Read -Study Notes – Ephesians Chapter 4:21-32

Eph. 4:21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus,
Eph. 4:22 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,
Eph. 4:23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
Eph. 4:24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

But now Paul says you have a new walk, a walk with Christ, but you and I don’t learn our walk in the same way that unbelievers learn their walk

• • • We don’t learn to walk with Christ by paying attention to the desires of the flesh
    • Our direction in life comes from the spirit
    • Yet some Christians fail to make this leap…they continue to walk according to what their flesh wants
    • The Bible has a term for a Christian who walks in Christ the same way they walked prior to faith: a carnal Christian
  • The word carnal literally means flesh
    • It’s the name the Bible gives to a believer who charts their path in life by paying attention to the desires of the flesh
    • Certainly all of us experience a degree of carnality
    • All of us follow after the desires of our flesh from time to time
    • And none of us are free of the temptations the flesh brings
  • But the question Paul is asking the church this morning is, are we letting our flesh drive our path in life?
    • Is carnality the rule or the exception?
    • Are we moving toward a new path, growing in a closer walk with Christ
    • Or are we trying to learn Christ the way we learned our prior life?
• Paul says we do not learn Christ the way the world learns, that is, with our flesh leading the way
  • We learn Christ by the spirit as a matter of God’s grace
    • And notice Paul didn’t say learn Christianity or learn obedience or learn piety
    • He said learn Christ, because we’re talking about a walk of knowing Him Who dwells in us
    • Knowing His character, His love, His mercy, His expectations, His values, His call on our lives
  • A believer’s call is to know Christ fully, which is a lifelong process
    • And if it’s a true pursuit, it’s a pursuit of spirit
    • For that’s the only way to know Christ truly
  • That’s why Paul adds in v.21 if his audience had, in fact, heard Christ in their hearts
    • The person who has merely learned Christ in a physical, fleshly sense is still an unbeliever
    • That kind of learning is head knowledge without spiritual understanding, which is not a saving knowledge of Christ
  • In that sense, the flesh can pursue Christ in the same way it pursues any other sensuality
    • Pursuing religion rather than relationship is a common tragedy
    • We see it everyday among Catholics, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and other false faiths
    • They invoke the name of Jesus but don’t know the true Gospel
    • Since they try to learn Christ in the flesh, they learn nothing, and so their fleshly pursuit leaves them just as lost as before
• But we have been taught the truth “in Him” Paul says in v.21
  • As one who has heard the true Gospel and has received it in the spirit, we are born again
    • We learn the truth in Jesus by the Spirit, and so our walk of life as a follower of Jesus must continue as it began…in the Spirit
    • Which begins by laying aside their old self, Paul says, which is that former manner of life
    • Manner of life in v.22 can also be translated lifestyle
  • Paul’s choice of words suggests a garment being taken off, like an old coat
    • That garment represents an old way of thinking and with it comes an old way of behaving
    • Paul says those things are clinging to us, but we must take them off
  • So imagine at the moment you came to faith in Jesus Christ, your inner person was brought to life spiritually
    • By God’s Spirit, we gained a new spirit that is sinless and obedient to His every word Paul says in Romans 6
    • But our new inner self is still cloaked in our old flesh nature, like a filthy overcoat
  • If we’re going to walk properly with Christ, displaying His likeness in union with our brothers and sisters in the body, we need to jettison that old nature
    • Paul says we need to lay it aside, like someone taking off the old coat, setting it on the ground and walking off without it
    • Paul uses a Greek verb in the aorist infinitive form, which describes an ongoing imperative or command
    • We are to ever more, continue laying aside the coat, as if we are removing the garment one thread at a time
  • That coat represents our old life, the way we thought and walked in the flesh, the life we knew before Christ
    • We need to dump that old life like a cheap suit
    • But it’s a life-long pursuit, and even Paul’s choice of verb tense reflects that truth
    • We start today, and each day we set aside the old self so that more of Christ living in us shines through
• That’s the call of sanctification in the life of every believer
  • Before faith we were spiritually dead and the flesh ruled
    • Now we have access to the mind of Christ and have been given a spirit that desires to obey Him
    • That’s how we learned Christ
    • Yet we’re still clothed in a flesh that wants to draw us away from Christ
  • Paul says that flesh is even now being corrupted by its lustful desires
    • That process didn’t stop when we became a believer
    • Your body is still in decay destined to return to dust
    • Our body is literally dying around us, a death made necessary by its corrupt nature
  • So to stretch my analogy a bit further, if our old coat is falling apart on us, why seek to preserve it?
