Bible Commentaries
Ephesians 4

Verses 1-3

Now in the first three verses, we have how we are to walk. And then in Ephesians 4:4-6, we have the basis for such a walk and in Ephesians 4:7-16, the result of such a walk. Now that makes it very simple.

I’d like to read the first three verses again,

Ephesians 4:1. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,

Ephesians 4:2. With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffer­ing, forbearing one another in love;

Ephesians 4:3. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Now we are to walk “worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.” You remember, in 1 John 2:6, John says that if we say we abide in Him, we ought to walk even as He walked. And how did He walk? In complete submission to His Father. In John 8:29, Jesus said, “I do always the things that please Him.”

Now is it possible for us to walk with God to­day? Is it possible for us to walk even as Jesus walked in submission? My friend, that has always been true. If I were to go through the Old Testament and pick out the men who walked with God and see their surroundings, see their circumstances, I tell you, you and I have no excuse.

You take, for example, Enoch who walked with God in the midst of a violent world, an ungodly world. Noah walked with God in a world where the imaginations of the heart were evil continually. It was a violent, wicked world. Abraham walked with God in the midst of a pagan world. He was alone. “Look unto Abraham your father . . . for I called him alone,” quoting Isaiah 51:2 on that.

And then you have Moses who walked with God in the midst of a stiff-necked people, a bunch of murmurers; but he walked with God. Elijah walked with God in the midst of an apostate world. He could say to God, “I’m the only fellow you’ve got left on earth.” And you remember, God said, “Wait a minute, Elijah, I have seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” But only God knew who they were. Even Elijah didn’t know who they were. You and I are walk­ing with God in the midst of a world that’s lawless and rebellious. Yes, it’s possible to walk with God today, even as Jesus walked.

Verses 2-3

Now in verses 2 and 3, we’ve got five virtues given to us; and these cannot be imitated. They come to us from the Spirit of God. Now listen to what Paul says. How am I to walk in the vocation wherewith I am called?

Ephesians 4:2. With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffer­ing, forbearing one another in love;

Ephesians 4:3. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Now look at these. Christ is the personifica­tion of all this—of lowliness, of meekness, of long-suffering, of forbearing in love, of walking in the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Christ is the only one who ever lived like that.

Take that passage in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 where love suffers long and is kind; love envies not; love never vaunts itself; love is never puffed up, never behaves itself unseemly, never seeks her own, is never easily provoked, never thinks any evil, always thinks of that which is good, forbears all things, believes all things, hopes all things. Love never fails. That’s Christ, my friends. He cannot be imitated. But the Spirit of God who indwells us can reproduce that sort of a life in us.

The Christian life is a supernatural life. That’s why the Spirit of God indwells you. Oh, listen, Christian friend, today, why don’t you and I just turn our life over to God and let Him run it?

It would be very interesting for me and possibly for you if we were to take up each one of these vir­tues. Again let me say that they cannot be imitated. The flesh can’t do this. God has to do it. A great deal of our problems, divisions, strife one with the other is because of these very simple things. Look at them. We are to walk with all lowliness and meekness. Je­sus said, “Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart.” The only place you’ll ever find this is in Chr­ist and in the one who walks with Christ.

As I look over my past experience with God’s people through these many years, certain ones stand out as giants for God. These were not neces­sarily preachers and pastors, to be frank with you. Some of the men who stand out in my expe­rience, in my thinking, were great men, big men, mighty men, men of authority and yet they mani­fested a lowliness and a meekness that just as­tounded me. You see, there’s only one place to learn this; it is at the feet of Jesus.

The only time He ever said to His disciples, “Learn of Me,”—he never said, “Learn of Me to be great.” He never said, “Learn of Me to be mighty and powerful and brilliant.” What did He say?—“Learn of Me to be meek.” I tell you, the fruit of the Spirit is meekness as Galatians 5:23 says, “And with longsuf­fering,” not shortsuffering.

You know, many of us read that verse in Corin­thians 13, “Love suffereth long”—and then we get angry. No, love suffereth long and is still kind, long-suffering, forbearing one another in love. Not for­bearing one another with a critical spirit; not forbear­ing one another and saying, “Well, I’ll forgive you this time. I’ll put up with you. I have to put up with you because you’re a Christian.”

No, no. There’s no joy in that. Forbearing one another in love and endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, these bring joy. You remember in Romans 12:18 the Apostle Paul speaks of the fact, “As much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.”

But how often we’ll say, “Oh, well, I can’t have fellowship with him. He doesn’t believe just the way I believe.” And so the result is we become little pockets of believers. Here’s a little pocket of Baptist believers; there’s a little pocket of Me­thodist believers; over there is a little pocket of independent believers. We’re all in little pockets. We have fellowship with those who believe just as we believe and who belong to the same organiza­tion we do. But, oh, how we miss the riches of His grace. How we have missed the riches of fellow­ship.

I remember one time when a young fellow com­ing to Multnomah School of the Bible said to me, “You know, Mr. Mitchell, I didn’t know that there were Christians outside of our church. And here I came to Multnomah over the protest of our people, and I find you folk love the Savior just as much as we do.”

You know, this boy had been robbed of some­thing. Now I believe we ought to be sticklers for doctrine. I’m not opposed to that. I’m a stickler for doctrine myself. But, when it comes to the question of the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, God grant we’ll endeavor to keep that uni­ty.

Now I know there are those who say, “There’s only one church and that’s our church.” And they talk about their own individual local church, saying, “We are the church.”

May I suggest to you, my friends, the Bible dec­lares that every real believer in Christ is a member of the church, the body of Christ. The believers in Rome? They were Christians. The next book is the Corinthian church, carnal, worldly, full of frailty and weakness and failure; but he called them the temples of the Spirit of God. They belonged to the church of Christ. In fact, it was to the Corinthian church he gave a great deal of instruction about the church in chapters 12 through 14.

And then you have the Galatian church. Now the Galatian church was full of legalism, yet those people were the church of Christ. And then you come to the Ephesian church, and those folks had lost their first love; but they were the church of Chr­ist. Then you come to the Philippian church, the church in suffering, and they were the church of Chr­ist. And you take the Colossian church; and there you have a lot of false philosophy and agnosticism. And Paul has to warn them about these various false asceticisms and false mysticisms and formalism and legality, but they were the church of Christ.

And then when you come to the Thessalonian church, in the first book of Thessalonians, you have where they were waiting for His Son from heaven. They had turned to God from idols; but they had some problems and they were to walk worthy of their vocation. They were to be holy be­fore God, and they were to be loving before the brethren. They were to be honest to those that were outside. They were the church of Christ.

Likewise in 2 Thessalonians, and one could go on through the churches. Take the 2nd and 3rd chap­ters of Revelation. You’ve got the church at Ephesus, at Smyrna, at Pergamos, Thyatira, at Sardis, at Phila­delphia, at Laodicea, and He calls them the churches. So when you say that your church is the only church, the only true church, you’d better take that with a big question mark. Now it may be that I don’t agree with every believer. I may not have fellowship with every believer, but I should because we are all believers in Christ.

Verses 4-6

Now the basis for our walking in the unity of the Spirit is because of our unity in position, which you have in the next two or three verses.

Ephesians 4:4. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;

Ephesians 4:5. One Lord, one faith, one baptism,

Ephesians 4:6. One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

Now here He is talking about the foundations for such a unity in the Spirit. And mark you, He’s talking about all His people; He’s talking about every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let’s look at the basis for our walk in the unity of the Spirit. There is one body; that’s the church of Jesus Christ of which Paul has been speaking in chapters 1 and 3 of Ephesians, the one body, made up of all believers in Christ, one church. And there is one Spirit, and I believe he is speaking here of the Holy Spirit who unifies all believers in Christ.

You remember, we’ve been joined together by the Spirit of God in Christ. Our bodies have become the sanctuaries of the Holy Spirit, as you have in 1 Corinthians 6:19. And then there’s one hope of our calling as you find in Romans 8:29. And what is that? That God is determined that we shall be con­formed to the image of His Son. We have one hope; that’s the coming of our Savior. Paul could say to Timothy, Christ Jesus, our hope. Then there’s one Lord; and in this unity we recognize that we have one Lord Jesus Christ. He’s Lord of lords and King of kings. There is only one Lord over all believers. And there’s one faith.

You remember in Jude, we’re informed, we’re exhorted in verse 3, “To contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” There’s one faith, one body of truth which has to do with the deity of our Savior, His sinless life, His redemptive work at the cross for men and women, His physical resurrection from the grave, His exaltation to God’s right hand to be a Prince and a Savior. The book of Hebrews says He is Lord over all, having all authority as our High Priest.

And so one goes on. There’s one faith and there’s one baptism. Oh-oh, now we’re coming to something. One baptism—which one do you say it is?

You see, the New Testament deals with three baptisms. Did you know that?

Our Savior spoke to the disciples on the baptism of suffering. You remember one day the mother of James and John asked the Lord that her sons should be one on His right hand and one on His left hand when He came into His kingdom.

And the Lord says, “I can’t do that. That’s in the hands of my Father.” And then He made this statement, “Are you willing to be baptized with the baptism that I shall be baptize with?”

And they said, “We are able.”

