The New Life (Ephesians 4:17-32)

Announcements

On Sunday, June 27th, 2021, which is not this coming Sunday but the following Sunday, the AM Worship service will be under Pavilion 2 at Coldstream Dam in Philipsburg. The service will start at the same time, 10:30am and afterwards, we’ll have a picnic lunch including burgers, hotdogs, and whatever else usually goes with a cookout. If you’re able to provide some of the food, please sign up on the sign up sheet that will be available this coming Sunday.

On Sunday July 4th, we have a quarterly business meeting following the morning worship service.

Sunday, July 11th, 2021, we have a missionary family that will be joining us for worship. Michael Dunlop and his family are missionaries to France and he’ll use part of that service to explain what his ministry is and he’ll also preach that morning, Please invite your friends and family both to the cookout on the 27th and to hear our missionary friend on the 11th.

As always, let me encourage you to continue worshiping the LORD through your giving. In order to help you do that, we have two virtual means for you to do so (1) you can text 84321 with your $[amount] and follow the text prompts or (2) you can visit us on graceandpeacepa.com and select giving in the menu bar. Everything you give goes to the building up of this church and the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Sermon

Introduction

Over the past few months on Wednesday evenings, we’ve been working through the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians and I made it clear early on that the way that Paul has organized this letter is to start with doctrinal truths in Chapters 1-3 with practical ramifications from Chapters 4-6. Over the past two weeks, we’ve started working through the practical ramification for the doctrinal truths that he has presented starting with the need for unity within the church. I explained that unity within the universal church exists simply because Jesus has united the universal church but unity of a local church is a different matter.

And in discussing unity within the local church context, we discussed the biblical requirement to separate from individuals, churches, and denominations that either deny the truth or subvert the Gospel either intentionally and maliciously or unintentionally. I really summed it up by explaining that not every person who claims to be a Christian is a Christian; not every preacher who claims to preach truth is preaching truth; not every church is a biblical church; and not every so-called Christian organization is truly Christian. Only when the other individual is truly a Christian in word and deed; only when the preacher preaches only the truth of God’s Word; only when the church is biblical; and only when the Christian organization truly resembles the truth of the Gospel should we be united with them—otherwise, to be united isn’t just foolish, it’s sinful. Because the truth of God’s Word is far more important than unity.

When the person who claims to be a Christian shows that he truly is a Christian; when the preacher preaches and teaches only the truth; when the church proves itself to be a biblical church; and when the organization represents what a Christian organization should look like—unity is not just encouraged, it’s required by the Bible—in particular Ephesians 4.

When the doctrine is correct, we should be unified and then Paul continues in Ephesians 4 by encouraging the use of all spiritual gifts for the growth of the church. Not everyone is meant to be an evangelist, shepherd, or teacher; but each person has been given spiritual gifts by Jesus Christ for the purpose of building up the church. Thus, we should seek to learn our spiritual gifts and use our spiritual gifts for the purpose of building up the church—and we learn this simply by seeking to get involved in the local church. As we serve, God reveals our gifts to us and we continue to grow spiritually.

Ephesians 4 starts with the premise that the Ephesians ought to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling” to which they have been called. In Ephesians 4:17-32, Paul continues this idea by explaining to what extent they are to walk in a manner of the calling to which they’ve been called. Read with me Ephesians 4:17-32.

Ephesians 4:17–32 ESV

17 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. 18 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. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. 25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

As we study this passage, we’ll talk it in two parts: (1) Vs. 17-24, teaches us to Replace the Old Life with the New Life—this is the same idea as putting off your old self and putting on the new self (which is the terminology that Paul utilizes in Vs. 22-24) and its the principle that as a believer, your life is to represent Christ in the way that you live. You are not to live as unbelievers do, you are to live in the likeness of God. (2) Vs. 25-232, then gives us several examples of how Replacing the Old with the New works. In giving these examples, Paul demonstrates how a Christian is to put away sinful behavior and sinful thoughts and behave and think in righteous ways. This passage will exhort us to do the same, to replace the old manner of living with the new or in other words, to replace our sinful behaviors with righteous behavior.

