Ephesians 4:17 - 5:7

OPEN

Describe something you picked up from a parent, or teacher, or influential adult that’s become a part of you or your life.

Hunting and fishing

It could be some silly gesture you make, or a phrase you say. It could be a sports team you root for or the way you do math or how you comb your hair. Anything you learned as a kid from a grown-up that you’ve now copied into your life. 

READ

Read: Ephesians 4:17–5:7. 

WATCH

Show Session 6: Ephesians 4:17–5:7 (13 minutes).

Ephesians 4:17–5:7 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. 1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. 3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. 5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not become partners with them;

DISCUSS

J.D. Greear started out by saying that many people these days think all religions basically teach the same things.

How have you heard the idea that all religions are the same expressed?

Absolutely, many people believe all religions are the same when they are indeed not. There are 2 types

Works = salvation

salvation = works

Why do you think people say that? What’s similar about different religions?

Heaven or afterlife

doing good things

lack of understanding and knowledge leads to misinformation or understanding

Do you think people who believe all religions are the same have a good understanding of Christianity?

No!

if they did they would not believe all religions are the same

What sets our faith apart? How are we different?

Salvation leads to good works

saved by Grace

Remember what J.D. said:

“Every other religion in the world tells you to change...and if you change, if you become good, God will accept you. Paul says . that the gospel is the announcement that God has already accepted you as a free gift, and in response to that, you should change. In Christianity, good works don’t lead to salvation, as they do in other religions; they flow from it.”

That’s important to remember as we study today’s Scripture. We’ll be reading a lot about what to do and not to do, but these aren’t things we do to earn God’s approval. They’re things we do because God has already brought us into a relationship with Him.

Let’s take a look at the Bible text, starting with Ephesians 4:17–19. Here we read about the way the “Gentiles” live.

Why is Paul talking poorly of the Gentiles here when, earlier, he was talking about their inclusion in the church?

Gentiles here means those who are none believers

not necessarily meaning the gentiles within the church as he has already identified the gentiles and jews as alike in Christ

He’s not criticizing the Gentiles who are now in the church and following Jesus. He’s talking about the way people live when they don’t have the Scriptures—when they don’t know anything about the true God. The Jewish Christians in Ephesus came from a culture that cared about what God wanted. The Gentile Christians came from a culture that didn’t. Their culture was “without hope and without God in the world” (2:12).

In 4:17–19, how does Paul describe the “Gentile” way of life?

Futility

Sensuality

Darkened in understanding

Indulging in impurity

Separated from the life of God • Ignorance

Full of greed 

Hardening of their hearts

Lost sensitivity

How would you compare that ancient world to the world we live in today?

Drastically similair

sin has stayed the same though the avenues of such have changed

Take a look at verses 20–22. What “way of life” have we learned from Christ?

a new way of life

a way of truth and not deceit or corruption

Look for the words old and new in these verses. What do you find?

Put off your old self (corrupted by desires)

Be made new in your attitude

Put on the new self 

Peek at the Greek

We have a matched set of verbs in verses 22 and 24. The word for “put off” is a form of the common word apotithemi, with a broad meaning of “throwing away, tossing aside, or getting rid of.” It can be used for the removal of clothing, but it’s stronger than that. These aren’t the old sneakers you kick off at night and lace up again the next morning. These are ones you burn. We “put on” Christ like a crisp new outfit, with the old one tossed aside.

It’s interesting to look at the verbs in these last few verses and ask, “Who is doing all this?” Some of the verbs are passive, so we have to guess, but it’s pretty obvious.

So if you are “being made new” or “renewed” in your attitude, who is doing the renewing?

It’s God, right? This is not you waking up one morning and saying, “I need a new attitude.” This is what we read about in Romans 12:2: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” God does the transforming. He does the renewing.

In verse 24, who has “created” the “new self” to be “like God”?

God has!

Who puts off the old self? Who puts on the new self?

That’s us, of course. But see the whole picture here. God does the heavy lifting. He creates a new self for us. He has designed and sewn and tailored this great new outfit and set it out for us. All we have to do is to put it on.

Stepping back to look at verses 17–24, how does this “way of Christ” compare with the way of “the Gentiles”—that is, those who don’t know God? 

GO DEEPER

Learn more about the “way” of Jesus in the following verses:

Psalm 1:6; John 14:4–6; Acts 24:14; 1 Corinthians 4:17; 12:31; 14:1; Hebrews 13:7. 

In the Psalms and Proverbs, and occasionally in the prophets, we find comparisons between the “ways” of the righteous and of the wicked.

What does Psalm 1:6 tell us about that?

Psalm 1:6 ESV

6 for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

the way of the righteous is known, the way of the wicked is death

When Jesus called himself “the Way,” He was answering a specific question.

