Ephesians 5:32

This is a great mystery:— It is plain by the fore-going verses, and by the application of the words in Genesis 2:23 to Christ and the church, that the apostles understood several passages in the Old Testament in reference to Christ and the gospel, which were not understood in their evangelical or spiritual sense, till, by the assistance of the Spirit of God, the apostles so explained and revealed it. This is that which St. Paul here calls mystery: he who is desirous to have a true notion of this matter, should carefully read 1 Corinthians 2 where the Apostle very particularly explains it. Dr. Doddridge paraphrases the verse thus: "This is indeed a great mystery, which was long unknown, and, now it is in some measure discovered, is a matter of much admiration: but you will easily perceive that in saying this, I speak not of the union between a man and his wife, but of that betwixt Christ and the church. For, that the Son of God should unite himself to a society of mortal men, and regard them as making a part of himself, on account of the intimacy with which they are joined to him in a community of spirit and of interest, can never be sufficiently admired." This sublime doctrine which had been long concealed, and cannot now be fully comprehended, may, with the greatest propriety be called a mystery, in every sense of the word.

Inferences.—With what cheerfulness should the dear children of God imitate their Heavenly Father! And what an affecting and engaging motive to brotherly love is the dying love of Christ, who offered up himself as an atoning and acceptable sacrifice for us! But how utterly unworthy the Christian's character, privileges, and obligations, is it to give way to any sin, especially such shameful ones as Heathens and unconverted sinners are infamous for! Neither covetousness, which is constructive idolatry; nor any sort of unchastity or impurity; nor any works of darkness, should ever be found upon, or countenanced by those who profess themselves to be saints: for whatever vain deceivers may suggest to the contrary, such things are abominable, and exclude the practisers of them from the Saviour's kingdom of grace and glory, and bring divine wrath upon their heads. What a visible change in conversation is to be expected from those who are awakened into light and life by the powerful voice of Christ! They should walk as children of the light, under the influence of the Spirit, unto all goodness, righteousness, and truth; their words and actions should carry such reproof to workers of iniquity, as shews that they have no fellowship with them in their evil deeds, but that they approve of those things which are acceptable to God their Saviour. How watchful and careful ought they to be in their walk! They should be very circumspect to shun temptation, sin, and danger, and to redeem time for the best purposes, especially in evil days; and should behave wisely in an upright way, and not like ignorant and foolish people, who neither consider what they are doing, nor whither they are going. How pure and sublime are the joys that arise from being filled with the gifts and graces of the Spirit! There is no danger of excess in these, as there is in the use of wine; they dispose us for singing the praises of God with harmonious voices, and with the sweetest melody in our hearts; and make us thankful to him, through Jesus Christ, in every circumstance of things. But how concerned should we be to fill up all the relations of life with the duties of them, from a principle of holy reverence and fear of God! Husbands and wives should not trifle with, but conscientiously attend to the respective duties that result from their union with each other as one flesh. And O! how happy would the marriage-state be, if both relatives, in their places, would study to please one another! Conjugal love would keep all right between them, and secure the duties on both sides. How intimate and endearing is the relation and affection of Christ to his church! He is full of tender love and care towards his faithful saints, to take away the guile, power, and defilement of their sins, by his blood and spirit, and by means of his word; and, at length, to present them to himself, arrayed in glory, like a spouse fit for such an illustrious husband to delight in, as having no spot or blemish of any kind upon them. How constraining ought his love to them to be, to engage their most dutiful submission to him! And what a sweet influence should these considerations have upon every religious husband to love his wife as himself, and upon every religious wife to reverence her husband!

REFLECTIONS.—1st, Love is the divine principle through which alone the practice of all holiness can be produced. This therefore,

1. The Apostle inculcates. Be ye followers of God as dear children, acting according to this high relation, and in your spirit and temper resembling your heavenly Father; and walk in love, which is his brightest attribute, and renders you most like the blessed Redeemer; as Christ also hath loved us, with a love so free and so surpassing great; and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour, to make atonement for our sins, and to reconcile us to God by his own blood, his sacrifice being infinitely meritorious and acceptable. Note; (1.) Love is the characteristic mark of a child of God, and a disciple of Jesus. (2.) The sacrifice of the Lamb of God is fully efficacious: God is well pleased in the oblation of his Son; and all who draw near in faith through him are sure of acceptance.

