{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"EPH","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Ephesians","commonName":"Ephesians","introduction":"THE headings (Eph 1:1, and Eph 3:1, show that this Epistle claims to be that of Paul. This claim is confirmed by the testimonies of IRENÆUS, [Against Heresies, 5.2,3; 1.8,5]; CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, [Miscellanies, 4, P. 65, and The Instructor, 1.8]; ORIGEN, [Against Celsus, 4,211]. It is quoted by VALENTINUS, A.D. 120, namely, Eph 3:14-18, as we know from HIPPOLYTUS [The Refutation of All Heresies, p. 193]. POLYCARP [Epistle to the Philippians, 12], testifies to its canonicity. So TERTULLIAN [Against Marcion, 5,17]. IGNATIUS [Epistle to the Ephesians, 12], which alludes to the frequent and affectionate mention made by Paul of the Christian state, privileges, and persons of the Ephesians in his Epistle.\n\nTwo theories, besides the ordinary one, have been held on the question, to whom the Epistle is addressed. GROTIUS, after the heretic Marcion, maintains that it was addressed to the Church at Laodicea, and that it is the Epistle to which Paul refers in Col 4:16. But the Epistle to the Colossians was probably written before that to the Ephesians, as appears from the parallel passages in Ephesians bearing marks of being expanded from those in Colossians; and Marcion seems to have drawn his notion, as to our Epistle, from Paul's allusion (Col 4:16) to an Epistle addressed by him to the Laodiceans. ORIGEN and CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, and even TERTULLIAN, who refers to Marcion, give no sanction to his notion. No single manuscript contains the heading, \"to the saints that are at Laodicea.\" The very resemblance of the Epistle to the Ephesians, to that to the Colossians, is against the theory; for if the former were really the one addressed to Laodicea (Col 4:16), Paul would not have deemed it necessary that the churches of Colosse and Laodicea should interchange Epistles. The greetings, moreover (Col 4:15), which he sends through the Colossians to the Laodiceans, are quite incompatible with the idea that Paul wrote an Epistle to the Laodiceans at the same time, and by the same bearer, Tychicus (the bearer of our Epistle to the Ephesians, as well as of that to Colosse, Eph 6:21; Col 4:7); for who, under such circumstances, would not send the greetings directly in the letter to the party saluted? The letter to Laodicea was evidently written some time before that to Colosse, Archbishop USHER has advanced the second theory: That it was an encyclical letter headed, as in Manuscript B., \"to the saints that are . . . and to the faithful,\" the name of each Church being inserted in the copy sent to it; and that its being sent to Ephesus first, occasioned its being entitled, as now, the Epistle to the Ephesians. ALFORD makes the following objections to this theory: (1) It is at variance with the spirit of the Epistle, which is clearly addressed to one set of persons throughout, co-existing in one place, and as one body, and under the same circumstances. (2) The improbability that the apostle, who in two of his Epistles (Second Corinthians and Galatians) has so plainly specified their encyclical character, should have here omitted such specification. (3) The still greater improbability that he should have, as on this hypothesis must be assumed, written a circular Epistle to a district, of which Ephesus was the commercial capital, addressed to various churches within that district, yet from its very contents (as by the opponents' hypothesis) not admitting of application to the Church of that metropolis, in which he had spent so long a time, and to which he was so affectionately bound. (4) The inconsistency of this hypothesis with the address of the Epistle, and the universal testimony of the ancient Church. The absence of personal greetings is not an argument for either of the two theories; for similarly there are none in Galatians, Philippians, First and Second Thessalonians, First Timothy. The better he knows the parties addressed, and the more general and solemn the subject, the less he seems to give of these individual notices. Writing, as he does in this Epistle, on the constitution and prospects of Christ's universal Church, he refers the Ephesians, as to personal matters, to the bearer of the Epistle, Tychicus (Eph 6:21-22). As to the omission of \"which are at Ephesus\" (Eph 1:1), in Manuscript B., so \"in Rome\" (Rom 1:7) is omitted in some old manuscripts: it was probably done by churches among whom it was read, in order to generalize the reference of its contents, and especially where the subject of the Epistle is catholic. The words are found in the margin of Manuscript B, from a first hand; and are found in all the oldest manuscripts and versions.