Put on the new you! Eph 4:31-32

Good morning, and welcome to the

broadcast service of Dillingham Moravian Church. My name is Pastor Simon.

Our goal here at DMC is to make disciples of Christ through the study of God's

Word as we trust in Christ together.

As a parent with two little boys, one five years old and the other eight years

old, it is often a challenge to get our children to put on the clothes that we want them to wear.

One morning, I was making the lunch for one of our boys, and my wife Abigail

was trying to get Jonathan to put on the new clothes that we bought for him to go to school in.

Most of his favorite clothes, especially his pants, were either dirty or too small for a growing boy.

I came back into the hallway outside of the boy's room to find Jonathan sitting

on the floor, mostly unclothed, refusing to put on the new clothes that Abigail was trying to give him.

Because they weren't the style he liked.

Well, I metaphorically jumped into the fray or battle, and we both made Jonathan put on the new clothes.

My point with this family story, he's like my boy not wanting to put on the

new clothes that he was given.

So also, we as Christians do not always want to put on the new person that we

have been given in Christ either.

And yet we're called to get rid of the old person and then put on the new characteristics

of Christ so that we can mature in Christ and the glory of God can be displayed

through us to others. Let's pray.

O precious God, Father of all, we come before you, Lord, and we confess our sins before you, Lord.

We trust you. Help us to trust you more.

And Lord, as we hear from you today,

teach us guide us into your truth grant us your holy spirit so that we can understand

with your power and your holy spirit.

The truth of your word that is being spoken today.

Guide us into that. Show us, help us and work in us so that we can apply it

to our lives and live in the new life that you have called us to.

In your precious son's name, Jesus Christ, I pray, amen.

Here at Dillingham Moravian Church, we have been studying Paul's letter to the Ephesians.

The theme of Paul's letter is the unity of God displayed in God's church.

In the last couple of sermons on Ephesians 4, we had been studying Paul's list

of important biblical characteristics of living in our new life with Christ.

In Ephesians 4, verse 28 to 30, God taught us through Paul that we as Christ

Ephesians 4:28–30

believers are commanded by God not to steal, but to work diligently to be able

to share with those in need.

And secondly, Paul taught the Ephesians and us that Christ-believers are not

to let unwholesome words leave their mouth, but only speak words that are good

to build the foundation of Christ's grace in another person's life.

And lastly, Christians must not offend the Holy Spirit who guarantees our salvation in Christ.

And today we're going to continue in our study of Ephesians 4, verse 31-32,

Ephesians 4:31–32

where Paul explained, Let all bitterness and anger and wrath and shouting and

slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

Instead, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, graciously forgiving each other,

just as God in Christ also has graciously forgiven you.

As we begin studying these verses, I want you to pay attention to the contrast

between the old life and the new life that we have in Christ.

The first truth that God is teaching us today is that as Christians,

we are to remove the qualities of the old man from us.

When Abigail and I were in our first few years of marriage, I had a t-shirt

that I really liked that I had for a long time.

Now that t-shirt was starting to get filled with holes And so Abigail and I

played a game of tug-of-war with that t-shirt Afterwards,

the t-shirt was completely ruined It was good for only one

thing To be thrown out into the

garbage And that is what I did with it My point with this little story Is that

like an item of clothing being thrown out To be never used again So also God

through Paul teaches us that we were to put away the characteristics or character

qualities of evil and get rid of them forever,

never to be put on again.

Paul 4.31 wrote, Let all bitterness and anger and wrath and shouting and slander

be put away from you, along with all malice.

In verse 31, Paul taught the Ephesians about six evil characteristics that they

were to put away from them, never to use again.

This morning, I'd like to look at each one of these character traits of the old man or person.

The first characteristic I'd like to see is bitterness.

When something is bitter, we often say that it has a sharp taste.

When cheese is bitter, for example, we call it sharp or extra sharp,

as in extra sharp cheddar.

Bitterness in a person is like he or she has a sharp tongue.

Bitterness is the disposition of the person with a sharp tongue as an arrow, keen as a razor.

He resents his neighbor and so he needles him, is ever ready to fly off the

handle with a reply that bites or stings.

The second word I want you to focus on is the Greek word for anger or fury.

Our English word fury comes from the Latin word furor, which is a strong feeling

of antagonism, which is expressed in a tumultuous outburst, a hot retort.

And thus this word is not just the emotion of anger.

Now has moved into outbursts of anger, which is another way to translate this word.

There is action involved in this word for anger.

It's important to note here that it can be confusing when we read in the Bible

the English word for anger when we have only one word in our language.

