(chap. 3:5-8.)

(Continued from p.429.)

Based upon the truth of our having died with Christ and now being viewed as raised with Him, we are enjoined to put to death our members which are upon the earth. What is meant by this is the immediate and unsparing judgment of those sinful modes of conduct here enumerated in which the members are used. "All these wicked things go forth from within and defile the man" (Mk. 7:23), for "everyone is tempted, drawn away, and enticed by his own lust" (James 1:14). The nature with which all this evil is connected is in us. As unregenerate we were its bondmen, "bondmen of sin" unto death, yielding our "members in bondage to uncleanness and to lawlessness unto lawlessness," and the end of them is death.

But the word of the truth, the gospel of our salvation, "obeyed from the heart," gives "freedom from sin." This is not eradication of sin or the removal of the nature from us, its annihilation, for "if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1 John 1:8):but it means that a blessed new power has come into us, which being more mighty than that which held us in slavery to uncleanness breaks its vicious hold upon us, and enables us to strike down the hydra-headed monster of lust. The Christian has liberty. Constant vigilance is the price of its maintenance and enjoyment. "Let us watch and be sober.. .let us walk becomingly… put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not take forethought for the flesh to fulfil its lusts." These things being within, they may assert themselves. They must do this first of all in thought. If this is entertained and in carelessness allowed to develop it, it finds expression through our members. They serve the evil thought which has germinated within-"Lust having conceived, gives birth to sin" (James 1:IS). We are to put to death the thought or desire before it assumes any definite form, otherwise sin is born in some form. Let us remember that for Him with whom we have to do the thought of foolishness is sin, and every idle word will be called into judgment (Prov. 24 :9; Matt. 12:36).

The force of the word* may be seen from Rom. 4:19 and Heb. 11:12. *The aorist imperative is used. It signifies "Do," "Do instantly"-at once and completely. Green remarks that "in many instances the force of the Aorist and that of the Present seem nearly identical. The former is the more vigorous expression." It emphasizes the completeness of the act. It is not mere exhortation for the future, but what is to be characteristic-"be in the state of its having been done." And so with each aorist imperative in these verses-"Put to death," "Put off," "Put on."* It means put into a state of impotency, render our members impotent in respect to their use for such wickedness as here named. The wrath of God comes on account of these things, and the Colossians had walked in them; such was their practice when they lived in these things. Their conduct and condition agreed. Now Christ is their life, and they are to live in the things above. Their practical walk is to agree with this new place and portion. Once darkness, but now light in the Lord, they are to walk as children of light, bearing its fruit which is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth; therefore they were not to be fellow-partakers with those who still walked in such things, for such persons were not inheritors of the kingdom of Christ and God as now through grace they were (and we are), having been delivered from the authority of darkness and translated into the kingdom of the Son of God's love, of whom we are now to walk worthy (Eph. 5:5-12; Col. 1:10-13).

Our members, then, are to be as dead, utterly useless, as far as these things are concerned. "Now yield your members in bondage to righteousness and holiness" (Rom. 6:19). This, however, is not all. "Put off, ye also, all these things, wrath, anger, malice, blasphemy, vile language out of your mouth." These things are not to be part of the Christian investment. The thought here is similar to that of laying aside one's garments, and fittingly a little later we are told what to put on, those things which woven together make the appropriate life-garment for the Christian. But let us look at these things which are to be put off.

Wrath (orgee) and anger (thumos) seem very closely related, but the terms used are to be distinguished. The former "denotes a deeper and more permanent sentiment, a settled habit of mind," the latter, "a more turbulent, but temporary agitation"-more a passionate outburst; the other a sustained attitude, a fixed state of mind. "Man's wrath does not work God's righteousness" (James 1:20). The Christian is not to keep or permit the development of such a state. There may be cause for wrath, "Be angry [or, wroth]," but it is to be transitory, the sun is not to go down upon it-"and sin not;" to retain it would just be to do that. "A man given to anger (rendered by thumos in the lxx) stirreth up strife, and he that exceedeth in wrath (orgee in lxx) aboundeth in transgression" (Prov. 29:22, Rotherham). Again, "Do not have friendship with one given to anger, and with a wrathful man shalt thou not enter in:lest thou learn his ways, and take a snare to thy soul" (Prov. 22:24, ibid).

Malice is next mentioned. The word used denotes a malevolent disposition toward one's neighbor, an easy outgrowth of wrath and anger. It signifies the desire of evil to others. " Let all bitterness, and heat of passion (thumos), and wrath (orgee), and clamor, and injurious language, be removed from you, with all malice" (Eph. 4:31).

Blasphemy is not necessarily against God. The word is used of reviling, calumny, evil-speaking in general. Compare Rom. 3:8, "be slanderously reported;" 1 Cor. 4:13, "being defamed;" Tit. 3:2, "To speak evil of;" 1 Tim. 6:4, "railings;" 2 Pet. 2:11, "railing," and Jude 9. The next word, rendered "vile language," occurs only here in the New Testament. The added phrase "out of your mouth" reminds us of the Lord's words in Matt. IS:11, 18. Vincent says it means not merely filthy talking, but foul-mouthed abuse. The fact is that one may be guilty of blasphemy quite apart from such kind of language. The word used for "railer," as in 1 Cor. 5:1, rendered "revilers" in 1 Cor. 6:10, the New Translation in both cases giving "abusive," is different. It signifies vehement abuse. Reviling well expresses its force. Compare 1 Pet. 2:23; 1 Cor. 4:12.

These things are found in the sphere of moral darkness in which man moves in his alienation from the life of God. Those who had been brought out of the pagan world, even though coming from its higher ranks where what men call culture reigned needed the instruction of these verses. And they carry their admonition for us, for that nature from which such evils manifest themselves still exists in us. The more the mask of profession is removed from the face of Christendom, the more clearly the same hideous features of moral corruption are revealed; and with age-long restraints being removed, barriers raised by the spread of Christian teaching broken down in the name of progress and human liberty, we see that the world of today is morally still that of Paul's age. We move through this scene, circumstances throw us into contact with it more or less day by day, we are in constant danger of being snared by its influences and caught in the swirl of its evil current where the things we have in these verses abound. We need the reminder they give of what becomes those who profess godliness, lest our spiritual perception be dulled and our ways become unsuited to the light and the truth.

"Wherefore he says, Wake up, thou that sleepest, and arise up from among the dead, and the Christ shall shine upon thee. See therefore how ye walk carefully, not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. For this reason be not foolish, but understanding what is the will of the Lord" (Eph. 5:14-17). John Bloore

(To be continued, D. V.)