What we've seen over the past week weeks, is that God has a plan. God is making one family, who will live in peace with him and with each other. And to that end, Jesus gave each of us a ministry in the church, to build the church up, help it grow in love and unity. The problem is, some of you are still living like you used to, before you gave your allegiance to Jesus. You leave these walls, and you walk the same road of sin and wrongdoing you used to walk. And as long as you live this way, you're useless to God.
Paul gives us two pictures in Ephesians to help us think about how we should live. There are two roads we can take in life. We can walk in the road of obedience and faithfulness to God, or we can walk on the road of sin and wrongdoing. Which road will we take? Last week, Paul gave us the picture of two shirts. When we give our allegiance to Jesus, we take off our old self, the one being ruined by deceitful desires, and we put on the new shirt being created in holiness and righteousness.
The problem is, we keep finding ourselves digging in our closet, trying to find that filthy old shirt. The shirt was comfortable; it was familiar. We remember that shirt as being far greater than it actually was. It's just a filthy rag.
Today's passage is basically a more detailed explanation of this shirt imagery. What does it look like to take off your old shirt of sin, and put on the new shirt of holiness and righteousness? What does this really mean? What does God want?
Verse 25
Therefore , taking off the lie, speak truth, each of you with his neighbor
because we are members/parts of one another.
Paul begins here by saying, "taking off the lie." it's the same verb he uses to say, "take off your old shirt." When we lived in sin, wearing that old rag, what we were really wearing was a lie. We wrapped ourselves in lies to excuse our behavior. If we are living in sin, we have to lie to ourselves to hide from our guilt and shame. We say, "I can't help sinning. Or, I deserve it. Or, it doesn't hurt anyone. Or, they deserve it. Or, it makes me happy." If you are living in sin, wearing the old shirt, the first thing you have to do is take off the lie. Be honest about how you are living, and why you are sinning. Every sin starts with a lie. So take off the lie. Stop deceiving yourselves.
Then what? "Taking off the lie, speak truth, each of you with his neighbor, because we are members of one another."
Your responsibility to live in God's truth doesn't end there. If you see a brother or sister wearing their comfortable old sins, you need to speak the truth to them. At an old job, one of my co-workers went to the same church as me. Everyone knew he called himself a Christian. Everyone knew he didn't live like a Christian at work. He wore the lie. I saw this, and I did nothing. How do you confront a hot-head? How do you speak the truth in love, when you worry he's going to turn around and say terrible things to you? I chickened out, and I did nothing. I failed him.
We are members of one another. You have a responsibility.
And if you aren't living rightly, and someone from this church comes to talk to you, you need to understand why they are doing it. I hope, they are doing it because they love you, and they are concerned about you, and they know that we are all members of Jesus' one body. They could let you go, and do your own thing, and tell themselves that each person's faith is basically a private matter. That would safer for them, and easier for both of you. But if they do that, they will be harming the church. There are few things in life more painful, more difficult, than being told you are living wrong in some way. Or that people are concerned about you. It takes humility to hear this. No one likes to be corrected. Your immediate response is going to be to say, "They are judging me." "They are condemning me." Or you'll immediately say, "They're wrong about me. I'm okay." Your response should be, "They love me a lot. They took an enormous risk in talking to me about it, because they are concerned about me, and about this church as a whole. So I need to genuinely consider whether or not they are speaking truth into my life."
if you really love someone, you will speak the truth in love to them. it's that simple.
Verses 26-27
"Be angry, and don't sin."
The sun must not set on your anger,
and don't give a place to the devil.
In the first line in verse 26, Paul is quoting the Greek version of Psalm 4:4. "Be angry, and don't sin."
Some of you struggle with anger much more than others. I say "struggle," but for some people being hot-headed is almost a badge of honor. They smile about it, like it's funny, like it's no big deal.
When you find yourself running hot, really upset, it's what you do next that's important. The lie you tell yourself is, "They deserve a tongue lashing." And you tell yourself, "I will feel so much better if I just unload on this person."
Don't sin. "Be angry, and don't sin."
Paul then gives a 2-part explanation of Psalm 4:4. What does it mean to not sin when you're angry?
