Ephesians
6
1 “Children,
obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.”
The first
duty of children is obedience, and “in the Lord,” i.e. in Christ, this
duty is confirmed. The ἐν
Κυρίῳ - en koo-ree-oo – in the Lord - qualifies,
not “parents,” but “obey,” and indicates that the element or life which even
children lead in fellowship with Christ makes such
obedience more easy
and more graceful. The duty itself rests on the first principles of morality —
“for this is right.” It is an obligation that rests on the very
nature of things,
and cannot change with the spirit of the age; it is in
no degree modified
by what is called the spirit of independence in children. The child’s faculties
cannot be developed apart from God! Secular
education is a contradiction
of terms. Let the
parents look well to the minds of their children. They are
to show them by their own practice what to follow and imitate;
and what
to shun and avoid! (I saw on Facebook a post talking about the
secular
“Core
Curriculum in Math” in
parents and
this is the design intended – CY – 2019)
2 “Honor thy father and mother; which is the
first commandment with
promise.” The exhortation, based on natural morality
(v. 1), is here confirmed
from the
Decalogue (Exodus 20:12). “Honor” is higher
than obedience (v. 1);
it is the
regard due to those who, by Divine appointment, are above us, and
to whom our
most respectful consideration is due. Father and mother, though
not quite
on a footing of equality in their relation to each other (ch. 5:22), are
equal as
objects of honor and obedience to their children. It is assumed here
that they
are Christians; where one was a Christian and not the ether, the duty
would be
modified. But in these succinct
verses the apostle lays down general
rules, and
does not complicate his exhortations with exceptions. The latter part of
the verse
contains a special reason for the precept; it is the first commandment
with a promise attached. But obviously the apostle meant more than this;
for as in
v. 1, he had affirmed the duty to be one of natural religion, so
here he
means to add that it is also part
of the
revealed will of God — it is
one of the commandments;
but still further, it is the first commandment
with
a promise. It may, perhaps, be said that this is appealing, not to
the
higher, but
to the lower part of our nature — to our selfishness, not our
goodness;
but it is not an appeal to one part of our nature to the exclusion
of the
rest; it is an appeal to our whole nature, for it is a part of our nature
to expect
that in the end virtue will be rewarded and vice punished. In the
case of
children it is difficult to look far forward; the rewards and the
punishments,
to be influential, must be within the ken of vision, as it were;
therefore
it is quite suitable that, in writing to them, the apostle should lay
emphasis on
a promise which had its special fulfillment in the life that now is.
3 “That it may be well with thee, and thou
mayest live long on
the
earth.” A free
rendering (after the manner of the apostle) of the reason
annexed to
the fifth commandment, “that thy days may be
long in the land
which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” While the Decalogue was an
expression
of the will of God on matters of moral and indefeasible (not able to be
lost, annulled, or overturned) obligation, it had a local Hebrew element here
and
there. In
the present case the apostle drops what is specially Hebrew, adapting the
promise in
spirit to a wider area. The special promise of long life in
the land of
before, we
must not suppose that the apostle excludes exceptions. The
promise is not for each individual; many good
and obedient children do not
live long. But the general tendency of
obedience to parents is towards the
results specified. Where
obedience to parents is found, there is usually
found along
with it temperance, self-control, industry, regular ways of life,
and other
habits that tend towards prosperity and longevity. In Christian
families there is commonly affection, unity,
prayer, mutual helpfulness,
reliance on God, trust in Christ, and all that
makes life sweet and
wholesome. The spirit of the promise is realized in such ways, and it may
be likewise in special mercies vouchsafed to
each family.
All God’s commandments carry blessings in their bosoms. In the
keeping of
them there is great reward (Psalm 19:11).
“His commandments
are not grievous.” (I John
5:3)
Long
life among the Jews was a token of Divine favor and it seems to have
been
an emblem of the life to come.
Scripture
references to back up the respect of children to parents:
- Children are never
to set light by their parents – Deuteronomy 27:16
Children are sometimes rude to their
parents. “The eye that mocketh at his
father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of
the valley shall pick
it out, and the young eagles shall eat it” (Proverbs
30:17); - that is,
something
terrible shall overtake him who dares to make light of
his
parents. There
was a time when they were entirely helpless, could
neither walk nor speak, and, but for
the care of parents, they would have
perished. The children are not in a position to know
all the sacrifices their
parents make for them, and the
amount of thought that is bestowed on them,
and the prayers that are put up for
them. (I think the first time the
kindness
of my parents really came home to me
was the first time I changed a diaper –
CY – 2010) Children receive daily acts of kindness from
their parents
and these should be received, not as
though they were entitled to them,
but with feelings of gratitude ever
fresh. (How much more, as adults should
we likewise show gratitude to our
Heavenly Father! - CY – 2010)
- One would never
have on earth better friends, greater benefactors, than
God has given in
one’s parents! There is nothing by which
a child can
better requite
all the trouble that their parents have had on their account
than by their obedience!
- The
sphere in which obedience is to take place is “in the
Lord”.
Children are to look to their parents as
standing in the place of Christ
to them, and to
obey them as though they were obeying Christ!
“For
this is right.” There is a relationship founded deep in
nature
between parents and those to whom
they have given being. This is
associated with an affection which is
one of the most beautiful things
in the world. The strength of the
parental affection qualifies the
parents for being placed in
authority over their children. And
the filial affection leads the
children to look to their parents as the natural
source of authority ever them. The obedience
to parents has NO
EXCEPTION!
Nor
does any majority
make the obligation to cease. (Especially in this day –
remember that one
of the signs of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ
is that children
will be “disobedient
to parents” [II Timothy 3:2] – CY – 2010)
- “Thou shalt rise up before
the hoary head, and honor the face of
the old man and fear thy
God: I am the Lord..” Leviticus 19:32
- “Hearken unto thy father that
begat thee, and despise not thy
mother when she is
old.” Proverbs 23:22
- Parents know more
than their children; therefore “a
wise son heareth
his father’s instruction” (Proverbs
13:1). The child must take much of
his knowledge for granted on the
mere authority of his father.
- Children should
show reverence to their parents because of their years of
experience. Those years are associated with superior
attainments. A big ship
leaving for
another land needs to be cautiously piloted out of the dock and past
the other ships
in the harbor or river, away beyond the bar, and, it may be,
through the
channel, until it is out to the open sea.
(I recommend Thomas
Carlyle’s
paintings called The Voyage of
Life
which can be found on the
internet or on
this web site under: -CY – 2010)
- Children are not
able to guide themselves; for “foolishness is bound up
in the heart of a child” (Proverbs
22:15).
Remember
what the first verse says, “FOR THIS IS
RIGHT!”
The Duties
of Children to Parents (vs. 1-3)
There is a
beautiful and appropriate simplicity in the counsel here
addressed
to children. Their duties are founded in nature. They derive their
being from
their parents; they are fed by them; they are trained by them for
the duties
of life.
·
THEIR DUTY
IS SUMMED UP IN THE ONE WORD “OBEDIENCE.”
But it includes
four important elements.
ü Love. This is an instinctive feeling, but it is not the less a
commanded
duty, for it is the spring of all
hearty obedience. It makes obedience easy.
Yet we are not to love our parents more than the Lord; we are rather to
love them in the Lord.
ü Honor. This is
only another form of obedience: “Honor thy father and
thy mother.” Children
are never to set light by their parents.
“Cursed
be he that setteth light by
his father or his mother.”(Deuteronomy 27:17);
“A son honoureth his father” (Malachi
1:6); “Thou shalt rise up before
the hoary head, and honor the
face of the old man” (Leviticus 19:32).
God has, indeed, given His own honor to parents. We may not always
be called to obey them, but we are always to honor them. “Hearken
unto thy father that begat
thee, and despise not thy mother when she
is old” (Proverbs
23:22). This honor is allied to reverence: “We have
had fathers of our flesh who
corrected us, and we gave them
reverence” (Hebrews 12:9).
ü Gratitude. It is our duty to requite our parents (I
Timothy 5:4), and
our Lord implies that we are to do them good (Matthew 15:4).
We
ought to remember their love, their care, their concern for
us. Joseph
provided for his father Jacob in old age, and the women said
to Naomi of
Boaz, “He shall be unto thee a
restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of
thine old age.” (Ruth 4:15)
ü Subjection. “Children, obey your parents
in all things;” that is, in all
things falling within the sphere of a parent’s authority. If
parents
command their children to steal, or lie, or commit idolatry,
they are not
to be obeyed. They are to be obeyed “in the Lord.” There are several
reasons to make obedience natural.
Ø Parents
know more than their children; therefore “a wise son
heareth his father’s
instruction” (Proverbs 13:1). The child must
take much of his
knowledge for granted on the mere authority of
his father.
Ø The habit of
obedience is good as a discipline. It is even good for
the health of a child, as a desultory and dawdling obedience
breaks
its temper and injures its health.
Ø Children
are not able to guide themselves; for “folly is bound
up
in the heart of a child” (Proverbs
22:15). It further states
(“.....but the rod of
correction shall drive it far from him.”
CY – 2019)
Ø Society is benefited by the due subordination
of family life.
·
THE REASON
OF OBEDIENCE ASSIGNED IN THIS PASSAGE
IS SIMPLY “FOR THIS IS RIGHT.” It is
right:
ü according
to the light of nature;
ü according to the Law of God. “It is well-pleasing unto the Lord
(Colossians 3:20).
It is embodied in the Decalogue, and holds the first place
among the duties
of the second table, and “is the first
commandment with promise” — the
promise of a long life. (Exodus 20:12) This implies:
ü that the
fifth commandment is still binding on the Christians of this
dispensation;
ü that long
life is to be desired;
ü that
disobedience to parents tends to shorten life. There may be
undutiful children who live to old age, and dutiful children
who die
young, but the promise abides in its general purpose. It is
like the
saying, “The hand of the diligent
maketh rich” (Proverbs 10:4),
yet diligent persons have felt the bitterness of poverty.
Children are
therefore justified in having regard firstly to the command
of God,
and then to the
recompense of the reward.
4 “And, ye fathers, provoke not your children
to wrath: but bring them up
in the
nurture and admonition of the Lord.” And, ye fathers, provoke not
your
children
to wrath: “Fathers” is
inclusive of mothers, to whom the practical
administration of the
household and training of the children so much belong. The
first counsel on
the subject is negative, and probably has respect to a common
pagan habit, against
which Christians needed to be put on
their guard.
Irritation
of children was common, through loss of temper and violence in
reproving
them, through capricious and unsteady treatment and
unreasonable
commands; but more especially (what is still so common) by
the parents
being violently angry when the children, inconsiderately,
perhaps,
disturbed or annoyed them, rather than when they deliberately did
wrong. All
this the apostle deprecates. But bring them up in the
nurture
(training) and admonition of the Lord. The words παιδεία
- pahee-di’-ah;
correction, chastening,
chastisement, instruction, nurture - and νουθεσία -
nouthesia – putting in mind; training by
word; whether by reproof or
remonstrance - are not
easily defined in this connection; the former is thought to
denote the
discipline of training, with its appropriate rewards and punishments; the
latter,
instruction. Both are to be “of the Lord,” such as He
inspires and
approves. Instilling sound principles of life, training to good habits,
cautioning and protecting against moral dangers, encouraging
prayer,
Bible-reading, church-going, sabbath-keeping; taking pains to let
them
have good associates, and especially dealing with them
prayerfully and
earnestly, in order that they may accept Christ as their Savior
and follow
Him, — are among the matters included in this
counsel. The former of these words
(παιδεία) is associated
more with discipline, made up of order and of act, under
which the
children grow, while the latter word (νουθεσία) will
indicate education
by word.
“The same spirit,” says Monod, in loco, “which in our day
relaxes filial
obedience,
softens paternal power; the abuse of independence among
inferiors
and the forgetfulness of authority among superiors, march
hand-in-
hand. Parents who have known how to guard themselves against an
excessive rigor,
whether as a matter of principle or of temperament, fall
usually into the contrary excess; chastisement is banished from
their
household,
and as for corporal punishment in particular, it is held most
frequently
for a mark of a hard heart or of a base-born spirit. Let us oppose
these prejudices:
- “He that spareth his rod
hateth his son: but he that loveth
him
chasteneth him
betimes.” (Proverbs 13:24)
- He that will not
use the rod on his child, his child shall be used
as a rod
on him!
- “Foolishness is bound in the
heart of a child; but the rod of
correction shall drive
it far from him.” (Ibid. 22:15)
- “Withhold not correction from
the child: for if thou beatest
him with the rod, he
shall not die. Thou shalt beat him
with the rod, and shall
deliver his soul from hell. ” (Ibid.
23:13-14)
- “Correct thy son, and he
shall give thee rest; yea, he shall
give delight unto thy
soul.” (Ibid. 29:17)
By the rod
we do not mean corporal punishment alone; we simply say that one
ought not
to exclude it (Ibid. 23:14), and that there are some cases where nothing
else will
do. As for the rest, behold the principle which should direct Christian parents
in such a
case — to employ discipline of the sweetest possible character,
but
discipline sufficient
to
repress the sin.” Let this careful discipline be supplemented
by a
careful instruction and the children shall be faithfully “nurtured” for the
Lord.
(If we do
our part, the Lord, when it comes time, will do His part – (i. e. Ibid. 22:6)
If the
Christian father keeps Christ before
him as his Great Ideal, then the
Divine Fatherhood regulates his conscience and he nurtures the
little ones
accordingly.
The
Lord’s command is, “Bring up this child for me, and I will pay thee thy wages.”
What infinitely
precious results depend on the execution of these two precepts in
this
verse! Every well-trained Christian household is a nursery of all
that tends to
bless the
world; while disorderly and unchristian families are
hotbeds of vice and
evil. The
prayer of Psalm 144:12,15, is never out of date: “That our sons
may be as plants
grown up in their youth; our daughters as cornerstones,
polished after
the similitude of a palace.... Happy is that people that is in
such a case; yea,
happy is that people whose God is the Lord.”
“Train up a child
in the way he should go and when he is old he will
not depart from
it.” (Proverbs 22:6)
“And that from a
child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which
are able to make thee
wise unto salvation through faith which is
in Christ
Jesus.” (II Timothy 3:15)
We
shall thus restrain our children from many follies and sinful habits
which
would otherwise be the burden and
curse of their after life. We
also
shall be promoting our own
happiness and comfort in old age.
We
shall also be shaping the DESTINIES
OF FUTURE GENERATIONS.
How wonderful to have the INTERESTS OF ETERNITY
SECURED
EARLY IN LIFE!
Duties of Children and
Parents (vs. 1-4)
It must
have been an interesting day in the
known that
a pastoral letter would be read in the public assembly from the
beloved and
venerable apostle whose labors had been attended with such a
blessing.
Whether the meeting was held in early morning or late in the
evening,
every effort would be made by every Christian to be present, and
even as
they were walking towards the place of meeting, a certain
briskness
of manner and eagerness of expression would show that
something
beyond the common was in expectation. Those who had to pass
the great
the
contrast between that magnificent shrine of idolatry and the very
humble
building where the true God was worshipped, by whom all things
were made.
Even the children would not linger to peep at the gorgeous
glory of
the temple, for their parents would have told them that at their
meeting a
letter was going to be read from the great apostle, now unable to
come to them
because wicked men had imprisoned him, but still
remembering
them all, as his letter would show. Remembering the interest
which, like
his Master, the apostle had taken in the young, it would be an
interesting
question whether the letter to be read would not contain some
passage for
them, and, if it did, what would be its tenor? Perhaps the most
attentive
of them would be beginning to feel weary as five-sixths of the
letter was
read, but no word yet for them. But at last the message comes;
and when it
comes it appears that it is not only about them, but addressed
to them;
the apostle looks them full in the face, and says, “Children.” And
when the
children’s morsel is brought out, it is perhaps not quite what they
expected.
It is not a sugared morsel, nor is it particularly affectionate in its
terms. It
is not a nice little story or a poetical allegory, carrying them to the
realms of
dreamland; it is just a simple, practical requirements “Children,
obey your parents in the Lord.” Possibly even the older hearers
were rather
surprised,
and certainly there are many now who would have expected a
more
spiritual counsel. They would have expected him to say something to
the
children about Jesus, or about prayer, or about trying to teach the
heathen
around them; but he speaks on none of these things. He probably
counted
that, if the children were right with their parents, other things
would
follow; if they obeyed their parents, and their parents brought them
up in the
nurture and admonition of the Lord, God’s blessing would rest on
their
efforts and all would be well. But if the apostle did not speak to
children in
the modern fashion, it is all the more important to notice and
ponder the
message which he actually gives them.
·
DUTY OF
CHILDREN.
Ø To
obey.
Ø To
honor their parents.
The reasons are:
ü it is
right;
ü it is a
commandment;
ü it is the
first of the commandments with a promise;
ü that
promise gives expectation of long life and prosperity.
In one of the best books of the early Church,
written by one of its greatest
men — ‘The Confessions’ of
he humbly confesses his disobedience as a boy,
in neglecting his lessons,
and going to see games and sights in opposition
to the wishes of his
parents. Long after, when he came to be a
Christian, the thought haunted
and distressed him until, confessing it, and
laying it on Jesus, he obtained
the mercy and forgiveness of God. Long life
among the Jews was a token
of the Divine favor, and it seems to have been
an emblem of the life to
come. We need not count in all cases on a
literal fulfillment of the Jewish
promise; but we may rest assured that a spirit of honor to our parents tends
to make
our earthly lot better and brighter, and will have some recognition
likewise
in the life that is to come.
·
DUTY OF
PARENTS.
ü Negatively. Not to provoke or irritate their children. But:
ü Positively, to bring them up in the nurture and admonition
of the Lord.
In the Old Testament, Samuel, and in the New Testament,
Timothy, are
samples of children so brought up. The Lord’s command is, “Bring up
this
child for me, and I will pay thee thy wages.” What
infinitely precious
results depend on the execution of these two precepts! Every well-trained
Christian
household is a nursery of all THAT TENDS TO BLESS THE
WORLD while
disorderly and unchristian families are hotbeds of vice and evil.
The prayer of the hundred and forty-fourth psalm is never
out of date: “That our
sons may be as plants grown up
in their youth; our daughters as cornerstones,
polished after the similitude
of a palace.... Happy is that people that is in
such a case; yea, happy is
that people whose God is the Lord.”
Duties
of Parents (v. 4)
They are
here summarily expressed, first in a negative and then in a positive form.
·
THERE MUST BE
INSTRUCTION. “Train up a child in the way he
should go.” (Proverbs
22:6) Parents must not suffer them to
grow up without
instruction, as Rousseau suggested, because not to teach religion is to teach
impiety and infidelity; not to teach truth is to teach error.
ü
In
what principles?
Ø In the
principles of the Divine Word, which are able to make the
youngest “wise unto salvation” (II
Timothy 3:15). “Desire the
sincere milk of the Word, that
ye may grow thereby” (I Peter
2:2). This is counsel for
babes.
Ø Teach them
they are sinners.
Ø Lead them
to Christ as the Savior, and pray that the Lord may
place His hands of power and blessing upon the little ones,
as
He did when on earth.
Ø Train them
in habits of piety, church-going, and religious action.
ü
In
what manner?
Ø Early, like Timothy;
Ø gradually (Deuteronomy 6:6-9);
Ø patiently (ibid. vs. 20-23);
Ø lovingly;
Ø by example — your own example, and Scripture examples;
Ø prayerfully.
·
THERE MUST
BE DISCIPLINE.
ü Children
soon manifest a corrupt and selfish nature, for folly is bound
up in their
hearts; therefore they need correction (Hebrews 12:9).
ü Parents
must isolate them by their personal authority from evil or evil
companions or temptations to evil.
ü Parents
must use discipline with due discretion; they must not “provoke
their children to wrath, lest
they be discouraged”
Ø by unreasonable commands;
Ø by undue severity;
Ø by exhibitions of anger.
·
ENCOURAGEMENTS
OR MOTIVES TO THE FAITHFUL
DISCHARGE
OF PARENTAL DUTY.
ü The
promise: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and
when
he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs
22:6).
ü We shall
have the interests of eternity secured
early in life.
ü We shall thus
restrain them from many follies and sinful habits which
would otherwise be the burden and curse of
their after life.
ü We shall
be promoting our own happiness and comfort in old age.
ü We shall
be shaping the destinies of future generations.
Children and
Parents (vs. 1-4)
Christianity
purifies and elevates family life. It is supremely natural,
orderly,
and reasonable in the treatment of domestic affairs. We meet with
frequent
allusions to families and households in the New Testament. The
order and health
of the home are clearly recognized as of primary
importance.
This is seen in the treatment of parental relations.
·
THE DUTIES
OF CHILDREN TO THEIR PARENTS.
ü The duties.
Ø Obedience. A condition of subjection is necessary and
right for
childhood. Children must be taught to reverence an authority
above them and to yield their will to a
higher will. Thus the
first principle of what, in after life, must be the fundamental
relation
to God, is instilled. Children should obey, for the very
sake of obedience, orders for which at present they see no
reason, and from which they can foresee no good results. But
there is a limit to obedience. “Obey your
parents in the Lord.”
When parents command what is plainly contrary to the will of
Christ, disobedience becomes a duty.
Ø Honor. It is not
enough to obey in act. Love and reverence
should be found in the heart of children. It is
most injurious
for children to lose reverence for their
parents. They are
themselves
degraded when this is the case. (Think
of
the consequences of “disobience
to parents” as a symptom
of the end of time! (II
Timothy 3:2)
ü The grounds on which these duties to parents are enforced.
Ø It is right. This comes
first. It is an appeal to conscience.
No obedience or honor
can be of worth when only low,
selfish motives prompt the performance of filial duty.
Ø It is profitable. In the
long run the principle that underlies the
ancient promise
of the fifth commandment is abundantly
exemplified. Family life
is the root of social order. When
this is corrupt that will be upset. Good domestic habits are
the
safeguards of the best kind of conservatism. The
most frightful revolutions are those that begin at the
family
hearth. (The Progressivism of the 21st
century IS ANTI-
FAMILY! – CY –
2019)
·
THE DUTIES
OF PARENTS TO CHILDREN. The family relation is
reciprocal, and so are the duties of parents and children.
It is most
unreasonable to expect the children to discharge their share
of domestic
duty if parents, who have so much larger knowledge
and experience and
whose example is the most powerful instructor of their
children, fail in
theirs. (If a parent’s work is shunned, its work will never be done!
Copied – CY – 2019)
To stern Roman fathers the Christian view of
parental duty was novel Even now it is too little regarded.
ü The negative duty. “Provoke not your children to
wrath.” While
strictly enforcing necessary commands,
parents should be most
careful not to lay on the shoulders
of their children unnecessary
burdens. Obedience is hard enough
under the best of circumstances.
Especially is it desirable not to provoke childish
irritation by hasty,
harsh manners when a wiser, kinder
method might be more efficacious
in securing obedience and respect.
ü The positive duty. “Nurture them in the
chastening and admonition
of the Lord.” The parent is the spiritual guardian of his
children. He
cannot
delegate to another the responsibility that God will some day
call him to account for. (Like dropping them off at Sunday School
and
sending them to Christian schools? CY – 2019) In caring for their
children’s health, happiness, and worldly prospects, etc., parents are
often least anxious about the most
essential point, THE
SPIRITUAL
WELFARE
OF THEIR FAMILY! Let it be
remembered that the
first requisite in training children for Christ is that the parents should
be themselves his disciples.
Christian
Nurture (vs. 1-4)
Having shown
how Christ sanctifies the marriage union and gives to husbands the
ideal of
devotion (ch. 5:22-33), the apostle proceeds in the present section
to show the
relation which should exist between children and parents. He
directs
children to the fifth commandment and to the promise it
contains,
and he
calls upon fathers to afford their children Christian nurture in place
of
provocation. The section suggests:
·
PARENTAL
QUALIFICATIONS. And here we fall back upon the
previous section. It is when husbands and wives are related as Christ is to
the
Church, when self-sacrificing love is met by reverential obedience, that
the
parents are qualified to train up the children. It is
surely significant also
that upon the father the burden of the nurture is laid. For
he is in danger of
provoking the children by severity, and so is not naturally
so sympathetic
as the mother. Besides, if the Christian father keeps Christ before him as his
great
Ideal, then the Divine fatherhood regulates his conscience and he
nurtures the little ones accordingly.
