Grow With Pastor Joe

What you wear says a lot about you. Have you ever noticed that we judge everyone around us, including ourselves, based on what they are wearing? You may be saying to yourself, “I would never do such a thing. I don’t care what people wear. I only see the person not their clothes.” Let’s test this theory out. What do you think when you are in the grocery store line and you see someone in uniform (military, first responder, medical worker, etc.)? You probably respect them a bit more. What are your thoughts about the person with slippers, pajamas, and an oversized shirt pushing their buggy up the grocery aisle? How about the person with a t-shirt with a communist leader’s picture or perhaps something offensive on the front such as curse words? Often, where we are determines what we wear. When I get home on a Sunday afternoon, the first thing that I’m doing is taking off my tie and putting on some basketball shorts and a t-shirt. I remember being told as a kid by my mom to “look presentable” if we were going out to eat a “sit down” restaurant. What we wear not only tells others about ourselves, but it also expresses what we think about ourselves. We tend to carry ourselves differently depending on what we are wearing or where we are at. Because of our position in Christ, we ought to have our life “look presentable.” When we talk about what it means to be in Christ, we must understand that we have had a complete transformation. Our clothes were once made of guilt and shame because of our sin. Now, in Christ, we have been clothed in the righteousness of Christ and we have been made holy. We have been given a new life and a new look. At our conversion, we were given a brand-new wardrobe. Out with the old and in with the new. We once wore prison garments but now have on princely apparel in Christ. Sadly, many saved people do not wear the clothes that are in their new wardrobe, but rather, they go to the pile of dirty clothes that stink and no longer fit who they are. The riches of His grace have provided us with a brand-new life and therefore, we shouldn’t wear what we used to. Our life should look transformed because it has been transformed.

            Ephesians 4 has been looking at the practical daily walking in our position and possessions (or wealth) in Christ. The relationship that we have with and in Christ demands and motivates our responsibility to have our conduct and character match our calling (salvation in Christ). It has been said that we are what we eat, but the same could be true about what we wear. The Lord has allowed us the freedom to take off the dirty old clothes that no longer fit from our previously unconverted state and put on daily the fresh, clean, and renewing grace of Christ. The book of Ephesians has shown us that by grace through faith we have a new belonging. We now belong to Christ and one another. Now, this belonging has not only transformed us positionally, but it must also transform our practical walk. Belief on Christ transformed our belonging. Belief also transforms our behavior. Salvation is much more than behavior modification. It is a new identity. It is life out of death. It is guilt exchanged for grace. However, make no mistake, where there is real salvation there can’t help but be behavior modification. The believer’s life has been transformed from the inside out and this is exactly why Paul calls us to walk worthy of this salvation. If you get nothing else from this, please get this. The Lord wants you to wear what He gave you. It is for our good and His glory that we walk worthy of our salvation by taking off the old dirty garments of the flesh and put on the new man by grace through faith.

Ephesians 4:17-24 says, “¹⁷ This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,¹⁸ Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:¹⁹ Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.²⁰ But ye have not so learned Christ;²¹ If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:²² That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;²³ And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;²⁴ And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”

            To help us understand the practicality of these verses, we must briefly understand some historical cultural context of Paul’s audience. Ephesus was a booming city filled with people and commerce. It was also filled to the brim with idolatry and immorality. As a matter of fact, much of its commerce was based around idolatry and the immoral practices associated with it. The temple of Artemis (or Diana) was there and was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Pastor John MacArthur writes,

“Like those in most pagan religions, its rituals and practices were but extensions of man’s vilest and most perverted sins. Male and female roles were interchanged, and orgiastic sex, homosexuality, and every other sexual perversion were common. Artemis was herself a sex goddess, represented by an ugly, repulsive black female idol that looked something like a cross between a cow and a wolf. She was served by thousands of temple prostitutes, eunuchs, singers, dancers, and priests and priestesses. Idols of Artemis and other deities were to be seen everywhere, in every size and made out of many different materials. Of special popularity were silver idols and religious artifacts. It was because Paul’s preaching cut deeply into that trade that the Ephesian silversmiths rallied the populace against him and his fellow believers (Acts 19). The temple of Artemis contained one of the richest art collections then in existence. It was also used as a bank, because most people feared stealing from within its walls lest they incur the wrath of the goddess or other deities. A quarter mile-wide perimeter served as an asylum for criminals, who were safe from apprehension and punishment as long as they remained within the temple confines. For obvious reasons, the presence of hundreds of hardened criminals added still further to Ephesus’s corruption and vice. The fifth-century B.C. Greek philosopher Heraclitus, himself a pagan, referred to Ephesus as “the darkness of vileness. The morals were lower than animals and the inhabitants of Ephesus were fit only to be drowned.” There is no reason to believe that the situation had changed much by Paul’s day. If anything, it may have been worse. The church at Ephesus was a small island of despised people in a giant cesspool of wickedness. Most of the believers had themselves once been a part of that paganism. They frequently passed by places where they once caroused and ran into friends with whom they once indulged in debauchery. They faced continual temptations to revert to the old ways, and the apostle therefore admonished them to resist.”

As Paul is writing the exhortations of Eph. 4-6 based on the exposition of Eph. 1-3, he is instructing the believers about the wealth of riches that they have in their position in Christ. The believer’s wealth in Christ is to translate to their daily walk in Christ. These Ephesian believers were no longer identified by their old life of sin and debauchery of which many of them had once partaken. Now, these believers’ identity rested solely in Christ. As they are surrounded and hounded by the culture around them, temptation to revert to the way of the world was increasing. Much like the church in America, we too are surrounded by idolatry and immorality. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to see the difference between the world and the Church. What we need today is to be challenged by this passage about what we are to wear for a worthy walk. We will see several key things to help us, one, who we were (V.17-19), who we are (V. 20-21), and who we must be (V.22-24).

            First, let’s look at who we were in Eph. 4:17-19 which tells us, “¹⁷ This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,¹⁸ Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:¹⁹ Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” These verses are the description of the culture that surrounds the church at Ephesus (and us) but it also describes the previous condition of believers before conversion. When we are reminded of who we were it makes us even more appreciative of God’s work in our life through His transforming grace that is in Christ. Looking at these verses, a very bleak picture is painted of the culture that surrounded the Ephesian church but also it is a bleak picture of who we used to be. Praise God that we aren’t this any longer. The whole of the passage is to remind us that we aren’t who we were, and we are now becoming who we became in Christ. There are two main descriptors of who we once were.

One, we were those who had corrupt minds. Thinking matters, don’t you think so? How we think affects an awful lot. Everything that we feel, say, do, hear, etc. is dependent upon our thinking process. If this gets corrupted, then all else will become infected. These verses shed light on the distorted and darkened mind of the unconverted. Proverbs 23:7 tells us, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” What and how we think is the foundation of who we are. Without Christ, the mind and heart of the unbeliever is distorted in its thoughts. Paul says that they used to walk “in the vanity of their mind.” This means that their thought life was filled with emptiness. Their thoughts were futile, aimless, and without any real eternal purpose. Those without Christ are purposeless in the pursuits of their mind. They may find a lot of knowledge but knowledge without knowing God is worthless and vain. Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 1 “¹² I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem.¹³ And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.¹⁴ I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.¹⁵ That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.¹⁶ I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.¹⁷ And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.¹⁸ For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.” Sadly, many live as those who have much learning but no real progress in life. For Christians, we are reminded that this is who we once were, but it is no longer who we are. The distorted mind of the unbelieving Ephesians led them to a darkened mind. Those who are not in Christ are in darkness (See John 3:18-20 and 1 John 1:5-7). The light of God is not in their minds. They physically see but are spiritually bound and blinded by unbelief. Before Christ, our minds were distorted, darkened and distant from God. Our unbelief made us “alienated from the life of God through the ignorance” that we once lived in. The more we ignore God’s truth the more distorted, darkened, and distant we become in our minds. One can be educated in a multitude of subjects and still be estranged from God. Sadly, without Christ we had hard heads filled with unbelief leading to hard hearts. Paul describes the cause of this past condition saying, “because of the blindness of their heart.” The word translated as “blindness” has the idea of covering. Specifically, its use in ancient times was a calloused covering up of something causing numbness to feel. The idea is that the blindness of unbelief has led them to be hardened and insensitive to their own sinful condition. Before Christ, this was us. We loved sin. We lived for sin. This inward calcification of the heart led to a life that outwardly was filled with excessive wickedness as seen in Ephesus. The effects of sin are terrible. Sin distorts our thinking, darkens our hearts, and puts distance between us and God. This is who we once were.

Two, this is not just a description of having a corrupt mind but also corrupt morals. Whatever is on the inside will work its way out. Essentially, what we believe comes out in our behavior. Paul shows in these verses who we once were to remind us that we no longer have that same corrupt mind or morals. We have been transformed and are being renewed by His work in us. In the past, we once had given ourselves over to the corrupt desires of our heart. We were once held captive to it. When we are captivated by sin, we will be held captive by it. Sin seeks control over your mind and heart. The description that Paul gives of who we once were reminds us that our minds and morals were selfish. We were unaffected by sin and unsatisfied in life. We never could have enough. The flesh is always hungry for more. Three specific sins are given here that describe the life of the unbeliever (our past condition). We were once walking in “lasciviousness.” This means a lack of self-restraint, but the word especially dealt with a lack of sexual restraint. Paul paints such a picture of Ephesian culture and discusses the terror of sexual perversion in Romans 1. Sin never wants to be restrained. We were once walking in “uncleanness.” This word is a broad word that involves all immoral thought and practice. To be unclean on the inside means that a life of uncleanness will be seen on the outside. We also once walked in “greediness.” Sin is never satisfied. Sin never satisfies. Paul reminds all believers that this is who we once were to show us that this is no longer our identity. We should no longer live with a corrupt mind with corrupt morals. Our relationship with Christ has transformed us, including our mind and morals.

Grow with me as we study the believer’s wealth and walk in Christ.

Grow deeper.

Grow higher.

Grow wider.