Living a Christ-like Life: A Study on Ephesians 4: 17 - 6:9, Part 1

Introduction

So far in this letter Paul has spoken of our identity in Christ, and our unity in Christ. Now he turns to the practical outworking of both of these – living for Jesus. In this section, Ephesians 4: 17 - 6: 9, Paul gives excellent practical advice on how Christians are to live in the context of the world around them. I recommend you take time now to read this passage.

This practical guidance is so helpful for us today, after-all we are still living out our faith in the context of the world around us. Paul speaks directly to the context of the pagan world, a world where people are self indulgent, and given over to sensuality and impurity (4: 19). We may not describe the modern world in the same terms but we can still see a level of individualism and self-centredness that it can be hard to go against. As we study this passage we will explore, and try to apply, Paul’s teaching.

Putting off the old

Paul opens this section of the letter in very strong terms, he is insisting on certain lifestyle changes, but he is doing so on the grounds of what he knows Jesus has done.

“So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.”

Ephesians 4: 17

The strength of this statement is really found in the word we have translated as “insist”. In the Greek this is “marturomai”, meaning to summon as a witness (Vines W.E., Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, 1996, p 1132). Paul is calling himself as a witness to the teaching and new life the readers of this letter have received.

“You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.”

Ephesians 4: 20-21

Paul knows how the believers received Christ and were taught in Jesus. He therefore can call them to live in that truth.

“Moreover those who have come to recognize that they are Christ’s have heard about him, and been taught in him. This last phrase in him thus repeats the key phrase of the letter. Christ was not only the subject, but ‘the sphere of the instruction’ (Robinson)”

(Foulkes, F. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, Ephesians, 2008, p135)

Christ is so central to the believer, and teaching about Christ is so foundational that we cannot go on living as though we haven’t heard, or received Him when we have. To slip back into old ways is a folly. This is the force of what Paul is saying here. Taking this further Paul tells us in verses 22-24 to put off the old and put on the new.

Imagine you are wearing a coat. It’s an old coat, it’s comfy, but worn out, it’s no longer warm and waterproof. You buy a new coat. The latest and greatest in waterproof technology. Then you head out to the hills so put the new coat on, over the top of the old coat. Soon as you get hot, and despite the rain, you remove the new coat. You are left with just the old coat, and you are getting wet.

This simple illustration shows us what Paul means when he says “put off your old self” (4: 21). If we simply try to add living for Jesus to our previous way of life we will soon shed the new and continue with just the old. In the illustration of the coats, if we first remove and throw out the old coat we will see the benefits and freedom the new coat can provide. So it is with Jesus. When we truly put off the old self we can really enjoy the freedom of the new life in Jesus.

What does it mean, then, to put off the old self? Paul, in verses 25 - 32 gives us some very practical advice. While Christianity is not merely a list of do’s and don'ts there are some guiding principles that help us as we seek to live for Jesus.

Verse	Put Off	Put on
25	Falsehood	Truth with your neighbour
26	Anger	Resolve disputes quickly
28	Stealing	Working, and being useful
29	Unwholesome talk	Building up others
30-32	Grieving the Holy Spirit, bitterness, anger, rage, brawling, slander, and malice	Kindness, compassion, and the forgiveness of others

This is quite the list of practical advice. It is important to read and understand the verses before, and later we will look at the verses after this section. It is in that context that this change can occur – we are not simply left alone to try harder.

As we have already seen in the preceding verse we are to put on the new self (4: 24).

“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; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

Ephesians 4: 22-24

What strikes me from these verses is the language around that which is new; “be made new”, and “new self created”. We have the word “new” twice here, though it is two different Greek words, and the language shows this newness is not something we simply muster up, but is something we receive as a gift.

Let’s look at the words for “new”. We have “kainos” and “ananeousthai”.

“Here [verse 23] we have the verb from neos, which thus implies ‘putting off the decrepitude of the old nature’ and the ‘regaining’ of ‘undying youth’ (Barry).”

(Foulkes, F. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, 2008, p137)

The talk of regaining leads us back to Genesis. Paul is saying that the new self in Christ is like the original intention in Genesis. This is written in the present tense showing continuous renewal is happening.

