Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and wantonness, not in strife and envying.
Read Chapter 13
Ambrosiaster
AD 400
It is true that people do not sin in public, so let us behave as if we were constantly in the public eye. For there is nothing more public than the truth…. Crimes are hatched in large supplies of wine, and many kinds of lust are stirred up. Therefore banquets of this kind are to be avoided…. Debauchery is another result of this sort of thing. Paul was right to warn them against quarreling and jealousy, because both of these things lead to enmity. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
Let us walk honestly as in the day. As men are accustomed to do in the light, without being afraid that their works come to light.
Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering, not in beds and impurities, not in immodest disorders. (Witham)
The night of the present life full of darkness, of ignorance, and of sin, is already far advanced; and the day of eternity approaches: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness. (Bible de Vence)
Paul does not forbid alcohol; he is opposed only to its excessive use. Nor does he prohibit sexual intercourse; rather, he is against fornication. What he wants to do is to get rid of the deadly passions of lust and anger. Therefore he does not merely attack them but goes to their source as well. For nothing kindles lust or wrath so much as excessive drinking.
Whether, moreover, the apostle had any acquaintance with xerophagies-(the apostle) who had repeatedly practised greater rigours, "hunger, and thirst, and fists many "who had forbidden "drunkennesses and revellings".
Which alliance the apostle withal was aware of; and hence, after premising, "Not in drunkenness and revels "he adjoined, "nor in couches and lusts."