith's quiet counter-assertion? "Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ?" says the apostle in the midst of tribulation.
"God is my witness, whom I serve in the gospel of His Son," he answers
when his fidelity is questioned. No shaft of malice, no arrow of fear
can pierce the soul that holds such a shield.
5. At this point (ver. 17), when the sentence beginning at verse 14 has
drawn itself out to such length, and the relative clause of verse 16_b_
makes a break and eddy in the current of thought, the writer pauses for
a moment. He resumes the exhortation in a form slightly changed and with
rising emphasis, passing from the participle to the finite verb: "And
take _the helmet of salvation_."
The word _take_, in the original, differs from the _taking up_ of verses
13 and 16. It signifies the _accepting_ of something offered by the hand
of another. So the Thessalonians "_accepted_ the word" brought them by
St Paul (1 Thess. i. 6) and Titus "_accepted_ the consolation" given him
by the Corinthians (2 Cor. viii. 17)--in each case a welcome gift. God's
hand is stretched out to bestow on His chosen warrior the helmet of
salvation and the sword of His word, to complete his equipment for the
perilous field. We accept these gifts with devout gratitude, knowing
from what source they come and where the heavenly arms were fashioned.
The "helmet of salvation" is worn by the Lord Himself, as He is depicted
by the prophet coming to the succour of His people (Isai. lix. 17). This
helmet, on the head of Jehovah, is the crest and badge of their Divine
champion. Given to the human warrior, it becomes the sign of his
protection by God. The apostle does not call it "the _hope_ of
salvation," as he does in 1 Thessalonians v. 8, thinking of the
believer's assurance of victory in the last struggle. Nor is it the
sense and assurance of past salvation that here guards the Christian
soldier. The presence of his Saviour and God in itself constitutes his
highest safeguard.
"O Jehovah my Lord, the strength of my salvation,
Thou hast covered my head in the day of battle."
The warrior's head rising above his shield was frequently open to
attack. The arrow might shoot over the shield's edge, and inflict a
mortal blow. Our faith, at the best, has its deficiencies and its
limits; but God's salvation reaches beyond our highest confidence in
Him. His overshadowing presence is the crown of our salvation, His love
its shining crest.
Thus the equipment of Christ's soldier is complete; and he is arrayed in
the full armour of light. His loins girt with truth, his breast clad
with righteousness, his feet shod with zeal, his head crowned with
safety, while faith's all-encompassing shield is cast about him, he
steps forth to do battle with the powers of darkness, "strong in the
Lord, and in the might of His strength."
6. It only remains that "the _sword_ of the Spirit" be put into his
right hand, while his lips are open in continual prayer to the God of
his strength.
The "cleansing word" of chapter v. 26, by whose virtue we passed through
the gate of baptism into the flock of Christ, now becomes the guarding
and smiting word, to be used in conflict with our spiritual foes. Of the
Messiah it was said, in language quoted by the apostle against
Antichrist (2 Thess. ii. 8): "He shall smite the earth with the rod of
His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked"
(Isai. xi. 4). Similarly, in Hosea the Lord tells how He has "hewed" the
unfaithful "by His prophets, and slain them by the words of His mouth"
(Hos. vi. 5). From such sayings of the Old Testament the idea of the
sword of the Divine word is derived. We find it again in Hebrews iv. 12:
"The word of God, living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword";
and in the "sword, two-edged, sharp," which John in the Revelation saw
"coming out of the mouth of the Son of man": it belongs to Him whose
name is "the word of God," and with it "He shall smite the
nations."[174]
This sword of the inspired word Paul himself wielded with supernatural
effect, as when he rebuked Elymas the sorcerer, or when he defended his
gospel against the Judaizers of Galatia and Corinth. In his hand it was
even as
"The sword
Of Michael, from the armoury of God,
... tempered so that neither keen
Nor solid might resist that edge."
With what piercing reproofs, what keen thrusts of argument, what
double-edged irony and dexterous sword-play did this mighty combatant
smite the enemies of the cross of Christ! In times of conflict never may
such leaders be wanting to the Church, men using weapons of warfare not
carnal, but mighty to "cast down strongholds," to "bring down every high
thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and make captive
every thought to Christ's obedience."
In her struggle with the world's gigantic lusts and tyrannies, the
Israel of God must be armed with this lofty and lightning-like power,
with the flaming sword of the Spirit. No less in the secret, internal
conflicts of the religious life, the sword of the word is the decisive
weapon. The Son of man put it to proof in His combat in the wilderness.
