Revolution Within

Wow...so today was a real eye-opener. Okay, so you know when you're just in that stubborn and rebellious mood? Maybe that sounds extreme. Let's try this: You know when you're just tired of God using and teaching you so you kind of refuse to open up or be particularly "good"? Well, this morning I was in that mood. Yes, I went to church and that was wonderful. But afterwards especially...someone had upset me with their words and actions and the lack of virtues displayed. I went home upset. No...upset is mild. I was angry. I was angry with that person and I refused to see any kind of reason. In fact, I wrote up a word document...just ranting on and on about how angry I was and how sinfully wrong this other person was. A bit extreme huh? Yeah...but it gets better...I just refused to be satisfied...I was genuinely upset with this person and how wrong they were with being how they were!

I wrote up this page in my special notebook (full of my list to do, sermon notes, L'Abri notes, quotes,  thoughts etc.) and then went to look up the Bible verse that I thought was pretty applicable. For any of those who were wondering what it was, it was Ephesians 4:22-24 which reads, "For you ought to put off the old man (according to your way of living before) who is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And you should put on the new man, who according to God was created in righteousness and true holiness." 

Now...I thought that's perfect...that's the exact verse I wanted! I kept reading just in case there was more that applied. This is what I found: Be angry, and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the Devil. Let not any filthy word go out of your mouth, but if any is good to building up in respect of need, that it may give grace to the ones hearing.   And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you are sealed until the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and tumult and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you." (verses 26, 27, and 29-32) 

OUCH. What a full-face command. I stopped everything I was doing just to study this closer. Wow...was there any clearer message that God could have sent me to get His message across? 

To be hit head-on with that kind of passage really gets you into a liiiittle bit of humility. How stupid and rebellious and selfish could I be? Well...a lot apparently. God is constantly teaching me that I do not know much at all...that I am a baby Christian still and I have such a long ways to go before I can be considered "grown up". 

So I started to study these verses closer...I have this "app" on my computer called e-Sword...I downloaded it for free and it's completely amazing! It can give you so many different versions of the Bible and so many commentaries and dictionaries and soo much more that I haven't even discovered. Anyways...so I looked at a commentary for these verses I mentioned (this time applying it to myself!). Here's what I found.

Ephesians 4:22 "For you ought to put off the old man (according to your way of living before) who is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,". Commentary: The old man - That is, the whole body of sin. All sinful desires are deceitful; promising the happiness which they cannot give.
Ephesians 4:23 "and be renewed in the spirit of your mind." Commentary: The spirit of your mind - The very ground of your heart.
Ephesians 4:24 "And you should put on the new man, who according to God was created in righteousness and true holiness." Commentary: The new man - Universal holiness. After - In the very image of God.
Ephesians 4:26 "Be angry, and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down upon your wrath," Commentary: Be ye angry, and sin not - That is, if ye are angry, take heed ye sin not. Anger at sin is not evil; but we should feel only pity to the sinner. If we are angry at the person, as well as the fault, we sin. And how hardly do we avoid it. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath - Reprove your brother, and be reconciled immediately. Lose not one day. A clear, express command. Reader, do you keep it?
Ephesians 4:27 "neither give place to the Devil." Commentary: Neither give place to the devil - By any delay.
Ephesians 4:29 "Let not any filthy word go out of your mouth, but if any is good to building up in respect of need, that it may give grace to the ones hearing." Commentary: But that which is good - Profitable to the speaker and hearers. To the use of edifying - To forward them in repentance, faith, or holiness. That it may minister grace - Be a means of conveying more grace into their hearts. Hence we learn, what discourse is corrupt, as it were stinking in the nostrils of God; namely, all that is not profitable, not edifying, not apt to minister grace to the hearers.
Ephesians 4:30 "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you are sealed until the day of redemption." Commentary: Grieve not the Holy Spirit - By any disobedience. Particularly by corrupt discourse; or by any of the following sins. Do not force him to withdraw from you, as a friend does whom you grieve by unkind behavior  The day of redemption - That is, the day of judgment, in which our redemption will be completed.
Ephesians 4:31 "Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and tumult and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice." Commentary: Let all bitterness - The height of settled anger, opposite to kindness. And wrath - Lasting displeasure toward the ignorant, and them that are out of the way, opposite to tenderheartedness. And anger - The very first risings of disgust at those that injure you, opposite to forgiving one another. And clamour - Or bawling. "I am not angry," says one; "but it is my way to speak so." Then unlearn that way: it is the way to hell. And evil speaking - Be it in ever so mild and soft a tone, or with ever such professions of kindness. Here is a beautiful retrogradation, beginning with the highest, and descending to the lowest, degree of the want of love.
Ephesians 4:32 "And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you." Commentary: As God, showing himself kind and tenderhearted in the highest degree, hath forgiven you.

Wow...how amazingly powerful are those words! I mean...if you just stop to read them with an open heart then it means so much. When I read them...my whole attitude changed. It went from stubbornly rebellious and closed up to repentant and whole-heartedly forgiving. The person who says that the Word of God doesn't work miracles is a fool. 

Tomorrow I will try and post another commentary on those passages...I just love reading these great men who analyze and pour over Scripture to find their true meaning in them. It's fascinating and just breath-taking to see how God truly reveals Himself to those who seek Him. My prayers are that you have a lovely rest of the Lord's Day and then a wonderful start to your week!

*commentary from John Wesley's Explanatory Notes