He said, “You will do so.” This is the baptism He’s talking about—His death, the baptism of suffer­ing.

And then there is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and this is that which joins us together in the body of Christ. For example, in 1 Corinthians 12:13, Paul says we have all been baptized by one Spirit into one body and have all been made to drink of that self­same Spirit.

John the Baptist said, “I indeed baptize you with water; but He that cometh after me is preferred be­fore me, and He shall baptize you with the Holy Spi­rit and with fire.” In Matthew 3:1-17, and Mark 1:1-45, Luke 3:1-38, John 1:1-51, Acts 1:1-26; Acts 11:1-30, 1 Corinthians 12:13, all these mentions have to do with the baptism of the Spirit.

And then there is the baptism by water, and John baptized them by water. The disciples bap­tized by water. In the book of Acts converts were baptized in water. And this is what man does. Man cannot baptize anybody by the Spirit; this is what God does. But man baptizes by water. So you have here, there is one baptism and which one is it?

Paul is talking about the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. We’re to walk, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit. And I, personally, believe that he is dealing here with the oneness of believers. We’re to endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit be­cause there is one baptism; and that, of course, must be the baptism of the Spirit who unites all believers into one body.

This is the theme; this is what He’s talking about. Paul is not talking about water baptism. He’s talking to Christians who’ve been knitted together by the Spirit of God into one body called the church, and this is what he’s dealing with. There’s one Lord, one faith, one baptism and there’s one God and Fa­ther of all, who is above all and through all and in you all.

In other words, there is just one family. Re­member, you have this is in Galatians 3:26— talking to Christians. We’re “all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” I know some take that verse and say, “Everybody on the earth is a Christian. We’re all children of God because the Bible says so.”

Well now, what the Bible really says is we’re all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. Remem­ber John 1:12, “To as many as received Him, to them He gives power (the right) to become the children of God.” Or Romans 8:14 says, “As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” So you have here the basis for our walk. There must be the unity of the Spirit among God’s people.

God wants us to be eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace because we’re all one in Christ. So we have in Ephesians 4:1-3, how we are to walk, and Ephesians 4:4-6, the basis for such a walk is because of our unity and position in Christ.

The Lord grant you today to see to it that you walk in the unity of the Spirit. I tell you, it’s a wonderful thing to be eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Verses 7-16

Now the result of this walk in verses 7 to 16 will be unity in service.

Ephesians 4:7. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

Ephesians 4:8. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.

And then in verse 11,

Ephesians 4:11. And He gave some (to be) apostles; and some, prophets; and some evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.

What for?

Ephesians 4:12. For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

Ephesians 4:13. Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Allow me to stop again right here. First of all, in verse 7 every believer is gifted for a purpose. “Unto every one of us (every Christian) is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Chr­ist.” God has given gifts unto men.

Now, there is a certain sense, and I think I ought to say this, in which gifted men have been given for the encouragement of the church in its unity of Spirit and its unity of faith. And God has given to us gifted men for the perfecting of the saints for the work of ministering, for the edifying of the body of Christ so that we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, a mature man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

My, what verses! Do you ever stop to think why God has given to the church pastors and evangelists and teachers? For the perfecting of the saints and for the work of ministering. I want to tell you very frankly and I speak from expe­rience that it’s much easier to run a machine shop, filled with men, than it is to be the pastor of a church where everybody sits down and expects their man to do the whole business.

And I want to say one of the reasons why the church of Christ doesn’t grow more than it does is because the people in the pews do not do their job. I want to tell you, my friends, that, if you claim to be a Christian, you’ve got a special place in the body of Christ; and, when you do not func­tion, you hinder the edification of the body.

And our job as pastors and teachers is to prepare you, to fit you, for the work of the ministry—that is, to edify you and to build you up in the faith and doc­trines of the church of Christ. Then you’ll be able to minister to other Christians and to the unsaved and you will know what the gospel is and how you can reach them.

On the other hand, we must not forget that every believer in Christ is gifted for some purpose in the building up and the increasing of the body of Christ.

You know, I have been thinking more and more of late that there are no two of us alike. We all have different gifts, different positions in the body of Christ, different personalities; and the Lord loves to have it that way. He doesn’t make us all wholesale out of the same cloth. He made us with entirely different personalities because He wants us to glorify Him through eternity. I can’t fathom this. I can’t understand to the full why He made me the way He did—but He did. He has given me a personality. He’s made me different from you, and He’s made you different from me.

And so He puts us in the body of Christ to do a particular job for the increase of the body, for the edifying of the body, for the glorifying of God through eternity.

Do you ever stop to think of it? You—you— believer in Christ Jesus, child of God—you are a special object of His love and grace. He puts you in Christ to do a particular job, and He’s gifted you to do it. And all the tests and trials of life are a part of God’s purpose to fit you to do that job. So don’t murmur. Don’t balk. Just rejoice in the Lord.

Now, it’s so easy for us to dodge our responsi­bility. I know. I was a tool and die maker in a busi­ness when the Lord saved me. I was in my early 20s when the Lord got a hold of me and saved me. And then about a year after I was saved, he put upon my heart a yearning to go out and witness for Him on the prairies of Canada—Saskatchewan, to be exact. I was in Calgary, Alberta, at the time; and I’d received an invitation to go down and hold some meetings. But I didn’t know a thing about preaching or any­thing. I balked; I just bucked like a bucking mule.

I told the Lord—I had all kinds of excuses. No reasons. Just excuses. You have no reasons, ei­ther, just excuses. I said, “Lord, I stutter and I can’t preach, so it’s no use asking me to preach because I stutter. And, anyhow, what can I say, I don’t know anything.”

Oh, I had all kinds of excuses and I thought they were very logical excuses. I wanted to be an evangel­ist, you know. That’s what. Everybody loves an evangelist. You see, evangelists don’t step on toes as preachers do. But you know how the Lord worked it out? For many years I have had the joy of leading a great many people to the Lord in preaching the gos­pel all over the prairies. And since then I’ve had a lot of people who have come to know the Savior. But I do not have what you would call the gift of an evan­gelist. All men are to do that. We’re to do the work of an evangelist, but we may not have the evangelis­tic gift.

And the Lord slowly drove me to the place of teaching the Word, of expounding the scriptures, which I love to do, by the way. I love to preach the gospel; and I love to lead souls to Christ. But God has given me a special place in the body of Christ to impart the truth as I see it.

Now that doesn’t mean I bring it out of the air. No. It means I’ve got to work. It’s there for me. You see, the jewels are there; the gold is there; the silver is there, but they’ve got to be mined. The servant of God must study, study, study.

Listen, friend, please, don’t rob yourself of the joy of growth. I know of nothing that makes you grow in the things of Christ, in the knowledge of Christ, than to take a Sunday school class. It makes you get down into your Bible. And do use your helps, commentaries and study books. Men of God have poured a lifetime of study into their books. Use them. You’ll grow so much faster. But you must also read and reread your Bible. Get to know the text; get into the Bible, and say, “Lord, I’ve got these boys. I’ve got these little girls in my class. Please give me something whereby I can impart the truth to their lit­tle minds and come right down to where they live so I might give to them the glories and the beauties of our Savior.”

Oh, listen, Christian friend, I’m pleading with you—we’re living in the last days. There’s not much time for us to bring the gospel to our gener­ation. Do you know that there are tens of thou­sands of boys and girls who have never heard the real story of our wonderful Savior? Why don’t you start a class in your neighborhood. Start a class in your home. Take a Sunday school class. Take a young people’s meeting. Do something! Live for Christ before your children. Live for Christ in your home. Live for Christ among your neighbors. Do nothing that would dishonor Chr­ist. Live to the praise of the glory of His grace.

Now this is what God wants of every real be­liever in Christ.

You say, “Well, I haven’t any gifts.”

It may be your gift is administration. It may be your gift is just living a sweet, consistent Christian life. That’ll do more to bring people to Christ than all the preachers in the world. Listen, allow me to plead with you. You belong to the Savior. You are a spe­cial object of Christ’s love, and the Spirit of God who indwells you has all the gifts necessary to do the job that has to be done. It has pleased God to pick you up and redeem you and use you.

Won’t you just yield yourself and then let God do the rest?

You say, “Well, if I yield myself to God, He’ll send me overseas or He’ll tell me to do something I don’t want to do.”

How do you know that? You won’t know what He wants you to do until you yield yourself to Him. Then He’ll reveal Himself. Then He’ll show you His purpose. Then He’ll give you His will for your life. But He’s not going to do this un­til you put yourself in His hands.

And I’m pleading with you as a Christian to re­deem the time, to buy up the opportunity of knowing the Word of God, to buy up the opportunity of know­ing your Savior, to buy up the opportunity of wit­nessing for Him, to buy up the opportunity of going on with God. Be a real channel of blessing for God—and—start today!

Have you read the Word of God today? Go ahead, open it and read it. I don’t care where you read; read it and reread it. Some way get the Word of God into your mind; and, as you go on doing your job at the office or the shop or at home, while you’re washing dishes or wherever you are, my friend, you can do two things. You can meditate on the Word of God and be in touch with the Spirit, and you can sing. Listen, mother, while you’re washing your dishes day by day, why don’t you lift your heart up in song as you wash. Sing while you’re working.

