What You Were and What You Are

Ephesians 4:17-24

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. 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. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.[1]

Once, perhaps long ago or perhaps more recently, each of us who name the Name of Christ lived in the world. Now, though we are in the world, we are no longer of the world. A change has taken place. Nevertheless, as a Christian, can you remember what that was like? There was a time when we who are Christians were without God and without hope in the world. Can you recall those dreadful days?

You have often heard me speak of the fact that what you believe dictates how you live. What one believes is revealed in how one lives! Underscore this concept in your minds. What you believe is revealed in how you live. As Christians, we are to live godly lives, not just because morality is good in itself (it is) or because it promotes happiness or success (it does), but because of what God has done for us and in our lives.

Because of what we believe about God’s actions toward us through Christ our Lord, we should live as God desires. His will is clearly revealed through His Word. Martyn Lloyd-Jones states of this point, “Our conduct should always be to us something which is inevitable in view of what we believe… If my Christian living is not quite inevitable to me, if I am always fighting against it and struggling and trying to get out of it, and wondering why it is so hard and narrow, if I find myself rather envying the people who are still back in the world, there is something radically wrong with my Christian life.”[2] James Boice comments that if such failures in the Christian life occur, what should be troubling is not our failure, nor even that we have a problem, but what should trouble us is that we have failed God and His purposes for our life.[3]

Though we may have forgotten what we once were, we need but look at the world about us and we are astonished by what is tolerated, even by what is embraced as normal and natural. Paul speaks of the Law of God as that which exposes sin, and especially reveals the true nature of sin as unmeasureable (sinful beyond measure) [see Romans 7:13]. Just so, as we walk with God and grow in Christ, we should be disturbed by what we once tolerated. We are prone to say that the world has changed—and it has! However, the underlying attitudes—tolerance of evil and hostility to God—are as ever.

I invite you to engage in a bit of introspection this morning. Not often do I encourage such introspection, but there is a place for such inward looking reflection. In particular, I am asking that you who share this service reflect on the life which once was and consider the life which now is. As you hold your life up to the mirror of the Word, I ask you to carefully study all that you see, courageously changing what needs to be changed so that Christ may shine more fully through your life. In order to accomplish this admittedly difficult task, focus your attention on the passage under consideration.

Marks of Your Former Life — Perhaps you were engaged in dark and dreadful sins. Perhaps your former life is so sordid that you don’t wish to even speak of it. You are so ashamed that you will not even confess to what you once were—some things simply have no place in your conversation. Perhaps you lived what many considered a good life, though you were unsaved.

Whatever your former life before you came to Christ, certain characteristics marked your life. The Apostle puts his finger on some of those marks. The marks of life without Christ which the Apostle exposes are that (1) we walk in the futility of our minds, (2) our understanding is darkened, and (3) we are alienated from the life of God. Such a statement is surprising since we expect the Apostle to speak of morality and ethics. Paul’s emphasis as he describes the world system from which we came is on the intellectual aspects of the non-Christian life.

As I review these marks of our former life, I am struck by the fact that God does not focus so much on the various actions of the unsaved. Perhaps we would be prone to do so, but God peers beyond the moment and focuses on underlying attitudes. Actually, we should not be surprised at this, since we know that the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul and spirit, joints and marrow, as it judges the thoughts and purposes of the heart. No creature can hide from him, but all are naked and helpless before the eyes of the one to whom we must give a word of explanation [Hebrews 4:12, 13].

We are no longer raised to think as God wills. Inhabitants of this dying world are ignorant of what pleases God. We can no more expect those who live as the world lives to think the thoughts of Holy God than we can expect a chimpanzee to compose a sonata. Though redeemed by the grace of God, we nevertheless discover that we bring many of our darkened attitudes into the church. Unless we are taught by the Word of God and the Spirit of the Living God, we will continue in the darkness of our worldly understanding.

How you think and what you think is important. Where your mind rests when free to think any thoughts is important. People act out their thoughts. It is not our actions which finally condemn us, but it is the thoughts and attitudes which condemn us by leading us to mess up. Our thinking is futile and our understanding is darkened as a consequence of being alienated from God. Our problems go back to our mind. This is the point at which the unsaved individual has his greatest problem. He does not know God, so he cannot think properly. His sinful conduct reflects his sinful mind.

