Epistles of Paul 97

Well, good evening, brethren. The letter to Ephesians, which was written by Paul about 60 or between somewhere between 60 and 62 of the current era, or AD, has a key theme. In other words, Christ wants us to focus on being one. This was very much the theme as he concluded his prayer after the the new covenant symbols of the Passover. He said in John 17, John 17, starting in verse 20 through 23, John 17, 20 through 23, he says, I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that you sent me, and the glory which you gave me, and I've given them, that they may be one, just as we are one. I in them, and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one. And so clearly Christ's focus, Christ's final desire outcome is for us to be perfect in one perfect in unity, so that we may be one family. And so that is also Paul's theme in Ephesians for us to be one. In other words, to be unified, to have unity. And that is to fulfill God's eternal purpose for his family, his family from the whole human race, Jews and Gentiles and of every nationality and race, for us to be one, one family, his family. And so he expounded in Ephesians, after he explained this eternal purpose of us being one, then he expounded how to apply some principles in our lives so that we may be one.

And for that purpose, we read in Ephesians chapter four that he gave us the ministry. We see that in verse 11. He gave us some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. So God gave us his ministry so that ultimately we all may come to the unity of the faith. And that we read in verse 13. So we all come to the unity of the faith.

And so that's what God wants us through Christ. He's established his ministry, the Church, and so that we may ultimately reach that understanding or the unity of the understanding of the knowledge of the Son of Man of Christ, so that we may become perfect people to the full measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. And so we, Paul then explains that we have to, we've got to change. We got to, we got to put off the old man and put on the new man. And again, this unity he's built with love.

Out came concern for one another. We see in verse 15 of Ephesians 4, speaking the truth in love. Actually, the word, the Greek word for speaking the truth is just one word.

It's the Greek 226, 226, alertu, which could mean profess the truth, or in one interlinear that I read, it said to be true. In Portuguese it says following the truth. It doesn't even say speaking the truth, but following the truth. And so professing the truth, or to be true, in love. So the the purpose that God wants us to be is to be unified, and that is to be built with love. And he concludes chapter four by giving an example of how to show love towards one another.

And that in chapter four verse 32 he says, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another. And so here is some basic simple principles of how to treat our neighbor, being kind, tender-hearted, and loving by forgiving. It really is difficult to apply these things in our daily lives. And one key building block for this to be kind, to be tender-hearted, and forgiving. One key building block is humility and submission. Those are in a sense like foundations, foundational blocks. And so even though he does not mention here in this section of chapter four submission, he brings a hint of it in chapter five verse two, and he ends the section that we're going to cover today of chapter five starting from verse one to verse 21. He ends the section by saying that we need to submit to one another in the field of God. And so submission is a important foundational block to this all, let's call it construction, or this edifying of the church of God, of our Christian growth. And this is part of building on that theme of unity by being mature, like we saw in Ephesians 4 verse 13, to come to a perfect man, to the full measure of the stature of Jesus Christ.

And so, Polia in chapter five is encouraging us to build by applying principles to be a light and example to others, principles of how we are to walk and how we are to conduct ourselves in a godly way, in a godly manner. And so his his principles that he emphasizes here in chapter five can be divided into three ways or three manners of conducting ourselves in a holy conduct. It puts it in as walking. We are to walk in love, we have to walk in a light, and we are to walk in wisdom or circumspectly. So we have to walk in love, that's from verses 1 through 7, we have to walk in a light, verses 8 through 14, and walk in wisdom, verses 15 through 21.

