Can We Live Like That?

The past few weeks I’ve been in two different Bible studies (at two different churches) that are both going through the book of Ephesians chapter 4 at about the same pace. This chapter is a raw rubber-on-the-road chapter! I’ve been studying this chapter in the Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Here are some highlights that have impressed me:

In verse 1 Paul begs his readers to live in a way that is worthy of the people God has chosen to be his own (CEV). Then he gives some hints of what he means in verse 2 and 3:

• ·       Be humble (don’t toot your own horn as better than others)
• ·       Be gentle (tender with other people’s feelings)
• ·       Be patient with each other (God is not in a hurry and we don’t need to be)
• ·       Love each other (love hardly ever notices when others do it wrong)
• ·       Keep your hearts united (agree on what Jesus has done for us)
• ·       Live at peace with each other (don’t insist that everyone act like us)

Verses 4-6 stresses the unity of the Christian faith, we are all part of the same church which is Christ’s body. There are six ‘ones’ in two verses:

• 1.     One Spirit of God 
• (Jesus left the earth so the Spirit would come and teach us)
• 2.   One hope 
• (Acts 4:12 (NLT)There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.")
• 3.     One Lord 
• (Jesus)
• 4.     One faith 
• (And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to Him must believe [understand] that God exists and that He rewards those who sincerely seek Him. Heb 11:6 NLT)
• 5.     One baptism (Holy Spirit baptism, not water baptism)
• 6.     One God who is Father of all people

Starting in verse 7 Paul gives more details about how the church works. It works because of the special abilities that Christ gives to each of us. (Note: verses 8-10 are a parenthetical thought; the logic picks up again in verse 11)

In verse 11 Paul identifies some of the special abilities Christ allocates to different believers:

• ·       Apostles
• ·       Prophets
•       Missionaries (evangelists)
• ·       Pastors
• ·       Teachers

The key here, it seems to me, is that we don’t all do the same thing. The evangelists are usually outgoing people and sometimes they make people feel guilty because they talk like everyone should be an evangelist. That, of course, is really not true. We each have our own talents and our own tasks so we can glorify God and enjoy him forever.

The purpose of these special abilities that Christ has given us is presented in verse 12:

• ·       So that his people (us/we) would learn to serve
• ·       And his body (the church) would grow strong

The service described here might be the items listed in verse 2-3 above and would include helping other people (food, clothing, meals, car rides, visiting, fixing fence, money … whatever).

The “grow strong” concept is continued in verse 13:

• ·       Be united by our faith (the ‘one’ concept of verses 4-6)
• ·       Be united by our understanding of the Son of God
• ·       Be mature in our understanding of the Son of God
• ·       Be transformed (day by day by the renewing of our minds) until we become like him (in the way we treat saints and sinners)

In verse 14 Paul becomes very direct, just to be sure his readers did not miss the point:

• ·       Don’t act like children (rather be mature in our faith and understanding)
• ·       Don’t be tricked by false teaching (following first this idea and then that idea)
• ·       Love each other; this requires telling the truth, be honest and consistent in the way we live and what we say
• ·       Don’t stay the same year after year, grow to be more like Christ

If we will relax, do only our part (not try to do someone else’s job) then we’ll understand that:

• ·       Christ is the head of the church, his body
• ·       Christ holds it all together (his power, not us trying to measure up)
• ·       All of the parts work perfectly when we allow them to grow through our love

Now, in verse 17 Paul gets right to the point, no hints, this is the deal:

As a follower of the Lord, I order you to stop living like stupid, godless people. Eph 4:17 CEV 

Wow, no doubt about how he feels about that idea!

Then he goes on to itemize some details about godless people:

• ·       Their minds are in the dark
• ·       They are stubborn
• ·       They are ignorant of God’s existence and plans
• ·       They have missed out on the life that comes from God
• ·       They no longer have feelings about what is right
• ·       They are greedy
• ·       They do indecent things

I don’t think he means to say that every one of the godless people has all of these traits, he’s only trying to give us a heads up about a godless culture.

Starting in verse 20 he compares the godless life to Jesus:

• ·       Jesus is the truth (Christians more than anyone eagerly welcomes truth from all sources, but here I presume he’s stressing truth about himself and God)
• ·       Christians change their way of life because the godless lifestyle destroys their peace with God (v 22)
• ·       Let the Spirit change our thinking – i.e. give God permission to work in and through us for his glory. Suit up, show up and give thanks for everything.
• ·       Become new in the way we think about God (v 24). We are created to be like God, when we become more like him we complete his plan for us and we are the happiest that we can possibly be.
• ·       We tell each other the truth (how we feel, what we know about God, what we are learning, when we hurt, when we have a question or problem, and on and on) (v 25)
• ·       Don’t go to bed angry, anger is OK, just don’t allow it to cause us to push back against God (v 26)
• ·       Don’t give the devil a chance (v 27). Keep our focus on God, his plans, his desires, and we’ll be the happiest, and the devil will not be able to distract our attention and intent
• ·       Be honest, exchange your time for what you receive (v28), then we can have something to share with needy people
• ·       Don’t use dirty language, say kind things that will help others (29)
• ·       Don’t make God’s Spirit sad (v 30) by reverting back to a godless life style – God frees us from that sin
• ·       Watch how we talk, no angry bitter talk to each other, don’t yell and curse or be rude (v 31)

That is a long list of ‘don’t’ but it is helpful to get a mental image of our Christian lifestyle.

The positive Christian lifestyle is given in verse 32:

• ·       Be kind
• ·       Be merciful – don’t make people pay for what they’ve done to us or others. Don’t require people get what we think they have coming
• ·       Forgive others – do that because that’s what God has done for us! Forgiveness goes beyond mercy. Mercy says you don’t get what you deserve, forgiveness goes further, it says you don’t owe anything for what you’ve done, your debt is paid in full

It would be wonderful to live up to the picture Paul has for our Christian lives. As we work toward that goal we continue our lives of spiritual imperfection.