that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;
Parallel Translations
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that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;
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That we hence forth be no moare chyldren wauerynge and caryed with every wynde of doctryne by the wylynes of men and craftynes wherby they laye a wayte for vs to deceave vs.
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That we henceforth be no more children, wauering and caried about with euery winde of doctrine, by the deceit of men, and with craftines, whereby they lay in wait to deceiue.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
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Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (42)
Passages linked to Ephesians 4:14 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Hebrews 13:9 Don’t be carried away by various and strange teachings, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not by food, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.
- Romans 16:17-18 Now I beg you, brothers, look out for those who are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and turn away from them. For those who are such don’t serve our Lord, Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by their smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the hearts of the innocent.
- 1 Corinthians 14:20 Brothers, don’t be children in thoughts, yet in malice be babies, but in thoughts be mature.
- 1 John 4:1 Beloved, don’t believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
- Hebrews 5:12-14 For although by this time you should be teachers, you again need to have someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the revelations of God. You have come to need milk, and not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is not experienced in the word of righteousness, for he is a baby. But solid food is for those who are full grown, who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.
- James 1:6 But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed.
- 2 Corinthians 2:17 For we are not as so many, peddling the word of God. But as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ.
- Ephesians 6:11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
- Colossians 2:4-8 Now I say this that no one may delude you with persuasiveness of speech. For though I am absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit, rejoicing and seeing your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As therefore you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, walk in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving. Be careful that you don’t let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements of the world, and not after Christ.
- 2 Peter 2:1-3 But false prophets also arose among the people, as false teachers will also be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction. Many will follow their immoral ways, and as a result, the way of the truth will be maligned. In covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words: whose sentence now from of old doesn’t linger, and their destruction will not slumber.
- Matthew 24:24 For there will arise false christs, and false prophets, and they will show great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the chosen ones.
- 2 Timothy 4:3 For the time will come when they will not listen to the sound doctrine, but having itching ears, will heap up for themselves teachers after their own lusts,
- 1 Timothy 4:6-7 If you instruct the brothers of these things, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished in the words of the faith, and of the good doctrine which you have followed. But refuse profane and old wives’ fables. Exercise yourself toward godliness.
- Galatians 3:1 Foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you not to obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was openly portrayed among you as crucified?
- 2 Timothy 3:13 But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
- Matthew 24:11 Many false prophets will arise, and will lead many astray.
- Acts 20:30-31 Men will arise from among your own selves, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore watch, remembering that for a period of three years I didn’t cease to admonish everyone night and day with tears.
- 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as Christ’s apostles. And no wonder, for even Satan masquerades as an angel of light. It is no great thing therefore if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.
- 2 Timothy 3:6-9 For some of these are people who creep into houses and take captive gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Even as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind, who concerning the faith are rejected. But they will proceed no further. For their folly will be evident to all men, as theirs also came to be.
- Jude 1:12 These are hidden rocky reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you, shepherds who without fear feed themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
- Isaiah 28:9 Whom will he teach knowledge? To whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts?
- 1 John 2:26 These things I have written to you concerning those who would lead you astray.
- Revelation 19:20 The beast was taken, and with him the false prophet who worked the signs in his sight, with which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur.
- Galatians 1:6-7 I marvel that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different “good news”, but there isn’t another “good news.” Only there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the Good News of Christ.
- Matthew 11:7 As these went their way, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?
- 2 Corinthians 4:2 But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
- 2 Corinthians 11:3-4 But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus, whom we didn’t preach, or if you receive a different spirit, which you didn’t receive, or a different “good news”, which you didn’t accept, you put up with that well enough.
- 2 Timothy 2:17-18 and those words will consume like gangrene, of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus: men who have erred concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past, and overthrowing the faith of some.
- Psalms 10:9 He lurks in secret as a lion in his ambush. He lies in wait to catch the helpless. He catches the helpless when he draws him in his net.
- Psalms 59:3 For, behold, they lie in wait for my soul. The mighty gather themselves together against me, not for my disobedience, nor for my sin, Yahweh.
- Micah 7:2 The godly man has perished out of the earth, and there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; every man hunts his brother with a net.
- Matthew 18:3-4 and said, “Most certainly I tell you, unless you turn, and become as little children, you will in no way enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Whoever therefore humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.
- Acts 23:21 Therefore don’t yield to them, for more than forty men lie in wait for him, who have bound themselves under a curse to neither eat nor drink until they have killed him. Now they are ready, looking for the promise from you.”
- 1 Corinthians 3:1-2 Brothers, I couldn’t speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babies in Christ. I fed you with milk, not with meat; for you weren’t yet ready. Indeed, you aren’t ready even now,
- 1 Corinthians 12:2 You know that when you were heathen, you were led away to those mute idols, however you might be led.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:2-5 not to be quickly shaken in your mind, and not be troubled, either by spirit, or by word, or by letter as if from us, saying that the day of Christ has already come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For it will not be, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of destruction, he who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting himself up as God. Don’t you remember that, when I was still with you, I told you these things?
- 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10 even he whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deception of wickedness for those who are being lost, because they didn’t receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
- 1 Timothy 3:6 not a new convert, lest being puffed up he fall into the same condemnation as the devil.
- James 3:4 Behold, the ships also, though they are so big and are driven by fierce winds, are yet guided by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot desires.
- 2 Peter 2:18 For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error;
- 1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they didn’t belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have continued with us. But they left, that they might be revealed that none of them belong to us.
- Revelation 13:11-14 I saw another beast coming up out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke like a dragon. He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. He makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. He performs great signs, even making fire come down out of the sky to the earth in the sight of people. He deceives my own people who dwell on the earth because of the signs he was granted to do in front of the beast, saying to those who dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast who had the sword wound and lived.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (21 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 14. That we may be no more children. Having…
14. That we may be no more children. Having spoken of that perfect manhood, towards which we are proceeding throughout the whole course of our life, he reminds us that, during such a progress, we ought not to resemble children. An intervening period is thus pointed out between childhood and man’s estate. Those are “children” who have not yet advanced a step in the way of the Lord, but who still hesitate, — who have not yet determined what road they ought to choose, but move sometimes in one direction and sometimes in another, always doubtful, always wavering. Those, again, who are thoroughly founded in the doctrine of Christ, though not yet perfect, have so much wisdom and vigor as to choose properly, and proceed steadily, in the right course. Thus we find that the life of believers, marked by a constant desire and progress towards those attainments which they shall ultimately reach, bears a resemblance to youth. At no period of this life are we men. But let not such a statement be carried to the other extreme, as if there were no progress beyond childhood. After being born to Christ, we ought to grow, so as “not to be children in understanding.” (1 Corinthians 14:20.) Hence it appears what kind of Christianity the Popish system must be, when the pastors labor, to the utmost of their power, to keep the people in absolute infancy.
