“Paul does not ask a thing of the saints in the first three chapters of Ephesians but just to listen while he proclaims that wondrous series of great and eternal facts concerning them; and not until he has completed this catalogue of realities about them does he ask them to do anything at all! And when he does open his plea for their high walk as saints, everything is based on the revelation before given—the facts of their high character and destiny as saints: ‘I therefore…beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called” (Eph:4:1I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,). Let us cease laying down to the saints long lists of ‘conditions’ of entering into the blessed life in Christ; and instead, as the primal preparation for leading them into the experience of this life, show them what their position, possessions, and privileges in Christ already are. Thus shall we truly work with the Holy Spirit, and thus shall we have more, much more abiding fruit of our labors among the people of God”
(Wm. R. Newell, from "The Green Letters" by Miles J. Stanford, pgs. 38-39).
