The New Man's Wardrobe Text: Ephesians 4:25-32
Introduction: The Great Exchange
The Christian life, as the apostle Paul lays it out for us, is not a matter of adding a few religious habits to our old way of life. It is not about turning over a new leaf. It is a radical exchange, a death and a resurrection. Paul has just spent several verses telling the Ephesians to put off the old man, which is corrupt with deceitful lusts, and to put on the new man, which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. This is the great exchange of the gospel. We give Christ our rags, and He gives us His robes.
But these robes are not just for admiring in a spiritual mirror. They are for wearing. They are for living in. Doctrine must always work its way down into our hands and feet and mouths. Theology that remains in the abstract is no theology at all; it is a ghost. And so, having established the central principle of putting off the old and putting on the new, Paul now gives us a series of intensely practical, street-level examples of what this looks like. He is taking us into the locker room of the Christian life and showing us what we are to take off and what we are to put on.
This passage is a series of sharp contrasts. He shows us the filthy rags of the old man lying, sinful anger, stealing, corrupt speech, bitterness and then he holds up the clean garments of the new man truth-telling, righteous anger, hard work, edifying speech, and kindness. This is the antithesis, the great biblical divide between two ways of life. One way of life tears down, destroys, and grieves the Spirit of God. The other way of life builds up, gives grace, and reflects the very character of the God who has forgiven us. We must understand that these are not suggestions for self-improvement. These are the necessary evidences of the new birth. This is what a person created in righteousness and holiness actually looks like when he walks out the door on a Tuesday morning.
The Text
25 Therefore, laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE of you WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another. 26BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27and do not give the devil an opportunity. 28He who steals must steal no longer, but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need. 29Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for building up what is needed, so that it will give grace to those who hear. 30And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31Let all bitterness and anger and wrath and shouting and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32Instead, be kind to one another, tender-hearted, graciously forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has graciously forgiven you.
(Ephesians 4:25-32 LSB)
Put Off Lying, Put on Truth (v. 25)
The first practical application of our new identity in Christ concerns our speech.
"Therefore, laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE of you WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another." (Ephesians 4:25)
The word for "laying aside" is the same one used for taking off filthy clothes. Lying is the native language of the old man. The devil is the father of lies, and his children are fluent in his tongue. But we have been adopted into a new family. Our Father is the God of truth, His Son is the way, the truth, and the life, and His Spirit is the Spirit of truth. Therefore, our speech must be marked by truth.
Notice the reason given. We are to speak truth "for we are members of one another." This is a profoundly corporate reason. A lie is not just a sin against God; it is an act of treason against the body of Christ. When you lie to a fellow Christian, you are not just deceiving another person, you are attacking your own body. It is as if your right hand decided to lie to your left hand about the location of a hot stove. The result is self-inflicted injury. The church is a body, and for a body to function, the members must be able to trust one another implicitly. Lies introduce chaos, suspicion, and disintegration into the fellowship. Truth is the very ligament that holds the body together.
Put Off Sinful Anger, Put on Righteous Anger (v. 26-27)
Next, Paul addresses the powerful emotion of anger.
"BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity." (Ephesians 4:26-27 LSB)
This is a command, not a suggestion. "Be angry." This is startling to many Christians who have been taught that all anger is sinful. But that is not what the Bible teaches. God is angry with the wicked every day. Jesus was angry. There is such a thing as righteous indignation. We are commanded to be angry at sin, at injustice, at blasphemy, at heresy. A Christian who is never angry is not more spiritual; he is morally asleep.
But this command comes with two critical guardrails. First, "do not sin." Our anger must be directed at the sin, not the sinner in a malicious way. It must be controlled, principled, and aimed at restoration, not destruction. The wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Second, "do not let the sun go down on your anger." Righteous anger is like manna; it has a very short shelf life. It spoils overnight. If you nurse it, coddle it, and take it to bed with you, it will curdle into bitterness, resentment, and malice. You must deal with it swiftly. Keep short accounts.
The reason for this urgency is given in verse 27: "do not give the devil an opportunity." The Greek word for "opportunity" is topos, which means a place, a foothold, a beachhead. Unresolved, festering anger is an open invitation for demonic activity. When you harbor a grudge, you are essentially rolling out the welcome mat for the devil and saying, "Come on in, there's a room for you here." He will take that foothold and use it as a base of operations to sow division, hatred, and destruction in your life and in the church.
