Ephesians
4:17-32
17Now this I
affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live,
in the futility of their minds. 18They are darkened in their
understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and
hardness of heart. 19They have lost all sensitivity and have
abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of
impurity. 20That is not the way you learned Christ!
21For surely
you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. 22You
were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and
deluded by its lusts, 23and to be renewed in the spirit of your
minds, 24and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according
to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. 25So
then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors,
for we are members of one another.
26Be angry but
do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27and do not
make room for the devil. 28Thieves must give up stealing; rather let
them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to
share with the needy. 29Let no evil talk come out of your mouths,
but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words
may give grace to those who hear. 30And do not grieve the Holy
Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of
redemption. 31Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger
and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, 32and be kind
to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has
forgiven you.
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When
you think about Jesus, what are some characteristics that come to mind?
Do
you have a favorite story about Jesus that shows some of those traits?
The
church is the body of Christ in the world. In this passage Paul talks about how
God gives gifts to the church to help the saints, that means all of us, grow
into maturity. When Paul talks about saints he’s not talking about Christian
superstars, special Christians who reach a different level of faith than the
rest of us. He’s talking about all Christians, all people who follow Jesus.
He’s talking about all of us becoming more mature in our faith. He goes a step
further too. Paul says that maturity means “the measure of the full stature of
Christ.”
If
you’re scratching your head about that phrase, you’re not alone. What Paul
means is that as we grow in faith our goal is to be more and more like Jesus.
We just talked about some of the most important things about Jesus, so our goal
is show more of those traits as we become more mature. Growing in our faith
doesn’t just mean learning the Bible better or praying more. It mostly means getting
stronger in our trust in God, being more loving, more forgiving, more
compassionate, and learning to be a healing presence in the world.
That
sounds challenging, but it also makes sense. I want to be more compassionate. I
want to be more forgiving; I want to be more loving; I want to get better at
putting other people first, and I bet you do too.
So
while it can be challenging to mature in those ways, we want to do it. We also
have the church to help us grow. In fact, a big part of the church’s purpose is
to help us grow, to help us be more like Jesus.
So how can the church help us be more
compassionate?
How can the church help us be more loving?
How can the church guide us to be more forgiving?
The things we’ve just identified are for all
of us to do as a church. As a church, as the body of Christ, we help each other
to grow in faith and maturity. As brothers and sisters we help each other
become more like Christ.
