Sunday, April 30, 2006

Ephesians 4:25 Outline

Ephesians 4:25-28 Truth, Anger and Theft (1)


I. Put off a life of speaking untruthfully and put on a life of telling the truth, for God’s glory and the body’s unity (25a,d)
"Therefore, laying aside falsehood, . . . for we are members of one another."

Paul's command to us here is not legalism, but an expression of Gospel logic and the life of grace.

Paul is telling us that our false speech, our untruthfulness, puts the unity of the body at risk and robs God of the display of his glory in the church.

At the root and behind all untruthful speech is pride: petty pride or self-advancing pride.

II. Speak the truth to your neighbor and your fellow believers (25b-d)
"SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE of you WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another."

When we do not tell the truth to fellow members of Christ's body, we are literally lying to our own self.

Paul is calling us to live like Christians, to live out grace, to enhance the unity of the body and to promote the glory of God, through our truth-telling.

1 comment:

Woody said...

Encouraging post Dr. Duncan. I am in the process of working with Porter Memorial Baptist Church and NAMB to plant a church on the campus at the University of Kentucky. We want to focus on reaching the unchurched and dechurched on the campus for the glory of God.

My question is, what would be a good book to preach through when trying to reach these type of people to begin with, and in our new believers class would Ephesians be a good book to walk through initially?