And that's what we're going to be covering today, these three ways of walking. And so these three are then lead into the next section which then expounds in greater, practical detail in our lives how to apply it. In other words, how to apply these principles in our lives to build unity in love. And then he covers that, and that will cover in the next study, but he builds on that by applying these principles to our lives first in our families, and within our families is both in a marriage relationship, as it symbolizes a greatest spiritual meaning, and in our parent-child relationship. So he applies these principles to our lives in our family, and secondly in our work lives, that is our jobs. So let's start now, therefore, with Ephesians 5 verse 1. And he says, therefore, be imitators of God as dear children. So we ought to imitate God. The Greek word there is 3402 mimitei, from which we get the word mimik. We ought to imitate. We ought to mimik, just like our children quite often mimik us, imitate us. We ought to imitate God, but more specifically God's character, and even more specifically His love, Godly love. And God is perfect. We read in Matthew 5 verse 48, God is perfect, and we ought to imitate Him, to be perfect like Him. Now granted, in this physical life, it's going to be quite a challenge to be perfect like Him, but that's our goal. That's what we strive for. So Jesus Christ lived in the flesh, and therefore we ought to strive to be like Christ, because Christ was God. He was with God, and He was God, as we read in John 1. And He emptied Himself and became like a man, in the form of man. He was in the form of God, and He became in the form of man. He came in the flesh, and so we ought to strive to be like Christ. That's why we read or made reference in Ephesians 4 verse 13, that we are to come to that unity of the faith, to a perfect man, to the stature, to the measure of the stature, of the fullness of Christ. In other words, to be perfect like God is perfect. That is our goal. So we ought to imitate God, we ought to imitate Christ. And in verse 2, and walk in love as Christ also has loved us, and giving Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. So we ought to walk in love. So that's the first part that we ought to walk in love. Later he talks about walking in a light, and later walking in wisdom. So we ought to walk in love in these verses 2 through 7. And to walk means to live, to conduct ourselves. We could walk, for instance, in anger. We could walk in wrath or in bitterness, but no, we ought to walk in love. And we know, Christ said in John 13 verse 35. Let's just turn there. John 13 verse 35. By this you will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. So we ought to be like Christ. We ought to be imitating.

And if we read in verse 34, the verse before in John 13, 34, he says, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, and that you also love one another. Now how did Christ love us? Because the commandment was, love others as you love yourself. But now he's raised or increased the degree of love, so it's not just as we love ourselves, but as he has loved us. So how did Christ love us?

How does Christ love us? Clearly it's not just an emotional and sentimental love, but Christ loved us by giving his life and sacrificing himself. In other words, it's a sacrificial love, like a sacrifice or the sacrifices in the temple, which after all pointed to Christ's sacrifice, as Christ loved us. That's what we need to do as we love others.

Now how do we know he loves us? Well, because he gave himself for us. He died for us. You know, he was a complete sacrifice. In Leviticus 1 verse 9, in Leviticus 1 verse 9, it talks about a burnt offering. A burnt offering means it's a complete sacrifice.

And in verse 9 it says, It shall wash his entrails and his legs with water, and the priest shall burn all on the altar as a burnt offering. So it's a complete sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord.

A sweet aroma to the Lord.

A Christian love, the love that we have to put in practice, is one of self-denial, like Christ, completely denied himself and served us. Now we read, going back to Ephesians 5, verse 2, he says that he says, and Christ also loved us and gave himself us, or gave himself for us. And look at it. It's both an offering and a sacrifice. He gave himself for us both as an offering and a sacrifice. So an offering is a gift.

An offering is a gift. And so, for instance, Christ gave himself, he gave his life for us, and is a sacrifice. And that involved life-giving. In other words, blood-letting.

There was giving of blood, a sacrifice. So Christ gave his life and gave of himself as a gift. As a gift, and he also died for us. So Christ's gift as an offering was a free gift. That gift was his life. And I think we all can admit that requires humility.

In fact, if we look at Philippians chapter 2, Philippians chapter 2, and we start in verse 1, therefore, if any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, we have to have the same mindset as Christ. Having the same love, being of one accord of one mind. Well, isn't that unity?

That is unity. And then he says, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit.

So it's not selfish. It's not making yourself or myself important, but he says, in lowliness of mind, that is humility. In lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself.

And there he goes on. Let each of you look out not only for your own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. What was this mind?

