Friday, July 14, 2023

Ephesians 2:1-3 under a microscope

As for you, 
you were dead in your trespasses and sins
in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world 
according to the prince of the power of the air, 
the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 
---All of us also lived among them at one time, 
gratifying the cravings of our flesh
and following its desires and thoughts
Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 
Ephesians 2:1-3
 Dead in your trespasses and sins.” 
---These were your grave clothes. 
---You were wrapped up in them. 
 ---Nay, this was your sarcophagus. 
---You were shut up in it, as in a great stone coffin.
Trespasses, παραπτωμασι, may signify the slightest deviation from the line and rule of moral equity, as well as any flagrant offense; Sins, αμαρτιαις, may probably mean here habitual transgression; sinning knowingly and daringly.
.... the Ephesians had not sinned casually, or now and then, but continually; it was their continual employment; they walked in trespasses and sins: and this was not a solitary case, all the nations of the earth acted in the same way; it was the course of this world, κατα τον αιωνα του κοσμου τουτου, according to the life, mode of living, or successive ages of this world....Satan is termed prince of the power of the air.
You were once no better than the workshop of the devil. 
He is the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience, 
as the smith works in his forge. 
When you hear foul language, when you see bad actions, these are the sparks coming out of the chimney that let you know who is at work within, down below. What a dreadful thing it is — a man dead to all that is good, but alive through the indwelling of the devil that is within him. “The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.”
The mind was darkened by the lusts of the flesh. It was not the will of
God
that was done by us, but the will of the flesh and of the mind. Here we see that the
fallen, apostate nature produces the fruits of unrighteousness. The bad tree produces bad fruit.
By fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, men contract that filthiness of flesh and spirit from which the apostle exhorts Christians to cleanse themselves.... All men, being naturally children of disobedience, are also by nature children of wrath: God is angry with the wicked.
Observed, 
1. Unregenerate souls are dead in trespasses and sins. 
2. A state of sin is a state of conformity to this world.
3. We are by nature bond-slaves to sin and Satan--- the prince of the power of the air."
Matthew Henry/Adam Clarke/Charles Spurgeon