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(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 would 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.
"Jesting" = eutrapeleia, refers to that loose talk which by skilful turning of words
brings up to the mind far more than the actual wording may appear to intend and is to be
shunned by all who put off "the lie".
The Inheritance.
The words of the apostle that should cause every child of God to stop and consider are
that those that do such things:--
"Have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God" (Eph. 5: 5).
There is no question but that one phase at least of the inheritance is in the nature of a
reward, and consequently may be forfeited. This is clearly expressed in Col. 3: 24 in a
passage that exactly corresponds with Eph. 5: 5:--
"Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve
the Lord Christ."
Rom. 8: 17 seems to observe the distinction between "heirs of God" because
children of God, and "joint heirs with Christ" if so be that these children walk as Christ
walked, which must of necessity involve suffering and rejection.