Ver. 12. That we should be to the praise.—R.V. “to the end that we should be.” “Causa finalis of the predestination to the Messianic lot” (Meyer). “We” in antithesis to “you” in ver. 13—We Jewish—you Gentile Christians.

Ver. 13. In whom ye also, etc.—The word “trusted,” supplied by A.V., is dropped by R.V. It seems best to regard the words after “ye also” as one of the frequent breaks in the flow of the apostle’s language, the second “ye” taking up the first. “In whom ye were sealed.” “The order of conversion was: hearing, faith, baptism, reception of the Spirit” (Meyer). Ye were sealed.—“This sealing is the indubitable guarantee of the future Messianic salvation received in one’s own consciousness” (Meyer).

Ver. 14. Who is the earnest.—The guarantee. The word represented by “earnest” was derived from the Phœnician merchants, and meant money which in purchases is given as a pledge that the full amount will be subsequently paid (Grimm). The word is found in the Hebrew of Gen. xxxviii. 17, 18, and means “pledge.” F. W. Robertson makes a distinction between “pledge” and “earnest”—the grapes of Eshcol were an “earnest” of Canaan. He who receives the Holy Spirit partakes the powers of the age to come (Heb. vi. 4, 5). Until the redemption.—The final consummation of the redemption effected by the atonement of Christ. The “until” is faulty, the “earnest” being “something towards” the redemption. Of the purchased possession.—R.V. “of God’s own possession.” “The whole body of Christians, the true people of God acquired by God as His property by means of the redeeming work of Christ” (Meyer).

Vers. 15, 16.—St. Paul is always ready to give a prompt acknowledgment of all that is best in his readers and to pray for something better. Cease not to give thanks.—My thanksgiving knows no end.

Ver. 17. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.—The connection or unity of the Father and the Son is the basis of the plea for those who are in the Son. Christ said, “I ascend unto My Father and your Father, to My God and your God” (John xx. 17). The Father of glory.—Compare the phrases, “the Father of mercies” (2 Cor. i. 3), “the Father of lights” (Jas. i. 17), “our Lord Jesus Christ, the glory” (Jas. ii. 1). The spirit of wisdom and revelation.—The wisdom which is from above is the heritage of all the redeemed in Christ (1 John iv. 20); but this day-spring, which gladdens the eyes of the heart, grows to mid-day splendour by successive apocalypses. In the knowledge.—The word means a complete knowledge. It is a word characteristic of the four epistles of the first Roman captivity.

Vers. 18, 19. The eyes of your understanding being enlightened . . . to us-ward who believe.—Three pictures for heaven-illumined eyes: 1. The hope of His calling.—Meyer says “the hope” is not here (nor anywhere) the res sperata, “the object on which hope fastens, but the great and glorious hope which God gives”—a statement too sweeping for other scholars, though here they agree that it is the faculty of hope “which encourages and animates.” 2. The riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.—“What a copious and grand accumulation, mirroring, as it were, the weightiness of the thing itself!” (Meyer). “Riches of the glory” must not be watered down into “glorious riches.” 3. The exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward.—The amazing and wholly unexpected working of the same Hand that wrought our first deliverance: the Power that smites the oppressor with dismay opens the path through the sea (see Isa. xl. 10, 11). According to the working of His mighty power.—This may be regarded as a specimen of the Divine power, the norm or standard by which we may gain an idea of the “exceeding greatness” of it—that from the tomb of His humiliation Christ was raised by that power to an unrivalled dignity in God’s throne. The R.V. gives “working of the strength of His might”: “working”—“the active exertion of power” (Meyer); “strength”—might expressing itself in overcoming resistance, ruling, etc.; “might”—strength in itself as inward power.

Ver. 20. Set Him at His own right hand.—“Dexter Dei ubique est.” We cannot dogmatise about the relations to space which a glorified body holds. The transcendent glory of God in that body links God to man, the humanity in the glory gives man his claim in God. “The true commentary on the phrase is Mark xvi. 19, ‘He was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God’ ” (Meyer).

Ver. 21. Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion.—R.V., “Rule, and authority, and power, and dominion.” “To be understood of the good angels, since the apostle is not speaking of the victory of Christ over opposing powers, but of His exaltation above the existing powers of heaven” (Meyer). “Powers and dominions, deities of heaven,” as Milton calls them, ranged here, perhaps, in a descending order. And every name that is named.—“God hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name.” “Let any name be uttered, whatever it is, Christ is above it, is more exalted than that which the name affirms” (Meyer). Not only in this world.—“This age.” “No other name under heaven given among men.” But also in that which is to come.—There Zechariah’s word will have its fullest application. “The Lord shall be King over all the earth; there shall be one Lord, and His name one.”

Ver. 22. And hath put all things under His feet.—Compare 1 Cor. xv. 27.

“Strong Son of God, immortal Love, . . .
Thou madest Death; and lo Thy foot
Is on the skull which Thou hast made.”—In Memoriam.