The Renewed Mind

Ephesians 4:20-24

The Renewed Mind Requires an Outside Authority

The next 5 verses offer a stark contrast to the previous 3. Paul has been describing the garments of the non-Christian, and it has not been a pretty picture. His description is so accurate, getting to the core of the human problem. When given a chance to do it their way, people slide into sensuality and animal-like behavior.

Now Paul turns to describing a different mind. He talks about a mind that has learned Christ and is different in many ways. Lets see what he has to say about it.

The “you” in 4:20 stands in contrast to those whom he has just described. The Greek literally and forcefully reads “but you not...” They would be remembering themselves as recently having been described that way, but there was a clear point at which they gave all that up to be a part of God's kingdom, God's family. They were now not part of that group any more.

The apostle's next phrase is quite interesting because of how he expresses himself. He is clearly looking back to some event when they learned about Christ. He uses an aorist active indicative which points to some point in time, in this case in the past. Learning about Christ and understanding enough to be saved normally doesn't happen in a minute. Though salvation does happen instantaneously, learning of Christ and becoming a disciple takes place over a period of time. So he is talking about the salvation experience in this passage.

Imagine someone coming from pagan background learning about Jesus Christ and placing their faith in Him. It wouldn't necessarily happen in a minute, it would take place over an hour, hours, days or months. Yet looking back, a person would say "That was when I learned Christ".

Paul is talking about being on the receiving end of Acts 5:42,

Acts 5:42

And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ.

Salvation is often portrayed as a punctiliar action in the aorist tense. Matthew 11:29 has Jesus making a altar call saying, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me.” This is in the aorist tense and also says to μανθάνω of me, “learn of me”, as in Ephesians 4. Jesus calls them to make that choice to become a disciple based upon what they know.

It is the clear teaching of the New Testament that we are saved and become disciples of Jesus Christ when we have knowledge of him, his work, and our proper response to it. A proper response is nothing less than become a disciple, to follow him completely.

This is a very important point because many people make a profession of faith in Christ without a complete knowledge. I heard a sermon once where the preacher told of leading another man to Christ and when he finished praying he said he felt such peace because he now had accepted Christ, Muhammad, and Buddha. He obviously didn’t understand.

Our knowledge of God and Christ must be according to the scriptures and if it is not we may end up living weak and defeated Christian lives. I am not saying that what we know at the exact moment of prayer for salvation that is what is important because we will continue learn and grow. But it does emphasize how important it is to study the scriptures so that we can learn and grow.

Paul is here emphasizing the knowledge that they had that led them to abandon their former way of life. Notice that Paul does not refer to their ecstatic experience, or their walking the aisle, or any other deed. It was their knowledge that led them to change their life.

A related passage is James 4:4.

James 4:4

“You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

When we learn of Christ and become a disciple we make a clean break with our sinful and worldly habits, or at least that is part of the salvation decision. 1 John 2:4, 15. The one who says, 'I have come to know Him' and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him...If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. The way of God and the ways of the world are incompatible.

This passage speaks powerfully to us in our day on a number of fronts, but let me mention two.

First, the anti-intellectual bent of Christians. I read the quote from James Orr, written 100 years ago, that Christianity is different from all other religions because it contains doctrine. It is the religion that values teaching.

But there is a resistance to teaching among the people in the Western world. Os Guiness has written, “Anti-intellectualism is a disposition to discount the importance of truth and the life of the mind.” R.C. Sproul affirms the same thing, “We live in what may be the most anti-intellectual period in the history of Western civilization. . . . We must have passion—indeed hearts on fire for the things of God. But that passion must resist with intensity the anti-intellectual spirit of the world.”

More particularly, the church avoids learning too. Way back in the 1960’s Harry Blamires, who was tutored by C.S. Lewis, was writing concerning weakening minds in the church. He turned out to be the bellwether, the first of many to sound the same alarm. Blamires wrote, “We speak of “the modern mind” and of “the scientific mind,” using that word mind of a collectively accepted set of notions and attitudes. On the pattern of such usage I have positied a Christian Mind, chiefly for the purpose of showing it does not exist. . . . There is no Christian mind. . . . the Christian Mind has succumbed to the secular drift with a degree of weakness unmatched in Christian History.”

