Ephesians 4:1-32

Verses 25 through 32 of chapter 4, chapter 5 and the first 9 verses of chapter 6 are usually the passages that many preachers take me to for a journey of "morality," and why the grace of God cannot possibly be evident in the life of a person unless they live by all these godly encouraging principles that Paul talks about in these chapters and verses. This is where the One family issue becomes highly debatable amongst Evangelicals. "Brother, you are out of your mind, and you are most definitely in violation of text."

"These last verses here in chapters 4, 5 and 6 of Ephesians is what separates the goats from the sheep, the moral from the immoral, the godly from the ungodly, the saved from the unsaved, the believer from the unbelievers. These verses proves that there are two familles. The family of the devil and the family of The Lord. Unbelievers don't tell the truth. They lie. They always become angry with us believers when we tell them about the consequences of sin. They are forever giving place to the devil. They steal, cheat, and they are corrupted in their thinking and way of talking." (Read Romans 5) "In due time Christ died for the ungodly."

"There is nothing good about unbelieving people. They are sinners and they know nothing about the Holy Spirit and God's righteous works. They do not know how to be kind to anyone, nor do they have any idea of forgiveness. They are the children of the devil, of evil and there is no way that I will buy the idea that they are part of the family of God." Friends, it would take me another 18 parts to cover all of these verses if I were to really expound on each of them individually, and give you an idea of who these verses were really meant for. The first clue is that Paul was not addressing this letter to unbelievers.

The second clue is that he was talking to them who were still trusting in the law and would not accept the fact that God had made One family out of two in Christ Jesus. The third clue is that Paul had made mentioned of some Gentiles who had returned to trusting in the law and had not renewed their minds to the fact that God had done away with the old covenant and ushered in by the blood of Christ a New covenant of grace in Christ Jesus. That the old conversation had been done away with and now both Jews and Gentiles had been created in righteousness and true holiness in Christ Jesus.

Verse 25 is addressing the self-righteous. They were still speaking lies because they did not believe that they were now members of one another in Christ Jesus. There was still anger, jealousy amongst them. They were giving place to the devil by trusting in the works of the law. Many of them were laboring in self-righteousness. Their mouths brought forth nothing but corruption since many of them had gone back into trusting in the law and refusing to accept that ALL had been predestinated in Christ.

Some ministers have said to me: "You need to understand that Paul changed subjects starting with verses 25 through chapter 6 and verse 9." Nonsense! Verse 25 proves that Paul is still dealing with the One Family issue. "FOR WE ARE MEMBERS OF ONE ANOTHER." Jesus called the devil the Father of lies since he had lied from the very beginning. The devil was not interested in our behavior as much as he was in keeping us from truth. I acted no different from the devil when I went around identifying the people of God and the people of satan.

I did the very thing that Jesus rebuked the religious people of His day of: "You go around trying to convert people, and all you are doing is making them twice a child more of the devil." In other words, you lead them to salvation, and then you teach them that God is for the saint but not for the sinner. Friends, if we are going to preach morality out of these verses, and point the finger of fault finding, then lets not forget that we fall just as short as anyone else. Evangelical Christians lie, they sin, they get angry, they steal, they allow corrupt communication to come out of their mouths. They do not always minister grace to the hearers.

If anything, they minister law, works, condemnation, hell, fire and brimstone. If there were to be such a thing as grieving The Holy Spirit, we would grieve it by what Paul said in Galatians 3:2 "Did you receive the Holy Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?" Allow me to ask you a question out of verse 30: "When was the day of redemption?" Friends, it took place at the cross and that's when God sealed everyone. He washed our sins, He sealed our sins, He has forgiven everyone's sins way before anyone believed and as far as the east is from the west, the sins of the world He remembers no more. WE ARE ONE FAMILY.

Whether Evangelical Christianity believes it, accepts it, preaches it or not. "For we are members of one another.' Why? Because in Christ Jesus we have all become one. If there be any bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, evil speaking and malice, it is coming from the Evangelical bias doctrine of demons that are still teaching the "sheep and goat" doctrine. The fact is that we were ALL goats, and it took the blood of Jesus to bring us nigh to the Father and we are now One family in Christ. We also know, quoting from verse 32 of chapter 4, that Evangelical Christian doctrines show very little kindness, and they are just about as tenderhearted, forgiving, and kind as the devil was.

So lets not play the self-righteous, holier than thou game that the "Far and Sad-you-see's" were playing, and preach these passages out of a "Moral" point of view because they have nothing to do with salvation by grace through the faith of Christ. These verse have been pulled out of context by the Evangelical Religion, and we all know that they do not see the finished work of the cross as bringing us all into one family in Christ. If we are going to get meticulous about these last few chapters in Ephesians, and connect them to some "Morality" doctrine to prove that grace works by keeping to moral acts, then this Gospel is not about One family but about two.

To be continued...

Grace Peace Truth N Love

Eddie Narvaez