Expositions of Holy Scripture: Ephesians; Epistles of St. Peter and St. John — John Shaqi
Expositions of Holy Scripture: Ephesians; Epistles of St. Peter and St. JohnMaclaren, Alexander
Religion
Expositions of Holy Scripture: Ephesians; Epistles of St. Peter and St. John
Maclaren, Alexander
Bible. Ephesians -- Commentaries; Bible. Epistle of John, 1st -- Commentaries; Bible. Peter -- Commentaries
Paul would have us believe that if we will take the work of Jesus Christ
in the facts of His life, and its results upon humanity, as our
horn-book and lesson, we shall draw from that some conceptions of the
great thing that underlies it, 'the good pleasure of His will.' We stand
in front of this complex universe, and some of us say: 'Law'; and some
of us say: 'A Lawgiver behind the law; a Person at the heart of all
things'; but unless we can say: 'And in the heart of the Person a will,
which is the expression of a steadfast, omnipotent love,' then the world
seems to me to be a place of unsolvable riddles and a torture-house.
There goes the great steam-roller along the road. Everybody can see that
it crushes down, and makes its own path. Who drives it? The steam in the
boiler, or is there a hand on the lever? And what drives the hand?
Christianity answers, and answers with unfaltering lip, rising clear
above contradictions apparent and difficulties real, 'The good pleasure
of His will,' and there men can rest.
Then there is another step. Another form in which this 'according to'
appears in this letter is, if we adopt the rendering, which I am
disposed to do in the present case, of the Authorised Version rather
than of the Revised, 'according to His good pleasure ... which He hath
purposed in Himself.' The Revised Version says, 'Which He hath purposed
in Him,' and that is a perfectly possible rendering. But to me the old
one is not only more eloquent, but more in accordance with the
connection. So I venture to accept it without further ado--'His good
pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself.'
That brings us into the presence of that same great thought, which in
another aspect is expressed in saying 'His name is Jehovah,' and in yet
another aspect is expressed in saying 'God is love,' viz. the thought
which sounds familiar, but which has in it depths of strength and
illumination and joy, if we rightly ponder it, that, to use human words,
the motive of the divine action is all found within the divine nature.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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