Ephesians 6:24

Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(24) Grace be with all them . . .—The salutation, “Grace be with you,” in various forms, is, as St. Paul himself says in 2Thessalonians 3:17, “the token,” or characteristic signature, in every one of his Epistles, written with his own hand. It may be noted that it is not found in the Epistles of St. James, St. Peter, St. Jude and St. John, and that it is found in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Here, however, it is at once general and conditional, “to all them who love the Lord Jesus Christ.” So in 1Corinthians 16:22, “If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema.”

In sincerity.—The original is far stronger, “in incorruptibility,” a word usually applied to the immortality of heaven (as in Romans 2:7; 1Corinthians 15:42; 1Corinthians 15:50; 1Corinthians 15:53-54; 2Timothy 1:10); only here and in Titus 2:7, applied to human character on earth. Here it evidently means “with a love immortal and imperishable,” incapable either of corruption or of decay, a foretaste of the eternal communion in heaven.

MacLaren's Expositions

EPHESIANS



THE WIDE RANGE OF GOD’S GRACE

Ephesians 6:24In turning to the great words which I have read as a text, I ask you to mark their width and their simplicity. They are wide; they follow a very comprehensive benediction, with which, so to speak, they are concentric. But they sweep a wider circle. The former verse says, ‘Peace be to the brethren.’ But beyond the brethren in these Asiatic churches {as a kind of circular letter to whom this epistle was probably sent} there rises before the mind of the Apostle a great multitude, in every nation, and they share in his love, and in the promise and the prayer of my text. Mark its simplicity: everything is brought down to its most general expression. All the qualifications for receiving the divine gift are gathered up in one-love. All the variety of the divine gifts is summed up in that one comprehensive expression-’grace.’

I. So then, note, first, the comprehensive designation of the recipients of grace.

They are ‘all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption.’ Little need be said explanatory of the force of this general expression. We usually find that where Scripture reduces the whole qualification for the reception of the divine gift, and the conditions which unite to Jesus Christ, to one, it is faith, not love, that is chosen. But here the Apostle takes the process at the second stage, and instead of emphasising the faith which is the first step, he dwells upon the love which is its uniform consequence. This love rests upon the faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Then note the solemn fulness of the designations of the object of this faith-born love. ‘Jesus Christ our Lord’-the name of His humanity; the name of His office; the designation of His dominion. He is Jesus the Man. Jesus is the Christ, the Fulfiller of all prophecy; the flower of all previous revelation; the Anointed of God with the fulness of His Divine Spirit as Prophet, Priest, and King. Jesus Christ is the Lord-which, at the lowest, expresses sovereignty, and if regard be had to the Apostolic usage, expresses something more, even participation in Deity. And it is this whole Christ, the Jesus, the Christ, the Lord; the love to whom, built upon the faith in Him in all these aspects and characteristics, constitutes the true unity of the true Church.

That Church is not built upon a creed, but it is built upon a whole Christ, and not a maimed one. And so we must have a love which answers to all those sides of that great revealed character, and is warm with human love to Jesus; and is trustful with confiding love to the Christ; and is lowly with obedient love to the Lord. And I venture to go a step further, and say,-and is devout with adoring love to the eternal Son of the Father. This is the Apostle’s definition of what makes a Christian: Faith that grasps the whole Christ and love that therefore flows to Him. It binds all who possess it into one great unity. As against a spurious liberalism which calls them Christians who lay hold of a fragment of the one entire and perfect chrysolite, we must insist that a Christian is one who knows Jesus, who knows Christ, who knows the Lord, and who loves Him in all these aspects. Only we must remember, too, that many a time a man’s heart outruns his creed, and that many a soul glows with truer, deeper, more saving devotion and trust to a Christ whom the intellect imperfectly apprehends, than are realised by unloving hearts that are associated with clearer heads. Orchids grow in rich men’s greenhouses, fastened to a bit of stick, and they spread a fairer blossom that lasts longer than many a plant that is rooted in a more fertile soil. Let us be thankful for the blessed inconsistencies which knit some to the Christ who is more to them than they know.

