Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries by Major Michael Ramsay, 07 January 24 and 04 January 26
This is the 2026 version, to view the 2024 version, click here:
https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2024/01/new-years-resolutions-ephesians-41-23.html
We had New Year’s when we were away. New
Year’s is often a time of reviews or quizzes. Today I have a Bible memory quiz
for us. I am going to read or recite a verse, and you tell me the reference.
Let’s see how we do:
1.
For
God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (Jn 3:16)
2.
In
the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)
3.
But
seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things
shall be added unto you. (Matthew 6:33)
4.
For
the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord. (Ro 6:23)
5. In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)
6. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not
want. (Ps 23:1)
7. In your anger do not sin: Do not let the
sun go down while you are still angry, (Ephesians 4:26)
I picked the Ephesians 4:26 verse
because we used to talk about it almost every week in Sunday prayer meeting. it
is one of Reinhard’s favourite verses. Does anyone have favourite verses? If
so, call them out now…
Thursday was New Year’s Day. This is
often a time of resolutions. Did anyone make any resolutions? I had one friend who
said that they would give up drinking for January – and then they thought about
it a while and declared that they would give up drinking on Wednesdays in
January. This year I resolve to keep up my daily Bible readings (as I have done
for many years) and exercises – mostly stretches. The older I get the more I
need to stretch. I was injured during covid and walked with a limp for well
over a year and it was through my exercises that God made it so that I could
walk without a limp again. It is the same with exercising our spiritual
disciplines - like prayer and study. They strengthen us so that we do not get
injured spiritually, eternally. These are some of my (not new) resolutions.
If you are looking for some resolutions
for the New Year or your life in general, Paul in Chapter 4 of Ephesians has
some good suggestions. He says, “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you
to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” Therefore let us resolve
to, Ephesians 4:2-3, “be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with
one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through
the bond of peace.” Let us:
1.
Be
completely humble and gentle (4:2a);
2.
be
patient, bearing with one another in love (4:2b);
3.
Make
every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace (v.3).
These are three very good resolutions.
The first one is to be humble and gentle. We know what it means to be gentle.
It means to speak calmly and quietly. It means to not use aggressive language
such as ‘You Statements’; we know what those are, right? …Things like ‘You did
this” or ‘You said that’ or even ‘you always say this’ or ‘you never do that’;
often such statements can be accompanied by finger pointing or other non-gentle,
non-verbal accessories. A gentle person also doesn’t interrupt people.
Sometimes excited, even well-meaning people can do violence to others by
cutting them off mid-sentence. Paul says we should resolve instead to be gentle
with one another.
Paul says we should be humble. Humility
helps us be gentle. When we are humble, we don’t come across as if we always
have the right answer – we may actually have the right answer, but we don’t
come across as if the other person’s perspective doesn’t matter. A humble
person will often let the other person speak, validate their opinion, before
sharing her own wisdom in an affirming rather than a demeaning or arrogant
manner. Paul says, be completely humble and gentle with one another.
Paul also exhorts us to resolve to be
patient with each other, bearing with one another in love. Sometimes this means
we let someone finish talking and not cut them off just because we think we
know what they are saying. Sometimes it means that we let someone complete a
task, even if they are not as proficient at it as we are. You know how it feels
when every time you try something it seems like it is not good enough – they
either take over from you or criticize you. Paul says, ‘don’t do that’, 4:2b:
rather be patient, bearing with one another in love.
Ephesians 4:3: ‘Make every effort to
keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.’ This is important.
Many times we argue about things that are adiaphoron, matters of spiritual
indifference. It is really important to understand that whatever deep-seated
matter we are arguing about: sports, politics, religion, theology, whether its
pronounced tomato or tomato... as Christians we need to not be distracted by
these things. It is really important, however, that we stick together on the
matters of significant importance such as salvation for here and now and
forever, and the rest we can work out in gentle conversation and study as we
make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
·
Ephesians
4:21-24: “when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with
the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with regard to your former way of
life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful
desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new
self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
4:21-24 is a great New Year’s and New
Life verse – now is a great time to put on a new self as we are all created to
be like God him/themself. Paul suggests some more resolutions too:
·
Ephesians
4:25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your
neighbour, for we are all members of one body.
