Let all bitterness, &c. be put away— "Do not passionately resent every trifle, nor bitterly inveigh, with all the licentiousness and keenness of satire, against those who have greatly injured you;—for these things are most contrary to the nature of God, the genius of Christianity, and the character of its great Founder." Such is the meaning of this verse, if we suppose each word to have a different idea annexed to it; but if they are only synonimous terms, the Apostle's design in amassing them together might be to shew, that he would have them to be upon their guard against all the malevolent passions, and those outrages of speech and expression which they tend to produce. The like remark may be applied to many other passages of scripture, and particularly to those where all kinds of lewdness are forbidden in such a variety of phrase and language.
Inferences.—If divine grace has taught us to know the hope of our calling, it will surely add great weight to the pathetic exhortations of this faithful servant and prisoner of Jesus Christ, to walk worthy of it. It will teach us that humility, meekness, and long-suffering, of which our divine Saviour was so glorious an example;—an example, which should powerfully engage us to the exercise of that mutual forbearance, so well suiting those whom he has brought into so happy a state.
To incite us hereto, let us reflect—"Do we not all, indeed, belong to one body, however called by different denominations? Have we not all (so far as we are truly called Christians) received one Spirit? Is there not one hope of our common calling—even that of dwelling together, in one and the same blissful world, with God, and with each other? Have we not one Lord, even Jesus Christ, to whom we all equally profess subjection; who has taught us one faith: who has instituted one baptism, and who has introduced and consecrated us to one God and Father of all?—And what then are the considerations which should prevail so far as to divide us, when compared with such bonds of union as these?"
Let us all, therefore, in the name of this God, who is over all, who operates through all, and in us all; in the name of this one Saviour, and one Spirit,—awful and endearing names! into which we were all baptized; let us charge it upon our own souls, that we not only do nothing, through a factious and uncharitable temper to divide his church, but that we study what we can to heal its breaches, and to promote its growth and edification. And let us pray that God would guide and prosper our endeavours for that purpose, and preserve our hearts in such a situation and temper, that we may stand continually willing to give up every temporal interest which may interfere with such a design; yea, and even to make our own blood, if such were the will of God, the cement of those wounds, with which a body thus intimately united to Christ has so long been bleeding almost to death.
Were we actually to give such a proof of our regard to it, what would it be in comparison of the infinite condescension and love of that Saviour, who for us descended to these lower regions of the earth, and dwelt for a while among the dead; and then triumphantly rising and ascending on high, led those enemies, who held us in captivity, themselves captive, as at his chariot-wheels; and having received gifts from men, scattered them down with such royal munificence, that he might fit his ministers for the offices to which he had called them.
These his ministers we are taught by this chapter to regard as the special gifts of his love to the church; and as such, let us adore him for them; not only for apostles, prophets, and evangelists, but also for pastors and teachers. And let us earnestly pray, that through the continued influences of that Spirit, which he has sent down from on high, holy men may, in every succeeding age, be so perfectly and completely fitted for the work of the ministry, that the body of Christ may be edified; that by this means we may all come to that union, to that strength, to that full maturity, to which, by calling us into the fellowship of the gospel, he intended to raise us.
In the mean time, while we are advancing towards it, may we rise above that childish weakness which would make us the sport of every wind of doctrine, and a prey to every artifice of designing men. Let us ever maintain a due regard to the united interests of truth and love, that our union with Christ may be secured, and our growth in him more happily and abundantly advanced.
And since we have learned Christ, since the light of his blessed gospel has been imparted to us, and we are no longer numbered among the heathen nations, let us not abandon ourselves to those irregularities of temper and life, for which even their ignorance will not be a sufficient excuse, since the light even of their obscure dispensation taught them to condemn and to abhor such courses.