The mind is that he was in the form of God. He was of the God kind. He was God.

And then not considered as robbery to be equal with God. He was not a robbery. He was not identity theft for him to be God and equal with God. But he made himself, that's a gift, he made himself of no reputation. So he emptied himself from being God to being human, taking on the form of a bond servant and coming in the likeness of man. In other words, he stopped being in the form of God and he came in the form of a bond servant. In other words, of a human being.

That's humility. And being found in the appearance as a man, in other words, having emptied himself of being God and becoming man, he humbled himself. So he humbled himself even more and became obedient to the point of death, even the death on the cross.

So we can clearly see, yeah, that the example of Christ's love was built on the very basis of humility. That demonstrated his love and the outcome is to build unity. So he gave of himself, gave his life, demonstrating his love, to have an end result to achieve unity.

And that was or is a sweet-smelling aroma that pleased God and glorified the Father because it demonstrated in, let's say, a most perfect way God's complete supreme, unconditional divine love for you and I. And so we can see those three sacrifices in the first three chapters of Leviticus, which basically covers the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the peace offering. They all point to Christ's sacrifice to us in different ways, and those three offerings, they all three are sweet-smelling, sweet aromas of sacrifices to God. The other two, Leviticus 4 and 5, the son offering, and those two offerings are not sweet-smelling to God because they represent our sins and what we are. So Christ was an offering. There was a sweet-smelling savor to God. So continuing now in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 3, now he contrasts a godly love with these three falsely so-called love actions of the world. Fornication, uncleanliness, and covetous, basically uncontrolled sexual desires, but all type of lust. These are seen as things of the world, which basically are vices of the world, and Paul contrasts the love of Christ against these three worldly, worldly vices, which in this world, in the society, they actually are pervasive everywhere. And he says, but fornication and all uncleanliness, uncleanliness, or covetousness, let it not even be named among you as he's fitting for saints.

And so fornication, that's pornia, sexual immorality, uncleanliness, basically impurity, moral impurity, physical impurity, that is also related to sexual misconduct, and covetousness, which is basically greediness. It could be avarice or greediness of money, but it's uncontrolled desires, which includes lust, lust, which is basically the breaking of the Tenth Commandment, lust towards another person or another person's things. So, and these have nothing to do with godly love and humility, nothing to do. And so the Yari says, these are not even to be named among you as he's fitting for the saints. The saints means us. We are saints. In other words, we are set apart by God's calling to be sanctified, and we are being sanctified by God's only Spirit. And neither, neither, verse four, and now he mentions three sins of the tongue, which also do not demonstrate godly love, nor do they achieve unity. And these three sins of the tongue are a fullfiness, or foolish talking, or coarse jesting.

Fulfiness, in other words, obscene speech, which can be degrading, sexually orientated, just a filthy, filthy language, foolish talking, and coarse jesting, being dirty, suggestive, immoral, or maybe in in humor of the world, but it is, that's why it says jesting, but it is immoral. There's nothing wrong with us having humor, but it does not have to be a coarse or immoral or degrading. Therefore, what should come out of our mouths should be positive, should be related to gratitude and gratefulness and upholding and positive. And so he says, neither should you have these sins which are not fitting, but rather giving or thanks. In other words, a positive, grateful conversation or words that come out of our mouths.

Now verse five, for this you know, that know for the caterer, unclean person, or covetous. You see, now it ties back to those three mentioned in verse three. So you know that know for the caterer or unclean person or covetous, a covetous man or covetous person, who is an idolater. You see, so why is covetous idolatry? It's because if one covets, one desires, and then he makes that thing that he desires being so important, so important, and raises up that item to such an important degree that it becomes like an idol, like a god. And it is as if one is putting that before god.

