Speak The Truth Series

Ephesians Series #26

“Living the New Life”

Ephesians 4:20-24

I. Our Wealth and Worth In Christ 1-3

II. Our Worthy Walk in Christ 4-6

A. Live in Unity 4:1-16

B. Live in Newness of life 4:17-24

Live different because you ARE different. Trying to live the Christian life without a core change is like trying to light up the yard with a flashlight. You get some light but most of the yard will be in the dark. There will be limited perception. Even what light you do have will soon fade as the batteries die. What a difference when you have a giant halogen light connected to the main power grid.

From here, Paul will focus on several specific differences between the old and the new person.

We are not to live like we used to. We are to live different because we ARE different.

We are to live in love toward one another. This newly created community of regenerated people is to demonstrate the loving nature of the God who created them. They are to reflect the wonder of absolutely unified community demonstrated in the Trinity. Paul addressed a number of specific issues in the community by looking at it from both a negative and positive angle. Don’t do this but rather do this.

C. Live in Newness of life 4:17-24

1. Speak truth not falsehood 4:25

Paul zeroed in on the most common issue in the community – lying and the need to continually speak truth. The command is to continually reinforce God’s truth to one another.

Having put away the old selfish practice of lying they were to establish a new loving and selfless habit of speaking truth because they are all part of Christ’s community.

Paul calls for Christians to speak the truth to one another. Be people of the truth. Having put away the old self whose nature it is to lie; speak the truth.

“Therefore, each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, having laid aside falsehood,

for we are members of one another.”

We should speak truth because we are different. We should speak truth because we connected to a new community of others-centered people. There are really two tracks to follow here. WE can talk about the practice of lying. We can talk about the practice of speaking truth in the community. One practice tears down and destroys. The other builds up and heals.

Put away lying

The concept of lying

We are often compared to our fathers. “You are just like your father.” Satan is called the “father of lies”. When we lie, we are acting just like our former father. It is the opposite of our Heavenly Father who is the God of truth. Paul reminds them that when we put on the new man; became the new self, experience rebirth in Christ, we put away the old practices and embrace the new ones. The issue of lying appears all thought the Bible. It made the list in Proverbs of God’s top abominations.

Truth has stumbled in the streets Conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words. Isaiah 59:9-21

God continually singles out the evils of lying. Paul touched on this horrible habit that inflicts such severe damage on any relationship. He reminds us that lying is a characteristic of the old not the new life. The command is to speak truth based on the fact that we are not the same as we were. We are to live different because we ARE different.

Paul uses the same verbiage regarding lying as he did concerning the old man.

Having put away the old man

Having put away lying

Lying was part of the old way of living. Lying is still a huge part of our godless culture today; it has been since the devil instituted it at the beginning of time. It is fallen human nature to lie.

We even assign degrees of lying. White lie. Lie of convenience. Little lie.

The reality is, a lie is a lie. Even though the external consequences may differ greatly, the internal soul damage is the same. It is a violation of God’s nature. We serve a God who cannot lie. He is a God of truth. Whenever we lie we violate God’s very nature. If we are to embrace our new nature, we must not allow the old practices to continue.

The Greek word for a lie is “pseudos.”

Pseudonym – false name

Pseudologyst – one who specializes in lying

We attach it in front of anything we deem as a fake.

Pseudo-psychologist -- Pseudo-preacher -- Pseudo-scientist

You get the idea. The word has the idea of false, deceitful, erroneous, counterfeit, cheat.

Lying is so prevalent that a number of other words have appeared for specific lies.

Untrustworthy, a cheat, devious, false, fake, dishonest, fraudulent, fabricator, hypocritical, phony.