·
THE NURTURE
ITSELF. The children are not to be provoked, but
“nurtured in the chastening
and admonition of the Lord” (Revised Version).
The former of these words (παιδεία
- pahee-di’-ah; correction, chastening,
chastisement,
instruction, nurture) might mean, as Harless suggests,
“education in general” but it is better to restrict it to
the discipline, made up
of order and of act, under which the
children grow, while the latter word
(νουθεσία - nouthesia – putting in mind; training by word; whether by
reproof or remonstrance) will indicate education by word. “The
same spirit,” says Monod, in loco, “which in
our day relaxes filial
obedience, softens paternal power; the abuse of independence
among
inferiors and the forgetfulness of authority among
superiors, march handin-
hand. Parents who have known how to guard themselves against
an
excessive rigor, whether as a matter of principle or of
temperament, fall
usually into the contrary excess; chastisement
is banished from their
household, and as for corporal punishment in particular, it
is held most
frequently for a mark of a hard heart or of a base-born
spirit. Let us oppose
to these prejudices Proverbs 13:24; 22:15; 23:13, 14; 29:17.
By the rod
we do not mean corporal punishment alone; we simply say that
one ought
not to exclude it (compare Proverbs 23:14), and that there are some cases
where nothing else will do.
As for the rest, behold the principle which should
direct Christian parents in such a case — to employ discipline of the
sweetest
possible character, but discipline sufficient to repress
the sin.”
Let this careful discipline be supplemented by a careful
instruction and the
children shall be faithfully “nurtured” for the Lord.
·
THE
EVOKED OBEDIENCE (vs. 1-3.)
Children are to obey their parents; they are to honor
their
father and mother. There is to be reverence in the
obedience. This will
be
secured
if the parents are qualified by being God-like. It should,
however,
be rendered even when the parents are far from perfect. The
loyalty of the
children must not be determined by the character of the
parents; as the
natural governors, the parents are entitled to obedience
even though they
do not morally deserve it. The obedience has no exception. NOR DOES
ANY MAJORITY
MAKE THE OBLIGATION TO CEASE! Our
obedience as God’s “dear children” should be
the model of our filial
obedience. Let us be
loyal to our parents, JUST AS WE FEEL BOUND
TO BE
LOYAL TO OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN!
·
THE ATTENDANT
BLESSING. (v. 3.)
All God’s
commandments carry blessings in their bosoms. In the
keeping of
them there is great reward (Psalm 19:11). But the fifth
commandment has this temporal blessing associated with it of longevity.
Obedient children, by a Divine law, live longer than
disobedient ones. Dr.
apparent exception — where the soul
itself prefers to leave this world for a
better, and where, therefore, the letter of the promise
yields to its spirit,
and God, instead of continuing the saint upon earth, takes
him to his
desired home in heaven. Where this exception does not occur,
we must
believe that every one who dies before old age has
disregarded this
command.” Now,
Christianity, in promoting nurture and evoking
obedience, is so far securing the longevity of its children.
We can see that
the unity of Christian families must, ceteris
paribus (with other conditions
remaining the same), foster
health and longevity. In this way Bushnell’s
assurance may come true of “the outpopulating power of the Christian
stock.”
The Duties of Children
and Parents (vs. 1-4)
·
DUTY OF
CHILDREN. “Children, obey your
parents.”
ü Sphere in which the
obedience is to take place. “In the Lord.”
It was said in
ch. 5:21, as determining the character of the whole
subjection that there is between human beings, that it is to
be “in the
fear of Christ.” That is to
be interpreted as meaning that, in each case,
Christ is to be regarded as
the authority (behind the visible) before
which those who are
subjected are to bow. The husband, we have seen,
represents Christ (so far as it
goes) to the wife. And so the parents
represent Christ to the children. And
then only can the children obey in
the Lord when they regard their
parents as placed over them in the Lord.
In baptism parents acknowledge
that their children belong to the Lord as
standing over them. And, in accordance with this, children are to look
to their parents as standing in
the place of Christ to them, and to obey
them as though they were
obeying Christ.
ü Natural ground of
the duty. “For this is right.” There is a relationship
founded deep in nature between parents and those to whom
they have
given being. This is associated with an affection which is one of the
most
beautiful things in our nature. The strength of the parental
affection qualifies
the parents for being placed in authority over their
children. And the filial
affection leads the children to look to their
parents as the natural source of authority ever them.
ü Scriptural
confirmation. “Honor thy father and mother.” This is the
fifth
commandment, and is wider in its range than obedience to parents.
The contents of fifth commandment:
Ø
Children are to honor their parents
by treating them with proper
respect. Children are to respect their parents on the
ground of their
superior age. We are commanded to rise up before the hoary head, and
honor the face of the old man. So children
should show reverence to
their parents because of their years. And those
years are associated with
superior attainments. A big ship leaving for another land needs to be
cautiously piloted out of the dock and past the
other ships in the harbor
or river, away beyond the bar, and, it may be,
through the channel, until
it is out to the open sea. Men of special
knowledge need to be employed
for this, that the ship may not get on to the
sandbanks or on to the rocks.
So children in
their inexperience, their ignorance of the shoals and rocks
and seamanship, need to be piloted by the superior wisdom of their
parents until they are out to the
open sea of life. And it is right that
they should think of themselves with humility,
and treat with respect
those who are appointed their guides. There are
certain natural signs by
which this may be shown — a readiness to give
place to them, to give
them the best seat, to be silent when they
speak, a tone of deference
(while at the same time of confidence), and a
certain courtesy in address
which is not inconsistent with familiarity. When
Solomon on his throne
saw his mother approaching (inferior though she
was to him in one
relationship), he rose to meet her, and bowed
himself unto her, and
caused a seat to be set for her on his right
hand. It would be well for
children (who are sometimes inclined to be rude to their
parents) to
take an example from the wise king. “Cursed be he that setteth light
by his
father or his mother.” (Deuteronomy 27:16) “The eye
that
mocketh at
his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens
of the
valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it”
(Proverbs 30:17); that is, something terrible
shall overtake
him who
dares to make light of his parents.
Ø
Children
are to honor their parents by showing
gratitude to them.
How much are children laid under obligation to
their parents! There
was a time when they were entirely helpless,
could neither walk nor
speak, and, but for the care of parents, they would have perished.
And parental cares for them do not soon cease. How they need to be
watched, to be kept out of harm’s way! And when they are sick, how
they need to be attended to day and night! The mother needs to labor
on all day in the house (sometimes when she is not strong) to keep
things right for them. And the father needs to go out and work that he
may provide shelter, and clothing, and food, and schooling for them.
The children are not in a position to know all the sacrifices their parents
make for them, and the amount of thought that is bestowed on them,
and the prayers that are put up for them. But they are receiving daily
marks of their kindness, and they should receive
these, not as though
they were entitled to them, but with feelings of
gratitude ever fresh.
They will never have on earth better friends, greater
benefactors, than
Christ has
given them in their parents. And let them value the gift.
Ø
Children are to honor their parents by being obedient to them. This is
the point on which stress is laid (as though it
summed up the command)
by the apostle. There is nothing by which
children can better requite all
the trouble that their parents have had on their
account than by their
obedience. This
is the most beautiful flower that there can be in their
character
as children. It is true of them (as of those who have not
come
out of the childish state) that they are
creatures of impulse, and
inclined
to, seize upon present gratification, without thinking
whether it is for
their good or not. Parents, as preferring their
future happiness to present
gratification, must lay commands on them, and
the commands should be
felt to be easy as coming from those who are at
the same time heaping
kindness on them. Children should be prompt to
obey. They should not
wait until they are threatened. They should not
yield with a grudge.
They should not think of opposing their
untutored wills and crude
wishes to the disciplined wills and ripe
judgments of their parents.
Let them
honor their parents by giving them all obedience.
Ø
Children are to honor their parents
by being helpful to them. There are
little services which, from an early age,
children can render to their
parents. They should be pleased even to leave
their play to run an errand
for them. They should not grudge doing things
about the house to
relieve an overworked mother. Sometimes sick
parents have been
thrown on their children, and then it has been
seen what little hands
can do. Some Parents have a very hard struggle,
and children may
relieve them of much care and save them not a
little expense by taking
care of what takes money to replace. There are
some children who only
think how much they can get out of their parents
(they do not think
whether their parents can afford it, or have to
want to give them).
Children who wish to honor their parents will be
unwilling that they
should want for them, and will think how much
they can save to their
parents of labor and expense.
Ø
Children are to honor their parents by placing confidence in them.
Parents and children are friends, and there is
nothing on which friendship
more hinges than confidence. Parents are
intended to know all that their
children do, and it
is wrong for children to conceal anything from them.
If they wish to undertake anything, let them ask
their parents’ consent.
Let nothing be done on which they would not wish
their parents’ eyes
to rest. If they have done wrong, let them
frankly come forward and
confess their faults, and ask forgiveness. But
let there be no concealment,
no artifice, no untruthfulness. Children who
practice deceit on their
parents are likely to form character according
to one of the most
detestable types. All will come to regard them
with distrust.
Ø
Children are to honor their parents by attending to their instructions.
Children are to take full advantage of the
provision made by their
parents for their education; but their duty does
not end there. They are
to lend a ready ear to their parents when they
talk to them, especially
about serious subjects. They should love to hear
the story of Christ and
His love. They should not turn away their ear
when their parents tell
them:
o
what dispositions they are to cultivate,
o
what temptations they are to shun,
o
what company they are to keep,
o
what books they are to read; and
o
when they tell them to be:
§
respectful,
§
truthful,
§
honest,
§
kind, and
§
above all dutiful to their Father
in heaven.
“My son, hear
the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law
of thy
mother. For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy
head, and
chains about thy neck.” (Proverbs 1:8-9)
ü
Promise annexed to the fifth commandment. “Which is the first
commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee, and thou
mayest live
long on the earth.” It is no longer the
is mentioned, as it was when the promise was
first given. The whole
earth (not merely the heavenly
promise now for God’s people. The promise is not
to be understood
as absolutely guaranteeing long life to dutiful
children. For there
are some who die in childhood and who have not
been less exemplary
than those who get the blessing of a longer
life. “The good die first,”
it is
said, and there is truth in the saying. Some who
have been early taken away
have exhibited a singular sweetness and a
ripeness beyond their years. Still,
it is true (apart from other considerations that
may come in) that long life is
promised to children who honor their father and
mother. And we can see
how God (in His ordinary providence) works towards this end. Those
who are dutiful to their parents are likely to
grow up good members of society.
They are not likely to bring their life to an
untimely end in disgraceful
quarrels or by crime. They are not likely to
shorten their days by
intemperance or by idleness. They are likely,
too, to grow up good
members of the Church, and may have their lives prolonged
to them
because of their usefulness. When Peter’s life
was in danger, prayer was
made without ceasing of the Church unto God for
him. And his life was
spared because of its felt valuableness. (aCTS
121) So if we interest people
in us, by services rendered to them, their good
wishes and prayers may go
to our days being lengthened out for us.
·
DUTY OF
PARENTS. Fathers are addressed; mothers might have
been addressed as well. But one class only being mentioned
it is those who
represent the others.
ü Negatively. “And, ye fathers, provoke
not your children to wrath.”
Parents have not a right to act as they please toward their
children. They
are responsible to Him who
has placed them over their children, and
are bound to act in His Spirit. Parents provoke their children to wrath when
they give them a sense of wrong.
Ø
By over-commandment. Parents have a right to exact of their
children;
but there are limits to what is to be exacted of
them. To heap command
upon command, prohibition upon prohibition, is
not to accomplish the
end aimed at. When the requirement is more than
can reasonably be
rendered, it becomes vexatious. The children
lose the sense of their
ability to obey, and under compulsion are
provoked to wrath.
Ø
By unreasonable blame. It is true of
children that they need a great
amount of encouragement. And where it is deserved
it ought to be freely
bestowed. To bestow it where it is not deserved is to encourage
unreality.
Faults (at least the more serious, where they
are numerous)
are to be dealt
with. But extreme care must be taken never to
impute
blame undeservedly
or tentatively to children. There should be no
hint
of blame unless there is sure ground to go
upon. For if children are
stung with a sense of injustice, then, provoked
to wrath, they are apt
to think that
they may as well do the things with which they are
credited.
Ø
By passionateness. Children can understand a burst of indignation
for
some serious offence, and are the better for it.
But they are also quick
to understand when their parents lose command of
themselves and
punish beyond what the offence deserves. This is
carefully to be
avoided, for passionateness
provokes passionateness; the passionate
father makes a passionate son.
ü Positively. “But nurture them in the
chastening and admonition of the
Lord.” Such
nurture is to be understood as a tender plant needs. If it is to
be brought to any perfection, then it needs to be suited as
to soil, as to
exposure, as to temperature, as to nourishment, as to
protection from
insects, as to its particular habits. So parents have tender plants given
them in
their children to rear up, sometimes exceptionally tender,
but tender in any circumstances. They have to keep them from
the
storms and blasts
that would wither them. They have their physical
development carefully to watch over. Their intellectual
development,
too, needs great care, that they may not grow up stunted.
And especially
has care to be bestowed on the nurture of their spiritual
powers.
Ø
This nurture is to have a distinctively Christian character. The
appliances mentioned are described as being “of the Lord.” That is,
they are such appliances as those acting for
Christ should use. They
are to be used toward Christian ends. They are
to be used toward the
children being trained up as Christians. Parents are to train up their
children as those committed to their care by Christ. They are to
train them up for Christ. They are to indoctrinate them with
Christian truth. They are to seek to attach
them, not merely to
themselves, but through themselves to
Christ. They are to seek
that their whole being may be subject to and center round Christ.
Ø
The Christian applications.
o
Chastening. It is difficult (apparently impossible) to get
words
in
the English language to represent the two words that are in
the Greek original. They are in a general way to
be
distinguished as:
§
discipline by power and
§
discipline by reason.
This distinction is effected in the words which
are used in the
Revised translation (“chastening and
admonition”), but by an
undue limitation of the meaning. (see v. 4 in
exposition above).
The first word is more than discipline by
punishment; the
punishment is accidental, or what is only
occasionally to be
resorted to in discipline. It is rather all that
drilling which a
parent gives his children in virtue of the
executive (magisterial)
power which is placed in him. He has certain
rules by which he
goes in training his children, and he has got
the power to
enforce them. The first lesson he has to teach
them is that he is
their master. And so they are, at first, purely
in his strong
grasp. In vain is all their resistance. As soon
as they can lisp
words they must use them in prayer. They are
passive in his
hand, and he can make them utter what he
pleases, he makes
them observe simplicity, restraint, good manners
in eating,
that they may not learn to make too much of the
pleasures
of the table. He makes them say “grace before
meat,” that they
may learn betimes from whom all table-comforts
come. He
makes them attend to their lessons, that they
may know that
they have got to work and not to be idlers. He
makes them be
select as to their companionships, that they may
not get out
into evil associations. He appoints certain
hours for
the house, that they may learn order and
punctuality. He does
not ask them if they will go to church, but he makes them go
to church
with him. That is the kind of drilling that is meant
here, and when it is
necessary it must be backed up by
chastening, or judicious punishment for good.
o
Admonition. This is also a word of too narrow a meaning.
The
Greek
word means generally an appeal
to reason. This
commences at a later stage, viz. when intellect begins to
open.
It is not necessary that a parent should always
explain to a
child the reasons of his procedure. But it is
important that, as
a rule, children
should have explained to them the evil of
the course
they are asked to avoid, and
the advantages of
the course
they are asked to follow. And if they evince a
tendency to any evil course, it is right that they
should be
remonstrated with or reproved. The importance of an appeal
to reason is that it has in view the emancipation of the children
from parental authority. The time has to
come when they have
to go from under their parents, and be thrown
upon their own
responsibilities and resources. And it is all-important that, when
they go out to the world and meet its temptations,
they should
be
fortified with good habits and reasons which they have in
their
minds for a course:
§
of
sobriety,
§
of
industry, and
§
of
godliness.
Parents, then, should feel their responsibility with
regard to the
proper up-bringing of their children. This responsibility is great
in view of the evil that is so natural to them, and in view of
the
evil example with which they are surrounded. They should
see to it that they are first of all Christians themselves,
leading a Christian life before their children. They are
especially to see that they are Christians in the methods
which they use
with their children.
Children and
their Parents (vs. 1-4)
“Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for
this is right. Honor thy father
and mother; which is the first commandment with
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 bring
them up in the nurture and
admonition of the Lord.” In the
preceding paragraph the apostle had
treated of
the relative duties of husbands and wives; here he directs
attention
to the relative duties of parents and children.
·
THE DUTY OF
CHILDREN. The words lead us to consider the nature
and reason of the obligation which children owe to their
parents.
ü The nature. The duty is:
Ø
Obedience. “Children,
obey your parents.” This duty has its
limitation. When, for example, the command is
impracticable, it is not
binding. When the parent makes demands
surpassing the child’s
capacity, he is a tyrant, and the child is free
from the obligation. Or
when the command is morally wrong, when it
clashes with the rights
of conscience and the claims of God, obedience
to it is no duty, but
would be a sin. The duty is obedience rendered
in a Christian spirit.
“In the
Lord.” Any conduct towards parents, mankind in
general,
or to the great God, that is not inspired with
love to Christ, has no
virtue in it. All acts to be acceptable to God must
be done in the
name and
spirit of His blessed Son.
Ø
Honor. “Honor thy father and mother.” That is, reverence them. This
implies, of course, that they are honor-worthy. It is, alas!
often the duty
of children to abhor and despise the character
of their parents, because
of its falsehood, intemperance, profligacy,
and crime. Paul supposes
parents to be what their relation to their
children and God demands -
pure,
generous, and
noble. Such parents are to be honored. Not to
honor them is to dishonor God.
ü The reason. What is the reason for this obedience and
reverence?
Ø
Because it is right. “For this is right.” Nature teaches the rectitude
of it.
There is implanted in every child’s mind the feeling that he is
bound to obey and reverence his parents. This
feeling of obligation
in some form or other is universal. The Bible
teaches the rectitude
of it. It was engraven by the finger of God on
the tables of stone;
it was inculcated in the teaching and
exemplified in the life of
Jesus Christ.
Ø
Because it is expedient. “That it may be well with thee, and thou
mayest live
long on the earth.” A happy and a long life depends
upon it.
Children who are regardless of their filial duties will be
regardless of all others, and rendered liable to fall into those habits
OF
DEPRAVITY which will
render THEIR LIFE A MISERY
and CUT SHORT
THEIR DAYS ON THE EARTH!
·
THE DUTY
OF PARENTS. The duty of parents is here set forth in
two forms, negatively and positively.
ü Negatively. “Ye fathers,
provoke not your children to wrath.” The
temper of a child is of transcendent moment; it is that
which determines
his character and destiny. To act upon that temper in its
opening years
so as to fret and sour it is to do an incalculable mischief.
Against this
evil it is the duty of parents strenuously to guard. Petty
interferences,
trivial prohibitions, incessant chidings, and an irritable
spirit, are the
things in parental conduct which “provoke children to wrath.”
ü Positively. “But bring them up in the
nurture and admonition of the
Lord.” Train their
faculties, bring out their latent powers, teach them”
Ø to think
with accuracy,
Ø to love
with purity,
Ø to act with
adroitness and promptitude.
Do this by admonishing them “in the Lord.” Let the
lessons
of instruction and warning be drawn from:
Ø the existence,
Ø the life,
Ø the character, and
Ø the teachings of the Lord.
The
child’s faculties cannot be developed apart from
God. Secular
education
is a contradiction in terms; it is as great a solecism as a
sunless vegetation. Let parents look well to the minds of their children.
The farmer who neglects the culture of his fields will soon have
his acres
overrun with thorns and briars and noxious weeds; and the
parent who
neglects the culture of his child will soon discover evils far more
hideous
and disastrous. The following from the quaint pen of
smart old Fuller will be read with interest and profit on
the subject:
“The good parent. He
showeth them, in his own practice, what to follow
and imitate; and, in others, what to shun and avoid. For
though ‘ the words
of the wise be as nails fastened by the masters of the
assemblies’
(Ecclesiastes 12:11), yet, sure their examples are the
hammer to drive
them in, to take the deeper hold. A father that whipped his son for
swearing,
and swore himself whilst he whipped him, did more harm
by his
example than good by his correction. He doth not welcome and
embrace the first
essays of sin in his children. Weeds are counted herbs
in the beginning
of spring: nettles are put in pottage, and salads are made
of elder buds. Thus
fond fathers like the oaths and wanton talk of their
little children, and
please themselves to hear them displease God. But
our wise parent both
instructs his children in piety and with correction
blasts the first buds of
profaneness in them. He that will not use the rod
on his child, his
child shall be used as a rod on him. He allows his
children maintenance
according to their quality. Otherwise it will make
them base, acquaint them
with bad company and shocking tricks; and it
makes them surfeit the
sooner when they come to their estates. It is
observed of camels, that
having traveled long without water through
sandy deserts, implentur, cum bibendi est occasio, et
in praeteritum
et infuturum (‘when they find an
opportunity they fill themselves both
for the past and the future’); and so these thirsty heirs soak it when
they come to their means, who, whilst their fathers were living might
not touch the top of their money, and think they shall never feel the
bottom of it when they are dead. In choosing a profession, he is
directed by his child’s disposition, whose inclination is
the strongest
indenture to bind him to a trade. But when they set Abel to
till the
ground, and send Cain to keep sheep; Jacob to hunt, and Esau
to live in
tents; drive some to school, and others from it; they commit
a violence on
nature, and it will thrive accordingly. Yet he burnouts not
his child when
he makes an unworthy choice beneath himself, or rather for
ease than use,
pleasure than profit. If his son proves wild, he doth not
cast him off so far
but he marks the place where he lights. With the mother of
Moses, he doth
not suffer his son so to sink or swim but he leaves one to
stand afar off to
watch what will become of him (Exodus 2:4). He is careful,
while
quenched his luxury, not withal to put out his life; the
rather, because
their souls who have broken and run out in their youth have
proved the
more healthful for it afterwards. He moves him to marriage
rather by
argument drawn from his good than his own authority. It is a
style too
princely for a parent herein to ‘will and command;’ but,
sure, he may
will and desire. Affections, like the conscience, are rather
to be led
than drawn; and it is to be feared, they that marry where they
do not
love, will love where they do not
marry. He doth not give away his
loaf to his children and then come to them for a piece of
bread. He
holds the reins (though loosely) in his own hands; and
keeps, to
reward duty and punish undutifulness. Yet, on good occasion,
for
his children’s advancement, he will depart from part of his
means. Base is
their nature who will not have their branches lopped
till their body be felled; and will
let go none of their goods, as if it
presaged their
speedy death; whereas it doth not follow that he that
puts off his cloak must
presently go to bed. On his death-bed he
bequeaths his blessing
to all his children. Nor rejoiceth he so much
to leave them great portions as
honestly obtained. Only money well
and lawfully gotten is good and lawful money. And if he leaves his
children young, he principally nominates God to be their guardian;
and, next to Him, is careful to appoint provident overseers.
The
good child. He
reverenceth the person of his parent, the
old, poor,
and froward. As his parent bore with him when a child, he
bears
with his parent if twice a child; nor doth his dignity above
him cancel his
duty unto him. When Sir Thomas More was Lord Chancellor of
England,
and Sir John his father one of the judges of the King’s
Bench, he would in
lawful commands, and practiced his precepts with all
obedience. I cannot,
therefore, excuse St. Barbara from undutifulness, and
occasioning her
own death. The matter this: her father, being a pagan, commanded
his
workmen, building his house, to make two windows in a room.
Barbara,
knowing her father’s pleasure; in his absence enjoined them
to make three,
that, seeing them, she might the better contemplate the
mystery of the
Holy Trinity. Methinks two windows might as well have raised
her
meditations, and the light arising from both would as
properly have
minded her of the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and
the Son.
Her father, enraged at his return, thus came to the
knowledge of her
religion, and accused her to the magistrate, which cost her
her life.
