based on Love God Greatly’s study, Secure in Christ/w4d4
Read: Ephesians 4:17-24; SOAP: verse 24
So I say this, and insist in the Lord, that you no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts. 19 Because they are callous, they have given themselves over to indecency for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. 20 But you did not learn about Christ like this, 21 if indeed you heard about him and were taught in him, just as the truth is in Jesus. 22 You were taught with reference to your former way of life to lay aside the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires, 23 to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and to put on the new man who has been created in God’s image—in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth.
Ephesians 4:17-24
After telling the believers in Ephesus to practice, or live out and speak the truth to one another in love, and to use their gifts to build up the body of Christ (Eph. 4:14-16), Paul continues with his instructions/teaching. He insists that they quit living like they did before they came to know God through Christ. He paints a vivid picture of what they used to live like and then strongly encourages them to live like the new person Christ created them to be.
So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away—look, what is new has come!🦋
2 Cor 5:17
Paul has been with these believers for nearly three years, so he knows they have been taught the “truth” of Christian living. He knows they understand what it means to follow Jesus. They know that the followers of Jesus are to turn from their selfish ways and take up their cross daily to follow Him. They know they are not to hang on to their old life but to give it up for the new life Christ has called them to. Paul wrote to the church of Rome, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you by changing the way you think” (Romans 12:1-2). Similarly, here, he reminds the Ephesians to be renewed in the spirit of their minds and to put on the new man who has been created in God’s image. In other words, they (and thus all believers) are to live and love like Jesus, not the world. Specifically, their lives are to be characterized by righteous and holy living that comes from the truth.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
John 14:6
Friends, to live this new life as it is meant to be lived, we can not hold on to even a smidgen of our life before Christ. I tried that for years. In one ‘crowd’ I was the new, and in another ‘crowd’ I was the old. Sometimes, it was because I didn’t want to give up some of my old ways of life and/or desires; but other times it was because I didn’t want to be left out, and for a period of time it was because I was angry with God. Thankfully, He did not leave me but pursued me and rescued me from that double life to a life that is fully surrendered to Him. When I think of these scenarios and that season of my life, and how I allowed myself to chase after or get caught up with the ‘little gods’ of my life, I am reminded of some of the words He used to transform me. They were the words of Joshua to the people of God, when he said: “Choose you this day whom you will serve…but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord” (Josh 24:15).
Today’s Reflection
Who have you chosen to serve? The true and living God or the gods…the people…the desires of this world? Does your life look like the new creation Christ created you to be – or the old? Tough questions, but ones worth asking and praying over.
Me From the Inside Out 