Efésios 4
Wayne Barber · Citado em PreceptAustin
Efésios 4:29
Barber explains our Brand New Way of Life in the context of "Rotten Speech" writing... Ephesians 4:29, we become a person who builds up rather than tears down. This is so explicit I don’t even have to say a lot about it. Let me just read it. "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth." That is interesting. He has talked about what we say twice. Once not lying, but now this is any general speech that comes out of our mouth. It changes gear a little bit. The word "unwholesome" there is the word sapros. It means rotten, something that is rotten, something that decays. A principle comes to my mind. If you take a barrel of good apples and put one bad apple in that barrel, do you think the good apples are going to crowd out the bad apple and therefore all the apples are going to become good? No, it works exactly the opposite. One rotten, putrid apple will begin to contaminate every single good apple that is in that barrel. That is the way our speech is. The word "rotten" is that which decays, that which putrefies. The way you talk to people is incredibly different when you have the new garment on compared to when you have the old garment on. Paul goes on to explain "but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear." In other words, this is so relative that you can’t really apply it in an adequate way. It fits whatever situation you are in. The Holy Spirit will give you words that can build up. That doesn’t mean that you are never to confront. That doesn’t mean you don’t address problems, but it does mean that whatever you do, you do it with an attitude of building up and not tearing down. SEVERAL THINGS YOU CAN DO TO THE HOLY SPIRIT When he says, "Do not grieve," the word "grieve," lupeo, is a love word. In other words, there are several things you can do with the Holy Spirit. I want you to know that the Holy Spirit is not an "it." He is not the force as Star Wars tells us. He is a person who lives within us. He is the person, the Spirit of Christ who lives within us, the third person of the trinity. 1) He can be resisted. Acts 7:51 talks about the religious Jew where it says "You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting (present tense = their habitual practice; Greek = antipipto = literally to fall against, to rush upon in a hostile manner, to resist by force) the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did. He can be resisted by the lost (unbelievers, unregenerate) 2) He can be quenched by the church. In 1Th 5:19 (note) he Paul instructs us "Do not quench the Spirit." (present imperative + negative = stop doing this! Or don't begin doing this!) Quench is plural indicating Paul is addressing the entire church. You can put the fire out. You can quench the Holy Spirit. 3) He can be grieved. Here in Ep 4:30 (note) the individual believer can grieve the Holy Spirit and so Paul says, "Do not grieve (present imperative + negative = stop doing this! Or don't begin doing this!) the Holy Spirit of God." Well, what does it mean? Well, in context, it means don’t become a taker or you have just grieved the Spirit of God who is a giver. Don’t let any unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth, or you have just grieved the Spirit of God who is the builder of the church. Don’t grieve the Spirit of God. Do you ever grieve somebody you love? There have been times that I have said things that have pierced my wife’s heart, not really knowing how much damage it could actually do. This was true especially years ago when I was just learning how to walk and live the Christian life. It’s not as much now, thank God, as it was then. But when you grieve somebody you love and you can’t take back what you have said and you know now how they feel, that is exactly what happens to the Holy Spirit every time we refuse to put on the new garment of Jesus Christ. It grieves Him. It distresses Him. The word means to distress someone. Paul says, "do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." That refers to the day Jesus comes for the church. He is there in your life for a reason and He wants to control your life. I think Ep 4:27 (note) and Ep 4:30 parallel each other. In other words, I think he brings both spirits into play, the Holy Spirit and the unholy spirit who is just an angel, certainly not equal to God. Which one are you going to please? If I grieve the Holy Spirit, I have just given the unholy spirit an opportunity. If I bless and please the Holy Spirit, then I have just frustrated the unholy spirit. I’ve got a choice to make. The devil is not somebody we reckon with, folks. He can only be in one place at a time. He is not omnipresent. His system is in this world. He is wherever God is working in such a way that he had to get his attention to stop it. I pray that some day we will be the kind of church that would attract that kind of attention. Folks, let me tell you something. His spirit is in this world. The mark he left on humanity is our flesh. When he gets us to put on the old garment, he doesn’t have to get in us. That old garment does the damage. We have given him an opportunity, and he takes it from there in the downward spiral of self. Well, maybe you feel