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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Ephesians 4:13 - 4:13
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
13. καταντήσωμεν. Cf. Php 3:11; Act 26:7.
οἱ πάντες. ‘One and all.’ The whole of redeemed humanity. Cf. Rom 11:32.
εἰς τὴν ἑνότητα τῆς πίστεως κ.τ.λ. Cf. on Eph 4:3. Unity is at once our starting point and our goal. The unity from which we start is the unity of the Spirit among those who are already disciples of the One Lord, the unity which we have to achieve is the unity of humanity brought to realize their true relationship to one another and to their Head by the exercise of Christian faith. The sequence of thought is closely parallel to that in Joh 17:20 ff. ἴνα πάντες (sc. οἱ πιστευόντες διὰ τοῦ λόγου αὐτῶν εἰς ἐμέ) ἔν ὦσιν … ἴνα ὁ κόσμος πιστεύῃ ὅτι σύ με ἀπέστειλας … ἵνα ὦσιν τετελειωμένοι εἰς ἔν, ἵνα γινώσκῃ ὁ κόσμος ὅτι σύ με ἀπέστειλας, where, as here, the unity of believers is to bring the world to faith in and the knowledge of the mission of the Son.
ἐπιγνώσεως. The stress on knowledge as a further development of faith is characteristic of this group of Epp. See esp. Col 2:2; Col 3:10.
τοῦ υἱοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ. The use of this title is rare in St Paul. In this form only Gal 2:20 and Act 9:20. Yet cf. Rom 1:4; Rom 1:9; Gal 4:6. It recalls the thought of the Fatherhood which runs through the Ep.
εἰς ἄνδρα τέλειον. Each up to the standard of a fully developed man. Cf. 1Co 13:11 ὅτε γέγονα ἀνήρ, and Hort on Jam 3:2. St Paul is fond of the contrast between the full-grown and the babes (cf. νήπιοι Eph 4:14), 1Co 2:6; 1Co 14:20. The thought is connected esp. with intellectual maturity, cf. Php 3:15; Col 1:28; Col 4:12. The maturity of the whole and the maturity of the parts are interdependent. See Heb 11:40. But St Paul is here thinking of the perfection of each individual (cf. Eph 4:14) as in Col 1:28. He uses ἄνθρωπος (Eph 2:15) not ἀνὴρ for ‘the New Man.’
εἰς μέτρον ἡλικίας τοῦ πληρώματος τοῦ χριστοῦ. ‘Up to the measure of maturity provided by the perfection of the Christ.’ It is difficult to fix any point at which a man may be regarded as having attained to the full realization of all the capacities of his being. Our nature is complex and the different parts mature at different times. ‘The fulness of the Christ’ supplies at once the standard and the power by which that standard can be attained universally.