(Audio version; Music--"Sovereign Over Us" by: Aaron Keyes--WorshipMob Intimate Sessions--Real. Live. Worship. and "Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)" by: Hillsong United--WorshipMob RE-MASTERED)
Introduction
I’m sure
you’ve all started something new in your life. A new job; a new school; a new
relationship, etc. It can be hard knowing exactly what we should be doing when
we start something new. However, with good teaching and diligent commitment we
can thrive and even become an example for others to follow. While my oldest
daughter, Meagan, was studying nursing, she worked as a Patient Care Service
Aide (PCSA) at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. I remember when she started the
job, she was terrified that she didn’t know what she was doing. Gradually,
however, the nurses taught and trained her and by the time she graduated from
college, the nurses told her that she set the bar to a level they wanted all
PCSA’s to reach and they begged her to stay on as a nurse. However, when she
graduated college, she was hired by the same hospital as a licensed
Cardio-Thoracic Intensive Care Unit (CTICU) nurse and the cycle of being
overwhelmed and not knowing what to do started all over again. She is currently
about half way through her residency and is just now beginning to feel like
what she learned in school and what she is experiencing in the real world are
finally intersecting. One of the big challenges with her current position is
that there is very little room for error. The way she did things before; the
nursing protocols and procedures are no longer appropriate for her new nursing
duties. When your patient is just a few days old and has already endured open-heart
surgery, there are no trivial protocols or minor procedures—every protocol and procedure,
no matter how trivial or minor, is a matter of life and death. Her duties are
very serious, doctors depend on her, other nurses on her nursing team depend on
her, family and friends of the patient depend on her and the patient certainly
depends on her. Nevertheless, with adequate time and field training, I’m
confident she will once again thrive and maybe even be an example that new
nurses will be able to follow.
This is
similar to the way our lives can be as believers. We acted in a certain way
before becoming believers but once we accepted Christ, everything should have
changed. This is usually where the problems come in for many believers. They
accept Christ yet continue living their lives as they did before accepting
Christ. It can prove to be a difficult transition. Before becoming Christians,
we lived in the dark never knowing that we were in the dark. However, once we
accepted Jesus, the Light of the world, into our lives, we became Children Of Light. And that light began
to shine into the dark places of our lives and exposed the things in our lives
that needed to change. Like a CTICU nurse, there’s little room for error. People
are depending on us and many of them don’t even know it. As Children Of Light, our lives are
supposed to light a path so that others can see the way to Jesus or to make it
easier to follow us until they get close enough to Jesus so they can take the
last few steps on their own to enter into relationship with Him. Nevertheless,
we can no longer live in the darkness we lived in before we became believers.
Christians are not slaves to sin and prisoners of darkness. Followers of Christ
are Children Of Light.
Subject Text
Ephesians 4:17-28
17So
I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as
the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18They are
darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of
the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19Having
lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to
indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. 20You,
however, did not come to know Christ that way. 21Surely you heard of
him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22You
were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which
is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23to be made new in the
attitude of your minds; 24and to put on the new self, created to be
like God in true righteousness and holiness. 25Therefore each of you
must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all
members of one body. 26“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the
sun go down while you are still angry, 27and do not give the devil a
foothold. 28He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must
work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to
share with those in need.
Context
Unlike many
of Paul’s letters to the various churches he founded, Paul’s letter to the
Ephesians wasn’t for the purpose of correcting any specific false teaching or
problem in the young church. In fact, in some of the early Greek transcripts,
the words “at Ephesus” are not found in the letter. Consequently, it is
believed that this letter was intended to be circulated to all the churches. This
makes sense since the teaching in the letter is applicable to all Christians
everywhere in all ages. It would seem that Paul had a special affinity for the
Ephesians after having spent more than three years with them. This letter was
written by Paul as he sat in a Roman prison around 60 A.D. Although he would be
released from prison in 62 A.D. He’d be back in a Roman prison and martyred
around 66 A.D. I think Paul always knew how his ministry would end but it never
changed his mission. Paul did everything he could to encourage and edify the
churches he founded to be faithful followers of Jesus to the very end and to
live lives worthy of the salvation they received at such tremendous cost.
