Ephesians 2:16Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He did not say "loosing." Nor did he say "taking away." He used the strongest expression, "slaying," so that the enmity will never rise again. And how could it rise? Only through our great wickedness. As long as we remain in the body of Christ and in union with Him, it will not rise. It will lie dead.

Strictly speaking, it will never rise. We may produce another enmity, but by no means the former one, which has been killed and put to death. This means that you yourself will beget this other enmity. It is said, "The mind of the flesh is enmity against God" (Rom 8:7). If we think nothing according to the flesh, this new enmity will never be born, and there will always be peace.

Consider how terrible it is for us to enter again into enmity with God, after He has done so much for our reconciliation and has truly reconciled us. For this enmity there no longer awaits the font of baptism, but Gehenna. There awaits not forgiveness, but punishment.

The mind of the flesh is lack of self-control and gluttony. The mind of the flesh is covetousness and every sin in general. Why is it called the mind of the flesh? Can the body do anything without the soul? The Apostle does not slander the flesh, just as he does not slander the soul when he says, "the natural man" (1 Cor 2:14). Rather, he shows that neither body nor soul, by themselves and without help from above, can accomplish anything great and noble.

For this reason he calls "natural" what the soul does by itself. He calls "fleshly" what the body does by itself. Yet this is not because these things are natural, physika, but because, not receiving protection from above, they are ruined.

So too, good eyes without light cause much harm. This does not come from their nature, but from weakness. If everything natural were evil, then we should not use it even for proper purposes. On the contrary, there is no natural evil.

What, then, is called the mind of the flesh? Sins. When the flesh becomes conceited and seizes authority over the charioteer, it produces countless evils. The virtue of the flesh is to obey the soul. Its vice is to rule over the soul.

A good horse with strong legs does not show its worth when it does not obey the charioteer. So too the flesh is good only when we bridle its impulses. Yet the charioteer also must possess knowledge of his craft. Without knowledge, he too will do much harm.

Knowledge is necessary everywhere. The Spirit teaches this. By making the charioteer stronger, He adorns both soul and body. As long as the soul is in the body, it gives the body beauty. When the soul ceases to give life to the body and flies away, there comes a sight like that which appears when a painter mixes all his colors together. Great ugliness appears, and every member hastens toward corruption and dissolution.

The same thing, or something even worse and greater, occurs when the Spirit leaves soul and body empty. Therefore, if the body is lower than the soul, do not revile it for this. I also take care not to revile the soul merely because it can do nothing without the Spirit.

But if something must be said, it is this: the soul is worthy of even greater accusation. The body without the soul could do nothing evil, but the soul can do many things even without the body. It does much even when the body is exhausted and its blood no longer boils. We see this among sorcerers, magicians, makers of potions, and the envious, whose bodies are mostly exhausted.

Even gluttony does not come from the body's need, but from the soul's inattention. The body needs food, not gluttony. If I want to control a horse more firmly, I bridle it. The body cannot compel the soul to plunge into vices.

Why, then, does the Apostle call sin the mind of the flesh? Because it belongs wholly to the flesh. When the flesh takes authority for itself, and when it disregards the suggestions of the mind and the authority of the soul, then it sins. Therefore the virtue of the body consists precisely in its obedience to the soul, because the body by itself is neither good nor bad.

But can the body do anything by itself? In the order of the argument, if the body is good, it is good only in relation to its subjection to the soul. In itself it is neither good nor bad. It is capable of both and can incline to either side.

The body desires, but not fornication or adultery. It desires union. The body desires, but not sensuality or gluttony. It desires food, not drunkenness, but drink. See that drunkenness is not a desire of the body: the body does not retain what is excessive, but expels it when you transgress measure and cross the body's boundary.

Truly, everything else besides the body's necessary needs belongs to the soul, especially when the soul becomes fleshly and, so to speak, grows thick. It is true that even a good body is far below the soul. Yet as tin, though lower than gold, is still needed to solder it, so too the body is needed by the soul.

Or as the noblest child nevertheless needs a tutor, so the soul needs the body. Do not be surprised that we use such examples and speak childish things without adapting ourselves to the age of the hearers. This is exactly how one must speak about the body.

Yet if we wish, we can also not be in the body, just as we can not be on earth, but dwell in heaven and in the Spirit. The expression "to be somewhere" can be used to denote not only place, but also a state of soul. Of many people who were in a certain place, we say that they were not there, saying, "Such a one did not come here."

Why do I say this? We often say, "You are outside yourself," or, "I am outside myself." What could be closer and more inseparable from each person than himself? Yet we say that he is outside himself.

