Off With the Old

Ephesians 4:17–32 ESV

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. 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. 25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

How many of you like new things? New clothes, new places to eat, new car, new quarterback? There is something exciting about new isn’t there? One thing we have been doing is updating our living room…making it “new” to us. New colors, new curtains, new furniture arrangement, it makes things refreshing. Not to mention, it releases dopamine and causes a feeling of satisfaction… There’s something about “new” that just feels good.

If we put things into perspective though, why do we prefer the old? For most, it’s something we have always done, the old is comfortable. But what if the old is not what is best for us? What if the old is toxic, what if the old will bring us down? What are we to do? Do we stay with the old, or do we venture out into the new?

Ian Wilson, a historical writer tells of a London businessman Lindsay Clegg who told the story of a warehouse property he was selling. The building had been empty for months and needed repairs. Vandals had damaged the doors, smashed the windows, and strewn trash around the interior.

As he showed a prospective buyer the property, Clegg took pains to say that he would replace the broken windows, bring in a crew to correct any structural damage, and clean out the garbage.

"Forget about the repairs," the buyer said. "When I buy this place, I'm going to build something completely different. I don't want the building; I want the site."

Compared with the renovation God has in mind, our efforts to improve our own lives are as trivial as sweeping a warehouse slated for the wrecking ball. When we become God's, the old life is over. He makes all things new. All he wants is the site and the permission to build.

Sometimes change is necessary, it is what brings us to a point in our life where we recognize the need for something different. And we have a choice to remain in the old, or to become something new.

Change is Necessary

Ephesians 4:17–19 ESV

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 Christians, we are called to be different from the world. Paul reminds us that we should be changed, different enough that people can see something different in us. Anytime we see the word Gentile being used, it refers to non-Christians, unbelievers. This is not just Paul making this exhortation, he makes sure we know this comes from the Lord. God requires us to live differently that the pagan world! But Paul wants us to also understand before we were saved, we too were dark in understanding - remember those who are not in the light are in the dark, and do not understand why we are different, why we are called to be different. The darkness separates them from God. The word used by Paul is ignorance - a lack of true understanding, and it is caused by their unrepentant heart. Being unrepentant for so long, they have grown resistant to good and choose to live in sin.

Paul reminds us that living outside the will of God, we are excluded from the goodness of God. This does not mean that, as Christians, we will be exempt from doing wrong, it doesn’t mean we won’t make bad choices, but we should not be living a lifestyle of continual sin. The good news, literally, is that God can transform anyone through His grace and those within the Ephesian church (who were in sin) could become new creations. As new beings, we are to think and act differently than the outside world. It’s not that we should strive to separate ourselves from the world, but we should be separate from sin. The point is this: believers are not to walk as other men walk. Why? Because believers are new creatures in Christ Jesus, and the walk of other men does not please God

We still live in a sinful world, and we associate with sinful people. But we are called to be a new creation, living a life different from the sinful world. The only way we can be a new creation is to become a new person in Jesus Christ.

New Creation is New Life

Ephesians 4:20–24 ESV

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.

A new creation in Jesus means we have hope of a new life. Paul has been teaching of Jesus, saying “assuming you have heard about Him and were taught in Him”. We do not serve someone who was just written about in a book, we serve a risen Savior! This is an unusual and awe-inspiring phrase. Christianity is about knowing a living person, Jesus Christ. O’Brien says, “The phrase ‘to learn a person’ appears nowhere else in the Bible and to date, has not been traced anywhere else in pre-biblical Greek documents”. Paul is using “relational” language. When you become a Christian, you do not merely learn about the teaching of Jesus; you develop a relationship with Him.

Believers do not learn a sinful life from Christ. Christ did not live a sinful a life, and He has not taught us to live a sinful life as other men live. If a man has heard Christ and been taught by Christ, then he has heard and been taught the truth. Notice Paul did not say “learned about Christ” because it is possible to learn ABOUT Him and never be saved. To “learn Christ” means to have a personal relationship to Christ so that you get to know Him better each day. The better I understand the Word of God, the better I know the Son of God, for the whole Bible is a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. The unsaved man is spiritually ignorant, while the Christian is intelligent in the things of the Word. And the unsaved man does not know Christ, while the believer grows in his personal knowledge of Christ day by day.