Prayer for Illumination

Replace the Old Life with the New Life (17-24)

Paul starts this section by making this statement, Vs. 17, “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.”

Remember with me, when Paul utilizes the term Gentiles in this context, he isn’t just referring to the fact that they’re not Jewish. In this context, we know that by calling them Gentiles, he’s actually acknowledging the fact that they aren’t believers. We know that from two primary reasons:

As we continue is this passage, it’s very clear that the Gentiles that he’s referring to here aren’t them but rather those who are hard of heart and sinful but those who have learned Christ aren’t like that according to Vs. 20.

We also know this because of one of the main points that Paul is driving at in this letter, that really it doesn’t matter if you’re a Jewish person or non-Jewish person, what matters is that you believe in Jesus Christ and repent of your sins. Remember, that Paul has just made a huge deal about how both Jew and Gentile believers are no longer differentiated by their ethnicity but rather by their belief.

Those that believe are now one church.

Because of that particular theological truth, Paul is exhorting them to no longer walk as the unbelievers do. That term walk, we spoke of a few weeks ago emphasizes the way of life of an individual. So, Paul is exhorting them to no longer live like an unbeliever. And before anyone can ask, “how does an unbeliever live?” Paul goes straight into explaining what it’s like to walk like an unbeliever.

Unbelievers walk in the futility of their minds

Unbelievers are darkened in their understanding

Unbelievers are alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart

Unbelievers have become callous [to sin] and have given themselves to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

Now, I realize that there’s a lot of descriptions or statements concerning what Paul is claiming unbelievers are like, so let’s break through each section:

What does it mean that unbelievers walk in the futility of their minds? The word futility is sometimes translated as vanity and I think that the word vanity gives us a better understanding of what Paul means in this verse. When we utilize the term vanity to speak of different aspects of life, we’re typically referring to aspects that are not worthwhile. The vanity [or futility] of their minds gives the impression that the way that the unbelieving Gentiles live is in the worthlessness of what they think. Or in other words, they live according to their own desire and thoughts despite the fact that their own desire and thoughts are really not worthwhile. The futility of their minds expresses the worthlessness of living within ones own logic or thoughts rather than living in communion with God.

What does it mean that unbelievers are darkened in their understanding? The Bible speaks at length that those who refuse to believe or have yet to believe as having their understanding darkened. Paul writes to the Corinthians, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” and he makes the point that to those who don’t believe, Christianity seems foolish and absurd but to those who believe Christianity is the only worthwhile thing in life. Why is that? Because those who don’t believe live in spiritual darkness and their understanding is limited to what they know rather than what God says. Unbelievers are darkened in their understanding because true understanding and wisdom come from God alone.

What does it mean that unbelievers are alienated from the life of God due to their hardness of heart? There’s actually two specific points in that statement. (1) Unbelievers are alienated from the life of God and (2) this is due to their hardness of heart. You’ve heard me make the statement numerous times that salvation is not a “get out of jail free” card, which is unfortunately how a lot of people view salvation. A large part of salvation is simply being placed into a growing relationship with God through Jesus Christ or in other words, while salvation does include being freed from sin and released from the eternal consequences of sin, that isn’t the point of salvation. The point of salvation is actually to reconcile us to God, which moves us from being alienated from God to being in fellowship with God. Logically, that means that until we actually do believe, we’re alienated from God and thus, alienated from the life of God. And Paul, in Ephesians 4:18 says that this alienation from the life of God is simply because unbelievers have a hard heart, which is a concept that stems from the Old Testament. The Bible speaks of Pharaoh in Exodus having a hard heart that eventually hardens completely. Part of the New Covenant to the Israelites is that God will give them a new heart that is soft and flesh-like rather than hard as stone. The imagery of course, connotes being unreceptive to the truth—if your heart is hard, you don’t want to hear the truth. If your heart is softened, you want the truth.

