Ephesians 4

Verse by Verse Study


Paul’s Church Growth Plans

 Ephesians 4:1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge [encourage] you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 4:2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. NIV

4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 4:2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love. NKJV

 

First of All: Has God called you and you know it from inside your heart? Then response God wants from us, the most important, is for us to love one another. “This the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another” (1 John 3:11).


Live a Life Worthy of Your Calling

     What calling did Paul receive? At this point he was to be a prisoner in Rome. Paul calls his imprisonment for the Lord. Not a calling that anyone would care to receive, even if they had been a gospel evangelist. Thus, Paul’s advice to be patient and bear with others in love is very poignant. He was to bear with other prisoners, even pagan guards, and the loss of his freedom. Which was not a small task.

  From God we have an individual call. God has taken the initiative Himself to call us through the voice of Jesus saying, “come unto me” (Matt 11:28). 

  “He [God] chose us [called us] in Him [Himself] before the foundation of the world…in love,  having predestined us [planned it] to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His [God’s] will” (Eph 1:4,5).


       We have a high calling in the sight of God, to be “rooted and established in love” (Eph 3:17). Whether we are student or professor, a patient or a Doctor, our High Calling is to always, for everyone to bear with one another in love with patience and gentleness.

  This is not possible unless “through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit, who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death” (Rom 8:2). There is a new law at work inside us, “the law of the Spirit.”  This ruling power of the Holy Spirit, in Christ, is more than able to “give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you” (Rom 8:11). This change of behavior suppresses the root of human desires that seek self-exaltation, and selfish pleasure at the expense of others.

 

Walk Worthy—What Does this Mean?

  The Greek word for worthy, means: “to reckon as worthy, matching the value to the actual substance that it corresponds to in reality.” The value of our high calling is to be matched by our commitment to be humble, gentle, and patient…in love.

  It also means to keep in view our “inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God” (Eph 5:5). It carries the idea that a believer is to make their way in their lives, using the opportunities God gives them. Not wasting them with either laziness or self-extravagance.

 

In love…Be Completely Humble

  The Greek word humble is a female noun: It is opposite of human pride. It is the mindset of having a humble opinion of oneself, a deep sense of one's moral littleness with modesty despite one’s achievements. It is an inside virtue of choosing to compare ourselves to our Lord, who has given us our gifts, to prevent self-exaltation. We are invited to have the same mindset as Christ, “who humbled himself” (Phil 2:8).

 

Humility of Youthful Jesus

       Jesus for the first thirty years of his life, worked for his living, displayed no unusual skills, or miracles, which made him stand out from the rest of his neighbors. We do not know all the carpentry jobs, such as building chairs and tables for a customer, which he worked long hours to accomplish. Even though he was one equal to God in cosmic origins.

  From his youth he knew who he was. His mother must have told him what the Angels said at his birth, “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ [Messiah] the Lord” (Lk 2:11). When his mother said to her twelve-year-old son, “Son, why have You done this to us? Look, your father, and I have sought You anxiously.” And He [Jesus] said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” (Luke 2:48,49). In this Jesus acknowledge that Joseph was not his natural father. Joseph was like a stepfather. Because God was both his natural DNA father, at the same time his heavenly Father.

  This gives us small glimpse into what the boy Jesus knew about himself. He did know that the very God of all heaven, was his real Father. Just before his arrest he told Peter, “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matt 26:53). But Jesus did not use his natural authority to command Angels to obey him as he wished.

  Instead, Jesus held down natural talent, such as in music, science, physics, math, or philosophy that would have astounded the entire Roman and Greek world. So, he might live as a humble servant to his community. He gave us an example of working with our hands and staying out of controversy. Up to about the age of 30 Jesus was gainfully employed in fulfilling certain job assignments. He was single, poor, living with his mother until he was nearly 30 years old. Neighbors would be inclined to view him as unusual, since unmarried men was an oddity in Jewish culture.

  The families that employed this young carpenter would never have conceived that he would have billions and billions of committed followers, even 2,000+ years from their time. They had no idea that the young man repairing their house or building for them furniture, would at about the age of 30 would hear a voice from heaven saying to the world: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased” (Mk 1:10). Yet for the largest part of his life on earth he lived and worked as a “servant” who “worked with his hands” (1Thess 4:11), as Paul recommended to men.

 

Jesus Was an Ordinary Poor Peasant

  As an ordinary young peasant, Jesus walked into customers’ homes, under their command, as their servant carpenter. We must not think of Jesus as always just a young teenager or boy, he was employed with deep humility, up to the age of twenty-nine to thirty. He was still quietly waiting till His Father to call him to public ministry. Still working as an unrecognized skilled carpenter by trade. Even while humbly employed, “In Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” (Col 2:9).

  If anyone ever set an example of humility it was Jesus. Not once did he prove his Divine powers, to astonish or entertain. Yet they lay under the surface of his humble-looking servant exterior.

  Paul has presented this theme that Jesus “who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage” when he could have easily done so to the applause of many, “rather, he made himself nothing” (Phil 2:6,7). Nothing special at all, other than a faithful skilled servant to those who employed him.

 

Servant of Servants

  In the Sermon of the Mount Jesus says, “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles” (Matt 5:41). This was no doubt his own practice. In history it was common for a passing soldier to lay portions of his gear on nearby strangers, forcing them to carry it. In that Jesus mentioned this, it is very likely that he, who was tested in everything, “in every way, just as we are” (Heb 4:15), to respond with complaint when forced to carry a Roman Soldiers heavy gear.

  Can you picture this? Look at the young man Jesus, who could have successful resisted, is seen walking with his back bent, carrying a heavy load of a Roman Soldier, while under his demeaning curses of Jewish peasants. To the surprise of the soldier, Jesus carries the added load further then the soldiers had demanded, with deep humility.

  Jesus’ example is one of the deepest humility possible. Because “the Son [of God] is the image of the invisible God…for in him all things were created: things in heaven or on earth, visible and invisible…all things have been created through him and for him [the Son of God]” (Col 1:15,16).


To Us Today Be Completely Humble

  This is the starting point of real and sustained Christian Growth. This word means to be humble in a comprehensive scope. Pointing to the universality of this command. In Greek, the definite article is missing meaning it is a straightforward intensive, in everything be humble. 

  When anyone puts their talents and education forward, other than absolutely necessary, it is numbing to the voice and presence of the Spirit. “I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite” (Isa 57:15). 

  When we live a humble life, we are privileged to learn from the Spirit, our best lessons. Even by our stumbling mistakes, the Spirit is there to “teach” and guide” you (John 14:26; 16:13). We will be guided by the Spirit into better ways to respond with humility. The “Spirit of truth” (John 16:13) will reproof us when we blindly let the calls of our flesh, our fallen nature, rise up in our lives. We will clearly see our follies, our lack of love or our conceited opinions that have demeaned others.

  Pride can live in a believer who accepts Christian doctrines and principles to live by, while they are totally blind to their pride. It is often seen in public worship where speakers talk more about themselves, more about their achievements, while giving scriptures little attention. One can consider themselves a Commandment Keeper while pride dominates their lives in many ways. Pride is the most insidious of all sins, it is the reason why sin started in Lucifer, in the first place, for he “said in his heart:

I will ascend into heaven,

I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;

I will also sit on the mount of the congregation

On the farthest sides of the north;

 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,

I will be like the Most High” 

Isa 14:13,14

Lucifer depended on his own strength, His own will. His own abilities.

 All five of his “I Will” objectives—failed, miserably.

 

Humility is a Universal Testing Truth

  Believers have been given instructions on how to deal with the problems of life. How not to run away, to escape from situations that are very troublesome. Instead, they learn to bear with the mistakes, missteps of others, not in a grumpy manner, but in love.

  Humility is a testing truth, for salvation, as Jesus has taught us. He tied it to those who are welcomed into heaven. Jesus “called a little child to him and placed the child among them. And he said: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly [humble] position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven’” (Matt 18:2-4).

  In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus taught, “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven” (Matt 6:1). To make sure the media takes note of your work with praise, God will consider the praise you received from other as your just reward. Thus, there will be no heavenly reward for good deeds done without humility. 

      

Apostle Paul Publicly Taught Humility

  Paul in his letter to the Roman believers told them “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed [measured out] to each of you” (Rom 12:3). 

 

Apostle Peter Publicly Teaches Humility

  To be “greatest in the kingdom of God” means that heaven looks favorable on humble believers. Not only that, more important is that “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble” (1 Pet 5:5). Who wants to have God oppose them? Sounds tragic in many ways, even if one claims to be a worshiper of God.

Oh Lord God it is our desire; our request is to have you “clothe” us “with humility toward one another” (1 Pet 5:5). Thank you, Lord.

 

Advice to Kings, Presidents of Countries or Corporations

  It may be a challenge for those with Ph.D.’s or those who hold congressional or high military positions to be humble. King Nebuchadnezzar of Daniel chapter 2, learned the hard way to be humble, to “esteem others better than himself” (Phil 2:3 NKJV).

“Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty...Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble” (Dan 4:27).

 

Humility Is the Anti-Dope to Pride, but Pride Leads to More Pride

  Pride is very insidious. It creeps into our lives like sunlight in our homes in the early morning.

       A believer starts their life of faith with justification, and forgiveness of every sin. They start turning to prayer, confession of sins and their weaknesses, asking God for victories. They receive an “anointing from the Holy One” (1 John 2:20) that changes their lives giving them a sense of right and wrong. Pouring into their hearts the love of God, as the results Scriptures and prayer becomes delightful.

       After time their self-confidence increases with the certainty of their faith beliefs. They are blessed with natural talents and gifts, of the Spirit. Their personal experience grows as they have a certainty of knowing the will of God for their lives.

       After more time, there is a tendency to forget the call to humility. To forget the command to “in humility value others above yourselves” (Phil 2:3). To forget to “be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves” (Rom 12:10). As John writes, “Dear friends, since God SO loved us, we OUGHT TO love one another [always]” (1 John 4:11)

 

  Pride of position of honor, educational advantages, natural talents have brought praise and professional standing in their social circles. With increased wealth with further praise and appreciation.

       Pride over time grows as does personal satisfaction, soon it is nearly impossible to recognize. Pride becomes normal. Pride does not like being in second place, it prefers to be first and be the best. The disease of pride soon obscures the love of the gospel, the love of the Bible, the love of God that pulsates in the heart. Pride makes itself at home in the center of our thoughts, at work, at play, in leisure and in public worship. Until we expect honor and praise from others.

 

Humility the Very First Sentence in the Sermon on the Mount

       Jesus taught us, “Blessed are the Poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 5:3). To be poor in spirit means to be humbly dependent on God, unable to save ourselves to have nothing in us to merit the blessing and favor of God. To admit we are sinners, and thus we look to God, in total dependence for deliverance. 

  Pride has a hard time to admit that all their accomplishments and honors can be a hindrance to them when it comes to living faith in God. They must come in an attitude of spiritual poverty with dependence on God, with daily prayers to know God’s will. They must reject the idea that the accolades of success can give them any favor before God.

  It is those who choose to be “poor in Spirit,” to be “meek,” always “merciful” and “pure in heart” (Matt 5:3-8), that God uses them as “the salt of the earth,” as a “town built on a hill that cannot be hidden” that others will “see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matt 5:13-16). For their object is to bring honor to God in heaven, not their career, or their advancement in religious circles to higher honor and larger income. This is a hard lesson for many to learn, wishing instead to be used by God to honor themselves.

        

“For this is what the high and exalted One says— he who lives forever, whose name is holy:

“I live in a high and holy place, but also with the one who is contrite and lowly in spirit [poor in spirit], to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite” (Isa 57:15)

 

“For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it.

You do not delight in burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,

A broken [broke & poor] and a contrite heart—

These, O God, You will not despise” (Ps 51:16,17).

 

“Pride goes before destruction,

a haughty spirit before a fall” (Prov 16:18).

 

“When pride comes, then comes disgrace,

but with humility comes wisdom” (Pro 11:2).

 

“Pride brings a person low,

but the lowly in spirit gain honor” (Pro 29:23).

 

The Hidden Danger for the Proud of Heart

  The shocking thing Jesus said was the prideful do not clearly hear the gospel call. With a prideful attitude, many may not understand the gospel call—at all. Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matt 9:12,13).

