Out with the Old...in with the New!

Ephesians 4:22-24 “that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.”

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

Introduction & Overview of Ephesians

With the recent celebration of Chinese New Year, it seemed appropriate to endings & new beginnings. After all, in practically every culture around the world, and throughout recorded history, we mark time with special events: birthdays, anniversaries, and of course new years as well. But why is this done? In part, we instincively want to measure our growth and progress; we want to see how far we have come or how much we changed from one season to the next. We formally or informally set goals, and after a set period we evaluate whether or not we’ve accomplished what we set out to do. And when we don’t hit our goals, we can (and should) take the opportunity to consider what prevented us from doing so. Whike I am not a big fan of new year’s resolutions- why wait for a specific date on a calendar to start working or behaving differently- I do want to take advantage of this opportunity to rethink our purpose as a part of the Body of Christ, the Lord’s Church. Not surprisingly, we find in the writings of Paul the tools to help us do some critical thinking & introspection on how we can maske progress in a new season that the Lord has allowed us to see. And we can start right now!

First, allow me to give you a quick overview of Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus. Once again, he writes to another church , one in a major city of the time, a church that he helped to establish. And once again, he’s writing from a jail cell. I want to point out the fact that Paul often uses his personal setbacks as opportunities to encourage someone else. He doesn’t give in to the temptation to play the victim card and wallow in self-pity; pressure causes him to press into the prescence of God; pain makes him pray; isolation gives him an opportunity for introspection, a chance to refocus on his prupose and assignment. He uses EVERY experience as fuel- he chooses to let ALL of it push him forward.

One way to look at Ephesians is to split it in the middle. Chapters 1-3 retell the Gospel story; and chapters 4-6 tell our story. The first half of the letter descripes the Gospel....the last half is all about practical application- how does the Gospel shape our lives when applied?

Vestis Verum Facit: Clothes Make the Man (and Woman)

Our focus today will be on Paul’s comments in chapter 4, where he describes embracing change like changing clothes. It immediately made me think fo the old expression: “Clothes make the man”. It may surprise you to know that this phrase is over 400 years old, and has been used by many writiers, including Erasmus, a Catholic priest & theologian. So I am in good company in using this metaphor as the framework for today’s lessons.

Lesson 1: what you take off may be just as important as what you put on. In verse 22 Paul says,

“...in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit,”

Many people make the mistake of trying to start something new- a new relationship, business, job, idea- but fail to address preexsiting issues which either prevented them from succeeding in previous attempts, or stopped them from trying at all. It’s like putting a new suit on over old rags. God loves you and wants you to prosper, but We should not deceive ourselves. He will not just ignore your sin, for the “old man” is ruled by sin. God’s expectation is that you give up the old identity- who you were, the failure, shortcomings, low self-esteem- all of it- in exchange for your new identity in Christ.

Lesson 2: Embracing the New is an Inside Job- God will not “layer” His new life on top of the old one; when we are pulled from the dirt, we should want to get out of our old clothes- and get cleaned up- before we put on the new! There are things you cannot “clean” on your own. So what do we do? We yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit- we let God do his office work. Our job is not to try & rescue ourselves- our job is to open our hearts for God to accomplish that which only He can accomplish. We are to lay out the welcome mat in front of our hearts- to say, “Lord, come on in!”

Lesson 3: Get Dressed for the Occassion. Paul earlier used this terminology in a corporate sense of the “one new man” which = the church, believing Jews and Gentiles now co-equal in one body. But here he uses it in an individual sense to refer to the person who is under the dominion of the new creation and its life. “On the basis of what God has accomplished in Christ, this new identity must be appropriated—‘put on’—in such a way that its ethical dimensions become apparent” (Lincoln, 287). Note three additional things: (1) God is not only the author of this work of (re)creation, he is also its pattern or model. We are being renewed, lit., “according to God” (v. 24), i.e., to be like Him. (2) To be like God is to live in “righteousness and holiness” (features of God’s character in Ps. 144:1–7; Deut. 32:4). (3) This righteousness and holiness do not emerge or exist in a vacuum: they are, literally, “of the truth,” i.e., they are the fruit and product of the truth which we have already heard and are in the process of learning. In other words, righteousness and holiness cannot exist apart from an on-going indoctrination in the substantive truths and theological principles of the Word of God.