+I. The acknowledgment the apostle makes of God's
all-sufficiency.+--1. God often does for men those favours which they
never thought of asking for themselves. 2. God answers prayers in
ways we think not of. 3. The mercies God is pleased to grant often
produce consequences far beyond what we asked or thought. 4. The
worth of the blessings we ask and God bestows infinitely exceeds all
our thought.
+II. The ascription of glory the apostle makes to this all-sufficient
God.+--1. God is glorified by the increase of his Church. 2. God is
glorified in the Church when a devout regard is paid to the
ordinances He has instituted. 3. By the observance of good order in
the Church, and by the decent attendance of the members on their
respective duties. 4. That God may be glorified there must be peace
and unity in the Church.--_Lathrop._
_God's Infinite Liberality._
+I. The object of this doxology.+--The God of all grace. Whatever we
think we ask. No limit to our asking but our thinking. God gives
beyond our thinking. Here, take all this! Ah, poor thing, that
transcends thine asking and even thy thinking, but take it. If it
transcend all communicated power of mind, I say, "I thank Thee, my
God, for it. I know it is exceeding good, but I cannot understand it.
Keep it among Thy treasures. My blessedness rests not in my
intellect, but in Thy favour. Remember Thou hast given it me. It may
come I shall be able to understand it better and appreciate it more."
I shall never have asked too much, I shall never have thought too
much, till I have asked beyond God's ability, till I have thought
beyond God's ability. That ability is not a bare abstraction of the
omnipotence of God, but it is the omnipotence of God as working in
the Church and in the people of God. He is not omnipotent in heaven,
and impotent in thee, or partially powerful in thee.
+II. The doxology itself+ (ver. 21).--All should glorify God, but all
will not. In the Church alone will God get glory. It is as the name
of Christ is glorified in us that we are glorified in Him. It is when
the glory that God reflects on the creature is by the creature
ascribed as due only to God when He is glorified as the Author of it,
transcendently and infinitely glorious, it is then that the glory
rests. When it is appropriated it is lost, but it is possessed when
it is tossed back and fro between God and the creature. When the
creature gives it to God, God of His rich grace sends it back in
greater measure; but the humble creature, emulous of God's glory,
sends it all back again to Him, and as it reciprocates so it
increases. God gives not to end by enriching us--that is an immediate
end; but the ultimate end is that He may be glorified. Be ashamed to
get little--get all things. Get out of your poverty, not by fancying
you are rich, but by coming and getting. The more you get always give
glory, and come and ask and receive.--_Dr. John Duncan._
* * * * * * * *
+CHAPTER IV.+
_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._
Ver. 1. +Walk worthy of the vocation.+--They had been called to life
in the Spirit, and they must also "walk in the Spirit."
Ver. 2. +With all lowliness.+--The Christian--"born from above"--is
to exhibit a trait of character with the "high-born" Greek despised,
and which Heine in modern times called "a hound's virtue." "The pride
that apes humility" steals in under Chrysostom's description of this
"lowliness." He says, "It is a making of ourselves small when we are
great." +And meekness.+--"A grace in advance of 'lowliness,' not as
more precious than it, but as presupposing it, and as being unable to
exist without it" (_Trench_). +With longsuffering.+--The exact
opposite of our "short-tempered"--_e.g._ "Is the Spirit of the Lord
straitened?" means "Has the Lord become irritable?" (Mic. ii. 7). The
word suggests to men by nature irascible that "slowness to wrath"
recommended by St. James. +Forbearing one another in love.+--The
brother who is tempted to anger is not to look down from the height
of a lofty pride on those who try his patience, but in compassionate
love, remembering his own frailty, must "suffer long and be kind."
Ver. 3. +Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Sprit in the bond of
peace.+--It is no easy-going indifference that is inculcated; they
will have to "exert themselves," "give diligence" (R.V.), before that
peace obtains which is the harmonious and frictionless working of
each part of the machine.
Vers. 4-6. +One body . . . and in you all.+--"Seven elements of unity
St. Paul enumerates. . . . They form a chain stretching from the
Church on earth to the throne and being of the universal Father in
heaven" (_Findlay_).
Ver. 7. +But unto every one of us is given grace.+--The distributing
Spirit (1 Cor. xii. 11) leaves no humblest member of the body of
Christ without His endowment.