Having practiced, then, himself, he entails his parents’
precepts on
his posterity. Therefore such instructions are by Solomon
(Proverbs 1:9)
compared to frontlets and chains (not to a suit of clothes,
which serves
but one, and quickly wears out, or out of fashion), which
have in them
a real lasting worth, and are bequeathed as legacies to
another age.
The same counsels observed, are chains to grace, which,
neglected,
prove halters to strangle undutiful children. He is a stork
to his parent,
and feeds him in his old age. Not only if his father hath
been a pelican,
but though he hath been an ostrich unto him, and neglected
him in
his youth. He confines him not a long way off to a short
pension,
forfeited if he comes in his presence, but shows piety at
home, and
learns as Paul saith (I Timothy 5:4) to requite his parent.
And yet
the debt (I mean only the principal, not counting the
interest) cannot
fully be paid. And therefore he compounds with his father,
to accept
in good worth his utmost endeavor. Such a child God commonly
rewards with long life in this world. If he chance to die
young, yet
he lives long that lives well; and time misspent is not
lived, but lost.
Besides,
GOD IS BETTER THAN HIS PROMISE, if he
takes him a long lease, and gives him a freehold of better
value. As for
disobedient children: if preserved from the gallows, they
are reserved for
the rack, to be tortured by their own posterity. One
complained that never
father had so undutiful a son as he had. ‘Yes,’ said his
son, with less grace
than truth, ‘my grandfather had.’ I conclude this subject
with the example
of a pagan’s, which will shame most Christians. Pomponius
Atticus,
making the funeral oration at the death of his mother, did
protest that,
living with her three score and seven years, he was never
reconciled to
her, se nuncquam matre in gratiam rediisse, because
there never
happened betwixt them the least jar which needed
reconciliation.”
5 “Servants,
be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh,
with
fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;”
Servants, be obedient to them that are
your masters according to the flesh.
There were
many slaves in the early Church, but, however unjust their
position,
the apostle could not but counsel them to obedience, this course
being the
best for ultimately working out their emancipation. The words of
Christ were peculiarly welcome to them “that labor and are heavy laden”
(Matthew
11:28-30); and, as we find from Celsus and others, the early Church
was much
ridiculed for the large number of uneducated persons in its pale.
With fear and trembling. Compare I Corinthians 2:3; Philippians 2:12,
from
which it
will be seen that this expression does not denote slavish dread, but
great moral anxiety lest one should
fail in duty. It was
probably a
proverbial
expression. In singleness of your heart,
as to Christ. Not
with a
made-up semblance of obedience, but with inward sincerity, knowing
that it is
your duty; and even if it be irksome, doing it pleasantly, as though
Christ
required it, and you were
doing it to Him.
6 “Not with eye-service, as men-pleasers;
but as the servants of Christ,
doing the
will of God from the heart.” Exegetical
of the last exhortation,
with a
negative and a positive clause, according to the apostle’s frequent
practice
(compare
chps. 2:8, 19; 3:5; 4:14-15, 25, 28-29; 5:18, 27, 29; and v. 4 above).
Eye-service
and men-pleasing have reference only to what will pass muster in the
world; Christians
must go deeper, as bound to Christ’s service by the great claim
of
redemption (I Corinthians 6:20), and remembering that “man looketh on the
outward appearance,
but the Lord looketh on the heart” (I Samuel 16:7).
The will of God is our great standard, and our
daily prayer is, “Thy
will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” In heaven
it is done “from
the
heart.”
7 “With
good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men.”
Some join the last words of the preceding verse
to this clause, “from
the heart with good
will,” etc., on the ground that it is not needed for v.6,
for if you
do the will of God at all, you must do it from the heart. But
one may do
the will of God in a sense outwardly and formally, therefore
the clause
is not superfluous in v. 6, whereas, if one does service with
good will,
one surely does it from the heart, so that the clause would be
more
superfluous here. Jesus is the Overlord of every earthly lord, and His
follower
has but to substitute Him by faith
for his earthly master to enable
him to do service with good will.
Servants and
Masters (vs. 5-7)
The early
preachers of the gospel were wise in not provoking futile and
fatal attempts at a social revolution by denouncing
slavery. Nevertheless,
they laid the foundation of that revolution and
secured its peaceable and
bloodless accomplishment. Slavery
could not permanently survive the
establishment of the principle of Christian brotherhood.
Meanwhile under
the then existing circumstances Christianity taught certain
necessary duties
of slaves and masters, the essential ideas of which apply to so much of the
present state of society as is at
all analogous to that of the first century.
·
THE DUTIES
OF SERVANTS.
ü The duties.
Ø Obedience. The position of service, whether forced as in
slavery or
freely accepted as among us, implies
obedience. Indeed, where the
condition of service is voluntarily
entered upon for the sake of
adequate payment the duty is so much
the stronger. The disobedient
servant commits a double sin; he is
unfaithful to his engagement,
and he is robbing his master of unearned wages.
Ø Singleness of heart. Half-hearted service is semi-disobedience.
Ø No eye-service. How common is this degrading and dishonest
habit in
all walks of life, from that of the maid who is
idle when her mistress
is away, to that of the statesman who works for
what will win the
applause of the multitude to the
neglect of the real welfare of the
nation, or the preacher who preaches
popular sermons to catch the
ear of the congregation and hides unpopular truths
that men much
need to hear!
Ø Serving the Lord. We are all to serve Christ in our daily work. This
consecrates the most menial task.
ü The reward. Gross injustice characterized the old-world
treatment of
slaves, and tempted to disloyal
service. This injustice will not be
seen at the great reckoning. The slave will be as
fairly judged as
his master. The lowliest work will win as high a
reward as the most
pretentious if the motive is equally
good. Here is an inducement to
faithfulness in little things.
·
THE DUTIES
OF MASTERS. It was hard to teach a slave-holder his
duty. Yet it is fair to observe that in many
households the rigor of servitude
was much softened, and kinder and more humane
relations maintained than
those that sometimes characterize
our modern commercial connection of
workman and employer, relations out of which all humanity seems to have
vanished. It is interesting to see that in the New
Testament a hired servant
is considered to be worse off than a household
slave (e.g. Luke 15:17).
ü The duties.
Ø Fairness. “Do the same things unto
them.” The duties are reciprocal.
Masters have no right to expect more devotion to their
interests from
their servants than they show to their servants’
interests.
Ø Kindness. “Forbear
threatening.” It is cowardly to use the power of
the purse, as old masters used the whip, to gain an
unfair advantage
over a servant. In the end sympathy and genial friendliness will
secure the best service.
ü The motives.
Ø Servants and masters have ONE COMMON MASTER! . Both are
alike servants of Christ; both must
give account to Him of their
stewardship.
Ø Christ will judge without respect of persons. The
advantages of
social superiority are but
temporary. They will be of no use at
Christ’s judgment.
8 “Knowing
that whatsover good thing any man doeth, the same shall
he receive
of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.”
The hope of
reward
is brought in to supplement the more
disinterested motive, such addition being
specially
useful in the case of slaves (as of children, vs. 2-3). For the slave
the
hope of
reward is future — it is at the Lord’s
coming that he will have
his reward. Whatsoever
good you do, you shall receive of the Lord; He
will
repay you. “For
God is not unrighteous to forget your work and
labor of love, which ye have shewed toward His name” (Hebrews
6:10).
Duties of
Servants (vs. 5-8)
It is
interesting to reflect that the New Testament devotes more space to
the
instruction of servants than to the instruction of either parents or
children,
husbands or wives. The servants, or rather slaves, were a large
and interesting
class in the cities of
numerous
than freemen, and very many of them had embraced
the gospel
with great heartiness. There were obvious reasons for a studious
minuteness
in the counsels given to such a class.
·
THEIR DUTY
IS SUMMED UP IN THE SINGLE WORD “OBEDIENCE.”
Christianity does not rudely strike at
existing relations in life, but seeks to
improve and sanctify them. In its
appeals to slaves as well as to masters,
it sowed the seed-corn, small as a grain of mustard seed,
which grew into
a harvest of emancipation in the ages which were to see the full power
of the gospel. Obedience
was therefore the duty of slaves, or servants,
“in all things”
(Colossians 3:22), that is, in all things included
within the sphere of a master’s rightful authority, not
contrary to the Law
of God, or the gospel of Christ, or the dictates of
conscience. It is set forth
first in a negative, then in a positive form.
ü Negatively. “Not with
eye-service, as men-pleasers.” This word is coined
by the apostle for the occasion. Eye-service is either work
done only to
please the eye, but which cannot bear to be tested, or it
may be good work
done only when the master’s eye is upon the worker. This was
a vice
peculiar to slavery. But it enters into all forms of service. Dishonest work
is to be avoided quite as much as dishonest words. An acted
lie is as
dishonorable as a spoken one. There must be no mere
perfunctory
(of
an action or gesture) carried out with a minimum of effort or
reflection) discharge
of human duties.
ü Positively.
Ø “With
fear and trembling.” Not from
regard to the lash of the
master, but with
an anxious and tremulous desire to do our duty
thoroughly. Obedience
is to be yielded “with all fear” (I Peter
2:18), that is, with the fear of incurring the just rebukes
of their
masters, and “as fearing God”
(Colossians 3:22).
Ø “In
singleness of heart, as unto Christ.” In
simplicity and
sincerity of spirit, without dissimulation or hypocrisy.
There
is a great temptation to duplicity (double-dealing) in those
subjected to another’s will, especially if the service is
irksome
or unreasonable. Let there be a single
desire to do your duty.
Ø “With
good-will doing service,” not
grudgingly, or murmuringly,
or by constraint, but with cheerfulness and alacrity, “seeking to
please them well in all
things,” that they may obtain their good
will (Titus 2:9).
·
THE
MOTIVES TO SUCH OBEDIENCE.
ü The command
of God here addressed to all servants.
ü The Lord’s
mastership, for they are “the servants of Christ,” and are
“doing service as to the
Lord, and not to men.” Here is the constraining
force of the Lord’s love. How this motive
sweetens, sanctifies, ennobles
work! The work is
done, not for wages, not by constraint, but “unto the
Lord,” and
therefore becomes part of our worship. It is thus that the Lord
has married the work of earth to the worship of heaven.
ü The rewards
of this service: “Knowing that whatsoever good
thing any
man doeth, the same shall he
receive of the Lord, whether he be bond
or free.” Whatever disappointment may mix itself with the service
of men, the Lord will
have a rich reward in store for the faithful worker.
He is not unrighteous to
forget your labor of love (Hebrews 6;10), for
“of the Lord ye shall receive
the reward of the inheritance: for ye
serve
the Lord Christ.”
(Colossians 3:24).
ü The honor
of the gospel. His Name and His doctrine will be blasphemed
by a contrary spirit (I Timothy 6:1; Titus 2:10).
ü The example of Christ Himself. He “took upon Him
the form of a
servant;” for “He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.”
(Matthew 20:28) He always did the things which pleased God
(John 8:29), and has
set us an example that we should follow in
His
steps. (I Peter 2:23)
9 “And, ye masters, do the same things unto
them, forbearing threatening:
knowing
that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons
with
Him.” And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing
threatening. Act correspondingly toward your slaves, as if
the eye of
Christ were
on you, which indeed it is; if you
are ever tempted to grind
them down,
or defraud, or scold unreasonably and make their life bitter,
remember that there is a Master above you, into whose
ears their cry will
come. If
they are to do service to you as to the Lord, you are to require
service of
them as if you were the Lord. Therefore forbear threatening;
influence them by love more than by fear. Knowing that your Master
also is in heaven; neither is
there respect of persons with Him.
Both of you
stand in the same relation to the great Lord, who is in heaven
and over
all (compare ch. 1:20-21). Your
being higher in earthly
station than they will not procure for you any
indulgence or consideration.
You will be judged
simply and solely according to your deeds. Your
responsibility
to the Judge and your obligations to the Savior alike bind
you to just and merciful treatment. If such
principles were applicable to the
relations
of enforced labor, they are certainly not less so to the relations of
labor when
free. (I am in the process of reading a
book Voices From
Slavery
(100
Authentic Slave Narratives) by Norman R. Yetman which sheds light
on the
wisdom of the above – CY – 2019)
This
can be carried out to employers and employees – both need to beware of
offending
Christ by a bitter and unreasonable spirit. Occasions for glorifying God
by the
manifestation of a noble Christian spirit may become occasions for letting
out
the selfishness of the carnal heart. Yet, complicated though the question is,
it is
probable that the true solution
would be reached by all Christian men
if the spirit of this text were carried out, if both masters and men tried to do
all as
to the
Lord and not to men, and to esteem His approval the very highest
reward
to which
they could look.
Duties of Servants and Masters (vs. 5-9)
- DUTY OF SERVANTS. Recognized as constituent members of
the
Church, and, however little esteemed by man, as greatly
regarded by God.
In Christ all are brethren, for all are brothers of Christ,
therefore of one
another.
ü The duty of servants is obedience. Qualities
of the obedience.
Ø With fear
and trembling (see Exposition);
Ø in
singleness of heart;
Ø as unto
Christ and not to men;
Ø not with
eye-service, but as servants of Christ;
Ø doing the
will of God from the heart;
Ø with good
will.
ü The reward of good service. Whatsoever good you do, you shall receive
of the Lord; He will repay you. We are apt to be jealous of
this doctrine.
It seems to undermine free grace. But no; salvation is
wholly of grace;
but one feature of grace is that, when you receive it and
act on it, it begets,
as it were, another gift of grace. If by grace the servant
obey in the Lord, a
further act of grace will follow; the obedience rendered will be rewarded
and blessed. Better
this surely than any amount of earthly reward! “God
is not unrighteous to forget” the
faithful work of those who remember
him above all other.
- DUTY OF MASTERS.
ü Do the same
things to them, observe their rights and do as you would
be done by;
ü forbear
threatening. Reasons for this.
Ø
You have a Master also, One in heaven, who
oversees all you do;
there is no respect of persons with Him. One of
the great problems of
the day is how to permeate the relations of
master and servant with
the Christian spirit, and carry into effect the
aim of such passages as
this. We do not refer particularly to domestic
service, for a servant,
by entering a house, becomes in a sense a member
of the family,
and is thereby bound to fall in with the family
order. The difficulty
lies mainly with the case of large bodies of men
working under a
single employer. The problem is too intricate to
be discussed here.
But both masters and
men need to beware of offending
Christ by
a bitter
and unreasonable spirit. Occasions for glorifying God
by
the manifestation of a noble Christian spirit
may become occasions
for letting out the selfishness of the carnal
heart. Yet, complicated
though the question is, it is probable that the true solution would be
reached by all Christian men if the spirit of this text were carried
out, if both masters and men tried
to do all as to the Lord and not
to men, and to esteem His approval the very highest
reward to which
they could look.
Servants and
their Masters (vs. 5-9)
“Servants,” etc. There are two
thoughts underlying these verses.
1. The existence of social distinction, s amongst men. There are
masters
and servants, rulers and subjects. These distinctions are no
accidental
phases of society, they grow out of the constitution
of things. Diversity in
the temperaments, tastes, capacities, and circumstances of men
give rise to
masters and servants.
2. The one spirit which is to govern men
of all distinctions. The rich
and
the poor, the sovereign and his subject, the master and the
servant, are
under an obligation to be animated by the same moral
spirit, and controlled
by the same moral consideration. “All in all things should do the will of
God from the heart.”
·
THE DUTY OF
SERVANTS. The duty of servants, of course, is
obedience. “Be obedient to
them that are your masters.” But the obedience
is here characterized.
Ø It is obedience in bodily matters. “According to the flesh.” Their
service
is limited to secular concerns, things that have
reference to the material
and temporal interests of their masters. They were
to give their muscles,
and their limbs, and their contriving faculties, but not their souls.
“Consciences and souls were made to
be the Lord’s alone.”
Ø It is obedience honestly rendered. “With fear and trembling, in
singleness of your heart” — “not with eye-service.” These
expressions
mean that there should be no duplicity, no
double-dealing, but downright
honesty in everything. A servant is
bound to be honest towards his
employer. He has no right to be lazy or
wasteful. He has contracted to
give, on certain stipulated conditions, his energies
and time to promote
the secular interests of his master.
Ø It is obedience inspired with the religious spirit. They are to regard
themselves in everything as the servants
of Christ, and are bound to
do the “will of God from the heart.” In
everything the authority of
Christ must be held as supreme. Whatsoever is
done in word or deed
should be done all to the glory of God.
Ø It is obedience which, if truly rendered, will be rewarded of God.
“Knowing that whatsoever good
thing any man doeth, the same shall he
receive of the Lord. whether he be bond or
free.” (v. 8)
The faithful
servant may feel that the wages he
receives from his earthly master are
unjustly inadequate. Yet the great Master will award to him at last an
ample compensation. Whatsoever good thing he has done, however
trivial, shall meet its reward at last. The good thing must be
rewarded.
Goodness carries
evermore its own reward.
·
THE DUTY OF
MASTERS. The way in which masters
should
exercise their authority is here indicated.
Ø They are
to exercise it religiously. “Ye masters, do the same
things unto
them.” “The same things,” as we have said, do not mean
the same work,
but the same spiritual attributes. Servants
are to be honest and respect the
will of God in all; the masters are here bound to do “the
same things.”
Both are to
be under the domination of the same moral spirit.
Ø They are
to exercise it magnanimously. “Forbearing
threatening.”
Though the servant may by accident, or, what is worse, by
intent, by
omission, or by commission, try
severely the temper of his master, his
master should forbear threatening. He should
show his right to be a
master by governing
his own soul. The man who takes fire at every
offence, whose eyes flash with rage,
and lips mutter threats, is too
little a creature to be a master. He has no
license from Heaven to
rule either children, servants, or citizens, who is not magnanimous
in soul.
Ø They are
to exercise it responsibly. “Knowing that your Master
also is in
heaven.” They are amenable to God for the way in which
they use their
authority. The master has the same Lord as the servant, and they must
stand at last together at THE GREAT JUDGMENT! . To that Master
all social distinctions vanish in the presence of
moral character.
“Neither is there respect of
persons with Him.” (v. 9)
The Christian Treatment
of Slavery (vs. 5-9)
The treatment
of slavery by Christianity is one of the most interesting of
themes.
Because Christianity did not preach a servile war, that is, did not
propose
emancipation by force, it was imagined that it was a conniver in
the selfish
plot against the liberties of man. But Christianity confines itself
to
spiritual means. It is by a spirit that it regenerates mankind. Force and
mechanical
appliances may subserve its purposes, judgment may have to
take place
in consequence of men’s selfishness and sin, but the
instrumentalities
of Christianity are not carnal, but spiritual, and so mighty
through God
to the pulling down of the diabolic strongholds. (II Corinthians
10:4) It can be shown that the Mosaic legislation,
as well as the Divine judgments
in Old
Testament times, were hostile to slavery. But we are now concerned with
Paul’s
policy about slaves. Suppose, then, that he had advocated revolt and
immediate
emancipation. The slaves would have been separated from their
masters,
and a chasm created between them which would not have been
filled for
generations. Christianity would have been the separator instead
of the
unifier of mankind, and the evils of separation would have been
excessive.
Was it not better to infuse a new spirit into service and
masterhood?
Was it not better to carry both into a Divine light, and so
secure the
master and slaves dwelling together in unity? Christianity
consequently
told master and slave how they were each related to the one
Master in
heaven, and so made them one. The actual emancipation has
been the
outcome of the Christian spirit.
·
BOND AND
FREE WERE TOLD ABOUT A COMMON
MASTER
IN
HEAVEN. (vs. 7-9.)
The slave was thus asked to look past his earthly
master to his heavenly.
He might be possessed by a master on earth, but a
Master in heaven told
him he was not his own, but bought with a price, and
so bound to serve
Him with his body which was God’s. This lifted life at once
to a new plane
and infused into service a religious spirit. The Christian slave
became the conscious property of Jesus. But at
the same time, he felt that
this
slavery to God was “perfect
freedom,” that to be
God’s “slave” was to
be at the same time His “freeman.” He was
thus spiritually emancipated.
Again, the master was given to understand that he had a Master
in heaven,
and was the slave of God. Hence his spiritual life gave to
him the ideal of
what
authority is when its
spirit is love. Lovingly dealt with by God above,
he had a model of masterhood evermore set before him, and
his own
relation to his slaves was of necessity modified thereby.
·
THEY WERE
ASSURED THAT HE WAS NO RESPECTER OF
PERSONS. (v. 9.) Here a blow was struck at the caste
prejudices of the time.
Here persons
were lifted into the light of eternal justice and seen in their
native equality.
Now, if God took no account of personal distinctions so as to
draw any line between bond and free, if the distinctions
dwelt on by men
were of no account with Him, the truth tended to annihilate
the distinctions.
Here was a
great Leveler before whom high and low, rich and poor, bond
and free, were absolutely undistinguishable. It is this
primary truth of all
men having equal rights before the Supreme which has led in
time to all
men having equal rights before enlightened law, as for
example in
(and
from meaningless distinctions. The method taken by
Christianity has thus
been to bring unmeant distinctions into the light of God’s
countenance, and
when men realize that He disregards them, they are sure to
see eye to eye
with Him in the end. It is by reason, not by force, that the
emancipation is
accomplished.
·
THEY WERE
ASKED TO SERVE EACH OTHER FOR THEIR
HIGHER
MASTER’S SAKE. Mutual service for God’s sake was the ideal
set before masters and slaves by the gospel. For God Himself
became
incarnate, “not to be ministered unto,
but to minister.” (Matthew 20:28)
He came to show that “it is better
to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35)
He came to consecrate service, to glorify devotion to
another’s welfare.
When masters and slaves learn this, their relations will
contract a cordiality,
and be mutually helpful in a degree impossible otherwise.
The gospel has
thus quenched tyrannies by the dazzling light of Gods
unsuspected justice.
There was wisdom in the arrangement. Another policy would
have disorganized
society and brought evils greater than existed. Onesimus
goes back to Philemon
to be a son in his house rather than a slave, and to help
his master in his
progress home to the common Master in heaven. Patiently
waiting in his
spiritual freedom and doing his part, he can assure himself
that the political
emancipation will be realized in due season.
The Duties of Servants and Masters
(vs. 5-9)
·
DUTY OF
SERVANTS. “Servants, be obedient unto
them that
according to the flesh are
your masters.” The Revisers have shown good
judgment in retaining “servants” here, and putting
“bond-servants” in the
margin. For though” bond” (the same word) is in the eighth
verse
distinguished from “free,” yet the thought requires a
modification of the
meaning. It would be pedantic to translate in the sixth
verse “bond-servants
of Christ” (or elsewhere, “Paul a slave of Christ”), for
slavery is the idea
we exclude from the service of Christ. And this wider use of
the word is
favored by the word not being used for” masters” which
conveys the idea
of despotic authority. Further,
the principles laid down have no exclusive
reference to slaves. They are such as would have had force
if this perverted
form of service had never existed. It is right, then, to use
a word which
covers all forms of service. It is true that (owing to the
carrying out of the
apostolic principles, and generally the influence of
Christianity) times have
very much changed. There is almost nowhere now bondage on
the one side
and absolutism on the other. The relations between masters
and servants
are of a freer nature, and depend on reasonableness on both
sides. This
being the case, it is to be desired, not that self-interest
or class-interest
should rule these relations, but the principles here laid
down by the apostle.
ü The grounding of the
duty. “With fear and trembling, in singleness of
your heart, as unto Christ.”
Ø
The master is
representative of Christ. Four times are servants
reminded of this. The apostolic exhortation is
saturated with it. A very
unworthy representative the despot of the
household or slave-holder
(in the very conception of the thing, apart from
personal qualities) was.
But the apostle does not stigmatize him as a
usurper, a pretender, and
call upon the slaves to rise and cast off his
despotism. Strange to say
(having him principally in his mind), he regards
him as legitimately
filling the place of Christ. That is to say,
underneath all that slave-
holding (whatever it was) there was still a
representation, a true
representation, of the authority of Christ,
before which the slave was
to bow. And that was going to the root of the
matter. It was more
decisive and penetrative than if he had asked
them to be reconciled
to the evil of their position on the ground that
Christ had suffered
greater evil when in the world. He refused to
regard the relation as
disannulled by the accident of despotism; in the
master according to
the flesh (whoever he might be) he saw a real
representation
of the authority of Christ, and he called upon
them to render obedience
unto him as unto Christ. All cannot be masters.
