Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children. Ephesians 5:1 Imitators of God C. H. Spurgeon. The apostle urges us to give and forgive. If ye be imitators of God, give, for He is always giving. I. CONSIDER THE PRECEPT here laid down — "Be ye imitators of God, as clear children." 1. I note upon this precept, first, that it calls us to practical duty. In this instance there can be no cavil at the too spiritual, sentimental, or speculative character of the text; there can be no question as to the eminently practical character of the exhortation — "Be ye imitators of God, as dear children," for it points to action. "Be ye imitators" — that is, do not only meditate upon God, and think that you have done enough, but go on to copy what you study. 2. Next, this precept treats us as children, treats us as what we are; and if we are lowly in heart we shall be thankful that it is worded as it is. If you are not His children you cannot imitate Him, and you will not even desire to do so. 3. Observe next, that while it thus humbles us, this precept ennobles us; for what a grand thing it is to be imitators of God! It is an honour to be the lowliest follower of such a Leader. Time has been when men gloried in studying Homer, and their lives were trained to heroism by his martial verse. Alexander carried the Iliad about with him in a casket studded with jewels, and his military life greatly sprung out of his imitation of the warriors of Greece and Troy. Ours is a nobler ambition by far than that which delights in battles; we desire to imitate the God of peace, whose name is love. In after ages, when men began to be a less savage race, and contests of thought were carried on by the more educated class of minds, thousands of men gloried in being disciples of the mighty Stagyrite, the renowned Aristotle. He reigned supreme over the thought of men for centuries, and students slavishly followed him till a greater arose, and set free the human mind by a more true philosophy. To this day, however, our cultured men remain copyists, and you can see a fashion in philosophy as well as in clothes. Some of these imitations are so childish as to be deplorable. It is no honour to imitate a poor example. But, oh, beloved, he who seeks to imitate his God has a noble enterprize before him: he shall rise as on eagle's wings. O angels, what happier task could be laid before you ? 4. While it ennobles us, this precept tests us.(1) It tests our knowledge. He who does not know God, cannot possibly imitate Him.(2) It tests our love. If we love God, love will constrain us to imitate Him. We readily grow somewhat like that which we love.(3) It tests our sincerity. If a man is not really a Christian he will take no care about his life; but in the matter of close copying a man must be careful; a watchful care is implied in the idea of imitation.(4) It tests us as to our spirit, whether it be of the law or of the gospel. "Be ye imitators of God, as dear children": not as slaves might imitate their master, unwillingly, dreading the crack of his whip; but loving, willing imitators, such as children are. You do not urge your children to imitate you; they do this even in their games. See how the boy rides his wooden horse, and the girl imitates her nurse. You see the minister's little boy trying to preach like his father; and you all remember the picture of the tiny girl with a Bible in front of her and an ancient pair of spectacles upon her nose, saying, "Now I'm grandmamma." They copy us by force of nature: they cannot help it. Such will be the holiness of the genuine Christian. Holiness must be spontaneous, or it is spurious. 5. While it tests us, this precept greatly aids us. It is a fine thing for a man to know what he has to do, for then he is led in a plain path because of his enemies. What a help it is to have a clear chart, and a true compass! Creatures cannot imitate their Creator in His Divine attributes, but children may copy their Father in His moral attributes. By the aid of His Divine Spirit we can copy our God in His justice, righteousness, holiness, purity, truth, and faithfulness. 6. Another blessing is that it backs us up in our position; for if we do a thing because we are imitating God, if any raise an objection it does not trouble us, much less are we confounded. He who follows God minds not what the godless think of his way of life. 7. This precept is greatly for our usefulness. I do not know of anything which would make us so useful to our fellow men as this would do. I have heard of an atheist who said he could get over every argument except the example of his godly mother: he could never answer that. A genuinely holy Christian is a beam of God's glory, and a testimony to the being and the goodness of God. 8. A close imitation of God would make our religion honourable. The ungodly might still hate it, but they could not sneer at it. II. Secondly, I invite you, dear friends, as we are helped of God's Spirit, to WEIGH THE ARGUMENT. The argument is this, "Be ye imitators of God, as dear children." First, as children. It is the natural tendency of children to imitate their parents: yet there are exceptions, for some children are the opposite of their fathers, perhaps displaying the vices of a remoter ancestor. Absalom did not imitate David, nor was Rehoboam a repetition of Solomon. In the case of God's children it is a necessity that they should be like their Father; for it is a rule in spirituals that like begets its like. I say to any man here who bears the name of Christian and professes to be a child of God, either be like your Father or give up your name. You remember the old classic story of a soldier in Alexander's army whose name was Alexander, but when the battle was raging he trembled. Then Alexander said to him, "How canst thou bear the name of Alexander? Drop thy cowardice or drop thy name." Be like Christ, or be not called a Christian. The argument, then, is that if we are children we should imitate our Father; but it is also said "as dear children." Read it as "children beloved." Is not this a tender but mighty argument? How greatly has God loved us in that He permits us to be His children at all. III. Next, I desire to SUGGEST ENCOURAGEMENTS. 1. God has already made you His children. The greater work He has Himself done for you; that which remains is but your reasonable service. 2. God has given you His nature already. It only remains for you to let the new nature act after its own manner. 3. The Lord has given you His blessed Spirit to help you. 4. The Lord allows you to commune with Himself. If we had to imitate a man, and yet could not see him, we should find it hard work; but in this case we can draw nigh unto God. You know the Persian story of the scented clay. One said to it, "Clay, whence hast thou thy delicious perfume?" It answered: "I was aforetime nothing but a piece of common clay, but I lay long in the sweet society of a rose till I drank in its fragrance and became perfumed myself." IV. CERTAIN INFERENCES. 1. God is ready to forgive those who have offended Him. 2. God is an example to us, therefore He will surely keep His word. He must be faithful and true, for you are bidden to copy Him. 3. Another inference — only a hint at it — is, if you are told to be "imitators of God, as dear children," then you may depend upon it the Lord is a dear Father. 4. Lastly, when the text says, "Be ye imitators of God," it bids us keep on imitating Him as long as we live: therefore I conclude that God will always be to us what He is. ( C. H. Spurgeon. )

Benson Commentary Ephesians 5:1 Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; Ephesians 5:1-2 . Therefore — Because you are forgiven by God, and have been so much loved; ( Ephesians 4:32 ;) be ye followers — ??????? , imitators, of God — In loving and forgiving; as dear — ??????? , beloved, children — Whom he hath not only forgiven after many and great offences, but hath taken into his peculiar favour, adopted into his family, constituted his heirs, and joint heirs with his beloved Son, and inspired with blessed and lively hopes of unspeakable glory and felicity for ever. O! how much more honourable and more happy it is to be an imitator of God, than of Homer, Virgil, Alexander the Great, or any other human being, however renowned for learning, prowess, or achievements! And walk in love — Toward one another and toward all men, as well as toward God. Let your whole conduct toward others proceed from love as its principle, be governed by love as its rule, and be directed to, and terminate in love, as its end. As Christ also hath loved us — In such an astonishing manner, and to such an inconceivable degree, and hath so demonstrated his love, as to give himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God — To atone for our transgressions, and render our salvation consistent with the divine perfections. Some divines have thought that in these expressions both the peace-offerings and the