Il commento del pulpito
Efesini 5:1-33
Esposizione
Siate dunque imitatori di Dio, come figli amati. Queste parole sono strettamente legate alle precedenti. In Efesini 4:32 aveva sollecitato l'esempio di Dio in una questione molto importante; ora lo sollecita in un senso più generale e su un altro motivo. Dovremmo perdonare gli uomini perché Dio ci ha perdonati, tutti lo ammettono; ma, inoltre, dobbiamo imitare il Padre nostro nel suo perdono e nel suo spirito d'amore, perché i figli prediletti devono sempre imitare, e sempre si sforzeranno di imitare, ciò che c'è di buono in un padre amato.
L'amore che perdona è una delle grandi glorie di nostro Padre; è stata resa particolarmente attraente ai nostri occhi, perché è stata esercitata da lui nei nostri confronti; ogni considerazione, quindi, dovrebbe indurci a mostrare lo stesso spirito.
E cammina nell'amore. Riprendendo l'esortazione di Efesini 4:1 . Lascia che la tua vita ordinaria sia trascorsa in un'atmosfera d'amore. Bevilo dal cielo, come le piante bevono al sole; irradialo dagli occhi e dal viso; mani e piedi siano attivi nel servizio; lascia che gli sguardi, le parole e gli atti siano tutti immersi in esso. Come anche Cristo ci ha amati.
Il passaggio dal Padre al Figlio come nostro Esempio non è una nuova partenza; poiché il Figlio rivela il Padre, l'amore del Figlio è la controparte di quello del Padre, reso visibile a noi nel modo più adatto a impressionarci. Sebbene l'amore di Cristo, come quello di suo Padre, sia eterno, si usa l'aoristo per indicare quell'atto specifico di amore che è immediatamente in vista. E ha dato se stesso per noi. La frase paolina ( Galati 1:4, 1 Timoteo 2:6 ; Galati 2:20 ; Tito 2:14 ; 1 Timoteo 2:6 ) , semplice, ma molto comprensiva: "se stesso" - tutto ciò che era come Dio, tutto ciò che divenne come Uomo, un completo abbandono, intero olocausto.
"Per noi", non solo per noi, ma nella nostra stanza (dopo i verbi di dare, morire, ecc.); questo, infatti, essendo implicito nell'idea immediatamente successiva di un sacrificio , che, allo stesso modo della mente ebraica e pagana, trasmetteva l'idea di una vita donata nella stanza di un'altra. Un'offerta e un sacrificio a Dio. Offerta e sacrificio sono quasi sinonimi, ma il primo probabilmente include l'intera carriera terrena di Cristo incarnato: la sua vita santa, l'esempio benedetto, il grazioso insegnamento, la compagnia amorevole, così come la sua morte espiatoria, che è più precisamente il sacrificio θυσία.
L'offerta e il sacrificio furono presentati a Dio, per soddisfare la sua giustizia, adempiere alle richieste della sua legge e glorificare il suo governo santo e giusto. Per un gusto profumato. Allusione al sacrificio di Noè di ogni bestia pura e di ogni uccello: "il Signore ha sentito un profumo soave"; cioè, l'intera transazione, non solo l'offerta, ma anche lo spirito con cui è stata offerta, era grata a Dio. Tutta l'opera di Cristo, e lo spirito bello con cui si offrì, furono grati al Padre e procurano benedizioni salvifiche per tutti coloro che per fede fanno propria l'offerta.
LA PASSEGGIATA ADATTO PER IL BAMBINI DELLA LUCE .
Ma . Un altro dei notevoli contrasti di questa Lettera; i fumi della lussuria sono doppiamente odiosi a contatto con il dolce sapore dell'offerta di Cristo. Fornicazione e ogni impurità, o cupidigia. La combinazione della cupidigia con i peccati della carne, che ricorre più volte negli scritti dell'apostolo ( 1 Corinzi 5:11 ; Efesini 5:3 ; Colossesi 3:5 ), è piuttosto inaspettata.
Πλεονεξία, cupidigia, significa desiderio di avere di più, che è particolarmente vero per i peccati sensuali; ma non è accoppiato con loro da un καὶ, ma disgiunto da un ἢ, che indica qualcosa di un'altra classe. Nella mente dell'apostolo, la sensualità era inseparabile dall'avidità, dal desiderio innaturale di più, dall'insoddisfazione per ciò che era abbastanza; da qui la vicinanza dei due vizi.
Non sia nemmeno nominato tra voi, come si conviene ai santi. La pratica di tali peccati era fuori discussione; ma anche parlarne, come cose di ordinaria conversazione, era inadatto ai santi; la stessa conversazione dei cristiani deve essere pura. L'esortazione riguarda i cristiani nelle loro relazioni sociali; se l'apostolo avesse trattato del dovere dell'individuo, avrebbe esortato a non ammettere mai tali peccati nemmeno ai pensieri o all'immaginazione.
E sporcizia ; αἰσχρότης, implicando che tali cose sono vergognose, brutte, rivoltanti, l'opposto di καλός, belle, belle, attraenti. E sciocco parlare o scherzare, che non stanno bene. Questo sarebbe ben compreso nella sensuale, frivola Efeso; un tipo di discorso leggero, beffardo, scherzoso, condito di doppi sensi e allusioni oscene, molto pernicioso nel suo effetto morale.
Non c'è ragione di supporre che l'apostolo volesse condannare ogni gioco dell'umorismo, che è un dono divino, e che nella moderazione ha il suo posto utile come mezzo per rinfrescare e rinvigorire lo spirito; erano gli scherzi associati alla volgarità che attiravano il suo rimprovero. Ma piuttosto ringraziare. Εὐχαριστία è un po' simile nel suono a εὐτραπελία, scherzando: il motivo per contrapporre l'uno all'altro non è molto evidente; il significato sembra essere che, invece di sfogare sentimenti vivi in discorsi frivoli e scherzi, è meglio che i cristiani lo facciano aprendo il cuore in ringraziamento a Dio per tutta la sua bontà.
Per questo lo sapete bene ; un appello alle proprie coscienze, fatto con fiducia, come al di là di ogni dubbio. Che nessun fornicatore, né impuro, né avaro, che è un idolatra, ha alcuna eredità nel regno. La cupidigia, il peccato gemello dell'impurità, è denunciato come idolatria. È adorare la creatura più che il Creatore, dipendendo da vaste riserve di sostanza terrena in luogo del favore e della benedizione di Dio.
Deve ricevere il destino dell'idolatra; invece di ereditare il regno, deve morire di morte. Il destino in questo versetto non è futuro, ma presente: non avrà , ma ha , eredità, ecc. (Comp. Efesini 1:11 , Efesini 1:18 ). La lussuria dell'avidità supera se stessa; perde tutto ciò che vale veramente la pena avere; può avere questo e quello - terre, case e beni - ma non ha un briciolo nel regno. Di Cristo e Dio. I due sono uniti nel modo più stretto, come uguali, implicando la divinità di Cristo e la sua unità con il Padre nell'amministrazione del regno.
Nessuno ti inganni con parole vuote. Nessun uomo, pagano o cristiano di nome: il pagano che difende una vita di piaceri come l'unica cosa che si può avere con anche un odore di bene; il cristiano mitigando i peccati piacevoli, dicendo che i giovani devono avere uno sfogo per i loro sentimenti affettuosi, che gli uomini d'affari devono metterci tutta l'anima e che la vita deve essere illuminata da un po' di allegria e allegria.
Contrariamente a quanto ha posto l'apostolo ( Efesini 5:5 ), tali parole sono vuote, prive di ogni solidità o verità. Poiché a causa di queste cose l'ira di Dio viene sui figli della disubbidienza. Il sofisma è spazzato via da un fatto terribile: l'ira viene, sta arrivando e verrà anche nella vita futura. Si presenta sotto forma di punizione naturale, la natura che vendica le sue leggi infrante con malattie mortali; anche sotto forma di delusione, rimorso, desolazione dell'anima; e sotto forma di giudizi, come quello che accadde a Sodoma e Gomorra, o alla spada che non si allontanò mai dalla casa di Davide.
Non siate dunque partecipi di loro. Se partecipi dei loro peccati, devi essere anche delle loro punizioni. Rifiutate ogni collaborazione, quindi. I tuoi istinti naturali si ritraggono dalla collaborazione nella punizione; lascia che i tuoi istinti spirituali si ritraggano dalla collaborazione nel peccato.
Poiché una volta eravate tenebre, ma ora siete luce nel Signore. Un altro espressivo "ma". Per rendere più enfatico il contrasto, non è detto: "eravate nelle tenebre, ma ora siete nella luce"; ma, "voi eravate le tenebre stesse, e ora siete la luce stessa", e quest'ultima si spiega con la formula consueta, "nel Signore". C'era un famoso filosofo di Efeso, Alessandro, chiamato "La Luce"; ma non da quella sorgente era venuta la luce.
L'idea di dare luce è anche implicata nel loro essere luce. "Alzati, risplendi, perché la tua luce è giunta". Camminate come figli della luce. Un'altra immagine espressiva, che denota una stretta connessione con la luce, come se ne nascessero proprio; quindi le loro vite dovrebbero esserne piene. La figura che unisce le tenebre al peccato e la luce alla purezza, comune a tutte le lingue, è alla base dell'esortazione.
Poiché il frutto della luce è [mostrato] in ogni bontà, giustizia e verità. L'esortazione è confermata da questa affermazione di ciò che è il risultato naturale della luce: la bontà, la disposizione che conduce alle opere buone; giustizia, rettitudine o integrità, che è molto attenta contro ogni disordine e ingiustizia, e rende a tutti ciò che è loro dovuto, e specialmente a Dio ciò che è di Dio; e verità, intendendo il rispetto per la verità in ogni forma e modo: crederla, venerarla, parlarla, agire secondo essa, sperare e gioire in essa, essere sinceri e onesti, non falsi o traditori.
Dimostrare ciò che è gradito al Signore. Una regola generale applicabile a tutta la passeggiata. Dimostrare è accertare mediante prove ed esperimenti. Tutto il nostro cammino dovrebbe essere orientato a scoprire quali cose sono gradite a Cristo, rifiutando subito tutto ciò che non lo è e aggrappandosi a tutto ciò che è. Non dobbiamo seguire la tradizione del nostro popolo e non avere una visione vaga del dovere; dobbiamo provare la cosa, metterla alla prova. Perché la regola pratica suprema della vita del cristiano deve essere quella di piacere a Cristo.
E non avere comunione con le opere infruttuose delle tenebre. Il punto di questa esortazione è nell'aggettivo "infruttuoso". Le opere delle tenebre sono infruttuose; non producono alcuna bontà, non danno luogo a nessuna soddisfazione, a nessun risultato morale che sia "una gioia per sempre"; oppure, se hanno frutto, è vergogna, rimorso, disperazione. Contrastate questo con i frutti della rettitudine che rinnovano, soddisfano e producono gioia.
Ma piuttosto anche rimproverarli. Non accontentarti di un atteggiamento passivo nei loro confronti, ma prendi l'aggressivo ed esponi la loro malvagità, sia in pubblico che nella cerchia domestica. Una testimonianza deve essere innalzata contro vie così vergognose e che abbattono l'ira di Dio.
Per le cose che fanno in segreto è una vergogna anche solo parlarne. I boschi di Efeso erano noti per la vergogna della lussuria. Parlare di tali atti era non solo sbagliato, ma vergognoso; così estrema è la delicatezza che il cristianesimo favorisce. I genitori, i maestri di scuola e altri non possono prendersi troppa cura per promuovere questa delicatezza tra i giovani, per escludere dalla conversazione il minimo tocco di ciò che è disdicevole.
Ma tutte le cose, quando vengono riprovate, sono rese manifeste dalla luce. Come, per esempio, quando nostro Signore rimproverò l'ipocrisia dei farisei - le loro pratiche non erano sembrate ai discepoli molto malvagie prima, ma quando Cristo gettò su di loro la pura luce della verità, si resero manifesti nel loro vero carattere - apparvero e continuano ad apparire, odiosi. Un giusto rimprovero pone il male in una luce che ne mostra il vero carattere.
Perché tutto ciò che si manifesta è luce. Letteralmente, questo è un truismo; tutto ciò che brilla non è più scuro, ma chiaro. L'approccio più vicino a questo , moralmente, è che la luce ha un potere trasformante; quando la luce del Vangelo risplende su qualcosa di oscuro o malvagio, lo trasforma in ciò che è luce o bene. Questo non è uniformemente vero; tutta la luce del cielo accesa sull'inferno non lo renderebbe moralmente leggero; ma è la proprietà generale e la tendenza della luce morale a trasformarsi.
L'esortazione significherebbe quindi: usa la tua luce per rimproverare ciò che è malvagio o oscuro, poiché non solo in tal modo sarà reso evidente il vero carattere del male, ma la tua luce avrà un potere di trasformazione. Ma se questo fosse il significato, dovremmo aspettarci alla fine del versetto, non φῶς ἐστι, ma φῶς γινεταί, per indicare questa trasformazione. La resa di AV, che dà a φανερούμενον un significato attivo ("tutto ciò che si manifesta è luce"), è rifiutata dalla maggior parte dei grammatici, in quanto non coerente con l'uso della parola.
Il significato che questa interpretazione dà è questo: "La luce è l'elemento che rende tutto chiaro". Avremmo dunque nella seconda proposizione una proposizione, affermando come universale ciò che nella prima si afferma di un caso particolare; "le cose riprovate sono rese manifeste dalla luce, perché è solo la luce che rende le cose chiare." L'esortazione alla riprovazione sarebbe così confermata dalla considerazione che l'unico modo per far apparire le cose immorali nel loro carattere proprio è far entrare in esse la luce del Vangelo. Il grande punto pratico è che i cristiani dovrebbero far entrare e diffondere la luce .
Perciò egli dice: Svegliati tu che dormi e risorgi dai morti, e Cristo ti illuminerà. Ciò è evidentemente inteso a dare un ulteriore impulso agli Efesini a camminare come figli della luce; ma sorge una difficoltà circa la fonte della citazione. Non c'è difficoltà con la formula "egli dice", che, come la stessa espressione in Efesini 4:8 , è chiaramente da riferire a Dio. Ma tali parole non si verificano nell'Antico Testamento.
Il passo che più si avvicina a loro è Isaia 60:1 , "Alzati, risplendi, perché la tua luce è venuta e la gloria del Signore è sorta su di te". La spiegazione più semplice e migliore è, non che l'apostolo citasse da un libro perduto, ma selce non intendeva dare le parole, ma solo lo spirito del passaggio. Ciò è evidente dalla sua introduzione della parola "Cristo". Bisogna riconoscere che l'apostolo fa un uso molto libero delle parole del profeta.
Ma l'idea fondamentale nella profezia è che quando la Chiesa riceve la luce del cielo, non deve restare ferma, come se fosse addormentata o morta, ma deve essere attiva, è usare la luce, è usarlo per illuminare il mondo. L'apostolo sostiene che la Chiesa di Efeso aveva avuto la luce del cielo; ella, quindi, non doveva dormire o bighellonare, ma balzare fuori come dalla tomba, e far luce sul mondo.
I cambiamenti che l'apostolo fa sulla forma della profezia sono notevoli, e mostrano che era al suo spirito e sostanza, piuttosto che alla sua forma e lettera precise, che egli attribuiva l'autorità dell'ispirazione.
Badate dunque a come camminate rigorosamente. La costruzione è alquanto peculiare, combinando due idee: vedi di camminare rigorosamente, ma considera bene il tipo di rigore. Non camminare liberamente, senza principi di azione fissi; ma assicurati che le tue regole siano del tipo vero. Molti sono severi che non sono saggiamente severi; hanno regole, ma non buone regole. Non così poco saggio, ma altrettanto saggio.
Questa interpretazione fa emergere la forza di ἄσοφοι e σοφυὶ: "stupidi" (AV) è piuttosto forte, perché non è la totale follia che viene rimproverata, ma la facilità d'animo, la mancanza di seria considerazione in una questione così infinitamente vitale, in modo da sapere cosa è veramente meglio.
Riscattando il tempo, perché i giorni sono cattivi ; oppure, acquistandovi l'occasione , l'idea è quella di un commerciante che, conoscendo il valore di un articolo e l'uso che se ne può fare, lo compra. L'opportunità è l'opportunità di diffondere la luce e agire secondo essa; e la ragione assegnata, "perché i giorni sono cattivi", indica che, a causa del prevalere del male, c'è molto bisogno della luce sulla quale il cristiano ha il controllo.
Si può anche suggerire che il prevalere del male è atto a raffreddare l'amore e diminuire lo zelo del cristiano; da qui la necessità di uno speciale ardore di spirito nella materia: deve attendere avidamente la sua opportunità.
Perciò non siate sciocchi, ma comprendendo qual è la volontà del Signore. Il "perché" si basa su tutto l'argomento precedente: perché siete figli della luce; perché la luce è così preziosa e così indispensabile; perché tutte le tue circostanze richiedono tanta cura e serietà. "Sconsiderato" è equivalente a insensato; "comprensione", sia per conoscere che per mettere a cuore, come nella parabola del seminatore: "Quando qualcuno ascolta la parola del regno e non la comprende ", i.
e. non lo considera né lo medita, "allora viene il malvagio", ecc. La volontà del Signore è la grande regola della vita cristiana; conoscere e comprendere questo nel senso più profondo, è camminare con saggezza e camminare con sicurezza.
E non essere inebriato dal vino, in cui è dissolutezza. L'ubriachezza è suggerita perché è un'opera delle tenebre; è nemico della vigilanza e della serietà, e conduce tutti coloro che vi si arrendono ad agire incautamente. È l' aspetto sociale dell'ubriachezza che l'apostolo ha in mente: l'influenza esilarante del vino in compagnia, che dà un'ondata di allegria. Ασωτία, da α e σωζω, l'opposto di risparmio, spreco, dissolutezza, o il processo di dissoluzione, che implica la perdizione.
Parlato del figliol prodigo, "vivente rissoso"; l'abito che manda tutto al naufragio e alla rovina . Ma sii pieno di Spirito. Invece di ricorrere al vino per rallegrarvi e animarvi, aprite i vostri cuori allo Spirito Santo, perché venga a riempirli; cercate la gioia che ispira lo Spirito quando vi fa sedere con Cristo nei luoghi celesti, affinché, invece di riversare i vostri sentimenti di gioia in canti baccanali, lo possiate fare in inni cristiani.
Parlando l'uno con l'altro. Letteralmente, questo indicherebbe il canto antifonale, ma questa è piuttosto un'idea artificiale per tempi così semplici. Sembra qui denotare una persona che canta un inno, poi un altro un altro, e così via; e gli incontri sembrerebbero essere stati per il godimento sociale cristiano piuttosto che per il culto pubblico di Dio. Nell'Epistola ai Colossesi è "Insegnandosi e ammonindosi a vicenda con i salmi", e questo ha più l'idea del culto pubblico; e se è appropriato esprimere sentimenti di gioia nelle riunioni sociali relativamente private dei cristiani, è appropriato fare lo stesso nel culto pubblico unito.
Nei salmi, negli inni e nei canti spirituali. Il significato preciso di questi termini non è facilmente individuabile; "salmi" dovremmo naturalmente applicare ai salmi dell'Antico Testamento, ma la mancanza dell'articolo rende il significato più generale, equivalente a "canti con il carattere dei salmi"; inni, canti che celebrano le lodi dell'Essere Divino, Padre, Figlio e Spirito Santo; "canti spirituali" o odi di un cast più generale, meditativo, storico, esortativo o didattico.
Ma questi devono essere "spirituali", come lo Spirito Santo ci farebbe usare e userebbe con noi per il nostro bene. Le due clausole corrispondono: "essere riempiti di Spirito"; "parlando con canti spirituali". Ricevi lo Spirito: effondi lo Spirito; i vostri canti siano effusioni inviate dai vostri cuori con l'aroma dello Spirito Santo. Cantando e intonando melodie con il cuore al Signore; cioè al Signore Gesù.
Alcuni hanno sostenuto che mentre οντες denota il canto, ψάλλοντες significa colpire lo strumento musicale. Ma è usato così frequentemente in un senso più generale, che qui difficilmente può essere limitato a questo significato. Il grande pensiero è che questo servizio musicale non deve essere solo musicale, ma un servizio del cuore, nel rendere il quale il cuore deve essere in stato di adorazione.
Ringraziare sempre per tutte le cose ; essendo questo non solo un dovere cristianissimo, ma un modo eccellente per mantenere il cuore in buon tono, per mantenere i sentimenti felici: il dovere non essendo occasionale, ma "sempre", e non solo per cose prima facto piacevoli, ma "per tutte le cose» (cfr Giobbe 2:10 ; Romani 8:28 ).
Nel Nome di nostro Signore Gesù Cristo a Dio, anche il Padre. Dio Padre è l'oggetto proprio del rendimento di grazie, come della preghiera in genere; ma i ringraziamenti devono essere resi nel Nome di Cristo. Cioè per mezzo di colui che ha introdotto l'economia della grazia, per cui per l'ira otteniamo benedizione, per la sofferenza otteniamo ricompensa, per la miseria gloria; per cui, in breve, l'intero aspetto della vita è illuminato, e anche le più grandi prove e dolori si sono trasformati in vere benedizioni.
Sottomettervi gli uni agli altri nel timore di Cristo. L'ultima delle esortazioni participie dipende dall'esortazione generale di Efesini 5:15 a camminare rigorosamente, La maggior parte dei commentatori la collega ai tre participi immediatamente precedenti (parlare, cantare, ringraziare), ma non riescono a trovare un collegamento di connessione. Meglio collegarsi con Efesini 5:15 .
La mutua sottomissione fa parte di un cammino saggio e circospetto , cioè il riconoscimento reciproco dei diritti degli altri e dei nostri doveri a servirli. In un certo senso siamo tutti servi, cioè siamo tenuti a servire gli altri; lo stesso padre è, in questo senso, servo del figlio. Quindi nella Chiesa cristiana siamo tutti in un certo senso servi ("Per amore servitevi gli uni gli altri", Galati 5:15 ; comp.
Matteo 20:26 ; Giovanni 13:15 , Giovanni 13:16 ). Questa visione è in armonia con lo spirito umile del Vangelo. L'orgoglio ci porta a pretendere rigorosamente dagli altri ciò che crediamo ci debbano; umiltà, per dare agli altri ciò che Cristo insegna che dobbiamo loro. L'una sensazione è quella di essere scoraggiati, l'altra esercitata e rafforzata.
Nei versi seguenti abbiamo questo precetto suddiviso nei suoi filamenti costitutivi. La lettura di RV, "nel timore di Cristo", ha più autorità di AV, "nel timore di Dio". Ci fa venire in mente il meraviglioso esempio di Cristo in questo clemente di carattere ( Luca 2:51 ; Ebrei 5:8 ). Il rispetto reverenziale per lui dovrebbe ispirarci con lo stesso spirito ( Filippesi 2:5 ).
Efesini 6:96,9 .— ESORTAZIONE AI COMPITI RELATIVI .
Mogli, sottomettetevi ai vostri mariti, come al Signore. Il cristianesimo, pur emancipando ed elevando la donna, non la libera dal dovere della sudditanza. Il rapporto con il marito si intensifica per far rispettare il dovere: "i tuoi mariti", τοῖς ἰδιοῖς ἀνδράσι: come si dice, "ha abbandonato il proprio figlio". Il "come a" denota un dovere parallelo : come è tuo dovere essere soggetto a Cristo, così anche ai tuoi mariti (vedi versetto successivo).
Perché il marito è capo della moglie, come anche Cristo è capo della Chiesa. La donna è stata creata per l'uomo ( Genesi 2:18 ; 1 Timoteo 2:13 ), mostrando il proposito divino che l'uomo dovrebbe essere il capo e il centro della famiglia, e che la posizione della moglie, come moglie, dovrebbe essere una di subordinazione. Parallela a questa disposizione è la relazione di Cristo con la Chiesa.
Almeno a parole, tutti ammettono l'autorità di Cristo e la subordinazione della Chiesa a lui. La famiglia cristiana, a un livello molto più basso, dovrebbe esemplificare la stessa relazione. Essendo lui stesso salvatore del corpo. Questo non è detto per contrasto, ma ancora per parallelismo. La stessa salvezza di Cristo dovrebbe trovare un'analogia nel marito cristiano. Il marito dovrebbe essere il protettore, il custode, il liberatore sempre vigile e abnegato della sua famiglia, sebbene il suo potere salvifico non possa mai avvicinarsi all'alto livello di quello di Cristo. della moglie e della famiglia.
Lo stesso confronto del marito con il Salvatore implica che, mentre c'è una certa analogia, c'è un contrasto ancora maggiore. Questo è implicito nella prima parola del versetto seguente. Tra le righe si legge questo pensiero: "Non che il parallelo tra la funzione salvifica di Cristo e quella del marito si estenda alle cose più alte".
Ma [esiste fino a far rispettare questa esortazione] come la Chiesa è soggetta a Cristo, così le mogli siano in tutto ai loro mariti. Vi sia una soggezione in un caso parallela a quella nell'altro, poiché tale è la volontà e lo scopo divini. Ogni sottomissione dovuta al marito deve essere modificata da ciò che è dovuto a Dio, poiché come il marito non può esigere per sé, così la moglie non può dargli, ciò che è di Dio: la volontà di Dio è suprema su tutto.
