《Eadie’s Commentary on Ephesians (Vol. )》(John Eadie) 04 Chapter Introduction Chapter 4

εἰς ἔργον διακονίας—“for work of service.” For the etymology of the second term, see under Ephesians 3:7. These various office-bearers have been given for, or their destination is, the work of service. ῎εργον is not superfluous; as Koppe says, it is that work in which the διακονία busies itself. Winer, § 65, 7; Acts 6:4; Acts 11:29; 1 Corinthians 16:15; 2 Corinthians 9:12-13; 2 Corinthians 11:8; 2 Timothy 4:5; 2 Timothy 4:11. Neither noun has the article; for διακονίας being indefinite, the governing noun becomes also anarthrous. Middleton, Gr. Art. p. 48.

εἰς οἰκοδομὴν τοῦ σώματος τοῦ χριστοῦ—“for the building up of the body of Christ.” This second parallel clause is a more specific way of describing the business or use of the Christian ministry-a second purpose to which the office-bearers are given. In Ephesians 2:21, οἰκοδομή signified the edifice-here it denotes the process of erection. The ideas involved in this term have been illustrated under Ephesians 2:22, and those in σῶμα χριστοῦ have been given under Ephesians 1:23. The spiritual advancement of the church is the ultimate design of the Christian pastorate. It labours to increase the members of the church, and to prompt and confirm their spiritual progress. The ministry preaches and rules to secure this, which is at the same time the purpose of Him who appointed and who blesses it. So that the more the knowledge of the saints grows and their piety ripens; the more vigorous their faith, the more ardent their love, and the more serene and heavenly their temperament; the more of such perfecting they gather to them and enjoy under the ordinances of grace-then the more do they contribute in their personal holiness and influence to the extension and revival of the church of Christ.

Verse 13

(Ephesians 4:13.) ΄έχρι καταντήσωμεν οἱ πάντες—“Until we all come.” ΄έχρι measures the time during which this arrangement and ministry are to last, and it is here used, without ἄν, with a subjunctive, a usage common in the later writers and in the New Testament. Winer, § 41, 3, b; Stallbaum, Plato, Philebus, p. 61; Schmalfeld on ῞εως, § 128. Kühner, § 808, 2. This formula occurs only in this place; ἄχρις οὗ being the apostle's common expression. The insertion of the particle ἄν would have given such an idea as this, “till we come (if ever we come).” Hartung, ii. p. 291; Bernhardy, p. 400. The subjunctive is employed not merely to express a future aim, as Harless says, but it also connects this futurity with the principal verb- ἔδωκε-as its expected purpose. Jelf, § 842, 2; Scheuerlein, § 36, 1. “We all,” the apostle includes himself among all Christians, for he stood not apart from the church, but in it, the article specifying them as one class. καταντάω needs not to be taken in any such sense as to intimate that believers of different nations meet together; nor can πάντες denote all men, as Jerome, Morus, and Allioli understand it, but only all the saints- ἅγιοι. The meaning is, that not only is there a blessed point in spiritual advancement set before the church, and that till such a point be gained the Christian ministry will be continued, but also and primarily, that the grand purpose of a continued pastorate in the church is to enable the church to gain a climax which it will certainly reach; for that climax is neither indefinite in its nature nor contingent in its futurity. And the apostle now characterizes it by a triple description, each member beginning with εἰς-

εἰς τὴν ἑνότητα τῆς πίστεως καὶ τῆς ἐπιγνώσεως τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ—“to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God.” καταντάω is followed by εἰς in a literal sense, as often in Acts, and here also in a tropical sense. See under Philippians 3:11. Very different is the sense from that involved in the view of Pelagius-ejus plenitudinem imitari. Every noun in the clause has the article prefixed. We take the genitive τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ as that of object, and as governed both by πίστεως and ἐπιγνώσεως—“the faith of the Son of God, and the knowledge of the Son of God.” Winer, § 30. But we cannot adopt the view of Calvin, Calovius, Bullinger, and Crocius, that τῆς ἐπιγνώσεως is epexegetical of τῆς πίστεως, for it expresses a different idea. Nor can we with Grotius regard εἰς as meaning ἐν-the rendering also of the English version, while Chandler gives it the sense of “by means of,” and Wycliffe renders “into unyte of faith.” The preposition marks the terminus ad quem. The apostle has already in this chapter introduced the idea of unity, and has shown that difference of gifts and office is not incompatible with it; and now he shows that the variety of offices in the church of Christ is intended to secure it. For the meaning of the term Son, the reader may go back to what is said under Ephesians 1:3. The apostle uses this high appellation here, for Jesus as God's Son-a Divine Saviour, is the central object of faith. Christians are all to attain to oneness of faith, that is, all of them shall be filled with the same ennobling and vivifying confidence in this Divine Redeemer-not some leaning more to His humanity, and others showing an equally partial and defective preference for His divinity-not some regarding Him rather as an inst ructor and example, and others drawn to Him more as an atonement-not some fixing an exclusive gaze on Christ without them, and others cherishing an intense and one-sided aspiration for Christ within them-but all reposing a united confidence in Him—“the Son of God.” It would be too much to say that subjectively all shall have the same faith so far as vigour is concerned, but a unity in essence and permanence, as well as in object, is an attainable blessing.

