Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ephesians 4:18
Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
18. having the understanding darkened ] Lit., haying been darkened in the understanding. On “the understanding” see note above on Eph 2:3 (where A.V., “mind”). The Gr. word may fairly be said to mean the reason ( nous) in action. Here accordingly the phrase defines, so to speak, the phrase just previous; the general illusion of the reason comes out in obfuscated acts of thought. On the metaphor of darkness cp. Mat 6:23; Joh 3:19; Joh 8:12; Joh 12:35; Joh 12:46; Act 26:18; Col 1:13; 1Th 5:4-5 ; 1Jn 1:5-6; 1Jn 2:8-9; 1Jn 2:11; and below, ch. Eph 5:8; Eph 5:11, Eph 6:12. It often combines the ideas of blindness and of secrecy; here it gives only the former.
being alienated from the life of God ] The words, Gr. and Eng., imply a fall from a state of union. See above on Eph 2:12 where “alienated” occurs in another connexion. Here, as there, the Human Soul in the abstract is viewed as having shared, in its unfallen state, the Life of God, and having lost it in the Fall. And this view is transferred from the Soul to the souls in which it is individualized. Historically, we begin our personal existence aliens; ideally, we began in union and fell from it.
“ The life of God ” : the word “life” occurs here only in the Epistle. The phrase here denotes the spiritual force given to the human spirit by spiritual contact with God, resulting in the action and exercise of holiness. The Christian believer finds “this life in His Son” (1Jn 5:11). In Joh 17:3 we have at once its secret and its issue; “to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent.” It is entered, from one point of view, by “justification of life” (Rom 5:18), that acceptance of the guilty in Christ which is the sine qu non in Divine Law. Its development is the state of glory, which is therefore very often called, in a special sense, “eternal life” ( e. g. Mat 25:46), though that phrase is also fully true of the present state of the believer (1Jn 3:15; 1Jn 5:13). It is plain that the word “life,” in spiritual connexions, means very much more than “existence.” See above on Eph 2:1.
through the ignorance ] Better, on account of, &c. They lost connexion with the Life of God, and so remain, because of their ignorance of the eternal facts about God and holiness. We have here still something of the idealization explained just above. As the Human Soul fell through guilty “ignorance” of the supreme right and joy of absolute submission to God, so the individual soul is viewed as, ideally, losing union through the same “ignorance” of self-will. Historically, the individual begins self-willed and therefore alienated; ideally, he breaks an existing connexion. The practical aspect of the matter is that he maintains disconnexion by the ignorance of self-will. He “wills not to come that he may have life” (Joh 5:40), “seeing no beauty” in Christ, “that he should desire Him” in an effectual sense (Isa 53:2).
blindness ] Better, hardening (so R.V.). The word denotes failure of sensation in general. This clause is a re-statement of that just previous. What took place “on account of ignorance” took place “on account of hardening”; another aspect of the same moral state.
heart ] See on Eph 1:18, Eph 3:17. Much more than the seat of emotion is meant by this word in Scripture. Phrases compounded of “heart” and “harden” occur (in the Gr.) Mar 3:5; Mar 6:52; Mar 8:17; Joh 12:40. In 2Co 3:14 we have (Gr.) “their thoughts were hardened.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Having the understanding darkened – That is, because they were alienated from the true God, and particularly because of the blindness of their hearts. The apostle does not say that this was a judicial darkening of the understanding; or that they might not have perceived the truth; or that they had no ability to understand it. He speaks of a simple and well-known fact – a fact that is seen now as well as then that the understanding becomes darkened by indulgence in sin. A man who is intemperate, has no just views of the government of the appetites. A man who is unchaste, has no perception of the loveliness of purity. A man who is avaricious or covetous, has no just views of the beauty of benevolence. A man who indulges in low vices, will weaken his mental powers, and render himself incapable of intellectual effort. Indulgence in vice destroys the intellect as well as the body, and unfits a man to appreciate the truth of a proposition in morals, or in mathematics, or the beauty of a poem, as well as the truth and beauty of religion.
Nothing is more obvious than that indulgence in sin weakens the mental powers, and renders them unfit for high intellectual effort. This is seen all over the pagan world now – in the stolid, stupid mind; the perverted moral sense; the incapacity for profound or protracted mental effort, as really as it was among the pagans to whom Paul preached. The missionary who goes among the pagan has almost to create an intellect as well as a conscience, before the gospel will make an impression. It is seen, too, in all the intellect of the bar, the senate, the pulpit, and the medical profession, that is ruined by intemperance, and in the intellect of multitudes of young men wasted by licentiousness and drunkenness. I know that under the influence of ambition and stimulating drinks, the intellect may seem to put forth unnatural efforts, and to glow with an intensity nowhere else seen. But it soon burns out – and the wastes of such an intellect become soon like the hardened scoriae of the volcano, or the cinders of the over-heated furnace. Learn hence, that if a man wishes to be blessed with a clear understanding, he should he a good man. He who wishes a mind well balanced and clear, should fear and love God; and had Christianity done no other good on earth than to elevate the intellect of mankind, it would have been the richest blessing which has ever been vouchsafed to the race. It follows, too, that as man has debased his understanding by sin, it is needful to make an exertion to elevate it again: and hence a large part of the efforts to save people must consist in patient instruction. Hence, the necessity of schools at missionary stations.
Being alienated – see the notes on Eph 2:12.
From the life of God – From a life like that of God, or a life of which he is the source and author. The meaning is, that they lived a life which was unlike God, or which he could not approve. Of the truth of this in regard to the pagan everywhere, there can be no doubt; see the notes on Rom. 1.
Through the ignorance that is in them – The ignorance of the true God, and of what constituted virtue; compare notes on Rom 1:20-23.
Because of the blindness of their heart – Margin, hardness. Hardness is a better word. It is a better translation of the Greek; and it better accords with the design of the apostle. Here the reason is stated why they lived and acted as they did, and why the understanding was blinded. It is not that God has enfeebled the human intellect by a judicial sentence on account of the sin of Adam, and made it incapable of perceiving I the truth. It is not that there is any I deficiency or incapacity of natural powers. It is not that the truths of religion are so exalted that man has no natural ability to understand them, for they may be as well understood as any other truth; see the notes on 1Co 1:14. The simple reason is, the hardness or the heart. That is the solution given by an inspired apostle, and that is enough. A man who has a blind and hard heart sees no beauty in truth, and feels not its force, and is insensible to all its appeals. Learn, then:
(1) That people are to blame for the blindness of their understanding. Whatever proceeds from a wicked heart they are responsible for. But for mere inferiority of intellect they would not be to blame.
(2) They are under obligation to repent and love God. If it was required of them to enlarge their intellects, or create additional faculties of mind, they could not be bound to do it. But where the whole thing required is to have a better heart, they may be held responsible.
