[5.Practical Exhortation (Ephesians 4:17-21).

(1) THE NEW LIFE; first, taught in Christ and learning Christ; and secondly, regenerate in Him to the image of God (Ephesians 4:17-24).

(2) HENCE THE POWER OF CONQUEST OF SIN GENERALLY--

(a)Falsehood (Ephesians 4:25);

(b)Passionate anger (Ephesians 4:26-27);

(c)Dishonesty (Ephesians 4:28);

(d)Foulness of word (Ephesians 4:29-30);

(3) HENCE ITS POWER AGAINST THE SPECIAL BESETTING SINS OF--

(a)Bitterness and malice, unworthy of the love of Christ (Ephesians 4:31-32, and Ephesians 5:1-2);

(b)Fornication and lust, unworthy of the light of Christ (Ephesians 5:3-14);

(c)Recklessness and drunken excitement (Ephesians 5:15-21).]

(1) In Ephesians 4:17-24 we enter on the practical section of the Epistle, which, indeed, appears to begin in Ephesians 4:1, but is broken in upon by the magnificent digression of the doctrinal summary of Ephesians 4:4-16. It opens with a striking contrast of the past and the present--the life of the heathen in its "vanity," with the two-fold result of blindness and callousness of soul; and the Christian life, which has in learning Christ found the secret of regeneration.

(17) This I say therefore.--The phrase "This I say" seems to be used by St. Paul in returning (so to speak) from some lofty aspiration or profound reasoning, in which some might not be able to follow him, to a solid, practical ground, which all may tread. (See, for example, 1Corinthians 15:50.) Here he is not content to use this phrase simply, but he enforces it by the solemnity of the adjuration "I testify" (comp. Acts 20:26; Galatians 5:3), which properly means, "I call God to witness the truth of what I say"--a phrase found in express terms in Romans 1:9; 2Corinthians 1:23; Philippians 1:8; 1Thessalonians 2:5. Nor was even this enough, for he adds "in the Lord"--that is, in the name, authority, and spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The whole form is therefore one of peculiar force and solemnity.

The vanity of their mind.--In these words St. Paul describes the fundamental condition of heathenism. The "mind," that is (as in Romans 7:23; Romans 7:25), the "inner man"--the spiritual intuition of invisible principles of truth and right, which is the true humanity--has become "subject to vanity" (Romans 8:20),--the vanity of which the Book of Ecclesiastes so often speaks. In losing the living conception of a living God, it has lost also the conception of the true object and perfection of human life; and so wanders on aimless, hopeless, reckless, as in a dream. With what absolute fidelity St. Paul describes the heathen world of his day, its history and its literature alike testify. Compare with the whole passage the picture drawn in Romans 1:21-32, "They became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened," &c. The difference is that in the latter passage the prominent idea is mainly of "judicial blindness," sent by God as a penalty on wilful apostasy from Him, whereas here St. Paul rather dwells on self-chosen blindness and hardness of heart.

Verses 17-24. - CONSTRASTED PRINCIPLES OF GENTILE AND CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. Verse 17. - This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord. There is no sign of the apostle, when he comes to the practical part of his Epistle, deeming it of less importance than the doctrinal. The formula is very expressive; the apostle sinks his personality, and brings forward Christ as the Exhorter. That ye no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk. First, he indicates what they are not to be. "Be not conformed to this world." In four particulars they are to be different from Gentiles. The first of these is in the vanity of their mind. The allusion is to their frivolous, empty aims in life, and their unfixed, unsettled impulses. The Gentiles were chasing shadows, blowing bubbles, doing anything to make time pass agreeably; not considering or knowing either what they were, or whence they came, or whither they were going.

4:17-24 The apostle charged the Ephesians in the name and by the authority of the Lord Jesus, that having professed the gospel, they should not be as the unconverted Gentiles, who walked in vain fancies and carnal affections. Do not men, on every side, walk in the vanity of their minds? Must not we then urge the distinction between real and nominal Christians? They were void of all saving knowledge; they sat in darkness, and loved it rather than light. They had a dislike and hatred to a life of holiness, which is not only the way of life God requires and approves, and by which we live to him, but which has some likeness to God himself in his purity, righteousness, truth, and goodness. The truth of Christ appears in its beauty and power, when it appears as in Jesus. The corrupt nature is called a man; like the human body, it is of divers parts, supporting and strengthening one another. Sinful desires are deceitful lusts; they promise men happiness, but render them more miserable; and bring them to destruction, if not subdued and mortified. These therefore must be put off, as an old garment, a filthy garment; they must be subdued and mortified. But it is not enough to shake off corrupt principles; we must have gracious ones. By the new man, is meant the new nature, the new creature, directed by a new principle, even regenerating grace, enabling a man to lead a new life of righteousness and holiness. This is created, or brought forth by God's almighty power.This I say therefore and testify in the Lord,.... These words may be considered either as an assertion, and so a testimonial of the different walk and conversation of the saints at Ephesus, from the rest of the Gentiles; or as an exhortation in the name of the Lord to such a walk, the apostle here returning to what he stirs them up to in Ephesians 4:1

that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind; every natural man walks in a vain show; the mind of man is vain, and whoever walk according to the dictates of it, must walk vainly: the phrase is expressive of the emptiness of the mind; it being naturally destitute of God, of the knowledge, fear, and grace of God; and of Jesus Christ, of the knowledge of him, faith in him, and love to him; and of the Spirit and his graces; and it also points at the instability and changeableness of the human mind, in which sense man at his best estate was altogether vanity; as also the folly, falsehood, and wickedness of it in his fallen state: and the mind discovers its vanity in its thoughts and imaginations, which are vain and foolish; in the happiness it proposes to itself, which lies in vain things, as worldly riches, honours, &c. and in the ways and means it takes to obtain it, and in words and actions; and the Gentiles showed the vanity of their minds in their vain philosophy and curious inquiries into things, and in their polytheism and idolatry: to walk herein, is to act according to the dictates of a vain and carnal mind; and it denotes a continued series of sinning, or a vain conversation maintained, a progress and obstinate persisting therein with pleasure: now God's elect before conversion walked as others do, but when they are converted their walk and conversation is not, at least it ought not to be, like that of others: the Alexandrian copy, and some others, the Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions, leave out the word "other", and only read, "as the Gentiles", &c.