WALKING: OUR WAY OF LIFE IN THE WORLD- PART
II
“Off
with the Old, On with the New.”
Ephesians 4:17-24
Introduction:
Singer
Marie Osmond exclaims she dropped 50 pounds on Nutrisystem. The Turbo 13 weight
loss program is designed to help members lose up to 13 pounds and seven inches
overall in the first month. For a limited time, customers who purchase a 28-day
plan like Turbo 13 can receive a one-week supply of Nutricurb Bars, Turbo
Shakes and Turbo Boosters free. Really, just by eating differently can you lose
weight? As if to add insult to injury, the so called, “Before and after weight
loss” pictures look so different and beautiful. Are they not?
The
real goal is not the weight loss, but to learn how to eat healthy, do exercises
and maintain a balanced life style. It is one thing to lose weight and the
other thing is how not to fall back into the same old bad eating patterns before
you lost your weight. Does God really care what you weigh? The answer surprisingly
is No! God does not care what you weigh because the Bible says that man looks
on the outside but God looks on the heart (I Samuel 16:7)
But
he does care about how we take care of His temple which is our body. We read in
I Corinthians 6:19-20, “Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit. We are
called to glorify God in body and spirit. What God really cares about is that
we live a lifestyle that is honoring to him and fruit bearing so that we not
only enjoy God’s blessings but also, we will be a blessing to others.
For
the past few Sundays, we have been learning together in Paul’s letter written
to the Gentile, Roman believers living in the seaport city of Ephesus. We have
noted that in the first half of his letter, chapters 1-3, Paul indicated who
the Ephesian believers are “In Christ” for example, he said, “You are saints,
redeemed, chosen before the creation of the world to live holy and blameless,
you are citizens of the kingdom, sons and daughters in God’s family the Church.
In
Chapters 4-6, Paul lays out some practical steps for the Ephesian believers to
behave like who and what all they are in Christ. I believe these steps will help the believers
through the ages on how to live out practical Christianity in a world that is
so contrary to the principles and values of God. Last week we have learned how
to make Jesus proud by living in manner worthy of His Calling. We looked at one
aspect of “Putting up with One another in Love.” Today, we will look at what it
means to be “Off with the old, On with the New.” Ephesians 4:17-24.
I. OFF WITH THE OLD:
Vs
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.” ESV. “So, this is what I want
to say, I am bearing witness to it in the Lord. You must not longer behave like
the Gentiles, foolish minded as they are.” (TKNT). After having established the
fact that Gentiles in his audience have been admitted to the people of God
(2:11-22), now Paul admonishes them to abandon the Gentile lifestyle. What was the Gentile lifestyle like? God
has always wanted his chosen people the Israelites to live by a different set
of standards than those nations they were either living in or surrounded by. In
other words, they were to “live exceptional lives.” Consider these scriptures:
Leviticus 18:3, “So do not act like the people in Egypt, where you used to
live, or like the people of Canaan, where I am taking you. You must not imitate
their way of life.”
Leviticus
20-23-24, “Do not live according to the customs of the people I am driving out
before you. It is because they do these shameful things that I detest them. But
I have promised you, ‘You will possess their land because I will give it to you
as your possession—a land flowing with milk and honey.’ I am the Lord your God,
who has set you apart from all other people.” These
two scriptures highlight the fact that God does not want his people to pollute
themselves by mixing in with the Gentiles, practicing their rituals and
imitating their life style. On the
contrary he wanted them to be set apart from and live a step above the culture
around them. For that very reason, most Jews regarded most Gentiles as
worshipers of false deities, sexually promiscuous. In Vs 18-19, The apostle
Paul further amplifies the darker side of the Gentiles by stating that their
understanding is darkened. They are cut off from God’s life because of their
deep-seated ignorance, by hardening their hearts. They have lost all moral
sensitivity. They were given themselves over to whatever takes their fancy.
They got off greedily after every kind of uncleanness.
What
was causing the Gentiles to behave badly? It was their darkened
understanding. Human behavior is always
linked to their understanding. Pat
Tiller notes, “People do not behave badly because they make a rational, voluntary
choice to do so. Behavior originates in the mind and in the heart that is
ignorant of the truths of chapters 1-3.”
Our
mind and heart inform and dictate us how to behave. When our thinking is dark
either by ignorance or wrong knowledge or lack of wright knowledge we are not
going to make good choices. We will make dumb choices, and do dark activities
for which we will have to regret later. What was described as the Galatian
lifestyle in verses 18-19 is so prevalent in our 21st century. Let me give you
a real-life example.
Ted
Bundy infamously known as the worst serial killer of the 70s, in his final
interview with Dr. James Dobson, admitted what made him a monster killer, “As a
young boy (and I mean boy of 12 or 13, certainly) I encountered, outside the
home again, in the local grocery store and the local drug stores, the softcore
pornography. It fueled your fantasies, Dr James asked. Ted answered, “Fueled …Well, in the
beginning, it fuels this kind of thought process. Then, at a certain time, it
is instrumental in crystallizing it, making it into something which is almost a
separate entity inside.
And
that points you at the verge, I was at the verge of acting out on this kind of
fantasy.”[1]Do you see the connection
between a darkened mind and violent behavior? Studies show a
correlation between pornography
viewing and violent crimes. A 1995 analysis of 33 different studies showed that
viewing pornography increases aggressive behavior, including having violent
fantasies and even actually committing violent assaults. A University of New
Hampshire study showed that states with the highest readership of pornographic
magazines like Playboy and Penthouse, also have the highest rape rates.[2]
What
was Paul’s admonishment for the Ephesian believers? That they must no longer
behave like the Gentiles. Which implies that once they too were behaving just
like the Gentiles, but now since they have been redeemed and their sins were
forgiven, they must behave differently. They must stay clear from sin that so
easily entangles them.
Similarly,
we too once were living like the Gentiles, with futile thinking and obeying
Satan and his principalities. Pleasing our flesh and doing the things that were
not pleasing to God. That is called, “The Old Self.” The old self that Paul is
referring to here probably referring to the kind of person the Christian used
to be. We are now called to put of our old self.
Paul
gives reasons why we should put off our old self in I Corinthians 6:11, “Some
of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were
made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the
Spirit of our God.” Since becoming the children of God, we should no longer
live like the way we used to live in the past, instead we are to cultivate new
habit patterns that are pleasing to God. Paul gives some practical advice on
how we can be “off with the old, and on with the new, in verses 20-24.
III.
ON WITH THE NEW
