Ephesians 5:3Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The wise men of this age agreed with that shameful teaching, which makes one blush. Therefore the Apostle joined every impurity with fornication, and added greed to impurity.

This is not the greed that urges us to gather money. It is that about which we spoke above: "Let no one transgress and greedily defraud his brother in the matter."

This is because the insatiable and unfulfilled man passes through every kind of shameful deed and debauchery.

"As befits saints," he says. According to this teaching, no one can be called holy who, besides fornication, is also found guilty of any impurity and thirst of lust for pleasures that delight him.

If anyone thinks that greed must be understood in the sense we have shown, he must give the reasons why greed is unusually placed among fornication, impurity, shameful and foolish talk, and jesting.

Then, by foolish talk, in my opinion, we must understand more than the words of those who speak of something shameful in order to provoke laughter.

It includes those who, with feigned folly, mock the people whom they wish to please.

It also includes the reasonings of those who are considered wise in this age. In disputes about natural things, they claim to know exactly the number of grains of sand on the seashore.

They claim to know the drops of water in the Ocean, the immense spaces of heaven, and the center of the earth.

Foolish talk is also found in the Church. For example, someone may be misled by misunderstood words of the prophet Isaiah.

He may suppose that heaven is rounded like a vault, and that a throne is set in the heavens on which God sits.

He imagines God surrounded like a ruler and judge by standing angels, who obey the words of the Commander and are sent to various ministries (Isa 6).

But since jesting follows foolish talk, these things must be referred chiefly to foolish and ignorant narratives.

There is a distinction between foolish talk and jesting. Foolish talk contains nothing wise or worthy of the human heart.

Jesting proceeds from a rational thought and deliberately seeks out certain words, whether urban or rustic, indecent or playful. In another word, it may be called comic speech meant to provoke laughter in the hearers.

Yet holy men must completely remove even this. It is more fitting for them to weep, as we read in a certain Hebrew Gospel.

There the Lord is said to have spoken to the disciples: "And be joyful only when you see your brother in love."

Up to this point nothing seems to have been set forth that is superfluous or outside the connection of the discourse and arrangement of words in the Epistle.

But concerning what follows at the end, "but rather thanksgiving," someone may ask: what do these words mean after the prohibition of adultery, impurity, excess, shameful acts, foolish talk, and jesting?

Indeed, if he had wanted to speak about some virtue, he should first have spoken about truth, justice, and love.

But as this would be inconsistent, so there would have been inconsistency there also. With the same freedom, the discourse would have lacked order.

Therefore perhaps in this place he does not mean the thanksgiving by which we thank God. Rather, he means that quality by which, among men, we are called pleasant and gracious, or conversely false.

Foolishness and jesting are not fitting for a Christian. But it is fitting that his speech be seasoned with a certain salt, so that he may have favor with the hearers.

Except among certain learned Greeks, it was customary to use the word eucaristia only to designate the mystery of communion, and not the quality of being pleasant or gracious.

Therefore I think that the Apostle, as a Hebrew of Hebrews, used a common word. He wanted to clarify its meaning by the sense of another word.

He did this especially because among the Hebrews the gracious person and the one who gives thanks are expressed by one word.

Therefore I think that in Proverbs it is also written thus: Gunh eucaristoj egeiret andri doxan, that is, "a grateful wife brings glory to her husband" (Prov 12:4), instead of "a gracious wife."

We would seem to do violence to the words of Scripture if we firmly accepted the translation "a grateful wife" instead of "a gracious wife," unless the other editions of the holy books agreed with our opinion.

Indeed, Aquila, Theodotion, and Symmachus used gunh caristoj, that is, "a gracious wife," and not eucaristoj, which pertains to the actions of grace.

What he said above is not fitting for saints. For when he says, “Let every uncleanness not even be named among you,” this is the same as saying, “not even be pronounced by you.” He then adds, “as is fitting for saints.”

Here he calls saints not those who, born of men and now dwelling with the Angels, are glorified by us as having perfectly pleased God and completed their life by a beautiful and God-pleasing end. Rather, he calls all those saints who through baptism into Christ have been consecrated to God.

For if a vessel dedicated to God is holy, as is every offering to Him, especially when it is offered for sanctification, much more is a man holy when he has been offered to God according to holy covenants, received through the Washing of regeneration, and thereby granted the grace of the Spirit of holiness.

But by what covenants and obligations were we received by the grace of the Spirit from above? I will say briefly: to renounce Satan, and to be joined and numbered with Christ, who calls us to struggle, so that we may enter through the narrow gate.

