Gospel of John [Joh 16:12-15]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 47. Eph 4:30; Heb 10:23-25; Rom 3:21-28.

Title: Gospel of John [JOH 16:12-15]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 47. EPH 4:30; HEB 10:23-25; ROM 3:21-28.

 

EPH 4:29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear.

 

Unwholesome means corrupt, rotten, worn out, unfit for use, or worthless. The command is for those words not to proceed from your mouth. But a vow of silence is not given.

 

The words that come from our mouths are to be for edification of others. This means that the believer has to think in terms of love and service before he speaks to those who are near.

 

It is when we neglect thinking in terms of virtue that we find corrupt and worthless words proceeding from our mouths. Edification is a word that means to build. We use the phrase "build up someone" but that sometimes is associated with flattery and lies. We are not to flatter but to edify which can be viewed as not tearing down but building a closer connection of truth one to another. The body is to be knit together and grow together in love and it is the bands that we can build. The building of the individual soul comes from that individual's relationship with God and those who have a spiritual relationship band together under virtue as the members of the body of Christ.

 

HEB 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful;

 

HEB 10:24 and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,

 

HEB 10:25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near.

 

EPH 4:29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear.

 

The word "moment" is not in the original. However, "according to the need of the moment," is the translation of the word chreia with a definite article, meaning literally "the need." The need is obviously the need of the hearer and they, as all of us, need grace and not tearing down, but only that which may build up. This negates judging, maligning, slandering, which begins in the soul before the mouth is opened. Needs change, though I may not know of any specific need at the moment, or I may, and so adding "according to and moment" to clarify in the English is justified.

 

An unbeliever may become a believer in a moment. Every believer has been made something beautiful in Christ, whether they see it in themselves or not. This focus of agape love upon the human race will enable us to much more often offer gracious words of edification rather than unwholesome words.

 

The need of the moment means that I trust the Holy Spirit to lead, and not every leading is the same and not every moment is the same, so I don't carry a repertoire of things to say but I intelligently interpret the need of the moment.

 

 This separates man from machine and spiritual man from carnal man. And what is said is to give grace to those who hear. Grace means receiving gifts without cost and without strings.

 

The spiritual believer is truly selfless in the need of the moment and gives the words of edification because he loves to give them, as God does.

 

EPH 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

 

The "and" means that the grieving of the Spirit of God is bearing on the preceding injunction, which immediately is the unwholesome words, yet this is not alone in the exhortation of this passage and would include everything from verse 1 on and also following though to the end. I would venture to say with confidence that the way, as Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, of not grieving the Spirit is in chapters 4-6, which is chock full of commands.

 

Simplified by God through Paul is the fact that the old man has been laid aside at salvation and our walk in the CWL should always contain a reckoning of that fact.  

 

When we chose to attempt to put on the old man, though he is dead and laid aside through Christ we grieve the Holy Spirit of God.

 

If I were to go on the world's greatest chain sinning bender, would I ever stop being a new creature in Christ? Are those sins on me? Though I would experience divine discipline and maybe even the sin unto death, those sins are never on me, I am never judged for them, and I am always and forever secure as a new creature in Christ. Did the Corinthians ever stop existing as holy temples of God? The sins of the carnal believer is an attempt to put the old man back on. He will never fit on you again, for he is dead. To attempt to put him on again in life is a believer being a fool, darkened in his understanding as the heathen is, and he will only wake up to that fact the moment he dies and finds himself face to face with the Lord.

 

The continued exhortation is to put away other habits of the old man with the positive command to be in the sphere of agape love towards one another in kindness, tender-heartedness, and forgiveness (vs. 32).

 

EPH 4:31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

 

Bitterness - resentfulness or harshness

Wrath - violent outbreak of anger

Anger - sinful anger

Clamor - outcry of passion, brawling

Slander - injurious speech

Malice - vicious character or quality

 

In contrast:

 

EPH 4:32 And be [become - exchange one form of thinking for another] kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

 

Kind - benevolent, gracious

Tender-hearted - compassionate

 

Forgiving [not the usual word] - to do a favor to, do something agreeable or pleasant to one, to show one's self gracious, benevolent, to forgive in the sense of treating the offending party graciously.

 

The word usually used of God's forgiveness of our sins is aphiemi. This word is charizomai, from the root word charis or "grace."

 

It was God in Christ that accomplished the plan of redemption. He planned it and executed it in suffering and reconciling. God, in love, saved us by grace and treated us graciously though we did not deserve a fraction of it. In the same way we are to be gracious, benevolent, show favor towards, and forgive just as He did.