Unity of knowledge is also specified by the apostle. ᾿επίγνωσις is a term we have considered under Ephesians 1:17. Christians are not to be, as in times past, some fully informed in one section of truth, but erring through defective information on other points concerning the Saviour-some with a superior knowledge of the merits of His death, and others with a quicker perception of the beauties of His life; His glory the theme of correct meditation with one, and His condescension the subject of lucid reflection with another-but they are to be characterized by the completeness and harmony of their ideas of the power, the work, the history, the love, and the glory of the “Son of God.” Olshausen thinks that the unity to which the apostle refers, is a unity subsisting between faith and knowledge, or, as Bisping technically words it-fides implicita developing into fides explicita. This idea does not appear to be the prominent one, but it is virtually implied, since knowledge and faith are so closely associated-faith not only embracing all that is known about the Saviour, and its circuit enlarging with the extent of information, but also being itself a source of knowledge. The hypothesis of Stier is at once mystical and peculiar. The phrase τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ is, he says, “the genitive of subject or possession;” and the meaning then is, till we possess that oneness of faith and knowledge which the Son of God Himself possessed in His incarnate state, till the whole community become a son of God in such respects. Now, one great aim of preaching and ecclesiastical organization, is to bring about such a unity. There is no doubt, therefore, that it is attainable; but whether here or hereafter has perplexed many commentators. The opinion of Theodoret- τῆς δὲ τελειότητος ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι βίῳ τευξόμεθα-has been adopted by Calvin, Zanchius, Koppe, and Holzhausen. On the other hand, the belief that such perfection is attainable here, is a view held by Chrysostom, Theophylact, and OEcumenius, by Jerome and Ambrosiaster, by Thomas Aquinas and Estius, by Luther, Calovius, Crocius, and Cameron, and by the more modern expositors, Rückert, Meier, Matthies, de Wette, Meyer, Delitzsch, and Stier. Perfection, indeed, in an absolute sense, cannot be enjoyed on earth, either personally or socially. But the apostle speaks of the results of the Christian ministry as exercised in the church below; for that faith to which Christians are to come exists not in its present phase in heaven, but is swallowed up in vision. Had faith been described only as a means, the heavenly state might have been formally referred to. Still the terms employed indicate a state of perfection that has never been realized, either by the apostolic or by any other church. Philippians 3:13. Our own view is not materially different from that of Harless, viz., that the apostle places this destiny of the church on earth, but does not say whether on earth that destiny is to be realized. Olshausen says, that Paul did not in his own mind conceive any antithesis between this world and that to come, and he gives the true reason, that “the church was to the apostle one and only one.” For the church on earth gradually passes into the church in heaven, and when it reaches perfection, the Christian ministry, which remains till we come to this unity, will be superseded. In such sketches the apostle holds up an ideal which, by the aim and labour of the Christian pastorate, is partially realized on earth, and ought to be more vividly manifested; but which will be fully developed in heaven, when, the effect being secured, the instrumentality may be dispensed with.