  Paul addressing the Corinthian church said to them, “Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (1 Cor 1:26,27). Which means that the majority of the early church members were poor and did not hold positions of power.

 

In love…Be Patient

  This means to not be impatient or intolerant with others. We are to be patient with the mistakes, weaknesses, and follies of others. With their slowness to change or their spiritual misunderstanding. We are to be considerate of others resisting the tendency to strike back.

       Patient love will find a way to help the wayward employee, instead of using punitive methods such as firing and canceling them in harshness. The peaceful leader or employer will be very likely to practice patient love, rather than being very exacting and critical, unless it is absolutely necessary.

  “And we urge you, brothers, to admonish the unruly [disruptive], encourage the fainthearted [discouraged], help the weak, and be patient with everyone” (1 Thess 5:14 NKJV). Just the same as God has been patient with you.

 

Bearing with each other in love

  To bear with others means to tolerate, to hold up, lift up and endure with the weakness the flaws of others. This means to make allowances, when you can, in keeping with the love that you have for God. Often, we will have to overlook the small or sometimes large offending mistakes of others. Some very offending remarks may be unjustly personally directed to you. Sometimes we will have to bear with the limited spiritual understanding of others, bearing up with their mental or spiritual weaknesses, in prayer.

       People are not all easy to get along with, they are not all attractive and good-natured. Yet God bears with us humans He “demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners” (Rom 5:8). There is room in our lives to improve and to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 3:18). There always will be.

 

Paul Repeats this Teaching to the Colossians

  “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Col 3:13). The word “grievance” means to blame, lodge a complaint and find fault. Sure, they may be very guilty, just as we were very guilty before God when we were “once far away” God “brought us near” to Him, “by the blood of Christ” (2:13). Although at one time “we were separated from Christ” but despite our sick condition, God “made us alive with Christ” because of “His great love with which he loved us” (2:12,5,4). Likewise, we are to repeat this process, in prayer applying the blood of Christ to those whom we need to bear up with, in a love similar in manner to God who send his Son.

       When we meet those who are hard to love, who do not ever reach out to us in any love or concern, this calls for intercessory prayer. We can claim the love of God to awaken those that are worthy of blame, deserving condemnation. Just as Christ died in our behalf, we pray for them, in their behalf, for their good.

 

       John teaches us that loving others is how we make God visible to others. “No one has ever seen God; but IF we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:12). The only possible way to see God, to know God, to realize His presence, to worship God—is through love for one another.

 

The Theme of Living our Lives in a Worthy Manner

  To live worthy of our calling, is to make steady progress in our spiritual life, to speak “the truth in love we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ” (4:5). To live worthy of our calling, is to not plateau in learning lessons from Scriptures but “growing in the knowledge of God (Col 1:10). Pressing daily to become more humbler and more patient with all, in love with all. This is not an instant achievement, as is justification by faith is accomplished in full, by faith alone.

  “Conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Phil 1:27). This means as we leave our home for work and when we return, we pray that we will live a life “to please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God” (Col 1:10).

 

Paraphrase of Paul’s Prayer: Col 1:9-14

We have not stopped praying for you:

We continually ask God to fill us with the knowledge of His will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Holy Spirit gives. 

Lord, we need the Spirit’s influence.

Through the Spirit, to give us spiritual understanding and wisdom. So that we may live a life worthy of the Lord and  

please him in every way, throughout our life.

Through the Spirit we will be able bear fruit in every good work,

Through the Spirit you will grow in endurance, perseverance,

 and patience in all things.

Through the Spirit we can grow in the knowledge of God, 

knowing God better and better.

Through the Spirit we will be strengthened with the same power, all power, that raised Jesus from the death.

 While we give joyful thanks to the Father, who has granted us even now, a share in our future inheritance in God’s kingdom of light.

Always remember that God has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, freedom and the forgiveness of sins.


Sacred Seven One’s 4:3-6

Ephesians 4:3 Make every effort to keep the unity of [by or in] the Spirit through [in] the bond of peace. 4:4 There is (1) one body and (2) one Spirit, just as you were called to (3) one hope when you were called. 4:5 (4) one Lord, (5) one faith, (6) one baptism. 4:6 (7) one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in [you] all. NIV

4:3 Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in [through] the bond of peace. 4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 4:5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 4:6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. NKJV

4:3 Do your best to let God's Spirit keep you united. You belong together so live in peace with each other. 4:4 As God's people, you are like one body. There is one Spirit that gives you life. God has chosen you to be his own people. So you all expect to receive the same great things from God. 4:5 There is one Lord. There is one true message that we must believe. There is one baptism. 4:6 There is one God, who is the Father of all of us. He has authority over all of us. He works through all of us. He is in all of us. EasyEnglish Bible

 

Make Every Effort to Keep Unity Through the Spirit

  This Greek verb means to be diligent, to hasten, to be eager. Believers are to keep the oneness in fellowship by creating a bond of peace, a pledge between each believer to not break the peace between themselves. When conflict arises between believers, it has a chilling effect on the Spirit in their lives. Because it is the Spirit that seeks to preserve respectful peace between all other believers. If peace between believers is broken, heir public and private worship will experience less of the Spirit in their midst.

  

 

I have Other Sheep

  God wants us to recognize and honor others who worship Him and love Him, as Jesus said, “I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen” (John 10:16). They are family of God as well as other believers, living at another point in the globe with a different culture. If we encounter another earnest believer living in a geographically distant place, we should embrace them as part of the same family of faith, both having the same Holy Spirit.

 

Respectable Bond of Peace

  We should be responsible to support, a bond of peace even if another person has a different opinion on Biblical subject. Christian history displays thousands of times bitter quarrels over some point of doctrine, have led to wars and large losses of life. “As much as it is possible, live in peace with everyone” (Rom 12:18), is the will of God.

       How can there be jealousy or envy for the ability to pray, preach, sing, dress to style, educational levels, to teach or lead in church events? They are sharers of the same Spirit you have, which does not give any allowance for jealousy. Don’t both, the more talented and less talented, have the same inheritance of eternal life with God? Do we “not walk in the same footsteps by the same Spirit?” (2 Cor 12:18). “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all” (2 Cor 13:14), that is with everyone.

       Paul tells us that when we break “the bread” at the communion table, it is “a participation in the body of Christ.” Paul further explains “because there is [only] one loaf” at the communion service where many of us are gathered as “we break” the bread participating “in the body of Christ. Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf” (1 Cor 10:16,17). The communion service is a reminder of the unity we are called to when we are privileged to be “In Christ”.

 

  This points away from individualism, where believers won’t fellowship with others of a different house of worship. If we have “been raised with Christ” (Col 3:1), having a personal experience of being “made alive with Christ” (2:5). If we are “grow(ing) in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet 3:18). Then we must acknowledge the presence of the Holy Spirit, the faith, the same hope in the coming of Christ, those who may speak a different language and have different religious customs.

       The one who is baptized by faith belongs to the Baptist Church, is no different than another person baptized in a Nazarene church. They both have the same baptism.

The Catholic lady that looks earnestly at the cross, asking in faith for forgiveness of sins. Her faith is the same as the Church of Christ member who prays for forgiveness of sin without looking up at the cross. Both have the same faith.

 

One faith and one Baptism

  There may be many different faith chapels where believers find a place to fellowship and work together. The Spirit wishes all chapels of faith to regard other believers as in the “Body of Christ” (Eph 4:12)  as much as they are themselves. There is only one faith and one baptism that saves. All are saved the same way as another. The faith in Christ in one church is no different from faith in another congregation if it is based on the “love of Christ” (3:18) and the “love of God in your hearts” (John 5:42). If they both “worship in the Spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).

  If believers reject each other over theology, while both groups have the same hope and faith in Christ as they do. They are running contrary to the ministry of the Spirit. Jesus said that we “should love each other as I have loved you” (John 15:12). There is room in the tent of faith “in Christ” who forgives all our sins, for believers to sing and conduct worship different then another group. One group likes to sing with energy, with guitars and a drum set. Whereas another group likes singing quietly with only piano or organ.

 

One Hope

  "God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope” (1 Tim 1:1). We all hold this one hope individually and all together. At the Second Coming, all believers from the distant past to the present, “will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thess 4:17). While “we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

 

Bond of peace

  In Greek the word for bond is a uniting principle. In Roman society bonds were seen as essential for keeping civil order and cooperative unity within communities. Sadly, among Christian groups around the world, there is seen, almost no effort, put forth toward peaceful loving unity among the many different houses of worship. Perhaps this is a reason why spiritual revivals are so infrequent. Why is love for others, from different religious viewpoints, so neglected?

  “Peace to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph 6:23). Love for God is the glue that holds the seal of the Bond of Peace unbroken. Then we can “be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you” (2 Cor 13:11).

  This is the last and most important lesson of this passage. When we break from individuals, that are known as lovers of Christ, we break the Bond of Peace that the Spirit is seeking to accomplish among all believers. The consequences are that we will likely to grow more distant from the Spirit. Before we know it, the joy of our salvation has dissipated. To keep the Bond of Peace with others, as the Spirit directs, we will need to “be patient, bearing with one another in love” (4:2). And as the results, “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:7).

 

“Whatever happens [above all], conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in the one Spirit, striving together as one for the faith of the gospel” (Phil 1:27).



Gifts of God’s Grace 4:7-13

Ephesians 4:7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the [same] measure of Christ’s gift. [from God the Father to us] NKJV 

  4:7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it NIV


Each One of Us

  Paul has been carrying the theme forward, since the first part of this chapter. We, all together, share in the gift of grace. Just as we have the “seven ones” from the last four verses that unite us all together. Now there is one more to add, making it “eight ones,” that unite all believers!!

  Now it is grace that we have all together, not a different one for Europeans and another for Hispanic. No, it is one grace that has saved you, me, your church friends as well as all believers in all north, all south, all west and all east, of your location. 

  What a privilege to share in the same grace we all have. Now believers are united in a unity that comes from both “the grace of God,” the “grace of Christ” (Gal 2:22; 1:6) and the Holy “Spirit of grace” (Heb 10:29)? 

  From this grace we are justified, that is found right before God: for “all are justified freely by his [God’s] grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Rom 3:24).

  To the Colossian believers Paul was encouraged that the “true message of the gospel” had come to them. As it now is “bearing fruit and growing throughout the world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace” (Col 1:6,7). Once God’s grace has been truly understood, believers will never want to be away from the grace of God. It is His gift to us, which is our anchor, our hope, our joy and assurance we are "loved by God" (Rom 1:7). Once God’s grace, mercy and love are understood there is found true “worship” in the “Spirit”.

 

 Gift: To each one of us grace has been given

  Not will be given or might be given. But it has been given. It is yours to claim since it was given to you. As if only for you, because it is so personal, yet for all others also it is personal. “And my God will meet all your needs [everyone’s] according to the riches [uncountable] of his glory [God’s honor] in Christ Jesus” (Phil 4:19).

 

What Is This Grace that is Given to Each Believer that Ever Has Come to Faith?


  “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace” (1:7).

 

  “This grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ” (3:8).

 

  “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being” (3:16).

 

  “God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27).


  “My goal [in teaching and preaching] is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ” (Col 2:2).

 

  "How much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!” (Rom 5:15).

 

Measure of Christ…is the Measure of the Gift of Grace

  It is unmeasurable. From the Father’s point of view, his grace is as great as his love for His son. When we are by faith brought “in Christ”, we are in vicinity where God’s love is revealed, next to his Son. “In the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace [in the redeemed], expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:7).

 

Ephesians 4:8 This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts [from His grace] to his people.” 4:9 What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions?  4:10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe. NIV

4:8 Therefore He says: “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive and gave gifts to men.” 4:9 (Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? 4:10 He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) NKJV

 

The Text

       These two verses are a celebration in poetry and song, from believers that participated and were eyewitnesses to these events. They compared the birth of Jesus to descending to the lower parts of the earth. His resurrection is seen as ascending to the fill the whole universe—with the believers he has promised to take with him. They believed that Jesus would save a lot of believers and envisioned the gospel have an everlasting lasting global effect. The Gospel being the greatest movement, across all generations, political boundaries—of all time.


