12 that ye were at that time apart from Christ, having been alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope, and without God, in the world;
And you -- once being alienated, and enemies in the mind, in the evil works, yet now did he reconcile,
But then, indeed, not having known God, ye were in servitude to those not by nature gods,
not in the affection of desire, as also the nations that were not knowing God,
The hope of Israel `is' Jehovah, All forsaking Thee are ashamed, And `My apostates' in the earth are written, For they have forsaken Jehovah, A fountain of living waters.
`And I have established My covenant between Me and thee, and thy seed after thee, to their generations, for a covenant age-during, to become God to thee, and to thy seed after thee; and I have given to thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land of thy sojournings, the whole land of Canaan, for a possession age-during, and I have become their God.' And God saith unto Abraham, `And thou dost keep My covenant, thou and thy seed after thee, to their generations;
I have made a covenant for My chosen, I have sworn to David My servant: `Even to the age do I establish thy seed, And have built to generation and generation thy throne. Selah. and the heavens confess Thy wonders, O Jehovah, Thy faithfulness also `is' in an assembly of holy ones. For who in the sky, Compareth himself to Jehovah? Is like to Jehovah among sons of the mighty? God is very terrible, In the secret counsel of His holy ones, And fearful over all surrounding Him. O Jehovah, God of Hosts, Who `is' like Thee -- a strong Jah? And Thy faithfulness `is' round about Thee. Thou `art' ruler over the pride of the sea, In the lifting up of its billows Thou dost restrain them. Thou hast bruised Rahab, as one wounded. With the arm of Thy strength Thou hast scattered Thine enemies. Thine `are' the heavens -- the earth also `is' Thine, The habitable world and its fulness, Thou hast founded them. North and south Thou hast appointed them, Tabor and Hermon in Thy name do sing. Thou hast an arm with might, Strong is Thy hand -- high Thy right hand. Righteousness and judgment `Are' the fixed place of Thy throne, Kindness and truth go before Thy face. O the happiness of the people knowing the shout, O Jehovah, in the light of Thy face they walk habitually. In Thy name they rejoice all the day, And in Thy righteousness they are exalted, For the beauty of their strength `art' Thou, And in Thy good will is our horn exalted, For of Jehovah `is' our shield, And of the Holy One of Israel our king.
`I am the vine, ye the branches; he who is remaining in me, and I in him, this one doth bear much fruit, because apart from me ye are not able to do anything;
for this cause, therefore, I called for you to see and to speak with `you', for because of the hope of Israel with this chain I am bound.'
and to Abraham were the promises spoken, and to his seed; He doth not say, `And to seeds,' as of many, but as of one, `And to thy seed,' which is Christ; and this I say, A covenant confirmed before by God to Christ, the law, that came four hundred and thirty years after, doth not set aside, to make void the promise,
being darkened in the understanding, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart,
Blessed `is' the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to the abundance of His kindness did beget us again to a living hope, through the rising again of Jesus Christ out of the dead,
what then do I say? that an idol is anything? or that a sacrifice offered to an idol is anything? -- `no,' but that the things that the nations sacrifice -- they sacrifice to demons and not to God; and I do not wish you to come into the fellowship of the demons.
and the Lord God sanctify in your hearts. And `be' ready always for defence to every one who is asking of you an account concerning the hope that `is' in you, with meekness and fear;
who through him do believe in God, who did raise out of the dead, and glory to him did give, so that your faith and hope may be in God.
