n the epistles to
the Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, Thessalonians (in 2
Thessalonians wholly wanting as in this epistle), Titus, and the
first to Timothy. The other objections are founded on
misinterpretation, as when it is inferred from chap, 1:15 that
the author had never seen those to whom he wrote; and from chap,
3:2 that they had no personal acquaintance with him. But in the
former passage the apostle speaks simply of the good report
which had come to him from the Ephesian church since he left it;
and, in the latter, the words: "if ye have heard" imply no doubt
(compare 1 Peter 2:3), and cannot be fairly adduced to prove
that the writer was personally unknown to his readers.

25. This epistle, like that to the Colossians, naturally falls into two
divisions of about equal size; the first _argumentative_, the second
_practical_.

The _argumentative_ part occupies the first two chapters. Full of the
great theme with which the epistle to the Colossians is occupied--the
personal dignity and glory of Christ, the greatness of his salvation,
and especially the union through him of all holy beings in heaven and
earth in one family of God--the apostle begins, immediately after the
apostolic greeting, by pouring out his heart in thanksgiving to God for
his rich mercy, which has made him and his beloved Ephesians partakers
of Christ's redemption, the greatness and glory of which he describes in
glowing terms, bringing in, as he proceeds, the thought with which his
mind is filled, that it is God's purpose to "gather together in one all
things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth."
Chap. 1:10. He then adds a fervent prayer for the growth of the
Ephesians in the knowledge of Christ, whom God has raised above all
principality and power and made head over all things to his body the
church. Returning in the second chapter to the theme with which he
began, he contrasts with the former wretched condition of the Ephesians,
when they had no hope and were without God in the world, their present
blessed state, as fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household
of faith; God having through Christ broken down the middle wall of
partition between Jews and Gentiles, and built them all into a holy
temple upon one common foundation, of which Jesus Christ is the chief
corner stone. In the third chapter he dwells upon the grace of God which
had committed to him, in a