Ephesians 4:17-24 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Ephesians 4:17-24. Let’s go!
Ephesians 4:17-24 (NIV)
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.
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.
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.
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.
22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds;
24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
On verses 17-24: Paul tells all the Christians in his church that they must no longer live as the non-believing world around them does (v17). He describes the thinking of non-believing Gentiles as “futile” (v17), “darkened” (v18) and “separated from the life of God” (v18). He attributes their darkened thinking to the hardening of their hearts (“having lost all sensitivity” – v19). When the heart gets hardened, the mind gets darkened. That’s what sin does: it starts in the heart, then affects the person’s thoughts, and eventually it takes over their body, until they “give themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity” (v19).
That’s the way people learn to sin, but that’s not how we “learn Christ” (v20-21 NKJV). Verses 22-24 tell us that God calls us to a different kind of living. We are created not to become gods ourselves, but we are “created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (v24). Paul identifies 3 steps to this transformation process:
1. Reject old, sinful ways of living (“put off your old self” – v22). Question: What sinful habits do I need to let go of?
2. Let the Holy Spirit make us new in the way we think (“be made new in the attitude of your minds” – v23) Question: Am I spending the time I need in God’s presence and in God’s Word so that the Holy Spirit can renew the way I think and feel?
3. Begin to walk out the new life that God made possible for us in Jesus Christ (“put on the new self” – v24). Question: What’s a new way of living (speaking, thinking, behaving) that God wants me to start walking out?
The unbelieving world puts off the new life that God wants for them so that they can cling to their old ways of living. But we the church put off our old ways of living so that we can experience the new things God wants to do in us and through us.
Father, thank You that in You I am a new creation in Christ Jesus. You have made me new from the inside out. And now instead of pursuing sin that destroys me, I can pursue Christ who makes me new. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
