+I. The foundation of the citizenship of the Christian.+--In access
to the Father--in the power of approaching Him in full, free,
trustful prayer.
1. _Christian prayer is the approach of the individual soul to God as
its Father._--Until a man utterly believers in Christ he can never
pray aright. There are veils around the unbelieving spirit which
hinder this free, confiding approach. The touch of God startles
memories, rouses ghosts of the past in the soul's secret chambers;
they flutter fearfully in the strange Divine light, and the man
shudders and dare not pray. A man bathed in the life of God in prayer
feels he is no more a stranger and a foreigner, but has entered into
God's kingdom, for God is his Father.
2. _That prayer of the individual soul must lead to the united
worship of God's Church._--We cannot always pray alone. The men who
stand most aloof from social worship are not the men who manifest the
highest spiritual life. Our highest prayers are our most universal. I
do not say we don't feel their individuality, we do--but in and
through their universality.
+II. The nature of Christian citizenship.+--1. _Prayer a witness to
our fellowship with the Church of all time._ Realising the Fatherhood
of God in the holy converse of prayer, we are nearer men. Our
selfishness, our narrow, isolating peculiarities begin to fade. In
our highest prayers we realise common wants.
2. _Prayer a witness to our fellowship with the Church of
eternity._--All emotions of eternity catch the tone of prayer.
Sometimes in the evening, when the sounds of the world are still, and
the sense of eternity breaks in upon us, is not that feeling a
prayer? We know that we are right, that in worship we have taken no
earthly posture, but an attitude from higher regions.
+Lessons.+--1. _Live as members of the kingdom._ 2. _Expect the signs
of citizenship--the crown of thorns, the cross._ 3. _Live in hope of
the final ingathering.--E. L. Hull._
_The Communion of Saints._
+I. Society becomes possible only through religion.+--Men might be
gregarious without it, but not social. Instinct which unites them in
detail prevents their wider combination. Intellect affords light to
show the elements of union, but no heat to give them crystalline
form. Self-will is prevailingly a repulsive power, and often
disintegrates the most solid of human masses. Some sense of a Divine
Presence, some consciousness of a higher law, some pressure of a
solemn necessity, will be found to have preceded the organization of
every human community, and to have gone out and perished before its
death.
+II. Worship exhibits its uniting principle under the simplest form,
in the sympathies it diffuses among the members of the same religious
assembly.+--There is, however, no necessary fellowship, as of saints,
in the mere assembling of ourselves together; but only in the true
and simple spirit of worship. Where a pure devotion really exists,
the fellowship it produces spreads far beyond the separate circle of
each Christian assembly. Surely it is a glorious thing to call up,
while we worship, the wide image of Christendom this day. Could we be
lifted up above this sphere and look down as it rolls beneath this
day's sun, and catch its murmurs as they rise, should we not behold
land after land turned into a Christian shrine? In how many tongues,
by what various voices, with what measureless intensity of love, is
the name of Christ breathed forth to-day!
+III. But our worship here brings us into yet nobler
connections.+--It unites us by a chain of closest sympathy with past
generations. In our helps to faith and devotion we avail ourselves of
the thought and piety of many extinct ages. Do not we, the living,
take up in adoration and prayer the thoughts of the dead and find
them Divinely true? What an impressive testimony is this to the
sameness of our nature through every age and the immortal
perseverance of its holier affections!
+IV. And soon we too shall drop the note of earthly aspiration and
join that upper anthem of Diviner love.+--The communion of saints
brings us to their conflict first, their blessings afterwards. Those
who will not with much patience strive with the evil can have no dear
fellowship with the good; we must weep their tears ere we can win
their peace.--_Martineau._
_Characteristics of Believers._
+I. Believers are here described as having been strangers and
foreigners.+--1. There are relative expressions, meaning that natural
men are strangers to the household of God and foreigners as respects
the city of Zion. 2. Consider the natural man with reference to the
city of Zion, and the truth of this representation will appear.
