Mar 29, 2020. Ephesians 4:15-19

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BODY BEAUTIFUL. EPH. 4:15-19. 3/29/20. AM. #16.

Ephesians 4:15-19 [New King James Version (NKJV)]

¹⁵ but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. ¹⁷ This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, ¹⁸ having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; ¹⁹ who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

• The dual manifestations of the believer
  • A believer manifests himself with 2 main traits:
    • Integrity (honesty, truthfulness, genuineness)
    • Love (charity, generosity, compassion, empathy)
  • “Speaking” the truth is a mistranslation
    • Lit., doing the truth or dealing truthfully
    • Being honest in one’s dealings with others
    • Sometimes dealing truthfully involves hiding facts (Egyptian midwives, Rahab, Samuel)
    • Honoring God’s will & ways (doing right)
  • Motivation is love
    • John 3:16 God’s love for us
    • II Corinthians 5:14 the love of Christ working through us
    • Showing love to saints, strangers, & enemies
  • Lovingly dealing truthfully could involve encouragement, charity, admonition, or even rebuke (I Thessalonians 5:14)
  • Philippians 2:3 integrity empowered by love = mode of operation
• The body of Christ
  • Assembly of believers = called body of Christ (Ep. 2:16)
    • I Corinthians 12:12-26 compared to human body
    • Should function as a fit human body does
  • Description of the church body:
    • Knit together (compacted; connected)
      • Used in II Peter 3:5 as the earth being made to stand together out of the water (Gen. 1)
      • Properly put together in form & function
      • The Lord puts each part in the right place
      • Body parts are designed to be connected
    • Every joint supplies what is needed
      • In human body, the arms, legs, heart, eyes, ears, etc. are supplying rest of body
      • Each function supports the rest of body
    • Effective working = accomplishes the will of God
      • Each part has a specified function
      • Each part shares its own load
      • When parts of the body don’t share own load, the entire body suffers
  • Three results of the body of Christ working together:
    • Spiritual growth in the body (kingdom expands)
    • The body us self-edifying (built up in knowledge, worship, fellowship, ministry, outreach, prayer…)
    • The body = empowered by love of God (Jn. 13:34)
• Not to walk like other Gentiles (unbelievers)
  • Description of traits of the unsaved:
    • Futility of mind (vanity, useless, worthless)
    • Understanding is darkened = no knowledge of the truth, loving evil; no desire for light of Lord
    • Alienated from life of God = strangers to spiritual
      • Life of Christians = baffling to them
      • We are a subculture in a fallen world
    • Ignorant (no knowledge) = don’t know about God or the Bible, or church (2 Pt. 3:5 willfully ignorant)
  • Results: past feeling (hard-hearted = porosis of the kardia) or petrification of the heart; abandoned to lewdness (indecent, debased, perverse); full of uncleanness (filthy, impure), greedy (self-indulgent)
  • The believer has a new nature that suppresses old one

Key verse:  I Corinthians 12:12-26

¹² For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. ¹³ For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. ¹⁴ For in fact the body is not one member but many. ¹⁵ If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? ¹⁶ And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? ¹⁸ But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. ¹⁹ And if they were all one member, where would the body be? ²⁰ But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. ²¹ And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” ²² No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. ²³ And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, ²⁴ but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, ²⁵ that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. ²⁶ And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.