"UNTO ME WHO AM LESS THAN THE LEAST OF ALL SAINTS IS THIS GRACE GIVEN, THAT I

SHOULD PREACH AMONG THE GENTILES THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF CHRIST, AND TO MAKE

ALL MEN SEE WHAT IS THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE MYSTERY, WHICH FROM THE BEGINNING HATH

BEEN HID IN GOD." -- Eph. iii. 8, 9.

Few words are used in as many different senses as the word "CHURCH," and therefore it behoves us to be

careful as to our employment of it. It is used for example:-- (1) Of a particular Church; as the Church of

Rome, Jerusalem, Antioch or the Church of England. (2) It is often wrongly used of the Ministry, and people

speak of this as "entering the Church." (3) It is used of a separate Assembly meeting for worship in any

given building or room: as the Church of England defines it (in her 19th "Article of Religion") "a

congregation of faithful men, in which the pure word of God is preached, and the sacraments be duly

administered." (4) It is used of the Building in which such a congregation meets for worship. (5) It is used of

the Church Episcopal, as distinguished from the non-Episcopal (Chapel). (6) It is used of the great body of

Nominal Christians, bad and good alike, tares and wheat, professors and possessors. And (7) It is used of

"the blessed company of all faithful people." I need hardly say that this last is the sense in which it is

viewed in this chapter, and in which we are now to consider it.

Now this Eph. iii. contains a somewhat difficult construction. The Apostle concludes chapter ii. by showing

how Jew and Gentile are "one body in Christ." (ii. 16), and are "builded together for an habitation of God

through Spirit" (ii. 22). Then chapter iii. begins, "For this cause I Paul the prisoner of Christ for you

Gentiles." Then follows a long parentheses, beginning with verse 2 and not ending till the end of verse 13.

He then takes up the thread at verse 14 by repeating the expression of verse 1, "For this cause I bow my

knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family  6 in Heaven and Earth is named."

"For this cause," because Jew and Gentile are one body in Christ. "I bow my knees ," in prayer for "the

whole family."

Now this parenthesis (Eph. iii. 2-13) flows naturally from the proposition of chapter ii. These Ephesian saints

had been idolators of the Gentiles, and the Apostle has shown how (in ii. 1 &c.) they had been quickened,

and builded together in Christ. As the instrument in the hands of the Spirit the Apostle had been used to

preach the Gospel to them, and in doing this he had suffered, and for their sakes was now a "prisoner of

Jesus Christ." Then, before continuing his subject and praying for the strengthening and growth of that

Body (iii. 16-21), he breaks off, and in this parenthesis (verses 2-13) he stops to dwell on the grace shown to

the Gentiles. In our text he calls it "the unsearchable riches of Christ."

Now these words are generally separated from their context, and taken in some undefined sense to express

the resources treasured up for us in Christ.

The fact, of course, is true, and we rightly sing:--

It cannot be "every family" as in the R.V. (1) Simply because it is not true; for Eph. iv. 6, declares that this

is only "one body," one family of the saved in Jesus Christ. The families of the ungodly, the children of the

Devil are certainly not the subjects of this blessing and honour, which is peculiarly and distinctly the

possession of the family of the redeemed. And (2) Because the exactly corresponding structure of the Greek

in other passages is not so translated by the revisers themselves; e.g.-- Rom. i. 29, and, John v. 17, i. 9, "all

unrighteousness," not "every": Matt. xxiii. 35, "all the righteous blood," not "every": Matt. ii. 3 "all

Jerusalem": Acts vii. 22 "all the wisdom."