Ephesians 4:17-32 – So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 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. 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.
That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 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; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. 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.
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
In chapter 2 we see Paul speaking about how in Christ the whole structure is joined together and grows in a holy tempe in the Lord. We are built together spiritually in him. The idea is that Paul is saying the church is a community.
Community. What is community? Community in human terms means those who join together on basis of religion, intent, belief, resources and/or needs.
Community means a group of persons who join together because they share something in common. We, the church are a community, a group of persons who unite together at a certain time and place to worship together, to gather strength from one another, to grow in this organism called for so long, the church. So the church, therefore is a community. And the church exists in a bigger community called a neighborhood, which exists in a bigger community called a city, state, nation, world, earth, galaxy, and so on and so forth.
God is bringing us together spiritually, into a place where God can dwell with us. God no longer dwells in a temple, for a physical building cannot contain God. But God chose to dwell in us, the church, in order to live among humanity. Therefore, in you I see God. In my wife, I see God, my son, I see God. Not that my son is God, but in that in my son, I see God’s mercy and grace working in and through his life, and your life. I find redemption and grace through you.
So Paul here is reminding the Ephesians that we no longer live according to the patterns of this world, in our thinking, but are called to be transformed into a newness of life, a taking of and putting on. This leads us into chapter 4.
So what exactly is Paul speaking about? What pattern is he thinking of? It begins in 4:17, in the futility of their minds, alienated from the life of God. Why? Because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. Losing all sensitivity, abandoning themselves to all pleasures, greed, practicing every kind of impurity.
What Paul is saying here is that to be away from God is to be towards the self. When we are alienated from God, we are concerned mainly about ourselves. My way, what I need, what I want. But it is more than that. It is losing the sensitivity of the world around you, seeking for ones own gain, hardening our heart so as to not to see the needs of others, that what we are doing is affecting someone else in some way, all so that we can receive pleasure. This is called greed.
An example can be taken as this: When we buy a 6 pack of soda, do we know what happens to the plastic that holds the cans together? Do we know what happens to the cans if they are not recycled? “Our earth speaks to us, and we must listen if we want to survive” (Pope Benedict XVI, July 24, 2007). Maybe its that we don’t want to listen. That is the issue Paul brings up to us. We are not sensitive to our world around us, and even more so, to our neighbors around us. We desire some form of pleasure, even minute.
Here is another example. You see a homeless person on the sidewalk. He/she smells. What is the first thing you think? Or maybe the homeless person is on the train, and is smelling the whole train car. What is your first thought? Did it bother you? Were you disgusted? Or did you ask, how did he/she get there? Why did this happen to them? What should I do to help?
Our answers will most likely be one of disgust as opposed to one of sympathy. And this pattern is in fact a pattern of greed. Why? That is a darkened understanding of what is happening around us. We are bothered by what the person has done to us, and we have not stopped to think about how that person is suffering and humiliated at that moment, asking for money, ashamed at how he/she smells, but cannot do anything about it. It is one of greed.
But that is not how we are being called to act! When we learned about Christ, we were called to live differently. Paul says that when we encountered Christ, we took off the old way of living, and put on the new way as lived in Christ. The action of taking off and putting on, is a powerful act. To take off something is symbolic of the act that one no longer goes according to that pattern. When Jesus called Lazarus out of death, the grave clothes had to be removed, since Lazarus no longer lived according to the pattern of death, but of life. Blind Bartimaeus took off his cloak, the cloak which signified his status as a blind beggar, and was in anticipation of putting on the newness of life. To take off and to put on is a powerful act.
We do this when we put on Christ. We take off the old patterns of this world, and put on the new patterns through Christ. We do not conform to an old pattern of thinking, but a new pattern found in Christ. In other words, a different perspective.
So there are two parts that Paul calls us to put away, the first deals with what comes out of our mouth, the second with what we do with our actions.
