Fragments on Ephesians

1Fragments from the commentaries on the Letter to the Ephesians. Ephesians 1:1: “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God.”

Let us hear what Origen also says about this: if the preposition “through” (διά) marks a serving role—as we examined at length when treating “all things came to be through him,” and set out the counter-objections that seemed to us to bear on that point—then we must ask how Paul is an apostle of Christ Jesus not “from” the will of God but “through” the will of God. One person will say that Paul is not everywhere precise about the special force of prepositions, and that he behaves the same way with other meanings. Another, knowing the difference between “through God” and “through the will of God,” will say it would have been absurd if it had been written “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through God”; but if God’s will is a servant while the one who uses it is the governing agent, that would not be unreasonable. You should also notice, concerning the will of God, whether it can be ranked of Christ, so that just as there is power of God and wisdom of God, so also there may be his will, having him as God’s hypostasis. If it seems awkward to someone to say that God’s will is given substance, let him consider whether the apparent awkwardness is much the same for power of God and wisdom of God and Word of God, and for truth and resurrection and way; for it seems to me much the same about all these, as being given substance in the only-begotten Word.

Ephesians 1:1b: “to the saints who are, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.” Origen says: only in Ephesians do we find lying there the phrase “to the saints who are.” And we ask, if “who are” is not redundant when added to “to the saints,” what it can mean. See, then, whether—just as in Exodus the one who speaks to Moses names his own name “the One who is”—so those who share in the One who is become “beings,” called as if from not-being into being. For God chose the things that are not, says the same Paul, in order to abolish the things that are. And someone will ask how he abolishes the things that are; but let us hear him adding “so that no flesh may boast before God.” For if someone who has shared in being, forgetting the share, credits himself with the cause of being and does not bring all thanksgiving up to the one who, from not-being, gifted him being like God and according to the image, then the “being” is abolished.

Ephesians 1:3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” Someone will say that because of the blessings in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, and wherever else in Scripture such things are recorded, the spiritual blessing is spoken by way of contrast with those, as if the God and Father of Jesus Christ blesses us not in a bodily blessing like those, but in a spiritual one. And the heterodox will take it that way, thinking they would also gain from such a reading a pretext for cutting apart the Godhead. But we, having shown that even under the law the blessings, if understood bodily, were not given to those entrusted with the law and who had lived soundly, will prove that those who have supposed this either make the giver of the blessings a liar, or that what was promised to those who lived as he commanded is not what the ready surface reading understands. For it follows, if the law is spiritual, that the blessings in it are spiritual too. The prophets, for example, have not obtained the blessings bodily: people who went about in sheepskins and goatskins, lacking, oppressed, mistreated, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and the holes of the earth, did not lend to many nations, nor were they blessed in city or field; nor were their storehouses blessed, which they never even owned in the first place. And see whether from these things we shall not compel those who understand otherwise to change their mind (if they keep the dignity of the one who gave the

2—blessings of God) toward his having given them spiritually to his own blessed ones. Not only is every blessing with which Paul and those like him have been blessed spiritual, and none of them bodily, but it is also in the heavenly places. For it was fitting for those whose commonwealth is in heaven, who store up treasure in heaven and keep their heart where their treasure is, also to obtain the spiritual blessings in the heavenly places. How God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has already blessed us in every spiritual blessing and in the heavenly places is worth examining; for it does not say “who will bless” us. And see whether “in the heavenly places” can stand for “in the intelligible things and outside the senses”; for in that way someone also stores treasure in heaven and no longer keeps the heart on earth—that is, in material and bodily things—but in heaven, always conversing with intelligible nature. And for us to see more precisely, both things are said about the blessing: that it is spiritual and that it is in the heavenly places; and besides these, that it is in Christ, as in the Word and the Wisdom and the Truth and the Power.

Ephesians 1:4b: “that we should be holy and blameless before him.” Origen says: someone might ask, toward some being holy and blameless before God, whether the prophetic word contradicts this when it says, “No living thing will be justified before you.” And if before God no living thing will be justified, how will they be holy before him? For if they will be holy and blameless, they will also be justified. Fleeing to the ambiguity of the prophetic word, someone will say that “no living thing is justified before God” means something like this: not wholly and for the whole of his time will anyone be justified before God, because he has certainly sinned at some point; and if that is so, it does not prevent some from being holy and blameless before him, having become such by correction; or else, if not every living thing, still some are justified.

Ephesians 1:5: “in love having predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ unto himself.” Either “in love” is to be joined with “having predestined,” or “he chose us in him in love before the foundation of the world, having predestined us in adoption through Jesus Christ unto himself,” so that we should be holy and blameless before him. The name “adoption” shows that those predestined by him are not sons of God by nature; the name of adoption would not be ranked of the Savior, but of those who, having received the spirit of slavery unto fear and then put fear away, become worthy of freedom and of hearing “I no longer call you slaves,” and who for that reason receive the spirit of adoption. And when someone receives the Son whom he did not have before, then the spirit of adoption has also made room; for thus adoption enters us through Christ. Yet with a view to arriving at him, he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him, having predestined us in love in adoption through Christ; for to these words is added “unto himself.”

Ephesians 1:5b: “according to the good pleasure of his will.” I think the name “good pleasure” (εὐδοκία) is not very worn in Greek custom, but was coined by the translators; for they used the word in the prophetic books, as in Psalm 84, “Lord, you were well pleased with your land,” and in Psalm 105, “Remember us, Lord, in the good pleasure of your people,” and in Habakkuk, “and if he draws back, my soul is not well pleased in him.” Still, good pleasure shows the “well” and the “seeming,” so that it would not be said of things that seem to us not good, but only of things that seem praiseworthily. So we must ask how, having predestined in love for adoption those whom God predestined, he predestined according to the good pleasure of his will; and we must find a demonstration that there is good pleasure of his will upon these; for his will was also well pleased that the glory of his grace toward the saved should be praised.

Ephesians 1:6: “in the Beloved.” Origen says: the Savior is called “Beloved” simply; for even if people wander about grasping righteousness and truth and wisdom, still all would confess that they “love” wisdom and truth and righteousness. For this reason the Only-begotten of God is called “Beloved,” since all love the things conceived of him, whether they miss the mark or hit it—just as all are struck with awe at God, yet those who fall away from the sound notion about God go astray. Ephesians 1:7: in

3whom we have the redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of trespasses. Redemption—or ransoming—happens for captives who have come under enemies. We have come under the enemies: the ruler of this age and the wicked powers under him; and for that reason we needed redemption and the one who buys us out, so that he might receive us back after we had been estranged from him. So the Savior gave his own blood as the ransom for us; therefore we have the redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of trespasses. Forgiveness of trespasses follows redemption; before someone is redeemed, forgiveness of trespasses cannot happen for him. First, then, we must be redeemed and no longer be under the one who took us captive and holds us, so that, freed and outside his hands (so to speak), we may for our benefit be able to receive forgiveness of trespasses and, healed from the wounds of sin, act according to piety and the remaining virtues.

Ephesians 1:8: “according to the riches of his grace which he lavished on us.” The one who has understood what it is to be saved by grace and not from works, and who compares trespass with trespass, would see, according to the parable that speaks of the five hundred and the fifty denarii, who ought to confess more favors to the master who remitted the debt. Still, seeing how the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory about to be revealed to us, one would recognize the riches of God’s grace, and how it overflowed upon the called and elect—especially those alien to God’s covenants and strangers to his promises, drawn by Israel’s trespass from the Father’s kindness toward salvation. Still more would someone contemplate the riches of his grace which overflowed upon the blessed by considering “Do you not know that we will judge angels?” and “things into which angels long to look,” and what is said about all being one—“that as I and you are one, they also may be one in us.” And this whole riches of God’s grace which overflowed upon the saints, supplied from some beginning and growing and multiplying, either has the one who obtains what was said competing in zeal and stretching alongside as far as possible, or, if he falls short of doing all that falls to him as far as he can, makes the grace empty toward such a one. If someone falls short, grace becomes as it were empty toward him; but if he does what is from himself without omission, he may say the apostolic word: “his grace toward me was not empty.”

