Ephesians 4

CHAPTER 4THEME: The church is a new man; the exhibition of the new man; the inhibition of the new man; the prohibition of the new manWe have now come to a new section of the Epistle to the Ephesians. The subjects of these last three chapters are the conduct of the church and the vocation of the believer. We have learned of the heavenly calling of the believer, and now we come to the believer’s manner of life, his earthly walk. This is not a worldly walk, but it is an earthly walk. The true believers, which collectively we call the church, are seated in the heavenlies in Christ. Christ is the Head of the body and He is seated at God’s right hand. But the church is to live down here on this earth. In chapters 1-3 we have considered the calling, construction, and the constitution of the church. In this last section of the epistle we shall consider the conduct of the church, the confession of the church, and the conflict of the church. The church is a new man; in the future the church will be a bride; and the church is also a good soldier of Jesus Christ. In the first three chapters we have been on the mountain peak of the Transfiguration, probably the highest spiritual point in the New Testament. That is the reason we spent so much time in those chapters. In this last division we descend to the plane of living where we confront a demon-possessed world and a skeptical mob. It is right down where the rubber meets the road. Are we able to translate the truths of the mountaintop into shoe leather? Are we able to stand and walk through the world in a way that is pleasing to God? Our Lord said that we are in the world but not of the world. It has been stated that Ephesians occupies the same position theologically as the Book of Joshua does in the Old Testament. Now we come to the position where this truth is manifest. Joshua entered the Land of Promise on the basis of the promise made to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. It was his by right of promise, and he led the children of Israel over the Jordan into the land. Passing over Jordan is symbolic of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. We as believers have been brought into the Promised Land. That is where you and I liveat least we should be living in resurrection territory today. Joshua had to appropriate the land by taking possession of it for the enjoyment of it and for blessing in the land. Possession is the great word in the Book of Joshua. Although enemies and other obstacles stood in his way, Joshua had to overcome and occupy. Position was a key word in the first half of EphesiansGod has blessed us “with all spiritual blessings” (Eph_1:3). God has given them over to us, but are we walking down here in possession of them? The children of Israel had been promised their land, but it remained a “never-never” land to them until they entered it. “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses” (Jos_1:3). God says, “Joshua, all of it is yours, but you will enjoy only that which you lay hold of.” Now the believer is privileged to move in and occupy “all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies.” However, the unsearchable riches in Christ must be searched out with the spiritual Geiger counter, which is the Word of God. Up until now the epistle has been glorious declarations, but now there will be commands. Those who have been called to such an exalted place are now commanded to a way of life which is commensurate with the calling. Some people dwell on the first part of the epistle and become rather super-duper saints, very spiritual. I remember a family like this when I first came to Southern California. They attended the church which I pastored but were not members. They were lovely, active people. I asked them one day why they didn’t join the church. They looked up to the ceiling and said, “We’re members of the invisible church,” and fluttered their eyelids. I have learned that a lot of these folk who are members of the “invisible” church are really invisibleinvisible on Sunday night and invisible on Wednesday night. In fact, they are invisible when you need help from them. Now, my friend, let’s be practical about this: the invisible church is to make itself visible down here in a local assembly. We have come to the practical side of Ephesians, the earthly conduct of the church; and in this chapter the church is portrayed as a new man. The new man is to exhibit himself down here. The members of the invisible church are to make themselves visible. They are to be extroverts, if you please, and they are to get out the Word of God. What follows here is restricted to those who are in Christ. The Spirit of God is talking to saved people. If you are not a Christian, God is not asking you to do the commands in this epistle. First you must become a child of His through faith in Christ; you must become a member of His body. What follows in this epistle is for those who have been redeemed and have heard the Word of truth. Dead men cannot walk no matter how insistently they are urged to walk.

The dead man must first be made alive. Paul has told us that we were dead in trespasses and sins. That is the condition of all who are lost. The top sergeant doesn’t go out to the cemetery and yell, “Attention! Forward march!” If he did, there certainly wouldn’t be any marching. Nobody would move.

They must first have life. It is interesting that the religions are saying to a dying world, “Do something and you will be somebody.” God says just the opposite: “Be somebody and then you can do something.” If you are not a Christian, you just stay on the sidelines and listen. You will learn what God would ask of you if you are going to become a believer; and when you look around you, you will know whether or not the saints are living as God wants them to live.

