Ephesians 2:22

2:19-22 The church is compared to a city, and every converted sinner is free of it. It is also compared to a house, and every converted sinner is one of the family; a servant, and a child in God's house. The church is also compared to a building, founded on the doctrine of Christ; delivered by the prophets of the Old Testament, and the apostles of the New. God dwells in all believers now; they become the temple of God through the working of the blessed Spirit. Let us then ask if our hopes are fixed on Christ, according to the doctrine of his word? Have we devoted ourselves as holy temples to God through him? Are we habitations of God by the Spirit, are we spiritually-minded, and do we bring forth the fruits of the Spirit? Let us take heed not to grieve the holy Comforter. Let us desire his gracious presence, and his influences upon our hearts. Let us seek to discharge the duties allotted to us, to the glory of God.

Are builded together (συνοικοδομεῖσθε) As component parts of the one building. The reference is to individual Christians, not to communities. Habitation (κατοικητήριον) Answering to temple. Only here and Revelation 18:2. Indicating a permanent dwelling. See on dwell, Luke 11:26; see on Acts 2:5; see on Mark 5:3. In marked contrast with sojourners, Ephesians 2:19. Through the Spirit (ἐν) Better, as Rev., in. In the fellowship of the indwelling Spirit.

An habitation of God; a temple where God may dwell. Not only the whole collection of believers is called the temple of God, but particular churches and particular saints are so called, because of God’s dwelling in them by his Spirit: see 1 Corinthians 3:16,17 6:19 . Through the Spirit: this may relate either to the words immediately going before, an habitation of God, and then the meaning is, an habitation or temple in which God dwells by his Spirit; or to the verb builded, and then they import the building of them into a temple to be the operation of the Spirit, working that faith and love in them whereby they are united to Christ the foundation, and to the several parts of the building.

Verse 22. - In whom ye also are builded together. Once more the vitalizing element - "in whom;" for this is better than "in which," inasmuch as this verse is substantially a reduplication of the preceding one, making special application of the same subject to the Ephesians. The person changes from the third to the second, to make emphatic that the Ephesians shared this great privilege. Their relations towards believing Jews and other believers in the Church were not accidental; they were "builded together," compacted into each other, and ought to work together towards God's great ends. For a habitation of God in the Spirit. Not many habitations, but one. The Church as a temple is the dwelling-place of God. Here he bestows his fullness, so that when the temple is completed it will exhibit, as fully as a created thing can, the manifold glory of God. "In the Spirit" in this verse corresponds to "in the Lord" in the previous one. The actual communication of Divine properties to finite beings is the work of the Third Person. In this verse, again, we find the three Persons of the Trinity: the temple is the habitation of the First Person; the source of its life and growth and symmetry is the Son; the actual up-building and glorifying of it is by the Spirit.

(22) In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. —This verse seems primarily intended simply to emphasise the truth already enunciated (in Ephesians 2:20 ), that the Ephesians themselves are now being made part of the Church of Christ, “being built up together in Christ.” But it may also illustrate to us the character of the unity of the Church, as, primarily, a direct individual unity with Christ—each stone being itself a complete and living stone—and, secondarily and indirectly, an unity with others and with the whole. The Ephesians are said to be, not a part of the habitation of God, but themselves built into Christ for an habitation of God—“Christ dwelling in their hearts by faith,” and they “therefore being filled with all the fulness of God” ( Ephesians 3:17-19 ). The addition of this clause, therefore, links the teaching of this Epistle with the earlier and more individual forms of teaching, noted on Ephesians 2:20 . This verse contains, again, the declaration (as in Ephesians 2:18) of the union of Christians with each Person of THE HOLY TRINITY. The soul made one with THE SON becomes a temple for the indwelling of THE FATHER in the gift of THE HOLY SPIRIT. (See John 14:23.)

