Here is my commentary on Ephesians 4:17. I am publishing these once or twice a week, but you can read all of the available articles at our web-site, http://www.new-life.org.au

Ephesians 4:17

“Now this I affirm and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.”

Because of the fact that we as christians are being directed and growing up into the fullness of Christ, we must allow Him to change our way of thinking and living. Paul now goes on to describe the implications of living in the light of Christ.

When religious beliefs remain just beliefs, then our faith becomes ideology or dogma. Faith must impact our lives or it remains theoretical ,and shows that we have not allowed the Holy Spirit to change us.

Paul uses very strong language to introduce his exhortation. The words affirm and testify together mean that a solemn declaration is being made. In English we might make a legally binding declaration with language such as “I affirm and testify,” or “I swear and declare.”

The word translated here as testify is the word from which we get the word martyr. The early church recognised the power of testifying to Christ even to the point of death .

Paul himself can testify to the importance of being changed by Christ. Prior to his conversion he was a strong and violent persecutor of the followers of Jesus. Now, as an apostle, he can testify to the power of the gospel to change a life.

So Christians coming from a Gentile or non-Jewish background, similarly must leave the ways of the pagans.

Paul describes the old Gentile ways as “futility of their minds.” They were deceived by their false religion, and so they lived accordingly. The Gentiles are in darkness; satan has blinded them and they cannot even see that they are deceived.

Wrong thinking leads to wrong actions. Paul goes on to list the ways in which the former Gentiles need to change in order to be more like Christ.

We need to recognise that this is not legalism. Paul does not lay down the law, because he knows from experience that legal ism is as futile as Gentile religions. But he does seek to correct their thinking so that it is productive not futile.

All religion that is not related to Christ is idolatry. These Gentiles who received Christ had previously worshipped a multitude of “gods”, but now needed to follow the way of Christ.

The defining feature of idolatry is that we serve a “god” from a desire to control the “gods”. People worshipped weather “gods” such as Baal because they needed weather suitable for crops, or else they starved.

They gave offerings and performed rituals in the hope that the various “gods” would protect or provide. Apart from that, they could live their lives in anyway they liked.

When we come to Christ, there is nothing we can do to make him more amenable to us. He already did everything necessary to atone for our sins.

This is the reverse of the pagan “gods”. People made offerings in the hope that the “god” would do something good for them. In Christianity, God makes the first move, becoming flesh and dying for us, before we even knew about it.

In paganism, humans act and the “gods” respond. In Christianity, God has acted and we respond to his self offering.

What’s response can we make? Paul tells us in Romans that we must present ourselves as living sacrifices (Romans 12:1).

Gentile believers, then, move from a religion of little demands made by a little “god”, to a God who gives all and expects the same response in return .

It is no wonder that Paul tells us we must no longer live as the Gentiles do in the futility of their thinking.

Key points in this verse:

• Faith in Christ must result in changed behaviour, or else it is just a theory
• Paul can testify to this because of his own experience of changed life
• The Gentiles (i.e. non-believers) are trapped by the futility of their minds
• Pagan religion demands little and gives little
• God gave everything in order to save us, and we must give Him our whole lives in response

Here is my commentary on Ephesians 4:16. I am publishing these once or twice a week, but you can read all of the available articles at our web-site, http://www.new-life.org.au

Ephesians 4:16

“From him [Christ] the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”

In the previous verse we were told that the church is growing up into Christ, the Head. In this verse the church is growing up “from Him”.

Christ supplies the growth for the church, and He is the objective to which the church is growing .

An analogy would be the growth of a plant. Plants generally grow in the direction of the sun or other light source. At the same time, the sun is the source of energy for the plant which enables the plant to grow.

The church, the whole body, is growing into maturity in Christ, the one who directs and grows the church .

This growth is both in number and in quality of relationship. The church is required to constantly engage in mission, going to the world to share the gospel with others. Out of this mission comes a growth in the number of people who identify with the church.

At the same time, the church is engaged in internal growth or quality growth. This is the process whereby each member and the community as a whole, works at becoming more like Christ .

The whole body grows as “each part does it work.”

Part of this is the ministry gifts of 4:11. As each of these church leaders fulfils the call that Christ has placed on them, they are able to lead the church into greater maturity.

However, for real church health, every part of the body must discover its role, or its position in the household (2:19-22). Each believer needs to find out their part of the mission of the church. This might be such things as works of service, deeds of kindness, sharing the gospel at work, and so on. As each person, each part of the Body of Christ, does their work, the ligaments and joints of the body are strengthened and prepared for greater growth .