sin-offerings enjoined in the law of Moses are alluded to, the truths shadowed forth by both being attained by true believers through the sacrifice of Christ, which both expiated sin, or removed condemnation and wrath, and obtained for them the divine favour, with all the blessings consequent thereon. But it does not seem that any great stress can be laid on this distinction, as the word ????????? , translated to offer, with the noun derived from it, rendered offering, is used in a multitude of places in the LXX., for presenting any victim before God; as it is likewise in the New Testament, ( Matthew 5:23-24 ,) for bringing a gift and offering it on the altar. Of a sweet-smelling savour — Or fragrant odour; an epithet given to the sin-offering, ( Leviticus 4:31 ,) and to the burnt-offering, ( Genesis 8:21 ,) to denote the acceptableness of such oblations to God, when offered by upright worshippers in the way he had appointed. For in the warm eastern climes nothing is more refreshing to mankind than fragrant odours. The sacrifice of Christ, however, as is here implied, was far more acceptable and pleasing to God than any of the victims or perfumes which had been offered of old, whether on the brazen or golden altar of the Jewish tabernacle or temple. Indeed, their sacrifices and perfumes were only acceptable as being emblematical of the offering of his body once for all, and of his continual intercessions for us before the throne of the Majesty on high. And it is a pleasing and encouraging consideration, that through these all our sincere prayers and praises, and our acts of pious and charitable liberality, beneficence, and goodness, come up before God as a grateful memorial, and draw down upon us a most valuable blessing. With regard to the exhortation to mutual love here given, it is justly observed by Macknight, that “Christ’s love in dying for us, is” [as on many other accounts, so on this] “a strong reason for our loving one another; because, if we do not love one another, we are destitute of that disposition which rendered Christ so acceptable to his Father; and have no right to be called his disciples, or to share in the inheritance of his children. Ephesians 5:2 And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. Ephesians 5:3 But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; Ephesians 5:3-4 . But fornication, &c. — But any impure love, and any vice flowing therefrom, or connected therewith; let it not be once named — Or heard of; among you — Except with detestation. Keep at the utmost distance from it; as becometh saints — Who are conscious of the sanctity of your name and profession, and dread the thoughts of debasing it; for certainly it is reasonable and proper that they who are separated from the world, and dedicated to God, should shun all such mention of these things, as may any way encourage and countenance the practice of them. Neither filthiness — Wanton, lewd, lascivious speeches; nor foolish talking — Tittle-tattle, talking of the weather, fashions, meat, and drink, and such vain discourse as betrays folly and indiscretion, and has no tendency to edify; nor jesting — ?????????? , wittiness, facetiousness, or such artfully turned discourse as is only calculated to produce mirth and laughter. Such turns of wit were esteemed by the heathen a sort of virtue: but how frequently every thing of this kind quenches the Spirit, those who are of a tender conscience know. Which things are not convenient — Or proper for a Christian, as neither increasing his faith nor holiness, and are therefore utterly unsuitable to his profession. But rather giving of thanks — Rather abound in the language of thanksgiving and devotion, to which you are under so many and such strong obligations, and which will yield a pleasure much more sublime and satisfactory than any animal indulgences or delights. Observe, reader, the deliverances which God hath wrought out for us, and the benefits which he hath conferred on us in the course of his providence, the great blessings of redemption and salvation from sin and misery procured for us, and the gift of eternal life consequent thereon, with whatever is necessary to prepare us for these blessings, are powerful considerations why we should be frequent and fervent in praise and thanksgiving. Ephesians 5:4 Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. Ephesians 5:5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Ephesians 5:5-7 . For this ye know — Of this ye cannot be ignorant, favoured as you have been with the light of the gospel, that no whoremonger, &c., hath any inheritance — Here or hereafter; in the kingdom of Christ or of God — That is, purchased by Christ, and bestowed by God. The reason why the apostle, in this and his other epistles, condemned fornication and every sort of uncleanness in such an express manner, was because the heathen avowedly practised these vices even in their temples as acts of worship, which they thought rendered them acceptable to their gods. But how different from such practices is the conduct enjoined in the gospel, which teaches that they who continue in such abominations, shall for ever be excluded from the presence and glory of God. Nor covetous man — That is, the man whose chief desire and care is to increase his wealth, either that he may spend it on the gratification of his lusts, or may hoard it up; who is an idolater — As placing that love, delight, and confidence in riches, which ought to be placed in God alone; or because he sets up something else, whatever may be the object of his covetous desires, and something comparatively very base and contemptible, in the place of God, as if it could be the ground of his dependance, and the source of his happiness. Let no man deceive you with vain words — Or sophistical arguments, as if you might live in the commission of such sins, and yet find mercy with God, or escape punishment. For because of these and the like things, cometh the wrath of God — And the dreadful effects thereof, on the children of disobedience — Even on the Gentiles, though not favoured with the light and aids which you have, demonstrating to you the infinite evil of all such practices, and affording you sufficient power to avoid them. Now, if even heathens are punished for such practices, much less can we suppose that professing Christians, who have so much greater advantages for practising purity and virtue in all their branches, and are under such strong and peculiar engagements so to do, shall escape with impunity if they pursue a similar line of conduct. Be not ye therefore partakers with them — In these abominations, if ye would not finally partake in that dreadful punishment which they are bringing on themselves thereby. Ephesians 5:6 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Ephesians 5:7 Be not ye therefore partakers with them. Ephesians 5:8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: Ephesians 5:8-10 . For ye were sometimes — That is, once; darkness — In a state of total blindness and ignorance, without any light of instruction without, or divine grace within, and therefore had some excuse for living such unrighteous and profane lives: but now ye are light in the Lord — Enlightened by the divine word and Spirit, and brought to the saving knowledge of God and Christ, and of divine things in general; and consequently such vicious practices as you formerly pursued would be utterly inexcusable in you now. You are now under an indispensable obligation to walk as children of light — That is, in a manner suitable to your present knowledge. For, &c. — As if he had said, Such walking is the proper, natural result of your illumination and spiritual condition; the fruit of the Spirit is in — Consists in; all goodness, righteousness, and truth — That is, the Spirit works these graces in those persons in whom he dwells, graces quite opposite to the sins spoken of Ephesians 4:25 , &c. By goodness we are to understand an inclination and endeavour to perform all good offices to our fellow-creatures, especially to the children of God: by righteousness, justice, and fair dealing toward all men: and by truth, freedom from hypocrisy, dissimulation, guile, and deceit. Some MSS., together with the Syriac and Vulgate versions, read here, But the fruit of the light, &c., which Estius, Grotius, Mill, and Bengelius, think the true reading, because there is no mention made of the Spirit, either in what goes before, or in what follows. The common reading they suppose hath been taken from Galatians 5:22 . Proving — ???????????? , making trial of, proving by experience, or approving; what is acceptable — ????????? , well-pleasing; to the Lord — And how happy they are who in all things are governed by his will. Ephesians 5:9 (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) Ephesians 5:10 Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. Ephesians 5:11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them . Ephesians 5:11-12 . And have no fellowship — No society, no participation with wicked men in the unfruitful works of darkness — Works which bring no advantage, but mischief, ( Romans 6:23 ,) and called works of darkness, because they usually proceed from ignorance, Acts 3:17 ; are contrary to the light of the word, John 3:20 ; are usually committed in the dark, 1 Thessalonians 5:7 ; and bring those who live and die in the commission of them to utter and eternal darkness, Matthew 25:30 ; but rather reprove them — Show your disapprobation of them by seasonable and suitable reproof, ( Leviticus 19:17 ; Matthew 18:15 ,) and especially by the holiness of your conversation. Observe, reader, to avoid such things is not sufficient. For it is a shame even to speak of those things — Except in the way of reproof; which are done of them in secret — That is, says Dr. Whitby, “in their mysteries, which therefore were styled ???????? ???????? , (mysteries not to be spoken of,) none being permitted to divulge them upon pain of death. Hence even the word ????????? (mystery) hath its name, say grammarians, from ????? ?? ????? , to stop the mouth. The Eleusinian mysteries were performed in the night, agreeably to the deeds of darkness committed in them; so were the Bacchanalia; and they were both full of detestable iniquity; and upon that account, says Livy, “were banished out of the Roman senate and Italy.” These quotations, with many others which might be added to them, plainly prove, as Dr. Doddridge observes, that if the lower sort of mysteries among the heathens were first intended, as some have supposed, to impress the minds of the people with the belief of future rewards and punishments, and the higher sort of them to instruct persons of more reflection and penetration than the rest, in the knowledge of the true God, and the other great principles of natural religion, they were, long before the apostle’s time, greatly corrupted, and degraded to the most detestable purposes. Monsieur Saurin thinks there is a sarcasm in this verse, as if the apostle said, “The heathens call these things ???????? , things not to be spoken of; true, they are properly so; things not too sacred, but too infamous to be mentioned.” Ephesians 5:12 For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. Ephesians 5:13 But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Ephesians 5:13-14 . But all things that are reproved — Or, discovered, or confuted, as ?????????? may be properly rendered; are made manifest — Have their iniquity laid open to the actors themselves, as well as to others; by the light — Of divine truth; or, as Whitby interprets the clause, “being discovered by the light, they are made manifest.” For whatsoever doth make any thing of a moral or immoral nature manifest, is light — That is, nothing can make any thing in men’s spirit or conduct manifest but light, yea, light from heaven; “and therefore the gospel well deserves that name, as teaching those who are instructed in it to judge rightly concerning the moral nature of actions, and inculcating such general principles, as will be of use to them in every particular case that can possibly arise.” Wherefore he saith — Namely, God, in the general tenor of his word, to all who are still in darkness; Awake thou that sleepest — In ignorance of God, of thyself, and of his will concerning thee, and in a state of stupid insensibility respecting invisible and eternal things; and arise from the dead — From thy state of spiritual death, a state of alienation from the life of God here, and obnoxiousness to eternal death hereafter. See on Ephesians 2:5 . And Christ shall give thee light — Spiritual and divine light, knowledge, wisdom, holiness, and happiness, the light of grace and glory. Ephesians 5:14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. Ephesians 5:15 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Ephesians 5:15-17 . See then — That you may be fit to reprove sin in others; that ye — Yourselves, upon whom the light of Christ already shines; walk circumspectly — ??????? , accurately, with the utmost exactness; making his will, as made known to you in his word, your rule, and his glory your end, in all your actions, cares, labours, and pursuits; taking the most attentive heed to every step, and conducting yourselves, not as fools, who have no understanding of their duty or interest, and who consider not what they are doing, in what way they are proceeding forward, or where it will terminate; but as wise men — Who know the worth of their immortal souls, the snares that are or will be laid to entangle them, by their subtle and powerful enemies, the many pressing dangers they have to avoid, and the important ends they have to secure. Redeeming the time — With all possible care, ?????????????? , buying it up, as it were, as a most precious commodity, (though held cheap by many,) out of the hands of sin and Satan, of sloth, ease, pleasure, and worldly business, which may be done at the expense of a little self-denial, watchfulness, zeal, and diligence, which will be amply recompensed in time and in eternity; or endeavouring to recover and buy back, (as the word may signify,) as far as possible, what has been lost, by diligently making use of what remains, especially in embracing every opportunity of receiving and doing good, and studying to improve every one to the best purposes: and this the rather, because the days are evil — Days of the grossest ignorance, immorality, and profaneness; so that being surrounded on every side with bad examples, we are in danger of being corrupted, and are at the same time exposed to various persecutions and perils, and know not how soon we may be deprived of our liberty or lives. Wherefore — Since the times are so evil, and the danger so great; be ye not unwise — Ignorant of your duty and true interest, negligent of the concerns of your immortal souls, and inconsiderate as you formerly were; but understanding what the will of the Lord is — In every time, place, and circumstance. Ephesians 5:16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Ephesians 5:17 Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is . Ephesians 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Ephesians 5:18-21 . And be not drunk with wine — As the heathen are when they celebrate the feasts of Bacchus, their god of wine; wherein is excess — Which is the source of all manner of extravagance, and leads to debauchery of every kind. The original word ?????? , here rendered excess, signifies entire dissoluteness of mind and manners, and such a course of life as is void of counsel and prudent intention, like the behaviour of persons who are continually drunk. While the above-mentioned Bacchanalia continued, men and women made it a point of religion to intoxicate themselves, and ran about the streets, fields, and vineyards, singing and shouting in a wild and tumultuous manner; in opposition to which extravagant vociferations, singing praises to God is with great propriety recommended. Plato tells us, that there was hardly a sober person to be found in the whole Attican territories during the continuance of these detestable feasts. But be ye filled with the Spirit — In all his graces, which gives a joy unspeakably more delightful, exhilarating, and permanent, than that which is produced by the fumes of wine. The antithesis is beautiful. The lewd votaries of Bacchus fill themselves with wine; but be ye filled with the Spirit. In which precept there is this remarkable propriety, that our Lord had represented the influences of the Spirit, (which he invited all who thirsted for them, to come to him and receive,) under the emblem of rivers of living water, which he commanded believers to drink plentifully, John 7:37-39 . Speaking to yourselves — That is, to one another, by the Spirit, for your mutual edification; in psalms — Of David, and hymns — Of praise; and spiritual songs — On any divine subject; of this latter kind were the songs of Elisabeth, of Mary, and of Zecharias, recorded by Luke 1:42 ; Luke 1:46 ; Luke 1:67 . By there being no inspired songs, peculiarly adapted to the Christian dispensation, as there were to the Jewish. it is evident that the promise of the Holy Ghost to believers in the last days, was, by his larger effusion, to supply this want. Singing and making melody — Which will be as acceptable and pleasing to God as music is to us; in your heart — As well as your voice, your affections going along with your words, without which no external melody, be it ever so exact and harmonious, can be pleasing to his ear; to the Lord — Jesus, who searcheth the heart; giving thanks always — At all times and places; for all things — Prosperous or adverse, for all things work together for good to them that love God; in the name — Or through the mediation; of our Lord Jesus Christ — By whom we receive all good things. Submitting yourselves — ????????????? , being subject, one to another — Performing those mutual duties to each other, which belong to you according to your several places and stations. As if he had said, While you are careful, as above directed, in the duties of praise and piety to God, be not negligent in those which you owe to your fellow-creatures, but perform them punctually in all the various relations in which you stand to each other; in the fear of God — Properly influenced thereby, and evidencing to all around you that you truly fear and obey him. Ephesians 5:19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Ephesians 5:20 Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Ephesians 5:21 Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Ephesians 5:22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. Ephesians 5:22-24 . In the following directions concerning relative duties, the inferiors are all along placed before the superiors, because the general proposition is concerning submission: and inferiors ought to do their duty, whatever their superiors do. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands — Unless where God forbids. Otherwise, in all indifferent things, the will of the husband is a law to the wife: as unto the Lord — As owning Christ’s authority in your husbands, whose image they bear, 1 Corinthians 11:7 . The obedience a wife pays to her husband, is at the same time paid to Christ himself. For the husband is the head of the wife — Under Christ; is her governor, guide, and guardian; as Christ is the head of the church — As if he had said, God will have some resemblance of Christ’s authority over the church exhibited in the husband’s authority over his wife. See on Ephesians 1:22 . And he is the Saviour of the body — Of the church, his mystical body, from all sin and misery. As if he had said, As Christ’s authority is exercised over his church to defend it from evil, and supply it with all good, so should the husband’s power over his wife be employed to protect her from injuries, and provide comfortably for her according to his ability. Therefore as the church — That is, that part of the church which is truly regenerate; is subject unto Christ — And with cheerful willingness submits to his authority; so let the wives be to their own husbands — To whom they have promised obedience; in every thing — Which is lawful, which is not contrary to any command of God. Ephesians 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Ephesians 5:24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; Ephesians 5:25 . The apostle now proceeds to speak of the duty of husbands to their wives, the principal of which consists in their loving them, without which they would abuse their power to tyranny and oppression. But how are they to love them? The apostle says, as Christ loved the church — Namely, with a love that is sincere, pure, ardent, constant, and persevering, and notwithstanding the imperfections and failures that they are chargeable with. The true model this of conjugal affection! with this kind of love, with this degree of it, and to this end, should husbands love their wives. Christ loved the church, and gave himself a ransom for it, when it was in a state of slavery and misery; and husbands, if called to it by God, should lay down their lives for their wives. Observe, reader, as the church’s subjection to Christ is proposed as an example to wives, so the love of Christ to his church is proposed as a pattern to husbands: and while such examples are offered to the imitation of both, and so much is required of each of them, neither has reason to complain of the divine injunction. The love which God requires from the husband toward his wife, compensates for that subjection which he demands from her to her husband: and the prescribed subjection of the wife is an abundant return for that love of the husband which God hath made her due. In what follows we are told that the end for which Christ loved the church, was that he might make her holy and save her; therefore, if husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church, they must endeavour to promote their faith and piety, must strive to make them wise and holy. Ephesians 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, Ephesians 5:26-27 . That he might sanctify and cleanse it — Might remove the guilt, power, and pollution of sin; with the washing of water — In baptism, as the sign of regeneration by the Holy Spirit, which can only renew, sanctify, and cleanse the soul. See 2 Thessalonians 2:13 ; 1 Peter 1:2 ; Titus 3:5 . By the word — The ordinary channel by which justifying, regenerating, and sanctifying grace is communicated; ( John 15:3 ; James 1:18 ; 1 Peter 1:23 ; John 17:17 ;) and by which we are made perfect, and thoroughly furnished unto all good works, 2 Timothy 3:17 . That he might present it to himself — That being purified, renewed, and adorned, as a bride prepared for her husband, he might place it in his own immediate presence; a glorious church — Perfectly holy, happy, and pleasing in his sight; not having spot — Of impurity from any remains of sin, or wrinkle — Of deformity from any decay, or any such thing — Any thing which could be called a defect; the perfection of the bodies of the saints, as well as that of their souls, being included in this description: but that it should be holy and without blemish — Or without blame; and he might survey it completely pure, beautiful, and resplendent, in that great day, when the whole number of the elect shall be gathered together, and the marriage of the Lamb shall be celebrated amidst the acclamations of the heavenly legions, to whose blissful world his bride shall be conducted in triumph. “How bright an idea,” says Dr. Doddridge, “does this give us of the grand plan and design of Christianity: namely, to bring all the millions of which the church consists, to such a state of perfect virtue and glory, that when the penetrating eye of Christ, its great and holy bridegroom, shall survey it, there shall not be one spot, or wrinkle, or any thing like it, in the least to impair its beauty, or offend his sight! Where is such a scheme of thought to be found in the world, but in the New Testament, and those who have been taught by it?” Ephesians 5:27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Ephesians 5:28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. Ephesians 5:28-32 . But to return to the subject from which this pleasing digression has led us: So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies — That is, as themselves, or a part of themselves; the bond of marriage making the husband and his wife one, and establishing an inseparable community of interests between them; so that the husband is to love his wife with the same sincerity and ardency of affection wherewith he loves himself. “The husband,” says Macknight, “whose love leads him, after Christ’s example, not only to protect and cherish his wife, by giving her the necessaries and conveniences of life, but also to cleanse her; that is, to form her mind, and assist her in making progress in virtue, really loves himself, and promotes his own happiness in the best manner. For his wife, being thus loved and cared for, will be strengthened for performing her duty; and her mind being improved, her conversation will give him the greater pleasure. Withal, having a high esteem for her husband, she will submit to the hardships of her inferior station with cheerfulness.” No man — In his senses; ever yet hated his own flesh — Whatever its infirmities or imperfections were; but nourisheth and cherisheth it — Feeds and clothes it; nay, and not only provides for its sustenance, but for its comfortable accommodation; even as the Lord nourishes and cherishes the church — Supplying it with all things that may conduce to its welfare and happiness, sympathizing with it in its infirmities, looking upon it as one with himself. For — He can say of his church what Adam said of Eve, when just taken out of his side, ( Genesis 2:23 ,) This is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh. In other words, the reason why Christ nourishes and cherishes the church, is that close connection which subsists between him and her, his people being as intimately united to him, as if they were literally flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone. For this cause — Because the woman is of the man’s flesh, and of his bones; shall a man leave his father and mother — To whom he was before united by the closest ties; and shall be joined unto his wife — Inseparably, till death shall part them; and they — Though originally and naturally two persons; shall — For the future; be one flesh — Shall be considered as one person, or as one soul in two bodies. This is a great mystery — A truth long unknown; and now, when in some measure discovered, is a matter worthy of much admiration. In the Vulgate version, this clause is translated, Sacramentum hoc magnum est, This is a great sacrament. And it is the sole foundation on which the Papists