00:00:00:27 – 00:00:18:37
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Thanks for closing out the week with us. Sorry about yesterday. We had some network issues here at church, but glad to be back with you. Glad that you would give us some time as we continue through the book of Ephesians here. And as we move into this section, I believe we’re, jumping in here at 25 right through the end of the chapter.

00:00:18:37 – 00:00:41:08
Clint Loveall
We’ll come back and talk it through. So then putting away falsehood. Let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry, but do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. And do not make room for the devil. Thieves 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.

00:00:41:13 – 00:01:06:45
Clint Loveall
Let no evil talk come out of your mouth, but only what is helpful for building up wherever there is need, so that the words may give grace to those who hear and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice.

00:01:06:50 – 00:01:35:58
Clint Loveall
And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. In in the context of another Bible study, I recently said that, when Paul gets to his practical stuff, and often that comes on the back end of some theology, maybe there’s times where he deals with conflict. Not a lot of that in this letter, but in other letters.

00:01:36:03 – 00:02:01:00
Clint Loveall
But but sooner or later, I think Paul gets to kind of brass tacks. And when he does Michael, I think he’s he’s really good. Some of that is and we’ve talked about this, you know, theologians love Paul the Theologian and missionaries love Paul the evangelical preachers. This is preacher Paul in in my mind, he’s talking to a church about being the church.

00:02:01:04 – 00:02:29:25
Clint Loveall
And I just think this stuff is great. Put away falsehood that does not help in the community. Speak truth, for we are members of one another. Be angry, but do not sin. And don’t let the sun go down on your anger and think about that. What has been more destructive to church communities than falsehood and anger, right? I mean, those yes, there are scandals of other kinds.

00:02:29:25 – 00:02:55:15
Clint Loveall
Yes. There’s embezzlement. Yes, there’s sexuality, things and affairs. But if you look at what has divided churches historically, so many of those stories have these ingredients. Falsehood and anger. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. Don’t hold on to grudges. Don’t let that simmer. And what he says here is that makes room for the devil.

00:02:55:15 – 00:03:06:45
Clint Loveall
I think it is. When I read these things, Michael, I’m just reminded of how well, it seems to me that Paul knows people and knows church community.

00:03:06:50 – 00:03:28:12
Michael Gewecke
Yeah. And this is the built in corrective to some of the ways that we might go wrong with the study that we’ve had most recently. Clint, because Paul was turning to have this conversation about the the old life and the new life, and we saw that it was all built into this idea that we need to live in to the way of Christ.

00:03:28:12 – 00:03:57:19
Michael Gewecke
Verse 20, this is not the way you learned. And so we’re supposed to live our lives in the truth that is Jesus Christ. Well, what is that truth? As we get to the brass tacks, we begin to realize that this isn’t about a kind of self-righteousness. This is not about personal moral ness that sets one above others. This is how we live our lives, so that the community is built up in its image of Christ.

00:03:57:19 – 00:04:29:18
Michael Gewecke
And that’s an essential distinction. The reason why Christians show up and we put away falsehood, the reason why we speak truth to our neighbors is because we are members of one another. And there have been way too many times that a person comes and takes a text like that and says, well, I’m just going to tell you the hard truth and what they mean by the hard truth is I’m going to inflict wounds on you with words that are truthful, and that is far outside the scope of what’s intended by a text like this.

00:04:29:27 – 00:04:53:33
Michael Gewecke
The words of truth are always for the sake of the body that we are members. The reason why we make no room for the devil is because we want our community to be one where Jesus Christ is at the center, right? So that this moral task becomes lived out with the why of for the sake of the community does intend to be built up in Christ.

00:04:53:33 – 00:05:09:54
Michael Gewecke
And that has a way of completely changing our orientation to it. It’s not measured by your personal Holiness Index. If that was a thing. It’s measured by the way that the community is built up because of all of our shared efforts to live in the way of Christ.

