The Pulpit Commentary — Ephesians — Section 77

things. An evil me.nor e.n evil woman ce.n inject e.n evil thought and suggestion into the nature of another, either by word or by glance. If God, who is a Spirit, can have access to our minds so e.q to influence us supremely for good, why may not Satan, as e.n evil spirit, he.ve e. similar e.ccess for evil? Accordingly he is represented as putting it" into the heart of Judas to betray Christ" (John xiii. 2). He can, like a bird, pick up the good seed out of the heart (Luke viii. 12); he can fill a man's heart so as to instigate falsehood (Acts v. 3); and he can dwell in a man's heart, like a strong me.nine. castle (Luke xi.). His action is, indeed," with all deceivableness of unrighteousness" (2 Thess. ii. 10), as if he were bent upon destroying the moral order of the universe. 3. Though Satan is the tempter of men, the sins of men are not the less their own sin,. If the tempter were human, there would be no question about respon- sibility. They a.re called "the children of disobedience," because they refuse to obey God, and therefore" the wrath of God" is said to come upon tbem (eh. v. 6). These are they who are "carried away captive by the devil at his will" (1 Tim. ii. 26). Believers are therefore warned not "to give place to the devil" (eh. iv. 27); "to resist the devil'' (Jas. iv. 7), as they are led to glorify that grace which originally translated them out of the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God's dear Son (Col. i. 13). III. THE FLESH. The spiritually dead find an instigation to sin in " the lusts of the flesh," as well as in the snggestions of Satan and the temptations of the world. The flesh is a large term, which covers more than mere sins of the body, for it includes "hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strifes, seditions, heresies," as well as "adultery, fornication, murder, drunkenness, and revellings" (Gal. v. 19, 20). There is a "spiritual wickedness" that cannot be traced to -the body of man. The reason of the term being thus applied is probably, first, to distinguish it from the spirit; then because "the things of the flesh" a.re the supreme objects of desire to worldly men, or, as they are differently phrased," earthly things" (Col. iii. 2); and, thirdly, because it comes by birth: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh" (John iii. 6). Thus the lusts of the flesh have their outlet in the desires at once of the flesh and of the mind. They are described as" ungodly lusts" (Jude 18), because they are based on a disregard for or on an enmity to God; "worldly lusts" (Titus ii. 12), because, in the absence of God, they" run out to all things in the world;" "foolish and hurtful lusts" (1 Tim. vi. 9), because they end in shame, disappointment, and ruin; "deceitful lusts" (eh. iv. 22), because they fail to answer all a sinner's expectations. Therefore we see the glory and fitness of the gospel, which leads us "to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Cor. vii. 1). The Apostle Paul suggests the danger of the flesh in setting forth the grand princi_ile of his life-" The life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God." All life is in this world exposed to risk of some sort. Spiritual life exists in a body with passions prone to evil, as well as in a world with me.ny seductions and cares. Christians must strike the true mean between the sensualism which dishonours the body, and the asceticism which, regarding it e.s an enemy, denies it those innocent enjoyments which Scripture and nature equally sanction. It is not the body of flesh, but the body of sin in the flesh, that is the real trouble of the Christian. We must learn, by God's grace, to honour the body as the temple of the Holy Ghost; to make it the servant, not the master, of the soul; to dedicate it as a vessel unto honour sanctified and" meet for the Master's use."-'l'. C. Ver. 3.-TM true fountain of spiritual death. "And were by nature children of wrath, even as others." The apostle traces the pedigree of a.II the elements that enter into this spiritual death up to our birth itself. He does not say that it is on account of" nature" or natural depravity the.t we are children of wrath, but "by nnture ; " the.t is, we a.re simply born in a state of condemnation. Thero is no express reference here to Adam or to our relation to his sin, though it is certainly implied that we had our probation in Adam, and a.re therefore born in e. state of condcmnntion. To say that we are condemned on account of our hereditary depravity is to say that we :ire condemned without a probation. 'l'he doctrine of original sin is one of the" deep things of God." Pascal well says," Original sin is folly in the sight of man, but this folly is wiser than all the wisdom of man. For without it who coultl have said what man is? His whole condition depends upon this imperceptible point." The recognition 74 THE EPISTLE 'l'O 'l'H~ EPHESIANS. (en. u. 1-32.