Transcript

One author wrote the following: “You can tell a lot about people in our society by the way they dress. From baseball players to bus drivers, from postal carriers to policemen, people wear the uniform of their profession.

“Who we are determines what we wear, and failing to ‘dress the part’ can sometimes have embarrassing consequences.

“Many years ago a very wealthy man in a Southern California town was found wandering around the local country club wearing shabby clothes. He was promptly seized by security guards and charged with vagrancy—even though he owned the country club.

“He had failed to dress consistent with who he was…Christians must dress themselves spiritually in accordance with their new identity.”

This is what Paul teaches us in Ephesians 4. He shows us how to dress the part in accordance with our identity in Christ.

Ephesians 4:22-24: “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”

In the first verses of Ephesians chapter 2, Paul described the unbeliever as being subject to the world, the flesh, and the devil.

“Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air…Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind…” (2:2-3).

In the verses preceding our text here in chapter 4, Paul instructed the believer to turn from the corrupting influences of the WORLD in which we live and to “walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened,” and so on.

Here in verses 22-24, Paul turns to the subject of our FLESH, telling us to put off the “old man” and to put on the new, and to live according to its righteousness and holiness.

Later in Ephesians, Paul gave instruction for defeating and standing against the wiles of the DEVIL by being strong in the Lord, putting on the whole armor of God, wielding the Sword of the Spirit, and “praying always.”

Thus, Ephesians shows how the believer in Christ, can have victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil, which we once were guided by and subject to in our past.

The believer still can be subject to these things, but God wants our new life in Christ to result in a new life, and for us to be subject to Christ, guided by Him and His Word.

Our outward behavior is the outgrowth, the expression, of the inner man. Before Christ, we only had the flesh, the old, sin nature, to control our behavior.

But when we trust Christ as our Savior, a new nature, a new man, is created in the believer, in which the Holy Spirit dwells.

When God regenerates us, He does not transform the old nature. Rather, regeneration is the impartation of a new nature.

But this results in a conflict in the believer that Paul describes in Galatians 5:17: “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.”

God does not eradicate or remove the old nature from believers at the time of their conversion. Instead, He gave us a new nature and the Holy Spirit to indwell us.

So now we have two warring natures within us, the flesh and the Spirit, the old man and the new man.

The Spirit and the flesh have different desires, and this is what creates the conflict. But in this conflict, God would have us depend on the Spirit and to yield to the new man.

And we are further clearly taught by the Apostle Paul that the power of the old nature has been broken and destroyed by the Cross, so we have power over it and, though it still can, it does not need to control our lives any longer.

Paul challenges the Church, “That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man.” The believer is to put off their former unsaved manner of life, which was the unregenerate, unclean, unholy life of the sinner under the domination of “the old man.”

God wants a definite, decisive, deliberate removal of the old man from the throne of our lives. “Put off,” means to put off a piece of clothing. And God wants the old man cast off and put away like taking off and getting rid of a disgusting, filthy shirt.

This instruction is such too that God is telling us here to do this by a once-for-all, decisive action, and to go forward in Christ and not look back.

And speaking of that old man that God wants us to put off, Paul gives two reasons why we should: it “is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.”

First, we learn that the old man “is corrupt.” It is rotten and it is rotting. In the original Greek, this means that it is corrupt and it is in the process of corruption, growing more and more corrupt.

First, we learn that the old man “is corrupt.” It is rotten and it is rotting. In the original Greek, this means that it is corrupt and it is in the process of corruption, growing more and more corrupt.

The old man gets worse and worse as time goes on. And it can destroy a person’s life. There is no reforming of the old nature. It just needs put off and put away.

Second, the old man is corrupt according to deceitful lusts. It is led and controlled by selfish, sinful passions and desires, but these desires are deceitful.

They can bring ruin, disappointment, and emptiness, instead of the satisfaction and meaning to life that they falsely appear to promise.

So many give their lives to pursuits that they think will bring them happiness. But in the end, they find that they were deceived, and they don’t bring the joy or fulfillment that they thought they would.