Ephesians 4:1

THE EXHIBITION OF THE NEW MAN"Therefore" is a connective, a transitional word. It is in view of all that God has done for the believer, which we have seen in the first three chapters of this epistle. Paul is a “prisoner of the Lord.” He is a prisoner because of his position in Christ. Isn’t it interesting that Paul can be seated in the heavenlies in Christ and can also be seated in a prison because he was a witness for Christ to the Gentiles? I “beseech [or beg] you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called.” This word for beseech or beg is the same word that we find in Rom_12:1. It is not the command of Sinai with fire and thunder; it is the gentle wooing of love: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God …” (Rom_12:1). We are to “walk worthy” of our calling. It is a call to walk on a plane commensurate with the position we have in Christ. “Only let your conversation [that is, your manner of life or your life-style] be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel” (Php_1:27). Again Paul writes, “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Col_1:10). Paul points to his own life as an example of the Christian’s walk: “Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe” (1Th_2:10). Paul begs us to walk worthy of the gospel. People may not be telling you this, but they are evaluating whether you are a real child of God through faith in Christ. The only way they can tell is by your walk. It’s not so much how you walk as it is where you walk. “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1Jn_1:7). Walking in “the light” is in the light of the Word of God. How much time do you really spend in the Word of God? Your children know how much time you spend in the Bible. Also your neighbors know, and the people in the church know. If we wish to walk in fellowship with God, we must walk in the light of the Word of God. We have previously told the incident of a man handing out tracts, a ministry, by the way, that takes much prayer and intelligence. A black man who could neither read nor write was handed a tract. He asked, “What is this?” When he was told it was a tract, he said, “Well I can’t read it; so I’ll watch your tracks.” That was the greatest short sermon this Christian could ever have had preached to him. Someone was watching his tracks. Paul does his beseeching on the basis of their calling. He has just explained to the Ephesians that they live in the economy of the grace of God. They live under that dispensation.

Ephesians 4:2

“Lowliness” means a mind brought low. Paul practiced what he preached. Lowliness means the opposite of pride. I wish our seminaries today would stop trying to make intellectual preachers and teach the young men to walk in lowliness of mind. Years ago I heard the story of a very fashionable church in Edinburgh that wanted a pulpit-supply; so the seminary sent out to them a very fine young man who was brilliant in the classroom at the school. He had never had any experience, and he was filled with pride at ministering in this great church. When he got up before that group of people, he was struck with stage fright. He forgot everything he ever knew. He had memorized his sermon, but he forgot it. He stumbled through it and left the pulpit in humiliation, because he knew how miserably he had failed. A dear little Scottish lady went up to him and said, “Young man, I was watching you this morning, and I’d like to say to you that if you had gone up into that pulpit like you came down out of that pulpit, then you would have come down out of that pulpit like you went up into that pulpit.” He had gone up with pride, but he had come down with lowliness and meekness. Lowliness is the flagship of all Christian virtues. “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves” (Php_2:3). Lowliness characterized our Lord. He said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart …” (Mat_11:29). There are too many Christians today who have a pride of race, a pride of place, a pride of face, and even a pride of gracethey are even proud that they have been saved by grace! Oh, how we need to walk in lowliness of mind! The story is told of a group of people who went in to see Beethoven’s home in Germany. After the tour guide had showed them Beethoven’s piano and had finished his lecture, he asked if any of them would like to come up and sit at the piano for a moment and play a chord or two. There was a sudden rush to the piano by all the people except a gray-haired gentleman with long, flowing hair. The guide finally asked him, “Wouldn’t you like to sit down at the piano and play a few notes?” He answered, “No, I don’t feel worthy.” That man was Paderewski, the only man who was really worthy to play the piano of Beethoven. How often the saints rush in and do things when they have no gift for doing them. We say we have difficulty in finding folk who will do the work of the church, but there is another extremefolk who attempt to do things for which they have no gift. We need to walk in lowliness of mind. “With all lowliness and meekness.” Meekness means mildness but it does not mean weakness. To be meek does not mean to be a Mr. Milquetoast. There are two men in Scripture who are noted for being meek. In the Old Testament it was Moses, and in the New Testament it was the Lord Jesus. When you see Moses come down from the mount and break the Ten Commandments written on the stone tablets and when you hear what he said to his brother Aaron and to the children of Israel, would you call that meekness?

God called it that. When the Lord Jesus went in and drove the money changers out of the temple, was that meekness? It certainly was. The world has a definition of meekness and that makes it synonymous with weakness. The Bible calls meekness a willingness to stand and do the will of God regardless of the cost. Meekness is bowing yourself to the will of God. “With longsuffering.” Longsuffering means a long temper. This is a fruit of the Spirit (see Gal_5:22). In other words, we should not have a short fuse. That is longsuffering. “Forbearing one another in love” means to hold one’s self back in the spirit of love. “Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye” (Col_3:13). “Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit.” The Lord Jesus prayed that we might be one: “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (Joh_17:21). The Spirit of God has baptized us into one body. “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit” (1Co_12:13). Now believers are to keep the unity which the Holy Spirit has made. We cannot make that unity. We cannot join into an ecumenical movement to force a kind of unity. Only the Holy Spirit makes the unity, but we are to maintain it. All true believers in Christ Jesus belong to one body, and we should realize that we are one in Christ. Now he goes on to list seven of those unities:

Ephesians 4:4

1. “One body” refers to the total number of believers from Pentecost to the Rapture. This one body is also called the invisible church, but this is not wholly accurate. All true believers should also be visible.
2. “One Spirit” refers to the Holy Spirit who baptizes each believer into the body of Christ. The work of the Holy Spirit is to unify believers in Christ. This is the unity that the believer is instructed to keep.
3. “One hope of your calling” refers to the goal set before all believers. They will be taken out of this world into the presence of Christ. This is the blessed hope (see Tit_2:13).
4. “One Lord” refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. His lordship over believers brings into existence the unity of the church.
5. “One faith” refers to the body of truth called the apostles’ doctrine (see Act_2:42). When this is denied, there are divisions. There must be substance to form an adhesion of believers. This substance is correct doctrine.
6. “One baptism” has reference to the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is real baptism. Ritual baptism is by water. Water baptism is a symbol of the real baptism of the Holy Spirit by which believers are actually made one.
7. “One God and Father of all” refers to God’s fatherhood of believers. Since there is only one Father, He is not the Father of unbelievers. Sonship can come only through Christ. The unity of believers produces a sharp distinction between believers and unbelievers. He is Father of all who are His by regeneration. Paul has been talking about the church, the body of Christ, joined to Him who is in heaven at the right hand of the Father. The church is a new man. It is a mystery. This is all true because it is in Christ. Now some people can be so involved in these truths who areas the saying goesso heavenly-minded that they are no earthly good. Paul is trying to show that we still walk down here in a very evil, very sinful world. In his discussion of this walk of the believer, Paul speaks first to the individual. The individual is to walk in lowliness and meekness. Then he widens out to the entire church, which is one body and one spirit. Finally, he brings this passage to a great, tremendous crescendo, which pictures the eminence and transcendence of God. God is “above all, and through all, and in you all.” This means that God is transcendent. He is above His creation. He is not dependent upon His creation. He doesn’t depend upon oxygen to breathe. He doesn’t have to bring up some supplies from the rear or go Saturday shopping in order to have food for the weekend. He is transcendent. He is not only transcendent, He is also eminent. He is not only above all, but He is through all and in you all. That means He is in this universe in which you and I live. He is motivating it and He is moving it according to His plan and purpose. That is what adds meaning to life. That is what makes life worthwhile. Life gets a little humdrum now and then, doesn’t it? There is a monotony to it. Although I love taping broadcasts for my radio program, sometimes when I’m in my study every day for a couple of weeks, it gets monotonous, and I get weary. But then I come to this great thought: all of this is in the plan and purpose of God. Then I feel like singing the doxology or the Hallelujah Chorus, and when I do, everybody moves out of earshot. But I can sing unto the Lord with a song that comes from my heart. The Bible says, “…making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Eph_5:19), and that is where mine certainly comes fromnot from my mouth, but from my heart. This chapter reminds me of a great symphony orchestra. When I first went to Nashville as pastor, some friends asked me to go to the symphony with them. They thought they were doing me a favor, but there are other things I would rather do than go to a symphony concert. Although I’m not musically educated, and I don’t understand music at all, I got a message at that concert. We had arrived early and I noticed all the instruments. It looked like over a hundred men came out from all the different wings and each went to his own instrument.

My friends told me that they were “tuning up.” Each one played his own little tune and, I give you my word, there was no melody in it. It was terrible! They quit after a few moments, for which I was thankful. Then they disappeared into the wings. Soon they all appeared again. This time they were in full dress with white shirts and bow ties.

Each man came to his instrument, but no man dared play it. Then the spotlight went to the side of the stage and caught the conductor as he walked out. He bowed several times and there was thunderous applause. Then he picked up a little stick and turned his back to the audience. When he lifted that baton, you could have heard a pin drop in that auditorium, then when he lowered itoh, what music came out of that great orchestra! I had never heard anything that was more thrilling.

It made goose pimples come over me and made my hair stand on end. After that first tremendous number, I got a little bored; I began comparing it with life on this earth. Out in the world every person is playing his own little tune. Everyone is trying to be heard above the clamor of voices or carrying his own little placard of protest. Everyone seems to be out of tune, out of harmony, with everyone else. It doesn’t look very hopeful in the world today, and we look to the future with pessimism. Like Simon Peter walking on the lake, we see huge threatening waves.

But one of these days there is going to step out from the wings of this universe, from God’s right hand, the Conductor. He is called the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He will lift that baton, that scepter, with nail-pierced hands. When He does that, the whole world will be in tune. He is eminent and He is transcendent. He is “above all, through all, and in you all.” So don’t give upthe Conductor is coming.

He will get us all in tune. The church is to walk as a new man in this world. There is to be an exhibition. The church is to be an extrovert, to witness, to manifest life.

