1. THE WALK OF THE GENTILES—THE OTHERS, 4:17-19

Christ has called into existence and formed around Himself a new creation, a new body, One New Man, here in this world. It is known as the light of the world and the salt of the earth. Now the members of this new society must walk as representing Christ and not as members of the world. Paul does not say here “as the other Gentiles.”� Many are in the church, although Gentiles by birth, and now of the household of faith and the society of God, who manifest but little change of walk. The Apostle John in his Epistle, though a born Jew, yet from the standpoint of this new creation—new body— writes of the Jews, as a distinct and alien people.

Ver. 17. This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk, in the vanity of their mind.

The Apostle calls attention to the important lessons of Church unity and Church instruction (4:2-16); and now this unity and perfection of the saints should be so expressed in the presence of others that others might be drawn unto the Body of Christ.

Here we have special emphasis placed upon this truth, “that ye no longer walk as Gentiles.”� In this period of the church, there were some who bore Christ's name and made a profession to have learned of Christ, and yet walked contrary. This is what he says in another of the prison Epistles (Phil. 3:18-19), “For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is perdition, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.”� We cannot but associate this warning with the apprehension expressed in Ver. 14, concerning the reckless and unscrupulous teachers, against whose evil influence the Apostle guarded the infant church of Asia Minor.

The Christians at Ephesus had been breathing from their childhood the vile atmosphere of corrupt heathenism and were still surrounded by this same kind of influence. In the community which surrounded them, the grossest vices were unrebuked by public sentiment. Now when they came into the church, they did not break at once from their old heathen habits. Some, no doubt, received the Gospel in its fulness and others only in part. Out of the old world of Gentile society have come those who are transformed into this new creation. The world in which the Christians once lived in the flesh, is dead to them. They have been partakers of the regenerated unity constituted in Christ Jesus.

The Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, hardened in their understanding. They have no clear and settled principles ; no sound theory of life. Paul wrote the same thing to the people at Rome (Romans 1:21).

Ver. 18. Being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening (blindness) of their heart.

They followed after the things that lead into darkness, and help to darken the understanding. Heathen men have lost the knowledge of God and, therefore, lost the steadfastness and eternal grace of righteousness. The heathen are living in the midst of things seen and temporal, not among things unseen and eternal. They are darkened in their understanding. Darkness and death go together.

Man was so created that the root of his perfection is in God, but when the knowledge of God is lost, the life of God is lost. The heathen are living in moral darkness in which the love of God cannot be felt. They are separated and estranged, "alienated from the life of God.”� That is, from the life which is imparted to fallen man, which continues to animate man as long as he is in communion with God.

"Because of the hardening of their heart.”� That is, their increasing moral insensibility, which is the real cause of their ignorance. Man without God is in darkness. Poor creatures they are, who want to know whether life is worth living. Many have gained the world but lost the soul. We are only beginning to learn how much was meant when Jesus Christ announced himself as the light of the world—a light to shine through all the elements of human life.

Ver. 19. Who being past feeling gave themselves up to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness (eagerness).

They had ceased to be sensitive to obligation of truth, of honesty, of kindness, of purity. They committed the grossest vices and were conscious of no shame. Their sin was, therefore, gross and habitual. They were not betrayed into sin against their better purposes. They sinned deliberately, and without any protest from their reason and conscience. They gave themselves up. It was an act done with set purpose and by consent of their nature.

This is a horrible picture, but Paul was describing the men among whom he had lived and among whom the Christians of Ephesus were living still. It was surprising that with such a moral environment, the Christians at Ephesus, whom a few years before had been heathen men themselves, required the ethical teaching contained in the epistle.

"Greediness.”� This is excessive indulgence, both of appetite and love of money, which is nothing but an outgrowth of the spirit of heathenism or darkness, and until there is more than reformation in religion, the same spirit will manifest itself in the progressing Christian church.

QUESTIONS

• Why say “therefore”� in Ver. 17?

• What is the source of Paul's information?

• How did these Gentiles walk before regeneration?

• What is the duty of the regenerate ones to the unregenerate?

• How may persons become alienated from the life of God?

• Give examples in this church age that fit the description of Ver. 19.

2. METHOD OF REGENERATION, 4:20-24

In these verses, the two human types are presented as the old man and the new. The one must be put off and the other must be put on.

In the preceding paragraph, the Apostle described the gross corruptness in the heathen world, and to this same corrupt society the Ephesian Christians had belonged. He could have said to them as he had said to the Christians at Corinth, that persons who are guilty of such misdemeanors cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. The Gospel was preached for the purpose of giving new hope and courage, new light and strength to those who were seeking for light and not able to find it among unregenerate manhood.

