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On unity in the Church (1–16). General Moral Instructions (17–32) Eph.4:1–16. Calling on readers to preserve the unity of the spirit, the Apostle clarifies the grounds on which this unity should be based, and at the same time says that the diversity of spiritual gifts and ministries existing in the Church does not in the least interfere with its unity, but, on the contrary, contributes to the achievement of a common goal for all members of the Church - possible perfection. Eph.4:1. Therefore I, a prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling to which you have been called, The Apostle, as a prisoner in the Lord (see Eph. 3:1), exhorts (παρακαλῶ in Russian less successfully: “I beg”), in view of everything that has been said about the greatness of Christianity (“therefore” - οῦν), readers to live as their high calling obliges them to live, which they have been awarded by God. Eph.4:2. with all humility and meekness and long-suffering, bearing with one another in love, Eph.4:3. trying to maintain the unity of spirit in the union of peace. "With all humility of mind". This expression refers to the verb of verse 1: “to act” and denotes the same virtue that in the conversation on the mount is called “spiritual poverty,” that is, the true consciousness of one’s unworthiness and weakness, which the pagans, who were proud of their personal merits, lacked. – “Meekness” – in relation to people (cf. 1 Cor. 4:21). This virtue is, one might say, a natural consequence of humility: he who is aware of his own weakness will always be meek towards others, even if they provoke him to anger with their actions. – “Long-suffering” is long-term patience with everything that is unpleasant to us from our neighbors. - “Condescending...”. Long-suffering should be condescension, not contemptuous towards people as morally undeveloped beings and even unworthy of admonition on our part, but based on Christian love. - “Trying to preserve..”. The world is constantly in danger of collapse. Therefore, special efforts are required on the part of members of the Church to preserve it, to maintain spiritual or close internal unity between believers. However, in the expression: “unity of the Spirit” one can also see an indication that the unity of Christians has its source in the Holy Spirit. - “In the union of peace” - that is, unity can exist only when all believers are united, as it were, by some kind of bond (εν τῶ συνδέσμω): this bond should be “peace” - a peaceful Christian mood. Eph.4:4. There is one body and one spirit, just as you are called to one hope of your calling; Eph.4:5. one Lord, one faith, one baptism, Eph.4:6. one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all. Believers are encouraged to maintain unity by the consideration that they, in theory, represent “one body and one spirit,” that is, one body - Christ (cf. Eph. 1:23) and one Spirit - God, who animates this body (cf. Eph. 2:18). - “As you are called...”. Another new motive for preserving unity: all believers have the same hope for future bliss. - “One Lord.” - Ap. continues to put forward more and more new reasons for maintaining unity. One Lord - that is, Lord I. Christ is our common Lord. – “Faith alone” – as saving faith, as a condition absolutely required of everyone who wants to receive salvation (Rom. 1:16). – “One baptism” – that is, as a single path to communion with Christ. - “One God and Father of all” - that is, all Christians are creations of God and at the same time children of God by adoption in Christ. - “Through all” - that is, through all Christians He reveals His power: they serve as His instruments. Eph.4:7. Each of us has been given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. This verse presents an objection which the Apostle anticipates on the part of some readers. “The unity of the members of the Church - they could tell him - is hampered by the fact that one of the members of the Ephesian community endowed with grace-filled gifts was given one - higher - gift, and another - a lower one. Where is the unity here? Eph.4:8. Therefore it is said: He ascended on high, took captivity captive and gave gifts to men. Eph.4:9. And what does “ascended” mean, if not that He had previously descended into the nether regions of the earth? Eph.4:10. He who descended is also He who ascended above all the heavens to fill everything. Ap. here gives an answer to the objection raised in verse 7. “Yes,” he seems to say, “Christ distributes His grace-filled gifts according to His will. Therefore, in Ps.67, which undoubtedly relates not only to David, but also to the Messiah, it is said that the Messiah, as the prophet foresees, will ascend to heights, that is, he will become higher than all the rulers of the world, will take captive the forces hostile to Him and snatch all the spoils from these latter and will distribute great gifts to people whom he finds worthy of these gifts. But this exaltation of the Messiah cannot take place without His self-abasement preceding it: the Messiah must first descend to earth, into the conditions of ordinary human existence, and He did so. Christ, the Son of God, who descended to earth, is precisely the “ascended” one spoken of in the 67th Psalm. And the Messiah did this in order to fill everything with His power and become the head and ruler everywhere (cf. Rom. 14:9).” – It should be noted that Ap. cites a passage from Psalm 67 according to the text of 70, and here he makes, in accordance with his purpose, an