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Eph_5:9. Parenthetic incitement to the observance of the preceding summons, by holding forth the glorious fruit which the Christian illumination bears; δοκιμάζοντες is then (Eph_5:10) accompanying definition to περιπατεῖτε , and the μὴ συγκοινωνεῖτε , Eph_5:11, continues the imperative form of address. For taking the participle of Eph_5:10 as grammatically incorrect in the sense of the imperative (Bleek, following Koppe) there is absolutely no ground.
γάρ ] for, not the merely explanatory namely, which introduces into the whole paraenetic chain of the discourse something feeble and alien.
ὁ καρπὸς τοῦ φωτός ] indicates in a figurative manner the aggregate of the moral effects ( καρπός collective, as in Mat_3:8; Php_1:11) which the Christian enlightenment has as its result. Comp. on Gal_5:22.[260]
ἐν πάσῃ ἀγαθωσύνῃ ] sc. ἐστί , so that every kind of probity ( ἀγαθωσ ., see on Rom_15:14; Gal_5:22), etc., is thought of as that, in which the fruit is contained (consists). Comp. Matthiae, p. 1342.
δικαιοσύνῃ ] moral rectitude, Rom_6:13; Rom_14:17. See on Php_1:11.[261]
ἈΛΗΘΕΊᾼ ] moral truth, opposed to hypocrisy as ethical ψεῦδος , 1Co_5:8; Php_1:18; Php_4:8; Joh_3:21. The general nature of these three words, which together embrace the whole of Christian morality, and that under the three different points of view “good, right, true,” forbids the assumption of more special contrasts, as e.g. in Chrysostom: ἀγαθωσ . is opposed to wrath, ΔΙΚΑΙΟΣ . to seduction and deceit, ἈΛΗΘ . to lying. Others present the matter otherwise; see Theophylact, Erasmus, Grotius.
[260] Where what is here termed καρπ . τοῦ φωτός is called καρπ . τοῦ πνεύματος . Not as though πνεῦμα and φῶς were one and the same thing (Delitzsch, Bibl. Psychol. p. 390), but the Spirit, through whom God and Christ dwell in the heart. Rom_8:9, produces the φῶς in the heart (2Co_4:6; Eph_1:17 f.), so that the fruit of the Spirit is also the fruit of the light, and vice versâ. Nor is the fruit of the word sown upon the good ground anything different.
[261] According to Php_1:11, the Christian moral rectitude has again its καρπός in the several Christian virtues, which are the expressions of its life.