LESSON 5-Ephesians
Chapter 4
BEING THE CHURCH OF CHRIST
Ephesians 4:1-32
Eph. 4:17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles 9unbelievers)walk, in the futility of their mind,18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. (living completely in the sense/soulish realm)
4:17 My most urgent appeal to you in the Lord is this: you have nothing in common with the folly of the empty minded masses; the days of conducting your life and affairs in a meaningless way are over! Mirror Translation
4:18 Their understanding is veiled by an interception of light (an image cast by an object, representing the form of that object) Therefore the life of God remains obscure and foreign to them because ignorance blindfolds their hearts. Mirror Translation
4:19 Having become conditioned to a life distanced from God, calloused in spirit, lust and greed driven, they have totally abandoned themselves to outrageous shameless living. Mirror Translation
Related Scripture:
1 Timothy 4:1-3 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,3 forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.
Points:
1.Darkness causes a Christian to fail to orient to the plan of God. He does not know God’s plan or how it works, and he does not know how he fits into God’s plan.
2.Darkness brings about a failure to orient to the grace of God. The result is arrogance and legalism, lack of forgiveness, lack of graciousness.
3.Darkness causes inner misery, unhappiness, anxiety, lack of peace. These things cannot be compensated for by anything in life, but the negative Christian spends his life in a frantic but futile pursuit of happiness through the details of life.
4.Darkness can bring about neuroses and psychoses – anxiety. Phil. 4:6,7 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard [STABILIZE] your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
5. Darkness results in a frantic search for happiness through details of life, or through some form of sublimation.
6. Darkness leads to slavery to the details of life. Sins may grow out of 12 things in life money, success, pleasure, sex, social life, family, loved ones, career, hobbies, health (too much emphasis on the body), status symbols.
7. Darkness leads to apostasy, erroneous thinking, false doctrine in the soul.
8. Darkness is accompanied by a lack of capacity to love, leading to pseudo-love towards God, family, the community.
We teach that our little spirits became darkened by the fall of Adam into the sense realm. He plunged mankind into living by the soulish/sense realism, what we think, see, hear, touch etc.
Scripture is clear about living solely in the sense realm.
1 Corinthians 2:14–15 But the natural [soulish/sensual] man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one.
Jude 16-19 These (soulish/sense/carnal persons) are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage. 17 But you, beloved, remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ: 18 how they told you that there would be mockers in the last time who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. 19 These are [a]sensual persons, who cause divisions, not having the Spirit.
I Tim. 6:4-5 he (soulish/sensual person) is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, 5 [b]useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.
Emphasis on Light:
You are the source of all life, and because of your light we see the light. (Psalm 36:9)
“You are like light for the whole world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bowl; instead it is put on the lampstand, where it gives light for everyone in the house. In the same way your light must shine before people, so that they will see the good things you do and praise your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:14-16)
Your word is a lamp to guide me and a light for my path. (Psalm 119:105)
Now the message that we have heard from his Son and announce is this: God is light, and there is no darkness at all in him. If, then, we say that we have fellowship with him, yet at the same time live in the darkness, we are lying both in our words and in our actions. But if we live in the light—just as he is in the light—then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from every sin. (1 John 1:5-7)
For anything that is clearly revealed becomes light. That is why it is said, “Wake up, sleeper, and rise from death, and Christ will shine on you.” (Ephesians 5:14)
However, the command I now write you is new, because its truth is seen in Christ and also in you. For the darkness is passing away, and the real light is already shining. If we say that we are in the light, yet hate others, we are in the darkness to this very hour. If we love others, we live in the light, and so there is nothing in us that will cause someone else to sin. (1 John 2:8-10)