Pauls's Epistle to the Ephesians
Chapter Twelve
GIVING PLACE TO THE DEVIL : GRIEVING THE SPIRIT.
"Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more : but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption."—EPH. iv. 27-30.

THE warning in ver. 27 may he taken in connection with the immediately preceding context. If in your anger, however righteous and holy, you sin, by letting in self; or if, without consciously letting in self, you keep your anger too long; in either way you give place to the devil, and allow him scope and space to work; you play into his hands. And that is true. The prohibition thus construed is relevant and emphatic. Take care lest your anger, however it may be of God at first, become soon satanic, or of the devil. But what follows must, as I think, be taken into account.

Two measures of reform are enjoined. The hands, instead of stealing, are to work (ver. 28). The mouth, instead of being foul, is to be edifying (ver. 29). And that under the risk or peril of giving place to the devil and grieving the Holy Spirit of God (ver. 30). Surely it must be with reference not merely to sinful and long-nursed anger, but to stealing instead of working, and idle or profane speech instead of speech pure and profitable, that the two opposite Spirits are here introduced, and you are cautioned against giving place to the one and grieving the other. Thus viewed, the antagonism is very pointed; and the diverging lines are very clearly marked.

First of all,- going back a step (vers. 22-24) we have on the one hand deceit, or the father of lies, patronising the lusts of the old man; and on the other hand truth, or him who is the truth, or the Spirit of truth, owning and turning to account the righteousness and holiness of the new man. Then, next (ver. 25), we have on the one side calm and easy tolerance of lying and wrong; and on the other side honest indignation. For that contrast surely is what suggests the caution, "Be ye angry and sin not." Even honest indignation is apt to take the shape of personal irritation; and, if prolonged, to become personal ill-will.

At this stage, however, a new temptation as it were comes in. Why persist in a vain protest? Of what avail is our measured and mealy-mouthed reproof if all the fire of honest passion is to be thus cautiously repressed? Why not rather be quiet, tolerant, acquiescent? That is what Satan would have us to be; that is another way, the reverse of the former, of giving place to the devil. And to what does it lead? What follows? We begin to think our old manner of using our own hands and our own mouths not so sinful or so unallowable as we once believed it to be. Ceasing to be angry, because afraid of being too angry, with those who do these evil and untrue things, we cease to be angry with the evil and untrue things themselves, and with their prompter : we need to be reminded that there is another Spirit to whom we stand related, and to be in a startling way admonished of the danger of our so losing sight, in word or deed, of our pure and high and holy calling, as not only to give place to the devil but to "grieve the Holy Spirit of God, whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption."

It would thus appear that the risk of giving place to the devil, against which we are warned, lies not altogether in the direction of our anger being apt to become excessive; but rather, partly at least, in a direction the opposite of that. For it may lie in both directions. We give place to the devil by overmuch anger, in degree or in duration, even when the anger is of a righteous sort: we give place to him equally, if not more, when, in our determination to avoid that extreme, we suppress all indignant emotion against wrong and outrage, or against inhumanity and impiety and crime. For then and thus we learn to tolerate in ourselves, as well as in one another, more or less of what the devil well knows how to take advantage of and turn to account; such a use of the hands and of the mouth, such a giving place to him, as plays his game and does his work, while it grieves the Holy Spirit of God. In this view, let us look at the two warnings (in vers. 28, 29) as regards
I. The sins forbidden.
II. The opposite virtues enjoined. And
III. The motives or aims suggested.

I. The sins indicated are, as one would at first sight suppose, very gross and flagrant; thieving hands and a foul mouth. It is against stealing, and against profane or ribald speaking, that the warning is given. The apostle uses great plainness of speech. There is no mincing of the matter. And yet it is Christians who are thus addressed ; and that, too, without any impeachment of their Christianity. Their title to be addressed as Christians is not called in question. Rather, it is tacitly admitted. It is indeed made the ground of the apostle's urgent appeal. Is it for you Christians to steal with your hands, and speak abominably with your mouths? But is that, you ask, possible? Can any one professing faith in Christ be guilty of either of these offences, and yet retain his position as a member of Christ's church? Would that we could meet the question without a blush of shame and a tear of sorrow!

But it may be said those who, under the cloak of a Christian profession, act dishonestly and speak lewdly or profanely are hypocrites; wilful and conscious hypocrites. Surely God's own children are not to be supposed capable of such iniquities. Nay, but what are these iniquities, in essence and in germ? Stealing, is it not dishonest self-seeking? And what self-seeking ever was or can be honest? Corrupt communication proceeding out of the mouth, is it not unscrupulous and unguarded self-utterance? And what self-utterance ever was or can be pure? In the one case, it is the old man seeking his own; in the other, it is the old man uttering himself: and the more I realise my being so renewed in the spirit of my mind as to put off the old man and put on the new, the more sensitively will I feel my liability to relapse into those habits of selfishness taking in, and selfishness giving out, by which the old man, still continually besetting me, is intensely and incurably corrupted.

