LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

The New Person Versus the Old Person

Ephesians 4:17-32

INTRODUCTION

At this stage in Ephesians, Paul is zeroing intensively into the area of the way a Christian should, especially in light of the fact that Jesus is the Divine Administrator who is bringing order and unity to the universe, especially the church. Before giving us some more specifics about the way to live the Christian life, Paul first addresses what is probably one oft he most important issues in life: how can I produce the good life? Not what specific things should I do if I am going to be good, but rather how can I guarantee that I will do good works?

Now none of us believes that any person will ever be 100% perfect until Christ returns. That is not the issue. The issue is how can I live a good life far more than I do right now? Both Aristotle and Confucius AND Jesus came to the same conclusion: the good person is the one who will consistently do the good thing. Jesus claims that just like a peach tree produces peaches and the pear tree produces pears, so the good person will produce good works, and the bad person will produce bad works:
"You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits" (Matt. 7:16-20).

The key then is: "How do I become a good tree, a good person?" That's the issue. In this section, Paul will first show you become a good person and then he will show you which good works the good person will actually do.

THE NEED TO BECOME A GOOD PERSON (4:17-19)

17 This I say, therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.

Before giving specific instructions about the way to live the Christian life, Paul first reminds the Ephesians of his authority: "This I say, therefore, and affirm together with the Lord." Paul could have simply said, "This I say." Instead of just referring to himself as the authority here, he adds, "And I affirm together with the Lord." In order words, the Lord Jesus Himself is affirming what Paul writes here. Our response to Paul in this section is nothing less than our response to Jesus Himself.

This is something we seriously need to process. Too often Christians say that they believe in Jesus; however, they have a problem with Paul. For example, a student told me that one of his teachers claimed that his problem with Paul was that Paul tended to look down upon women, whereas Jesus really elevated women in ministry. I replied, "Oh really? How many females did Jesus choose to be apostles?" [None.] Jesus DID elevate women in ministry; HOWEVER, if you read Paul's letters and the Book of Acts carefully, you will see that he did the same, especially with Priscilla, Lydia and Phoebe. Neither Jesus nor Paul, though, chose women to be pastors [leaders of churches (Paul)] nor apostles [leaders of the church (Jesus)]. According to Paul, having a problem with him is actually having a problem with Jesus because Paul himself is Jesus' spokesman, especially to the Gentiles.

OK, first, are we as Gentiles really all that bad? I mean, wouldn't just a little bit of education at a major university, instruction in social skills, etc., really do the trick? Not according to Paul. Look at the way Paul describes the spiritual condition of Gentiles before they became Christians: ,

1. "Futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding": empty, shallow, superficial, living life in spiritual darkness. Even when C.S. Lewis was a raging atheist, he claimed that the only really interesting authors were Christian authors. Later after he became a Christian, he wrote: "The more we get what we now call 'ourselves' out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become. There is so much of Him that millions and millions of "little Christs," all different, will still be too few to express Him fully. He made them all. He invented—as an author invents characters in a novel—all the different men that you and I were intended to be. In that sense our real selves are all waiting for us in Him. It is no good trying to "be myself" without Him. The more I resist Him and try to live on my own, the more I become dominated by my own heredity and upbringing and surroundings and natural desires. In fact what I so proudly call "Myself" becomes merely the meeting place for trains of events which I never started and which I cannot stop. What I call "My wishes" become merely the desires thrown up by my physical organism or pumped into me by other men's thoughts or even suggested to me by devils. Eggs and alcohol and a good night's sleep will be the real origins of what I flatter myself by regarding as my own highly personal and discriminating decision to make love to the girl opposite to me in the railway carriage. Propaganda will be the real origin of what I regard as my own personal political ideals, I am not, in my natural state, nearly so much of a person as I like to believe: most of what I call "me" can be very easily explained. It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His Personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own.
   At the beginning I said there were Personalities in God. I will go further now. There are no real personalities anywhere else. Until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self. Sameness is to be found most among the most "natural" men, not among those who surrender to Christ. How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints" (Mere Christianity, Book 4, Chapter 11: "The New Men").
   

2. "excluded from the life of God": As a result of the emptiness and living life in the darkness, they are excluded from God's life. The other day I was talking with a group of would-be young philosophers about the issue "Can you know truth and be at peace?" One young man in particular, a very nervous type, said: "No! Knowing the truth would make you all the more unhappy!" I thought: "That might be right, unless Jesus is the truth like He says He is (John 14:6). In that case, if you know Jesus, you not only know the truth, but you have peace and rest. Why? Because Jesus claims that He came for the express purpose of giving peace and rest to those who love Him: 'Come to Me all ye who are weary and heavy-burdened and I will give you REST!' (Matt. 11:28), and 'These things I have spoken to you that you might have peace, In the world you have tribulation, but take courage! I have overcome the world!' (John 16:33)." If a person has Jesus, he has the life of God within him. He can truly experience life. If that person does not know Jesus, then he will not have life.
   