Dei tre testamenti che possono essere in conflitto, vale a dire. Di Dio, del marito e della moglie: il dovere della moglie è prenderli in quest'ordine, tenendo conto prima di quello di Dio, poi del marito e per ultimo del proprio.
Mariti, amate le vostre mogli, come anche Cristo ha amato la Chiesa e ha dato se stesso per lei. Il dovere del marito verso la moglie è imposto da un altro parallelo: dovrebbe corrispondere all'amore di Cristo per la Chiesa. Questo parallelo ristabilisce l'equilibrio; se per la moglie dovesse sembrare difficile la sottomissione, lo spirito d'amore, l'amore di Cristo, da parte del marito, rende facile il compito.
Cristo non solo ebbe pietà della Chiesa, o semplicemente il suo bene, ma l'amò; la sua immagine fu impressa sul suo cuore e il suo nome scolpito sulle sue mani; desiderava averla come compagna, desiderando un ritorno del suo affetto, l'instaurarsi di simpatie tra lei e lui. E diede se stesso per lei (cfr. Efesini 5:2 ), mostrando che la sua felicità e il suo benessere gli erano più cari dei suoi, la vera prova del profondo, vero amore.
Per santificarla, dopo averla purificata mediante il lavaggio dell'acqua con la Parola. L'obiettivo immediato di Cristo era quello di purificarla, e per questo scopo ha usato la Parola come un agente purificatore, lavandola per mezzo di essa. La differenza tra amore egoistico e disinteressato si vede qui: un amante egoista si prende cura di sua moglie nel proprio interesse, come Sansone, desidera averla semplicemente perché gli piace e, nel suo conversare con lei, non pensa al suo bene , ma di suo godimento; ma l'amore di un amante disinteressato lo costringe a cercare il suo bene, a non fare nulla che possa ferirla e danneggiarla in alcun modo, ma a fare tutto ciò che crede possa favorire il suo benessere, specialmente nel senso più alto.
La trova contaminata (cfr. Ezechiele 16:1 .), e il suo grande strumento di purificazione è "la Parola" (cfr. Giovanni 15:3 ; Giovanni 17:5 ) —la Parola in tutta la sua ricerca, umiliazione, potere rimproverante, correttivo, informante, stimolante, rinfrescante, consolante. Non c'è alcuna allusione esplicita al battesimo, τῷ λουτρῷ τοῦ ὕδατος è spiegato da ἐν ῥήματι, "la Parola" è il grande mezzo santificante, e il battesimo una figura ( 1 Pietro 3:21 ).
Perché si presenti la Chiesa gloriosa. Il fine ultimo, al quale Efesini 5:26 è introduttiva. Cristo dà e prende la sposa; la presenta a se stesso: il giorno delle sue nozze è nello stato di gloria ( Apocalisse 21:2 ) e tutto l'addestramento di questa vita è progettato per adattarla a quella condizione.
Alla fine diventa gloriosa attraverso l'assimilazione a se stesso ( 2 Corinzi 3:18 ; Giovanni 17:22 ). Non avere macchie, rughe o cose del genere. L'idea è quella di un corpo perfettamente privo di macchia, tipico di un'anima perfettamente liberata dal peccato, di un carattere perfetto in ogni grazia e bontà. Ma che dovrebbe essere santo e senza macchia.
La stessa verità espressa in forma positiva, che nella frase precedente è espressa in negativo. Niente potrebbe denotare più chiaramente la perfezione del carattere: il pieno sviluppo del carattere con qualunque varietà possa derivare dalle differenze nei doni naturali e nella costituzione, o trasmettere un'idea più gloriosa del destino dell'umanità redenta. Essere, per così dire, la sposa di Cristo è un alto destino in termini di condizione ; ma sarebbe infelice se il carattere non corrispondesse alla condizione; questo accordo, tuttavia, è assicurato, poiché la Chiesa deve essere santa e senza macchia.
Allo stesso modo anche i mariti dovrebbero amare le proprie mogli come i propri corpi. Viene qui introdotta una nuova illustrazione per gettare luce sul portamento del marito verso sua moglie, e l'οὕτως sembra riferirsi non a ciò che precede, ma a ciò che segue (cfr. in Efesini 5:33 ). Chi ama sua moglie ama se stesso. Sua moglie è parte di sé, per cui non amarla come se stesso non è solo peccato contro la legge, ma contro natura.
Nessuno infatti ha mai odiato la propria carne; ma la nutre e la custodisce, come Cristo anche la Chiesa. Odiare la propria moglie è tanto irrazionale quanto odiare la propria carne, e come, d'altra parte, gli uomini nutrono e curano costantemente la loro carne, proteggendola dal male, cercando di guarirla quando viene ferita, e generalmente per promuoverne il benessere e il conforto. , così dovrebbero comportarsi i mariti con le loro mogli. Anche in questo aspetto del caso l'occhio acuto dell'apostolo trova un'analogia tra il rapporto della moglie con il marito e quello della Chiesa con Cristo, ampliato nel verso successivo.
Perché noi siamo membra del suo corpo [essere], della sua carne e delle sue ossa (le ultime sette parole omesse in molti manoscritti e nel RV). Il riferimento è alla formazione originaria della donna come narrata in Genesi 2:1 . Il suo stesso nome indicava che era stata "presa dall'uomo". Gli è stata tolta e data a lui. Quindi la Chiesa è presa da Cristo e data a lui.
Preso dal suo corpo, scaturito dalla sua incarnazione e dalla sua crocifissione e risurrezione, figlio spirituale della sua umanità, e poi dato a lui, per essere suo servitore, anzi, al di sopra di un servo, suo compagno, amico e confidente per sempre. Se non fosse stato per il corpo di Cristo ( Ebrei 10:5 ) la Chiesa non avrebbe potuto esistere. Nessuna sposa degna del Re del cielo sarebbe potuta nascere dalla terra. Come Eva venne dal costato aperto di Adamo, così in senso figurato la Chiesa scaturisce dal costato trafitto di Gesù.
Per questo motivo l'uomo lascerà suo padre e sua madre e si unirà a sua moglie, e i due saranno una sola carne. Citato in sostanza da Genesi 2:24 . Sembra essere introdotto semplicemente per mostrare la vicinanza del rapporto tra uomo e moglie; è come in un certo senso sostituire quello tra genitore e figlio. L'apostolo (come appare dal versetto successivo) ha in vista, allo stesso tempo, la verità parallela: la vicinanza del rapporto tra Cristo e la Chiesa; anch'esso in un certo senso sostituisce i rapporti della natura ( Luca 14:26 ; Matteo 12:50 ).
Questo mistero è grande; ma parlo in riferimento a Cristo e alla Chiesa. L'argomento cui si fa riferimento è il tipico rapporto tra il matrimonio dei coniugi e l'unione di Cristo e della Chiesa. Si chiama mistero, e non è detto, come si dice di un altro mistero, cui si è accennato prima ( Efesini 3:5 ), che sia stato completamente spiegato.
Un po' di luce è stata gettata su di esso, ma questo è tutto. È implicito che c'è qualcosa di misterioso in molti dei rapporti tra le cose naturali e le cose spirituali, ma che nella profondità e nella grandezza del sub-jeer, il mistero connesso con il rapporto matrimoniale è preminente: è "un grande mistero" L'analogia del vento con lo Spirito Santo; il germogliare delle piante alla risurrezione; i suoni malinconici della natura alla prevalenza del peccato; e molte altre analogie, presentano vaghe ombre di verità, di cui non possiamo vedere le forme chiare e piene. Quando sorgerà il giorno e "le ombre fuggono", tali cose appariranno in una luce più chiara.
Tuttavia, ognuno di voi ami così individualmente la propria moglie come se stesso. Il «tuttavia» si riferisce alla parte irrisolta del mistero: per quanto misterioso possa essere, non c'è mistero su questo, quanto sul dovere di ciascun marito di amare la propria moglie anche come se stesso: ciò, come già mostrato, è chiaro da molte considerazioni. E lascia che la moglie veda che teme suo marito. Non, naturalmente, con il timore servile di chi è atterrito e tremante a causa di un essere più forte, ma con il santo rispetto dovuto a colui al quale, per volontà di Dio, sta in relazione subordinata. La relazione di Sara con Abramo può ancora essere indicata come un'indicazione del vero ideale della relazione della moglie con il marito.
OMILETICA
Il cammino adatto ai figli della luce: nessuna comunione con i peccati della carne.
La paurosa prevalenza del vizio sensuale ad Efeso portò naturalmente l'apostolo a soffermarsi enfaticamente su di esso come uno dei peggiori stracci del vecchio, uno straccio da gettare via del tutto e per sempre. Ma, in effetti, sono poche le comunità pagane in cui il vizio sensuale non fiorisce quando gli uomini hanno il potere di indulgervi. È singolare come il peccato universale sia in connessione con l'indulgenza irregolare e disordinata degli appetiti corporei.
Sembrerebbe che Dio ne abbia fatto una speciale questione di prova, poiché quando questi appetiti prendono il sopravvento, conducono a terribili eccessi e, portando malattie sia sulla mente che sul corpo, vendicano il peccato a cui sono spinti. Prima tentano gli uomini a peccare, e poi, come in uno scherno spietato, li flagellano per aver peccato. Troviamo qui—
I. PECCATI DI DELLA CARNE denunciato , con una corrispondente peccato del spirito-avidità ( Efesini 5:3 , Efesini 5:4 ).
II. RAGIONI PER CUI TALI PECCATI DEVONO ESSERE RINUNCIATI DAI CRISTIANI .
1. NESSUNA tale persona ha alcuna eredità nel regno di Dio ( Efesini 5:5 ).
2. L'ira di Dio viene, è presente e visibile, per tali cose su uomini molto malvagi (Sodoma e Gomorra, Cananei, ecc.) ( Efesini 5:6 ).
3. Appartengono al mondo delle tenebre, ei cristiani sono figli della luce ( Efesini 5:8 ).
4. I cristiani, vivendo nello Spirito, dovrebbero portare il frutto dello Spirito ( Efesini 5:9 ).
5. Si accertino e seguano solo ciò che è gradito a Cristo ( Efesini 5:10 ).
III. RAGIONI PER CUI TALI PECCATI DOVREBBE ESSERE RIPRESA DAI CRISTIANI .
1. Sono così malvagi che è peccato anche solo parlarne ( Efesini 5:12 ).
2. Il vero carattere di tali peccati è visto dalla luce che li Efesini 5:13 ( Efesini 5:13 ).
3. La luce tende a trasformare ( Efesini 5:13 ), e facendo entrare la luce che mostra l'odiosità del peccato tu puoi essere il mezzo per cambiare il peccatore; mentre lo rimproveri puoi anche migliorarlo.
4. È per questo scopo che la Chiesa ha la luce: quando la luce le viene portata, il suo Signore la invita a svegliarsi e risplendere ( Efesini 5:15 ). Tali precetti e considerazioni hanno una portata più ampia di Efeso e dei suoi boschi. I peccati della carne fioriscono anche nelle terre cristiane. Giovani uomini! prendi a cuore queste cose; temi Dio e osserva i suoi comandamenti, e non lasciarti sviare da nessuno dei sofismi che ascolti; poiché quelli che sono di Cristo hanno crocifisso la carne, con gli affetti e le concupiscenze.
Cammina con circospezione, o rigorosamente.
L'apostolo prosegue esortando a una vita accorta, saggia e premurosa, strettamente conforme in ogni cosa alla volontà di Dio, modellata secondo quell'idea di sapienza che è esposta nel proverbio: "Il timore del Signore è il principio di saggezza». Niente ha più valore dei principi fissi per guidare la nostra vita. Una convinzione consolidata può avere un valore inestimabile; e . g . la convinzione che nulla può, alla fine, servire a qualcosa che sia contro la volontà di Dio.
Ogni volta che la grandezza viene raggiunta in qualsiasi sfera della vita, è attraverso la forza di regole ben tenute. Ogni grande autore, artista, statista, ha dovuto il suo successo a certi principi d'azione ai quali si è rigidamente attenuto. È stato osservato che l'età puritana era un'età di convinzioni; la nostra è un'era di opinioni. Ma ciò di cui abbiamo bisogno sono le convinzioni, e soprattutto la convinzione che l'unica regola di vita vera, sicura e benedetta è seguire implicitamente la volontà di Dio. Troviamo qui regole per una vita cristiana attenta,
(1) a parte,
(2) nella società cristiana.
I. A PARTE .
1. Cammina con circospezione, o rigorosamente, non con noncuranza.
2. Cammina saggiamente, avendo cura di accertarti di camminare in modo da ottenere il grande fine.
3. Riscattare il tempo o riacquistare l'opportunità (vedi esposizione).
4. Capire; vale a dire porre a cuore e seguire la volontà di Cristo.
5. Evita l'intossicazione, ogni eccitazione selvaggia e il piacere sconsacrato.
6. Siate pieni dello Spirito e delle emozioni sante e benedette che egli genera.
II. NELLA SOCIETÀ CRISTIANA .
1. Coltiva il canto cristiano e intona nel tuo cuore la melodia al Signore.
2. Lascia che il ringraziamento abbia un posto speciale nei tuoi esercizi.
3. Sottomettetevi gli uni agli altri nel timore del Signore.
Come i cristiani hanno non solo doveri, ma anche gioie, appartenenti alla loro vita individuale, così hanno sia doveri che gioie appartenenti alla loro vita sociale. Ciò che più caratterizza i doveri sociali dei cristiani è la sottomissione reciproca; considerazione l'uno dell'altro, di ciò che è dovuto dall'uno all'altro, e ancor più del servizio amoroso che l'uno può rendere all'altro. Ciò che è più caratteristico delle loro gioie sociali è l'elemento di gratitudine in cui prosperano; vivano sempre come coloro che in Cristo hanno ricevuto misericordie oltre ogni calcolo; e dovrebbero fare abbondante uso del canto per esprimere tali sentimenti e per approfondirli nel farlo.
Questo elemento gioioso fa molto per dare luminosità alla vita sociale dei cristiani; non mancheranno le delizie più carnali a cui gli uomini mondani hanno tanto attribuito, ma sentiranno che Dio mette gioia nei loro cuori, più che nel tempo in cui aumentò il loro grano e il loro vino.
Doveri di mogli e mariti.
L'apostolo Pietro, nella sua prima lettera, dopo essersi soffermato sui privilegi dei credenti, li esorta vivamente ad avere una conversazione onesta o equa tra le genti, esemplificando, con la purezza e la bellezza della loro vita, l'eccellenza dei principi e dei privilegi di il Vangelo; e poi si dirama in tre casi o relazioni che danno spazio a questo modo di vita: quello dei sudditi ai loro governanti, quello dei servi ai loro padroni, e quello delle mogli ai loro mariti e dei mariti alle loro mogli.
Sebbene Pietro e Paolo si muovessero in orbite diverse, tuttavia, dalla forza delle convinzioni condivise da loro e dalla guida dello Spirito Santo in entrambi, furono portati a imporre applicazioni meravigliosamente simili dei grandi principi del Vangelo. Paolo, come Pietro, propone tre rapporti, con la sola differenza che, al posto del rapporto dei sudditi con i loro governanti, ha quello dei figli con i genitori, e il corrispondente dovere dei genitori con i figli.
Abbiamo la prova più evidente del suo scopo del cristianesimo di purificare ed elevare i rapporti comuni della vita. Gran parte del frutto visibile della vera religione risiede nel creare sudditi migliori, coniugi migliori, figli migliori, servitori migliori. I pagani furono colpiti dall'eccellenza delle donne cristiane. La madre di Crisostomo ottenne opinioni d'oro rimanendo vedova dal suo ventunesimo anno.
"Che donne hanno questi cristiani!" fu l'esclamazione di alcuni. Le donne cristiane furono meravigliose missionarie nei primi secoli per la loro vita devota, pura e seria; molti era il pagano che, "senza la Parola, fu vinto dalla conversazione della moglie". Tali vite sono doppiamente benedette: benedette in se stesse e benedette nella loro influenza sul mondo.
I. LA MOGLIE 'S DOVERE . Sottomissione al marito come al Signore ( Efesini 5:22 ). Motivi per questo.
1. Il marito è il capo della moglie ( Efesini 5:23 ).
2. C'è un parallelo tra il marito e Cristo ( Efesini 5:23 ).
3. Anche riguardo alla potenza salvifica di Cristo, il parallelo vale in misura limitata, anche se molto limitata ( Efesini 5:23 ).
4. Il parallelo è abbastanza vicino da richiedere la sottomissione della moglie ( Efesini 5:24 ).
II. IL MARITO 'S DOVERE . Amare sua moglie. Questo è imposto:
1. Con la considerazione di ciò che Cristo ha sentito e fatto per la sua Chiesa.
(1) Amava la Chiesa ( Efesini 5:25 ).
(2) Ha dato se stesso per lei ( Efesini 5:25 ). E l'oggetto per cui lo ha fatto.
(a) Il suo oggetto immediato ( Efesini 5:26 ).
(b) Il suo scopo ultimo ( Efesini 5:27 ).
2. Considerando l'intimità del rapporto della moglie con il marito come propria carne. Questa relazione è considerata
(1) naturalmente ( Efesini 5:28 , Efesini 5:29 );
(2) simbolicamente ( Efesini 5:30 ).
La Chiesa presa da Cristo; dato a Cristo. Il rapporto del marito con sua moglie sostituisce (in un certo senso) i rapporti di natura. Lo fa anche il rapporto della Chiesa con Cristo ( Efesini 5:31 ). Ma l'argomento è misterioso ( Efesini 5:32 ). Eppure un obbligo pratico è molto chiaro ( Efesini 5:33 ).
La costituzione della Chiesa, come quella della società naturale, comporta doveri reciproci. Nulla può essere completo a meno che ciascuna parte non faccia la sua parte. Mentre è parte della donna essere sottomessa, è parte del marito amare. L'uno bilancia l'altro. È dovere della moglie essere sottomessa anche se il marito non ama, e dovere del marito amare anche se la moglie non è sottomessa; ma come diventano così duri, difficili, quasi impossibili, tali doveri! Se il marito nega l'amore, fa un torto a sua moglie e sovverte del tutto il rapporto tra loro.
Si osservi sempre che, mentre Dio ha unito marito e moglie, ha unito l'amore del marito alla sottomissione della moglie; ciò che dunque Dio ha congiunto, l'uomo non lo separi.
OMELIA DI T. CROSKERY
"Seguaci di Dio".
Questo è l'alto destino dei figli di Dio.
I. IL DOVERE QUI COMANDATO . "Siate miei imitatori". è da fare
(1) ciò che Dio fa;
(2) perché lo fa;
(3) come lo fa.
Il punto speciale dell'imitazione qui è il dovere di mostrare uno spirito di perdono gli uni agli altri.
II. PERCHE ' NOI DOVREMMO IMITARE DIO .
1. Perché noi siamo i suoi " cari figli ". Chi dovrebbero imitare i figli se non il padre? I credenti hanno fatto esperienza della saggezza, dell'amore e della potenza del loro Padre, ed è solo un istinto di amore filiale imitare un tale Padre.
2. Perché originariamente siamo stati fatti a sua immagine ( Genesi 1:26 ), e sebbene quell'immagine sia stata guastata dal peccato, deve essere rinnovata nel processo di un'esperienza cristiana ( Efesini 4:23 ).
3. La santità consiste nell'imitazione di Dio . "Perché sta scritto: Siate santi, perché io sono santo" ( 1 Pietro 1:16 ).
4. La prospettiva di perfetta somiglianza con Dio nel giorno del nostro Signore ' che appare s . ( 1 Giovanni 3:2 ).
III. SIGNIFICA VERSO L' ESECUZIONE DI QUESTO DOVERE .
1. Pregate incessantemente , specialmente per misure più piene della sua grazia, per maggiori rivelazioni del suo amore, per una più profonda comprensione della sua verità.
2. Vivi continuamente come se fossi sotto i suoi occhi . ( Salmi 139:6 , Salmi 139:7 ).
3. Considera come gli altri lo hanno seguito . ( 1 Corinzi 11:1 ). —TC
Il cammino dell'amore.
Siamo tenuti ad amarci l'un l'altro.
I. QUESTO ERA IL GRANDE DOVERE DI LA LEGGE . "Tutta la legge si compie in una parola, anche in questa: Ama il prossimo tuo come te stesso" ( Galati 5:14 ). "Il fine del comandamento è l'amore" ( 1 Timoteo 1:5 ). Tutto il nostro dovere verso il nostro prossimo si riassume nell'amore L'amore fornisce la forza motrice a tutti i giusti rapporti con i nostri simili.
II. QUESTO ERA IL NUOVO COMANDAMENTO DI CRISTO : "Vi do un comandamento nuovo, che vi amiate gli uni gli altri" ( Giovanni 13:34 ). L'amore così di nuovo ingiunto ha alcune caratteristiche importanti.
1. Deve essere l'amore per i fatti , non per le parole . "Non amiamo a parole, né con la lingua, ma con i fatti e nella verità" ( 1 Giovanni 3:18 ).
2. Essa deve essere ardente . "Soprattutto abbiate tra voi una fervida carità" ( 1 Pietro 4:7, 1 Pietro 4:8 , 1 Pietro 4:8 ).
3. Deve essere altruista . «Anche noi dobbiamo dare la nostra vita per i fratelli» ( 1 Giovanni 3:16 ).
4. Dovrebbe essere un amore ben guidato e controllato . "Questo ti prego, affinché il tuo amore abbondi sempre più in scienza e in ogni giudizio" ( Filippesi 1:9 ).
5. Dovrebbe essere un amore costante come quello di Cristo . "Avendo amato i suoi che erano nel mondo, li amò sino alla fine" ( Giovanni 13:1 ).
6. Dovrebbe essere un test decisivo per la nostra condizione in Dio ' occhi s . "Chi ama il proprio fratello rimane nella luce e in lui non c'è motivo di inciampare" ( 1 Giovanni 2:10 ). "Sappiamo di essere passati dalla morte alla vita, perché amiamo i fratelli" ( 1 Giovanni 3:14 ).
7. Deve essere un amore raccomandato dai più alti esempi . "Dio è amore." "Se Dio ci ha amati così, anche noi dobbiamo amarci gli uni gli altri". Dobbiamo "camminare nell'amore, come anche Cristo ci ha amati". "Sia in voi lo stesso pensiero che era anche in Cristo Gesù" ( Filippesi 2:5 ). — TC
Il modello dell'amore cristiano.
"Come anche Cristo ci ha amati e ha dato se stesso per noi in offerta e in sacrificio a Dio in odore soave". Gesù è stato un esempio di amore nella sua vita, perché ogni giorno andava in giro facendo del bene ( Atti degli Apostoli 10:38 ). Ma è alla sua sofferenza della morte che l'apostolo ci addita per l'illustrazione più sublime e impressionante del suo amore. Le parole suggeriscono molti pensieri gravidi.
I. CHI SI È OFFERTO ? Era Cristo, l'unigenito Figlio di Dio. Era il suo atto volontario. "Nessuno ha un amore più grande di questo: dare la vita per i suoi amici" ( Giovanni 15:13 ). "Colui che mi ha amato e ha dato se stesso per me" ( Galati 2:20 ). È stato l'amore a suscitare il dono di sé: eterno, infinito, gratuito.Giovanni 15:13, Galati 2:20
II. COSA HA HE OFFERTA ? Lui stesso. Non il sangue degli altri, tanto meno il sangue dei tori e delle capre. Era l'offerta del corpo di Cristo ( Ebrei 10:10 ).
III. PER CHI ? Per noi, mentre eravamo ancora nemici ( Romani 5:10 ). Se è morto al posto nostro o semplicemente per il nostro beneficio è determinato dal contesto, che lo rappresenta come un dare a se stesso "un'offerta e un sacrificio". Questo linguaggio segna il carattere nettamente sostitutivo della morte di Cristo, così come egli stesso è descritto altrove come "un riscatto per molti".
IV. PER CHI HA HA OFFERTA SE STESSO ? A Dio. Cioè, con il disegno che Dio possa accettare il sacrificio. Dio ha avuto piacere nella morte e nell'espiazione di suo Figlio.
V. IN CHE MODO ? "Come offerta e sacrificio." Il termine "offerta" si applica ai sacrifici propiziatori, così come alle offerte Ebrei 10:18 ( Ebrei 10:18 , Ebrei 10:14 ). La parola aggiuntiva, "sacrificio", segna il carattere chiaramente propiziatorio della sua offerta ( Ebrei 7:27 ).
VI. CON QUALI RISULTATI ? "Per un sapore dolce." Questa frase si applica sia alle offerte propiziatorie che alle offerte volontarie, come, per esempio, agli olocausti di Noè ( Genesi 8:21 ). Il sacrificio di Cristo era gradito a Dio, che poteva ormai manifestare il suo carattere "come giusto, e il Giustificatore di chi crede in Gesù". L'intero brano ci insegna:
1. L'infondatezza di quella teologia che vede nelle sofferenze di Cristo non un sacrificio propiziatorio, ma l'amore, la fede e la sottomissione del Figlio di Dio, come esempio per l'uomo. Questa visione è del tutto unilaterale.
