I N D E X
Walk in love.  The positive is expressed in the one great example, `as
Christ also hath loved us'.  Negatively, Paul has to run over the sixfold work
of the flesh to ensure that the child of God shall not be left without warning.
Threefold uncleanness in act.
Fornication, all uncleanness, unbridled
lust.
Threefold uncleanness in word.
Filthiness, foolish talking, jesting
(suggestive talking).
Concerning the first three, the apostle says:
`Let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints' (Eph. 5:3).
Concerning the second three, he says:
`Things not consistent (the modern usage of "convenient" is a little
misleading): but rather giving of thanks' (Eph. 5:4).
A further threefold description bringing together those already named
follows, and this time with a warning of great import:
`For this you know, for you have learned that no fornicator, or impure or
lustful man, who is nothing better than an idolater, has any inheritance
in the kingdom of Christ and of God' (Eph. 5:5 author's translation).
We do not feel called upon here to rake over this awful heap of corruption
and bring to light that which we fain would hide, or which should `not once be
named among us' (Eph. 5:3), `for it is a shame even to speak of these things'
(Eph. 5:12), nevertheless this epistle is written to us and a very slight
knowledge of modern life will teach us that these warnings are absolutely up to
date.  We have translated pleonexia, unbridled lust, rather than covetousness,
and in this we are but following such as Conybeare and Howson, Jowett, and
Trench.  The latter shows the meaning of the word in the following passage:
`Take the sublime commentary on the word which Plato supplies, where he
likens the desire of man to the sieve or pierced vessel of the Danaids,
which they were ever filling, but might never fill: and it is not too much
to say, that the whole longing of the creature, as it has itself abandoned
God, and by a just retribution is abandoned by Him, to stay its hunger
with the swine's husks, instead of the children's bread, is contained in
this word'.
It is evident that the same comparison had occurred to Shakespeare:
`The cloyed will.  That satiate, yet unsatisfied desire.
That tub both
filled and running' (Cymbeline 1:7).
To these words we should but add that the whole truth is expressed in the
first and the tenth commandments:
`Thou shalt have no other gods before Me'.
`Thou shalt not covet, or desire'.
To imitate God and to walk in love makes such things as detailed by the
apostle impossible.
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