have set up marriage as a sacrament. But I speak concerning Christ and the church — That is, In saying this, you will easily perceive I speak not of the union between a man and his wife, but of that between Christ and the church: for that the eternal Son of God should unite himself to a society of degenerate and mortal men, should love them with an affection exceeding that which is to be found among the most intimate human relations, and should even regard them as making a part of himself, because of the intimacy with which they are joined to him in a community of spirit and of interest, can certainly never be sufficiently admired. This seems to be the sense of the passage. Dr. Macknight, however, following Dr. Alix, Dr. Whitby, and several others, thinks that the apostle calls the formation of Eve from Adam’s body, his marriage with her, and the intimate union established between them by that marriage, a great mystery, because it contained an important emblematical meaning concerning the regeneration of believers, and their union with Christ, which [meaning] hitherto had been kept secret, but which he had discovered by applying Adam’s words concerning Eve, to Christ and his church; insinuating, by this application, “1st, That the formation of Eve, of a rib taken out of Adam’s body, was a figure of the regeneration of believers, by the breaking of Christ’s body, mentioned Ephesians 5:25 . 2d, That Adam’s love to Eve, on account of her being formed of his body, was a figure of Christ’s love to believers, because they are become his body, Ephesians 5:30 . 3d, That Adam’s marriage with Eve was a figure of the eternal union of Christ with believers in heaven, mentioned Ephesians 5:27 . In giving this emblematical representation of these ancient facts, the apostle has not exceeded the bounds of probability. In the first age, neither the art of writing, nor any permanent method of conveying instruction being invented, it was necessary to make such striking actions and events as could not easily be forgotten, emblems of the instruction intended to be perpetuated. On this supposition, Adam, in whom the human race began, was a natural image of Christ, in whom the human race was to be restored; and his deep sleep, the opening of his side, and the formation of Eve of a rib taken out of his side, were fit emblems of Christ’s death, of the opening of his side on the cross, and of the regeneration of believers by his death. The love which Adam expressed toward Eve, and his union with her by marriage, were lively images of Christ’s love to believers, and of his eternal union with them in one society after their resurrection. And Eve herself, who was formed of a rib taken from Adam’s side, was a natural image of believers, who are regenerated, both in their bodies and in their minds, by the breaking of Christ’s side on the cross. Thus the circumstances which accompanied the formation of Eve, being fit emblems of the formation of the church, we may suppose they were brought to pass to prefigure that great event; and by prefiguring it, to show that it was decreed of God from the very beginning!” For a further elucidation of the subject, the reader must be referred

Expositor's Bible Commentary Ephesians 5:1 Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; 32 Chapter 21 DISCARDED VICES Ephesians 4:25-32 ; Ephesians 5:1-6 The transformation described in the last paragraph ( Ephesians 4:17-24 ) has now to be carried into detail. The vices of the old heathen self must be each of them replaced by the corresponding graces of the new man in Christ Jesus. The peculiarity of the instructions given by the apostle for this purpose does not lie in the virtues enjoined, but in the light in which they are set and the motives by which they are inculcated. The common conscience condemns lying and theft, malice and uncleanness; they were denounced with eloquence by heathen moralists. But the ethics of the New Testament differed in many respects from the best moral philosophy: in its direct appeal to the conscience, in its vigour and decision, in the clearness with which it traced our maladies to the heart’s alienation from God; but most of all in the remedy which it applied, the new principle of faith in Christ. The surgeon’s knife lays bare the root of the disease; and the physician’s hand pours in the healing balm. Let us observe at the outset that St. Paul deals with the actual and pressing temptations of his readers. He recalls what they had been and forbids them to be such again. The associations and habits of former life, the hereditary force of evil, the atmosphere of Gentile society, and added to all this, as we discover from Ephesians 5:6 , the persuasions of the sophistical teachers now beginning to infest the Church, tended to draw the Asian Christians back to Gentile ways and to break down the moral distinctions that separated them from the pagan world. Amongst the discarded vices of the forsaken Gentile life, the following are here distinguished: lying, theft, anger, idle speech, malice, impurity, greed. These may be reduced to sins of temper, of word, and of act. Let us discuss them in the order in which they are brought before us. I. "The falsehood" of Ephesians 4:25 is the antithesis of "the truth" from which righteousness and holiness spring ( Ephesians 4:24 ). In accepting the one, Paul’s Gentile readers "had put off" the other. When these heathen converts became Christians, they renounced the great lie of idolatry, the system of error and deceit on which their lives were built. They have passed from the realm of illusion to that of truth. "Now," the: apostle says, "let your daily speech accord with this fact: you have bidden farewell to falsehood; speak truth, each with his neighbour." The true religion breeds truthful men; a sound faith makes an honest tongue. Hence there is no vice more hateful than jesuitry, nothing more shocking than the conduct of those who defend what they, call "the truth" by disingenuous arts, by tricks of rhetoric and the shifts of an unscrupulous partisanship. "Will you speak unrighteously for God, and talk deceitfully for Him? "As Christ’s truth is in me, cries the apostle, when he would give the strongest possible assurance of the fact he wishes to assert. The social conventions and make-believes, the countless simulations and dissimulations by which the game of life is carried on, belong to the old man with his lusts of deceit, to the universal lie that runs through all ungodliness and unrighteousness, which is in the last analysis the denial of God. St. Paul applies here the words of Zechariah 8:16 , in which the prophet promises to restored Israel better days on the condition that they should "speak truth each with his neighbour, and judge truth and the judgment of peace in their gates. And let none of you," he continues, "imagine evil in his heart against his neighbour; and love no false oath, for all these things do I hate, saith the Lord." Such is the law of the New Covenant life. No doubt St. Paul is thinking of the intercourse of Christians with each other when he quotes this command and adds the reason, "For we are members one of another." But the word neighbour, as Jesus showed, has in the Christian vocabulary no limited import it includes the Samaritan, the heathen man and publican. When the apostle bids his converts "Follow what is good towards one another, and towards all," { 1 Thessalonians 5:15 } he certainly presumes the neighbourly obligation of truthfulness to be no less comprehensive. Believers in Christ represent a communion which in principle embraces all men. The human race is one family in Christ. For any man to lie to his fellow is, virtually, to lie to himself. It is as if the eye should conspire to cheat the hand, or the one hand play false to the other. Truth is the right which each man claims instinctively from his neighbour; it is the tacit compact that binds together all intelligences. Without neighbourly and brotherly love perfect truthfulness is scarcely possible. "Self-respect wilt never destroy self-seeking, which will always find in self-interest a side accessible to the temptations of falsehood" (Harless). II. Like the first precept, the second is borrowed from the Old Testament and shaped to the uses of the New. "Be ye angry, and sin not": so the words of Psalm 4:4 stand in the Greek version and in the margin of our Revised Bible, where we commonly read, "Stand in awe, and sin not. Commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still." The apostle’s further injunction, that anger should be stayed before nightfall, accords with the Psalmist’s words; the calming effect of the night’s quiet the apostle anticipates in the approach of evening. As the day’s heat cools and its strain is relaxed, the fires of anger should die down. With the Jews, it will be remembered, the new day began at evening. Plutarch, the excellent heathen moralist contemporary with St. Paul, gives this as an ancient