1882 18 Whenever God called a people, it was to be the "habitation of God." It was not so in Paradise. God came to have intercourse with Adam, but not to dwell in Adam; for this he must have had the knowledge of good and evil. Thus in Exodus 29, when Israel were brought out of Egypt, they were to be the habitation of God. In Ephesians 2 we have our place in Christ before God, and God has His place in us before men.
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1882 22 "That Christ might fill all things." Faith cannot look out on a place which Divine love and righteousness have not filled. He has come down in love, and gone up in righteousness. "Perfecting of the saints" refers to them individually, as "edifying of the body" collectively.
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1882 52 Whatever does not suit the presence of God does not suit a Christian. The first effect of the presence of God is to annihilate a man in his own eyes. Hence in Eph. 4:2, in connection with walking worthy of the "high vocation," it is to be with all lowliness, etc. Then another thing follows: there must be no hurry with our brethren, but "long-suffering and forbearance."
In Eph. 4 up to verse 6 we have all alike addressed. Afterwards it is according to the sovereign will of God given to individuals.
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1882 64 I can use my members as servants; but the moment I make them anything else but servants, it is sin. When man fell, he was under the evil: now we are to be over the evil. We have put on the new man, which is renewed after the image of Him that created him.