Summary of Ephesians 4:1-16

Paul, the prisoner in the Lord, urges them to live their lives in a way worthy of their calling to the People of God, in all humility, meekness, in long-suffering, bearing with one another in love. They should be eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond that binds them together in peace. There is one body of Christ of which they are members, one Spirit, just as they were called to the Church in the one hope of their call. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and Father of all who is over all, and through all and in all.

To each and every one of them is given grace according to the measure in which Christ gives it. So Scripture says: "Going up on high, He took captivity captive, He gave gifts to men." The words "He went up" what do they mean except that He also went down into the lower parts of the earth? The one who went down is the same one who also went up above all the heavens, so He could fill all things. And He made some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some shepherds and teachers, in order to equip the holy ones with means to salvation, so as to build up the body of Christ until all will come together into the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to be a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

So they should no longer be children tossed about, carried about by every wind of false teaching, by the deception of men who are willing to do just anything, to lead people into error. Rather, they should live out the truth in love, and grow in every respect into Him Who is the head, that is, Christ. Through Him the whole body is joined together and united together throughout every juncture with which it is supplied, so as to bring about the growth of the body so it may be built up in love.

Comments on 4:1-16

Paul now has completed the doctrinal part of the Epistle, and starts the moral exhortation. He tells them they should live according to the privileged call they have received, the call to be full members of the people of God. So they ought to be eager for the unity that comes from the Holy Spirit. For there is one body of Christ and one Spirit as well as one Lord, One Father, one Baptism, one God and the Father of all.

When Paul says grace is given by measure, we already have a hint that he is not speaking of the sanctifying graces, essential for salvation -- those He offers in abundance to all, for because of the infinite price of redemption, which was offered for each individual person (as we saw in Galatians 2:20) the offer of grace must be superabundant. But here Paul refers to charismatic graces. In these, the rule is that the Spirit gives as He wills. This is confirmed when in verse 11 he enumerates charismatic functions, which are needed to build up the body of Christ, until the Church, and we, all reach spiritual maturity in likeness to Christ.

To illustrate here, Paul quotes from Psalm 68:19, following the Septuagint version, which spoke of a triumphal procession of God. The word captivity can mean a host of captives, either redeemed humans, or the captive diabolic spirits. Both views are found in the Fathers of the Church. Christ went up above the heavens, and also went down into the depths. Some think this is said to show He took possession of all creation, so as to fill all things. The words about going down may refer to His descent into the realm of the dead after His death. The Fathers generally say that the just of the Old Testament period were not allowed to reach the vision of God until after the death of Christ. But after His death, He would go to announce they could come to heaven. A homily by an unknown author used in the Roman Breviary on Holy Saturday, in an imaginative but beautiful way, dramatizes this: "The Lord went in to them, carrying the victorious arms of the cross. When Adam, our first parent saw Him, beating his breast in amazement, he exclaimed to all and said: 'My Lord with all.' And Christ answering said to Adam: 'And with your spirit.' And taking his hand he lifted him up saying: 'Awake you who sleep, and rise from the dead, and Christ will shine upon you. [These words are from Ephesians 5:14 -- which may be from an early baptismal liturgy.] I am your God, Who because of you became your Son; and for the sake of those who descended from you I now say, and with power I give the command to those in chains: 'Go out'; and to those in darkness: 'Be illumined'. And to those who sleep: 'Get up.' I command you. Get up, you who sleep. I did not make you to be kept bound in the underworld. Rise from the dead; I am the life of the dead. Rise, work of my hands; rise, my image, made to my likeness. Arise, let us go out from here.'"

With the aid of such means and helps, all should come together into complete unity and knowledge of the Son of God, to be fully mature in conformity with Christ. The charisms are aimed at developing both the individual and the body of Christ, the Church.

So they should avoid the false teachers, who are willing to do just anything (panourgia) to attain their ends. They should live out the truth. At times the New Testament uses truth to stand for all that is moral, lie for the opposite (cf. John 3:21: "The one who does the truth, comes to the light.") God has, as it were, in His mind, the ideal for each of us: to match up with it is to be "true to form" -- hence the probable reason for the language about truth.

Verse 16 is in tortured language (which Paul uses at times, and so this helps us to think Paul wrote Ephesians). It does express the vital influence of Christ the Head on every bit of His body, the Church.

Summary of Ephesians 4:17-32

So Paul bears witness in the Lord that they should no longer live like the gentiles, in the foolishness of their mind, with their spiritual understanding being progressively more and more darkened and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that comes from the gradual hardening of their hearts. They have become dull, and so have given themselves to unbridled luxury so as to carry out all uncleanness in their greed for more and more uncleanness.

This is not the way of life they have learned from Christ -- assuming that they have listened to Him and been taught in Him in Whom is the truth. So they must put aside the old way of life, that of the old man, who is being corrupted according to desires that deceive him. Instead they must be made new in their mind where the Spirit dwells, so as to put on the new man, the one newly created according to God in righteousness and the holiness of truth.

So they must put aside the lie and speak the truth with every one, for we are members of one another.

If they are angry they should restrain anger so as not to sin. They should not continue their anger a long time, and should avoid giving an opening to the devil.

Anyone who has been stealing should stop it, and instead work, laboring with his own hands, in order to have something to give to the needy.

No evil word should come out from their mouth, but only good things, to provide help where needed, so it may be an external grace to those who hear them.

They should avoid grieving the Holy Spirit by their way of life -- that Spirit who has sealed them until the day of final redemption, when Christ returns. They should give up all bitterness, and wrath and anger, and shouting and blasphemy, along with all malice. May they be kind to one another, of good disposition, forgiving one another as God forgave them in Christ.

Comments on 4:17-32

The opening exhortation here reminds us of chapter 1 of Romans, which described graphically the gradual descent, deeper and deeper, into blindness and sins of all sorts, as they went down on the spiral in the bad direction, the very opposite of growing in Christ. From Christ they should learn to put aside their old way of life, so as to put on the new man, who is created in moral rightness and holiness. That language of course hardly fits with the classic Lutheran notion that even after justification, a person remains totally corrupt: the merits of Christ are thrown over him like a white cloak, and God will not look under the rug where everything is foul.

Again we meet the language about lie vs. truth, standing for immorality vs. righteousness.

The sentence about anger is ambiguous. It probably means: Even if you are angry, restrain yourselves so as not to be more angry than the case merits -- for not all anger is wrong. There should be a limit to anger, the end of the day. Otherwise the devil gets an opportunity.

They have been sealed by the Holy Spirit -- a thought we have seen more than once before. The Holy Spirit marks them as His own property, seals them so they should stay that way until Christ returns at the end, which is the day of the completion of redemption. We have just the beginning of redemption now.

The word for forgiving here is again charizein, which means "to make a present of the debt to someone." It reflects the concept which we have seen especially in Romans, that sin is a debt.