2. L'infondatezza di quella teologia che vede nelle sue sofferenze una mera esibizione di amore, senza quell'elemento di giustizia che rendeva necessarie queste sofferenze. Se solo l'amore poteva salvare, perché avrebbe dovuto soffrire o morire? È l'amore espiatorio che è l'elemento di consolazione per l'uomo.
3. L'infondatezza di quella teologia che vede la potenza redentrice di Cristo nella sua nascita piuttosto che nella sua morte, come se l'evento di Betlemme fosse trascendentemente più importante dell'evento del Golgota.
4. Che c'è nell'amore di Cristo non solo una forza di argomento o motivo, ma una vera regola o misura dell'amore che dobbiamo esercitare gli uni verso gli altri nei vincoli del Vangelo. — TC
Avvertenze contro impurità di ogni genere.
I peccati qui descritti erano comuni tra i pagani e non ricevevano un adeguato controllo dalle loro guide morali. In effetti, il vecchio mondo pagano li considerava cose indifferenti. Sono, per la maggior parte, peccati contro noi stessi, come i peccati condannati nei versetti precedenti sono peccati contro il nostro prossimo. Sono da condannare per molti motivi.
I. LORO SONO ESPRESSE VIOLAZIONI DELLA LA DIVINA LEGGE . ( Esodo 20:14 .)
II. LORO SONO disonorare DI DIO E LA SUA SANTITÀ . La corruzione che è nel mondo a causa della lussuria non è coerente con la natura divina ( 2 Pietro 1:4 ).
III. HANNO contrastare LA PROGETTAZIONE DI DEL VANGELO DI CRISTO , che è "per purificare un popolo per se stesso" ( Tito 2:14 ); «per purificarci da ogni sozzura della carne e dello spirito» ( 2 Corinzi 7:1 ). Gesù ha sofferto nella carne che noi moriamo alla carne ( 1 Pietro 4:1 ).
IV. HANNO Grieve IL SANTO SPIRITO , il cui ufficio è di santificare noi ( Efesini 4:29 , Efesini 4:30 ). "Quella colomba pura e santa non abiterà in una gabbia di uccelli impuri e sporchi."
V. LORO DISHONOR IL CORPO , che è il tempio dello Spirito Santo ( 1 Corinzi 6:18 ). Lo sprecano e lo disonorano ( Proverbi 5:11 ).
VI. LORO GUERRA CONTRO IL SOUL in tutti i sensi del termine, contro la sua vita, le sue aspirazioni, la sua felicità ( 1 Pietro 2:11 ). Oscurano perfino il giudizio e l'intelligenza ( Osea 4:11 ). Nessun tipo di peccato indurisce così il cuore.
VII. LORO provocano DIO 'S AUGER . ( Colossesi 3:5 , Colossesi 3:6 ; Geremia 5:7 ; Efesini 5:6 .) "Poiché l'ira di Dio viene sui figli della disubbidienza". Sottopongono i trasgressori al giudizio di Dio, perché "Dio giudicherà i puttanieri e gli adulteri" ( Ebrei 13:4 ).
E li tengono lontani dal cielo ( 1 Corinzi 6:9 ; 1 Corinzi 6:5 ). Questi peccati di impurità non devono essere nominati nemmeno tra i santi, che devono essere puri di pensiero, puri di cuore, puri di parola, puri di vita. "Non regni dunque il peccato nel vostro corpo mortale, per obbedirgli nelle sue concupiscenze" ( Romani 6:12 ). A tal fine dobbiamo:
1. Evita tutte le occasioni che spingono all'impurità:
(1) ozio ( Ezechiele 16:49 );
(2) compagnia malvagia ( Proverbi 7:25 ); e
(3) tutti gli altri peccati ( Proverbi 1:25 ).
2. Stringi un'alleanza con i nostri occhi ( Giobbe 31:1 ).
3. Veglia sui nostri pensieri (Mt Efesini 2:16 ).
4. Delizia nella Parola di Dio ( Proverbi 2:10 , Proverbi 2:16 ).
5. Continua nella preghiera ( Salmi 119:37 ).—TC
Avvertimento contro la cupidigia.
È singolare trovare la cupidigia, che spesso è peccato di rispettabilità, collegata a peccati di grossolana impurità. In realtà scaturisce dall'egoismo, come questi altri peccati. Ha la sua origine nella stessa radice empia.
I. CONSIDERA LA NATURA DELLA cupidigia . È l'amore disordinato delle ricchezze, che si manifesta in diversi modi.
1. Nell'ansia ansiosa di raggiungere la ricchezza , senza riguardo né alla gloria di Dio né al nostro bene spirituale.
2. In un peccaminoso acquisto di ricchezze con estorsioni o frodi . ( 1 Re 21:2 , 1 Re 21:13 ; Proverbi 10:2 ; Proverbi 28:8 .)
3. In una riluttanza a usare la nostra ricchezza per fini buoni . ( 1 Timoteo 6:17 , 1 Timoteo 6:18 ).
II. COME VIENE CUPIDIGIA DI ESSERE CONSIDERATO COME " IDOLATRIA ?" È fare dei nostri beni un dio e dare loro l'omaggio dei nostri cuori. Tutti gli elementi essenziali dell'idolatria sono inclusi in questa disposizione mondana. L'uomo avido trasferisce nella ricchezza l'amore, il desiderio, la gioia, la fiducia e la fatica che Dio esige per sé. Il suo peccato è tanto più grande perché sa che il suo dio non è un dio. L'avvertimento del testo è applicabile
(1) a tutti coloro i cui pensieri corrono più sulla terra che sul cielo ( Luca 12:22 , Luca 12:25 , Luca 12:29 );
(2) a tutti coloro il cui benessere dipende dai successi mondani ( Luca 12:19 );
(3) a tutti coloro che risentono del tempo speso nei doveri religiosi ( Amos 8:5 ).
Il peccato della cupidigia è, dunque, da evitare gelosamente
(1) perché è odioso a Dio "L'avaro che il Signore aborre" ( Salmi 10:3 );
(2) perché è distruttivo per noi stessi, nel volgere il nostro cuore da Dio ( 1 Giovanni 2:15 ), nel riempire il nostro cuore di 1 Timoteo 6:9 e cure ( 1 Timoteo 6:9 , 1 Timoteo 6:10 ), e nel tenerci fuori dal regno di Dio ( Efesini 5:5 ). Valutiamo dunque il mondo nel suo vero valore, meditiamo molto sulla cura paterna del nostro Dio ( Luca 12:31 ; Luca 12:32 ; Matteo 6:25 ; Matteo 6:26 ), agiamo con fede sulle promesse ( Ebrei 13:5 ) e ricordate il terribile marchio dell'idolatria che poggia sulla cupidigia.
È un pensiero solenne che il più comune di tutti i peccati è il più grave agli occhi di Dio. Eppure non c'è nulla nella condanna di questo peccato che giustifichi la teoria dell'aldilà o l'abbandono dei doveri della vita comune. —TC
Avvertimento contro il discorso sconveniente.
"Né sozzura, né chiacchiere insensate, né scherzi, che non sono convenienti: ma piuttosto rendere grazie."
I. CI SONO TRE VARIETÀ DI poco edificante DISCORSO .
1. "Sporco". Questo termine, pur riferendosi tanto agli atti quanto alle parole, indica soprattutto quell'oscenità del discorso che fa tanto schifo al senso morale dell'uomo. È la prova di un cuore corrotto - poiché "dall'abbondanza del cuore la bocca parla" - e, più di ogni altra cosa, rende la lingua "un fuoco, un mondo di iniquità", persino "infiammata dell'inferno". "
2. " Parlare sciocco ". Questo è il discorso che avrà molte parole oziose di cui rispondere nel giorno del giudizio ( Matteo 12:36 ). È più di un semplice pettegolezzo casuale; è il parlare degli stolti che è follia e peccato; include la " parola corrotta " ( Efesini 4:29 ). È un discorso senza scopo, insensato, frivolo. Il nostro discorso dovrebbe essere pieno di ragione e scopo, e luminoso di felice suggerimento.
3. " Scherzi ". L'apostolo non condanna la letizia che conferisce una tale grazia e gioia alla conversazione, ma l'arguzia che è alleata alla dissolutezza, traboccante di doppi sensi , e tendente alla demoralizzazione.
II. L' APOSTOLO 'S SENTENZA IN CONSIDERAZIONE QUESTI TIPI DI DISCORSO . "Che non sono convenienti."
1. Non lo sono di per sé, poiché il carattere di sconvenienza si lega essenzialmente a ciascuno di essi.
2. Non lo sono negli oratori, che incorrono in un rimprovero ancora più profondo e si preparano un giudizio più grave.
3. Non sono così per gli ascoltatori, i quali, sebbene possano essere divertiti per il momento, non sono profittati, ma piuttosto sviliti da tale conversazione.
III. IL DIRITTO USO DI LA LINGUA . "Ringraziamento". L'allegria cristiana dovrebbe esprimersi non in buffonate o leggerezza, ma in ringraziamenti e lodi. Abbiamo molto di cui essere grati nella nostra vita quotidiana, e il pensiero dell'indulgente gentilezza che provvede a tutti i nostri bisogni dovrebbe reprimere qualsiasi cosa come un discorso sciocco o scurrile. Il linguaggio della gratitudine renderà grazia agli ascoltatori. — TC
Ira divina sulla disobbedienza.
Era necessario che l'apostolo segnasse la vera natura e il vero fine dell'impurità in tutte le sue manifestazioni. "Nessuno ti inganni con parole vane."
I. IT IS NO UNUSUAL EXPERIENCE FOR WICKED MEN NOT TO SEE THE WICKEDNESS OF THEIR ACTS. The heathen regarded moral purity as a thing indifferent, and many of their moral guides palliated some of the worst features of pagan sensuality.
They argued, as some have argued in modern times with a wicked levity of purpose, that tins of impurity have their origin and their justification in the very constitution of our nature, that they are not inconsistent with many social virtues, and that they are not injurious to others. It is one of the blinding effects of sin that men do not see their sin "through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart" (Efesini 4:18).
II. IT IS A MISTAKE TO SUPPOSE THAT THE WRATH OF GOD IS LIMITED TO THE PRESENT LIFE, and is merely entailed through the connection established by the Divine government between sin and suffering.
There is such a connection written in the physical constitution of man. Sinners often in this life receive in themselves "that recompense of their error which is meet" (Romani 1:27). The drunkard is punished here in broken health, in loss of substance, reputation, and happiness. But we are not to suppose that the laws of Providence which ensure these results exhaust the fullness of Divine wrath against sin.
Scripture tells us plainly that sins of impurity entail exclusion "from the kingdom of Christ and of God" (Efesini 5:5); that he will judge whoremongers and adulterers (Ebrei 13:5), and that "the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone" (Apocalisse 21:8).—T.C.
Separation from evil.
The apostle counsels believers not to be partakers with sinners. That is, in their sins, not their punishment. We are here taught—
I. THAT IT IS POSSIBLE FOR BELIEVERS TO PARTAKE OF THE SINS OF OTHERS. They may do so by conniving at them, by not checking or punishing them, by not mourning over them, as well as by actually committing them. It is a dishonor to God, a lure to others, a mischief to ourselves, to stand in the way of transgressors.
II. THAT BELIEVERS OUGHT TO MAINTAIN A VERY SEPARATE WALK IN THE WORLD. They who have named the name of Christ ought to depart from iniquity (2 Timoteo 2:19). The cry to them ever is," Come out from among them, and be ye separate" (2 Corinzi 6:17).
There is no common standing-room for Christ and Belial in the Church. This does not countenance our separation from society; for Jesus, who was" separate from sinners," was always in society that he might win stoners to God. Our walk is yet to be as separate as it is to be circumspect, that we may stand apart from the plagues that will descend upon a doomed world.—T.C.
The darkness turned into light.
As a reason for their not lapsing into vices from which they had escaped, the apostle reminds them of the darkness of their pagan condition.
I. THEY WERE ONCE DARKNESS ITSELF. "Ye were sometimes darkness." The phrase is very impressive, for it indicates a moral as well as an intellectual darkness. A hard heart is always linked with a blinded understanding. The two act and react upon each other, becoming alternately cause and effect. Men do not care to retain the knowledge of God in their thoughts, and God, in judgment, gives them over to a reprobate mind.
The most enlightened natures of the ancient world were thus "darkness" itself. Athens, the eye of Greece, inscribed upon an altar the confession of its ignorance. The phrase, "darkness," suggests three thoughts.
1. There is fear in darkness—the fear of enemies, the fear of death, the fear of undefined agencies. Heathenism was full of fears. Death was a dark and terrible specter.
2. There is discomfort in darkness. Light, its opposite, is the symbol of joy.
3. There is danger in darkness. Enemies use the nights for their deeds of violence. We stumble on a dark night; we fall down precipices; we take a wrong road. How expressive is the term as applied to the heathen!
II. THEY ARE SOW "LIGHT IN THE LORD." Conversion has wrought a radical change in the understanding as well as the heart. Believers are now light "in fellowship with the Lord" (1 Giovanni 1:3). There is more implied than the flashing into a human mind the knowledge of the truth; there is the renewing of that mind into the love of the truth which it knows.
Otherwise the light would torment and not comfort. But believers, thus doubly furnished may well be called "light in the Lord." The light of the sun does not stream down directly upon the world; at least, it comes to the service of men reflected from a thousand objects which receive it upon their surfaces; similarly the world sees the glory of the Sun of righteousness reflected in the millions of saints who are "lights in the Lord."
III. THE DUTY OF BELIEVERS IN THESE CIRCUMSTANCES—"WALK AS CHILDREN OF LIGHT." That is, as those in nearest connection with it.
1. As light signifies joy, believers walk in the joy of an assured hope and a perpetual cleansing. "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, .. the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 Giovanni 1:7).
2. We walk in the day and therefore should not stumble. "The darkness is past, and the true light now shineth" (1 Giovanni 2:8). We ought to keep an eye fixed on the straight path of duty, and avoid the by-paths that lead to darkness and ruin.
3. If we walk in the light, we ought clearly to recognize the fellowship of all travelers to Zion. "If we walk in the light .. we have fellowship one with another." We are going the same way, inspired by the same hopes, meeting the same difficulties, arriving at last at the same home.—T.C.
The fruit of the light.
It is shown or seen in all the forms of "goodness and righteousness and truth." The good, the right, the true, are only to be realized through the light that streams from the Sun of righteousness—"the true light" that "now shineth." The apostle says the fruit, not the fruits, of the light—as if to show that it takes all the three colors to make this light. Christianity would be a very imperfect; manifestation of God if a single one of these elements were missing from the true light.
I. GOODNESS. It is spoken of elsewhere as a fruit of the Spirit (Galati 5:22), and therefore is not mere beneficence, for it has its source in religious principle. This excellence, in its various aspects of kindness and generosity, is kindled by the light that illuminates the understanding.
II. RIGHTEOUSNESS. The light which communicates a knowledge of righteousness to the mind also infuses a love of righteousness into the affections. This principle has a due sense of Divine obligation, and subjects the believer in every relation of life to the guidance of Divine Law.
III. TRUTH. This is a direct emanation of the light. It is religious truth, working ultimately to truth of character in all the genuine forms of Christian life.—T.C.
The experimental test of the Lord's will.
As the ninth verse is a parenthesis, the apostle states that it is by walking as children of light we are in a position to prove "what is well-pleasing unto the Lord."
I. CONSIDER THE TRUE STANDARD OF JUDGMENT AS TO RIGHT AND WRONG. The believer is not to discover it in whatever may be well-pleasing to himself, but in what is well-pleasing to the Lord. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who is Lord of the conscience to regulate all our thoughts and all our actions.
He has a supreme lordship over our life as well as over our death: "For whether we live we live unto the Lord." He is thus not merely Savior and Example, but Director of his people in all the concerns of religious life. In difficult situations, therefore, the true casuistry of life is to ask—Will this action be well-pleasing to Christ?
II. CONSIDER THE SUBJECTIVE TEST OF THIS DIVINE WILL. Believers are enabled, in the clear light in which they walk, to discover the right path. It is through their being transformed by the renewing of their mind that they "prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God"( Romani 12:2).
Similarly we learn that "if any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God" (Giovanni 7:17). Light admitted into the understanding contributes to win the affections, and, the affections won, open wide the doors for the admission of more light. To know the law you love and to love the law you know is the best condition in which human beings can be. It is the union of clear light in the understanding with perfect purity of heart which distinguishes the kingdom of redemption in its final practical triumph.—T.C.
Separation and rebuke the true attitude toward works of darkness.
The apostle thus describes the duty of Christians in reference to evil works.
I. THE CHARACTER OF THESE WORKS. "Unfruitful works of darkness." They spring out of darkness, they delight in darkness, they lead to darkness eternal. They are not naturally unfruitful, for they are fearfully prolific of result, but, in the light of God they are fruitless, because most unlike to the fruits of light, which are goodness, righteousness, and truth. They have "no fruit unto holiness," with an end of eternal life (Romani 6:22).
II. THE DUTY OF SEPARATION FROM THEM. This is a negative security. Christians are to stand apart from every evil work. There must be no fellowship with darkness. The friendship of the world can only be purchased at the cost of the Father's friendship (Giacomo 4:4).
III. THE DUTY OF REBUKING WORKS OR DARKNESS. This is to be done with the view of producing a consciousness of guilt and evil. The Christian attitude must be aggressive toward all the forms of sin. The rebuke is to be administered
(1) with the lips, using all plainness, yet with prudence and meekness, so as to win Gentiles to the truth;
(2) with our lives, which, by their holy separateness, ought to demonstrate the folly and sin of the world. A holy man is a visible reproof of sin.
IV. THE REASON FOR THIS ATTITUDE OF SEPARATION AND REBUKE. The heinousness of the sins and the necessity of making them manifest to the sinner's conscience.
1. The sins are
(1) done in secret,
(2) and they are too shameful for mention.
Such sins would naturally shun the light of day, for "every one that doeth evil hateth the light" (Giovanni 3:20), and could not be committed to language without risk of defilement to others.
2. Yet they are not beyond cure. The light of Divine truth must be let fall upon them, that they may be corrected. "All things that are reproved are made manifest by the light." There is a necessary connection in Scripture between truth and holiness, and the truth must first be applied to the ignorant and the wicked, that it may make way for the sanctifying agency of the Spirit.
The sun-glass of truth held in the hand of the rebuker will concentrate the light from heaven upon the conscience of the sinner so that he will see it full of all nameless lusts, and that very light will kindle a fire to consume them, unless the sinner, loving darkness, should turn away from the unwelcome light. Therefore let Christians remember the duty of pious and prudent reproof, which may not only put sin to shame, if not to silence, but lead the sinner from darkness to light, from the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of God's dear SON.—T.C.
The trumpet-call of the gospel.
Since it is light that manifests, there must be a rousing voice to awake the sleeper, that the light of life may be poured fully upon him.
I. THE PERSON ADDRESSED. "Thou that sleepest." Sleep is an apt figure to describe the sinner.
1. He lives in an unreal world, full of dreams and fancies, quite unconscious of the real world around him. The sinner dreams of safety and peace. He is carnally secure (Romani 13:10; 1 Tessalonicesi 5:6). He may even walk in his sleep.
2. He is wholly unprotected against danger. If he knew of his danger, he would not be asleep. He needs, therefore, to be roused.
3. His work is wholly suspended. So long as the sinner sleeps in spiritual death he does no good, he gets no good, he cares for nothing. The figure of the text is, therefore, very expressive.
II. THE COMMAND ADDRESSED TO THE SLEEPER. "Awake .. and arise from the dead." The first thing is to open the eyes; but we are not to suppose that the sinner has any power of himself to open them, any more than the man with the withered hand had power to stretch it forth before Christ said, "Stretch forth thine hand.
" It is the light which Christ is to shed upon the sleeper that will awake him. Just as the sun in the natural heavens, shining upon the eye of a sleeper, awakes him, so the beams of the Sun of righteousness end the sleep of death.
1. The cry, "Awake!" is the voice of love. A mother's love will lull her child to sleep, but if the house is on fire, it will take another turn, and startle the child from its slumbers.
2. The cry, "Awake!" is the voice of wisdom. The sinner loses much by sleeping. The thief pilfers by night. The tare-sower goes forth in darkness to sow his seed. If you sleep on till death, you lose everything.
3. The cry is a voice of command. Who commands? It is he who redeemed you with his precious blood.
4. It is a voice you have often heard—in sermons, in sickness, in sorrows, in calamities.
III. THE PROMISE TO THE SLEEPER. "And Christ shall give thee light." The light that comes from Christ can reach even the dead: "The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live" (Giovanni 5:25). The dead are not quickened before they hear his voice, but his voice causes them to hear and live.
Christ will give you light to carry you out of the society of the dead into the companionship of the children of light, because it has already introduced you into the fellowship of the Father and the Son. "Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the amour of light."—T.C.
The circumspect walk.
I. ITS NECESSITY. The duty of reproof involved the necessity of circumspection in those who were bound to administer it. It may be a small thing to Christians "to be judged of man's judgment" (1 Corinzi 4:3), yet they cannot afford to disregard the force of public opinion. They ought to "have a good report of them which are without" (1 Timoteo 3:7).
It is evidently with reference to onlookers that the counsel of the apostle is given. "Walk m wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time" (Colossesi 4:5). When we consider the number of our enemies, the inconstancy of our minds, the strictness of the Divine requirements, and the jealousy our Divine Master cherishes over his people, it is impossible to walk acceptably unless we walk circumspectly.
II. THE NATURE OF THIS WALK. We are to "walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise."
1. We are to have knowledge of the true way (Geremia 6:16; Matteo 7:14), not as the fool, who misses the path.
2. We are to follow the light that falls upon our path, not like the fool, who turns aside to darkness, only to stumble in it (Proverbi 4:27).
3. We are to foresee the dangers of the way and provide against them, not like "the simple, who pass on and are punished" (Proverbi 22:3).
4. We are to have the Lord for our Companion by the way, like "Enoch, who walked with God" (Genesi 5:22). The fool seeks the company of the foolish.
5. We are to keep in view the end of our walk. "Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls" (1 Pietro 1:9).
III. THE APPLICATION OF THIS PRINCIPLE TO THE PROFITABLE USE OF OPPORTUNITY. "Redeeming the time, because the days are evil." There can be no wise or careful walking without a due consideration both of the value of time and of the importance of using our opportunities for doing good.
1. The nature of this redemption of time. It is not the mere effort to rescue the fleeting hours of our life from idleness, vanity, distraction, or excessive devotion to business, but an effort to lay hold of opportunities for doing good, to make the most of them, to allow no distractions of pleasure or life to stand in the way of their right employment. Jesus, in his extreme youth, was eager to be "about his Father's business" (Luca 2:49).
We are to do good unto all men "as we have opportunity" (Galati 6:10). We are to do good to our very enemies, after the example of that Father who "maketh his sun to rise upon the evil and the good" (Matteo 5:45). We are to use our opportunities also for receiving good, giving all diligence to make our calling and our election sure (2 Pietro 1:10).
2. Reasons for redeeming the time. "Because the days are evil." It is not because our days are few, though that is also a very good reason.
(1) We have lost much time already (1 Pietro 4:3);
(2) we do not know how much time yet remains to us (Giacomo 4:14);
(3) we have to give an account of all our time and opportunities.
The reason assigned by the apostle is the evil of the days. Time must not be lost if the evil is to be quickly and effectively counteracted. The apostle does not hint the nature of the evil. Yet it is allowable to suppose that the days were evil, not in themselves, but by reason of man's wickedness and folly.
(1) It is the evil of sin, rather than the evil of punishment, that is meant.
(2) It is part of the evil that men do not see it at all.
(3) It is part of the evil that they do not mourn over it.
(4) It is part of the evil that they will do nothing to remove it.
There is, therefore, all the more reason for Christians bestirring themselves in all seasons and spheres of action to counteract the evil of the days.—T.C.
The right understanding of duty.
This is necessary to its efficient performance.
I. UNWISDOM. The thought of the apostle turns upon the misapplication or misdirection of our powers. "Be ye not unthinking and senseless." It is a sin against our rational nature, against our high calling, against the Lord, not to use our intellectual faculties with supreme relation to the Lord's will.
II. THE IMPORTANCE OF A TRUE KNOWLEDGE OF THE LORD'S WILL. Religion is a question of knowledge as well as feeling. Knowledge supplies the basis of feeling. Though Scripture tells us not to lean to our own understanding, it tells us to love with knowledge and all judgment.
The knowledge is needed both to stimulate and to regulate the love. We must know our duties, dangers, temptations, in respect to every condition of life in which we are placed by Divine providence. It is the will of the Lord Jesus Christ which supplies the true standard of action to every Christian. The direction of our life is to be determined by his precepts.—T.C.
Warning against drunkenness.
The tremendous sin of intemperance must have had a great hold upon a commercial city like Ephesus. It was necessary that Christians should beware of such an insidious vice.
