The ministry has been appointed to bring the Church forward to maturity, and therefore it is concerned to carry it safely through the intermediate stages. We are consequently warned not to continue children, but to advance steadfastly towards manhood. There are two faults hinted at by the apostle.

I. CHILDREN ARE APT TO BE UNSTABLE. "Tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine." They have not become so firmly rooted in the truth as to be proof against unsettling influences either within or without them. Consequently, they are like "a wave of the sea driven of the wind and tossed."

1. The warning implies that truth is a matter of supreme moment. Holiness of character is impossible without it. Believers ought to be well founded in the truth; not mere babes, but such as "are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil" (Hebrews 5:14).

2. They are warned against the tendency to be blown about by the winds of doctrine that blow from-every quarter. The counsel is much needed in this age of startling suggestion, radical denial, and deep unsettlement. There are men who go the rounds of all the sects, swinging from side to side with a movement which indicates that they are true to nothing but the love of change. It is hard for unstable natures to hold the poise of their judgment in the midst of such terrible cross-fires of theological and philosophical speculation.

II. CHILDREN ARE APT TO BE DECEIVED. Their want of knowledge leaves them open to imposition and deception. The apparatus of theological seduction is always at hand. The language of the apostle implies:

1. That there were errorists either at Ephesus or elsewhere, identified with the Christian communion, marked by "the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive." It is a mere dream to suppose that the primitive Church was perfectly pure either in doctrine or practice. The apostle's farewell address to the Ephesian elders at Miletus anticipated the rise of serious error (Acts 20:29).

2. That such "false teachers" were marked by selfishness, deceit, and malignity. This is the character which the apostle usually ascribes to such men (Romans 16:17, 18; Colossians 2:18; Galatians 2:4; 2 Corinthians 2:17). Error is, therefore, not harmless, though it may appear to be the mere sword-play of a speculative temperament. False teachers are not innocent. Yet our judgment in all cases of this sort must be exercised with charity and meekness, because men may be better than their creed, and may be influenced by the sounder parts of it.

3. That Satan often succeeds in seducing the unwary by the dexterous tricks of such teachers, who cunningly mingle the truth with such error as robs it of its healing virtues. - T.C.

The apostle here describes the perfect man, or mature Christian, both negatively and positively.

I. THE NEGATIVE DESCRIPTION.

1. Christians must not remain children. In understanding, constancy, and fortitude, they should be men.

2. Christians must not be tossed to and fro, like a ship rolling on the waves. He who embarks for the heavenly world must consider, that the ocean on which he sails is subject to changing winds and perilous storms. He must not promise himself smooth waters, soft gales, and clear skies; but go provided for all kinds of weather. The word of truth must be his compass, and faith his pilot; hope must be his anchor, and knowledge and good works his ballast; prudence must keep the watch, and sober reason hold the helm. Thus he may sail with safety in all seasons.

3. Christians must not be carried about with every wind of doctrine. False doctrines, like winds, are blustering and unsteady. They blow from no certain point, but in all directions; and they frequently, and sometimes suddenly, shift their course. They make great noise and bustle, disturb the atmosphere, and, by their violent motions, they spread confusion and ruin. Light bodies are easily taken up and driven about by every wind that blows. The gale which cleanses the wheat, disperses the chaff. The deep-rooted oak stands firm in its place, while the dry leaves beneath it are caught up, wafted around, and made the sport of every gust. So the sincere Christian, rooted and grounded in the truth, and grown up to maturity in faith and knowledge, is steadfast in his religion, whatever storms may assault him.

4. The apostle warns us that we are in danger from the sleight of men, and the cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive.

II. THE POSITIVE DESCRIPTION.

1. We must "speak the truth in love"; or "be sincere in love."

(1)We should acquire a good doctrinal knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus.

(2)We should be well established in the truth.

(3)We should see that our hearts are conformed to the truth.

(4)We must walk in the truth.

2. As we must adhere to the truth, so we must "grow up in all things into Christ, who is the Head."

(1)Christ is the Head of believers.

(2)They must grow up into Him.