apparently important change: instead of the expression “received gifts,” he uses the expression “gave gifts.” But Ap. had every right to make such a change, because the Hebrew verb "lakah" translated into Greek. translation of the 70 by the expression έλαβες, means actually: to take in order to give to others (cf. Gen. 42:16, 15:9; Ex. 25:2). Ap. but he took only the last moment of the action signified by this verb and translated: “gave” (έδωκεν). - “To the underworld of the earth.” Some ancient and new interpreters see here an indication not of earth in general, but of hell, where Christ descended after death (see Prof. Bogdashevsky, p. 530). One can completely agree with this interpretation, since the descent into hell was also a matter of self-abasement on the part of Christ, just like His descent to earth. We just cannot agree with the fact that here an indication is given of the victory won by Christ in hell, and of the removal from hell of people who accepted the preaching of Christ with faith: here, according to the context of the speech, one cannot see such a thought. Eph.4:11. And He appointed some apostles, others prophets, others evangelists, others shepherds and teachers, "And He set". With these words, especially the addition: “and He”, Ap. makes it clear that Christ had every right to dispose of the distribution of spiritual gifts as He pleased. He, who first descended to earth and then ascended to heaven in order to fully accomplish the work of our redemption, quite rightly acted as the only administrator in the Church, appointing some as “Apostles,” others as “prophets,” etc. Ap. lists here four types of ministries based on special gifts received from Christ: 1) “Apostle” - obviously the first 12, to which the Apostle was included. Paul, who formed a special, unique order in the Church; 2) “prophet,” i.e., inspired preachers who had special revelations from the Holy Spirit for the edification of those gathered for worship (1 Cor. 14:3); 3) “evangelists” - preachers of the Gospel who went to different places and 4) “shepherds and teachers,” whose activities took place in a certain specific place and consisted of leading a certain limited circle of believers. That there is of course one class of church leaders here is evidenced by the fact that in Greek. In the text, before the second word “taught her” (διδασκάλους), there is no member that is before the first word: “her shepherd” (τούς ποιμένας). Eph.4:12. for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edification of the Body of Christ, “For the perfection of the saints,” that is, Christ established the designated ministries in the Church so that the “saints,” that is, Christians, could, with their help, achieve the high moral perfection destined for them. - “For the work of service.” This goal is achieved by the “work of ministry,” i.e., through the activity of the above-mentioned persons, which is called “ministry” in contrast to the desires of some to make their position something that enslaves the will of the flock (cf. 1 Pet. 5:3). – “For the building up of the Body of Christ.” By “building the Body of Christ” or the Church (see Eph. 2:22) we must understand not only the external growth of the Church, through the conversion of new persons to faith in Christ, but also its internal strengthening. Eph.4:13. until we all come into the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, into a perfect man, to the measure of the full stature of Christ; The activity of all these ministers of the Church and their successors can only end when the last highest goal of the very existence of the Church is achieved, that is, when all its members have faith in Christ of equal clarity and purity and when, consequently, all disputes about faith cease, there will be no hesitation in any of the members of the Church in relation to the most essential 10. This is the state of Ap. defines it as the state of a “perfect man,” i.e., with a completely strengthened outlook on life, and even more precisely, as the achievement of “the measure of the full stature of Christ,” i.e., a state in which Christians will be filled with all the grace-filled powers emanating from Christ (cf. Eph. 3:19). Eph.4:14. So that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried away by every wind of doctrine, by the craftiness of men, by the cunning craft of deception, Eph.4:15. but with true love they grew all into Him who is the head, Christ, These verses depend on Ephesians 4:11. The Lord established various ministries in the Church so that believers would not remain in the state of infants who are carried away by various baits, and would not allow themselves to succumb to all sorts of new false teachings, which may be very decent in appearance, but in fact are very disastrous in their essence (“according to the wickedness of men”) 11 ... Instead of such infatuation, believers must show steadfastness in the truth (instead of: “true love” - it is better to read, as in the glory. translation: “I am in truth, in love”) and then, remaining in love, grow everything into Christ, our Head. Eph.4:16. from which the whole body, composed and copulated through all kinds of mutually fastening bonds, with the action of each member in its measure, receives an increase for the creation of itself in love. But Christians, growing everything into Christ, directing everything towards Him, not in themselves, but in Him, in Christ, have a basis for their growth, one might say, they grow from Him. Only with the help and under the influence