In an encounter with Jesus, some are healed and others are not. Some notice Him, others ignore Him. Some come near, others pass by. And among those who come near, some come for the Kingdom and for life, while others...
In an encounter with Jesus, some are healed and others are not. Some notice Him, others ignore Him. Some come near, others pass by. And among those who come near, some come for the Kingdom and for life, while others come to argue or catch Him in His words. To each his own.
The blind man by the road wants healing - he wants to receive his sight, to see, and above all to see the One who can give him back his sight, the very ability to see. Is this possible? Yes, of course. In the Kingdom everything is possible, and this blind man is striving with all his strength toward the very One who brought the Kingdom into the world.
It is possible, but only on one condition: the encounter becomes the chief and only important goal, for whose sake, if necessary, any conventions, prohibitions, and limits can be pushed aside. This is, of course, not about God's commandments, but precisely about limits and rules invented by people, about human opinions. The blind man calls Jesus the Son of David, and therefore the Messiah. They try to make him be silent, since no one had officially recognized Jesus as the Messiah, and even unofficially opinions differed sharply.
At that moment Jesus was, in public opinion, a scandalous figure, or at least an ambiguous one in every respect. To press toward Him like that, one had to trust Him completely - not even against social conventions, but above them, simply ignoring them and seeing only the Person Himself. Relationships with Christ like that are truly saving. Not because He is God and Man at the same time, but because those relationships are real; if they were not real, even His divinity would not help.
In the end, everything is determined precisely by relationships, by their depth and authenticity, whether they are relationships with God or with another person. Real relationships are always unconditional: they cannot be conditioned by any external factors - social, religious, or any others. Only then do relationships become effective, changing those who enter into them. Then in relationship with Christ everything is possible - miracles, healings, participation in the Kingdom. Otherwise everything is useless, even if one meets Him face to face.
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1:22 And he hath given him to be head over all things to the church - An head both of guidance and government, and likewise of life and influence, to the whole and every member of it. All these stand in the nearest union with him, and have as continual and effectual a communication of activity, growth, and strength from him, as the natural body from its head.
1:23 The fulness of him that filleth all in all - It is hard to say in what sense this can be spoken of the church; but the sense is easy and natural, if we refer it to Christ, who is the fulness of the Father.
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2:1 And he hath quickened you - In the nineteenth and twentieth verses of the preceding chapter, St. Paul spoke of God's working in them by the same almighty power whereby he raised Christ from the dead. On the mention of this he, in the fulness of his heart, runs into a flow of thought concerning the glory of Christ's exaltation in the three following verses.He here resumes the thread of his discourse. Who were dead - Not only diseased, but dead; absolutely void of all spiritual life; and as incapable of quickening yourselves, as persons literally dead. In trespasses and sins - Sins seem to be spoken chiefly of the gentiles, who knew not God; trespasses, of the Jews, who had his law, and yet regarded it not, Eph 2:5. The latter herein obeyed the flesh; the former, the princeof the power of the air.
2:2 According to the course of this world - The word translated course properly means a long series of times, wherein one corrupt age follows another. According to the prince of the power of the air - The effect of which power all may perceive, though all do not understand the cause of it: a power unspeakably penetrating and widely diffused; but yet, as to its baneful influences, beneath the orb of believers. The evil spirits are united under one head, the seat of whose dominion is in the air. Here he sometimes raises storms, sometimes makes visionary representations, and is continually roving to and fro.The spirit that now worketh - With mighty power; and so he did, and doth in all ages. In the sons of disobedience - In all who do not believe and obey the gospel.
2:3 Among whom we - Jews. Also, formerly had our conversation: doing the will of the flesh - In gross, brutal sins. And of the mind - By spiritual, diabolical wickedness. In the former clause, flesh denotes the whole evil nature; in the latter, the body opposed to the soul.And were by nature - That is, in our natural state. Children of wrath - Having the wrath of God abiding on us, even as the gentiles. This expression, by nature, occurs also, Gal 4:8; Rom 2:14; and thrice in the eleventh chapter. Rom 11:24 Eph 2, but in none of these places does it signify, by custom, or practice, or customary practice, as a latewriter affirms. Nor can it mean so here For this would make the apostle guilty of gross tautology, their customary sinning having been expressed already, in the former part of the verse. But all these passages agree in expressing what belongs to the nature of the persons spoken of.