Edward Gibbon wrote of the Roman period in which the Apostle lived. He stated that the philosophers regarded all religions as equally false, the common people regarded them as equally true, and the rulers regarded them as equally useful. That could easily be the view of people today. The self-satisfied intellectual considers all religions as false. The common people are undiscerning and thus consider all religions as equally true. Politicians consider all religions as equally useful.

In the spiritual destitution revealed through observing contemporary society, we demonstrate the veracity of the apostolic revelation. We could rewrite the Apostle’s words to read you must no longer walk as Canadians [or Americans] do, in the futility of their minds. 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. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practise every kind of impurity.

The first aspect of your prior life is that you walked in the futility of your mind. Christians should have left behind an existence whose mind-set was so distorted that it was marked by futility and folly. Because it lacked a relationship with God, our former existence had lost touch with reality and was left fumbling with inane trivialities and worthless side issues.[4]

You perhaps will recall the similarity of what Paul says here to what he said in Romans 1:21. There, the Apostle says of the lost that although they knew God, they did not honour Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Paul’s indictment of mankind in the Roman’s letter moves from futility to foolishness to idolatry [Romans 1:21-23]. In fact, the parallels between our text and Paul’s words in the Roman’s passage are striking.

Again, in your former condition, your understanding was darkened. Human estrangement from God drastically affects the mind-set. Thus, thinking becomes darkened, so that for all practical purposes the lost are blind to the truth. The alienation of the outsider is because of the ignorance that is in them. What is important to see is that darkened understanding is not some transient condition. The apostolic language teaches that the light of understanding in the lost has gone out so that they are now in a state of being incapable of grasping the truth of God and of His Gospel.

As noted moments ago, their foolish hearts were darkened, but the emphasis here leads us to stress their own responsibility for their abandonment to sin. Do not gloat, child of God, for it is but the enabling power of the Spirit of wisdom and revelation given to you which enables you to know God better and to understand the truth of His purposes [see Ephesians 1:17, 18]. Instead, in humble joy acknowledge that God has graciously equipped you to see what you previously were unable to see.

You were alienated from the life of God through ignorance. We know that those outside of Christ are dead in … trespasses and sins [Ephesians 2:1]. Those who are lost have no hope and [are] without God in the world [Ephesians 2:12]. The reason for this alienation is because of the ignorance that is in them. To know God is to enjoy a personal relationship with Him. Many professed Christians claim to know God, but they have no intimacy with Him. Knowledge of God is demonstrated through obedience to Him and a grateful response to His presence. Ignorance of God is nothing less than failure to be grateful and obedient. Ignorance describes one’s total stance, including emotions, will and actions. Not to know God is to ignore Him, to say “no” to His righteous demands. Peter O’Brien is correct in saying that such ignorance is culpable.[5] The sinner’s inability to understand the light of God’s truth is no excuse for the lack of relationship with Him. It is the ignorance that is in them which places the blame squarely on their own shoulders.

Empty minds, darkened understanding and inward ignorance results in people become callused, licentious and insatiably unclean. Scripture bears an unwavering testimony to the power of ignorance and error to corrupt, just as it also points to the power of truth to liberate, ennoble and refine.[6]

Why did we live in the futility of our minds, darkened in [our] understanding, and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that [was in us]? The Apostle says it is because we were ignorant, our hearts were hardened, our lives were callused, and we surrendered to sensuality and were greedy to practise every kind of impurity. You who share this service and who are yet outside of Christ are lost. That is an awful word, but it does not have much impact in the thinking of those who are lost. However, when the Apostle speaks of them as ignorant, I have no doubt that they take umbrage. Consider this, however, the lost are ignorant both of God and of the will of God!

As one who is outside the precincts of grace, your heart grows continually harder, your life becomes ever more callused and you readily justify each surrender to sensuality. Paul appeals to Christians to forsake the old way of living because it is an empty life. The New English Bible translates these verses as follows. Give up living like pagans with their good-for-nothing notions. Their wits are beclouded, they are strangers to the life that is in God, because ignorance prevails among them and their minds have grown hard as stone.[7]

The word which Paul uses for hard as stone is grim and terrible. It is pwvrwsi". According to Liddell and Scott, pwvrwsi" refers to petrifaction. Thus, metaphorically it speaks of hardness.[8] Consider the two other instances where the word is used in Scripture. Mark 3:5 speaks of Jesus being grieved at [the] hardness of heart demonstrated by the Jewish leaders. Likewise, in Romans 11:25, Paul speaks of a partial hardening [which] has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. This gives us some understanding into what the Apostle has in mind as he speaks of the hardness of their hearts.

