PREFACE
PAUL'S Letter to the Ephesians is full of instruction and edification; it would be difficult to find a greater concentration of ideas in any writing than is found in the first chapter. When first studied with a group of about fifteen to twenty others in a senior class of a Sunday School, from September, 1930, to February, 1932 was spent upon the epistle, as it was taken word by word and phrase by phrase. An exposition was then written for The Christadelphian month by month from November, 1930, to June, 1932, and this is now reproduced in the hope that in book form it will help others to attain a fuller knowledge of "the mystery of God's will" which was revealed through the apostle to us Gentiles.
The letter to the Romans treats of God's righteousness revealed in Christ in the gospel. The letter to the Ephesians goes forward to discourse of the things which are the privileged possession of those who are partakers of that "wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption" which of God is in Christ Jesus.
August, 1944.
JOHN CARTER.
FOREWORD
THE apostle Paul apparently desired to make Ephesus the centre of his work on what is called his second missionary journey; but "when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia", they "were forbidden of the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia". Going forward to Troas, Paul saw the vision of the man of Macedonia, from which he learned that his work lay across the Aegean in Europe. But on the return journey, accompanied by Aquila and Priscilla, he called at Ephesus, visited the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. They desired him to stay, but he purposed to visit Jerusalem for a feast. Promising to return "if God will", and leaving his companions there, he went to Jerusalem to make the sacrifices associated with the vow he had made at Cenchrea.
On the third journey Ephesus was made the centre of the apostle's work. Here his labours continued for two to three years.
Ephesus was a wealthy, populous, important city, the capital of the province of Asia. The province as a whole was prosperous and was covered with numerous towns such as those addressed in the Apocalypse. In Paul's day, Ephesus was at the height of its prosperity. It was situated at the mouth of the Meander, and at the entrance of the principal trade route to the interior. It was the residence of a Roman proconsul, in whose court "the majesty of Rome was amply displayed". The city had also a religious attraction. On the site of a primitive sanctuary a temple had been erected, and here was maintained a survival of nature worship. The goddess was identified by the Greeks with Artemis, and with Diana by the Romans. The temple was one of the wonders of the world, and to it pilgrimages were made. Superstition and magic had a strong hold, and many vested interests supported the religious practices.
Effective work was done in the preaching of the gospel. Beginning in the synagogue, for three months Paul reasoned about the Kingdom of God to the large audiences that assembled there. Then opposition and evil speaking about "The Way" led Paul to separate the disciples from the synagogue, and to engage the lecture room of Tyrannus for his teaching. In the mornings he would work to provide for his needs (Acts 20: 34). The afternoons, when people frequented places of recreation, would be occupied with preaching. Daily Paul disputed in the school, and in addition to public teaching, he went from house to house privately instructing the disciples (Acts 20 : 20).
Crowds must have heard the apostle. He told the Corinthians that "a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries" (1 Cor. 16: 9). The whole province heard of the gospel. Visitors to Ephesus, for business or worship, heard the word, and carried back the message to their homes. The trade of the shrine-makers diminished. Other interests were affected, and opposition and bitterness developed. "There were many adversaries", and constant danger. The ministry was not free from "tears and trials" (Acts 20: 19). Jewish opposition, powerless to influence the authorities, was manifest in secret plots against the apostle's life.
At Ephesus Paul was able to work "special miracles". God equipped His ambassador with the credentials to meet the special circumstances which obtained there. The superstition and the practice of magic evidently made necessary these special powers. Even among those who believed, these practices were continued secretly for a time. But when certain exorcists using the name of Jesus in their incantations were badly mauled by a demented man, fear fell on all. And those believers who had not before realized the moral change that was necessary, no longer having fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, now brought their spells and charms and magical formulae (books) and burned them. The value was estimated at 50,000 pieces of silver, or about £100,000 (2010); but the value of this amount in purchasing power was much greater then than today. "So mightily grew the word of the Lord and prevailed."
