sins he calls “the unfruitful works of darkness.” By unfruitful is meant not merely barren or worthless, but positively evil. For in a moral subject the negation of good is evil. Works of darkness are those works which spring from darkness, i. e. from ignorance of God; as “works of light” are those works which light or divine knowledge produces.
The duty of Christians in reference to the works of darkness is twofold ; first, to have no communion with them ; and secondly, to reprove them. The former is expressed by the words μὴ συγκοινωνεῖτε, have not fel- lowship with them. Those who have things in com- mon; who are congenial; who have the same views, feelings, and interests; and who therefore delight in each other’s society, are said to be in fellowship. In this sense believers have fellowship with God and with each other. So we are said to have fellowship in any thing which we delight in and partake of. To have fellowship with the works of darkness, therefore, is to delight in them and to participate in them. All such association is forbidden as inconsistent with the char- acter of the children of light. Our second duty is to reprove them. ᾿Ελέγχειν is not simply to reprove in the sense of admonishing or rebuking. It means to convince by evidence. It expresses the effect of illu- mination by which the true nature of any thing is revealed. When the Spirit is said to reprove men of sin, it means that he sheds such light upon their sins as to reveal their true character, and to produce the consequent consciousness of guilt and pollution. In