Ver. 11. Rather reprove them.—It may be with a voice as firm as the Baptist’s; it may be by gentle and yet unflinching “showing up” of certain proceedings (cf. St. John iii. 20). “This chastening reproof is an oral one,” says Meyer.
Ver. 12. It is a shame even to speak of.—Though the only sign of their shame having touched them is that they seek the cover of secrecy, and our own cheeks burn as we speak of what they do, we must convict.
Ver. 13. Made manifest by the light.—Whatever the light falls upon is no longer of the darkness, but belongs to the light. Shame is one of the influences by which the light conquers a soul from darkness.
Ver. 14. Wherefore He saith.—What follows is “a free paraphrase from the Old Testament formed by weaving together Messianic passages—belonging to such a hymn as might be sung at baptisms in the Pauline Churches” (Findlay). The thought is that of the change from darkness to light—a change produced by the opening of the eyes to the light shining in the face of Jesus Christ.
Ver. 15. See then that ye walk circumspectly.—R.V. “Look then carefully how ye walk.” The way of life must be one of exactitude; and that it may be so the steps must not be haphazard, but carefully taken.
Ver. 16. Redeeming the time.—R.V. margin, “buying up the opportunity.” Seizing the crucial moment as eagerly as men bid for a desirable article at an auction sale. Because the days are evil.—A man in Paul’s circumstances and with his consuming earnestness of spirit may be forgiven if he does not see everything rose-coloured.
Ver. 18. Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess.—The word for “excess” is found again in Tit. i. 6 as “riot,” and in 1 Pet. iv. 4. In all three texts the warning against intoxication is near the word. In Luke xv. 13 we have the adverbial form—“riotously.”
Ver. 19. Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.—When the spirit is elevated so that ordinary prose conversation is inadequate to express the feelings let it find vent in sacred music. St. James’s advice to the “merry” heart is, “Sing psalms” (James v. 13). The “psalm” is properly a song with accompaniment of a stringed instrument; “a ‘hymn’ must always be more or less of a Magnificat, a direct address of praise and glory to God.” “Spiritual songs” were “such as were composed by spiritual men and moved in the sphere of spiritual things” (Trench). No spiritual excitement, however highly wrought, can be injurious that flows between the banks of thanksgiving and mutual submission in the fear of God.
Ver. 20. Giving thanks always for all things.—If one who speaks as a philosopher merely can praise the “sweet uses of adversity” and discern the “soul of goodness in things evil,” how much more should one believing Rom. viii. 28!
Ver. 21. Submitting yourselves one to another.—In another Church the endeavour to take precedence of each other had produced what a stranger might have taken for a madhouse (1 Cor. xiv. 23). St. Paul’s word for “submitting” means “ranging yourselves beneath,” and finds its illustration in the Lord’s words, “Go and sit down in the lowest place” (Luke xiv. 10).