Ephesians 4.25a-The Church Age Believer Laid Aside Falsehood Produced by the Old Man
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Saturday September 27, 2025
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 4:25a-The Church Age Believer Laid Aside Falsehood Produced by the Old Man
Lesson # 283
Ephesians 4:25 Therefore, because each and every one of you as a corporate unit have laid aside that which characterized by falsehood, each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to make it your habit of speaking truth with his neighbor for each and every one of us as a corporate unit are members of one another. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 4:25 is composed of the following:
(1) causal participial clause: apothemenoi to pseudos (ἀποθέμενοι τὸ ψεῦδος), “because each and every one of you as a corporate unit have laid aside that which is characterized by falsehood” (Lecturer’s translation).
(2) command: laleite alētheian hekastos meta tou plēsion autou (λαλεῖτε ἀλήθειαν ἕκαστος μετὰ τοῦ πλησίον αὐτοῦ), “each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to make it your habit of speaking truth with his neighbor” (Lecturer’s translation).
(3) Hoti causal clause: hoti esmen allēlōn melē (ὅτι ἐσμὲν ἀλλήλων μέλη), “for each and every one of us as a corporate unit are members of one another” (Lecturer’s translation)
The command in Ephesians 4:25 serves as a strong inference from the assertions in Ephesians 4:17-24.
This laying aside of falsehood took place at the moment of justification through the baptism of the Spirit, which identified them with Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the Father’s right hand.
Consequently, this identification gave the church age believer victory over their old indwelling Adamic sin nature in a positional sense.
It also gave them the power to withstand the temptations that originate from the desires of this old Adamic sin nature.
They would experience this victory of their sin nature and divine omnipotence by appropriating by faith their union and identification with Christ by considering themselves has having been crucified, died, buried, raised and seated with Jesus Christ at the Father’s right hand.
Therefore, we can see that the apostle Paul issues a command here in Ephesians 4:25, which presents an inference from the contents of Ephesians 4:17-24.
This command required that the Christian community continue to make it their habit of speaking truth with each other.
This command is modified by a participle clause and a hoti clause.
Both present the basis for this command.
The participial clause asserts that they were to obey this command because they have laid aside that which is characterized by falsehood, which refers to the old indwelling Adamic sin nature.
The hoti clause asserts that they were to obey this command because they were members of each other.
Therefore, this verse teaches that the basis for obeying this command is two-fold: (1) They have laid aside that which is characterized by falsehood, i.e., the sin nature. (2) They are members of each other.
Now, as was the case in Ephesians 4:22, the verb apotithemai (ἀποτίθεμαι) here in Ephesians 4:25 is used of the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia, who were the recipients of Ephesians.
In both verses, the verb is used of “laying aside” like an old worn out garment the old man, which is a personification of their indwelling old Adamic sin nature.
However, unlike Ephesians 4:22, the verb here in Ephesians 4:25 is not used in relation to the Gentile Christian community “experiencing” their sanctification.
However, it is used in verse 25 with reference to the “positional” aspect of their sanctification, which is indicated by the fact that the aorist tense of this verb is not a consummative aorist, which is used to stress the cessation of an act or state.
This type of aorist would emphasize the cessation of the act of the identifying the church age believer with Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right than of the Father through the baptism of the Spirit at the moment of justification.
Thus, the consummative aorist would refer to positional sanctification, however, the context would suggest otherwise.
I interpret the aorist tense of this verb apotithemai (ἀποτίθεμαι) in Ephesians 4:22 as a constative aorist, which describes in summary fashion the recipients of this epistle benefiting themselves by laying aside the sinful desires of their indwelling old Adamic sin nature.
The context suggests the aorist tense is speaking of the experiential aspect of the church age believer’s sanctification because Ephesians 4:17-21 are concerned about the church age believer’s lifestyle.
Paul instructs them to reject the pre-justification lifestyle and continue to experience fellowship with Christ by appropriating by faith their union and identification with Him.
Furthermore, the infinitive conjugation of this verb is an infinitive of indirect discourse with an indicative force, which follows the verb of perception, which is didaskō (διδάσκω), which appears in Ephesians 4:21.
