tion, so also sin, as long as it is concealed, being as it were in darkness, is daringly committed in full security; but as soon as “it is made manifest,” becomes “light”; not indeed the sin itself, (for how could that be?) but the sinner. For when he has been brought out to light, when he has been admonished, when he has repented, when he has obtained pardon, hast thou not cleared away all his darkness? Hast thou not then healed his wound? Hast thou not called his unfruitfulness into fruit? Either this is his meaning,382 or else what I said above, that your life “being manifest, is light.” For no one hides an irreproachable life; whereas things which are hidden, are hidden by darkness covering them. Ver. 14. “Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee.” By the “sleeper” and the “dead,” he means the man that is in sin; for he both exhales noisome odors like the dead, and is inactive like one that is asleep, and like him he sees nothing, but is dreaming, and forming fancies and illusions. Some indeed read,383 “And thou shalt touch Christ”; but others, “And Christ shall shine upon thee”; and it is rather this latter. Depart from sin, and thou shalt be able to behold Christ. “For every one that doeth ill, hateth the light, and cometh not to the light.” (John iii. 20.) He therefore that doeth it not, cometh to the light. Now he is not saying this with reference to the unbelievers only, for many of the faithful, no less than unbelievers, hold fast by wickedness; nay, some far more. Therefore to these also it is necessary to exclaim, “Awake,384 thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee.” To these it is fitting to say this also, “God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.” (Matt. xxii. 32.) If then he is not the God of the dead, let us live. Now there are some who say that the words, “the covetous man is an idolater,” are hy- perbolical. However, the statement is not hyperbolical, it is true. How, and in what way? 382 [This difficult passage is thus translated by Ellicott: It is true these things are done in secret, but all of them, when reproved, are made manifest by the light (thus shed upon them); for everything that is made manifest is light (becomes daylight, is of the nature of light).—G.A.] 383 [ἐπιψαύσεις (instead of ἐπιφαύσει) is the reading of D* and E, and the Latin versions of these mss. (continges Christum), but it never obtained much acceptance, and hardly appears in extant codices. See Scrivener’s Introd. 632, and Westcott and Hort, Appendix, p. 125.—G.A.] 384 [“The words here quoted are not found exactly in this form in the O.T., but certainly occur in substance in Isa. lx. 1. Instead of resorting to the explanation of Meyer or De Wette (which are somewhat rationalistic), it is better to say that Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is expressing in a condensed form the spiritual meaning of the passage.”—Ellicott. Riddle says: “It is Isa. lx. 1, partly paraphrased and partly condensed, and interpreted in the light of its fulfillment.” “This call of God to the sons of disobedience to awake, confirms the necessity of the ἐλέγχειν, and the promise, ‘Christ shall shine upon thee,’ confirms the salutary influence of the light.”—Meyer.—G.A.] 247 Ephesians 5:5,6