Ephesians 4:17-24 Renewed in the Spirit
Due to our varied backgrounds, cultural perspectives, educations, political viewpoints and religious beliefs everyone has varied opinions and ideas on what is proper, what is right and of course, what is wrong. One feature of living in a multimedia and high-tech world is that everyone can and often does express their thoughts to anyone who is willing to pay attention. Since many of these ideas are in conflict or are simply contradictory to each other, the world has embraced a philosophy of relativism. The concept of relative truth is where someone might believe something to be true or right to him or her but perhaps not to another. To them there are no absolutes, allowing anything to be considered right. This is often referred to as living in the gray zone where nothing is black or white. This philosophy is most often touted when discussing moral absolutes.
Do we live in a gray world or one that is black and white? If one were to determine this using only our media, the answer would definitely be gray. Even some churches have joined the ranks of those pushing a liberal morality viewpoint. Which raises the question, how should a Christian think?
We know there is only one truth since we do live in a black and white world. God’s Word does contain absolutes, these are not rules to live by to gain salvation or to gain favor with God, these absolutes simply state what is right and wrong in God’s eyes. We could view everything that takes our eyes off Jesus or that which causes us to pull away from God as being ‘black’ and those things that point us towards Jesus or bring us closer to God as being ‘white’.
17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
As referenced in Chapter 10, the word translated here, as ‘Gentiles’ is the Greek word ethnos referring to people of a different nation or people group, essentially anyone who does not worship the true God. We are not to live like other people in this world. As a result of churches continuing to embrace political correctness or “gray thinking” there is a lot of ‘Gentile’ thinking within Christianity. Paul explains that they had hearts that were hard, not willing to take the time to understand. We read that Jesus once healed a man with a withered hand in a synagogue on the Sabbath. The Pharisees got upset with Him because He had the audacity of healing someone on the Sabbath. They felt Jesus was not from God because He was healing people on the Sabbath. They simply could not understand, as their hearts were hard (see Mark 2:23-3:5). This is a good example of people today and throughout history of those not willing to take the time to look at the truth of God’s Word. Paul says they lack understanding and due to their ignorance have been alienated from the life of God.
Jesus says we cannot serve two masters as we would end up being devoted to one and despise the other. It is important for Christians to change after accepting Jesus as their Savor (see Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13; Romans 6:16 and James 4:4). If we follow the way of the world and only follow Jesus when it suits us, we are only fooling ourselves. Being friends with the way of the world is the same as being enemies of God.
Paul uses a curious statement, “in the futility of their minds,” he is saying that in the futility of the Gentile mind is that they are devoid of truth and therefore hopelessly confused. Paul further points out that the Gentiles are essentially in the dark, when it comes to understanding God’s Word, they simply cannot see the truth (see also Psalms 69:22-23). As a result of their ignorance they cannot participate in God’s blessings, as they are “alienated from the life of God.” That equates to the same type of alienation we discussed earlier in Chapter 10, namely the alienation from the commonwealth of Israel.
Paul says, “they have become callous” (see also 1 Timothy 4:2), callousness means that over a period of time a person no longer feels pain. For the Gentiles, Paul implies that they are no longer influenced or care about God and His ways. They have no guilt or remorse in disobeying God. Paul summarizes Gentile thinking with sensuality (unbridled lust) and greediness so that one could practice every (and any) kind of impure or unclean action. Uncontrolled lust combined with greediness point to a strong selfish desire, which denies any and all accountability to a higher being, not alone the God of the Bible. They have turned away from God completely allowing them to do anything (see also Romans 1:24-32).
As Christians we are longer interested in what the world has to offer, we only desire to please God. Paul in these verses briefly looks at the darkness of this world followed by a plea for us, “to put off your old self,” and “be renewed in the spirit of your minds.” The former things in our lives should be just that, things of the past.
20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Almost like a parent saying to a child, “that’s not how you were raised!” Paul reminds us that the way of Gentile living is not what we were taught. He then adds, assuming you have been taught, that is! This is a great reminder that we are to never stop learning about God. If Jesus is our Lord and Savior and we want to please Him, the only way we can is through obedience and the only way to know how to obey is to know His Word, the only source of truth.
As Christians we already know that, “the truth is in Jesus,” so why would Paul say something like that? The real truth is always in Jesus! Paul makes a statement to his readers, “but that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him.” Perhaps Paul was anticipating that some of his readers would be non-believers or were recently converted. However, more than likely, Paul was addressing the fact that many Christians (or at least ones that refer to themselves as Christians) are often ignorant of the Word of God and unfortunately as a result they really do not know Jesus. As Christians we need to know as much as we can about Him. The truth of who we are and what we should be doing can only be found in Him, the truth is in Jesus.
Paul says that as a result of knowing Jesus and accepting Him as our personal Savior, we will change dramatically as the old self is gone and the new self is put on, almost like we are changing clothes. Whether we feel different or not after our conversion, the Bible tells us that we are immediately saved and renewed (see Romans 12:1-2). However, a process begins that slowly changes who we are, it is called sanctification (see Romans 6:15-23; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17 and 1 Peter 1:1-2), this process brings us closer to God, being set apart (made holy) for Him. Is it as easy as changing clothes? No, the change on this side of heaven may take time, however some of our priorities and the way we see things will change rather quickly. The process of sanctification can be slowed down if we refuse to change or hang onto sin in our lives. Corruption occurs when something is defiled or destroyed, if we maintain sinful desires we are allowing corruption in our relationship with God. That is why Paul says we are to “put off” our old existence and “put on” the new. It is important to note that we will never be fully sanctified until we are in heaven.
Many Christians wonder about change, they wonder if they have been changed and they often wonder if they can be changed. In Romans 12:2 Paul tells us that we should be, “transformed by the renewal of our minds,” this statement follows what Paul said in verse one that we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to God, in other words we are to follow Jesus instead of the world. God will renew our priorities, our values and our thinking to align with His.
Paul reminds us that we are created in the likeness of God, of course that does not include God’s divine nature, we are not gods ourselves. Paul in his epistle to the church at Galatia said, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20b, ESV) God lives in us, our lives should shine accordingly. Paul stated earlier in Ephesians chapter two (see Chapter 9) that we were Jesus’ workmanship created to do good works that He prepared in advance for us to do. We were renewed in the likeness of God and to do works for Him.
This is all done in true righteousness that aligns our thoughts and actions with God’s heart so that we can be holy dedicated to Him. Holiness means we are to be and act different, thus separated from the world, for God’s use only. The ways of the world are not God’s ways. We cannot live in both worlds. We live by the absolute truth of God while the world sees no absolutes, to them everything is relative. The philosophy of relativism has two points that can be used to argue against it. The first is that there can only be one truth. If someone asks what time is it or how much money is in an account, there is only one true answer to each question. If someone says they believe in relativism ask them if that applies to their bank account or how fast they drive. The other point is that if someone believes there are no absolutes, ask them if they are absolutely sure about that! These are what are known as self-defeating statements.