their backs deliberately on their old heathen habits, and to conform
themselves entirely to the principles of their new state. To this
exhortation he actually and finally attains at chapter iv. 17. The
intervening passage (a chapter and a half) is occupied, first, with the
digression which we have just considered at length, about St. Paul's
mission to the Gentiles and the difficulty of its realization, and with
the great prayer which that topic suggests (chap. iii); secondly, with
another digression on the character of the unity of the Church. This
is, I say, probably the case grammatically. For 'I, Paul, the prisoner
of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles' (iii. 1) is almost {142} unmistakably
intended to introduce a moral appeal to which his imprisonment for the
sake of those to whom he writes adds weight and force[1]. It is taken
up, after a digression, in iv. i, 'I, therefore, the prisoner of the
Lord, beseech you to walk worthily'; but the appeal there begun yields
anew to the necessity of further exposition, and only reaches its free
expression in iv. 17, 'This therefore I say and testify in the Lord';
after which point we have moral exhortation and little else.

Now, therefore, we are to occupy ourselves with what is grammatically a
second digression, but logically and really a most necessary step in
the exposition of St. Paul's thoughts--the subject of the unity of the
church catholic, its nature and obligations. Conscious of the profound
difficulty of welding naturally antagonistic elements, such as Jews and
Gentiles, slaves and free men, into one catholic fellowship, St. Paul
appeals to the Asiatic churches with all the force which he can command
as a prisoner on their account, to 'walk' as their catholic calling
{143} involves; that is, to exhibit all those moral qualities which are
necessary to maintain peace under difficult circumstance--a modest
estimate of oneself (humility or 'lowliness'), a mildness in mutual
relations ('meekness'), an habitual refusal to pass quick judgements on
what one cannot but condemn or dislike ('longsuffering'), a deliberate
forbearance one of another based on love. They are to accept one
another as brethren, with the rights of brethren. And the reason why
they should exhibit these qualities is not far to seek: they actually
share one common supernatural life--the imparted life of the
Spirit--and they are, therefore, to make it their deliberate object to
preserve this actual