Principles of the New Life
Ephesians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 2 viewsPractical ways to embrace the new life we have in Christ.
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Put it into Practice
Eph. 4:25-29
The title of the message this morning is “Put it into practice” because that’s what we learn from this passage. Last week we learned as Christians we are to put away our old way of life and embrace the new life we have in Christ. Well, this week Paul teaches us how to put it into practice.
There are many scriptures in the bible that require a thorough explanation for us to understand them. But this is not one of them. Anyone can read these passages and clearly see the commands we are supposed to follow.
With that said, it is important to remember, we are saved by grace through faith. Your salvation and mine are a gift from God. In other words, we don’t work at being a good person so we can be saved. But once we are saved it is essential that we work at being a good person.
James 2:17 says, “faith without works is dead.” So, once we become a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are to put our faith into practice.
That is what we learn from this passage. Paul gives us specific examples of how to live this new life we have in Christ. (Read Eph. 4:25-29)
Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.
26 Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
27 and do not give the devil an opportunity.
28 He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need.
29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. (Pray)
In our passage this morning Paul gives us some practical application for how to embrace the new life we have in Christ. Now it is important to realize this is not an exhaustive list. In other words, this is not everything we are supposed to do as Christians to live for God, but these are some concrete examples to begin with.
And again, I want to emphasize we are not saved and going to heaven because we do these things, but we do these things because we are saved and going to heaven.
Before we break these verses down there are a few things I want to show you. First, notice in each case Paul tells us to put off a sin and put on a virtue. For example, Vs. 25 says, “Lay aside falsehood, and speak the truth.” Vs. 26 says, “Be angry, but don’t sin.” In Vs. 28 he says, “don’t steal but become a provider.” Each time, he gives us a negative command but, he follows it up with a positive response.
Second, notice each time he gives us the reason why we should do it. Vs. 25 says, stop lying because, “we are members of one another. Vs.29 says, let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, why? so you give grace to those who hear. So, Paul tells us what to stop doing, what to start doing, and why we should do it.
Finally, notice all these commands have to do with relationships. We don’t practice our faith in a vacuum. We live out our faith in each other’s lives, and we show our love for God by loving people. And that is what we learn from this passage. We learn practical ways to embrace the new life we have in Christ.
The first thing we learn is We are to tell the truth, Vs. 25. One of the biggest problems every one of us struggles with is telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help us God.
In his best -selling book, the day America told the truth, James Patterson said 91% of us lie on a regular basis. 92% of the people interviewed said most of the time they lie to try and save face. 98% percent said they tell lies, so they don’t offend someone. And before you say, “well what do you expect from the world, these are people who don’t know Jesus.” A recent Gallup poll tells us there is very little difference in the church when it comes to lying. We bend the truth, break the truth, and tell half-truths about anything and everything.
But Paul tells us “We are to lay aside falsehood and speak the truth because we are members of one another.” The word “truth” here means an accurate representation of the facts. So, any deliberate misrepresentation is lying. Facts are not subjective or open for interpretation, facts are facts, even though that’s not popular in our culture.
With that said, there are a couple of things I think are important to keep in mind. First, don’t forget Ephesians 4:15 says, “to speak the truth in love.” So, telling the truth doesn’t mean deliberately hurting someone’s feelings. Before we say anything at all we need to ask ourselves, how would I want to hear this? And then we need to be gracious in the way we say it.
Also, telling the truth doesn’t mean we have to tell everything we know about every situation. I mean God doesn’t do that with us. There are times when people have asked us to keep something private and we need to do that. There are other times when telling the truth can cause damage to someone’s life and we don’t want to do that. So, there are absolutely times when keeping our mouth shut is the right thing to do.
With that said, I think it is important for us to recognize the source of truth and the source of lies. For example, John 17:17 tells us that God is truth and He always speaks the truth. Hebrews 6:18 tells us it is impossible for Him to lie. And John 14:6 teaches us Jesus is the embodiment of truth. He said I am the way the truth and the life. So, according to scripture, God is the source of truth
Meanwhile, Satan is the source of all falsehood and lies. Remember it was Satan who introduced the very first lie in the Garden of Eden. When he deceived Eve into thinking she would not be punished for disobeying God. And then Jesus called him the father of lies in John 8:44.