22 . you also ] He reminds them of the joyful fact that they are special examples of the general truth that “the Gentiles are fellow-heirs.” are builded ] A present tense in the Greek; are building, being builded . It is a process; carried on in new accessions of regenerate souls, and new and deeper “framing together” of the already regenerate. for a habitation ] For the significance of “for,” see remarks on “unto” in Ephesians 2:21 .—The word rendered “habitation” (elsewhere Revelation 18:2 only) means, by its form, emphatically a permanent abode. The true idea is of the eternal Indwelling of God in the glorified Church. But this is reached through the lasting, though partial, Indwelling now. See notes above; and below, on Ephesians 3:17 . God ] Not here specially Christ. The prospect is of the world where “God shall be all in all” ( 1 Corinthians 15:28 ), words which foretell no removal (God forbid) of “the Lamb” from “the Throne,” but a manifestation of the Father supreme and unimaginable. Meanwhile, again, the present is the germ of that Future; “My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him” ( John 14:23 )[34]; and “ye are the temple of the living God” ( 2 Corinthians 6:16 ). [34] The one passage where the coming of the Father is spoken of. What awful grandeur is bestowed by this ‘We’ on the believer! (Note by the Dean of Peterborough). through the Spirit ] Lit. and better, in (the) Spirit .

The living Temple, in its every stone, is what it is by the immediate action of the Holy Spirit, “Who sanctifieth the elect people of God.” They are thus “ in the Spirit”( Romans 8:9 ), surrounded, as it were, by His presence and power. And so it will be, as this passage indicates, in the final state where the “pure River” will still “proceed from the Throne of” the Father and the Son. Will not the Holy Spirit’s work, far from ceasing, be supremely effectual, in the world of “ spiritual bodies ” ( 1 Corinthians 15:44 )? We undoubtingly explain “in spirit” here to mean “in the Spirit” (with A.V. and R.V.), remembering the prominence in the whole Epistle, and not least in this part, of the subject of the Holy Spirit’s work. Thus closes the special revelation of the plan and nature of the great Living Sanctuary, built on the Son, by the Spirit, for the Father, to be the scene of the manifestation of His Glory to whatsoever spectators Eternity shall bring to see it.

In whom - In Christ, or on Christ, as the solid and precious foundation. Ye also are builded together - You are built into that, or constitute a part of it. You are not merely "added" to it, but you constitute a part of the building. For an habitation of God - For the indwelling, or the dwelling-place, of God. Formerly he dwelt in the temple. Now he dwells in the church, and in the hearts of his people; see the notes at 2 Corinthians 6:16. Remarks On Ephesians 2 1. We were by nature dead in sin; Ephesians 2:1. We had no spiritual life. We were insensible to the calls of God, to the beauty of religion, to the claims of the Creator. We were like corpses in the tomb in reference to the frivolous and busy and happy world around them. There we should have remained, had not the grace of God given us life, just as the dead will remain in their graves forever, unless God shall raise them up. How humble should we be at the remembrance of this fact! how grateful that God bas not left us to sleep that sleep of death forever! 2. Parents should feel deep solicitude for their children; Ephesians 2:3.

They, in common with all others, are "children of wrath." They have a nature prone to evil; and that nature will develope itself in evil for ever, unless it is changed - just as the young thornbush will be a thorn-bush, and will put forth thorns and not roses; and the Bohon Upas will be a Bohon Upas, and not an olive or an orange; and as the lion will be a lion, and the panther a panther, and not a lamb, a kid, or a gazelle. They will act out their nature, unless they are changed: and they will not be changed, but by the grace of God. I do not mean that their nature is in every sense like that of the lion or the asp; but I mean that they will be as certainly "wicked," if unrenewed, as the lion will be ferocious, and the asp poisonous. And if so, what deep anxiety should parents feel for the salvation of their children! How solicitous should they be that, by the grace of God. the evil propensities of their nature may be eradicated, and that they become the adopted children of God! 3. The salvation of sinners involves all the exercise of power that is put forth in the resurrection of the dead; Ephesians 2:5. It is not a work to be performed by man; it is not a work of angelic might. None can impart spiritual life to the soul but he who gave it life at first. On that great Source of life we are dependent for our resurrection from spiritual death; and to God we must look for the grace by which we are to live.