INTRODUCTION
To recap the Epistle to the Ephesians thus far:
Paul started with praise! God had chosen the saints to be adopted as His children in and through Jesus Christ (1:3-14). He then reminded them of their previous spiritual deadness and their deserving of wrath (2:1-3) to emphasise God’s love, mercy, and grace in Christ (2:4-10) so that Jews and Gentiles might recognise their newfound unity (2:11-22). Paul declared His mission to preach the mystery of the love of Christ, highlighting once again the inclusion of the Gentiles into the chosen people of God (3:1-21). He then outlines how this glorious unity is to come, i.e. through the gifts and people with which God has provided the church, that all may grow to become mature (4:1-16).
In this section, then, Paul stresses to the Gentile saints in Ephesians the work they must undertake to be fully included in the people of God. As saved and converted Gentiles, they needed to be different from the unsaved and unconverted Gentiles who lived amongst them and from their old lives. They could not be comfortable in their identity as mere Gentiles. Instead, they needed to put off their old selves, renew their minds, and put on their new selves. They needed to live a life worthy of their new calling (4:1).
If one does not change after calling oneself ‘Christian’, has one truly decided to follow Christ? Has one’s allegiance moved away from the prince of the power of the air (2:2) to the King of Kings?
DISCUSSION
WHAT WILL YOU DO
The renewed and converted Gentile mind should have characteristics opposite to an unrenewed and unconverted Gentile mind. Notice that the specific and practical examples Paul raises later in the passage are primarily interpersonal (4:25-5:2).
Will we commit to consciously living different aspects of life in a new way that is in accordance with the way of the life of Christ?
How can you ensure that it is sustainable? Will we keep each other accountable?
MEMORY VERSE
(You are) to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. – Ephesians 4:22-24 (ESV)
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