If we are filled with grace, then in place of bitterness, wrath, anger, and clamor, we shall have kindness, patience, mercy, forgiveness, and grace. These qualities come not from self-effort but from Christ as our enjoyment. When Christ is our enjoyment, we have no appetite for bitterness, wrath, anger, or clamor. Instead, we desire to have kindness, patience, endurance, gentleness, mercy, love, and various other virtues and qualities. What a difference it makes in our daily living when we are happy and satisfied through the enjoyment of God in Christ as grace!
In Ephesians 4:29 Paul says, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but only that which is good for needful building up, that it may give grace to those who hear.” Here we see that the word out of our mouth should give grace to those who hear. Grace is God embodied in Christ as our enjoyment and supply. Our words should convey this as grace to others. The word that builds up others always ministers grace to the hearers. Our words should communicate God in Christ as enjoyment, imparting Christ to others as their life supply.
Ephesians 4:25 says, “Having put off the falsehood, speak truth each one with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.” Our words should be with grace, and our speaking should be of the truth. Falsehood in verse 25 refers to anything that is false in nature. As we have put off the old man, we have put off everything false. If we have the enjoyment of Christ, then in a practical way in our daily living, we shall put off every false thing. The most honest and faithful people are those who have the full enjoyment of Christ. When we are filled to the brim with Christ, all falsehood will be put away from us. Having put off the falsehood, we should speak truth each one with his neighbor. When we are filled with Christ, our speaking will be of things that are true.
Because we may be preoccupied with natural concepts of truth, we may find it difficult to understand the meaning of truth according to the New Testament. We may regard truth merely as doctrine or sincerity. According to the New Testament, truth is God revealed. In principle, because grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ (John 1:17), they must be something of God Himself. Jesus is God coming to us. When God comes to us, He does not come as doctrine or sincerity. When He comes, everything related to His being also comes. God comes to us for our enjoyment. This is grace. God also comes to reveal Himself to us. This is truth. In other words, when God is enjoyed by us, He is grace. But when God is revealed to us, He is truth. Truth, therefore, is God revealed to us.
In Ephesians 4:21 Paul says, “You have heard Him and been taught in Him as the truth is in Jesus.” The truth in Jesus is the real situation of the life of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels. In the godless walk of the nations, the fallen people, is vanity (Eph. 4:17). But in the godly life of Jesus is truth, reality. Jesus lived a life of always doing things in God, with God, and for God. God was in His life, and He was one with God. This is the truth in Jesus. We, the believers, regenerated with Christ as our life and taught in Him, learn from Him as the truth is in Jesus.
We have seen that truth is God revealed. We may also say that truth is the shining of light, the expression of light. Since God is light (1 John 1:5), truth is the expression of God. Every aspect of the life of Jesus recorded in the Gospels is an expression of God. This expression of God is the shining of light; hence, it is the truth.
This life of Jesus according to truth is the pattern for our living as believers today. From this pattern we learn Christ as the truth is in Jesus. This means that we learn Christ according to the truth shown in the Gospels, that is, according to the life of the Lord Jesus, which was wholly according to God’s truth. This life is the shining of light. The shining of light is the truth, and truth is the expression of God. Therefore, in the life of Jesus there is truth. The essence of the pattern set up by the Lord Jesus is truth. The essence of the life of Jesus is truth. When the Lord Jesus was living on earth, He always walked in truth, in the shining of the divine light. Hence, the Lord Jesus lived and walked in the expression of God.
In Ephesians 4:17-24 we have the principle of our renewed daily living for the learning of Christ. This principle is the truth, the living of the Lord Jesus when He was on earth. The Lord’s living was that of always putting off His own life and of putting on the Father’s life. This is the life of Jesus, and this life is the truth that is the principle of a life of learning Christ. According to this principle, we have put off the old man and have put on the new man. Now by being filled in our regenerated spirit with the processed Triune God and by allowing the word of Christ to dwell in us richly, we live a life that matches the new man in grace and truth.
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