Expositions of Holy Scripture:Ephesians; Epistles of St. Peter and St. John
Ephesians; Epistles of St. Peter and St. John
9781465558701
pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
SAINTS AND FAITHFUL 'The saints which are at Ephesus and the faithful in Christ Jesus.'—Eph. i. 1. That is Paul’s way of describing a church. There were plenty of very imperfect Christians in the community at Ephesus and in the other Asiatic churches to which this letter went. As we know, there were heretics amongst them, and many others to whom the designation of 'holy' seemed inapplicable. But Paul classes them all under one category, and describes the whole body of believing people by these two words, which must always go together if either of them is truly applied, ’saints' and 'faithful.' Now I think that from this simple designation we may gather two or three very obvious indeed, and very familiar and old-fashioned, but also very important, thoughts. I. A Christian is a saint
