The Pulpit Commentary — Ephesians — Section 189

BS well as falsehood in speech. It is the intention to deceive that makes the lie, what- ever its manifestntions. The goodness of the motive does not alter its character. We may be saying what we do not think, to convey a compliment. Or we may be advanc- ing an argnment in which we do not believe, to serve our party. Or we may make a. strong denial, to cover the fault of a friend. We may, by some half-truth, be getting rid of a slight inconvenience to ourselves. But all the same, there is an offence com- mitted agaiust truth. And we must understand from the teaching here that Christ emphatically says no to it in every form. We are to put away lying, and the context plainly suggests that we are to put it away as belonging to the old man. We need not wonder at it characterizing the old man, when we remember that Scripture dates the original of evil in us from the result of a lie told by the father of lies. Many of the heathen were like the G-r~tl.ns, of whom Paul testified, in a quotation from one of their own poets, that they were always liars. It is a vice which is known to be very preva- lent among non-Christianized peoples. There is not so much of shamdess lying among Christian nations; but in Jess open formR, where there is not saving grace, there is the same disposition to be false, to state false reasons for our conduct, to keep up false appearances, to cover our faults by a denial of fact. "Do not," says Ruskin, "let us lie at a!L Do not think of one falsity as harmless, and another as slight, and another as unintended. Cast them all aside; they are an ugly soot from the smoke of the pit, and it is better that our hearth should be swept clean of them, without overcare as to which of them are largest or blackest." 2. Tlie positive of Christianity. "Speak ye truth each one with his neighbour." In Zech. viii. 16 it is said, "Speak ye every man truth to his neighbour." The change from "to his neighbour" to "with his neigh- bour" has the effect of defining the circle contemplated here as the Christian circle. Why are we to hold the truth sacred? The ethical reason given by Kant is that we are to do so out of reverence to the humanity subsisting in our person. The Christian reason as given by the apostle here is virtually this, that we are to do so out gf regard to the Christ that is in us. His words are, "For we are members one of another." That is, my Christian neighbour is a part of myself; and why should I wrong him? Not inaptly Chrysostom says, "If the eye were to spy a. serpent or a. wild beast, will it lie to the foot?" We must do by our Christian neigh hour as we would do by a. part of our- selves which we would not see hurt. But what is it that makes our Uhristian neigh- bour so closely related to us? It is the Christ that is in him and in us. And in lying we are not only dishonouring our common humanity, but, in the Christian circle, wo are dishonouring Christ who has made us one. The habit of speaking the truth each one with his neighbour is of difficult acquisition. 'l'here is so much that is false in the conventionalism of society, and such a desire in men to appear better than they really are, that there is often the spectacle of truth "fallen in the street." 'l'he way to acquire it is to put Christ before us in our neighbour as him whom, by tho slightest divorgence from the truth, we must not demean. II. SINFUL ANGER. 1. The negative of Christianity. "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath." The word is rather exasperation (already an evil form of feeling), which, if nursed, fast settles down into wrath. It was a custom of the Pythagoreans that, H betrayed into railing by passion, before the sun went down they shook hands, kissed one another, a.nd were reconciled. It is one of the uses of night that it is a 11Bl1 to be placable. "We are not bad gods or demons in our impetuosity, but men, men that go to sleep as children do and must. Being spnced off in this nmnner by stop- pages, we consent to limits. We aro softened and gentled in feeling more, perhaps, thnn we would like to be. A mnn must be next to n devil who wnkes angry." Tho Christian reason against nursing wrath is that it is a giving place to the dovil. Por it is in connection with wrath that it is said, "Neither give place to the devil." Ho who rises from his bed unsoftened, who seeks about for new reasons for his wrath, is giving the devil peculiar opportunity. And when tho devil gets in through the door of passion that is nursed, a man ,vill do deeds then that, in his cool moments, he would have shrunk from with the utmost abhorrence. Vindictiveness was a characteristic of the heroes of the ancient heathen world, and does not call forth from such a delineator of them as Homer an expression of disapprobation. It is still found in not dissimilar form in the savage, who ruthlessly pursues his enemy until he has scalped him. Within tho Christian sphere indulgence of anger is peculinrly unbecoming, and  18S THE ErIS'l'LE TO THE EPHESIANS. [en. 1v. 1-82.