Ephesians 1:9: “in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him for the stewardship of the fullness of the times.” Origen says: what is “all wisdom,” and after that what is “insight”? Jesus also used the word in Wisdom, beginning from “All wisdom is from the Lord and with him it is forever.” So if someone has contemplated the things seen and what is in them or even outside them unseen, and having parcelled them out by reason examines separately the invisible and the visible by the wisdom with which God has made all things—for David says “You made all things in wisdom”—this person would look upon all wisdom from the Lord. But it is likely that someone, despairing that one still wearing this body can already be in all wisdom and insight, and hearing also “we know in part and we prophesy in part,” will stumble at “making known to us the mystery of his will in all wisdom and insight,” as said more generously than truly. For even if the mystery of God is made known to Paul and those like him in wisdom, it is not made known in all wisdom to one who knows all things in part and prophesies in part. See, then, whether another division of the reading does not fit this inquiry of the passage, as follows: “unto the praise of the glory of his grace with which he graced us in the Beloved, in whom we have the redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight”—stopping the division of this passage here, and from another beginning reading thus: “making known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure,” so that “in all wisdom and insight” does not attach to “making known to us the mystery

4of his will but to what stands above. For God graced us in the Beloved in all his own wisdom and his insight; and also, having in the Beloved the redemption through the blood of Christ, we received these things in all wisdom and insight of God; and in all his wisdom and insight we have obtained forgiveness of trespasses, as he overflows toward us the riches of his grace in all wisdom and insight—all of which he has done, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure. But if the former reading also stands, a account will be given that does not fight the force of knowing in part and of the one who pursues to grasp: in all his own wisdom and insight God arranged us, making known the mystery of his will. For that we may be able to know the mystery of his will and have strength to contain it while wearing a body of humiliation, we need the stewardship of all God’s wisdom. And if the name “mysteries” is taken for divine and secret things not fit to reach many, clearly the mystery also concerns those who will be saved by God’s will; for the great throng of God’s kindness is hidden for those who fear him, as David says: “How great is the throng of your kindness, Lord, which you hid for those who fear you.”

Notice also whether “predestination” and “purpose” differ, so that purpose comes after predestination: as if predestination occurs according to God’s thoughts, and according to the same, when those he predestined somehow take substance, the purpose about them follows and the predestination comes into work; hence first is written “in love having predestined us for adoption,” and second “according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him.” One must also examine what the fullness of the times is; beside it lies “the fullness of time” in the same Paul: “when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his Son.” And just as the time for the heir to receive the paternal estate when he has come to a man’s age might somehow be named the fullness of his time or of his season, so in the fullness of the times would be the one who, through the roads and advances that lead to perfection, has arrived at being able to receive what God predestined and purposed for the saints.

Ephesians 1:10: “to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in him.” Origen says: the name “summing up” (ἀνακεφαλαίωσις) is used of bankers’ and similar accounts that are totalled and gathered into one head of gifts and expenses or receipts; from which I think the apostle also used the word here. For there being many accounts of the stewardship of things in heaven and of the administration of things on earth, all of them, as parts of one whole world, breathing together and nodding toward one result—there is a summing-up in Christ. For not only the piecings of what is stewarded and the several accounts of what is administered are in God’s Word and his Wisdom, but also the summing-up and (as one might say) the gathering-under-one-head of all. “Head” is often also the encompassing thought; “a head,” it says, “upon the things said,” and “heading many things in few.” And “head” is so called, I think, because our head has in it all our sense-organs of life as in a summary.

Ephesians 1:11: “of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.” Origen says: whatever God works and does and completes, he works all these according to the counsel proper to his will; for there is nothing that can make him do anything contrary to the counsel of his will, since he rules and governs the whole. And so that Paul may present how carefully God’s workings happen according to his will, he set counsel before will. For God above all does all things with counsel. Therefore he works all things according to the counsel of his will.

Ephesians 1:13: “in whom you also, having heard [the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise].” Origen says: in whom (clearly Christ), toward others who have

5heard, and you also, having heard the word of truth—which word of truth is the gospel of your salvation—in which also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. As to the phrasing, the second “in which” will seem redundant, and that has also caused the appearance that, with the thought hanging, the subordinate clause was not brought in. It is not so. Someone before us used to say that from much love toward Jesus Paul mentions him most continually and as it were redundantly, as one can also see in “in which also having believed” according to the “in which.” And it is very fitting for the Ephesians, who have shared in secret words with Paul as guide, to hear “in which you also, having heard the word of truth.” For I do not think that those who have heard only the preaching, and have not received the words of the realities in narrative and clear unfolding, hear the word of truth. For the word differs from the preaching, as Paul also teaches elsewhere when he says, “and my word and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom but in demonstration of Spirit and power”; and there too one must note that he says his word is other than his preaching. One must also examine whether in another letter it is said that some have heard the word of truth, so that the observation may appear more precisely according to Paul’s intent. But where “gospel” is named must be watched, and also the words added to it—for example “according to my gospel,” or “beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ,” or “eternal gospel,” or “gospel of the salvation of the Ephesians,” or simply “gospel,” as when Paul says of Luke, “whose praise is in the gospel through all the churches.”

And everyone who has heard the word of truth, which is the gospel of the hearer’s salvation, and has believed, is sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise; so that if one heard but did not believe, one would not be sealed. Another will say that even if one believed, yet did not advance so far as to hear the word of truth, one would still not contain the seal of the Holy Spirit of promise, which is truly an imprint and clarification of the things that ought to be imprinted and clarified by the Holy Spirit of promise. One must also ask whether “Holy Spirit of promise” is said anywhere, and what to take for the Holy Spirit of promise. I think, then, that just as the Holy Spirit, when it comes upon someone, makes holy, and the spirit of wisdom makes wise, and the spirit of understanding makes understanding, so also the spirit of promise is somehow already in the promise.

Ephesians 1:14: “who is the earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of the possession, unto the praise of his glory.” You will ask whether everyone who shares in the Holy Spirit shares in the spirit of promise, or only the one who has heard a word of truth that is a gospel of salvation and believed receives the Holy Spirit of promise; and further we should notice whether everyone who somehow shares in Holy Spirit has the earnest of the inheritance. Better to understand that, just as with those who buy something and give an earnest the earnest is given in proportion to the quantity of the whole silver, so according to the proportion of the goods each holy one is foreknown to receive, the earnest of the inheritance is given, so that from the earnest one able to discern differences of earnest-power and earnest could already declare a greater or lesser inheritance laid up for Christ’s fellow-heirs. And just as the earnest of the inheritance is not something outside us—for in each is the Holy Spirit of promise, the earnest of the promise—so the inheritance is not outside the heir, but in the

6mind of the one who inherits and in his soul; for nothing outside can be compared with the perfection of a mind contemplating the beauties of Wisdom and Word of God and Truth. This Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, is given for the present to the saints so that they may be redeemed and acquired for God, being fitted unto the praise of God’s glory. And “unto the praise of his glory,” beside what has been explained, can also mean this: “each one, for the sake of praising God’s glory, now receiving the Spirit of promise as earnest of the inheritance, and later the inheritance itself”—not, however (as someone might suspect from the wording), as if God needed those who praise his glory, but as if the greatest goods accrue to those who have contemplated what is praiseworthy in God’s glory and cannot keep silent about it, but are always becoming people who rejoice in hymning it.

Ephesians 1:15–17: “For this reason I also, having heard of the faith among you in the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, making mention in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, having the eyes of the heart enlightened in the knowledge of him.” Origen says: “having the eyes of the heart enlightened in the knowledge of him” will seem solecistic unless we take it as a hyperbaton; therefore we think the next of the construction runs thus: “For this reason I also, having heard of the faith among you in the Lord Jesus—having the eyes of the heart enlightened in the knowledge of him—and toward all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know what is the hope of your calling,” and what follows. If the Father is father of something underlying and substantial, and is also called Father of glory, clearly glory is something underlying and given substance; and perhaps our Savior, just as he is Word and Wisdom and Truth and Peace and Righteousness, is also Glory; and whenever Glory of God is recorded as having appeared, nothing else should be understood to have appeared than the Son of God. The spirit of wisdom, then, makes wise, and the spirit of revelation takes the veil from the heart, so that with unveiled face reflecting the Lord’s glory one is transformed into the same image from glory to glory. So no one who is not wise has a spirit of wisdom, and none of those who, when Moses is read, still have a veil on the heart have already received the spirit of revelation—unless perhaps the spirit of wisdom by quality of wisdom’s contemplations makes wise in different degrees, and by quantity of removing the veils over the letters does not serve revelation equally to those from whom the veil is taken. Besides these, one must hear “having the eyes of the heart enlightened in the knowledge of him”; for if knowledge of God and recognition (ἐπίγνωσις) of God are not the same, but the one who recognizes as it were re-knows what he once knew and had forgotten, then as many as come into recognition of God knew him long ago; therefore “all the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord.” And “having the eyes of the heart enlightened” shows the bodiless and intelligible nature of our ruling faculty and of the true light.

