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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Ephesians 3:17 - 3:17
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17. κατοικῆσαι κ.τ.λ. The result of the spiritual strengthening is to enable men to satisfy the conditions for the indwelling of the Christ in personal presence and power in the centre of their being. See on ἐν Χριστῷ (p. lxii ff.). κατοικῆσαι takes up the idea of the κατοικητήριον τοῦ θεοῦ (Β χριστοῦ) from Eph 2:22. The indwelling of God in the Church is ‘moral not mechanical.’ The whole Body is His temple. But He enters no heart that does not open to Him from within; cf. Rev 3:20. The conditions on which He will enter are laid down in Joh 14:23. These conditions correspond closely to the διά τῆς πίστεως ἐν ἀγάπῃ which St Paul specifies here. For ‘faith’ in St Paul is quickened by love (Gal 5:6; Gal 2:20) and issues in obedience. The indwelling here is represented as consequent on the strengthening, for the surrender of faith on our part, while essentially our own act, is yet beyond our power without the Divine assistance. Cf. Eph 2:8.
ἐν ἀγάπῃ. Cf. on Eph 1:4. Love is according to Joh 14:23 the all-embracing condition of the Divine indwelling. The word that the disciple must keep is the new commandment of love to the brethren, and love for Him who gave the commandment is the spring of obedience to it. So here our faith in Him who loved us, issuing in love to our brethren, creates as it were an atmosphere of love, which at once emanates from Him and binds us to Him in a mutual bond.
Cf. on the whole passage the letter to D. J. Vaughan in the Life and Letters of F. D. Maurice (II. p. 349).
ἑρριζωμένοι κ.τ.λ. Cf. Col 2:7. For the anacoluthon, cf. (with Robinson) Eph 4:2; Col 2:2; Col 3:16; 2Co 9:11. The use of the nominative in Apoc. seems to be an exaggeration of this habit. It would be possible on the analogy of 2Co 2:4; 2Th 2:7 &c. to regard the ἵνα as belated. It makes no substantial difference to the sense, as ἐρρ. καὶ τεθ. simply sum up the effect of the strengthening and the indwelling described in Eph 3:16-17. ἐρριζωμένοι, the thought of being ‘rooted’ in Christ has an O.T. foundation in Isa 11:10, quoted by St Paul in Rom 15:12 (cf. Rev 5:5; Rev 22:16). St Paul uses the figure to illustrate the ‘grafting in’ of the Gentiles (Rom 11:16 ff.). It is used by our Lord in the similitude of the Vine (John 15) as an illustration of mutual indwelling.
καὶ τεθεμελιωμένοι. Cf. Eph 2:20. Here as in 1Pe 2:4 the thought is of a personal relationship between each stone in the building and the Foundation.