There is also here laid down for us the great principle, as against all narrowness and all externalism, and all so-called ecclesiasticism, that to be joined to Jesus Christ is the one condition which brings a man into the blessed unity of the Church. Now it seems to me that, however they may be to be lamented on other grounds, and they are to be lamented on many, the existence of diverse Churches does not necessarily interfere with this deep-seated and central unity. There is a great deal said to-day about the reunion of Christendom, by which is meant the destruction of existing communions and the formation of a wider one. I do not believe, and I suppose you do not, that our existing ecclesiastical organisations are the final form of the Church of the living God. But let us remember that the two things are by no means contradictory, the belief in, and the realising of, the essential unity of the Church, and the existence of diverse communions. You will see on the side of many a Cumberland hill a great stretch of limestone with clefts a foot or two deep in it-there are flowers in the clefts, by the bye-but go down a couple of yards and the divisions have all disappeared, and the base-rock stretches continuously. The separations are superficial; the unity is fundamental. Do not let us play into the hands of people whose only notion of unity is that of a mechanical juxtaposition held together by some formula or orders; but let us recognise that the true unity is in the presence of Jesus Christ in the midst, and in the common grasp of Him by us all.

There is a well-known hymn which was originally intended as a High Church manifesto, which thrusts at us Nonconformists when it sings:



‘We are not divided,

All one body we.’

And oddly enough, but significantly too, it has found its way into all our Nonconformist hymn-books, and we, ‘the sects,’ are singing it, with perhaps a nobler conception of what the oneness of the body, and the unity of the Church is, than the writer of the words had. ‘We are not divided,’ though we be organised apart. ‘All one body we,’ for we all partake of that one bread, and the unifying principle is a common love to the one Jesus Christ our Lord.

II. Mark the impartial sweep of the divine gifts.

My text is a benediction, or a prayer; but it is also a prophecy, or a statement, of the inevitable and uniform results of love to Jesus Christ. The grace will follow that love, necessarily and certainly, and the lovers will get the gift of God because their love has brought them into living contact with Jesus Christ; and His life will flow over into theirs. I need not remind you that the word ‘grace’ in Scripture means, first of all, the condescending love of God to inferiors, to sinners, to those who deserved something else; and, secondly, the whole fulness of blessing and gift that follow upon that love. And, says Paul, these great gifts from heaven, the one gift in which all are comprised, will surely follow the opening of the heart in love to Jesus Christ.

Ah, brethren! God’s grace makes uncommonly short work of ecclesiastical distinctions. The great river flows through territories that upon men’s maps are painted in different colours, and of which the inhabitants speak in different tongues. The Rhine laves the pine-trees of Switzerland, and the vines of Germany, and the willows of Holland; and God’s grace flows through all places where the men that love Him do dwell. It rises, as it were, right over the barriers that they have built between each other. The little pools on the sea-shore are separate when the tide is out, but when it comes up it fills all the pot-holes that the pebbles have made, and unifies them in one great flashing, dancing mass; and so God’s grace comes to all that love Him, and confirms their unity.

Surely that is the true test of a living Church. ‘When Barnabas came, and saw the grace of God, he was glad.’ It was not what he had expected, but he was open to conviction. The Church where he saw it had been very irregularly constituted; it had no orders and no sacraments, and had been set a-going by the spontaneous efforts of private Christians, and he came to look into the facts. He asked for nothing more when he saw that the converts had the life within them. And so we, with all our faults-and God forbid that I should seem to minimise these-with all our faults, we poor Nonconformists, left to the uncovenanted mercies, have our share of that gift of grace as truly, and, if our love be deeper, more abundantly, than the Churches that are blessed with orders and sacraments, and an ‘unbroken historical continuity.’ And when we are unchurched for our lack of these, let us fall back upon St. Augustine’s ‘Where Christ is, there the Church is’; and believe that to us, even to us also, the promise is fulfilled, ‘Lo! I am with you always, even to the end of the world.’

III. Lastly, note the width to which our sympathies should go.

The Apostle sends out his desires and prayers so as to encircle the same area as the grace of God covers and as His love enfolds. And we are bound to do the same.

