and language of thanksgiving. But clearly Asiatic Christians were only
too ready to forget the essential incompatibility of their new
profession with the old sinful habits around them. So St. Paul
emphasizes 'This ye know for certain that fornication or unclean living
on the one hand, or the turning of gain into a god on the other, surely
excludes a man from the kingdom of Christ and God[1].' And he
reiterates 'let no man deceive you with empty words.' Such vices,
being in plain contradiction to the divine will, make men subjects of
the divine wrath, and for you this should be startlingly plain. You
have been brought out of the realm of darkness of which once you formed
a part, into the realm of light, of which you now form a part, the
realm whose light is Christ. There is no fellowship between the light
and the darkness[2]. To live in the light means to bring forth fruit
of goodness and righteousness and truth, the fruit of a character like
Christ's. For you have in Christ a definite standard by which you can
test what is well pleasing to the {195} Lord. It is your business,
therefore, to keep yourselves altogether separate from the works of
darkness which bear no fruit. Not only so, but it is your business to
'reprove' or convict the dark world of sin; not, of course, by making
the works of darkness the subjects of your curiosity and
conversation--that indeed must not be--but simply by the contrast which
your own lives present. In the light of your lives the secret shame of
the heathen life will be unmasked. And in being unmasked even the
works of darkness will themselves become part of the light. To make
such ways of living attractive they must be cloaked up in a deceitful
glamour. Once stripped bare and shown in their true character they
teach their true lesson. Thus, the one duty of a man is to awake from
the old sleep of death; to separate himself from the morally dead world
and stand clear in the light of Christ. And that is what the early
Christian hymn, which St. Paul cites, was continually impressing upon
the Christian conscience. We may attempt to reproduce it in something
like its original rhythm thus:--
'Be awakened, thou that sleepest;
Rise alive from out the dead world;
Christ, the Light, shall shine upon thee.'
{196}
Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children; 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 odour of a sweet smell. But
fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be
named among you, as becometh saints; nor filthiness, nor foolish
talking, or jesting, which are not befitting: but rather giving of
thanks. 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. 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; for ye
were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord: walk as children of
light (for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness
and truth), proving what is well-pleasing unto the Lord; and have no
fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather even
reprove them; for the things which are done by them in secret it is a
shame even to speak of. But all things when they are reproved are made
manifest by the light: for everything that is made manifest is light.
Wherefore _he_ saith, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the
dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee.
Three points may be noticed in this characteristic exhortation:--
1. The strife of light and darkness. The victory of the rising sun
and its surrender at evening to the darkness; the obscuring of the
light through eclipse or mist and its recovery--these {197} universal
appearances present themselves naturally to human consciences
everywhere as being experiences analogous to the moral strife within
between good and evil. Light is thus the universal symbol of good, and
darkness of evil. The symbolism passes out of early native myths into
the spiritual phraseology of many religions; but especially into those
of the Persians and the Jews. 'In thy light shall we see light' is the
cry of the devout heart towards God. And the whole of Christian
language is possessed by the symbolism. Christ is 'the light of the
world': His disciples are 'the children of light,' they are to be
clothed in 'the armour of light,' bathed in 'the light of the glorious
Gospel': they are the children of the God who 'dwelleth in the light
which no man can approach unto': who 'is light and in whom is no
darkness at all.'
St. Paul, like St. John, specially loves the metaphor of light. And it
is somewhat startling to notice how different is his conception of
enlightenment from that common in modern times, or indeed, from that
held in the schools of philosophy of his own day or by the Gnostics
just after him. This latter class of men, who can be taken as typical
of many others at very {198} different epochs, meant by 'the
enlightened' a select few who had a special capacity for intellectual
abstraction and contemplation, and who by such qualities of the
intellect were believed to attain to a knowledge of God which was
beyond the reach of the ordinary men of faith. But St. Paul, following
his Master, is quite certain that the root of true enlightenment lies
in the will and heart. The love of the light is first of all simply
the pure desire for goodness; and anything that is not this first of
all is a counterfeit and a sham. And the true enlightenment is thus
not the privilege of a few, but is open to all who will come to Christ.
'Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For seeing
that in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom knew not God, it
was God's good pleasure, through the foolishness of the preaching, to
save them that believe.' 'If any man thinketh that he is wise among
you in this world, let him become a fool that he may become wise. For
the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God[3].' This language
sounds violent; but I doubt if many thinking men could now be found
{199} to doubt that the way opened by the 'foolishness of the gospel
preaching' was a way of light for the world compared to which the way
of the contemporary philosophers was darkness and delusion. The
arrogant wisdom of the contemporary 'Heracleitus' would have provided
no real light at all for the Ephesians whom he denounced. A fresh
start was wanted for man, and the fresh start was primarily in the life
of the conscience and heart. On the other hand neither St. Paul, nor
any of the New Testament writers, can be accused of the sort of
obscurantism to which the later Church has often fallen a victim. One
cannot even conceive St. Paul denouncing free inquiry, or cloaking up
from free investigation the title-deeds of Christianity. His love of
the light--even with all the dangers that the light has--like his love
of freedom, is frank and real.
If we come down to our own time, there is no doubt a great deal of
contemporary 'enlightenment' that St. Paul would have pronounced
spurious. He would never surely have disparaged intellectual inquiry
or free scientific research: but he would have continually emphasized
that no one was really enlightened whose will and heart was not right
with God. {200} To have a scientific knowledge of facts is by
comparison superficial; and worse than superficial is the sharpness and
worldly cleverness which continually boasts of being 'wide awake' and
'up to date.' It is possible to be awake and enlightened in the
speculative and practical intelligence: to be awake and enlightened in
the region of the senses: and yet to be asleep and in the dark in the
region of the will and conscience towards God. And there lies the true
heart of manhood. It is possible even to be enlightened about evil and
in the dark as regards goodness. But St. Paul hates curiosity about
the ways and methods of sin. 'I would,' he says, 'have you wise unto
that which is good, and simple unto that which is evil[4].' Take heed
that the light that is in thee be not darkness. This curiosity about
sin is a delusion which has sometimes a strange hold on some who would
serve God. But they must recognize that the only Christian method of
'convicting the world of sin' is by 'convicting it of righteousness.'
Innocence has a power which sometimes is strangely underrated.
We may pause for a moment longer to dwell on the beauty of St. Paul's
ideal of Christianity {201} as a life in the light. It has everything
to gain and nothing to lose by disclosure. It has no need to cloak
itself. It can be frank with itself and the world. And, on the other
hand, sin is a great fraud and delusion as well as a great
disobedience. It dwells in a region of lies and excuses and
concealments; it hides from itself and from the world its true
character and true issues. For, in fact, it is not only in itself foul
and rebellious, but it is in its issues fruitless. It leads to
nothing: it produces nothing: it tends only to decay or corruption of
mind and body, while goodness is only another term for life and
fruitfulness. Life, and the production of life, is the good, and it
belongs to the light; on the contrary, what hinders or destroys life
goes against God and belongs to the darkness. This is a judgement
which mis-called disciples of Malthus in our day would do well to
remember. It is not from too much life that the world is suffering,
but from corrupt and perverted life. What we want to secure is not a
limit to the population, but the bringing up of children in health and
simple living, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
2. St. Paul, in some passages of his epistles, uses very strongly
'universalist' phrases. He {202} has spoken to the Ephesians of
bringing all things in heaven and earth again into a divine unity in
Christ. And to the Corinthians he spoke of a time when God should be
'all things in all.' It is, therefore, all the more noticeable that
when he comes to speak of the destiny of evil men he does not offer
them any hope if they persist in their evil, but warns them that moral
evil utterly and wholly excludes from the kingdom of God: and he
appears to be not at all anxious to reconcile this warning as to the
eternal consequences of wilful evil with what he has said in other
connexions as to the final inclusion of all things in a great unity.
His example would teach us to aim at being true to the whole truth
rather than at attaining a premature completeness or consistency of
knowledge about a world in regard to which we only 'know in part.'
'Yea, the more part of God's works are hid[5].'
