You Are What You Wear

Have you ever heard the saying, “You are what you wear?” I know there’s a saying, “You are what you eat.” But that’s an entirely different message.

It’s true. There’s actually some scientific studies as to what our choice of clothing says about what we think of ourselves and assumptions others make of us.

Today’s text deals with the well-dressed Christian.

When the Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesian Christians, he wanted them to understand their new life in Jesus Christ. In contrast to their former, life apart from Christ, he wanted them to understand what it meant to “put on,” as it were, the new garment of Christianity.

Over against their non-Christ following life that was characterized by emptiness, hardness, darkness, deadness, and recklessness (4:17-19), Paul used three expressions, which described the Christian life.

Ephesians 4:20-24 teaches us that Jesus Christ transforms people into new creations.

Ephesians 4:20–24 NKJV

20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

We’ll use the following outline:

1. Christians Have Learned Christ (4:20)

2. Christians Have Heard Christ (4:21a)

3. Christians Were Taught in Christ (4:21b-24)

I. Christians Have Learned Christ (4:20)

First, Christians have learned Christ.

Ephesians 4:20 NKJV

20 But you have not so learned Christ,

Paul said in verse 20: “But you have not so learned Christ!”

The first thing to note is the first word, “But.” Paul is introducing a contrast. In verses 17-19, he described the old way of life of these new Ephesian Christians. He described their non-Christian life.

In contrast to that life, he now says, “But,” and it is very important to pay attention to what comes next as he described their new life in Christ. Paul was about to introduce the gospel message in his letter.

The second thing to note is that Paul used a figure of speech called “litotes.” Litotes is an “understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by the negative.”

Here, where Paul wrote, “But that is not the way you learned Christ!” he meant that Christians have learned Christ in a way that was completely contrary to their former way of life.

As commentator Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes,

“The life of the Christian is not to be something vague and indefinite, not something which is difficult to define, and difficult to recognize. According to Paul’s teaching, and the teaching of the entire Bible, it is clear-cut and obvious—it stands out, it is perfectly definite, and anybody should be able to recognize it at a glance.”

And the third thing to note is that the Greek word for learned (emathete) is in the aorist tense. That means that it is a past, completed action with continuing results.

Lloyd-Jones goes on to say,

“In other words, Christianity is not a vague, indefinite, nebulous kind of feeling or experience; patently it is something which can be defined and described; it is primarily a matter of knowledge…. Christianity is primarily and essentially a matter of knowledge; it is the knowledge to which these people had come.”

But what is so interesting is that these Christians in Ephesus had not merely learned facts or doctrines. They had learned Christ!

This expression is found nowhere else in the New Testament, nor even in any other pre-biblical document.

So what does it mean to have learned Christ?

Dr. James Montgomery Boice says,

“It means that Christians are Christians because they have entered into a personal relationship with the living Lord Jesus Christ. It is a learning of him that changes them at the deepest possible level.”

Illustration:

At what point do we know someone? Let’s say there’s someone you respect greatly. Some prominent person who seems out of reach for you. You get to know some folks who know that person. And they tell you about them...

Another commentator states:

The Christ whom they learned was “not just the Word made flesh, the unique Godman, who died, rose and reigns. More than that. The implication of the context is that we must also preach his lordship, the kingdom or rule of righteousness he ushered in, and all the moral demands of the new life. The Christ whom the Ephesians had learned was calling them to standards and values totally at variance with their former pagan life.”

So, first, Christians have learned Christ.

II. Christians Have Heard Christ (4:21a)

Ephesians 4:21 NKJV

21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus:

Paul wrote in verse 21a, “… assuming that you have heard him.”

The Ephesian Christians most likely had never heard Christ speak in person. So, what did Paul mean when he wrote, “… assuming that you have heard him.”

“Paul assumes that through the voice of their Christian teachers, they had actually heard Christ’s voice. So, when sound biblical moral instruction is being given, it may be said that Christ is teaching about Christ.”

Commentator Kent Hughes puts it this way, “When true preaching takes place, Jesus is invisibly in the pulpit and walking the aisles personally teaching his own.”

If you are a Christian, you have experienced this, haven’t you? You sit in the worship service, and you listen to the preaching of the Word of God. And suddenly, it seems as if Christ himself is speaking to you! This is not mere subjectivity; it is supernatural. Jesus really is speaking to you and you are hearing him. Jesus speaks to change the thinking and the lives of his people.