of Christ is a harmonious unification of the various gifts and ministries existing in the Church possible. A Christian society bound in this way grows in love “for its own creation,” that is, in order to reach possible perfection. Eph.4:17–32. Ap. convinces readers to lead a new life, different from their previous one. They now have a completely different ideal than in paganism - namely Christ. At the same time, Ap. also denotes various petty crimes against Christian morality, which obviously took place in the Ephesian Church. Eph.4:17. Therefore I speak and charge by the Lord, that you no longer walk as other nations do, in the vanity of their minds, Eph.4:18. being darkened in mind, alienated from the life of God, due to their ignorance and the hardness of their hearts. Eph.4:19. They, having reached the point of insensibility, gave themselves over to debauchery so that they commit all uncleanness with gluttony. The former life that the Ephesians led as pagans was very sad. - “According to the vanity of your mind.” Their mental ability was turned to the service of vanity, insignificance (an allusion to the insignificance of the pagan gods cf. Rom. 1:18 et seq.). - “Having been darkened in mind,” that is, their organ of moral consciousness has become darkened (cf. 1 Pet. 1:13 and Rom. 1:21–22), and they have ceased to clearly see the purpose of life. "Alienated.." Wed Eph.2:12. - “Because of their ignorance,” that is, the cause of their mental darkness was ignorance of God, of which, however, they themselves were guilty (cf. Rom. 1:19). - “And the hardness of their hearts.” This hardening or complete dulling of moral feeling is the reason for their God-alienated lifestyle, their moral corruption. - “To the point of insensibility...”. Depicting this moral dullness more closely, Ap. says that the pagans lost the ability to feel pain or sorrow at the sight of the shame in which they were under the influence of their vices, and therefore indulged in complete debauchery. Moreover, they could not stop in their fall and certainly wanted to do various immoral acts (“uncleanness”). - “With insatiability” - more precisely: with the greed that simultaneously possessed them (εν πλεονεξία). To live a luxurious life, you need to constantly increase your money. And indeed, the pagans sought at all costs to increase their capital, which was used for their various whims. Eph.4:20. But this is not how you came to know Christ; Eph.4:21. because you have heard about Him and learned from Him, just as the truth is in Jesus, Eph.4:22. put off your former way of life, the old man, which is corrupted by the deceitful lusts, Eph.4:23. and be renewed in the spirit of your mind Eph.4:24. and to put on the new man, created according to God in righteousness and true holiness. Ephesian Christians should know from the gospel sermon that such a life in Christianity is unthinkable (“but you have not come to know Christ in this way”). - "Because.." . more correctly: if only (είγε) - and this is undoubted for the Apostle - they learned as they should what they need to know about Christ 12. - “Because the truth is in Jesus.” These words should be placed at the beginning of the next verse, which shows the content of this “truth in Jesus.” Therefore, their and the following words of verse 22 should be rendered as follows: “since the truth or true teaching about life proposed by Jesus is to put aside the old way of life...” “The old man”, i.e., their old pagan way of life should be laid aside, like old, worn-out clothes that no longer fit the position of a person who has taken a new, very high position. This old man is still alive, but he is gradually decaying “in deceitful lusts,” that is, he himself strives for death, succumbing to lusts that only give the appearance of happiness, but in fact distance him from it. - “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” A Christian must begin his renewal with what constitutes, so to speak, the very core of his inner life (“the spirit of the mind”). - “Put on the new man.” The old clothes are taken off and new ones are needed, quite suitable for the new state of the person. This is what “righteousness” (in relation to people) and “holiness” (in relation to God) are for the newly created person. - “Truths”. This addition shows that the righteousness and holiness of a person must have a basis in the absolute truth, the gospel. Eph.4:25. Therefore, putting away lying, speak the truth, every one of you, to your neighbor, for we are members of one another. Now revealing what the renewal of the inner being of man in Christianity consists of, the Apostle dwells on some pagan vices, which, obviously, were not yet completely alien to the Ephesian Christians. The instructions that he gives to readers in view of the existence of such vices in them, first depict what Christian righteousness consists of (with Eph. 4:25–5:2, and then depict Christian holiness (Eph. 5:3–21). First of all, Christians must “reject lies,” since they are members of the same body of Christ, and members of the body “lies,” i.e., by their incorrect actions, harm health the whole body and, consequently, themselves. The pagans, it should be noted, very often allowed themselves to lie in relations with each other. Eph.4:26. When you are angry, do not sin: let not the sun go down on your anger; In contrast to the incontinence in anger characteristic of pagans, Christians, if they happen to become irritated, should not reach the point of sin in this angry irritation. Ep. Feofan, explaining this expression, gives the example of a man who quickly walks around the room in irritation. If this person is a Christian, then he will not forget to leave room furniture or other things he accidentally knocked over on the ground, but will certainly pick them up... - “Let the sun not set...”