Satan himself sought to wrest this instrument to his purpose. With pious
texts in his mouth he addressed our Lord, like an angel of light, fain
to deceive Him by the very Scripture He had Himself inspired! until,
with the last thrust of quotation, Jesus unmasked the tempter and drove
him from the field, saying, "Get thee behind me, Satan!"
7. We have surveyed the Christian soldier with his harness on. From head
to foot he is clothed in arms supernatural. No weapon of defence or
offence is lacking, that the spiritual combat needs. Nothing seems to be
wanting: yet everything is wanting, if this be all. Our text began: "Be
strong in the Lord." It is _prayer_ that links the believer with the
strength of God.
What avails Michael's sword, if the hand that holds it is slack and
listless? what the panoply of God, if behind it beats a craven heart? He
is but a soldier in semblance who wears arms without the courage and the
strength to use them. The life that is to animate that armed figure, to
beat with high resolve beneath the corslet, to nerve the arm as it lifts
the strong shield and plies the sharp sword, to set the swift feet
moving on their gospel errands, to weld the Church together into one
army of the living God, comes from the inspiration of God's Spirit
received in answer to believing prayer. So the apostle adds: "With all
prayer and supplication praying at every time in the Spirit."
There is here no needless repetition. "Prayer" is the universal word for
reverent address to God; and "supplication" the entreaty for such help
as "on every occasion"--at each turn of the battle, in each emergency of
life--we find ourselves to need. And Christian prayer is always "in the
Spirit,"--being offered in the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, who
is the element of the believer's life in Christ, who helps our
infirmities and, virtually, intercedes for us (Rom. viii. 26, 27). When
the apostle continues, "_watching_ [or _keeping awake_] thereunto," he
reminds us, as perhaps he was thinking himself, of our Lord's warning to
the disciples sleeping in Gethsemane: "Watch and pray, lest ye enter
into temptation." The "perseverance" he requires in this wakeful
attention to prayer, is the resolute persistence of the suppliant, who
will neither be daunted by opposition nor wearied by delay.[175]
The word "supplication" is resumed at the end of verse 18, in order to
enlist the prayers of the readers for the service of the Church at
large: "with wakeful heed thereto, in all persistence and _supplication
for all the saints_." Prayer for ourselves must broaden out into a
catholic intercession for all the servants of our Master, for all the
children of the household of faith. By the bands of prayer we are knit
together,--a vast multitude of saints throughout the earth, unknown by
face or name to our fellows, but one in the love of Christ and in our
heavenly calling, and all engaged in the same perilous conflict.
"All the saints," St Paul said (i. 15), were interested in the faith of
the Asian believers; they were called "with all the saints" to share in
the comprehension of the immense designs of God's kingdom (iii. 18).
The dangers and temptations of the Church are equally far-reaching; they
have a common origin and character in all Christian communities. Let our
prayers, at least, be catholic. At the throne of grace, let us forget
our sectarian divisions. Having access in one Spirit to the Father, let
us realize in His presence our communion with all His children.
FOOTNOTES:
[168] Comp. Rom. viii. 37, xvi. 20. _To bring down_, _overpower_,
_conquer_ is the military sense of =katergazomai=,--not found elsewhere
in the New Testament, but, as it seems to us, unmistakable here. It
occurs in Ezek. xxxiv. 4 (LXX), and 1 Esdr. iv. 4.
[169] Col. i. 23, ii. 5; Phil. i. 27-30, iv. 1: comp. 1 Thess. v. 8;
Rom. xiii. 11-14; 1 Cor. xvi. 13; 2 Cor. x. 3-6.
[170] 2 Thess. ii. 3; Acts xx. 29, 30; 1 Tim. iv. 1; 2 Tim. iii. 1.
[171] Ch. 1. 17-23, iii. 16-19, iv. 13-15, 20-24.
[172] =Hetoimasia= is adopted by the Greek translators as the equivalent
of the Hebrew word for _foundation_, or _base_, in Ps. lxxxix. 14; Ezra
ii. 68, iii. 3; Dan. xi. 7, 20, 21. See, however, the note of Meyer, who
thinks that they misunderstood the Hebrew.
[173] =Thyreos=: Latin _scutum_; only here in N.T.
[174] Rev. i. 16, ii. 12, xix. 13-15.
