Put It Away

You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.

The 9th commandment forbids it

Exodus 20:16

Exodus 20:16 NKJV

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

The truth is that as part of a single body, it makes no sense to lie to one another.

Can the eye lie to the hand? Not hardly.

If the hand were to attempt to pick something up, but the eye is giving the hand bad information, then the hand cannot fulfill its task.

The parts of the body function together as a single unit. Lying creates disunity among the body and nothing will work as it should. So put away the lying.

v.26:

Anger:

“Be angry and do not sin...”

Anger, in and of itself, is not necessarily a sin. Even God gets angry.

Deuteronomy 9:8

Deuteronomy 9:8 NKJV

Also in Horeb you provoked the Lord to wrath, so that the Lord was angry enough with you to have destroyed you.

God’s anger is part of His judgement against sin.

Matthew 21:12-13

Matthew 21:12–13 NKJV

Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ”

The believer is commanded to be angry under certain circumstances.

Psalm 97:10

Psalm 97:10 NKJV

You who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.

There seems to be this notion that a Christian is not supposed to get mad. The idea that a Christian should be indifferent under any circumstance.

But how could any true believer be neutral in the battle for the truth?

Anything that would seek to defame, discredit or undermine the Lord should invoke anger among Christians.

Anger can be a useful catalyst to provoke action. The trick is “do not sin”

When we sin out of anger, that is malice.

We must never let our anger control us. Unlike God, it can be difficult for us to manage our anger without sinning.

Aristotle wrote:

“Anyone can become angry, But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way—this is not easy.”

We must do nothing out of malice or ill will, but instead react in a way that honors the Lord.

“do not let the sun go down on your wrath”

Simply put, we should not hold on to our anger.

We can get angry for a righteous reason and take the necessary action. At that point we should be done with it.

Put away the Malice

v.27:

When we sin, we give “place” (or opportunity) to the devil.

We so often complain about dodging bullets, all the while giving the devil the ammo to shoot us with.

If you want to stop dodging bullets, stop providing the devil with ammo.

Every sin adds to his cache of ammo, so put it away.

vv.28-29:

Again, Christians should make every effort to stop sinful behavior.

This time he is addressing thieves. Once again, we should look at the origin of stealing and we will realize just how bad it is.

Just as satan is a liar and a murderer, he is also a thief.

Stealing is of the devil.

John 10:10

John 10:10 NKJV

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

To steal or lie is to follow in satan’s footsteps, and Christians should put an end to it. We are Christ followers, not devil followers.

Like it or not, it is impossible to follow both at the same time.

You must choose between the Lord and the devil.

Joshua 24:15

Joshua 24:15 NKJV

And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

Matthew 12:30

Matthew 12:30 NKJV

He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.

There is no middle ground, you cannot ride the fence. You must choose a side.

But as this passage points out, its more than just stopping, it also includes a change in direction.

It’s one thing to simply stop stealing, but its quite another thing to stop stealing and to become productive and giving.

This is called repentance, and repentance is what the Lord desires.

This corrupt speech would certainly include lying, but it is also so much more.

“Corrupt” refers to something that is rotten/spoiled/bad, etc.

It could be cursing, a crude joke, anything that doesn’t glorify God.

As v.29 points out, we are accountable for every word that proceeds form our mouth.

Just like with stealing, it’s one thing to stop our corrupt speech, and quite another to begin to speak edifying and graceful words.

Our speech should glorify God.

Psalm 141:3

Psalm 141:3 NKJV

Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips.

This is yet another picture of repentance.

A Godly alternative replaces the sinful activity.

This is how you truly change direction.

v.30:

When a Christian lies, it grieves the Holy Spirit.

When a Christian has corrupt words or thoughts, it grieves the Holy Spirit. -McGee

Anything unholy is contrary to the Spirit’s very nature.1

1 Merkle, B. L. (2018). Ephesians. In I. M. Duguid, J. M. Hamilton Jr., & J. Sklar (Eds.), Ephesians–Philemon: Vol. XI (p. 85). Crossway.

The Holy Spirit is our promise, our guarantee of salvation, and we should hate the thought of grieving Him, but when we sin, that’s exactly what we do.

What happens when any person is grieved?

It breaks the fellowship. The Holy Spirit cannot work in your life when you have grieved Him, when fellowship with Him has been broken.-McGee

v.31:

This goes right back to putting off the old man.

These last two verses summarize the changes in the life of a believer that have been detailed in vv.17-30.

v.:32:

Simply put, the old man should be replaced with the new man.

even as God in Christ forgave you. Those who have been forgiven so much by God should, of all people, forgive the relatively small offenses against them by others. The most graphic illustration of this truth is the parable of Matthew 18:21–35.1

1 MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2005). The MacArthur Bible Commentary (Eph 4:32). Thomas Nelson.

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