I am not going to talk about organic unity. The age for making new denominations is, I suppose, about over. I do not think that any sane man would contemplate starting a new Church nowadays. The rebound from the iron rigidity of a mechanical unity that took place at the Reformation naturally led to the multiplication of communities, each of which laid hold of something that to it seemed important. The folly of ecclesiastical rulers who insisted upon non-essentials lays the guilt of the schism at their doors, and not at the doors of the minority who could not, in conscience, accept that which never should have been insisted upon as a condition. But whilst we must all feel that power is lost, and much evil ensues from the isolation, such as it is, of the various Churches, yet we must remember that re-union is a slow process; that an atmosphere springs up round each body which is a very subtle, but none the less a very powerful, force, and that it will take a very, very long time to overcome the difficulties and to bring about any reconstruction on a large scale. But why should there be three Presbyterian Churches in Scotland, with the same creed, confessions of faith, and ecclesiastical constitution? Why should there be half a dozen Methodist bodies in England, of whom substantially the same thing may be said? Will it always pass the wit of man for Congregationalists and Baptists to be one body, without the sacrifice of conviction upon either side? Surely no! You young men may see these fair days; men like me can only hope that they will come and do a little, such as may be possible in a brief space, to help them on.

Putting aside, then, all these larger questions, I want, in a sentence or two, to insist with you upon the duty that lies on us all, and which every one of us may bear a share in discharging. There ought to be a far deeper consciousness of our fundamental unity. They talk a great deal about ‘the rivalries of jarring sects.’ I believe that is such an enormous exaggeration that it is an untruth. There is rivalry, but you know as well as I do that, shabby and shameful as it is, it is a kind of commercial rivalry between contiguous places of worship, be they chapels or churches, be they buildings belonging to the same or to different denominations. I, for my part, after a pretty long experience now, have seen so little of that said bitter rivalry between the Nonconformist sects, as sects, that to me it is all but non-existent. And I believe the most of us ministers, going about amongst the various communities, could say the same thing. But in the face of a cultivated England laughing at your creed of Jesus, the Christ, the Lord; and in the face of a strange and puerile recrudescence of sacerdotalism and sacramentarianism, which shoves a priest and a rite into the place where Christ should stand, it becomes us Nonconformists who believe that we know a more excellent way to stand shoulder to shoulder, and show that the unities that bind us are far more than the diversities that separate.

It becomes us, too, to further conjoint action in social matters. Thank God we are beginning to stir in that direction in Manchester-not before it was time. And I beseech you professing Christians, of all Evangelical communions, to help in bringing Christian motives and principles to bear on the discussion of social and municipal and economical conditions in this great city of ours.

And there surely ought to be more concert than we have had in aggressive work; that we should a little more take account of each other’s action in regulating our own; and that we should not have the scandal, which we too often have allowed to exist, of overlapping one another in such a fashion as that rivalry and mere trade competition is almost inevitable.

These are very humble, prosaic suggestions, but they would go a long way, if they were observed, to sweeten our own tempers, and to make visible to the world our true unity. Let us all seek to widen our sympathies as widely as Christ’s grace flows; to count none strangers whom He counts friends; to discipline ourselves to feel that we are girded with that electric chain which makes all who grasp it one, and sends the same keen thrill through them all. If a circle were a mile in diameter, and its circumference were dotted with many separate points, how much nearer each of these would be if it were moved inwards, on a straight line, closer to the centre, so as to make a circle a foot across. The nearer we come to the One Lord, in love, communion, and likeness, the nearer shall we be to one another.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

6:19-24 The gospel was a mystery till made known by Divine revelation; and it is the work of Christ's ministers to declare it. The best and most eminent ministers need the prayers of believers. Those particularly should be prayed for, who are exposed to great hardships and perils in their work. Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith. By peace, understand all manner of peace; peace with God, peace of conscience, peace among themselves. And the grace of the Spirit, producing faith and love, and every grace. These he desires for those in whom they were already begun. And all grace and blessings come to the saints from God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Grace, that is, the favour of God; and all good, spiritual and temporal, which is from it, is and shall be with all those who thus love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, and with them only.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Grace be, ... - note, Romans 16:20.