When he Ascended on High, he Took Many Captives and Gave Gifts to His People

  It would be easy to hear the early church celebrating the gifts of the Spirit, when they recalled the opened graves of long-ago believers, who ascended into heaven along with Jesus (Matt 27:52). We can imagine some among the group had witnessed this scene. They would have first-hand knowledge that they will soon follow, to be with Jesus.

  Furthermore, they would have witnessed or knew someone that was there when the Spirit came upon early believers in the form of wind and fire (Acts 2:1-4). They could have themselves been given some evangelistic gifts of speaking in many languages or a gift of healing.

 

Gave Gifts to Men

  God has given many very specific gifts to individuals, as he did to the Apostle Paul. God, year by year, gives gifts, for believers. Thank God for these gifts. Just count, if you can, the gifts you have received from the ever-ready, ever-caring hands of the Father, through His Son and the Holy Spirit. “If you then, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Lk 11:13).

 

He Descended to Lower Earthly Regions

  Christ has made provision for the worst possible sinner in the lowest depths of human despair. The worst of human conditions, Southern slaves, slums of big cities, families that have lost everything in storms, floods and war. In the French trench dugouts or WWI, where boys called on God for saving grace.  From this condition of human desperation, “grace” is “given you in Christ Jesus” (1 Cor 1:4). Grace is available to all the outcasts, the lower regions of the earth. 

       Consider Sister Teresa how with her nuns visited in the poorest homes, to teach and aid hundreds of people. Consider George Muller (1805-1895) who rescued hundreds of orphans in England, by faith and prayer. These are two examples of how Christ has provided grace, unseen for the most part, for humans in despair. The many charities that manage the disaster areas of the world, unseen by them, God is blessing them with grace for their needs.

 

Fill the Whole Universe the Cosmos

  This will take place after the resurrection, of the redeemed since Adam, when Christ is elevated. When the redeemed of the Lord are so large a number that their presence, made possible by God and Son, is seen in the entire cosmos.


Ephesians 4:11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 4:12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up. NIV

4:11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers 4:12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. NKJV

 

  When Christ at his resurrection, “ascended on high…he gave gifts to his people” (Eph 4:8). The giving of gifts has gone on, in every generation, every family and every individual. The gifts Paul is presenting here are to minister the gospel story to others. Some have received gifts to operate charities to aid those in need, some may operate businesses that employ believers, some may be medical workers, not seeking to be wealthy but to give as much as possible of themselves to others in need. It is not possible for us to map out the footsteps of Christ in human history. He has been giving gifts of talents of muscle and intellect to build up the whole church, year after year, day after day.  

       What the Spirit gave to the early believers, may be far different than what the Spirit gives today. From time to time, we are able to see how some, individual, some groups had the influence, the financial backing to bring much good to a world in disaster and war. In the faces of the relief workers, was the hand of God so thanksgiving can flow to the giver of all good gifts. In the process, believers’ faith is built up and thanksgiving to God flows.

 

Gave Gifts: First Apostles

  The very first gifts God has given to the world is Matthew, Mark, Luke, Peter, John, Paul, and the accounts of faith of early church in the book of Acts. “God has placed in the church first of all Apostles” (1 Cor 12:28). The message of these Apostles, are unparalleled in human history as to their power to regenerate, convert, elevate humanity, and teach truth and expose darkness—year after year, day after day, hour after hour, minute after minute. Around the world, top to bottom. They are always fresh, repeated, memorized, read again and again—with new power as if we had never seen them before.

  Of primary importance is the Apostles, that continued the ministry of Jesus for all believers. Their number can’t be increased, for they are witnesses of Christ life. Their witness as Apostle’s is unbreakable, so powerful that millions have died, sacrificed many things in their firm confidence in the words and teaching of the Apostle’s. They are indestructible by any government, king or the prince of evil himself. They witness to “THE TRUTH of the gospel” (Gal 2:5), “the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation” (Eph 1:13).


Gave Gifts: Second Prophets

  “God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets” (1 Cor 12:28). All who are members and citizens of God’s household of faith, are “built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, with Christ Jesus as the Cornerstone” (Eph 2:20).

  Believers stand on a finished, “already laid” foundation. Of first importance is the cornerstone, which is the largest and most solid stone that can bear the entire weight of the walls and building on top of it. Furthermore, it provides alignment for the wall and building to give the entire structure durability and accuracy. “For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 3:11).

  The Prophets, such as Isaiah and Psalms that point us to the coming of Christ and his atoning death of sin. The accounts in the Old Testament give a historical foundation for Jesus and the Apostles. No body, no organization, no other religion can come anywhere close to the historical stories that build up faith in the Messiah 


Gave Gifts: Evangelist, Pastors and Teachers
        God gives gifts to local Christian fellowships, around the world, men and women that bear witness, in teaching and preaching the gospel. God gifts millions, every generation, to “proclaim concerning the Word of Life…proclaim to you the Eternal Life” (1 John 1:1,2), so “that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him” (John 3:15). Believe this as it reads.

  Generously God has given gifts that he has renewed in every generation. In homes, workplaces, pulpits, kitchens and front room sitting parlors and classrooms all over the world. These gifts come from Christ, “prepared in advance” (Rom 9:23), for the preaching and teaching of the gospel and the uplifting influences on the world at large.

  Thus, each Pastor-teacher should know that their talents has been distributed by Christ, to enrich others not themselves. Therefore, those who receive gifts, their mission should be similar in nature to Jesus’ mission statement: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free” (Lk 4:18).

       Since Jesus has warned us that “false prophets” (Matt 24:24), or false teachers, will appear. How can we tell the difference between false and true teachers? That’s right. They must be firmly planted on Scriptures, especially the New Testament. They must not over emphasize one aspect of the faith, which is not given the same importance in the Apostles. Then take that one truth, slightly twist to make it the central pillar of faith—is a false prophet. Sadly false prophets and teachers or pastors have established new religious movements, placing themselves in the center, teaching a blend of truth with additions added, as if Scriptures are not complete without the practice they recommend.

 

The Body of Christ May be Built Up

  The Corinthian church gave Paul much trouble, as he had to write several chapters and sections, to defend himself against a large group of vocal distractors. The problems were systemic in the church, as Paul wrote to them, “For I am afraid that somehow when I come…that somehow there may be quarreling, jealousy, intense anger, selfish ambition, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorder” (2 Cor 12:20). Yet how did Paul deal with these disruptive elements within the church? He wrote to them, “For if I boast somewhat more about our authority that the Lord gave us for building you up and not for tearing you down, I will not be ashamed of doing so” (2 Cor 10:8).

       True pastors and teachers in the church or its collegiate halls, we will know if they have been equipped by God or not. “You will know them by their fruits” (Matt 7:16 NJKV).

  We can ask. Do they build up others or tear down those that disagree with their narrative? Their view of truth? I know of a situation where a church president removed pastors without a hearing, because he did not like their narrative. They made no effort to build up trust and love between them, the president just acted in his capacity with absolute authority. Yet many in the congregation could see that these actions taken by district leaders, represents apostasy from “truth and love” (2 John 1:3).

  John wrote “To the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth, and not only I, but also all those who have known the truth” (2 John 1:1). This president, I fear, had not yet learned the truth about love that builds up and makes those we disagree with better, as far as possible.

  Paul never used his authority to tear others down. Paul says God gave him “authority…for building you up, not for tearing you down” (2 Cor 13:10).

“So then, let us pursue what makes for peace and

for building up one another” (Rom 14:19).

 

“Let each of us please his neighbor for his good

to build him up” (Rom 15:2).


 Ephesians 4:13 [Body of Christ, believers are built up] until we all reach unity in [of] the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. NIV

4:13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature [mature] of the fullness of Christ NKJV

 

Unity in the Faith

  Let’s dismiss the idea that being in unity is for members to be in agreement with a well-defined set of doctrines mandated by the church. Although some or most of these doctrinal statements may be good, this is not the unity Paul is speaking about. It is unity in being Christ like, the fullness of Christ.

  Colossians is the companion book to Ephesians. He refers to the believers in Colossians as “God’s chosen people,” they were all together “to clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.  And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity” (Col 3:12-14).

 

Knowledge of the Son of God

    The knowledge of God and His Son, learning and relying on the “goodness of your love” (Ps 109:21), “the gift of God’s grace” (Eph 3:2) and God’s kindness” (Rom 2:4), are the highest joys of life. To know God, is to know his Son. 

  To praise and love God and His Son, is the premium gift of all things we can attain to in our lives. Before long, the goodness of God will be seen in our everyday activities. We become more aware of God’s gifts—our spouse, children, home, food and opportunities that life has granted to us. 

       David could pray, “According to Your mercy remember me,” in my prayers “For Your goodness’ sake, O Lord” (Ps 25:7 NKJV). “The goodness of God endures continually” (Ps 52:1 NKJV) and it really, really does!

  David wanted to live, so that he could see God’s goodness in his life. “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living” (Ps 27:13 NKJV).

       God with His Son, blesses millions of people all at once, as if they received his immediate attention to their call, to their small needs. David learned that God answers our prayers out of his goodness, “Answer me, Lord, out of the goodness of your love; in your great mercy turn to me” (Ps 60:16).

       God answers prayers because his goodness, He overlooks our many sins of omission and commission. Of our many mistakes in Biblical knowledge. In our many faults, some yet unknown and others we are yet to know. God passes over all this, in our lives. Even if we are ungrateful and wasteful of our time—yet He gives us attention to even small matters that concern just one person.

       Private worship is praising and thanking God for his many blessings. Public worship should be an overflow of united praise and thanksgiving to the Giver of all good gifts.

       Sadly, many have made public worship, like history lessons. They often go over points of doctrine, with emphasis on tithe. This is considered a knowledge of God and His Son, but it is not. Often the church service leaves little time for praise and thanksgiving. Worse yet, is a congregation that comes to church, without much praise in their hearts.

       All together, we are called to peace, not war with each other. This is in keeping with having the knowledge of the Son of God and His Son.


 What shall I return to the Lord for all his goodness to me?

Ps 116:12

Fullness is Not Perfection

  When Christ “ascended on high” (4:8), at His ascension into heaven He gave gifts to “built up” (4:12) the believers. This process of building us up is ever, always to be going higher. 

  John takes a hammer to the idea that fullness of Christ is to be understood as reaching a point of complete fullness, which one would say they have reached a point of perfection. John says, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us…If we claim that we have not sinned we make Him [God] out to be a liar…” (1 John 1:9,10). In other words, if we say we have nothing to confess or ask for forgiveness, we declare God Himself to be a liar, because God knows this is not true at all.

  As Jesus taught about the sowing of the gospel seed said, “soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head” (Mark 4:28). This is what it means to be mature, each one becoming mature according to their intended ability, over their lifetime.

 

Fullness of Christ

  The Greek word for fullness means to be mature and full grown. It is seen in growing through the stages of life from childhood to a mature responsible adult. Having increased strength with the wisdom for making decisions that comes with age and experience “so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect [full] will of God. (Rom 12:2 Christan Standard Bible). This is not learned in a few days, over time, but is learned during the challenges of life.

 

Believers Must Learn to Pray with Maturity

 Like Jesus prayed “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt 6:9-10). Often, we pray without maturity. We want God to do our will, instead of waiting with patience for God to reveal His will for us.

 

Fullness of Christ

  The concept of fullness of Christ is based on the idea that in the life and teaching of Christ and what the Apostles proclaimed and what the Spirit is sent to do for us—there is all together all we need to grow to maturity. There is more than enough than we, as believers, could ever need. There is never a need to turn to other supposed sources of spiritual water to be healthy. There is abundant fullness in Christ, our Savior. “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Col 1:19-20). 

  Take note, God has made full and adequate provision that we can be, really yes, reconciled to God. Welcomed, shielded and sealed with His Spirit to keep us safe from loss of faith and love.

  There is nothing lacking in the gospel story to guide us safely to the heavenly shores. Jesus has promised us, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10).

 

Learning to Act Like Mature Believers

  Paul sets forth a goal that is to be our aim, as we march across the sands of time. Every year, every month, there are challenges to be met that require us to move in the direction of acting like mature believers. The very first step is knowledge of the gospel account. Knowledge from your own experience of how to love, to have peace, to live free from guilt, to be kind and gentle, to be sincere and devoted to your Lord Jesus Christ.

