“Perpetual Renewal of Your Mind”
Ephesians 4:17 – 5:1
Last week in our reading of Ephesians Paul opened the door to the practical side of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. Up to this point Paul has been reminding the church goers in Ephesus about the things Jesus has done. Now, in chapter 4, Paul turns the door on its hinges and states, verse 1,
“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”
From now on Paul is going to tell us how to live a life worthy of our calling. He’s going to describe some real life situations and challenge us on how we think about them, and encourage us to renew our minds to think like the new humanity.
The way we go about life today in the 21st Century may look differently, but the amazing thing about the Bible is that when it comes to how people behave, things haven’t changed much. Paul is writing to a group of people who were starting a new faith, they had been “born again.” They didn’t have any written word, or Scriptures to go by. They just had letters from apostles who had lived with the best example around, Jesus. And then there was Paul, who although he didn’t hang around Jesus when He was on earth, he had an encounter with Jesus that put all of Paul’s Old Testament knowledge together and helped him understand God’s plan of salvation through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
Those living in the first church and those living in the church today need to read what Paul has written. Then we need to follow it.
Last week I asked you to consider how you determine your identity.
Your identity is –
The kind of person you think you are
The kind of values you believe you have
What makes you who you are?
Just like the Gentiles in the first century, we too have grown up in a culture that teaches us how to identify ourselves. For those in the first church there was a lot of discussion between being Jewish, like Jesus, or being Gentile, like most of the people of that day. Each group had its own value system and taught its children through that value system.
America is almost 250 years old.
The value systems taught when our country began and those taught today look quite different. I’d say our value systems have changed over the last 15 years. Spend a day in my 6th grade class and you can see the difference.
If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, regardless of what our value system has been, regardless of what you use to determine your identity, if you haven’t been using the Gospel,
you need to change.
Last week Paul told us in verses 20-24, how to change.
That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 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;
- to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and
- to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Paul tells us we need to take off,
just like a dirty shirt,
the old way of thinking, and
renew our thinking,
by beginning to look at and identify ourselves
through the eyes of Jesus.
Paul tells us that we need to take a good look at how we think. We need to pray that God will reveal to us the places and the things that we hold on to that are not from Him. Then we have to own them, acknowledge that we are doing and saying things that are not from God.
As soon as we own them, we can get rid of them. We are to take them off and place them at the foot of the cross. That’s where they have been redeemed. That’s the commitment Jesus has made to us. He knows exactly how messed up we are. Because of His love for us, He came down to earth and lived the life we cannot, and on the cross He absorbed into Himself the collective results of all of humanity. He took it all unto death. But because His love and grace towards people like you and me is so permanent they were able to resurrect Jesus from the dead and demonstrate that all of the sins, guilt and even death itself, all the evil things that are in our world do not have power over His love and His grace for us. Because of Jesus’ resurrection our sin does not get the last word.
It means, our old humanity, which works hard to sink us and keep us down,
by the resurrection power of Jesus can help us
see our sin,
loves us in our sin,
forgives us and
remakes our minds.
Those of us who are following Jesus are just like these Ephesians. We are learning what it means to live according to our calling in Jesus Christ and how to perpetually renew our minds by His love and by His grace.
This doesn’t happen in a day. It’s a journey that begins with taking off our old humanity. Then we begin renewing our mind, letting our patterns of thinking and our sense of identity be reshaped by the gospel.
In verse 24, we put on our new humanity.
What is that new humanity?
It’s the version of you that is created to purposefully reflect the image of God.
If you are like me there may be days when you wonder, How does this happen? In all honesty, I don’t feel adequate enough to make this happen.
For Paul, it’s not about you or me, it’s a matter of faith and trust in Jesus. Jesus is the one working in me, through the Holy Spirit, to change the things about me that need changing. It takes courage to trust that the Holy Spirit has the power to change us in the areas we need changing. By faith, we are able to put on a version of ourselves that we can only dream of becoming.
We trust that Jesus is present with us every day helping to reshape our thinking and renew our minds.
Paul is telling us that living for Jesus means we grab onto Jesus and we allow Him to change us so that what is true of Him is true of us. We might not feel like it, but by faith and trust we press on to perpetually renew our minds and become more like Christ.
I hope many of you took on my challenge last week to take on this renewing of the mind. Hopefully you recognized the patterns you have created and decided if they needed to be “taken off” and replaced with patterns that Jesus would do. Whatever your weak spots may be, as we go through the list Paul has provided, may we make a conscious decision to wake up everyday and pray Paul’s exhortation to:
-
- To put off your old self
- Renew the attitude of our mind
- Put on the new self
As we continue in Ephesians 4, Paul presents very realistic scenarios, which represent people in relationships with other people. Paul was helping the new Christians living in their new community by presenting how things should be handled in the church of Christ.
He starts with truth, verse 25,
Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body.
Paul recognizes the old humanity practice of lying and counteracts it with the new humanity practice of truth telling. Lying goes back to the beginning of time.
Generally done in order to protect, get or keep one’s own desires. Paul is asking us to make our minds new when it comes to lying. When we lie, we are presenting a false version of ourselves, or projecting a false identity.
“Did you really say that about her?”
“No, I didn’t say that.”
What’s going on at that moment?
It’s the inability to own up to a truth about what I’ve done. It’s much better to have a false view of myself out there so people don’t actually know who I really am. Where I am apparently the kind of person that would say something bad about someone.