Tossed to and fro, and carried about. The distressing hesitation of those who do not place absolute reliance on the word of the Lord, is illustrated by two striking metaphors. The first is taken from small ships, exposed to the fury of the billows in the open sea, holding no fixed course, guided neither by skill nor design, but hurried along by the violence of the tempest. The next is taken from straws, or other light substances, which are carried hither and thither as the wind drives them, and often in opposite directions. Such must be the changeable and unsteady character of all who do not rest on the foundation of God’s eternal truth. It is their just punishment for looking, not to God, but to men. Paul declares, on the other hand, that faith, which rests on the word of God, stands unshaken against all the attacks of Satan.
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By every wind of doctrine. By a beautiful metaphor, all the doctrines of men, by which we are drawn away from the simplicity of the gospel, are called winds God gave us his word, by which we might have placed ourselves beyond the possibility of being moved; but, giving way to the contrivances of men, we are carried about in all directions.
By the cunning of men. There will always be impostors, who make insidious attacks upon our faith; but, if we are fortified by the truth of God, their efforts will be unavailing. Both parts of this statement deserve our careful attention. When new sects, or wicked tenets, spring up, many persons become alarmed. But the attempts of Satan to darken, by his falsehoods, the pure doctrine of Christ, are at no time interrupted; and it is the will of God that these struggles should be the trial of our faith. When we are informed, on the other hand, that the best and readiest defense against every kind of error is to bring forward that doctrine which we have learned from Christ and his apostles, this surely is no ordinary consolation.
With what awful wickedness, then, are Papists chargeable, who take away from the word of God everything like certainty, and maintain that there is no steadiness of faith, but what depends on the authority of men! If a man entertain any doubt, it is in vain to bid him consult the word of God: he must abide by their decrees. But we have embraced the law, the prophets, and the gospel. Let us therefore confidently expect that we shall reap the advantage which is here promised, — that all the impostures of men will do us no harm. They will attack us, indeed, but they will not prevail. We are entitled, I acknowledge, to look for the dispensation of sound doctrine from the church, for God has committed it to her charge; but when Papists avail themselves of the disguise of the church for burying doctrine, they give sufficient proof that they have a diabolical synagogue.
The Greek word κυβεία, which I have translated cunning, is taken from players at dice, who are accustomed to practice many arts of deception. The words, ἐν πανουργίᾳ, by craftiness, intimate that the ministers of Satan are deeply skilled in imposture; and it is added, that they keep watch, in order to insnare, (πρὸς τὴν μεθοδείαν τὢς πλάνης.) All this should rouse and sharpen our minds to profit by the word of God. If we neglect to do so, we may fall into the snares of our enemies, and endure the severe punishment of our sloth.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain By the deceit of those men which are very…
By the deceit of those men which are very well practised in deceiving of others.
Betwixt our childhood (that is to say, a very weak state, while as we do yet altogether waiver) and our perfect age, which we shall have at length in another world, there is a mean, to wit, our youth, and steady going forward to perfection.
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He compareth them which rest not themselves upon the word of God, to little boats which are tossed hither and thither with the doctrines of men, as it were with contrary winds, and therewithall forewarneth them that it cometh to pass not only by the lightness of man’s brain, but also by the craftiness of certain, which make as it were an art of it.
With those uncertain chances which toss men to and fro.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed…
14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
Ver. 14. Be no more children] But young men, 1Jn 2:14, strong men. Many men’s heads today are so big (like children that have the rickets) that all the body fareth the worse for it.
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Tossed to and fro] As a feather or froth upon the waves, whirred about with every wind of doctrine; unstable souls, as St Peter calls them; simple, that believe everything, as Solomon hath it; giddy hearers, that have no mould but what the next teacher casteth them into, being blown like glasses into this or that shape at the pleasure of his breath.
By the sleight of men] Gr. εν τη κυβεια, by men’s cogging of a die, the usual trade of cheaters and false gamesters.
Whereby they lie in wait to deceive] Gr. Unto a method of deceiving. The devil and his disciples are notable method mongers, so as to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect; but that they cannot do fundamentally, finally, Mat 24:24. {See Trapp on "Mat 24:24"}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain That we henceforth be no more children; i.e. weak…
That we henceforth be no more children; i.e. weak in the faith, unstable in judgment, children in understanding, 1Co 14:20; such as need teaching, and strengthening: see Rom 2:20; 1Co 3:1; Heb 5:13.
Tossed to and fro; light and unconstant, like ships without ballast, tossed with every wave.
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And carried about with every wind of doctrine; not only shaken and staggering as to our faith, (as in the former clause), but carried about to errors for want of judgment, by false doctrines, here compared to violent winds.
By the sleight of men; their sophistry, whereby they easily seduce those that are unskilful, as men easily cheat children in playing at dice, from whence this metaphor is taken.
Cunning craftiness; their skilfulness in finding out ways of deceiving, whereby they can make any thing of any thing.
Whereby they lie in wait to deceive, viz. as in ambush; the word here used, is translated wiles, Eph 6:11, against which the apostle would have them fenced with the whole armour of God, and seems to signify a laying in ambush, or assaulting a man behind his back; a secret and unseen way of circumventing, a laying wait to draw them that are weak from the truth.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain St. Paul, in these words, declares one special end…
St. Paul, in these words, declares one special end for which the ministry of the word was instituted and appointed, namely, to preserve from error and seduction, to prevent instability of mind, and unsettledness of judgment, and to confirm persons in fundamental truths, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, & c.
Observe here, 1. The name which St. Paul gives to unstable persons and unsettled professors: he calls them children, not in regard of age, but in respect of knowledge and understanding: children, is a word that denotes imperfection and weakness, instability and ungroundedness in knowledge.
