Sermon Tone Analysis

Today’s passage is separated into two parts which are verses

17-24 Putting off the old life and self

25-5:14: Putting on the new life.

Putting off the old life is about what we were before we were believers, well, allegedly.

17-19

We are no longer to live as the world does, hence the allegedly.

We are no longer of the world therefore we should not think, act and speak as those of the world.

Being a Christian should affect everything we are.

So, what does Paul mean when he says that the unbelievers’ minds are futile?

“It refers to the capacity to think, plan, and make moral judgments and lifestyle choices” (2010, 281) Brown, D. R., Custis, M., & Whitehead, M. M. (2013).

Lexham Bible Guide: Ephesians.

(D. Mangum, Ed.) (Eph 4:17).

Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.

Their minds are empty of anything worthwhile in things pertaining to God.

If our thinking about God is not right then the rest of our thinking cannot get aligned to think right about other things.

The fact is, that Theology used to be called the Queen of Science.

There was good reason for that because God is the author of creation and therefore what we can learn about creation in the various forms of science has, first, to give its nod to God.

You’ve heard me say before that it is an illusion to say that ‘God and science’ or ‘the Christian religion and science’ are at odds with each other.

Science exists because of God: He is the source of science.

But our understanding of science, whether chemistry, physics and so on can only be properly understood if we put God in His right place.

Put God below science as if He is a servant of it or ignore Him completely then your science is going to be based upon assumptions which would never be considered if God is understood to be the creator.

These assumptions can only lead astray which then leads to the false assertion that God and science are at enmity, which is absurd.

This kind of reasoning leads to the futility of their minds and because of their ignorance of God or deliberate ignoring of Him it blinds also their hearts and they give themselves to sensuous living getting more and more depraved, as indeed we are seeing in our time.

After all, if science is your god then you are just an animal anyway, why not behave as one!

If God does not exist then let is eat, drink and be merry and do whatever else we want for there is no-one to answer to anyhow.

We should not be surprised at what is happening in our nation and others.

If there is no God there is no need for morals.

I do not understand those who don’t believe in God and say they have a strong moral compass.

Why bother at all?

It is every person for themselves for it is survival of the fittest.

Where do morals come from if God is not there?

They have answers which do not stand up.

Fools, they are indeed!

Their moral compass comes from the very God they deny!

And this was our state before we came to Christ ourselves.

We were blind and ignorant but the light of the gospel shone through.

20-24

What is even more shameful is that we who know Christ should know better.

The truth is in Jesus and we acknowledge this.

We have learned the new way.

The way we lived or perhaps still do needs to be left behind.

We still do things we ought not being deceived and tempted by various lusts.

How do lusts deceive?

By making us those who are not contented with what we have.

We are not satisfied.

Do you know what this means?

It means that we do not trust God to supply everything we need.

We need to be renewed in our minds and the best way for that to happen is to know Scripture and to do it.

The Church is meant to be distinct, or peculiar as the King James puts it, not acting and behaving the same as the rest of the world.

We are to stand out from the crowd.

We are not of the world for this is the devil’s domain as we heard this morning.

It is not only Paul who speaks of this but Peter too:

We are to put on the new man for we are new creations from the new birth for it is there that we are made righteous and holy.

How do we put on the new man?

25-32

Here, Paul gives us some practical points: stop lying, don’t let anger overcome you past the end of each day, don’t steal, be careful about your words but instead speak the truth, forgive, work to be able to give to others, and build others up in encouragement.

Words easily corrupt us.

Trump spoke some unguarded words with someone else on a bus when he thought no one was listening, the kind of banter that many of us have engaged in in the past.

Are any of us truly guiltless in this matter?

Are we speaking of others behind their back instead of kind words, the kind of things we want others to say about us.

We are to forgive just as we have been forgiven.

Bitterness will gnaw at our souls and destroy us if we let it and destroy others, too.

Bitterness produces harsh and hard opinions of others.

The opposite is to be tenderhearted.

Putting on the new, then, is more to do with living the life of God who lives in us.

This would seem to indicate that this is all about our effort but it is not - it is something done in us by the death of Christ…it is He who dresses us as the new man.

How is it possible to grieve/sadden/distress/sorrow the Holy Spirit?

Paul says that it is possible for us to grieve the Holy Spirit who lives in us and guarantees our redemption so that we genuinely belong to God.

The Holy Spirit is not some force as found in Star Trek but He has a personality: He teaches, intercedes and speaks and can also be hurt by our actions and frustrated by our sin.

We are to submit to His working in our life.

We are being changed from the inside out.

But let me note for those who are concerned that they have grieved the Holy Spirit.

We all have.

But He has stuck with us through thick and thin.

We are still His.

But let us not continue to grieve Him.

Repent!

5.1-2

We are to imitators of God.

We are to mimic Him.

We are to imitate the Father and Christ in their love for each other.

Why?

Because we are the King’s kids.

We are His beloved children and in the way that He has loved us we are also to love.

In giving ourselves for God and for others we are making ourselves a sweet-smelling aroma to God.

After all that He has done for us the last thing we want to smell of is rubbish.

We can be imitators of God because we have Jesus to follow.

The more we know Him the more we are able to be like Him.

5.3-14

In fact, Paul goes on to say that there are certain things that make us smell bad: sexual sin, coveting, foolish talk and so on.

Paul says almost exactly the same thing in another of his letters:

Most of us, if not all, already accept that sexual behaviour outside of marriage is not right but what of these other words: what of covetousness?

The desire to have the things that someone else has.

Coveting is synonymous with greed.

It is to be too earthly rather than heavenly minded.

To covet is to crave for power and possessions.

Is this a repeat of this morning’s sermon?! Is this something recognisable in us?

Is this not the Western disease?

Aren’t our political systems built on greed?

Of course there are no worldly system that stands up to the scrutiny of God.

A story is told of a king who was suffering from a mysterious malady and was advised by his astrologer that he would be cured if the shirt of a contented man was brought for him to wear.

People went out to all parts of the kingdom looking for such a person, and after a long search they found a man who was really happy.

But he did not even possess a shirt.

But how caught up in the world are we?

Paul says to be covetous is to be an idolater.