Joshua Williams, professor of Old Testament and director of Research Doctoral Studies at Southwestern Seminary, preached from Ephesians 4:25-32, in SWBTS Chapel on February 25, 2025.
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Well, good morning Southwestern seminary and Texas Baptist College. Or maybe it’s just morning, maybe, maybe it’s not good morning. Anyway. Dr Dockery, thank you for the opportunity to share God’s Word this morning, and I just wanted to have a little shout out to my wife and son, John, Nita and Luke are seated over here, along with some friends members of Wedgwood Baptist Church, and I know I have my parents and some friends in Northwest Arkansas who are watching at this time as well. So hi, mom, I don’t know where you are A few years ago, Brian Burkett, his health started failing him. He was in and out of the hospital several times over several months, and the conditions just kept getting worse and worse, and the doctors told him that he was going to need a new liver. He had a genetic defect in which his liver had constant cirrhosis, and his liver was failing.
Usually, if you need a liver, you find a liver through an Ogan donor, an organ donor upon their death, but he had a rare blood type, and so it was quite unlikely that he could wait that long. So, the doctors advised him to look for a living donor. Well, he contacted family and friends and a coworker, somebody that he worked with, a man named Mike Snyder, agreed to give up 70% of his liver in order to transplant it into Brian’s body. That act of kindness literally saved Brian’s life, and I know because Sundays, I see him, he’s a member at Wedgewood Baptist Church and attends with me, and He looks strong and healthy to this day, almost 10 years later. Now, the book of Ephesians is also very interested in a healthy body, but it’s not it’s not a physical body.
It’s the body of Christ, and the book demonstrates for us how God in Christ created a new body by making peace between Jews and Gentiles and subjecting all things to Christ as the head, right, Dr Osborne reminded us of the peace that Christ brought about. He is our peace. And in Ephesians four, the chapter picks up what it means to be a member of the Body of Christ, and how to take off the old man, the old humanity, and to put on the new man, made in the likeness of God, in God’s image. In our passage, Ephesians 425, through 32 charges us with five commands that lead to a final command. Here it is, be kind to one another in order to build up the body of Christ. Now verse 25 charges us with the first command, don’t lie, but speak the truth, because we are members of one another. Verse 25 since you put away lying, speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another, don’t lie. Lying seems straightforward enough, right?
What is lying? Lying is when you say something that is not true, well, or at least it’s when you say something that you know is not true as though it were true. I mean, that’s lying, right. And I’m sure the Apostle Paul would not want us to say things that we know are not true as though they were true, but I want to focus on a particular type. Of lying in the context of this verse, you see in the context of Ephesians four, it makes a whole lot of sense that the kind of lying that’s in view here is the kind of lying that takes place in the body, right? This is a kind of lying that undermines the trust within a body. It’s the kind of lying that takes place among the members, whether this is lying about doctrine, whether this is lying about others, or lying about ourselves.
And there’s a a particularly pernicious form of lying that I want to address. It’s what I it’s what I like to call filling the gap, right? This is the kind of lying where you don’t know something, but you know there’s a gap in your knowledge, but you go ahead and fill it anyway. You go something like this, hey, do you know why that couple went down front during the invitation this morning? Well, I don’t know, but my guess is, knowing them, they’re probably having marital troubles. You fill the gap, and then the person who heard it, when they tell it the next time, how does it go? Did you hear what I heard?
I heard that that couple was having trouble. And then it just grows and grows and grows from here. This is a pernicious problem, right? One that sneaks in and finds its way into a body, a congregation, and disrupts unity. It breeds distrust, right? So don’t lie, but speak the truth, because we are members of one another. Now verses 26 and 27 they charge us with the second command, be angry, but don’t sin, because anger is a place for the devil. It opens the door for the devil to come in. Now I must admit, I find this second command to be a little strange. Why is Paul telling them to be angry? Be angry. Be angry about what? Why would I be angry? What is going on here? Why tell me to be angry? I mean, let’s be honest, not a lot of people need to be told to be angry. They kind of figure that out on their own.