I. IT DISHONOURS THE LAW OF GOD. (Romani 13:13.)
II. IT DISTURBS THE REASON OF MAN.
III. IT ENDANGERS THE HEALTH OF THE BODY.
IV. IT INJURES THE SOUL. (Osea 4:11.)
V. IT WASTES THE SUBSTANCE AND TENDS TO BEGGARY. (Proverbi 23:21.)
VI. IT CONSUMES PRECIOUS TIME AND DETERIORATES THE CHARACTER OF WORK.
VII. IT IS THE CAUSE OF OTHER SINS. Such as swearing, strife, licentiousness (Proverbi 23:19).
VIII. IT UNFITS FOR RELIGIOUS DUTIES.
IX. IT KEEPS SOULS OUT OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD. (1 Corinzi 6:9.) Therefore Christians ought to avoid it, abstaining altogether from intoxicating drinks on the grounds of Christian expediency, and using their influence to rescue others from its ruinous fascination.—T.C.
The true antidote to drunkenness.
There is a real contrast here exhibited between fullness of wine and fullness of the Spirit. There is an intensity of feeling produced in both cases. "There is one intensity of feeling produced by stimulating the senses; another, by vivifying the spiritual life within. The one commences with impulses from without, the other is guarded by forces from within." The one tends to ruin, the other to salvation.
The Spirit-fullness "will keep the soul holy, the body chaste, and render the Christian fit for the service of God on earth and meet for the fruition and enjoyment of God in heaven." The exhilaration caused by the Spirit finds a threefold expression.
I. IN PSALMS, HYMNS, AND SPIRITUAL SONGS.
1. The heathen festivals were remarkable for songs of drunken revelry. The excitement of the worshippers found vent in singing. Christians are likewise to express their exhilaration in songs. "The hearts and spirits of good men are full of spiritual mirth and joy; they are as merry in the Lord as sinners in their lust; it is, therefore, lawful and laudable for them to express their mirth and give vent to their spiritual joy by singing."
2. There is a happy variety in such songs adapted to the various moods of the singers. We have the Psalms of David; we have the hymns composed by pious men like Zacharias and Simeon; and we have the compositions, for public assemblies, of those inspired by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinzi 14:1.).
3. There must be a harmony in these songs between the artistic service of the voice and the inner melody of the heart. Otherwise the spirit and meaning of the exercise will disappear.
4. Singing has always been a powerful instrument of promoting the spread of true religion (Reformation, periods of revival).
5. The singing here enjoined was for social intercourse as well as for the public assemblies of worship. Christians ought to exercise their gifts of song to spiritual ends.
II. IN GIVING OF THANKS. The heart which is filled with the Spirit brims over with thankfulness.
1. To whom thanks are to be given. "To God, even the Father." To God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore our Father in him.
(1) Because it is only from him we have anything that is good (Giacomo 1:17);
(2) because it is only by him we are preserved from evil (Salmi 121:7);
(3) because he only is good in himself (Luca 18:19).
2. How should we give thanks to him?
(1) By humble confession of our unworthiness (Genesi 32:10; Efesini 3:8);
(2) by humble acknowledgment of his mercies (Proverbi 3:6; Salmi 145:1);
(3) by improving everything to his glory (Proverbi 3:9);
(4) by walking before him in all well-pleasing.
3. What must we thank him for? "For all things."
(1) For our mercies—for sparing mercy, for recovering mercy, for mercies both received and expected. You cannot expect a blessing in them unless you are thankful for them; and the more thankful you are for mercies received the more reason is there for your expecting more.
(2) For all providences—for prosperity or adversity, for health or sickness. The afflictions may be mixed with mercies, and may be the means of quickening our graces (Salmi 119:67).
4. How often must we thank him? "Always." It must be continuous. The heart must be kept in a constantly thankful frame, and not expend itself at mere intervals in acts of devout thanksgiving.
5. Through whom are our thanksgivings to be made acceptable to God? "In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ." We are authorized to use this Name as our warrant for expecting the acceptance of our services as well as the fullest enjoyment of all spiritual mercies.
III. MUTUAL SUBMISSION. The effect of the Spirit's full enjoyment is to produce a humble and loving spirit among Christian people.
1. The duty of mutual submission. This principle, which is inconsistent with a reverse egotism or a self-opinionated superiority, has great and happy effects. It reduces the friction of human life, and contributes greatly to its comfort and peace. It has nothing in common with the servile and obsequious temper which is such a dishonor to manhood. Let us mutually condescend to each other.
"In lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves" (Filippesi 2:3). "All of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility" (1 Pietro 5:5). We are not isolated units in society. "The essential equality of men and their mutual dependence lay the foundation for the obligation of mutual subjection."
2. The element or sphere in which this duty is to be maintained. "In the fear of Christ." This is not terror, but the solemn reverence with which we bow to the authority of our Divine Lord. Our submission is grounded in our reverence for him, in our fear of offending him by our airs of assumption or authority, in our supreme regard for his holy will. Thus Christianity lifts the commonest duties and civilities and amenities of social life into the highest sphere, by connecting them with the supreme lordship of Christ over his saints.—T.C.
The duties of wives.
In enforcing relative duties the apostle reminds us that religion takes hold of all possible conditions and callings of men. Religion is the great formative grace for men. We are set in a curiously various scheme of relations, in which the two principles of union and subjection are beautifully blended. The three relations in which these principles are seen in operation are peculiar to family life. The wife is first mentioned, then the children, then the servants. Religion rounds out the life of the family in a lovely completeness. Consider—
I. THE DUTIES OF WIVES. They are all summed up in the one word—subjection. It is singular that the apostle does not command the wife to love her husband as the husband is commanded to love his wife. Her love is commanded elsewhere (Tito 2:4), but not here. It has been observed that what is instinctive is not enforced, but only what is necessary to hallow and direct our instincts.
The husband is to be the head; yet he is not commanded to govern; but he is commanded to love, as the means of securing subjection or submission on the part of the wife. She, again, loves more naturally and more passionately than man; her love is no subject of command, it is taken for granted; and the apostle commands her to obey and honor her husband as the best expression of this love. Jeremy Taylor says, "He rules her by authority, she rules him by love; she ought by all means to please him, and he must by no means displease her." Her great duty, then, is subjection. Let us see what it involves.
1. It is not servitude. It is not like the obedience of servants to masters, nor even like that of children to parents. It is a submission that recognizes the husband's rule as just, tender, and wise.
2. It is a wise and loving obedience. Wives are "to be obedient to their own husbands" (Tito 2:5). Sarah is quoted by another apostle as an example of this obedience (1 Pietro 3:1). It was necessary to emphasize this duty at a time when Christianity gave woman a new position of dignity and privilege, and when there might have been a temptation on the part of Christian wives who had unbelieving husbands to assert an authority over them inconsistent with the original institution of marriage.
There is to be no dual authority in the family. The gospel made them both "heirs together of the grace of life," as it made "both male and female one in Christ," yet, even in religious or ecclesiastical matters, she was not to usurp authority over the man, but "to be in silence" (1 Timoteo 2:12).
3. It is an obedience within limits, though the wives are enjoined to be subject to their husbands "in everything," that is, in everything within the due sphere of a husband's authority, for they are not to obey him in anything contrary to God and his Law. They are to obey God rather than man.
4. It is an obedience fashioned in its conditions and spirit upon the subjection of the Church to Christ. "As the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything." This implies that the wife's obedience is not to be forced or feigned, but springing naturally out of her affection to her husband, her dependence upon him, and her recognition of the just grounds of his superiority.
5. It implies fear, or reverence. "Let the wife see that she reverence her husband" (Efesini 5:33), not despising him in her heart, as Michal despised David (2 Samuele 6:16), but, like Sarah, calling her husband "lord" (1 Pietro 3:6). The chaste conversation of the wife is to be "coupled with fear" to assert its own power.
II. THE REASONS FOR THIS SUBMISSION.
1. The husband's recognized headship in the original institution of marriage. "The head of the woman is the man" (1 Corinzi 11:3). Her obedience, therefore, while a religious duty, has its foundation in nature.
(1) The man was first formed. "Adam was first formed, then Eve" (1 Timoteo 2:13).
(2) The man was not created for the woman, but the woman for the man (1 Corinzi 11:9).
(3) The woman was first in transgression. "Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression" (1 Timoteo 2:14).
(4) The woman is the "glory of the man," but "the man is the image and glory of God" (1 Corinzi 11:7).
2. Her dependent position. As the "weaker vessel," she needs protection, while he far excels her in those qualities which entitle to command. Yet his superiority in these respects is consistent with his inferiority to the woman in gentleness, patience, sympathy, love, delicacy of sentiment.
3. The fitness of things. She is "to be subject to her own husband." This expressive phrase points to the closeness, exclusiveness, and specialty of the relationship. It is thus a great mischief to unsex woman by denying or disregarding the superiority of man.
4. The similarity of the relation to that between the Church and Christ. "As the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything." As Christ is the Source of authority and direction to the Church, as he exercises both with meekness and gentleness, so is the husband to the wife. She is bound, therefore, to give him the obedience the Church gives to Christ, limited, of course, by the nature of the relation and the authority of God.
She is not to identify her husband's claims with Christ, as if her Savior could supersede or weaken the just authority of her husband over her. A religious wife loves and honors her husband all the more from the very intenseness of her love to Christ. Her very obedience, too, fashioned upon the obedience of the Church to Christ, becomes tributary to her influence over her husband. Christianity has lifted woman to a high place, but without unsexing her. The old pagan writer, Libanius, might well exclaim, "Oh what women these Christians have!"—T.C.
The duties of husbands.
As the duties of wives are comprehended in the single duty of subjection, the duties of husbands are comprehended in the single duty of love. The injunction is significantly repeated three times, as if to indicate that it was essentially needed to correct or qualify his sense of sovereignty or superiority over her. Consider three points.
I. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A HUSBAND'S LOVE.
1. It is peculiar in its nature, unlike the love of parent or child, friend or neighbor. "He is to love his wife even as himself."
2. It is single, exclusive, and undivided in its object; for the husband is to devote to his one wife all the affection of his life. "Rejoice with the wife of thy youth" (Proverbi 5:18, Proverbi 5:19). This fact is the condemnation of bigamy and polygamy.
3. It is to be considerate and tender, excluding all bitterness. "Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them" (Colossesi 3:19). Husbands are "to dwell with their wives according to knowledge" (1 Pietro 3:7); that is, with a due consideration to their condition as "the weaker vessel," and with a disposition to hide or bear with their weaknesses or infirmities.
It is to be a love that will make it unnecessary for the husband ever to command his wife. The gospel counterpart of "Wives submit yourselves to your own husbands," is not "Husbands, command our wives." but "love your wives."
4. It is to be mutual. The wife's love is presupposed, though elsewhere it is expressly commanded (Tito 2:4). The husband is to love her as she loves him. The rightful confidence and sympathy of married life are impossible without mutual affection. All marriages of convenience or self-interest are thus condemned. Love must be the basis of marriage.
5. It is to be constant and lasting, notwithstanding all the weaknesses or failings of the wife.
II. THE METHODS IN WHICH THIS LOVE IS TO FIND EXPRESSION.
1. In providing for the temporal support of a wife. The husband is to "nourish and cherish" his wife. He that provideth not for his own is worse than an unbeliever (1 Timoteo 5:3).
2. He must consult her happiness and pleasure; for "he that is married is to care that he may please his wife" (1 Corinzi 7:33).
3. He must protect her life, her honor, her good name; for she is "the weaker vessel." He must "give honor to the wife" (1 Pietro 3:7).
4. He is to seek her spiritual welfare. He is to pray for her and with her, remembering that she is an heir with him of the grace of life, "that your prayers be not hindered."
III. THE REASONS FOR THIS COMMAND.
1. The original law of marriage. "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and the twain shall become one flesh." The union implies such an identification of interest, property, and relationship to the world as to make them almost one person.
2. The wife is the husband's other self. She is not only one flesh with himself, but she is his very body. "No man ever yet hated his own flesh," except the fanatics of ascetic devotion.
3. The help, comfort, and blessing she brings to him. She is given to him as "an helpmeet;" she is his companion. "Yet she is thy companion and the wife of thy covenant" (Ma Efesini 2:14). The heart of the husband "safely trusts in her" (Proverbi 12:4).
4. She is the weaker vessel. A spirit of chivalry ought to surround her with the shield of protecting love.
5. She is "the glory of the man" (1 Corinzi 11:7)—his honor and ornament and delight.
6. His union with her is typical of the blessed union that exists between Christ and the Church. All the love and self-sacrifice and service Which Christ expended upon the Church supply the type of a husband's duty to his wife.—T.C.
The union between Christ and the Church.
The apostle unites, with an exposition of the duties of conjugal life, a very impressive statement of the nature of the union between Christ and the Church This statement is exceedingly important, quite irrespective of its supplying an illustration of the ground and measure of a husband's affection for his wife. There are three truths here exhibited respecting the union of Christ and his Church.
I. CHRIST IS THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH AS WELL AS THE SAVIOUR OF THE BODY. He not only saves the Church, but governs it; he not only redeemed it by his atoning death, but is its continuous Preserver and Director, his life the very life of his people: "Because I live, ye shall live also."
II. CHRIST PREPARES THE CHURCH FOR HIMSELF AS HIS SPOTLESS BRIDE.
1. The language implies that the Church was originally impure, in fact, like the foundling infant of the prophet exposed on the day of its birth, "to the loathing of its person" (Ezechiele 16:1.). If she had not been so, there would have been no need of Christ's glorious cleansing.
2. It was through his death that Christ designed to make his people holy. "He gave himself" for them (Efesini 5:25). The language is clearly sacrificial. The gift involved a death of unutterable anguish, yet he shrank not from it in his unutterable love. It is the death which secures our ultimate holiness, for it reconciles us to God and secures to us the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are redeemed from the curse of the Law, that "we might receive the promise of the Spirit" (Galati 3:13, Galati 3:14).
3. The application of the atonement. "That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word;" or, rather, "that, having purified it, he might consecrate it." The Church is thus set apart as his bride—"the Lamb's wife." It is thus that Christ sanctifies his people with his blood (Ebrei 10:10; Ebrei 13:11, Ebrei 13:12), not merely by way of expiation, but by way of consecrating them to himself.
The instrumental means of the Church's sanctification is "the washing of water by the Word." This points clearly to baptism, which is elsewhere described as "the laver of regeneration;" but it is baptism inseparably linked with "the Word." What is the spiritual import of this baptism? It neither regenerates nor secures the remission of sins. It is true that it is called "the laver of regeneration" (Tito 3:5), and that remission of sins is connected with it.
"Arise, be baptized, and wash away thy sins" (Atti degli Apostoli 22:16). But no more is ascribed in Scripture to baptism than to the Word of God. Baptism cleanses from sin as the Word does. We are saved by the truth, begotten by the truth, sanctified by the truth. But this language does not imply that the Word regenerates every one who hears it, or that it possesses a magic power to work saving results.
"Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" (Romani 10:17); but many who hear do not believe. Besides, salvation, as in the case of infants, is not linked inseparably with the Word. Historically, we know from the instances of baptism recorded in the New Testament that faith preceded baptism. Therefore baptism cannot regenerate. We believe, however, that baptism is both a sign and a seal of the covenant of grace, without believing that it has any regenerating, power m itself.
The Lord connects the blessings of salvation with a believing reception of baptism, just as he does with a believing acceptance of the Word. For the apostle is here speaking of the effect of baptism on the Church, not upon those who are aliens from its blessings.
4. The design of the Lord in this purification of the Church. "That he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish."
(1) This refers evidently to the time of our Lord's second coming, when he is to be admired in all them that believe. It cannot refer to the Church in this world, which, even in its best states, has many a spot and many a wrinkle.
(2) It implies that the Lord will himself present his Church "as his purchased possession," and he and no other will receive the Church as his bride to himself.
(3) The condition of the Church will be One of spotless glory. She will have neither the spots of sin or error to mar her beauty nor the wrinkles of decay, but will be "holy and without blemish."
5. It was love that prompted and directed the whole process which is to have such a glorious result. "As Christ also loved the Church."
III. CHRIST AND THE CHURCH ARE ONE MEMBERSHIP. "For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones" (Efesini 5:30).
1. This does not refer to the incarnation, for the assumption of human nature allied our Savior to the whole race of man. This membership applies to believers only.
2. Neither does it refer, as Romanists say, to the Lord's Supper, in which, partaking of his flesh, we are flesh of his flesh.
3. It signifies community of life, like that which connected Eve in her creation with the flesh of Adam. We are elsewhere said to be saved by his flesh (Efesini 2:15), by his blood (Efesini 2:13), by his body (Romani 7:4), by the body of his flesh (Colossesi 1:22); and his flesh is called our life, and described as essential to eternal life.
"Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you" (Giovanni 6:53, Giovanni 6:54). There is, no doubt, great mystery here, and therefore the relation between Christ and his Church may well be called so (Efesini 5:32).—T.C.
HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR
The love and the wrath of God enforcing morality.
Paul is still working for the unity of the Church and calling for that watchful and pure walk on the part of the Ephesians which can alone promote it. He consequently brings to bear upon them the allied motives of the love and the wrath of God. And here we may remark, in passing, that the moralities which have tried to work themselves without the aid of Divine sanctions have proved practically powerless.
No "independent morality" has as yet rendered any appreciable service to the world. We still need to be overshadowed by the Divine. Paul, moreover, begins with love, and then passes on to the fact of the Divine wrath. And—
I. THE LOVE OF GOD PATERNAL AND FRATERNAL SHOULD MOVE US TO MUTUAL LOVE.
(Verses 1, 2.) The Ephesians are exhorted to follow their Divine Father as dear children. The constant love of the heavenly Father lights all the children on their way and rebukes their want of love. The first motive in this section is, therefore, paternal love a call to children of God to be loving like their Father in heaven. But the second motive is from the fraternal love of Christ, which led him out of consideration for us to "give himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell" (Revised Version).
The self-sacrifice of Christ, we are here taught, was a very precious offering in the Father's sight. In the cross the Father for the first time saw perfect obedience carried up to the point and in the article of death. While in one aspect Jesus realized the Father's wrath on the cross, because the Substitute for sinners, in another aspect he was contemplated by the Father with the utmost complacency.
Self-sacrifice is fully appreciated by our Father in heaven. Now, if God regarded with infinite delight the self-sacrifice of the only begotten Son for the sake of his brethren, there is no way in which we can delight our Father so much as by following in the Elder Brother's footsteps and being ready to sacrifice ourselves out of love to the brethren. What a spirit this would infuse into our Church life! Harless notices that in this passage Christ is really represented as both Priest and Victim. In the same way we may delight the mind of God in being victims and priests in our loving relations to the brethren.
II. THE WRATH OF GOD IS A REALITY TOWARDS THE COVETOUS AND UNCLEAN.
(Verses 3-7.) The idea that God will not be angry with wicked men must be dismissed from all minds, Righteous indignation against certain forms of evil is an experience of a most imperative and holy character. We should lose our reverence for a God who did not become angry with sinners. It was the more needful to affirm this truth at Ephesus, since the deities of heathenism were supposed to be addicted to such crimes as uncleanness and covetousness.
Olympus was filled, by the impure imaginations of men, with a set of men and women who were for the most part fit for penitentiaries and state prisons. Morality received no backing from the mythology. But the thought that a God so loving as our heavenly Father is wrathful with the covetous and the unclean, and allows his wrath to burn against them, is surely calculated to wean men from such sins.
There seems to have been insinuations in Paul's time that the Divine wrath against impurity and covetousness was mythical, just as such insinuation prevails at present. But surely the frightful punishment which these sins entail in the order of nature speak to the spirit of man about the reality of the Divine wrath. Not all the ameliorations of science can bring it about that men can so sin with impunity; the unclean are cursed in the very nature of things with a grievous curse, and the covetous suffer of necessity in their pinched and miserly souls.
God is an angry God against those who love sin, and our only course is to forsake it. Hapless and Olshausen believe the word here rendered "covetousness" to mean in this connection "intemperance," the desire, not for gold, but for fleshly gratification—the making a god of the belly, and so an idolatry. Of course, if this sense be taken of πλεονεξία, it agrees better with the context and makes more emphatic Paul's appeal for purity. Do we make as much in these days of the Divine wrath as we should? As the love-pain of God, as one writer has called it, it is surely well fitted to enforce morality.
III. PAUL FURTHER SHOWS THAT THE DEEDS OF DARKNESS ARE UNFRUITFUL. (Verses 8-11.) He tells the Ephesians they were once in darkness, and did these deeds of darkness. But they have come into the light which is shed upon our path by our radiant Lord.
They must walk, consequently as children of the light, remembering that the fruit of the light (so Revised Version) is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. Thus they would prove what is well-pleasing unto the Lord. In so doing they would have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but would rather reprove them. Now, in arguing that the works of darkness are "unfruitful," Paul is advocating morality on the ground of expediency.
He has already applied the Divine sanctions, but he does not hesitate to back these up by showing that what God wills is good. Natural law endorses the Divine precepts. But this is quite distinct from the position that the natural law can secure obedience when it stands alone. All experience disproves this. Utilitarianism is not a sufficiently broad basis for a sound morality. But the expediency of moral rectitude is an important argument in its favor. Sooner or later a man who commits deeds of darkness finds he has made a mistake.
IV. BUT IT IS A PURE LIFE WHICH WILL REALLY REPROVE THEM.
(Verses 12-14.) It is thought sometimes by superficial people that accurate descriptions of the deeds of darkness will do something to disgust people with them. But this is Satan advising man again to become wiser by eating forbidden fruit. Paul's opinion is that it is a shame to speak and therefore to think of what is done by the sinful in secret. All the prurient curiosity which feasts itself like flies on foul corruption is of the devil The true plan, therefore, is not to mention such matters.
Let them be buried in oblivion, but let Christians awake from all lethargic slumber, and arise from the corruption of spiritual death, and in the light of Christ live purely. Thus shall the deeds of darkness be reproved. All that we have to do then is to carry in the light, and the darkness and its deeds will stand convicted before us. The Ephesians are to indulge in no scandalous conversation under the pretence of defeating the doers of the dark deeds; but they are to walk in the light of Christ and be pure, and lo! the sinners shall hide themselves before them.
V. TIME MAY BE REDEEMED BY HOLY LIVING.
(Verses 15, 16.) There has been some discussion as to the exact meaning of "time" in this passage. Hapless is clearly of opinion—in which, as in most matters, he is followed by his French disciple, M. Monod—that "opportunity" (der rechte Zeitpunkt) best expresses τὸν καιρόν. Paul is consequently anxious that in evil days, such as those upon which the Ephesians have fallen, they should be watchful and wise enough to "buy up eagerly their opportunity," and do the best they can for their age.
This is by holy living. There is no other way of understanding the times and fulfilling our course in them. It will thus be seen that Paul appeals to the Ephesians, by both the love and wrath of God, by the expediency and power of a pure life, to walk worthy of their high calling. In this way he expects to enlist them in the great army of united and brotherly souls who are gathering round Jesus our King and Head. May we all respond to his appeal! £—R.M.E.
Inspiration, spirituous and spiritual.
Following up his exhortations about holy living, Paul now proceeds to the subject of understanding the Lord's will. In doing so he comes across the necessity which human nature feels for excitement of some kind, and, warning the Ephesians against the low excitement of wine, he commends the high excitement of the Spirit, with all its pleasurable manifestations. In other words, he speaks of inspiration, but condemns the spirituous while he commends the spiritual. We have thus suggested—
I. THE NEED OF SOME STIMULUS FROM BEYOND OURSELVES.
(Verses 17, 18.) This is apparent from the fact that every one needs some excitement, as it is called, to keep him moving—something to "interrupt our quiet and ordinary state of mind with some more lively feeling, which makes us live more consciously and in a manner quicker than we do in common." We all feel this. Now, this goes to show that we are not self-contained, no matter how much we desire to be so, but need a helping hand from without our personalities. Withhold food, and we perish. Withhold all stimulus from us, and we go of necessity to pieces. The whole question comes to be, therefore, where we shall get our required stimulus.
II. THE STIMULUS OF WINE IS ATTENDED WITH DANGER.
(Verse 18.) This is an inspiration which comes through sense. Now, all of us need a stimulus through our senses. Food is such a stimulus. A well-digested meal makes life move faster and quicker than fasting would. But the vinous inspiration leads to "riot" (Revised Version), and is inconsistent with that unity of the Church for which the gospel calls. We should abstain from such a dangerous stimulus as this, for its effect has been hostile to unity of spirit.
But we might extend the precaution here to all those excitements of a sensual nature which exhaust and retard the spirit. As Robertson says, "Wine is but a specimen of a class of stimulants. All that begins from without belongs to the same class. The stimulus may be afforded by almost any enjoyment of the senses. Drunkenness may come from anything wherein is excess—from over-indulgence in society, in pleasure, in music, and in the delight of listening to oratory, nay, even from the excitement of sermons and religious meetings.
The prophet tells us of those who are drunken, and not with wine." Arnold, in the same way, bases upon this passage warnings against excess of bodily exercise, excess of intellectual exercise, excess even in our hours of work, excess, in a word, so far as it militates against Christian sober-mindedness.
III. THE INSPIRATION FROM ABOVE CAN HAVE NO ATTENDANT EXCESS.
(Verses 18, 19.) We may be filled with the Spirit, and no riot result, nothing which will do anything but foster the glorious unity. For, as Arnold shows, the gospel and the inspirations from God "at once excite and soothe," so that the soul is kept in holy equilibrium, and the inspiration has its natural manifestation.
