Homily XVIII. Ephesians v. 5, 6 “For this ye know of a surety, that no fornicator, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, which is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no man deceive you with empty words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience.” There were, it is likely, in the time of our forefathers also, some who “weakened the hands of the people” (Jer. xxxviii. 4.), and brought into practice that which is mentioned by Ezekiel,—or rather who did the works of the false prophets, who “profaned God among His people for handfuls of barley” (Ezek. xiii. 19.); a thing, by the way, done methinks by some even at this day. When, for example, we say that he who calleth his brother a fool shall depart into hell-fire, others say, “What? Is he that calls his brother a fool to depart into hell-fire? Impossible,” say they. And again, when we say that “the covetous man is an idolater,” in this too again they make abatements, and say the expression is hyperbolical. And in this manner they underrate and explain away all the commandments. It was in allusion then to these that the blessed Paul, at this time when he wrote to the Ephesians, spoke thus, “For this ye know,376 that no fornicator, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, which is an id- olater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God”; adding, “let no man377 deceive you with empty words.” Now “empty words” are those which for a while are grati- fying, but are in nowise borne out in facts; because the whole case is a deception. “Because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience.” Because of “fornication,” he means, because of “covetousness,” because of “uncleanness,” or both because of these things, and because of the “deceit,”378 inasmuch as there are deceiv- ers. “Sons of disobedience”; he thus calls those who are utterly disobedient, those who disobey Him. Ver. 7, 8. “Be not ye, therefore, partakers with them. For ye were379 once darkness, but are now light in the Lord.” 376 [“῎Ιστε γινώσκοντες: ‘This you are aware of from your own knowledge,’ so that I need not first to instruct you with regard to it, ‘that,’ etc. This is not Hebraism, since γινώσκοντες is a different verb from ἴστε, but it is like ὁρῶν καὶ ἀκούων οἶδα, Xen. Cyr. iv. 1, 14.”—Meyer.—G.A.] 377 [“In accordance with the context, this refers to unbelieving Gentiles who sought to palliate those Gentile vices, to make them out as matter of indifference, and so to entice Christians back to the Gentile life.”—Mey- er.—G.A.] 378 [διὰ ταῦτα refers not “to deceiving with empty words,” but to the “vices” just mentioned. Comp. parallel passage, Col. iii. 6.—G.A.] 379 [ἦτε γάρ, &c. ἦτε prefixed with significant emphasis, has the force of a “ground”: For your former state of darkness (with which those vices were in keeping) is “past.” Comp. Rom. vi. 17.—Meyer and Ellicott.—G.A.] Ephesians 5:5,6 245 Ephesians 5:5,6