Isaiah - Verse By Verse

Thought:  To me, it is a good thing to be "brain-washed" by Christ and His Word.

Question:  Do I have the new, godly attitude God desires me to have?

Scripture:  Ephesians 4:23 (NIV):  "to be made new in the attitude of your minds;"

The putting off of the old nature causes us, or allows us, to discover a "new" attitude of mind.  The passive voice of this verb "to be made" tells us it is done by someone else.  We cannot make our attitude new, or spiritual, by ourselves.  Christ does it.  Christ's presence, by spirit, and the application of His Word to our minds, washes our brain and gives us a new attitude.  We see the spiritual realm.  We can bring our wills into line with this realm thus adjusting our attitude about life, God and what is really true.  This new attitude makes us all new.  We are "new creatures in Christ."

Prayer:  Almighty God, make my attitude new in You.  May my mind be totally influenced by You every day in every way.  Amen. 

Thought:  To me, we need to realize the end-result of pursuing "the flesh."

Question:  Do I have, clearly, a "former deceitful way of life" that has been done away with?

Scripture:  Ephesians 4:22 (NIV):  "You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;"

Among the true teachings which came with Jesus, which are in Jesus, is that "your old self" needs to be "put off."  The sensual way of living must be shunned.  Paul says we must "no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking,"  (verse 17).  Jesus taught us this not only by word, but by the revealing of the truth in Him and through His life.  We saw that He was not sensual; He approached life on a constant spiritual, eternally-oriented level.  So must we.

Why put off the old self?  If flesh exists, why do away with its influence?  Because God has said that the flesh wars against the spirit.  The flesh opposes God's way.  Apparently when Adam and Eve fell, they acquired the nature of flesh that would ever oppose God; they obtained the knowledge of good and evil--spiritual and sensual.  Through Christ only can we have the victory in this war, that is if we want victory over sensuality and carnality.  We have to find out what we want.  In a way we have to learn to want Christ, to hunger for spiritual things.  We have to grow weary and disatisfied with the emptiness of the flesh and its lies.  This takes time.  Processes of learning have to continually go on.  We have to learn first of all that the flesh is always corrupting, dying, and that the life it seems to offer is really a way down into death.  The desires of the flesh are "deceitful."  They call us to do this or that, but the call is a lie, the goal is a lie.  Satan told Eve she'd be like God.  She desired this vey much but it did not come true.

If we can grasp these ideas regarding the lying flesh, we will be quite ready to shun it next time it calls out to us.  We will want to "put off your old self" knowing it only ends in death.  That's all Adam and Eve got, wasn't it?  They lost their glorious immortality--they gained nothing.

As long as we indulge the flesh, it will increasingly corrupt.  The dying process will be aided more and more if we choose to follow carnality.  It will be an ongoing, downward, spiral as the "old self...is being corrupted" day after day.

Prayer:  Holy God, help me put off my "old self" entirely.  Show me plainly, Father, whenever it rears its ugly head and strengthen me to set it aside.  Amen. 

Thought:  To me, more people need to remember that Jesus said He was "truth"!

Question:  Have I believed and accepted truth as found in Jesus Christ? 

Scripture:  Ephesians 4:21 (NIV):  "Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus."

Christ was not made known to us on an emotional or sensual level.  He was proclaimed to us spiritually.  We heard of Him through spiritual preaching, we were taught about Him "in accordance with...truth."  The five senses do not always deal with us in accordance with truth.  Sometimes sense-inputs get warped along the way.  The five senses are gateways to the brain.  The brain, or mind, is a very powerful force.  It can take the sensual input and magnify it, twist it, alter it to what we want, what we will it all to be.  Sensuality is really a shroud of lies!  But Christ was brought to us full of truth and we were taught of Him "in accordance with...truth."  Spirituality is based upon and steeped in truth.  Jesus said He was the embodiment of truth.  When Jesus came to us, truth came to us.

Prayer:  Father of Christ, thank You that Your Son is truth!  Help me to embrace Him totally!  Amen. 

Thought:  To me, it is good, and often necessary, to meditate on the difference Christ should be making in our lives.

