CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Ephesians 2:19. So then.—Inference of Ephesians 2:14-18. Strangers and foreigners.—By the latter word is meant those who temporarily abide in a place, but are without the privileges of it. There is a verb “to parish” in certain parts of England which shows how a word can entirely reverse its original meaning. It not only means “to adjoin,” but “to belong to.” Fellow-citizens with the saints.—Enjoying all civic liberties, and able to say, “This is my own, my native land,” when he finds “Mount Zion and the city of the living God” (cf. Hebrews 11:13-14). And of the household of God.—The association grows more intimate. The words might possibly mean “domestics of God” (Revelation 22:3-4); but when we think of the “Father’s house” we must interpret “of the family circle of God.”
Ephesians 2:20. Being built upon the foundation.—From the figure of a household St. Paul passes easily to the structure, based on “the Church’s One Foundation.” The chief corner-stone.—“The historic Christ, to whom all Christian belief and life have reference, as necessarily conditions through Himself the existence and endurance of each Christian commonwealth, as the existence and steadiness of a building are dependent on the indispensable cornerstone, which upholds the whole structure” (Meyer). The difference between our passage and 1 Corinthians 3:11 is one of figure only.
Ephesians 2:21. All the building.—R.V. “each several building.” Fitly-framed-together.—One word in the original, found again only in Ephesians 4:16 in this form.
Ephesians 2:22. For a habitation.—The word so translated is found again only in Revelation 18:2, a sharp contrast to this verse.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Ephesians 2:19-22
The Church the Temple of God.
I. Enjoying special privileges.—
1. A saintly citizenship. “No more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints” (Ephesians 2:19). The apostle has spoken of the separation and enmity existing between Jew and Gentile. The Jew, trained to believe in the one invisible and only true God, who could not be imagined by any material form, learned to look with hatred and contempt on the outcast, lawless Gentile, with his idol deities in every valley and on every hill; and the intellectual Gentile looked with philosophic pride on the stern land of the Hebrew and in philosophic scorn on his strange, exclusive loneliness. They were not only at enmity with each other, but both were at enmity with God. Now the writer is showing that by the provisions of the gospel both Greek and Jew are united as citizens of one divine kingdom. They enjoy the same privileges, and are in actual fellowship with prophets and apostles and all holy souls in all ages, and are sanctified subjects of a kingdom that can never be moved.
2. A family life.—“And of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19). The Church is a family having one Father in God, one Brother in Christ, one life in the Spirit, and one home in heaven. As in earthly families, there are diversities of character, tastes, gifts, tendencies, and manifestations, but all the members of the heavenly household are bound together by the one common bond of love to God and to each other.
II. Resting on a sure foundation (Ephesians 2:20).—The materials composing the foundation of the Church are living stones—teachers and confessors of the truth, “apostles and prophets”; but Christ, as the one foundation, is the “chief corner-stone.” The foundation of the Church is not so much in the witnesses of the truth as in the truth itself, and in propagating which truth the first teachers and confessors sacrificed their all. The truth which produced and sustained the martyrs is itself immovable. The apostles and prophets—teachers in the apostolic times—laid the first course in the foundation of the Church, and were careful to recognise and build only one foundation, united and held together by the one corner-stone—Christ Jesus. They fixed the pattern and standard of Christian doctrine and practice. The Christian Church is sure because the foundation is deep and broad, and can never be removed and replaced by any human structure.
III. Ever rising to a higher perfection (Ephesians 2:21).—The image is that of an extensive pile of buildings, such as the ancient temples commonly were, in process of construction at different points over a wide area. The builders work in concert upon a common plan. The several parts of the work are adjusted to each other, and the various operations in process are so harmonised that the entire construction preserves the unity of the architect’s design. Such an edifice was the apostolic Church—one but of many parts—in its diverse gifts and multiplied activities animated by one Spirit and directed towards one divine purpose (Findlay). Since the Day of Pentecost, when three thousand living stones were laid on the foundation, the Church has been growing in symmetry, beauty, and vastness, and it is constantly advancing towards perfection. The building, though apparently disjoined and working in separate parts, is growing into a final unity.
IV. Made by the Spirit His glorious dwelling-place (Ephesians 2:22).—The Holy Spirit is the supreme Builder as He is the supreme Witness to Jesus Christ (John 15:26-27). The words “in the Spirit” denote not the mode of God’s habitation—that is self-evident—but the agency engaged in building this new house of God. With one chief corner-stone to rest upon, and one Spirit to inspire and control them, the apostles and prophets laid their foundation, and the Church was builded together for a habitation of God. Hence its unity. But for this sovereign influence the primitive founders of Christianity, like later Church leaders, would have fallen into fatal discord (Findlay). The Church is a spiritual organisation, pervaded and made vital and progressive by the presence and operation of the Spirit of God. An organ is composed of several instruments—the choir, the swell, the pedal, the great; and many stops—the diapason, the flute, the trumpet; and yet it is one. And the Church of God is one. One Spirit—one breath of wind turned on by one living Hand—makes all the organ vocal.