Ephesians 4:7

THE INHIBITION OF THE NEW MANNow we find that the church also has inhibitions and these are also important. A little child doesn’t have inhibitions. I think of a time when I visited some people who were church members. They put on quite a performance of how pious and how religious they were. When we sat down at the table, they called on me to return thanks for the meal. Their little three-year-old was sitting in his high chair at the table with us. When I finished, he turned to his mother and said, “What did that man do?” Obviously, they didn’t very often give thanks for their meal. The little fellow was completely uninhibited in what he said. Now a child may be uninhibited, but the church is not to manifest itself as a baby all the time. It is to grow up and develop some inhibitions. There are certain things an adult doesn’t say that a little child may say. The church is not to remain in babyhood but is to mature, and God has given to each child of His grace in which to grow. God has given gifts to believers, as we see in Romans 12 and again in 1 Corinthians, chapters 12-14. Although believers are to give diligence to maintain the unity of the Spirit, this does not mean that each is a carbon copy of the other. Each believer is given a gift so that he may function in the body of believers in a particular way. Paul writes, “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal” (1Co_12:7). This means that a gift is the Spirit of God doing something through the believer for the purpose of building up the body of believers. It is for the profit of the whole body of believers. No gift is given to you to develop you spiritually. A gift is given to you in order that you might function in the body of believers to benefit and bless the church. Many folks say, “Dr. McGee, we do not speak in tongues in the church. We do it for our private devotions.” I can say to them categorically from the Word of God that they are wrong. Gifts are given to profit the church. No gift is to be used selfishly for personal profit. In fact, it is not a gift if it is being used that way. A gift is given to every member of the body to enable him to function for a very definite reason in his position in the body. Suppose my eyes would tell me that they are sleepy and will not get up with me. Suppose my legs say they won’t carry me downstairs to my study. I need both my eyes and my legs, and I hope my brain cooperates too. In fact, all the members of my body need to work together, each member doing the job it’s supposed to do. Each believer is given a gift so that he may function in the body of believers in a particular way. When he does this, the body functions. That is where we find the unity of the Spirit. Along with the gift it says every one of us is given grace to exercise that gift in the power and fullness of the Spirit of God. When each believer functions in his peculiar gift, it produces a harmony, as does each member of the human body. However, when one member of the body suffers, the whole body suffers. This means, my friend, that if you do not exercise your gift in the body, you throw us all out of tune.

Ephesians 4:8

You will notice that this is a quotation from Psa_68:18: “Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell among them.” Someone may point out that apparently there is a discrepancy here. Ephesians says, “He gave gifts unto men” and the psalm says, “He received gifts for men.” Is this a misquote from the Old Testament? Please note that an author has a right to change his own writings, but nobody else has that right. I was misquoted in an article and the publisher had to apologize for misquoting me. However, I have a right to misquote my own writing if I want to do so, and if it serves my purpose. In the verse before us the Holy Spirit changes the words, and He does it for a purpose. Back in the Book of Psalms we are told that the Lord Jesus had received gifts for men. He had all the gifts ready. Then He came to earth. Now that He has been here and has gone back to the Father, He is distributing the gifts among men. He is giving them to us through the Holy Spirit. Actually this passage shows again how very accurate the Bible is and that this is not a misquote. “When he ascended up on high” refers to the ascension of Christ. At that time He did two things: (1) He led captivity captive, which refers, I believe, to the redeemed of the Old Testament who went to paradise when they died. Christ took these believers with Him out of paradise into the very presence of God when He ascended. Today when a believer dies, we are not told that he goes to paradise, but rather he is absent from the body and present with the Lord (see 2Co_5:8; Php_1:23). (2) When Christ ascended He also gave gifts to men. This means that He conferred gifts upon living believers in the church so that they might witness to the world. In His ascension, Christ not only brought the Old Testament saints into God’s presence, but He also, through the Holy Spirit, bestowed His gifts.

At the Day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit baptized believers into the body of Christ and then endowed them with certain gifts, enabling them to function as members of the body. The Holy Spirit put each of them in a certain place in the body, and He has been doing the same with each new believer ever since.

Ephesians 4:9

The logical explanation of these verses is that since Christ ascended, He must have of necessity descended at some previous period. Some see only the Incarnation in this. The early church fathers saw in it the work of Christ in bringing the Old Testament saints out of paradise up to the throne of God. We are told that He descended into hell. It is not necessary, however, to assume that He entered into some form of suffering after His death. His incarnation and death were His humiliation and descent, and they were adequate to bring the redeemed of the Old Testament into the presence of God. That would explain His fullness here. “He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.” I recognize, however, that there are other interpretations.

Ephesians 4:11

I translate it this way: “He Himself gave some [as] apostles, and some [as] prophets and some [as] evangelists, and some [as] pastors and teachers.” This verse does not refer to the gifts He has given to men, although it is true that it is He who has given the gifts. What Paul is saying here is that Christ takes certain men who have been given certain gifts and He gives them to the church. Now notice the purpose for which these men are given to the church: “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.” These gifted men are given to the church that it might be brought to full maturity. “Till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” This may sound selfish, but I trust it is understood. What is the purpose of the church in the world? It is to complete itself that it might grow up. “He Himself"this is very emphaticit is the Lord Jesus Himself who gives gifted men to perfect the church. The Lord Jesus is the One who has the authority and is the One who bestows gifts. He gave “some, apostles” to the church. An apostle was a man who had not only seen the resurrected Christ but had also been directly and personally commissioned by Him to be an apostle. He enjoyed a special inspiration. This is why Paul could state: “Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;)…. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ” (Gal_1:1, Gal_1:12). This office, by virtue of its very nature, has long since disappeared from the church. He gave “some, prophets.” Here, as in other epistles, this has reference to New Testament prophets. They were men who were given, as were the apostles, particular insight into the doctrines of the faith (see Eph_3:5). They were under the immediate influence and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, which distinguishes them from teachers (see 1Co_12:10). There is no one around today with the office of apostle or prophet in that sense. They themselves passed off the scene long ago, but they are still members of His church. His church exists not only on earth; part of the church is up in heaven with Him.

They are part of that host which is in the presence of God. In another sense they are still with us today. Aren’t we studying the Epistle to the Ephesians right now? And who wrote it? The apostle Paul, and he is still with us even though he is up in heaven with Christ. He is absent from the body but present with Christ.

