Ephesians 3:15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, The word rendered "family" is from the same root as the word rendered "Father." The Father of the Lord Jesus Christ is the Father of all who by Him attain sonship. His Father is our Father. His God is our God. The "whole family" or kindred. It is a collective term for the descendants of the same father, nearer or more remote; as in the second chapter of Luke's Gospel we read of the "house and family of David." What, now, is the extent of its meaning here? Is it confined to those who are children of God by faith in Jesus Christ? to the redeemed from among men both on earth and in heaven? Or is it to be understood as comprehending the celestial and angelic worlds, and all the ranks of heavenly creatures? I prefer this latter interpretation. The meaning is, that the whole circle of holy and intelligent creatures take the name of a family, after God as their Father. "Of Him" — the Universal Father — "the whole family in heaven and earth is named." He is Father to them all. They all feel the comfort of His love. He is not only the fountain of law, and preserver of order, but also fountain of tenderness and grace. And we may be sure that whatever needs to be done in those heavenly worlds, in sustaining weakness, in guiding inexperience, in admonishing what would be waywardness if not corrected in time, in the leading of younger spirits, or in the comforting of those that are discouraged by the mysteries of the universe — all will be done by the Universal Father, who cannot be one Being here and another there, one Being today and another tomorrow, but who, like the Eternal Son, who manifests and represents Him, is "the same yesterday, today, and forever." Having thus drawn out the meaning of the text, and having found it be a very large and a very tender one, let us now see what uses we ought to make of it. I. THESE VIEWS OUGHT SOMEWHAT TO OVERCOME THE DEPRESSING EFFECT NATURALLY PRODUCED ON US BY THE VASTNESS AND GRANDEUR OF THE MATERIAL UNIVERSE. II. This passage will do us good if it confirms our faith (a faith which is sometimes wavering enough) in THE ACTUAL OBJECTIVE EXISTENCE OF HEAVEN AS A PLACE — a chosen, favoured place, where God and His children meet and dwell. It is spoken of in such a way in the Scriptures that we might call it the paternal house and home; we might almost say the old ancestral home, although of course these earthly analogies may easily mislead us, and at the best are very meagre and poor. But clearly, if this passage is to have any honest and practical meaning for us at all, it must be regarded as telling us that there is a real heaven, as there is a real earth, and that if there be God's children, named and nourished in the earth, there are also God's children named and nourished in heaven. Heaven is assuredly a place, with sure foundations, somewhere in space. It is often necessary to insist on the complemental or correlative truth, that heaven is a state even more than a place. We can, without difficulty, conceive the place being changed, if there were need: God could build a city anywhere in space. But we cannot conceive the state being essentially changed and heaven left. There is but one moral condition that can make heaven. It may be anywhere as to locality, but it must always consist of knowledge, sanctity, and love. All this granted, it yet is true that we shall suffer a most depressing loss if we cease to think of it as a local habitation — a world, or worlds; as real — probably far more real and permanent than any of the worlds we see. We cannot afford to lose anything of the definiteness and firmness of the Scriptural language. Our faith holds fast to the "place" which Jesus has prepared for His people; where He shows forth His own glory. III. HEAVEN HAS GREAT PRIORITY AND PREEMINENCE OVER EARTH. Heaven stands first, not only in the order of the phrase, but as being intrinsically and immensely superior. Earth, too, is a mansion of the Father's house, or a room of it, or an outlying field connected with it; but how far inferior to heaven! The children go from earth into heaven. They don't come from heaven into the earth. Angels do, for brief moments, when they come to minister to the heirs of salvation. The ministration rendered, they go up again like flames of fire or beams of light, to renew their strength by "beholding the face of their Father who is in heaven." Not an angel, of high or low degree, is ever born into this world. But men are being continually born into heaven — into heaven as a moral kingdom here, by regeneration; into heaven as a place, by death. Thus at every deathbed of one of the family, and at every grave, the less is bowing down to the greater. Earth is worshipping heaven: yielding up her best fruits to that high garnerage; consenting (ah! sometimes only with a struggle) that her deepest questions and dearest hopes shall have solution and fruition only there. If, in traversing a country, you saw many rills and brooks flowing down many hillsides and along many valleys, and evidently converging towards some distant point, you might be sure that beyond that point you would find the deep river, and that beyond the river you would come to the sea. Well, the children of the family in this world are all going one way. They make a ceaseless procession. None of them turn back. They all disappear through the death gate. Some are feeble through very age, and some are helpless in their infancy — carried in their mothers' arms along the heavenward road; while now and again one in the prime of life and in the flush of untried strength will head the procession and enter in at the gate. And what does it all signify to the Christian thought but this, that Heaven is far greater and in every way better than earth, and that we may well yield up our best and dearest to swell its numbers and enhance its glories and felicities? IV. If we thus regard heaven as greater and better than earth, WE SHALL CERTAINLY FIND IT BY SO MUCH EASIER TO BEAR SOME OF OUR HEAVIEST SORROWS, AND TO UNDERSTAND SOME OF THE DEEPEST MYSTERIES OF LIFE. Death is but a momentary shadow. Life has unbroken continuity. Loss, in the long reckoning, is impossible. Gain is necessary and certain. When to live in Christ, then to die must be gain. V. IT SURELY OUGHT, WITH EACH ONE OF US, TO BE THE GREAT AMBITION OF OUR LIFE, AND THE VERY CHIEF OF ALL OUR CARES, TO BELONG, HEART AND SOUL, TO THIS GREAT FAMILY OF GOD. (A. Raleigh, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,WEB: from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, |
    |