The Blessed Effects of God’s Saving Grace (4:1–6:20)
Holiness is to show itself in living a pure life
The Ephesians, of course, were Gentiles and came from precisely the kind of pagan society Paul describes. But in their case a wonderful change had taken place, a change that did not originate in any way from paganism.
Their changed and improved status came from Christ and the body of Christian doctrine that Paul and other gospel preachers brought to them. Paul invites the Ephesians to reflect on how that change came about.
You, however, did not come to know Christ that way [via paganism]. 21 Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
We’ll catch the point of these five verses if we reduce them to the main line of thought: “You were taught . . . to put off your old self . . . and to put on the new self.”
Paganism did nothing to bring the Ephesians to their present fortunate state. That came only when they learned of Christ, when they “were taught . . . in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.” Christ’s truth was totally at odds with the values of their “former way of life.”
Recall Paul’s telling the Ephesians that Gentiles not only give themselves over to sensuality but also enjoy their depravity, continually lusting for more (verse 19). The reason for that lies in the fact that the old Adam, that is, natural, unregenerate man, “is being corrupted by . . . deceitful desires.”
The desires are “deceitful” because Satan is behind them, and he makes promises on which he doesn’t deliver. Satan has a dozen bogus reasons for the sinner to go ahead and sin: it will be enjoyable; it will be profitable; it’s fashionable; everybody’s doing it; no one will be hurt by it; and so on. All these promote wrong thinking. Hence, they’re deceitful.
There is only one remedy, and that’s the Christian solution that was taught to the Ephesians: “to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds.”
Duped by Satan, natural man (the “old self”) is not able to make the change Paul is promoting here. That change can come only through the law-gospel message that the Ephesians had been taught by Paul and his coworkers. A clear exposition of God’s holy law had informed them how far out of line they were in their sinful lives. And the realization of their wickedness had struck fear and terror into their hearts when they realized the just consequences of their sins.
But with such people—terror-stricken sinners—Paul and his coworkers could share the gospel. They could inform the Ephesians, as the prophet Nathan did King David, “The LORD has taken away your sin” (2 Samuel 12:13), or as John the Baptist did when he directed his hearers to Christ with the words, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29).
Paul now appeals to people of a new attitude of mind, people who are looking in faith to Christ, the Lamb of God. He urges them “to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” The “new self” is the converted, regenerated child of God, whose newfound reverence and love for God enables him to want to do what God wants done. Note that this new man has been “created.” He is not someone the Christian has brought into being. He has been brought into being by God’s almighty, creative power.
And what God has created is intended “to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” This new creation is a return to the image of God in which man and woman were created (Genesis 1:27), but which they lost when they fell into sin. Unfortunately, this restoration will not be complete here on earth, because we Christians all too often succumb to temptation (note Paul’s experience, Romans 7), but it is a start. The new man has a keen desire to live in the true righteousness and holiness that pleases his Redeemer-God.
Paul appeals to this desire to please a gracious and loving God when in the next section he urges a life of sanctification. Aware of the many evil situations that engage Christians every day, Paul chooses some representative examples of the kinds of evil they are to put off and the kind of holiness in living that God would have them put on.