Let no man deceive you with vain words. For because of these things cometh the anger of God upon the children of unbelief.
μηδεις υμας απατατω κενοις λογοις δια ταυτα γαρ ερχεται η οργη του θεου επι τους υιους της απειθειας
11 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Then he adds: "Let no one deceive you with empty words." Empty words are those which have a passing charm, but are never shown in deeds, because their work is deception. "For because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience." He means for adultery, for covetousness, for impurity, or also for this deception, since they are unscrupulous. He calls them sons of disobedience because they are extremely obstinate and do not listen to God.
“For know this, that no fornicator, or unclean person, or covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words.”
It is likely that among the Ephesians there were some who said that God forbade these minor sins only in order to frighten people. What evil is there in a word, that the fool who utters it should be liable to Gehenna? And how is the extortioner an idolater?
It is at them that the Apostle hints here. This is clear from what he adds: “Let no one deceive you with empty words.” Empty are the words that give temporary pleasure but prove useless in deed. To scatter such words is deception.
That the extortioner is an idolater, understand from this: “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Mt 6:24). Indeed, the extortioner has fallen away from God and serves gold. How, then, is he not an idolater?
And if he says that he has not set up idols, what of it? The more educated Greeks also said that they did not worship idols, but Aphrodite and Ares. These are passions.
The extortioner does not slaughter sheep, but he slaughters men and rational souls. The Greek worshiped God’s creatures, but the extortioner worships his own phantom. God did not create covetousness; our insatiability did.
I think that Paul said this by borrowing from David, but in another form. David said, “The idols of the nations are silver and gold” (Ps 113:12). Paul, in his great wisdom, changed this and called silver and gold idols.
Therefore the man who serves silver and gold is, beyond doubt, an idolater.
“For because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.” Either because of fornication, impurity, and idolatry, or because of such speeches from deceivers. He calls them sons of disobedience because they are very disobedient, do not believe God, and spread such opinions.
In what sense are certain people called sons of disobedience (Eph 5:6) and children of wrath (Eph 2:2-3)?
The Lord usually calls people the children or sons of someone when they do the will of the one whose children they are, whether he is good or evil. For He says: “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham” (Jn 8:39).
And again: “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you wish to do” (Jn 8:44). Therefore the one who does the works of disobedience becomes a son of disobedience.
Perhaps, just as the devil is called not only a sinner, but sin itself, because, I think, he became the first cause of sin, so for the same reason the devil may be called disobedience itself.
Someone becomes a child of wrath because he has made himself worthy of wrath. For just as the Apostle named those who are worthy of the Lord and do the works of light and day “sons of light” and “sons of day” (1 Thess 5:5), so the words “we were children of wrath” (Eph 2:3) must be understood.
Yet one must know that a son of disobedience is the same as a child of wrath. For the Lord declared: “He who does not believe in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him” (Jn 3:36).
Let no one deceive you with empty words, claiming that desire and covetousness are not judged and punished. For because of this the wrath of God came upon the contemporaries of Noah, through the flood, and of Lot, through the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
“Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of unbelief.”
Words that deceive and become an obstacle are empty and void. But words that edify the hearers are full of meaning, abundant, and compact.
There are many who say that there will be no punishments for sins and no outward torments. Rather, sin itself and the consciousness of wrongdoing will serve as punishment. The worm does not die in their heart, and fire will blaze up in their soul.
It will be like a fever, which torments the sick man not outwardly, but punishes the body itself with pains, without adding external torments.
Therefore he called empty and void words those persuasions and deceptive snares which seem to have a certain brilliance of eloquence and flatter sinners. By instilling confidence in them, they rather draw them into eternal punishments.
Indeed, God is angered by nothing so much as the sinner’s arrogance, when he, with cold pride, haughtily refuses to bow down to weeping and does not ask mercy for sin.
For because of this the wrath of God comes upon the sons of distrust, or those who do not yield to persuasion. The word aphqeia can be better understood as refusal to be persuaded than in the opposite sense of trust.
They are called sons who do not incline to persuasion, or sons of distrust, just as others are called sons of perdition, sons of fornication, sons of death, sons of Gehenna, and so on. This can very easily be found in various places of the Scriptures.
"Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience." Since those who followed Hellenic teachings practiced all the things listed above, he commands them not to listen to these teachings. Punishment from God threatens the workers of wickedness.
Paul calls these people sons of disobedience. Many think empty things while interpreting the promises of the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore they resist and do not believe, and the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Disobedience is the devil, whom those who resist serve. More than that, they are his sons.
The deprivation of sinners from the Kingdom of God (Eph 5:3-7), and the wrath of God that punishes them. "Fornication and all impurity" and so forth "must not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints. ... For know this, that no fornicator, or unclean person ... has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ. ... For this the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience."
Having earlier pointed out the works and feelings of irascible passion that are improper for Christians, the Apostle now warns against concupiscible passion. Its fruits include not only every impurity, but every form of covetousness. For whoever does not lust after the body lusts after money and possessions.
“We have one passion by which we love both money and bodies” (Chrysostom). “Of the manifestations of irascible passion he says, ‘Let them be put away from you.’ But of the works of desire he says, ‘Let them not even be named.’ The latter presents the stronger prohibition, for he wishes there to be no remembrance of them at all.”
