Sermon

August 16, 2008
A-Pent 17
Ephesians 4:29-5:2
Pastor Robert Raasch

Christians, Be Imitators of God

1. Get Rid of the Garbage
2. Forgive as God has Forgiven You

(Eph 4:29-5:2)  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. {30} And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. {31} Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. {32} Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. {1} Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children {2} and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

It happens all over the country about this time of year.  A new set of freshmen shows up on campus, whether it be at high school or college.  Suddenly, they are thrown in the midst of all these unfamiliar faces.  There are new classmates, new teammates, new roommates.  And suddenly they’re forced to make some new friends.  They’re forced to make some choices about which crowd they’re going to hang out with, who they are going to follow, in a sense, who they’re going to be. 

Well, in our text for today, St. Paul has some advice for those new students, and really, for each one of us as well.  For the fact is, every day of our lives, we all are forced to decide who we’re going follow, who we will be, who we’ll imitate.  When it comes to living our life in the real world, Paul’s advice to us is simple:

Christian, Be Imitators of God
And Paul tells us two ways to do that:
I. Get Rid of the Garbage
II. Forgive, as God has Forgiven You

Now, in order to understand these words, we need to understand something about the book of Ephesians, from which these words are taken. I realize I could just say, “Come to our Sunday morning Bible class on the book of Ephesians and you’ll learn a whole lot about his book.”  But for now, let me simply say that the book of Ephesians was written to a group of Christians.  The significance there is that Paul’s readers were already believers.  The Holy Spirit had already led them to put their trust in Jesus as their only Savior from sin.  That allows Paul to address them as the “dearly loved children of God.”  He says that they have been “sealed with the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption.”  In other words, the Holy Spirit has set them apart as God’s people.  The Holy Spirit now dwells in them.  Each one of them is, in effect, a little “temple of the Holy Spirit.” 

You realize what that means, don’t you?  It means that what Paul said to the Christians in Ephesus still applies to you and me today.  From the time of our baptism, the Holy Spirit has taken up residence in our hearts.  We’ve been set apart for God’s purpose.  We have become the temple of the Holy Spirit.  How does Paul put it in 1 Cor. 6?  “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?”

Now, since that is true, since you are the temple of the Holy Spirit, Paul goes on to say that there are some things that just don’t belong in your temple.  Reminds me of the guy who’s trying to sell his home, so he lists it with a realtor.  The realtor does a walk-through and says, “What is that?!?”  The owner says, “That’s my pile of trash.  I always keep it right in the middle of my living room.”  The realtor says, “I’m sorry, but that’s got to go.  That just doesn’t fit.  You have to get rid of that garbage.”

My friends, that’s Paul’s first piece of advice to us as well, namely, I. Christian, get rid of the garbage.  And then Paul goes on to give us some examples of the kind of garbage that just doesn’t fit in the heart and life of a Spirit-filled Christian.  Paul says, first of all, “Get rid of all bitterness.”  The Greek word here refers to having an irritable or sour state of mind.  Today we’d probably call it “being crabby.”  I know we sometimes like to think that we have a right to be crabby, or it’s just the way we are.  But Paul says, “No.  It doesn’t fit.  It’s garbage.  You’ve got to get rid of it.  Reminds me of what’s left over after I clean a mess of walleyes.  What do you think would happen if I decided to leave that bucket of entrails sitting around in the basement?  That’s right.  I’d have a bunch of crabby people in my house!  So what’s the rule?  Get rid of it.  Take out the trash.  Get rid of…bitterness.

Paul goes on.  Get rid of…rage.  The Greek word there is “thumos.”  It reminds me of the word Vesuvius.  You know, the volcano that used to periodically erupt in ancient times.  That’s what Paul is talking about.  He’s referring to times when we, in effect, blow up.  We lose our cool.  Paul says that an out of control temper has no place in the life of a believer.  The same thing is true of “anger.”  While rage is kind of the spontaneous outburst of emotion, anger is the inner, slow burn.  It’s that deep seated resentment.  It’s that desire for revenge.  While it may not be quite as obvious as rage, it is just as dangerous.  It’s like that pile of greasy rags lying next to the house’s water heater.  Once that pile starts to smolder, there’s going to be a fire.  So you’d better take that trash out now.

But notice, Paul is not only concerned with what’s going on in here (heart), but also here (mouth).  In the first verse, Paul wrote, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths.”  Here he adds, “Get rid of all brawling and slander.”  Brawling.  When I hear that word “brawl,” I think of what happens in the bar scene of an old country and western movie.  But actually, the word here refers to what we’d today call “a shouting match”, a high decibel argument.  And so often when two people are arguing with each other, what goes with it?  Slander.  That is, the personal attacks on someone’s good name and reputation.  It’s the name calling, the judging of motives: “You were trying to hurt me.  It’s the generalizations: “You are always…You never….”  It’s tearing people down with our words.

