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`Wherein (i.e. "in trespasses and sins, to which you have since died")
in time past ye walked according to the course (age) of this world, according
to the prince of the power (authority) of the air' (Eph. 2:2).
`This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk
not as other (ta loipa, same word as "others" hoi loipoi Eph. 2:3)
Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 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' (Eph.
4:17,18).
`For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even
weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is
destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their
shame, who mind earthly things' (Phil. 3:18,19).
`Mortify therefore your members ... uncleanness ... For which things'
sake the wrath of God cometh on the children (sons) of disobedience: In
the which ye also walked some time (in time past), when ye lived in
them' (Col. 3:5 -7).
There is much food for thought in this fourfold picture of the past.
The desires of the flesh and of the mind run through them all and we must
either devote considerable space to their comparison or be content with the
above presentation. This latter course is the only one that is possible in
the circumstances and so we turn our attention to the parallel word to
`walk', namely `conversation'.The word translated `conversation' in Ephesians
2:3
is anastrepho, and does not occur again in the Prison Epistles. Anastrophe,
the noun, occurs in Ephesians 4:22:
`That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which
is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts' (4:22).
It is evident from this reference that the `walk' and the
`conversation' in times past of Ephesians 2:3 is but the manifestation of the
`old man'. When we get this Scriptural portrait of the walk and conversation
of times past, with its environment of the world and the devil without, and
its heredity of the flesh within, such a picture of fettered misery and
hopeless alienation rises before the mind that the relief brought by the
blessed words `But God' is unspeakable.
Who but God could break through this dreadful state and what else would
be of any avail but `quickening Love'? Precepts, commands, ordinances, vows,
promises, prayers are all of no avail, for the one crying need is `life' and
life is in the gift of God alone. Here then is Paul's great doctrinal
`Selah'.
`But God, Who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved
us (we being dead ones to sins), hath quickened us together with Christ
(by grace ye are saved). And hath raised us up together, and made us
sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to
come He might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness
towards us through Christ Jesus' (Eph. 2:4-7).
Look on this picture (Eph. 2:2,3) and on that (Eph. 2:4 -7). What
differences there are between `the age of this world' and those `ages to
come' that are to be laden with `kindness'! If there be a mighty power that