Chapter 5

Chapter Five

¹ Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children. As the Master loved you, do you also love your brother, and you have imitated God as far as is possible. For here it is not possible to plead poverty and to say, If I forgive, I am the loser; but forgive him who has trespassed, without cost and without loss, and you have gained a great thing—to imitate God. Then he sets down also another and nobler reason. For as beloved children, he says; that is, You have yet another necessity to imitate your Father. And since not all children imitate their father, he added the word, Beloved; for such as these imitate their fathers.

² And walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. Behold the foundation of all things; for where this is present, there is no clamor, no wrath, no blasphemy, but all are done away—wherefore he set down this chief point last. And he teaches also whence we became children: that it is from love. We ought, then, to cherish it, since it has become the procurer of the divine adoption. For just as, when we are sick, if we are helped by some medicine, we honor even the very name of the medicine, so also ought we to cherish love; for through it the Master gave himself for us. And yet he gave himself for enemies, while you spare not even friends. So that you then truly imitate Christ, when you do good to your enemies. For the word even as is then preserved; and to die for enemies, this is a sacrifice and a sweet-smelling savor; for this is what Christ also became, dying for us his enemies; this is to imitate God.

³ But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be even named among you, as becometh saints. Having spoken concerning the bitter passion of wrath, he came [also] to the less evil one, desire; as the lawgiver also, having said, You shall not kill, which belongs to wrath, set down secondly, You shall not commit adultery, which belongs to desire. For just as bitterness, and clamor, and blasphemy belong to wrath, so too to the part that desires belong fornication, and uncleanness, and covetousness; for by the same faculty we love both money and bodies. Let not, then, such things be even named among you, but be wholly pure; for words are a road to deeds. So that, if you are saints, let your tongue also be holy. And he adds further what follows:

⁴ And filthiness, and foolish talking, or jesting, which are not fitting, but rather thanksgiving. Just as he took away clamor, being the vehicle of anger, so now does he take away filthy speech and jesting, being the vehicle of fornication. For do not, he says, utter witticisms, nor base things, and you have quenched the flame of fornication. Then, lest he should seem burdensome and harsh, as cutting off jesting, he brought forward also the cause, saying, Which are not fitting—that is, Which are nothing to you. For just as the leather-worker will not endure to do any of the things not fitting to his own craft, so also the Christian, having become holy, ought not to say the things [of his own] not fitting to sanctification. For the things not needful are nothing to us. But if you wish to say anything, let every word be thanksgiving to you; and if you accustom yourself to give thanks, you will call to mind who you are and what you have become, and you will mourn over your own evils, and you will be utterly amazed at him who counted you worthy of such things, and you will not even have time to say anything else. For the present season is not one of laughter or jesting, but of mourning and contest. The enemy goes about gnashing his teeth against you, and do you sport and jest? For even one who contends finds it hard to prevail over him—how much more one who sports? And what is a jester? The pliant man, the one who becomes all things, the one who easily turns his words about; and this belongs to an unstable mind, and is alien to those who serve the Rock.

⁵ For this you know, that no fornicator, 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 empty words. There were some, as it seems, among the Ephesians who said that God, wishing to frighten them, forbade these trivial things. For what is amiss in saying, Thou fool, that he who says it should become liable to hell-fire? and how is the covetous man an idolater? These, then, the Apostle hints at, and the appended clause makes it plain: Let no man deceive you with empty words. For empty words are those that have a temporary charm, but are shown to be useless in deeds, and to bestow such things is a deceit. For that the covetous man is an idolater, learn: You cannot serve God and Mammon. The covetous man, then, has departed from God, and serves gold; how then is he not an idolater? But if he says that he has set up no idol, what of this? For neither did the more refined of the Greeks confess to worshipping idols, but rather Aphrodite, it may be, and Ares; and these are passions. But he does not slaughter sheep—nay, but men and rational souls. The Greeks worshipped the creatures of God, but the covetous man worships his own product. For God did not make covetousness, but our own insatiableness. And I think that Paul said this from David, in another manner. For while David says, The idols of the nations are silver and gold, he turns it about, according to his great wisdom, that silver and gold are idols. Therefore he who serves silver and gold is altogether an idolater.

⁶ For because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience. Either because of fornication, and uncleanness, and idolatry; or because of such words of the deceivers. And by sons of disobedience he means the exceedingly disobedient, those who disbelieve God, those who lay down such things as doctrine.

⁷ Be not ye therefore partakers with them; for ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. But you, he says, have no fellowship with them. Then he reminds them of their former wickedness, saying: Consider what you were, and what you have become, and that from darkness you became light. For formerly, both in respect of doctrines and in respect of life, you were sheer darkness; but now you are light, inasmuch as you have come to know God, and pursue the works of light. And this came to you not from your own virtue, but in the Lord—that is, through the divine grace. You ought not, then, to have fellowship with the sons of disobedience, upon whom the wrath comes; for formerly you were such and worthy of wrath, but now no longer; do not, then, run back to the darkness.

