EPHESIANS. L.H.BROUGH.
Introduction.
1/ Lock Commentary -
Note. The poetical tone of
Ephesians. The first paragraph is akin
to a Psalm, consisting of three stanzas.
The opening of chapter 4 falls into three sets of three clauses with the
One God in the centre. The writer coins
a new and striking word, `polupoikilos', "manifold," `rainbow-head',
as his imagination thrills with the beauty of God's wisdom. The whole Church may reflect the rainbow
beauty of the Glory of God.
`Auexichuiastos' - this word is used by Paul here only and
elsewhere in the Bible is only found in the book of Job - in this word Paul
feels the hopelessness of following the tracks of the Almighty's ways. Paul is a prisoner but calls upon his readers
to make melody in their hearts.
2/ The Roman stamp
upon the whole. It is the work of a
Roman citizen, writing in the Imperial City, proud of the Empire and seeing in
it a type of what the Catholic Church shall be - breaking down all racial
divisions, extending its beneficent rule world-wide, with the Empire as the
centre and source of peace. There must
be a high moral life, not like that of the Heathen whose vices destroyed unity,
but a cultivation of virtues that makes for unity. Praise, Prayer, and the Practice of the new life
give the notes of the Epistle. Love,
Unity, Fullness (completeness) are the words on the signpost to guide their
steps.
Dr Kay calls Ephesians the Christian's 68th Psalm, and it
does recall in many ways that great Jewish Psalm of Victory. Coleridge spoke of
Ephesians as "the divinest composition of man.":
The Central doctrine is the Fatherhood of God.
The Church - its central note is Unity.
Sonship is another ideal.
From this ideal of sonship and this ideal of the one Church comes the
ideal of the Christian life: Christians
have to live a life different from that around them with which they had been
contented in the past. The Christian
life has to be characterized by two great central qualities:
a. Love (the word for
love occurs 19 times, i.e. oftener than in Romans or 1.Corinthians).
b. Knowledge - almost
every Greek word for wisdom or knowledge or truth occurs (1:8,9; 3:3,5,19;
4:13,15,21,23; 5:5,9,10,15,17; 6:4,19).
Christ is the central moving principle.
c. Completeness
(pleroma), as one keynote of the Epistle.
- Lock.
Vaughn (Bible Educator) thinks that Peter's language in 1 Peter
is imbued and saturated with the phraseology of Paul. The very framework and setting of 1 Peter is
that of Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians - Vaughn. Ephesians is the crown and climax of Pauline
theology - J.Scott Lidgett.
"In
Christ." Professor Allan of Dunedin N.Z. writes on the phrase,
"in Christ," "in Christ Jesus," and "in the
Lord." Professor Allan thinks the
study of these phrases tells against the Pauline authorship of Ephesians. Allan notes three things about these phrases
in the `authentic' epistles of Paul, (i.e. Thessalonians, Romans, Corinthians,
Galatians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon). :
1/ The Phrase
"in Christ" is used to denote a profound personal identification with Christ which is
the basis of salvation and new life.
2/ The formula is
associated with vivid personal emotion.
3/ Behind the formula lies the idea of corporate personality
that occupies so large a place in the thinking of the Bible. Professor Allan argues that these three
characteristics are not true of the formula in Ephesians, or at the most appear
in a weakened form. There is a thinking
of Pauline ideas.
In Paul's authentic writings the formula often means the
same as "Christian" in English.
This also occurs in Ephesians 1:12; 4:1,17,21; 5:8; 6:1,10,21. Allan notes the instrumental sense in
Ephesians. Paul also uses the formula in
this way, but in Ephesians this seems to be the most characteristic use, see
2:13; 3:6,12.
Allan thinks the instrumental use to be the best\ interpretation in Ephesians. There is, in Ephesians, little of the deeper
and more striking features of Paul's use of the formula, of incorporation into
Christ and little trace of intense personal emotion it expresses in Paul. The formula is mainly used in the
instrumental sense in Ephesians. It
indicates Christ as the channel through whom God works His will, elects,
redeems, forgives, blesses, imparts new life, and builds up the Church.
