Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians — Fragments from the Greek Catenae
Greek source: Origen's commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians survives only as fragments in the medieval Greek exegetical catenae, from the reading text constituted by J. A. F. Gregg, "The Commentary of Origen upon the Epistle to the Ephesians," Journal of Theological Studies 3 (1902), Parts I–III (pp. 233–244, 398–420, 554–576); base manuscript Coislin 204 (Paris, saec. XI). A selective catena of 37 fragments (§§ I–XXXVII) on Ephesians i 1 – vi 24. This English translation is released into the public domain.§ I — Ephesians i 1
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God.
[Let us hear what Origen too says about this]
If the preposition through indicates a subservient role (as we examined at greater length when expounding the words "all things came into being through him", where we also set down the objections that appeared to us on this point), we must inquire how Paul is an apostle of Christ Jesus not from the will of God but through the will of God.
Now one person will say that Paul does not everywhere observe with strict precision the proper force of the prepositions, which is something he does in the case of other significations as well. But another, knowing the difference between 'through God' and through the will of God, will say that it would have been strange had it been written Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through God; but if the will of God is subservient, God himself who uses it being the one who leads, this would not be unreasonable.
You will also give attention, concerning the will of God, to whether it can be predicated of Christ; so that, just as there is a "power" of God and a "wisdom" of God, so there may also be a will of him, having him as God's own subsistence; but if to anyone it seems out of place to say that the will of God is given substance, let him consider whether the apparent incongruity is not much the same also in the case of the "power" of God and the "wisdom" of God and the "word" of God, and the "truth" and the "resurrection" and the "way"; for it seems to me to hold much the same regarding all of these, as being given substance in the only-begotten Word.
§ II — Ephesians i 1 b
to the saints who are and faithful in Christ Jesus.
[Origen also says]
Only in the case of the Ephesians did we find set down the phrase to the saints who are; and we inquire whether the addition of who are to the saints is not superfluous, and what it can signify. Consider, then, whether — just as in Exodus he who gives the oracle to Moses says that his own name is "the one who is" — so those who partake of the One who Is come to be beings, being called, as it were, from not being into being. For God chose the "things that are not", says this same Paul, "that he might bring to nothing the things that are". And someone will inquire how he brings to nothing the things that are; but let us hear him adding "so that no flesh may boast before God". For if anyone who has partaken of being, forgetting his participation, grants to himself the cause of his being, and does not refer all thanksgiving to the one who out of not being graciously granted him being "in his likeness" and "according to his image", then that which is is brought to nothing.
[i 3] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
Someone will say that, on account of the blessings in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, and wherever else in Scripture such things are recorded, the spiritual blessing is spoken of by way of contrast with those; as though the God and Father of Jesus Christ blesses us not with a bodily blessing like those, but with a spiritual one. And the heterodox will indeed take it in this way, supposing that from such an interpretation they will also gain occasion to sever the Godhead.
But we, having shown that not even in the case of the blessings according to the law are the blessings given — if they be understood bodily — to those who are believed to have lived according to the law and soundly, said that those who have so assumed either make him who gave the blessings a liar, or hold that what was promised to those who lived as he commanded is not what is understood from the ready-to-hand interpretation. For it follows upon "the law is spiritual" that the blessings in it too are spiritual. But the prophets, for instance, did not obtain the blessings bodily; for men did not "lend to many nations" who "went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and the holes of the earth", nor were they "blessed in city or in field"; but neither were their storehouses blessed, which they did not even possess in the first place. And consider whether from these things we shall not compel those who think otherwise to change their view (if they would preserve the dignity of God who gave the blessings) toward the position that he gave them spiritually to his own blessed ones.
Not only is every blessing with which Paul and those like him have been blessed spiritual, and none of them bodily, but it is also in the heavenly places. For it was fitting that these, whose "commonwealth exists in the heavens", who "lay up treasure in heaven" and have their "heart" where their treasure is, should also attain the spiritual blessings in the heavenly places. But it is worth examining how the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has already blessed us with every spiritual blessing and in the heavenly places; for it is not said, 'who will bless' us. And consider whether in the heavenly places can stand for 'in the things perceived by the mind and beyond sense-perception'; for thus too one "lays up treasure" in "heaven", and no longer has his "heart" upon "earth", that is, among the material and bodily things, but in "heaven", ever conversing with the intelligible nature itself. And that we may consider it more precisely, both things are said concerning the blessing — both that it is spiritual and that it is in the heavenly places; and in addition to these that it is in Christ, that is, as it were, in the Word and the Wisdom and the Truth and the Power.
§ III — Ephesians i 4 b
that we should be holy and blameless before him.
[Origen says]
But one might inquire, with regard to there being some who are holy and blameless before God, whether the prophetic word does not oppose this when it says "no living person shall be justified before you"; and if before God "every living person shall not be justified", how will there be some holy before him? For if they will be holy and blameless, they will also be justified.
One who takes refuge in the ambiguity of the prophetic saying will reply that the not-being-justified before God of every living person signifies something of this sort: that, as it were, wholly and out of the whole of his own lifetime "he shall not be justified" before God, in that he has certainly at some point sinned; and if this is so, it does not prevent there being some who are holy and blameless before him, having become such by correction; or else this too, that if not "every living person", yet at least some are justified.
[i 5] in love having predestined us unto adoption through Jesus Christ unto himself.
Either in love is to be joined with having predestined, or thus: he chose us in him in love before the foundation of the world, having predestined us in adoption through Jesus Christ unto himself, so that we should be holy and blameless before him.
The name of 'adoption' makes plain that those predestined by him are not by nature sons of God; the name of adoption, at any rate, could not be assigned to the Savior, but to those who, "having received" the "spirit" of "bondage" unto "fear", and "having rendered fear", become worthy of freedom and of hearing "you are no longer", I say, "servants", who also for this reason receive the "spirit" of "adoption". And when someone receives the Son, not having possessed him before, then the "spirit" of "adoption" has also come in; for thus through Christ adoption comes in upon us. Yet it is for the attaining unto himself that he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him, in love having predestined us in adoption through Christ; for to these words is appended unto himself.
[i 5 b] according to the good pleasure of his will.
The name of 'good pleasure' (εὐδοκία) is, I think, not very much worn into use in the customary speech of the Greeks, but was coined as a word by the translators; for they employed the term in the prophetic writings, as in the 84th [85th] psalm, "you were well pleased, O Lord, with your land", and in the 105th [106th], "remember us, O Lord, in the good pleasure of your people"; and in Habakkuk, "and if he draw back, my soul has no pleasure in him". But 'good pleasure' (εὐδοκία) exhibits within it the 'well' (εὖ) and the 'to seem fitting' (δοκεῖν); so that it would not be said of the things that seem to us not well, but only of those that seem so in a praiseworthy way.
One must therefore inquire how, in love having predestined unto adoption those whom God predestined, he predestined them according to the good pleasure of his will; and one must find the proof that there is a good pleasure of his will in these things; for indeed his will was well pleased in this, that the glory of his grace toward those who are being saved should be praised.
§ IV — Ephesians i 6
in the beloved.
[Origen says]
The Saviour is called 'beloved' without qualification; for even if human beings go astray concerning the apprehension of "righteousness" and of "truth" and of "wisdom", nevertheless all would agree that they 'love' "wisdom" and "truth" and "righteousness". For this reason the Only-begotten of God is called 'beloved,' since all love the things conceived of him, whether they fall short of the mark or attain it — just as all stand in awe of God, but those who fall away from the sound conception concerning God go astray.
[i 7] in whom we have the redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of trespasses.
A redemption is that by which release comes about for captives and for those who have fallen under their enemies; and we had fallen under our enemies, the "ruler of this age" and the evil powers under him, and for this reason we stood in need of redemption and of one to buy us back, so that, having been alienated from him, he might take us back. The Saviour therefore gave as the "ransom" on our behalf his own blood; wherefore we have the redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of trespasses.
Upon the redemption there follows the forgiveness of trespasses, since before anyone has been redeemed it is not possible for forgiveness of trespasses to come about for him. First, then, we must be redeemed and no longer be under the one who has taken us captive and prevailed over us, so that, having been set free and having come outside (so to speak) his hands, we may be able, for our benefit, to receive the forgiveness of trespasses, and, having been healed from the wounds of sin, to act according to piety and the rest of the virtues.
[i 8] according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us.
He who has understood what "by grace you have been saved" means, and "not of works," and who "compares" trespasses with trespasses, would see — according to the parable that speaks of the "five hundred and fifty denarii" — who ought to confess greater thanks to the householder who remitted the debt. And further, observing how "the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed toward us," he would perceive the riches of the grace of God, and how it abounded thus toward the called and the elect, and most of all toward those who were "strangers to the covenants" of God and "aliens from" his "promises," who were drawn by the trespass of Israel, out of the fatherly kindness, to salvation; and still more would one grasp the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward the blessed ones as something greater, observing the "do you not know that we shall judge angels?" and the "into which things angels long to look," and that which is said to be, at the end of all, "grant that, as I and you are one, they also may be one in us." And this whole riches of the grace of God, which he made to abound toward the saints, supplied from a certain beginning and increasing and being multiplied, whether vying in generosity in return and stretching itself out alongside so far as is possible, holds the one who attains the things spoken of before, or, where he falls short, so far as is possible does all the things that are incumbent. If, then, someone should fall short, the grace would become, as it were, void toward such a one; but if he should do without deficiency the things that lie with him, he would say the apostolic word, "his grace toward me was not made void."
§ V — Ephesians i 9
in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him, for a dispensation of the fullness of the times.
[Origen says]
What is in all wisdom and, after this, what is in prudence? Jesus too uses this expression in Wisdom, beginning from "all wisdom is from the Lord, and with him it is unto the age". If, then, someone has considered the things that are seen, and what are the things within them or even outside them that are not seen, and, dividing them off by reason — the invisible things by themselves and the visible things by themselves — should examine the wisdom by which God has made all things ("for you have made all things in wisdom", says David), such a one would be looking upon "all the wisdom that is from the Lord". But it is likely that someone, despairing that one still clothed about with this body can already come to be in all wisdom and prudence, and also giving heed to "we know in part and we prophesy in part", will take offense at in all wisdom and prudence having made known to us the mystery of his will, as being said by way of favor rather than truly; for granted that the mystery of God is made known in wisdom to Paul and to those like him, yet it is not in all wisdom that all things are made known to him who "knows in part and prophesies in part".
See, then, whether for this inquiry another division of the reading of the words in this passage is not fitting, running thus: unto the praise of the glory of his grace with which he graced us in the Beloved, in whom we have the redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence; and here having brought to a stop the division of this passage, he will from another beginning read thus the words having made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, so that in all wisdom and prudence is not attached to having made known to us the mystery of his will but to the words above. For God graced us in the Beloved in all his own wisdom and his own prudence; but also, having in the Beloved the redemption through the blood of Christ, we received these things in all the wisdom and prudence of God; and in all his wisdom and prudence we have obtained the forgiveness of trespasses, since he makes to abound toward us the riches of his grace in all wisdom and prudence; all of which things he has done, having made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure.
But if the former reading also stands, an account such as this will be rendered, one not opposed to the working of "knowing in part" and of "pursuing so as to lay hold": in all his own wisdom and prudence God has dispensed us, having made known the mystery of his will. For in order that we may be able to know the mystery of his will and may have strength to make room for this, clothed about as we are with a "body of lowliness", we have need of all the wisdom of God dispensing us. And if the name of the mysteries is applied to things divine and unspeakable and not fit to reach unto the many, plainly it holds also concerning those who are to be saved by the will of the mystery of God; for the great multitude of the kindness of God is hidden for those who fear him, as David says, "how great is the multitude of your kindness, Lord, which you have hidden for those who fear you".