    • Why try to hold it together?
    • Instead, take hold of those fraying threads and give a good pull to hasten its unraveling
    • Ultimately the Lord will replace it, and even now we can diminish its power in our lives
    • That’s what Paul means when he says we must not learn Christ according to flesh, but we must lay that old self aside
• Now if only it were so easy, right?
  • We all know that when it comes to sin, the struggle is real
    • While some of us may be more successful in our struggles than others, no one is totally free of the fight
    • So how can Paul speak of this challenge so casually, as if to suggest it’s simply a matter of setting our mind to it
    • Well maybe it’s a little simpler than we thought
  • The hard work is actually done by Jesus Himself
    • Paul says in v.23 be renewed in the spirit of our mind
    • To renew simply means to make something new
  • We know we have already been made new spiritually by faith in Christ
    • We were born again in the spirit, and we received Christ’s Spirit
    • But Paul says we must also be renewed in the spirit of our mind
  • The term “spirit of the mind” refers to our thinking, attitudes and outlook on life
    • Our thinking must now be made new, taught by that new spirit we received from Christ
    • The Greek verb translated “be renewed” is passive which means the work of changing our mind is done to us, not by us
    • We give ourselves over to the study of Christ in His word, and He creates the change in our thinking
    • He will renew our minds by His truth so that we gain a desire to live according to our Spirit
• As we are renewed in our minds, Paul says in v.24 we will put on a new self
  • This is the second key verb of action in this passage
    • In the first case, Paul said lay aside the old self, the old coat that hides our new spiritual self
    • That was a verb of action, calling for us to take steps to disassemble the old ways of life
    • But we are not to learn Christ in the old way
  • The old way hears the Bible say lay aside the old self, and we start making lists, drawing up plans, pledging commitments, etc.
    • Certainly some of these steps may be sensible and warranted in the face of ongoing sin
    • But real, lasting progress doesn’t come from what we do in the flesh
    • We don’t learn Christ this way
  • Instead we learn Christ spiritually, Paul says
    • And the key to setting aside the old is to obtain Christ-like thinking, which only comes from spiritual training in His word
    • And by that renewing we will put on the new self which is in the likeness of God
• Paul is presenting a beautiful picture that contrasts our spiritual reality to our outward appearance
  • We learn Christ through an inward change of spirit, which is a work done by God alone
    • This is the saving work of knowing Christ by grace
    • Initially, at the moment our new spirit arrives, it’s obscured by our old, sinful flesh that covers the new inner person
    • In that sense, our sinful lifestyle is like a filthy garment hiding our new nature
  • So God asks us to lay aside the old self and put on the new self
    • Or in other words, we are called to make our outer appearance agree with the inner truth of who we have become in Christ
    • And it’s a process of renewing our mind so that we think like Christ
    • Because if we think like Christ, we’re more likely to act like Him
  • A few years ago it became fashionable to wear clothing that said WWJD (What would Jesus do?)
    • The idea was to stir our conscience to think in godly ways to promote godly behavior
    • It was a nice idea, but it had the wrong approach
  • The bracelets should have asked WDJS (What did Jesus say?)