Text Analysis
17So
I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as
the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18They are
darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of
the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19Having
lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to
indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
Normally
the reference to “Gentile” in vv. 17-19
is intended to be an ethnic distinction but here Paul is using “Gentile” as a
spiritual distinction. The context of the verses that follow make it clear that
the malady of unbelief is not reserved for Gentiles only. Although the text
does not specifically say, there had to have been some ethnic Gentiles among
the believers in Ephesus. It was in a predominantly Gentile province of the
Roman Empire so it is unreasonable to insist that Paul was referring
exclusively to ethnic Gentiles. Futility of thought is not the exclusive domain
of Gentiles considering how often Paul had to battle the false teachings of
Judaizers who taught that believers must add the keeping of the Law to their
faith in order to be saved. This too was a kind of futility in thought.
Instead, the futility that Paul references is humanity’s tendency to “think”
they know better than God. It is humanity’s tendency to “think” that God is a
silly superstition. It is humanity’s tendency to “think” they don’t need God to
get through life. Intellectual pride, rationalization, justification, and
excuses all take the place of humble surrender to a life of faith. The people
Paul is referring to rely on their own worldly wisdom and worldly understanding
and see the Gospel to be a compilation of ancient fairytales reserved for the
ignorant and feeble-minded.
Paul
insists that the life of the believer should present a stark contrast to the
life of an unbeliever. Their profession of faith should provide a clear
demarcation that separates life before belief versus life after belief. It
sounds easier than it is in reality but that doesn’t mean our lives shouldn’t
be on an intentional trajectory toward fundamental transformation away from who we were as unbelievers and
toward who we are called to be as
believers. “The [Greek text] associates the walk which they are charged to
continue no longer with that of the Gentiles generally, and with their own
former walk in their non-Christian days. ‘In the vanity [or futility] of their
mind [or thinking]’ is not merely the intellectual faculty or understanding,
but also the faculty for recognizing moral good and spiritual truth…Vanity in
the sense of purposelessness, uselessness. There is nothing in the clause to
restrict it to the case of idol-worshippers or to that of the heathen
philosophers. It is a description of the walk of the heathen [unbelieving]
world generally—a walk moving within the limits of intellectual and moral
resultlessness, given over to things devoid of worth or reality…[The Greek word
for ‘understanding’] is not to be taken as if this clause referred only to the intellectual condition. [The word]
covers the ideas not only of understanding, but also of feeling and desiring.
It is the faculty or seat of thinking and feeling. [Unbelievers,] being in a
state of moral darkness, also become alienated from the true life…[They] have
estranged themselves from God…‘because of the ignorance that is in them’ [is
an] explicit statement of the cause of their estrangement…It denotes an
ignorance of Divine things, a want of knowledge that is inexcusable and
involves moral blindness.”[1]
At some point, unbelievers become
so hardened and entrenched in their sinful lives that their sins spawn even
greater and more heinous sins. “Having lost all sensitivity” refers to the
searing of the conscience to the extent that morality becomes merely
relative—good becomes evil; right becomes wrong; truth becomes a lie. Sin is
like an addiction to narcotics. The longer a narcotic is used the more it is
constantly needed to maintain the same level of euphoria. Sin works the same
way. A little sin leads to more sin until a person’s life is driven and defined
by sin.
