John 17:15, and characteristic of the First Epistle of St John (John 2:13 f., 3:12, 5:18
f.), is found Eph. 6:16,the shield of faith, whereby the Christian is able to quench all the darts of
the evil one
that are set on fire,but not elsewhere in St Paul.
(
d
) The prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2:2)a temporary and contingent poweris the god of this world (
oJ qeo;" tou' aijw'no" touvtou
) of 2 Cor. 4:4a personal power [to whom] is subordinate the spirit which is active (
tou' ejnergou'nto"
) in the sons of disobediencethe prince (or ruler) of this world (
oJ a[rcwn tou' kovsmou touvtou
) of John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11, [is] the one great enemy [of whom] all other enemies are, as it were, instruments.
Sin.
You, when you were dead through your trespasses (
paraptwvmasin
) and sins (
aJmartivai"
), wherein aforetime ye walked according to the course of this world.......
(Eph. 2:1.)
Us, when we were dead through our trespasses, God quickened together with the Christ. (2:5.)
In Whom we have our redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. (1:7.)
Be ye angry and sin not. (4:26, from Ps. 4:5, LXX.)
[See Addit. Note.]
Predestination and Divine Purpose.
Having foreordained ( proorivsa" ) us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto Himself. (Eph. 1:5.)
In Whom we were also made God's portion, having been foreordained ( proorisqevnte" , praedestinati) to occupy this position according to the purpose of Him, Who worketh all things after the counsel of His Will. (1:11.)
The word
proorivzein
occurring in these two verses of the Ephesian Letter, had previously been used by St Paul in two passages only of his Epistles, namely once in the First Epistle to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 2:7) But we speak a wisdom of God in a mystery, the wisdom which has been hidden, which God
foreordained
(
prowvrisen
) before the ages unto our glory, and twice, in one context, in the Epistle to the Romans (Rom. 8:29 f.) Because whom He foreknew (
proevgnw
), them He also
foreordained
(
prowvrisen
, praedestinavit) to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren: and whom He
foreordained
, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified.
It occurs in no other Epistle. But it is used in Acts 4:28: to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel ( hJ ceivr sou k. hJ boulh; ) foreordained to come to pass.
The word provqesi" , used of purpose generally Acts 11:23, 27:13, 2 Tim. 3:10, is found (in connexion with proorivzein ) of God's eternal purpose in both the Roman and the Ephesian Epistles, and in no other excepting the Second Epistle to Timothy: and the verb proevqeto likewise occurs only in Romans and Ephesians.
In Rom. 3:25 St Paul writes ( ejn Cr. I .) o}n proevqeto oJ qeo;" iJlasthvrion , Whom God set forth (R. V. marg. purposed ) to be a propitiation: in Rom. 8:28 And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good, even to them that