EPHESIANS4 vv22-24

The old and the new           (22-24)

Using the idiom of clothing, Paul wishes to impress on the believers. the importance of a change of character in fellowship with God.   Just as we change our garments in the realm of the physical, so in spiritual things.   Christianity is an extremely positive experience, but there are definite prohibitions.   We have powerful Divine resources to help. but it requires our cooperation if we are to develop contrary features to our old way of life.   Paul says "put off ...the old man..." in verse 22, and "put on the new man."   He then explains the relative character of the two natures.   We must be clear that, initial conversion happens at a point in time, with no attendant moral change, but practical change is a process that will be lifelong, only to find it's fulfilment in the next life.   What Paul is doing here is comparing the former with the present, thus highlighting a change which has already begun.   In these verses he presents the doctrine of this, before in verses 25-32, he addresses the specifics.   He presents the principles before the prohibitions, the doctrine before the practice.

• The old man               This means, of course, the old way of life;   the expression occurs in the new testament three times, and so we must underline this as a truth which is to be understood(Romans6 v6; Ephesians4 v22;  and Colossians3 v9.)   A reading of these will reveal this is now a fact, the old man is crucified with Christ(Romans), the old man has been stripped off with his deeds(Colossians), and put off the old man....this is aorist infinitive, which indicates a past point in time with eternal results.   All three of these scriptures refer to something that has already happened.   God has finished with the old man, He has put it to death it is incurable, and in accepting God's terms, unwittingly we put it away also.   Now a permanent change has taken place, you cast off your old way of life, like you would cast off a filthy garment.   This is something already done at the point of salvation.   However this is to be distinguished from the new testament word "the flesh", which will still trouble the believer.....this refers to our weakness, our frailty in succumbing to sinful desires....the old man is dead, but the flesh is always with us.   The two ideas, the old man and the flesh are sometimes the same in some scriptures, such as John chapter3 and Romans chapter8, but mainly they are seen as separate entities, the one positional, as done away in Christ, the other practical and still very much with us to trouble us.   We are to view the old man as our standing in Adam, which took us far from God.   He says two things about the old man.....firstly that it is corrupt;   the word is ptheiro which means shrivelled or withered, that is, it is beyond repair, it cannot be improved!   God is not in the business of rehabilitating human beings, rather is He making them anew, because the old is finished.   Secondly it is corrupt "according to the deceitful lusts"....those cravings, those desires, which filled the life, are deceitful, they are illusionary, because the human being, created by God, can only ever be satisfied with God.   All this says dissatisfaction and degradation.   The false world notion of evolution is so far off the mark, since God has finished with man in Adam, there is no betterment.
• The new man      This is our new status in Christ, we have to understand what we are in Christ.   We are not as we were before, we have been made anew;   verse 24 says we have once and for all put on the new man, and verse 23 says we are to continually be putting on the new man.   The phrase "Be what you are" comes to mind, we are to live out the reality of our new life in Christ.   The question is, do we know what we are, how we have been made anew?  In contradistinction to the old man, which is corrupt, the new man is pure.   Notice the differences;   the old was deceitful, the new is true, it is the real thing.   The old was corrupt, the new is righteous, it is after God, in whose image we were originally created.   The new man is created in perfection and patterned after the Creator.   This is what we are in Christ, in eternity we will be perfect, if we want to experience it here and now, the way to it is to continually renew the spirit of our mind.   Paul says a similar thing in Romans12 v2 "...be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind."   God expects us to play our part;   prior to our salvation we were unable to live up to His standards, now we can, we should give every effort to display the beauty of the new man, which, after God is "created in righteousness and true holiness".....living justly before our fellow man, and in true devotion to God.

 

 

  

EPHESIANS4 vv20-21

 The essence of the new nature                (20-21)

"But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard Him, and have been taught by(in) Him, as the truth is in Jesus."

The first thing to note is that he moves from a catalogue of evils in our fallen state, directly to Christ.   God's new life given to us is not a catalogue of good works, it is not an alternative life creed, it is not a list of rules which we are to follow, it is rather a glorious person of infinite beauty, who is in His very person "the truth" and He is our new standard of life.   Everything apart from Him is a lie and is of the devil, everything of Him is the truth, and represents God truly.   Thus we do not have a list of commandments as our model of life, we have the person of Christ.   Note the change from Christ to Jesus from verse 20 to verse 21.   Jesus is the title of His humanity, and if we would know how to live in our new situation we must learn from the gospel records of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the nature of His life while here on earth.   During His short stay on earth, He fully demonstrated godliness and He is one we should follow in every aspect of life.

