Ephesians 6:21-24; Benediction – peace, love, faith, and grace.
length: 70:17 - taught on Aug, 25 2022
Class Outline:
August 25, 2022
Benediction: Peace, love with faith, and grace with a final plea for divine love.
This benediction reminds us that God’s love is the chief of virtues. As Paul wrote in 1Co 13, if we have faith or knowledge or humanitarianism or courage, but we don’t have love, we are nothing.
The benediction is full of importance. The close of such a great letter, maybe the greatest that the world has ever seen, would succinctly focus on important key elements within the letter. Peace, love based on faith from the Father and the Son, and grace (God’s favor) who purely love their Lord Jesus Christ.
Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with a love incorruptible.
Peace and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Peace and love attend one another. Peace springs from love while love rests on faith.
All three nouns (peace, love, and faith) have played a crucial role in Paul’s discussion of God’s redemptive plan and the Person of Christ.
Peace gained by Christ through His death on the cross and resurrection reconciled believers to God, and to each other. The peace was true in that it overthrew the ingrained and intense hostility between groups of people, the greatest of which was at the start - Jew and Gentile.
Paul declared that Christ is our peace, for He brought the Jew and Gentile together, creating one new humanity through the cross, (EPH 2:14-17).
No treaty could ever be negotiated with the principalities and powers of evil, and still peace is ours if we come to know God by faith and study. Peace and love belong together, for peace is reconciliation and love is its source and the means by which it flows out of us.
He opens this letter like the others:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The peace of Christ binds believers in unity (EPH 4:3).
being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Love causes us to support one another (4:2).
with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love,
Love and faith are paired, (3:17).
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love
The shield of faith protects us from the flaming missiles of the devil, his deceptions and schemes.
Love is the source of forbearance, the mutual consideration and self-sacrifice, without which there is no peace in the church or the soul. Peace springs from love while love rests on faith.
The love of God is in us by faith in all of God that we currently know.
One cannot make the love of God within himself by self-will. We have already seen this in Ephesians.
For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God.
The love of God in us springs forth from knowing the Father and the Son and being strengthened with power or ability by the Holy Spirit within. The ability given by the Holy Spirit to live the spiritual life, which is the life of Christ in Eph 3, enables us to know the Father and the Son and from them comprehend the unfathomable depth of their love.
We are not to gain knowledge for the sake of knowledge. Knowledge is designed to show us God and then to progress to having God’s way become our own, hence, the love of God surpasses knowledge.
Amongst the brethren, peace and love should always find their home.
In EPH 3:17 we see that living the spiritual life puts Christ at home in our hearts and in JOH 14:23 we find this being initially taught by the Lord. Love of the Lord is the framework of the home, which for us becomes our daily life in the presence of the Father and the Son while the Holy Spirit continues to teach us and strengthen us. On our end are our old friends: humility, submission, fear of the Lord, and obedience, which eventually lead to knowledge and love.
“After a little while the world will behold Me no more; but you will behold Me; because I live, you shall live also. 20 In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. 21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him, “Lord, what then has happened that You are going to disclose Yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him, and make Our abode with him. 24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's who sent Me.”
Love and obedience are the framing from which the Father and the Son make their home with us when we love them and keep the commandments. Remember Paul’s description of Tychicus:
With these important truths in mind, let’s take in the benediction again.
Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with a love incorruptible.
Peace is a fruit of the Spirit.
If peace exists in the hearts of two persons, nothing contrary with arise among them. Calm and quiet hearts are hearts that love God because by faith they are convinced that God loves them. The love of God in one’s heart is also Jesus at home in that heart. There are no clashing interests, no selfish competitions, no strife as to who shall be greatest. Differences of opinion and taste are kept within the bounds of mutual submission. The awe of God’s presence with His people, the remembrance of the dear price at which His church was purchased, the sense of Christ’s Lordship in the Spirit and of the sacredness of our brotherhood in Him, check all turbulence and rivalry and teach us to seek the things that make for peace.
Peace springs from love. Don’t expect peace without it. Love not only avoids contention by rejecting ill thoughts for others, but also actively seeks out reconciliation that is necessary (MAT 5:21-26).
EPH 6:24 Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with a love incorruptible.
Literally: “Grace (be) with all of them who are loving our Lord Jesus Christ in immortality (incorruption).”
The NASB adds the noun “love” to “incorruptible,” when that noun “love” is not in the original. They decided on “love incorruptible” and stuck with it. The preposition is “en” which usually means in.
“incorruptible” - aphtharsia = immortal, imperishable, incorruptible.
The word is an indirect object, and there is some debate as to whether it is connected to the word “grace,” or to “our Lord Jesus Christ,” or to “those who are loving our Lord Jesus Christ.”
“Love incorruptible” however might be a bit misleading. Aphtharsia in Paul’s usage has the meaning immortal. NIV has it “undying love.” KJV has it “them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.” And then they add “Amen,” which isn’t there. And although the syntax is a little stretched, the NLT has it, “May God's grace be eternally upon all who love our Lord Jesus Christ,” which is cleaner, having the object “immortality” with “grace.”
“Grace to those who are loving the Lord Jesus Christ in immortality.”
So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a perishable body, it is raised an imperishable body.
Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me His prisoner; but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, 9 who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, 10 but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, 11 for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher.
Heaven is immortal and imperishable. Our love must be heaven’s love, and that love must not be compromised.
Paul uses the cognate adjective to describe the believer’s crown that will last forever.
Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. 25 And everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; 27 but I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.
Connect
Subscribe to our mailing list |
Grace and Truth Ministries 1900 Hines S.E. Salem, Oregon 97302 |
 |
letters@cgtruth.org |
|
© Grace and Truth Ministries All Rights Reserved. |