Could be anything. Could be anything. Could be a cigarette. Could be anything. It just becomes something that becomes a priority. We can also tie this section here to 1 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 1 through 5, when it's talking about that man that was committing fornication, and basically was saying that person will not be in the kingdom. And that's why he says, take that person out so that he might repent, so that at least then, if he repents, then at least he could be in the kingdom. You see, so we can see that, as opposed to the religion, the typical religion of the soul that says, just give your heart to the Lord, no, there must be a change. There must be a repentance. There must be a complete new way of life, a new way of walking. So let's read now verse 6 and 7. Let no one deceive you with empty words. Oh, you just have to love the Lord. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

Therefore do not be partakers with them. In 1 Corinthians 5, which I made reference to a little earlier, from verse 9 through verse 13, also talks about not associating with them. Now, obviously, it does not mean, if people are in the world, that you can't talk to them, because then otherwise, you'd have to leave the world.

But rather talking about having fellowship, the so-called Christian fellowship, was being close to those people that are wearing the church or are struggling and are actually sinning. Really, it's actually sinning. It's not people that are struggling and trying to overcome. I mean, we're all trying to overcome our own weaknesses and frailties and sins, but it's talking about people that are actually sinning. We need to, as it says, do not be partakers with them. Now, so we can see that true love, true godly love, avoids sin, and also avoids that appearance or mentioning of it in any way that would be glorifying it.

Glorifying that way. We must avoid that. Then, it moves on to the second section of the three sections that I made reference a little earlier on, which is walking in light. So, let's start reading there. This, by the way, walking light, which is from verses 8 through 14, it is, in a way, tied to or connected with to walking in the truth. Remember when I mentioned to you a little earlier about Ephesians 4 verse 15, where it says, speaking the truth in love. And I might reference that speaking the truth, it's actually one Greek word, which could be put out as profess the truth, or being truthful.

So, this section here of walking in the light is, in a sense, parallel, or parallels that chapter 4 verse 15, that it says, speaking the truth or walk in the truth in love. And so, let's look at this because it's talking about walking light. So, let's read this carefully. For you, with one's darkness, but now you are light in the world. Walk as children of light. So, once you wear darkness, not that you yourself wear a walking just in the darkness, but you wear darkness.

In other words, you wear, before you got converted, before I got converted, before we knew the truth, we were in the world, and we were in a way of life, of complete darkness. We were void of truth and void of moral understandings, of values. We were in that position of walking in darkness, but not just walking in darkness.

We wear darkness because we just did not have the truth. But now we have to be light. We need to be a light to the world. We need to be an example. And this brings us to a point which is very sensitive, but we have to be very careful how we present ourselves, not to give any appearance of evil. You know, I think about in South Africa, when I was in South Africa, children had, when they went to school, they had school uniforms. And we were told quite often at school, it says, when you are out there and you have the school uniform, you are representing the school. And therefore, you have to be careful when you are out there because you are representing the school.

Now, how much more you and I that represent God's church and God's values and God's way, we are basically being an example, or should be an example, to the world in our lives. We are, in a sense, carrying God's name. And if our example, if our way of dressing is perceived as being incorrect, we could basically could be breaking the commandment of taking God's name in vain.

Because people would say, well, is that a Christian? And look how she dresses, or whatever. Well, that's a bad example. That's a bad example. Is that the United Church of God? Wow! You see, so we could be making people to say, well, if that's what is a Christian, I don't want to be a Christian, type of thing. So we've got to be careful how we conduct ourselves, how we walk. We need to walk as children of light. And so we continue here in verse 9. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth. You see, walking in the light requires a new way of life which produces fruit.

It's the right way of life which is going to produce goodness, righteousness. And people are going to look back and say, oh, now I see why he or she was different, because now I see it's God's way. Maybe they don't see it today, but one day in the future they will.

And so we need to do everything to the honored and glory of God. In other words, to give God a good name, so not allow people to use, to see, by the way we act or live, that we are using or representing God's name in an incorrect way. So as we know God's word, the Bible is a light in our paths. It shows us the way to go, and that's what we need to apply and walk in that way. And in verse 10, finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. Now finding out is the Greek word dokemeizo, which means proving. Quite often that word is used proving, like prove all things.