Ver. 20. But ye did not so learn Christ.

He points us away from the dark description of heathenism to what a person receives by accepting Jesus Christ. When we learned about the Christ and accepted Him by faith, we could not remain in the darkness and filth of our former Gentile state. The present state of the Gentiles who are members of the Body of Christ is altogether different from that in which they lived before they had learned the Christ. When they learned Christ, they became Christ's disciples. They had listened to Christian teachers, and to those who knew the truth; not to unprincipled teachers as expressed in Ver. 14. There are real and supposed conversions; there are false and true ways to learn of Christ. Paul presumes that his readers have duly learned the Christ. They have not only believed in Christ but have learned the Christ. They have found the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are hidden in Christ.

Ver. 21. If so be that ye heard him, and were taught in Him, even as truth is in Jesus.

Christ is represented here as the one who speaks to the disciples, those who hear the Master, the great Teacher, although they have never seen Him while in the flesh. The truth is in Jesus. He Himself is the truth. All of these great Church Epistles are the lessons that Christ Himself teaches and all who learn these lessons are really taught by Christ. This is what gives weight and authority to the lessons that were assigned for the Church in the age of grace. Christ is the author of this truth. He gives this truth through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit used the Apostle Paul as a channel through which He has spoken and written; so all true disciples have heard Christ, and have been taught by Christ and know the truth of Christ.

Paul was at Ephesus about eight years before, and we read from Acts (19:1-7) that he found certain disciples there who had been baptized by John's baptism, but had not received the Holy Spirit or even heard of such a thing. Apollos formerly belonged to this company and had preached and taught carefully the things about Jesus Christ, while he knew only the baptism of John. However, the ready acceptance of Paul's fuller Gospel by this little circle indicated that their knowledge of the Christ was only by definition. They had received it from Judea. They had only a partial knowledge of Jesus, and that is much the difficulty of the Church at the present day. Paul now proceeds to develop the truth which he presents to the Christians at Ephesus:

Ver. 22. That ye put away, as concerning your former manner of life, the old man, which waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit.

This is what regeneration means: putting off and putting on; the appropriation of the righteousness of the Christ and holiness, and reception of a new and perfect humanity which God brings us through Christ. This is a precious truth in Christ Jesus. There must be a complete moral revolution which can only be brought about through Him who offers righteousness and gives us security through justification. The man in Christ Jesus has put off the Old Man. Through faith in Christ he has put the Old Man away once for all, and now simply trusting God's own Word for it, has forever done with his former manner of life, and reckons himself, “dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord”� (Rom. 6:11). This is the only foundation on which to rear a fruitful and blessed Christian life.

Ver. 23. And that ye be renewed in the Spirit of your mind.

In the former paragraphs we have had the conduct of the Old Man described; now, in this and the next verse, we have presented to us the character of the New Man. We have put off the Old and now must put on the New. The New Man to be put on is of a new order. He is put on when the Christ way of life is accepted. When we enter personally into the new unity with Christ, we put on the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 13:14) who comforts us.

Ver. 24. And put on the new man, which after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.

Two distinct conceptions of the faith are passed before our minds. It consists of the one Old nature and of the quickened New nature; one to be put off and the other to be put on. It is the investure of a soul with a Divine character. We have two figures of speech in this single transaction: putting off (Ver. 22) and putting on. “If any man is in Christ there is a new creation. The old things are passed away; behold they are become new”� (2 Cor. 5:17). When man accepts Christ, then God works. A creative renewal takes place in the Spirit of our mind. That is, in the depths of our inner man which will and must penetrate through the whole life, spirit, soul and body, to result in a walk of righteousness and true holiness. “We are to make Christ's humility ours, His courage ours, and His abhorence of sin ours. We are to make His perfect faith in the Father ours, and His perfect obedience to the Father's authority ours, His delight in doing the Father's will ours, and His zeal of the Father's glory ours.”�

The new creation after the image of God takes place but once. It took place on the occasion of the conversion of the Ephesians and their admission into the Church. We learn from this passage that the image of God that is received by regeneration and re-creation is righteousness and holiness.

QUESTIONS

• Why say, “Ye have so learned”�?

• How can we hear Christ?

• How tan we be taught by Him?

• How can we come in possession of the truth that is in others?

• What is real practical about the Christian's conversation?

• Why is the unregenerated conversation called the former?

