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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Ephesians 5:20 - 5:20
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20. εὐχαριστοῦντες πάντοτε ὑπὲρ πάντων. Cf. Eph 5:4; 1Th 5:16 ff.; Col 3:17. The tone of spiritual exhilaration that St Paul requires is strange in this context, where no effort is made to keep out of sight the discouraging character of the surroundings. It can only be maintained by the deliberate development of a habit of thanksgiving. Cf. the connexion in 1Th 5:16 ff. between the commands to rejoice and to give thanks. The command here is as inclusive as possible. ‘At all times for all people (or things).’ For the masc. (which in any case cannot be excluded) cf. 1Ti 2:1. St Paul’s Epp. (cf. Eph 1:16) show that he practised what he preached. Though the word can hardly be regarded as having yet attained to a technical signification as describing the central act of Christian worship, yet thanksgiving to God was certainly from the first a prominent feature in Christian assemblies, 1Co 14:16; Heb 13:15.
ἐν ὀνόματι τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. This formula occurs twice (2Th 3:6; 1Co 5:4) characterizing acts of St Paul himself; first as laying down a binding regulation for the life of a community (2Th 3:6), and then as pronouncing sentence on an offender (1Co 5:4). In 1Co 6:11 it describes the authority by which Baptism had been administered and all its blessed consequences secured to men conscious of the foul defilements of the heathenism out of which they had been taken. Here and in the parallel passage Col 3:17 it describes the position at once of privilege and responsibility in which every Christian stands, both regulating and inspiring every act and every word, and keeping the whole life in the presence of God. The passages in Jn (Joh 14:13 f., Joh 15:16, Joh 16:23 f.) which define the condition of prevailing prayer after the Ascension are closely parallel. They may well have moulded Christian liturgical forms from the beginning. According to Act 4:23-30 when for the first time the Church was called to suffer persecution ‘for the Name’ they pray for a public manifestation of power through the Name.
τῷ θεῷ καὶ πατρί. Cf. on Eph 2:18.