Finding out what is acceptable to God.

In how we conduct ourselves, how we walk, what we say, we really have to be walking in this light.

Verse 11, "...but have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them." And so if we see people sinning in the church, are we now therefore gonna go and talk to them and condemn them? No, but we should maybe privately, quietly, first have a good relationship with those people, and in a gentle, loving, kind way, without offending, in a very humble and godly way, shine the light of truth to those people in a kind way. So it always needs to be done. This reproofing always needs to be done in a private, loving, kind and positive manner. You see, because would you want to confront people and cause them to completely leave the church and leave the faith? Or do you want them, by talking to them privately, to show them the light, the way, so that they would come to repent us?

Because we know God is very kind and loving and mercy, so that all would come to repent us.

And so the approach would be to go into that person, because you have a relationship with them, and you can talk to them. Maybe if it's a girl that is dressing immodestly, it's better to have another girl, or it's your wife, or somebody that has a relationship with that girl, to gently and lovingly kind of show the way, and then that person would repent and be a shiny example in the church, after that, repent us. That is what we want. So we've got to be, quote-unquote, exposing them, but in a godly way, in a loving way, not in a brash and unkind and unmerciful way, and rude and hard. No, that's not the way to do it. Verse 12, and it says, For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. So there are certain things that are so bad, some sins are so bad, that in this world, in media, in social media, it's blatantly, blatantly thrown around.

And we've got to be careful, because it says we shouldn't even speak of them. That's what it says. It says, it's shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.

And we've got to be careful. Sometimes people post things on social media, and then put comments, and it's not wise. That's why the next step is walking wisdom. It's not wise. We've got to be very, very careful, very circumspect, but we'll get to it in a moment. But what it's saying in verse 12 is that there are some sins that are practicing society, that we should even talk about it, because it's so evil. Now verse 13, but in all things that are exposed, but all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. So God's Word will, over time, will expose it all. So that will all come to to light.

Continue now in verse 14. Therefore, it says, Awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. And this is basically talking about repentance. That's what we need. We need to repent. But when it says, Awake you who sleep, spiritually speaking, people in the world, before baptized, before coming to the knowledge of the truth, they went to sleep. And maybe some of us need to be awoken it, because we're becoming a little sleepy.

But particularly when we were un-baptized, unrepentant, we were spiritually dead. That's why it says, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light. God, through Christ, is given as light to understand the truth. Now we get to the third section here, which is, Walk wisely. Walk with great care, verses 15 through 21. So it says, See that you walk circumspectly. See that you walk with great care. That's how we live. We need to walk and live wisely, particularly in these evil days. It's like walking through a minefield.

You know, this world is like a minefield, and we need to be wise. When we say how we act, how we conduct ourselves in this society, not as fools but wise. You know, we know in the Bible that talks about fools are those that say in their heart, there is no God. Well, we're just being unwise. We've got to be careful. We've got to be careful. We've got to be wise. And then it says, verse 16, Redeeming the time. Redeeming the time. You know, time is precious. Time is precious. The days move along, and none of us is getting any younger. And now I quite often joke, well, I'm a day younger, but in reality, none of us is getting any younger. And the time is precious, and the days are evil. That's what it says, because the days are evil.

Clearly, we live in a very evil time. Oh yeah, peace, peace. There's a lot of talk about peace and whatever. And then sudden destruction. We need to be alert and intentional. We mustn't not waste time.

Use time properly. Take control of the various events that surround us, and don't waste time.

You know, social media wastes a lot of time. We gotta keep focus about that. We gotta be wise. Verse 17, Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

What is God's will? What does God want you and I to do with this hour, this moment now?

Am I using my time wisely? Is this what God would prefer or want me to be doing at this moment, at this time? How does he want us to live? How would Jesus Christ act in this situation?

It is good for us to consider and ponder and try to understand what the will of God is.

What is God's will? What would God want me to spend the time on in this hour or today or this half day that I have? We're gonna redeem the time, and we're gonna be wise. Verse 18, And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit.

And so we can see that in this example, it's not condemning drinking, but it's condemning the misuse of drinking, the overuse to be drunk. And it says, when we drunk, there's dissipation. In other words, there's a waste. Waste of money, waste of resources. People get silly. They may get violent.

They may get involved in fights. They may get involved in an accident. It's just there's a waste.

Terrible destruction and waste can happen because, for instance, people drive under the influence, and so on, and act silly, and things like that. They're wasting time, and they just, they use just dissipation. But rather be filled with God's Spirit. Don't be filled with liquid spirits of this world, but be filled with God's Spirit. Be, ask for God for the daily bread, the spiritual daily bread. He's Spirit. And God gives His Spirit to those that obey Him. Acts 5, 32. How are we obeying God? Are we improving on that? Because God then gives His Spirit. So be filled with God's Spirit. Be wise. What are we doing? How are we using our time?

And not wasting it. And therefore, getting closer to God, particularly in these days that are evil, because time is short. Redeeming the time. Time is short, really, because the days are very evil.

Verse 19, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. So some people are more musical than others. I am not very musical. I am not the sort of person that that is kind of whistling away the day all the time.

I'm not that sort of person. But you can be positive. You can have a positive outlook.

You can have, you can be happy. You can be joyful and joyful in the heart. There are some people that are more musical than others. Some bring things to music. As an example, the last feast in Brazil, I gave a sermon regarding reconciliation, and the title of the sermon was, reconciliation begins at home. There were some people there that came from Angola, and then now they sent me a song they composed based on that sermon. A beautiful song, obviously in Portuguese, saying, singing about reconciliation begins at home. And so, you know, some people are very musical, and bring joy through their way of expressing. It could be hymns. Maybe at times you could be singing in your mind a song from the hymnal, say, for instance, how happy, or how gee thanks unto the Lord, or something like that. And, you know, that helps us as we go along. And so, let's be wise, and maintain a positive, joyful outlook, rather than looking at it in the negative, poor me, and just our poor me, and being negative. We need to be positive, attain a positive outlook. Verse 20, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We need to be thankful, constantly being thankful.

I was amazed just today. I talked to the mother. I don't want to mention names yet, but you know what I'm talking about. I talked to mother of a young lady that had a terrible accident, and she's basically in hospital, and she's basically paralyzed. And the mother told me, because I said I'm praying not only for her, but I'm praying for the mother, and the mother said, you know, George, I am so, I can't remember the exact words she said, but I'm so close to God, I'm so uplifted, I'm so encouraged by God, because God's got me, and God has got her talking about the daughter, because she could have been dead, and she's not. And I was so encouraged by the faith and the trust of this mother in the church in such a difficult and trying situation, she's giving thanks to God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that really touched my heart. I really, I was very encouraged, and so it's just a lesson to all of us. Anyway, and in verse 21, it says, submitting to one another in the fear of God. We should be able to submit.

The word for submitting is upatasso, which means under, and tasso is a word that comes from the military, a Greek word where soldiers would be under authority. And so, so it says, submit one another in the fear of God. And so, as I mentioned earlier on, the building block of what Christ did of Him dying for us involved Him, you know, emptying Himself in humility, in submission, and dying for us, and giving us His gift as offering and a sacrifice for us, and with intent to ultimately achieve unity, oneness in the faith. And so, that's what our goal is. Our goal is to be one with Christ and with the Father. That's what Christ prayed just before He died. It's like His, like saying, was His lost world. And that's what God wants from us, for us to be humble, to be submitting to one another, and that, demonstrate that through love towards one another, so that we, in the end, achieve unity. Next week, brethren, we'll then look at these additional practical details of how to apply this humility and submission to build unity in love, in both in our families and in our work lives.