with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God
(3:1).—When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with him be manifested
in glory (3:4).—Christ is all, and in all (3:11).—Above all things put on love, which is the bond of
perfectness (3:14).—Whatsoever ye do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus
(3:17).§ 95. The Epistle to the Ephesians.
Contents.
When Paul took leave of the Ephesian Elders at Miletus, in the spring of the year 58, he earnestly
and affectionately exhorted them, in view of threatening disturbances from within, to take heed
unto themselves and to feed "the church of the Lord, which he acquired with his own blood."^1159
This strikes the key-note of the Epistle to the Ephesians. It is a doctrinal and practical
exposition of the idea of the church, as the house of God (Eph. 2:20–22), the spotless bride of Christ
(5:25–27), the mystical body of Christ (4:12–16), "the fulness of Him that filleth all in all" (1:23).
The pleroma of the Godhead resides in Christ corporeally; so the pleroma of Christ, the plenitude
of his graces and energies, resides in the church, as his body. Christ’s fulness is God’s fulness; the
church’s fulness is Christ’s fulness. God is reflected in Christ, Christ is reflected in the church.
This is an ideal conception, a celestial vision, as it were, of the church in its future state of
perfection. Paul himself represents the present church militant as a gradual growth unto the complete
stature of Christ’s fulness (4:13–16). We look in vain for an actual church which is free from spot
or wrinkle or blemish (5:27). Even the apostolic church was full of defects, as we may learn from
every Epistle of the New Testament. The church consists of individual Christians, and cannot be
complete till they are complete. The body grows and matures with its several members. "It is not
yet made manifest what we shall be" (1 John 3:2).
Nevertheless, Paul’s church is not a speculation or fiction, like Plato’s Republic or Sir
Thomas More’s Utopia. It is a reality in Christ, who is absolutely holy, and is spiritually and
dynamically present in his church always, as the soul is present in the members of the body. And
it sets before us the high standard and aim to be kept constantly in view; as Christ exhorts every
one individually to be perfect, even as our heavenly Father is perfect (Matt. 5:48).
With this conception of the church is closely connected Paul’s profound and most fruitful
idea of the family. He calls the relation of Christ to his church a great mystery (Eph. 5:32), and
represents it as the archetype of the marriage relation, whereby one man and one woman become
one flesh. He therefore bases the family on new and holy ground, and makes it a miniature of the
church, or the household of God. Accordingly, husbands are to love their wives even as Christ
loved the church, his bride, and gave himself up for her; wives are to obey their husbands as the
church is subject to Christ, the head; parents are to love their children as Christ and the church love(^1159) Acts 20:28. Some of the best authorities (א, B, Vulg., etc.) read "church of God." So also Westcott and Hort, and the English
Revision; but the American Committee prefers, with Tischendorf, the reading τοῦ κυρίου, which is supported by A, C*, D, E,
etc., and suits better in this connection. Paul often speaks of "the church of God," but nowhere of "the blood of God." Possibly,
as Dr. Hort suggests, υἱοῦ may have dropped out in a very early copy after τοῦ ἰδίου. See a full discussion by Dr. Abbot, in
"Bibl. Sacra" for 1876, pp. 313 sqq. (for κυρίου), and by Westcott and Hort, Greek Test., II., Notes, pp. 98 sqq. (for θεοῦ).
A.D. 1-100.