Category: QuietTimes

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Ephesians 4:30 [ESV]

Today we start the last 3 capstone verses of Chapter 4. This verse is one of the most heartfelt verses in the bible regarding our behavior and conduct as Christians. Grieving the Holy Spirit is a serious thing to consider. This note by Paul is harkening back to Ephesians chapter 1.

In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Ephesians 1:13-14[ESV]

When we think of this in context of our salvation, we see that grieving the Holy Spirit is a disrespect of the price Christ paid for our sin; saving us from a death and eternity in hell we deserve. BUT GOD in His grace, mercy, and love has saved us and sealed our destiny in Heaven by His Holy Spirit. I have used this before, so I apologize if it is repetitive, but it fits well here. Imagine your daily life, the things you do when you are in normal execution mode in this world. Are there things that you do that if the trumpet blew, and Jesus came through the clouds to receive us for the rapture, that you would be embarrassed by what you were doing as your eyes catch His?…It is you that He went to the cross for. It is you that He has interceded for in the throne room of heaven. This thought haunts me. I would never want my Savior to return only to find me doing something He has so clearly instructed me not to do in His word.

Application:

I never want to be doing something in my redeemed life that would dishonor or be found unbecoming of a follower of Jesus Christ. Lord help me by the work of the Holy Spirit to see when I am on the precipice of making a decision like this so I can, in all clarity of heart and mind, chose You and Your glory to honor, rather than my pride or fleshly desires.

Today’s Psalm:

Wait for the LORD and keep his way,
and he will exalt you to inherit the land;
you will look on when the wicked are cut off.

Psalms 37:34 [ESV]

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
Ephesians 4:29 [ESV]

Speech can tear people down and it can build people up. Paul is saying that not only can it build people up but it can also be beneficial. The term sapros (unwholesome, corrupting) means putrid, rancid, or rotten, decaying. There are references to this same word in Matthew 12:33 and 13:48. The “Let no…” of this verse is a present imperative that points to stopping and not allowing to continue. This is what might be referred to as speech that has a seriously foul smell (a stench). It is that kind of speech that when you hear it said by someone toward another person, makes you cringe, and it may even induce laughter in the sheer audacity of the words. We are all capable of this kind of speech and I think that Paul is very close to saying that it is EVIL.

This kind of speech is the heartless tearing down of a person by belittling or shoving in the cutting dagger of words and then twisting and pulling up to induce the most pain and damage possible. A worldly example of this is ‘roasting’. This is something Paul is exhorting us not to participate in… conversely, he is saying to use the gift of speech we have been given to build people up and encourage them.

This verse and the one before it (do not steal but give in generosity) kind of go hand in hand. They are both geared towards the edification and strengthening of others in our biblical community.

Application:

I am literally pausing here on the couch tonight reflecting on the most recent memories of whether I have done this or not. What I am arriving at is ‘maybe’. With my closest friends and family, I known for a dry humor style. I am trying to come up with an example, but I am just not pulling one from my brain at the moment. However, its not really the point. I need to be careful — that dry style can lead to joking around that is not necessarily demeaning, but also not uplifting. I need to be more careful with risking a tearing down potential in the pursuit of laughter and ‘making a funny’. I do try and offer encouragement every chance I get but even here I could do better. I pray that the Holy Spirit would give me a heart of discernment in seeing people and situations where my brothers and sisters in Christ need a good building up word that inspires them to do more.

Today’s Psalm:

The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom,
and his tongue speaks justice.
The law of his God is in his heart;
his steps do not slip.

Psalms 37:30-31 [ESV]

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.
Ephesians 4:28 [ESV]

This was a shorter quiet time but still important and the Lord had some alignment to show me in regard to verse 25 and that quiet time.

This verse feels like it is ‘no duh’ as it is one of the 10 commandments. But we need to remember the context in which Paul is writing -> support for the unity of the church in biblical community. No life of falsehoods. don’t let your anger linger, and now ‘don’t steal’, yet work for wages and have open hands with what you earn.