What does it mean that unbelievers have become callous to sin? One of the telling signs that someone doesn’t actually believe in God is a lack of remorse concerning sin. If a person has no difficulty concerning their conscience when committing sin and no guilt following their sin, their hearts are callous to sin. Now, of course, believers can also be callous to sin and we can tell when someone is callous towards sin when we take a look at their entertainment choices. When one isn’t busy with work or taking care of their family, we can typically tell if their callous to sin by examining what they choose to watch in the evening, what they choose to listen to during the day, and what they choose to read by the fireside. The difference is that as a believer grows in their faith, they’ll begin to acknowledge when they realize that they’re callous towards certain sins and that should prompt them to seeking the Lord’s help in softening their hearts. An unbeliever on the other hand has no concern if he’s callous towards sin, why would he? He doesn’t believe in God and thus, doesn’t believe it’s sin. As believers, we shouldn’t be surprised when unbelievers act like they’re indifferent towards sin, they don’t believe in God and thus, don’t believe that sin is sin. For an unbeliever, sensuality, greed, and impurity isn’t wrong. But as believers, our hearts should continuously be softening, which leads to our callousness towards sin slowly falling away.

What Paul teaches us about those who are unbelievers is that unbelievers walk their lives without purposefulness, without understanding, with ignorance separated from God, with hard hearts that result in their progression of sin.

But that is not how true believers in Jesus Christ are told to behave and think—rather, true believers are to put off the old and put on the new. Vs. 20-22a, “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.”

True believers in Jesus Christ aren’t supposed to be trapped in the purposeless of thinking like an unbeliever; believers aren’t darkened in their understanding or alienated from the life of God. Unbelievers aren’t supposed to be hard of heart and callous towards sin.

If they’ve properly learned about Jesus Christ and if they’ve properly been taught in Jesus Christ, they would know that they aren’t supposed to continue living the same way that they were living as unbelievers—the Gospel of Jesus Christ and acceptance of the Gospel should compel believers to change the way that they live.

And it’s more than just stopping what he’s accused the unbelievers of doing. It’s more than just stop sinning—it’s stop sinning and do this—stop living in sin, and live in truth.

Vs. 22, “Put off your old self” and Vs. 24, “put on the new self.”

But this is all contingent on one sentence in Vs. 21, “assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus.” Or in other words, if you truly believe in Jesus and you’ve truly been taught in him, then you wouldn’t be living like unbelievers do. As Paul says in Vs. 20, “That is not the way you learned Christ!”

All of his statements here and continuing fall under the idea that you’ve actually believed in Jesus and you’ve actually learned the truth concerning Jesus.

Until you actually believe in Jesus, you’re living like the Gentiles do, “in the futility of their minds.” with darkened understandings, alienated from God due to your hardness of heart.

But if you claim to believe, you need “to put off your old self . . . and . . . put on the new self.”

So, the question is, what does Paul mean by the New Self and the Old Self? Paul describes both of them in Vs. 22 and 24.

Vs. 22 describes the Old Self as belonging to your former manner of life, which again points back to vs. 17-19, being in the futility of their minds, darkened in understanding, alienated from the life of God, with hard hearts, callous towards sin.

Vs. 22 describes the Old Self as being corrupt through deceitful desires. The Bible repeatedly speaks of sinful desires as being deceptive. Sin deceives us into thinking that it’s acceptable and sin deceives us into thinking that we should continue sinning. Someone once said that sin will take you farther than you wanted to go; sin will keep you longer than you wanted to stay; and sin will always cost you more than you intended to pay. Why is that? Because sin convinces you that it is worthwhile when in reality the consequences of sin are so much greater than we understand.

I picture the Old Self almost like Gollum in the Lord of the Rings. Gollum is a creature in the Lord of the Rings who follows two of the main characters throughout their journey from the Shire to Mount Doom to destroy the ring of power. What you learn as you follow the storyline through the Lord of the Rings is that the ring itself is so powerful that it corrupts the mind of whomever wears it. Gollum is a creature who was corrupted by wearing the ring and despite knowing that the ring is evil, he can’t help but to want the ring anyways. In a similar way, deceitful desires or sin corrupts the person to the extent that the Old Person can’t help but to want to sin.

Paul tells us how to put off the old self and put on the new self in Vs. 23, “be renewed in the spirit of your minds,” which sounds awfully like Romans 12:1-2. Romans 12:1-2 says this, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

How do you put off the Old Self and put on the New Self? By having your minds renewed. According to Ephesians 4:23 and in conjunction with Romans 12 by not conforming to this world and by being transformed by the renewal of your mind. So, the question is, how exactly do we do this?

