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Good morning my “walking with Jesus” friends,
I’m writing you this morning from where much of the Bible takes place! I’m in Jordan. Within a circle of a few hundred miles, of where I sit this morning, almost every page of the Old Testament happened, and when I leave early tomorrow morning, I’ll by flying over many of the places where most of the New Testament takes place! I will even have a ‘lay over’ of several hours in modern day Rome, the very place the Apostle Paul was imprisoned, when he wrote the letter to the Ephesian Christians, which we are reading together!
It has taken us several days to digest Ephesians chapter 4, because God speaks through Paul to so many aspects of life for us today! How about truthfulness and trustworthiness? How much of the information you will read or here today is true? How much do you trust it? Listen to this: “Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to one another, for we are all members of one body.” (Eph. 4:25).
Well…7.5 Billion of us, all members of the ‘body’ of people called the human race.
330+ million of us members of the ‘body’ of people called the USA.
Perhaps nearly 1 Billion of us called the ‘body’… Christians globally. And what other categories or groups of people we each are part of, all the way down to your family, your church, even your marriage? Is there any group of people each of us belongs to where speaking truthfully is not important? Do you see how speaking dishonestly, deceitfully is detrimental even destructive of every human relationship?
In this section of Ephesians 4, Paul is writing of course to people who claim to be Christians, followers of Jesus. Each phrase is power-packed. Look at vs. 26 “In your anger, do not sin.” I’m sure you’ve noticed Paul does not say “do not get angry”. Even God gets angry, right?
God despises sin. How about Exodus 32:9,10 and God’s response to the golden calf made by the Hebrew slaves when Moses was up Sinai meeting with God? Or God’s response to the rebellion of those Hebrews when the 10 leader-spies returned with a fearful report and the people wanted to return to Egyptian slavery (Numbers 14)?
My friends, anger can be a righteous response to evil, wickedness. But…can you tell when anger crosses the line and becomes vengeance, retribution, retaliation? Can you tell when words or behavior in anger is sin…something that is dishonoring, even evil in God’s sight? Can you draw the line for yourself and control yourself in your ‘anger’, before you cross that line?
Have you learned the lesson of NOT going to bed angry, especially in a family? Have your learned how to deal with whatever has angered you before the end of the day? In some cases you may not be able to confront the issue and resolve it that quickly, but have you learned the power and privilege of meeting with Jesus about the issue before you go to bed?
Now look very closely at the next statement, remembering Paul is writing to Christians: “…and do not give the devil a foothold.” Is it possible for a blood of Jesus purchased, Holy Spirit indwelt Christian, to actually ‘give the devil a foothold‘ in their life? YES!!
It’s important we understand this my friends, and so add vs. 30 to vs. 27 “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” You’ll remember this links back to Ephes. 1:13,14. This ‘sealing’ work of the Holy Spirit when you trust Jesus to be your Savior, is a final step in your salvation by God. It renders God’s saving work irreversible!
So if I’m irreversibly saved by God’s grace, then how do I ‘grieve the Holy Spirit’ and ‘give the devil a foothold’?
We’ve all seen the old ‘teeter-totter’ in the children’s playground, right? As one side rises, the other falls. They both can’t be up or down at the same time. That is a picture of the spiritual battle raging for control in your life and mine. While the Holy Spirit lives within us, as people saved by God as He applied the redemption work of Jesus’ death payment to our repentance from our sin, and our trust in Jesus… at the same time we repeatedly are under temptation from the devil, right? We each face it every day, many times a day.
But remember God’s promise to us in 1 Corinthians 10:13? Whenever temptation comes, the Holy Spirit of God is there to strengthen us, remind us WHOSE we are, and lead us in walking the path of victory over temptation! It’s escape God has provided. HOWEVER…we need to choose to resist the temptation (1 Peter 5:8,9) and walk the path of victory, escape. We do have the freedom, sadly, to CHOOSE NO! Really?
Yes!! We can choose to sin, can’t we? We can recognize the temptation, recognize the Holy Spirit is warning us, and see His provided path of escape, but CHOOSE TO yield to the temptation and sin!! And we’ve all done it…in our attitudes, our words, our choices, right?
We know what that feels like, because when we do, immediately we feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit (John 16:8) that we have sinned! We feel guilt, perhaps shame. In that moment the Holy Spirit is calling us back to God. Urging us to confess our sin to God, repent, accept His forgiveness and the Spirit’s cleansing. Here’s what the Apostle John wrote: “If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
Now we need to stop right here and ponder this. Peter wrote about this all too frequent struggle: “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, stand firm in the faith, because you know that your fellow Christians throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ…will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” (1 Peter 5:8,9)
Ok my good friends, do you see in this section of chapter 4 how many things Paul identifies as the temptations you and I face almost every day? We’ve already seen Paul mention lying and anger, next comes stealing, then bitterness, rage, slander, malice…oh my!
But look at the contrast in verse 29: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Oh my goodness, now there’s something to tattoo on our forearms, and every time we’re about to say something, look down and read it to ourselves…and pause for a second to ask ourselves if we should speak what we are thinking, or…?
Read it again my friends…. “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths but only what is helpful…” Now if that happened for you and me, how would that change our marriages, our families, our friendships, our work environments, our churches, our social groups? How would it change American politics or media? May I ask you to read it a third time…every word. Do you see “according to their needs”?
Does that mean that the Holy Spirit wants to help us so when we speak we are focused more on what will HELP the person we’re speaking with rather than what we want to say that expresses what we feel? Wow… now that’s turning communication upside down, right? Talking only when it benefits others? That changes talk from expressing what I want to say, to expressing what I sense the Holy Spirit wants to say through me to HELP you. . .and no more!
As a boy, I well remember my wise father saying to me so many, many times…“say it if it’s helpful, or don’t say it at all.” Usually it was after I spouted something that wasn’t very helpful…in fact it was demeaning or hurtful to my younger sister or brother, or someone else I should have respected. Oh my how this would change our communication, our talk, right?
Finally notice the dramatic contrast between vs. 31 & 32! Wow… honestly now, in which of these two verses do you find yourself most often, at least in your emotions and thoughts, if not in your words and actions?
Tomorrow we’ll pick it up here and move on into chapter 5. Look at the first few words of 5:1 “Be imitators of God, therefore as dearly loved children, and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us…” Now let’s let that percolate in our hearts all day today, as we begin a new week my friends, and we’ll pick it up here tomorrow!
Here are a few questions to help as we reflect on what we’ve read…
1. HOW do I ‘give the devil a foothold’ in my life? When I recognize the warning of the Holy Spirit in my life, why do I disregard God’s loving touch? How quickly do I then move to repentance when the Holy Spirit convicts me? What needs to change here?
2. What does God want to change in my talk? How could I be more helpful to others with what I say? What does God want to teach me about holding my tongue, NOT speaking, when what I’m thinking about saying will be gossip or critical of someone or unhelpful to the situation I’m in?
3. Remember 2 Corinthians 5:20 says that if I’m an authentic Christian, I should see myself as an Ambassador of Jesus Christ!? If true, how should these things we discussed today change in me?
Oh Lord Jesus Christ… my goodness we need your help with this. We stumble here way too often.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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