The Pulpit Commentary — Ephesians — Section 211

ohildren of disobedienoe. The sophistry is Ver. 11.-And have no fellowship with swept o.way by an awful fa.et-the wrath the unfruitf11l works of darkness. The point cometh, is coming, and will come too in the of this exhortation is in the adjective "un- future lil'e. ~ comes in the form of natural fruitful." The works of darkn~ss are un- punishment, Nature avenging her broken fruitful : they produce no goodness, give laws by deadly diseases; in the form, too, of rise to no se.tisfaction, to no moral results disappointment, remorse, desolation of soul; that are "a joy for ever;" or, if fruit they and in the form of judgments, like that have, it is she.me, remorse, despair. Con- which befell Sodom and Gomorrah, or tho trast this with the renovating, satisfying, sword which never departed from David's joy-producing, fruits of righteousness. But honse. re.ther even reprove them. Do not be con- Ver. 7.-Be noi; ye therefore pa.rte.ken tent with s passive attitude towards them with them. If yon are partakers of their but te.ke the aggressive and expose thei; sins, you must be of their punishments too. wickedness, whether in public or in the Refuse all partnership, therefore. Your domestic circle. A testimony has to be natural instincts recoil from pe.rtnership in lifted up against ways that are so shameful punishment; let your spiritual instincts re- and the.t bring down the wrath of God. coil from partnership in sin. Ver. 12.-For the things the.tare done by Ver. 8.-For ye were onoe darkneee, but them in secret it is e. shsme even to speak of. a.re now light in the Lord. Another expres- The groves of Ephesus were notorious for sive "but." To me.ke the contra.et more em- the shamefulness of lust. To spee.k of such phe.tio, it is not so.id," ye were in dBrkness, deeds was not only wrong, but shameful; so but are now in light;." but," ye were dark- extreme is the delicscy which Christianity ness itself, e.nd are now light itself," e.nd this fosters. Too much pains cannot be taken, le.et is exple.ined by the usuo.l formula., "in by parents, masters of schools, and others, the Lord." There wo.s a celebre.ted Ephesie.n to fosler this delicacy e.mong the young- philosopher, Alexe.nder, who wo.s ce.Iled "The to exclude from conversation the faintest Light;" but not from that source bad the touoh of whst is unbecoming. light come. The idea of light-givi11g is e.lso Ver. 13.-But all things when they a.re involved in their being light. "Arise, shine, reproved are msde me.nifest by the light. for thy light is come." We.lk a.a children of As, for instance, when onr Lord reproved the light. .Another expressive imnge, denoting hypocrisy of the Pharisees-their practices close connection with light, o.s if they were hRd not seemed to t)1e disciples very evil actuully born of it; hence their lives should before, but when Christ threw on them the be full of it. The figure connecting dark- pure light of truth, they were mu.de manifest ness with sin and light with purity, common in their true character-they appea.red and to all la.nguuges, underlies the exhortution. they still e.ppear, odious. A just reproof Ver. 9,-For the fruit of light is [shown] places evil in a light thnt shows its truo in all goodness and righteousness and character. For everything which is made truth. The exhortation is confirmed by this me.nifest is light, Literally, this is o. trubr,1; statement of what is the ne.tural result of o.nything shone on is no longer dark, but light-goodness, the disposition the.t leads light. The nearest approach to this, momlly, to good works ; righteousness, rectitude, or is that light has a transforming power; integrity, which is most ce.reful uge.inst ull when the light of the gospel shines on Rny- disorder and injustice, and renders to all thing dark or evil, it transforms it into wh:i.11 their due, and especially to God the things is light or good. This is not uniformly true; thst are God's; and truth, meo.ning a regsrd all the light of heaven turned on hell would for truth in every form and wo.y-believing not mo.ke it morally light; bot it is tho it, reverencing it, speaking it, scting accord- genera.! property and tendency of moml ing to it, hoping and rejoicing in it, being light to transform. The exhortation woul,1 sincere and honest, not folse or treRCherons. thus mean-Use your light to reprove what Ver. 10.-Proving whe.t is well-plee.aing is evil or dRrk, for not only will the trno to the Lord. A general rule Rpplicable to obsmcter of the evil thereby ho made the whole walk,, To prove is to sscertsin o.pparent, but your light will have o. trnns- by test and experiment. Our whole wo.lk forming power. But if this were the meun- should be directed to finding out what ing, we should expect in the end of tho things are plea.sing to Christ, rejecting at verse, not t/Jws luT,, but t/Jws -yw<Tnl, to denoto once everything that is not so, and clinging this transformation. The rendering of to sll that is. We are not to follow the tra- A.V., giving to t/Ja.v•po~µ.,vov an active dition of our people, snd not to te.ke a ve.guo meaning(" whRtsoevcr doth muke manifest view of duty; we Bre to prove the mo.tter, to is light"), is rejected by most gmm- pnt it to tho test. For the supreme pmcticsl mo.rians, us not being consistent with the rule of the Ohristian's life must be to please usage of the word. Tho meaning whirh Christ. that reu<lering gives in thi~: "Light is thu EPHESIANS. l'  21() THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS. [oII. v. 1-33.