“The present tense emphasizes further what is required, and made possible in Christ, is continuous renewal. The place of this constant renewal or rejuvenation is the spirit of their minds”

(Foulkes, F. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, 2008, p137)

As we read on into verse 24 we see the word “kainos” and this implies a decisive act.

“Here, moreover, the aorist* verb again implies a decisive act, putting on this God-created, God-given life, as it has already implied the decisive putting off of the old.”

(Foulkes, F. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, 2008, p137)

(*aorist verb forms usually express perfective aspect and refer to past events. In Ancient Greek such verb forms describe an action, “pure and simple” see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aorist for more detail)

Foulkes is explaining two things for us here. The new self is created by God and given to us by God, and that this act of putting off and putting on is completed when we believe, and the resultant transformation is continuous.

So, as we look at the list of practical changes that Paul gives us we know that before any of that, God has given us a new life, and is working continuous renewal within us.

Personal Question

• What areas of life do you feel are most in need of renewal?

• Confess these to God and ask for His renewal to work in you today.

Imitate Christ

“Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

Ephesians 5: 1-2

Imitation flows out of a relationship. The relationship Paul uses here is that of parent and child. Children naturally imitate their parents. When our children were little they would dress up like us, and declare “I’m being Mummy”, or “I’m like Daddy”. If I was watching football, they would grab a spare scarf and join me. Their imitation was natural and it was an expression of love. In this way we are called to imitate our heavenly Father.

Paul, in these two verses, outlines the key ways in which we are to imitate God – love and sacrifice, just like Jesus.

When we consider the final verses of chapter four we see that the main outworking of this imitation is kindness, compassion, and forgiveness.

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

Ephesians 4: 32

These attitudes, characteristics, and lifestyle are a key part of imitating God. What does it mean to imitate God? Unlike the example of my children, who are imitating less and less and very happily becoming their own people, we are to keep imitating, and to keep becoming like God in these areas of kindness, compassion, forgiveness, love, and sacrifice.

“Furthermore, the verb [Greek mimētai] is more strictly ‘become’. Those who by grace are made children of God are by constant perseverance, and imitation of the divine copy (cf. 1 Pet. 2: 11), to become more like the heavenly Father (cf. Matt 5: 44-45; Luke 6: 36). Given the unbelievable privilege and grace of being his beloved, they are to respond in showing ‘self-forgetting kindness’ (Monk, CB)”

(Foulkes, F Tyndale New Testament Commentaries Ephesians, 2008, p.144)

With this in mind let us look at the detailed instructions and guidance that Paul lays out across the following nineteen verses.

Across these verses (5: 3-21) Paul lists out many things we, as followers of Christ, are to avoid. Reading through this passage I count eleven such examples. My focus here is not on these eleven things to avoid, rather I want to look at the flip side – what Paul encourages us to do and be, and how we are to go about that. The key to it all, as we will see, is that we live in, and with the power of the Holy Spirit.

First, we are called to thanksgiving (verse 4). Thanksgiving is an attitude and an action we see throughout scripture; Paul talks of it often in his letters (see also Philippians 4: 6 and 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18), and we see it modelled for us by David in the Old Testament.

“That day David first committed to Asaph and his associates this psalm of thanks to the LORD:

Give thanks to the LORD,

Call on his name;

Make known among the nations

what he has done,”

1 Chronicles 16: 7-8

Further, Jesus as He teaches His disciples to pray in Matthew 6: 9-13 starts with a declaration of who God is, and this is a form of thanksgiving. As we start that famous prayer we are remembering, and being thankful for the fact that God is holy and sovereign, and that He is our Father.

Looking again at this call to thanksgiving we see the Greek word is “eucharistia”, from which we get “eucharist”. Thanksgiving is central to the Christian life and in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus we have much to be thankful for. This is why Paul declares so strongly in Ephesians 5: 3-4 that we are to be truly thankful.

The next calling I see Paul issue here is in verse 8.

“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of the light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)

Ephesians 5: 8-9

This call to live as children of the light is a high call, it seems impossible; without God it is. We are not doing this without God. Paul, at the start of this chapter, has reminded us that we are God’s children, a point he has stressed throughout this letter. It is from this place of deep relationship that we are to live as children of the light.

The thing about light is it stands out against the darkness, it is in sharp contrast to the darkness around it. We see this in many practical ways in the world around us. Consider a streetlamp. It is useful because the light it gives is in contrast to the darkness around it. In this way we are to be different to the world around us. Paul adds some examples – goodness, righteousness and truth (verse 9). He gives a full list in Galatians 5: 22-23, in the famous passage on the fruit of the Spirit. The key point we can draw from that is it is the Spirit at work in us that produces this fruit – we are not required to do this on our own, we are not simply striving to produce goodness. Rather, the Spirit at work in us produces the fruit of goodness.

But notice how Paul goes further than saying we were in darkness and are now in the light. Paul is saying we were darkness, and now we are light. He is not speaking of a change of location, he is speaking of a fundamental change of being.

“In fact, the true religious experience, the experience of knowing the creator God in and through King Jesus, produces the true ‘enlightenment’ (verses 8-9). Those who have become light, having formerly been darkness, must behave as light-bearers in God’s world. Once again (verse 10) this will mean learning to think straight. Don’t go with the flow. Think out who God is; who you are; and learn to live in the light of God and his love.

(Wright, T. Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters, 2002, p60)

Having become light, we are to live as light, as Wright puts it we are no longer to “go with the flow”. I really like that summary of all that Paul warns against in this chapter. Foulkes puts it another way.

“He [Paul] says in effect ‘If you are in the Lord you are in the light and the light is in you.’”

(Foulkes, F. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries Ephesians, 2008, p150)

Reading this summary, and considering Paul’s teaching here we are reminded of Jesus teaching.

“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.”

Matthew 5: 14-15

Jesus, in His death and resurrection, has made those who follow Him children of light. He has placed us on our lamp stands to give light to the world. We are not to hide away, this is the teaching of Paul in this chapter – you are light, be light and do not hide by continuing in the old ways of darkness.

It is with this encouragement in mind that Paul delivers the final warning and instruction of this section of the letter. In verses 15-21 we read that we are to make the most of every opportunity (verse 16), we are to understand the Lord’s will (verse 17) an understanding which Paul has already said God has made known to us (Ephesians 1: 9-8), we are to be filled with the Spirit (verse 18), we are to worship (verse 19), we are to give thanks (verse 20), and finally we are to submit to one another (verse 21).

There’s quite a lot in these verses, and it all comes together to speak so clearly of the life we are called to in Jesus. The key to all of this is verse 18.

“Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead be filled with the Spirit.”

Ephesians 5: 18

As we are filled with the Spirit we are empowered to live for Jesus in the ways Paul describes. The way this phrase, “be filled with the Spirit”, is written is somewhat unusual in that it implies being filled with the Spirit and living life in the Spirit. This is a powerful combination and it is the only way we can live for Jesus.

The tense of the verb is the present imperative in the Greek. So this “filling” is not a one time thing.

“Finally the tense of the verb, present imperative in the Greek, should be noted, implying as it does that the experience of receiving the Holy Spirit so that every part of life is permeated and controlled by him is not a ‘once for all’ experience.”

(Foulkes F. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries Ephesians, 2008, p156)

As we are filled with the Spirit we are empowered to be wise every day, and emboldened to make the most of every opportunity (verse 16). Other translations, the ESV for example, have “making the best use of time”. This is an interesting difference. The word used for “time” or “opportunity” is “kairos” which speaks of particular, or opportune time, or a moment in time. It is not simply the passing of time for which the word “chronos” would be used. There is, then, a sense of using every opportunity to lead others out of darkness and into light. Something we can only do with the Spirit’s help.

The other outworking of being filled with the Spirit is an outpouring of worship, praise, and thanksgiving. We’ve already seen in this chapter, and in chapter 1: 16, how highly Paul values an attitude of thankfulness. Here he draws it together with worship, something we still do today.

“Hymns and psalms today can still provide exactly this kind of Christian nurture.”

(Wright, T. Paul for Everyone The Prison Letters, 2002, p63)

This act of worship, and attitude of thankfulness lifts our gaze to Jesus, helps us to encourage one another, and draws us ever closer to Jesus. As we worship, we imitate the object of our worship ever more. Worship that is filled with, and enabled by the Spirit is a key part of being imitators of God and of us becoming ever more like Jesus.

Personal Question

• Are there areas of your life where you have slipped back into darkness? Confess these to Jesus

• Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you again.

• Spend time in worship and thankfulness.

Part two of this study is available now.