. Do not let your anger continue for more than a few hours, especially do not go to bed angry, because at night you can become even more irritated against the person who aroused your anger - there will be no one to dissuade you of the groundlessness of your irritation 13 . Eph.4:27. and do not give place to the devil. Here we are not talking about the devil-Satan, but about a slanderer (διάβολος can have this meaning, cf. Luke 16:1). If we understand this passage in the sense of a warning against the danger of submitting in anger to the influence of the devil, then this instruction will be too general, since in all cases of our falls we give place to the suggestions of the devil. Meanwhile, in our interpretation, this verse is a completely suitable conclusion for the instruction of the previous verse: in the anger that we maintain in ourselves against someone, we, perhaps, will give faith to all the claims of evil people against those with whom we are angry... Eph.4:28. Whoever stole, do not steal first, but rather work, doing useful things with your own hands, so that you have something to give to those in need. Anyone who has not completely abandoned the habit of appropriating other people's property, which most pagans suffered from, must not only stop stealing, but also work with all his might (κοπιάζω), with his own hands doing something useful and, moreover, honest (τό αγαθόν), in order to be able to help others. It was very useful for the Christians of that time to hear this instruction, because even among them there was not always strong respect for other people’s property (cf. 1 Pet. 4:15 and 1 Cor. 6:10) 14. Eph.4:29. Let no corrupt word come out of your mouth, but only what is good for edification in the faith, so that it may bring grace to those who hear. Again, this refers to the pagans’ habit of “rotten words.” What is rotten introduces corruption and harm wherever it goes, and rotten or immoral expression, and even more so whole speech, introduces corruption into the environment of Christian society 15 . – “To edification in faith” – according to Tischendorf: to the creation or satisfaction of a given need or need (πρός οικοδομήν τῆς χρείας). – “Grace”, i.e., both pleasantness and spiritual blessing, spiritual benefit. Eph.4:30. And do not offend the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. We are often not embarrassed by bad speeches, because, as we usually say, a bad word is spoken into the wind. But Ap. says that it is impossible to treat rotten words so lightly: we “offend” with them - more precisely: we grieve (μή λυπεῖτε) the “Holy Spirit of God,” Who is mysteriously present in all our meetings (We are the temple of the Holy Spirit, 1 Cor. 6:19), but in this Spirit and together with Him we received a seal from God, with as we must appear on the day of our final redemption at the final judgment (εις ημέραν απολ. cf. Eph. 1:13). The receipt of this Spirit took place in the acceptance of the sacrament of confirmation, which usually followed baptism. Eph.4:31. Let all irritation and rage and anger and shouting and slander along with all malice be removed from you; Ap. lists several individual vices from which Christians must free themselves 16 and first of all indicates internal mental states - “irritation” against one’s neighbor, “rage” or an internal, fleeting mood of anger and “anger” as a longer-lasting state - and then the external manifestations of these feelings - “crying, slander” or more precisely: swear words. - “With all malice” - that is, a Christian should not harbor in his heart any malice towards people in general, even if it is not expressed in certain manifestations. Eph.4:32. but be kind to each other, compassionate, forgive each other, just as God in Christ forgave you. On the contrary, Christians should be “kind” towards each other, that is, generally hospitable, “compassionate” where they meet the unfortunate, and “forgive each other’s sins,” remembering that we ourselves have received forgiveness from God through the merits of Christ on the cross. All Christians have “faith” in the Son of God, but not everyone has the same “knowledge” of the Son of God (cf. Eph. 1:17) More precisely, this passage needs to be translated as follows: “so that we are no longer inexperienced children (νήπιοι), who can easily be (like a light shuttle) carried away by any unexpected gust of wind of teaching (new teachers of the faith who unexpectedly appear), - do not remain such children in that game of dice (εν τή κυβεία), which is played with all by cunning (εν πανουργία) people who come into contact with Christians in order to deceive inexperienced people and put them on the path of error (τῆς) by clever rearrangements of words and concepts (προς την μεθοδείαν) πλάνης ). Ap. could see how the soldiers guarding him practiced playing dice and therefore he formed the above image The expression “as you heard” should more accurately translate “if you heard” (είγε αυτόν ηκούσατε). And if so, some interpreters say, then it means Ap. writes not for the Ephesians, regarding whom he, of course, could not speak in such a conjectural, seemingly uncertain tone, that they know about the meaning of his calling... But here we are not talking about the