If one wants to follow through on this ques­tion of the gifts, I would suggest you read Romans 12:3-8, and 1 Peter 4:10-11, and 1 Corinthians chapters 12, 13, and 14. Each one of us must func­tion in the church, the body of Christ. And might I suggest in this same connection that God is so­vereign in our position in the body of Christ. God is sovereign in the bestowal of gifts. All gifts are given for the edification of His people. God is so­vereign in this. I can’t tell God what gift I want. It’s true, we are exhorted in 1 Corinthians 14:1-40 to desire the best gifts. But, after all, “The Spirit gives to each one severally, as He wills,” not as we will.

Verses 8-11

Now in verses 8 to 11 in Ephesians chapter 4, Ephesians 4:8-11 we have the source of the gift. And these are gifts to the church. Will you please notice this, the source of the gifts is from a risen Christ. I’m going to read these verses, if I may.

Ephesians 4:8. Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.

Ephesians 4:9. (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?

Ephesians 4:10. He that descended is the same also that as­cended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)

Ephesians 4:11. And he gave some (to be) apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.

The source of the gifts in verses 8 to 11 is the risen Christ. When He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. And then Paul goes on in verses 9 and 10 to tell who it is. He was the One who first descended to the lower parts of the earth and then ascended up far above all the heavens that He might fill all things. And, as the risen Christ, He gave to the church certain gifts. When you come to Romans 12:1-21 and 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; 1 Corinthians 14:1-40, you’ll notice these are gifts to the church. They go to each individual being gifted. But in this passage Paul is dealing especial­ly with gifted men who do a specific job in the church of Christ.

Now some men are very, very gifted in giving out the gospel. They are gifted in leading people to Christ, and that’s a God-given gift. Other men in the ministry are teachers. It’s true that some­times they may do the work of an evangelist in preaching the gospel, but their main ministry is teaching. And then I have some friends who are good pastors, but they’re not good preachers.

They are wonderful pastors. They’ve got a heart of compassion, just like a nurse cherishing her children as 1 Thessalonians 2:7 says. They care for you, weeping over you night and day with tears because of their heart for God’s people.

And may I say, one of the greatest needs in our churches is for real pastors. The prerequisite for a shepherd is whole-hearted devotion to the person of Christ because, if he is not wholeheartedly devoted to the person of Christ, he will crack under the load. What keeps him up is his love for the Savior. If he is a real pastor, he will bear burdens that will crush him sometimes. If it were not for their love for the Sa­vior, these dear men couldn’t carry on. I speak to you people who belong to churches. Consider your pas­tor. He carries burdens of which you know nothing.

It’s a tremendous job to be a pastor. It takes compassion and tenderness. Don’t expect too much from your pastor. He doesn’t have all the gifts.

Someone has well said, that the age, the gospel age, the church age, started with apostles and proph­ets and the age is going to end with pastors and teachers. Today there are not many great evangelists, there are not many great teachers, and there are not many great pastors.

I think we Christians ought to ask the Lord to raise up men who would be expositors of the Word of God, who will have compassion and tenderness for the people of God. And sometimes I think we don’t have them because the people of God do not pray for them. We expect too much from those whom God has set over us. And I just plead with you today to pray much for your pastor, for your teacher, for your evangelist, for your workers that God may be pleased to use them to the praise of the glory of His grace. And you have a responsibility to pray for them and encourage them in the gospel ministry.

And again may I urge upon you, dear people who belong to churches, do not expect your pas­tor to have all the gifts of the Spirit. He may be a good gospel preacher, may be a teacher, may be a pastor, may be an administrator, but don’t expect him to have everything.

I know you want a man who’s a good pulpiteer. He’s got to be a good mixer and get along well with people. He’s got to have brains so he can handle all the counseling he has to do. He’s got to have the compassion and tenderness of the apostles in hospital visits for people in sorrow. You expect him to be able to do the whole business, but I repeat what I said earlier that God has not given to any one man all of the gifts. But these are gifted men, given to the church to do specific tasks.

Perhaps you can do what he cannot do. You might do his hospital visitation or you might be the evangelist or assist in church administration. Be a joint that supplies what is needed.

Verse 13

Let me just stop here a minute.

Ephesians 4:13. Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man (that is, unto a full-grown man), unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Remember Paul prayed in chapter three that we might be filled unto all the fullness of God. The yearning of the Apostle’s heart and I believe the yearning of Christ’s heart is that every believ­er should be filled unto all the fullness of God. We are to grow in the knowledge of Christ and be­come one in truth, one in belief, one in edifying each other till we come to the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man—unto the measure of the stature of Christ. In other words, we are to be no longer babes in Christ, but to be men and women who will be able to give a reason for the hope within them.

Now may the Lord take these few words and burn them into your heart, for God’s great desire is that His people should be established in the faith and built up and edified.

Verses 14-15

And now we come down to verses 14 and 15.

Ephesians 4:14. That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

Ephesians 4:15. But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.

Here He guards us against false teachers. He guards us against being tossed about in verse 14. God has made us responsible to get into the Word of God. He’s made the preachers and teachers and evangelists all responsible to train the people of God for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, so that when these false teachers come along they will not deceive the people of God and they will not deceive your young people.

Ephesians 4:16

Now what is the purpose of the gifts in verses 12 to 16? The purpose of the gifts is for the in­crease and edification of the body.

Ephesians 4:12. For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

Ephesians 4:13. Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:

Ephesians 4:14. That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

Ephesians 4:15. But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

Ephesians 4:16. From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, accord­ing to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

What’s he talking about? There are two things that we as Christians must do—recognize that every Christian is in the one body of Christ ( the unity of the faith) and that every believer is to grow up in Him (in the knowledge of the Son of God).

You are a joint in the body of Christ which is “fitly joined together. When a joint does not function, it affects the whole body. For example, if the joint in my knee didn’t do its job of lubricating the leg, what would happen? I’d have a stiff leg and that would affect the whole body. I wouldn’t be able to run. It would affect my walking.

Why doesn’t a church grow as it ought to grow? Because we don’t function. You see, my Christian friend, you have a particular place in the body of Christ. I do not know what place God has given to you, but I know you’ve got a twofold job in the six­teenth verse. One is for the increase of the body; that is, by witnessing you bring people to Christ, soul-winning. And the second thing is to edify those who are believers; that is, you build them up in Christ. Someone has well said, allow me to quote this, “The measure of our yieldedness is the measure of our usefulness to and for God.”

Am I talking to you? You’ve been a Christian for I don’t know how many years and you haven’t functioned. You’ve done nothing. You haven’t prayed very much. You’ve criticized a lot. You’ve turned down opportunities of teaching in Sunday school. You’ve turned down opportunities of helping someone in need. You’ve turned down opportunities of bringing peace to a troubled heart or comfort to a sorrowful soul. You’ve missed the opportunities of doing things, little things, just little everyday things.

Can’t you and I live for God today?

You know, there are a lot of lonely people in the world today. There are a lot of discouraged people.

There are a lot of Christians who need a little encou­ragement. And, oh, just say a kind little word; do a little thing for them here and there; go out of your way to do something. Can’t we as members of the body of Christ today edify each other? And then by our kindness, by our lives, by our witness bring people to Christ and bear testimony for Him. You see, there are some people you can reach that I can’t reach. And it may be, I am sure, there are some people that I can reach that you can’t reach.

Bring to them something of the sweetness of Christ. That’s just what they need.

I challenge you today to do this, Christian friends. Look at verse 16 again. You might only be a joint. You might be the smallest part of the body, but you’ve got a special place to function. And today you lift up your heart to the Lord, walk in fellowship with Him, and in some way be used by Him in reach­ing somebody else for the Savior. Will you do that today? It’s a wonderful thing to know that we have the Spirit of God to lead us and to guide us into all truth.

Ephesians 4:17-32

And now we come to the second aspect of the walk of a Christian. We are to walk in the light of a new creation and this runs from verse 17 down through verse 32. For example, you take in verse 17,

Ephesians 4:17. This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity

of their mind,

Ephesians 4:18. Having the understanding darkened, being alie­nated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

Ephesians 4:19. Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

Ephesians 4:20. But ye have not so learned Christ.

In other words, we are to walk as new men and new women in Christ. And, if a Christian is a new man, then he must have a new walk, having a new life and being related to God. God expects him to walk differently from the man of the world. Indeed we are to show forth to the world the Savior to whom we have been joined.

Verses 17-20

Now in verses 17 to 20 we have the seven ways the unsaved walk.

Ephesians 4:17. This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,

Ephesians 4:18. Having the understanding darkened, being alie­nated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

Ephesians 4:19. Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

Ephesians 4:20. But ye (you Christians) have not so learned Christ.

Now we notice first of all in verses 17 and 18 they walk in the vanity of their mind. They have their understanding darkened. One is very much tempted to go into the book of Romans chapter 1 and 1 Corinthians chapter 1 where this is taken up a little more in detail. But here he’s saying that the reasoning faculty, the intellect of the unsaved man or woman, is blind to spiritual realities.