that through two immutable things, in which `it is' impossible for God to lie, a strong comfort we may have who did flee for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before `us',
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to a command of God our Saviour, and of the Lord Jesus Christ our hope,
to whom God did will to make known what `is' the riches of the glory of this secret among the nations -- which is Christ in you, the hope of the glory,
because of the hope that is laid up for you in the heavens, which ye heard of before in the word of the truth of the good news,
Concerning the eating then of the things sacrificed to idols, we have known that an idol `is' nothing in the world, and that there is no other God except one; for even if there are those called gods, whether in heaven, whether upon earth -- as there are gods many and lords many -- yet to us `is' one God, the Father, of whom `are' the all things, and we to Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom `are' the all things, and we through Him;
And Moses cometh in, and recounteth to the people all the words of Jehovah, and all the judgments, and all the people answer -- one voice, and say, `All the words which Jehovah hath spoken we do.' And Moses writeth all the words of Jehovah, and riseth early in the morning, and buildeth an altar under the hill, and twelve standing pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel; and he sendeth the youths of the sons of Israel, and they cause burnt-offerings to ascend, and sacrifice sacrifices of peace-offerings to Jehovah -- calves. And Moses taketh half of the blood, and putteth in basins, and half of the blood hath he sprinkled on the altar; and he taketh the Book of the Covenant, and proclaimeth in the ears of the people, and they say, `All that which Jehovah hath spoken we do, and obey.' And Moses taketh the blood, and sprinkleth on the people, and saith, `Lo, the blood of the covenant which Jehovah hath made with you, concerning all these things.' And Moses goeth up, Aaron also, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they see the God of Israel, and under His feet `is' as the white work of the sapphire, and as the substance of the heavens for purity; and unto those of the sons of Israel who are near He hath not put forth His hand, and they see God, and eat and drink.
all the heave-offerings of the holy things which the sons of Israel lift up to Jehovah I have given to thee and to thy sons, and to thy daughters with thee, by a statute age-during, a covenant of salt, age-during it `is' before Jehovah, to thee and to thy seed with thee.'
And Zerubbabel saith to them, also Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of the fathers of Israel, `Not for you, and for us, to build a house to our God; but we ourselves together do build to Jehovah God of Israel, as the king Cyrus, king of Persia, commanded us.'
Thus said Jehovah, king of Israel, And his Redeemer, Jehovah of Hosts: `I `am' the first, and I the last, And besides Me there is no God.
And strangers have stood and fed your flock, Sons of a foreigner `are' your husbandmen, And your vine-dressers.
O Hope of Israel -- its saviour in time of trouble, Why art Thou as a sojourner in the land? And as a traveller turned aside to lodge?
Lo, days are coming, an affirmation of Jehovah, And I have made with the house of Israel And with the house of Judah a new covenant, Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers, In the day of My laying hold on their hand, To bring them out of the land of Egypt, In that they made void My covenant, And I ruled over them -- an affirmation of Jehovah. For this `is' the covenant that I make, With the house of Israel, after those days, An affirmation of Jehovah, I have given My law in their inward part, And on their heart I do write it, And I have been to them for God, And they are to me for a people. And they do not teach any more Each his neighbour, and each his brother, Saying, Know ye Jehovah, For they all know Me, from their least unto their greatest, An affirmation of Jehovah; For I pardon their iniquity, And of their sin I make mention no more.
`Thus said Jehovah: If ye do break My covenant of the day, And My covenant of the night, So that they are not daily and nightly in their season, Also My covenant is broken with David My servant, So that he hath not a son reigning on his throne, And with the Levites the priests, My ministers. As the host of the heavens is not numbered, Nor the sand of the sea measured, So I multiply the seed of David My servant, And the Levites My ministers.' And there is a word of Jehovah unto Jeremiah, saying: `Hast thou not considered what this people have spoken, saying: The two families on which Jehovah fixed, He doth reject them, And my people they despise -- So that they are no more a people before them! Thus said Jehovah: If My covenant `is' not daily and nightly, The statutes of heaven and earth I have not appointed -- Also the seed of Jacob, and David My servant, I reject, Against taking from his seed rulers For the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, For I turn back `to' their captivity, and have pitied them.'
And My hand hath been on the prophets, Who are seeing vanity, and who are divining a lie, In the assembly of My people they are not, And in the writing of the house of Israel they are not written, And unto the ground of Israel they come not, And ye have known that I `am' the Lord Jehovah.
