Context for our keynote passage …
Ephesians 4:17-24
17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as [f]the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
From Home Office … Paul’s contention was that they were made new. They were new people created after the image of Christ. The old was done away with, and as such, a new quality of life is supposed to emerge — a life that would resemble our Savior’s life. After Paul finishes establishing the truth of the believer’s new life and identity, he begins to specifically address how our behaviors are to be different. In verses 25-27, we see Paul’s encouragement to speak the truth in love.
Ephesians 4:25-32
25 Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another. 26 “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 27 nor give [g]place to the devil. 28 Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. 29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary [h]edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, [i] clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
Ephesians 4:25-32
25 Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another.
Therefore …
- Paul has just been saying that when a man becomes a Christian, he must put off his old life as a man puts off a coat for which he has no further use.
- Here he speaks of the things which must be banished from the Christian life.
(i) There must be no more falsehood. There is more than one kind of lie in this world.
There is the lie of speech, sometimes deliberate and sometimes almost unconscious. Dr. Johnson has an interesting bit of advice in regard to the bringing up of children. “Accustom your children constantly to this (the telling of the truth); if a thing happened at one window, and they, when relating it, say that it happened at another, do not let it pass, but instantly check them; you do not know where deviation from truth will end … It is more from carelessness about truth than from intentional lying, that there is so much falsehood in the world.” Truth demands a deliberate effort.
There is also the lie of silence, and maybe it is even commoner. Andre Maurois, in a memorable phrase, speaks of “the menace of things unsaid.” It may be that in some discussion a man by his silence gives approval to some course of action which he knows is wrong. It may be that a man withholds warning or rebuke when he knows quite well he should have given it.
Paul gives the reason for telling the truth. It is because we are all members of the same body. We can live in safety only because the senses and the nerves pass true messages to the brain. If they took to passing false messages, if, for instance, they told the brain that something was cool and touchable when in fact it was hot and burning, life would very soon come to an end. A body can function healthily only when each part of it passes true messages to the brain. If then we are all bound into one body. that body can function properly only when we speak the truth.
26 “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 27 nor give [a]place (opportunity) to the devil.
DO NOT BE ANGRY WITHOUT A GOOD REASON … There must be anger in the Christian life, but it must be the right kind of anger. Bad temper and irritability are without defence; but there is an anger without which the world would be a poorer place. The world would have lost much without the blazing anger of Wilberforce against the slave trade or of Shaftesbury against the labour conditions of the nineteenth century.
There were times when Jesus was terribly and majestically angry. He was angry when the scribes and Pharisees were watching to see if he would heal the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath day (Mk.3:5). It was not their criticism of himself at which he was angry; he was angry that their rigid orthodoxy desired to impose unnecessary suffering on a fellow creature. He was angry when he made a whip and drove the changers of money and the sellers of victims from the Temple courts (Jn.2:13-17).
The anger which is selfish and uncontrolled is a sinful and hurtful thing, which must be banished from the Christian life. But the selfless anger which is disciplined into the service of Christ and of our fellow men is one of the great dynamic forces of the world.
DO NOT LET THE SUN GO DOWN ON YOUR WRATH … Paul goes on to say that the Christian must never let the sun set upon his wrath.
Paul’s advice is sound, because the longer we postpone mending a quarrel, the less likely we are ever to mend it. If there is trouble between us and anyone else, if there is trouble in a Church or a fellowship or any society where men meet, the only way to deal with it is at once. The longer it is left to flourish, the more bitter it will grow. If we have been in the wrong, we must pray to God to give us grace to admit that it was so; and even if we have been right, we must pray to God to give us the graciousness which will enable us to take the first step to put matters right.
Along with this phrase Paul puts another command. The Greek can equally well mean two things.
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- It can mean: “Don’t give the devil his opportunity.” Many a time a Church has been torn into factions because two people quarrelled and let the sun set upon their wrath.
- But there is another meaning which this phrase can have. The word for devil in Greek is diabolos (GSN1228); but diabolos is also the normal Greek for a slanderer. Luther, for instance, took this to mean: “Give the slanderer no place in your life.” It may well be that this is the true meaning of what Paul wishes to say. No one in this world can do more damage than the slanderous tale-bearer. There are reputations murdered over the teacups every day; and when a man sees a tale-bearer coming, he would do well to shut the door in his face.
28 Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.
DO NOT STEAL … The man who was a thief must become an honest workman. This was necessary advice, for in the ancient world thieving was rampant. It was very common in two places, at the docks and above all in the public baths. The public baths were the clubs of the time; and stealing the belongings of the bathers was one of the commonest crimes in any Greek city.
The interesting thing about this saying is the reason Paul gives for being an honest workman — working in order to give away.
James Agate, tells of a letter from Arnold Bennett, the famous novelist, to a less fortunate writer. Bennett was an ambitious and in many ways a worldly man; but in this letter to a fellow writer whom he hardly knew, he says: “I have just been looking at my bankbook; and I find that I have a hundred pounds which I don’t need; I am sending you a cheque herewith for that amount.”
