Walk Like Christ Not Like the World
Ephesians 4:17-24
This sermon was preached by Rev. Chris Roberts during the morning service on Sunday, October 25, 2009.
As we continue through Ephesians, we continue through Paul’s progression of Christian life. We started the book with theology. Right teaching. What Christians ought to believe and how we ought to think about ourselves and about God. What we should think about the church and the unity of believers. At the start of chapter four the shift toward practice begin – what Christians ought to do, how we ought to act. Paul began this section as he had closed the section on theology, with teachings about unity in the body. He showed us some things that must be present in our lives if there is to be unity. From there he explained to us the gifts God has given the church so that the body may be unified and growing in our purpose of becoming like Christ and shining his glory into the world.
But the march of Paul’s teaching continues. With today’s passage, Ephesians 4:17-24, Paul begins to shift his teaching from the whole body more to the individual believer. Our overall focus remains on the church. That is, how ought church folk behave? In today’s passage Paul paints in broad strokes the difference in the Christian life versus the life of the Gentiles. The word Gentile is often a word simply referring to unbelievers. In Christ there is no Jew nor Gentile, as we see in Gal 3:28 and discussed back in Eph 2:14-15, so anyone still covered by those labels must not be in Christ. Ethnically I may be a Jew or Gentile – and in fact I am a Gentile – but by my second birth I am simply a Christian and as such Paul continues to show me how my life ought to be lived.
Ephesians 4:17-24
When planning sermons I originally thought to take just verses 17-19 but it is hard to separate that from 20-24 and still catch Paul’s point so we will take this whole section together and see Paul’s instruction that we walk like Christ, not like the world.
In verses 17-19 Paul urges Christians not to walk like the world and he briefly describes how the world walks. He will come back in 5:1-21 to describe worldly ways in more detail. Here he paints with broad strokes to teach us about fallen humanity. Then in 20-24 he tells us what our lives as Christians should be like and the rest of the book is spent putting meat on these words, giving us specific instructions for the Christian life.
In 17-19 Paul tells us three things about the unbeliever then he comes back in 20-24 to tell us three things about the believer. We will briefly look at each of these things then we will bring them together to see how they contrast, standing them side by side to see what is different about the Christian.
In verses 17-18 Paul begins by saying, you must no longer walk as the Gentiles go, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding… When God created man he created us with the ability to think and reason. We are rational creatures, we can figure things out, from technology to social issues to philosophy. But with the fall of man came a corruption of our ability to reason, what Paul describes here as a darkened understanding. We did not lose our reasoning ability but it has become corrupted by sin. Thus in 1 Corinthians 2:14 Paul says, The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. A natural person has not lost his reasoning ability but he has lost any natural ability to discern the things of God. This spiritual darkness is made worse by Satan’s work as Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 4:4, …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. This condition continues until God steps in to bring light, as we see in verse 6: For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Left without the work of God, every unbeliever would remain in darkened, clouded reason, unable to grasp the things of God. Thanks be to God that he does break through and give light.
Next, Paul says on in verse 18 that these men are alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. Not only is their understanding darkened, they are cut off from God because of the condition of their heart. God has made himself known to the world. He has revealed himself to his creation and he has built into our DNA a knowledge of his expectations. But the Gentiles are so set in their own way, so locked on their own path that they ignore anything God would reveal. They are hard in heart and so they remain ignorant about God. In their ignorance they ignore even those things God has revealed that would lead a person to a saving relationship with him. They reject Christ and pursue their own way. Their ignorance is willful! How many today challenge God to reveal himself, claiming they would believe if he would perform this or that sign. Yet we learn in passages like Romans 1:20 and Psalm 19 that God has already revealed himself to men but men in the wickedness of their hearts have rejected him and turned to their own way.
Third, Paul tells us in verse 19 that unbelievers have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. The phrase given themselves up to sensuality literally means they have given themselves to self-abandonment, giving up control for their passions and pleasures. Often people will speak of trying to find themselves as a way of justifying bad behavior but Paul says that they do the opposite – they have lost themselves. There is a kind of giving up self that is good, which we will see in a moment, but what Paul describes here is losing oneself for sensuality and impurity.
Not only are they lost in sensuality, they are greedy to practice every kind of impurity. Not satisfied with the violations they have already committed, they seek more and more immorality. The NIV translates this phrase, they have a continual lust for more. Sin is a hole that can never be filled, it creates a desire for more. It is never satisfied. When we feed that beast its appetite only grows, so the lost person has within himself a gaping hole that grows with each new sin.