[175] =En pasê proskarterêsei=: _in every kind of persistence_,--a
perseverance that tries all arts and holds its ground at every point.
The verb =proskartereô= appears in the parallel passages: Col. iv. 2;
Rom. xii. 12; also in Acts i. 14.
THE CONCLUSION.
CHAPTER vi. 19-24.
=Pepeismai gar hoti oute thanatos oute zôê oute angeloi oute archai
oute enestôta oute mellonta oute dynameis oute hypsôma oute bathos
oute tis ktisis hetera dynêsetai hêmas chôrisai apo tês agapês tou
Theou tês en Christô Iêsou tô Kyriô hêmôn=--ROM. viii. 38, 39.
"Love for Christ is immortal."--R. W. DALE.
CHAPTER XXX.
_REQUEST: COMMENDATION: BENEDICTION._
"And [pray] on my behalf, that the word may be given unto me in
opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the
gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may
speak boldly, as I ought to speak.
"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: whom I have sent unto you for this very purpose,
that ye may know our state, and that he may comfort your
hearts."--EPH. vi. 19-22.
The apostle has bidden his readers apply themselves with wakeful and
incessant earnestness to prayer (ver. 18). For this is, after all, the
chief arm of the spiritual combat. By this means the soul draws
reinforcements of mercy and hope from the eternal sources (ver. 10). By
this means the Asian Christians will be able not only to carry on their
own conflict with vigour, but to help all the saints (ver. 18); and
through their aid the whole Church of God will be sustained in its war
with the prince of this world.
The apostle Paul himself stood in the forefront of this battle. He was
suffering for the cause of common Christendom; he was a mark for the
attack of the enemies of the gospel.[176] On him, more than on any other
man, the safety and progress of the Church depended (Phil. i. 25). In
this position he naturally says: "Watching unto prayer in all
perseverance and supplication for all the saints--_and for me_." If his
heart should fail him, or his mouth be closed, if the word of
inspiration ceased to be given him and the great teacher of the Gentiles
in faith and truth no longer spoke as he ought to speak, it would be a
heavy blow and sore discouragement to the friends of Christ throughout
the world. "My afflictions are your glory (iii. 13). My unworthy
testimony to Christ is showing forth His praise to all men and
angels.[177] Pray for me then, that I may speak and act in this hour of
trial in a manner worthy of the dispensation given to me."
Strong and confident as the apostle Paul was, he felt himself to be
nothing without prayer. It is his habit to expect the support of the
intercessions of all who love him in Christ.[178] He knew that he was
helped by this means, on numberless occasions and in wonderful ways. He
asks his present readers to entreat that "the word[179] may be given me
when I open my mouth, so that I may freely make known the mystery of the
gospel, on which behalf I serve as ambassador in bonds, that in it I may
speak freely, as I ought to speak." This sentence hangs upon the verb
"may-be-given." Jesus said to His apostles: "It shall be _given_ you in
that hour what you shall speak, when brought before rulers and kings"
(Matt x. 18-20). The apostle stands now before the Roman world. He has
appealed to Caesar, and awaits his trial. If he has not yet appeared at
the Emperor's tribunal, he will shortly have to do so. Christ's
ambassador is about to plead in chains before the highest of human
courts. It is not his own life or freedom that he is concerned about;
the ambassador has only to consider how he shall represent his
Sovereign's interests. The importance which Paul attached to this
occasion, is manifest from the words written to Timothy (2 Ep. iv. 17)
referring to his later trial. St Paul has this special need in his
thoughts, in addition to the help from above continually required in the
discharge of his ministry, under the hampering conditions of his
imprisonment (comp. Col. iv. 3, 4).
The Church must entreat on Paul's behalf that the word he utters may be
God's, and not his own. It is in vain to "open the mouth," unless there
is this higher prompting and through the gates of speech there issues a
Divine message, unless the speaker is the mouthpiece of the Holy Spirit
rather than of his individual thought and will. "The words that I speak
unto you," Jesus said, "I speak not of myself." The bold apostle intends
to open his mouth; but he must have the true "word given" him to say. We
should pray for Christ's ambassadors, and especially for the more public
and eloquent pleaders of the Christian cause, that it may be thus with
them. Rash and vain words, that bear the stamp of the mere man who
utters them and not of the Spirit of his Master, do a hurt to the cause
of the gospel proportioned to the blessing that comes from such lips
when they speak the word given to them.
