Week 1: ( Introduction ) Love in the Body

Lesson 1 opens the quarter in an ordinary place: the way brethren talk to and about one another during an ordinary week. Before Paul gives a single command about the tongue, he lays a foundation in Ephesians 4.22-24: the old self comes off, the mind is renewed, and the new self, God's own making, goes on. Then the instructions land. A word is measured by what it builds in the hearer and whether it hands him grace. The Spirit who sealed us is listening to how His people talk. Six things come off, three go on, and the standard for forgiveness was set at the cross before it was ever required of anyone. The lesson closes at Ephesians 5.1-2, where the love Paul has been commanding looks at the ultimate example: Jesus.