Ephesians 4:25-32. Yesterday’s reading ended by encouraging the beilevers in Ephesus to put on the new self which models God (v. 24) Tomorrows section by telling the believers to be “imitators of God” (Ephesians 5:1) Sandwiched between are some examples of what that looks like. The examples are taken from human life, they aren’t pictures of God that we are to copy, they contrast what not to do with what to do. Where we really see God is in the reasons Paul gives for the different actions.

In verse 25 Paul tells his readers not to lie but rather to “speak truth, each one with his neighbor”. He is quoting Zechariah 8:16 in that verse. If you look up Zechariah 8:16 in your Bible it probably doesn’t say anything about neighbors that is because Paul was quoting from the Greek translation of the Old Testament which does say “your neighbor”. Zechariah was written to Jews during the return to and rebuilding of Jerusalem after the Babylonian captivity. So the neighbors here would have been Jews all part of the same group. So Paul is telling the believers to be truthful with each other, that doesn’t mean they could lie to non-believers though. His reason and point here is that they need to be honest because they are all part of the same team.

In verse 26 He tells them when they get angry not to sin. They need to deal with anger quickly. Some people think that this gives us permission to be angry as long as we don’t let it go to far. I’m not sure, on the one hand we do have an example of Jesus making a whip and driving people out of the temple who were using it as a place of business (John 2:13-16). His followers saw this as a fulfillment of prophecy. John doesn’t say he was angry though he says he was passionate. The only time the idea of anger is clearly applied to Jesus is in Mark 3:5 where a bunch of religious leaders are using a handicapped person to try to trap Jesus. The word used there is related to the word here in Ephesians for anger. Jesus doesn’t lose his cool though, there is no outburst it seems to be an internal anger. In the Old Testament there are several verses that talk about God’s anger. On the other hand Paul told the church at Corinth that if they wanted their actions to be useful that they needed to be influenced by love. He described that love as patient, kind, and unprovoked (1 Corinthians 13:4-7). It seems like it might be hard to have those attitudes and be angry at the same time. Down in verse 31 and over in Colossians 3:8 Paul tells his readers to get rid of anger (using another form of the same word) and in Galatians 5:20 he calls anger a deed of the flesh, meaning something we should not do. In that verse the Greek word he uses for anger is a different one, some experts say it is equal to this word and other say it is different. The reason they need to deal with anger quickly is so the Devil won’t have an opportunity. Even if Paul is saying it’s ok to be angry sometimes there is clearly a danger involved. How quick is quick? Most experts think that Paul is quoting Psalm 4:5 here from a Greek translation of the Old Testament. That Psalm was written by David and people were attacking his reputation. He describes their words as worthless and deceptive. Then he tells them “be angry and do not sin”. One Bible expert puts it together this way, “Be angry if you must, but stop sinning by continuing your empty, false speech” (Frank Thielman, Baker Exegetical Commentary on Ephesians (2010), p. 313). We have already seen that we need to speak words of truth. Now Paul is telling us not to allow our emotions to control us to the point that the Devil has an opportunity. When we are angry our words are usually pretty useless, in that sense they are empty. As we will see God wants our words to be useful and the Devil loves keeping us off that track.

In verse 28 the readers are told to stop stealing if they are doing that. Instead they need to work with their own hands doing what is good. Clearly he is talking to people who don’t have it easy, these are not rich people but people who are tempted to steal to get by. This isn’t slaves either who would have been provided for and have no need to steal. The work these people are told to do is tiring hard work with their own hands. The word “good” means “good ina useful way”. The reason for working hard was so they would have something to share with others in need. In Galatians 6:1-10 Paul tells believers in those churches to carry “each others loads” and in James 1:27 James tells us that if we really love God we will help widows and orphans, usually the most needy in a society. For sure these people need to feed themselves but God wants us to look beyond ourselves to others (Philippians 2:3-4).