\n\nPaul's first visit to Ephesus (on the seacoast of Lydia, near the river Cayster) is related in Act 18:19-21. The work, begun by his disputations with the Jews in his short visit, was carried on by Apollos (Act 18:24-26), and Aquila and Priscilla (Act 18:26). At his second visit, after his journey to Jerusalem, and thence to the east regions of Asia Minor, he remained at Ephesus \"three years\" (Act 19:10, the \"two years\" in which verse are only part of the time, and Act 20:31); so that the founding and rearing of this Church occupied an unusually large portion of the apostle's time and care; whence his language in this Epistle shows a warmth of feeling, and a free outpouring of thought, and a union in spiritual privileges and hope between him and them (Eph 1:3, &c.), such as are natural from one so long and so intimately associated with those whom he addresses. On his last journey to Jerusalem, he sailed by Ephesus and summoned the elders of the Ephesian Church to meet him at Miletus, where he delivered his remarkable farewell charge (Acts 20:18-35).\n\nThis Epistle was addressed to the Ephesians during the early part of his imprisonment at Rome, immediately after that to the Colossians, to which it bears a close resemblance in many passages, the apostle having in his mind generally the same great truths in writing both. It is an undesigned proof of genuineness that the two Epistles, written about the same date, and under the same circumstances, bear a closer mutual resemblance than those written at distant dates and on different occasions. Compare Eph 1:7 with Col 1:14; Eph 1:10 with Col 1:20; Eph 3:2 with Col 1:25; Eph 5:19 with Col 3:16; Eph 6:22 with Col 4:8; Eph 1:19; Eph 2:5 with Col 2:12-13; Eph 4:2-4 with Col 3:12-15; Eph 4:16 with Col 2:19; Eph 4:32 with Col 3:13; Eph 4:22-24 with Col 3:9-10; Eph 5:6-8 with Col 3:6-8; Eph 5:15-16 with Col 4:5; Eph 6:19-20 with Col 4:3-4; Eph 5:22-33; Eph 6:1-9 with Col 3:18; Eph 4:24-25 with Col 3:9; Eph 5:20-22 with Col 3:17-18. Tychicus and Onesimus were being sent to Colosse, the former bearing the two Epistles to the two churches respectively, the latter furnished with a letter of recommendation to Philemon, his former master, residing at Colosse. The date was probably about four years after his parting with the Ephesian elders at Miletus (Acts 20:6-38), about A.D. 62, before his imprisonment had become of the more severe kind, which appears in his Epistle to the Philippians. From Eph 6:19-20 it is plain he had at the time, though a prisoner, some degree of freedom in preaching, which accords with Act 28:23, Act 28:30-31, where he is represented as receiving at his lodgings all inquirers. His imprisonment began in February A.D. 61 and lasted \"two whole years\" (Act 28:30) at least, and perhaps longer.\n\nThe Church of Ephesus was made up of converts partly from the Jews and partly from the Gentiles (Act 19:8-10). Accordingly, the Epistle so addresses a Church constituted (Eph 2:14-22). Ephesus was famed for its idol temple of Artemis or Diana, which, after its having been burnt down by Herostratus on the night that Alexander the Great was born (355 B.C.), was rebuilt at enormous cost and was one of the wonders of the world. Hence, perhaps, have arisen his images in this Epistle drawn from a beautiful temple: the Church being in true inner beauty that which the temple of the idol tried to realize in outward show (Eph 2:19-22). The Epistle (Eph 4:17; Eph 5:1-13) implies the profligacy for which the Ephesian heathen were notorious. Many of the same expressions occur in the Epistle as in Paul's address to the Ephesian elders. Compare Eph 1:6-7; Eph 2:7, as to \"grace,\" with Act 20:24, Act 20:32 : this may well be called \"the Epistle of the grace of God\" [ALFORD]. Also, as to his \"bonds,\" Eph 3:1, and Eph 4:1 with Act 20:22-23. Also Eph 1:11, as to \"the counsel of God,\" with Act 20:27. Also Eph 1:14, as to \"the redemption of the purchased possession,\" with Act 20:28. Also Eph 1:14, Eph 1:18; Eph 2:20; Eph 5:5, as to \"building up\" the \"inheritance,\" with Act 20:32.