(1) He is a stranger and foreigner--(_a_) By a sentence of exile
(Gen. iii.). (_b_) By birth (Gen. v. 3; John iii. 6). (2) He is
proved to be a stranger and foreigner--(_a_) By features (Gal.
v. 19-21). (_b_) By manners (1 Pet. iv. 3). (_c_) By language. As
such he is under another ruler (Eph. ii. 2), he is at war (Gal.
iv. 29). 3. Though "strangers and foreigners" in relation to Zion,
yet men are naturalised in another country. 4. This does not imply
living beyond the pale of the visible Church. The Parable of the
Tares. An alien to the saints and a stranger to God may be in the
visible Church. 5. That there are "strangers and foreigners" in the
Church seems a calamity. (1) They are thereby deceived. (2) They
injure Christians. (3) They betray Christ.
+II. Believers are described as being fellow-citizens with the
saints.+--1. They are citizens. (1) Their sentence of exile is
cancelled (ver. 13). (2) They are naturalised by birth (John iii. 5).
(3) They are reconciled to God and believers. (4) They are under
Zion's government. 2. They are "fellow-citizens with the saints."
(1) They have intercourse--holy. (2) They are united by mutual love.
(3) They have reciprocal duties. (4) They have common rights and
privileges. (5) They have common honour and reputation. (6) They have
common prosperity and adversity. (7) They have common enemies.
(8) They have common defence and safety. (9) They have a common
history. 3. As a congregation we are professedly a section of this
peculiar and spiritual community. (1) Do we seek each other's
welfare? (2) Is our intercourse the communion of saints? (3) Are we
careful of each other's reputation? 4. Are we as a congregation
isolating ourselves from each other? Are we "fellow-citizens with the
saints"? 5. The city is above.
+III. Believers are here described as belonging to the household of
God.+--1. Believers as citizens are God's subjects. 2. As belonging
to God's household they are His children. 3. As in God's
household--(1) They are like Him. (2) They are near to Him. (3) They
see His face. (4) They enjoy His fellowship. (5) They are provided
for by Him. (6) They are under His protection. (7) They serve Him.
(8) They worship Him--His house is a temple. 4. These are very
tangible privileges and belong to this present life. 5. Many may
suppose that they are "fellow-citizens with the saints" whose
experience does not prove that they are "of the household of God."
6. For this "household" God has "a house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens."--_Stewart._
Vers. 20, 21. _The Church a Divine Edifice._--1. Though God Himself
be the principal Author and Builder of this spiritual edifice, yet He
employs His called ministers and servants as instruments, among whom
He made special use of the prophets and apostles for laying the
foundation in so far as they first did reveal and preach Jesus
Christ, and commit to writings such truths concerning Him as are
necessary for salvation, while other ministers are employed in
preaching Christ to build up the elect on the foundation laid by
them. 2. There is a sweet harmony and full agreement between the
doctrines and writings of the prophets and apostles in holding forth
Christ for a foundation and rock of salvation, the latter having
taught and written nothing but what was prefigured in types and
foretold in prophecies by the former. 3. As growth in grace is a
privilege which appertains to all parts of this spiritual building
who are yet on earth, so this growth of theirs flows from their union
and communion with Christ; and the more their union is improved by
daily extracting renewed influence from Him, they cannot choose but
thrive the better in spiritual growth.--_Fergusson._
Ver. 22. _The Church the Habitation of God._--1. Jesus Christ differs
from the foundation of other buildings in this, that every particular
believer is not only laid upon Him and supported by Him as in
material buildings, but they are also indented in Him, and hid, as it
were, in the clefts of the rock by saving faith. 2. As all believers,
however far soever removed by distance, are yet more strictly tied
and joined together, so by taking band with Christ the foundation,
they are fastened one to another as the stones of a building. 3. So
inseparable is the union among the persons of the Trinity that the
presence and indwelling of One is sufficient to prove the indwelling
of all; for believers are a habitation to God the Father and Son,
because the Spirit dwells in and sanctifies them.--_Ibid._
* * * * * * * *
+CHAPTER III.+
_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._
Ver. 1. +The prisoner of Jesus Christ+ may be regarded as "the
prisoner whom the Lord has bound" (so Winer and Meyer), or as "a
prisoner belonging to Christ," or again as "the prisoner for Christ's
sake." The indignity of an ambassador being "thrown into irons" is
lost in the feeling of being, even though bound, the representative
of such a Lord.
