Homilies on Ephesians 5

Wherefore remember, that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;

that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.

In many ways he shows forth God's love toward mankind to us-ward.

First, that He saved us by Himself, and by Himself in such a manner;

second, what manner of men we were whom He saved;

For all these things, even taken by themselves, afford the greatest proof of His love toward mankind;

and all these things Paul now sets in motion as he writes.

He said that He saved us when we were dead in trespasses, and children of wrath;

now he tells also to whom He made us equal.

For it is the custom with us all, when from great meanness we are raised to a station of equal, or even greater honour, not so much as to remember our former estate, being nurtured now in that glory.

For this cause he says, Wherefore remember.

Wherefore — of what kind? That we were created unto good works.

And this is enough to persuade us to be diligent about virtue.

For that remembrance is sufficient to make us grateful toward our Benefactor.

Observe how he pulls down the Jewish privileges, and admires the disadvantages of the Gentiles — which were not really disadvantages; but he persuades both parties from their manner of life and conduct.

Who are called the Uncircumcision.

The honour lay in mere words, the pre-eminence was in the flesh;

for the Uncircumcision is nothing, and the Circumcision is nothing.

By that which is called, he says, the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands.

That at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.

You who are thus named, he says, by the Jews.

But why, when he is about to show that their benefit came about in this, in their being made partakers with Israel, does he again not pull down the Israelite dignity, but in these things exalt it? In the essential things he exalts it, but in these things he pulls it down — namely, in those things wherein they had no share.

You are fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.

These things, he says, are matters of indifference.

Do not suppose, he says, that because you did not obtain circumcision and are in uncircumcision, there is any difference.

For this was the grievous thing — to be without Christ, to be alienated from the commonwealth of Israel;

and to be strangers from the covenants of promise, to have no hope for the future, to be without God in this world — all these things were theirs.

He spoke concerning heavenly things; he speaks also concerning the things upon earth, since the Jews held a great opinion concerning these.

So also Christ, comforting the disciples, after saying, Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, sets down the lesser thing;

For thus, He says, they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

For this, in respect of greatness, is the lesser;

but in respect of being near and of coming to believe, it is great and sufficient, and has much strength.

So then this was what it meant to be citizens of the commonwealth.

He did not say, Separated, but, Alienated from the commonwealth.

He did not say, Not attending to it, but, Not even partaking, and, Strangers.

Great is the force of the words, showing forth the great separation.

Since the Israelites also were outside the commonwealth, yet not as aliens but as slothful, and they too fell away from the covenants, yet not as strangers.

But what were the covenants of the promise? To you and to your seed, He says, will I give this land, and whatever else He promised.

Having no hope, he says, and without God.

And yet they worshipped gods, but they were not gods;

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ.

For He is our peace, who made both one, who broke down the middle wall of partition, having abolished the enmity in His flesh.

Is this then the great thing, he asks, that we came into the commonwealth of the Jews? What do you say? He summed up all things which are in the heavens and which are upon the earth, and now do you speak of Israelites? Yes, he says.

For those heavenly things must be received by faith, but these by the very works themselves.

But now, he says, in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near unto the commonwealth.

For the being far off, and the being near, are matters of choice alone.

For He is our peace, who made both one.

What is it, He made both one? He does not mean this, that He raised us to that nobility, but that both us and them He raised to something greater;

yet toward us the benefit is greater.

For to them it had been promised, and they were nearer; but to us it had not even been promised, and we were farther off.

But the Gentiles glorified God for His mercy.

For He had made promise to the Israelites, but they were unworthy;

but to us He had promised nothing, and moreover we were strangers;

we had nothing in common with them, and He made us one — not by joining us to them, but by joining both them and us together into one.

Let us suppose there are two statues, the one of silver, the other of lead, and then, both being melted down, the two come up gold.

Behold, He has made the two one.

let the one be a slave, the other an adopted son;

and let both worship him — the one being a disowned child, the other a runaway, who had not even known his father;

then let both become heirs and true-born sons.

Behold, they are brought to one honour;

the two are become one — the one having come from afar, the other from near — and more truly a son than before he had offended.

Having broken down, he says, the middle wall of partition.

Of what kind the middle wall is, he interprets, saying, The enmity in His flesh.

Having abolished in ordinances the law of commandments.

Some indeed say that the Law is the middle wall;

for this reason he called the Law so, because it did not suffer the Jews to mingle with the Greeks.