The first thing to know about anger is that you can't stay angry for very long. Paul writes, "The sun must not set on your anger." You either need to resolve whatever the situation was, or give it to God. But anger is not an emotion you can live with. You can't go to bed angry.
Second, when you get angry and sin, and when you stay angry, what you are doing is giving a place to the devil. What does this mean? There's three main options.
(1) The first is take this very literally. When you give into anger, you are creating a space inside yourself for Satan. You are making a place for him. In support for this, you could point to Matt. 12:43-45.
43 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.”
(2) The second option is to view this in terms of Satan's kingdom, and God's kingdom. God's kingdom is growing; Satan's is shrinking. But when Christians live in unrepentant sin, God's kingdom shrinks. The idea here, of giving a place to Satan, is that it means giving ground to him. We could then use Judges 20:36-37 LXX as support:
36 And the descendants of Benjamin saw that they were struck, and the men of the children of Israel gave ground to Benjamin because they trusted in the ambush that he set up against Gibeah. 37 Then, as they retreated, the ambush rose up and deployed against Gibeah; and the ambush poured out, and they struck the city with the edge of the sword.
The idea is that you are giving up ground to Satan, when you cave in to anger.
(3) The third option is to understand "giving a place" in terms of Romans 12:18-19, where we find the same phrase. The NIV translates it as "leaving room."
19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,”[a] says the Lord.
The idea in Romans 12 is that when we take vengeance into our own hands, we are failing to leave God the opportunity to act. If someone punches you, what you want to do is get up, and punch them back. But what you should do is slide over, and make room for God. And let him decide what he will do. I think this third option is probably the best. But I'm not so in love with it, that I'll only give you that option. Wrestle with it. Decide for yourself.
So, returning to Ephesians 4:25, what I think it means is something like this: When we sin in our anger, and stay angry for a long period of time, we are leaving an opening for Satan. We are creating a vulnerability in ourselves, that he can exploit. This ties in really nicely with Ephesians 6, and the armor of God. The idea there is that we need to live righteously, so that Satan can't effectively attack us.
Verse 28:
The one stealing must no longer steal,
now rather he must labor,
working the good with his own hands,
in order that he may have [something] to share with the one having need.
I've talked a lot about ministry lately, and how Jesus gave us each a specific job to help grow the unity of faith, and the church. But this doesn't mean that our normal, everyday work is unimportant. You are supposed to labor. You're supposed to work with your hands. That's a good thing. God created you to work. Don't be embarrassed or ashamed because you're a farmer, or mechanic, or driver. Don't think that your work has no value. Work is good. It's good to work. And part of the reason it's good to work, is so that we can share with people who have need.
We read last week in 2 Corinthians 8, that the grace-- the ministry-- that God gave to the Macedonian church was to provide for the Jerusalem church that was suffering from famine. If someone has a legitimate need, it's good to be in a position where you can help them. Work is good.
Verse 29
Every rotten word from your mouth must not come out,
but if anything good for the building up of the need,
in order that it may give grace to the ones hearing,
and don't irritate the Holy Spirit of God,
by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
How do we decide what to say to people? Very few of us are intentional in how we talk to people. We react. We wing it. So many of the things we could say are rotten. Dirty jokes, gossip, criticism, complaining. Do we think about what we say, or do we just let everything come out? If you've ever put something rotten in your mouth, you know how hard it is not to spit it out. You bite into a rotten grape, and everything about it is wrong. It's squishy; it tastes like it's halfway to becoming wine. We want to spit it out. Our rotten words come out just as easily. Don't do it. Swallow them. "Every rotten word from your mouth must not come out."
Swallowing our rotten words is only the first half of what Paul commands. What should come out of our mouths?
Most of the time when we think about our tongues, and what we say, we tend to focus-- I do anyway-- on trying to do this (both hands over the mouth). It seems impossible not to say whatever you want. And as soon as the words are out, you can't take them back. But it's not enough to learn to muzzle ourselves. The harder thing, maybe, is learning to use our words to build each other up. We are supposed to look for opportunities to help people with our words. Do people need encouragement? Do they need prayer? Do they need someone to challenge them to live rightly? Our goal in talking to people should be to show them grace. Let your words bless people, and leave them better off.
