All the practical teaching that Paul gives here in Ephesians 4 and 5 is connected with the bigger picture of our purpose within the broad scheme of what God is doing in us corporately. Paul speaks about our integrity, our attitudes towards others and even the way we speak. He is not, however, just being moralistic. This is not just a discourse on becoming a decent, socially responsible person. Leading an ethical life is important but there is much more at stake here than personal ethics. Paul has described the people of God as a temple of the Holy Spirit. The temple was the sacred dwelling place of God, a place that human beings dared not defile. Only once a year could a person, the high priest, enter the temple after an elaborate cleansing ceremony. The most traumatic moments in Jewish memory were those in which the temple was desecrated in some way as with the ‘abomination of desolation’ prophesied by Daniel (9:27). The point of all these instructions of Paul is that, having become a temple of the Holy Spirit, we must live with a great measure of self-respect. We dare not bring things into our hearts that may defile the holy temple of God. Moral thinking asks whether something is simply right or wrong. This approach is inadequate. The question is whether such a thought or action is appropriate given who and what we are. Moral failure is not only rebellion against God. It denotes a lack of self-respect. The more you respect who you are in Christ, the more you will become who you are.
Reflect on your level of self-respect.
Read Ephesians 4:25-5:7