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Observe, 2. How the unsteadiness of these professors is expressed by a double metaphor; the former is drawn from a wave of the sea, they are tossed to and fro; the latter is drawn from a light cloud hovering in the air, carried about from place to place: neither wave nor cloud have any constancy, but are both moving if the least wind be stirring.
Observe, 3. The cause of this instability; every wind of doctrine; professors that have no solid principles every wind of doctrine has power over them to drive them to and fro, every teacher can cast them into what mould he pleases, and blow them, like glasses, into this or that shape, at the pleasure of his breath. But why wind of doctrine? Because there is no solidity in it, but being wind in the preacher, it breeds but wind in the hearer, because of its variety and novelty, and because of its prevalency over unstaid men. How suddenly sometimes is a family, a town, yea, a whole country, leavened with a particular error!
Observe, 4. The characters of those imposters and seducers that do thus unsettle and unhinge men, they use sleight; a metaphor taken from gamesters, who with art and sleight of hand can cog the dice, and win the game. Seducers cheat with false doctrines, as gamesters do with false dice. Cunning craftiness; the word signifies the subtility and deep policy of the old serpent; implying that seducers are old and cunning gamesters, skillful to deceive: they lie in wait to deceive; the word signifies an ambushment, or stratagem of war, implying that all seducers’ sleight and craftiness is to this very end and purpose, that they may entrap and catch men within the ambush of their impostures.
From the whole learn, That seducers and false teachers are craftsmasters of sleight and subtilty, and stratagems of deceit; they have artifices, ways and methods, to take men unawares, and to make merchandise of the people: they wrest and rack the scriptures to make them speak what they please, not what the Holy Ghost intended.
If all this art fails, their last advice is, to recommend their doctrines upon some private pretended revelation and uncommon impulse of the Holy Spirit: by all which methods they lie in wait to deceive.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain That we henceforth be no more children,.... Meaning not…
That we henceforth be no more children,.... Meaning not children of men, for grace does not destroy natural relations; nor children of God, which is a privilege, and always continues; nor indeed children of disobedience, though the saints cease to be such upon conversion; but in such sense children, as they were when first converted, newborn babes, little children: there are some things in which they should be children still, namely, with respect to an ardent and flaming love to God and Christ, and to the saints; and with regard to their eager desire after the sincere milk of the word; and as to pride, malice, envy, evil speakings, guile and hypocrisy; in these things it becomes them to be children: but not in understanding; they should not always remain ignorant, imprudent, or be always fed with milk, and not able to digest meat; nor be unable to go unless led, and be tender and incapable of bearing hardships for Christ and his Gospel, and of defending it, and his cause and interest; but should play the man, and quit themselves as such and be strong, which the Gospel ministry is a means of, and encourages to:
tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine; false doctrine, which may be compared to wind for its lightness and emptiness, and for its swelling and puffing nature, and for the noise and bluster it makes, and for its rapidity and force, with which it sometimes comes and bears all before it, and for its infectiousness, which is the nature of some winds; and to be tossed to and fro, and carried about with it, is expressive of much ignorance and want of a discerning spirit, and implies hesitation, and doubts and scruples, and shows credulity, fickleness, and inconstancy: and which is brought on
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by the sleight of men; either through the uncertain and changeable state of things in life; the mind of man is fickle, the life of man is uncertain, and all the affairs of human nature are subject to change, by reason of which men are easily imposed upon; or rather through the tricking arts of false teachers; the word here used is adopted by the Jews into their language, and with them signifies the game at dice (a); and is a gamester at that play, and is interpreted by them, one that steals souls (b), and deceives and corrupts them; and may be filly applied to false teachers, who make use of such like artifices and juggling tricks, to deceive the hearts of the simple, as the others do to cheat men of their money: hence it follows,
and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; or "unto the deceitful methods or wiles of the devil", as the Alexandrian copy reads; which not only suggests that their principal end in view is to deceive, but their insidious, private, and secret way of deceiving, and their expertness in it, which they have from the devil; and now the ministration of the Gospel is the best and surest guard and antidote against such fluctuations and deceptions.
(a) T. Bab. Erubin, fol. 82. 1. Misna Roshhashana, c. 1. sect. 8. & Sanhedrin, c. 3. sect 3. (b) T. Bab. Cholin, fol. 91. 2. & Jarchi & Tosephot in ib. & Juchasin, fol. 88. 1.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Fluctuating to and fro - From within, even when…
Fluctuating to and fro - From within, even when there is no wind. And carried about with every wind - From without; when we are assaulted by others, who are unstable as the wind. By the sleight of men - By their "cogging the dice;" so the original word implies.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 14. Be no more children] Children, here, are…
Verse 14. Be no more children] Children, here, are opposed to the perfect man in the preceding verse; and the state of both is well explained by the apostle's allusions. The man is grown up strong and healthy, and has attained such a measure or height as qualifies him for the most respectable place in the ranks of his country.
The child is ignorant, weak, and unsteady, tossed about in the nurse's arms, or whirled round in the giddy sports or mazes of youth; this seems to be the apostle's allusion. Being tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, refers to some kind of ancient play, but what I cannot absolutely determine; probably to something similar to a top, or to our paper kite.
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By the sleight of men] The words εν τη κυβεια refer to the arts used by gamesters, who employ false dice that will always throw up one kind of number, which is that by which those who play with them cannot win.