Such inspiration would enable the apostle to "make known the mystery of
the gospel _with freedom and confidence of speech_": the expression
rendered "with boldness"[180] means all this. Before the emperor Nero,
or the slave Onesimus, he will be able with the same aptness and dignity
and self-command to declare his message and to vindicate his Master's
name. "The mystery of the gospel" is no other secret than that which
this epistle unfolds (iii. 3-9), the great fact that Jesus Christ is the
Saviour and the Lord of the whole world. Jesus proclaimed Himself to
Pilate, who represented at Jerusalem the imperial rule, as the King of
all who are of the truth; and the apostle Paul has the like message to
convey to the head of the Empire. It needed the greatest boldness and
the greatest wisdom in the ambassador of the Messianic King to play his
part at Rome; an unwise word might make his own life forfeit, and bring
incalculable dangers on the Church.
St Paul's trial, we suppose, passed off successfully, as he at this time
anticipated.[181] The Roman government was perfectly aware that the
political charge against their prisoner was frivolous; and Nero, if he
personally gave Paul a hearing on this earlier trial, in all probability
viewed his spiritual pretensions on his Master's behalf with
contemptuous tolerance. If he did so, the toleration was not due to any
want of courage or clearness on the defendant's part. It is possible
even that the courage and address of the advocate of the "new
superstition" pleased the tyrant, who was not without his moments of
good humour nor without the instincts of a man of taste. The apostle, we
may well believe, made an impression on the supreme court at Rome
similar to that made on his judges in Caesarea.
St Paul's bonds in Christ have now become widely "manifest" in Rome
(Phil. i. 13). He pleads in circumstances of disgrace. But God brings
good for His servants out of evil. As he said at a later time, so he
could say now: "They have bound me; but they cannot bind the word of
God."[182] He was "not ashamed of the gospel" in the prospect of coming
to Rome years before (Rom. i. 16); and he is not ashamed now, though he
has come in chains as an evil-doer. Through the intercessions of
Christ's people all these injuries of Satan are turning to his salvation
and to the "furtherance of the gospel"; and Paul rejoices and triumphs
in them, well assured that Christ will be magnified whether by his life
or death, whether by his freedom or his chains (Phil. i. 12-26). The
prayers which the imprisoned apostle asks from the Church were
fulfilled. For we read in the last verses of the Acts of the Apostles,
which put into a sentence the history of this period: "He received all
that came to him, preaching the kingdom and teaching the things
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, _with all boldness_, none forbidding
him."
* * * * *
The paragraph relating to Tychicus is almost identical with that of
Colossians iv. 7, 8. It begins with a "But" connecting what follows with
the statement the apostle has just made respecting his position at Rome.
As much as to say: "I want your prayers, set as I am for the defence of
the gospel and in circumstances of difficulty and peril. But Tychicus
will tell you more about me than I can convey by letter. I am sending
him, in fact, for this very purpose."
St Paul knew the great anxiety of the Christians of Asia on his account.
Epaphras of Colossae had "shown him the love in the Spirit" that was
felt towards him even by those in this region who had never seen him in
the flesh (Col. i. 8). The tender heart of the apostle is touched by
this assurance. So he sends Tychicus to visit as many of the Asian
Churches as he may be able to reach, bringing news that will cheer their
hearts and relieve their discouragement (iii. 13).[183] The note sent at
this time to Philemon indicates the hopeful tidings that Tychicus was
able to convey to Paul's friends in the East: "I trust that through your
prayers I shall be given to you" (Philem. 22). To the Philippians he
writes, perhaps a little later, in the same strain: "I trust in the Lord
that I myself shall come shortly" (Phil. ii. 24). He anticipates, with
some confidence, his speedy acquital and release: it is not likely that
this expectation, on the part of such a man as St Paul, was
disappointed. The good news went round the Asian and Macedonian
Churches: "Paul is likely soon to be free, and we shall see and hear him
again!"
