The practical section of the Epistle opened with an appeal to maintain Christian unity. Paul substantiated it by enlarging on the way in which the body of Christ is built up. Now, before dealing with specific moral injunctions, he reminds his readers about the kind of life they once lived and the need for a clean break with the past (cf. 2:1–3, 11–13)

B. In His Moral Relationships (4:17–5:21)

1. A Complete Deliverance (4:17–24)

a. A New Life (4:17–21)

(1) The Sinner’s Condition (4:17–19)

(a) His Intellect Darkened (4:17–18)

“This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.”

The behavior of a believer is to be radically different from that of the unconverted. Paul reminded his readers of the blindness of lost people. Certainly no enlightened Christian should let such ignorant people influence what he believes or how he behaves.

What a collection of words and phrases Paul used to describe the heathen and humanistic thought of his day! Never were his words more graphically illustrated than in our day. People who are outside of Christ simply cannot think straight on moral and spiritual issues. They may articulate the issues, but they leave out the spiritual dimensions because they are blind to them. Therefore they cannot come to any true conclusions. In Ephesians 4:17–18 we hear echoes of Paul’s terrible indictment of fallen mankind in Romans 1.

The lost walk in the “vanity of their mind.” The Greek word translated “vanity” in Ephesians 4:17 is mataiotēs. It occurs only two other places in the New Testament. Paul used mataiotēs in Romans 8:20 to describe the disappointing misery of the world of nature as a result of the curse: “The creature was made subject to vanity.” Nature, red in tooth and claw and groaning in a minor key, is far removed from the pristine bliss of Eden. Then Peter used mataiotēs to describe the language of apostates. Although they are “wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever … they speak great swelling words of vanity” (2 Peter 2:17–18).

Man’s thinking, alienated from God, is vanity. He thinks up all kinds of false religions and philosophies, and boasts of how right he is. Yet his notions are empty and dangerous.

The understanding of the lost is “darkened.” Paul told the Corinthians, “The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

The nonsense some men believe shows how darkened their understanding is. Christian Scientists, for instance, believe that death is not real and that pain is an error of the mortal mind. Mormons believe that they can become gods. Hindus believe that, depending on how we behave in this life, we might come back as a cow, a cuckoo, or a cockroach. The scientific community embraces the theory of evolution. The humanist thinks that man is essentially good and quite able to cope with moral problems. In practice, humanism licenses lawlessness and lust.

Lost people proclaim lies as truth, immorality as morality, high-sounding nonsense as science, and philosophical speculations as religion. Their lack of understanding results from “being alienated from the life of God.” The opposite of life is death. Men without God are spiritually dead. No wonder they are unable to think straight in matters of faith and morals.

Man was created to be inhabited by God. God intended for the human spirit to be inhabited by the Holy Spirit. The indwelling Holy Spirit was to enlighten the intellect, ennoble the emotions, and energize the will. Thus the life of man would express, in human terms, the life of God. The fall ruined all that. Sin entered and the Holy Spirit left. Without the life of the indwelling Holy Spirit, the natural man is spiritually dead, “alienated from the life of God.”

The genius of the gospel is that when we accept Christ as Savior, we are cleansed by His blood and regenerated by His Spirit. The Holy Spirit takes up residence in the human spirit, making it possible for the saved person to have fellowship with God, cooperate with the Holy Spirit, and begin to live the kind of life God intended man to live—a life governed by the Spirit of God. Before a person receives Christ, he is adrift on life’s stormy seas without a compass, rudder, or anchor. He is subject to every wind of error that may blow into his life.

The understanding of unsaved people is darkened because they are cut off from the life of God as a result of indwelling ignorance that is caused by deep-seated, inner blindness. What a vicious circle. The darkness is self-perpetuating. The lost move from darkness to darkness in darkness.

No wonder Christians should not walk as “Gentiles walk.” We must never copy the beliefs, thought patterns, convictions, and codes of conduct of unsaved people. Even the most brilliant of them are blind leaders of the blind. Einstein never wanted to believe in God. Marx was an atheist. Darwin jettisoned the faith of his youth. Freud hated Christianity. Nietzsche hated God. Nearly all the well-known philosophers leave God out of their reckoning.