Ephesians 1:18–20: “so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of the might of his strength which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead.” Origen: God’s calling has a hope that must be known from much attention of life and quickness of mind; and his inheritance has riches of much glory in the saints in the upper places. The one to whom, according to Paul’s prayer, the spirit of wisdom and of revelation is given will himself know what is laid up for the called and will contemplate the hoped-for things, which are riches of glory according to his inheritance, which he gives to those called to this holy inheritance. And you will ask whether God himself is also the inheritance of the saints, so that the heirs of God are understood thus: that just as we say heirs of fields and heirs of houses, ranking the inheritance upon the properties, so we should

7also understand the heirs of God. And the law that says, “But the sons of Levi shall not be given a lot among their brothers, because I am their portion, says the Lord,” and elsewhere, “the Lord is their inheritance,” holds to such a sense. So the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance come to be in the mind of the saints who will contain so much of the contemplation of God and of his Word by the surpassing greatness of God’s power toward the saints and believers. For it is not ordinary power from God that we need in order to know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, but a greatness of his power coming to be in us who believe from him, and coming according to the working of his strength that rules all things, which Paul now names “might of his strength”; and using this working of the might of his strength he worked what he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead.

Ephesians 1:20–23: “and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places above every rule and authority and power and lordship and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come; and he subjected all things under his feet, and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” These things must be taken in a bodily figure, not as if certain seats or sense-perceptible thrones lie in the heavens on which the Father sits and the Son at the Father’s right; for thinking that way we would not say these things worthily of the divine nature. Nor is the earth bodily subject to God himself as a footstool under his feet when he sits in heaven. For how can heaven be a throne, measured by his span? And the earth a footstool of his feet, itself also enclosed in his hand? For Isaiah says, “Who measured the water with his hand and the heaven with a span and all the earth with a handful?” I think, then, that being near God and far from him are intelligible: all the saints who live according to the will of the Father of all and draw near to God, while the ungodly are far from him, of whom the prophet says, “Behold, those who put themselves far from you will perish.” As, then, one has understood who is near God and who is far from him, so one must take the saints as said to be at his right and the ungodly as it were at his left, just as the Savior also says he sets the sheep on the right and the goats on the left. And “having seated at the right” is such as this: “having established and gifted him kingship and rule,” according to which he oversees and rules the saints, benefiting them and sharing himself—Jesus who became above all through the philanthropic stewardship toward all.

Many, then, are the things that rule and lead those who need oversight from him, and many that hold authority, and many that lord it, and many that share their own power—some in this age, some also to work in the age to come; yet none of these rules a rule as great as the Son. For all that rule need him as their ruler; and authorities will rule better when under Christ’s authority, God’s power excelling every remaining power; and even if some are led into beneficial slavery by those who lord well, those who lord must take the science of lording from the Lord of those who lord, to lord over what they lord. Hence the one who raised Christ from the dead seated him at his right in the heavenly places, above every rule and authority and power and lordship and every name named not only in this age but also in the one to come; for it is likely there are also unutterable and indescribable names named according to the arrangement of the whole, not graspable by us—some in this age, but also some in the one to come. And from where did the apostle have these names if not from the Holy Spirit that revealed them to him? And how “he subjected all things under his feet” is said must be examined, since it is plain that countless people still refuse to submit to the Word of God. For we do not yet see all things subjected; and “he must reign until he puts all enemies under his feet” shows that not yet are all enemies under his feet. So one will say that according to

9—to walk according to the age of this world, and not according to the age of the better world toward which the saints press?

Someone will take “the age of this world” more simply as the time that stretches alongside this world’s framing from beginning to end. Another, from what follows, will suspect that the ruler of the authority of the air—the spirit now at work in the sons of disobedience—is the same as the age of this world, since Paul sets them as one: “in which you once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, of the spirit.”

And in Galatians, “that he might deliver us from the present evil age,” someone will take to show that the present age is an evil living being, the same as that ruler of the authority of the air of the spirit. Yet the Galatians wording has a counter-case: of days too—things agreed not to be animate—Scripture says something like “redeeming the time, because the days are evil,” and Jacob says, “few and evil have been the days of the years of my sojourning on the earth.”

And the line “through whom he made the ages” will seem to call the ages creatures, of which one may have become evil by apostasy and be named “age of this world” and “ruler of the authority of the air of the spirit now at work in the sons of disobedience,” among whom we also all once lived.

Notice that he did not say “according to the ruler of the air,” but “of the authority of the air.” So one must ask what the authority of the air is, in order to see its ruler. The wording can also mean something like this: according to the ruler of the authority of the spirit—which spirit is spirit of air—now at work in the sons of disobedience.

Since a ruler is ruler of something, you will mark whether the one now named is ruler of every authority that concerns the air, an authority that stays about the air and works on the sons of disobedience (and everyone who disobeys announced divine teachings shows himself, by that very disobedience, a son of disobedience). And perhaps our wrestling is against these authorities, as we resist the workings they want to plant even in us, wishing to make us sons of disobedience.

It is no wonder that these authorities are said to be in the heavenly places—just as the principalities and authorities and world-rulers are “in the heavenly places”—when the air about us is, by a Scriptural habit, called “heaven.” For we say “birds of heaven,” and it is clear that those are spoken of with respect to the air.

And “in which we also all once lived”—in what, if not in the trespasses? For he did not answer only to the trespasses but also to the sins. After saying “and you being dead in your trespasses and sins,” he adds “in which you once walked.” Now he also answers to “your trespasses” with “and in which we also all once lived,” so that, having said “in which you once walked according to the age of this world” and keeping silence about himself, he may not seem to boast.

Paul himself knows a desire of the flesh and another desire of the Spirit, saying, “for the flesh desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.” Having lived in the trespasses, because we were in the desires of our flesh, we did not do one will but several, and not only of the flesh but also of the thoughts.

We ask what the wills of the thoughts are, being other than the wills of the flesh. And we guess that by doing the works of the flesh and loving pleasure one does the wills of the flesh, but by falling away from sound opinion and right understanding we do the

10the wills of the thoughts.

As for “we were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest,” we do not know what those who introduce spiritual natures from the beginning will say. How can one who is by nature a son of God be said to be by nature a son of wrath? Let them answer. We think that through the body of humiliation we became children of wrath by nature when our understanding clung to evils from youth; for according to Solomon there is no one righteous on the earth who does good and does not sin.

Eph. 2:6: “and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places.” Origen says: the one who takes “he raised and seated” more simply will say it is spoken according to God’s foreknowledge and predestination, as what will be already spoken of as done. But the one who contemplates Christ’s kingdom as intelligible will not hesitate to say that the person already holy, just as he is not “in flesh” even if simpler people say he is in flesh, so he is not “on earth” even if to the senses he is seen on earth. For the one in spirit is not on earth, and none of those in the heavenly places is in flesh but already in spirit.

Such dispositions, and the grasp of things so great and of such a kind, are not earthly but heavenly; all who already have their citizenship in heaven sit with Christ in the heavenly places, if indeed the kingdom of God is within us—so that in this way we have sat in the heavenly places, seated with Christ and settled with the Wisdom and the Word of God.

Eph. 2:12: “that you were at that time without Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” Origen says: against those who think that believers in Christ do not live Israel’s polity but some other new one with nothing in common with that, there is a fine observation here. “For you were,” he says, “at that time without Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel”—as if now they are no longer without Christ, nor alienated from Israel’s polity. For all who understand the spiritual law and live by it are made kin to Israel’s polity, and more so than the bodily Jews. It follows that the one without Christ and alienated from Israel’s polity is also reckoned a stranger to the covenants of promise.

You will ask whether for this reason they are called “without God in this world”: because, as far as God’s foreknowledge goes, those to whom the letter is written were not without God.

Eph. 2:13: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have become near by the blood of Christ.” “Far” and “near” are named from things spatially far or near, to show a purpose far from God and one drawing near to his will. We become near when cleansed by the blood of Christ and bought with that price.

Eph. 2:14a: “For he himself is our peace.” Mark that, just as Christ is Word and Wisdom and Power and Life, so also Peace; and one must gather from all Scripture the names he is given, that we may understand him more exactly. So as the one who has him has Word when he has sought him and found him as Word (and likewise for Wisdom and righteousness), let us also seek him as Peace, that we may have him as he is Peace, and peace of all rational beings. The one who does not have the peace does not have Christ.

Eph. 2:14b–15, 17: “who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of the fence, the enmity in his flesh, abolishing the law of the commandments in decrees, that he might create the two into one new man … and coming he preached peace to you who were far and peace to those near.” Origen says: these things are said of the more divine powers and of those saved from among humans—the more divine powers being near even before, humans far (and to these the speaker will fit “having made peace through the blood of his cross, whether things on earth or things in the heavens,” and will narrate the whole passage so). The better powers were in friendship with God; humans in the world were in enmity toward him; and that enmity was the dividing wall of the fence, hindering human nature from being united to the blessedness of the better. So this dividing wall of the fence, being enmity, was broken through our Savior’s becoming human, and for that reason it is said to have been broken in his flesh.

