I'd like to start today by giving a quick overview of Paul's letter to the Ephesians, up to this point.
At this point in history, God has now revealed his once secret plan for all of his creation. Paul describes this plan using three different metaphors.
The first, is that God is building a single, holy family spanning across heaven and earth, who would live in peace with Him, and with each other.
The second, is that God is building a new temple on earth-- not in Jerusalem, using wood, and stone, and precious metals-- but everywhere, using people who have pledged their faithfulness to Jesus, and who trust in Jesus. And so we find ourselves becoming a beautiful structure, which God calls home on earth.
The third, is that God is building one single body-- the church-- with Jesus as its the head. Each of us are members-- body parts, really-- of that one body. As this one body, we work together. We care about each other, because we are all interconnected.
Whether we think of God's plan, as making one family, or one body, or as building one temple, that plan revolves around God's desire to make the church. We are God's holy, righteous family. We are God's earthly temple, his home. We are one body.
All of that is basically chapters 1-3. Our calling, in light of that, begins with a singular response: to walk worthily of our calling. That's Ephesians 4:1. And we do that, first of all, by living in unity with each other. Maybe this is easy, because we are all mature, godly Christians who, through the power of the Spirit, get along with each other, and love each other, quite naturally. We have shared interests, and concerns. We are natural fits, outside of church. But maybe to some degree, this isn't quite true, and we have to encourage each other, and remind each other, to put up with one another in love. I love you all, but maybe I also put up with some of you in love. And you all love me, hopefully, but some of you find that it has the feel of putting up with me in love. And if that's the case, we do that with a smile, eyes twinkling, and in genuine love.
And it's to this end, that Jesus gives extra help. That was last week, Ephesians 4:7-16. Jesus doesn't just save us, and free us from the power of Sin. He doesn't just reconcile us to God, so that we can live in peace. Jesus gives gifts. And those gifts, are people. Jesus gives us apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers, and shepherds, to fix the parts of us that are broken, and to equip us, so that we can be a fully functioning, fully operational church. If you're a Star wars fan, I find myself thinking that the end goal is a fully operational Death Star. Not the best analogy maybe. But the idea is that Jesus gave each of us a ministry for this church. You, the laity, the not-pastors, the not-teachers, build the church. You help it grow. If the church is the Death Star, each of you have a station. A responsibility. And if we all work together, we will find that we are unstoppable, in taking the fight to satan, and freeing people from satan's evil empire.
And some of you find, that you simply can't. You don't know what ministry Jesus has given you. You can't do it, because you lack training, or because you're caught in sin. Apostles, prophets, evangelists, teachers, and shepherds, fix you like a mechanic or a doctor, so that you can do the job Jesus gave you. Or they train you, like an army sergeant. And what this should lead to, verse 16, is the growth of the body, for the building of itself in love.
This brings us to Ephesians 4:17. What our church leaders do is fix us, right? Paul is an apostle, a pastor, a teacher. If anyone is a leader in the church, it's Paul. And because Paul is a leader, his job is to fix the church. And the Ephesians are broken, whether they realize it or not.
They aren't living in peace with each other; they aren't living as a holy family set apart for God. And if they are broken, they won't be able to do the different ministries Jesus gave them to do. And so Paul says this, in verse 17, our first verse for today:
(17) And so then, this I say-- and I insist in the Lord-- :
that you no longer walk
just as also the Gentiles/nations walk in the futility of their mind, (Eph. 2:3)
God has this plan for the Ephesians, just like he does for us. He wants them to live in peace with him, and with each other, in holiness. But there is the incredible gap between God's vision for them, and who the Ephesians actually are. The Ephesians are living terrible lives. They are still living like they used to, before they gave their allegiance to Jesus.
And so Paul tells them here, "You have to stop walking as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds." In Ephesians 2, Paul said that all of you, before you were saved, were dead in your wrongdoing and sins in which you walked. And now, look at you. You're doing the same sins. How? Why?
Now, when Paul says, don't walk as the Gentiles walk, this should sound weird. We should stop, and say to ourselves, "Wait. The Ephesians are Gentiles. They're not Jews." Paul is saying, you were Gentiles. Now, you are God's people. That is your identity. The easiest way to hear this today, might be to say that you were Americans. That was your identity. You used to live like Americans. But now, you're something quite different (*Klyne Snodgrass).