There are deceitful lusts, according to which the old man is corrupt; let us be always on our guard against them, and labour after such a renovation as becomes our profession; and, in order to its being effectual, let us be earnestly solicitous to obtain it in the spirit of our mind; that we may shew its influence upon us, not merely by ceasing to do evil, but by learning, to the utmost of our power, to do good. Thus, let it be our care to put on the new man, to be partakers of a new and holy nature, and to be brought to the whole of that temper in all its branches, by which we shall resemble the blessed God, the bright Original of universal righteousness and holiness, and the great Model of perfection.
In consequence of this, remembering our relation to each other, let us speak the truth from our hearts; and upon all occasions let us treat others with the same candour and integrity with which we would ourselves desire to be treated. If anger or indignation rise, let it be only on just occasions, and in due proportion; and let us take care that it rest not in our bosoms; lest, by indulging it, we give place to the devil, and become like that malignant spirit.—Let us be upright in our dealings; and, conscientiously avoiding the iniquitous practice of defrauding others, let generous and charitable sentiments always possess us; nor let those whose circumstances in life may constrain them to maintain themselves by their own manual labour, think that they may violate the strictest rules of honesty, or are dispensed with from all obligations to relieve others more necessitous than themselves. Whenever we engage in conversation, let us avoid every thing that may have the remotest tendency to corrupt discourse; and let us study what may improve and edify the minds of our hearers; embracing every opportunity of suggesting any thing that is good, and that may tend to minister grace, or to promote the more abundant exercise of it in the minds of those in whom it is already implanted.
Thus will the Spirit of God, that sacred Agent of Divine inspiration and sanctification, be delighted, instead of being grieved, as he so frequently is by the vain and foolish discourses of those who would be thought his temples. For his influences let us look, to dispose us to every good word and work, and seasonably to remind us of these plain but weighty admonitions, which, alas, are so little remembered by the generality of those who call themselves Christians, that one would imagine they had scarce ever read them.
The words in Ephesians 4:28 make up a complete sense, without depending on what goes before, or what follows after. They contain a confirmation and explication of the eighth commandment. For what the Apostle enjoins concerning labour and working with our hands, is no more than a necessary consequence of the command, "Thou shalt not steal." For since all men are equal sharers in the wants and necessities of life, and the things which should supply these wants are unequally divided, so that some have more than enough, and some much less, it follows, that the necessities of the one must be supplied from the abundance of the other. Steal you must not, or give perhaps you will not. The only sure way then by which you can come at the things you want, is by purchase or exchange; and the only thing that a poor man can exchange is the work and labour of his hands; and therefore it follows, as a consequence of the law, that since you must not steal, you must work, and purchase, by your labour and industry, the things necessary for your support and subsistence. In all that rich men can do, they want the assistance of the poor; they cannot minister to themselves either in the wants, the conveniences, or the pleasures of life: so that the poor man has as many ways to support himself as the rich man has wants and desires; for the wants and desires of the rich must be served by the labours of the poor. But then the rich man has often very wicked desires, and often delights in sensual pleasures; and though to serve the rich be the poor man's maintenance, yet in these cases the poor man must not serve him; and therefore the Apostle adds that he must labour, working with his hands the thing which is good. His poverty obliges him to serve man, and therefore he must work with his hands; and right reason, as well as religion, obliges him to serve God, and therefore he must work only the thing which is good. Labour is the business and employment of the poor; it is the work which God has given them to do; and therefore a man ought not to be satisfied with working merely as far as the wants of nature oblige him, and spending the rest of his time idly and wantonly: for if God has enabled him to gain more by his labour than his own wants, and the conveniences of life necessary to his station require, he then becomes a debtor to such duties as are incumbent on all to whom God has dispensed his gifts liberally. He must consider that he owes tribute to his Maker for the health that he enjoys; that there are others who want limbs to labour, or strength and understanding to arrive at the knowlege of any art or mystery, whereby to maintain themselves; and to these he is a debtor, out of the abundance of his strength, and health, and knowlege with which God has blessed him; and therefore he is obliged to labour, "working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth."
