Ephesians 4:17-5:2

Ephesians 4:17–5:2 CSB

Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thoughts. They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts. They became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity with a desire for more and more. But that is not how you came to know Christ, assuming you heard about him and were taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus, to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth. Therefore, putting away lying, speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another. Be angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, and don’t give the devil an opportunity. Let the thief no longer steal. Instead, he is to do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need. No foul language should come from your mouth, but only what is good for building up someone in need, so that it gives grace to those who hear. And don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit. You were sealed by him for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, anger and wrath, shouting and slander be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ. Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children, and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.

Pray.

Illustration: Has anyone watched an online apologist or interacted with someone claiming to be an apologist and they were either a jerk, rarely referred to scripture, or both?

NOBTS has a fantastic apologetics program, and they do things right. However, the quality of the program has also tended to attract these types of people. Either you had people who rarely touched scripture, and they could prove God existed with philosophical arguments, but what God and which God was unclear or they were so mean and divisive that you didn’t want anything to do with their God.

Ultimately their arguments were missing the special revelation of who God is. The truth of Christ is revealed in his special revelation and also through our interactions with each other. Special arguments (which aren’t necessarily bad. I was a Philosophy major) won’t lead people to Christ if they aren’t coupled with the gospel. And divisiveness isn’t going to lead people to the truth of who Christ is either.

This passage is speaking to the reality that we know the truth, and relying on our old self will not lead to full knowledge of the truth. Neither will divisiveness lead to the truth.

Main Idea: Christ has made you a new creation, and you know the truth of God. Therefore, Pursue unity with the church and with your brother because this reflects your new creation. Do not give into the temptation of returning to your old-self which will lead people astray and away from God.

4:17-19 - Do Not walk as Gentiles

Gentiles have “futile thoughts”

Their thoughts have no content. They are empty and useless.

The preceding section speaks of unity, and talks about the uselessness of “human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit (14)” Christ puts together the whole body for his purposes. He doesn’t need special speaking skills or cleverness as is valued by the Gentiles. [He seems to maybe be speaking against the practice of rhetoric among the Romans and Greeks]

Greeks and Romans valued arguments and debates. They seek Christ and they valued those who proved their intellect or “truth” through superior arguments. (Think of Paul on Mars Hill, where everyone debated)

Not only does God build his church through people who aren’t the best at arguments, reliance on this type of argument is actually futile, but why?

There is no perfect knowledge of truth outside of participation in the life of God. He is the truth.

John 14:6 CSB

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

The truth of all things is ultimately found in knowing their relation to the creator.

Outside of knowledge of the creator, there is no full knowledge of his creation.

Romans 11:36 CSB

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.

This darkening of the mind is what many refer to as the “Noetic effects” of sin.

Because they do not know God and they are enslaved to sin, their knowledge of truth is darkened and they are unable to fully comprehend the truth

We will always lack knowledge of the complete truth because of the effects of sin, but our relationship to God gives us greater knowledge of the truth, because we are aware that all truth and things ultimately come from God and are through God as revealed through Jesus Christ. Grace reveals the truth we miss through nature.

This darkened mine and lack of knowledge of Christ also leads them further and further into sin.

Without knowledge of the truth, ones knowledge of sin is also darkened, and hearts are calloused. The “knowledge of good and evil” that supposedly comes from the tree is actually a fall into futility and fall into continuous sin.

Without knowledge of the truth, and knowledge of God as the source of goodness, one cannot find the highest good. The greeks and gentiles sought eudaimonia (ultimate good, happiness) through their arguments. While we can know some things about God and truth from natural revelation (which is still revelation from God), knowledge of the truth and the ultimate God can only come through knowledge of the highest good: God.

4:20-24 - You are a New creation

You did not come to hear Christ through rhetoric or finding the best debater.

Christ is the truth, but the Gospel is foolish to those who have not been opened by the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 1:23–25 CSB

but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. Yet to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, because God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Truth is in Jesus, and this new truth transforms our lives, it makes us a new creation.

2 Corinthians 5:17 CSB

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!

Our Wisdom is no longer corrupted, but we know Christ and the truth of the world.

Deceitful desires corrupt the mind and knowledge of the truth, but knowledge of God and the gospel is true wisdom

Proverbs 9:10 CSB

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

The gospel renews our mind, it changes our perspective so that we are able to see all things as they are related to God.

righteousness renews our minds so that we are able to understand the truth of who God is.

4:25-32 - Pursue unity

This renewing of our mind and knowledge of the truth also carries into our relationships with others, especially in the body of Christ.

