Category: Ephesians

 ^“So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body. And ‘don’t sin by letting anger control you.’ Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil. If you are a thief, quit stealing. Instead, use your hands for good hard work, and then give generously to others in need. Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.”

Paul is continuing his instructions about living differently from the world around us. Recall that unity is the goal — as God demonstrates unity within himself and in his salvation of the world, we too must act as a united body. Paul gives us concrete examples in today’s verses: tell the truth, deal with conflict appropriately, work hard instead of stealing, and watch your mouth.

When we remember that we are God’s adopted children who are in line for a great spiritual inheritance, we start acting differently. Instead of following dysfunctional ways that may have been present in our earthly families, we practice kindness and tenderness to one another. In God’s family, holding a grudge simply isn’t possible because your heart remains soft.

Here’s your freedom for today: getting rid of anger sets you free. All of the things Paul tells us to get rid of are things that harm us. Bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander — these are all descriptions of a person I would never want to be. When our hearts are hard, we act like the world and it is impossible to live by the Spirit in that condition. These ways are directly opposed to the example of Christ. Check your heart today and take your emotional pulse. Are you holding onto anger and bitterness? Is there someone you have yet to forgive? Ask God to soften your heart and let go, you’ll be more free than you’ve ever been.

 

“Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God. Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people. Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God. You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.”

The Bible constantly refers to us as God’s “children.” We are never the “adults of God,” but instead are compared to babies and toddlers. The more quickly we grasp this concept, the more free we are to act the way babies act: imitating their parents. God gave us a concrete example of how to live through Jesus. Do what he did and you’ll be acting just like your Father.

Part of what imitating Jesus means is getting rid of junk. His work was all about bring health and freedom to everyone he touched, and if we want to do that as well we need to reject every sin we can possibly identify. Sexual immorality, impurity, greed, obscene stories, foolish talks, course jokes. All of these are simply not what God’s kingdom is about.

Here’s your freedom for today: you will become free by freeing your mind from earthly things. How much time do you spend watching television shows that contain much (or all!) of what is on this list of sins? Compare that to how much time you spend aligning your thoughts with God’s thoughts through Bible reading and prayer. If we truly want to imitate God, we have to spend time with him. We have to watch him, study him, and follow his every move. Only then will we become like the children we were made to be.

“Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey him. Don’t participate in the things these people do. For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light!  For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them. It is shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret. But their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them, for the light makes everything visible. This is why it is said, ‘Awake, O sleeper, rise up from the dead, and Christ will give you light.'”

Paul continues his admonishment about sin versus the imitation of God as his children. How often do we ourselves make excuses for the sins he listed (see yesterday’s post), not to mentioned the disregard in our society for what comes out of a person’s mouth. In this way, when we are followers of Jesus we are inherently operating in a different framework, and we are not fooled by cheap excuses.

The letter continues on with a theme of dark versus light. The classic description of evil versus good. Our job as Christians is to shine a light on everything around us. When we shine a light on the good, it looks even more beautiful and holy. When we use our light to expose secrets and evil, God delivers his righteous justice.

Here’s your freedom for today: Jesus will open your eyes and wake up your soul. Sometimes we need to be shaken out of our complacency and remember our role as the church. We can’t fall asleep on the job here — the world needs the light of Jesus desperately. If we believe he is the answer to the pain of the world, then we can’t waste a single minute. We have to bring his love and his light to everyone we can, offering hope to a hopeless world. If your spiritual life doesn’t feel awake and alive, then ask God to bring you to a new place of passion. We need all hands on deck as we seek to bring the kingdom of God into all its fullness.

“So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts. And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Following Jesus is a life-and-death matter. Not just eternal life, as some Christians might prefer to think. Genuine pursuit of Jesus, hanging out with the kinds of people he hung out with, will bring you into deep spiritual places that are full of warfare. It is simply foolish to mess around in our evil days. You don’t even want to stick your toe in a sin-puddle if you are working to bring the kingdom of God into this world. Satan can and will use everything against you.

Getting drunk isn’t an option for Jesus-followers, because you can’t be strategic when you’re not in your right mind. You cannot simultaneously go deeper with Jesus and be on a path of life-destruction. Those paths are mutually exclusive. When you fill your life with the Holy Spirit, you are brimming over with songs, prayers, and thanksgiving. Those aren’t feeling words, those are direct actions that will overcome anything Satan is trying to throw at you.

Here’s your freedom for today: praising Jesus isn’t about feeling happy. Anyone I know who is pressing hard into following Jesus has signed up for a hard life. Living a life worth living means you are setting aside your own interests for the interests of others. You are rejecting the things of this world for the things of the Spirit. You are in a constant wrestle with all the things that are not right about this world and trying to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. That kind of life doesn’t produce happiness. But it can produce praise. In fact, being filled with the Spirit means you have peace when it makes no sense to have peace. You praise when it makes no sense to praise. If you are in a hard season right now, press in instead of trying to escape. God is fighting on your behalf and spiritual victory comes through prayer and praise.

“And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church.  As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything. For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.  In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. And we are members of his body. As the Scriptures say, ‘A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’ This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”

Paul is building on his themes of rejecting sin and living a different kind of life as he addresses married couples in these verses. If you are not married, don’t tune out just yet. We see in these verses that marriage is a symbol of something far greater: Jesus’ relationship with the church.

What does it mean for you to love like Jesus did? Sacrifice. Surrender. Dying and finding new life. All of these concepts guide us in marriage, and they also guide us in all of our relationships (as we will see in the next few days). There is a beautiful picture God is painting through Paul’s letter: a symbiotic relationship rooted in supernatural love. This picture captures the very heart of God.

Here’s your freedom for today: you will find freedom when you lay your self-interests down. Particularly for independent, self-focused Americans, laying down your own interests is a countercultural concept. We are told to protect ourselves, watch out for number one, and do whatever it takes to be happy. God has something far greater in mind for us, and he knows all about it because he accomplished it already through Jesus. Christ gave himself up, literally walking away from Heaven and even life itself in order to rescue us. He showed us that sacrifice and love are spiritual weapons that win wars. Consider those the most effective weapons in your arsenal. When we imitate him in this way, whether in marriage or in other relationships, we gain spiritual ground and have victory and freedom in ways that are not humanly possible. Who can you supernaturally love today?