That love our Lord Jesus Christ - see the notes on 1 Corinthians 16:22.

In sincerity - Margin, "with incorruption." With a pure heart; without dissembling; without hypocrisy. There could not be a more appropriate close of the Epistle than such a wish; there will be nothing more needful for us when we come to the close of life than the consciousness that we love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. To writer and reader may this be equally the inestimable consolation then! Better, far better then will be the evidence of such sincere love, than all the wealth which toil can gain, all the honors which the world can bestow - than the most splendid mansion, or the widest fame. The subscription to this Epistle, like those affixed to the other epistles, is of no authority, but in this instance there is every reason to believe that it is correct. Compare notes at the end of the Epistle to the Romans and 1 Corinthians.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

24. Contrast the malediction on all who love Him not (1Co 16:22).

in sincerity—Greek, "in incorruption," that is, not as English Version, but "with an immortal (constant) love" [Wahl]. Compare "that which is not corruptible" (1Pe 3:4). Not a fleeting, earthly love, but a spiritual and eternal one [Alford]. Contrast Col 2:22, worldly things "which perish with the using." Compare 1Co 9:25, "corruptible … incorruptible crown." "Purely," "holily" [Estius], without the corruption of sin (See on [2377]1Co 3:17; 2Pe 1:4; Jude 10). Where the Lord Jesus has a true believer, there I have a brother [Bishop M'ikwaine]. He who is good enough for Christ, is good enough for me [R. Hall]. The differences of opinion among real Christians are comparatively small, and show that they are not following one another like silly sheep, each trusting the one before him. Their agreement in the main, while showing their independence as witnesses by differing in non-essentials, can only be accounted for by their being all in the right direction (Ac 15:8, 9; 1Co 1:2; 12:3).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

This is more extensive than the former, he prays here for all true believers every where.

In sincerity; or, with incorruption, i.e. so as that nothing can draw them off from the love of Christ, and so it implies constancy as well as sincerity.

Written from Rome unto the Ephesians by Tychicus.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ,.... Christ is the object of love, and a lovely object he is: he is to be loved because of the loveliness of his person, and the transcendent excellencies that are in him; because of his suitableness and fulness as a Saviour; and because of his great love shown to his church and people; and because of the relations he stands in to them, and the communion they have with him: love to Christ is a grace of the Spirit, and is in all believers; and though it is imperfect, and sometimes cold, it will abide for ever; it ought to be universal and superlative; all of Christ is to be loved, and he is to be loved above all: and it shows itself in a value for his Gospel, and the truths of it; in an esteem of his ordinances, and a regard to his commands; in parting with all for Christ, when called for; and in bearing all for his sake; in a well pleasedness in his company and presence, and in a concern for his absence, and in an uneasiness until he is enjoyed again: it should be fervent, and constant, and cordial, and, as here said,

in sincerity; from the heart, and with all the heart, and without hypocrisy; not in word only, but in deed and in truth; which appears when he is loved, as before observed: and the apostle wishes "grace" to all such sincere and hearty lovers of him; by which may be meant a fresh discovery of the free grace, love, and favour of God in Christ to them; and a fresh supply of grace from the fulness of it in Christ; and a larger measure of the grace of the Spirit to carry on the good work begun in them; as well as a continuation of the Gospel of the grace of God with them, and an increase of spiritual gifts. Grace may be connected with the word translated "sincerity", and be rendered "grace with incorruption": or incorruptible grace, as true grace is an incorruptible seed; or "grace with immortality": and so the apostle wishes not only for grace here, but for eternal happiness and glory hereafter; and then closes the epistle with an Amen, as a confirmation and asseveration of the truth of the doctrines contained in it, and as expressive of his earnest desire that the several petitions in it might be granted, and of his faith and confidence that they would be fulfilled.

The subscription,

written from Rome to the Ephesians by Tychicus, seems to be right; for that this epistle is written to the Ephesians, the inscription shows; and that it was written when the apostle was at Rome, appears from Ephesians 3:1; and that it was sent by Tychicus, seems very likely from Ephesians 6:21.