(3)They must grow in all things. A partial religion is worthless.

(J. Lathrop, D. D.)

In Christian character, it may be, relatively speaking, that the moral functions — faith, hope, conscience, and love — stand higher on the scale than social affection, taste, and the lower forms of human reason; but if Christian character is to be complete, it must include them all. Suppose a painter, in painting a man's face, should omit the hair and the eyebrows, saying, "A man can live without hair, and I paint only the important features," and should represent simply the mouth, the eyes, and the nose; what sort of a picture would he make? Absurd as such a thing would be in art, how much more glaring would be the absurdity, in drawing the portrait of the soul, of leaving out any part of it! Religious culture carries with it everything. All the parts are required to make the whole on this ideal — Christ Jesus. I have around my little cabin in the country a dozen or so of rhododendrons. Broad-leaved fellows they are. I love them in blossom, and I love them out of blossom. They make me think of many Christians. They are like some that are in this Church. Usually they come up in the spring and blossom the first thing, just as many persons come into Christian life. The whole growth of the plants is crowded into two or three weeks, and they develop with wonderful rapidity; but after that they will not grow another inch during the whole summer. What do they do? I do not know, exactly; they never told me; but I suspect that they are organizing inwardly, and rendering permanent that which they have gained. What they have added to growth in the spring they take the rest of the season to solidify, to consolidate, to perfect, by chemical evolutions; and when autumn comes, the year's increase is so tough that, when the tender plants that laughed at these, and chided them, and accused them of being lazy, are laid low by the frost, there stand my rhododendrons, holding out their green leaves, and saying to November and December, "I am here as well as you." And they are as green today as they were before the winter set in. Now, I like Christians that grow fast this spring, and hold on through the summer, and next spring grow again. I like Christians that, having grown for a time, stop and organize what they have gained, and then start again. I like periodicity in Christian growth.

(H. W. Beecher.)

Into the life of every youth there comes an hour when an irresistible instinct awakens in him the consciousness that he is no longer a child. When he realizes his own separate personality, when he begins to think, to judge, to act for himself, and when, because he has the ability, he has also the right to be self-controlled, in that hour he becomes a young man. In that hour you might liken him to that young prince of whom we read in English history, who was caught in the act of putting on his father's crown: only with this difference, that the young man is lifting to his brow the crown that belongs to none other, but is the God-given crown of his own manhood.

I. THE FACT THAT YOU ARE NO LONGER CHILDREN INVOLVES YOUR PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.

1. You are responsible for your body.(1) To take such physical exercises and recreative amusements as will develop it and keep it in health and strength.(2) Not to injure your body by carelessness or dissipation.

2. You are responsible for your mental and moral culture; for the development of your faculties; for the wise use and the strong growth of all your powers.

3. You are responsible for your influence.

4. You are responsible, in view of the future that is before you. As yet you are but spreading your canvas and sailing out of harbour. Out yonder is that great and wide sea of life that is full of perils for them that navigate therein. There are sunken rocks, there are shifting shoals, there are treacherous coasts, there are wreckers with false lights, there are sirens with deceptive songs, there are straits narrow and perilous with unimagined and tremendous difficulties; and you are responsible now as you begin the voyage of your life to prepare yourself for the difficulties that are ahead, to take chart and compass with you.

5. Remember, too, that you are responsible for your soul. You cannot ignore the fact that you come to a world where men have fallen, but where men have been redeemed.

II. THE FACT THAT YOU ARE NO LONGER CHILDREN DEMANDS A MANLY STEADFASTNESS OF WILL. The inconsistency, the fickleness, the shiftiness, natural in a child, because a sign of immaturity, is out of place in those who are no longer children. The glory of young men is their strength — strength of will — the energy that turns itself to that which is good — the power to say "No" with decision, and "Yes" with concentration.