3. We cannot fail to notice how constantly St. Paul associates lawless
lust with lawless grasping at money or the goods of other
men--greediness or avarice. This has led some to suppose that the
Greek word for greediness is really intended to mean lust in its
grasping {203} character. But this is a mistake. The words are
associated partly, no doubt, because lust so often involves an
'overreaching and wronging our brothers[6]' of their just rights; but
much more because the lawless grasping after gain and the lawless
grasping after pleasure are the two great perversions of the human
soul. Pleasure and mammon are the two typical idols.
[1] Possibly this expression means 'the kingdom of Him who is at once
Christ and God.'
[2] 2 Cor. vi. 14.
[3] 1 Cor. i. 20, 21; iii. 18.
[4] Rom. xvi. 19.
[5] Ecclus. xvi. 21.
[6] 1 Thess. iv. 6.
{204}
DIVISION II. Sec. 4. CHAPTER V. 15-21.
_The Christian life a zealous and deliberate seizing of the opportunity
afforded by surrounding moral evils._
[Sidenote: _Buying up the opportunity_]
The Christian stands awake and in the light. He has a vantage-ground
of spiritual knowledge, and the opportunity afforded by this
vantage-ground he is to use. He is not to live at random but is to
fashion his life with deliberate circumspection and prudence in order
to make the best of the spiritual opportunity, just as the merchant
cleverly seizes and uses to his own advantage a particular commercial
situation. What gives the Christian his spiritual opportunity is the
corruption which surrounds him. Of that corruption St. Paul has
already said enough. The result of it was to leave whatever was good
in man disconsolate and ill at ease. The exhibition of the Christian
light amidst such surroundings could not but arrest men's attention and
attract {205} their hearts. And if we want to be informed, in greater
detail, how to buy up the opportunity, St. Paul's answer is threefold.
First, there must be a positive apprehension of the divine will in
particular cases such as qualifies for decisive action. 'Be not
foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.' This is the
sort of wisdom which enables a man to do what our Lord expects of
spiritual leaders, to 'discern the time.' It is a rare quality but,
according to the measure of the gift of Christ to each, it is attained
by spiritual thoughtfulness, singlemindedness, and prayer.
Secondly, there is to be a strong and sociable enthusiasm, expressing
itself in uninterrupted joy, and based upon deep draughts of the divine
Spirit. In St. Paul's day, as in our own, men would seek escape from
the dullness of life and its sense of isolation in the excitement and
fellowship which comes of intoxicating drink. Other forms of mental
intoxication were provided at Ephesus by a sensual religious
enthusiasm. St. Paul would have the Christians confront such lawless
excitement not merely with the spectacle of discipline and
self-restraint, but also with a counter-enthusiasm, purer but not less
strong. Christians are to find an {206} excitement as strong as
drunkenness, and a fellowship as warm as is to be found in any band of
revellers, in deep draughts of the wine of the Holy Ghost. 'Be not
drunken with wine wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit,
speaking one to another in psalms[1] and hymns and spiritual songs
(such as the one he has just quoted), singing and making melody with
your hearts to the Lord.'
Lastly, there is to be a spirit of submission, mutual accommodation and
order. The disciples are to 'subject themselves one to another in the
fear of Christ.' They are, as St. Peter says[2], to be girt each one
with the apron of service to minister to one another's needs, knowing
their responsibility to Christ, and how He looks for obedience and
service in all men. Enthusiasm is apt to be lawless, but the
enthusiasm of the Christians is to be the enthusiasm of an organized
body. It was said of old of the men of Issachar, who gathered round
the standard of David[3], that they had 'understanding of the times to
know what Israel ought {207} to do; the heads of them were two hundred,
and all their brethren were at their commandment.' A similar spirit of
practical religious understanding, with a similar readiness to obey
their leaders, is what St. Paul desires in the new Israel to do the
work of the true Son of David.