For disciplinary
purposes, some are servants and some are
masters, and some both
servants and masters. In the early and Middle
Ages there were men
who were carried away with a frenzy of
obedience. Those words,
“I am among you as one that serveth” (Luke 22:27), seemed to put
a bad mark on the master state, and to mark out the servant
state as
not only the safer, but the grander, more
Christlike state of the two.
And so they put themselves under superiors,
begged in Christ’s name
to be ruled, and thought they approached Christ
when they
performed the most menial duties. It must be
understood that the state
which with Christ carries the blessing is that
(whether of master or
servant) which is not self-sought, but in which
Christ sees fit to place us.
Ø
The appropriate disposition toward the
master as the representative
of
Christ. “With fear and trembling.” The slave was to fear and
tremble before his master, not because that despotic master of his was
able to put him in chains or to take away his life, but because he
represented an authority above backed by boundless power, which was
able to deal with him, and would righteously deal with him, for
neglected duty. That being the ground, the duty remains unmodified.
The workman is to fear and tremble before his master, the domestic
is to fear and tremble before her mistress, not because the master or
mistress is better born, or has more wealth, or has a title (for in that
there is little to cause fear and trembling),
but because he or she
represents an authority in heaven that in no
case is to be trifled with.
“In
singleness of your heart.” That is to say, the servant
must
give the reality, and not the semblance of service. And the only ground
on which this can be thoroughly secured is by
regarding his service as
done unto Christ.
ü Fault to be avoided. “Not in the way of
eye-service, as men-pleasers.”
The word translated “eye-service” seems to
have been of the apostle’s
own coining, and is strikingly descriptive. The eye-servant
is one who
takes the rule of his action from the eye of his master. His
object or
motive (as expressed in the word “men-pleasers”) is to get
credit for
whatever he does. Such a person may work with a will when he
thinks
of the master’s eye being upon him, and expects that it will
be put to
his credit. Even in such a case the principle is wrong. It
would lead him
to “scamp” his work when he thought that his master’s eye
was not on him,
and that he would not be made to suffer for it. Could it be
secured (which
it cannot be) that the master’s eye was always on the
servant, and that the
servant always got credit for what he did, yet work done on
such a
principle (whatever it may be in political economy), from a
Christian
point of view is radically wrong.
ü Positive excellence
to be sought.
Ø
In relation to work. “But as servants of Christ,
doing the will of God
from the
heart.” The servants of Christ must apply the
principles of
Christ to their work. According to the teaching
of the apostle, a servant’s
thought is not to be this — how little work he
can get off with; nor this,
in the first place (though it is an important
consideration) — what is the
will of his master; but this — what is the will of God, i.e. what does
God expect of him in amount, in excellency, to be rendered to his
master. Having found out this, he is to do his work, not in the
spirit
of drudgery, but with a true, it may be an ardent, love for it, as it is
here put — “from the heart.” To do the will of God in
this way may
sometimes require not a little Christian courage. In these days there
are trade-unions, combinations among the workmen, with the view
of protecting their rights. Though
unobjectionable in principle, yet
(like other combinations) they may sometimes be dominated by
selfishness, and act tyrannically. And a
Christian workman may be
in the position of choosing between the will of
God and incurring
the disgrace of his fellow-workmen. If he is
worthy of his master’s
Master, he will not, to please his
fellow-workmen, give stinted,
heartless work, but he will brave the
consequences of doing his
duty, saying, “I
must obey God rather than man.”
Ø
In relation to his master. “With good will doing service,
as unto the
Lord, and
not unto men.” A servant may not be able altogether to
approve of the treatment he receives. What is
exacted of him (and what
he cheerfully renders, as being the will of God)
may be unjust. Never-
theless, as a Christian, he is to keep up good
feeling toward his master.
He is always to respect him because of his
position. More than that,
he is to have “good will” toward him, that good
will which (as the
angelic doxology shows,) is so much of the
essence of the gospel.
And he is not merely to have good will toward
him as a man, but
good will also toward him in the particular
relationship in which he
is placed to him as his master. And he is to
have this good will
toward him, not on worldly grounds, nor on
purely rational grounds,
nor on purely theistic grounds, but specially on
Christian grounds.
“As unto the
Lord,” and not unto a master by himself or out of
relation to the Lord. That is to say, he is to
bear good will toward his
master as being (by no figure of speech, but in
very fact) the Lord’s
representative, and thus, it may be said, for
the Lord’s sake, and further,
that the Lord’s ends in the relationship (so far
as he is concerned) may be
served.
ü Encouragement to
duty. “Knowing that whatsoever good thing each
one doeth, the same shall he receive again from the Lord,
whether he
be bond or free.” The slave, or
bondman, here referred to (and very
common then) was
considered to be entitled to nothing. His earthly
receivings were very meager,
unless in lashes when he came under
the displeasure of his master. The apostle, then, is to be understood
as holding out to him this encouragement
(for he names him particularly,
that there may be no mistake),
that, if he did his work in a Christian
manner, then he would be a receiver,
equally with the free man —
he would be a receiver, if not on earth, yet in heaven; he would receive
from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He who
saved his soul as well as
that of the free man, and put both on the same platform of privilege,
would see to it that no smallest piece of work done to an earthly master
for his sake (overlooked here) would go unrewarded in heaven. And the
same thing is to be said of the free
servant; for he also is particularized.
It is true that if he is guilty of eye-service, if he “scamps” his work, that
will be put against him in heaven, and there will be a day of reckoning
for his evil
thing, for his bad work; his life-work has lost in quality,
in measure by it, and his reward will most unmistakably be curtailed —
it will be so much the less for that idling of his master’s
time,
that soulless work, that grudge in his heart to his master
(for upon such
things as these shall judgment be passed, by such things
shall destiny be
affected). But if, on
the other hand, a servant, even in the humblest
position,
grasps his opportunity, and seeks to be regulated in his work
by the
will of God, and cherishes good will to his master, then, in
encouragement (as before in principle), he is made
independent of such a
variable element as a good or a bad master, his getting his
rights or his
not getting his rights; he can feel that he has to do with a
Master with
whom there is no inequality, and who will see to it that
whatsoever
good thing he doeth, what he does unobserved or what he does
under
the menaces of his fellow-workmen, shall be rewarded.
·
DUTY OF
MASTERS.
ü Positive statement
of duty. “And, ye masters, do the same things unto
them.” Though
they stand differently in the relationship (servant to
master and master to servant), they are to
do the same things, the
regulative principles being the same.
Ø
In relation to work. As the Christian servant is to be regulated by “the
will of God” in the work rendered, so the Christian master is to be
regulated by the will of God in the work
required. There is that which
(in the Divine balances) is fair between them.
It cannot be got at by
selfishness on the one side and selfishness on
the other, which is often
made a trial of strength. If harmony is to be attained,
it can only be
by both, with Christian disinterestedness, agreeing
to bring
themselves (in what is required and what is rendered) to the Divine
standard.
Ø
In relation to servant. As there is to be “good will” toward the master,
so there is to
be good will toward the servant. The master may
not find
the servant what he would like him to be. He may
have to reprove him
for eye-service or for careless service under
his eye. But he is always
to have good will toward him, as placed under
him by Christ. He is to
show his good will by seeking to make him
comfortable in his position.
Especially is he to use his influence with him
on behalf of his higher
well-being. In
the name of Christ, then, let good will be met by
good will. Education alone is ineffectual. It has
sometimes been
found that, with the spread of education, there
has been an embittering
of the relations between masters and servants.
It is wrong, however
(as not a few do), to blame education for this.
It may be said that,
if these relations cannot stand educative
influences, then they are not
what they should be. And the conclusion to be
drawn is, not that we
are to dispense with education, but that those
relations can only be
thoroughly maintained by reasonableness and genuine good feeling
on both
sides. And Christians are not to give up the problem
in despair, but ought to be prepared to demonstrate to the
world that it
is
possible, on Christian principles, for masters and servants to work
together in
harmony.
Ø
Fault to be avoided. “And forbear threatening.” “The too
familiar threatening” is the idea conveyed in
the Greek. It was
the ready resource of persons possessed of irresponsible power.
Slaves were made to work under fear of the lash.
And, though
masters have not so much in their power now, yet
the power
that they have (there is generally an advantage
in their
circumstances compared with their servants) they are not to
abuse. It is those who are deficient in the right management
of
their servants, in reasonable dealing, especially in that
good
will which is so necessary to management, that take to the
clumsy, coarse method of threatening. Power must sometimes
be put into execution against servants’; but to hold threats
over their heads, to treat them with clamor, with insult, or
with something worse, is not worthy of the Christian master.
Ø Word of warning. “Knowing that both their
Master and yours
is in heaven.” Christ is represented as the Master of the
slave.
There was a wrong
involved (apart from any harsh treatment he
might receive) in the very fact
of his being a slave. He is
represented as the Master of the slaveholder, too, i.e. of the man
who was so unenlightened as to hold slaves. As the Master of
them both, he would see to things in the end being righted
between them. The Christian master still is to be influenced
to
do what is just and
proper by his servants by the consideration
that Christ is the Master of
his servants as well as his Master.
And in the righting that, is to take place,
for every advantage
that the master has taken of his servant, for every harsh speech
and threatening word he has used toward him, he will suffer
everlasting loss. “And there
is no respect of persons with Him”
(i.e. with
Christ). There is a real distinction between master and
servant, proprietor
and tenant. What is adventitious may gather
round it, but the essential
thing is that Christ has not ordained
equality here, but has placed his
authority in some, and has
subjected others, and has thus given rise to mutual obligations
and trial and the formation of character in connection with these
obligations. But though a real distinction, it is not to be
carried
beyond what there is really in it. After all, it is only to
last
through the present earthly economy. It is destined to be
obliterated with other time distinctions. And meantime Christ
does not respect a person less because he is a servant, or
more
because he is a master. He has an equal interest in them as
both
included within the sweep of his work, as having taken him
as
their Savior and Master. He has an equal interest in them in
the
relationship in which they stand to each other. And if they
do
their part equally well, one in the position of servant and
the
other in the position of master, then He will see to it that
they
will be equally rewarded.
The Duties of Masters (v. 9)
They needed
to be instructed as well as their servants; for they had
irresponsible power in their hands, and might be led
to use it severely or
cruelly.
·
THEIR
DUTIES WERE RECIPROCAL. They were “to do the same
things unto them” — not the
same duties as servants were bound to do,
but after the same manner, in
obedience to God’s command, with the same
singleness of heart, and
with the same heartiness and good will. They were
to give their servants what “was just and
equal.” They were to treat them
with justice and equity, with a full recognition of their
rights. The apostle,
however, demands something more than just treatment; masters are
to
forbear the threatening which was a
too familiar feature of slavery. They
are not to rule them with rigor or harshness, or even with
displays of
temper, but with gentleness, moderation, and kindness.
·
THE
ARGUMENT TO ENFORCE THE DUTIES OF MASTERS,
“Your Master also is in
heaven; neither is there respect of persons with
Him?” He is the, Judge of master and servant alike,
and will not respect
either of
them on account of their station in life, but will reward them justly
according to their works. Both masters and servants, therefore, ought to
have an eye to the presence of their great Master in heaven, ought to seek
His glory, and
pray for His assistance and acceptance.
THE
CHRISTIAN WARFARE (vs.
10-20)
After having treated
Christian morals so carefully and shown how
Christianity elevates the
individual, the family, and the slave, Paul
proceeds, in the close of
this remarkable Epistle, to speak of the enemies
and the arms of a
Christian. Life is seen to be a
battle, The enemies are
manifold.
It is not flesh and blood against which we fight. We
leave the
carnal warfare to the
world. We contend against “the principalities,
against
the
powers, against the world-rulers
of this darkness, against the spiritual
hosts of
wickedness in the heavenly places” (Revised Version). These foes
are of a spiritual
character – false principles and their advocates, whether
men in flesh and blood or
demons in their invisible might. So that the
Christian finds himself
confronted by a most serious host, perhaps not in
very strict order of
battle, yet mobbed together into perplexing power.
How is one to withstand the assault of so many? There is but ONE WAY, by
becoming “strong in the
Lord, and in the strength of his might” (Revised
Version).
10 “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the
Lord, and in the power of His
might.” Finally. The apostle has now reached his last passage,
and by
this word quickens the
attention of his readers and prepares them for a
counsel eminently weighty in
itself, and gathering up the pith and marrow,
as it were, of what goes
before. My brethren. The
Authorized Version, is
rejected by the Revised
Version and most modern commentators, for lack
of external evidence. We note,
however, that, whereas in the preceding
verses he had distributed the
Ephesians into groups, giving an appropriate
counsel to each, he now brings
them again together, and has a concluding
counsel for them all. Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.
Compare with ch. 3:16, where the heavenly provision for obtaining strength
is
specified, and with ch. 4:30, where we are cautioned against a course that
will
fritter away that provision. The ever-recurring formula, “in the Lord,”
indicates the relation to Christ
in which alone the strength can be experienced
(compare II Corinthians 12:9).
The might is Christ’s, but by faith it becomes
our
strength. As the steam-engine
genders the dynamic force,
which belts and
wheels communicate to the inert machinery of the factory, so Christ is the
source of that spiritual strength which through faith is
communicated to
all His people. To be
strong is our duty; to be weak is our sin. Strong
trust,
strong courage, strong
endurance, strong hope. strong
love, may all be had
FROM HIM, if only our fellowship with Him be maintained in uninterrupted
vigor.
The Secret of Spiritual
Strength (v. 10)
This
strength is needed under all the burdens, in all the conflicts and temptations
of life,
beneath its sorrows and its cares:
- strength
of heart,
- strength
of purpose, and
- strength
of will.
·
“BE
STRONG.” This is a strange command, just as strange as it would
be for a physician to say to a weak man, “Be strong.” It is
like the
command, “Rejoice in the Lord;” but it
seems more difficult by any volition
of our own to add to our strength than to add to our joy.
Yet, as we can do
much to regulate our
emotions by determining what set of thoughts shall
engage us, we can equally
provide for an increase in our strength by a
direct recourse to the secret and source of it. Our
obedience to this
command stands on the same footing as our obedience to God’s
other
commandments; and if we continue to be weak, it is more than our
misfortune,
it is our fault. But there is nothing strange when we consider
the secret of the origin of this strength. We are conscious
of a sense of
feebleness, of heartlessness, of hopelessness, which of
itself goes far to
disqualify us for duty, and gives us
up an easy prey to the adversary of
souls. It is to
meet this want that God reveals Himself to us as
the great
Giver of strength.
·
“BE STRONG
IN THE LORD, AND IN THE POWER OF HIS
MIGHT.” The
strength poured into us is strength in Christ, sprinting out of
a realizing apprehension of the continued presence, love, and help of the
Redeemer. “My strength shall be made perfect in weakness.” (II
Corinthians
12:9) A fly is able
to walk upon the ceiling of a room. The cause is to be
found in the vacuum in its webbed foot caused by its very
weight, and it is
thus enabled to hold on by the smooth surface of the
ceiling. So our safety
lies likewise in our emptiness. The soldier fights with
greater confidence
when he is led by a general who has been always successful.
calculated the presence of Bonaparte at the head of an army
as equal to
a hundred thousand additional bayonets. Thus we understand
the invincibility
of the French army under his leadership. Thus the Christian fights with
greater
resolution BECAUSE
JESUS CHRIST IS THE CAPTAIN OF
HIS
SALVATION!
·
THE
COMMAND IMPLIES A CONTINUOUS DEPENDENCE
UPON THE
LORD. The strength is not given at once and in full measure,
but according to the desire, the capacity, the faith, the
need, the duty, the
trial. (“As thy days, so shall thy
strength be.” Deuteronomy
33:25) Our
lowest powers, those of the body, we get by growth, and they
grow by exercise. Such is the law of our physical childhood,
and no other
is the law of our spiritual being. The sense of weakness obliges us to repair
EVERY DAY afresh to GOD for
fresh supplies. “He giveth power to the
faint; to them that have no might He
increaseth strength.” (Isaiah
40:29)
Divine Strength (v. 10)
As the
Epistle draws to a close, Paul gives emphasis to the requisition
of Divine strength by singling it out for a final word of
exhortation. The
doctrinal principles of the earlier chapters lead up to
the practical duties of
the later, and these several duties to the need of Divine
strength wherewith
to discharge them in face of the assaults of evil.
·
CHRISTIANS
ARE EXHORTED TO BE STRONG. Spiritual strength
is decision of character and force of will.
Religion centers in our will and
character. Unless there is strength, fixity, determination, and energy, then
all our elaborate thinking and all our beautiful
sentiments are worthless.
(We need to have our minds made up on what to do before
getting into
situations that
we cannot morally handle. Better still,
avoid such situations!
CY – 2019)
ü Clear belief in the gospel is not sufficient. We may
believe
intellectually, but
if we are too weak to act according to our
belief that counts for nothing.
ü Feelings of love to Christ are vain if they do not inspire us to faithful
service and sacrifice.
ü Passive reliance on Christ will not avail us unless we
have also
the active faith that puts forth spiritual strength in obedience to
His will. We are not only to flee to the refuge in Christ. We are to
go forth to battle in the open field. And then we are not only to be
endued with Divine armor, but first
to be made strong ourselves.
First comes the exhortation to be
strong, and only second
that to
arm in the Divine panoply. It is only the strong man who can wear
this armor.
ü It is our duty to be strong. Weakness
is not merely a calamity to be
bewailed. It is a sin to be
repented of. It leads to our falling into
temptation and our failing in duty.
·
SPIRITUAL
STRENGTH IS A DIVINE INSPIRATION. We cannot
be strong by merely willing to be so. A wish will
not convert the feeble
body of the invalid into the robust frame of a
healthy man, nor will a wish
give to the weak soul fixity of character and energy
of will. The body must
gain strength through nourishing diet, bracing air,
exercise, etc. So spiritual
strength arises from FEEDING UPON
CHRIST IN FAITH AND IN
PRAYER!
ü There is might in Christ. He is the Lion of the house of
(Revelation 5:5)
ü Christ puts forth that might. The
strength is the might in exercise.
Christ’s great might is not a mere latent force. It flows
out in energy.
ü This strength is ours BY OUR
in the Lord.” We must,
therefore, BE IN CHRIST in order
that we
may have this
strength, and the more close our union to Christ
becomes the more vigorously shall we be
supplied with
HIS STRENGTH!
11 “Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the
wiles
of the devil.” Put on the whole amour of
God. Chained to a
soldier, the
apostle’s mind would go forth
naturally to the subject of amour and
warfare. Put on amour, for life is a battle-field; not a scene of soft
enjoyment and ease, but of
hard conflict, with foes within and without; put
on the amour of
God, provided by Him for your protection and for
aggression too, for it is
good, well-adapted for your use, — God has
thought
of you, and has sent His armor for you;
put on the whole armor of
God, for each part of you needs to be protected, and you
need suitable
weapons for assailing all your
foes. That ye may be able to stand against
the wiles
of the devil. Our chief
enemy does not engage us in open
warfare, but deals in wiles
and stratagems, which need to be watched
against and prepared for with
peculiar care, “for we are not
ignorant of
his
devices.” (II Corinthians
2:11)
12 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities,
against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual
wickedness in high places.” For we wrestle not against
flesh and blood.
Our conflict is not with men, here
denoted by “flesh
and blood,” which is usually
a symbol of weakness, therefore
denoting that our opponents are not weak mortals,
but powers of a far more
formidable order. But against (the) principalities,
against (the) powers. The same words as in ch.1:21; therefore the
definite
article is prefixed, as
denoting what we are already familiar with: for though
all of these, evil as well as
good, have been put under Christ
the Head, they
have not been put under the
members, but the evil among them are
warring
against these
members with all the
greater ferocity since they cannot assail
THE HEAD! Against the rulers of the
darkness of this world. (Compare
Ephesians 2:2). “World-rulers” denotes
the extent of the dominion of these
invisible foes — the term is
applied only to the rulers of the most widely
extended tracts; there is no
part of the globe to which their influence does
not extend, and where their
dark rule does not show itself (compare Luke 4:6).
“This darkness”
expressively denotes the element and the results of their rule.
Observe contrast with Christ’s servants,
who are children of light, equivalent
to order, knowledge, purity, joy,
peace, etc.; while the element of the devil
and
his servants is darkness, equivalent to confusion,
ignorance, crime,
terror,
strife, and all misery. Against spiritual wickedness
in high
places. Who are these beings? We are
not confronted with beings like
ourselves; it is not our
own flesh and blood that we are pitted against,“But
against
the
principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this
darkness,
against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
To show the need for being
properly armed, the apostle gives a bold description
of the foes with which we
have to contend. As to their rank, they
are powerful
chieftains
(principalities and powers). As to their
domain, it is “this
darkness,”
WHICH IS WORLD-WIDE! As to their essence, they are not
encumbered with
clay, but are spirits. As to
their number, they are hosts, vast
multitudes. As to their
character, they are wicked, their inveterate disposition is to seek to work our
ruin. As to their haunt, as it was before hinted at
(rather than dogmatically taught)
as The Air, so here it is
the heavenly or super-terrestrial places. The general effect
of the description is
that, as
men ourselves, we are unequally matched
in
having to fight against superhuman powers. The natural meaning, though
questioned by some, is, either
that these hosts of wickedness have their
residence in heavenly places,
or, that these places are the scene of our
conflict with them. The latter
seems more agreeable to the context, for
“in heavenly places” does not
denote a geographical locality here any
more than in chps. 1:3 and
2:6, when it is said that “we have
been seated
with Christ in heavenly
places,” the allusion is to the spiritual experience of
His people; in spirit they are
at the gate of heaven, where their hearts are full
of heavenly thoughts and
feelings; the statement now before us is that,
even in such places, amid
their most fervent experiences or their most
sublime services, they are
subject to the attacks of the spirits of wickedness.
The Divine Panoply: Its
Necessity and Design (vs. 11-12)
Christians
have a spiritual warfare on earth (II Timothy 4:7). They have to fight for God
(I Samuel
25:28), for truth (Jude 1:3), and for themselves (Revelation 3:11).
·
THE DIVINE
ARMOR. It is so called because God provides each
individual part of it. It is armor for offence as well as
defense — “forged
on no earthly anvil and tempered by no human skill.” The
armor of
— celibacy, poverty, obedience, asceticism — is
for flight, not for conflict.
This
Divine armor we are not required to provide, but merely to put
on,
and its efficacy depends entirely upon the power of Him who
made it.
·
ITS
PURPOSE. “That ye may be able to stand
against the wiles of the
devil.” The grand
enemy of the Church is the devil, a superhuman tempter
older than man. This language implies:
ü the
personal existence of Satan;
ü his
possession of immense resources of cunning and craft;
ü his power
to inject evil into the minds of the saints;
ü his great end
to destroy the souls of men and the whole moral order of
the world;
ü the
possibility of resisting his wiles in the strength of the Divine armor,
·
ITS NECESSITY. This Divine equipment is
indispensable in view of
the serried (rows of people or things standing
close together) ranks of evil
which are leagued against us under the leadership of Satan. Our
conflict is
not with feeble man. It is with fallen
spirits. The language of the apostle
implies:
ü that these
spirits have a hierarchy of their own of different orders;
ü that their
malignant activity is exercised in the world of men under a
reign of darkness;
ü that their
moral character is wickedness;
ü and that,
as Satan is the prince of the power of the air, they seem to
have their abode or the scene of their activity in the
atmosphere that
surrounds our earth.
(Compare the smoke associated with their release
in the end times – Revelation 9 – CY – 2019)
We need, therefore, to be strong and valiant in this
warfare,
ü because we
are fighting for our life;
ü because,
though our enemies be strong, our Captain is stronger still;
ü because
nothing but cowardice can lose the victory (James 4:7);
ü because, if
we conquer, we shall ride triumphantly into heaven
(II Timothy 4:7- 8).
