Ephesians — Chapter 4

Authorship & Background

Deep Dive

Setting: Paul writes from prison, most likely in Rome about AD 60–62, the house arrest at the end of Acts (Acts 28:30). Ephesus was the city where he had spent about three years (Acts 19–20), though the letter has no personal greetings and may have been meant to circulate among several churches in Asia. Chapters 1–3 told what God has done: chosen, redeemed and sealed believers, made dead people alive, and torn down the wall between Jew and Gentile to make "one new man" (2:15). Chapter 3 ended in a doxology. Now the letter turns. The "therefore" of 4:1 is the hinge between belief and life, and the rest of the letter (chs 4–6) spells out what that new people looks like on an ordinary day.

Unity in the Body of Christ (vv1–16)

• "I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord" (v1). Paul mentions his chains again (3:1) not for sympathy but as a credential. He is not asking anything he has not paid for. "Therefore" ties everything that follows to chapters 1–3: the commands rest on grace already given.
• "Walk in a manner worthy of the calling" (v1). "Walk" is Paul's everyday word for a way of life, and it runs through this half of the letter (4:17; 5:2, 8, 15). "Worthy" (axiōs) carries the picture of a scale in balance: life should weigh the same as the calling. Believers do not earn the calling. They live up to it.
• Humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another (v2). In the Greek world humility was usually a slave's trait, not a virtue. The gospel made it one, because Christ "humbled himself" (Phil 2:8). Gentleness is not weakness but strength under control. "Bearing with" assumes that Christians will annoy one another. Paul does not expect a church without friction. He expects love that carries it.
• "Eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit" (v3). The verb means to make every effort, to hurry to do it. Believers are told to keep unity, not to create it. The Spirit has already made it (2:18, 22). Peace is the "bond," the cord that ties it together. In a letter about Jews and Gentiles in one church, this is no abstract ideal.
• The seven "ones" (vv4–6). One body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father. Many scholars think Paul is drawing on an early creed or confession. Notice the shape: Spirit (v4), Lord Jesus (v5), Father (v6), the Trinity at the root of the church's unity. "One baptism" is the shared rite by which every believer, Jew or Gentile, was publicly joined to Christ. Readers differ on whether it means water baptism only or the Spirit's work it signifies, but all agree it is the same for everyone.
• "Over all and through all and in all" (v6). This is not saying that everything is God. In context "all" means God's people: he rules them, works through them, and lives in them.
• "But grace was given to each one of us" (v7). The word "but" turns from what all share to what each receives. Unity is not sameness. Every believer, not just leaders, gets a gift "according to the measure of Christ's gift," his choice and his portion (1 Cor 12:7, 11).
• "When he ascended on high he led a host of captives" (v8). Paul quotes Psalm 68:18, a victory song in which God, like a conquering king, goes up to his holy mountain with a train of prisoners. The Hebrew reads that he received gifts among men, and the verb (laqach) basically means "take." Paul says he gave gifts. Three main explanations: (1) a conqueror receives tribute in order to hand out spoils, so receiving and giving are two sides of one act; (2) Paul follows a known Jewish reading, since the Aramaic Targum of the Psalm also says "gave gifts to the sons of men," applying it to Moses bringing the law down from Sinai; (3) Paul, writing under inspiration, applies the psalm to its fullest meaning in Christ. These can work together. Either way, the risen Christ is the triumphant King, and his "spoils" are gifts for his people.
• Who are the captives? Some read them as the defeated powers of evil paraded in Christ's triumph (Col 2:15). Others see sinners once captive to sin, now taken captive by Christ. The Tyndale notes allow both.
• "He had also descended into the lower regions, the earth" (v9). This parenthesis has been read three main ways. (1) The incarnation: Christ came down from heaven to earth. The Greek allows "the lower regions, namely the earth," and the lexicon lists this verse as that kind of construction. This is the view the Tyndale notes favor and many modern scholars hold. (2) Descent to the dead: between death and resurrection Christ went to the realm of the dead (Matt 12:40; 1 Pet 3:18–20), which fits "lower regions" and is the reading behind the creed's "he descended into hell." (3) Pentecost: the ascended Christ came back down by his Spirit to give the gifts. Whatever the exact reference, Paul's point is plain: the one who ascended is the one who first came all the way down. The exaltation follows the humiliation (Phil 2:6–11).
• "That he might fill all things" (v10). The ascension is not Christ leaving. It is Christ taking his throne so that his rule and presence reach everywhere (1:23).