Let us therefore be in ourselves, in heaven, in the Spirit. Let us remain in peace and in the grace of God. Then, having left behind everything fleshly, we shall be able to attain the promised blessings in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, dominion, and honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

"Killing the enmity on it." He did not say "destroying," but more strongly, "killing," so that it would not rise again. How, then, does enmity arise again after this? It never rises again, but gives birth to another, because you sin again.

"In it" means either in the Cross or in His body. For He killed the enmity both on the Cross and in His own body, in which He also underwent the Cross.

The Lord of the Sabbath removed the observance of the bodily Sabbath, as though taking away the middle wall of the law. Because of the weight of its ordinances, it had become an obstacle for us on the path to piety according to God.

141. Who are these two, if not the outer and inner man? Compare 2 Cor 4:16. One expression refers to the power of the soul, the other to the bodily senses.

They agree with each other in one striving when the flesh, submitting to what is better, obeys the saving commands. This does not mean that the flesh becomes like the nature of the soul by receiving its subtle constitution into itself.

Rather, being delivered from pleasures and the filth of vices, the flesh enters the path of spiritual transformation with a sense of obedience. It no longer resists, as before, the law of the Spirit.

Freed by the law of the Spirit and the Spirit of life from the law of sin (cf. Rom 7:23; Rom 8:2), the flesh becomes part of the soul, a fellow-striver and servant of virtue, and not a harbor of vices.

By commanding these, the Law of Moses became hard to bear, as the blessed Peter testifies. Christ abolished what caused enmity between Jews and Gentiles, not the commandments of God, which are eternal.

He abolished these things by teachings, that is, by Gospel teachings. He replaced bodily circumcision with divine Baptism, animal sacrifice with the bloodless sacred rite, the typological priesthood with priestly authority in grace, and the prefigurative rites with true worship in the Spirit.

Hear also for what purpose the God-man was pleased to destroy this enmity and unite two separated races into one race.

Verses 15-16: "That He might create both in Himself into one new man, making peace. And that He might reconcile both to God in one body through the Cross, killing the enmity on it."

Who is this new man? It is the human nature of Jesus Christ, formed from the most pure blood of the Ever-Virgin Mary, just as Adam's nature came from the pure dust of the earth.

"The first man was of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven" (1 Cor 15:47). As in the first man, Adam, the whole human race was contemplated bodily, so in the new Adam, Jesus Christ, all men are contemplated spiritually.

The first is called old because he was created at the beginning of the world. He is corruptible because he was corrupted by sin, and he corrupts those who live according to his image.

The second is called new because He was born "when the fullness of time had come" (Gal 4:4). He is created according to God because He is wholly divine and heavenly, and He makes those who live according to His image such as He is.

Christ spiritually united the "two" in His own human nature, that is, the Jewish and Gentile peoples, making one body, the Church. Therefore the divinely speaking Paul said: "There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither slave nor free; there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:28).

"You are the body of Christ, and members individually" (1 Cor 12:27). Christ, he says, destroyed the enmity between these two opposing peoples and reconciled them, "that He might create both in Himself."

That is, by His assumed flesh He re-created these two peoples and made them one new man, wholly divine and heavenly. "And in one body through the Cross" means that by His one body, hung upon the Cross, He reconciled and joined them in friendship with God.

"Killing the enmity on it" means that by the sacrifice on the Cross of His most pure Body, He destroyed that enmity between God and men which had arisen from sin.

He proclaimed this peace "to those far off and to those near," that is, to Gentiles and Jews, so that both have access to the Father in one Spirit (Eph 2:17-18).

Further, he shows how near the Gentiles became. They became fellow citizens with the saints, members of God's household, and even more, a dwelling place of God. What greater nearness could one desire or expect? Bishop Theophan says this.

The Apostle uses three comparisons to explain how near the Gentiles have become, as the same bishop observes.

The apostolic words in this section deserve special attention: "Having abolished the enmity in His flesh, the law of commandments in teaching, that He might create in Himself one new man from the two, making peace" (Eph 2:15).

What law of commandments did the Lord abolish, and by what teaching? The Lord abolished the Old Testament law, with its many commandments, by His New Testament teaching concerning saving faith.

This abolition, however, must not be understood as destruction, for the Lord came not to destroy the law but to fulfill it. It means the replacement of that law by a higher and better law.

The former law knew only how to command and prescribe various commandments. The new law also communicates the gracious powers for fulfilling them (Chrysostom, Theophylact). Here one should recall the words of the Gospel: the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (Jn 1:17).

Enmity divided all men, but it was especially characteristic on religious ground, inwardly and spiritually, between Jews and Gentiles. Therefore the Apostle could have had this enmity in mind as especially important.