In the parallel epistle he writes, "that you may know" (Col. iv. 8);
here it is, "that you _also_ may know my affairs." The added word is
significant. The writer is imagining his letter read in the various
assemblies which it will reach. He has the other epistle in his mind,
and remembering that he there introduced Tychicus in similar terms, he
says to this wider circle of Asian disciples: "That you also, as well as
the Churches of the Lycus valley, may know how things are with me, I
send Tychicus to give you a full report." It is not necessary, however,
to look beyond the last two verses for the reference of the _also_ of
verse 21: "I have asked your prayers on my behalf; and I wish you in
turn to know how things go with me." Possibly, there were some matters
connected with St Paul's trial at Rome that could not be fitly or safely
communicated by letter. Hence he adds: "He shall make known unto you all
things." When he writes "that ye may know my affairs, how I do," we
gather that Tychicus was to communicate to those he visited everything
about the beloved apostle that would be of interest to his Asian
brethren.
The apostle commends Tychicus in language identical in the two letters,
except that in Colossians "fellow-servant" is added to the honourable
designations of "beloved brother and faithful minister," under which he
is here introduced. We find him first associated with St Paul in Acts
xx. 4, where "Tychicus and Trophimus" represent Asia in the number of
those who accompanied the apostle on his voyage to Jerusalem, when he
carried the contributions of his Gentile Churches to the relief of the
Christian poor in Jerusalem. Trophimus, his companion, is called a
"Greek" and an "Ephesian" (Acts xxi. 28, 29). Whether Tychicus belonged
to the same city or not, we cannot tell. He was almost certainly a
Greek. The Pastoral epistles show Tychicus still in the apostle's
service in his last years. He appears to have joined St Paul's staff and
remained with him from the time that he accompanied him to Jerusalem in
the year 59. From 2 Timothy iv 9-12 we gather that Tychicus was sent to
Ephesus to relieve Timothy, when St Paul desired the presence of the
latter at Rome. It is evident that he was a man greatly valued by the
apostle and endeared to him.
Tychicus was well known in the Asian Churches, and suitable therefore to
be sent upon this errand. And the commendation given to him would be
very welcome to the circle to which he belonged. The apostle has great
tact in these personal matters, the tact which belongs to delicate
feeling and a generous mind. He calls his messenger "the beloved
brother" in his relation to the Church in general, and "faithful
minister in the Lord" in his special relation to himself. So he
describes Epaphroditus to the Philippians as "your apostle and minister
of my need." In conveying these letters and messages, this worthy man
was Paul's apostle and minister of his need in regard to the Asian
Churches. He is a "_minister in the Lord_," inasmuch as this office lies
within the range of his service to the Lord Christ.
We observe that in writing to the Colossians the apostle applies to
Onesimus, the converted slave, the honourable epithets applied here to
this long-tried friend: "the faithful and beloved brother" (Col. iv. 9).
Every Christian believer should be in the eyes of his fellows a "beloved
brother." And every true servant of Christ and His people is a "faithful
minister in the Lord," be his rank high or low, and whether official
hands have been laid upon his head or not. We are apt, by a trick of
words, to limit to the order which we suitably call "the ministry"
expressions that the New Testament applies to the common ministry of
Christ's saints (comp. iv. 12). This devoted servant of Christ is
employed just now as a newsman and letter-carrier. But what a high
responsibility it was, to be the bearer to the Asian cities, and to the
Church for all time, of the epistles of Paul the apostle to the
Ephesians, Colossians and Philemon. Had Tychicus been careless or
dishonest, had he lost these precious documents or tampered with them,
how great the loss to mankind! We cannot read them without feeling our
debt to this beloved brother and faithful servant of the Church. Those
who travel upon Christ's business, who link distant communities to each
other and convey from one to another the Holy Spirit's fellowship and
grace, are "the messengers of the Churches and the glory of Christ" (2
Cor. viii. 23).
THE BENEDICTION.
"Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith,
From God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ
In incorruption" (vv. 23, 24).
Grace and Peace were the first words of the epistle,--the apostle's
salutation to all his Churches. In _Peace and Grace_ he breathes out his
final blessing. The benediction is fuller than in most of the epistles,
and exhibits several peculiar features.
To the Thessalonians (2 Ep. iii. 16) St Paul wished: "Peace continually,
in all ways, from the Lord of peace Himself"; and he commends the Romans
twice to "the God of peace" (ch. xv. 33, xvi. 20): the Corinthians he
bids to "live in peace," so that "the God of love and peace" may be with
them (2 Cor. xiii. 11). There is nothing in the least degree strange or
un-Pauline in the wishes here expressed, except the fact that they are
put in the third person--"_Peace to the brethren_," etc.--instead of
being addressed directly to the readers in the second person, as in all
other of the apostle's extant closing benedictions. This peculiarity, as
we observed in the first Chapter, is in accordance with the encyclical
and impersonal stamp of the epistle.[184] It is Paul's most catholic
benediction, his blessing upon "all the Israel of God" (comp. Gal. vi.