But he calls the enmity that is in the flesh a middle wall, inasmuch as it was a common barrier fencing us off from God, even as the prophet says:

Is it not your sins that make a division between you and me? And rightly so;

for the enmity was like a middle wall, which existed both toward the Jews and toward the Greeks.

And while the Law was in force, this enmity was not only not dissolved, but even increased;

For the Law, he says, works wrath.

Just as there, when he says, The Law works wrath, he does not ascribe the whole matter to it, but, since we transgressed, this is to be supplied;

so also here he calls it a middle wall, since, being disobeyed, it wrought enmity.

The Law was a fence, but this came about for the sake of security;

wherefore it was also named a fence, that it might fence about and protect.

For hear again the prophet saying:

And I set a fence about it;

and again, You have broken down its fence, so that all who pass by the way pluck it.

So then he speaks of the security it afforded.

And again, I will break down its fence, and it shall be trodden down;

and again, He gave a Law for a help; and again, The Lord, executing mercy and judgment, made known His ordinances to Israel.

But it became a middle wall, no longer establishing them in security, but separating them.

For such is the middle wall that comes from the fence.

And showing what this is, he adds, The enmity in his flesh.

Having abolished the law of commandments.

How? By setting His seal upon it, and by there dissolving the enmity.

And He dissolved it not by this alone, but also by keeping the Law Himself.

What then? If we have been set free from the former transgression, yet are again compelled to keep it? It would be the same thing over again;

For, having abolished, he says, the law of commandments in ordinances.

He gave us a Law, that we might keep it;

but since we did not keep it, and ought to have been punished, He even abolished the Law itself;

as if one, having handed over a child to a tutor, when the child would not obey, should both set him free from the tutor and lead him away.

How great a lovingkindness is this! What is the meaning of, Having abolished it in ordinances? For here he speaks of a great difference between commandment and ordinances.

Either, then, he means the faith, calling it an ordinance;

for He saved us by faith alone;

or he means the injunction, even as Christ said:

But I say to you, do not be angry at all.

That is, If you believe that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved;

And again, The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.

Do not say, Who shall ascend into heaven, or who shall descend into the abyss, or who brought Him up from the dead? In place of a whole life he introduced faith.

For, that He might not save without cause, He Himself was also punished, and required of them faith through ordinances.

That He might create in Himself the two into one new man.

Do you see that it was not that the Greek became a Jew, but that both this one and that one came into another condition? It was not that He might make the one into the other that He abolished the Law, but that He might create the two.

And well does he everywhere use the word, Create.

And he did not say, Change, in order to show the efficacy of what was done, and that, even though the creation be something visible, yet it is not inferior to that other, and that we ought no longer to spring away as though from natural things.

That He might create the two, he says, in Himself;

He did not enjoin this upon another, but Himself, through His own person, having fused both this one and that one, brought forth one wondrous man, Himself first becoming this;

which is greater than the former creation.

For this is the meaning of, In Himself: He Himself first furnished the pattern and the example.

For, having taken hold of the Jew from the one side and the Greek from the other, and Himself becoming the middle, and having mingled them together, and having done away with all that was alienated in them, He fashioned them anew from above, through fire and water;

no longer through water and earth, but through water and fire.

He became a Jew by being circumcised, He became accursed, He became a Greek, being outside the Law, and above both Greeks and Jews.

Into one new man, he says.

toward God, and toward one another.

For they would not have been reconciled while remaining both Jews and Greeks;

and if each had not departed from his own proper condition, how could they have come into another and greater one? For the Jew is then joined to the Greek, when he becomes a believer;

as if certain persons, there being two chambers, the lower and the upper, of one wondrous and great house, could not see one another until they came to be above.

For what does he say? And that He might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross.

He did not say, Reconcile, but, Reconcile again, showing that before this the human nature was easily reconcilable, as in the case of the saints even before the Law.

In one body, he says, His own, to God.

How does this come about? He Himself, he says, having undergone the penalty that was due, through the cross.

Having slain the enmity in it.

There is nothing more authoritative than these words, nothing more expressive.

His death, he says, slew the enmity, wounded and destroyed it, not by enjoining it upon another, nor merely by acting, but also by suffering.

He did not say, Having loosed, nor did he say, Having taken away, but, what was more vehement than all, Having slain, so that it might no longer rise up.

How then does it rise up? From our great wickedness.

For as long as we abide in the body of Christ, as long as we are united, it does not rise up, but lies dead;

or rather, that one never rises up at all.

But if we beget another, it is no longer to be charged against Him who slew and destroyed the former;

For the mind of the flesh, he says, is enmity against God.

If we mind nothing carnal, no other enmity will be begotten, but that peace will remain.