Geneva Study Bible

Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ {m} in sincerity. Amen. <<To the Ephesians written from Rome, by Tychicus.>>

(m) Or to immortality, to life everlasting.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Ephesians 6:24. While Paul has in Ephesians 6:23 expressed his wish of blessing for the readers (τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς), he now annexes thereto a further such general wish, namely, for all who love Christ imperishably, just as at 1 Corinthians 16:22 he takes up into the closing wish an ἀνάθεμα upon all those who do not love Christ.

ἡ χάρις] the grace κατʼ ἐξοχήν, i.e. the grace of God in Christ. Comp. Colossians 4:18; 1 Timothy 6:21; 2 Timothy 4:22; Titus 3:15. In the conclusion of other Epistles: the grace of Christ, Romans 16:20; Romans 16:24; 1 Corinthians 16:23; 2 Corinthians 13:13; Galatians 6:18; Php 4:23; 1 Thessalonians 5:28; 2 Thessalonians 3:18; Phil. 25.

ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ] belongs neither to Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν (Wetstein: “Christum immortalem et gloriosum, non humilem,” etc.; see also Reiners in Wolf and Semler), nor to ἡ χάρις (“favor immortalis,” Castalio, Drusius; comp. Piscator and Michaelis, who take ἐν as equivalent to σύν, while the latter supposes a reference to deniers of the resurrection!), nor yet to the sit to be supplied after ἡ χάρις, as is held, after Beza (who, however, took ἐν for εἰς) and Bengel, recently by Matthies (“that grace with all … may be in eternity;” comp. Baumgarten-Crusius), Harless (according to whom ἐν denotes the element in which the χάρις manifests itself, and ἀφθαρσ. is all imperishable being, whether appearing in this life or in eternity), Bleek, and Olshausen, which last supposes a breviloquentia for ἵνα ζωὴν ἔχωσιν ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ, i.e. ζωὴν αἰώνιον. But, in opposition to Matthies, it may be urged that the purely temporal notion eternity (εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα) is foisted upon the word imperishableness; and in opposition to Harless, that the abstract notion imperishableness is transmuted into the concrete notion of imperishable being, which is not the meaning of ἀφθαρσ., even in 2 Timothy 1:10 (but imperishableness in abstracto), and that ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ, instead of adding, in accordance with its emphatic position, a very weighty and important element, would express something which is self-evident, namely, that according to the wish of the apostle the grace might display itself not ἐν φθαρτοῖς (1 Peter 1:18), but ἐν ἀφθάρτοις; the breviloquentia, lastly, assumed by Olshausen is, although ἀφθαρσ. in itself might be equivalent to ζωὴ αἰώνιος (see Grimm, Handb. p. 60), a pure invention, the sense of which Paul would have expressed by εἰς ἀφθαρσίαν. The right connection is the usual one, namely, with ἀγαπώντων. And in accordance with this, we have to explain it: who love the Lord in imperishableness, i.e. so that their love does not pass away, in which case ἐν expresses the manner. Comp. the concluding wish Titus 3:15, where ἐν πίστει is in like manner to be combined with φιλοῦντας. Others, following the same connection, have understood the sinceritas either of the love itself (Pelagius, Anselm, Calvin, Calovius, and others) or of the disposition and the life in general (Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Erasmus, Flacius, Estius, Zeger, Grotius: “significatur is, qui nulla vi, nullis precibus, nullis illecebris se corrumpi, i.e. a recto abduci, patitur,” and others, including Wieseler), but against this Beza has already with reason urged the linguistic usage; for uncorruptedness is not ἀφθαρσία (not even in Wis 6:18-19), but ἀφθορία (Titus 2:7) and ἀδιαφθορία (Wetstein, II. p. 373). On ἀφθαρσία, imperishableness (at 1 Corinthians 15:42; 1 Corinthians 15:52, it is in accordance with the context specially incorruptibility), comp. Plut. Arist. 6; Romans 2:7; 1 Corinthians 9:25; 1 Timothy 1:17; 2 Timothy 1:10; Wis 2:23; Wis 6:18 f.; 4Ma 9:22; 4Ma 17:12.