You see God doesn’t reveal His wonderful truth to closed minds. I believe that wherever there is a heart that yearns to know the Lord of Glory, God will reveal Himself to that heart. But the trouble is men want their own religion. They want their own way. They don’t want to give God the right to say how He can give eternal life to man. They want it on their own terms. And be­cause they want it on their own terms, they don’t get it. They just don’t get it.

Now the unsaved man has not life. He’s sepa­rated from the life of God, in verse 18, because of the ignorance that is in him, because of the blind­ness of his heart. In other words, as Hebrews chapter 3 and 4 says, “Unbelief that is persisted in produces hardness.”

Ephesians 4:17. This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their minds;

Ephesians 4:18. Having the understanding darkened, being alie­nated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

Ephesians 4:19. Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

Ephesians 4:20. But ye (you Christians) have not so learned Christ.

Verse 19

Now, in verse 19 we have a terrible verse. And I find here insolent conduct, lust that knows no restraint, “to work all uncleanness with greedi­ness.” It’s a terrible verse, speaking of the un­saved man and woman; and this, of course, is the general picture of the unregenerate world.

Now, you read the first chapter of Romans from Romans 1:19-32. I’ll not go into it except to point out that God gave men over to uncleanness and vile affections and to a reprobate mind.

You say, “Well, that’s paganism.”

I might say, my friend, this is more or less the universal character of man throughout the whole world. One thinks of that verse in Ephesians chapter 2, where Paul says, “You hath he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins; where in time past ye walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the child­ren of disobedience: Among whom also we all had out manner of life in the lusts of the flesh and the lusts of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, like the rest.” In Galatians chapter 5 verse 19-21 I read, “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these” (and he gives you quite a list of this terrible, outrageous conduct of the man).

You see, the attitude is, “I am everything. I live for myself. And God is nothing.” No wonder God demands a new creation! God can’t touch up this old thing. It’s so bad. It’s so corrupt. It’s so rotten that God can’t patch it up anymore. God demands a new creation.

Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Except a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). “Except a man be born of water and of the Spi­rit, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). “If any man be in Christ, he’s a new creation” (2Co­ 5:17). It’s a wonderful thing to know that God is doing as He is bringing into being a new race of people.

And as I read these Ephesians 4:17-19, I can understand a little wee bit. God’s got to do this. God’s got to do this. The patching days of the old creation are over. What can you do with it? God’s demands to make something entirely new. The old can be gilded over and powdered over and painted over. But, my friends, it’s still the old thing. You can fix the outside up and you look like a wonderful per­son. But the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked and who can know it (Jere­miah 17:9). But the thoughts and imaginations of the heart of man are evil continually (Genesis 6:5). And man today has given himself over to outrageous con­duct, to a lust that knows no restraint, to uncleanness with greediness. God is entirely out of the picture.

Verse 20

Now verse 20, “But you have not so learned Christ.” You who have taken Christ as your own personal Savior, this hasn’t a thing to do with your life. God forbid, and I say this solemnly, God forbid that any man who names the name of Chr­ist should be living in verses 17, 18, or 19 of Ephesians chapter 4. I say God forbid. These are the terrible things. And yet, I’m sorry to say that there are those who profess the name of Christ whose intellect has been blinded by the things of the world. They are separated from fellowship with God. They are ignorant of the ways of God, and they’re given over sometimes to outrageous conduct.

God forbid that you and I should make self eve­rything, and God nothing. I say no wonder God de­mands a new creation. This new life in Christ brings a new experience. We are transformed, not reformed. We’re not being reformed. We’re not reformers, but transformers!

And this works from the inside out. Remem­ber in the book of Romans chapter 12 where Paul says, in verse 2, “And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed, transfigured, by the renewing of your minds.” We have a new life which brings to us a new experience. It’s not so much to learn about Christ, but to know Christ Himself as the Apostle Paul could say in Philip­pians chapter 3, “I count all things but loss, just to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.” Or in Philippians 1:20-21 —Whether by life or by death, that Christ may be magnified in my body. For me to life is Christ, and to die is to be with Christ.

You see these things that characterize the un­saved should never characterize you and me.

You say, “Mr. Mitchell, I agree with you, but you know I have a terrible time. I’m weak. I’m so weak and these things appeal to me so much.”

I know. But there’s one person who really un­derstands you and is praying for you, and that is Je­sus Christ. You remember Hebrews 7:25? “Where­fore he is able also to save perfectly all those who come unto God by Him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” Do you remember Hebrews 2:18? He’s touched and He’s able to succor them that are tempted.

And Hebrews 4:15. He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. He’s able to succor. He’s able to sympathize, and He’s able to keep you. Even though you may have some great temptations, physical, lustful temptations of the flesh, remember you belong to Him and you’re a child of God. He’s given you His Word. And He’s given you His Spirit so that you’ll not walk like the unsaved man on the street, but you will walk even as ye have received Christ—by faith. Again I suggest Colossians 2:6, “As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him.”

And I want to tell you it’s a wonderful thing that you and I today can live such lives that glori­fy God. And by the way don’t worry about to­morrow, live for God today. You know the Lord might come tonight. Live for Him today. Live in the fellowship of this wonderful Savior today.

And remember He knows all about you. And you remember, too, He that hath begun a good work in you will perfect it unto the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6) Now you walk with Him just for today, just for these next hours. Give yourself over to Him and let Him work out and live out His life through you.

Verses 20-24

Now, in verses 20-24, we have the next thing in the passage. He talks about a new man in verse 21.

Ephesians 4:20. But ye have not so learned Christ;

Ephesians 4:21. If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus.

Ephesians 4:22. That ye put off concerning the former conversa­tion (manner of life) the old man which is corrupt accord­ing to the deceitful lusts;

Ephesians 4:23. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

Ephesians 4:24. And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

You know, here we have a new life which is absolutely divorced from the old life. We are no longer related to the old Adam. We’re related to Christ, the last Adam. The old Adam and the new Adam do not mix. Remember Paul said in Gala­tians chapter 6 verses 14 and 15, “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.” We’re a new creature, for he goes on to say, “Being a Jew or be a Gentile profits nothing, but a new creation.” And that’s what Peter means in 1 Peter chapter 2 where we are lively stones in the building to show forth the virtues of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light: (1 Peter 2:5 a and 9b.) “And if any man be in Christ, he is a new crea­ture” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

I say, we’re no longer related to the old. We be­long to Christ. Ours is a new life that is absolutely divorced from the old. And again I’m repeating some of these things. I want you to get into this. The old and the new do not mix. Hence, it calls for some ac­tion. And verse 22, “That ye put off concerning your former manner of life the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts:”

Now, let’s see what we’re going to do here. We have to put off the old man with his deeds. All that we were in Adam talks about the old. In fact, in Romans chapter 6, the 6th verse says that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be rendered inactive. The death of Jesus Christ severed all relationships to the old nature. The life of the old was evidenced by corruption and by deceitful lusts as you have it in verse 22. We’ve put off the old man which is corrupt ac­cording to the deceitful lusts, the deceitful tyran­nies of the old.

You see, deceit tyrannizes the old life. Truth guides and governs the new life. And in verse 24 we had to put on something. It’s just like taking a coat off. We put off the old man with his deeds. We put off all that we were in Adam. All the past is put off. And the death of Christ has severed the relationship with the old life of sin, the old life of tyranny, the old life of bondage, the old life of darkness. The old life was evi­denced, as I said, by corruption and by deceitful lusts.

Verse 24

But now, in Ephesians 4:24, we are to do something else, and I say this calls for the will to put on the new man. That is, if any man be in Christ he is a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17) We’ve put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Now, the old life was evidenced by corruption and sinful lusts. The new man is evi­denced by righteousness and holiness. The old man was corrupt; the new man is righteous.

How then shall we walk? I wish in some way I could make this very clear to you. Before we ac­cepted the Savior, our life was evidenced by sinful acts, by bad habits, by corrupt practices, by im­morality of one kind or another. Of course, many of us would not, and I include you and me in all the rest of us, we wouldn’t go out into the world in its unbroken reverie and drunkenness and sin, but we were in sin just the same. It may have had a different manifestation like envy and strife or private secret sins. Who knows? Who knows? God knew. God knew!

But now we’ve accepted the Savior. We’ve put on the new man, and the new life is evidenced by righteousness and holiness. And if this is so, we as Christians ought to walk in the new life.

Righteousness and holiness are to characterize our lives. We should be able to do right in any given cir­cumstance. We should be able always to do the right thing. Righteousness is evident by doing the right thing, irrespective of circumstances. You know, many of us excuse ourselves by saying, “Well, I couldn’t do a thing about it. My circumstances hindered me.”

May I remind you of the first chapter of the book of Daniel where Daniel and his friends, these Jewish young men, were to eat what was set before them so that they would appear very well fed as they stood before the king. But we read that Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king’s meat.

He could have said, “Why I can’t help it. I’m the victim of circumstances. Why if I don’t eat this meat, I’ll lose my head.”

How often we excuse our failures because of circumstances.

We say, “Well, what could I do? If I had done what I should have done, I would be standing out from the rest like a sore thumb.”

Well, you’d better stand out like a sore thumb to do the right thing. You see what God wants us to do is to live so pleasing to Him that our lives will ma­nifest something of the righteousness of Christ.

