Tuesday, September 01, 2020

2020.09.01 Hopewell @Home ▫ Ephesians 4:17–5:2

 Read Ephesians 4:17–5:2

Questions from the Scripture text: How does the apostle introduce his instruction in Ephesians 4:17, to emphasize its seriousness? What does he say no longer to do? How do the rest of the Gentiles walk? What is the condition of their understanding (Ephesians 4:18)? What is their relationship to “the life of God”? What is in them that keeps them alienated? What is the condition of their heart? What are they past (Ephesians 4:19)? To what have they given themselves over? What do they “work”? But what (whom) have the Ephesians believers learned (Ephesians 4:20)? Whom have those who have learned Christ heard (Ephesians 4:21)? By Whom have they been taught? In Whom is the truth? Concerning their former conduct, what are they to put off (Ephesians 4:22)? What happens to the old man? Through what? What does the apostle command them to do in Ephesians 4:23? How? What are they to put on (Ephesians 4:24)? How was this new man created? In what was this new man created? What are they to put away (Ephesians 4:25)? What are they to speak instead? Why? What two boundaries does Ephesians 4:26 put on the believer’s anger? What happens if we do not put these boundaries on our anger (Ephesians 4:27)? What must the one who was converted from stealing stop doing (Ephesians 4:28)? What must he do instead? What is a second reason for him to work hard? What shouldn’t a believer allow out of his mouth (Ephesians 4:29)? What should be the only thing a believer speaks? In order to do what? What does failing to follow these instructions put us in danger of doing (Ephesians 4:30)? What has the Holy Spirit done to believers unto the day of redemption? What six things does Ephesians 4:31 command us to put away from us? How are we to be toward one another (Ephesians 4:32)? Out of what kind of heart? What will we need to do to one another if this is to be the case? Who has done it to us first and how? So, when we forgive one another, Whom are we imitating (Ephesians 5:1)? What are we enjoying and showing about ourselves as we imitate Him? In what are we to walk (Ephesians 5:2)? Whom are we imitating in that? What did Christ do in that love? How did His giving Himself for us function toward God? 

Next week’s Call to Worship, Prayer for Help, and Confession of Sin come from Ephesians 4:17–5:2 in order that we will see that we are singing God’s thoughts after Him with Gracious Spirit, Dwell with Me.

Christian living is theological. We become children of God who imitate Father (Ephesians 5:1) and Christ (Ephesians 5:2) by being renewed in our mind (Ephesians 4:23) by the Spirit (Ephesians 4:23Ephesians 4:30).

It is futility of mind (Ephesians 4:17), dark understanding (Ephesians 4:18), ignorance (verse 18), and blindness (verse 18) which result in the wickedness in which believers once walked (Ephesians 4:31) and in which unbelievers continue to talk (Ephesians 4:19).

But what happens when we “learn” Christ (Ephesians 4:20)? When we learn “the truth as it is in Jesus” (Ephesians 4:21)? It changes our conduct. Taking heaven’s true perspective on things is the way the “new man” of Ephesians 4:24 thinks, and it results in the holiness of that new man’s conduct. 

Holy living means speaking truth instead of lying (Ephesians 4:25a). It means recognizing that believers are members of one another (verse 25b). It means recognizing that anger is a passion that must be controlled, because it makes us vulnerable to the devil (Ephesians 4:26-27). It means working hard—not only for what we need, but also so that we can be generous as God and Christ have been to us (Ephesians 4:28). It means recognizing edification as the purpose for which our gracious God created words, and imitating Him in that too (Ephesians 4:29). It means that the kindness and forgiveness that God has shown us become the baseline for how we interact with others (Ephesians 4:32). 

Since the Holy Spirit is the One who is producing this in us, because He is our guarantee that the work will be completed in the day of redemption (Ephesians 4:30), that we think about how our thought and conduct affect Him—that we should hate to grieve the One Who loves us so much.

Theology is the study of a God who loved so much that He gave Himself. So, theology is the foundation of lives in which we learn love from Him and give ourselves as He gave Himself.

By what means are you seeking to grow theologically? What fruit should this produce?

Suggested songs: ARP1 “How Blessed the Man” or TPH400 “Gracious Spirit, Dwell with Me”


No comments:

Post a Comment