(b) His Inclinations Depraved (4:19)

“Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.”

The next step downward from willful blindness and wicked beliefs is wanton behavior, a theme Paul developed in Romans 1. In Ephesians 4:19 Paul wrote that people gave themselves up. In Romans 1:24, emphasizing the other side of the story, Paul wrote that God gave them up.

Occurring only in Ephesians 4:19, the Greek word apalgeō is translated “past feeling.” Those who are past feeling have lost their sense of pain. The sense of pain is vitally important to a healthy body. A person with no sense of pain might accidentally put his hand into the fire and not know it until his hand is badly burned. Many of the terrible wounds that lepers suffer are the result of insensitivity to pain caused by their disease.

People who embrace wicked philosophies soon lose their sensitivity to evil and put their precepts into practice. They give themselves up to lasciviousness (also see Mark 7:22) in order “to work all uncleanness with greediness.”

The word translated “work” in Ephesians 4:19, ergasia, describes a regular, gainful occupation. This word is used to describe how the slave owners used the demon-possessed girl they had in their power (Acts 16:16, 19). Ergasia is also used in the passage about Demetrius and the silversmiths of Ephesus who “brought no small gain” to themselves by making shrines of the pagan goddess Diana; their wealth was threatened by the conversion of many Ephesians to Christ (Acts 19:24–27). (Incidentally, these confrontations with the slave owners and the silversmiths are the only two occasions recorded in the book of Acts when Gentiles instigated persecution against Paul.) The word is also found in Luke 12:58 where the Lord denounces the blind leaders of Israel: “When thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him” (Luke 12:58, italics added). Here ergasia means “work hard, take pains, do your best.”

So in Ephesians 4:19 Paul was saying that those who are past feeling work hard at their vileness. They hope to gain from it and many do. People who run prostitution rings, sell drugs, and enslave people in hellish lusts are so greedy for gain that they disregard the effect their work has on others. Likewise, those who write, print, and sell pornography and glorify sodomy and other kinds of perverted sex are greedy beyond description.

(2) The Saint’s Conversion (4:20–21)

(a) The Change (4:20)

“But ye have not so learned Christ.”

In another flash of genius Paul did not link Christian belief and behavior to a creed or code. He linked them to Christ. He did not link them to a precept or principle, but to a person.

Christianity is Christ. All we have to do is place ungodly philosophies and practices alongside Him and we can see at once how false and filthy they are. When we think of Christ, we think of the sermon on the mount, of His priceless parables, of the Lord’s prayer. We think of One who went about doing good, who was humble and holy, loving and lowly, patient and pure, selfless and kind.

If we think of Christ, we reread Ephesians 4:18–19 with a growing sense of horror and shame. Could the contrast be greater? And to think that millions of people choose darkness rather than light! They would rather have lust and corruption than the living Christ. Given the choice, the crowd still cries, “Barabbas!”

“But ye have not so learned Christ,” Paul reminded us in Ephesians 4:20. Life with Christ is a life of victory over the mental darkness and moral depravity of the lost. The Lord Jesus clarifies our thoughts, cleanses our lives, indwells our hearts, quickens our consciences, and stiffens our resolve.

(b) The Challenge (4:21)

“If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus.”

We always need to be cautious of the “ifs” in the New Testament. Here the word ei followed by the indicative mood means that the hypothesis is assumed to be fact. The classic use of this form of the word “if” is in 1 Corinthians 15:17 where Paul wrote, “And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.” The “if” casts no doubt on the fact that Christ has been raised.

Paul used a similar form of argument in Ephesians 4:21. There is no doubt that these Ephesian Christians had heard of Christ. Even the most elementary knowledge of Christ would be enough to provide a contrast between the lifestyle He exemplified and expounded and the lifestyle espoused by the pagans among whom the Ephesian Christians lived. The truth is in Christ Jesus. The way of lust and license is false; it ends in disease, defilement, demoralization, and death. Paul made it clear that a new life is fundamental to being a Christian.

