T/F: To be angry and sin not means your anger is justified by another person’s wrong towards you. Join us for Lesson 8, Christ-Shaped Lives and Spirit-Inspired Speech.

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By referring to “the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30), Paul has just invited his readers to consider their uses of speech in the context of Christ’s second coming. Ephesians 4:31-32, then, may be understood as addressing the use of speech as we approach that grand event.

In the light of Christ’s return, what attitudes and behaviors, related to speech, should be discarded? What attitudes and behaviors should be embraced? Ephesians 4:31-32.

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In the final exhortation of Ephesians 4:17-32, Paul again provides a negative command, this one identifying six vices that are to “be put away from you” (Ephesians 4:31); a positive command to be kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving (Ephesians 4:32), and a rationale. Believers are to forgive one another “even as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32, NKJV). The list of six vices begins and ends with general, all-encompassing terms, “all bitterness” and “all malice.” In between come four additional terms: “wrath,” “anger,” “clamor,” and “slander” (Ephesians 4:31, ESV).

The last of these translates the Greek word blasphemia, which English has borrowed as a technical term for demeaning speech against God. However, the Greek term identifies speech that defames either God or other humans as “slander” or “evil speaking.” In the list, attitudes (bitterness, wrath, anger) seem to boil over into angry speech (clamor, slander). In essence, Paul demilitarizes Christian speech. The attitudes that drive angry speech and the rhetorical strategies that employ it are to be removed from the Christian’s arsenal. Christian community will flourish and unity of the church be fostered (compare Ephesians 4:1-16) only where these things are laid aside.

Evil speech, though, is not so much to be suppressed as replaced. Our conversations and actions among the family of Christ — and beyond it as well — are not to grow out of anger but are to be motivated by kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiveness based on the highest standard of all, the forgiveness that God has extended to us in Christ (Ephesians 4:32). Paul presents “vertical forgiveness” (offered by God to us) as the model for “horizontal forgiveness” (that which we offer to each other; compare Colossians 3:13; Matthew 6:12, Matthew 6:14-15).

<–Wednesday Friday–>

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In discussing sins of speech within the Christian community, what exhortation does Paul share about the presence of the Holy Spirit with believers? Ephesians 4:30.

Paul simultaneously offers a daunting warning and a heartwarming promise. Our sins against one another in the church are not minor misdeeds with little consequence: what grieves the Holy Spirit is our misuse of God’s gift of speech to tear down others (Ephesians 4:25-27, Ephesians 4:29, Ephesians 4:31-32). That Paul echoes Isaiah 63:10 underlines the serious warning: “But they [Israel] rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; therefore he turned to be their enemy, and himself fought against them” (ESV).

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In a reassuring promise, Paul affirms that the Holy Spirit seals believers from the day they accepted Christ (Ephesians 1:13-14) until “the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30). The Spirit’s relationship with the believer is not fragile but durable. When believers disregard the indwelling presence of the Spirit by weaponizing God’s gift of speech, the Spirit is not said to leave but to grieve. The Spirit intends to remain present with believers, marking them as owned and protected by God, until Christ’s return.

Paul underlines the full divinity of the Spirit as “the Holy Spirit of God” and highlights the personhood of the Spirit by portraying the Holy Spirit as grieving. (See also Romans 8:16, Romans 8:26-27; 1 Corinthians 2:10, 1 Corinthians 2:13; 1 Corinthians 12:11; Galatians 5:17-18.)

We must tread with care in discussing the mystery of the Godhead. The Spirit is both One with and distinct from the Father and the Son. “The Spirit has His own will and chooses accordingly. He can be grieved and blasphemed against. Such expressions are not fit for a mere power or influence but are characteristics of a person. Is the Spirit then a person just like you and me? No, we use limited human terminology to describe the divine, and the Spirit is what human beings can never be.” — Paul Petersen, God in 3 Persons — In the New Testament (Silver Spring, MD: Biblical Research Institute, 2015), p. 20.

<–Tuesday Thursday–>

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You can view an in-depth discussion of Christ-shaped Lives and Spirit-inspired Speech in the Hope Sabbath School class led by Pastor Derek Morris. Click on the image to view: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4UzBPFvA3c&w=560&h=315]

With thanks to

Hope Channel – Television that will change your life.

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Monday’s section of this week’s Sabbath School lesson asks, the question, “What is the difference, the crucial difference, between learning about Christ and learning to know Christ?” 

This question reminded me of a conversation I overheard at an Oklahoma camp meeting way back in 1991.After recently getting baptized and becoming the first person in his family to become a Christian, an older gentleman brought his 13-year-old son to camp meeting. Jesus, Christianity, church and camp meeting were all brand new to this teenage boy. While most everyone else was staying in tents or a nearby hotel, I was driving back and forth an hour and half every day between Wewoka Woods and my home in Tulsa. So one afternoon, when I was a little tired, my friend let me have her tent to myself so I could take a little rest. Right outside of the tent, her 13-year-old daughter was talking with the young boy who had come to camp meeting with his grandfather. While I could hear them, I had pretty much tuned them out so I could rest, but then the boy asked the girl the question, “What is this Jesus stuff about anyways?” 

Immediately my ears perked up. I was very interested to know what this young teenage girl was going to say. Would she begin with Daniel 9 and the 70 weeks? Would she begin with John 1 and how the Word as in the beginning can became flesh? 

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As I was now intently listening to a conversation I had previously tuned out, I can remember the girl’s answer like it was yesterday. She said, “Before my mother and I met Jesus, all we did was argue and yell at each other, and I couldn’t stand being home. But now that my mother and I know Jesus, we don’t argue and yell at each other. We love each other and now I love being in my home.” 

“Wow!” I thought. My friend’s daughter didn’t just know about Jesus. She knew Jesus. She didn’t have to go to Daniel or John to tell her friend about Jesus, because she had experienced Jesus for herself. Jesus had radically changed her life and as she out off the old life and received the new life like putting on hew clothes. 

And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. Galatians 3:27 NLT 

In his book on Transformation and Biblical Spiritual Metamorphosis, Dr. Allan Machado shares,

To know the story of Jesus and to live with Christ and for Christ are very different things.- Dr. Allan Machado, Transformation: Biblical Spiritual Metamorphosis, Page 30

My friend’s daughter did not just know about the story of Jesus, she lived with and for Jesus. Thirty-two years later, she still does. To this day she lives with and for Jesus and is always sharing Christ with all those she comes in contact with in her community. She does not just know about Christ; she has put on Christ like putting on new clothes.  So, if someone asked you, “What is all this Jesus stuff about anyways?” What would you say? 

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