So therefore, the verb didaskō (διδάσκω) thus introduces the indirect discourse and the infinitive conjugation of this verb apotithemai (ἀποτίθεμαι) is the main verb and the latter represents a finite verb in the direct discourse and stands as the object of the former.
Thus, it identifies what the recipients of this epistle were taught, namely that, with respect to their pre-justification lifestyle, they were to lay aside like an old worn out garment the desires of their old indwelling Adamic sin nature and specifically, it identifies what they were taught so as to experience their sanctification.
Thus, the “laying aside” in Ephesians 4:22 is related to the experiential aspect of their sanctification and would involve the members of the Gentile Christian community confessing their sins when necessary (1 John 1:9) in order to be restored to fellowship with God.
They would maintain that fellowship by appropriating by faith their union and identification with Jesus Christ.
Now, the verb apotithemai (ἀποτίθεμαι) here in Ephesians 4:25 also means “to lay aside” like an old worn out garment and the referent of the masculine plural form of this verb is of course the recipients of this epistle who noted were the members of the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia.
The noun pseudos (ψεῦδος) means “a lie, falsehood, deception” since the word pertains to that which deviates from or perverts the truth and the word’s referent is the believer’s old Adamic sin nature, which they received at the moment of physical birth through the imputation of Adam’s original sin in the garden of Eden.
This interpretation is indicated by the contents of Ephesians 4:17-24, which are the basis for the inferential statement in Ephesians 4:25, presents a contrast between the old man and the new with the former referring to the old sin nature and the latter the new Christ nature received at the moment of justification through regeneration.
The articular construction of this abstract noun particularizes the general quality of this noun and defines it more closely distinguishing it from other notions and here it is distinguishing the falsehood that originates from the function of the old Adamic indwelling sin nature from the truth, which originates from the believer’s new nature.
Therefore, the articular construction of this word should be translated “that which is characterized by falsehood,” which refers to the believer’s indwelling old Adamic sin nature.
Therefore, this verb apotithemai (ἀποτίθεμαι) in Ephesians 4:25 is used in relation to the positional aspect of the Christian’s sanctification.
This is indicated by the fact that this “laying aside” that which is characterized by falsehood, which is a referent to the sin nature, took place at the moment of justification through the baptism of the Spirit, which identified them with Jesus Christ in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the Father’s right hand.
This verb apotithemai (ἀποτίθεμαι) here in Ephesians 4:25 expresses the idea of being removed from a particular condition, which is conceived as divesting oneself of an old worn out garment.
Therefore, when Paul speaks of the believer having laid aside their old Adamic sin nature through the baptism of the Spirit at justification, he means that at that moment, in a positional sense, they removed themselves from the power and rulership of the sin nature over their souls.
In other words, they divested themselves of the power and rulership of the sin nature over their lives.
The participle conjugation of the verb apotithemai (ἀποτίθεμαι) functions as a causal participle, which indicates that it is presenting “the reason why” or “the basis upon which” the members of the Gentile Christian community were to speak the truth with each other.
Therefore, it expresses the idea that they must speak truth with each other “because” they have laid aside that which is characterized by falsehood, namely the old indwelling Adamic sin nature at the moment of justification through the baptism of the Spirit.
Thus, the verb apotithemai (ἀποτίθεμαι) is used in relation to the positional aspect of their sanctification because it presented the basis for the command requiring believers to speak truth to another.
The basis for obedience to the various commands and prohibitions of Scripture like the one here in Ephesians 4:25 are based upon the positional aspect of their sanctification and specifically, their union and identification with Christ.
The middle voice of this verb apotithemai (ἀποτίθεμαι) functions as an indirect middle, which indicates that the church age believer laying aside that which is characterized by falsehood, namely the sin nature was “for their benefit” since it released them in a positional sense from the power of the sin nature over their souls.
This identification with Christ in a positional sense also set up the potential for the believer to experience victory over the sin nature by appropriating by faith their union and identification with Christ, which would benefit them since result in fellowship with God and spiritual growth.
