Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Ephesians 6:24 - 6:24

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Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Ephesians 6:24 - 6:24


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24. πάντων τῶν ἀγαπώντων. This phrase is unique in St Paul, 1Co 16:22 εἴ τις οὐ φιλεῖ τὸν κύριον is a solitary and partial parallel. Our love for God and His claim on our love are referred to from time to time and so is Christ’s love for us, but our love for our Lord is only mentioned in the Epistles besides these two passages in 1Pe 1:8. It is fitting however that the boundless vision of His love for us which St Paul unfolded in Eph 3:19 should find this answering echo at the close. In St John’s Gospel our Lord speaks of it in Joh 14:15; Joh 14:21; Joh 14:23, Joh 15:9 f., Joh 16:27, Joh 21:15 f.

ἐν ἀφθαρσίᾳ. ‘In incorruptibility,’ i.e. ‘in a condition over which death has no more dominion,’ ‘the condition without spot or wrinkle or any such thing’ into which the Christ has raised His Bride, Eph 5:27. This, and not primarily freedom from moral corruption, is, as Robinson has shown, the fundamental meaning of the phrase. It is less important to determine whether it is with Bengel to be connected directly with ἡ χάρις or according to most commentators with ἀγαπώντων. It characterizes both the blessing and the blessed. It describes the sphere in which the blessing and the blessed meet. It translates the vague image of endless duration εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων into a vision of life at once present and eternal.