11And notice what follows, whether it can be said more strikingly by one who interprets this way: according to the true law, of which Moses’ letter was a shadow and pattern, some were serving in the heavenly places; and that law is decrees rather than a law of commandments. The one deemed worthy to understand those decrees, once the dividing wall of the fence that walled him from the better is broken down, no longer lives by the law of the commandments. For Christ abolishes the law of the commandments in decrees, so that when the decrees shown by the law of the commandments are understood, the letter of that law of commandments is despised as killing.

So the law of the commandments, abolished by the Savior through the disclosure of the decrees in them, gathered both—I mean the more divine powers and those who believe from among humans—into one new man. The new man is understood from being renewed day by day, and he will be settled in a new world, because there will be a new heaven and a new earth. Yet “into one new man” will seem to conflict with that interpretation.

Eph. 2:19–22: “So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.”

Against the earlier “strangers to the covenants of promise,” it now says “so you are no longer strangers and sojourners”; and against “alienated from the commonwealth of Israel,” now “but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household.” These words must be brought against those who introduce natures: how are those who are by nature citizens of the saints strangers, and how are those by nature strangers members of God’s household?

And the words from “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets” will seem to agree with the interpretation that Israel is near and the nations far. But one must also use these sayings against those who split the Godhead and think the prophets belong to one God and the apostles to another. For if those no longer strangers and sojourners but fellow citizens of the saints and household of God are built on the foundation of apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself the cornerstone, in whom every building fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord—in whom the Ephesians too are built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit—there is one God of one building and temple built on that foundation. And if the whole building fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, we must make it our aim to become harmonious living stones for the whole building, that being built together we may become a dwelling for God, holding in ourselves all his theology.

Eph. 3:1–3: “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles—if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace given me for you, that by revelation the mystery was made known to me, as I wrote before in brief.” Origen says: as to the phrasing, after searching as far as we could to restore it, we say he did not complete “for this reason I, Paul, the prisoner” with what for this reason he did or what happened to him. Unless, as an untrained speaker in wording, he fell short of the phrasing’s sequel yet gave the owed sense without polish, as if one should say: for this reason I, Paul, prisoner of Christ Jesus and prisoner for you Gentiles, made known the mystery so as to share it with you also, as I myself wrote briefly in what precedes; and you ought to have heard the stewardship of God’s grace given me for you from the nations, for whom I became Jesus Christ’s prisoner.

I think a solecism has occurred in the place. He ought to have said, “for this reason I, Paul, prisoner of Jesus Christ, made known the mystery,” but he says, “for this reason I, Paul, a prisoner—by revelation the mystery was made known to me.” If someone can show that both the sense and the phrasing succeed for him, that person especially should be heard. In the few words before this the careful reader can truly find a revelation of a holy mystery made known to Paul.

Eph. 3:12: “in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through faith in him.” Origen

12says: if our conscience does not condemn us, we have boldness toward God. It is a great thing not simply to have boldness, but boldness in confidence; and access again, because of firmness, in boldness. The beginning of boldness in confidence and of access is faith toward Christ. We have often said that the one who does everything by Word has believed in Christ the Word; the one who grasps Wisdom has believed in Christ the Wisdom; the one who clarifies the truth has believed in Christ the Truth; the one who lives by righteousness has believed in Christ the Righteousness.

Eph. 3:13: “Therefore I ask that you not lose heart in my afflictions for you, which is your glory.” Contending for those being discipled to Christ, he had many things that afflicted him. So “I ask,” he says, “that you not lose heart in my afflictions for you”—the speech of one who feels himself in danger of losing heart. After this we ask to what we should attach “which is your glory.”

Someone will say he answered “which is your glory” to the afflictions, as if he meant “which are your glory,” but because of the singular “glory,” as an untrained speaker, he put “which” singular instead of “which” plural. Another will refer “which is your glory” either to the boldness or the access or the faith: for boldness is glory of the one who has it, access glory of the one brought near to God, and faith may be called glory of the believer.

And “therefore I ask that you not lose heart in my afflictions for you” can mean: “therefore I ask for you, that you not lose heart in my afflictions, which are your glory.” What follows will seem to agree more with this reading: “for this reason I bow my knees to the Father, that he may give you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power”—for one who will not lose heart under afflictions needs to be strengthened with power.

Someone will say against the second: it made sense, if the Ephesians were afflicted, for Paul to ask about them that they not lose heart; but it will seem ridiculous that when Paul is afflicted the Ephesians need prayer so as not to lose heart in his afflictions. Against this set “your trial in my flesh you did not despise or spit out”: for through these it appears that a trial in Paul’s flesh was becoming a trial for others.

Otherwise mark whether what most troubles many in providence-talk is not this: when they see the holiest and most righteous meeting countless afflictions and straits, while the most lawless receive what people think goods. That Paul suffered much in Ephesus and about Asia is written also in the Acts of the Apostles, and one may learn from himself: “If according to man I fought with beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me if the dead are not raised?” And in the second to the Corinthians: “For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of our affliction that happened in Asia, that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life; but we ourselves had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great deaths and does deliver; in whom we have hoped that he will also still deliver.” See how great his afflictions were, that he says “who delivered us from so great deaths and does deliver.”

Eph. 3:14: “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father.” Origen says: bowing the knees is a symbol of another kneeling that happens in being subject to God and having fallen under him. On this account the apostle also says that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow of heavenly and earthly and under-the-earth beings; and we say that the heavenly do not necessarily have bodies that have become, nor likewise the under-earth, nor besides the souls released from this body.

Eph. 3:15 patria (marginal note): Chrysostom: patriae as if tribes. Origen likewise. And he himself (that is, Origen) rendered “patrias,” not “phratrias” as Theodore.

Eph. 3:16–17a: “that he may give you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell through faith in your hearts.” His divinity seems especially to be named “his glory” according to Scripture. And he is rich in a divinity that is great and hard to grasp for the

13generated nature God is. Sharing from this wealth of divinity and of his glory with those he judges ought to share power and might, he strengthens with power through his Spirit; and he strengthens by settling Christ into the inner man who can hold him.

And the most paradoxical thing: Christ, being whole and living by himself, also dwells in those who share in him; and he dwells through faith into the inner man—that is, the ruling part—for he adds “in your hearts.”

Eph. 3:17b–19: “rooted and grounded in love, that you may be strong to grasp with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.” Origen says: the sequel seems to me clearly spoken with a solecism as to phrasing. For after “that he may give you” the sequel should have been “to those rooted and grounded,” so that it would run: that he may give you, rooted and grounded in love, according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit, so that Christ may dwell through faith in the inner man—in the inner man, I mean according to your hearts, that is, the ruling parts.

Anyone wanting to restore the place without solecism, see whether he will not force the phrasing by restoring it thus: for this reason I bow my knees to the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he may give you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit, that Christ may dwell through faith in the inner man, in your hearts, that rooted and grounded you may be strong to grasp with all the saints what is the breadth and length and so on. So on this reading one must move the “that” from “that you may be strong” onto “that rooted and grounded in love you may be strong to grasp.”

And to those rooted and grounded in love toward God—clearly with all the soul and all the heart and all the strength and all the mind—and in love toward the neighbor, Christ is settled. And as plants those rooted in love are rooted in it; and as a building they are founded in love. The same Paul said, “You are God’s field, God’s building.”

It is a task to see of what the breadth is now said, and of what the length, and of what the depth, and of what the height. The cross of Christ has all these, through which ascending on high he led captivity captive, and descending to the lower parts of the earth—for it had both height and depth—and if he himself ran through all the earth, reaching its breadth and length. And the one crucified with Christ and stretching with him grasps the breadth and length and depth and height.

It is also the saint’s work to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. No one who has a love that surpasses knowledge can love any of the things that distract and drag away from the grasp concerning the knowledge that is loved beyond measure.

Eph. 4:3: “in love eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Origen says: the one fitted with the same mind and the same judgment of the Truth and the Word and the Wisdom toward the neighbor keeps the unity of the Spirit. But when we do not all say the same thing, and for that reason there are no schisms among us—when we are not eager to keep the unity of the Spirit—we cut it into many. Yet if God gives distributions of gifts, he still keeps the same Spirit; and if he grants distributions of ministries, he still guards the same Lord; and if he bestows distributions of workings, the same God remains who works all in all. So to the Ephesians who already have the unity of the Spirit and need to keep it

14it is said, “eager to keep the unity of the Spirit”; but to those who do not yet have the unity of the Spirit one might say “eager to arrive at the unity of the Spirit” or “to do the things of the Spirit’s unity.” The unity of the Spirit is kept when love binds those being united according to the Spirit and gathers them into one body of Christ.

Eph. 4:5–6: “one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in us all. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” Origen says: because of those who confuse Father and Son, “Lord” is set of the Son and “one God” of the Father; and against the Valentinians who give two baptisms one must use the saying “one baptism.”

God is also Father of all, in that of some he is God and not Father, and of some God and Father—as if someone pointing out ten people, of whom five are sons of this man and five slaves, said, “This man is lord and father of the ten.”

Besides this one must examine the difference of the prepositions—over, through, and in. Use a bodily image such as this: by place the sun is over all things on earth, say; by its rays it might be said to be through all; and if the power of its light also reached into the depth of each, it would be said to be in all. So also in the intelligibles we take “over all” to show superiority, “through all” the sufficiency toward each, and “in all” that God’s power reaches into all, so that none is utterly empty of him.

And “to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift” we think understood thus. God does not give the Spirit and the grace from measure—there is no limit to his greatness—yet he gives a measure, sparing the receivers, since each cannot hold more than he profitably receives. Yet since what is given is grace—and not from works, since then grace would no longer be grace—grace is given according to the measure of Christ’s gift; and even if not from works, still upon something in our power. For grace is given from faith, so that with its cooperation faith may also be adorned with works, so that the receiver of grace may say, “and his grace toward me was not in vain, but I labored so much.”

Eph. 4:11–12: “And he himself gave some as apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” These too he adds in sequence with what precedes. For if Christ is over all and through all and in all, yet to each of the saints grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift, so that some are apostles, some prophets, others evangelists, and after these pastors and, over all, teachers.

If then to be a teacher is a gift given according to the measure of Christ’s gift, clearly also a pastor who shepherds with knowledge must shepherd having a gift. And how will someone be an evangelist whose feet of the soul are not, so to speak, beautiful? And that they may become so, God must supply them beauty. But also a prophet who convicts and examines the unbeliever (for such is the prophet of the new covenant) must be thought appointed to the church from God. And if these can always be in the church, perhaps also apostles, to whom the signs of an apostle are given to work, can be found even now. There is need of apostles and prophets and the rest for the equipping of the saints, that they may be equipped according to the work of Christ’s ministry, so that the body of Christ may be built and energized from living stones.

Eph. 4:13–15: “until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at a perfect man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we may no longer be infants, tossed and carried about by every wind of teaching in the trickery of men, in craftiness toward the scheming of error, but speaking truth in love we may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ.” Who are “all” who will arrive at the unity of the faith must be asked: whether simply all humans, or we who have been

15allotted in Christ. It will seem to answer to the former, because there are many winds of teaching that toss and carry about in men’s trickery, in craftiness toward the scheming of error, almost all or most. Yet one must make it one’s aim to arrive at the unity of the faith; and besides the unity of the faith, to come also into the unity of the knowledge of the Son of God.

When these have come about, putting away all infancy we shall be styled perfect men, having fully taken the measure of the stature that is in secret—which measure of stature is a measure of Christ’s fullness, all who have reached the said stature’s measure having held Christ’s fullness—when they will no longer be infants, nor because of being unmoored and doubtful about dogmas walk in an infant’s condition about them, as if carried about by a surge of the persuasive points for each falsehood and giving themselves to every wind of teaching: some people not disposed toward lying but teaching by dice-play, others deceiving with all craft and cleverness, because error uses countless methods against us.

And when the saints arrive at the said perfect man, then by having understood love, speaking truth in it, they will grow into Christ all the truth-seeds given them, using Christ as a body uses a head.

Since he says “that we may no longer be infants,” we ask whether he said this by moderation, including himself though not an infant, or whether seeing how far short the one who knows in part and prophesies in part falls of perfection he truly says he is an infant. The one who says he spoke by moderation will use “when I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child; when I became a man, I put away the things of the child.” The other will answer that by comparison with the many Paul had become a man, but toward the ends laid up for the saints he was still an infant; for the prophetic word names all “children,” saying, “Behold, I and the children God has given me.”

After this you will mark whether Paul by moderation says not only that he is an infant, but also tossed and carried about by every wind of teaching and the rest. Yet the one who says even this was not spoken from moderation will say that as a man he was sharp and quick to hit, and saw arguments attempted on both sides sufficient to distract and put in a surge the one who contemplates the persuasions; and for that reason, as a man, he was carried about by every wind of teaching—not dragged down or shipwrecked, but like a ship wrestling with varied winds; and he saw the opponents’ arguments, as of people teaching in dice-play, not contemptible but spoken most craftily, enough to deceive; and he hoped sometime to obtain God’s help toward putting away every distraction and speaking truth without distraction and growing in love into Christ, whom he knew as his head and the head of the whole body of the church.

Eph. 4:17–19: “This therefore I say and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the nations also walk in the vanity of their mind, being darkened in understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart, who having become past feeling gave themselves up to licentiousness for the working of every uncleanness in greed.” Origen says: when the mind is either toward the things of life, misusing its power on them, or toward certain dogmas shaped as true that are not true, it is in vanity; for every worldly care is vain, and all false words that pretend to be truth. And when the understanding, which is a rational discourse, is somewhat confused, neither seeing the nature of what is said nor able to follow the varied things said, then it might reasonably be said to be darkened.

So one must neither be in the mind’s vanity nor darkened in understanding, lest we be alienated from God’s life while ignorance is in us and hardness of heart. And if these spread further through our soul—I mean mind’s vanity and understanding’s darkness, the things that alienate from God’s life and give ignorance an entry and allow hardness of heart—

16then we will fall into numbness, crowding our conscience about the sins, and we will hand ourselves over, not resisting even a little the fleshly desires, to licentiousness for the working of every uncleanness, along with defrauding those whose marriages we adulterate.

And if we want to understand “who having become past feeling gave themselves up to licentiousness,” let us compare those with a bad conscience, tormented by knowing something base in themselves, with those who with all license multiply their falls. The former have not yet become past feeling, but still feel pain; therefore it is possible, if they meet rational help, for them to be healed so as to live the time ahead blamelessly. The latter no longer feel pain when they sin; therefore, not resisting even a little and not practicing self-control, they gave themselves up to licentiousness for the work of every uncleanness in greed.

Yet into all these there is danger of falling for everyone who is in the mind’s vanity and darkened in understanding; hence we must care for our mind and understanding, that the understanding may be enlightened, the darkness being loosed by the true light—which is the Word of God—and the mind, turned back from affection for vain things, may be led toward God through the word of Wisdom.

If indeed through ignorance and hardness of heart those alienated from God’s life are alienated from it by their mind having come into vanity and their understanding into darkness, they are alienated from that life not by nature but from causes arising from us out of what is in our power.

And I think uncleanness in greed is adultery; for elsewhere he says this in the first to the Thessalonians, in which: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in holiness and honor, not in passion of desire like the nations that do not know God; that no one transgress and defraud his brother in the matter, because the Lord is an avenger concerning all these things, as we also foretold you and testified. For God did not call us to uncleanness but in holiness and honor. Therefore the one who rejects does not reject a human but God, who gives his Holy Spirit into you.”

And observe that, urging us toward purity, he says one defrauds his brother in the matter if someone takes a brother’s wife; yet the Lord is an avenger concerning all these who have been defrauded, whether brothers or also unbelievers.

Eph. 4:20–22: “But you did not so learn Christ, if indeed you heard him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus, that you put off, according to the former way of life, the old man who is being corrupted according to the desires of deceit.” Origen says: to learn Christ is the same as to learn virtue, and to hear him does not differ from understanding the word of the recorded conceptions of the Son of God. So if someone has learned Christ and heard him, since he learned him as Wisdom and heard him as God’s Word, receiving what he learned and heard, he will not walk in the vanity of his mind, nor be darkened in understanding, nor alienated from God’s life.

Let us therefore learn Christ and hear him; yet one must not despair also of being taught by a divine power that subjects to our purified mind a perfect and true word about Christ, as truth is in Jesus. He taught what learning Christ and hearing and being taught is by saying “as truth is in Jesus”; for the prototype substance of the truth is in Jesus alone, who says, “I am the truth.”

And “that you put off according to the former way of life the old man,” being disconnected, see whether we can restore it thus: but you did not so learn Christ, if indeed you heard him and were taught in him to put off according to the former way of life the old man being corrupted according to the desires of deceit, as truth is in Jesus—so that the sense is: as truth is in Jesus, so it will also be in you who have learned Christ and heard him and been taught in him, having put off according to the former way of life the old man being corrupted according to the desires of deceit. And the old man whom one must already put off is the one made old by the

17Call this the old man's life of sin. By the former walk and by deceitful desires—always sinning, never doing anything of incorruption, working only what belongs to decay—he is continually being corrupted. Those desires and that old walk drive the corruption. He is not yet wholly ruined while he still does these things; he is in the process of corruption.

God's Word does not corrupt him. It kills the old man in order to make him live. Scripture says, "I kill and I make alive"; and when he had killed them, then they sought him.

Ask next how someone grown old in vice is called an "old man." Perhaps as virtue renews and recreates, the opposite vice ages the soul, so wrinkles of oldness appear on it as on aging bodies. That is why Christ presents the church to himself in glory, without spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind. While marks of oldness remain, the wrinkle remains; when the old man is put off, everything is in full strength and every wrinkle disappears. "Desire of deceit" means a wicked, base desire.

