Changing Clothes - Eph. 4:17-24
Steve Simala Grant
Intro:
We have had quite a week. Last Sunday, on thanksgiving, I talked about how
visiting Allan Vail had brought me encouragement as I saw the faith that Allan had and
how Allan was ready if God should choose to call him home. And at 1 lam last Sunday,
right around the time I was talking about him, God called him home. Yesterday we
gathered and celebrated his life, and praised God for our friend. In the meantime, Joanne
and I spent a few days in the hospital with Thomas, again fighting a flare up of his
bronchial infection. Noelle passed on an email from Trevor with some preliminary
results of his MRI, which were not as positive as we had hoped and prayed. And there
are a number of other circumstances in different families and individuals that I am aware
of that are really difficult.
I have never been the type of person to see every circumstance or event in a
hyper-spiritual way - like seeing a stalled engine as a demonic attack to keep me from
being on time. But our study of Ephesians has reminded me that we are in a spiritual
battle. We will come to chapter 6, which lays this battle out plainly, where the summary
statement is vs. 12 "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,
against the authorities, against the powers of this dark word and against the spiritual
forces of evil in the heavenly realms." And to anticipate our study there, let me say that
the bottom line is that we are instructed to stand. To plant our feet, dig in our heals, and
stand against these forces. We can do this only because we know that God has already
won the battle. The devil is defeated. Even death has lost its sting because of Jesus.
And so before jumping into this week’s passage, Eph. 4:17-24,1 want to pause for
prayer together. We are going to praise God in prayer, thank him for the battle’s He has
won, claim His victory, and ask for the strength for us to stand firm in obedience to what
He has called us to do.
Prayer.
1. Overview:
We can divide Eph. 4:17-24 into two sections. The first section, 17-20, talks
about the past - our state before coming to Christ and the state of those currently living
without Christ. »READ.
The second section, 20-24, paints the contrast. It details a 3-step process to
becoming Christlike, putting off the old self, being renewed in our minds, and putting on
the new self. READ.
There is a third section, vss. 25-5:2, that is part of the same basic unit of thought.
It gets specific in talking about some of these things that need to be put off- some
particular sins which we need to be aware of and consciously "put off by the power of
God. I was planning on walking through this section along with the first two, but decided
instead to save this for next week so that we could look at it in more detail..
Lets look at each of these first two in turn.
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2. No Longer Live as the Gentiles Do (4:20-24):
Paul begins with some strong language - "I tell you... and insist on it in the
Lord...". And then he starts talking about our lifestyles. Up until now in the book of
Ephesians, Paul has laid out for us a series of incredible spiritual truths about who we are
in Christ - how God has brought us from our hopelessness and despair and slavery to sin
into a place of forgiveness, adoption, wholeness, and unity. And now Paul begins to get
specific, and says, in effect, "If this is who you are, then this is how you must live.*,
This section lays out the first part of the contrast. Paul describes those outside of
a relationship with God as living "in the futility of their thinking." He says they are
"darkened... separated from God." And because of this state, vs. 19 tells us that they
have 1. Lost all sensitivity; 2. Given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in
every kind of impurity; and 3. Have a continual lust for more.
1. Lost all sensitivity. This was a common expression in Paul’s day, vividly depicting
an image of losing the capacity to feel shame or embarrassment. The phrase literally
referred to skin that had become so callous that it could no longer feel pain. It is a picture
of becoming so hardened that nothing could produce feeling any longer. F. F. Bruce
describes this as the vice which "throws of all restraint and flaunts itself, ’unawed by
shame or fear,’ without regard for self respect, for the rights or feelings of others, or for
public decency."
2. Given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity.
The language used has specific sexual connotations, hence the word "sensuality", but the
words "every kind of impurity" let us know that it is more than simply sexual sins that
are in view here. The description is emphatic - the idea of willfully giving themselves
over to the pursuit of pleasure at any and all costs, of "indulging" in anything that would
satisfy the lusts of the eyes.
3. Have a continual lust for more. And as if the former were not enough, the last
phrase indicates the vicious circle which is begun when we travel down this path of
sinfully giving in to every desire. It creates a continual lust for more, an insatiable desire
to pursue the next and greater high, and thus newer and greater perversions must be
sought to replace the ones that are wearing out.
I was struck by how descriptive these three phrases are of our cultures These
things which the Bible lists as descriptions of those "darkened in their understanding and
separate from God" have become things our society values and even celebrates. The first
one, of loss of sensitivity to others, is the rallying cry of the self-help movement. Our
society teaches us to throw off restraint, to pursue anything that will make us happy, to be ,
ashamed of nothing and fearful of nothing. We are taught to maximize ourselves, to
pursue our own happiness, to forget anything that keeps us from living up to our
potential. The message of Christ is the opposite? We are called to maximize others, to
pursue their happiness, to place their needs above our own. We are called to be selfless,
to put others first, even to lay down our lives for each other. The second description, of
indulging in every kind of impurity and sensuality, is another very powerful and common
theme in our culture. It is rooted in the same thing - the premise that our own happiness
is of paramount concern. The lie then perverts this into a strong suggestion that fulfilling
our every desire will bring us happiness - but as every addict will tell you this is not the
case. This brings slavery and misery. The entertainment industry spends billions of
dollars looking for new ways to shock, new depths to plunge to, new images that will
fulfill the new desires for sensuality. And the result is the third thing in the list - a
continual lust for more.