1. There will be harmony in social song. Poetry and music will become tributary to unity of spirit. The Holy Ghost will permeate by his harmonizing presence social praise.
2. The praise offered to the Lord will be heartfelt. It will not be a form of praise, but the very heart going up to heaven.
3. Thanksgiving will be mightily promoted. In the midst of manifold mercies our God in heaven looks for constant thankfulness from us. And, indeed, if we understand his love we shall be prompted to give thanks "always for all things," in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
4. And inspiration will promote mutual subjection in the fear of Christ (so Revised Version). Thus it comes to pass that an inspired people proves a praising and united people. What harmony the society filled with the Spirit realizes! It is heaven begun below. What we need, therefore, is a Pentecost. If the Holy Spirit is pleased to fill us, then shall our discords vanish and our hearts beat in unison. It is by inspiration that the unity of the Church shall be secured.—R.M.E.
What husbands and wives owe to Christ.
In exhorting the Ephesians to purity and enthusiasm of life, Paul is naturally led to the family institution and the relations to be found there. In the heathen world the relations between men and women were degrading. As Pressense says, in his most suggestive book, 'La Famille Chretienne,' "One found in the pagan family neither purity nor love. At the moment when Jesus Christ came, it had reached the last degree of degradation, and one can apply to the family itself those words of the Gospel, 'He has come to seek and to save that which was lost.
'" In this passage of Ephesians we have an insight into what Christ has done for the family. He has made of marriage the choice symbol of his own relation to the Church, and so family life is lifted into a Divine and spiritual light. The consideration of Christ for his people regulates the consideration husband should show to wife; and the loyalty of Christ's people to their Master indicates the loyalty the wife should show the husband. Husbands and wives thus owe to Christ the purification of their relations and the sanctification of the home!
I. JESUS LEFT HIS HEAVENLY HOME TO BE UNITED TO HIS BRIDE, THE CHURCH.
(Verse 31.) It is evident that the parallel between the son leaving father and mother that he may cleave unto his wife, and Jesus leaving the bosom of the Father to be united to the bride, the Church, is what is in the apostle's mind. He says that he speaks of Christ and the Church (verse 32). And in no more beautiful way can the self-denial of Jesus in leaving heaven be presented. Heaven had been from all eternity the happy home of the only begotten Son.
He had lain in the Father's bosom and enjoyed ineffable bliss. But thoughts of marriage came, and the Father favored the Son's idea. The morning dawned when Jesus must leave the homestead, and go forth to win his bride. Angels may well have wondered at the step and doubted its wisdom. But the step is taken. The home is left, and never again can it be what it once was. It is to be tenanted in due time with a bride, the Lamb's wife, composed of a multitude that no man can number, happy souls, each and all in deepest unity with the Son.
We do not sufficiently appreciate the magnificent design of God in the marriage of his only Son, or the condescension of the Son in forming such an alliance as he has done. For no condescension in earthly marriages can more than feebly illustrate the condescension of the Divine Son in taking a human bride. Princes may marry paupers, but the difference between poverty and princely wealth is as nothing compared with the difference between human nature and what is Divine.
But besides, the human nature was not pure upon which he set his love; it was sinful, lost, ruined. Imagine a prince, out of pure as distinguished from passionate love, singling out some poor, abandoned woman, and arranging for her education and health and elevation in thought and feeling, until at last he can fairly marry her and give her share of his glories and his home;—this is but a faint image of what Jesus the Son of God has done in selecting as a bride the ruined human race. He determined to win his bride, and so he took sinless human nature on him, and arranged for the union of once sinful, but through grace sanctified, human nature with himself.
II. THE CARE OF JESUS FOR THE CHURCH IS THE IDEAL AT WHICH HUSBANDS SHOULD AIM IN CARING FOR THEIR WIVES. (Verses 25-33.) This is Paul's idea in this whole passage. Let us notice the order of the thought.
1. Christ loved the Church. This sovereign and yet most unselfish love led to the whole history of Christ's devotion. His great heart recognized the possibilities of love when manifested to lost souls, and determined to realize them.
2. He gave himself for it. Here was heroic love. In the nature of things husbands cannot give themselves to death for their wives and afterwards enjoy their confidence. But Christ was able to give himself for the Church and then to enter into union with it. But it surely shows that a husband who truly loves his wife should be ready to die for her.
3. His self-sacrifice was to secure the Church's sanctification. The Church was naturally polluted, sinful, degraded; but the whole history of Christ's devotion goes to show that he had our sanctification in view. While setting his love on sinful souls, he hated our sin, and provided blood to cleanse our sin away. And the sanctification Christ secures for his bride is to be perfect.
She is to be without "spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing;" she is to be "holy and without blemish." In other words, the sanctification is to be thorough. And is this not to show that husbands who are true to their wives should keep their sanctification steady as a star before them? If a husband does all in his power to promote his wife's holiness, she can never be the victim of any unholy lust, but sanctification will characterize every relation.
4. The love thus lavished on the wife is the love of a man's "better self." To encourage this gallant and holy devotion to women, Paul further shows the compensation. The husband and wife are one, just as Christ and the Church are one. In loving his wife a man is really loving himself. It is self-love as distinguished from selfishness. It is the love of a man's "better self.
" A man is not expected to hate his own flesh, but to nourish and cherish it; self-preservation dictates such a course; in the same way husbands should love their wives, cherishing them as really their "better halves," or rather, "better selves," and feeling assured that a man's real interests all lie in the direction of tender consideration towards his wife. It thus appears that Jesus has furnished the true ideal of devotion. We go not to belted knights or tales of chivalry for our ideas about devotion to our wives, but to the foot of the cross, that we may see in Jesus our perfect Example!
III. THE CHURCH'S REVERENTIAL LOVE TO CHRIST IS THE IDEAL OF WIFELY DEVOTING.
(Verses 22-25.) If Paul would summon husbands up to the heights of consecration by the example of Christ, he would also summon wives up to a corresponding return of reverential devotion. The Church, in her love and obedience to Christ, is the pattern of wifely devotion. Now, this leads us to consider how Christ rules in his Church. It is not an inconsiderate despotism, but an intelligent, considerate rule of love.
His wishes are expressed with infinite tenderness. There is no fury in his commandments. The Church feels and finds that they are not grievous. And so believers are loyal to the Lord from the heart. Nothing is so delightful as to obey him. Suppose, then, that such a spirit characterized the wife's relations to her husband; that she saw in his every expressed wish the outcome of love, and obeyed him in the belief that obedience was her privilege as well as duty,—what Edenic homes men and women would possess on earth! And here it may be well to notice a fact brought out in Pressense's volume already referred to, and it is this, that the New Testament has evidently entered into many more details about the family than about the constitution of the Church.
The reason is obvious. The battle of the faith is to be won through the family. The family is God's unit. The Church is but a family enlarged; heaven, again, is only a family still more enlarged. God as a Father overshadows all! If Christianity ensures a holy family; if she wins families from worldiness to holiness of life;—then she may indeed lift up her head assured that redemption is drawing nigh.
Christian homes on earth, paradise restored,—these are really the creations which we look for; and beyond the shadows a still statelier home arises in "the Father's house with its many mansions" prepared for the reception of the bride. The family on earth is sanctified that the family in heaven may be prepared for; the heavenly home is but the perfection of the earthly, if this is Christian to its core.—R.M.E.
HOMILIES BY R. FINLAYSON
What to imitate and to avoid.
I. THE IMITATION OF GOD AND CHRIST.
1. The imitation of God. "Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children." The force of example is abundantly acknowledged. How much do most of us suffer from the low standard of opinion and practice with which we are surrounded? On the other hand, we have all felt what it is to come into Contact with one who is raised above the common standard. By his strength of principle and generous sentiments and noble endeavors be kindles our aspiration.
We should like to be what he is. The wonderful thing here is that God places us (which is of far greater consequence) under the influence of his own example. This is the only place in which we are distinctly called to imitate God. But the same truth is given expression to by Christ when he says, "That ye may be the sons of your Father which is in heaven, for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust.
Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Paul has just exhorted us to imitate God in his forgivingness. This imitation of God proceeds on what was referred to before—our being made after the Divine image. It proceeds on what is referred to here—God being our Father, and as such communicating a kindred nature to us. But for this kindred nature with God we should have no more conception of him than the brutes have.
"The idea of God, sublime and awful as it is, is the idea of our own spiritual nature purified and enlarged to infinity. The infinite Light would be forever hidden from us, did not kindred rays dawn and brighten within us." It belongs to the dignity of our nature (our being partakers of the Divine nature) that there can be proposed to us as our end likeness to God. It is designed that there should be a perpetual unfolding and enlarging of our spiritual powers and excellences.
All our desires, hopes, efforts, are to be toward this. We are to be filled with the Divine thoughts, replenished with the Divine energy, wanned with the Divine love. As a child catches the very tone of his father, so are we to catch the tone of our heavenly Father. There is a reason given for our being eager to imitate God. We are his beloved children. Oh, the love bestowed on us! Sonship forfeited and then restored. What a contradiction, to be children peculiarly loved and not to seek likeness to God! But this leads on to the other thought.
2. The imitation of God is also the imitation of Christ. "And walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell." Christ is presented for imitation in his love. We are not to understand that love was an attribute more distinctive of Christ than of God. For love is the greatest attribute of God.
But we are to understand that Christ was especially the manifestation of the love of God. In Christ's love we see what God's love is. And to imitate Christ in his love is the best way to imitate God. And how does love manifest itself? Selfishness manifests itself in isolation. Love, on the other hand, manifests itself in approachableness. And this was the form which Christ's love took.
He loved us so much as to come within human conditions—to become one of ourselves. And that (wonderful as it is) was not the extent of his approach to us. For, coming into our nature, he next threw himself into our position, he became our Representative. And he presented before God for us the offering of a perfect life. He especially, in his death, presented the sacrifice which had full atoning virtue for our sin.
And this presentation of himself as an offering and a sacrifice to God (with the love that prompted it) was for an odor of a sweet smell. More grateful than to the sense of smell was the incense that the High Priest took with him into the holy of holies was to the heart of God the incense from his life and sacrifice which Christ took with him into heaven. It is an incense which continually rises before God with acceptance.
The love which prompted to this and carried it out to completion is here proposed for our imitation. But how need we think of copying such a pattern? As well set down a child to copy a masterpiece of a Raphael or an Angelo? But let us take these things into consideration.
(1) He has made provision for our imitating him. We are to be thankful to God, that, amid many bad examples and imperfect examples of good men, he has given us one perfectly good example. He has shown us that a life of the highest unselfishness is not impracticable in our humanity. If that had been all, the effect would only have been to fill us with despair. But the apostle does not encourage us to imitate Christ without pointing to his sacrifice of atonement. His atonement having been accepted for us, his perfect life has been accepted too, as that which with assisting grace we may now hopefully strive after.
(2) Compared with the example of God, the example of Christ is more circumstantial. We know that God is love, but in Christ we see, under many conditions, how love operates. There is much detail upon which we can dwell and from which we can obtain help as to the details of our life.
(3) It is an example easily followed from its familiarity. It was a perfect example; but not in the way of being apart from us, but rather in the way of being so close to us as to be easily understood. It was the time—
"When truth, embodied in a tale,
Did enter in at lowly doors."
(4) It was an example accompanied with the strongest incentive to imitation. It was not merely that he taught us the reasonableness of a good ire, and exemplified it; but he placed us under infinite obligation in dying for us, and then, having obtained this immense advantage, he comes forward and asks us to imitate him.
(5) We are to imitate him in his love by walking in love as he did. This does not imply any unnatural straining; but, in the ordinary walks of life, we may find sufficient sphere for the exercise and growth of love. We are specially to imitate Christ in the missionary character of his love. We are to feel for sinners as in need of salvation. And we are to sacrifice much in order that those ends for which he died, and on which his heart is set, may be furthered.
Let us, then, choose Christ as our Pattern with the whole energy of our wills. And let us follow him, not as perhaps we may have done, with a faint and yielding purpose, but in the full conviction that in following him we shall best imitate God.
II. THINGS TO BE CONDEMNED.
1. The things that are not to be named. "But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as becometh saints." The apostle points here to a fact which is sometimes forgotten, that there is a sphere of that which is not to be named. There are, for instance, books written, in which blasphemous things are said against the Savior.
There is this reason for not reading these books or not repeating blasphemous expressions contained in them, that they stick to and pollute the imagination. So the apostle teaches that saints are to be so cultivated in their sensibilities, to have such a delicacy of feeling, that they will not talk about or hint at things connected with fornication and uncleanness. To take to them in conversation indicates a coarseness of mind, a polluted state of the imagination.
That is the proper circle, whether family, or Church, or neighborhood, from which the very name of such things is banished. We are surprised that covetousness is classed as it is here among the things which are not to be named. It is a sin about which strange things are said in the New Testament. It is said that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. The apostle teaches here that saints are to have such sensitiveness as to be repelled from the very mention of covetousness, as that which would pollute their lips. Think of a community educated up to that state of refinement.
2. The things which are not befitting. "Nor filthiness nor foolish talking, or jesting, which are not befitting: but rather giving of thanks." There are things, the apostle teaches, which are to be condemned on the lower ground of their being improper, or conducing to no good end. By the first mentioned we are to understand, especially, that which is foul in speech. If we distinguish foolish talking from other faults of speech which are mentioned in this Epistle, we must limit it to what is senseless in speech.
Fools have a way of talking in wanton disregard of what is rational, as though their rational powers were given them to be played with. The word translated "jesting" is sometimes used in a good sense. And Barrow has shown that there is a wit which is not to be condemned, but which is fitted to minister harmless delight to conversation, to expose things base and vile to due contempt, to reprove some vices and reclaim some persons, to confute errors that do not deserve solid confutation, to repel unjust reproach and obloquy, and to counterbalance the improper use of it.
"It is bad objects or bad adjuncts, which do spoil its indifference and innocence: it is the abuse thereof to which (as all pleasant things are dangerous, and apt to degenerate into baits of intemperance and excess) it is very liable, that corrupteth it, and seemeth to be the ground why in so general terms it is prohibited by the apostle." "All profane jesting, all speaking loosely and wantonly about holy things, making such things the matter of sport and mockery, playing and trifling with them, is certainly prohibited as an intolerably vain and wicked practice.
" "All injurious, abusive, scurrilous jesting, which causeth or needlessly tendeth to the disgrace, damage, vexation, or prejudice in any kind of our neighbor, is also prohibited." "There are some times and circumstances of things wherein it concerneth and becometh men to be serious in mind, grave in demeanor, and plain in discourse." To what the apostle condemns as not befitting he opposes giving of thanks.
There is a fitness in thanksgiving at all times ("giving thanks always," as it is said in the twentieth verse); but we are to understand that there is a singular fitness in the present connection. Thanks- giving is speech put to the best use (implying both seriousness and joyfulness). Let there be that, the apostle would say, and it will rectify and hallow all speech.
3. The things which are not safe. "For this ye know of a surety, that no fornicator, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, which is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God." The apostle is confident, as declaring what was attested by their own consciousness or practical acquaintance with the kingdom. It is the kingdom, not only of God, but of Christ and God, that is to say, a kingdom peculiarly associated with the cross of Christ, in which God shows his deep detestation of sin by punishing it in his Son.
A kingdom that is ruled over by One who shed his blood that sin might be done away, cannot receive into it those who sin and do not mean to give up their sins. By their very antagonism to the whole spirit, law, ends, of the kingdom, they shut the door against themselves. We are surprised again that the covetous man appears in such company, and further here that he is singled out for special remark.
"Nor covetous man, which is an idolater." There is idolatry in the other sins, that is, sensual pleasure is put in the place of God. And that may be the light in which the apostle views the devotees of pleasure as shut out from inheritance in the kingdom. But the covetous man is put forward as being an idolater by pre-eminence. Christ had already said, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
" The covetous man is not he who values money and seeks to serve God therewith. But, according to the thought here, he is one who idolizes money, values it in itself and not for God's ends, sets his affections on it, trusts in it; and, such being his relation to it, then it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for him to enter into the kingdom of God. It is true of the covetous man, as it is not true of the others, that he can go on in his sin without incurring the opprobrium of men, and (partly from the difficulty of drawing the exact line between the right and the wrong love of gain) without suspecting himself that it is getting a hold upon him, and thus (without such checks as the others have) getting hardened in his sin, we can understand how he should be called by pre-eminence the idolater.
Warning. "Let no man deceive you with empty words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them." It would seem that there were apologists for vice, who, by their representations, tried to entice the Ephesian Christians back to Gentile ways. One of their representations was that, besides being pleasant, it was safe to do these things.
So apologists for vice are ready to say this and many other things still. But "let no man deceive you with empty words." Such words have not as their contents eternal truth. "For because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience." The sons of disobedience are those who (in their love for sin) disobey the gospel of Christ, by which alone there is deliverance from wrath.
Refusing God's mercy, how can they escape God's wrath? They are not only lying under ordinary judgments or condemnation now, but they have yet to be dealt with for these very sins. "After their hardness and impenitent hearts they are treasuring up for themselves wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." It is for those, then, who regard their safety (to bring in no higher consideration), whatever apologists may say, to refuse to be partakers with the disobedient.
4. The things that are dark.
(1) They are in their walk to be separate from their former state. "Ye were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord: walk as children of light." They had been brought up in heathen darkness. It was that in which they lived and moved and had their being. And so, by appropriation, it was more or less embedded in their nature. But now, living and moving and having their being in the Lord, that is, in light (as contrasted with heathen darkness), and being enlightened by him through his gospel and Spirit, they were light.
And such being their state, there was a call to walk as children of light. We are to walk under the incitement of the glorious fruit of Christian illumination. "For the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth." The philosophic triad is the true, the good, and the beautiful. The Christian triad as given here, and with which we ought to be familiar, is the good, the right, and the true.
The good, or excellence of the heart, comes first; for that is first in God. Then follows the right, or regard to conscience, to eternal principle. And, lastly, there is the true, or regard to reality, not only in fact, but in thought (including the perfect in form). We are good in cherishing a spirit of love; we are righteous in doing our duty; we are true in conforming to Divine forms of thought, Having these three in us, then it may be said that the beauty of the Lord our God is upon us.
We are to walk in the way of proving what is well-pleasing to Christ. "Proving what is well-pleasing unto the Lord." It is not what the apologists for vice say; it is what Christ says. It is that which is to be tested. It is implied that we have the means of testing all things in this light. There are many things which, put to the test by us, we must reject. They are revealed in our Christian consciousness as wrong.
There are other things which we see to be good, not merely in the convincing light of truth, but in our own blessed experience in the doing of them we feel that we have the approval of the Master, we can even now hear his words, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Our position, then, must be separation from darkness. "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.
" The fruit of light is one, a glorious indivisible cluster. The works of darkness are many. The fruit of light is fitted to incite us. The works of darkness should deter us. They are unfruitful. They yield nothing that is worthy of the name of fruit, but only shame and death.
(2) They are to take an aggressive position toward darkness. "But rather even reprove them." They were not to pass them over in silence or find excuses for them, but to hold them up to reprobation to the doers of them. As darkness was aggressive toward them, so were they as light (even for their own safety) to be aggressive toward the darkness. They were to lift up the Gentiles to their own position.
It is added, as showing the clamant need for reproof, "For the things which are done by them in secret it is a shame even to speak of." It is added further, as showing the use or end of reproof, "But all things when they are reproved are made manifest by the light." "All those secret sins are laid hare in their real moral character, unveiled and brought into distinctness before the moral consciousness, by the light of Christian truth, which is at work in your reproof; by the light, I say, it is made manifest—for, it is added, 'everything that is made manifest is light,' has ceased thereby to have the nature of darkness, and is now of the essence of light." And thus, whether there was amendment or not, they would be making an inroad on the territory of darkness, making dark deeds stand out in the light.
(3) They are to take this aggressive position in consistency with the awakening call of God. "Wherefore he saith, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee." The words are from Isaia 60:1, Isaia 60:2, and receive from the apostle a Christian adaptation.
(a) It is a call to the child of darkness. He is described as sleeping and dead, that is, in sin. He is insensible to the infinite importance of spiritual and eternal things.
(b) It is a call to awake and arise. "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead." He does not let the child of the night alone. He comes to the sleeper and bids him awake, to the dead and bids him arise. And in his very summons there is an awakening, quickening power.
(c) It is a call to which a promise is attached. "And Christ shall shine upon thee." As if it were said, "The sun is already up, and will pour his enlightening rays upon thee." So while we are sleeping and dead in our sin, it is true that the Sun of righteousness is up shining upon this world of ours, and we must up and catch his rays. Other men are up and doing their work under the light of this Sun; why should we be asleep and dead in sin?—R.F.
Exhortation to exercise wisdom in regard to our manner of walk.
"Look therefore carefully how ye walk, not as unwise, but as wise." The object to which we are to look is this—how we walk; in other words, the conduct of our life. In regard to this we are to be careful. At cross-roads there are sometimes finger-posts put up to indicate where the different roads lead to, that travelers may be at no loss. By looking carefully at these, they may save themselves much trouble and delay.
So it becomes every traveler to eternity to know the road that he is taking, whether it is the narrow or the broad. There are finger-posts put up by God (in the Word) by which we may ascertain this and put ourselves right if we have to our grief taken the wrong road. But, seeing many do not make use of these finger-posts (do not look at them at all, or only carelessly, and thus exhibit great folly), the exhortation takes the negative as well as the positive form.
"Not as unwise, but as wise." The word translated "carefully" may also be translated "precisely," and suggests this, that we are not only to look to the general correctness of our conduct, but to look to it down to the smallest details. It is only by thus going carefully over it in detail, with no foregone conclusion in our mind, but earnestly seeking God to search us and to discover to us what can be altered for the better, that we may be able to bring it out into some beauty of conception as a whole. There are two things in regard to which we are to exercise wisdom.
I. TIME. "Redeeming the time, because the days are evil." The right management of our time is what we are particularly to look to. The exhortation is to redeem the time, that is, the time meted out to us on earth, in which to fulfill the Divine purposes. Literally, as given in the margin, we are to buy up the opportunity. The idea is that every moment has its own duty assigned to it.
By doing the duty in the moment, we make a purchase of the opportunity, we turn it into a gain. We keep abreast of time; we avoid subsequent collision of duties. Whereas by not doing the duty in the moment, we contract debt, we fall behind. Instead of being the free owners of our time, we become slavish debtors to it. We are to be like merchants that seize every vantage that is going. Merchants, that travel about from place to place, do not get a vantage at every turn.
They must lay their account by an amount of fruitless toil. But as heavenly merchants, we are in this enviable position, that every moment comes laden with golden opportunity. And we are to make our moments as they pass rich in all the gains of a good life.
1. Good planning. If we would redeem the time in its days, then we must anticipate them by wise economical arrangements. We must see them coming, and know how (God willing) we are to fill them up. The light that we have got from past days we are to put into some workable scheme for the days to come. To the excellence of a day-plan it is essential that we rightly proportion between the various duties of life (so that none are left out or do not get their proper place).
We are to keep up the right proportion between our severer and our lighter engagements. It behooves every one to have a task, a definite task, a task that taxes his energies. And if he does not have it by necessity of procuring his daily bread, yet should he have it by necessity of steadying himself. But it is not good for the bow to be always bent, and, if we manage well, we shall find time (and find it good for the doing of our task too) to relax ourselves in social enjoyment.
We are also to keep up the right proportion between our religious and our secular duties. The latter, as a general arrangement, must take up a large proportion of our time. Six to one is the proportion indicated in the command. But in every well-planned life there will be found ample time for religious duties. Every day is to begin with an acknowledgment of God. It may seem utopian to expect morning devotions of one who has to be at his work at six o'clock.
And yet it only requires a little taken off sleep or off the previous evening to secure the necessary time for God. And surely that is not too much to expect of any Christian in the interest of a well-ordered life. Morning devotions alone will not make the day good. Only when these have been conscientiously engaged in there will be felt to be an obligation to make the day's work harmonize with them.
The evening may be utilized for self-improvement and ministries to others. And the day is to end, as it began, with God. It is only by such planning (in the name of him who is not the author of confusion), that we can expect to be like merchants accumulating a large fortune.
2. Good planning followed up by decisiveness in execution. There is a reason given for redeeming the time: "Because the days are evil." The very earth has taken a complexion from the degeneracy of the dwellers on it. And so our days are evil, and not such as they would have been under normal conditions.
(1) The days are evil because many of them are lost already. We have known the degeneracy of the days in our own experience. We have lost many a good opportunity. This thought should act as a powerful stimulus to us. The apostle gives revenge as the last and crowning fruit of a godly sorrow. "Yea, what revenge!" he says. We are to take revenge upon ourselves that we have given so much of our valuable strength and time to our adversary.
The workman knows what it is to make up lost time. When he falls behind with his tale of work, he has to work longer hours or to apply himself with double energy when he is at it. So, because our days have been ill spent in the past (before conversion and after conversion too) are we to work with redoubled energy in the future.
(2) The days are evil because of the many temptations they bring. In our calm moments (sorrowful for the past) we think of spending our time in a certain way that seems good to us. But circumstances are not altogether with us. In a world where evil has obtained such a hold we must lay our account to our being solicited from without more or less urgently to depart from our plan.
