Sermon Tone Analysis

Sermon Text:

Introduction

Eric last week gave an encouraging exegesis on verses 22 - 33.

I was asked to speak on Christian Marriage & The Profound Mystery.

Eric last week gave an encouraging exegesis on verses 22 - 33.

I was asked to speak on Christian Marriage & The Profound Mystery.

Christian Marriage & The Profound Mystery

My focus today will be on verse 32 and why Paul inserts this when giving the commands listed in our text today.

I think it is important to first highlight Paul’s motive in writing these commands and the arrangement laid out in Ephesians so that we avoid the traps of a moral only marriage and legalistic motives in our submission and love to one another.

A moral driven marriage can be without God.

People generally have a sense of right and wrong.

Legalism, a preoccupation with rules, happens when one focuses on rules with no dependency upon God.

I think the motive will help us avoid these issues.

Legalism, a preoccupation with rules, happens when one focuses on rules with no dependency upon God.

I think the motive will help us avoid these issues.

The letter is addressed to the church in the city of Ephesus, capital of the Roman province of Asia (Asia Minor, modern Turkey).

Because the name Ephesus is not mentioned in every early manuscript, some scholars believe the letter was an encyclical, intended to be circulated and read among all the churches in Asia Minor and was simply sent first to believers in Ephesus.

1: The motive in writing the commands for husbands and wives.

1: The motive in writing the commands for husbands and wives.

1: The motive in writing the commands for husbands and wives.

I do believe the motive can be found in .

It is important to remember what Paul wrote prior to his charge to be imitators so that we can know better his concern.

Prior to verse one Paul addresses believers in Chapter 4 verse 17 to “no longer walk as the Gentiles do.”

He goes on in verse 18 to explain how the Gentiles have a darkened understanding and how they are alienated from the life of God.

They have become calloused and have given themselves up to sensuality, they were greedy to practice every kind of impurity (verse 19).

Then Paul begins to expound on how believers are to respond because of what has been taught (verse 20) to them ( verses 22 - 31).

He tells them to respond by:

Putting off the old self.

Renewing the spirit of their minds.

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.

18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.

19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

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.

28 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.

29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Putting on the new self which was created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Putting away falsehood.

Being angry but not sinning.

Not letting the sun go down on your anger.

Giving no opportunity to the devil.

Not stealing but instead labor and work.

Not letting corrupt talk come out of the mouth.

Not grieving the Holy Spirit.

Putting away all bitterness, wrath, anger and slander.

Being kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Forgive one antoehr

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.

18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.

19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

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.

28 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.

29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

All this points to Paul’s motive and address to believers to be imitators of God.

There is much putting on and putting off in the life of the Christian.

Though that be the case, we cannot and must not forget the object of our faith.

Paul does not leave out the example set by Christ.

I would like to remind us also that it is even the means by which we can do any of what Paul charged believers to do.

Jesus is not only the object of our faith but the means in order to do anything acceptable to God.

Being imitators requires an object to imitate.

And we conform to the image of Christ.

Walk in love, but walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering to and sacrifice to God.

The basis to how and what we do and don’t do, rests upon what Christ has done.

And Paul clearly understands this.

So much that this letter, inspired by God, as a whole is made up that way.

What God has done in Christ and how we as the body respond.

The motive in our imitating Christ, which includes submission and love, must come from what God in Christ has already done.

The second point I’d like to highlight is the arrangement (the way it was written) in Ephesians.

2: The arrangement in Ephesians.

2: The arrangement in Ephesians.

I saw a pattern when looking into the themes in the book and where they were placed.

I saw that Ephesians begins with what is called indicatives and the latter half with imperatives.

To help us understand these terms Sinclair Ferguson said,

Divine indicatives (statements about what God has done, is doing, or will do) logically precede and ground Divine imperatives (statements about what we are to do in response).

What this means is what God has done in Christ (indicative) comes before what we are to do (Imperative/response).

The work God has done made it possible for us to respond.

Ephesians as a whole is written that way.

The first half from chapters 1 - 3 are full with indicatives.

And it is for a reason.

Which I will explain soon.

In the first chapter we see:

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He has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places

He chose us in him before the foundation of the world

He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ

In him we have redemption through his blood

He set forth in Christ to unite all things in him

11 In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

We were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit

, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.