The scriptures referred to are Ephesians 4:25-5:2.
In journalism, not revealing what is the most important point in a news story at the very beginning is called burying the lede. You are supposed to put it in the first sentence or paragraph and then get to the supporting details. There are times however when you might want to build up to a conclusion to show that it follows logically from the facts you've already established. The conclusion you come to might be so startling or controversial that to open with it might turn people off and they won't go on to read or listen to the reasons that led you to it.
Here's an example. When I was working as a nurse, the doctor who was the Head of Neurosurgery came to the nurses desk and told me to follow him. We went to the hospital room of one of my patients and the doctor had me stand outside the door while he went in to talk to the patient. And he said, without prologue, “If I were you, I'd get my affairs in order, because you are going to die! We can't do anything else for you. You are going to die!” And then the doctor left. He had brought me there to pick up the pieces of the patient who was shattered by this brutal delivery of his prognosis. There is no good way to tell a patient that nothing more can be done for him but that had to be the worst way. He could have started by enumerating everything they had tried and then as gently as possible let him know that they could not stop the inevitable.
In a way Paul buries the lede in today's passage from Ephesians. But since we are reading a nearly 2000 year old book, I think we don't have to worry about spoilers and we can put Paul's central theme right up front. And it comes at the end of our reading: “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
By this Paul does not mean to pretend to be all-powerful or all-knowing or to command others to worship you or go about smiting those you think are evil. Those are all things that people think what being like God is all about. But in mere humans they are signs of being self-centered and arrogant. Remember: the first sin was wanting to be like God in that kind of way. (Genesis 3:4-5)
So in what way should we imitate God? Paul gives the answer in the second part of the verse: “...and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us...” God is love and we are to imitate him by imitating the self-sacrificial love of Christ, revealed in his life, death and resurrection. People who claim to be God or Jesus Christ never display that side of God, his giving up of himself to save others. Because it's the opposite of human arrogance and self-centeredness.
In the verses leading up to his conclusion, Paul gives us concrete examples of ways we can imitate God. First of all, he says “Putting away falsehood, let us all speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another.” Trust underlies all healthy relationships. And there is no faster way to break that trust than by lying to one another. Lie to your partner or your child or your friend or your co-worker and they will never totally trust you again. They will always doubt that you are telling them the truth. They will suspect that you are hiding something from them, perhaps something very bad. And that will make the relationship hard to maintain.
Being a false witness is condemned in the Ten Commandments. (Exodus 20:16) It says in Proverbs, “Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who act faithfully are his delight.” (Proverbs 12:22; cf 6:16-19) Jesus called the devil “a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44) And the Greek word for devil, diabolos, literally means “slanderer” and “false accuser.” Lies are his work. We do not serve God with lies.
To be fair, even Jesus' critics knew him to be honest. They said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are truthful, and teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You do not court anyone's favor because you show no partiality.” (Matthew 22:16) In imitating Jesus, we are to be honest.
This does not mean we are always to be blunt, like the doctor I mentioned before. Earlier in this chapter of Ephesians, Paul talks of “...speaking the truth in love...” Generally a soft opening, showing that you are speaking out of concern for the person's well-being, rather than out of your own self-righteousness, is more likely to help the person accept the truth, however painful. You want to avoid what one preacher said we often do. He said, “We often approach evangelism like this: 'Have you heard the good news?' 'No. What is it?' 'You're going to hell!' That is not good news.” Unlike that poor neurosurgery patient, there is a cure for what ails us. The one who can take away the spiritual cancer of our sins and selfishness is Jesus.