(3) The way to elevate the understandings of mankind is to purify the heart. The approach must be made through the affections. Let people feel right toward God, and they will soon think right; let the heart be pure, and the understanding will be clear.
(Doubtless there is a reciprocal influence between the dark mind and depraved heart. The one acts on the other. Admitting that the understanding is affected first, through the will or heart, and that it is a bad heart which makes a spiritually dark mind, still the fact remains the same, that in consequence of our union with Adam, in consequence of the fall, all our faculties, understanding, will, affections, have been corrupted. See the supplementary notes, Rom. 5)
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Eph 4:18
Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the, life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.
Spiritual blindness
A coward never knows what the ecstasy of courage is; and if you ask me why, my reply is, that he has not that in him by which he can know it. A man hearing a magnificent symphony of Beethoven says, I would give more for Yankee Doodle than for a thousand such symphonies. Why? Because he has not that in him by which he can appreciate Beethovens music. A man says in regard to a magnificent work of art, I would rather see the sign that hangs over the door of the tavern in our town than any picture that Raphael ever painted. Very likely he would. That sign is just coarse enough for him to understand; and he has not that in him which would enable him to interpret the paintings of a great master. Many men would rather read a ballad than Miltons Lycidas or Comus or Paradise Lost. (H. W. Beecher.)
The immorality of the heathen
We are environed by an invisible, Divine, and eternal world. It does not lie far away from us in the remote future, but surrounds us now as the starry heavens surround the common earth, There is a faculty in us which, when inspired and illuminated by the Spirit of God, enables us to see it. When once that world is revealed to us our whole conception of human duty and of human destiny is changed. We discover that the pleasures and pains of this brief and transitory life, its poverty and its wealth, its honours and its shame, are of secondary importance, that there is a kind of unreality in them all, that they are external to us, that they are rapidly passing away. In this life indeed it is impossible for us not to be affected by them; and they have their place in the discipline of our righteousness. But our horizon has widened, and we see beyond them. We discover that it is only the larger world which has been revealed to us by Christ that is real and enduring; and that compared with its august and glorious realities things seen and temporal, are but passing shadows. We see that the true life of man is the eternal and Divine life by which he is related to what is eternal and Divine; that the true honour, the true wealth, the true wisdom, the true happiness of man are found in that eternal and Divine kingdom. But Paul says that heathen races are living among things seen and temporal, not among things unseen and eternal. The faculty by which they should be brought into contact with what is real and enduring, is impaired, so that it mistakes shadows for substances, dreams for realities: they walk in the vanity of their mind. And as no light reaches them from the infinite and eternal world, they are darkened in their understanding. Darkness and death go together. Man was so created that the root of his perfection is in God. But where the knowledge of God is lost the life of God is lost. Heathen men are living in regions of moral darkness, in which the life of God cannot be theirs. They are separated, estranged, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them. But the ignorance is not a mere intellectual defect involving no moral fault; they are alienated from the life of God because of the hardening of their heart. Their increasing moral insensibility was the real cause of their ignorance; and their ignorance and moral insensibility were the causes of their alienation from the life of God. What kind of men they had become through this hardening of their heart Paul describes in words which it is not possible to read without a sense of horror. They were past feeling. They had ceased to he sensitive to the obligations of truth, of honesty, of kindness, of purity; and to the guilt of falsehood, of injustice, of cruelty, of sensual sin. They committed the grossest vices, and were conscious of no shame. Their imagination was no longer fascinated by the beauty and nobleness of virtue. No sentiment of personal dignity checked the indulgence of the foulest and most disgraceful passions. They had no reverence for the purer and loftier traditions of better times. They were untouched by the censure and scorn of the wiser and nobler of their contemporaries. All the inducements that draw men to virtue and all the restraints that hold them back from vice were destroyed. They were past feeling. Their sin was therefore gross and habitual. They were not betrayed into sin, against their better purposes; they were not merely overcome now and then by the violence of their passions; they were not mastered by some malignant power, against which they struggled in vain; nor were their worst excesses followed by any remorse. They sinned deliberately and without any protest from their reason or their conscience, or any purer and more generous affections in their moral life. They gave themselves up–it was their own act, done with set purpose and with the consent of their whole nature–they gave themselves up to lasciviousness–to a life in which there was a wilful, reckless, wanton defiance of all moral restraints. Vice, by their own choice and intention, was not to be an occasional incident in their life, it was to be their main business, the employment at which they were to work; and as some men have an insatiable desire for money, these men had an insatiable desire for every kind of impurity, they gave themselves up to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. It is a horrible picture. But Paul was describing the men among whom he had lived and among whom the Christians at Ephesus were living still. The morality of the Greek cities of Asia Minor was so base and so foul that we wonder that the fires of God did not descend to destroy them. Is it surprising that with such a moral environment the Christians at Ephesus, who a few years before had been heathen men themselves, required the ethical teaching contained in the later chapters of this Epistle? (R. W. Dale, LL. D.)
Christians must live above the world
To ourselves the ethical condition of the Ephesian Christians is profoundly suggestive, perhaps I ought to say that it is very alarming. English society is free from the gross, the sensual, the brutal vice which infected the great heathen cities of Asia Minor. There is a strong public sentiment on the side of truthfulness, honesty, temperance, purity, industry, self-control, kindliness, and public spirit. We inherit these virtues from our parents; we have been disciplined to them by all the complex influences that have contributed to form our character. In a very true sense they are natural to us, and we practise them without effort. And so it is assumed that when a man receives the life of God there is no reason for any great change in his moral habits. There may be defects of temper which have to be corrected, and in some of the details of moral conduct we may recognize the necessity for amendment; but if he has lived among good moral people he takes it for granted that in working out his own salvation he has to think almost exclusively of his spiritual life; his moral character is already what it should be. He attends public worship more frequently than before; secures more time for private prayer, for religious thought, for reading the Bible and other religious books; he tries to increase the fervour of his love for God and the steadfastness of his faith in God; he takes up some kind of religious work. About moral discipline he thinks very little. About the necessity of reconstructing his whole conception of moral duty, adding to it new elements, resting it on new foundations, he thinks still less. The results of this grave error are most disastrous. The ideal of the ethical life is no higher in the Church than it is in the world. But if the morals of the Church, as a whole, are not distinctly in advance of the morals of society as a whole, if when a man becomes a Christian his moral life is not governed by nobler laws and inspired with a new generosity and force, the power of the Church will be seriously impaired, and its triumphs will be only occasional and intermittent. At times a great passion of religious enthusiasm may enable it to count its converts by thousands; but the fires of enthusiasm soon sink, and for its permanent authority the Church should rely on steadier forces. In heathen countries, although the morality of Christian converts may be grossly defective, it is in advance of the morality of the mass of their fellow countrymen. The darkness of their old life is about them still, but their faces are towards the light. In countries described as Christian there should be the same difference between the morality of those that are in Christ and the morality of those that are not. The revelation of the Divine love and the Divine righteousness, of our kinship to God, of the glorious immortality which is the inheritance of all that have received the Divine life, should ennoble our ideal of every moral virtue, and should inspire us with a more ardent passion for moral perfection. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.)