2. He warns them against all manner of uncleanness. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, the lawless desires of fleshly concupiscence, let it not be once named amongst you, as becometh saints, but avoided with the utmost detestation, and never once so much as mentioned; neither filthiness, in gesture, habit, or discourse; nor foolish talking, in secret innuendoes, or vain, light, or unprofitable conversation; nor jesting, to excite laughter in others, and admiration of our own carnal wit; which are not convenient, but utterly unbecoming a Christian's profession, who should rather be employed in giving of thanks, and use his tongue as an instrument to set forth the glory of God.

3. He enforces his exhortation by the most weighty arguments:
[1.] These sins must necessarily exclude us from heaven, and lay us under the eternal wrath of God. For this ye know, according to the unchangeable word of God, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, whose heart is the stye of lewd desires, or who is inordinately eager after gain, and consequently is an idolater, loving and serving the creature more than the Creator, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God, but must be for ever excluded from the divine favour. Let no man deceive you with vain words, as if these sins were not so dangerous; and with some soft names of human infirmity, or venial transgressions, endeavour to satisfy your consciences, and embolden you to hope for impunity: for know assuredly, because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience and unbelief, who, despising God's warnings, perish eternally under the deluge of his fiery wrath. Be not ye therefore partakers with them, by communion with them, or connivance at them, lest you become involved in their punishment. Note; It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. We should often consider it, that we might tremble, and avoid the most distant approaches of evil, which has consequences so dreadfully dangerous.

[2.] What God has done for us, should engage us to be faithful to him. For ye were sometimes darkness, and in this wretched state were blindly led on by vile affections to every abomination, ignorant of God and your own danger, and rushing headlong to ruin; but now are ye light in the Lord, since he hath shone into your hearts, and given you the knowledge of his will, and turned you to his blessed Self in the practice of true holiness; therefore walk as children of light, agreeable to the obligations lying upon you, and the measure of knowledge and grace which you have received. For the fruit of the Spirit, which the Lord hath given you to illumine your darkness, and quicken your souls from the death of sin, is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth; it appears in every act of tenderness and beneficence towards the needy, in all purity of heart towards God, and uprightness in our dealings with men; and engages us to a holy simplicity and unimpeachable fidelity, in all our words and works; in which things, as children of light, you must therefore habitually walk; proving what is acceptable unto the Lord, desiring out of his word to learn his mind and will, and to approve yourselves to him in all holy conversation and godliness. And, for this end, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, neither by countenance, nor connivance at them in others, any more than by practising them yourselves; they are works of darkness, the deeds of a fallen and corrupted heart, and which seek usually the covert of the night; unfruitful of every thing but misery, wrath, and wretchedness. Instead, therefore, of joining in them, rather, wherever they appear, bear an open testimony against them; and, with zeal tempered with love, boldly reprove them. Note; (1.) The fallen mind, in its mere natural state, is darkness itself: they who are under its influence take hold of the paths of death and hell, and know not whither they are going. (2.) Where God hath given us the light of his truth, every wilful sin is greatly aggravated. (3.) They who are truly sensible of the evil and danger of sin, will not see it upon their brother without a kind and faithful rebuke.

[3.] The very shocking and shameful nature of these sins should deter us from them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things, which are done of them in secret: the very mention of them must offend a modest ear; and how much more must the practice of them provoke a holy God? But all things that are reproved, as such evils must be, are made manifest by the light of God's word, which hath shone into your hearts, and are thereby discovered in their native deformity, and hateful colours; for whatsoever doth make manifest is light; as the sun illumines the world, which otherwise would be covered in darkness, so does Christ in his gospel, arising as the Sun of Righteousness, shine into the hearts of his believing people, giving them light and discernment in spiritual things, which were before utterly hidden from their eyes; and enabling them to see the evil and danger of those tempers and practices, which before they never apprehended. Wherefore he saith, when calling the souls of sinners out of darkness into his marvellous light, Awake thou that sleepest in security, ignorance, and insensibility, and arise from the dead, from thy state of death, in trespasses and sins, and Christ shall give thee light, the light of life and truth, to conduct thee in the paths of holiness, and, at last, if faithful, to the regions of glory; and wherever this light is spoken into the soul, then it will be evident by an abhorrence of evil, and such a conversation as will bear the strictest scrutiny.