III. BECAUSE YOU ARE NO LONGER CHILDREN YOU ARE EXPECTED TO BE MEN. What is a man? What is manliness? Manliness is virtue — vir, a man; virtue, the quality of a man. Truthfulness is a virtue, therefore it is manly. Justice is a virtue; therefore it is manly. Good temper is a virtue; therefore it is manly. Whatever is virtuous is manly. Whatever is manly is virtuous; and, vice versa, whatever is not virtuous is unmanly. Talk that is not virtuous is unmanly talk; love that is not virtuous is unmanly love; life that is not virtuous is unmanly life. Be men. Be virtuous. What is manliness? It is godliness. "God created man in His own image. In His own image created He him." God is true, God is just, God is pure, God is gracious, God is swift to forgive, God is tender to the fallen, God is the helper of the helpless. Be godly, and being godly you will be manly. But how to become manly? How to be like God? Young men, once in the history of the world God sent a man to teach us how to be men, and to be men indeed! Jesus of Nazareth was His name: Son of God and Son of man. If you would be manly, let Jesus teach you.

(W. J. Woods, B. A.)

Here are two sorts of persons marked out by the apostle in the text, the deceivers and the deceived; the one, subtle and crafty, and full of intrigue; the other, easy and credulous, and unsuspecting; the one, supposed to have all the wiliness of the serpent, without the innocency of the dove; the other, all the tameness and simplicity of the dove, without the serpent's wisdom. Both are blamable, though in different respects, and not in the same degree; one for abusing and misemploying their talents, and the other, for not employing them at all to discern between true and false, between good and evil. Both are accountable to God as delinquents; one for high contempt, and the other for great supineness and neglect.

I. I propose to consider THE CASE OF DECEIVERS, or seducers, such as, by their flight and cunning craftiness lie in wait to deceive. And here it will be proper to inquire, upon what motives, or with what views, men are led thus to beguile and misguide others. The particular motives in such cases may be many; but they are all reducible to these three heads, pride, avarice, voluptuousness; that is to say, love of honour, or profit, or pleasure.

II. To consider THE CASE OF THE DECEIVED, who suffer themselves to be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. They are supposed to be ignorantly, and in a manner blindly, led on by others; otherwise, they would be rather confederates and confidents in managing the deceit, and so would be more deceivers than deceived. There are, I think, three cases which will take in all sorts of men who suffer themselves to be deceived in things of this kind.

1. Those who have no opportunity, no moral possibility of informing themselves better.

2. Those who might inform themselves better, but do not.

3. Those who might also be better informed, but will not.

III. To subjoin SOME ADVICES PROPER TO PREVENT OUR FALLING IN WITH EITHER. The best preservative, in this case, is an honest and good heart, well disposed towards truth and godliness, having no by-ends to serve, no favourite lust or passion to indulge. The evidences of the true religion, and of its main doctrines, are so bright and strong, when carefully attended to, that common sense and reason are sufficient to lead us, when there is no bias to mislead us.

(D. Waterland, D. D.)

But there were some rising up who objected to doctrinal preaching. It was not necessary, they said, in these days; practice, and perhaps a little experience, but no doctrine. But really if you take away the doctrine you have taken away the backbone of the manhood of Christianity — its sinew, muscle, strength, and glory. Those men reminded him of Philip when he wished to enslave the men of Athens, and would have them to give up their orators. Demosthenes replied, "So said the wolves — they desired to have peace with the shepherds, but the dogs must be first given up — those pugnacious dogs that provoked quarrels. The wolves would lie down peaceably with the lambs, and delight themselves with the sheep, if only those bad-tempered dogs were hanged." So perfect peace was promised among the sects if doctrine were given up; but depend upon it, these were, after all, the preservation of the Church, which without them, would soon cease to be..."Burn the charts; what is the use of charts? What we want is a powerful engine, a good A-1 copper-bottomed ship, an experienced captain, and strong, able-bodied mariners. Charts! ridiculous nonsense — antiquated things — we want no charts, destroy every one of them. Our fathers used to navigate the sea by them, but we are wiser than they were. We have pilots who know every sand and sunken rock, who can smell them beneath the water — or by some means find them out. Men know what's o'clock now-a-days, we don't want chronometers." So they put out to sea without charts; and, looking across the waters, we may expect to witness the shipwreck of those who thought themselves so wise, and fear sometimes lest we should hear their last gasp as they sink and perish. Professing themselves to be wise, they become fools.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)