Tell me, as you look around your house, your life, do you see any of this kind of garbage?  Do you have some of this trash making a mess of your life, your family?  I’m not talking about only the messes that other people have made by their attitudes, words and actions.  I’m talking about the messes that you have created.  I’m talking about the garbage that still clutters your heart, your life.  The bitterness, the anger, the arguing.  Paul says, “Christian, it doesn’t belong.  It doesn’t fit.  Get rid of it.”

The question, I mean, the question we all really struggle with is, “How?”  How do we get rid of the garbage that just doesn’t belong in the temple of the Holy Spirit?  Scripture offers three steps:  First, confess it.  That is, acknowledge it for what it is.  Such things as rage, and slander and bitterness are all sin.  And sin separates us from God.  It’s like a cancer that squeezes the spiritual life out of us.  Secondly, own it. That is, take personal responsibility for your behavior.  Don’t point to someone else “She makes me angry” or “They’re ganging up on me” or “Every couple argues like we do.”  No, taking personal responsibility means using the word, “I.”  “I was wrong.  I sinned against you.  I hurt you by what I said.  I have no excuse for what I did.” 

So, confess it.  Own it.  And finally, give it to Jesus.  I realize that goes against our natural inclinations.  Typically, we don’t want to expose our imperfections.  We don’t use make up to highlight our pimples.  We use make up to cover them up.  Rather than exposing our addictions, we try to hide them.  But Jesus says, “That’s no solution.”  Hiding our faults, or trying to deny them or justify them doesn’t get rid of them.  No, the only solution is to give them to Jesus.  To say, “Jesus, I don’t want this bad attitude any more.  I’m tired of holding on to this anger.  Jesus will you take it from me?”

And incredibly, that’s exactly what Jesus does.  Jesus says, “In mercy, I’ll take your sin all the way to the cross.  I’ll be punished there for your garbage.  I’ll be abandoned by God—so that you will never be abandoned by God.”  My friends, isn’t that the ultimate expression of undeserved love?  How does Paul put it?  “Jesus loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” 

Do you realize what that means?  It means that not only was Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross pleasing to God.  But also because that sacrifice was made on your behalf, now you are pleasing to God.  In fact, you might say that you not only look good to God.  You smell good.  You are, in the words of 2 Cor. 2:15, “the aroma of Christ.”  In other words, you no longer smell like garbage.  Jesus has taken out your trash.  Now you smell like what?  Fresh baked chocolate chip cookies?  A kitchen mopped with Pine Sol?  A breath of mountain air?  The point is, in Christ, you’re absolutely clean.  Free from blemish—because Jesus has taken out your trash.

Unfortunately, even though Jesus has gotten rid of your garbage, there are going to be times when other people throw their garbage into your life.  And that brings us to the second thing we need to keep in mind as we strive to be imitators of God.  Here in our text, Paul says, II. Christian, Forgive as God has forgiven you.

If you think about it, a lot of the stress we experience in life, a lot of the burdens we bear are a direct result of what other people do to us.  “She lied to me.  He cheated on me.  They showed no respect to me.”  And each time that happens we’re going to be tempted to bring all that garbage back into our hearts and lives.  You know, anger, resentment, bitterness.

Is there a way for us to better handle the sins that have been committed against us?  Yes, there is.  And that is by dealing with them as God dealt with them.  And that means, forgiving them all—in Christ.  Now, what does that mean, to forgive sins in Christ?  First, let me tell you what it doesn’t mean.  Forgiving sin in Christ doesn’t mean condoning sin.  Sometimes people make that mistake.  They say, “Well, if I forgive him for what he did, aren’t I saying that what he did wasn’t all that bad?  Aren’t I maybe even encouraging him to do it again?”

No, all sin is still sin.  It deserves to be condemned.  It deserves to be punished.  But remember, in Christ, all sin has been punished.  That means that when someone sins against us, we don’t have the right to say, “You’ve got to pay for that.  I’m going to hold that debt against you.”  Remember, sinners don’t owe us for their sins.  It wasn’t our commandments they broke.  It was God’s commandments they broke.  And if God, in his mercy, has accepted Christ’s payment for their sins, well, then what right do we have to say, “Oh but you still owe me”?  No, we can’t demand payment for a debt that’s already been paid.”

Not to mention the fact that God has already forgiven the even greater debt that we owed to God.  Remember Jesus’ parable of the unmerciful servant—the guy who makes life miserable for the buddy who owes him a couple of bucks, after his own boss let him off the hook for the millions of dollars he owed?  Talk about ingratitude.  Hypocrisy.  Isn’t that what you and I must look like to God when we accept God’s forgiveness for the sins we’ve committed against him—but then refuse to forgive the sins others have committed against us?

If you think about it, isn’t it the compassion that God has shown to us in Christ that ultimately allows us to show that same compassion to those who have sinned against us?  No, we’re not ignoring their sins.  God may still use his representatives in the home and government to bring some temporary consequences on those who break his laws.  But from our perspective, forgiveness means letting God handle that.  As Christians, our motto is “let go and let God.” 

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