Ver. 2. +If ye have heard.+--We have the same form of expression at
ch. iv. 21--"assuming that is, that ye heard" (cf. Col. i. 23). +Of
the grace.+--The favour which God conferred on me in appointing me
your apostle. The Divine "Taskmaster" (to use Milton's expression)
confers honour upon us when He sets us to work. "He is not served by
men's hands as though He needed anything" (Acts xvii. 25).
Ver. 3. +How that by revelation.+--The familiar disavowal of any
other source than the will of God (cf. Gal. i. 12).
Ver. 4. +Ye may understand my knowledge.+--You may, as the public
reader proceeds to read my letter, discern my insights of the mystery.
Ver. 5. +Which in other ages.+--R.V. "other generations." Might
possibly refer to those dim ages of the past national history when
the Gentiles were thought of only as left to "unconvenanted mercies."
We must note the word for "other"--it means a "different kind." +Was
not made known . . . as it is now revealed.+--If any distinction is
to be observed, we may say the "revelation" is one of the ways of
"making known" (see ver. 3) the intuitional. +Unto His holy apostles
and prophets.+--"If all saints were holy _à fortiori_ the apostles"
(_Bishop Alexander_).
Ver. 6. +Fellow-heirs . . . the same body . . . partakers.+--"The
A.V. loses a point of similarity in the three Gentile privileges by
not expressing the force of the Greek compounds by the same English
word. Lit. 'heirs together,' 'incorporated together,' 'sharers
together,' not heirs after, but together with, the Jews; not attached
to the Hebrew body, but incorporated into it together with the
element that previously constituted it; not receivers of the promise
after others had been satisfied, but partakers of it together with
them" (_Bishop Alexander_). "Co-heirs, and concorporate, and
comparticipant. The strange English words may perhaps correspond to
the strange Greek words which St. Paul invented to express this newly
revealed mystery in the strongest form, as though no words could be
too strong to express his conception of the reunion in Christ of
those who apart from Him are separate and divided" (_Farrar_).
Ver. 7. +Whereof I was made a minister.+--A deacon, a runner of
errands. A lowly word, which reminds us of his own
self-estimate--"not worthy to be called an apostle"--and prepares us
for the strange expression in ver. 8.
Ver. 8. +Less than the least of all saints.+--"As though he said
'leaster than all Christians'" (_Bishop Alexander_). "The greatest
sinner, the greatest saint, are equidistant from the goal where the
mind rests in satisfaction with itself. With the growth in goodness
grows the sense of sin. One law fulfilled shows a thousand neglected"
(_Mozley, quoted by Farrar_). +The unsearchable riches.+--"The
untrackable wealth" (_Farrar_), inexplicable by creaturely
intelligences, unspeakable therefore by human tongues.
Ver. 9. +And to make all men see.+--He says to the Galatians (Gal.
iii. 1), "Christ was placarded before you"--so here he wants men to
see for themselves.
Ver. 10. +To the intent that now . . . might be known by the Church
the manifold wisdom of God.+--The Church as it expands from a "little
flock" to a "multitude which no man can number" is to declare the
multiform wisdom of God, ever fertile in new modes of operation.
"Manifold" represents a word used to describe a floral wreath as
consisting of "variegated" flowers.
Ver. 12. +In whom we have boldness.+--Originally meaning as regards
speech. In Christ the reconciled child of God has the right of
speaking to God without reserve. The same word is translated
"confidence" in 1 John v. 14, A.V.: "It is the free, joyful mood of
those reconciled to God" (_Meyer_). +And access.+--As in ch. ii. 13.
+With confidence.+--Hardly as equal to assurance--certainly never
self-assurance, but in quiet leaning on the arm of Christ.
Ver. 13. +I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations.+--Compare
2 Cor. iv. 1-16, where the same word is used. As an agonised
sufferer, heroically suppressing every sign of pain, begs those who
wait on him not to give way to grief; as Socrates, having quaffed the
poison, rallies his friends, who have broken out into uncontrollable
weeping, with the words, "What are you doing my friends? What! such
fine men as you are! Oh, where is virtue?"; so (with a possible
reminiscence of Acts xx. 36-38) St. Paul begs his readers not to lose
heart.