Yet he is still a member of the church and he is still an apostle to us. “Some, evangelists.” The evangelists were traveling missionaries. Paul was an evangelist. They were not evangelists as we think of them today. There was no committee or organization to set up a campaign. They went into new territory, and they did it all alone with the Spirit of God who went before them. He also gave, “some, pastors.” These men were the shepherds of the flock. He gave “some, teachers,” the men who were to instruct the flock. This is the gift which is mentioned in Rom_12:7; 1Co_12:28-29; and 1Ti_3:2. God has given all these men to the church so that the church might be brought to full maturation where there will be inhibitions. You see, the church is not to make a “nut” of herself before the world; she is not to appear ignorant before the world. All these men are to prepare the church so that the believers might do the work of ministering and building up the body of Christ. We call the pastor of a church a minister, but if you are a Christian, you are as much a minister as he is. You don’t have to be ordained to be a minister. The pastor has a special gift of teaching the Word of God so that his members, those who are under him, might do the work of the ministrythey are the ones to go out and do the visitation and the witnessing. I am afraid we have the church in reverse today. At one time Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer led his own singing and also did the preaching when he started out as an evangelist. A dear lady came to him one night and said, “Dr. Chafer, you’re doing too much. You ought not to lead the singing and do the preaching both. Why don’t you get someone else to do the preaching?” Well, he was a musician, but he was primarily a great teacher. Teaching was his great gift, and he used it to equip others for the ministry. At this point let me say that probably no man in the church has all the gifts; so do not expect your pastor or your minister to be all things. Don’t take the viewpoint that he has many gifts. His business is to build the members of the church for the work of the ministry. Here is a little article that appeared in the bulletin of a small church in the East: For centuries the principal responsibility for evangelism has been borne by the clergy. The laity were neither called to evangelistic activity nor believed it to be their responsibility. One of the most significant developments in the church (possibly the single most important development in recent centuries) is the revival of lay activity and the growing recognition that the layman is called to a ministry no less important than that of the minister. Elton Trueblood has said, “The Reformation has opened up the Bible to the common man; a new Reformation will open up the ministry to the common man.” I agree with this article wholeheartedly, and I rejoice that today we are seeing laymen becoming more involved. So many young people today, young Christians, are getting involved in doing the witnessing. Now they need teaching. I think the only reason in the world that they listen to me is because they feel that I can teach them. Believers need teaching so that they can do the work of the ministry. Sometimes folk get excited when they hear another using my materials. I had a call from a lady in Ohio. Apparently a preacher there was doing a pretty good job of imitating me. He was teaching from my book on Ruth and was even using my illustrations. She said, “I think it is terrible, and you ought to stop him.” I asked her if he was doing a good job, and she said he was. So I said, “Praise the Lord, I always felt someone would come along who would do it much better than I do it.” You see, my business is to try to prepare others to do the work of the ministry. One minister wrote and said that he wanted to preach a sermon of mine and asked if he could have permission to do that. I replied, “There is only one thing I ask of you. Do it better than I did, brother.” Use the material. We are to build up the body of Christ. I am going to talk to you very frankly. Don’t expect your pastor to do it all. He is there to train you that you might do the work of the ministry and that the church might become mature. We are not to act like a bunch of nitwits today. We are to give a good, clear-cut, intelligent witness to the world. I think the greatest sin in the local church today is the ignorance of the man sitting in the pew; he doesn’t know the Word of God, and that is a tragedy.

I would hate to get into an airplane if the pilot didn’t know any more about flying than the average church member knows about Christianity and the Word of God. The plane wouldn’t make itI think it would crash before it got ten feet into the air. That is the condition of the church today. All believers need to be trained in the Word of God so they can do the work of the ministry.

Ephesians 4:14

“That we henceforth be no more children.” We are to have inhibitions. We are not to run around like a bunch of crying babies. You remember that Paul told the church in Corinth that they were carnal and that they were babies in Christ and a disgrace. We are not (to use my translation) to be “tossed up and down and driven about with every wind of doctrine (teaching).” Notice that Paul does some mixing of metaphors here. He is trying to bring out vividly the danger of a believer continuing as a babe. You wouldn’t, for example, put a baby in a plane to pilot it. My little grandson is a smart boy, but he is not that smart. I wouldn’t allow him up there; he would crash. If children were in command of a ship, they would be tossed up and down, driven here and there without direction over the vast expanse of sea. They would become discouraged and seasick. They would lose their way. This is a frightful picture of the possible fate of a child of God. The figure of speech changes again. “By the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.” If you sent babes into the gambling den, the sharpies would take them in with their system of error. I wouldn’t think of sending my grandson to Las Vegas to play the slot machines! In fact, I wouldn’t want him there even if he lived to be a hundred years old. Christ’s purpose in giving men with different gifts to the church is to develop believers from babyhood to full maturity. Teachers are to be pediatricians. I sometimes use the expression that I am primarily a pediatrician, not an obstetrician. The obstetrician brings the baby into the world. I know he has to get up sometimes at one o’clock in the morning to deliver a baby and that he spends many nights at his work, but he is through with the little angel after he is born. He turns him over to the pediatrician, who makes sure he has everything he needs for normal growth. I have been a pediatrician in my ministry and, only secondly, an obstetrician. I feel that I am called to be the pediatricianthat is, to give the saints the Word of God so they can grow.