The words that come out of our mouths are a reflection of the heart. If our heart has been changed, if we are following God, then what happens? Our actions and words reflect it. So it is right that Paul says that we need to put away falsehood. Falsehood is lying to one another. This is in fact a selfish act, since lying is used mostly to protect ones self from blame, from punishment, yet leads to more hurt by those around you. Let us take for example David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11. In David’s sin he lied. In lying he kills Uriah to take Bathsheba as his wife. He covers up everything. Even though he admits this lie, the ramifications show themselves later on in life. His family, which is a community, breaks apart. He goes to war against his son, brother against brother for the land of Israel. It’s a mess. All because David lied, spoke falsely.
Speaking in truth calls us to speak honestly, and try try to find ways to remedy situations, so that truth sets us free. To speak falsely hurts the body of Christ, since we are all united together, intertwined. If I were to lie, it affects all of us spiritually, it affects the neighborhood we live in. Why, because I alienate myself from you, from those around me, in order to protect myself. I am not free to interact. Rather I interact by rejecting everything around me.
Another portion from words: Let nothing evil come out of your mouth. Only what is used to lift up the body of Christ. This is a powerful statement. How many of us have used words to hurt others? Secretly or openly? Do you remember the phrase “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me?” Well, that is a lie. Words hurt. There may be many of you who have been hurt by someone for what they have said. Words, once said, do not return without doing its purpose. If we are not careful, and we speak evil, it will do its damage. No, rather, we are called to use our words to life up the body of Christ, to help it grow. It is like talking to a plant. Sounds crazy, right? But it does help. Plants grow faster when they are spoken to. We aren’t plants, but, like plants, when we hear words that lift us up, we grow more mature in God, we gather the strength we need to keep going strong in the midst of our own struggles. Words build up the community, so that we build strong and lasting members in the body of Christ that will pour into one another for continuous growth. But the words that come out must be for building up.
The second part deals with ones actions. “The one who steals must steal no longer; rather he must labor, doing good with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with the one who has need.” Old patterns, old habits. The idea of work, to do something that will help the community is what Paul is talking about. One must work in order to share. What a strange concept. We work in order to share. Paul is calling us to take off our old pattern of living, to live for the needs of the self, and put on the new, by working to provide not only for the self, but for others. It calls us to reflect on the needs of others and to give of what is ours to build up the body of Christ, so that no one lacks. So if we have a bad pattern before, we are called to change that pattern, and live lives worthy of Christ.
I did not want to forget this one. In your anger do not sin, which qualify both our words and our actions. To be angry is have a strong feeling of displeasure towards what someone is doing. Not the person them-self, but what they are doing. What do we do? We sin when we put them down, when we retaliate towards them. We sin. When Jesus got angry at the temple, he was not angry at the people, but what they were doing. His action was not sinful. This provides the example for us. My wife showed me an email on how to correct my son when he does something wrong. The writer said that we are not to tell our son that he is bad, but rather that what he has done is bad. If we say he is bad, like “Bad boy!,” we are saying that he is bad. But if we say do not do that, what you are doing is bad,” we are identifying that his action is wrong, not him. In the same way, when we are angry, we should not sin by putting down the person, but rather we deal with the issue by speaking about the action that you did not like. In our action, we are being told to not sin by putting others down, or by doing something physically wrong against them, but rather to speak in honesty about what you dislike. In doing that, the situation gets remedied.
This is a lot. However, we are no longer following the patterns of the world in terms of thinking. The old ways are greed, selfishness, and seeking ones own pleasure. These are patterns of the world, one of individuality, one against community, one seeking to lift up above all others. God desires that we lift up the community, and that means patterns should change to meet the needs of the community around us.
So I end with these two verses in Ephesians 5:1-2. Therefore, bet imitators of God as dearly loved children and live in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God. May we live lives that imitate what God has done for us, not be selfish, but giving up God’s self, so that we may live. God Bless You.