Exploring Ephesians #10 - Walk Not as the Gentiles: A New Walk for a New Creature
Text: Eph. 4:17-24
Thesis: To stress the importance of putting off the old man and putting on the new man.
Introduction:
(1) Martin Luther once discussed how disgusting it was for a Christian to return to his/her old ways by comparing such to a person putting back on his/her dirty clothes after a bath.
(2) Peter was even more explicit when he compared such to a dog returning to its vomit (cf. 2 Pet. 2:20-22).
Discussion:
I. The Old Walk (vv. 17-19):
A. ‘No longer’ implies that the Ephesians at one time did walk as the Gentiles.
B. ‘Walk’ denotes the lifestyle of the individual.
C. Note the similarity with Romans 1:21-24:
| Romans 1:21-24 | Ephesians 4:17-19 |
| v. 21 – they become futile in their thinking | v. 17 – in the futility of their minds |
| v. 21 – their senseless minds were darkened | v. 18 – they are darkened in their understanding |
| v. 24 – God gave them up | v. 19 – they have given themselves up |
D. ‘Futility of their mind’
1. ‘Futility’ (Gr. mataiotes)
a. The word is used 3 times in the NT (Rom. 8:20; Eph. 4:17; 2 Pet. 3:18).
b. The word is used in the LXX in Ecclesiastes (‘vanity’).
c. It carries the idea of vanity, purposelessness, absurdity, and worthlessness.
d. Some commentators note a connection with idolatry, especially the Artemis Temple.
e. One commentator well-said: “Without the knowledge of God, ultimately all is vanity, as there is no sense of purpose” (Foulkes 133).
2. ‘Mind’ (Gr. nous)
- ‘The apostle is referring, not to “a defect in the ability of his readers to reason but their ‘mind-set,’ the total person viewed under the aspect of thinking” (Best 417).
E. The “terrible downward path of evil” (Stott 177) (vv. 17-19):
1. ‘Darkened in their understanding’
a. “Their sense of moral distinction to become blurred” (Boles 284-85).
b. Cf. 2 Cor. 4:3-6 – Satan has blinded
2. ‘Excluded from the life of God’
a. “Loss of light can now be seen to amount to the same thing as loss of life” (Lincoln 278).
b. ‘The life of God’ – “ ‘the new life,’ filed with significance and joy, life as recreated by God” (Mitton 160).
3. ‘Ignorance that is in them’
a. ‘Ignorance’ refers to a “failure to be grateful and obedient … to ignore [the Lord], to say ‘no’ to his demands” (O’Brien 321).
b. ‘In them’ denotes that this “is not an external but an internal cause for their alienation from the life of God. Thus the blame of ignorance falls on them and not on God or external factors” (Hoehner 587).
4. ‘Hardness of their heart’
a. The hardening refers to the “progressive inability of conscience to convict them of wrongdoing” (Bruce 355).
b. It ‘carries the idea of being rock-hard. It was used by physicians to describe the calcification that forms around broken bones and becomes harder than the bone itself. It was also used of the hard formations that sometimes occur in joints and cause them to become immobile” (MacArthur 169).
5. ‘Become callous’
a. ‘Callous’ implies being insensitive, having moral apathy, beyond feeling.
b. Cf. Jer. 6:15 – Israel was not ashamed, could not blush
6. ‘Given themselves over to sensuality’
a. ‘Sensuality’ refers to “riotous and excessive living, frequently with unrestrained sexual behavior in view” (Boles 286).
b. “This fearful self-abandonment leads to all kinds of filthy practices, which are so absorbing as almost to become a total preoccupation” (Wood 62).
7. ‘For the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness”
a. ‘Impurity’ “includes but is not limited to sexual disorder and perverse actions committed alone, with persons of the same or the other sex, by incest, or with animals” (Barth 2:503).
b. ‘With greediness’ is translated in the NIV as “with a continual lust for more.” The phrase also implies “the lack of restraint in conduct” (UBS Handbook).
II. The New Walk (vv. 20-24):
A. One must “take off the grave-clothes and put on the grace-clothes” (Wiersbe 6:39).
B. “There must be the complete abandonment of the old way of living” (Foulkes 133).
C. Therefore, beginning with verse 20, Paul reminds them of the new walk.
1. In verse 20, “The sense of ‘learned Christ’ seems clear: it means learning about Christ in the gospel which was preached to them; and the moral content of the message they heard was completely contrary to the sins described in the preceding verses” (UBS Handbook).
2. In verses 21-22, Paul stressed that a person who truly knows Jesus has left behind his/her old ways.
3. In verses 23-24, Paul then noted that such a person now lives a new way.
a. This new way includes a renewed mind.
(1) ‘Renewed’ (Gr. avnaneo,w)
(a) Thayer’s – “to be spiritually transformed, to take on a new mind”
(b) Louw-Nida – “to cause something to become new and different, with the implication of becoming superior”
(2) ‘Mind (Gr. nous) – “In your temper; your heart; your nature” (Barnes’ Notes).
b. The new way includes putting on a God-like character.
(1) The new self is to be like God.
(2) “As the fruit of inward renewal, let there be outward renovation. A new object is clean, fresh, tidy; let your life have something of the same aspect - let your principles, aims, habits, be new, in the sense of being conformed to Christ, who is your life” (Pulpit Com.).
Conclusion:
(1) Gal. 2:20 teaches us that we are to be dead to self and to allow Christ to live in us.
(2) Do others see Jesus in what you do and say on a regular basis?