Behaving is believing – Part 2

Ephesians 4: 25-32

How you behave is almost always a foolproof indication of how strongly you really believe!

1. THE CENTRALITY OF A BELIEF

All of us have a way of looking at the world, a way of seeing things, of evaluating things. That way is called our worldview. Our worldview is like the spectacles through which we see everything.

According to Moreland, p. 74, “The centrality of a belief is the degree of importance the belief plays … in your worldview.”

The more central a belief is to you, the more it impacts your behaviour while you hold it and the more it impacts your worldview should you give it up.

Could it be that part of our problem with reference to bad habits, besetting or frequent sins, and areas of spiritual weakness has to do with beliefs held strongly even but not regarded as central to our worldview?

What does my current behaviour really say about the content of my belief, the strength of my belief, and the centrality of my belief (in line with our text)? In which areas do I need change to be more consistently Christlike?

Against that crucial backdrop concerning behaving and believing, let us now examine some of the behavioural terms in our text.

In v. 25 we are admonished ‘to put off falsehood’. If that is too polished for you, it means “stop telling lies”. Never ever declare, by whatever means, what you know or suspect or have reason to believe is not true.

Hear me! That applies to April Fool’s Day pranks, too. Lying has no colouration so ‘white lie‘ is still a lie. How are you regarding the content, strength, and centrality of your belief about lying? Honest to God.

Then what is the writer getting at in that puzzling v. 26? So can I be legitimately angry but just don’t let it get out of hand? Yes, our Lord was angry in Mark 3:5. The issue seems to be the cause of the anger, God’s business (righteous anger at wrong, injustice), or your personal beef (ego or pride hurt). Ponder a comment from a prominent biblical scholar who says “Anger, as the mere expression of wounded personality, is sinful; for it means that self is in command. Anger, as the pure expression of repugnance to wrong in loyalty to God, is sinless where there is true occasion for it” (Moule). Not easy to differentiate at times so avoid sustained anger (the force of ‘let not the sun go down’) and leave no loophole for the devil (v. 27 ).

Verse 28 is critical, especially in Jamaica. Stealing, taking possession of or making use of someone else’s property without permission or authority to do so is stealing. Listen, the size of the property, by your reckoning, is not the key. As long as it is not yours, leave it alone.

Watch stealing the boss’s time at work by doing nothing when work is there to be done or by doing non-office things at work like having your devotions or being on your cell phone. Stop stealing.

Work so that you can earn and have to give to the needy, but don’t avoid work in order to beg. Borrowing without an intention to pay back is a species of stealing.

Verse 29, avoid unwholesome talk, is broad, yes. Expletives/bad words or rotten language or worthless words are examples of what to avoid as well as polished standard English ‘tell off’. The recommended counter of verse 29 is to use ‘words that bring benefit to others’ .

The admonition in verse 30 about not grieving the Holy Spirit coming right after the corrective about foul or rotten language has prompted some commentators to argue that the use of rotten or worthless language is one way that we may grieve the Spirit.

Next in verse 31 comes a rather rare word in the New Testament – ‘bitterness’ – a figurative term that suggests a sourpuss and a mean-spirited, harsh person. This is the kind of person concerning whom we say privately “(s)he always looks and sounds as if (s)he is in malice with the world”. Then come a couple pairs of vices that are particularly detrimental to community life - ‘wrath, anger’, related vices we met in 26, 27. Wrath is like water in a kettle right as it begins to boil. Anger is like the same water a few minutes after you plug out the kettle, deceptively still but scaldingly hot.

The other pair is ‘brawling, slander’ or ‘clamour, evil speaking’. There is an element of noise in brawling/clamour = loud telling off. Slander/evil is the Greek word from which we get our English word blasphemy (usually reserved for God), but here, it is what hurts a person’s reputation or character. The writer says get rid of all these vices along with every form of malice or bad-heartedness or ‘having up’ people over sometimes simple little foolishness.

I call attention to verse 32, especially for women but not only for them. When you are wronged, hard though it may be, learn to forgive and drop it. You may not forget the incident because it was really painful when it happened, but there is no sting in the memory years later if you have really forgiven. Be kind and tenderhearted. You also need forgiveness from people you have hurt, and God forgave all your sins. Forgive others freely and sincerely.Don’t just conveniently mouth it. Genuinely mean it from your heart.

CONCLUSION

Behaving is believing, so I need to examine the content, strength, and centrality of what I deep down believe through how I behave, all in line with what the Word of God demands.

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