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Ambrosiaster

Nicene & Post-Nicene · AD 325–500 · 1,043 passages across 16 books

Commentary

561–580 of 1,043
Ephesians 6:13

Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

We are waging war against the fiercest of enemies. He is skilled in every deceit. We must therefore keep on the lookout, with all circumspection and care, that wherever they test our resistance they will find us protected and ready.… Against earthly foes the body must be strengthened with food and the mind aroused by drink to become bold enough to fight back. So against the spiritual weapons of iniquity we must fight spiritually. But our weapons must be sobriety and abstinence, that, having been imbued with the Holy Spirit, we may vanquish the unclean, warring spirits.

EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 6.17.1-2

Ephesians 6:18

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

Insofar as our conduct is right we are rightly prepared for the Holy Spirit to abide in us. Hence we are more ready to obtain what we request. This therefore is what it means to pray in the Spirit at all times. We are directing our prayer to God with a clean conscience and sincere faith. One who prays with a polluted mind prays only in the flesh, not in the spirit.

EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 6.20.1

Ephesians 6:19

And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,

He exhorts them to pray for him in two ways: first that his thoughts may be filled by the Spirit for the full declaration of the mystery, and second that he may be given a faculty of bold utterance in proclaiming it.

EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 6.20.2

Ephesians 6:20

For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

This prayer God hears gladly. The apostle is being despised. God’s own mission is under challenge. So God will certainly not withhold his gifts from one who is upholding God’s own cause. Custom and law forbid the infliction of harm on human ambassadors. So would it not be presumptuous and rash to bring on the ambassadors of God not only harm but death?

EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 6.20.3

Ephesians 6:21 · 2 passages

But that ye also may know my affairs, and how I do, Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things:

Through Tychicus the Ephesians would learn how the apostle is faring, and he would ascertain how things are going in Ephesus. There was no doubt in their minds that the apostle’s actions were godly. But the people at Ephesus needed to know more detail about how he was acting in response to idolatrous charges and ploys. And from the Ephesians Paul needed to know whether or not they were growing.

EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 6.22

So that they might be happy to obey and listen to Tychicus Paul calls him a most beloved brother and a useful servant of God.

EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 6.22

Ephesians 6:23

Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

He prays for peace, which is the door of love, to be with the family of God. Having come into this family through the peacemaking of God, he prays that they may abide in the love that comes from faith. For this faith is the gift of God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.

EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 6.23

Galatians 1:3

Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ,

He shows that the human race is sustained by the goodness of both, as much Father as Son. Nor does he indicate that the Son is less than the Father when he calls him our Lord, nor that the Father is greater when he calls him our God. He will not be a true Father unless he is also Lord, nor will the Son be a true Lord unless he is also God.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.3

Galatians 1:4 · 2 passages

Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:

Now Christ by atoning for our transgressions not only gave us life but also made us his own, so that we might be called children of God, made so through faith. What a great error it is, therefore, to go under the law again after receiving grace.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.4.2

For when the human race was held in the dominion of the devil, the Savior offered himself to the willing devil, so that deceiving him by the power of his virtue—for the devil wanted to take possession of one whom he was unable to hold—he could carry off those whom the devil was detaining by a false right.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.4.1

Galatians 1:8

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

Let no one be surprised that the apostle, when quieting ferocious characters, was so annoyed. He is indignant, for the sake of the Galatians’ salvation, with the enemies of the Christian way of life. For this indignation shows that it is no light sin to transfer allegiance to the law after receiving faith.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.9.1

Galatians 1:15

But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace,

Just as he said to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,” so, knowing what Paul would be, God called him because he was able to serve.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.16.2

Galatians 1:16

To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:

When he had faith in the law, not knowing that it was not the time for observance of the law, and was intensely striving to resist the gospel of Christ, he thought that he acted by God’s will. God, seeing that his zeal was good, though he lacked knowledge, chose to summon him into his grace. He knew that this man was suitable to preach his gospel to the Gentiles. For if he was so swift and faithful in so poor a cause through boldness of conscience, not through adulation of anyone, how much more constant would he be in preaching the gift of God through the hope of the promised reward?

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.15.1

Galatians 1:17

Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.

He set out from Damascus to Arabia, therefore, to preach where none of the apostles had been and where Judaizing had not been promoted through the intrigues of pseudoapostles. And from there he returned again to Damascus so that he could attend to those who were still immature when he preached to them the gospel of God’s grace.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 1.17.2

Galatians 2:1

Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also.

His renown had been growing for a long time among all the Jews, though he had not been seen face to face … but on account of the law he had acquired a bad reputation among the Jews, as though his preaching was out of harmony with the preaching of the other apostles. Many were having doubts on account of this, which were sufficient to make the Gentiles anxious, in case they had been trained in something other than that which was preached by the apostles who had been with the Lord. For on this precise occasion the Galatians were undermined by Jews who were saying that Paul taught something other than Peter taught. This is the reason for his going up to Jerusalem, at the bidding of the Lord’s revelation, disclosing to them the implications of his preaching, with Barnabas and Titus as witnesses of his preaching, one from the Jews and one from the Gentiles, so that if any took offense at him it might be assuaged by their testimony.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.2.1

Galatians 2:3

But neither Titus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised:

The implication is “Why should you be circumcised, when Titus was not compelled to undergo circumcision by the apostles? Titus, who had an important role, was accepted without circumcision.”

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.3

Galatians 2:4

And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage:

By “secretly” he means that they had entered by deception, passing themselves off as brothers when they were enemies. By “slipped in” he means that they came in a humble manner, feigning friendship.… To “spy out” is to enter in such a way as to invent one thing and discover another, whereby they may challenge our liberty.… “Liberty in Jesus Christ” means not being subject to the law. “That they might bring us into bondage” means … to subject us to the law of circumcision.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.5.3-4

Galatians 2:7

But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter;

He names Peter alone because he has received the primacy in the founding of the church; and he himself had likewise been chosen to have the primacy in the founding of Gentile churches, but with the proviso that Peter should preach to the Gentiles, should cause arise, and Paul to the Jews.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.7.8

Galatians 2:9

And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.

Just as he allots to Peter companions who were the outstanding men among the apostles, so he joins to himself Barnabas, who was associated with him by God’s appointment. Yet he claims that the grace of his primacy was entrusted to him alone by God, just as the primacy among the apostles was entrusted solely to Peter.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.10.1-2

Galatians 2:20

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

One who is fixed to the cross of Christ is one who, in imitation of his footsteps, is not ensnared by any worldly desire. Living to God, he appears dead to the world.

EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS 2.19

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