But attend to whether 'predestination' and 'purpose' differ, so that the purpose comes to be after the predestination; so that, as it were, according to the thoughts of God the predestination comes to be, while according to these same things the purpose concerning those whom he predestined follows upon the predestination — these being now, in a manner, given substance and coming into effect. Whence too it is written first, in love having predestined us unto adoption, and second, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him.
But it must be examined what is the fullness of the times; and beside this lies the fullness of the time spoken by the same Paul, "but when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son". And just as the time for the heir, having come to be at the stature of a man, to receive the paternal possession might in some way be named the fullness of his time or of his season, so a man would come to be in the fullness of the times who, through the ways and advancements that bear toward perfection, has arrived at being able to receive the things predestined and purposed by God for the saints.
§ VI — Ephesians i 10
to recapitulate all things in Christ, both the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, in him.
[Origen says]
The word 'recapitulation' is used with reference to bankers and to the like, when accounts are reckoned up together and payments and expenditures or receipts are gathered into a single sum-total; hence, I think, the Apostle too has here made use of the expression. For, since there are many accounts of the administration of the things in the heavens and of the governance of the things upon the earth, all of them—inasmuch as they are parts of the one whole world—breathing together and inclining together toward a single result, there is a 'recapitulation' in Christ. For not only are the fragmentations of the things administered and the individual accounts of the things governed present in the Word of God and in his Wisdom, but also the recapitulation and (as one might say) the summing-up of all things.
Often 'sum-total' also means the comprehensive thought; at any rate it says, "a sum-total in what is being said," and "sum up many things in few." And 'sum-total' is so called, as I think, from the fact that our head too has everything in it, and all the sense-organs of our life, as it were in a sum-total.
§ VII — Ephesians i 11
Of the one who works all things according to the counsel of his will,
[Origen says]
Whatever God works and does and accomplishes, all these things he works according to the counsel of his own will; for there is nothing that can make him do anything contrary to the counsel of his will, since he is master over all things and rules over the universe. But in order that Paul might set forth the deliberateness of the workings of God that come to pass according to his will, he placed the counsel before the will. For beyond all others God does everything with counsel. Therefore he works all things according to the counsel of his will.
§ VIII — Ephesians i 13
In whom you also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise.
[Origen says]
In whom (that is, in Christ), besides others who have heard, you also, having heard the word of the truth—inasmuch as the gospel is a word of truth, of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise. Now it will seem, as regards the phrasing, that the second in whom is redundant, which has also been the cause of its seeming that, the thought being left hanging, the subordinate clause has not been supplied. But this is not so. Indeed one of those before us used to say that, out of his great love for Jesus, Paul very frequently makes mention of him and, as it were, superfluously, as one may see also in the case of in whom also, having believed, with respect to the in whom.
And it is entirely fitting for the Ephesians, who had shared in unspeakable words while Paul expounded them, to hear in whom you also, having heard the word of the truth. For I do not think that those who have heard only the preaching, and who have not received the accounts of the matters in narrative and clear unfolding, hear the word of the truth. For the word and the preaching differ, as Paul also teaches elsewhere, saying, "and my word and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power"; for there too it must be observed that he says his own word is something different from his own preaching. And it must be examined also whether in another epistle there stands the expression "that some have heard the word of the truth", so that the observation may appear more precisely according to Paul's intention.
But it must be observed where the term 'gospel' is named, and one must observe also the words that are added to it, such as "according to my gospel", or "the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ", or "an eternal gospel", or the gospel of the salvation of the Ephesians; or simply 'gospel,' as when Paul says concerning Luke, "whose praise in the gospel is throughout all the churches".
And everyone who has heard the word of the truth—which is a gospel of the salvation of the one hearing and believing—is sealed with the Holy Spirit of the promise; so that if he should hear but not believe, he would not be sealed. But another will say that even if he should believe, yet not advance so far as to hear the word of the truth, not even so would he have room for the seal of the Holy Spirit of the promise, which is truly the impressing and clarifying of those things which it is fitting to be impressed and made clear by the Holy Spirit of the promise.
And it must also be inquired whether anywhere there is spoken of a holy spirit of promise, and what is to be understood by the Holy Spirit of the promise. I think, then, that just as the Holy Spirit, coming upon someone, makes him holy, and the "spirit of wisdom" makes him wise, and the "spirit of understanding" makes him understanding, so also the spirit of the promise makes one to be, in a way, already within the promise.
[i 14] which is the pledge of our inheritance, unto the redemption of the possession, unto the praise of his glory.
You will inquire whether everyone who partakes of the Holy Spirit partakes of the spirit of the promise, or whether only the one who has heard the word of truth—which is a gospel of salvation—and has believed, this one receives the Holy Spirit of the promise; and further let us also fix our attention on this, whether everyone who in any way whatever partakes of the Holy Spirit has the pledge of the inheritance. But it is better to understand that, just as in the case of those who jointly purchase something and give a pledge, the pledge is given in proportion to the quantity of the whole sum of money, so too the pledge of the inheritance is given in proportion to the future goods foreknown for each saint, so that from the pledge one who is able to discern the differences of the power of one pledge and another might already be able to declare concerning the greater and lesser inheritance laid up for the fellow-heirs of Christ.
And just as the pledge of the inheritance is not something outside us (for in each one is the Holy Spirit of the promise, the pledge of the promise), so the inheritance is not outside the one who inherits, but in the mind of the one who inherits and in his soul; for nothing of external things can be compared with the perfection of a mind that beholds the beauties of the Wisdom and Word of God and of Truth.
This Holy Spirit of the promise, however, which is the pledge of our inheritance, is given to the saints in the present, so that they may be redeemed and made a possession for God, being made complete unto the praise of the glory of God.
And the phrase unto the praise of the glory of himself, in addition to the sense already rendered, can also indicate something of this kind: 'that each one exists for the praising of the glory of God, now receiving the spirit of the promise as a pledge of the inheritance, but later the inheritance itself;' not, however (as one might suppose to be signified from the wording), as though God had need of those who praise his glory, but rather as though the greatest goods accrue to those who have beheld the praiseworthiness of the glory of God and are not able to keep silent about it, but are ever engaged in rejoicing in the hymning of it.
§ IX — Ephesians i 15-17
For this reason I also, having heard of the faith among you in the Lord Jesus and that toward all the saints, do not cease giving thanks on your behalf, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, the eyes of your heart being enlightened in the knowledge of him.
[Origen says]
It will seem to be a solecism, the phrase the eyes of the heart being enlightened in the knowledge of him, unless we render it as a hyperbaton; therefore we suppose that the sequence of the construction runs thus: For this reason I also, having heard of the faith among you in the Lord Jesus, the eyes of your heart being enlightened in the knowledge of him, and that toward all the saints, do not cease giving thanks on your behalf, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation, unto your knowing what is the hope of your calling, and the rest.
If the Father is father of something that subsists and is substantial, and he is called also the Father of glory, then plainly glory is something that subsists and is given substance; and perhaps our Savior, just as he is "the Word" and "Wisdom" and "Truth" and "Peace" and "Righteousness", so also is "Glory"; and if ever it is recorded that the "Glory" of God was seen, we must understand nothing else to have been seen than the Son of God.
Now the spirit of wisdom makes one wise, while the spirit of revelation takes away the veil from the heart, so that one, "with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, is transformed into the same image from glory to glory". No one, then, who is not wise has a spirit of wisdom, and no one of those who still have, "whenever Moses is read, a veil upon the heart", has yet received the spirit of revelation; unless indeed the spirit of wisdom makes people wise in differing degrees according to the quantity of the contemplations of wisdom, and, according to the quantity of the removal of the veils that lie upon the letters, it administers the revelation not in like manner to those from whom the veil is removed.
In addition to these things we must attend to the phrase the eyes of the heart being enlightened in the knowledge of him; for if knowledge of God and recognition of God are not the same, but the one who recognizes, as it were, knows again what he had known long ago and forgotten, then all who come into recognition of God knew him long ago; wherefore "all the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord". And the phrase the eyes of the heart being enlightened discloses the incorporeal and intelligible nature of our ruling faculty and of "the true light".
[i 18-20] unto your knowing what is the hope of his calling, and what is the wealth of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of the might of his strength which he wrought in Christ, raising him from the dead.
[Of Origen]
The calling of God has a hope, which one must come to know from much attentiveness of life and readiness of mind; and his inheritance has a wealth of much glory in the saints, in the places above.
He to whom, according to Paul's prayer, the spirit of wisdom and of revelation is given, that man will know the things "laid up" for those who are called, and will behold the things hoped for, which are the wealth of glory pertaining to his inheritance, which he gives to those who are called to this holy inheritance.
You will inquire whether God himself too is the inheritance of the saints, so that the heirs of God are understood also in this sense, in order that, just as we speak of heirs of estates and heirs of houses, ranging the inheritance under the head of possessions, so we may understand also the heirs of God. And of just such a sense is the law that says "But to the sons of Levi you shall not give a portion in the midst of their brothers, for I am their portion, says the Lord," and elsewhere "The Lord is their inheritance."
The wealth of the glory of the inheritance of God, then, comes to be in the mind of the saints; since they will contain such great things of the contemplation of God and of his Word by the surpassing greatness of the power of God that is toward the saints and those who believe. For we have need not of some ordinary power from God for the knowing of what is the hope of his calling and what is the wealth of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, but of a greatness of his power coming to be in us who believe, coming from him, and coming according to the working of his strength that prevails over all things, which is now named by Paul the might of his strength; and it was by employing this working of the might of his strength that he wrought the things he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead.
[i 20-23] and having seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above every principality and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come; and he subjected all things under his feet, and gave him as head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him who is filled, all in all.
We must hold that these things are said with a bodily figure, not as though there were certain perceptible seats or thrones set in the heavens, on which the Father sits, and the Son at the right hand of the Father; for if we understand them thus, we would not be speaking of these things worthily of the divine nature. For not even to God himself is "the earth" subjected in a bodily way, as he sits in heaven, as "the footstool of his feet". For how can "heaven be a throne", being measured by his span? And "the earth the footstool of his feet", when it too is enclosed within his fist? For Isaiah says, "Who measured the water with his hand, and heaven with a span, and all the earth with his fist?" I hold, therefore, that both being near to God and being far from him are matters of the mind, since all the saints, living according to the will of the Father of the universe and drawing near to God, are near, while the impious turn out to be far from him, concerning whom the prophet says, "Behold, those who remove themselves far from you shall perish". So then, just as it has been understood who is near to God and who is far from him, so we must hold that the saints are said to be at his right hand, and the impious as it were at his left, just as the Savior also says, "He will set the sheep at the right hand and the goats at the left". But indeed the phrase having seated him at the right hand is likewise of this sort: ‘having established him and bestowed on him both a kingdom and a rule,’ according to which he presides over and rules the saints, benefiting them and imparting himself to them—Jesus, who came to be far above all things through his benevolent dispensation toward all.
Many, then, are the things that rule and lead those who need his oversight, and many are the things that exercise authority, and many the things that exercise dominion, and many too the things that impart their own power, some being effective in this age, some also in the age to come; but none of these rules a rule as great as the Son does. For all the things that rule need him as their ruler; and indeed authorities will exercise authority better when they are under the authority of Christ, since the power of God surpasses all the rest of power; and even if someone is led into a profitable servitude by those who exercise dominion well, it is necessary that these things which exercise dominion, receiving the knowledge of how to exercise dominion from the "Lord of those who exercise dominion", exercise dominion over those over whom they do. Wherefore he who raised Christ from the dead seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above every principality and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come; for it is likely that there are certain names, unspeakable and indescribable according to the ordering of the universe, not graspable by us, that are named—some in this age, but also some in the age to come. And whence come these names to the Apostle, except from the Holy Spirit that revealed them to him?
But how it is said also that he subjected all things under his feet must be examined, since it is evident that there are countless multitudes who still do not submit to the Word of God. For "we do not yet see all things subjected"; and the saying "for he must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet" makes clear that not yet are all the enemies under his feet. One person, then, will say that this too is said according to foreknowledge. But another, presenting the classification of God, by which he classes each into some rank, will say this: he subjected all things under his feet—as many as are of the rank of those who are subjected.