So, we need to keep in mind who we represent when we are speaking, and we need to speak the truth. Why? because it is easy to line ourselves up with Satan.
I will give you an example. Ellie has been volunteering at the church all summer long. She fills out a report card every week, and I sign it, so she can receive extra credit for the honor society.
Well, the work she does here is obvious and I trust her. So, last week she forgot her report card and I said, ‘You know Ellie, you could just sign my name.” She said, “I couldn’t do that. That would be a lie.” She was right and I was wrong and that’s how easy it is to fall into the trap of deception.
Also, Paul gives us the reason why speaking the truth is so important. He says, “We are members of one another.” In other words, we should be honest with one another because we are relying on one another.
Think about how the overall health of your body depends on the way it communicates with itself. I mean what if we put our fingers on a hot stove, but our hand refuses to send the signal to our brain that it is hot. What would happen? We would get burned.
Well Paul says the same thing is true in the body of Christ. We need to speak honestly with each other, so we don’t injure one another. If we don’t want people to lie to us, we shouldn’t LIE To them. Embracing the new life we have in Christ begins with telling the truth.
The next thing we learn from this passage is we are to control our anger, Vs. 26. Anger is a huge problem not only in the world but in the church. Over the years, I have seen people become so angry with each other they refuse to reconcile, and they break fellowship with the church. That’s not God’s design for the way we deal with our anger.
Notice Vs, 26-27, “Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity.” In other words, when we become angry, we are supposed to deal with it in a biblically way, so that we don’t give the enemy the upper hand.
It’s important to understand there is a time for righteous anger but there should always be control. For example, we know Jesus never sinned, but He did become angry. I am reminded of the time a man with a withered arm came to the synagogue on a Sabbath and Jesus healed him. Mark 3:5, “After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.” So, Jesus had a righteous anger but without sin.
Also, remember the week Jesus was crucified. His heart was broken by the buying and selling in the temple, and He threw over the tables of the money changers and drove the animals from the temple with a whip. He said, “this is my Father’s house, and it will be a house of prayer and not a den of thieves.”
So, becoming more like Jesus is going to make you angry with sin and rebellion against God. Hopefully that begins with the sin in our own life. But when someone sins against us we need to be careful how we respond and that’s hard, because anger is a powerful emotion.
But, God tells us controlling our anger is a choice. I’ll give you an example, before Cain killed his brother Abel, God went to him and told him to think about what he was doing, and to make the right choice.
Genesis 4:6-7, “Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? “If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it.”
Obviously, we know how this story ends. Cain gave in to his anger. He killed his brother, but in the process he destroyed his own life, because he was separated him from God. The same thing is true in your life and mine. It’s okay to become angry. Sometimes it’s even the right thing to do, but it is never okay to allow our anger to control us.
Notice in Vs. 27 he tells us, if we don’t deal with our anger the right way, we are giving an opportunity to the devil. But what are we giving the devil an opportunity to do?
Think about this, the Bible says, Satan is like a roaring lion who is seeking someone to devour. If you knew there was roaring lion loose in your neighborhood, wouldn’t you lock your doors and stay in your house? Well when our anger gets out of control, it leaves the door open for the lion to get in and do whatever it wants.
Listen according to Paul it is possible to be both good and mad at the same time. But it is important to deal with it the right way, so we don’t give the enemy a foothold.
The next thing we learn from this passage is we are to stop stealing and start providing, Vs. 28. Now, it might seem strange that Paul would include this, because we know that he's writing to Christians and as Christians, do we really have a problem with stealing?
Well, I doubt that any of us are planning on going out this weekend and committing armed robbery, but all of us can be tempted to take something that doesn't belong to us.
A 20- year study from 1999 found that 30% of the population will steal, not only if given the opportunity but they will create the opportunity to do it. 40% will steal if there is no danger of getting caught, and only 30% of the population will not steal at all. But there is one thing I know for sure, even 30% will be tempted.
The question becomes, what are the priorities of our life? Is it our relationship with God or the things of the world? Because if you are living for the world, you will always be tempted to steal, if you are given the opportunity.
Jesus teaches us to make heaven our priority. Matt. 6:19-21, Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
In other words, If our greatest desires is found in the things of the earth, then stealing will always be a problem, because we will always be tempted by the things we see, and that’s a heart problem.