rule of the Pythagoreans: "If at any time they happened to be provoked by anger go abusive language, before the sun set they would take each other’s hands and embracing make up their quarrel." If Paul had heard of this admirable prescription, he would be delighted to recognise and quote it as one of those many facts of Gentile life which "show the work of the law written in their hearts". { Romans 2:15 } The passion which outlives the day, on which the angry man sleeps and that wakes with him in the morning, takes root in his breast; it becomes a settled rancour, prompting ill thoughts and deeds. There is no surer way of tempting the devil to tempt us than to brood over our wrongs. Every cherished grudge is a "place given" to the tempter, a new entrenchment for the Evil One in his war against the soul, from which he may shoot his "fire-tipped darts". { Ephesians 6:16 } Let us dismiss with each day the day’s vexations, commending as evening falls our cares and griefs to the Divine compassion and seeking, as for ourselves, so for those who may have done us wrong, forgiveness and a better mind. We shall rise with the coming light armed with new patience and charity, to bring into the world’s turmoil a calm and generous wisdom that will earn for us the blessing of the peace-makers, who shall be called sons of God. Still the apostle says: "Be angry, and sin not." He does not condemn anger in itself, nor wholly forbid it a place within the breast of the saint. Wrath is a glorious attribute of God, -perilous, indeed, for the best of men; but he who cannot be angry has no strength for good. The apostle knew this holy passion, the flame of Jehovah that burns unceasingly against the false and foul and cruel. But he knew its dangers-how easily an ardent soul kindled to exasperation forgets the bounds of wisdom and love; how strong and jealous a curb the temper needs, lest just indignation turn to sin, and Satan gain over us a double advantage, first by the wicked provocation and then by the uncontrolled resentment it excites. III. From anger we pass to theft. The eighth commandment is put here in a form indicating that some of the apostle’s readers had been habitual sinners against it. Literally his words read: "Let him that steals play the thief no more." The Greek present participle does not, however, necessarily imply a pursuit now going on, but a habitual or characteristic pursuit, that by which the agent was known and designated: "Let the thief no longer steal!" From the lowest dregs of the Greek cities-from its profligate and criminal classes-the gospel had drawn its converts. {comp. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 } In the Ephesian Church there were converted thieves; and Christianity had to make of them honest workmen. The words of Ephesians 4:28 , addressed to a company of thieves, vividly shows the transforming effect of the gospel of Christ: "Let him toil, working with his hands what is good, that he may have wherewith to give to him that is in need." The apostle brings the loftiest motives to bear instantly upon the basest natures, and is sure of a response. He makes no appeal to self-interest, he says nothing of the fear of punishment, nothing even of the pride of honest labour. Pity for their fellows, the spirit of self-sacrifice and generosity is to set those pilfering and violent hands to unaccustomed toil. The appeal was as wise as it was bold. Utilitarianism will never raise the morally degraded. Preach to them thrift and self-improvement, show them the pleasures of an ordered home and the advantages of respectability, they will still feel that their own way of life pleases and suits them best. But let the divine spark of charity be kindled in their breast-let the man have love and pity and not self to work for, and he is a new creature. His indolence is conquered; his meanness changed to the noble sense of a common manhood. Love never faileth. IV. We have passed from speech to temper, and from temper to act; in the warning of Ephesians 4:29-30 we come back to speech again. We doubt whether corrupt talk is here intended. That comes in for condemnation in verses 2 and 3 ( Ephesians 5:2-3 ) of the next chapter. The Greek adjective is the same that is used of the "worthless fruit" of the "worthless [good-for-nothing] tree" in Matthew 12:33 ; and again of the "bad fish" of Matthew 13:48 , which the fisherman throws away not because they are corrupt or offensive, but because they are useless for food. So it is against inane, inept and useless talk that St. Paul sets his face. Jesus said that "forevery idle word men must give account to God". { Matthew 12:36 } Jesus Christ laid great stress upon the exercise of the gift of speech. "By thy words," He said to His disciples, "thou shalt be justified, and by thy words condemned." The possession of a human tongue is an immense responsibility. Infinite good or mischief lies in its power. (With the tongue we should include the pen, as being the tongue’s deputy.) Who shall say how great is the sum of injury, the waste of time, the irritation, the enfeeblement of mind and dissipation of spirit, the destruction of Christian fellowship that is due to thoughtless speech and writing? The apostle does not simply forbid injurious words, he puts an embargo on all that is not positively useful. It is not enough to say: "My chatter does nobody harm; if there is no good in it, there is no evil." He replies: "If you cannot speak to profit, be silent till you can." Not that St. Paul requires all Christian speech to be grave and serious. Many a true word is spoken in jest; and "grace" may be "given to the hearers" by words clothed in the grace of a genial fancy and playful wit, as well as in the direct enforcement of solemn themes. It is the mere talk, whether frivolous or pompous-spoken from the pulpit or the easy chair - the incontinence of tongue, the flux of senseless, graceless, unprofitable utterance that St. Paul desires to arrest: "let it not proceed out of your mouth." Such speech must not "escape the fence of the teeth." It is an oppression to every serious listener; it is an injury to the utterer himself. Above all, it "grieves the Holy Spirit." The witness of the Holy Spirit is the seal of God’s possession in us; it is the assurance to ourselves that we are His sons in Christ and heirs of life eternal. From the day it is affixed to the heart, this seal need never be broken nor the witness withheld, "until the day of redemption." Dwelling within the Church as the guard of its communion, and loving us with the love of God, the Spirit of grace is hurt and grieved by foolish words coming from lips that He has sanctified. As Israel in its ancient rebellions "vexed His Holy Spirit," { Isaiah 63:10 } so do those who burden Christian fellowship and who enervate their own inward life by speech without worth and purpose. As His fire is quenched by distrust, { 1 Thessalonians 5:19 } so His love is vexed by folly. His witness grows faint and silent; the soul loses its joyous assurance, its sense of the peace of God. When our inward life thus declines, the cause lies not unfrequently in our own heedless speech. Or we have listened willingly and without reproof to "words that may do hurt," words of foolish jesting or idle gossip, of mischief and backbiting. The Spirit of truth retires affronted from His desecrated temple, not to return until the iniquity of the lips is purged and the wilful tongue bends to the yoke of Christ. Let us grieve before the Holy Spirit, that He be not grieved with us for such offences. Let us pray evermore: "Set a watch, O Jehovah, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips." V. In his previous reproofs the apostle has glanced in various ways at love as the remedy of our moral disorders and defects. Falsehood, anger, theft, misuse of the tongue involve disregard of the welfare of others; if they do not spring from positive ill-will, they foster and aggravate it. It is now time to deal directly with this evil that assumes so many forms, the most various of our sins and companion to every other: "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and railing be put away from you, with all malice." The last of these terms is the most typical. Malice is badness of disposition, the aptness to envy and hatred, which apart from any special occasion is always ready to break out in bitterness and wrath. Bitterness is malice sharpened to a point and directed against the exasperating object. Wrath and anger are synonymous, the former being the passionate outburst of resentment in rage, the latter the settled indignation of the aggrieved soul: this passion was put under restraint already in Ephesians 4:26-27 . Clamour and railing give audible expression to these and their kindred tempers. Clamour is the loud self-assertion of the angry man, who will make every one hear his grievance; while the railer carries the war of the tongue into his enemy’s camp, and vents his