And he gave him as head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him who is filled, all in all.
Finding the Church called the body of Christ, we inquire whether we must understand it, as the rest of the body in relation to the head, to be an instrument of the head; or whether, just as a man has a body, of which body the head is a part, so the whole Church of Christ is the body of Christ, animated by his divinity and filled by his Spirit; or whether these things must be taken in some other way. If, however, the second is the case, then the more human part of him will itself also be a part of the whole body, while the divine part, which gives life to the whole Church, will be the divine power that, as it were, animates it.
But how the Church, being the body of Christ, is the fullness of him who is filled, all in all, we wish to know, and why it is not said 'of him who fills all in all' but 'of him who is filled.' For it will seem more consistent to have said that Christ is the one who fills, and not the one who is filled; for he himself is the fullness not only "of the law", but is also the fullness of all fullnesses, since nothing becomes full apart from him. But see whether the one who speaks can respond to these things in this way: that, just as through the great relation and communion of the Son with rational beings the Son of God is, as it were, the fullness of all rational beings, so also he himself, as it were, takes up a fullness into himself, being shown to be most full in each of the blessed. And so that what is said may become clearer, consider a king who is filled with his kingship in each of those who increase the kingdom, but emptied of it in those who fall away; than this king nothing at all is more fitting to the benevolent kingdom of Christ, since each of those who together fill it is benefited by him rationally and made perfect—those who, fleeing to him for refuge, together fill up his body, which is somehow empty when it lacks those benefited. Therefore Christ is filled in all those who come to him, being deficient toward these until they come.
[ii 1-5] And you, being dead in your trespasses and your sins, in which you once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, of the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all also once conducted ourselves in the desires of our flesh, doing the wishes of the flesh and of the thoughts, and we were by nature children of wrath, as also the rest; but God, being rich in mercy, through his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.
The sequence is: And you, being dead in your trespasses and your sins, God made alive together with Christ, being rich in mercy through his great love with which he loved us; and being, us, dead in the trespasses, in which we once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, of the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all also once conducted ourselves in the desires of our flesh, doing the wishes of the flesh and of the thoughts, and were by nature children of wrath—he made alive together with Christ. As for the connective of the passage, but God, being rich in mercy, we consider either to have been inserted pointlessly in the copies, or, as coming from Paul who was "unskilled in speech", not to have been perceived as superfluous.
Clearly sins are said to be the death of the soul, from the phrase and you, being dead in your trespasses and your sins. And since 'trespass' is a term proper to Scripture, we must examine whether it differs from 'sin,' especially since here it is said in combination: and you, being dead in your trespasses and your sins. And we inquire whether the things already wickedly accomplished by us are called our 'sins,' while the beginnings of these—being, as it were, not yet falls, but on their way toward our actually falling—are 'trespasses.' And perhaps for this reason it is said in the eighteenth Psalm, "Who shall understand trespasses?", because the one who understands the roots and beginnings of sins, which are 'trespasses,' would be able also to guard himself against falling into 'sins' as well.
What is it to walk according to the age of this world, and not according to the age of the better world toward which the saints hasten? Now one person will, more simply, hold the age of this world to be the time coextensive with the constitution of this world from beginning to end. But another, from what follows, will suspect whether perhaps the ruler of the authority of the air, of the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience, is the same as the age of this world, since all these things are set down as though of one entity, Paul saying, in which you once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, of the spirit; and in the letter to the Galatians he will think that the phrase "that he might deliver us out of the present evil age" shows that the "present age" is an "evil" living being, being the same as the ruler of the authority of the air, of the spirit (except that the saying from the letter to the Galatians admits of a counter-argument, since something similar is said also concerning days, which are agreed not to be ensouled: "buying up the time, because the days are evil," and "few and evil are the days that I have sojourned" upon the earth, says Jacob). And the passage "through whom he made the ages" will seem to call the ages a created thing, of which one is able to have become apostately "evil" and to be called the age of this world and the ruler of the authority of the air, of the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all also once conducted ourselves.
And it must be observed that he did not say 'according to the ruler of the air' but 'of the authority of the air'; therefore we must inquire into the authority of the air, that thus we may see the ruler of it. But the wording can also indicate something like this: according to the ruler of the authority, of the spirit—which spirit is the spirit of the air—that now works in the sons of disobedience. Since, then, the ruler is ruler of something, you will consider whether the one now spoken of is ruler of every authority concerning the air, which works, dwelling about the air, upon the sons of disobedience (and everyone who, when divine doctrines are proclaimed, disobeys them, by the very act of disobeying shows himself to be a son of disobedience); and consider whether "our wrestling" is against "these authorities", as we resist the workings which they wish to produce in us as well, wishing to make us sons of disobedience. And it is not to be wondered at that "these authorities" are said to be "in the heavenly places" (just as "the principalities and the authorities and the world-rulers in the heavenly places"), since the air about us is, according to a certain custom of Scripture, named 'heaven'; for it says "the birds of heaven", and it is clear that these are spoken of with reference to the air.
But the phrase and among whom we all also once conducted ourselves—among what things, if not the trespasses? For indeed he assigned nothing to correspond to the trespasses, but only to the sins; having said, at any rate, and you, being dead in your trespasses and your sins, he adds in which you once walked; but now he assigns, to correspond to your trespasses, the phrase and among which we all also once conducted ourselves, lest, having said in which you once walked according to the age of this world while keeping silent about himself, he should seem, as it were, to be boasting. But Paul himself knows a certain desire of the flesh, and another desire of the spirit, saying "the flesh desires against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh".
And having conducted ourselves in the trespasses, since we were in the desires of our flesh, we did not one thing but many wishes, and not only of the flesh but also of the thoughts; and we inquire what the wishes of the thoughts are, being other than the wishes of the flesh; and we conjecture that, on the one hand, by doing the works of the flesh and loving pleasure one does the wishes of the flesh, while, on the other, by having fallen away from sound opinion and right thinking we do the wishes of the thoughts.
But as to the phrase we were by nature children of wrath, as also the rest, we do not know what those will ever say who introduce spiritual natures from the beginning; for how the one who is by nature Son of God is said to be by nature a son of wrath, let them answer. But we suppose that it was because of the "body of humiliation" that we became children by nature of wrath, when "our thought lay upon evil things from youth"; for according to Solomon, "there is no righteous person upon the earth who will do good and will not sin".
§ X — Ephesians ii 6
and he raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places.
[Origen also says]
As for he raised us up together and made us sit together: one who takes this in a more straightforward way will say that it is spoken according to the foreknowledge and predestination of God, as though what will be has already come to pass; but one who contemplates the kingdom of Christ as something perceptible only to the mind will not hesitate to say that the one who is already holy—just as he is not in the flesh even though he is said by the more straightforward to be in the flesh, so likewise he is not upon the earth even though, according to what is perceived by the senses, he is seen to be upon the earth. For the one who is in the spirit is not upon the earth, and none of those in the heavenly places is "in the flesh" but is already "in the spirit". Such dispositions, then, and the apprehension of things so great and of such a kind, is not earthly but heavenly, since all who already have "their citizenship in the heavens" have sat down together with Christ in the heavenly places, if indeed also "the kingdom of God is within us", so that in this way we may be seated in the heavenly places, sitting together with Christ and enthroned together with the Wisdom and the Word of God.
§ XI — Ephesians ii 12
that you were at that time without Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
[Origen says]
Against those who suppose that those who have believed in Christ do not live by the commonwealth of Israel but by some other, new one that has nothing in common with that former one, a good observation may be taken from this passage. For you were, he says, at that time without Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, as though now they are no longer without Christ, nor indeed alienated from the commonwealth of Israel; for to all those who understand "the spiritual law" and live according to it, it belongs to be made at home in the commonwealth of Israel, and that more so than the bodily Jews; and it follows that the one who is without Christ and alienated from the commonwealth of Israel should also be reckoned a stranger to the covenants of the promise.
But you will inquire whether perhaps it is for this reason that it is said without God in this world; since, so far as concerns the foreknowledge of God, those to whom the epistle is written were not without God.
[ii 13] But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have become near in the blood of Christ.
The word far off and the word near were named from things that are spatially far or near, to set forth the disposition that is far from God and the one that draws near to His will; and we become near when we have been cleansed by the blood of Christ and "bought with this price".
[ii 14 a] For he himself is our peace.
It must be observed that, just as Christ is "word" and "wisdom" and "power" and "life", so too he is peace; and indeed one must gather together from all Scripture all the things by which he is named, so that we may understand him more accurately. Just as, then, the one who has him has the word, when he "sought and found" him as word (and the analogous holds also with respect to "wisdom" and "righteousness"), so let us seek him also as peace, in order that we may have him inasmuch as he is Peace and the peace of all rational beings; but the one who does not have peace does not have Christ.
§ XII — Ephesians ii 14 b, 15, 17
who made the two one and broke down the dividing wall of the partition, the enmity, in his flesh, having abolished the law of the commandments in decrees, that he might create the two into one new man … and coming he preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.
[Origen also says]
that these things are said concerning the more divine powers and those among men who are being saved — the more divine powers being near even before, but men being far off (and he who says these things will fit to them the "having made peace through the blood of his cross, whether the things upon the earth or the things in the heavens", and he will expound the whole passage in this way) — for the superior powers, that it was in friendship toward God, but for the men in the world, that it was in enmity toward him; and this enmity was the dividing wall of the partition, hindering the nature of men from being united to the blessedness of the superior ones. This dividing wall of the partition, then, being enmity, was broken down through our Savior's having become man, and for this reason it is said to have been broken down in his flesh.
And attend indeed to what follows, whether it can be stated more strikingly by one who interprets in this way: according to the true law, of which "the letter was a shadow and a copy", namely that of Moses, certain ones "were serving" "in the heavenly places"; and that law is decrees rather than a law of commandments, which decrees the one who has been counted worthy to understand — by the breaking down of the dividing wall of the partition that walled him off from the superior ones — no longer lives by the law of the commandments; for Christ abolishes the law of the commandments in decrees, so that, once the decrees indicated by the law of the commandments have been understood, the law of the commandments may be despised as "the letter that kills".
The law of the commandments, therefore, having been abolished by the Savior through the manifestation of the decrees in them, brought together both — I mean the more divine powers and those among men who believe — into one new man. And the new man is understood from the "being renewed day by day", and he will be settled in a new world, because "there will be a new heaven and a new earth". But the [phrase] into one new man will seem to be contrary to the interpretation.
[ii 19-22] So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but fellow citizens of the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
In reference to what was said before, strangers to the covenants of the promise, it is now said so then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, and in reference to alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, there is now the [phrase] but fellow citizens of the saints and members of the household of God.
But these words must be brought to bear against those who introduce the [distinct] natures; for how are those who are by nature citizens of the saints strangers, and how are those who are by nature strangers members of the household of God?
But the [words] from built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets will seem to agree with the interpretation concerning Israel's being near, but the nations far off.
And it will be necessary to use these texts against those who sever the Godhead and suppose that the prophets belong to one God and the apostles to another. For if those who are no longer strangers and sojourners but fellow citizens of the saints and members of the household of God are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom the Ephesians also are built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit, then there is one God of one building and temple, which has been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. And if the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, we must earnestly strive to become harmonious "living stones" for the whole building, so that, being built together, we may become a dwelling place for God, making room in ourselves for all his theology.
§ XIII — Ephesians iii 1-3
For this reason I Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles—if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of the grace of God that was given to me for you, that by revelation the mystery was made known to me, as I wrote before in brief.