Put Off Stealing, Put on Working and Giving (v. 28)
The third contrast moves from our words and emotions to our work.
"He who steals must steal no longer, but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need." (Ephesians 4:28 LSB)
Here again is the pattern: put off, put on. The old man is a taker. He sees what he wants, and he takes it, disregarding the property and rights of others. The new man is not just commanded to stop taking; he is commanded to start making. He must "labor, performing with his own hands what is good." Christianity sanctifies work. It is not a curse, but a central part of our created purpose, now redeemed in Christ.
But the purpose of this labor is not merely self-enrichment. The goal is not to move from being a thief to being a greedy materialist. The purpose of our productive labor is gloriously redemptive: "so that he will have something to share with one who has need." This is a complete reversal of the old man's entire worldview. The thief who once took from others must now become a generous giver. His hands, which were once instruments of theft, are now to become instruments of grace. This is the gospel in miniature. God takes thieves and rebels and transforms them into productive, generous, grace-giving members of His kingdom.
Put Off Corrupt Speech, Put on Gracious Speech (v. 29-30)
Paul returns to the subject of the tongue, the rudder of our lives.
"Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for building up what is needed, so that it will give grace to those who hear." (Ephesians 4:29 LSB)
The word for "unwholesome" is sapros, which means rotten, putrid, or spoiled. It is the word used for rotten fruit. This refers to any kind of speech that tears down: slander, gossip, coarse joking, flattery, nagging, complaining. These things stink in the nostrils of God. We are to have none of it.
The alternative is not simply silence. We are to speak words that are "good for building up." The word for building up is oikodome, from which we get our word "edification." Our speech should be like that of a master builder, carefully placing each word like a brick to build up our brothers and sisters in the faith. And the goal is that our words "will give grace to those who hear." Our mouths are to be conduits of grace. When people listen to us, they should walk away feeling as though they have received a gift, a deposit of God's favor.
The reason for this is deeply theological:
"And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption." (Ephesians 4:30 LSB)
Our corrupt speech does not just offend human ears; it grieves the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is not an impersonal force; He is a person. He loves, He comforts, He guides, and He can be grieved. When we, the temples in which He dwells, use our tongues for rotten purposes, we are defiling His house. It causes Him sorrow. This is a powerful motivation for holiness. We are sealed by this Spirit. He is God's down payment, the guarantee of our final redemption. How can we then use the very members He has sealed to speak in a way that causes Him pain?
Put Off Bitterness, Put on Forgiveness (v. 31-32)
Paul concludes this section with a final, sweeping contrast that gets to the heart of our relationships.
First, the pile of filthy rags to be put away:
"Let all bitterness and anger and wrath and shouting and slander be put away from you, along with all malice." (Ephesians 4:31 LSB)
This is a cascade of relational poison. Bitterness is the festering root. Wrath is the internal simmering. Anger is the settled hostility. Shouting is the external explosion. Slander is the character assassination that follows. And malice is the underlying desire to see harm come to another. All of it, Paul says, must be "put away." It has no place in the wardrobe of the new man.
And what do we put on instead?
"Instead, be kind to one another, tender-hearted, graciously forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has graciously forgiven you." (Ephesians 4:32 LSB)
The contrast could not be more stark. Instead of malice, kindness. Instead of a hard heart, tender-heartedness. Instead of wrath and bitterness, gracious forgiveness. This is the uniform of the redeemed.
And here, at the very end, Paul gives us the ultimate motivation, the engine that drives this entire new way of life: "just as God in Christ also has graciously forgiven you." This is the gospel. Our forgiveness of others is not the cause of our being forgiven by God, but it is the necessary consequence. We forgive because we have been forgiven. The measure of grace we have received is the measure of grace we must give. God did not just forgive a few of our minor infractions. He forgave a mountain of treasonous debt, and He did so at the infinite cost of His own Son. When we truly grasp the magnitude of the forgiveness we have received in Christ, how can we possibly turn to our brother, who owes us a pittance by comparison, and choke him? The refusal to forgive is a sure sign that we have not understood the grace of God in the gospel.