Be brought to completion by the Spirit, part six

 

Growth - or Arthritis?

This week we are going to look at the specific exhortations we receive in the book of Ephesians.

When we are obedient to these exhortations, we participate in the Spirit’s great work of completing the body of Christ.

As we proceed, watch for places where Paul, after giving us a specific command,  brings in Christ and His church.  This keeps the larger purpose in view.

So we will receive commands from the Lord that concern our behavior, primarily.

Again and again, these commands are placed in the setting of the church, the body of Christ.

Our obedience to these commands contributes to preserving the unity of the Spirit.  Our obedience contributes to the growth of the body.

As we grow as a body, we are being completed by the Spirit.

So that ultimately we are participating in the Father’s great project of summing up all things in Christ.

Unfortunately, the opposite is also true.

When we disobey these commands, we damage the unity of the Spirit. This impedes the growth of the body.  It means that  we are weakening the connections or relationships in the body - the joints.  We become arthritis to the body!

 

From general to specific

Let’s walk through these commands together.

EPH 4:22-24
22 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you put away the old man, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put on the new man,  which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

This is the general statement.

Throughout this letter, Paul proceeds from the general to the specific. First he gives the general principle. Then he describes the specific ways that the principle is carried out.

For example, God the Father is summing up all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on earth.  This is the general principle that governs the entire letter of Ephesians.

Paul then gives the  two specific ways God  is accomplishing this.

God is summing up the things on earth by building up the church, which is the fullness of Christ.

God  is summing up the things in the heavens by making His wisdom known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

As Ephesians progresses from here, it continues to move from general principles to specific ways.

Here in Ephesians 4:22-24, we first get the general principle: we put away the old man, are renewed in the spirit of our mind, and put on the new man.

Then,  as we shall see, the rest of chapters 4 and 5 give specific ways in which we put away the old man and put on the new man.

In chapter 6 we will see how the Father makes His wisdom known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Hint: it has to do with His armor.

 

Replace lies with truth

EPH 4:25
25 Therefore, laying aside falsehood,SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE of you WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another.

One specific way that we put away the old man and put on the new man is to put away lying and speak truth to each other.

Why?  Because we are members of one another. 

This is not simply a plea for moral behavior. This concerns behavior in a setting: the body of Christ. We are members of one another, and when we stop lying and start speaking the truth, we build bonds of love. This contributes to the unity of the Spirit.

If we keep lying to one another, we won’t preserve the unity of the Spirit. We are damaging our relationships with other members of the body. 

 

An open door for the devil

EPH 4:26-27
26 BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not give the devil an opportunity. 2

Don’t give the devil an opportunity.  An opportunity to do what?  To break up the unity between us.

Anger provides an open door for the devil to come in and do harm to the body of Christ.

If we stay angry with our husband or wife, the marriage is weakened.  Eventually this may lead to some kind of separation. Separation is the opposite of unity.

Families that stay angry with one another break up.  So do congregations.

What grieves the Spirit?

EPH 4:28-32
28 He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need. 29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. 30  Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31  Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32  Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

The failings that we are told to put away in Ephesians are  by no means a full catalog of sins. They are a subset of sins that share a common feature. That common feature is that each of them damages our relationships with one another.

Lying does.
Anger does.
Stealing does.

So do unwholesome words, bitterness, wrath, clamor, slander, and malice.

These are all sins directed at others.

The things that grieve the Spirit are the things that break up the unity of the body.

How do we not grieve the Holy Spirit of God?  By no longer doing these things.

On the other hand, when we use our hands for productive work rather than for stealing, we will have things to share with needy members of the body of Christ. This builds up the body and preserves the unity. 

When we use our tongues to build up rather than put down, we strengthen the bonds of love that hold the body together.

 

Walking together as God’s beloved family

EPH 5:1-5
1  Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

3 But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; 4 and there must be no  filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

These 5 verses regulate behavior in the midst of the assembly. 

We are to walk together in love with the same love that Christ loved us with when He died for us.

And unwholesome conversations are not proper among the saints,  and should be replaced with giving thanks when the congregation gathers together.

