27 October 2024
SCRIPTURAL APPLICATION: Ephesians 5:1-21
SERMON REVIEW:
Be an Imitator of God
4.Resembling His Love vs. 1-6
c. Is self-sacrificing
d. Is not self-edifying
5.Resembling His Light vs. 7-14
a. Who are we?
b. How do we live?
6.Resembling His Likeness vs. 15-21
a. Stewardship of God’s time
b. Seek God’s will
c. Serving God and others
QUESTIONS:
Life Application:
What It Takes to Have a Team
Long, long ago in a kingdom far away lived a man who wanted to be a football coach. He heard of a coaching position open at a college where they had recruited many of the finest football players in the land. He applied and was hired as their football coach. The day of the first game, he said: “OK, boys. I want you all to feel a part of this team. I know that a lot of you have a lot of good ideas, so when we go out on that field, I want each of you to do what he thinks is best. As for me, I will be in my office doing what I enjoy best—reading sports magazines, watching football games, and talking to other coaches.”
So the team clapped their hands in unison and stormed out onto the field. The coach zipped back into his office. The team lost that day. The quarterback called a play in the huddle, but the running back didn’t like it. He wanted to run a play which they had used with great success in high school, so they argued a little bit. In the end when the ball was snapped, the running back ran the play he wanted; and the quarterback ran the play he wanted. The receivers each ran the plays they wanted, and they ended up running into each other and knocking each other down.
After three downs, the punter came out to kick but had to kick into the wind. He knew it wouldn’t go very far that way, and that would be embarrassing to him, so he turned around and kicked the other direction. The ball went way up into the stands. It was a long, long kick, and the punter was very happy with himself. However, they were penalized for kicking the ball the wrong direction.
The linemen felt that the other team was hitting too hard, so they decided to leave the field. If they wanted to play that rough, they could just play with someone else. Many other things happened that day which caused the team to lose badly. It seemed such a shame, because actually the players on the losing team were better than the other team; but they were not playing together, and there was no one to draw them together to play as a team, because the coach was absent.
The athletic director went into the coach’s office the next day and said: “Listen, we can’t play football this way. The whole purpose for hiring you was so you would be responsible to see that the team played as a team—each player making his maximum contribution. If something goes wrong, you must be there to analyze it and decide what to do to correct it.
So the next Saturday, the coach drew up a game plan and explained it to each of the players. He stayed on the sidelines and paid close attention to each play. If something was going wrong, he explained it to the players, instructed them as to what they should do, and corrected the situation.
Several times he didn’t know what was wrong. He asked several of the players if they understood what was going wrong. They did. When they explained it, the coach asked them if they had any suggestions. The team followed up on the suggestions on the next play and scored a touchdown.
The team won big that day. It was a glorious day. Everyone saw how much better it was for them to play together. Not everyone could be the quarterback. So if they were not chosen to be quarterback, they willingly played the position they were assigned. Each of them gained great recognition for doing well at his own position. The team won and won and won. All of the players were happy because they all knew that they were winning as a team. The quarterback was useless alone. He needed a good offensive line, and he needed good running backs and receivers.
After they all saw how much better it was to play as a team, they decided that they would play that way all the time; and they went undefeated from then on.
Teamwork is essential any time more than one person is needed to succeed at something. In our day we are experiencing a crisis of authority, and it is easy to understand why. Sometimes, those in authority over us have mistreated us, and we have difficulty accepting authority any more. We have had presidents who have lied to us. They have been dishonest, unethical, and immoral. Heads of companies have defrauded the company and investors out of billions of dollars. Military officials have abused power. Politicians have abused power. Nationally recognized religious leaders have abused power. Educators have abused power. Doctors have abused power. Journalists have abused power. Ministers have abused power. We are living in an age of abuse of power, and understandably, this has caused a crisis of authority.
This abuse of power has filtered down to the fundamental building block of society—the home. Just as society faces a crisis of authority, so does the home. We have men who won’t lead, women who won’t follow, children who won’t obey, and parents who won’t nurture. It is every man for himself. The ship is going down, so every person is out to save his own neck.