⁸ Walk as children of light. That is, decorously, and as is fitting for one who walks in light. Rather, he also charges us to be light to others as well. For the child of light is assuredly itself also light.

⁹ For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth. He interprets for us, as it were, what the child of light is, and says that it is that which has the fruit of the Spirit; for the Spirit bears as fruit, not those things which we spoke of before, but the contrary ones: goodness, which is set against bitterness and wrath; righteousness, which is contrary to covetousness; and truth, which withstands the false pleasure of uncleanness. And he says all goodness—that toward all, not only friends, but rather toward enemies.

¹⁰ Proving what is well-pleasing to the Lord. To prove belongs to the perfect, to those able to judge. So that it belongs to an imperfect and unproved understanding not to choose the things pleasing to the Lord, such as the passions spoken of above.

¹¹ 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. Unfruitful are the works of darkness and of sin; for they bear no other fruit but death and shame. One ought not, then, to have fellowship with these works, but rather to reprove them—which is to instruct those who do such things. How, then, does he say elsewhere, Judge not? Instead of, Do not condemn. For reproof is one thing, and condemnation another; for the one is unto correction, the other unto reproach and exposure. Moreover, the Judge not is said concerning the smallest sins. He adds, therefore, And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye? And Paul hints at certain unspeakable practices prevalent in Ephesus.

¹² But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light. Having said that Ye are light, and that the light reproves the things done in darkness, he adds: If, then, you are virtuous, the wicked will not be able to escape notice. For as, when a lamp shines, the thief would not break in, so, when the light of your virtue shines, those men will be caught, especially as they are also reproved by you with instructive words.

¹³ For whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Just as a wound that is covered enjoys no healing, so also is it with sin. But when it is made manifest, it becomes light—not the sin itself, but he who works it. For when, having been reproved, he repents and obtains forgiveness, has not his darkness been purged away? Or, [the meaning is] that Your life, he says, being manifest, is light; for no one hides a blameless faith and practice. But the things that are hidden are hidden because they are worthy of darkness—things which must be reproved and made manifest.

¹⁴ Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. By him that sleeps and is dead he means the one in sins. For he is foul-smelling as the dead, and inactive as one asleep, and he dreams, and imagines things that have no substance. When, therefore, one is raised from sin, then Christ shall give him light—that is, shall shine upon him, just as the sun also upon those who are roused from sleep. For so long as he is in sins, he hates the light, and comes not to it. And he says these things not concerning unbelievers only, but also concerning believers. And you may find a difference between him that sleeps and him that is dead. For many who do the evil, yet do not consent to what is done, might be called sleepers; and these are quickly awakened—to whom is said, Awake. But others both do the evil and advocate it; and these might be named dead, as harder to recall to the good. Yet even to these the word cries aloud that they may arise; for the changeable nature is not to be despaired of.

¹⁵ See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as unwise, but as wise. And he still purges away bitterness and wrath, as if saying to them: You are sheep in the midst of wolves; many are fierce toward you, even your nearest kin; see that you give no one an occasion for enmity; except concerning the faith, let no one of you lay any other charge, but show all honor and obedience, where the faith is not harmed, and become as doves. For this belongs to wisdom, or rather to prudence: to keep oneself blameless, avenging oneself on no one.

¹⁶ Redeeming the time. He does not teach us to be devious, but since, he says, the time is not yours, but you are sojourners, and pilgrims, and strangers, seek not honor and glory, nor vengeance, but bear all things, and in this redeem the time; lay down all that they may wish. As a rich man, seeing certain men coming upon him to slay him, will give all and deliver himself, so do you also give all, so as to preserve the chief thing—I mean the faith.

¹⁷ Because the days are evil. He does not disparage the substance of the days; for the substance of a day is, it may be, the light, and the hours; what wickedness, then, is there in these? But because of the things that come to pass in the days, he seems to disparage the days; just as we are wont to say, I passed a bad day—because of the things that befell in it, namely, which came from wicked men, not from God. For this reason, then, the days are called evil, as having within them wicked men who hold sway.

¹⁸ Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of God is. Since, he says, the days have wicked men, do you as prudent men make haste to give them no occasion; for this is the will of God, to keep yourselves blameless in all things, together with the guarding of the faith also.