convicted. I am. Do you know what you do when you realize you’ve sinned? Let me tell you what to do. There is such grace in this. Come right back to where you departed. You confess, which means you agree with God, "God, I have missed the mark. I am doing more damage to the body of Christ than I am building it up and God, I want to stop it." Secondly, you repent. Now the forgiveness will be there when you confess. You can appropriate that at that point. Now you must repent. If you’ve done wrong, if you have been wearing the wrong garment this past week, if you’ve offended other people and you know by what you have said that you have hurt them, first of all confess it and make sure you make it right with them and then repent of it. A young fellow was in the house with his dad and his family. It was warm inside. Outside it was below zero, the wind blowing, snow stacking up. It was awful outside. Inside it was a warm house, insulated, fire in the fireplace. You can just get the picture. A ball game on television. Carpet on the floor. You could smell the bread cooking in the kitchen. Supper was about ready. It was just where you want to be. The boy was sitting there enjoying it, and the father looked over at him and said, "Hey listen, son, put another log on the fire." The son jumped up and said, "I am 18 years old and I’m sick and tired of being told what to do when I am in this house. I am leaving, and you can have it. You do it yourself. If you want a log on the fire, put it on yourself." He went upstairs, got a duffle bag, put his clothes in it and walked out of that house. He walked about a block. The wind was picking up. The chill factor now below zero. The wind was burning his face it was blowing so hard. He was cold and thinking to himself, "You know, I was just inside that house and it was warm. I was about ready to eat, and it was wonderful fellowship. This is sort of stupid." He finally decides to go back. So he walks back to the house kind of sheepishly and knocked on the door. The father opened the door and said, "Hey, son. Good to see you. Been gone 30 minutes. I thought you were leaving for a while. Good to see you. Come on in. Take your stuff upstairs, unpack and come on down and watch the ball game with me." He went downstairs and sat in the chair. Boy, he was glad to be home! This is where he belongs. While he was sitting there, the father looked over at him and said, "Oh, by the way, put another log on the fire." Folks, you can confess until you fall over in the floor and you will never have that new garment on until you put another log on the fire and go back and repent of what you didn’t do before. If you are not going to obey, forget what you’ve heard. You are going to wear that old garment and you are going to be miserable. We will have to put a tag on you because Paul says mark those who cause division. The people who cause division are people who won’t wear the new garment. People who wear the new garment preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace. (Ephesians 4:22-27: A Brand New Way of Life - 3) Grace (5485) (charis) in context is quality that adds delight or pleasure or a winning quality or attractiveness that invites a favorable reaction (graciousness, attractiveness, charm, winsomeness). In short, our gracious words spoken to others can be used by God's Spirit to transform trial into triumph and sorrow into joy. God of course is the ultimate source of all grace (God of all grace 1Pe 5:10-note) but Paul is implying that we as His ambassadors, can function as channels of His grace even in our everyday conversation. To repeat an aphorism may God give us grace givers the desire and power to think before we act and to think twice before we speak! Hear (191) (akouo) means to hear with attention, with the ear of the mind or effectually so as to respond appropriately to what has been spoken or taught. Steve Farrar, Finishing Strong - It was Ring Lardner who said, “The family you come from is not as important as the family you are going to have.” He’s right. The truth is, I can’t do anything about the home which I was born into. In my case, it was a good one. But now that I’m the dad, it’s on my shoulders to make a good home. What’s going to be the atmosphere of my home? More than anything else, it will be my words that spell the difference between construction and destruction. What kind of words will echo off the walls of my home and sink into the souls of those impressionable folks under my roof? Unjust words like, “You’ll never amount to anything.” Unjust statements like, “Here, give me the wrench! You look so darned awkward with that thing.” A Few Speech quotes - Actions don’t always speak louder than words—your tongue can undo everything you do. Anon. His heart cannot be pure whose tongue is not clean. Anon. In company, guard your tongue—in solitude, your thoughts. Anon. Lord, make my words gracious and tender, for tomorrow I may have to eat them! Anon. No physician can heal the wounds inflicted by the tongue. Anon. Nothing is so opened more by mistake than the mouth. Anon. One thing you can give and still keep is your word. Anon. The Christian should learn two things about his tongue: how to hold it and how to use it. Anon. The tongue is but