Cunning craftiness] It is difficult to give a literal translation of the original words: εν πανουργια προς τηνμεθοδειαν της πλανης. "By cunning, for the purpose of using the various means of deception." πανουργια signifies craft and subtlety in general, cheating and imposition: μεθοδεια, from which we have our term method, signifies a wile, a particular sleight, mode of tricking and deceiving; it is applied to the arts which the devil uses to deceive and destroy souls; see Eph 6:11, called there the WILES of the devil. From this it seems that various arts were used, both by the Greek sophists and the Judaizing teachers, to render the Gospel of none effect, or to adulterate and corrupt it.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Eph 4:14. That we henceforth be no more children…
Eph 4:14. That we henceforth be no more children — Mere babes in Christian knowledge, experience, and practice; weak and unstable; tossed — Κλυδωνιζομενοι, fluctuating from within, through various restless lusts and passions working in our hearts, even when there is nothing external to agitate or excite them; and carried about with every wind of doctrine — And temptation from without, when we are assaulted by others who are themselves unstable as the wind; by the sleight, or subtlety, of men — Greek, εν τη κυβεια των ανθρωπων, which words Chandler proposes rendering, by the dicing of men; the expression referring to the artifice of those infamous gamesters, who know how to cog the dice. So that the deceitful arts of false teachers and others, who endeavour to draw men from the belief and practice of the truth as it is in Jesus, by their insinuations and wiles, are here compared to the tricks of gamesters, who, by using false dice, and by various arts, cheat those with whom they play. And cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive — Greek, εν πανουργια προς την μεθοδειαν της πλανης, a clause which Beza renders, “veteratoria ad insidiose fallendum versutia,” by the tricking of those long exercised in craftily deceiving others; Doddridge’s translation is, by their subtlety in every method of deceit; and Macknight’s, by craftiness formed into a subtle scheme of deceit. The former noun, πανουργια, signifies the doing of things by trick and sleight of hand, and the latter, μεθοδεια, (which, Eph 6:11, is applied to the wiles and subtle contrivances of the devil, in order to deceive and ruin men,) properly signifies a regular plan of proceeding in any affair, and is here used for a regular plan of deceit, formed either for upholding people in their ignorance of, and opposition to the gospel, or for drawing them from their faith in, or obedience to, some article of it. “The men,” Macknight thinks, “whose base arts the apostle describes in this passage, were the unbelieving Jews and the heathen philosophers, who opposed the gospel by sophistry and calumny; also such false teachers as arose in the church itself, and corrupted the doctrines of the gospel for worldly purposes, while at the same time they assumed the appearance of great disinterestedness and piety.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain That we henceforth be no more children - In…
That we henceforth be no more children - In some respects Christians “are” to be like children. They are to be docile, gentle, mild, and free from ambition, pride, and haughtiness; see the notes on Mat 18:2-3. But children have other characteristics besides simplicity and docility. They are often changeable Mat 11:17; they are credulous, and are influenced easily by others, and led astray, In these respects, Paul exhorts the Ephesians to be no longer children but urges them to put on the characteristics Of manhood; and especially to put on the firmness in religious opinion which became maturity of life.
Tossed to and fro - κλυδωνιζόμενοι kludōnizomenoi. This word is taken from waves or billows that are constantly tossed about - in all ages art image of instability of character and purpose.
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And carried about with every wind of doctrine - With no firmness; no settled course; no helm. The idea is that of a vessel on the restless ocean, that is tossed about with every varying wind, and that has no settled line of sailing. So many persons are in regard to religious doctrines. They have no fixed views and principles. They hold no doctrines that are settled in their minds by careful and patient examination, and the consequence is, that they yield to every new opinion, and submit to the guidance of every new teacher. The “doctrine” taught here is, that we should have settled religious opinions. We should carefully examine what is truth, and having found it, should adhere to it, and not yield on the coming of every new teacher. We should not, indeed, close our minds against conviction. We should be open to argument, and be willing to follow “the truth” wherever it will lead us. But this state of mind is not inconsistent with having settled opinions, and with being firm in holding them until we are convinced that we are wrong. No man can be useful who has not settled principles. No one who has not such principles can inspire confidence or be happy, and the first aim of every young convert should be to acquire settled views of the truth, and to become firmly grounded in the doctrines of the gospel.
By the sleight of men - The cunning skill “trickery” of people. The word used here - κυβεία kubeia - is from a word (κύβος kubos) meaning a cube or die, and properly means a game at dice. Hence, it means game, gambling; and then anything that turns out by mere chance or hap-hazard - as a game at dice does. It “may” possibly also denote the trick or fraud that is sometimes used in such games; but it seems rather to denote a man’s forming his religious opinions by “the throw of a die;” or, in other words, it describes a man whose opinions seem to be the result of mere chance. Anything like casting a die, or like opening the Bible at random to determine a point of duty or doctrine, may come under the description of the apostle here, and would all be opposed to the true mode, that by calm examination of the Bible, and by prayer A man who forms his religious principles by chance, can un” form” them in the same way; and he who has determined his faith by one cast of the die, will be likely to throw them into another form by another. The phrase “the sleight of men” therefore I would render “by the mere chance of people, or as you may happen to find people, one holding this opinion, and the next that, and allowing yourself to be influenced by them without any settled principles.”
Cunning craftiness - Deceit, trick, art; see 2Co 12:16; Luk 20:23; 1Co 3:19; notes, 2Co 4:2; 2Co 11:3, note.
Whereby they lie in wait to deceive - Literally, “Unto the method of deceit;” that is, in the usual way of deceit. Doddridge, “In every method of deceit.” This is the true idea. The meaning is, that people would use plausible pretences, and would, if possible, deceive the professed friends of Christ. Against such we should be on our guard; and not by their arts should our opinion be formed, but by the word of God.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain In nequitia hominum, Greek: en te kubeia, in fallacia:…
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
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In nequitia hominum, Greek: en te kubeia, in fallacia: Greek: kubeia, est lusus aleæ. See St. John Chrysostom, p. 821. Ed. Sav.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Translate, "To the end that"; the aim of the…
Translate, "To the end that"; the aim of the bestowal of gifts stated negatively, as in Eph 4:13 it is stated positively.
tossed to and fro--inwardly, even without wind; like billows of the sea. So the Greek. Compare Jam 1:6.
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carried about--with every wind from without.
doctrine--"teaching." The various teachings are the "winds" which keep them tossed on a sea of doubts (Heb 13:9; compare Mat 11:7).
by--Greek, "in"; expressing "the evil atmosphere in which the varying currents of doctrine exert their force" [ELLICOTT].
sleight--literally, "dice playing." The player frames his throws of the dice so that the numbers may turn up which best suit his purpose.
of men--contrasted with Christ (Eph 4:13).
and--Greek, "in."
cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive--Translate as Greek, "craftiness tending to the methodized system of deceit" ("the schemes of error") [ALFORD]. BENGEL takes "deceit," or "error," to stand for "the parent of error," Satan (compare Eph 6:11); referring to his concealed mode of acting.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 14. Tossed to and fro—A metaphor from waves tossed…
14. Tossed to and fro—A metaphor from waves tossed about by the winds; billowed to and fro.
Every wind of doctrine—When we have, by a perfect knowing of Christ, attained the firmness of spiritual manhood instead of the fickleness of childhood, we possess an assurance in our position not to be disturbed by the gusts of popular scepticism or novel dogmas. Sleight, means dice; of men, who are playing a game; spiritual gamblers. Whereby they lie in wait to deceive is a very diffuse rendering. We translate the whole clause, cunning craftiness, exerted in the systemization of deception. All these full formed isms are deceptions fabricated by the craftiness of deep doctrinal gamblers, whom, if we are men (see Eph_4:13) and not children, we will promptly reject. For in deep religious experience, in a thorough experimental knowledge of Christ, do we attain that full assurance of faith which is proof against all scepticism.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 14. that we henceforth, &c.] This verse takes up…
14. that we henceforth, &c.] This verse takes up the thought of Eph_4:12. The mutual activity and influence of Christians, guided aright, is to result in, at once, fixity of principle and richness of power; both characteristic of spiritual maturity.
children] The same Gr. word as e.g. 1Co_3:1 (A.V., “babes”), 1Co_13:11; Heb_5:13 (A.V., “babe”). By usage, it denotes the young child in the aspect specially of ignorance or mental weakness, “childishness.” From another side the same word sometimes conveys ideas commended by the Gospel, the little child’s simplicity of purpose and willingness to be taught, “childlikeness” (e.g. Mat_11:25; Mat_21:16; 1Co_14:20, where the kindred verb is used).
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tossed to and fro] Lit., “billowed”; carried up and down as on waves. Another explanation of the (rare) Gr. word is “worked into waves,” as the sea by the wind. But the next phrase is against this, and so is the analogy of a verb of similar form, Jas_1:6 (A.V., “driven with the wind”).
carried about] Like St Paul’s own ship in Adria (Act_27:27, where the Gr. verb is closely akin to this).
of doctrine] Lit., of the teaching, the teaching in question, that described just below.
by the sleight] Lit., in the dicing.—“In:”—more than “by.” The thought is of “the evil atmosphere, as it were, in which the varying currents of false doctrine … exert their force” (Ellicott).—“Dicing”:—the word was familiar in later Greek, in the sense of deceit, sharp practice, in general. It was thence borrowed, and similarly used, by the Rabbis.
of men] Not of Christ, nor for Christ. Cp. Gal_1:1.
and cunning craftiness, &c.] More lit., in cunning, with a view to the scheming of [their] deceit. R.V., “after the wiles of error.” But the Gr. preposition far more often means “with a view to” than “according to.” The practical difference, however, is minute.
The Apostle here recognizes and exposes the sad fact of intentional misguidance on the part of these preachers of “another Gospel” (Gal_1:6-7). See the parallel cautions, Rom_16:17-18; Col_2:4.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (14) That we be no more children.—Here the process…
(14) That we be no more children.—Here the process of growth is described negatively; in the next verse positively. We are to be no more children. The word used here and in 1Co_3:1; 1Co_13:11; Gal_4:1; Gal_4:3; Heb_5:13 (often rendered “babes”), is a word almost always applied in a bad sense, like our word “childish”—not to the guilelessness, the trustfulness, or the humility of children, which our Lord emphatically blessed (Mat_18:2-4), but to their unforeseeing and unthinking impulsiveness. The distinction is marked in 1Co_14:20, “Be not children in understanding: howbeit, in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.” Thus, in 1Co_3:1; 1Co_13:11, Heb_5:13, it describes crudeness and shallowness of conception; in Gal_4:1; Gal_4:3, incapability of free self-direction; here, liability to disturbance and change by every external impression from without, so as to be “everything by turns and nothing long.”
Tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine.—The metaphor is of a ship drifting at the mercy of a storm, tossed by the waves, and carried round from time to time by every blast. The word “tossed” is more properly used of the waves (compare Jas_1:6) themselves, but the following words seem to show that here it is applied to the ship rising and falling with them. The word “doctrine,” as usual, is a general word for all deliberate “teaching,” whether acting on the understanding or the heart. It includes, in fact, all influence consciously exercised to a definite end.
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The metaphor is then dropped, and the evil influences to which childish instability is a prey are described—first, as the “sleight,” i.e., the sleight of hand of the dice-thrower, describing quick, sudden deceit of detail; next (to substitute an accurate translation for the unusually paraphrastic rendering of our version), as a “craftiness devoted to the systematic plan of deceit,” thus referring to deeper and subtler forms of delusion. This reference is so definite in the original, that we are tempted to believe St. Paul to have had in view some particular scheme of erroneous teaching, which had already struck root in the soil of Asia Minor. The Epistle to the Colossians shows that such false teaching had appeared itself at Colossæ; it was, perhaps, the germ of the more full-grown Gnosticism noted in the Pastoral Epistles.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain That we he no more children, tossed to and…
That we he no more children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of teaching. The apostle goes back to illustrate in another way the purpose of the ministry; it is designed to remedy childish fickleness and the causes that lead to it. The ignorant and inexperienced lie at the mercy of abler persons, and, when there is no regular ministry provided by Christ, are liable to be swept along by any plausible person that professes to be a Christian teacher, and such persons are often very dangerous, working by the sleight of men, i.e. the cunning legerdemain by which the teachings of men teachings devised by the hearts of men are made to appear to the uninitiated the same as Christ"s teaching. In craftiness, tending to the scheme of error. Such teachers employ crafty methods, apparently harmless, but tending to further the method or scheme of error. The strong language here used corresponds with that in which, at Miletus, the apostle warned the elders of Ephesus of the "grievous wolves" that were to come in among them, and of the men "speaking perverse things" that were to arise among themselves, not sparing the flock. (Act_20:29, Act_20:30)
Warnings against instability and deception.
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The ministry has been appointed to bring the Church forward to maturity, and therefore it is concerned to carry it safely through the intermediate stages. We are consequently warned not to continue children, but to advance steadfastly towards manhood. There are two faults hinted at by the apostle.
I CHILDREN ARE APT TO BE UNSTABLE. "Tossed to and fro and carried about by every wind of doctrine." They have not become so firmly rooted in the truth as to be proof against unsettling influences either within or without them. Consequently, they are like a wave of the sea driven of the wind and tossed.
1. The warning implies that truth is a matter of supreme moment. Holiness of character is impossible without it. Believers ought to be well founded in the truth; not mere babes, but such as "are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil". (Heb_5:14)
2. They are warned against the tendency to be blown about by the winds of doctrine that blow from-every quarter. The counsel is much needed in this age of startling suggestion, radical denial, and deep unsettlement. There are men who go the rounds of all the sects, swinging from side to side with a movement which indicates that they are true to nothing but the love of change. It is hard for unstable natures to hold the poise of their judgment in the midst of such terrible cross-fires of theological and philosophical speculation.