You say, “Mr. Mitchell, that’s an impossible thing. My circumstances, where I work, and where I live, would never, never in the wide world encourage me to live right. I can’t do it under these circums­tances.”

Listen. I don’t know what your circumstances are, but I do know that God has made a provision whereby you can live and walk as a child of God in righteousness and true holiness. Now, don’t be scared of that word “holy.” This word oftentimes has been given the wrong connotation. Sometimes people talk about holiness and it’s nothing to us but a “don’t do this, don’t do that and don’t do the other thing.” That isn’t being holy. Holiness is a matter of character. Holiness is a matter of walk and the fruitage of a walk with God, your fellow­ship with God.

And if I am a child of God, then this is how I should walk. I should not walk in the lusts and the desires of the flesh, but I should walk after the new man in righteousness and true holiness. The old man was born in sin; the new man is born in righteous­ness. Hence, let us manifest this.

And again I say, will you not live for Him to­day? Ask the Savior to live out His life through you, through me, just for today. Just for today let’s live unto His praise, unto His glory. And trust Him for tomorrow.

And then in chapter four through chapter 6:9, we have the walk of the Christian, our walk in Christ. And in the first sixteen verses there is given to us, “We are to walk in the unity of the Spirit in the bond of truth.” And the fruitage of that walk and the basis for such a walk we followed through in those first sixteen verses.

And now, let me give a short review of what we have just covered. It is crucial.

In dealing with the new man we are to put off the old man and put on the new man. This calls for action. This calls for the will. The old man is evidenced by corruption and deceitful lusts. We have that in verse 22—that ye put off concerning the for­mer manner of life, the old man. That is, when you speak of the old man, it’s all that we had in Adam. We were born in sin; we have a sinful nature; we have lusts of the mind and lusts of the flesh and so on. And we find that the old man is absolutely cor­rupt according to the deceitful lusts. We put on the new man in verse 24, and the new man is evidenced by righteousness and true holiness.

Remember the old man is corrupt, unrigh­teous, sinful. All that we have in the new man is righteousness. The first Adam brought sin and death and corruption into the human race. Chr­ist, the new man, the last Adam, brings life and forgiveness and joy and righteousness and holi­ness. And having accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, those of us who have done so, we are already translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God’s Son. No longer are we children of wrath, but children of God. No longer are we seen in Adam, but now we are seen in Chr­ist. No longer are we under the bondage and pe­nalty and power of sin, but now we are in the Sa­vior who is righteous and true.

So we are to put off the old and put on the new man. That’s verse 24. We’re created in righteousness and true holiness. And how should I walk? Under any circumstances, I’m to walk in fellowship with God.

Now, I am not saying that we will not be tested and tried. I’m not saying we won’t fail. But what I’m saying is that the pattern of our life ought to be the re­velation of the Son of God in His character, in His love, in His grace, in His compassion for men. I be­lieve that, and I say this very candidly, what the world needs is a revelation of the Son of God in His people. If I have declared that I am a Christian, that I’m joined to Christ, that He dwells in me and I’m in Him, then there ought to be manifested something of the graces of Christ in my life. There ought to be something of the character of Christ, of the love of Christ.

We need to learn to love each other, to manifest patience and understanding with each other. We want the other man to live and to walk the way we think he ought to live and walk. And apparently, we don’t give God the opportunity of doing something with other Christians. We remember what they did ten to fifteen years ago. We remember what they did two years ago or last year. We fail to realize that God could do a work in their hearts. So let’s be very cha­ritable and understanding and gracious to other Christians even in their failures, that we might un­derstand them, that we might be able to help them, that we might exalt the Savior.

So in verse 24 we’re told to put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Verses 25-29

Now, in verses 25-29, he talks about what we should stop doing as new men in Christ. This is the walk of the Christian. How should I walk?

Ephesians 4:25. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.

Ephesians 4:26. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:

Ephesians 4:27. Neither give place to the devil.

Ephesians 4:28. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.

Ephesians 4:29. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

Now you notice these wonderful words. These are the things we are to stop doing. For example, take verse 25. Because we belong to each other, let’s put away lying. Let’s put away deceit. We are created in righteousness and true holiness, and lying and half-truths have no place in a be­liever’s life.

You see, it’s so easy to say the wrong thing. But our pride holds us back from stopping and saying, “Excuse me, I didn’t mean to say that. I don’t know why I said that.” No, sir, we won’t bring it back so we allow it to go on; and the other party passes it on to somebody else with a little change and first thing you know, it comes back to you entirely different from what you said.

And you say, “Well, I would never have be­lieved that.” Yet, you were the one who started the ball rolling. Let’s be righteous. Let us be holy in our walk.

Lie not one to the other, seeing you’ve put off the old man with his deeds. Wherefore put away lying; speak truth to your neighbor. Why? Because we’re members one of another. We belong to each other. And you know it is so easy, so easy to deceive. May the Lord grant to you and to me the joy of liv­ing in fellowship with God. Only the Spirit of God can cause us to walk as we ought to walk.

Let us keep short accounts with God and short accounts with people. Let’s live today to magnify Him. Just for today, let’s live to magnify Him; and what joy and what peace He will put in our heart.

Verse 26

And then in verse 26,

Ephesians 4:26. Be ye angry and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:

Ephesians 4:27. Neither give place to the devil.

Now, here’s a strange statement. What does he mean by “Be ye angry and sin not”? Isn’t it a sin to be angry? I think the Apostle Paul here had in mind, “Don’t lose control of yourself and don’t let your in­dignation against others continue until you sin.”

You remember in Matthew 23:1-39, where the Lord was indignant with the people of His day. Look at the language He used. “You generation of vipers! You whited sepulchers! You who rob widows hous­es!” These were scathing remarks. But He did this in righteousness. It was righteousness being indignant at the sinfulness and the deceit and the terribleness of the human heart. But Paul says here, “Be angry and sin not: Don’t allow your indignation to continue until you sin.” In other words, don’t lose control of yourself. The sin is in losing control of yourself.

And then he goes on to say, “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.” What did he mean by that?

Don’t bear a grudge. It’s not good for you and it’s not good for anybody else.

Quench all the sparks of anger. Be reconciled to your brother. Even go more than halfway. Go more than halfway. Don’t get the idea, “Well, nobody’s going to put anything over on me. I’m not going to be a doormat for anybody.” And the first thing you know, you’re not only angry, but you bear a grudge and sometimes you hold it for years. People say, “Well, brother, I’ll forgive you, but I’ll never forget what you’ve done.” Now, that’s not good. You know that. I’m glad the Lord doesn’t forgive like that.

We used to sing a little song one time,

"When God forgives He forgets,
no more He remembers our sins.

When God forgives He forgets."

Or you have it in Hebrews chapter 10, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more” (Hebrews 10:17). How happy I am that the Lord of glory, when He forgives you and me our sins, they’re gone forever. He will remember them no more.

You know I was preaching on that one time on “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” And I was just reveling in the fact that all our sins are gone and they’re gone forever. And after the meeting was over, a dear man said to me, “How can God forget our sins? I can remember what I did years ago. Thank God He’s forgiven me, but I can remem­ber them. And although I’ve been cleansed, I re­member them. How can God forget them?”

My friend, here again is the finite mind trying to fathom an infinite God. And when God says, “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more, forever,” I take God at His Word. I don’t know how He does it. But when you and I get to glory, there’ll never be the trace of any sin. Oh, what a wonderful salvation we have. What a wonderful Savior we have.

And then, “Give no place to the devil” in your life. Don’t give him an opportunity to deceive you. You see, when you bear a grudge, when you nurse your anger, you open the door for the devil to do something to you. Don’t give the devil any place in your life. Bury your grudge and lying. Losing control of yourself, nursing your anger along just opens the door for the devil to bring things into your life that will rob you of your joy and your peace, will rob you of your usefulness and will hinder the Spirit of God from doing what He wants to do in your life.

Let the past be past. Don’t bring it up. I know some families are continually in trouble because the husband or the wife is always bringing up something that was done so many years ago or some months ago. They keep bringing it up and that brings more trouble and you have another fight. They throw it up to each other and, the first thing you know, you’ve got another family row.

Why don’t they just put their thing under the blood of Christ? Why don’t they just talk to the Lord and confess it and ask the Lord to give them the grace to forget what has happened in the past. Let’s live that kind of a life where peace and joy and bless­ings can be ours. May God grant that you have day to day blessings and peace and reveling in the loveli­ness in our Savior.

Ephesians 4:25-29

Let me read it again.

Ephesians 4:25. Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.

Ephesians 4:26. Be ye angry and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:

Ephesians 4:27. Neither give place to the devil.

Ephesians 4:28. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.

Ephesians 4:29. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

“You mean to tell me that some of these Christians were stealing?”

Yes, I’m afraid that’s true. They were lying, get­ting angry; they were stealing.

“Why, I thought the New Testament Christians, the early Christians, were so wonderful.”

They were, but just like you and me they were still in bodies that were not yet redeemed; and they had the same problems that you and I have. The hu­man heart hasn’t changed any. Only God can change us; and it’s wonderful to know that we can obey the Word of God and not lie, not deceive, not get angry, not lose our temper, not bear a grudge, and not steal.