Pwvrwsi" comes from pwvrw"which originally meant a stone that was harder than marble. It came to have certain medical uses. It was used for the chalkstone which can form in the joints and completely paralyse action. It was used of the callus that forms where a bone has been broken and re-set, a callus which is harder than the bone itself. Finally the word came to mean the loss of all power of sensation; it described something which had become so hardened, so petrified that it had no power to feel at all.[9]

In the Epistle to a Young Friend, Robert Burns wrote about sin:

“I waive the quantum o’ the sin,

The hazard of concealing;

But och! it hardens a’ within,

And petrifies the feeling!”

The terror of sin is its petrifying effect. The process of sin is quite discernible. No man becomes a great sinner all at once. At first, he regards sin with horror. When he sins, there enters into his heart remorse and regret. However, if he continues to sin, there comes a time when he loses all sensation and can do the most shameful things without any feeling at all. His conscience is petrified.

What Paul is saying is that the unsaved world is actually much to blame for its state. People have wilfully hardened themselves against God, and as a result, they have become warped in their spiritual understanding. With this information, we should draw the conclusion that Paul developed the same line of thought in Romans 1:18-23. God’s wrath is displayed against wicked mankind, not because they are innocently ignorant of Him, but because they have wilfully closed their eyes to the revelation of God in nature.

The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Note the sequence. God has revealed Himself to mankind through nature, so that no one is without blame for failing to seek Him out and to worship Him. Though the revelation in nature is limited, it is nevertheless real and sufficient in itself to lead an individual to worship God properly—if the individual did not have reasons for refusing to so worship. It is God’s revelation which makes one blameworthy.

In spite of God’s revelation of Himself in nature, mankind has rejected this revelation, or has suppressed the revelation. Man tries to hide the truth and deny it. Looking at creation, man cries out that time and chance caused it to happen. There was no God, no plan, no thought behind all that is—it just happened! If man acknowledge that there is a God behind all that is, he would be compelled to change his thinking and manner of life. Because man’s ignorance of God is wilful and blameworthy and not a natural failure, the wrath of God is upon him. God is not favourable toward mankind, but He rather judges man for his sin.[10]

The manner in which God now judges people is through the inevitable working out of sin. Augustine once said, “The punishment of sin is sin.” This is what Paul has in mind. Therefore, Paul writes of the consequential darkening of mankind’s intellect and their moral lives. The sequence in Ephesians 4:17-19 is identical, though it is shorter and it is worded somewhat differently. The problem with the world in which we live is that it has hardened itself against God who is our very joy and glory.

Perhaps some illustrations are in order. This week, the following headline arrived in one of my news services: Hawaii Police Remove ‘God’ from Pledge (2002-09-26). Hawaiian Citizens for Separation of Church and State complained that the phrase “so help me God” in the new officer’s oath was offensive. The Honolulu Police Department has chosen to exalt the rage of those who hate God, and cease referring to God. The Honolulu Fire Department is the next object of attention for removal of any mention of God’s Name.

Perhaps you consider such actions silly, but they are the natural working out of man’s hostility against the Creator. The fact that the vast majority of people aren’t sufficiently worked up to resist such actions demonstrates the truth of Paul’s words.

In his commentary on Ephesians, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones gives an excellent illustration of man’s wilful ignorance and self-induced hardening of the heart. William Pitt the Younger was one of the great Prime Ministers of England, a great intellect, and a friend of William Wilberforce, the man who devoted his life to the abolition of slavery throughout the British Empire. Wilberforce had experienced a genuine evangelical conversion, and this had made him the upright man he was. It was because of his Christian convictions that he laboured so long and struggled so hard against slavery. Pitt was a nominal Christian, as most Englishmen of that day were, but Christianity did not mean anything to him.

In London in those days, there was also a great evangelical clergyman and preacher by the name of Richard Cecil. Wilberforce attended on Cecil’s preaching regularly and was delighted with it. It fed his soul and warmed his heart. He wanted his friend, William Pitt, the Prime Minister, to go with him to hear Cecil. Wilberforce often invited Pitt to attend church with him, but Pitt made excuses. He was always too busy. However, a day came when Pitt told Wilberforce that he could accompany him.