I was informed by the engineer who had charge of the survey of that great treasure which Mr. Seward secured for us in Alaska, the eternal ice house of the globe, that even where summer brings vegetation, if you take a staff and drive it down in many parts two or three feet, you strike solid ice, because summer never goes lower than that. And as it is there, so it is in men — only different men are very different in this respect. In some men, if you go down six inches you strike ice; in some men you strike ice if you go down a foot; and in some men you do not strike ice until you go down two feet; but somewhere or other, in everyman, if you go down far enough you will come to a solid foundation, where summer does not reach. What we want, therefore, is tropical heat, that pierces to the very centre; and there are many in whom only heat of a very searching nature is sufficient.

(H. W. Beecher.)

As when men stand and look into the heavens with the naked eye they see some three thousand stars; as with a glass of a certain power they may see some ten or twenty thousand, and as with a larger glass they may see still more, penetrating to the infinite depths of space, so the human mind has been such that at first it could see a little of the nature of God, then a little more, then a little more, and so on, with a power of vision that has increased clear down to the present time.

(H. W. Beecher.)

Colossians, Ephesians, PaulEphesusArtifice, Astray, Babes, Blown, Borne, Carried, Changing, Cleverness, Craftiness, Cunning, Deceitful, Deceits, Deceive, Device, Doctrine, Error, Forth, Fro, Henceforth, Infants, Leading, Lie, Longer, Making, Mariners, Men's, Mislead, Order, Resemble, Result, Scheming, Shifting, Sleight, Systematized, Teaching, Tossed, Trickery, Tricks, Twisting, Unprincipled, Unscrupulous, View, Wait, Waves, Whereby, Wiles, Wind1. He exhorts to unity;
7. and declares that God therefore gives various gifts unto men;
11. that his church might be edified,
16. and grow up in Christ.
18. He calls them from the impurity of the Gentiles;
24. to put on the new man;
25. to cast off lying;
29. and corrupt communication.

Ephesians 4:14

     4045   chaos
     4860   wind
     5517   seafaring
     5589   trap
     5652   babies
     5804   charm
     5891   instability
     5948   shrewdness
     5953   stability
     6146   deceit, and God
     8237   doctrine, false
     8418   endurance
     8702   agnosticism
     8723   doubt, results of
     8724   doubt, dealing with
     8749   false teachers
     8750   false teachings
     8766   heresies

Ephesians 4:7-16

     7026   church, leadership

Ephesians 4:11-14

     1614   Scripture, understanding
     8236   doctrine, purpose

Ephesians 4:11-15

     5904   maturity, spiritual
     8162   spiritual vitality

Ephesians 4:11-16

     7757   preaching, effects
     8413   edification
     8443   growth

Ephesians 4:13-14

     5716   middle age
     8722   doubt, nature of

Ephesians 4:13-15

     5881   immaturity
     8348   spiritual growth, nature of

Ephesians 4:14-15

     8486   spiritual warfare, armour

January 14. "Unto the Measure of the Stature of the Fulness of Christ" (Eph. Iv. 13).
"Unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. iv. 13). God loves us so well that He will not suffer us to take less than His highest will. Some day we shall bless our faithful teacher, who kept the standard inflexibly rigid, and then gave us the strength and grace to reach it, and would not excuse us until we had accomplished all His glorious will. Let us be inexorable with ourselves. Let us mean exactly what God means, and have no discounts upon His promises or commandments. Let …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

July 27. "The Building up of the Body of Christ" (R. V. , Eph. Iv. 13).
"The building up of the body of Christ" (R. V., Eph. iv. 13). God is preparing His heroes, and when the opportunity comes He can fit them into their place in a moment and the world will wonder where they came from. Let the Holy Ghost prepare you, dear friend, by all the discipline of life; and when the last finishing touch has been given to the marble, it will be easy for God to put it on the pedestal, and fit it into its niche. There is a day coming, when, like Othniel, we, too, shall judge the …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