And what makes the solicitation much to be feared is that we are enfeebled from our past. If we had conquered obstacles as we went along, we should have been in a freer, stronger position today. But we have to drag our antecedents with us, like an old debt. We have undigested time, lying like a burden on our present energies. And though, with repentance and forgiveness, there is a sense of freedom and hope imparted to us, yet there is that which is to be conquered in evil habit. The only way of conquest is to deal rigorously with all interruptions of duty, as they arise, as those who would see the time redeemed, and not its losses added to.
(3) The days are evil because they are few. We have time to make up (in the face of great temptations), and little time to make it up in. Had we a thousand years to live, the case would be altered. That would be a comparatively long period in which to make up what we had lost in thirty or fifty or seventy years. But when the days are evil in this sense, that we cannot calculate on a single day as ours, there is surely urgent reason for making up our losses without delay.
Were all the interests of life crowded into one moment, were we told that upon the use we made of that moment depended our future happiness or misery,—how urgently should we be called upon to use it aright! What is actually the arrangement differs little from that. We really live on from moment to moment, not knowing which is to be our last. How wise, then, to seek to make out of every passing moment eternal gain! Inference in which there is a recurrence to the general exhortation and a transition to the second particular.
"Wherefore be ye not foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." The teaching here is that Christ is Lord of our time. He has the sovereign appointment of the time of our coming here and the time of our going hence. All our undertakings are conditioned by this: "If the Lord will." He has sovereign rights over our time. To him we owe the firstfruits of our time, as we owe the firstfruits of our substance.
From Christ we get the whole plan of our life. The right management of our time, then, is to understand what the will of the Lord is, what Christ would have us to do. Seeking Christ's mind as to the employment of our time, we may expect that we shall obtain from him the strength necessary to conquer all the obstacles of our time, and to do the work of each day in its day, according as the duty of the day requires.
II. WINE.
1. Dissuasive from false excitement. "And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot." It is evident from the language which is here employed that the wine drunk in those times was intoxicating. The apostolic advice must be regarded as even more applicable to drinks of stronger intoxicating qualities, which are manufactured now. It has its application to the intoxicating cup of the world in every form—to the intoxication of novel-reading, to the intoxication of keenness in business, to the intoxication of political excitement.
This advice is not inaptly connected with the previous advice as to the right management of time. For it is when time is not properly filled up, when it is insipid, monotonous, or when it is filled up with wrong-doing, that there is the temptation to go after some form or other of earthly excitement. It cannot be said that the use of wine at all is forbidden by this precept. But there is certainly sounded in connection with it the note of alarm.
There is put up beside it the red flag of danger. "Be not drunken with wine." Drunkenness is the feverish desire, the morbid craving, for drink. The man with his noble powers becomes one huge, ever-seeking, never-satisfied appetite. It is a vice into which all classes are in danger of falling. If the idle take to drinking to relieve the tedium of existence, the overwrought take to it to make up exhausted strength.
The young take to it from a love of excitement, and the aged and debilitated take to it to get new tone to their system. Men of a coarse nature take to it because they are incapable of higher pleasures, and men of fine sensibility take to it because it is a source of inspiration to the intellect. Men of social tendencies take to it because it helps good fellowship; and the saddest thing is that women take to it in private, because of a peculiarly sensitive frame and inequalities of feeling.
It is a vice, then, which must be said to be of a peculiarly fascinating, dangerous nature. And let no one think that he is out of danger. Many of those who have fallen were not like failing at first. They did not take drink at all for a time, and their friends had hope in them that they would prove temperate men. And when (with other social surroundings in some cases) they began to make any use of it, they seemed to be taking it in a perfectly innocent or needful way, until the liking was formed, and they could not do without a certain and an increasing amount of drink.
Now, let it be observed on what ground the apostle condemns drunkenness. It is in the line of his thought that we are to exercise wisdom as to our manner of walk. Wherein, he says, is riot. Drunkenness is a madness. There is a form of it to which this description is specially applicable, that which is known as delirium tremens. But even in its ordinary working it has a close resemblance to madness.
It takes away from men the guiding power of reason, their self-possession, their self-restraint, and leads them to make such exhibitions of themselves as in their calm moments they would be ashamed of. "Riot," which is the word employed in the Revised translation, is defined by Johnson to be "wild and loose festivity."
"When his headstrong riot hath no curb,
When rage and hot blood are his counselors,
When means and lavish manners meet together."
(1) The word "riot" points to the prodigal manner of the drunkard. The drunkard is prodigal of his means.
"So senseless of expense
That he will know neither how to maintain it
Nor cease his flow of riot."
He spends on self-indulgence what, if saved, would not only increase the comfort of his home, but would do much good besides. The drunkard is prodigal of his time, and thus violates the previous precept. The golden opportunity, which he might employ for informing his mind or instructing his children, he wastes in the public-house. The drunkard is prodigal of the stuff of which his frame is made.
He wastes his physical powers, takes away his clearness of head, his steadiness of hand, and his general vigor, induces disease and premature death (again violating the previous precept in throwing away years that in the paths of temperance would have been his). The drunkard is prodigal of his worth to his fellows, as the temperate man is preservative in this respect. When the Indian general saw disaster waiting on his country's arms, because, alas! in an emergency his regiments were found besotted with drink, "Call out Havelock's saints!" he exclaimed; "they are never drunk, and Havelock is always ready.
" The drunkard is prodigal of his better feelings. He deadens his home feelings. He does not value the society of his wife and children; he does not study their happiness; nay, he can see them want in order that he may be gratified. He deadens his spiritual sensibilities. And to his wife the most dreadful thought may be, not that she is set aside or the children neglected, but that for his idol he is casting off his God.
(2) The word "riot" points to the noisy manner of the drunkard. Men under excitement are naturally demonstrative, and the drunkard is peculiarly noisy (and in that senseless) in his demonstrations. There is the noise of drunken laughter. "As the crackling of thorns under a pot, so ['empty and short-lived'] is the laughter of the fool." There is the noise of drunken songs.
There is the song (of its own kind), which goes along with the drinking of wine (Isaia 24:8). In the convivial song men tell each other vociferously of their freedom from care, of their good-heartedness; or they may go to the lower depth of the indelicate and the profane. But how all such hilarity is out of place! "I will turn," it is said in the Prophet Amos, "your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation.
" And there is the echo of this in James: "Be afflicted and mourn and weep, let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness." There is the noise of drunken brawls. There is often, under the excitement of strong drink, a combativeness in words and a combativeness in acts. "Who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? They that tarry long at the wine.
" It cannot be said that the apostle gives a decision in favor of total abstinence. He nowhere counsels total abstinence as a duty in itself or in relation to his times. At the same time, he gives no decision adverse to total abstinence. And we know that elsewhere he lays down a principle of expediency which, under certain conditions, makes total abstinence a Christian duty. Many good people think that these conditions exist in our country at the present time.
Sentono che il male dell'intemperanza è salito a una tale altezza da essere un vizio nazionale (minacciando la nostra stessa posizione come nazione), e desiderano starne il più lontano possibile. Sentono che ci sono persone in pericolo nella loro casa, o nella cerchia dei loro conoscenti, o nella congregazione cristiana con cui sono collegati; e desiderano proteggerli come possono. Sentono di essere loro stessi in pericolo e desiderano stare in guardia.
E coloro che per tali ragioni possono sacrificare la loro gratificazione sono meritevoli di ogni onore. Vediamo che (nello scoraggiamento del bere) la nostra influenza è debitamente dalla parte della temperanza, che non stiamo facendo nulla per ostacolare gli altri nella loro lotta (spesso dolorosa) verso la virtù e la felicità.
2. Persuasivo alla vera eccitazione . "Ma sii pieno di Spirito". L'apostolo non vieta ogni eccitazione; piuttosto all'eccitazione che nega come falsa sostituirebbe una vera eccitazione.
(1) Possiamo essere ubriachi di vino ; dobbiamo essere ripieni ( mai ubriacarci ) dello Spirito . C'è un avvertimento connesso con l'uso del vino, ma non c'è un avvertimento connesso con la ricezione delle influenze esilaranti dello Spirito. Il nostro appetito è qui incoraggiato: " Siate pieni di Spirito ". Non possiamo mai essere troppo abbandonati all'appetito spirituale; non potrà mai crescere in noi fino a una forza pericolosa.
Nella nostra carnalità sappiamo troppo poco di cosa significhi essere gioiosamente eccitati nella nostra natura più elevata. Cowper ci dice come deve essere morto con gioia se non gli fosse stata data una forza speciale per sopportare le rivelazioni divine. E Jonathan Edwards racconta come si sentiva rapito e inghiottito da Dio. Senza dubbio un tale stato (finora ordinario) fu il fondamento delle comunicazioni soprannaturali che Giovanni ricevette a Patmos.
Non si pensi che questo sia troppo alto. Deve esserci qualcosa di questa pura eccitazione sperimentata in noi, se vogliamo essere curati dall'amore per la falsa eccitazione. Non disprezziamo le altre cure; ma questa è la cura migliore per l'ubriachezza, questo è il positivo onnipotente che dobbiamo mettere al suo posto.
(2) Le manifestazioni di eccitazione del vino sono sconvenienti ; le manifestazioni di eccitazione dello Spirito sono pure e amabili .
(a) Cantare . È noto come sfruttare il suono armonioso per incoraggiare gli uomini ad andare in battaglia con "la tromba stridula, il tamburo che agita lo spirito, il piffero che trafigge le orecchie". Si sa anche usarlo come ausiliario al servizio della superstizione, della baldoria e del vizio. E Dio, nella sua infinita saggezza, ha pensato bene di servirsi dello stesso strumento. Nell'antico tempio ebraico quattromila Leviti, un'intera quarta divisione di essi, erano impiegati in relazione al servizio di lode.
Dio ha ispirato e permesso agli uomini di scrivere salmi e inni per il santuario; e ha anche permesso agli uomini di comporre musica adatta per loro. Il canto di parole musicali, con o senza accompagnamento strumentale, ha un meraviglioso potere di suscitare emozione, di risvegliare ricordi dolci e lieti, e anche di eccitare l'immaginazione in una certa vaghezza e immensità che appartiene ai suoni. Come si dice che in una conchiglia premuta sull'orecchio si sente il suono dell'oceano da cui proviene, così nelle dolci note della musica possiamo udire un suono come dalle rive eterne.
"Tu, Signore, sei il Padre della musica: i
dolci suoni sono un tuo sussurro".
In uno stato d'animo elevato (come qui supposto) diamo naturalmente espressione ai nostri sentimenti nel canto. "Qualcuno è allegro? Che canti lodi."
(α) Cantare insieme . "Parlandosi l'un l'altro con salmi, inni e canti spirituali". Gli uomini, sotto l'eccitazione dello Spirito, si dilettano a cantare canti spirituali (distinti dai canti dell'ubriacone). Sotto questo vengono i salmi nella loro grande posizione storica.
E vengono anche inni, cioè canti diversi dai salmi, che sono usati nella lode. Dobbiamo parlarci l'un l'altro per mezzo di questi. Plinio ricorda che i primi cristiani erano soliti incontrarsi in un giorno prestabilito prima del giorno (per evitare la persecuzione) e recitare tra loro un inno a turno a Cristo come a Dio. Lutero ha notevolmente avanzato la causa della Riforma con i suoi inni, che sono stati cantati ai focolari del popolo.
Come possiamo così infondere l'uno nell'altro lo spirito di fiducia, di coraggio, di speranza! Dopo aver incoraggiato noi stessi nella Roccia della nostra forza, ci rivolgiamo e così parliamo ai nostri compagni di adorazione, uno al resto, o una sezione all'altra:
"Voi persone, riponete la vostra fiducia
In lui continuamente;
Davanti a lui apri il tuo cuore:
Dio è il nostro rifugio in alto".
(β) Cantare con il cuore . "Cantando e intonando melodie con il cuore al Signore". Cantare insieme può occupare solo una piccola parte del nostro tempo. Ma negli altri nostri impegni possiamo essere così pieni di fiducia, così liberi da preoccupazioni, che cantiamo con il cuore. E la canzone che cantiamo tutto il giorno è impostata sul Nome di Cristo, sull'opera della redenzione.
"Ci sono in questa bassa e sbalorditiva marea
Di umane cure e delitti,
Con i quali le melodie dimorano Dell'eterno rintocco ;
Che portano la musica nel loro cuore
Attraverso il vicolo
oscuro e il mercato litigioso , svolgendo il loro compito quotidiano con piedi più occupati
Perché le loro anime segrete un santo ceppo ripetere?"
(b) Ringraziamento . "Rendendo sempre grazie per tutte le cose, nel Nome di nostro Signore Gesù Cristo a Dio Padre". Questa è un'altra bella manifestazione di eccitazione spirituale. Nei nostri stati d'animo più elevati ci rivolgiamo naturalmente a Dio in gioiosa gratitudine. Il ringraziamento (al quale l'ubriacone deve essere estraneo, perché abusa delle sue misericordie), come il canto, è correre come un filo d'oro attraverso tutta la nostra vita.
Nel profondo del nostro cuore possiamo essere sempre grati, anche se il linguaggio della gratitudine non può essere sempre sulle nostre labbra. Dobbiamo ringraziare Dio che un brivido gioioso dello Spirito può passare attraverso il nostro essere, meglio che del vino. Dobbiamo ringraziare Dio per innumerevoli misericordie.
"Nuove misericordie ogni giorno che tornano
aleggiano intorno a noi mentre preghiamo;
nuovi pericoli passati, nuovi peccati perdonati,
nuovi pensieri di Dio, nuove speranze del cielo".
Dobbiamo ringraziare Dio anche per le nostre afflizioni, che sono benedizioni travestite; poiché sebbene, in quanto sono malvagi, dobbiamo essere riconciliati con loro, tuttavia dobbiamo ringraziare Dio per ciò che è buono in loro, vale a dire. il disegno misericordioso, il comfort che l'accompagna, il beneficio che ne deriva. E come riceviamo tutto solo attraverso Cristo, così dobbiamo rendere grazie al Padre nel Nome di Cristo.
(c) Sottomissione . "Sottomettervi gli uni agli altri nel timore di Cristo". Sembra strano che questo debba essere menzionato come una delle manifestazioni dell'elevazione spirituale. Possiamo solo pensarla in questo modo. Come gli uomini sotto l'eccitazione del vino tendono ad essere autoaffermativi, inebrianti, così sotto l'eccitazione dello Spirito abbiamo un tale fondo di gioia in noi stessi che siamo contenti di cadere in ogni posizione di soggezione in cui Dio ci metterebbe .
Seguono i particolari di questa soggezione; ci interessa qui solo notare il sentimento peculiare che è associato con esso, vale a dire. il timore di Cristo. Sappiamo che da tutta la gioia della sua prima visita da giovane al tempio, la gioia del suo essere lì per gli affari di suo Padre, poteva scendere ed essere soggetto ai suoi genitori. E sappiamo che, in mezzo a tutto il rapimento della trasfigurazione, poteva ancora pensare alla sottomissione alla volontà del Padre nella sua morte. Poiché, dunque, riveriamo Cristo e temiamo di offenderlo, (con tutto ciò che sperimentiamo della più alta eccitazione) siamo soggetti gli uni agli altri. —RF
Compiti relativi.
I. DOVERE DELLE MOGLIE . "Mogli, siate sottomesse ai vostri mariti".
1. Motivo di soggezione .
(1) Il marito rappresenta Cristo alla moglie . "Come al Signore". L'originale della posizione del marito si trova in Cristo. È in questo personaggio che appare nel quarantacinquesimo Salmo, nel Cantico dei Cantici e in altre parti della Scrittura. È l'impersonificazione assoluta dell'idea (il Marito per preminenza); e ciò che troviamo nella famiglia umana sulla terra è solo una debole copia dell'originale.
È anche vero che il marito non è in famiglia a suo nome. Egli trae la sua autorità da Cristo. È lì come rappresentante di Cristo. Lui è lì come se Cristo fosse lì. Ciò che, dunque, la moglie ha il dovere di rendere al marito, non lo deve rendere semplicemente a lui, ma a lui come rappresentante di Cristo.
(2) Ha il suo fondamento nella natura . La relazione naturale . "Perché il marito è il capo della moglie". Non è implicito in ciò che il marito è superiore alla moglie in tutte le qualità, ma solo che è superiore a lei in quelle qualità che lo rendono capo. Soprattutto la sua forza superiore e l'autosufficienza lo contraddistinguono per aver preso il ruolo di primo piano.
È il marito, o la banda della casa, ciò che la mantiene indivisa e la mantiene alta. Deve mettersi tra sua moglie e il mondo, per proteggerla dal suo bagliore e dai suoi danni. Mentre lei è una custode a casa, lui deve uscire e lavorare per lei, in modo che possa provvedere al suo mantenimento e al suo conforto. È quindi giusto che si appoggi a lui e si faccia guidare da lui. L'analogia cristiana . «Come anche Cristo è Capo della Chiesa.
L' autorità è una grande dottrina per la Chiesa, già insegnata in questa Lettera. Come la moglie nella sua debolezza e diffidenza di sé si appoggia al marito, così la Chiesa nella sua debolezza e insufficienza sentita deve appoggiarsi a Cristo. I poteri mondani possono essere ostile, ma non può mai essere privata della protezione del suo Capo. Protetta da lui, non deve essere dettata da nessuno, ma deve prendere la legge, pura e semplice, dalle sue labbra.
Nell'analogia c'è una differenza importante . "Essere lui stesso il Salvatore del corpo". Dev'essere accaduto molto di rado che uno abbia fatto moglie di colei che ha salvato da una tomba d'acqua o da un'altra forma di morte. Ma è vero che Cristo ha fatto sposa di colei che ha liberato dalla perdizione eterna . È Salvatore del corpo, cioè della Chiesa. Ciò rende peculiare la sua autorità (senza analogia nel tipo terreno), e gli conferisce una peculiare presa sull'obbedienza della Chiesa.
2. Modalità e misura dell'assoggettamento .
(1) Modo . «Ma» (cioè, se Cristo è più che Protettore, è anche Salvatore della Chiesa) «come la Chiesa è soggetta a Cristo, così anche le mogli lo siano ai loro mariti». L'ideale che le è proposto è che, come la Chiesa si deporta verso Cristo, così deve deportarsi verso suo marito. Ha questo vantaggio (alto com'è) che, entrando nello spirito della sua relazione con il marito, dovrebbe essere molto aiutata a sottomettersi (come deve sottomettersi anche il marito sotto qualche svantaggio) a Cristo.
(2) Extent. "In everything." The necessary limitation here is—in everything that he, acting in the Name of Christ, has a right to expect of her. If he were laying anything sinful or purely arbitrary and tyrannical upon her, she would be justified in resisting him (appealing from him to Christ). But if it is within his right, and what he judges important, then (even when she cannot give her approval) she should be willing to fall in with his arrangement.
II. DUTY OF HUSBANDS. Husbands, love your wives. As the husband excels in the governing qualities, so she excels in the lovable qualities.
"For softness she, and sweet attractive grace."
If it can be said that he has more power, it can be said that (by her pure and modest feeling, her deep tenderness and devotion) she has more influence.
1. Manner. Christian analogy. "Even as Christ also loved the Church." We are to think of the love of Christ here only under the special aspect in which the apostle presents it, viz. his conjugal love, or love of espousals.
(1) His devotion to his spouse. "And gave himself up for it" (or "her," as in the original). "Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep." Years of servitude he had to give for Rachel; yet they seemed to him but a few days, for the love he bore to her. It was a hard price he had to pay for her; but we read here of what was infinitely harder, of One who had to give himself for his spouse. He had to forget himself in humiliation and sorrow and death for her, and yet, hard as that was beyond all conception, it appeared as though it was nothing, for the love he bore to her.
(2) Purpose of his devotion.
(a) Immediate purpose (process of sanctification). "That he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of baptism. The water with the Word. The language is taken from the ordinance of fact is pointed to that the Church needs cleansing. Baptism goes upon the supposition that we are all by nature defiled with sin. It says this, "We are all as an unclean thing.
" The Church was in this state of impurity when the Son chose her for his bride. To this the words apply—He loved her foul that he might make her fair. Washed certainly she must be, to be fit for associating with the highest purity. The blessed fact is also pointed to that there is what has cleansing power. "By the washing of water," it is said here. It is the water used in baptism that we are to think of, and that water in what it signifies, viz.
the purifying influences of the Spirit. As water washes defilement from vessels, from the person, so the Spirit washes moral defilement from our hearts. This washing of water must be accompanied with the Word. For the Spirit cannot purify alone, but only through what the Word reveals, especially that blood of Christ which is said to cleanse from all sin.
(b) Remote purpose (result of sanctification). "That he might present the Church to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." By this we are to understand that Christ is to have in the Church a bride of incomparable beauty. When the cleansing process has been completed, the Church will be glorious ("all-glorious" is the language of the forty-fifth psalm, and the effect of the description here), more glorious than any material substance can be, more glorious than the sun in the heavens.
There will not be spot or trace left of her former defilement. There will not be wrinkle or sign appearing of coming age (such as come. s to an ordinary bride). To make it more emphatic, it is added that there will not be any such thing, nothing whatever to mar her beauty. But still the description proceeds; she will be holy. Her beauty (as it will not be imperfect or fading) will not be outward, but will be the beauty of holiness. And she will be without blemish, so transcendently beautified that to add to her beauty would be (in things that are less)
"To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet."
At present the Son's bride has many a spot, many a wrinkle (her cleansing must still go on, her beauty needs bringing out), but the time is coming (in the Divine purpose which cannot fail, in the conception of Christ which must be realized) when she will be a fit bride for him. And then it is that, as is said here, he is to present her to himself. tie is to leave it to no other (say, angelic attendants) to present her, but he is to take it into his own hand (notwithstanding the double character in which it requires him to act).
And this done, then, as is said in the Prophet Zephaniah, he will rejoice over her with joy, He will rest in his love; he will joy over her with singing. This, then, is the ideal which is put before husbands. It is what we could not have dared to have put before us of ourselves. It would have seemed profanity to have conjoined things so far apart. But thus it has been dictated for us by the Spirit of inspiration: "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church.
" The husband is to possess, to cherish, and to manifest devoted love toward his wife. And if his is the position of authority, yet is he (an all-requiring love being also his) to forget himself in services rendered to her. And specially is he taught from the high model that he is not to pamper his wife, but he is to regard her as given him for a higher end, and to seek that she may possess all spiritual beauty.
2. Ground. "Even so ought husbands also to love their own wives as their own bodies." The ground of the duty is that the wife is one flesh with the husband. There are two points (not immediately connected, but brought up afterward) which go to prove this. The first is that woman derived her being from man. Eve was taken out of Adam, and the language was used regarding her by Adam: "This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh.
" The second point is that, in the marriage union, man and woman are said to become one flesh. "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the twain shall become one flesh." The wife, then, being one flesh with the husband, there comes into operation (in support of the duty of the husband) the principle of self-preservation. "He that loveth his own wife loveth himself: for no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it.
" The Christian analogy. "Even as Christ also the Church." Christ bestows a fostering care on the Church; and this is not only lovely, but it is thoroughly natural. For:
(1) The Church is one flesh with Christ by derivation. "Because we are members of his body." Her spiritual being is from Christ as much as Eve's physical being was from Adam.
(2) The Church becomes one flesh with Christ in the marriage union. Here the words of the marriage ceremony ere quoted with the added comment, "This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the Church." The language, "one flesh," has a strangeness in its application to an ordinary marriage union, but the apostle is careful to let us know that he uses it in reference to the mystical union of Christ and the Church.
Shall we think of the Son leaving his Father's house and cleaving to his bride in human flesh? But we must not (as some have done) pry too curiously into it; for it is a mystery, and we must simply lay hold upon the great fact that it points to the union between Christ and the Church being so intimate that he loves her as he loves himself.
III. RECAPITULATION (order of duties inverted). Duty of husband. "Nevertheless [i.e. not to press the mystical bearings of the subject] do ye also severally love each one his own wife even as himself." It is again an ideal of very difficult attainment. What a fostering care is conjoined with his authority! And this to be Christ-like (in that fostering care which he is now bestowing upon his Church, and which he will one day bring to a mature result)? Duty of wife.
"And let the wife see that she fear her husband." He may personally be deficient (in comparison with her) in those qualities which fit him for being head, but nevertheless she is to show deference to him in respect of the position which he holds. In the precept here it is supposed that he has Christian worth (which is what the representative of Christ should have, what is the adornment of his position).
And even when a Christian wife cannot look to Christian worth in her husband, yet must she preserve reverence toward him, while at the same time seeking to win him over to Christ. Two lessons may be learned here.
1. Marriage is a Christian ordinance. It is not, indeed, to be raised (as it is by the Roman Catholics) to the rank of a Christian sacrament; but neither is it to be reduced to a mere civil arrangement. It is here associated with the sublimest Christian thought. This, and the presence of Christ at the marriage in Cana of Galilee, give it a thoroughly Christian character and throw a Christian halo around it of the brightest nature.
2. It is not to be lightly entered into, but in a Christian manner. Man and woman must belong to the Lord before they belong to each other, and are to enter into the married state that they may help each other to be more entirely the Lord's. A Christian is not at liberty to marry one who is not a Christian (even in the hope of making him or her a Christian). A Christian even among Christians is to seek from the Lord.