[Origen also says]
As regards the phrasing, having sought so far as possible to set it in order, we say that he did not supply a corresponding clause to For this reason I Paul, the prisoner: what he did for this reason, or what happened to him, he did not really set forth—unless indeed, as regards the phrasing, he has fallen away from what should follow, "as one unskilled in speech," and has rendered the required sense not eloquently, whereas he would have said it thus: For this reason I Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus and a prisoner for you Gentiles, made known the mystery so as to impart it to you also, as I myself in the passages before this wrote in brief, and you ought to have heard of the stewardship of the grace of God that was given to me for you who are of the Gentiles, for whose sake I have become a prisoner of Jesus Christ. I think a solecism has occurred in this place; for whereas he ought to have said For this reason I Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, made known the mystery, he instead says For this reason I Paul, a prisoner, by revelation the mystery was made known to me. But if anyone is able, alongside the sense, to show that the phrasing too was successfully managed by him, that person above all is to be heeded.
In the few passages before this, the one who reads carefully can truly find a revelation of a "holy mystery made known" to Paul.
§ XIV — Ephesians iii 12
in whom we have the boldness and access in confidence through faith in him.
[Origen also says]
If our conscience "does not condemn us, we have boldness toward God". And it is a great thing not simply to have boldness, but boldness in confidence; and access as well, because of its sureness, again in boldness. And the beginning of the boldness in confidence and of the access is faith, the faith in Christ. And we have often said that he who does all things by reason has believed in Christ the Word, and he who grasps wisdom has believed in Christ the Wisdom, and he who declares the truth plainly has believed in Christ the Truth, and he who lives according to righteousness has believed in Christ the Righteousness.
[iii 13] Wherefore I ask that I not lose heart in my tribulations on your behalf, which is your glory.
"Striving on behalf of" those being made disciples to Christ, he had many things that afflicted him; wherefore, he says, I ask that I not lose heart in my tribulations on your behalf; for to say these things belongs to one who perceives himself to be, as it were, in danger of losing heart.
After this we inquire to what we should apply the phrase which is your glory. One person, then, will say that he referred the which is your glory to the tribulations, as if he said 'which things are your glory,' but because 'glory' is singular—"being unskilled in speech"—he used the singular which instead of the plural 'which.' But another will refer the which is your glory either to the boldness or the access or the faith; for indeed the boldness is the glory of him who has it, and the access is the glory of him who is brought to God, and the faith might be said to be the glory of him who believes.
And the phrase wherefore I ask that I not lose heart in my tribulations on your behalf can be of this sort: 'wherefore I ask on your behalf, that you not lose heart in my tribulations, which are your glory.' And indeed what follows will seem to accord rather with this interpretation; for it is on this account that I bow my knees to the Father, that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power; for he who is not going to lose heart in tribulations needs to be strengthened with power.
But someone will say, against the second interpretation, that it made sense, when the Ephesians were being afflicted, for Paul to ask concerning them that they not lose heart, but it will seem ridiculous that, when Paul was being afflicted, the Ephesians should need prayer that they not lose heart in his tribulations. But against this one must set "your temptation which was in my flesh you did not despise nor spit upon"; for it is shown through these words that in the "flesh of Paul a temptation" came about for others. And in another way let us also consider whether this is not the very thing that most disturbs the many in discussions concerning providence, when they see countless tribulations and adversities befalling the most holy and most righteous, but the things reckoned good happening to the most lawless.
That Paul suffered many things in Ephesus and around Asia is written both in the Acts of the Apostles, and it is also possible to learn from him when he says "if after the manner of men I fought with beasts at Ephesus, what is the profit to me if the dead are not raised?"; and in the second epistle to the Corinthians, "For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning our affliction that came to pass in Asia, that we were weighed down exceedingly, according to our strength, so that we despaired even of living; but we ourselves have had within ourselves the sentence of death, that we should not be trusting in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from deaths so great and does deliver us, for we have hoped that he will also deliver us"; for see how many were his tribulations, so as to say "who delivered us from deaths so great and does deliver us".
§ XV — Ephesians iii 14
For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father.
[Origen says]
The bowing of the knees is a symbol of another kneeling, which comes about in submitting oneself to God and in having fallen down before him. For it is by this reasoning that the Apostle too says "that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth", and we say that the heavenly beings do not altogether have bodies furnished with knees, and likewise too the beings under the earth, and in addition to these, neither do the souls that have been released from this body.
[[ Eph. iii 15 πατριά ('family/tribe') [a marginal note].
Chrysostom: πατριαί (families), as it were, tribes. Origen likewise.
And he too [that is, Origen] rendered it πατριάς (families), not φατρίας ('clans'), according to Theodore. ]]
[iii 16, 17 a] that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit, that Christ may dwell in the inner man through faith, in your hearts. His divinity seems, properly according to scripture, to be named his ‘glory’. And God is rich in a divinity that is great and hard to grasp for created nature; imparting, then, from this riches of his divinity and glory to those to whom he judges it must be imparted—power and might—he strengthens with power through his Spirit; and he strengthens by settling Christ into the inner man that has room for him. And the most paradoxical thing: Christ, though he is whole and lives in himself, also dwells in those who partake of him; and he dwells through faith in the inner man, that is, in the governing faculty; for he adds, in your hearts.
Eph. iii 17 b–19 being rooted and grounded in love, that you may be strong to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge.
[Origen says]
It seems to me that what follows is clearly stated in a solecism as regards the phrasing. For in relation to ‘he would grant you’ it would have been consistent to say ‘to you rooted and grounded,’ so that the sequence would be: that he may grant you, rooted and grounded in love, to be strengthened with power according to the riches of his glory through his Spirit, so that Christ may dwell in the inner man through faith; in the inner man, I mean according to your hearts, that is, the governing faculties.
But one who wishes to restore the passage without solecism—consider whether, having restored it thus, he will not do violence to the phrasing: For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he may grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his Spirit, that Christ may dwell in the inner man through faith, in your hearts, that, being rooted and grounded, you may be strong to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length, and the rest. So that according to this interpretation the ‘that’ must be transferred from ‘that you may be strong’ to ‘that, being rooted and grounded in love, you may be strong to comprehend.’
And in those rooted and grounded in the love toward God, namely "out of the whole soul and out of the whole heart and out of the whole strength and out of the whole mind", and in the love toward the "neighbour", Christ is settled. And as plants those rooted in love are rooted in it, so as a building they are grounded in love; and the same Paul said "you are God's tillage, God's building".
But it is a task to see in what sense the breadth is now spoken of, and in what sense the length, and in what sense the depth, and in what sense the height. Now the cross of Christ has all these, through which "having ascended on high he led captivity captive, and he descended into the lowest parts of the earth"—for it had both height and depth; and "into all the earth" he himself ran, reaching to its breadth and length. And he who is "crucified with" Christ and stretched out together with him comprehends the breadth and length and depth and height.
And it is also the task of the holy one to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge. And no one who has the love that surpasses knowledge can love any of the things that distract and drag him away from the comprehension concerning the knowledge that is surpassingly beloved.
§ XVI — Ephesians iv 3
in love striving to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
[Origen says]
He keeps the unity of the Spirit who is "fitted together in the same mind and in the same judgment" of the Truth and of the Word and of the Wisdom toward his neighbor. But whenever we do not "all say the same thing," and for this reason "there are no divisions among us," we, not striving to keep the unity of the Spirit, break it up into many pieces. If indeed God gives "varieties of gifts," yet He keeps "the same Spirit"; and if He grants "varieties of ministries," yet He preserves "the same Lord"; and if He bestows "varieties of workings," yet "the same" remains "God who works all things in all."
To the Ephesians, therefore, who already possess the unity of the Spirit and need to keep it, it is said, in love striving to keep the unity of the Spirit; but to those who do not yet have the unity of the Spirit it would be said, ‘striving to "attain to the unity" of the Spirit’ or ‘to do the things belonging to the unity of the Spirit.’ And the unity of the Spirit is kept when love binds together those who are united according to the Spirit and gathers them into one body of Christ.
§ XVII — Ephesians iv 5, 6
One Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all of us. But to each one of us was given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
[Origen also says]
On account of those who confound the Father and the Son, the word Lord is assigned to the Son, and one God to the Father; and against those from Valentinus who grant two baptisms, one must make use of the saying one baptism.
He is God and Father of all in that of some he is God and not Father, while of others he is God and Father — as if someone, pointing to ten men in number, of whom five are the sons of a certain man and five are slaves, were to say, 'This man is lord and father of the ten.'
In addition to these things one must examine the difference of the prepositions, of over and of through and of in. And one may make use of a bodily image such as this: in place the sun is over all, let us say, of the things upon the earth; but by its beams it might be said to be through all; and if the power of its light reached also into the depth of each thing, it would be said to be also in all. So then, with respect to intelligible realities too, we think that his pre-eminence is indicated by over all, his sufficiency toward each by through all, while to reach also in all belongs to the power of God, so that no one is wholly empty of him — this by in all.
And 'to each one of us was given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ' we suppose to have been understood thus. "God does not give the Spirit and grace by measure, he whose majesty has no limit"; but he gives a measure out of sparing consideration for those who receive, since each one has no room for more than what he receives to his benefit. Yet since it is grace that is given — and "it is not of works, since grace would no longer be grace" — the grace is given according to the measure of the gift of Christ; and even if not "of works", still it depends on something at least that is in our power. For the grace is given "of faith", so that, the grace cooperating, faith may be adorned also with works, so that the one who receives the grace may say, "and his grace toward me was not in vain, but I labored so much".
[iv 11, 12] And he himself gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of ministry, unto the building up of the body of Christ.
In connection with what precedes, he brings in these things too. For if Christ is over all and through all and in all, yet to each of the saints was given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ, so that some are apostles, some prophets, and others evangelists, and after these pastors, and over all teachers.
If, therefore, to be a teacher is a gift given according to the measure of the gift of Christ, then clearly a pastor also who shepherds with knowledge must shepherd as one having a gift. And how will anyone be an evangelist whose "feet" of the soul are not, so to speak, beautiful? And for them to become so, God must furnish them with beauty. But so too a prophet "who reproves and examines the unbelieving" (for such is the prophet of the new covenant), whom one must consider to be appointed for the Church by God. And if it is possible for these to be always in the Church, perhaps also apostles, to whom it is given "to work the signs of the apostle", may possibly be found even now.
And there is need of apostles and prophets and the rest for the perfecting of the saints, that they may be perfected according to the work of the ministry of Christ, so that the body of Christ may be built up and made to function out of the "living stones".
[iv 13-15] until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we may no longer be infants, tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching in the sleight of men, in craftiness aimed at the scheming of error, but, being truthful in love, may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ.
One must inquire who the all are who shall attain to the unity of the faith — whether all men without qualification, or we who have been allotted our portion in Christ. It will seem to have been assigned to the former, because there are many winds of teaching that toss and carry about, in the sleight of men, in craftiness aimed at the scheming of error, well-nigh all men, or the most of them.
Yet one must strive earnestly to attain to the unity of the faith, and, in addition to the unity of the faith, to come to be also in the unity of the knowledge of the Son of God. When these have come about, having put off all infancy, we shall be designated perfect men, having fully received the measure of the "hidden" stature; which measure of the stature of the fullness is the measure of Christ, when all who have reached the measure of the aforesaid stature have made room for the fullness of Christ, when they will no longer be infants, nor, because of what is unballasted and doubtful concerning the doctrines, walk about concerning them in the condition of infants, as though — under a wave of the plausible arguments advanced on behalf of each falsehood — being carried about and giving themselves over to every wind of teaching; some men being disposed not toward lying but teaching like dice-players, and others deceiving with all craftiness and cunning, in that error employs countless methods against us. And whenever the saints attain to the aforesaid perfect man, then, by having understood love, being truthful in it, they will make grow into Christ all the seeds of truth given to them, using Christ as head as a body does.