But Greek has many words for anger. Some are focused on the emotion and others

on the action of anger, and others on both emotion and the action of anger.

And when I say action of anger, included in this is when we allow our thoughts to be settled in anger.

Remember that not all thoughts are ours alone.

Satan is capable of implanting thoughts or manipulating circumstances,

emotions, so that we can have certain thoughts.

And so when an angry thought first comes into our mind, it may not be ours.

As a friend of mine reminded me a couple of weeks ago in a conversation.

But once we allow that angry thought to stay in our mind, then it becomes our

own. It is no longer a temptation. It is a sin.

I also wanted to encourage you that emotions like anger are not the primary

emotion going on inside a person. They're important.

But there's often another emotion, like fear or jealousy, that is the reason

why we are angry in the first place.

The third character quality of the old person belonging to Satan is wrath,

or the Latin ira, where we get irate from.

This is a settled indignation when the heart is like a roaring furnace.

This is when all there is in a person's mind and heart is seething white anger.

A person to be often talked out of anger, but not so much from wrath.

Wrath leads to violent words and violent actions.

Paul continues on with the fourth characteristic that I want you to see,

and that is brawling, which is the violent outburst of the person who has completely

lost his temper and begins to yell at others.

This word means loudly shouting at someone.

But I would go even farther to say that a person who is at the brawling stage

is at the point where he or she can be easily violent.

When we watch on TV about a bar brawl where hot, angry words were spoken,

which then broke out into a physical fight.

And oftentimes the police were called to incidents like that.

This is similar to what Paul meant by brawling. I also want to add that substance

abuse can make this progression into brawling much easier because the substance,

like alcohol or drugs, suppresses our control over our speech and actions.

The fifth evil action that Paul warned the Ephesians about is slander or reviling,

which is abusive speech, whether directed against God or against man.

The word slander is blasphemia, where we get the English word blasphemy from.

But unlike in English, where blasphemy is focused on verbally abusing God or

taking His name in vain, in Greek it is more general to mean abusive and often

lying speech about anyone.

And lastly, malice is not merely mischief, but in general, the evil inclination

of the mind, the perversity or the baseness of disposition that even takes delight

in afflicting hurt or injury on one's fellow men.

I want you to notice that Paul's list in this verse describes a progression

of evil characteristics that go from bad to downright evil.

For example, my wife and I love

to watch murder mysteries, especially the British, the more cozy ones.

And these evil emotions and actions that Paul was talking about are all ingredients

that a murder mystery writer would plant in his or her story to foster an environment

where murder is the next step.

And what does Paul say about all these characteristics of the old life?

To put them away, to get rid of them.

Never, never put them on again.

And what can we as followers of Christ learn from this verse?

Like the illustration of taking off old clothes and getting rid of those clothes,

we can learn that we are to get rid of the old person that we once were before Christ,

including all these evil thoughts and behaviors, and never put them on again.

As Christians, there are many possibilities for these settled emotions and behaviors

to crop up in the local body of Christ.

Some of them, the most notable situations where we can be tempted to allow these

evil thoughts and behaviors to insert themselves are in our marriages and our families.

When we allow ourselves to be focused on what we want rather than on the loving

commands of God and sacrificing our wants for the needs of our wives and children.

Another huge area where it's possible for these evil incendiary thoughts and

behaviors to cause division and strife in local churches and denominations when

Christians vehemently disagree on non-doctrines,

like when Christ will return, the role of women in the church,

and then also in the home, dress code in the church, even the sign gifts,

when the belief is not impinging on the core doctrine of the nature of the Holy Spirit.

Now, please don't get me wrong. Core biblical doctrine must be maintained and fought for.

Yet, there are so many areas of Scripture that are not totally clear and won't

be until Christ returns.

Then it may not matter because we'll be so consumed with Christ as our Lord,

that He will be our all in all.

So far, we have been taught by God through Paul that Christians are called to

put away and get rid of the evil thoughts, the settled emotions,

and behaviors of our old life under the control of Satan.

And this leads us to the second main truth that I want to bring your attention

to, and that is, as Christ's disciples, we are to put on the character qualities of Christ.

When we get dressed in the morning, how do we make the decision about what to wear?

Isn't it often what we put on our body connected to what we're going to do that day?

If you're going to work, depending on dress standards that you work,

you may wear business or business casual clothes.

Or if you work with your hands outside or with equipment, you may wear your

dirtiest and toughest clothes you have.

If it's my day off and I tend to lounge around the house, I may wear sweatpants or a hoodie.

If I am hunting or fishing, I may wear camel and car hearts and rain gear because

as the hunters are experiencing now, it has been raining a lot.