εἰς ἄνδρα τέλειον—“to a perfect man.” This expressive figure was perhaps suggested by the previous σῶμα χριστοῦ. The singular appears to be employed as the concrete representative of that unity of which the apostle has been speaking. ᾿ανὴρ τέλειος is opposed to νήπιος in the following verse, which probably it also suggested, and is used in such a sense by the classics. τέλειος is tropically contrasted with νήπιος in 1 Corinthians 2:6; 1 Corinthians 3:1, and it stands opposed to τὸ ἐκ μέρους. 1 Corinthians 13:10. Other examples may be seen from Arrianus and Polybius in Raphelius, Annotat. Sac. ii. p. 477. Xenophon, Cyrop. 8.7, 6. Hofmann, Schriftb. ii. part 2, p. 111, proposes to begin a new period with this clause, connecting it with αὐξήσωμεν of the 15th verse, thus separating it from any connection with the previous ἵνα, and giving it the sense of “let us grow.” Such a construction is needlessly involved, and mars the rapid simplicity of the passage. The Christian church is not fullgrown, but it is advancing to perfect age. What the apostle means by a perfect manhood, he explains by a parallel expression-

εἰς μέτρον ἡλικίας τοῦ πληρώματος τοῦ χριστοῦ—“to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” The important term ἡλικία is rendered “full age”-aetas virilis-by Morus, Koppe, Flatt, Meier, Matthies, Holzhausen, and Harless. “It is,” says Harless, “the ripeness of years in contrast with the minority of youth.” Meyer takes it simply as age-age defined by the following words. Chrysostom says, “by stature here he means perfect knowledge.” It may signify age, John 9:21, or stature, Luke 19:3. The last is the view of Erasmus, Beza, Grotius, Bengel, Rückert, Stier, Ellicott, Alford, and the Syriac version. And to this view we are inclined, first, because ἀνὴρ τέλειος is literally a full-grown man-a man of mature stature; and, secondly, because the apostle gives the idea of growth, and not of age, very peculiar prominence in the subsequent illustrations, and particularly in the sixteenth verse. Though μέτρον, as in the well-known phrase, ἥβης μέτρον (Homer, Od. 18.217), bears a general signification, there is no reason why it should not have its original meaning in the clause before us, for the literal sense is homogeneous—“measure of stature.” Lucian, Imag. p. 8, Opera, vol. vi. ed. Bipont. The words are but an appropriate and striking image of spiritual advancement. The stature referred to is characterized as that of “the fulness of Christ.” This phrase, which has occurred already in the epistle, has been here most capriciously interpreted even by some of those who give ἡλικία the sense of stature. Luther, Calvin, Beza, Morus, and others, take πλήρωμα as an adjective- ἡλικία πεπληρωμένη or ἡλικία πληρωθέντος χριστοῦ. Luther renders in der masse des vollkommenen Alters Christi—“the measure of the full age of Christ.” Calvin gives it, actas justa vel matura; Beza has it, ad mensuram staturae adulti Christi. Such an exegesis does violence to the language, and is not in accordance with the usual meaning of πλήρωμα. It is completely out of place on the part of Storr, Koppe, and Baumgarten-Crusius, to understand πλήρωμα of the church, for the phrase qualifies ἡλικία, and is not in simple apposition. Nor is the attempt of OEcumenius and Grotius at all more successful, to resolve πλήρωμα into the knowledge of Christ. For πλήρωμα see under Ephesians 1:10; Ephesians 1:23. χριστοῦ is the genitive of subject, and πληρώματος that of possession; the connection of so many genitives indicating a varied but linked relationship characterizing the apostle's style. Winer, § 30, 3, Obs. i.; Ephesians 1:6; Ephesians 1:19. The church, as we have seen, is Christ's fulness as filled up by Him, and so this “stature” is of His “fulness”-filled up by Him, and deriving from this imparted fulness all its height and symmetry. Such is the general view of Harless, Olshausen, Meyer, Meier, and Holzhausen, save that they do not take ἡλικία in the sense of stature. But this translation of “stature” appears, as we have said, more in harmony with the imagery employed, for he says, “we grow up” “and the whole body maketh increase of the body.” This stature grows just as it receives of Christ's fulness; and when that fulness is wholly enjoyed, it will be that of a “perfect man.” The idea conveyed by the figure cannot be misunderstood. The Christian ministry is appointed to labour for the perfection of the church of Christ, a perfection which is no romantic anticipation, but which consists of the communicated fulness of Christ. We need scarcely notice the hallucinations of some of the F athers-that man shall rise from the grave in the perfect age of Christ-that is, each man's constitution shall have the form and aspect of thirty-three years of age, the age of Christ at His death. Augustine, De Civit. lib. xxii. cap. 15. Another purpose is-

Verse 14

(Ephesians 4:14.) ῞ινα μηκέτι ὦμεν νήπιοι—“In order that we may be no longer children.” This and the following verse are illustrative of the preceding one, and show the peculiar weakness and dangers to which believers in an imperfect state are exposed. ῞ινα points to a negative and intermediate purpose resulting from that of the preceding verses, but not as if that were taken as realized, for he immediately adds αὐξήσωμεν-implying that τελειότης has not been attained. The period of maturity is, indeed, future; but meantime, in the hope of it, and with the assistance of the Christian ministry, believers are to be “no longer children;” ceasing to be children is meanwhile our duty. The ministry is instituted, and this glorious destiny is portrayed, in order that in the meantime we may be no longer children. νήπιος is opposed to ἀνὴρ τέλειος. Polybius, Hist. 5.29, 2. ΄ηκέτι is employed after ἵνα. Gayler, Part. Graec. Neg., cap. vii. A, 1- β, p. 168. We have been children long enough-let us “put away childish things.”