Against the backdrop of this ominous social upheaval, the Bible still speaks; and it still speaks truth. It still speaks words which, if followed, will bring order and truth and harmony to life. If being a Christian was ever going to make a difference, it needs to make a difference now—in the home. We must not allow the attitude and experience of society to keep us from living biblically. We must each understand our biblical role and fulfill it.[1]
Digging Deeper:
A. Sin and salvation (vv. 1–5)
The question arises in passages such as Ephesians 5:5 as to whether it is possible for a Christian, because of continual and unconfessed sin, to lose his salvation. Some say this passage teaches that. However, it teaches just the opposite. It doesn’t mean that a Christian who does these things (immoral, impure, covetous, idolater) will lose inheritance in the kingdom. Rather, it means that non-Christians live this way, and since the Ephesians are Christians, they ought not to live that way. It is also possible to read into this passage the implication that if a person lives a life characterized by these things, he might not be a Christian. Second Corinthians 5:17 says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
If nothing becomes new in a person’s life after supposedly accepting Christ, the person has no confidence from Scripture that he actually did receive Christ. The person either did not really understand what it means to become a Christian, or he was not sincere in his confession. No one has a biblical basis for confidence that he is a Christian if it has made no difference in his life.
So, if a person’s life is characterized by immorality, impurity, greed, filthiness, silly talk, and course jesting, Ephesians 5:5 states that he has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. The wrath of God comes upon those who are not Christians and are disobedient as a way of life.
B. Chastening (vv. 6–17)
Because of Christ, the child of God never tastes the wrath of God as the non-Christian does. For the Christian, sin will never mean separation from God and suffering the horrors of hell. The Christian has been spared from that alternative because he is safe in Christ. For the believer, sinning can mean to suffer the chastening of God. The Christian may suffer at least two different kinds of chastening.
First, there is “cause-effect chastening.” For example, the biblical principle teaches that if you want to keep your life, you must give it away. One application of that principle is that if you want to have a rich and meaningful life, you must give yourself in kindness and love to others. If we conform to that law, we see kind, generous, loving people being surrounded by friends and having a life of joy and meaning. If we violate this law and act selfishly, being unkind, stingy, and taking advantage of people, we may be rich and famous; but we will be unhappy and unfulfilled. So, a cause-effect price is paid when we violate the law of love. In Galatians 6:7–8, we read, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked.… The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction.”
Additionally, spiritual laws govern all areas of life. If we want a rich and meaningful marriage, if we want a good relationship with our children, if we want a successful vocation, if we want friends and meaningful relationships, we must obey these laws. Conform to them and succeed; violate them and fail. So on it goes throughout the Bible.
A second form of chastening is direct divine chastening. The point comes at which God is not content to let the cause-effect principle play itself out in our lives. Instead, he actively brings divine chastening into the life of the believer. We see this spelled out clearly in passages such as Hebrews 12:5–13 and 1 Corinthians 11:20–22, 28–34.
Just as loving earthly parents would not let their child engage in self-destructive behavior without trying to encourage him to correct that behavior, so the Lord tries to get us to change our self-destructive behavior. The chastening the Lord brings into our lives is never retribution for our sin. Jesus paid the price for our sin, and we do not have to bear that. The loving hand of God tries to get us to change our self-destructive behavior by chastening us for our sin.
C. Filled with the Spirit (v. 18)
In Acts, in the miraculous instances of the filling of the Spirit which resulted in speaking in tongues and other extraordinary activities, the word used for “filling” is pimplemi. In Ephesians 5:18, when we are commanded to be filled with the Spirit, the word for “filled” is “plarao.” These words have different meanings. In Acts when pimplemi is used, the results are dramatic: the person speaks in tongues, prophesies, or preaches powerful messages spontaneously. In the only two New Testament occurrences of plarao in the verb form, it has no extraordinary events occurring with it.
Second, we do not see the pimplemi filling of the Spirit after Acts 19, the last recorded incident in Acts of the message of the gospel going to Gentiles. The purpose of the miraculous manifestations of the Spirit was to validate and reinforce the message of the gospel to people who did not know Christ (Heb. 2:4).
Third, pimplemi is always aorist passive with the genitive case: aorist tense means that the filling did not last long and was not intended to last long. The passive indicates that the people who were filled had no control over the fact that they were filled. It was a sovereign work of God.
Plerao in this passage is imperative passive, meaning that they were commanded to let it happen and that they could control their willingness to be filled.
Fourth, the purpose of plerao filling is person oriented. The purpose of pimplemi is task oriented. The dramatic events surrounding pimplemi are designed to accomplish a certain task. The purpose of plerao is to cause a person to be filled with joy or the Spirit as a continuous state.
Dramatic misunderstanding has occurred surrounding this teaching, because people have confused the use of the two different words. They have taken the miraculous manifestations which occurred with pimplemi and have generalized them to try to fit Ephesians 5:18, not realizing that they weren’t even the same word, not in the same context, and not the same grammatical makeup.
