By Rev. Dr. Brent Russett – Asbury Free Methodist
October 22, 2023 – Ephesians 4:17-24
We are in the middle of our series on Ephesians. Last week, we looked at what the Christian community should look like. This week, we’re going to look at a contrast between Christians and non-Christians. Or, more accurately, between Christians and a subset of non-Christians.
Paul is writing to the church in Ephesus and two churches in the surrounding area. Like every area of the world, Ephesus has a particular culture. Paul had lived in this city for two years, so he understood the culture of the city.
Ephesus was a major commercial centre in the ancient world. It was a shipping port, a Trade Centre, and a major religious centre. The temple of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, was located in Ephesus.
Because of the temple of Artemis, the religious tourist trade boomed. People would come to the city and buy work from local artisans who created home idols. You could get your fortune told. You could worship the goddess by sleeping with a prostitute. It was a major port city and featured all the vices that come with that. If you wanted it, it could be bought in Ephesus.
Not only that, but it was a major cultural centre. It had an outdoor amphitheatre that sat more than the Canadian Tire Centre. The amphitheatre housed debates and plays, and many philosophical discourses would take place.
What you have in Ephesus is this mixture of pretentious philosophical enlightenment married to a culture of greed and debauchery.
So when Paul writes verses 17-19, he has this culture in mind.
Ephesians 4:17–19 (NIV)
17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.
The NLT probably isn’t the most accurate word-for-word translation of this passage – but I think it gives us a better sense of what Paul is trying to say.
Ephesians 4:17–19 (NLT)
17 With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused. 18 Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him. 19 They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.
I know a lot of non-Christians who have not closed their minds to God. They haven’t hardened their hearts against him – but they haven’t come to him yet either. They are not living overtly immoral lives.
But the subset of people Paul is talking about would be analogous to the people in Perth who live to get drunk on the weekend. They live for the hookups they can have. They live for lustful pleasure and indulge in every kind of impurity.
This will look different but the same amongst teenagers, or rednecks, or middle-aged factory workers, or seniors. Life is all about sensual experience. It is all about giving the body what it wants. They have closed their minds to God and hardened their hearts against him – and they pursue sensuality with no regard for what is good or right. In fact, if you were to ask them, they would probably justify their behaviour. That is what Paul calls the “futility of their thinking.”
Paul says,
Ephesians 4:17–19 (NLT)
17 With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do
Notice that Paul says, “No longer.” A lot of people in the church had lived that way. Paul says that might have been you, but that cannot be you any longer. Why?
Ephesians 4:20–21 (NIV)
20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned 21 when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.
The NIV gets the idea, but a better translation of these verses is
Ephesians 4:20–21 (NRSV)
20 That is not the way you learned Christ! 21 For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus.
You see, when the NIV says you learned a way of life – the legalist in us wants to say – well, tell me the rules on how to live. That is not what this means. You have learned Christ. Or one could say you have learned Christ’s way of life.
Lynda and I have been married for 36 years. When she is tired, she will sometimes mix up her words – but I know what she means. I tell her – “I speak Lynda.”
When you learn Jesus, you get a sense of how he would have you live. Life takes into account the spiritual realm. It becomes more about loving God and loving our neighbour than it does about indulging in sensuality. Life becomes more about joy and having a sense of well-being and less about what we have. Peace is something we cherish. We live for God in this world. We live life to the full, but we honour God in what we do. We strive for justice, and we live in hope. We live out of the meaning and purpose that God gives us. There is a world that is broken and needs help, and there are people who need Jesus. We live out of the dignity God bestows on us as his image bearers. We are given the things of this world to enjoy, but we are not mastered by any of the things of this world.
We live in the freedom of our forgiveness. We do not have to harden our hearts against shame, but the cross releases us from shame. We are free to be who we were created to be.
Paul puts it this way,
Ephesians 4:22–24 (NIV)
22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
You were taught in regard to your former way of life to – “put off” or “throw off” or “put away” or put aside your old self. The idea is that you put it away like in a prison, or you don’t make it easily assessable.
I was reading a commentary that said taking off the old self and putting on the new self is like taking off an old coat and putting on a new one. But it is not really like that.
Your old and your new self are made up of what you value – what is important to you. It is made up of what you believe life to be about and the best way to live life. Your old self and your new self are made up of what you desire. Although your old self tends to focus on what you desire at the moment, your new self tends to focus on what you desire in life overall.
Those are not the kinds of things that you shed like you would shed an old coat. Instead, this is about learning a new way to live.
I grew up on a farm in the Ottawa Valley. There was a farm next to ours that went up for sale and was bought by a teacher. I guess he always wanted to be a farmer, but he had no farming experience. This was before the internet. You might be able to buy a book on farming, but most people learned to farm from their families who had been farmers. This guy did not come from a lineage of farmers.
He did some crazy things. He bought stuff he didn’t need and didn’t acquire stuff he needed. I remember my dad just shaking his head. He was probably a good teacher, but it took him a while to learn farming. He did learn, though.
Putting off the old self is more like quitting your teaching job, and putting on the new self is more like acquiring a different and unrelated occupation. He had to put away the teaching job and take on a farming lifestyle.
Often, when people come to Jesus, they realize that their old life isn’t working for them and they need a new one. They put off the old life and put on the new. It is analogous to an alcoholic who comes to the end of themselves and says I want to live in a different way. The pull of the old way may be there, but they learn to value new ways of being and a different way of living. That is especially true if they come to Jesus during their recovery.
Sometimes, people dabble in coming to Jesus. They know the life they have isn’t the life they want – but they are unsure whether they want to give up their old life for the life that Jesus offers. They may even pray a prayer and ask Jesus into their life. The first part of their spiritual journey is going back and forth between their old life and their new life.
