166 - One Another - Part 5 [C]

Hebrews Lesson 166  July 23, 2009

^NKJ Isaiah 40:31 But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.

It has been three weeks since I left to go on vacation and most of you have probably forgotten what we were studying then. I know Ike did a great job while I was gone as did David Dunn. We're very fortunate that we have such a high caliber replacement when I go. One of the great privileges that we have as a congregation, especially with Ike, is to watch a young man like that as he goes through that process of seminary, learn and developing his spiritual gift, to watch someone like that go from his first very tentative steps when any of us first gets in the pulpit. We're more concerned about everything that we're doing. We forget whatever it is we are trying to teach. Who knows what comes out? Somewhere in my dad's house there's a tape hidden. I didn't hide it. I just don't know where it is. When I find it I'll destroy it of the very first time I spoke in a church. 

The reason I say that is there are people who ask the question – well, and we've had a couple of emails from folks who said, "Well, I was looking for Ike's messages on the internet." 

I have encouraged young guys who are first starting in the pulpit ministry to not put themselves under that pressure, that kind of exposure now. You used to not have anything like that because if you went someplace and they taped you, they would give it to the people there and that was pretty much it. But now if you put it out on the internet, it may be in your life forever. Who knows how you might feel about what you did in your first message 20 years into your ministry. I hope that no one shows up or resurrects anything that I taught the first 5 years because you're on training wheels. You're learning. So I give them the option, encouragement. I give them the option to decide whether or not they want to put their material out there or not. Ike has chosen not to put it out there. I think that's a wise decision. It takes a little pressure off. It gives him the opportunity to grow. 

Some people get the idea that because someone has the gift of pastor-teacher that it means they can sit down, open their Bible and it's something that happens automatically and they can immediately read it and they know all the doctrines that are there and understand it and they can stand up and expound on the Scriptures. That's not true. It is a gift that must be developed; a gift that must be trained. You must go through a process of education and learning the Bible and letting the Word of God saturate your own soul and to think through how all these doctrines individually as well how they integrate with one another. 

I remember a conversation. I won't mention his name, but you may guess with one of the pastors that I have mentored over the last ten years or so. He has spent some 30 plus years in Bible class learning, reading consistently. Part of his life, part of his career over the years he consistently studied and listened to hundreds and hundreds of hours, many of them going over and over again all the basic doctrines plus many advanced doctrines. I remember not too long ago he was teaching a series on some basic doctrines.

He said, "You know you really have to think through it. It's one thing to sit in the pew and think you understand it; but it is something completely different to stand up and try to explain it, to organize it and to expound on the Scriptures. You have to understand it and think about it in a completely different way than you ever have before." 

A lot of people may not understand that. They think that the spiritual gift just sort of magically makes it happen. It is an enhancement. A spiritual gift is an enhancement, an ability given by the Holy Spirit but not without our own work and our own effort. There are some people I think that because of their natural gifts, their natural talents as educators or communicators that that combined with a spiritual gift of communication works to make them a different kind of communicator. Plus Paul makes it clear in 1 Corinthians 12 that people, individuals, receive their gifts in different measure. So you may have one man with the gift of pastor-teacher to one degree and you may have another man who has been given that gift to a much, much greater degree. So these things are not the same for every person. 

I also believe that we may have more than one spiritual gift and how those gifts interconnect with one another is very interesting. I've met men who have gifts of administration as well as gifts of pastor-teacher. That looks very different from somebody who has the gift of pastor-teacher along with the gift of helps or the gift of mercy. So that combined with their natural personality, combined with their natural talents that they have, all means that these things mix up. 

Spiritual gifts I think are likened to primary colors and how you take those colors and then put them on the palette, mix them, blend them and then apply them to the canvas is going to look very different from person to person. These young new pastors who go through training, go through seminary can only really learn how to develop that ability that skill to explain, to teach, to be relaxed in front of people by spending time in front of people. So it's really a great privilege for congregations then ten years from now to be able to look out and be able to see the men who have come through that congregation.

They can say, "I remember when I was barely waiting for him to finish that first time and praying that he would make it."

