Lesson 11: Walk in Love (Ephesians 4:25-5:2)
How do we maintain the unity the Spirit created? We walk in love. This means, in part, that we speak the truth to each other (rather than promoting lies), we manage our holy anger well (rather than sinning in our anger), we share our resources with each other (rather than stealing), we speak graciously for building up (rather than speaking evil), and we treat each other with kindness and forgiveness (rather than harboring bitterness and using abusive language). This is what it means to imitate God and to walk in love; to forgive as God has forgiven us in Christ and to love as Christ has loved us through his self-sacrifice.
This section began in Ephesians 4:17 when Paul reminded his Gentile readers to no longer “walk” (often translated “live”) as they used to walk (or live). The section ends with the imperative to “walk in love” (5:2). In other words, no longer walk as Gentiles immersed in the way of the nations but walk in the love of the God of Israel poured out in the Messiah.
The first half of the section grounded the call to walking in love in the work of God to derobe our old selves and put on a new self through God’s own renewal. God has created us to be, as God intended in Genesis 1, like God–renewed in God’s righteousness and holiness. We are new creatures, and this empowers our capacity to “walk in love.”
Walking in love is fundamentally relational, and it is deeply connected with the one body. How do we live as one community, the body of Christ, in the context of a world filled with evil, abuse, and violence? What sort of community are we to become and be?
Ephesians 4:25 is where the imperatives begin in Ephesians (except for Ephesians 2:12, “remember”). There are a total of forty imperatives through the rest of the book, and thirteen of them are found in Ephesians 4:25-5:2. They are: speak truth (4:25); be angry (4:26) but sin not (4:26); don’t let sun go down on wrath (4:26); don’t make room for Devil (4:27); no longer steal (4:28); labor to have something to share (4:28); let no evil talk come out of your mouth (4:29); don’t grieve the Spirit (4:30); put away all bitterness (4:31); be kind to one another (4:32); be imitators of God (5:1); walk in love (5:2).
The imperatives (commands) call us to walk worthy of our calling (Ephesians 4:1) and walk in the good works God has created us to do (Ephesians 2:10) in contrast with how Gentiles had previously walked (Ephesians 2:2). God has created us anew for this purpose: that we might become like God and embody the mystery of the gospel in our own lives.
This is primarily a communal calling in this text. Paul reminds us that “we are members of each other” (Ephesians 4:25). The imperatives are not primarily about individual behavior in isolation but about how we live together in community, just as Ephesians 4:1-3 expects we will keep the unity the Spirit has created. To dissolve this unity and mistreat each other is to grieve the Spirit (Ephesians 4:30).
The text easily falls into five sections:
- Don’t lie but speak truth to each other (4:25)
- Be angry but don’t sin (4:26-27)
- Don’t steal but share with the needy (4:28)
- Avoid corrupt talk but edify each other with words of grace (4:29)
- Avoid bitterness but be kind and forgiving to each other (4:30-31)
The last section–imitating God and Christ–forms the crescendo for the section (Ephesians 5:1-2). We treat each other this way because of how God has treated us in Christ. The Messiah has loved us and forgiveness us, and therefore we are called to walk with each other in that same love, including forgiveness.
| Ephesians | Negative | Positive | Rationale |
| 4:25 | Put away lies | Speak truth | Members of each other |
| 4:26-27 | Sin not | Be angry | No space for the devil |
| 4:28 | Don’t steal | Labor and work | To share with the needy |
| 4:29 | No evil talk | Edifying speech | To grace those who hear |
| 4:30 | Don’t Grieve the Spirit | You are marked | For the day of redemption |
| 4:31-32 | Put away bitterness | Kind and forgiving | As God forgave you |
| 5:1 | Imitate God | As beloved children | |
| 5:2 | Walk in love | As Christ loved us |
The imperatives are about living in community. Remember that this newly planted congregation–as well as the young congregations in the region–live in hostile conditions. They are neither welcomed by Jews or idolatrous Gentiles (whether emperor worship or the great goddess Artemis). They live in the midst of economic, political, and religious tension. They have become outsiders. Consequently, it is important for the community to hang together in love and deal with internal problems in order to maintain the unity the Spirit has created.
The imperative to speak truth to one’s neighbor comes from Zechariah 8:16. The “neighbor” in the text is the community of Israel which has been restored as a remnant of God’s people. This is not a call to love all people (though that is a truth to remember) but a more specific demand for honesty within the church community. This is indicated by the reason given: because we are members of one another.
Living in community, there is sometimes a reason to be angry, and many times those reasons are good ones. When we have been abused, lied to, or betrayed, anger is a natural and godly response. However, anger must not control us; it must not dominate our actions. The sundown metaphor is not about timing but about obsession (it comes from Psalm 4:4). When we feed anger and cultivate, it will develop into bitterness, rage, and malicious talk (which Paul addresses in Ephesians 4:31). Anger in opposition to injustice and unrighteousness is a good emotion, and it can produce good fruits. However, if the anger turns to bitterness and dominates us, then it will destroy us and the community in which we live.
Living in community means we do not steal from each other or treat each other dishonestly. Even in the New Testament we can see congregations mistreating each other (like the widows in Acts 6:1-2, or the Corinthian hesitation to share wealth with the poor saints in Jerusalem in 2 Corinthians 8-9, or the cheating by Annanias and Saphira in Acts 5). Rather, the community is called to generosity through working for their living. The motive of work is not only for its own good (our vocations can serve humanity), or even to support our family (though that is an imperative in 1 Timothy 5), but to have funds to share with the needy in the community.
Living in community often means we have arguments, even shouting matches, that turn into rage and malicious or abusive talk. We have all seen this happen in families and churches, much less in national politics. A healthy community can talk with each other without developing bitterness or rage, without using abusive language. The focus of a Christian community is to edify each other and speak with grace to each other (Ephesians 4:29). We seek to develop healthy relationships in kindness and forgiveness. Therefore, we avoid bitterness and its fruits (which are named in almost a degenerative cycle in Ephesians 4:31-32) and pursue kindness and forgiveness, just as Christ has forgiven us.
The last line in Ephesians 4:32 leads directly to Ephesians 5:1, which reminds us of the ground upon which we live in community. We live this way because we are new creatures in Christ who were created to imitate the Father. We are the children of God.
Consequently, we walk in love, and we are moved toward this and enabled to do this because of what God has done in Christ. The Messiah has loved us and given himself for us so that we might the children of God. Consequently, we walk in love, not because we are under threat but because we are loved!