Chapter Note Matthew Henry Commentary (Complete)
E P H E S I A N S.
CHAP. II.
This chapter contains an account, I. Of the miserable condition of these Ephesians by nature Ephesians 2:1 - 3 ) and again, Ephesians 2:11 ; Ephesians 2:12 . II. Of the glorious change that was wrought in them by converting grace Ephesians 2:4 - 10 ) and again, Ephesians 2:13 . III. Of the great and mighty privileges that both converted Jews and Gentiles receive from Christ, Ephesians 2:14 - 22 . The apostle endeavours to affect them with a due sense of the wonderful change which divine grace had wrought in them; and this is very applicable to that great change which the same grace works in all those who are brought into a state of grace. So that we have here a lively picture both of the misery of unregenerate men and of the happy condition of converted souls, enough to awaken and alarm those who are yet in their sins and to put them upon hastening out of that state, and to comfort and delight those whom God hath quickened, with a consideration of the mighty privileges with which they are invested.
Book Note Matthew Henry Commentary (Complete)
AN
EXPOSITION,
W I T H P R A C T I C A L O B S E R V A T I O N S,
OF THE EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL TO
T H E E P H E S I A N S.
S OME think that this epistle to the Ephesians was a circular letter sent to several churches, and that the copy directed to the Ephesians happened to be taken into the canon, and so it came to bear that particular inscription. And they have been induced the rather to think this because it is the only one of all Paul's epistles that has nothing in it peculiarly adapted to the state or case of that particular church; but it has much of common concernment to all Christians, and especially to all who, having been Gentiles in times past, were converted to Christianity. But then it may be observed, on the other hand, that the epistle is expressly inscribed Ephesians 1:1 ) to the saints which are at Ephesus; and in the close of it he tells them that he had sent Tychicus unto them, whom, in 2 Timothy 4:12 , he says he had sent to Ephesus. It is an epistle that bears date out of a prison: and some have observed that what this apostle wrote when he was a prisoner had the greatest relish and savour in it of the things of God. When his tribulations did abound, his consolations and experiences did much more abound, whence we may observe that the afflictive exercises of God's people, and particularly of his ministers, often tend to the advantage of others as well as to their own. The apostle's design is to settle and establish the Ephesians in the truth, and further to acquaint them with the mystery of the gospel, in order to it. In the former part he represents the great privilege of the Ephesians, who, having been in time past idolatrous heathens, were now converted to Christianity and received into covenant with God, which he illustrates from a view of their deplorable state before their conversion, Ephesians 1:1 - 3Ephesians 1:1 - 3 . In the latter part (which we have in the Ephesians 4:1 - 6 ) he instructs them in the principal duties of religion, both personal and relative, and exhorts and quickens them to the faithful discharge of them. Zanchy observes that we have here an epitome of the whole Christian doctrine, and of almost all the chief heads of divinity.
