Ephesians 4.2c-Tolerating One Another with Patience By Means of the Practice of Divine Love
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday October 31, 2024
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 4:2c-Tolerating One Another With Patience By Means of the Practice of Divine Love
Lesson # 198
Ephesians 4:1 Therefore, I myself, the prisoner because of the Lord’s will, exhort and encourage each and every one of you as a corporate unit to live your lives in a manner worthy of your effectual calling with which each and every one of you as a corporate unit have been effectually called 2 with the fullest expression of that which characterizes humility resulting in that which characterizes gentleness. Specifically, by each and every one of you as a corporate unit continuing to make it your habit of tolerating one another with that which characterizes patience by means of the practice of divine love. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 4:2 helps to form the exhortation/encouragement section of Ephesians 4:1-6, which is composed of two sections: (1) Ephesians 4:1-3 contains three exhortations (2) Ephesians 4:4-6 provides the basis for these exhortations.
Ephesians 4:1-3 is composed of the following:
(1) Infinitival clause: en kyriō axiōs peripatēsai tēs klēseōs hēs eklēthēte (ἐν κυρίῳ ἀξίως περιπατῆσαι τῆς κλήσεως ἧς ἐκλήθητε), “each and every one of you as a corporate unit to live your lives in a manner worthy of your effectual calling with which each and every one of you as a corporate unit have been effectually called” (Author’s translation) (Ephesians 4:1)
(2) Prepositional phrase: meta pasēs tapeinophrosynēs kai prautētos (μετὰ πάσης ταπεινοφροσύνης καὶ πραΰτητος), “with the fullest expression of that which characterizes humility resulting in that which characterizes gentleness” (Author’s translation) (Ephesians 4:2a)
(3) Prepositional phrase: meta makrothymias (μετὰ μακροθυμίας), “with that which characterizes patience” (Author’s translation) (Ephesians 4:2b)
(4) Participial clause: anechomenoi allēlōn (ἀνεχόμενοι ἀλλήλων), “by each and every one of you as a corporate unit continuing to make it your habit of tolerating one another” (Author’s translation) (Ephesians 4:2c)
(5) Prepositional phrase: en agapē (ἐν ἀγάπῃ), “by means of the practice of divine love” (Author’s translation) (Ephesians 4:2d)
(6) Participial clause: spoudazontes tērein tēn henotēta tou pneumatos en tō syndesmō tēs eirēnēs (σπουδάζοντες τηρεῖν τὴν ἑνότητα τοῦ πνεύματος ἐν τῷ συνδέσμῳ τῆς εἰρήνης), “making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit” (NET) (Ephesians 4:3)
(7) Prepositional phrase en tō syndesmō tēs eirēnēs (ἐν τῷ συνδέσμῳ τῆς εἰρήνης), “in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3) (NET)
The syntactical relationship between the infinitival clause in Ephesians 4:1, the three prepositional phrases, and participle clause in Ephesians 4:2 and the participial clause and prepositional phrase in Ephesians 4:3 are as follows:
(1) The prepositional phrase: meta pasēs tapeinophrosynēs kai prautētos (μετὰ πάσης ταπεινοφροσύνης καὶ πραΰτητος), “with the fullest expression of that which characterizes humility resulting in the that which characterizes gentleness” (Author’s translation) modifies the infinitival clause: en kyriō axiōs peripatēsai tēs klēseōs hēs eklēthēte (ἐν κυρίῳ ἀξίως περιπατῆσαι τῆς κλήσεως ἧς ἐκλήθητε), “each and every one of you as a corporate unit to live your lives in a manner worthy of your effectual calling with which each and every one of you as a corporate unit have been effectually called” (Author’s translation).
(2) The prepositional phrase: meta makrothymias (μετὰ μακροθυμίας), “with that which characterizes patience” (Author’s translation) modifies the participial clause: anechomenoi allēlōn (ἀνεχόμενοι ἀλλήλων), “by each and every one of you as a corporate unit continuing to make it your habit of tolerating one another” (Author’s translation).
It fronts this participial clause for emphasis.
The prepositional phrase: en agapē (ἐν ἀγάπῃ), “by means of the practice of divine love” (Author’s translation) also modifies this participial clause as well.
It presents that which causes humility, gentleness and patience to be manifested in the life of the believer.
(3) The prepositional phrase en tō syndesmō tēs eirēnēs (ἐν τῷ συνδέσμῳ τῆς εἰρήνης), “in the bond of peace” (NET) modifies the participial clause: spoudazontes tērein tēn henotēta tou pneumatos en tō syndesmō tēs eirēnēs (σπουδάζοντες τηρεῖν τὴν ἑνότητα τοῦ πνεύματος ἐν τῷ συνδέσμῳ τῆς εἰρήνης), “making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit” (NET) (Ephesians 4:3).
