An Overview of Ephesians
By Joe Guagliardo
Ephesians 4:17-32
“What is Christian Living?”
August 16, 2023
In today’s verses, Paul explicitly describes what you must do to live as a Christian.
Before we look at several of Paul’s detailed remarks, let’s take a look at what Evangelist Billy Graham lists as principles for Christian Living.
- Read your Bible daily. Do not be content to skim through a chapter merely to satisfy your conscience. Hide the Word of God in your heart. It comforts, guides, corrects, encourages – all we need is there.
- Learn the secret of prayer. Prayer is communicating. Every prayer that you pray will be answered. Sometimes that answer may be “Yes,” and sometimes “No,” and sometimes, it is “Wait,” but nevertheless, it will be answered.
- Rely constantly on the Holy Spirit. We know that the Holy Spirit prays for us (Romans 8), and what a comfort that should be to the weakest of us. Stand aside and let Him take over all the choices and decisions of your life.
- Attend church regularly. The visible church is Christ’s organization upon earth. Christians need one another, we need to gather together to worship God, and nothing can take the place of church attendance.
- Be a witnessing Christian. We witness in two ways: by life and by word – and the two, where possible, should go hand in hand.
- Let love be the ruling principle of your life. Jesus said to those who followed Him, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye have love one to another” (John 13:35). The greatest demonstration of the fact that we are Christians is that we love one another.
- Be an obedient Christian. Let Christ have first place in all the choices of your life.
- Learn how to meet temptation. Temptation is not sin. It is yielding that is sin. Let Christ, through the Holy Spirit, do the fighting for you.
- Be a wholesome Christian. Our lives and appearance should commend the Gospel and make it attractive to others.
- Live above your circumstances. Don’t let your circumstances get you down. Learn to live graciously within them, realizing the Lord Himself is with you.
https://billygrahamlibrary.org/10-guidelines-for-christian-living/
You’ll notice as we continue that Paul’s guidelines fit very nicely into Bill Graham’s guidelines. Although Paul’s are more specific. Let’s take a look at today’s verses.
“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. They 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, and they are full of greed.
That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 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; 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.
Therefore, each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body. “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. Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.
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. 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. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you.
Ephesians 4:17-32
I chose four passages from today’s reading to look at regarding Christian Living.
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; 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.
In this passage, Paul talks about our old self and new self.
Of course, our old self is the way the Ephesians and ourselves used to act and think before Jesus came into our lives. We can look back to Genesis, where Satan lied to Adam and Eve, as he always does.
But now, Paul tells us not to be corrupted by Satan’s influence. Instead, we are to put on a new self because we have been recreated to be like God. Because of Jesus’ death on the cross, we have been re-created in His likeness.
The call for us to put on the new self encompasses both numbers 8 & 9 of Billy Graham’s principles. (Reread above Pg.1)
Another principle Paul touches on is anger.
“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.
You’ll notice that Paul says, “In your anger, do not sin.” Many of us have come to believe that anger is a sin. No, it’s not.
“Anger itself is not a sin, but the strong emotion, unrestrained, can lead very quickly to sin. As God said to Cain, “It’s desire is for you, but you must rule over it” (Genesis 4:7).”
(https://tacomachristiancounseling.com/articles/anger-in-the-bible-righteous-anger-or-sin)
The second part of this verse hits closest to home for me.
Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.
I can remember sitting with the Priest (As I mentioned earlier, I was brought up Catholic) in private counseling before Kathy and I were married almost 50 years ago. He emphasized the point of not going to bed mad at each other. I can probably count on one hand how many times we’ve done that. If left to brew overnight, the anger can fester and become a sin.
(Check out Billy Graham’s 6th point once again.)
Next comes my least favorite because when I was younger (I still occasionally slip), I had a very foul mouth.
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.
Unwholesome talk is not only a sin, but using it toward others can invoke anger. On more than one occasion, I used, let’s say, bad words toward others. Unfortunately, not only is it wrong to do so, but it can provoke the other person’s anger to the point of a physical altercation. I often ended up on the short end of the stick in those situations.
People need to be built up and treated honorably and lovingly.
(Billy Graham’s 6th, 8th and 9th points come to mind)
Finally, we come to Paul’s final point in today’s verses.
Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you.
I already spoke about a couple of Paul’s negatives. Now, he’s making a point of showing the opposites of Christian living and how we should live. The negatives are relatively obvious. So, let me just reiterate the positives.
Be kind to one another. Be compassionate to those in need of compassion. And when you or someone else ‘screws’ up, forgive each other. The forgiving part may seem like a difficult thing to do. Anytime you have a problem with forgiveness, imagine Jesus on the cross and how He forgave you by taking each and every one of your sins upon himself.
(Reread Billy Graham’s principal’s, especially 5-10)
joegministries.com 