Ignorance of religion
Its ignorance of the price of pearls that makes the idiot slight them. Its ignorance of the worth of diamonds that makes the fool choose a pebble before them. Its ignorance of the satisfaction learning affords that makes the peasant despise and laugh at it; and we very ordinarily see how men tread and trample on those plants which are the greatest restoratives, because they know not the virtue of them; and the same may justly be affirmed of religion, the reason why men meddle no more with it is–because they are not acquainted with the pleasantness of it. (Anthony Horneck.)
Ignorance of a depraved heart
But there is another sort of ignorance which is not an ignorance of an empty understanding, but of a depraved heart; such an ignorance as does not only consist in a bare privation, but in a corrupt disposition; where the understanding is like that sort of blind serpents, whose blindness is attended with much venom and malignity. This was such a blindness as struck the Sodomites; there was darkness in their eyes, and withal villany in their hearts. (Dr. South.)
Guilty ignorance
There is also an affected ignorance, such a one as is contracted by a wilful neglect of the means; and this is not excusing but condemning In the midst of light to be in darkness; for an Israel to have an Egypt in a Goschen; this is highly provoking, and may justly cause God to lay hold on vengeance. (Dr. South.)
Innocent ignorance
Is any father so cruel, or hard hearted, as to disown and cast off his son, because he is a fool? No; an innocent ignorance excuses from sin, both before God and man; and God Himself will own that maxim of equity, Ignorantia excusat peccatum. (Dr. South.)
Different kinds of ignorance
Ignorance may be distinguished into five kinds; human, natural, affected, invincible, proud, and puffed up.
1. Human.
This is not sinful, as in Adam not to know his nakedness nor Satans subtlety; as in the angels, and even Christ, as man, not to know the latter day.
2. Natural.–The ignorance of infirmity, incident to mans nature since the Fall.
3. Affected ignorance (see Joh 3:19).–These shut their ears when God calleth; and, being housed in their security, will not step to the door to see if the sun shines. This ignorance, if I may say so, doth reside rather in their affection than understanding part.
4. Invincible ignorance.–When God hath naturally darkened the understanding by a sore punishment of original sin.
5. A proud ignorance.–Whereof there is no hope, saith Solomon (Pro 27:1). The other is invincible, indeed this more invincible: a fool is sooner taught. (T. Adams.)
Natural ignorance
We read of an ancient king, who being desirous to know what was the natural language of men; in order to bring the matter to a certain issue, made the following experiment:–He ordered two infants, as soon as they were born, to be conveyed to a place prepared for them, where they were brought up without any instruction at all, and without ever hearing a human voice. And what was the event? Why, that when they were at length brought out of their confinement they spake no language at all, they uttered only inarticulate sounds like those of other animals. Were two infants in like manner to be brought up from the womb without being instructed in any religion, there is little room to doubt but (unless the grace of God interposed) the event would be just the same. They would have no religion at all: they would have no more knowledge of God than the beasts of the field, than the wild asss colt. Such is natural religion l abstracted from traditional, and from the influences of Gods spirit. (J. Wesley.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 18. 2. Having the understanding darkened] This is the second instance alleged by the apostle of the degradation of the Gentiles. Having no means of knowledge, the heart, naturally dark, became more and more so by means of habitual transgression; every thing in the Gentile system having an immediate tendency to blind the eyes and darken the whole soul.
3. Being alienated from the life of God] The original design of God was to live in man; and the life of God in the soul of man was that by which God intended to make man happy, and without which true happiness was never found by any human spirit: from this through the ignorance that was in them, , through the substantial or continually existing ignorance, which there was nothing to instruct, nothing to enlighten; for the most accurate writings of their best philosophers left them entirely ignorant of the real nature of God. And if they had no correct knowledge of the true God they could have no religion; and if no religion, no morality. Their moral state became so wretched that they are represented as abhorring every thing spiritual and pure, for this is the import of the word (which we translate alienated) in some of the best Greek writers. They abhorred every thing that had a tendency to lay any restraint on their vicious passions and inclinations.
4. Blindness of their heart] . Because of the callousness of their hearts. Callous signifies a thickening of the outward skin of any particular part, especially on the hands and feet, by repeated exercise or use, through which such parts are rendered insensible. This may be metaphorically applied to the conscience of a sinner, which is rendered stupid and insensible by repeated acts of iniquity.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Having the understanding; the mind as reasoning and discoursing, and so their ratiocinations and discourses themselves.
Darkened; as to spiritual things.
Being alienated from the life of God; not only strangers to it, (for so are those creatures which are not capable of it), but estranged from it; implying, that in Adam originally they were not so.
The life of God; a spiritual life; that life which God commands, and approves, and whereby God lives in believers, and they live in him, Gal 2:19,20; and that both as to the principle of life, and the operations of it.
Through the ignorance that is in them; that ignorance which is naturally in them is the cause of their alienation from the life of God, which begins in light and knowledge.
Because of the blindness of their heart; or rather hardness: the Greek word signifies a callum or brawniness in the flesh, which is usual in the hands of labourers. Either this is set down as another cause of their estrangement from the life of God, or as the cause of their ignorance, which, though in part it be natural to them, yet is increased to further degrees by their own hardness and obstinacy, shutting their eyes voluntarily against the light.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
18. More literally, “Beingdarkened in their understanding,” that is, their intelligence,or perceptions (compare Eph 5:8;Act 26:18; 1Th 5:4;1Th 5:5).
alienatedThis and”darkened,” imply that before the fall they (in the personof their first father) had been partakers of life and light:and that they had revolted from the primitive revelation (compare Eph2:12).
life of Godthat lifewhereby God lives in His own people: as He was the life andlight in Adam before the irruption of death and darkness intohuman nature; and as He is the life in the regenerate (Ga2:20). “Spiritual life in believers is kindled from the lifeitself of God” [BENGEL].
throughrather asGreek, “on account of the ignorance,” namely,of God. Wilful ignorance in the first instance, their fathers not”choosing to retain God in their knowledge.” This is thebeginning point of their misery (Act 17:30;Rom 1:21; Rom 1:23;Rom 1:28; 1Pe 1:14).
because of“onaccount of.”