We've all seen guys like that. I'm sure I was that way when I first started as well. So it's a great privilege we have to be a part, to allow God to use us in that ministry in the life of these men as God is preparing them for their future ministry and to give them opportunities to teach. And that is part of the role of a local church, which is what we're talking about in our passage in Hebrews 10:24ff. There we read:

^NKJ Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good work

This is a verse that is really pregnant with meaning and significance because it is one of those verses that relates to the life of the body of Christ – how individual members of the body of Christ, individual believers are to relate to one another. That is a very important doctrine that we see this verse referencing. 

So for example we've started with the Doctrine of One Another. We made it through I think 11 points the last time. So I'm going to briefly take us through the last couple of points I covered right before I went on vacation. I'm not going to go back to point 1 every time. I have over 20 points in this so I don't want to repeat myself again and again.

The 8^th point was we are to be accepting of one another. We are to receive one another as one translation puts it, using the Greek word proslambano – to accept, to receive, to be open. When we see people come into the congregation, we are to be welcoming. We are to have an attitude where they feel they can be put at ease and feel comfortable. 

We all know that there are times when people come in that we look at them and we go, "Are these people really going to fit?" 

We look at somebody and we think, "My goodness, how in the world do they fit with our congregation?" 

Yet we never know what they're going to look like as a result of taking in doctrine for 2 or 3 years and how they might change. So we need to have that attitude of accepting people not in terms of where they are, but n terms of what God can do with them through the Holy Spirit and through the Word of God. 

So we are to receive one another just as Christ also received us. A comparison we'll see in a couple of other of the passages that we look at this evening is that Jesus Christ received us and we weren't all that attractive to begin with. Now some of you think you might have been, but we were all equally obnoxious in our unrighteousness to God. We didn't look very good to Him. There wasn't anything winsome about us that would make the Lord desire us because of who and what we are. It is all based on Him, who and what He is. All of these actually are perfect expressions of grace orientation where the foundation for these attitudes is based on the character of God. Because of who God is and what Christ did on the cross, we are to have a different attitude and approach to others who are members of the body of Christ. 

The 9^th point was also from Romans 15 (Romans 15:14) that we are to admonish one another. That's not necessarily a negative term. The English word "admonish" sounds that way but this does not give license for one believer to get in another believer's face unless you've developed a context of communication with that person where they give you the liberty to do so. You can't just walk across the church because somebody is dressed a certain way or says something that offends you or that you didn't think was right and then tell them that was wrong. This isn't an excuse for arrogant self-righteousness. This just describes what goes on within any family. 

If you have in your background (some people don't today because of the breakdowns in all the family but if you have within your background) a frame of reference for seeing a close family relationship between brothers and sisters and parents and their siblings, aunts and uncles; then you see this take place. 

People who have close friends. They have the freedom to say to somebody, "You know you probably shouldn't have said it that way. You were a little bit obnoxious to that waitress today at lunch. They way you tipped might not have been the most gracious way", or whatever it might be. It's a way that you communicate as only friends who have established a framework, a relationship of intimacy and trust, can do. 

So that's the idea of admonishment. It has the idea of something based on knowledge. The Greek word that's used there, noutheteo indicates it's based on the root nous meaning thought. So it is something that has been given thought. It is not something that is flippant. It is something that is thought out as a basis for the encouragement of another believer.

The tenth point, we are to have the same care for one another. 1 Corinthian 12:25 that there should be no schism in the body but that members have the same care for one another. We should not necessarily show favoritism. There are some people that we are closer to and some people than others, but we should care about some and we shouldn't necessarily set up one group within the church as being more worthy than another group within the church. James says the same thing over in James 2 when he deals with the case of the prejudiced usher who gives all the favoritism to the wealthy person that comes in and just ignores the poor person that comes in. 

Then we came to the 11^th point which is where I stopped I believe the last time. Serve one another through love, Galatians 5:13. This is a passage that focuses on the mandate that Paul gives in Galatians to love one another. Galatians 5 is one of the greatest and most significant chapters in all of the Bible related to the spiritual life. So let's look at that briefly before we move on.  Galatians 5:13 states:

^NKJ Galatians 5:13 For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

When we see that word "called", that immediately takes us back to the responsibility that we have as members within the body of Christ. The calling of the believer is tantamount to his adoption, his being placed within the body of Christ. So within the body of Christ we are all equally members of body of Christ. We are members of God's royal family. In Galatians Paul has developed a Doctrine of Adoption to a higher degree than it had been before. We're adopted into God's royal family. As adult sons, as huios sons, in God's royal family, there is a level of conduct that is expected of us. We are expected to behave in a way that reflects honorably upon God the Father and upon the family, the royal family of God. So that is the reference to the calling here. 