The
Foe (v. 12)
The Christian life is a
warfare. In order to wage this successfully we must
understand
the nature of the foes we have to contend with, because the weapons and armor will
have to be selected
according to the character of the attack that is made upon us.
·
THE NATURE
OF THE FOE.
ü Negatively considered.
Ø
Not material. Imagination has given the tempter a material
form, e.g. in
the legends of St. Anthony, because it is so much easier to grapple with
the
most fearful enemy that can be seen and touched than with an invisible,
intangible foe. But our foe is not of flesh and blood. The subjugation of the
physical world is easy compared with the task of conquering this invisible
enemy.
Ø
Not human. It is hard enough to think of the obstructive
and tempting
influence of bad men. But we have
something worse to resist. We are
attacked by an unearthly army. The black tide of hellish sin surges against
the shores of our human world and bespatters us with its withering spray.
ü
Positively considered.
Ø
Spiritual. The fact that the word “immaterial” has come to mean
“unimportant,” is a striking proof of our earthly-mindedness. The
spiritual world is the most real world. These spiritual foes are the most
truly existing enemies we can ever meet. Our experience of them is in
spiritual attacks, i.e. in
temptations.
Ø
Dominant. They are “world-rulers,” they are in “heavenly” (or high)
places. When Paul wrote this Epistle evil was uppermost in the world.
Is it not also supreme in many regions now? (satanism, drugs,
pornography, deviant sex, etc. CY – 2019) We have to oust the forces
that hold the field and to storm the citadel.
·
THE
CHARACTER OF THE WARFARE, Mediaeval armor is useless
before rifle-bullets. Old castle
walls are no protection against modern
artillery. Nor will modern cannon drive
back noxious gases. Sennacherib’s
hosts were powerless before that invisible angel of
God, the pestilence.
(II Kings 19:35) So the foe in the Christian warfare
determines the character
of the armor and weapons and the tactics to be
pursued.
ü Negatively.
Ø
Physical force will not serve us. Samson’s strength is of no avail
against temptation. Money, material resources, scientific skill, are
useless. This is the age of steam, steel, and electricity (solar and nuclear
power, age of computers, etc. – CY – 2019). But such things give us no
help in subduing greed,
lust, and SELF-WILL!
Ø
Human influence is vain. Arguments,
threats, and promises; influences
of authority and of sympathy; appeals to the reason, the feelings, and
the
conscience; these methods that affect our fellow-men do not touch the
awful foes we have to contend against.
(Some of them seem to be
living in human bodies today! CY - 2019)
ü Positively.
Ø Spiritual armor and weapons are needed, i.e.
truth, righteousness,
the preparation of the gospel of peace, faith, salvation, the Word
of God, prayer (vs. 14-18).
Ø
These must be OBTAINED FROM GOD! They constitute “the
whole
armor of God.”
There is nothing in the armory of human resources,
physical or intellectual, that is
adequate for meeting the dread
spiritual
foes of our warfare. The Christian warrior must be a man of Divine
strength girded about by Divine graces.
13 “Wherefore
take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be
able to
withstand
in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” Wherefore take unto
you
the whole armor of God. – What the
Christian combatant is to do, when he is
thus assailed, is not certainly to
under-estimate the force that is brought against him,
but it is also by faith rightly to estimate the force that is placed at his service.
What can he do against the principalities and powers and the
fiery darts they send
out for his destruction? If he look to himself, he
can do nothing. But he looks
away to the power which placed
Christ above all the principalities and
powers, and he places it as a
shield between him and the fiery darts, and in
it their
fire is quenched, their force is lost. American
servicemen are
given government issued
clothing and armaments, thus the men are
often called G. I.’s. God provides for His own in this spiritual
warfare, of which are:
- Girdle of Truth – v. 14
- Breastplate of Righteousness – v. 14
- Shoes of the Gospel of Peace – v. 15
- Shield of Faith – v. 16
- Helmet of Salvation – v. 17
- Sword of the Spirit – v. 17
- Prayer – v. 18
The apostle Paul lays
stress upon every one taking
the whole armor (and not
merely some of its parts). No one, for instance, is a worthy combatant who feels
no
responsibility in the carrying of the gospel message. If we
would have the
strength our Captain
would see in us, we must use all the pieces
of the
Christian
armor That ye may be able to withstand in the
evil day. Some
have tried to affix a specific time to the
“evil
day” of the apostle, as if it were
one or other of the days specified
in the Apocalypse; but more probably it is a
general phrase, like“the day of
adversity,”(Proverbs 24:10; Ecclesiastes 7:14) or
“the day of battle,” indicating
a day that comes often. In fact, any day when the
evil one comes upon us in
force is the evil day, and our ignorance of the time
when such assault may be made
is what makes it so necessary for us to be
watchful. And having done all, to stand.
“Having done fully,” or “completed,”
is the literal import of κατεργασάμενοι
– katergasamenoi
- having done; having
effected - having reference, not only to the preparation for the battle, but to the
fighting
too. The command to be “strong
in the Lord” is fitly associated with our
“having
done all,” because leaning on almighty strength implies the effort to
put
forth strength by our own
instrumentality; when God’s strength comes to us it
constrains us“to do all” that can be done by us or through us (compare
Psalm 144:1;
Philippians 2:12-13). We are
not called to do merely as well as our neighbors;
nor even to do well on the
whole, but to do all — to leave nothing undone that
can contribute to the success of the
battle; then we shall be able to stand, or
stand firm.
14 “Stand therefore, having your loins girt
about with truth, and having on the
breastplate
of righteousness.” Stand therefore, having your
loins girt about with
truth.
The “stand” in v. 13 denotes the end of the conflict; this “stand” is at the
beginning. Obviously
there must be a firm stand at the beginning if there is to be
at the end. In order to this, we must fasten the girdle
round our loins — viz, truth,
here used in a comprehensive sense, denoting honesty; sincerity
of profession in
opposition to all sham, levity, hypocrisy; and likewise
the element of “truth in
Jesus” (ch.
4:21), the substance of the gospel revelation. We are to gird ourselves
in truth, ἐν
ἀληθείᾳ - en al-ay’-thi-a - in truth -
establishing ourselves in
that element, wrapping it
round us; ἐν ἀληθείᾳ, literally,
“girded in truth”
And having
on the breastplate of righteousness. Compare ch.
4:24, for at least
one element of
the righteousness — righteousness wrought in us by the
Holy Ghost after the image
of Christ. But a more comprehensive use of the
term is not excluded — the whole righteousness that we derive from Christ,
RIGHTEOUSNES
IMPUTED and RIGHTEOUSNESS INFUSED! If we are
able to let righteousness reign in all our relations, the hostility of men and
devils
will but little avail. It is
to be “God-like” in
all our attitudes, and nothing
then can harm us.
15 “And your feet shod with the preparation of
the gospel of peace.”
The metaphor becomes somewhat
difficult to follow; the feet have to be shod
or armed as with military
sandals, and the sandal is the ἑτοιμασία -
het-oy-mas-ee’-ah - readiness or preparedness of, or caused by, the
gospel of
peace. The idea seems
to be that the
mind is to be steadied, kept from fear and
flutter,by means of the good news of peace — the good
news that we are at
peace with God;
and “if
God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)
The Roman sandal was furnished
with nails that gripped the ground firmly,
even when it was sloping or
slippery; (like spikes or cleats on athletic shoes –
CY – 2010) - so the good news of peace keeps us upright and firm.
The Christian has ceased
to be self-centered. He cannot live the selfish life. He
must
be a missionary. The gospel of peace is to be sent round the world. In
doing so he must have
some share. He makes progress by giving the
evangelistic centrifugal
force free play. We are never so safe as when the
safety of others has
become our great concern. (Job 42:10)
16 “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to
quench
all the fiery darts of the wicked." Above all, taking the shield
of faith. The
θυξεός - thuxeos - was a large oblong shield covering a
great part of the body,
not the ἀσπίς - as-pec
-
smaller and more round. Faith, in its
widest sense,
constitutes
this shield — faith in God as our
Father, in Christ as
our Redeemer,
in the Spirit as our Sanctifier and Strengthener — faith in
all the promises,
and especially such promises as
we find in Revelation 2 and 3. “to him that
overcometh” (compare
the promise to
"the
victory that overcomes the world.” – (I John 5:4-5) – The shield of faith’s
special service is
"to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one." Satan showers
his burning arrows upon
the soul of the Christian, either in the shape of blasphemous
suggestions, or unholy
thoughts, or dark despair; but faith
makes the soul
impenetrable to such
destructive missiles, because it falls
back upon the
Divine
Word, and apprehends the mercy of God, the merits of Christ,
and
the help of the Spirit. “Wherewith
ye shall be able to quench
all the
fiery darts of the wicked (evil one).” “Fiery darts”
were weapons tipped with
inflammable materials, firebrands, curiously
constructed, adapted to set on
fire. Metaphorically, considerations darted
into the mind inflaming lust, pride, revenge, or other evil feelings,
emanations
from the great tempter, the evil one. That such considerations
sometimes start up suddenly
in the mind, against the deliberate desire,
sometimes even in the middle
of holy exercises, is the painful experience of
every Christian, and must
make him thankful for the shield on
which they
are
quenched. An act of faith on Christ, placing the soul
consciously in His
presence, recalling His
atoning love and grace, and the promises of the
Spirit, will extinguish these
fiery temptations. This
loyalty to Christ enables
us to see through the
wiles of the arch enemy, enables us to see how narrow are
Satan’s limits, and how
wide the order and interests of our Savior’s
kingdom. (Remember that
in the Garden of Eden God said “Of EVERY
TREE of the garden thou mayest FEELY EAT, but of the tree of knowledge
of good and evil,, THOU SHALT NOT EAT OF IT: for in the day that
thou eatest thereof THOU SHALT SURELY DIE.” (Genesis 2:16-17) We are
thus transported to the
wider relations of the spiritual world, and the temptations
through sense and passion
fall extinguished at our feet. As we live
by faith in Him
who rules the universe and dwells within us, Satan finds
himself defeated.
17 “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is
the
word of God:" And take the helmet of salvation. This is the head-covering
(compare Psalm 140:7). In I
Thessalonians 5:8 we read, “putting on
for an helmet the hope of salvation.” The
glorious truth that we are saved
(compare ch. 2:5, 8)
appropriated, rested on, rejoiced in, will
protect even so vital a part
as the head, will keep us from intellectual
surrender
and rationalistic
doubt! And the sword of the Spirit,
which is
the Word of God. The Bible is a wonderful weapon. It
cuts men and devils
to the heart. It enters
into the very joints and marrow. There is no such
discerner of the thoughts
and intents of men’s hearts (Hebrews 4:12).
Now,
when we consider that force
is only the preliminary to reason — individuals
or nations fight first
and then make up peace upon some pretence of principle
— we see that what Christianity does is to keep
strictly to the sphere of reason,
and to refuse all seduction into the field of brute force. The
doctrine of
non-resistance is the
highest of all tributes to the reasonableness of Christianity.
The Christian, then, who
masters most thoroughly the Word of God will be the
most powerful among his
fellows. For after all, this inspired
Word is ahead of
all
human wisdom. It is
the crown and anticipation of human genius. If we have
mastered it in the spirit,
we are ahead of our time and shall understand what we
can best do for our
generation (Acts 13:36). The Word of
God is a sword,
because it pierces like a
sword into the heart (Hebrews Ibid.), because
it pierces through all disguises of error, because it lays
bare the
“wiles”
of the devil. It was
wielded by Christ Himself in His great
temptation. It is still the saint’s only weapon of offence. Whether the
temptation is to atheism, to
impiety, to despair, to unbelief, to covetousness,
to pride, to hatred, or to
worldliness, the legend, “It is written,” (Matthew 4:7) –
stands clearly revealed on the
handle of this sword. It is still the
saint’s only
weapon of offence. The sword supplied by the Spirit,
the Word being inspired
by Him, and employed by the
Spirit; for He
enlightens us to know it, applies
it to us, and teaches us to
use it both defensively and offensively.
Our Lord
in His conflict with Satan,
and also with the scribes and Pharisees,
has taught us how this weapon is to be used, and with what wonderful effect.
Paul, too, reasons from the
Scriptures and proving from them“that this
Jesus whom I preach unto you is the
Christ,” or (going back to the Old Testament),
the author of the hundred and
nineteenth psalm, showing us how the soul is to
be fed, quickened,
strengthened and comforted out of God’s Law, indicates the
manifold
use of the sword, and shows how earnestly we should study and
practice this sword exercise,
for our own good and the good of others.
(A former pastor once
suggested a daily meditation on one verse, consecutively,
from Psalm 119
– you could go through it twice in a year –
CY – 2010)
The Whole Armor of God (vs. 13-17)
·
CHRISTIANS
NEED TO BE ARMED.
Woolwich. The army must be equipped
before it can take the field. The
knight must don his coat of mail and
draw his sword if he is to make any
use of his martial skill and prowess. So the Church must
be prepared for
the great conflict with:
ü unbelief,
ü worldliness, and
ü immorality.
The individual Christian must be armed to meet temptation
and to win
a triumph. Many a sanguine young Christian
soldier has fallen shamefully
through rushing rashly into the fray
without due preparation.
·
THE
REQUISITE ARMOR MUST BE DIVINE. “Armor of God.”
ü Provided by God. We cannot forge our own armor. Our own
resolutions, like home-made weapons, will
be sure to betray some
weakness and clumsiness. The
Christian armor consists of God-given
graces. The pilgrim had his armor given him at the house
“Beautiful.”
ü God-like. A steel breastplate is no protection against a
poison-cup. The
character of our defenses must be spiritual and holy, like the character
of God, in order that we may be able to withstand great
spiritual foes.
·
IT IS
NECESSARY TO SECURE A COMPLETE SUIT OF
ARMOR. “The whole armor.” We are
assailable in every part of our
nature. It is useless to be only
half-armed, for the subtle tempter is sure to
aim his dart at the most vulnerable spot. We are
all inclined to make much
of favorite graces and to fortify ourselves
against certain selected sins.
Where we think ourselves most secure we are likely to be
most open to
attack. It will not be sufficient to
be sound on all points but one. Achilles
was said to be vulnerable only on the heel. But
that was enough. His one
weak place was fatal to him. God knows both the variety of foes we have
to face and the different susceptibilities of our
own constitution, and has
provided complete armor accordingly.
·
THE
CHRISTIAN ARMOR IN VARIOUS IS KIND.
ü Defensive.
Ø We have
first to be braced and girded by a firm grasp of the eternal
verities of the faith. Looseness of conviction is a fatal source of
weakness. Truth being the
girdle we are not to embrace it, but it is to
encircle us, i.e. we are not
to be satisfied with holding the truth, we
must let the truth hold us.
Ø Our heart
must be protected by righteousness. An
evil conscience,
with sin unrepented, unforgiven, and unamended, is fatal to
future firmness.
Ø We must be
active in spreading the gospel of peace.
Ø Where we
have not sufficient resisting power in our own persons
let us trust the
defending grace of God. Then if the breastplate
of righteousness is thin, the shield of faith held
before it may
still protect us.
Ø Salvation
in part secured, in whole promised, will help us to
hold our head erect in calm confidence.
ü Offensive. We have not only to stand the shock of the
enemy’s blows;
we have to return them. The
necessary weapons are supplied from the
Divine armory.
Ø The Word of God. This is the sword of the Spirit, because
God’s Spirit inspired it and now gives it edge and penetrating
power. Christ used
this sword in His temptation. We resist evil
by dwelling
on Divine truths.
Ø Prayer. In the garden Christ prayed and Peter slept; in the house
of Caiaphas Christ was faithful and Peter fell.
The Divine Panoply in Its Separate
Parts (vs. 14-17)
The spiritual equipment of the Christian is here
described in detail:
Ø the belt,
Ø the
breastplate,
Ø the
sandals,
Ø the shield,
Ø the helmet,
and
Ø the sword.
·
TRUTH IS
THE BELT, AS
RIGHTEOUSNESS IS THE
BREASTPLATE. “Having your loins girt about with truth.” As the
belt or
girdle kept the armor in its proper place, giving strength
and buoyancy of
action, so truth acts in
relation to righteousness, faith, and peace. If truth
were wanting, there could be none of these things, and nothing
Christ-like
or noble. The truth here does not mean truth of doctrine,
as the Word of
God is again referred to, nor even sincerity in the sense of
truthfulness, but
the truth subjectively apprehended, that is, the knowledge
and belief of the
truth. It is the conscious grasp
of the truth which gives a Christian
boundless confidence in his conflict with evil. Error, as
a principle of life,
dissolves strength and unnerves for the great fight with sin. Truth is our
proper girdle, because we fight for a God of truth (Titus
1:2), and
against Satan the father of lies (John 8:44). Without it we
are spiritless,
heartless, and weak.
·
THE
BREASTPLATE. “Having on the breastplate of
righteousness.”
The Roman soldier wore it to protect his heart, the center
of physical life.
The breastplate of the Christian is here called “the righteousness,”
evidently in allusion to Isaiah 59:17, where Jehovah puts on
“righteousness as a
breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head.” It
can hardly mean moral rectitude, which, after all, would be
but a poor
guard against the reproaches of conscience or the assaults
of Satan. This
righteousness is that which the Apostle Paul desired for
himself — “the
righteousness of God by
faith” (Philippians 3:8-9). It is emphatically
“the righteousness,” so perfect that it satisfied every demand of Law,
and
is perfectly proof against all assaults from within or from
without. Let us
not show the bare breast of our righteousness to the
tempter, but rather the
righteousness of God
Himself, imputed to us and received by faith. This
breastplate was purchased by Christ at a dear rate; none are
His soldiers
who have not put it on; without it, God Himself will fight
against you; if
you have it, you are sure of ultimate triumph (Romans 8:31-32)
·
SANDALS. “Having your feet shod with the preparedness of the
gospel of peace.” The legs
of the Roman soldier were covered with
greaves, and below these were the sandals, or caligae. Swiftness of foot
was of
great consequence in military movements. Christians
are to show a
readiness, a celerity, an
alacrity of movement, in doing God’s will. This
preparedness is the effect of the gospel of peace, which
inspires us with
severity and courage, and liberates us from those doubts which generate
weakness. The
unready warrior is liable to sudden and secret attacks. The
Christian ought ever to be prepared to advance against the
enemy, to obey
his great Captain, to fight, to suffer, and to die in the
cause of God and
truth.
·
THE
SHIELD. “Above all, taking the shield
of faith.” The shield
covered the whole body, as well as the armor itself. Faith is a shield in the
spiritual
warfare. It is that faith of which Christ is the Object,
at once “the
substance of things hoped for, and the
evidence of things not seen”
(Hebrews 11:1); that confidence which defends the
understanding from error,
the heart from weakness or despair, the will from revolt
against Divine
command. It is, in a word, “the victory
that overcometh the world” (I John
5:4-5). Its special service is “to quench all
the fiery darts” of the wicked one.
Satan showers his burning arrows upon the soul of the
Christian, either in the
shape of blasphemous suggestions, or unholy thoughts, or
dark despair; but
faith
makes the soul impenetrable to such destructive missiles, because it
falls back upon:
ü the Divine Word,
ü apprehends the mercy of God,
ü depends upon the merits of Christ, and
ü the help of the Spirit.
·
THE
HELMET. “And take the helmet of
salvation.” The helmet
protects the head, the most exposed part of the body,
enables the soldier to
hold it up without the fear of injury, and to look calmly
round upon the
enemy’s movements. Salvation, and not the mere hope of it (I
Thessalonians
5:8), is the helmet that covers the head, and is our true
defense against the devil.
It will make you:
ü active in all duties,
ü courageous in all conflicts,
ü cheerful in all conditions, and
ü constant to the end of life.
·
THE SWORD. “And the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of
God.” The other parts of the armor were defensive;
this is both offensive
and defensive.
ü The Word of
God is a sword, because it pierces like a sword into the
heart (Hebrews 4:12), because it pierces through all
disguises of error,
because it lays bare the “wiles” of the
devil. It was wielded by Christ
Himself in His great temptation. (Matthew 4:1-11) It is still
the saint’s
only weapon of offence. Whether the temptation is to atheism, to
impiety, to despair, to unbelief, to covetousness, to pride, to hatred,
or to worldliness, the legend, “It is written,” stands
clearly revealed
on the handle of this sword.
ü It is the sword of the Spirit, because He is
its Author, its Interpreter,
and He who makes it effectual to the defeat of all enemies.
The Whole Armor of God (vs. 13-17)
·
CHRISTIANS
NEED TO BE ARMED.
Woolwich. The army must be equipped
before it can take the field. The
knight must don his coat of mail and
draw his sword if he is to make any
use of his martial skill and prowess. So the Church must
be prepared for
the great conflict with:
ü unbelief,
ü worldliness, and
ü immorality.
The individual Christian must be armed to meet temptation
and to win
a triumph. Many a sanguine young Christian
soldier has fallen shamefully
through rushing rashly into the fray
without due preparation.
·
THE
REQUISITE ARMOR MUST BE DIVINE. “Armor of God.”
ü Provided by God. We cannot forge our own armor. Our own
resolutions, like home-made weapons, will
be sure to betray some
weakness and clumsiness. The
Christian armor consists of God-given
graces. The pilgrim had his armor given him at the house
“Beautiful.”
ü God-like. A steel breastplate is no protection against a
poison-cup. The
character of our defenses must be spiritual and holy, like the character
of God, in order that we may be able to withstand great
spiritual foes.
·
IT IS
NECESSARY TO SECURE A COMPLETE SUIT OF
ARMOR. “The whole armor.” We are
assailable in every part of our
nature. It is useless to be only
half-armed, for the subtle tempter is sure to
aim his dart at the most vulnerable spot. We are
all inclined to make much
of favorite graces and to fortify ourselves
against certain selected sins.
Where we think ourselves most secure we are likely to be
most open to
attack. It will not be sufficient to
be sound on all points but one. Achilles
was said to be vulnerable only on the heel. But
that was enough. His one
weak place was fatal to him. God knows both the variety of foes we have
to face and the different susceptibilities of our
own constitution, and has
provided complete armor accordingly.
·
THE
CHRISTIAN ARMOR IN VARIOUS IS KIND.
ü Defensive.
Ø We have
first to be braced and girded by a firm grasp of the eternal
verities of the faith. Looseness of conviction is a fatal source of
weakness. Truth being the
girdle we are not to embrace it, but it is to
encircle us, i.e. we are not
to be satisfied with holding the truth, we
must let the truth hold us.
Ø Our heart
must be protected by righteousness. An
evil conscience,
with sin unrepented, unforgiven, and unamended, is fatal to
future firmness.
Ø We must be
active in spreading the gospel of peace.
Ø Where we
have not sufficient resisting power in our own persons
let us trust the
defending grace of God. Then if the breastplate
of righteousness is thin, the shield of faith held
before it may
still protect us.
Ø Salvation
in part secured, in whole promised, will help us to
hold our head erect in calm confidence.
ü Offensive. We have not only to stand the shock of the
enemy’s blows;
we have to return them. The
necessary weapons are supplied from the
Divine armory.
Ø The Word of God. This is the sword of the Spirit, because
God’s Spirit inspired it and now gives it edge and penetrating
power. Christ used
this sword in His temptation. We resist evil
by dwelling
on Divine truths.
Ø Prayer. In the garden Christ prayed and Peter slept; in the house
of Caiaphas Christ was faithful and Peter fell.
18 “Praying
always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching
thereunto
with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;" Praying always
with all prayer and
supplication. The metaphor of armor is
now dropped, but not
the idea of the conflict, for what
is now insisted on is of the most vital importance
for successful warfare. Though prayer is virtually
comprehended in most of the
previous exhortations, it is now specifically
enjoined, and in a great variety of
ways; “all prayer and supplication,” equivalent to every form of
it, e.g.
spontaneous, abrupt, secret, spoken, domestic, social, or congregational –
“always” – at all seasons. No period of life should be without it — youth,
middle life, old age, all
demand it; no condition of life — adversity, prosperity,
sunshine,
desolation, under sore temptation, under important duty, under heavy
trial,
under all the changing circumstances of life, personal, social, Christian.
