Ephesians 2:2 Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air… They are represented as the world, the flesh, and the devil. These are inextricably linked in the common death of men, for "the whole world lieth in the wicked one," and it includes, as its totality of possession, "the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life." There is no schism in this dread conspiracy against man's life. I. THE WORLD. Sinners walk "according to the course of this world." 1. The world is here to be distinguished from worldly objects and pleasures, or mere "things of the world," which are more definitely included in "the lusts of the flesh" (ver. 3). It refers to men of the world, as where it is said, "The whole world lieth in the wicked one" (1 John 5:19), and, "The world will love its own" (John 15:19). These are "the children of the world," who are "wiser in their generation than the children of light" (Luke 16:18). The world is a great creator of opinion, sentiment, and habit, and thus becomes an immense obstacle to the Church of God. 2. The course of the world. "Every age hath almost a new dress, though it is the same world, and still carnal men live according to it" Though no age is independent of the ages which go before it, each age has its own-peculiar drift or tendency, which makes it influential for good or evil. We hear of the spirit of the age - the zeitgeist - which is supposed to shape the thought and the action of men; but it cannot command Christian homage, except so far as it works in the line of truth and righteousness. The Ephesians were neither before their time nor after their time, but in their time, living like other Gentiles, in the same errors, delusions, and idolatries; above all, being specially attached to the worship of Diana. 3. It is the duty of Christian people to oppose the course of this world. The apostle solemnly commands us, "Be ye not conformed to this world" (Romans 12:2), and. the reason is because "we have not received the spirit of this world, but we have received the Spirit which is of God" (1 Corinthians 2:12). Let the world be ever so refined, it cannot divest itself of carnal principles and ideas, and the saying of our Lord will always be true, "The things that are in great esteem with men are an abomination unto God" (Luke 16:15). His own mission was "to deliver us from this present evil world" (Galatians 1:4). Therefore, while we use this world, with all its lawful callings and occupations, so as not to abuse it, and honor every true principle that is held by "them that are without," let us resolutely stem the tide of the world's evil tendencies in the strength of that faith which will yet give us the complete conquest of the world (1 John 5:4). II. THE DEVIL. This enemy, older than the world, has a vast influence in controlling its tendencies and movements. 1. He is described by two names - "the prince of the power of the air," which seems to point to his headship over the fallen angels; and "the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience," in relation to his power as the "prince of this world." The moral nature of his influence may be inferred from the character ascribed to him in Scripture: as a sinner from the beginning; as a homicide from the beginning; as an arch-liar - " the father of liars" - as a renegade, who, with the angels under him, fell from his first estate, probably through pride, as the principal cause of his fatal fall. His name is expressly identified with the sin of Adam, the murder of Abel, the treachery of Judas, and with a constant opposition to the kingdom of God. He is accuser, tempter, corrupter, and has, in virtue of sin, a certain power even in death (Hebrews 2:14). The existence of such a being is no more a difficulty than the existence of wicked men, who live to corrupt and destroy their fellow-men. 2. It is not easy to understand the mode in which he acts upon the minds and hearts of men, nor to distinguish a direct temptation of Satan from those which spring from the world or from our own hearts. He works in and through these two things. An evil man or an evil woman can inject an evil thought and suggestion into the nature of another, either by word or by glance. If God, who is a Spirit, can have access to our minds so as to influence us supremely for good, why may not Satan, as an evil spirit, have a similar access for evil? Accordingly he is represented as putting it "into the heart of Judas to betray Christ" (John 13:2). He can, like a bird, pick up the good seed out of the heart (Luke 8:12); he can fill a man's heart so as to instigate falsehood (Acts 5:3); and he can dwell in a man's heart, like a strong man in a castle (Luke 11.). His action is, indeed, "with all deceivableness of unrighteousness" (2 Thessalonians 2:10), as if he were bent upon destroying the moral order of the universe. 3. Though Satan is the tempter of men, the sins of men are not the less their own sins. If the tempter were human, there would be no question about responsibility. They are called "the children of disobedience," because they refuse to obey God, and therefore "the wrath of God" is said to come upon them (Ephesians 5:6). These are they who are "carried away captive by the devil at his will" (1 Timothy 2:26). Believers are therefore warned not "to give place to the devil" (Ephesians 4:27); "to resist the devil" (James 4:7), as they are led to glorify that grace which originally translated them out of the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God's dear Son (Colossians 1:13). III. THE FLESH. The spiritually dead find an instigation to sin in "the lusts of the flesh," as well as in the suggestions of Satan and the temptations of the world. The flesh is a large term, which covers more than mere sins of the body, for it includes "hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strifes, seditions, heresies," as well as "adultery, fornication, murder, drunkenness, and revellings" (Galatians 5:19, 20). There is a "spiritual wickedness that cannot be traced to the body of man. The reason of the term being thus applied is probably, first, to distinguish it from the spirit; then because the things of the flesh" are the supreme objects of desire to worldly men, or, as they are differently phrased, "earthly things" (Colossians 3:2); and, thirdly because it comes by birth: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh" (John 3:6). Thus the lusts of the flesh have their outlet in the desires at once of the flesh and of the mind. They are described as "ungodly lusts" (Jude 1:18), because they are based on a disregard for or on an enmity to God; "worldly lusts" (Titus 2:12), because, in the absence of God, they "run out to all things in the world;" "foolish and hurtful lusts" (1 Timothy 6:9), because they end in shame, disappointment, and ruin; "deceitful lusts" (Ephesians 4:22), because they fail to answer all a sinner's expectations. Therefore we see the glory and fitness of the gospel, which leads us "to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Corinthians 7:1). The Apostle Paul suggests the danger of the flesh in setting forth the grand principle of his life - " The life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God." All life is in this world exposed to risk of some sort. Spiritual life exists in a body with passions prone to evil, as well as in a world with many seductions and cares. Christians must strike the true mean between the sensualism which dishonors the body, and the asceticism which, regarding it as an enemy, denies it those innocent enjoyments which Scripture and nature equally sanction. It is not the body of flesh, but the body of sin in the flesh, that is the real trouble of the Christian. We must learn, by God's grace, to honor the body as the temple of the Holy Ghost; to make it the servant, not the master, of the soul; to dedicate it as a vessel unto honor sanctified and "meet for the Master's use." - T.C. Parallel Verses KJV: Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: |
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