In the human body, strength is only possible when the heart delivers blood to the various organs, the lungs deliver oxygen into the blood, the digestive system extracts the various nutrients from food to be delivered to every cell, and so on. The whole body must be healthy and do its work in order for the body to be strong and to grow stronger.

The church also requires every part to do its work in order to grow into Christ .

The whole body is joined and held together by every supporting ligament .

Every congregation needs to develop ways of incorporating its members so that they know that they belong together. This is generally referred to as fellowship or in Greek koinonia.

How can we ensure that a person who is part of the body stays connected? How can we ensure a new person feels welcome?

Every church will have a number of strategies in place to make these things happen. There are both formal and informal processes that take place, and these evolve over time to reflect the size of the church and the culture of its community.

At the heart of this is the desire to grow in fellowship and in care for one another. A church that just operates on Sunday is no church at all .

The body, Paul tells us, build itself up “in love.” Love of God, and love for one another is the supporting ligament that holds the church together and causes it to grow.

The church grows “in love” and builds itself up “in love” because the church is the Body of Christ. We can only do what we do in love because we do it in Christ, and God is love.

We build one another up in love because we love God and want to love his children as we love him.

Love must be the heart of all that the church does. Sometimes we miss this. We become so invested in the programs and in the activities of the church that we forget that these things are secondary. They are there to proclaim and embody the love of God; they are not there for their own sake.

So as we serve one another in love and work in the part that God has placed us, then the church grows in the grace of Christ becoming more like him .

Key points in this verse:

• We are growing from Christ and to Christ
• The church is growing in numbers and in the quality of discipleship
• Every part of the body, not just the leaders, must do its work
• The church must work at encouraging every member to feel that they belong

Here is my commentary on Ephesians 4:15. I am publishing these once or twice a week, but you can read all of the available articles at our web-site, http://www.new-life.org.au

Ephesians 4:15

“Instead, speaking the truth in love, we shall in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is Christ.”

Instead of being immature children blown away by every wind of doctrine and the schemes of deceitful people, we are to grow up in love and into the Head of the Body, that is Christ.

“Speaking the truth in love” should not be seen as an excuse for gossip or for confrontations based on self-righteousness, as some suppose. It is not the biblical equivalent of “tough love” which gives us an excuse to tell people exactly what we think of them “in love.”

The phrase “in love” occurs repeatedly in Ephesians as a kind of refrain. In fact, Paul uses it in the very next verse when talking about how the body of Christ grows, with every part building itself in love.

We should note that the phrase “in love” has nothing to do with romance. The word for love is again agape which refers to the love that comes from God.

To speak the truth in love means that love is our motivation before we even speak. The love of God should so constrain us that we seek to build one another up always. Mostly this will involve listening and acting for one another. Sometimes, it may involve speaking words of edification, comfort, and exhortation.

Speaking in love means that we use our words to build up, not to tear down. The world is full of destructive and critical words, and the church does not need to add to them.

That does not mean that we never speak the truth. Speaking the truth in love Is In distinct opposition to “the cunning and craftiness of men and in their deceitful scheming” in the previous verse.

There will be times when we have to speak uncomfortable truth to those who are deceitful or deceived. Those who seek to use the church to further their own personal agendas must be called to account. Even then, we must ensure that we do this in love.

Church discipline is a process of drawing an offender back into the grace of Christ. The love of God must always be the dominant feature of such processes.

The requirement to speak the truth in love applies to those who proclaim the gospel and to those who teach the church. It is possible to preach truth in such a way that it leaves the hearers condemned and further from God than before we started. We must preach the truth of God’s word always in the context of the love of God.

As we speak the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ.

Christ is the perfect example of love and truth dwelling together without contradiction. As we learn to both love and proclaim truth we will grow into Him.

This is a truth for individuals, but also for the church. The congregation of Gods people, the ekklesia, models Christ when it lives both truthfully and lovingly. We love one another and speak words of truth to one another. Christ will mature us as we grow in both love and truth.

To grow up into Christ means that we become like Him in all things. This Is what It means to be a follower or a disciple of Jesus. We walk behind Him, we imitate Him, and we become like Him or grow up into Him .

This has to be in “all things”, otherwise we become lopsided. Jesus, the Son of Man, was perfect in all that He did. To follow Jesus means that we imitate Him in all things. Although our natural temperament makes it easier to imitate Jesus in some ways more than others, to be like Jesus we must mature in all things .