Ver. 15. +The whole family.+--R.V. "every family." The word for
"family" is only found in the New Testament in St. Luke ii. 4 and
Acts iii. 25; in one translated "lineage," in the other "kindreds" in
A.V.; consistently as "family" by R.V. Chrysostom, and others who
followed him, have surely a special claim to be heard. They translate
it "races." Bishop Alexander contends for the A.V. translation, _"the
whole."_ He says, "A special force and signification in the
expression make this translation necessary" (cf. ch. ii. 19).
Ver. 16. +The riches of His glory.+--"The whole glorious perfection
of God." +To be strengthened with might.+--There may be a verbal
connection with the "fainting" of ver. 13, but the thought goes far
out beyond that. +In the inner man.+--We are reminded again of the
text quoted above (2 Cor. iv. 16). A mode of expression derived from
the Platonic school, not necessarily presupposing any acquaintance
with that system of philosophy.
Ver. 17. +That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.+--The
condition of this, declared by Christ Himself, is that a man should
keep the word of Christ. +Being rooted and grounded.+--A double
metaphor--of a tree that has struck its roots deep into the crevices
of the rock, and of a building with a foundation of bed-rock. "Every
one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God" (1 John iv. 7). Love
conditions knowledge of things Divine (see ver. 18).
Ver. 18. +May be able.+--Perfectly able. +With all saints.+--The
highest and most precious knowledge Paul can desire only as a common
possession of all Christians. +What is the breadth, and length, and
depth, and height.+--"The deeply affected mind with its
poetico-imaginative intuition looks upon the _metaphysical_ magnitude
as a _physical, mathematical_ one. Every special attempt at
interpretation is unpsychological, and only gives scope to that
caprice which profanes by dissecting the outpouring of enthusiasm"
(_Meyer_).
Ver. 19. +And to know the love of Christ, which passeth
knowledge.+--"An _adequate_ knowledge of the love of Christ
transcends human capacity, but the _relative_ knowledge of the same
opens up in a higher degree the more the heart is filled with the
Spirit of Christ, and thereby is strengthened in loving. This
knowledge is not _discursive,_ but based in the consciousness of
experience" (_Meyer_).
Ver. 20. +Now unto Him that is able to do exceedingly
abundantly.+--After his prayer proper is ended the full heart of the
apostle swells out into a solemn doxology. The frequent and bold
compound expressions of St. Paul (_Farrar_ says twenty of the New
Testament twenty-eight with ὑπέρ are St. Paul's) spring from the
endeavours adequately to express his energetic thought. +According to
the pour that worketh in us.+--"The measure of a man" or "of an
angel" is insufficient here. Things are not achieved by creaturely
mensuration where God works (cf. ch. i. 19-23).
Ver. 21. +To Him be the glory.+--"The honour due to His name." +By
Christ Jesus.+--He that "climbeth up some other way" with his
offering courts his own destruction. +Throughout all ages, world
without end.+--R.V. "Unto all generations, for ever and ever." A good
specimen of the "exceeding abundantly above all that we . . .
understand" as regarded under the aspect of time. It carries our
thoughts along the vista of the future, till time melts into eternity.
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1-6.
_An Enlarged Gospel_--
+I. Declaring the admission of the Gentiles on the same footing as
the Jews to its highest privileges+ (ver. 6).--It came as a surprise
to the world of the apostle's day that the Gospel he preached offered
its blessings on equal terms to Jew and Gentile. The Jew, accustomed
to be the sole repository of Divine revelation, was staggered at the
discovery that heaven extended its favours to the outcast, heathenish
Gentile; and the Gentile, proudly trusting to his own intellectual
activity in the search after truth, greeted with wonder the ampler
and loftier revelations of the new evangel. It seemed too good to be
true. A new era was dawning, and men were dazzled and bewildered with
the splendour of the vision. It is now authoritatively declared that,
on the simple conditions of penitence and faith, the Gentile world is
incorporated into the body of Christ. So far from being excluded from
the Divine favour, the believing Gentiles are reckoned as
"fellow-heirs, and of the same body and partakers of the promise in
Christ by the gospel"; and the marvel is increased by the discovery
that this astounding privilege is no new thought in the Divine mind,
but was an essential part of the purpose concerning the race that had
been developing in the slow march of the ages. The Hebrew Scriptures
with their records of extraordinary theophanies, the saintly
characters of Old Testament times, the Messianic revelations and the
wealth of spiritual blessing which the isolated Jew had selfishly
appropriated to himself, are the heaven-given privileges of universal
man.
