Charles Gore - St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians - A Practical Exposition

The divine secret disclosed

This universal reconciliation through a catholic church was God's eternal purpose, but it was kept secret from the ages and the generations, only at last to be disclosed to His apostles and prophets. The word 'mystery' in the New Testament means mostly a divine secret which has now been disclosed. Just as the secret of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, i.e. the purpose of God in the then order of the world, was imparted to Daniel, so now the great disclosure of the divine mystery or secret has been made, primarily indeed to apostles and prophets, but through them to the whole body of the faithful. The faithful must of course begin by receiving that simplest spiritual nourishment which is milk for babes. They are to welcome the divine forgiveness of their sins in Christ, and the gift of new life through Him in their baptism and the laying-on of hands. They are to be taught the rudimentary truths and moral lessons which are the first principles of the oracles of Christ. But they are not to stop with this. They are, and they are all of them without exception[ 86 86 Col. i. 28. ], intended to grow up to the full apprehension of the wisdom of the 'perfect' or perfectly initiated. They are to dwell upon the divine secret, now revealed, of God's purpose for the universe through the church till their whole heart and intellect and imagination is enlightened and enriched by it.

It is all of grace

And is the greatness of this exaltation and knowledge vouchsafed to the Church to be a renewed occasion of pride – that spiritual pride, the fatal results of which had already become apparent through the rejection of the Jews? No: unless through a complete mistake, the very opposite must be the result. The strength of human pride, as St. Paul had seen long ago, lay in the idea that man could have merit of his own, face to face with God: could have good works which were his own and not God's, and which gave him a claim upon God. That Jewish doctrine of merit[ 87 87 See app. note C , p. 257.

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The Committee of the Conference of Bishops at Lambeth, 1897, in a report commended by the bishops as a body to the 'consideration of all Christian people,' write: 'Your committee do not hold that a true view of Holy Scripture forecloses any legitimate question about the literary character or literal accuracy of different parts or statements of the Old Testament.'

Acts xxiv 14; xxvi. 6, 7, 22, 23; 2 Tim i. 3.

Eph. ii. 12-19.

1 Thess. ii. 14-16.

Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Romans.

See app. note C Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес. Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом. , p. 257.

Acts ix. 20; 1 Cor. viii. 6; Rom. ix. 5; 2 Cor. viii. 9; Gal. iv. 4.

Colossians, Ephesians, Philippians, Philemon.

Col. ii. 18: 'by a voluntary humility (or 'taking delight in humility') and worshipping of the angels.'

See i. 13-20; ii. 2, 3, 9-23; iii. 11. Cf. i. 27-28.

Hort, Judaistic Christianity (Macmillan, 1894), p. 125.

Cf. app. note C Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес. Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом. , p. 257.

Cf. Hort, Prolegomena to Romans and Ephesians (Macmillan, 1895), p. 100.

Col. iv. 2-4; Philemon 22; Phil. i. 12-14.

Ramsay, Paul the Traveller (Hodder and Stoughton, 1895), pp. 130 ff.

Ramsay, l. c. p. 132.

See Mommsen, Provinces of Roman Empire (Eng. trans.), i. 344 ff.; Lightfoot, Ign. and Polyc. iii. pp. 404 ff.

App. note A, p. 251.

Tatian, Ad Graecos , 28, 32.

Ramsay, l. c. p. 135.

Rom. xiii. 1-7; cf. ii. Thess. ii. 6.

1 Tim. ii. 1, 2.

Acts xxv. 12.

Ramsay, l. c. p. 147.

Lightfoot, Galatians , 'St. Paul and Seneca,' pp. 287 ff.

See app. note B Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес. Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом. , p. 253.

'The zeal of its inhabitants for philosophy and general culture is such that they have surpassed even Athens and Alexandria and all other cities where schools of philosophy can be mentioned. And its pre-eminence in this respect is so great because there the students are all townspeople, and strangers do not readily settle there.' Strabo, xiv. v. 13. I do not suppose that St. Paul received any formal education in Greek schools at Tarsus. But I think we must assume that at some period St. Paul had sufficient contact with Gentile educated opinion, whether at Tarsus or elsewhere, to be acquainted with widely-spread religious and philosophical tendencies.