| Ninteenth Sunday after Trinity, 2001
Ephesians 4:25-32 Christ and Morality
A country preacher once asked his congregation how many had already read the 32nd Chapter of Matthew. All raised their hands. With a faint smile of understanding, he then informed the congregation that no such chapter existed. "That brings me to my sermon today," he added, "which is on lying!"
Well, we will study the problem of lying, and we will treat stealing and anger and a few other items. They are the moral themes in our epistle lesson from Ephesians. Before jumping into ethical issues, let us see how they relate to Christ. The word "therefore" helps tie together Christ and morality. Reading now Ephesians 4:25. [Read it.]
Wherefore the word "therefore"? The apostle is about to exhort us on a number of ethical matters. He will treat subjects like lying, stealing, working, anger and forgiveness. But before we get on to all that we ought to reflect on the word "therefore." "Therefore" is a connecting word. It links the things before it with the things that follow. What has been said previously? Paul has explained salvation through the blood of Christ (Eph. 2:13). In Ephesians 2:8 he has declared: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." In verse 24 of Ephesians 4 the apostle has exhorted the Ephesians and us to "put on the new man which was created according to God." What is this "new man" that God has created? It is regeneration, the new birth represented in baptism, the restoration of the image of God in man lost at the Fall.
If God's grace in Christ has saved you from Hell, you put on the new man and therefore a certain kind of conduct will follow. If you are a Christian, you are a new man, old things are passed away, the atoning blood of Jesus has covered your sins, you now possess the Holy Spirit, and the conquering power of Christ. Therefore...! Jesus Christ has come into the world and died for you and has risen again, and has given you new life, therefore...! The word "therefore" unites justification to sanctification. The one must lead to the other.
This "therefore" also sets the stage for a distinctly Christian morality. Christian ethics always look to Christ and His grace. Other religious systems may talk about doing good, and telling the truth, and living decent lives, but they insist you to do it in your own power, and use your own natural ability to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Christianity connects everything to Christ and His Holy Spirit. Christianity teaches us to depend not upon our own ability, but upon the ability given to us by God.
Moreover, non-Christian and pagan virtue leans to the impersonal and abstract. Secularists will sometimes try to derive right and wrong from nature, from the common good, from the conventions of society, or from the spirit of the world. Christianity connects morality to Christ and His law.
There is another problem with non-Christian ethical systems. They result in pride. A person who relies on his own ability and will power to do good will become pleased with himself and his achievements. If he avoids lying and stealing he will tend toward a smug self-satisfaction. Not so for the Christian. He knows that any good that He has or does is by grace. The Christian says: "I am what I am by the grace of God! Without Christ I can do nothing" (John 15:5).
I. Let us move on to the lessons that follow the word "Therefore." In Ephesians 4:25 St. Paul says: "Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another." Lying is a terrible thing and it is atrocious because truth belongs to God whereas lying pertains to Satan. Lying is sin, a serious sin, and for too many people it becomes an addiction. If we examine the anatomy of a lie, we discover a certain sequence. The late Welch preacher Martin Lloyd-Jones has some great things to say on this passage. His comments are worth quoting at length. He holds that lying springs from self-centeredness and follows a sinister path. He says: "self centeredness and selfishness lead to a desire to be highly thought of, to be praised, to impress people, to be important. We want everybody to think well of us. We want everybody to praise us. We want to be important, to cut a figure."
Lloyd-Jones continues: "So we make our deliberate mis-statements and inventions, or again we may lie by saying nothing. We just conceal the truth by withholding it. And then another very common way -- exaggerations! You have got a story to tell, and it is quite a good story, but you rather feel that if you embellish it a little it will be still more wonderful, so you exaggerate. And every time we tell the story it grows with the telling. We told it the first time and it produced a good response. Ah! we thought, that is good! We add a little to it, still better response! And on and on it goes. In the end, what we are now saying has really never happened at all; it has been so exaggerated that it is nothing but a lie. Why does mankind do this? Why exaggerate? Why add to things? Why withhold? Why fabricate? Why invent? Trace it out, pick it up at any point in yourself or anybody else, and you will always find that its purpose is to minister to this self and this self-importance. It is our aim to win the good opinion of others, and to be praised and to be highly thought of; so we pursue a course of lying and building up the façade, putting on the camouflage, appearing to be something that in reality we are not."
That is almost too convicting, isn't it? May God help us to put away lying and speak the truth. Moving on now to the next set of verses, Eph. 4:27-28, 31. [Read them.]
II. There have always been people who have simplistically prohibited all anger. The Stoics called for suppressing each and every form of wrath, no matter what it was. But they were wrong. Such restraint is a false asceticism. The Bible says there is a good anger, and a bad anger. What is a good anger? The wrath of God is a common motif that runs from the beginning of Scripture to the end. Our Lord Jesus, moreover, became furious on several occasions. If we were to combine all the passages on anger and come up with a short summary of what they say, we would learn that we should be angry about sin and evil, but not hot-tempered or irritable.
In other words, if we want to be more Christ-like, our righteous indignation against sin would burn forth more frequently. Anyone who merely shrugs his shoulders at the recent terrorist attacks has become spiritually decadent. We should be angry at what happened. We should be angry when confronted by the filth and foolishness of our culture.
So there is a time to be angry. St. Paul exhorts us: "Be angry, and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath." And verse 31 says: "Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice." How do we apply this? We are forbidden to be bad-tempered, irascible people. We cannot be fiery or stormy in our relationships with others. Any expression of anger that is excessive, violent, uncontrollable, or out of control, is a wrong sort of anger. You have probably seen people fly off the handle. That is definitely, utterly sinful.