II CHILDREN ARE APT TO BE DECEIVED. Their want of knowledge leaves them open to imposition and deception. The apparatus of theological seduction is always at hand. The language of the apostle implies:
1. That there were errorists either at Ephesus or elsewhere, identified with the Christian communion, marked by "the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive." It is a mere dream to suppose that the primitive Church was perfectly pure either in doctrine or practice. The apostle"s farewell address to the Ephesian elders at Miletus anticipated the rise of serious error. (Act_20:29)
2. That such "false teachers" were marked by selfishness, deceit, and malignity. This is the character which the apostle usually ascribes to such (Rom_16:17, Rom_16:18; Col_2:18; Gal_2:4; 2Co_2:17) Error is, therefore, not harmless, though it may appear to be the mere sword-play of a speculative temperament. False teachers are not innocent. Yet our judgment in all cases of this sort must be exercised with charity and meekness, because men may be better than their creed, and may be influenced by the sounder parts of it.
3. That Satan often succeeds in seducing the unwary by the dexterous tricks of such teachers, who cunningly mingle the truth with such error as robs it of its healing virtues. T.C.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to…
Eph_4:14
That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
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The mature Christian
The apostle here describes the perfect man, or mature Christian, both negatively and positively.
I. The negative description.
1. Christians must not remain children. In understanding, constancy, and fortitude, they should be men.
2. Christians must not be tossed to and fro, like a ship rolling on the waves. He who embarks for the heavenly world must consider, that the ocean on which he sails is subject to changing winds and perilous storms. He must not promise himself smooth waters, soft gales, and clear skies; but go provided for all kinds of weather. The word of truth must be his compass, and faith his pilot; hope must be his anchor, and knowledge and good works his ballast; prudence must keep the watch, and sober reason hold the helm. Thus he may sail with safety in all seasons.
3. Christians must not be carried about with every wind of doctrine. False doctrines, like winds, are blustering and unsteady. They blow from no certain point, but in all directions; and they frequently, and sometimes suddenly, shift their course. They make great noise and bustle, disturb the atmosphere, and, by their violent motions, they spread confusion and ruin. Light bodies are easily taken up and driven about by every wind that blows. The gale which cleanses the wheat, disperses the chaff. The deep-rooted oak stands firm in its place, while the dry leaves beneath it are caught up, wafted around, and made the sport of every gust. So the sincere Christian, rooted and grounded in the truth, and grown up to maturity in faith and knowledge, is steadfast in his religion, whatever storms may assault him.
4. The apostle warns us that we are in danger from the sleight of men, and the cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
II. The positive description.
1. We must speak the truth in love; or be sincere in love.
(1) We should acquire a good doctrinal knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus.
(2) We should be well established in the truth.
(3) We should see that our hearts are conformed to the truth.
(4) We must walk in the truth.
2. As we must adhere to the truth, so we must grow up in all things into Christ, who is the Head.
(1) Christ is the Head of believers.
(2) They must grow up into Him.
(3) They must grow in all things. A partial religion is worthless. (J. Lathrop, D. D.)
Christian education
In Christian character, it may be, relatively speaking, that the moral functions--faith, hope, conscience, and love--stand higher on the scale than social affection, taste, and the lower forms of human reason; but if Christian character is to be complete, it must include them all. Suppose a painter, in painting a mans face, should omit the hair and the eyebrows, saying, A man can live without hair, and I paint only the important features, and should represent simply the mouth, the eyes, and the nose; what sort of a picture would he make? Absurd as such a thing would be in art, how much more glaring would be the absurdity, in drawing the portrait of the soul, of leaving out any part of it! Religious culture carries with it everything. All the parts are required to make the whole on this ideal--Christ Jesus. I have around my little cabin in the country a dozen or so of rhododendrons. Broad-leaved fellows they are. I love them in blossom, and I love them out of blossom. They make me think of many Christians. They are like some that are in this Church. Usually they come up in the spring and blossom the first thing, just as many persons come into Christian life. The whole growth of the plants is crowded into two or three weeks, and they develop with wonderful rapidity; but after that they will not grow another inch during the whole summer. What do they do? I do not know, exactly; they never told me; but I suspect that they are organizing inwardly, and rendering permanent that which they have gained. What they have added to growth in the spring they take the rest of the season to solidify, to consolidate, to perfect, by chemical evolutions; and when autumn comes, the years increase is so tough that, when the tender plants that laughed at these, and chided them, and accused them of being lazy, are laid low by the frost, there stand my rhododendrons, holding out their green leaves, and saying to November and December, I am here as well as you. And they are as green today as they were before the winter set in. Now, I like Christians that grow fast this spring, and hold on through the summer, and next spring grow again. I like Christians that, having grown for a time, stop and organize what they have gained, and then start again. I like periodicity in Christian growth. (H. W. Beecher.)
A young mans responsibility
Into the life of every youth there comes an hour when an irresistible instinct awakens in him the consciousness that he is no longer a child. When he realizes his own separate personality, when he begins to think, to judge, to act for himself, and when, because he has the ability, he has also the right to be self-controlled, in that hour he becomes a young man. In that hour you might liken him to that young prince of whom we read in English history, who was caught in the act of putting on his fathers crown: only with this difference, that the young man is lifting to his brow the crown that belongs to none other, but is the God-given crown of his own manhood.
I. The fact that you are no longer children involves your personal responsibility.
1. You are responsible for your body.
(1) To take such physical exercises and recreative amusements as will develop it and keep it in health and strength.
(2) Not to injure your body by carelessness or dissipation.
2. You are responsible for your mental and moral culture; for the development of your faculties; for the wise use and the strong growth of all your powers.
3. You are responsible for your influence.
4. You are responsible, in view of the future that is before you. As yet you are but spreading your canvas and sailing out of harbour. Out yonder is that great and wide sea of life that is full of perils for them that navigate therein. There are sunken rocks, there are shifting shoals, there are treacherous coasts, there are wreckers with false lights, there are sirens with deceptive songs, there are straits narrow and perilous with unimagined and tremendous difficulties; and you are responsible now as you begin the voyage of your life to prepare yourself for the difficulties that are ahead, to take chart and compass with you.
