Speak no Evil

The three wise monkeys are a Japanese pictorial maxim, embodying the proverbial principle "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil."

Ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius quote: "Look not at what is contrary to propriety; listen not to what is contrary to propriety; speak not what is contrary to propriety; make no movement which is contrary to propriety."

Mizaru, (don't see) who sees no evil, covering his eyes

Kikazaru, (don't hear) who hears no evil, covering his ears and

Iwazaru, (don't speak) who speaks no evil, covering his mouth

TO BRING THE practical instructions offered here into our day requires no bridging in themselves; rather, they require obedience. As John Calvin noted, all correct knowledge of God originates in obedience.24 Still, the theology of these verses requires reflection. We may need additional information, and we must consider obstacles to application. For example, is it ever permissible to lie? What of righteous anger? How can forgiveness and justice be held together?

How the author describes the new being is compelling: truth, no anger, no stealing, no destructive language, compassion, forgiveness, and love. This may not be the list we would have offered, for it seems rather basic and simple. But with the twin anchors of truth and love the author is on target. Without these life and community are in shambles. Moreover, by prohibiting lying, anger, theft, and destructive language, Paul prohibits the sins that enable most others.

Some Christians worry about such specific directions for living, for they fear it may lead to legalism, but this thinking is far from the New Testament. Texts like this do not endorse legalism; they are descriptions of life in Christ, which is never without content. Christian living requires certain and specific actions. The Christian faith is not a passive religion; it is an aggressive pursuit of the productive and beneficial.

A relational, reflective ethic. Before dealing with the specific commands of this passage, attention must be given to the fact that the Christian ethic is a relational and reflective one. It is about covenant relation with God. God’s Spirit is present in our lives and is grieved when we do not live worthy of the calling (4:1). We are carried along from within by a God who reacts to our behavior.

Relation with God establishes relations with other people. No matter how strenuous the effort, relation with God cannot be separated from relation with other people. The relational ethic is present in the body theology in 4:25 and implied throughout the passage. As Christians we are part of other believers, and we suffer or thrive with them. Until we take this interrelation seriously, we can never be what we are called to be. This perspective undergirds the necessity of building up others in Christ, both in what is said to them and in what we contribute to them materially. Insensitivity and hostility are not allowed.

Although Ephesians addresses primarily relations within the body of Christ, relations with non-Christians follow the same pattern. As pointed out earlier,25 the same ethic applies to all people, even though the relation is different.

Ours is also a reflective ethic: We are to reflect God’s attitude and acts toward us to other people. God is known in the cross and resurrection. He is not “out there” to dream about, but present to change lives. He is the standard for our actions, and that we are his children means we are to copy his acts. We have received grace and forgiveness from him, and we are to show these qualities to others. He loves, and we are to love.

With the allusions to Genesis 1:26–27 in 4:24, clearly Christians are to be image bearers, reflecting the image of God for the world to see. Shall we give self to self or to God? Shall we choose rebellion and attempt to take the place of God or choose obedience and be like God? The temptation in Eden was to be like God, which is strange, for humans already were in God’s image. In this text Christians are called to bear that image and show the world what God is like.

Of course, in many ways we cannot copy God; we cannot, for example, imitate his omnipresence or omnipotence, nor are we asked to. We are asked to imitate God’s character. At issue is our behavior. The standard is high, but so is the privilege. Christians have God’s Spirit with them (4:30) and belong in God’s family (5:1). Such a lofty position requires that God’s character be reflected in the way we treat other people. Copying God only means taking seriously who God says we are.

Truth. First and foremost, the new being tells the truth. Lying is no longer a resource in the Christian arsenal. For Christians truth is not a choice; it is a necessity.

Lying is destructive both to the self and to relations with others. “By a lie a man throws away, and as it were, annihilates his dignity as a man.” The same is true for a woman. But it is not just the self that is destroyed. Since Christians are part of each other, as John Mackay has commented poignantly, “A lie is a stab into the very vitals of the Body of Christ.” How strange that one part of the body would deceive another part, as if the eye would lie to the foot about some danger it sees. Lies distort reality and accompany every other form of wrongdoing. They are usually motivated by self-enhancement or self-defense and usually come in bunches, for it is difficult to tell only one. The evil are people of the lie.

The only place anyone can live meaningfully is with the truth. Truth is not an option in life. A free society cannot exist without truth, but neither can an individual be free without truth. “To obey the truth is to be free…. We do not ‘have’ the truth, truth owns us….”32 Truth—that which corresponds to the facts and on which we can rely—is both necessary and freeing (cf. John 8:31–32). Truth encompasses the totality of life, including relation with God. If God is real and has sent Christ, then living in truth requires living in relation with God, and speaking the truth includes communicating the reality of life with Christ. The issue is not just words, but an integrity marked by the coherence of word and act.

Truth is particularly important for building community. Communities are based on mutual reliance, that people can be trusted for support. Once that trust is lost, it is difficult to recover. In speaking truth to our neighbor, we are saying, “You can rely on me; our relation will not mislead you or cause you harm. I will help you and my word will correspond to my acts.” Healthy community cannot exist without truth.

Do we have to tell all the truth to everyone? The text is about speaking truth with our fellow believer, but that does not mean we can lie to someone else. Jesus’ consistently rejected boundaries limiting the application of ethics. Some religions permit lying to enemies, but Jesus requires disciples to love their enemies, which certainly excludes lying to them.

Human anger is usually destructive, and the New Testament attitude toward it is strongly negative. James 1:20 even says that human anger does not accomplish the righteousness of God. Furthermore, righteous anger is difficult to identify. No one feels his or her anger is unjust. In words similar to verse 27, Romans 12:19–21 counsels: “Give place to [God’s] wrath.” In other words, do not let anger give place to the devil to cause sin, and do not seek vengeance. Rather, give place to God’s vengeance. Your task is to love your enemies.

The reason the New Testament deletes anger as an option is that anger is largely a self-centered emotion. Anger is a means of communicating what we care about—usually ourselves—and is an attempt at punishment. It is a chemical and physiological reaction to our displeasure that the world is not as we wish. It is also a choice we make, for we choose both what we react to and at what level the reaction will occur. “No one else can make us feel anger; we must own it ourselves.”40 We express anger only where it is safe, and virtually never to those we fear or respect highly. More often than not we cause harm when using anger. Seneca, who wrote the first known treatise on anger, said, “No plague has cost the human race more dear.”41 Like lying, anger destroys both the angry person—even physically—and community. Rather than focus on what displeases them, Christians should focus instead on how they will love God and the world.

The text assumes that people will make us angry, but anger must not take up residence. If given place, it infects and mutates into further resentment and hostility. If given place, it becomes the avenue the devil uses to cause sin. For that reason, it must be shown the door rather quickly.

What does this passage teach about the devil? The text here is brief, so thinking must draw on the broader discussions in 2:2 and 6:10–20.42 Focus on the devil lurking to capture could lead to a misguided paranoia. Instead, the main point of the text is not to focus on the devil, but on our own anger, which is the root of the problem. On the other hand, those who ignore the devil gloss over the reality of evil as an enemy seeking an avenue of destruction. Scripture should be our primary guideline for the amount of attention given to any subject. If we follow it, the devil is given limited attention.

Speech. Much of this passage is concerned with speech, which is the performance of a godly act. The first act recorded of God in Genesis is speech.44 Speech is itself creative activity, for with it we create worlds—communities of shared discourse—and with it we frame the reality within which we live. Specialists speak of “performative language,” language we use to accomplish tasks or establish realities.45 We fail to realize the power and dignity of language. Nearly all our language does things. Words are commitments,46 and with them we enable and support or diminish and destroy.

Not only should Christians become communication majors, learning all we can about the process;47 we should also be extremely careful how we use language. The assumption of verse 29 is that we either pollute or establish by the way we speak. Our authority is for building people up, not for tearing them down (2 Cor. 10:8).

(1) If the Christian ethic is a relational, reflective ethic, we must always keep before us both the pattern of God’s character and the reality of our relations. This is why images such as “in Christ” or “the body” are of such practical importance. We will not reflect what is not present to us, and we cannot copy what we do not see. Theology drives the ethic,52 so the theology must be conscious and active. What motivates our obedience is not knowledge of correct action but awareness of God. Imitation of God is an overwhelming idea in the abstract, but experience of God’s forgiving love makes imitation both necessary and natural.

(2) Awareness of our relations both with God and with other people is also the key to rejecting self-centeredness. None of the commands in this passage can be followed as long as the primary interest is oneself. Only when our attention is shifted to something greater than ourselves can we escape the prison of self-interest. If we are conscious that the Spirit is in us, marking us as belonging to God and therefore under his direction, service to self is blocked off. Similarly, awareness of oneness with other people will not permit inattention or mistreatment of them. If other people are diminished, we are diminished; if they prosper, we prosper with them.

(3) Obedience to these commands also requires a conscious choice and discipline, for they are contrary to our nature. Too often we allow our old nature to lead us into disobedience. We must grasp the imperative and choose obedience. This is not “works righteousness,” for we make our choices in response to God and his presence, but human will and discipline are necessary. God works with us, not on us.

Snodgrass, Klyne. Ephesians (The NIV Application Commentary Book. Zondervan Academic. Kindle Edition.

Ephesians 4:17–5:2 ESV

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. 1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

My tongue is bounded to speak only truth, because my God is truth (Ephesians 4:25).

My primary language is encouragement first, seasoned with grace (Ephesians 4:29).

My voice sounds like the breath of forgiveness for I have been forgiven in Christ (Ephesians 4:32)