Ephesians
4:29a
"Let
no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth,...’
Can
we tell the world that? Why, they would laugh at us because for most
of them that is the only way they can talk and think. We know this because of what John tells us in the first chapter of his synoptic gospel, if we have proper perception, we will also have proper understanding (look at John 1:1-12). I mean once
some of them leave the halls of their favor mausoleum of religious
repose or church, where they play the hypocrite without knowing it.
And are out away from it then their real character becomes apparent
to all. But for the true believer this is not to be part and parcel
of our conversation, or manor of living for we are to have our minds
renewed. We are not to have corrupt language as part of our daily
experience. So Paul says, "let no corrupt communication
proceed out of your mouth." We
are to speak the Truth in sincerity and Love, with full
understanding. Keeping in mind what John has revealed in those verses about understanding being the restored Spirit of Christ within us.
In
all of what we have covered does any of it sound like the teachings
of Jesus known as the Beatitudes as found in Matthew 5-7, with verses 5:1-12, repeated in Luke 6:20-26, as the main body. But in Matthew the fulness runs through 7 and each section of verses has there related passages mostly found in Luke.
Ephesians
4:29b
"...but
that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace
unto the hearers."
All
of this as we have been coming down through these verses, is to the
believer to help us to be a vehicle to approach the lost,
disbelieving and unbelieving people (though they are churched). Always
remember no true believer is ever going to get to first base with an
unbeliever if he is has foul language, it just will not fly, as even
the unbeliever knows that much. They know your real character and are
able to read us like a book. So here again Paul is admonishing us
as believers to watch our anger, not to steal, and to recognize the
wiles of Satan, and to be a giver as the Lord has prospered us. For
freely we have received spiritual insight (understanding) so give the same. See all
this is just common sense. We have always said that Christianity
is so logical in the everyday Christian life as Paul teaches it, and
we guess that is why we enjoy sharing it so much. So we are to
minister Grace through Love to the hearers, and moving on to verse
30.
Ephesians
4:30
"And
grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day
of redemption."
The word redemption should be Salvation, because as we have said the people to whom Paul is addressing here are already are the understanding and therefore they have entered into Salvation. Salvation is part and parcel of the New Covenant's operation within us because it operates in Grace. And Grace is the personage of Christ Jesus as witnessed to by John in his synoptic gospel (chapter 1:14 and 17). Which is what John the Baptist revealed about his cousin Jesus. I
can imagine that most of you know this, but maybe not. Do you know
that the Bible never speaks of the Holy Spirit getting angry?
There is no wrath of the Holy Spirit! There is no anger referred to
as the Holy Spirit's character! This is the harshest word you can
find in all of Scripture with regard to the response of the Holy
Spirit, is to grieve Him. He will not get angry evidently.
That is something to think about, so when we go contrary to the
Spirit’s leading, He is not going to pour out His wrath on us for
our disobedience, but rather He is grieved, He is hurt. And He
will leave us in what can be called darkness of inner anguish, though
He never does leave, He just becomes silent. You know when that
favorite girl gives you the cold shoulder or silent treatment for a
few days to teach us a lesson.
In
fact we just told one of our little grandchildren the other day, that
while growing up we had such a love for our own dad that we wouldn’t
do anything that would hurt him or grieve him. And we think that kept
us out of a lot of places that if we’d have gone there we knew that
this is where he wouldn’t want me to be, and we wouldn’t grieve
our dad. You see, this also what we told our little
grandchildren, "If" you do something that will hurt your dad, then that
same thing will also hurt me. So if you take that same analogy into
our Spiritual life, the Holy Spirit does not want to be hurt, and we
are not to grieve Him.
Here is a clue to this, there are allot of well meaning pastors and church people who say, that every hard, or troublesome thing is from the enemy, Satan. When they do so, they are grieving the Holy Spirit because they do not know Him in understanding. God uses hardships of all kinds as a means of training and teaching us of His lessons, in the perfecting of His Love. If we never suffer any hardships we are NOT His and are in-fact bastards and enmity to God. This kind of people are babes who remain on milk because they have rejected the meat of this Gospel of Grace. They remain in the area of Romans and Corinthians all their natural lives, why? because they do not hear the warnings in Hebrews and Galatians. The understanding of those five books is foundational to acquiring the understanding of the next high ground books of Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, then the Church government books of Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus and Philemon with some of there message spread within the text of the others. What do these books have in them? Remember:
DOCTRINE, REPROOF, CORRECTION, INSTRUCTION IN
RIGHTEOUSNESS – as being foundational to understanding
as stated in 2Timothy 3:16.
When
it comes to Paul’s teaching of the Holy Spirit, there are so many
places we could take you we hardly know where to begin. But I think
maybe we will go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 3. And as you remember
when we where here in Romans, for the first seven chapters, Paul
hardly ever mentioned the Holy Spirit. Then all of a sudden from
chapter 8 to the end of Romans he uses the Holy Spirit over and over.
Then coming into his next letter of 1Corinthians chapter 3, and
verse 16 we find the following.
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