II. The sins indicated are to be looked at in the light of the opposite duties enjoined. Over against stealing is working with the hands that which is good. Over against corrupt communication proceeding out of the mouth is the coming out of it of what is good to the use of edifying. It is not negative but positive legislation that we have here; not the mere prohibition of evil, but the express injunction of the reverse. To keep the hands from theft is not enough; they must be well, and honestly, and honourably occupied; not merely idle as to evil, but actively working good. To shut the mouth, so that no corrupt communication shall proceed out of it, is not enough; it must be open for the utterance of what is good in itself and fitted to be edifying according to present need; fitted to do good on the occasion and in the circumstances. Look at these two precepts as contrasted with the two prohibitions.

1. Instead of stealing, you are to labour, and labour hard. But in whatever work you shall labour, see that it be good ; not merely innocent, and such as cannot be condemned; but beneficial and praiseworthy. Manual work is here specified ; but the precept is plainly comprehensive of all work. For all work, considered objectively, or as telling outwardly, is in a sense manual. It is, in one way or other, directly or indirectly, working with the hands. And the alternative here is plain and pointed. It is either stealing or doing good; working thievishly, or working honestly and honourably. For it is assumed that there must be working, manual working, which is working with the head as well. You are working incessantly, and cannot but be working, as long as you have brains and hands. And you must be working, at every given moment, either in the way of stealing, or in the way of doing good. There is no other alternative; no middle state; no absolute idleness. "For Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do." There is working always, and working with a character; no neutral working, working that is neither evil nor good. The only question is "Of what kind shall it be?" Ah, does not this bring the prohibition, viewed in the light of the precept, very closely home to the spiritually awakened conscience? Steal no more! Is that voice of warning addressed to me?

Perhaps not, I say at first, for there is a qualification. Let him that stole,- the stealer, one who used to steal,- steal no more. "Was that ever my profession or my practice, so as to make such a warning necessary for me, or applicable to me? Perhaps not, I say again, so far as other men could take cognisance of my doings ; or, for that matter, my own self. "In my worst state I was not a pickpocket or a burglar or a highway robber. I bore a fair reputation; I worked at an honest trade. Why should I be told now not to steal?" So some outwardly respectable member of the church at Ephesus might not unnaturally ask. So I may be apt to ask now, if I count nothing to be stealing but taking a purse by sleight-of-hand, or cheating a customer over the counter with a lie. But shut me up into this vice or screw, that I must be either stealing or doing good ; that if my handy-work or my head-work, of whatever sort, is not consciously and intentionally good, in the sense of its being done under a feeling of duty, and as what I owe to my Maker and my brethren rather than myself, it must necessarily partake of the character of self-seeking, and lead to the tricks and arts and subterfuges, of which self-seeking is the source.

Let me be made to see how, as often as I act on any other principle than that of doing good, doing the right thing; as often as I act on considerations of self-interest or of selfish expediency, I am almost sure to give in to worldly maxims and worldly ways, if not of positive and actual dishonesty, yet of what sails very near the wind in that direction; then, so far from taking offence at such plainness of speech as implies that I may still be apt to steal, I thank God for my being forced at every step I take, to meet the question, Am I doing this as a good thing, or merely as a matter of self-interest or self-pleasing or self-aggrandisement? For if it be merely that, it is theft. Therefore, "Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good."

2. The same line of remark will apply to the other precept, which has respect to the mouth rather than the hands, the speech rather than the conduct. Here also it is practically most important to consider the prohibition and the precept as shutting you up at every moment into a strict and stern alternative, from the grasp of which there is no possibility of escape. Out of the mouth there must proceed either corrupt communication, or that which is good to the use of edifying; either the one or the other ; nothing between the two; nothing else. Here again, what is characteristic of the old man, must be regarded in the light of the spiritual insight and spiritual sensibility of the new man. In that view, the stigma of corrupt communication must be affixed to whatever is not good in itself and in its tendency; or, in other words, edifying according to the occasion. All, in our conversational intercourse with one another and with our fellow-men, that does not fulfil these conditions, is corrupt communication. It must be so. For speech as well as action must always be influential, either for evil or for good; and if not for good, then for evil. And the conditions here are such as the spiritual man cannot but admit to be reasonable and fair. He must speak. He cannot take refuge in silence. He is a testifier ; a witness-bearer. " Open thou my lips," is his prayer. " My mouth shall show forth thy praise," is his profession. Nay, he must be speaking, whether he will or not. He cannot help it. He must be giving some indication of what he thinks and feels, about what he sees and hears, in the company of his associates, in the fellowship of the world. He cannot be neutral. He will not be allowed to be neutral. Let him be as dumb as the born mute, he will be held to speak. His very dumbness will be read and construed. Therefore let him see to it, that not only no corrupt communication come from his mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying.

