A Word Worth Repeating, Part 1
Ephesians 4:25-28
“A Word Worth Repeating, Part 1”
Don’t you just love new things? It doesn’t matter what it is; anything new is pretty special. But the more valuable the item the more you really love it when you get a new one. I remember when I got my new cell phone/Palm Pilot. A Trēo 600 combination unit that has everything I need to know all in one place. I even have four versions of the Bible, a commentary and a Bible dictionary downloaded on it! I’d love to show it to you but if I keep it in my pocket up here it introduces feedback into the sound system.
I also remember when we bought our new van a few years ago—bought the one that was right there in the showroom. They drove it out the door for us. It had that new car smell—a lot like the new baseball glove I bought when I was in eighth grade. New stuff is great. But can you imagine having new stuff and not even using it?
Several weeks ago I mentioned to you an experience I had when I was a student, listening to a beautiful piece of music in an opulently renovated, downtown condominium. The new owners were from out-of-town and they hadn’t moved in yet, so that pristine condo was entirely vacant of furnishings. What I didn’t tell you at the times was that they were transferred to a different city before them ever moved to Chicago. They never lived in that condo. It was put back on the market and a different couple bought it. You know what they did? They tore out all those new appliances and fixtures and appointments—all the marble and granite and hard wood that had never even been used and they replaced it with appliances and fixtures and appointments of their own choosing. What a tragedy, a travesty when something new and exceedingly valuable is never even put to use!
Scripture speaks much of new things, and all of them are exceedingly valuable. It speaks of new life, a new heart, a new mind, a new heaven and new earth. Can you even imagine not loving the new thing God has given, or not putting to use?
Paul speaks of a new self here in Eph.4:24. And he tells us to put it on. We looked at that instruction last week, and saw that putting on this new self is an activity in which we cooperate with God—we work with him to get it done. But we didn’t get into the passage that begins to tell us how to do it. That is where we are this morning. As Paul gave instruction in Eph 4:25-28 on how to put off the old self and put on the new, he gave us three areas in which we need cooperate with God—three areas in which we need to govern ourselves.
Area #1: We need to govern our tongue. – 25
Having completed his instruction (24) to put on the new self created after the likeness of God, literally, in righteousness and holiness of the truth (nasv). Paul began to make this general mandate more specific when he wrote (25): Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor. This begins the explanation of some of the things that are going to be required in order to put off the old self and put on the new.
The first result worthy of mention here is to speak the truth to one’s neighbor, made necessary by the fact that we are all one body. Being one body necessitates truth-telling. Suppose your foot were seriously infected, but when asked, “How are you doing?” by some other member of the body, the foot responded, “Oh, fine; everything is fine.” It wouldn’t be long before your entire body would be in grave difficulty. By analogy, so it is with the body of Christ. Because we are one body, then, we should put off falsehood—literally, lying—or, in the broader sense of the word, put off whatever is not what it seems to be (Strong). Think of what that means—and Paul is just stating in passing that we have put it away along with the old self. Imagine living life free of all things that are not what they seem to be—free of desire that is not really need, free of satisfaction that is not really contentment, free of romance that is not really love, free of a love for all things transient that are not truly eternal. It is difficult to live such a life. We crave the things that we believe will make us happy, and we can feel deprived or even persecuted if they are denied to us. But we need to be courageous and keep reminding ourselves of what is true. That is what it takes to put off the old self and put on the new. We’re not distracted or led astray by anything that isn’t what it appears to be.
Paul talked in similar terms to the Corinthians using the language outer nature and inner nature rather than old self and new self. In 2Co.4:16-18 he wrote: Do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
Thus, we put away falsehood—all things that aren’t what they appear to be. And as we do so we also begin to see that speaking the truth must mean far more than simply not lying to our brothers and sisters in Christ. Just as speaking the truth back in v.15 referred to more than simply truth-telling, so it is here. Paul is talking about speaking the truth—the truth of the gospel; the word of truth that they heard and believed back in 1:13. At one point Jesus said to the Jews (Joh.8:32): You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. This is the truth that is found in Jesus, just as Paul mentioned back in v.21; for in another place Jesus said to Thomas: I am the truth (Joh.14:6).