blindnessGreek,“hardness,” literally, the hardening of the skin so as notto be sensible of touch. Hence a soul’s callousness to feeling(Mr 3:5). Where there isspiritual “life” (“the life of God”) there isfeeling; where there is not, there is “hardness.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Having the understanding darkened,…. Not that the natural faculty of the understanding is lost in men, nor the understanding in things natural and civil, and which is quick enough, especially in things that are evil; but in things spiritual it is very dark and ignorant, as about the nature and perfections of God, his holiness and righteousness; about sin and the consequences of it; about Christ, his person, office, and work, and salvation by him; about the Spirit, and his work of grace upon the soul; and about the Scripture, and the doctrines contained in it; and so it came to be by sin: the understanding of man was at first filled both with natural and divine knowledge; but man was not content with this, and being ambitious of more, even of being as God, lost what he had; for on account of his sin he was banished from the divine presence, which brought not only a darkness upon him, but upon all his posterity; and which is increased by personal iniquity, and oftentimes by Satan the god of this world, who blinds the minds of men; and sometimes men are given up in just judgment by God, to a judicial blindness and hardness of heart; and which issues in utter darkness, in blackness of darkness for evermore:
being alienated from the life of God; not that which God lives in himself, but that which he lives in his people; nor that natural life which men receive from him, but a spiritual life, a life of grace, faith and holiness; and which may be called the life of God, because it is infused by the Spirit of God, and the word of God is the means of it, and it is supported and secured by the power of God, and is according to the will of God, and is directed to his glory: now wicked and unconverted men are alienated from this life; they are estranged from God the fountain of it; and go astray from the law, the rule of an holy life; and are entirely destitute of a principle of life, from whence men can only act and are utterly unacquainted with the pleasures and sweetness of the life of faith and holiness; nor do they approve of such a life, but have the utmost aversion to it:
through the ignorance that is in them; every unregenerate man is an ignorant man, and especially the Gentiles were very ignorant of God, and of divine things; ignorance is natural to men, it comes by sin, and is itself sinful, and is sometimes the punishment of sin, and also the cause of it, as here of alienation from the life of God; for where is ignorance of God, there can be no desire after him, no communion with him, no faith in him, had dependence on him; no true worship of him, or living according to his will, and to his glory: and this ignorance is,
because of the blindness of their hearts, or “the hardness of it”; there is a natural hardness of the heart, the heart is naturally stony, and so it remains till grace takes away the stony heart, and gives an heart of flesh; it is insensible and inflexible, and not susceptive of any impression; and there is a voluntary hardness of it, men willingly harden themselves against the Lord, and make their hearts like an adamant stone, all sin is of an hardening nature; and there is a judicial hardness, which God gives up men unto; and when and where this is the case, in either sense, it is no wonder men should be so ignorant of God, and so alienated from the life of him:
, “blindness of heart” c, is a Rabbinical phrase.
c T. Bab. Cetubot, fol. 105. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Being darkened ( ). Periphrastic perfect passive participle of , old verb from (darkness), in N.T. only here and Rev 9:2; Rev 16:10.
In their understanding ( ). Locative case. Probably (, ) includes the emotions as well as the intellect (). It is possible to take with (see 2:12) which would then be periphrastic (instead of ) perfect passive participle.
From the life of God ( ). Ablative case after (2:12).
Because of the ignorance ( ). Old word from , not to know. Rare in N.T. See Ac 3:17.
Hardening (). Late medical term (Hippocrates) for callous hardening. Only other N.T. examples are Mark 3:5; Rom 11:25.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Understanding [] . See on Luk 1:51. The moral understanding.
Life of God [] . See on Joh 1:4. The life which God bestows; life in Christ. See 1Jo 5:11.
Through the ignorance. The cause of the alienation. Not to be construed with darkened, since ignorance is the effect, and not the cause, of the darkness of the understanding Which is in them [ ] . The participle of the substantive verb expresses the deep – seated, indwelling character of the ignorance.
Hardening [] . See on Mr 3:5. Dependent, like ignorance, on allienated. Arrange the whole clause thus : The Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1 Having the understanding darkened” (eskotomenai te dianoia ontes) “Having been darkened in their intellect or intelligence;” blinded by the god of this world in their higher intellectual nature, 2Co 4:3-4; Act 26:18.
2) “Being alienated from the life of God” (apellotriomenoi tes zoes tou theou) “Having been alienated from the life of God,” or being in an alienated state or condition from God life, by the fallen state of sin, Eph 2:12.
3) “Through the ignorance that is in them” (dia ten agnoian ten ousan en autois) “Through the ignorance that exists in them,” by nature of their existence, denoting an ignorance of Divine things, a lack of knowledge, involving moral blindness, Act 3:17; Act 17:30; 1Pe 1:14.
4) “Because of the blindness of their heart” die ten porosin tes kardias auton) “On account of the hardness, obstinacy, enmity, callousness, or rebellion of their heart, meaning mental or moral hardening against God and holiness, Mar 3:5; Rom 11:25; Pro 29:1.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
18. Being alienated from the life of God. The life of God may either mean what is accounted life in the sight of God, as in that passage,
“
they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God, ” (Joh 12:43,)
or, that life which God bestows on his elect by the Spirit of regeneration. In both cases the meaning is the same. Our ordinary life, as men, is nothing more than an empty image of life, not only because it quickly passes, but also because, while we live, our souls, not keeping close to God, are dead. There are three kinds of life in this world. The first is animal life, which consists only of motion and the bodily senses, and which we have in common with the brutes; the second is human life, which we have as the children of Adam; and the third is that supernatural life, which believers alone obtain. And all of them are from God, so that each of them may be called the life of God. As to the first, Paul, in his sermon at Athens, says, (Act 17:28,) “In him we live, and move, and have our being;” and the Psalmist says,
“
Send forth thy Spirit, and they shall be created; and thou wilt renew the face of the earth.” (Psa 104:30.)
Of the second Job says,
“
Thou hast granted me life, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.” (Job 10:12.)
But the regeneration of believers is here called, by way of eminence, the life of God, because then does God truly live in us, and we enjoy his life, when he governs us by his Spirit. Of this life all men who are not new creatures in Christ are declared by Paul to be destitute. So long, then, as we remain in the flesh, that is, in ourselves, how wretched must be our condition! We may now form a judgment of all the moral virtues, as they are called; for what sort of actions will that life produce which, Paul affirms, is not the life of God? Before anything good can begin to proceed from us, we must first be renewed by the grace of Christ. This will be the commencement of a true, and, as the phrase is, a vital life.
On account of the ignorance that is in them. We ought to attend to the reason which is here assigned; for, as the knowledge of God is the true life of the soul, so, on the contrary, ignorance is the death of it. And lest we should adopt the opinion of philosophers, that ignorance, which leads us into mistakes, is only an incidental evil, Paul shews that it has its root in the blindness of their heart, by which he intimates that it dwells in their very nature. The first blindness, therefore, which covers the minds of men, is the punishment of original sin; because Adam, after his revolt, was deprived of the true light of God, in the absence of which there is nothing but fearful darkness.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(18) Having the understanding darkened.Of this vanity the first result noted is the intellectual. They are darkened in the understanding, and so, by the ignorance in them alienated from the life of God. The phrase the life of God is unique. It may, however, be interpreted by a similar phrase, the righteousness of God (Rom. 1:7), i.e., the righteousness given by God. What the life given by God is, we know by our Lords own words (Joh. 17:3), This is the life eternal, to know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent. So far as the understanding is concerned, this alienation signifies the loss of the central light of Truth in God, and with it the loss, partial or complete, of the vision of other truths in their right proportion and harmony.
