This week I want to talk about a few rules we as believers of Christ ought to abide by with the book of Ephesians as the main guide.

To give a little context, the book of Ephesians was written by Paul, a Jew by birth, born into a family of Pharisees. Prior to being a Christian, Paul (birth name; Saul) persecuted the Christians for believing and proclaiming that Jesus Christ was the Messiah and the son of God.

After an encounter with God, his name became Paul and he began to spread the word of God to whoever was willing to listen. He was later persecuted by the Jews and was eventually placed under house arrest for 2 years. During his house arrest, he wrote a few books and the book of Ephesians is one of the books he wrote.

Ephesians 4 and 5 are letters he wrote to the Gentiles (specifically the recently converted believers in Christ) and he wrote it to encourage them and energize them in their faith. It was meant as a kind of manual to guide them to understand what it means to live in Christ.

Even though this was written 2000 years ago it is still very much relevant in our daily lives. Many of us have lost our focus, some of us have sidetracked while others are conforming to their environments. And instead of listening to correction we take offense when fellow believers point out our flaws.

As humans who strive to live a Christ-like life it is normal for us to have ups and downs in the journey for we are not perfect. But this is the reason why it is important for us to know the word and listen to advice so we can fall back on it in our time of difficulties. Everything listed in this chapter is something that God has told us before both directly and indirectly and I’ll be making references to them so we can see that Paul didn’t make them up himself.

Now what are those instructions?

Starting from Ephesians 4 starting from verse 17:

17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.
18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.
19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.
20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned
21 when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.
22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds;
24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Let’s pause here and examine this part. Paul is saying that we (who are believers of Christ) should no longer live as the Gentiles (the pagans and heathen) who have given themselves over to greed and impurities. But rather we should live the way we were taught by Christ, putting away our old selves and being made new.

We can read this in John 3:3-7 where Jesus told Nicodemus that one can only see the Kingdom of God when they’re born again.
This means no matter what sins you were born with, or how you chose to live your life, once you decide to surrender yourself to Christ and be truly born again, you shall be saved.

New age Christians have a standard excuse when someone points out a sin they’re committing ‘I was BORN this way and I know God loves me because He created me this way.’
No one is saying God didn’t create you or that He doesn’t love you. The bible clearly says that to be saved we need to be born again. This means doing away with our sins and earthly desires and following the will of God instead of our own will.
We CANNOT continue to live the way we were before Christ and still expect the promises he made to His children to be fulfilled in our lives.
So yes we were born in sin ‘Psalm 51:5’ but we are NOT to remain in sin.

Moving on to Ephesians 4:25
25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.
26 “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,
27 and do not give the devil a foothold.
28 Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.

I purposely did not pick Leviticus 19 because some of the laws do not apply to us anymore as New testament believers so to avoid any debate I’ll be making reference to John 8:44 where Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for not understanding Him when He speaks the truth for they belong to the devil and are therefore only able to understand lies.

Also in Ecclesiastes 7:9 the bible says
Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.

And in Exodus 20 where God gave the 10 commandments to Moses we see in verse 15-16 ‘thou shalt not steal’ and ‘thou shalt not give false testimony against thy neighbor‘.
This is the 8^th and the 9^th commandment given to us by God.

Back to Ephesians 4: 29-32
29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.
32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

In Mark 7: 20-23 Jesus talks about the things that defile a person.

²⁰ He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them.
²¹ For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder,
²² adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.
²³ All these evils come from inside and defile a person.

In Revelation 21:6-8 we can read where God tells Apostle John about those who will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

To cut the long story short what Paul is saying in Ephesians 4:29-32 is that those who like to bring others down, those who grieve the Holy Spirit, those who are malicious, who like to slander others, who are always angry and don’t forgive are committing sins that could hinder them from entering the kingdom of heaven.