Ephesians 4:23 "Be renewed in the spirit of your mind." The wording does not say renewal simply in spirit or simply in mind, but in the spirit of your mind. So ask what our mind is, and what its spirit is. Hear also, "I will sing with the spirit and with the mind; I will pray with the spirit and with the mind." If many spirits exist, each akin to someone, there may be a spirit akin to our mind; when the mind is cleansed and the mist cleared, that kin spirit renews us.

Ephesians 4:24 "Put on the new man created according to God." To wear that new man, take to heart "Become imitators of me, as I also of Christ," and "I live, yet no longer I, but Christ lives in me." When Christ is wholly formed in us in every deed, we show the new creation.

Ephesians 4:25 "Putting away the lie, speak truth each with his neighbor." The simple hear only a moral rule. We take "lie" as what stands against truth—false opinion opposite the truth spoken fittingly to the neighbor. Saving truth stands against that lie of false opinions. To put the lie away is no small work: one must be an approved money-changer, test everything, hold what is good, and abstain from every form of evil. Paul takes "speak truth each with his neighbor" from Zechariah.

Ephesians 4:26 "Be angry and do not sin" comes from Psalm 4. "Be angry" has two senses. One is involuntary—the pre-passion even the mature may feel when circumstances provoke anger. The other is assent that it is right to punish the person one thinks has wronged you; that assent is in our power, and the apostle commands us to put it away. So the first sense of the verse means: even if anger once entered, leave it without effect.

Ephesians 4:26 "Let the sun not set on your provocation." If this meant the visible sun, we would only sin when we keep anger past sunset—which is absurd. Better to hear the true sun, which sets on wicked prophets, as the next lines continue.

18Just as the sun sets on your prophets at midday, it sets on every sinner and no longer grants its rising while they keep sinning. Paul therefore orders us not to act in anger so that this sun sets on us and night fills our souls.

Ephesians 4:27 "Do not give place to the devil." Origen links this with Ecclesiastes: if a ruling spirit rises over you, do not leave your place, for healing stops a great sin. We give the devil—or that ruling spirit—room when the governing part is empty of holy teaching, saving faith, and discerning thoughts that counsel what is best. As with Zechariah, Satan camps on the soul's regions; assents to worse things invite him in. Judas shows the pattern: first the devil cast betrayal into his heart; later, after the morsel, Satan entered. Had Judas resisted the first cast, Satan would have found no later place.

Ephesians 4:28 "Let the thief steal no more, but rather labor, working the good with his hands, so he may share with the one in need." Even among those thought believers—clean, it seems, of idolatry and fornication—buying, selling, and trade often hide theft under the excuse of getting necessities. So Paul does not shrink from rebuking thieves still at work in Ephesus. "Working the good" marks just provision: unjust gain works evil; reverent securing of necessities works the good.

Ephesians 4:29 "Let no rotten word leave your mouth, but only what is good for needed building-up, that it may give grace to hearers." The good word teaches, urges virtue, and strips vice. The rotten word feeds vice and pushes toward worse.

Ephesians 4:30 "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for a day of redemption." Strictly, grief is a passion—a fresh judgment that evil is present and one should contract. The Spirit does not form such judgments, so in that sense it is not grieved. Yet as far as it depends on us, by doing these things we grieve God's Holy Spirit; the Lord says in Ezekiel, "In all these you grieved me." Our earlier notes on anger, wrath, sleep, and God-spoken human feelings help here too.

Sealing with the Spirit gives us its imprint while the Sealer stays undivided, so we become holy—and our human spirit, and I think the soul too. God seals; the Spirit is the seal. Everyone who believes God true receives that seal from the Father, to keep it unbroken until the day of redemption and be counted among the redeemed.

Ephesians 4:31 "Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and blasphemy be removed from you, with all malice." Some make anger a species under desire: desire to punish one who seems to have wronged you wrongly. Among its forms they place bitterness as anger hard for others to receive, or as anger that bursts out at once—continued in the next section.

20—one another," will take it as equal to "forgiving one another," especially because of "as God forgave us through Christ," and will apply it to remission of sins: we must forgive those who sin against us as God forgave us. How did God in Christ forgive our sins? Because the Father, being in Christ, forgave our trespasses? And in Christ he also granted goods—if in Christ there is wisdom he granted us, and truth and righteousness.

Ephesians 5:3–4 "But fornication and all uncleanness or greed must not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints, and shamefulness and foolish talk or coarse jesting, which are not proper, but rather thanksgiving." Origen: Scripture customarily names fellowship with a harlot "fornication." Every sin in the region of fleshly tickling—not only adultery and child-corruption, but whatever else human licentiousness invented in varied frictions—is named uncleanness as a genus.

Greed may be taken simply, or, as elsewhere, as adultery, with "not go beyond and defraud each his brother." Saints must guard against all uncleanness. Shamefulness tracks each kind of licentiousness and is akin to uncleanness: each act in that excretory region shows both the unclean and the shameful. Say this of what is against nature, not of marriage.

What of foolish talk, which must not even be named among saints? Simply, it is buffoonery and laugh-making. Yet those cut off from any wisdom and understanding may also "talk foolishly," and be foolish in their dogmas. Coarse jesting beside it fits the simple reading: ordinary speech uses it for anyone who raises laughter, from foolish talk or any other cause. That too is not proper for saints; rather thanksgiving to God in all things—or "thanksgiving" as when we call people gracious and charming.

So do not be a foolish-talker or coarse jester; be gracious and charming. Because "graciousness" is unusual here, Paul may have used the nearby word and said "thanksgiving." Hebrews may use "thanksgiving" and "thankful" where Greeks say "graciousness" and "gracious." Proverbs' "gracious woman raises a husband's glory" we took as "charming woman"; that would seem forced if Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus did not agree in sense—a woman of grace holding glory.

Ephesians 5:5 "For this you know: every fornicator or unclean or greedy person—who is an idolater—has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God." Paul forbids six sins, yet ties loss of inheritance to three: fornication, all uncleanness, and greed. If foolish talk and coarse jesting also stripped inheritance, judgment would seem harsh on our weak nature. Those too are improper, yet not so that practicing them alone casts one from Christ's and God's inheritance.

Shamefulness remains. One might add "or shameful" to the inheritance list. Perhaps shamefulness is only the secret passive stain by which someone, even inflamed, checked the drive toward fornication or uncleanness. The things that block inheritance continue in the next unit.

21—to have inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Those three he names on their own and says must not even be named among you; then, in a separate place, he adds shamefulness, foolish talk, and coarse jesting.

Earlier we suspected greed might stand for adultery. Does "or greedy person, who is an idolater" overturn that reading, or can it still stand? The prophets often call idolatry fornication—"they fornicated after their idols"—and one may also call fornication idolatry from "by a spirit of fornication they were led astray." If the greedy person is one who gains money from where he must not, greed is idolatry: lovers of silver worship the idols stamped on their coins, loving the images with the metal. Somewhere, I think, the apostle also names love of money idolatry.

Ephesians 5:6 "Let no one deceive you with empty words; for because of this the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience." Empty words are persuasive talk that would overturn the teaching of punishments for those who have lived badly. Such talk is deceit and empty, because God's named wrath does come on the sons of disobedience. "Sons of disobedience" means the disobedient—as if disobedience were a mother bearing children with her character. Scripture likewise speaks of sons of fornication, of death, of Gehenna, and the like.

Ephesians 5:7 "Therefore do not become fellow-partakers with them." Mark partaker versus fellow-partaker. Partaker may belong to the better—"God, your God, anointed you with oil of gladness beyond your partakers," and "we have become partakers of Christ"—while fellow-partaker here clearly belongs to the worse. I do not recall συμμέτοχος elsewhere in this sense.

Ephesians 5:8 "For you were once darkness, but now light in the Lord." If what was once darkness can change and become light, there are no natures doomed to perish. As the righteous are the world's light, the ungodly may be called darkness; the righteous, being light, will see light in light, while the unjust remain a people of darkness—continued next.

22Mark goodness, justice, and truth also from Christ's being righteousness. Goodness shows in benefaction; justice in distributing according to desert; truth in knowledge of the word of all things.

Ephesians 5:10 "Proving what is well-pleasing to the Lord." Do everything with counsel. Survey each deed by examination; as approved money-changers receive what is tested and pleasing to God, and shake off what is untested and displeasing. The phrasing is incomplete; restore it thus: do not become fellow-partakers with them, proving what pleases the Lord. If you were once darkness but now are light in the Lord, walk as children of light, showing the fruit of light in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.

