Becoming Your New Self

Questions for Reflection

Ephesians 4:17-5:2

• How is the “old self” described in vs. 17-22?  What former way of life (in word, thought or deed,) did you need to put off when you became a follower of God’s?
• In Christ, we are called to put on a “new self.”  What new behaviors are we to put on when relating to others (vs. 25-32)?  Read the section again for the purpose behind our actions.  Why should we speak truthfully?  Why should we work?  What should be the goal of our speech?  What should be the motivation for forgiveness?
• We are called to follow God’s example.  In what ways has God acted towards you (vs. 4:32-5:2)?
• As we grow in our intimacy with Christ we will experience new ways of being with others.  Consider your speech this week.  How does it build up others or when does it not?
• Watch Chris Ramsey, the College & Young Adult Ministries Coordinator, in an on-line video or see the Small Group Study for additional questions to further apply this Scripture.  Both are available at becoming-small-group-study.

Sermon Notes

Becoming: Your New Self

Ephesians 4:17-5:2

     During my first year in college, there was a young man (I’ll call him Mike) who almost never changed his clothes, rarely showered or combed his hair or used deodorant.  We could smell him coming from a long way off.  We tried to help him out by throwing him in the shower and by shaming him in every way we knew how.  We even put our money together and mailed him anonymously a care package of soap, shampoo and toiletries of all kinds.  A few days later, he came into the lounge on our floor and said, “Hey, guys – I just got all this stuff in the mail.  But, I don’t need it” – so he gave it all back to us. Eventually, we just gave up on Mike.

     A few months later, we were all in the student center watching a Chicago Bears football game when the elevator door opened and a young man who looked like Mike walked out.  But, this young man had new clothes on – combed hair and even smelled of Armani cologne.  Then, we saw the truth: This WAS Mike!  A new Mike!  We couldn’t figure out what had changed him.  But then, in a few moments, the elevator door opened again – and SHE walked out.  Then, we knew what had happened…

     Her name was Amy.  Mike had met her and immediately been smitten.  And, she seemed to like Mike too.  But, she had told him in no uncertain terms that she would never go out with him until he cleaned up.  I learned a powerful lesson that day, i.e., What rules, shaming and manipulation cannot change, love can.

     I thought of that story as I read Eph 4:17-5:2 again this week.  It is one of the most profound passages in the Bible about the transformation of our lives that only God can bring about.  And, I will tell you now, that the transformation of our lives that God promises to bring about is a transformation brought about by love.

#1:  The Need for Transformation (4:17-21) -- You must no longer live as the Gentiles do…

     The strong words in these verses telling not to live like the Gentiles is the flip side of Paul’s strong words we saw last week in 4:1 calling us to live worthy of our calling in Christ Jesus.  But, there is something very striking about what Paul calls for here in 4:17, i.e., most of the Christians in the church in Ephesus were Gentiles.  What can he mean when he says, “You Gentiles, don’t live like Gentiles!”? 

     Let me say first that Paul was NOT saying nasty things about unbelievers out in the world in these verses.  That’s how I've heard many preachers preach about this text.  They’ve said, “Those people out in the world live awful lives so stay away from them!”  But, that’s not what how Paul lived – and that’s not what he’s saying in these verses either.  I know that our English translations make it seem like he’s lashing out against unbelievers.  But, what he’s saying is that unbelievers in the world are not alive to God, so they have no hope of being able to live for him.  Notice that he talks about how, if we don’t know Jesus, our thinking is futile in v. 17 and our understanding darkened to the light in v. 18.  Paul used the word “ignorance” for unbelievers in v. 18 but that word was not pejorative.  The word he used merely meant “they don’t know.” 

     So, basically, Paul is saying that people who have not come to know Jesus are not yet alive to God – and therefore not alive to the reality and power of the Holy Spirit.  Apart from Christ we are only alive to the material world.  Apart for faith in Jesus, we can only live as our senses direct us.

