Talk To The Hand S13e27 Eph4:25

 We are "members of one another". This means literally "limbs of the body." That is, we are appendages on the same body. Therefore we should treat each other with particular truth, and particular care, just like you would with your own arm.  Hence, our concept for today: Talk to the hand.

It affects the truth we speak.  It affects the care with which we speak that truth.  It affects the severity of the interactions, as I am assuming I'm gonna have this arm for a long time.  

We are members of one another.  Let's act like it. bewithme.us or bewithme.us@gmail.com or Apple Podcasts.

Transcript

Unknown: 0:01

Good morning, my brothers and sisters, welcome to episode number 25. In the book of Ephesians, we're going to drill down on one word today. And that is from Ephesians, chapter four, verse 25, we are members of one another, we are members of one another. So I looked up the word in the Greek about members. And it means that we are limbs of the body, that essentially what they're saying is, you are my arm. And that's where my title today comes from his talk, talk to the hand, that's what two people in the Christian bodies together are supposed to be doing to one another. We are members of one another, we are limbs of the body of each other. So my first thought was, Wow, this is an extraordinarily high view of the church. This is an extraordinarily high view of fellowship and membership, if we consider what we do today. But then I was thinking note that Paul is normalizing this, this is normative behavior. This is an ordinary relationship that he's describing in the body of Christ. Now, it's, it's not very normative today. But the point is, it should be we should be having conversations and relationship with our arms, we should be asking, What would my arm say? Or what should I say to my arm? So the idea of, hey, it's not my place to speak into this in other people's lives, for example, or saying, Hey, this is none of my business. What Paul is really saying is no, this is one of my business. This is our business, to be members of one another, to be limbs of each other's body, and it's going to affect kind of everything. So listen in here. This is from verse 25, of Ephesians, chapter four. Therefore, having put away falsehood, he's talking about what what he thought the put on and put off that he did yesterday. Let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for here's the rationale. We are members of one 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 let him labor doing honest work with his hands, so that he might have something to share with anyone in need. Verse 29, let no and no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as good for building up as fits the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear. So we're members. The big concept today is we're members of one another we're limbs of each other's body. So it it affects various categories, our speech, our conflict resolution, and our our generosity in our encouragement. So here's the here's the first one is speak the truth. So this is the talk to the hand speak, to speak to the hand, speaking the truth that is we want to give all truth we already know from 415 to two paragraphs ago, that we're supposed to be speaking the truth in love. And so that's implied here, as well. We're telling all the truth in all the love. So it would be as truthful as you would be to your own arm that is yourself. So if your arm is injured, let's say, you say, Hey, I'm going to take care of you, I'm going to put some get some antibiotic cream, I'm gonna get some band aids, we're going to wait for this thing to heal. Or if your arm is slothful, and you got to tell your arm, hey, let's let let's dial it up here. You need to strengthen yourself. So let's say you need to your arm needs to get specific skills like hey, we got to get going and get these skills going. Or let's say your arm was really sick, like infected with gangrene, your body would say, oh my goodness, we got to go to extraordinary measures and take you know, get my arm to surgery. Or let's say you're going to do something dangerous. You know, you're gonna do something dangerous. Let's say fire up a power tool, you would say to your arm, you we are walking in some dangerous territory right now. Our fingers are in incredible danger as they never are before when you don't have power tools. So you have this honesty, with your arm. So truthful. And the idea is like, I want this arm, I love my arm. I want to still to be attached. I want it to be honest, I want to be the loving thing to do. As I say you're gonna fire up a power tool. Let's be careful out there. So speaking the truth with love assuming that I want this arm to be a part of me forever. Alright, let's talk about conflict resolution. This is one of life's greatest skills, greatest skills. You often hear this this verse used in marriage, don't let the sun go down on your anger. And it's a great skill that we should be using in the church. So acknowledging that there's going to be difficulty there's going to be some conflict but the says here, let's limit this. Let's limit this in three ways. Number one is within time I'm so he says let the don't let the sun go down on the so let's work on this ASAP. And then the severity. So I'm angry so I'm going to destroy the world I'm going to drop a nuclear bomb and scorched earth policy No, no no conflict resolution, yes. But in a in a almost an identical kind way. Why so that the third expectation is that we have a functioning membership a functioning relationship. When this is over, that my arm still talks to the rest of my body that we're aiming for restoration, healing and ongoing membership. So if my arm is injured, it assumes that we're going to get over this injury, we're going to work through this we're going to get healing, it's not injured and you know, cut this thing off. And verse 27 says gives no opportunity to the double which is what exactly what Satan wants that either can be let's say you don't speak the truth Hey, my arms got gangrene but I'm ignoring it. Or you know, not working towards healing Satan would love this is the image I have for this Satan would love for your, for the body of Christ to be like a civil war surgery amputation tent where all these limbs are cut off and the body of Christ is is you know handicapped from their arm because we we lost all these great members. So the idea with with the way we speak truth to each other, and the way that we can have conflict resolution is yes do truth speaking. Let's do this right though, with the idea that we're going to have an ongoing lock with each other. Then as far as generosity, verse 28, let the thief no longer steal, let him labor. Let them do honest work. How do I know that you're working hard enough that you have something to share with those in needs? And then encouragement, verse 29, let no uncorrupted or foul speech or let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth. Let's let's talk to the hand. Yes, but let's do it in encouraging unkind way we have never spoken a neutral word in our life. They're either positive or negative. And he's saying here, be careful. Use your words carefully built use your built up words, the ones that give grace to those who hear. So I think by looking at talking to the hand that we are members of one another's we are limbs of the body that's that means we are limbs of the body. It affects everything. It helps us treat each other correctly. In telling each other the truth in the way we speak to each other in the way we have anger in the way we have effort and the way that we encourage each other. We are members of one another. We are limbs of the body. Let's act like it.