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maturity in Christ. In contrast to heeding the doctrines of the error, the believer should be
`speaking the truth in love': more accurately `truthing in love'. Speaking the truth in
love is of course included, but the thought is very much wider: being the truth,
embodying the truth, living out the truth we believe. The object is that we `may grow up
(mature) into Him in all things' (Eph. 4: 15). He is the Head:
"From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every
joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh
increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love" (Eph. 4: 16).
Again there is emphasized the good of the Body and the need for it to mature. It is
also `according to the effectual working of every part'. If the Body is to come to maturity
then every one of us has a contribution to make, however small that contribution may
seem to us. If this is `the grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ' it is as
important in His eyes as the contribution made by the most gifted.
Verses 17-19 outline the kind of walk which is not the Will of God for the believer,
and this because "ye have not so learned Christ". Hence comes the exhortation to `put
away . . . . . the old man . . . . . and (put on) be clothed with the new man'. A similar
injunction is found in Rom. 13: 13, 14:
"Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in
chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof."
Here also the thought is to put on as a garment the Lord Jesus Christ: in our conduct,
in our walk we should `make visible' our Lord.
Having enjoined clothing with the new man Paul continues in Eph. 4: 25 and
onward, by expounding what this means: putting away the lie, speaking truth. He deals
with anger, and whatever may the precise meaning of verse 26 it is clear that at most
anger must be put away as speedily as possible; place must not be given to the devil. We
should be careful to do nothing, to go nowhere, indeed to think nothing, on which the
devil may work. The former thief is to work and so be able to help the needy;
conversation should be of such a nature as to edify and minister grace to the hearers. We
should do nothing to grieve, pain or cause sorrow to the Holy Spirit. Rather we should be
`kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake
hath forgiven you' (4: 32). Paul continues through the first part of chapter 5: in much
the same vein, interspersing practical exhortations with doctrinal statements. Then from
verse 22 he deals with personal relationships.
The relationship between husband and wife should be governed by that between
Christ and the Church. Children are to obey their parents `in the Lord'; fathers are not to
provoke their children, but rather `bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the
Lord'. Servants are to be good employees, not with fear and trembling before their
human masters, but before Christ, thus whole-heartedly doing the will of God.
Employers also are to behave in a similar way to their servant, recognizing that they have
themselves a Master to Whom, as employees, they are rendering service.