Sermon Notes: Ephesians 4:25-32 – The New Self Looks Like This
These are the notes of a sermon preached by Andy Evans on the morning of the 15 January 2012 at Firwood Church. Click here to stream or download the sermon audio.
EPHESIANS 4:25-32 – THE NEW SELF LOOKS LIKE THIS
Ephesians 4:17-24
17Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18They 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. 19They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
1. THE DISJUNCTION
The result of the gospel in the lives of believers is a great sense of disjunction.
Consider who we were. At one time, we were either disinterested or openly hostile towards God (Ephesians 2:1-3), but then God intervened (Ephesians 2:4-5). God enacted his glorious plan devised before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4) and suddenly our eyes (and the eyes of our heart) were open to the glory of God displayed in the Son of God made flesh. With this great revelation, animosity was miraculously overwhelmed with admiration.
But more than this, at one time we were far off, separated from Christ and the people of God (Ephesians 2:11-12). But God, intervened and, in Christ Jesus, established peace (Ephesians 2:13-22). Christ Jesus came and preached peace and alienation was transformed to affection (Ephesians 2:17).
And finally, the gospel commands us to respond with energy, sweat and activity. Paul exhorts, ‘Do not walk as the Gentiles do’. We must walk a different kind of walk because we have and are required to continue putting off the old self and to continue to put on the new self. The gospel effects and demands transformation in equal measure. We are to move from apathy to action. We are provided strength that we may move from apathy to action (Ephesians 4:17, 22 and 23).
Believers are those who have moved from animosity to admiration towards Christ; who have moved from alienation to affection for God and who no longer wallow in apathy, but are instead spurred towards action.
This is the great encouragement for the unbeliever. The gospel’s effects are as dramatic as the disjunction between death and life. They are as profound as the difference between alienation and adoption and are as astonishing as a dead heart beginning to feel, dead eyes beginning to see and dead hands galvanised into action.
This, then, is the great exhortation for the believer. We are called to love, we are called to draw close and we are called to act because God has made all of this possible in Christ Jesus. For us to live differently is to deny who we are made to be.
2. THE NEW SELF LOOKS LIKE THIS
It is in the context of the profound weight of all that God has done, that the Apostle Paul exhorts us to act in a very specific way. Paul is commanding the church to live as Christians. Consider,
Ephesians 4:25-5:2
25Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27and give no opportunity to the devil. 28Let 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. 29Let 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. 30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
1Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Note that there are four specific commands to not do and four specific exhortations to do. We consider each in turn,
a. ‘having put away falsehood’, (v. 25)
Paul begins thus,
Ephesians 4:25
Therefore, having put away falsehood…
The tense, here, is important. We find that Paul is not precisely offering us a command. Rather, Paul’s assumption is that, as believers, we have already put off the old self and are putting on the new self. As such, he anticipates those of us who believe have already (and are already) putting away all falsehood.
Nevertheless, this does challenge us to reflect. Are we, in fact, still living lives characterise by deceit, lying and falsehood?
It is easy to be altogether dismissive of such a command as everyone would agree that lying and falsehood is wrong. However, we must also recognise that the tendency of our culture is to relativise everything and blur the distinction between right and wrong. This is how our culture is able to distinguish between the lie and the white lie. This is the beginning of the domestication of sin which, in reality, is not possible. Or worst still, we present falsehood as a virtue where the truth might hurt another.
This is not the way we learned Christ Jesus (Ephesians 4:20). We are to put away all falsehood.
b. ‘speak the truth’
It is is not enough to simply refrain from doing wrong things. It is not enough to simply stop lying. As believers we must also do the right things. Yes, we are to put off the old self, the old nature, but we are also commanded to put on the new self, the new nature.
As such, we are called to pursue righteousness. We are called to cease with falsehood and instead speak the truth.
Paul reminds us that our context, as the church, demands that we so behave,
Ephesians 4:25
…let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbour, for we are members one of another.
These exhortations are for the church; fellow believers in Christ Jesus. Paul commands us to stop lying, and to stop engaging in falsehood, for we are members of one another. We are the body of Christ, we are the adopted family of God. As Paul earlier reminds us,
Ephesians 2:19
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God
To thus mistreat our brothers and sisters in Christ is an act of self-mutilation, for we are one body, one household. Paul reminds us that believers must not live like that. Rather believers must now live like this: we must be a people who embody truth.
c. Be angry and do not sin
The second command and exhortation go hand-in-hand,
Ephesians 4:26-27
26Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27and give no opportunity to the devil.
Note that Paul presents us two apparent imperatives, ‘Be angry’ and ‘do not sin’.
The first of these two exhortations sounds most unexpected and strange. Why would the writers of Scripture exhort us to be angry?
This is not quite what is happening here. There are potentially two ways of reading this verse. The first reading takes the phrase, ‘Be angry’, as a hard imperative and reads this as though Paul is instructing us to be angry. This does not make sense. The second way of understanding this verse is that Paul is, rather, making a statement, almost as if Paul is saying, ‘If you are angry, be angry…’ The NIV translators capture this subtly,
Ephesians 4:26 (NIV)
“In your anger do not sin”…
Moreover, Paul is quoting from the Psalmist, who writes,
Psalm 4:4
Be angry, and do not sin;
ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent.
Here, the Psalmist is facing fierce opposition, criticism and slander. The Psalmist response, naturally, is that he feels anger. Naturally the Psalmist feels angry.
