A New Identity In Christ Eph 4:17-5:2
Introduction https://youtu.be/hpgqA9oUBxA
In working through Ephesians we have seen that God has a plan to fill everything with the presence of his Son and in the End he will do that through the Church[1]. This plan is amazing in its scope but seemingly scandalous in its substance, when we reflect how unlike Jesus you and I are today. This section of Ephesians addresses this glaring problem by discussing our old life before we met Jesus (vv.17-20), our new life in Jesus (vv.21-32) and the dimensions of the gift of Christ’s love.
Old Thoughts
Paul’s description of life without Christ is completely unflattering, because for the apostle (Rom 3:12), as Jesus himself said, “No one is good except God alone.” (Luke 18:19)[2] The gentiles minds were “futile” (v.17 cf. Rom 1:21) because then as now much of everyday life was occupied by people pursuing trivia which in the end will make no difference to anyone or anything. A whole way of thinking and planning and making moral choices is empty (James 1:26; 1 Pet 1:18; 2 Pet 2:18). The whole of Ecclesiastes is about how life is useless without the Lord (1:4, 14, 17, 2:11, 17, 26; 4:4, 616; 6:9; 11:9). The realisation that came upon me almost 50 years ago that if God wasn’t in things everything meant nothing has never left me. Though more and more I have moved from a God-centred worldview to a Christ-centred understanding.
The thinking of the peoples outside Christ is “darkened in their understanding” (v.18). by a spiritual blindness caused by the devil (2 Cor 4:4)[3]. Such “ignorance” “alienates” unbelievers men and women from sharing in God’s life, they “are dead even while they are alive” (1 Tim 5:6 cf. Eph 2:2) for “their hearts are hardened” and have “become callous”. You know what it is like to close your heart against a person, or a class of people (1 John 3:17), and as a Christian you know that since the Lord has never closed his heart against you this is without excuse[4]. Let me give you some pastoral advice, the more you withhold grace and forgiveness from others the more it will seem to you that the Lord has closed his heart against you[5]. The gentiles, like many today, had abandoned themselves to impure sexual and sensual pleasures and had become hopelessly addicted[6] to an unholy way of life. we need to come to terms with the reality that in our lifetime our society has been plunged into a morass of moral decay where people live for themselves in an irrational way[7]. You will not be able to make sense of it because it is a state of spiritual degeneracy and rebellion against the God of peace/shalom/wholeness (1 Cor 14:33). There are no political or reasonable solutions to the dire state of the world[8] the best we can do is pray, pray, pray. Paul now does a U-turn.
New Thoughts
20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— Paul doesn’t say we have learned about Christ, “learning Christ” means accepting him into your life and being shaped by his teaching in the Bible[9]. Not only have we “heard about him” (v. 22) but we were “taught in him”, the Jesus who lives in us communicates what he first learned from the Father (John 15:15). Learning Christ is NOT like learning some “thing”, in the design of God it is the most intimate personal communication imaginable. Now he says something quite radical.
If the old way of life the Ephesians was dominated by “deceit” then in the new way of living “the truth is in Jesus” (v.21). Truth is not some set of facts accessible to those with the highest power of intellect[10], truth is a Person (John 1:14, 17). Ultimate truth, final truth is found in Christ alone[11]. Since the scripture elsewhere teaches, “no one seeks for God” (Rom 3:11; Ps 14:11) all genuine seeking after Truth is a sign that God’s hand is on a person’s life. in biblical understanding truth is something we “live out” (1 John 1:6). One part of the Church typically knows this and emphasises it, whilst another section typically ignores it. But as they would say, right thinking plus right doing images the whole of Christ[12].
If corruption penetrates body and soul so deeply, how can we “put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires” (v.22). There is only one possible way, in putting on Christ (Rom 13:14; Gal 3:27) we have access to the resources of his divine nature (2 Pet 1:4).
To “be renewed in the spirit of your minds” (cf. Rom 12:2)[13] means to possess a way of thinking, planning and acting at odds with the old corrupt, useless and terminal way of life. Such an inner renewal is one with the renewal of the whole creation which is God’s ultimate purpose (Matt 19:28)[14]. This alignment with eternal realities is the highest form of wisdom[15]. Paul broadens this out (v.24), “and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” This is a progression towards the new creation to which we belong in Christ (2 Cor 5:17) where we will finally be just like Jesus (1 John 3:2). Have you ever had people label you? Where their analysis doesn’t match up with how God sees you in Christ, it is from the devil, and must be refused in Jesus’ name. Well-meaning people told me for decades I was a quiet person. I took that on board until one day the Spirit of the Lord challenged me over the label of “shyness” and I repented of accepting that verdict.
25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbour, for we are members one of another.
“Falsehood” is more than telling lies. It’s not revealing to others the state of your heart, the confusions of your mind and the painful disorders of our bodies for their love and prayers. Are we speaking the truth to one another (cf. Zech 8:16; Eph 4:15)[16]? I challenged the congregation about this last week. Do you remember? Have we done something about it, beginning with prayer for emboldenment? As “members one of another” we are neighbours, and according to Jesus, we must “love our neighbours as ourselves” (Lev 19:18; Matt 22:39).
26[17] Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity[18] to the devil.
The tenses[19] here indicate that Paul is counselling Christians to express anger, but not to be inhabited by it lest the devil take control of us. Since in the Old Testament God exhibits anger at idols (Deut 32:31), and since Jesus became angry at the hardness of heart of those who had no mercy towards the sick (Mark 3:5), then our problem today is that in a world full of dreadful violence, sheer evil (e.g. situation in Myanmar, photos of piled up bodies), an age of dreadful materialism and rampaging sexual immorality (Col 3:5) there isn’t enough holy anger from the Church. As a congregation, with a few notable exceptions, we are too apathetic.
