Ephesians 4.25c-Church Age Believers are Members of Each Other
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday October 2, 2025
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 4:25c-Church Age Believers are Members of Each Other
Lesson # 285
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.
Now, as we noted, the command in Ephesians 4:25 is modified by a hoti causal clause, which presents the second reason why the recipients of this epistle were to obey the command to speak truth with each other.
In this clause Paul employs the verb eimi (εἰμί), which expresses the idea that the individual members of the Christian community are “identical” with each other or “correspond exactly to” each other because they are individual members of the same group through regeneration and the baptism of the Spirit.
The referent of the first person plural form of this verb is Paul and the recipients of this epistle who we noted were not only members of the Christian community in Ephesus but also members of the various Christian communities in the Roman province of Asia.
This word not only speaks of Paul and the members of the Christian community as a corporate unit but is also used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions.
Therefore, this not only speaks of them as a corporate unit but also individuals.
The noun melos (μέλος) pertains to a group of individuals who belong to a particular social group.
Here it is used in a figurative sense for the recipients of this epistle who were individual members of the Gentile Christian community located in the Roman province of Asia and were individual members of the body of Christ or in other words, they were individual members who composed the Christian community.
Therefore, this word is used word to describe the relationship between church age believers.
It also used in this manner in Ephesians 5:30 as well in Romans 12:4, 5, 1 Corinthians 6:15, 12:12, 18, 19, 20, 22, 25, 26 and 27.
The reciprocal pronoun allēlōn (ἀλλήλων) means “one another” since the word pertains a reciprocal reference between entities.
In context, these entities are the recipients of this epistle who we noted were not only members of the Ephesian Gentile Christian community exclusively but rather, the members of the Gentile Christian community throughout the Roman province of Asia.
Therefore, this word pertains to their interaction with each other and expresses the mutual exchange of speaking truth to each other.
The present tense of the verb eimi (εἰμί) is a gnomic present, which expresses the idea that the members of the Christian community “as an eternal spiritual truth” exist in the state of being identical with each other or corresponding exactly to each other because they are individual members of the same group through regeneration and the baptism of the Spirit.
The present tense of the verb is also customary or stative present, which would express the idea that the members of the Christian community “exist in the state of” being identical members of the same group through regeneration and the baptism of the Spirit.
As was the case in Ephesians 1:23, 2:16, 4:4, 12 and 16, the apostle Paul is employing the body metaphor to describe the relation that exist between members of the Christian community as a result of regeneration and the baptism of the Spirit.
Ephesians 4:16 continues the body metaphor from Ephesians 4:15 and the use of physiological terminology.
This is the fourth time that Paul employs this metaphor to describe the church (cf. Eph. 1:23; 2:16; 4:4).
Like the human body, the church has diversity among its members (R. 12:4 f.; 1 C. 12:12 f.).
Christ is said to be the head of the Body (Eph. 1:22; 4:15; 5:23; Col. 1:18; 2:19) and each church age believer is a member of His body (Rm. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 12:27).
The head and body metaphor is one of eight metaphors used in the New Testament to describe the relationship between the church and the Lord Jesus Christ:
(1) The last Adam and the New Creation (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 5:17a).
(2) The Great Shepherd and the Sheep (Heb. 13:20).
(3) The True Vine and the Branches (John 15:5a).
(4) The Chief Cornerstone and the Stones in the building (Eph. 2:20; 1 Pet. 2:5-6).
(5) The Great High Priest and members of the Royal Priesthood (Heb. 4:14a; 1 Pet. 2:9a).
(6) The Groom and the Bride. (Our wedding occurs at the Second Advent) (Rev. 19:7).
(7) The King of Kings and the Royal Family of God (Rev. 19:14-16).
The contents of Ephesians 4:25 is a cited from the contents of Zechariah 8:16.
Zechariah 8:16 These are the things you must do: Speak the truth, each of you, to one another. Practice true and righteous judgment in your courts. (NET)
