Ephesians 4:25 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Ephesians 4:25

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One after the other the apostle names the standards, and outlines the values. But to prepare for it, we have this analysis of the lost human condition and the illustration of undressing and dressing. It applies to both conversion and again to ongoing sanctification. He uses the same terms as in verse 22 – ‘put off’, ‘putting away’. Were there liars in the church at Ephesus? Why does Paul have to write to them and say, ‘Put away lying’? Yes, there were. Are there liars here? Yes! Every single one, in some shape or form, can play the liar, so this exhortation is vital! Lying today is so common. The less there is of Christian belief, the more there is of lying. And we see this today in the highest places in society and in industry, in commerce – lies, massive lies now being built in to the fabric of society! Reduce Christian belief and you increase lying. The chief characteristic of pagan countries was always lying, and we are as pagan and as atheistic as can be imagined today: this is a lying society. There in Ephesus, many of the people were converted slaves, and many were oppressed in society, paid next to nothing for long, arduous hours. In their unconverted days it had seemed a reasonable, even a righteous thing, to them, to purloin something, or to pick up things that would help them along in life. When you are a slave and somebody owns you, and you get no money, you do not think anything of it. But that has got to change now, says the apostle Paul. You have got a new nature; you have got to please the Lord. It is still ugly, foul lying, it is a deep offence to God. It crashes entirely against his holiness and his standards, and it has got to stop. Although the word ‘neighbour’ is used, this particular verse is speaking about fellow Christians. Don’t you know that you are members of the same body, the body of Christ? How can you lie to each other, mislead each other, wreck the work of the Spirit through the whole body of Christ and its service? Think of Christ, think of his wonderful truthfulness and his perfection. Think of all his promises and undertakings, and he keeps every single one of them. We eagerly look at the pages of the Gospels, and we know we will find no lie from the lips of our dear Saviour.

Application

We come into the Christian life, receiving a new nature, and things have got to change, and we hate the lie from now on. Satan was the original liar, and he brought about the Fall of mankind through lies, and it is his campaign to try to get as many Christians as possible lying again. He starts perhaps with little lies: to make it easy for you, to get you adjusted, to take you back to your pre-conversion days, lying to get out of trouble, lying to promote yourself. Just a little exaggeration makes me look better, makes me look something in the eyes of others – white lies, excuses. And he works up on us until the lies become more numerous and greater. So every one of us needs this exhortation. The old nature didn’t mind lies. It didn’t mind that when you lie to somebody, you insult them. The person who is listening to you is giving you attention, taking you seriously, trusting what you say, but you are riding roughshod over them.

A recent article which summarised a sociological survey of enquiry told us this: that most young people today accept lying and approve it within certain bounds, under certain circumstances. They are not taught moral issues anywhere today, unless in Sunday school or in church. So now apparently, this particular worker found, interviewing numerous youngsters, that it is okay to lie to get out of trouble as long as nobody is desperately injured – that’s the only issue. ‘Certainly,’ they say ‘it would be wrong to lie if by my lying somebody was seriously deprived or injured, but if that is not the case, it is alright to lie in order to get out of trouble; it is a sensible thing to do. To get a job, it is alright to lie; it is alright to jazz up your CV and all this kind of thing.’ Why, on what grounds? Because everybody does it! If you do not do it, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage – that is the reasoning. There is nothing wrong with doing it if everybody else does it is; it’s a sensible thing to do, so it’s all right to lie to get a job. In fact, they say, many young people believe that it is a good thing to lie, if by your lie you are making people happy. We find an amazing number of people who have been training in accountancy, or something like that, and they have landed up with companies where they find they are being told to lie. ‘Don’t expose that, don’t write about that, don’t look too closely at that. Make this add up and this balance, and so on’, and they come and say, ‘What do I do? I’m being told to lie.’ Well, this particular sociological interviewer found that most young people he interviewed said that if you are ordered to lie, that is okay. Don’t get yourself into unnecessary trouble. This is a lying age!

There are some servants of God, ministers, who lie, and nowadays, in this world of mass advertising, there are some people running big Christian institutions, and they lie about how well they are doing, and they lie about how God is blessing them. Do you think God will use them? Of course not! The lie ruins everything.

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Ephesians 4:25 Commentary and Bible Study

Explain meaning of Ephesians 4:25