Paul's next command is this: "Don't irritate the Holy Spirit of God." Most of our translations will translate this as, "don't grieve the Spirit." So we understand it like, "Don't make the Spirit sad." But you can make a good case for translating it, "don't irritate the Spirit." Imagine that you're a huge army, and you're marching toward some city to capture it. The enemy has calvary, and they are constantly trying to flank you and probe you for weaknesses. In Greek literature, this word ??p?? is used to describe this type of attack. It's irritating. It's annoying. When we talk using rotten words, we irritate the Holy Spirit. We annoy the Spirit.
Do you really want to irritate the Spirit, when it's the Spirit who sealed you for the day of redemption when Jesus returns? I don't want to mess with the Spirit.
Verse 31-32
All bitterness and rage and anger and abusive speech must be removed,
with all wickedness.
Become kind [and] compassionate toward one another,
showing grace to one another,
just as also God in Christ showed grace to you.
Paul doesn't say here, "Be kind and compassionate." He says, "Become kind and compassionate." Become people who are kind. Become people who are compassionate. Show grace to each other. Most Bibles translate this as, "forgive each other, just as God in Christ forgave you." This really isn't the normal word for forgive here. It's bigger than forgiving. Showing grace to each other means putting up with one another in love. It means helping each other. It means being patient with each other. It means doing your very best to live in peace with everyone, and help others live in peace. When God showed you grace in Christ, it's far bigger than just forgiving you. Although that's great. All of the ways God has been kind and good to us in Christ, being gracious to us-- we also should show grace to others.
5:1-2
Therefore, become imitators of God,
as beloved children,
and walk in love
just as also Christ loved us
and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a fragrant smell.
God gave us grace in Christ. He is kind to us. He is compassionate toward us. He made us part of his family. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
Imitate your Father. Be a blessing to people.
The second command is this: "Walk in love." Paul has already told us to walk worthily of our calling, to walk in the good deeds God prepared ahead of time for us, and to NOT walk in our old sins and wrongdoing. Here, we add on to this imagery again. "Walk in love." As you walk through life, walk in love. What does this mean? Paul helps us. "Walk in love, just as also Christ loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a fragrant smell." If we want to know what it means to walk in love, we should look to Jesus. Jesus loved us and gave himself for us. He sacrificed himself for us.
So when we think about how we should live, we should look to our heavenly Father, and Jesus, as examples.
What does it look like to show grace to people? What does it look like to be kind, and compassionate, and to live sacrificially? Our heavenly Father, and Jesus, showed us. Imitate them.
When we step back, and try to see the passage as a whole, what is Paul teaching here? This entire section is Paul's explanation of the "two shirts" imagery. Before you were a Christian, you wore filthy clothes, being ruined by sin. And when you placed your allegiance in Christ, you put on new clothing, being made in holiness and righteousness.
Or at least, this is what you were supposed to do. Some of us still act like we prefer our old rags. And this is nowhere more obvious than in the way we talk to each other. People are going to do things in this church that you don't like. Or they will say things to you that you don't like. What happens next? What will you do? Become kind and compassionate toward each other, showing grace to each other. Look for ways to build each other up. Love each other.
This is what it means to wear the new clothing. Live in holiness and righteousness.
Ephesians 4:25ff.
Therefore , taking off the lie, speak truth, each of you with his neighbor
because we are members/parts of one another.
"Be angry, and don't sin."
The sun must not set on your wrath ,
and don't give a place to the devil.
The one stealing must no longer steal,
now rather he must labor,
working the good with his own hands,
in order that he may have [something] to share with the one having need.
Every rotten word from your mouth must not come out,
but if anything good for the building up of the need,
in order that it may give grace to the ones hearing,
and don't irritate the Holy Spirit of God,
by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
All bitterness and rage and anger and abusive speech must be removed,
with all wickedness.
Become kind [and] compassionate toward one another,
showing grace to one another,
just as also God in Christ showed grace to you.
Therefore, become imitators of God,
as beloved children,
and walk in love
just as also Christ loved us
and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a fragrant smell.
