Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Paul had just directed the Ephesian church not to walk as the Gentiles but to walk as the new people they were in Christ. This is an issue of both the mind and the heart. [Eph. 4:17-18] The Gentiles tried to live according to their own minds and not the mind of Christ, which is futile. They also allowed their hearts to be hardened and alienate themselves from God. Their manner of living led them to give themselves over to all kinds of impurity as a consequence of this way of life, but the way of Christ is different. [v. 19-20] That is what Paul is discussing in this passage. He is laying out the other way of living, the Christ-like way, and this remains rooted in the unity of the Church body.
The Christian way of life, by definition, informs all aspects of living. Our words are founded on truth and serve a function with the body. Our anger is to be just as deliberately controlled. Thievery is to be replaced with honest work, generosity and selflessness. Bitterness, wrath and slander are to be replaced with kindness, forgiveness and tender hearts. We speak and act in a way that builds the Church, which builds us in the process as we are the Church. In living this way, we foreclose opportunities for the enemy of our faith to steer us back to living as we used to live. Instead, our lifestyle should pave the way for the Holy Spirit to work in our individual and corporate lives.
When we decide the manner in which we will live our lives, we have two options. We can live in a manner that will please the Spirit we share, or we can live in a manner that will bring him grief. To live as our new selves will bring the Holy Spirit joy. We are to live as a united front advancing the purposes of God’s kingdom, which can be done only when we live as the Father showed the Son to show us. He showed not you and not me how to live, but He showed us how to live as the single body we were designed to be. Father, let this instruction take root in us, and help us to live corporately as You had your Son live before us.