1) Its the thoughts that count
With Verse 17, Paul turns to the Christian in relationship to an
unbelieving world that we live in.
This reference to the distinction between Jews and Gentiles, it
refers to anyone who is outside of Christ. Paul is saying that "You Christians must no longer live as they do
in the futility of their minds." The place to start in living as a Christian is to
recognize that you must think differently than the world does.
Notice that Paul does not start with actions. He is not like the Pharisees
who moves in and picks on the outward. He starts with the fundamental: our
thought-life, the mind.
Paul declares that the world's thinking is futile,
i.e., empty. This is the vital appeal that he makes to Christians, "You must not adopt the world's philosophy of living,
or follow the world's systems of value." Why?
"Because people of
the world lives in futility. "
The word for futility,
in the original Greek, means "void
of purpose or appropriateness," i.e., pointless. J.B Philips, in his modern paraphrase
puts it accurately: "Do
not live as the gentiles live. For they live blindfold in a world of
illusion," (Ephesians 4:17b-18a J. B. Philips).
Again this relates to a truth that we find widespread throughout
the Scriptures: Man is ignorant because there is a part of his being that does
not function. It is his spiritual life. His spirit is blank, darkened,
obscured. As a result, all his knowledge is broken, unrelated, incomplete.
In other words, you must not live like the Gentiles because you need not. In Christ,
you have a different principle of living, a different way of thinking.
The Apostle Paul here uses a very helpful figure in
these two phrases, "put off" and "put on." If you have a
soiled garment, you put it off and put on something new. He is using that to
illustrate what we must do in the realm of thought, and attitudes of life.
Also include in the putting away are "deceitful desires."
It does not mean only sexual desire, although it does include that. We will get
closer to the essential meaning of this word if we use the term urge.
These deceitful urges are constantly coming to us as we react to various
situations in which we find ourselves.
For instance there is the urge to fulfill yourself by
indulging in retail therapy, that’s the urge to make yourself happy by owning
things. Such an urge is deceitful, as the Word of God tells us, for man was
never made to be satisfied with owning things. Yet who of us does not daily
experience this kind of an urge? We flip through the pages of a magazine and
see the beautiful gadgets and remarkable gimmicks, and we feel an urge, don’t
we. That’s why my sister said she has stopped buying Her World already.
Each day we are faced a decision, how then should we
live?
Illustration
A pastor shared a conversation he had with a church member. The
church member came to his office to talk about a problem. He was a Christian
man and his problem was this: He had gone into business with some other
Christian men and the business, through circumstances that were not wholly his
own fault, had failed and he had to go into bankruptcy. Now he was facing the
urge within to accept a position that he had before the law, that is write off
his debts and let his creditors suffer the loss. He was facing the urge to take
advantage of that. All his friends were telling him it was the thing to do and
even his wife agreed to this. But his heart was troubled. He wondered if he had
the moral right, as a Christian, to do this and to ask his creditors to bear
the loss. 2 of them prayed and went through the Scriptures together. It became
clear that he did not have that right. The Word of God says, "Owe no man anything, but to love one another"
(Romans 13:8 KJV), and "Prove
things honest in the sight of all men," (Romans 12:17 KJV).
As he faced that he was confronted with a definite choice -- to put off the
urge to take the apparently easy way out at the price of the peace of God
within the heart. As we talked, he made that choice. He said, "I see what I need to do. I will accept this
obligation to pay back those men. Not one of them will lose a dime over this
business. It will take me some time, but I am going to pay them back."
At that his face brightened and he looked at me and said, "What a load has been lifted from my life. I know
this is going to be hard to do, and even my wife is not going to accept this,
but already I have a sense of peace over this whole matter, and that's worth it
all."
The Christian is called to live on a different basis. The decision
you made depends very much on your thought life. Paul says in 2 Cor 2:5 “we
take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”----
to align our thoughts to that of what God approves. When we do that, we will
discover there is an adequacy from God that sustains the inner life, in the
midst of the problems and pressures and demands that are made upon us.
“To put off the old and put on the new”---seems easy, like
changing clothes. Not exactly…
2) So what if I like the old garments
Illustration
A newly wed couple just tossed and turned
during the wedding night. Finally they made a decision. They got up to change,
they took off the new silky PJs that they bought for honeymoon and changed into
those old nua nua tee shirt, wow so nice & comfy. Old clothes are super
comfortable. We may think its so easy, and felt bad that we are still stuck
with the old ways. The reality is this:…
a) First, recognize that there will be the
pull of the old life on the Christian.
An article in the ST yesterday contains an
interview with David Milch, the producer of a new HBO movie “Horse Play”, a
drama on horse racing. He used to be
degenerate gambler, just like the character of the show and he honestly admits
that the “itch” to do it will forever haunt him.
Similarly, that old thought pattern, old lifestyle,
you may be so used to it, and even quite like it. Know that you are not
abnormal or a defeated Christian. Paul mentioned in 1:13
that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit with a view to our final
salvation. So take heart, as we work out our salvation, we will arrive by God’s
grace.
b) Ya I not mature lor, so?
There is a whole list of behaviors
mentioned in this part of the scripture: In
your anger do not sin; Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each
other, just as in Christ God forgave you; Among you there must not be even a
hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed…
The
list goes on. If we understand these behaviors or exhortations as just a set of
impersonal rules that we can keep or break with no consequences other than what
happen to us, then we are oblivious to the fact that
there are deep personal consequences in our relation with God.