That Sunday morning Cecil was at his best. Wilberforce was uplifted as he had scarcely ever been before; he was glorying in God and prayed for his friend. However, when the service ended and they were going out together, William Pitt turned to his friend Wilberforce and said, “You know, Wilberforce, I have not the slightest idea what that man was talking about.”[11]

Marks of the Christ Life — I have spent considerable time focusing on the first few verses of the text. They are dark verses which condemn us each one, for we were once described by those dark words. There is a difference between the Christian and the outsider. A great divide separates the two parties. Thus, like the sharp crack of thunder the Apostle points to what we are. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Against heathen hardness, ignorance and recklessness, Paul sets a whole process of Christian moral education. He uses three parallel expressions which centre on three verbs, all in the aorist tense, meaning, “to learn,” “to hear,” and “to be taught,” with a final reference to the truth [which] is in Jesus.

You learned Christ [ejmavqete]. You heard Him [hjkouvsate]. You were taught in Him [ejdidavcqhte]. These remarkable expressions evoke the image of a school, and they appear to refer to the catechetical instruction which Paul assumes the Ephesians have had. Christ is the substance of Christian teaching. Just as evangelists “preach Christ,” so their hearers “learn” Christ and “receive” Him. As we preach Christ, we call for submission to His lordship and acceptance of all His moral demands associated with His new life. The standards and values of Christ’s new life are totally at variance with our former life.

Christ, the substance of what is taught, is also the teacher. Thus, the child of God has heard Him. I realise that the text reads that we heard about Him, but translated literally, the Greek [ei[ ge aujto;n hjkouvsate] says that we indeed heard Him. There is no preposition. Paul assumes that through the voice of Christian teachers, those who are in Christ have actually heard the voice of Christ! Therefore, when sound biblical moral instruction is given, it may be said that Christ is teaching about Christ.[12]

As Christians, we have been taught in Him. Not only is Christ our teacher and the subject of our teaching, but He is the context in which we have been taught. To learn Christ is to seize upon the new creation which He has made possible. Learning Christ is nothing less than putting off our old humanity like we might remove a rotting garment and putting on clean clothing like the new humanity which is created in God’s image.

When did all this take place? All this took place when you came to faith in Christ as Lord and Saviour. That old life is past and you have no business living there any longer. The vapid thoughts, the casual acceptance of wickedness, the tame surrender to evil—none of these have a place in the life of the child of God. You put off your old self [verse 22] and you accepted the call to put on the new self [verse 24]. The tense of these two verbs is aorist, indicating that these actions took place once for all at the point of salvation. This same statement of fact is iterated in Colossians 3:9, 10. You have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

There are some corollaries, but I must not push them beyond scriptural boundaries. If the old self has been put off, I will not continually practise those practises associated with that “old self.” Moreover, I will not be content with living as I once lived. Even the lack of valid thinking will be abhorrent to me as I grow in Christ. This is the basis for John’s startling statement concerning those who dabble in Christianity for a while—even a long while—but eventually tire of the demands which simply cannot be met in the flesh. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. But you have been anointed be the Holy One, and you all have knowledge [1 John 2:19, 20].

The pretender has neither desire nor power to continue long in the Christian life. How can the outsider continue in the Faith? They are trapped by the limited ability of futile minds. They are ignorant of God and their hearts are hardened, as we have already seen! The Christian has both desire and power because the Christian has knowledge. Only the Christian can think clearly about God and His will because only the Christian is uncomfortable with the callusing process. Thus, the Christian, with the aid of the true light of God’s grace, sees clearly that the old life is utterly corrupt.

Let me state clearly that salvation is not the adoption of a creed, nor is it a mere formality resulting in uniting with a particular sect or religion. Salvation is the result of being born from above into the Kingdom of God. Salvation is the work of God’s Spirit regenerating the individual so that he or she is acceptable in God’s sight. Salvation is the result of the repudiation of the old way of life and the willing adoption of God’s new life. The old self was decrepit, deformed and tending toward corruption. Just so, the new self is personified as new, fresh, beautiful and vigorous, like God since it is created in His image! This distinction must not be minimised.