three inches long, yet it can kill a man six feet high. Anon. There are two sciences which every person ought to learn: the science of speech and the more difficult one of silence. Anon. What is in the well of your heart will show up in the bucket of your speech. Anon. When you speak, remember God is one of your listeners. Anon. Words are leaves—deeds are fruit. Anon. It is a sad fact that the tongues of professing Christians are often all too busy doing the devil’s work. Donald Grey Barnhouse Gentle words fall lightly, but they have great weight. Derick Bingham A sanctified heart is better than a silver tongue. Thomas Brooks Of all the members in the body, there is none so serviceable to Satan as the tongue. Thomas Brooks The vice of the tongue spreads and prevails over every part of life. It is as active and potent for evil in old age as ever it was in the days of our youth. John Calvin Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra, Montclair State University, East Rutherford, NJ, said the following to the class of ‘96 upon their graduation: "I am happy to speak my words at the university graduation. A lot of people have been quoting me ever since I came to play for the Yankees in 1946. But, as I once said, I really didn’t say everything I said. So now it’s my turn. I want to give some of my famous advice to the graduates. First, never give up because it ain’t over ‘til it’s over. Second, during the years ahead, when you come to the fork in the road, take it. Third, don’t always follow the crowd, because nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded. Fourth, stay alert. You can observe a lot by watching. Fifth, and last, remember that whatever you do in life, 90% of it is half mental. In closing, I want to quote myself again: Thank you, Montclair State University, for making this day necessary.-- USA Today, 5-24-96, p. 15A. Illustration -To appreciate the power of the tongue, we need only picture the people of Great Britain in the early days of World War II, gathered in their living rooms listening to Prime Minister Winston Churchill deliver one of the most stirring speeches of the war: “The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us.... Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say: ‘This was their finest hour.’” The heroism so evident in Britain’s battle against Nazi Germany may have lain dormant in the British people had not Churchill’s words helped galvanize their will. Our words have the ability to “edify” others. Illustration - A catering manager was discussing a baby-christening party with a young couple. She told the mother of the baby, “You look like you’ve lost most of your pregnancy weight.” “Thanks,” came the clenched-teeth reply. “We adopted” (Reader's Digest [June, 2005], p. 67). File that away in your memory as what never to say! (Steve
Efésios 4:31
Barber writes that... In Ephesians 4:31-32 Paul contrasts the two garments. We are in a flow now that continues through the rest of the book. How we are to walk worthy (Eph 4:1)? How we are to live this new life (cf Ep 4:24)? He gives us a contrast. One is like a (spiritual) cesspool, the other like a wellspring (of living water). One I would rather not speak about, the other one is an artesian well (See Spirit-Filled Believers Are Like Artesian Wells). It is something that never depletes its supply and provision to others (cf Jn 7:38+ - "FROM YOUR INNERMOST BEING WILL FLOW RIVERS OF LIVING WATER!"). Paul shows us the cesspool of the old self and the wellspring of the new self, the new garment. He lets us see what is underneath everything that is going on in our life. We can either tap into the cesspool, the old stagnant, rotten, putrid type of thing, or we can tap into the wellspring of Jesus Christ. Which garment are you going to put on? Let’s look in Ephesians 4:31 at the cesspool of the old garment. "Let all (HOW MUCH?) bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you [put off like taking off a garment], along with all malice." Now Paul does something that really throws me. Normally when Peter or Paul make a list, the first thing they mention is the most important thing. It tends to be the subject, whereas the rest of it seems to modify that subject. In Galatians 5:22 he says, "The fruit of the Spirit is love." Then all the things that follow are just manifestations of that love. In 2 Timothy 3, Paul says in the last days men will be lovers of self and then he gives 19 different characteristics of a lover of self. However, here in Ephesians 4:31 he reverses it. Let me show you what I mean. The last word, malice is the catch-all word. Malice is the "house" that all these words live in. I think it would be best to start there. He does the same thing in Eph 4:32 putting the source at the end, and he puts the symptoms in the front. Let me show you what malice means. Look at 1 Corinthians 5:7-8+ where we find "malice," which is the essence of our fallen flesh. The Greek word is kakia the word for inherent unrighteousness. It is a viciousness that comes along with the old garment. All these are relationship words. The signal that we are spiritual and have on the new garment is going to be in our relationships. Over and over and over we see this. Well, here we go