28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labour, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. As a very young believer I recall being challenged by the command to work in order to share with the disadvantaged. I on a camp in 1974.
29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
Swearing as thought and talk that is aimed at degrading others[20] has no place in the Christian life; because it had no place in the life of Jesus. When we grieve and sadden the Holy Spirit (Isa 63:10 cf. Ps 78:40) our destructive attitudes rob us of his power and joy. But when we are moved to speak by the Spirit our words have gracious power to build up the lives of others in the likeness of Christ. There is no limit to the amount of good we can do to others by how we pray and what we say, say about the Lord Jesus. Paul now climaxes this section.
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
If God’s greatest word, his gospel word[21], is forgiveness, this must be our attitude and action. There is a simple test of whether you have forgiven someone. When they come into your mind do you have negative thoughts about the, or can you freely bless them. “Tenderhearted” is an attribute both of God (Luke 1:78) and Christ (Phil 1:8). It means a real inner feeling of having a soft-heart. I clearly recall an occasion some decades ago when I was at our daughter’s gym and there was an aboriginal child there, as soon as I saw her, I felt this incredible softness in my heart. When I went home, I said to Donna, “Have you ever thought about adopting an Indigenous child?” Soon after we received a call from Bethany’s mother, Donna’s younger sister, asking if we would adopt her[22]; her dad is Indigenous.
Walk in Love
5 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Through the wonder of forgiveness Jesus has made it possible for us to be loved by his Father just as he is (John 17:23) so that we can be conformed to the likeness of an all holy and righteous God. All this is possible because when Jesus died on the cross[23] his sacrifice wholly satisfied all of God’s righteous requirements and released a sweet-smelling savour towards heaven, so that in Christ we now live and move and have our being in God’s unlimited favour. As someone said, “the sweet-smelling sacrifice (of the cross) fumigates the whole world”[24].
Conclusion
The movement from the old way of life to the new way of life expounded in Ephesians marks out a pathway to Godlikeness. This involves a radical transformation from belonging to a broken, corrupted and deceitful world to one shining eternally with the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4:6) [25]. When the time comes, we will be counted worthy in Christ (Col 1:22; Jude 24) of filling the new creation with this likeness (Col 3:9-10). Such great things should grip our hearts day after day. Why don’t they grasp us and move us constantly to become more and more like….Jesus. My discernment, and personal experience, tells me in the normalness of life we all, every day, give “opportunity” to the devil again and again to deceive us (Eph 4:27). This is NOT some small thing, let us resolve to refuse to allow Satan to lead us away from our true identity in Christ.
[1] We could say a Christocentric plan ecclesially distributed.
[2] This is known as the doctrine of total depravity, not that people are as fully evil as they might be, but that every aspect of them has turned away from God. “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Gen 6:5).
[3] “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Cor 4:3-4).
[4] Compare the stern indictment in Romans 2:1-5, “Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For gin passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.”
[5] “And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”” (Matt 18:34-35).
[6] “Greedy to practice” translates the word for “covetousness”. Which in Paul’s mind is the essence of idolatry (Col 3:5), which is to lust after something God doesn’t want you to have, or wanting more than what he is pleased for you to have.
[7] The false teachers Peter opposes are “like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction” (2 Pet 2:12).
[8] Take the situation with the army in Myanmar, it is not even ideological, it is pure greed and evil.
[9] In this case the words of scripture are living words breathed out and inhabited by the Spirit of God ().
[10] If spiritual truth was like that, as Thomas Aquinas argued, this would be unjust of God in relation to the less intellectually gifted. Like children or morons.
[11] In receiving the gospel we believe in the truth of God revealed in Jesus (Eph 1:13; Col1:5–6; 2 Thess 2:10).
[12] This is orthodoxy plus orthopraxy. More fully, in the thinking of St Augustine the total Christ (totus Christus) is Jesus plus the Church. a decision Jesus freely made not to be complete without a Church
[13] This can be translated as “renewed by the Spirit in your mind” (cf. Rom 8:6).
[14] “‘Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
[15] It is alignment with the future of the cosmos in Christ himself (1 Cor 1:24; Eph 1:9-10)
[16] The end-time Jerusalem will be called “the city of truth” (Zech 8:3) because it is actually the Church (Rev 21:9ff.).
[17] This is actually a quote form Psalm 4:4 in the Greek version of the Old Testament.
[18] The Greek here is topos, normally translated as “place”. Elsewhere this is used for spaces inhabited by demons (Luke 11:24) and Satan himself (Rev 12:7-8). Satan “entered into” Judas Iscariot (John 13:2, 27). Jesus however could confidently say, “the ruler of the world is coming. He has nothing in me.” (John 14:30)
[19] Present imperative with an iterative sense. A command for certain specific rather than ongoing occasions.
[20] “With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.” (James 3:9-10).
[21] “Do you not know…what God’s estimate of the gospel is? Do you not know that it has been the chief subject of His thoughts and acts from all eternity? He looks on it as the grandest of all His works.” (Spurgeon)
[22] We decided adoption would be unwise, so we did became her legal guardians for several years.
[23] He is the true whole burnt offering (Gen 8:21; 22:2ff; Lev 1:9) whose aroma turns away God’s wrath forever.
[24] In the days of COVID this is a “deep clean” deeper than any other.
[25] The “image and likeness” of God in Genesis 1:26-28 was shaped with this greatest destiny in mind.