June 15. "Grow up into Him in all Things" (Eph. Iv. 15).
"Grow up into Him in all things" (Eph. iv. 15). Harvest is a time of ripeness. Then the fruit and grain are fully developed, both in size and weight. Time has tempered the acid of the green fruit. It has been mellowed and softened by the rains and the heat of summer. The sun has tinted it into rich colors, and at last it is ready and ripe to fall into the hand. So Christian life ought to be. There are many things in life that need to be mellowed and ripened. Many Christians have orchards full of …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

The End of Religion
EPHESIANS iv. 23, 24. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and put ye on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. This text is exceedingly valuable to us for it tells us the end and aim of all religion. It tells us why we are to pray, whether at home or in church; why we are to read our Bibles and good books; why we are to be what is commonly called religious. It tells us, I say, the end and aim of all religion; namely, that we may put on 'the new man, which …
Charles Kingsley—Discipline and Other Sermons

The Likeness of God
EPHESIANS iv. 23, 24. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Be renewed, says St. Paul, in the spirit of your mind--in the tone, character, and habit of your mind. And put on the new man, the new pattern of man, who was created after God, in righteousness and true holiness. Pay attention, I beg you, to every word here. To understand them clearly is most important to you. According as you take them …
Charles Kingsley—Discipline and Other Sermons

Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity the Christian Calling and Unity.
Text: Ephesians 4, 1-6. 1 I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called, 2 with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 3 giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all. …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III

Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity Duty to New and Old Man.
Text: Ephesians 4, 22-28. 22 That ye put away, as concerning your former manner of life, the old man, that waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit; 23 and that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth. 25 Wherefore, putting away falsehood, speak ye truth each one with his neighbor: for we are members one of another. 26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: 27 neither give …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. III

The Calling and the Kingdom
'I beseech you, that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.'--Eph. iv. 1. 'They shall walk with Me in white; for they are worthy.'--Rev. iii. 4. The estimate formed of a centurion by the elders of the Jews was, 'He is worthy for whom Thou shouldst do this' and in contrast therewith the estimate formed by himself was, 'I am not worthy that Thou shouldst come under my roof.' From these two statements we deduce the thought that merit has no place in the Christian's salvation, but all …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

The Goal of Progress
'Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.'--Eph. iv. 13 (R.V.). The thought of the unity of the Church is much in the Apostle's mind in this epistle. It is set forth in many places by his two favourite metaphors of the body and the temple, by the relation of husband and wife and by the family. It is contemplated in its great historical realisation by the union of Jew and …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

A Dark Picture and a Bright Hope
'That ye put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.'--Eph. iv. 22. If a doctor knows that he can cure a disease he can afford to give full weight to its gravest symptoms. If he knows he cannot he is sorely tempted to say it is of slight importance, and, though it cannot be cured, can be endured without much discomfort. And so the Scripture teachings about man's real moral condition are characterised by two peculiarities which, at …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

The New Man
'And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.'--Eph. iv. 24. We had occasion to remark in a former sermon that Paul regards this and the preceding clauses as the summing up of 'the truth in Jesus'; or, in other words, he considers the radical transformation and renovation of the whole moral nature as being the purpose of the revelation of God in Christ. To this end they have 'heard Him.' To this end they have 'learned Him.' To this end they have …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

Grieving the Spirit
'Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.'--Eph. iv. 30. The miracle of Christianity is the Incarnation. It is not a link in a chain, but a new beginning, the entrance into the cosmic order of a Divine Power. The sequel of Bethlehem and Calvary and Olivet is the upper room and the Pentecost. There is the issue of the whole mission and work of Christ--the planting in the heart of humanity of a new and divine life. All Christendom is professing to commemorate …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

The Threefold Unity
'One Lord, one faith, one baptism.'--Eph. iv. 5. The thought of the unity of the Church is very prominent in this epistle. It is difficult for us, amidst our present divisions, to realise how strange and wonderful it then was that a bond should have been found which drew together men of all nations, ranks, and characters. Pharisee and philosopher, high-born women and slaves, Roman patricians and gladiators, Asiatic Greeks and Syrian Jews forgot their feuds and sat together as one in Christ. It is …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

