The Lifestyle of Christ Followers
Ephesians 4:25-32
For all Christ followers the Bible sets certain standards of living. Ephesians 5:15 says, “Be careful how you walk – not as unwise but as wise making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil.”
When walking it is important to see where you are going. To not get off the path you need to have your mind engaged. How you ever been traveling and lost track of where you were? Carollyn and I will often be talking while on an expressway and before we know it we have gone past our exit. We forgot to focus and pay attention to the highway signs.
I recently read about a prosperous executive whose work required frequent travel. He decided to buy his own plane. He took flying lessons and was soon quite comfortable with his more convenient transportation. After a few years he decided to purchase a pontoon plane so he could fly back and forth from his beautiful summer home on the lake.
On his first flight in his new plane, he forgetfully started to head for the airport landing strip, just as he had always done. Luckily, his wife was with him and when she saw what he was doing, she chirped, "Pull up, George, pull up! You can’t land on a runway. You have pontoons! You don’t have wheels!"
Looking flushed and humbled, the businessman quickly hit the throttle and veered off toward the lake. Landing safely in the still blue water, he shook his head ruefully and said, "I don’t know where my mind was. I just wasn’t thinking. That’s one of the dumbest things I’ve ever done."
Then he opened the door and stepped out into the lake.
Actually if you are a bit absent-minded, pat yourself on the back. It simply means that you are preoccupied with great thoughts. Albert Einstein was so absentminded that he once used a $1,500 Rockefeller Foundation check as a bookmark and then lost the book. Just tell people you are another Einstein if they wonder why you have misplaced your glasses, keys or cell phone for the thousandth time.
As a Christ followers Paul instructs you on how to walk and live your life. When you honor Christ in your life Paul says there are certain things you put off and certain things you put on. Paul says in II Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
Ephesians 4:25-32 the Apostle Paul lists the lifestyle of Christ followers. He first lists the things that you put off.
I. Put off the lifestyle of this Godless world.
Don’t live like the Godless Gentiles. (Ephesians 4:17-19)
All people including Gentiles who separate themselves from God drift farther and farther from God and become calloused and spiritually dead due to the hardening of their hearts. Hard hearts spiral downward until people lose all sensitivity to spiritual things and give themselves over to sensuality to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
When people have a hardness of heart they refuse to respond to the truth of God.
Spiritual blindness and darkness is seen in the life of occult leader Shirley MacLaine when she stands on Malibu beach with her arms reaching up to the sky shouting, “I am God! I am God! I am God!
Paul declares that this old lifestyle of sensual living with all its self-centeredness, corrupt and deceitful living is put off.
Put off Lying and all falsehood. (Eph. 4:25) Why do we lie and not tell the truth. We start by telling little white lies to cover up our mistakes. We don’t want to admit the truth because the truth may make us look stupid. Exodus 20:16 the commandment is given, “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.” Eph. 4:15 says we are to “speak the truth in love.”
There are some things better left unspoken. To “speak the truth in love” means you are careful what you say. When you speak the truth to hurt rather than to help then you need to not say any thing at all. As Christ followers we are to put off all lying and making false statements and speak the truth in love.
Put off sinful anger. (Ephesians 4:26, 31) All anger isn’t sinful. “In you anger do not sin.” Jesus has his anger under control as he made a whip of cords and drove out the merchants who were desecrating the temple area. He said they were making the temple of God a den of thieves when it needs to be a “House of Prayer.”
You need to get angry and disturbed against injustices and sin. God doesn’t want you to retreat and hid away in some little cabin. God wants you to fight the good fight of faith. Get involved in fighting sin and injustices.
The anger Paul is talking about is the anger that shrivels your soul and harms your body. Dr. S.I. McMillen in his book, “None of These Diseases,” details the effects of unresolved anger and hatred has on a person. He writes: “The moment I start hating a man, I become his slave. I can’t enjoy my work any more because he even controls my thoughts. My resentments produce too many stress hormones in my body and I become fatigued after only a few hours of work. The work I formerly enjoyed is now drudgery. Even vacations cease to give me pleasure…The man I hate hounds me wherever I go. I can’t escape his tyrannical grasp on my mind. When the waiter serves me porterhouse steak with French fries, asparagus, crisp salad, and strawberry shortcake smothered with ice cream, it might as well be stale bread and water. My teeth chew the food and I swallow it, but the man I hate will not permit me to enjoy it.”