¹⁹ And be not drunk with wine. And he still chastens wrath; for the immoderate use of wine makes men irritable and bold. And that it is the immoderation he chastens is plain; for he did not say, Drink not, but, Be not drunk. And drunkenness comes from immoderation; since wine drunk in measure produces health also (as he himself says in the Epistle to Timothy), and gladness, as David testifies. And again the Scripture: Give wine to those in sorrow, and strong drink, that is, relaxation, to those in pains. For it dissolves what is harsh and gloomy. For this reason God also made our bodies measured, so that they may be content with little, and may press on toward another life.

²⁰ Wherein is excess. That is, immoderate use. For it saves not, but destroys—not the body only, but also the soul. And this is excess. Or by excess here, according to the common usage of ordinary people, he means licentiousness. For from drunkenness licentiousness is born.

²¹ 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. Do you wish, he says, to be glad? Flee the filling that comes from wine, and desire to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And this will be yours, if you learn to sing psalms. For those who sing psalms are filled with the Holy Spirit, just as those who sing the songs of Satan are filled with an unclean spirit. And to make melody in the heart is this: with understanding, and with the heart not roving. For he who gives heed, that man makes melody in the heart. And observe that, after cleansing the soul from bitterness and the other passions, and making them compassionate and forgiving, then he expounds to us the filling that comes from the Holy Spirit. For he will not simply come upon us, but will fill our heart. And since there is so great a light within us, the rest of virtue too will be easy and ready.

²² Giving thanks always for all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God and the Father. Always; for not in ease only, but also in sorrows, and not for good things only, but also for grievous ones, and both for those we know and those we know not. For through all things we are benefited, even though we be ignorant of it. And we must give thanks to the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus—that is, naming the Lord Jesus also, and taking him along [also] with us, as being the mediator both of the good things and of the very thanksgiving.

²³ Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Behold, again love. For from this comes the submission to one another; not for any worldly or human reason, but in the fear [he says, of] God. For those who submit to one another for God’s sake will never be made to stumble or be dissolved, having such a bond.

²⁴ Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. Not without purpose and at random does Paul take much pains concerning wedlock, but because God also cared for it from the beginning exceedingly. For to Adam he united his sister—or rather his daughter—and what do I say? his own flesh. Then, when the race was multiplied, he extended marriage yet further, that he might not confine love to kinsmen alone. And our life is held together through marriages. He says, then, that Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands. For if the marriage be in concord, the children too are reared well, and the servants are orderly, and all things—both the affairs of neighbors and of friends—are well. And serve as unto the Lord. How, then, is it written elsewhere, Unless a man renounce his wife, and [a wife her husband], he cannot follow me? For if one must serve as unto the Lord, how does he say that one ought to depart for the Lord’s sake? Because the word As is not everywhere altogether of equal honor. Or, [the meaning is] that you submit, knowing that you serve God; that is, even if not for the husband’s sake primarily, yet at least for the Lord’s sake. For if he who sets himself against the outward authority withstands the ordinance of the Lord, much more she who sets herself against her husband. So that, on the contrary, she who submits to the Lord submits to him.

²⁵ For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church, and he is the saviour of the body. From reasonings he establishes that wives ought to submit, and sets down as the ground and occasion of love the fact that the husband holds the ruling and provident rank (for he is, he says, head and saviour), while the wife holds the submissive one; for she is body. As Christ also, being the head of the Church, provides for it and saves it, so then the husband too is the saviour of his own body—that is, of the wife. How then ought not the body to submit to the head, which provides for it and saves it?

²⁶ But as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. From this you will learn more plainly what he said above, that Submit to your husbands, as unto the Lord. For since wives ought to submit to their husbands as the Church to Christ, and the Church is also women, therefore as to Christ ought the wife to submit to her husband. But how? Does he then command her to submit at every [time]? Even when the husband urges her toward unbelief? But the discourse now is not for Paul about unbelieving husbands, but about believing ones, to whom plainly he was also writing.

²⁷ Husbands, love your own wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it. You saw how Paul urged the wife to submit to you in the measure in which the Church also submits to Christ; hear now how he again constrains you to love her, and not to behave despotically. For love her; in what measure? In that in which Christ also loved the Church; provide for her, as Christ also for her; and if you must suffer anything, or even die for her, refuse not. For you indeed, already joined to her, will do these things; but he did so for one that hated him and was an adulteress. And as he drew to himself her that turned away from him, not by threats nor by insults, so do you also, even if you see her turning away and being coy, hasten to draw her to yourself by much love and forethought; and if you suffer anything for her, reproach her not; for neither did Christ so deal with the Church.

²⁸ That he might sanctify it, having cleansed it with the washing of water by the word. So then it was unclean, and impure, and unshapely, yet he did not abhor it; so neither do you abhor your own wife, even if she be most unshapely, even if mean. For that the Church was unshapely, hear: For ye were once darkness; for what is blacker than darkness? Serving wickedness and envy; what is more unclean? Disobedient, foolish, but also blasphemous; what is more hideous than these? Yet nevertheless, as for one beautiful, as for one wonderful, he gave himself up. And he cleansed it with the washing of water—that is, with baptism.