And since he says that we may no longer be infants, we inquire whether he said this out of modesty, including himself though he is not an infant, or whether, seeing how far the one who "knows in part and prophesies in part" falls short of perfection, he truly says he is an infant. Now the one who says that he spoke this out of modesty will make use of the text "when I was as an infant, I spoke as an infant, I thought as an infant; but when I became a man, I did away with the things of the infant". But the other replies to this, that by comparison with the many Paul had indeed become a man, but with respect to the ends laid up for the saints he was still an infant; for the prophetic word too names all men little children, saying "behold, I and the little children whom God has given me".
After this you will consider whether it is not out of modesty that Paul says he is not only an infant, but also tossed by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching and what follows. He, at any rate, who says that this too was not spoken by him out of modesty, will assert that he was a man keen and quick to grasp, and that he saw the arguments attempted on either side to be capable of distracting and of throwing into a wave the one who contemplates their plausibilities; and for this reason, as a man, he too was carried about by every wind of teaching, yet not dragged down nor shipwrecked, but like a ship wrestling with varied winds. And he saw also that the arguments of the opponents, who taught as it were in a dice-player's sleight, were not to be despised but were spoken most craftily, so as to be capable of leading astray; and he hoped to obtain at some time the help from God for "putting away all" distraction and for being truthful "without distraction" and for growing up in love into Christ, whom he knew to be the head of himself and of the whole body of the Church.
§ XVIII — Ephesians iv 17-19
This, then, I say and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as also the nations walk, in the vanity of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart, who, being past feeling, gave themselves over to wantonness for the working of all uncleanness in greediness.
[Origen says]
When the mind is either occupied with the things of this life, misusing its own power upon these, or is fixed upon certain doctrines fabricated as though true, which are not true, it is in vanity; for every anxiety about this life is vain, and all the words that pretend to be truth are false. But when the understanding, which is a rational course of passage, is thrown into confusion, neither contemplating the nature of the things spoken of nor able to follow the varied character of what is said, then it might reasonably be said to be darkened. One must therefore neither be in the vanity of the mind nor darkened in the understanding, lest we happen to be alienated from the life of God, with ignorance dwelling within us and hardening of the heart.
But if these things graze upon our soul more fully—I mean vanity of mind and darkening of understanding, the things that alienate from the life of God and give an entrance to ignorance and permit hardening of the heart—then we shall fall into insensibility, forcing down our conscience over the sins committed, and we shall give ourselves over, not resisting even in any degree "the fleshly desires", to wantonness for the working of all uncleanness, together with defrauding those whose marriages we adulterate.
But if we wish to understand the phrase who, being past feeling, gave themselves over to wantonness, let us compare those who are ill in conscience and are tormented at having become aware of some baseness in themselves with those who, in complete freedom from fear, stumble many times over. For the former are not yet past feeling, but still feel pain; wherefore it is possible, if they obtain rational help, for them to be healed, so as to live the ensuing time blamelessly. But the latter no longer feel pain when they sin; wherefore, neither resisting even in any degree nor exercising self-control, they gave themselves over to wantonness for the work of all uncleanness in greediness. Yet there is danger of falling into all these things for everyone who happens to be in the vanity of the mind and darkened in the understanding; whence we must take care of the mind and the understanding, so that the understanding may be enlightened, the darkness being dissolved by the "true light", which is the Word of God, and the mind, being turned back from its passionate attachment to the vain things, may be led forward to God through the word "of wisdom".
If, however, it is because of ignorance and hardening of the heart that those who are alienated from the life of God are alienated from it, by the fact that their mind has come to be in vanity and their understanding in darkening, then it is not by nature but from causes that arise from us, out of what is in our power, that those who are alienated from the life are alienated from it.
And I think that uncleanness in greediness is adultery; for elsewhere he says this in the first Epistle to the Thessalonians, in which are these words: "For this is the will of God, that you abstain from fornication; that each one of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honour, not in the passion of lust like also the nations that do not know God; that no one overstep and defraud his brother in the matter, because the Lord is an avenger concerning all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly testified. For God did not call us for uncleanness, but in sanctification and honour. Therefore he who rejects, rejects not man, but God who gives his Holy Spirit to you." And observe that, exhorting us to purity, he speaks of "defrauding one's brother in the matter" if anyone should take his brother's wife; yet "the Lord is an avenger concerning all these things"—concerning those who have been defrauded, whether brothers or even unbelievers.
§ XIX — Ephesians iv 20-22
you, however, did not so learn Christ, if indeed you have heard him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, that you should put off, according to your former manner of life, the old man which is being corrupted according to the desires of deceit.
[Origen says]
To learn Christ is the same as to learn virtue, and to hear him differs not at all from understanding the account of the recorded conceptions of the Son of God. If, then, anyone has learned Christ and heard him, since he has learned him to be Wisdom and heard him as the Word of God, having received what he has learned and heard, he will not walk in the vanity of his mind, nor will he be darkened in his understanding, nor alienated from the life of God. Let us therefore learn Christ and hear him; nor indeed must we despair of also being taught by a divine power that suggests to our purified mind the perfect and true account concerning Christ,
as the truth is in Jesus.
He taught what it is to learn Christ and to hear and to be taught, when he said as the truth is in Jesus; for the archetypal substance of the truth is in Jesus alone, who says "I am the truth".
But as for that you should put off, according to your former manner of life, the old man, which is incoherent, see whether we can restore it thus: you, however, did not so learn Christ, if indeed you have heard him and were taught in him that you should put off, according to your former manner of life, the old man which is being corrupted according to the desires of deceit, as the truth is in Jesus; so that the sense may be, that as the truth is in Jesus, so will it be also in you who have learned Christ and heard him and been taught in him, and who have put off, according to your former manner of life, the old man which is being corrupted according to the desires of deceit.
And we must suppose that the old man whom one must now put off is called the man made old by sin; for this man, according to the former manner of life and the desires of deceit, through sinning and never doing anything of incorruption but working wholly the things of corruption, is always being corrupted. So then the desires of deceit and the former manner of life effect his being corrupted, and he is not yet altogether corrupted in so far as he does these things, but is being corrupted; whereas the Word of God does not corrupt but kills the old man in order to make him alive, "for I", he says, "will kill and will make to live, and when he killed them, then they sought him out".
You will still inquire how the man made old according to wickedness is called the old man. And perhaps, just as virtue renews and re-creates, so the wickedness contrary to it makes old, so that even signs of oldness, as it were wrinkles, come to be about the soul, just as happens in the case of aging bodies. For this reason Christ "presents the Church to himself glorious", "not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing"; for in so far as it has signs of oldness, it has also the wrinkle; but when it puts off the old man, everything is in its prime and every wrinkle is made to vanish.
And the desire of deceit is the wicked desire and the base one.
[iv 23] and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.
If one must be renewed, according to this expression, neither simply in the spirit nor in the mind, but in the spirit of your mind, we must inquire separately what our mind is and what its spirit is. And attend also to this: "I will sing with the spirit, but I will sing also with the mind; I will pray with the spirit, I will pray also with the mind". You will therefore consider whether, just as there are many spirits and each is made proper to something, so there is a certain spirit made proper to our mind, which, when our mind is thoroughly cleansed and has cast off all mist, being made proper to it, renews us.
[iv 24 a. and put on the new man which was created according to God.]
If we wish to put on the new man which was created according to God, let us understand the "become imitators of me as I also am of Christ" and the "yet I live no longer, but Christ lives in me"; and, quite simply, we shall show Christ formed wholly in us and in every action.
[iv 25 a] wherefore, putting off falsehood, speak truth each one with his neighbor.
The simpler will suppose that nothing more than the ethical sense is spoken from what is said; but we, being persuaded that falsehood is contrary to the truth, seek to put off the falsehood that is contrary to the truth fittingly spoken to one's neighbor alone — which is false doctrine (and it is no ordinary task, besides putting off that falsehood, also to put off falsehood in such a way; for indeed "one must be an approved money-changer and competent to test all things, that we may hold fast only the good and abstain from every form of evil"); and contrary to the falsehood that accords with false doctrines is the saving truth.
And the speak truth each one with his neighbor is taken from Zacharias.
[iv 26 a] be angry and sin not.
That this is taken from the fourth psalm is clear. And two things are signified by the word be angry: either the involuntary, which some have called pre-passion, which will befall even the perfect who experience something involuntary in the case of such circumstances as provoke to anger; and the other, when the assent already admits that it is fitting to take vengeance on the one thought to have done wrong — which, as being in our power, the Apostle bids us put off. The former, then, of the things signified is indicated in be angry and sin not, in the sense of 'even if you have once admitted the anger, yet leave it without effect.'
[iv 26 b] let not the sun go down upon your provocation.
If we understand the perceptible sun to be meant, we shall sin whenever we are angry and keep the anger as the sun sets, which I consider to be absurd. Perhaps, then, the true sun, just as it will set upon the wicked prophets according to what is said "the sun shall set upon your prophets at midday", so also sets upon all who sin, no longer granting them, while they still sin, its own rising. Paul therefore commands us not to do such things in anger as to make the sun go down upon us and night come to be in our souls.
§ XX — Ephesians iv 27
Neither give place to the devil.
[Origen also says]
This is similar to what is said in Ecclesiastes, "if the spirit of the one who has authority rise up against thee, leave not thy place, for healing will bring great sins to rest".
We give place to the devil, or to "the spirit that has authority which has risen up" against us, when our ruling faculty has not been filled with holy teachings or with the saving faith and with thoughts that are excellent and counsel us the best things; for, according to Zacharias the father of John, "Satan encamps upon the regions of the soul", and such assents to the worse things and inclinations toward these assents provoke the devil to enter into our souls. And so concerning Judas the betrayer too it is written, first that "the devil having already put it into the heart that Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, should betray him", and after this that, after the "morsel, Satan entered into that man"; so that if, "when the devil had put it into the heart of Judas to betray" the Lord, Judas had stood firm against "what had been put in", Satan would not afterward have found place "to enter into him".
[iv 28] Let him that stealeth steal no more, but rather let him also labour, working the good with his hands, that he may have wherewith to impart to him that hath need.
Since, being caught up in the business dealings of life on the pretext of providing the necessities, many even of those who are reckoned to have believed — even if they seem to be pure from idolatry and from all fornication — do not easily desist from stealing in buying and selling and in doing business together with certain people, for this reason he did not shrink, since some were still stealing (and this in Ephesus), from reproving them, as it were, as one who knew such men; and the just providing of livelihood is indicated by that very phrase working the good, since those who provide for themselves unjustly work not the good but what is wicked, whereas those who with reverence procure for themselves the necessities work in this also the good.
§ XXI — Ephesians iv 29
Let no rotten word proceed out of your mouth, but if any is good for building up need, that it may give grace to those who hear.
[Origen says]
A good word is one that is for building up need, giving grace to those who hear — the word that is instructive and exhortative toward virtue, but strips away vice; whereas a rotten word is one that helps vice grow and provokes toward what is worse.
[iv 30] And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
If indeed grief is a passion, and it is well defined concerning it that it is 'a fresh opinion of the presence of an evil, at which it is fitting to be contracted,' and if the Holy Spirit neither holds the opinion — nor (granting that it may hold an opinion) does it hold the opinion that the evil is present to it, then the Holy Spirit will not be grieved. May it not be, then, that, so far as it lies with us, by doing such things we grieve the Holy Spirit of God? And the Lord too says in Ezekiel, "and in all these things you were grieving me." And the things we have often said about anger and wrath and sleep and the utterances that speak of God after the manner of human passions are useful also for the discussion concerning the words do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.
We were sealed with the Holy Spirit, so that, having received the impress of the Holy Spirit — the one who sealed remaining undivided — and having taken the impresses of the Holy Spirit, we might become holy, and that the "spirit of the man" in each one of us, the spirit that is in us, might become holy — and, I think, the soul as well.
The one who is sealed, then, is sealed with the Holy Spirit, and it is God who is the one that seals. And there is sealed by the Father with the Holy Spirit everyone who, out of believing in God, "has set his seal that God is true"; and he is sealed so that, having kept the seal and having shown it unbroken on the day of redemption, he may be numbered together with those who are redeemed.
