What Does Ephesians 2:11 Mean?

(11) **Gentiles in the flesh**—*i.e., *not having the bodily impress of circumcision, sealing the Jewish covenant. **Who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision.**—The use of the phrase “called”—with a touch of the contempt implied in our phrase “the so-called”—simply implies that now Circumcision and Uncircumcision were mere names, virtually “nothing.” The declaration of the nullity of circumcision as a religious distinction is often repeated, yet takes various forms. Thus, in 1Corinthians 7:19, it is contrasted with the practical reality of obedience to God’s commandments; in Galatians 5:6, with the inner reality of “faith working by love “; in Galatians 6:15, with the divine gift of the “new creation”; in Colossians 3:11, with the spiritual unity of all in Christ. (Comp. also the whole argument of Romans 2:25 to Romans 4:12.) **In the flesh made by hands.**—St. Paul, however, not content with this, suggests by the addition of these last words a contrast between the false or carnal, and the true or spiritual circumcision, attributing the former to the unbelieving Jews, the latter to all Christians. This contrast is expressly announced in the other Epistles of this period. In Philippians 3:2-3, we read, “Beware of the concision; for we are the circumcision.” In Colossians 2:11, still more distinctly, in significant connection with the appointed means of entrance into the Christian covenant, and significant contrast with the effete Jewish ordinance, “In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision not made with hands . . . in the circumcision of Christ; buried with Him in baptism, in which also ye are risen with Him.” In that true circumcision lies the distinction between the Church, which is the spiritual Israel, and the heathen world without.