The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the EphesiansFindlay, George G. (George Gillanders)
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Epistle to the Ephesians
Findlay, George G. (George Gillanders)
Bible. Ephesians -- Commentaries
While faith is the central organ of the Church’s life, _the Son of God_
is its central object. The dangers assailing the Church and the
divisions threatening its unity, touched His Person; and whatever
touches the Head, vitally affects the health of the body and the
well-being of every member in it. Many had believed in Jesus as the
Christ and received blessing from Him, whose knowledge of Him as the Son
of God was defective. This ignorance exposed their faith to perversion
by the plausible errors circulating in the Churches of Asia Minor.[110]
The haze of speculation dimmed His glory and distorted His image.
Dazzled by the “philosophy and empty deceit” of specious talkers, these
half-instructed believers formed erroneous or uncertain views of Christ.
And a divided Christ makes a divided Church. We may hold divergent
opinions upon many points of doctrine--in regard to Church order and the
Sacraments, in regard to the nature of the future judgement, in regard
to the mode and limits of inspiration, in regard to the dialect and
expression of our spiritual life--and yet retain, notwithstanding, a
large measure of cordial unity and find ourselves able to co-operate
with each other for many Christian purposes. But when our difference
concerns the Person of Christ, it is felt at once to be fundamental.
There is a gulf between those who worship and those who do not worship
the Son of God.
“Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in
him and he in God” (1 John iv. 15). This is the touchstone of catholic
truth that the apostles have laid down; and by this we must hold fast.
The kingship of the Lord Jesus is the rallying-point of Christendom. In
His name we set up our banners. There are a thousand differences we can
afford to sink and quarrels we may well forget, if our hearts are one
towards Him. Let me meet a man of any sect or country, who loves and
worships my Lord Christ with all his mind and strength, he is my
brother; and who shall forbid us “with one mind and one mouth to glorify
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”? It is nothing but our
ignorance of Him, and of each other, that prevents us doing this
already. Let us set ourselves again to the study of Christ. Let us
strive “all of us” to “attain to the full knowledge of the Son of God”;
it is the way to reunion. As we approach the central revelation, and the
glory of Christ who is the image of God shines in its original
brightness upon our hearts, prejudices will melt away; the opinions and
interests and sentiments that divide us will be lost in the transcendent
and absorbing vision of the one Lord Jesus Christ.
“Names and sects and parties fall:
Thou, O Christ, art all in all!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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