There are several ways to deal with anger. You can suppress it. Don’t admit that you are angry. Hide your anger. You know it’s hard for some people hid their angry and tell you they are not angry when their face turns beet red. Suppressing anger is like an abscessed tooth. You can take painkillers but the pain keeps coming back.
You can Spiritualize your anger and say you are only being righteous indignant. My anger is always spiritual.
You can be proud of your anger. “Well this is the way God made me, and I can’t help it. If you push me too far I’ll explode.” Often anger without cause is nothing more than an adult temper tantrum designed to control or manipulate. If it takes anger to get your own way then use it.
Children learn early how to use anger to get their way. Imagine the parents of a two-year-old deciding to go out together for dinner on a Saturday night as a way to have some time together... Everything is all set. The baby-sitter comes over and as the parents are getting ready to go out the door the two-year-old runs at the baby sitter kicking and screaming. Then he turns to the mother and cries in his most convincing voice as he hugs her around the legs, crying, “Don’t leave me! Don’t leave me! I love you. Don’t leave me.”
The softhearted mother says to her husband, “He just loves us so much. It hurts me to leave him. Why don’t you take the baby-sitter back home, I’ll fix us something here at home! We can go out another time.” As the child grows he uses anger to manipulate and get his way because if worked at 2 years of age.
The best way to deal with anger is to surrender it to the Lord. “In Your anger do not sin.” Make sure you are angry at what angers Jesus. If your anger is not justified then confess it to the Lord and ask the Lord to help you see how pointless your anger is. When anger is not justified it is sin. Sin separates you from God. Pray and ask the Lord to help you see the situation from God’s point of view.
Stop Stealing. (Eph. 4:28) Before Christ a person may think nothing of stealing and taking advantage of others. The person in Christ gives an honest day’s work and is willing to work to provide for his family. Paul said that “If any man did not provide for his own family he is worse than an unbeliever.” (I Timothy 5:8)
Stop using filthy language. (Eph. 4:29) In Christ you are to speak only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit and give grace to those you are speaking to.
Paul says that all self-centered, sensual living, speaking falsehoods, sinful anger, stealing, and degrading talk grieves the Holy Spirit. (Eph. 4:30)
Get ride of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling (fighting) and slander, along with every form of malice.” (Eph. 4:31)
Bitterness is the result of an unforgiving spirit. Like the run off from a broken sewer bitterness seeps into the basement of our souls. Bitterness and resentment go hand in hand. Someone has said that resentment is like a person drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die. Bitterness can destroy relationships and friendships.
The story is told of a man who was bitten by a dog with rabies and the man got rabies. The preacher came over to console him, and the man was writing something down.
The minister said, “There, there. You’ll have plenty of time to write out your will. “The man said, “A will? I’m making a list of all the people I want to bite!
Hebrews 12:15 says, “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”
Bitterness, resentment and revenge are all character flaws of those who fail to genuinely forgive others. To fail to forgive and insist on getting even is to bring yourself down to the level of the person who hurt you and below his level. In getting even you bring more hurt on yourself. It’s like seeking revenge by shooting yourself with a shotgun in order to hit your enemy with the kick of the gun’s recoil.
“Be careful how you walk – not as unwise but as wise making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil.” Ephesians 5:15
II. Put on the Lifestyle of a Christ follower.
As new creatures in Christ our lifestyle should reflect the characteristics of Jesus. Paul plainly says, “Put off falsehood and speak truthfully.” Eph. 4:25
Christ followers put on truthfulness and honesty. Paul says this same truth in Colossians 3:9-10, “Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self and its practices and have put on the new self.”
A baker suspected that a farmer who was supplying his butter was giving him short weight. His suspicions were confirmed when he carefully checked the weight of the butter for several days. Incensed, he had the farmer arrested. But the judge threw out the case when the farmer explained that he had no scales, so he used a one-pound loaf of bread purchased from the baker as his counterbalance!
