Ephesians 4:17–24
17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about Him and were taught in Him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
There are still some people who will argue that we live in a “Christian country,” but when you look at the evidence around us, this is patently not true.
We live in a pagan country. In fact, from a purely Biblical perspective, we can say that there are not, and never have been any true Christian countries in human history.
In verse 17 Paul talks about the futility of pagan thinking. They have futile minds. The word “futile” literally means “useless”. This does not mean they are incapable of thinking or they are not intelligent. Many people who live like pagans are intelligent people, yet their brilliant minds are not used for good, anything useful or helpful.
In the Biblical context, usefulness is about spiritual things, the things of God. Unintelligent people can have futile minds just as intelligent people. For instance, there are some extremely intelligent people who actually believe in and promote the myth of evolution.
Those who deny the existence of God have to promote the lie of evolution, because that is the only alternative they have to the God of creation. If you believe in creation, you have to believe in God, so they can’t and won’t go down that road. Instead, all of their training, knowledge, and education leads them to believe in something that promotes the inhumanity of human life.
Even small children instinctively understand the sanctity of human life, but with their persistent anti-God propaganda, the evolutionist pagans have corrupted the minds of society, so much so that it is taught to our children as a scientific fact. A Christian apologist described the absurdity of evolutionary “science” with a simple mathematical equation: Nothing times nobody equals everything. That’s the nonsense they believe, and they have the gall to criticise Christians for believing in God.
Paul also says in verse 18 that pagans are darkened in their understanding. This is another reference to the things of God. They may live in a so-called Christian nation, yet they know nothing of the ways of God. Ask people on the streets what Easter and Christmas is really all about, and you might be shocked at some of the answers you’ll hear.
People are ignorant about the ways of God. Christians are to have a personal relationship with God, studying the Scriptures, praying, and serving the people around them, but very few have a solid understanding of the Bible. The vast majority of people cannot pray a simple prayer to God because they have never been taught. When it comes to serving, they want to be served instead of serving others. The basic things of God are a mystery to most. If you mention things like discipleship, holiness, and fearing the Lord outside the four walls of a church building, people will look at you like you’re some kind of weirdo.
These are basic teachings about God and most people are ignorant of them, even some of them in the church.
Pagans have hardened hearts. The longer we live in ignorance of God, the harder our heart becomes until it becomes calloused and even when we hear the things of God, they make no sense. People who live and teach the things of God are considered backward by people who do not know God and have calloused hearts. A person with a calloused heart loses all sense of right and wrong. What is wrong all of a sudden becomes right and what is right is wrong.
Isaiah 5:20 says, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”
Let’s look at another contemporary and controversial issue. In our culture today, abortion is legal, yet in most western countries (including ours), we have abolished capital punishment. We call it inhumane to put a murderer or rapist to death but killing a child in the womb is a celebrated choice. How can that be? How far into the cesspool have we sunk when we think it’s okay to murder children?
The pagan world buries its head in the sand in ignorance and continues on like everything is okay. This is the inevitable result of a calloused heart.
They give themselves over to sensuality and practice every kind of impurity with greed.
True Christians though, flee from sin, especially the sin of sexual immorality. Pagans, on the other hand, have no problem with sexual immorality. In fact, they are greedy for it and they welcome it. Pornography is a multi-billion-dollar industry. That is why sins such as human trafficking exist, because it is in demand, even in so called Christian nations and some Christian homes. People lose all sense of feeling in their calloused hearts and have no problem using and abusing people for their own lusts.
That is how the non-believing world behaves and lives, but just listen again as Paul makes the transition from pagan to Christian lifestyles in verse 20: “That is not the way you learned Christ!”
We can’t claim to be Christians while living as pagans. What good is faith that does not transform the way we think, view the world, and live? The Bible calls that kind of faith dead and useless. The demons have that kind of faith.
The believers in Ephesus were once pagans yet they learned the truth about life, about God, and about reality. They lived in a culture that embraced all the sins that you can imagine. Sex was everywhere and there were no limits. People were bombarded with sexuality. Children grew up seeing explicit images on pottery, their version of our social media today. It was openly practiced in public, in private, and even in worship.
This is the background for the church plant in Ephesus. This is the lifestyle that the church members once lived but they were transformed. How did it happen? Paul came and taught them about Jesus Christ. He is the one who will bring about transformation in a pagan society. People need the Word of God. Without is, they will remain in their ignorance and live like the devil. This is why we must study the Bible and find out what God is like, and what He says to us.
The Bible enlightens about the truth.
If we want to be set free from our enslavement to sin then we must believe in Christ, become His disciples so that we can know the Truth, and then be set free from our crooked way of life. Sin literally means to be crooked, to miss God’s mark and this crookedness all begins in the mind. Did you notice that Paul began the list with a futile mind? It was not by chance. When the mind is set right, the actions will follow. Our enslavement to sin is from birth but the terrible manifestations of it do not show themselves until later on. If the problem is not corrected (if we are not made right with God) then we end up with the lifestyle Paul talked about in verses 17-19. “You must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.”
The antidote to this is the Word of God. Through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, the way has been made for us to be set straight. We must believe and become genuine disciples of Christ.
Where do we stand? Are we still growing crookedly, or have we been straightened out?
And once we have experienced the transforming power of the Gospel, we must stand firm.
Jesus told His disciples to remain in His Word. Paul reminds the Ephesians that they must constantly remove the old sin nature (say no to it over and over again) and put on the new nature by having their minds renewed. How do we have our minds renewed? Paul explains in Romans 12. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
These things are to become daily disciplines for the Christian.
We remove the old self which means we say NO to sin and temptation moment by moment and YES to obedience. We are to dedicate ourselves to serving God by serving others.
If you have accepted Christ as Lord and Saviour, the power of sin in your life has been broken. You still live in a body of sin but now have the ability to say no.
Say no to sin. Don’t even entertain the thoughts and ideas that the devil will continue to tempt you with.
There is a story of a hunter who is suddenly confronted by a lion. He raises his rifle to shoot and the lion says, “Wait a moment, let’s talk. Why do you want to shoot me?” The man replies, “I need your fur for some clothes because it is cold. Why do you want to talk?” The lion replies, “I am hungry and I believe that if we sit and come to a compromise then we can both leave with our needs met.”
The man lowers the rifle and they sit down. A few minutes later the lion walks away and leaves with a full stomach and the man is dressed in fur (albeit inside the lion’s stomach). This is what sin and temptation can do to us.
1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
We must not sit down for a chat with evil. There can be no compromise. When we have the rifle raised we must shoot right away. Are you a born-again believer in Jesus Christ? If so, flee from sin and temptation moment by moment, and live a life worthy of your salvation.
17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about Him and were taught in Him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
There are still some people who will argue that we live in a “Christian country,” but when you look at the evidence around us, this is patently not true.
We live in a pagan country. In fact, from a purely Biblical perspective, we can say that there are not, and never have been any true Christian countries in human history.
In verse 17 Paul talks about the futility of pagan thinking. They have futile minds. The word “futile” literally means “useless”. This does not mean they are incapable of thinking or they are not intelligent. Many people who live like pagans are intelligent people, yet their brilliant minds are not used for good, anything useful or helpful.
In the Biblical context, usefulness is about spiritual things, the things of God. Unintelligent people can have futile minds just as intelligent people. For instance, there are some extremely intelligent people who actually believe in and promote the myth of evolution.
Those who deny the existence of God have to promote the lie of evolution, because that is the only alternative they have to the God of creation. If you believe in creation, you have to believe in God, so they can’t and won’t go down that road. Instead, all of their training, knowledge, and education leads them to believe in something that promotes the inhumanity of human life.
Even small children instinctively understand the sanctity of human life, but with their persistent anti-God propaganda, the evolutionist pagans have corrupted the minds of society, so much so that it is taught to our children as a scientific fact. A Christian apologist described the absurdity of evolutionary “science” with a simple mathematical equation: Nothing times nobody equals everything. That’s the nonsense they believe, and they have the gall to criticise Christians for believing in God.
Paul also says in verse 18 that pagans are darkened in their understanding. This is another reference to the things of God. They may live in a so-called Christian nation, yet they know nothing of the ways of God. Ask people on the streets what Easter and Christmas is really all about, and you might be shocked at some of the answers you’ll hear.
People are ignorant about the ways of God. Christians are to have a personal relationship with God, studying the Scriptures, praying, and serving the people around them, but very few have a solid understanding of the Bible. The vast majority of people cannot pray a simple prayer to God because they have never been taught. When it comes to serving, they want to be served instead of serving others. The basic things of God are a mystery to most. If you mention things like discipleship, holiness, and fearing the Lord outside the four walls of a church building, people will look at you like you’re some kind of weirdo.
These are basic teachings about God and most people are ignorant of them, even some of them in the church.
Pagans have hardened hearts. The longer we live in ignorance of God, the harder our heart becomes until it becomes calloused and even when we hear the things of God, they make no sense. People who live and teach the things of God are considered backward by people who do not know God and have calloused hearts. A person with a calloused heart loses all sense of right and wrong. What is wrong all of a sudden becomes right and what is right is wrong.
Isaiah 5:20 says, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!”
Let’s look at another contemporary and controversial issue. In our culture today, abortion is legal, yet in most western countries (including ours), we have abolished capital punishment. We call it inhumane to put a murderer or rapist to death but killing a child in the womb is a celebrated choice. How can that be? How far into the cesspool have we sunk when we think it’s okay to murder children?
The pagan world buries its head in the sand in ignorance and continues on like everything is okay. This is the inevitable result of a calloused heart.
They give themselves over to sensuality and practice every kind of impurity with greed.
True Christians though, flee from sin, especially the sin of sexual immorality. Pagans, on the other hand, have no problem with sexual immorality. In fact, they are greedy for it and they welcome it. Pornography is a multi-billion-dollar industry. That is why sins such as human trafficking exist, because it is in demand, even in so called Christian nations and some Christian homes. People lose all sense of feeling in their calloused hearts and have no problem using and abusing people for their own lusts.
That is how the non-believing world behaves and lives, but just listen again as Paul makes the transition from pagan to Christian lifestyles in verse 20: “That is not the way you learned Christ!”
We can’t claim to be Christians while living as pagans. What good is faith that does not transform the way we think, view the world, and live? The Bible calls that kind of faith dead and useless. The demons have that kind of faith.
The believers in Ephesus were once pagans yet they learned the truth about life, about God, and about reality. They lived in a culture that embraced all the sins that you can imagine. Sex was everywhere and there were no limits. People were bombarded with sexuality. Children grew up seeing explicit images on pottery, their version of our social media today. It was openly practiced in public, in private, and even in worship.
This is the background for the church plant in Ephesus. This is the lifestyle that the church members once lived but they were transformed. How did it happen? Paul came and taught them about Jesus Christ. He is the one who will bring about transformation in a pagan society. People need the Word of God. Without is, they will remain in their ignorance and live like the devil. This is why we must study the Bible and find out what God is like, and what He says to us.
The Bible enlightens about the truth.
If we want to be set free from our enslavement to sin then we must believe in Christ, become His disciples so that we can know the Truth, and then be set free from our crooked way of life. Sin literally means to be crooked, to miss God’s mark and this crookedness all begins in the mind. Did you notice that Paul began the list with a futile mind? It was not by chance. When the mind is set right, the actions will follow. Our enslavement to sin is from birth but the terrible manifestations of it do not show themselves until later on. If the problem is not corrected (if we are not made right with God) then we end up with the lifestyle Paul talked about in verses 17-19. “You must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.”
The antidote to this is the Word of God. Through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, the way has been made for us to be set straight. We must believe and become genuine disciples of Christ.
Where do we stand? Are we still growing crookedly, or have we been straightened out?
And once we have experienced the transforming power of the Gospel, we must stand firm.
Jesus told His disciples to remain in His Word. Paul reminds the Ephesians that they must constantly remove the old sin nature (say no to it over and over again) and put on the new nature by having their minds renewed. How do we have our minds renewed? Paul explains in Romans 12. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
These things are to become daily disciplines for the Christian.
We remove the old self which means we say NO to sin and temptation moment by moment and YES to obedience. We are to dedicate ourselves to serving God by serving others.
If you have accepted Christ as Lord and Saviour, the power of sin in your life has been broken. You still live in a body of sin but now have the ability to say no.
Say no to sin. Don’t even entertain the thoughts and ideas that the devil will continue to tempt you with.
There is a story of a hunter who is suddenly confronted by a lion. He raises his rifle to shoot and the lion says, “Wait a moment, let’s talk. Why do you want to shoot me?” The man replies, “I need your fur for some clothes because it is cold. Why do you want to talk?” The lion replies, “I am hungry and I believe that if we sit and come to a compromise then we can both leave with our needs met.”
The man lowers the rifle and they sit down. A few minutes later the lion walks away and leaves with a full stomach and the man is dressed in fur (albeit inside the lion’s stomach). This is what sin and temptation can do to us.
1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
We must not sit down for a chat with evil. There can be no compromise. When we have the rifle raised we must shoot right away. Are you a born-again believer in Jesus Christ? If so, flee from sin and temptation moment by moment, and live a life worthy of your salvation.