Ephesians 4:17-19 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

This I say, therefore For your further instruction, how to walk worthy of your calling; (he returns to the subject which he began, Ephesians 4:1;) and testify in the Lord In the name and by the authority of the Lord Jesus, that ye, being now happily brought into the Christian Church, and made partakers of all the privileges and advantages belonging to its members; henceforth walk not as other Gentiles That ye live no longer as the unconverted heathen; in the vanity of their mind Amused with the empty trifles of this world, and enslaved to low and mean pursuits, utterly unworthy of their rational and immortal nature; having the understanding darkened With respect to all spiritual and divine things, which is the source of all foolish desires and pursuits; see Romans 1:21; being alienated from the life of God Being estranged in affection, as well as in practice, from the divine and spiritual life, from all union with, and conformity to, the living and true God; or, from that noble principle of all piety and virtue, the life of God in the soul of man, forming it to the love, imitation, and service of him by whom it is implanted; through the ignorance Of God and his will, and of their duty and happiness; that is inherent in them Or natural to them, as fallen and depraved creatures; because of the blindness Την πωρωσιν, the callousness, or insensibility; of their hearts This is explained by Chrysostom, Whitby, and some other commentators, as referring to their Gentile state; but though there is no doubt but it partly refers to that, yet there can be no sufficient reason to limit such a description to dark and ignorant heathen; it is but too just a representation of all unregenerate men. Who being past feeling The original word, απηλγηκοτες, is peculiarly significant, properly meaning, past feeling pain, or void of distress Pain urges the sick to seek a remedy, and distress, the distressed to endeavour, if possible, to procure relief; which remedy or relief is little thought of where pain and distress are not felt. Thus, those who are hardened against all impressions of grief on account of their former sins, are not excited to seek either for the pardon of them or deliverance from them. Some MSS. read απηλπικοτες, hoping for nothing. These wicked men, disbelieving the resurrection of the body, and the immortality of the soul, have no hope of any happiness after this life, and therefore they have given themselves over Have abandoned themselves freely, of their own accord; to lasciviousness To wantonness, to unchaste imaginations and desires, words and actions; to work all uncleanness Impurity of every kind; with greediness The word εν πλεονεξια, thus rendered, is commonly used to denote covetousness; because the more the covetous man possesses, the more he desires. Hence the word is used (2Pe 2:14) to denote inordinate desire in general.