Question:  Have I "come to know Christ" in this biblical way?

Scripture:  Ephesians 4:20 (NIV):  "You, however, did not come to know Christ that way."

What way?  The way described in the previous verse:  given over to sensuality, indulging every kind of impurity, continually lusting.   

The Ephesian believers never found Christ anywhere along the pathway of physical sensualities, that's for sure.  Christ was learned via spiritual sensitivities; through the heart responding to God's invisible drawing.  God's workings are largely invisible and certainly non-sensual.  If feelings do become a part of our experience with God, that is o.k., but faith functions just fine without feelings.  If feelings (sensualities) are included, it is because God saves the whole person, and the whole person He created has emotion.

Prayer:  Lord, cause me to learn of You in Spirit and in truth, and not through some fleshy experience alone.  Amen. 

Thought: To me, our current culture is described in this verse!

Question:  Have I checked my spiritual sensitivities lately?

Scripture:  Ephesians 4:19 (NIV):  "Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more."

Here is the continuous hardening Paul spoke of in verse 18.  By degrees, the heart becomes less and less penetrable by God's Spirit.  It loses "all sensitivity."  Now in the place of spiritual sensitivity grows physical "sensuality."  We know that the flesh wars against the spirit.  Here is where we see the flesh winning the war.  What the body feels through the five senses becomes of highest value instead of developing an affinity or acuity for the invisible appeal of spiritual truth.  Life is thought to be in the sensual totally--the most invigorating experiences ever known--but all the while this person is actually dying with no way to avoid permanent death.  The five senses grow hungrier with each "feeding."  The sensations experienced must increase and outdo one another or the invigoration is no longer felt.  Thus the "lust" (inordinate desire) "for more" grows and grows.  Impurity becomes automatic because the boundaries of morality have to be crossed in order to feed the physical sensualities.  Thus the gentiles found themselves sinning with involvements to other persons, hurting others, consuming others, bringing others down.

Paul says "no longer live" this way!  (Verse 17.)  Why not?  Because it leads only to destruction:  of self and of others.

Prayer:  King of my heart, strengthen me against indulgence of flesh and increase my sensitivity to You, Your presence, Your will, Your mercies and Your love!  Amen. 

Thought:  To me, our first openness to God is vitally important and crucial to further enlightenment.

Question:  Have I "hardened my heart" against God?

Scripture:  Ephesians 4:18 (NIV):  "They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts."

Here is Paul's description of "futile gentile thinking."  It is "dark", lacking "light" which illuminates the understanding.  It is "separated from the life of God."  This clearly shows death to be a "separation" from God:  they are not near "the life of God."  The fleshly existance they have is not real living.  And don't we see that from time to time in very evil people?  They exist like animals rather than living a quality life.  This physical existance that never touches or knows God (Who created all life, including their's) is an ignorant life.  They are ignorant of Who God is.  They do not regard Him as Creator, or rightful owner, or Sovereign Lord, or Master, or King, or anything.  Why do they not, when others have?  Paul here says they do not know because they have chosen not to know.  This is what a "hard heart" is:  an initial choice against the instinctive implication that there is a God and that they should be accountable to Him.  They immediately resist these ideas:  1) if God is real they choose not to know Him, and, 2) if God is real they do not want to be accountable to Him.  These initial mindsets harden the heart, making God's entrance into it even more difficult.  A hardened heart is forever getting harder and harder.

Prayer:  Oh, Father!  Prevent my heart from ever being hardened against understanding You!  And for others I know who are considering You, help them to become vulnerable enough to let You "in."  Amen. 

Thought:  To me, any thoughts of mine that entertain an "anti-Christian" approach to life must be stopped--nipped in the bud!

Question:  Has my reasoning process been revolutionized by Chist?

Scripture:  Ephesians 4:17 (NIV):  "So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking."

