Put off your old self

Ephesians 4:17-32 (TNIV) -

17 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.18 They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.

19 Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.
20 That, however, is not the way of life you learned21 when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds;

24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.26 “In your anger do not sin” : Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,27 and do not give the devil a foothold.

28 Those who have been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.
29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.

32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

My thoughts -

Paul has just explained to the Ephesian church that they are the body of Christ, and that they "joined and held together" in love like a body is by ligaments. He has mentioned these themes of the body and oneness and love and peace an awful lot. Now he is showing them (and us, by extension - you may tire of me saying that) what separates them (us) from non-believers.

Paul says they are no not live like the Gentiles anymore. Since Paul has made a career out of ministering to the Gentiles and has gone at it with the Jews over forcing the Gentiles into a strict adherence to the law my assumption is that, rather than "Gentiles" here meaning believers who are not Jewish Paul means non-believers. That's the assumption that I'm rolling with for the rest of this post.

So we are not to live like non-believers, then. We are not to live with "hardened hearts" but in love. We are not to be slaves to our sinful desires and impulses but disciplined. And we are, most definitely, not to be greedy. This is important especially in the American culture. We have hardened hearts that ignore the needs of the poorest among us to indulge in the idolatry of materialism. We are drowning in cheap shiny crap we don't need and that won't last while our brothers and sisters have nothing. We have a calloused approach to the poor, the needy, and the unemployed and don't want "our" tax dollars to go to entitlements. We'd much rather they go to tax cuts so we, the well off, are required to contribute even less to the well being of others. We do this and claim to be a "Christian" nation. What do we think Paul would have to say to us? What do we think Jesus would have to say to us?

Of course we need to do better. Of course we need to not be selfish, greedy, and indifferent to the suffering of others. We need to live a life that is set apart both from non-believers as well as from who we were in our sin. We need to be made as new creations in love in the image of God.

I love what Paul says in verse 28:

Those who have been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.

What better example of repentance than this? Not only do you not do what you formerly did in your sin but you replace that with what is, in effect, its godly opposite. Rather than steal, make something with your hands. And not only do you create rather than take, you then GIVE it to the needy. This is a powerful image. We think of repentance as being sorry. That may be the first step towards repentance but you must then STOP doing what was the sin and then TURN from it radically, making restitution for it. Then you are reconciled to those you were sinning against. Then you are remade as something new. It's not enough to feel bad and then to feel different, but your actions must change.

Paul then has some even tougher words:

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.

I don't like the word "all" here. It doesn't leave me any wiggle room, just like Paul left no wiggle room earlier when he said we were to "put off falsehood and speak truthfully". I also don't like how strong and direct the language is. He's not saying to try to not be as bitter, angry, etc. He's say to get rid of it all. We are called to do this. There is not love in bitterness. There is no love in rage. There is no love in brawling, in slander, or in malice.

We are called to build each other up, not to tear each other down. We are called to love each other, not to maliciously slander each other. We are called to be truthful, not to lie about each other and stab each other in the back. Too often we are so blinded by our own selfish, sinful agendas that we adopt a "the ends will justify the means" approach to accomplishing our own goals and fail to show any love, charity, or grace to our brothers and sisters in Christ. We believers can be every bit as two-faced, malicious, vicious, and cruel as non-believers. Paul chastised churches about this 2000 years ago, so it's nothing new. We have no "glorious past" to fall back on here.

But we are called to be different. We are meant to be different. You cannot repent, you can not be made new, you cannot follow in the footsteps of Christ and not change. We can't keep being the fallen, selfish, prideful, hard-hearted, two-faced, deceitful, infantile, cruel, spiteful, vengeful, wretched people we used to be.

I love how Paul ends this passage:

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Kind and compassionate. Forgiving. These are the marks of the Christian life. This is how we are to be.