Throughout his letters, Paul contrasts both “selves.” They balance one another. “The old was corrupt, in the process of degenerating, on its way to ruin or destruction; the new has been freshly created after the likeness of God. The old was dominated by lusts, uncontrolled passions; the new has been created in righteousness and holiness. The lusts of the old were deceitful; the righteousness of the new is true. Thus corruption and creation, passion and holiness, deceit and truth are set in opposition to one another, indicating the total incompatibility of the old and the new, what we were in Adam and what we are in Christ.”[13]

As Christians, we are to be renewed in the spirit of []our minds. In distinction to the previous verbs, which were aorists, this verb which is translated into English by the phrase be renewed is a present infinitive. This indicates that in addition to a decisive rejection of the old self and the assumption of the new self, there must be a continuous, inward renewal of our outlook as a Christian. Consider this. If heathen degradation is due to the futility of their minds, then Christian righteousness depends on the constant renewing of our minds. In short, you are what you feed on.

As Christians, you are called to feed on the Word of God. This is partly a matter of desire, but it also involves self-discipline to read when desire seems to fade. This means that we are called to walk in fellowship with Christ, both through prayer and through meditation—even when we don’t “feel” like praying. The world about us has adopted the attitude that how we “feel” about a situation should dictate our participation in or action toward that particular situation. God expects obedience; we have received His Spirit and we are called to a life of self-discipline which transcends feelings.

I challenge you to live for one week with determination to honour God. I challenge you to weigh whether you wish to watch the worldly indoctrination of your favourite sitcom, whether you will benefit from the liberal bias of the newscasts, or whether you will indeed be built up in godliness through listening to the music you normally listen to. I challenge you to determine that for just one week you will feed your “new self” on the Word of God daily and that you will invest time in the presence of Christ each day. This is nothing less than a conscious adoption of the admonition of Peter to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ [2 Peter 3:18].

You will find this challenge impossible outside of Christ. For you who are outside of Him, this is the closing word for you. If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved” [Romans 10:9-13].

The call of this message is a call to faith in the Son of God. To you who are born from above and into His Kingdom, the message calls you to determine to live lives marked by righteousness and holiness. May God give us grace to honour Him. May God show you mercy as He grants you repentance resulting in life. Amen.

Hawaii Police Remove ‘God’ from Pledge

Honolulu’s Star Bulletin reported that police will no longer make a pledge to God when officially sworn in for duty. Following a complaint by Hawaiian Citizens for Separation of Church and State (HCSCS), the Honolulu Police Department has dropped the phrase "so help me God" from the new officer’s oath. HCSCS president Mitch Kahle had filed a complaint, charging police Chief Lee Donohue with misconduct, and claiming that the oath, formalised in the department's 1991 Standards of Conduct, amounted to an unconstitutional religious test. The HPD issued a statement stating that the department is committed to supporting and defending the Constitution of the United States and Hawaii, and would instead use "the oath of office as printed in the state constitution" -- which does not include the God reference -- in its graduation ceremony next week. Kahle also asked the Honolulu Fire Department to recall a safety guide that includes a fireman's prayer that mentioned God.[14]

----

[2] D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Darkness and Light: An Exposition of Ephesians 4:16-5:17 (Baker, Grand Rapids: MI 1982) 21

[3] James Montgomery Boice, Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary (Zondervan, Grand Rapids: MI 1988) 137

[4] Peter T. O’Brien, Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Letter to the Ephesians (Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, MI 1999) 320

[5] O’Brien, op. cit., 321

[6] John R. W. Stott, The Bible Speaks Today: The Message of Ephesians (InterVarsity, Downers Grove, IL 1979) 175-6

[7] Samuel Sandmel (ed.), The New English Bible with Apocrypha (Oxford University Press, New York, NY 1976)

[8] Liddell, H. G., A Lexicon: Abridged from Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon (Logos Research Systems, Inc., Oak Harbor, WA 1996)

[9] William Barclay, Daily Study Bible: The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians (rev. ed.), (Westminster Press, Philadelphia, PA 1976) 152

[10] These points are adapted from Boice (op. cit.) 139

[11] cited in Boice (op. cit.) 140

[12] Stott, op. cit., 179

[13] Stott, op. cit., 181-2

[14] Religion Today News Summaries, 2002-09-26 (http://www.crosswalk.com)