"And now, before the word we speak
That knits the bond man must not break,
We fain would know thy mind.
Lord, be the sweet conviction given
To both that thou thyself in heaven
The hallowed bond hast twined."
It is in that spirit that it ought to be contemplated. Without this there can be no security for happiness or for Christ being honored in connection with the union formed,—R.F.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS
Covetousness amongst the worst of human crimes.
"But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them." The subject which we gather from these words is that covetousness is amongst the worst of human crimes.
I. IT IS HERE CLASSED WITH CRIMES OF THE WORST CHARACTER, There are three sins amongst which covetousness is placed in the text: unbridled licentiousness, "fornication," and "whoremongery"—revolting indecency; "filthiness," that which is so unchaste and impure as to awaken universal disgust; and immoral speech—speech that is frivolous, untruthful, obscene, profane.
These are sins confessedly of enormous magnitude. All true souls recoil from them, all pure minds renounce them as a degradation of the race and an offence to Almighty God. But mark, amongst these covetousness is placed. It is ranked with them as related to them in moral vileness. More than this, it is singled out as worse than these—"a covetous man, who is an idolater." What is idolatry? Holding anything nearer to the heart than God.
The "covetous man" loves money more than anything else, and money is his god. We here in England are very zealous for the conversion of heathen idolaters. We create and sustain costly organizations, but there is no idolatry more real, more powerful, more damning, than the idolatry that prevails throughout England. What god in heathendom is more earnestly and constantly served than Mammon is served in this island? Before the introduction of Christianity into this country there were many idols here.
"In Scotland stood the temple of Mars; in Cornwall, the temple of Mercury; in Bangor, the temple of Minerva; at Malden, the temple of Victoria; in Bath, the temple of Apollo; at Leicester, the temple of Janus; at York, where St. Peter's now stands, the temple of Bellona; in London, on the site of St. Paul's Cathedral, the temple of Diana; and at Westminster, where the Abbey rears its venerable pile, a temple of Apollo.
" But Mammon now has a temple everywhere, a temple on every hill and in every valley, in every church and house. Mammon has said to England, "Thou shalt have none other gods beside me," and England heartily responds, "Amen."
II. IT IS HERE CLASSED WITH THE WORST OF CRIMES, AS EXCLUDING FROM THE KINGDOM OF GOD. "For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God." From this passage may be inferred:
1. That heaven is a kingdom. There is rule and order there.
2. That heaven is a Divine kingdom. "Kingdom of Christ and of God." Christ reigns there. He is in the midst of the throne; his Spirit animates all; his Spirit fills all with adoring wonder and worship. Christ reigns as God there. Βασιλείᾳ τοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ Θεοῦ. Christ and God. The heavens are a kingdom managed, not by Divine partnership,—it is governed by God in Christ.
3. That heaven excludes evil characters of all descriptions. How clearly and forcibly this is declared in Scripture!—"The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness .. of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God" (Galati 5:19).
"Without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie." With the excluded will be the covetous man. Yes, though he has been a member of a Christian Church, though cultured in intellect, chaste in feeling, and refined in manners, though an eloquent preacher of the gospel of benevolence, he will find no admission into that world. He will be "without." With whom? Will he have a place set apart for himself? No, with the common damned.
III. IT IS HERE CLASSED WITH THE WORST OF CRIMES REPUGNANT TO THE DIVINE NATURE. "For because of these things cometh the wrath of God." Paul says, in his letter to the Romans, that "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
" His deep, settled, immutable antagonism to wrong of all kinds is clearly revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ. But is there any sin more repugnant to the Divine nature than covetousness, which is idolatry? What sin has the Almighty denounced with greater frequency and force than that of idolatry? But why should covetousness be so abhorrent to the Almighty?
1. Because it involves a real-appropriation of the blessings of Providence. God's will is that whatever a man, either by good fortune or by industry, obtains of this world's goods, should be expended for the advancement of truth and the general promotion of human happiness. But the covetous man appropriates all to pamper his own appetites, gratify his own vanity, and promote his own selfish and ambitious ends.
2. Because it involves an utter perversion of his own spiritual nature. The powers of the soul are not given to amass material wealth, nor the affections to love it. On the contrary, they were given to gather elements of the highest knowledge, and to love and serve the Infinite supremely in all. The soul was made to have God, not money, as the dominant subject of thought and the dominant object of love.
3. Because it involves the promotion of misery in the universe. Nothing is more repugnant to the heart of the' loving God than misery. The cause of universal happiness is-his, but the covetous man is necessarily a promoter of misery in his own soul, misery in his circle, misery through the creation. God's order is that no man should live unto himself, that all should labor for the common weal; in this way only the good of the universe can be served, its blessedness advanced, and its order maintained.
Every man who sets himself up as his own end in labor and life opposes all the arrangements of God. He does what he can to create discords in its harmonies, miasma in its' atmosphere, poison in its streams. No wonder, then, that the "wrath of God" is against "the covetous man."—D.T.
Christian life.
"For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) proving what is acceptable unto the Lord." These verses present to us the Christian life in its transformation, obligation, and demonstration.
I. TRANSFORMATION. A true Christian is one who has been changed from darkness into light. The figurative language implies:
1. A change from immorality to holiness. "Darkness" is the emblem of depravity. "They that be drunken are drunken in the night." The ghastly legions of hell win their most terrible victories in the gloom and silence of night. The "light" is a symbol of purity.
2. A change from ignorance to knowledge. Darkness clouds our vision, and hides from us the world in which we live. Man in an unregenerated state is in the moral world as a man in midnight. "Light" is a symbol of intelligence.
3. A change from sadness to joy. Darkness is depressing. Even the irrational creatures feel its dejecting power. Sin is sadness; true religion is joy. We are told that there is "no night in heaven." It means that there is no immorality, no ignorance, no sorrow there. How great the change that has taken place in a true Christian man!
II. OBLIGATION. Two duties are here indicated.
1. Walking in light. "Walk as children of light." Don't go back into darkness. Nay, don't remain in the twilight of Christian experience, but step farther and farther into the day. Leave the valleys, scale the hills, and come more directly under the broad beams of day. To walk in the light is to walk intelligently, safely, and joyously.
2. Pleasing God. The ninth verse being parenthetical, the last clause of the eighth verse should be read with the tenth, "Walk as children of light, proving what is acceptable—well-pleasing—unto the Lord." "Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God" (Romani 12:2). The expression "well-pleasing" to God throws a light upwards on God and downwards on man.
(1) It reveals God. It indicates
(a) his moral susceptibility. He is not indifferent to the moral conduct of his creatures. It indicates
(b) his forgiving mercy. Man, though a sinner, can, through his infinite mercy, render himself acceptable to him.
(2) It reveals man.
(a) It indicates the highest end of his being. What higher object can a creature have than to please the Creator?
(b) It indicates the highest blessedness of his being. The smile of the Creator is the heaven of the creature.
III. DEMONSTRATION. The Christian man develops in his life certain glorious things. "The fruit of the Spirit ['light'] is in all goodness and righteousness and truth." He demonstrates in his life:
1. Divine beneficence. "In all goodness." He is full of social love, tender, compassionate, self-sacrificing.
2. Divine righteousness. He is a man of inflexible honesty, unswerving rectitude. In him the "righteousness of the Law is fulfilled."
3. Divine reality. His thoughts, sympathies, actions, are in harmony with the eternal realities of being. He is neither a visionary nor a hypocrite. His thoughts are true, his life is sincere.
CONCLUSION. What an infinite boon is the gospel to mankind! How glorious the transformation it effects! how righteous the obligation it imposes! how great the power it confers!—a power to demonstrate in our life the good, the right, and the true.—D.T.
(1) Two worlds of one race.
"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." The text may be regarded as a portraiture of two distinct worlds of men on this earth—the world of the wicked and the world of the Christly. Here we have—
I. THE WORLD OF WICKED MEN. The characteristics of these men are here indicated.
1. They are worthless. Their works are "the unfruitful works of darkness." Ungodly men live in moral darkness. The sun, which alone reveals things as they are in the spiritual world, shines not in their heavens. All the light they have are the electric flashes of an impure atmosphere. They work in the dark, and their works are "unfruitful." That is "unfruitful "' of good.
The soil that is sterile as regards its capability of producing fruit is often fertile in its capacity to produce noxious weeds and poisonous herbs; so the ungodly soul—it is unfruitful in goodness, but prolific in crime.
2. They are clandestine. "Which are done of them in secret." Though there may be an allusion here to the abominable mysteries which were celebrated in Greece under the screen of night and secrecy, it describes the general character of a sinful life. All is secret. Sin is necessarily hypocritical; it speaks in a false voice; it works under masks. The more corrupt the human soul the more sneakish and clandestine. The good alone can afford to be bland and open.
3. They are shameful. "For it is a shame even to speak of those things." Heathenism has ever abounded and still abounds with nameless iniquities (Romani 1:24). But sin in all its forms is a shameful thing. It is essentially disgraceful, disreputable, and ignominious. A man has only to think calmly of it in the light of conscience and God, in order to bring burning blushes to his cheek. Sin is a shame.
4. They are sleepy. "Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest." A sinful soul is sleepy in a moral sense. It is unconscious of its moral surroundings—it is filled with illusory dreams; it must one day be aroused to a sense of reality. Unlike natural sleep, moral sleep does not refresh and invigorate, but enervates and destroys.
5. They are mortal. "Arise from the dead." Everywhere the Bible represents sin as a state of death. The sinful soul is like a corpse. It is odious and the victim of external forces. Such is the world of wicked men around us. It is worthless, clandestine, shameful, sleepy, mortal.
II. THE WORLD OF CHRISTLY MEN. These are represented by the Christians at Ephesus, the men to whom the apostle is writing. This world has a work to do with the other—the dark world of wickedness around them. And it is here indicated. What is it?
1. Separation. "Have no fellowship." It does not mean, of course, that Christians are to have no intercourse or dealings with the ungodly. This could not be, and ought not to be if it could. It means that they are to have no spiritual identification with them—no thoughts, purposes, or feelings alike. That, like Christ, they are to be "separate from sinners." Morally detached as the lamp from the darkness.
"I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner: with such a one no not to eat" (1 Corinzi 5:11). "Wherefore come out from among them," etc. (2 Corinzi 6:14).
2. Reprehension. "But rather reprove them." Reprove them by lip. In the name of purity and truth expose and denounce their wickedness. Reprove them by life. Let the life stand in such a grand contrast to all that is sinful that it may be a standing rebuke.
3. Illumination. "All things that are reproved are made manifest by the light." Hold forth the light of the gospel in the midst of a "crooked and perverse generation."
4. Resuscitation. "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead." Thunder in the ear of the sleeper; speak life into the heart of the dead. There is living light for all in Christ. "Christ shall give thee light." "He is the Light of the world." The idea of this verse seems to be that, if Christians will use all their efforts to convert men, they may expect Christ to shine upon them and bless them.
The "light" that comes from him is a soul-quickening light. "The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live" (Giovanni 5:25). Elijah raised the dead; so did the apostles. We, also, in God's great Name, can raise the dead—dead souls. The resurrection of a soul is a far grander work than the resurrection of a body. Let us sound the blast of the gospel trumpet over moral cemeteries, and the graves will open and dead souls come forth to life.—D.T.
(2) Two worlds of one race.
"See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ; submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
' All these verses must be brought in under the same heading as the verses discussed in our preceding article, viz.—Two worlds of one race. These verses continue to indicate the duties pertaining to the world of Christian men. The duties, which we previously discussed, were separation, reprehension, illumination, and resuscitation; the duties which we have now to notice are Christian consistency, holy excitement, and social worship.
I. CHRISTIAN CONSISTENCY. "See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise." The verses teach that walking strictly in harmony with the Christian creed implies:
1. Wisdom. "Not as fools, but as wise." A conduct inconsistent with the Christian creed we profess is exceedingly foolish.
(1) It damages our own moral nature.
(2) It misrepresents the gospel of Christ.
(3) It insults the omniscience of God.
Hypocrisy is in every way unwise.
2. Diligence. "Redeeming the time"—"Buying up opportunities." How is time to be redeemed? Not by regaining any portion of the past. The past is irrecoverably gone. Not by inoperative regrets concerning the wrong of the past. Not by mere sentimental desires that the future may be better. How then?
(1) By deducing the true moral lessons of the past.
(2) By a deep and devout determination to avoid all the evils of the past.
(3) By turning every circumstance of our life to a right spiritual account.
"Because the days are evil," says Paul. The times in which Paul wrote were corrupt; our times are corrupt. There are several things that make our times evil.
(1) A ruling secularism. How mercenary is our age!
(2) Religious formalism. The forms of religion abound every- where; the real spirit is rare. The "letter" is killing the "spirit."
(3) Skeptical rationalism. The world's philosophy, as it is called, is for the most part anti-theistic, anti-supernatural, anti-Christian. These elements fill the social atmosphere with the moral fungi that make our "days" evil. Because our days are charged with so many evils we should be diligent; we should seize every opportunity to crush the wrong and to promote the right.
3. Inquiry. "Understanding what the will of the Lord is." God has a will concerning us, and it is our duty to endeavor to understand it, and for this purpose we must inquire into it.
II. HOLY EXCITEMENT. "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit." This verse suggests several thoughts.
1. Man has an instinctive craving for excitement. The words evidently imply this. Paul assumes that his readers must have excitement, in telling them in what they should and in what they should not find it. Excitement is a necessity of our nature. The soul has a deep hunger for it.
(1) Observation shows this. Look at society, either as it appears on the page of history or as it surrounds you now in all the activities of life, and you will find that the love of excitement explains much of all its restlessness, amusements, and toils.
(2) Consciousness shows this. All are conscious of this impulse. Monotony and stagnation become intolerable. We crave a quicker pulse, a warmer and a fuller passion. Yes, man has a native hunger for excitement. Hence the popularity of sensational theatres, sports, books, scenes, music, sermons.
2. Man has recourse to improper expedients for excitement. "Be not drunk with wine." Wine stimulates excitement. It quickens the pulse, it heats the blood, it fires the passions. Hence men like it. They use it, not for the sake of intoxication, but excitement. Wine-drinking is only one of many improper expedients for excitement. Drunkenness is here a type of whatever improperly stimulates the senses and enkindles the lusts.
(1) There is sensualism. How many seek excitement in an inordinate gratification of mere animal propensities!
(2) There is gambling. What thousands resort to the race-course, the exchange, the billiard-table, for excitement!
(3) There is immoral literature. Luscious tales, filthy narratives, and sensational romances;—these are eagerly sought because they make the imagination glow with impure fires.
III. SOCIAL WORSHIP. "Speaking to yourselves," etc. These verses (from the nineteenth to the twenty-first) show what is meant by being "filled with the Spirit."
1. High spiritual intercourse with man. "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." Speaking to men the highest things in the highest forms of language—poetry. High feeling always runs into poetry.
2. Devout fellowship with Christ. "Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." The soul pouring out its devotions in sweet melodies in the Divine ear.
3. Thankful recognition of Divine favors. "Giving thanks always for all things unto God."
4. Godly devotion to the common weal. "Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God." All this is implied in being "filled with the Spirit?' And is there not sufficient excitement here? To be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with the Spirit's ideas; and what exciting ideas are his! With the Spirit's purposes; and what inspiring purposes are his! With the Spirit's love; and what an immensity of stirring impulses is in that love!—D.T.
Ideal marriage.
"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the Head of the Church: and he is the Savior of the body. Therefore as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church: for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.
Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband." The subject of this passage is Ideal matrimony; or, God's idea of the marriage state. As we look into it, our convictions will deepen that the Divine idea is but very partially, if at all, developed in the matrimonial alliances of modern society.
What is marriage? It comes not within the limits of our purpose or space to enter into a full discussion of the grand subject of human marriage. Our readers will find a very learned and exhaustive treatment of this question in Dr. William Smith's 'Dictionary of the Bible.' Our remarks must be confined entirely to those phases of the subject which the passage under review suggests. On all hands it is admitted that marriage—that is, the union of one man to one woman—is a Divine ordination.
Some philosophers see the principle of matrimony running through all nature, not only in the sexual distinction of all animals, but in the sexual form of all kinds of vegetable life. But the Bible is our authority. The Divine institution of marriage is clearly taught, both in the Old and the New Testaments. In the opening pages of the Divine volume we read these words, "And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
" And in the New Testament we have these words from the lips of the Son of God himself, "Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Matteo 19:4). What does the text teach concerning marriage? It teaches—
I. That marriage implies MORAL ROYALTY ON THE PART OF THE HUSBAND. Wives are here commanded to submit themselves unto their husbands "as unto the Lord." The husband is here called the "head of the wife, even as Christ is the Head of the Church," and the apostle concludes the paragraph by saying, "Let the wife see that she reverence her husband.
" The idea of supremacy, therefore, on the part of the husband is manifest throughout the passage. But what is the rule to be? Not the rule of superior muscular force or intellectual power. Such a rule would be despotism and nothing less. The apostle teaches here that the husband's rulership should be similar to that rulership that Christ holds over the Church.
1. The husband is to rule by moral influence. How does Christ rule the Church? Not by force, but by love; by the royalty of his character, the sublimity of his thoughts, the Divine grandeur of his aims. The Church bows lovingly to his authority, because of the supremacy of his excellence. Thus the husband is to rule the wife, for "the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the Head of the Church." It is only as the wife sees in her husband true moral grandeur that she can bow loyally to his scepter and feel a loving reverence in her heart.
2. The husband is to rule for beneficent ends.
(1) The rule is to be restorative. "He is the Savior of the body." This refers to Christ. The Church is his body; he is to it what the soul is to the body—the ever-present, animating, controlling spirit. So the grand object of the husband should be to save his wife—save her from all that is mean and coarse, from all that decades the character or pains the soul. Her true elevation, and not the gratification of her vanity, or pride, or lower appetites, should be his master aim.
(2) This rule is to be universal. "In everything." It is to extend through the whole of domestic life. Indeed, a true moral rule over the heart will extend to "everything" in the woman's life.
(3) The rule is to be self-sacrificing in spirit. "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the Church, and gave himself for it." The husband's love should be that of the highest chivalry—a love that shrinks at no sacrifice in order to bless and ennoble the partner of his choice. It must be of the same kind as that which prompted Christ to give himself for the salvation of the world.
Ay, and he must have the same grand object, too—viz, the perfect cleansing of his bride from all that is morally corrupt. Christ loved the Church, and gave himself for it; what for? "That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
" It is said that the glowworm never shines after it has become a parent. Some women lose the luster of all delicacy and refinement under the influence of men whom they call their husbands. The aim of the true husband should be to make the character of his wife a "glorious" character, "without spot or blemish." Behold and admire this Divine picture of a true husband! The marriage in which there is not such a husband is no true marriage.
It is an impious mockery. When a woman in the marriage ceremony of Churches is called upon to obey a man smaller in intellect, narrower in sympathies, and inferior in moral character to herself, she is called upon to do violence to her nature—to do that, in fact, which the eternal laws of mind forbid her in sincerity and truth ever to perform. Who can admire the contemptible? who can reverence the mean? The man should appear as a morally royal man in her eyes, or he is no true husband at all.
II. That marriage implies MORAL LOVABLENESS ON THE PART OF THE WIFE. "So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies." If the wife is to be loved, she must be lovable, for it is as impossible for the human mind to love the morally unbeautiful as it is to believe a mathematical contradiction.
There are women who are morally hideous, and from whom all manly natures must revolt with disgust. What is the truly lovable in a wife? Personal beauty? This may fascinate the eye for a short time, but it has no power to generate moral esteem. Brilliant genius or sparkling accomplishments? No; these may charm the fancy, but never evoke the true germ of manly love. What is the lovable? The text suggests two of its elements.
1. A vital sympathy with the spirit of a true husband. "So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church." The true husband we have described: he is a royal man, who rules by moral influence for beneficent ends in the spirit of self-sacrificing love; and the true wife must have such a vital sympathy with that high moral spirit of his as to make the "twain one flesh.
" His aims are elevated, his spirit is Christ-like, and her whole heart being in vital accord with his, they are "no more twain, but one flesh." God, not priests nor hireling registrars, has joined them together.
2. A love-centralizing power of character. There must be that fascination and bewitchment of moral spirit about her that will draw the affections of her husband from all the dearest of other objects, and center them on herself. "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh." He should discover in her virtues so numerous and strong as to draw his sympathies even from the nearest of his other relations and center them on her, feeling that he can repose in her his utmost confidence and bestow on her his choicest love.
CONCLUSION. It is obvious that the world abounds with spurious marriages. The popular idea of marriage is a legalized union of one man to one woman. Though the union may be formed by mere sensual impulses and selfish considerations, it is still called a marriage. Though it be formed, not only without any relative fitness between the parties conjoined, but with a painful discrepancy in temper, age, health, education, it is still called a marriage.
Though it be formed without any element of moral excellence as a foundation, and without mutual love for virtue—simply because no mutual virtue exists—still it is called a marriage. The woman may be destitute of every high quality, immersed in sensuality and pride, still at the altar the man pledges to her his love; and the man may be a little soul, in every respect inferior to the woman, yet at the altar she pledges him reverence and obedience. Nothing is more baneful to a country than the corruption of the marriage institution. The law of England, alas l unites brutes and fiends together as well as saints.
"For marriage is a matter of more worth
Than to be dealt in by attorneyship:
For what is wedlock forced, but a hell,
An age of discord and continual strife?
Whereas the contrary bringeth forth happiness,
And is a pattern of celestial bliss."
(Shakespeare.)
D.T.
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY
"Imitators of God."
I. HOW IT IS POSSIBLE FOR US TO BE IMITATORS OF GOD. It is vain to try to imitate God if all resemblance to God is beyond our reach. But this is not the case. While speculative theology is fatally successful in magnifying the distance between man and God, practical revelation is ever bringing us nearer to God.
1. We are like God by nature. God is spirit, and we are spiritual beings. As Channing taught, all spirits are of one family. God made us in his own image. It is our work to revive that image where it has been obscured and to carry it up to higher resemblances.
2. We can imitate God in very small ways. Because he is infinite and we are finite we are not to infer that all common likeness is impossible. The smallest pool may bear a perfect image of the sun.
3. We are susceptible of indefinite growth and improvement. Because we are sadly unlike God now it does not follow that we may never resemble him. "It is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him" (1 Giovanni 3:2). God has revealed himself to us. We cannot imitate what we do not know.
Mysteries of the Divine nature must ever lie beyond our sight. Nevertheless, something real about God we do know. For we have seen Christ, and he who sees Christ sees God (Giovanni 14:9).
II. IN WHAT RESPECTS WE ARE TO BECOME IMITATORS OF GOD. We cannot attain to his almighty energy nor to his unfathomable wisdom. Yet we may imitate the method of these Divine attributes in the exercise of corresponding human qualities.
But the resemblance to God that is both most important and most attainable is moral and spiritual likeness in character and conduct. Consider especially in what points we most need to be like God.
1. Purity.
2. Truth.
3. Generous giving. There are men who are always grasping for themselves, and others who distribute abroad. The latter are like God, who is ever raying out blessings.
4. Forbearance. In nothing do we more need to imitate God than in his gentleness with sinners, his long-suffering patience, and his forgiving mercy.
5. Love. This is nearest to the heart and very being of God, for God is love. He who loves his kind most widely and warmly is likest God (see Efesini 5:2).
III. WHY WE SHOULD BE IMITATORS OF GOD.
1. It is our natural duty. Nothing short of this will satisfy the claims of right. It is not enough that we follow the best men and conform with the utmost propriety to the pious fashions of the times, nor even that we obey our own consciences. We have to make our conduct agree with God's conscience. Duty is infinite—a ceaseless climbing to higher and yet higher regions of holiness.
We cannot reach the pinnacle of perfection at once, and we are not guilty for not doing what lies beyond our present powers. But we are blameworthy if we aim at less than perfection and if we ever rest contented with any lower stage of progress. "Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matteo 5:48).
2. We are under obligations of gratitude to become imitators of God. The word" therefore" calls our attention to these obligations. It points back to the previous words, wherein we are exhorted to forgive one another, even as God also in Christ forgave us.
3. Our highest blessedness will be found in our resemblance to God. He is ever blessed. Everything ungodlike must be ultimately a source of pain and death. Though the imitation of God begins in toil and sacrifice, it grows into the deepest peace and the richest gladness.
IV. BY WHAT MEANS WE MAY BECOME IMITATORS OF GOD.
1. Worship. Heathen gods are objective representations, and even monstrous exaggerations, of the natures of their devotees. Such gods can have no good moral influence. But God, as he is revealed in Christ, is infinitely above us, and full of wonderful beauty and attraction. As we gaze upon his glory in rapt devotion we are changed into his likeness. We all imitate, consciously or unconsciously, what we admire. When we see a great picture we wish to paint; when we enjoy good music we desire to produce it; when we see noble deeds we are fired to emulate them.
2. Meditation. As St. Francis is said to have received the wounds of Christ on his own person by intense meditation on them, we may receive the spiritual likeness of our Lord—a more profitable resemblance—by contemplating and dwelling in the spirit of his life. Then also we shall have the likeness of God. He who is nearest to God in prayer and communion grows likest God.
