I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech
you
Or "in the Lord"; that is, for the Lord's sake; (See Gill on
Ephesians
3:1). Some connect this phrase, "in the Lord", with the
following word, "beseech": as if the sense was, that the apostle
entreated the believing Ephesians, in the name of the Lord, and
for his sake, to take heed to their walk and conversation, that
it be as became the calling by grace, and to glory, with which
they were called: and this exhortation he enforces from the
consideration of the state and condition in which he was, a
prisoner, not for any wickedness he had been guilty of, but for
the Lord's sake, which seems to be the true sense of the word;
and that, if they would not add afflictions to his bonds, as some
professors by their walk did, he beseeches them, as an ambassador
in bonds, that they would attend to what he was about to say; and
the rather, since such doctrines of grace had been made known to
them, which have a tendency to promote powerful godliness; and
since they were made partakers of such privileges as laid them
under the greatest obligation to duty, which were made mention of
in the preceding chapters.
That ye walk worthy of the calling wherewith ye are
called;
by which is meant, not that private and peculiar state and
condition of life, that the saints are called to, and in: but
that calling, by the grace of God, which is common to them all;
and is not a mere outward call by the ministry of the word, with
which men may be called, and not be chosen, sanctified, and
saved; but that which is internal, and is of special grace, and
by the Spirit of God; by whom they are called out of darkness
into light, out of bondage into liberty, out of the world, and
from the company and conversation of the men of it, into the
fellowship of Christ, and his people, to the participation of the
grace of Christ here, and to his kingdom and glory hereafter; and
which call is powerful, efficacious, yea, irresistible; and being
once made is unchangeable, and without repentance, and is holy,
high, and heavenly. Now to walk worthy of it, or suitable to it,
is to walk as children of the light; to walk in the liberty
wherewith Christ and his Spirit make them free; to walk by faith
on Christ; and to walk in the ways of God, with Christ, the mark,
in their view, and with the staff of promises in their hands; and
to walk on constantly, to go forwards and hold out unto the end:
for this walking, though it refers to a holy life and
conversation, a series of good works, yet it does not suppose
that these merit calling; rather the contrary, since these follow
upon it; and that is used as an argument to excite unto them: but
the phrase is expressive of a fitness, suitableness, and
agreeableness of a walk and conversation to such rich grace, and
so high an honour conferred on saints.