I was reading this and thinking about why Paul was talking about thievery to the church in Ephesus. The only real thing I could come up with is that it is possible that the Christians in Ephesus were stealing from the Romans. The Jewish people in the days of Jesus Christ had issues with the Roman government, and they thought that the evil Roman empire was unjustly stealing from them by overtaxing, and so some of the Jews tried to get away with not paying taxes – others—like the Jewish Zealots—sometimes tried to steal back from the Romans. This might be the kind of activity Paul was referring to.

Paul just got done talking about not giving satan a foothold, where right here satan is not to be blamed because the hearts of the Ephesians had been hardened to not see that even stealing from evil Roman empire is….still stealing and is sin that is not aligned to a pure and holy God. Paul did not want anything to come in between the Ephesians having both an amazing fruitful relationship with God and in turn, with each other. Conversely, Paul was saying, make an honest living and then be generous with what you earn. There were many in the church that poor and this was almost killing two birds with one stone – Stop sinning and support the biblical community.

Application:

Lord God in Heaven, please convict my spirit if there is anything I am doing in my daily life that could be considered “Robinhood Stealing” (taking something I believe I have earned, deserve, or believe I am taking back because it was first taken from me…like taxes). Help me to see the places that I can be open handed with what you have given me through wages, that I would live a life and model generosity for my children.

Today’s Psalm:

Turn away from evil and do good;
so shall you dwell forever.
For the LORD loves justice;
he will not forsake his saints.
They are preserved forever,
but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.
The righteous shall inherit the land
and dwell upon it forever.

Psalms 37:27-29 [ESV]

Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil.
Ephesians 4:26-27 [ESV]

in these two verses we take a short departure from the ‘do not do this but do that’ pattern of the section. Instead, we have a ‘do it this way’ exhortation. Paul is telling us that there is an anger that is not sinful but to let it simmer is. There are some that say that this covers a lot of types of sin but I don’t think so. When you look at the Greek words used for ‘anger’ and ‘angry’ in this text, you get orgizō (enraged) and parorgismos (provocation) respectively. When Paul is saying ‘Be angry’, he is referring to being enraged, but the provocation word makes this the kind of anger where you are provoked to an angry response. Like when the bible says that “God is angered by sin”. However, anger for anger’s sake is never right, but a righteous anger might be justified.

Simmering anger, even when justified, hurts us and even marginalizes our health. When anger simmers the devil gets an opportunity to divide and conquer. In Matthew 5, Jesus urges that if someone has something against a brother, it is to be dealt with before bringing an offering to worship God. Part of the check on justified anger is to not let it linger. The explanation is seen in the next command to not allow the sun to go down on one’s anger, which is a metaphor for not letting that reaction hang around. The present tense tied to the exhortation ‘do not let the sun set’ means that this is to always be our response. Anger may come, even for good cause, but it is not to hang around like a cloud over relationships.

When anger hangs around, opportunity comes to the devil. This has to be avoided. No place is to be given to him; the devil should not be allowed to stir the pot. The devil should be given no place at the table of relationships in the community. This whole line of thinking points to the larger context of the drive toward unity in biblical community.

Application:

First and foremost, I should not be looking for opportunities of righteous anger. That is not the point of the passage. Paul is saying that as humans made in God’s image there will points in my life where the initial response of anger is not sinful, but if I stew and ponder, it will become resentment and bitterness which is a key foothold for satan to have chink in my armor in which to insert a fiery dart. Additionally, I must have a heart like the Lord’s which is slow to anger (James 1:20). I must be careful in the justification of my anger as I have a tendency to lean in the feeling of ‘rights driven’ frustration and anger which when the provocation is something that incites anger that is birthed from pride, this is when there is a REAL danger.

