Ephesians 4:17–32
Believers, no longer living licentiously, are being divinely renewed into the likeness of God that is manifest as they maintain unity and engage in activities that build up one another.
The chronological sequence of events in Ephesians 4:17–18 appears to be written in reverse. Reordering the series, the progression looks like this: hardness of heart (4:18d) → ignorance (4:18c) → exclusion from the life of God (4:18c) → darkness in understanding (4:18a) → futility of mind (4:17d). Moral apathy results—callousness: insensitivity to moral issues, incapacity for shame, a sort of “conscience-less-ness” (4:19). The ultimate result is the unbeliever’s lifestyle (“walk,” 4:17), given over to all manner of uncontrolled licentious behavior—manifestation of every kind of sexual “impurity” with greed (4:19). “With greed” indicates that there was a constant lust for more of the indecent activity.
That was how Paul’s readers once used to live, and perhaps that old kind of life was leaking into their present lives as well. But no more—both “you” and “this way” are emphatic in 4:20: literally, “But you—not this way did you learn Christ.” With that, a stark contrast is created between the walk of unbelievers (4:17–19) and the walk expected of believers (4:20–24). Those truths in Jesus that are learned, heard, and taught in him, deal with the totality of living the Christian life, after the model of the perfect Man, Jesus Christ. This is spelled out broadly in three parts (4:22–24): “you have put off,” “you are being renewed,” and “you have put on.” The middle element, a present passive infinitive (unlike the bracketing aorist infinitives), designates an ongoing process happening inwardly and showing outwardly: the “new person.” This new person has been “created in accordance with God[’s likeness] in true righteousness and holiness” (4:24)—this is what Christians are to look like now. Having put on the new person, their model for life is the righteousness and holiness of God in Christ, practical consequences of which are detailed in the rest of the letter.
There are five exhortations in the list of 4:25–32 (4:25, 26–27, 28, 29, 30–32), each with a negative and a positive command, and a motivation for the latter. They deal with lying, anger, theft, unwholesome speech, and other impure kinds of utterances, respectively—all serving to cause breakdown of the community. What is recommended, however, is behavior that leads to building up of the community: truth-speaking, long-suffering, sharing, and gracious communication that edifies, manifesting the very character of God (4:32; see 4:24): God is himself “kind” (Pss 24:8; 33:9; 68:17; 85:5; 99:5; 106:1; 108:21; 118:68; 136:1; 145:9; Luke 6:35; Rom 2:4; 1 Pet 2:3), “compassionate” (using the cognate verb: Matt 9:36; 14:14; 18:27; Luke 1:78; 7:13; 10:33; 15:20), “engracing/forgiving” (Rom 8:32; 1 Cor 2:12; Col 2:13; and using a related verb: Luke 1:28; Eph 1:6). The ground of all Christian behavior is thus the character of God himself, as Ephesians 4:24 makes abundantly clear.
Those sealed by the Spirit (4:30) are those with the imprint of divine character upon them. This is therefore a mandate to live lives worthy of that God and his sealing, especially, in this context, by eschewing activities that militate against the Spirit-driven unity of the body and which grieve that Person of the Trinity. Ultimately, of course, all of this is part of God’s grand and glorious plan to consummate all things in Christ.
[For more details, see my Ephesians commentary.]
Abe Kuruvilla is the Carl E. Bates Professor of Christian Preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY), and a dermatologist in private practice. His passion is to explore, explain, and exemplify preaching.