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What the Fathers say
Eastern Fathers
Theophylact of Ohrid
Probably, there were some among the Ephesians who said that God, wishing to frighten, forbade these minor sins. What is so bad about a word, that a fool who utters it should be liable to gehenna? And how is a covetous person an idolater? It is to them that the apostle hints here. This is also evident from the addition: "let no one deceive you with empty words." For vain are the words that provide temporary pleasure but prove useless in practice; to lavish such words is deception. …
Cyprian
I indeed desire, beloved brethren, and I equally endeavour and exhort, that if it be possible, none of the brethren should perish, and that our rejoicing Mother may enclose in her bosom the one body of a people at agreement. Yet if wholesome counsel cannot recall to the way of salvation certain leaders of schisms and originators of dissensions, who abide in blind and obstinate madness, yet do you others, if either taken in simplicity, or induced by error, or deceived by some craftiness of misleading cunning, loose yourselves from the …
Irenaeus
And just as then, those who led vicious lives, and put other people astray, were condemned and cast out, so also even now the offending eye is plucked out, and the foot and the hand, lest the rest of the body perish in like manner. And we have the precept: "If any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such an one no not to eat." And again does the apostle say, "Let no man deceive you with vain words; for because of these things cometh the wrath …
Western Saints
Thomas Aquinas
Next he says Let no man deceive you, thereby rejecting a fallacy of those who would mislead them. Notice that only in reference to carnal vices does he teach them to avoid being deceived. For from the beginning men have rationalized to find reasons why fornication and other venereal sins were not really sins so that they might indulge their cupidity without restraint. Hence he states vain words since words that claim these are not sins and do not exclude one from the kingdom of God and of Christ are irrational. …
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