In Ecclesiastes, we learn how Solomon was deceived by the lusts of the flesh. As a king with endless resources and time, he followed the desires of the flesh in every direction and in every way one could imagine to the fullest extent, but in the end he found that it was all just “vanity” or emptiness, and like trying to grasp the wind.

Instead of following the old man’s desires and being deceived by it, God wants us to put it off, and then “be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” The believer needs a complete about-face in the thinking that stems from the world and the flesh.

In verse 17, Paul warned the Church to “walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of THEIR MIND.” We need to not trust our own thinking or the world’s, but to continually allow the Spirit to renew the way we think.

To turn FROM the old man, we must turn TO God and His Word, and its truths will change our thinking. This renewal of our minds is one which leads to the transformation of our attitudes and our behavior, giving us a new set of desires, and a whole new manner of life.

And as the Word and the Spirit renew our minds, it gives us something to live for which brings real meaning and fulfillment to our lives: Christ.

The instructions of verses 23 and 24 are linked, because as our minds are reNEWed by the Word, we can then “put on the NEW man” and live in its righteousness and true holiness.

“Put on” is like put off, it means to put on clothing. And just like the old man is to be decisively and deliberately removed, the new man is to be put on in the same way.

We are called to do this by a once-for-all, decisive action, that this is the direction I’m going and I’m not looking back, only forward to Christ.

Both of these actions, putting off and putting on are to be done in the power of the Spirit, as we yield to Him and His Word by faith.

When we trusted Christ, we got a brand-new garment. And we find here that God wants us to change our clothes, and to put on a whole new set of conduct.

Think of it like a prisoner who is released from prison, but he is still wearing his prison clothes and acts like a prisoner and not as a free man. That person needs to be told to put off those old prison clothes and put on some new clothes.

Likewise, we are free from sin and free from the bondage of the old man, and we need to put on the clothes of Christ’s righteousness and live in our freedom from sin.

The” new man” is a brand new nature in us that did not exist before salvation and which makes possible a new quality of life and service which before was impossible.

Our new nature is not a renovated man, it is a NEW man. As we live in that new man, we can and will live a new kind of life.

And verse 24 says the new man is created in the likeness of God, “in righteousness and true holiness.” As such, it is fit for the presence of God within us, with our bodies being the temple of the Holy Spirit.

The new man is what a believer has been created to be in Christ: righteous and holy. And righteousness and true holiness are what will be manifested and worked out in our lives as we yield to the Spirit and put on the new man.

The story is told of an Eskimo in Alaska who used to travel to town every weekend with two of his huskies. One was black and the other was white.

One day he was standing talking with some of the townspeople when he pointed to his dogs, stating that he was going to give the command for the two dogs to fight and he predicted that the black dog would win. Sure enough the black dog won.

A week passed and the Eskimo returned to town. This time he predicted the white dog would win the fight. Sure enough he was right again. This went on for about six weeks with the Eskimo always correctly picking which dog would win.

On the way back home one day a friend asked the Eskimo how he always knew which dog was going to win. The Eskimo responded that it was really quite simple.

If I want the black dog to win I simply starve the white dog all week. On the other hand, if I want the white dog to win I starve the black dog.

This is exactly what we need to do in our Christian lives: starve the old nature and feed the new, feeding and filling our minds with the Word of God. And we will gain the victory over the flesh, the old man, and the old habits of sin as a result.

Ephesians 4:25: “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.”

Paul now turns to give practical guidelines as to how “the old man” is to be laid aside, and how “the new man” is to be appropriated in our daily living.

In verses 25-32, we find five exhortations to the Church regarding our conduct. Each one has three parts: a negative command, a positive command, and the reason for the positive command. The verses specify sins that are part of the old man and are to be put off, and then also the virtues that are to replace them as we put on the new man.

First, the negative command is that God wants us to put away “lying.” The positive command is to “speak every man truth with his neighbor,” and the reason for the positive command is “for we are members one of another.”