But I think what’s happening here is Paul is picking up on connection. That is, that stems from Psalm chapter four. If you read Psalm chapter four, the Psalmist talks about the fact that his enemies are spreading lies about him. They’re dishonoring him by spreading empty, deceitful words. And then just after that, it says, Be angry, but don’t sin. Now, if you look at the larger context, I don’t think Paul is picking up on the whole argument of Psalm chapter four. I think he’s just picking up on the connection, the connection between lying and anger, just like we see here in Ephesians, 2526 but again, anger about what it doesn’t say. But here’s my guess, not much. The truth is, not much should make us angry.
I mean, think about it. Think about the last couple times that you became angry, right? Your face got red. I mean, you were angry, muscles tight, you know what I’m talking about. Everybody. Anybody know what that anger is? You’ve been angry. Here’s my guess. It went something like this. There was something that you wanted to do or get or keep or protect, and somebody or something else interfered with your desire to do it, to get it, to keep it or to protect it, and so you got angry. In other words, anger is usually about what I want, and that alone is reason enough to be suspicious of anger, but I want us to think about it in this context as well. What is it that anger can do? Well, it can lead to sin.
Now, is there any kind of Justified Anger, right? Okay, sometimes I get angry because I don’t get what I want, but sometimes, right? There’s justifiable anger, perhaps. But let me tell you something. Paul is not interested in justifying anger. He’s interested in limiting it right. Notice the rest of the verse, do not let the sun go down on your anger. Justified or not, it needs to last a very little bit of time. By the time the day is over, anger, no matter what anger needs to be, set aside, because anger that festers breeds sin, and just a little bit of sin can lead to a whole lot of trouble. And that’s, in fact, what verse 27 is getting at? Do not give an opportunity. Do not give a place, a space for the devil.
Don’t let him in the door. There’s a German saying that captures this, this warning. Well, okay, so you ready for a little German? Okay, perhaps, here we go. So ven man dem toyful den kleinen finger Hunt. In other words, if a person gives the devil a pinky, he’ll take the whole hand, right? You give the devil just a little bit of space, and he’s going to come in and wreak havoc. I think this is particularly dangerous in the context of the Body of Christ. How many churches have we heard of that dismantled, that fell apart because one person got angry at another, and that person’s anger left unchecked, bred to more anger and more anger and sin upon sin, upon sin. And I have to admit, I have a little bit of a concern today, because it seems to me that in their wider culture, there’s like a whole anger industry.
Like anger is a strategy that people are using, whether it’s in politics or education or entertainment or whatever else, people are trying to rile everybody up to get angry in order to drive their company or their college or their candidacy to Success. And I’m afraid that Christians are buying it. They’re out there trying to stoke anger. And usually, usually it’s anger at them, you know, I’m saying at the enemy. And they get to define who the enemy is. And sometimes we listen, we start defining the enemy out there, and we try to use anger in order to drive something forward. But let me remind you, man’s anger never produces godliness. Our churches can never be fueled by anger.
Anger will never lead to holiness. It will only wreak havoc. So be angry. Don’t sin, right? Because anger is an opportunity to open the door to the devil. Now, verse 28 gives us, charges us with the third command, don’t steal, but work hard so that you can give to those in need. Look with me, the thief must no longer steal. Instead, he must do honest work with his own hands so that he has something to share with anyone in need. Now, of course, Paul was speaking to the Ephesians, and even in chapter four, he’s already talked about the Gentiles, who used to be deluded in their minds, in their vein thinking, and driven by greed and stealing, is just the outworking of greed. You have something that I don’t have. I want it, and so I’m going to violate. Rights in order to get it right. That’s stealing, in a nutshell. And instead of stealing, what does he call these believers to do?