     No, Paul isn’t berating unbelievers here.  He’s saying that people like us in the church who have come to trust Jesus are alive to God.  When we are, we shouldn’t live the way we used to before meeting Jesus.  The Bible is speaking here about church people living life as if we’re still dead to God!

     The point is that Jesus-followers need to spend less time saying how bad people in the world are and spend a lot more time showing people the new life that we have in Jesus.  Paul said the same thing even more directly in 1 Cor 5:9-13:  I wrote to you in my last letter not to associate with sexually immoral people -- not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.  I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler.

     Consistent with that, the Bible’s message today is directly meant for all of us who claim to be believers in Jesus but continue to feel the tug to live the way people live before coming alive to God.

     When I was speaking to campus groups at Penn State University a few years ago, one young man gave his testimony about when he felt his real conversion began.  He said, “It all kicked in one day when I woke up to myself and saw no difference between my life now and my life before Christ.  Even more, I saw no difference between the way I was living my life and the way my friends were living theirs.  I knew something was wrong.”

#2: The Decision that Leads to Transformation (4:22-24) – Put off your old self… and put on the new self…

     The word picture that Paul uses here is that of putting off old dirty clothes and putting on new, clean ones.  I think it’s something we can all relate to.  The point of it culminates with this remarkable phrase: We do this because we are “…created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (4:24).”

     So, God’s goal for your personal life and for our whole church family is that we will all grow to become more and more like Christ.  And, according to last week’s text, Eph 4:1-16, that happens as we do life together in a loving and unified local church like ours must be, a church that worships together, sticks with one another, and serves one another in love.  Do you remember this promise from last week? …we all will… become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (4:13).

     So, this week we are told the same thing, but with different language, that we are created to be like God.  This has always been God’s plan for us. This is what Jesus died to bring about in us. This is what the Holy Spirit is given to bring it about in us. Our role is to take something off and put something on.  That language refers to a specific, personal, intentional act of faith.  This was something that those who professed to be Christians in Ephesus had already done.  This is how your new life begins – when you confess your sins and turn from your old way of living and entrust your life to Jesus as your Savior and Lord.

     The completely unique thing about what Paul wrote here is that what we are to put off and put on “a self”.  No one else had ever said anything like this before.  Many had written about putting off old ways like anger or dishonesty.  But, with these words, the Bible calls for a complete overhaul of our lives – not just a cover-up of our flaws. 

    In these verses, Paul tells you to put off/put on a “self”. That word “self” speaks of everything you are! 

• Where you go with your body and do with it as well as where you go with your mind and put in it;
• Who you are really living for – for yourself, to please others or to glorify God?
• What motivates you – getting ahead, winning the battle being respected or gratitude to God?

     The New Testament speaks consistently of faith in Jesus being like putting on a whole new self:

     Look at Rom 6:6,8,11 – “Our old self was crucified with Christ so that… we should no longer be slaves to sin.  If we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him… Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

     Boiling it down: When you place your faith in Jesus, you take off an old self-directed way of life that was dead to God and you put on a new way of life 1) now alive to God, 2) with Jesus as Lord and 3) with the Holy Spirit as your guide and source of strength.  When that is true, your life cannot be the same as before.

     In my own walk with God, I know my relationship with him began with I made a decision to repent of my old self-directed way of life that was filled with sin and put on a new self as one who trusts and follows Jesus, one daily empowered by the Holy Spirit.  It starts that way.  I’ve found, however, that almost every day I need to wake up and consciously and intentionally put off my selfish self and pray, “I will not live for myself today but for Jesus who died and gave his life for me (cf, 2 Cor 5:14).”  I encourage you to do the same.

    All this was illustrated well in CS Lewis’s Voyage of the Dawn Treader.  In it, a surly little boy named Eustace Clarence Scrubb woke up and realized he was a dragon.  Well, he tried over and over again to change himself – to rip off that dragon skin with his own hands.  It didn’t work.  Then he met a lion, the Christ-figure Aslan, who said, “You will have to let me undress you.”  The lion made a cut so deep into Eustace that it went right into his heart.  Eustace said, “After that he went out and dressed me – in new clothes – the same ones I have on now as a matter of fact.”  Now, listen to this section:

     It would be nice, and fairly nearly true, to say that “from that time forth Eustace was a different boy.”  To be strictly accurate, he began to be a different boy.  He had relapses.  There were still many days when he could be very tiresome.  But most of those I shall not notice.  The cure had begun.