Paul goes on to say, “Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil.” Sometimes anger is not sinful, for instance, like the anger at injustice that motivates people to change systems and societies. Anger at the death of 123 women and girls and 23 men in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, due to the doors and exits being locked to prevent workers from taking breaks and to prevent theft, led to legislation that improved factory safety standards. The anger of the abolishionists at slavery eventually led to it being outlawed in the 13th amendment to the Constitution. Jesus was angry at the lack of compassion of those who were more concerned about their human rules of what could and could not be done on the Sabbath than they were about a man with a withered hand whom he could heal. (Mark 3:5) He was so angry with the greedy money changers and dishonest merchants selling things in the temple that he drove them out. (Mark 11:15-17)
So how does anger become sinful? Obviously when it is unjustified or when it causes harm. But also when it is nursed over time and becomes more or less permanent. We have all seen relationships break up and families torn apart by some dispute that never got resolved. I had relatives who never spoke to one another over a ring that each claimed my aunt had intended them to have after her death. They alienated their own flesh and blood over a thing of cold hard minerals that could not show them love.
So Paul says not to let the sun go down on your anger. Put your disagreement to bed before you go to bed. If not, you are leaving open an opportunity for the devil to act and make it worse. And remember that the word for devil can mean slanderer or false accuser. When two people won't speak to each other, tongues wag and people come up with their own ideas of what happened or what the people's motives were and they spread gossip. And that poisons the relationship even more. Don't let that happen.
Next Paul says that thieves must give up stealing and take up honest work. According to William Barclay, to whose analysis of this passage I am indebted, the two places where people in the ancient world experienced the most theft were the docks, where goods came in, and the public baths, where, like a pool or beach today, anything you left behind when you got into the water was vulnerable. It is interesting that Paul doesn't say that the thief should make money with his own hands to support himself but rather to have enough to help the needy. The thief must go from being a person who helps himself to others' possessions to a person who helps others with his own possessions. Again he or she is to imitate the selfless love we see demonstrated by God in Christ.
In that same spirit, we are not to let unwholesome words spill out of our mouths but stick to speech that is beneficial and builds up the one who needs to hear things that reflect God's love to us. When someone is down they don't need to hear things like “Serves you right” or “I told you so!” They'd rather hear “How are you doing?” or “What can I do to help?” Jesus came not to condemn the world but to save it. (John 3:17) We should not be quick to condemn but to help people find their way back to wholeness and health through Jesus.
Next Paul tells us not to “grieve the Holy Spirit of God.” The Greek word for grieve means to experience deep emotional pain. How can we cause God's Spirit pain? By doing and saying things that go against what he is trying to teach us. Parents are distressed when their children do stuff that goes against how they were brought up to act, like being cruel or rude or nasty to others. Since God's love is poured into our hearts through his Spirit, when we act in ways that are unloving, it causes him to grieve. (Romans 5:5) If we are to return the love God has shown us, we should act in ways that cause him to delight in us.
Paul next tells us to put away every kind of bitterness, anger, rage, quarreling and slander, together with all malice. Bitterness or long-standing resentment can both lead to and result from those other things in the list. And the word for malice can also be translated as a vicious disposition. A Christian should never do or say anything out of spite or malice.
Rather we should “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.” Kindness, compassion and forgiveness are key aspects of God's nature and therefore things that we should exhibit as we follow Jesus.
Which brings us back to being imitators of God. Paul points out that beloved children imitate their parents. That is a primal desire in children. We even see it when children imitate our worst actions and habits. If you swerve to avoid a careless driver and then hear from the back seat a little voice cursing like a sailor at the other driver, you know that you need to clean up your act around your children. You want your children to imitate your good qualities. We are to imitate God's kindness, compassion and forgiveness.
We were created in the image of God. (Genesis 1:27) We have marred that image through our misuse, abuse and neglect of his good gifts to us. In Jesus we see the image of our loving, forgiving, healing God. (Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3; 2 Corinthians 4:4) And through Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit within us, we can have that image restored in us. But we have to cooperate and let the Spirit do his work in us. Part of that is imitating God our Father. And the clearest way to do that is to live in love as Jesus Christ has, loving us and giving himself for us. Too often we put other things ahead of this, burying the lede. But as we've seen, Jesus won't stay buried. In his resurrection, we have hope that we too can rise to the life he created us to enjoy.
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