A REMINDER OF NEW LIFE
Ephesians [ESV] 4:17-32 Now this I say and testify
in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles [unsaved] do, in the
futility of their minds. 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. They have become callous and have given themselves up to
sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the
way you learned Christ!— assuming
that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in
Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of
life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the
spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the
likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, having put
away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we
are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go
down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. 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. 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. (verse
30) And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the
day of redemption. 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.
Dear fellow travelers,
Let is take note that though on trusting Jesus Christ and
thereby assured of present and eternal redemption, the option remains to live
contrariwise. Ephesians 4:30.
EBB4
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