Category: Living in the Spirit

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 4:25-32 (day seven)

“Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth…” vs 29a.

Have you ever mistakenly took a bite out of an apple that has gone bad? You go in for a big bite of what you expect to be a crisp, juicy apple, but you are left with a mushy, bland mouthful of something you just want to spit out. Jesus uses this analogy on multiple occasions to describe our lifestyles.

“A good tree cannot produce bad fruit…” Matthew 7:18.

The interesting thing is that the same word that Jesus uses to describe bad fruit, is the same word that Paul uses in our passage to describe bad talk (unwholesome). This isn’t just cursing. Bad talk is gossip, slander, crude joking, roasting (making fun of others). Words can go bad quicker than fruit. After they have gone out, we immediately want to retract them, but it is often too late. We are left with a mushy mouthful of bad fruit.

If a good tree cannot produce bad fruit, what do the words we use tell us about the state of our tree?

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 4:25-32 (day six)

And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit...Ephesians 4:30

We don’t often think of the Holy Spirit in personal terms, like having sorrow or grief, and yet clearly he does. In fact, according to this verse we can be responsible for His sorrow when we neglect our new heritage as children of God.

The Holy Spirit is not a force, or a particular feeling; He’s not goosebumps, or overwhelming emotion. He is a person. If you want to hear his voice, read the Bible. If you want to follow his leadership and bear His fruit, obey what He has written.

Don’t neglect what the Holy Spirit has clearly revealed to us in pursuit of a mystical experience that may be more of your own making than His.

I promise, He will take it personally.

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 4:25-32 (day five) 

“Therefore, laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE of you WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another.” 

God never intended us to be isolated in our faith. There is a relational component to the Christian Faith. With Him and with other believers. He promises to be with us till the end of the age (Matthew 28) as well as designing our Christian lives to be in community with other believers. The Greek word translated one another is used 100 times in the New Testament. 59 times its used to teach us how (and how not) to relate to one another. Even if we don’t believe it, the scriptures describe the influence every believer has “in the body”- negative and positive. Let’s look for opportunities to influence one another.

“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children;” Ephesian‬ ‭5:1.

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 4:25-32 (day three)

“He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with [b]one who has need.”

Often times, when I think of repentance, I think about doing the opposite of what I was doing. Sometimes, that action is simply stopping whatever it is that I need to repent of. Repentance is often described as “going the other way” in regards to your actions. However, as Paul writes here, there is a “starting” action and a “stopping” action with repentance. One who steals must stop stealing and start doing honest, productive work. One who engages in corrupt talk must stop tearing people down and start building others up instead.

Paul reminds us that in our repentance, there is sin that we must stop and an opposite action that we must start instead. These opposite actions to our sin draw us ever closer to the heart of God and free us all the more from the weight that sin bears down upon us. In your quiet times or time of repentance this week, what action is the Holy Spirit leading you to start in response to repentance?

Jimmy Gunn
Associate Pastor,
Preschool & Elementary

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 4:25-32 (day three) 

“…just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”

To forgive means to decide not to exact punishment for wrongdoing. That is indeed what Christ has done for us. Punishment can take many forms. If I give a friend the cold shoulder after discovering that he misled me about a career advancement opportunity so that he could take that opportunity for himself, I am punishing my friend. If I remain warm in my interactions with him, however, while waiting eagerly for news of hardship or failure that he might encounter as he undertakes that new career opportunity, I am still punishing him, albeit in a very nuanced way. And if I am punishing him, I have not forgiven him. There are often consequences for wrongdoing. But consequences are not in my power to control. Punishment is.

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 4:25-32 (day two) 

Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, vs. 26

Time for confession. How many of you have the second part of verse 26 memorized, but did not know the first part? Both parts of this verse work well together, and the following verse is a caution when this advice is not followed. Unhealthy, un-dealt with anger is an invitation for the deceiver to work sin into your heart.

Be angry – that doesn’t seem like something you would read in the New Testament. We particularly struggle with this verse because we see so little application of what it says. In 2020 anger invariably means sin. It manifests in violence, abuse, neglect, inappropriate language. As a society we do not process these feelings in a healthy biblical manner. If we recognize injustice, or unrighteousness, or sin around us we have cause to feel angry. It is what happens next that we, as believers, must not look like our society. Paul offers solutions, forgive and remember your forgiveness, don’t speak words that will escalate the problem, show grace where possible.

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 1:13-14 (day seven)

“who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.” Vs 14

The word pledge here can also be translated as down payment. We are more familiar with this terminology. A down payment on a home, car, or other large purchase is a way for us to enjoy the fullness of an item before we are able to have complete ownership. The seller allows the purchaser to pay for a portion of the item up front and will finance the rest of the payment, so that over time, the item will eventually come under the complete ownership of the purchaser.

The Holy Spirit is given to us as a down payment of our inheritance to God’s Eternal Kingdom. The Holy Spirit gives us the ability to participate in the fullness of God’s love, mercy, and work here on earth until we achieve complete ownership of this inheritance in heaven.

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 1:13-14 (day six)

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. Ephesians 1:4

In the spring of 2015 I stood under a canopy of stars in the heart of Ethiopia. There were no other lights other than those twinkling back at me. It is likely, growing up in Africa, I had seen similar night skies, but I couldn’t remember. It was as if I was seeing them for the very first time.

Vast. Beautiful. Incomprehensible.

There wasn’t a vacant spot, without a star beaming in it. And like a glistening vail, the Milky Way appeared to hold stars in their place.

In those moments I felt so small against the back drop of the immeasurable. Stars that would swallow our own like a whale swallowing a speck of plankton. Distances measured in billions of years.

I didn’t just feel small. I was in awe. Enraptured. Seeing, but capturing only an infinitesimal fraction of the universe’s truest nature.

I imagine, even in eternity, that is how we will feel gazing into the full scope of God’s sovereignty.

Re:Verse passage – Ephesians 1:13-14 (day five)

“you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise,”

The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Promise in Ephesians. Even in the Old Testament, God is promising to send His Holy Spirit to live in and influence believers.   “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” Ezekiel‬ ‭36:27‬

Jesus promises the same thing in John. “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”‭‭John‬ ‭14:26‬

There are hundreds promises from God throughout scripture. And He has kept every one of them. Which ones do you need to remember today?  Which ones will bring peace and courage to your heart?  Search the scriptures with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  He will help!  God has promised!!