To do kindness with our fathers, And to be mindful of His holy covenant,
ye worship what ye have not known; we worship what we have known, because the salvation is of the Jews;
`Ye are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant that God made unto our fathers, saying unto Abraham: And in thy seed shall be blessed all the families of the earth;
and saying, `Men, why these things do ye? and we are men like-affected with you, proclaiming good news to you, from these vanities to turn unto the living God, who made the heaven, and the earth, and the sea, and all the things in them; who in the past generations did suffer all the nations to go on in their ways,
And, according as they did not approve of having God in knowledge, God gave them up to a disapproved mind, to do the things not seemly; having been filled with all unrighteousness, whoredom, wickedness, covetousness, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil dispositions; whisperers, evil-speakers, God-haters, insulting, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, unintelligent, faithless, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful; who the righteous judgment of God having known -- that those practising such things are worthy of death -- not only do them, but also have delight with those practising them.
who are Israelites, whose `is' the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the lawgiving, and the service, and the promises, whose `are' the fathers, and of whom `is' the Christ, according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed to the ages. Amen.
that is, the children of the flesh -- these `are' not children of God; but the children of the promise are reckoned for seed;
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Ephesians 2
Commentary on Ephesians 2 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 2
This chapter contains an account,
The apostle endeavours to affect them with a due sense of the wonderful change which divine grace had wrought in them; and this is very applicable to that great change which the same grace works in all those who are brought into a state of grace. So that we have here a lively picture both of the misery of unregenerate men and of the happy condition of converted souls, enough to awaken and alarm those who are yet in their sins and to put them upon hastening out of that state, and to comfort and delight those whom God hath quickened, with a consideration of the mighty privileges with which they are invested.
Eph 2:1-3
The miserable condition of the Ephesians by nature is here in part described. Observed,
Eph 2:4-10
Here the apostle begins his account of the glorious change that was wrought in them by converting grace, where observe,
Eph 2:11-13
In these verses the apostle proceeds in his account of the miserable condition of these Ephesians by nature. Wherefore remember, etc., v. 11. As if he had said, "You should remember what you have been, and compare it with what you now are, in order to humble yourselves and to excite your love and thankfulness to God.' Note, Converted sinners ought frequently to reflect upon the sinfulness and misery of the state they were in by nature. Gentiles in the flesh, that is, living in the corruption of their natures, and being destitute of circumcision, the outward sign of an interest in the covenant of grace. Who are called uncircumcision by that, etc., that is, "You were reproached and upbraided for it by the formal Jews, who made an external profession, and who looked no further than the outward ordinance.' Note, Hypocritical professors are wont to value themselves chiefly on their external privileges, and to reproach and despise others who are destitute of them. The apostle describes the misery of their case in several particulars, v. 12. "At that time, while you were Gentiles, and in an unconverted state, you were,'
The apostle proceeds (v. 13) further to illustrate the happy change that was made in their state: But now, in Christ Jesus, you who sometimes were far off, etc. They were far off from Christ, from his church, from the promises, from the Christian hope, and from God himself; and therefore from all good, like the prodigal son in the far country: this had been represented in the preceding verses. Unconverted sinners remove themselves at a distance from God, and God puts them at a distance: He beholds the proud afar off. "But now in Christ Jesus, etc., upon your conversion, by virtue of union with Christ, and interest in him by faith, you are made nigh.' They were brought home to God, received into the church, taken into the covenant, and possessed of all other privileges consequent upon these. Note, The saints are a people near to God. Salvation is far from the wicked; but God is a help at hand to his people; and this is by the blood of Christ, by the merit of his sufferings and death. Every believing sinner owes his nearness to God, and his interest in his favour, to the death and sacrifice of Christ.
Eph 2:14-22
We have now come to the last part of the chapter, which contains an account of the great and mighty privileges that converted Jews and Gentiles both receive from Christ. The apostle here shows that those who were in a state of enmity are reconciled. Between the Jews and the Gentiles there had been a great enmity; so there is between God and every unregenerate man. Now Jesus Christ is our peace, v. 14. He made peace by the sacrifice of himself; and came to reconcile,