HOMILY I CHAPTER i. VERSES 1-2. "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus.i and the faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. " OBSERVE, he applies the word "through" to the Father. But what then ? Shall we say that He is inferior? Surely not. " To the saints, " saith he, " which are at Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus. " Observe that he calls saints, men with wives, and children, and domestics. For that these are they whom he calls by this name is plain from the end of the Epistle, as, when he says, "Wives, be in subjection unto your own hus bands. " ( Eph. v: 22. ) And again, " Child ren, obey your parents: " (Eph. vi : i. ) and, " Servants, be obedient to your masters. " (Eph. vi : 5. ) Think how great is the indolence that possesses us now, how rare is any thing like vir tue now and how great the abundance of virtu ous men must have been then, when even secu lar men could be called " saints and faithful. " " Grace to you, and peace, fromGod our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. " "Grace " is his word ; and he calls God, " Father ; " since this name is a sure token of that gift of grace. And how so? Hear what he saith elsewhere ; "Be cause ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father." (Gal. iv: 6.) "And from the Lord Jesus Christ." Because for us men Christ was born, and appeared in the flesh. Ver. 3. "Blessed3 be the God," he saith, " and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Observe ; The God of Him that was Incar nate^. And though thou wilt not, The Father of God the Word. 1 [At Ephesus, Chrysostom s text has these words (eV Ee^ecrco) and he betrays no knowledge of any copies which omitted them. But they are omitted by Aleph* B. by some MSS., consulted by Basil, and apparently by Origen s text, for he interprets rots oiHriv (those who are) absolutely, as he would not have done had he read tv E<e<roj. The Revisers insert thewordsbut withamarginal note. Westcott and Hort bracket them. See their discussion of thepoint in Appendix (vol. II. of Greek Text), p. 123. For a full discussion see Meyer s Introduction to Ephesians, Sec. i, where he earnestly defends " the right of these words to a place in the text." G. A.]a [Compare Rom. ix : 5 ; 2 Cor. i : 3 ; Luke i : 68 ; i Peter i : 3. G. A.] 3 [Meyer holds that the genitive TOU tevpiov, etc. does not limit ebs.but only waTTJp : "Blessed be God who at same time is Father ofour Lord Jesus Christ." So also Ellicott. G. A.] (50) Ver. 3. "Who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." He is here alluding to the blessings of the Jews 4 ; for that was blessing also, but it was not spiritual blessing. For how did it run ? " The Lord bless thee, He will bless the fruit of thy body;" (Deut. vii : 13.) and " He will bless thy going out and thy coming in." (Deut. xxviii : 4.) But here it is not thus, but how? "With every spiritual blessing." And what lackest thou yet? Thou art made immortal, thou art made free, thou art made a son, thou art made righteous, thou art made a brother, thou art made a fellow-heir, thou reignest with Christ, thou art glorified with Christ ; all things are freely given thee. "How," saith he, " shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?" (Rom. viii : 32.) Thy First-fruits is adored by Angels, by the Cherubim, by the Seraphim! What lackest thou yet? "With every spiritual blessing." There is nothing carnal here. Accordingly He excluded all those former blessings, when He said, " In the world ye have tribulation," (John xvi : 33.) to lead us on to these. For as they who pos sessed carnal things were unable to hear of spir itual things, so they who aim at spiritual things cannot attain to them unless they first stand aloof from carnal things. What again is "spiritual blessing in the heavenly places?" It is not upon earth, he means, as was the case with the Jews. "Ye shall eat the good of the land." (Isa. i : 19.) "Unto a land flowing with milk and honey." (Ex. iii : 8.) " The Lord shall bless thy land." (Deut. vii : 13.) Here we have nothing of this sort, but what have we? " If a man love Me, he will keep My word, and I and My Father will come unto him, and make our abode with him." (Jo. xiv: 23.) "Every one thereforewhich heareth these words of Mine, and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man which built his house upon the rock, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon the rock." 4 ["A contrast to the earthly benefits promised to the Jews in the Old Testament is foreign to the context." Meyer. G. A.]