FEBRUARY 8, 2024
“Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” (Eph. 2:19)
The Ephesian believers were, before, strangers and foreigners but are now fellow citizens with the saints. They were even then, while yet living and maintaining earthly citizenship in Ephesus of the Lesser Asia, becoming citizens of a better country and of a heavenly city which the Apostle here calls “the household of God.” (The Church)
The Ephesians to whom this Epistle was written were of the most foolish and corrupt idolaters among the heathen world. There was no limit to the debauchery that was part and parcel with their temple worship. So infatuated were they with their goddess Dianna that they wearied themselves crying out, “Great is Dianna of the Ephesians!” This gives us some idea as to the drastic change that God’s amazing grace had wrought in them and the wonderful change of which Paul was mindful when he said to the saints at Ephesus, “Ye are no more strangers and foreigners.”
Such, then, were they before the quickening grace of the Holy Spirit brought them out of that miserable condition. It will be good for us to examine the meaning of these two expressions. First, what is it to be a stranger? When someone comes to our town or neighborhood and we can see that everything is new to him, we perceive that he is a stranger. He knows no one; no one knows him. His manner reveals to us what he himself knows and feels; that he is a stranger.
This is very true in a natural sense, but clearly, our text has reference to spiritual strangers. In the spiritual sense, a stranger is one who knows not God. A stranger, in this sense, is one who is not acquainted with the ways and means of grace, nor does he understand the people of grace. This one knows nothing of true prayer, or of the throne of grace. He has no knowledge of his need or mercy. He, therefore, doesn’t understand his lost, ruined condition, and knows nothing of the way of salvation. He is therefore a stranger to Jesus Christ as the new and living way. He knows nothing of the blood of Christ that cleanses from sin and brings us nigh unto God. Obviously, such a one is a stranger to the family of God. Are you a stranger or a citizen? Paul says, “Ye were strangers.” Clearly, these Ephesian believers were no longer in that state but were now beloved brethren in the Church of Jesus Christ.
But there is a second expression that Paul uses to describe what these, who are now Christians, were prior to their conversion. He speaks of them as being no more foreigners. A foreigner seems, if I may so speak, more desperately lost than a stranger. However, what we are to understand is just how dreadful is the condition of every lost soul, for before one comes to know Christ, he is both a stranger and a foreigner.
A stranger comes into town and is marked as a stranger because he is unfamiliar with the place and people. But at least he speaks the language. He can ask questions, receive directions, etc. He can obtain for himself the necessities of life, such as food and lodging. The foreigner, however, in most cases cannot speak the language, is ignorant of the laws, habits, manners, and customs. This one is an alien in blood, lineage, allegiance, and language.
So, in the spiritual sense, a foreigner is one who is “alienated from the life of God.” He is, as a child of the bondwoman, an alien in blood, lineage, and the language of Canaan. His allegiance is to the prince of this world. But the citizen of the household of God, that is, Jerusalem, which is above, the church, knows the language. When God speaks to him in the Word, he understands it. He also knows how to speak with God.
Are you a stranger and a foreigner, or are you by grace through faith in Jesus Christ a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem? Paul said, “Our conversation (citizenship) is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.”
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