Ephesians 2:21

in whom In close and vital connexion with Whom. See last note.

all the building R. V., "each several building;" as if the great Temple were viewed for the moment in its multiplicity of porches, courts, and towers; each connected with the great bond of the substructure, in and on which the whole architecture was rising. An interesting grammatical question arises over the reading here and this rendering, and will occur again Ephesians 3:15: does the Greek phrase, in the best attested reading, demandthe rendering of the R. V. as against that of the A. V.? We incline to the reply that it does not. The law of the definite article (the absence of which here occasions the question) is undoubtedly somewhat less exact in the Greek of the Scriptures than in that of the classics. And this leaves us free to use (with caution) thecontext to decide problems which in the classics would be decided by pure grammar. Such a case we take this to be; and the question to ask is, does the context favour the imagery of detailor that of total?Surely the latter. The idea points to one great building, getting completed within itself, rising to its ideal. We retain accordingly the A. V. See further, next note.

fitly framed together One word, a present participle, in the Greek. The same occurs below, Ephesians 4:16 ("fitly joinedtogether"), and nowhere else in N. T. The idea is not of a completed but of a progressive work, a "framing together" of the structure ever more closely and firmly. The building shrinks into greater solidity, binds itself into more intense coherence, as it grows. The spiritual union of the saints needs but to be more believed and realized to tell more on their actual closeness of connexion. The idea conveyed by this word, which is of course in the singular number, is (see last note) far rather that of one great building growing in internal solidity than of many buildings growing in contact.

groweth with the perpetual addition of new "living stones" (1 Peter 2:5) and the resulting new connexions. Observe two distinct ideas in harmony; growth in compactness, growth in extension.

unto a holy temple R. V., margin, "into an holy sanctuary." The Greek (nâos) is not the temple- areawith its courts and porches (hiëron), but the temple- house;the place of the Presence. The phrase, "unto," "into," suggests (like that in the next verse) a sanctuary not yet complete and ready for the Presence. The true Church, indeed, is already(1 Corinthians 3:16; 2 Corinthians 6:16; and cp. 1 Corinthians 6:19 of its individual members) "the sanctuary of the living God." But it is this as a still imperfect thing, and still imperfectly; the absolute and final in the matter is yet to come; and this will so transcend the partial and actual that it is spoken of as ifthe Indwelling were not yet. We may faintly illustrate by an unfinished cathedral, used already for Divine worship, but not yet ideally prepared for it. See Revelation 21:22 for another side of truth in temple-imagery. There, in the final state, there is "no sanctuary," for God and the Lamb "are the sanctuary of" the holy City. All, absolutely all, is hallowed by Their Presence indwelling; Sanctuary and Shechinah are, as it were, one; and nothing is there that is not Sanctuary.

Great indeed is the conception in this passage. The saints, in their community "in the Lord," are preparing, through an Indwelling partial though real, for an Indwelling complete and eternal; the two being, in continuity, one. In no mere figure of speech, their God already "dwells" in their bodies, and in their community; dwells there as in a Sanctuary in manifested Light, in Peace of covenant and propitiation, in Oracle-speech of "the Spirit's witness," in eternal Life. And this precious present fact is germinating to the future result of a heavenly and everlasting Indwelling (likewise in individuals and in community), when the Sanctuary shall reflect without a flaw its Indweller's glory; when our union and communion with Him, in other words, shall be perfect, absolute, ideal. "We shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is."

in the Lord The Lord Christ. We have "God" in the next verse, in a way which indicates this distinctive reference here. The imagery leaves the precise idea of the Corner Stone, to present the Lord as the living bond and principle, the secret both of growth and sanctity.