At the same time, he undoubtedly had particular reasons for speaking at length about the reconciliation of Jews and Gentiles in Christianity. It is known how long this enmity persisted afterward, and how it continues to this day among unconverted Jews.

They would of course be changed at once if they became Christians, and with that became new men. Concerning this St. John Chrysostom said: "The Gentile did not become a Jew, but both came into a new condition.

He abolished the law not in order to transform one into the other, but to re-create both. 'That He might create both in Himself,' he says, first as though melting both down, that is, the Greek and the Jew.

He created one wondrous being, that is, the Christian, Himself becoming the first creation of this kind. This creation is far higher than the first creation.

'In Himself' may also mean that He first presented us with the pattern and example. He transformed both the Jew, who was circumcised and under the curse, and the Greek, who was outside the law, into one new man, higher than both Jew and Greek.

He made peace both in relation to God and in relation to one another. The Jew draws near to the Greek only when he becomes a believer."

We are not less saved, and they are not more saved. Both we and they have been counted worthy of one and the same grace, for Christ destroyed the enmity by His death and made us beloved to the Father through the Spirit.

His death killed, pierced through, and destroyed the enmity. He did not say "loosed," nor did he say "removed," but "killed," the strongest word. Thus that enmity will never rise again.

We can produce another enmity, but certainly not the first, which has been killed forever. But let us consider how terrible it is for us voluntarily to come again into enmity with God after He has done so much for our reconciliation.

This new enmity no longer awaits baptism, but Gehenna; not forgiveness, but punishment."

According to Blessed Jerome, "the creation of the new man will appear full and complete when heaven and earth are united, when there will be a new heaven and a new earth (Isa 65:17), when we shall drink the cup of Jesus new in the Kingdom of God (Mk 14:25), and sing a new song (Ps 97:1)."

Peace with God was established by the cross, by the Lord's death on the cross, and by faith. Through faith the believer appropriates to himself the propitiation of God that was accomplished for all by that death.

But what does it mean, "that He might reconcile both to God in one body"? If this were speaking of reconciliation between Jews and Gentiles, then in one body would point directly to the body of the Church. But since it speaks of reconciliation to God, these words offer no other thought than this: to reconcile them in His one body, by offering it on the cross as a sacrifice of propitiation for all.

Likewise, "having slain the enmity" does not mean the enmity spoken of above in the words, "the enmity in His flesh." It means the enmity that sin raised up between men and God. This enmity was slain by the cross. Believers, who "were enemies" (Rom 5:10), are reconciled through it to God.

Such is the content of these verses. But since they present a most important subject of our faith, we shall keep the attention of those who love to attend to the truths of faith longer upon it. Let us set forth everything our holy fathers and teachers have said concerning them.

"And that He might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross, having slain the enmity on it." "He slew the enmity on the cross, offering the undefiled sacrifice. He reconciled both, that is, those who believed from the Gentiles and from the Jews, in the one body offered for all, so that they might make up one body.

"The Apostle called all believers one man because all have one Head, Christ the Master, while the body is made up of those counted worthy of salvation" (Theodoret).

"Having slain the enmity by His death, Christ first made peace between the nations. Then He also made them peaceful with God the Father, so that men of one nature, scattered because of sin and error, might become members of one new body whose Head is Christ" (Ambrosiaster).

"He did not say merely that He might make peace, katallaxe, but that He might reconcile fully, apokatallaxe. Through this he shows that even before this human nature was capable of reconciliation with God, as in the saints who lived before the law.

"He says: to God in His one body. How did He accomplish this? By Himself bearing on the cross the punishment that was due. Having slain the enmity on it. No expressions could be more vivid or more precise.

"His death, the Apostle says, as it were, killed, pierced, and destroyed the enmity. He did not entrust this work to someone else, but accomplished it Himself. For this He not only acted, but also suffered.

"He did not say: having loosed it. Nor did he say: having removed it. He said: having slain it, the strongest word of all, so that the enmity will never rise again.

"And how could it rise? Only through our wickedness. As long as we remain in the body of Christ, and as long as we are in union with Him, it will not rise. It will lie dead.

"Strictly speaking, it will never rise. We may produce another enmity, but not the former one, which has been slain and put to death forever. Thus whether or not one is at enmity with God depends on you.

"It is said: the mind of the flesh is enmity against God. If we do not think according to the flesh, this new enmity will never be born, and peace will always remain.

"But consider how terrible it is for us to enter again voluntarily into enmity with God, after He has done so much for our reconciliation and has truly reconciled us. This new enmity no longer awaits the font of Baptism, but Gehenna. It awaits not forgiveness, but punishment" (Saint Chrysostom).