Lesson for January 26, 2025
The Law of Volitional Responsibility
Lesson 4
The Choice
Ephesians 4: 25-32
Verses 25-28
“Therefore, ridding yourselves of falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, because we are parts of one another. Be angry and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity. The one who steals must no longer steal; but rather he must labor, producing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with the one who has need.”
It is impossible to recover from reversionism if a believer continues to think human viewpoint. There must be a change in thinking before the process of recovery begins. Paul used several examples to illustrate this change in thinking. Laying aside falsehood means reversionism can be a lifestyle characterized by habitual lying to self and to others. When you begin to recover, you are to stop any habit of lying, any pattern of lying. In place of lying, this recovering believer is to speak the truth to themselves, which will be an indication that the recovery process has begun.
Be angry, and yet do not sin means that there are right times to be angry without sinning. “Be angry with righteous indignation” is a better translation. Anger without a righteous cause is sin and that may give Satan the opportunity to influence your thinking. This command says that you have the right to be angry without sinning. However, the command includes letting that righteous indignation pass and leave it in the hands of God.
Do not let the sun go down on your anger. This is a command to resolve the anger issue quickly, and do not let it fester. Do not give the devil an opportunity means not to give the devil the opportunity to influence you with false doctrine and human viewpoint thinking. Satan and his demons cannot indwell a believer, but false doctrine can cause a believer to become reversionistic and abandon their spiritual life.
The one who steals must no longer steal; but rather he must labor, producing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with the one who has need. Stealing can be both an overt sin or a mental attitude sin, and the reversionist is commanded to stop it. Stealing can refer to illegal business practices, to taking things that don’t belong to you, to stealing a person’s reputation, to cheating on a test, etc. In this verse, it refers to dishonest business practices. No longer steal; but rather he must labor, producing with his own hands means someone was cheating in business in Ephesus.
Verses 29-32
“Let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but if there is any good word for edification according to the need of the moment, say that, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. All bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and slander must be removed from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”
“Reversionism recovery” means a change in the way we speak to ourselves and others. The Greek word for unwholesome is “sapros,” which means bad or corrupt. Unwholesome words, like profanity, are those that reflect badly on a believer’s testimony for Christ and should never come out of a believer’s mouth. Bad, corrupt words certainly do not edify and build a person up. Give grace to the hearer means being an example of a person who speaks encouraging and uplifting words.
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Grieving means to bring sorrow, which is against the will of God, takes us out of fellowship with God, and we lose the filling of the Holy Spirit. This is a command to stop sinning and persisting in carnality but instead Rebound. This command emphasizes the fact that spirituality and carnality are mutually exclusive. The recovering reversionist must begin with Rebound before the recovery process can begin. (I John 1:6-10, 2:10-11)
Sealed for the day of redemption. The sealing ministry of the Holy Spirit is the believer’s guarantee of eternal life. It is through this ministry that believers are secure forever. The Holy Spirit Himself is the seal or down payment of a future inheritance – the time when the believer receives his glorified body. It means that we are permanently identified as God’s own possession. (II Corinthians 1:22; Ephesians 1:13; 4:30)
All bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and slander must be removed from you, along with all malice. We have five words that describe the reversionist. Bitterness is the Greek word “pikria” meaning antagonism, animosity, hardness and cruelty toward others. The first manifestations of bitterness mentioned are wrath and anger.
The Greek word for wrath is “thumos,” meaning emotional upset, tantrums; anger is “orge,” which is mental anger with a view to taking revenge. The two types of anger found in this context also produce various categories of misery: 1) self-induced misery; 2) chain sinning; 3) misery to those in a person’s periphery; 4) revenge type misery; 5) divine discipline.
The Greek word for clamor is “krauge,” which means shouting or verbal brawling. Clamor is offensive loudness, vocal brawling, being blatantly uncontrollable with one’s mouth. It implies rejection of authority plus the expression of mental attitude sins. The Greek word for slander is “blasphemia,” which means character assassination, meaning to spread rumors, lies, and criticisms of another person. The Greek word for malice is “kakia,” which means a vicious character, meanness, or wickedness.
Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. The Greek word for kind is “chrestos,” which means good, pleasant, or gracious. It is difficult to translate this word because it implies many acts of thoughtfulness, many acts of graciousness, many acts of kindness. Kindness is often mistaken for weakness, which it isn’t. The Greek word for compassionateis “eusplanchnos,” which means tender-hearted or good hearted. The Greek word for forgiving is “aphiemi,” which means to send forth, send away. It means to forgive on the basis of grace, forgive on the basis of who you are in Christ. It does not mean to condone bad behavior. It means to forgive based on the divine integrity that you have developed in your soul from accurate Bible doctrine. It means to forgive unconditionally as Christ forgave. (Matthew 18:21-22)
Paul clearly defines what a reversionistic believers must do to begin the process of getting back on track spiritually. In chapter 5, Paul goes into great detail to show believers what to do once the process of recovery begins. He begins with the phrase, “Therefore be imitators of God.” Being imitators of God means to follow the example set by God the Son, Jesus Christ. If indeed, we do follow Christ’s example, we will fulfill the positive aspect of the Law of Volitional Responsibility.
Ephesians 5:1-5
Verses 1-2
“Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.”
In Ephesians 4, we saw the effect of reversionism in the life of believers. Now we have the challenge to be imitators of Christ. This challenge is addressed to the royal family of God as children of God. The question is how do we become imitators of God? The answer is we imitate God by following the pattern that Christ set for us. We walk in love just like Christ walked in love. Walking in love means a believer has developed their spiritual life into a place where they understand impersonal (unconditional) love and are able to apply it consistently.
The deity of God cannot be imitated. It is blasphemous and unthinkable that a human being with a sin nature could even approximate imitating God’s deity. So, when we are commanded to imitate God, we are not commanded to imitate His deity. Therefore, “imitators of God” refers to the humanity of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is true deity, but He is also true humanity. Therefore, it is the humanity of Christ that we are commanded to imitate. As true humanity, Christ was sinless and impeccable, and we cannot imitate this because we possess a sin nature, and we commit sin. Therefore, the imitation of Jesus Christ must be limited to His humanity, to something we can do, and not something we cannot do.
The humanity of Christ was constantly filled with the Holy Spirit and sustained by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. When believers are filled with the Spirit, they become imitators of Jesus Christ. The principle of imitating Christ is related to the command, “Be filled with the Spirit” or “Walk in the Spirit.” Also, Jesus Christ studied, believed, learned, and applied the Word of God throughout His life, according to Luke 2:40,52. Therefore, imitating Jesus Christ means you are advancing toward spiritual maturity.
Walk in love refers to the spiritual life of a believer. The Greek word for walk is “peripateo,” referring toa person’s lifestyle. It is used for the plan of God in Romans 6:4, Galatians 5:16, and Ephesians 5:2. Walking in love is to walk as Christ walked with unconditional love for everyone, which we call impersonal love. Impersonal love is how we treat others. It’s your choice – serve God or serve Satan’s world system!