Our minds are renewed by replacing the world’s way of thinking with the truth of God in his Word.

Got Questions, “The only way to replace the error of the world’s way of thinking is to replace it with God’s truth, and the only infallible source of God’s truth is his revealed Word, the Bible. Transformation through renewed minds comes as believers expose themselves to God’s Word through the faithful exposition of it each week in church, personal Bible study, and group Bible study. A solid church that believes in preaching the Word, reading the Word, and singing the Word is invaluable in helping us renew our minds. There are no shortcuts. There is no magical formula for renewing our minds. We must fill our minds with God’s Word. As Jesus prayed to the Father, ‘Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.’”

It is by replacing the falsehoods of the world with the truths in God’s Word that renews our minds and transforms us. This is how we put off our old selves and put on our new selves, which is “created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (24)

True spiritual maturity requires the replacing of the old selves with the new selves, which results in the individual believer being characterized by the characteristics of God.

Which means that as we’re being transformed by the renewal of our minds, we shouldn’t be living lives characterized by the futility of our minds, darkened understanding, alienation from God, hardness of heart, or callousness towards sin; our lives should be characterized by the likeness of God in righteousness and holiness, which is done through the study of God’s Word.

As Paul wraps up this chapter, he gives us several ideas or examples of how exactly this is to be done in the lives of believers. How do we go from being characterized by our conformity to the world to being characterized by our transformation into the new self? Let’s reread Vs. 25-32.

Examples of Replacing the Old with the New (25-32)

Ephesians 4:25–32 ESV

25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

As Paul wraps up this chapter, he does it by providing some specific examples as to what putting off the old self and putting on the new self looks like. In doing this, he actually provides us both specific examples and a very general principle that teaches us how to do this ourselves.

Let’s start with the examples he’s given us:

Vs. 25, “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.”

Believers are to put away falsehood, which includes lying whether that’s by the outright telling of lies or by withholding information in order to deceive someone.

Rather, believers are to put on speaking the truth, which includes confronting sin in other believers’ lives and encouraging adherence to the Scriptures.

Why? Because all believers are members one of another.

Vs. 26, “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.”

Believers are to put off sinful behavior due to anger—the note being that anger itself is not sinful—there are righteous reasons to be angry but we need to be aware that we can act sinfully in our anger. Righteous reasons for anger include anger at sinful behavior that hurts the innocent, anger at the misuse of Scripture to propagate false doctrine, anger at people who claim to teach the truth by subverting the Gospel.

However, believers are not to allow their anger to simmer overnight, including righteous anger at issues that deserve anger.

Why? Because allowing anger to simmer overnight gives an opportunity for the devil to twist what could be righteous anger into unrighteous sinful behavior.

Vs. 28, “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.”

Believers are to not steal, that is one of the Ten Commandments. This includes outright theft (stealing someone’s car and driving off with it) to stealing time at work by clocking in early without permission or not clocking out on time. This would also include claiming someone’s else work as your own or utilizing copyrighted material without permission.

Instead, believers are to labor, doing honest work—being paid a legitimate wage for working.

Why? So that they too can partake in giving when someone in need needs their help. When someone needs help, this believer who was a former thief can now help this other person.

Vs. 29, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.”

Believers are to not speak with corrupting words—this includes swearing, tearing down, malicious sarcasm, and really anything that is meant to hurt or is meant to express corrupt ideas.

Rather, believers are to only speak words that build up, as fits the occasion. Words of encouragement that aren’t vain in its meaning. Words that don’t intend to hurt but intend to help.

Why? Because by speaking words that build up it gives grace to those who hear. In addition, the Bible speaks of grieving the Holy Spirit. Much like allowing anger to simmer overnight, the Bible teaches us that allowing corrupting talk to come out of our mouths grieves the Holy Spirit. By utilizing speech that tears down, the very presence of God within us grieves due to our sin.

And his final example in Vs. 31, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

Believers are to put away all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, and malice

Instead, they should be kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving

Why? Because Christ forgave you.