We've been called to liberty. Liberty is a characteristic of every member of the family of God. But members of the family of God can use that liberty as an opportunity for the sin nature. We call that licentiousness. We treat grace as if it is a license to sin. 

Now some people get very upset about that. Every now and then you hear people teach on 1 John 1:9 that when you sin in the Christian life whether it's a minor sin of telling what might be considered a little white lie to a major sin of murder or adultery or fornication or any of the things that people get shocked about whatever it might be; all you need to do to recover your fellowship with God is to admit to Him that you did that. Just confess it. That's all confession means. Confession doesn't mean that you have to work up some sort of emotion, work up remorse over the sin. There are a lot of people that teach that – that there has to be some measure of human work there. But no, the Bible says all you need to do is confess, which means to admit or acknowledge that you've done something. People say that's too much like a license for sin. My response is: but everybody uses any level of freedom licentiously in the process of growing up. Almost everyone here did. 

I'm not going to ask for any personal testimonies or anybody to raise their hand. I know that when young children grow up and they reach the age somewhere around (I don't know where it is today but maybe around) 9, 10, 11 where the parents begin to trust them enough to stay at home by themselves without adult supervision. Maybe they're just going to the store or they're going to go pick up dinner somewhere. They might be gone 15 or 20 minutes. Then as time goes by and the child seems to be trustworthy and as they have some maturity they're given freedom to be at home alone and the parents are gone. I don't think there's any person that hasn't used that freedom to do something they knew they shouldn't have done; that if their parents were there they wouldn't have done it. But the parents were gone and so they used that liberty that freedom to do something irresponsible and something that they knew was not permissive. Everybody's done that. 

We learn after a while that you know we really don't get away with it. Somehow we always get caught. Something always happens. Something negative turns out. We get in trouble eventually. Of course today parents have nanny cams so I don't know that kids could ever believe that they are unseen or unheard. But the point is that as a new believer as you grow, you have the freedom to serve the Lord, the freedom to love the Lord and live on the basis of the Christian life or to use your liberty for the sin nature. And we've all done that. Some of you are still doing that. Some of you have grown through that phase yet. But eventually you will. 

When other people think and get all upset because they see you abusing grace, then they get all upset. They get their knickers in a knot over it and decide that you shouldn't be allowed to do that. So the church has to come down and do something in order to stop that kind of behavior. 

Well, that's not how people grow. That's not how you come to maturity. You have to learn that as an adult operating as an adult you have to learn to make those decisions from without your own soul and your own maturity. So Paul is saying to them in verse 13:

^NKJ Galatians 5:13 For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh,

That is a characteristic of our position in Christ, our position in the royal family. But we're not to use that liberty as license. We're not to use it as an opportunity to the flesh. But instead we are to serve one another. 

but through love serve one another.

We're not to serve ourselves because when we're using that liberty as a license to sin we're just feeding our own self-absorption. We're feeding our own narcissism. We are wanting to do whatever it is that makes us happy instead of thinking about others. So the contrast there is between being self-centered and self-oriented and other-centered and other-oriented. We are to use that liberty as an opportunity to think about other people and to help other people within the body of Christ. 

The Greek word that's used there for "serve" is the Greek douluo which is a word that can mean serve; but it also was a word used for slaves and slavery in the Roman Empire. Slavery is a much harsher concept to our 21^st century emancipated American democratic ears. But in the Roman Empire what you heard when you heard that word was something more akin to slavery than voluntary servitude. And so when Paul is saying "through love serve one another" he is saying there is almost this level of enslaved relationship to other members of the body of Christ because of our responsibility for one another.

