You’ve Changed: Ephesians 4:17-24

You’ve Changed

Paul has 2 people he wants us to meet

Do people really change?

Ted Lasso

Recap of Ephesians

Why Ephesians?

Likely a circular letter intended for churches in the Roman province of Asia (modern day Turkey)

Written to emphasize Jesus’ supremacy and sovereignty achieved by his death and resurrection and to call Christians to live lives of unity and holiness

The Flow of Ephesians

Ephesians 1-3

After greetings, he opens with an extended section of thanksgiving that is cull of images from the Exodus

Prayer that people would understand who they really are “in Christ”

He recounts the demonstration of God’s power in the Gospel

Christ’s supremacy

Humanity’s enmity to God under the influence of the world, the flesh, and the devil

By God’s grace we are saved from this state “in Christ” through faith so that we even become participants in God’s restorative purpose for the world

Christ’s saving work has created a new, unified humanity

the unified church is not and additional option, but is itself part of the reality of the Gospel

Prayer that people would know what it means to follow Jesus which he defines as knowing God’s love and power through the Holy Spirit

Ephesians 4-6

The outworking of the Gospel: Unity & Holiness

Unity - 4:1-16

Holiness - 4:17-6:20

Holiness - to be set apart for use in the divine sphere

Read Ephesians 4:17-24

The Old Person (4:17-19, 22)

“Gentiles” and the “Old Person”

Gentiles - with this term, Paul intends to refer to the audience’s state of life before they encountered the gospel cf. Ephesians 2:11–12 “So, then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh—called “the uncircumcised” by those called “the circumcised,” which is done in the flesh by human hands. At that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world.”

Old Person - again, used to describe the audience’s state before they encountered the gospel

Characteristics

Darkened in understanding

Excluded from the life of God

Corrupted through deceitful desires (4:22)

Causes

Ignorance

Hardness of heart

Ignorance and hardness of heart are related to Idolatry in the Old Testament

Isaiah 44:15–20 “A person can use it for fuel. He takes some of it and warms himself; also he kindles a fire and bakes bread; he even makes it into a god and worships it; he makes an idol from it and bows down to it. He burns half of it in a fire, and he roasts meat on that half. He eats the roast and is satisfied. He warms himself and says, “Ah! I am warm, I see the blaze.” He makes a god or his idol with the rest of it. He bows down to it and worships; he prays to it, “Save me, for you are my god.” Such people do not comprehend and cannot understand, for he has shut their eyes so they cannot see, and their minds so they cannot understand. No one comes to his senses; no one has the perception or insight to say, “I burned half of it in the fire, I also baked bread on its coals, I roasted meat and ate. Should I make something detestable with the rest of it? Should I bow down to a block of wood?” He feeds on ashes. His deceived mind has led him astray, and he cannot rescue himself, or say, “Isn’t there a lie in my right hand?”

In Rom. 1:18-23 Paul associates ignorance and hardness of heart with idolatry and the failure/refusal to honor God or give thanks to Him

Gave themselves over to promiscuity, sensuality, licentiousness - “sinful abandon”

A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. ἀσέλγεια

ἀσέλγεια, ας, ἡ -

Gave themselves over to all impurity

Paul is about to expound upon what this impurity looks like later in this letter, but he also makes a very similar statement in Romans

Romans 1:24–32 CSB

Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator, who is praised forever. Amen. For this reason God delivered them over to disgraceful passions. Their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. The men in the same way also left natural relations with women and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty of their error. And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a corrupt mind so that they do what is not right. They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed, and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, arrogant, proud, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, senseless, untrustworthy, unloving, and unmerciful. Although they know God’s just sentence—that those who practice such things deserve to die—they not only do them, but even applaud others who practice them.

The New Person (4:21-24)

Characteristics

Taken off the old self

According to your former way of life

Being renewed in the spirit of your minds

assumes renewal is something that happens continually and is something that the believer allows to happen to them

Renewal is not simply a matter of will; it is a matter of surrender

“Spirit of your minds”

Similar to the “inner person” of Ephesians 3:16 - “I pray that he may grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power in your inner being through his Spirit”

Philo identifies “the person within the person” as the “mind”

“There is to be a constant development of believers’ perception which will result, in practice, in their ability to choose good” - Andrew Lincoln

Put on the new self

According to God has in righteousness and purity of the truth

Righteousness

state of relating to people rightly

Purity of the Truth (Holiness, Piety, Devoutness)

state of relating to God rightly

A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. ὁσιότης

ὁσιότης, τητος, ἡ -

How do we take off the “Old Person” and put on the “New Person”? Can people really change?

According to Paul, the only way to truly change is by knowing Christ

Learning Christ (4:20-21)

Learning

common word for learning; but not always a simply intellectual activity

here it involves more than the acquisition of information and includes the application of information

Rev. 14:3 it involves the ability to learn a song

Hearing

“heard about him” likely refers to hearing the gospel for the first time

Teaching

“were taught in him” refers to growing in knowledge of Christ by repeatedly submitting oneself to biblical teaching

“Learning Christ” thus refers to the lifelong process of encountering the good news about Jesus and being transformed by him

Knowing Christ in Paul

Growing in knowledge of Christ is a major theme in Ephesians

“Revelation” “Knowledge” “Understanding” “Wisdom” “ To know” “To grasp” “enlightened”

Paul’s frequent use of the word “mystery” (Eph. 1:9; 3:3-11)

related to the surprising inclusion of the Gentiles in the people of God

This knowledge is always related to the gospel - the proclamation of Christ’s saving work on our behalf - and always involves being shaped by Christ through living in relationship with him

Look at the way Paul prays for the churches…

Ephesians 3:18–19 CSB

may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, and to know Christ’s love that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 1:17–19 CSB

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, would give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the mighty working of his strength.

Look at the way Paul talks about knowing Christ in Philippians…

Philippians 3:10–11 CSB

My goal is to know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.

Knowing Christ is not about getting something from God like peace from worry, or healing from disease, or release from guilt

Christ meets these needs and more, but we are far too easily pleased

Learning Christ is about experiencing the fullness of Christ’s presence so that we begin to live like he lived

Learning Christ is about existing as the new creation in the midst of this fallen one

Paul forces us to answer the question: Have I taken off the Old Self? Am I being renewed in the spirit of my mind? Have I put on the New Self characterized by right relationships?

Perhaps you’ve resisted getting to know Christ because you harbor shame or resentment?

Perhaps your knowledge of Christ has been intellectual rather than transformative.

Perhaps your knowledge of Christ has been self-centered