But the second result is moral. St. Paul attributes the alienation from God, or (possibly, though less probably) the ignorance which is in them, to the hardness of their heartfor the marginal reading is correct; the word used signifies, almost technically, callousness and insensibility. To make his meaning clearer still he adds, who (or, inasmuch as they) being past feeling, have given themselves over to lasciviousness. There is precisely a similar current of thought (noting, however, the characteristic difference referred to above) in Rom. 1:24-32, where St. Paul draws out, as consequences of the same vanity, first lusts of uncleanness, next unnatural sin, and at last breaks out into a fearful enumeration of the signs of the reprobate mind. On this side, therefore, the alienation from the life of God is the loss of the grace by which He dwells in the soul, and by indwelling gives it the moral and spiritual life.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
18. Understanding The region of the play of reasoning, the channel of the ordinary thought-current. As the intuitive power above, of these men, was filled with vanity, so the current of thought flowed in darkness.
Alienated Foreignized, de-citizenized, as if belonging to another race from the sons of God. From the life of God That divine regenerative life produced by the vitalizing touches, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, by which we are sons of God. St. Paul’s participle, alienated, glances back to a period when they were home-born natives of the kingdom of God.
And this is true both of our humanity and of every man born into this atonement-pervaded world.
Bengel and others discern a parallelism between the present four clauses by which the first corresponds to the third, and the second to the fourth. Thus:
Having the understanding darkened,
Through the ignorance that is in them:
Being alienated from the life of God,
Through the callousness of their heart.
But, we may add, this whole double process of darkness through ignorance, and alienation through hardness, is the result of the vanity, in the intuitive mind, by which God has been discarded and apostasy been committed.
Blindness Rather, hardness. The Greek term is derived from a word signifying stone, and is then applied, in surgery, to a hardening of the flesh into bone ossification. Hence, viewing the heart as the symbolical seat of the moral emotions, the word designates a stolid insensibility to moral impressions. It forms an encasement through which the life of God cannot enter.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Eph 4:18. Being alienated from the life of God, The life of God seems to signify more than a life prescribed by God to his people, as some understand it. It intimates a life consisting in a righteous and holy imitation of his perfections, and a constant devotedness to his service; and perhaps it may also intimate its being originally derived from him; (see Eph 4:24.) they having been alienated in affection as well as in practice from the life of Godthat noble principle of true religion, which is, indeed, the divine life in the soul, forming it to the service and imitation of him by whom it is implanted. Though the last clause of this verse may certainly refer to the Gentiles, in their unconverted state, yet it is equally true of the natural blindness of men universally, in their unregenerate state. If the words rendered mind, understanding, and heart are to be distinguished, the first may signify the mind in general, comprehending the understanding, or intellectual faculties; and the heart may imply the affections and passions, by the irregularity and obstinacy of which the understanding is often obscured, and led into false and irrational judgments.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Eph 4:18 exhibits the ground of the fact, that the Gentiles walk , which ground is twofold according to the twofold power belonging to the , the intelligent and the practical . To the former relates (see the critical remarks), to the latter . . . : since they are darkened (comp. Joseph. Antt. ix. 4. 3; the opposite: , viii. 5. 3) in respect of their exercise of thinking and willing ( , comp. Luk 1:51 ; Col 1:21 ; 1Pe 1:13 ; 1Jn 5:20 ); estranged from the life of God .
. is to be taken together (Clem. Al. Protrep . ix. p. 69, Potter; Theodoret, Bengel, Knapp, Lachmann, Harless, de Wette), since, if . are joined (Beza and many, including Rckert, Meier, Matthies, Scholz), the logical and formal parallelism is disturbed, inasmuch as then . would be merely predicate and . specifying the reason (subordinate to the former), and the emphatic prefixing of the two perfect participles, as brought into prominence by our punctuation, would go for nothing. And that the second clause does not specify the reason, why the darkening has come over the minds of the Gentiles (in opposition to Rckert), is clear from the following . . ., wherein, conversely, the ignorance is indicated as the cause of the estrangement from God. Rckert, moreover, thinks that, according to our punctuation, would stand before ; but this is groundless, since . is conceived of together . Comp. Herod. i. 35: , Xen. Ages . xi. 10: .
.] See on Eph 2:12 , and, concerning the constructio , Buttmann, neut. Gram . pp. 114, 242 [E. T. 281].
] from the life of God , does not admit of any explanation, according to which would be life-walk , which it never means in the N.T., not even in 2Pe 1:3 . [232] Hence not: the life pleasing to God (Michaelis, Zachariae, Koppe, Morus, and others; comp. Theodore, Theophylact, Grotius, and Flatt), but, as Luther aptly renders: “ the life, which is from God .” The genitive is genitive originis (comp. , Rom 1:17 , and see Winer, p. 167 f. [E. T. 233]), and is the counterpart of , so that it is to be understood as: “tota vita spiritualis, quae in hoc seculo per fidem et justitiam inchoatur et in futura beatitudine perficitur, quae tota peculiariter vita Dei est, quatenus a Deo per gratiam datur,” Estius. Comp. Calvin and Cajetanus. It is at all events the life of Christian regeneration , which is wrought by God in believers through the Spirit (Rom 8:2 ); [233] while the Gentiles are by their heathen nature alien to this divine life. This in opposition to Harless, who understands it as the estrangement from the life and light of the in the world (Joh 1:3 ). Paul in fact is speaking of the Gentiles of that time (not of those who have lived in the time before Christ ), in their contrast to the Christians (Eph 4:17 ) as persons who were partakers of divine life through the (comp. Eph 2:5 ; Rom 6:4 ). Various elements are mixed up by Beza: “vitam illam, qua Deus vivit in suis quamque praecipit et approbat ;” and Olshausen: “the life, which God Himself is and has , and which pertains to the creature so long as it remains in fellowship with God.”
] on account of , etc.; the cause of this estrangement of the Gentiles from the divine life is the ignorance which is in them through hardening of heart , consequently due to their own fault. . . . . attaches itself to , and is consequently subordinated to the preceding . . . . Usually are regarded as co-ordinate elements; and indeed, according to Harless and Olshausen, who are followed by de Wette, this twofold specification of reason has reference not merely to . . . . ., but also to . , in which case Olshausen, Baumgarten-Crusius, de Wette, Schenkel (comp. Grotius and Bengel) assume that . . . corresponds to . . . . , and then . . . to . . . . . The , however, cannot be the cause , but only the consequence of . , since (used by Paul only here, but occurs frequently) is not dulness of the higher faculty of cognition (Rckert), but nothing else than ignorance (Act 3:17 ; Act 17:30 ; 1Pe 1:14 ). The Gentiles were not darkened on account of their ignorance, seeing that in fact ignorance is not inaccessible to the light, as the example of all converted Gentiles shows; but their being estranged from the life of God was occasioned by their ignorance, and, indeed, by their ignorance for which they were to blame on account of hardening of heart. Accordingly, the commas after and are to be deleted. Meier is quite wrong in holding that the ignorant are the Gentiles, and the hardened the Jews. Paul speaks only of the Gentiles.