Regardless of what one might believe about miraculous manifestations of the Holy Spirit, I believe that when Paul commands us in Ephesians 5:18 to be filled with the Spirit he is commanding us to allow ourselves to be governed by the fullness of Christ in our lives. In Ephesians 5:18, the results of being filled with the Spirit are speaking in psalms, singing, giving thanks, and a harmony of relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children, and masters and slaves.
In Colossians 3:16, we see the exact same results of teaching with psalms, singing, thankfulness, and harmony between husbands and wives, parents and children, and masters and slaves. However, these results are produced, not by being filled with the Spirit, but by letting the Word of Christ richly dwell within you. Being filled with the Spirit and letting the Word of Christ richly dwell within you produce exactly the same results. Therefore, they must be understood to be essentially the same thing.
We are not controlled by the Holy Spirit in the same way as a hand controls the functioning of a glove. Rather, we are governed in the sense that a speed limit sign controls how fast we drive. We are governed by it, in the sense that we have yielded to its authority and are law-abiding persons.
In Acts 13:52, we see the only other occurrence of the verb form of plerao in the Bible. There we read, “And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.” Just as the disciples were filled with and governed by joy, so we are to allow ourselves to be filled with and governed by the Spirit. We do this by allowing the Word of Christ to richly dwell within us.
As we let the Word richly dwell within us, we come to understand the will of God. The Holy Spirit applies God’s truth to our hearts, and as we yield to it, allowing ourselves to be governed by it, we experience the fruit of the Spirit—peace, love, and joy. Gradually, more and more, over time we are filled with the Spirit in a nonsensational manner, but a manner just as miraculous as the dramatic manifestations of pimplemi.
Discussion Questions:
1. What does it mean to you to "imitate God" and "walk in love" as outlined in verses 1-7?
2. How can you actively turn away from immoral behavior in your life?
3. Reflecting on verses 8-14, how do you understand your role as a 'child of light'?
4. In what ways can you expose and resist the deeds of darkness in today's society?
5. How can you apply Paul's advice on living wisely and redeeming the time in your current life situation?
6. What does it mean to be 'filled with the Spirit' and how can you cultivate this in your life?
PRAYER:
[1] Max Anders, Galatians-Colossians, vol. 8, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 176–178.
SERMON REVIEW:
Be an Imitator of God
4.Resembling His Love vs. 1-6
c. Is self-sacrificing
d. Is not self-edifying
5.Resembling His Light vs. 7-14
a. Who are we?
b. How do we live?
6.Resembling His Likeness vs. 15-21
a. Stewardship of God’s time
b. Seek God’s will
c. Serving God and others
QUESTIONS:
- What did the message teach me about God/Jesus/Holy Spirit?
- What did the message teach me about the human condition?
- Is there anything I need to confess, repent, or be grateful for, because of this passage?
- How do I need help in believing and applying this scripture to my life?
- How can I encourage others with this passage?
Life Application:
What It Takes to Have a Team
Long, long ago in a kingdom far away lived a man who wanted to be a football coach. He heard of a coaching position open at a college where they had recruited many of the finest football players in the land. He applied and was hired as their football coach. The day of the first game, he said: “OK, boys. I want you all to feel a part of this team. I know that a lot of you have a lot of good ideas, so when we go out on that field, I want each of you to do what he thinks is best. As for me, I will be in my office doing what I enjoy best—reading sports magazines, watching football games, and talking to other coaches.”
So the team clapped their hands in unison and stormed out onto the field. The coach zipped back into his office. The team lost that day. The quarterback called a play in the huddle, but the running back didn’t like it. He wanted to run a play which they had used with great success in high school, so they argued a little bit. In the end when the ball was snapped, the running back ran the play he wanted; and the quarterback ran the play he wanted. The receivers each ran the plays they wanted, and they ended up running into each other and knocking each other down.
After three downs, the punter came out to kick but had to kick into the wind. He knew it wouldn’t go very far that way, and that would be embarrassing to him, so he turned around and kicked the other direction. The ball went way up into the stands. It was a long, long kick, and the punter was very happy with himself. However, they were penalized for kicking the ball the wrong direction.
The linemen felt that the other team was hitting too hard, so they decided to leave the field. If they wanted to play that rough, they could just play with someone else. Many other things happened that day which caused the team to lose badly. It seemed such a shame, because actually the players on the losing team were better than the other team; but they were not playing together, and there was no one to draw them together to play as a team, because the coach was absent.
The athletic director went into the coach’s office the next day and said: “Listen, we can’t play football this way. The whole purpose for hiring you was so you would be responsible to see that the team played as a team—each player making his maximum contribution. If something goes wrong, you must be there to analyze it and decide what to do to correct it.
