Ephesians 4:17-24

Teacher: Rusty Kennedy
​Series: Ephesians

Rusty's Notes

• Living together as one body

LIVING THE NEW LIFE
EPHESIANS 4:17-24
17 Therefore, I say this and testify in the Lord: You should no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thoughts.

• Obviously the Lord was in agreement with Paul's teaching.
• Walk = conduct your life
• Gentiles -
     1) Nation of people other than the Jews.
     2) Heathen, ungodly, unregenerate pagan
             persons.
     (1 Thessalonians 4:5‎ - not with lustful passions, like the Gentiles, who don’t know God.[1])
• Ephesus was a Gentile city famous for temple of Diana (Roman name) or Artemis (Greek).
• - Diana was a sex/fertility goddess.
• Futility = vanity, folly or emptiness
• Striving after wind... for what?
• ‎A.W. Tozer – “Israel did not reject the Lord because of philosophical reasons. Israel’s rejection was for moral reasons.…
• ’m telling you this, and it’s a statement that I need not modify. I do not believe there is anybody that ever rejects Jesus Christ on philosophical grounds.

The man who continues in his rejection of Christ has a pet sin somewhere--he’s in love with iniquity.
He rejects Jesus on moral grounds, and then hides behind false philosophy—philosophical grounds.…
I believe that every one of these who are having intellectual difficulties is hiding because he is morally reprobate. When we fall in love with our sin, we can imagine and manufacture 10,000 syllogisms to keep us away from the cross.”
18 They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them and because of the hardness of their hearts.

• Darkened = the spiritual condition before Christ.
• Excluded = alienated, stranger or separated
• Ignorance = not with the intellectual matters of the world but the things of God.
• Hardness of their heart = sin nature inherited from Adam.
• Ephesians 2:3‎ - We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.[2]
• The sin nature is eradicated when a person receives Jesus.
• Romans 6:6 - ‎For we know that our old self was crucified with him ...[3]
• Galatians 2:20 - I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.[4]
• 2 Corinthians 5:17 - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come![5]

 

• A.W. Tozer – “It may shock some readers to suggest that there is a difference between being “Bible taught” and “Spirit taught.”

Nevertheless, it is so!
It is altogether possible to be instructed in the rudiments of the faith and still have no real understanding of the whole thing. And it is possible to go on to become expert in Bible doctrine and not have spiritual illumination, with the result that a veil remains over the mind, preventing it from apprehending the truth in its spiritual essence.
Most of us are acquainted with churches that teach the Bible to their children, reinforce it with catechism classes, and still never produce in them a living Christianity nor an energized godliness.
Their members show no evidence of having passed from death unto life. None of the earmarks of salvation so plainly indicated in the Scriptures are found among them. Their religious lives are correct and reasonably moral, but wholly mechanical and altogether lacking in radiance.
Many of them are pathetically serious about it all, but they are spiritually blind, getting along with the outward shell of faith while all the time their deep hearts are starving for spiritual reality.
It has been said that “The Scriptures, to be understood, must be read with the same Spirit that originally inspired them.” No one denies this, but even such a statement will go over the heads of those who hear it unless the Holy Spirit inflames the heart!”

• This has nothing to do with salvation
• It is a matter of experiencing the abundant life.

19 They became callous and gave themselves over to promiscuity for the practice of every kind of impurity with a desire for more and more.

• Callous = cease to care.
• Particularly about the things they do or how they are perceived by those around them.
• Openly committing sin.
• They have desensitized themselves and can no longer pursue the things of God.

20 But that is not how you came to know (learn) Christ,

• Probably in reference to salvation.
• Paul is indicating at some point you became separated from those who did not know Christ.

21 assuming you heard about him and were taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus,

• “Assuming” = makes reference to the fulfilled condition.
• 03/25/19 - In a live appearance at UCLA’s Royce Hall, Oprah explains why it’s important for all of us to find our own truth.
• “What is the truth of me? Why am I here? And what do I have to offer?”
• Oprah asks. “The answer,” she says, “is yourself.”
• Oprah shares why you are enough, just as you are…
• There is no “your truth”
• There is “your opinions” and “your experiences”.
• But there is only one truth.
• John 18:37-38 - “You are a king then?” Pilate asked.