Here Paul is saying that, once they have put on the new self, speaking such truth should be the distinguishing mark of their speech (O’Brien, 337). Before moving on, though, we shouldn’t miss the fact that, despite the Christ-centeredness of it all, this instruction from Paul is not new. He is actually quoting from the prophet Zechariah, 8:16-17. Speak the truth to one another is the first in a series of charges the prophet issued to the faithful remnant of Israel and Judah in that passage. And it came on the heels of a series of promises regarding life in the New Jerusalem, called the City of Truth (3, nasv) and a holy mountain (3) because God lives there. And he will be the God of his people in truth and righteousness (8, nasv). It is impossible to miss the contextual similarities between the word of God in Zec.8 to his faithful OT people and the word of God in Eph.4 to his NT people. What is being called for here is not new; it is simply the case that, on this side of the cross, the resources made available to do it are new! Zechariah wrote, These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace; do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the Lord. In this NT passage, then, just as in the OT one, everything about life as a believer vs. life as an unbeliever has been contrasted as truth vs. deceit—that which is truly as it appears to be vs. that which isn’t; that which is eternal vs. that which is transient. God’s people are to be people of the truth; and this is not the last time Paul will make that point here in Ephesians.
Toward that end we must be unswervingly committed to speaking the truth to one another—and, as we have already seen, doing so in love. We must govern our tongues. But we must also recognize that do so requires that we govern our hearts.
Area #2: We need to govern our attitude. – 26-27
Once again the OT is cited; this time Psa.4:4. David was once again at odds with an unnamed enemy hoard that had brought unjust accusation against him. Yet he was so confident in God in the midst of the situation that he actually affirmed his own good standing with God and called for their repentance right there in the middle of the Psalm. The charge: Be angry, and do not sin is is actually part of that call. Evidently there was something going on in Israel that was deserving of their anger, but they weren’t handling it very well by bringing charges against him. In fact they were sinning by speaking against God’s anointed and they needed to get some time alone and evaluate their own hearts! Listen to David’s words: Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hears on your beds, and be silent. Offer right sacrifices and put your trust in the Lord. He’s speaking to his adversaries! He’s telling them to get right with God—essentially to stop letting their anger lead them into sin. He’s telling them to go to their room and think things over! He’s telling them to sleep on it before they act any further—at least to count to 10!
Psa.4 is priceless! It’s got great practical, even contemporary, advice on how to be angry and not sin. Paul is giving similarly practical advice here in Eph. First, he’s showing us with clarity that anger and sin are not synonymous. There is such a thing as what we might call righteous indignation. The challenge comes in trying to distinguish between anger and righteous indignation. And despite our best efforts, the answer that most often emerges is, your anger is anger and my anger is righteous indignation. However, the text implies that the most likely way for anger to turn into sin is if it allowed to linger: Don’t let the sun go down on your anger (26b). Don’t let anger linger; it can facilitate bitterness or rage. We’ll see that connection in v.31. Set a time limit on it. Sundown is a good one. Jean and I covenanted in our marriage never to go to bed angry; and by God’s grace we’ve kept it. Although there was one summer a few years ago when we didn’t get to bed until mid-August!
Bottom line: if your anger is legitimate, handle the problem; if it is not, confess it and leave it behind. Why is that so important? V.27: sinful anger surrenders territory to the enemy. One commentator said that a good translation for this verse is: Do not give the devil a chance to exert his influence (O’Brien, 340). If we let anger loiter in our minds and hearts it’s like an alcoholic sitting around in a bar with nothing to do and nowhere to go. It’s a disaster waiting to happen; nothing good will come of it. James wrote (1:19-20): Let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness that God requires.
Quite to the contrary: the righteousness God requires is provided by him as part of the new creation. Nurturing anger works against the new creation. It puts off the new man and puts on the old; and in so doing it surrenders to enemy advances. Anger doesn’t help husbands be more loving or wives be more submissive. Anger doesn’t help children be more obedient or parents to be more nurturing. It doesn’t help workers to be more productive or traffic to move faster or clocks to tick slower. It simply takes whatever resources we did have in each of those situations and it neutralizes them. And in the process, as we’ll see next week (30), it grieves the Holy Spirit of God by whom we were sealed for the day of redemption. Churning up anger produces strife according to Pro.30:33 (niv). And people who spread strife are among the seven things God hates in Pro.6:16-19 (nasv).
