Ephesians 4: 17-24 NIV 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. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed. That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 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. (emphasis mine)
Let’s look at the segments in bold:
You must no longer live as the Gentiles do… That is not the way of life you learned… You were taught to put off your old self…. put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
A gentile is anyone that is not a Jew. In the context of this letter of Paul’s to the church in Ephesus, he’s referencing those that do not have salvation through faith in Jesus. So, for ourselves, we can rephrase this as, You must no longer live as those who do not know Jesus live.
Once we choose faith in Jesus, once we give our life to Him in surrender, admitting we are sinners, in need of Savior and ask Him to forgive our sins and grant us the Salvation that can only come through Him; once we acknowledge that Jesus is Lord and that God raised Him from the dead: we are a new creation, the old has gone and the new has come! We are not the same any longer! We cannot continue to live like we did before we made that confession of faith! We cannot continue to talk the way we talked before. We cannot continue to participate in the same behaviors that we did before!
2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
We are all still learning. We are all still a work in progress, but we are being taught that we must put off our old self! We must put on the new self! We have been created to be like GOD in true righteousness and holiness! It is not ok if we look just like the world! Those around us should be able to see that we’re different than those that don’t know Jesus!
I’ve seen the line, “I love Jesus, but I curse a little.” Haha. Cute. No! No, it isn’t cute! That’s my old self! My new self has been created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. God is calling us to more than that! We are a new creation.
Have you seen the one: “part holy, part hood”. What does that mean?! No, absolutely not. 2 Timothy 2:9a NIV He has saved us and called us to a holy life We are Christians! We are to be a little Christ! We should be different than those that do not have the revelation knowledge of Jesus Christ! To accept anything less for ourselves is a lie!
You are more than your sin! I am not perfect! You are not perfect! But I’m not ok with where I am! I want to be more like Jesus ever day! Some days I’m less like Jesus than the day before but I will not excuse that with a cute saying as a way to make that behavior acceptable! I am a new creation and I will hold tight to the promise that the old has gone and the new has come! I will keep striving! It’s not easy but it’s worth it because that’s what Jesus wants from and for me! That’s what He wants from you and for you too! He’s worth the failing and the striving because in Him is the fullest life!
It’s my prayer that you desire to reflect Jesus in your attitudes, behaviors, and choices each and every day! It’s my prayer that you take this scripture to heart and that you seek to be more like Him each and every day!
This is a tough one! Struggling with it? Send me an email, let’s talk about it!
-A.E.