00:05:09:59 – 00:05:31:30
Clint Loveall
And yet Paul is not looking at the church through rose colored glasses. You know, the next verse always. These verses always make me smile. Thieves give up stealing. Let them labor and work honestly with their own hands. And that’s written to the church. That’s. He’s not writing that to society. He’s not writing that to the town of Ephesus, to the city council.

00:05:31:35 – 00:05:50:22
Clint Loveall
He’s writing that to the church. Right. And I think, I, I don’t think it’s ever occurred to me that I needed to, you know, address the idea of thievery in the church and, and to Ephesus credit, they were bringing people into the church.

00:05:50:22 – 00:05:51:18
Michael Gewecke
Right.

00:05:51:23 – 00:06:29:15
Clint Loveall
Who needed to hear these words and needed a better path. And what I think is amazing is what Paul does with that, that the thief should give up stealing that. That’s old life stuff. It doesn’t belong here. Let them labor and work honestly with their hands. But then notice what Paul says. He not not just because. To your point, Michael, that’s morally better so that they will have something to share with the needy so that they can be a part of the health of the community so that it’s no longer about what they take for themselves.

00:06:29:20 – 00:07:03:36
Clint Loveall
It’s about what they ate, gain and earn so that they can give to others. And that verse alone is just such a a beautiful snapshot of what Paul deals with and his vision. I think that’s that’s really good. These are the kind of verses maybe stealing we’d put outside of our temptation list. Many of us, or we’d like to think that at least, that these are the parts of Paul where I think when we get these rapid fire checklists, they’re just so applicable.

00:07:03:41 – 00:07:27:19
Clint Loveall
You know, this is, I think, of what a lot of people crave when they talk about Bible study. I just want something I can lean into. I want something I can do. Okay. Then put away falsehood, give up grudges, share with the needy, and let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouth. Let me just. Yeah, we’re not very far in, and that’s already a pretty major sized challenge.

00:07:27:21 – 00:08:07:07
Michael Gewecke
And I think a lot of people would say, oh, let’s go do coffee time, right. Because fundamentally look at verse 29, let no evil talk come out of your mouths, only what is useful for building up. If that was the center thesis of our every morning, waking up and realizing that the bar for Christian speech is something that builds up, we would, for the rest of our lives, be met with day after day possibilities, playgrounds, laboratories to practice that kind of speech.

00:08:07:12 – 00:08:28:57
Michael Gewecke
I think we live in a world that likes the idea that everything that we say is either good or evil, that we all want to stand on the side. Truth in a social media world that’s right, with every word that I say needs to be a shining beacon of of perfect truth to the world that everyone understands. My position on that, on everything.

00:08:29:02 – 00:08:45:28
Michael Gewecke
If we lived in a world in which Christians took seriously, that the purpose of our speech is for the usefulness for building up of Christian community, we would have a task that would allow us enough room to grow for the rest of our lives.

00:08:45:28 – 00:09:05:06
Clint Loveall
I don’t want to interrupt, Michael, but I mean to that next phrase that your words may give grace to those who hear them, that I just don’t think. Many of us think of our task each day being to give grace by our words to others. That’s that’s a that’s a high bar.

00:09:05:11 – 00:09:40:22
Michael Gewecke
And then there’s this idea that people have gotten lots latched on to at different points in the Christian church, the idea of grieving the Holy Spirit of God. I’ve I’ve had conversations with folks about this, you know, fundamentally, we have to remember that the church, throughout all time has conceived that when Jesus promised an advocate, when he promised that we would never be alone when the Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost, there is this awareness that God has made an accommodation that we will never be without God again, that Jesus came in the flesh.

00:09:40:37 – 00:10:04:34
Michael Gewecke
And now the Spirit of God lives in and through God’s people. And so therefore all of this don’t steal. Your words should be building up the community, put away falsehood, speak truth, don’t. If you have anger, don’t let that live on in your community. We should get way less fixated on well, what’s the line that grieves the Holy Spirit?

00:10:04:39 – 00:10:29:34
Michael Gewecke
And instead we should focus on everything above the fold and realize if we spend our time concerned about the things that Jesus cares about. And if we point that towards the people that we’re called to love and serve in the name of Jesus Christ, that we will by definition, not be grieving the Holy Spirit of God, who lives in and through and among all of those people were called to build up.