    • The key to obtaining a more godly walk is to begin to share Christ’s thoughts and desires
    • And that transformation of our mind comes from allowing God’s word to replace our own thoughts
    • Soon, the renewing of our mind leads us to a change in desires and a change of behavior
    • In time, we take on the likeness of God created in holiness, righteousness and truth, Paul says
• Perhaps you consider yourself a student of the Bible…I certainly like to think I am
  • And if so, you may be questioning this promise
    • You may look at your life and see plenty of sin
    • You know you continue to stumble and you’re struggling to gain hold of it
    • And even as you continue to study scripture you continue to make the same old mistakes
  • So perhaps you wonder if renewing your mind in God’s word is truly working in your case
    • May I suggest that the very fact you recognize your sin and are unhappy with it is proof in itself that the word of God is working in your life?
    • Furthermore, have you forgotten the various sins God has already removed from your life?
    • The behaviors you’ve already laid aside, the “threads” of the old self that you set down years ago?
  • Sanctification is a life-long process, and it takes time
    • I’m not excusing laziness or neglect in our walk, but I’m saying what scripture says
    • Ever more, continue laying aside that coat
    • And let the renewing of your mind affect that change over time
  • How many stories could we tell here at OHBC over the past 30 years?
    • How many people have come through these doors, sat under the teaching of God’s word for years
    • And in the course of time, lives were changed
    • Marriages healed, addictions broken, lusts removed, hurts forgiven, anger cooled, resentment mollified, relationships restored
  • Was it excellent preaching or stirring messages?
    • No, it was the simple truth of God’s word faithfully preached in season and out of season
    • It was the renewing of our minds, learning Christ spiritually instead of simply making an outward show of religion
• And these are the things Paul expects to see changing in a church that sets its mind on learning Christ in the right way
  • A walk with Christ means changing a thousands areas of our lives, but some sins are particularly harmful to the proper operation of the body
    • Since the start of this chapter, Paul’s been emphasizing the need for unity in the body
    • So now he turns his attention to five sins that especially work against unity
  • Paul gives the church advice in countering these five sins against unity
    • Each command has three parts
      • Paul gives a negative command
      • Followed by a positive command
      • Then finally a justification for the positive command

Eph. 4:25 Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.
Eph. 4:26 be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
Eph. 4:27 and do not give the devil an opportunity.
Eph. 4:28 He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need.
Eph. 4:29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.
Eph. 4:30 Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Eph. 4:31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
Eph. 4:32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

• First, Paul asks the church to set aside falsehood, or deception in the Greek
  • Deception is more than a spoken lie
    • It includes anything that misrepresents reality, even flattery
    • Deception runs counter to the unity of the body, because it causes us to lose trust in one another
    • It’s like that old garment re-emerges to cut us off from one another
  • Instead of deception, Paul gives the positive command to speak truth to one another
    • He quotes Zechariah when the Lord told Israel something similar
    • God wanted Israel to unify around the truth, just as Paul wishes the same for the Church
    • Which is Paul’s justification for his positive command, that we are members of one another
• Likewise, unrighteous anger drives a wedge between members of the body
  • Notice Paul starts by saying be angry
    • Anger in this context means having a healthy sense of righteous indignation against sin
    • We should get a little angry when sin exists in the body, just as God shows wrath against sin
  • But then Paul gives the negative command not to sin
    • Paul makes a distinction between righteous forms of anger and sinful forms of anger
    • Anger itself is not wrong, as even Jesus displayed anger at times
    • But when the cause for our anger is not in keeping with righteousness, it is an expression of sin
  • If we become angry for righteous reasons, we must seek to resolve the issue “before the sun goes down,” Paul says
    • I don’t believe Paul meant literally before nightfall
    • Rather it’s a colloquialism meaning in a timely manner
    • This is Paul’s positive command in the context of anger, and it ensures we don’t let anger get control or lead us astray
• We can’t let anger fester because it gives opportunity for the devil, Paul justifies in v.27