The truth is that there are certain circumstances when it is right to feel anger because God himself feels anger. When faced with cruelty, injustice, calamity, abuse and murder, it is right that we feel an emotional response. It is right when we read about the exploitation of children or human rights abuses that we feel angry. It is right that we respond with anger towards sin, suffering and death. It is right that we are not okay with such things.
This is precisely Paul’s point.
Consider a world, no, consider a church which watches horrendous acts of cruelty inflicted upon the helpless and feels nothing. Such a church would be no kind of church at all. The God of the Bible is a God who hates sin and feels anger towards the wicked.
However, note that Paul goes further,
Ephesians 4:26-27
26Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27and give no opportunity to the devil.
Be angry and do not sin. Why is the ‘and do not sin’ necessary?
Paul recognises that unrestrained anger is the gateway to much sin. If unchecked, anger can lead to violence, retribution, revenge and even murder. This is why Paul warns us to be on our guard and gives us parameters lest our anger breaks out and leads us into sin. Paul warns us not to allow our anger to slip out of our control. Do not allow our anger to burn for more than a day. Paul writes, ‘do not let the sun go down on your anger’, because, should we do so, we provide a foothold for bitterness which leads into increasingly dangerous sin.
Do not give an opportunity to the devil.
In this sense, Psalm 4 is incredibly helpful. The Psalmist faces incredible opposition and the reality of righteous anger. However, the Psalmist’s anger does not last, because it is replaced with something deeper, more precious and altogether more powerful,
Psalm 4:4–5
4Be angry, and do not sin;
ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent. Selah
5Offer right sacrifices,
and put your trust in the Lord.
The Psalmist recognises that the solution to injustice is to trust in God. Yes, we may respond with anger for a moment, but those who believe trust in God. And this trusting leads to profound joy,
Psalm 4:6–7
6There are many who say, “Who will show us some good?
Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!”
7You have put more joy in my heart
than they have when their grain and wine abound.
d. No longer steal
Paul continues,
Ephesians 4:28
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.
Again, we find that there is both a command and an exhortation.
Paul instructs this group of believers, ‘Let the thief no longer steal’. Theft was considered to be a most heinous crime in the context of both the Old Testament and First Century Hellenised society.
There is, therefore, an indication here of the make-up of the early church. In this, again, we glimpse the fullness of the gospel. The gospel is transformational and, in the Kingdom of Christ Jesus, there is room for all.
Jesus calls all to come and, as we come, he enables supernatural transformation. The thief must steal no longer.
e. Work
The thief must stop stealing and instead get a job. This again demonstrates what it looks like to put off the old self and instead put on the new self. Christians are called to engage in enterprise, work and labour. We must be a people characterised by our honesty. This means our money must derive from honest work.
Moreover, believers have an utterly different perspective on work, money, possessions and everything.
The motivation for the believers labour is altogether different than those who are in the world. We work and we labour that we might love, assist and aid our brothers and sisters who are in need. The believer works for the good of others. The believer labours that he might be a blessing.
This, of course, makes sense, for, as Paul has already reminded us,
Ephesians 4:25
…we are members one of another.
f. Build up one another
Paul continues with his theme,
Ephesians 4:29
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.
Again, the health of the body of Christ and the good of the church is in view.
Paul has earlier warned believers to refrain from falsehood and instead speak the truth. Now Paul addresses other kinds of speech,
Ephesians 4:29
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths
It is important that we recognise that there is a way of speaking which does great harm. Gossip, slander, unloving and unhelpful criticism, lewd talk and frivolous conversation do great harm. Words are not merely words. Words have power to destroy reputations, to discourage and to break the hearts of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul exhorts us not to live like that.
Rather we are to speak to one another in ways which encourages, build up and display the grace and mercy of Christ Jesus.
There is a test here for each of us. Is our conversation characterised by negativity and criticism, or do we most often build up and encourage? When was the last time we took the opportunity to encourage our fellow believers? Does the way in which we speak bring grace to others? How can we nurture and develop graceful speech in our lives?
Words matter. Paul exhorts us to speak in such a way that others are built up.
3. DO NOT GRIEVE THE HOLY SPIRIT
Earlier, Paul warned us to
Ephesians 4:27
…give no opportunity to the devil.
Paul now follows this initial series of exhortations with an exhortation which acts as a counterpoint,
Ephesians 4:30
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God…
This series is called, ‘His Glorious Grace’, because Paul sees, and longs for us to see, the grace of God at work everywhere and in everything. For the believer this is especially true because the Church of Jesus Christ is the locus of this gracious activity of God.
God, by his Spirit, brings dead souls to life. He transforms animosity into admiration, he brings us from a state of alienation to a point where our hearts swell with affection for him. God, by his Spirit, moves us from apathy towards the things of God, into action.
We live for him because his Spirit is at work in our lives, motivating, compelling and empowering.
And God, by his Spirit, is at work in his church bringing revelation, an increasing thirst for righteousness and the things of God, and an unshakeable togetherness. Paul urges us to live in accordance with this.
Firwood Church: God by his Spirit is at work in the church this very morning. We are called to please him, not grieve him. We are called to live, walk and work in a way which displays the character and nature of God, and affirms the work of the Holy Spirit of God.
We are called to work and walk in love. We are called to work and walk in accordance with his glorious grace. For this makes him look, as he truly is, most glorious.