{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-4250","native_reference":{"book_number":560,"chapter_from":2,"chapter_to":2,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":12,"verse_to":12},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Gaius Marius Victorinus</b>: The true way of Israel consists in living according to the Spirit, thinking according to the Spirit and being circumcised from unworthy desires.<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Ephesians 1.2.12</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: When he says \"having no hope, without God in the world,\" he does not deny that the Ephesians had many gods before they believed in Christ. His point is that one who is without the true God has no god worthy of the name. And the next phrase, \"without God in the world,\" is significant: The Gentiles in a sense already had God indeed in the form of anticipation, because God knew beforehand that he would have them. In God's foreknowledge they were never without God. But enmeshed in the world they were without God.<br/><i>— Commentary on Ephesians 2:12</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: Never think, saith he, that because ye happen not to be circumcised, and are now in uncircumcision, that there is any difference in this. No, the real trouble was this, the being \"without Christ,\" the being \"aliens from the commonwealth of Israel.\" Whereas this circumcision is not \"the commonwealth.\" Again, the being strangers from the covenants of promise, the having no hope to come, the being without God in this world, all these were parts of their condition. He was speaking of heavenly things; he speaks also of those which are upon earth; since the Jews had a great opinion of these. Thus also Christ in comforting His disciples, after saying, \"Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,\" adds the lesser point of consolation, \"for so,\" saith He, \"persecuted they the prophets which were before you.\" For this, compared with the greatness of the other, is far less, yet in regard to the being nigh, and believing, it is great and sufficient, and has much force. This then was the sharing in the commonwealth. His word is not, \"separated,\" but \"alienated from the commonwealth.\" His word is not, \"ye took no interest in,\" but, \"ye had not so much as any part in, and were strangers.\" The expressions are most emphatic, and indicate the separation to be very wide. Because the Israelites themselves were without this commonwealth, not however as aliens, but as indifferent to it, and they fell from the covenants, not however as strangers, but as unworthy.</p><p>But what were \"the covenants of the promise?\" \"To thee and to thy seed,\" saith He, \"will I give this land,\" and whatever else He promised.</p><p>\"Having no hope.\" he adds, \"and without God.\" Though gods indeed they worshipped, but they were no gods: \"for an idol is not any thing.\"<br/><i>— Homily on Ephesians 5</i></p><p><b>Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius</b>: When the Jews often resisted wholesome precepts, and departed from the divine law, going astray to the impious worship of false gods, then God filled just and chosen men with the Holy Spirit, appointing them as prophets in the midst of the people, by whom He might rebuke with threatening words the sins of the ungrateful people, and nevertheless exhort them to repent of their wickedness; for unless they did this, and, laying aside their vanities, return to their God, it would come to pass that He would change His covenant, that is, bestow the inheritance of eternal life upon foreign nations, and collect to Himself a more faithful people out of those who were aliens by birth. But they, when rebuked by the prophets, not only rejected their words; but being offended because they were upbraided for their sins, they slew the prophets themselves with studied tortures.<br/><i>— The Divine Institutes, Book 4, Chapter XI</i></p><p><b>Shepherd of Hermas</b>: For many will their regrets be; for they have no hope, but have despaired of themselves and their life. But do thou pray to God, and He will heal thine own sins, and those of thy whole house, and of all the saints.<br/><i>— Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 1</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: In it he tells them to remember, that at the time when they were Gentiles they were without Christ, aliens from (the commonwealth of) Israel, without intercourse, without the covenants and any hope of promise, nay, without God, even in his own world, as the Creator thereof.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: It shows that it is the duty of one who, already living in marriage with an unbelieving woman, has presently been by the grace of God converted, to continue with his wife; for this reason, to be sure, in order that no one, after attaining to faith, should think that he must turn away from a woman who is now in some sense an \"alien\" and \"stranger.\" Accordingly he subjoins withal a reason, that \"we are called in peace unto the Lord God; \"and that \"the unbeliever may, through the use of matrimony, be gained by the believer.<br/><i>— To His Wife Book II</i></p><p><b>Theodoret of Cyrus</b>: He wants to show that Christ is the provider of all goods for them. \"For previously,\" he says, \"you were destitute of the knowledge of God and did not enjoy the goods promised beforehand to Israel.\"<br/><i>— Interpretation of the Epistle to the Ephesians 2.12</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"279a5155d13e5c5fecb456de58fd6f18808d33786ce5874e23a5848d576b2c6b","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":4250,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"3894804c793a17c521523d4a277b071580024f820c9210473b64dd4bc3aea03c","translator":null,"work":null}