Ephesians 4:15

Believers are not to remain children, but rather that in “speaking the truth in love, [they] may grow up into him in all things.” The believer is to follow the truth in love; that is, he is to love truth, live it, and speak it. Christ is the truth and the believer must sail his little bark of life with everything pointed toward Christ. Christ is his compass and his magnetic pole. “Which is the head, even Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted.” The body of believers is compared to the physical body and is called the body of Christ. The body not only receives orders from the Head, who is Christ, but also spiritual nutriment. This produces a harmony where each member is functioning in his place as he receives spiritual supplies from the Head. Also the body has an inward dynamic whereby it renews itself. Likewise the spiritual body is to renew itself in love.

Ephesians 4:17

THE PROHIBITION OF THE NEW MANWe have seen the exhibition of the new man and the inhibition of the new man. Now we come to the prohibition of the new man. There is the negative side of the believer’s life, which I think is important for us to see. There is not enough emphasis on it. We talk about “new morality” which is nothing in the world but old sin. There is a liberty in Christ, but it is not a license to sin. Scriptural prohibitions for the new man are different from some of the prohibitions that people set up. I can’t find, for example, where it says that women should not wear makeup. I know a group who for years judged the spirituality of women by the amount of makeup they wore. I’ve also seen young girls who thought they were spiritual because they had disheveled hair and no makeup on, and actually they looked like walking zombies. Christians should do the best they can with what they have. That doesn’t mean, of course, that they should be painted up like a barber pole. However, some Christians insist upon a number of these man-made prohibitions which are not found in Scripture. God’s prohibitions for the new man are the negatives of His Word. We have had too much on the power of positive thinking today. We need a little of the power of negative thinking. Have you ever thought that in the Garden of Eden the primary command was a negative command? “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen_2:17). Then you come to the Ten Commandments. They are very negative but also very good. Now here in Ephesians we see some negative thinking, some prohibitions for the child of God. We are not to walk “as other Gentiles walk.” This is the negative side. Paul returns at this juncture to the practical aspect of the believer’s walk. He had introduced it in verses Eph_4:1-3, but he was detoured by the introduction of the subject of the unity of the church. Now he gives a picture of the lives of Gentiles and the lives of the Ephesians before their conversion. Remember in chapter 2, verses Eph_2:11-12, he told how they had been far off, strangers without hope and without God, living in sin. That was their picture. This is still a graphic picture of the lost man today. Paul gives four aspects of the walk of the Gentiles which illustrate the absolute futility and insane purpose of the life of the lost man. “In the vanity of their mind” means the empty illusion of the life that thinks there is satisfaction in sin. Oh, how many people walk that way! I feel so sorry for these young people who have been taken in by the promoters of immorality as a life style. A girl told me that she had had two abortionsmurdered two babies, and was not marriedwhat a life! That is not the life of happiness that God has planned for His children, my friend. It is the walk of a lost person, walking in the vanity of the mind. It is an empty illusion of life. Drinking cocktails is another illusion. Alcoholism takes its toll. An alcoholic woman has started listening to our Bible teaching program and is now fighting a battle to be delivered from alcohol. She says, “Oh, it seemed so smart, so sophisticated to drink cocktails!” How tragic. “Having the understanding darkened” means that the lost man has lost his perception of moral values. That is exactly what is being promoted in our daya loss of perception of moral values. “Being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them” is a picture of all mankind without Christ. It is the rebellion of Adam which is inherited by all his children. What a picture it is of a man today. He thinks he is living. One man told me he spent a week’s wages for one evening in a nightclub. What for? To try to have a good time. That’s an expensive way to try to have fun. He was alienated from the life of God; he had no communication with God: he was dead in trespasses and sin. Such a man is ignorant of the inestimable advantage of a relationship with God. The result is a hardening of the heart. “Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness [which is uncleanness], to work all uncleanness with greediness [or covetousness].” Their continuance in this state of moral ineptitude brings them down to the level where they have no feeling of wrongdoing. There are a lot of folk like that today. They are apathetic. The resultant condition is to plunge further into immorality and lasciviousness. This vicious cycle leads to a desire to go even deeper into sin. If you paint the town red tonight, you have to have a bigger bucket and a bigger brush for tomorrow night.

The meaning here is to covet the very depths of immorality. Men in sin are never satisfied with sin. They become abandoned to sin. This is what it means in chapter 1 of Romans that God gave them up to all uncleanness through their own lusts. You can reach the place, my friend, where you are an abandoned sinner.

Ephesians 4:20

Here is the contrast with the life of the Gentiles. If anyone is not listening to Jesus, then Jesus must not be his Savior. The Lord Jesus is the Shepherd and His sheep hear His voice. If you haven’t heard His voice, then you are not one of His sheep. What will change the Gentiles from their old nature? What are they to do? They are to listen to Christ. They are to hear Him. They are to be taught by Him. Those who are not His sheep will not hear Him. When an unsaved man writes to me and says that he disagrees with me, I am not upset. I think, Fine, I hope you don’t agree with me. Something would be wrong if he did agree. The saved person looks to the Lord Jesus as his Shepherd. He listens to the Shepherd and he follows Him. The unsaved person goes his own way. “The truth is in Jesus.” Although His life on earth cannot be imitated by anyone, the very life of Jesus is an example to the believer. Jesus is the One who has been the pioneer; He is the example of life here on earth. He is the One who also went through the doorway of death for us. There is no reason for any believer to be in the dark today or to be ignorant or to be blind.