calling of Ap. Paul to serve the pagans, but about what constituted the inner, mysterious side of his calling and, as indicated in the explanation of the verse Eph. 3:3, about the special miraculous appearance of Christ Himself to him... About this, that is, about all these mysterious details of the calling of the Apostle, he could say that they could be both known and unknown to the Ephesians. He himself, obviously, during his time in Ephesus, avoided communicating these details, and the Ephesians could have learned about them from other preachers Between the Apostle Paul and St. James seems to have a contrasting view of the permissibility of anger in a Christian. Ap. James apparently completely and unconditionally rejects anger (James 1:20), while Ap. Paul allows anger insofar as it does not lead to sin. But in reality there is no such opposite. When Ap. James rebels against anger, then he has in mind the constant tendency of the Jews, to whom the readers of his epistle belonged, to reach the most undesirable manifestations of fanaticism in their desire to prove the truth. The Jews even attached decisive importance to their fanatical performances, believing that only such performances would lead them to the triumph of divine truth. Meanwhile, the Apostle Paul has in mind the universal human property of becoming irritated at any obstacles that present themselves to a person in the implementation of his undertakings. The Apostle could not, of course, have a negative attitude towards such a living attitude of a person towards everything that happens to him: a person is a living and feeling being, which by nature tends to react in a certain way to everything that is unpleasant to him. And Ap himself. Jacob, without a doubt, allowed such anger, as can be seen from his denunciations with which he addresses himself in his epistle to the rich (James 5:1 et seq.; cf. James 1:19: “slow to anger” - only!). And is it really possible to assume that the Apostle James would generally go against the angry, strict speech of a Christian in those cases when a Christian encounters blatant violation of the laws of truth and truth? Anger in such cases is like a thunderstorm, which clears the air of miasma and harmful bacilli. It is only necessary, of course, that this anger pass as quickly as a thunderstorm. Otherwise, if it lingers in a person’s soul for a long time, it will lead to bad consequences - “to sin,” as Ap puts it. Paul. In fact, most crimes are committed because people failed to stop their anger in time Ap. most likely here he means slaves, who, indeed, as ancient writers testify, theft became a habit. What Ap. speaks specifically about slaves, this can also be concluded from the fact that he convinces thieves not to return stolen or wasted property, but demands from them intensive work for the benefit of the poor members of the Church: it is obvious that the thieves did not have their own property with which they could compensate for the damage caused to another by them, and that they could make amends for their offense only with their labors - during the time that they had left free from their service to the masters, for example, at night, which was given to slaves for rest. From here we can draw the following conclusion: in the primal Christian Church, contributions for the needs of the poor were received not only from wealthy people, but also from the very last workers Some expand the concept of “rotten words” too much and believe that Ap. here he prohibits all meaningless speeches that are conducted simply to pass the time. So Mayer says: “for the Apostle, the words of our lips are a clear reflection and revelation of our inner, spiritual life. And such useless (rotten) words are for him proof that the “inner man” of the speaker is sick, that he is not what he should be if he were filled with divine life... And such a view is absolutely correct. For whoever is in real communion with God with his heart subordinates all his thoughts, speeches and actions to the will of God... The one who feels pleasure when hearing jokes of all kinds shows by this that he is an empty and superficial person” (episode to Ephesus). Mayer's reasoning cannot but be considered too strict and extreme. After all, a cheerful joke often disperses a person’s bad mood and revives energy for activity: it is enough to point out the influence of the jokes that commanders allowed themselves in relation to soldiers during difficult military transitions. After all, the Apostle further says that we must say what can contribute to the edification or, more precisely, the creation of a person, and modern pedagogy asserts that the character of a student is formed not only through constantly serious instructions and admonitions from the teacher, but also through a decently cheerful joke or a funny story. Consequently, the Apostle could not completely reject what can serve the true benefit of a person: he only with his admonition draws our attention to the fact that all our speeches and conversations should not go beyond the limits of what is permitted by Christian morality Some (eg Bogdashevsky) believe that Ap. refers only to possible future evils that the Ephesian Church may be subject to. But we cannot agree with such an assumption. Why would the Apostle waste time exposing those shortcomings that did not yet exist? Was everything so prosperous in the life of the Ephesian Church that the Apostle had nothing left to reproach his readers with? This is hardly possible to imagine... You might be interested in: