AN
EXPOSITION,
W I T H P R A C T I C A L O B S E R V A T I O N
S,
OF THE EPISTLE OF ST. PAUL TO
T H E E P H E S I A N S
SOME
think that this epistle to the Ephesians was a circular letter sent to several
churches, and that the copy directed to the Ephesians happened to be taken
into the canon, and so it came to bear that particular inscription. And they
have been induced the rather to think this because it is the only one of all
Paul's epistles that has nothing in it peculiarly adapted to the state or case
of that particular church; but it has much of common concernment to all
Christians, and especially to all who, having been Gentiles in times past,
were converted to Christianity. But then it may be observed, on the other
hand, that the epistle is expressly inscribed (1:1) to the saints which are
at
Ephesus
; and in the close of it
he tells them that he had sent Tychicus unto them, whom, in 2 Tim. iv. 12, he
says he had sent to
Ephesus
. It is an epistle that bears date out of a prison: and
some have observed that what this apostle wrote when he was a prisoner had the
greatest relish and savour in it of the things of God. When his tribulations
did abound, his consolations and experiences did much more abound, whence we
may observe that the afflictive exercises of God's people, and particularly of
his ministers, often tend to the advantage of others as well as to their own.
The apostle's design is to settle and establish the Ephesians in the truth,
and further to acquaint them with the mystery of the gospel, in order to it.
In the former part he represents the great privilege of the Ephesians, who,
having been in time past idolatrous heathens, were now converted to
Christianity and received into covenant with God, which he illustrates from a
view of their deplorable state before their conversion, ch. 1-3. In the
latter part (which we have in the 4th, 5th, and 6th chapters) he instructs
them in the principal duties of religion, both personal and relative, and
exhorts and quickens them to the faithful discharge of them. Zanchy observes
that we have here an epitome of the whole Christian doctrine, and of almost
all the chief heads of divinity.
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