Lesson for May 30, 2021
The Book of Ephesians
Chapter 4:14-19
Verses 14-16
“As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” The Greek word for children is “nepois” refers to a person who is childish in his thinking, no matter what his chronological age may be. It is used for spiritual immaturity. To be childish means to be influenced by the human viewpoint thinking of the world. It means lack of interest in the teaching of the Word of God and spiritual growth. It means that a believer in this state of spiritual childishness can easily be led astray by false doctrinal teaching.
The Greek word for tossed is “kludonizomai,” which is used for a ship out of control at the mercy of the wind and the waves. It means to be tossed by waves. It refers to succumbing to the false teachings of Satan’s world system of human viewpoint thinking or falling prey to the teachings of a false teacher. Both of these errors lead to carnality and eventually into reversionism. This is illustrated by the words carried about which is the Greek word periphero means to lift and to be carried away. In this case Paul was warning them not to be carried away into some system of false doctrine. False doctrine is called the doctrine of demons in I Timothy 4:1. It is the doctrine that enters a vacuum in the soul of negative believers. Vacuum is translated as vanity or futility from the Greek word “mataiotes” meaning emptiness.
This warning is further illustrated by Paul in the phrases the trickery of men and craftiness in deceitful scheming. The Greek word for trickery is “kubeia,” it means gambling with dice. The Greek word for craftiness is “panourgia” which means to cheat. The reversionistic believer is playing dice with the devil and the devil has loaded the dice, as it were, with false doctrine. The devil cheats those members of the royal family who neglect and reject Bible doctrine. Your neglect of Bible doctrine inevitably results in being outsmarted by the devil. False doctrine loads the dice in favor of false doctrine.
Deceitful scheming illustrates the character and cunning of Satan and his “ministers of righteousness.” These ministers of Satan are ministers of false doctrine and they are in the pulpit of churches every week. The Greek word for deceitful is “planeao” meaning to lead one into error or seduce. So, Satan uses both trickery and craftiness to lead the unsuspecting spiritually immature believer into false doctrine. This believer is in the royal family but has no spiritual life. In that condition there is no hope of advancing or effectively coping with life. Therefore, accurate Bible doctrine is to be our very highest priority as believers, and without it we stand a good chance of believing false doctrine.
Therefore, the spiritually immature believer is compared to a ship out of control in a storm and floundering (filled with water and about to sink) to indicate his instability related to the false doctrine and his negative attitude toward accurate Bible doctrine. The childish believer is compared to a person in a crooked dice game playing with loaded dice. This means that no matter how smart believers think they are, they cannot stand up against the influence of demon doctrine that Satan makes appear as accurate Bible doctrine from God.
But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ. There is a contrast in this chapter between spiritually immature believers, who are retreating in their spiritual lives, and believers who are advancing in their spiritual lives. Remember, if you are not advancing in the Christian Way of Life, you are by default retreating into reversionism.
Speaking the truth is addressed to the pastor and means to teach accurate doctrine. It is by teaching accurate doctrine that we all grow up spiritually. And the pastor is to speak the truth of Bible doctrine with a mental attitude of love toward everyone he teaches, whether they are positive or negative. The Greek word for love is “agape,” which means unconditional or impersonal love for all.
The Greek word for growth is “auxano,” which means to cause to increase or to grow. Spiritual growth occurs only by means of study and application of accurate Bible doctrine. Spiritual growth is the natural result when believers consistently listen, understand, believe, and apply the truth from God’s Word taught by a pastor under the filling of the Holy Spirit.
In all aspects refers to all the doctrine that goes into your soul and stays there causing you to grow up spiritually. Every believer is a member of the royal family and therefore he must have the right perspective with regards to doctrine. There are false concepts whereby people think they can read the Bible for themselves and grow up. You cannot read and understand the Bible for yourself or memorize the Bible and have the accurate doctrine it takes to grow up spiritually. Spiritual growth in the Church Age requires the function of a pastor-teacher whose objective is to study and teach so believers will have the opportunity to grow up spiritually.
Into Him Who is the head, even Christ refers also to the One Who is supreme, the One who is the Chief Cornerstone and the Chief Shepherd of our faith. He is the One Who is superior to all others in authority. So, there should be no question that Jesus Christ is the absolute and final authority in the Church.
From whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. From whom means Jesus Christ is the source of everything that is worthwhile in life. The whole body refers to the body of Christ which is made up of all believers in the Church Age by means of the baptism of the Holy Spirit placing us into union with Christ. It refers to the Royal Family of God as one cohesive unit. The Greek word for fitted is “sunarmologeo,” which means to frame together as you would a building. Spiritually it refers to the building of the body of Christ, which will become the bride of Christ in Heaven.
It is God’s desire is to build a building that brings honor and glory to Jesus Christ. This can only be accomplished as believers individually grow up spiritually and become part of the pivot of spiritually mature believers. This of course is accomplished by means of the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher under the filling and mentorship of God the Holy Spirit. The building material is the Word of God, pastor-teachers are the joints, the individual parts of the building are believers with various spiritual gifts, Jesus Christ is the Chief Cornerstone of the building and the Holy Spirit is power supply for building. The operational power is God the Holy Spirit controlling the pastor-teacher in his teaching, and controlling the royal priests in their listening, understanding, and applying accurate doctrine, which causes spiritual growth. All the members of the royal family on earth are linked together when they are studying, learning, believing, and applying the accurate doctrinal teaching of their pastor-teacher. It is accurate Bible doctrine that unifies believers.
Verses 17-19
“So, this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.”
Verse 17-32 can be titled “The Spiritual Walk of the Believer.” To walk like the Gentiles is a reference to living like an unbeliever. When Paul said that he affirms together with the Lord, it is a very strong statement as to what was going to follow in the next several verses. We know that Paul did not hesitate to admonish believers when it was necessary. Affirming together with the Lordmeans every time Paul taught, he was obligated to teach accurate Bible doctrine.
The Greek word for walk is “peripateo,” which means to have a pattern, a way of life, a thought pattern, a behavior pattern. Paul was writing to believers who are already headed down the road to reversionism. Therefore, this was an admonition to get off that road and get on to the road to spiritual maturity. No longer means that they had been walking just like unbelievers. They were walking in the futility of their mind. The Greek word for futility is “mataiotes,” which means emptiness or vanity. It has the concept of a vacuum a vacuum in the soul. In other words, religion, legalism, and false doctrines had infiltrated the vacuum in the souls of some of these believers. Into this vacuum comes false doctrine such as the doctrine of demons. They had believed in Jesus Christ, they were members of the Royal Family of God, they could not lose their salvation, they were indwelt by God the Holy Spirit, sealed by the Holy Spirit, but they were succumbing to the apostasy around them. When a believer gets all of these false doctrines into their stream of consciousness, the process of reversionism begins.
Being darkened in their understanding, Negative volition results in darkness entering the mind and resulting in the soul becoming darkened (black out). In their understanding is the Greek word “dianoia,” which means thinking. Having become darkened in their thinking describes the result of the opening of that vacuum in the soul (“mataiotes”). The opening of the vacuum means that they have darkness in their thinking which has been influenced by Satan and the doctrine of demons. It is directly related to the opening of the vacuum into the mind. The blackout of the soul is negative volition toward doctrine which leads to a frantic search for happiness and emotion as the ruler of the soul. (II Corinthians 2:11, 3:14, 4:4, 11:3; Galatians 3:1-3; I Timothy 2:4; Titus 2:3)
Excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them. If you have blackout of the soul, you are alienated from the life of God experientially. You’re still a child of God, a member of the Royal Family of God, but you have no spiritual life. This condition of the soul is the direct result of spiritual ignorance. When a believer fails to avail themselves to the accurate teaching of God’s Word, they eventually end up having blackout of the soul which manifests itself as apathy toward God and His Word.
Because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous. The Greek word for hardness is “porosis,” which means blindness. The Greek word for callous is “apalgeo,” which means to cease to feel pain or past feeling. Together these words describe scar tissue and in the case of the reversionist, scar tissue on the soul. Therefore, the definition of “hardness of the heart” or “scar tissue of the mind” is the blackout in the soul resulting in the hardness.
Have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.
Hardness of heart, scar tissue of the soul, emotional revolt of the soul, result in a frantic search for happiness. This verse is the illustration of the fact that once you have blackout of the soul and hardness of the heart you just keep trying to be happy any way you can. Sensuality is the Greek word “aselgeia,” which means absence of restraint or indecency. The Greek word for impurity is “akatharsia,” which means moral uncleanness or defilement. The Greek word for greediness is “pleonexia,” which means a desire to have more and can’t get enough. Putting these words together we have a picture of the result of blackout of the soul and scar tissue on the soul.