Ephesians 5:11 "And do not share in the unfruitful works of darkness." Elsewhere he sets "fruit" on the Spirit and "work" on the flesh: "the works of the flesh are manifest… but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace…" Here the works of darkness are unfruitful; whoever does them shares in them. "But rather also expose" belongs among the commandments—done by one who will not hear, "Hypocrite, first take the beam from your own eye." So the prophets, themselves not liable to exposure, exposed sinners.

Ephesians 5:12 "For the things they do in secret it is shameful even to speak." Which "they"? He did not say clearly unless one refers it to the sons of disobedience: what they do in secret—fornication and uncleanness—is shameful even to name.

Ephesians 5:13–14 "But all things exposed by the light are made plain; for everything made plain is light. Therefore it says, Awake, sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you." Exposed works of darkness become plain by the light as those exposed change into light. So to sleepers deadened by unfruitful dark works it is said, "Awake… and Christ will shine on you." Who says "Therefore it says"? Some think Paul quotes a prophet; others that he personifies Spirit-speech urging repentance.

Why to the same person both "Awake, sleeper" (as living) and "Rise from the dead"? Perhaps because the human spirit in him is spoken of for the better, while the soul receives sickness and death from sins: "Awake" suits the spirit; "Rise from the dead" suits the soul—"the soul that sins will die," and we nowhere find death of the spirit. Christ, true light, shines on the one raised from sleep and risen from the dead.

Ephesians 5:15–17 "Look carefully how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil… understanding what the Lord's will is." Whoever tests each word, deed, and thought for what pleases the Lord can, by much attention, walk carefully—and such a walker is wise. Some mean well yet are not wise; so he adds "not as unwise but as wise." Wisdom watches the moral life carefully.

Redeeming the time means buying it back for yourselves while human life has evil days. Spend time on what is needed and you purchase it from sale to human wickedness. No one living for worldly cares has bought the time; only the one spending it on what is needful—continued next—buys it for the blessed life.

23—needful, spending time on gaining the blessed life. By redeeming time in evil days we remake those days into good, and make them for ourselves not evil days of the present age but good days of the age to come.

Ephesians 5:17 "Therefore do not become foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is." Why "therefore"? Because you look carefully how you walk, not as unwise but as wise—so do not become foolish. Fools will not walk carefully or wisely. Examine the Lord's will and grasp it: where you see what to do, do it as his will; where you suffer, bear it as coming by his will.

Ephesians 5:18 "And do not get drunk with wine, in which is debauchery, but be filled in spirit." Simply, debauchery sits in drunken use of wine. There is also the wine of the great song—"their wine is the wrath of dragons, and the incurable wrath of asps"—which all who are beside themselves and drunk in reasoning drink, full of debauchery. Against that wine stands the one filled with spirit, taking all of the more divine he can hold. We have often noted "spirit" without addition said of the better; so here too.

Ephesians 5:19 "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." Hymns announce God's power and divinity; the skilled theologian lives in spiritual hymns. The one treating deeds and what must be done through our bodily instrument as a psaltery is in spiritual psalms. The one philosophizing nature—the world's order and other created things—is in spiritual songs. Sing according to that natural study and make melody according to moral exposition, truly disposed toward what is said: that is singing and making melody with the heart to the Lord.

Ephesians 5:20 "Giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God and Father." Compare 1 Thessalonians: always rejoice, pray without ceasing, give thanks in everything. Keep this if you grasp providence that reaches even two sparrows sold for a penny, of which none falls apart from the Father. To give thanks in everything is to give thanks for all things—including hard circumstances. As one thanks God while sharing the world's beauty and seeing what was made for the rational creature, so also for particular things. Thank God and Father in the mediator of God and humans—in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 5:21 "Submitting to one another in the fear of Christ." This pulls down love of rule and of being first. The command is for all: "Free from all, I enslaved myself to all that I might gain all," and "Serve one another." Through love the apostles served the churches for human salvation. The Savior took a slave's form chiefly to serve the disciples—even putting water in the basin and washing their feet. Whoever understands "the one wanting to be great among you will be slave of all" submits by serving those who must be served.

A servant doing what suits those served may seem not to submit when the served, not knowing what helps them, order unfit things. Even then the one who acts for what truly helps both serves and submits to that need, because of passionless, beatifying fear according to God's word. That fear, I think, is what "in the fear of Christ" shows—continued next.

24—is what "in the fear of Christ" shows.

Ephesians 5:22–23 "Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord; for the husband is head of the wife as also Christ is head of the church." This word wants every husband-and-wife pair to symbolize Christ and the church: the husband, if he orders marriage by reason, imitating Christ the church's bridegroom; the wife, if she lives with her husband as she ought, emulating the church's life with Christ. Then the husband is head of the wife as Christ is of the church. If they are not so fitted, one cannot say of them that he is head as Christ is of the church. So let each husband aim to be toward his wife as Christ toward the church, and each wife toward her husband as the church toward Christ; let him think and do Christ's things, and her the church's.

Ephesians 5:24 "But as the church submits to Christ, so also wives to husbands in everything." If wives must submit as the church to Christ, they must live holy, without passion, and without sin in that submission—just as the church does toward Christ.

Ephesians 5:27 "That he might present the church to himself glorious, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she might be holy and blameless." Spots are like lentils, black marks, white patches, and warty marks on the body; remove them and a woman is more beautiful. Analogous marks arise on the soul, and only the Word can strip them so he may present his own bride spotless, without wrinkle, holy and blameless. Wrinkles signal old age: if anyone keeps traces of the old self and is not always renewed, the soul is said to be wrinkled.

Ephesians 5:31 "For this a man will leave father and mother, and the two will be one flesh." As elsewhere, New Testament writers often do not quote the Old in the same words. Genesis has "For this cause a man will leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will be one flesh"; here Paul writes "For this," drops the repeated "his," and omits "be joined to his wife."

Ephesians 6:1–3 "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is righteous; Honor your father and mother—which is a first commandment in a promise—that it may be well with you and you may be long-lived on the earth." The line is ambiguous: either obey parents who are in the Lord, or obey parents in the Lord. Reject neither. Obey parents in the Lord—as Paul was to the Corinthians—and obey fleshly parents in the Lord when they command nothing against the Lord's purpose. Either way, obedience is righteous.

Against heterodox who split a just God from a good one: Paul gives the disciples of the so-called good a command they would assign to the other (just) God, when he says it is righteous for children to obey parents in the Lord. The wording comes from Exodus: "Honor your father and your mother… that you may become long-lived on the land the Lord your God gives you." Paul again omits a "your," changes "become long-lived" to "you will be long-lived," and drops "which the Lord your God gives you" after "on the earth." The command is fifth in the Decalogue; so ask how "which is a first commandment" is to be taken, when the first was "You shall have no other gods besides me."

25Some have read "which is the first commandment with a promise" as if the commandments before it carried no promise at all. On this one, they say, the first promise is set down: that it may go well with you, and that you may be long-lived on the land the Lord your God gives you.

They seem not to have noticed that a promise also lies on the second commandment: you shall not make yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth; you shall not bow to them or serve them. "For I am the Lord your God, a jealous God, repaying the sins of fathers on children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, and doing mercy to a thousand for those who love me and keep my ordinances." Mark that "doing mercy to a thousand for those who love me and keep my ordinances" is itself a promise.

Perhaps, since the Decalogue is the first law given to the people after they left Egypt, each of the ten is "first" as spoken among the first of the commandments that follow.

Anyone who still wants "first commandment with a promise" can answer that the long-life promise on the land is proper to "Honor your father and your mother," while "doing mercy to a thousand" is not proper to the ban on making an idol or any likeness.

Against that, the reader who takes the whole Decalogue as containing first commandments will press back: long life on the land God gives the saints is not given for honoring father and mother alone, but through countless other commands as well. That reader must collect the commandments that carry "that you may be long-lived on the land the Lord your God gives you."

Next one must ask about the promise that grants long life on the land the Lord God gives the saints. The Jews take this according to the letter; yet we see it is not always so, and the prophet says, "Woe is me, that my sojourning has been prolonged." Seek, then, the good land God gives in promise to the one who has left spiritual Egypt, crossed the large and fearful spiritual desert with all patience and endurance, and conquered the kings the Lord struck down and the mighty kings the Lord destroyed.

"And masters, do the same toward them" (Ephesians 6:9). Origen asks which "same things" from what was already said. He thinks: in simplicity of heart, doing God's will, from the soul, and with goodwill toward the household servants.

"For the rest, be empowered in the Lord and in the might of his strength" (Ephesians 6:10). To be empowered in the Lord is to be empowered in Word, in wisdom, in the contemplation of the truth, and in every aspect of Christ. Greatest among these is the might of strength, stronger than virtue and its forms—all of them powers, just as the vices are weakness. Among the virtues, those trained in such questions say, there is an unobservable one called strength, named by analogy with bodily strength, and another observable one, beauty, named from bodily beauty. Under that beauty it is said, "Gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your fairness and your beauty"; and in the Song of Songs to the bride, "You are altogether beautiful near me, and there is no blame in you"; and again in Psalm 44, "And the king will desire your beauty."

