Ver. 22. In the body of His flesh through death.—When a teacher has to be explicit it may seem to those familiar with the subject as if he were verbose or tautological. So here the body is no phantasm, but fleshy and mortal. To present you holy.—They were professedly holy “saints” (ver. 2), and the final purpose of their reconciliation is reproachless saintship (on this word, and “unblameable,” see Eph. i. 4). Unreproveable in His sight.—It is a lofty eminence to which the holy apostle invites us to look in this word. The light in which we walk—fierce indeed towards sin—reveals no evil, so that the most captious critic has no objection (Tit. ii. 8).
Ver. 23. Grounded and settled, and not moved away.—In that land of volcanic agency the readers would perceive only too readily the graphic force of this metaphor. Where stone buildings tumbled over like a house of cards, the figure of a faith, proof against all shocks, was effective (see Heb. xii. 28). Every creature under heaven.—The same rhetorical form of expression as in ver. 6, affirming the universal fitness of the Gospel as well as its wide dissemination. Whereof I Paul am made a minister.—Wonder that increases and unceasing gratitude are in these words—that the persecutor should serve the faith he once destroyed.
Ver. 24. Fill up that which is behind in the afflictions of Christ.—R.V., “and fill up on my part that which is lacking.” How we seem to hear through these words the cry of the head of the Church, “Why persecutest thou Me?” And now the persecutor shares the pain of Christ and those to whom it is granted as a favour to suffer for His sake (Phil. i. 29).
Vers. 25–27. See notes on Eph. iii. 7 ff.
Ver. 28. Whom we preach.—What a glorious comprehensiveness there is in preaching Him in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead! Here is nothing narrow. Warning every man.—R.V. “admonishing.” It is a direction of the reflective faculty—a reproof administered with intent to amend the conduct. It corresponds to “Repent ye!” And teaching every man.—The positive side of which the warning is the negative. It is not enough to tell a man he is wrong—the right must be indicated; so the heralds of the Gospel followed up “Repent ye” with “Believe the Gospel.” Note the repeated “every man.” Exclusiveness which shuts the door in the face of any “weak brother for whom Christ died” is utterly strange to the teaching of St. Paul. That we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.—St. Paul, and every true successor, labours for this end; and, as ver. 22 shows, in so doing all are “workers together with God.” We have the idea of presentation elsewhere in St. Paul, as where he speaks of presenting his converts as a chaste virgin to Christ. The risk of offering a tainted animal for sacrifice is as nothing in comparison of offering a hypocrite as a trophy of the Gospel.
Ver. 29. I also labour.—The word implies strenuous effort. “The racer who takes care to slack his speed whenever he is in danger of breaking into a perspiration will not win the prize” (Maclaren). Striving.—Lit. “agonising,” as in Luke xiii. 24. Like a stripped gymnast, every encumbrance cast off. The same word in 1 Tim. vi. 12. “Fight the good fight.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE 1.
Apostolic Salutation.
In this verse we have a description of the office and character of the persons from whom the salutation emanates.
I. An exalted and important office.—“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ.” An apostle is one sent. Paul was commissioned to declare the grandest truths—truths destined to illumine and upraise mankind. His sphere was the world, his audience the generations of every age. The work of the apostle lives to-day—its vigour is perennial. His was no empty, unmeaning title. It involved incredible thought, overburdening care, incessant toil, unparalleled suffering. It was an office created by the circumstances of the time. That period was the beginning of a gigantic campaign against the consolidated errors and sins of ages. An ordinary officer can keep and govern a garrison; but it requires a gifted general to marshal and direct the militant host in the daring manœuvres of war. In the Divine government of the world the occasion calls forth the man.