| Barnes' Notes on the Bible Lie not one to another - Notes, Ephesians 4:25. Seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds - Your former corrupt and evil nature; Notes, Ephesians 4:22. The reason for putting away lying, stated in Ephesians 4:25, is, that we "are members one of another" - or are brethren. The reason assigned here is, that we have put off the old man with his deeds. The sense is, that lying is one of the fruits of sin. It is that which the corrupt nature of man naturally produces; and when that is put off, then all that that nature produces should be also put off with it. The vice of lying is a universal fruit of sin, and seems to exist everywhere where the gospel does not prevail; compare the notes at Titus 1:12. There is, perhaps, no single form of sin that reigns so universally in the pagan world. Clarke's Commentary on the BibleLie not one to another - Do not deceive each other; speak the truth in all your dealings; do not say, "My goods are so and so," when you know them to be otherwise; do not undervalue the goods of your neighbor, when your conscience tells you that you are not speaking the truth. It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer; but afterwards he boasteth; i.e. he underrates his neighbour's property till he gets him persuaded to part with it for less than its worth; and when he has thus got it, he boasts what a good bargain he has made. Such a knave speaks not truth with his neighbor. Ye have put off the old man - See the notes on Romans 6:6; and particularly on Romans 13:11-14 (note). Ye have received a religion widely different from that ye had before; act according to its principles. Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleLie not one to another.... Which is another vice of the tongue, and to which mankind are very prone, and ought not to be done to any, and particularly to one another; since the saints are members one of another, and of the same body, which makes the sin the more unnatural; of this vice; see Gill on Ephesians 4:25, and is another sin that is to be put off, or put away; that is to be abstained from, and not used. The arguments dissuading from this, and the rest, follow, seeing that ye have put off the old man, with his deeds. The Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions read this as an exhortation, as they do the next verse also. Who is meant by the old man; see Gill on Romans 6:6, and what by putting him off; see Gill on Ephesians 4:22, and as for "his deeds", they are the same with the deceitful lusts there mentioned, and the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:19 and with the members of the body of sin in the context, Colossians 3:5. Some, as Beza, think, that here is an allusion to the rite of baptism in the primitive church; which, as he truly observes, was performed not by aspersion, but immersion; and which required a putting off, and a putting on of clothes, and when the baptized persons professed to renounce the sins of the flesh, and their former conversation, and to live a new life. Vincent's Word StudiesSeeing that ye have put off (ἀπεκδυσάμενοι) See on Colossians 2:15. The old man See on Romans 6:6. Geneva Study BibleLie not one to another, {7} seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; (7) A definition of our new birth taken from the parts of it, which are the putting off of the old man, that is to say, of the wickedness which is in us by nature, and the restoring and repairing of the new man, that is to say, of the pureness which is given us by grace. However, both the putting off and the putting on are only begun in us in this present life, and by certain degrees finished, the one dying in us by little and little, and the other coming to the perfection of another life, by little and little. People's New Testament 3:9 Lie not to one another. Christ is truth, and they who are of Christ will be truth in word and deed. Seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds. Lying would be a proof that the old man, the old fleshly nature, with his deeds had not been put off (Eph 4:22 Ro 6:6). Scofield Reference NotesMargin old man See Scofield Note: "Rom 6:6". Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary9. (Eph 4:25.) put off-Greek, "wholly put off"; utterly renounced [Tittmann]. (Eph 4:22). the old man-the unregenerate nature which ye had before conversion. his deeds-habits of acting. Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary3:5-11 It is our duty to mortify our members which incline to the things of the world. Mortify them, kill them, suppress them, as weeds or vermin which spread and destroy all about them. Continual opposition must be made to all corrupt workings, and no provision made for carnal indulgences. Occasions of sin must be avoided: the lusts of the flesh, and the love of the world; and covetousness, which is idolatry; love of present good, and of outward enjoyments. It is necessary to mortify sins, because if we do not kill them, they will kill us. The gospel changes the higher as well as the lower powers of the soul, and supports the rule of right reason and conscience, over appetite and passion. There is now no difference from country, or conditions and circumstances of life. It is the duty of every one to be holy, because Christ is a Christian's All, his only Lord and Saviour, and all his hope and happiness. |