Paul has just finished speaking at length about the unity of the body of Christ and the overall goal of growth into maturity.  To have a need for growth implies immaturity that must be dealt with and put aside.  The immaturity that apposes God's ways is here described as the lifestyle of the gentiles, not that gentiles are more evil than Jews, but that any person left to his own devices turns away from God and in so doing, aims himself toward death and disaster.  The gentiles needed saving from this directionless, Creator-less, lawless lifestyle that left them trapped in the hands of Satan.  And Paul now urges new believers to "no longer live as the gentiles do."  He emphasizes this personal word of advice by adding that he insists "on it in the Lord."  Christianity as a way of life must characterize itself in a show of separation from worldly ways and philosophies.  Actually the separation should come automatically.  If we receive God inside by receiving Christ, He will begin to change us from the inside out.  We shouldn't be able to help being changed!  (Unless we resist His change and fight against the Holy Spirit.)  So Paul is right to urge us to work at living a different lifestyle because a new believer can remain in old ways and grieve The Holy Spirit within.  We have to exercise an effort to cooperate with The Holy Spirit.

The first practical area Paul addresses is that new believers should think differently.  When we accept that God created everything and owns it all still, it dramatically alters our thinking.  "Gentile thinking" is futile because it strikes out independently of God and will obviously end in disaster if it fails to see Who's in charge of all things!  The human effort begun in "futile gentile thinking" will dissolve, be cut off, die and abruptly end when God, Who owns every soul, no longer tolerates being ignored.  The "futile thinking" has produced a "vain life."  So Paul commands that we recognize the futile way of thinking and give it up.  Think like a Christian now!  Christ-like thinking is not futile!

Prayer:  Lord, make Jesus the respected "Captain" of all my thinking.  In Your power I pray!  Amen. 

Thought:  To me, I would do well to remember every day, every moment, that Christ is the "Head" of my own body, as well as of the church (universal) body.

Question:  Am I "doing the work" that builds up others in love?

Scripture:  Ephesians 4:16 (NIV):  "From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds intself up in love, as each part does its work."

Christ is Our Head and we the body.  Recall that our theme in this chapter is "unity."  How are the ruling head and unintelligent body parts united?  How can the (physical) brain run the arms and legs and mouth and eyes, etc.?  Well, very successfully as we know.  We all are fine examples of brain-control.  We walk, we talk, we function well most of the time.  Observe a stroke victim, however, and it becomes clear how that even a small glitch in the brain can bring major devastation to the body.

"From him", that is, Christ, "the whole body...grows..."  Growth is a function of the body but it's instigation and implementation is vested in the brain.  The church "grows", both in quantity and quality, but the starting and processing and blessing is all up to Jesus Christ.  Sever the head, the body dies.  Sever Christ, the church dies.  The "whole body" is Christ's, that is, the church universal, the worldwide body of Christ, not just one local church group.

The growth is characterized by a building up "in love."  Again we see that love bathes everything Christ does for us.  He does all He does in love.  It is His primary motivation, and should therefore also be ours.

The body is "joined and held together by every supporting ligament."  We have Christ, the brain and eyes, ears, nose, mouth of the head, and we have the limbs of the body.  The limbs are "held together", or, kept in place, by "supporting ligaments."  To me, these "ligaments" could be the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers of verse 11.  We remain connected in doctrine and truth through their words and teaching.  The "common" people, not gifted in these leadership ways, (but definitely in other ways), are "supported" by leadership--"held together."  This is the unity factor again, seen quite clearly in the analogy of the body.  Our limbs can flow quite smoothly in functions, being even graceful, as scores of small parts operate together.  Bone, tendon, nerve, glands, blood, muscle, organs and tissues, each unique and vital, all unit into body; and we belong to Our Masterful Head, Jesus Christ, and His decisions, His guidance, His Ways--Praise The Lord!

The body only functions "as each part does its work."  We know firsthand the misery and suffering when even a tiny part of the body fails in its function.  I wonder how the 2008 body of Jesus Christ is functioning?  Which parts are failing to "do their work"?  Me?  

The growth process is normal.  Children, small versions of adults, have completely functioning bodies.  But illness and disease is abnormal, and adults who suffer dysfunctionally in their bodies are not pleasing to us or to the Lord.  Allegorically the same is true spiritually:  when a believer is not as he or she should be, the whole body of Christ will suffer.  This is the flip-side effect of the aspect of unity.

