Jerome — Commentary on Scripture

Ephesians 4:16

This entire upbuilding, by which the body of the church increases cell by cell, is being accomplished through the mutual love of one for another.… This does not imply that to each member will be distributed the same level of maturity. It is an error to assume, for example, that all human beings will be formed anew into angels. Rather every member will be perfected according to its own distinctive measure and function. Humanity, which has been expelled from paradise, will be restored to the cultivation of paradise again.

Commentary on Ephesians 4:16

Ephesians 4:21

If all who seem to hear Christ did indeed hear him, the apostle would never had said this to the Ephesians. They were those to whom he had already revealed the promises of Christ. Why would he then say conditionally: “if indeed you have heard him?” To know Christ is the same thing already as knowing virtue. To hear of Christ rightly is the same as being attentive to all the virtues: wisdom, justice, temperance, fortitude and the other names by which Christ is called. Therefore if anyone has indeed heard and learned Christ, he would not be living “in the futility of his mind” nor “be darkened in understanding” nor be “alienated from the life of God.” He would already have practical knowledge, since his ignorance would have been dispelled, his darkness illuminated and every blindness lifted from the eyes of his heart.

Commentary on Ephesians 4:20

Ephesians 4:21

On the one hand the name Jesus refers to the man who was assumed by the Word, the man born from the Virgin. … Then again it refers to the Word of God: “for to us there is one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things” … When Paul says “as truth is in Jesus,” he is speaking of the temple of God in which God the Word dwells. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. God is the Word. As life dwells in him, so he also is life. … In this same way the Son too may be called the truth, and truth may be said to dwell in him. In saying this we do not separate God the Word from the humanity he assumed. The man he assumed is not someone else. According to our understanding of certain passages we give different titles to him whom we believe to be the one Son of Man and Son of God, both before and after the virgin birth.… In none of the patriarchs, in none of the prophets, in none of the apostles did truth reside as it did in Jesus. For others know in part and prophesy in part and see “as through a glass darkly.” In Jesus alone the truth of God has appeared. He confidently asserts “I am the…

On the one hand the name Jesus refers to the man who was assumed by the Word, the man born from the Virgin. … Then again it refers to the Word of God: “for to us there is one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things” … When Paul says “as truth is in Jesus,” he is speaking of the temple of God in which God the Word dwells. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. God is the Word. As life dwells in him, so he also is life. … In this same way the Son too may be called the truth, and truth may be said to dwell in him. In saying this we do not separate God the Word from the humanity he assumed. The man he assumed is not someone else. According to our understanding of certain passages we give different titles to him whom we believe to be the one Son of Man and Son of God, both before and after the virgin birth.… In none of the patriarchs, in none of the prophets, in none of the apostles did truth reside as it did in Jesus. For others know in part and prophesy in part and see “as through a glass darkly.” In Jesus alone the truth of God has appeared. He confidently asserts “I am the truth.”

Commentary on Ephesians 4:21

Ephesians 4:22

The “old nature” whom he tells them to put off has, in my opinion, been aged by wickedness. For, going constantly astray in his former way of life and in the desires of waywardness and acting like a beast in works of corruption, he himself suffers corruption and decay.… But the Word of God kills in such a way as to make the dead one come alive. He then seeks the Lord whom he did not know before his death. He does not corrupt but kills the old man. … As the outer man decays the inner man is renewed.

Commentary on Ephesians 4:22

Ephesians 4:23

We are not being renewed in our thinking process apart from the renewal of our spirits. Nor are we renewed in our spirits without thinking. We are being jointly renewed “in the spirit of our mind.” Hence as we sing psalms in the spirit, so we also sing them in our thoughts. As we pray in the spirit, so we also pray in our thoughts. The renewal of “the spirit of our mind” means that when the thought is clear and pure … then the spirit is rightly joined to it. They are so coupled as if by a cohesive glue that we no longer speak simply of spirit but of “the spirit of our mind.”

Commentary on Ephesians 4:23-24

Ephesians 4:24

The metaphors of creating and establishing are never spoken of in Scripture except in great works. The world is created. A city is established. But observe that a house, however grand it may be, is more commonly said to be built than established or created. Note then that it is a great work of God when it is said that “the new person is created by God in Christ.” This creature towers over the other creatures. This creature alone is said to have been established in the same way as the world was established, from “the beginning of God’s ways,” when all the elements first came into being.

Commentary on Ephesians 4:23-24

Ephesians 4:25

To be members one of another points to a great mystery. He is speaking of those who are very close to us in faith. For people are not generally “members one of another.” But the faithful indeed are members of the faithful. Christians are members of the body of Christ. We are members with the saints who embody purity of heart and consummate goodness.… Hence we are being instructed to speak intimately of the truth of this mystery with the neighbor—to speak of the fullness of God’s truth.

Commentary on Ephesians 4:25

Ephesians 4:26

This is taken from the fourth psalm, as I am sure no one doubts. It may seem contrary to what is said of anger elsewhere, that we must put away all anger. … It is an oversimplified interpretation that does harm, especially when people imagine that the constraints against anger are being here relaxed. It is not only among us but among philosophers too that anger is spoken of in a double sense. Anger emerges first when we are understandably aroused by a natural stimulus after being wounded by an injury. Or it arises when, after the impulse has abated and our rage has been restrained, the mind is capable of judgment but nonetheless we find ourselves desiring vengeance upon the one who is thought to have inflicted the wound. In this [verse] Paul is speaking of the first kind of anger. He is allowing to us as vulnerable humans that in the face of some undeserved event we may be moved to some level of annoyance, as if a light breeze were disturbing the serenity of the mind. But on no account are we to be carried into swelling rapids by the impulse of rage.