²⁹ By the word. By what word? In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

³⁰ That he might present it to himself a glorious Church. Not simply clean, but glorious. As then Christ is the cause of all good things to the Church, so be you also to your own wife; and as he procured for it the beauty that is according to the soul, so do you also strive after this, not after that of the body. For if you seek the beauty of the soul from your wife, you will quickly fashion this for her, ordering her and presenting her glorious according to the spirit, both to yourself and to God.

³¹ Not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. By these things he means the passions of the soul. Spots, then, are the recent passions, which are also easy to wash off, and which produced a blemish. Wrinkles are those grown old with time, which also rendered it unclean, being hard to wash away. But the divine washing cleansed all, and presented them holy and without blemish.

³² So ought men to love their own wives, as their own bodies. Not as setting this down now as a greater and more compelling example (for it is plain that the relation of Christ to the Church is greater than the measure of an example), but as a nearer and more intimate one. For lest anyone be able to say that He was God, and gave himself, he lays the necessity upon us from another quarter. For they ought, he says, to love; that is, the matter is not a favor, but a debt and a necessity; for your wife is your body. The example of Christ, then, he took up not only because one must love, but also because of the ordering; for that, he says, it should be holy and without blemish. But that of the flesh, only because of the loving.

³³ He that loveth his own wife loveth himself. For no one ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ also the Church. Every one renders to his flesh, he says, intense and careful attendance; so do you also to your wife. And again he uses Christ as an example, showing that Christ also loved us as his own flesh.

³⁴ For we are members of his body. That is, we have much kinship with him.

³⁵ Of his flesh, and of his bones. For he came to be from our material, just as Eve also from Adam. And as there is so great a nearness there, so also with us. And in another way too, we are of his flesh, and of his bones, both because, just as he was begotten of the Spirit without intercourse, so also are we in the washing; and because, having partaken of the mysteries, from this we are straightway transformed. To say it concisely, then, this is what he means: that we have the utmost intimacy with him. For indeed both according to what is seen he shared with us flesh and blood, and according to what is conceived by the mind he became the cause of the spiritual refashioning for us, just as Adam too was of Eve’s fashioning.

³⁶ For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and the two shall be one flesh. Behold yet another just claim: that one, having forsaken even those who begot him, [is joined and] entwined with her. And he did not say, Shall dwell with, but, Shall be joined, signifying the indissoluble union. And the phrase, Unto one flesh, the great John takes also simply thus, instead of, They shall be one flesh; but it hints also at something else, namely, that the two shall be unto the producing of one flesh—that is, the child.[1]

³⁷ This is a great mystery; but I speak concerning Christ and concerning the Church. That is, the blessed Moses hinted at something great and wonderful. For in truth it is a mystery, that one should forsake those who begot him, who toiled over him, who did him good, and be joined to her who was never seen before, nor first began any good thing. A great mystery indeed; yet for the present this is taken by me with reference to Christ, he says, as being spoken prophetically concerning him. For he too forsook the Father, not by a change of place, but by the condescension toward the flesh, and came to the bride, who had always been ignorant of him, and became with her one spirit. For he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. How then is marriage maligned, when Paul brings it forward as an example of the mystery that is according to Christ, and even names it itself a mystery?

³⁸ Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his own wife even as himself. Nevertheless, he says, even if I have taken these things allegorically, yet they are spoken also for the wife’s sake, and the allegory does not overturn the relation, according to the letter, of the husband to the wife. For each one ought, [he says], to love his wife, and cherish her, as himself. And do not say to me that the wife has this or that defect; for in your own flesh too you have defects—such as a crippled hand, a lame foot, a distorted eye; yet you do not cut these off, but rather deem them worthy of greater care.

³⁹ And the wife see that she fear her husband. Since equality of honor produces disorder, for this reason he introduces fear, that there may be one principle of authority, the husband. And by fear here he means the intense reverence and modesty befitting free persons, not the servile kind. From such fear love too will be knit together, and it again will knit him together with her. For the wife will love the husband as a member; and will fear—that is, honor—him as a head. What then, if the wife does not fear? Do you love, do your own part; likewise the wife too, even if she be not loved, yet let her fear. And observe that he showed at length how the husband must love the wife, but no longer enlarges upon the matter of fear, because this most of all he wishes to prevail—the matter of love. For indeed the wife too, as has been said, ought to fear with the fear that comes from love, not the kind that makes one tremble and dread, from which hatred is rather born, but so as not to gainsay, nor to rise up, nor to love pre-eminence. For even though they are one flesh, and she too has authority equal in honor according to this, yet the wife is also a second authority, and the husband has more.