Eph. 5 Eph. 5:1–2 Paul exhorteth to the imitation of God, and of the love of Christ, Eph. 5:3–4 to avoid fornication and all uncleanness, Eph. 5:5–6 which exclude from, the kingdom of God, and draw down God’s wrath on unbelievers, Eph.

Be ye therefore followers of God; particularly in being kind, and forgiving injuries, Matt. 5:45, Matt. 5:48; so that this relates to the last verse of the former chapter. As dear children; viz. of God. Children should imitate their fathers, especially when beloved of them.

And walk in love; let your whole conversation be in love. As Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us; viz. to die for us, Gal. 2:20, as the greatest argument of his love, John 15:13, Rom. 5:8.

But fornication; folly committed between unmarried persons, especially men’s abuse of themselves with common strumpets, a sin not owned as such among the heathen. And all uncleanness; all other unlawful lusts whereby men defile themselves.

Neither filthiness; obscenity in discourse, filthy communication, Col. 3:8. Nor foolish talking; affectation of foolish, vain speech, (whether jocose or serious), unprofitable, to the hearers.

Nor covetous man, who is an idolater; because he serves Mammon instead of God, loves his riches more than God, and placeth his hope in them. Hath any inheritance; without repentance; for he speaks of those that persevere in such sins, whom he calls children of disobedience, Eph. 5:6.

Vain words; false and deceitful, which cannot secure to you the impunity they promise you, bearing you in hand, either that those things are not sins, or not so dangerous. The wrath of God; viz. in the other world.

With those children of disobedience, who continue in the forementioned sins: see Job 34:8, Ps. 50:18.

For ye were sometimes darkness; the same as in darkness, Rom. 2:19, 1 Thess. 5:4; viz. the darkness of sin, ignorance, unbelief. The abstract being put for the concrete, shows the greatness of that darkness in which they were.

The fruit of the Spirit; either in the fruit or work of the new nature, or of the Holy Ghost, by whom we are made light in the Lord: see Gal. 5:22. In all goodness; either a general virtue in opposition to wickedness, or benignity and bounty.

Searching what the will of the Lord is, and approving it by your practice as the rule of your walking, Rom. 12:2.

Have no fellowship with; not only do not practise them yourselves, but do not join with others in them, by consent, advice, assistance, or any other way whereby ye may be defiled by them. The unfruitful; by a meiosis, for bringing forth evil fruit, destructive, pernicious, Rom. 6:21, Gal. 6:8.

For it is a shame even to speak of those things; much more to have fellowship with them in them. Which are done of them in secret; the darkness adding boldness, as if what men did not see, God did not observe.

But all things; or all those things, viz. those unfruitful works of darkness, which are to be reproved. Are made manifest; i.e. in the minds and consciences of the sinners themselves. By the light; the light of doctrine in verbal reproofs, and of a holy life in real and practical ones.

He saith; either God by the prophets, of whose preaching this is the sum; it may allude in particular to Isa. 60:1. Or, Christ by his ministers, in the preaching of the gospel, who daily calls men to arise from the death of sin by repentance, and encourageth them with the promise of eternal life.

See then that ye walk circumspectly; being called to reprove the evil conversation of others, see that ye walk exactly and accurately yourselves, avoiding extremes and keeping close to the rule. See the same word rendered diligently, Matt. 2:8, and perfectly, 1 Thess. 5:2.

Redeeming the time; or, buying the opportunity: a metaphor taken from merchants, that diligently observe the time for buying and selling, and easily part with their pleasure for gain; q.d. Deny yourselves in your ease, pleasure, &c. to gain an opportunity of doing good.

Understanding, diligently considering, what the will of the Lord is, in the understanding of which your chief wisdom consists.

Wherein, in which drunkenness, is excess; profuseness, lasciviousness, and all manner of lewdness, as the effects of drunkenness, Prov. 23:29;c. But be filled with the Spirit; the Holy Spirit, often compared to water; or the joy of the Spirit, in opposition to being filled with wine, Acts 2:13, and…

Speaking, &c. in opposition to the vain chaff and lewd talkativeness of drunkards over their cups. To yourselves; Gr. in yourselves, i.e. among yourselves, both in church assemblies and families.

Giving thanks always: God still by fresh mercies gives fresh occasion for thanksgiving, and we must accordingly continue our thanksgiving through the whole course of our lives without weariness.

Submitting yourselves one to another, viz. to those to whom ye ought to be subject in natural, civil, or church relations. In the fear of God; either for fear of offending God, the Author of all power, who commands this subjection; or so far as is consistent with the fear of God, and so in those…

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands; yielding honour and obedience to them. As unto the Lord; for the Lord’s sake who hath commanded it, so that ye cannot be subject to him without being subject to them: see 1 Tim. 2:12.

For the husband is the head of the wife; superior to her by God’s ordination in authority and dignity, as the head in the natural body, being the seat of reason, and the fountain of sense and motion, is more excellent than the rest of the body. Even as Christ is the head of the church: see Eph.

As the church is subject to Christ, viz. with cheerfulness, chastity, humility, obedience, &c. So let the wives be to their own husbands; in imitation of the church’s subjection to Christ, as a pattern of their subjection to their husbands.

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, viz. with a sincere, pure, ardent, and constant affection. As they resemble Christ in the honour they have of being the heads of their wives, so they must likewise in performing the duty of loving them, under which all matrimonial…

That he might sanctify; purify from its filth, and consecrate unto God: implying the whole translation of it out of a state of sin and misery into a state of grace and life, consisting in the remission of sin, and renovation of nature.

That he might present it to himself; hereafter in heaven; that the whole church of the elect may be present with him, 2 Cor. 5:6, 2 Cor. 5:8, 1 Thess. 4:17. A glorious church; perfect in knowledge and holiness, shining with a heavenly glory, and fully conformed to himself, 1 John 3:2.

So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies; with the same kind of love wherewith they love their own bodies. The woman at first was taken out of the man, and on that account the wife may be said to be a part of her husband.

No man; none in his right senses; or no man hates his flesh absolutely, but the diseases or miseries of it. His own flesh; his body. Nourisheth and cherisheth it; feeds and clothes it, and supplies it with things necessary for it.

We are members of his body; his mystical body. Of his flesh, and of his bones; as Eve was of Adam’s, Gen. 2:23; only that was in a carnal way, this in a spiritual, as by the communication of Christ’s flesh and blood to us by the Spirit we are united to him, and members of him.

For this cause; because the woman was formed of the flesh and bones of the man. He refers to Adam’s words, Gen. 2:24. Shall a man leave his father and mother; as to cohabitation, and domestic conversation; or, let a inan rather leave his father and mother than not cleave to his wife.

This is a great mystery; either, this that was spoken before of a marriage union between Christ and the church, and its being of his flesh and of his bones, is a great mystery, and so in the latter part of the verse the apostle explains himself.

Nevertheless; q.d. Setting aside this mystery; or, to return to my former exhortation. Love his wife even as himself; as her that is one flesh with him. Reverence her husband; or fear, yet not with a servile, but ingenuous fear, and such as proceeds from love.