#3:  Evidences of Transformation (4:25-32) Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another…

     In Eph 4:1-16, we learned that we grow spiritually when we are a part of a church in which each person is serving and loving one another.  In our passage today, the main point Paul makes is that we will not grow together if we behave in the church in the ways those who don’t know Christ behave – in the way we behaved before we came to Christ.  Vv. 25-32 spell out some of the most important ways that Christ should change our lives together here at LAC.    It speaks to us very practically about matters like how we are to speak with people in our church and how we should deal with people in the church that we’re angry with them.

     You may think God is too big to care about things like how we speak to one another in church or deal with our anger toward church people.  God surely would want us to focus exclusively on the huge issues in our world like the massive migration of refugees in the Middle East and Central America, like the natural disasters that seem to be increasing around the world and like the slavery of children around the globe.  And, the Bible surely does address those issues. But, in a passage like this one, God’s Word teaches us that Jesus-followers begin to learn how to address the “big issues of life” by forcing us to look into our own dealings with people at church.

     Remember that God’s eternal plan has been to plant local families of his people into communities all over the world and then using us together to give witness to him and to go out and enter into the brokenness in this world to show God’s love.  And in Eph 4:25-32, the Bible is saying that, for a church like ours actually to make a difference in our world, we must be transformed from living for ourselves into people who love as Jesus loves.  And, this love must begin in the church.  The Bible says that if we can’t truly love others who have received Jesus as Savior and Lord, we will never authentically love the people of our world.  What we do in the church family will shape the way we deal with those outside the family of God.

     Paul spoke of several things in these verses that have to be different about us if we’ll glorify God.  Two of the main things have to do with our speech and with our anger.  He wrote that we are to:

1. Put off falsehood and put on truth speaking, truth with love (4:15,25) – Notice that Paul specifically says we should do this in church because we are “members of one another” – and we will be forever.  Truth sets free.  Also, it means that we have to have an atmosphere that allows the very different people in the church family to speak about how they experience the world.  When we bring together our very different viewpoints, we easily get angry with those we disagree with. This is evident in the world at large, isn’t it?  How do we deal with that kind of anger when we have disagreements? See v. 26. 

2. Put off anger that tears down people and put on anger that tears down evil. The Bible teaches that there is a rightful place for anger.  God himself is angry about the sin that destroys lives.  But, ungodly anger is always something that must be directed against evil. Ungodly anger does not seek to forgive and restore.  Ungodly anger stays deep in our inner being and becomes a grudge.  So, the Bible commands, “Don’t let the sun go down on your anger.”  Don’t sin by hurting the other person when you are angry.

     Paul’s words in 4:29 are concise and convicting:  Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

     Paul lays it on the line in 4:30-31, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you all were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander and every kind of malice!”

     This could not have been easy back in the 1^st C in the 1^st Church of Ephesus.  A family as broad in make-up as that one was surely brought an incredible range of perspectives into this new household of faith.  Can you imagine a church like that, one which apparently had both a slave and his master being church members?  When I think about that, I realize that no matter what differences we face in a church like LAC, our challenges to being one loving, unified family in Christ are no more difficult than theirs were.  And the Spirit of God was powerful enough to bring them through those challenges – together!  And, he will do the same with us! 

Here’s the bottom line:  If we will grow to become like Christ, we will do it through life in a family like this one we call Lake Avenue Church.  But, for this to work as God says it must, we must hear again and again the message that Paul spoke in 4:29: Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Something to Take Home – Learn Christ (4:20-21). Be imitators of God (5:1).

