Sermon Notes: Ephesians 4:17-24 – Put Off The Old Self

These are the notes of a sermon preached by Andy Evans on the morning of the 18 September 2011 at Firwood Church. Click here to stream or download the sermon audio.

Ephesians 4:17–24

¹⁷Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. ¹⁸They 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. ¹⁹They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. ²⁰But that is not the way you learned Christ!— ²¹assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, ²²to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, ²³and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

1. RIGHT THINKING, RIGHT LIVING

Chapter 4 marks a transition point in the Apostle Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus. As we considered in week 26 of this series, the first three chapters of this letter presents a profound theological explanation and exploration of the glorious grace of God at work in and through Christ towards those who are his. In the latter three chapters, as we will see throughout the remainder of this series, Paul presents a series of exhortations towards godly living.

This division between chapters 1 through to 3 and chapters 4 through to 6 is, in some senses, illustrative of that division within modern evangelicalism in which one side tends to incline sharply towards doctrine whereas the other side tends towards praxis. As a consequence, we find ministries, churches and believers polarising towards those who do and those who think.

This dichotomy is utterly at odds with New Testament thinking where doctrine and praxis walk hand-in-hand. Indeed, our relationship with Christ depends on our both aspects of Christian living. It is not possible to love and serve Christ if we fail to recognize, understand and know him. It is not possible to know and love Christ and yet fail to honour him in obedient service. Indeed, this interaction between doctrine and praxis is illustrated in every human relationship.

Consider marriage.

Imagine, in love and devotion to my wife, I begin to work hard and save money so that I am able to buy her the perfect Birthday gift. Then imagine that, on the 10 October, I stay up late and spend time wrapping this perfect gift with the perfect paper and appropriately placed ribbons.

Imagine then the confusion and disappointment when I present this gift on the morning of the 11 October, only to be informed by my wife that her Birthday is actually in November. Imagine that I then respond that I am not interested and do not need to know facts and retain information about my wife because my love for her is of a purer nature.

The truth is that such a comment would be nonsensical. The unwillingness to listen, to learn and to come to know is, in fact, an indication that the so called, purer love is, in actuality, no kind of love whatsoever.

This is why Paul treasure knowing so incredibly highly. Early in this letter, Paul prays for believers everywhere, that we might,

Ephesians 3:19

…know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Knowing is fundamental to Christian living. If we want to be Christ saturated, Christ motivated and Christ glorifying we must know his love. And, for Paul, this knowledge is rooted in the dense theology of Chapters 1 through to 3, supernaturally illuminated by the Holy Spirit.

Paul wants us to see, to feel and to respond.

2. HOW WE ONCE WALKED

a. Walk

And the remainder of this great epistle is a call to action. We are called to live in the light of all that we have seen and to know of the heart, purposes and calling of God as revealed in and through Christ Jesus. The call to act begins in verse 1 of chapter 4,

Ephesians 4:1

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called

Believers, we are called to walk in the light of the great truth of the gospel.

b. The Weight of the Warning

This call to obedience requires that we walk in a very particular way,

Ephesians 4:17-19

¹⁷Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. ¹⁸They 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. ¹⁹They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

Paul warns believers that we must no longer walk like Gentiles. It is important that we take this exhortation seriously as the Apostle Paul prefaces his instruction with a solemn charge, ‘Now this I say and testify in the Lord…’ (Ephesians 4:17).

This is a necessary and important reminder. As we read and reflect upon the words written in the Scriptures, we must recognize and remember that these words are issued from the very mouth of God. Paul reminds us of this important fact. He writes and testifies on behalf of God. We would do well to remember this. There is an incredible weight in this exhortation.

c. How We Once Walked

The Christian life requires a decisive break with the past. Paul will go on to instruct us to put of our ‘old self’ and, instead, put on our ‘new self’. Despite the decisiveness of this break, it is important to remember who we were before Christ rescued us and brought us from death to life. And so, even in the exhortation to break with the past, we ‘must no longer walk as the Gentiles do’, there is a reminder of who we once were. Indeed, Paul, here, uses the same imagery he earlier employed in order to describe the gloriousness of Christ’s intervention,

Ephesians 2:1–3

¹And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ²in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— ³among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

The danger of them and us language, in which the walk of the believers is contrasted against the walk of the Gentile, can lead to pride and arrogance. We would, therefore, do well to remember that their walk was once our walk. That we were once lost, enslaved and under the right and just condemnation of a holy God.

i. Futile thinking[1]

Consider the characteristics of this Gentile-walk and note, once again, that we are reminded that thinking matters,

Ephesians 4:17

… you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.