+II. Was wrapped in mystery for ages.+--"Which in other ages was not
made known unto the sons of men" (ver. 5). The mystery all centres in
Christ. The revelation of Messiah as the hope and salvation of the
race was dimly and slowly unveiled in progressive stages. "It is the
glory of God to conceal a thing." Some of His grandest movements are
veiled in mystery till the right moment comes, when the obscurity
vanishes and the vastness and beauty of the completed work elicit our
admiration and praise. We are familiar with this process in the
natural world and in the progress of human history. The fruits of the
earth do not reach maturity at a bound. Slowly and in secret the bud
is rounded, then comes the delicately tinted blossom, and afterwards
the tempting, mellow fruit. The same may be said of the growth of
human character. It reaches the higher grades of mental and moral
excellence by slow and silent stages, and advances in the ratio of
the fidelity and energy with which the man carries out the great plan
of his life-career. So the revelation of the Gospel mystery has been
gradual and progressive. The purpose itself is incapable of
progress--it has been fixed from eternity; but it has been made known
to the world in portions suited to each succeeding period of its
history. The law shadowed forth that purpose with more fulness than
any previous dispensation, and the prophets went beyond the law,
occupying a middle place between it and the Gospel, while the Gospel
in its fuller revelation has gone as far beyond the prophets as they
went beyond the law. Thus we see that God "who appears deliberate in
all His operations" has unfolded His great purpose to save the race
by slow and successive stages. The mystery of yesterday is the sunlit
epiphany of to-day.
+III. Was specially revealed by the Spirit.+--"How that by revelation
He made known unto me the mystery" (ver. 3). "As it is now revealed
unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit" (ver. 5).
Notwithstanding the gradual disclosure of the mystery of the Gospel,
its full significance could not have been caught without supernatural
help. Mere flux of time adds nothing to our knowledge; nor can the
most active intelligence decipher the spiritual meaning of truth. The
Spirit of God, operating on the alert and awakened mind of the
apostle, revealed to him the glory and power of Christ--the hidden
mystery of ages--and opened to him the far-reaching provisions of the
enlarged Gospel of which Christ is the inexhaustible theme. There is
still much mystery in the Gospel that remains to be fathomed--the
problem of the atonement, the origin of sin, the future destiny and
eternal state of human souls, and the revelation of Christ and His
Church to present-day social and economic questions in their bearing
on human development and the future prosperity of the kingdom of God
on earth. We are in daily need of the light and teaching of the Holy
Spirit.
+IV. Was entrusted to man as a stewardship of Divine grace.+--"The
dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward" (ver.
2). The mystery of the Gospel was revealed to Paul that he might
dispense its benefits to others. Former generations had received
light from heaven; but not sufficiently appreciating it, or wishing
to keep it within too narrow a sphere, it grew dim and went out.
Where it fell on prepared hearts it was used for the illumination and
blessing of others. Paul was Divinely prepared for the revelation; he
received it in trust for others; he saw the boundless provisions of
the Gospel, and became a powerful advocate for its universal claims.
Every minister is a steward of the mysteries of the kingdom of God,
and it is his joy to minister to others whatever of insight into
truth and grace of experience the Divine Spirit may entrust to him.
The Gospel is an ever-enlarging Gospel to the soul lit up and
informed by the revealing Spirit.
+Lessons.+--1. _The Gospel is an advance on all previous
revelations._ 2. _It is the grandest revelation of saving truth._
3. _It can be known and enjoyed only by the Spirit._
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._
Vers. 1-21. _Riches of Christ._--Many make Christianity something
local, temporary, and thus degrade it. Christ is inexhaustible for
mind and heart; we find all in Him. Let us never make of this rich
Christ a poor one. What Christ has instituted must be something
transcendent, and not so common that every intellect can discover
it.--_Heubner._