     Whenever I preach a sermon like this, I always get a question like this: “I see what God’s Word asks us to do, but how do we do it?”  We human beings usually like a checklist of things we should follow in order to become all God would have us become.  But, spiritual growth doesn’t work that way.  It starts with who we are and then flows into what we do.  In the Bible, being always goes before doing.

     So, our being a “new self” starts with being born again, i.e., putting off our old self and putting on a new one through faith in Jesus.  When we do, God places us in a local church family and tells us to stick with it, to love the people there and to grow together – not living the way we would live if we were not alive to God.

     But, let me give you one directive God’s Word speaks of here that facilitates growth, i.e., keep your eyes on Jesus.  Eph 4:20 literally says, “Learn Christ.”  Then, in 5:1, it says, “Be imitators of God.”  You may know that the way we know how to imitate God is to learn Christ.  In 5:1-2, we see this, “Imitate God, i.e., “live a life of love just as Jesus loved us and gave himself up for us.” 

     The point is that we become like those we keep our eyes fixed on.  I’ve begun to see how true that is as I watch my grandson Brooks, now 6 years old, imitating his Dad.  Look at a couple of pictures showing that.

 So, let me suggest to you something that my first college Resident Assistant (RA) suggested me to do as he mentored me.  He asked me to read through the Gospel of Luke and stop each time there is a story of Jesus encountering a person.  Then, he gave me three questions to ask and write about in my journal:

How did Jesus see and treat that person?

What was different about the way Jesus treated that person from the way most people in the world do it?

What difference will it make in your relationships if you imitate what Jesus did?

     I suggest you begin doing that this week.  I think it is consistent with what the Apostle Paul is asking us to do in Eph 4:17-5:2 when he says, “Learn Christ.  Put on new clothes, a new self, made to be like Christ.”  Let us here at LAC learn to “live lives of love” right here in our church family – just as Jesus loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

     When we do, Lake Avenue Church will be that – “fragrant!”  And, it all will be to the glory of God.

Chinese Study Notes

     成為：新我

以弗所書：4：17-5：2

            我上大學第一年，有一個年輕人叫麥克，從來不換洗衣服、不洗澡梳頭，也不使用除臭劑，大老遠就可以聞到他的臭味。我們試著幫助他，比如把他扔進洗澡間或著用盡辦法羞辱他，但都不能改變他。我們還湊錢給他買了洗漱用品匿名寄給他，不想幾天後他就在樓道裡大喊：“你們這幫傢伙，我收到你們寄來的這些，但我不需要！”他把東西還給我們，使我們最終放棄了努力。

            幾個月後，我們在學生中心看橄欖球賽，電梯門突然開了，有一個像麥克的人走出來，但他可是穿新衣服，頭髮整整齊齊，我們還聞到高級男用香水的味道…過了一會我們才反應過來，他就是麥克，煥然一新的麥克！真不知道是什麼改變了他。隨後電梯門又開了，她走出來了---啊，原來如此！

           她名叫艾米。麥克對她一見鍾情，而她也喜歡麥克，不過她清楚告訴麥克：若不把自己弄乾淨就不會和他出去。那天我學到一個重要功課：用羞辱、操控或其它辦法不能改變的事情，愛卻能做到！

            當我這周重讀以弗所書4：17-5：2節時，我想到這個故事。這段經文在聖經中最深刻地談到了只有神才能帶來的生命的改變。我現在告訴你們，神應許給我們的生命改變是愛所帶來的。

#1:  改變的需要 (4:17-21) -- 你們行事不要再像外邦人那樣…

            這一段措辭強烈，要信徒不能活得像外邦人！它與上周4:1節保羅呼召我們行事為人要配得上主的經文互相呼應。值得注意的是，保羅在4：17節所針對的以弗所教會的會眾大多數是外邦信徒，他說“你們外邦人不要活得像外邦人”，那是什麼意思呢？