So how do the Gentiles walk? Verses 18-20 expand on this. First of all, Gentiles are darkened in their understanding. There was one vacation we went on as kids, where my parents drove out of their way so that we could go through this one really special scenic bypass. It's a place with stunning beauty. We got there right after the sun set. I'm sure if we could've seen it, we'd have understood its beauty. We'd have marveled at what God had created. But we were darkened in our understanding. We couldn't see reality as it was. Gentiles are darkened in their understanding. They don't see God, and the world, how they actually are. So what the Holy Spirit would like to do, is enlighten their hearts, turn the spiritual light switch on inside of them, so that they see reality clearly. But somehow, for some reason, that light switch is shut off. Somehow, they are darkened in their understanding. They can't see spiritual truth, and spiritual reality.
Second, Gentiles are alienated from the life of God. God has a single family, who serve him and worship him. Imagine that family living together in one single house, celebrating, enjoying each other's company. Gentiles are on the outside of the house. They are excluded.
Why are Gentiles excluded?
Paul gives two reasons, two "because" statements, in verse 18:
(1) because of the lack of knowledge being in them
(2) because of the hardness of their heart.
First, Gentiles, lack knowledge. They don't know the truth about God and what he wants, and what Jesus did. Second, their hearts are hard.
This is a terrible combination. If someone just lacks knowledge of right and wrong, or what God wants, but their heart is soft and open to instruction, you can help them, right? You can teach them. If someone knows right and wrong, but they are stubborn, that's harder.
But if you lack knowledge AND you're stubborn, hard-hearted? That's brutal. What can you do for someone like that? That's the situation Gentiles are in.
In verse 19, Paul reminds them what all of this leads to.
who, having become calloused, themselves they gave over to self-abandonment
for the pursuit of all uncleanness in greediness.
If you don't know about God's life, and you're stubborn, you become calloused. Normally, I like having callouses. They protect my hands and feet; they are like a badge of honor that I work hard. But when your heart is calloused-- not good. When your heart is calloused, there's no reason to ever say "no" to sin. You give yourselves over to self-abandonment to chase unclean things. Will these things make you happy? Meh? Maybe, for a moment. But it's more like, why not? There's no reason NOT to do these things. There's no reason not to live it up. If you are offered a chance to sin, why say no?
So we understand why the Gentiles live this way. Their minds are all messed up. They don't see the world, and God, for how they are. They don't see the truth. And they are hard-hearted. We look at people living this way, and we hurt for them. We know they aren't happy. We know these things are ruining them. But we also get it. We know why people live this way.
But you? You Ephesians? You used to be in that position. That's what you used to see in the mirror. You were a Gentile, an American, just like that. Is that still you?
Verse 20-24:
(20) Now, you did not in this way learn Christ--
(21) if indeed him you heard (about),
and in him you were taught,
just as is truth in Jesus,
(22) to take off the old man of your former way of life-- the one being ruined by deceitful desires--
(23) now, to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, (contrast with 4:17; 2:3)
(24) and to put on the new man-- the one in accordance with God, being created in/with/by righteousness and holiness from/of the truth.
We all understand why the Gentiles live like they do. They don't know the truth; their hearts are hardened, and they go through life saying to themselves, "Why not?" What they're doing is pointless, and meaningless. But they have nothing better.
You, though? When you were taught the good news about Jesus and about God's plan to make peace with all people, what exactly did people say to you? What is it that God requires of people who want to come to him? What were you taught about Jesus?
And honestly, for those of us who grew inside of the church, it's a little hard sometimes, to know how to answer. That's the type of situation where we could really use an evangelist in the church, to fix us, and train us, so we become rock solid on what exactly the good news about Jesus is. But when you grow up knowing Jesus loves you, knowing that God is a good God, and a good Father, knowing that Jesus died for your sins-- you don't always have this clear before and after picture. You don't always understand what Jesus did.
Now, what's just below the surface here, in this passage, is baptism imagery (Here, I'm following Klyne Snodgrass, Ephesians, The NIV Application Commentary, 233). Imagine someone coming to Jesus, not as a baby, but as an adult, or a middle schooler. They come to Jesus, and they get baptized. When they get baptized, the meaning of baptism, and what it does, is explained using two different images, in particular.