4. On what he had said, he grounds this farther exhortation: See then that ye walk circumspectly, narrowly examining every step you take, not as fools, but as wise, as those who have been taught the truth as it is in Jesus; redeeming the time, making the best improvement of the present moment, and desirous to retrieve the time and opportunity which has been lost; because the days are evil, and require great watchfulness when iniquity so abounds, when temptations so many and great beset you; and you know not how soon you may be cut off. Wherefore, be ye not unwise, as in the former days of folly and unregeneracy, but understanding what the will of the Lord is, that ye may know how to walk and please him, and be found faithful to the light which he is pleased to give you. Note; (1.) If we consider how much of our time we have abused and squandered, it will become us, with peculiar diligence, to improve the pittance which remains. (2.) Evil days require especial circumspection. (3.) The worst and most fatal folly is the ignorance of God's word, and the neglect of our souls.

How we must redeem our time, and walk according to the divine prescription, the Apostle, in several particulars, proceeds to shew.
[1.] Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess, for the dreadful consequences of drunkenness are numberless; for when the mind is once intoxicated, a wide door is opened to every act of extravagance, folly, riot, debauchery, and uncleanness, and there remains no restraint from the greatest abominations.

[2.] But, on the contrary, be filled with the Spirit; seek to drink deeper into the sacred fountain of his divine light, grace, strength, and consolation, which will inspire the most exquisite and sacred pleasure and delight; not roaring round the board of riot, and joining the mad songs of the drunken, but speaking to yourselves, and each other, in psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs, uniting your voices in the Redeemer's praise, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, with inward exultation in God as your Saviour, and every outward expression that tends to exalt his great and glorious name, giving thanks always for all things, your hearts in every dispensation acknowledging a gracious God, and your tongue employed in thanksgiving unto God and the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom alone all our services are accepted, and by whom all the dispensations of providence and grace are made to work together for the good of true believers. Note; (1.) Psalmody is a gospel ordinance, and they who are happy in God will delight in his praises. (2.) Whatever our condition, or circumstances may be, there is always room for thanksgiving. Afflictions, as well as mercies, demand a grateful acknowledgment; they are good for us, and we shall, in the issue, find the blessed effects of them.

2nd, The Apostle proceeds to exhort them to the discharge of those relative duties, which are the great ornaments of Christianity.
In general, a spirit of gentleness and mutual forbearance must reign in you, submitting yourselves one to another, in all natural and civil relations, in public and private, making conscience of discharging the duties of your several stations, in the fear of God, being willingly in all due subjection to those whom he hath placed as your superiors.

1. The duty of wives is to submit themselves unto their own husbands, in all reverence, honour, and dutiful obedience; consulting their will, and content to be in subjection as unto the Lord, regarding him as the author of their subordination, and submitting, as the church doth, to him. For the husband is the head of the wife, by divine appointment, as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the Saviour of the body, having bought her even at the expence of his own blood, and with the most endearing tenderness and affection providing whatever is needful for her support and comfort. Therefore as the church is bound, by every tie of love and duty, to be subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing not contradictory to their duty towards God. Note; The direction is clear and obvious; but the difficulty is for a fallen spirit to acquiesce. Let those, therefore, who enter into the marriage state seriously consider their obligations, before they lay themselves under the solemn vow of obedience.

2. The duty of husbands is this; Love your wives with singleness of affection, which speaks in every word and look of tenderness, with gentleness desiring to rule, not tyrannize, and, by every endearing art of persuasion, winning obedience, rather than haughtily and imperiously demanding subjection, remembering and imitating the love of Christ to his church, who gave himself for it, even to the death of the cross, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, in his atoning blood opening a fountain for sin and uncleanness, to which, by faith, every genuine penitent may come according to his word, and be effectually delivered from all their guilt and defilement; that, being thus cleansed, he might present it to himself, as a chaste virgin, adorned for her heavenly bridegroom, a glorious church, beautiful through his Blood and Spirit, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but appearing in perfect comeliness and purity; that, as the sacrifices under the law, it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives, according to this love of Christ, even as their own bodies, they being now a real part of themselves: he that loveth his wife, loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it; our own flesh is not nearer to us than our wives; and the same affectionate care is due to them, even as the Lord hath shewed to the church: for we are members of his body mystical, of his flesh, and of his bones, like the woman formed from the first man's side. For this cause, seeing the union is so close, shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, in peculiar singleness of affection; and they two shall be one flesh, as if they literally became one body. This is a great mystery, these words being figurative of a more happy and excellent marriage than that of the first man and woman; and I mean, in their application, to lead you, not merely to consider the original law of marriage, but I speak concerning Christ and the church, to whom they emphatically belong. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself, as the members of his own body; and let the wife see that she reverence her husband with all conjugal love, and jealous fear of offending.