12.  Now the 12^th point is more closely related to the first command that we studied back in point 2, which is to love one another, the broad command that Jesus gave to the disciples that we are to love one another as Christ loved the church. So that's the model. How did Jesus Christ love the church? He loved the church by going to the cross and dying as a substitute for our sins, paying the price for our sins. That's how He demonstrated love. He didn't demonstrate love by coming to the church and coming to unbelievers and putting His arm around their shoulder and talking about how wonderful they were and God just gave them all kinds of potential and let's just try to spread our wings and fulfill our potential that God gave us. There is truth to that, but that's secondary. It comes down the road. The first issue has to do with dealing with the basic problem that we have. That is the sin problem. So Christ in love dealt with that. How did He show that He loved us? How did God the Father show that He loved us?  John 3:16.

^NKJ John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

In this way God loved us that He gave His unique son.

That first word in the Greek text there doesn't mean "God loved us so much." It means in this manner, thusly—literally, it's houtos, an adverb. Thusly (or in this manner), God loved us.

So He shows His love by the fact that He solves the problem, which is the sin problem. So that pattern of what Jesus Christ did on the cross becomes the pattern for what love is and becomes the pattern for understanding the mandate here in this point that we are to be kind to one another, forgiving each other.  Now notice the connection here in this point between these two ideas, kindness and forgiveness. Kindness is mercy in action. It's grace in action. It is showing undeserved kindness, undeserved favor to someone who has done things that certainly don't deserve kindness whatsoever. They may have irritated us. They may have made us angry. They may have made betrayed us. They may have hurt us in many different ways, but we need to be kind to one another. Kindness is a difficult attribute if not an impossible attribute to develop because the orientation of the sin nature is so self-absorbed that when we feel the least bit pricked or offended, then we react; we easily become irritated, angry, put out because someone else has not treated us or done something the way we think they should. 

But in contrast to that we are to be kind. That kindness is expressed by forgiving one another. 

You often see this in families, and you may know someone in your frame of reference where you have a family like this. I've certainly seen this in some families I know. There are people within the family, siblings can do things to one another that when somebody outside the family has done that to someone in the family then that relationship with the person outside the family has virtually ended. But because there's that blood relationship within the family, then the offense is stepped over. It is treated lightly. We also know of cases where the people that we know and we like and we approve of have done something we are more likely to step around their faults and overlook their flaws than someone we don't like who has maybe the same flaw, the same fault to a worse degree. 

So the mandate here is that we are to as members of the royal family of God within the family, we are to be kind to one another. That's other believers. It doesn't matter what they've done to you. We are to be kind to one another and forgiving each other, Ephesians 4:32 and Colossians 3:13. 

Now this principle of forgiving one another is actually based in the event on the last night that the Lord was with the disciples in John 13 when He washes the disciples' feet. That was the prelude, the set up, the illustration that He was giving that ended in His issuing the command to love one another "as I have loved you."

^NKJ John 13:34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

^NKJ John 13:35 "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

The gospel writer began that chapter by relating what happened when the disciples came together for the Passover and that the Lord then girded up the towel around His waist, took the basin, and began to wash their feet. The washing of the feet was not a picture of just being a servant. Going back to our previous point, which was serving one another. That's not what the Lord was teaching. He was teaching a particular way of serving one another. That was through forgiving one another.

Jesus said: 

^NKJ John 13:14 "If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.

Now when we look at that passage, immediately you have to make a decision as to whether the Lord is speaking literally or figuratively using a figure of speech. If He's speaking literally, then what that would mean is that we have to literally get a basin of water and literally physically wash one another's feet on a regular basis. Now there are some Christian denominations like the Mennonites I believe and some others that do that. They believe that when they have the Lord's Table, they have a foot washing ceremony as part of the Lord's Table because they take this literally.

But the other option is that Jesus is speaking figuratively because He has given this clear teaching aid, training aid, visual image where He washes their feet. But He pointed out in His conversation with Peter that even though they were all clean except for Judas, they still needed to have a regular cleansing, a partial cleansing of the feet which is tantamount to confession of sin. The fact that they were all cleansed, that was positional cleansing. We talked about that passage many times, and yet there needs to be an ongoing cleansing. That ongoing cleansing is related to the forgiveness of sin. So what Jesus was illustrating is one way in which we serve one another and the way He was teaching service in that passage was that we serve one another by forgiving one another. That's how we emulate what the Lord did in that particular passage. 

So He stated there, "You ought to wash one another's feet."