It parallels the prepositional phrase en agapē (ἐν ἀγάπῃ), “by means of the practice of divine love” (Author’s translation) in Ephesians 4:2 indicating that the practice of divine love among the recipients of this letter produces peace among them.
The syntactical structure of Ephesians 4:1-3 indicates that Paul is making three exhortations, which are:
(1) The recipients of this epistle are to conduct their lives in a manner worthy of the effectually calling with which they were effectually called by God the Father with the fullest expression of that which characterizes humility resulting in that which characterizes gentleness.
(2) The recipients of the epistle are to tolerate one another with that which characterizes patience by means of the practice of divine love.
(3) The recipients of this epistle were to make every effort to maintain the unity produced by the Spirit by means of the bond, which produces peace among them and which bond is the practice of divine love.
These exhortations are concerning the recipients of this epistle maintaining unity experientially with each other through the practice of the Lord Jesus Christ’s Spirit inspired command in John 13:34 and 15:12 to love one another as He loves them, which is the purpose of Ephesians.
Specifically, they are designed to maintain unity between the Jewish and Gentile wings of the church.
This is indicated by the fact that Paul discusses at great length the relationship between them in Ephesians 2:11-22 as the new humanity and in Ephesians 3:2-13 fellow heirs, fellow members of the body of Christ and fellow partakers of the Messianic promise.
So therefore, Paul is teaching the recipients of this epistle that living one’s live in a manner worthy of the effectual calling with which they have been effectually called by God the Father first requires that they exhibit humility without which they can never exhibit gentleness or patience.
Paul then defines this first assertion as tolerating each other with that which characterizes patience by mean of the practice of divine love.
We complete our study of Ephesians 4:2 by noting the noun agapē (ἀγάπη), which means “divine love” since it does not refer to the function of human love but rather the exercise of divine love because it originates from the character and nature of the triune God (1 John 4:8).
It is reproduced in the church age believer by the Holy Spirit when they exercise faith in the Spirit inspired contents of Scripture and in context, the Ephesian epistle (Gal. 5:22-23).
This post-justification faith provides the church age believer the capacity to practice the Lord Jesus Christ’s command in John 13:34 and 15:12 to love another as He loved them.
Therefore, this word contains the figure of metonymy, which means that divine love is put for the practice of the love of God as a result of obeying the Lord Jesus Christ’s Spirit inspired command in John 13:34 and 15:12 to love one another as He loves the believer.
The noun agapē (ἀγάπη) is the object of the preposition en (ἐν), which means “by means of” because it functions as a marker of means.
Therefore, the prepositional phrase en agapē (ἐν ἀγάπῃ) emphasizes with the recipients of this epistle that “by means of the practice of divine love” they were to continue making it their habit of tolerating one another with that which characterizes patience.
In divine love, there is to be reciprocation between believers in the sense that there is to be a mutual exchange of care and concern among believers for one another.
Believers are to complement one another gracefully and return love for one another.
Divine love involves a reciprocal relationship among believers in the sense of there being a mutual sharing of feelings, actions, responsibilities and attitudes between believers.
It involves reciprocation among believers in the sense that believers are to share together as partners in the needs, burdens, concerns, joys, and blessings for the purpose of encouragement, comfort, challenge or exhortation, praise, prayer and physical help according to the needs and ability (cf. Phil. 1:5 with 1:19; and 2:4 with 1:27; also 4:3; Rom. 12:15; and 1 Thess. 5:11,14,15; Heb. 10:33).
Divine love involves reciprocation among believers because believers share the same eternal life through regeneration and thus the same eternal “relationship” and fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:26-28).
It involves reciprocation among believers because they entered into an “active partnership” with each other and through their prayers, friendship and financial support they are to support the communication of the gospel of Christ’s enterprise on earth (Philippians 1:3-7).
Divine love involves reciprocation among believers because they are fellow members of the body of Christ and are responsible to encourage each other and to share the burdens, needs, concerns, and joy of each other.
Interestingly, as was the case in Ephesians 4:1-3, all three nouns tapeinophrosunē (ταπεινοφροσύνη), “that which characterizes humility,” prautēs (πραΰτης), “that which characterizes gentleness,” makrothumia (μακροθυμία), “that which characterizes patience” and the participle clause anechomenoi allēlōn (ἀνεχόμενοι ἀλλήλων), “by each and every one of you as a corporate unit continuing to make it your habit of tolerating one another” all appear in Colossians 3:12-13.
Colossians 3:12 Therefore, because each one of you are elected by God the Father, holy as well as divinely loved, I solemnly charge the clothing of yourselves with compassion, which is the product of deep seated affections, kindness, humility gentleness, patience. 13 Simultaneously, continue making it your habit of tolerating one another, while also continuing to make it your habit of graciously forgiving each other. Whenever anyone possesses a complaint against anyone just as the Lord in fact graciously forgave each one of you for His own glory, so also in the same way, each one of you must continue to make it your habit of graciously forgiving each other. (Lecturer’s translation)