In verses 29-30 Paul returns to their speech. He tells them not to let any unwholesome words come out of their mouths but to speak words that “build up according to the need of the moment”. The Greek word translated “unwholesome” is pretty nasty. It was used to describe rotting fish, rotting wood, useless stuff caught in a fishermans net, and dead flowers . Probably the most disgusting idea it was used for was the smell of the mythical figure known as “Death”, who smelled like rotting flesh. Nasty. Clearly all of these things have the common idea of being totally useless, not to mention disgusting, gross and offensive. Paul tells them that instead their words need to “build up”. He has used the idea of building so much in this letter it would be hard to hear the word without thinking of “house”, “Temple” and “body” that Paul has talked about being built, all examples of the “team” or “group” they were all part of, God’s forever family, the church. This is made even more clear When we see the first part of his reason; “so it may give grace to those who hear”. Grace has included two related ideas in this letter so far; the undeserved gift of salvation that God is offering people and it has been related to the “gifts” or abilities God has given to each believer so that we can build each other up into mature followers of Jesus who reflect his character. So the first part of his reason is all about making God’s forever family bigger and better. The second part of the reason is related it’s so we don’t grieve the Holy Spirit. What makes the Holy Spirit sad? Paul describes the Holy Spirit in this verse as the one who was his reader’s “seal for the day of redemption”. The Holy Spirit is the proof that we have turned our lives over to Jesus. He is our certificate of adoption into God’s forever family. By using this description Paul is pointing to what makes the Holy Spirit sad here. Remember that the Holy Spirit not only is our proof of being part of God’s family but that he also helps us know who Jesus is and remember what he taught. What we see here is that he is made sad when our words don’t bring that same understanding to others, when our words do not help others understand the gift of salvation and become an active part of God’s forever family.

The final two verses give a list of attitudes and actions that we are to “put away” from our lives. These attitudes and actions are bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander and all malice. I think we understand most of these words. I think the last one is sort of a summary description of the list and also it keeps the list open for others things that could be described as “malice”. That word means evil, bad, wicked, things that are not as they should be. From the ideas above we see the way God wants things. God wants things that heal our relationship with him. He wants us to be a part of bring peace between God and each individual. And he wants things that bring us closer to him. That’s how things ought to be. In verse 32 we see this in what Paul wants the readers to do. Paul wants us to be kind to one another. That word has the idea of actions that are useful and helpful, back to that “need of the moment” idea above. Paul wants us to be “tender-hearted”. Literally that word means to “have a good guy (bowels)”. For the Greeks their gut was the center of their emotions not the heart. The idea here is caring about others. Next he wants them to be forgiving. We all do things that offend others and we are all offended by others. We need to let those things go. The reason Paul gives for all of this is because God in Christ forgave us. I think there is only one reason here because all of the things go together. Instead of having useless attitudes and actions that don’t bring people closer to God, Paul says we need to do things that are helpful (that do bring people closer to God), we need to care more about others (tender-hearted) and less about our selves (don’t keep score, forgive), that’s how Jesus acted toward us.

So what are we to do to grow in the image of God, to put on that new self? We need to be honest and remember we are all on the same team working toward the same goal. We need to not get angry and let our words become empty and useless, that is the Devil’s plan not God’s. We need care about the needs of others and work hard to meet them. We need to speak words that bring others to God and closer to God. And we need to forgive others because God has forgiven us. How interesting is that that being a better me involves focusing on other and not myself. Of course that is what God did, Jesus existed as god in Heaven from eternity past and one day said, “I need to become a human so I can fix this mess.” He didn’t regard equality with God as a thing he needed to hold onto so he laid aside some of his divine privileges and became a servant of us all (Philippians 2:5-8). Wow.

God help me be more like you. Help me be a servant. Let me care about people the way you care about people. Help my work be profitable so I can share. Help me forgive. Help me introduce people to you in such a way that they will want a relationship with you. Thank you for loving me help me love other more and more every day.