This way of walking is characterized by a mind-set is distorted and marked by futility. Why would this be? Why does Paul assert that the mind of the unbeliever is characterised by futility?

Consider a mind which is set upon the pursuit of money and material belonging when, given a long enough timeline, everything is destined to rot and return back to the earth. Consider a mind fixated upon the pursuit of sexual pleasure, when beauty is so fleeting and pleasure so intangible. Consider a mind fixed upon family, when all human relationship (however intimate) is ultimately  severed by the grave.

This is why the unbelieving mind-set is characterised by futility.

Moreover, Paul’s use of the word, ‘futility’ is, in and of itself, illuminating. Elsewhere, in the Old and New Testament futility is associated with idolatry. Consider, for example, the stinging rebuke delivered by the Prophet, Jeremiah,

Jeremiah 2:5

Thus says the Lord:

“What wrong did your fathers find in me
that they went far from me,
and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?

Here idolatry is described in decidedly Pauline terms. The pursuit of idolatry is a pursuit of worthlessness which leaves us with nothing but a handful of worthlessness. The elevation, the preferring, or, in Biblical language, the worship of other things in the place of God is both wrong and futile. It is a pursuit of worthlessness which provides us with nothing but worthlessness. Such living is, ultimately, characterised by futility. Such living is fueled and motivated by a mind set upon and deceived by futile things.

In essence, the pursuit of any other thing or person in preference to God is idolatry and, when we exchange stuff for God, we always trade down.

ii. Darkened Understanding

Paul continues,

Ephesians 4:18

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.

Again, we see that the rejection of Christ has a mental and rational component. This is, in a sense, ironic. The New Atheist and the liberal scholar would argue that the road to enlightenment begins with the rejection of God and superstition. Paul, however, argues contrariwise. Paul warns that the rejection of God leads to ignorance and diminished understanding.

This conclusion is, of course, a logical progression from chapters 1 through to 3. Paul has just presented a glorious presentation of a God who rules over and fills all things. Moreover, Paul has shown us the centrality of Christ in all things. He is the beginning, the centre and the end of all life, all existence and reality itself. In the gospel, God makes known to us,

Ephesians 1:9–10

…the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ ¹⁰as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

This is why the mind of the unbeliever is darkened. The failure to acknowledge God is to deny the very beginning, purpose and end of the universe. To deny the existence of God is to stubbornly refuse to acknowledge the very source and sustainer of life, our life.

And, as such, there is an element of willfulness in all of this. Paul observes that the unbeliever is full of ignorance, their alienation from God is a result of ‘the ignorance that is in them’. This ‘ignorance’ is the counterpoint to the knowledge of Christ Jesus for which Paul elsewhere prays. As such, this ‘ignorance’ is not a mere failure of intellectual reasoning (that we are somehow intellectually ignorant to the existence of God). This ‘ignorance’ is the refusal to acknowledge, yield to and obey the Living God. One commentator observes, ‘Not to know the Lord is to ignore him, to say ‘no’ to his demands. Such ignorance is culpable.’^[2]

iii. A Lesser Life

This alienation from God has a profound impact upon our quality of life. Paul warns that unbelievers are,

Ephesians 4:18

…alienated from the life of God…

To be alienated from God is, in a very real sense, to be alienated from life; yes, life everlasting, but also life now. Consider the expansiveness of the promise of Christ Jesus,

John 10:10

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

If Christ is the centre of everything, if we are, indeed, created by him and for him and, if our purpose is to glorify him and enjoy him forever, what then does a life apart from him look like? Paul warns that a life apart from God results in alienation from the life that only he brings. We are left, in our ignorance, to enjoy a lesser life now, and judgment and condemnation in the life to come.

iv. Calloused hearts

This rational and mental dysfunction has devastating  moral and ethical consequences,

