5:1Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children ²and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 4:17-5:2 –NIV)

Today's passage starts out, "So,"—"So I tell you this..." So means for this reason or therefore. It refers back to all that Paul has already written in his letter to the Ephesians and also to what he has said immediately prior to today’s passage.

You may have noticed the he starts out each section—each passage—with so or therefore or something similar. He builds each section on what he has already said. (And I'm going to go back to the beginning of Ephesians and do a quick review of what Paul—or God speaking through Paul—has said.

Paul says back in verse 3 of chapter 1, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.” Paul’s letter is first of all about God the Father and Jesus Christ his Son. Then it’s about what God has done for us through his Son Jesus. He has loved us and blessed us with every spiritual blessing through Jesus. He has saved us from the judgment and punishment—really vengeance—that we deserved for rebelling against our Creator.

Have you ever rebelled against God? Have you ever done anything that you knew or suspected he would not approve of? All of us have done that. God loved us and saved us while we were still his enemies, still sinners—not because of any good thing we had done to deserve his salvation, but because of his mercy! We deserved his wrath and anger, but he gave us his love and mercy. He loved us even when we hated him.

And God saved us for a purpose—so that we could be members of the body of Christ, the church, and so that we could do the good works that he prepared in advance for us to do. He does prepare good work for us to do. And he did everything for the praise of his glory.

Now, I’m speaking to you as to people who already have this salvation—those who have crossed over from death to life to use Jesus’s words. If you haven’t crossed over—if you haven’t accepted God’s salvation, don’t hesitate! It’s a matter of life and death—a matter if eternal life and eternal death—eternal life and joy and peace or eternal wrath and judgment, eternal death and destruction! You need God’s salvation.

How do you accept God’s salvation? You trust him! You believe that what he says is good and right is good and right and what he says is evil is evil. You entrust yourself into his hands for salvation. You believe that Jesus died for you to save you from the punishment you deserved and that he rose from the dead and will reign until all his enemies are submitted under his feet.

If you have some deadly disease—a brain tumor, cancer or whatever—you entrust yourself to the surgeon. You really don’t have any choice if you want to live! You have to entrust yourself to the surgeon. (There was a time when they did surgery without anesthetic, too—probably not brain surgery, though.)

If we entrust our physical lives to the surgeon who is just a man because we have to, how much more should we entrust our souls to the God who made us and who sacrificed for us, the one who loves us?

Paul says that God’s salvation is not just for the Jews through whom his word came and through whom Jesus came, but for the Gentiles, too—in other words for all the world! All are included in God’s plan of salvation. There is one Church, one body of Christ. In Christ there is no Jew and no Gentile, no slave, no free, no male, no female, no black, no white—no distinctions. All have the same salvation and the same standing before God.

Finally, before Paul goes on to tell us how we should live in view of God’s salvation, he prays for those who will read his letter to know how high and deep and long and wide is the love of Christ and to know that love which is beyond knowledge. Then Paul goes on to tell us how we must live in view of who God is and all that he has done for us.

Today’s passage, chapter 4, verse 17, starts out, “So...” “So I tell you this...” “For this reason I tell you this...” Back at the beginning of chapter 4 Paul says, “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” We have been called to trust God—to entrust ourselves to him and to inherit eternal life—to live forever in his presence. Ultimately, we are called to be like Jesus, to be perfect just as our Father in heaven is perfect. Ultimately, we are called to glorify God!

In verse 2 of chapter 4 Paul says, “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” Bearing with is actually putting up with, putting up with one another in love! Tom talked about these things last week. But I want to go back and again talk about what it means to be humble. I believe being completely gentle, being completely patient and putting up with others in love are only possible if you are humble. In fact our ability to do everything else that Paul is going to tell us that we must do to be worthy of God’s calling depend on our being completely humble.

In the Sermon on the Mount, the very first beatitude that Jesus gave (by the way, does anyone know what a beatitude is? It’s a blessing)... The very first beatitude Jesus gave was this (does anyone know what it is?)... It’s this: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Would you like the kingdom of heaven to belong to you? Would you like to inherit the kingdom of heaven? Would you like to be part of the kingdom of heaven? The kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are poor in spirit.