Before we move on to Chapter 5, I want to quickly list out 8 things we can read from the instructions Apostle Paul gave to us which have been confirmed by God in the scriptures I made reference to:

1. Be born again, putting away the things of old and living a new life in Christ according to how Jesus taught us to live.
2. Speak truthfully and stay away from lies
3. Do not allow anger to consume us and lead us astray
4. Do not steal but work with whatever we have and even share the little we have with those in need
5. Do not slander others or be malicious towards them
6. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit
7. Get rid of all bitterness
8. Be compassionate and forgiving towards one another

Apostle Paul’s instructions continue in chapter 5.
1 Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children
2 and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.
4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.
5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Verse 1-5 is a summary of what we read in Chapter 4.

6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.
7 Therefore do not be partners with them.

Reading this made me wonder if Apostle Paul would have been able to convince the current generation of how to behave according to the scriptures. Imagine if he had a twitter account or whatever social media platform, I feel like he would have been cancelled immediately.

Online Christians would berate him for spreading hate and discriminating against the things that are now normalized. Because how dare he say that those who practice sexual immorality would not see the Kingdom of heaven….in this oversexualized generation?? Impossible!

I can already imagine the comment section before me filled with comments like:
Doesn’t your bible say ‘thou SHALT NOT JUGDE?’ Why then is he condemning people to hell?

Another comment will look like ‘I thought Christianity was all about spreading love and acceptance’

Does this mean we shouldn’t correct our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ when we see them doing wrong things?

Our generation believes in complete freedom as long as we’re not hurting anyone but we seem to forget that EVERYTHING WE DO IN LIFE comes with a consequence whether it was good or bad.

Trying to share the gospel with others is now seen as robbing people from their freedom. Correction has turned to judging the personal relationship one has with Christ. We have taken the freedom given to us by God to an extreme and are barely any different from unbelievers in our conduct.

Apostle Paul says:
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light
9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)
10 and find out what pleases the Lord.
11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.
12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.
13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light.

Here the Bible explicitly says that we should actively FIND OUT WHAT PLEASES THE LORD AND SO IT. Not only that, we should also EXPOSE deeds of darkness.

So next time someone quotes Matthew 7:1 which says Do not judge or you too will be judged’ tell them Ephesians 5:11 gives you the authority to expose fruitless and wicked acts.

Matthew chapter 7 is always taken out of context. If you read the whole chapter we can see that Jesus was telling us to not be hypocrites. It says the SAME WAY you judge others, by THAT SAME measure will you also be judged. So if you’re always clubbing and posting it on your Instagram stories for the world to see, don’t criticize or judge your friend doing the same thing. First work on yourself BEFORE you try to fix your neighbor.

Also when correcting others do it with love, there’s no need to insult, slander of bully someone for a sin they’re committing for we are all sinners in one way or another. You can’t say your sin to another and feel entitled to correcting them….that’s not how it works.

My point is if you don’t want me telling you to cover up in the comment section then don’t post your nudes on the internet meanwhile your BIO says God first or Unashamed of the gospel. You are giving an incorrect representation of what a believer should be and should act like and so it is within my right to correct that representation.

If we want to identify as Christians, we should do it properly.

14 This is why it is said: “Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
15 Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise,
16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.
17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.
18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit,
19 speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord,

This is a famous discussion withing the Christian community. To drink or not to drink? There are A LOT of bible verses warning Christians about drinking and drunkenness for example;

Galatians 5:21 which says: ‘envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.’
Those that want to drink will still drink no matter how many scriptures we read so moving on to the last verse.

20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In all things let us give thanks unto the Lord, even during dark times. The covid pandemic taught us how important and yet flimsy life is. So let us always be grateful to God.

To round up, I will continue where we left off in the list of instructions we got out of chapter 4. In chapter 5 there are 5 things that can be listed out;

1. Live as children of light and find out what please the Lord
2. Have nothing to do with deeds of darkness and expose them
3. Be careful of how you live
4. Do not get drunk on wine but rather the Holy Spirit
5. Always give thanks to the Lord for everything

With the two chapters we have a crystal clear manual that indicates what should be done and what shouldn’t be done.

I pray the Holy Spirit guides us as we try to abide to His word.

Stay Blessed x