He calls them to work hard with their own hands. But notice the motivation. This is what I find so interesting. It’s not just hard work. It’s not just give up stealing. Why work? Work hard with your own hands so that you have something to give to someone else. I mean, let me use an analogy. Okay, think about this with me. Let’s say it is apple picking season. Okay, the apples are ripe and apples, that’s pretty much all I got to feed my family for the next couple of months, and I know that it is going to take 500 apples for me to be able to do what I need to do for my family for this amount of time. And I don’t know, picking apples. If you actually pick apples from the trees so that they don’t bruise or anything, and you’re doing it manually.
What’s it look like? Your hands are in the air. Your head is tilted up. You are standing up, you are climbing, you are moving. It is exhausting, difficult work to do for hours on end. I have no idea how many hours it takes to pick 500 apples? But I’m thinking it’s a lot right now, if I know I need 500 apples, why in the world would I spend another miserable minute doing it? Would I be just as motivated to work hard if I knew that every apple after my 500 went to somebody else who couldn’t pick, I don’t know. I mean, to be honest, I don’t know. Would you be as motivated to work hard so that you could bring down all the apples in order to just give them away to everybody else, exhausting, awful, difficult, physically demanding work. Well, that’s the very thing that the body of Christ demands of us.
This is what Christ does, the new man, and the new humanity that is imparted on the body of Christ motivates this kind of work, not just work for personal gain, but work for your gain, that you may have something to provide for Somebody in need. And so as a result, don’t steal, but work hard so that you have something to give someone in need. Now, verse 29 charges us with the fourth command, don’t use rotten speech, but use edifying speech, because it is a gift to those who hear it right. Read with me. Let no foul language or no rotten talk, should come from your mouth, but only what is good for the building up of someone in need in order to give grace to those who hear I mean, translations differ on how to render this first phrase. Is it corrupt language, or is it foul language? This is the hcsb, and he reads rotten talk.
And the imagery here is of something that is decaying. It’s like when you leave the food out too long, meat out too long, and it starts to decay. It starts to rot. It’s disgusting, putrid, right? It’s like, if you can imagine, refrigerator full of meat, the electricity goes off and it sits there, not for an hour, not for a day, but for weeks. And weeks open up the door, and what’s going to happen, your first impulse will be a gag reflex. I guarantee you; it stinks. Nobody would ever think to eat that kind of meat. If you did, you would get sick and you would probably die. I mean, I don’t know for sure, but I’m thinking, you run me like that, you’re probably going to die. Here’s the reality, here’s the deal.
Our speech is the food for others souls, whether we like it or not, whenever we speak, we’re inviting others to dine on our language. And this doesn’t just, this isn’t just, you know, curse words or, or course, jokes, I’m sure those are covered. But in particular, within the context of Ephesians, this is language that tears down, right? Because the opposite is words that edify and it tears others down. Now, in contrast, we are to use edifying language. Why? Because it’s a gift. And in the context of Ephesians, you say it’s a gift, what do you mean? It’s a gift. It’s a gift to those who hear it, or it gives grace to those who hear it.
In this context, earlier in Ephesians, you may be reminded that each member works according to the grace given in that context, the grace given is that which enables the person to fulfill their mission as a member of the body. I think the same thing is in view here, edifying speech. What does it do? Edifying speech? It builds up, it empowers those who hear it so that they can fulfill their role as a member of the Body of Christ. When my kids were little, every once in a while, just always surprised.
Every once in a while, they would talk about somebody would use the S word it was. It was particularly surprising because often these were, like, our adult friends, people from our church, sometimes people at the seminary or pastors, and we were like, what’s going on here? But around our house, there were quite a quite a few words that we just didn’t allow our children to say, and one of them was our S word, s, t, u, p, i, d. Now, my guess is nobody here thinks that that’s foul language, right? Nobody’s going, Oh, it’s embarrassing. Nobody thinks that it’s anything along those it’s not crude or anything else like that. But my wife would often say something like this. It may not be a bad word, but it shows a bad attitude. And this is particularly true when we’re talking about other people. I mean, the truth is, the truth is, I think we’ve become so desensitized to how bad our language smells.
