Unity in Behavior: Ephesians 4:25-32 :: By Sean Gooding

Published on: by RR10 Category:General Articles, Sean Gooding

“Therefore, putting away lying, ‘Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,’ for we are members of one another. 26 ‘Be angry, and do not sin’: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 27 nor give place to the devil. 28 Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. 29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.”

Last week, we ended with a call to live righteously. The first three lessons taught us how to behave toward each other inside of the local church, and then the last two have spoken about how we are to be outside.

Paul encourages us to be ambassadors of the Kingdom of God. We are to take the beauty of the Kingdom of God beyond the borders of our local churches and promote the Kingdom of God. So, let me ask you, what kind of ambassador are you? Are you a good advertisement for the Kingdom of God, or do people who interact with you decide that it is better to avoid the Kingdom of God? This is a legitimate question. We have all met people who tell us the horror stories of their encounters with the ambassadors of God’s Kingdom. Maybe you have some horror stories of your own to tell. Sadly, like all countries, the Kingdom of God has good residents and bad residents; which are you?

Paul goes on to lay out some practical ways that we are to behave and act toward our fellow men/women that will allow us to be good ambassadors for the Kingdom of God. Notice in verse 25, we are told how to communicate with our ‘neighbors.’ These are those with whom we have a relationship either in the local church or maybe the icon in our family or home area.

One of the most important ways that we can be good ambassadors of the Kingdom of God is how we speak to the people around us. Paul tells us to ‘speak truth.’  This is important; we are not to be lying to each other, but neither are we to affirm lies. This is being pushed on us today, even in so-called churches – the idea that we are loving people by affirming them in their delusions and misguided thinking.

The next way is that we are to have control over our anger. Too many of God’s people use the idea of ‘righteous rage’ to justify ungodly behaviors; and in the event that there is a cause of anger, we are not to let it drag on and on. When we hold on to anger, when we stay mad at people, we are opening the door for the Devil himself to come in and work. Thus, we are no longer ambassadors for the Kingdom of God, but for the Devil himself.

Get a job! It is essential for God’s people to be productive members of society as far as jobs are concerned. Do not be a part of theft or even the appearance of theft. If you do steal, stop it and get a job. As a pastor, I think it is good for a man to be as bi-vocational as possible. It allows us to keep our ears and hands in people’s lives around us and not cocooned in the ministry. Most if not all of the apostles had other means of supplying their personal needs; it was not solely on the local church. The reason to have a job is not just to care for yourself but to also to be able to help those in need (see verse 28).

Paul turns again to our speech in verse 29. Wow! The way we talk must be very, very, very important. It looks like our mouths and the way we speak either make us good ambassadors or bad ones. How then is your speech? We are called to edify, to lift up, one another and to speak with grace to each other. Are we building up or tearing down each other? Sadly, too many Christians are good at demolition but not good at construction. We can destroy in our ‘righteous anger,’ but we cannot build up; we are not good ambassadors of the Kingdom of God. And frankly, I don’t care how much Bible you know, if you cannot speak to build up and with grace even when there is a need for correction, then you are not helping.

Paul then calls us to live in such a way as to not ‘grieve the Holy Spirit.’ He then goes on to tell how we need to behave so as not to grieve the Holy Spirit. Put away bitterness, wrath, and anger. A good ambassador of the Kingdom of God has a godly control over his or her emotions. Bitterness, as defined by Aristotle, is ‘a resentful spirit that refuses reconciliation.’ Wow! This sounds a lot like many Christians I know. They refuse to be reconciled because of an offense that was so egregious that it was more than what God’s grace could handle. Can you imagine an offense that big? There isn’t one. We make them up in our minds. Paul tells us to put this kind of untamed emotional behavior away from us. Mature people do not behave this way; this is for children or the unsaved but not for the ambassadors of the Kingdom of God.

Paul calls us to godly living: be kind, be tenderhearted, be forgiving; in other words, behave toward others how God behaves toward us. God is kind, God is tenderhearted, and God is forgiving beyond all measure. Good ambassadors of the Kingdom of God are this way toward those both inside and outside of the local church, and this is how we promote the Kingdom. You will not draw many with your ‘righteous anger.’ Rather, you will draw and keep many with kindness, tenderheartedness, and constant forgiveness.

So, how is your tenure as an ambassador for the Kingdom going? The Lord is coming soon!

