“But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;”
Covetousness.[1] The Latin word is generally taken for a coveting or immoderate desire of money and riches. St. Jerome and others observe, that the Greek word in this and divers other places in the New Testament may signify any unsatiable desire, or the lusts of sensual pleasures; and on this account, St. Jerome thinks that it is here joined with fornication and uncleanness. But St. Chrysostom in the last chapter, (ver. 19. hom. xiii. and on this chap. ver. 3.) shews that by the Greek word is understood avarice, or an immoderate desire of riches, when he tells (hom. xviii) that this sin is condemned by those words of Christ, Luke xvi. 13. You cannot serve God and mammon. (Witham)
“Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.”
Nor obscenity.[2] What is here meant by this word, St. Chrysostom tells us at large in the moral exhortation after his 17th homily; to wit, jests with immodest suggestions or a double meaning, and raillery or buffoonery against the rules of good conversation, scarce made use of by any but by men of low condition and of a mean genius, which is not to the purpose of a Christian, who must give an account to God of all his words. (Witham)
“For this ye know , that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.”
Nor covetous person, which is a serving of idols. It is clear enough by the Greek that the covetous man is called an idolater, whose idol in mammon; though it may be also said of other sinners, that the vices they are addicted to are their idols. (Witham)
“Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. disobedience: or, unbelief”
The apostle here puts them in mind of the general judgment, when the angel of God will, on account of their crimes of avarice, fornication, &c. fall on the children of unbelief; by which are meant the wicked. He had before assured them that the perpetrators of such crimes would be excluded from the kingdom of heaven; and now he moreover informs them, that the severest punishments will be inflicted on such wicked persons. (Estius)
“Be not ye therefore partakers with them.”
Be ye not, therefore, partakers with them: do not imitate their wickedness, or the wrath of the Almighty will likewise fall on you. (Estius)
“For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:”
By darkness is here meant the state of infidelity into which they had been plunged so far as to adore stones as God, and committed without remorse the above-mentioned grievous sins. But delivered by Christ from this darkness, they have become light in the Lord, shining in faith and justice. (Estius)
“(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)”
For the fruit of the light. So the Latin and divers Greek copies; not the fruit of the spirit, as we read in many Greek manuscripts; and in this Dr. Wells thought fit to change the Protestant translation. (Witham)
“Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.”
With solicitude seek out what things are pleasing to God, and carefully perform them. (Estius)
“And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”
You are light, they are darkness; do you, therefore, shew by the light of your good works how base and detestable their works of darkness are. (Estius)
“Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. he: or, it”
Rise, thou that sleepest. The sense may be taken from Isaias lx. 1. St. Jerome thinks they may be cited from some work not canonical. (Witham)
“For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.”
For the husband is the head of the wife. Though St. Paul here speaks of a man, who is a husband, we may rather translate man than husband, being the same sentence and same words as 1 Corinthians xi. 3. where even the Protestant translation has, that the man is head of the woman. — He (Christ) is the saviour of his mystical body, the Church: though some expound it, that the husband is to save and take care of his wife, who is as it were his body. (Witham)
“Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.”
As the church is subject to Christ. The Church then, according to St. Paul, is ever obedient to Christ: and can never fall from him, but remain faithful to him, unspotted and unchanged to the end of the world. (Challoner)
“That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,”
Cleansing it by the laver [3] of water, in the word of life. By this washing is generally understood the sacrament of baptism; and by the word of life, not the word of the gospel preached, but the words or form used in the administration of baptism, according to Christ’s institution: but this is not so certain. (Witham)
“That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”
Not having spot or wrinkle. St. Augustine and others expound it of the glorious Church of Christ, in heaven: others even of the Church of Christ in this world, as to its doctrine, sacraments, and discipline, or practices approved by the Catholic Church. (Witham)
“So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.”
He that loveth his wife, loveth himself. St. Paul would have this a love like that which a man hath for himself, or for his own flesh, when they are now joined in wedlock, and are become as it were one flesh and one person, as to a civil life and society. See Matthew xix. 5. The wife is to be considered as a part of the husband, as a member of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. The words are to be taken with an allusion to what Adam said, (Genesis ii. 23.) This is now bone of my bones, &c. And so, according to the apostle, speaking figuratively, the Church, which is the spouse of Christ, is framed as it were of his bones and of his flesh sacrificed on the cross. (Witham)
“This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”
This….sacrament, (or mystery)….in Christ, and in the Church. This sacrament, in construction, must be referred to what immediately went before, i.e. to the conjunction of marriage betwixt man and wife; and this is called a great sacrament, or mystery, as representing the union or spiritual nuptials of Christ with his spouse, the Church. (Witham)