displeasure in abuse and insult. These sins of speech were rife in heathen society; and there were some amongst Paul’s readers, doubtless, who found it hard to forego their indulgence. Especially difficult was this when Christians suffered all manner of evil from their heathen neighbours and former friends; it cost a severe struggle to be silent and "keep the mouth as with a bridle" under fierce and malicious taunts. Never to return evil for evil and railing for railing, but contrariwise blessing, -this was one of the lessons most difficult to flesh and blood. Kindness in act, tenderheartedness of feeling are to take the, place of malice with its brood of bitter passions. Where injury used to be met with reviling and insult retorted in worse insult, the men of the new life will be found "forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave" them. Here we touch the spring of Christian virtue, the master motive in the apostle’s theory of life. The cross of Jesus Christ is the centre of Pauline ethics, as of Pauline theology. The sacrifice of Calvary, while it is the ground of our salvation, supplies the standard and incentive of moral attainment. It makes life an imitation of God. The commencement of the new chapter at this point makes an unfortunate division; for its first two verses ( Ephesians 5:1-2 ) are in close consecution with the last verse of chap. 4 ( Ephesians 4:32 ). By kindness and pitifulness of heart, by readiness to forgive, God’s "beloved children" will "show themselves imitators" of their Father. The apostle echoes the saying of His Master, in which the law of His kingdom was laid down: "Love your enemies, and do good, and lend never despairing; and your reward shall be great, and you shall be called children of the Highest: for He is kind to the thankless and evil. Be ye therefore pitiful, as your Father is pitiful". { Luke 6:35-36 } Before the cross of Jesus was set up, men could not know how much God loved the world and how far He was ready to go in the way of forgiveness. Yet Christ Himself saw the same love displayed in the Father’s daily providence. He bids us imitate Him who makes His sun shine and His rain fall on the just and unjust, on the evil and the good. To the insight of Jesus, nature’s impartial bounties in which unbelief sees only moral indifference spoke of God’s compassion; they proceed from the same love that gave His Son to taste death forevery man. Ephesians 4:32 , Ephesians 5:1-2 the Father’s love and the Son’s self-sacrifice are spoken of in terms precisely parallel. They are altogether one in quality. Christ does not by His sacrifice persuade an angry Father to love His children; it is the Divine compassion in Christ that dictates and carries into effect the sacrifice. At the same time it was "an offering and a sacrifice to God." God is love; but love is not everything in God. Justice is also Divine, and absolutely in its own realm. Law can no more forego its rights than love forget its compassions. Love must fulfil all righteousness; it must suffer law to mark out its path of obedience, or it remains an effusive ineffectual sentiment, helpless to bless and save. Christ’s feet followed the stern and straight path of self-devotion; "He humbled Himself and became obedient," He was "born under law." And the law of God imposing death as the penalty for sin, which shaped Christ’s sacrifice, made it acceptable to God. Thus it was "an odour of a sweet smell." Hence the love which follows Christ’s example, is love wedded with duty. It finds in an ordered devotion to the good of men the means to fulfil the all-holy Will and to present in turn its "offering to God." Such love will be above the mere pleasing of men, above sentimentalism and indulgence; it will aim higher than secular ideals and temporal contentment. It regards men in their kinship to God and obligation to His law, and seeks to make them worthy of their calling. All human duties, for those who love God, are subordinate to this; all commands are summed up in one: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." The apostle pronounced the first and last word of his teaching when he said: "Walk in love, as the Christ also loved us." VI. Above all others, one sin stamped the Gentile world of that time with infamy, -its uncleanness. St. Paul has stigmatised this already in the burning words of Ephesians 4:19 . There we saw this vice in its intrinsic loathsomeness; here it is set in the light of Christ’s love on the one hand ( Ephesians 5:2 ), and of the final judgment on the other ( Ephesians 5:5-6 ). Thus it is banished from the Christian fellowship in every form-even in the lightest, where it glances from the lips in words of jest: "Fornication and all uncleanness, let it not even be named among you." Along with "filthiness, foolish talk and jesting" are to be heard no more. Passing from Ephesians 5:2 to Ephesians 5:3 by the contrastive But, one feels how repugnant are these things to the love of Christ. The perfume of the sacrifice of Calvary, so pleasing in heaven, sweetens our life on earth; its grace drives wanton and selfish passions from the heart, and destroys the pestilence of evil in the social atmosphere. Lust cannot breathe in the sight of the cross. The "good-for-nothing speech" of Ephesians 4:29 comes up once more for condemnation in the foolish speech and jesting of this passage. The former is the idle talk of a stupid, the latter of a clever man. Both, under the conditions of heathen society, were tainted with foulness. Loose speech easily becomes low speech. Wit, unchastened by reverence, finds a tempting field for its exercise in the delicate relations of life, and displays its skill in veiled indecencies and jests that desecrate the purer feelings, while they avoid open grossness. St. Paul’s word. for "jesting" is one of the singular terms of this epistle. By etymology it denotes a well-turned style of expression, the versatile speech of one who can touch lightly on many themes and aptly blend the grave and gay. This social gift was prized amongst the polished Greeks. But it was a faculty so commonly abused, that the word describing it fell into bad odour: it came to signify banter and persiflage; and then, still worse, the kind of talk here indicated, -the wit whose zest lies in its flavour of impurity. "The very profligate old man in the ‘Miles Gloriosus’ of Plautus" Ephesians 3:1 , who prides himself, and not without reason, upon his wit, his elegance and refinement [ cavillator lepidus, facetus ], is exactly the ?????????? . And keeping in mind that ?????????? , being only once expressly and by name forbidden in Scripture, is forbidden to Ephesians, it is not a little notable to find him urging that all this was to be expected from him, being as he was an Ephesian by birth:- "Post Ephesi sum natus; non enim in Apulia, nor Animulae." In place of senseless prating and wanton jests-things unbefitting to a rational creature, much more to a saint-the Asian Greeks are to find in thanksgiving employment for their ready tongue. St. Paul’s rule is not one of mere prohibition. The versatile tongue that disported itself in unhallowed and frivolous utterance, may be turned into a precious instrument for God’s service. Let the fire of Divine love touch the jester’s lips, and that mouth will show forth His praise which once poured out dishonour to its Maker and shame to His image in man. VII. At the end of the Ephesian catalogue of vices, as at the beginning, { Ephesians 4:19 } uncleanness is joined with covetousness, or greed. This, too, is "not even to be named amongst you, as becometh saints." Money! property! these are the words dearest and most familiar in the mouths of a large class of men of the world, the only themes on which they speak with lively interest. But Christian lips are cleansed from the service both of Belial and of Mammon. When his business follows the trader from the shop to the fireside and the social circle, and even into the Church, when it becomes the staple subject of his conversation, it is clear that he has fallen into the low vice of covetousness. He is becoming, instead of a man, a money-making machine, an "idolater" of "Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell From heaven." The apostle classes the covetous man with the fornicator and the unclean, amongst those who by their worship of the shameful idols of the god of this world exclude themselves from their "inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." A serious warning this for all who handle the world’s wealth. They have a perilous war to wage, and an enemy who lurks for them at every step in their path. Will they prove themselves’ masters of their business, or its slaves? Will they escape the golden leprosy, -the passion for accumulation, the" lust of property? None are found more dead to the claims of humanity and kindred, none further from the kingdom of Christ and God, none more "closely wrapped" within their "sensual fleece" than rich men who have prospered by the idolatry of gain. Dives has chosen and won his kingdom. He "receives in his lifetime his good things; afterwards he must look for "torments." 