The apostle Paul is calling the Church to a new way of being, a new way of thinking and acting in the world. In Christ, Believers are called to “lay aside the old self,” to “be renewed in the spirit’ of their “mind,” and to “put on the new self” (Eph. 4: 22,-24). It is a way of living that is defined not by what the world systems think but on the love and mercy and grace of God.
In the economy of God, falsehood is unacceptable and truth is honored, angered is to be harnessed, stealing is wrong, and unwholesome words are not allowed. Along with these matters, “bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander and…malice,” are to be jettisoned from one’s life. In their place, Believers are called to “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other.”
The way of Jesus is high and noble. The natural mind most likely will not embrace this high and noble way. People live caught up in their own ways, and the ways of Jesus undermines them too much. Even many Believers can’t seem to adapt to the ways of Jesus. I know I have to watch my own life.
I grew up being taught that every day we should put everything about our lives on the altar. I still believe this. This is one of the reasons I love the Lenten season. During these days I am called to face the real me and to climb up again on to the altar of God, where I belong. I don’t trust myself. I need purposefully to slow down, re-evaluate, look deep within, and open my heart to God. I can be too easily distracted; a very dangerous place to be for one who seeks to be a man of God.
The apostle Paul helps me here. He helps me focus on my inner life, to take my spiritual pulse, and to seek to keep my heart pure before God. This is the place I want to be because in Jesus we have “the Light of the world” in whom we “have the Light of life” (John 8:12). The Light comes into our lives and lavishes the grace of God on us (see Eph. 1:7-8).
What Paul describes in Ephesians chapter four is the kind of quality that life can take upon itself when it is lived in Jesus. It is a life of wholeness and peace. It edifies the other and keeps us honest about ourselves. It opens up the heart of God’s love in us and creates the possibility of healthy and wholesome relationships.
Healthy and wholesome relationship! Isn’t that a great idea?
I think of the words of Richard Gillard’s song,
We are pilgrims on a journey;
we are family on the road.
We are here to help each other
walk the mile and bear the load.
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