Verse 1
And you hath he quickened - This chapter should not have been separated from the preceding, with which it is most intimately connected. As Christ fills the whole body of Christian believers with his fullness, ( Ephesians 1:23 ;), so had he dealt with the converted Ephesians, who before were dead in trespasses, and dead in sins. Death is often used by all writers, and in all nations, to express a state of extreme misery. The Ephesians, by trespassing and sinning, had brought themselves into a state of deplorable wretchedness, as had all the heathen nations; and having thus sinned against God, they were condemned by him, and might be considered as dead in law - incapable of performing any legal act, and always liable to the punishment of death, which they had deserved, and which was ready to be inflicted upon them.
Trespasses, παραπτωμασι , may signify the slightest deviation from the line and rule of moral equity, as well as any flagrant offense; for these are equally transgressions, as long as the sacred line that separates between vice and virtue is passed over.
Sins, ἁμαρτιαις , may probably mean here habitual transgression; sinning knowingly and daringly.
Be the first to react on this!
