{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-4366","native_reference":{"book_number":560,"chapter_from":6,"chapter_to":6,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":20,"verse_to":20},"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>Ambrosiaster</b>: This prayer God hears gladly. The apostle is being despised. God's own mission is under challenge. So God will certainly not withhold his gifts from one who is upholding God's own cause. Custom and law forbid the infliction of harm on human ambassadors. So would it not be presumptuous and rash to bring on the ambassadors of God not only harm but death?<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Ephesians 6.20.3</i></p><p><b>Gaius Marius Victorinus</b>: Boldly means \"so that I may not fail to accomplish it fully and that my chains may not so work on my mind as to prevent my accomplishing it, the task of expounding the mystery, as I ought.\"<br/><i>— EPISTLE TO THE Ephesians 2.6.20</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: Nothing can be more blessed than that soul. In what does he glory? In bonds, in afflictions, in chains, in scars; \"I bear branded on my body,\" saith he, \"the marks of Jesus,\" as though they were some great trophy. And again, \"For because of the hope of Israel,\" saith he, \"I am bound with this chain.\" And again, \"For which I am an ambassador in chains.\" What is this? Art thou not ashamed, art thou not afraid going about the world as a prisoner? Dost thou not fear lest any one should charge thy God with weakness? lest any one should on this account refuse to come near thee and to join the fold? No, saith he, not such are my bonds. They can shine brightly even in kings' palaces. \"So that my bonds,\" saith he, \"became manifest in Christ, throughout the whole praetorian guard: and most of the brethren in the Lord, being confident through my bonds, are more abundantly bold to speak the word of God without fear.\" Behold ye a force in bonds stronger than the raising of the dead. They beheld me bound, and they are the more courageous. For where bonds are, there of necessity is something great also. Where affliction is, there verily is salvation also, there verily is solace, there verily are great achievements. For when the devil kicks, then is he, doubtless, hit. When he binds God's servants, then most of all does the word gain ground.<br/><i>— Homily on Ephesians 8</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: \"For which I am an ambassador in chains, that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak\"; that is, that I may answer with confidence, with courage, with great prudence.<br/><i>— Homily on Ephesians 24</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"d041455763ae5d49adfaabac2591994423fb6ee75a5e4d6fa5d6c56aad4a6666","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":4366,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"5558d39d113e69c46d58801e050e0cba4fff19eff61ff46b6ab7c416fc7b0a0d","translator":null,"work":null}