But this is not the way of the Christian. Paul moves on to describe the Christian starting with words of challenge in verses 20-21 where he tells us that though the world walks and lives and acts one way, Christ has given a different example for his people. So we are told in verse 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires. We have already seen in Ephesians some descriptions of the state of the unbeliever. This was our state before Christ, Ephesians 2:1-3: you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Paul tells us this is what we once were but we cannot be this any longer. We must put off the old man, put off that old self, that old manner of living. He describes our former practices as though they are a garment. Are you of Christ? Take off that garment! We have died to the old flesh, we were crucified with Christ, as Paul tells us in Galatians 2:20. Though crucified in the flesh, we continue to drag the corpse around. So long as we live in this world we will labor between the desire to live by the flesh or by the Spirit. Too many Christians like to walk around in the old flesh, putting it on as the most grotesque costume and act as they acted before Christ. Our churches are filled with those who claim the name of Christ but bear no resemblance to him. Christian, put off the flesh! Take off the old man. It is corrupt, it is worthless. Give it no longing glances. Do not desire what you once were. Look with joy and gratitude and faith to the life God has before you now.
When the flesh is put off we are then told in verse 23 to be renewed in the spirit of your minds. Paul gives a similar teaching in Romans 12:2: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God… How do we do this? How does this renewal happen? In a related passage in Colossians 3:10 Paul says, …put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. This renewal of the mind happens by being immersed in the knowledge of God and being shaped in the image of God. Though the unbeliever be darkened in his understanding, the Christian receives the Spirit of God to communicate to us his truth. He speaks through quiet leadings and he speaks through Scripture. You do not renew your mind by filling it with the things of this world. We must be filled with truth from God, the truth found in his Word.
And third for Christians, Paul tells us in verse 24 to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. The unbeliever is alienated from God because of his ignorance and hardness of heart but the Christian is not just a child of God, in a relationship with God, he is being made in the likeness of God. This is the test of your sanctification, your growth as a Christian: do you look more like God today than you did yesterday? Do you have less of the flesh, less of the lusts of this world, and more of the things of Christ? I do not say your temptations will diminish. You will struggle and fight and battle sin for the rest of your life. But are you taking on more of his righteousness and holiness?
Paul is careful to note that what we need is true righteousness and holiness. Many people will claim to be holy and they will display their lives as examples of holiness while falling far short of what God commands from his people. Learn from the example of Christ in Scripture and follow that example. Do not claim righteousness for yourself but display it. There is a rule for writers that says, “Do not tell your reader, show your reader.” Do not be so interested in declaring your righteousness to the world. Do not be the Pharisee that stands there shouting you are a Christian. Be the hands and feet of Christ in the world and show the world by your actions where your faith lies. You must proclaim with your mouth. You must verbally share Christ with others. But while you do these things you must show that Paul’s words are true of you, you are putting on this new self, this self born of the Spirit, created in the likeness of God, living out his righteousness and holiness.
What a contrast between the believer and the unbeliever. We have heard from Paul that the unbeliever engages in sensuality and self-abandonment while the believer puts off the old self. The unbeliever is darkened in understanding, futile in mind, while the believer is renewed in the spirit of his mind. The unbeliever is alienated from God while the believer is created in the likeness of God, becoming more and more like Christ. The question for you is where do you fall? Which of these conditions describes your life? Do the things of God set you on fire with a passion and fire for him, or are you more interested in the pursuits of the world? Do you seek each day to be more like Christ, or do you find a million ways to justify the ten million sins in your life?
Paul expects Christians to live the Christian life. At the start of our passage, verse 17, he is clear in telling believers, Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do. Then in 20-21, after describing the walk of the unbeliever, he says, But that is not the way you learned Christ! – assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus… The charge is great and heavy. If you are in Christ then you have been taught his way of life. Why then do you not live according to the ways you have been taught? Christian, put off your old self. Be renewed in your mind. Put on Christ.
I also call on you to rejoice at what God has done in your life. We sometimes forget our miserable state without Christ. But he has taken a sinner who rebelled mightily against his will and he has taken you and saved you and is making you pure. Give him thanks for this work. And with all diligence pray for his continued work in your life. Do not settle for any sin, for any failing. Do not be obsessed with your struggle, but be obsessed with Christ and striving to present him perfect to the world.
Unbeliever, give up those futile ways of the world. Receive the light of Christ and be covered with his righteousness and holiness.