32 Chapter 22 DOCTRINE AND ETHICS Ephesians 4:25-32 ; Ephesians 5:1-6 The homily that we have briefly reviewed in the last chapter demands further consideration. It affords a striking and instructive example of St. Paul’s method as a teacher of morals, and makes an important contribution to evangelical ethics. The common vices are here prohibited on specifically Christian grounds. The new nature formed in Christ casts them off as alien and dead things; they are the sloughed skin of the old life, the discarded dress of the old man who was slain by the cross of Christ and lies buried in His grave. The apostle does not condemn these sins as being contrary to God’s law: that is taken for granted. But the legal condemnation was ineffectual. { Romans 8:3 } The wrath revealed from heaven against man’s unrighteousness had left that unrighteousness unchastened and defiant. The revelation of law, approved and echoed by conscience, taught man his guilt; it could do no more. All this St. Paul assumes; he builds on the ground of law and its acknowledged findings. Nor does the apostle make use of the principles of philosophical ethics, which in their general form were familiar to him as to all educated men of the day. He says nothing of the rule of nature and right reason, of the intrinsic fitness, the harmony and beauty of virtue; nothing of expediency as the guide of life, of the inward contentment that comes from well-doing, of the wise calculation by which happiness is determined and the lower is subordinated to the higher good. St. Paul nowhere discountenances motives and sanctions of this sort; he contravenes none of the lines of argument by which reason is brought to the aid of duty, and conscience vindicates itself against passion and false self-interest. Indeed, there are maxims in his teaching which remind us of each of the two great schools of ethics, and that make room in the Christian theory of life both for the philosophy of experience and that of intuition. The true theory recognises, indeed, the experimental and evolutional as well as the fixed and intrinsic in morality, and supplies their synthesis. But it is not the apostle’s business to adjust his position to that of Stoics and Epicureans, or to unfold a new philosophy; but to teach the way of the new life. His Gentile disciples had been untruthful, passionate in temper, covetous, licentious: the gospel which he preached had turned them from these sins to God; from the same gospel he draws the motives and convictions which are to shape their future life and to give to the new spirit within them its fit expression. St. Paul has no quarrel with ethical science, much less with the inspired law of his fathers; but both had proved ineffectual to keep men from iniquity, or to redeem them fallen into it. Above them both, above all theories and all external rules he sets the law of the Spirit of life in Christ. The originality of Christian ethics, we repeat, does not lie in its detailed precepts. There is not one, it may be, even of the noblest maxims of Jesus that had not been uttered by some previous moralist. With the New Testament in our hands, it may be possible to collect from non-Christian sources-from Greek philosophers, from the Jewish Talmud, from Egyptian sages and Hindoo poets, from Buddha and Confucius-a moral anthology which thus sifted out of the refuse of antiquity, like particles of iron drawn by the magnet, may bear comparison with the ethics of Christianity. If Christ is indeed the Son of man, we should expect Him to gather into one all that is highest in the thoughts and aspirations of mankind. Addressing the Athenians on Mars’ Hill, the apostle could appeal to "certain of your own poets" in support of his doctrine of the Fatherhood of God. The noblest minds in all ages witness to Jesus Christ and prove themselves to be, in some sort, of His kindred. "They are but broken lights of Thee; And Thou, O Lord, art more than they!" It is Christ in us, it is the personal fellowship of the soul with Him and with the living God through Him, that forms the vital and constitutive factor of Christianity. Here is the secret of its moral efficacy. The Christ is the centre root of the race; He is the image of God in which we were made. The lifeblood of mankind flowed in Him as in His heart, and poured forth from Him as from its fountain in sacrifice for the common sin. Jesus gathered into Himself and restored the virtue of humanity broken into a thousand fragments; but He did much more than this. While He re-created in His personal character our lost manhood, by His death and resurrection He has gained for that ideal a transcendent power that seizes upon men and regenerates and transforms them. "With unveiled face beholding in the mirror the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image" (receiving the glory that we see), "as from the Lord of the Spirit". { 2 Corinthians 3:18 } There is, therefore, an evangelical ethics, a Christian science of life. "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" has a system and method of its own. It has a rational solution and explanation to render for our moral problems. But its solution is given, as St. Paul and as his Master loved to give it, in practice, not in theory. It teaches the art of living to multitudes to whom the names of ethics and moral science are unknown. Those who understand the method of Christ best are commonly too busy in its practice to theorise about it. They are physicians tending the sick and the dying, not professors in some school of medicine. Yet professors have their use, as well as practitioners. The task of developing a Christian science of life, of exhibiting the truth of revelation in its theoretical bearings and its relations to the thought of the age, forms a part of the practical duties of the Church and touches deeply the welfare of souls. For other times this work has been nobly accomplished by Christian thinkers. Shall we not pray the Lord of the harvest that He will thrust forth into this field fit labourers; that He will false up men mighty through God to overthrow every high thing that exalts itself against His knowledge, arid wise to build up to the level of the times the great fabric of Christian ethics and discipline? There emerge in this exhortation four distinct principles, which lay at the basis of St. Paul’s views of life and conduct. I. In the first place, the fundamental truth of the Fatherhood of God. "Be imitators of God," he writes, "as beloved children." And in Ephesians 4:24 : "Put on the new man, which was created after God." Man’s life has its law, for it has its source, in the nature of the Eternal. Behind our race-instincts and the laws imposed on us in the long struggle for existence, behind those imperatives of practical reason involved in the structure of our intelligence, are the presence and the active will of Almighty God our heavenly Father. His image we see in the Son of man. Here is the fountainhead of truth, from which the two great streams of philosophical thought upon morals have diverged. If man is the child of a Being absolutely good, then moral goodness belongs to the essence of his nature; it is discoverable in the instincts of his reason and will. Were not our nature warped by sin, such reasoning must have commanded immediate assent and led to consistent and self-evident results. Again, if man is the child of God, the finite of the Infinite, his moral character must, presumably, have been in the beginning germinal rather than complete, needing-even apart from sin and its malformations-development and education, the discipline of a fatherly providence, inculcating the lessons and forming the habits which belong to his ripe manhood and full-grown stature. Intuitional morals bear witness to the God of creation; experimental morals to the God of providence and history. The Divine Fatherhood is the keystone of the arch in which they meet. The command to "be imitators of God" makes personality the sovereign element in life. If consciousness is a finite and passing phenomenon, if God be but a name for the sum of the impersonal laws that regulate the universe, for the "stream of tendency" in the worlds, Father and love are meaningless terms applied to the Supreme and religion dissolves into an impalpable mist. Is the universe governed by personal will, or by impersonal force? Is reason, or is gravitation the index to the nature of the Absolute? This is the vital question of modern thought. The latter is the answer given by a large, if not a preponderant body of philosophical opinion in our own day, -as it was given, virtually, by the natural philosophers of Greece in the dawn of science. Man’s triumphs over nature and the splendour of his discoveries in the physical realm bewilder his reason.