            我首先聲明，保羅在這裡並沒有說外邊世界的外邦人有多麼不好。不少講道人確實也這樣講，他們說：外面世界上的人生活在罪中，所以要遠離他們！但這不是保羅的意思，也不是他在這裡所表達的內涵，英文譯本有點讓人覺得保羅是在貶損非信徒；但其實保羅所指的是，世界上不信的人是不會向神而活的，所以他們沒有為神而活的盼望。注意他的提醒，如果我們不認識耶穌，我們的理性就是17節所說的虛妄，我們的意念就是18節所說的黑暗。保羅在18節用“愚昧無知”來指非信徒，但這詞並非貶義，這詞只是說“他們不知道”。

            所以保羅的基本意思是，當人沒有認識耶穌時，是不會向神而活的—也就是活不出真理和改變生命的聖靈的能力。沒有基督，我們只能向物質世界而活；沒有對耶穌的信仰，我們只能跟著感覺走。

            保羅並非在此責備非信徒，而是強調，我們這些已經信主來到教會的人要向神而活，換句話說，我們不應該再過信主前的生活。聖經在這裡的挑戰是：怎麼教會中還有人活得像沒有神一樣呢？！

           經文的重點在於，耶穌的跟從者要少花些時間批評屬世的人有多壞，相反要多花時間向人展現在基督裡的新生活。保羅在林前5：9-13節說得更直截了當：我以前在書信上給你們寫過：不可與淫亂的人交往。我當然不是指這世上淫亂的、或貪心的、或勒索人的、或拜偶像的，否則，你們就必須離開這個世界了。但如今我寫給你們的是：如果有人被稱為弟兄，卻是淫亂的、或貪心的、或拜偶像的、或誹謗人的、或酗酒的、或勒索人的，你們不可與他交往，連與這樣的人一起吃飯都不可。其實審判外面的人，到底與我有什麼關係呢？你們難道不該審判裡面的人嗎？至於外面的人，神會審判他們；而你們應當把那邪惡的人從你們裡面除去。

            今天的聖經內容照樣直接針對我們這些聲稱信耶穌，卻常常感到被信主前的生活方式牽拉的人。

            幾年前，我在賓州大學的一個校園團契分享時，一個年輕人見證了他生命轉變的開始：“有一天我醒悟過來，發現我的生命與信主前沒有分別，而我的生命方式與我那些沒信的朋友也沒有什麼不同，那時我意識到有什麼不對勁了。”       

#2: 決定會帶來改變 (4:22-24) – 脫去舊人…穿上新人…

            保羅的用詞讓我們看見一個圖畫，脫去舊的、髒的衣服，換上新的、乾淨的衣服---我想這是我們都可以明白的。這裡最終的落點是這句著名的話：因為我們“是照著神的形像，在真理的公義和聖潔中被造成的。”（4：24）

            所以，神對我們個人生命和教會大家庭的旨意都是在基督裡成長，以致越來越像他。根據上周以弗所書4：1-16節的經文，當我們在一個充滿愛與合一的教會裡一起敬拜、互相服事、彼此相愛的時候，這是一定可以做到的！還記得上周聖經的應許麼？…我們都要…達到成熟人的地步，達到基督那豐盛完美的身量（4：13）

           事實上，本周我們所學的也同樣，不過是用不同的表達---我們被造是要有神的形象，這就是神一直對我們的計畫，是耶穌為我們受死所要成就的事，是賜下聖靈要讓我們進入的新生命。我們要做的是脫下並穿上---這種表達是形容一種特別的、個人性的、內在的信仰行動。當年以弗所那些基督徒做到了，今天我們也能做到：當我們承認罪、離棄過去的生活方式，把生命交給我們的救主耶穌時，我們的新生命就會這樣開始。

      保羅在這裡非常獨特的表達是要我們脫下和穿上“自我”，從來沒有人這樣說過，許多人以為是脫去舊的生活習性比如憤怒、不誠實，但聖經不是讓我們去掩蓋瑕疵，而是要將生命徹底反轉：

      保羅在這裡要我們脫下和穿上“自我”，一個“我”字其實包含了我們的一切！

• 跟隨肉體行屬肉體的事，還是跟隨聖靈的帶領行屬靈的事？
• 你的生命到底為誰而活：為自己、討他人喜悅，還是為了榮耀神？
• 你的動機是什麼：爭戰是為自己的榮譽還是為要向神獻上感恩？

