Living The New Life Series

Living the New Life

Ephesians 4:25-32

Rev. Brian Bill

March 16-17, 2024

A man went to see his doctor in a state of high anxiety. “Doctor,” he said, “you have to help me. I’m dying. Everywhere I touch it hurts. I touch my head and it hurts. I touch my leg and it hurts. I touch my stomach and it hurts. I touch my chest and it hurts. You have to help me, Doc, because everything hurts.”

After giving him a complete examination, the doctor gave the diagnosis, “I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is you are not dying. The bad news is you have a broken finger.”

In our passage for today, we come face to face with some bad news, followed by some really good news about how to fix what is broken.

Last weekend, we were challenged to put off the old life as we focused on this truth from Ephesians 4:17-24: Believers are to behave differently than unbelievers. As we finish up chapter 4 today, we’ll discover how a new life in Christ must lead to a new lifestyle.

Let’s see what the Spirit has in store for us as we give our undivided attention to Ephesians 4:25-32: “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

Paul tells us what this new life should look like.

• Exemplify Christian Values (25-30).

• Excise Unchristian Vices (31).

• Exercise Christian Virtues (32).

Exemplify Christian Values (25-30)

I see five ways we’re called to exemplify Christian values.

1. Speak the truth. According to verse 25, a Christian should be known for being a truth-teller: “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.” The word “therefore” links us back to what we learned last week about how we’re to put off our old life and put on a new wardrobe as we saw in verse 24: “And to put on the new self…” The phrase, “having put away” is a once-for-all decision to renounce falsehood.

According to Kent Hughes, “Lying was endemic to the Greeks…and some who had recently become Christians had brought the practice right into the church… disregard for truth and a disposition for lying are everywhere, and the church is no exception.” According to the book called, The Day America Told the Truth…

• 91% lie routinely about trivial matters.

• 36% lie about important matters.

• 86% lie to parents.

• 69% lie to spouses.

We should pray like the psalmist did in Psalm 119:29: “Put false ways far from me…” because Proverbs 6:17 says one of the things God hates is “a lying tongue.” In John 8:44, Jesus called Satan “a liar and the father of lies.” Revelation 22:15 is sobering and frightening: “Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.” We need to remember that according to Acts 5:1-11, the first sin God judged in the early church was the sin of lying. Warren Wiersbe writes: “Whenever we speak truth, the Holy Spirit goes to work, but when we tell a lie, Satan goes to work.”

We’re to speak truth because we are “members one of another.” While we’re commanded not to lie in the ninth commandment (Exodus 20:16), the motivation Paul gives here is not the commandment but that we are committed to one another, or as Ephesians 5:30 says, “Because we are members of His body.”

2. Keep short accounts. I believe I’ve shared this before, but it bears repeating. The night before our wedding rehearsal, the pastor who married us said he wanted to meet us down by a river. After we walked for a few minutes, he stopped and opened his Bible to the book of Ephesians. I thought he was going to challenge me to love Beth as much as Christ loves the church. I was a little confused when he started reading from the fourth chapter of Ephesians. I thought he was off by one chapter. In fact, I almost told him that the marriage material is in chapter 5, not chapter 4.