and do not give the devil an opportunity. Ephesians 4:27 NASB Opportunity – “Opportunity” isn’t quite what the Greek text implies. Paul’s word is topos, i.e., place. It’s a topographical term. “Don’t give the devil any space.” “In common usage this word means a. ‘territory,’ ‘land,’ ‘area,’ ‘locality,’ b. ‘district,’ ‘town,’ ‘dwelling place,’ and c. ‘place’ in…
Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, Ephesians 4:26 NASB Angry – At last we’ve returned to the citation in Psalm 4:4 (26 October 2025). Now we’ll have to look at the Greek background of Paul’s vocabulary and then determine how his rabbinic orientation modifies the term. First,…
Therefore, ridding yourselves of falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, because we are parts of one another. Ephesians 4:25 NASB Ridding yourself of falsehood – Speak the truth! Ah, not always so easy, is it? We don’t typically outright lie. We just modify things a bit to fit the occasion. We don’t want to offend. We don’t…
and that you are to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Ephesians 4:23-24 NASB In the spirit of your minds – What comes first—the chicken or the egg? What comes first—a change in thinking or a change…
that, in reference to your former way of life, you are to rid yourselves of the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, Ephesians 4:22 NASB Old self – You could hardly be serious about your Christian faith without having heard at least one sermon on the transition from the old self. Conversion…
But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, Ephesians 4:20-21 NASB Christ/ Jesus – It’s easy to correct the translations of “Christ” and “Jesus.” Just replace these with “Messiah” and “Yeshua.” Is that all that’s necessary? Well, not quite. …
and they, having become callous, have given themselves up to indecent behavior for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. Ephesians 4:19 NASB Callous – What is the result of the darkening of moral conscience and disobedience? What happens to people who experience skotóō, agnóēma, and pṓrōsis? They stop caring. That’s the meaning behind the Greek…
being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; Ephesians 4:17-18 NASB Ignorance – Biblical fools are not stupid. They aren’t uninformed either. If you thought Paul claimed that these people whose spiritual and moral sense has been dimmed, were excluded from…
So I say this, and affirm in the Lord, that you are to no longer walk just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their minds, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; Ephesians 4:17-18 NASB Being darkened – Who made…
So I say this, and affirm in the Lord, that you are to no longer walk just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their minds, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; Ephesians 4:17-18 NASB Futility of their minds –…