] not: quae iis innata est , nor yet said in contrast to external occasions (Harless), which is not at all implied in the context, but: because Paul wished to annex the cause of the , he has not put , but, in order to procure the means of annexation, has employed the participial expression paraphrasing the : . This expression confirms the view that the second is subordinate to the first.
[232] Especially instructive for the distinction of the notion from that of life- walk , is Gal 5:25 .
[233] This divine making alive does not coincide with justification, but the latter is the actus judicialis of God that precedes the former. Comp. especially Rom 8:10 : .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
Ver. 18. Having the understanding darkened ] By the devil’s black hand held before their eyes, 2Co 4:4 . See Trapp on “ 2Co 4:4 “
Alienated from the life of God ] That is, from a godly life, which none can live but those that partake of the divine nature,2Pe 1:42Pe 1:4 .
Because of the blindness ] Gr. , callum obductum. Hardness, brawniness, a hoof upon their hearts, corneas fibras, brawny breasts, horny heart-strings. The Greek word imports a metaphor from the hard hand of hardest labourers. They say in philosophy, that the foundation of natural life is feeling; no feeling, no life: and that the more quick and nimble the sense of feeling is in a man, the better is his constitution. Think the same we may of life spiritual.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Eph 4:18 . : being darkened in their understanding . For of the TR, with [435] [436] [437] [438] [439] , etc., the more classical form is given in [440] [441] [442] , etc., and is preferred by LTTrWH. The is more appropriately attached (with LTTrWHRV, Theod., Beng., Harl., de Wette, Alf., Ell., Abb., Mey., etc.) to this clause than to the following , (Beza, Rck., etc.). The parallelism of the two clauses is better kept in this way, while the emphasis is thrown first on the and then on the . The sentence is a further description of the walk of the Gentiles and an explanation of its vanity . Their walk is what it is because of the condition of moral darkness into which they fell and in which they continue. With compare the , . . . of Rom 1:21 , and contrast the as the note of the new condition in Eph 1:18 . The is not to be taken as if this clause referred only to the intellectual condition. covers the ideas not only of understandings , but also of feeling and desiring . It is the faculty or seat of thinking and feeling (Mat 22:37 ; Luk 1:51 ; Luk 10:27 ; Col 1:21 ; 2Pe 3:1 ). The dat. is that known as the dat. of sphere or reference ( cf. Bernh., Synt. , p. 84; Win.-Moult., pp. 263, 270), or the “local dat. ethically used” (Ell. on Gal 1:22 ; Donald., Greek Gram. , p. 488). : alienated . Being in a state of moral darkness they also become alienated from the true life. The word is used of those who have estranged themselves from God, here and in Eph 2:12 ; Col 1:21 ( cf. the OT in Psa 58:3 ; Eze 14:5 ; Eze 14:7 . : from the life of God . This cannot mean the godly life , the way of life approved by God. For in the NT seems never to mean the course of life, but life itself, the principle of life as opposed to death . The two things are distinguished, e.g. , in Gal 5:25 . Nor is there any reference here to the life of the Logos (Joh 1:3 ) in the pre-Christian world (Harl.). For it is the as they were known to him that Paul has in view here. The , therefore, is best taken as the gen. of origin (as in , Rom 1:17 ; , Phi 4:7 ; cf. Win.-Moult., p. 233), = “the life that comes from God,” the spiritual life communicated by God. Some (Ell., Abb., etc.) think that the phrase means more than this, and indicates that the life thus imparted to us by God is His own life, the very life possessed by Himself, in the profoundest and most real sense “the life of God” in us. : because of the ignorance that is in them . Explicit statement of the cause of their estrangement, which was implicitly given in the . The term again is not a term merely of intellect. It denotes an ignorance of Divine things, a want of knowledge that is inexcusable and involves moral blindness (Act 3:17 ; Act 17:30 ; 1Pe 1:14 ). It is further defined here not simply as “ their ignorance,” but as an ignorance surely a phrase that is neither tautological nor without a purpose, but one that describes their ignorance in respect of its seat . Their alienation had its cause not in something external, casual, or superficial, but in themselves in a culpable ignorance in their own nature or heart ( cf. the in Rom 1:21 ). : because of the hardening of their heart . This clause, introduced by , as the former also is, is taken by most (Harl., Olsh., de Wette, Ell., Alf., etc.) to be an independent statement, coordinate with the , and giving a further explanation of the alienation . Such coordination of clauses is somewhat frequent with Paul ( cf. Gal 4:4 , etc.). Others (Mey., Abb., etc.) attach it to the former clause, and take it to be a statement of the cause of the . Thus their alienation would be due to their ignorance , and this ignorance would be caused by the hardening of their hearts. The thus loses its significance, and we should have to regard it as adopted instead of the simple merely with a view to clearness of connection between the and the . The noun means hardness , not blindness . Formed from = hard skin or induration , it means literally the covering with a callus , and in its three occurrences in the NT (here and Mar 3:5 ; Rom 11:25 ) it is used of mental or moral hardening ; as is also the verb (Mar 6:52 ; Mar 8:17 ; Joh 12:40 ; Rom 11:7 ; 2Co 3:4 ).
[435] Codex Claromontanus (sc. vi.), a Grco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.
[436] Codex Boernerianus (sc. ix.), a Grco-Latin MS., at Dresden, edited by Matthi in 1791. Written by an Irish scribe, it once formed part of the same volume as Codex Sangallensis ( ) of the Gospels. The Latin text, g, is based on the O.L. translation.
[437] Codex Mosquensis (sc. ix.), edited by Matthi in 1782.
[438] Codex Angelicus (sc. ix.), at Rome, collated by Tischendorf and others.
[439] Codex Porphyrianus (sc. ix.), at St. Petersburg, collated by Tischendorf. Its text is deficient for chap. Eph 2:13-16 .
[440] Codex Vaticanus (sc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.
[441] Codex Sinaiticus (sc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.