If we accept the truth… we put off our old, sinful self and become a new creature, newly clothed, renewed in the Spirit. The old way of being human is marked by decay, by the rot that sets in through deceitful desire. This is “life” lived in a pact with death. It is the “life” readers of this letter once lived. The presence of this urgent exhortation shows that they still struggle not to live it.

In contrast to the old human, the new human is Christ. This is a new “self,” but a self large enough to encompass the whole church and more. So the struggle to live as the new human in a world in which the old human is still much “alive” is not one engaged in alone but together with other members of the body of Christ. Putting on the new human is another way of referring to becoming one with the body of Christ and together with others growing into Christ.

When we accept Jesus as our Savior we become a new creation. No longer desiring to do the things of the past, but instead to follow after Jesus’ teachings.

Living the New Life

Ephesians 4:25–32 ESV

25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Therefore - this indicates Paul is coming to a conclusion, he is pointing out that what he says from this point forward is “there for” a reason. Paul counsels with the church at Ephesus, and those who are truly believers, to act differently. If the old has been put off, and the new has been put on, then the new should be evident in our life.

Is it okay to be angry? Yes, even Jesus Himself was angry BUT we have the command to not sin. Paul also tells us to not let the sun go down on your anger. Don’t allow the petty things in life to fester, and swell, and get to the point we make them out to be more than they are. Handle them quickly, quietly, but effectively because the devil will use discord as an opportunity to make us look like our old selves instead of the new creation in Christ. We should not give satan an opening to stick his foot into, and we certainly shouldn’t lend an ear for him to whisper into.

How does one tell if a person is new creation in Christ? We should BE different! The old should not be attractive to us anymore, we should not be wanting/desiring the same things, but we should be noticeably changed. The thief no longer steals, but does honest work, sharing with people in need, not being selfish in their desires. Corrupt talk should not come out of our mouths. This one is tough, at times, we have to look at the word corrupt - which means rotten, foul, putrid, polluting - we should not be speaking in a way that is polluting to our soul or to the Holy Spirit through cursing, unholy talk, or even the tearing down of others for the sake of gossip.

And we are not to grieve the Holy Spirit - this one hurts at times. When our children do something wrong, it hurts. We think they should know better, they were raised better, we set better examples for them… But yet, how does God feel when we do wrong? Either towards others or towards Him? When a person acts contrary to the counsel of the Holy Spirit, he hurts and grieves Him.

Bitterness should be pushed away, wrath, anger, clamor (Suggesting a croaking sound, krázō means a. “to croak or cry,” and b. “to demand with cries.” anakrázō means “to cry out,” kraugḗ “outcry,” ), slander, and malice - it is to be done away with, gone, it should not be part of our personality anymore. But instead we should be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving of one another - just as Christ has forgiven us. If we truly think of our sins, and what we have done against Him, how much worse could someone else’s sins be towards us? There is nothing anyone else could do that would be worse than what we have done against Jesus. So, when we look at the Christian attitude, behavior, who we BECOME, we become a new creation in Jesus.

Closing

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

The “old man” refers to what a man is before he accepts Christ. It is the very nature of man, the natural, corruptible seed which is passed on from generation to generation and leads to death. It is what is called the nature of Adam. The believer’s old man has already been put to death. It was crucified with Christ. When the believer received Christ, God began immediately to count him buried with Christ and united with Christ in the very likeness of His death. This is the meaning symbolized in baptism.

The believers mind is to be renewed, which means to be made new, readjusted, changed, turned around, and regenerated. The mind of man has been affected by sin. It desperately needs to be renewed. The mind is far from perfect. It is basically worldly. Scripture is clear about the corruption of man’s mind. The human mind has just been tragically corrupted by man’s selfishness and sin.

When a person receives Jesus Christ into his life, he receives the mind of Christ as well. Christ places His mind into the believer’s mind; that is, Christ changes the believer’s mind to focus upon God. Whereas the believer’s mind used to be centered upon the world, it is now centered upon spiritual matters. The believer’s mind is renewed, changed, turned around, and regenerated to focus upon God.

Being born in sin was not your fault, but dying in it will be. Are you ready to put off the old and become new today?