More recently, Mark Noll identifies the same problem when he says, “The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.” J.P. Moreland indicates the dire consequences of such weak mindedness, “The contemporary Christian mind is starved, and as a result we have small, impoverished souls.”

The consequences are more serious than individuals have impoverished souls. The lack of intellectual engagement has lead to incorrect doctrine. David F. Wells writes, “Sustaining orthodoxy and framing Christian belief in doctrinal terms requires habits of reflection and judgment that are simply out of place in our culture and increasingly are disappearing from evangelicalism as well.” (Truth, p. 173)

Second, our lack of engagement with the scriptures has led us to uncritically accept the some of the most poisonous aspects of our culture. I don’t want to imply that we can somehow stand outside our culture even though in the midst of it. However, we don’t have to blindly accept it.

For example, we are all part of this capitalistic society that makes us all into consumers. Most Christians would argue that cultural things like being a consumer are harmless to our Christian faith. Let me challenge this assumption tonight.

Being a consumer fundamentally runs counter to living an obedient Christian life. What does being a consumer mean? It means focusing on my needs and having my needs met a good as possible. In fact, if the producer does not meet my needs effectively I will take my business somewhere else. I may even go in to the establishment and give the owner or manager a piece of my mind. This is a person who may need to hear the gospel from my mind, not rantings about my needs not being met. So by virtue of my being a consumer I express my fleshly bent toward selfishness and totally miss out on an evangelistic opportunity.

Is this an isolated, rare result of capitalism? I don’t think so. I think that being a consumer has many negative implications for Christians, but that Christians don’t recognize it. The values at the core of capitalism are not God's. How important is this? It is only important if we want to live to God's highest glory.

To clarify let me state once again that I know that we cannot live outside our culture. And, I believe that capitalism is the best economic system ever created. However, we cannot afford to uncritically accept the culture as a neutral factor either. Our culture is primarily shaped by men in the futility of their minds so it will be anti-God.

Let me give one more illustration of the church losing its ability to discern what is right and wrong with culture. We live in a culture that values experience over knowledge. Having a celebrity endorse a product is far more valuable than having data to show it works. What does it matter that Tiger Woods drives a Buick?

More than that, our society believes that everybody is essentially good and can be made to improve their performance. It is no accident that there has been a virtual explosion of self-help books written and published. When these things converge, a celebrity who can help you get better, it makes for a powerful product.

Unfortunately, there is a parallel movement afoot in the Christian church to bypass the mind and get straight to the heart. Experience over knowledge. There is the feeling that knowing gets in the way of experiencing. They neglect the fact that Christianity is a religion based on knowing (as I indicated this morning). A best seller in the Christian community 20 years ago when this movement was in its infancy, written by Mel Tari, Like a Mighty Wind, states this philosophy in stark terms. He was asked if the Indonesian revival could be reduplicated here in America. His answer was "Yes, if you will take out that small computer which is your brain, put it in a little box, and shoot it to the moon, and then God will use your heart."

You would think that there is no way that these trends could get a foothold in the church because of the obvious issues of original sin, pride, and dependence on the Holy Spirit. Instead, the church has changed. Endless celebrities are paraded past the TV screen and through pulpits to give testimony to what God has done in their life. If the focus was truly on God there would be no issue, but it is really a thinly-veiled show of pride by the celebrity. Experience is valued over the truth of God.

Twenty years ago Navpress published the Serendipity Bible for Small Groups. According to the author, Lyman Coleman, the theological assumption behind the Bible and accompanying Bible study series is that you are “created in the image of God and endowed with unlimited potential” and the purpose for studying the Bible is to unleash this potential (Truth, Wells, p. 176). He says that only 5 to 10 percent of this potential is used, while the rest is buried beneath a “pile of fears, failures, painful childhood memories, broken dreams, mistakes, and guilt feelings.” Studying the Bible will unleash these problems and allow them to be remedied. This was a very mainstream Bible, the second largest selling Bible of 1989, so it is not some minor current in the church.

These are merely two issues among many. How about the influence of the mass meda? Technology? Are these neutral? No

How did the church get into this state? By losing is moorings from the truth found in the Word of God.

So what is the connection with our passage? Our passage calls readers to remember the “way your learned Christ,” which reminds us to be grounded in the Word of God. This is our anchor and reason for being saved in the first place.

Have heard. The next phrase can be translated “assuming that you have heard of him and were taught in him.”, but normally includes the word “if.” The construction, εἰ, γέ, implies a confident assumption. It isn't a tentative "if." Both verbs in 4:21 are again aorist tense pointing to a one-time past act. In this context it is referring to the time when the readers were taught and came to believe the gospel, the moment of salvation/conversion.

It must refer to the hearing of His spiritual call to salvation. John 8:47, “He who is of God hears the words of God...” 10:27, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow me...” God issues a call (Acts 2:39) and his people respond. To hear about Christ is to be on the receiving end of the proclamation about Christ.

Knowing truth is the desire of everybody, but it is found by only those who know Jesus. I began this morning talk about where people find truth. Life without God often leads to cynicism about truth. The ungodly person may ask rhetorically with Pilate, What is truth? (John 18:38), but he expects no satisfactory answer. But it may lead to finding alternative sources for truth. I used to say that people find truth in science, but this is only partially true. People find truth in science until it runs up against something they really believe, then science is in question. If one study says ice cream is bad for you and one study says it is good, you get to pick what you like. In the end, truth comes from inside.

In contrast, the Christian can say:

1 John 5:20

And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

Ephesians 4:21 teaches that truth is in Jesus. There is no other source that is reliable. This is in serious question today. I would refer back to what I have already said.

II. The Renewed Mind Requires Inside Obedience

Put off. Paul uses three infinitives now to describe and define the realities of what happened at conversion, put off, be renewed, and put on. The surprising thing about these three infinitives is that they are not imperatives, or commands. The expositor has to work overtime to make the infinitives into commands, though they appear that way in English translations. These three things are done at the point of conversion, and are mentioned here only as a reminder of the reality of that experience.

This is somewhat of a surprise to most since these verses seem to give Christians something to work on in their Christian life. I mean if God does everything, what are we supposed to do? Besides, people love to do something to earn their salvation. This is why so many false religions have people doing busy work, to satisfy this urge to do something.

Moreover, these verses are sometimes taught as imperatives. "Got to keep on working to get rid of that old self, and got to keep working to get that new self put on." In reality, only one, 4:23, is one that we are to work on.

And yet, there is another aspect to these truths, and that is that they continue in the life of the believer as they continue in their walk with Christ. Christians believe and lay aside the old while putting on the new as a result of the grace that God endows all believers with as a part of their sanctification. But they are not part of the human works one must do to earn salvation. They are an inherent part of the divine work of salvation. Let's look at these more closely to show you what I mean.

Ephesians 2:22

In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

He reminds them of 4:17-19, of their former way of life. This corrupt, selfish, immoral lifestyle is what is put off, literally "to strip off," as with old filthy clothes. But, again, the apostle isn't telling them to do this, he writes it in the aorist middle, indicating a once-and-forever action done by the believer at salvation. You just can't make this into a command. There are several options for what type of grammatical construction the author is using here, but the one that makes the most sense is that he is using an infinitive of result. That is it is something already accomplished.

The conclusion of this then is that salvation is a spiritual union with Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection that can also be described as the death of the old self and the resurrection of the new self who now walks in newness of life. It is not the addition of a new self to an old self. In Christ, the old self no longer exists (2 Cor 5:17). The old self is the unconverted nature, described as being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit.

But why does Paul make this point if it is an already completed event? If not instructing them to do this why bring it up? It is for 2 reasons:

First, because he wants to remind them of the dramatic change that has occurred in their lives. He reminds them of the change of identities that has occurred since their conversion. The metaphor of doffing and donning of garments is common in both Scripture and in Greek literature in general. We have new clothing that is recognizably different than the non-Christian.

Second, this injunction is not an exhortation to believers to repeat that event but to continue to live out its significance by giving up on that old person that they no longer are. They are new people who must become in practice what God has already made them.

Renewed in the spirit of your mind. Of all the teaching I am doing today this is the point I like the most because I think it is the most dynamic. It has the power to change all of us into Christlikeness, and we have some influence over it.