  As mature believers we “buildup” (Eph 4:12) others in love, teaching them the knowledge of the Son of God. We do this, even if other believers don’t respect or love you in return. Such is the example that Christ has set for us. Can we embrace it when it is very difficult? When other believers have not learned these lessons and are arrogant and judgmental toward others.

       As mature believers, we know our maturity is seen in our unity of faith. Just as God in Christ sought us out, so mature believers seek out others to help in any way you can.

Unity of Faith

       Unity of faith is finding agreement with others, building others up, to develop their walk of faith so that together, we “live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20). It means we seek ways to build up faith in God’s promises, faith in Jesus Christ and knowledge in “the message we have heard from him [Jesus] and declare to you: God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.” That “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:5,9).

 

Unity in the Faith

  This is our goal, to respect other believers not of the same congregation or fellowship.

       Paul has already talked about this unity that he called the “bond of peace” (4:3). In practical terms it means we are to “make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification” (Rom 14:19). “Let all things be done in a way that builds people up” (1 Cor 4:26 EHV). A mature person will not permit “bitter roots (to) grow up” in their hearts, if they do, they will “fall short of the grace of God” (Heb 12:15), not able to find fullness in Christ.

 

Out of “his fullness” we are given “grace for grace” (John 1:16 NKJV).

  Grace upon grace, in the mornings of our life, the evenings of our lives, every day of our lives. "The riches of full assurance" (Col 2:2 NKJV) is available. There is nowhere else in our wide world where we can receive Divine Grace that loves us, favors us and adopts us and promises us a resurrection into a new existence out of this world—family of God. NOWHERE!

  We believers are privileged, unlike anyone who thinks their own wealth or political power makes them feel superior. We as believers, have something far better we are “built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (2:22).

  We are so privilege, in the morning or nighttime to be welcomed as we “draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings” (Heb 10:22). That we believe the promise “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find” (Matt 7:7).

  We are given of a grace, a favor, a blessing completely undeserved an unearned “to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge” (3:19). This is no ordinary love. It is not of this world. It comes from the Spirit of God for, “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Rom 5:5). What fullness there is for us believers, in the security of God’s love, forgiveness, grace, precious promise and that we are so gifted, with God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to teach us, guide us and channel the fullness of Christ into our lives.


Growing Up into Maturity, In the Way of Love 

Ephesians 4:14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 4:15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 4:16 From him the whole body, joined and held together [by love] by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part (gifts) does its work.

4:14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 4:15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—4:16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

 

No longer Infants or Children in Their Faith

  Paul used this expression to show what happens to believers that are not mature, in faith, love and knowledge that creates unity. They are likely to follow false prophets and teachers that have made up deceitful religious practices with great skill and cunning. These deceitful teachers teach for financial gain, with every wind of doctrine. Meaning that if we could make of list of all the deceitful false teachings, which pretend to be the gospel, it would include every possible deception has been taught throughout history, which is too numerous to list them all.

  By way of example, in about 400 AD, there was a man that was called Simeon Stylites, who lived on top of a 10-foot pillar for 37 years. People came to seek his prayers and advice all over the area. This is deceitful teaching that has zero bases for support from Jesus or any of the Apostles.

 

Deceitful Scheming: How Not to be Deceived?

       Remember what Jesus said: “The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher” (Luke 6:40). Jesus was often called teacher. When Jesus said to “Simon, I have something to tell you.” He responded to Jesus, “Tell me, teacher,” what do you want to tell me (Lk 7:40). Whatever Jesus wanted to tell Simon, we should also listen to what Jesus is saying to us in the Gospels.

  A fully trained teacher is one who has spent time with the master, to learn his ways. The student, which is every believer who studies the Word, is not above their teacher. No gospel teacher has any right whatsoever to promote any added test, any added theology, any added ideas, not required or discussed by Jesus or his Apostles.

       It is up to you to think about your own fellowship group. Do they request or demand things not clearly written in the New Testament? Know what Jesus and his Apostles have taught as truth for yourself. Be faithful to the voice of the Spirit, which is always in harmony with what has already been taught under the “new covenant” (2 Cor 3:6).


Every Passing Wind, Every New Idea Created by Deceitful Teachers

       Every wind means religious teachings that sweep through society as a new idea that should be embraced as an advanced form of special truth. However it is beyond what Jesus or Apostle’s taught. It is based on the creditability of the teacher, the number of adherents, not sound Biblical conclusions.

  We should take seriously what Paul said, “even if we [pretending to be Paul] or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse” (Gal 1:8). In other words we should test what we have been told is truth by what Paul is teaching.

       Every wind of teaching is in expression of many kinds of doctrine and teachings which are new or very popular, with no or marginal support from the teaching of Christ. They are founded on supposed truth but not on the “fullness of Christ” (Eph 4:13). They are centered in human authority, other teaching then that of Christ.


Masquerading as Apostles, False Gospel and False Holy Spirit

       Even in Paul’s day, the Early Churches were troubled by false teachers claiming to be apostles. Paul was very concerned about this saying that “false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.  And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light” (2 Cor 11:3).

       Paul is sadden that the Corinth church did not have more discernment saying, “For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough” (2 Cor 11:4).

       In a similar way the believers the Galatians were also deceived by false teachers. Paul said to them, “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?” (Gal 3:1). Paul was very troubled about this situation when false teachers taught a perverted gospel, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! (Gal 1:6-8).

       If the Early Church was so quickly deceived, we should beware of the ever-present danger of false teachers that create a following around themselves.

 

Jesus Has Warned us About False Teachers

  Jesus has already warned us saying, “False Christ’s and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect” (Matt 24:24).

  Some false teachers take on authority and inspiration, making them nearly equal to Scriptures.

  Some false prophets teach new doctrines that are said come from God or an angel, “to deceive the inhabitants of the earth” (Rev 13;14).

  Some false prophets center attention on their lives and their authority.

  Some false prophets present special truth that separates belivers from “unity in the Faith of Christ.” (4:1), by making their view so special that all others are excluded.  They lead “astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (2 Cor 11:3), by adding additional requirements.

  Some false prophets have placed themselves on a high spiritual status in which their followers search their writing to know the truth, placing Scriptures at a secondary level.

 

Instead, Speaking the Truth in Love

  This is the opposite example of the false winds of doctrine. Teaching the truth in love we come to realize that God “chose us before creation of the world to be” in is presence, “in love He predestined us for adoption,” to Himself, “in accordance with His [good] pleasure and will, to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves. (Eph 1:4-6). Teaching in love, shows that “no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ” (2 Cor 1:20).

  Mature believers in Christ, know they are part of the “Body of Christ” (4:12); thus they teach in love, with grace, being good and kind to all.

  Mature believers have a “knowledge” (4:13) of Scriptures that is not shallow or focused on uncertain application Mature believers will be students of Paul’s themes of Justification by Faith, which is presented in many chapters.

  Mature believers will be students of the ministry of the Holy Spirit as Jesus and Apostles have taught. Jesus dedicated nearly three complete chapters on the ministry of the Spirit, in John 14-16. The Apostle Paul has made so many references to the Spirit’s ministry that we cannot count them all.

  Mature believers speak the truth; they live the truth of the “message of the gospel” (Acts 15:7), the “message of truth, the gospel of your salvation” (Eph 1:13). They are “rooted and grounded in love…the love of Christ” (3:17,18).

  Mature believers know of all the doctrines that may be required, the “greatest,” of all these teachings, “is love” (1 Cor 13:13). “If any man loves not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema, Maranatha” (1 Cor 16:22 KJV). Correct doctrines, without the love of God in our hearts, and “the love of Christ” (3:18), outward toward others, is an anathema.

 

The Head is Christ

  All teachings are to be Christ centered and Christ uplifting. In Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians he kept “asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better” (Eph 1:17). This is the goal of every sermon and Bible study; as well as our personal lives, for we wish to known him better and better the next day.

 

Grows…Every Ligament…Builds Itself Up in Love

  Paul compares believers to a human body that grows from a child to an adult. This body of believers, grows up by Christ’s teachings week by week. It is nourished and is held together by love for God and one another, in Christ. This is how the body of believers becomes fruitful. Because every believer, with their “gifts” (Eph 4:8), strives to keep their love for each other by “the Spirit” (Eph 4:3). 

       Although the concept of every ligament of Paul, is primarily attune to individuals in the Christian Community all working together. They all have “different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit” (1 Cor 12:4). In a secondary sense, it means that individually we are to access in prayer, through the teaching ministry of the Spirit, to know if the gifts God has given to us are balanced in love. Prayer will reveal these truths to you.

 

Each Part Does Its Work

  No single leader can build up the body of believers to maturity. God uses different people, all different “lovers of God” (2 Tim 3:4).  A good leader will place others with gifts from the Spirit above him or herself. No one person will seek to be above all others in gifts or ideas. This is how God wishes the church to be held together and balanced on the scales of love that is based on humility.


Reminding Us: Not To Live Like Unbelievers

Ephesians 4:17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live [walk] as the Gentiles [unbelievers] do, in the futility of their thinking. 4:18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 4:19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed. NIV

Ephesians 4:20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned. 

Ephesians 4:21 When you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.

4:17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 4:18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 4:19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. NKJV

 

“I tell your this” (NIV) or “I say, therefore” (NKJV)

I insist on it in the Lord (NIV) or “I testify in the Lord” (NKJV)

That you must” (NIV) or “you should no longer” (NKJV)

 

“So, I’m telling you this,

  and I insist on it in the Lord:

you shouldn’t live your life like…” Common English Bible

 

  The NKJV says “I testify in the Lord” is very accurate in the Greek. Meaning that Paul is giving us vital instruction, which comes from the authority of God Himself. There is a very serious warning in Paul’s words, which carries the highest weight of authority, as coming from our Lord Jesus.  

       This threefold warning is unique. It is the only place where Paul prefaces his following comments with three positive commands. What he must tell them, he must tell us today. It is very important and we should listen carefully to what he is about to tell us. To neglect it is very serious.

 

“The Way You Learned” (4:20)

So, you will Not Live Like Your Old Life

 

       God appeals to all of humanity weakened by ignorance, darkness, and loss of sensitivity to what is right and wrong. It is very multi-colored and multi-faceted appeal. He varies his appeal to humans that are driven by greed to possess more and more. Sinners are asleep and unaware of their sins that have separated them from God Himself.

  God has many many ways to reach ignorant humans. In Paul’s special instructions, he continues for the next twelve verses, to the end of this chapter. Then the theme changes at the beginning of the next chapter.

 

  We are “put on the new self, created to be like God” (Eph 4:24) In Colossians, the companion book to Ephesians, Paul again teaches the same theme of taking off the old self, our former lives as unbelievers and putting on the new self, daily renewed into the image of God Himself. He gives us a list of ten things to put on in our lives

 

Therefore, as people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with

(1) compassion, (2) kindness, (3) humility,

(4) gentleness and (5) patience. (7) Bear with each other and

forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone.

Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

And over all these virtues

(8) put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

9) Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts,

since as members of one body you were called to peace.

And (10) be thankful

Col 3:12-14

 

Paul teaches us how to be in peace with God

  “We have been justified through faith” now “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1). In Romans Paul spends several chapters about our former way of life. Then from Romans 3 to 8, he teaches us that we are justified before God by faith alone and the ministry of the Spirit. For “the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace” (Rom 8:6). No insensitivity to sin, no hardening of our hearts, but instead a willing heart and a deep desire to do the will of God.


Paul teaches us about God’s “Glorious Grace”

      In the first chapter of Ephesians Paul shows that God chose us “before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight” (Eph 1:4). It was God’s pleasure to give us His Son, which will enable us to stand in His presence with eternal life. 

 

“Futility of their Thinking,” Gentile’s Thoughts are Without Any Lasting Meaning:

They have no truth that it will last. But mostly they don’t know the difference between right and truth and wrong and error. Much of their thinking is foolish, such as the arrangement of clothes and their hair. Trivial details. Commands that order the lives of others to do their pleasure. 