§ XXII — Ephesians iv 31
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and blasphemy be put away from you, with all malice.
[Origen says]
Some have supposed anger to be a generic passion, ranking it too under the genus desire; and indeed they have rendered such a definition of anger: 'anger is a desire for vengeance upon one who is thought to have done wrong unjustly.' And having recorded many species of anger, they include among them that bitterness is an anger hard to receive or one that bursts out on the spot (they say the term "hard to receive" is taken in the sense that it is not easy for those outside to accept it), while wrath is an anger just beginning.
But Scripture in very many places seems to know a difference between wrath and anger, as also in the passage "O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thine anger". We shall not, however, define in the same way the "rebuking wrath" of God and the wrath that must be put away from us, nor the "chastening anger" of the Lord and our own. For the things said of God are spoken more figuratively, whereas the things named of us are confessedly passions and sins.
The name bitterness is found also in Jeremiah: "For thy bitterness", he says, "has come up to me". I think, then, that bitterness is here spoken of by the Apostle in the sense in which we call certain people bitter as opposed to the sweet; for common usage too knows sweet people and bitter ones. And wrath is the anger that is beginning to arise in the soul over something; while anger is perhaps not the genus of these and of others like them, but that which is already ready and active toward the 'vengeance upon one who is thought to have done wrong.'
And for the most part clamour too accompanies these passions, since those who grow bitter and are enraged and angered cry out, and speak more tumultuously and utter words of bitterness and wrath and anger. Therefore, in addition to the former things, we must strive that clamour too be put away from us.
And I think that the blasphemy which he commands to be put away from us is the one that those often utter out of their passions when they are angered — those who even dare to speak against the Divine in the moment of anger, when the whole accusation regarding anyone whatsoever is again taken up in blasphemy; for those are said to blaspheme who speak evil of those whom they speak evil of. Therefore, following upon the things concerning bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour, it is said that blasphemy too must be laid aside.
If, however, we should also rank blasphemy under every utterance that speaks evil of the Divine — men speaking ill not only out of grief and anger in times of displeasure, but often also out of ignorance of the word concerning the truth, as is clear from the doctrines among the heterodox — then indeed he too blasphemes who declares the true word to be false or the false word to be true, and especially concerning God and the affairs of God. Who, then, is so "approved a money-changer" as to know how to "test all things" and to "hold fast the good" but "abstain from every form of evil"?
But since some think that anger sometimes arises with good reason — not rightly adding to the Gospel the word 'without cause,' following the text "whoever is angry with his brother shall be liable to the judgment" (for some have read "whoever is angry with his brother without cause") — let us shame them from the text before us, which says Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and blasphemy be put away from you. For clearly here the word all is spoken in common over all of them, so that no bitterness is allowed, nor any wrath permitted, nor any anger coming together with good reason. And in the thirty-sixth psalm, since all anger is sin (and likewise wrath), it is said "cease from anger and forsake wrath". Therefore it is never possible to be angry with anyone with good reason.
And not only must all bitterness and all wrath and all anger and all blasphemy be diligently put away from us, but these together with all malice; and by malice we understand either the disposition contrary to virtue or wickedness.
§ XXIII — Ephesians iv 32
Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, being gracious to yourselves, just as God also in Christ was gracious to us.
[Origen says]
We, for our part, have named the opposite of the bitter the sweet; but Paul seems now to be calling kindness the order opposed to bitterness, metaphorically from foods. Thus, then, we can understand be kind to one another as meaning 'being in some way approachable and, in respect of character, sweet and gentle.'
And this comes about if, laying aside what is raw and pitiless and unsympathetic toward our neighbor, we become tender-hearted toward all, and through these things we freely give the greatest things not only to those near us but also to ourselves; for 'giving to ourselves' is something other than 'giving to one another,' since whatever we do well in benefiting others, these things — both because of the end and because we are "members of the same body" — are referred back to ourselves rather than to those to whom we seem to have done good. And these things we freely give to ourselves, all such as God too has freely given to us in Christ, as it were receiving them and keeping them and imitating the one who gave and his manner of giving.
But someone else, supposing that being gracious to yourselves differs in no way from 'being gracious to one another,' will think that it is said with equal force to being gracious to one another, especially on account of the just as God in Christ was gracious to us, and will refer these words to the remission of sins, saying that we must forgive "those who sin against us, as God also forgave us our sins". But how did God in Christ forgive us our sins? Is it that the Father, being in Christ, "forgave us our trespasses"? And in Christ he also freely gave us good things, if indeed in Christ is the wisdom which he freely gave us, and truth, and righteousness.
§ XXIV — Ephesians v 3, 4
fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints, and shamefulness and foolish talking or jesting, which are not becoming, but rather thanksgiving.
[Origen also says]
Intercourse with a harlot, according to the usage of Scripture, is named fornication; but every sin belonging to the domain of fleshly ticklings — not only in respect of adulteries and the corrupting of boys, but also in respect of all the other things that human licentiousness has devised in its various and manifold frictions — is named uncleanness generically. As for covetousness, one must take it either in the simpler sense, or, as we have set forth elsewhere, as adultery, when we also made use of the text that "each man should not overstep and defraud his brother".
But one must guard against all uncleanness, since this is what is fitting for saints.
Shamefulness is something present in each kind of licentiousness; and likewise shamefulness is also uncleanness; for every act belonging to the domain of the activity of excretion shows forth both the unclean and the shameful; but these things are to be spoken of with regard to what is against nature, not with regard to marriage.
Let us see, too, what the foolish talking is, which itself also ought not even to be named among the saints. Now someone, taking the word in the simpler sense, will say that foolish talking is that which is practised by buffoons and jesters. But consider whether one ought not to call foolish-talkers also all those who are in any way estranged from wisdom and understanding, and foolish in the things laid down as doctrines by them.
And the jesting that is appended to it will seem to accord with taking foolish talking in the simpler sense — jesting, which the customary usage of ordinary people applies to those who provoke laughter not only from foolish talking but also from any cause whatsoever.
Nor was this becoming to the saints either, but rather thanksgiving toward God in all things — that is, thanksgiving (εὐχαριστία) in respect of which we call certain people gracious (εὐχαρίτους) and charming. One ought, then, not to be a foolish-talker or a jester, but rather gracious (εὐχάριτον) and charming; and since it is unusual to say 'but rather graciousness' (εὐχαριτία), perhaps in place of this he used the word that is applied to something else and said, but rather thanksgiving (εὐχαριστία). And perhaps it is customary for those of Hebrew descent to use the word 'thanksgiving' (εὐχαριστία) and 'thankful' (εὐχάριστος) in place of 'graciousness' (εὐχαριτία) and 'gracious' (εὐχάριτος); and we supposed that such was also the case with what is said thus in Proverbs, "a thankful (εὐχάριστος) woman raises up glory for her husband", in place of 'a gracious (εὐχάριτος) woman.' But we should have seemed to be forcing the text in taking "a thankful (εὐχάριστος) woman" in place of 'gracious' (εὐχάριτος), had not the remaining editions accorded with this interpretation. For Aquila rendered it thus, "a woman of grace lays hold of glory", while Theodotion and Symmachus, "a woman of grace shall lay hold of glory".
[v 5] For this you know, that every fornicator or unclean person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
It must be observed that, having forbidden six sins — fornication and uncleanness and covetousness and shamefulness and foolish talking and jesting — he does not, corresponding to the six, add that the one held liable to any of them does not have an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God, but only three, I mean fornication and all uncleanness and covetousness. For if the one liable to foolish talking and jesting also had no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God, the matter would appear to someone rather harsh, in that the judgment would make no allowance for our weak nature in anything. For in another way indeed not even these things were becoming, yet not so that, when they are committed, someone falls away from the inheritance of Christ and God.
It remains also to attend to shamefulness. You would, then, hold it reasonable that it be said, every fornicator or unclean person or covetous man or shameful person has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. But perhaps shamefulness is present in the one who has been defiled passively only in what is hidden, or when someone, though inflamed, has held back the impulse toward fornication or toward uncleanness. And in the passages above, too, having named separately the things that hinder one from having an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God, he says let it not even be named among you, and then, in a place of its own, set apart from the former things, he brought in shamefulness and foolish talking and jesting.
And since in the passages above we surmised that covetousness was placed with reference to adultery, let us inquire, from the phrase 'or covetous man, who is an idolater,' whether that interpretation is overturned or can still hold a place. Now we have found in many places among the prophets that idolatry is named fornication, in the text "they committed fornication after their idols". And one can also place fornication with reference to idolatry from the saying "by a spirit of fornication they were led astray". But if the covetous man is one who acquires silver for himself from where he ought not, covetousness is called idolatry, as of men serving the idols engraved upon the silver pieces of those who love silver; for these, as it were, love together with their silver pieces also the idols stamped upon them; and I think that somewhere the love of money too is named idolatry by the Apostle.
§ XXV — Ephesians v 6
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for on account of this the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
[Origen says]
By empty words he seems to mean those arguments which, through some plausibility, wish to overturn the doctrine concerning the punishments brought upon those who have lived wickedly. At any rate he says that such arguments belong to deceit and are empty, because the wrath of God that is spoken of most certainly comes upon the sons of disobedience.
He names the disobedient sons of disobedience, as though the wickedness that consists in disobedience became a mother and gave birth to them, so that they bear, as it were, the character of their mother. In this way one may find in many places of the scriptures both sons, and "children of fornication" and "sons of death" and "sons of Gehenna" and other things similar to these.
[v 7] Do not, then, become fellow-partakers with them.
You will observe the words 'partaker' (μέτοχος) and 'fellow-partaker' (συμμέτοχος). Perhaps 'partaker' is said in a better sense, but 'fellow-partaker' in a worse one, as in "therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your partakers," and "for we have become partakers of Christ, if indeed we hold firm to the end the beginning of our confidence." I do not recall 'fellow-partaker' being used anywhere else than in the present passage; but here it is plain that 'fellow-partaker' is used of worse things.
[v 8] For you were once darkness, but now light in the Lord.
If it is possible for that which was once darkness to change and become light, then there are no natures that perish.
And just as the righteous "are the light of the world", so the impious might be said to be darkness. And the righteous, "being light, in light shall see light", whereas the unjust, being darkness, "are a people sitting in darkness", seeing nothing.
"And from the fruits we shall recognize" those who are light or darkness; for "everyone who does base things hates the light", and, not coming "to the light", he is darkness and a son of darkness and of night; "but he who does the truth", coming "to the light", is light and a son of light and of day.
Besides these things you will consider whether the words but now light in the Lord are said of the righteous as implying that there are certain lights which, however, are not in the Lord; and it was especially fitting that but now light in the Lord should be said to the Ephesians, who had been enlightened in the light of knowledge.
[v 8] Walk as children of light.
If indeed "God is light and in him there is no darkness at all", then the children of God are children of light.
[v 9] For the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.
Against those who separate the just from the good, and who suppose that the Demiurge is just while the God whom they suppose to be above him is good, these words are useful; since the fruit of the light is both in goodness and in righteousness and in truth. Where, then, there is goodness, there is righteousness; and where there is truth, there is righteousness. But with the good Father there is goodness and truth; therefore with him, and not with another, is righteousness also. And you will confute them also from the fact that Christ is "righteousness".
Now goodness is manifested in that which does good, righteousness in that which apportions according to desert, and truth in the scientific grasp of the reason of the universe.
[v 10] Proving what is well-pleasing to the Lord.
There is need to do all things with deliberation, so that, examining each of the things to be done by scrutiny, we may accept the things that are approved and well-pleasing to God, as "approved money-changers", but shake off from ourselves the things that are unapproved and displeasing to him.
