When I was in high school, I had the opportunity to travel with my church on a mission trip to Monterrey, Mexico. The town of Monterrey sits in a valley, surrounded by the Sierra Madre Mountains. As we were landing at the airport in Monterrey, I remember seeing out my window smoke rising from the peak of one of those mountains. After we arrived at the mission base we were told that lightning had struck the mountain and had started a series of forest fires. We ended up spending our mission project about two hours away in the town of Saltillo, and by the time we arrived back in Monterrey to fly home, the fire had spread all the way along the entire mountain chain, effectively surrounding the city with forest fires and choking the valley with smoke. We sat in the park across the street from the mission base watching the one fire fighting plane dump water on the fire and then disappear for half an hour while gathered more water. That night as we packed to go home, the missionaries asked us to pray for rain to put out the fire. As a group, we prayed that God in his great power would send torrential rains to extinguish the forest fires. After praying for nearly hour for torrential rains, we decide to go to sleep that night, outside. We knew God had incredible power to send rains, but somehow that did not impact our decision of where to sleep. Sure enough, at three a.m., with us all soundly asleep outside on the deck, the torrential rains we prayed for arrived and put out the fires. Needless to say, we were drenched as we scrambled for cover. We spent the rest of the night sleeping on the floor of the mission base, wondering why we knew God could send the rain, but slept outside doubting that he actually would.

As we begin looking at the Apostle Paul’s mini-holiness code, the danger in studying this call to holiness is for our knowledge of the first three chapters of Ephesians to remain irrelevant, similar to us knowing God could send rain and then sleeping outside. We so focus on these commands in the latter part of the book that we forget that the first three chapters have emphasized the power of the God in our lives. Paul has presented action after action done by God in the process of saving us. God has chosen us, adopted us, redeemed us, united us, we have been completely reactive for the first three chapters, but now when we come to chapter 4 we forget God’s power. We suddenly doubt God’s power and conclude that chapters 4-6 are up to us. Or we pay lip service to the power of the gospel but doubt that it can really change lives. But Paul’s prayer all along has been that we know the power of God and the glories of his grace, a power that raised Christ from the dead, that exalted him over all creation, a power which is now at work in us. We looked at this several weeks ago when we discussed verse 23 of chapter 4. God by his power is renewing our minds. God is at work in us, as he has been all along. Paul is not calling us to fulfill his holiness code on our own or to do it our way. Instead, Paul is calling us to pursue holiness in faith that God is at work pursuing holiness in us. Paul is not simply giving us qualities which make a good society, instead Paul is calling us to pursue these calls to holiness in faith that God’s power is at work through the gospel to change hearts and lives.

We know we’re clothed with Christ, we know the incredible, immeasurable, incomprehensible power of God at work in us, we know the power of the gospel, but we need to move beyond knowledge and act on that knowledge. We cannot be like those for pray for rain and sleep outside. In Ephesians, Paul has told us of the great power of God at work in all of us. Now, he calls us to act on that knowledge, to strive after holiness, striving after the commands we are about to discuss, in faith in the incredible power of God working towards holiness in his people, in changing lives. That is the whole message of Ephesians: Faith in the power of God in salvation, making us holy and blameless. Praise God that he is at work in us right at this very moment! So with faith in the constant working of the power of God in our lives, let’s look at what Paul says in verse 25-27 so that we can strive after holiness knowing God is striving after holiness in us, and knowing that God is at work through the gospel. My prayer is that as you leave this morning, you will walk out not in your own power, but faith in the power of God at work through the gospel in you and others in the body of Christ. This is the start of a whole slew of commands that Paul gives, but this morning I simply want to look at the first two. Paul says that in faith in the working of God in lives, we should speak the truth and we should take care of our anger.