• Once we lived in emptiness of mind, now our minds are filled with the things of God.
• Once our understanding was darkened, now we have been illuminated.
• Once we were alienated from the life of God, now we are in fellowship with God.
• Once our hearts were hardened to the truth of God, now we are receptive to Him.
• Once our consciences were inert to His will, now we have been awakened.
• Once we lived according to the dictates of sinful desires, leading to corruption and rank selfishness, now we seek holiness before God and the betterment of others.

All this in Christ, who changes not only our destiny, but also our lifestyle!   We are now introduced to one of the many "if" statements of scripture.....it is not so much a matter of questioning anyone's salvation, it is that of asserting that true salvation will lead to a change of lifestyle.   Salvation in the Bible is never presented in terms of profession, but in terms of real spiritual change, and if no such change is evident, the profession is probably just that and nothing else.

Romans8 v10    "If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness."

Ephesians4 v21 "If so be that ye have heard Him, and have been taught by Him....."

Colossians1 v23 "...if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled....."

Hebrews3 v6      "..whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end."

True salvation will result in true conversion of the individual.   Note the process by which this change of lifestyle takes place.   He says "you learned Christ.....", you learned Him by first of all hearing Him, then you were taught in Him.   Hearing Him involved heeding His word, believing His word, just as He said when He was here....  "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life."   His word, in the matter of salvation, is authoritative for everyone.   He is the giver of everlasting life, He is also the authority of our spiritual growth, His word, His life must become indispensable to us in our new life, and so we have not only heard Him for initial salvation, we are "taught in Him", and since there is so much to learn it will be a continual process.   "Taught in Him" involves not merely verbal academic teaching, it involves inward supernatural power within such that only the Spirit can provide.   However it is only in exceptional circumstances the Holy Spirit by-passes the normal means of communication, and so the continuous programme of bible teaching, as indicated in scripture, and, as practised by the Apostles, indeed, as expounded in the first half of Ephesians chapter4, should be in evidence in every church.   This teaching is to be "according as the truth is in Jesus", and so it is unlikely such teaching will ever end this side of eternity.   In the first half of the letter, we are "in Christ" with all the attendant blessings; in the second half it is Christ in us with all the inevitable responsibilities.

EPHESIANS4 vv17-19.

God's verdict on the truth about human nature         (17-19)

Scripture is clear, there is no betterment for it, no improvement, no reformation, God is finished with the old man. Those He saves are a new creation, not that He makes us better, but that He makes us anew.   In John 3v6-7, Jesus said to one of the foremost spiritual leaders of Israel  " that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.   Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again."   In Ephesians 2v2-3, Paul has reminded them that their former way of life was under the dictates of a godless world, of corrupt flesh, and demonic spirits.   Now he says  "walk not as other Gentiles walk" and he brings the Lord as a testimony to this;  in effect he brings the Christian under a vow to turn away from their former life.   He now goes on to explain why.

