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What Do You Think?
July 28, 1996
Scripture: Eph.
4:17-24
Prayer:
Introduction:
The passage in 4:1-16 has appealed for unity in the body of Christ and explained the work process in the body necessary to achieve it.
Unity is shown to be the same as maturity which is the same as becoming like Christ.
It is in Christ that we reach both unity and maturity.
Therefore today’s passage expands on this theme to urge us to live worthy of this calling to Christlikeness which will maintain that unity.
We see that theme stated in 4:1; “to live a life worthy of the calling you received.”
The letter to the Ephesians hinges at the point beginning today’s passage.
Primary attention is given to the role of the mind in Christianity, to truth, and to sins involving sexuality, anger, the tongue, and covetousness.
Paul’s concern in this second half of the letter is to paint a clear contrast between the former life and the Christian life and in so doing to keep Christians from sin and from association with sin.
This reminds us of last week’s message in 2Cor.
6:14-7:2 about not being unequally yoked with unbelievers, to come out from them and be separate, and to perfect holiness out of reverence for God since we are His temple in which He dwells.
But here it is not so much a primary concern with specific sins but with the distortion and disorientation of the mind which keeps us in sin.
Again, it is a matter of identity in Christ.
This is the fourth of five explicit “formerly - now” contrasts found in Ephesians.
This is one of the most descriptive about sinful humanity versus conversion.
Here are the oppositions in this passage:
- former “Gentile” life versus present life
- futility versus truth
- darkened and ignorance versus taught
- putting off the old being versus putting on the new
- deceit versus truth
- corrupted versus new creation
- impurity and lust versus righteousness and holiness
- separated from the life of God versus created to be like God
The structure of this passage is in two long sentences.
The first, vv.
17-19 appeal for a life different from the former sinful way of life.
The second, vv.
20-24 describe the transformation that has taken place in Christ.
Paul expresses his appeal to his readers with increasing strength as the letter progresses.
*I.
The Old Life of Futility *
A.
Futile Thinking
/17 ¶ So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking./
His statement, “in the Lord” adds authority to his appeal for his Gentile readers not to live like Gentiles.
The letter reaches a climax here.
Paul’s readers cannot go further without making an ethical decision to agree that sin is a futility of the mind.
Several expressions in the passage convey this thought:
“futility of their thinking,” v.17
“darkened in their understanding,” v.18
“ignorance that is in them,” v.18
“due to the hardening of their hearts,” v.18
“continual lust,” v.19
“deceitful desires,” v.22
There is a parallel with Romans 1:21-32 which also views sin as a malfunction of the mind.
In Romans, a split in the knowing process causes alienation.
The Gentiles knew but did not acknowledge God.
Their refusal to “know what they know” is here in Ephesians expressed as hardness of heart.
In contrast, Paul prays in 3:19 that we will know even what we cannot know which is the love of Christ.
Both these passages in Rom. and Eph.
focus on willful futility, darkness, and distorted reasoning leading to alienation from God which results in passions and desires that lead to uncleanness and sins.
However, sins are not the cause of the problem, but the result.
The problem lies in the mind and in choices made against God.
\\ B.
Its Source
/18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts./
With a single word, “futility,” Paul described the majority of the inhabitants of the Greco-Roman empire as aiming with silly methods at a meaningless goal.
Verse 18 traces the problem back to its source:
1.
The Gentiles were darkened in their understanding (having a meaningless way of life) because they had no light to give them life and guidance.
They were intellectually blacked out.
2.
They had no light to give them life and guidance because they were separated from the life God gives who is the source of the light.
3.
They were separated from the life God gives because of deliberate ignorance which took up residence in their souls.
4.
They were deliberately ignorant because of the hardness of their hearts.
The heart is the source of all loyalties.
In this case, hardness of heart has prevented all loyalty to God.
5.
In summary, hearts made insensitive to God have set off a chain reaction that turned out the light and led to meaninglessness.
C.
Its Outcome
/19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more./
1. “Insensitivity” in one direction leads to “sensuality” in another.
2. Sensuality is the idol to which the Gentiles have given themselves.
As in Romans, the loss of relation to God leads to uncontrolled, outrageous, sinful behavior, especially with regard to sexuality.
3. “Every kind of impurity” covers a lot of ground, but the primary reference is to sexual sin.
4. Continual lust is the desire to have more.
Eph.
5:5 equates greed, lust, and idolatry.
Idolatry is the root of all sin.
If we believe it is selfishness as the root, then it is self that is the idol.
Greed is the sin that encompasses all sins.
Impure activity is rooted in greedy desire.
It is here that hearts grow cold and hard in the self-centered character off sin.
*II.
Learning the Messiah*
These verses provide as strong a contrast as possible between the Ephesians’ previous mental distortion and the truth, learning, and renewal of mind that occur in Christ.
If the Gentiles’ core problem is a distorted mind, the solution can only be a renewing of the mind, which is exactly Paul’s understanding of salvation (Rom.
12:2).
He uses 3 images to achieve the contrast: instruction of the mind, changing clothes and new creation.
Paul seeks the same thing here as in 2:11-13 - that believers will remember the contrast between what was formerly true and what is now true.
A.
Knowing the Christ and Jesus
/20 You, however, did not come to know Christ that way./
/21 Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus./
/ /
1. No parallel exists for learning a person.
More is intended that just the learning of facts about Christ.
They have been schooled in the Messiah.
They know how radically different his life is from that of the Gentiles.
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