\n\nThe object of the Epistle is \"to set forth the ground, the course, and the aim and end of THE CHURCH OF THE FAITHFUL IN CHRIST. He speaks to the Ephesians as a type or sample of the Church universal\" [ALFORD]. Hence, \"the Church\" throughout the Epistle is spoken of in the singular, not in the plural, \"churches.\" The Church's foundation, its course, and its end, are his theme alike in the larger and smaller divisions of the whole Epistle. \"Everywhere the foundation of the Church is in the will of the Father; the course of the Church is by the satisfaction of the Son; the end of the Church is the life in the Holy Spirit\" [ALFORD]. Compare respectively Eph 1:11; Eph 2:5; Eph 3:16. This having been laid down as a matter of doctrine (this part closing with a sublime doxology, Eph 3:14-21), is then made the ground of practical exhortations. In these latter also (from Eph 4:1, onward), the same threefold division prevails, for the Church is represented as founded on the counsel of \"God the Father, who is above all, through all, and in all,\" reared by the \"one Lord,\" Jesus Christ, through the \"one Spirit\" (Eph 4:4-6, &c.), who give their respective graces to the several members. These last are therefore to exercise all these graces in the several relations of life, as husbands, wives, servants, children, &c. The conclusion is that we must put on \"the whole armor of God\" (Eph 6:13).\n\nThe sublimity of the STYLE and LANGUAGE corresponds to the sublimity of the subjects and exceeds almost that of any part of his Epistles. It is appropriate that those to whom he so wrote were Christians long grounded in the faith. The very sublimity is the cause of the difficulty of the style, and of the presence of peculiar expressions occurring, not found elsewhere. \n\n\n\nNext: Ephesians Chapter 1\n\n","order":49,"numberOfChapters":6,"sha256":"cb26c51e1fc677d14f8ded4d2ec1526889ff5f790f6c8c41adec962f0416769a","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EPH/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EPH","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":6,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EPH/6.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EPH","chapter":6},"totalNumberOfVerses":148},"chapter":{"number":6,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["Here the authority of revealed law is added to that of natural law. \n\nwhich is . . . promise--The \"promise\" is not made the main motive to obedience, but an incidental one. The main motive is, because it is God's will (Deu 5:16, \"Honor thy father and mother, as the Lord thy God hath COMMANDED thee\"); and that it is so peculiarly, is shown by His accompanying it \"with a promise.\" \n\nfirst--in the decalogue with a special promise. The promise in the second commandment is a general one. Their duty is more expressly prescribed to children than to parents; for love descends rather than ascends [BENGEL]. This verse proves the law in the Old Testament is not abolished.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["long on the earth--In Exo 20:12, \"long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee,\" which Paul adapts to Gospel times, by taking away the local and limited reference peculiar to the Jews in Canaan. The godly are equally blessed in every land, as the Jews were in the land which God gave them. This promise is always fulfilled, either literally, or by the substitution of a higher blessing, namely, one spiritual and eternal (Job 5:26; Pro 10:27). The substance and essence of the law are eternally in force: its accidents alone (applying to Israel of old) are abolished (Rom 6:15).