“You say that I’m a king,” Jesus replied. “I was born for this, and I have come into the world for this: to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

• 38 “What is truth?” said Pilate.[6]
• Absolute Truth - Absolute truth is true regardless of how a person thinks or feels about it.
• Relative Truth - Relative truth is the belief truth changes based on the individual’s understanding of it.
• The problem with relative truth it is a contradiction in terms.
• If truth is factual and indisputable then you cannot have different truths for different people.
• Relative truth is a rejection of absolute truth.
• The Truth comes from Jesus. (John 14:6)
• It is constant (never changes)
• It is objective (no favorites)
• It will prevail

22 to take off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires,

• former way of life = before Christ.
• Paul makes reference to his former manner and days before Christ to better identify with his audience.
• But we have to be careful not to use our past mistakes as an opportunity to glorify the flesh.
• old self = sin nature inherited by Adam
• lay aside = aorist infinitive (tense is not defined).‎ laid aside, lay aside, laying aside, put, put aside, putting aside.
• If this verse is teaching that the old self remains after transformation then it contradicts Romans 6:6 & Colossians 3:9-10‎ - Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator.[7]
• John Murray and HCSB say that past tense is indicated here.
• It is the only way all of these verses can be filtered together.
• There is a battle. But it is not between the Old Self and New Self.
  Romans 7:23 – but I see a different law in the parts of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and taking me prisoner to the law of sin in the parts of my body.[8]
• This verse explains it as the warring of the New Self and the power of sin that dwells in our flesh.
• Who is it that sins?
• It is the New Man who needs to mature in knowledge of Christ and their behavior will naturally begin to line up with what they know and believe.
• The old self is easily corrupted by deceit.
• The desires/lust are being intensified.

23 to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,

• Not only does God renew the spirit of the believer's mind at salvation, but continues the process throughout the believer's lifetime.
• Spirit of your mind = attitude, thoughts, purpose or bent.
• How is this possible if you still have the Old Self attached?
•  It is impossible for the Old Self to understand spiritual truth.

24 and to put on, the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.[9]

• Past tense is indicated here.
• Paul is encouraging his readers to realize they are already the new self (new man).
• The believer is not a lowly sinner saved by grace, but a saint who sometimes sins.
• The result is that the Christian is to discern and prove the will of God [10]
• A.W. Tozer – “The answer is that we are too comfortable, too rich, too contented. We hold the faith of our fathers, but it does not hold us. We are suffering from judicial blindness visited upon us because of our sins. To us has been committed the most precious of all treasures, but we are not committed to it. We insist upon making our religion a form of amusement and will have fun whether or not. We are afflicted with religious myopia and see only things near at hand.

God has set eternity in our hearts and we have chosen time instead. He is trying to interest us in a glorious tomorrow and we are settling for an inglorious today. We are bogged down in local interests and have lost sight of eternal purposes. We improvise and muddle along, hoping for heaven at last but showing no eagerness to get there, correct in doctrine but weary of prayer and bored with God.”[11]

• Golf lesson
     - Non golfer
     - Teaching you the correct way
     - Trust – Dr. Rob Bell
     - Scared to play

[1] Christian Standard Bible (1 Th 4:5). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.
[2] Christian Standard Bible (Eph 2:3). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.
[3] Christian Standard Bible (Ro 6:6–7). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers
[4] Christian Standard Bible (Ga 2:20). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.
[5] Christian Standard Bible (2 Co 5:17). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.
[6] Christian Standard Bible (Jn 18:37–38). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.
[7] Christian Standard Bible (Col 3:9–10). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.
[8] Christian Standard Bible (Ro 7:23). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.
[9] Christian Standard Bible (Eph 4:17–24). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.
[10] Olford, S. F., & Olford, D. L. (1998). Anointed Expository Preaching (348). Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[11] Tozer, A. W., & Eggert, R. (1998). Vol. 2: The Tozer Topical Reader (273–274). Camp Hill, PA.: WingSpread.