Ephesians 4:17–24 · WEB Classic
17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 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 hearts. 19 They, having become callous, gave themselves up to lust, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 20 But you didn’t learn Christ that way, 21 if indeed you heard him and were taught in him, even as truth is in Jesus:
22 that you put away, as concerning your former way of life, the old man that grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit, 23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put on the new man, who in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.
A person can become remarkably clever when he needs an explanation for something he should not have done. What looked dishonest on Monday becomes necessary by Tuesday and practically considerate by Wednesday. By the weekend he may be offended that anyone would question his motives. His memory has not failed, and his vocabulary is improving. The trouble lies in what he has employed both of them to protect.
Paul insists in the Lord that these believers must no longer walk as the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind. His readers include Gentiles, so he is not asking them to change their ancestry. He is describing a way of life whose thinking has become detached from the God to whom people owe their allegiance. The mind is active, but its work is serving the wrong master.
The old life is characterized by darkened understanding, alienation from God’s life, ignorance, and hardness of heart. Paul connects thinking and moral condition. Ignorance does not always arise because information was unavailable. A hardened heart can protect itself from truths that would require repentance.
That does not mean unbelievers are incapable of accurate reasoning in every subject. People alienated from God can possess remarkable technical ability, artistic skill, and knowledge of the world. The futility concerns the direction of a life detached from its Creator. Intelligence can become highly efficient at defending a purpose that leads nowhere good.
Paul connects the darkened understanding to the ignorance in them and the hardness of their heart. The condition involves the person’s moral response to truth. Romans 1:18–25 similarly describes people suppressing what is known about God and exchanging truth for a lie. The mind is not an untouched observer watching the will make bad choices somewhere else. Our desires influence the explanations we find persuasive and the evidence we would rather not consider.
Deception can even borrow the language of kindness. A man first recognizes that he ought to tell the truth, then decides that honesty would only upset someone, and eventually treats concealment as something he is doing for her benefit. The explanation conveniently saves him the cost of confession. Repeating it makes the lie easier to maintain and the person questioning it harder to tolerate.
David’s history gives us a terrible example. He takes Bathsheba while her husband Uriah is away at war. When his attempts to conceal the resulting pregnancy fail, he sends instructions that put Uriah in a position where he will be killed. David then takes Bathsheba as his wife. Second Samuel 11 ends with God’s judgment upon what David has done. The arrangements have not hidden the conduct from him.
Nathan comes with a story about a rich man and a poor man. The rich man has many animals; the poor man has one lamb raised with his family. When a visitor arrives, the rich man takes that lamb rather than use one of his own. David becomes furious. He can identify the cruelty, grasp the unequal power, and demand that the wrong be answered. He has reached a correct verdict with impressive speed, provided the man under examination is somebody else.
Nathan then tells him that he is the man (2 Samuel 12:1–7). The story has brought David’s own conduct within the reach of the judgment he could apply so readily to a stranger. Nathan does not need to teach him from the beginning that taking what belongs to another person is wrong. The truth has to reach the part of David’s life he has been protecting from it.
That is what makes hardening so dangerous. Knowing a moral principle is no guarantee that we will let it judge the conduct we want to defend. We can recognize someone else’s excuse while maintaining a more elaborate version for ourselves. Paul’s call to renewal reaches the loyalties directing our reasoning, including the desire to emerge from every examination looking innocent.
Having become callous, they gave themselves over to sensuality, practicing uncleanness with greediness. The wording describes moral deterioration. A person can resist conviction long enough that behavior once recognized as shameful begins to feel ordinary. The absence of discomfort is not proof that the conduct has become righteous.
Greediness adds appetite to the description. Sin rarely promises to remain satisfied with the boundary we initially assign it. What begins as something we claim to control can acquire an increasing claim upon us. Paul is describing people who give themselves over, not merely people who happen to live near temptation.
This makes repentance more serious than managing an image. A respectable public appearance can coexist with a private life organized around appetite. Christian obedience concerns the person we actually are, including the thoughts and habits we protect when no one else is present.
Learning Christ
The readers did not learn Christ in that manner. Paul speaks of hearing him and being taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. Learning Christ includes learning a way of life corresponding to the truth revealed in him. We cannot claim to have understood Jesus while treating his character as unrelated to our conduct.
They are to put off the old man, corrupted according to deceitful desires, be renewed in the spirit of their mind, and put on the new man, created according to God in righteousness and holiness of truth. The old and new humanity language reaches beyond a change in manners. Union with Christ brings a new identity whose implications must become visible in personal behavior.
The renewal of the mind belongs within that transformation. We learn to see God, other people, our desires, and our responsibilities truthfully. Changing behavior while defending the beliefs that justify it leaves the underlying problem protected. If I stop insulting someone only because I fear getting caught, while continuing to believe he deserves contempt, the work remains unfinished.
The clothing image gives that change a practical demand. If I recognize that a garment is filthy, I do not solve the problem by wearing it more discreetly. Putting off the old way means refusing its familiar explanations as well as its visible acts. The person learning Christ can begin saying that he was wrong without adding a paragraph designed to make everyone else responsible for it.
The new humanity is created according to God in righteousness and holiness of truth. Genesis speaks of human beings made in God’s image, and Colossians 3:9–10 describes renewal in knowledge after the Creator’s image. The liar learns to tell the truth, including when it costs him. The person who has used others learns to consider their good. He is being renewed as someone who belongs to Christ, and the old explanation that once sounded so persuasive can finally be discarded with the conduct it defended.