We are all one body, and we are meant to operate in unity, none of us can do that if we live in a manner that is enslaved to sin. We work together even if we are in conflict here.

Paul seems to acknowledge that even in the church there will be conflict and anger between the believers that could lead to sin. Does this speaking the truth to each other relate to having honest conversations with one another and attempting to reconcile with your brother who has offended you? It is followed by the Be angry and Don’t let the sun go down on your anger. Furthermore this harboring of anger and not speaking to one’s neighbor. Acting like everything is alright could actually leave an opportunity for the devil to stir up disunity. Sin corrupts our minds but it also harms the unity of the body. We should seek to be right with each member of the body.

Verse 28 seems to have relation to 1 Thessalonians 4:11

1 Thessalonians 4:11 CSB

to seek to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you,

2 Thessalonians 3:6–13 CSB

Now we command you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to keep away from every brother or sister who is idle and does not live according to the tradition received from us. For you yourselves know how you should imitate us: We were not idle among you; we did not eat anyone’s food free of charge; instead, we labored and toiled, working night and day, so that we would not be a burden to any of you. It is not that we don’t have the right to support, but we did it to make ourselves an example to you so that you would imitate us. In fact, when we were with you, this is what we commanded you: “If anyone isn’t willing to work, he should not eat.” For we hear that there are some among you who are idle. They are not busy but busybodies. Now we command and exhort such people by the Lord Jesus Christ to work quietly and provide for themselves. But as for you, brothers and sisters, do not grow weary in doing good.

There were members who hurt the unity of the church by over-relying on the service of others when they could provide for themselves. These members could provide for themselves, but instead took advantage of the church’s generosity. Not only were they not being generous they were actively being a drain and hurting the church’s ministry to others in need.

Unclear if the Ephesians had this problem, but in the context of unity and working together as one body, it makes sense for Paul to mention ways for the church to continue forward in unity by working together and not remaining idle.

In Verse 29, Paul also seems to be addressing opportunities for conflict and disunity in the church. While we usually use this verse as a defense against altogether cursing, it seems primarily aimed at not tearing others down. (I am not saying that you can privately curse, however). Merely that Paul’s focus here is on the unity of the church and he is expressing that the language that we use with one another should be encouraging and promote unity within the body.

Grieving the Holy Spirit is a confusing statement, but is sandwiched between two verses that speak on building others up and not tearing others down. In the context, Grieving the Holy Spirit seems to correspond with harboring bitterness and acting maliciously to others in the body of Christ.

We were all sealed with Christ for the day of redemption, so we should not let any kind of hatred towards another brother grow or lead to further sin or disunity, Instead we should be kind and compassionate to one another and forgive one another.

If you think of a seal like a letter, not only does it protect the thing it seals from being destroyed, but the wax seals often have a symbol on them that reveal who it is that sent them. Or if you think of a King’s seal on a document, it means that the King endorses them and protects whatever is sealed. Therefore being sealed by God, we are not only safe in him, we also stand as his representatives.

Not forgiving other brother can grieve the Holy Spirit because God has forgiven us and sealed us for redemption.

4:32-5:2 - Imitate God because He forgave you.

God’s forgiveness should flow through us because we are his dearly loved children. He has forgiven us and gave himself up for us.

Rather than living in the ways of the gentiles or living with anger and malice towards one brothers, we should seek to serve and show compassion to one another just as Christ sacrificed and served us.

Preserve the unity of the body by remembering the truth of the Gospel and the reality of who God is. He has created his church so that they may go into the world to preach the gospel, which is foolishness to those who don’t know Christ

This foolishness will remain foolish to the gentiles if we do not live as a unified body. The Holy Spirit can use the actions and unity of the church as evidence for the goodness of the gospel to those who are unconvinced through the arguments.

Anger, lack of love, and debating about the truth through human arguments, will not lead someone to the truth or to any kind of good life. Instead, we believe that God has shown compassion and forgiveness to us, so we act with compassion and forgiveness to others in the world, especially in the church because this shows the truthfulness of Christ’s forgiveness.

Ending:

Therefore as each of us heads to the field, we may be tempted to rely on our own power to lead people to Christ and try to craft perfect arguments and temptations. The reality is that the gospel is foolishness to human reasoning, and someone will only come to Christ if he reveals himself to them. So we only need to preach the truth of who Christ is and how he revealed himself. However, none of us can do this if we do not also seek unity with our brothers and practice compassion and fellowship with the church. My challenge therefore is to make it your business to love, encourage, and fellowship with your church, and be avid studiers of the truth of the gospel.

Pray.