Of course, we’re not thieves and robbers. But we may steal time. I’m going to be blunt about this be­cause I’ve been working in machine shops a great deal. I worked in shipyards and railroad shops before the Lord picked me out. And I use that word correct­ly. The Lord picked me out to preach the Gospel. I used to be a machinist and a tool and die-maker. And I’ve met Christians who stole time from their boss. You know what I mean by that?

Never be lazy. Let’s never be lazy. We may not steal goods, but we certainly can steal time. “Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor.”

And, as you work for somebody, you be the best man, the best woman that boss has ev­er had. If you’re going to keep house for some­body, you keep it in a wonderful way. If you’re working in a shop or a store, you just keep at it. You be a testimony for the Lord. Remember that, will you? And then you’ll be able to give. You’ll have more to give to the Lord’s work and more to give to people who are in need. Remember.

Verse 29

And then he goes on in verse 29.

Ephesians 4:29. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers.

Let your speech be used for edification.

You know in Colossians chapter four, verse six, the Apostle Paul there says, “Let your speech be seasoned with salt.” I think sometimes he should have said, “Let your speech be seasoned with salt and not with pepper.”

You know there are some people that are kind of peppery. You know what I mean? Spit-fires. And sometimes the tongue will make a lot of trouble. I know you don’t mean it, but you watch what you have to say and how you say it. Let your speech be used for edification.

Oh, God grant that we Christians might watch what we say and how we say it so that instead of our bringing trouble into people’s lives, we might indeed bring joy and peace and blessing. So that when we speak, instead of our having a forked tongue like a serpent, we’ll have words that bring blessing and joy.

Remember in Romans chapter 3 we have, “The poison of asps is under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness” (Romans 3:13 b-14). Now, our having been saved, He’s put a new song in our mouths. We’ve got new words to use. And instead of being bitter and bringing trouble and heartache to people, God grant that we will speak the things that will bring praise to the Lord and joy to others. That’s what He’s talking about. These are practical things

So you reread verses 25-29 about the things that we should not do as Christians.

Verse 30

Now look at verse 30 for a few moments.

“And grieve not the Spirit of God whereby we are sealed until the day of redemption.” Now we mentioned in the very first chapter of Ephe­sians—allow me to repeat it again—where you have three times in the New Testament this ques­tion of our being sealed by the Spirit of God until the day of redemption. The other passages are Ephesians 1:13-14, that on believing we “were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,” and 2 Corinthians 1:22, “who hath also sealed us.”

And then will you notice this has to do with pre­servation. The moment a person accepts the Savior, the moment I have a real relationship to Christ, that very moment, I not only am redeemed as a child of God, but my body and your body become a sanctu­ary of the Holy Spirit. He comes to indwell us. And we’re baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ. And we’re born of the Spirit. These four things—to be sealed, to be baptized, to be indwelt, and to be born of the Spirit—are what God does.

Now I’m talking about those who really ac­cepted the Savior, who have put their trust in Je­sus Christ as their own personal Savior. They’ve found a real relationship with the Lord, a real transaction. As really, the best you knew how, you took Christ as your own personal Savior. That very moment, you were born of the Spirit, and that speaks of relationship. And then we were sealed by the Spirit and that speaks of preserva­tion. And then we were baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ, and that speaks of our union with Him.

And then we are indwelt by the Spirit of God. Remember Jesus said in John 14:17-18 that the Spirit of God is with you and He shall be in you. . . . “I will not leave you comfortless (orphans).” In other words, our bodies become the temples of the Holy Spirit.

You find that in 1 Corinthians 6:1-20. And when we think of these things, this has to do with the revelation of the character of God in His people. This was the appeal of Paul to the Corinthian church because of their looseness in living. He reminded them that their bodies were the sanctuaries of God, that the Holy Spi­rit indwelt them. And this being so, then their lives ought to manifest something of the character, love and grace of God. So we have it here in Ephesians 4:30, “Grieve not the holy Spirit of God.” You see He’s a person. The Spirit of God is not an influence. He’s a real person, a real personality. He lives in you and He can be grieved. He can lead you in your life.

He can empower you as the Apostle Paul could say in Colossians 1:29, “I strive according to the working of Him who works in me mightily.”

Or take that passage in Ephesians chapter three, verse 20, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” This is the Spirit of God who indwells the believ­er. He’s a real personality and He can be grieved. He can empower you. He can guide us into all truth. He will show us “things to come” (John 16:13-15).

In other words, when you and I yield ourselves to the Spirit of God, this one who indwells us will manifest through us something of the glory of Christ. So here in Ephesians 4:30, Paul talks about this wonderful fact of our having been preserved in Chr­ist until the day of redemption.

You remember the Apostle Paul speaks of this in Philippians 1:6, when he said, “He which hath begun a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.” In Romans 13:11, Paul says, “It’s high time to awake out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.” The apostle Peter in 1 Peter 1:5 could say that we are kept by the power of God through faith unto sal­vation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Take Romans chapter 8:18-25 where the whole passage speaks of the redemption of the body. We have been sealed by the Spirit of God until or unto the day of redemption.

And now, someone’s going to say, “Well, Mr. Mitchell, aren’t you redeemed already?”

Yes. I am redeemed. I’ve been redeemed from sin, from judgment, from death. And that word “re­deemed” means to be set free because of the payment of a price. But it also includes my body. You see, when Christ died for you and for me, He died for the whole man. You take 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24, where Paul says, “Now the God of peace sanctify you whol­ly and I pray God that your whole being, spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; faithful is he that calleth you who also will deliver.” Again I declare to you today the marvel of it all. That when Christ died for you and me, He died for the whole man. And He will not be satisfied until you and I stand in His presence, con­formed to His image. And that means that our very body is going to be redeemed.

Remember that you can live today in anticipa­tion of the day when our Lord shall come and He may come today. Your body will be transformed from mortal to immortal, from corruptible to incor­ruptible. You’ll be just like the Savior. My, what a prospect. Won’t you live today in anticipation of that and enjoy Christ today in your own heart and life?

I know friends of mine who talk about their great experiences with the Lord, but sometimes I begin to question if those experiences are really spiritual because I find in their lives these things that grieve the Spirit of God. It is folly to talk about being Spirit-filled or in control of the Spirit, when these things are so evident in one’s life. The filling of the Spirit of God is something that is a daily process for a believer living in the intima­cy of God’s fellowship.

When a Christian is walking in fellowship with God in His will, that believer is Spirit-filled. It’s not necessarily true that he will always have some kind of great experience, though one could have great experiences. But one can, right in your house, you dear people at home, you can take care of your children. You can wash your dishes, care for your family and the home and be Spirit-filled. Indeed your kitchen can be the doorway of hea­ven to your own heart as you fellowship with the Savior and talk with Him. I would suggest to your own heart, even when you’re working around the kitchen or whatever you’re doing, talk to the Lord.

Now I know some people can’t get on their knees. It would be a wonderful thing if we could form the habit of being a continual confidant with the Savior. Bring Him into every avenue of your life. I know that the Spirit of God who indwells you can make these things real to you. I tell you it’s a won­derful thing to not only be saved, but to be brought into the fellowship and the intimacy of the very heart of God Himself.

I’m very much tempted here to digress and discuss a matter that’s been upon my heart for so long. So few people realize the tremendous unity and union that there is between you, believer, and the Lord Jesus Christ. As He said in John 14:20, “I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” The very union of the Son of God with His Father is the same union, and I say this reverently, it’s the same union that exists between the Son of God and us. Oh, if only this could get a hold of our hearts, if it could ever get into our thinking, into our minds. You and I mean so much to Him that He seals us by the Spirit of God until the day when we stand in the presence of God looking just like His Son.

“Do you mean to tell me, sir, that when I accept the Savior that God’s purpose for me is that I shall stand in the presence of God, conformed to the im­age of Jesus Christ?”

That’s what I’m saying, and that’s what the Bible teaches. Romans 8:29 says that God hath determined that we should be “conformed to the image of His Son.” The Apostle John writes that, when we see Him, “we shall be like him” (1 John 3:2). And Paul could say in Philippians 3:20-21, “Our conversation (citizenship) is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ” who shall change our vile body (these bodies of our humiliation) and fa­shion them like unto his glorious body.

My friends, let me tell you this, you’ll only be satisfied—as David put it in Psalms 17:15: “I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.” This is the great yearning of Job, “I know that my redeemer liveth,” and His feet shall stand upon the earth in the latter day and, though worms destroy my body, I shall in my flesh see God by my side; and, when I see Him, behold, He is not a stranger (Job 19:25-27).

Oh, there’s wonderful life in Christ, this un­ion with Him. It’s an indissoluble union with the Son of God. And to make your salvation real and eternal and perfect, the Spirit of God comes to in­dwell you and seal you until the day of redemp­tion. This is what he’s saying in Ephesians 4:30.

Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed until the day of redemption. Do you re­member that verse in 2 Timothy 1:12 when Paul said, “I know whom I have believed and am per­suaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” Or let me quote again from Philippians 1:6, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you shall perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Or 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24. “The God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole being, body, soul, spirit, be preserved blame­less unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faith­ful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.”

