Ephesians 4:18

Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: 'Being darkened in their understanding' [ tee (G3588) dianoia (G1271)]; i:e., intelligence (cf. Ephesians 5:8; Acts 26:18; 1 Thessalonians 5:4: contrast Ephesians 1:18). ALIENATED - this and "darkened" imply that before the fall they (in...

18._Being alienated from the life of God. The life of God _may either mean what is accounted life in the sight of God, as in that passage, “they loved the praise of men more than _the praise of God_, ” (John 12:43,) or, that life which God bestows on his elect by the Spirit of regeneration. In both cases the meaning is the same. Our ordinary life, as men, is nothing more than an empty image of life, not only because it quickly passes, but also because, while we live, our souls, not keeping close to God, are dead. There are three kinds of life in this world. The first is animal life, which consists only of motion and the bodily senses, and which we have in common with the brutes; the second is human life, which we have as the children of Adam; and the third is that supernatural life, which believers alone obtain. A

17-24 The apostle charged the Ephesians in the name and by the authority of the Lord Jesus, that having professed the gospel, they should not be as the unconverted Gentiles, who walked in vain fancies and carnal affections. Do not men, on every side, walk in the vanity of their minds? Must not we then urge the distinction between real and nominal Christians? They were void of all saving knowledge; they sat in darkness, and loved it rather than light. They had a dislike and hatred to a life of holiness, which is not only the way of life God requires and approves, and by which we live to him, but which has some likeness to God himself in his purity, righteousness, truth, and goodness. The truth of Christ appears in its beauty and power, when it appears as in Jesus. The corrupt nature is called a man; like the human body, it is of divers parts, supporting and strengthening one another. Sin...

Verse 18. 2. _HAVING THE UNDERSTANDING DARKENED_] This is the _second_ instance alleged by the apostle of the degradation of the Gentiles. Having no means of knowledge, the heart, naturally dark, became more and more so by means of habitual transgression; every thing in the Gentile system having an immediate tendency to blind the eyes and darken the whole soul. 3. _BEING ALIENATED FROM THE LIFE OF GOD_] The original design of God was to _live in man_; and the life of God in the soul of man was that by which God intended to make man happy, and without which true happiness was never found by any human spirit: from this _through the ignorance that was in them_, δια την αγνοιαν την ουσαν, through the _substantial_ or continually existing ignorance, which there was nothing to instruct, nothing to enlighten; for the most accurate writings of their best philosophers left them entirely ignoran...

HAVING THE UNDERSTANDING DARKENED - That is, because they were alienated from the true God, and particularly because of “the blindness of their hearts.” The apostle does not say that this was a “judicial” darkening of the understanding; or that they might not have perceived the truth; or that they had no ability to understand it. He speaks of a simple and well-known fact - a fact that is seen now as well as then that the understanding becomes darkened by indulgence in sin. A man who is intemperate, has no just views of the government of the appetites. A man who is unchaste, has no perception of the loveliness of purity. A man who is avaricious or covetous, has no just views of the beauty of benevolence. A man who indulges in low vices, will weaken his mental powers, and render himself incapable of intellectual effort. Indulgence in vice destroys the intellect as well as the body, and unf...

EXPOSITION PRACTICAL PORTION OF THE EPISTLE. EPHESIANS 4:1 CHURCH PRINCIPLE OF GROWTH AND PROGRESS; THE CHURCH A BODY. EPHESIANS 4:1 I THEREFORE. Inference not only from last chapter, but the whole Epistle. Paul's interest in the Ephesians led him to a double application of the great subject which he had expounded: (1) to ask God on their behalf that he would bestow on them the full measure of the blessing to which of his grace they were entitled ...

HAVING THE UNDERSTANDING DARKENED,.... Not that the natural faculty of the understanding is lost in men, nor the understanding in things natural and civil, and which is quick enough, especially in things that are evil; but in things spiritual it is very dark and ignorant, as about the nature and perfections of God, his holiness and righteousness; about sin and the consequences of it; about Christ, his person, office, and work, and salvation by him; about the Spirit, and his work of grace upon the soul; and about the Scripture, and the doctrines contained in it; and so it came to be by sin: the understanding of man was at first filled both with natural and divine knowledge; but man was not content with this, and being ambitious of more, even of being as God, lost what he had; for on account of his sin he was banished from the divine presence, which brought not only a darkness upon him, bu...

Ephesians 4:1. _I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;_ It is a loving call. Walk lovingly. It is the condescension of God that called you. Be, therefore, lowly. It is God in tenderness who has loved you. Be, therefore, meek, «forbearing one another in love.» Ephesians 4:3. _Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all._ Therefore, strive for unity. Woe unto those who divide believers that rob

3. THE WALK IN HOLINESS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS Chapter S 4:17-5:21 _ 1. Not as the Gentiles walk (Ephesians 4:17)_ 2. The putting off and putting on (Ephesians 4:20) 3. Followers of God (Ephesians 5:1) 4. Exhortations (Ephesians 5:3) At this point the exhortations to walk in separation begin. The “therefore” of Ephesians 4:17 refers us to the “wherefore” of Ephesians 2:11. What Gentiles are in their natural c

THE OLD MAN AND THE NEW. Those who are now members of the true Israel are no longer to walk as Gentiles, _i.e._ in the vanity of mind, the darkness, the alienation from the Divine life which springs from ignorance and obtuseness of heart, and issues in insensate abandonment to lascivious, impure, and greedy ways. Not such is the lesson of Christ! Those who have heard His voice and in Him been taught the truth truth as it exists in Jesus must renounce the old man of their former behaviour, the perishing man who is governed by deceitful lusts; they must be renewed in the spirit of their understanding; they must clothe themselves in the new man, the man after the Divine pattern, God's new creation in righteousness and holiness of truth, EPHESIANS 4:21. Truth as displayed in Jesus in His life upon earth. The name Jesus without the title Christ occurs here only in the epistl