REFLECTIONS.—1st, The Apostle addresses to them,
1. A general exhortation to walk worthy of their high vocation. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, suffering now for my fidelity to his gospel, beseech you, by every endearing argument, that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, adorning, by your conversation, the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.
2. He particularly exhorts them, (1.) to behave with all lowliness and meekness, in humble thoughts of themselves, and the mildest deportment towards others, with long-suffering passing by offences, and overlooking the infirmities of their brethren, forbearing one another in love, influenced by this divine principle, and patient towards all men. Note; True love, humility unfeigned, and approved meekness, are the most striking lineaments of the Christian's character. (2.) In this manner endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, sweetly cemented together in holy fellowship, and the whole church being in perfect peace, no jarring discord should disturb the happy union.
3. He suggests the strongest motives to the practice which he recommends. There is one body, of which we are all members; and one Spirit, which actuates the whole; and therefore we cannot, if this be the case, but have the tenderest concern for, and closest union with, each other; even as ye are called in one hope of your calling, looking for the same inheritance in glory, and expecting to spend a blessed eternity in your Father's house above. There is one Lord, the great Head of the church, and to whom they all owe duty and allegiance; one faith, the same gospel, and to be apprehended in the same way; one baptism, the sacramental right of admission into the kingdom of grace, wherein we are solemnly dedicated to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost: one God and Father of all, who stands in this endeared relation in a peculiar sense to all that are his children by faith in Jesus Christ; who is above all, exalted above all blessing and praise; and through all, dispensing his mighty influences through the whole mystical body; and in you all, making your hearts his temple;—and therefore, being connected by ties so many and so engaging, we should be most closely united together in love, and appear as actuated by one soul.
4. The different gifts and graces bestowed on the members of the same body, far from producing any variance, should cement them the nearer, as they are given for the benefit of the whole. But unto every one of us is given grace, according to the measure of the gifts of Christ, who gives to each member his respective office and endowment, and dispenses severally, to all true believers, the grace suited to their place and station. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, triumphant over all his foes, having spoiled principalities and powers, and led Satan, sin, death, and hell, as vanquished enemies, bound to his chariot-wheels; and gave gifts unto men, the richest and most amazing gifts of his Spirit. Now that he ascended in this glorious manner, what is it that is herein intimated to us, but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth, humbling himself to take the human nature into personal union with himself, and then to lie down in the grave, making atonement for our sins. He that descended is the same divine Person, the Son of God, who ascended up far above all heavens to the state of the most transcendent dignity, enthroned in majesty on high, that he might fill all things, and abundantly dispense to every member of his church the gifts and graces needful for them. And he gave some apostles, to fill the highest stations in his church; and some prophets, to foretel by inspiration future events, and to expound the prophetic word; and some evangelists, who were generally employed in preaching the word; and some pastors and teachers, to take care of particular churches, and minister unto them in holy things: all which appointments to these several offices are designed for the perfecting of the saints, καταρτισμον, to join them in firm union together, and carry on the work of grace begun in them to its perfection; till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowlege of the Son of God, by means of the same blessed gospel, and by happy experience of the power and grace of the same adored Jesus, unto a perfect man, growing up to higher spiritual attainments, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, when we shall bear his image complete: That we henceforth be no more children, weak in faith, and knowlege, and every grace, and consequently liable to be tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive, and, by fair pretences, seduce the simple and unwary into their pernicious heresies and destructive ways; but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ; which growth in grace the blessed gospel, through the power of Jesus, tends immediately to promote: from whom the whole body, fitly joined together as members to the living head, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, by that divine energy that is communicated from the life-giving Spirit of the Lord, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. Note; Truth from the heart should ever be spoken among Christians, and with that love which may gain it a more welcome reception.
2nd, Having recommended to them close union, he proceeds to inculcate purity of heart and life.
