[67] In this amplitude of expression there is no idle heaping up of words. The four synonyms for _power_ have each a distinct force in the sentence. Δύναμις is _power_ in general, as that which is able to effect some purpose; ἐνέργεια is _energy_, power in effective action and operation; κράτος is _might_, _mastery_, sovereign power,--in the New Testament used chiefly of the power of God; ἰσχύς is _force_, _strength_, power resident in some person and belonging to him. This is the order in which the words follow each other. Compare vi. 10 in the Greek. THE DOCTRINE. CHAPTER i. 20-iii. 13. Ὑψηλῶν σφόδρα γέμει τῶν νοημάτων καὶ ὑπερόγκων. Ἃ γὰρ μηδαμοῦ σχέδον ἐφθέγξατο, ταῦτα ἐνταῦθά φησιν. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM: _In epistolam ad Ephesios._ CHAPTER VI. _WHAT GOD WROUGHT IN THE CHRIST._ “He raised Him from the dead, and made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly _places_, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: and He put all things in subjection under His feet, and Him He gave--the head over all things--to the Church which is His body,--the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.”--EPH. i. 20-23. The division that we make at verse 20, marking off at this point the commencement of the Doctrine of the epistle, may appear somewhat forced. The great doxology of the first half of the chapter is intensely theological; and the prayer which follows it, like that of the letter to the Colossians, melts into doctrine imperceptibly. The apostle teaches upon his knees. The things he has to tell his readers, and the things he has asked on their behalf from God, are to a great extent the same. Still the writer’s attitude in the second chapter is manifestly that of teaching; and his doctrine there is so directly based upon the concluding sentences of his prayer, that it is necessary for logical arrangement to place these verses within the doctrinal section of the epistle. The resurrection of Christ made men sensible that a new force of life had come into the world, of incalculable potency. This power was in existence before. In prelusive ways, it has wrought in the world from its foundation, and since the fall of man. By the incarnation of the Son of God it took possession of human flesh; by His sacrificial death it won its decisive triumph. But the virtue of these acts of Divine grace lay in their hiding of power, in the self-abnegation of the Son of God who emptied Himself and took a servant’s form, and became obedient unto death.