****Ephesians 4:17–24

Ephesians 4:17–24 (NRSV)

17 Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart. 19 They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 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. 22 You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Therefore, they are not to walk like men; they are to walk like Christ.

1. The believer is not to walk after the Gentiles, that is, after men (vv. 17–19).

2. The believer is to walk after Christ (vv. 20–24).

1 (4:17–19) Believer, Life and Walk: the believer is not to walk as the Gentiles, that is, as ungodly men. This is very significant. Remember: Paul is writing to Gentiles. The church at Ephesus was a Gentile church. Now note the verse. In the authorized version (King James) believers are told to no longer walk as “other Gentiles” walk, as though they were still classified as Gentiles. But the word “other” is not in the best and oldest manuscripts. Thus, the exhortation is to “no longer walk as Gentiles walk.” That is, believers are set off and set apart from Gentiles. They are no longer classified as Gentiles or Jews (sees 1 Co. 10:32). Who then are believers? The point being made is that they are a third race on earth. They are the new creation; the creation of a new body of people, a new nation, a new race. They are the children of God who are to inhabit the new heavens and earth. (F.F. Bruce makes this point and refers to two ancient writers who also used the phrase of a third race. Clement of Alexandria in his Miscellanies (VI. 5.39), a second century document called the Preaching of Peter, and Diogenetus in his second century work, The Epistle to Diogenetus, chapter 1. They call Christians “a new race,” a race distinct from Jews and Greeks. The Epistles to the Ephesians, p. 90.) (See notes—Lu. 8:21; Ep. 2:11–18; 2:14–15; 2:19–22; 4:17–19.)

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. What is it that other men do that does not please God? This passage gives five traits about unbelievers that displease God. Remember: believers are to have nothing to do with any of these. They are never to return to the paths of their former life.

a. Unbelievers walk in the vanity of their mind (v. 17). The mind (nous) includes the ability to will and to do the truth as well as know the truth; it includes morality as well as reasoning and understanding. The word “vain” means empty, futile, senseless, aimless, unsuccessful, worthless.

When men push God out of their minds, their minds are void and empty of God and of His truth and morality. God is not in their thoughts. Their minds are ready to be filled with some other god or supremacy, that is, with the things of the world:

⇒ worldly pleasures

⇒ worldly possessions

⇒ worldly power

⇒ worldly position

⇒ worldly religions

⇒ worldly ideas

⇒ worldly honor

⇒ worldly gods

“And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Ge. 6:5).

The mind of man walks after these things, neglecting, ignoring, and rejecting God. The believer must never return to the walk of an empty mind; he must never again allow his mind to become empty of God.

b. Unbelievers walk with their understanding darkened (v. 18). To understand means to grasp, comprehend, perceive. To be darkened means to be blinded, and unable to see. The unbeliever does not grasp or understand God; his understanding is darkened and blinded, and unable to see God. He often understands this world and the things of this world, and he gives his life over to the things of this world. But he is not able to understand God and His eternal plan for the world through the Lord Jesus Christ.

The believer is not to allow his understanding to become darkened. He is not to return to the world of the spiritually blind, the world of those who walk with darkened understanding.

“They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course” (Ps. 82:5).

c. Unbelievers walk alienated from the life of God. Unbelievers are spiritually dead and doomed to eternal death. Alienated (apallotrio) means to be estranged, separated, cut off, detached. There are always unfriendly or hostile feelings involved in alienation. The unbeliever is alienated from the life of God. He is …

• estranged from God with unfriendly or hostile feelings

• separated from God with unfriendly or hostile feelings

• cut off from God with unfriendly or hostile feelings

• detached from God with unfriendly or hostile feelings

Why? Not because of God. The Bible is clear about this issue. Unbelievers are alienated from God because of their own willful ignorance and hardness of heart. The word blindness is the word hardness (porosis) in the Greek. Note the words “in them.” The cause is “in them”:

⇒ They choose to be ignorant within their minds—choose to be ignorant of God.

⇒ They choose to harden their own hearts.

Unbelievers are responsible for their own death. God has provided the fountain of youth for man, the way for man to live forever. God had given His life, that is, eternal life, to man. The only way man can ever miss God’s gift of eternal life is to reject God and His gift.

“This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me” (Mt. 15:8).

d. Unbelievers are past feeling (apalgeo); that is, they reach a point where they no longer have feelings for God and His standard of morality. To be past feeling means to become callous, insensible, hardened. The more a person walks without God the more callous a person becomes to God. The more a person walks in sin, the more callous his conscience becomes to righteousness. Sin becomes more and more acceptable. The person’s conscience no longer bothers him. He reaches a point of being past feeling. The believer is not to return to sin. He is not to walk as other men walk—in sin, becoming callous and insensitive to God.