[442] Codex Alexandrinus (sc. v.), at the British Museum, published in photographic facsimile by Sir E. M. Thompson (1879).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Having . . . darkened = Having been darkened. Greek. skotizo. See Rom 1:21. 2Co 4:4.
the understanding = in the understanding. See Eph 1:18.
being = having been.
alienated. Greek. apallotrioomai. See Eph 2:12.
the life of God. Only occurrence.
life. Greek. zoe. Only here in Eph. App-170.
through. App-104. Eph 4:2.
ignorance. See Act 3:17.
because of. App-104. Eph 4:2.
blindness = hardness. Greek. porosis. Compare Rom 11:25.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Eph 4:18. , Having the understanding darkened) This verse has four clauses. The third is to be referred to the first, and in it answers to ; the fourth, to the second. For is connected also in Tit 1:16, as here, with the preceding epithet [ ]. The participles, darkened, alienated, take for granted, that the Gentiles, before they had revolted from the faith of their fathers, nay rather before Adams fall, had been partakers of light and life; comp. be renewed, Eph 4:23.[66]- , the life) of which, ch. Eph 2:5.- , of God) The spiritual life is kindled in believers from the very life of God,-[67] [Engl. Vers. blindness], hardness) The antithesis is life: life and feeling (opposed to hardness) exist and fail together. Comp. Mar 3:5, note. , hardness, is contradistinguished from blindness, where the latter is expressly noticed; otherwise it includes it in itself.-, of heart) Rom 1:21.
[66] Implying a previous state of innocence.-ED.
[67] , on account of the ignorance) This of itself is the commencement of their wretched condition. Rom 1:21; Rom 1:23, [also Eph 4:28].-V.g.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Eph 4:18
Eph 4:18
being darkened in their understanding,-Having the understanding so warped and perverted, so overruled by debasing lusts, that they could not understand the true good of the person.
alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart;-They were made averse to the life of God and the complete subjection of their minds to him by the wicked and corrupting lusts. The same causes and effects are presented in the following: Because that, knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither gave thanks; but became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man. and of birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. (Rom 1:21-23). This shows that men esteeming themselves so wise that they can walk without God became fools and gave themselves up to the rule of fleshly lusts.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
the understanding: Psa 74:20, Psa 115:4-8, Isa 44:18-20, Isa 46:5-8, Act 17:30, Act 26:17, Act 26:18, Rom 1:21-23, Rom 1:28, 1Co 1:21, 2Co 4:4, Gal 4:8, 1Th 4:5
alienated: Eph 2:12, Rom 8:7, Rom 8:8, Gal 4:8, Col 1:21, 1Th 4:5, Jam 4:4
because: Rom 1:21, Rom 2:19, 1Jo 2:11
blindness: or, hardness, Dan 5:20, Mat 13:15, Joh 12:40, Rom 11:25, *marg.
Reciprocal: Lev 11:16 – General Deu 29:4 – General Psa 14:4 – Have Isa 25:7 – he will Isa 30:11 – cause Isa 44:9 – their own Lam 4:14 – have wandered Eze 12:2 – which Eze 14:5 – estranged Hos 4:14 – therefore Mat 6:23 – thine Mar 3:5 – hardness Rom 1:24 – God Rom 11:10 – their eyes 1Co 12:2 – that Eph 5:8 – ye were Col 1:13 – the power 1Pe 1:14 – not
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
(Eph 4:18.) , -Darkened in their understanding, and being alienated from the life of God. Critics have differed as to which of the two leading perfect participles the participle should be joined. Many attach it to the first of them, such as Clement (Protrept. ix. p. 69), Theodoret, Bengel, Harless, Meyer, Stier, de Wette, and the editors Knapp, Lachmann, and Tischendorf. In the New Testament, when any part of the verb is joined to a participle, it usually precedes that participle. Besides, in the twin epistle (Col 1:21) the very expression occurs, the second participle being regarded as a species of adjective. Nor by such a connection is the force of the sentence broken, as Alford contends. For the first participle, , assigns a reason for the previous clause-darkened, inasmuch as they are darkened; and the second, , parallel to the first, adjoins another reason and yet more emphatically–being alienated and remaining so. Winer, 45, 5. The gender is changed to the masculine, agreeing in meaning but not in form with , and the entire sense is often said to be a species of parallelism, which might be thus arranged-
Having been darkened in their understanding,
By the ignorance that is in them,
Forasmuch as they have been alienated from the life of God,
By the hardness of their hearts.
Bengel and Olshausen arrange the verse thus, and Jebb calls it an alternate quatrain. Sacred Literature, p. 192, ed. London, 1831. Forbes, Symmetrical Structure of Scripture, p. 21. But such an artificial construction, though it may happen in Hebrew poetry, can scarcely be expected to be found in a letter. Nor does it, as Meyer well argues, yield a good sense. According to such a construction, the ignorance that is in them must be regarded as the cause or instrument of their being darkened in their understanding. But this reverses the process described by the apostle, for ignorance is the effect, and not the cause, of the obscuration. Shadow results from darkening or the interception of light. De Wette tries to escape the difficulty by saying that is rather theoretic ignorance, while the first clause has closer reference to what is practical; but it is impossible to establish such a distinction on sufficient authority. We therefore take the clauses as the apostle has placed them. , explained under Eph 2:3 and Eph 1:18, is the dative expressive of sphere. Winer, 31, 3. The word here, both from the figurative term joined with it, and from the language of the following clause, seems to refer more to man’s intellectual nature, and is so far distinguished from before it and coming after it. See Rom 1:21; Rom 11:10. Other instances of similar usage among the classics may be seen in the lexicons. Deep shadow lay upon the Gentile mind, unrelieved save by some fitful gleams which genius occasionally threw across it, and which were succeeded only by profounder darkness. A child in the lowest form of a Sunday school, will answer questions with which the greatest minds of the old heathen world grappled in vain.
And that darkness of mind was associated with spiritual apostasy. The participle has been explained in our remarks on Eph 2:12, and there it occurs also in a description of Gentile condition. is not a life according to God- , or a virtuous life, as Theodoret, Theophylact, and others describe it; nor is it merely a life which God approves, as is held by Koppe, Wahl, Morus, Scholz, Whitby, and Chandler. The term does not refer to course or tenor of conduct–but to the element or principle of Divine life within us. Vmel, Synon. Wrterb. p. 168. Nor has the opinion of Erasmus any warrant, that the genitive is in apposition-vera vita, qui est Deus. The genitive is genitivus auctoris-that of origin, as is rightly held by Meyer, de Wette, Harless, Rckert, and Olshausen. It is that life from God which existed in unfallen man, and re-exists in all believers who are in fellowship with God-the life which results from the operation and indwelling of the Holy Ghost. Compare Eph 2:1-5; Trench, Syn. xxviii. Harless will not admit any allusion to regeneration in this life, but refers us to the Logos in whom is the life of men. Granted; but that light only penetrates, and that life only pulsates, through the applying energies of the Holy Ghost. The Gentile world having severed itself from this life was spiritually dead, and therefore a sepulchral pall was thrown over its intellect. There could be no light in their mind, because there was no life in their hearts, for the life in the Logos is the light of men. The heart reacts on the intellect. And the apostle now gives the reason-
, -through the ignorance which is in them, through the hardness of their hearts. These clauses assign the reason for their alienation from the Divine life-first, ignorance of God, His character, and dispensations; this ignorance being in them- ( being already employed)-as a deep-seated element of their moral condition. In reference to immortality, for example, how sad their ignorance! Thus Moschus sighs-
One rest we keep,
One long, eternal, unawakened sleep.