Ephesians 4:18-19

¹⁸They 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. ¹⁹They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

Once again, thinking matters. A life lived in denial and rejection of the gospel has both moral and ethical consequences. The way we think effects the way we feel (our heart) and the way we act. The unbelievers walk is, therefore, characterised by hardness of heart and callousness. This hardness of heart and callousness is a result of sin and leads to further and increasingly outrageous degrees of sinning (indeed, the NIV translators emphasise this callousness as a loss of sensitivity to right, wrong and the dictates of conscience and decency).[3] Indeed, Paul asserts that such unbelievers have, in fact, given themselves up ‘to practice every kind of impurity’, an expansive category which encompasses, ‘riotous and excessive living, can refer to unrestrained sexual behaviour’.^[4]

Habitual sin deadens the conscience. Sometimes we find ourselves repulsed by the most heinous of crimes trying to imagine how anyone could do such things. Often times the answer is that such a descent occurs step-by-step.

Nurtured bitterness leads to unrestrained anger. Unrestrained anger leads to murder.

An obsession with material things leads to ravenous greed. Ravenous greed leads to fraud and theft.

The untamed pursuit of sexual pleasure leads to all consuming lust. All consuming lust leads to rape and sexual violence.

This is precisely Paul’s point, the rejection of Christ leads to hardness of heart which, in turn, results in a life given up to ‘sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity’ (Ephesians 4:19).

The human conscience, given persistent and determined effort, can be killed stone-dead. Given time and circumstance, all of us are just about capable of anything. This kind of living, the unbelieving, Gentile-walk, is the entry point into a self-fuelling circle of ever increasing sin. Sin begets sin which, in turn, begets further sin. This kind of walking, this kind of living, results in a life in which we are ‘greedy to practice every kind of impurity’.

All of which begins with a willful and obstinate rejection of the truth. The hardening described by Paul is akin to the kind of stubbornness condemned elsewhere. One commentator makes the observation that, ‘pagan immorality is… wilful and culpable…, the result of their deliberate refusal of the moral light available to them in their own thought and conscience’^[5]

3. PUT OFF THE OLD SELF

a. Believers Beware!

And this is so shocking because Paul addresses this exhortation to the church. Paul is addressing the church in Ephesus and Paul is addressing the church in Westwood. It is important that we reflect on this. Paul warns us,

Christians, do not walk like unbelievers.

Christians, do not become futile in your thinking. Do not become obsessed with the pursuits and promises of this world. Be single minded, focus upon the glory of the gospel of Christ.

Christians, do not become darkened in your understanding. Do not exchange the counterfeit life offered by this world for the abundant, joyful and eternal life in Christ Jesus.

Christians, do not allow your hearts to become calloused and hardened. Christians do not sacrifice your lives in pursuit of sensuality and impurity.

b. Put of the Old Self

This is so shocking because Paul calls those who profess to be believers to so examine ourselves. Moreover, Paul calls us to action,

Ephesians 4:20-24

²⁰But that is not the way you learned Christ!— ²¹assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, ²²to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, ²³and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

We will return to this passage next week, but for now, consider Paul’s exhortation,

Christians, put off your old self.

As we have been considering during the evening services, the gospel call is, yes, a call to life, but it is also a command to die. The Puritan, John Owen, spoke in terms which are incredibly unfamiliar to our modern ears, but resounds deeply with the exhortations of the New Testament,

Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin, or it will be killing you.[6]

Paul exhorts believers to put off the old self. As we come to Christ, we receive life, but we must relinquish the old self. We must put to death (or, in the words of Owen, we must mortify) the old way of thinking. We must put to death the old way of feeling. Old attitudes. Old priorities. Old idols.

And the promise of the gospel is this: he is worth it.

Ephesians 4:22-24

…put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, ²³and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

We exchange the old self which was characterised by corruption and deceitful desires and, instead, we receive a new self created by and for and in the likeness of Christ.

The call of the gospel is to leave the old things, the sinful ways, behind and, as we do so, we pursue Christ, we draw close to Christ, we enjoy Christ and, in all of this, his glorious grace is at work making us more like him.

We trade up. We exchange who we were for all he calls us to be.

We trade up.