Or obscenity, or foolish talking, or scurrility, which is to no purpose; but rather giving of thanks.

“For as, in the New Testament, that faith of men [to be placed] in God has been increased, receiving in addition [to what was already revealed] the Son of God, that man too might be a partaker of God; so is also our walk in life required to be more circumspect, when we are directed not merely to abstain from evil actions, but even from evil thoughts, and from idle words, and empty talk, and scurrilous language: thus also the punishment of those who do not believe the Word of God, and despise His advent, and are turned away backwards, is increased; being not merely temporal, but rendered also eternal.”

“Let us keep away from us jibing, the originator of insult, from which strifes and contentions and enmities burst forth. Insult, we have said, is the servant of drunkenness. A man is judged, not from his deeds alone, but from his words. "In a banquet," it is said, "reprove not thy neighbour, nor say to him a word of reproach." For if we are enjoined especially to associate with saints, it is a sin to jibe at a saint: "For from the mouth of the foolish," says the Scripture, "is a staff of insult,"—meaning by staff the prop of insult, on which insult leans and rests. Whence I admire the apostle, who, in reference to this, exhorts us not to utter "scurrilous nor unsuitable words." For if the assemblies at festivals take place on account of affection, and the end of a banquet is friendliness towards those who meet, and meat and drink accompany affection, how should not conversation be conducted in a rational manner, and puzzling people with questions be avoided from affection? For if we meet together for the purpose of increasing our good-will to each other, why should we stir up enmity by jibing? It is better to be silent than to contradict, and thereby add sin to ignorance.”

“Let all the lust of avarice be put from you, which serves the cause of idolatry rather than the religion of Christ. No filthy lucre, no duplicity, can befit the Christian who embraces the simple and unadorned Christ. Let no scurrilous or base talk have place among you. Let all things be done with modesty, courteousness, affability, and uprightness, so that the name of our God and Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in all.”

“"Nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, or jesting, which are not befitting; but rather giving of thanks." Have no witticisms, no obscenities, either in word or in deed, and thou wilt quench the flame-"let them not even be named," saith he, "among you," that is, let them not anywhere even make their appearance. This he says also in writing to the Corinthians. "It is actually reported that there is fornication among you"; as much as to say, Be ye all pure. For words are the way to acts. Then, that he may not appear a forbidding kind of person and austere, and a destroyer of playfulness, he goes on to add the reason, by saying, "which are not befitting," which have nothing to do with us-"but rather giving of thanks." What good is there in uttering a witticism? thou only raisest a laugh. Tell me, will the shoemaker ever busy himself about anything which does not belong to or befit his trade? or will he purchase any tool of that kind? No, never. Because the things we do not need, are nothing to us. Let there not be one idle word; for from idle words we fall also into foul words. The present is no season of loose merriment, but of mourning, of tribulation, and lamentation: and dost thou play the jester? What wrestler on entering the ring neglects the struggle with his adversary, and utters witticisms? The devil stands hard at hand, "he is going about roaring" to catch thee, he is moving everything, and turning everything against thy life, and is scheming to force thee from thy retreat, he is grinding his teeth and bellowing, he is breathing fire against thy salvation; and dost thou sit uttering witticisms, and "talking folly," and uttering things "which are not befitting." Full nobly then wilt thou be able to overcome him! We are in sport, beloved. But since the matter appears to some to be one of indifference, which moreover is difficult to be guarded against, let us discuss this point a little, to show you how vast an evil it is. For indeed this is a work of the devil, to make us disregard things indifferent. First of all then, even if it were indifferent, not even in that case were it right to disregard it, when one knows that the greatest evils are both produced and increased by it, and that it oftentimes terminates in fornication. However, that it is not even indifferent is evident from hence. Let us see then whence it is produced. Or rather, let us see what sort of a person a saint ought to be: gentle, meek, sorrowful, mournful, contrite. The man then who deals in jests is no saint. Nay, were he even a Greek, such an one would be scorned. These are things allowed to those only who are on the stage. Where filthiness is, there also is jesting; where unseasonable laughter is, there also is jesting. Hearken to what the Prophet saith, "Serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice with trembling." Jesting renders the soul soft and indolent. It excites the soul unduly, and often it teems with acts of violence, and creates wars. But, moreover, in order to understand this, look too at the very name. It means the versatile man, the man of all complexions, the unstable, the pliable, the man that can be anything and everything. But far is this from those who are servants to the Rock. Such a character quickly turns and changes; for he must needs mimic both gesture and speech, and laugh and gait, and everything, aye, and such an one is obliged to invent jokes: for he needs this also. But far be this from a Christian, to play the buffoon. Farther, the man who plays the jester must of necessity incur the signal hatred of the objects of his random ridicule, whether they be present, or being absent hear of it. If the thing is creditable, why is it left to mountebanks? What, dost thou make thyself a mountebank, and yet art not ashamed? Why is it ye permit not your gentlewomen to do so? Is it not that ye set it down as a mark of an immodest, and not of a discreet character? Great are the evils that dwell in a soul given to jesting; great is the ruin and desolation. Its consistency is broken, the building is decayed, fear is banished, reverence is gone. A tongue thou hast, not that thou mayest ridicule another man, but that thou mayest give thanks unto God. Look at your merriment-makers, as they are called, those buffoons. These are your jesters. Banish from your souls, I entreat you, this graceless accomplishment. It is the business of parasites, of mountebanks, of dancers, of harlots; far be it from a generous, far be it from a highborn soul, aye, far too even from slaves. Wherefore, I entreat you, let us banish the custom universally, and speak those things which become us. Let not holy mouths utter the words of dishonorable and base men. "For what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity, or what communion hath light with darkness?" Happy will it be for us, if, having kept ourselves aloof from all such foul things, we be thus able to attain to the promised blessings; far indeed from dragging such a train after us, and sullying the purity of our minds by so many. For the man who will play the jester will soon go on to be a railer, and the railer will go on to heap ten thousand other mischiefs on himself. When then we shall have disciplined these two faculties of the soul, anger and desire, and have put them like well-broken horses under the yoke of reason, then let us set over them the mind as charioteer, that we may "gain the prize of our high calling"; which God grant that we may all attain, through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