Putting off the old self calls us to govern our attitudes—to avoid sinful anger and yielding ground to Satan.
Area #3: We need to govern our actions. – 28
In v.28 Paul wrote: 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. This reads like instruction given generally due to some specific situation that Paul was aware of in Ephesus. It is one of the only such references in this letter. The participle translated steal gives the idea of petty activity that covers about every kind of misappropriation—blue- and white-collar as we would call it. Work means hard work to the point of exhaustion; and the motivation is the benefit of others, not of the worker himself. The idea, then, is almost poetic in its contrast: what was once taken illicitly with little effort at all for one’s own benefit, is now achieved by hard and honest work for the benefit of others who are less fortunate.
This grace of generosity should be seamlessly united with the typical Christian lifestyle according to Scripture (Luk.6:29-36; 2Cor.8:1-15; 9:6-12), but it is magnified all the more when it is practiced by a repentant thief. It’s not just an encouragement to people who can see that a thief repented. It is even more astounding, I believe, to the thief himself. A couple of weeks ago I was in a meeting with Manny Mill, National Director of Koinonia House Ministries. Manny himself spent time in prison for a form of theft and Koinonia House is a discipleship ministry for Christians who are coming out of prison. Manny is indomitable. He is passionate about the gospel to the point where you wish you had never used the word passion before so that it could’ve been reserved to describe him. His story is told in his book Radical Redemption. Manny loves God and he spends himself for people. He is a prisoner set free, a thief who now labors hard, doing honest work with his own hands to share with anyone in need. God’s grace shines in him. When we put off the old self and put on the new, our attention is turned away from ourselves to others. We’re called to govern our actions.
Conclusion
Now this is not the end of the paragraph; it’s just as far as we could get today. Paul begins v.29 by going right back to governing the tongue, then in v.31 to governing attitude, and in v.32 to governing actions. But we’ll have to look at that next week. For this morning I simply want to distill three concluding lessons before we go.
First, it is impossible to put on the new self without putting off the old self. That is a basic principle, a maxim. Light can have no fellowship with darkness, 2Co.6:14. The brighter the light shines, the more the darkness is dispelled. There is a fable that is told of a conversation between a cave and the sun. Once upon a time, a Cave lived under the ground, as caves have the habit of doing. From day to day it lived a life as normal as most caves. But one day the Cave began hearing a voice calling to it, “Come up into the sunshine; come, see the light of day.”
The Cave questioned, “What is the sunshine? I do not understand the light of day. I only know darkness.”
Finally, the Cave ventured forth and, reaching the surface of the ground, was surprised to see light everywhere. All things were visible. Looking up at the Sun, the Cave invited, “Come with me and see the darkness.”
The Sun inquired, “What is darkness? I do not understand darkness. I only know light.”
The Cave replied, “Come, and see.”
Curious, the Sun accepted the invitation. While entering the realm of the cave, it declared, “Now, show me your darkness.” But, alas, there was no darkness there.
Light dispels darkness. Similarly, there is just no way possible to be growing in our ability to speak the truth, for instance, without diminishing in our tendency to speak falsehood. Anyone who is seeking to put on the new man must be putting off the old. That is lesson #1.
Second, the only way to put on the new man successfully is to receive the word with humility and obey it. Again, this is a maxim. To establish the point let’s turn to a passage that we referred to just a few moments ago: Jam.1:19-21. Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. My friends, we must become doers of the word. We must hear what it says and receive it with humility, with meekness. We must respond to it and seek the to be strengthened with power in our inner being so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith—enabling us to obey what we hear.
Third, we must be firmly convinced that there is no situation in this life that supercedes the truth we have learned from the Word. And that is where it gets difficult. So many times we feel so justified in simply speaking our minds when we would have been far better off to be quick to hear and slow to speak. So many times we feel justified in our anger, believe that it actually does accomplish the righteousness God requires. So many times we feel justified in giving our brothers and sisters in Christ short shrift, second best, leftovers, after we’ve richly padded our own lives in selfish greed.
Let’s not leave the new self unemployed—like a newly renovated home that is never lived in. Let’s put on the new self—put it to work and in so doing, live in a manner worthy of grace an power of God that brought it about.