That fits under the umbrella of His later mandate in that passage to love one another by forgiving one another. 

Now this is made clear in passages such as Ephesians 4:32. Notice the connection in that verse. The first mandate is to be kind to one another. The second is a participial phrase that modifies or defines or explains how that kindness operates. It operates by forgiving one another – an instrumental idea. Be kind to one another by forgiving one another even as God in Christ forgave you. 

Now that gets pretty difficult. The only way you can do that is through the power of God the Holy Spirit. If you're walking by the Holy Spirit He produces the fruit of the Spirit in you as you grow and mature. He produces love. That is the first fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:21-22) because that's what Paul was talking about in that context going back to verse 13 which we just looked at.

But here in Ephesians 4:32 we're kind to one another by forgiving one another and the comparison is to Christ. That's the model again going back to John 13:34-35. So if you don't understand how God demonstrated His love for us at the cross, then it's difficult to understand how we are to love others, to correctly understand that and how we are to be kind to one another and forgive one another. 

This is one of the reasons it's important to keep thinking and teaching and learning and probing all the doctrines related to what Christ did on the cross because in that work we come to understand just exactly what it was that occurred that God did for us in terms of forgiving us. It wasn't easy. We tend to think it is because we're not that bad. But we're terrible! In God's eyes we're just as bad as Osama Bin Laden or Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin or a mass murderer or anybody else - Jeffrey Dahlmer who by the way did eventually did trust Christ as his Savior. You're going to see him in heaven. 

But we think that we're not really that bad. But we are. God forgave us on the same basis that He forgave everybody else. So we are to apply that. 

Now the word for kindness is chrestos and it means to be pleasant. It means to be kind, to be good, and to be mild. It has the idea of generous. It's not christos which is the word for anointed which where we get the word for Christ which is an "i" instead of an eta or an iota instead of an eta there. It's an "i" not a chre. But it has that idea of generosity. You are kind to people whether they deserve it or not because of who God is and what Christ did on the cross, not because of what this little person just did and they don't deserve to be kind. It's not focused on the here and now. It's focused on that eternal frame of reference and the attributes of God. 

Then the word that's translated forgive isn't that word apheimi  (the verb) or aphesis (the noun) which means to cancel debt. It is the verb charidzomai and charidzomai comes from the root the Greek word charis meaning grace. It means to be gracious to somebody, to exercise grace on their behalf which means it's undeserved. It's unmerited. If they got what they deserved, then it would be legitimate to reach across the counter and slap them in the face. But you are not going to do that because you treat them in kindness and you treat them in love because they're in the image of God and because that is how we are to treat people. So charidzomai means to show favor or kindness, to be gracious to someone. It's used to pardon them or to forgive them, to cancel whatever wrong doing they might have been engaged in. That's Ephesians 4:32.

^NKJ Ephesians 4:32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.

Now a parallel passage to this is in Colossians. Remember Paul wrote Ephesians and Colossians when he was in prison and they're written to congregations that were relatively close to one another. They have different emphasis, but they are very similar in their content. So there are a lot of parallels between those two epistles. 

In Colossians 3:13 Paul says:

^NKJ Colossians 3:13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another,

Bearing with one another has the idea of putting up with other people's faults, overlooking those faults not letting those faults or flaws or failures be a reason to cause us to treat them in a less than kind and gracious manner. It's not easy. Trust me, it's not easy. You probably know that already. 

Then Paul goes on to give an illustration of this.

if anyone

A person in the body of Christ. 

has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.

Because they have offended you, they have treated you in an ill manner they have used in an ill manner, you whatever the situation may be, you are to forgive then in the same way Christ forgave you. Think about how many times we have disobeyed the Lord, how many times we have violated His mandates, how many times we have taken His grace for granted. Yet again and again and again we go back to the Lord and we say somewhat flippantly at times, "Lord I did this I did that I did this other thing" and we know that we are immediately back in fellowship. How easy, how simply the Lord forgives us. 

See He does that only because of all of the horror and shame that occurred on the cross when Jesus Christ bore in His body on the cross our sin during those three hours when He was on Golgotha. It's because of that that we have forgiveness. So we are to take that to heart and to forgive others in the same way.  So the text is translated:

if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.

The implication there is of a command. Now the English usually adds something else to make it sound better in English. You must do. In your English translations that's in italics, so it's not part of the original; but it conveys the meaning that is there in the original. So we're to put up with each other when we fail, when we make mistakes, when we offend one another. We are to treat one another in kindness and forgiveness and not hold that against one another. This takes us to the next point. 

13.  We are to bear one another's burdens. Now even though Colossians 3:13 uses the English word "bear", that's a different word there. The root there is anecho in the Greek. In Galatians 6:2 it's a different word. It is the Greek word bastazo, which also has that same idea. It's used to mean the same thing: to put up, to endure suffering because of somebody else's failures. So the command in verse 13, it's a present active imperative meaning it is to characterize our lives all the time. This is a standard operating procedure. Present imperatives emphasize something that is to continuously be present in our lives. An aorist imperative emphasizes the immediate need to put this into application. So we are to bear one another's burdens and thus fulfill the Law of Christ, that is, loving one another. So that's clear in the verse. There we have the Greek word bastazo meaning to lift, to carry physically. But it's used metaphorically to endure suffering with somebody, to put up with someone else's failures or flaws, to get involved with their burdens as well as your own. Verse 13 – we are to bear one another's burdens and thus we fulfill the Law of Christ. 

^NKJ Colossians 3:13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.

So contextually going back Galatians 5:13-14, this continues to illustrate how the believer carries out that mandate of loving one another. So when you're in Galatians and you underline Galatians 6:2 - that goes all the way back to the command in verse 14 for all the law is fulfilled in one word even this - you shall love your neighbor as yourself. That's what Paul is really developing in the rest of those verses through the end of chapter 5 and down into chapter 6. That's why he talks about the fruit of the Spirit in the first quality the first spiritual virtue in the Scripture there is love because that's the command that he's just quoted from the Old Testament in Leviticus 19:18.

14.  Then we come to the 14^th point, which is that we are to show tolerance for one another, not the kind of tolerance that the world thinks of in terms of tolerance, which is to say that things that are wrong are really okay. That's the world's view of tolerance. But the biblical view of tolerance is when someone has done something wrong, we don't do anybody any favors by saying that something wrong is right. But when someone does something wrong, somebody offends us, then we're going to recognize that they're guilty rotten flawed sinners just like we are. So we are not going to try to judge them or hold them to a standard that's higher than the one the Lord holds us to. We're to show tolerance for one another in love. This is seen in Ephesians 4:2 where Paul says:

^NKJ Ephesians 4:2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,

So he's tying this to humility. Humility, grace, forgiveness, kindness, love are all different facets of the same thing. You can't show love for someone, you can't be truly kind to them or truly forgive them if you are self-absorbed. If you think that everything that happens in life is all about how it impacts your world and your feelings, then it's going to be more and more difficult to get passed that but we all have elements of that in our personalities and in our sin nature. 

So Paul says in Ephesians 4:2:

^NKJ Ephesians 4:2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love,

To get the context in verse 1 he states:

^NKJ Ephesians 4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord,

He's in Rome under house arrest. 

beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called,

There's that same terminology that we saw in Galatians 5:13. The calling. That is, this is our responsibility within the family of God.

Over in 1 John there are several different verses in 1 John that people always have difficulty understanding. Probably one of the most difficult ones is when John says that the one who is born again does not sin. 

If you look at that in a certain way, which many people do, they say, "Well if you're truly saved if you're really genuinely a believer then you don't sin. You just sinned a lot so obviously you must not be saved." 

Wrong. That's not what it's saying. It's expressing a standard for somebody who's been born into the family of God, just as a parent, a father might say when you have as a child done something wrong that you have violated the code of conduct that he has established for you says, "Well, no member of this family does that." 

He's not saying that you're not a member of the family. He is stating a principle that that kind of behavior is not acceptable conduct for someone who is a member of this family. That's what John is saying there that the person who is born of God, the person who is active and living as a regenerate believer has a standard. That standard is that they don't sin. It's the same thing that Paul says in Galatians 5:13-15 that if you walk by means of the Spirit you cannot fulfill the lusts of the flesh. You're not going to sin. 