See the hymn:
“Go, when the morning shineth;
Go, when the noon is bright;
Go, when the day declineth;
Go, in the hush of night.”
In the Spirit. for true prayer is spiritual, and it is not
true prayer unless by
the Holy Spirit the heart is
filled with heavenward longings and aspirations,
changing our prayer from cold
form to heartfelt realities. The ordinary
habit of the soul should be
prayerful, realizing the presence of God and
looking
for His grace and guidance. And watching thereunto. That is,
“towards” spirituality, against formality, as also against forgetfulness
and
neglect of
prayer. Perhaps also the idea of watching
for the answer is
involved, as you wait for
an answer when you have dispatched a letter.
With all perseverance. This being
very specially needed to make prayer
triumphant, as in the case of
the Syro-phoenician mother, (Matthew 15:21-28)
or in that of Monica, mother
of Augustine, and many more. And supplication
for all saints. This being one of the great objects for which
saints are gathered
into the “one body” the
Church, that they may be upheld and
carried on, in
warfare and in work, by mutual prayer, kept from slips and infirmities, and
from deadly
sins, and enabled one and all to “walk
worthy of the vocation
wherewith
they are called.” (ch. 4:1)
We are not to think of “all prayer” as a
separate weapon. We are
rather to think of it as
that which conditions the right use of the whole
armor.
- Without prayer we cannot gird
ourselves for the conflict, but are
cumbered
as with loose robes.
- Without prayer we cannot have that
purification of motives,
that rectification of life, which the conflict demands.
- Without prayer we cannot have
swift-footedness in carrying the gospel.
- Without prayer we shall not have
faith to ward off the enemy’s darts.
- Without prayer we shall not be able
to lift our head in the assurance
of our
salvation.
- Without prayer we shall be unskillful
in the use of the Word.
Constant use prayer, will
keep the Christian in a state of preparedness,
well trained and ready
for battle! Prayer
must not be from self.
“Praying in the Spirit,” it is said here, and there is the same
association in
Jude 1:20. Prayer is
dependence, and we have the influences of the Spirit
on which to depend in prayer. We can only
pray aright, under the impulse
of the Spirit, when the Spirit
indeed makes intercession for us.
And, therefore, we should look to the Spirit to put the right desires within
us and to give
us right words. With
petitions .for ourselves we are to blend
petitions for others. “And watching thereunto in all perseverance and
supplication.” The
apostle is
here
carrying forward his thought into a special
channel. While we are to take heed
to be persevering in praying for ourselves,
we are to be
especially persevering in praying for others.
The combatant is to
remember his
fellow-combatants. Every combatant has his peculiar
difficulties,
his weak points. But, if he feels the struggle to be hard for
himself, that should
put him in sympathy with all others, to whom (in their own
way) it is hard too.
And he should manifest that
sympathy by beseeching God to make their armor
bright, to hold them up, to
give them to win the day, wherever they are appointed
to fight.
The Duty of
Prayer (v. 18)
We are not
to regard prayer as a seventh weapon, but rather as exhibiting
the spirit in which the Divine armor is to be assumed and the
warfare
carried on. It is easy to see the intimate relation existing, between prayer
and each individual part of the Christian’s
armor.
1. It is to be
prayer of all kinds:
a.
public and private,
b.
oral and mental,
c.
formal and spontaneous.
2. It is to be
spiritual prayer: “In the Spirit;” for “He makes intercession for
the saints with groanings which cannot be uttered” (Romans
8:26). We
must “pray in the Holy Ghost” (Jude 1:20).
3. It is to be
persevering prayer: At all times; at every suitable season. We
must
cultivate an habitual frame of prayer.
4. It is to be
watchful prayer: “Watching thereunto.” We must watch
against watchlessness (which leads to prayerlessness
– CY – 2019)
watch for
occasions of prayer, watch for answers to prayer.
5. It is to be
intercessory prayer: “For all saints.” It is most
comprehensive
in its
character. It is based on the communion of saints. We have every
heavenly
motive for continuing in prayer. We have no ground to expect
blessing
without it (Ezekiel 36:37). It is a
means of getting all blessings,
temporal, and spiritual
(Matthew 7:7; 21:22; James 1:5). It is in
itself the
most heavenly duty we can perform (Philippians 4:6).
19 “And for me, that utterance may be given
unto me, that I may open my
mouth
boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel." And for me.
Mark the un-priestly idea; so
far from Paul having a
store of grace for all the
Ephesians, he needed their prayers that, out
of the one living store, the needful
grace might be given to him. That utterance may be given to me,
that I may
open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel. With all
his practice in preaching,
he felt that every instance of right
utterance was a gift —
“may be given to me;” especially
when great matters were involved — “in the
opening of my mouth.” To open
the mouth denotes an authoritative act of
teaching (compare Matthew 5:2);
on such occasions he especially desired
boldness, not
stormy vehemence, but earnestness, fearlessness in making
known the destination of the
gospel, once secret, now designed for all
(compare ch. 2.). Boldness was
needed because the message was so
hateful to some and so
contemptible to others.
20 “For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly,
as I
ought to speak." For which I am an ambassador
in bonds (chains):” Thereby
not only physically
helpless, but
in danger of being subdued into tameness, the
ordinary effect of captivity, and thus reduced to a
spirit not befitting the
bearer of a great message from the King of kings. That therein. i.e.,
in the matter
of it, of the gospel. I may speak
boldly, as I ought to speak.
The Christian Warfare
(vs. 10-20)
Even in
common parlance we speak of “the battle of life.” Even for
ordinary
purposes we have to fight against indolence, evil lusts, dishonest
tendencies,
and many other things in ourselves; and against opposition, ill
treatment,
temptation on the part of others, and the depressing
effects of
trial and disappointment. All hard work is a fight; we
have to fight against
the sense of
monotony, against the feeling of weariness, against the longing
for ease;
and when we are sick, or feeble, or depressed, it is often hard to
hold on the
straight path of hard duty and turn away from the allurements
of
pleasure. The ring of the hammer, the blow of the weaver’s shuttle, the
housewife’s
active step from dawn to dewy eve, often tell of battles and
victories
in quiet spheres, that without the display have much more real glory
than
ordinary wars. But much more is the Christian life a battle. The chief
enemies
here are unseen. It is impossible to pursue an aimless, careless life
and be a
Christian. “If any man will come after
me,” said Christ, “let him
deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.” (Luke
9:23) Not only to
be a
Christian, but such a Christian as this Epistle delineates; to walk worthy of
the
vocation with which we are called; to be ever reaching forth toward the
measure of
the stature of the fullness of Christ; to be growing up into
Christ
toward that condition in which we shall be without spot or wrinkle
or any such
thing; to be advancing thus in spite of hosts of spiritual foes,
working-
unseen, sapping and mining, our Christian life, trying to entangle
and enslave
us in every way; — this can be no easy task; it is a veritable
battle, demanding constant vigilance and incessant care. It may
seem
strange
that we should be exposed to such enemies. Is not our blessed
Lord
exalted far above all principality and power and every name that is
named, not
only in this world, but also in that which is to come? Has He not
spoiled
principalities and powers, making a show of them openly? Is He not
Head
overall things to His Church? Why, then, does he not crush all her
foes?
Doubtless because He has purposes of discipline to carry out in
connection
with these enemies, because, while He is willing to fight in and
through His
people, He does not see it right to crush His foes without their
instrumentality;
in this way habits of vigilance and prayer and activity must
be kept up
by them; but all the greater will be their joy when at last the
victory is
gained, and they get the reward of “him that overcometh.” In the
Middle
Ages, certain coarse means were employed to arrest attention to
the formidable
foes that beset the Christian soldier. Frescoes were painted
on the
walls of churches and other ecclesiastical buildings, representing
souls which
were sometimes seen coming out of dying bodies, while angels
on the one
side, and devils on the other, were striving to get them. The
devils were
grotesque, hideous, revolting monsters, more absurd than
terrible.
It was the way of that age to embody truths which in our material
age are apt
to be thought as ridiculous as the demons of the Italian
frescoes. But there are spirits of evil hovering about us, trying:
ü to obscure
and pervert the truth,
ü to blind us
to the fruits of sin,
ü to dazzle
our eyes with the glory of earth,
ü to entangle
us in subtle temptations,
ü to fill our
minds with doubts and fears and evil forebodings,
luring us to the
edge of the precipice, and ready, if they should
get their way, to burst into their bitter scornful laugh, as
they
behold us, through their
wiles, weltering in THE
DESPAIR!
Let us
observe:
ü The true Source of strength:
“In the Lord” (v. 10).
ü The true armor to seek. “The whole armor of God” (v. 11).
ü The true enemies to be overcome. (vs. 1-12.) “The wiles of
the
devil,” and other
unseen spiritual foes.
ü The true employment and attitude of the
Christian warrior:
“Withstand... and stand” (v. 13).
ü The various pieces of the armor, and their use. (vs.
14-18.)
“Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon,
clear as the sun,
and terrible as an army with banners?” (Song of
Solomon 6:10) An army consists
of men who
not only have armor, but have been trained to use it. An unarmed army
can only be
food for the enemy’s artillery, material for a dreadful massacre. Let
professing
Christians see that they are armed, and that they are making a
good use of
their armor. Nature cries out for an easy life, for a truce with
the world,
the devil, and the flesh. In this sense our motto must be war, not
peace; for
in this sense Christ came, not to send peace on earth, but a
sword. (Matthew 10:24)
Panoply of God -
Conclusion of Epistle (vs. 10-20)
“Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His
might.” In drawing
the Epistle
to a close, the apostle falls back on a form of expression he had
used in the
first chapter. There he showed that he had a high admiration of
the
strength of His [the
Father’s] might which He wrought in Christ, and
which was
proved by Christ being raised from the state of the dead “far
above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion.” Here his
admiration
is (with little variation) of the strength of His (the Lord’s) might!
He views
that as being at the command of all who are in Christ, and his
injunction
is that, as it is at their command, it should actually be
communicated
to them to make them strong, and indeed invulnerable, as
the Lord’s
servants should be. He now puts his exhortation under the
special
aspect of the panoply for the
Christian conflict which is presented
at length. “Put on the whole armor of God.”
·
NEED FOR
THE PANOPLY OF GOD. “That ye may be able to stand
against the wiles of the
devil.” “The wiles of the devil” points to the fact
that our adversary does not work by open methods. He does
not rest his
cause on its absolute reasonableness. Rather is he conscious
of its
indefensibleness in reason, conscious too of his being
conquered by Christ;
and hence he has
recourse to ways of making men believe that they have
reason on
their side, when they are really under the
delusion of error. We
do not have things put before us in their true character.
There are illusory
views of life which are presented to us. There are fallacies
with which we
are plied, in our reading, in our relationships with men, or
from our own
hearts, the danger of which is that they chime in with our natural
inclinations. What are
these but the wiles of the devil? And there lies
the
need for our being armed as
warriors, at every point, with the armor of
God.
·
PARENTHETICAL
CONFIRMATION OF THE NEED.
ü Negatively. “For our wrestling is not against
flesh and blood.”
Wrestling serves to call up the idea of close personal encounter, but
otherwise, in accordance with the context, we are to think,
not of the
mere wrestler, but of armed warrior against armed warrior.
“When
Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war.” In the
contests,
from which the apostolic language is taken, there was a
certain
equality between the combatants. It was man confronted with
his
own flesh and blood, and he might hope, in the life and
death struggle
in which he engaged, to come off victorious. But such equal
conditions
do not exist in the spiritual warfare in which we engage. We are not
confronted with beings like
ourselves; it is not our own flesh and
blood that we are pitted against.
ü Positively. “But against the
principalities, against the powers, against
the world-rulers of this
darkness, against the spiritual hosts of
wickedness in the heavenly
places.” To show the need for being
properly armed, the apostle
gives a bold description of the foes with
which we have to
contend. As to their
rank, they are powerful
chieftains (principalities and powers). As to their
domain, it is
“this
darkness,” WHICH IS WORLD WIDE!
Ø As to their essence, they are not encumbered with clay,
but are spirits.
Ø As to their number, they are hosts, vast multitudes.
Ø As to their
character, they are wicked,
their inveterate
disposition is to seek to work our ruin.
Ø As to their haunt, as it was before hinted at (rather than
dogmatically taught) as the air, so
here it is the heavenly
or super-terrestrial places.
The general effect of the description is that, men
ourselves, we are
unequally matched in having to fight against superhuman
powers.
·
FURTHER
RECOMMENDATION OF THE PANOPLY.
“Wherefore take up the whole
armor of God, that ye may be able to
withstand in the evil day,
and, having done all, to stand.” The evil day is
not to be viewed as a special season of temptation. It may
be more or less
so, but it is always
the day of temptation with us. We are
assaulted even
when we
are engaged with holy things. We are assaulted by those
formidable enemies of ours who are ever busy. We must, therefore, take up
the whole
armor of God, that we may be able to withstand the assaults
made on us,
and, having done all things pertaining to the conflict, to stand
(and not to be left prostrate on the field).
·
THE PARTS
OF THE PANOPLY.
ü The girdle. “Stand therefore, having
girded your loins with truth.” In
preparing for the conflict the first thing the warrior had to
do was to gird
up his loose flowing robe, that his energies might not be
scattered, but
collected into a unity. The girdle which binds the energies of the
Christian combatant is truth. About the end of the eleventh century,
great multitudes, known as Crusaders, girded themselves to
go and
deliver the holy sepulcher from the possession of the
Saracens. It was
not the girdle of truth which bound them; for God never
meant them
to spend their energies in that form. And it was not an
object which
kept them from flagrant irregularities in the pursuit of it.
The object
which the Christian combatant is to have before him is not
to have
mere romance, but truth, binding
truth, in it. That truth may be said
to be connected with Christ’s tomb, but not in a mere
realistic way.
It is imperatively demanded, now that Christ has conquered
on the
cross, and that conquest has been attested by an empty tomb,
that
in His Name souls everywhere should be delivered. And the
Christian combatant does not gird himself to get possession
of some
sacred place or of some sacred relic, but to help men who are in the
present guilt and thraldom
of sin toward their deliverance.
ü The breastplate. “And having put on the
breastplate of righteousness.”
The idea in righteousness is that of a right relation to the
Law of God.
Righteousness worn as a plate over the heart is to be
understood rather as
the mind conscious of right. The
Christian combatant is to be jealous
over himself with a godly jealousy. He is to have nothing to
do with
insincerity, but is to study reality. He is not to have
selfish motives,
but is to be thoroughly disinterested. He is not to have
feelings of
grudging malice, but is to be just and compassionate. He is
to be
especially fired with a desire to glorify God. The man who
is
conscious of this may be said to have righteousness as a
breastplate.
ü The sandals. “And
having shod your feet with the preparation of the
gospel of
peace.” The
Christian combatant, having girded himself in the
cause of truth, and being conscious of no unworthy feeling,
is next to put
on the gospel sandals. It is that by which he is enabled to
carry the good
message. For that also belongs to the work of the
battlefield. He puts on
his shoes for the holy war. But in that war he is not always
closing with
his adversary. There are times when he has to follow up an
advantage.
Nay, his great business may be said to be to get his message
delivered,
to cry aloud so that Satan’s captives may hear. The message
which he
has to deliver is a message of peace. He fights, not for
fighting’s sake,
but that the times of peace may be ushered in. And as he
thinks of his
message, and enters into the spirit of it, his sandals
become promptitude,
readiness (according to the idea here); he becomes
swift-footed and
speeds on with his message.
ü The shield. “Withal taking up the shield
of faith, wherewith ye shall be
able to quench all the fiery
darts of the evil one.” As the Christian
warrior runs swift-footed with his message of peace, there
are fiery darts
thrown at him. When any one is eminent in the Christian
conflict, Satan
is likely to raise up against him malicious slanderers.
Those who do not
believe in disinterestedness are sure to make out that he is
serving
himself. Those who do not believe in earnestness in religion
are sure
to circulate evil reports of him. It is worse when, in the
very intensity
of his spiritual feeling, he is laid open to temptations
from his lusts.
Or it may be that his very success lays him open to the
temptation of
spiritual pride. So it was when David who had been
victorious in many a
spiritual conflict was tempted (it is said that Satan
provoked him)
to number the people. (I Chronicles 21:1) And the dart thrown at him
took effect, and was fiery enough in its consequences. What
the
Christian combatant is to do, when he is thus assailed, is
not certainly
to under-estimate the force that is brought against him, but
it is also by
faith rightly to estimate the force that is placed at his service. What
can he do against the principalities and powers and the fiery darts they
send out for his destruction? If he look to
himself, he can do nothing.
But he
looks away to the power which placed Christ above all the
principalities
and powers, and he places it as a shield between him
and the fiery darts, and in it their fire is quenched, their
force is lost.
ü The helmet. “And take the helmet of
salvation.” The helmet is not, as in
I Thessalonians 5:8, the hope of salvation, but salvation itself, i.e.
salvation enjoyed. The Christian has an important piece of
defensive
armor in the assurance of salvation. The Lord rebuked Satan,
and
encouraged Joshua the high priest (Zechariah 3:2), by
pointing to him
as one of his saved ones. When one can think of grace going
out toward
him in the changing of his position to all eternity, he can
feel triumphant;
he has
salvation as a helmet on his head.
ü The sword. “And the sword of the Spirit,
which is the Word of God.”
The Bible is the sword of the Spirit. Furnished it is by the
Spirit; for it
was under the inspiration of the Spirit that the Word was
written. And,
as the Spirit inspired men to write it, so it is only he who
can enable
men to make a right use of it. (“....holy men
of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy
Ghost!” II Peter
1:21) To this we may
apply the words of the hymn:
“God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.”
In the temptation of our Lord, what Satan did was to
misrepresent the
character of the Father, to put a gloss upon Scripture. And
what our Lord,
in meeting the temptation, did was to confront him with the pure truth,
and the truth opposed to his deceptions. (Matthew
4:1-11) And He was
so skillful in the use of this sword that He could fix upon the particular
Scripture that suited the
occasion. And the Christian combatant, too,
must not only see the truth, but the truth for
the occasion, the truth
that slays his doubts, that exposes the fallacies with which
Satan
would compass his destruction. And he must be able to do
this in
connection with some sure, incisive word of Scripture. That is the
offensive weapon, the weapon which carries the war against
the
adversary. This Christian combatant who has been described
is what
every Christian is bound to be. The Church militant is to
have, in every
one of its members, a combatant. And the apostle lays stress
upon
every one taking the whole armor (and not merely some of
its parts).
No one, for instance, is a worthy combatant who feels no
responsibility
in the carrying of the gospel message. If we would have the
strength
our Captain would see in us, we must use
all the pieces of the
Christian armor.
·
THAT WHICH ACCOMPANIES
THE USE OF THE CHRISTIAN
ARMOR.
ü Prayer. “With all prayer and
supplication, praying at all seasons in the
Spirit.” We are not
to think of “all prayer” as a separate weapon. We are
rather to think of it as that which conditions the right use
of the whole
armor.
Ø Without prayer we cannot gird ourselves for the conflict,
but are
cumbered as
with loose robes.
Ø Without prayer we cannot have that purification of motives,
that
rectification of life, which the conflict demands.
Ø Without prayer we cannot have swift-footedness in carrying
the
gospel.
Ø Without prayer we shall not have faith to ward off the
enemy’s
darts.
Ø Without prayer we shall not be able to lift our head in the
assurance of our
salvation.
Ø Without prayer we shall be unskillful in the use of the
Word.
Constant use and prayer, then — that will keep the helmet
from
being dulled, the sword from being rusty. But:
Ø Prayer must not be mere
repetition. “And in praying,” says
our Lord, “use not vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do.” (Matthew
6:7) If we are bent on having our request from God, it will
come
up again and again, and under new aspects. Prayer is using
arguments with God, and, as our mind works on our need, we
shall ever be discovering new grounds on which to press our
request. So, while we
are to have prayer for ourselves and
prayer for others (supplication), it is to be all
prayer
and
supplication, i.e. to say, it is to have that
variety which
comes from an abundance of life, from active thought and
feeling, and not that sameness which comes from
lifelessness.
Ø Prayer must not be irregular. The apostle teaches that it is to be
connected with all seasons (to
vitalize them, to redeem them from
unprofitableness). It is true that we are not always in a
mood for
praying; but let us keep the appointed season. Prayer is one
of
the means by which we are to get into the fight mood. And if
we
keep to our plan from a sense of duty (though our feelings
are
cold), and when the time comes round fall on our knees before
God, then may
we expect liberation from our unspiritual moods.
(My experience is that it is like
getting into orbit by breaking
through gravity – in this instance
spiritually! There is a lot to
overcome but once through it,
there is smooth sailing! CY – 2019)
Ø Prayer must not be
from self. “Praying in the Spirit,” it is said
here, and there
is the same association in Jude 1:20. Prayer is
dependence, and we have the influences of the Spirit on
which
to depend in prayer. We can only pray aright, under the impulse
of the Spirit, when the
Spirit indeed makes intercession for us.
(Romans 8:26-27) And, therefore, we should look to the
Spirit to
put the right desires within us and to give us right words.
ü With petitions .for ourselves we are to blend petitions for
others.
“And watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication.” The
apostle is here carrying forward his thought into a special
channel.
While we are to take heed to be persevering in praying for
ourselves,
we are to be especially persevering in praying for others.
And the ground
of that may be that our prayers are apt to be characterized
by selfishness.
We may go on praying for ourselves; but we too soon give
over praying
for others. We unwarrantably (and to our own detriment)
contract the
circle of prayer.
Ø Circle of
supplication. “For all the saints.” That is not the
outmost circle; for it is said in I Timothy 2:1, “for all men.” But
the apostle is here presenting the matter under a special
aspect.
It is this that the combatant is to remember his fellow-combatants.
Every combatant has his peculiar difficulties, his weak
points. But,
if he feels the struggle to be hard for himself, that should
put him
in sympathy with all others, to whom (in their own way) it is hard
too. And he
should manifest that sympathy by
beseeching God to
make their armor bright, to hold them up, to give them to
win the
day, wherever they are appointed to fight.
Ø Special member of
that circle. “And on my behalf.”
o
Special prayer he wishes them to offer for
him. “That
utterance
may be given unto me in opening my mouth,
to make known with boldness the mystery of the
gospel.”
That is to say, boldness of utterance, whenever
he was called
upon to open his mouth in preaching the gospel.
This was the
great accomplishment of the apostle, that he
could preach the
gospel. And he here discovers the secret of it.
He put it clearly
before his own mind, and got others interested
in his object,
so that they
helped him by their prayers.
o
Special reason for the prayer. “For which I am an
ambassador
in chains; that in it I may speak boldly,
as I ought
to speak.”
o
Reason of his office. He girded
himself to save souls, He kept
strict
watch over his heart. He was swift-footed in proclaiming
the message of peace. And as he sped from place to place, the
fiery darts were thrown at him. Satan stirred up
the Jews
against him; men said that he was mad. But he interposed the
shield
of faith; he held up his
head in the assurance of pardon.
And he used the sword of the Spirit against many a heresy
which threatened the peace and prosperity of the
Church.
It was of great consequence that there should be preserved
to such an ambassador the courage of his office.
o
Reason of his position, He was at the time in chains,
He was in a condition, therefore, when his courage
would be specially assailed. John the Baptist,
in the
gloom of his dungeon, gave way to doubts of
Christ’s
mission. The apostle’s liberty was not so much
restricted.
That the liberty he had might be well used by
him, that he
might speak boldly as he ought to speak, he
would have
them make that the subject of their prayers for
him.
Soul-Militancy
(vs. 10-20)
“Finally, my brethren, be
strong in the Lord,” etc. The subject of these words is
soul-militancy, and they bring under our notice:
ü the soul’s foes,
ü the soul’s strength,
ü the soul’s weapons, and
ü the soul’s religiousness.
·
THE SOUL’S
FOES. “We wrestle not against flesh
and blood.” The
passage teaches the following things
in relation to the antagonists of souls:
—
ü They are spiritual personalities. They are spiritual, “not flesh and
blood.” They exist apart from matter — apart from all animal
incarnations. They are personalities. We cannot accept the
interpretation of those
who regard Paul as speaking here only of evil
principles. If language means anything, personal agents are here
indicated. A priori reasoning (reasoning or knowledge which proceeds
from theoretical deduction) renders the existence of such beings
probable; human experience and the
Bible place their existence
beyond all reasonable doubt.