A temper then of clear positive understanding as to what God wills to
be done in the immediate future, fired by an ardent and sociable
enthusiasm, and associated with a disinterested readiness to obey one
another in practical affairs--this is what St. Paul means by 'looking
carefully how we walk'; and it is worth while noticing that St. Paul's
conception of carefulness leads in a direction quite opposed to mere
timorous and negative prudence. Exhortations not to be rash, but to
'look before you leap,' are very commonly given by the wise. But it
does not seem to be generally remembered that, at least in the service
of God, most men err by excess not of rashness but of caution, and
'look' so long that they never 'leap.' Truly if rashness has slain its
thousands, irresolution has slain its ten thousands. The spirit St.
Paul would have us cultivate is not this cowardly mis-called wisdom,
but rather the spirit of the ideal soldier, of the 'happy warrior.'
Nothing, {208} in fact, could be more fascinating than the picture St.
Paul here draws of the Christian community. He has a vision of a pure
brotherly enthusiastic society, fulfilled with a divine life, and
attracting into its warm and comfortable fellowship the isolated,
weary, hopeless, and sin-stained from the cold dark world outside.
Look therefore carefully how ye walk, not as unwise, but as wise;
redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not
foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And be not
drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit;
speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; giving thanks
always for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even
the Father; subjecting yourselves one to another in the fear of Christ.
St. Paul's exhortation to 'buy up the opportunity because the days are
evil' finds fresh application in every generation. For each generation
the 'days are evil,' and good men always feel them to be so. Not
necessarily that they are evil by comparison with other days, for the
'good old times' certainly never existed, and it is not often possible
to balance the evils of one age against those of another. It is enough
{209} for us to understand 'the ills we have.' What they are in our
own generation is conspicuous enough. In part they are the normal
evils of selfishness, and sensuality, and pride, and weakness; of
divisions of races and classes, and personal uncharity. In part they
are special: I will not make any general attempt to characterize them
here. But it is probably true to say that, among other characteristics
which our generation exhibits, is a lack of great enthusiasms and
strong convictions and inspiring leaders. Literature, philosophy, and
politics are alike lacking in a clear moral impulse. 'Causes' are at a
discount. Men are disillusionized. It is a 'fin de siecle' by some
better title than a chronological mistake. It is this characteristic
of the moment that ought to give the Church its opportunity. At
present she largely fails to take it because she lacks concentration
within her own body. The true disciples, the faithful remnant, exist
in every place, but they are lost in the crowd. They need to be drawn
together if they are to make an impression. A vigorous faith, and the
confident hope for humanity which a vigorous faith begets, were never
better calculated than they are to-day to produce a right moral
impression on the world, owing to the {210} mere absence of rival
enthusiasms. We can supply what is wanted if only everywhere we will
cultivate sincerity and enthusiasm rather than numbers, and aim at
forming strong centres of spiritual life, rather than a weak uniform
diffusion of it.
[1] St. Paul is in part referring to the habit of responsive or
antiphonal chanting, which Pliny, the governor of Bithynia, reports as
characteristic of the Christians half a century later--'to sing
responsively (secum invicem) a hymn to Christ as a God.'
[2] 1 Pet. v. 5.
[3] 1 Chron. xii. 32.
{211}
DIVISION II. Sec. 5. CHAPTERS V. 22-VI. 9.
_The relation of husbands and wives: parents and children: masters and
servants._
[Sidenote: _The law of subordination_]
St. Paul mentions submission as required, in a sense, from all
Christians towards all others--'submitting yourselves one to another.'
But it is plain that in any community, and most of all in a Christian
community where order is a divine principle, some will be specially
'under authority': and accordingly St. Paul applies his general maxim
to three classes in particular--wives towards their husbands, children
towards their parents, slaves towards their masters. But in making
these applications of the law of obedience, he enlarges his subject by
including the counter-balancing principle of the duty of
self-sacrificing love on the part of those in authority; so that he
treats not one side of the relation only but both.
{212}
A. HUSBANDS AND WIVES. (V. 22-33.)
[Sidenote: _Husbands and wives_]
Wives are to be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. Just as
the divine fatherhood is the ground of all lower fatherhood, so the
authority of the one great Head is the ground in all lower headships,
and each in its place is to be accepted as the shadow of His. Thus the
husband's headship over his wife is the shadow of Christ's headship
over the church, and that explains of what sort the husband's authority
should be. For Christ's rule is a rule for the advantage of the ruled.