Christ followers have a lifestyle of truthfulness, honesty and speak encouraging words. “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Ephesians 4:29
Paul says Christ followers are to “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as Christ God forgave you.” Ephesians 4:32
The predominant theme in Ephesians 4 is forgiveness. Since you have been forgiven you are to forgive others. God forgave you without demanding justice. He bore your sins in His body on the cross. He forgives you even through you don’t deserve it. In that same spirit you are to forgive others.
To not forgive is to be come bitter. In the Lord’s Prayer we pray, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Matthew 6:12
Maybe you have not accepted God’s forgiveness yet. You need to put away all pride and stubbornness and pray, “Jesus forgive me for not totally trusting you.” I John 1:9 is the Word of God, “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
It’s hard to forgive and hard to ask for it.
Forgiveness is serious business. If anyone has done you a serious wrong you know how serious forgiveness is. A scene from “Forrest Gump” shows the frustration of being hurt and trying to find forgiveness.
Jenny returned to her old home after her father died. The old farm house is dilapidated and abandoned. As she reflects on the sexual abuse that she endured as a child, she is overcome by rage and begins throwing rocks at the house. There may have been times in your life when you could have echoed the word of Forest Gump, “Sometimes there just aren’t enough rocks.”
You are to forgive just as Jesus in love and mercy forgave you. Forgiveness is an act of obedience to God.
Christ followers are to live a life of forgiveness and love. Ephesians 5:2, “…and live a life of love.”
Forgiveness turns bitterness into blessing and a spirit of anger, hatred, and revenge into love.
Joseph is a prime example of this. He had every right to get bitter and hate his brothers for what they did to him. They sold him into a life of slavery. Joseph saw the bigger picture on how God has prepared him to save his family from famine. He forgave his brothers and turned bitterness into blessing.
The Christian Lifestyle is described in Ephesians 4:31-32: “Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you.”
Forgiving and being forgiven are cut out of the same cloth they cannot be separated. George Herbert said this about forgiveness: “He that cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass if he would ever reach heaven, for everyone has need to be forgiven.”
How often are you to forgive? Jesus said you are to forgive 70 X 7. You are never to stop forgiving.
How do you forgive? Not in your own strength. Forgiveness is only possible through the Cross of Calvary. We you forgive others you pay a debt you do not owe. Forgiveness is accepting what Jesus has already accomplished on the cross.
Christ followers are to be a little kinder, a little sweeter, a little more loving, and a little more forgiving than anyone has a right to expect.
In Victor Hugo’s novel, “Les Miserables” the drama unfolds of the story of Jean Valjean, a French prisoner hounded and ultimately transformed by forgiveness.
Jean Valjean served a 19 year term of hard labor for stealing bread. He entered the French penal system as an impressionable young man and emerged as a tough, hardened convict. No one could beat Jean Valjean in a fistfight. No one could break his will. After serving his term, at last he was set free. Because of his record he could not find a job or a place to stay, until finally a kindly bishop had mercy on him. That night, for the first time in 19 years Jean Valjean lay still in a comfortable bed until the bishop and his sister had drifted off to sleep. He rose, rummaged through the cupboard for the family silver, and crept off into the darkness with the silver in hand.
The next morning three policemen knocked on the bishop’s door with Jean Valjean in tow. They had found the convict running away, with the silver in his pack. They were ready to put the scoundrel in chains for life. The bishop met them at the door:
“So here you are! He cried to Valjean. “I’m delighted to see you. Have you forgotten that I gave you the candlesticks as well? They’re silver like the rest, and worth a good 200 francs. Did you forget to take them?”
Valjean is no thief, the bishop assured the policement. “This silver was my gift to him.” When the policemen left, the bishop gave the candlesticks to his speechless and trembling guest. “Do not forget, do not ever forget,” said t he bishop, “that you have promised me to use the money to make yourself an honest man.”
The selfless act of the bishop, defying every human instinct for revenge and justice, changed Jean Valjean’s life forever. A honest encounter with forgiveness melted the defenses of is soul. He kept the candlesticks as a memento, and dedicated himself to helping others in need.
This week remember this key verse: “BE kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Ephesians 4:32
