The Conduct of the New Man, Part 2

Jim ButlerEphesians 4:29–32

Ephesians 4:29–32 calls believers to put off corrupt speech and bitter dispositions and to put on edifying words and a forgiving heart — not as conditions for salvation, but as conduct that flows necessarily from it. The sermon exposits the structure of Paul's exhortations: a prohibition, a positive exhortation, and a motivation in each subsection. Corrupt speech grieves the Holy Spirit, who has sealed believers for the day of redemption; and bitterness, wrath, clamor, and evil speaking are symptoms of the old man that must be mortified. The sermon closes with the ground of all Christian forgiveness: God in Christ has already forgiven us, and that forgiveness is the cause, not the goal, of our forgiveness toward others.