his neighbour. A neighbour, 6 πλησίον, the Scripture teaches us, is any one near to us, a fellow man of any creed or nation ; and to all such we are bound to speak the truth. But the context shows that Paul is here speaking to Christians, and the motive by which the duty is enforced shows that by neighbour he here means a fellow-Christian, as’ in Rom. 15, 9. The motive in question is the intimate relation in which believers stand to each other. They are all members of the same body intimately united, as he taught in verse 16, with each other and with Christ their common head. As it would be unnatural and absurd for the hand to deceive the foot, or the eye the ear, so there is a violation of the very law of their union for one Christian to deceive another. It is characteristic of the apostle and of the Scriptures generally, to enforce moral duties by reli- gious considerations. This method, while it presents the higher and peculiar ground of obligation, is not intended to exclude other grounds. The obligation of veracity rests on the intrinsic excellence of truth, on the command of God, and on the rights of our fel- low men. They have the same right that we should not deceive them as that we should not defraud them. But all this does not hinder that the duty should be enforced by a reference to the peculiar relation of be- lievers as united by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit into the mystical body of Christ.
Vs. 26. 27. His next exhortation has reference to anger; with regard to which he teaches—1. Not to allow anger to be an occasion of sin. 2. Not to cherish
i μμνσ υννονσσοουιυιιεε ιν κ, ὦ ὁ ὃΦ6όήΛΠΛΠΣΙ
CHAP. Iv. vs. 26, 27. 269
it. 38. Not to give Satan any advantage over us when we are angry.
The words ὀργίζεσθε καὶ μὴ ἁμαρτάνετε, be ye angry and sin not, are borrowed from the Septuagint version of Ps. 4,5, and admit of different interpretations. 1. As the original text in Ps. 4, 5, admits of being ren- dered Rage and sin not, i. 6. do not sin by raging *— so the words of the apostle may mean, do not commit the sin of being angry. To this it is objected, that it makes the negative qualify both verbs, while it belongs really only to the latter. It is not necessary to assume that the apostle uses these words in the precise sense of the original text; for the New Testament writers often give the sense of an Old Testament passage with a modification of the words, or they use the same words with a modification of the sense. This is not properly a quotation ; it is not cited as something the Psalmist said, but the words are used to express Paul’s own idea. In Rom. 10, 18, “ Their sound is gone into all the earth,” we have the language of the 19th Ps. but not an expression of the sense of the Psalmist. 2. Others make the first imperative in this clause permis- sive and the second commanding, ‘Be angry and (but) do not sin.’ 3. Or the first is conditional, ‘if angry, sin not.’ That is, sin not in anger; let not your anger be an occasion of sin. Repress it and bring it under control that it may not hurry you into the commission of sin. The meaning is the same as would be expressed
* See Dr. J. A. Alexander’s Commentary on the Psalms.