Lessons.—
1. The Church is the depositary of great religious privileges.
2. God dwells in the Church by dwelling in the heart of every member of it.
3. The Church provides every facility for worship and service.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Ephesians 2:19-22. The Church of God a Spiritual Building.
I. The apostle represents the Church of God under the figure of a city and a household.—
1. A Church must resemble a family or city in respect of order and government; for without these a religious society can no more subsist than a civil community or a household.
2. In a city or household all the members have a mutual relation and partake in the common privileges; and though they are placed in different stations and conditions, they must all contribute to the general happiness.
3. In a city and also in a family there is a common interest.
4. In a well-ordered city or household there will be peace and unity; so there ought to be in a Christian Church.
II. The manner in which the Church is founded.—The mediation of Christ is the foundation of our faith and hope. The apostles and prophets are a foundation only as they describe and exhibit to us the doctrines and works, the atonement and intercession, of the Redeemer. In Him all the doctrines of the apostles and prophets meet and unite, as the stones in the foundation are fixed and bound together by the corner-stone.
III. The Church must be united with and framed into the foundation.—Thus it may stand secure. Christ is the chief corner-stone in which all the building is framed. That only is true faith in Christ which regards Him as the foundation of our present hope and final acceptance.
IV. As the Church must rest on the foundation, so the several parts of it must be framed and inserted into each other.—As it is faith which fixes the saints on Christ the foundation, so it is love which binds them together among themselves. If we would preserve the beauty, strength, and dignity of the spiritual house, we must be watchful to repair breaches as soon as they appear, and to remove those materials which are become too corrupt to be repaired, lest they communicate their own corruption to sounder parts.
V. The Church is to grow into a holy temple for God through the Spirit.—We must not content ourselves with having built on the true foundation, but must bring the structure to a more finished and beautiful condition. The Church may grow and make increase both by the progress of its present members in knowledge and holiness and by the addition of new members who become fellow-workers in the spiritual building. God dwells in His Church, not only by His word and ordinances, but also by the influence of His Spirit which He affords to assist His people in the duties of His worship and to open their hearts for the reception of His word.—Lathrop.
Ephesians 2:19. Christian Prayer a Witness of Christian Citizenship.
I. The foundation of the citizenship of the Christian.—In access to the Father—in the power of approaching Him in full, free, trustful prayer.
1. Christian prayer is the approach of the individual soul to God as its Father.—Until a man utterly believes in Christ he can never pray aright. There are veils around the unbelieving spirit which hinder this free, confiding approach. The touch of God startles memories, rouses ghosts of the past in the soul’s secret chambers; they flutter fearfully in the strange divine light, and the man shudders and dare not pray. A man bathed in the life of God in prayer feels he is no more a stranger and a foreigner, but has entered into God’s kingdom, for God is his Father.
2. That prayer of the individual soul must lead to the united worship of God’s Church.—We cannot always pray alone. The men who stand most aloof from social worship are not the men who manifest the highest spiritual life. Our highest prayers are our most universal. I do not say we don’t feel their individuality, we do—but in and through their universality.
II. The nature of Christian citizenship.—
1. Prayer a witness to our fellowship with the Church of all time. Realising the Fatherhood of God in the holy converse of prayer, we are nearer men. Our selfishness, our narrow, isolating peculiarities begin to fade. In our highest prayers we realise common wants.
2. Prayer a witness to our fellowship with the Church of eternity.—All emotions of eternity catch the tone of prayer. Sometimes in the evening, when the sounds of the world are still and the sense of eternity breaks in upon us, is not that feeling a prayer? We know that we are right, that in worship we have taken no earthly posture, but an attitude from higher regions.
Lessons.—
1. Live as members of the kingdom.
2. Expect the signs of citizenship—the crown of thorns, the cross.
3. Live in hope of the final ingathering.—E. L. Hull.
The Communion of Saints.
I. Society becomes possible only through religion.—Men might be gregarious without it, but not social. Instinct which unites them in detail prevents their wider combination. Intellect affords light to show the elements of union, but no heat to give them crystalline form. Self-will is prevailingly a repulsive power, and often disintegrates the most solid of human masses. Some sense of a divine Presence, some consciousness of a higher law, some pressure of a solemn necessity, will be found to have preceded the organisation of every human community and to have gone out and perished before its death.
II. Worship exhibits its uniting principle under the simplest form, in the sympathies it diffuses among the members of the same religious assembly.—There is, however, no necessary fellowship, as of saints, in the mere assembling of ourselves together; but only in the true and simple spirit of worship. Where a pure devotion really exists, the fellowship it produces spreads far beyond the separate circle of each Christian assembly. Surely it is a glorious thing to call up, while we worship, the wide image of Christendom this day. Could we be lifted up above this sphere and look down as it rolls beneath this day’s sun, and catch its murmurs as they rise, should we not behold land after land turned into a Christian shrine? In how many tongues, by what various voices, with what measureless intensity of love, is the name of Christ breathed forth to-day!