again. In 1 Corinthians 5:7+ Paul exhorts, "Clean out (aorist imperative see our need to depend on the Holy Spirit to obey) the old leaven." Do you know what leaven is? It is yeast. I don’t know much about cooking, but I do know that when you put yeast into things, it causes it to rise up. Yeast causes something to happen. You see, the moment I put on the old garment, immediately a viciousness begins to set in. Immediately I am out to get you. Immediately I am going to manipulate you. Immediately something I am going to do, say, or whatever is going to divide me and you because I am not interested in you anymore. I am interested in me. That is the old garment. That is kakia. That is inherent unrighteousness. It comes along with the old garment. It is in that cesspool when we put that thing on and we won’t bow before the Lord Jesus. So Paul writes... "Clean out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. That gives you an idea of what the kakia is. It is the sinful attitude that stirs something up in your life. Look in Acts 8:22+. Here is a man who wanted to purchase the Spirit of God. His name was Simon. Simon Peter really lays this guy out. Let's begin with verse 20. "But Peter said to him, ‘May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have no part or portion in this matter, for your heart is not right before God.’" Now watch out! Peter says, "Your heart is not right before God." It is an attitude you have towards God. You put on the old garment and say, "God, I don’t want You ruling my life." Can a Christian do that? You better believe they can! We make choices all day long whether or not to let Him rule us versus whether or not we are going to take over rule ourselves. Luke goes on to record Peter's words... "Therefore repent of this wickedness [kakia] of yours, and pray the Lord that if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you." There it is. The intention of your heart is not right. So we are seeing this old garment is an attitude and it is going to affect the lifestyle. The attitude is rooted into that old cesspool. What is going to come out of it is nothing that is good. It is going to do nothing but tear relationships down. It does nothing to build relationships up. Look in Acts 14:1-2+, and I will show you one more place where a form of the word is used, not the word itself but a form of it. It says, "And it came about that in Iconium they entered the synagogue of the Jews together, and spoke in such a manner that a great multitude believed, both of Jews and of Greeks. But the Jews who disbelieved stirred up the minds of the Gentiles, and embittered (kakoo = verb form related to kakia) them against the brethren." The word "embittered" is a form of that word kakia. You see, when you put on that old garment, you want others to agree with you. You are going to find somebody else who is negative. You are going to find somebody else who doesn’t want to think about others but wants to think of themselves. What do you do? You begin to embitter others towards the brethren. In other words, you are no longer preserving the unity of the Spirit. What you are doing is dividing by your very attitude, which comes right out of the old cesspool of self. BITTERNESS First of all, out of that kakia, out of that old garment, out of that malice, is a word called "bitterness." Now we know that bitterness is when you have been injured by somebody. You are not bitter unless you have been affected wrongly by somebody. The word for "bitterness" is the word pikria. It refers to something that is acidic, that will literally eat you alive. You know that the problem with many of us as Christians is not what we are eating, but it’s what is eating us! That is what bitterness does. Somebody has offended you. It always starts with being personally injured or personally hurt. You know, if it weren’t for people, we could live the Christian life! But because there are people, we are going to be offended. You are going to be offended by me if I am not wearing the right garment. If it is not the right one, it is going to say what it shouldn’t have said. It is going to act in a way that it shouldn’t have acted. It is going to offend you. We are the church and we have got to remember that every one of us will show those moments when we chose not to wear the new garment. And that is also why we need to be forgiving to each other. Now, if you didn’t have any sin in your life, throw the first stone. Bitterness is something that comes from a personal injury. Somebody has hurt you. You have heard what somebody said about you and it dug deep into your life. You didn’t put on the garment of Christ, which would be strengthening you in the inner man with something that you didn’t have before, forgiveness and unconditional love. You have put on that old garment which is rooted into the cesspool of old self and what comes out is bitterness. Let me show you just one Scripture, Hebrews 12:15. I have constantly warned all of us what will happen if we give the devil an opportunity. I don’t mean he gets inside of us, but he gets inside the body of Christ by using people, not the body physically but the body spiritually, the church. He uses people inside. You see, there used to be a day