Ephesians 4:17–24

4:17 Paul now resumes the thought of the initial appeal to walk worthy of our calling (4:1). The seriousness of Paul’s appeal is found both in the addition of the verb “testify” and in his use of the prepositional phrase “in the Lord,” which communicates the source of Paul’s authority. As a “prisoner for the Lord” (4:1), Paul is not urging the Ephesian believers on his own initiative. His authority comes from the Lord.

Although his readers are converted Gentiles living in a Gentile context, Paul urges them to “no longer walk as the Gentiles do.” They must abandon the lifestyle they once embraced as unconverted Gentiles (2:1–3). Again, Paul uses the word “walk” to characterize the features of one’s daily lifestyle. He first says that they should not walk “in the futility of their minds.” “Futility” (mataiotēs) is sometimes translated as “meaninglessness” and is used extensively in Ecclesiastes to describe life apart from the fear of God (LXX Eccles. 1:2, 14; 2:1, 11, 15, 17, 19). Similarly, Paul in Romans writes of those who knew God but did not honor or give thanks to God and so “became futile in their thinking” (Rom. 1:21).

4:18–19 Paul further depicts the negative condition of Gentiles apart from Christ. First (v. 18a), Paul maintains that the understanding of unregenerate Gentiles is darkened. This picture corresponds with their plight as characterized by Paul in Romans 1:21: “Their foolish hearts were darkened.” In the Septuagint, “understanding” and “heart” were often used interchangeably for the center of human perception (Gen. 8:21; 17:17; 24:45; 27:41; Ex. 28:3). Note the contrast between the darkness of unbelievers with the enlightenment given to believers (cf. Eph. 1:17–18).

Second (4:18b), unbelieving Gentiles are characterized as “alienated from the life of God” (cf. 2:12). Apart from the life that comes from God, they are dead in their trespasses and sins (2:1, 5). The reason for this distressing state is then named: “because of the ignorance that is in them.” This represents a willful, culpable ignorance of God (Rom. 1:19–21; 1 Thess. 4:5), and it is “due to their hardness of heart” (Eph. 4:18b). To have a hard heart is to be obstinate or insensible. F. F. Bruce defines the hardening of Gentile hearts as “the progressive inability of conscience to convict them of wrongdoing.”¹

Third (v. 19), Paul describes these Gentiles as those who “have become callous.” This verb occurs only here in the NT and means “to lose the capacity to feel shame or embarrassment.”² Because they have become callous or dead of feeling, the unsaved “have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.” The reflexive pronoun “themselves” indicates that the Gentiles’ own initiative drove them to immorality (cf. Rom. 1:24, 26, 28, where God gives people over to their sins). The word translated “sensuality” means “lack of self-constraint which involves one in conduct that violates all bounds of what is socially acceptable,”³ and “it is probably best understood as undisciplined behavior especially, though not exclusively, of a sexual nature.”⁴ Unconverted pagans also practice “impurity.” Although this term includes unrestrained sexual behavior, it cannot be restricted to such meaning, for the text mentions “every kind of impurity.” Never satisfied, the unregenerate are “greedy to practice” such deviant behavior. Christians should avoid such a lifestyle because it is characteristic of those apart from Christ, who remain under the wrath of God.

4:20–21 In sharp contrast to the mind-set and lifestyle of unbelieving Gentiles, Paul reminds his audience that they have learned a far different way. He writes, “But that is not the way you learned Christ!” (v. 20). Paul’s language here is a bit unusual. Normally, one learns a particular content (e.g., doctrine, rules, attributes) or behavior (e.g., love, respect, do good), not a person (cf. Col. 2:6–7). O’Brien suggests that the idea of learning Christ “means welcoming him as a living person and being shaped by his teaching,” with the result of “submitting to his rule of righteousness and responding to his summons to standards and values completely different from what they have known.”⁵

Paul then expresses a confident assumption that his readers “heard” about Christ through the proclamation of the gospel and “were taught” about him through the apostolic teaching (Eph. 4:21). These two verbs further explain what was involved in learning Christ (v. 20). The text literally says that they “have heard him,” which could mean that they heard Christ through the voice of their teachers. It is better, however, to interpret the phrase to mean they heard about Christ (so ESV, NRSV, NIV). He is the content of Christian teaching, with the goal of relational knowledge of him (Phil. 3:10). Finally, the Ephesians were taught in Christ just “as the truth is in Jesus” (Eph. 4:21). In contrast to the Gentiles’ pattern of thinking and living, believers have been instructed in accordance with the truth, which can be found only in Jesus.

4:22–24 Paul mentions three specific areas in which the Ephesian believers have been taught, and, once again, exhorts them to put what they have learned into practice. Although the three verbs conveying this message are not imperatives (i.e., commands), they do carry an imperatival force.

First (v. 22), the believers were taught “to put off your old self.” The verb Paul uses (apotithēmi) is often used for taking off one’s clothes but is used figuratively here for putting off or laying aside sin (cf. Rom. 13:12; Col. 3:8). “Old self” refers to the former, unregenerate person. The apostle further describes this old self as that “which belongs to your former manner of life,” which was earlier characterized as living according to “the passions of our flesh” (Eph. 2:3). This old self is also “corrupt through deceitful desires,” that is, sinful passions that ruin and destroy the unbeliever. Such desires stand in opposition to God and his gospel. Therefore, Paul reminds his readers not to be ruled by the person they once were but to become who they already are in Christ.

Second (4:23), the Ephesian Christians were taught “to be renewed in the spirit of your minds.” Interestingly, the verb “to be renewed” is in the passive voice, suggesting God as the implied agent of the renewing. And yet, these believers were given the command to be renewed. Although believers are commanded to pursue this state of renewal, it is ultimately God who does the renewing. Specifically, this renewing is to take place “in the spirit of your minds.” Elsewhere, Paul mentions that it is the Holy Spirit who is responsible for our inner renewal (Titus 3:5) and continual transformation (2 Cor. 3:18). Believers must yield themselves to God so that he will renew their inner person (Rom. 12:2).

Third (Eph. 4:24), the Ephesian believers were taught “to put on the new self.” It is never enough simply to put off or flee from sin; believers must also pursue that which is pure. The verb “put on” (endyō), like the verb “put off” (v. 22), was normally used for one’s literal clothing, but it is used here figuratively for the putting on of specific characteristics and virtues (cf. Rom. 13:12, 14; Gal. 3:27; Eph. 6:11, 14; Col. 3:10, 12; 1 Thess. 5:8). “New self” is parallel to the “old self” (Eph. 4:22) and is a metaphor for the renewed or regenerate person. It refers to the believer’s new nature, which includes a different mind-set and lifestyle. Whereas in 2:15 the “new man” (same words in Gk.) referred to the corporate body of believing Jews and Gentiles, here it refers to the individual.

Paul describes this “new self” in two ways. First, the new self is “created after the likeness of God”: God both does the creating (cf. 2:10) and creates according to his own image. He is both the author of life and the pattern after which he himself creates (cf. Col. 3:10). Second, the new self is created “in true righteousness and holiness.” This expression “explains what it means to be like God.”⁶ Paul, therefore, instructs his readers to live in accordance with the new self, which was created by God to display the type of righteousness and holiness that belongs to him.