(1) Now he comes to another type of affections, which is in that part of the mind which men call covetous or desirous: and he reprehends fornication, covetousness, and jesting very sharply.

(a) Jests which men cast at one another: that no lightness is seen, nor evil example given, nor any offence made by evil words or backbiting.

(2) Because these sins are such that the most part of men do not consider them to be sins, he awakes the godly to the end that they should so much the more take heed to guard themselves from these sins as from most harmful plagues.

(b) A bondslave to idolatry, for the covetous man thinks that his life consists in his goods.

(3) Because we are most ready to follow evil examples, therefore the apostle warns the godly to always remember that the others are but as it were darkness, and that they themselves are as it were light. And therefore the others commit all evils (as men are accustomed to do in the dark), but they ought not to follow their examples, but rather (as the property of the light is) reprove their darkness, and to walk in such a way (having Christ that true light going before them) as it becomes wise men.

(c) The faithful are called light, both because they have the true light in them which enlightens them, and also because they give light to others, insomuch that their honest conversation reproves the life of wicked men.

(d) By whose power we are made light in the Lord.

(e) Make them open to all the world, by your good life.

(f) The scripture, or God in the scripture.

(g) He speaks of the death of sin.

(4) The worse and more corrupt that the manners of this world are, the more watchful we ought to be in every situation, and give regard to nothing but the will of God.

(h) This is a metaphor taken from the merchants: who prefer the least profit that may be before any of their pleasures.

(i) The times are troublesome and severe.

(5) He sets the sober and holy assemblies of the faithful against the immoral banquets of the unfaithful, in which the praises of the only Lord must ring, whether it is it in prosperity or diversity.

(k) Every type of disorder, together with every manner of filthiness and shamefulness.

(l) With an earnest affection of the heart, and not with the tongue only.

(6) A short repetition of the end to which all things ought to be referred, to serve one another for God's sake.

(7) Now he descends to a family, dividing orderly all the parts of a family. And he says that the duty of wives consists in this, to be obedient to their husbands.

(8) The first argument, for they cannot be disobedient to their husbands except by also resisting God, who is the author of this subjection.

(9) A declaration of the former saying: because God has made the man head of the woman in marriage, as Christ is the head of the Church.

(10) Another argument: because the good estate of the wife depends on the man, so that this submission is not only just, but also very profitable: as also the salvation of the Church depends on Christ, although to a far greater degree.

(11) The conclusion of the wives' duties towards their husbands.

(12) The husbands duty towards their wives is to love them as themselves, of which love the love of Christ towards his Church is a graphic image.

(13) Because many men pretend the infirmities of their wives to excuse their own hardness and cruelty, the apostle wishes us to mark what manner of Church Christ received, when he joined it to himself, and how he does not reject her for all her filth, and uncleanness, but ceases not to wipe it away with his cleanness, until he wholly purifies it.

(m) Make it holy.

(n) Through the promise of free justification and sanctification in Christ, received by faith.

(o) The Church as it is considered in itself, will not be without wrinkle, before it come to the mark it aims at: for while it is in this life, it runs in a race. But if it is considered in Christ, it is clean and without wrinkle.

(14) Another argument: every man loves himself, even by nature: therefore he strives against nature that does not love his wife. He proves the conclusion, first by the mystical knitting of Christ and the Church together, and then by the ordinance of God, who says that man and wife are as one, that is, not to be divided.

(p) His own body.

(q) He alludes to the making of the woman, which signifies our union with Christ, which is accomplished by faith, but is signified in the ordinance of the Lord's supper.

(r) See Geneva Mt 19:5

(15) That no man might dream of natural union or knitting of Christ and his Church together (such as the husbands and the wives is) he shows that it is secret, that is, spiritual and such as differs greatly from the common capacity of man. And it consists by the power of the Spirit, and not of the flesh, by faith, and by no natural bond.

(16) The conclusion both of the husband's duty toward his wife, and of the wife's toward her husband.