• "He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers" (v11). Here the gifts are people. Christ gives the church leaders. Apostles were those sent with Christ's authority to found churches. Prophets spoke God's word to his people. Evangelists (like Philip, Acts 21:8) carried the gospel to new places. Shepherds (poimēn, the word behind "pastor") care for and guard the flock, and teachers explain the faith. In Greek one article covers "shepherds and teachers," so many read them as one office with two sides: a shepherd who feeds by teaching. Others see two related roles. Either way, care and teaching belong together.
• Do apostles and prophets continue? Christians disagree. Many in the Reformed and Baptist traditions hold that apostles and prophets were foundational (2:20; 3:5): once the foundation was laid and the New Testament written, those offices ended, while evangelists, pastors and teachers continue. Pentecostal and charismatic Christians hold that apostolic and prophetic ministries continue today, though most distinguish them from the Twelve and Paul, and test all prophecy by Scripture (1 Cor 14:29). Many in between allow a continuing gift of prophecy but not an apostolic office with authority over doctrine. All agree that no one today adds to Scripture.
• "To equip the saints for the work of ministry" (v12). This is a key verse for how a church works. Leaders do not do all the ministry. They prepare the "saints," ordinary believers, to do it. "Equip" (katartismos) appears only here. The lexicon gives its range as restoring, furnishing, preparing and training. Its related verb is used of fishermen mending their nets (Matt 4:21), and in classical Greek of setting a bone. The picture is of putting people in working order. Older translations put a comma after "saints," as if leaders did all three things. Most modern versions, like the ESV, read the chain the other way: leaders equip, and the saints serve.
• "Until we all attain… to mature manhood" (v13). The goal is not a bigger crowd but a grown-up church, measured by "the stature of the fullness of Christ." Maturity is both corporate ("we all") and personal. Unity of faith and knowledge of Christ go together, so this is not unity at the expense of truth.
• "No longer be children, tossed to and fro" (v14). The verb (klydōnizomai) means tossed about by waves, from the word for a rough sea. "Every wind of doctrine" pictures a small boat with no ballast. "Human cunning" is kybeia, literally dice-playing, and so trickery, loaded dice. "Deceitful schemes" (methodeia) is the same word as "the schemes of the devil" in 6:11. False teaching is not just mistaken. It is often crafted.
• "Speaking the truth in love" (v15). The verb is literally "truthing," living and speaking the truth. The two belong together: truth without love becomes harsh, and love without truth becomes empty. The result is growth "into him who is the head."
• "Joined and held together by every joint" (v16). The body grows from Christ, its head, and through every part. Ligaments carry supply from one member to another. "When each part is working properly" means that no believer is a spectator. A church grows "in love" when everyone does his or her share (Col 2:19).
• Commentators: All three read vv1–3 as the practical side of the doctrine of chs 1–3. Henry: "The first step towards unity is humility," and "the more lowly-mindedness the more like-mindedness." On the seven ones he adds that it is a pity there is not "one more—one heart, or one soul." Guzik stresses that believers must keep the Spirit's unity rather than manufacture it, and argues that spiritual unity is not the same as merging every church into one organization. On v9 they part ways. Henry sees both the incarnation and the burial: "He descended to the earth in his incarnation. He descended into the earth in his burial." JFB leans toward a descent to Hades. Guzik ties it to the resurrection out of the grave and grants that 1 Peter 3:19 is real but not necessarily Paul's meaning here. On v11 Henry and JFB both call apostles, prophets and evangelists "extraordinary," and pastors and teachers ordinary standing ministers. JFB adds that "No one form of Church polity as permanently unalterable is laid down in the New Testament." Guzik counts four gifts rather than five, holds that apostles and prophets continue but without the foundational authority of the first generation, and treats pastor-teacher as one office. He explains "equip" by bone-setting and net-mending. The lexicon backs those senses for the related verb, though the noun in v12 itself is given as preparing and training. He also says the word for "tossed" is the one used of the storm in Luke 8:24. In fact Luke uses the noun for rough water, and Paul uses the verb built from it, so the link is real but the words are not identical. JFB explains "sleight" as dice-playing: the player "frames his throws of the dice so that the numbers may turn up which best suit his purpose." The lexicon confirms it.

