Ephesians 4:17–24 (ESV)
Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 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. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
In our call to Christ and in our acceptance of His glorious grace and love upon our lives, we have been added to His body. We have been united with Christ and we have been baptised into a new life and a new community. We can call it a new Kingdom community. God in His complete and masterful wisdom decided to display His full wisdom, through the unified body of Christ, His church.
In our walk through Ephesians we have been taught and reminded of the wonderful foundational truths of our faith (Eph 1-3).
Our blessing in Christ Jesus
Our position in Christ Jesus (Heavenly Places)
God the Father choosing us before the foundation of this world, in Christ
Our predestined call to adoption as Sons of God, through Jesus Christ
Our redemption of sins through the blood of Jesus & the forgiveness of all our trespasses
Grace that has been lavished upon us.
Our inheritance in Christ
We have also learned that because we received the gift of Jesus, by grace through faith we are now part of the mystery of Christ; His church.
We are One in Christ
We are members of the same body
We are the temple of God
We are not united by our own preferences, but we are united by the Spirit of God (Eph 4:3)
We should fight, endeavour and strive to maintain the unity of the body.
We do this by acknowledging the ascension gifts Christ gave to the body (Eph 4:11), being built up and equipped by the preachers of God’s Word, so that we can attain the unity of faith, and the full knowledge of the Son, in order for us to be mature Christians.
We are thus called to walk worthy of our calling and grow in maturity, whilst maintaining the unity of the faith within the local body. (Eph 4:11-16)
Called to Maturity
When we look at these verses within the context of the whole book of Ephesians we have to ask the question; what is Paul saying to church of the Lord? Paul is painting a picture, in order to exhort the church to WALK in a manner worthy of the calling that we have received. In Eph 4:1-16 Paul clearly is saying that we as New Born Christians have a goal in mind. Our goal is to collectively become a mature new man in Christ Jesus (Eph 4:16). Paul is saying that it is impossible to become mature and walk as we ought to walk as children of the light if we are not in unity, if we don’t see the beauty of the church and the body of Christ.
So individually I grow in the Lord and in the things of the Lord (Prayer & Word Study) and corporately I JOIN with brothers and sisters in the Lord feeding from the gifts that Christ has given to the body (Submitting to tested and approved leaders, worshipping God together, growing together and using the spiritual gifts God gave me for the advancement of the kingdom).
Now Paul builds this idea further in our text. He says that if it is indeed our desire to become mature children of the Lord it is crucial for us NOT to walk like the gentiles do. We can see it as Paul is building a process, a process each of us will have to go through in our walk with the Lord.
We cannot become mature in the Lord if we are walking out our Christianity on our own!
We cannot achieve unity in the body, if we continue to walk like the gentiles in impurity
Maturity is not possible without corporate unity and unity is not possible without individual purity.
› There is nothing worse than a child of God professing to be a believer, but yet he walks in the ways of this world. There is no thing sadder in in life to behold than a man sitting under the teachings and training of a master, but yet he himself stays an amateur.
Someone asked William Barclay, the New Testament scholar, about a young man who described himself as a former student of Barclay’s. Barclay replied, “He may have attended my lectures, but he was not one of my students.” How often this may be said of people who profess to be disciples (learners) of Jesus.
Herschel H. Hobbs, My Favorite Illustrations (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1990), 40.
The Depravity of the Lost
The text explains how we should not walk as we did before. Before we came to Christ we where Gentiles, far from God, but now because we have been adopted into His family, grafted into Christ, we should no longer walk according to our previous life. Paul explains the despair & depravity of those who are without Christ. Paul mention that they (gentiles) are walking in the futility of their minds. Just how bad can bad be? Could you imagine a life where everything you do and everything you invest your time and effort in turns out to be in vain? Everything that you could think about and dream about turns our to be nothing but dust and emptiness? How bad can bad be. That is the life without Christ! Futility speaks of no purpose, emptiness and hopelessness of their thinking. Whatever they occupy their minds with, bears NO fruit in the end; it is empty & in vain. That which occupies the mind of the unsaved, no matter how intelligent in thought or in logic, ends up profitless. Paul bids us not to live this way, not to think and behave like gentiles do.
Paul’s warning comes to the saved, his warning is to you and to me today. Paul is saying we should no longer walk in this manner of futility. This means that there is a great possibility for the Christian to accept the saving grace of God in essence, but in practise and in the walking out of his life, the christian could still be caught up in the ways of man; still living an immoral, debased, meaningless life, not closer to God but still far and distant from Him. Still not having the mind of Christ, but a mind filled with futility. This is something we will find that we will constantly battle as Christians. The battle not to think and live the way we used to. The enemy is a master in pulling us down into the gutters of unholy thinking, occupying our minds with meaningless unprofitable thoughts.
Paul is not saying that our position in Christ is at risk, for salvation comes by grace alone, through faith alone. Jesus dealt with our separation from God on the cross of Calvary. Paul is stating that our effectiveness as the church is at stake. When we behave like the gentiles do, the testimony of the complete church suffers. Paul is addressing the behaviour of the New Born, regenerated man. The man that now operates by faith should be growing to maturity in the Lord and strong and able in the things of the Lord.
So how does the gentile behave or think? Paul lists a few things that he calls “in the futility of Mind”, as an identification of a gentile walk. If we are aware of these things we can through the help of the Holy Spirit identify them in our own lives and deal with them.
1. Darkened in their Understanding
It is not that they (the unsaved) do not have understanding, but the understanding they do have is darkened. Devoid of light and truth. It is not that they do not have a well thought out clever logic and opinion, but their opinion and logic is birthed in utter darkness. Ready to deceive anyone who is willing to listen.
This speaks of how they view life and the world they live in. The word darkened means to cover with darkness.