The apostle now refers to two characteristics of childhood-its fickleness, and its liability to be imposed upon. Childhood has a peculiar facility of impression-

κλυδωνιζόμενοι καὶ περιφερόμενοι παντὶ ἀνέμῳ τῆς διδασκαλίας —“tossed and driven about with every wind of teaching.” κλυδωνιζόμενοι-tossed about as a surge; κλυδωνιζόμενοι is passive; instances may be found in Krebs and Wetstein. Hebrews 13:9; James 1:6. The billow does not swell and fall on the same spot, but it is carried about by the wind, driven hither and thither before it-the sport of the tempest. The term ἀνέμῳ, dative of cause (Krüger, § 48, 15), is applied to διδασκαλία-not to show its emptiness, as Matthies explains it by windig-leere Einfälle, but to describe its impulsive power. The article τῆς before διδασκαλίας gives definitive prominence to “the teaching,” which, as a high function respected and implicitly obeyed, was very capable of seducing, since whatever false phases it assumed, it might find and secure followers. Such wind, not from this or that direction only, but blowing from any or “every” quarter, causes the imperfect and inexperienced to surge about in fruitless commotion. The moral phenomenon is common. Some men have just enough of Christian intelligence to unsettle them, and make them the prey of every idle suggestion, the sport of every religious novelty. How many go the round of all sects, parties, and creeds, and never receive satisfaction! If in the pride of reason they fall into rationalism, then if they recover they rebound into mysticism. From the one extreme of legalism they recoil to the farthest verge of antinomianism, having travelled at easy stages all the intermediate distances. Men like Priestley and Channing have gradually descended from Calvinism to Unitarianism; others, like Schlegel and the Countess Ida Hahn-Hahn, make a swift transition from Protestant nihilism to Popish pietism and superstition. Decision and firmness are indispensable to spir itual improvement. Only one form of teaching is beneficial, and all deviations are pernicious. More pointedly-

ἐν τῇ κυβείᾳ τῶν ἀνθρώπων—“in the sleight of men.” κυβεία from κύβος-a cube, or one of the dice-signifies gambling, and then by an easy and well-known process, the common accompaniment and result of gambling-fraud and imposition. Suicer, sub voce. The rabbins have the word also in the form of קוּבְיָא . Schoettgen, Horae Heb. p. 775; Buxtorf, Lex. Tal. p. 1984. Salmasius renders the term actio temeraria; Beza, variae et ineptae subtilitates; and Matthies, gewinnsüchtiges Spiel—“play for the greed of winning.” These meanings are inferior to the ordinary translation of fallacia by Jerome, the nequitia of the Vulgate, and “sleight” of the English version. Theodoret renders the noun by πανουργία. The opinion of Meyer and de Wette, that ἐν denotes the instrumental cause, is scarce to be preferred to that of Harless, Matthies, Olshausen, and Ellicott, who suppose that the preposition signifies the element in which the false doctrine works. The apostle shows how the false teaching wields its peculiar power-acting like a wary and dexterous gambler, and winning by dishonesty without being suspected of it. οἱ ἄνθρωποι are men, in contrast not with Christ's office-bearers, but with the “Son of God.” The next clause is parallel and explanative-