In modern society no man has overmuch to give away but we do well to remember the Christian ideal is that we work, not to amass things, but to be able, if need be, to give them away.
29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary [b]edification (building up), that it may impart grace to the hearers.
Paul forbids all foul-mouthed speaking; and then goes on to put the same thing positively. The Christian should be characterized by words which help his fellow men. As Moffatt translates it, Eliphaz the Temanite paid Job a tremendous compliment. “Your words,” he said, “have kept men on their feet” (Job 4:4). Such are the words that every Christian ought to speak.
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
DO NOT GRIEVE THE HOLY SPIRIT. Paul urges us not to grieve the Holy Spirit.
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- Notice that the Holy Spirit can be grieved … which implies that the Holy Spirit is a Person.
- How does one “grieve” the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit is the guide of life. When we act contrary to the counsel of our parents when we are young, we hurt them. Similarly, to act contrary to the guidance of the Holy Spirit is to grieve the Spirit and to hurt the heart of God, the Father, who, through the Spirit, sent his word to us.
31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, [c] clamor (loud clammering), and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.
Paul ends this chapter with a list of things which we must put away …
(a) There is bitterness (pikria). The Greeks defined this word as long-standing resentment, as the spirit which refuses to be reconciled. So many of us have a way of nursing our wrath to keep it warm, of brooding over the insults and the injuries which we have received. Every Christian might well pray that God would teach him how to forget.
(b) There are outbreaks of passion (thumos) and long-lived anger (orge). The Greeks defined thumos as the kind of anger which is like the flame which comes from straw; it quickly blazes up and just as quickly subsides. On the other hand, they described orge as anger which has become habitual. To the Christian the burst of temper and the long-lived anger are both alike forbidden.
(c) There is loud talking and insulting language. A certain famous preacher tells how his wife used to advise him, “In the pulpit, keep your voice down.” Whenever, in any discussion or argument, we become aware that our voice is raised, it is time to stop. The Jews spoke about what they called “the sin of insult,” and maintained that God does not hold him guiltless who speaks insultingly to his brother man.
It would save a great deal of heartbreak in this world if we simply learned to keep our voices down and if, when we had nothing good to say to a person, we did not say anything at all. The argument which has to be supported in a shout is no argument; and the dispute which has to be conducted in insults is not an argument but a brawl.
32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
So Paul comes to the summing up of his advice.
He tells us to be kind (chrestos). The Greeks defined this quality as the disposition of mind which thinks as much of its neighbours affairs as it does of its own. Kindness has learned the secret of looking outwards all the time, and not inwards.
He tells us to forgive others as God forgave us. So, in one sentence, Paul lays down the law of personal relationships — that we should treat others as Jesus Christ has treated us.
Ephesians 5:1-2
1 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.
Paul sets before his Christian people the highest standard in all the world; he tells them they must be imitators of God.
Later Clement of Alexandria was to say daringly that the true Christian wise man practises being God. When Paul talked of imitation he was using language which the wise men of Greece could understand. Mimesis, imitation, was a main part in the training of an orator. The teachers of rhetoric declared that the learning of oratory depended on three things — theory, imitation and practice. The main part of their training was the study and the imitation of the masters who had gone before. It is as if Paul said: “If you were to train to be an orator, you would be told to imitate the masters of speech. Since you are training in life, you must imitate the Lord of all good life.”
2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.
Above all the Christian must imitate the love and the forgiveness of God. Paul uses a typical Old Testament phrase, “odour of a sweet savour,” which goes back to a very old idea, as old as sacrifice itself. When a sacrifice was offered on an altar, the odour of the burning meat went up to heaven and the god to whom the sacrifice was offered was supposed to feast upon that odour. A sacrifice which had the odour of a sweet savour was specially pleasing and specially acceptable to the god to whom it was offered.
Paul takes the old phrase which time had hallowed — it occurs almost fifty times in the Old Testament and uses it of the sacrifice that Jesus brought to God. The sacrifice of Jesus was well-pleasing to God.
What was that sacrifice? It was a life of perfect obedience to God and of perfect love to men, an obedience so absolute and a love so infinite that they accepted the Cross. What Paul says is: “Imitate God. And you can do so only by loving men with the same sacrificial love with which Jesus loved them … and forgiving them in love as God has done.”
Lectionary Notes
The Call to Walk in Love.
Ephesians 4:25-5:2 (ESV)
The year was 1967 and we were near the height of the war in Vietnam. At that time, a rock group known as The Youngbloods released a song called “Get Together,” which catapulted to #5 on the Billboard charts in 1968. While the song was a protest to the war, its message of love is equally applicable for the church. The chorus goes like this:
“Come on people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together, try to love one another right now.”1
In his letter to believers in Ephesus, the apostle Paul pens something similar to this embattled church. In the pericope that we will be reading today, Paul addresses some rather poor behavior taking place among the members of that congregation.