00:10:29:34 – 00:10:50:13
Michael Gewecke
And then we just immediately move into this promise that it’s in the Spirit of God that we’re marked with a zeal for redemption. In other words, it’s not this stuff above that proves that you’re going to be chosen. It’s rather the Spirit of God who has given you the gift of the seal. It’s God’s work through and through.

00:10:50:13 – 00:11:08:38
Michael Gewecke
It starts with God, and it ends with death. And the great gift is you and I get to spend our time and attention, the lives that we’ve been given, practicing within that, those two bookends, we get to practice the faith in such a way that others might see the Spirit of God alive. Network in us.

00:11:08:42 – 00:11:58:52
Clint Loveall
And I appreciate the way that Paul structures this, in that he works through the negative first, but ends with the positive. So moves ultimately to be kind to one another, be tenderhearted. I think, Gentile is a maybe a preferable translation there, but either one, forgive one another, as in as God in Christ has forgiven you. It is, I think it is telling Michael that when Paul looks for the markers of the church, that this is what he aspires to on their behalf truth, grace, kindness, gentleness, and forgiveness.

00:11:58:57 – 00:12:01:34
Clint Loveall

00:12:01:39 – 00:12:28:39
Clint Loveall
He, of course, wants the church to be a holy and righteous and pure place. But the day to day practical evidence of that is going to be found in these simple ways of treating one another. Not easy ways of treating one another, but but simply is the church. Are the people in a church kind? Can they keep from, you know, nagging at each other?

00:12:28:39 – 00:12:55:43
Clint Loveall
Can they keep from letting anger fester? Can they work? Can they spread the load out in all, take some portion of the burden? Do they forgive one another when they’ve been wronged or when they’ve wronged one another? I did, there’s just there’s so much here that paints a beautiful portrait of what the church is capable of being. And I think we also get to see it through Paul’s eyes.

00:12:55:48 – 00:13:02:35
Clint Loveall
His expectation, or at least his vision of what the body of Christ is capable of becoming.

00:13:02:40 – 00:13:39:28
Michael Gewecke
We see some other ways in which this gets fleshed out in letters like Corinthians, where you see Paul telling certain factions of the church to make accommodations for other factions, and that happens in a variety of different ways. I think what’s striking about this text is it provides not so much a play by play of how to work it out in the churches of Ephesus, this is about the one step higher of the goal that Christians are called to set.

00:13:39:28 – 00:14:08:12
Michael Gewecke
Are compasses towards right. This is true North. And I want to just point out verse 32 stands over us. I think in an interesting way. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God and Christ has forgiven you. Two The Pharisees who looked on Jesus as he hung on the cross, they saw a man being humiliated and and a victory that they had won over him.

00:14:08:16 – 00:14:33:06
Michael Gewecke
But for Jesus Christ, it was the moment of forgiveness. It was the moment in which God would transform the brokenness of the world and show us that the way out was through the whole time. And these words that we have here are another way of showing us that that is the same call upon your life and my life.

00:14:33:10 – 00:14:55:22
Michael Gewecke
Whoever seeks to follow Jesus has to be willing to follow a path that, to any outside observer, seems ineffective. And we live in a time as the church has been in in all times where people care about how much money does it make me? Or how much security does this give my people, or my tribe, or my nation?

00:14:55:35 – 00:15:25:03
Michael Gewecke
The world’s always been concerned about these things, but through every generation, Christians have understood that our calling as a community has resided in aliens, as one theologian calls it. Our calling is to be kind to one another, to be tenderhearted, to forgive one another, not because that’s the most effective solution, to make things go the way that we want them to go, but rather because that is how Jesus Christ lived his life.

00:15:25:03 – 00:15:44:40
Michael Gewecke
Because that’s how God has revealed his will and plan for the world. And so therefore we do these things because that’s what it means to be in this family and to follow the one who is the first. And that is challenging and convicting and also a full of opportunity and possibility.

