Paul's Commands are God's Commands

 Greetings to you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     Ephesians 4:30-32 says, “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.  Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:  And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.”

     There was a time in my life when I had a “to do” list.  It was a simple list of the things I would like to have accomplished on any given day.  I used to carry around a small calendar called a “Day Timer.”  Each year I would purchase the fillers necessary for my calendar.  Now, my “to do” list is mostly doctor’s appointments or nurses that come to me to change the bandages.  The rest of my life is not connected to anything special and the things that I do get involved in are such a habit that I don’t need to write them down.

     God has given us a “to do” list especially in the Book of Ephesians.  There are around thirty nine different “imperatives” or commands  that Paul gives to us in order to live the Christian life.  They are not options to think about or meaningless sayings, but actually commands that we are to obey.  Of course, not every word of Paul is an imperative and so they are equally important for the life of the believer.  To walk the worthy walk right tat the beginning of the chapter was not an imperative but certainly important to the believer and so there is much to apply from Ephesians into our lives on a daily basis.  I am always reminded about the works of the Holy Spirit the moment that we are saved.  I call it the RIBS.  We are regenerated, we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we are baptized into the body of Christ and sealed by the Holy Spirit, all in the twinkling of an eye.  Wherever we go and whatever we do, God is with us in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  He is present in all of the “to dos” that we have in our lives plus all of the things we did not count on.  The above passage begins with the exhortation not to grieve the Holy Spirit and it is so easy to do by not keeping the Word that He wrote.  Second Peter 1:21 says, “For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”  The top thing on your list of discipleship “to do” is do not grieve the Holy Spirit and you can accomplish that by being obedient to the Word of God.  It sounds simple, but is not easy to accomplish.  If you are prone to losing your temper, being dishonest at things, telling lies, or plotting evil against someone, you will be in deep trouble.  Our lives would be more like they are supposed to be if we followed the “one another” commands in the Scriptures.  Praise God for His instructions to us in His Word.  May we always follow them.