            新約聖經一直在說，信耶穌就像穿上一個全新的我：

            看羅馬書6：6，8，11—“我們的舊我已經和基督一起被釘十字架…使我們不再做罪的奴僕…如果我們與基督一同死了，就相信也要與他一同活著…你們就當看自己向罪是死的，但在基督耶穌裡向神卻是活的。”

           讓我們直擊要點：當你把信心放在耶穌身上時，你就是脫下了自我中心的生命方式, 向神死了；當你穿上一個新的生命方式時 1）你向神而活，2）你有耶穌為主，3）你有聖靈作你的指引和力量的源泉。當這在你生命中發生時，你的生命就會不一樣。

           在我與神同行的經歷中，我知道我與他的關係始於悔改，我承認老我的生命方式充滿了罪，我需要穿上新我，像每一個信靠耶穌的人那樣，經歷聖靈的日日更新。新生命就是這樣開始的。不過我發現，每一天我都需要清醒地、有意識地、主動地脫下自我中心的我，禱告說：“我今天不要為自己活，要為耶穌活，他愛我，為我舍己！”我盼望你們也能如此。

            在路易士的“黎明行者號”一書中很好地詮釋了這些。書中，一個叫尤斯提的小男孩醒來後發現自己是一個龍。於是他想盡辦法要改變自己，他試圖用手脫去舊的龍皮，但根本沒用；後來他遇到一個獅子，就是象徵基督的阿斯蘭，獅子說：“你需要我説明你脫下！”獅子實施手術，深深切入尤斯提，直達他的心臟，尤提斯說：“他為我穿上了新衣服，你沒看錯，就是我現在穿的。”聽聽這段：

            合情合理地說：“那以後，尤提斯成了一個不同的人。”更準確地說，他開始變成一個不同的人了。他還會有昏迷、疲倦，但已經開始痊癒了。

#3:  改變的證據 (4:25-32) 要以仁慈彼此相待，心存憐憫，互相饒恕…

           從以弗所書4：1-16節我們知道，當教會中人人彼此服事、彼此相愛時，我們就會得到屬靈的長進。在我們今天講的內容中，保羅主要說的是，如果在教會中我們的行事為人和信主前一樣的話，我們無法共同成長。25-32節談到，耶穌在我們教會要對我們做最重要的改變，並非常實際地告訴我們：當對人如何講話，在我們對人動氣時當如何做。

            你可能想：神太大了，才不會顧及在教會如何講話或如何處理自身怒氣這類的小事，神肯定願意我們注重在世界大事上比如中東和中美的難民潮，自然災害的激增及全球的兒童奴隸這類事…聖經的確涉及到許多大事，但在這段聖經，神的話教導我們要從對待教會的人和事開始，才能學會如何面對“人類大事件”。

            記住神的永恆計畫是植根在他每一個百姓和家庭，然後進入社會再到世界，神要使用我們進入這個破碎的世界為他作見證，彰顯他的愛。在以弗所書4：25-32，聖經說，一個像我們這樣的教會就會使世界不一樣，我們必須要改變，從為自己活變成像耶穌一樣有愛的人；而這愛一定要從教會開始。聖經說，若我們不能愛那些接受耶穌為救主的弟兄姊妹，就不可能真心愛世人。我們在教會大家庭的所作所為就會決定我們如何對待神家之外的人。

           保羅在這裡談到幾件事，提醒我們若要榮耀神就必須與老我不一樣。其中，處理好我們的講話和怒氣就是二件重要的事。他寫信要我們：

1. 脫下假話，穿上真話，在愛中講真話（4：15，25）—注意保羅特別說我們要在教會如此行，因為我們互為肢體，且要到永遠。真理釋放我們得自由。這也意味著我們要創造一個環境，允許大家庭中非常不一樣的人可以表達他們所經歷的世界。不過，當我們把非常不同的意見擺在一起時，卻很容易對那些我們不能認同的人生氣，這只能說世界太大了，不是嗎？那麼當我們不認同他人時，應如何處理這股怒氣呢？（看26節）