And our Savior cried out, “It is finished.” He’d finished the work of redemption. He was raised from the dead as a guarantee to you that the work was complete. And it’s for you and me now to enjoy to the full our Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ.

I say it’s a wonderful thing to know. We’ve been sealed by the Spirit of God until the day of redemption. The day when these very bodies will be transformed. No longer in frailty, but in pow­er. No longer weakness, but in the glory of God. I tell you what a prospect God has in store for us.

Do you remember 1 Corinthians 15:51: “Behold I show you a mystery,” said the Apostle, “we shall not all sleep, (that is, we shall not all die) but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet: For the trumpet shall sound: and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall all be changed.”

Isn’t that wonderful! I tell you, people say to me, “Mitchell, I’m glad you’re going to be changed.”

And I say, “Yes, and I’m glad you’re going to be changed.” Down here in frailty, weakness, ‘tis true. But oh, the purpose of God as He gathers out a people for His name called the church, and every member of the church is going to stand in the pres­ence of God just like Jesus.

And please, please remember, on the day of re­demption when the Lord Jesus comes for His own, every believer will be taken to meet the Lord in the air. Do you know there are some people who teach only part of the church will be taken up, and the rest will go into the tribulation period under the judgment of God to be purged. In other words, they’re talking about a Protestant purgatory. No, my friends!

2 Thessalonians 2:16 tells us, “it’s the good hope through grace.” Christ is a perfect Savior of all His people, the weak ones as well as the strong ones, babes in Christ as well as the mature are going to stand before God in all the merit of Christ.

Not in Christ plus you, but upon His merit.

As we said in the first chapter, each believer is accepted in the beloved One. And that’s where we are—in Christ sealed by the Spirit of God. How long are we sealed? We are sealed until the day of re­demption.

Now someone’s going to say, “Wait a minute, Mr. Mitchell, but you can be lost.”

Then you’ve got a different kind of a Savior than I, my friend. If you have really accepted Christ as your Savior, you’re going to be there when the Lord comes.

You say, “Well, that’s a terrible doctrine. It lets me go out and sin all I want to.”

Not if you love the Savior. You won’t want to. You won’t want to.

The other day I was at a conference and a preacher said, “Why, if we’re not under the Law, then I can go out and do what I want to do.”

I said to him, “Do you have to have the club of the Law to make you behave?”

We love the Savior. There are a lot of things we can do. All things are lawful, all things are not expe­dient. But we don’t do them. Why? Because we love Him! And let me tell you very bluntly, the more you see the grace and love of Christ for you, the perfec­tion of His work, the more you want to magnify Him, the more you want to glorify Him. So don’t come along and tell me that if you’re under the grace of God, you can do what you want to do.

Do you know what you want to do? You want to do that which pleases God. And if you say the other thing, my friend, it’s because you’ve never seen the wonderful grace of God. Not only so, but you’ve never seen the proficiency of the work of Christ and the perfection of His work for men and women. “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed until the day of redemption.”

Verses 30-32

Now I want to read the last three verses of chap­ter four.

Ephesians 4:30. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Ephesians 4:31. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and cla­mor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all ma­lice:

Ephesians 4:32. And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

Verse 31

Now, I’m going to skip by verse 30 for a moment and go down to verse 31 because he’s still dealing with things we should stop doing. Notice verse 31:

Ephesians 4:31. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and cla­mour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

These are the things that grieve the Spirit of God. Notice what they are: “Let all bitterness . . .” “Now what do you mean by that?”

Well, the ability to be irritated, sour, bitter. You know there are some Christians who are al­ways irritated and they’re bitter and they’re sour. And you wonder what in the world’s gone wrong with them.

Now there are reasons for that, and one of them is that they’re out of fellowship with God. They’re too occupied with themselves and occupied with the circumstances in which they live.

In fact, I’ve heard them say, “Well, sir, if you were living where I’m living or under the circums­tances under which I’m living, you’d be bitter too!”

No! I don’t care what the circumstances are, the Lord has made provision for you and me to live above circumstances and walk with God. And don’t think for one moment, my friend, that you are the on­ly one who is tested like that. This is human expe­rience down through the centuries. And God has al­ways had people who have lived under worse cir­cumstances than you have. But yet they’re sweet.

I think of one dear little Scotch woman. She suffered for years and yet she was one of the sweetest saints I’ve ever met in my life.

I think of Amy Carmichael of India who for nearly twenty years was an invalid. In fact, from the time she went out on the mission field—she first of all went to Japan but had to leave Japan because of physical health. She was going back to Ireland when she stopped in India and saw all those little girls, get­ting married to the terrible gods and most of them dying at a very early age because of the gross immo­rality of the priests. Her heart was burdened for them so she stayed in India and rescued and took care hundreds of kiddies. Yet most of her life she was in bed. She was a woman who lived life close to the Lord in spite of all her frailties.

I have another missionary friend who for a long time was sick of cancer but who did a re­markable work in China. She wrote three or four books while she was sick, and she used to call them “the blessed cancer years.”

Listen, friend, you’re not the only one with tests and trials and troubles and afflictions and bad cir­cumstances. Don’t get bitter. Let all bitterness, irrita­bility and sourness go. Let’s get rid of it. I think Paul has in thought there, if I may change the word, “re­sentment.” Put away all resentment against people.

And oh, oh, I’ve met Christians—I’m sorry to say this—who resent other Christians, who wish they wouldn’t come around, who wish they’d go to some other church, who resent their sweetness, their usefulness. They stand back in their pride and resent them because they live better or they’re used more or they have a greater position.

If that describes you, my friend, get rid of that! Hostility robs you of joy and blessings. And with all of these words in verse 31, you’re the one who suffers, not the other fellow. You’re the one who suffers. If you’re bitter, you’re the one who loses the joy. And, when you have resentment, you have no joy and no peace. And when you’re hostile to somebody, again you rob yourself of joy and blessing and fellowship with God’s people and with God Himself. So please don’t slander other Christians. Don’t slander anybody.

I’ve heard people say, “I would rather not meet her, because she’s always, always slandering some­body.” It’s a sad situation.

And the last one especially, God deliver us from all malice, a vicious disposition. Just vicious. I say, these are the things which grieve the Spirit of God. And I don’t care how much you testify or how much you claim you have this and that and the other with respect to your knowledge of Scrip­ture. These things grieve the Spirit of God. In fact, I’ll be bold to say that it’s mostly these things that grieve and hinder the Spirit of God from working in your midst.

You criticize, “Why doesn’t the church do this and why doesn’t it go on in this and why doesn’t it have a revival and why aren’t souls being saved?” And you blame the preacher when, oftentimes, it may be that you and some others are full of these

things—sourness, bitterness, resentment, hostility,
foul slander, bad disposition. These are the things

that grieve the Spirit of God.

Now we come to chapter five and we have the third exhortation on a Christian’s walk

before God. We are to walk in love. Now let’s connect these two chapters together, chapter 4 and chapter 5. He has just spoken in the last verse of chapter 4,

Ephesians 4:32. And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.

Ephesians 5:1. Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children.

And if we are followers of God, then we will forgive others for Christ’s sake and because of His love for us. You see, we are to be followers of God Himself.

You remember in the epistle of John 4:8; John 4:16, we read that God is love. In the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 the Apostle Paul says, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of an­gels, and have not love, it profits me nothing.” And then in 1 Corinthians 4:1, we are told to follow after love, to chase after love.

In 1 John 3:1 we read, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.”

We are God’s beloved children. Hence we are to express His character, and that character is to be expressed and evidenced by love. It’s a love that sacrifices. It’s a love that loves the unlovely. It’s a love that loves even those who reprove us. This is a supernatural thing. “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Romans 5:5).

Verse 32

Now in the verse 32, here’s the positive side. We’ve had a negative side, don’t lie, don’t do this and that. But now, verse 32.

Ephesians 4:32. And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath

forgiven you.

We see the need for three wonderful things here—the need for kindness, for tenderness, the need for forgiveness. Now, these things do not grieve the Spirit of God. And if we are walking before the Lord, it’s wonderful we’ll be doing these things. These things manifest the Spirit of our Savior. “Be ye kind one to another.”

You know it doesn’t cost you anything to be kind, does it? This means don’t be rude, don’t be censorious. Be kind. You know, I think one of the greatest needs among God’s people today is to be considerate, thoughtful, kind toward other believers. It’s no sign of power or strength to be rude to other Christians, to lord it over other Christians. And if you have come to know so much, you’ll manifest it by being kind.

The more you know the Savior, the more you realize that He was always kind. He was never rude. He was never censorious. He was kind. You know there is a need for that, don’t you think so? And be ye kind one to another. Oh, that one could see among God’s people that kindness, that con­sideration the one for the other. Kindness.

My friend, listen, it doesn’t cost you anything to be kind. God knows there are pitfalls enough outside in the world that will cut your conscience and cut your heart and cut your emotions. You come home bruised and, when you get home, what do you need? Some kindness. I tell you it’s a wonderful thing to have somebody who’s kind, tender-hearted, forgiv­ing even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven us.