The general principle that Paul has given us is this: he’s taking truths from Scripture that condemn certain behaviors or thoughts and he’s replacing it with the new nature and then he gives us motivation to do so.

This again, points to the truth that it is the Word of God that transforms believers by changing the way the believer thinks. By showing the believer what it means to not be conformed to the world but transformed by the renewing of ones mind.

Which shows us the importance of a believer being regularly in the Word of God in order to be renewed in ones own mind. Without the Word of God, a person cannot be transformed.

This also shows us that to try and transform someone without the Word of God is simply impossible because it is God’s truth that sanctifies. In Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer, Jesus says this while praying for his disciples, “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.” (John 17:14-19)

It is only through God’s word can someone be sanctified or set apart—it is only through God’s word can someone grow in truth.

This also, gives us a proper understanding of how we are to utilize Scripture in our lives today.

James makes the argument that we are to “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” (James 1:19-27)

Or in other words, the point of reading Scripture isn’t just to “get something out of it” or to “gain more knowledge from it” the point of Scripture is to read it, understand it, apply it to our lives, and live it. Which is precisely what Paul is encouraging the Ephesians to do in Chapter 4.

Ephesians 4:1, “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility, gentleness, patience, bearing with one another in love.” Vs.15, “[Speak] the truth in love” so that “we [can] grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ. . . when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself in love.”

Vs. 17, Therefore, do not “walk as the Gentiles do” but Vs. 22-24, “put off your old self . . . and . . . be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and . . . put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

In order for us to live the way that we’re supposed to, we must no longer live like the unbelievers—preachers, teachers, and evangelists are to equip believers to minister to one another. Believers are to utilize their spiritual gifts to serve one another and build up the church. And as that works together, the whole body grows. But it starts at the individual level. The individual must not live like an unbeliever, the individual must put off their old self and put on their new self. The individual needs to be transformed by the renewing of his mind before the church can effectively build itself up.

In our remaining few minutes, let’s take a look at specific application. Because this passage is a little different with the point being in Vs. 17-24 and examples following in Vs. 25-32, I’m going to do what Paul does. I’m going to give you application for 17-24 and 25-32 but in addition for 25-32, I’m going to give you one more example as to how we accomplish Vs. 17-24.

Application

Replacing the Old Self with the New Self (17-24)—The key point that Paul is making in Vs. 17-24 is found in the first verse, “you must no longer walk as the [unbelievers] do” and Paul expresses that command by explaining that this involves putting off the old self, which belongs to your unbelieving lifestyle and deceitful desires and putting on the new self, which is after the likeness of God in righteousness and holiness. He explains that this is done by being renewed in the spirit of your mind. I explained that this renewal of the mind is precisely what Paul writes in Romans 12:1-2 as well and that in Romans 12, Paul explains that true worship of God comes as a result of not being conformed to the world but being transformed by the renewing of your mind. The application for this section is quite simple.

If you claim to be a Christian, you cannot continue living like an unbeliever.

Occasionally, people who claim to be a Christian continue to live just like the world and they argue that since God has forgiven their sins, they can really do whatever they want. They justify this by claiming that Jesus loves them anyway and thus, they don’t need to change.

There are several issues with this mindset, with Paul’s statement that we aren’t to continue sinning just because there is grace as being one of the most prominent.

But also, because of Paul’s statement to the Ephesians here, which makes it clear that prior to salvation, you lived like an unbeliever; but after salvation, you live like a Christian.

So, application for this is again quite simple, take a good, honest look at your life right now. Is your life characterized by you living like an unbeliever or like a believer? In case you don’t remember what the difference is, let’s just take a look at the passage again:

Unbelievers live in the futility of their minds with darkened understanding, alienated from God due to their hardness of heart. Unbelievers are callous towards sin and thus live in sensuality, ready to practice every kind of impurity. In Paul’s examples through 25-32, he writes that unbelievers are liars, are thieves, and unrighteously angry. He says that they’re characterized by corrupting talk, bitterness, wrath, clamor, slander, and malice.

All of these are examples of what unbelievers think and do—now look at your life.

