Therefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another.
All Commentaries on Ephesians 4:25 Go To Ephesians 4
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Having spoken of the old man generally, he next draws him also in detail; for this kind of teaching is more easily learned when we learn by particulars. And what says he? Wherefore, putting away falsehood. What sort of falsehood? Idols does he mean? Surely not; not indeed but that they are falsehood also. However, he is not now speaking of them, because these persons had nothing to do with them; but he is speaking of that which passes between one man and another, meaning that which is deceitful and false. Speak ye truth, each one, says he, with his neighbor; then what is more touching to the conscience still, because we are members one of another. Let no man deceive his neighbor. As the Psalmist says here and there; With flattering lip and with a double heart do they speak. Psalm 12:2 For there is nothing, no, nothing so productive of enmity as deceit and guile.
Observe how everywhere he shames them by this similitude of the body. Let not the eye, says he, lie to the foot, nor the foot to the eye. For example, if there shall be a deep pit, and then by having reeds laid across upon the mouth of it upon the earth, and yet concealed under earth, it shall by its appearance furnish to the eye an expectation of solid ground, will not the eye use the foot, and discover whether it yields and is hollow underneath, or whether it is firm and resists? Will the foot tell a lie, and not report the truth as it is? And what again? If the eye were to spy a serpent or a wild beast, will it lie to the foot? Will it not at once inform it, and the foot thus informed by it refrain from going on? And what again, when neither the foot nor the eye shall know how to distinguish, but all shall depend upon the smelling, as, for example, whether a drug be deadly or not; will the smelling lie to the mouth? And why not? Because it will be destroying itself also. But it tells the truth as it appears to itself. And what again? Will the tongue lie to the stomach? Does it not, when a thing is bitter, reject it, and, if it is sweet, pass it on? Observe ministration, and interchange of service; observe a provident care arising from truth, and, as one might say, spontaneously from the heart. So surely should it be with us also; let us not lie, since we are members one of another. This is a sure token of friendship; whereas the contrary is of enmity. What then, you will ask, if a man shall use treachery against you? Hearken to the truth. If he use treachery, he is not a member; whereas he says, lie not towards the members.