ἐν πανουργίᾳ πρὸς τὴν μεθοδείαν τῆς πλάνης—“in craft with a view to a system of error.” Codex A adds τοῦ διαβόλου. “Craft” is the meaning which is uniformly attached to the first noun in the New Testament. 1 Corinthians 3:19; 2 Corinthians 4:2; 2 Corinthians 11:3. πρός indicates the purpose of the πανουργία which is not followed by any article. The craft is exercised in order to carry out the tricks of error; πλάνης being genitive of subject and defined by the article. ΄εθοδεία is rendered by Hesychius τέχνη, and by Theodoret μηχανή, plan or settled system. Aquila renders צְָָדה, “to lie in wait” (Exodus 21:13 ), by μεθόδευσε. The Greek verb originally had a good meaning, “to pursue a settled plan,” but the bad meaning soon came-its history and use, as in the case of such English words as “prevent” and “resent,” showing man's evil nature. This false teaching, ἡ πλάνη, has a systematic process of deception peculiar to itself- ἡ μεθοδεία; and that this mechanism may not fail or scare away its victims by unguarded revelations of its nature and purpose, it is wrought with special manoeuvre- πανουργία. There is, however, no distinct declaration that such seduction and mischievous errors were actually in the church at Ephesus, though the language before us seems to imply it, and the apostle's valedictory address plainly anticipated it. Acts 20:29. We may allude, in fine, to the strange remark of Rückert, that this severe language of Paul against false teachers, sprang from a dogmatical defiance, and was the weak side in him as in many other great characters. But the apostle's attachment to the truth originated in his experience of its saving power, and he knew that its adulteration often robbed it of its healing virtue. Lov e to men, fidelity to Christ, and zeal for the purity and glory of the church, demanded of him this severe condemnation of errorists and heresiarchs. The spiritual vehemence and truth-love of such a heart are not to be estimated by a common criterion, and when such puerile estimates of Paul's profound nature are formed, we are inclined to ascribe it to moral incompetence of judgment, and to say to Herr Rückert—“Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.”

Verse 15

(Ephesians 4:15.) ᾿αληθεύοντες δὲ, ἐν ἀγάπῃ αὐξήσωμεν εἰς αὐτὸν τὰ πάντα—“But imbued with truth, that in love we should grow up to or into Him in all things.” The construction still depends upon ἵνα in Ephesians 4:14, δέ placing the following positive clauses in opposition to the preceding negative ones. We must hold, against Meyer, that the context requires ἀληθεύων to be understood as meaning not “speaking the truth,” which it often or usually means, but “having and holding the truth,”—“truthing it;” for it is plainly opposed to such vacillation, error, and impositions as are sketched in the preceding verse. Had the false teachers been referred to, speaking truth would have been the virtue enjoined on them; but as their victims, real or possible, are addressed, holding the truth is naturally inculcated on them. We cannot say with Pelagius and others, that it is truth in general to which the apostle refers; but we agree with Theophylact, that the allusion is to ψευδῆ δόγματα, though we cannot accede to his additional statement, that it specially regards and inculcates sincerity of life. Nor can we adopt the translation of the Syriac שָׁרִירִיןבחוּבָן -being “confirmed in love.” The Gothic renders sunja taujandans—“doing truth,” and the Vulgate-veritatem facientes. Many of the professed interpretations of the words are, therefore, inferential rather than exegetical. So far from being children tossed, wandering, and deluded with error, let us be possessing and professing the truth.

Many expositors join ἐν ἀγάπῃ to the participle, and impute very various meanings to the phrase. Perhaps the majority understand it as signifying “striving after the truth in love”-and such is in general the view of Erasmus, Calvin, Koppe, Flatt, Rückert, de Wette, and Alford. Some refer it to studium mutuae communicationis; others regard it as meaning a species of indulgence to the weaker and the erring brethren; while others, such as Luther, Bucer, and Grotius, take the participle as pointing out the sincerity and truthful quality of this ἀγάπη-sincere alios diligentes. Conybeare's version is very bald—“living in truth and love.” But while it is evident that truth and love are radically connected, and that there can be no truth that lives not in love, and no love that has not its birth in truth, still we prefer, with Harless, Meyer, Passavant, Olshausen, and Baumgarten-Crusius, to join ἐν ἀγάπῃ to the verb αὐξήσωμεν-for the words in the conclusion of the following verse have plainly such a connection. Besides, in Pauline style, though Alford denies it, qualifying clauses may precede the verb. See under Ephesians 1:4. The chief element of spiritual growth is love- ἐν ἀγάπῃ being repeated.

αὐξήσωμεν is used not in an active, but in an intransitive sense, as OEcumenius, Theophylact, and Jerome understood it. The verb has reference at once to the condition of the νήπιοι-children immature and ungrown, and to the μέτρον ἡλικίας-the full stature of perfect manhood. Our growth should be ever advancing-spiritual dwarfhood is a misshapen and shameful state. Besides, as believers grow, their spiritual power developes, and their spiritual senses are exercised, so that they are more able to repel the seductions of false and crafty teachers.