Are you characterized by lying, stealing, unrighteous anger, corrupt talk, bitterness, wrath, clamor, slander, and malice? Are you alienated from God due to your callousness towards sin?

OR is your life characterized like a believer? One who is constantly renewing your mind in order to put on the new self, which is after the likeness of God in righteousness and holiness. Is your life characterized by truth? By honest work with your own hands so that you can give to those in need, with only uplifting speech that builds up one another? Is your life characterized by kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiveness?

These are all examples of what believers think and do—now look at your life.

If you find yourself characterized more like an unbeliever—let me encourage you to repent from your sinful life, believe in Jesus and call on his name. If you’ve already done that and your life is still characterized like an unbeliever (particularly if you’ve been a believer for a long period of time), let me encourage you to again, repent and pray to exhibit characteristics of God in your life.

If you claim to be a Christian, you need to continuously seek to put off your old self and put on your new self.

And the question really then becomes, how exactly do I put off the old and put on the new? The same way that Paul does in vs. 25-32, read Scripture, apply Scripture, and live Scripture.

Every example that Paul gives comes directly from the Old Testament—and every example that he gives plainly says what the Old Testament says, it gives us what we are to replace the wrongful behavior with, and then it gives us motivation to do it.

In other words, what Paul shows us is that in order to put off your old self and put on your new self—you need to read Scripture, apply Scripture, and live Scripture.

Which means that we as believers today, need to learn to read Scripture, study it to understand it with a historical-grammatical lens in a normative manner, apply Scripture, and live Scripture.

Let me give you two New Testament examples of what this looks like before we finish:

Galatians is another letter written by Paul to the churches in Galatia, in Chapter 5:16-25, he tells them to walk by the Spirit and then he tells us of all the works of the flesh: “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.”

Those would be sins that are characterized by the Old Self.

In contrast, he continues and says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” These would be characteristics of the New Self.

Thus as Christians, we are to put off the works of the flesh and put on the fruits of the Spirit—we do that by looking at the works of the flesh and comparing our lives to the works of the flesh. Are we sexually immoral? Am I impure? Am I sensual? Am I jealous? Am I divisive? Am I envious? And in instances of the works of the flesh where we say, Yes I am! Then the proper response is to repent, pray for help removing those sins from our lives, and seek to put on the fruits of the Spirit.

Which brings up the second part, we need to be looking at the fruits of the Spirit and comparing our lives to it: am I loving? Am I joyful? Am I peaceful? Am I patient? Am I kind, good, faithful, gentle, self-controlled? And in instances in which I am not, I need to repent and pray for help becoming more loving, joyful, peaceful, and so forth.

This is how you read Scripture, apply Scripture, and live Scripture.

Now you might be thinking, “ok, but what about a passage that wasn’t written by Paul? That isn’t an epistle. How do we do this in another passage?”

In our last sermon from the Gospel according to John, we read about a blind man who met Jesus and was healed. I spoke at length about how throughout that chapter the man openly proclaimed what Jesus had done for him by healing him and how he openly defied the Pharisees despite the fact that he didn’t believe in Jesus as the Messiah yet.

It isn’t until the last few verses when the man actually comes to believe in Jesus Christ.

How do we apply this to our lives? By first reading it and understanding it. By knowing that just because I proclaim what Jesus had done doesn’t mean that I actually believe in Jesus. Then I need to recognize that just like that blind man, I must believe in Jesus to actually be saved.

And then compare my own life to that—I can do amazing things in the church, I can serve my neighbors, I can preach sermons proclaiming the truthfulness of God. But until I believe in Jesus, I’m not actually saved. Thus, the application is to repent from my sins and believe in Jesus.

If I’ve already done that, I can take time to see how this man proclaimed about Jesus and compare my life to his in that sense. Do I proclaim Jesus as much as this man did? If not, why not? And how do I proclaim Jesus as a believer?

This is how you read Scripture, apply Scripture, and live Scripture.

What Ephesians 4:17-32 teaches us is that as a Christian, (1) you must live like a Christian and you must not live like an unbeliever, (2) you need to continuously put off the old and put on the new, and (3) you do that by reading Scripture, studying Scripture, applying Scripture, and living Scripture.

Pastoral Prayer