3. You, however... (vs. 20-24)
In the midst of this kind of culture, we are called to be different. This section is
built around an analogy - that of changing clothes. That is where the language of
"putting off and "putting on" comes from. , i
You know what it is like to be in dirty clothes. Whether you have just finished a
workout and your clothes are sweaty, you have been digging in the dirt or fixing your car,
or you have been standing near a mud puddle when a bus goes zooming past, you know
the feeling. And if you are like me, once you finish that activity the first priority is to get
cleaned up - get the dirty clothes off, get the grime off, and then get some clean, fresh
clothes on. That is the process applied to our spiritual lives in these 5 verses.
1. Put off your old self (vs. 22). This is an interesting phrase, especially since the Bible
teaches that when we come to know Christ our old selves are replaced with a new self - 2
Cor. 5:17 makes that plain. It makes it clear that alongside God’s work of renewal there
is a role for us to play. We have a part in the battle. We have a responsibility to work
against our old desires and habits, to fight them, to resist the temptations. The phrase
depicts this old self as "being corrupted by its deceitful desires." And so we are to "put
off this old self.
How? How do we actually do this? Very briefly, I think we need to 1. Recognize
and admit where our temptations are. Stop rationalizing our sin, stop making excuses for
it, stop thinking it is ok to "indulge" once in a while as long as we go to church or say a
prayer or do some other "good" thing which we think balances the sin off. 2. Determine
to do something about it. And I mean determine, not merely think it would be a good
idea, but to actually resolve to change. 3. Recognize that it is only through Christ that
we will find the strength to overcome, and thus commit the whole thing to God in prayer,
asking for His forgiveness for the past and the strength to fight the temptations. And 4.
This one is crucial and is the one we generally leave out, find someone else to hold you
accountable. Confess your sin to them, and ask them to help you in this particular
struggle.
2. Be made new in the attitude of your minds (vs. 23). Once the old nature is "put
off, Paul next commands that we be made new in the attitude of our minds. This is
fascinating. It addresses the main part of what is needed for us - a new .way of thinking.
It is fascinating to me because of our tendency to separate our heads and our hearts.
Putting off the old is to me a matter of the heart - of allowing God to get a handle on our
desires and get our sinful habits under God’s control. And then Paul immediately links
this to our minds, instructing us to have our attitudes and our minds made new. .This fits
perfectly, because we have an amazing ability to deceive ourselves. ,We can so easily
rationalize our sin, we can so easily convince ourselves that it isn’t really bad and doesn’t
really harm anyone, we can so easily bring ourselves to thinking that our sin doesn’t
really matter. What Paul says is that we need to be renewed in the attitude of our minds.
We need to work with the Holy Spirit to retrain our thinking.
Once again, the key question is: How? There is an expression in the computer
industry for programmers - "garbage in, garbage out.’1’ It means if what you put in is not
good, what comes out will not be good either. The same is true of our minds. To
cooperate with God in this renewal of our minds means that we begin to make sure that
what we put into our minds is good, not garbage. Like what? Scripture, for starters. Get
a reading plan (many Bibles have one already in them) and ensure that every day you are
spending time filling your mind with the Word of God. Spend time in prayer, - seeking
God and listening to Him and communing with Him. Make sure you attend a worship
service regularly. Join a small group. Listen to Christian music instead of the radio. , • .
And eliminate the garbage - if it is movies or TV or people that have a negative influence
and lead you into temptation, then eliminate those influences and replace them with the
things above.
3. Put on the new self (vs. 24). The clothing analogy* continues here. We have
discarded the old, sought a renewal of the mind, and now Paul tells us what to put on: the
new self "created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."
The idea is echoed in Gal. 3:27 "for all of you who were baptized into Christ have
clothed yourselves with Christ." That is why Paul can write that we will be like God in"
true righteousness and holiness - because it is Christ living in us, recreating us in God’s
image.
Here again we find some responsibility placed on us - this new self is something
we are commanded to "put on." This is reflective of the wonderful balance in Scripture
between what God does and what effort we need to make also. Of course it is only God
that can recreate us - it is only God who can make us truly righteous and holy. But we
have to participate also. We have to receive this new nature by faith - and then we have
to take hold of the promises and gifts of God and appropriate them for ourselves - in
essence "putting them on." We don’t put on the new nature, we put on a new way of life
that accurately reflects the new nature we have in Christ. This is our responsibility - to
live "a life worthy of the calling we have received."
Conclusion:
And so the contrast between what Paul calls the "Gentiles" in vss. 17-19 and us
who now know Christ is complete. The next section, which we will leave until next
week, begins to get specific about some of the things that we need to "put off."
As we close, I need to ask you what you are wearing. Are you wearing the "old
self which is being corrupted by its evil desires," or are you wearing the "new self,
created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness?" I call you today to
repentance. To put off the old self, work with the Holy Spirit to renew your mind, and to
put on the new self. To live a life of true righteousness and holiness, and thus please God
and be an effective witness for Him in our world. I call you to change your clothes, and
live a life that is pleasing to God.