The New Life (vv17–32)

• "No longer walk as the Gentiles do" (v17). Paul's readers were Gentiles by birth (2:11). Now "Gentile" describes a way of life apart from God rather than an ethnic group. Paul speaks solemnly: "I say and testify in the Lord."
• "The futility of their minds" (v17). Futility means emptiness, thinking that goes nowhere. Paul traces a downward chain: futile minds, darkened understanding, separation "from the life of God," ignorance, hard hearts (v18). Romans 1:21–24 tells the same story.
• "Due to their hardness of heart" (v18). The word (pōrōsis) originally described the hard callus that forms over a broken bone. A hard heart is scar tissue that no longer responds. Mark uses the same word of the Pharisees (Mark 3:5). The root problem is not lack of information but a heart that has stopped listening.
• "They have become callous" (v19). A different word (apalgeō): literally to stop feeling pain. Conscience, like a nerve, can go numb. Then comes "sensuality" (aselgeia), open, unashamed indulgence, and greed for "every kind of impurity." Sin does not satisfy. It always wants more.
• "But that is not the way you learned Christ!" (v20). A striking phrase. Believers do not just learn about Christ. They learn him, a person, and "the truth is in Jesus" (v21). Paul uses the human name Jesus here, as though to point to the life he actually lived.
• Put off, be renewed, put on (vv22–24). Paul uses the picture of changing clothes. The "old self" (literally "old man") is who a person was in Adam, before Christ, "corrupt through deceitful desires," desires that promise life and deliver decay. The "new self" is "created after the likeness of God," which echoes Genesis 1:26: what was marred is being remade. Between the two is a renewal "in the spirit of your minds" (Rom 12:2). Colossians 3:9–10 says believers have put off the old self. Here Paul tells them to do it. Both are true: in Christ the change has happened, and believers must live it out daily.
• "Speak the truth with his neighbor" (v25). Paul now gets specific, and each command has a reason. Here he quotes Zechariah 8:16. The reason is "we are members one of another." Lying to a fellow believer is like one part of a body deceiving another.
• "Be angry and do not sin" (v26). These words match the Greek version of Psalm 4:4 exactly. Not all anger is sin. Jesus was angry at hard hearts (Mark 3:5). But anger is dangerous, so Paul sets a time limit: "do not let the sun go down on your anger." The word here (parorgismos) means irritation or provocation, a state that should not be allowed to settle in. Plutarch says the Pythagoreans, after a quarrel, shook hands and made up before sunset.
• "Give no opportunity to the devil" (v27). The word is topos, "place." Anger that is nursed overnight gives the devil a foothold, room to work.
• "Let the thief no longer steal" (v28). Converts in Ephesus included people who had lived by theft, and the church welcomed them. Repentance is more than stopping. The thief is to "labor" (kopiaō, toil to the point of weariness), so that he can give. The taker becomes a giver.
• "No corrupting talk… only such as is good for building up" (v29). "Corrupting" is the word for rotten fruit or spoiled fish. Again Paul goes beyond the negative. Speech should "give grace" to the hearer, fit "the occasion," and build up, the same word as the body building itself up in v16.
• "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God" (v30). The Spirit is a person who can be grieved (lypeō, to cause sorrow or pain), not a force. The background is Isaiah 63:10, where Israel "rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit" in the wilderness. In context, what grieves him is the sins of the tongue and temper on either side of this verse, all of which tear apart the unity he created (v3). Yet even here comes assurance: believers were "sealed for the day of redemption" (1:13–14). The seal marks God's ownership and guarantees the final delivery.
• "Let all bitterness and wrath and anger… be put away" (v31). Six things to strip off: bitterness (a resentful spirit), wrath (thymos, hot outbursts), anger (orgē, a settled grudge), clamor (shouting), slander, and malice beneath it all. "All" leaves no exceptions.
• "Be kind… tenderhearted, forgiving one another" (v32). The putting on. "Tenderhearted" (eusplanchnos) uses the word for the inner organs, where the ancients felt deep emotion: compassion felt in the gut. "Forgiving" (charizomai) comes from charis, grace: to forgive is to give grace freely, as a gift. The standard and the motive are the same: "as God in Christ forgave you." Believers forgive because they have been forgiven, not in order to be (Matt 18:21–35; Col 3:13).
• Commentators: All three see vv22–24 as a real, ongoing change of clothes. Guzik paraphrased: the believer should not wait to feel new before acting new, any more than a released prisoner should keep wearing prison clothes. Henry adds that "it is not enough to cease to do evil, but we must learn to do well." JFB on v19 calls the Gentile state "senseless, shameless, hopeless," the end of "a long process of 'hardening.'" On v26 JFB says "Our natural feelings are not wrong when directed to their legitimate object," while Henry narrows it further: "we must be angry at nothing but sin." The lexicon supports JFB's point that the "anger" of v26 is a passing irritation, less permanent than the anger of v31. Guzik's distinction in v31, "wrath" as a sudden outburst and "anger" as a settled attitude, fits the lexicon too. Guzik takes the callus picture from v18's "hardness" (pōrōsis), which the lexicon confirms, but the "callous" of v19 is a different word, about losing the sense of pain. On v28 Henry is blunt: "Idleness makes thieves." JFB thinks the repentant thief should work harder than if he had never stolen. On v30 JFB calls the Spirit's grief "a condescension to human modes of thought most touching," and Henry guards against reading human moods into God. On v32 JFB: "It cost God the death of His Son, as man, to forgive us."

