Christian’s can Walk the Walk: Ephesians 4:17-24 an Application

Christian’s can Walk the Walk: Ephesians 4:17-24 an Application

Main idea: Paul tells the Ephesians that the Christian has a mind free from sin that can walk in the righteousness of God.[1]

Thesis: Paul’s sternly calls all Christians to walk in holiness; by explaining that they every believer has the ability to walk, act, differently from the world because they have renewed minds.

Introduction: The world has always out numbered believers and that is why Paul so forcefully calls believers to be separate.

I. Paul wants it very clear that what he is saying is what God is saying.

a. Paul says “testify in the Lord.”[2]

b. The word (martyromai) translated testify is only used 5 times in the New Testament all by Paul and all in the sense of “call to witness, invoke” [3]

c. Paul urges the Christian in the name of the Lord to walk differently from the world.

II. Paul points the to bondage of sin in the world which the Christian is free from.

a. The people bound in the world are “alienated from … life”[4] and their only joy is “impurity.”[5]

b. Paul say, “themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.”[6] Paul has listed this impurity in detail in letters like Romans.[7]

c. The understanding is that those devoid of “the life of God”[8] are unable and unwilling to do what is righteous and holy[9]

III. Christians on the other hand are not only called to be righteous and holy, they are made able to be by the renewed mind through Christ.

a. The idea of a renewed mind is central to a lot of Pauline soteriology.[10]

b. Christians “learned”[11] to “put off your old self” that used to be alienated from life and “put on the new self”[12] by walking, acting, in “true righteousness and holiness.”[13]

c. The word (ἀκούω) translated “you have heard.” stands out here. This word carries the meaning “be able to hear, as opposed to being deaf.”[14] The implication is that Christ has made them able to hear and obey.

d. Being “taught in him”[15] is all so very important. It means it is a learned behavior, like reading or walking. The idea of learning is about practice.

General application:

1. Every Christian has a solemn call to walk in righteousness and holiness.

2. Christ has given the Christian the ability to walk in away pleasing to God, by bringing their minds to the life that is in God.

3. Christ is the source of life in God

Specific application:

1. Learn to walk in Christ: it is a process and it takes dedication.

2. Be a serious about this as the Apostle was.

Conclusion: The majority is the lost. Christians walk in the world as a minority. More then that, each Christian was once in some way part of the majority. They have only been rescued by grace, through faith in the perfect work of Christ. The Christian must press into the new life and mind they have in Christ or they risk falling into their old ways.

[1] Francis Foulkes, Ephesians: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 10, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1989), 132.

[2] Ephesians 4:17, (all citations are in ESV unless otherwise noted).

[3] Henry George Liddell et al., A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996), 1082.

[4] Eph 4:18.

[5] Eph 4:18.

[6] Eph 4:19.

[7] Ro 1:26-32.

[8] Eph 4:18.

[9] Eph 4:24.

[10] Ro 12:1-2.

[11] Eph 4:20.

[12] Eph 4:24.

[13]Eph 4:24.

[14] James Swanson, Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek (New Testament) (Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997).

[15] Eph 4:21.

Bibliography

Foulkes, Francis. Ephesians: An Introduction and Commentary. Vol. 10. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1989.

Liddell, Henry George, Robert Scott, Henry Stuart Jones, and Roderick McKenzie. A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.

Swanson, James. Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek (New Testament). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997.