Ver. 8. +Wherefore He saith.+--What follows is a quotation of Ps.
lxviii. 18 "with free alteration" (_Meyer_), adapting the return of
the hero-king to his own city to that most magnificent of all
triumphs--over Hades and Death--achieved by Him "who was dead and is
alive for evermore." "Being by the right hand of God exalted He hath
poured forth this" abundance, as a conqueror scatters his largesse.
Vers. 9, 10. +Now that He ascended . . . that He might fill all
things.+--The exaltation, in His case, presupposed the humiliation.
From the throne of the universe--"the glory which He had with the
Father"--to the profoundest depths where any poor lost piece of
humanity that is redeemable can be found, and thence again to the
throne He relinquished. +The same also.+--Exalted, to be confidingly
and adoringly loved; humbled, to be worshipped no less as "the Son of
man who is in heaven."
Ver. 11. +And He gave some to be, etc.+--"Christ gave the persons,
and the community gave to them the service" (_Meyer_).
+Apostles . . . prophets . . . evangelists.+--We cannot accept the
order as significant of rank. It would grace an angel to be the
"evangelist" of such a salvation. As apostles they went forth "sent"
by their Master to men in their need; as prophets they "spoke out"
what He had taught them; as evangelists they were the messengers of
_good_ tidings. They were apostles that they might be evangelists
(Matt x. 5-7), "going about heralding" the kingdom and gathering men
into it. +Pastors and teachers.+--Shepherds and instructors of those
gathered together by men of another order. These are the true
"bishops," whatever "other name" they bear (1 Pet. v. 1-4).
Ver. 12. +For the perfecting of the saints.+--"Saints," whilst a
title of the highest honour, is often expressive of the ideal rather
than the real life of those who bear it; the "perfecting" is the
rendering into actual life of what is implied in the term of honour.
+For the work of the ministry.+--R.V. "_into_ the work." If the end
of all Christ's gifts so far as "the saints" are concerned is their
perfect equipment, so far as His messengers are concerned they go
forth unto service first, honour afterwards. +For the edifying of the
body of Christ.+--Practically the same as the foregoing, but with an
ultimate reference to Christ. The double figure of a building and of
a body is familiar to our own speech, as when we speak of "building
up a strong frame."
Ver. 13. +Till we all come.+--Suggestive of standing opposite to
something towards which we have been toiling. Can one think without a
tremor of joy, of the moment when he will find himself in perfect
correspondence with the Divine Archetype? +In the unity of the
faith.+--The world has seen many attempts to bring about uniformity
of creed, after the manner of Procrustes, by stretching or chopping.
"The unity of the faith" is a very different thing, and much to be
desired. +The knowledge of the Son of God.+--Lit. the complete
knowledge. +Unto a full-grown man.+--As above intimated, a child does
not become a man by means of the rack. The significance of the word
"man" here is as great as when we bid some one who has lost his
self-respect to "be a man."
Ver. 14. +That we henceforth be no more children.+--In what respects
his readers are not to be children the apostle makes plain, viz. in
helplessness and credulity. +Tossed to and fro.+--With no more power
of resistance than a cork on the waves. +By the sleight of men and
cunning craftiness.+--As some poor simpleton, who thinks himself
capable, falls a victim to card-sharpers, so unstable souls fall
victims to those who say with Falstaff, "If the young dace be a bite
for the old pike, I see no reason in the law of nature but I may snap
at him."
Ver. 15. +But speaking the truth in love.+--If it be possible to make
the medicine palatable without destroying its efficacy--to capsule
the bitter pill--its chances are so much the greater of doing good.
The A.V. margin gives "being sincere," and the R.V. "dealing truly,"
the different renderings indicating the difficulty of finding an
English equivalent.
Ver. 16. +Fitly joined together and compacted.+--R.V. "fitly framed
and knit together." Bengel suggests that the first expression means
the _fitting_ together, and the second the _fastening_ together.
Meyer, denying this, says the distinction is that the former
corresponds to the _figure,_ the latter to the _thing_ represented.
The grammar, like the physiology, of this verse is difficult. Are we
to read, "The whole body . . . maketh increase of the body"?
Apparently we must, for the body "_builds itself_ up in love."
Ver. 17. +That ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk.+--In
this and the two following verses we have again the lurid picture of
ch. ii. 2, 3: "in the vanity of their mind."
"The creature is their sole delight,
Their happiness the things of earth."
Ver. 18. +Having the understanding darkened.+--Remembering our Lord's
saying about the single eye and the fully illuminated body we might
say, "If the understanding--by which all light should come--be
darkened 'how great is that darkness'!" +Because of the
blindness.+--R.V. "hardness." The word describes the hard skin formed
by constant rubbing, as the horny hand of a blacksmith.