Pointing to Christ

Christ is at the center of both halves. He is the conquering King who first came down and then went up, and who now fills all things and gives gifts to his people. The church's maturity is measured by his stature, and it grows from him as its head. The new self is learned from Jesus, the one in whom "the truth is." And the last word of the chapter is his cross: believers forgive "as God in Christ forgave." Every command in the chapter, from patient unity to honest work and kind speech, is a way of wearing his likeness. That likeness is a gift, as the chapter's own word for forgiving says: grace given freely.

Commentary

• Enduring Word (David Guzik): enduringword.com Guzik covers walking worthy, the seven "ones," spiritual gifts, the old/new man, and practical holiness commands.
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871): blueletterbible.org A critical and explanatory commentary on the whole Bible, more concise than Matthew Henry and closer to the Hebrew and Greek, with attention to historical and geographical detail. Public domain.
• Matthew Henry's Exposition (1710): blueletterbible.org A devotional verse-by-verse commentary in the Puritan tradition, still among the most widely read three centuries on. Public domain.

Videos

Articles

• GotQuestions.org: gotquestions.org What the word behind 'tenderhearted' meant, and what it asks.
• GotQuestions.org: gotquestions.org On the whole book: an overview of the book of Ephesians -- who wrote it, when, why, and how it fits the rest of Scripture.

Links open on the publisher's own site. Nothing here is reproduced on this page.

Reflection

• Walking Worthy of the Calling (v.1) — Paul urges believers to live in a way that matches the calling they've received in Christ. Where's the biggest gap between who you are in Christ and how you actually live day to day?
• Unity Takes Effort (v.3) — Paul calls believers to actively work at keeping unity, implying it doesn't happen on its own. Where are you putting real effort into unity, and where are you letting it slide?
• Every Believer Has a Ministry (v.12) — Gifted leaders exist to equip all believers for the work of ministry, not to do it on their behalf. What is your ministry, and are you being equipped for it or just spectating?
• Taking Off the Old, Putting On the New (vv.22-24) — Paul pictures change like changing clothes, putting off old patterns and putting on a new self created in righteousness. What old habit needs to come off, and what new one needs to replace it?
• Anger Without Sin (v.26) — Paul allows for anger but warns against letting it fester or turn into sin. Do you tend to bury your anger or let it explode, and what would handling it righteously look like?
• Forgiving as You've Been Forgiven (v.32) — Believers are called to be kind and forgiving toward each other on the same scale that God forgave them in Christ. Is there someone you're withholding forgiveness from that this standard should change?