A woman was on her way home from work. She stopped at the corner deli to buy a chicken for supper. The butcher reached into a barrel, grabbed the last chicken he had, flung it on the scales behind the counter, and told the woman its weight.

She thought for a moment. “I really need a bit more chicken than that,” she said. “Do you have any larger ones?” Without a word, the butcher put the chicken back into the barrel, groped around as though finding another, pulled the same chicken out, and placed it on the scales. “This chicken weighs one pound more,” he announced.

The woman pondered her options and then said, “Okay. I’ll take them both.” Honesty is the best policy!

“Lying” of course speaks of intentionally fabricating a falsehood, stretching the truth, or telling half-truths.

God wants us to put lying away because it is part of the old man. It is actually one of the chief characteristics of the old nature.

Then Paul gives a positive command, and uses a quote from the Old Testament in Zechariah 8:16, which reads: “Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates.”

The old man lies, but the new man tells the truth. To be truthful is to be Christ-like, because He is “the Truth.” And to be people of truth, is to be godly, because “[God] is the Rock, His work is perfect: for all His ways are judgment: a God of truth…”

Paul then adds grace truth as the reason for the positive command, “for we are members one of another.” Truthful speech is for the good of the Body and essential to its unity. Lies harm our fellowship in the Church.

We are to speak the truth, because as members of Christ’s Body, we belong to each other and out of love and respect for one another, and to encourage one another, we need to not lie and be truthful.

As we do so, we are to be “speaking the truth in love,” as Paul said a few verses earlier in 4:15, both as we minister with each other and to each other.

Ephesians 4:26-27: “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil.”

Next Paul gives the negative command that we are to be angry and sin not. The positive command is to deal with anger as soon as possible and not let the sun go down upon your wrath, and the reason for the positive command is so the devil doesn’t get a foothold.

God does not want us to be angry with a sinful anger. We know it is possible to be angry and not sin because Scripture speaks of God being angry. The phrase the “anger of the Lord” is found 32 times in the Word.

We see Christ’s righteous anger in cleansing the temple of the crooked money changers and those who sold animals for sacrifice and took advantage of God’s people.

God is always righteous in His anger, but many times we are not. Anger that hates sin, evil, injustice, immorality, and wrongdoing is not sin and proceeds from the new man.

But anger that is selfish, undisciplined, vindictive, and out of control, is sinful and comes from the old man.

The Spirit’s positive command here is to “let not the sun go down upon your wrath.” In other words, don’t harbor anger in your heart, don’t let anger grow and fester. Don’t let that feeling of anger get drawn out when it will only get worse and worse.

Putting on the new man, we are to let go of wrath, by communicating and getting rid of the thoughts and feelings that accompany anger as soon as possible.

Paul’s reason for the positive command is, “Neither give place to the devil,” or don’t give the devil an opportunity, don’t allow him to get a foothold in your life.

Harboring anger and allowing it to fester can give the devil an opportunity and a foothold in one’s life. The devil can use that anger to lead the believer into further sins, such as the sins listed in verse 31: bitterness, wrath, clamour, evil speaking, and malice.

Eph. 4:28: “Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.”

The negative command here is to “steal no more.” The positive command is to work for the things we need, and the reason for the positive command is that by working we can share and give to those in need.

The word “steal” here is the Greek word klepto, from which comes our term kleptomaniac. Stealing can take many forms: all the way from grand larceny to nonpayment of debts.

In the past, the Law just said, “Thou shalt not steal.” Here we find God’s grace giving the solution to how to turn away from this sin.

God’s positive command here is to work with one’s hands. The alternative to stealing is to work and provide for oneself and one’s family through good, honest labor and honorable means.

And the reason for the positive command is that by working we can give to those who are in need. Stealing is about getting something. But Paul teaches us to work to get and then that the purpose for getting, by grace, is giving, to be able to share with others who are less fortunate and in need.

It’s been said well, “Only the positive power of grace can turn a thief into a philanthropist.”

The instruction here is to put off the old man which steals, and put on the new man which works and shares!