He rules the church as Himself its saviour or deliverer from bondage,
and the word 'saviour' is full of associations of self-sacrificing
love. So must it be with a Christian husband. But Christ is not
merely a head to the church. He too is a husband. This idea of God as
the husband of His people--an idea which expressed both His choice of
them, His love for them, and His jealous claim upon them--is familiar
in the Old Testament. 'Thy Maker is thy husband.' 'I am a husband
unto you, saith the Lord[1].' And it is probable, as Dr. Cheyne
suggests, 'that the so-called Song of Solomon was admitted into the
canon {213} on the ground that the bride of the poem symbolized the
chosen people[2].' But in a Christian sense the idea gains a fresh
meaning. 'We that are joined unto the Lord are of one spirit' with
Him[3]. We are the 'members of his body'; and, as drawing our life
from His manhood, we may be even said to be, like Eve from Adam, 'of
his flesh and of his bones[4].' Christ then is, in this richness of
meaning, the husband of the church.
St. Paul seems further to describe this relation of Christ to the
church under the figure of three marriage customs. The husband first
acquires the object of his affection as his bride by a dowry: then by a
bath of purification the bride is prepared for the husband: finally she
is presented to him in bridal beauty. Accordingly Christ, because He
loved the church, first 'gave himself for her'; and we may interpret
this phrase in the light of another used by St. Paul in his speech to
the Ephesian elders, where the church is spoken of as 'purchased' or
{214} 'acquired[5]' by Christ's blood. Having thus acquired the Church
for His bride, He secondly 'cleansed her in the laver[6] of water with
the word': and that, in order that He might 'sanctify her' and so
finally '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.'
This threefold statement has great theological interest which we will
consider shortly. Here we will simply let it stand, as St. Paul uses
it, to exhibit Christ as the ideal husband, the pattern for every
husband. Love for his bride; self-sacrifice in order to win her; and
the deliberate aiming at moral perfection for her through the bridal
union--that is the law for him. The wife, according to the original
divine principle, is to be part of the man's self--one flesh with him.
He must love her truly and care for her as his own flesh. This
'mystery,' or divine secret revealed, is great, St. Paul says; 'but in
saying this I am thinking of Christ and his church.' This seems to be
the exact force of verse 32. In other words--this divine disclosure of
the relation of God to man, as realized in the marriage of Christ and
His church, is indeed great and lofty. {215} But, St. Paul continues
in effect, great and lofty as it is, it is a practical pattern for us.
Do ye also, as Christ the church, severally love each one his own wife
even as himself, and let the wife see that she fear (i.e. reverence and
fear to displease) her husband, even as the church stands in holy awe
of Christ.
Wives, _be in subjection_ unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of
the church, _being_ himself the saviour of the body. But as the church
is subject to Christ, so _let_ the wives also _be_ to their husbands in
everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the
church, and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, having
cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, 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. Even so ought husbands also to love their own wives as their
own bodies. He that loveth his own wife loveth himself: for no man
ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as
Christ also the church; because we are members of his body. For this
cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his
wife; and the twain shall become one flesh. This mystery is great: but
I speak in regard of Christ and of the church. Nevertheless do ye also
severally love each one his own wife even as himself; and _let_ the
wife _see_ that she fear her husband.
There are several points here which need consideration.
{216}
1. There is a rich theology in St. Paul's brief description of the
relation of Christ to the church. First, there is Christ's love for
the church which involves a purpose of entire sanctification for her;
then there is sacrifice, the sacrifice of Himself, for her; then there
is the baptismal purification of the church to fit her for Christ,
which is in fact nothing else than the baptismal purification of all
the individual members of the Christian body; and this is also, as St.
Paul elsewhere teaches, the means to them of new life by union with
Himself. It is their cleansing bath because therein they are 'baptized
into Christ.' (Here, we notice, the analogy of the marriage custom
breaks down: what is in the marriage ceremonies only a washing
preparatory to union, is in the spiritual counterpart also the act of
union. Baptism is both the abandonment of the old and union with the
new.) Lastly, there is the final presentation by Christ of the church
to Himself in sinless, stainless perfection.