But since the members of the phrase have been disjointed, it seems to me that it might be restored thus: Do not, then, become fellow-partakers with them, proving what is well-pleasing to the Lord. Even if you were once darkness, yet now, being light in the Lord, walk as children of light, displaying the fruits of the light in all goodness and righteousness and truth.
[v 11 a] And do not have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.
In other places too he assigned the name of fruit to the spirit and that of work to the flesh, saying "now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication" and what follows, whereas "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace" and what follows. Now, however, he says that the works of darkness are unfruitful, in which the one who does them has fellowship.
[v 11 b] But rather even reprove them.
We must consider reproving also to be among the commandments; and he will do this who is not going to hear, "Hypocrite, first cast the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to cast the mote out of your brother's eye." For this reason the prophets too, being in no way liable to reproofs themselves, reproved those who sinned.
[v 12] For the things done by them in secret it is shameful even to speak of.
Of whom—'by them'? He did not state it very clearly beforehand; unless indeed one refers the phrase back to the sons of disobedience, so that it reads thus: for the things done in secret by the sons of disobedience it is shameful even to speak of—things which were fornication and uncleanness.
§ XXVI — Ephesians v 13
But all things being reproved are made manifest by the light; for everything that is made manifest is light. Therefore he says, Awake, you who sleep, and rise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon you.
[Origen also says]
Since the works of darkness that are reproved are made manifest by the light, the things reproved being changed into light, it is said to those who sleep and are in a state of deadness through having done the unfruitful works of darkness: Awake, you who sleep, and rise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon you.
But one might inquire who it is that speaks, according to what is written here, therefore he says, Awake, you who sleep, and rise from the dead. Now one person will say that the Apostle, having read these things in one of the prophets, has recorded them here. But another will say that the Apostle himself is representing as a character the things spoken by the Spirit, for exhortation unto repentance.
Further, you will inquire how it is that to the same person it is said, on the one hand, as to one living and sleeping, Awake, you who sleep, but on the other hand, as to one dead, rise from the dead. Perhaps, then, since there is also "the spirit of man which is in him", which we have observed to be spoken of with reference to the better part, and there is also some second thing, the soul, which is receptive both of sickness and of death arising from sins, the words Awake, you who sleep are said on account of the spirit, but the words rise from the dead on account of the soul; since "the soul that sins, this one shall die", whereas of the spirit we have nowhere found death.
And being "true light", Christ shall shine upon the one who is raised from sleep and has risen from the dead.
§ XXVII — Ephesians v 15-17
See therefore carefully how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, buying up the time because the days are evil. For this reason do not become foolish, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
[Origen says]
He who tests, in each of the things he says and does and thinks, what is well-pleasing to the Lord, will be able also to see carefully, out of his great attentiveness, how he will walk; and he who sees carefully how he will walk is altogether wise. And since some have a rather good purpose, but, not happening to be wise, wish to see carefully how they walk, he added the words not as unwise but as wise; for it is the work of wisdom to see carefully also in matters of conduct.
buying up the time because the days are evil.
as though purchasing the time for themselves, since it holds, as regards human life, evil days. When, therefore, we spend the time upon some needful thing, we have purchased it and bought it back for ourselves, as though it had been sold to the wickedness of men; but no one who lives in a more worldly way, and who is caught up in cares or anxieties, has purchased the time for himself, but only he who spends it upon some needful thing and upon the acquisition of the blessed life.
But buying up the time that is set within evil days, we as it were transform the evil days into good ones, and as it were make them to be for ourselves not "evil" days "of the present age" but good days "of the age to come".
[[ [v. 17] For this reason do not become foolish, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
For the sake of what "this," except to see carefully how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, do not become foolish? For if you shall be foolish, you will not walk carefully nor as wise.
And he enjoins upon them to examine the will of the Lord and to understand it, so that wherever they might grasp something concerning what is to be done, they may do it as the will of the Lord, and wherever they suffer anything, they may bear it as coming to pass by the will of the Lord. ]]
§ XXVIII — Ephesians v 18
And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissoluteness, but be filled with the Spirit.
[Origen says]
These things can indeed be understood in a simpler way, since there is dissoluteness in the use of the wine that produces drunkenness. But it is also possible to understand a wine in which there is dissoluteness, concerning which it is said in the great song: "their wine is the wrath of dragons, and the incurable wrath of asps", which all those who lose their senses and become drunk in their reasoning drink, a wine having much dissoluteness.
But by contrast with that wine which makes drunk, in which there is dissoluteness, the one who is filled with the Spirit is understood as its opposite, receiving all that he can hold of the more divine. And we have often observed that the name 'spirit', written without any addition, is used with reference to something superior — which is also what is signified here.
§ XXIX — Ephesians v 19
They speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.
[Origen also says]
The hymns proclaim the power and divinity of God, and the one skilled in speaking of God would be occupied in spiritual hymns; but perhaps the one who treats of things to be done, and of the things by which we must be active through our bodily instrument, as through a psaltery, this one is occupied in spiritual psalms; while the one who otherwise gives a natural account concerning the order of the world and the rest of created things, this one is occupied in spiritual songs. And one must indeed sing according to the study of nature and make melody according to the exposition concerning morals, to the Lord, being genuinely disposed toward the things spoken; for this is to make melody and to sing in the heart to the Lord.
[v 20] Giving thanks always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God and the Father.
And in the first letter to the Thessalonians he says, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks." This commandment, then, will he keep who has grasped what concerns providence, which reaches even to the "five sparrows sold for two farthings, of which not one falls into a snare apart from the Father who is in heaven."
And to give thanks in everything is also to give thanks for all things; therefore one must give thanks even in adverse circumstances, since these too are among the things for which one must give thanks. And just as the one who is in the world must give thanks in partaking of the world and in beholding its beauty and in contemplating how many and what kinds of things have come to be for the sake of the rational being, so also one must give thanks for the things that come in part.
And the one who gives thanks to God and the Father must give thanks in the "mediator between God and men," so that we may accomplish the giving of thanks to God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[v 21] Being subject, he says, to one another in the fear of Christ.
This is thoroughly destructive of being fond of rule and fond of the first place. For to all this commandment has been given: "for being free from all, I enslaved myself to all, that I might gain all." But the commandment which says "serve one another" also enjoins this. Wherefore "through love the apostles served" the churches, ministering and rendering service to the salvation of men. And the Savior himself took up the "form of a servant" not so much for any other reason as for the sake of having served the disciples, so that he even once, "having poured water into the basin, washed the feet of the disciples." But also the saying "whoever wishes to be great among you shall be servant of all" — the one who has understood it is subject according to serving those whom he ought.
It is possible, however, for the one who serves, doing in his service the things suitable to those served, to seem not to be subject, when, by reason of not knowing the things that are profitable, those being served command those willing to serve to do the things not fitting for them. Nevertheless even then the one who acts toward the profitable both serves and is subject to the need of the one whom he serves, on account of the passionless and blessedness-producing fear which is according to the word of God. For this I think is what is shown by in the fear of Christ.
[v 22, 23] Let the wives be subject to their own husbands as to the Lord; because the husband is head of the wife as also Christ is head of the Church.
Every union of husband and wife this word wishes to be a symbol of Christ and the Church: the husband, if he manages the affairs of marriage according to reason, imitating Christ the bridegroom of the Church; and the wife, if she dwells with her husband as she ought, emulating (so to speak) the shared life of the Church with Christ. For thus will the husband be head of the wife, in like manner as Christ also is head of the Church. If, however, husband and wife should not be joined together with one another in this way, it could not be said of them that this man is head of the wife as also Christ is head of the Church. Let each husband, therefore, make it his ambition to be toward the wife as Christ is toward the Church, and each wife toward the husband as the Church is toward Christ; and let the husband both understand and do all the things of Christ, and the wife the things of the Church.
§ XXX — Ephesians v 24
But as the Church is subject to Christ, so also let the women be subject to their husbands in everything.
[Origen says]
If women must be subject to their husbands in this way, as the Church is subject to Christ, then it will be necessary that the women, living in holiness and without passion and without sin, be subject to their husbands, just as the Church is subject to Christ, living in holiness and without passion and without sin.
v 27. [that he might present the Church to himself in glory, not having spot or wrinkle or any of such things, but that she might be holy and blameless.]
Now spots are, for example, the freckles that appear upon the body, and dark blemishes and white patches and warts; for when these have been removed a woman would become more beautiful. And let there be understood to occur, by analogy with these, the corresponding things also concerning the soul, which belong to none but the Word to remove, that he might present to himself, he says, his own bride not having spot or wrinkle or any of such things, but that she might be holy and blameless.
And wrinkles are a sign of old age; so if anyone should persist in keeping traces "of the old" and not be always "being renewed", he would be said to be wrinkled in respect of the soul.
[v 31] For this cause a man shall leave the father and the mother, and the two shall be one flesh.
It is to be observed, as we have done in other places also, that often those who write the New Testament do not set out the old Scripture in its very words. And concerning this, in Genesis it is written thus: "For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh", but here, instead of "for this reason", Paul has put "for this cause"; and he has omitted the "his" said after "father" and the second "his" said after "mother", and also the "he shall be joined to his wife".
§ XXXI — Ephesians vi 1-3
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right; honour your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, that it may be well with you and you shall be long-lived upon the earth.
[Origen says]
The saying is ambiguous; for either the children must obey their parents who are in the Lord, or the children must obey their parents in the Lord. And neither of the two interpretations is to be rejected; for parents who are in the Lord, such as Paul was to the Corinthians, must be obeyed, and parents according to the flesh must be obeyed, but in the Lord, when they command things not contrary to the will of the Lord. And to obey is right in either case.
At the same time you will also note, against the heterodox who separate a righteous God from a good one, that he enjoins upon the disciples of the one they call good the injunction (as those people would put it) of the other God; if indeed the other is righteous, and Paul says that it is right for children to obey their parents in the Lord, or in the Lord to obey their parents.
The saying is taken from Exodus, running thus: "Honour your father and your mother, that it may be well with you and that you may be long-lived upon the earth which the Lord your God gives you." And here, in setting out the wording, the Apostle has left out the "your" (after 'mother'), and instead of "and that you may be long-lived" he has made it and you shall be long-lived, and he has left out, after upon the earth, the "which the Lord your God gives you."
But it is the fifth commandment of the Decalogue; therefore it must be asked how one ought to understand the which is the first commandment, since the first commandment is stated to be "You shall have no other gods besides me." Now some have read which is the first commandment with a promise in this way, as though the commandments before it did not contain a promise; for they think that upon this one there lies for the first time the promise "that it may be well with you and that you may be long-lived upon the earth which the Lord your God gives you."
But these seem not to have observed that a promise is set down also upon the second commandment; for it says, "You shall not make for yourself an idol, nor a likeness of anything, whatever is in the heaven above and whatever is on the earth below and whatever is in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down to them, nor shall you serve them. For I am the Lord your God, a jealous God, requiting the sins of fathers upon children unto the third and fourth generation to those who hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands to those who love me and to those who keep my commandments." For note that it is a promise, the "showing mercy unto thousands to those who love me and to those who keep my commandments."
Perhaps, then, since the Decalogue is spoken of as the first legislation to the people after their coming out of Egypt, each of the ten commandments is first, being spoken among the first of those that follow.
He, however, who wishes to hold fast to the rendering of which is the first commandment with a promise will say that the promise "that you may be long-lived upon the earth which the Lord your God gives you" is proper to the commandment "Honour your father and your mother," but not proper to the "You shall not make for yourself an idol, nor a likeness of anything" or "showing mercy unto thousands to those who love me and to those who keep my commandments."
But again, on the other hand, he who expounds the whole Decalogue as containing first commandments will resist this too; for he will say that being long-lived upon the earth which the Lord God gives to the saints is granted not on account of the "Honour your father and your mother" commandment alone but also on account of countless others; and such a one will need to gather together the commandments to which is attached the "that you may be long-lived upon the earth, which the Lord your God gives you."
