Review
- Last week we continued our series on Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.
- We will continue with the second half of Ephesians today in a series titled: Don’t Trip: A C.R.I.P. Walk Tutorial.
- For our purposes C.R.I.P. stands for Christ In
- This lesson is about how drawing close to Jesus affects our .
- In Ephesians and much of the rest of the Bible, walking is a metaphor for life.
- Your walk refers to how you .
- The first three chapters focus of Ephesians focus on what we , but the second three chapters focus on how we .
Ephesians 4:17-24
Un-Identity
Ephesians 4:17
- If the 21st century has taught us anything, it’s this: How you identify is a .
- How you identify is completely separate from how you feel on the inside or look on the outside.
- God says this: I don’t care how you feel or how you look. If you’re a follower of Christ, you with Christ.
- is linked to identification.
- Actors know this.
- Good acting (or action) comes from sources.
- In the Roman world, adoptees had to stop identifying with their birth families and begin identifying with their adopted families.
Spiritual Heart Disease
Ephesians 4:18
- A heart produces spiritual blindness, isolation and ignorance.
- Spiritually speaking, a hardened heart is analogous to clogged arteries.
Ephesians 4:19
- To be callous means to lose feeling.
- If your body loses feeling, it is because your nerve endings are no longer communicating with you.
- Nerve endings tell us if something is too hot, cold or sharp enough to hurt us.
- When we are spiritually callous, our spiritual nerve endings are not working.
- When we are spiritually callous, we can sin without sensing danger.
“A place for everything and everything in its place” –Benjamin Franklin
Ephesians 4:20
- Mark 12:17
Ephesians 4:21
- The teachings of the Bible do not make sense if you do hold a few basic assumptions:
- , goodness, beauty and truth are connected (Genesis 3:6)
- To find one is to find the other.
- They are all located in the same place.
- That place is Jesus.
- Biblical scripture is the only text with the authority and accuracy to reveal who is.
- , goodness, beauty and truth are connected (Genesis 3:6)
- Identification with Christ means holding these assumptions.
- Once you hold these assumptions, you are willing to disidentify with anything contrary to Christ.
- Identifying with means disidentifying with ourselves.
- Identifying with God’s truth means disidentifying with our truth.
Ephesians 4:22-23
- Identification is about renewal
- The ancient world believed the mind was in the heart, not the brain.
- You become a new person by changing your .
- Who you are in your heart is who you are.
- If your heart is changeable, changeable.
- The world says that you are what your body and mind says you are; God says you are what He says you are.
- We become like God when our heart becomes to God’s Word.
Old Testament Rules Made Simple
Ephesians 4:25-32
Ephesians 5:1-5
In Sum,
To C.R.I.P. Walk is to follow the of the Ten Commandments:
Love Principle |
10 Commandments |
Ephesians |
Love God |
1. You shall have no other Gods but me. |
Ephesians 4:30 Ephesians 5:5 |
2. You shall not make for yourself any idol, nor bow down to it or worship it. |
Ephesians 4:30 Ephesians 5:5 |
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3. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God. |
Ephesians 4:29 Ephesians 5:4 |
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4. You shall remember and keep the Sabbath day holy. |
Ephesians 2:6 |
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Love Your Neighbor |
5. Respect your father and mother. |
Ephesians 6:1-3 |
6. You must not commit murder. |
Ephesians 4:26 Ephesians 4:31 |
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7. You must not commit adultery. |
Ephesians 5:3 Ephesians 5:5 |
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8. You must not steal. |
Ephesians 4:28 |
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9. You must not give false evidence against your neighbor. |
Ephesians 4:25 |
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10. You must not be envious of your neighbor’s goods. You shall not be envious of his house nor his wife, nor anything that belongs to your neighbor. |
Ephesians 5:3 |
Ephesians 5:5
- I Corinthians 6:9-11
- “The apostle Paul, in writing here about the ‘unrighteous,’ is addressing a body of believers living in a city known for its gross sexual immorality.
- He lists a catalog of sins characterizing sexual impurity and says that those who commit them will be disinherited from the Kingdom.
- Does this mean that people who engage in sexual sin will lose their salvation?
- No, Rather, what the Word of God is saying is that sex sins obliterate the confidence, authority and power and blessings of the Kingdom. . . .
- Sex sins tend to dull our souls to the God-given joy of our salvation, robbing us of the strength that joy is designed to sustain” (Jack Hayford, Fatal Attractions: Why Sex Sins Are Worse Than Others, Regal:2004, p.61)
- Psalm 51:12
© Joshua D. Smith, Ph.D., 2021