Not only does our dress reflect on what we're going to do that day,

like work, but also what we wear is often a physical description or display

of how we identify ourselves.

For example, I do not like to wear flashy or bright clothes because I do not

like drawing attention to myself.

I also like to wear plaid because I grew up in the country in ranching communities,

and back then everyone wore plaid.

I also need to say that when I am in the house on day off, I may wear both sweatpants

and a hoodie, not just one or the other.

I've also noticed that I tend to dress an awful lot like my dad since he raised

me, and because he raised me, he had a great deal of influence on how I identify myself.

My point is, like we are to choose to put on clothes every day,

with all the decisions that go into choosing clothes,

so also we as Christians are called by God to put on the character qualities

of Christ, our God and Savior.

Paul wrote in Ephesians 4, verse 32, Instead, be kind to one another,

Ephesians 4:32

tenderhearted, graciously forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has

graciously forgiven you.

In the last verse, Paul taught the Ephesians that Christians are to put off

all of the evil settled emotions and behaviors that were part of the old person

that were once under the control of Satan.

And that as Christians, they are to get rid of that old person and never put it on again.

Just as it is not advisable in our culture to go around without clothes,

that we need to wear clothing, so God also calls believers in Christ to put

on the new spiritual clothes that God in Christ has given us.

And what is this new spiritual self or new spiritual clothes that we've been given by God?

Paul, in Galatians 3, verse 26, proclaimed, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3:26

For all of you were baptized into Christ, have clothed yourself with Christ.

Paul also taught in Romans 13, verse 13-14, let us walk properly as in the day,

Romans 13:13–14

not in carousing and drunkenness,

not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy,

but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in regards to his lusts.

Now, Paul, in both his letter to the Galatians and to the Romans,

wrote that we are to put on Christ, or that we are clothed with Christ.

Does this mean that we're actually wearing the body of our Lord Jesus Christ

on our own bodies? I don't think so.

What Paul was getting at was that God, as a result of what Christ has done on

the cross and in his resurrection, has imparted to us Christ's righteousness,

his holiness, his purity.

There is also a strong sense that when God the Father now looks at us, he sees Christ his Son.

In the heavenly realms where we are positionally seated now with Christ next

to God the Father, the Father sees us as completely holy and blameless before Him.

Yet down here on earth we are holy ones that still unfortunately sin because

we are still infected by the taint of sin from Adam and Eve.

And thus Paul was instructing the believers to put on or live with here on earth

the characteristics of Christ's righteousness that in the realm of the Spirit we already have.

Therefore, Paul was teaching all Christ believers about some of the core character

qualities of Christ that we are, by the power of the Holy Spirit,

to adopt as our own or to make a part of our lives.

Instead of being bitter or angry or displaying wrath and shouting at others

and abusing others with our slanderous speech and having a perverse attitude towards others,

we as holy ones of Christ are to, first off, be kind to each other.

The word for being kind meant gently pleasant or soft and mild and pleasant.

Not harsh or stern or severe.

Now, we need to make clear that being kind or gently pleasant doesn't mean that

you are weak or that you will not be able to speak the hard truths of Scripture to people.

For example, my mentor, who was the lead teaching elder at the Brethren Church

that Abigail and I were attending many years ago, was a master at this kind and gentle approach.

He could rebuke you in such a gentle and kind way that you ended up thanking him for it afterwards.

The second characteristic of Christ that we are to put on is tenderheartedness.

To be tenderhearted meant, and this is funny, literally to have good bowels.

Being compassionate or tenderhearted was conceived as one's compassionate internal

feature known as the bowels being good.

Why the Greeks thought that compassion originated from the bowels, I don't know.

However, this idea of being tenderhearted is that we're not hard-hearted.

We haven't put up walls or create a thick skin around our hearts so that we don't let people in.

Now, this is challenging because

it means that we're also vulnerable to be hurt by others emotionally.

And yet this is a key aspect of love. We're not just to act with compassion.

Our whole perspective on life and on people need to change so that we view people

compassionately with the compassion of Jesus Christ.

And this leads us to the third aspect of Christlikeness and probably the most

essential, to graciously forgive others as Christ has graciously forgiven us.

Forgiveness based on the undeserved favor or grace of God is the foundation of God's love.

We cannot truly love others unless we forgive them as God in Christ has forgiven us.

But what does it mean to forgive as Christ has forgiven us?

I want you to see that Paul was reminding the Ephesians that the way in which

God released his people from their captivity to sin was by appeasing the wrath

of God on his people's behalf and through gaining the goodwill of God for his people.

How the wrath of God was appeased and God's goodwill obtained was through Jesus

Christ, Yahweh Lord of all the universe, offering himself on that cross as the

sacrificial blood offering for the sin of the world.