2. 脫下分裂人的怒氣，穿上擊打魔鬼的義怒。聖經說有一種來自義的怒氣，神就對敗壞人的罪發怒氣。然而不敬神的怒氣是來自魔鬼的，它不尋求赦免和好，它植根在人的內心深處成為苦毒。所以聖經命令說：“不可含怒到日落！”當你生氣時，不要因傷害他人而犯罪。

            保羅在4：29節的話言簡意賅而且口氣不容置疑：“任何壞話都不可出口，而是按著需要說造就人的好話，使聽的人得到益處。”接著在30-31節說：“不要讓神的聖靈憂傷；你們蒙了他的印記，直到得贖的日子 ，你們要除掉一切苦毒、暴怒、憤怒、喧嚷、譭謗，以及一切的惡毒！”

            重溫一世紀以弗所第一個教會的處境實在不是容易的事，像這樣一個跨度大的家庭，各類成員一定會把相差懸殊的不同觀點帶進新的信仰生活。你可以想像教會中有奴隸和奴隸主互為肢體麼？一想到這兒，我就覺得我們教會就算分歧再大，所面對的彼此相愛、在基督裡合一的挑戰再難也超不過他們當時的情形。神的靈足夠強大領他們一起勝過了挑戰，我們今天也一樣可以如此！

      這是底線：若我們要成長得像基督，我們就要在像LAC這樣的大家庭中，照著神要我們所做的一生實踐。我們要一遍遍聽保羅在32節的話語：要以仁慈彼此相待，心存憐憫，互相饒恕，就像神在基督裡饒恕了你們那樣。

你要帶回家的 – 學基督 (4:20-21)，效法神 (5:1).

           每當我講這樣的道時，都會被問到：“牧師啊，我們看見了神的話所要求我們的，那我們當如何做呢？”我們人類總喜歡照一長串的工作單按順序做好達到神要我們做的，但屬靈成長並非如此，而是從我們的所是開始，然後自然進入我們的所為。在聖經中，所是總是在所為之前。

            我們的“新我”是從重生開啟，要我們脫去舊我，穿上因信耶穌而有的新我。神把我們放在一個地方教會的大家庭操練我們，讓我們一起彼此相愛，而不是過著好像沒有神的生活。

           為幫助我們的屬靈成長，神的話在這裡給了我們一個清楚的指示，即要定睛在耶穌上面。以弗所書4：20節字面寫著：“學基督”，在5：1節，又寫道“效法神。”你就知道效法神的方式就是學基督。在5：1-2，我們看見：要效法神；要在愛中行事，就像基督也愛了我們，為我們捨棄了自己。

      我的要點是，我們定睛在誰那裡就會像誰。每當我看見我的孫子布魯克時我就知道這話多正確。他現在6歲，效法他爹，你看這父子倆的相片就知道他們有多像。

讓我勸你也照著我的大學舍監給我屬靈輔導時所建議的去做。他要我通讀路加福音，每次讀到耶穌遇上某某人的故事時都停下來，然後他給我三個問題，在我的筆記上要問要答：

1. 耶穌是怎樣看到並對待這人的？
2. 耶穌對待這人的方式與世上大多數人的對待方式有什麼不同？
3. 若你效法耶穌所做的，將會使你的人際關係有怎樣不同？

            我建議你這星期就開始這樣做。我想這與使徒保羅在4：17-5：2節所說的是一致的，他說：要學基督；穿上新衣，就是新我，努力像基督那樣。願我們在LAC的教會大家庭學到“愛中行事”---就像基督也愛了我們，為我們捨棄了自己，做供物和祭物獻給神，

            當我們如此做的時候，LAC教會就必然有馨香之氣，並且可以榮耀神。

榮耀歸給神！

Greg Waybright 博士

主任牧師