Day 10 - Change Your Life!

Day 10 - Change Your Life!

God is so Good to Us!!!

Pray, Read the book of Ephesians, Praise God - did you do it on your own yet? It will happen, you will be led to absorb the wonderful blessings God has given us that reading Ephesians will be something you cannot live without each day...

STUDY VERSES:

The New Life
17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.
18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.
19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!—
21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus,
22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,
23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
27 and give no opportunity to the devil.
28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.
29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

STUDY QUESTIONS:

1. Why are we no longer Gentiles? What does it mean to be a Gentile in this context?

2. We are to renew our minds but what about our flesh and our heart? How do we renew these?

3. How do we know that we are of God? How will our walk, our talk, our heart and our mind demonstrate the work of the Holy Spirit?

4. Why do you think Paul puts bitterness ahead of all other sins in this context? Do you have bitterness in your heart? Do you know how to release the root?

5. How can we put away anger each day? What prayer does God give us to demonstrate that each day we must repent, be renewed and grow in love? Do you make this prayer part of your daily life? If not, get on your knees tonite and say it to Him.


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Commentary from the ESV:

Eph. 4:17–18 Paul affirms most solemnly in the Lord that his Gentile readers, as part of the new creation, should no longer live as the Gentiles do (vv. 22–24; Col. 3:9–10). futility of their minds . . . darkened. Both in antiquity and today, people who reject the knowledge of God think of themselves as “enlightened” (cf. Heb. 10:32).
Eph. 4:22 put off your old self. As Christians seek to do this, God makes it a reality, as seen in Col. 3:9–10. Even Paul's Gentile readers can be part of the new creation in Christ. (As the esv footnote indicates, “self” is the generic Gk. for “man” or “human”—perhaps an allusion to Adamic man apart from Christ.)
Ephesians 4:22 describes the negative side of regeneration, while vv. 23–24 point to the positive side. People need inner transformation because their hearts are “deceitful above all things, and desperately sick” (Jer. 17:9).
Eph. 4:23 renewed. Paul expressed the negative side of the new creation in v. 22 as putting off the “old self,” while vv. 23–24 express the positive side as an entire transformation of believers' inner selves, focusing here on their minds (see also John 3:3–6; Col. 3:9–10). Christians sometimes distinguish between knowledge of head and of heart, but the Bible shows that they should love and serve the Lord with all that is in them, including their minds, at all times (Deut. 6:5; 10:12; 13:3; Matt. 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27).
The “renewal” or “transformation” of the mind (Rom. 12:2) is a process in which believers begin to think in new and right ways as they meditate on the truths of God's Word.
Eph. 4:24 put on the new self (lit., “man”; see note on v. 22). Paul focuses on the individual aspect of the corporate “new man” as described in 2:15. Believers are created anew in Christ (see also 2:10). Created after the likeness of God further shows the connection with the original creation in Genesis, where “God created man in his own image” (Gen. 1:27; cf. 1 Cor. 15:49).
Eph. 4:25–32 Exhortation to an Edifying Lifestyle. Paul gives practical examples of how church members build up Christ's body (cf. vv. 13–16), based on what is true of them as Christians.
Eph. 4:25 Therefore. In vv. 25–32 Paul will show how Christians are to put into practice the truths explored in vv. 17–24.
Eph. 4:26–27 Be angry. Not all anger is sin, but the believer should not be consumed by anger, nor should one's anger even be carried over into the next day, as this will only give an opportunity to the devil.
Eph. 4:28 Paul uses the thief to illustrate how repentance impacts one's lifestyle. Repentance involves both stopping (negative) and starting (positive). The thief must stop stealing and start doing honest work. Stealing arises out of laziness and greed, so the repentant thief must display the opposite: diligence at labor and willingness to share.
Eph. 4:29 corrupting talk. As with the “stopping” and “starting” noted in v. 28, Christians are to stop evil speech, substituting talk that is good for building up and giving grace. “Corrupting” (Gk. sapros) also applies to “bad” (rotten) fruit (Luke 6:43) or “bad” (putrid) fish (Matt. 13:48). To “give grace” in speaking means to benefit others rather than corrupt them through what is said.
Eph. 4:30 grieve. Grieving the Holy Spirit means to cause him sorrow by one's sin. sealed. See note on 1:13. The day of redemption is the day of Christ's return (see Luke 21:28; Rom. 8:23).
Eph. 4:31 All bitterness means “every kind of bitterness.” “All” also modifies the other items in the list, telling readers to put away all wrath, anger, clamor, slander, and malice. “Bitterness” may head the list because it so often leads to the other sins that Paul names. Bitterness comes from a heart that is not right before God (Acts 8:21–23); it is a primary characteristic of an unregenerate person (Rom. 3:10–14); and it causes destruction and defilement (Heb. 12:15). Bitterness and resentment are thus incompatible with Christian character and must be put away. People often are very careless with their speech (“slander”), even though the tongue can ignite a forest fire of harm to others (James 3:5–6).
4:32 Being kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving flows from constantly remembering that God first forgave us and that we need his forgiveness daily, as the Lord's Prayer reminds us: “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matt. 6:12; cf. Luke 11:4).

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Well, don't you thank God that He is our strength and our guide? Changing the corrupt man into the likeness of Christ is not for the hard nor faint of heart! I try to put myself in Paul's place during the First Century Church. I imagine being surrounded by pious and self-righteous religious people scorning me, pointing at me and mocking me. I also see the heathens, the unsaved Gentiles; giving in to all manner of sin and living for pleasure and ruling their own minds and souls.

If you meditate on this fact, it isn't difficult to leap back into today and see where this world is...right where Paul was when God gave Him the task of sharing the hope in Christ! Isn't God magnificent in His plan and perfect in His timing? Beloved, you are being transformed and renewed for this very task--to share your hope, your testimony with a religious and sinful people. We are not tied to a denomination with man-made rules, we are not weak and give in to the lust of the flesh and the desires of this world.

The Holy Spirit Himself lives within us to guide us and teach us wisdom and righteousness as Christ intended it for us. Do not fear, do not faint, do not stop striving and persevering for the prize of the high calling which is in Christ Jesus. There will be pain, there will be pressure, there will be disappointments and there will be scorn. Fear not! Study the Word and realize that this is merely a temporary assignment and that Jesus triumphs for ever and ever and we shall be caught up with Him on the day of redemption!!! Hallelujah Beloved, Have Joy! Keep your testimony simple and true and the Holy Spirit will lead you...God Bless you and keep you, Sister Lisa