Live…In Love Ephesians 4:25-5:2 8/12/18
- Last week, we read from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians that the Church, the body of Christ, arrives at unity and maturity through a spirit of humility, generosity and bearing one with one another in love. Paul says this is accomplished by putting off the old self and putting on the new self, a renewing of the mind.
- Doesn’t that sound just wonderful? Unity, maturity, bearing with one another in love. Isn’t that a great idea? Yes, but it is just an idea, a lofty ideal, if we stop there. Paul introduces a very important word into his epistle in verse 25. “Therefore” (Greek: dio from dia). A conjunctive adverb that grammarians say joins two clauses or two thoughts to complete a sentence.
- In our case, “therefore” joins together the beautiful idea of unity and maturity among God’s people with the real-life, daily hard-work that is required of us to arrive at unity and maturity.
- “Therefore” transitions us from theory to action. It keeps us real, practical. It compels us to manifest our idea into being. If there is no “therefore” in your religious life, you are, Paul says elsewhere, “a clanging symbol.” You are all revved up, but you are not going anywhere, like the cartoon characters that spin their feet in circles, but never get moving. We are just a bunch of hot air without a “therefore” at work in our life.
- Complete this sentence in your head. “I am a Christian, therefore………” or how about, “I want unity and maturity in my relationships and in my church, therefore…..”
- Are you not for sure how to fill in the blank? Paul gives us some good instructions on how to achieve unity and maturity in the church and in other relationships. It’s important that we look at these instructions. Because there is enough hot air in any given room that we enter. There is enough revving up of intentions and lofty ideas and words. What we need to do if we are to have relationships of integrity and to grow and become filled with God’s love, and be productive in producing good fruit, is to insert a “therefore” and then follow through. You are a Christian? So what? You want unity and maturity, therefore what are you going to do?
- First, Paul says to put off falsehood and to speak truthfully. Because we are all members of one body. If you lie to others, speak half truths, tell white lies, are not up front with people, you lie to the organism that you are a member of, the body, the community that sustains you. If we cannot trust what the other is saying, then the whole thing crumbles, the body attacks itself like a cancer and dies.
- Next, Paul deals with anger issues. There is a lot of anger in our society today. We commonly says of certain people. “Oh, you have to understand them, they have anger issues.” We apply that label to young people as well. Put Paul says it is time we address the anger issues of our society. He says we will all understandable get angry from time to time. In fact, at some point there is a righteous anger over injustices. But the distinction, Paul makes is this. Do not let your anger get so out of control that you sin. Don’t get so angry that your life starts to miss its mark, its purpose, its aim. Don’t let anger be your banner. Some people glory in being angry. They wear it as a self-righteous badge of honor. “I’m angry. Why are you not angry? You must be naïve or a fool.” Paul says deal with your anger. Resolve it. Don’t let it boil up inside of you and then, when you cannot take any more, explode. Do not let the sun go down while you are angry. You’ll sleep better. Anger gets in the way of calmly, deliberately resolving the issue. Furthermore, anger, Paul says, gives the devil a foothold. In other words if you become the person always walking around with a chip on your shoulder, you have the seeds of your own destruction planted within your heart. Because Satan is a destroyer.
- Do something useful, instead. Be a positive force for good, not a negative Nelly. Interestingly, Paul suggests that if you are not contributing to the good of your family, your church, your society, and have become a negative, chip-on-your-shoulder, angry man or woman, you are, in effect, stealing from the community. You are stealing its joy. You are stealing by not contributing. You were not put on this earth to be angry or lazy or to be a drain on the emotional resources of your community. You were not put on this earth to watch TV all day, or play video games four hours or more a day, or endlessly scroll through your smart phone. Contribute! Get your “therefore” in gear and start producing good fruit – materially, spiritually and emotionally.
- And in whatever you do, make sure your talk is wholesome. Do your words build up, edify and produce a positive benefit to the whole? People who are stuffy, huffy and puffy are usually known by their unwholesome language: negativity, braggadocio, cursing. Have you noticed how cursing has crept into the mainstream of acceptable language? In television, workplace, classroom, even among Christians. Wholesome talk is not about being prudish. It means that because we have wholly consecrated our lives to the living God, who is good and merciful and loving, that we speak his language. And God’s language is alive and beautiful like the sun and the skies. The Psalmist says in Psalm 19 “The heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech…The word of the Lord refreshes the soul…give joy to the heart…sweeter than honey…So then may the words of my and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight.”
- Next Paul says “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit.” There has been a lot of ink put to paper in an effort to explain what that means. I like what Wesley said in his Sermon 138. He says we are not to drive away or disappoint the Holy Spirit, because he is our best friend. When our hearts are boastful, greedy, controlling, hateful, jealous, lustful, and so on, we show contempt for our friend. It is as if we are directing these behaviors toward him, Wesley says. Worst of all, says Wesley, we may provoke the Holy Spirit to withdraw. And when the Holy Spirit withdraws, the devil, the spirit of darkness and destruction that moves in the word, gets a foot hold in our lives, and things get ugly quickly. Instead, Wesley says, attend to the motion of the Holy Spirit, listen for his nudges, his voice, his instructions and follow him. And, finally, Wesley says do not let your mind and thoughts wander from the “great business of salvation” and become “insensible of divine convictions,” which is hard-heartedness.
- Get rid of the anger, rage and bitterness in your heart through practicing compassion, kindness, and forgiveness. This gets you out of your selfish, narcissistic world of self-righteous anger and redirects you back to God and to your neighbor, both of whom Jesus commands you to love.
- Finally, Paul concludes with a beautiful meditation on the sacrifice of Jesus, which he calls a fragrant offering. Spend some time kneeling at the foot of the cross and consider that God is in a constant state of emptying himself for you. Even now. At every moment, like a Father who love and will do anything for his child, God constantly empties himself of love, mercy, grace, possibilities and opportunities to redeem you, to cleans you, to strengthen you, to cause you to be successful, that you will not be the tail but the head. This self-emptying of God is known to us through Jesus Christ, who hung upon a cross, shed his blood, lost his life, that you might have yours. Don’t waste it on anger, bitterness, grieving the Holy Spirit, slothfulness and aimlessness. Instead, it is time that you insert that all important conjunctive adverb “therefore” in your religious life.
- I am a Christian, therefore, I will not be consumed by anger and rage and bitterness and negativity, but I will let my words be sweet, I will be useful, I will be sensitive to the motions of the Holy Spirit in my heart. I will practice compassion, kindness and forgiveness.
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