3. Obedient action. We must do Divine deeds of holiness and charity if we would have the character that a habit of such deeds begets. All this God will supplement and vivify by the inspiration of his Holy Spirit breathing his own life and likeness into us.
V. IN WHAT SPIRIT WE ARE TO BECOME IMITATORS OF GOD. "As beloved children." Thus loved children venerate and imitate their parents. Here is no room for spiritual pride. For when we lose the childlike spirit we fall away from the imitation of God.
They who imitate God most truly are most simple and childlike, and that spirit of trust in a loving parent which is the highest educational influence in the child, must be in us if we would be good imitators of God.—W.F.A.
The sacrifice of Christ.
I. THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST WAS VOLUNTARY. He gave himself. He said he had power—right as well as ability—to lay down his life (Giovanni 10:18). Had the sacrifice of Christ not been the free giving of himself, it would have been like the human sacrifices of the heathen—a fearful deed in those who slew him and of no import to any one else.
The essence of the sacrifice, all that gave to it propitiatory efficacy, was the willingness of the Sufferer who offered himself. God is not pleased with pain and death. What he is pleased with is the devotion, fidelity, and love that endure pain and death in the fulfillment of an unselfish and noble mission.
II. THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST WAS OFFERED TO GOD. Christ was not simply a Martyr to truth, nor only a Sufferer in the cause of humanity. The cup that he drank was given to him by his Father. His persistence through mortal agony was in submission to the will of God.
Gethsemane interprets Calvary. It reveals an essential element of the sacrifice of Christ that has been too much neglected in our theologies—the obedience of Christ. St. Paul saw tints when he said that Christ became "obedient unto death." Thus the cross was an altar and the crucifixion an offering to God.
III. THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST WAS WELL-PLEASING TO GOD. In primite language it is said that when the smoke of Noah's sacrifice went up to heaven "God smelled a sweet savor"—literally, "a savor of satisfaction," i.e. it was acceptable to God.
So Christ's sacrifice is described as "an odor of a sweet smell." Such an act of fidelity to God and love to man could not but be pleasing to God. Thus the sacrifice becomes a propitiation; it becomes the means through which God looks favorably on those for whom it is offered.
IV. THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST WAS MADE ON OUR BEHALF. "For us." Men had often offered sacrifices for themselves—to express their own devotion and to expiate their own sins. It is customary now for people to talk of making a present sacrifice in order to secure a future advantage.
But Christ's sacrifice was not for his own interests. It was the Shepherd giving his life for the sheep, the Friend laying down his life for his friends. His was the pain, ours is the gain; his the cross of death, ours the crown of life.
V. THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST WAS OCCASIONED BY HIS LOVE TO US. "Christ also loved you." There was no necessity that Christ should die. Ordinary duty would not have required the sacrifice, for, though fidelity and obedience entered into it, these elements were consequent on the free undertaking of a work of love by Christ.
Christ as a man was possessed of a great love of his kind that constrained him to die for the world; Christ as the Son of God and "the very image of his substance" (Ebrei 1:3) died because he was full of the love of the Father for his lost children.
VI. THE SACRIFICE OF CHRIST SHOULD LEAD US TO WALK IN LOVE.
1. In return for His love. Love should inspire love. If it does we shall show our love to Christ by loving our brethren.
2. In breathing his Spirit. Christianity is not merely appropriating the fruits of the work of Christ. It is following in his footsteps. Christians are called to be imitators of God, especially as he is manifested in Christ. An imitation of God must therefore consist chiefly in an exercise of love like that of Christ. tits love to us led him to submit to crucifixion. He asks us simply to walk in love.—W.F.A.
Awake!
I. A DESCRIPTION. A particular kind of man is here addressed—"thou that sleepest;" "the dead."
1. The man is asleep. His sleep is spiritual indifference. Whether or no he has an abstract belief in religion is not of the slightest moment. He may be an atheist or he may be orthodox of the orthodox. So long as he is sleeping it matters little what he might have been doing had he been awake. The sleeper may have his eyes open to secular interests; he may have a quick intellect in speculation or a vigorous energy in business. Yet angels who see that he is unconscious of the greatest realities must regard him as a dreamer or at best as a restless sleep-walker.
2. This sleep is a sign of death. It is more than sleep. It is unnatural and impossible to a soul in full energy. Spiritual perceptions must have been dulled and spiritual powers paralyzed to admit of this blindness and stupor in regard to Divine things.
II. A CALL. Awake! Up! Arise! A loud voice disturbs the sleeper.
1. God calls, sometimes
(1) in providence, rousing the careless soul by the shock of some sudden change; and often
(2) in the gospel, for it is the duty of the preacher to speak in trumpet-notes, not merely to teach the attentive but also to rouse the listless.
2. It is important to respond to this call; for sleep is
(1) a sinful neglect of duty;
(2) a foolish loss of blessings—he who sleeps till the full day never sees the glory of the sunrise; and
(3) a dangerous condition—the longer a man sleeps the more difficult will it be to awake, and meanwhile death and judgment may be upon him.
3. It is possible to awake. The spiritual sleep is partly voluntary and semi-conscious. As a man sometimes knows that he is dreaming so he may be made aware that he is spiritually asleep and may rouse himself if he will. There is rousing power, too, in the Divine voice. It vexes a man to have his rest disturbed, but as one who wakes the sleeper when his house is on fire it comes for his deliverance and he will do well to bestir himself.
III. A PROMISE. "Christ shall shine upon thee." There is something to wake up for. Christ is the Light of the world. His people are now "light in the Lord." He brings to the waking soul truth, purity, and joy. When the storm rages and the dark night lingers, and to wake is only to take up again the burden of sorrow and grope in the hopeless gloom, a man has some excuse for sleeping.
Despair may sleep. But the Christian finds a bright morning responding to his opening eyes. We are not to wake only to kindle a poor light for ourselves. We are rewarded for waking by the cheering brightness of Christ. We must rouse ourselves, however, to enjoy it. The people that sit in darkness see the great light only when they awake and arise from the dead.—W.F.A.
The value of time.
I. ALL TIME IS OF HIGH VALUE. They who kill time destroy one of the best talents God has given them and rob him of a sacred trust he has lent to them.
1. Time is not our own property. We are servants and have to account to our Master for our use of his hours.
2. Great concerns have to be attended to. Not only is art long while life is short, but duty is great, the claims of service are many, and the wants of our fellow-men are numerous. In this world of toil and strife and sorrow every moment is of value for some good deed of mercy or some solid work of truth.
3. Lost time is irrecoverable. We cannot redeem the time that has been wasted. A repentant diligence may bring back the inheritance that was squandered away in extravagant folly; careful attention may bring back the wasted health; but time once gone is gone forever.
4. Time may be made of increasing value. An hour is worth more in the use of one man than a day with another man.
II. SPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES ARE OF SPECIAL VALUE. St. Paul urges us to buy up "the seasons." All time is not of equal value. There are moments of peculiar preciousness. Woe to him who, through heedlessness or willful negligence, lets them slip! The moment when the rope floats by the drowning man it must be seized or he dies. Strike the iron while it is hot. Sow the seed in the spring if you would reap the harvest in the autumn.
1. Youth has its golden opportunities that belong go no other age. Young men especially should make the most of their own season.
2. Manhood has its time of vigor for work that will be beyond the strength of old age. The wise man will watch for occasions of usefulness that his word may be "in season."
III. THE TRUE VALUE OF TIME CAN ONLY BE OBTAINED AT A COST. We have to buy it up before we can make use of it.
1. We must spend thought in considering how we can best use our time and in watching for right opportunities. For want of due consideration there is a frightful lack of economy of energy and time.
2. We must sacrifice our own pleasure in giving up time that we are tempted to expend on ourselves, our amusement or our rest, to the service of God. He who only gives to God his leisure moments, when he is worn and jaded with his own selfish work, makes but a poor offering.
3. We must put out greater energy in order to make our time of more value. Few of us work on the highest subjects at full pressure. The busiest might do more good if, when they cannot as yet find time for serving Christ, they would make time.—W.F.A.
Drunkenness and its antidote.
I. THE SIN. It was the mistake of some of the earlier advocates of temperance to dwell too much on the economic arguments against drunkenness, to the neglect of those which are supplied by religion. That dissipation wrecks a man's position in the world is plain and sad enough. But it is not worldly self-interest that is chiefly outraged thereby. The sin of drunkenness is its great condemnation. It is a sin against God and man.
1. It desecrates the temple of the Holy Ghost.
2. It unfits a man for his mission in the world.
3. It occasions brutal unkindness to others, robbing the family of daily bread for the sake of gross self-indulgence, bringing poverty and gloom, wretchedness and terror on the home, and giving to children a hideous inheritance of disease and constitutional tendencies to the same vice.
4. It opens the door for other vices. Instead of pleading intoxication as an excuse for a crime committed in the madness of drink, a man should be made to feel that the wickedness of putting himself into such a condition was aggravated by the terrible results.
II. THE TEMPTATION. In order to remedy the fearful evil we must consider how it arises.
1. From customs of sociability. Drinking has been regarded as an almost necessary accompaniment of friendly intercourse.
2. From lack of mental occupation. Men spending hours together of a winter's night without any education to supply food for the mind resort to the glass as the one available relief from the tedium of doing nothing.
3. The craving or nervous stimulation. This is the real thirst of the excessive drinker. What is called "low spirits," resulting from general ill health, or nervous debility, or trouble, or as the natural consequence of previous indulgence, creates the craving for stimulants. Early in the present century, Lord Jeffrey quoted a statement of a physician of Liverpool, respecting some of the most prosperous merchants of that town.
"He informs me," said the lord advocate, "that few of the richer sort live to be fifty, but die of a sort of atrophy. They eat too much, take little exercise, and, above all, have no nervous excitement." This condition tempts to indulgence in nerve-stimulants.
III. THE ANTIDOTE. We must have an antidote if we would remedy the evil. Mere negative abstinence without anything to support and encourage it is impossible on a large scale and in the worst cases. St. Paul, by a flash of inspiration reveals the cure. "Be filled with the Spirit." These are old words. Yet they read strangely in the present connection—so little have they been heeded by zealous but unimaginative and unspiritual social reformers. We are to pray for the Spirit of God which Christ assures us will be given to all who ask for it (Luca 11:13). How is this to counteract drunkenness?
1. Contrasta il desiderio di stimolazione nervosa . È esso stesso uno stimolo spirituale puro e rivitalizzante, che infonde allo stesso tempo quiete ed energia.
2. Fornisce interesse e occupazione . Perché lo Spirito di Dio è l'ispirazione del pensiero e della potenza.
3. Purifica ed eleva i rapporti sociali . Coloro che sono ripieni dello Spirito scopriranno che "cantare e fare melodie nei loro cuori" è un accompagnamento più congeniale ai rapporti sociali che bere bevande forti. —WFA
culto cristiano.
Abbiamo qui non solo un'interessante immagine del culto come era condotto nella Chiesa primitiva, ma anche indicazioni apostoliche per il culto cristiano che possono essere applicate a tutti i tempi. Considera alcune delle caratteristiche principali di questo culto.
I. IT IS PURE . Il contesto mostra che questo punto era di particolare interesse nelle circostanze che si verificarono quando fu scritta l'Epistola. Le pure e semplici osservanze dell'assemblea cristiana di Efeso dovevano essere in netto contrasto con le orge tumultuose che caratterizzavano le feste pagane. In quelle cerimonie pagane si riconoscevano l'ebbrezza e la licenziosità.
Invece di abbandonarsi all'ubriachezza, i cristiani cercano di essere ripieni dello Spirito; abbandonando le pratiche immorali, si occupano del culto sociale cantando e intonando melodie nei loro cuori. I pagani separavano la morale dalla religione. Per i cristiani nessuna delle due è possibile senza l'altra. Il culto cristiano deve essere offerto nella bellezza della santità. La condotta cristiana è purificata ed elevata dall'ispirazione del culto.
II. IT IS SPIRITUALE . Dobbiamo fare melodia con il nostro "cuore". Il cuore sta, non solo per i sentimenti né principalmente, ma generalmente per la vita interiore. L'adorazione deve iniziare qui, o la musica più ricca e la canzone più dolce saranno una vuota presa in giro. Qualunque siano le nostre forme di adorazione, dobbiamo costantemente ricordare che il Dio spirituale può essere veramente adorato solo in spirito, nei pensieri interiori e nei sentimenti di devozione.
III. IT IS EMOZIONALE . La religione non è solo sentimento. Si basa su convinzioni e si sviluppa in azioni. Ma la religione non fa a meno delle emozioni. Tocca tutta la nostra natura, la parte emotiva con il resto. Fa un grande uso dei sentimenti come sorgenti di influenze attive e simpatiche. Dovremmo coltivare sentimenti di amore e adorazione. Nel culto questo elemento della religione trova la sua naturale portata ed esercizio.
IV. IT IS GIOIOSA . Invece di riti cupi e sacrifici sanguinosi, i cristiani hanno musica e canto nella loro adorazione. Vivono sotto un vangelo e dovrebbero riecheggiare la lieta novella dell'amore di Dio. Stanno venendo da un Padre e dovrebbero avvicinarsi a lui con felice fiducia in casa. Seguono Cristo, che dona la sua gioia al suo popolo ( Giovanni 15:11 ).
V. IT IS VOCAL . Comincia nel cuore, ma non vi rimane nascosto. Il sentimento profondo si manifesta naturalmente in un'espressione forte. L'emozione religiosa è incoraggiata e assistita da un'espressione adeguata. Di tutte le parti della religione il ringraziamento dovrebbe essere il meno riservato.
VI. IT IS MUSICALE . " Fare melodia". Non possiamo rendere troppo bello il servizio della lode, perché dobbiamo offrire a Dio ciò che è meglio nella forma come nella sostanza, e perché la musica del canto asseconda il sentimento che esprime. Il canto sciatto è segno di indifferenza e irriverenza.
VII. IT IS CONGREGAZIONALE . "Parlando l'un l'altro." Questa è probabilmente un'allusione al canto congregazionale antifonale. Ma qualunque sia il metodo adottato, e sebbene un coro possa prendere la sua parte nel servizio, è chiaramente intenzione di S. Paolo che tutto il popolo canti, e così uno dovrebbe esortare e incoraggiare un altro. Non possiamo lodare Dio per procura.
VIII. IT IS RIVOLTA DI DIO IN CRISTO . "Al Signore". Plinio scrive come i cristiani del suo tempo si incontrassero al mattino presto per cantare inni a un Cristo. Non dobbiamo cantare semplicemente per il nostro diletto o cultura spirituale, o semplicemente per attirare e interessare gli altri, ma principalmente per rivolgerci a Dio e a Cristo in lode e comunione. — WFA
Ringraziamento.
Ci sono tre punti in questa esortazione al ringraziamento che catturano la nostra attenzione, vale a dire. il tempo, gli oggetti e il metodo.
I. IL TEMPO DEL RINGRAZIAMENTO . C'è un tempo per ogni cosa. Quando, quindi, è opportuno il ringraziamento? Sempre. Come dovremmo pregare incessantemente vivendo in costante comunicazione con Dio, così uno spirito di gratitudine dovrebbe pervadere tutta la nostra vita ed esprimersi con lo splendore e il colore che dona ad ogni azione ( Salmi 34:1 ).
Se il contesto limita l'applicazione delle parole di san Paolo al culto pubblico ( Efesini 5:17 ), l'ampiezza della loro incidenza è ancora molto significativa. Ogni assemblea cristiana deve gioire della lode, in ogni preghiera la supplica deve essere mescolata al ringraziamento ( Filippesi 4:6 ). Ci sono momenti in cui questo è difficile, ad es .
g . in difficoltà e in stati d'animo di depressione spirituale. Ma la difficoltà sarebbe diminuita se pensassimo meno ai nostri sentimenti e più ai doni e alle opere della bontà di Dio. La religione moderna è troppo soggettiva, e quindi fluttua con le nostre diverse fasi dell'esperienza. Il ringraziamento dovrebbe chiamarci fuori da noi stessi per contemplare e lodare Dio. Sotto la nuvola più oscura un cuore riconoscente accompagnerà innumerevoli cause di gratitudine. Ma lascia che il nostro ringraziamento sia onesto. Se non ci sentiamo grati, non cerchiamo di forzare l'espressione di gratitudine.
II. GLI OGGETTI DEL RINGRAZIAMENTO . " Tutte le cose ".
1. Benedizioni personali . Mentre ringraziamo Dio per i doni comuni a tutta l'umanità, la nostra gratitudine sarebbe più calda e genuina se riflettessimo sulle prove speciali della sua bontà nella nostra vita.
2. Nuove benedizioni . Se il ringraziamento deve essere perpetuo, deve trovare costantemente nuovo cibo per la gratitudine. Questa, di tutte le parti del culto, non dovrebbe essere una semplice ripetizione di vecchi pensieri logori. Le nostre idee su questo punto sono troppo limitate dalla convenzionalità. Se stiamo attenti a dire grazia prima della carne, perché non dovremmo essere ugualmente pronti a ringraziare Dio per un buon libro, una visita allegra o una passeggiata ristoratrice?
3. Cose che non possiamo vedere come benedizioni . La gratitudine per i problemi è difficile da realizzare. È possibile solo attraverso la fede. Ma se crediamo che Dio ci sta benedicendo in loro, dovremmo ringraziarlo come si ringrazierebbe un chirurgo anche per aver amputato un arto per salvare la vita del suo paziente.
III. IL METODO DEL RINGRAZIAMENTO ,
1. Dovrebbe essere offerto a Dio nostro Padre . È un parlare diretto a Dio. Essendo lui il Padre misericordioso, la sua paternità dovrebbe essere l'attributo che più ci viene in mente quando lo lodiamo. Non stiamo rendendo adulazione a un monarca lontano che la rivendica come condizione per risparmiarci la vita; stiamo esprimendo il nostro amore e la nostra genuina devozione a nostro Padre. Non ci dovrebbe quindi essere alcuna abiezione umile nella nostra adorazione. Dovrebbe essere allegro e sicuro di sé.
2. Il ringraziamento deve essere dato nel Nome di Cristo ; cioè
(1) nel riconoscimento che le benedizioni di Dio ci giungono tramite Cristo; e
(2) ricevendoli e apprezzandoli nello spirito di Cristo. — WFA
Mariti e mogli.
I. IL CRISTIANESIMO CONSACRA ED ELEVA L' UNIONE DI MARITO E MOGLIE .
1. Il cristianesimo sanziona il matrimonio . San Paolo, anche se non sposato, non sminuisce il matrimonio. È vero che lo scoraggia in circostanze temporanee di prova ( 1 Corinzi 7:1 ), ma è anche vero che insegna chiaramente non solo la liceità, ma soprattutto la dignità del matrimonio cristiano in sé. La visione ascetica del celibato come stato più santo del matrimonio non si trova nel Nuovo Testamento. "Si sposi in onore fra tutti" ( Ebrei 13:4 ).
2. Il cristianesimo eleva il matrimonio . San Paolo lo paragona all'unione di Cristo con la sua Chiesa. Non prende la relazione matrimoniale per illustrare quell'unione, un'illustrazione che era familiare ai profeti nello spiegare la relazione di Dio con Israele. Egli fa il paragone in senso opposto, assumendo l'unione di Cristo e della Chiesa come unione vera e perfetta, e quindi come tipo di ciò che dovrebbe essere il matrimonio, vale a dire.
(1) stretta unione e
(2) unione spirituale.
Inoltre, è da osservare che il cristianesimo eleva il matrimonio
(1) dando alle donne un'uguaglianza religiosa con gli uomini: uomini e donne hanno uguali privilegi nel Vangelo; e
(2) inculcando purezza, giustizia, gentilezza e altruismo.
II. L'ALTO CHRISTIAN IDEA DI MATRIMONIO PONE GRANDI RESPONSABILITA ' SU MARITI E MOGLI . Cura e impegno sono necessari per realizzare un ideale così magnifico come copia umana dell'unione mistica di Cristo e della Chiesa. Occorre prestare particolare attenzione ai seguenti requisiti:
1. Simpatia reciproca . Non è giusto che mariti e mogli, nel dividere la vita familiare in reparti separati, non si interessino alle cure e ai lavori reciproci. Il marito dovrebbe mostrare simpatia per le speranze domestiche della moglie, le paure, le gioie ei problemi, e la moglie per i progetti, i successi e le delusioni del marito.
2. Fiducia reciproca . Questo è essenziale per la simpatia reciproca. Non dovrebbero esserci segreti tra marito e moglie. Sicuramente è un errore per un marito nascondere i suoi problemi alla moglie per il desiderio di risparmiarle il dolore, e allo stesso modo per la moglie fare lo stesso nei confronti del marito. La separazione così provocata è un male più grave del dolore che viene impedito.
3. Reciproca tolleranza . Ciascuno deve essere preparato a incontrare i difetti dell'altro. Ma ciascuno sarebbe meno provocato da queste colpe se il marito pensasse piuttosto a ciò che sua moglie deve sopportare in lui che a ciò di cui può essere irritato in lei, e se la moglie riflettesse allo stesso modo sui propri difetti.
4. La consacrazione del matrimonio mediante l'unione con Cristo . Un matrimonio così veramente cristiano è al sicuro dal naufragio. È triste vedere quanto raramente si realizzi l'idea cristiana del matrimonio; ma non ci si può aspettare di meglio finché uomini e donne non mireranno a una vita più elevata di quella che è ora prevalente nella società: una vita di unione spirituale con Cristo. —WFA
Il trattamento di Cristo della sua Chiesa.
San Paolo descrive il modo in cui Cristo ha trattato la sua Chiesa come un'illustrazione del modo in cui i mariti dovrebbero comportarsi con le loro mogli. Ma quella visione del mondo spirituale, che è l'ideale del matrimonio terreno, è così attraente da catturare di per sé l'attenzione dell'apostolo. Potrebbe fare lo stesso con noi.
I. COSA HA FATTO CRISTO PER LA CHIESA . Siamo prima diretti all'opera di Cristo per la Chiesa nel passato. Lo amava e si è dato per questo.
1. Cristo ha amato la Chiesa . Amava il mondo intero, ma provava un amore particolare per coloro che si fidavano di lui e gli obbedivano: un amore come quello che c'è tra lui e Dio, un amore di simpatia e fiducia che non poteva essere dato al mondo che non si fidava e ubbidirgli e fu amato solo con l'amore della misericordia.
2. Cristo ha amato la Chiesa prima che la Chiesa fosse degna del suo amore . Il suo amore inizia il processo di purificazione della Chiesa. Non ama perché il suo popolo è santo, ma lo santifica perché lo ama.
3. L'amore di Cristo alla sua Chiesa lo ha portato a donarsi per essa . Il suo amore non era un sentimento ozioso. Ha ispirato il suo sacrificio di se stesso. Quel sacrificio, dunque, è la grande prova del suo amore. Con tutto ciò che soffre conferma il suo amore alla Chiesa. Il linguaggio di san Paolo può sembrare implicare che Cristo non è morto per il mondo intero, ma solo per la Chiesa. D'altra parte, però, va osservato che san Paolo insegnava che Cristo avrebbe infine riunito il mondo intero nella sua Chiesa ( Efesini 1:10 ).
II. COSA CRISTO STA FACENDO PER LA CHIESA .
1. Lo sta purificando . Il battesimo spirituale della Parola, cioè l'insegnamento della verità cristiana, è il metodo. Ma Cristo è nella verità e sta attivamente purificando le anime del suo popolo. Pertanto nota
(1) non dobbiamo aspettare di essere puri prima di cercare Cristo e diventare membri della sua Chiesa, ma dobbiamo piuttosto venire nel nostro peccato, pentendoci e desiderando emendamenti mediante la sua grazia, affinché, dopo essere venuti a lui, egli possa purificarci; e
(2) saremo purificati se entriamo nella Chiesa di Cristo, perché Cristo non permetterà che noi rimaniamo nella condizione imperfetta in cui inizialmente ci ammette. Tutta la vita cristiana è un processo di santificazione.
2. Cristo nutre e custodisce la sua Chiesa ( Efesini 5:29 ). Sfama il suo popolo con il pane che è il suo corpo. Egli veglia su di loro e tratta con loro dolcezza e benevolenza, e con la sua grazia rafforza e fa progredire la loro vita spirituale. Così Cristo non ha compiuto un'opera compiuta e un sacrificio. Ora sta portando avanti il duplice processo di purificazione e nutrimento della Chiesa.
III. COSA CRISTO WILL DO CON LA CHIESA .
1. Lo renderà glorioso . I cristiani non devono ricevere la mera liberazione, ma gioia e gloria. La Chiesa non deve solo ricevere benedizioni su di lei; deve essere innalzata lei stessa in santità e gloria. lei deve essere
(1) "senza macchia", ogni macchia di peccato svanendo; e
(2) "senza rughe", tutti i segni dell'età, della stanchezza e dei problemi che passano.
2. Cristo presenterà a sé la Chiesa . Sta preparando la sua sposa per il grande matrimonio dell'Agnello. Il fine di tutto è che, essendo prima redenti da Cristo e poi purificati e fortificati, i cristiani possano essere in definitiva; uniti a lui in eterna beatitudine. — WFA