Once again this occurred when we were saved, but it continues to this hour. This is a present passive infinitive and is a modifier of the main verb put on. This renewal is a consequence of laying aside the old self and sets the stage for putting on the new self. So if a person takes the step of making Jesus Lord of his life, laying aside the old self, then they will be renewed in the spirit of their mind,

This is the only one of the 3 infinitives here that are in the present tense, meaning, not only did it happen when we were saved, but we continue the renewing process day by day. We experienced a real change at salvation, but this real change continues throughout life. It still isn't a command; it is just stating a fact. If we are being faithful to fulfill the Christian disciplines of Bible reading, Bible study, prayer, fasting, etc. our minds will be renewed.

Reading “the spirit of” your mind does raise questions about its meaning. Paul seems to be saying that the change is not in how the mind functions, or its ability to reason, but in the moral sphere. It changes its bent, or material of thought. What the mind is drawn to and interested in is changed. Just like the Gentiles mind is darkened and futile, so the Christians is awakened to spiritual truths that the most brilliant mind can’t understand.

This verb renewed only appears here in the NT and in classical literature meant to restore to an original condition (back to Adam?). However, a cognate noun is found in the NT and it is used to talk about the renewal of the new person (Col 3:10), the renewal of the inner person (2 Cor 4:16), and of the mind (Romans 12:2). While it is in the present tense, it is curiously in the passive voice. The present tense underlines the continuous nature of the renewal that is still takes place, and the passive voice suggests that this takes place as believers allow themselves to be renewed. Isn't this just great? We just live our Christian lives the way that God wants us to and we are renewed, restored to our original [before sin] condition.

This passage, when combined with Col 3:10 and Ro 12:2 make it clear that we are to work at renewing our minds. We can do this only through the discipline of reading the Scriptures and other books about them. Christians are far too willing to put their minds in neutral and hope for the best. Our minds are the battle ground for the taking, you can either surrender or take it back. Paul said that he was taking every though captive to the obedience of Christ. (2 Cor 10:5)

Put on. This is another aorist infinitive, so it is something that happened at salvation. We received the old man at physical birth, the new man at spiritual birth. But what exactly is new?

The word new (kainos) does not mean renovated, but entirely new--new in species or character. The new self is new because it has been created in the likeness of God, lit. according to what God is. This is a marvelous truth for us to grasp. Those who confess Jesus Christ as Lord are made like God. Peter says we actually become partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet 1:4).

Created. If believers have received the divine nature--the life of Christ, the likeness of God in this new self by an act of divine creation (cf. Col 3:10)--it obviously must have been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. This may be better expressed true righteousness and holiness. God could create no less.

Part of this new self is righteousness and holiness. Righteousness relates to our fellow men and reflects the second table of the law (Ex 20:12-17). Holiness (hostoites, sacred observance of all duties to God) relates to God and reflects the first table (Ex 20:3-11). The believer, then possesses a new nature, a new self, a holy and righteous inner person fit for the presence of God. This is the believers truest self.

So righteous and holy is this new self that Paul refuses to admit that any sin comes from that new creation in God's image. Thus his language in Romans 6-7 is explicit in placing the reality of sin other than in the new self. He says, Do not let sin reign in your mortal body (6:12 and, Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin (6:13). In these passages Paul places sin in the believer's life in the body. In chapter 7 he sees it in the flesh. He says, No longer am I the one doing it, but sin which indwells me (7:17), Nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh (7:18, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me (7:20), and ...the law of sin which is in my members (7:23).

In those texts Paul acknowledges that being a new self in the image of God does not eliminate sin. It is still present in the flesh, the body, the unredeemed humanness that includes the whole human person's thinking and behavior. But he will not allow that new inner man to be given responsibility for the sin. The new "I" loves and longs for the holiness and righteousness for which it was created. Summarized in Romans 7:25.

So we are new, but not yet all new. We are righteous and holy, but not yet perfectly righteous and holy. But understanding the genuine reality of our transforming salvation is essential if we are to know how to live as Christians in the Body of Christ to which we belong.

Conclusion:

Personal Holiness—we must work at this

Intellectual rigor—follow up on hunches and thoughts

Secular suspicion—look for signs of secular ideas invading your life and that of the church.