Some believers, who hold the Calvinistic doctrine of the decrees, are so antagonistic to the suggestion which we have earlier put forward, namely that the Divine foreknowledge which could see beforehand whether a free moral agent would or would not believe the gospel, that one of them, after reading the article entitled The epistle to the Romans in The Berean Expositor Volume 27, page 33, stooped to attack us by means of ‘an open letter’, but if we will but read to the conclusion of Ephesians 1:4 we shall discover that the initial cause of our election and salvation, is neither the sovereign decree of the Most High, nor the foreseen faith of the poor human recipient, but simply and solely the promptings of divine Love, which is the root and cause of the whole purpose of redeeming grace.
‘In love’.— This we shall find is true of other callings than that of Ephesians:
‘Thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were ... but because the Lord loved you’ (Deut. 7:6-8).
Blessed ‘arguing in a circle’ ! The Lord loved you ... because He loved you. Here we meet with ‘choice’, a ‘special people’, ‘above all’, in connection with this earthly calling, which reflects the high glories of the super-heavenly calling. Yet, however diverse these callings may be, whatever dispensational differences are apparent, however great the contrast between law and gospel, one thing remains constant, the prime cause of all causes is Love.
This phrase (‘In love’) occurs six times in the epistle, namely in 1:4; 3:17; 4:2,15,16 and 5:2. The first occurrence deals with pure doctrine, speaking of the choice of the Father before the foundation of the world; the second occurrence reveals this love to be the root and the ground from which all Christian graces spring; the remaining occurrences have to do with Christian walk and practice, ‘forbearing in love’, ‘speaking the truth in love’, ‘edifying in love’ and ‘walking in love’.
Those who have had the responsibility of translating the Scriptures into the tongue of a people who have hitherto entertained very depraved conceptions of God, or of moral virtue, will appreciate the problem that was before the writers of the New Testament when the time came for the Gospel of God’s love to be written. Paul was about to declare of that trinity ‘faith, hope and love’, that the greatest of these is ‘love’. John was to write that golden verse ‘John 3:16’, and in his epistle was to reveal that ‘God is Love’. While the Greek language contained three words all translatable by the one word ‘love’, two of them, by reason of human frailty could not justly bear the new burden imposed by the true conception of the love of God manifested in the gift of His Only Begotten Son.
The three Greek words which are translated by the word ‘love’ are agapao, phileo, and erao. Of these, erao, and its derivatives eros and erastes were rendered impossible by reason of the sensual associations which clung to the word. A statue to Eros the god of love may be a thing of beauty as viewed from the standpoint of art, but when translated into terms of the moral and spiritual, anything tainted by eroticism must for ever be forbidden.
Phileo, and its derivatives, while free from the corrupting taint that spoiled the first word, was unsuitable owing to its confessed limitations. Phileo is used of affection generally, and when joined with the words to stomati, meant ‘to kiss’, even as philema means ‘a kiss’. So in the New Testament philanthropia, which is once translated as ‘love of God towards man’ (Titus 3:4), is rather benevolence, and ‘philanthropy’ has become a fully accepted English word. Philos occurs twenty-nine times and each occurrence is translated ‘friend’. There remained therefore agapao and its derivatives. Agape, which is the word selected by the inspired writers, is unknown in classic Greek literature. The conception of love that the highest human culture had reached before Christ was exhausted in the terms erao and phileo. It must surely be an evidence of Divine Inspiration, that without the possibility of consultation and collaboration, every writer in the New Testament was constrained (1) to avoid altogether the word erao; (2) to use phileo in its broad human sense of benevolence and friendship, and (3) to seize upon the obscure and practically unknown agape, to bear the new image and superscription of the God of love.
The following is the way in which the occurrences of the phrase ‘in love’ group themselves in Ephesians:‘in love’ in Ephesians
A 1:4. The Father’s motive.
B 3:17. Rooted and grounded (figures of growth and building).
C 4:2. Forbearing one another in love.
C 4:15. Being true in love.
B 4:16. Increase and edification (figures of growth and building).
A 5:2. The children’s walk (‘be ye imitators of God’ 5:1).
The Father’s motive must be the children’s example. How can we ever hope to attain such selfless love in this life? Even with the aid of the Spirit and all abounding grace, such love seems beyond us. But the very recognition of this will but separate and exalt the great primary cause of all causes, the Father’s love.
Chapter 5:1,2 makes it clear that the Father’s love, which was before all time, and the love of Christ, which manifested itself in its fulness when He gave Himself for us, are associated together as purpose and means are associated. Again, when once the apostle was assured of the love of the saints one to another, he could pray for their further enlightening. The benediction with which the epistle closes, is ‘love with faith’; the rich mercy of God towards us flows from His great love (Eph. 2:4), and the climax prayer (Eph. 3:14-21) reaches out to ‘the love of Christ which passeth knowledge’.
One of the most precious titles of the Saviour in the epistles is ‘The Beloved’ (Eph. 1:6), in Whom we are accepted. The only other occurrences of agapao in Ephesians are found in 5:25-33.
Whatever our business and whatever the circumstance, let us remember ‘His great love’, reminding ourselves that we can only love Him, because He first loved us. Our acceptance, even as our calling, originates in love, and a loveless walk can only belie our calling. The Father’s all-comprehensive motive should in measure be the motive of His children, it should be in love.
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