Now to make it clear just what it means to be poor in spirit, I’m going to say some thing about the word poor. When we say that someone is poor, we mean that that person is at the low end of the income scale. In fact the government has defined something called the poverty level. If you are below the poverty level in income, you are poor.

Now, it is entirely possible to be poor, and if you are careful, to feed yourself and provide for yourself and your family. However, the word translated poor in blessed are the poor in spirit does not mean that kind of poor. It means you are completely destitute. It means you have absolutely no means of helping yourself. It means that you are completely dependent on someone else to help you. If you are poor in spirit, you know—you know—that you are completely and continually dependent on God for all things and at all times.

You know, a person can say, “I’m great,” and “I can take care of myself,” and then say, “But I am humble because I recognize that all of my abilities, all the abilities I have, were given to me by God.” Well, maybe. But it’s really hard to say something like that sincerely. Practically, if you are really poor in spirit, you will reject the idea that you can do it yourself and will pray to God about everything. (Do you pray about everything?) Any ability we have to do all the things that we must do in order to live a life worthy of the calling we have received depends upon our being completely humble!

Verse 17 in today’s passage (the whole thing) says, “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.” The Gentiles of course are those who didn’t know God (the Jews supposedly did know God). Does anyone know the first catechism? “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” The chief end of man is the main purpose of man if you don’t like the somewhat archaic language. God’s main purpose for us is to glorify him and to enjoy him forever. This catechism is not a quote from scripture, but if you read your Bible, you will see that these things are true.

John Piper, preacher and theologian, modified the catechism slightly to say that the chief end of man is to glorify him by enjoying him forever. To enjoy God glorifies him. Paul says, “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Cor. 10:31) But if you don’t know God, you will neither be able to glorify him nor will you be able to enjoy him.

Now look at verses 18 and 19. The Gentiles (those who don’t know God) “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, with a continual lust for more.”

When you don’t know God (the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts), it’s very natural to give yourself over to whatever sounds appealing to the flesh—really, whatever the devil says would be gratifying for you to do.

Without God, you lose sensitivity to what is good and what is evil. You become callous. It’s, “Whatever gratifies me, that’s what I’ll do.” It doesn’t matter whether it material possessions, eating, drinking, drugs, sex, or whatever: “Whatever gratifies me, that’s what I’ll do.” The only problem is that you will never be satisfied. You will continually want more and more and more.

I said the only problem is that you will never be satisfied. That’s not the only problem. You will also wind up in hell! The truth is that you were designed by the Creator to only be satisfied by him. You were designed to be satisfied by God, not by anything the devil or the world has to offer.

Now look at verses 20 and 21: “You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.” Jesus is the way and the truth and the life. And the truth is that salvation is only through Jesus. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12) We must fix our eyes on Jesus. “What would Jesus do?” is a good question to ask! Whatever it is that you are thinking about doing... Whatever it is that you are being tempted to do... Whatever it is that you are trying to justify doing, is it something that Jesus would do? Pray about everything!

Now look at verse 22: “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.” You see, those desires are deceitful and to follow them is corrupting! (Corrupt means rotten, by the way.) And look at verses 23 and 24: “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.” “...to be like God!” God’s purpose is for us to become like him, to be righteous and holy as he is righteous and holy.

(And by the way, as I think I’ve pointed out before, this book is written to the saints who are in Ephesus—to God’s holy people—to those who have given themselves to him for salvation through Jesus. Why do you suppose the apostle Paul is telling God’s saints, his holy people, how to live holy lives. Well, obviously, at least some of them must not have been living holy lives. So Paul is giving them the word of God. As believing Christians—God’s holy people—we need the word of God in order to live holy lives. So read and study your Bibles every day!)

Verse 25 says, “Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.” What is falsehood? It’s anything that’s not true. But, first of all, it’s anything that makes God less that what he really is—anything that misrepresents him in any way. But it’s also anything that misrepresents anything or anyone else. The reason Paul gives for putting off all falsehood is that we are all members of one body.]