After these things it must be inquired concerning the promise that bestows the being long-lived upon the earth which the Lord God gives to the saints. And it must not be unknown that the Jews suppose this to come about according to the letter; but we see that this is not altogether true, and the prophet too says, "Woe is me that my sojourning has been prolonged."
It must be inquired, then, what is "the good land which the Lord God" gives with a promise to him who has forsaken the spiritual Egypt and, with all long-suffering and endurance, has journeyed the spiritual "wilderness, the great" and "fearful" one, and has conquered those whom the Lord strikes down, "great kings," and those whom the Lord destroyed, "mighty kings."
§ XXXII — Ephesians vi 9
And you masters, do the same things toward them.
[Origen also says]
What are the same things among the things said before? I think, then, that they are: in singleness of heart, and the doing the will of God, and that which is from the soul and with goodwill toward the household servants.
[vi 10] For the rest, be strengthened in the Lord and in the might of his strength.
The being strengthened in the Lord is to be strengthened in word and in wisdom and in the contemplation of the truth and in all the conceptions of Christ; of which the greatest is the might of strength, and mightier than virtue and than its several forms, which are all powers, just as the vices are powerlessness.
But there is a certain one among the virtues (as those skilled in these matters say) that is imperceptible, the one called strength, so named because it bears a certain analogy to bodily strength; and another that is perceptible, named beauty from the bodily, according to which beauty it is said, "Gird your sword upon your thigh, O mighty one, in your comeliness and your beauty"; and in the Song of Songs to the bride, "you are wholly beautiful, my companion, and there is no blemish in you"; and again in the forty-fourth psalm, "and the king will desire your beauty."
§ XXXIII — Ephesians vi 11
Put on the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
[Origen also says]
From what follows, and from the things recorded concerning the Saviour, one may say that Christ is the whole armour of God, so that Put on the whole armour of God is the same as "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ". For if the truth is life and righteousness is a breastplate, and the Saviour is the truth and the righteousness, it is clear that the Saviour is both the life and the breastplate. And in a manner corresponding to these, he himself would be the preparation of the gospel of peace, and the shield of faith, and the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, the "living word, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword".
And what other whole armour of God could one even conceive to be spoken of, which the one who is about to take his stand against the wiles of the devil must put on, than virtue, which is Christ? For the one who has put on this, according to all his aspects, will be able to stand against all the wiles of wickedness worked by the devil, "its father".
And insofar as one is girded with the truth, he will not be dragged off into assenting to the plausible and sophistical arguments on behalf of falsehood; and insofar as he has clothed himself with righteousness, he will be invulnerable to the darts of injustice, since none of them reaches him and makes unjust the one who has put on righteousness. And the one who has shod his feet with the fair shoes of the preparation of the gospel of peace, being ready and having "made his works ready for the going out", and having on this account become a man of peace, will neither work anything warlike and seditious, nor will he be condemned together with the unready. Nor will unbelief, hostile to the salvation of the human race, have any place where the shield of faith is; and the one who has placed about himself the helmet of salvation will be kept unbroken in the head of the soul, in which are the divine and intelligible faculties of perception. But also, like a noble soldier, the one who holds the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of the Lord, will cut down and destroy all the doctrines that make war upon the truth.
[vi 12] For our wrestling is not against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, against the authorities, against the world-rulers of the darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
I think that the wrestling against blood and flesh consists of what are called by him "human temptations", when the "flesh, lusting against the spirit, summons us to do its works". But it is no longer a "human temptation" nor a wrestling against blood and flesh when either Satan, "transforming himself into an angel of light", strives to persuade us to give heed to him as to an angel of light, or something similar to these, which come about "in all power and signs and lying wonders and in all deceit of unrighteousness".
And if the enemy should persuade someone to receive him as Lord, when he says in him "Thus says the Lord", so that someone even supposes himself to have become a prophet of the God of all things, he would do this not as blood and flesh or as a human temptation wrestling with the one who has guarded himself up to this point; wherefore in no way is "place to be given to the devil".
But someone will say that the words our wrestling is not against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, against the authorities and what follows are spoken so that we may be taught not to think that even the sins reckoned to come to us from the "mind of the flesh" come to us first from flesh and blood, but from certain powers that work these things; for there are certain demons that work the passions of love and the love-charms, as the prophet also makes clear when he says "by a spirit of fornication they were led astray". And one may say the like also concerning other demons that produce wrath and anger, whom the meddlers, calling them up, are said to perform a certain wrath-restraining charm. And when we hate, we do not do our hating apart from the demons that work it; and this too one may not unreasonably establish from what are called hate-charms. Since therefore, he says, the Apostle wishes to teach us that sinning does not come to us from the nature of the body, on this account he says our wrestling is not against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, against the authorities and what follows.
And seeking from what ancient scriptures Paul, having been aided, says these things—scriptures revealed and made manifest to him—we conjecture that it is from the things recorded concerning wars and single combats, such as that of David against Goliath and of the sons of Israel against the foreigners or the nations against whom, in contending, they were victorious; for it is likely that each of those was a symbol of spiritual principalities being defeated or prevailing.
Our wrestling, therefore, is against authorities that are not visible and fleshly, and against world-rulers of the darkness that encompasses the human race, and against the spirits of wickedness that inhabit the heavenly place, that is, the air. And indeed in another place he said "in which you once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, of the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience". For the air poured around us seems to have been filled with opposing powers.
§ XXXIV — Ephesians vi 13
ἵνα δυνηθῆτε ἀντιστῆναι — that you may be able to withstand, he says, in the evil day.
[Origen]
He who seeks to withstand in the evil day ought to have the whole armour of God which the Apostle set forth, through which the adversary "from the opposing side will be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us" — the devil "and accuser of our brethren", who also deceives sinners as his own and as having become "of his portion".
But someone else will say that the present age is an evil day.
And, beside these two interpretations, there will be a third account, one that says the contest has no end for him who has departed this life, but that even he who has conquered here is destined, in another evil day, to contend against the opposing energies that make their appearance.
[vi 14] Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth.
And in the Gospel according to Luke it is written, "Let your loins be girded". And now we know what the girdle is: he who has drawn in the affairs of generation and no longer serves it, but hastens toward immortality, girds his loins.
[vi 14] And having put on the breastplate of righteousness.
Just as one who has put on a breastplate is more resistant to injury when struck by his enemies — and especially more resistant in the more vital parts — so he who has clothed himself in righteousness would not be wounded, not even like a "deer struck in the liver by an arrow"; for he will fall neither into wrath nor into desire, but will remain also "pure in heart", because he has put on the breastplate of righteousness, forged for him by God the craftsman of all things, who, having fashioned it, gives to each of the saints the whole armour.
[vi 15] And having shod your feet in readiness of the gospel of peace.
Observe that he has named a certain power of the soul feet, with which we as it were make our way, walking toward him who said "I am the way", and which must be shod with the readiness of the gospel of peace. And I think that the symbols of these sandals are the "sandals" recorded in Exodus, which those who ate the Passover and were ready for the journey were required to have. For thus he says, "You shall eat it: your loins girded and your sandals on your feet and your staffs in your hands, and you shall eat it with haste; it is the Lord's Passover". For it belongs to readiness both to eat "with haste" and to eat shod, so that, being strengthened by the food, they may be able to journey.
Therefore let him who is journeying be shod, but let him who has arrived at the holy land unloose his sandals; for "Loose", he says, "the sandal from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground".
For this reason let him who is not an apostle be shod as to the feet in readiness of the gospel of peace; but let the apostle no longer "take up sandals for the road", since he has already been perfected and is in the place where, both standing and walking, he is in "holy ground", living in Christ.
§ XXXV — Ephesians vi 16
The shield of faith taken up in all things, in which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one.
[Origen says]
The darts of the evil one are the evil reasonings; and so he will not even be able to cast them into the heart at the outset, whenever someone is sheltered by the shield of faith, since all the fiery darts of the enemy are quenched in it. And the one who is girded about with the shield of faith will say: "In the Lord I have trusted; how will you say to my soul, migrate to the mountains like a sparrow? For behold, the sinners have bent the bow, they have prepared darts for the quiver, to shoot down in the darkness of the moon the upright in heart". For "since I have trusted", he says, "in the Lord, how" do you counsel me not to stand against the "bows" that are "bent" by the sinners against me and the "darts" that are "prepared" by them in their quivers, when they wish to wound "the upright in heart"? For behold, I both stand and do not migrate, and all the fiery darts of the evil one shall, ere long, be quenched.
[vi 17 b, 18, 19 a] And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, through all prayer and supplication, praying at every season in the Spirit, and watching unto this very thing in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints and on behalf of me.
The "sound word" flows from the divine Spirit, but the "contrary" one speaks "from the earth"; "for he who is from the earth is from the earth and speaks from the earth; he who comes from heaven is above all; and what he has seen and heard, this he testifies". But the word from the Spirit is a sword, wherefore here Paul says that the sword of the Spirit is the word of God; "for living is the word of God and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit", and it cuts and divides, accomplishing its work also through prayer and supplication for those who pray at every season and who pray in the Spirit, according to the "I will pray with the spirit"; and it accomplishes its work for those who watch for the sake of becoming rich in the word of God, and who persevere in the acquisition of it, so as both to benefit others and to work through their prayers upon those who benefit others.
Observe also the moderation of the Apostle, in asking that supplications be made by the Ephesians on his behalf.
§ XXXVI — Ephesians vi 19 b
that a word may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.
[Origen]
When the mouth is opened, a word having been given, then the mystery of the gospel is made known with boldness, and no longer in proverbs and parables, as the Savior too says: "The hour is coming when I shall no longer speak to you in proverbs, but I shall announce to you with boldness concerning the Father".
But the word spoken with boldness only he can hold, and every such one, who has a heart that does not condemn him, since if the "heart does not condemn us, we have boldness toward God, and whatever we ask we receive from him". Hence he who with boldness makes known the mystery is rare, inasmuch as he who has boldness toward God is rare. "For who will boast that he has a pure heart? Or who will speak boldly that he is clean from sins"?
[vi 21-22] But that you also may know the things concerning me, what I am doing, Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will make everything known to you; whom I sent to you for this very purpose, that he might know the things concerning you and might comfort your hearts.
Since the whole life of the Apostle, and his every action and activity, came about by the Word of God, "Christ living in him", for this reason he sends Tychicus to announce to the Ephesians the rule of his life and the order of his actions; and it was indeed fitting for the Apostle, so that the Ephesians might have an example of good conduct, to send Tychicus for this very purpose. And they were also going to be comforted, learning that the best things, and the things befitting an apostle, are rightly accomplished by Paul.
§ XXXVII — Ephesians vi 23
Peace to the brothers and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
[Origen says]
If any other gift also is given from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, so too is peace; which is among the most precious of gifts, the peace "that surpasses all understanding, which shall guard the hearts and the thoughts of the saints", being a certain calm and fair weather of the soul, foreign to every storm and every disturbance and passion. And in like manner to peace, so too is love with faith a gift given from God and from the Lord Jesus Christ; and love toward God, as it is written, "from the whole heart" and what follows, and toward "the neighbor" "as oneself"; but he who has received love as a gift displays it even toward "the enemies", hating no one and praying on behalf of those who insult him.
[vi 24] The grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption.
Some have explained to love him in incorruption as being one who is pure from the works of corruption; and the works of corruption are those pertaining to sexual intercourse, whence also common usage names those pure from intercourse ‘undefiled’, and those who have tasted of union ‘corrupted’. And some, straining the passage "if anyone corrupts the temple of God, God shall corrupt him", understood it in this way; but they are unable, consistently with this, to preserve the saying "but each has his own gift from God, the one in this way, the other in that".
But consider whether every sin can be a corruption of the soul, and the complete abstention from it incorruption; so that those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption are those who abstain from every sin; with all of whom is the grace of God.
Since, however, there are indeed some who love the Lord but do not love him in incorruption, Paul says, The grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption.