Ephesians 4:25-32

Walk in Purity ~ part 2

Open your Bible to…

James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Pray

Intro

√ Walk in purity

Mohandas Gandhi once said…

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

That is, what he had read in the New Testament he did not see manifest by those who claimed to know and belong to Jesus.

Reminds us that how we live our lives as Christians is vitally important because our lives are a testimony to the lost…

…either for good or evil.

Think of the influence for the Gospel that Gandhi could have had, had he seen a true reflection of Christ in the lives of those he knew…

…had he come to faith in Christ India might be largely Christian today!

Ap. The world needs to see Jesus in our lives

Last week Paul wrote about…

How we used to walk ~ before we came to Christ

How we’re called to walk ~ now that we are Christians

This morning we pick up part 2 of our walk in purity…

…how we should walk.

That is, Paul addresses a number of activities and attitudes that a Christian should not be practicing.

Not an exhaustive list of sins that a Christian shouldn’t be involved in…

Rather the 5 sinful behaviors or attitudes mentioned here were probably those that the believers in Ephesus were struggling with in their new walk with Christ.

The point is that just because Paul doesn’t specifically mention your sin doesn’t mean that it’s okay to continue in it!

So, the sinful activity or attitude that you fight may not be listed here but you can learn from these examples how to “put off” the old nature and how to “put on” the new.

For example, you’ll note that for each sin that Paul writes about he gives us a…

A negative ~ don’t (things we should put off)

A positive ~ do (things we should put on)

A purpose ~ why (the benefit of putting on the new)

As such Paul gives us a workable plan to rid our lives of ungodly behavior and attitudes so that we can walk in purity.

How we should walk (vs. 25-32)

Eph. 4:25 Therefore…

√ How we should walk

I mentioned last week that Paul repeatedly says…

“Therefore”

…in fact he writes it 11 times in chapters 3-6!

Each time he does so he is calling our attention to the things that we ought to do in response to the love, which God has shown us in Christ Jesus.

His point is that we are to be doer’s of the word, not just hearers only so that our witness is an accurate reflection of Jesus.

1) Lying ~ vs. 25

Eph. 4:25 Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another.

The first sin that Paul address is lying which he tells us has no place in the life of a believer, so he writes that the practical application in our lives is…

Don’t ~ lie

Do ~ speak the truth

Why ~ because what we say has an effect on the church

It would probably be good to define lying so that we’re all on the same page and understand what a lie is. The dictionary defines a lie as…

“To say something that is not true in a conscious effort to deceive somebody.”

Notice that lying is willful, that is it is a deliberate act to misrepresent the truth.

That’s an important distinction because we all say things from time to time that are untrue…

…but that are not lies!

For example, if I tell you that we’re out of chocolate chip cookies (because I ate the last one!).

…but then you find a plate of them in the kitchen (because Nicole brought some to church) that I didn’t know about…

…I wasn’t lying, I simply didn’t have the most current information when I told you there were no cookies.

On the other hand, if I wanted to keep all the cookies to myself and knew that Nicole had brought some to church today, but told you that there were no more cookies…

…then I would be lying.

That distinction is important so that we don’t wrongly accuse another person of lying when in fact the problem was that they didn’t have all the facts.

Ex. We can’t judge motive (“elder” vs. “elders”)

We don’t want to let lying go unaddressed, but we do need to make sure that the person actually intended to lie to us before we confront them.

Remember that we must strive for unity in the church, so extend grace and make sure you have the facts straight.

So, Christians should not lie, rather Paul tells us that we should speak the truth.

That is, what comes out of our mouth should always be to the best of our ability only that which is true, honest, and God honoring.

The primary reason that we should not lie, and that we should speak the truth, is that God only speaks the truth!

“God is not a man, that He should lie…”

Num. 23:19

So, if we’re going to be an accurate reflection of Jesus then we cannot be given to lying because God doesn’t lie!

√ The Father of lies

On the other hand the Devil is a liar, in fact Jesus tells us that he is the father of lies!

“he is a liar and the father of it.” ~ John 8:44

The point is that if we’re given to lying then we’re speaking like the devil…

…not a good testimony of Christ!

So, to walk in purity so that we are an accurate reflection of Jesus we need to speak truth and not lies because God doesn’t lie!

√ Secondary reason

Paul gives us another reason for speaking the truth, rather than lies, and that is…

“for we are members of one another.” ~ vs. 25

That is, he reminds us that we are all part of one body, the Church and that everything we do individually has an effect on the whole!

So, if a brother of sister lies about something or someone it hurts more than just the people directly involved…

…it hurts the entire church!

Ex. Ananias and Sapphira

Their lie threatened to undo the great work that God was doing in the church because if not addressed would encourage others to practice the same hypocrisy.

God wants His people to be real!

No hypocrisy or double-mindedness as these would destroy the testimony of the Church.

So, if you struggle with lying ask the Lord to purify your heart and help you to speak the truth.

2) Anger ~ vs. 26-27

The second sin that Paul address is anger, but notice it’s not anger in itself that is the problem, anger is simply an emotional response to something that displeases us.

Eph. 4:26 “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath,

Eph. 4:27 nor give place to the devil.

In fact, even God displays anger!

Ex. God with the children of Israel during the Exodus, and Jesus when He cleansed the Temple.

So, it’s not anger per se that is sinful…

The sin is what we do when we get angry!

We say something sinful, or we do something wrong, we inflict hurt to others by our words or behavior.

Those are the things that destroy our witness and muddies our walk.

Ex. Your spouse cheated on you

You have every right to be angry about the sin that’s been committed against you but don’t make the mistake of then allowing your anger to lead you into adultery, thus Paul writes…

“Be angry, and do not sin” ~ vs. 26

So, Christian…

Don’t ~ let your anger lead you into sin, nor let the sun go down on your wrath.

Do ~ work to quickly reconcile with the person, or people, with whom you are angry.

Why ~ so that you don’t give the devil a foothold in your heart!

The reason we’re not to harbor anger in our hearts is that when we don’t reconcile with the person we’re angry with…

…we give the devil a place to work in our lives!

√ A foothold

Note vs. 27…

“nor give place to the devil.”

The word “place” means…

“An opportunity, a foothold or a beachhead”

The truth revealed here is that when we hold anger in our heart it gives the devil a place to work from.

Ex. War II ~ invading Fortress Europe

The Allies couldn’t bring the war to Nazi Germany until they established a beachhead in Europe.

We needed a foothold where we could land troops, tanks, and supplies so that we could bring the war to the heart of Nazi Germany.

In the same way (though a negative example) the devil can’t topple our lives and destroy our testimony without first establishing a beachhead in our life.

The easiest way for him to get into our lives is through anger harbored in our heart.

The devil knows how to manipulate our anger to produce sin in our lives that will adversely effect both us and those we love.

Ex. Moses striking the Rock ~ Numbers 20

Moses was fed up with the children of Israel and their constant complaining.

So, when they reached Kadesh and found no water they started complaining again and blamed Moses for their suffering.

God told Moses to speak to the rock and that it would produce water but Moses was still angry with the people so he struck the rock a second time.

In so doing Moses destroyed the symbolic picture of the work of Christ on the Cross.

God was merciful and gave the people water, but Moses was judged for his angry outburst and was denied access to the Promised Land.

Ap. Don’t let anger simmer

The fire of anger, if not quenched by loving forgiveness, will spread and defile and destroy the work of God in your life and potentially in your church!

3) Stealing ~ vs. 28

Eph. 4:28 Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.

The third sin that the believers in Ephesus were struggling with was stealing, so Paul says…

Don’t ~ steal any more!

Do ~ work to provide for your needs

Why ~ so that you can bless others with the labor of your work.

Have you noticed that with every “don’t” that Paul has then given us a “do”?

That is, the power to stop sinning is found when we replace the sin we were involved in with a good and godly endeavor.

It’s the same principle that Paul wrote about in the first part of our study from last week where he told us that the power to change our behavior begins in the mind.

Thus we are to “put off” the old thoughts and “put on” new thoughts.

The same principle is seen here when dealing with our behavior.

Paul gives us a “put off” ~ that is, don’t sin any longer…

…followed by a “put on” ~ that is, do this instead!

The specific issue here deals with stealing, that is, taking something that belongs to someone else.

This was a fairly common problem in 1^st Century Rome.

That’s because most of the population were slaves.

Most slaves were not treated well by their owners, nor were there laws in place to protect slaves.

So, many felt justified to steal from their owners as they figured that was a legitimate way to compensate for the cruelty and lack of care received from their masters.

The problem in the Church was that those same slaves, now believers, continued to steal and when caught tarnished the good Name of Jesus.

The problem of stealing however wasn’t limited to just slaves as vs. 28 in our text is directed to the entire church!

So, Paul exhorted everyone in the church to work hard so that they might be a good witness to the lost, and so that they might help provide for one another as the need arose.

Ap. God created us to work!

You’ll find that God created a perfect environment for Adam and Eve, and gave them work to do!

Tending the Garden.

The point is that we’re wired to work.

There is an intrinsic value in work and when we work we find satisfaction and purpose.

When people who are able to work don’t, they tend toward depression, laziness, and become busybodies and troublemakers and they resort to stealing to meet their needs.

If you’re stealing you need to stop and begin working so that you can be a good witness and so that you can bless others.

4) Corrupt communication ~ vs. 19

Eph. 4:29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.

Here’s an interesting sin that the folks at Ephesus were dealing with, corrupt (rotten or worthless) speech! Not listed in the Big Ten, yet serious enough to warrant the Holy Spirit’s attention!

That grabs my attention because what it communicates is that God is concerned with the words that come out of our mouths!

The reason He is concerned is that what comes out of our mouth is the overflow of what is in our heart!

Our speech gives away the true condition of our inner person!

When a person gives their life to Jesus it brings about a change in the heart, which should be evidenced by a change in speech!

So, if we’re going to have a walk of purity then we…

Don’t ~ curse, use innuendo, demean people, and are very careful with regard to slang terms as they often carry a multitude of meanings, some of which can be offensive.

Do ~ speak words of encouragement, praise and truth.

Why ~ so that we can impart grace to those who hear us.

The reality is that our words have power, power for good or evil in the lives of the people around us.

5) Bitterness ~ vs. 30-32

Eph. 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Eph. 4:31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.

Eph. 4:32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

The last area that Paul writes about are several sins of attitude that relate back to his instruction about anger.

That is, unresolved anger will produce these other sinful attitudes in our lives…

…bitterness (a poisoned soul), clamor (loud and abrasive speech) evil speaking (slander and gossip), and malice (evil intentions toward others),

Paul’s point is that we can’t bury anger! If we don’t deal with it, it will find a way to express itself in a very ungodly way, so we…

Don’t ~ grieve the Holy Spirit within us by harboring anger toward others.

Do ~ demonstrate the love of Jesus toward one another through treating them with kindness, tenderness and extending unconditional forgiveness.

Why ~ because that’s the way that God treats us!

The bottom line is that as Christians we are to live like Jesus did!

To treat others the way that Jesus treats us.

To speak to others, and about others the way that Jesus speaks to us and about us.

To love others because Jesus loves us.

None of that is possible in our own strength!

But God doesn’t expect us to change ourselves.

Rather, He has come to live inside us in the Person of the Holy Spirit and as we ask for His help and surrender our lives to Him on a daily basis He will change us to be like Jesus!

We’ll find our behavior and attitudes changing so that our lives are no longer characterized by the Old Nature…

Lying, stealing, speaking evil, uncontrolled anger and filled with bitterness.

Rather, we’ll walk as Jesus did in purity and love.

Close

√ Walk in purity

God has called us to walk in purity so that our lives will be an accurate reflection of Jesus.

Look over the questions on this week’s Growth Group discussion and let the Holy Spirit test your life.

If changes need to be made then surrender your sin to God and ask Him to change you and purify you.