20You, however, did
not come to know Christ that way. 21Surely you heard of him and were
taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22You
were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self,
which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23to be made new
in the attitude of your minds; 24and to put on the new self, created
to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Paul
reminds the Ephesians in vv. 20-24
that they are supposed to be different as believers. The Ephesians didn’t
become believers by indulging in their sinful desires that can deceive us into
believing we are masters of our lives, but by turning away from their sins and
instead turning to the truth that can only be found in Jesus because Jesus is
the real Truth of life. Paul taught them that once they became believers, there
was no going back to the old ways of living. Salvation begins the process of sanctifying
the sinner. It does not sanctify sin. Sin is still sin even if it committed by
a believer. The difference is that it is, or should be, out of character for
believers to continue to sin. When we accepted Christ, we were renewed. We have
become a new creation. That is the principle behind the idea of being
“born-again” Christians. When we are born-again, we aren’t born to be the same
old person, we are new creations in every way—in our actions and in our
attitudes. We have been created anew to take on the characteristics of the One
who is supremely righteous and holy. Believers are therefore called to be
righteous and holy as well. The old way of living, thinking and believing led
to a life of ever-growing and insatiable desire for sin. The new way rejects
this old way of living and embraces a new way of life.
It’s easy
to say and talk about in theory but I know from personal experience that it is
excruciatingly difficult to practice in reality. Being renewed is not some kind
of magic that transforms us in an instance. Sin, for me and for some of you as
well, has been deeply ingrained from years of disobedience. However, unlike
unbelievers, I know sin is present in my life and I know it doesn’t belong
there. There was a time when I didn’t care and even tried to excuse it but no
longer. I have committed my life to living into the new creation that I am. It
may take me the rest of my life but my life and every true believers life must
reflect the intentionality to be holy and righteous just like the One we claim
to believe in and follow. “Ephesians places[s] great emphasis on living in
accordance with the ‘new nature,’ which reflects God’s likeness in
righteousness and holiness. Indeed, imitation of God and Christ become ethical
touchstones, another way that Christians make God’s character known. (The
church collectively is the vehicle for making God’s wisdom known.) Ephesians
offers guidelines about behaviors that reflect the ‘old nature’ that is ‘corrupted
by deceitful lusts’ and therefore not
a reliable guide to be followed, and about the behaviors that proceed from the
‘new nature.’ Because of their general nature, they cannot be mistaken for a
new law but rather offer a resource that will help the self-examining disciple
perceive which nature he or she is nurturing/cultivating. The guidelines help
us discern what behaviors proceed from our new nature:
·
Not doing what fosters enmity and rifts in
relationships but what fosters unity, harmony, solidarity.
·
Not predatorial grasping but beneficence.
·
Not harboring grudges but seeking
reconciliation.
·
Not lying, treating others as outsiders and
nonfamily but speaking the truth.
·
Not indulging in distractions but focusing on
the work of building up the church, fulfilling the obligation of thanksgiving and
searching out God’s direction.
[Paul’s words] help keep before our
eyes, and the eyes of those we serve, the truth that the gospel is
transformative and that Christianity that does not change a person’s heart,
mind and life is empty. They call for fortitude as we face the truth about the
passions and values that drive us when Christ’s model and God’s desire are not
in view, but they also encourage us with words about the light God shines on us
so that at each step we may walk in his ways and delight in his will.”[2]
25Therefore each of
you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all
members of one body.
I’ve asked
this before but I’ll do so again here: What would the world look like if all
Christians were honest all the time and in every way? Think about it. I know it
is a popular belief and immortalized in song that “love is all we need,” and it
is absolutely true that love has power that hate and anger can never possess.
However, can true love exist where there is no truth? Notice that Jesus did not
say the He was the Way, the Love, and the Life. He said He was the Way, the Truth, and the Life. I contend, where
there is deceit, there is no real or lasting love. That’s what Paul is angling
at in v. 25. Lying, cheating, and
stealing were characteristics of their old self. Their new self was to be
characterized by honesty and trustworthiness. We often read Paul’s words and
take them for granted as though we have fully incorporated them into our lives
as believers. I’d like you to take a moment and honestly examine your life. Are
you truthful in all things in your life? I don’t have to dig very deeply into
my life to realize that I am not always truthful in my words or in my actions. Does
that mean I’m not really a new creation? No, it means that we are new in some
ways and being renewed in others.
