“This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”
Paul hits us with another ‘therefore’ in verse 17. He wants us to come to the logical conclusion of where he is going with him. Based on what I have recently discussed with you, this is the reasonable direction of where we are going. Paul is going to address our lifestyle here; he calls it ‘our walk.’ In the previous verses, he primarily dealt with things inside the church body, how we regard ourselves, how we help each other, and how we forgive each other. He dealt with the doctrinal stands about the Lord, our faith, the Hope, and so on, and He called us to live a life that is not two-faced, nor that we should be tossed about by all the doctrines out there.
But now that we have learned how to behave and act inside the house of God, inside the family of God, we have to now learn how to ‘walk,’ how to live outside where we work, where we are neighbors, and where we interact with the world around us. Are we good advertisers for the kingdom, or do we detract from the kingdom? These are the questions. In 2 Corinthians 5:20, the Bible calls us ambassadors.
“Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.”
What kind of ambassadors are we? Paul tells us that now that we have been birthed into the family of God, we should live in certain ways, and by putting away certain behaviors, we can then live ‘righteously’ and be good ambassadors for the kingdom. The first thing that Paul points out is that we have a new mind. The lost man, you and I, before we were saved, had futile thinking (Vs 17), and we had darkened minds (vs 18). We had a hard time understanding, if at all, the concept and the precepts of God. Jesus, The Light, as we see in John 1:5, said this about the unsaved:
“And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
We could not understand the ways of God because our minds were darkened, the way we thought was darkened, and as such, we could not see. The famous song “Amazing Grace” has the line, “I once was blind, but now I see.” It was not a physical blindness but a spiritual one. Now we can clearly see because the Holy Spirit is in us, and we can begin to understand the truth of God. As well, we are no longer ‘aliens’ to God; we have come into His family in and through Jesus. His shed blood and His sacrifice that pays for our sins births us into the family of God. Now, we are alienated from the world system. We don’t think like them, nor do we fit in like we used to in certain situations. The apostle Peter puts it this way: we are ‘sojourners’ here (1 Peter 2:11).
“Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.”
We are no longer ignorant, no longer behaving lewdly, and we begin to stop things like greediness and cheating people out of their stuff. Verse 22 says that we ‘put off’ the former conduct. We set aside the former ways of life, and since we cannot live in a vacuum, we must then put on something. We will return to old habits unless we put on new ones. In verse 23, Paul tells us to ‘put on’ the new man. It is active; one must make choices and decisions over and over again. It is a daily and maybe even a moment-by-moment choice as we grow and mature in Jesus. Sometimes, it will feel awkward making ‘new’ choices, but much like a baby learning to walk, soon the steps are less and less awkward, and then they can run. The Christian life is much the same.
In Romans 12:1-2, we are called to a transformation in Jesus, a renewing of the mind, and the goal is that we are to live for the Lord. Paul here tells us that we are to live in ‘righteousness and holiness.’ Right living and right choices based on the word of God and the Holy Spirit in us, and these right ways lead us to holiness. Holiness is being ‘set apart’; this is what God calls us all to. In 2 Corinthians 6:17, Paul tells us this:
“Therefore ‘Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.’”
This is ‘holiness’ set apart from the world system for the Lord. We walk away from the old culture of the world and begin to live in the new culture of the Kingdom of Heaven. Our antics, our ways, our speech, and the way we carry ourselves are counter to the culture of the world. Our churches become embassies, and our members become ambassadors for the Kingdom of Heaven.
Are you and I good ambassadors for the Kingdom, or do we misrepresent the Kingdom? Jesus is coming, and so is the judgment.
Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Bethany Baptist Church
70 Victoria Street, Elora, Ontario
The post Unity in Righteousness: Ephesians 4:17-24 :: By Sean Gooding appeared first on Rapture Ready.
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