Here is what Paul taught the Ephesians about how to live their lives - the first step was to remove the old self, which he saw as corrupted by sinful desires. So sinful desire is the first thing that needs to be dealt with. And to deal with it, you must remove it completely.
Of course, that's now how it happens, but that's what is taught. Thoroughly ideological, but it's good to have something to strive for.
vs 23
I think this, in the context of the last verse, is not a new command, but a reiteration of the previous one. Removing sinful desires is not entirely intellectual or mind-based, but Paul now focuses on the mind as one of the places where this purge must take place. He words it positively, though, to show that this purge is not nihilistic, but it replaces one thing with another. A new mind.
vs 24
Like I said, sinful desires aren't entirely mind-based. They aren't entirely body-based either - I think there are spiritual problems, environmental problems, and perhaps others. Paul doesn't use the turn body, exactly - he uses the term 'self' which is probably far more inclusive. Think of all the things that make up who you are. Environment, history, physical appearance, lots of things make up who you are. Paul is showing, however, that God has control even over our self, and has prepared for us new selfs, which we should accept.
Our self, that which makes us who we are, is quite often one of the things we are least likely to want to give up, because we think it is one of the things we have that is truly ours. The truth, of course, is that it's not really all that much ours, because so many factors outside us make us who we are. We couldn't control our birth parents, social situation, nationality, hair colour, gender, height and lots of things. So in that case, it's comforting to know that God controls it anyway. And that because of him, we can be righteous and holy.
vs 25
You would think that truthful speech in a church would be one of the easier things to deal with - not so! Because truthful speech is not just a lack of 'saying something that isn't true', but it is also 'saying things which are true'. Saying nothing is not speaking truthfully.
vs 26
The verse from the psalms, and Paul's comment, both assume anger, but expect a control of anger. Why are they angry - perhaps because people have started speaking truthfully?
vs 27
Anger can give the devil a foothold, that's for sure. But I think that failing to speak the truth in love does more damage than anger by far. That's my personal opinion. In some cultures, I know that quite often their culture demonises anger so much that it becomes more damaging.
vs 28
Christians... stealing! I think we've got some idea of the rawness of some of the people in the church. But then, I think if we looked into our own lives, or our own churches, we would see a lot of things where we would say "Christians...
vs 29
So it's not "if you don't have anything nice, don't say anything at all", it's "if you don't have anything helpful for building others up, don't say anything at all". Good luck with this one. I know I speak a whole lot of crap.
vs 30
... How am I meant to know how to not grieve the Holy Spirit without you telling me, Paul! Is this really a sentence on its own? Every translation I read says it is. The NASB makes it pointedly clear by not even including 'and' at the beginning. Sometimes I find verses like this scary, because it is really quite hard to know what it means. Some people will respond by saying that you have to read other parts of the NT to understand this verse - just tell me which parts the Ephesians had, and I'll be happy.
vs 31
Is this how we go about not grieving the Holy Spirit perhaps? It does seem contextual.
vs 32
Our compassion and forgiveness comes not from ourselves, but from Christ. We've always got to remember that.
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