So Paul says in Ephesians 4:1 that we are called to live a certain way within the body of Christ. Our salvation does not depend upon it. Our spiritual growth though is related to it because if we're not obeying God we're constantly out of fellowship and we're constantly disobedient, then the result is that we'll be living in divine discipline and spiritual growth won't take place. So there's a standard for how we are to live as members of the royal family of God. 

That's characterized in verse 2 by lowliness and gentleness. That is, humility with longsuffering which has the idea of (makrothumia) of living enduring a long time a difficult situation. It's related to patience. 

Like the person said, "Lord, make me patient. Give me patience and give it to me soon."

We are to have humility with longsuffering.

Then the next word is "bearing with one another in love." The Greek word there is anecho, which means to endure patiently, to show tolerance, to put up with other people's weaknesses, because you certainly expect them to put up with your weaknesses. So we need to treat them in the same manner.

Now Colossians 3:13, which we looked at a moment ago in terms of forgiving one another, uses that same word anecho for bearing with one another. It's the idea of putting up with someone's weaknesses or shortcomings not holding it against them because they lost their temper and yelled at you yesterday or because they broke a trust with you or something along those lines. 

We are to bear with one another, forgiving one another if any one has a complaint against one another even as Christ forgave you. So also you must do.

15.  Then we come to point 15 which is found in Ephesians 5:21. This is an interesting context in Ephesians 5. I want you to look at the context of Ephesians 5. So often when we get into the Word we are so microcosmic in our analysis of the text that we forget the context. Context often is just as important in understanding what somebody says in a phrase or clause as the word studies and the technical syntax or clause. A lot of Bible study, hermeneutical studies in the last 20 or 30 years have moved more in this direction. There are some flaws in some of the things that are being said; but overall it's a good movement. 

Now if you look at Ephesians 5, the basic command that governs the chapter is in verse 1.

^NKJ Ephesians 5:1 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.

In other words, our lives are to reflect upon the attributes of our heavenly Father. We've established that. 

Verse 2 says.

^NKJ Ephesians 5:2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us

Notice again the pattern is Jesus Christ and His love. Where was that manifest? It was manifest at the cross where He paid the penalty for our sins so that He could forgive us. So we are to imitate God; walk by means of love. That is, walking is a metaphor for living life characterized by love. 

and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

Then you have a contrast with the "but" in verse 3 that in contrast to the positive walking in love there are behaviors and attributes that are inconsistent with that and should be removed from the life: fornication and all uncleanness. That's a general term – anything that breaches fellowship with God. 

^NKJ Ephesians 5:3 But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness,

That is greed, materialism lust.

let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints;

In other words this isn't to characterize the kind of attitudes that people in the family of God should have. It goes on and lists a number of different things. 

^NKJ Ephesians 5:8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light

Now what has he set up there? He's set up this contrast between darkness and light. Darkness characterizes the unbeliever. He is a child of darkness. He walks in darkness. Darkness indicates two things in Scripture. It indicates a lack of revelation. When Jesus Christ came into the world, light came into the world. 

John says in John 3:

^NKJ John 3:19 "And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

It's a rejection of revelation. 

The second thing that you see in this imagery of light and darkness has to do with righteousness (perfect righteousness) as opposed to sin and evil and wickedness. So there's a contrast. "You were once darkness" says that every one of us is born in the status of darkness.

^NKJ Ephesians 5:8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light

That is positional – light in the Lord.

Well if it's positional that would mean that's something that is true of us all the time, right? Well, it's not experiential. If it were experiential, you wouldn't need a command. It doesn't happen automatically. Positionally we're light in the Lord; but now we are to walk experientially. Our life is to be characterized by light. 

^NKJ Ephesians 5:9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth),

Now some of you are looking at a New American Standard, or you're looking at a New International Version or ESV or one of the other translations based on the critical text and your text reads:

^NAS Ephesians 5:9 (for ^athe fruit of the light consists

But the Majority Text (that is the majority of documents) has pneuma there rather than light. I think that's a superior reading. It fits better especially because there are a lot of parallels between what Paul says in chapter 5 (in Ephesians 5) and what Paul says in Galatians 5. He talks about the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 and I believe he's talking about the fruit of the Spirit here because he's going to connect this to the filling of the Spirit when we get down to verse 18.

in all ^bgoodness and righteousness and truth),

So he talks about the fruit of the Spirit is all goodness and righteousness and truth. This is experiential. It's spiritual life production. It is not positional truth. It's not positional righteousness. It's not positional goodness. It is talking about that which comes as a result of your spiritual growth and spiritual maturity.