16).
"With faith," that "love" is desired whereby, according to the Pauline
ethics of salvation, faith works (Gal. v. 6), the love which as a
vitalizing organic force creates the new man, formed in all his doings
and dispositions after the image of Jesus Christ. From chapter iv. 1-3
we have learnt how "peace" and "love" attend each other. Love is the
source of the forbearance, the mutual consideration and self-sacrifice,
without which there is no peace within the Church. Peace springs from
love: love waits on faith. Amongst brethren in Christ, members of the
same household of faith, peace and love have their home. These are the
sons of peace: with good will and good hope, entering or quitting their
abode, we say, "Peace be to this house!"
The peace that the apostle looks for amongst Christian brethren is the
fruit of peace with God through Christ. Such "peace guarding the
thoughts and heart" of each Christian man, nothing contrary thereto will
arise amongst them. Calm and quiet hearts make a peaceful Church. There
are no clashing interests, no selfish competitions, no strife as to who
shall be greatest. Differences of opinion and taste are kept within the
bounds of mutual submission. The awe of God's presence with His people,
the remembrance of the dear price at which His Church was purchased, the
sense of Christ's Lordship in the Spirit and of the sacredness of our
brotherhood in Him, check all turbulence and rivalry and teach us to
seek the things that make for peace.
"Peace _and love_," the apostle desires. Love includes peace, and more;
for it labours not to prevent contention only, but to help and enrich in
all ways the body of Christ. By such "toil of love" faith is made
complete. We are bidden indeed, in certain matters, to "have faith to
ourselves before God" (Rom. xiv. 22). This maxim holds where one has a
special faith in regard to such things as eating flesh or drinking wine,
in which any one of us may without offence differ from his brethren. But
it is a poor faith that dwells upon questions of this nature, and makes
its religion of them. The essentials of faith, as we saw them delineated
in chapter iv. 1-6, are things that unite and not distinguish us.
As faith grows and deepens, it makes new channels in which love may
flow. "We are bound to thank God always for you," writes St Paul to the
Thessalonians (2 Ep. i. 3), "for that your faith groweth exceedingly,
and the love of each one of you all toward one another multiplieth."
This is the sound and true growth of faith. Where an intenser faith
makes men disputatious and exclusive; where it fails to breed meekness
and courtesy, we cannot but suspect its quality. Such faith may be
sincere; but it is mixed with a lamentable ignorance, and a resistance
to the Holy Spirit that is likely to end in grave offence. "Contending
earnestly for the faith" does not mean contending angrily, with the
weapons of satire and censoriousness. It is well to remember that we are
not the judges of our brethren. There are many questions raised and
discussed amongst us, which we may safely leave to the judgement of the
last day. It is too easy to fill the air with matters of contention, and
to excite a sore and suspicious temper destructive of peace, and in
which nothing but fault-finding will flourish. If we must contend, we
may surely debate quietly on secondary matters, while we are one in
Christ. If we have not _love with faith_, our faith is worthless (1 Cor.
xiii. 2).
Deep beneath the peace that dwells in the Church and the love that
fills each believer's heart, is the eternal fountain of _grace_. "Grace
be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ," says the apostle.
Grace is theirs already; and they desire nothing so much as its
increase. Their love to Christ is the fruit of the grace of God that is
with them. This wish includes all good wishes; it surpasses both our
deservings and desires. All that God prepared for us in His eternal
counsels, and that Christ purchased by His redeeming love, all of good
that our nature can receive now and for ever, is embraced in this one
word: _Grace be with you._
"With all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ," Paul says; for it is to
lovers of Christ that God gives the continuance of His grace. If our
love to Christ fails, grace leaves us. God cannot look with favour upon
the man who has no love to His Son Jesus Christ. In giving his blessing
to the Corinthians, St Paul was compelled to write with his own hand:
"If any man love not the Lord, let him be anathema." The blessing
involves the anathema. God's love is not a love of indifference, an
indiscriminate, immoral affection. It is a love of choice and
predilection--"If any man love me," said Jesus, "my Father will love
him." Is not the condition reasonable,--and the inference inevitable?
The Father cannot grant His grace to those who have seen and hated Him
in His Son and image. By that hatred they refuse His grace, and cast it
from them.