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["fathers--including mothers; the fathers are specified as being the fountains of domestic authority. Fathers are more prone to passion in relation to their children than mothers, whose fault is rather over-indulgence. \n\nprovoke not--irritate not, by vexatious commands, unreasonable blame, and uncertain temper [ALFORD]. Col 3:21, \"lest they be discouraged.\" \n\nnurture--Greek, \"discipline,\" namely, training by chastening in act where needed (Job 5:17; Heb 12:7). \n\nadmonition--training by words (Deu 6:7; \"catechise,\" Pro 22:6, Margin), whether of encouragement, or remonstrance, or reproof, according as is required [TRENCH]. Contrast Sa1 3:13, Margin. \n\nof the Lord--such as the Lord approves, and by His Spirit dictates.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["Servants--literally, \"slaves.\" \n\nmasters according to the flesh--in contrast to your true and heavenly Master (Eph 6:4). A consolatory him that the mastership to which they were subject, was but for a time [CHRYSOSTOM]; and that their real liberty was still their own (Co1 7:22). \n\nfear and trembling--not slavish terror, but (See on Co1 2:3; Co2 7:15) an anxious eagerness to do your duty, and a fear of displeasing, as great as is produced in the ordinary slave by \"threatenings\" (Eph 6:9). \n\nsingleness--without double-mindedness, or \"eye service\" (Eph 6:6), which seeks to please outwardly, without the sincere desire to make the master's interest at all times the first consideration (Ch1 29:17; Mat 6:22-23; Luk 11:34). \"Simplicity.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["(Col 3:22). Seeking to please their masters only so long as these have their eyes on them: as Gehazi was a very different man in his master's presence from what he was in his absence (2Ki. 5:1-18). \n\nmen-pleasers--not Christ-pleasers (compare Gal 1:10; Th1 2:4). \n\ndoing the will of God--the unseen but ever present Master: the best guarantee for your serving faithfully your earthly master alike when present and when absent. \n\nfrom the heart--literally, soul (Psa 111:1; Rom 13:5).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["good will--expressing his feeling towards his master; as \"doing the will of God from the heart\" expresses the source of that feeling (Col 3:23). \"Good will\" is stated by XENOPHON [Economics] to be the principal virtue of a slave towards his master: a real regard to his master's interest as if his own, a good will which not even a master's severity can extinguish.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["any man doeth--Greek, \"any man shall have done,\" that is, shall be found at the Lord's coming to have done. \n\nthe same--in full payment, in heaven's currency. \n\nshall . . . receive-- (Co2 5:10; Col 3:25; but all of grace, Luk 17:10). \n\nbond or free-- (Co1 7:22; Co1 12:13; Gal 3:28; Col 3:11). Christ does not regard such distinctions in His present dealings of grace, or in His future judgment. The slave that has acted faithfully for the Lord's sake to his master, though the latter may not repay his faithfulness, shall have the Lord for his Paymaster. So the freeman who has done good for the Lord's sake, though man may not pay him, has the Lord for his Debtor (Pro 19:17).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["the same things--Mutatis mutandis. Show the same regard to God's will, and to your servants' well-being, in your relation to them, as they ought to have in their relation to you. Love regulates the duties both of servants and masters, as one and the same light attempers various colors. Equality of nature and faith is superior to distinctions of rank [BENGEL]. Christianity makes all men brothers: compare Lev 25:42-43; Deu 15:12; Jer 34:14 as to how the Hebrews were bound to treat their brethren in service; much more ought Christians to act with love. \n\nthreatening--Greek, \"the threatening\" which masters commonly use. \"Masters\" in the Greek, is not so strong a term as \"despots\": it implies authority, but not absolute domination. \n\nyour Master also--The oldest manuscripts read, \"the Master both of them and you\": \"their Master and yours.\" This more forcibly brings out the equality of slaves and masters in the sight of God. SENECA [Thyestes, 607], says, \"Whatever an inferior dreads from you, this a superior Master threatens yourselves with: every authority here is under a higher above.