"In Christ" for this writer is not the formula of
incorporation into Christ, but has become the formula of God's activity through
Christ. This writer takes a Pauline
formula and uses it that our attention is fixed steadily on Christ as the
Centre of Christianity and, having our attention so fixed, we may begin to
realize the possibility of an intimacy with Christ beyond our normal
experience. Thus Paul's marvellous
insight into the meaning of Christ, for life is made more readily available at
the level of the ordinary Christian even if, in the process, something of
Paul's intensity and power is lost.
Allan refers to Best's study. Allan feels that the `local flavour' found
elsewhere is absent from Ephesians, except 1:1, which is borrowed from
Colossians. In Ephesians "in
Christ" almost means "by Christ." Allan denies that in Ephesians the formula
means incorporation into Christ and doubts that the idea of a corporate or
inclusive personality of Christ is found anywhere in Ephesians.
2:15. It is not at
all clear that the "one new man" is a corporate idea. Best rightly argues that the "one new
man" is the new type of character as in 4:24, neither Jewish nor Gentile,
but Christian. 4:13. Here again "the perfect man" is by no means of necessity
to be taken as denoting the Church in its perfection as incorporated into
Christ and so constituting with Him a single corporate person. The context in Ephesians strongly favours an
individual reference. The passage is
concerned with the unity which is attained when each member of the body
functions properly. The ministers in their variety co-operating in equipping
the saints and by sound teaching keeping believers from the snares of heresy,
so that mature Christian personality is developed and all together grow up as
one Body with Christ as Head. See R.S.V.
J.A.Robinson used the idea of the corporate Christ as the
key to the understanding of the Epistle.
Allan thinks Robinson was mistaken.
The conception of the corporate Christ is indispensable for an adequate
interpretation of Paul's Epistle, but Allan thinks it a mistake to read this
idea into Ephesians. (From Allan).
Adoption. Ramsay said that Paul had the Greek custom
rather than the Roman Law in mind. Most
scholars have regarded the background as Graeco-Roman. Daniel.J.Theron argues for Jewish
background. Adoption as Paul applied it
to man's relationship to God was basically a Jewish rather than a pagan
concept. Adoption is:
1/ Present. Rom.8:15;
Gal.4:5; Ephes.1:5.
2/ Eschatological. Rom.8:23.
In spite of the fact that adoption becomes a reality in
man's awareness of a new life, its final consummation is yet to come. (From Theron, in the Evangelical Quarterly).
Head. Marchant writes on the Body of Christ
(Evangelical Quarterly). The term `Head'
has an Old Testament background. It
means `leader' as well as `source' (fountain-head). Paul uses it as meaning both Lordship and
Source of Life, (growth).
2:14-16. Marchant
rejects Best's view that the `new man' is the Christian, and argues that the
drift of the passage is in the direction of a new corporate unity - a new race
of those reconciled in the one body. It
is not a new kind of individual.
"In Christ," - Marchant doesn't wholly approve of Best's
"Sphere of salvation with a local flavour." It has too great a relation with personal
faith for this, although it is not therefore individualistic, rather it has
many applications to mutual relations between Christians. The Phrase "in Christ," refers to
continuing experience, not only of the Christian to Christ, but also in his
relation with others.
"Body of
Christ" - we must not speak of the Church as the extension of the
incarnation. Best delivers this idea a
fatal blow. The New Testament discusses the Church as a body, not as an
instrument in which Christ dwells like a spirit or personally in a body, but as
a metaphor of unity and mutuality. The
look is inward not outward. It is a theme
of internal structure, not of work in the world; of the relation of Christians
to Christ, not of their activities in the world as being His. The New Testament, in fact, rather suggests
that the Church as active in the world is not an extension of the incarnation,
but of the Messianic ministry. (From
G.J.C.Marchant).
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