Paul is saying to those kinds of people – that is not the way you learned Christ. Getting to the next step in their spiritual journey will mean coming to a place where they understand that Jesus’ way is the best way.
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As you know, we have been working our way through the book of Ephesians. Paul has already talked about the spiritual realm, the power of the cross, and the reality of the Holy Spirit in our lives. He has already talked about grace and faith.
You need to hear those things reverberating in the background to understand what he is saying here. Notice in this particular section the emphasis on the mind. Verse 17 talks about people who are trapped in the futility of their thinking. Verse 18 talks about how their understanding has been darkened.
But now, talking to the Ephesians in verse 20, he talks about how they learned Christ. In verse 21, he talks about how they were taught in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. In verse 23, we are instructed to be made new in the attitude of our minds.
The emphasis here is on what you are thinking about and how you think. This is about how we use our minds.
The reason it is important to put it in context with the rest of Ephesians is that some people try to turn Christianity solely into a moral philosophy – or a way of thinking. It is not. It is much more than that. It is Faith and Spirit and Grace and the Power of the Cross.
But when it comes to putting off the old and putting on the new, the emphasis is on the mind. It makes sense, of course. If our old and new selves are made up of what we value and what we believe to be important – then changing how we think is going to be an important part of moving from the old self to the new self.
You have to learn to farm. You have to learn a new way of being. You have to learn Christ.
Paul says,
Ephesians 4:22–24 (NIV)
22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
We are to be made new in the attitude of our minds. A better translation would be renewed in the spirit of our minds. I think if we were to use today’s speech, we would talk about mindset. You need to have a new mindset. It is not just that we need to think about particular things in a different way – we do. But that different way of thinking comes from a different way of looking at all of life.
When you are a teacher, rain is not that important except whether the students can go out for recess or not. When you are a farmer, too much rain is a problem. Too little rain is a problem. What is important is different to a farmer because he or she looks at life differently.
In Romans, Paul put it this way.
Romans 12:2 (NIV)
2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Be transformed by the renewing of you mind. Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.
In our Ephesians passage, Paul says this comes out of two places. It comes out of how we have learned Christ and been taught in accordance with the truth that is Christ. Our mind is renewed as we see who Jesus is and as we learn and apply what he said.
Most of the people in the Ephesian church would not have been able to read. Most of you can. If you are going to learn Christ, spend time in the New Testament. See who Jesus is. See what he taught. See what he values and adopt those values.
Being renewed in the spirit of our minds so that we can put on the new self also comes from another place.
Ephesians 4:23–24 (NIV)
23 …be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and … put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
You were created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. One of the great victories of Satan is to give those words a negative connotation. Who wants to be accused of being holier than thou.
But righteousness has two different meanings in scripture. One meaning is that we have right standing before God. The other meaning is that when our actions come out of the character of God, they are said to be righteous. So, when we love as God loves – that is accounted as righteousness. When we do justly – that is accounted as righteousness.
Holiness is the idea of being set apart for God. My life is God’s life. I live my life for him. That is a different way of thinking about life.
Righteousness and holiness, at least the way that Paul is using them here, is a mindset. Our life is God’s. Our actions come out of his character. When you have that mindset, you have put on the new self.
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So, how do you go from living out of the old self to living out of the new self? How do you go from living for the weekends to living for God?
I want you to notice that there are three commands. You must no longer live as the Gentiles do. You must not live like that subset of people who have given themselves over to sensuality and indulge in impurity. That is the first command, and it is straightforward. Don’t live like that.
The second command is to put off the old self. This command is not as straightforward. You can stop doing things, and yet we live in a way where you value those things. We have these deceitful desires, is what Paul says. So, we have stopped doing those things – but we haven’t stopped valuing those things.
We would never say it, but in our heart of hearts, we secretly believe that those things that we have given up are the good life. Sometimes, we have to examine our hearts and ask – where is that desire coming from. It almost always comes from a failure to believe that God is good and that he wants my good. It almost always comes from the idea that I know better than God. So, when Paul says, “putt off the old self,” we look at our hearts, and we repent of those kinds of attitudes.
The last command is put on the new self, which is adopting a new attitude and new mindset. This is where we are holy – we are set apart for God’s use. This is where we allow our actions to reflect God’s character.
Wholeness, peace, love, purity, joy – a deep sense of well-being comes out of this mindset. You were created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. This is the sweet spot of life. This is where you live out the life that is really life. It comes from a mindset change.
The power of the cross has been applied to your life. The Spirit of God is at work in your life. So, in conjunction with him, I urge you to put off the old self and put on the new self, being made new in the attitude of your mind.
This is a process. It will take time to make the move. But the two main questions are: am I God’s? That is what holiness is. The second question is, is what I am doing coming out of the character of God – that is what righteousness is.
If you truly want to be transformed – this is where you need to push into.
Next week, we are going to look at some of those places where this transformation is going to show up.
This morning, I want you to consider – does my mindset value what God values?
Sermon Questions
1. What are you celebrating today?
2. What are you praying about today?
3. Have you heard from God in the last week?
Digging in
4. Read Ephesians 4:17-24 – How does Paul describe the subset of non-Christians he is talking about? (vs17-19) What kind of people would this be equivalent to in our culture?
5. Read verses 20-21. What does this tell us about the Christians in Ephesus? What do you think this looked like?
6. Read verses 22-24. Describe what the old self. Describe what the new self is. What does it mean to put off the old self and put on the new self?
7. How does Romans 12:2 relate to this passage?
8. What does it mean to be “be made new in the attitude of your mind?” (Verse 23-24) How does this happen?
9. What are the commands in this passage of scripture?
10. What do you think is the best strategy to start to live out his passage of scripture?