\" As you treat your servants, so will He treat you. \n\nneither . . . respect of persons--He will not, in judging, acquit thee because thou art a master, or condemn him because he is a servant (Act 10:34; Rom 2:11; Gal 2:6; Col 3:25; Pe1 1:17). Derived from Deu 10:17; Ch2 19:7.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["my brethren--Some of the oldest manuscripts omit these words. Some with Vulgate retain them. The phrase occurs nowhere else in the Epistle (see, however, Eph 6:23); if genuine, it is appropriate here in the close of the Epistle, where he is urging his fellow soldiers to the good fight in the Christian armor. Most of the oldest manuscripts for \"finally,\" read, \"henceforward,\" or \"from henceforth\" (Gal 6:17). \n\nbe strong--Greek, \"be strengthened.\" \n\nin the power of his might--Christ's might: as in Eph 1:19, it is the Father's might.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["the whole armour--the armor of light (Rom 13:12); on the right hand and left (Co2 6:7). The panoply offensive and defensive. An image readily suggested by the Roman armory, Paul being now in Rome. Repeated emphatically, Eph 6:13. In Rom 13:14 it is, \"Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ\"; in putting on Him, and the new man in Him, we put on \"the whole armor of God.\" No opening at the head, the feet, the heart, the belly, the eye, the ear, or the tongue, is to be given to Satan. Believers have once for all overcome him; but on the ground of this fundamental victory gained over him, they are ever again to fight against and overcome him, even as they who once die with Christ have continually to mortify their members upon earth (Rom 6:2-14; Col 3:3, Col 3:5). \n\nof God--furnished by God; not our own, else it would not stand (Psa 35:1-3). Spiritual, therefore, and mighty through God, not carnal (Co2 10:4). \n\nwiles--literally, \"schemes sought out\" for deceiving (compare Co2 11:14). \n\nthe devil--the ruling chief of the foes (Eph 6:12) organized into a kingdom of darkness (Mat 12:26), opposed to the kingdom of light.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["Greek, \"For our wrestling ('the wrestling' in which we are engaged) is not against flesh,\" &c. Flesh and blood foes are Satan's mere tools, the real foe lurking behind them is Satan himself, with whom our conflict is. \"Wrestling\" implies that it is a hand-to-hand and foot-to-foot struggle for the mastery: to wrestle successfully with Satan, we must wrestle with GOD in irresistible prayer like Jacob (Gen 32:24-29; Hos 12:4). Translate, \"The principalities . . . the powers\" (Eph 1:21; Col 1:16; see on Eph 3:10). The same grades of powers are specified in the case of the demons here, as in that of angels there (compare Rom 8:38; Co1 15:24; Col 2:15). The Ephesians had practiced sorcery (Act 19:19), so that he appropriately treats of evil spirits in addressing them. The more clearly any book of Scripture, as this, treats of the economy of the kingdom of light, the more clearly does it set forth the kingdom of darkness. Hence, nowhere does the satanic kingdom come more clearly into view than in the Gospels which treat of Christ, the true Light. \n\nrulers of the darkness of this world--Greek, \"age\" or \"course of the world.\" But the oldest manuscripts omit \"of world.\" Translate, \"Against the world rulers of this (present) darkness\" (Eph 2:2; Eph 5:8; Luk 22:53; Col 1:13). On Satan and his demons being \"world rulers,\" compare Joh 12:31; Joh 14:30; Joh 16:11; Luk 4:6; Co2 4:4; Jo1 5:19, Greek, \"lieth in the wicked one.\" Though they be \"world rulers,\" they are not the ruler of the universe; and their usurped rule of the world is soon to cease, when He shall \"come whose right it is\" (Eze 21:27). Two cases prove Satan not to be a mere subjective fancy: (1) Christ's temptation; (2) the entrance of demons into the swine (for these are incapable of such fancies). Satan tries to parody, or imitate in a perverted way, God's working (Co2 11:13-14). So when God became incarnate, Satan, by his demons, took forcible possession of human bodies. Thus the demoniacally possessed were not peculiarly wicked, but miserable, and so fit subjects for Jesus' pity. Paul makes no mention of demoniacal possession, so that in the time he wrote, it seems to have ceased; it probably was restricted to the period of the Lord's incarnation, and of the foundation of His Church. \n\nspiritual wickedness--rather as Greek, \"The spiritual hosts of wickedness.