“For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them” (Ac. 28:27).

e. Unbelievers give themselves over to lasciviousness, to all forms of sensual living (see note, Lasciviousness, pt. 4—Ga. 5:19–21 for discussion).

f. Unbelievers indulge in all uncleanness with greediness. The word uncleanness (akatharsias) means to be dirty and filthy; to be infested with every kind of unclean, immoral, dirty, and polluted behavior. It is the most immoral behavior imaginable. It is unbridled lust turned loose.

“But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Mt. 5:28).

The word greediness (pleonexia) means avarice, coveting, craving, grasping, desiring to have more and more; hoarding all one can get and still craving more. It is being enslaved and held in bondage by the things of this earth: for example, food, drink, and a host of fleshly sins and self-centered behavior.

Believers are not to walk in such a life. They are not to walk as other men walk.

“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s” (Ex. 20:17).

Impacting Those Who Watch You

WITNESS

Ephesians 4:17–24

(POSB, note 1, point 7.)

Your witness makes a big difference as you walk with Christ in this world. It is important to guard yourself from the “old man” who wants to represent you. Don’t be discouraged! Your Christian life lived out makes an impact on those who are watching you. Look closely at this story and apply it to your walk:

An old man, walking the beach at dawn, noticed a young man ahead of him picking up starfish and flinging them into the sea. Catching up with the youth, he asked what he was doing. The answer was that the stranded starfish would die if left until the morning sun.

“But the beach goes on for miles, and there are millions of starfish,” countered the old man. “How can your effort make a difference?”

The young man looked at the starfish in his hand and then threw it to safety in the waves. “It makes a difference to this one,” he said.

2 (4:20–24) Believer, Walk—Old Man—New Man: the believer is to walk in Christ. He is not to walk as men walk.

a. The reason is clearly stated: believers did not learn such 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. Note that the Teacher is Christ Himself, not the minister. By the Holy Spirit, Christ uses the body and voice of the minister to teach people how they are to live. If a person has really heard Christ speaking to their hearts, then what they heard was not the kind of life lived by unbelievers.

b. The true walk is a walk in Christ, and a walk in Christ involves three actions. (Because of their importance and length, the three actions are covered in separate notes.)

1) The believer is to put off the old man (See DEEPER STUDY # 1—Ep. 4:22 for discussion).

DEEPER STUDY # 1

(4:22) Old Man: 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. (See note, Natural Man—1 Co. 2:14 for a much more detailed discussion.)

Three things are taught about the old man in the Scriptures.

1. The believer’s old man has already been put to death. It was crucified with Christ (Ro. 6:6). 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.

2. The deeds of the old man have been put off from the believer (Col. 3:9). The power of evil deeds has been broken and the believer is no longer in bondage to them.

3. In this passage, the believer himself is exhorted to put off the old man. He is told to exercise his own will in putting off the old man. He so wills by realizing and acting upon three truths.

a. The old man, from God’s perspective, is counted dead. Therefore, the believer counts his old man as already being dead.

“Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Ro. 6:11).

b. The old man is recognized as being very much alive. The old man is tempted to look, taste, feel, think—to experience sin. But the believer rejects the temptation. He refuses to participate in sin. He puts off the old man as he walks day by day.

“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God” (Ro. 6:12–13).

c. The old man (including all creation) is seen aging and dying day by day. The believer realizes that this world and all that is within it, including his old man, is in a constant process of dying. He knows that all is dying because the evil desires of nature are deceitful, and deceit disturbs and destroys relationships—the very nature of things (Ep. 4:22). Such destruction deteriorates and corrupts; it eats away at life and at the balance of things until all things become nothing but decayed matter. Therefore the believer puts off the old man and puts on the new man—by faith in the love of God. When a person believes in the love of God, God responds by loving him so much that He makes a permanent man out of him, a new man who is to live eternally and become a citizen of the new heavens and earth.

“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin” (Ro. 6:6).

“That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts” (Ep. 4:22).

“Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds” (Col. 3:9).

“For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries” (1 Pe. 4:3).

“But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins” (2 Pe. 1:9).

2) The believer is to be renewed in the spirit of his mind (See DEEPER STUDY # 2—Ep. 4:23 for discussion).

DEEPER STUDY # 2

(4:23) Mind, Renewed: the believers mind is to be renewed (ananeousthai), which means to be made new, readjusted, changed, turned around, and regenerated.

