Failed Hikes, Dirty Clothes, and Absurd Choices
I recently found myself sliding down the steep, muddy hillside of a Bay Area trail—scraping my hands while grasping for anything to slow my fall. I had lost my footing while helping my eight-year-old daughter navigate a narrow turn on hike. As I felt the gravel under my feet begin to slide, I quickly situated her further from the edge of the trail to make sure that she was secure. Unfortunately, in the process, I began to fall over the edge. Thankfully, I was able to stop myself from sliding after about five or ten feet. Besides some scrapes and a bruised ego, I escaped relatively unscathed. However, I was completely caked in mud from head to toe.
I had fallen near the top of a pretty arduous 7-mile trail, so I had to finish the long hike down to my car covered in dirt and grime. Since the mud was mixed in with sweat and sunscreen, I felt extremely gross. I couldn’t wait to get home, discard my muddy clothes, and take a shower.
Now, imagine, if after taking a shower, I immediately put my filthy hiking clothes back on and got into bed. That would be an absurd (and disgusting) choice, right? Well, in Ephesians 4, Paul says that’s comparable to a Christian who has been washed by the blood of Christ going back to live in sin like an unbeliever. In Ephesians 4:17-32, Paul makes it clear that Christians must put off their former unredeemed way of living and pursue righteousness in thought, word, and deed.
The Futility of Your Former Way of Life
verse 17
Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do,
Paul had just talked about walking worthy of your calling in Christ at the beginning of chapter 4. The Bible uses the term walking to refer to the everyday conduct and the day-in/day-out direction of your life. You must walk worthy, which, he clarifies here, means that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do.
Paul is using the term “Gentiles” to mean unbelievers in general and not “non-Jewish” people. He’s referring to pagan unbelievers who have not placed their faith in Christ. Paul is telling the Ephesians that a walk that is worthy of Jesus will look drastically different than the walk of unbelievers. He is writing this letter to Christians in Ephesus. Ephesus was a hustling and bustling major metropolis. A key hub of the city was the temple of Artemis, where hundreds of temple prostitutes would engage in gross immorality with the worshippers. As you can imagine, Ephesus was a massive cesspool of sexual immorality and paganism.
Paul is telling the Ephesian believers that they should no longer be living like the rest of the unsaved Ephesians, because they’re new creations in Christ. A walk that is worthy of Christ is the result of a changed life through the power of the Holy Spirit. If someone is living in the same pattern of unrepentant sin as before they professed faith in Christ, that gives evidence that they aren’t saved. Paul is going to go on to describe how unbelievers live. He says they live “in the futility of their minds.” The word for “futility” means “worthlessness.” It speaks to missing the mark again and again. Unbelievers have an unredeemed mind that has not been renewed by God. Their outlook on life, what they value, and how they process spiritual concepts are in direct opposition to God. Therefore, their thinking is futile or worthless (1 Cor 2:14; Rom 1:18-23).
He goes on to say:
They are darkened in their understanding,
verse 18
Their understanding of spiritual matters and of life is darkened. God is light and they are living in opposition to Him, so they’re living in the dark. God hasn’t opened their eyes to the truth, so they’re blind and groping in the darkness. This explains why some of the things the world says seem so off base and illogical.
This is their current state:
alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them,
They’re separated from God because of their sin. However, their ignorance does not give them a free pass for their sin. They will ultimately be held accountable.
due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous
verses 18-19
This is the root cause: they have hardened hearts that resist God. This reminds me of the parable of the four soils that Jesus told in Matthew 13. Their hearts are hardened ground where the seed of truth hasn’t taken root. The ESV says they have become “callous.” What is a callous? Thick, hardened layers of skin that develop when the skin tries to protect itself against friction or pressure. When the skin gets like that it has no feeling. Unbelievers do not have any feeling or sensitivity towards the truth of God.
and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
verse 19
In the hardness of their hearts and futility of their thinking, they are slaves to their lusts. The word for “sensuality” is translated “lasciviousness”, “lewdness”, and “indecent behavior” in other translations. Unbelievers have given themselves over to or have abandoned themselves to the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life (1 John 2:15-17). They seek fulfillment in sin and have become slaves to sin (Rom 1:24-32). Paul says they are greedy to commit every kind of impurity. They have unquenchable desires for every lust.
It’s not hard to understand why that does not sound like a walk that is worthy of Christ. This is the state that every person is in unless they have come to saving faith in Jesus.
Put Off Sin
Paul 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,
verses 20-21
In stark contrast, a Christian’s life should look very different. Paul reminds the Ephesians that living in sin was not how they were converted to Christ. The true gospel calls for repentance from sin. Placing your faith in Jesus involves turning from sin and rejecting it. At the moment of salvation, we become new creations that have died to sin in Christ.
Any presentation of the gospel that accepts and embraces sin is a false gospel that cannot save. Saying that you can be saved and still live in a lifestyle condemned by scripture gives people false assurance and leaves people dead in their sins. Paul gets prescriptive on what the Ephesians should be doing.
to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,
verse 22
Believers are completely new creations in Christ and have died to their former way of life (Rom 6:3-11). In light of that, they have an old self and a new self. The old self was their life as an unsaved person. The new self is their new life in Christ. Paul tells them to “put off” their old self. This phrase has a connotation of taking off a garment.
Remember our opening example of putting on filthy clothes and getting into bed after showering? That seems absurd – if you’re clean, why would you put back on your dirty clothes again? Similarly, believers have been cleansed of the sins of their former way of life and must not return to their past sins (Col 3:5-8). Don’t go back to your old unredeemed way of living. Out with the old. Put it off.
Put On Righteousness
and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
verse 23
Christians are new creations and we need to keep renewing our minds. Right living starts with right thinking. We must be saturated in the word and let the truth of God dwell in us richly.
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Col 3:1-3
and to put on the new self,
verse 24
I love how scripture is so prescriptive. We aren’t just told to run away from something blindly. We should be turning from one thing to another thing. We are to put off our old selves, but is that it? No—we are to put on something else—our new selves. We are to embrace our new lives in Christ. The Greek word for “new” used here means entirely new in species or character. We’re not renovated versions of our unsaved selves—we’re entirely new creations in Christ. We were dead in sin, but now we’re alive in Christ.
And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
Col 2:13-14
Our new selves are:
created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
We have been justified in Christ and we are being sanctified in conformity with Christ. We are new creations in Christ, so we must act like it. That means walking in righteousness and holiness.
No Turning Back
Just like it would be ridiculous for me to get cleaned up and go back to wearing disgusting hiking clothes, it’s even more absurd for a Christian to go back to living a life of sin after they have been washed by the blood of Christ. If we’ve been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, we must walk in a manner worthy of our calling from Jesus. That means putting off sin and putting on righteousness. There should be no turning back to our previous lives of sin. Out with the old and in with the new.
Paul has just begun to scratch the surface on what it means to put off sin and put off righteousness. In our next article, we’ll look at Ephesians 4:25-32, where Paul transitions to explaining what putting off sin and putting on righteousness looks like in our practical everyday lives.