1. The vanity of their mind.   This means emptiness of mind, not emptiness intellectually but emptiness spiritually.   In the book of Ecclesiastes king Solomon, the most prosperous and wisest man in all the earth, wrote these words as a summary of the best of human life.   "All is vanity and vexation of spirit."   No matter how much we human beings seek to substitute the real need within us with lesser things, we are left with emptiness.   The truth of this is illustrated in the name Golgotha, where Christ was crucified.   Golgotha means the place of a skull, and the message is clear that, without God, human beings are bereft of true wisdom, so far as God is concerned, just an empty skull. 
2. Having the understanding darkened.   A derogatory yet true description.... like toads living in a darkened cavern thinking this is all there is.   The condition of vanity of mind is because the mind has been darkened by an evil force and therefore unable to see properly.   The Lord Jesus dealt with this in Matthew 7v22-23  "the light of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.   But if thine eye be evil,   thy whole body shall be full of darkness.  If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darkness!"   In John 3v19 he gives another dimension to this  "this is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light."   Not only were we in darkness but we preferred the darkness to the light that God would give us.   God therefore calls the human condition one of darkness.  
3. Alienated from the life of God.   God, who gave us life, is life and there is no life worth talking about apart from Him.   In John 17v3 Jesus described eternal life, real life, as "knowing God and Jesus Christ whom God sent.   "The life of God" is life that is far superior to anything that this darkened world can provide: in essence a human being can be satisfied with nothing less than God.   The expression "get a life" is a statement of some arrogance since it usually points to things lesser than God for their occupation.   The only ones who have a life are those who know God and Jesus Christ who is the creator of all life.  
4. Through the ignorance that is in them.   Professing wisdom they prove themselves to be fools.   Scripture is clear "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." (Proverbs 9v10)   Those who have not even started on the road of reverential fear of the Lord, accepting His judgments upon us, confessing our sins before Him and trusting only in Christ for salvation, are deemed by God to be living in ignorance, and because of that they think that the shallow lives that they are living is all that exists.
5. Because of the hardness  (R.V.) of their heart.   Rejected light brings an ever increasing hardness of heart to the things of God.   The same sun that melts ice, hardens clay.   When bones are broken in the human body there forms a substance called "callus"  which sets and joins the bones together.   The result makes the join harder than the actual bone itself.   What is a benign process for the human body is an evil process in the human heart because the heart is hardened towards God and that process gets harder and harder with time.   The heart is much more than the fleshy pump which keeps our bodies alive.   In the bible the heart is the very centre of the human being, the centre of the will, the driving force, that which makes us all that we are.   When all that we are is hardened toward God, there may come a time when God will finally accept our decision against Him.
6. Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness.   The word asalgeia which translates as lasciviousness is the ultimate condition reached when the conscience has been so supressed that it leads to a person throwing off all restraint.   This is the end of the process where there is no longer any attempt to cover up, abandoning all morality resulting in a state of amorality.   The process is from immorality (where all of us have been) to amorality, where open sin has become a way of life.   This inevitable process leads to the constant breaking of the two major commandments, namely, living a life of uncleanness in the sight of God, and living to defraud my fellow man.   This is the sure end of a life lived without God.

This is how the nations live who know not the Lord.....says Paul "do not live your lives like that!"

EPHESIANS 4 vv17-32 OVERVIEW

The walk of separation       overview of chapter 4v17-32

A positive appeal to "walk worthy" in vv1-16, is followed by a command to avoid former and worldly practices in vv17-32.   In association with a holy God, the believer is expected to change the habits of a lifetime.   Note the abrupt change in mood:

Chapter4 v1      "I beseech you that ye walk worthy....."

Chapter4 v17    "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles..."

 

The first section of chapter4 was exhortatory, the second is mandatory.   The proliferation of the title "Lord" is evident in chapters4-6...chapter4 v1v5v17;  chapter5 v8v10v17v19v22v29;  chapter6 v1v4v7v8v10v23v24.   We who have received unmerited Divine blessings are now to live worthily in the context of the church, and in separation from the world system which God has condemned.   The word for testify-marturomai- is very strong and means to call God to witness.   It suggests a vow which must be enacted on pain of death, it is the basis of our English word martyr.   This is not an optional extra for Christians, it is mandatory for all, although in typical Pauline style, he will in the next few verses explain the reasons.   The mandatory nature of separation from our old life cannot be overemphasised.   The verses can be easily classified as follows:

• Verses 17-19      The true nature of the old man, our former way of life
• Verses 20-21      The essence of the new man, our new way of life
• Verses 22-23      The putting off the old man
• Verse  24           The putting on the new man
• Verses 25-32     What we have to discard and what we have to adopt

We will look at each of these in turn, but it should be evident that God saved us to change us, not just to provide a meal ticket for heaven.

  

EPHESIANS 4 vv11-16

The unity of the faith expressed in the corporate effort of the church     (11-16)

We are to guard the unity of the Spirit, which already exists;   now we are to strive towards the unity of the faith. that is the level of unity which expresses the beauty of Christ in the diversity of our divinely bestowed gifts.   God is not in the business of mass-producing clones, we are as different as our faces, and He has equipped us all to participate in this glorious and most powerful unity.   The outworking of this is nothing short of breath taking genius.   He ascended on high leaving a defeated enemy behind;   He took His rightful place on the throne of heaven, the highest authority in all the universe;   He received gifts, the spoils of war, then through the Holy Spirit which He sent to earth He shared those gifts with all His people to empower them for the task ahead.   First of all He gave specially gifted men to the church.   They were not to be seen as an end in themselves, but a means to an end, to assist all the spiritually gifted people of God to perform their own particular ministry, the end being the edifying of the body of Christ, as stated at the end of verses 12&16.   It is clear from these verses that that every believer is contributing to the whole, and there is no thought in the mind of God of a clergy/laity system in which the greater number are passive in the church.   The picture to the contrary is of the active participation of every member in accordance with the measure of the gift of Christ.   Here is how it should work, and in the church of God there is nothing left to our own imagination.

