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
WHAT CHILDREN OF LIGHT SHOULD BE (Eph. v. 8) 277
THE FRUIT OF THE LIGHT (Eph. v. 9, R.V.) 286
PLEASING CHRIST (Eph. v. 10) 295
UNFRUITFUL WORKS OF DARKNESS (Eph. v. 11) 303
PAUL'S REASONS FOR TEMPERANCE (Eph. v. 11-21) 313
SLEEPERS AT NOONDAY (Eph. v. 14) 318
REDEEMING THE TIME (Eph. v. 15, 16) 327
'THE PANOPLY OF GOD' (Eph. vi. 13) 337
'THE GIRDLE OF TRUTH' (Eph. vi. 14, R.V.) 343
'THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS' (Eph. vi. 14) 350
A SOLDIER'S SHOES (Eph. vi. 15) 353
THE SHIELD OF FAITH (Eph. vi. 16) 361
'THE HELMET OF SALVATION' (Eph. vi. 17) 367
'THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT' (Eph. vi. 17) 373
PEACE, LOVE, AND FAITH (Eph. vi. 23) 381
THE WIDE RANGE OF GOD'S GRACE (Eph. vi. 24) 391
SAINTS AND FAITHFUL
'The saints which are at Ephesus and the faithful in Christ
Jesus.'--Eph. i. 1.
That is Paul's way of describing a church. There were plenty of very
imperfect Christians in the community at Ephesus and in the other
Asiatic churches to which this letter went. As we know, there were
heretics amongst them, and many others to whom the designation of 'holy'
seemed inapplicable. But Paul classes them all under one category, and
describes the whole body of believing people by these two words, which
must always go together if either of them is truly applied, 'saints' and
'faithful.'
Now I think that from this simple designation we may gather two or three
very obvious indeed, and very familiar and old-fashioned, but also very
important, thoughts.
I. A Christian is a saint.
We are accustomed to confine the word to persons who tower above their
brethren in holiness and manifest godliness and devoutness. The New
Testament never does anything like that. Some people fancy that nobody
can be a saint unless he wears a special uniform of certain conventional
sanctities. The New Testament does not take that point of view at all,
but regards all true believers in Jesus Christ as being, therein and
thereby, saints.
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