1. He warns them against the practices of the unconverted heathen. This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, entreating, and solemnly in his name enjoining it upon you as members of his undefiled body, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in their sinful, idolatrous, sensual courses, in the vanity of their mind, acting after the dictates of their vain and corrupted hearts; having the understanding darkened in all spiritual matters; alienated from the life of God, estranged from him who is the fountain of life, and averse to all his holy ways, through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, rejecting every means of instruction, wilfully perverse and obstinate against the notices of his will, and resisting the convictions of their own consciences, not choosing to retain God with all their knowlege; who being past feeling, their hearts hardened in sin, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness, abandoning themselves to every vile affection without restraint, and pursuing their guilty pleasures with insatiable desire.
2. Far otherwise was the lesson which the gospel had taught them. But ye have not so learned Christ, since ye have known his grace; you have been directed to a different spirit and conduct; if so be, or since that ye have heard him speaking in his word to your hearts, and have been taught by him, through the illumination and powerful energy of his Spirit, as the truth is in Jesus, even that pure unadulterated gospel which Jesus taught by his own ministry, and exemplified in his temper and conversation, whose bright example his living members delight to imitate: that ye put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man, that body of sin which was born with you: which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,—lusts which promise much gratification in the indulgence, but fatally deceive the soul into endless perdition: and be renewed in the Spirit of your mind yet more and more in knowlege, grace, and holiness; and that ye put on the new man, be made partakers of a divine nature, and in spirit, temper, and conduct, quite changed from your former selves, as if you had been really different persons; which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness, after his own image, and by his own power. Wherefore, as those who are influenced by another spirit, beware of those sins to which you were formerly addicted; particularly,
(1.) Putting away lying in every instance, speak every man truth with his neighbour, without deceit or prevarication, paying the strictest regard to your word at all times, and in all circumstances, and preferring the endurance of the greater evils to the suggestion of the least falsehood: for we are members one of another, and therefore bound to use all simplicity and fidelity in our conversation with each other. Note; An habitual liar is infallibly a child of wrath. All Christ's members desire ever to speak the truth from their heart.
(2.) Be ye angry, and sin not: for all anger is not in its own nature evil: but as we are so prone to exceed in our resentments, even where there is just cause for indignation, we must check the rising displeasure, and repress its workings: therefore, whatever cause is given for it, let not the sun go down upon your wrath; but hasten to calm any tumult which may have arisen, that it fix not in hatred, or rankle into malice and revenge: neither give place to the devil, who ever seeks to irritate the irascible nature which is in us, and to blow our passions into a flame. Note; There is scarcely a more besetting sin than anger, nor any against which we need be more habitually on our guard.
(3.) Let him that stole, steal no more, utterly abhorring all such iniquitous practices; but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth; and not only be saved from the temptation to dishonesty, whereunto idleness is the most direct road, but also be enabled by his honest industry to afford a pittance from his gains for the relief of the necessitous.
(4.) Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, nothing lewd, profane, opprobrious, light, which in its most distant tendency can lead to evil; but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers, and serve to promote their spiritual and eternal benefit. Note; Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh; and a Christian spirit will appear in a readiness to introduce and maintain such conversation as is profitable and edifying.
(5.) And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, by these or any such like evils; lest you provoke him to withdraw his blessed influences from you; whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption, that glorious day when the faithful saints of God shall be delivered from the burdens of the flesh, or when they shall rise again in glory, to appear for ever in the presence of God. Lord, take not thy holy Spirit from us! (See the Annotations.)
(6.) Let all bitterness, all rancour of spirit and acrimony and discourse; and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, the fruits of a mind inflamed with passion and rage; be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another, gentle, courteous, affectionate; tender-hearted, sympathizing, and full of pity towards the afflicted and the tempted; forgiving one another every provocation and injury, however great or aggravated, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you, freely and fully. Note; A sense how much we are ourselves indebted to the pardoning love of God, will engage us to exercise the like forgiveness to our brethren.