Ephesians

Ephesians is Alexander Maclaren’s collection of expository sermons on Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians. Rather than commenting on every verse, Maclaren selects major passages across all six chapters and develops them as substantial sermons. The volume moves from the believer’s spiritual blessings in Christ through salvation by grace, resurrection life, the Church, the indwelling Christ, prayer, unity, spiritual maturity, the new man, holy conduct, and finally the armor of God. Its characteristic strength is the way doctrine is continually turned into Christian experience and practice.

The sermons on Ephesians 1 emphasize what believers possess “in Christ” and trace God’s purpose through Christ. Maclaren develops spiritual blessing, grace, inheritance, hope, faith, and the immeasurable power of God displayed in Christ’s resurrection. Several sermons explore the believer’s inheritance and God’s inheritance in His people, while Maclaren also develops God’s eternal purpose to gather all things in Christ and display His wisdom through the Church. Union with Christ is not merely one topic among many; Maclaren treats being “in Christ” as a keynote of the epistle and as the spiritual location from which Christian blessing and growth proceed.

Ephesians 2 brings spiritual death and resurrection life into focus. Maclaren expounds God’s mercy and the movement from death to life, the riches of grace, salvation by grace through faith, and good works as the result of God’s workmanship rather than the basis of salvation. Christ as the cornerstone leads into the Church as God’s household and spiritual building. These sermons address questions about how grace, faith, works, new life, and the corporate people of God relate to one another.

Ephesians 3 receives an unusually concentrated sequence of sermons on inward spiritual experience. Maclaren develops strengthening by the Spirit, Christ dwelling in the heart through faith, the dimensions of Christ’s love, the fullness of God, and Paul’s prayer. Ephesians 3:14–21 is therefore one of the volume’s strongest passage-level studies. Prayer is treated not simply as devotional practice but as the means by which Paul asks that believers enter more deeply into spiritual strength, love, knowledge, indwelling, and fullness.

The sermons on Ephesians 4 turn toward the unity and maturity of the Church. One body, one Spirit, one Lord, and one faith are joined to the diversity of grace given to believers. Maclaren develops growth toward the measure of Christ, learning Christ, the putting off of the old manner of life, and the putting on of the new man created in righteousness and holiness. This treatment of Ephesians 4:22–24 gives the volume substantial teaching on the new creation as a present transformation of Christian character. He also treats the grieving of the Holy Spirit and the practical moral consequences of belonging to Christ.

Ephesians 5 continues the practical emphasis through imitation of God, walking as children of light, exposing works of darkness, wise use of time, and Spirit-filled living. Maclaren’s sermon “Paul’s Reasons for Temperance” directly contrasts drunkenness with being filled with the Spirit, while “Redeeming the Time” treats Christian wisdom in the use of opportunity. Significantly, this Maclaren volume does not include an exposition of Ephesians 5:22–33 or the household instructions; its selected sermons move from Ephesians 5:15–16 to the spiritual warfare material of chapter 6.

Ephesians 6 contains the volume’s most concentrated treatment of spiritual conflict. Maclaren devotes separate sermons to the whole armor of God and to truth, righteousness, readiness, faith, salvation, and the sword of the Spirit. His sermon on the sword gives substantial treatment to the Word of God as the Spirit-supplied weapon of Christian conflict. Spiritual warfare is therefore presented not as fascination with evil powers but as standing in resources supplied by God.

The book is especially useful to readers asking what it means to be in Christ, how salvation by grace produces good works, how believers grow toward maturity, what Christ’s indwelling means, how to pray for spiritual fullness, what the new man is, how to live as light, what Spirit-filled sobriety looks like, and how the armor of God functions. Across its selected expositions, Maclaren presents Ephesians as a movement from divine provision to transformed Christian life.