On the other hand, a sincere love to the Lord Jesus Christ opens the
heart to all the rich and purifying influences of Divine grace. The
sinful woman, stained with false and foul love, who washed the Saviour's
feet with her tears, attained in that act to a height of purity
undreamed of by the virtuous Pharisee. This new and holy flame burns
out impure passion from the soul: it kindles lofty thoughts; it makes
crooked natures straight, and timid and weak natures brave and strong.
"To them that love God, we know, all things work together for good." To
them that love Christ, all things contribute blessing; all conditions
and events of life become means of grace. If we love Christ, we shall
love His people,--the Church, the bride of Christ from whom He will
never be parted in our thoughts. If we love Christ, we shall love the
work He has laid upon us, and the word He has taught us, and the
sacramental pledges He has given us in remembrance of Him and assurance
of His coming. If we love Him, we shall "keep His commandments," and He
will keep His promise to send us the "other Helper, to be with us for
ever, even the Spirit of truth." The gift of the Holy Spirit is the
all-sufficiency of grace.[185] Here is the innermost sanctuary of our
religion, the fountain and beginning of the soul's eternal life,--in the
love which joins it to the Lord in one spirit.
_In incorruption_ is the last and sealing word of this letter, which we
have been so long studying together. It "stands as the crown and climax
of this glorious epistle" (Alford). Like so many other words of the
epistle, at first sight its interpretation is not clear. The apostle has
used the term in several other passages, as synonymous with
_immortality_[186] and denoting the state of the blessed after the
resurrection, when they will stand before God complete in body and in
spirit, with all that is mortal in them swallowed up of life--"raised in
incorruption." But there is nothing in this context to lead up to the
idea of personal, bodily immortality. Those who construe the apostle's
words in this sense, place a comma before the final clause and treat it
as a qualification of the main predicate of the sentence: "Grace be with
all them that love our Lord,--grace [culminating] in incorruption"--or
in other words, "grace crowned with glory!" But it must be admitted that
this is somewhat strained.
The rendering of our ordinary version, "in sincerity" (in the Revised
rendering, "uncorruptness"), gives an ethical sense to the word that is
scarcely borne out by usage. It is a different, though kindred
expression that St Paul employs to express "uncorruptness" in Titus ii.
7.[187]
It appears to us that the term "incorruption," in its ordinary
significance, applies fitly to the believer's love for the Lord, when
the word is read in accordance with the symbolism of the epistle. This
love is the life of the body of Christ. In it lies the Church's
immortality. The gates of death prevail not against her, rooted and
grounded as she is in love to the risen and immortal Christ. "May that
love be maintained," the apostle says, "in its deathless power. Let it
be an unspoilt and unwasting love."
Of earthly love we often say with sadness:--
"Space is against thee: it can part!
Time is against thee: it can chill!"
Not so with the love of Christ. Neither death nor life parts the soul
from Him. Our love to the Lord Jesus Christ seats us with Him in the
heavenly places,--above the realm of decay, above this wasting flesh and
perishing world.
FOOTNOTES:
[176] Col. i. 24--ii. 1; Phil. i. 16.
[177] Ch. ii. 7, iii. 10; Phil. i. 20; 2 Tim. iv. 17.
[178] I Thess. v. 25; 2 Thess. iii. 1; Rom. xv. 30-32; Col. iv. 3, etc.
[179] Out of the instances in which the English Version renders =logos=
in St Paul by _utterance_, the Revisers have substituted _word_ for
_utterance_ only in Col. iv. 3. One wishes they had done so throughout.
For =logos= surely implies the _content_, the _import_ of what is said.
This passage reminds us of John xvii. 14: "I have given them Thy word";
and xiv. 24: "The word which ye hear is not mine, but His."
[180] =En parrêsia=: comp. iii. 12; Phil. i. 20; Philem. 8; 2 Cor. vii.
4; 1 Thess. ii. 2, etc.
[181] Phil. i. 25, 26, ii. 23, 24; Philem. 22.
[182] 2 Tim. i. 7-12, ii. 3-10.
[183] Comp. Phil. i. 24-26.
[184] See pp. 13-17.
[185] Ch. i. 14, iv. 30. See Chapter IV., above.
[186] Rom. ii. 7; 1 Cor. xv. 42, 50, 53, 54; 2 Tim. i. 10. See Alford's
excellent note on this passage.
