At the church where I serve, we have been spending
our time together looking at a letter that is recorded for us in the New
Testament of our Bibles called the book of Ephesians. And as we go through this
series, our hope and our prayer is that God would enable us to see our true
identity, the identity that He designed us to live in, so that we would live
our day to day lives in light of our true identity.
This week I would like for us
to spend our time together by picking up where we left off last month. As we
ended our time together last month, a natural question that we were left with
was "Well Dave, saying that our identity of a follower of Jesus should
lead us to live a new life as we lay aside our old life sounds great, but what
does that practically look like? I mean, how am I supposed to lay aside my old
life and put on my new life? And how do I really know if I am living a new life
that is laying aside our old life?"
If those questions were running
through your mind, I want to let you know that those are great questions to be
asking. And in Ephesians 4:25-32, we see the Apostle
Paul make seven specific commands to followers of Jesus throughout history that
reveal whether or not we are laying aside our old life in a way that leads us to live a new life.
And it is in these series of commands that we will see Paul reveal for us a
timeless truth when it comes to our identity as a follower of Jesus. So let's
look at the first command together, beginning in Ephesians 4:25:
Therefore,
laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE of you WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another.
Paul begins this section of his letter to the members of
the church at Ephesus with a familiar phrase: "Therefore, laying aside
falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE of you WITH HIS NEIGHBOR. As we discovered
earlier in this series, the phrase laying aside literally means to rid oneself
of something. And what Paul wanted the members of the church of Ephesus to rid
themselves of was falsehood.
Instead of living a life of falsehood, or lies, Paul
commands the members of the church of Ephesus to speak truth each one to his
neighbor. In other words, Paul wanted the members of the church at Ephesus to
rid themselves of their old nature that was marked by
lying and falsehood in
order to put on their new nature that reflected their identity as being aligned
a lifestyle of truth telling.
Now
when Paul uses the phrase each one with his neighbor, he is specifically
referring to fellow followers of Jesus at the church of Ephesus. Paul then
provides the reason why they were to live lives of truth telling by explaining
that we are members of one body. Paul's point here is that the members of the church at Ephesus were connected in
community with one another as a result of being a part of the body of Christ.
And to back this claim, Paul quotes from a section of a
letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of our Bibles called the
book of Zechariah. In Zechariah 8:16, the prophet Zechariah proclaimed that
there would be a day when the Jewish people would be rescued and redeemed by
God. And as a result of God's promised activity in their lives, the Jewish
people were to no longer live their lives with lying and falsehood. Instead, as
a redeemed community of people that were living together in community, their lives
were to be marked by truth.
And now, the members of the church at Ephesus, who were a
rescued and redeemed people as a result of the fulfillment of God's promise,
were to rid themselves of their past life of lying in order to live new lives
of truth. And in the same way today, our identity as a follower of Jesus should
lead us to lay aside a lifestyle of falsehood in order to live a new life that
was marked by truth.
So here is a question to consider: Are you living a
lifestyle that is marked by falsehood? Deception? Lying? Because those traits reveal
a life that is being lived according to our old nature apart from God. Or are
you living a lifestyle that is marked by truth in community with others?
Because our identity as a follower of Jesus leads us to lay aside a lifestyle
of falsehood in order to live a new life that was marked by truth. We see
Paul's second command to the members of the church at Ephesus in verse 26:
BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do
not give the devil an opportunity.
Now a natural question that arises here is "what
does Paul mean when he says be angry and yet do not sin? I mean can you be
angry and not sin?" The answer to that second question is yes; you can be
angry and not sin. And if you are here this morning and want to push back
against that statement, I would simply direct your attention to the life of
Jesus. You see, Jesus never sinned, yet He went into the temple and turned over
the tables of the moneychangers not once but twice.
You see, far too often as followers of Jesus, we tend to
not get angry at things that should make us angry while at the same time get
angry at things that should not make us angry. I mean we can blow a head gasket
over them messing up our order in a restaurant while not being the least bit
upset when multitudes of people suffer through a famine.
When Paul commands the members of the church at Ephesus
to be angry and yet do not sin, he is commanding them to make sure that they
respond in anger to the right things and that they respond in anger the right
way. And to back his point, the Apostle Paul quotes from a section of a letter
that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of our Bibles called the book of
Psalms.
In Psalm 4:4, King David expresses his anger at those who
were mistreating him. However, instead of responding in a sinful manner, King
David, worships the Lord for the gladness and peace that the Lord had placed in
his heart as he responded to his anger without sinning.
And in the same way today, our identity as a follower of
Jesus leads us to live a new life that was marked by the right response of
anger. Our identity as a follower of Jesus should lead us to respond in anger
at the right things. And our identity as a follower of Jesus should lead us not
to wrong God or others in our response of anger.
In addition, Paul also commands the members of the church
at Ephesus to do not let the sun go down on your anger. To understand what Paul
is communicating here, we first need to understand what he is not
communicating. Paul here is not commanding followers of Jesus to have all
conflict resolved before the sun sets. Paul is not commanding followers of
Jesus to stay awake until a conflict is fully resolved.
This phrase was an idiom in the cultural of the first
century that was used to encourage people to accomplish things in a timely
manner. Since there was not electricity in the first century, there were tasks
that needed to be done in a timely manner, before the sun set. Paul's point to
the members of the church at Ephesus is that they were to make sure to deal
with their anger in a timely manner.
In verse 27, Paul explains that the reason why they were
to make sure to deal with their anger in a timely manner was to not give the
devil an opportunity. Now this phrase in the language we use in our culture
today, literally means do not give the devil a chance to exert his influence.
Have you been there? Have you been in that place where
you go to bed angry? And as you are sleeping its like "I am so mad at him,
he is such a jerk". And the devil is like "he is a jerk, you should
cheat on him".
Paul is revealing for us the reality that when we do not
deal with our anger in a timely manner; we give the devil an opportunity to
exert his influence to tempt us to respond to our anger in a way that wrongs
God and others. And as followers of Jesus, we are to deal with our anger in a
timely manner that does not let anger fester and that does not give the devil
and chance to exert his influence as a result of our festering anger. While we
may not be able to resolve the conflict fully, we are to deal with the anger
that the conflict has produced in us in a timely manner.
So here is a question to consider: Are you living a
lifestyle that gets angry over the right things? Are you living a lifestyle
that is marked by a right response to anger? Are you living a lifestyle that
responds to anger in a timely manner? Because our identity as a follower of
Jesus should lead us to live a new life that was marked by the right response
of anger.
Tomorrow, we will see Paul's third command to the members
of the church at Ephesus…
No comments:
Post a Comment