Paul describes the source of evil in our world as not dependent on the temptations of Satan, because the Gentiles have their understanding darkened. There is no compassion, no consideration of the troubles of others, unless it is for their advantage. They take human life, abuse others, with no consideration of justice for the ones they have harmed and hurt.


Gentiles Separated from the Life of God

  Jesus describes how evil arises not from outside temptations but: “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly” (Mark 7:21,22).

  Many blame the problem of evil on God. Paul places the source of evil in the darkness, ignorance, and hardening of human hearts, from within them. Paul describes pagan Gentiles are those “whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron” (1 Tim 4:2).

  They have become in themselves an image of the Devil. Which Jesus described as a liar and murderer: “He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44)

  Even if the Devil and all his cohorts of fallen Angels would take a vacation on the Moon, the evil from within us will continue to drive our fallenness into more evil. All on our own. The natural inclinations of our broken wills are toward disobedience and “self-seeking and who reject the truth” (Rom 2:8). Impurity—inner defilement, of heart and life will always exist.

 

Ephesians Must not Fall back to their Gentile Insensitive Behavior

  Now the Ephesians must not follow any of their former pagan habits. As believers in the Lord Jesus, they have the “eyes of” their “understanding…enlightened” (Eph 1:8). They are “born of the Spirit” (John 3:8) and “made alive in the Spirit” (1 Pet 3:18).

  Paul insists that all believers must no longer live like their pagan neighbors. He recognizes the pull of the pleasures and self-indulgence of evil on new believers. It is easy to become a Christian while still holding on to some of the customs of their culture and old habits that are not found in the Christian faith. 

  Paul gives us nine descriptions of evil that spring from within the human heart. “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). Those who “love darkness” enjoy doing deeds of darkness, they are in concert with the kingdom of “outer darkness” (Matt 8:12). 

  Whereas those “Born of the Spirit” (John 3:8) enjoy “helping those in trouble and devoting” themselves “to all kinds of good deeds” (1 Tim 5:10).

 

1.     Futility of their thinking (4:17)—Foolishness, aimlessness, such as the arrangement of clothes and hair, as if trivial details is all that matters. Today, the foolishness of about a hundred movie channels and endless soap operas. These can add to an already darkened mind.

2.     Darkened understanding (4:18)—What they think is right is wrong, what is good is bad. To reason with them is nearly impossible. Jesus testified about the condition of humanity, “For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes” (Matt 13:15).

3.     Separated from the life of God (4:18)—They don’t know God who has declared of Himself, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin” (Ex 34:6,7). They have very twisted, false views of God, which affects how they treat other people and how they live their lives.

4.     Ignorance within them (4:18)—When they are living in spiritual darkness, they feel they are wise and better than others.

5.     Hardening of their hearts (4:18)—They may have had contact with Christian faith but rejected it and now have no interest at all. They are insensitive to spiritual values. “They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin” (2 Pet 2:14 ESV).

6.     Lost sensitivity (4:19)—They don’t care about hurting, abusing, stealing or killing another person. They have lost the sense of compassion and mercy. After stealing from others, they feel no regret or sorrow for those who lost their personal possessions. The pain they cause others is not any of their concern. “They do not know, nor do they understand; they walk about in darkness” (Ps 82:5 NKJV).

7.     Given over to sensuality (4:19)—Sexual desires are seen as a necessity, with no interest to control these impulses. They live self-centered lives, for self-pleasure, “in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God” (1 Thess 4:5 NKJV).

8.     Indulge themselves in impurity (4:19)—Roman culture included prostitution, on the streets for sale and in some Roman temples. Romans did not look down on this practice. At that time in history there were no sexual diseases to create any self-restraint.

9.     Full of greed (4:19)—Always wanting more, schemes of extortion or taking advantage of others who are weaker. New cars, big homes, racks of shoes and clothes more than one person can use.  All the fancy electronic equipment they can buy with a desire to own more and more material possessions, even if others around them are in need, it does not matter.

 

There is no one righteous, not even one,

there is no one who seeks God.

All have turned away,

there is no one who does good, not even one.

Rom 3:11-18

 

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to our own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all. Isa 56:6

 

God’s Plan Does Not Require Obedience Before He Accepts Us (Thankfully)

It is, “the Way your learned” (Eph 4:20)

  Because of our fallen inherited natures, our incomplete understanding of God’s will in our lives.

Thus, our power of choice is broken.

   Therefore, to be right before God, without having to do something good first. Something to please God first. Which is impossible because lives are separated from the life of God.

  We don’t have to do something worthy, some good deeds, to impress god. So that He would be at least willing to forgive us and receive us, in recompense for what we have done. Thankfully, God comes to us, first. He comes offering to us total and complete forgiveness and removal of all guilt. All God request of us is “faith as small as a mustard seed” (Matt 17:20).

  Thankfully, God does not wait for us to come up, by ourselves, with even a small amount of faith. He knows that such a task, required of us, would be impossible. We would all be hopelessly lost forever. Thus, God Himself has planted in us just enough faith to meet him.

 

  How does God plant faith in an unbeliever? We are “included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation” (Eph 1:13). Just hearing the Gospel story, just looking at the story of Jesus—God puts, God transplants enough faith into us. Then with His faith in our mouths, he justifies us for all our sins. “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom 10:8-9).

       The Good News of the Gospel is that our Father puts in us faith; whereby we are justified before Him. We are declared guilt free, innocent and acceptable before all the heavenly host. Although inside us we still have a lot of lessons to learn. We still have a bent to evil. Learned from childhood and by our own helplessly addicted nature toward evil.

  Yet, God in his righteousness, dares to declared us righteous and welcomed into his presence with joy on His part. It’s unbelievable! But it is true!

       If God does not rescue us from our ignorance and frequent thoughts of cruel retaliation of others, nobody can. Nobody else could step into our human smelly mess and reach out to take our hands and lead into a new way of life. “He [God] has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son” (Col 1:13).

 

God takes the first step toward us sinners

       Now “being justified freely [God’s gift to us] by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus…For we maintain [conclude] that a person is justified by faith [freely] apart from the words of the law [anything good required of us]” (Rom 3:24,28).

       Note: Please take the time to read Romans chapter 3-5 & 8, asking God to give you understanding. Let these truths become fruitful in your heart and life. Just by being near God, we are transformed by His presence in our lives. We are changed and made new, renewed every day. Not on our own strength, that’s impossible: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom 5:6).


Remember What I Taught You

Ephesians 4:20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned. NIV

  4:20 But you have not so learned Christ NKJV


In the last verse, we reviewed some of the ways Paul taught the Ephesians, how they came to know God. He wants to keep them fresh in their minds.


Remember What You Learned

      Paul is reasoning with some of the Ephesians that became followers of Christ Jesus but have slipped back into some of their old patterns of living. Even while they claimed to be believers. He reminds them not to live a compromised life.

       John, the last letter to be added to the New Testament warned about the same things. Saying, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them” (1 John 2:15).

  To love the world means we live for material things, we love material things. We see that a full life is when we possess more material things than our neighbors.  This kind of earth centered love has no view of how to live our lives to please God. In keeping in view what really matters, love for God and others. James reminds us all, “You do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:14).

John says, “The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever” (1 John 2:17).

  Whoever lives just for this world has a double loss. Everything they owned, all their treasured possessions and the next also. For “the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare (2 Pet 3:10).

  Paul wants the Ephesians believers to not go backwards in their walk of faith, but to move forward.


Ephesians 4:21 When you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. NIV

4:21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: NKJV

  

  This is the clearest statement from Paul on “what is truth” (John 18:38), that Pilot asked Jesus. Paul does not leave us to wonder and try to figure it out. He gives us the answer, it is in the life and teaching of Jesus where we find truth, all the truth. It was He who declared “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6).


Truth as it is in Jesus

  Paul claims that “from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ” (Rom 15:19). Which is the “message of truth, the gospel of your salvation” (Eph 1:13). We should draw a circle with Christ name written in the inside. From the circle draw lines, calling them truth as learned from the teachings of Jesus and from Paul, Peter, John and James’s letters.

  No truth is really any truth at all. If it can’t be found in the Gospel as taught by Jesus and his apostles. They were a special group of people that Jesus ministered to. In his prayer to the Father he said, “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world [Apostles]. They were Yours; you gave them to me, and they have obeyed Your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me” (John 17:6,8).

  Of all the ministers, preachers, teaches from the highest educated to the humblest—None of them stand anywhere near to the authority of the Apostles. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Don’t listen to anyone who tells you they have new light from God, that we should obey. If that new light is not endorsed by Jesus or his Apostles, it is a fake.

        

Ephesus 4:22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 4:23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 4:24 and to put on the new self [new person], created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. NIV

4:22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 4:23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 4:24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

      

It is not hard to imagine Paul talking to this congregation, urging them to take off their old habits of life and to put on new habits. Urging them to recognize what long established thoughts and action patterns must be changed. He wants them to see themselves as new and different people.

       Today we are reminded of the political divide we place ourselves in creating conflict with others. We are reminded of the hours given to Sports and movies that do not care about true righteousness. We are reminded of being more honest with our families, living with no habit, no vice that needs to be hidden from others.


The Text

  The NKJV says we are to be renewed, while the NIV just says made new. The Greek word ananeoó means “to renew, to make new again” This brings to view transformation, a process that which is always in renewal. A dynamic, ongoing change. Not just made new, as a one-time experience. This is made plain in other places in Scriptures by the indwelling of the Spirit in our lives. 

  As Jesus promise us, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever.” (John 14:16). The Spirit is sent to us as a teaching ministry, every day of our lives.

  The Hebrew of the Old Testament teach the same concept “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Ps 51:10). The Hebrew word for renew is Chadash, meaning to repair, restore, and rebuild. To renew a clear and clean conscience with increased trust in God to change you, to lead you in paths of peace with honorable behavior. This is not a once, one time for all experience, it is daily. Over time, through morning prayers and study of Scriptures, we become a new self. Vastly different than in the past. And we know it is true. And we prefer the New Self so much more than the Old Self.

   Believers are to “grow to become” (Eph 4:15), more like Christ, week by week. Jesus repeats this truth that believers are to grow, through the illustration of a plant, saying “though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches” (Matt 13:32).


Changed in Our Minds

First, let’s list the tools for our spiritual growth so that we can be renewed, rejuvenated, and transformed. Paul uses several illusions to show the changes that are to take place. 

  “made new” (4:23 NIV) or “renewed” (4:23 NKJV)—In our “minds” (NIV & NKJV)

  “new self” (4:24 NIV) or “new man” (4:24 NKJV)

  “created” (4:24 NIV & NKJV)—"To be like God” (4:24 NIV) in a righteous and holy life

 

1. Put off your old self—The way you used to live, corrupted by deceitful desires and lust (4:22). This starts with confession of sins with repentance. Jesus at the very start of him ministry when he first “began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matt 4:17). Repentance is  the absolutely critical part of our transformation.

2. Our minds are made new transformed in our mind’s attitudes and desires (4:23). This means a real substantive mental change takes place. We begin to see things in a different light. By way of example the former blind man replied to the church leaders, “He put mud on my eyes,” the man replied, “and I washed, and now I see” (John 9:15). Jesus said,

“I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness” (John 12:46)

3. Put on the new self—Becoming a “new creation” to be like God in righteousness (4:24). This is a reference to being what Jesus said was needed to enter the kingdom of heaven was, “you must be Born Again” (John 3:7).

 

How to Put Off, to Dispose of our Unwanted Habits

  The Greek word is put off is apotithémi which implies a deliberate action of removing or laying aside something that is no longer needed or is considered inappropriate. When the Spirit through the Word of God speaks to us about ourselves, our sins, our habits that need to be confessed in prayer to God. The Spirit tells us we need more love in our lives, we have been selfish. “Now you must also rid yourselves [apotithémi, put off] of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips” (Col 3:8).

       Then it is time to pray. To ask God to not “keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. Create in me a clean heart, O God” (Ps 51:9,10 NLT). Over time, sometimes very short, other times longer, God will replace the old careless habits that hurt others with a new self that is polite and loving to the undeserving. It is the Lord’s doing.

       "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph 2:10). We are God’s creation, his craftsmanship. We are built on His design for us. Because it is not us that has changed us—It is the work, the creation of God Himself, through faith in His Son and the ministry of the Spirit. We bear the fruits of the Spirit as evidence that we are changed and made new.


