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Eph_6:24. While Paul has in Eph_6:23 expressed his wish of blessing for the readers ( τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς ), he now annexes thereto a further such general wish, namely, for all who love Christ imperishably, just as at 1Co_16:22 he takes up into the closing wish an ἀνάθεμα upon all those who do not love Christ.
ἡ χάρις ] the grace κατʼ ἐξοχήν , i.e. the grace of God in Christ. Comp. Col_4:18; 1Ti_6:21; 2Ti_4:22; Tit_3:15. In the conclusion of other Epistles: the grace of Christ, Rom_16:20; Rom_16:24; 1Co_16:23; 2Co_13:13; Gal_6:18; Php_4:23; 1Th_5:28; 2Th_3:18; Phil. 25.
ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ ] belongs neither to Ἰησοῦν Χριστόν (Wetstein: “Christum immortalem et gloriosum, non humilem,” etc.; see also Reiners in Wolf and Semler), nor to ἡ χάρις (“favor immortalis,” Castalio, Drusius; comp. Piscator and Michaelis, who take ἐν as equivalent to σύν , while the latter supposes a reference to deniers of the resurrection!), nor yet to the sit to be supplied after ἡ χάρις , as is held, after Beza (who, however, took ἐν for εἰς ) and Bengel, recently by Matthies (“that grace with all … may be in eternity;” comp. Baumgarten-Crusius), Harless (according to whom ἐν denotes the element in which the χάρις manifests itself, and ἀφθαρσ . is all imperishable being, whether appearing in this life or in eternity), Bleek, and Olshausen, which last supposes a breviloquentia for ἵνα ζωὴν ἔχωσιν ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ , i.e. ζωὴν αἰώνιον . But, in opposition to Matthies, it may be urged that the purely temporal notion eternity ( εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα ) is foisted upon the word imperishableness; and in opposition to Harless, that the abstract notion imperishableness is transmuted into the concrete notion of imperishable being, which is not the meaning of ἀφθαρσ ., even in 2Ti_1:10 (but imperishableness in abstracto), and that ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ , instead of adding, in accordance with its emphatic position, a very weighty and important element, would express something which is self-evident, namely, that according to the wish of the apostle the grace might display itself not ἐν φθαρτοῖς (1Pe_1:18), but ἐν ἀφθάρτοις ; the breviloquentia, lastly, assumed by Olshausen is, although ἀφθαρσ . in itself might be equivalent to ζωὴ αἰώνιος (see Grimm, Handb. p. 60), a pure invention, the sense of which Paul would have expressed by εἰς ἀφθαρσίαν . The right connection is the usual one, namely, with ἀγαπώντων . And in accordance with this, we have to explain it: who love the Lord in imperishableness, i.e. so that their love does not pass away, in which case ἐν expresses the manner. Comp. the concluding wish Tit_3:15, where ἐν πίστει is in like manner to be combined with φιλοῦντας . Others, following the same connection, have understood the sinceritas either of the love itself (Pelagius, Anselm, Calvin, Calovius, and others) or of the disposition and the life in general (Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Erasmus, Flacius, Estius, Zeger, Grotius: “significatur is, qui nulla vi, nullis precibus, nullis illecebris se corrumpi, i.e. a recto abduci, patitur,” and others, including Wieseler), but against this Beza has already with reason urged the linguistic usage; for uncorruptedness is not ἀφθαρσία (not even in Wis_6:18-19), but ἀφθορία (Tit_2:7) and ἀδιαφθορία (Wetstein, II. p. 373). On ἀφθαρσία , imperishableness (at 1Co_15:42; 1Co_15:52, it is in accordance with the context specially incorruptibility), comp. Plut. Arist. 6; Rom_2:7; 1Co_9:25; 1Ti_1:17; 2Ti_1:10; Wis_2:23; Wis_6:18 f.; 4Ma_9:22; 4Ma_17:12.