Think about our own physical bodies. What if some of the members lied to other members? They do sometimes, you know. We feel pain when there is no injury. Or we don’t feel pain when there is an injury and the injury becomes worse. Various glands send the wrong signals and cause harm to our bodies. Cells send signals to our immune system that they are foreign invaders and are attacked. We have autoimmune reactions—and so forth. Just as we need accurate communication in our physical bodies, so we need open and accurate communication in the body of Christ.

Now, one of the things I’ve pointed out before I want to point out again. It’s our reluctance to tell other people when we are struggling with some problem. We may say that we don’t want to burden anyone else with the problem. (What if you stepped on a nail and your foot decided it didn’t want to burden your brain with the problem?) But with our communication within the church or lack of it, it’s usually not because we don’t want to burden anyone else with the problem. It’s more likely that it’s a matter of pride—that we are ashamed that we even have such a problem, whatever the problem is, and believe that we ought to be able to deal with it ourselves. We must ask our brothers and sisters for help—as a minimum, to pray for us.

Now look at verses 26 and 27: “‘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.” If someone wrongs you (and it definitely happens in the body of Christ, otherwise we wouldn’t have to “bear with one another in love”), how long do you stay angry? Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Don’t give the devil a foothold! (And by the way, Peter, whose writing I just quoted about the roaring lion, says that the way to resist the devil is by being humble. Other Biblical authors say the same thing. “Humble yourself under God’s mighty hand that he may lift you up in due time. (1 Pet. 5:6)

Now look at verse 28: “He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.” If you are able to work and are not working, Paul says (actually, God says) you are stealing! And notice that the purpose he gives for working is not to feed yourself (although that is certainly necessary) but to be able to have something to help those who are in need. When you work, have it in your mind that you are not just working to feed yourself (and maybe your own family) but that you are working so that you will be able to help others who are in need.

Now look at verse 29: “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.” What is unwholesome talk? Here are some examples: We like to make jokes. The biggest percentage of jokes are about sin. Even most of the “clean” jokes (as opposed to dirty jokes) are about sin. I guess because we are sinners in a sinful world, we identify with the situations in the jokes and laugh. I enjoy humor too much, even humor about sin (maybe especially humor about sin), to recommend avoiding it. But I will recommend this: Avoid like the plague any humor that makes God even a little less that who he really is. Do not treat God as something common! Fear him. (You know, I’m not sure that Jesus ever laughed during his ministry on earth. He rejoiced and he wept, but if he ever laughed, it’s not recorded.)

And how we like to gossip. We like sensational stories. “Can you believe that so and so did such and such?” There are plenty of such stories to go around. Most of them are about sin, too. If what’s going on around you is not sensational enough, there is plenty in the news to talk about. Don’t do it. It doesn’t build up. (And I might point out that we should ask people to pray for those who are sinning or having trouble. But watch very carefully what your motives are!)

We are told to only say those things that are “helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” What does it mean? Well it doesn’t mean telling someone how great he is so that he can feel good about himself. That’s flattery. God’s admonition is that we are to be humble and to consider others greater or more important than ourselves.

But building up certainly does mean encouraging. And it can also mean rebuking and correcting. The point is that it all has to be done in love: “Speak the truth in love.” The purpose has to be to help the person according to his needs. And remember ‘gentleness’. We are studying Job on Wednesdays. Job’s friends were deeply distressed at all his troubles. The wanted to help him. Do you think they were gentle? Remember gentleness.

Now let’s look at verses 30 and 31: “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.”

What does it mean to grieve the Holy Spirit? We are sealed by God’s Holy Spirit. He is a deposit guaranteeing our redemption on the day Jesus returns. What does it mean to grieve him?

The word grief refers to negative emotions. It can refer to sadness. But it can also refer to regret or to anger. Do you want to make God’s Holy Spirit sad or angry? We are sealed by the Holy Spirit. Jesus lives in us through the Holy Spirit. If you let anything unwholesome come out of your mouth, you grieve the Holy Spirit. If you hold onto any anger or bitterness, malice or fighting, you are grieving God’s Holy Spirit. If you don’t forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father won’t forgive you. Jesus said so. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. If you are angry, acknowledge that God is sovereign over all things and that he is good—and pray. Verse 32 says, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”