“Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell From heaven.” The apostle classes the covetous man with the fornicator and the unclean, amongst those who by their worship of the shameful idols of the god of this world exclude themselves from their “inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.” A serious warning this for all who handle the world’s wealth. They have a perilous war to wage, and an enemy who lurks for them at every step in their path. Will they prove themselves masters of their business, or its slaves? Will they escape the golden leprosy,--the passion for accumulation, the lust of property? None are found more dead to the claims of humanity and kindred, none further from the kingdom of Christ and God, none more “closely wrapped” within their “sensual fleece” than rich men who have prospered by the idolatry of gain. Dives has chosen and won his kingdom. He “receives in his lifetime his good things”; afterwards he must look for “torments.” FOOTNOTES: [127] Διὸ ἀποθέμενοι τὸ ψεῦδος. Despite the commentators, we must hold to it that _the lie_, _the falsehood_ is objective and concrete; not _lying_, or _falsehood_ as a subjective act, habit, or quality,--which would have been rather ψευδολογία (comp. μωρολογία, v. 4; and 1 Tim. iv. 2, ψευδολόγων), or τὸ ψευδές. So in Rom. i. 25, τὸ ψεῦδος is “the [one great] lie” which runs through all idolatry; and in 2 Thess. ii. 11 it denotes “the lie” which Antichrist imposes on those ready to believe it,--viz., that he himself is God. Accordingly, we take the participle ἀποθέμενοι to signify not what the readers are to do, but what they _had done_ in renouncing heathenism. The apostle requires consistency: “Since you are now of the truth, be truth-speaking men.” [128] 2 Cor. i. 18, 19, xi. 10. [129] See ch. i. 13, 14, and 18 (last clause). [130] Trench: _N. T. Synonyms_, § xxxiv. CHAPTER XXII. _DOCTRINE AND ETHICS._ “We are members one of another.... “Let the thief labour ... that he may have whereof to give to him that hath need.... “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption.... “Forgive each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you. Be ye imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, even as the Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God.... “No fornicator, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, which is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.”--EPH. iv. 25-v. 6.