3. "because of the ignorance that is in them": the Gentiles—we—were not simply ignorant because nobody had taught us the truth. We were willfully ignorant. We wanted to remain ignorant so that we could keep on doing the things we wanted to do.
   

   The other night after class, another young man told me that he really didn't want to explore certain areas in religion and in philosophy because he just wanted to be left alone to live his own life the way he wanted to live it. THAT IS THE ATTITUDE PAUL IS PRECISELY ADDRESSING HERE IN THIS PASSAGE. Ignorance, yes! Ignorance that wants to remain ignorant so that I won't have to change.
   

4. "because of the hardness of their heart and they, having become callous": By hardness of their heart Paul means petrifaction like petrified wood. This same word is used in ancient Greek to refer to marble, stalactite, callous, insensitive skin, insensitive. Their hearts are so hard like marble that they are insensitive to God's communication to them.
   

5. have given themselves over the sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness: When people feel dead, when they feel insensitive, they will do whatever they have to do in order to feel alive: drink more, try harder and more perverted forms of sex, eat more, work until they are exhausted. Anything to feel alive.
   

   "with greediness": Enough is never enough. In the original movie Wall Street, Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas, said that greed was good. He wasn't just referring to money. More and more and more is this person's motto. Bigger house, better car, fancier clothes, tastier food, more exercise, more endomorphins, etc. Why? Because even though these things don't satisfy, we are not convinced that they don't satisfy. THEREFORE, we go for more and more hoping that finally one day we will have enough so that we will be satisfied. But 2700 years ago, Isaiah nailed us when he wrote: "Why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages what does not satisfy?" (Is. 55:2). He didn't understand why people acted that way back then; it doesn't make sense today either.
   

   It is interesting that in the ancient world (Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, Christianity), the key was moderation, something Gentile non-Christians needed to exercise.
   

After reading this, we can understand better the next part. We don't simply need a little bit of training in social skills or just a better education in how to live a good life. We need to be changed! We need to be new men and new women if we are ever going to be able to produce good works consistently in our lives. How that happens, Paul shows next.

PUT OFF THE OLD PERSON AND PUT ON THE NEW PERSON (4:20-24)

20 But you did not learn Christ in this way, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, 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, 23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

In light of what was said above, we can now understand what Paul is about to say. We don't need more education, more training in social skills, more equal distribution of wealth. We need NEW people, GOOD people, who will perform works so good that they will seem new to the world. "But you did not learn Christ in this way": Christ did not teach us to live in the manner Paul describes above.

Here Paul refers to our relationship with Jesus as being that of a student in school. This school, though, is like none other. According to our expert on Ephesians, Markus Barth, in the school of Jesus the message and the way the message is delivered are one and the same; they are JESUS! "The answer of 4:20-21 is this: when Jesus Christ is the headmaster [principal], the teaching matter, the method, the curriculum, and the academy, then the gift of new life takes the place of a diploma." (Markus Barth, p. 530).

What does Jesus teach us in His school? Strip off the old man and put on the new man. Before we came to Jesus for salvation, we were nothing more than the natural man, an old nature we inherited from Adam himself. This old man, this old nature is the main problem in human existence. It keeps us from being good men, good people. We need to get rid of this old nature, to get rid of this old man and get a new man, a new nature, a new person. That is exactly what happened at the time of salvation. Jesus claims, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God . . . Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" (John 3:3, 5). Paul puts it this way: "Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away; behold new things have come" (2 Cor. 5:17).

What is this new nature like? He is like Jesus. In fact, our new natures have been created in the image of Jesus. When we are walking in our new natures, then we will be like Jesus. If we are not like Jesus, then we are not walking in our new natures. Instead, our petrified, callous, dead-rotting old natures are still controlling our lives.

How do we put to death that old person and allow the new man created in the image of Jesus to thrive? By following Jesus on a daily basis and allowing His Spirit to empower us to be like Him. Remember when we studied that first chapter of Ephesians in which we saw that life is really all about Jesus. This passage reinforces that. It truly is all about Jesus.

Remember that even though Jesus gave us a new nature at the time of our salvation, we will still have that old nature until He returns. What we need to do each day is to put off the old man/nature and put on the new man/nature.

