Brief Exposition of Galatians and Ephesians, Exposition 2 · Chapter 4 · Verse and explication 17
Vers. 17. This I say therefore, and testifie in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind.
THe Apostle (being in the second part of the Chapter to dehort them from all impiety and profanity in the general, contrary to that walking worthy of their vocation, pressed, ver. 1.) giveth an example of that wickednesse, from which he dehorteth them, in the conversation of those other Gentiles, who were yet unconverted, and living in paganism. And, first, while he doth most seriously and under a grave obtestation by the Lord Jesus Christ, as they would answer to Him, and evidence their esteem of Him, dehort them from walking as those other Gentiles, he giveth a short sum of that godlesse conversation of theirs, calling it a walking in the vanity of the mind, that is, a following and practising of whatsoever their unrenewed understanding and mind did teach and prescribe: to which he ascribeth vanity, and calleth the mind of unrenewed men vain, because it is empty of the knowledge of God in Christ, 1 Cor. 2. 14. and what knowledge it hath of God, or of right and wrong, is nothing but evanishing notions, Rom. 1. 21. and wholly unprofitable, as to the attaining of life and salvation, Rom. 1. -20. for, a vain thing, according to the common and scripture-use of the word, is an empty thing, Isa. 41. 29. an evanishing thing, Prov. 31. -30- and a thing unprofitable to attain the end intended, Psal. 33. 17. Doct. 1. To live in a course of profanity, and to be a member of Christs mystical body, drawing life, nourishment and growth from Christ the head, are wholly inconsistent: if the one be, the other cannot be; seing profanity of life is not only directly opposit to that new life of grace, which all the members of that body do live, but also doth wholly obstruct the passages betwixt the head and the members, whereby spiritual influence for life and growth should be conveyed, 1 Joh. 1. 6. for, the Apostle, from what he spake of influence for life and growth conveyed from Christ, the head, to all the members, doth infer here, that therefore, and as they would evidence themselves lively members of that body, so they would abandon profanity, while he saith, This I say therefore, that ye walk not as other Gentiles. 2. Ministers ought to be serious in pressing the duties of sanctification upon the Lords people, not only simply exhorting, but sometimes most gravely obtesting them by that which is dearest to them: whereby the Lords people may know, that their obedience to what is pressed, is no trifling matter, but such, as their eternal welbeing is most highly concerned in: for, therefore doth Paul not only say and exhort them, but also testifie and obtest them in the Lord, that they walk not henceforth as other Gentiles. 3. Our long continuance in sin already, is so far from being an argument in reason to make us hold on in that course for the time coming, that, upon the contrary, this very same consideration should be a strong argument to shame us from it: for, so much is implyed in his saying that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles: as if he had said, Ye have done so hithertils, therefore do no more so. See 1 Pet. 4. 3. Doct. 4. Our turning to God in earnest to expect life and salvation from Him through Jesus Christ, doth call for, and will be attended with, an other sort of conversation than what we formerly had before conversion, or that naturall men, dead in sins and trespasses, for the present have: for, Paul exhorteth these converted Ephesians not to walk as they themselves somtimes did, nor as the unconverted Gentiles at present did; I testifie, saith he, that ye hence-forth walk not as other Gentiles walk. 5. Sense of mercy received from God, is a strong incitement unto dutie toward God: for, he doth not obscurely hint at Gods mercy in separating them from the common lot of other Gentiles, that so they may be the more incited to eschew what might dishonour Him; that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles. 6. The vilenesse of sin is such, that it cannot be sufficiently expressed, and so expressed as to make us abhor it, by doctrine or word-speaking: therefore it is sometimes profitable to take a look of it in its vilenesse, power and tyrannie, as it manifesteth it self in the lives of unrenewed men, who are captive slaves unto it; providing we so look to it, as to make us abhor it, and carry at a greater distance from it: for, therefore doth Paul hold forth a map of that wickednesse, which he deborteth them from, in the example of those unconverted Gentiles, that by seeing of it they might the more abhor it; That ye hence-forth walk not as other Gentiles walk. 7. The conversation of all men unrenewed, is vain and fruitlesse, as spending their money for that which is not bread, and their labour for that which satisfieth not, Isa. 55. 2. for, he speaketh of all the unconverted Gentiles, that they walk in vanity. 8. Whatever vanity or wickednesse is in the outward conversation of a naturall man, it doth wholly flow from the vanity of the mind and understanding within; and as the mind is, so will the conversation be: and therefore even the mind it self, the chief seat of reason, is corrupted and vain, and so vain, that from thence doth flow corruption and vanity to the whole man: for, he ascribeth the vanity of their walking to the vanity of their mind; As other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, saith he.