Why should our sin grieve the HS? Because
we worship a relational God. The
word “grieve” is a personal and relational verb. You can only
grieve a close friend or a loved one. You can’t grieve a stranger you meet on
the street. You can irritate a stranger and you can offend a casual
acquaintance, but you can only grieve someone very close to you.
We tend to talk a lot about interpersonal problems, as if the
greatest issue in life is how we relate to other people. But verse 30 reminds
us that our primary relationship is always with God. And it is possible to
grieve God’s Holy Spirit. On one hand, don’t feel defeated or that you
are alone, press on. On the other hand, know that when you take sin lightly, when
you live as though that was a matter of indifference, it is to wound God
deeply. It’s not just rules.
3) Choose the way you walk
Besides the phrase putting off and putting
on, Paul used another word in the section 5:1-20 to signify our resolution to
live differently---Walk.
Paul uses the word “walk” 6 times in this section of
his letter. Everyone knows that a walk consists of two steps repeated over and
over again. You never take more than two steps in walking, one leg forward then
the other leg. But do that again and again and you are walking. This is an apt
simile for how to live the Christian life. We are to be continually putting off
the old and putting on the new. That is what Christian living is all about.
Look through many commentaries, they would
divide this section into 3 parts:
a)
walk in love
b)
walk in the light
c)
walk with wisdom
Afraid I do not have enough time to unpack
this, You may go through some of these commentaries to see what it entails.
How
do you put off the old life? How do you walk in love, walk in the light, walk with wisdom?
1
leg forward that you can take is a step in confession.
Confession is to bring it up out of the subconscious into the conscious and
look at it and name it. If you don't name it, just quietly acknowledge that you
are such, it has a strange power over you; it can go on forever. But if you
look at it and verbalize it, you can put it away. That is why the Scriptures
say, "If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness," (1 John 1:9).
Be filled with the holy spirit
A German pastor shared this illustration. He says that Christians
are like a pond in the woods on which the leaves are constantly falling. These
leaves fall one at a time, quietly, almost silently, upon the surface of the
pond. The leaves are the manifestation of the old life. A little vanity, a
little envy, a bit of prideful ambition, some unkindness, a sharp unlovely word
spoken to another, a lie, some impurity, a bit of egotism; these are constantly
falling upon the pond of our life. We don't think they are very important. We
think they are trivialities, mere passing things. They sink to the bottom and
are forgotten, but they are still there. That is the problem. They are still
there. There they lie and rot, and soon, in the deep subconscious part of our
life, there is a foulness, a rottenness that stops the flow of the water and
stagnates the pool.
When a pool of water is quiet, though the bottom is very dirty and
foul, it isn't very apparent. But let something agitate the water, let
something bother us, some circumstance irritate us, and the water of our lives
is troubled and the dirt at the bottom whirls up and clouds our minds, and
confuses us, and we react in anxiety. But the Holy Spirit of God brings to our
attention the things he is lifting up out of the bottom of our lives, dredging
out the foulness. One by one these things are brought to our attention, and, if
we name them, if we say, "Yes
Lord, that is what I have done, that is what I do. Thank you for showing it to
me," then we can put it away. Bit by bit it keeps coming up,
all this foulness, until gradually the pool becomes clear again, sunlit,
sparkling, and open. We have nothing left to hide. We don't try to cover over
and pretend that we are something else. Then that pool, that pond that has been
lying stagnant becomes a trickle of living water growing into a river at last
that flows out in blessing to others.
Conclusion
The scripture text for this morning
signifies Paul’s transition into the practical section of the letter. However
in approaching this section of the letter (4:17-5:20), we must not, cannot forget the first 3 chapters, where
Paul reminded us of the spiritual blessing we have in Christ, how we come alive
in Him.
If we do not read this letter in totality,
we end up seeing the Christian faith as a lot of rules & regulations, a lot
of should’s and ought’s, but little joy. The living and doing of the gospel is a
command but it is also an invitation from the Father: You are a child of God,
now take my hand and grow up as my child; You are a new person in Christ, come
on, take steps of faith and blossom into that new person.
And the role of the HS is to open your
eyes to hear God’s heart. The Holy Spirit is God’s empowering presence; He
treats us with dignity and respects our freedom. There is no coercion or
manipulation but instead God relates to us, offering us His grace.
The result of that encounter is a life of
love and deliberate intention to be and do all God requires.
Christian living cannot stem from trying
to meet standards but responding to God’s grace in our obedience.
In his book “Practise Resurrection”, Eugene Peterson mentioned Bernard of Clairvaux, a 12th century
Christian who wrote a paper called “On Loving God”. In it, he described the 4 degrees of love.
1.
In the 1st degree, “loving one’s self for one’s own sake”; we try to
handle things on our own. But life gets too complicated and throws too much at
us that we do not know what to do with. So we sooner or later find ourselves
out of our depth. We turn to God for help.
2.
This brings us to a 2nd degree: “Loving God for one’s sake”.
We turn to God for what God can do for us. We pray, we search the scriptures.
This stage can last a long time. But gradually as we get acquainted with the
ways of God, our immature self-centered pre-occupation recedes and we begin to
recognize and understand God as he is, not as we imagined him to be, and we are
attracted to what we are finding: God’s essential goodness.
3.
We are now well on our way into the 3rd
stage “the love of God for God’s sake”. We love
not what we can get out of God but for who God is. It is Mary sitting at the
feet of Jesus; It is Isaiah in the temple saying, ‘here am I. Send me’.
4.
The 4th stage is now only a few
steps away: “loving one’s self for God’s sake”.
God’s love makes more of us, and we find our own human wholeness affirmed in
the love of God.
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