Ephesians 5:4 says, Dirty stories, foul talk, and coarse jokes—these are not for you. I don't know about you but I seem to be bombarded by foul language wherever I go - work, the shopping centre, the park... Many TV shows and songs are full of foul language and crude jokes too. While I can't just not go to work to avoid the bad language, I can be careful about what I watch on TV and the music I choose to listen to.
When you're surrounded by this kind of behaviour and language, you sometimes find that it rubs off on you. Romans 12:2 says, Don’t change yourselves to be like the people of this world, but let God change you inside with a new way of thinking. God changes us through his Holy Spirit that lives in us, through reading, studying, and memorising the Bible, through prayer, and through spending time with other Christians.
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Ephesians 5:3 says, there must be no sexual sin among you. Sexual sin doesn't just mean having sex before you're married. It also refers to pornography, sending nudes, oral sex, hand jobs, making crude jokes, and movies and images that make you think about sex.
Don't get me wrong, God loves sex - he invented it. But he designed it to be enjoyed as part of a committed relationship (marriage). Imagine trying to use a chainsaw to cut someone's hair. That's not what a chainsaw was designed for and someone is bound to get hurt. Sexual sin is the same. Ephesians 4:26-27 says, Don’t sin by letting anger control you. Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil.
Here are some other Bible verses about anger: Everyone must be quick to listen, but slow to speak and slow to become angry. Human anger does not achieve God's righteous purpose. James 1:19-20 Anger is cruel and can destroy like a flood. Proverbs 24:7 Fools are quick to express their anger, but wise people are patient and control themselves. Proverbs 29:11 Anger is a nasty little beast. It can blow up really quickly and get way out of hand. It also gets in the way of us behaving like God wants because when we're angry, we do things we normally wouldn't like yelling at someone, or hitting them. That's how it gives the devil a foothold. It's also Biblical to forgive people quickly and not stay angry after the sun goes down. Next time you feel angry, do some deep breaths, take some time to pray and maybe journal about it before you do anything. Fools are quick to express their anger, but wise people are patient and control themselves Ephesians 4:13 says, This will continue until we are united by our faith and by our understanding of the Son of God. Then we will be mature, just as Christ is, and we will be completely like him. The purpose of the Christian life is to be more like Jesus. A couple of days ago we started looking at the character of Jesus. Here is the rest of the list from https://bible.org:
Are you becoming more like Jesus by producing these traits in your life? In Ephesians 3:20 Paul says, God is able to do much more than we ask or think through His power working in us. We often underestimate what we can do based on our self limiting beliefs. But, God lives in us and works through us by his Holy Spirit. With him we can do so much more than we can imagine. All of the great men and women of the Bible were just ordinary people like you and me, but God worked through them. He can work through you too.
Here are some more Bible verses about God working through people. God did extraordinary miracles through Paul. Acts 19:11 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. Philippians 2:13 I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. John 14:12 You move towards what you're looking at. Have you ever tried to walk forwards while you're looking backwards? You go all wonky because you end up walking towards what you're facing. What a you facing (metaphorically)? Are you looking back to your past? Are you looking to the side to the world? Are you looking down at your phone? Or are you looking up, to God?
Here's what the Bible says about looking to Jesus: Let us keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. Hebrews 12:2 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. Matthew 6:33 Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. Colossians 3:2 Where are you looking? In Ephesians 3:18-19 Paul says, And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
He is praying that the church will know the unknowable love of God. This is the work of the Holy Spirit because we can't wrap our human brains around it. Sometimes we think that God loves people based on how 'good' they are. The truth is that God loves everyone, regardless of their gender, sexual identity, nationality, religion, or 'goodness.' He loves those in the churches, just like he loves those in the jails. Just because he loves us all, doesn't mean he loves all that we do. When we understand the love of God, we experience fulness of life. That sounds pretty good to me, what what does it mean? I think it means that God's love shines a whole new light on our anxiety, our fears, our sin, our troubles, our purpose, our hope, on everything. It's like turning on the light in a dark room, everything becomes clearer. The bad stuff doesn't go away, we just see it in a new way. Take a moment to reflect on God's love. In Ephesians 3:18 Paul prays, I pray that you and all God’s holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ’s love—how wide, how long, how high, and how deep that love is. It's impossible to wrap our human brains around the superhuman love of God. 1 John 4:8-10 says, But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
Jesus Christ is the Son of God, so it figures that he is love too. He loved us so much that he died on a cross for us. He did that, not because we deserved eternal life with him, but so that we could deserve eternal life with him. That's epic. |
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