^NKJ Ephesians 5:17 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

So the contrast here isn't light and darkness. It's not being outside the family, inside the family. The contrast here is between being foolish and being wise. There's this contrast all through here between these two states that a believer can be in. He can either be out of fellowship or in fellowship. That's the terminology that we most often use.

^NKJ Ephesians 5:18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,

Now in the past in many, many years the most easy way to understand this metaphor here of being drunk with wine seems to be the metaphor of control. If you get drunk (you have too many margaritas or too many whiskey sours) and all of a sudden the alcohol has wiped out all of your norms and standards and you are doing things that you wouldn't normally do, your conscience is basically seared and all kinds of things can happen. We say you are under the control of alcohol. Well, that seems to fit, but it's wrong because what happens when you come under the influence of alcohol is that your volition gets wiped out. It gets impacted by that. Control is a volitional term. But that's not what the Holy Spirit does. He doesn't take over for you. He works through you; but He doesn't take over. People have gotten that idea over the years that if I confess my sins and I'm filled with the Spirit then the Spirit is going to start making decisions for me. That's wrong. That is pure mysticism. Control is a very bad term to use. That's not what we have here. 

If you understand what was going on in the pagan religions in Ephesus at the time, one of the most egregious forms of paganism was the worship of the Greek god Dionysius or Bachus. He was the god of wine. Now how in the world did you get close to the god of wine? You went out and got dunk on wine. The Maenads who were the female priestesses who were worshipping (get everybody all worked up) would go up to the areas in the hills where they would have these orgies. Everybody would drink as much wine as they could so that the god could enter into them and they could rise to a level of communion with the god Backus. The way they would know that (if they got really spiritual) is they would speak in tongues. So wine was what? It's not talking about control. It's talking about a method, a means. How do you get close to god? How do you get spiritual in Dionysius worship? By means of wine, which fits the grammar. It's a dative there. 

^NKJ Ephesians 5:18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,

It's not control. You are filled with what? You are filled with the Word of God. Now there are a series of consequences that come from this.

Verse 19 says that you have a series of participles expressing them. The first one is:

^NKJ Ephesians 5:19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord,

That is a result of being filled by means of the Holy Spirit. Singing in a worship service is not something that just got tacked on by tradition; it is specifically stated to be related to the spiritual life.

^NKJ Ephesians 5:20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

^NKJ Ephesians 5:21 submitting to one another in the fear of God.

…submitting to one another in the Word of God. This is the Greek word hupotasso, which means to submit, to subordinate, to follow the orders of someone else. 

Now what's interesting is if you look at a parallel passage to this:

^NKJ Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom,

It doesn't mention the Holy Spirit. It says:

^NKJ Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom

What is the result of letting the Word of Christ richly dwell in you? The first thing is teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. That's the first result we saw of filling of the Holy Spirit. 

Second:

^NKJ Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

That's the same second that you had over in Ephesians. Then it goes on to talk about the family.

^NKJ Colossians 3:18 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

¹⁹ Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.

 ²⁰ Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

You have the same results in Colossians 3:16b and following that you have in Ephesians 5:19f. But you have two different commands. One command says you are to be filled by the Spirit, but you're not told what you are filled with. See "by the Spirit" is instrumentality. It's not content.  But in Colossians you're not told what fills you. You are told what you are filled with.

^NKJ Colossians 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

So you put them together. It is when you are in fellowship God the Holy Spirit is able to fill your soul with the Word of God. When that is applied under the ministry of the Holy Spirit, then it produces character change in your life that is exhibited by singing psalms and hymns to God, thankfulness, grace orientation and submission to one another.

So we'll come back and say a few more things about that next time because that sets up the whole basis for the Christian life.  If you don't understand that dynamic and that it is God the Holy Spirit that produces this fruit in you, that we can't do it ourselves. It's not a bootstrap spirituality, it is a spirituality dependent on walking by the Spirit. Only then can we have a real spiritual life and spiritual growth. 

Let's bow our heads together in closing prayer.