  • The devil has no spiritual power over us
    • Our spirit has been born again and united with Christ’s spirit
    • Therefore, the enemy’s dominion has been broken in our life
  • Nevertheless, he desires to see God’s people operate according to their old nature rather than in the new nature they’ve received
    • So he’ll use any rope we give him to hang us
    • Anger may begin righteous, but if we fail to resolve the issue that created our anger in a timely manner, we take a risk
  • The enemy may turn our righteous anger into sin by leading us to grow resentful, jealous, spiteful, vindictive or worse
    • What may have begun as a righteous response to someone’s error has turned into sin itself
    • And these consequences of misplaced or unresolved anger will split a church apart in no time
• Thirdly, Paul says thieves must stop stealing
  • Obviously, theft is wrong, but it can be especially devastating in the body of Christ
    • And that’s the implication here
    • Paul is concerned about those who make a dishonest living and bring that behavior into the church
    • It’s likely that behavior would only continue in the church, like with Judas among the apostles
    • This is another quick way to destroy the unity of the body by casting suspicions and distrust
  • Instead, everyone should labor performing his own work in a good and acceptable fashion
    • Not only will we avoid casting shame on the name of Christ, but we also restore trust and unity in the body
    • Moreover, if we all work in honest ways, we are adding to the combined resources of the church body
    • Rather than one person stealing from another, everyone is gaining
  • Which leads to Paul’s justification that it means the church will have that much more to share with those in need
    • For that is central to the mission of the church to care for those who enter in by faith
    • Earning an honest wage is a part of meeting that mission
• Fourth, Paul directs that we not let an unwholesome word leave our mouths
  • The Greek word for unwholesome is literally counterfeit or worthless
    • Counterfeit currency is literally worthless, and so are certain kinds of speech
    • Gossip, innuendo, crude jokes or unfair remarks all have the potential to injure and weaken the body of Christ
    • Even an idle, unthoughtful word might fall into this category
  • So we should think carefully before speaking
    • Paul’s positive command is to speak only what’s good for edification according to the need of the moment
    • Edification means the strengthening of the body
    • And there are times when saying nothing is the best thing we can do to edify the body
  • And our purpose in this command is simply to give grace to everyone
    • Grace means being nice to that person who hasn’t necessarily been nice to us
    • Refraining from a criticism against the person who deserves critique
    • Listening patiently to the long-winded laughing at the joke the tenth time you’ve heard it
    • Showing grace to another by using carefully chosen words that edify
• Your Bible may not reflect this accurately, but Paul’s justification for not speaking out of turn continues into v.30
  • In Greek, v.30 begins with the word “and” indicating Paul is connecting this thought to the prior thought
    • We wish to show grace to all in our speech because to do otherwise is to grieve the Holy Spirit
    • Since we have been shown grace through the Holy Spirit living in us, don’t grieve the Holy Spirit by failing to show at least grace to others
  • In this context, grieving the Spirit is similar to the parable Jesus taught in Matthew 18 of the man who was himself forgiven a great debt but was unwilling to forgive a small debtor
    • Jesus said that the Lord expects us to be as ready to show grace to others as He was to us
    • This is a service we provide to God in thanks for His mercy
    • So if we fail in that regard in something as simple as a kind word, we grieve the Holy Spirit
    • The very One Who seals us by God’s grace
• We will cover Paul’s fifth command next time as we move into Chapter 5
  • That leaves us for this morning reflecting on the need to lay aside the old, and put on the new by renewing our mind in the word
    • And as we walk our new walk, give special consideration to those sins that interfere with the unity of the body
    • For our participation in the body of Christ is the first mission of every believer
    • And it is your spiritual service of worship
• For unbelievers, the beliefs and practices of Christianity can appear to be a contradiction
  • On the one hand, they’ll hear how we believe we’re assured Heaven solely because of our trust in Jesus Christ
    • We reject any theology that doing good deeds is a means of salvation or that it even contributes to our salvation
    • Of course this confuses a world that assumes good things come to those who help themselves
    • As I’ve heard more than one unbeliever say having heard of salvation by grace through faith…”it can’t be that easy”