\" As three of the clauses describe the power, so this fourth, the wickedness of our spiritual foes (Mat 12:45). \n\nin high places--Greek, \"heavenly places\": in Eph 2:2, \"the air,\" see on Eph 2:2. The alteration of expression to \"in heavenly places,\" is in order to mark the higher range of their powers than ours, they having been, up to the ascension (Rev 12:5, Rev 12:9-10), dwellers \"in the heavenly places\" (Job 1:7), and being now in the regions of the air which are called the heavens. Moreover, pride and presumption are the sins in heavenly places to which they tempt especially, being those by which they themselves fell from heavenly places (Isa 14:12-15). But believers have naught to fear, being \"blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places\" (Eph 1:3).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["take . . . of God--not \"make,\" God has done that: you have only to \"take up\" and put it on. The Ephesians were familiar with the idea of the gods giving armor to mythical heroes: thus Paul's allusion would be appropriate. \n\nthe evil day--the day of Satan's special assaults (Eph 6:12, Eph 6:16) in life and at the dying hour (compare Rev 3:10). We must have our armor always on, to be ready against the evil day which may come at any moment, the war being perpetual (Psa 41:1, Margin). \n\ndone all--rather, \"accomplished all things,\" namely, necessary to the fight, and becoming a good soldier.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["Stand--The repetition in Eph 6:11, Eph 6:14, shows that standing, that is, maintaining our ground, not yielding or fleeing, is the grand aim of the Christian soldier. Translate as Greek, \"Having girt about your loins with truth,\" that is, with truthfulness, sincerity, a good conscience (Co2 1:12; Ti1 1:5, Ti1 1:18; Ti1 3:9). Truth is the band that girds up and keeps together the flowing robes, so as that the Christian soldier may be unencumbered for action. So the Passover was eaten with the loins girt, and the shoes on the feet (Exo 12:11; compare Isa 5:27; Luk 12:35). Faithfulness (Septuagint, \"truth\") is the girdle of Messiah (Isa 11:5) : so truth of His followers. \n\nhaving on--Greek, \"having put on.\" \n\nbreastplate of righteousness-- (Isa 59:17), similarly of Messiah. \"Righteousness\" is here joined with \"truth,\" as in Eph 5:9 : righteousness in works, truth in words [ESTIUS] (Jo1 3:7). Christ's righteousness inwrought in us by the Spirit. \"Faith and love,\" that is, faith working righteousness by love, are \"the breastplate\" in Th1 5:8.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["Translate, \"Having shod your feet\" (referring to the sandals, or to the military shoes then used). \n\nthe preparation--rather, \"the preparedness,\" or \"readiness of,\" that is, arising from the \"Gospel\" (Psa 10:17). Preparedness to do and suffer all that God wills; readiness for march, as a Christian soldier. \n\ngospel of peace--(compare Luk 1:79; Rom 10:15). The \"peace\" within forms a beautiful contrast to the raging of the outward conflict (Isa 26:3; Phi 4:7).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["Above all--rather, \"Over all\"; so as to cover all that has been put on before. Three integuments are specified, the breastplate, girdle, and shoes; two defenses, the helmet and shield; and two offensive weapons, the sword and the spear (prayer). ALFORD translates, \"Besides all,\" as the Greek is translated, Luk 3:20. But if it meant this, it would have come last in the list (compare Col 3:14). \n\nshield--the large oblong oval door-like shield of the Romans, four feet long by two and a half feet broad; not the small round buckler. \n\nye shall be able--not merely, \"ye may.\" The shield of faith will certainly intercept, and so \"quench, all the fiery darts\" (an image from the ancient fire-darts, formed of cane, with tow and combustibles ignited on the head of the shaft, so as to set fire to woodwork, tents, &c.). \n\nof the wicked--rather \"of the EVIL ONE.