Welcome to Timeless Truth with Pastor Jim Thomas. In season 1, Pastor Jim is leading us in a study of Ephesians. Today’s passage is Ephesians 4:25-32.
Bringing together Christian belief, Christian experience, and Christian ethics, the apostle Paul weaves a tapestry of indicatives and imperatives, a portrait of authentic Christian living.
Paul wants us to resist all that tears down our oneness in Christ and diligently, self-sacrificially build up each other in Christ.
The injunctions here include prohibitions against lying, anger, theft, unwholesome speech and a tendency towards malice. If they were a big temptation for believers in the first century they are no less a temptation for believers in our own day and time.
Discipleship is living your life as Jesus would, if Jesus were you.
“It is the cross that allows us, no, demands of us, that we put down our weapons and let go of our anger. There God’s righteous anger against us was appeased. Now he calls us to the same forgiveness, so that our relationships are ruled by grace and kindness rather than bitterness and revenge.”
– Richard Gibson, The Consolations of Theology
“For Christians, the uncomfortable question is this: If we have been loved despite our flaws, and if we have discovered the greatest thing in the world in Christ, how can we be either abrasive or quiet about it? That knowledge produces the tolerance, but more than that, it produces the love we need. Lastly, the gospel removes fear. While we should be concerned to not needlessly offend people, the assurance of God’s love and acceptance should give us the courage to face criticism and disapproval.”
-Timothy Keller and John Inazu, Uncommon Ground