Believers understand that dishonesty dishonors God and wounds those around us.
Unbelievers understand that dishonesty is a tool to be used to get ahead in
life and get what they want. Unbelievers have no concern for God’s honor and
seemingly little regard for the wounds they inflict on others as long as they
get what they want. “Because we are all members of Christ’s body, our words and
actions must not be destructive to the body. Lying to each other disrupts unity
by creating conflicts and destroying trust. It tears down relationships and
leads to open warfare in a church. Truthfulness, however, opens the door to
understanding. To maintain unity, the believers must be completely truthful
with one another.”[3] To put
it more graphically, “A lie is a stab into the very vitals of the body of
Christ”[4]
26“In your anger do
not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27and
do not give the devil a foothold.
I’ll be
honest with you, Paul’s teaching in vv.
26-27, derived in part directly from Psalm 4:4, speaks directly to me. Perhaps
not so much now as it once did but there was a time in my life when I was an
angry man—all the time. And I carried my anger with me day and night like a
badge of honor. Unfortunately, the anger in my life gave birth to much sin and
Satan used it to wedge his way into my life to wound others and to distort or
hide the reflection of God’s character in my life. Paul isn’t saying that we shouldn’t
be angry. There are times when righteous anger is called for—when those who can’t
defend themselves are attacked, when the helpless are oppressed, when the
ignorant or naïve are deceived by religious charlatans, when Christians are
persecuted for their faith. It is not unreasonable to be angry at the things
that anger God. However, we are not God so we must be careful that our actions
while defending the helpless or our actions in the face of, oppression,
deception, and persecution don’t assume God’s responsibility for judgment and
punishment. Even anger that is justified can devolve into sinful behavior and
can be used by Satan to destroy lives.
There are
times when we are angry because we ourselves have been offended in some way and
we, ok I, can hold a grudge with an iron fist. This is the type of anger that
is dangerous and what Paul is also warning against. Believers are a people who
have been renewed because we are reconciled to God through Jesus. We are a
people characterized by reconciliation. We still live in a world of sin, so it
is inevitable that we will be hurt by Christians and non-Christians alike. The
old self would seek revenge and look to pay back hurt with hurt while the new
self seeks reconciliation and offers forgiveness in exchange for hurt. The
longer we hold on to anger withhold forgiveness, the stronger Satan’s influence
becomes in our lives.
Did Paul
really mean that we must resolve the reason behind our anger before the sun
goes down? Maybe. But I suspect Paul was being less literal with respect to adherence
and instead expected them to resolve the issues surrounding their anger
quickly, not allowing anger to linger for long in their hearts and minds. “‘Hostile
Christian’ is an oxymoron. We must replace hostility with helpfulness. The
primary place hostility and cynicism appear is in our families, the assumption
being that those closest to us are responsible for the problem, have failed to
solve it, or are easy targets for revenge…Where families are marked by
bitterness, anger, shouting, or worse, violence, no one may speak of Christian
faith. Usually our anger is in response to small things that do not really
matter. And since anger is a choice to express our displeasure where no fear is
present, anger is most often directed at the wrong people. The victims of anger
are usually not its cause; they are merely people who are present and pose no
threat—such as women, children, or people without power, the very people to who
we should guarantee safety.”[5]
28He who has been stealing
must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands,
that he may have something to share with those in need.
One of the
things that distinguishes humanity as created in the image of God is that we
are co-creators with God. We are, by design, consumers and producers. We are not designed to be only producers as in the
case of slaves or only consumers as in the case of social leeches. We are
designed to produce goods and services for the benefit of one another. It works
beautifully if everyone contributes to the extent they are able to do so
according to their God given gifts and abilities. It is particularly harmful if
either extreme is exploited.
It is rather obvious that we
shouldn’t steal. I’m unaware of any civilized society, where theft is or was
considered or condoned as an acceptable behavior. The command, “you shall not
steal” is one of the Ten Commandments so it’s been around for quite a while.