Today’s Psalm:

The wicked borrows but does not pay back,
but the righteous is generous and gives;
for those blessed by the LORD shall inherit the land,
but those cursed by him shall be cut off.

Psalms 37:21-22 [ESV]

Therefore, rejecting all falsity and being done now with it, let everyone express the truth with his neighbor, for we are all parts of one body and members one of another.
Ephesians 4:25 [AMP]

Paul now goes into a set of “no longer do that, but now do this” exhortations for the Ephesian church. There are some interesting hermeneutical approaches to this verse. In looking at the whole of the book of Ephesians, a lot of the direction of Paul’s message is to the Gentile converts, to appreciate the dignity of their calling, the implication of that calling realizing their heavenly origin and destiny, and also for their present conduct on earth as believers. What is cool is that the wording in verse 25 matches that of Zechariah 8:16 which is appropriate because under the pressure of exile, the call was to be faithful to each other.

These are the things that you shall do: speak every man the truth with his neighbor; render the truth and pronounce the judgment or verdict that makes for peace in [the courts at] your gates.

Zechariah 8:16 [AMP]

The connection to each other as fellow body members is the rationale here. That rationale is deeply relational. So how do we think about ‘falsity’ and ‘expressing the truth’? In the context of oneness and members of a body of believers, it is an ‘above reproach’-ness in interpersonal relationships and interactions. It is the removal of cunningness and workarounds. No longer seeing how you can get the best outcome. It is similar to paying correct taxes and not looking for every way to bend the rules to suit your benefit. Paul is saying that within our biblical community relationships, this is paramount in growing a strong and thriving community. Most important of all, it is God honoring to be of a truthful spirit even in situations where that truthfulness does not benefit the individual or their situation.

Application:

This takes me back to quite a few quite times back where I was talking about ‘Civilized Unrighteousness’. There are certain worldly acceptable fibs or truth stretching that are accepted as ‘Just getting what I deserve’ or ‘not allowing someone else benefit when they are undeserving’. These kinds of fleshly thinking can run rampant in our minds; fueled by a conniving and driven heart for worldly acceptance and ‘getting ahead’. This has no place in God’s Kingdom and Christ’s church here on earth. I have caught myself doing this when I am strategizing how to ‘do right by my family’ or ‘get the best for my team at work’. Lord God, please help me through the leading of your Holy Spirit to see when I am doing this so that I can confess and repent (turn a 180) from that way of thinking and walk upright in Straight Talk and Deed with Genuineness and Veracity.

Today’s Psalm:

Better is the little that the righteous has
than the abundance of many wicked.
For the arms of the wicked shall be broken,
but the LORD upholds the righteous.

Psalms 37:16-17 [AMP]

...put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:24

And yep, you knew it…now we need to put on the ‘New Man’. The goal is walk in Christ, like we would put on clothes, staying focused on what He has done, what He represents, and what He provided for us. We need to live with others with a realization and recognition that bearing Christ’s name means living in a certain way. This alignment and allegiance with Christ as well as a right view of ourselves, causes us to respond in ways pleasing to Him.

Paul is calling us to live in a way that is authentic and honors God. It is founded in all God has provided in Christ. Whatever we lacked to be able to honor God before coming into Christ is now resolved in what God has provided through him. Romans 13:14, with its call to put on Christ, makes a similar point.

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

Romans 13:14 [ESV]

Application:

This is daily decision…actually, every moment. Many people in our society today are passionate about fashion. There is a reason for this. What you wear impacts how you carry yourself and can even influence your confidence; it can even put you in the posture the clothes inspire to do, like exercising. This is what wearing Christ (the New Man in me and I in Him) should do to my daily walk. Everything I do should be approached with a reminder of the clothes I chosen to wear. The Ephesians 6 talks about the clothes and what each means piece means.

Today’s Psalm:

In just a little while, the wicked will be no more;
though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.
But the meek shall inherit the land
and delight themselves in abundant peace.

Psalms 37:10-11 [ESV]