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Ephesians 6:24. ἡ χάρις μετὰ πάντων τῶν ἀγαπώντων τὸν Κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ. [ἀμήν]: Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in uncorruptness. As in Colossians, the three Pastoral Epistles, and also in Hebrews, we have here ἡ χάρις, “the grace,” the grace beside which there is none other, the grace of God in Christ of which Christians have experience. In the closing benedictions of Cor., Gal., Philip., Thess., Philem. (as also in Rev.), we have the fuller form ἡ χάρις τοῦ Κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, or ἡ χάρις τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ; also in Romans according to the TR, the verse, however, being deleted by the best critics. The former benediction was for the brethren, probably those in the Asiatic Churches. This second benediction is of widest scope—for all those who love Christ. The difficulty is with the unusual expression ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ, both as to its sense and its connection. The noun ἀφθαρσία is used in Plutarch of τὸ θεῖομ (Arist., c. 6), in Philo of the κόσμος (De incorr. Mundi, § 11), in the LXX and the Apocr. of immortality (Wis 2:23; Wis 6:19; 4Ma 17:12). In the NT it is found, in addition to the present passage, in Romans 2:7 of the “incorruption” which goes with the glory and honour of the future; in 1 Corinthians 15:42; 1 Corinthians 15:50; 1 Corinthians 15:53-54, of the “incorruption” of the resurrection-body; in 2 Timothy 1:10, of the life and “incorruption” brought to light by Christ. The occurrence in Titus 2:10 must be discounted in view of the adverse diplomatic evidence. The Pauline use, therefore, is in favour of the idea of “incorruption,” “imperishableness,” the quality of the changeless and undecaying; and that as belonging to the future in contrast with the present condition of things. There is nothing, therefore, to bear out the sense of sincerity adopted by Chrys., the AV, the Bish.; cf. Tynd., “in pureness”; Cov. Test., “sincerely”; Cov. Cran., “unfeignedly”. This would be expressed by ἀφθορία or some similar term (cf. Titus 2:7). Nor can it be simply identified with all imperishable being in this life or in the other (Bleek, Olsh., Matthies, etc.); nor yet again with ἐν ἀφθάρτοις on the analogy of ἐν ʼπουρανίοις, as if it described the sphere of the ἀγάπη. There remains the qualitative sense of “imperishableness” (Mey., Ell., Alf., Abb., and most), which best suits linguistic use, the sense of the adj. ἄφθαρτος (cf. Romans 1:23; 1 Corinthians 9:25; 1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Timothy 1:17; 1 Peter 1:4; 1 Peter 1:23; 1 Peter 3:4), and the application here in connection with the grace of love. The ἐν, therefore, is not to be loosely dealt with, as if = εἰς (Beza, as if it meant the same as εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα), or διά (Theophy.), or ὑπέρ (Chrys.), or even μετά (Theodor.); but has its proper force of the element of manner in which the love is cherished. Further, the simplest and most obvious connection is with the ἀγαπώντων, as it is taken by most, including Chrys., Theod., and the other Greek commentators. Some, however, connect the phrase with ἡ χάρις, as = “grace be with all in eternity” (Bez., Beng., Matthies), or, “in all imperishable being” (Harl.), or as a short way of saying “grace be with all that they may have eternal life” (Olsh.). This construction, though strongly advocated recently by Von Soden, fails to give a clear and satisfactory sense, or one wholly accordant with the use of ἀφθαρσία; while there is against it also the fact that the defined noun and the defining phrase would be further apart than is usual in benedictions. Still less reason is there to connect the phrase immediately with τὸν Κύριον ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν as if it described Christ as immortal (Wetst., etc.)—a construction both linguistically and grammatically (in the absence of τὸν before ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ) questionable. The phrase, therefore, defines the way in which they love, or the element in which their love has its being. It is a love that “knows neither change, diminution, nor decay” (Ell.). The closing ἀμήν added by the TR is found in [895]3[896] [897] [898] [899], most cursives, Syr., Boh., etc.; but not in [900] [901] [902] [903] [904], 17, Arm., etc. It is omitted by LTTrWHRV.