The other day, I saw a guy with a bicycle waiting at the bus stop. The bus pulled up and there was no room for his bicycle. When the bus driver told him he would have to wait for the next bus he exploded. Screaming profanities, he pounded the side of the bus as it drove off, body trembling, eyes blazing, a torrent of obscenities from his mouth. It was a diabolical sight, for the young man had given place to the devil. That's what happens when we fail to control our anger. We give place to the devil. How is that so? The Devil is a furious maniac unable to reason, unable to think, completely destitute of balanced judgment. And he loves it when others come to emulate his berserk rage. He sees uncontrolled anger as a wonderful opportunity. He loves it. It is a chance for him to inflict wounds, destroy relationships, and leave permanent scars. Nothing ruins life more than a loss of control in anger.
Consider what is going on in Afghanistan. An entire sub-culture, the Taliban, has become enraged about the world and they wish to pull it down. We can be sure that the Taliban will leave nothing but death and destruction in its path.
The Holy Spirit inspired St. Paul to command us: "Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. ...Do not let the sun go down on your wrath." Paul says, "Put it away! Quit it! Get rid of it! Don't let the sun go down on it!" In effect, the Bible suggests that we are able to control anger. If we are Christians who have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and the conquering power of Christ, then we can and must control our anger. We may use it for good, yet rein it in when it is wrong. People who claim to be incapable of controlling their tempers are not speaking the truth. Christ gives us the power to put our heads down on our pillows at night to rest and sleep without any spirit of bitterness or hatred or lack of forgiveness, and that is what we need to do.
III. (v. 28) [Read it.] "Let him who stole" can be translated, "let the stealer, steal no more." We face the probability here that St. Paul is addressing some individuals who profess faith in Christ, yet continue to steal. They are thieves and they are Christians. How can this be so? It is simply a fact that the new life in Christ does not automatically and completely purge us of every sin. To admit this is not to justify robbery or condone it. It is simply stating that most of us have deeply ingrained, besetting sins that take years to escape. Holiness is a process and the perfection we aim for in Christ will always be a long struggle.
What else does the apostle say about theft? "Let him who stole, steal no longer." It is never right for a Christian to steal, to take what belongs to another. "But rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good." Whoever the stealer is, he must steal no more. Rather he should meet his needs and the needs of others by honest work. Jesus worked as a carpenter. Paul sometimes supported himself as a tent-maker. Christianity therefore emphasizes the dignity of work, the nobility of toil and labor, the dignity of producing something. It is paganism and godlessness that leads to parasitic sloth and laziness. Christians work because work is a good thing.
Martin Lloyd-Jones has this to say about stealing: "It involves stealth, concealment, furtiveness, looking out for your opportunity when you are not being watched, doing it after dark, doing it when nobody is around. Oh! Is there not something utterly despicable about it! There is an inherent and essential shame and treachery about this very act. All that is involved in it, all that is indicated by it, is full of this horrible characteristic. And then another element enters into it: stealing always involves the misuse of an ability which is given to us. The Apostle is thinking, I have said, in terms of hands. Look at that man, he has seen something that he covets; it belongs to another, and he uses the hands that God has given him to lay hold upon it and to possess it. What a misuse of these wonderful instruments! The hands! Given us by God! Amazing instruments! And look at the use to which the thief puts them!" [Close quote.]
I remember stealing something while I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Paraguay. The Peace Corps office in Asuncion had a basement where volunteers could store things for a while. I went down into the basement and saw a nice lamp heater. I couldn't get that heater out of my mind so one evening I slipped downstairs and took it. It was a wicked and perverted thing to do. Later I felt guilty about it, and could not find the original owner to return it. It bothers me to this day.
Stealing does not always apply to material things. We can steal money, we can steal time, we can steal thoughts and ideas. A lot of intellectual and artistic theft goes on when we don't follow the copyright laws for CDs and videos, software and books. Christians ought not to be indifferent to these practices. They are theft.
Instead of stealing, we work hard, we make our money honestly, and we use it to be generous to those in need.
IV. (v. 29) [Read it.] What a timely piece of instruction. American communication has become increasingly crude and coarse. People interrupt each other in conversations. Jarring, four-letter words are now permitted on prime-time television. Vulgar expressions are becoming ever more mainstream: phrases referring to prostitution, sexual organs, feces, defecation, relations between mother and son, coitus among homosexuals, and so on. The creativity of foul-mouthed people is ingenious. Then, there are Christians who think that it is acceptable to conform to the world and speak like that. They are dead wrong. The Bible says: "Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth."
Besides the rotten and foul language of the cesspool, non-Christians speak in excess, and lack control. Ungodly people talk too much; they talk without thinking, they are always talking. As believers, we should avoid mindless, constant chatter.
With God's help we speak "what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers." And how do we do that? How do we speak gracefully to edify? It is not easy. But the first thing we must learn is not to just talk and talk and talk. We must listen also. We have to learn to understand other people and their needs. Then speak the word of edification appropriate for the circumstances.
These are some of the consequences of Christian regeneration. Once Christ comes into our lives we have a distinctive Christian character. Anglican Bishop Stephen Neill has noted that Hindu experience does not necessarily lead to a change of life. That would be unthinkable for the Christian. We love truth and abhor the lie. Our anger is used for good, not for destruction. We work hard to make a living, and do not steal. Our words and manners are gracious, not coarse. The early Church had a phrase to describe a follower of Jesus. The phrase was "Christianus alter Christus." It means, the Christian is a second Christ. Would people think that about us, that we are second Christs? Or are we content with mediocrity? Christ has redeemed us for a purpose. It is to be like Him. May God help us. Return to Sermons |