We’ve become so desensitized to using these derogatory terms when we speak to each other, where it’s like the S word, but I want you to imagine, imagine that you invited a brother or sister in Christ over to your house, and what you set before them was a plate of rotten meat. I think you’d be embarrassed, at least shameful, probably ashamed if what you pulled out and set in front of them would kill them, but imagine the contrast if you invited them over, they sit down and you serve them delicious and nutritious food. Listen, that is our speech, like it or not, our speech is the food that those who hear it dine on. So as a result, don’t use rotten language, but use edifying language because it is a gift to those who hear it. It enables them to fulfill their role as a member of the body.
Now verse 30 charges us with the fifth command and don’t grieve God’s Holy Spirit, who sealed you for the day of redemption. Now notice this command is different than the others, right? It has a negative I don’t. Right, but it doesn’t have a positive a do. And I don’t mean like the French, a do, right, a do, Farewell, alfeed, the same, goodbye, no, anyone. I’m not talking about a do, as in the French, goodbye. I’m talking about a do and a don’t, right, that kind it’s just got a don’t, but it doesn’t have a do. And furthermore, what does this command even mean?
Like I get it, don’t use bad language. Use edifying language. I know what that means. Don’t lie, tell the truth. I know what that means. I know how to do that, right? Don’t steal. Work hard. I know how to do that too. Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit. How do I do that? Well, Isaiah 63 nine and 10 uses very similar language when it talks about Israel and talks about how Israel had rebelled and abandoned the Lord even after he had redeemed them, see his redemption should have secured their loyalty, but it didn’t. And instead, the people rebelled. They disobeyed, and they grieved God’s Spirit. Well, in Ephesians, this kind of rebellion, this disloyalty, takes different forms. In fact, I would argue that the forms that it takes are what the preceding commands are all about.
How do you how do you grieve the spirit, tell lies. How do you grieve the spirit steal? How do you grieve the spirit? Use rotten language? Why? Because the Spirit, the Spirit is the seal, right? The Spirit, part of his activity is sealing us for the day of restoration as the people of God. And when we lie and when we steal and when we use rotten language, we tear at the fabric of the body, right? We undermine what Christ did? What did Christ do? Christ created one body, one body making peace between Jews and Gentiles, one spirit, one Lord. It’s one body. When we lie, we tear at the body. When we steal, we rip away from the body. Honestly, it reminds me of the old practice of quartering, which was a form of torture used in the past.
And I’ll not be too graphic here, but quartering is when you it’s quarters, right? So, if you look at me as a human being, two arms, two legs, if you can imagine tying each of those to a different horse and then making them run, it’s painful. And see the spirit, that one Spirit, that spirit is what promotes the bond of unity, what keeps this whole body together, the spirit. Look, if you hook up horses to me and you pull me in four directions, I am probably not going to say I am grieved, right? I mean, Paul is using language here that’s a little bit understated. We’re not it’s not just a grief. It’s pain. How could it not be? How could it not be when Christ died on the cross, shedding His blood to be our peace, to make one body, and yet here we are, through our uncontrolled anger, through our unconsidered lies and our thoughtful speech, taking members of that body and yanking them from each other, and I’m just afraid that we do it far too often.
So, as a result, don’t grieve the Holy Spirit. Verses 31 and 32 they charge us with the final command, which sums up all the others. Don’t be malicious but be kind. Because. God in Christ was kind to you. Verse 31 and all bitterness, anger and wrath, insult and slander must be removed from you, along with all wickedness or most translations read with all malice, don’t be malicious. Why, of all these words would I pick up on the word malice or malicious? It’s not words that we use every day. I’m guessing maybe you do right. I feel that professor has malice towards me. I doubt it. But what is malice? Malice is a desire to harm someone else. That’s malice. Malice is an intent. It’s a desire. I want to hurt someone in all of these others, they either come from or lead to malice, anger, bitterness, slander, quarreling, disputing, insulting, it’s either motivated by or it leads to malice, tearing apart at the body.