5. Remember, too, that you are responsible for your soul. You cannot ignore the fact that you come to a world where men have fallen, but where men have been redeemed.
II. The fact that you are no longer children demands a manly steadfastness of will. The inconsistency, the fickleness, the shiftiness, natural in a child, because a sign of immaturity, is out of place in those who are no longer children. The glory of young men is their strength--strength of will--the energy that turns itself to that which is good--the power to say No with decision, and Yes with concentration.
III. Because you are no longer children you are expected to be men. What is a man? What is manliness? Manliness is virtue--vir, a man; virtue, the quality of a man. Truthfulness is a virtue, therefore it is manly. Justice is a virtue; therefore it is manly. Good temper is a virtue; therefore it is manly. Whatever is virtuous is manly. Whatever is manly is virtuous; and, vice versa, whatever is not virtuous is unmanly. Talk that is not virtuous is unmanly talk; love that is not virtuous is unmanly love; life that is not virtuous is unmanly life. Be men. Be virtuous. What is manliness? It is godliness. God created man in His own image. In His own image created He him. God is true, God is just, God is pure, God is gracious, God is swift to forgive, God is tender to the fallen, God is the helper of the helpless. Be godly, and being godly you will be manly. But how to become manly? How to be like God? Young men, once in the history of the world God sent a man to teach us how to be men, and to be men indeed! Jesus of Nazareth was His name: Son of God and Son of man. If you would be manly, let Jesus teach you. (W. J. Woods, B. A.)
The case of deceivers and deceived considered
Here are two sorts of persons marked out by the apostle in the text, the deceivers and the deceived; the one, subtle and crafty, and full of intrigue; the other, easy and credulous, and unsuspecting; the one, supposed to have all the wiliness of the serpent, without the innocency of the dove; the other, all the tameness and simplicity of the dove, without the serpents wisdom. Both are blamable, though in different respects, and not in the same degree; one for abusing and misemploying their talents, and the other, for not employing them at all to discern between true and false, between good and evil. Both are accountable to God as delinquents; one for high contempt, and the other for great supineness and neglect.
I. I propose to consider the case of deceivers, or seducers, such as, by their flight and cunning craftiness lie in wait to deceive. And here it will be proper to inquire, upon what motives, or with what views, men are led thus to beguile and misguide others. The particular motives in such cases may be many; but they are all reducible to these three heads, pride, avarice, voluptuousness; that is to say, love of honour, or profit, or pleasure.
II. To consider the case of the deceived, who suffer themselves to be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. They are supposed to be ignorantly, and in a manner blindly, led on by others; otherwise, they would be rather confederates and confidents in managing the deceit, and so would be more deceivers than deceived. There are, I think, three cases which will take in all sorts of men who suffer themselves to be deceived in things of this kind.
1. Those who have no opportunity, no moral possibility of informing themselves better.
2. Those who might inform themselves better, but do not.
3. Those who might also be better informed, but will not.
III. To subjoin some advices proper to prevent our falling in with either. The best preservative, in this case, is an honest and good heart, well disposed towards truth and godliness, having no by-ends to serve, no favourite lust or passion to indulge. The evidences of the true religion, and of its main doctrines, are so bright and strong, when carefully attended to, that common sense and reason are sufficient to lead us, when there is no bias to mislead us. (D. Waterland, D. D.)
Doctrinal preaching
But there were some rising up who objected to doctrinal preaching. It was not necessary, they said, in these days; practice, and perhaps a little experience, but no doctrine. But really if you take away the doctrine you have taken away the backbone of the manhood of Christianity--its sinew, muscle, strength, and glory. Those men reminded him of Philip when he wished to enslave the men of Athens, and would have them to give up their orators. Demosthenes replied, So said the wolves--they desired to have peace with the shepherds, but the dogs must be first given up--those pugnacious dogs that provoked quarrels. The wolves would lie down peaceably with the lambs, and delight themselves with the sheep, if only those bad-tempered dogs were hanged. So perfect peace was promised among the sects if doctrine were given up; but depend upon it, these were, after all, the preservation of the Church, which without them, would soon cease to be … Burn the charts; what is the use of charts? What we want is a powerful engine, a good A-1 copper-bottomed ship, an experienced captain, and strong, able-bodied mariners. Charts! ridiculous nonsense--antiquated things--we want no charts, destroy every one of them. Our fathers used to navigate the sea by them, but we are wiser than they were. We have pilots who know every sand and sunken rock, who can smell them beneath the water--or by some means find them out. Men know whats oclock now-a-days, we dont want chronometers. So they put out to sea without charts; and, looking across the waters, we may expect to witness the shipwreck of those who thought themselves so wise, and fear sometimes lest we should hear their last gasp as they sink and perish. Professing themselves to be wise, they become fools. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Shallow Christians
I was informed by the engineer who had charge of the survey of that great treasure which Mr. Seward secured for us in Alaska, the eternal ice house of the globe, that even where summer brings vegetation, if you take a staff and drive it down in many parts two or three feet, you strike solid ice, because summer never goes lower than that. And as it is there, so it is in men--only different men are very different in this respect. In some men, if you go down six inches you strike ice; in some men you strike ice if you go down a foot; and in some men you do not strike ice until you go down two feet; but somewhere or other, in everyman, if you go down far enough you will come to a solid foundation, where summer does not reach. What we want, therefore, is tropical heat, that pierces to the very centre; and there are many in whom only heat of a very searching nature is sufficient. (H. W. Beecher.)