The first image we see in connection with baptism, is of this contrast between death and life. When you come to Jesus in faith, part of what that means, is totally surrendering yourself to Jesus. You die to yourself. You die to your plans, and your desires. You die to Sin. Everyone struggles with different sins. We are all a variety pack, with different things that pull us in different ways. When you come to Jesus, you come as people who are idolatrous, or greedy, or angry, or selfish, or lustful. You've a slave to Sin, in one form or another. And when you die to yourself, you die to all of those things.
Now, how do you die to yourself?
Elsewhere, in Romans 6, Paul is quite clear. You die to yourself, when you get baptized. In some mysterious way, Jesus' death, becomes your death, through baptism. Let's turn to Romans 6:1-4 (NRSV updated no reason):
6 What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may increase? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 Therefore we were buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.
So when you get baptized, you experience a real death. You become united with Jesus, and die with Jesus. His death, becomes your death. And when you rise up out of the water, you rise up to a new type of life.
And what seems to be the case, as part of this baptism act in the first century, is that you'd change clothing. And this is the second set of images connected to baptism. There's this imagery of death and life. And there's also imagery about clothing.
Look at your handout, or in your Bible, at Ephesians 4:22. Do you see this "taking off" language? And then, look at Ephesians 4:24. Do you see this "putting on" language? This is clothing language. You take off clothes, and you put on clothes. And this clothing language, of taking off, and putting on, is something we find elsewhere in the NT, and I put the references at the bottom of the translation handout.
Colossians 3:9-11:
9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices 10 and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. 11 In that renewal[e] there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, enslaved and free, but Christ is all and in all!
Romans 13:14:
14 Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
Galatians 3:26-28:
26 for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27 As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring,[k] heirs according to the promise.
So when you got baptized in the first century, what seems to be the case, is that you'd swap clothing, as part of the baptism process. You'd take off something, and get baptized. Your outer tunic, maybe? And then you'd put on new clothing. So when Paul talks about this taking off, and putting on, it's a reminder to everyone of their baptism. As part of baptism, you take off your old way of life. You take off the sin, and dirty way of life. And what do you put on? That's described a couple different ways. You put on Jesus. Jesus is your new clothing (Romans 13:14; Galatians 3:27). You also put on a new self (Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10), renewed in knowledge, that clearly sees the truths about God and what God wants (including, what God wants, as far as an undivided, one-family world in Galatians 3:28).
And then, what seems to be the case, is that this action you did when you got baptized, of taking off clothing, and putting on new clothing, becomes the very first thing you'd learn as a new Christian. Your first week in new believers' class at church, you'd learn that you walk worthily of your calling by taking off the old way of life, and putting on the new self, and putting on Christ.
[This is where the joke about women having nothing to wear would fit in, potentially, and guys intuitively knowing there's always one right outfit, but I think I just need to control myself]
At this point, let's turn back to our passage of the day, and reread Ephesians 4:20-21:
(20) Now, you did not in this way learn Christ--
(21) if indeed him you heard (about),
and in him you were taught,
In these two verses, Paul kind of double-checks the Ephesians. When you were baptized, and when you learned Christ, all of this is what you learned, right? But was it actually Jesus, who you were taught? Was it in him, that you were taught?
Or were you taught something super inadequate?
Paul's the one who taught them-- at least, he was the first one, to teach many of them. He's the one who led them to Jesus. So what did Paul teach them? What did they learn?
Was it not that when you come to Jesus, that you die to yourself, and to your old way of life? Didn't you take off your old self, the one being ruined by desires, the one that marked off your former way of life?
And when you rose up out of the water, weren't you given a new, different piece of clothing? Didn't you put on something new, which symbolized the new person-- the one being created in righteousness, and holiness-- the one based on the truths about God, and what He wants?
Where we stand in Christ, is that we are a clean, forgiven people, who are created in righteousness, and holiness. We're wearing new clothing. We live a different type of life. We can be empowered by the Spirit to live faithfully, to walk worthily of our calling. And every day, what God wants, is for us to put on that same new clothing we received, when we died with Jesus, and rose up to our new life in Christ. There's some sense in which every day is like a fresh baptism, where we choose to once again, today, put on Christ, and righteousness, and holiness (*Martin Luther's larger catechism; *Snodgrass). Every day, when we look at in closet, that's the one outfit that God wants us to put on.