Ver. 19. +Who being past feeling.+--Having lost the "ache" which
should always attend a violation of law. An ancient commentator uses
the now familiar word "anæsthetes" to explain the phrase. +Having
given themselves over.+--"Given" represents a word which often
connotes an act of treason--and "themselves" is emphatic--"the most
tremendous sacrifice ever laid on the altar of sin" (_Beet_). +To
lasciviousness.+--"St. Paul stamps upon it the burning word ἀσέλγεια
like a brand on the harlot's brow" (_Findlay_). +To work all
uncleanness with greediness.+--R.V. margin, "to make a trade of all
uncleanness with covetousness." Their "sins not accidental, but a
trade"; and a trade at which they work with a "desire of having more."
Ver. 20. +No not so.+--As differently as possible. The same mode of
speech which led St. Paul to say to the Galatians, "Shall I praise
you? . . . I praise you not."--_i.e._ "I blame you highly."
Ver. 21. +If so be that ye have heard Him.+--The emphasis is on
"Him"--"assuming, that is, that it is He, and no other."
Ver. 22. +That ye put off concerning the former conversation.+--It is
no "philosophy of clothes" inculcated here. It is a deliverance from
"the body of death," like stripping oneself of his very integument.
+Conversation.+--R.V. "manner of life." +Which is corrupt.+--R.V.
much more strikingly--"waxeth corrupt." St. Paul's figure elsewhere
is appropriate--"like a gangrene eating into the flesh."
Vers. 23, 24. The stripping off being complete, and the innermost
core of the man being renewed, the investiture may begin. The "habit"
laid aside is never to be resumed, and the new robes, "ever white,"
are not to be soiled. +Righteousness and true holiness.+--R.V.
"Righteousness and holiness of truth." See the "dealing truly" of
ver. 15, R.V. margin.
Ver. 25. +Putting away lying.+--Findlay holds to it that "_the lie,
the falsehood,_ is objective and concrete; not _lying,_ or
_falsehood_ as a subjective act, habit, or quality." +Members one of
another.+--Let there be "no schism in the body."
Ver. 26. +Let not the sun go down on your wrath.+--The word for
"wrath" is not the usual one. It almost seems as if the compound form
had reference to the matter "alongside which" wrath was evoked. If
"curfew" could ring out the fires of wrath at sundown, we might
welcome the knell. Meyer quotes the Pythagorean custom of making up a
quarrel by the parties "shaking hands" before sunset.
Ver. 28. +Let him that stole steal no more.+--Though we have not here
the word for "brigand," we may think that the thieving had not always
been without violence. +That he may have to give.+--Not the profits
of wickedness, but "the good" results of his own labour, and may give
it to the needy "with cheerfulness" (Rom. xii. 8), with a "hilarity"
beyond that of "those who divide the spoil" (Isa. ix. 3).
Ver. 29. +Let no corrupt communication.+--R.V. "speech." Putrid
speech can never come forth from any but a bad person, "for out of
the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." +But that which is
good to the use of edifying.+--The word in season "fitly spoken" has
an æsthetic charm (Prov. xxv. 11), but it was more necessary to teach
these loquacious Asiatics the utilitarian end of having a human
tongue. "It is the mere talk, whether frivolous or pompous--spoken
from the pulpit or the easy-chair--the incontinence of tongue, the
flux of senseless, graceless, unprofitable utterance that St. Paul
desires to arrest" (_Findlay_).
Ver. 30. +Grieve not.+--"Do not make Him sorrow." A strong figure
like that which says that God was sorry that He had made man (Gen.
vi. 6). +Whereby ye are sealed.+--Cf. ch. i. 13. "In whom ye were
sealed" (R.V.)
Ver. 31. +Let all bitterness.+--_i.e._ "of speech." "Sarcasm I now
see to be, in general, the language of the devil," said one liberally
endowed with it. The satirist Hipponax--a native of Ephesus--was
called "the bitter." Such a man as "speaks poniards," and whose
"every word stabs," may be brilliant and a formidable opponent; he
will never be loved. +Wrath and anger.+--The former is the _fuming_
anger, "the intoxication of the soul," as St. Basil calls it; the
latter is the state after the paroxysm is over, cherishing hatred and
planning revenge. +Clamour and railing.+--"Clamour" is the loud
outcry so familiar in an Eastern concourse of excited people (Acts
xxiii. 9), like that hubbub in Ephesus when for two hours the
populace yelled, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians" (Acts xix. 28).