1. 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, that is …

• selfish

• self-centered

• self-seeking

• centered on this world

• centered on the flesh

• centered on this life

Scripture is clear about the corruption of man’s mind. The human mind has just been tragically corrupted by man’s selfishness and sin. Man’s mind …

• has become vain, empty, and futile in its imaginations

“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Ro. 1:21).

• has become reprobate

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient” (Ro. 1:28).

• has become carnal and full of enmity against God.

“Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Ro. 8:7).

• has become blinded by Satan lest it believe the glorious gospel of Christ.

“In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Co. 4:4).

• has become full of vanity, futility, emptiness.

“This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of the mind” (Ep. 4:17).

• has become focused upon earthly things.

“For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things” (Ph. 3:18–19).

• has become alienated from God and an enemy to God.

“And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled” (Col. 1:21).

• has become fleshy.

“Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind” (Col. 2:18).

• has become defiled.

“Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled” (Tit. 1:15).

2. The mind is renewed by the presence of Christ in the life of the believer. When a person receives the Lord Jesus Christ as His Lord, the man is spiritually …

• born again (Jn. 3:3–8; 1 Pe. 1:23).

• made into a new man (Ep. 4:24; Col. 3:10).

• made into a new creature (2 Co. 5:17).

• given the mind of Christ (1 Co. 2:16; see v. 9–15).

What this means is a most wonderful truth, and it is easily seen. 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. However, it is critical to remember that only Christ can renew the human mind. Only Christ can implant the mind of Christ within a person. Only Christ can give a person His thoughts and the spirit to live out His thoughts.

3. The believer is to live a transformed life; that is, he is to walk day by day renewing his mind more and more. He is to allow the Spirit of Christ (the Holy Spirit) to focus his mind more and more upon God and spiritual things.

⇒ The believer is to love the Lord with all his mind.

“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” (Mt. 22:37).

⇒ The believer is to keep his mind upon spiritual things, not carnal things.

“For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace” (Ro. 8:5–6).

⇒ The believer is to cast down imaginations and every thought that interrupts his knowledge of God and to captivate every thought for Christ.

“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Co. 10:3–5).

⇒ The believer is not to let his mind be corrupted.

“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Co. 11:3).

⇒ The believer is not to fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind.

“Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others” (Ep. 2:3).

⇒ The believer is not to walk as the world walks, in the vanity of their mind.

“This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind” (Ep. 4:17).

⇒ The believer is to be renewed in the spirit of his mind.

“And be renewed in the spirit of your mind” (Ep. 4:23).

⇒ The believer is to let the mind of Christ be in him by walking humbly before God and men.

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Ph. 2:5).

⇒ The believer is to think only upon the things of praise and virtue.

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things” (Ph. 4:8).

⇒ The believer is to live by the laws of God which God has put into his mind.

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people” (He. 8:10).

⇒ The believer is to arm himself with the same mind as Christ in bearing suffering.

“Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin” (1 Pe. 4:1).

3) The believer is to put on the new man (See DEEPER STUDY # 3—Ep. 4:24 for discussion).

(4:24) New Man: a man regenerated, renewed, born again who has become spiritually minded. It is a new man created by Christ; he has been given a holy nature and an incorruptible life. It is opposed to the old man with a corrupt nature. It is a man who is …

• in fellowship with God

• obedient to God’s will

• devoted to God’s service

There are two Greek words translated by the English word new. There is the word neos which refers to something new that has just been made, but there are already many others existing just like it. There is the word kainos which refers to something new, something just made and there is nothing like it in existence. Kainos is the word used here. Jesus Christ makes a new man entirely—a creation unlike any other creation existing. The Gentile believer is not made into a Jew; neither is a Jewish believer made into a Gentile. Each, through the Lord Jesus Christ, is made into a new kind of person—a new man in God. Every person can begin life all over again; every person can have a new beginning, a new life by coming to Jesus Christ.

How is this possible? By the power of God. When a person believes in God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ—really believes and entrusts his life into the hands of Jesus Christ—God creates the spirit of the person in righteousness and true holiness. God takes the faith of the person and credits it as the righteousness of Jesus Christ. God actually credits the person’s faith as the perfect righteousness and holiness of Jesus Christ. Therefore, the person stands before God in the righteousness and holiness of Jesus Christ. But note: this is not all that God does. He does more marvelous things for the believer—all having to do with creating the believer into a new person.

1. God quickens the spirit of the believer and makes his spirit alive. Whereas the believer’s spirit was dead to God, God creates it and makes it alive to God.

2. God causes the believer to be born again spiritually.

3. God actually places His divine nature into the heart of the believer.

4. God actually creates a new man out of the believer.

5. God renews the believer by the Holy Spirit.