The sermon continues a series through Ephesians 4, returning first to verse 24's declaration that believers "have put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." The preacher frames the Christian's identity with a phrase borrowed from theologian Anthony Hoekema: believers are "genuinely new, but not yet totally new." In Christ, the old self has decisively passed away and a new creation has begun, yet the full reality of that newness — in thought, speech, desire, and action — is not yet complete. It is a status already secured by grace and a process still underway, one that will only reach its consummation when believers see Christ face to face and receive glorified bodies incapable of sin, not because their wills are removed but because their wills are finally perfected to delight only in God.

Against this backdrop, the sermon turns to Ephesians 4:25-29 as a series of concrete illustrations of the "put off / put on" pattern introduced earlier in the chapter (put off the old self, put on the new). Each command follows the same shape: reject a vice, replace it with its positive counterpart, for a stated purpose. Put off falsehood, put on truthful speech, because "we are members one of another." Put off unrighteous anger, lest room be given to the devil. Put off stealing, put on diligent labor, so there is something to share with the needy. Put off corrupting talk, put on speech that builds up and gives grace. The preacher stresses that Paul does not ground these commands in bare law-keeping ("the law says don't steal"), but in positive, gospel-shaped motives — care for the body of Christ, provision for others, edification of the hearer. This, the sermon argues, is the essence of Christian ethics: not a legalistic list of dos and don'ts (the very error of the Pharisees, who expanded ten commandments into hundreds of detailed rules), but obedience flowing from a heart transformed by grace, ultimately explained in Ephesians 4:32 — "be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." Every specific command in the passage is the fruit of a heart that has grasped what Christ has done, echoing Paul's own testimony that he worked hard, "yet not I, but the grace of God that is with me" (1 Corinthians 15:10).

The sermon then devotes sustained attention to verse 25 itself: "put off falsehood, and speak the truth, each one to his neighbor." Falsehood includes not only outright lies but distortion, exaggeration, and even "almost-true" statements — illustrated by an anecdote of an anniversary card that misquoted 1 John 4:18 as "John 4:18," a verse with an entirely different and embarrassing meaning. Truthfulness, the preacher insists, is inseparable from the gospel itself: believers were saved by "the word of truth, the gospel" (Eph 1:13), are indwelt by the Spirit of truth, and are called to "speak the truth in love" so as to "grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ" (Eph 4:15). Paul's own ministry practice in 2 Corinthians 4:2 — refusing underhanded ways, cunning, and tampering with God's word, commending himself instead by open truth — is held up as the model. The preacher applies this pointedly to church life: robust, sometimes heated discussion in leadership is healthy because it pursues truth; congregants are urged to verify claims (including financial ones) before trusting them, and to speak plainly with each other rather than flatter or deceive, noting how flattery and deceit are, from Eden onward, the devil's characteristic tools. Matthew 5:33-37 is brought in to reinforce this: Jesus forbids oath-taking and calls for a simple "yes" to mean yes and "no" to mean no, since anything more comes from the evil one — illustrated by the trustworthiness of old-fashioned merchants whose word alone was their collateral.

The sermon closes on the clause "for we are members one of another," drawn out further through Romans 12:4-5, where each part of the body belongs to every other part (illustrated by the instinctive, whole-body response to a pricked finger while sewing). Because believers are so joined, speaking truth to a brother or sister is, in effect, speaking truth to oneself; loving one's neighbor as oneself takes on heightened force within the church, since a fellow believer's sin and struggle are, in a real sense, one's own. This grounds a call to mutual honesty, mutual service, and mutual willingness to both give and receive help — resisting both the cultural instinct to hide family or church problems out of shame, and the pride that refuses to ask for help. The preacher closes by connecting this to the diversity of the church itself — multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-generational, much like Indonesia's own "unity in diversity" — as a body with even deeper reason than any nation to love one another, speak truth in love, and put off falsehood, because each member truly belongs to the others in Christ.

Bible Verses Used

• Ephesians 4:24: States believers have put on the new self created in true righteousness and holiness, framing the "genuinely new but not yet totally new" status developed through the sermon.

• Ephesians 4:25: The sermon's focal verse — put off falsehood and speak truth to one's neighbor, because believers are members of one another.

• Ephesians 4:26-27: Cited as a parallel put-off/put-on command (anger dealt with before sundown) so as not to give the devil opportunity.

• Ephesians 4:28: Cited as another example of the pattern — the thief stops stealing and instead labors so as to share with those in need.

• Ephesians 4:29: Cited as a further example — corrupting talk is put off and speech that builds up and gives grace is put on.

• Ephesians 4:32: Identified as the deepest motivation behind all the commands — forgive one another as God in Christ forgave you.

• Ephesians 1:13: Used to show that truth is bound up with the gospel of salvation and the sealing of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth.

• Ephesians 4:15: Cited for "speaking the truth in love" as the means by which the church grows up into Christ, its head.

• 1 Corinthians 15:10: Referenced (via allusion, "not I, but the grace of God") to model ethical effort as fruit of grace rather than self-effort.

• 2 Corinthians 4:2: Held up as Paul's model of truthful, non-manipulative ministry, refusing cunning or tampering with God's word.

• Matthew 5:33-37: Jesus' teaching against oath-taking, used to press for plain, trustworthy "yes" and "no" speech among believers.

• Romans 12:4-5: Expounded alongside Ephesians 4:25 to explain "members of one another" — each part of the body belongs to every other part.

• Ephesians 5:28-30: Cited by analogy (a husband loving his wife as his own body) to reinforce that loving a fellow believer is loving oneself, since all are one body.