when people would come to church, go out and be persecuted. The devil would fight them outside the walls. Now he is going to church, folks. When we give him an opportunity, look out. Look at what it will do. "See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled" What is the grace of God? It is the transforming power of God in your life and in my life. When I put on the new garment, that is His grace working within me, transforming me. Now, I am different than I used to be. Bitterness is usually a reaction that you have to some injury that somebody else caused you, but it is a wrong reaction. You put on the wrong garment. You dipped into the wrong place. You went back to the "cesspool of self" instead of coming to the "wellspring of Jesus Christ". WRATH Let’s look at the word "wrath." There are several words here for "anger" and "wrath." We are going to see "anger" in the next section. I need to explain them to you. As a matter of fact, let’s put them together right now. "Wrath" (in this verse) is the Greek word thumos. It is when you explode. Have you ever done that? I can remember when I was in church recreation. I lost a basketball game one night because of a stupid referee. I mean a stupid, brain dead referee. We lost a championship in overtime. Stupid referee. I remember how mad I got. I was the Minister of Activities, and I took the basketball and threw it against the end wall so hard that it went all the way to the other end of the court. Take a basketball and see how hard it is to throw it to make it go that far. Everybody walked out of the building kind of like, "Whew!" I went into the fireside room of that activities building, slammed the door and sat down. I was ready to take on half the city because of stupid referees. Everybody left. My assistant turned the light off on me and left me sitting there in the darkness. That is wrath, thumos. I wasn’t just mad. I exploded! That is what thumos is. As a matter of fact, did you know that the seven bowls of God’s judgment called the bowls of wrath are called thumos? Folks, we haven’t seen anything until those seven last bowls of judgment fall on this earth. Then those who are here will realize the anger of a holy God towards sin. Without mercy He is going to pour out those bowls of wrath on this earth. ANGER But there is another word. He goes on and says "anger" which is orge which means you are angry, but you may not necessarily have shown it yet. Oh, you are capable of blowing up, but you haven’t blown up yet. You see, this is why we get so judgmental. Some people carry it and hold it pretty well for a long period of time. So we think they are really godly. Are you kidding me? Look at the other things in their life. You see, anger can be disguised. It can be covered over. Thumos, is bursting out, the outburst. Orge, is the actual anger itself. CLAMOR Then he gives the word "clamor." This is when you get loud. This is the word for loud. It says there was an uproar over in Acts. In Hebrews it says He cried out before the Father. The word is a loud, loud cry. This is when you are getting a little noisy with the way you feel in that cesspool. SLANDER Then he uses the word "slander." Now that is not the same word Peter uses in I Peter 2:1. There it means to speak against. Here in Ephesians the word is blasphemia. It means abusive language. When you start cursing somebody on the highway, you’ve have just nailed it. You’ve got on the wrong garment. Watch out. You see, all these are tied intricately together. Either way you go it is the same thing. You are injured somehow inside and now that acid has built up inside you. You are ready to just absolutely stamp out anybody that gets in your path. That comes from that cesspool of self. Think about that. The Holy Spirit will prick your heart and say, "I want you to make this choice." You say, "No, I won’t do it." Do you realize what you have just done? You have just put that old sick cesspool garment on (you've grieved, quenched, resisted the Spirit). Everything that comes out of it is going to defile any relationship you have all day. That is why you have to continuously say, "Oh, God. I’ve put the wrong one on. I confess it. I am repenting." What do I mean by repenting? You turn around and put the right one on. Listen, folks, we have to see that there is a performance or a perfection level. Spirituality is not an arrival. It is a pursuit. So often we misunderstand relationships. We think because we are putting on the right garment, everybody else ought to be judged by us. Friend, as soon as you think that way, you have just put the wrong garment back on! Who in the world are we to point a finger at anybody? Does being spiritual mean that you have a quiet time every morning at 5:00? Is that spirituality? Are you spiritual because you passed out tracts last year? Are you spiritual because you have witnessed to everything that has moved on the downtown streets? Does that mean that you are spiritual? I doubt it. Every one of us are guilty of putting that wrong garment on. That is why when we see a brother who has the wrong one on, it ought to lead us to bleed for him because we know what he has just done. We have done it ourselves (Ephesians 4:31-32: A Brand New Way of Life - 5)