In EPHESIANS, again we have the development of the truth as to the body, the Church, and are looked at as in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, blessed with all spiritual blessings there in Him. The Church (a thing until New Testament times, chapters 3) is His body, for me! of Jew and Gentile brought together in one, the death of Christ having removed the partition-wall of the law, and reconciled both together to God, the Spirit giving us access through Christ to the Father. This Church is also growing unto an holy temple in the Lord, and even now in Him God’s spiritual dwelling place.
Chapter 4 gives the growth of the body through the gifts of the ascended Christ; chapter 5, Christ’s personal love and care for it that it should be according to His desires. Finally chapter 6 warns us to be fully armed against the wiles of the devil, who would keep us out of the enjoyment of an inheritance which He has forfeited, as the Canaanites strove against Israel in their day.
In Colossians it is life in the individual saint that is prominent, where in Ephesians it is the Spirit, as forming, and animating the body.
We have thus in these four epistles reached, step by step, the summit of the Christian position in Christ before God, and united to Him as members of His body, the Church. We may now, therefore, perhaps, most fittingly take up the other Church epistles, before proceeding to those which speak of individual life and walk. Thus― 1 Corinthians gives us this Church of God, which we have seen in its heavenly character in Ephesians, as down here in a hostile world, liable to assault and to corruption; and the development of its order, as the body of Christ wherein all the members are in mutual service and harmony, and as the house of God, set up in the world as the witness of His authority, and a temple for His praise (comp. Eph. 2:16-2216And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: 17And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. 18For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. 19Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; 20And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; 21In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: 22In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. (Ephesians 2:16‑22)). The body is ONE; the house, “holiness becomes.” The attempt of the enemy, — alas, but too successful — is to introduce schism (division) into the body, and unholiness into the house. These attempts we already see (and their commencing success) in 1 Corinthians. After a brief introduction, as usual, opening the way to what follows, the character of the opposition is pointed out, first, the world (chapter 1-4), which its rejection of Christ the only Wisdom and Power of God, leaves in impotence and folly (1, 2) Yet were the church-builders introducing the world into the church (3), and Christians taking their ease in it and walking like men (4).
Thus world-wisdom made provision for the flesh, and its lusts were already openly indulged; worse than heathen-vices were among them (5). They were, exacting their own and defrauding their brethren (6). This leads to the examination of how far nature could be rightly allowed, and of the power grace gave over what was lawful but might not be expedient (6:12-7).
But there was a darker power in the world than the flesh even. The idolatry of the heathen made manifest the devil’s work there. They are enjoined not to let their knowledge of the vanity of idols lead them into even apparent connection with them (8., 10:14-33). The parenthesis (dependent on chapter 8:13) gives the principle of the surrender for the sake of others of that which was the apostle’s right (9:1-23) and the necessity of keeping under the body, in view of a mere formal religion coming in (9:24 — 10:13).
Now we have the order of the Church on earth, maintaining the original order of creation before the fall (11:1-16), not baptism (comp. chapter 1:17) but the Lord’s supper (17-34) the sign of the unity of the body, as well as the memorial of the Lord’s death. Next (12) the gifts in relation to the body; chapter 13 the spirit in which they are to be exercised, and chapter 14, the actual order of the assembly as to this.
The most serious evil remains for consideration last. The principle of apostasy was already, alas, there— the infidel giving up of the truth of God. Resurrection was already being denied: in reality, the key-stone of the church’s position, and of the gospel itself (chapter 15). Here the contrast between the earthly and the heavenly (which we are) is insisted one. Exhortations close the whole.
Sanctification (separation to God) is thus a truth insisted on all through this epistle (as see 1:2, 30, 6:11 &c).
2 Corinthians is a supplement of course to the first. In this way, that it is the spirit of the ministry of the gifts in the body, which is here opened up to us. The heart of the apostle, filled with heaviness as it had been on account of their condition, now relieved by the good news of how the first epistle had been received, overflows towards these objects of his love, and the fulness of it is poured out, letting us know all that filled and all that burdened it, and what sustained under its burdens the heart of one who, as a servant of Christ and of His Church, had perhaps no equal among men.
The first general character of this ministry is that for it no mere intellectual knowledge will suffice, but the experience of the sufferings of Christ and of God’s ability to comfort, as well as the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in the God of resurrection (1:1-11). Next, certainty in the message and the messenger (12-22) and the zeal and tenderness of love (23:2, 13).
Then as to the matter of it, it is the manifestation of the savor of the knowledge of Christ (14-17), the ministry of the new covenant, whereby not a law written on tables of stone was given, but the Spirit of God wrote Christ upon the heart (3:1-3). The ministration of the law was “of death,” and “of condemnation,” and the glory of God veiled from man; the ministration of the Spirit was of life, of righteousness, of liberty, and the glory of God in the face of Christ, unveiled, shining down into the soul (4:4, 5), which reflected the brightness of it in the world again (6); this treasure being in the earthen vessel of poor frail humanity, upon which every wave of trial beat, but in vain; for Christ was there, and the excellency of this power was seen to be of God. Death working on the outer man made the life within to shine out brighter, and to work in others (7-12). Faith looked beyond to resurrection, and death itself was welcome (13-5, 8). The thought of judgment, again, only turned the soul from its ecstatic rapture with God, to think soberly of poor souls exposed to it (9-13) and knowing His love who died for all (14, 15) and looking at every one from the new place in Christ (16, 17) itself reconciled to God (18) to go out to them with the word of reconciliation (19-21) Christ by suffering, by labor, and by life (11:1-10).
The apostle now exhorts to separation from unbelievers as of absolute necessity to the enjoyment of their place as children of God (2:18); and he commends their self-judgment (6) and next exhorts them to (what is but another form of ministry if done to Christ in His members) the ministering of their substance to the saints (8, 11.) The order of these things is important.
We have next the opposition to the ministry, alas, from within, as well as from without (10,11) and the visions and revelations by which the apostle was sustained (11:1-6) as well as the discipline by which self-exaltation needed (even in him) to be restrained (7-10). Finally, the “signs of an apostle,” and the proof of Christ speaking in him, which they themselves, converted by his means, afforded.