Lie not one to another
&c.] Which is another vice of the tongue, and to which
mankind are very prone, and ought not to be done to any, and
particularly to one another; since the saints are members one of
another, and of the same body, which makes the sin the more
unnatural; of this vice, (See Gill on
Ephesians 4:25), and is another sin that is to be put
off, or put away; that is to be abstained from, and not used. The
arguments dissuading from this, and the rest, follow,
seeing that ye have put off the old man, with his
deeds.
The Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions read this as an
exhortation, as they do the next verse also. Who is meant by the
old man, (See Gill on Romans
6:6), and what by putting him off, (See Gill on
Ephesians 4:22), and as for "his deeds", they are the
same with the deceitful lusts there mentioned, and the works of
the flesh in ( Galatians
5:19 ) and with the members of the body of sin in the
context, ( Colossians
3:5 Colossians
3:8 ) . Some, as Beza, think, that here is an allusion to the
rite of baptism in the primitive church; which, as he truly
observes, was performed not by aspersion, but immersion; and
which required a putting off, and a putting on of clothes, and
when the baptized persons professed to renounce the sins of the
flesh, and their former conversation, and to live a new life.