Ephesians 4: 14 – 16

• Purpose

  • You have heard, “speak the truth in love”, but I say speak love for by speaking love you will inherently speak the truth

  • Is this faithful to the text?

  • Am I making up something up or saying something that neither God nor Paul ever intended?

• Context

  • Ephesians

    • Chapter 1 – a chosen people

    • Chapter 2 – a changed people

    • Chapter 3 – an equipped people

    • Chapter 4 – a united people

    • Chapter 5 – a living/loving people

    • Chapter 6 – a faithful people

  • Common themes

    • Love & Truth throughout

    • Love is a part of every chapter

  • Ephesians 4 (height of love & truth integration)

    • Be united in the body of Christ

    • Grow and mature both yourself and the body as a whole

    • Grounded in the truth of Jesus Christ

    • All of this is to be done “in love”

      • 6 Times
        O’brien: “In no other New Testament writing does this formula occur as often as it does in Ephesians”

      • 3 Times in Chapter 4 & 2 times in verses 14 - 16

• Translation

  • Ephesians 4: 14 – 16

    • 14 in order that we may no longer be infants, being tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching or doctrine by the craftiness of men, by craftiness with deceitful scheming.

    • 15 But speaking the truth in love let us grow up in all things into him, who is the head, Christ.

    • 16 from whom the entire body is being joined and held together through every supportive joint, through each part working as measured, brings forth the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love

• Verse 14 – Bold & True

in order that we may no longer be infants, being tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of teaching or doctrine by the craftiness of men, by craftiness with deceitful scheming.

• Stand Firm (κλυδωνιζόμενοι καὶ περιφερόμενοι)

  • Do not be tossed and do not be blown

• Stand Firm in what? Teaching (παντὶ ἀνέμῳ τῆς διδασκαλίας)

  • by every wind of teaching or doctrine

  • Longmen: “διδασκαλίας often refers to sound Christian teaching”

  • Be aware of false teaching coming from within the church – the perversion of the truth

• How is the teaching perverted? Cunning/Craftiness/Trickery

  • 3 Synonyms

    • κυβείᾳ - dice playing

    • πανουργίᾳ - false wisdom

    • μεθοδείαν - scheming

  • Emphasize the perversion

• Antithesis of truth

  • πλάνης – error/deceit

  • sets up v 15 -16 in opposition to v14

• Verse 15 – Truth & Love

But speaking the truth in love let us grow up in all things into him, who is the head, Christ.

• Growing (αὐξήσωμεν)

  • Controlling verb

  • Aorist, Active, Subjunctive, 1st Person, Plural

  • Hortatory subjunctive used as an exhortation

• Speaking the truth or Truthing (ἀληθεύοντες)

  • Speaking the truth (O’brien, Longmen, Hodge)

    • LXX, Galatians 4:16, other secular writings

  • Truthing (Stott, Boice, Bruce)

    • Stott - Maintaining, loving and doing the truth

    • Boice – speaking & living the truth

  • Verbal Adjective – dependent upon the noun (ἀγάπῃ)

  • Vocal element of speaking and the action of living truth cannot be divorced from love => both / and element of speaking/doing truth

• In Love (ἐν ἀγάπῃ)

  • Boice – emphasis here is on the noun

  • O’brien – “In love describes the sphere of the Christian life and spells out the manner in which the ministry of all is to occur…The truth as proclaimed should not be dissociated from love or promoted at the expense of love, while a life of love should embody the truth of the gospel.”

  • Instrumental Dative (Wallace)

    • Of Means: means or instrument by which the verbal action is accomplished

    • Of Cause: indicates the cause or basis of the action of the verb

  • Boice – Take love from truth. The result is bitter orthodoxy. Truth remains, but it is proclaimed in such an unpleasant, harsh manner that it fails to win anybody.

  • Truth without love can tear us down – truth with love builds us up.

• Verse 16 – Love & Unity

from whom the entire body is being joined and held together through every supportive joint, through each part working as measured, brings forth the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love

(Longmen – all translations struggle with this verse: lots of nouns, series of genitives, lacking a controlling verb)

• Source

  • αὐξήσωμεν / controlling verb / “let us grow up”

  • Causative Active - The subject is not directly involved in the action, but may be said to be the ulti­mate source or cause of it

  • Christ is the ultimate source of the:

    • Joining/holding (συναρμολογούμενον καὶ συμβιβαζόμενον)

      • 2 participles of solidarity stand in direct opposition to 2 participles of wavering in verse 14

    • growth of the body (τὴν αὔξησιν τοῦ σώματος)

    • building up or edifying of itself in love (οἰκοδομὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἐν ἀγάπῃ)

• Ligaments (every supportive joint)

  • Every Member

    • ἁφῆς (noun genitive feminine singular) joint or ligament

    • κατ᾽ ἐνέργειαν ἐν μέτρῳ ἑνὸς ἑκάστου μέρους

      • each part working as measured

      • due measure of each individual part

      • highlights the contributions of each member

  • Special Minister

    • πᾶν τὸ σῶμα
      the entire or whole body is growing and each part is working to grow the body as a whole

    • διὰ πάσης ἁφῆς τῆς ἐπιχορηγίας
      together through every supportive joint

      • Joints are specific parts of the body and not a reference to the body as a whole

      • The causative source of the joining/holding is Christ, and Christ has given “the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,” (Eph 4:11 ESV) to join/hold the body together

• Conclusion

  • Truth & Love

    • Intimate connection between the two

    • Can’t exist without each other – part of the cohesive whole that is God’s revelation

    • Do not exist in tension – held in unison

    • Love is the instrument/means/cause by which truth is shared with the world

  • Speak Love

    • Live/Walk – Ephesians 4: 32 – 5:2

      • Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

    • Speak Love for it will be as though you were speaking

      • Christ, a fragrant offering (Eph 5:2)

      • Truth, the knowledge of the Son of God (Eph 4: 13)

    • Speak Love

      • By living and sharing the gospel

      • By living and exemplify authentic community

      • And your life and the lives of those around you will be transformed forever for you will be speaking the way of salvation in Jesus Christ