The discipline of the Lord, the study of the Word, prayer, and the fellowship of the church, all help to correct us in the parts of our lives that are out of divine order.

The church needs the ministry of the five- fold gifts to nurture this maturity in all things. The offices of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher bring different perspectives so that the church may grow in all things.

The church has the responsibility to both hear the ministry gifts, and to ensure that others with these gifts are nurtured and matured. In this way it grows in all things into its head, that is Christ.

Key points in this verse:

• Rather than being tossed about by the schemes of deceitful people, we must speak the truth in love
• This is not a licence to say anything we think.
• Love is the dominant motif in the church, even when confronting deceitful and deceived people.
• We must grow up in all things.
• The ministry gifts give us a balanced perspective on growing in Christ.

Here is my commentary on Ephesians 4:14. I am publishing these once or twice a week, but you can read all of the available articles at our web-site, http://www.new-life.org.au

Ephesians 4:14

Then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching, and by the cunning and craftIness of men in their deceitful scheming .

When we, the church, are mature and attaining the whole measure of the fullness of Christ, then we will not be easily moved from our faith in Christ. This is talking about the state of the church rather than specific individuals, although it is obviously as true of individuals as it is of the Body of Christ.

This state of maturity brings with it a measure of strength and stability. The winds and storms of life do not sway an adult as they might do a small child. We have strength, experience and resources that a child left alone would not have.

The church is surrounded by enemies who seek to destroy her. The only way to survive is to grow strong in the Lord, to become mature under the tutelage of the five- fold ministry gifts.

In the Bible waves often refer to the constant stirring and restlessness of humanity without God; in other words, a godless culture.

These waves batter the church. Popular opinion is always opposed to the church, because God’s perspective is opposed to human opinion. Society wants to go its own way in respect to sexuality, abortion, families, marriage, euthanasia, and so on. These are the core issues of any society, and western culture is rapidly accelerating away from biblical values on these and other issues.

There is constant pressure on the church to modify its teachings, to modernise its beliefs. The world wants the church to endorse its sinful desires rather than to condemn them.

When the church is mature, it resists these waves that come against it. It refuses to be pushed around by popular opinion and stands firm. Churches that are not mature find themselves compromising and ultimately overwhelmed by the waves so that they lose their distinctiveness and ultimately die.

The church should be directed by the wind of the Holy Spirit. It can be instead “blown here and there by every wind of teaching.”

There are many false teachers in the church. To be a false teacher does not mean that a teacher is wrong at every point. No, they are often right at most points, but they overemphasise a particular doctrine.

Prosperity teaching is one such doctrine. God wants to prosper us, but that means He wants us to live good and virtuous lives in fellowship with Him. Prosperity in God’s ways comes from living generously and faithfully within the means that He gives us. Prosperity teaching twists this to say that God wants all of his disciples to be wealthy by the world’s standards.

“New” teachings seem to arise several times a year. it can be tiring just keeping up with the latest fashions. These teachings are like competing winds that blow the church in all directions.

God has called the church to be faithful and patient, to walk in humble obedience to him. New teachings might seem exciting, but they distract us from our purpose.

Another way that the church is buffeted about is the cunning and craftines of men in their deceitful scheming.

There are people, both men and women, who seek to use the church as their personal domain of power. Some are pastors, but many are not. They want to use the church as a means to exercise control over other people.

In the 1990’s, there was a movement in the church called “Shepherding.” Under this teaching, people were taught that they were not to make any decision unless it was first submitted to the pastor. This was totally unbiblical and served as a means for pastors to control their parishioners.

Many churches have been destroyed by people insinuating themselves into a position of power and undermining the legitimate authority of the pastor or other ministers.

These crafty and deceitful schemes of people will cause an immature church to fall apart. The need is for those churches to be mature so that they have discernment in seeing the true motives those who would come into steal and destroy .

The encouraging word in this verse is that when we are mature we can withstand these enemies.

Over many years I have seen people try to established churches on poor teaching, or on the sheer strength of their personality. But these things have no foundation. The pastor or church planter has no real relationship with Christ, so how can they build anything for Him?

The church needs to be led by genuine men and women of God, the five-f old ministers placed by God, not by the appointment of human structures.

Key points in this verse

• The church has many enemies who try to overcome it
• We must be mature in the faith to withstand opposition
• False teaching will blow the church in every wrong direction
• We must be wary of the craftinessof people and their deceptive schemes.