• What does the Christian have to put off?

• What does he have to put on?

• What does the person receive who puts on the new man?

3. SPECIAL TRAITS OF THE NEW WALK, 4:25-32

From the fundamental truths of this regeneration and daily renewal (2 Cor. 4:16) in which they had been all along instructed, the author proceeds to draw practical conclusions.

Ver. 25. Wherefore, putting away falsehood (lying), speak ye truth each one with his neighbor: for we are members one of another.

We are to walk no longer in any of the ways of the Gentiles, which is shown by the negative and positive side in the former verses. If regeneration has taken place and we have put on the Christ and we have constant life by the Spirit in this new nature, then the vices that are following must belong to the fruits of the Old man, and not to the New.

“Putting away lying.”� Rather, having put away lying when we were regenerated. Truth telling is an essential and fundamental quality of the follower of Christ. We are members one of another and therefore we must speak the truth to one another and to our neighbors. There cannot be unity unless it is based on truth telling. Those who have the regenerated life surely can not be guilty of lying and theft and anger and idle speech and greed.

Ver. 26. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down (set) upon your wrath.

“Stand in awe and sin not”� (Ps. 4:4). That there is an indignation that is righteous is the teaching of all systems of sound morality. The conditions under which this righteous anger becomes sinful, are presented in a sermon by Bishop Butler on “Resentment.”� They are:

(1) When from partiality to ourselves, we imagine an injury done us when there is none, (2) When this partiality represents it to us greater than it really is, (3) When we feel resentment on account of pain or inconvenience without injury, (4) When indignation rises too high, (5) When pain or harm is inflicted to gratify that resentment, though naturally raised.

Anger in itself is not sinful, but anger must not be suffered to break out into violence. It must be kept within the control of conscience and reason. However, in the first moments of great anger there is wrath. We are excited, our blood is hot, we are exasperated, we are thus tempted, and sin.

“Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.”� The reasons as well as the acts of quarrel were to be done with by set of sun. Evening calls you to bid your brother farewell and to meet your God in solitude. We are the Body of Christ, the Holy temple, and should fortify ourselves against every approach of the spirit of wickedness.

Ver. 27. Neither give place to the devil.

Sinful anger brings even the Christian's heart into the power of Satan, from whom he was freed, destroying the fellowship with the Redeemer and His grace. Let us dismiss each day's vexations, commending as evening falls, our cares and griefs, to the divine compassion, seeking as for ourselves, so for those who have done us the wrong, forgiveness and a better mind.

Ver. 28. Let him that stole, steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing that is good, that he may have whereof to give to him that hath need.

Paul now passes from anger to theft. This may be true of the unregenerated, uncontrolled Old Man, but not of the New. Paul included laziness and idleness as the beginning of the ground to theft. The hand should now do the good that in its proper time and place must be done, then there will be something to bestow upon the needy.

The Apostle brings the loftiest motives to bear instantly upon the basest natures and is sure of a response. He makes no appeal to self-interest, he says nothing of the fear of punishment. The appeal was as wise as it was bold. You may preach culture, self-improvement, thrift, show the pleasure of an ordered home and the advantages of respectability, man will still feel that his own way of life pleases and suits him best. However, when the divine spark of love is kindled in the breast, the man will have love and pity and not self to work for, because he becomes a new creature in Christ. His indolence is conquered, his meanness changed to a sense of good, and he experiences the blessed truth spoken by the Lord Jesus, “It is more blessed to give than to receive”� (Acts 20:35).

Ver. 29. Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but such as is good for edifying as the need may be, that it may give grace to them that hear.

We had passed from speech to temper, and now we are back to speech again. Jesus Christ laid great stress upon the exercise of the gift of speech (Matt. 15:11). By the words you speak you shall be justified and by thy words condemned. The possession of a human tongue is a great responsibility. Infinite good or evil lies in its power. Jesus Christ said that for every idle word man must give account to God. The Apostle does not simply forbid injurious words, he puts an embargo on all that are not useful. It is not enough to say that “my chatter does nobody harm.”� If you cannot speak to profit, be silent till you can.

Paul does not refer here simply to personal conversation, but even the ministering of grace unto the hearers in the congregation. “Let it not proceed out of your mouth.”� It is in opposition to every serious listener; it is an injury to himself. Above all he says to grieve not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a messenger, bringing messages from the Lord Jesus Christ to be delivered to the congregation, and when the agent brings messages of his own and does not honor the truth of the Spirit, he is the one who grieves the Holy Spirit.

