Ephesians 4:1-5:2
Dear RTB’ers,
Today, June 30, halfway through 2025 and halfway through our three-year Search the Scriptures journey through the entire Bible. Well done, those of us who began on January 1, 2024! Moving on…!
Having looked over the past two days at Paul’s calls for the Gentiles’ “equality” with the Jews, today we can now read the “you” and “one another” in today’s first two verses as being directed at both of these groups – Paul speaking to the entire Ephesian assembly of Christians with no distinction between the two. In fact, he underlines that point in his famous 7-fold “one” sentences: one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all… (vv. 4:4-5). The distinctions that remain then are the gifts that God has bestowed on the body – apostles, prophets, etc., for the building up on that one unified body. [Please see Romans 12:6-8 and I Corinthians 12:4-11, 28-30 for additional listings of these spiritual gifts.]
The second half of chapter 4 is another well-known section of the New Testament – Paul’s “put off, put on” verses: put off your old self… and put on the new self, … put away falsehood [and] speak the truth… (vv. 4:22-25) He continues by listing additional contrary behaviors: Be angry and do not sin… Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor…; Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up. (vv. 4:26, 28, 29) Paul closes this chapter with words that we should all embrace: Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (vv. 4:31-32) Simply stated, be kind to one another…!
Blessings!
See also: