A Changed Life

Ephesians 4:17-24

God's eternal purpose is to gather into one the whole created universe by reconciling His creatures to Himself and to each other, a purpose He is working out through Christ in the church and ultimately to the praise of His glory.

v. 17 resumes thought started in Eph_4:1-3 how to walk worthy of vocation
Starts with the mindset expected (conceptual foundation), then transitions in v. 25ff to practical and visible outworking - behavioral Eph 4:25-32, motivational Eph 5:1-21, relational Eph 5:22-6:9, spiritual Eph 6:10-20

Flow of the passage, v. 17-24

This, therefore, I am saying and solemnly declaring in the Lord, that

no longer are you to be ordering your behavior as the Gentiles order their behavior
(in the futility of their mind,)

18 being those who have their understanding darkened,

who have been alienated from the life of God
(through the ignorance which is in them,)
(through the hardening of their hearts,)

19 who,
(being of such a nature as to have become callous,)
abandoned themselves to wantonness,
(resulting in a performing of every uncleanness in the sphere of greediness.)

But as for you,

20 not in this manner did you learn the Christ, since,
(indeed, as is the case,)
21 you heard and in Him were taught just as truth is in Jesus,

22 that you have put off
(once for all with reference to your former manner of life)
the old self
(who is being corrupted according to the passionate desires of deceit;)

moreover, that

23 you are being constantly renewed
(with reference to the spirit of your mind;)

and that

24 you have put on once for all the new self
(who after God was created in righteousness and holiness of truth.)

The Old Way

futility - empty, not of content, but of value and useful purpose because dealing only with appearance and not underlying reality, with the temporal and not the eternal

darkened - obscurity or defect of spiritual and moral understanding, i.e., spiritual life, "the moral consciousness, the point in man’s being which determines his ethical attitude" TDNT
- fogged vision, darkened glasses, welder's lenses (solar eclipse)

"The light has gone out in the seat of Gentiles’ understanding so that they are no longer capable of apprehending ultimate truth." Word Biblical Commentary

alienated - without a share in, estranged from; the broken relationship with the source of reality brought on by their ignorance

see Romans 1:18-19; willful ignorance brought on by active suppression or distortion of the truth

blindness - hardened, calloused, petrified, dulled in perception

past feeling - that "deadness which supervenes [develops] when the heart has ceased to be sensible of the 'stimuli' of the conscience" Ellicott; having ceased to feel pain, moral feeling or discernment and thus unable to exercise restraint

given themselves - completely surrendered, given over into the custody of

lewdness - unbridled lust, excess, licentiousness, lasciviousness, wantonness, outrageousness, shamelessness, insolence Thayer

uncleanness - in a moral sense: the impurity of lustful, luxurious, profligate living Thayer

greediness - with unrestrained greedy desires capsulized by "If it feels good, do it."

Everything about the former way of life is wrong - goals, ideas, motives, results. The way of life is the result - belief determines behavior; their ignorance of God stems from a blinded heart is obstinately insensitive to external stimuli, responds only to selfish "needs". Individual recognizes only futility, not the reason for same; unable to recognize the root cause is internal rather than external, has no desire or motivation (will) for change.

The New Way

v. 21 assumes Ephesians had been taught the truth of the Gospel tradition as that truth was summed up in and embodied by Jesus. But there is more to the entire picture than simply acquisition of factual knowledge; they had learned Christ.

µαθητής (to learn) always implies the existence of a personal attachment which shapes the whole life of the one described as µαθητής, and which in its particularity leaves no doubt as to who is deploying the formative power. TDNT

Paul's readers had learned Christ by being in a Master-servant relationship with Him and following Him in close union. They had learned truth because they were in union with the one who embodies absolute truth.

Etymologically ἀλήθεια has the meaning of non-concealment. It thus indicates a matter or state to the extent that it is seen, indicated or expressed, and that in such seeing, indication or expression it is disclosed, or discloses itself, as it really is, with the implication, of course, that it might be concealed, falsified, truncated, or suppressed. ἀλήθεια , therefore, denotes the “full or real state of affairs.” TDNT

The old or former way of life - behaving and believing - is to be discarded and a new way adopted, something that is possible only by divine enabling.

"The mind remains as before, both in its intellectual and emotional structure - in its memory and judgment, imagination and perception... The organism of themind survives as it was, but the spirit, its highest part, the possession of which distinguishes man from the inferior animals, and fits him for receiving the spirit of God, is being renovated. The memory, for example, still exercises its former functions, but on a very different clas of subjects; the judgment still discharging its old office, is occupied among a new set of themes and ideas; and love, retaining all its ardour, attaches itself to objects quite in contrast with those of its earlier preference adn pursuit. The change is not in mind psychologically, either in its essence or in its operation; neither is it in mind, as f it were a superficial change of opinion, either on points of doctrine or of practice; but it is "in the spirit of the mind," in that which gives mind both its bent and its materials of thought... it is ... in the power which, when changed itself, radically alters the entire sphere and business of the inner mechanism." John Eadie

The new man bears the image of God as the first man bore His image prior to the Fall. This new man is a recovery of original holiness and righteousness.

"As the Creator stamps an image of himself on all His workmanship, so the first man was made in His similitude, and this new man, the result also of His plastic energy, bears upon him the same test and token of his Divine origin; for the moral image of God reproduces itself in him." John Eadie

Many modern translations obscure the parallelism between verse 22 and verse 24 by making truth an adjective.

Eph 4:22-24 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. NASB

"the truth" in connection with the new man stands in contrast to "the lusts of deceit" in connection with the old man.

"this truth in Jesus has a living influence upon the heart, producing, fostering, and sustaining such rectitude and piety." Eadie

This passage is of special doctrinal importance, as teaching us the true nature of the image of God in which man was originally created. That image did not consist merely in mans rational nature, nor in his immortality, nor in his dominion, but specially in that righteousness and holiness, that rectitude in all his principles, and that susceptibility of devout affections which are inseparable from the possession of the truth, or true knowledge of God." Hodge on Ephesians
If we are to think and behave properly toward God (holiness) and toward our fellow man (righteousness), it must be based in truth - an undistorted and fogged-up view of reality, in other words a Biblical worldview.

Bottom-line picture - cast off as useless the old worn out self and sink into the new self fabricated in the image of God. The concept here is not simply redecorating but a top-to-bottom remodeling. Both negative and positive are essential.

καινός “what is new and distinctive", what is new in nature, different from the usual, impressive, better than the old, superior in value or attraction.

Paul describes the one who is in Christ in 2Corinthians 5:17 as a new creature or creation. In the NT κτίζω and derivatives are used only of God’s creation (2Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 4:24). TDNT

As a new creature with a new nature, one that truly has the potential for holy and righteous living, we have the duty to live up to that potential by the grace of God, the teaching of the Lord Jesus, and the empowering of the Holy Spirit.