In light of all this, here's what I want you to do...I want you to get out there and walk - better yet, run! - on the road God called you to travel. (4:1)
"Paul's letter to the Ephesians joins together what has been torn apart in our sin-wrecked world. He begins with an exuberant exploration of what Christians believe about God, and then, like a surgeon skillfully setting a compound fracture, "sets" this belief in God into our behavior before God so that the bones - belief and behavior - knit together and heal." Eugene Peterson, Introduction to Ephesians
Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured our on the altar of the Cross, we're a free people - free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. (1:7)
It's in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this message of your salvation), found yourselves home free - signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. (1:13)
Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. (2:5)
Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father. (2:17-18)
God can do anything, you know - far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! (3:20)
In light of these amazing truths about what God has done for us, God wants us to act like His beloved children. He wants our beliefs about Him and the way we live to line up, to be consistent.
God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love - like Christ in everything. (4:15)
And so I insist - and God backs me up on this - that there be no going along with the crowd, the empty-headed, mindless crowd. (4:17)
Everything - and I do mean everything - connected with that old way of life has to go. It's rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life - a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you. (4:22-24)
No more lies, no more pretense. Tell your neighbor the truth. (4:25)
Don't use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don't stay angry. Don't go to bed angry. Don't give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life. (4:27)
Get an honest job so that you can help others who can't work. (4:28)
Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift. (4:29)
Don't grieve God. Don't break his heart. (4:30)
Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you. (4:32)
Lord, thank You for the staggering reality of Your unconditional love and unending grace. You know how much is broken in my life yet You continue to draw me to Yourself. It's all grace and mercy. I know there's nothing about me that surprises You as You gently mend every broken place in me and put me on the road You've called me to travel. May You make me more like Christ in everything. I love You, Lord. I'm so grateful that You've revealed Yourself to me and made me Your treasured daughter.
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