  • But then having been saved, Christians maintain that doing good deeds should be the mark of a changed life
    • Jesus calls His followers to pursue doing good so that we may glorify our Father in Heaven
    • We put away sin and we seek to serve others as a loving response to our salvation, not a means of salvation
  • For believers taught by the Spirit of God, these concepts make perfect sense, but to the unbelieving world they can appear to be a contradiction
    • They see no sense in claiming a salvation that comes without regard to our personal merit or effort
    • Yet at the same time, teaching that the Lord demands good works from those He has saved
  • This theology is a stumbling block to other religious system because every false, manmade religious system assumes God thinks like we do
    • That He follows a cause-and-effect reward system
    • Those who do good, receive good; while those who do bad, receive judgment
    • That’s how we operate
  • So unmerited favor seems too easy to an unbeliever, and doing works after receiving salvation seems pointless
    • It’s like studying after the test is over
    • And yet this is exactly the way the Lord has constructed salvation
    • Because it brings Him all the glory and leaves us with none
    • He saved us without any of us lifting even a finger, so He alone deserves the glory
• Then secondly, when a believer lives an obedient life of good works, he or she continues to give God glory
  • Since we don’t claim our good works as a means of earning salvation, then our good deeds can only be understood as an act of love for God
    • Consider the example of a young boy who decides to wash his father’s car one Saturday morning
    • Perhaps a neighbor witnesses the boy’s good deed, and he assumes the boy’s father must be paying the son to do this chore
    • In which case, he simply concludes the boy is working to earn a wage
  • But what would the neighbor think if he discovered that the boy wasn’t being paid at all?
    • Instead, the young man simply decided to wash Dad’s car out of love and respect for his father
    • Knowing this, the neighbor would naturally wonder what kind of father inspires such selfless love in his children
    • In that sense, the boy’s good deed brought glory upon his father
    • And in the same way, we are called to glorify our Father in Heaven through good deeds done out of a heart thankful for our salvation
  • We know by faith alone we have been adopted into the family of God, made sons and daughters of God Most High by His grace
    • So now that we are in the family, we are called to glorify the Father
    • First, by putting away sin, putting on the new self
    • And secondly, by living out our faith through good works
    • These things will lead the world to ask the question, “What kind of Father inspires His children to live this way?”
• This is where we find Paul at the end of Chapter 4 and moving into Chapter 5
  • He was exhorting the church to put on the new self, to let our Christ-like nature we received by our faith shine through
    • And to disassemble our corrupt, sinful outer man one thread at a time
    • This is the call of sanctification
    • It’s a decision to take up an inward battle, to fight against ourselves for the glory of God
  • Paul’s call to obedience in the faith runs three chapters, and when we last studied together, we reached the end of the first of those chapters
    • Paul was giving a series of five exhortations to adopt a different approach to life consistent with our new nature
    • If you remember, each of these exhortations had three parts:
    • A negative command to stop something, a positive command to begin something new in its place
    • And a justification or reason for why this change was beneficial or necessary
  • While we read through all five exhortations in vs.25-32, we only discussed four of the exhortations
    • The first was to stop speaking falsehoods
    • The second was to cease sinning in anger
    • The third was to stop stealing
    • The fourth was to put an end to unwholesome speech
  • Each of these is self-evidently a good thing
    • Just ask yourself how you feel when someone lies to you or comes against you in anger or steals from you or gossips about you
    • Clearly, these things are unloving and unholy and should not define the life of a follower of the Lord
  • Yet as we said last time, they certainly define the world around us
    • In fact, these things are so common, they are expected and even tolerated
    • We celebrate someone who steals and gets away with it
    • We cheer those who say unwholesome things in a comedy routine or in a movie
  • Therefore, it’s all the more impactful when a Christian acts differently for the glory of God
    • We stand apart in a healthy way
    • And the Lord may use that to draw others to Himself, which is our mission while we await our resurrection
• That brings us to the final example at the end of Chapter 4, which is a list of several related behaviors