Freedom For Today

“Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God. Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people. Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God. You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world.”

The Bible constantly refers to us as God’s “children.” We are never the “adults of God,” but instead are compared to babies and toddlers. The more quickly we grasp this concept, the more free we are to act the way babies act: imitating their parents. God gave us a concrete example of how to live through Jesus. Do what he did and you’ll be acting just like your Father.

Part of what imitating Jesus means is getting rid of junk. His work was all about bring health and freedom to everyone he touched, and if we want to do that as well we need to reject every sin we can possibly identify. Sexual immorality, impurity, greed, obscene stories, foolish talks, course jokes. All of these are simply not what God’s kingdom is about.

Here’s your freedom for today: you will become free by freeing your mind from earthly things. How much time do you spend watching television shows that contain much (or all!) of what is on this list of sins? Compare that to how much time you spend aligning your thoughts with God’s thoughts through Bible reading and prayer. If we truly want to imitate God, we have to spend time with him. We have to watch him, study him, and follow his every move. Only then will we become like the children we were made to be.

 ^“So stop telling lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, for we are all parts of the same body. And ‘don’t sin by letting anger control you.’ Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil. If you are a thief, quit stealing. Instead, use your hands for good hard work, and then give generously to others in need. Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. And do not bring sorrow to God’s Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, he has identified you as his own, guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.”

Paul is continuing his instructions about living differently from the world around us. Recall that unity is the goal — as God demonstrates unity within himself and in his salvation of the world, we too must act as a united body. Paul gives us concrete examples in today’s verses: tell the truth, deal with conflict appropriately, work hard instead of stealing, and watch your mouth.

When we remember that we are God’s adopted children who are in line for a great spiritual inheritance, we start acting differently. Instead of following dysfunctional ways that may have been present in our earthly families, we practice kindness and tenderness to one another. In God’s family, holding a grudge simply isn’t possible because your heart remains soft.

Here’s your freedom for today: getting rid of anger sets you free. All of the things Paul tells us to get rid of are things that harm us. Bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander — these are all descriptions of a person I would never want to be. When our hearts are hard, we act like the world and it is impossible to live by the Spirit in that condition. These ways are directly opposed to the example of Christ. Check your heart today and take your emotional pulse. Are you holding onto anger and bitterness? Is there someone you have yet to forgive? Ask God to soften your heart and let go, you’ll be more free than you’ve ever been.

 

“So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed. That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

If you have been reading along with us through this series, you will know that Paul is all about the Gentiles being adopted by God along with the Jews. At first glance, he seems to be putting them down here, telling his readers not to “live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.” In this context, Paul is referring to Gentiles who remain far from God and are not following in Jesus’ ways.

All Christians, whether Jew or Gentile, live a life united with God. Those who live separated from God indulge themselves in a whole lot of ways. As we look around American society, we see this same type of cultural acceptance of greed, impurity, and indulgence. Those lifestyles are not the way of Christ.

Here’s your freedom for today: you get to be a brand new you. You don’t have to follow the paths you see around you. You don’t have to live fooled by desires that will end up coming back to hurt you. You can live a holy and righteous life, which is an imitation of God. There are two ways we can try to be like God: we can try to steal his rightful place as ruler over our lives, or we can imitate his characteristics of holiness and righteousness. Trying to be God will destroy us, but trying to be like God is the very thing we were made to do. When you imitate God, you’ll like what you see — the very best version of yourself.

“Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”

Recall from yesterday’s post that everything God has is given to us as an inheritance. All of his spiritual victories are passed on to us, and he loves to give good gifts to his children. God’s kinds of gifts are eternally valuable, and in this passage Paul describes how Jesus has given the church special people to help advance the Gospel.

Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers have a unique role and calling to build up the church. Far beyond helping people pray a simple prayer of confession, these leaders help train, equip, and disciple believers. Most likely your spiritual life has been deepened by some godly leaders just like this. However, some of you may have experienced abuse or been misled, and this can happen as Satan tries to drag us down. You can tell a good leader by how they speak the truth: with love or with condemnation. Only one of those is anything like God.

Here’s your freedom for today: God gives us good leaders to bring life and health. As a counselor, I have heard a lot of stories about broken relationships and pain caused by humans to other humans. God’s work has a unique marker: health. Some leaders inspire us, engage us, and bring out the best versions of ourselves. They are imitating Jesus because everything they do is with genuine love. I have seen leaders who claim to do this, but they have a strong emphasis on “tough love.” A good leader who is gifted by God makes you feel important even when you need to be corrected. Real love is not tough, but gentle, just like God. Who do you know that brings you life and health? How can you spend more time with them this week?

“However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ. That is why the Scriptures say, ‘When he ascended to the heights, he led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to his people.’ Notice that it says ‘he ascended.’ This clearly means that Christ also descended to our lowly world. And the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself.”

Paul winds his way into a side point in these verses that is a bit confusing to follow. Recall from yesterday that he was writing about how there is one God and one faith. We all share one calling. But you know as well as I do that we are not all exactly the same. God has given us each different spiritual gifts, and Paul will get back to describing them in verse 11, which we will read tomorrow.

Paul references Psalm 68:18, and I would encourage you to read all of Psalm 68 in order to understand why Paul would quote this here. This psalm describes the victories of God, including his final victory in which he crushes the head of his enemy. In verse 18, it talks about God receiving gifts from  people when he ascended, but Paul mentions God giving gifts. How does this make sense? Remember where Paul began this letter to the Ephesians: a description of how God has adopted us and is giving us an inheritance. In Psalm 68 when God receives gifts and conquers his enemies, how does he divide his spoils? That’s right, he gives it to us as his children.

Here’s your freedom for today: everything God has is yours. When the kingdom of God has come in full, we will be able to walk freely as sons and daughters of God. He will not withhold any good thing. Jesus came and walked among us, stooping down far below his royal position, in order to rescue us. He ascended back up to the throne in victory, having crushed Satan as he overcame death. It’s all his. We’re his. And he loves to give good gifts to his children. We Americans may jump right to thinking about material possessions, but God’s eternal gifts are far greater. We’ll explore this more tomorrow!