First, Paul says in verse 25, that having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

Paul’s assumption that we have put off falsehood follows from verse 22 which we looked at last time. If we are in Christ, our old self, our old man, our old nature, has been put off and was crucified with Christ on the cross. We are now clothed with Christ, created after the image of God in true righteousness and holiness. We have a new nature. It naturally follows then that when this nature was put aside, our nature of falsehood was also put aside. Instead, we are now those identified by the truth. So Paul says speak the truth.

Again, this passage, along with verse 15 and “speaking the truth in love” has often been abused. When Paul says “speak the truth” does he really mean that we should speak whatever happens to be the truth, like the famous line from comedian David Spade “no, that shirt doesn’t make you look fat, your face does,” offering our “true” opinion wherever we think it is needed. Well, as long as you do it lovingly it’s okay. After all, how will people know their shortcomings if I don’t tell them? That is certainly not what Paul has in mind. Instead, we need to remember two things Paul has already said: what is truth, and does what I say grow the body?

The content of truth is so important to Paul that he mentions it three times in this chapter alone. It is also so important that Paul seems here to get a little redundant. Put aside falsehood and speak the truth. If you put aside falsehood, what else is there but truth? Truth is the logical outcome of getting rid of falsehood, but Paul wants to make sure that we do not simply stop telling lies but that we speak truth to one another, and Paul has already stated in verse 21 that the truth is in Jesus. We are called to speak the truth of Jesus Christ one to another. Remember verse 15, “truthing” in love, “truthing the truth that we truth?” There the truth was the truth of Jesus Christ, so that might not be those tossed about by every wave of doctrine. Instead, Paul called us to grow the body by speaking the truth, which is the same argument he makes here. Do not tell lies, but speak the truth of Jesus Christ to one another, for we are members one of another. Telling lies and falsehood to one another tears down the body. It does not edify, it does not help the body grow, which has been Paul’s theme for this whole chapter. We need to help the body grow by telling the truth of Jesus Christ. We are a hospital, so we try to convince everyone you aren’t sick. This is a lie. We need to tell the truth. I am a great sinner, but Christ is a great savior.

The temptation though is still to speak falsehood to one another rather than the truth of Jesus Christ. Perhaps we tell lies about ourselves to make others think we are better than we really are. We try to avoid airing our dirty laundry at church so that people do not know how bad we are. We try to keep secret the struggles in our marriages, what trouble our kids may have gotten into, difficulties at work, past skeletons in our closets. We don’t want people to know the personal moral failures we struggle with or what we may have done even this past week. We put on an air of spirituality. Rather than allowing our failures to proclaim the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ experienced as grace in our own lives, we attempt to be accepted on the basis on our righteousness. Real unity cannot take place until we are honest about who we are. Paul has already told us our own self is absolutely worthless, so much so that it had to be crucified with Christ. I come not as my own self, but clothed with Jesus Christ. We should come in confidence into this church as a moral degenerates, people who have no righteousness of our own to stand on, but coming boldly as those clothed with Christ so that out of our own understanding of grace we can speak the truth of Jesus Christ to others who are struggling. Rather than attempting to lie to the rest of the body and make every one else think how good we are, we need to come as those clothed with Christ and speak the truth of Jesus Christ to one another in order to help the body grow.