But every day we reach for it, we know that right next to this outfit, is our old, ratty, soiled clothing. We can put our old outfit back on. We can act like Gentiles, like Americans, who know that life is pointless, and that you might as well live in a way that makes your body and your mind happy. Many younger men, in particular, look at society, and have given up. Everything feels stacked against them-- it's harder now than it's ever been, to buy a house, or a reasonably nice vehicle. It's harder now to find a good wife, because society is so fractured, and people are so distracted, and disconnected. And when you add in all the messaging about toxic masculinity, and how sexist society is against women... life feels hopeless, and impossible.
In that situation, if you're an American, you might very well decide to numb yourself with things like drugs, or alcohol, or TV. You might decide to intentionally live a distracted life filled with sports, or Facebook, or Twitter. You might decide to embrace the hookup culture, and find brief bursts of pleasure. And the younger generation knows there's another option. You can respond to the pointlessness of your own life, by building an alternate reality, an alternate version of yourself, with online gaming. You can level up some character, rather than level yourself up. You can be an online hero, an online superstar. All of these things, are what Americans do. Verse 19, they chase pointless and unclean things in life, while always wanting more. And they do this, from a place of loneliness, and frustration, and hopelessness. And what could be more American than that? That's how Americans live, chasing unclean things, always wanting more.
So there's the American way of life. But there's also the new way of life, the Jesus-centered life. These two lives, are like two outfits laid out before you. And you have to decide which one you'll put on. But if you truly learned Jesus, there's no real choice.
If you learned Christ, you will live faithfully toward God. You will be careful about how you live.
Now, as Paul continues his letter, he's going to give some specifics, about what exactly this looks like. But for now, let me just say this: Part of what it means to take off your old way of life, and put on the new self, is that you are careful about how you treat each other. You show each other grace. You forgive. You speak kindly, gently, without raising your voice. Putting on the new self also means that there are movies you won't watch. There is music, you won't listen to. There are things that you'll be invited to do, that you'll turn down. It's great, if you hang out with people who aren't Christians. Jesus was a friend to sinners. Jesus was known as a glutton and a drunkard, because of the places he went, and the people he hung out with. But at the end of the night, when Jesus went home, I'm sure Jesus could always have been the designated driver, and that Jesus drove home sober, with a clear conscience, knowing that he was God's faithful servant, and a light in the darkness.
All of us have felt the pull of sin, in different ways. We are a variety box, in the things that we are vulnerable to. These desires are like a magnet, drawing us in. They offer us lies-- these sins will make you happy, they will give you pleasure, they will give you security. They will distract you, when real life is hard. It's the old pair of jeans that sometimes seems to fit best. But when you feel the pull of these desires, remember that they are deceitful. It's a lie, and God has given you something better.
If you were still Gentiles, I would understand living in sin. I'd understand giving into these deceitful desires. You're minds are messed up; your hearts are hardened. But you are not like the Gentiles. You know what God's life looks like. You are not excluded from his family. You are not darkened in your understanding. Your hearts are not still calloused (Rom. 2:29).
So don't live like the Gentiles. Live as people who are thankful to God for the ways He has blessed you in Jesus. Live as people who have taken off your old self, the one being ruined by sin, and who have put on the new self. You are clean; you are holy. So make that the shirt you wear.
Translation:
(17) And so then, this I say-- and I insist in the Lord-- :
that you no longer walk
just as also the Gentiles/nations walk in the futility of their mind, (Eph. 2:3)
(18) being darkened in their understanding, (as opposed to enlightened, 1:17-18)
being alienated from the life of God (Eph. 2:12, 19)
because of the lack of knowledge being in them (1:17)
because of the hardness of their heart,
(19) who, having become calloused /despairing, themselves they gave over to self-abandonment
for the pursuit of all uncleanness, while always wanting more.
(20) Now, you did not in this way learn Christ--
(21) if indeed him you heard (about),
and in him you were taught,
just as is truth in Jesus,
(22) to take off the old man of your former way of life-- the one being ruined by deceitful desires--
(23) now, to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, (contrast with 4:17; 2:3)
(24) and to put on the new man-- the one in accordance with God, being created in/with/by righteousness and holiness from/of the truth.