For consider how great an evil it is, when God has done so much that we might be reconciled, and has accomplished it, for us again to return into enmity.

For such a one there awaits no longer a laver, but Gehenna; no longer forgiveness, but scrutiny.

The mind of the flesh is luxury, dissoluteness;

the mind of the flesh is covetousness and every sin.

Why is it called the mind of the flesh? And yet it could have wrought nothing without the soul.

He does not say this to disparage the flesh; for when he speaks of 'the natural man,' he does not say it to disparage the soul either, but rather to show that neither body nor soul is sufficient of itself, unless it enjoys the influence from above, to accomplish anything noble and great.

For this reason he calls those things 'natural' which the soul works of itself;

and he calls those things 'fleshly' which the body works of itself;

not because these things are natural to their essence, but because, not enjoying the guidance which comes from above, they perish.

For the eyes too are good, yet without light they work a thousand evils;

and this belongs to their weakness, not to their nature.

But if evils were natural, we should never have been able to put them to good use;

for there is nothing that is naturally evil.

What then are 'fleshly minds'? The sins.

For when this (the flesh) gains the mastery, being lifted up above its charioteer, it gives birth to a thousand dreadful things.

For the virtue of the flesh is to be subject to the soul, but its vice is to rule over the soul.

Just as a horse may be fine and well-limbed, yet this is not shown apart from a charioteer;

so also the flesh will then be good, when we prune away its wanton leapings.

But neither is a charioteer shown apart from skill;

for indeed he too, without skill, works things more dreadful than they do.

So that on every side we must keep watch;

the spirit, when it stands over them, makes the charioteer stronger;

this it is that adorns both the soul and the body.

For just as the soul, while it is present in the body, shows it to be beautiful, but when it deprives the body of its proper working and departs, then, as when some painter confuses his colors, great ugliness ensues, each of the parts hastening toward corruption and dissolution;

so also the spirit, when it leaves both the body and the soul desolate, the ugliness becomes worse and greater.

Do not therefore, because the body is inferior to the soul, revile it.

For neither do I endure to revile the soul, because it has no strength apart from the spirit.

But if one must say something, the soul is worthy of the greater accusation.

For the body could work nothing dreadful without the soul, but the soul works many things without the body;

for indeed, even when the body is wasting away and not leaping wantonly, the soul works many things;

just as those sorcerers, the magicians, the envious, the poisoners, especially waste it away.

And besides, luxury is not a necessity of the body, but of the soul's inattention;

for it is nourishment, not luxury, that belongs to the body's necessity.

For if I wish to apply a strong bridle, I have curbed the horse;

but the body cannot repress the soul in its own evils.

For what reason then does he call it 'the mind of the flesh'? Because it becomes wholly the flesh's.

For when this (the flesh) gains the mastery, then one sins, when it takes away the mind and the sovereignty of the soul.

Therefore the virtue of the body lies in this, in yielding to the soul, since of itself it is neither good nor evil.

For what could the body work of itself? So that by its conjunction the body is good, good by reason of its subjection, since of itself it is neither good nor evil, but is fitted both for this and for that, having its inclination toward either.

The body desires, but not fornication nor adultery, but intercourse;

the body desires, not luxury, but nourishment, not drunkenness, but drink.

For that drunkenness is not a desire of the body, consider in this way;

it no longer holds out when you exceed the measure, when you overcome the limits of the body;

since all the rest belongs to the soul, as when it is dragged down to fleshly things, when it becomes gross.

For even if the body is good, yet it is far inferior to the soul.

Lead is inferior to gold, yet nonetheless there is need even of lead which solders;

so also the soul has need of the body;

or, just as a well-born child needs a tutor, so also the soul has need of the body.

And do not wonder that I have brought forward such examples.

For just as we speak of 'childish things,' not disparaging the age, but the things pertaining to it;

so also concerning the body.

But it is possible, if we will, not to be in the flesh, just as neither on the earth, but in the heavens and in the spirit.

For being somewhere is not so much spoken of by one's position in a place as by one's disposition.

At any rate, when many are somewhere, we say they are not there, saying, 'You were not here.'

And why do I say these things? Often we say, 'You are not in yourself,' 'I am not in myself';

and yet what is more corporeal than this, when a man is close to his own self? But nevertheless we do not say that he is in himself.

Let us therefore become in ourselves, in heaven, in the spirit;

let us abide in the peace and the grace of God, that, being freed from all fleshly things, we may be able to attain the good things that have been promised in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom, to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, might, honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.