Paul was burdened by the way church members were treating each other. His answer to this was to appeal to their new natures in Christ. It was in this manner that he sought to correct the problems that were occurring in Ephesus before things got out of hand.
Unfortunately, we still see this kind of behavior happening in the church two thousand years later. Let us hear these words penned back then as if they were speaking to us directly. Let us keep our hearts and ears open today for ways that we may participate in working towards a healthier church.
Ephesians 4:25-32, 5:1-2
At the beginning of our pericope, we started off with a “therefore.” So, of course, we are forced to ask what it is “there” for. In Ephesians 4:22-23, Paul admonishes the Ephesian church to put off their corrupted desires — desires that belonged to who they once were but are no longer.
Paul’s contention was that they were made new. They were new people created after the image of Christ. The old was done away with, and as such, a new quality of life is supposed to emerge — a life that would resemble our Savior’s life.
After Paul finishes establishing the truth of the believer’s new life and identity, he begins to specifically address how our behaviors are to be different. In verses 25-27, we see Paul’s encouragement to speak the truth in love.
Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. (Ephesians 4:25-27 ESV)
Any kind of relationship can be difficult. Whether it be a spousal relationship, parent to child, employer to employee, neighbors, friends, and yes, even relationships with those in our churches. We all come from different backgrounds and experiences. We have different sets of beliefs, ideologies, and personalities. If this wasn’t difficult enough, throw in different generations, cultures, socioeconomics, and whatever baggage we might be dragging along with us.
Everyone interprets the world differently. It’s a miracle that any of us can even relate to another person. And yet, we have this imperative to love one another. Look at your neighbor next to you and say, “You’re stuck with me!”
It’s one thing to tolerate someone, but to truly love that person, that’s a whole other level. So, how do we get there? Our words are a good place to start. When we have something to say to one another, we are to consider that we are a part of each other. Whatever we say must be done in a spirit of love and humility. We are joined by the Spirit of Christ, which dwells in us.
Paul is under no illusions that we will never get angry with anyone. We may even have justifications for that anger, but that does not give us the right to harbor bitterness in our hearts towards anyone. Forgiveness is the appropriate response. Where it says that we are not to let the sun go down on our anger in verse 26, it simply means to be reconciled to that person as soon as possible. By letting the days turn into weeks, weeks into months, and months into years, we are allowing the enemy of our souls to set up camp in our midst. And this enemy wants nothing more than to steal, kill, and destroy.
At one of his concerts, Christian musician, Larry Norman, asked his audience if they knew what they were supposed to do if you found out that one of your friends has a problem. He then indicated that you are supposed to call up all your other friends and tell them what’s wrong with that friend … ”so, you can all pray for him.”2 Hopefully, you were able to detect the sarcasm in his answer. Let’s continue:
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. (Ephesians 4:28 ESV).
Here, Paul talks about how a thief should no longer steal but do something useful so that he can contribute to the body of believers. Paul is once again making an appeal to the truth that we have been made new. As such, we are to throw off the old lives that we once lived.
At the foundational level of our being, we have been changed by the very life of Christ. When we realize who we are, and whose we are, we become empowered in our conduct towards each other in ways that reflect that God is love.
Paul would write in Ephesians 5:8 that we were once darkness, but now we are light in the Lord. We were one thing, but now we are quite different. We don’t try to become something that we aren’t yet. We live into what is already true about us. We live out of our true identity established in Christ. However, God’s grace is extended to us as he knows that our behaviors sometimes take a while to catch up to that reality.
In these verses, Paul reminds his readers that both moral action and moral speech are to be guided by the principle of doing what strengthens the community. The good news is that we are not the ones who create the bond of our unity. Rather, the Spirit of God is our seal. He is what binds us all together. This is what makes us the body and temple of Christ.
Through these scriptures we are urged to consider the needs of our congregation. What do people need? How are we to speak to one another? How are we to treat each other? We are asked to address the core issues that tear down the body of Christ. Are our hearts in sync with that of our Savior’s? How are we exhibiting the same kindness and compassion towards each other?
Paul’s words to the church are sobering and they pull no punches. He does not want us to fail to understand the severity of our words, our attitudes, and actions towards the members of this body — the body of Christ. We are God’s dearly loved children, his own possession. As such, we must learn to live in step with his Spirit which continually seeks to express grace, compassion, and kindness through us. This is walking according to our calling. This is walking in love.
As we keep company with God, we learn his loving ways. We observe Christ’s love and can see how it is manifested in our lives, and we see that his love is extravagant! Since we have been found in Christ, we possess everything needed for life and godliness.
Let us then consider these scriptures as an invitation of grace, not an imperative to try harder or as a threat or a form of coercion. As we listen to these instructions, let us ponder and acknowledge if we ourselves are being drawn into the same behavior as that of the Ephesians.
Let us not stop there though. Let us consider how Christ is drawing us to “get together,” and as he smiles upon us, may we smile on our brothers and sisters as well. May we walk according to our new natures. And may we walk according to our calling to love one another right now.