Homily XIII. Ephesians iv. 17–19 “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk, in the vanity of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart: who being past feeling, gave themselves up to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” These words are not addressed to the Ephesians only, but are now addressed also to you; and that, not from me, but from Paul; or rather, neither from me nor from Paul, but from the grace of the Spirit. And we then ought so to feel, as though that grace itself were uttering them. And now hear what it saith. “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk, in the vanity of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart.” If then it is ignorance, if it is hardening, why blame it?317 if a man is ignorant, it were just, not that he should be ill-treated for it, nor be blamed, but that he should be informed of those things of which he is ignorant. But mark how at once he cuts them off from all excuse. “Who being past feeling,” saith he, “gave themselves up to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness; but ye did not so learn Christ.” Here he shows us, that the cause of their hardening was their way of life, and that their life was the consequence of their own indolence and want of feeling. “Who being past feeling,”318 saith he, “gave themselves up.” Whenever then ye hear, that “God gave them up unto a reprobate mind” (Rom. i. 28.), remember this expression, that “they gave themselves up.” If then they gave themselves over, how did God give them over? and if again God gave them over, how did they give themselves over? Thou seest the seeming contradiction. The word, “gave them over,” then, means this, He permitted319 them to be given over. Seest thou, that the impure life is the ground for like doctrines also? “Every one,” saith the Lord, “that doeth ill hateth the light, and cometh not to the light.” (John iii. 20.) For how could a profligate man, one more im- mersed in the practice of indiscriminate lewdness than the swine320 that wallow in the mire, and who is a lover of money, and has not so much as any desire after temperance, enter 317 [“The cause of this estrangement of the Gentiles from the life of God is the ignorance which is in them through hardening of heart, consequently due to their own fault.”—Meyer.—G.A.] 318 [“The estrangement of the Gentiles from the divine life, indicated in the preceding verse, is here proved in conformity with experience.”—Meyer.—G.A.] 319 [“The word implies an active giving up, not mere permission.”—Meyer, Ellicott, Thayer.—G.A.] 320 [The word “swine” (χοίρων), though omitted from Field’s text, is clearly attested, and cannot be omitted without leaving the sense difficult and obscure.—G.A.] Ephesians 4:17-19 210 Ephesians 4:17-19