Even there we often struggle. Even understanding that we ourselves are clothed with Christ, we often forget that others are as well. While getting the whole message ourselves about the power of God in our own lives, we look at others behavior and question whether or not God is at work in their lives. We examine them for signs of holiness but then seeing none assume that they are not trying hard enough. Being willing to put our faith in God’s power for our striving after holiness, we use a double standard to critique others. We end up telling them lies that they need to work harder; they need to put more effort into their holiness in order to be sanctified. Instead of proclaiming to them the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the power of God at work in them, we tell them lies that their holiness is up to them. My holiness is the work of the power of God, but others have to work for it. I hope that sounds as ridiculous as it truly is, but that is how we operate. I stand here as a pastor who has made it my life’s work to proclaim the power of the gospel to sinners, and yet even I fall into the temptation of scratching my head and wondering what in the world is wrong with you people. Why don’t you people get it? I preach week after about the gospel but I don’t always see substantial growth. Sure, I don’t see it my own life always either, but God’s at work in me. As for you, well, you need to work harder. We may be tempted to laugh at the humorous inconsistency, but that is often what we do. The result is a destruction of the body, creating bands of hypocrites and Pharisees within the church. Instead, though, we need to realize that we have put off falsehood. We are clothed with the truth, Jesus Christ. Instead of telling others that they have to rely on their own efforts to be holy, we need to proclaim the great power that is at work in us through Jesus Christ. We need to have faith that God is making us all holy through the power of the gospel. And then, in faith in that power, let’s speak that truth to each other, uniting the body of Christ in the power of the gospel and helping the body grow. People are hurt, spiritually sick, wallowing in their own sinfulness, spiritually destitute and discouraged. What they need is not a call to try harder, instead they need to be told the truth of Jesus Christ, the great power that changes lives, that they too can be clothed with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. You’ve put off falsehood, so proclaim the truth.

Not only does Paul say that we should be those who speak the truth, we should also be those who deal with our anger. Literally, Paul in verse 26 says “be angry.” Scholars have debated whether Paul is actually giving us a command “All of you, get angry!” or is Paul saying that when you are angry, be angry and do not sin. I would suggest that Paul is emphasizing what to do when you are angry. Anger in and of itself is an emotion which occurs when we think something wrong has been done. In many cases, we should get angry, like Jesus did in the temple when it was being abused by the money changers. We should be angry when we see injustice, when the poor are taken advantage of, when something wrong has indeed been done. But Paul takes it a step further. He says two things that we should when we are angry.

The first is that we should not sin. It is possible to be angry and not sin. We should be righteously angry when we see something being done which violates our fellow man or dishonors God. Unfortunately, we too often sin as a result of our anger. We get so upset at injustice that we respond in a like manner. Cut me off on the highway, I show you what it feels like to be cut off. Or maybe when our siblings do something to us that we know is wrong we respond back the same way. In my house growing up, hitting each other received an automatic punishment. We learned as kids quickly that hitting was wrong, so when my sister would hit me, I would demonstrate my righteous anger at her for breaking our parents rules by hitting her back. In my anger and desire to show her the error of her ways, I would respond in the same way. Or perhaps our anger at a coworker or an employee receives a string of expletives. We may have been right to be angry, but we have sinned just as much in our response. Paul wants to make sure that when we are angry, we do not sin against one another. Again, his theme in this chapter is unity. We speak the truth to one another to help the body grow. Sometimes, the truth may be accompanied by anger. When we see something done by someone in the church that destroys unity, we get angry; and then we tell our friends how angry we are about it, and then they tell their friends, and so on. We may have had a right to get angry, but now we have sinned by gossiping. Paul says for the sake of the body, for the glory of God “be angry, but do not sin.”

Instead of gossiping, instead of being vengeful, instead of sinning, Paul gives a second command “Do not let the sun go down on your anger.” Paul is using this euphemistically. Paul is not suggesting that you literally do not let the sun go down on your anger. I heard once of a married couple who called a marriage counselor and asked to meet with her. She said her first available appointment was in two days and they replied by asking if she was available now because they were really tired. It turns out that they had been arguing for three days but were taking this verse literally and had not slept in three days. They wanted to meet with her right away so they could resolve the problem and go to sleep. While I’m glad they wanted to take care of the issue, that’s not literally what Paul meant. Instead, he’s saying “when you are angry, do something about it.” Don’t just fume and complain about your angry, confront your anger. Go and talk to the person you are angry with. That’s straight out of Matthew 18. If your brother sins against you go and talk to him. Don’t figuratively rest until you have worked things out with your brother. Jesus said leave your offering on the altar until you have made things right with your brother. If your angry, do something about it.

When my grandmother died several years ago, my mom and her sister and brother got into a huge argument over the inheritance, something about how to divide up the life insurance money. One sibling thought they deserved more because my grandmother had lived with her. The other two siblings lived thousands of miles away and said they would have taken my grandmother if they lived closer. Tempers got flared, emotions ran high, but my mom and her two siblings talked on the phone every night for hours for two weeks until they got the issue settled. They slept, the sun literally went down on their anger each night for thirteen nights, but figuratively, the sun did not go down. They did something about their anger. Were they angry? Absolutely, they felt something wrong was being done. But rather than talking to the rest of the family about their anger, rather than letting the issue be divisive, they dealt with it immediately. It took two weeks, but they dealt with it.

That’s the attitude Paul wants here. Be angry when something wrong is done, but do not sin. Don’t respond out of spite or gossip or division. Instead, deal with the anger. He gives the reason in verse 27 “Give no opportunity to the devil.” The Devil wants to divide us. He wants to split us as the body of Christ. He can’t literally hurt the physical body of Christ so he strikes at the spiritual body of Christ. And when we allow anger to divide us, Satan jumps all over it. He loves to see division. It gives him an opportunity to break in.

When people want to split really big rocks, they do not have to cut them, all they have to do is drill small holes into the rock, fill the holes with water, and then letter the water freeze. As the water freezes and expands it crack the rock into pieces. No cutting, no sawing is required, simply opportunities for breaking. That’s what allowing our anger to continue unresolved does to the body. Like freezing water, it slowly splits and divides us. It gives an opportunity for the Devil to work strife in the body of Christ.

We need to remember who we are. We are the body of Christ, we are those clothed with Christ. We have the power of God at work in us. In confidence in the power of God to change hearts and lives, let’s deal with anger and trust that when Jesus Christ spoke the words of Matthew 18, he knew what he was saying. Going about taking care of our anger the way Jesus said in Matthew 18 takes faith that God is going to work in each of us to call us to repentance. Responding sinfully out of anger relies on my own strength, my own methods to solve the problem, or my own sinfulness of avoiding the problem all together and simply being content to let the division stand. Instead, in faith we need to trust the working of God’s grace in our lives and the lives of others. Perhaps they do not know that they have wronged anyone. Perhaps they are unaware of the hurt they have caused. Maybe God is already at work in them convicting them of their sin. Maybe we are the ones who have sinned and our anger has so blinded us that we cannot see what we have to them. We will only know if we step out in faith in the power of God to change hearts and deal with our anger.

Paul’s theme here in these two examples of holiness is the same theme that he began at the very beginning of Ephesians: Faith in the power of God. We must have faith in the power of God to make us holy. We strive after holiness in faith that God is at work pursuing holiness in us. We cannot rely on our effort for personal holiness or the holiness of others. Instead, we rely in faith on the power of God.

We have a demonstration of that before us here in the Lord’s Supper. There is nothing magical about eating the bread or drinking this juice. There is no literal physical body of Jesus Christ here. Instead, by faith we spiritually feed on the body and blood of Christ. It is by faith that we believe that Christ feeds us spiritually, giving us his grace, even as we physically eat the bread and drink the juice. We come as those to this table who are fully aware of our inability and our powerlessness to be holy. Instead, we come in faith that by partaking of this Lord’s supper, Christ will give us his grace to empower us, to sanctify us. We come confidently to this table, clothed with the righteousness of Christ, believing that by his spirit, through his word, through this sacrament of communion, He is making us holy. 

If you are here this morning and you are not clothed with Christ, if you have not recognized your own sinfulness and placed your faith in Christ to clothed you with his righteousness, please let the bread and juice pass, but grab one of the elders after the service so that we can tell you how by faith you can put on Christ and a new self.

If you are coming this morning by your effort to be holy, if you are not coming in faith in the power of God, in humble reliance upon Him and the working of His Holy Spirit, I would also encourage you to examine yourself and let the elements pass. If you are a member in good standing of an evangelical church and have examined yourself to see if you are partaking and feeding on Christ by faith, then I invite you to come and participate in this the Lord’s Supper.