ü They are wicked personalities. “Spiritual wickedness,” or, as the margin
has it, “wicked spirits.” They are
out of sympathy with God; they are in
bitter and practical hostility to all that is:
Ø Divine,
Ø benevolent, and
Ø happy.
ü They are diverse personalities. They
differ in their make and their rank;
they are not all of the same nature and measure of
faculty, nor of the
same rank in the universe. There are “principalities,” “rulers” and
“powers” amongst
them. Some, as compared to others, may be as
wasps to vultures, as mosquitoes to
dragons. (See Revelation ch. 9)
ü They are organized principalities. They are
under one head, here called
the “devil.” “That ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the
devil.” There is one gigantic intellect that manages
and marshals the
whole:
Ø he who
seduced our first parents,
Ø he with
whom Christ battled in the wilderness,
the
Satan of God, the Apollyon of man. These hosts of evil spirits are
not left to themselves; they are welded together by
one master intellect,
“Devil
with devil damned firm concord hold.” They are managed
by force and fraud, all of them. The passage
suggests that under his
control they act:
Ø
Craftily. Hence the expression, the “wiles of the devil.” All his
movements are cunningly methodized, for such is the meaning of the
word “wiles.” These evil spirits attack
us in ambush; they steal upon
us slyly and stealthily.
Ø
In darkness. “The rulers
of the darkness of this world.” Where do
they reign? Where ignorance spreads
her gloom:
o
in the cold region of atheism where the mental energies
are
benumbed, and
o
in the tropic realm of superstition where the soul is stirred
into
an agony of fear and scared with the horrid forms of its
own creations.
Amidst the gloomy recesses of ignorance they rear their throne;
through the districts of intellectual darkness they prowl about in
search of their prey. They reign:
o
where depravity beclouds the heart,
o
where
passion is stronger than principle,
o
the senses than the
soul,
o
the love of the world than the love of God;
whether that be:
o
amidst the
districts of heathenism or civilized life,
o
in the
marts of business,
o
the temples of devotion, or
o
the flowery scenes of gaiety and
pleasure.
§
They
enshrine themselves amidst the benighted
chambers of an impure
imagination,
§
They haunt the atmosphere of pollution (figured
in the smoke of Revelation 9:2-3 – CY – 2019),
impregnate it with their spirit, causing it to:
stimulate
the unrighteous zeal of the selfish,
fire the passions of
the carnal, and
swell the vanity of the ambitious and
the proud.
§
They reign
where sorrow and suffering darken
all.
§
They delight in misery.
The wretchedness of the poor,
the sighs of the distressed,
the groans of the oppressed, and
the agonies of the dying
gratify their malignant natures.
·
THE SOUL’S
STRENGTH. “Finally, my brethren, be
strong in the
Lord, and in the power of His
might.” The soul requires tremendous
strength to grapple
successfully with these mighty spirits of
evil. What is
the strength required? It is nothing less than DIVINE! It is to be strong in
the Lord, and in the power of His might. But what
kind of Divine strength is
required, for strength of all kind is from
the Lord?
Ø
Is it muscular?
No. Samson, with his Herculean physical force, fell
beneath these spirits; an evil genius touched him, and the
giant fell
as a child.
Ø
Is it mental?
No. Men of the greatest intellect and of the
loftiest
genius have not been able to stand for a moment before these spirits.
(Witness Hitler? CY – 2019) It is not by this “might or this power”
(Zechariah 4:6)
that souls can stand before these infernal hosts.
It is moral strength.
ü The strength of faith in THE ABSOLUTE. Faith in
that which changes
not, which is true to man as man, which is
independent of times and
circumstances —
faith in the
Everlasting. With this faith men:
Ø participate in THE OMNIPOTENCE OF GOD,
Ø work wonders, and
Ø dare the
universe. (“...subdue the earth [find
out its secrets]
Genesis 1:28 – CY – 2019) Men, through this faith, have
“subdued
kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises,
stopped the mouths of lions, Quenched the violence of fire,
escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made
strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of
the aliens. Women received
their dead raised to life again:
and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they
might obtain a better resurrection:
And others had trial of
cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and
imprisonment: They were stoned, they
were sawn asunder,
were tempted, were slain with the sword: They wandered
about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute,
afflicted, tormented; [Of whom the world was not worthy:]
they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and
caves of the earth!” (Hebrews
11:33-38)
ü The strength of love for the supremely
good. Love, when it is fastened
even upon the frail and the imperfect, gives strength to the soul - strength
to nerve a mother for the most trying services,
strength to brace a patriot
for the thunders of the battle. But when centered upon the eternally
Good, its
strength is increased a thousand-fold; it gives the soul a power
that “never faileth,” a power
that “endureth all things.” (I
Corinthians
13:7-8)
ü An invincible
attachment to the right. To “be
strong in the Lord and
in the power of His might” (v. 10) is
to be strong in sympathy with the
right. It is to prefer the right
with hell to the wrong with heaven. It is this
moral strength alone that will enable us to “stand
against the wiles of
the devil,” and to battle successfully with the host of
wickedness. This
strength:
Ø makes a
man more than a conqueror (Romans 8:37),
Ø enables
him to glory in tribulation (ibid. ch. 5:3) and
Ø shout triumphantly in the agonies
of death.
·
THE SOUL’S
WEAPONS. The panoply is here described. It consists
of two parts — the defensive and the offensive
implements.
1. The defensive implements. What is the defensive? “Truth.” This is the
girdle which
belts the loins with strength, and binds all the other parts of
the panoply together so as to protect all the vital
parts. “Righteousness.”
This is the “breastplate.” The man
who lacks integrity can offer no
successful defense to the foe; the
dishonest man is vulnerable at every
point. “The gospel of peace.” This, like the boot of the old Roman
conqueror, makes the
soldier firm in his step and terrible in the echo of his
tread. “Faith.” This is the “shield,” protecting
the whole body. Faith, not in
creeds, but in Christ, is the true
shield of moral soldiership. “Salvation” —
that is, the hope of salvation. This is the “helmet.” As:
a. the helmet
guarded the head of the Roman soldier,
b. the hope of salvation protects the soul.
Let despair come, and the head of the soul is wounded and
the whole system
endangered.
2. The offensive weapons. What is the offensive? “The sword of the Spirit.”
The true soul has not only to stand its ground, to maintain
its position, to keep
its territory, but to advance, to extend its
boundaries, to prosecute an
invasion; it is to conquer all other
souls to Christ, and the
weapon is the
“Word of God.” This is the sword by which the Christian
soldier has to cut
his way from soul to soul through the whole world: “For the Word of God
is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and
marrow,
and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12).
God’s Word
is:
ü the truth that slays error,
ü the love that slays selfishness,
ü the right that slays the wrong, and
ü the happiness that slays the misery of the world.
·
THE
SOUL’S RELIGIOUSNESS. Religiousness, viz. a conscious
dependence on God, lies at the
foundation of all true soul-militancy. A
man
can do nothing rightly or successfully in spiritual soldiership who is not
religious in the very spirit of his being. Religiousness is the only soil in
which man’s spiritual faculties can grow into heroic
vigor.
ü In materialism they wither;
ü in mere intellectualism they are
only skeletonic at best;
ü in religiousness they are like the tree planted by the rivers of water —
their roots are in the Everlasting, they drink into them the
very
life of God.
Religiousness, in one word, is the source that supplies the
muscle and the
instinct that gives the skill in true moral
warfare. It teaches our “hands to
war and our fingers to fight.” (Psalm 144:1) This religiousness is here
described by the apostle in these
words, “Praying always with all prayer
and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance
and supplication for all saints,” etc. These words are so true
to the original
and so obvious in their
significance that they call for no minute examination.
They show us how this
religiousness in the soul of the true spiritual soldier
is to express itself; and
it is to do so:
ü In prayer. “Praying always with all
prayer,” or, as Ellicott has rendered
it, “with all prayer and
supplication praying always in the Spirit.” The
words teach us:
Ø
That the prayer is to be comprehensive. “With all prayer and
supplication.” All kinds of
prayer, expressed and simultaneous,
private and social. Prayer is not so much a service as a spirit, not so
much an act as a sentiment. Hence we are commanded to “pray
without ceasing.”
(I Thessalonians 5:17) Consciousness of
dependence on God, which is the very essence of prayer,
should run as a living current through the whole of
our life.
Our whole life should be an unbroken
litany. (series
of petitions)
Ø
That the prayer is to be Divine. “In the Spirit.” That is, under the
influence of the Divine Spirit, who is to make intercessions for us with
groanings that cannot be uttered. (Romans 8:26) There is no true prayer
that is not dictated by this Spirit. Man’s
great care should be to lay his
soul open
to the Divine. (Psalm 62:8) If a man would
have his body
crave healthily for food, he must drink in as much as possible the
fresh air of God; and if he would have his soul crave for spiritual food,
he must breathe into his
spiritual nature the breath of
the Divine.
Ø
That the prayer is to be watchful. “And watching thereunto.” The
soul has its moral moods. It has seasons favorable for
culture, weathers
for launching out on the deep. Its duty is to watch for these moods —
watch the motions of the Divine Spirit upon the heart. Watch, as
Elijah did on
Ø
That the prayer should be persevering. “With all perseverance.”
We
are to be instant in prayer. Our Savior taught the duty of
importunate prayer in the parable of the “unjust
judge.” (Luke
18:1-8) Importunity is needed, not to
influence the Eternal to mercy,
but to prepare our hearts rightly to receive His gifts.
ü In prayer for the good in general. “For all saints.” The apostle would
not have them merely to pray for themselves. He who
prays exclusively
for himself never prays at all. His prayers are but
the breath of
selfishness. Paul required them to pray
for “all saints” — saints:
Ø of every
intellectual grade,
Ø of every
social position,
Ø of every
ecclesiastical sect,
Ø of every
theological school,
Ø of every
kingdom and
Ø every tribe.
Why for all saints? Because all saints are members of the
grand army
battling against the common foe —
against the “principalities of evil,”
etc. The more force, courage, skill, each member of
an army possesses,
the better for the cause, the more likely the
victory in whose advantages
all participate. The battle of Christianity is a common battle — a battle
against:
Ø error,
Ø wrong, and
Ø depravity
EVERYWHERE! All
saints are engaged in it and they should be prayed
for.
ü In prayer for gospel ministers in particular. “And for me, that utterance
may be given unto me.” Why does Paul wish them to pray for him? Is it
that he might be liberated from prison? No. He was
now, he tells us, an
“ambassador
in bonds.” The clanking chains of the prison hung heavily
on him, and one would not have wondered if his
first request had been to
the Ephesians to pray for his bodily deliverance.
But this he does not.
He is too absorbed in the cause of Christ and universal
happiness for
this. What he prayed for was that he might be
enabled properly and
successfully to preach
the gospel. “That I may open my mouth
boldly,
to make known the mystery of the gospel,” that is,
the gospel that was
once a mystery. The preaching
of the gospel was God’s grand instrument
for restoring the world to
intelligence, dignity, and happiness, and
because of that, he desired to do it in the most effective way. There
are
several remarkable things in these words.
Ø Paul was an ambassador from heaven — God’s
messenger sent
to proclaim restoration to lost humanity. The grandest
commission
this.
Ø God’s ambassador from heaven
in bonds. Wonderful that the
great King, whose word could have shivered
should have allowed His ambassador
to have been in chains.
But so it is; and we shall have an explanation ere long.
Ø
God’s
ambassador from heaven in bonds, losing all idea of his
own personal sufferings, in the desire to help his race. Though a
prisoner at
And as a prisoner he wanted
to discharge that high mission in the
most effective way. For that he prays. A true gospel
minister has
a right to ask the prayers of Christians for him particularly. Like a
general in the army, he has the most responsible position, the most
arduous task. Failure in him may turn
the tide of battle in favor
of the foe. Prayer, then, is a necessary
qualification of spiritual
soldiership. The victory cannot be won
without it.
“Restraining prayer, we cease to fight;
Prayer makes the Christian’s armor
bright;
And Satan trembles when he sees
The
weakest saint upon his knees.”
Even the great Commander of all the legions of the good
recognized the mighty power of prayer
during his struggles
on this earth. “Thinkest thou
that I cannot now pray to my
Father, and He shall presently give me more than twelve
legions of angels?” (Matthew
53) As if he had said, “With
one breath of prayer I
could bring the mighty battalions of
eternity to my aid.”
Praying Always
(vs. 18-20)
Here is a
part of the Christian’s armor which had nothing corresponding to
it in the
panoply of the Roman soldier. Prayer comes in without any figure.
We are taught
that, even when every spiritual weapon is prepared and
directed
against the spiritual foe, all is in vain without a direct appeal to
God. When Jacob,
looking for an attack by Esau, had completed his
arrangements
of his family and flocks, the most important part of his
preparations remained — another warfare had to be carried on, he must
wrestle
with the angel for his blessing. (Genesis
32) So in the Christian conflict,
even when:
ü the loins
are girt with truth,
ü the heart
protected by the breastplate of righteousness,
ü the feet
shod with peace,
ü the head
crowned with the helmet of salvation,
ü the person
protected by the shield of faith, and
ü when the
hands are grasping and wielding the sword of the Spirit,
there is
another duty which is quite indispensable — prayer: “Praying always with
all prayer,” etc. This is in accordance with the whole tenor
of the Bible:
ü Enoch,
walking with God;
ü Abraham,
interceding for
ü Moses,
pleading on the mountain;
ü Elijah,
praying for rain;
ü David,
ü Hezekiah,
ü Daniel,
ü Simeon,
ü Anna, and,
ü our blessed Lord in
all show us
that fighting men ought always to pray and not to faint. (Luke 18:1)
The soul is
thus strengthened and encouraged; it reaches the promises and rests
on them; it
feels that God is with it; “They that wait on the Lord
renew their
strength; they mount up with wings as eagles; they run, and are
not weary; they
walk, and not faint? (Isaiah 40:31) The prayer required is marked
by six features.
ü Manifold. With all
prayer and supplication; all kinds:
Ø secret,
Ø spontaneous,
Ø domestic,
Ø social,
Ø public.
ü Incessant. At all seasons:
Ø at all times or periods of life:
o youth,
o manhood,
o old age;
Ø in connection with every:
o employment,
o recreation,
o trial,
o mercy,
o undertaking,
§
both great and
§
small;
Ø as a constant habit of the spirit:
o thinking on God,
o depending on Him, and
o working for Him.
ü Spiritual. “In the Spirit” — in dependence on His aid and inspiring
power, in opposition to the mere form or rhyming of “pater nosters.”
ü Watchful. (See
Exposition.)
ü Persevering (see Exposition).
ü Comprehensive. “For all saints,” and
especially for God’s servants in
the gospel, the
men who are bearing the burden and heat of the battle.
Men may ridicule
prayer; they may scoff at a praying man, a praying family, a
praying
nation; but the spectacle is really sublime. When Pere Hyacinthe,
lecturing
on the public immorality of his country, made the aisles of Notre
Dame ring
with his eloquence, he did not find cause to scoff at prayer. He
said that
it moved him to find
to pray in
the time of calamity, and to give thanks in the hour of
deliverance.
God, after all, is the Ruler among the nations, and his rule of
good will
stand true. “Them that honor me I will
honor, but they that
despise me
shall be lightly esteemed.” (I Samuel
2:30)
True prayer (vs. 18-20)
The arming
and fighting referred to in the previous verses are to be
accompanied WITH PRAYING! Prayer is
as necessary as action. The part
of Moses on the mount was at least as important as that of
Joshua on the
plain. Consider the character and object of true
prayer.
·
THE
CHARACTER OF TRUE PRAYER.
ü
Earnestness. What a ring of vehement intensity sounds
through the
apostle’s words! Here is a man who believes in prayer and is greatly
anxious to secure it. It would be wonderful if some prayers were answered.
When the
prayer does not affect the heart of the suppliant HOW CAN IT
TOUCH THE
HEART OF GOD? A half-hearted prayer can bring no
blessing from heaven because it is too feeble even to reach heaven.
ü
Spirituality. We must pray in
the Spirit. Our own thoughts must be
spiritual and we must seek the inspiration of God’s Spirit to give light
and life to our praying (Romans 8:26).
ü
always in season. But we are
not always inclined to pray. Yet when we
least desire to pray prayer is most necessary. (I heard once, that when
it is hardest to pray, pray
hardest! – CY – 2019)
ü
Watching, in order that our prayers may be appropriate to
the occasion,
that we may discern the Divine response, and that we may be roused to
renewed earnestness in face of the dangers and needs of the times.
ü
Earnest prayer will be persevering prayer. It need be so, for God
sometimes delays His reply to test our faith.
·
THE OBJECTS
OF TRUE PRAYER.
ü On behalf of all saints. We should pray for all mankind, but especially
for those who are of the household of the faith.
Christian brotherhood
should be seen in prayer. Mutual
prayer is the greatest bond of union
in the Church.
ü For any in trouble. Paul, the “ambassador
in chains,” seeks the
prayers of his friends. He in
Christians in
brother when he falls before
temptation, we would pray for him
WHILE HE IS IN IT!
ü For the spread of the gospel. Paul is not so anxious that prayer
should be offered for the
alleviation of his harsh imprisonment and
for safe deliverance from the hands of his foes, as
for grace to be
faithful and bold in his declaration
of the mystery of the gospel, a
noble, self-forgetful request. If the Church at home
believed more
in the efficacy of prayer and practiced it more
earnestly, the
missionary abroad would be more successful
in his work.
Prayer for an Ambassador
in Bonds (vs. 19-20)
The apostle
feels his need of the prayers of the saints, because he has a true
appreciation
of the difficulty and importance of his work.
·
THE
BLESSING HE ASKS FOR. It is no temporal blessing, not even
release from imprisonment that he might more widely preach
the gospel. It
is simply that “utterance might be given to
him” to preach the mystery of
the gospel with boldness. This
implies:
ü that
courage was needed for the declaration of a gospel which was an
offence to the world;
ü that even
an apostle was dependent upon God for simple utterance.
·
A DOUBLE
ARGUMENT TO BESPEAK AN AFFECTIONATE
INTEREST IN
THEIR PRAYERS. “For which I am an ambassador
in bonds.”
ü He was an ambassador. The apostle never forgets the dignity of his
office. He knows he is the representative of a great King,
though he is
confined to Roman prisons. Ministers are Christ’s
ambassadors. “We are
ambassadors for Christ, as
though God did beseech you by us: we pray
you in Christ’s stead, be
ye reconciled to God” (II Corinthians 5:20).
ü He was an
ambassador in bonds. The ambassadors of earthly sovereigns
come with pomp and splendor. Their persons are sacred and
inviolable; to
touch them is to declare war. But this ambassador of Christ
is in prison
and afflicted. Brave ambassador in bonds! He is worthy of
the prayers of
the saints.
THE
21 “But that ye also may know my affairs, and how I do, Tychicus, a beloved
brother
and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things:"
But that ye also may know my
affairs, and how I do. Having
referred to his captivity, he
thought it natural for the Ephesians to desire
more information about him,
how he did or fared in his captivity. Tychicus,
a beloved brother and
faithful minister in the Lord. Nothing more is
known of him than that (with
Trophimus) he was a man of
who accompanied Paul when
traveling from
by him to various Churches
(Colossians 4:7; II Timothy 4:12; Titus 3:12).
The two qualities by which he
is noted, lovableness and fidelity, have not only
served to embalm his name, but
show that he had much of Paul’s own character -
Shall make known to you all
things.
22 “Whom I have sent unto you for the same
purpose, that ye may know
our affairs
(state), and that he might comfort your hearts. This serves
to explain the absence of
personal remembrances, allusions, and messages
in the Epistle. Tychicus, who
had his full confidence, would tell them all by
word of mouth. The concluding
words show that it was not to gratify any
mere personal feeling that
Paul directed Tychicus to make this
communication; but knowing how
much they felt for him, he believed it
would be a comfort to hear how
he fared. To pagans the idea of captivity
was always dolorous and
dreadful; it was well for them to learn how
Christians could glory in
tribulations (Romans 5:3). Tychicus, the
beloved brother, was evidently
well fitted to apply to the Ephesians this
comforting view of his state
Tychicus
(vs. 21-22)
Many honorable
men in the Bible have short biographies, but they are very
expressive,
Nothing else is known of Tychicus except that he was a man of
1. He devoted himself to the service of Christ (v. 21).
2. He was
faithful in that service.
3. He was the
fellow-laborer of other devoted men.
4. By his
loving spirit he secured their love.
5. He was
sympathetic, friendly, tender-hearted, suitable to be employed on
a mission
of comfort (v. 22).
6. His memory
continues embalmed and fragrant for these two qualities:
- fidelity to his
master, and
- kindly sympathy
for his brother men.
His short
biography is full of instruction for the servants of Christ. He was:
ü unselfish,
ü unworldly,
and
ü unambitious;
it were a blessing
for the Church if the rank-and-file of its undistinguished
ministers
and other workers were like him. After all, few inscriptions on a
tombstone
would be more to be desired by the minister of Christ than this:
“He served his Master and he
loved his brethren.”
The Errand of Tychicus
to
The apostle
showed his affectionate concern for the Church at
not only by
writing them an Epistle, but in dispatching a minister to inform
them
concerning his condition and labors as a prisoner, and to comfort
their
hearts under their various trials. It was a great mark of love and
confidence
to send a messenger so far, for
miles
distant from
·
THE
MESSENGER WAS TYCHICUS. We know little of him except
what is told in several passages of Scripture. “Tychicus have I sent to
He was an Asiatic, who remained faithful to the apostle
amidst many
desertions (Acts 20:4); “a faithful
minister in the Lord;” as well as “a
beloved brother” of the
apostle — one thoroughly acquainted with all his
affairs, and quite in harmony with all his aims. How
powerfully the apostle
influenced all the Churches by his chosen messengers! They
reflected his
feelings, they intensified the impression made by his direct
labors, they
perpetuated the cordial relationship which bound him to all
the Churches.
·
THE DESIGN
OF HIS JOURNEY. It was
twofold.
ü To acquaint
the Ephesians with his circumstances as a prisoner at
There were many things in that imprisonment that the
Ephesians would
be anxious to know, besides the state of his health and
spirits. They
would like to know what facilities he still enjoyed for
prosecuting his
labors, even as a prisoner; how the gospel was spreading in
the great
capital of the world; how the Judaic party was affecting his
legitimate
influence as an apostle; and what were the prospects of his
release
from imprisonment.
ü To comfort
the Ephesians, not merely by minute oral information
respecting these matters, but by the higher lessons of the
gospel. As a
faithful minister in the Lord, Tychicus was capable of doing
great
service in explaining and enforcing the lessons of
affliction. It is
the business of ministers to comfort the hearts of
believers, who,
whether at
Satan’s temptations, from spiritual deadness. It is a poor
state of the
Church when she is without such comforters.
The Christian Panoply
(vs. 10-24)
After
having treated Christian morals so carefully and shown how
Christianity
elevates the individual, the family, and the slave, Paul
proceeds,
in the close of this remarkable Epistle, to speak of the enemies
and the arms of a Christian. Life is
seen to be a battle, The enemies are
manifold.
It is not flesh and blood against which we fight. We leave the
carnal
warfare to the world. We contend against “the
principalities, against
the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the
spiritual
hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Revised
Version). These foes
are of a
spiritual character – false principles and their advocates, whether
men in
flesh and blood or demons in their invisible might. So that the
Christian
finds himself confronted by a most serious host, perhaps not in
very strict
order of battle, yet mobbed together into perplexing power.
How is one to withstand the assault of so many? There is but one way, by
becoming “strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might” (Revised
Version).
And, blessed be His Name, He has
furnished us with A COMPLETE
PANOPLY! We must put on the whole armor, that we may
withstand all the
devil’s
wiles. Let us translate the figures into their simplicities.
·
THE
CHRISTIAN IS TO BE COMPACTED BY TRUTH.