Former Way of Live Created to be Like God

  In our journey of faith, we will find some habits cling so tightly to us that we are unable to “put” them “off” as easy as changing clothes. Thankfully, not every change we need takes place all at once when we are Born Again. Some changes start right at the beginning. Such as a desire to be right with God in prayer and in honest living.

  Over time God alters the direction of our lives, daily as He sees fit. Some changes are almost automatic effecting our inner desires. At the same time, God removes some of the old temptations that we have fallen into many times. We sense we are different, we see we feel different about other people. We find ourselves spending more time in prayer and more time in Scriptures. We find this very delightful, whereas before we seldom if ever prayed and had little interest in Scriptures.

 

       We will meet situations where our old habits, our old repetitive responses seem never to really change. As hard as we try and pray, we nearly always fall into the same pit. What should we do?

       Remember when the disciples were not effective in driving out demons in a young boy. They asked Jesus why they were unable. Jesus replied, “this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting” (Matt 17:21 NAS). This is persistent, earnest prayer, more than just a wish to change a long-held habit of action, of thoughts, which are addictive and almost impossible to deny over a short period of time.

       “Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.” There was a wicked judge that would not listen to the case of a poor defenseless widow asking for justice. But because she was persistent, the judge heard her case and granted her justice. Although God is not like the unjust judge the point Jesus was making was in contrast with the wicked judge, is that we “should always pray and not give up,” for God will “bring justice for his chosen one, who cry out to him day and night? (Matt 18:1-7). 

  Remember this is the key. When long held addictions hold us captive, don’t stop praying. Pray more, ask for more faith. Ask for more love. Ask God to change you, or else you die. Pray with Scriptures open, with your finger on a promise God has made to you. Don’t stop praying and this process may seem longer than you wish—but it makes you stronger than if the answer was to you instantly.

  The justice God will give you is freedom from addictive habits that have long held you captive to their pleasures. This freedom from your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires God will “release to the captives” and “to set free those who are oppressed” (Lk 4:18). Yet, God will and is more than able to set free the most substance addictive person. God will install an outside internal power that will give you the perfect right “to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age” (Titus 2:12).

  Someone might say, why then are there so many addicted individuals in all manner of harmful behaviors? Yes, this is true. But if you could see the many thousands that God has given freedom, you would be astonished. They do not like to tell their story to the world; they are the humble ones. For God answers the prayer of the humble but turns away the proud who seek glory and honor from God so that they can promote themselves. “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble” (James 4:6). Always.


Prayer to God is the Only Way

  The point we should not miss, is when we are confronted with intractable problems, we will be given faith “to pray and not to lose heart” (Lk 18:1). We are to pray and sing with spiritual songs in our hearts. We are very privileged, to ask God Himsel, in the name of his Son, to give you strength, to change, so you can move past a habit that is discouraging you. Pray for the creation of God, to go deeper, to be more lasting, to be part of our mind and soul.

  It is important to notice changes in your desire, your passion, your love of something not best for you, as they change. Before you know it, you will have lost the temptation that had control over you. You are able to say no, with a new inner strength of understanding that the Spirit has given you. This inner strength is seen in new desires that does not what to dishonor your Lord. You will be “strengthened with the power through the Spirit in your inner being” to be “rooted and grounded in love,” the “love of Christ” (Eph 3:16-19).

   In your sinful nature wrong thoughts will still often occur from time to time. However, the difference is you really don’t want to follow that path anymore. The call to go there may be present, but the desire to move in that direction is absent. It is always time, when confronted with old temptation, to ask God to take the suggestions that have come to your mind, to set you free. “The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it” (1 Thess 5:24); “For nothing will be impossible with God” (Lk 1:37).


Paul Continues the Subject of Spiritual Growth

 

Ephesians 4:25 Therefore each of you MUST  put off falsehood and speak truthfully [with honesty] to your neighbor, for we are all members [parts] of one body. 

4:25 Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another


   Of all the habits that Paul could name under the general title “deceitful desires” of the “old self” (Eph 4:22), he does not. However, he points out a habit that he considers is as fundamental as any point of doctrine. The top of Paul’s list is honesty.

  Paul does not repeat the ninth Commandment which says, “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor” (Ex 20:16). He takes it further including all falsehood about many things that do not defraud or defame our neighbor. It could be hiding the truth, all the truth, for financial gain. Being disingenuous, telling less than the truth, for selfish reasons.

       Paul teaches honesty, not just for itself. Not just for ourselves. Not just because it is good for our conscience, our marriage, or our business. But unites honesty with our baptism that has moved us to a larger body or group of believers. Paul wishes them to see themselves, not just as individuals, but part of a larger group than just our immediate friends and family—but all who call on the name of the Lord in sincerity and truth.

       Thus, when we are dishonest to one, as part of larger group of believers, it influences many others. Honesty to Paul was essential for the spiritual health of the larger group. Perhaps if Paul should print the church bulletin, which often has short statements of faith, he would place honesty at the front and center.


Therefore, Each of You

  Since you have been “renewed,” re-“created” (Eph 4:23) by God and given a “new self” (Eph 4:24). We must put off all falsehoods, gossip about others that are not really facts, and be truthful.

Why? Because we are parts, like a limb, of the same body, one body of Christ, the gospel by faith in Christ through “one Spirit” (Eph 4:4). The concept of one body has been used five times in Ephesians (2:16; 3:6; 4:4,25; 5:29). Thus, if believers are “in Christ,” with other believers “in Christ” (Rom 1:1,3,9,12,13; 2:1,6,7,10,13; 3:6,11,21; 4:32), they must be truthful.

 

The reason why we must tell the truth to each other is that we are all members of the “body of Christ” (4:12) and thus: Would we lie to Christ our Savior who lives in another believer in Christ?

 

The reason why we must tell the truth to each other is because the Spirit is dwelling, inside the believer. Because it is “God’s Spirit dwells in your midst” (1 Cor 3:16). Since the “Spirit dwells” (1 Cor 3:16), in the believer, lying would be against “the Spirit of truth” (John 16:13). Who really wants to tell a lie, as the Spirit is creating truthful and honest influences in our hearts?

 

The reason why we must tell the truth to each other is we become like the Devil when we lie.   Jesus said “the devil… was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). Who wants to be like the Devil? Could it be that the Father of Lies feels a kinship with liars on earth. They are his children, for they tell lies just as he does.

  A sin recorded in the book of Revelation that will expel us out of heaven, is lying. “All liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone… fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them. The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone (Rev 21:8; 20:9-10). Liars can gain comfort in their torments in the companionship of Satan the father of lies.

 

The reason why we must tell the truth to each other is when we lie to another, we carry the responsibility before God of misleading other individuals that trust God and His children. Being lied to has baleful influence on another believer, for they lose trust in the body of Christ, the church.

  When we influence them to take action that involves them in trouble, when it was all just a lie. Such Christian liars sin against their conscience and hardening it. 

  Who wants to tell a lie to their conscience that tells them the truth? Worst of all they will lose love because love and lies are incompatible. So precious is love among us, in our families, our spouses and our trusted friends.

  Lies and love are opposite, so much so that love will leave the room of our hearts, all to lies. We will not know how many married couples fell out of love for each other. All because one of them lied to other. True love for their spouse, left the room as well, and their marriage ended up on the rocks.


 Love cannot exist with dishonesty

Love grows and matures with the companion of honesty

Love becomes bitter with dishonesty

Love needs confession of faults and mistakes

 

         Love is sweet, enduring and fulfilling with honesty

Love is patient and kind

Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude

Love does not demand its own way

Love is not irritable,

Love keeps no record of being wronged.

Love does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth.

Love never gives up

Love never loses faith

Love is always hopeful

Love endures through every circumstance. (1 Cor 13)


The reason why we must tell the truth to each other is that we have a moral responsibility before God, to honor the Golden Rule. Which plainly says, “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Lk 6:31). As such lying has a deep color, not a pail color, not a red color—but Black. For lying is a disrespectful and a form of hatred of the person lied to. John the Apostle says, “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness [black] has blinded them (1 John 2:11).

 

Known for Truth Telling

     Believers are to be known for telling the truth for being honest in business. Truth telling is a sign we have “put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph 4:24). Lying, to the harm and injury of others, is a sign we are dwelling in our old pre-converted state.

       We admit that there are cases when it is for the good of others to withhold the truth. When no good would come in telling them a truth that would only hurt and worry them unnecessary.

       We admit that there is major difference when working with some people in high positions that love to make up rules that create unnecessary hardship for others. They make up petty rules, with no compassion or ability to see that there are exceptions. They are rule based, unlike God who is grace, love and forgiveness based.  

 

One Body All Truthful to Each Other

  This idea has not been understood among all believers. God would have us accept other believers who have been “reconciled” (Eph 2:16) to God. Even if they do have different religious houses of worship, practicing their faith within their culture, yet they also have “peace” (Eph 2:17) with God. “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful” (Col 3:15). Christ dwells by the Spirit in the lives of all believers, all peoples, from north to south poll, all over of the earth. Toward any believer in Christ, honesty is the best policy, this honors, God, and the Holy Spirit who is called the “Spirit of truth” (John 15:26), who never tells us a lie.  

“The redeemed from the earth… No lie was found in their mouths” (Rev 14:3,5).


Ephesians 4:26 “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 4:27 and do not give the devil a foothold. NIV

4:26 Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 4:27 nor give place to the devil. NKJV

.

  Paul moves from the topic of lying to anger. The only kind of anger that is justified is toward injustice, as Jesus expressed in cleansing the temple twice. In a modern setting it is seen in a case of open abuse, of a woman by a strong man. When we see this, indignation arises in our hearts in anger, that draws a quick strong response to protect the abused woman.

  There is a problem with anger, unless it is short lived. It gains in strength; it absorbs our time. It obscures love, romance, and good fellowship with friends. It marks our face, our outlooks, and our life work. It brings havoc at home with our children and spouse. It leads to the permission we give ourselves for self-indulgence because we need a release from the current of anger. When in anger, many of the good things in life pass us by, unnoticed by those who maintain and feed anger. 


Sun should not go down in Anger

   Even anger that is directed to open sins in the Christian fellowship, unless it is short lived, it will harm our souls. Because the ones pointing out the grave sins, are led to feel more righteous than the ones they are attempting to warn.

  Second, the one who is on the receiving end of correction, may be driven further from Christ, in despair. Or worse, by reproof they feel is unwarranted, they grow more anger than before.

  This is very delicate work, not suited for everyone. Often those doing the condemning of others feel entitled by their superior position or wisdom to find fault, making themselves fee better. All our words must be spoken with deep personal humility, love and much and more prayer. “Be merciful to those who doubt [wavering in their faith]; save others by snatching them from the fire [serious mistake]; to others show mercy, mixed with fear [for yourself]—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh [hating the sin not the person]” (Jude 22,23).

 

In Anger Do Not Sin

  An example of righteous anger was when “Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’” (Matt 21:12-13).

       Notice that the anger of Jesus was short lived for after the money changers and high-priced animals that were being sold for sacrifice were gone from inside the temple. “Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them” (Matt 21:14). Apparently, many children came to be blessed and healed by Jesus and “the children” could be heard “praising him in the Temple, saying, ‘Praise to the Son of David” (Matt 21:15 NCV).

       The anger of Jesus was short lived and followed by healing of everyone that was watching this event. They at once moved into the temple to be near this unusual man. Children came from all over the area and were caught up in the exciting joy of seeing sick people healed and joined with others in songs of praise.

 

Why the Devil has No Foothold in Believers’ Life

  If anger is associated with hate, it will bring darkness and in the long-term perfect darkness. Darkness is when a person carries in their heart cruel unkind anger that sees no wrong in expressing this anger. If “anyone who hates a brother or sister is in darkness and walks around in darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them [perfect darkness]” (1 John 2:11).

  Paul is suggesting that leaders of the fellowship should be vigilant in warning the sheep of God’s pasture of spiritual dangers. Christians can exercise a righteous indignation, anger, over open sin that ruin’s lives of their friends in their “fellowship” (1 John 1:3). If believers do not address the sin of anger, in their midst, the devil gains a foothold. The sincerity and purity of good Christian fellowship is compromised Sadly; this is neglected in most Christian communities.


  Nothing, not all of Satan’s efforts can pierce the protection that believers have in Christ. Since they are shielded, marked and sealed. This includes Angelic protection, at the command and direction of God Himself. We are His treasure, “God’s possession” (Eph 1:14).


  Peter says, “through faith” we “are shielded by God’s power”, not just for the day but over our lifetime, “until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pet 1:5).

 

  Paul says we are “marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory” (Eph 1:13:14). The sealing of the Spirit refers to Jesus’s promise the He would send to us the Spirit to “help you and be with you forever, the Spirit of truth” (John 14:16,17). Teaching you, from your inner self, the truth of the gospel message as taught by Jesus and his apostles. We must never underestimate the value of being Spirit filled. Sealing is what is inside a person, something so very precious to God. It is the “message of truth, the gospel of your salvation” (Eph 1:13) radiating from our souls.


Out of Control Anger: Gives the Devil a Foothold

  We give the Devil opportunity to come closer to us, for further temptations and harassment, when in a state of sustained anger, even if it was for the right reason.

 

First Warning as to the Dangers of Real Anger:

  We should be warned that anger held inside the heart can easily fall into various forms of hatred and it will surely bring us into darkness. In that darkness we are very likely to fall into a trap set by the Devil, giving him a foot hold into our lives, because we are blind to his approach. “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen” (1 John 4:20)

 

Second Warning as to the Dangers of Real Anger

  “Therefore, I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing” (1 Tim 2:8). Anger that lingers without repentance will hinder prayers. “Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him” (1 John 3:15).

 

What Specific Sins in the Fellowship Should not be Addressed

       Watchmen in the fellowship have no right to set, as law, their opinions. What their conscience tells them what to eat, how to dress, their music styles, should not be made standard for others. They are not to oversee how others spend their money or their private family matters. This is spiritual bondage, for “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor 3:17).

       Paul illustrates how God receives people, allowing them to have their own convictions from their prayer and Scripture study. Paul says, “Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand” (Rom 14:1-4).


Ephesians 4:28 Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.

4:28 Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.

 

  Believer's in Paul’s time had come from a pagan society.  In Rome stealing was common, slaves would steal to compensate for their forced labor. Soldiers were given the right to steal, at times anything they wanted, from conquered enemies. When pagan believers became Christian, they needed some instruction. Paul is giving them a direct command: You must not seal any longer.

       Paul’s solution to stealing was to find good employment that would allow them financially to improve themselves, instead of stealing.

  Paul believed that honest labor is blessed by God, as seen in having enough to be generous to others. Thus there is no need to steal because they are blessed with more than enough. Instead of stealing they were to develop the practice of charity toward those in need. Instead of stealing from others, they were to give to others.


  As a rule, Christians are blessed in many ways, often financially. They are given opportunities for spiritual service beyond what they could have gained, if not believer in Christ. “I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread” (Ps 37:25).


Paul to Pastor Titus

       To slaves, stealing from their slave masters, was profitable and desirable. However Christian slaves were advised “not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive” (Titus 2:10).


Ephesians 4:29 Do not let any unwholesome talk [words] come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit [building up] those who listen [nearby]. 

4:29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your month, but what is good for necessary edification that it may impart grace to the hearers. NKJV

 

Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve [bring sorrow] the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. NIV

4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. NKJV

4:30 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. New Living Translation

 

4:31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage [bad temper] and anger [being mad, shouting], brawling quarreling, [contention, strife] and slander [cursing], along with every form of malice [maliciousness, evil intent]. 4:32 And be kind to one another [helpful], tenderhearted [compassionate], forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. NIV

4:31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 4:32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. NKJV

 

The Context

       Ephesians 4:29-31 form the immediate context of what it means to grieve the Holy Spirit. The twelve negative word descriptions, such as bitterness and unwholesome speech, have an impact on the Spirit’s presence in our lives. In short, they grieve the Spirit. We should never lose sight that spiritual decline and indifference is often rooted in our words reflecting the unremedied darkness inside us. Imagine how important words of grace, pleasant greetings, warm embraces, uplifting words.

  Likewise, the seven positive word descriptions, such as building others up and being kind to one another show evidence of the Spirit’s presence in our lives. The nine fruits of the Spirit (Gal 5:22,23) have space to grow so that our lives are fruitful with good works. Best of all, through the Spirit’s presence we are drawn very close to God our Father and His Son Jesus Christ.

 

The Spirit was Present at Creation

  The Spirit was present on the first day of creation, when “the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Gen 1:2).

  The Spirit was also present on the sixth day of creation, when God “breathed into his [Adam’s] nostrils the breath of life” Gen 2:7). The Spirit of God was active in the creation of Adam. “The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life” (Job 33:4). The Hebrew word for breathed is neshamah, means “Breath, spirit or soul.”

 

Receiving the Spirit

       Peter tells us, in his Pentecostal sermon, how to receive the Spirit. “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). There is no complicated formula of things you must do to receive the Spirit. The Spirit accompanies sincere confession of sin with repentance. Any time we come to God with our confession of sin, with heartfelt desire to be changed. God gives us the Spirit.

       It is not as if we receive the Spirit after confession. No, we have been led to confession by the influence of the Spirit. Afterwards the Spirit creates space in us, sets up His “temple” (1 Cor 6:19) in us and brings us closer and closer to God the Father and His Son. Afterwards we need to pay attention that we don’t grieve the Spirit from our lives.

 

The Spirit Was Released in Full Measure at Pentecost

  The Spirit has a special mission held in reserve until Pentecost. Jesus told his disciples that the Spirit is yet to come to them, “when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:13). And “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me” (John 15:26). Jesus told the disciples to gather together to receive the Spirit, known as the day of Pentecost, saying, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you” (Acts 1:8).

  The Spirit should always be considered as having holy influences on us. Meaning a sacred and pure influence on every aspect of our lives. Because the Spirit is an exact likeness to God the Father. The Spirit is entitled as God’s Holy Spirit.

  This gives us added reasons why the Spirit’s influence will always lead to kindness to one another, because God is kind to us (Titus 3:4). “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” (Col 3:12). The Spirit mirrors the exact character of God to us.

 

The Holy Spirit of God

  “The Holy Spirit of God,” this expression is only once used in either New or Old Testament. In all translations, NIV, NKJV, KJV or NAS. This expression relates to the closeness of the Holy Spirit to God the Father. The Spirit’s presence in our lives represents the fulness of God’s character. The two, the Spirit and God, cannot be completely separated. In the New Testament it is called “Spirit of God” in the NKJV, KJV and NAS is used twelve times. The Spirit bring God’s presence to us because the Spirit comes from God, thus “the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor 3:6; John 6:63), to us.

    As Jesus has taught us, “When the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father” (John 15:26 NKJV). Meaning that the Spirit comes from God the Father, to us, in answer to the prayer of Jesus in our behalf. The Spirit is sent to be close to us, personal, bringing holy, saving, uplifting, “sanctifying” (1 Pet 1:2), powerful influences directly from God the Father.

 

The Spirit is our Helper

  In the NKJV the Spirit is called “Helper” in four places: John 14:16, 26; 15:26 and 16:7. The Greek word is paraklaytos meaning “advocate, intercessor, consoler, comforter, helper, one called alongside like a companion and one that stands by us.”  There are about seven different ways to describe the actions of the Spirit. Finding a suitable English translation is a very difficult task. No single English word has the same range of meaning as the Greek word, for all the words apply to the work of the Spirit. Various Bible translations use these words as names for the Spirit.

  The Holy Spirit has many functions, all for our good. The Spirit can be with us all day in all these roles for our spiritual growth. Jesus promised us that the “Advocate” will be “with you and will be in you” (Jn 14:17). The Spirit will be where you are at, closer than the physical presence of Jesus.

As our helper, the Spirit is never out of resources or power, because the Spirit comes from God the Father. It is not possible to list all the ways the Spirit has been send by God to help us. From the tasks of finding something lost or sending us in the right direction in our lives. They are too numerous, too frequent, too varied to count. The Spirit helps the child, the teen, as well as the mother of several small children. For “all things are possible with God” (Mark 10:27). Thus, we can “cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Pet 5:7).

 

The Spirit is our Comforter

  The Spirit is called a “comforter” (John 14:16 KJV). When sorrow falls on us, making us blind with depression. The Spirit will be there, for “the Spirit helps us in our weakness” (Rom 8:26). We become stronger, much stronger with the Spirit’s presence in our lives, than without the Spirit. When all alone, the Spirit is a companion to us.

  The Spirit is an “advocate” (John 14:26 NIV) to the Father in our behalf. “We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans” (Rom 8:26). The Spirit is not indifferent to our needs; the Spirit is passionate about us. The Spirit is out ahead of us, providing answers and solutions for us, before we are aware of them. The Spirit prays to the Father on our behalf, when we are too confused and don’t know what to do, even how to pray. For “the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans” (Rom 8:26).

  Unseen by you, God has His hand on you, by His Spirit that lives in you, with you and beside you.

 

The Spirit is Our Advocate

  Jesus told the disciples, the day before he was arrested, “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate [comforter, helper] to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:16-18). We are not left alone in this life; God is not indifferent to our many small daily tasks in which we ask for His help. He does not sit in heaven, at a safe distance from us. We are not His orphans, fatherless. As a good father to his children God’s presence is pledged to be with us—Through His Spirit.

 

Spirit is Like The Wind

  Jesus compares the Spirit as the wind saying “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So, it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). Just as each one of us, individually feels the force of the wind blowing on their faces. It is as if the Spirit is blowing on just them. Even as others around us, also feel the Spirit individually on them. The Spirit has unseen presence moving on a global scale, yet on a personal an individual scale. Changing us, teaching us, reproving us, and giving us the comforting presence of our Father God.

  The wind has no boundaries; it is present globally. The wind stands for presence of the Spirit that moves all over our wide world. In general terms Spirit moves in stealth mode. It is beyond the intellect, past human reason. It cannot be controlled by any individuals or organizations. The Spirit does not come to our request or demand. When the Spirit comes, he comes on his own terms.

  Our Helper can personally aid millions of believers, all over the world, all at the same time. The Spirit has a global influence, as is the air we breathe. He can have a universal dwelling “inside” the life of millions of believers, day, or night. To lead and teach all believers at the same time. All at one time. All at once. All over the world. Answering needs, supplying the presence of God and His Son in ways that bring us up, that lifts us up, into an atmosphere of spiritual health. While at the same time giving to all of us, the Spirit fruits His presence seen in “love, joy and peace” (Gal 5:22).

  No one can program the Spirit. No one can promise the Spirit’s presence. No one can hold a meeting and announce that the Spirit will be present. God directs His Spirit, we can’t.

 

How to Invite the Spirit in our Midst, to be Present at the Fellowship of Believers

       First, we need to be “kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ has forgave you” (Eph 4:32). This brings the Spirit to us and does not grieve the Spirit.

 The Apostle tells us how we can receive the Spirit in our midst. “And this is His [God’s 1st] command: to believe [have faith] in the name of his [God’s] Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as He [God’s 2nd] commanded us [He gave this commandment to us]. The one who keeps God’s [two] commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he [God] lives in us: We know it by the Spirit, He [God] gave us. (1 John 3:23,24).

  The first command from God Himself, is to have faith in His son. To fix our eyes on Jesus. To follow him in discipleship. To study his words, his parables, his teachings. To listen to his Apostles

The second command of God is to love one another. “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God [the Father], Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God [at all], because God is love.” (1 John 4:7,8)

  The results of keeping God’s two commandments are, that He will give to us the Spirit. But much more, for God promises to live in us, and we will live in Him. We know this to be real because of His Spirit. Because of the presence of His Spirit in our lives.

       Thus, if we as a group, a fellowship, or a congregation want the Spirit to be active in their lives. They must teach and lead everyone to love one another. To build each other up. To remove by prayer all barriers to love. To practice kindness and friendship among themselves. This will prepare the way for God to send to us the Spirit, as we ask God for this gift.

 

New Kind of Worship

  Now there is new kind of worship made available through the Spirit. As Jesus told the woman at the well, “true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks” (John 4:23). This worship is not sanctuary based, as in a specific location in Jerusalem, where all are mandated to attend, bringing their tithes and offerings.