So, first, Christians have learned Christ. And second, Christians have heard Christ.

III. Christians Were Taught in Christ (4:21b-24)

Ephesians 4:21–24 NKJV

21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

Paul wrote in verse 21b, “… and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus.”

We might say that Jesus is the school, as well as the teacher and the subject of instruction.”

And John Stott writes,

“When Jesus Christ is at once the subject, the object and the environment of the moral instruction being given, we may have confidence that it is truly Christian. For truth is in Jesus. The change from his title ‘Christ’ to his human name ‘Jesus’ seems to be deliberate. The historical Jesus is himself the embodiment of truth, as he claimed.”

Paul is asserting that only Jesus Christ transforms people into new creations. And he does so by being the subject, the object, and the environment of the teaching that brings about that transformation. In other words, to be a Christian is to be all about Christ, as the one called St. Patrick so beautifully put it in the fifth century:

Christ be with me, Christ within me,

Christ behind me, Christ before me,

Christ beside me, Christ to win me,

Christ to comfort and restore me,

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,

Christ in hearts of all that love me,

Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

The Ephesian pagans became new creations in Christ by having learned Christ, heard Christ, and being taught in Christ.

So, what did this mean for the new Christian life of the Ephesians? The answer is in verses 22-24.

A. Christians Have Put Off the Old Self (4:22)

Ephesians 4:22 NKJV

22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,

Paul wrote in verse 22, “… that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.”

It is important to understand that the words “to put off,” as well as the words “to put on” in verse 24, are in the aorist tense. That is, these are actions that have taken place in the past.

The parallel passage in Colossians 3:9–10 makes this clear,

Colossians 3:9–10 NKJV

9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,

In other words, Paul was not giving a fresh command. Instead, he was reminding the Ephesian Christians of what had happened to them at their conversion. They had put off their old self. They were now new creatures in Christ.

There are Christians today, even deliberately, it seems to me, putting on the old man! Putting on things that belong to the life of the flesh and the devil and the world. And they have not yet realized that “Those things don’t belong to a Christian”! That is the argument of the Apostle. Work it out for yourselves in detail. The Christian should not even look like the typical man or woman of the world.

We must remember that Christ is speaking metaphorically here. The “put off” and “put on” is not referring to the latest fashions.

Don’t misunderstand and think that we must dress so differently and be like the Amish to be different from the world. It’s only clothing. And doesn’t God say that He doesn’t look on the outward like others, but looks on heart of the individual? Within reason, it’s not the clothes that makes the person. It’s what’s inside.

There are certain things that are incompatible with this new life. Refer back to last week’s verses. Put them off! Get rid of them! We will be different because we have a different nature. Not because we wear different clothes.

B. Christians Have Put On the New Self (4:24)

Ephesians 4:24 NKJV

24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

When the Ephesian Christians were regenerated, they received a new nature. They put on the new self.

Children love costumes, don’t they? Whether it be a cowboy costume, princess, pirate, or what have you, the moment they put on that costume, it’s as if a metamorphosis takes place. They literally become that character. Talk like that character. Act like that character. Paul is saying, “put on the new person you are like you put on a new set of clothes. Act like a follower of Jesus. Talk like it. Live like it. BE IT!”

“We received the old man at birth, and we were given the new man in our heavenly birth. The new man is not our work—it is God’s creation and gift.”

C. Christians Are To Be Renewed in the Spirit of Their Minds (4:23)

Ephesians 4:23 NKJV

23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,

Verse 23 is actually sandwiched between putting off and putting on, “… and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds.”

The Greek word for “to be renewed” is a present infinitive, meaning that this is something that must done continually.

John Stott explains that

“it indicates that, in addition to the decisive rejection of the old and assumption of the new, implicit in conversion, a daily—indeed a continuous—inward renewal of our outlook is involved in being a Christian. If heathen degradation is due to the futility of their minds, then Christian righteousness depends on the constant renewing of our minds.”

And how do we renew our minds? By reading God’s word. And not just reading it in order to check off our list that we have read it, but reading it in such a way as to understand and apply what God wants of us as his new creatures in Christ.

Conclusion

So, as Paul teaches, let us live as those who have been transformed by Jesus Christ.

If you are not a follower of Jesus, ask God to transform you by giving you a new nature, a new self.

And if you are a Christian, ask God to enable you to live as one who has a new nature, and who has been transformed by Jesus Christ. When it comes to the Christian life, you are what you wear. Amen.