The context is therefore the EXALTATION OF CHRIST to the highest place in heaven.   Then we have:

• The ENABLING OF THE SPECIAL GIFTS       These are the leaders of the church in all generations.   He lists four major gifts to the church:

Apostles     literally "one who is sent on a specific mission."   The usage of the word is of a naval expedition, or an ambassador sent to a foreign land.   The two main ideas are representation, and devolved authority;   the fact that those sent carry all the authority of the sender.   There were twelve apostles plus Paul plus many others.   The key feature was that they were directly appointed by God, their message was by revelation, and they all enjoyed the recognition of the early church.   Their work and their words are laid down as foundational to the church which we are to follow as being from the Lord( Ephesians2 v20 and 1 Corinthians3 v10.)  

                                                                                                                

Prophets    There being no new testament scriptures in the early church for about 30-60 years, prophets were required to expound the mind of God in different situations, and they did so in close harmony with the apostles, since they are linked with them as the foundation of the church in Ephesians chapter3 v20.   Being foundational gifts, there is no need for them ongoing.   We are all building  on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.

 Evangelists       Specially gifted men who can persuade people of their need of a Saviour by proclaiming the scripture based gospel.   Although this is the task especially to these men, we are all enjoined to do the work of evangelism, as the early believers clearly did.   The work of evangelism is external to the church.   The pattern of the early church seems to be mainly that of going out, rather than asking the unbeliever to come in.   The example of the great evangelist Himself is made clear in the gospel of the perfect servant, the gospel of Mark;   "by the sea" chapter1 v16;   "in the synagogue" chapter1 v21;   "in the house" chapter1 v29;   "at the door" chapter1 v33;   "on the mountain" chapter3 v13;   Wherever people were, He was, to bring the message to the people.  He made Himself accessible to all      

Pastor-teachers    This, I believe, to be one gift, and the idea is that the one so gifted should be ministering to both the head and the heart of the flock of God.   This work is internal to the church, and should be of a didactical and a pastoral nature.   In a modern setting, this gift will fall to elders whose position in the church is not official, but that of overseership of the spiritual needs of the people.   Teaching is an integral part of pastoring, and pastoring, the care of saints, must be the aim of teaching.   Lording it over the saints is not envisaged, rather the sound teaching coupled with fine example for all to follow.