How does that affect your understanding of John 14:6?

John 14:6 ESV

6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Understanding that Jesus was answering a question specifically about the way of life to live

We can then see that following Jesus doesnt just lead to eternity but to a whole new way of life

An early name for Christianity was “The Way,” as we see in Acts 24:14.

Acts 24:14 ESV

14 But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets,

Why do you think that was?

The way identified the one true way to Heaven

this helped differentiate the beliefs of the followers of Christ while also imitators of Christ’s statement

Is it significant that the “love chapter” (1 Corinthians 13) is bracketed by two mentions of “the way” (12:31; 14:1)? Why or why not?

The Way is only accomplished by the contents of this chapter which is love!

What do these concepts of the “way” imply for how believers live from day to day? 

We should live a life of love

a life that points to Christ

Christianity is not just eternity

it is life until and through eternity

The next section of this chapter, verses 25–29, deals with four very specific areas of behavior. If our new life is going to differ from the old life, we will see the difference in these four areas.

What four areas do you see in verses 25–29?

Falsehood (lying)

Anger

Stealing

Unwholesome talk

Here’s where we begin to see the way of grace take shape. Each of these four challenges has a front half and a back half. Now if we were just being challenged to live better lives so that God will love us, we would expect the front half, the command. “Don’t lie. Stop lashing out in anger. Don’t steal. Don’t curse.”

But we get more than that. This is not a matter of following a rule in order to score points with God. It’s living in our “new self.” It’s being who we are, in Christ.

So don’t speak falsehoods, but, instead, what should we do and why?

Speak truthfully, for we are all members of one body.

How does being “one body” affect the way we should treat each other?

Have you ever had a situation where you told the truth technically, but not really? But if we are members of one body, we need to be completely truthful, because we’re all in this together. If the heart says, “I’m feeling some pain, but I’m not going to bother the brain with that info,” it will be disastrous for them both.

The verse on anger might be paraphrased as, “Anger will happen, but don’t let it lead you into sinful outbursts.”

But what else does it tell us about anger?

Paul assumes that we will get angry, but charges us to avoid sin. But there’s more here. This is not a grudge-holding, I-don’t- get-mad-I-get-even kind of thing. Anger needs to be swept out every night. Otherwise, our anger can fester and prompt future sin.

What are we supposed to do instead of stealing?

Work, do something useful, and share with others. Notice how the whole direction changes. The thief grabs something for himself, but the Christ-follower seeks to give things to others.

What are we supposed to use instead of “unwholesome language”?

Use your words to build other people up. This is less about dirty words and more about the purpose of our language. We live in a communications explosion. You can pick up your phone and tweet something that thousands—even millions—might see. People talk on TV, text non-stop, and rant on the Internet. We’d have to say that most of that communication doesn’t “build others up.”

Leader: For your own backgrounding, this section of Ephesians has strong similarities with Matthew 5:21–48, where Jesus cites laws and traditions but then goes beyond them—including specific mention of anger and speech. 

Verse 30 has some strange ideas in it, but it’s really a stunning summary of the way of grace.

What do you think it means to “grieve” the Holy Spirit?

Paul’s intention here is to instruct the people to not do things against the Holy Spirit

According to Google: cause great distress to (someone):

What does it mean to be “sealed for the day of redemption”?

If the Christian life was all about following rules, we might expect to read, “Do these things so that God will accept you. Be careful not to lie or steal or curse or lash out in anger, because God will punish you.” But it’s not like that. We’re not auditioning. We’re already in the band. We’re in the family.

So what we read is intensely personal. Don’t make the Spirit sad. When we don’t live in the “new self” God has created for us, it grieves Him.

But this still isn’t about punishment—it’s about being who we are in our new selves. Remember in the first chapter the Spirit was described as “a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession” (Ephesians 1:14). That’s what it’s saying here. We’ve been “sealed for the day of redemption.” The Spirit is in our lives, renewing us. When we don’t cooperate, He grieves.

But when we do cooperate, we grow. Look at verses 31–32. We put off those “Gentile” ways—the ways of the world— bitterness, rage, hatred. We treat each other well. Not that we’re all suddenly perfect, but we’re forgiven, and so we forgive others. 

LAST WORD

At the beginning of chapter 5, we read, “Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

As we go through our lives, we learn various ways of living. We see things and we copy them, as any child does.

There are many today who don’t know the ways of God. They’ve never read a Bible, never gone to church. Their way of life is one they’ve picked up along the way—greedy, self-preserving, with few limits on anger or lust. That’s not said out of hatred or judgment, but concern. That’s the way of death.

By God’s grace, we have been accepted into His family, and as dearly loved children we are learning a new way. We have a new self. Not striving to be accepted, but celebrating the acceptance we already have, and loving the One who loves us.