Rev. David Fleming of Our Savior Lutheran Church and School in Grand Rapids, MI & Executive Director of Spiritual Care with DOXOLOGY joins host Rev. Brady Finnern to study Ephesians 4:17-32. Learn more about DOXOLOGY at doxology.us.
Christ has forgiven all of your sins. Paul preaches that we are to put on a new self with exhortations to be done by the Holy Spirit: put away falsehood, speak truth, be angry but do not sin, be kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving as Christ has forgiven you. These are high callings, but the LORD will not leave you to do this alone but will give You power by His Holy Spirit. We all need more truth, less anger, more kindness, tender people, and forgiveness from the hands of Christ. “O LORD, fill us with Your grace that we may live a new life that puts away all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, and malice. Lord help us. In Christ, Amen”
Thy Strong Word reveals the light of our salvation in Christ through study of God’s Word, breaking our darkness with His redeeming light. Each weekday, two LCMS pastors fix our eyes on Jesus by considering Holy Scripture, verse by verse, in order to be strengthened in the Word and be equipped to faithfully serve in our daily vocations.
Thy Strong Word is hosted by Rev. Brady Finnern, pastor of Messiah Lutheran Church in Sartell, MN, and graciously underwritten by the Lutheran Heritage Foundation.
Ephesians 4:17-32
The New Life
17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self,[a] which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Footnotes
- Ephesians 4:22 Greek man; also verse 24
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. esv.org