[895] Codex Sinaiticus (sæc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.

[896] Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

[897] Codex Mosquensis (sæc. ix.), edited by Matthæi in 1782.

[898] Codex Porphyrianus (sæc. ix.), at St. Petersburg, collated by Tischendorf. Its text is deficient for chap. Ephesians 2:13-16.

[899] Codex Angelicus (sæc. ix.), at Rome, collated by Tischendorf and others.

[900] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.

[901] Autograph of the original scribe of א.

[902] Autograph of the original scribe of א.

[903] Codex Alexandrinus (sæc. v.), at the British Museum, published in photographic facsimile by Sir E. M. Thompson (1879).

[904] Codex Boernerianus (sæc. ix.), a Græco-Latin MS., at Dresden, edited by Matthæi in 1791. Written by an Irish scribe, it once formed part of the same volume as Codex Sangallensis (δ) of the Gospels. The Latin text, g, is based on the O.L. translation.

The subscription πρὸς Ἐφεσίους ἐγράφη ἀπὸ Ῥώμης διὰ Τυχικοῦ is omitted by LTWH; while Treg. gives simply πρὸς Ἐφεσίους. Like the subscriptions appended to Rom., Phil., and 2 Tim., it chronicles a view of the Epistle that is easier to reconcile with fact than is the case with others (1 and 2 Thess., Tit., and espec. 1 Cor., Gal., 1 Tim.). In the oldest MSS. it is simply πρὸς Ἐφεσίους. In the Versions, later MSS., and some of the Fathers it takes various longer forms. The form represented in the TR and the AV is not older than Euthalius, Deacon of Alexandria and Bishop of Sulca, who flourished perhaps in the middle of the fifth century.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

24. Grace] Lit., “the grace.” So in the closing benedictions of Col., 1 Tim., 2 Tim., Tit., Heb. In Rom., Cor., Gal., Phil., Thess., Philem., Rev., the benedictions are in the full form (or nearly so), “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The shorter form is very probably the epitome of the larger; “the grace” is His grace. On the word “grace,” see note on Ephesians 1:2. It is nothing less than God Himself in action, in His Son, by His Spirit, in the salvation of man.

with all them that love, &c.] In this short clause, at once so broad and so deep in its reference, so exclusive from one point of view, so inclusive from another, we find the last expression of those great ideas of the Epistle, the local Universality and spiritual Unity of the true, the truly believing and loving, Church. All who answer this description are, as a fact, in contact with the Fountain of Grace, and on all of them the Apostle invokes “grace for grace” (John 1:16), the successive and growing supplies of the gift of God.

“Our Lord Jesus Christ”:—the full name and style of the Object of love is given. In this lies the needful warning that the Object must be no creature of the individual’s, or of the community’s, thought, but the Redeemer and King of history and revelation.

in sincerity] Lit., (as R.V.,) in uncorruptness. The word is the same as that in Romans 2:7 (A.V., “immortality”); 1 Corinthians 15:42; 1 Corinthians 15:50; 1 Corinthians 15:53-54 (A.V., “incorruption”); 2 Timothy 1:10 (A.V., “immortality”). The cognate adjective occurs Romans 1:23; 1 Corinthians 9:25; 1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Peter 1:4; 1 Peter 1:23 (A.V., in each case, “incorruptible” and so, practically, 1 Peter 3:4); and 1 Timothy 1:17 (A.V., “immortal”)[41]. Thus the word tends always towards the spiritual and eternal, as towards that which is in its own nature free from elements of decay. “In spiritual reality” would thus represent a part, but only a part, of the idea of the present phrase. The whole idea is far greater in its scope. The “love of our Lord Jesus Christ” in question here is a love living and moving “in” the sphere and air, so to speak, of that which cannot die, and cannot let die. God Himself is its “environment,” as He lives and works in the regenerate soul. It is a love which comes from, exists by, and leads to, the unseen and eternal. “Thus only,” in Alford’s words, “is the word worthy to stand as the crown and climax of this glorious Epistle.”