The widespread effect of Paul's work aroused the concern of the guild of shrine-makers. Demetrius, probably an official of the guild, called together the craftsmen, and pointed out to them that the new teaching was imperilling their trade, and bringing into disrepute their goddess. This skilful appeal to the trade interests and the religious feelings of the men led to an uproar, the whole city being soon involved. The people rushed to the theatre, where assemblies were usually held, and cried for two hours, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians ! "
Paul would have gone into the temple to address the crowd, but was dissuaded by the combined influence of the disciples and the Asiarchs, the local presidents of the provincial worship. Before this occasion Paul had faced a mob in Ephesus. He refers to it in a graphic metaphor in 1 Cor. 15: 32: "If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not?" On the occasion of the riot recorded in Acts, the assembly was pacified and dismissed by the "town clerk".The effect of the riot upon Paul he describes himself in his letter to Corinth. "We would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: but we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead; who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver : in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us" (2 Cor. 1: 8-10). It was advisable that he should leave Ephesus, so bidding farewell to the brethren, he went to Macedonia and thence on to Greece.
On the way from Greece to Jerusalem Paul sent for the Ephesian elders to meet him at Miletus. Here he gave them the address recorded in Acts 20, in which he reviews his own experiences and conduct among them, and his teaching. He warns them of the entrance among them of false teachers, who, instead of feeding the flock like shepherds, would ravage it like wolves. How seriously the apostle regarded this matter is seen in the reminder that for three years he had not ceased to admonish them night and day with tears. He then commends them to God and the word of His grace, and appeals to the integrity and example of his own life.
That this appeal to watch for the false teachers was necessary is evident from all Paul's epistles. That it was necessary at Ephesus the letter we are to consider is a witness. But Paul's warnings and his letter were not without effect, for over thirty years later the Lord Jesus commended them that they "had tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars" (Rev. 2:2).
On arrival at Jerusalem Paul was arrested in the temple, and after imprisonment at Gaesarea, on his appeal to Csesar was sent to Rome. From here it is most probable that the four letters, Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians and Philemon, were written; though some have argued that they were written at Caesarea.
Ephesians bears a close resemblance to Colossians: for in both places a false teaching led to a wrong mode of life. From the same starting point, however, quite opposite ends were reached. In Ephesus wrong doctrine led to immorality, but in Colosse it led to an asceticism which was ineffective for the purpose aimed at.
Ephesians is like Romans in that it is in the nature of a treatise. The absence of the destination "in Ephesus" in some manuscripts, and the omission of greetings in the letter, together with references to the matter in some early writers, have led to the general conclusion that Ephesians was a circular letter intended for all the ecclesias near to Ephesus. The particular form the error had taken at Colosse necessitated a letter especially for them. It is possible that the "letter from Laodicea" which Paul desired the Colossians to read, was a copy of the Ephesian letter to that city. Ephesians continues the subject matter of Romans, treating it from a different point of view.
The epistle has been described as "the divinest composition of man". James Stalker, in his life of Paul, has a paragraph we should like to transcribe. He says:
"Paul did not go (from Ephesus) before Christianity was firmly established in Ephesus, and the beacon of the gospel was twinkling brightly on the Asian coast, in response to that which was shining from the shores of Greece on the other side of the Aegean. We have a monument of his success in the ecclesias lying all around Ephesus which John addressed a few years afterwards in the Apocalypse; for they were probably the indirect fruit of Paul's labours. But we have a far more astonishing monument of it in the Epistle to the Ephesians. This is perhaps the profoundest book in existence; yet its author evidently expected the Ephesians to understand it. If the orations of Demosthenes, with their closely packed arguments between the articulations of which even a knife cannot be thrust, be a monument of the intellectual greatness of the Greece which listened to them with pleasure; if the plays of Shakespeare, with their deep views of life and their obscure and complex language, be a testimony to the strength of mind of the Elizabethan Age, which could enjoy such solid fare in a place of entertainment; then the Epistle to the Ephesians, which sounds the lowest depths of Christian doctrine and scales the loftiest heights of Christian experience, is a testimony to the proficiency which Paul's converts had attained under his preaching in the capital of Asia."
"Its author evidently expected the Ephesians to understand it. "The letter has been preserved "for us", just as Paul says the Old Testament was written "for us". Is it not expected of us also that we should understand it? It has been written for "our learning". Is our "proficiency" less than that of those brethren and sisters who first read it, and who had had so few years of experience of Christian teaching? If need be, let us "gird up the loins of our mind", to use the striking figure of Peter. Putting aside things which impede, as the athlete would gather up his loose robes, we must prepare for mental effort, endeavouring "to study to show ourselves workmen that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth ".
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