[187] =Aphthoria=: =aphtharsia= is deleted in the critical texts.
* * * * *
_WORKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR._
THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS (_Expositor's Bible_). Crown 8vo, cloth.
COMMENTARY ON COLOSSIANS (_Pulpit Commentary_).
COMMENTARY ON I. & II. THESSALONIANS (_Cambridge Bible for Schools and
Colleges_).
AN ESSAY ON THE PASTORAL EPISTLES (SABATIER'S _The Apostle Paul_).
THE EPISTLES OF PAUL THE APOSTLE: _a Sketch of their Origin and
Contents._
THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE.
_Crown 8vo, cloth, price 7s. 6d. each vol._
FIRST SERIES, 1887-8.
Colossians.
By A. MACLAREN, D.D.
St. Mark.
By Right Rev. the Bishop of Derry.
Genesis.
By Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D.
1 Samuel.
By Prof. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D.
2 Samuel.
By the same Author.
Hebrews.
By Principal T. C. EDWARDS, D.D.
SECOND SERIES, 1888-9.
Galatians.
By Prof. G. G. FINDLAY, B.A.
The Pastoral Epistles.
By Rev. A. PLUMMER, D.D.
Isaiah I.--XXXIX.
By Prof. G. A. SMITH, D.D. Vol. I.
The Book of Revelation.
By Prof. W. MILLIGAN, D.D.
1 Corinthians.
By Prof. MARCUS DODS, D.D.
The Epistles of St. John.
By Most Rev. the Archbishop of Armagh.
THIRD SERIES, 1889-90.
Judges and Ruth.
By R. A. WATSON, M.A., D.D.
Jeremiah.
By Rev. C. J. BALL, M.A.
Isaiah XL.--LXVI.
By Prof. G. A. SMITH, D.D. Vol. II.
St. Matthew.
By Rev. J. MONRO GIBSON, D.D.
Exodus.
By Right Rev. the Bishop of Derry.
St. Luke.
By Rev. H. BURTON, M.A.
FOURTH SERIES, 1890-1.
Ecclesiastes.
By Rev. SAMUEL COX, D.D.
St. James and St. Jude.
By Rev. A. PLUMMER, D.D.
Proverbs.
By Rev. R. F. HORTON, D.D.
Leviticus.
By Rev. S. H. KELLOGG, D.D.
The Gospel of St. John.
By Prof. M. DODS, D.D. Vol. I.
The Acts of the Apostles.
By Prof. STOKES, D.D. Vol. I.
FIFTH SERIES, 1891-2.
The Psalms.
By A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. I.
1 and 2 Thessalonians.
By JAMES DENNEY, D.D.
The Book of Job.
By R. A. WATSON, M.A., D.D.
Ephesians.
By Prof. G. G. FINDLAY, B.A.
The Gospel of St. John.
By Prof. M. DODS, D.D. Vol. II.
The Acts of the Apostles.
By Prof. STOKES, D.D. Vol. II.
SIXTH SERIES, 1892-3.
1 Kings.
By Very Rev. the Dean of Canterbury.
Philippians.
By Principal RAINY, D.D.
Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther.
By Prof. W. F. ADENEY, M.A.
Joshua.
By Prof. W. G. BLAIKIE, D.D.
The Psalms.
By A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. II.
The Epistles of St. Peter.
By Prof. RAWSON LUMBY, D.D.
SEVENTH SERIES, 1893-4.
2 Kings.
By Very Rev. the Dean of Canterbury.
Romans.
By H. C. G. MOULE, M.A., D.D.
The Books of Chronicles.
By Prof. W. H. BENNETT, M.A.
2 Corinthians.
By JAMES DENNEY, D.D.
Numbers.
By R. A. WATSON, M.A., D.D.
The Psalms.
By A. MACLAREN, D.D. Vol. III.
EIGHTH SERIES, 1895-6.
Daniel.
By Very Rev. the Dean of Canterbury.
The Book of Jeremiah.
By Prof. W. H. BENNETT, M.A.
Deuteronomy.
By Prof. ANDREW HARPER, B.D.
The Song of Solomon and Lamentations.
By Prof. W. F. ADENEY, M.A.
Ezekiel.
By Prof. JOHN SKINNER, M.A.
The Book of the Twelve Prophets.
By Prof. G. A. SMITH, D.D. Two Vols.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Expositor's Bible: Ephesians, by G. G. Findlay