00:15:44:49 – 00:16:14:58
Clint Loveall
This is probably not a thing that’s necessary, but, I’m going to risk it. I’m I’m going to pick out my study Bible here a little bit. If you have a Bible that has headings above the sections of Scripture, know that those headings are not original. Those aren’t part of the original text. Those are a tool added by Bible, producers, Bible publishers to kind of help summarize that section.

00:16:14:58 – 00:16:40:27
Clint Loveall
And interestingly enough, I don’t know if you have a label on yours. Michael, the the title of this section in my Bible is rules for New Likes for. I have to and, I want to suggest that rules is the wrong word there because rules implies an outside standard that one tries to live up to, or that one is judged by.

00:16:40:31 – 00:17:07:55
Clint Loveall
And I don’t think that’s how Paul sees this. I think Paul here is instead sharing the idea that this is a picture of the new life. This is the guidance for the new life. I just think rules. I think if we read these as instructions, I think we’re shortchanging them a little. Not that they’re not helpful. Not they’re not great words.

00:17:07:55 – 00:17:29:45
Clint Loveall
Not that we shouldn’t aspire to live up to them, but I, I just don’t think that for for Paul, these function as rules. I think it’s deeper than that. I think it’s a reflection of who Christ is and therefore what the community is invited to be. And I don’t love I don’t love the word rules there, though, again, that’s just somebody wrote that in there.

00:17:29:45 – 00:17:52:03
Clint Loveall
And I, I want to be clear, every person involved in that decision smarter than I am, just me personally, I don’t like I don’t like thinking of these kind of things as rules because if anything, I think they’re a map. They’re they’re goals for the Christian life. They’re they’re reflections of the church. I just think we could do better with our language.

00:17:52:03 – 00:17:52:30
Clint Loveall
There, I.

00:17:52:30 – 00:18:11:04
Michael Gewecke
Said this in a Bible study last night that I have a spiritual director who I find corrects some statements that I make pretty regularly. And one of the things he, that I’ll talk about is, you know, this idea that I don’t measure up to the these rules, I don’t measure up to the things I aspire to be in the faith.

00:18:11:04 – 00:18:17:42
Michael Gewecke
And one of the things he consistently says is, I wonder if this isn’t a mandate, but rather an invitation.

00:18:17:56 – 00:18:20:58
Clint Loveall
I think I like that language way better.

00:18:21:03 – 00:18:44:27
Michael Gewecke
Because I think ultimately what you see here is an invitation to be the kind of community that lives in the way that Jesus Christ lived in the world. It’s not about external things that you’re seeking to reach. Rather, he’s already come down. He’s already given that gift to you. His invitation to you is to now live in such a way as if that is true.

00:18:44:42 – 00:19:07:28
Michael Gewecke
And that’s a radically different way to encounter a text like this, because it could stand above us and remind us of how small we are. Or it could rather invite us into a kind of world that’s far bigger than what we ever realized it was. And I, I really think to your point, that hits much closer to the tone we’ve seen in this letter thus far.

00:19:07:28 – 00:19:34:55
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I think that ultimately the point is that you’re not good enough, but that Christ is good enough and invites you to be more than you are. That that just I think that’s a better way to understand these these directions. I think it’s a I don’t think it’s a rule book. It it is a picture of what’s possible in Jesus Christ.

00:19:34:55 – 00:19:37:25
Clint Loveall
And I think that’s got more power in it.

00:19:37:30 – 00:20:00:48
Michael Gewecke
Don’t miss our next study next week when we keep, going on because verse one of chapter five is, quite a powerful text and is read in lots of different ways. So I certainly hope you’ll join us for that. But for today, there’s a lot of encouragement, a lot of challenge in it. And hopefully if you found that yourself, you’ll give the video a like, it’ll help others find it and hopefully experience that themselves.

00:20:00:55 – 00:20:06:01
Michael Gewecke
Subscribe. So you don’t miss studies like this and you don’t miss verse one of chapter five. And we’ll see you next week.

00:20:06:03 – 00:20:06:45
Clint Loveall
Have a great weekend.