EPH 5:6-14
6  Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them; 8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light 9 (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), 10  trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. 11  Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; 12 for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. 13 But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light. 14 For this reason it says,

" Awake, sleeper,
And arise from the dead,
And Christ will shine on you.

We are to be on our guard so we are not deceived by false teachers who peddle “empty words”. 

This harkens back to EPH 4:14-16.  The body grows when the truth is spoken in the congregation.

When false teaching and lies are being spoken instead, the body is harmed.  To that extent, it is no longer growing up into Christ.

On the other hand, when our behavior is put under the light of the knowledge of the Son of God, we clearly see what is disgraceful, and what is pleasing to the Lord.

The Light reveals what is harmful to the body and what is nourishing for the body of Christ.

 

Complete, or a complete wreck?

EPH 5:15-21
15 Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, 16  making the most of your time, because the days are evil. 17 So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation (disorderly living, reckless abandon, the opposite of being made whole), but be filled with the Spirit (be made complete, be brought to fullness, be brought to a designed end by the Spirit), 19  speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; 20  always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; 21  and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

Recall that this entire letter of Ephesians is addressed to the body as a whole, to the congregation as one community.

We are to walk together as wise men and women.   We as a community are to make the most of our time. We work together to understand what the will of the Lord is.

When we gather together, it is not for the purpose of drinking wine until we are drunk.

That is what the unsaved people of the world do in their gatherings!

To understand how damaging drunkenness  is to the unity of the body, take a simple test. Go back to the good and the bad behaviors we have just seen. 

Ask yourself this question:  Does drunkenness make it more likely, or less likely, that this behavior will occur?

First, the bad behaviors.

Will immorality be less likely or more likely if we are intoxicated?

 How about silly talk and coarse jesting? How about being deceived by empty words?

How about stealing, or lying, or getting violently angry?  Less likely when drunk - or more likely?

Now let’s consider the good behaviors.

Are you more likely to go to work and be productive after a night of heavy drinking?   How about while you are drunk?

How about the songs?  When people get drunk together, do they typically sing psalms? Hymns?  Spiritual songs?  I speak as if insane!  The phrase "drinking songs" is almost a Proverb - and they ain't hymns!!   "In heaven there is  no beer..."

No, we are not to gather together to get drunk together.

We gather together to participate in the work of the Spirit.  He is at work to preserve the unity and to facilitate growth in the body.

We gather together for the purpose of being brought to completion in unity, as one  body,  by the Spirit. 

We will be complete when the body of Christ is mature.  This means that the church as a whole will have achieved the stature belonging to the fullness of Christ.

Getting drunk won’t accomplish that.

Loving one another will!

 

Strengthen the connections!

Starting in verse 19 of chapter 5  and continuing all the way to chapter 6 verse 9, the Lord addresses  basic relationships in the life of the body.  He tells us the things we are to do, and the things we are not to do, in those relationships.

First we have the congregation - EPH 5:19-21

Second we have marriage -EPH 5:22-33.

Third we have the family - EPH 6:1-4

Fourth we have the workplace - EPH 6:5-9.

By obeying the Lord in these relationships, we preserve the unity of the Spirit.

In every case, the Lord is imploring us to do the things that will strengthen the connection between saints by building the bonds of love and peace.

In this way, the whole body gets  fitted and held together by these strong bonds, as each individual member of the body functions properly.

Strong bonds in our congregation.
Strong bonds of love in our marriages.
Strong families.
Strong workplaces.

This causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love, and we grow in all aspects into our head, Christ.

And as we will see next time, these core relationships all work according to the principle of obeying proper authorities set up by God.

In our daily lives now, in our congregations, marriages, families, and workplaces, we are called to submit.

Next time, we will be instructed about how we are to act in each of these relationships.  That will complete our look at the summing up of all things on the earth in Christ.

Then we will turn our attention to how we participate in God’s work of summing up all things in the heavenly places in Christ.

 

Until the next time, we’re all ….

In His grip,

Pastor John

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