During World War II, I lived in a much-bombed industrial town in south Wales. When a bomb damaged a store or commercial enterprise, the dogged proprietor would most likely clear away the worst of the rubble, board up broken windows, clear a space for the merchandise, and put up a sign that read, “Business as usual.” Such a sign said a lot about the commendable determination of the stricken shopkeeper to keep going, but such a sign would be most inappropriate for a Christian life. We are not to conduct “business as usual.” We are to conduct business “under new management.”

b. A New Look (4:22–24)

(1) What Must Be Put Off (4:22–23)

(a) The Old Disposition (4:22a)

“Put off concerning the former conversation.”

The Greek word anastrophe occurs thirteen times in the New Testament and is always translated “conversation” in the King James text. The English word “conversation” has undergone a drastic change of meaning since the days of King James. The true meaning of anastrophe in today’s English is “manner of life.” Paul was saying that the believer is to put off his former manner of life through deliberate choice and determined action. The old disposition to sin must be “put off,” or as some scholars render it, “put away.” The believer has a new disposition because he is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit brings the disposition of the Lord Jesus into his life.

What a marvelous disposition He exhibited! He was never unkind or selfish. He never lost His temper, never had to apologize, never was rude or impatient. He was loving and thoughtful of other people. We search the Gospels in vain for any flaw in His character. Because our sinful disposition is quite incompatible with our Savior’s disposition, we must take off the old disposition. We each have a new suit of clothes, so to speak, and so we take off our old sin-stained clothes once and for all. We are not to try to wear the new clothes over the old. We are to take off the old clothes and put them away.

Years ago in Vancouver I saw these words on a sign in the window of a dry cleaning establishment: “If your clothes aren’t becoming to you, they should be coming to us.” That was a clever slogan, but it does not express Paul’s message. He was not telling us to send our old garments of sin to the cleaners and then wear them again. They are not becoming to us at all. They must be put away forever. God has something better for us—something new.

Sometimes the cleaner pins a little note on a garment: “Sorry. This stain will not come out.” God knows that a person cannot eradicate the deep stains that sin has left on his character. It is hopeless for him to try. God has a much better solution. He tells him to take off and put away the habits of his old nature once and for all.

(b) The Old Desires (4:22b)

“Put off … the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.”

The “old man” is best described by Scofield as “the man of old,” the man the Christian used to be. He was born with the incorrigible nature that God has put to death in the death of Christ (Romans 6:6).

Paul described this Adamic nature as being “corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.” The old man has deceitful desires that produce corruption in him just as putrefaction produces corruption in a corpse. There is nothing attractive about a decaying carcass; it fills us with horror and disgust. Its corruption is most offensive. Nobody would want to share life with a corpse.

No wonder Paul urged us to put off the old decaying man. The fact that we need any urging at all shows how deceitful the old nature is. We still feel some fatal attraction, even though the desires of the Adamic nature lead to the grave’s corruption, vileness, and horror.

(c) The Old Direction (4:23)

“Be renewed in the spirit of your mind.”

Many of our problems have to do with the way we have been trained to think. The human mind is brilliant. It can unravel many mysteries of the universe, find ways to split atoms, unravel DNA, and weigh stars. But without God it cannot think properly about matters of faith and morals.

Satan always attacks the mind. Ever since our first parents ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the human mind has been vulnerable because it has a natural bent toward evil thoughts. It is attracted by sin. It is blind to spiritual truth, unless it has the Holy Spirit’s illumination.

The regenerating work of the Holy Spirit brings the mind of Christ into the human personality. The Holy Spirit gives a new direction to the thought life of a Christian. His carnal mind wants him to continue in the old direction, but he must deliberately put it off. There are some books he is not to read, some shows he is not to watch, some conversations he is not to have, some stories he is not to tell. He puts off such evil, and he is renewed in the spirit of his mind.

(2) What Must Be Put On (4:24)

“Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”

The “old man” is the Adamic nature; the “new man” is the new nature, the nature of Christ. Just as we inherited Adam’s fallen nature by natural birth, we inherit Christ’s nature by the new birth. Righteousness and true holiness marked the nature of the Lord Jesus, and as we deliberately “put on” the new nature, righteousness and holiness will be seen in our lives. People will recognize us for what we are. Christlike Christians display the life and loveliness of the Lord Jesus; carnal Christians still wear the rags of the “old man.”