Nox est perpetua, una, dormienda, sobs Catullus. The second clause commencing with assigns a co-ordinate and explanatory second reason for their alienation from the life of God-the hardness of their hearts. -obtuseness or callousness, not blindness, as if from (Fritzsche, ad Rom 11:7), is a very significant term-their having, as Theodoret says, no feeling- . The unsusceptibility of an indurated heart was the ultimate cause of their lifeless and ignorant state. The disease began in the callous heart. It hardened itself against impression and warning, left the mind uninformed and indifferent, alienated itself from the life of God, and was at last shrouded in the shadow of death. Surely the Ephesians were not to walk as the other Gentiles placed in this hapless and degraded state. This view of the Gentile world differs from that given in chap. ii. This has more reference to inner condition, while that in the preceding chapter characterizes principally the want of external privilege with its sad results.
Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians
Eph 4:18. This and the following verse describes the unrighteous way of life that the Gentiles practice who are still under the darkness of heathenism. It is much like the description of them in Rom 1:18-24. Understanding means the mind, and it was darkened by their being alienated or separated from Him. The situation is accounted for by the fact of their blindness of heart. The other word for blindness is hardness of heart, or stubbornness.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Eph 4:18. This verse is made up of four clauses, which may be thus arranged:
Being darkened in their understanding,
Being alienated from the life of God,
Because of the ignorance that is in them,
Because of the hardness of their heart.
Some find a correspondence between the first and third, and the second and fourth clauses, the alternative being regarded as due to the interaction of the results set forth in the first and second clauses. Others join the third to the first, and the fourth to the third, taking ignorance as the cause of darkness, and hardness as the cause of ignorance, alienation being the result of darkness. The former view seems preferable (see below). In any case the whole is descriptive of the walk of the heathen in the vanity of their mind,
Being darkened in their understanding. The participle points to a condition which has been effected in the past, and the seat of this darkened condition was the intellectual part of our nature.
Being alienated from the life of God; comp. chap. Eph 2:12. The participle here has the same force as that of the previous clause. The life of God means the true spiritual life which belongs to God, and which He bestows on men. The two clauses stand related, the one is the internal condition, the other the external result
Because of the ignorance, etc. Not through. This is an ignorance which is now natural and peculiar to them. It is the ground of the darkening of the understanding. Against this view of the connection, it is urged that ignorance is not the cause of darkness. But in the first clause a present condition is spoken of, the result of something in the past, or rather of a continued process. The ignorance peculiar to heathenism was the ground of growing mental obscuration.
Because of the hardening of their heart Hardening is more exact than blindness (comp. Rom 11:7). This is the ground, the alienation from the life of God; but it should be remembered that the two causes interact, as do the two results. There is not intellectual obscuration be-side practical estrangement from God, nor ignorance beside hardness of heart; the one conditions the other, working destructively as they reciprocally affect each other (Braune). Whatever view be taken of the interdependence of the clauses, the verse, as a whole, asserts that depravity had affected the entire man, and that this condition was a lapse, not an original one.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
The lost’s understanding is darkened. Darkened is a perfect passive verb meaning that the understanding is darkened and always will be darkened, unless of course Christ intercedes. It also means that it is darkened from some force from without – namely sin in general and specifically may relate to the hardening of the heart by God.
Darkened can be translated devoid of light. When I was in the Navy, we had what was called darken ship condition. When at war any light from a ship could make that ship a nice target for the guns of the enemy, so all port holes and hatches are closed and there is no light on the exterior of the ship.
One night I was up late and was going down to get some sleep. I decided I would go out on deck and walk forward to a hatch that led down to my sleeping area. I closed the hatch, turned to walk forward and the black was like a thick blanket cast over my head. I immediately had no sense of direction, no sense of what was ahead of me, and no sense that, indeed, there was anything ahead of me like a deck to walk on. I felt if I took one step it could be off the side of the ship.
I had walked that path dozens of times, yet one step into it and I was totally unaware of any familiar item of sight. I immediately dropped to my hands and knees and began to feel my way forward – reaching out for that which was familiar to guide me. I finally found the hatch, but vowed never to go on deck when we were under a darken ship condition again.
Imagine the understanding of the lost. Do you get a hint of why they don’t understand you when you take a Biblical stand on something, do you get a hint of the total frustration of their minds, and do you get a hint of why we are not to walk as if our understanding is darkened?
Their understanding has no guide, thus they understand whatever seems right to them – rather sounds like humanism to me – no wonder that system of thought and life developed – it developed from a non-understanding mind. It should be obvious to the believer that humanism is not a system of life that a believer should follow, yet humanistic thinking is totally prevalent in Christian thinking today.
Not only is their understanding darkened, but they are “alienated from the life of God.” They can’t live the life of godliness; they are alienated or shut out from this type of life. It is beyond what they are capable of – so why are we surprised at the sinfulness of mankind? So, why do Christian’s like to pattern their lives after lost people that can’t live godly, and can’t understand Biblical standards?
They can’t understand, and they can’t live like God wants them to live – rather plain to me – they are incapable of it – impossible – they don’t know God, they can’t understand God and they can’t live a life that is pleasing to God – no surprise when you understand this passage.
They can’t walk after God because of the “ignorance that is in them,” – ignorance is not a negative disparagement of the lost mind, but rather a description of their condition. They are without moral guidance; they lack the knowledge that is required.
Their lack of knowledge stems from their blindness, their callousness to truth, their continued disregard for truth and/or help from God.
This passage reminds me of Pharaoh and the continued opportunities he had to respond to
God and His messenger, but he just kept rejecting truth and the callousness just got worse with each step of his mind. Exo 14:4 “And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I [am] the LORD. And they did so.” This thought is repeated in Rom 9:17 “For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.”
The lost person that turns his back on the Gospel may get another chance, but then again he may not. God is not obligated to reveal Himself more than once – indeed, he has done that in nature already and most lost people reject that revelation.
Recently a school district in the south has been considering adding a theory of creation based on “design” rather than evolution. This system was to be taught along side evolution in the schools. The lost of the community reject this as non-scientific and mixing church and state, when it is actually an argument from logic rather than Scripture. They reject it because they reject God. They don’t care that it comes from the sciences, they don’t care that it may even seem like a possible alternative to evolution, and they just reject it because Christians have extended it as a possibility.
Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson
4:18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the {a} life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
(a) By which God lives in them.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Here Paul traced the attitude of typical unsaved Gentiles to its source. Lack of worthy purpose rests on unclear understanding (cf. Rom 1:21; 2Co 4:4). This in turn results from separation from the life that comes from God (cf. Eph 2:12). Separation arises from natural ignorance of God (cf. 1Pe 1:14). That in turn rests on insensitivity to God and His ways (cf. Romans 1).