But what are we to do? We’re to be kind, be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another, because God in Christ has forgiven us. Be kind to one another. You know, as we’ve been working our way through for the fruit of the Spirit and these virtues that are to characterize us as Christian institution, a body, if you will, not a church, but we should look like we should have the same character, should have the same characteristics, the same qualities, same virtues. And we’re going to look at kindness, looking at kindness today, and then goodness and gentleness. And it, you know, it’s not very easy to figure out how to distinguish those what’s the difference between kindness and goodness? What’s the difference between gentleness and kindness? Right? Be kind. That sounds like being gentle.
Well, here’s the difference. And I want you to see how it’s illustrated in these verses. To be kind is to do something for another’s benefit. It’s not about how we do it. I think that’s gentleness. It’s not a general quality who we are. I think that’s goodness. But kindness is what we do. We act in order to support, to help, to benefit others, others in the body, right in the body of Christ. And this is what all the other commands have been getting at, right? Don’t lie because it tears down the body, but speak the truth because it builds unity, supports unity in the body. Don’t steal, but work hard so that you can support those in the body. If you’re angry, limit it. Don’t sin, because anger is a it gives a foothold for the devil. Don’t use rotten speech, which tears the body down, but edifying speech which builds it up. And then this verse gives us the ultimate example of kindness, forgive one another.
I mean, there’s, there’s no greater, greater example of forgiveness, of kindness, than forgiveness, because forgiveness is bestowing a gift on somebody else who not only doesn’t deserve it, they have forfeited it because of their wrongdoing and right? But this is exactly what God in Christ has done for us. He has given us something so good, even though all we gave him was everything that was so bad. So, be kind to one another, right? Don’t be malicious. Be kind. Several years ago in North Carolina, there were. Um, two couples. Something went very wrong between the two couples. The they were friends, and they were members of the same church, but the husband of one couple started an adulterous relationship with the wife of the other couple. It was terrible. It was terrible and the estranged spouses came to the leadership of the church in order to ask for help, get some advice.
Now I want you to imagine what happened next, right? Some, a couple goes, they’re hurting. They come to the leaders of the church. They say our spouses have committed adultery with each other. What would you do? Would you respond with something like this. Oh, I saw that coming. I know that guy. I could, I could have seen this. No surprise here. Or would you get angry? What a couple of bozos, right, idiots. I hope that adulterous pair gets exactly what’s coming to them. Or would you blame the estranged spouses, right? Would you say? Why didn’t why? How could you let this happen? Didn’t you see this coming? Well, I don’t know what I would do, but I know what they did. Here’s what the leaders did with permission from those spouses left behind. They told the church what was happening, and that church did exactly what the church should do.
They put away anger, they put away slander, they put away gossip, and they supported those estranged spouses, I mean, financially supported them and supported them emotionally and spiritually, but not just that they didn’t let that adulterous pair go. No, no, no, they learned their schedule and they would show up so that they had to confront their sin. They would remind them and rebuke them and call them to repent to be restored to the spouse. And the leaders did this again and again. They prayed and they pled. Happened for weeks until the adulterous pair repented, and the spouses forgave them, and the church welcomed them back. You see, they were kind for the benefit of every member of the body. They didn’t lie, they didn’t steal, but gave. They didn’t use rotten speech, they didn’t grieve the spirit. Instead, they forgave, and the church was stronger for it.
In the spirit of this text, I want to, I want to plead with you, just as the Apostle Paul is pleading with the Ephesian church, listen, be kind to one another. Work for the benefit of every member of the body. Don’t lie but speak the truth. Be angry, but don’t sin. Don’t steal but work hard to give. Don’t use rotten language, but edifying language. Don’t grieve the spirit, but forgive each other, just as Christ has forgiven you, and in so doing, show the world who Christ is and what He has done in making creating one body, amen. Amen.