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church
70 Victoria Street, Elora, Ontario

 

Conflicts, Confession, & the Cost… Pt 1 (Matt 16:1-12) :: By Donald Whitchard

Published on: by RR10 Category:General Articles

(Conflicts, Confession, and the Cost of Discipleship)

Matthew 16:1-28, Mark 8:27-30, Luke 9:18-21, Luke 14:25-33

Summary: In this chapter, the Lord Jesus will yet again confront the Pharisees and Sadducees for their religious hypocrisy, and Peter will confess that Jesus is the Son of God, which is the rock upon which the church will be built.

After feeding the 4,000 residents of the Decapolis, Jesus and His disciples traveled to the region of Magdala near the city of Caesarea Philippi. It is here where the Pharisees and Sadducees came together for the specific purpose of bringing down Jesus. Their mutual contempt for Him had woven them together into an evil common bond. What did these two groups of religious leaders believe?

The Pharisees believed in the coming of God’s Promised Messiah, the existence of angels and demons, supernatural powers, and the might and power of God. They were strict adherents to the Law of Moses found in the first five books of the Bible. Their interpretation of the Law bordered on fanaticism in their attempts to avoid anything that might violate it. They believed that all Scripture was from God. The problem was that God was there in the person of Jesus Christ, and they were too blind to notice.

The Sadducees were the religious liberals of the day. They believed that the five Books of Moses (Genesis-Deuteronomy) were the only legitimate Scripture. They rejected all forms of supernaturalism, including the existence of angels and demons, and did not believe in an afterlife. They taught that this world was where you received any blessing from God. Any idea of a Messiah was purely political with no religious significance for Israel. They were supportive of the occupying forces of Rome and did not want to upset the situation. They were like the Pharisees in that they were also blind to the obvious when it came to the person and work of Jesus.

While both groups clamored for “signs” from Jesus to show that He was from God, the truth is that they closed their hearts and minds to Him by this point. They chose to be willfully and deliberately blind and ignorant of the visible and undeniable work of God done by Jesus. They could discern the signs of changing weather, but not the signs of God’s presence and power. Their character was a visible symbol of casting the pearls of the Gospel to pigs, content to wallow in the dung and mud of their own stubborn unbelief. He would not waste His time or effort on them. He rightfully called them out for their wickedness and spiritual adultery. He chose to leave them with the “sign of Jonah,” a reference to His inevitable death, burial, and resurrection. Afterwards, He left them, a painful and eternal sign of their coming destruction.

Verses 5-12 describe Jesus’ departure from Galilee. Matthew writes here that they had forgotten to take bread for the trip. Jesus told them to beware of what He referred to as the “leaven” of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Unfortunately, the listening skills of the disciples had waned. They thought that Jesus was upset over the fact that they had forgotten to bring bread for the trip. One can imagine the Lord sighing and shaking in frustration and disbelief. If the Pharisees’ request for a sign despite the obvious work of Jesus among them constituted as dumb, then the disciples were acting dumber, thinking that physical bread was somehow the centerpiece of discussion.

Jesus expressed His frustration in a blunt manner, accusing them of having little faith. They had seen Him feeding 5,000 men, not including women and children. He had done the same for 4,000 people just a while before. Creating food was no problem for Him. That was not the point. Jesus had taken little and turned it into plenty. He had healed the sick, taught the Word to the crowds, and performed authentic miracles for God’s glory and shown that He was the Messiah promised by God to His people Israel. What had the Pharisees produced? Miracles? Teaching from the Scriptures? Healing the sick? Did they proclaim the coming of the Kingdom of God?

The only things they had done were to continually attack Jesus and accuse Him of doing the work of the devil, giving Him nothing but trouble. Their leaven produced a rise of nothing but evil and sorrow. What Jesus had told the disciples was a warning to stay away from these hypocrites and false teachers. They understood at that point. They would meet these reprobates after Jesus ascended to heaven (Acts 1:8-11). They would receive the wrath of their rotten harvest and pay a price for their devotion and faithfulness to Jesus.

What type of leaven are you producing in your life? Are you playing some sort of religious game to somehow merit favor with God? It doesn’t work that way, friend. The Bible says that our righteousness is nothing but a filthy leper’s rag in His sight (Isaiah 64:6; Romans 3:23). The only way that we can be made righteous before God and be permanently cleansed of our wickedness is to repent of our sins and trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation (John 14:6; Acts 4:12; Romans 5:6-11, 6:23, 1:9-10). Our leaven produces nothing but a rancid harvest of pride and evil that leads to eternal hell from which there is no exit (Hebrews 9:27; Revelation 20:11-15). Turn to Jesus today.

donaldwhitchard@outlook.com