"Put on the full armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil" (Ephesians 6:11). Origen begins from what follows and from what is written about the Savior—

26From what is written one may say that God's full armor is Christ, so "Put on the full armor of God" is the same as "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ." If the belt is truth and the breastplate righteousness, and the Savior is truth and righteousness, then the Savior is clearly the belt and the breastplate. By the same measure he himself would be the readiness of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit—which is the word of God, the living and active Word sharper than any two-edged sword.

What other full armor of God could the one who will stand against the devil's schemes even think to put on, except the virtue that is Christ? Clothed with him in all his aspects, one will be able to stand against every scheme of wickedness worked by the devil, its father. Girded with truth, he will not be pulled into assenting to persuasive, sophistic arguments for the false. Clothed with righteousness, he will stay unwounded by injustice's arrows; none of them will reach him or make the one wearing righteousness unjust.

The one who has put on the fine shoes of the gospel's readiness for peace—ready, with his works prepared for departure, and so become a person of peace—will neither do anything warlike or factious nor be condemned with the unprepared. Where the shield of faith is, unbelief hostile to the human race's salvation has no room. The one who wears the helmet of salvation keeps unbroken the head of the soul, where the divine and intelligible senses are. And as a noble soldier, holding the sword of the Spirit, which is the Lord's word, he will cut down and destroy every doctrine hostile to the truth.

"For our wrestling is not against blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world-rulers of the darkness, against the spiritual things of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12). Wrestling against blood and flesh, I think, means what he calls human temptations, when flesh desiring against the spirit summons us to do its works. It is no longer a human temptation, nor wrestling against blood and flesh, when Satan transforms himself into an angel of light and fights to make us attend to him as an angel of light—or anything like the things that come with every power, lying signs and wonders, and every deceit of injustice.

If the enemy persuades someone to receive him as Lord speaking in him "Thus says the Lord," so that the person even imagines himself a prophet of the God of all, he works that not as blood and flesh or a mere human temptation against one who has guarded himself this far. Therefore give the devil no place at all.

Someone will say Paul speaks this way so we will not first suppose that sins thought to come from the flesh's mindset come from flesh and blood, but from certain powers working them. There are demons that work loves and love-charms, as the prophet shows: "They were led astray by a spirit of fornication." The same may be said of demons that implant wrath and anger; even the curious summon them and are said to make an anger-binding charm. When we hate, we do not hate apart from the demons that work hatred; the so-called hate-charms support that reading.

Because the apostle wants to teach that sinning does not come to us from the body's nature, he says our wrestling is not against blood and flesh but against the rulers, the authorities, and the rest. Asking which ancient writings, revealed and shown to him, helped Paul say this, we conjecture from stories of wars and single combat—David against Goliath, Israel's sons against the foreigners or the nations they fought and conquered. Each of those is likely a symbol of spiritual rulers defeated or prevailing. The wrestling—

27Our wrestling, then, is against authorities that are not visible and fleshly, against world-rulers of the darkness that wraps the human race, and against spirits of wickedness that inhabit the heavenly place—that is, the air. Elsewhere he said, "in which you once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit now at work in the sons of disobedience." The air poured around us seems filled with opposing powers.

"That you may be able to withstand in the evil day" (Ephesians 6:13). Origen: whoever seeks to withstand in the evil day must have the full armor of God the apostle set out. Through it the adversary will be shamed, with nothing base to say about us—the devil, accuser of our brothers, who also deceives sinners as his own and as belonging to his portion. Another will say the present age is an evil day. A third reading, besides those two, will say the contest does not end when someone leaves this life: even the one who has conquered here is about to fight again in another evil day against opposing energies that appear.

"Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth" (Ephesians 6:14). Luke also writes, "Let your waists be girded." We now know what the belt is: the one who has drawn in the works of generation, no longer serves them, and hastens toward immortality girds the waist.

"And having put on the breastplate of righteousness" (Ephesians 6:14). As a breastplate makes a fighter harder to wound—especially in the vital parts—so the one clothed with righteousness will not be struck like a deer hit in the liver by an arrow, will not fall into wrath or desire, and will remain pure in heart. He wears a breastplate of righteousness forged for him by God, the craftsman of all, who prepares and gives the full armor to each of the saints.

"And having shod your feet with the readiness of the gospel of peace" (Ephesians 6:15). Notice he named a power of the soul "feet," with which we journey, walking the one who said "I am the way." Those feet must be shod with the gospel's readiness for peace. I take the Exodus shoes required of those eating the Passover, ready for the road, as symbols of these: "Eat it with your waists girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staffs in your hands; eat it in haste; it is the Lord's Passover." Readiness includes both hasty eating and eating while shod, so that strengthened by the food they can travel. The one still journeying must be shod; the one who has reached the holy land must untie: "Loose the shoe from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground." So the one not yet an apostle must shoe the feet with the gospel's readiness for peace; the apostle no longer takes shoes for a road—already perfected, standing and walking on holy ground, living in Christ.

"In all things taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one" (Ephesians 6:16). Origen: the evil one's arrows are evil thoughts. He cannot even begin to cast them into the heart when someone is covered by the shield of faith; all the flaming arrows are quenched in it. The one wearing that shield will say, "In the Lord I have trusted; how will you say to my soul, Flee to the mountains like a sparrow? For look, sinners have stretched a bow and prepared arrows for a quiver, to shoot the upright in heart in a moonless place." Since I have trusted in the Lord, how do you advise me not to stand against the bows and quivered arrows sinners aim, wanting to wound the upright in heart? Look: I have stood; I do not flee; and all the flaming arrows of the evil one will be quenched almost at once.

"And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, through every prayer and petition, praying at every time in the Spirit, and watching for this with all perseverance and—" (Ephesians 6:17–19)

28—petition for all the saints and for me. The healthy word flows from a divine spirit; the opposing word speaks from the earth. The one who is from the earth is of the earth and speaks from the earth; the one who comes from heaven is above all, and what he has seen and heard he witnesses. The word from the Spirit is a sword; that is why Paul here calls the sword of the Spirit the word of God. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword; it penetrates as far as the division of soul and spirit, cuts and divides, and also works through prayer and petition for those who pray at every time and pray in the Spirit, according to "I will pray with the spirit." It works for those who watch in order to grow rich in God's word and persist in gaining it, so they may help others and, through prayers, work with those who help. Notice also the apostle's moderation: he asks the Ephesians for petitions on his behalf.

"That speech may be given me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel" (Ephesians 6:19). Origen: when the mouth is opened after speech has been given, the mystery of the gospel is made known with boldness, no longer in proverbs and parables. The Savior says the same: "An hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in proverbs, but will announce the Father to you with boldness." Only the person whose heart does not condemn can hold a word spoken with boldness—and every such person can—because if the heart does not condemn, we have boldness toward God, and whatever we ask we receive from him. So the one who makes the mystery known with boldness is rare, because rare is the one who has boldness toward God. Who will boast of a pure heart? Who will speak boldly of being clean from sins?

"But that you also may know my affairs, what I am doing, Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful servant in the Lord will make everything known to you, whom I sent to you for this very purpose, that you may know about us and that he may encourage your hearts" (Ephesians 6:21–22). Because the apostle's whole life, every act and energy, happened by the Word of God with Christ living in him, he sends Tychicus to announce to the Ephesians the rule of his life and the order of his deeds. It was fitting that, so the Ephesians might have a pattern of good conduct, he send Tychicus for that very reason. They would also be encouraged as they learned that the best things, and those fitting an apostle, were being accomplished in Paul.

"Peace to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 6:23). Origen: if any other gift is given from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, peace is one too—among the most honored gifts, the peace that surpasses every mind, which will guard the hearts and thoughts of the saints. It is a calm and fair weather of the soul, foreign to every storm, unrest, and passion. Likewise love with faith is a gift from God and the Lord Jesus Christ: love toward God with the whole heart and what follows, and toward the neighbor as oneself. The one who has received love as a gift also shows it toward enemies, hating no one and praying for those who abuse him.

"Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption" (Ephesians 6:24). Some have explained loving him in incorruption as being pure from the works of corruption, and they take those works as sexual intercourse—hence custom calls the pure from intercourse "incorrupt" and those who have tasted mixing "corrupted." Others stretch "If anyone corrupts the temple of God, God will corrupt him" that way, and then cannot save "But each has his own gift from God, one this way, another that." See whether every sin can be corruption of the soul, and complete abstinence from it incorruption. Then those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption are those who abstain from every sin; and with all of them is the grace of God. Since there are some who love the Lord yet do not love him in incorruption, Paul says, "Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption."