Commentary on Ephesians

Contents

Reading pages: 0–1.7 · 1.8–1.21 · 2.1–2.21 · 3.1–4.1 · 4.2–4.27 · 4.28–5.33 · 6.11–6.23

1. 0Victorinus states the two themes of Ephesians, theology and precepts for living, and its purpose of correcting Ephesians who were adding Judaism to the Christian teaching.
2. 1.1Paul’s opening places all hope in Christ, who is the will of God, inseparable from the Father yet distinct as a thought is from the mind that conceives it.
3. 1.2Grace and peace are wished for the Ephesians so that they may know God and live by his precepts, and both come from the Father through the Son, in whom all salvation lies.
4. 1.3God, the Father of Christ, has become our Father through Christ, and his blessing is spiritual and heavenly, so that earthly sufferings do not contradict it.
5. 1.4Election “before the foundation of the world” shows, for Victorinus, that souls existed in Christ before the world, which was made so that souls deceived by the senses might know God and, through Christ, become spiritual, holy, and without blemish.
6. 1.5God adopts souls as sons through Christ, the only true Son and the image of God, to the praise of his glory and grace.
7. 1.7Redemption through Christ’s blood frees souls from the captivity of the world into which they fell and restores them, by grace and not by their own power, to their original spiritual nature.
8. 1.8Unlike angels and the rest of creation, which stay as they were made, souls receive the riches of grace to be raised into spirits and adopted sons through Christ, and this knowledge of Christ is all wisdom and prudence.
9. 1.9The mystery of God’s will made known to Christians is purposed in Christ, through whom all things, including our liberation, come about.
10. 1.10God’s ordered dispensation reaches its sum in the fullness of times, when all that is in Christ, in heaven and on earth, is restored, each in its order.
11. 1.11God works all things through Christ, who is his will and motion, and everything that comes to pass was predestined by him.
12. 1.12Hope in Christ comes first, and from it follows that believers become the praise of God’s glory.
13. 1.13Paul applies the general teaching to the Ephesians, who heard the gospel, believed, and were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.
14. 1.14The Holy Spirit is the pledge of the heavenly inheritance and of adoption, a gift of grace beyond merit whose glory belongs to the giver.
15. 1.15Faith in Christ, the sum of the mystery, carries with it love for all the saints, and Paul gives thanks for the Ephesians’ faith and love.
16. 1.16Prayer is either thanksgiving for what has been received or petition, and Paul first gives thanks for the Ephesians.
17. 1.17Paul’s petition names the God and Father of Jesus Christ, so that the Ephesians will not think of any other god, and asks that he give them the spirit of wisdom, since understanding of the truth is God’s gift.
18. 1.18Victorinus distinguishes the spirit of wisdom, by which we understand divine things inwardly, from the spirit of revelation, which shows them as if from outside, and explains the hope of the calling and the inheritance of the sons.
19. 1.19The surpassing power of God toward believers is shown above all in the working he accomplished in Christ by raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand.
20. 1.21Christ, raised and seated at God’s right hand, is above every power and every name, present or future, as the first motion and source of all things; he is head of the church, which Victorinus identifies with all souls to be saved, so nothing may be added to him.
21. 2.1Victorinus explains spiritual death in sin, the “age of this world” as opposed to the eternal ages, and the “prince of the power of the air” as the devil, the spirit of matter, since air is the chief of the elements.
22. 2.3Paul includes himself among those who once lived by the flesh and were “by nature sons of wrath,” which Victorinus explains as begotten by worldly nature, unlike the eternal realm where nothing is begotten in the worldly sense.
23. 2.4God’s rich mercy and great love are shown in his not sparing his Son, through whose passion he redeemed us when we had become strangers to him.
24. 2.5Christ’s passion puts sins to death and his resurrection is ours, so those saved by his grace must accept nothing outside Christ.
25. 2.6Believers were raised and seated in the heavens together with Christ when he was raised, not by their own earning.
26. 2.7God raised us with Christ not for our merits but out of kindness, and we are saved by grace through faith, which alone is owed by us.
27. 2.9Salvation comes neither from ourselves nor from works, but is God’s gift, so that no one may boast of merit.
28. 2.10God formed believers in Christ for good works that he prepared, which Victorinus takes to mean works done in the present life.
29. 2.11Gentiles called “uncircumcision” by those with circumcision made by hand need not be ashamed, since the truer circumcision is that of mind and spirit cutting away the sins of the flesh.
30. 2.12As Gentiles without Christ, the Ephesians were outside the true Israel, which lives according to the spirit, and strangers to the promises of the covenants given through the prophets.
31. 2.13The Gentile Ephesians have been brought near not by their works but by the blood of Christ.
32. 2.14Christ is our peace, reconciling to God by his passion those who were at war with him through idolatry.
33. 2.15Christ, the mediator, broke down the wall of fleshly desire between souls and God, made void the law’s observances understood in a fleshly way, and joined souls with the spiritual realm into one new, spiritual man.
34. 2.16Christ reconciled souls and spirit in one body to God, killing in his own flesh, on the cross, the enmities of flesh and world, so that almost nothing remains for us but to believe in him.
35. 2.17Christ’s coming preached the gospel of peace, reconciling people to God, first to the Gentiles who were far off and also to the Jews who were near.
36. 2.18Jews and Gentiles alike have access to the Father only through Christ, the one spirit.
37. 2.19Believing Ephesians are no longer strangers but citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem, where the “saints” are those who saw or experienced God, like the apostles and prophets, and other believers are their fellow citizens.
38. 2.20Believers are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, which is faith in Christ, and on Christ the cornerstone, who joins into one what the world had separated.
39. 2.21All souls made spiritual are built into a holy temple where God dwells through Christ, and the Ephesians are still being built into it, so they must admit nothing besides Christ.
40. 3.1Paul presents his authority as prisoner of Christ for the Gentiles, entrusted with the gospel by revelation, and Victorinus reflects that God may still make a Christian by revelation, though the lawful way is rebirth by water and the Spirit.
41. 3.3The mystery was made known to Paul by revelation, which God may still grant to others, and Paul’s “prudence” is the knowledge that followed the revelation rather than the means of obtaining it.
42. 3.5The mystery hidden from earlier generations has been revealed to Paul, the same as to the other apostles, and was known to the prophets only in the Spirit, as they spoke it without themselves knowing it.
43. 3.6The revealed mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of one body, and sharers of the promise in Christ together with Israel.
44. 3.7Paul was made minister of the gospel by God’s gift, and even his working is the grace of God’s power, so that he, the least of the saints, preaches the incomprehensible riches of Christ.
45. 3.9Paul enlightens all about the mystery hidden from the ages in God: that Christ, begotten of the Father without beginning in time and through whom all things were created, would come in the flesh to save humanity.
46. 3.10Through the church, the members of Christ, the manifold wisdom of God in the mystery of Christ is made known even to the heavenly powers.
47. 3.11God predetermined the ages at whose close the mystery hidden in Christ would be revealed through his presence.
48. 3.12The sum of Christ’s work is the freedom he won by conquering flesh and death, which reaches us through faith in him.
49. 3.14Paul kneels in prayer to the Father, through whom all is done in Christ, and kneeling expresses the humility that prayer requires in body as well as mind.
50. 3.15Paul’s sufferings, borne to keep the Ephesians from adding anything to Christ, are their glory, and all fatherhood, in heaven and on earth, derives from God the Father.
51. 3.16Paul prays that the Ephesians be strengthened by the Spirit in the inner man, where Christ dwells through faith alone, and be rooted and grounded in love.
52. 3.18Paul prays for faith, knowledge, and above all the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge; the four dimensions are the three of a body with height divided, applied to knowing God; and all these together are the fullness of God.
53. 3.20Paul’s doxology gives glory in Christ and in the church to the one who can do far more than we ask or understand, by the power at work in us.
54. 4.1Paul, a prisoner for the Lord, appeals to the Ephesians to live worthily of the calling they have received by God’s grace.
55. 4.2Humility, gentleness, patience, and magnanimity are to be joined to mutual forbearance in love and zeal for the unity of the spirit, since the church is one body with one spirit and one hope.
56. 4.5There is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism, given in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and baptism given otherwise is no baptism; and there is one God, since God is in the Son and the Son in God.
57. 4.7Since grace is given to each in the measure of Christ’s gift, believers should neither envy nor withhold, but receive one another in love.
58. 4.8The quotation from Psalm 68 shows that the gifts are Christ’s, given after he led captivity captive, so believers should not envy one another’s gifts; the question of his descent and ascent is reserved for a separate book.
59. 4.9Only one who came down from heaven can ascend there, as spirit returns to its source, so Christ who ascended first descended, even into the underworld, to free souls.
60. 4.10Christ who descended to the depths ascended above all the heavens, of which Victorinus holds there are three, and by his passion, resurrection, and ascension filled and perfected all things.
61. 4.11Among Christ’s gifts are prophets after Christ, who are not foretellers of his coming but those who, full of the Spirit, expound the divine teaching.
62. 4.12Evangelists narrate and proclaim Christ, pastors (bishops) govern and teachers instruct, and all these ministries were given for presiding over the mysteries and building up the church in faith.
63. 4.13The ministries aim at the unity of faith and knowledge of Christ, when each soul, perfected, becomes the “perfect man” of Psalm 1 and the members together render the fullness of Christ.
64. 4.14Faith and knowledge of Christ make believers mature, no longer tossed by doctrines and human cunning, and Victorinus maps the three warnings of Psalm 1 onto heresy, wickedness, and cunning.
65. 4.15Doing the truth in love, believers grow into Christ the head, and the church’s ministries, like joined members of a body, build it up in love while serving Christ.
66. 4.17Paul warns the Ephesians, with the Lord as witness, no longer to live like the Gentiles, whose minds are darkened and alienated from the life of God through ignorance and blindness of heart.
67. 4.19The Gentiles, without hope of eternity, give themselves over to shamelessness, greed, and shameful pleasures.
68. 4.20Those who have learned and believed Christ must not live like the Gentiles, for faith in Christ, who conquered death, brings immortality.
69. 4.22The old man, corrupted by error that took the world for eternal and its ruler for God, must be put off, since the truth is in Jesus and makes the new, spiritually wise man.
70. 4.23The new man, created according to God, who is spirit, is renewed in the spirit of the mind and lives in righteousness, holiness, and truth rather than by the flesh.
71. 4.25Because believers are members of one body, the church, whose head is Christ, they must put away lying and speak the truth to one another.
72. 4.26Victorinus surveys the moral precepts of Eph 4:26–5:21 and their order, then explains that anger is allowed if it aims to correct rather than to punish and is laid aside within the day.
73. 4.27Lingering anger gives the devil an occasion, but he can act on us only when we give him one, since we are masters of our own will.
74. 4.28The sin lies in persisting, not in having sinned, since there is room for repentance; the thief, and every secret sinner, must stop, and work with his hands so as to share with those in need.
75. 4.29No evil word should be spoken, only words that build up faith, lest the Holy Spirit with whom believers are sealed for the day of redemption be grieved.
76. 4.31Victorinus defines bitterness, anger, indignation, shouting, and blasphemy, which must be put away together with the malice that makes them sins.
77. 4.32Believers must be kind and merciful to one another, forgiving sins as God has forgiven them in Christ, who came to conquer the sin they could not.
78. 5.1Believers imitate God, as his dear sons, by forgiving one another as he forgave them in Christ, whom he did not spare.
79. 5.2Love, which sums up the whole law and the mystery of Christianity, is to be lived as Christ loved us and gave himself as a fragrant offering to God.
80. 5.3Shamelessness, uncleanness, and greed must be so far from saints that they are not even named among them.
81. 5.4Shamefulness, foolish talk, and wounding jests are distinguished from the earlier vices and allowed only when they serve rebuke or correction; thanksgiving should take their place.
82. 5.5The shameless, the unclean, and the greedy have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God, and greed is idolatry because it seeks from idols the goods of this world or divides worship among many.
83. 5.6Believers must not be misled by empty words urging worldly gain, since God’s wrath comes on the sons of unbelief, who doubt the heavenly promises and serve the devil.
84. 5.7The Ephesians, once darkness but now light in the Lord through baptism, must separate from the sons of unbelief and live as sons of light in goodness, righteousness, and truth.
85. 5.10Believers should test what pleases God, avoid the fruitless works of darkness, and even rebuke those who do them.
86. 5.12The secret deeds of such people are too shameful even to mention, which is why believers must not share in them but rebuke them.
87. 5.13Rebuke brings secret sins to light, so that the sinner understands his evil and comes to the light.
88. 5.14One who is rebuked and understands his sin rises from the dead and touches Christ, receiving light and hope of eternal life.
89. 5.15Believers must walk with the wisdom that is from God and redeem the evil days by virtue and patience, making the time their own.
90. 5.17To be understanding rather than imprudent is to know the will of the Lord: to live with integrity, righteousness, and faith, with hope set on God alone.
91. 5.18Instead of drunkenness, believers are to be filled with the Spirit, which Paul presents as a matter of their own will, cleansing the soul from vice.
92. 5.19Believers are to speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and songs, singing in their hearts, and give thanks always to the Father in the name of Christ.
93. 5.21Mutual submission rests on the fear of Christ, the beginning of understanding.
94. 5.22Wives are to be subject to their husbands as to the Lord, because the husband is head of the wife as Christ is head of the church.
95. 5.25Husbands must love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself to cleanse her in baptism, which Victorinus applies to a husband’s patient endurance for his wife’s sanctification.
96. 5.27Christ gave himself so that the church might be glorious, holy through the washing of water and the word, and without spot or wrinkle.
97. 5.28Husbands must love their wives as their own bodies, since the first woman was made from the man’s rib.
98. 5.29Since the wife is the husband’s own flesh, he must nourish and cherish her as Christ does the church, as the wife in turn reveres her husband.
99. 5.30Believers are members of Christ’s body, “of his flesh and bones,” which Victorinus takes not of his earthly flesh but of his deity, in which we share as spirit, mind, and soul.
100. 5.31Gen 2:24 shows that a husband should love his wife so much as to leave father and mother and become one flesh with her, though Paul goes on to show a deeper meaning.
101. 5.32The “great mystery” of Gen 2:24 refers to Christ and the church, which Victorinus understands more deeply as spirit and soul joined together, Christ being the spirit and the church the soul.
102. 5.33Paul applies the precepts on marriage to each Ephesian husband and wife, love on the one side and reverent fear on the other; the commentary then breaks off, and resumes in the comment on the spiritual powers of Eph 6:12.
103. 6.11Against the spiritual powers, faith alone in Christ is armor enough, and having it is within the believer’s power; the “evil day” is the time of temptation.
104. 6.14Having done all that was commanded, believers stand girded with truth and clothed with the breastplate of righteousness, which protects, while faith, which also resists, remains the head of all.
105. 6.15Feet shod with readiness for the gospel of peace mean eagerness to go and hear the gospel, which brings peace to souls and strength against the spiritual powers.
106. 6.16The shield of faith quenches the devil’s fiery arrows, the persuasive words that inflame the blood, because faith takes everything spiritually and the light of Christ overcomes worldly fire.
107. 6.17The helmet of salvation is Christ, the saving head of the church, and the sword of the spirit is the word of God, also Christ, who conquers the hostile powers and death.
108. 6.18Paul calls for constant prayer in the spirit, with real affection rather than recited words, distinguishing prayer (praise and thanksgiving) from supplication (asking pardon or grace), and for watchful attention in prayer for all the saints.
109. 6.19Prayer must be for others as well as oneself, leaders for the faithful and catechumens, and the faithful for their leaders, and Paul asks the Ephesians to pray that he may proclaim the mystery boldly.
110. 6.20Paul, an envoy of Christ in chains, asks for boldness to proclaim the gospel as he ought, undeterred by suffering.
111. 6.21Paul leaves news of his sufferings and work to Tychicus, whom he commends as a faithful minister in the Lord.
112. 6.22Paul sent Tychicus expressly so that the Ephesians might know his situation and be comforted about his sufferings.
113. 6.23The letter closes with a prayer for peace against discord, love for concord, faith toward God, and grace for eternity on those who love Christ.