"Railing," blasphemy--speech that is calculated to do injury.
+Malice.+--"Badness." "This last term is separated from the others as
generic and inclusive" (_Beet_).
Ver. 32. +Be ye kind.+--The word is found in Christ's invitation to
the weary--"My yoke is easy." It is characteristic of the Father that
"He is _kind_ to the unthankful." The man who drinks wine that is new
and harsh says, "The old is _good_" (mellow). +Tenderhearted.+--Soon
touched by the weakness of others. +Forgiving . . . as God . . .
forgave you.+--The motive and measure of our forgiveness of injuries
is the Divine forgiveness shown to "all that debt" of our wrong-doing
(Matt. xviii. 32).
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1-3.
_The Dignity of the Christian Life_--
+I. Imposes the obligation to act in harmony with its lofty
aims.+--"Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called" (ver.
1). There is the practical, stimulative influence of a high ideal.
The Spirit within us has not only changed our nature and cleansed our
spiritual vision, but He has lifted our horizon, formed within us
distinct outlines of the Christian ideal after which we are to
labour, and furnished us with the moral forces with which we are to
attain the beauty and unity of a perfect spiritual character. We who
are created in God's image and restored in Christ and made partakers
of the Divine nature in Him, are bound by condition of our creation
and redemption to endeavour to be like Him here that we may have the
fruition of His glorious Godhead hereafter. The true Christian cannot
stoop to any meanness either in thought or action. He is dignified
without being proud.
+II. Involves the practice of self-suppression.+--1. _In a just
estimate of ourselves._ "With all lowliness and meekness." In
endeavouring to balance the value and use of our powers and
faculties, and in measuring the degree and volume of our influence,
we must observe humility--not a cringing cowardly spirit which would
deter us from the right for fear of doing wrong, but an elevated
sense of right with courage to perform it, and with humility to
acknowledge and confess when we are in the wrong. It does not mean
the craven surrender of our honest convictions and carefully formed
judgment. We may efface ourselves, but not the truth within us. An
Italian bishop being asked the secret of his habitual humility and
patience replied, "It consists in nothing more than in making good
use of my eyes. In whatever state I am, I first of all look up to
heaven and remember that my principal business here is to get there.
I then look back down to earth and call to mind the space I shall
shortly occupy in it. I then look abroad into the world and observe
what multitudes there are who in all respects have more cause to be
unhappy than myself. Thus I learn where true happiness is placed,
where all our cares must end, and how very little reason I have to
repine or complain."
2. _In a loving forbearance towards each other._--"With
longsuffering, forbearing one another in love" (ver. 2). The meek man
may be severe with himself, and his constant habit of
self-suppression may render him somewhat impatient with the
unreasonable outbreaks of temper in others. Meekness must be balanced
and moderated with patience, and both virtues exercised in the
all-pervading element of love. Love softens every harshness, tones
down asperity, and welds together the Christian character in a firm
but not too rigid a unity. "Bind thyself to thy brother," said
Chrysostom. "Those who are bound together in love bear all burdens
lightly. Bind thyself to him and him to thee. Both are in thy power;
for whomsoever I will, I may easily make my friend."
+III. Demands an earnest striving after a peaceful spiritual
unity.+--"Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace" (ver. 3). Peace--"a silken cord binding into one the members
of the Church; the encompassing element of the unity of the Spirit"
(_Beet_). The apostle repeatedly and solemnly inculcates unity and
peace on all the Churches, warns them against contentions and
divisions, and kindles into righteous indignation against all those
insidious and false teachers who, under the pretence of advocating a
higher piety really disturb and rend the Church of Christ. On what an
enormous scale are preparations made for war! We should not be less
diligent and elaborate in taking every precaution in promoting and
maintaining peace.
+Lessons.+--1. _True humility is always dignified._ 2. _Personal
happiness is not the highest aim of the Christian life._ 3. _The
noblest virtues of the Christian character are not attained without
earnest endeavour._
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._
Vers. 1-3. _True Church Life._--1. The word "walk" is a very
extensive signification. It includes all our inward and outward
motions, all our thoughts, words, and actions. It takes in, not only
everything we do, but everything we either speak or think. 2. We are
called to walk, first, "with all lowliness," to have the mind in us
which was also in Christ Jesus; not to think of ourselves more highly
than we ought to think; to be little, and poor, and mean, and vile in
our own eyes; to know ourselves as also we are known by Him to whom
all hearts are opened; to be deeply sensible of our own unworthiness.
