Living Honestly

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

LIVING HONESTLY

Eph 4:25-28

25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body. 26 "In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold. 28 He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.

NIV

These Ephesians must have been really bad people before becoming believers. They had to be a bunch of liars and kleptomaniacs. It is interesting the Greek word translated steal is kleptoo. Kleptomania is defined as the inability to keep from taking things of little value from your friends. What believers are being admonished to do, is to be real with each other. Take down any façade that we may have once built to present a false image or ourselves. Tell the truth about who we are and how we live. This idea we have heard from some believers that they no longer sin is just the falsehood spoken of here. Why lie about sin, we are not perfect human beings. Where in the scripture does it say that we are able to never sin ever again after being justified, sanctified and of course, complete sanctified? We have a difficult time understanding that God would only partially sanctify us in the first place.  Nevertheless, these Ephesians could not have been experienced complete sanctification because they were still getting angry with each other, arguing about who knows what, but angry was getting out of control and turning into hatred, bitterness, and grudges that were lasting for days. These grudges may have been the root cause of the falsehoods spoken about, rumors, gossiping about the person they were so angry with they were lying about their character or what they did. We would hope that does not go on in the church today, but we are afraid it still does, as we are but fragile humans with emotions that we cannot keep in check and sin sneak in before we realize it. But we are not supposed allow anything that separates us from lasting through the day. If we have any hurts feelings, or feel upset or angry about something someone said or did we have to settle the matter before the day is done. Unfortunately, it may not happen, as we are aware of believers that actually leave a fellowship because of such situations that go on and on for weeks and months, hurt feelings, rumors, and even anger. How can that be? Are we not supposed to love our neighbor as ourselves? Then there is the matter of living off of other people's labor. Each of us should work for our own sustenance, in fact, so we can share with those who are in a real need. This would imply some people cannot work, they have some infirmity which prohibits them from being useful with their own hands. Life is life and they are some who simply are in need of assistance and we who can work should work, in fact, as we see it, all the days of our life, as God instructed Adam when he was sent out of the garden. It comes down to just living honestly before God and before others.