\" Faith conquers him (Pe1 5:9), and his darts of temptation to wrath, lust, revenge, despair, &c. It overcomes the world (Jo1 5:4), and so the prince of the world (Jo1 5:18).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["take--a different Greek word from that in Eph 6:13, Eph 6:16; translate, therefore, \"receive,\" \"accept,\" namely, the helmet offered by the Lord, namely, \"salvation\" appropriated, as Th1 5:8, \"Helmet, the hope of salvation\"; not an uncertain hope, but one that brings with it no shame of disappointment (Rom 5:5). It is subjoined to the shield of faith, as being its inseparable accompaniment (compare Rom 5:1, Rom 5:5). The head of the soldier was among the principal parts to be defended, as on it the deadliest strokes might fall, and it is the head that commands the whole body. The head is the seat of the mind, which, when it has laid hold of the sure Gospel \"hope\" of eternal life, will not receive false doctrine, or give way to Satan's temptations to despair. God, by this hope, \"lifts up the head\" (Psa 3:3; Luk 21:28). \n\nsword of the Spirit--that is, furnished by the Spirit, who inspired the writers of the word of God (Pe2 1:21). Again the Trinity is implied: the Spirit here; and Christ in \"salvation\" and God the Father, Eph 6:13 (compare Heb 4:12; Rev 1:16; Rev 2:12). The two-edged sword, cutting both ways (Psa 45:3, Psa 45:5), striking some with conviction and conversion, and others with condemnation (Isa 11:4; Rev 19:15), is in the mouth of Christ (Isa 49:2), in the hand of His saints (Psa 149:6). Christ's use of this sword in the temptation is our pattern as to how we are to wield it against Satan (Mat 4:4, Mat 4:7, Mat 4:10). There is no armor specified for the back, but only for the front of the body; implying that we must never turn our back to the foe (Luk 9:62); our only safety is in resisting ceaselessly (Mat 4:11; Jam 4:7).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["always--Greek, \"in every season\"; implying opportunity and exigency (Col 4:2). Paul uses the very words of Jesus in Luk 21:36 (a Gospel which he quotes elsewhere, in undesigned consonance with the fact of Luke being his associate in travel, Co1 11:23, &c.; Ti1 5:18). Compare Luk 18:1; Rom 12:12; Th1 5:17. \n\nwith all--that is, every kind of. \n\nprayer--a sacred term for prayer in general. \n\nsupplication--a common term for a special kind of prayer [HARLESS], an imploring request. \"Prayer\" for obtaining blessings, \"supplication\" for averting evils which we fear [GROTIUS]. \n\nin the Spirit--to be joined with \"praying.\" It is he in us, as the Spirit of adoption, who prays, and enables us to pray (Rom 8:15, Rom 8:26; Gal 4:6; Jde 1:20). \n\nwatching--not sleeping (Eph 5:14; Psa 88:13; Mat 26:41). So in the temple a perpetual watch was maintained (compare Anna, Luk 2:37). \n\nthereunto--\"watching unto\" (with a view to) prayer and supplication. \n\nwith--Greek, \"in.\" Persevering constancy (\"perseverance\") and (that is, exhibited in) supplication are to be the element in which our watchfulness is to be exercised. \n\nfor all saints--as none is so perfect as not to need the intercessions of his fellow Christians.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["for me--a different Greek preposition from that in Eph 6:18; translate, therefore, \"on my behalf.\" \n\nthat I may open my mouth boldly--rather, \"that there may be given to me 'utterance,' or 'speech' in the opening of my mouth (when I undertake to speak; a formula used in set and solemn speech, Job 3:1; Dan 10:16), so as with boldness to make known,\" &c. Bold plainness of speech was the more needed, as the Gospel is a \"mystery\" undiscoverable by mere reason, and only known by revelation. Paul looked for utterance to be given him; he did not depend on his natural or acquired power. The shortest road to any heart is by way of heaven; pray to God to open the door and to open your mouth, so as to avail yourself of every opening (Jer 1:7-8; Eze 3:8-9, Eze 3:11; Co2 4:13).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["For--Greek, as in Eph 6:19, \"On behalf of which.