Ephesians 4 - Washed Brand New

Let’s grab a cup of coffee, jump into the Word, and talk to Jesus. I had a random generator choose a book and chapter of the Bible for me to dive into this morning. Today, it landed on Ephesians 4. I decided to choose 3 verses that I wanted to decipher further, and then discussed my takeaways with the Lord. Before I share my takeaways, I would love if you would join me in reading Ephesians 4. Go read Ephesians 4; choose 3 verses, and then meet back here!

Ephesians is one of my favorite books of the Bible. Here is a little bit of a backstory of the chapter before we get into the 3 verses I chose for today. This chapter is written by Paul, who is one of the apostles of Jesus. It goes into depth and talks about the application that is necessary when we become Christians and what this wholeheartedly means. Previously, in chapter 3 Paul was more so describing the characteristics of God. Those chapters are beautiful in themselves as they delve into how wonderful, lovely, mighty, and beautiful our God is. But here in chapter 4 Paul is now transitioning to why it is important to demonstrate those same Godly characteristics. Not only that but Paul explains how we can practically apply those characteristics as Christians, and how we should want to. Now that we have just a little bit of a backstory, let’s move on to the 3 verses the Lord placed on my heart today.  

Ephesians 4:12, “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” One of the really impressive things that Paul does is start this new church era which we began to read about in the New Testament. It happens right after Jesus’ ascension. It's described as a community of believers getting together or unity formed together with one common love or one common goal. The really comforting thing is that we as Christians do not have to establish that unity, it's already there through the Holy Spirit. We are all linked, as Chrisitan's, through the Holy Spirit. We just have to preserve it. It paints a really lovely picture and makes it seem like there is not all this pressure of us liking everything we see in the lives of other Christians. We share a common love for the Holy Spirit and for Christ, and that is enough. Within the unity/community of believers, every single person has been blessed with different spiritual gifts. The Holy Spirit has given us each different gifts that we are instructed to live out in our ministry. Growing up, I thought that if I was introverted then there was no way that I would ever be preaching the gospel but that is just simply not the case. The Lord uses us in a variety of ways to do ministry, and to speak love and truth to others. He does not limit us because we do not define ourselves as extroverts, so we do not need to limit ourselves either. Let’s move on to the next verse.

Ephesians 4:14, “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes.” I grew up in church and I remember when I was younger, I asked the Lord to come into my heart. Well, whether it be because I was naive or maybe the way I perceived Christians was off, either way I thought I was going to have this immediate change in my life. I thought I would pray this prayer, ask God to live in my heart, and then all of a sudden, I would be full of wisdom, and life would get easier, and everything would be better. I learned the hard way that this could not be further from the truth. I struggle more in my life now than I ever have before. Granted, I have so much more peace. It is a completely new and wonderful life, but it is hard, and I struggle. The Lord has been so gracious to me and is teaching me something new every single day here lately. But I keep getting this overwhelming feeling that I do not know what I am doing, and the Lord is not really speaking to me, and this is my own made-up fallacies that I have concocted in my head. (Which is exactly what the enemy wants us to think.) I keep feeling like I am treading water, and it only takes me a millisecond of taking my eyes off Jesus for me to really start drowning. I start panicking because I cannot decipher which way is up from which way is down. A hard reality for me to face is the fact that I know one reason I struggle so deeply with this is because I lack true spiritual maturity. True spiritual maturity is motivated by love and proclaims truth. Yes, loving one another but we also cannot forget to speak God’s truth. We cannot blindly deny the truth that is in the gospel. I grew up in the south and a lot of times I have sadly seen biblical truth being treated as a weapon. I feel like I am constantly hearing people say, “You are a Christian so you cannot do XY or Z.” or “You are a Christian and are supposed to do X and set a good example.” This is an inaccurate way to approach this. We need to not use it as this weapon for obedience and how to follow rules, but we need to do it out of genuine love and concern for someone and their character, should their character also come into play. I am ashamed to admit that I used to do that as a Christian. - I used to point out beliefs, viewpoints, feelings, etc. that I did not believe aligned with Christianity that I noticed in fellow believers. And if I am being completely honest, at the moment I probably really did not care whether I was truly right or wrong. Truthfully, I wanted to come off as more knowledgeable and wisdom seeking than I really was. Which is disgusting and horrible for me to admit. I should want to follow the teachings and commands of the Lord; not be forced to think of it as a chore or to treat as a weapon. Let’s move on to the third and final verse.

Ephesians 4:24, “and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in the righteousness and holiness.” Paul’s books are just so chock-full of incredible stuff. I could literally read the same chapter every single day and pull something new the Lord is teaching me each time. I love how in the ESV it describes it as “putting on” the new self. Painting a picture of physically having to put something on. Which is exactly what it feels like as a Chrisitan. We have to make a conscious decision every single day to step outside the norms of the world and of society. I will be the first to admit that there are days when sitting in that comfortable and worldly mindset is a lot easier than stepping outside the world. But I promise you this, it is never fulfilling, and it will never give you peace. Yes, it can seem so enticing because it seems like the easier option. I get it, following Christ sometimes can just seem too overwhelming and too hard. However, God calls us to not conform to the things of this world but to transform our mind. (Romans 12:2). There is such radical peace that comes alongside giving every single aspect of our life to Christ. The peace that is washed over us is life-altering and completely indescribable. Let the Holy Spirit wash over us and then we can read Christ’s teachings and apply them to our own life. 

As we wrap up this chapter, it has me thinking about the harsh reality that I lived for so long. I was caught in this crazy, hazy, middle section of life. I wanted to be a better Christian and I truly wanted to have a close relationship with God, but I was not willing to surrender my old life. The day that I chose to finally release that old life is a day where I can literally picture me being washed anew. That is not to say that it is not a fight every single day. I may not always be victorious, but Christ will be.