III. The motives suggested in these two exhortations; the ends to be sought, must be noted.
1. That you may have to give to him that needeth. It is from, this motive, for this end, that you are " to labour, working with your hands the thing which is good" (ver. 28). No man ever steals from such a motive or for such an end. There may indeed be instances in which the robber or the bandit affects to be very generous and liberal to the poor. He may thus make a merit of his deeds of charity, and even superstitiously set off alms given to a helpless beggar at his mercy, against the spoil and plunder of a richly-laden caravan, or a lordly chariot, or a princely palace. He may even be visited with occasional fits and movements of real sensibility, and may indulge his better nature at the cost of some sacrifice of his booty. But it is not in order to his having gifts for the needy that he plies his trade. He is simply seeking to enrich himself. And what are you seeking in the trade which you ply, whatever it may be? Is it simply to enrich yourself ? Is it merely to provide for yourself and your house? Is that your motive, your end? I mean your chief motive, your real end, to which all that you may do or give for pious uses is subordinate? If it be so, can you say that you are safe from the temptation to steal, to place self-interest before justice and truth, as well as charity, to take unfair advantage, to wink at gainful frauds, to tolerate doubtful practices and usages, to let the ignorant or the unwary victimise themselves for your good? It is not to you that we can look for help to the needy families of men or the needy cause of God; not at least for help, that can be relied on, help steady, continuous, systematic, and secure. You may give to serve a purpose, to pacify conscience, to get rid of importunity, to silence censure. Or you may give upon the spur of a sudden impulse or caprice, when a strong appeal has alarmed your hard heart, or a pathetic pleading has drawn tears from your eyes. But, if you look on what you get as the robber looks on his spoil,—as mere gain to yourself,—property or means to be grasped as your own, as the thief grasps his booty, your giving will partake of the spirit of your getting. It will be mere selfishness after all; selfishness still, to whatever length it may go. For true giving, true and real disinterestedness in giving, is the attribute of him alone who, when he works, works from a sense of duty, and when he wins, wins under a sense of duty ; " working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth" (ver. 28).

2. That it may minister grace unto the hearers. Here also, as regards your mouth as well as your hands, your sayings as well as your doings, your means of influencing by your testimony as well as your means of benefiting with your gifts, you are called to rise to a high and holy aim, if you would be secure against the hazard of sad calamity and sin. You would not have the communication that proceeds out of your mouth to be corrupt or corrupting. You would have it to be good, useful, edifying. Be it so. You can make sure of this only if you enter into the noble design that it may minister grace unto the hearers. For it is a noble design. It appeals to you, as called yourselves to be ministers of grace, and therefore bound to make all your speech, all that proceeds out of your mouth, minister grace. Not for your own sakes only are you to set a watch upon your lips, and see to it that nothing be allowed to appear, in your converse or in your conduct, that might indicate corruption in yourselves or promote corruption in others. Nor is it merely to keep yourselves safe from any such corrupt communication proceeding out of your mouth that you are to make sure of all that does proceed out of your mouth being good to the use of edifying. You are to count yourselves charged with a most sacred and honourable commission. Grace has come to you, and through you it is to reach others. Therefore, " let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers" (ver. 29).

And now, taking these two verses as marking out, or covering, the region in which the church and the world, the renewed and the unrenewed, with their opposite characters and antagonistic tendencies, come in contact with one another, we may see the propriety or the relevancy of the two commands, the one ushering in these verses,- Give not place to the devil: the other following them up, Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. It is as if on either side of a slippery and sloping field there stood or moved a waiting, watching, working Spirit. Below, along the lowest line, the dark spirit of evil goes to and fro incessantly. At the upper ridge, where the ground is highest, see, the good Spirit is ever hovering. It is the field of earth's ordinary commerce and communion, on which its' varied business goes on, and men act and speak with one another and their hands and mouths are constantly, in one way or other, occupied and engaged.