Who can be duly sensible how much remains in him of his natural
enmity to God, or how far he is still alienated from God by the
ignorance that is in him? 3. Yea, suppose God has now thoroughly
cleaned our heart, and scattered the last remains of sin; yet how can
we be sensible enough of our own helplessness, our utter inability to
all good, unless we are every hour, yea, every moment, endued with
power from on high? 4. When our inmost soul is thoroughly tinctured
therewith, it remains that we "be clothed with humility." The word
used by St. Peter seems to imply that we be covered with it as with a
surtout; that we be all humility, both within and without; tincturing
all we think, speak, and do. Let all our actions spring from this
fountain; let all our words breathe this spirit; that all men may
know we have been with Jesus, and have learned of Him to be lowly in
heart. 5. And being taught of Him who teacheth as never man taught,
to be meek as well as lowly in heart. This implies not only a power
over anger, but over all violent, turbulent passions. It implies the
having all our passions in due proportion; none of them either too
strong or too weak, but all duly balanced with each other, all
subordinate to reason, and reason directed by the Spirit of God.
6. Walk with all "longsuffering." This is nearly related to meekness,
but implies something more. It carries on the victory already gained
over all your turbulent passions, notwithstanding all the powers of
darkness, all the assaults of evil men or evil spirits. It is
patiently triumphant over all opposition, and unmoved though all the
waves and storms thereof go over you. 7. The "forbearing one another
in love" seems to mean, not only the not resenting anything, and the
not avenging yourselves; not only the not injuring, hurting, or
grieving each other, either by word or deed, but also the bearing one
another's burdens, yea, and lessening them by every means in our
power. It implies the sympathising with them in their sorrows,
afflictions, and infirmities; the bearing them up when, without our
help, they would be liable to sink under their burdens. 8. Lastly,
the true members of the Church of Christ "endeavour," with all
possible diligence, with all care and pains, with unwearied patience,
to "keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," to preserve
inviolate the same spirit of lowliness and meekness, of
longsuffering, mutual forbearance, and love; and all these cemented
and knit together by that sacred tie--the peace of God filling the
heart. Thus only can we be and continue living members of that Church
which is the body of Christ. 9. Does it not clearly appear from this
whole account why, in the ancient creed commonly called the
Apostles', we term it the universal or catholic Church, "the holy
catholic Church"? The Church is called holy, because it is holy,
because every member thereof is holy, though in different degrees, as
He that called them is holy. How clear this is! If the Church, as to
the very essence of it, is a body of believers, no man that is not a
Christian believer can be a member of it. If this whole body be
animated by one Spirit, and endued with one faith, and one hope of
their calling, then he who has not that Spirit and faith and hope is
no member of this body. It follows, that not only no common swearer,
no Sabbath-breaker, no drunkard, no whoremonger, no thief, no liar,
none that lives in any outward sin, but none that is under the power
of anger or pride, no lover of the world--in a word, none that is
dead to God--can be a member of His Church.--_Wesley._
_Brotherly Love in Action._
+I. Walk in lowliness.+--Humble thoughts of ourselves, of our own
knowledge, goodness, and importance are necessary to Christian peace
and union. We shall not despise our brethren for their want of the
internal gifts or external advantages we enjoy. We shall not lean to
our own understanding; but, conscious of our liability to err, we
shall be attentive to instruction and reproof, open to conviction,
ready to retrace our errors and confess our faults.
+II. Walk in meekness+--in a prudent restraint and government of the
passions. We shall not be easily provoked, our resentments will not
be sudden, without cause or without bounds. If a variance happens, we
shall stand ready to be reconciled. We shall be cautious not to give,
and slow to take offence. In matters of religion our zeal will be
tempered with charity.
+III. To our meekness we must add longsuffering and
forbearance.+--These terms express the patient and exalted exercise
of meekness rather than virtues distinct from it. We are not only to
be meek, but longsuffering in our meekness; not only to restrain
anger under ordinary offences, but to suppress malice and forbear
revenge under the most provoking injuries.
+IV. We must endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of
peace.+--Not unity of opinion--this is not possible, nor reasonable
to be expected, in the present state of mankind; but unity of spirit,
of heart and affection, disposing us to preserve the bond of peace
and maintain all the duties of Christian fellowship, whatever
differences of sentiment take place. To the same purpose are the
apostle's exhortations to all the Churches, and especially to those
in which diversity of opinion concerning ceremonial usages threatened
their external peace.--_Lathrop._