So the next Saturday, the coach drew up a game plan and explained it to each of the players. He stayed on the sidelines and paid close attention to each play. If something was going wrong, he explained it to the players, instructed them as to what they should do, and corrected the situation.
Several times he didn’t know what was wrong. He asked several of the players if they understood what was going wrong. They did. When they explained it, the coach asked them if they had any suggestions. The team followed up on the suggestions on the next play and scored a touchdown.
The team won big that day. It was a glorious day. Everyone saw how much better it was for them to play together. Not everyone could be the quarterback. So if they were not chosen to be quarterback, they willingly played the position they were assigned. Each of them gained great recognition for doing well at his own position. The team won and won and won. All of the players were happy because they all knew that they were winning as a team. The quarterback was useless alone. He needed a good offensive line, and he needed good running backs and receivers.
After they all saw how much better it was to play as a team, they decided that they would play that way all the time; and they went undefeated from then on.
Teamwork is essential any time more than one person is needed to succeed at something. In our day we are experiencing a crisis of authority, and it is easy to understand why. Sometimes, those in authority over us have mistreated us, and we have difficulty accepting authority any more. We have had presidents who have lied to us. They have been dishonest, unethical, and immoral. Heads of companies have defrauded the company and investors out of billions of dollars. Military officials have abused power. Politicians have abused power. Nationally recognized religious leaders have abused power. Educators have abused power. Doctors have abused power. Journalists have abused power. Ministers have abused power. We are living in an age of abuse of power, and understandably, this has caused a crisis of authority.
This abuse of power has filtered down to the fundamental building block of society—the home. Just as society faces a crisis of authority, so does the home. We have men who won’t lead, women who won’t follow, children who won’t obey, and parents who won’t nurture. It is every man for himself. The ship is going down, so every person is out to save his own neck.
Against the backdrop of this ominous social upheaval, the Bible still speaks; and it still speaks truth. It still speaks words which, if followed, will bring order and truth and harmony to life. If being a Christian was ever going to make a difference, it needs to make a difference now—in the home. We must not allow the attitude and experience of society to keep us from living biblically. We must each understand our biblical role and fulfill it.[1]
Digging Deeper:
A. Sin and salvation (vv. 1–5)
The question arises in passages such as Ephesians 5:5 as to whether it is possible for a Christian, because of continual and unconfessed sin, to lose his salvation. Some say this passage teaches that. However, it teaches just the opposite. It doesn’t mean that a Christian who does these things (immoral, impure, covetous, idolater) will lose inheritance in the kingdom. Rather, it means that non-Christians live this way, and since the Ephesians are Christians, they ought not to live that way. It is also possible to read into this passage the implication that if a person lives a life characterized by these things, he might not be a Christian. Second Corinthians 5:17 says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
If nothing becomes new in a person’s life after supposedly accepting Christ, the person has no confidence from Scripture that he actually did receive Christ. The person either did not really understand what it means to become a Christian, or he was not sincere in his confession. No one has a biblical basis for confidence that he is a Christian if it has made no difference in his life.
So, if a person’s life is characterized by immorality, impurity, greed, filthiness, silly talk, and course jesting, Ephesians 5:5 states that he has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. The wrath of God comes upon those who are not Christians and are disobedient as a way of life.
B. Chastening (vv. 6–17)
Because of Christ, the child of God never tastes the wrath of God as the non-Christian does. For the Christian, sin will never mean separation from God and suffering the horrors of hell. The Christian has been spared from that alternative because he is safe in Christ. For the believer, sinning can mean to suffer the chastening of God. The Christian may suffer at least two different kinds of chastening.
First, there is “cause-effect chastening.” For example, the biblical principle teaches that if you want to keep your life, you must give it away. One application of that principle is that if you want to have a rich and meaningful life, you must give yourself in kindness and love to others. If we conform to that law, we see kind, generous, loving people being surrounded by friends and having a life of joy and meaning. If we violate this law and act selfishly, being unkind, stingy, and taking advantage of people, we may be rich and famous; but we will be unhappy and unfulfilled. So, a cause-effect price is paid when we violate the law of love. In Galatians 6:7–8, we read, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked.… The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction.”
Additionally, spiritual laws govern all areas of life. If we want a rich and meaningful marriage, if we want a good relationship with our children, if we want a successful vocation, if we want friends and meaningful relationships, we must obey these laws. Conform to them and succeed; violate them and fail. So on it goes throughout the Bible.