But there is a difference. Below, where the slope descends, the hands are stealing, appropriating, selfishly and unscrupulously grasping, and the mouths are giving forth words vile or vain, and withal a noxious breath. The spirit of evil acknowledges and smiles on them as his own. Above, on the heights, the hands are instruments of loving liberality, and the mouths are ministers of grace. The good Spirit, beholding his own fruit, is pleased. The intermediate space is the scene of contest; the arena on which good and evil workers, good and evil speakers, meet and mingle, and struggle for the mastery. You are in the thick of the heady fight, or rather in the eager bustle of the busy crowd; apt to be swayed upwards or downwards. Both the Spirits would draw you, each his own way, by personally moving you themselves, and by soliciting you through their respective agents and agencies.

What now is your place? Whither are you tending? Is your manner of working losing somewhat of its character of honourable conscientiousness, and taking on rather the character of self-aggrandising greed? Is your utterance of yourself, your speech, less edifying? Is it, on the contrary, growing, occasionally at least, if not habitually, secular and secularising? Ah, do you not experience how the devil from below is opening his arms to embrace you, while the grieved Spirit from above seems about to leave you? But no. You will not so vex and grieve that blessed, gracious, loving Person, who having begun a good work in you would fain perfect it to the end. You will not let your way of life, through compromise of your high testimony, and concession to the world's greed, and the lie and theft of the world's prince, become such as to give him a hold over you and wreathe his horrid features with a grim and ghastly look of malignant triumph, as if he were to have you again within his grasp. Eather you will resist the devil, and say, "Get thee behind me, Satan:" and, turning your eye upward and heavenward, you will cry, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." But my illustration halts. Far nearer is the Spirit than as if he were watching you or helping you from without or from above. He is with you, in you, personally; dwelling in you; shedding abroad in your hearts the love of God; forming Christ in you the hope of glory. He seals you; seals you as accepted in the Beloved, as adopted children, as heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. He is in those hearts of yours, out of which proceed your works, out of the abundance of which your mouth speaks. He is in you, moving you to right working and to right speech. Grieve him not, for you need him to be in you as the only seal of your security until the day of redemption. You cannot dispense with, you cannot do without, that seal. If you efface and mar the holy and pure stamp with which he impresses your inner man, as you must do if your hands work vanity and your mouths speak idly, you are at the mercy of that other spirit who also is very near, and from whose embrace only the Holy Spirit of God can keep.

And for another reason grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. For he loveth you even as he loveth the Father and the Son, and fain would mould your whole mind, soul, heart, into the perfect image of the Father's holy forgiveness and the Son's self-sacrificing love. Nor let me omit to address a word to you who, not being renewed in the spirit of your minds, are still walking after the course of this world and its prince; entangled in the snares of the evil spirit; led captive by him at his pleasure. Have you no misgivings, no relentings, when you think of that other Spirit who is contending with the devil, not for your body, as in the case of Moses, but for your immortal souls? Think how you also may, or rather must, be grieving him! Is he not striving with you? Is he not convincing you of sin, especially of the sin of your unbelieving and ungrateful treatment of Christ? Is he not making you feel uneasy, unhappy, on account of your rejection of Christ? Is he not causing you to say to some dear Christian friend, in your secret heart if not with your open lips - Almost thou persuadest me? Is he not assuring you that Christ has vanquished the devil, and set his vassals and captives free? Is he not even now moving you to assert your liberty, and say, I will arise, and, led by my elder brother, I will go to my Father?

Ah, will you continue to grieve this gracious Holy Ghost? Have you not grieved him enough, and long enough, already, resisting his movements, quenching his fire? Has he not continued to deal lovingly with you, in spite of many provocations, showing you Christ, shutting you up into Christ, until this very hour? Grieve him not any more, 0 my brother: grieve him not now. He is now pressing on your acceptance Christ in all his fulness - is he not? He is now moving you to embrace him. He will now, even now, give you grace to lay hold of Christ as Christ lays hold of you. But remember the awful warning, "My Spirit shall not always strive with man."

And to you, to all, let me address this closing exhortation. Be decided, be thorough-going in your walk and work, in your speech and testimony. Beware of the sliding scale. Beware of half measures and a doubtful state or doubtful footing. Let the eye be ever single, looking always upwards, heavenwards never casting a glance downwards, world-wards. The two Spirits, to one or other of whom you must be surrendering yourselves, are irreconcilable foes their mutual opposition is everlasting. The breaking off from the one and the yielding to the other must be complete. You must be born again, you must be created anew. And ever thereafter you must be relentlessly, unsparingly, as you would cut off a right hand, putting off the old man which is corrupt according to the lusts of deceit; and you must be putting on, whole and entire, without breach or flaw, the new man which after God is created in the righteousness and holiness of the truth.
Go To Chapter Thirteen

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