I’m pretty sure Paul wasn’t reiterating something that was somewhat universally
understood and relatively obvious in v.
28. Instead, I think Paul was aiming at a different practice, the practice
of some who were unproductive members of society who consciously took advantage
of those who were productive members of society.
This should sound very familiar in
our society here in the west where those who are productive members of society
regularly support successive generations of individuals and families who live
exclusively off the hard work of others. Some of these people call themselves
Christians. These are some of the people Paul is speaking to. All people, but
especially those who call themselves Christians, must do something useful so
that they have something to give back to society. Christians cannot call
themselves Christians who refuse to care for those in need—those people are
hypocrites. Christians cannot call themselves Christians who refuse to be
productive members of society but instead live exclusively off the fruits of
someone else’s hard work—those people are thieves. The ideal is life lived in
community where all contribute to one another’s physical, emotional,
psychological and spiritual needs generously and sacrificially. “Paul regarded
idleness, which was endemic in Greco-Roman society, as inappropriate for the
Christian believer. So he deliberately set the example of hard work to support
himself and called upon his converts to imitate him. The practical values of
life in Christ were concretely exemplified in his own consciously executed
lifestyle in which he supported himself by work.”[6]
Application
I think
I’ve told you that I’ve believed in God for as long as I can remember. However,
I haven’t always been a faithful follower of Jesus Christ. In fact, there was a
time in my life when the imprint of God’s image on my life was buried under
several layers of manure. However, when I finally got around to listening to
God’s voice in my life, that imprint of God’s image on my life was unearthed.
It smelled awful and it was impossible to discern God’s image at first but at
least it was ready for God to work His wonders. Now, on good days, you can get
a glimpse of God’s character in my life. In any event, I knew intuitively that
the minute I said ‘yes’ to following Jesus, my life had to be different. No
matter how much I liked certain parts of my old self, I knew I had to give them
up because they were inconsistent with my new self—drinking excessively, a
vocabulary laced with profanity, anger, and a spirit of unforgiveness to name
but a few. I knew something changed. My mind and attitude had changed and it
was time for my actions to follow
As
Christians, we are new creations made to be holy and righteous in the same way
that God is holy and righteous. The old us is gone and the new us has arrived—we
are born again. When the text says that we are a new creation, it means that
every part of us is new—our mind, our attitude, and our actions. It means our
lives should become a reflection of Jesus so people who encounter us will get a
very real and tangible sense of who Jesus is. What does your life say about
what you believe? Does your life attract people to Jesus? Does your life point
people to Jesus? Does your life shine a light on the path to Jesus? Jesus is
the Light of the world. If we call ourselves followers of Jesus then our lives
must also reflect that light because followers of the Light of the world are
new creations and born again with the distinction of being know as Children Of Light.
Be sure to
come back next week for Part Two of Children
Of Light where I’ll go into greater detail of what it means to be
“imitators of God.”
[1] W.
Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor’s
Greek Testament, vol. 3, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,
1983), pp. 338-339.
[2] David A.
deSilva, An Introduction to the New
Testament: Contexts, Methods & Ministry Formation, (Downers Grove, IL:
InterVarsity Press, 2004), pp. 731-732.
[3] Bruce
Barton, Philip Comfort, Grant Osborne, Linda K. Taylor, and Dave Veerman, Life Application New Testament Commentary,
(Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), p. 823.
[4] John
Mackay, God’s Order: The Ephesian Letter
and This Present Time, (New York, NY: Macmillan Publishers, 1953), p. 185.
[5] Klyne
Snodgrass, Ephesians—The NIV
Application Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), p. 263.
[6] Gerald
F. Hawthorne, Ralph P. Martin, Daniel G. Reid, eds., Dictionary of Paul and his Letters, (Downers Grove, IL:
InterVarsity Press, 1993), p. 927.
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