CHAPTER 5

(A.D. 64)

COMMANDS

¹Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children (we do so by obeying the Word of God, and we do that by keeping our Faith in the Cross);

²And walk in love (be constantly ordering your behavior within the sphere of love), as Christ also has loved us (presents the Apostle passing from the Father to the Son as our example), and has given Himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling Savour. (Christ fulfilled all the symbolic Blood Offerings of the Levitical system [Heb. 10:8]. He fulfilled those by becoming an Offering for sin on the Cross. The sweetsmelling Savor describes the atoning Sacrifice as accepted by God.)

SINS

³But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becomes Saints;

⁴Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient (out of character): but rather giving of thanks. (The Believers protection against all these sins is the Cross of Christ, and the Cross alone. Keeping the Cross as the Object of ones Faith guarantees Victory [Gal. 6:14], and for that we are ever to give thanks to God.)

BE NOT PARTAKERS

⁵For this you know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God (Paul is speaking to Believers! if the Cross is not the Object of Faith for the Believer, but rather something else, these Passages plainly tell us such a Believer will actually come to the place of unbelief and lose his soul; the only answer for the Law of sin and death is the the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus [Rom. 8:2]).

⁶Let no man deceive you with vain words (by trying to pull you away from the Cross): for because of these things comes the Wrath of God upon the children of disobedience (the Cross alone stops the Wrath of God).

⁷Be not ye therefore partakers with them. (Never forsake the Cross, no matter how enticing the other things might look.)

COMMANDS

⁸For you were sometimes darkness (everyone who doesnt know Christ is in spiritual darkness), but now (since coming to Christ)are you light in the Lord (we are a reflection of the Light of Christ): walk as children of Light (order your behavior accordingly):

⁹(For the Fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23)is in all goodness and Righteousness and Truth;) (This proclaims the end results of the Fruit of the Spirit.)

¹⁰Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord (put to the test, and the Cross alone will stand the test).

¹¹And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness (the Scripture teaches separation, but not isolation), but rather reprove them(speak out boldly and forcibly against them).

¹²For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. (Pauls writings always emphasized the exceeding sinfulness of sin, but never more evidently than here.)

¹³But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the Light (it is only Christ and the Cross which can adequately portray what sin actually is; thats the reason much of the Church doesnt care for the Cross!): for whatsoever does make manifest is light. (The Cross alone manifests sin and all its evil effects.)

¹⁴Wherefore He said (Isa. 60:1), Awake thou who sleeps (the Apostle is warning Christians that they should stir themselves from lethargy and apathy), and arise from the dead (dead to the things of the Spirit), and Christ shall give you Light. (Christ will pour upon you the Light of Divine Truth as the Sun gives light to men aroused from sleep.)

¹⁵See then that you walk circumspectly (carefully taking heed), not as fools (a person who doesnt avail himself of all Christ has to offer is a fool), but as wise (draw close to the Lord),

¹⁶Redeeming the time (take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves), be cause the days are evil. (The Cross must be our Foundation. Only then can we overcome the evil, and carry out that which the Lord has called us to do.)

¹⁷Wherefore be ye not unwise (time is precious because God has given us only a few short days to make choices that will bring Eternal consequences), but understanding what the will of the Lord is.(We can do this if we look exclusively to Christ and the Cross.)

¹⁸And be not drunk with wine (speaks of being controlled by alcoholic beverage, which Paul desires to use as an example), wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit (being controlled by the Spirit constantly, moment by moment);

¹⁹Speaking to yourselves in Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs (refers to worship as it regards songs and singing), singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord (places the approval of the Holy Spirit on the same forms of music and styles of worship as were begun in the Old Testament);

²⁰Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father (all things which come from God) in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ (proclaims in this Verse the Source of all Blessings, and the means by which these Blessings have come upon the human race as well);

²¹Submitting yourselves one to another (this tells us that proper spiritual submission is always horizontal and never vertical as it refers to Believers, meaning that we submit one to another) in the fear of God (meaning that all vertical submission must be to God Alone, never to man).

WIVES

²²Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands (the Holy Spirit, through the Apostle, is relating to the spiritual leadership of the family), as unto the Lord. (First of all, the submission is to be to Christ as Lord and Master, and not to the husband. If the husbands supremacy had been in view, it would have been expressed in a different manner, so say the Greek Scholars. If the wife properly submits to the Lord, she will properly submit to her husband as it regards spiritual leadership, that is if he knows the Lord. If he doesnt know the Lord, such submission cannot be tendered, as would be obvious.)

²³For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the Head of the Church (suggests the obedience the wife renders to her husband is to be regarded as obedience rendered to Christ, which she can do if her husband is properly following the Lord): and He is the Saviour of the Body. (This refers to the Lord being the Saviour of Believers, who make up the Church. While the husband cannot be the Saviour of his wife in redemptive terms, he can be her protector and provider.)

²⁴Therefore as the Church is subject unto Christ (as its Head), so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. (This presupposes that the husband is conducting himself even as Christ.)

HUSBANDS

²⁵Husbands, love your wives (with a God kind of love), even as Christ also loved the Church (presents the qualifier; if a husband conducts himself accordingly toward his wife, she will have no problem whatsoever submitting to him, even as she should), and gave Himself for it (presents the great Sacrifice which characterizes the God kind of love; the answer for marriage problems is not marriage seminars, but rather that both husband and wife place their Faith and confidence totally in Christ and what He has done for us at the Cross; in other words, the Cross alone, which refers to what Jesus did there, is the answer);

²⁶That He might sanctify and cleanse it (speaks of the view to the final presentation of the Church in perfect Holiness at the Coming Great Day) with the washing of water by the Word (actually means the Word washes and cleanses one exactly as water),

²⁷That He might present it to Himself (it is Christ Himself Who is to present the Church, and He is to present it to Himself) a glorious Church (made possible by the Cross), not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing (which the Cross alone can do); but that it should be Holy and without blemish. (This is our position in Christ, made possible by the Cross.)

²⁸So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies (is proclaimed in this manner because they are one flesh, even as Paul will say in Verse 31). He who loves his wife loves himself (proclaims the oneness of the Sacred union of marriage).

²⁹For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord the Church (the Holy Spirit here is using the union of husband and wife to symbolize the union of Christ and the Church):

³⁰For we are members of His Body, of His Flesh, and of His Bones. (We are visible parts of that Body of which He is Head, and this is the reason He nourishes and cherishes the Church. His Flesh and His Bones speak of the Incarnation, and the giving of Himself on the Cross, which made it possible for us to become part of Him [Rom. 6:3-5].)

³¹For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother (while he certainly continues to love his father and mother, his primary love is now for his wife), and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. (The union that is meant to symbolize Christ and the Church.)

³²This is a great Mystery (had not been heretofore revealed): but I speak concerning Christ and the Church. (This presents the spiritual fact that a Believer can become one with Christ as a member of His Body, symbolized by the husband-wife relationship.)

³³Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself (the husband is to love the wife as being part and parcel of himself, according to the Divine idea of the marriage union); and the wife see that she reverence her husband. (This means to recognize and respect his position as spiritual leader of the family. If the husband or wife makes demands on the partner Christ Alone can meet, which is the cause of most problems in marriages, the pressure will become intolerable. No human being can fulfill what Christ Alone can do.)