Gospel of John [Joh 16:12-15]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 42. Eph 4:30; Col 3:1-4.

Title: Gospel of John [JOH 16:12-15]. The Doctrine of the HS, part 42. EPH 4:30; COL 3:1-4.

 

The HS is your teacher. Do not grieve the HS.

 

EPH 4:14 As a result, we are no longer to be children [infants], tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming [methodeia - a deliberate planning or system];

 

EPH 4:15 but speaking the truth [aletheuo - truthing it] in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ,

 

There is no word for speaking as could be commonly used. "Speaking the truth" is one word in the Greek, aletheuo.

 

"aletheuo" = truthing it! Walking in the truth is qualified by "in love." It is not speaking the truth in all hazards, but a love of truth that is for the edification of others.

 

This begs the question, "What does truth look like without love?" It looks like prideful knowledge that only puffs up. It looks like the person who always wants to state what they know without a care for the edification of others, while self-justifying it as truth. In our modern vernacular, "I'm just being real."

 

1CO 13:2

And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

 

The truth has a purpose and that is to transform us into conformity with the image of Christ. We are commanded to love as He loved. The truth, taught by means of the Holy Spirit, is the only means of getting this mind within us, but to have knowledge without love is only arrogance.

 

"Into Him" should be "unto Him." We are to grow unto Him, which is that we are to grow into resemblance of Him.

 

We are to pick up our cross and follow Him.

 

EPH 4:16 from whom [Christ] the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies [spiritual believers], according to the proper working [energy] of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

 

Fitted [sunarmologeo] and held together [sumbibazo] is to join closely together and cause to coalesce, unite, and knit together. The present participle means that the process is continually going on.

 

The joints are the bands that hold the body together and this would include every spiritual believer who has submitted his will to the Lord's.

 

The life of the Head flowing through the bands of supply, is constantly joining together and causing to grow together the individual members, this process being controlled or dominated by the operative energy put forth, the volume or strength of this operative energy coming from the Head of the Body, being determined by the capacity of each part to hold and allow to operate in him or her.

 

That is, the degree to which this life of the Head flowing through the members operates, joining the members of the Body more closely together into a more compact organic union, is determined by the individual saint's fellowship with the Lord and with his fellow saints. Fellowship of the saints does not mean social events or anything social, but verses 1-3.

 

EPH 4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called,

 

EPH 4:2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another in love,

 

EPH 4:3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

 

This is true fellowship. If social situations occur then fine, but they are not the cause of fellowship and should not be forced upon any believer.

 

This more compactly built Body will show in the closer ties of Christian love and brotherhood as exhibited by the saints in their Christian experience of divine virtue.

 

Verses 1-16 could be entitled unity of the body through the supply that comes from the Head which is the Spirit of God, and the obligations of the new creatures to be spiritual, and operating in the love of Christ towards one another.

 

EPH 4:17 This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,

 

"Therefore" resumes the exhortation of vv. 1-3. Paul identifies himself with the Lord as a witness making a solemn declaration.

 

Affirm is the word martuomai meaning to witness or to testify. Therefore, his affirmation has the same weight as if the Lord were making it Himself.

 

Gentiles is the word for heathen, meaning the unbelieving population who are devoid in their mind of any spiritual truth and because of that they have a certain walk or lifestyle.

 

Futility (the mind of the heathen), mataios, is that which is vain, aimless, resultless, or futile.

 

EPH 4:18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;

 

being darkened - perfect tense = a process completed in the past and having present results. Understanding = something reflected upon and thought through.

 

The believer is a child of light and can never be darkness, but they can walk in the manner of the heathen who lives in darkness. The heathen have thought through the ways of the world and have reached conclusions. There are many types of conclusions but all of them are described as without light, which is the truth that can only be known through the light of the world, our Lord Jesus. Darkness is devoid of light as it was in GEN 1:2, but in GEN 1:3 God said, "Let there be light."

 

The life of God they have excluded themselves from comes to every believer at the moment of salvation when the baptism of the Spirit places him in union with Christ.

 

COL 3:1 If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

 

COL 3:2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.

 

COL 3:3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

 

COL 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

 

EPH 4:18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;

 

The emphasis on ignorance is where it is seated. It is within them and therefore they are culpable. It is not an ignorance that is outside of them but something they have allowed into their understanding.

 

The significance of ignorance is not in what it is but what it lacks. It is devoid of truth and because of that their hearts have become hard [porosis].

 

Porosis or hardness means literally to cover with a callous. Long term ignorance deadens sensitivity to the things of God. In the case of the heathen, the common grace ministry of the Holy Spirit has been entertained, likely more than once, and rejected. Any subsequent hearing of anything to do with Christ elicits a response of callousness.

 

When a believer walks like an unbeliever for a long period of time the same response occasions any mention of grace or the word of God. For the legalistic believer, they have heard about that grace before and they immediately react to it. The licentious believer has pursued happiness in the cosmic system for so long that they become insensitive to God's happiness, which is not at all tied to circumstances. To the believer who has abandoned church altogether, they have tried it and it didn't work.

 

EPH 4:19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.

 

Callous means to cease to feel pain or grief and to become insensible to pain, or apathetic. This is a word for a seared conscience which is no longer sensitive to stimuli from the good things from God.