\" \n\nan ambassador in bonds--a paradox. Ambassadors were held inviolable by the law of nations, and could not, without outrage to every sacred right, be put in chains. Yet Christ's \"ambassador is in a chain!\" The Greek is singular. The Romans used to bind a prisoner to a soldier by a single chain, in a kind of free custody. So Act 28:16, Act 28:20, \"I am bound with this chain.\" The term, \"bonds\" (plural), on the other hand, is used when the prisoner's hands or feet were bound together (Act 26:29); compare Act 12:6, where the plural marks the distinction. The singular is only used of the particular kind of custody described above; an undesigned coincidence [PALEY].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["that ye also--as I have been discussing things relating to you, so that ye also may know about me (compare Col 4:7-8). NEANDER takes it, \"Ye also,\" as well as the Colossians (Col 4:6). \n\nmy affairs--Greek, \"the things concerning me.\" \n\nhow I do--how I fare. \n\nTychicus--an Asiatic, and so a fit messenger bearing the respective Epistles to Ephesus and Colosse (Act 20:4; Ti2 4:12). \n\na beloved brother--Greek, \"the beloved brother\"; the same epithet as in Col 4:7. \n\nminister--that is, servant. \n\nin the Lord--in the Lord's work.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["for the same purpose--Greek, \"for this very purpose.\" Col 4:8 is almost word for word the same as this verse. \n\nour affairs--Greek, \"the things concerning us,\" namely, concerning myself. \"Aristarchus, my fellow prisoner, and Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas\" (Col 4:10).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["love with faith--Faith is presupposed as theirs; he prays that love may accompany it (Gal 5:6).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["Contrast the malediction on all who love Him not (Co1 16:22). \n\nin sincerity--Greek, \"in incorruption,\" that is, not as English Version, but \"with an immortal (constant) love\" [WAHL]. Compare \"that which is not corruptible\" (Pe1 3:4). Not a fleeting, earthly love, but a spiritual and eternal one [ALFORD]. Contrast Col 2:22, worldly things \"which perish with the using.\" Compare Co1 9:25, \"corruptible . . . incorruptible crown.\" \"Purely,\" \"holily\" [ESTIUS], without the corruption of sin (See on Co1 3:17; Pe2 1:4; Jde 1:10). Where the Lord Jesus has a true believer, there I have a brother [BISHOP M'IKWAINE]. He who is good enough for Christ, is good enough for me [R. HALL]. The differences of opinion among real Christians are comparatively small, and show that they are not following one another like silly sheep, each trusting the one before him. Their agreement in the main, while showing their independence as witnesses by differing in non-essentials, can only be accounted for by their being all in the right direction (Act 15:8-9; Co1 1:2; Co1 12:3).\n\n\n\n\n\nNext: Philippians Introduction\n\n"]}],"introduction":"MUTUAL DUTIES OF PARENTS AND CHILDREN: MASTERS AND SERVANTS: OUR LIFE A WARFARE: THE SPIRITUAL ARMOUR NEEDED AGAINST SPIRITUAL FOES. CONCLUSION. (Eph. 6:1-24)\n\nobey--stronger than the expression as to wives, \"submitting,\" or \"being subject\" (Eph 5:21). Obedience is more unreasoning and implicit; submission is the willing subjection of an inferior in point of order to one who has a right to command. \n\nin the Lord--Both parents and children being Christians \"in the Lord,\" expresses the element in which the obedience is to take place, and the motive to obedience. In Col 3:20, it is, \"Children, obey your parents in all things.\" This clause, \"in the Lord,\" would suggest the due limitation of the obedience required (Act 5:29; compare on the other hand, the abuse, Mar 7:11-13). \n\nright--Even by natural law we should render obedience to them from whom we have derived life.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EPH/6.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EPH","chapter":6},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/PHP/1.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"PHP","chapter":1},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/EPH/5.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"EPH","chapter":5},"numberOfVerses":23}