Ephesians
4 – 6
Verse 4:6 gives us an understanding of God:
one God—the Father over all who is
above all, through all, and in all.
If we describe energy, it always was and always will be,
travels through and in everything but has no consciousness. God is therefore
above all since He is conscious. I find it interesting that an ancient text
written some 2000 years ago hammers the point home. We need to understand God in
a different light, not as an old man in the sky, but as everywhere and in
everything. He is beyond a body and that is what makes Jesus so important! He
became confined in a body!
Verses 4:25 – 31 need to be read in toto, but look at verse
4:26 & 27:
26 When you
are angry, don’t let it carry you into sin. Don’t let the sun set with
anger in your heart or 27 give the devil room to
work.
This is a subtitle command, but just because we know God
doesn’t mean we will not get angry. Heck Jesus blew up in the temple with the
money changers and God did it a bunch with Israel, so it’s normal to feel this.
The problem is when we let our anger fester, that is when Satan can grab a foot
hold. It’s like a wound, if you clean it and bandage it the wound will heal, do
nothing and it gets infected. Don’t let anger take you over, deal with it and
let it go.
Verse 5:3 opens and interesting topic:
Listen, don’t let any
kind of immorality be breathed among you. Any demoralizing behaviors (perverse
sexual acts, uncleanliness, greediness, and the like) are
inappropriate topics of conversation for those set apart as God’s people.
Often times this stuff infiltrates the church either through
gossip or testimonies. Gossip is something that can destroy a body of Christ,
because often the full picture is not given and tends to glorify the one
gossiping. Testimonies start becoming more “brag-imonies” showing everyone how
bad one was before and lose the salvation of Jesus. Paul is warning us because
it becomes a way evil can infiltrate the church.
The focus no longer is on Jesus but rather the sin and once
one starts focusing on sin more than Jesus the body follows. If you have ever
observed an accident, you focus is on the accident and not the road. Often this
leads to pile ups since the people just follow where they are focusing. It’s
the same with sin, you focus on perverse sex and suddenly you crave it. That is
why our focus and emphasis must be on Jesus and nothing less.
y would be ���O