Ephesians 5

Ephesians 5:1-20

We had several important exhortations in the style of the foregoing chapter, and they are continued in this: particularly, 1. We have here an exhortation to mutual love and charity, ver. 1, 2. 2. Agree’d all manner of uncleanness, ver. 3—20. 3. The apptile details to the consideration discharge of relative duties, from ver. 21. throughout this, and in the beginning of the next chapter.

1. “BE ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; 2. And “walk in love, as “Chrift also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us “an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling favour. 3. But “fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness,” let it not be once named amongst you, as becometh faints: 4. “Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jefting,” which are not convenient: “but rather giving of thanks. 5. For this ye know, that “no whorestonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolaters,” hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. 6. “Let no man deceive you with vain words: for “because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. 7. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. 8. For “ye were sometimes “darkness, but now are ye “light in the Lord: walk as “children of light, 9. (For.” the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth) 10. “Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. 11. And “have no fellowship with “the unfruitful works of darkness, “but rather reprove them. 12. For “it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in feces. 13. But “all things that are reproved, are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. 14. Wherefore he saith, “A wake thou that sleepest, and “arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. 15. See then that ye “walk circumpectly, not as fools, but as wise, 16. “Redeeming the time,” because the days are evil. 17. Wherefore be ye not unwise, “but understanding what the will of

the Lord is. 18. And “be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit: 19. Speaking to yourselves “in plaints and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, 20. “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father” in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;

Love is the divine principle through which alone the practice of all holiness can be made easy and natural to us. This therefore,

1. The apptile inculcates. Be ye followers of God as dear children, acting according to this high relation, and in your spirit and temper resembling your heavenly Father; and walk in love, which is his brightest attribute, and renders you most like the blessed Redeemer; as Christ also hath stood an, with a love so surpassing great, so free, so unchangeable; and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling favour, to make atonement for our sins, and to reconcile us to God by his own blood, his sacrifice being infinitely meritorious and acceptable. Note, (1.) Love is the chandlerकी mark of a child of God, and a disciple of Jesus, (2.) The sacrifice of the Lamb of God is fully effectious: God is well pleaded in the oblation of his Son; and all who draw near through him are sure of acceptance.

2. He warns them against all manner of uncleanness. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, the lawless desires of fleshly concupiscence, let it not be once named amongst you, as becometh faints, but avoided with the utmost detestation, and never once so much as mentioned; neither filthiness, in gesture, habit, or discourse; nor feeble talking, in feces: conundiae, or vain, light, and unprofitable conversation; nor jefting, with wantonness, about things sacred, or to the hurt of others; which are not convenient, but utterly unbecoming a Christian’s profession, who should rather be employed in giving thanks, and use his tongue as an instrument to let forth God’s glory.

3. He enforces his exhortation by the most weighty arguments:

(1.) These sins must necessarily exclude us from heaven, and lay us under the eternal wrath of God. For this ye know, according to the unchangeable word of God, that no todenomager, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, whose heart is the flye of lewd desires, or who is inordinately eager after grace, and consequently is an idolatry, loving and serving the creature more than the Creator, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God, but must be for ever excluded from the divine favour. Let no man deceive you unto vain words, as if these sins were not so dangerous; and with some soft names of human infirmity, or venial transgressions, endeavour to satisfy your consciences, and embolden you to hope for impunity: for know assembly, because of their things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience and unbelief, who, despising God’s warnings, perish eternally under the deluge of his fiery wrath. So we ye therefore partakers with them, by communion with them, or connivance at them, lest you become involved in their punishment. Note, It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. We should often consider it, that we might tremble, and avoid the very distant approaches of evil, that hath consequences so dreadfully dangerous.

(2.) What God hath done for us should engage us to be faithful to him. For ye were fanatinous darkness, and in this wretched state were blindly led on by vile affections to every abomination, ignorant of God and your own danger, and rufting headlong to ruin; but now are ye light in the Lord, since he hath shined into your hearts, and given you the knowledge of his will, and wrought effectually by his gospel to turn you to his blessed Self in the practice of true holiness; therefore walk as children of the light, agreeable to the obliquains lying upon you, and the measure of knowledge and grace which you have received. For the fruit of the Spirit, which the Lord hath given you to illumine your darkness, and quicken your souls from the death of sin, is in all goodness and righteousness and truth; it appears in every act of tenderness and beneficence towards the needy, in all purity of heart towards God, and uprightness in our dealings with men, and engages us to a holy simplicity and unimpeached fidelity in all our words and works; in which things, as children of light, you will therefore habitually walk; proving what is acceptable unto the Lord, defining out of his word to learn his mind and will, and to approve yourselves to him in all holy conversation and godliness. And, for this end, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, neither by countenance or connivance at them in others, any more than by practising them yourselves; they are words of darkness, the deeds of a fallen and corrupted heart, and that seek usually the covert of the night; unfruitful of every thing for misery, wrath, and wretchedness. Instead therefore of joining in them, rather, wherever they appear in any brother, bear an open testimony against them; and with well, tempered with love, boldly reprove them. Note, (1.) The fallen mind is darkness itself: they who are under its influence take hold of the paths of death and hell, and know not whether they are going. (2.) Where

God hath given us the light of his truth, every wilful sin is infinitely aggravated. (4.) They who are truly fendible of the evil and danger of sin, will not for it upon their brother, without a kind and faithful rebuke.

3. The very shocking and shameful nature of these sins should deter us from them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things, which are done of them in secret; the very mention of them must offend a modest ear, and how much more must the practice of them provoke a holy God! But all things that are reproved, as such evil must be, are made manifest by the light of God’s word, which hath shined into your hearts, and are thereby discovered in their native deformity, and hateful colours; for whatever date made manifest is light; as the fun illuminates the world that otherwise would be covered in darkness, so both Christ in his gospel, arising as the fun of righteousness, those into the hearts of his people, giving them light and discernment in spiritual things, which were before utterly bad from their eyes; and enabling them to see the evil and danger of those tempers and practices, which before they never apprehended. Wherefore he sails, when calling the souls of farmers out of darkness into his marvellous light, Avants, then that flueful in security, ignorance, and insensibility, and arise from the dead, from the time of death in trespasses and sins, and Christ shall give this light, the light of life and truth, to conduct thee in the paths of holiness to the regions of glory; and wherever this light is spoken into the soul, then it will be evident by an abhorrence of evil, and such a conversation as will bear the strictest scrutiny.

4. On what he had said, he grounds this farther exhortation: See then that ye walk circumspectly, narrowly examining every step you take, not as fools, but as wise, as those who have been taught the truth as it is in Jesus, redeeming the time, making the best improvement of the present moment, and deftrous to retrieve, in a measure, the time and opportunity which hath been lost; because the days are evil, and require greater watchfulness when iniquity so abounds, when temptations so many and great betes you; and you know not how soon you may be cut off. Wherefore, be ye not unself, as in the former days of folly and unregeneracy, but understanding what the will of the Lord is, that ye may know how to walk and please him, and be found faithful to the light which he is pleased to give you. Now, (1.) If we consider how much of our time we have abused and squandered, it will become us with peculiar diligence to improve the distance which remains. (2.) Evil days require especial circumspection. (3.) The worst and most fatal folly is the ignorance of God’s word and neglect of our souls.

How we must redeem our time, and walk according to the divine participation, the apostle, in several particulars, proceeds to thaw.

1. Be not drunk with wines, wherein it excels, as the heathen at their Bacchanalian feaths, and the dreadful consequences of drunkenness are numberless; for when the mind is once intoxicated, a wide door is opened to every act of extravagance, folly, riot, debauchery, uncleanness, and there remains no restraint from the greatest abominations.

2. But, on the contrary, be filled with the Spirit; seek to drink deeper into the sacred fountain of his divine light, grace, strength, and confidation, which will inspire the most enquiries and sacred pleasure and delight; not roaring round the board of riot, and joining the mad lungs of the drunken, but speaking to yourselves, and each other, in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual kings, uniting your voices in the Redeemer’s praise, singing and making melody in your honor to the Lord, with inward exultation in God as your Saviour, and every outward expedition that tends to exalt his great and glorious name, giving thanks always for all things, your hearts in every dispensation acknowledging a gracious God, and your tongue employed in thanksgiving unto God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom all our services are accepted, and by whom all the dispensations of providence and grace are made to work together for our good. Note, (1.) Palimody is a gospel ordinance, and they who are happy in God will delight in his praises. (2.) Whatever our condition or circumstances may be, there is always room for thanksgiving. Afflictions, as well as mercies, demand a grateful acknowledgment; they are good for us, and we shall, in the idiot, find the blessed effects of them.

without blemish. 28. So ought men to love their wives, as their own bodies: he that loveth his wife, loveth himself. 29. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: 30. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. 31. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. 32. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 33. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

6. 31—32. The apostle proceeds to exhort them to the discharge of those relative duties, which are the great ornament of Christianity.

In general a spirit of gentleness and mutual forbearing must reign in you, submitting yourselves me to another, in all natural and civil relations, in public and private, making confidence of discharging the duties of your several stations, and in the fear of God, willingly in subjection to those whom he hath placed as your superiors.

1. Your duty as writer is to submit yourselves unto your own husbands, in all reverence, honour, and church obedience; consulting their will, and content to be in subjection, as unto the Lord, regarding him as the author of your subordination, and submitting, as the church doth to him. For the husband is the head of the wife, by divine appointment, as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the honour of the body, having brought her even at the expense of his own blood, and with the most endearing tenderness and affection providing whatever is needful for her support and comfort. Therefore as the church is bound, by every tie of love and duty, to be subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing, not contradictory to their duty towards God. Note, The direction is clear and obvious, but the difficulty is for a fallen spirit to acquiesce. Let those therefore who enter into the marriage state seriously consider their obligations, before they lay themselves under the solemn vow of obedience in all things.

2. The duty of husbands is this, Love your wives with singleness of affection, which speaks in every word and look of tenderness, with gentleness desiring to rule, not tyrannize, and, by every endearing art of persuasion, winning obedience, rather than haughtily and imperiously demanding subjection, remembering and imitating the love of Christ to his church, who gave himself for it, even to the death of the cross, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, in his amusing blood opening a fountain for sin and uncleanness, to which, by faith, his people might come according to his word, and he effectually delivered from all their guilt, and defilement of body and soul; that, being thus cleansed, he might present it to himself, as a chaste virgin, adorned for her heavenly bridegroom, a glorious church, beautiful in his blood, and bright in the robes of his righteousness, not having just or wrinkle, or any fair thing, but appearing in perfect comestments and purity; that, as the sacrifices under the law, it should be holy and without kinship. So ought men to love their wives according to this love of Christ, even as their own bodies, they being now a real part of themselves: he that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it; our own flesh is not nearer to us than our wives, and the same affectionate care is due to them, even as the Lord hath shewed to the church: for we are members of his body mystical, of his flesh, and of his bones, like the woman formed from the soft man’s side. For this cause, seeing the union is to close, shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, in peculiar singleness of affection, and they two shall be one flesh, as if they literally became one body. This is a great mystery, these words being figurative of a more happy and excellent marriage than that of the flesh man and woman; and I mean, in their application, to lead you, not merely to consider the original law of marriage, but I speak concerning Christ and the church, to whom they emphatically belong. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself, as the members of his own body, and let the wife see that she reverence her husband with all conjugal love, and jealous fear of offending.