By Randy Keene
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Minor Hill
Focal Passage: Ephesians 4:17-32
In Ephesians 4, Paul takes an opportunity to spend some time on how important it is for the church to draw strength from encouraging one another. I love encouragement by others. Some of you have been an encouragement to me as I have been writing these Sunday School lessons.
I try to encourage people in my walk day by day, but it takes a conscious effort. People need encouragement, just like they need air and water. I love Proverbs 27:17 which reminds us, “Iron sharpens Iron, so one man sharpens another.”
In our study text Paul exhorts the church to put away sinful habits. He calls us out from the way we used to be to the person in Christ we now are. Once they stopped their empty thinking they could be filled with the mind of Christ. Some of the Ephesian members had hard hearts which caused spiritual ignorance to the point that those outside Christ would develop a spiritual callousness to the gospel. [Read more…]