Thus those must conduct themselves who pledge themselves to be zealous for every purity. They have been placed in a state of purity and have received the powers to preserve it and live in it.
“Holiness is the heart’s fulfillment with all the virtues. Yet it is witnessed chiefly by purity from fleshly impulses and sympathies.” “In all the holy ascetics we find the indication that idle speech and buffoonery stand in direct connection with desire.
To quench the desire of the flesh and the eyes, he, the Apostle, sets before them the danger of losing the Kingdom of Heaven because of these things. He offers, as it were, a choice between the momentary sweetness of desire and eternal blessedness in the Kingdom of Christ.
The extortioner is characterized by a special and weighty trait: he is an idolater. In the Epistle to the Colossians he also calls covetousness idolatry (3:5).
Every passion is indeed such that, when it overcomes someone, it wholly swallows him up. For this reason the Apostle also called the belly a god (Phil 3:19).
Yet attachment to riches has a special trait that places the one possessed by it in the same line as idolaters. This trait is trust in wealth. But one must expect everything from God and rest all one’s hopes in Him.”
“Ephesus was full of diverse schools and communities. Among them, the Epicureans did not judge fornication strictly, 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 the temptation with one word: see to it that, whatever anyone may say against this apostolic teaching, you are not deceived.”
“Be afraid, he says, lest through opposition to the truth and indulgence toward impurity you become like them, the disobedient. If you allow this, you will share their lot. And their lot is the fire of judgment and torment” (Right Reverend Theophan).
Therefore the readers must not listen to the empty, unproved speeches of the pagans, who persuade Christians to take part in their way of life.
Take heed, lest someone deceive you and lead you astray by deception. In regard to what? Not in regard to some new matters, but to all the same things: works of lust, covetousness, idle talk, and jesting.
Saint Paul does not indicate who these vain talkers were. Ephesus was full of various schools and communities. Among them, the Epicureans did not judge fornication strictly. Among the Jews, neither did the Sadducees.
It is said that the Simonians were also very lame in this foot. But it occurred to no one to treat love of possession as strictly as the holy Apostle does.
This strictness was required by the spirit of Christianity. The Apostle, of course, knew this and knew what all these vain talkers might say.
Without entering into a detailed examination of their vain speech, he cuts off the temptation with one word. Take heed: whatever anyone says against this, do not be deceived. These are empty words.
It is not surprising if, while he was in Ephesus, the Apostle refuted all these empty sayings before the Christians. Now he only reminds them not to forget the personal lessons and to remain on guard.
Besides this, each person might have his own thoughts. Someone might say that works of lust are natural, that one cannot help having possessions, and that joking and laughter are trivial things.
For this reason, writing to the Corinthians, Saint Paul wrote: "Do not deceive yourselves: fornicators, defilers, covetous men, shall not inherit the Kingdom of God" (1 Cor 6:9).
Evidently then, as now, vain sayings were circulating everywhere. They undermined confidence in the gravity of the passions rejected by the Apostle.
By doing so they weakened the vigilance of Christians faithful to their duty.
Chrysostom said of his own time: "When we say that everyone who calls his brother a fool is liable to Gehenna, some say, 'Is the one who calls his brother a fool really liable to Gehenna? No,' they say.
And when we say that the covetous man is an idolater, they laugh at this also, saying that the expression is exaggerated. In this way they debase all the commandments.
Keeping such people in mind, blessed Paul then wrote to the Ephesians, saying: 'Let no one deceive you with empty words.' By empty words he means words that are not sound, yet are seductive and lead into deception."
"Because of these things," that is, because of the multiplication of these very vices, fornication, impurity, and covetousness, "the wrath of God comes." This means the dread Judgment.
It is appointed that the dread Judgment will come. No one knows when it will be. But time is flowing and bringing it nearer. Naturally, it is coming toward us.
Yet the multiplication of the vices mentioned hastens its progress. The Lord compares the moral state of the last days with the moral state of those who lived in Noah's time.
Then there was a terrifying flood of sensuality. "They are all flesh," God said of them. The same will happen before the end of the world.
Fleshly deeds, together with covetousness, will gain the upper hand over everything. It seems that the Apostle Paul points here to this resemblance.
He leads us to see an image of the sons of disobedience in those who once resisted in the days of Noah.
For "sons of disobedience," υιοι της απειθειας, are sons of unpersuadableness. They are people whom nothing can persuade.
Whatever one may say, they do not believe God Himself. They do not believe and they resist, being stubborn unbelievers. Such were those who lived in Noah's time.
How much did he insist, in God's name, that they repent? They did not listen. Such also will people be before the end of the world.
Then the flood took the sons of resistance. At the end of the world, the dread Judgment will suddenly overtake the disobedient.
The Gospel will become known to all. All will hear the lessons that it is destructive to live impurely. Yet no one will listen.
They will, of course, calm their conscience with some empty words, like those from which the Apostle warned the Ephesians.
This is what Saint Paul brings to the minds of the Ephesian Christians, in order to inspire them to flee those vices.
He also urges them to turn their hearing away from every crooked interpretation that lessens the gravity of those vices with empty words.
He wanted to fill their souls with fear of the dread Judgment. By this he would set their souls in intense sobriety and vigilance, both over their heart and over their outward relations.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 18 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS