A

Hidden things renounced.

B

Walk in craftiness.

C

Handle Word of God deceitfully.

C

Truth manifested.

B

Commended to conscience.

A

In sight of God.

The contrasts are sufficiently obvious, and we commend them to our readers

as a commentary upon our subject.  2 Corinthians gives the basic example, origin

and energizer of this craftiness:

`The serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty' (11:3).

Behind the `sleight of men' is the `cunning craftiness' of the devil.

`Whereby they lie in wait to deceive' (Eph. 4:14).

Aquila translates Exodus 21:13 by methodeuse, but the word seems to mean

more generally a systematic artifice.  Methodeia comes again in Ephesians 6:11,

`the wiles of the Devil'.

`Systematic deception', `snares of the cunning', `deliberate system of error',

`the systematizing of the deception', `a subtle method of deceit', are some of

the many translations offered.  They impress us with the thought that there is

deliberate systematic method pursued in this craftiness.  Speaking of Satan, 2

Corinthians 2:11 says, `We are not ignorant of his devices'.  He ever continues

the same corruption of the Word of truth, the flattery, the temptation, the

deception, as in the Garden of Eden and the instance recorded in Luke 20, till

cast into the lake of fire.  Shakespeare well puts it:

`The equivocation of the fiend, that lies like truth'.

So then we have the unity of the Spirit set over against the systems of

deception, in other words, the mystery of godliness and the mystery of iniquity,

the truth and the lie.

The apostle has been saying what we are not to be; he now concludes by

stating the positive.  One word suffices to give complete contrast to all the

craft and deceit of the wicked one.  Aletheuontes.  The word means more than

`speaking the truth', it means `being true'.  This has a fuller and deeper

meaning than we may at first suppose, but as this is dealt with by Paul in this

same chapter we will follow his own order and wait until we reach the passage.

We can see, however, the supreme place of truth in the witness for God.  It may

not be amiss to exhibit the usage of truth in Ephesians:

A

1:13. Word  of truth.

B

a 4:21,22.  Put off.

b 4:24. Righteousness and holiness.

B

a

4:25. Put away.

b

5:9.  Righteousness and goodness.