ANALYSIS.

This Section contains first a general exhortation to holiness, vs. 17-24; and secondly, injunctions in respect to specific duties, vs. 25-ch. V. 2. The exhortation to holiness is, agreeably to the apostle’s manner, first in the negative form not to walk as the heathen do, vs. 17-19, and secondly, positive, to walk as Christ had taught them, vs. 20-24. The heathen walk in the vanity of their mind, i. e. in a state of moral and spiritual fatuity, not knowing what they are about, nor whither they are going, v. 17; because they are in mental darkness, and are alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, and through the hardness of their hearts, v. 18; as is evinced by their giving themselves up to uncleanness and avarice, v.19. The Christian walk is the opposite of this—because believers have been taught. Instead of ignorance, truth dwells in them, enlightening and purifying. Hence they are led to put off the old man—and to put on the new man,