V. 17. The apostle, having in the preceding section taught that Christ had destined his church to perfect conformity to himself, and made provision for that end, as a natural consequence, solemnly enjoins on those who profess to be Christians to live in accordance with this high vocation. “This therefore I say and testify in the Lord, that he henceforth walk not as the other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind.” 700 testify, in this case, is solemnly to enjoin, as a man does who calls upon God to bear witness to the truth and import- ance of what he says. Maprupéw is to act as a witness, and μαρτύρομαι to invoke as a witness. The latter is the word here used. Jn the Lord, means in commu- nion with the Lord. Paul speaks as one who had access to the mind of Christ, knew his will, and could therefore speak in his name. The exhortation is, noé to walk as the Gentiles do. Zo walk, in Scripture lan-
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guage, includes all the manifestations of life, inward and outward, seen and unseen. It does not express merely the outward, visible deportment. Men are said to walk with God, which refers to the secret fellowship of the soul with its Maker, more than to the outward life. So here the walk, which the apostle enjoins us to avoid, is not only the visible deportment characteristic of the Gentiles, but also the inward life of which the outward deportment is the manifestation.
They walk ‘in the vanity of their mind.” The lan- guage of the New Testament being the language of Jews, is more or less modified by Hebrew usage. And the usage of Hebrew words is of course modified by the philosophy and theology of the people who em- ployed them. There are two principles which have had an obvious influence on the meaning of a large class of Hebrew words, and therefore on the meaning of the Greek terms which answer to them. The one is the unity of the soul which forbids any such marked dis- tinction between its cognitive and emotional faculties, i. e. between the understanding and the heart, as is assumed in our philosophy, and therefore is impressed on our language. In Hebrew the same word desig- nates what we commonly distinguish as separate facul- ties. The Scriptures speak of an “understanding heart,” and of “the desires of the understanding,” as well as of “the thoughts of the heart.” They recognize that there is an element of feeling in our cognitions and an element of intelligence in our feelings. The idea that the heart may be depraved and the intellect unaffected