Good morning!
Remember when I told you that you weren’t what you used to be? That’s the wisdom of Ephesians, which continues in chapter 4 to remind us that we should act differently now with Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
Why would such a reminder be needed for our ancient Christian brothers and sisters? They were redeemed, like you and me, made into one new human being in Christ’s body, given for us on the cross. The hostile dividing wall between Gentiles and Jews was broken down. They were no longer strangers and aliens from God’s people Israel. They were no longer separated from God. Through God’s love and grace, they had become alive in His Son, resurrected with Him and no longer “dead” in their sins.
Yet, they were still sinning…. There were still conflicts and backbiting in the church.
Listen to how the author of Ephesians scolds the flock in chapter 4 beginning at verse 17, reminding them to put away their former way of life and their old, corrupted, lustful selves:
“Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. That is not the way you learned Christ! For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
This letter to the Ephesians is a reminder to us that although we are new creatures in Christ, we have to choose to live as if we ARE new creatures in Him. We still have a choice to make every day, every hour of the day.
Are we going to clothe ourselves in Christ and choose to be loving, kind, unselfish, truthful and forgiving—as God has recreated us to be?
Or are we going to be mean, angry, selfish, and deceitful, holding grudges against one another—as we were before Christ came into our hearts and gave us new lives in Him?
The author of Ephesians boldly goes on to tell us how we should not behave and how we should live, now that we are redeemed:
“So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.”
Like the ancient Christians, we are still quite capable of being the old, corrupt selves we used to be. God isn’t going to stop us from sinning if we choose to go our own way. We are not God’s little puppets on a string!
Satan works hard at whispering in our ear, telling us that we can do whatever we want. We can be mean to the person we don’t like because they don’t like us, either. We don’t have to forgive, since they haven’t forgiven us, either. We don’t have to love our enemies! That’s crazy, right? Besides, God won’t do anything about it. And it will be fun to live just how we want to live—without having to be good, obedient and pleasing to the Lord.
Friends, God will be there with arms open wide, ready to embrace us and forgive us when we realize just how awful we are behaving. His heart breaks when we sin against one another and hurt one another. That’s not what He wants for us! That’s not how He calls us to live. Eventually, He will woo us back to Him because we can’t resist His amazing love. We are His sheep who hear His voice, calling us by name. We know our need for Him because the Spirit that dwells within us reminds us every time we sin. We can’t pretend we don’t know right from wrong!
In our shame and guilt, we will turn to our Lord to “make everything all better.” And our merciful, loving Savior will do just that. In the meantime, think of all the hurt we have caused other people because of our sin. Think of how we have hurt ourselves with our own sin—and how difficult it is to admit to and confess our sins to God and hard it is to forgive ourselves when we have done wrong.
Think of how we hurt God when we choose to take Satan’s advice—instead of loving and serving the One who saved us and died for our sins?
Wouldn’t it be better just to choose to turn away from sin and rebelliousness and choose to follow Christ?
Let us pray.
Holy God, we are sinful and every day we struggle with temptation. The first thoughts we have in our minds when we wake up are not about serving you—they are all about what we want to do. Open our hearts and our ears to hear your voice today, reminding us that we are not what we used to be—not the former corrupt selves we were before Christ’s saving work on the cross. We don’t have to behave that way! Let us find strength and wisdom in Your Spirit that dwells within us. Keep us from straying from the holy and righteous path. Renew our minds, Father, so we don’t think the way we used to, either. Let our thoughts be loving, joyful, and peaceful, with our mind stayed on You! In Christ we pray. Amen.
Blessings in Him,
Pastor Karen
Remember when I told you that you weren’t what you used to be? That’s the wisdom of Ephesians, which continues in chapter 4 to remind us that we should act differently now with Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
Why would such a reminder be needed for our ancient Christian brothers and sisters? They were redeemed, like you and me, made into one new human being in Christ’s body, given for us on the cross. The hostile dividing wall between Gentiles and Jews was broken down. They were no longer strangers and aliens from God’s people Israel. They were no longer separated from God. Through God’s love and grace, they had become alive in His Son, resurrected with Him and no longer “dead” in their sins.
Yet, they were still sinning…. There were still conflicts and backbiting in the church.
Listen to how the author of Ephesians scolds the flock in chapter 4 beginning at verse 17, reminding them to put away their former way of life and their old, corrupted, lustful selves:
“Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. That is not the way you learned Christ! For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
This letter to the Ephesians is a reminder to us that although we are new creatures in Christ, we have to choose to live as if we ARE new creatures in Him. We still have a choice to make every day, every hour of the day.
Are we going to clothe ourselves in Christ and choose to be loving, kind, unselfish, truthful and forgiving—as God has recreated us to be?
Or are we going to be mean, angry, selfish, and deceitful, holding grudges against one another—as we were before Christ came into our hearts and gave us new lives in Him?
The author of Ephesians boldly goes on to tell us how we should not behave and how we should live, now that we are redeemed:
“So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.”
Like the ancient Christians, we are still quite capable of being the old, corrupt selves we used to be. God isn’t going to stop us from sinning if we choose to go our own way. We are not God’s little puppets on a string!
Satan works hard at whispering in our ear, telling us that we can do whatever we want. We can be mean to the person we don’t like because they don’t like us, either. We don’t have to forgive, since they haven’t forgiven us, either. We don’t have to love our enemies! That’s crazy, right? Besides, God won’t do anything about it. And it will be fun to live just how we want to live—without having to be good, obedient and pleasing to the Lord.
Friends, God will be there with arms open wide, ready to embrace us and forgive us when we realize just how awful we are behaving. His heart breaks when we sin against one another and hurt one another. That’s not what He wants for us! That’s not how He calls us to live. Eventually, He will woo us back to Him because we can’t resist His amazing love. We are His sheep who hear His voice, calling us by name. We know our need for Him because the Spirit that dwells within us reminds us every time we sin. We can’t pretend we don’t know right from wrong!
In our shame and guilt, we will turn to our Lord to “make everything all better.” And our merciful, loving Savior will do just that. In the meantime, think of all the hurt we have caused other people because of our sin. Think of how we have hurt ourselves with our own sin—and how difficult it is to admit to and confess our sins to God and hard it is to forgive ourselves when we have done wrong.
Think of how we hurt God when we choose to take Satan’s advice—instead of loving and serving the One who saved us and died for our sins?
Wouldn’t it be better just to choose to turn away from sin and rebelliousness and choose to follow Christ?
Let us pray.
Holy God, we are sinful and every day we struggle with temptation. The first thoughts we have in our minds when we wake up are not about serving you—they are all about what we want to do. Open our hearts and our ears to hear your voice today, reminding us that we are not what we used to be—not the former corrupt selves we were before Christ’s saving work on the cross. We don’t have to behave that way! Let us find strength and wisdom in Your Spirit that dwells within us. Keep us from straying from the holy and righteous path. Renew our minds, Father, so we don’t think the way we used to, either. Let our thoughts be loving, joyful, and peaceful, with our mind stayed on You! In Christ we pray. Amen.
Blessings in Him,
Pastor Karen
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