Commentary on Ephesians 4:26

Ephesians 4:28

Those who live in the midst of this life’s intense business appear to be forced, for the sake of food and necessary provisions, to buy and sell certain things and to seek unfair profit from business. It is difficult even for those who have been set free from the other passions—namely fornication, idolatry, adultery and murder—to escape being caught by this subtle vice.

Commentary on Ephesians 4:28

Ephesians 4:29

A good word is one that serves to build upon the occasion, communicating grace to the hearers because it teaches them to pursue virtues and shun vices. An evil word is one that prompts them to sin and rather drives them headlong into disaster.… Whenever we say what is not in season or inappropriate for the context, or that which does not contribute to the good of the hearers, an evil word proceeds from our mouth.… Even if we do no direct harm, yet we are not thereby building up. We shall pay the penalty of an evil word.

Commentary on Ephesians 4:29

Ephesians 4:30

That we have been “sealed” with the Holy Spirit means that both our spirit and our soul are impressed with God’s own seal, signifying that we belong to him. By this we receive in ourselves that image and likeness in which we were created at the outset.… You are sealed so that you may be preserved to the end. You may show that seal on the day of redemption, pure and unblemished and not damaged in any part. You are thereby ready to be counted with those who are redeemed.

Commentary on Ephesians 4:30

Ephesians 4:31

Wrath is the outspewing of indignation in the mind when anger overflows. Bitterness and wrath are varieties of anger. Anger desires vengeance after rage has been subdued. Anger wishes to harm the one by whom it believes itself injured.… Vengeance wants to return evil to the one it considers guilty of injury. A Christian ought not to return evil for evil but “overcome evil with good.”

Commentary on Ephesians 4:31

Ephesians 4:32

Paul wants us to be gentle, approachable people, people who have left anger, bitterness, wrath and slander behind. If we are merciful and serene, taking the initiative in reaching out to others, our very approachability will overcome the shyness and fear of those for whom we reach out.

Commentary on Ephesians 5:1

Ephesians 5:1

When he wrote to the Corinthians, indeed, he said “be imitators” of me … for though they could not instantaneously become imitators of Christ, it was still a great thing for them if they could be imitators of the imitator. But to the Ephesians, since they are those to whom he has revealed such great mysteries, he neither says “be imitators of me” nor “be imitators of Christ” but “be imitators of God.” This does not imply that it is less to be an imitator of Christ than of God, for Christ is God.… Admittedly much that God has done we humans can hardly be said to imitate. But in the way that he is merciful to all and rains on good and bad, so we may pour out mercy upon all we meet. When we do this, we shall be beloved children. We shall be imitating either Paul or, as I rather think, God himself.

Commentary on Ephesians 5:1

Ephesians 5:2

Who is it that truly walks in love? The one who, for the salvation of others, contends against sin to the point of shedding blood, so as even to give up his soul for them. That is the one who walks in love, imitating Christ.

Commentary on Ephesians 5:2

Ephesians 5:3

Even one who is in fact free of fornication is not holy if he remains mentally preoccupied with some uncleanness or with the avaricious pursuit of the pleasures that have once delighted him.

Commentary on Ephesians 5:3-4

Ephesians 5:4

The “silly talk” to which Paul refers occurs not only among those who tell dirty jokes to get a cheap laugh. He is also referring to those who put on frivolous airs and to those who manipulate whoever they are trying to please. There is another kind of silly talk that occurs among those reckoned to be the intellectuals of the age who, when disputing on matters of natural science, imagine that they have fully comprehended the sands of the shore, the drops of ocean, the extent of heavens and the minuteness of earth.… Note that levity follows silly talk. The intent here is to speak of frivolous and inappropriate stories. The difference between silliness and levity is this: silliness has nothing in it that is wise or worthy of the human heart. Levity devolves from a clever mind and deliberately seeks out certain words, be they witty, vulgar, obscene or facetious, in a jocularity the sole aim of which is to get a laugh.

Commentary on Ephesians 5:3-4

Ephesians 5:5

Are those merely guilty of silliness and inordinate levity to be kept out of the kingdom of God? Are they excluded on the same basis as those sins that he has marked off specifically? It would seem a cruel sentence not to pardon the weakness of human frailty, so that our words condemned us even when said in jest.… Yet in making this distinction [between lesser and more serious sins] we are not making excuses for silliness and levity. They do not exclude from the kingdom. But they are not negligible and remind us that just as “the Father has many mansions” and “one star differs from another in glory,” so too will it be in the resurrection of the dead.

Commentary on Ephesians 5:5

Ephesians 5:8

The darkness is being turned into light. There is not, as some heretics argue, a nature so alienated that it cannot receive salvation.… Those who receive salvation—the righteous—are “the light of the world.” Those who refuse, the unrighteous, are in consequence called darkness.… The difference and distance between one and the other is clearly seen by their own fruits.

Commentary on Ephesians 5:8

Ephesians 5:9

Christ himself is rightly called goodness, righteousness and truth. He is goodness in that he gives grace to those who believe in him, not according to their works but according to his mercy. He is himself righteousness in that he gives to each what he deserves. He is himself truth in that he is the one who knows the causes of all creatures and all things.

Commentary on Ephesians 5:9