[41] The Genevan English Version (1557) renders the words in the text here, “to their immortalitie.” The preposition (“to”) cannot stand, but the noun conveys part of the true meaning.

Amen] See note on Ephesians 3:21, above.—The evidence for the omission of the word here is considerable, though not overwhelming. The early Versions; and the Fathers (in quotation), retain it, almost without exception in both cases. Some very important MSS. omit it.—What reader will not supply it from his own spirit?

The Subscription

Written from Rome, &c.] Lit., (The Epistle) to (the) Ephesians was written from Rome, by means of Tychicus.—It may safely be assumed that no such Subscription appeared in the original MS. of the Epistle, and the question of various forms has, accordingly, an antiquarian interest only. In the oldest Gr. MSS. the form is the same as that of the Title (see note there); To (the) Ephesians. Old, but later, MSS., along with some early Versions and some Fathers, read, exactly or nearly, as the A.V. Among other forms we find, (Here) ends (the Epistle) to (the) Ephesians, (and) begins (that) to (the) Colossians (sic), or, that to (the) Philippians.

The Subscriptions (to St Paul’s Epistles) in their longer form (as in the A.V.) are ascribed to Euthalius, a bishop of the fifth century, and thus to a date later than that of the earliest known MSS. (See Scrivener’s Introduction to the Criticism of the N. T., ed. 1883, p. 62.)

The Subscription here is obviously true to fact, (assuming the rightness of the words “at Ephesus,” Ephesians 1:1). In this it resembles those appended to Rom., Phil., 2 Tim. Other Subscriptions are either (1 Cor.; Galat.; 1 Tim.) contradictory to the contents of the respective Epistles, or (Thess.; Titus) difficult to be reconciled with them.

Additional Note (see p. 54)

The Rev. C. T. Wilson, M.A., of Jerusalem, has favoured the Editor with the following remarks:

“The word ἀρραβὼν occurs in the colloquial Arabic of Palestine, in the form arraboon, and is frequently used … for the sum of money paid in advance to a tradesman or artizan to seal a bargain. It is also used to signify a sum deposited as a pledge for the fulfilment of a bargain. When engaging a muleteer, it is usual to take a small sum from him as a pledge that he will be forthcoming at the appointed time. The arraboon is forfeited if he fails.”

Bengel's Gnomen

Ephesians 6:24. Πάντων, with all) whether Jews or Gentiles, in all Asia, etc.—[108] ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ in incorruption, sincerity) construed with grace, viz. let it be: comp. Ephesians 3:13, μὴ ἐκκακεῖν, not to faint, which is a proof of sincerity (ἀφθαρσία, incorruption). Add 2 Timothy 1:10. We have its opposite, Ephesians 4:22.—ἀφθαρσία implies health without any blemish, and its continuance flowing from it. This is in consonance with the whole sum of the epistle; and thence ἀφθαρσία redounds to the love of believers towards Jesus Christ

[108] Τῶν ἀγαπώντων, that love) See of how great importance is that love, 1 Corinthians 16:22.—V. g.

[109] Bengel, J. A. (1860). Vol. 4: Gnomon of the New Testament (M. E. Bengel & J. C. F. Steudel, Ed.) (J. Bryce, Trans.) (61–118). Edinburgh: T&T Clark.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 24. - Grace he with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruptibility. As grace was the first word, so it is the last (comp. Ephesians 1:2), not as denoting anything essentially different from the blessings invoked in the preceding verse, but for variety, and in order that the favorite word may be, both here and before, in the place of prominence. The expression is peculiar - love the Lord Jesus Christ ἐν ἀκαθαρσίᾳ. The word denotes, especially in Paul's usage, what is unfading and- permanent. The love that marks genuine Christians is not a passing gleam, like the morning cloud and the early dew, but an abiding emotion. Nowhere can we have a more vivid idea of this incorruptible love than in the closing verses of Romans 8, "I am persuaded that neither death nor life," etc.



Ephesians 6:24

Vincent's Word Studies

In sincerity (ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ)

Rev., correctly, in incorruptness: who love Christ with an imperishable and incorruptible love.