Ephesians 5:7

Be not ye therefore partakers with them.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

5:3-14 Filthy lusts must be rooted out. These sins must be dreaded and detested. Here are not only cautions against gross acts of sin, but against what some may make light of. But these things are so far from being profitable. that they pollute and poison the hearers. Our cheerfulness should show itself as becomes Christians, in what may tend to God's glory. A covetous man makes a god of his money; places that hope, confidence, and delight, in worldly good, which should be in God only. Those who allow themselves, either in the lusts of the flesh or the love of the world, belong not to the kingdom of grace, nor shall they come to the kingdom of glory. When the vilest transgressors repent and believe the gospel, they become children of obedience, from whom God's wrath is turned away. Dare we make light of that which brings down the wrath of God? Sinners, like men in the dark, are going they know not whither, and doing they know not what. But the grace of God wrought a mighty change in the souls of many. Walk as children of light, as having knowledge and holiness. These works of darkness are unfruitful, whatever profit they may boast; for they end in the destruction of the impenitent sinner. There are many ways of abetting, or taking part in the sins of others; by commendation, counsel, consent, or concealment. And if we share with others in their sins, we must expect to share in their plagues. If we do not reprove the sins of others, we have fellowship with them. A good man will be ashamed to speak of what many wicked men are not ashamed to do. We must have not only a sight and a knowledge that sin is sin, and in some measure shameful, but see it as a breach of God's holy law. After the example of prophets and apostles, we should call on those asleep and dead in sin, to awake and arise, that Christ may give them light.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Be not ye therefore partakers with them - Since these things displease God and expose to his wrath, avoid them.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. Here fellowship with wicked workers is forbidden; in Eph 5:11, with their wicked works.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

With those children of disobedience, who continue in the forementioned sins: see Job 34:8 Psalm 50:18.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Be not ye therefore partakers with them. In their sins, and acts of disobedience; by keeping needless company with them; by abetting and encouraging sinful practices; by conniving at them, and not reproving for them; or by committing the same things.

Geneva Study Bible

{3} Be not ye therefore partakers with them.

(3) Because we are most ready to follow evil examples, therefore the apostle warns the godly to always remember that the others are but as it were darkness, and that they themselves are as it were light. And therefore the others commit all evils (as men are accustomed to do in the dark), but they ought not to follow their examples, but rather (as the property of the light is) reprove their darkness, and to walk in such a way (having Christ that true light going before them) as it becomes wise men.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Ephesians 5:7. Οὖν] since on account of these sins, etc.

συμμέτοχοι αὐτῶν] αὐτῶν can, in keeping with the context, only be referred to the υἱοὺς τῆς ἀπειθ., whose co-partners the Christians become, if they practise the same sins, whereby they fall from the state of reconciliation (Romans 11:22; 2 Peter 3:17) and incur the divine ὀργή (Ephesians 5:5). Koppe’s interpretation: “ejusdem cum iis fortunae compotem fieri,” is an importation at variance with the context (see Ephesians 5:8-11).

As to συμμέτοχος, see on Ephesians 3:6.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Ephesians 5:7. μὴ οὖν γίνεσθε συμμέτοχοι αὐτῶν: become not ye then partakers with them. γίνεσθε again = “do not become,” “suffer not yourselves to be”; not ἐστε, “be not”. What is meant is a possible falling back into ways by grace forsaken. The participation which is negatived is obviously taking part with the sons of disobedience (αὐτῶν) in their vices, not merely in their punishment or in the ὀργή. The term συμμέτοχος (or συνμέτοχος, TWH) occurs only here and in Ephesians 3:6 above. The οὖν has the force which it has in Ephesians 5:1, giving the inference to be drawn from the statement of the wrath of God.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. Be not] Lit., Become not. Nolite fieri (Latin versions).

partakers] in disobedience, and so in the coming wrath.

Bengel's Gnomen

Ephesians 5:7. Μὴ, be not) lest the anger of God should come upon you. Two parts; be not willing, and be not willing, Ephesians 5:7; Ephesians 5:11. Fellowship both with wicked men, Ephesians 5:7, and with wicked works, Ephesians 5:11, must be avoided.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - Be not ye therefore partakers with them. If you are partakers of their sins, you must be of their punishments too. Refuse all partnership, therefore. Your natural instincts recoil from partnership in punishment; let your spiritual instincts recoil from partnership in sin. Ephesians 5:7

Vincent's Word Studies

Be not (γίνεσθε)

Lit., become not. It is a warning against lapsing into old vices.