The Pulpit Commentary — Ephesians — Section 92

imaginations that never find expression in words or acts have a deadening effect on the soul. They ma.y indicate daring rebellion against God ; and, even though they are only vain thoughts that lodge in the mind, they are not there without the spreading of a baneful influence over the life. 3. TMg were only causes of deadness. " Wherein aforetime ye walked." In trespasses and sins they walked. Their life was one continual trespassing and sinning. Their fountain was constantly sending forth bitter water. Their tree only brought forth evil fruit. And how could it be otherwise, seeing that they were corrupted at the very centre of their being? There were some of their acts t hst were better than others, but none that were thoroughly right in principle or motive. All their acts had a fatal defect, and many of them, as the first of Romans shoW5 had a positive vileness. 4. They stood related to this world. "According to the co~se of this world." This ,c-orld is opposed to the world as it should be, or the kingdom of Gvci among men. It is the world content 'UJitA if.self, and seeking to be independent of God. And as the kingdom of God has an age or ages for its holy development, so this world, it is implied here, has an age for its unholy development. For the word trans- lated "course" is properly "age." In the mysterious. providence of God evil has scope for its development. "The mystery of iniquity doth work." And when it is said here that they once walked according to the course of this world, the meaning is that their characters had not the normal form of the kingdom, but had one or other of those abnormal forms which belong to the world. 5. .They stood related to the head of evil. "According to the prince of tJie power of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience." He is here called the prince of the power of the air. He is a prince with other evil spirits under him. Evil is divisive; his then must he a mighty, prince-like in.fiuence that he keeps them nnited under him for evil ends. He is depen- dent on God, a mere instrument in his hand, at his absolute disposal, as it is with every creature ; but he is allowed, through his emissaries, to have great power upon earth. The singular epithet is applied to him here in allusion to his surrounding us with temptation as the atmosphere surrounds the earth. .AJJ the air borders on the earth, so there is a sphere bordering on our spirits, snbtile, invisible like air, through which evil suggestions can readily be conveyed tons. Or it may be that the evil spirits have an s.ffinity to air which they do not have to grosser mstter, so that it is their haunt within tili region. There is here what we cannot understand; but we can understand this -temptation being skilfully presented to our minds, against which we must invoke the skill of another, else we are ta.ken in the tempter's meshes. He is further called the prince qf the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience. It is not usual to connect a spirit, or principle, with its prince. But he is undoubtedly the principal representative of the spirit of disobedience. In him disobedience takes its most viru- lent form. The object on which he is bent is to spite God, to thwart his holy ends. This is the spirit which he as its original source breathes into his subordinates, and which they in turn under his direction seek to breathe into men. And those in whom it finds a sphere of operation are called the children of disobedience. They stand related to the evil principle as it.s unclean progeny. It was from heathendom that the descrip- tion here was taken. It was very much man left to himself. It was the truest representation of what "this world" is. It was Satan having his own way. It was rampant disobedience. For though the heathen world was under the Divine provi- dence, yet it was without special helps, without special _checks. Deprayed _human natl.ll"e was allowed to bring out its own ignorance of God, its own profamty, its own li~ntic,usnes&. It was from that hea.theu world that these Gentile Christians ha<l been u.ken. Tiiere they could see what they once had been. But, lest the Jewish Christians mi;ilit think that it bad been better with them, he proceeds to bring them under the 63.m.e description in respect of their original condition. II. JEWISH CHRISTIANS .A.LSO. (Ver. 3.) ,, Among whom we also all once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest." Especially are they classed with Gentile Christians, as having originally been children of disobedience. Among whom we also all once lived. Their disobedience appeared in their living in the lusts of the flesh. '!'hose lusts that bad their root in the flesh, or unrenewed nature, they ought to have brought into sub- jection to reason or the will of God; but, instead of that, they lived in them. Thi3 i.a fLll"ther tlescribetl as "doing the desire11 of the flesh and of the mind." Evil wishes •. u.1-22.] THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS. 89