Ephesians 4:22

“That ye put off concerning …the old man …and that ye put on the new man.” We are to put off the old man and put on the new man in the same manner that we change our clothes. It is like putting off an old and unclean garment and then putting on a garment that is new and clean. The putting off the old man and putting on the new man cannot be done by self-effort, nor can it be done by striving to imitate Christ’s conduct. It has been done for the believing sinner by the death of Christ. We are like babes who cannot dress themselves. I have learned with my little grandson that a child doesn’t do very well when he tries to dress himself.

As Christians we never reach the place where we can do that, and we don’t need to try. It already has been done for us. We are told in the Epistle to the Romans that the old man has already been crucified in the death of Christ. “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Rom_6:6). In view of the truth that the old man has already been crucified with Christ, we are to put it off in the power of the Holy Spirit. This does not mean that the flesh, the old nature, is ever eliminated in this life. We do not get rid of the old nature, but we are not to live in it; that is, we are not to allow it to control our lives. On the other hand, we do have a new nature. This is the result of regeneration by the Holy Spirit. Any man in Christ is a new creature. We are to live in that new nature, that new man. This is a repetition of the great message of Romans. “Which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” This shows that this is the imputed righteousness of Christ, and that all is to be done consistent with the holy character of God. Since we have been declared righteous and we are in Christ seated in the heavenlies, our walk down here should be commensurate with our position.

Ephesians 4:25

Paul returns to the prohibitions which he began in verse Eph_4:17. The believer is told to walk no longer as the Gentiles walk. These injunctions continue through the remainder of the epistle. “Speak every man truth” is the injunction that leads all the rest. When the old man was put off in the crucifixion of Christ, the lying tongue and deceitful heart were put on the cross. One of the reasons Jesus had to die for us was because you and I are liars. We ought always to speak the truth. David said, “I said in my haste, All men are liars” (Psa_116:11). I remember hearing Dr. W. I. Carroll quote this years ago. He pointed out that David said he thought this “in his haste.” Dr. Carroll remarked, “I’ve had a long time to think it over, and I still agree with David.” Speaking the truth would resolve most of the problems in the average church. Long ago I gave up the idea of trying to straighten out all of the lies that I hear in Christian circles. I found out that I could spend all my time doing that. Since believers are members of one body, speaking the truth is imperative. Chrysostom drew this ridiculous analogy but it does illustrate the truth: Let not the eye lie to the foot, nor the foot to the eye. If there be a deep pit and its mouth covered with reeds shall present to the eye the appearance of solid ground, will not the eye use the foot to ascertain whether it is hollow underneath, or whether it is firm and resists? Will the foot tell a lie, and not the truth as it is? And what, again, if the eye were to spy a serpent or a wild beast, will it lie to the foot? The feet wouldn’t deceive the eyes because they are members of the same body. Neither would the eye deceive the feet. So in the church there ought to be honesty and truth among the members. “Be ye angry, and sin not.” The believer is commanded to be angered with certain conditions and with certain people. There seems to be an idea today that a Christian is one who is a “blah,” that he is sweet under all circumstances and conditions. Will you hear me carefully? No believer can be neutral in the battle of truth. He should hate the lying and gossiping tongue, especially of another Christian. However, we should not hate or loathe the person with an innate hatred or malice, as Peter calls it.

Malice is something that should not be in the life of the believer. “Wherefore laying aside all malice …” (1Pe_2:1). Malice has been described as congealed anger. When the wrong is corrected, there should be no animosity. Forgive and forget is the principle. Harboring hatred and sinful feelings gives the devil an advantage in our lives. Many people have certain hang-ups.

They hate certain peoplethey can’t get over it and can’t forgive. My friend, we should forgive and forget if the person is willing to give up his lying. The Lord Jesus showed anger. He went into the synagogue, and there was a man with a withered hand. What angered Him was that the Pharisees had planted that man there just to see what He would do. “And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other” (Mar_3:5). Our Lord was angry at the Pharisees for doing such a thing. Also we are told that God is angry all day long with the wicked, but that the minute they give up their wickedness and turn to Him, He will save them. That should be the attitude of the believer. I heard of a custodian who had remained in a church which had had lots of problems. There was trouble, bitterness, hatred, and little cliques in the church. They had had one pastor after another, but the custodian remained through the years. A visitor who knew about the church asked him how he had been able to stay so long under such circumstances. He replied, “I just got into neutral and let them push me around.” A great many people think that that is being a Christian. May I say to you that no Christian can be neutral. We are in a great battle, as we shall see later in this epistle.

Ephesians 4:28

“Let him that stole steal no more.” Man by his sinful nature is a thief as well as a liar. When I was a boy, I ran around with a mean gang of boysI was the only good boy in the crowd, of course. During watermelon season, we stole watermelons. The farmer might have given us one out of his patch, but they tasted better if we swiped them. We also stole peaches and apples from the orchards. And in the wintertime we would steal eggs and take them down to Old Buzzard Creek and roast them. There wasn’t anything that was safe from us. After I was converted, I still had this impulse. In fact, once I was going to visit a man who had a marvelous watermelon patch by the side of a country road. I was so tempted to take one of his watermelons that I actually stopped and got out of the car. Then I thought, “Wait a minute. I am going to see the man in a few minutes. He’ll give me one. There’s no reason for me to do this.” I got back in the car and drove off. When I told him my experience, he laughed. “You know,” he said, “I might have shot you if you had gone into that watermelon patch. I’ve had a lot of thieves in there stealing my watermelons, and they are pretty valuable today.” Stealing is in our hearts. We are just naturally that way. Paul says here that we are to steal no more, even when it may look as if it is all right. “But rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.” The believer is not to get rich for his own selfish ends. Rather, he is to help others with whatever he has that is surplus. Today there are many fine Christian ministries that lag and wilt for lack of funds. Why? Because many believers are accumulating riches for themselves and are not giving as they should give. “Corrupt communication” means filthy speechthat which is rotten or putrid. An uncontrolled tongue in the mouth of a believer is the index of a corrupt life. Believers who use the shady or questionable story reveal a heart of wickedness. What is in the well of the heart will come up through the bucket of the mouth. The speech of the believer should be on the high plane of instructing and communicating encouragement to other believers. You can have fun and enjoy lifehumor has its placebut our humor should not be dirty or filthy.

Ephesians 4:30

“Grieve not the holy Spirit of God.” The Holy Spirit is a person who can be grieved. What is it that grieves Him? It is the offenses that have been listed. When a Christian lies, it grieves the Holy Spirit. When a Christian has dirty thoughts, it grieves the Holy Spirit. What happens when any person is grieved? It breaks the fellowship. The Holy Spirit cannot work in your life when you have grieved Him, when fellowship with Him has been broken. “Whereby ye are sealed"this tells us that we can grieve the Holy Spirit, but we cannot grieve Him away, because we are sealed in Him. How wonderful this is! You were sealed in the Holy Spirit at the moment of regeneration. “Unto the day of redemption"He seals you until the day when He will present you to the Lord Jesus Christ. A believer cannot unseal His work which continues to the day of redemption, but the believer may grieve Him. What is the great difference between Christians today? The real difference is that some Christians live with a grieved Holy Spirit and some live with an ungrieved Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 4:31

These last two verses are in sharp contrast one with the other. There is an additional listing of that which grieves the Holy Spirit in verse Eph_4:31these are sins of the emotional nature. Instead, the emotional responses, which God wants us to have, are given in verse Eph_4:32. “Bitterness” is an irritable state of mind which produces harsh and hard opinions of others. Someone once came up to me and told me what he thought of another Christian. A third Christian who was present later said, “Don’t put too much stress on what he said, Dr. McGee, because he is bitter.” A great many people are speaking out of bitterness, and when they do, it hurts. This grieves the Holy Spirit. “Wrath, and anger” are outbursts of passion. Bishop Moule makes this distinction between them, “Wrath denotes rather the acute passion, and the other the chronic.” “Clamour” means the bold assertion of supposed rights and grievances. There are people in the church who feel that the pastor isn’t paying attention to them if he doesn’t shake their hand. Sometimes they even become bitter and clamorous over a supposed slight. Who can say that the pastor must run around and shake hands with everyone simply to keep people happy? It is this kind of attitude that grieves the Holy Spirit. “Evil speaking” is blasphemy, but it also means all kinds of slander; and “malice,” as we have noted before, is congealed hatred. “Be put away from you.” All these sins are to be put away or, literally, taken away. In the Greek it is an aorist imperative, requiring a one-time decisive act if the Holy Spirit is not to be grieved. We must make a decision to put these sins away. Now comes a marked contrast. “Be (become) ye” denotes the radical change that should take place in the believer so that there will be no vacuum in his life. “Kind one to another” means Christian courtesy. “Tenderhearted” is a more intense word than kind. It means to be full of deep and mellow affection. Some believers are like thatthey are wonderful friends. When they see you, they put their arms around you. I went to college and then to seminary with a fellow and then helped him in meetings for years. He is retired now. When we saw each other in Florida some time back, we just flung our arms around each other. We were tenderhearted toward one anotherwe love each other in the Lord. “Forgiving one another” is a reflexive form of phrase. It is literally, “forgiving one another yourselves.” It means to give and take in a relation to the faults of one another. We are to forgive rather than magnify the faults of others. “Even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” All of this is to be done on a twofold basis. First, this conduct will not grieve the Holy Spirit. Second, the basis of forgiveness is not legal, but gracious. This is not a command under law but is on the basis of the grace of God exhibited in our forgiveness because Christ died for us. We are to forgive because we have been forgiven. It is not that we forgive in order to get forgiveness.

Note the contrast: Christ was stating the legal grounds for forgiveness in the Sermon on the Mount when He said, “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Mat_6:14-15). Here in Ephesians we are told to forgive on the basis of the grace of God which He exhibited in our forgiveness for Christ’s sake, because Christ died for us. This is quite wonderful!