A second form of chastening is direct divine chastening. The point comes at which God is not content to let the cause-effect principle play itself out in our lives. Instead, he actively brings divine chastening into the life of the believer. We see this spelled out clearly in passages such as Hebrews 12:5–13 and 1 Corinthians 11:20–22, 28–34.
Just as loving earthly parents would not let their child engage in self-destructive behavior without trying to encourage him to correct that behavior, so the Lord tries to get us to change our self-destructive behavior. The chastening the Lord brings into our lives is never retribution for our sin. Jesus paid the price for our sin, and we do not have to bear that. The loving hand of God tries to get us to change our self-destructive behavior by chastening us for our sin.
C. Filled with the Spirit (v. 18)
In Acts, in the miraculous instances of the filling of the Spirit which resulted in speaking in tongues and other extraordinary activities, the word used for “filling” is pimplemi. In Ephesians 5:18, when we are commanded to be filled with the Spirit, the word for “filled” is “plarao.” These words have different meanings. In Acts when pimplemi is used, the results are dramatic: the person speaks in tongues, prophesies, or preaches powerful messages spontaneously. In the only two New Testament occurrences of plarao in the verb form, it has no extraordinary events occurring with it.
Second, we do not see the pimplemi filling of the Spirit after Acts 19, the last recorded incident in Acts of the message of the gospel going to Gentiles. The purpose of the miraculous manifestations of the Spirit was to validate and reinforce the message of the gospel to people who did not know Christ (Heb. 2:4).
Third, pimplemi is always aorist passive with the genitive case: aorist tense means that the filling did not last long and was not intended to last long. The passive indicates that the people who were filled had no control over the fact that they were filled. It was a sovereign work of God.
Plerao in this passage is imperative passive, meaning that they were commanded to let it happen and that they could control their willingness to be filled.
Fourth, the purpose of plerao filling is person oriented. The purpose of pimplemi is task oriented. The dramatic events surrounding pimplemi are designed to accomplish a certain task. The purpose of plerao is to cause a person to be filled with joy or the Spirit as a continuous state.
Dramatic misunderstanding has occurred surrounding this teaching, because people have confused the use of the two different words. They have taken the miraculous manifestations which occurred with pimplemi and have generalized them to try to fit Ephesians 5:18, not realizing that they weren’t even the same word, not in the same context, and not the same grammatical makeup.
Regardless of what one might believe about miraculous manifestations of the Holy Spirit, I believe that when Paul commands us in Ephesians 5:18 to be filled with the Spirit he is commanding us to allow ourselves to be governed by the fullness of Christ in our lives. In Ephesians 5:18, the results of being filled with the Spirit are speaking in psalms, singing, giving thanks, and a harmony of relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children, and masters and slaves.
In Colossians 3:16, we see the exact same results of teaching with psalms, singing, thankfulness, and harmony between husbands and wives, parents and children, and masters and slaves. However, these results are produced, not by being filled with the Spirit, but by letting the Word of Christ richly dwell within you. Being filled with the Spirit and letting the Word of Christ richly dwell within you produce exactly the same results. Therefore, they must be understood to be essentially the same thing.
We are not controlled by the Holy Spirit in the same way as a hand controls the functioning of a glove. Rather, we are governed in the sense that a speed limit sign controls how fast we drive. We are governed by it, in the sense that we have yielded to its authority and are law-abiding persons.
In Acts 13:52, we see the only other occurrence of the verb form of plerao in the Bible. There we read, “And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.” Just as the disciples were filled with and governed by joy, so we are to allow ourselves to be filled with and governed by the Spirit. We do this by allowing the Word of Christ to richly dwell within us.
As we let the Word richly dwell within us, we come to understand the will of God. The Holy Spirit applies God’s truth to our hearts, and as we yield to it, allowing ourselves to be governed by it, we experience the fruit of the Spirit—peace, love, and joy. Gradually, more and more, over time we are filled with the Spirit in a nonsensational manner, but a manner just as miraculous as the dramatic manifestations of pimplemi.
Discussion Questions:
1. What does it mean to you to "imitate God" and "walk in love" as outlined in verses 1-7?
2. How can you actively turn away from immoral behavior in your life?
3. Reflecting on verses 8-14, how do you understand your role as a 'child of light'?
4. In what ways can you expose and resist the deeds of darkness in today's society?
5. How can you apply Paul's advice on living wisely and redeeming the time in your current life situation?
6. What does it mean to be 'filled with the Spirit' and how can you cultivate this in your life?
PRAYER:
[1] Max Anders, Galatians-Colossians, vol. 8, Holman New Testament Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999), 176–178.