(v. 14.) In Oriental as well Occidental warfare, the girdle
or belt is all-
important. It binds
the soldier into a unity and makes him feel compact and
firm. Now, truth, by which is meant God’s
truth in the man, not the man’s
veracity, is what gives compactness to our whole being. When
Jesus is
realized as the embodied “truth” (ἀληθείᾳ - alaetheia
– truth - the same word
as here, and John 14:6), when He is felt to be dwelling
within us, then we
become a unity and strength which we could not otherwise be.
Our straggled
powers are united in the fear of God (Psalm 86:11).
·
THE
CHRISTIAN IS PROTECTED BY ENTERTAINING A SPIRIT
OF
RIGHTEOUSNESS. (v. 14.)
Here again it is the Divine
“justice”
coming into us and permeating our being. Now, there is no such protection
for us in our contact
with others as this spirit of fairness, the desire to do
what is right as between
man and man. If we are able to let
righteousness
reign in all our relations, the hostility
of men and devils will but little avail.
It is to be “God-like” in all our attitudes, and
nothing then can harm us.
·
THE
CHRISTIAN WILL MAKE PROGRESS ONLY THROUGH
ENTERTAINING
AN EVANGELISTIC SPIRIT. (v. 15.)
Here we have the public spirit coming to secure progress.
The
Christian has ceased to be self-centered. He cannot live the
selfish life. He
must be a missionary. The gospel of peace is to be sent round the world.
In doing so he must have some share. He makes progress by
giving the
evangelistic centrifugal force free play. We are never so
safe as when the
safety of others has become our great concern.
·
THE
CHRISTIAN QUENCHES ALL
ASSAULTS OF SATAN BY THE
POWER OF FAITH. (v. 16.) Now, Satan’s fiery darts belong to the
region of
sense. He appeals to
passion. He assaults us through the appetites. But faith
vanquishes him, and nothing else can do so. What are we to
understand by
“faith”? Not assent
to propositions; not a mere realizing, faculty, assuring
us of things unseen; but a trust
extended to the personal and Divine
Savior
who rules over all things. This loyalty to an unseen
Sovereign enables us to
see through the wiles of the arch enemy, enables us to see
how narrow are
Satan’s limits, and how wide the order and interests of our Savior’s
kingdom. We are thus transported to the wider relations of
the spiritual
world, and the temptations through sense and passion fall
extinguished at
our feet. As we live
by faith IN HIM WHO RULES THE
UNIVERSE
and dwells within us,
Satan finds himself defeated.
·
THE
CHRISTIAN’S HEAD IS COVERED BY THE ASSURANCE
OF
SALVATION. (v. 17.) It has been supposed that a victorious spirit will
make men careless in
the battlefield. But is it so? If soldiers believe themselves
destined to be victorious, they will strain every nerve to
make themselves
so. The flush of victory in their heart gives power in the
contest. Now, it is
when we
have got assurance of victory through our indwelling, Lord that
we can do
valiant things for Him! Suppose
that a soldier goes to battle with
head exposed, and no helmet protecting it, his anxiety about
self will
destroy his fighting power. But give him his piekelhaube (a spiked helmet
worn by Germans in the 19th
and 20th centuries, and he passes into the fight
free from self-care and with the one idea of doing his very
best to win the
battle. So is it with the assurance to which faith is meant
to lead us in our
spiritual warfare!
·
THE
CHRISTIAN WIELDS, AS HIS ONLY OFFENSIVE WEAPON,
THE WORD OF GOD. (v. 17.) This
is the sword with which he is to lay
around him. The Bible is a wonderful weapon. It cuts men and devils to the
heart. It enters into the very joints and marrow. There is no such discerner of
the thoughts and intents of
men’s hearts. (Hebrews 4:12) Now, when
we
consider that force is only the preliminary to reason — individuals
or
nations
fight first and then make up peace upon some pretence of principle — we see
that what
Christianity does is to keep strictly to the sphere of reason, and
to refuse
all seduction into the field of brute force. The doctrine of
non-resistance is the highest of all tributes to the reasonableness of
Christianity. The Christian, then, who masters most thoroughly the
Word of God will be the most powerful among his fellows. For after all,
THIS
INSPIRED WORD is ahead of all human wisdom. It is the
crown
and anticipation of human genius. If we have mastered it in the spirit, we
are ahead of our time and shall understand what we can best do for our
generation.
·
THE
CHRISTIAN IS ALWAYS PRAYERFUL, AND ESPECIALLY
FOR HIS FELLOWS. (vs. 18-24.) The fight in which a Christian is
engaged
is not for his own hand. It is a fight for a common cause, and in
the struggle
we are never alone. It is a
fight for the most part upon our knees. But as we
wrestle, it is not for
personal blessings only or chiefly, but for blessings
to be
conferred on others too. Our own
garden is best kept when we can think of
other gardens
too. Hence Paul claims an interest in the Ephesians’ prayers,
believing that they will fight their battle best if they
remember him. And
thus as the Epistle closes we see how Christianity emancipates us
FROM SELF and makes us pray with a large public spirit and
with our
eye on the common
weal.
CLOSING
BENEDICTION (vs. 23-24)
23 “Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from
God the Father and
the
Lord Jesus Christ." Peace be to the brethren. There is a
double invocation of
blessing — to the brethren,
and to all that love the Lord. “The brethren”
must mean the members of the
Church addressed, with special reference to
the amalgamation (mixture) in
one body of Jews and Gentiles, or to the one family
(ch. 3:15) in which they were
brethren, Peace is the echo of ch. 1:2, and
denotes the apostle’s desire
for the continuance among them of the peace
with God to which they had
been admitted, as well as the prevalence of
peace in every sense of the
word. And love with faith. “Love” in the
widest sense (ch. 3:17, 19) —
the love of Christ to them, their love to
Christ, and their love to one
another; and love is coupled with faith, because
faith is the companion of
love, they are in the closest
relation to each other.
Faith in Christ receives Him
as He is offered, in all His love and
goodness;
it sees His loving face, and
is changed into the same image! From God the
Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. (compare
Ephesians 1:2).
24 “Grace
be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity
(incorruptibility)
.” As grace was the first word,
so it is the last (Ibid.),
not as denoting anything
essentially different from the blessings invoked
in the preceding verse, but
for variety, and in order that the favorite word
may be, both here and before,
in the place of prominence. The expression
is peculiar — love the Lord
Jesus Christ ἐν ἀκαθαρσίᾳ - af-thar-see’-ah;
incorruption, sincerity. The word denotes, especially in Paul’s usage,
what
is unfading and
permanent. The love that marks genuine
Christians is not a
passing gleam, like the
morning cloud and the early dew, but an abiding
emotion.
Nowhere can we have a more
vivid idea of this incorruptible love than in
Romans 8:38-39. “Amen.”
Affairs of the Apostle
(vs. 21-24)
1. Why he does not enter
on them. “But that ye also may know my affairs,
how I do,
Tychicus... shall make known to you all things.” He knew
that
they would be anxious to have some account of his
affairs. He would have
given them a written account but for the fact that
Tychicus, the bearer of
his letter to them, would be able to give them (and others too,
it is implied)
a more detailed account by word of mouth. We have already
remarked on
the absence of the personal in this catholic
Epistle.
The one exception is
the introduction of the name of Tychicus, and it is introduced
to account
for the absence of details about himself. In the Epistle to the
Colossians,
along with the same reference to Tychicus, there are
numerous salutations.
It favors
the hypothesis of this being a circular letter (intended for a circle
of which
in sending salutations (the apostle alone may have been known
to all the
Churches),
and none are singled out as special objects for salutation (as in
the one
2. Qualifications of
Tychicus. “The beloved brother and faithful minister in
the Lord.” In Acts
20:4 he is classed as an Asiatic. If he did not, then,
belong to the same city (Trophimus associated with him
was an Ephesian),
he belonged to the same province, as those to whom he conveyed
the
letter. Of more importance than his country was his
Christian character, for
which the apostle vouches. He limits his
consideration to the Christian
sphere (where Christ appoints and animates), and, within that sphere,
Tychicus
was both a beloved brother and faithful minister. He had those
qualities of heart which attached men to him, an
important element in a
mission, he had also those qualities of conscience
which, as they made him
fit to be entrusted with the gospel, also made him fit for the
special service
required of him.
3. Definite statement of
the object of his mission. “Whom I have sent unto
you for this very
purpose, that ye may know our state, and that he may
comfort your hearts.” A servant
of the Church, he was, in the first instance;
but he was sent by Paul on this special errand. He was not only
to
communicate information to them regarding Paul, but also
regarding Paul’s
companions in
their hearts. For the precise bearing of this we are
left to conjecture. He
might be able to tell them that the health of Paul
and of such a fellow
prisoner as Aristarchus was not suffering from their
confinement. He might
be able to report that not only Paul, but all of them, were remaining
steadfast in the faith of Christ. He might be able to announce
some
increased liberty in the preaching of the gospel. He
might especially be able
(with communicated apostolic fervor) to report the preaching
of Paul, and
himself to present the gospel as the means of comfort.
DOUBLE BENEDICTION.
1. First benediction. “Peace be to the brethren,
and love with faith, from
God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” The
source from which
blessing is invoked is (as at the
beginning of the Epistle) God the Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ. There is given both the First Cause
and the
Second Cause. It belongs to God the Father (to whom can it more belong
than to Him?) to bless His
children. Christ is the Second Cause, by whom
God made
the worlds, by whom also He redeemed and blesses His
people.
He is,
therefore, also invoked as the Source of blessing.
- First blessing. “Peace be to the brethren.” We are to understand
“peace” here, as at
the beginning of the Epistle, in the sense of freedom
from unrest, as being under
the loving care of God. It may mean freedom
from persecution, if that is lovingly arranged by
God. It may also mean
freedom from internal dissensions, if
God sees fit to grant that. There is a
limitation in the scope of the blessing
compared with the language of the
following benediction. We are not to
understand it as peace to the whole
Epistle was to be sent round.
- Second
blessing. “And
love with faith.” The apostle (as he has done
throughout) presupposes faith, but not
as a fixed quantity. Rather does he
invoke it in its higher degrees,
and, at the same time, invoke love as its
concomitant. Let love not lag behind, but
let it keep pace with faith. If we
turn believingly to God as our Father and Christ as
our Savior, we should
also turn affectionately to the brethren. Let there be love (in all
its beauty)
to manifest the reality and activity of our faith.
2. Second benediction. “Grace be with all them that
love our Lord Jesus
Christ in uncorruptness.” The blessing. “Grace.” This is to
be understood
as in other places. Let there be the out-flowing of the Divine
compassion.
Let there
be every fitting manifestation of the Divine favor. The scope of
the blessing. As to its form, it is universal. It excludes selfishness and
denominational jealousies, and takes in the whole circle which
Christ
acknowledges. As to matter, there are two things pointed to.
- The grand characteristic of the
Christian is love to the Lord Jesus
Christ. The
Christian is one who (appealed to by the Savior) can say with
Peter, “Lord, thou knowest
all things; thou knowest that I love thee.”
(John 21:17) Such an
affection as God has put into the nature of the child, of
the parent, such (in its personal character, in its
tenderness, in its strength) is to
be our affection to Christ. Such a virtuous
affection (as distinguished from
natural affection) as we have toward
the brethren, such, purified and heightened,
is to be our affection toward the Master. The
ground of virtuous affection is
moral goodness, and especially one
form of it, viz. holy
benevolence. We
love a man who, besides being conscientious, is filled
with universal good
will. So we love
Christ because (with all dutifulness) He is the perfection of
all unselfishness and benevolence toward men. In
estimating His character
(as an object for our love) we must
take into account His
rank in the
universe, viz. that He is the Son of
God. If a king and one of his subjects
were both voluntarily to go into slavery for the
purpose of redeeming their
country, the sacrifice would be
regarded as greater on the part of the king
than on the part of his subject. There may be the
same patriotism; but there
is something to be put down to the rank. So all that Christ was and did is
enhanced in proportion to the height from which He descended. It was not
simply love to man in a human position,
but love that made infinite descent
to burn in the human soul of Christ. We must also
take into account the
public
capacity in which He acted. He was not rendering such help as we
personally may render to one another.
But He was/is the Christ, the
appointed
Representative
of all mankind. He had all our interests on His hands. His
character comes out in the whole of His
life. He evinced a universal
benevolence: “Him that
cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.” (John
6:37)
He was called the Friend of sinners. He loved men apart from
their
outward surroundings and natural
capacities; He loved them as sinners in
need of salvation. Especially does His character
come out at the last. He
went (in suffering the desert of sin) under that
which is called the hiding of
the Father’s countenance. (Matthew 27:45) And it was not only dauntless trust
in God, but unquenchable love to men, that
maintained Him there. He went
down to the lowest depths for us (in experience the
most terrible), that He
might carry us with Him to the
heights.
b. An
indispensable element is pointed to in our love to Christ. “In
uncorruptness.” There is a spurious love to Christ, which is
founded on His
sufferings without reference to their
spiritual meaning. “I wept when the
waters went over his soul.” Such love, as it is not well founded, so also
is it
transient. The closing climactic
thought in this great Epistle is that
our love to Christ is to have an immortality, an incorruptibility. As there
was a deathless principle in His love to us, so
there is to be a deathless
principle in our love to Him. It will
have of this, according as it is founded
on the real excellence of Christ. The purer and
clearer our conception of
His transcendent benevolence and beneficence, the more will
our love have
of undying and ever-unfolding
beauty.
Double
Apostolic Blessing (vs. 23-24)
The apostle
ends the Epistle by a blessing addressed:
a.
first to the brethren at
b. secondly to all true lovers of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
·
BLESSING
TO THE BROTHERHOOD.
ü Peace. This is not mere concord — “the peace to
which they were called
in one body,” — but
everything that is implied in the favor of God, repose
of spirit under the sprinklings of the blood of Christ, a
continuous flow of
spiritual blessings.
ü Love with faith. That is, a love joined to faith, not love and
faith as two
distinct blessings. Their faith was an actually existing
fact; the apostle
desired that love should be there, as at once the
characteristic and the
discoverer of faith.
ü
The
full blessing is ascribed to God the Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. All the graces spring from Father and Son in
the power of
the Holy Spirit; for God the Father is at once the God of
peace and
the God of love, and Jesus is our very Peace, in whom is
fullness of
grace and love.
·
BLESSING
TO ALL TRUE LOVERS OF CHRIST. The Epistle ends,
as it begins, with grace and peace. The apostle implores God’s favor upon
all who love Christ in sincerity.
ü Christ is worthy of our love. He ought to be the supreme
Object of our
love, because of:
Ø the loveliness of His character,
Ø His boundless love to His people, and,
Ø His work as our Mediator.
ü The love of Christ is a test of our
religion. He who
loves Him has found
grace in God’s sight, and will stand high in the Divine
favor. If we love
Him not, we are
anathema; for we:
Ø love not God,
Ø love not man, and
Ø love not ourselves.
ü If we love Him, we have a grace of the Spirit, and we shall value:
Ø His gospel,
Ø His Word,
Ø His cause,
Ø His people, and
we shall delight in HIS PRESENCE!
ü The love must be sincere, free from those elements of decay or change
that would
work its DESTRUCTION! It must be without hypocrisy,
not in word only, but in deed and in truth.
ü The apostle wishes grace to
all such lovers of Christ, so that
they might
have:
Ø fresh discoveries of His love,
Ø a fuller enjoyment of His person, and
a larger
supply of all spiritual gifts. Amen.
The Benediction (vs. 23-24)
The last
drops of the Epistle are of the dew of heaven.
- THE BENEDICTION FOR THE BRETHREN.
ü Its substance.
Ø Peace.
Ø Love.
Ø Faith.
ü
Its
source. “God the Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ.”
- THE BENEDICTION FOR THE
Grace, sum and substance of the Epistle — “the Epistle of grace.” With that Paul
began, with that he ends. But the word is
much richer after the exposition of the
Epistle. It has been connected with two eternities, past and
future.
And
with the infinity of
the three-in-one God,
Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost, the
soul of the reader has been exercised and
expanded to its utmost stretch, in
trying to comprehend it; but it is
incomprehensible. And now, with all this
added fullness of meaning, it falls on the
head of all that love
the Lord
Jesus
in incorruptibility (sincerity).
This treasure, multiplied, deepened,
lengthened, heightened to infinity (ch.
3:18-19), I invoke on you, says the
apostle, in the Name of God. Blessed privilege of the minister who
can do so.
Deep
responsibility of the people to whom it is done. Great importance of
the closing benediction in public service; tendency to
think of it as a mere closing
form. It contains the very essence of all
blessing. Let it be received reverently,
pondered seriously, accepted joyously.
Types of Transcendent
Virtues (vs. 21-24)
“But that ye also may know,” etc. In these verses we have
three types of
transcendent virtues:
- a type of elevated friendship,
- a type of spiritual benevolence, and
- a type of Christian
universality.
·
A TYPE OF
ELEVATED FRIENDSHIP. Paul here does two things
which show the purity and the worth
of his friendship.
ü Introduces a noble man to his friends. Some are very anxious to keep
their friends to themselves, and, if
possible, to monopolize their thoughts
and their hearts; and some, if they introduce a
friend at all, only those of
an inferior type. Paul introduces Tychicus, “a beloved brother and
faithful minister.” You cannot confer a greater benefit on your
friends
than to commend to
their confidence a noble man; the gift of such a
man to them is more
valuable than lordly estates or mighty kingdoms.
ü
He introduces a noble man to their
friendship entirely for their own
advantage. There are those who introduce men to their
friends for the
sake of getting something for them; but not so in
this case. Paul does
not ask them to do anything for Tychicus; nor does
he ask them to
send back through Tychicus any favor to him. He
sends Tychicus in
order to serve them in two ways.
Ø
To satisfy their anxieties as friends. They would naturally be anxious
to know something concerning the “affairs” of the man who lived and
labored in their city for three years, and around whose neck their fathers
fell in tears when he bade them adieu. (Acts 20:37) They would like
to know how this their father in Christ fared now a prisoner in
To satisfy the natural craving of their hearts,
he now sends Tychicus;
he would tell them all. I should like to have seen Tychicus deliver
this letter, and to have heard the thousand eager questions.
Ø
To promote their happiness as Christians. “And that he might
comfort your hearts” Paul knew
well the trials to which the
Church at
He knew they wanted comfort. The letter he sent
abounded with
comforting thoughts, and he knew that a
loving brother like Tychicus
would skillfully and efficaciously apply the
healing balm. Here is:
·
A TYPE OF
SPIRITUAL BENEVOLENCE. Paul’s heart goes out in
well-wishing. And what
did he wish for his brethren at
secondary favors, but the highest blessings from God the Father and His
blessed Son.
Ø Divine peace. “Peace be
to the brethren.” Mark where the
peace comes from — “From God the
Father and the
Lord Jesus Christ.” There is a
peace that does not come from
that source — a peace that comes from the devil, a
moral
stagnation of soul, something like the
stillness of that murky
atmosphere that nurses and forebodes the
thunder, the lightning,
and the hurricane which spread devastation over sea
and land.
The peace
of God is:
o Peace of
an approving conscience.
o Peace of
conscious security.
o Peace of
accordant affections.
o Peace of
harmonious activities.
Ø A conjunction of love and faith. “Love with faith.” There is a
love and also a faith that are not of Heaven. Divine love
and
faith are always united in a good
man. Divine faith “works
by love,” works by love as the laborer works by the sun.
These are the blessings spiritual benevolence desires for
men, and they are in truth the germs of all good.
Give me
these, and I want no more. Out of
them my
they are the nebulae which will one day encircle me
with the
brightest of heavens. Give the race these, and soon all:
o crimes,
o sufferings,
o discords, and
o miseries,
will cease!
·
A TYPE OF
CHRISTIAN UNIVERSALITY. “Grace be with all
them
that love our Lord Jesus”
Ø love Him purely,
Ø love Him in reality,
Ø love
Him as He ought to be loved.
Wherever they are, in whatever land, of whatever tribe or
kingdom, happiness
be to them.
Ø The
language of modern sects is: Grace be to
all them that are
Baptists, Methodists, Independents, Episcopalians, etc.
Ø The
language of the true Christian universality is: “Grace be
to all them that love our Lord Jesus
Christ,” of all creeds or no
creed, Churches or no Church.
·
CONCLUSION. Here end our reflections on
this wonderful Epistle. Our
walk through this section of the great garden of truth,
whose aromas have
refreshed, whose beauty has charmed,
and whose objects have challenged
our thoughts and excited our devout admiration, is
now ended. Should
others follow our footsteps with
keener eyes and finer senses, more apt to
discover the beautiful and the good,
they will be able to discover for
themselves, and reveal to others, much
more than we have done. When we
began our walk we were afraid that
we should meet some of those grim
Calvinian dogmas which certain theologians assured us were
there, but we
never met their shadow. There are
no theological weeds and thistles here.
All is free and fresh as nature, as fitted to the human soul
as light to the eye
and breath to the lungs.
The
Notes of a True Christian (v. 24)
This
benediction differs from the benedictions with which all other Epistles
of Paul close in one respect, viz, while on every other
occasion the
second person is used, here the blessing is described
in the third person.
Elsewhere we read, “Grace be to you,” etc. Here and
here only we read,
“Grace be with all them,” etc. This
variation is in keeping with the universal
character of the whole Epistle, which is much concerned
with the unity of
the Church. It is a rebuke to the narrowness of Christians who
care only
for the prosperity of their own community, and even labor to
win adherents
from other Christian denominations or regard the
prosperity of neighboring
congregations with the jealousy of a tradesman for a rival
shop-keeper.
How miserably low, narrow, worldly and unchrist-like is the
competitive
Christianity of our day! Paul prays for a blessing on
all true Christians.
In doing so
he describes the essential character of such men: they “love our
Lord Jesus Christ in uncorruptness.” The
question has been so much
abused and misunderstood that it is quite as important
to point out what is
not requisite as what is requisite.
·
WHAT THINGS
ARE NOT REQUISITE IN MEN IN ORDER THAT
THEY MAY BE
REGARDED AS TRUE CHRISTIANS.
ü External badges of unity. We need not speak the same shibboleth,
practice the same external habits,
etc. The test is internal.
ü Agreement in theological opinion. Men may love the Lord Jesus Christ
while they differ profoundly on
many points of doctrine.
ü Uniformity of ritual. Love may express itself in various voices, from
the
shouting hallelujahs of a crowd of
street revivalists to the elaborate
anthem of a cathedral choir. If the love is there we have all that is
essential.
ü Unity of Church order. Equal love for Christ may be found in Churches
that observe the greatest variety of discipline. The
proud bigotry of
orthodoxy will have to be greatly
humbled when many a despised
sectary proves his right to a higher
place in the marriage feast
because he has possessed a warmer
love for his Lord.
·
WHAT IS
REQUISITE IN ALL PEOPLE WHO ARE TO BE
REGARDED AS TRUE CHRISTIANS. To “love our Lord Jesus Christ
in uncorruptness.”
ü The first
essential is personal
attachment to Christ. Our assent
to a
creed, diligent performance of
devotional exercises, and connection
with a Church fellowship count just for nothing if we are not in living
relation to Christ. What think ye
of Jesus? How does your soul’s
affection regard Him? These are the primary questions.
ü This attachment is to be one of LOVE! A cold
devotion of
conscientious but heartless duty will not suffice. Happily, Christ
does inspire love in His disciples by:
Ø His wonderful loveableness,
Ø His love to them, and
Ø His great sacrifice of Himself.
ü This love must be uncorrupted. A
corrupted love is one that is
lowered by selfish thoughts. If we
only love for what we are to
receive our love is, of course,
worthless. If, therefore, we only turn
to Christ in selfish anxiety to be delivered
from trouble to secure
certain benefits, if this be the
secret of our apparent warmth of
devotion, the thing is a mockery. They love in uncorruptness
who love purely, unreservedly,
simply. The idea also implies
a permanence of devotion. It is not a mere
passing emotion, stirred,
perhaps by a sentimental hymn, but a deep, strong affection that
outlasts time and persists through all our varying moods, and
shows itself IN ACTION and, when occasion requires,
IN SACRIFICE!
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