Ephesians, Chapter 2, verses 14-22
13 and being brought near by Christ, should not live as Gentiles and foreigners in time past, 19 but as citizens with the saints, and the family of GodLuke, Chapter 10, verses 25-37
25 magnifieth the happy estate of his Church; teacheth the lawyer how to attain eternal life, and to take everyone for his neighbour that needeth his mercy10
10:27 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God - That is, thou shalt unite all the faculties of thy soul to render him the most intelligent and sincere, the most affectionate and resolute service. We may safely rest in this general sense of these important words, if we are not able to fix the particular meaning of every single word. If we desire to do this, perhaps the heart, which is a general expression, may be explained by the three following, With all thy soul, with the warmest affection, with all thy strength, the most vigorous efforts of thy will, and with all thy mind or understanding, in the most wise and reasonable manner thou canst; thy understanding guiding thy will and affections. Deu 6:5; Lev 19:18.
10:28 Thou hast answered right; this do, and thou shalt live - Here is no irony, but a deep and weighty truth. He, and he alone, shall live for ever, who thus loves God and his neighbour in the present life.
10:29 To justify himself - That is, to show he had done this. Lev 18:5.
10:30 From Jerusalem to Jericho - The road from Jerusalem to Jericho (about eighteen miles from it) lay through desert and rockyplaces: so many robberies and murders were committed therein, that it was called the bloody way. Jericho was situated in the valley: hence the phrase of going down to it. About twelve thousand priests and Levites dwelt there, who all attended the service of the temple.
10:31 The common translation is, by chance - Which is full of gross improprieties. For if we speak strictly, there is no such thing in the universe as either chance or fortune. A certain priest came down that way, and passed by on the other side - And both he and the Levite no doubt could find an excuse for passing over on the other side, and might perhaps gravely thank God for their own deliverance, while they left their brother bleeding to death. Is it not an emblem of many living characters, perhaps of some who bear the sacred office? O house of Levi and of Aaron, is not the day coming, when the virtues of heathens and Samaritans will rise up in judgment against you?
10:33 But a certain Samaritan came where he was - It was admirably well judged to represent the distress on the side of the Jew, and the mercy on that of the Samaritan. For the case being thus proposed, self interest would make the very scribe sensible, how amiable such a conduct was, and would lay him open to our Lord's inference. Had it been put the other way, prejudice might more easily have interposed, before the heart could have been affected.
10:34 Pouring in oil and wine - Which when well beaten together are one of the best balsams that can be applied to a fresh wound.
10:36 Which of these was the neighbour to him that fell among the robbers - Which acted the part of a neighbour?
10:37 And he said, He that showed mercy on him - He could not for shame say otherwise, though he thereby condemned himself and overthrew his own false notion of the neighbour to whom our love is due. Go and do thou in like manner - Let us go and do likewise, regarding every man as our neighbour who needs our assistance.Let us renounce that bigotry and party zeal which would contract our hearts into an insensibility for all the human race, but a small number whose sentiments and practices are so much our own, that our love to them is but self love reflected. With an honest openness of mind let us always remember that kindred between man and man, and cultivate that happy instinct whereby, in the original constitution of our nature, God has strongly bound us to each other.
2
2:14 For he is our peace - Not only as he purchased it, but as he is the very bond and centre of union. He who hath made both - Jews and gentiles, one church. The apostle describes,
- The conjunction of the gentiles with Israel, Eph 2:14-15. And,
- The conjunction of both with God, Eph 2:15-18.
Each description is subdivided into two parts. And the former part of the one, concerning abolishing the enmity, answers the former part of the other; the latter part of the one, concerning the evangelical decrees, the latter part of the other. And hath broken down the middle wall of partition - Alluding to that wall of old, which separated the court of Israel from the court of the gentiles. Such a wall was the ceremonial law, which Christ had now taken away.2:15 Having abolished by his suffering in the flesh the cause of enmity between the Jews and gentiles, even the law of ceremonial commandments, through his decrees - Which offer mercy to all; see Col 2:14.That he might form the two - Jew and gentile. Into one new man - one mystical body.
2:16 In one body - One church. Having slain - By his own death on the cross. The enmity - Which had been between sinners and God.
2:17 And he came - After his resurrection. And preached peace - By his ministers and his Spirit. To you - Gentiles. That were afar off - At the utmost distance from God. And to them that were nigh - To the Jews, who were comparatively nigh, being his visible church.
2:18 For through him, we both - Jews and gentiles. Have access - Liberty of approaching, by the guidance and aid of one Spirit toGod as our Father. Christ, the Spirit, and the Father, the three - one God, stand frequently in the same order.
2:19 Therefore ye are no longer strangers, but citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem; no longer foreigners, but received into the very family of God.
2:20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets - As the foundation sustains the building, so the word of God, declaredby the apostles and prophets, sustains the faith of all believers.God laid the foundation by them; but Christ himself is the chief corner - stone of the foundation. Elsewhere he is termed the foundation itself, Co1 3:11.
2:21 On whom all the building fitly framed together - The whole fabric of the universal church rises up like a great pile of living materials.Into an holy temple in the Lord - Dedicated to Christ, and inhabited by him, in which he displays his presence, and is worshipped and glorified.What is the temple of Diana of the Ephesians, whom ye formerly worshipped, to this?