Ephesians 4.25b-The Command to Speak Truth with One's Fellow Believer
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday September 30, 2025
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 4:25b-The Command to Speak Truth with One’s Fellow Believer
Lesson # 284
Ephesians 4:25 Therefore, because each and every one of you as a corporate unit have laid aside that which characterized by falsehood, each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to make it your habit of speaking truth with his neighbor for each and every one of us as a corporate unit are members of one another. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 4:25 is composed of the following:
(1) causal participial clause: apothemenoi to pseudos (ἀποθέμενοι τὸ ψεῦδος), “because each and every one of you as a corporate unit have laid aside that which is characterized by falsehood” (Lecturer’s translation).
(2) command: laleite alētheian hekastos meta tou plēsion autou (λαλεῖτε ἀλήθειαν ἕκαστος μετὰ τοῦ πλησίον αὐτοῦ), “each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to make it your habit of speaking truth with his neighbor” (Lecturer’s translation).
(3) Hoti causal clause: hoti esmen allēlōn melē (ὅτι ἐσμὲν ἀλλήλων μέλη), “for each and every one of us as a corporate unit are members of one another” (Lecturer’s translation)
The command in Ephesians 4:25 serves as a strong inference from the assertions in Ephesians 4:17-24.
This laying aside of falsehood took place at the moment of justification through the baptism of the Spirit, which identified them with Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the Father’s right hand.
Consequently, this identification gave the church age believer victory over their old indwelling Adamic sin nature in a positional sense.
It also gave them the power to withstand the temptations that originate from the desires of this old Adamic sin nature.
They would experience this victory of their sin nature and divine omnipotence by appropriating by faith their union and identification with Christ by considering themselves has having been crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Jesus Christ at the Father’s right hand.
Therefore, we can see that the apostle Paul issues a command here in Ephesians 4:25, which presents an inference from the contents of Ephesians 4:17-24.
This command required that the Christian community continue to make it their habit of speaking truth with each other.
This command is modified by a participle clause and a hoti clause.
Both present the basis for this command.
The participial clause asserts that they were to obey this command because they have laid aside that which is characterized by falsehood, which refers to the old indwelling Adamic sin nature.
The hoti clause asserts that they were to obey this command because they were members of each other.
Therefore, this verse teaches that the basis for obeying this command is two-fold: (1) They have laid aside that which is characterized by falsehood, i.e., the sin nature. (2) They are members of each other.
The command in Ephesians 4:25 contains the verb laleō (λαλέω), which pertains to people communicating with each other through speech.
The referent of the second person plural form of this verb is the recipients of this epistle, who we noted were Gentile church age believers located throughout the various cities and towns in the Roman province of Asia and it pertains to them as a corporate unit.
The adjective hekastos (ἕκαστος) emphasizes the idea of a single member of the body of Christ without emphasizing them as individuals or being a part of whole.
The word emphasizes the recipients of this epistle as individuals expressing no exceptions.
As was the case with the verb alētheuō (ἀληθεύω) in Ephesians 4:15, the cognate noun of this verb, namely alētheia (ἀλήθεια) refers to truth, which is an attribute of God.
The word pertains to the content of that, which is true and thus in accordance with what actually happened or in other words, it pertains to the content of what is true.
It is used in relation to the content of what church age believers were to communicate with each other in contrast to falsehood.
Truth is that which conforms to reality and a lie does not.
This speaking truth to each other would be accomplished by practicing Jesus Christ’s Spirit inspired command in John 13:34 and 15:12 to love one another as He has loved the church age believer.
This is indicated by the fact that the word is used to address the conduct of church age believers when interacting with each other, which would require them to practice this command, which addresses the believer’s speech and conduct when interacting with each other.
The adverb plēsion (πλησίον) pertains to a person who lives close beside others and who thus by implication is a part of a so-called ‘in-group,’ that is, the group with which an individual identifies both ethnically and culturally—‘neighbor, brother.’
The referent of this word is members of the Christian community, which is indicated by the fact that Paul describes them as members of this community in the hoti causal clause, which modifies this command in Ephesians 4:25.
This word is employed with the genitive third person masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός) to denote relationship.
The referent of the latter is each member of the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia who were the recipients of this epistle.
Therefore, this construction expresses the relationship that exists between the recipients of this epistle, who were the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia and their neighbor.
The articular substantive use of the adverb plēsion (πλησίον) is the object of the preposition meta (μετά), which functions as a marker of association indicating that the word marks the association that exists when believers communicate with each other verbally.
The present imperative conjugation of the verb laleō (λαλέω) is a customary present imperative, which expresses the idea that the recipients of this epistle were “to continue to make it their habit of” speaking truth with each other.
This interpretation is supported by the fact that Paul affirms in Ephesians 1:15 that the recipients of this epistle were practicing the love of God when interacting with each other.
This would be the result of obeying the Lord Jesus Christ’s Spirit inspired command in Ephesians 13:34 and 15:12 to love one another as He has loved the believer.
One of the manifestations a believer is obeying this command is that they speak truth to their fellow believer.
The contents of Colossians 3:9 echoes Ephesians 4:25.
Colossians 3:9 Each and every one of you continue making it your habit of not lying to one another because each and every one of you for your own benefit have stripped off the old man with its practices. (Lecturer’s translation)
Now, as we noted in our introduction to the Ephesian epistle, truth is another major theme, which appears in Ephesians.
This is indicated by the fact that the noun alētheia (ἀλήθεια), “truth” appears seven times in this epistle (Eph. 1:13; 4:15, 21, 24, 25; 5:9; 6:14).
In Ephesians 1:13, Paul uses the word and defines it as “the gospel of your salvation.”
It appears again in Ephesians 4:15 where Paul commands the recipients of the letter to practice “the truth” when interacting with each other by means of obeying the command to love one another.
He asserts that “truth” is in Jesus in Ephesians 4:21 and then states that righteousness and holiness come from “the truth.”
In Ephesians 4:24, the noun alētheia (ἀλήθεια) means “the truth, the one and only truth” and refers to Jesus Christ who is the truth of God incarnate (John 14:6, 9-10).
This is indicated by the fact the referent of the nouns dikaiosune (δικαιοσύνη), “righteousness” and hosiotes (ὁσιότης), “holiness” is Jesus Christ perfectly exemplifying divine righteous and holiness during His First Advent.
Then, in Ephesians 5:9, he teaches that the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and “truth.”
Lastly, the apostle in Ephesians 6:10-18 employs a military metaphor when addressing the recipients of the letter, which speaks of the full armor of God. One of the items which form the Christian soldier’s armor is that of the belt of “truth” (Eph. 6:14).
