Ephesians 4:25-29
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25 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.
Introduction needs to be the love of truth, makes us disdain falsehood, and so wish to see it flourish in others.
Ephesians 4:25 “25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.”
Connects this section with the two transition words that have come before in this chapter of the imperatives:
First:
Ephesians 4:1 “1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called,”
And
Second
Ephesians 4:17 “17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.”
Now is a conjunction in the Greek that can mean therefore as well.
The first can be summarized: walk in unity
The second can be summarized: walk in the new man of truth and put off the old man of falsehood.
And now in our text today, he grabs both of these truths and combines them into one:
Ephesians 4:25 “25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.”
The second therefore (17)
Ephesians 4:25 “25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.”
The first therefore (1)
In fact he said something similar in that section of unity:
Ephesians 4:15–16 “15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”
So we can summarize this in a statement: living a life of putting the old man to death and walking in the new man, we can then help our fellow members do the same and so produce unity with each other.
This is the same principle that we get from Jesus with proper judgement.
1 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.
This is not Jesus’ teaching against judgement, but rather Jesus’ teaching on prizing proper judgement.
And the first step is to take care of our own sin, so that we can help others with their sin.
Same thing with our present text—living a life of mortifying the old man and walking in the new, enables us to help others do the same. And this creates unity among the members of the body of Christ.
Thus we can make a few important remarks in light of this:
It is not unloving to have a desire to help others with their killing the old man and enjoying the new
But it must be done in the overflow of God working in your own life
And then you have a duty to so invest in other people’s lives.
Thus, you who need people talking truth to you, do not fight it.
Thus, you who need to speak truth in others, do it from the overflow of your own life.
Also, notice we do this work in others as those who are:
Ephesians 4:25 “25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.”
This means we will do it firmly but with great care, patience, and tenderness.
Example of taking care of a wound on your body: if you have a cut on your arm, you are going to be as firm as you need to to get it cleaned and bandaged, but also as firm as needed to ensure healing. You won’t add more pain than necessary but just as much needed for healing.
This brings us back to another teaching of Jesus in the sermon on the mount from Jesus:
Matthew 7:12 “12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”
You should hate the old man in you and long to walk by the new man.
You should hate the old man in others and long for them to walk in the new man.
And the same firm yet patient approach you desire for yourself, you should so desire for the other members of the same body.
And in this way we are walking after Jesus:
28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body.
We see the firmness yet graciousness of working out falsehood for the sake of truth in a firm yet gracious way
Hebrews 12:5–11 “5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. 6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” 7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”
As parents spank the bottom of a child as to be firm yet not hurt them
So God disciplines us in a firm yet life giving way.
And we are to speak truth in love to others as we wish so be so treated.
Ephesians 4:26 “26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,”
Is connected with what he just said:
Be angry: act against the sin of your fellow member
and do not sin: do it with tenderness, love and care.
Be angry
A common misconception is that the God-given emotion of anger is bad.
Just like it can be a common error in Christianity to assume all desires are bad—instead we need to understand that desires are given by God to fuel action.
And so anger is an emotion God has given us to drive a desire to act.
Anger is a proper response to a righteous person witnessing unrighteousness.
Or a just person witnessing an injustice.
A person who loves the law of God witnessing something transgressing the law of God.
One of the happy effects of walking in the new man and rejecting the old and walking in unity with our fellow members is that we are extra sensitive to the walk of the old man in our neighbor.
Therefore, this can only be done properly when you have been angry over your own sin first and have been dealing with it.
So such anger as you see it in others, needs to be borne out of the anger when you saw it in yourself: this enables love in your anger for the member…humility love and kindness.
i.e “I see this in my brother or sister in Christ that is wrong, and it reminds me of my own struggle with a certain sin.”
In fact, one of the benefits of working through your own sin is it helps you later to bring others out of it.
Thus, anger over your own sin first and dealing with it drives humility as you have proper anger towards your neighbor's sin
This enables your anger not to then join in in the sinning:
Ephesians 4:26 “26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,”
Yes, it is so easy for us, in our flesh, to utilize the gift of anger that is supposed to act in ending sin in others, to join in the sin instead.