So, we must ask God to fix it. We have to ask Him to change our heart. To change things, we value. To turn our heart toward Him.
The apostle John teaches us in (1 John 2:15–17), “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever.”
The most tragic example of worldliness in the bible is Judas Iscariot. He spent three and a half years with Jesus. He walked with Him every step of His ministry. He saw the miracles and heard the teaching. He was the treasurer for the disciples. But John 12:6 tells us he was a thief. And instead of finding his satisfaction in the Lord, he chooses to sell Him for 30 pieces of silver.
Don’t let that be the story of your life. Find your joy in the things of the Lord. Look for opportunities to serve God in the church and in the community. Look for ways to love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.
Notice the cure for stealing is hard work. Vs. 28. Paul says, “but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good.” The word, “labor,” means hard work or toil. God ordained hard work. Adam was given work to do in the garden before the fall. The Apostle Paul was a tent maker and Jesus Himself was a carpenter.
It is important to point out that Paul isn’t suggesting there is anything wrong with being a manager or having an office job. But he is specifically talking about manual labor as a Godly way to make a living.
I heard a story about a priest in England who said, “it is not a sin to shoplift, as long as you do it from a large retail store and not from a small privately owned business.” He said, “he was not encouraging shoplifting but if people wander in and out of a big store without paying, it is a perfectly justifiable act.”
While I understand why people steal, because of sin and temptation. I disagree that it is ever justified, and he doesn’t understand his Bible. As believers we are to stop stealing and work hard so we can give to those in need.
The final thing we learn from this passage is we are to encourage people with our speech, Vs. 29. “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.” In other words, we are to speak in a way that builds each other up and not tears each other down.
The word “unwholesome” comes from a Greek word that means rotten. It’s the same word Jesus used to describe rotten fruit In Matt. 17. He said, “a good tree cannot produce bad fruit, or unwholesome fruit.” So, bad speech is like rotten fruit. It’s gross, it smells bad, It’s not good for anyone, and just makes you sick. And Paul says, we need to get rid of it. We need to throw it out like garbage.
I think it’s important to point out that Paul isn’t just talking about cussing here, although that would be included. He is talking about slander, name calling, mocking, and blaming others.
He has already said, don’t lie and control your anger, so this has to do with destructive criticism and Paul says don’t do it. A good rule of thumb is if you don’t have anything good to say don’t say anything at all.
Our speech should be the product of our new life. The language we speak should be gracious and God honoring at all times. And that can never be manufactured.
Someone who doesn’t know Christ can become educated and change the way they talk but that’s like putting pearls on a pig. To truly speak in a way that honors God begins with a transformation of your heart that changes your mind and attitude toward others.
Especially here in the church where we are a family and we should act that way. We should always want the best for each other, and we should speak in a way that is encouraging and uplifting.
Our words should reflect a heart that is engaged in praise and worship. A heart that is full of gratitude for what Christ has done for us. Ask yourself this, how can someone go from praying in one moment to tearing someone down in the next? Is that even possible?
Notice the end of Vs. 29. Paul says, we are to speak in a way that gives grace to those who hear. Well, what is grace? Grace is an undeserved, unmerited favor.
So, to speak with grace to those who hear means, it doesn’t matter what a person has done to us, or whether we think they deserve it or not. We are to speak favorably and graciously to them because that is what God would have us to do. We show others the grace God has shown us.
I am going to close today by reminding you that these are practical ways we embrace the new life we have in Christ. And these are excellent principles for anyone to follow, but without Jesus they are meaningless. Just applying these principles to your life will lead to a better life, but they will not lead to eternal life.
We need to first seek God for forgiveness and grace that comes only through the cross of Jesus Christ. We need to ask Him to fill us with the Holy Spirit and grant us the privilege to live for Him. Then and only then can these principles be lived out in a meaningful way.
We do not have the power to overcome the sin and temptation that causes us to lie, and become angry, and steal and slander. But we have a Savior who has overcome it all and He offers us the strength we need not only in this lifetime but for all of eternity.
Scripture reading; Psalm 96:1-9
Primary sermon resources;
Phillips, R. D. (2016). Ephesians (p. 360). Mentor.
Cole, S. J. (2017). In Ephesians (Eph 4:25-29). Galaxie Software.
Stott, J. R. W. (1979). God’s new society: the message of Ephesians InterVarsity Press.