Growth in knowledge
As when men stand and look into the heavens with the naked eye they see some three thousand stars; as with a glass of a certain power they may see some ten or twenty thousand, and as with a larger glass they may see still more, penetrating to the infinite depths of space, so the human mind has been such that at first it could see a little of the nature of God, then a little more, then a little more, and so on, with a power of vision that has increased clear down to the present time. (H. W. Beecher.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 14–16. That we henceforth be no more children. This…
14–16. That we henceforth be no more children. This should be the aim; to reach a stature such that we are no more froward children. Children are feeble, inexperienced, and easily deceived. Tossed. Tossed about like a wave by every wind of doctrine. It is “doctrines,” in great part, which have broken up unity. By the sleight of men. Their tricks. And cunning craftiness. Craft and cunning, employed by teachers of false doctrine in order to deceive. There can be little doubt that Paul refers to the false teachers against whom he warned the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:30.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain 14. “In order that we may be no longer…
ARGUMENT 18
NEEPIOS AND TELEIOS
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14. “In order that we may be no longer infants, tossed by the waves and carried away by every wind of teaching in the stratagem of men, in their craft for the purpose of delusion;
15. “But speaking the truth in Divine love, let us grow up into him in all things who is the head, Christ.” Neepios means an infant; Teleios means perfect. These two words, correlatively and contrastively, represent the two great works of grace in the plan of salvation. We have in this wonderful exegesis of Paul no allusion whatever to any other classes. Regeneration makes you a babe in Christ, and sanctification, winding up your minority, brings in your spiritual majority, constituting you an adult. Of course, following the analogy of the natural kingdom, we recognize a progressive development before the birth, and afterward culminating in full-grown manhood. He gives a reason here why we should get out of babyhood, because during our spiritual infancy, as in natural childhood, we need nurses and guardians; meanwhile, we are perilously subordinated to our environments, and liable to influence and capture by all sorts of intrigue, human and diabolical, ultimating in ruin, temporal and eternal. The only remedy for the spiritual feebleness, foibles, and caprices peculiar to the spiritual infancy following regeneration, is entire sanctification, which makes you a “perfect man.” Perfect is from facio, to make, and per, complete. Hence, it simply means made complete. Man was complete, man was perfect, when he emanated from the Creative fiat. Satan destroyed his equilibrium, put him out of kilter, thus rendering him imperfect. Christ came to destroy the works of the devil. (1Jn 3:8.)
Nothing is the work of the devil but sin. When Christ destroys sin in you, he makes you complete in him, and what the Bible calls a perfect Christian. It is not maturity, but purity, as you will grow on through this life, and doubtless through all eternity. Carnal preachers in all ages, the pope at their head, have violently opposed entire sanctification, from the simple fact that it takes the people out of their hands, and puts them where none but God can rule them. A Roman Catholic commentator, Liguori, thus delivers on that subject: “That abominable doctrine of purity has given the Catholic Church more trouble than anything else.” Ahab said to Elijah, “Thou art he that troubleth Israel.” O how the holiness people are now troubling the carnal preachers and fallen Churches, because they recognize no authority hut God, revealed in his Word, Spirit, and providence! Spiritual babes are tossed about by every wind of teaching at the caprice of ecclesiastical demagogues.
15. “Speaking the truth in Divine love.”...
Sanctified people are no longer tossed about by human creeds and cunningly manipulated by priestcraft; but, free as angels, they take the Bible for their only authority, and Jesus for their only companion, and, O how they “grow up in him, their living Head!”
16. We see from this verse the glorious unity of God’s people, regardless of sect, race, or color; the whole body joined and knitted together, and united to Christ by the Holy Spirit; the life-blood Circulating into every part, and vitalizing every fiber and tissue throughout the entire body. When the blood no longer circulates into any part of the body, it becomes paralyzed and dead. So with the Church of God and the Churches forsaken by the Holy Ghost, and now ghastly spiritual corpses.
17-19. These three verses give us an appalling description of the debauched heathen world, sunk deep, not only into brutality, but into diabolism.
20. “But you have not so learned Christ, if, indeed, you have heard him and been taught in him, as is true in Jesus;
22. “That you are to lay aside as to your former life the old man, who is corrupt as to the lusts of delusion.” You see from these verses
the positive and unequivocal fact that every regenerated person is taught by the Holy Ghost the reality and their need of entire sanctification, so that all of the true children of God actually hunger and thirst after it. This Scripture positively unchristianizes all anti-holiness people. If a man is a Christian, his soul longs to be perfectly whole.
23. “And to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and
24. “To put on the new man, who is created in harmony with God, in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” Here we have an exegesis of our creation in the image and likeness of God.
What is that image and likeness? Here Paul answers the question. “The image of God is righteousness in harmony with God’s revealed truth.” Hence, it is not human righteousness arising from our good works, as a corrupt clergy would vainly tell you, but the righteousness of God in Christ imputed unto the truly penitent sinner, who, in utter desperation and profound realization of his utter meekness for hellfire, casts himself on the mercy of God in Christ. Then God freely forgives him for Christ’s sake alone, imputing to him his own righteousness, procured by the perfect obedience of Christ, both active (ever keeping the law), and passive (paying its penalty for us). This is the image of God; i.e., harmonization with the Divine character. Our conformity to the Divine law does not suffice; we must be in harmony with the character of God; i.e., like God, if we spend eternity with him in heaven. It takes entire sanctification, not imputing, as in case of righteousness, but imparting the Divine nature to our hearts, thus investing us with the likeness of God. The true reading is, “righteousness and holiness of truth;” i.e., as expounded by the truth in contradistinction to all sorts of clerical and diabolical counterfeits, by which millions are deluded and cast into hell. The Bible is the only expositor of the “righteousness and holiness” pertinent to the restoration of the Divine image and likeness which we lost in the fall. The inspired Book is full of warnings against the counterfeits of men and devils, flooding us with the testimony of the Holy Ghost, assuring us that we must have the righteousness wrought in the expiation of Christ and the holiness of the cleansing blood applied by the Holy Spirit through faith alone.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 be children
be children
Paul refers to believers who have not grown spiritually as if they were children who have had very little experience in life. AT: "be like children" (See: Metaphor)
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tossed back and forth ... carried away by every wind of teaching
This speaks of a believer who has not become mature and follows wrong teaching as if that believer were a boat that the wind is blowing in different directions on the water. (See: Metaphor)
by the trickery of people in their deceitful schemes
"by crafty people who trick believers with clever lies"
into him who is the head ... makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love
Paul uses the human body to describe how Christ causes believers to work together in harmony as the head of a body causes the body parts to work together to grow healthy. (See: Metaphor)
by every supporting ligament
A "ligament" is a strong band that connects bones or organs in place in the body.
in love
"as the members love one another"
translationWords
true
love
Christ
body
believe
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 4:14 We won’t be tossed and blown about: Mature…
4:14 We won’t be tossed and blown about: Mature Christians, with a well-grounded knowledge of the Good News and of Christ himself, will be able to discern and resist false teaching (see Gal 1:6-7; 3:1; Col 2:8-23; 1 Tim 1:3-7; 4:1-3; 6:3-5, 20; 2 Tim 4:3-4; Titus 1:11).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.