III. The Dynamic Community Under His Care   19-22

19-22 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the bapostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Main Thrust: The presence and power of Christ constitute His people into a new, vibrant, growing, dynamic community, surging with righteousness and strengthened by its implacable, irreplaceable foundation. The features of this new community are now expounded. The first is:

A. Its Constituent Citizens   19
These consist of:

1. A New Fellowship
19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints

Strangers refers to dwellers who are nearby but not in. So Acts 7:6, 29; 1 Pe 2:11. They are just outside the house or family of God.

Fellow citizens = members of the people of Israel (12), the opposite of foreigners.

So, you now bear a continuing relationship with all saints, i.e., those selected and separated from the world and sanctified unto God as His peculiar people.

Amplification: "Formerly the Gentiles stood in the same relation to the theocracy or commonwealth of Israel, that we do to a foreign state. They had no share in its privileges, no participation in its blessings. Now they are "fellow citizens with the saints." Saints does not mean the Jews nor the ancient patriarchs, but the people of God. Christians have become, under the new dispensation, what the Jews once were, viz. saints, men selected and separated from the world, and consecrated to God as his peculiar people. They now constitute the theocracy- which is no longer confined to any one people or country, but embraces all in every country who have access to God by Christ Jesus. In this spiritual kingdom the Gentiles now have the right of citizenship. They share perfect equality with all other members of that kingdom--the kingdom of heaven. The same terms of admission are required, and neither more nor less, for membership in that kingdom, and for admission into heaven, all who enter the one enter the other; the one is but the infancy of the other; we are now, says Paul, the citizens of heaven. It is not, therefore, to the participation of the privileges of the old, external, visible theocracy, nor simply to the pale of the visible Christian church, that the apostle here welcomes his Gentile brethren, but to the spiritual Israel, the communion of saints; to citizenship in that kingdom of which Christ is king, and membership in that body of which he is the head. Charles Hodge, Commentary on Ephesians, (Escondido, CA: Ephesians Four Group) 1999.

John R. Stott, The Message of Ephesians, 105: "The kingdom of God is neither a territorial jurisdiction nor even a spiritual structure. ... (It) is God himself ruling his people and bestowing upon them all the privileges and responsibilities which his rule implies.. This new community, neither Jewish or Gentile, replaces the OT national theocracy, and even eclipses the splendor of the earthly reigning Roman Empire which was at the zenith of its splendor and against whose backdrop Paul is writing."

You're in now!!! You're no longer outside; no longer distant; no longer separated. You have a new identity, community, ethnicity, authority, God the Father Himself, and you belong to a new race–Christianity!!!

2. A New Family
and members of the household of God,

The family scene emphasizes the intimacy of this new relationship.
Of the household of God, Robertson: Old word from the word meaning house, household. Gentiles are now in the family of God, Rom 8:29.

Hodges, 148: "The family is a much more intimate brotherhood than the State. The relationship to the Father is much more sacred and tender than that which we bear to a civil ruler; and therefore, there is an advance in this clause beyond what is said in the former. If in the former we are said to be fellow citizens with the saints, here we are said to be the children of God; whose character and privileges belong to all those in whom God dwells by his Spirit." So, here we have the reality of new relationships characterized by a new intimacy.

The second feature of this New Community is:

B. Its Continuing Construction   20-21
20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

1. What It Rests On
20a built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

Lincoln, Ephesians, 152: Having been built=aorist passive participle, hence an event which has already taken place with God Himself being the Builder, the One Who has achieved this.

Note the emphasis --Apostles first and prophets after. Emphasis on the new dispensation? Or, prophets in the NT church? Contrast Eph 3:5; 4:11.

Interrogation: Does this refer to the foundation which they constituted or the foundation which they laid? Constituted by supported by Mt 16:18; Rev 21:14.

Hodge, 150: "... the figure here demands this interpretation. So that in this particular verse, Christ is the cornerstone, the apostles the foundation, believers, the edifice. The cornerstone is distinguished from the foundation. To express the idea that the church rests on Christ, he is sometimes called the foundation and sometimes the cornerstone of the building; but where he is called the one, he is not represented as the other."

So also Lincoln, 153, who calls it a genitive of apposition--the foundation which the apostles and prophets constitute.

But Calvin, Stott: foundation of the apostles and teachers=their teaching and instruction.

2. What It Relies On
20b Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,

The idea of Christ being the cornerstone is prophesied in Isa 28:16; Ps 118:22 and fulfilled in Mt 21:42; Acts 4:11; 1 Cor 3:11; 1 Pe 2:6-8.

Interrogation: What is the purpose of a cornerstone? The cornerstone determined the nature of the building. It is put into place first, and therefore it determines the building's location, its dimension, its orientation, its cohesion and its shape. The unity and integrity of this new community of God are ensured by the Lord Jesus Christ, its Cornerstone.

Application: As Chief Cornerstone of the building of God, Jesus Christ guarantees its integrity and unity by supporting and strengthening all of its members, regardless of race, religion, or rank, and by galvanizing them into an indestructible, indivisible, inseparable, building, perfect in shape; perfect in symmetry; perfect in structure; perfect in security– each part harmoniously supporting and strengthening the others and each performing its prescribed responsibility, as the entire process is being directed toward its final goal. Christ, the Cornerstone of the church, not only sustains, strengthens, stabilizes and secures it, but also He carries it onto its destination, its growth into a holy temple of the Lord.

3. What It Results In
21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

in whom= in intimate union with Christ our Lord. The crucial role of the cornerstone=it is the indispensable controlling mechanism that binds and bonds and in so doing, builds all the parts and all the members of the church into a holy, consecrated temple.

being joined together.
Robertson: Present passive indicative (a continuous process) verb to build together with others or out of varied materials as here. Only here in N.T. Possibly each Christian is meant here to be the indwelt habitation of God in the Spirit.

Amplification: The emphasis here is that God is continuously constructing His community. It is a process in which the members are passive. God Himself is strengthening and growing this (His) community together, each person being in an inseparable union with one another, so that without this condensed togetherness, no growth can take place. All this is being effectually done in Christ.

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