Ver. 30. And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption.

Paul told us when we were sealed (1:13), and now tells us how long we are sealed. We were sealed at the time of accepting Christ through death and burial and when we were adopted into that new Body. We have since been in intimate fellowship, and because of this there should prevail among the members, the thought of being sealed together unto the day of redemption.

The witness of the Holy Spirit is the seal of God's possession in us. This seal need never be broken and the witness withheld “until the day of redemption.”� Dwelling with the Church and loving us with the love of God, the Spirit of grace is hurt and grieved by foolish words coming from lips that He has sanctified. Let us grieve before the Holy Spirit that He be not grieved with us for such offences. Let us pray evermore. “Set a watch, O Jehovah, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips”� (Ps. 141:3).

Ver. 31. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and railing, be put away from you, with all malice.

Here we have a comprehensive conclusion in which Ver. 31 gives the negative side and Ver. 32 the positive side. The Apostle has, in the previous part, shown to us that love is the remedy of disorder which includes falsehood, anger, theft, misuse of the tongue, all of which are against the welfare of others. It is now time to deal directly with this evil that assumes so many forms, the most various of our sins and companion to every other. These are to be put away from the member of the Body of Christ. This bitterness is internal, concealed in the heart. Wrath is internal, passionate, moving of the temper in selfishness. Anger presents itself against a particular person with the purpose of hurting him.

“Clamor.”� Those mentioned before in this verse are internal and concealed in the heart, but here we have the breaking out of that which is within and becomes known to the onlooker and manifested by loud tones and by words uncontrolled by the person uttering them.

“Evil speaking.”� That baser result of passion which leads men to revile and attack the reputation of those with whom they are angry.

“Be put away from.”� These cannot be put away unless one is in the control of One stronger than himself.

The last of these terms is the most typical, “malice,”� the badheartedness or malignity from which all evil-doing proceeds. This verse contains not only a catalogue, but a melancholy genealogy of bad passions. The sins marked here were rife in the heathen society and there were, no doubt, some among Paul's readers who found it hard to forego their former indulgences. This was especially difficult when Christians suffered all manner of evil from their heathen neighbors and former friends. It cost a severe struggle to be silent and “keep the mouth as with a bridle”� under fierce and malicious taunts.

Ver. 32. And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you.

This is the positive side. The antithesis here is strongly marked at the very start and opens the positive things for the Christians to do. There must be fellowship. This must take the place of malice with its brood of bitter passions. Injury cannot be met with reviling and insult. Those who have the new life will be found forgiving one another even as God forgave them. Here we begin to touch the spring of Christian virtue, the master motive in the Apostle's theory of life. The sacrifice on Calvary, while it was the ground of our salvation, supplies the standard and incentive of moral attainment. Jesus said, “Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you”� (Luke 6:27, 28).

Before the cross of Christ was set up, men could not know how much God loved the world and how far He was ready to go in the way of forgiveness. Christ himself says the same love is displayed in the Father's daily providence (Matt. 6:25-32). The Father's love and the Son's self-sacrifice are altogether of the same quality. It is an offering and a sacrifice. Christ's feet followed the stern and straight path of self-devotion. He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death (Phil. 2:8). He was born under the law (Gal. 4:4). That law of God imposed death as the penalty for sin and shaped Christ's sacrifice and made it acceptable unto God.

The persons referred to here have already been regenerated and adopted, having put off the Old Man and put on the New Man. With this new man they have the new spirit, or Christ spirit, and it ought to be easy to forgive one another, especially when they have presented to them the model as shown in the conclusion of this verse—“Even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.”� If we take God's dealings with us as a model for our dealing with our neighbors, there will be no room in the heart for the things presented in the negative side (Ver. 31).

There is and there must be a great difference between Christian culture and that of the world. The world's culture leaves the old humanity untouched and only whitewashes it. Christ's culture ennobles a man from the foundation up, and through regeneration gives him a new nature, the Divine mind and substitutes unselfishness for selfishness.

QUESTIONS

• Why, according to Ver. 25, should everyone speak the truth?

• How can you be angry and not sin? If you do sin, what are you commanded to do?

• How can you tell when a person gives place to the Devil?

• What does Paul suggest is better than stealing?

• What good advice does Paul give in Ver. 29, to those who speak in prayer-meeting and from the pulpit?

• Tell how we may grieve the Holy Spirit.

• Who seals the Christian?

• What is the day of redemption?

• What commandments are broken by those guilty of things mentioned in Ver. 31?