• The EQUIPPING OF THE SAINTS      The leadership gifts, as above, are to a very definite end, that of equipping all the saints in their service for God.   That is the meaning of the word "perfecting".   It is used elsewhere for the mending of fishing nets and also for the setting of broken bones.   These two usages describe adequately what the function of leadership gifts are.   Mended nets catch fish, set bones enable a person to function.   This is the role of the special gifts to bring the saints to the point of positive service for the Lord.   The word "ministry" should be thought of as service, not any position of importance as is sometimes perceived.    Special gifts assisting the saints to perform their own work of ministry, this is the pattern.   He will develop the practicalities of this shortly, but we must see that specially gifted men are a means to an end, which end we will now discuss.
• The EDIFYING OF THE BODY OF CHRIST     This is the aim of all the gifts of the ascended Lord Jesus Christ;   not for self glorification, but for the benefit of the body, the whole body, not just a select part of it.   Paul underlines this in 1 Corinthians14 a number of times;   verse3 "..he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification...";   verse5 "..that the church may receive edifying.";   verse12 "..seek that ye might excel to the edifying of the church.";   verse26 "Let all things be done unto edifying."    The edifying of the church is paramount in the mind of God and requires the contribution of all as we shall see.
• The EXCELLENCE FOR WHICH WE ARE TO STRIVE      Notice what he says "..till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:"   In short, this programme will never end this side of eternity!!   The Amplified version puts it like this "..until we all attain oneness in the faith and in the comprehension of the full and accurate knowledge of the Son of God; that we might arrive at really mature manhood--the completeness of personality which is nothing less than the standard height of Christ's own perfection--the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ and the completeness found in Him."   Note the detail.......until we all....not some;   He gave some special gifts, but their function was for all.   This mirrors chapter3 v18 "..that ye...may be able to comprehend with all the saints.....".    The things of God are for all the saints, not for a select few.   We are to arrive at or attain to this high level, this suggests a journey, a process, and a life-long one, this will go on while life lasts.   The attainment is Christian maturity and the level is Christ, the standard of true excellency.   We are to aim for the unity of the faith.   That is the point where we are all of the same mind in regard to the body of truth that has been delivered to the saints.   Paul says to the disunited Corinthians in chapter1 v10 "..that ye all speak the same thing.....but that ye may be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment."   No loose cannons, no mavericks, no fancy interpretations, all striving together with one aim, the perfection of Christ working in us and through us.   He says "and of the knowledge of the Son of God..."  The introduction of the title "Son of God" here is significant.   In an epistle where he entitles Christ as "Christ" 25 times, as "Christ Jesus" 6 times, as "Lord" 13 times, as "Lord Jesus Christ" 8 times, as "Jesus Christ" 4 times, as "Jesus" once, and as "Master" once, he introduces this most important title of "Son of God".   The term son of God or sons of God always relates to character, and points to those who are in character as their Father.   The title Son of God refers to Jesus Christ who on earth displayed perfectly the fullness of His Father in every way......this is the standard!!   Excellence becomes our God, and excellence becomes all His saints, and so measured by that standard we have a mountain yet to climb.
• The ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ENTIRE BODY OF CHRIST       The church of Christ on earth can be a major spiritual force for good, if we all decide to grow together in Him....."no more children((infants)".....but "growing up into Him which is the head, even Christ."   No longer "tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine", like a ship on a stormy sea(see Luke8 vv23-24.)   Activity doesn't always mean spiritual growth, it can be a cover for the lack of it.   In the world there are endless alternative doctrines blowing about.   Satan is the master of the winds of doctrine, we are to stand for the faith just as He did by countering them with "it is written" and "it is written again."   These doctrines come in the shape of men masquerading as the appointed servants of Christ.   Their method is trickery, "by the sleight of men whereby they lie in wait to deceive."   Let there be no doubt that what Paul is referring to here is a SYSTEMATIC ATTACK ON THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST by introducing systematic error that sometimes looks and sounds like the real thing but is in fact spiritual deceit in a concerted attempt to de-stabilise the people of God.   The only safe guard against it is the establishment of systematic declaration of the truth, re-iterated regularly in the church, the "ekklesia" the blood bought people of God.   The same word that brought us to salvation, is the only means whereby we can truly grow in Christ.   This is the Divinely appointed way to deflect and defeat the enemy of souls and to honour our glorious head.   It may be we have become complacent in this matter and we need to give attention to it.
• The EXERCISE OF EVERY MEMBER       For this to work effectively, it will require each one of us to play our part, just as every cell in our human bodies play a vital and active part for the health of the whole.   There is no concept in the church of God of a caste system of members.   There are members and there are members, all privileged to be part of this great unity, all suitably gifted to perform a task, all expected to be contributing as the Lord enables.   From Him the whole body is fitted....the foundation of the apostles and prophets has been laid...on that the evangelist is to build up the numbers, the pastor-teacher is to build up the saints, the saints are to serve in the capacity fitted by the Lord.   No passengers, no part-timers, no encroaching on another's work, but all functioning for the good of the whole, that is the concept of genius from our blessed God, that is the pattern, that is the recipe for success for the local and the global aspect of the church.   As ungodly people in our sins, serving only our self interest, we could not do this, but now in Christ we can and we must.   Note the unmistakeable power at our disposal....."fitly joined together"..."compacted by that which every joint supplieth";   the first refers to the suitable placing of each member, the second is the power which drives us together, namely the powerful driving forces uniting us through the word of God which describes the wonder of the cause, and exposes the intent of the enemy.   There is nothing like a bit of adversity to bring people together, and the incentive to unity is very strong.   The requirement is for the effectual working in the measure of every part.   Whether we think of a local setting or the church as a whole, it will only grow by the dedicated effort of everyone functioning in their rightful place.   The Lord spoke of 30%, 60%, and 100% believers.   He predicted that is the reality of what would happen.   Ideally He wants us all to be at 100%....are we?   We should be, we could be....but are we?   The late John F Kennedy famously said, and we could apply it to a church situation today, "Ask not what your country can do for you...ask rather what can you do for your country."

We have the repetition of the word "love" in the midst of all this and it is so important to observe.   Verse 15 We are "to speak the truth in love" and verse 16 it is "unto the edifying of itself in love."    Love is not what God does, love is what God is, and the things of God must be handled in this demeanour, thus truly representing Him.