“Above, having set down the admonition, the Apostle taught that, the old state having been laid aside, the Ephesians should take up newness, by forbidding spiritual vices; here he forbids for them also carnal vices. Now it is divided into two parts. For first he forbids the old state of the carnal vices; second he leads them on to newness, where he says, "See therefore, brethren," etc. The first is again divided into three. First he excludes the old state of the vices; second he sets forth their punishment, where he says, "But know this," etc.; third he excludes a deception, where he says, "Let no man deceive you," etc. The first, again, is divided into two. First he excludes certain principal vices; second he excludes certain adjoined vices, where he says, "or obscenity," etc. Now he excludes three vices: namely, natural lust, which is with one who is not one's own, whence he says, "fornication." Hosea 4:12: "For the spirit of fornications has deceived them." 1 Corinthians 6:18: "Flee fornication." So did Job, ch. 31:1: "I made a covenant with my eyes, that I would not so much as think upon a virgin." Now fornication is named from "fornix," that is, a triumphal arch, next to which there were brothels. Proverbs 20: "fornication entered upon them," etc. And "all uncleanness," that is, every pollution against nature, namely, that which is not ordered to generation. Galatians 5:12: "Manifest are the works of the flesh, which are fornication, uncleanness, lust," etc. Third he excludes avarice, saying, "or covetousness." But why this? Is it the same as the carnal sins? I respond: it must be said that it is not, nor is it entirely divided from them, but it is a mean between spiritual and carnal sins; which is evident thus. In sin there are two things, namely the object of the sin, and the delight in the object. There are, therefore, some sins whose object and delight are spiritual, as anger. For vengeance, which is the object of anger, and its delight, is something spiritual; and likewise vainglory. But some sins are entirely carnal, both object and delight, as gluttony and lust. But avarice holds the middle, because its object is carnal, namely money, but its delight is spiritual, because one's mind comes to rest in money. And therefore avarice is reckoned together with the carnal sins by reason of its object, but with the spiritual ones by reason of its delight. Hebrews, last chapter: "Let your manners be without covetousness." Or it must be said that avarice is opposed to justice, whence it is put for a species of lust, namely adultery, which is the unjust use of another's wife, just as avarice is the unjust use of money. But above he said, "he that stole," etc.; here, however, he says that it should not even be named, etc., because in spiritual combat the carnal vices are the first that must be overcome; for one fights in vain against the interior things unless he first conquers the exterior ones, namely the carnal, against which the war always remains. And therefore he says, "let it not so much as be named among you, as becomes saints," namely, that one should abstain from deeds, from thoughts, and from words. Isaiah 14: "I will destroy the name of Babylon, and the remains, and the offspring and the stock." Ecclesiasticus 41:15: "Take care of a good name, for this becomes saints." 2 Corinthians 6:4: "In all things let us exhibit ourselves as the ministers of God," etc. There follows, "or obscenity," etc., where he sets down certain adjoined vices. Concerning this he does two things. First he excludes the adjoined vices; second he leads to their contraries, where he says, "but rather the giving of thanks," etc. He excludes, therefore, three vices: namely, obscenity, which is in shameful touches and embraces and lustful kisses. Proverbs 6:32: "But he that is an adulterer, on account of the poverty of his heart, shall destroy his own soul; he gathers to himself shame and disgrace." Likewise, foolish talking, that is, words provoking to evil. Ecclesiasticus 9:11: "her conversation burns as fire," namely, of the evil woman. And scurrility, that is, a jesting word, by which some wish thereby to please others. Matthew 12:36: "Of every idle word that men shall have spoken, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgment." And all these are mortal, insofar as they are ordered to mortal sins, because a thing, even if it is good in its genus, insofar as it is ordered to what is mortal, is itself mortal. Then he leads them to the contraries, namely the giving of thanks. Whence he says, "but rather the giving of thanks." Isaiah 51:3: "Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of praise."”

“Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting,.... The former of these may include all filthy gestures and behaviour, every indecent habit and attire, and all actions which have a tendency to excite lust; and also all impure words, these discover an impure heart, and are the means of corrupting men's minds and manners; filthy speaking, is a verbal commission of the things that are spoken of; and it may include all impure songs and books, and the reading or hearing of them; this is what the Jews call , "filthiness of the mouth", obscene words; which they say they do not use on feast days, as the Gentiles do (i): "foolish talking" does not so much design every imprudent thing that is said, as that which is wicked, corrupt, unsavoury, light, vain, idle, and unprofitable; and takes in all fabulous stories, and mimicking of fools in words and gestures: and "jesting", when it is with wantonness, and excites unto it, and is inconsistent with truth, and when the Scriptures are abused by it, and not our neighbour's edification, but hurt, is promoted by it, ought not to be used: which are not convenient; are disagreeable to the will of God, and unsuitable to the characters of the saints, and are very unbecoming them to practise: but rather giving of thanks; instead of these, as the Syriac version renders it; it is much more suitable and becoming to give thanks to God for temporal and spiritual mercies, and to speak those things which are grateful to good men; this is to use the tongue to much better purpose, than in an obscene, foolish, or jocose way: one of Stephens's copies read, "but only of giving of thanks". (i) Jarchi in Psal. lxxv. 3. Vid. Vajikra Rabba, sect. 24. fol. 165. 3.”

“Neither filthiness - Αισχροτης· Any thing base or vile in words or acts. Foolish talking - Μωρολογια· Scurrility, buffoonery, ridicule, or what tends to expose another to contempt. Nor jesting - Ευτραπελια· Artfully turned discourses or words, from ευ, well or easily, and τρεπω, I turn; words that can be easily turned to other meanings; double entendres; chaste words which, from their connection, and the manner in which they are used, convey an obscene or offensive meaning. It also means jests, puns, witty sayings, and mountebank repartees of all kinds. Which are not convenient - Ουκ ανηκοντα· They do not come up to the proper standard; they are utterly improper in themselves, and highly unbecoming in those who profess Christianity. But rather giving of thanks - Ευχαριστια· Decent and edifying discourse or thanksgiving to God. Prayer or praise is the most suitable language for man; and he who is of a trifling, light disposition, is ill fitted for either. How can a man, who has been talking foolishly or jestingly in company, go in private to magnify God for the use of his tongue which he has abused, or his rational faculties which he has degraded?”

“Nor obscenity. [2] What is here meant by this word, St. Chrysostom tells us at large in the moral exhortation after his 17th homily; to wit, jests with immodest suggestions or a double meaning, and raillery or buffoonery against the rules of good conversation, scarce made use of by any but by men of low condition and of a mean genius, which is not to the purpose of a Christian, who must give an account to God of all his words. (Witham)”

“filthiness--obscenity in act or gesture. foolish talking--the talk of fools, which is folly and sin together. The Greek of it, and of "filthiness," occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. nor--rather, "or" (compare Eph 5:3). jesting--Greek, "eutrapelia"; found nowhere else in the New Testament: implying strictly that versatility which turns about and adapts itself, without regard to principle, to the shifting circumstances of the moment, and to the varying moods of those with whom it may deal. Not scurrile buffoonery, but refined "persiflage" and "badinage," for which Ephesus was famed [PLAUTUS, A Boastful Soldier, 3.1,42-52], and which, so far from being censured, was and is thought by the world a pleasant accomplishment. In Col 3:8, "filthy communication" refers to the foulness; "foolish talking," to the folly; "jesting," to the false refinement (and trifling witticism [TITTMANN]) Of discourse unseasoned with the salt of grace [TRENCH]. not convenient--"unseemly"; not such "as become saints" (Eph 5:3). rather giving of thanks--a happy play on sounds in Greek, "eucharistia" contrasted with "eutrapelia"; refined "jesting" and subtle humor sometimes offend the tender feelings of grace; "giving of thanks" gives that real cheerfulness of spirit to believers which the worldly try to get from "jesting" (Eph 5:19-20; Jam 5:13).”