The Lord instructed Moses in Leviticus 17, verse 11,

Leviticus 17:11

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the

altar to make atonement for your sins, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.

To atone for even one of our smallest sins, the justice of God demanded the

shedding of all our lifeblood to pay for that sin.

Our sin was completely abhorrent to God.

And yet God knew that in order for atonement, for our sins to be paid,

every single human being that ever lived or will ever live.

Had to die. God knew that we couldn't pay this price, and He loved the world too much to let us.

And thus God, while waiting for the right time for the Messiah to come,

allowed for the sacrifice of animals so that their lifeblood would atone for the sins of Israel.

Yet it did not solve the problem.

Israel kept on sinning, and their priests kept on sinning.

And that is why God sent His only begotten precious son to pay the blood price

for our sins that we deserve but could not pay on our own.

Jesus paid our debt with his own blood sacrificed on that cross.

And where I'm going with this is that forgiveness or absolution meant a formal

release from an obligation or debt, especially understood of the debt of sin.

The forgiveness of God towards his people is our release from the legal obligation

for us to shed all of our lifeblood and atone for even one of our sins.

And through Christ's sacrifice, that which we didn't deserve,

we have been released from our guilt before God and we are no longer estranged or separated from God.

And now when others hurt us, they owe us a debt that can never be fully paid off.

And just as Christ counseled our debts that we owed Him by dying on the cross,

we also were to die to our own desire to be repaid and to release those who

have hurt us from the debt that they owe us and to let it go forever.

And trust me, I understand that this is so challenging. Yet we will never have

freedom and we'll never have healing without forgiving those who have hurt us

and releasing them from their debt to us.

Many people who live in this town, or are living in Bush, Alaska,

or are living elsewhere have experienced great hurts and evil from others.

So many of our men and women have experienced sexual abuse as children,

which then has led them to a life dominated by alcohol or drugs or both,

who then commit abuse on others.

Many have experienced physical abuse, especially our women here in the villages?

Couples in marriages or in relationships, have you experienced the verbal attacks

on each other's weaknesses that have wounded each other to the very core of their beings?

Whatever the hurt that you have received from others is, they now owe you a

debt that you, that they, rather, won't be able to fully repay.

And yet, if we continue to expect them to repay that debt, even though they

may try, they won't be able to do it.

And we will continue to be trapped in the slavery of our own pain and obsession

of what they have done to us in the past.

And I encourage all of us, including myself, to let go of those hurts that people

have damaged us with and release them from their debt that they owe us.

Whether they know that you're releasing them or not.

Release them from their debt to you, just as Christ has released you from your unpayable debt.

Those who have hurt you do not deserve forgiveness, but then neither do you.

And God has forgiven you out of His marvelous grace.

This, my friends, is the path of freedom. And this is love.

What has God been teaching us today through Paul's list on how to live in our new life with Christ?

The first main truth that we have been taught by God through Paul,

that Christians are called to put away and get rid of the evil thoughts,

the subtle emotions and behaviors of our old life under the control of Satan,

like being bitter, angry, displaying wrath and shouting at others,

abusing others with their slanderous speech, and having an evil and perverse

attitude towards others.

Secondly, as holy ones of God, we are by the power of the Holy Spirit to put

on the core character qualities of Christ.

Those Christ-like qualities are kindness, having a tender heart towards others,

especially towards believers, and graciously forgiving others as Christ has

graciously forgiven us.

It is so tempting and easy for us to slide back into living the old life that

we were once enslaved to before Christ.

But God urges each and every one of us, including myself,

to cling to Christ and to abide in His love as we obey His word and emulate

or imitate how Christ lived and how Christ loved us when we did not deserve that love.

May we all live in a new life that Christ has graciously bought us at such a high cost.

Let us pray. Oh, precious Father, we are grateful that you have brought your word.

But more than that, through your word, you have shown us what Christ has done

on the cross, that he has sacrificed everything, his life, for us when we didn't deserve it.

We understand that we do not deserve mercy.

We only deserve wrath from you, and yet you have given us your mercy.

You've given us your love.

And Lord, help us, help us, please, to extend mercy and grace to others who have hurt us.

Strengthen us to that end. And may we trust you always and live according to

the new life that you have so wonderfully bestowed upon us in Jesus Christ.

In your precious Son's name, Jesus Christ, we pray this. Amen.

I'll leave you with a benediction from 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 23-24.

1 Thessalonians 5:23–24

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole

spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He who calls you is faithful. He will surely do it.

Have a wonderful Sunday. May the Lord bless you.