“For wide is the gate and broad the way that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. But narrow is the way that leads to life, and few are those who find it” (Mt. 7:13-14).

No one burdened with the load of glory and pride can pass through the narrow gate. Nor can anyone who has placed upon himself the weight of greed and covetousness, or who has an attraction to pleasures and indulgence of his passions.

Therefore neither clowning nor frivolous laughter is fitting for Christians, since it weakens the soul’s tension. Nor is foolish speech fitting, as it displays conceit in a man. Nor is immodesty in speech fitting, as it stirs up and encourages fornication.

Such conduct is fitting for those who give an obligation to be zealous for every purity, who have been placed in a state of purity, and who have received strength to preserve it and live in it.

“Holiness is the filling of the heart with all virtues, but it is especially witnessed by purity from fleshly inclinations and sympathies.” “In all the holy ascetics we find the indication that empty talk and jesting are directly connected with lust. He, the Apostle, disposes them to extinguish the lust of the flesh and of the eyes by the danger of losing the Kingdom of Heaven because of them. He sets before them, as it were, the choice between the momentary sweetness of lust and eternal blessedness in the Kingdom of Christ.”

“The extortioner is characterized by a special and weighty feature: he is an idolater. In the Epistle to the Colossians he also calls covetousness idolatry (3:5). Indeed, every passion is such that when it overcomes someone, it wholly swallows him. Therefore the Apostle also called the belly a god (Phil. 3:19). But attachment to wealth has a special feature that places the one possessed by it in the same rank as idolaters, namely, trust in riches. Yet one must expect everything from God and rest all one’s hopes in Him.”

“Ephesus was full of various schools and communities. Among them the Epicureans did not judge strictly about acts of fornication, just as among the Jews the Sadducees did not. The Apostle, of course, knew this. He knew what these vain talkers could say. Without entering into a detailed examination of their vain speech, he cuts off temptation with one word: See that, whatever anyone says against this apostolic teaching, you not be deceived.”

“Fear, he says, lest by resisting the truth and indulging uncleanness you become like them, the disobedient. If you allow this, you will share their lot. Their lot is the fire of judgment and torment” (Bishop Theophan).

These include lustful thoughts, voluntary enkindlings of the fire of the flesh, and unnatural satisfactions of it. Covetousness is the passion for acquiring, the insatiable desire to have more and more.

That this also belongs to desire was shown by Saint John the Theologian. He assigns to it not only the lust of the flesh, but also the lust of the eyes.

By the latter, people understand love of possession, as everyone commonly says: your eyes are never satisfied. Chrysostom says: "It is one and the same passion by which we love both money and bodies."

"Let it not even be named among you." "He sufficiently showed the vileness of the vices listed by commanding that even their names be destroyed from memory" (Theodoret).

"For he knew that talk about them inflames the passion and leads to deeds" (Oecumenius). "The Apostle wanted them to be wholly pure and blameless, so that even their tongue would not be defiled by uttering such names" (Theophylact).

Concerning manifestations of the irascible passion he says, "let them be put away from you." Concerning the works of desire he says, "let them not even be named." The latter presents a stronger prohibition.

He wants there to be no mention of them at all. Their very names should be forgotten, so that if someone utters such names, those who hear will not understand what he is speaking about.

"As befits saints." This befits those who, before the foundation of the world, were chosen to be holy and blameless (Eph 1:4).

It befits those who, by receiving faith in the Lord, cleaving to Him, and receiving new life from Him, pledge themselves to a good conscience (1 Pet 3:21).

They must be zealous for purity in every respect. They are placed in a state of purity and have received strength to preserve it and to live in it.

Holiness is the filling of the heart with every virtue. Yet it is chiefly witnessed by purity from fleshly attractions and sympathies.

Therefore Saint Paul, writing to the Thessalonians, says: this is the will of God for you, your holiness. In what does holiness consist? "That you abstain from fornication" (1 Thess 4:3).

He sets purity so high that he assigns it as the final goal of our calling itself, saying: "God did not call us to impurity, but in holiness" (1 Thess 4:7).

Writing to the Corinthians, he especially persuades them to flee fornication because our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit dwelling in us (1 Cor 6:18-19).

Therefore he threatens the corrupters of this temple with punishment from above: "Do you not know that you are God's temple, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

If anyone corrupts God's temple, God will corrupt him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple" (1 Cor 3:16-17).

When the Spirit of God comes, He restores the body to its original dignity: life in God. This life, once received and felt, detaches one from everything sensory and fleshly, as if cutting one off from it.

Thus life in God, holiness, purity, and being filled with the Spirit stand on one line in the Christian life. They appear and act together.