The way they think does not allow the light of Christ to break truly break in. They are covered in darkness.
Many so called Christians still cover their thoughts & parts of their lives with the darkness of this world. They think more about politics and socio-economic issues than what they think about the Word of God.
When the preacher comes to tell them about the victory they have in Christ ,they might leap for a moment in their chairs with a temporary agreement, just to walk out the door of the church building to forget about that victory and cloak themselves with the despair and depravity of this world, thinking to themselves; woe is me.
It is as if they only understand what they can see with their physical eye, and very soon they don’t just think like this darkened demonic world, but they operate like it too.
Their darkened way of thinking has made them train their children like the world does, love their wives and husbands like the gentiles tell them they should, do business like the world does, all along thinking well it must be like this, because everybody is doing it like this. Their minds fully fixed on an earthly future postponing any thoughts toward their eternal home to a much later date. They too fall in the pit of despair because they think about themselves like the world tells them to think about themselves. They seek success were the world seeks success, they desire the idols and acculades the world desires and they try to find fulfilment in the futile things the world try to find fulfilment in.
Darkened in their understanding they hide from the truth and the light. Just like Adam & Eve hid, so do they. You want to know the real reason Christians don’t come to church like the Word of God commands? You want to know the real reason, the church seem ineffective in our society today? You want to know why there is no distinction between the saved and the unsaved? Well, a great amount of the members of the body of Christ have covered their thoughts in darkness.
Paul says don’t live that way. There is a better way, a spiritually illuminated way of Truth, separate and different from the ways of this world. There is a way that is not futile in the end but fruitful and worth taking.
2. Alienated from the life of God (Dead) )
How bad can bad be? The second thing Paul mentions is that the gentiles are alienated from the life of God.
They are not alienated in the sense of not being in contact or having access to Him, but alienated in the sense that they derive no life from God. Even thou they have been created by God, they are no longer alive to God. The life they did have was lost in the garden of Eden, and they are shut out from the fellowship, estranged from God. Spiritually dead. Because they are without Christ, their whole existence is devoid of the life of Christ.
They have no Joy of Salvation, no Hope eternal, no Peace that surpasses understanding, no guidance of the Holy Spirit, no Bread of life that sustains, no Milk of the Word that nourishes, no Forever Kingdom to live and fight for, no Future Glory to hold on to, no Holy Body to belong to, & no benefits that extend past this earthly grave.
Don’t desire to walk like those who have no life to begin with.
3. Due to ignorance that springs forth from a hardened heart.
Why is the gentile darkened in his understanding and why is he alienated form the life of God.? Because of ignorance that springs forth from a hardened heart. It is the heart that has gone wrong.
In other words their character and a way of living is defrauded because of a heart issue. (Pr 20:5) (Matt 15:18-19) (Prov 4:23 )God sent His Son to restore our broken hearts. Our hearts have been shattered through the work of sin. But God has rewritten our story and recaptured our hearts through the love of Christ.
The man and woman without God does not need a bit of counseling or little bit of help here & there, no, the whole heart is corrupt & perverse. What they need is not medicine for a broken heart they need a complete transplant of the heart. a New heart!! Because of this corrupt heart the gentile is insensitive to the things of God. Hardened and callous, until God breaks into our lives.
4. Given up to every kind of impurity
There is only one destination for the one who walks in the ways of this world. They will be swimming in a deep sea of despair, overcome by every kind of impurity, given over to the sensuality, governed by the lust of the flesh.
Now that they are insensitive to the things of God, to the truth of life, they now are given over to loose living. In other words the complete opposite of Godliness, they now live in absolute ungodliness.
So many dear Christians, professing to be Bible believing children of God, once you examine their lives, you discover that they have acquired a taste for the impure indulgences of this wasting world. They become insensitive to the pure Word of God and the promptings of the Spirit of God, they have no desire to be with the body of Christ, if fact they completely handed their lives over to the ways of the gentiles, living just like they want to.
Romans 1:21 (ESV)
For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
The Pursuit of Purity
Ephesians 4:20–24 (ESV)
But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Here are a few question for you today!
• How have you learned Christ?
• What do you know about Him, what have you been taught about Him?
• Do you know Him as Lord and Saviour?
• Has your Life been radically changed by the saving grace of Jesus?
• Have you embraced the new way of life?
• Do you remember the day that God saved you from the abyss of darkness, do you remember the day you have come to know Christ?
You see learning Christ produces the change radical enough to transform our whole existence! It removed the cover of darkness that my life has been hidden in and it clothed me with Truth. Learning Christ turned me away from being alienated from Christ Jesus and made me one with Him, in Him I now live and move and have my being! Learning Christ and knowing Him has removed the callouses of my heart and He created in me a new Heart and renewed a right Spirit in me. This learning of Christ started one day in my past, my day of Salvation, that was ordained by God before the world began, but it also continues daily as I continue to learn about Him in the Joy of my salvation.
Three Things that should happen in the lives of those who have learned Christ:
1. Those who know and are learning Christ, put off the old self.
2. Those who know and learning Christ are constantly being renewed in the spirit their minds.
3. Those who know and are learning Christ are continually putting on the new man.
Paul’s general call to Godliness to the church of Ephesus is the church of Montagu’s general call to Godliness today! To walk worthy of the calling of God is a call of God to walk in purity. Purity is a daily laying down of the old man practises, a constant renewal of my thinking according to the life and Word of God and a minute by minute practical exercise and walking out this new life.
Purity is not something that stays in the realm of desire, it does not stay constantly out of my reach, no, Purity is something I pursue, something a lay a hold off, because the One I serve is pure, the One I belong to is Holy. it is constantly renewing my mind (keeping mind fresh and alive towards the things of God) and then practising, walking out what I have learned, in faith.