Studies in Ephesians

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 6, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 18.

Studies in Ephesians

The Transfer of Life

Chapter 4, Verses 17-24, A.R.V.

Questioning the Text

1. In view of the wonderful grace and gifts of God, what does the apostle testify?

“This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk, in the vanity of their mind.” Verse 17. Note 1.

2. What brings the vanity of the mind?

“Being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart.” Verse 18. Note 2.

3. To what does this condition logically lead?

“Who being past feeling gave themselves up to lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” Verse 19. Note 3.

4. Was this the religion which was taught the believers whom Paul is addressing?

“But ye did not so learn Christ.” Verse 20. Note 4.

5. How were they taught in Him?

“If so be that ye heard Him, and were taught in Him, even as truth is in Jesus.” Verse 21. Note 5.

6. And what did that teach as to conduct?

“That ye put away, as concerning your former manner of life, the old man, that waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit.” Verse 22. Note 6.

7. What were they to put in the place of the old life?

“And that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.” Verses 23, 24. Note 7.

Notes and Comment

1. “No longer walk.”—It can not be emphasized too strongly, nor said too frequently, emphasized by the constant repetition, that the old life must not be continued. Conversion in Christ Jesus means a new man. Those who were gathered out from the Gentiles must leave all the vanity and emptiness of the mind with the past, and no longer walk that way.

2. “Darkened . . . alienated.”—Two reasons are given for the darkness and the alienation. Let us go to the basic one, the hardening of their heart. The hardening of the heart, we learn in Heb. 3:13, comes by departing from the living God, turning away from His instruction, losing grip upon the great verities of His gospel. The man that turns from duty benumbs his conscience, hardens his heart, and because of that hardening of the heart he increases the ignorance within him. He knows less and less of God. He is turning from the light of truth to the darkness of error, and so turning, and suffering the sin and the darkness and the alienation to come in between himself and God, he alienates himself from the life of God. He has only the animal life of the flesh, and that of a perverted flesh, and the perverted flesh leads on to the other sins of the heathen world.

3. “Past feeling.”—That is, the conscience is past feeling. When it continues to yield to sin, it yields until at last it can no longer be impressed by truth or holiness. The apostle here is leading us on to the ultimate, showing us just what sin will do to those who yield themselves to it. He gives us an awful picture of the heathen world, of some of the nations which God thought necessary to sweep away, who gave themselves up to all lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness. There was no hope for them, no response in their heart to the holiness and salvation which is in Christ Jesus.

4. “Ye did not so learn Christ.”—Let the thought come to the tempted child of God again and again. “Ye did not so learn Christ.” He did not teach us vanity. He did not lead us into darkness. He does not alienate us from the life of God. He does not lead to ignorance of mind nor hardening of heart. Keep forever with us the thought of the life which Christ would teach us.

5. “If so be that ye have heard Him.”—How gently He instructs them! Of course they heard Him. He calls it to mind in the most tender way. They had heard Paul, they had read the wonderful things that he had sent to them. They had heard him, and were taught in him, the truth as it is in Jesus.

6. “Put away.”—All these things of the Gentiles must be put away,—the corrupt conversation,—better as in the Revised Version, the “former manner of life.” The old man of sin, that which binds and chains and corrupts and destroys, must all be put away. If not, more and more the soul will grow corrupt after the lusts of deceit, for every lust of sin is in its very nature deceptive. It blinds and hardens and stupefies the soul the more it is indulged, and leads less and less to reformation of life.

7. “Be renewed . . . put on.”—God does not ask us to go naked; He does not leave us without comfort. He takes away nothing but what He would put something infinitely superior in its place. Therefore in the place of the vanity and darkness and ignorance of mind He renews the spirit of the mind; He puts within it a divine life and power; He makes of the old corrupt man a new man, and places within him the heart new-created in God,—not in lasciviousness or uncleanness, but in righteousness and holiness of truth. Who would not change the one for the other?