'The Measure of Grace'
'But unto each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.'--Eph. iv. 7 (R.V.). The Apostle here makes a swift transition from the thought of the unity of the Church to the variety of gifts to the individual. 'Each' is contrasted with 'all.' The Father who stands in so blessed and gracious a relationship to the united whole also sustains an equally gracious and blessed relationship to each individual in that whole. It is because each receives His individual gift …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

Christ Our Lesson and Our Teacher
'But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard Him, and have been taught in Him.'--Eph. iv. 20, 21. The Apostle has been describing in very severe terms the godlessness and corruption of heathenism. He reckons on the assent of the Ephesian Christians when he paints the society in which they lived as alienated from God, insensible to the restraints of conscience, and foul with all uncleanness. That was a picture of heathenism drawn from the life and submitted to the judgment of those …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

Of the Church
"I beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." Ephesians 4:1-6. 1. How much do we almost continually hear about the Church! …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

The Ascension of Christ
It seemed expedient for him to stay, to accomplish the conversion of the world. Would not his presence have had an influence to win by eloquence of gracious word and argument of loving miracle? If he put forth his power the battle would soon be over, and his rule over all hearts would be for ever established. "Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies; whereby the people fall under thee." Go not from the conflict, thou mighty bowman, but still cast thine all-subduing darts abroad. …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 17: 1871

Forgiveness Made Easy
At this time we wish to speak a little concerning the duties of love and forgiveness; and here we note, at once, that the apostle sets before us the example of God himself. Upon that bright example we shall spend most of our time, but I hope not quite so much as to forget the practical part, which is so much needed in these days by certain Unforgiving spirits who nevertheless assume the Christian name. The theme of God's forgiving love is so fascinating that we may linger awhile, and a long while …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 24: 1878

Grieving the Holy Spirit
I. The few words I have to say UPON THE LOVE OF THE SPIRIT will all be pressing forward to my great mark, stirring you up not to grieve the Spirit; for when we are persuaded that another loves us, we find at once a very potent reason why we should not grieve him. The love of the Spirit!--how shall I tell it forth? Surely it needs a songster to sing it, for love is only to be spoken of in words of song. The love of the Spirit!--let me tell you of his early love to us. He loved us without beginning. …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 5: 1859

The Prison-House.
(Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity.) EPHESIANS iv. 1. "The prisoner of the Lord." This is what Paul the aged called himself in writing to the Ephesians. He had appealed unto Caesar, and he was a captive at Rome. But he does not style himself Caesar's prisoner, but the prisoner of the Lord, whose he was, and whom he served. Let us think first of the place and manner of St. Paul's imprisonment. The place was Rome, the capital of the world. A city full of glorious memories of the past, and famous …
H. J. Wilmot-Buxton—The Life of Duty, a Year's Plain Sermons, v. 2

The Authority and Utility of the Scriptures
2 Tim. iii. 16.--"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness." We told you that there was nothing more necessary to know than what our end is, and what the way is that leads to that end. We see the most part of men walking at random,--running an uncertain race,--because they do not propose unto themselves a certain scope to aim at, and whither to direct their whole course. According to men's particular …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Of the Creation 0F Man
Gen. i. 26, 27.--"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them."--With Eph. iv. 24.--"And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."--And Heb. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Central Sun
(Sunday after Ascension, Evening.) Ephesians iv. 9. 10. Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things. This is one of those very deep texts which we are not meant to think about every day; only at such seasons as this, when we have to think of Christ ascending into heaven, that he might send down his Spirit at Whitsuntide. Of this the text …
Charles Kingsley—Town and Country Sermons

The Truth in Jesus.
But ye did not so learn Christ; if so be that ye heard him, and were taught in him, even as truth is in Jesus: that ye put away, as concerning your former manner of life, the old man, which waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit.' [Footnote: That is, 'which is still going to ruin through the love of the lie.']--Eph. iv. 20-22. How have we learned Christ? It ought to be a startling thought, that we may have learned him wrong. That must he far worse than not to have learned him at all: his place …
George MacDonald—Unspoken Sermons

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