Ephesians Chapter 2 verse 15 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 15. - (To wit, the enmity.) It is a moot point whether τὴν ἔχθραν is to be taken as governed by λύσας in ver. 14, or by καταργήσας in the end of this verse. Both A.V. and R.V. adopt the latter; but the former is more textual and natural. Another question is - What enmity? Some say between Jews and Gentiles; others, between both and God. The latter seems right; where "the enmity" is so emphatically referred to, it must be the great or fundamental enmity, and the whole tenor of the passage is to the effect that in the removal of the enmity of the sinner to God, the abolition of the enmity between Jew and Gentile was provided for. In his flesh. These words are not to be connected with the enmity, for then they would require τὴν before them, but with λύσας (ver. 14) or καταργήσας (ver. 15). In his flesh, crucified, broken, for our sins, Christ virtually broke down the enmity (comp. Colossians 1:22). Having abolished the law of commandments in ordinances. Some think that "in ordinances" (ἐν δόγμασι, doctrines) denotes the means by which the Law was abolished - by means of doctrines, i.e. the doctrines of Christianity. But New Testament δόγμα is not equal to "doctrine." "In ordinances" limits the law of commandments. The law abolished or superseded by Christ was the law of positive requirements embodied in things decreed, evidently the ceremonial law of the Jews; certainly not the moral law (see Romans 3:31). By removing this, Jesus removed that which had become the occasion of bitter feelings between Jew and Gentile; the Jew looking down proudly on the Gentile, and the Gentile despising what he deemed the fantastic rites of the Jews. That he might create the two in himself into one new man. The idea of a corporate body comes here into view. Christ's object was not merely to restore individuals, but to rear a Church, composed of many units incorporated into one body. This idea is prominent in the rest of the Epistle. Hence the strong word κτισῃ, create; not only is every believer a new creation, but the corporate organization into which they are built is also a creation. The two are made "one new man;" the Gentile is not turned into a Jew, nor the Jew into a Gentile, but both into one new man, thus removing all grounds of jealousy. This transformation is "in himself;" in vital union to Christ they are formed into one body. No Church connection of man with man is the true connection, unless it is founded on a mutual connection with Christ. So making peace; that is, between Jew and Gentile. The peacemaking with God, as we have seen, is referred to in the first words of the verse; this at the end is the subordinate peacemaking, the result of the other.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(15) The connection in the original is doubtful. The words the "enmity in His flesh" may be in apposition to the "wall of partition" in the previous verse; or, as in our version, to "the law of commandments." The general sense, however, is but little affected in either case.Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances.--In this difficult passage it will be well first to examine the particular expressions. (1) The word rendered "to abolish" is the word often used by St. Paul for "to supersede by something better than itself"--translated "to make void," in Romans 3:31; to "bring to nought," in 1Corinthians 1:28, and (in the passive) "to fail," "to vanish away," "to be done away," in 1Corinthians 13:8-10. Now, of the relation of Christ to the Law, St. Paul says, in Romans 3:31, "Do we make void the Law? God forbid! Yea, we establish the Law." The Law, therefore, is abolished as a law "in ordinances"--that is, "in the letter"--and is established in the spirit. (2) "The law of commandments in ordinances." The word here rendered "ordinance" (dogma) properly means "a decree." It is used only in this sense in the New Testament (see Luke 2:1; Acts 16:4; Acts 17:7; Hebrews 11:23); and it signifies expressly a law imposed and accepted, not for its intrinsic righteousness, but on authority; or, as Butler expresses it (Anal., Part ii., Ephesians 1), not a "moral," but "a positive law." In Colossians 2:14 (the parallel passage) the word is connected with a "handwriting" that is a legal "bond"; and the Colossians are reproved for subjecting themselves to "ordinances, which are but a shadow of things to come"; while "the body," the true substance, "is Christ." (See Ephesians 2:16-17; Ephesians 2:20-21.) (3) Hence the whole expression describes explicitly what St. Paul always implies in his proper and distinctive use of the word "law." It signifies the will of God, as expressed in formal commandments, and enforced by penalties on disobedience. The general idea, therefore, of the passage is simply that which is so often brought out in the earlier Epistles (see Romans 3:21-31; Romans 7:1-4; Romans 8:1-4; Galatians 2:15-21, et al.), but which (as the Colossian Epistle more plainly shows) now needed to be enforced under a somewhat different form--viz., that Christ, "the end of the law," has superseded it by the free covenant of the Spirit; and that He has done this for us "in His flesh," especially by His death and resurrection. (4) But in what sense is this Law called "the enmity," which (see Ephesians 2:16) was "slain" on the Cross? Probably in the double sense, which runs through the passage: first, as "an enmity," a cause of separation and hostility, between the Gentiles and those Jews whom they called "the enemies of the human race"; next, as "an enmity" a cause of alienation and condemnation, between man and God--"the commandment which was ordained to life, being found to be unto death" through the rebellion and sin of man. The former sense seems to be the leading sense here, where the idea is of "making both one"; the latter in the next verse, which speaks of "reconciling both to God," all the partitions are broken down, that all alike may have "access to the Father." Comp. Colossians 1:21, "You, who were enemies in your mind, He hath reconciled;" and Hebrews 10:19, "Having confidence to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated to us, through the veil, that is to say His flesh." . . .