SPECIFIC ACTS OF THE NEW PERSON (4:25-32)

25 Therefore, laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE of you WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another. 26 BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not give the devil an opportunity. 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. 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. 30 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, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

We can talk all day long about being like Jesus; however, a few specific examples would help us understand exactly what it means to be like Jesus. Paul provides just this specific examples here in this section.

1. Speak the truth with one another: According to Paul, truth is in Jesus (Eph. 4:21). The only thing that can truly give people life is responding positively to the truth about Jesus. If I don't speak the truth about Jesus to people, then they will not have a chance to respond to that truth and therefore live.
   

2. Be angry and yet do not sin; do not give the devil an opportunity: The way this verse is translated, it sounds like it is OK to get angry as long as you don't sin. It is probably true that there are times when it would be a sin NOT to be angry. When you read about what the Nazis did to the Jews, when you read about child molestation, about rape, etc., not to get angry would not only be sinful, it would be weird.
   

   I am not sure Paul is referring to these instances though. When most of us get angry, we don't get angry over these issues. We get angry when somebody slights us; when somebody mistreats us. We respond to this mistreatment by being petty and getting angry. Again, our expert Markus Barth claims that this verse is better translated: "When you do get angry, don't sin!" This translation then does not command us to get angry; just that when we get angry, we are not to sin because when we do, we give the devil an opportunity.
   

   Satan has used the anger of Christians to do so much damage in the church and in the world. Christians in 1204 A.D. sacked the city of Constantinople, one of the greatest Christian cities on earth at that time and one of the most cultured. Edward I in 1290 A.D. promoted the claim that the Jews were the killers of Christ and that therefore their lands and wealth should be confiscated by the English crown. Sister churches have undergone great splits because of anger member directed against member. When all this happens, Satan is dancing in his banquet room, feasting over the spiritual carcasses of Christians.
   

3. Instead of stealing, work hard IN ORDER TO GIVE TO THE POOR, specifically the Christian poor (Matt. 25:31-46). Neither Paul nor Jesus ever expected us to neglect our own needs and the needs of our family by giving to the poor; HOWEVER, that truly is not an issue today in American society. We are a nation of excess. How much food do we throw away at a fast food place or throw away from the dining room table after we have eaten? Or put it another way, stand in front of a mirror and ask yourself if you should have eaten as much as you ate. Get a flat-screen T.V.; however, does a $1500-screen T.V. really perform that much better than an $800-screen T.V.? If you can listen to only one C.D. at a time, why do you need a 5-C.D. changer in your car, which makes the car more expensive? I bought a car recently which had a running board already attached to it. I told the salesman I didn't need a running board—so he threw it in for free. Why are we spending all this money on non-essentials? Have a nice house, but do we need that house?
   

   When we spend so much money on non-essentials, we are ignoring one of the most serious statements Jesus ever uttered in the New Testament: "Ignore the Christian poor and you will go to hell" (Matt. 25:31-46).
   

4. All this is so serious. When we don't speak truth to one another, when we steal, when we remain angry even after the sun has gone down, when we say things we shouldn't say, we are going to be at odds with our fellow Christians, thereby destroying the very unity Christ is working to create in His church. Moreover, such behavior grieves the Holy Spirit. Did you process what Paul just said? When we act this way, we grieve the Holy Spirit, God Himself. God is not passive about us and the way we live. He is truly emotionally invested in us and in our relationships.
   

5. Instead of stealing, lying, remaining angry, Paul commands us: "Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you" (4:32). The Lord's Prayer applies here: "Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors."
   

   So much of the Christian life is extending forgiveness to others. So many people fear that Christ expects THEM to be perfect. They can forgive others; however, they can't forgive themselves. Jesus knows, though, that in spite of all that He has done for us, we are still going to mess up after our salvation experience and we are still going to need forgiveness. Again, just look at the Lord's Prayer. First, Jesus asks our Father to accomplish His will in our lives. We know what that will is—to be like Jesus! Second, He asks our Father to give us what we need to be like Jesus—“Give us this day our daily bread." So after God has given us knowledge that we are to be like Jesus and after God has given us His mighty Spirit to be like Jesus, don't you think we will then be like Jesus? If so, then why does Jesus pray after these first 2 petitions, "Forgive us our debts"? The bottom line is this: Jesus is working in our lives to make us like Him. That is God's will for our lives. Although we should be growing to be like Jesus, we won't be completely like Him until He returns. In the meantime, we are going to mess up and need His forgiveness. If Jesus acknowledges that, then we need to acknowledge it as well.
   

   We are not the only ones who need forgiveness though. Those around you need forgiveness. Those who sin against you need forgiveness. Forgiving each other—JUST LIKE CHRIST HAS FORGIVEN YOU!—is going to be crucial if we are going to experience unity and be the church Christ died to make us be.