Ephesians 4:29: “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.”

The negative command is to let no corrupt communication proceed from our mouths. The positive command is that our speech should be good and edifying. The reason for the positive command is to minister grace to those who hear us.

“Corrupt communication” is a sin that comes from our “corrupt” old man as verse 22 called it. God wants our speech transformed along with everything else.

Romans 3:14 says that the sinner’s “mouth is full of cursing.” The word “corrupt” was used to describe rotten fruit, vegetables, or other spoiled food. God doesn’t want us to have rotten speech.

Ephesians 5:4 refers to the kind of corrupt communication that God does not want to proceed from our mouth: “Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient [or fitting].”

With our speech, we need to do what David prayed in Psalm 141:3, “Set a watch, O LORD, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips.”

As we are to work to benefit others in need, so our speech is to edify and benefit others in need. And all are in need to be built up and encouraged.

And we do this by grace, to minister grace. And God, in His grace, lifts us up high, and so our speech should lift others up and be helpful, pure, kind, loving, respectful, & courteous.

Billy Graham once stated: “You have a tongue and a voice. These instruments of speech can be used destructively or employed constructively. You can use your tongue to slander, to gripe, to scold, to nag, to curse, and to quarrel, or you can bring it under the control of God’s Spirit and make it an instrument of blessing and praise.”

Ephesians 4:30: “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.”

All of these things, lying, sinful anger, stealing, corrupt speech, can “grieve…the Holy Spirit of God.” And that is a sobering thought.

Sin in the life of the child of God, grieves the Holy Spirit of God. The Spirit indwells us. He is always with us, and thus He is always observing our daily walk, attitude, speech, and reactions to the circumstances of life.

And when the child of God does not put off the old man and yields to it, and does not put on the new man, the Holy Spirit is sorrowful. And grief is a powerful, strong emotion.

Since we are not all sinless in our practical experience, we all “grieve” the Spirit, but in grace, this verse tells us that Spirit isn’t going anywhere, even when we fail to put off the old man and put on the new man.

We are sealed “unto the day of redemption,” or until the Rapture when all the Body of Christ receives the redemption of their bodies and is with Christ in heaven forever.

But the fact that we can grieve the Holy Spirit, that we can bring sorrow to God by our sinful actions is to reach for our hearts and serve as motivation to be holy as He is holy.

Ephesians 4:31-32: “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”

The negative command is to put away the 5 sins of bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking, and malice. The positive command is to adopt 3 virtues of kindness, tenderheartedness, and forgiveness. The reason for the positive command is that God has forgiven us in Christ.

For the terms that aren’t so clear here, “wrath” is a rage that boils up and explodes in the passion and frustration of a moment. Will Rogers once said, “People who fly into a rage always make a bad landing.”

“Clamor” is the loud shouting accompanied by anger. “Evil speaking” is to backbite, slander, and revile. “Malice” is the desire to injure.

These are sins that destroy relationships and are all a product of the old man.

God’s positive command here in putting on the new man is: “by ye kind one to another.” Luke 6:35 says God is “kind unto the unthankful and to the evil,” and so we should be too.

And we are to be “tenderhearted” or compassionate, merciful, patient, sensitive to, understanding and concerned about each other’s well-being and needs.

And we are to be “forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”

In the original, the word for “forgiving” is built on the Greek word for “grace” and means that we are to treat the person who wronged us graciously. We are to show grace in forgiving others, to freely forgive the undeserving unconditionally.

It’s Christ-like to forgive. We demonstrate His character in our lives as we do. He is the Model and motive for forgiveness.

When we trusted the gospel that Christ died for our sins and rose again, we are forgiven of all our sins, past, present, and future. His forgiveness is free, full, and final and ours is to be the same in life.

By doing so, this in turn will keep all the other sins of verse 31 out of our lives. The instruction here is to put off the old man, which is bitter, angry, and mean, and put on the new man, which is kind, compassionate, and forgiving! And by living out the instructions of all these verses, in the power of the Spirit, we will be transformed by grace.