We could call this perception management.
When we lie to confuse or cover over who we really are.
Paul encourages us to
just tell the truth.
We are members of the body of Christ, living as a community of people that acknowledges that Jesus had to die for us because we are so messed up. If we remember that, then telling the truth is about as real as it gets.
The next relational circumstance Paul addresses is anger. This is where the rubber meets the road,
Verse 26 & 27,
“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.
Let’s be clear here, does Paul tell us not to get angry?
No.
Does the new humanity get angry?
Yup.
He’s quite aware that when humans get together, they are bound to rub each other the wrong way.
Getting angry is not a sin, it’s not even something “bad.” Then, what is it?
It is our energy being aroused to protect something, usually ourself, sometimes others. The question is, what do I do with this emotional energy, in the new humanity?
Paul says we recognize the energy, then we use it to go to the person with whom we are angry and address the situation.
You talk it out.
In the body of Christ, you work towards forgiveness. Otherwise, evil, spiritual powers have the ability to create rifts in the community of God’s family. It’s the Matthew 18 principle. You have a problem with someone, go to that person, work it out. In order to renew the mind, in the new humanity, we use our anger for good, we work towards conflict resolution.
Verse 28,
“Anyone who has 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.”
Paul tells us that in our old humanity, the part that puts ourselves at the center, you know, the idea that we do whatever it takes to satisfy my wants and my needs, that’s the part we should be taking off. Paul reminds us that the new humanity has Jesus at the center and right close to Him are other people. You’ve heard it before, “Love God and love others.”
Here we go, we need to renew our mind and think,
“Why do I think I want or need that?”
“What is it that wants me to perpetually put myself at the center and do whatever it takes to get whatever I say or think I want or I need?”
Ask that question, go there.
Then Paul says, “take it off,” “rethink,” “put on the new humanity.”
Paul continues, verse 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 (give grace) benefit those who listen.”
The word “unwholesome” here literally means, “rotten.” Like that piece of fruit that has been sitting on the counter too long. Paul is telling us to not allow rotten words to come out of our mouth. Paul might be talking about dirty jokes, but as we read on, He recommends that in the new humanity practice of talking to others, whatever it is you say, may it be something so that when they walk away,
they feel like they have been given grace after being with you. In the new humanity our words should be encouraging.
Whatever rotten speech is, it is something that makes the community of God’s people feel rotten.
Why would we do that?
Can’t you sense that old humanity creeping in?
This is a place where we should be “checking.” We are to be a community of people who are perpetually renewing our minds. We need to remember we are a people who have been built around the story of God’s grace. This means our focus should be restoration and forgiveness.
Paul continues, verse 31,
“Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.”
That’s your old humanity.
Instead, verse 32,
“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
At this point it is very easy to think, good grief, this is too hard, or you could be thinking, hey Paul, quit telling me what to do, the anti-authoritarian. But before we give it up all together, Paul does his thing and wraps everything back around to what it’s all about, verse 1 of chapter 5,
Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Paul repeats the word “love” three times, for a reason. This is the basic core ethic of the community of Jesus.
Notice Paul doesn’t appeal to a principle or to some abstract idea, He appeals to the story of the cross. It’s the story of Christ’s life from birth, to the cross, and resurrection. And Paul calls that story an act of love.
The concept of love is a place where our minds need to be renewed. Because there is a big disconnect between what we think love is in the 21st century and what love meant in the New Testament. We think of love as a feeling. In Scripture, the word love, agape, is an action. It is the action of the well being for another person, regardless of how they respond. Paul says this is the basic core ethic of the new humanity, agape love. Look at what Paul says,
walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us
This means we run every decision,
every word from our mouth,
every way that we relate to somebody,
we run every conflict we are in,
how we are going to resolve that conflict,
we run it all through the filter of this story.
Paul explains where our core purpose for loving comes from,
just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us,
Paul explains that our love for others comes from our being loved by God. Paul doesn’t say we are called to love others, by struggling, pulling up our bootstraps, and loving no matter what. We start this whole thing by being loved.
We need to stop right now and grasp the significance of that. It’s not an abstract ideal. There is real truth, 2000 years ago, Jesus did something. Wake up, it was the ultimate act of love for you. This is something you can point to for the rest of your life and claim, “That was for me.” That was an act of God seeking my wellbeing, before I even existed. Before I was even a thought, God decided to commit Himself to love me, through Jesus’ action on the cross. That’s the climax of the story.
That’s the tension Paul invites us into. Wherever you are on your journey in following Jesus, what Paul is talking about is not abstract. Each of us can relate to these things, anger, lying, your work ethic, how you deal in your relationships, what you do with your money. This is where the old humanity is at war in our lives. I have no idea how Paul’s words may speak to any of you today. But I do know that’s what God’s Word does. There are some of you that need a reminder of that Word, of the Good News. You have placed your faith in Jesus and you may not have feeled like it or lived like it last week, but reality is, you are a new human, because of what Jesus did for you. The truth is, you don’t have to live like you have any more. It means you are actually living out of sync with your true identity. Because in reality you have been loved and forgiven by Jesus.
Are we willing to allow Jesus to show us the places in our lives that need to be renewed?
It’s my prayer that we are willing.
It’s my prayer that we take this message seriously and walk towards allowing the Holy Spirit to perpetually renew our mind and help us be the person Jesus sees in us.
Let’s pray.