In fact, so much does this happen that anger is often times assumed to be done in a way that is sinful.
This isn’t true though as the Bible says God gets angry, the gospel says Jesus got angry.
How this should work is your anger is the appropriate response to seeing sin in yourself first—thus it drives action to drive it out using the means God has used:
Repentance and turning to Jesus
Then as you see sin your fellow members lives, the same anger is felt towards their sin. But not in a way in which you are sinning against him but rather helping him.
You remember that such sin is done by the old man, and so you have anger towards the old man, as you have love, and tender care for the new man that is to be brought out.
The problem becomes when we forget the care we had for ourselves in dealing with sin, and so instead of carefully handling the wound in the arm of others, we go at it with a hammer.
This is why someone who is not showing such care and patience for others in their sin, probably is not showing appropriate anger towards their own sin.
And notice the prohibition towards two kinds of anger that are revealed in our sin:
Ephesians 4:26 “26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,”
That is, the anger is causing action, but it is driven by sin. Thus this is outburst anger.
Ephesians 4:26 “26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,”
This is an anger that does not have an outburst but is stewing within the individual and he or she is letting it boil right under the surface.
Paul later deals with these two different manifestations of sin:
Ephesians 4:31 “31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.”
Bitterness is the underlining root of sinful anger.
Wrath anger and clamor is the outburst
Slander is the suppressed anger revealing itself in subtle ways like talking about someone behind their back instead of talking to the person themselves. By the way, slander denotes falsehoods spoken about others because you fail to talk to them about it to get to the truth.
Ephesians 4:27 “27 and give no opportunity to the devil.”
If you look under a rock you will see certain creatures flourishing
Worms, ants, crickets
You won’t see creatures like birds, fish etc flourishing
If you look into the trees you will see certain creatures flourishing
Birds,
You won’t see the same creatures that you would see under the rock
The devil flourishes in certain environments—and he does not flourish in others
8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Part of his search is an environment to flourish in
And abusing the God-given emotion of anger is an environment that the devil finds much life in and flourishes well in.
He has many opportunities to flourish
25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
16 These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace;
Ephesians 4:25 “25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.”
Having put away sin and falsehood in turning to Jesus, and having turned away from it each day in the putting off the old man and putting on the new
This creates a great love for truth and a hatred for falsehood. A great disdain for it since the power behind it—the desires of the flesh—are now battled against and so a love for truth and grow and hatred for falsehood can flourish.
As falsehood is not being worked against, there is a deception one finds themselves in, in which the living out the falsehood is pleasant and to be pursued. But as the answer to the first call to Jesus to forgo the falsehood, and to be surrounded with truth happens, a greater taste emerges for what is truth and a healthy pursuit of it commences.
Ephesians 4:25 “25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.”
Such a love for truth, and a hatred of falsehood is going to reveal itself in our speech—in how we talk to one another.
Ephesians 4:15 “15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,”
This is doing the truth, and now the language he uses is more specific with speaking the truth as this is a most natural manifestation of doing, loving truth, and hating falsehood.
Truth speaking can be seen in two major categories: actively not lying to each other—choosing actively to tell the truth
James talks about truth speaking verses using our language for evil:
1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2 For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. 3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. 4 Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
The motivation for truth speaking:
Ephesians 4:25 “25 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,
4 Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah 5 Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord.
Ephesians 4:26 “26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,”
This is an anger that is explosive—a call for action so strong it leaks into drunkenness
Ephesians 4:26 “26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,”
This is a sinful anger that is on the other side of the spectrum. That is an anger that is held inside and not explosive but still dangerous. It leads to bitterness and resentfulness, which like the former type will not be used to end falsehood and uphold truth.
God has given humans certain emotions to deal with things that are destructive quickly, but in our sin we can abuse it and join in the destruction.
27 and give no opportunity to the devil.
Like how bad things fester in negative circumstances (illness) so lying and misused anger gives environment for devil activity
A garden in constant shade
A cut that doesn’t stay clean and dry
Root of bitterness connected with opportunity to the devil