Give No
By Nick Bibile
Ephesians
We saw last week verse 24 belonged to the first part of the 10 Commandments. Now verse 25 is speaking of our neighbor, this belongs to the second part of the 10 Commandments. God’s true righteousness and holiness is found in the 10 commandments, Jesus fulfilled all of the commandments and his righteousness and holiness is imputed (Credited) to the believing sinner. And now we are righteous in Christ Jesus.
Therefore let us be truthful with our neighbors. Let us be sincere, not one face in the church and another face at home and work. Let us be honest to one another.
Before we came to Christ we are unrighteous, the heart was deceitful with sin, and we were depraved and out of depravity came all kinds of sin. In the same way now we are righteous in Christ Jesus, this is the head of doctrine. We have a new heart and out of this fountain should flow godliness. Every kind of deceit and hypocrisy is out of place as we are members of one another.
In verse 26 the apostle is quoting Psalm 4.
Psalm
4:2 O men, how long shall my honor be turned into shame?
How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah
3 But know that the Lord
has set apart the godly for himself;
the Lord hears when I call to him.
4 Be angry, and
do not sin;
ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent.
The
Hebrew verb
Do
not sin in your anger. When you are offended by someone, and you get hurt and
wounded and naturally there is anger but do not sin in your anger. Keep your
mouth shut and pray so you will not sin in your anger. Or else your anger will
be extended to bad results, fights, quarrels and violence. Do not let the sun
go down in your anger. Do not go to sleep with your anger, but sleep in peace
with God.
Do
nothing when you are angry, and then you will have the less to undo. Remember,
anger is temporary insanity.
Let
me quote Spurgeon. “Do not say I cannot
help having a bad temper.” Friend, you must help it. Pray God to help you to
overcome it at once; for either you must kill it, or it will kill you. You cannot
carry a bad temper into heaven.”
27)
And give no opportunity to the devil.
The
Devil is waiting for an opportunity. He is like a roaring lion always looking
for an opportunity to devour someone.
1 Peter 5:8 Be
sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a
roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Remember the Devil is more cunning than the wisest Solomon as he trapped
Solomon in sin. The Devil is stronger than the strongest and how fatally he
overthrew Samson. How soon he entangled Solomon! He is stronger
than the strongest. Even the man after God’s own heart,
David was led into sin.
Yes, the
Devil is a roaring Lion and he is also an angel of Light. Satan can shave you with
a thousand of razors without you knowing it.
Let us see
couple of examples in the Old Testament. Remember Dinah, the daughter of Leah,
who wanted to check out the ungodly women. That was just opening the door to
the devil, she gave an inch to the devil, the devil took the opportunity and you
know the rest of the story.
Hamor the
Hivite liked her and lay with her, invited
You can read
the story in Genesis chapter 34, just one woman opening the door to the devil
as she just wanted to go and check out the other women of the land. But brought
a massacre. Also with one woman Eve,
giving the opportunity to the devil brought sin to the whole world.
Also remember
the long war between the house of Saul and the house of David. Remember Abner who
was an uncle of Saul and he was the commander and chief of Saul’s army. Abner
made a terrible mistake. Instead of yielding to David’s authority after Saul’s
death, he made Ish-bosheth the son of Saul as the king.
The chief
commander of David’s army was Joab.
Abner and Joab hated each others guts. One day Abner and his men and
Joab and his men met at a pool in
Abner gave
the devil an opportunity, he did not want David to be the king of
Remember
Cain, he became so angry that he murdered his own brother. But God told him
before sin is crouching at the door. Hebrew word is, sin like a demon crouching
outside the door. The devil is waiting for that opportunity.
When we are
focused on the word of God, the next step is to meditate on the word of God.
The result is that his word being the light will direct our steps, meaning we
will do the will of God.
If we are not
in the word, then we are opening the door to the devil. We can be led not by
the spirit of God but by our flesh, the result can be pleasing/comforting to
our flesh but can be hazardous to our soul. Remember it is God’s word that
saved us and how can we neglect his word.
When you are
in the word then you are committed to the Lord when you are committed to the
Lord you become busy for the Lord, there is no room for the Devil. There was a
time when everyone else were busy at war against the enemy king David was not
busy, it was idle time. The Devil loves when God’s people are in idle. He will
use his bait and many have fallen into it. King David fell for it when he was
idle nothing to do went to the window and saw Bathsheba. The devil was
crouching at the door at king David’s mind and it temptation build up and there
was adultery and murder.
Don’t
be idle as powers of darkness and their demons are busy. While you are
sleeping, Satan will be sowing.
We
need to be busy in God’s service. Because if you are idle in Christ’s work, you
are active in the devil’s work. There are so many loiterers and spectators but
very few laborers.
Proverbs
8:
17 I love
those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.
2 Peter 1: 10 Therefore, brothers, be
all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you
practice these qualities you will never fall.