{"id":26539,"date":"2023-05-31T22:00:15","date_gmt":"2023-06-01T05:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/ephesians-4_7-16-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-05-16T15:19:04","modified_gmt":"2023-05-16T22:19:04","slug":"ephesians-4_17-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/ephesians-4_17-24\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Steps to a Brand New Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ephesians\u00a0 4:17-24\u00a0 \u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Ephesians 4:17-24.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Ephesians 4:17-24 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0So 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.
\n18\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They 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.
\n19\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Having 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.
\n20\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0You, however, did not come to know Christ that way.
\n21\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.
\n22\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
\n23\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0to be made new in the attitude of your minds;
\n24\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses\u00a017-24: \u00a0Paul tells all the Christians in his church that they must no longer live as the non-believing world around them does (v17).\u00a0 He describes the thinking of non-believing Gentiles as “futile” (v17), “darkened” (v18) and “separated from the life of God” (v18).\u00a0 He attributes their darkened thinking to the hardening of their hearts (\u201chaving lost all sensitivity\u201d – v19).\u00a0\u00a0When the heart gets hardened, the mind gets darkened.\u00a0 That’s what sin does: it starts in the heart, then affects the person’s thoughts, and eventually it takes over their body<\/strong>, until they “give themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity” (v19).<\/p>\n

That’s the way people learn to sin, but that’s not how we “learn Christ” (v20-21 NKJV).\u00a0 Verses 22-24 tell us that God calls us to a different kind of living.\u00a0 We are created not to become gods ourselves, but we are “created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness” (v24).\u00a0 Paul identifies 3 steps to this transformation process:<\/p>\n

1. Reject old, sinful ways of living (“put off your old self” – v22).\u00a0Question: \u00a0What sinful habits do I need to let go of?<\/strong><\/p>\n

2. Let the Holy Spirit make us new in the way we think (\u201cbe made new in the attitude of your minds\u201d – v23) \u00a0Question: \u00a0Am 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?<\/strong><\/p>\n

3. Begin to walk out the new life that God made possible for us in Jesus Christ (“put on the new self” – v24). \u00a0Question: \u00a0What’s a new way of living (speaking, thinking, behaving) that God wants me to start walking out?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The unbelieving world puts off the new life that God wants for them so that they can cling to their old ways of living.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Father, thank You that in You I am a new creation in Christ Jesus.\u00a0 You have made me new from the inside out.\u00a0 And now instead of pursuing sin that destroys me, I can pursue Christ who makes me new. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Ephesians 4:17-24.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

Ephesians 4:17-24 (NIV)
\n17\u00a0\u00a0So 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.
\n18\u00a0\u00a0They 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.
\n19\u00a0\u00a0Having 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.
\n20\u00a0\u00a0You, however, did not come to know Christ that way.<\/p>\n

On verses\u00a017-24: \u00a0Paul tells all the Christians in his church that they must no longer live as the non-believing world around them does (v17).\u00a0 He describes the thinking of non-believing Gentiles as “futile” (v17), “darkened” (v18) and “separated from the life of God” (v18).\u00a0 He attributes their darkened thinking to the hardening of their hearts (\u201chaving lost all sensitivity\u201d – v19).\u00a0\u00a0When the heart gets hardened, the mind gets darkened.\u00a0 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).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26541,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26539"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26542,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26539\/revisions\/26542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}