  The Spirit is the means where God can be at “home” (John 14:23) in us. True worship is done with the Spirit’s presence and influence. This is a radical difference with Judaism, which is very visual, organized based worship, led by the Levites.

  The Spirit carries the name of Jesus to us, not its own name. The Spirit comes to us standing in place of the presence of Jesus. From the Spirit flows, the love of Jesus and His Father for us. As if we were standing near them.

 

The Magic of the Spirit

  The magic of the Spirit is His personal presence to the believer is as if the Spirit is only with them personally. Although we know that Spirit is with others, its personal presence is in real time. Giving us comfort, support, guidance, and wisdom. “We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives” (Col 1:9).

  As we receive of these gifts, day after day, we become deeply thankful to God the Father, who has sent His Spirit to be with us. We are filled with praise and love to God for His gifts.

We don’t possess the Spirit; the Spirit possesses us. We are to be led by the Spirit of God, “For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God” (Rom 8:14). We are led into the presence of God. We are led by the Spirit to have a love for God. It is all the Spirit’s doing.

  We don’t ever directly communicate with the Spirit. We don’t talk to the Spirit, pray to Spirit directly. Our prayers, our praise, our thanksgiving are always directed to “Our Father in Heaven.”  

The Spirit never speaks about himself to us. “He will not speak on his own… I said the Spirit will receive from me that he will make known to you (John 16:13,15).

  The Spirit is sent to be close, personal, and very attentive to individual needs, individual fears, as well as our unseen internal struggles. The Spirit functions comfortably with either men, women, or children. Even with guilty criminals that call on the name of the Lord. The Spirit is attentive to urgent prayers. The Spirit prays to God in our behalf when we are unaware of danger and our need of prayer. For, “the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God” (Rom 8:26,27).

 

Spirit Will Teach You All Things

  The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things” (John 14:26). The teaching role of the Spirit is never to underestimate. As you open Scriptures, ask God the Father to teach you, to give you understanding of Scriptures. Placing them in your heart forever.

The Holy Spirit has been described in many ways in the New Testament

The term “Holy Spirit” is used about ninety-three times in the NT.

The term “Spirit of God” is used eleven times in NIV and twelve time in NKJV

The Term “The Spirit of the Lord” is used four times in NIV, and five times in NKJV

The Term “The Spirit of truth” is used four times in NIV; five times in NKJV

The Term “The Spirit gives life” is used three times in the NIV; once in NKJV

The term “Spirit of Christ” is used two times in NIV & NKJV

The term “New way of the Spirit” used once in NIV

The term “Newness of the Spirit” used once in NKJV

The term “God’s Spirit” is used once in NIV

The term “God is Spirit” is used once in NIV & NKJV

The Term “The Spirit of His Son” is used once in NIV & NKJV

The term “the Spirit who is from God” is used once in NIV & NKJV

The “Spirit He (God) gave us” is used once in NIV

The “Spirit whom He (God) as given us” is used one in NKJV

References to the “Spirit” is used somewhere around 75-100 times in the NT

 

Other expressions used in the New Testament for the Spirit:

            The Spirit of holiness (Rom 1:4)

Set your mind on what the Spirit desires (Rom 8:5)

The mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace (Rom 8:6)

Led by the Spirit (Rom 8:14)

The love of the Spirit (Rom 15:30)

Made alive in the Spirit (1 Pet 3:18)

Receive the power of the Spirit (Lk 4:14)

Overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom 15:13)

Live by the Spirit (1 Cor 3:1)

Receive gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor 14:1)

Fruits of the Spirit is love, joy and peace... (Gal 5:22)

To please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life (Gal 6:8)

Songs from the Spirit (Eph 5:19; Col 3:16)

Joy given by the Holy Spirit (1 Thess 1:6)

The Holy Spirit and in sincere love (2 Cor 6:6)

Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Cor 13:14)

Your love in the Spirit (Col 1:8)

The Spirit gives us wisdom and understanding (Col 1:9)

The Spirit gives us wisdom and revelation (Eph 1:17)

Saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit (2 Thess 2:13)

The Spirit God gives us power, love, and self-discipline (2 Tim 1:7)

Through Christ Jesus, so by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit (Gal 3:14)

This is how we know that he lives in us: by the Spirit, he gave us. (1 John 3:24)

This is how we know that we live in Him and he in us: He [God] has given us of His Spirit (1 John 4:13

I tell you; no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit (John 3:5)

How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! (Lk 11:13).

 

The Spirit is to be Central in Gospel Teaching

  The subject of the ministry of the Spirit should be, must be, central in gospel teaching and preaching. Anytime the Spirit is neglected and untaught, we are poorer, spiritually. We will be like the Church in Laodicea that was counseled “to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich” (Rev 3:18). The fire represents the Spirit that came upon the disciples as “tongues of fire” (Act 2:3). The gold stands for the Spirit filled life, which is the gold standard for every believer in Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

 

1-Do Not Grieve the Spirit

  The Spirit is not grieved with himself—but for us. We can grieve the Spirit with our anger, jealousy, and irritability with others and our “unwholesome speech” (Eph 4:29), or words that hurt others in any way.

  The result is not that the Spirit abandons or leaves us. It is that we will experience a loss of inner peace and joy in the Lord. When after “anger” (4:31), we follow it with repentance, the Spirit will be there for us. The Spirit will give us “access” (2:18) to our Father God where we will receive forgiveness and justification from faith alone.

  However, if we grieve the Spirit in our rough treatment of others, tenants in our apartment, we stand a chance that we will justify our actions, feeling no need to be sensitive to the feelings of others. This is very dangerous, for such a person, cannot be sealed for the day of redemption into eternal life.

 

Don’t Put Out the Spirit’s Fire

  In a list of fifteen practices of the “children of light” in Thessalonians Paul encourages the believers saying to them “Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thess 5:19). In other words, don’t stifle, turn away the Spirit’s fire burning inside your spirit.

  The Greek word for “quench” means to extinguish, suppress, the fire. In practical terms the Spirit’s good influence on our lives, fighting our flesh in our behalf (Gal 5:17), planting the fruits of the Spirit (Gal 5:19), is suppressed, and are we left to “walk around in the darkness” (1 John 2:11).

We are not to quench the fire of enthusiasm which often will burst out in prayers, praises, thanksgivings. What a privilege to teach “With words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words” (1 Cor 2:13). What a shame to lose this privilege because our anger or unkindness has dampened the Spirit, resulting in further blindness as to our real spiritual condition.

John the Baptist predicted that Jesus “will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matt 3:11).

  The Holy Spirit’s influence in our lives is compared with fire. At times it burns high and bright, while at times it is a bed of hot coals. The first presence of the Spirit, after the resurrection of Jesus, was at Pentecost where “tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them” (Acts 2:3). There is an old proverb which says, "Where the Spirit is, He burns.”

  Where the Spirit is not, there is no enthusiasm in song or no “Spirit-taught words” (1 Cor 2:13) from the instructor of the Bible lessons or the public pulpit.

  It is formal, often like reading a manuscript. They are like sermons that are filled with personal anecdotes, with very little Scriptures. They are words with no wings that move the listener into conviction and heart felt prayers, at times forcing them in their seats and bringing them to tears of repentance and peace with God.

  The presence of the Spirit will bring the gift of warmth that percolates through the heart and at times, the body is swayed with deep emotion of love to God and heart felt prayers of repentance.

 

Quenching the Spirit by activities that run counter to the “fruits of the Spirit” (Gal 5:23).

             Instead of love—Hate and unkindness

                 Instead of Joy—Joy abusing others or in one’s pride.

             Instead of peace—Arguments and disagreements centered on one’s own demands.

 

2-Greive the Spirit

  The worst possible thing that could happen to us is when God takes away His Holy Spirit from us and leaves us “orphans” (John 14:18) in this world. David knew this and believed his sin could have so grieved God’s Spirit that it would be forever gone in his life. So, he prayed to God, “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me” (Ps 51:11). What a sad day, to lose the sweet abiding presence of the Spirit in your life. Worst of all, you lose what you had first in your encounter with God the day you give your heart to God and received of His Spirit.

  Activities that support the presence of the Spirit is following the Golden Rule: “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Lk 6:31). When not followed, the Spirit will tell you of your mistakes, if unheeded time after time, the Spirit is grieved.

 

Sealed by the Spirit of God

  The Spirit is the element IN which the believer is sealed. It is by the gracious influences of the Spirit of God that seals us. When we are “led by the Spirit (Gal 5:18) we will receive many fruits and gifts. One of the major gifts of the Spirit is what we best describe, as an implant in our hearts, to do good. “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good” (Eph 2:10). This desire to do good to others moves into our lives and fills every corner. We want to make a difference in the lives of others, our family, friends, strangers, animals, and plants. “Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it” (Ps 34:14).

  Because our “bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 6:18) where God can dwell in us. This is what is represented as being sealed by the Spirit. This sealing takes place in the here and now, giving to us assurance that at the Second Coming of Jesus, we will be ready for that day of redemption.

 

3-Do not Grieve

  In Greek this is in the present tense. What Paul is saying is that “Unwholesome” (Eph 4:29) language, “bitterness rage and anger” grieves the Holy Spirit. We should guard the Spirit’s presence because the Spirit is involved with our resurrection.

  When we are bitter, angry or have criticized others with malice. When we say spiteful words to others we grieve the Spirit. This affects our spiritual growth.

  When a person is “born of the Spirit” (John 3:8) their “bodies” will become “temples of the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 6:19), then unwholesome words will create a discomfort in the Spirit’s temple. It is as if the Spirit creates a kind of ruckus of disapproval, especially when profanity uses God’s name with slander. Listeners should be warned as to the potential danger of listening to “obscenity” (Eph 5:4), in a movie, relaxed in their front rooms while eating popcorn.

 

The Lord’s Prayer

  We will often pray the Lord’s Prayer, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Matt 6:13). Meaning that we ask God to guide our lives, our steps safely around or through the places where we would dishonor God’s name and not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. We are praying for Divine Guidance “to preserve our lives and kept [keep] our feet from slipping” (Ps 66:9). For we know that the evil one has set temptations along our path, so that he can cause us to fall into sin, again and again. “Since you are my rock and my fortress, for the sake of your name lead and guide me” (Ps 31:3). When we are faced with trouble causing us to fear, we can like David say, “I would hurry to my place of shelter, far from the tempest and storm” (Ps 55:8).

 

PS: Postscript

  It bears repeating, for Paul develops the theme further in the next chapter, saying “not a hint of sexual immorality” or “obscenity” should be in our lives, or we will not “inherit the kingdom of God” (Eph 5:4). Thus, we must be very careful in watching movies that have swearing or constant cursing as part of their script. When we voluntarily watch profanity with graphic sexual encounters, with enjoyment, it will impact the Spirit of God in our lives, grieving the Spirit. For the Spirit creates a Holy space inside us, known as the “Spirit of truth” (John 14:17; 15:26; 16:13), so what your eyes are watching is not only lies, but evil—all the opposite of truth.

  Instead, treasure the Spirit’s presence, guard it with your life, your “eyes” (Matt 6:22,23) and your “ears” (Matt 13:15) in tune with “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things” (Phil 4:8).

  For it is not belief in church doctrines, church attendance, tithe paying or being a worship leader that seals us for the day of redemption, our resurrection at the Second Coming of our Lord. It is the treasured presence of the Spirit of God “guiding” us and “teaching” us the way of the Lord (John 16:13; 14:26). We can know, we can be assured, by the “Spirit himself” which “testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (Rom 8:16), that we are redeemed because our “robes” are “made them white in the blood of the Lamb” (Rev 7:14).

  One final thought. Keep your conscience sensitive to what Scriptures teach, do that the tradition of men, don’t take the place of the voice of the Spirit. Remember that is not what an organization tells you, what you must do to be saved. Avoid adding new doctrines that are not New Testament based, thus making you feel guilty.

  Daily ask God for the Holy Spirit.


End of Ephesians  Chapter 4

Written by: Brothers & Sisters in Scripture Fellowship

Read & Study More

Ephesians 5

Colossian 1

1 John 1

John 3:1-8

John 4:21-24

Matthew 17:5



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