And what’s the second one? Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted. Not hard-hearted, but tenderhearted. There are plenty of hard-hearted people today in the world. The world outside is pretty hard. Dear woman, when your husband’s been out in the world and he comes home tired, he’s been buffeted by the world, he comes home sore and he’s bruised in his spirit, now, you be very tenderhearted. You be very understanding. You be kind, won’t you? And dear man, dear husband, your wife has had a hard time today. She’s had a headache, and the kids have been kind of upset all day and she hasn’t had a chance to be alone, and she’s frustrated, and you come home. You’ve had an easy day out in the world. Things have gone just right for you, and you come home and you see her. Don’t scold her. You be kind. You go out of your way to be kind and ten­derhearted and understanding with her.

I’m talking about real Christianity. This is what Paul says. These are the things the Spirit of God wants you to do. There’s plenty of the nega­tive in life. You want to be positive. And hence this precious verse. “Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted.” Oh, that we Christians might manifest this in our assemblies, in our churches, in our classes, wherever we are and especially in our homes.

Oh, the need today for real Christian homes where father and mother and children are full of joy and love and they’re tenderhearted the one with the other. Anybody can be crude and rough and censo­rious and critical. We need some kind people. Will you be that today? Won’t you today? I don’t know what your past has been. Never mind. It’s past. It’s gone. Won’t you be tenderhearted? Kind today to somebody? To your children? Maybe they might be surprised, but you do that today. And the Lord make it real to you. He’ll help you do it. He will.

Now you might say to me, “Mr. Mitchell, this is not in my nature to be kind and tenderhearted and longsuffering and gentle. I was made with a temper, and I fly off the handle. And sometimes I’m kind of hard on my children and my wife and whoever it may be. And down at the shop I get kind of cranky and irritable. And you know I was made this way.”

Yes, I know, we were all made that way. That belongs to the old man which we’ve put off. And we’ve put on the new man who, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness. And He has sealed us by the Spirit of God until the day of re­demption. He has made our redemption real and sure, perfect and eternal.

Now how can I display this before men? How can I please the heart of God in my life? And this last verse, and I come back to it again, the 32nd verse of Ephesians four. In fact, I’m going to read verses 30 and 32. “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whe­reby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. And be kind one toward another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake hath for­given you.”

I left out verse 31. I connected verse 31 with the other verses preceding verse 31, things that grieve the Spirit of God, bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking, all malice. These things grieve the Spirit of God. Corrupt communication, stealing, not controlling yourself, lying, deceiving people—these things grieve the Spirit of God. And these other things in verse 32 are the delight of the heart of God when His people are kind one toward another—not rude or censorious, but kind, genuinely kind, understanding.

You know as a pastor in a church here for 37 years, I’ve had occasion to council a great many hundred families and people. And sometimes I won­der if part of our trouble is that we’re just not kind. It’s so easy to criticize and be rude and censorious, but just to be kind. Oh, to understand the other fel­low. You know it’s very easy for us to want people to live the way we think they should live and walk the way we think they should walk. That’s not being kind. That’s being proud. That’s being proud. You’re just trying to feel that you’re above the other fellow and you want him to be where you are when he’s never had the opportunity of the teaching you’ve had.

Or he’s a younger Christian. He has certain weaknesses which you may not have. So be kind, won’t you? Oh, the need to be kind one to anoth­er, to be tenderhearted. Tenderhearted—that’s not a sign of weakness, by the way. That’s not a sign of weakness. To be tenderhearted one toward another.

Do you remember in John chapter 11 how tender the Lord Jesus was with Mary and Martha? Their brother had died and they said to Him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” Now, I’m afraid, if it had been I or you, we would have said to those two girls: “Now dry your tears and shut up because I’m going to raise up your brother again from the dead.” Oh no! not Jesus! Oh, how tender He was, how tenderhearted. He stood by these two girls, Mary and Martha, and we read, “He wept with them.” Even though He was going to raise their brother from the dead, He took the time out to weep with Martha and Mary. He entered into their sor­rows. He was very tender with them because their hearts were broken.

And, my Christian friend, there are a great many broken hearts today. Oh, the bruised souls that need your help. I think of that verse, where is it, Luke 4:18, where Jesus said, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me. He hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to give deliverance to the captives, the recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.” Think of those things, will you?

You say, “Well, that was Jesus.”

Yes, but He lives in you. The Spirit of God in­dwells you. He seals you until the day of redemption.

And if the same spirit which was upon Christ without measure lives in you and me, can’t we do that? There are many broken-hearted people who need somebody with a tender heart. There are many crushed souls who need some little word of kindness and tenderness. Can’t you and I be that today? Be kind one to another, tenderhearted, understanding what the other fellow goes through.

And then what else does Paul say?

“Forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” Remember in Ephesians 1:7, he speaks of the fact that we are forgiven ac­cording to the riches of His grace. Now, here’s another one. We are to forgive each other for Christ’s sake. Upon what ground did God forgive you? On the ground of the riches of His grace God forgave you for Christ’s sake. In 1 John 2:12 He forgave you for His name’s sake. How often shall I forgive my brother? As often as God for Christ’s sake has forgi­ven me. Colossians chapter 2 and chapter 3 speak of the same thing. “As Christ forgave you, forgive one another.” (Colossians 3:13)

You know, here’s another wonderful thing. The spirit of forgiveness. You know, our attitude is sometimes something like this, “Well, brother, I’ll forgive you this time, but never let it happen again.”

Now that’s not really forgiveness. You’re arro­gant when you say that. And you pat yourself on the back when you say, “I forgive, but never let it hap­pen again.” Boy, you’re going to see to that. Now, what you mean by that, I don’t know. That you’ll not forgive next time?

The Pharisees in Christ’s time kind of gloried in the fact that they would forgive a man twice. And one day the Lord Jesus said to dear Peter, that com­mercial fisherman you remember, “Peter, how often shall I forgive my brother?”

Now Peter had been raised under the Law which had said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. The Pharisees said, “I’ll forgive a man twice.” Peter had been with the Lord I don’t know how long, maybe a few months, maybe a couple of years; and he said to Jesus, “Lord, I’ll forgive my brother seven times.” And Jesus said, “Peter, seven times? Forgive him seventy times seven.” Seventy times seven (Matthew 18:21-22).

You know, I remember a Sunday school teacher coming to me and saying, “Dr. Mitchell, we were talking about forgiveness today in class. And I mentioned the fact that we ought to forgive our brother 490 times, seventy times seven. And one little fellow said, ‘Teacher, well, what shall I do when I have forgiven my brother 490 times?’”

The teacher asked, “Mr. Mitchell, what should I have said?”

“Well,” I said, “had it been me, I would have said, ‘OK sonny, when you have forgiven your brother 490 times, you come to me and I’ll tell you what to do next.’” You know, we don’t even meas­ure up to dear old Peter. Peter says, “I’ll forgive him seven times.” And a good many, even Christians, will not even measure up to the Pharisaical side of twice. What do you do?

Do you say, “Well I’ll forgive you this time, but never let it happen again.”

Oh, no. This is not of the Spirit of God. You know that. You know that.

“Do you mean, I’ve got to forgive him every time he sins?”

That’s what Jesus said.

Or could I raise the issue, do you ever forgive them? Do you ever forgive them?

I’ve heard people say, “As long as I live, I’ll never forgive him. And if I do forgive him, I’ll never forget it. And I’ll hold this against him all his life.” So fellowships are ruined, lives are dis­torted and robbed of rich fellowship because of our pride.

Listen, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God where­by you are sealed until the day of redemption. And Paul goes on to say, “And be kind one to another,” kind, not rude, not censorious, tenderhearted, just like Jesus. Forgiving one another even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven us.

Oh, what a wonderful Savior to make it possible for you and me to do something like this.

You say, “Mr. Mitchell, you’re asking the im­possible. It’s not possible to do that.”

I say, “I know that.” I’m well aware of that fact. But now you have a new nature. You’re talk­ing about the old nature. The old man in us doesn’t do it, that’s right. But now, you’re being made a new man, a new woman in Christ; and the Spirit of God indwells you to make this thing possible. Be kind, won’t you? Be kind one to another. Be tenderhearted. And forgive one another.

It may be I’m talking to some who have borne a grudge against somebody, maybe in your own fami­ly. And your pride forbids you even mentioning the fact of forgiveness.

May I suggest to you, won’t you be forgiving, be kind, tenderhearted? And remember that God for Chr­ist’s sake hath forgiven you every sin. Can’t we manif­est a little of that forgiveness for somebody else?

Do you know, it may surprise you, the reaction upon that. It may surprise you that some folk whom you thought were bitter against you, have just been yearning for you to come to them and ask their for­giveness or they may be willing to ask your forgive­ness.

And always be ready to forgive, not with the idea that I’ll never do it again, I’ll not forgive you again, but rather, come with that tenderness and that sweetness of spirit. And you can be like that, you know. You can be sweet and tender and lov­ing, can’t you? It will bring joy and blessing into so many hearts.

And may your life be filled with sweetness to­day, just for today. Let’s do it today. If you’ve got something against somebody, you go to them. You go to them. The Lord will give you the grace and the power to do this. And think of the joy that will be yours and the joy that will be theirs! And instead of having an enemy, behold, you’ve got a real, genuine friend. Do that today and the Lord wonderfully bless you.