III. But our worship here brings us into yet nobler connections.—It unites us by a chain of closest sympathy with past generations. In our helps to faith and devotion we avail ourselves of the thought and piety of many extinct ages. Do not we, the living, take up in adoration and prayer the thoughts of the dead and find them divinely true? What an impressive testimony is this to the sameness of our nature through every age and the immortal perseverance of its holier affections!
IV. And soon we too shall drop the note of earthly aspiration and join that upper anthem of diviner love.—The communion of saints brings us to their conflict first, their blessings afterwards. Those who will not with much patience strive with the evil can have no dear fellowship with the good; we must weep their tears ere we can win their peace.—Martineau.
Characteristics of Believers.
I. Believers are here described as having been strangers and foreigners.—
1. There are relative expressions, meaning that natural men are strangers to the household of God and foreigners as respects the city of Zion.
2. Consider the natural man with reference to the city of Zion, and the truth of this representation will appear.
(1) He is a stranger and foreigner—(a) By a sentence of exile (Genesis 3). (b) By birth (Genesis 5:3; John 3:6).
(2) He is proved to be a stranger and foreigner—(a) By features (Galatians 5:19-21). (b) By manners (1 Peter 4:3). (c) By language. As such he is under another ruler (Ephesians 2:2), he is at war (Galatians 4:29).
3. Though “strangers and foreigners” in relation to Zion, yet men are naturalised in another country.
4. This does not imply living beyond the pale of the visible Church. The Parable of the Tares. An alien to the saints and a stranger to God may be in the visible Church. 5. That there are “strangers and foreigners” in the Church seems a calamity.
(1) They are thereby deceived.
(2) They injure Christians.
(3) They betray Christ.
II. Believers are described as being fellow-citizens with the saints.—
1. They are citizens.
(1) Their sentence of exile is cancelled (Ephesians 2:13).
(2) They are naturalised by birth (John 3:5).
(3) They are reconciled to God and believers.
(4) They are under Zion’s government.
2. They are “fellow-citizens with the saints.”
(1) They have intercourse—holy.
(2) They are united by mutual love.
(3) They have reciprocal duties.
(4) They have common rights and privileges.
(5) They have common honour and reputation.
(6) They have common prosperity and adversity.
(7) They have common enemies.
(8) They have common defence and safety.
(9) They have a common history.
3. As a congregation we are professedly a section of this peculiar and spiritual community.
(1) Do we seek each other’s welfare?
(2) Is our intercourse the communion of saints?
(3) Are we careful of each other’s reputation?
4. Are we as a congregation isolating ourselves from each other? Are we “fellow-citizens with the saints”?
5. The city is above.
III. Believers are here described as belonging to the household of God.—
1. Believers as citizens are God’s subjects.
2. As belonging to God’s household they are His children.
3. As in God’s household—
(1) They are like Him.
(2) They are near to Him.
(3) They see His face.
(4) They enjoy His fellowship.
(5) They are provided for by Him.
(6) They are under His protection.
(7) They serve Him.
(8) They worship Him—His house is a temple.
4. These are very tangible privileges, and belong to this present life.
5. Many may suppose that they are “fellow-citizens with the saints” whose experience does not prove that they are “of the household of God.”
6. For this “household” God has “a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.”—Stewart.
Ephesians 2:20-21. The Church a Divine Edifice.—
1. Though God Himself be the principal Author and Builder of this spiritual edifice, yet He employs His called ministers and servants as instruments, among whom He made special use of the prophets and apostles for laying the foundation in so far as they first did reveal and preach Jesus Christ, and commit to writings such truths concerning Him as are necessary for salvation, while other ministers are employed in preaching Christ to build up the elect on the foundation laid by them.
2. There is a sweet harmony and full agreement between the doctrines and writings of the prophets and apostles in holding forth Christ for a foundation and rock of salvation, the latter having taught and written nothing but what was prefigured in types and foretold in prophecies by the former.
3. As growth in grace is a privilege which appertains to all parts of this spiritual building who are yet on earth, so this growth of theirs flows from their union and communion with Christ; and the more their union is improved by daily extracting renewed influence from Him, they cannot choose but thrive the better in spiritual growth.—Fergusson.
Ephesians 2:22. The Church the Habitation of God.—
1. Jesus Christ differs from the foundation of other buildings in this, that every particular believer is not only laid upon Him and supported by Him as in material buildings, but they are also indented in Him, and hid, as it were, in the clefts of the rock by saving faith.
2. As all believers, however far soever removed by distance, are yet more strictly tied and joined together, so by taking band with Christ the foundation, they are fastened one to another as the stones of a building.
3. So inseparable is the union among the persons of the Trinity that the presence and indwelling of One is sufficient to prove the indwelling of all; for believers are a habitation to God the Father and Son, because the Spirit dwells in and sanctifies them.—Ibid.