·
Ephesians
4:26&27: “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you
are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.
·
Ephesians
4:28: Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing
something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share
with those in need.
·
Ephesians
4:29: 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.
·
Ephesians
4:30-32 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for
the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and
slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate
to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Ephesians 4:25: Therefore each of you
must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbour, for we are all
members of one body. This is a good resolution for us all. Speak truthfully to
each other. Don’t share a rumour. Don’t gossip. Don’t share wrong information.
Don’t guess. This can actually be a temptation. I know that I have overheard
many conversations where a person, well-meaning even, says something just
straight up wrong. Paul tells us to resolve to slow down when we are chatting
with one another and make sure that what we are saying is true. Put off all
falsehood.
Paul also says, Verse 26 “In your anger
do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry”, Verse 27, “do
not give the devil a foothold.” Alan often remembers this verse. Rheinhart used
to remind us of this all the time in prayer meeting. How long have he and
Christa been married? 70+ years? Rheinhart tells us that one secret to a good
marriage – and probably any relationship is to not let the sun so down while
you are still angry. Resolve to settle your dispute or at least calm down
before the sun goes down. If you don’t, by morning you may find that things
have already been blown far out of proportion – or worse – you may find that
the issue never gets resolved. In that case it will nibble away at you forever
or until you get divorced. Really, in your anger, don’t sin and don’t go to bed
while you are still angry at anyone.
Paul also says that, Verse 28, anyone
who has been stealing must resolve to steal no longer, but must work, doing
something useful with their own hands so they have something to share. I find
this interesting. He not only says that we should resolve not to steal; we
should also resolve to make something useful to share with others. I think that
is important. It is not just that we shouldn’t take something from someone;
that isn’t it. We should actually go out of our way to make something for
someone else. This does two things – one it gives purpose to the one who had
nothing to do but steal and two, it helps out someone else who themselves can
then do something useful for others. We all have agency – take it from no one. I
encourage us to always contribute and to help others to contribute.
Paul says we should resolve to not let
any unwholesome talk come out of our mouths - only what is helpful for building
up others. When we are chatting with one another, let us encourage one another,
even when in disagreement, pointing out the value and benefit of each other and
encouraging one another to continue to use their gifts to help out each other.
Let us resolve this year and always to
not grieve the Holy Spirit. Verse 31, let us get rid of all bitterness, rage
and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. And 32, Be
kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ
God forgave you.
Forgiveness my friends is a key to so
much in life. It is when we fail to forgive that we can be consumed by
bitterness, rage, and anger which can lead to brawling, slander, malice and all
the rest. Paul asks us to be kind and compassionate instead and it is only
through forgiveness that we can do this.
We know what forgiveness is, right?
Forgiveness is NOT something that we do for or to anyone else. I often hear
people say, I can’t possibly forgive him or her for this terrible thing they
did. Whether you forgive something or not has absolutely nothing to do with the
person who hurt you. Also, protecting yourself, others, or themselves, from the
person has nothing to do with forgiveness. Forgiveness is a state of heart and
a state of mind. You can forgive someone and still protect everyone involved. We
do need to remember though that when someone does something awful to us –
lying, stealing, anything – they do that thing once. When we refuse to forgive,
we hurt ourselves with that very same pain each and every time we fail to
forgive. A person does violence to you once – you do violence to yourself each
and every time you fail to forgive. Whether you forgive someone or not has
nothing to do with them at all. Failing to forgive someone is like being so mad
at someone for hitting you on the head that you hit yourself on the head over
and over again until they have learned their lesson – the only one you are
guaranteed to be hurt is yourself. Paul says, don’t do that. Instead, be kind
and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God
forgave you.
Ephesians 4 has some great New Life
resolutions for us: be humble, gentle, patient, honest, and unified in the
Spirit; don’t sin even when angry; don’t steal; speak nicely to each other, get
rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander, and malice. Be kind and
compassionate to one another, forgive each other, just as in Christ, God forgave
us. My friends, let us resolve to encourage one another in this way, not only
in the new year but also in our new lives forever; let us resolve to love one
another.
Let us pray.
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