Prayer:  Father, You have ordained Your Son as my Head and Lord:  help me not to become a "dysfunctional body part", but rather, a "supporting" unifier/builder to honor You.  Amen. 

Thought:  To me, the truth of Christ is the best protection against the deceptions of the enemy.

Question:  Do I "speak the truth in love"?  What does this mean?

Scripture:  Ephesians 4:15 (NIV):  Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ."

Truth stands up against the "deceitful scheming" in the previous verse.  Knowing truth is the key to growth and maturity.  So, rather than being caught in "infancy" and spiritual immaturity, we can "grow up into him", Christ Jesus.  This verse states that the primary way we grow up is to receive truth; receive it until we also speak it out lovingly to others.  Remember, Jesus said, "I am the truth..."  (John 14:6).  So receiving truth is receiving Christ; speaking truth is talking about Jesus Christ.  The more filled up we are with Christ, the more mature and grown up we are, and the more truth we possess--truth about how everything really began, where it all came from, Who God really is, why we're here, where we're going, etc., etc.

"We will in all things grow up..."  Not some things, but in all things.  The apostles spoke truth, the prophets certainly did, evangelists do, and so do pastors and teachers.  As they speak truth "we will in all things grow up."  There is a vital connection here.  Truth must be given, spoken out, before an "infant" will grow.  And it must be spoken "in love."  Think of the nurturing care of a parent, a mother.  The best children are ones tenderly loved while given real truth about things.  Thus, under the motherly nurturing of "truth in love", "we will...grow up", and we will do so "in all things".  (God is thorough and will see to the well-roundedness of our spiritual education!)

Now, when we do grow up. we find ourselves growing up "into him", into Christ.  And He is Our Head.  We are the body.  The head rules the body.  Christ rules us.  We are never disconnected from His authority.  (Thank Goodness!)  We see Paul's "Ephesian theme" sticking out again:  "in Christ."  Everything good is "in Christ", and good growth also, apparently, is the kind of growth that lifts us closer to Jesus.  If we do not sense being closer today to Jesus than yesterday or last week, we are not "growing."

Prayer:  Lord, help me grow closer to Your Son, Jesus Christ.  Then I will be a person of truthful integrity.  Amen. 

Thought:  To me, unity, fullness of Christ and maturity are the only hope against weak infancy and gullibility.

Question:  Am I an "infant", deceived and manipulated, or am I on the road to growth and maturity?

Scripture:  Ephesians 4:14 (NIV):  "Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming."

When will we no longer be like infants?  When we reach unity in faith and knowledge and thus become mature.  And this maturity is through the gifted pastor-teachers, evangelists, prophets, etc., working to build us up.  My job is to listen, to learn, to grow under their teaching.  For a time, then, I am dependent upon them.  But I am also gifted and graced to unite with these leaders in unity, in one church (universal) body.  My dependency cannot be entirely or only upon such leaders.  I must be dependent on God and the Holy Spirit.  Infants are dependent on others more mature than they for everything they need.  Infants have nothing to give in return.  Unity in faith and knowledge is a growing process that brings us gradually out of this kind of other-dependence and makes us God-dependent.  God-dependency is maturity, and those leaning on God are best equipped to give to others and serve others, unlike weak infants.

Because being totally other-dependent is a characteristic of "infants", there is real room for false teachers to come in and influence them.  The "sounds" of other teachings "blow" around on immature ears.  Many of these sounds or calls are heeded by the weak believers, and they are victimized by the "cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming."  The fact that this is described here indicates it can and does occur.  The remedy is to be "built up" (verse 12) by the serving work of gifted leaders (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers).  Christ gifted such men (and women) in order to provide the needed remedy to immaturity.  He did not instantly send wisdom to the "infants" but rather arranged for an educational process, (much as we do for our own children), which involved the mature Christians in roles of leadership and teaching.  God likes us involved with each other!  He likes process!  He likes nurturing unto growth on our part over the "infants" probably because we also learn a lot from teaching.

Prayer:  Lord, I don't want to remain in infancy!  Help me grow, Father, as You have willed.  Amen. 

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