You Know Better. Don’t you?

Hey Salty Lady

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I am part of a teaching cohort that has spent the summer preparing to teach Ephesians in the fall. Tomorrow is our last session and not a moment too soon! School is upon us!

This week and weekend, we were studying and preparing to pre-teach Ephesians 4:17-32. The Old Man vs. The New Man.

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. 18They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts. 19Having lost all sense of shame, they have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity, with a craving for more.

20But this is not the way you came to know Christ. 21Surely you heard of Him and were taught in Him—in keeping with the truth that is in Jesus— 22to put off your former way of life, your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23to be renewed in the spirit of your minds; 24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Paul begins by saying, “So, I tell you this…” BECAUSE of all God has done and how He has called us as the church to be supernaturally unified and mature–Because of this, I must tell you, I MUST INSIST on this–that you must no longer live as the Gentiles.

Paul was exhorting his beloved friends and family in Christ to reject their old ways and life–darkened in their minds, separated from life in God, hard-hearted, calloused to truth and conviction, given over to sexual immorality, etc. Take off the old clothes. Put on the new clothes.

You Know Better Than That

Paul feels so confident they can leave this old life because he knows what they were taught in Christ.

“But you, however, did not learn Christ in this way.” The Ephesians know better because they were taught better. They heard, they listened, they knew, they lived…the truth of Christ, in Christ.

And here is the part I am struck by.

They had learned Christ in the right way.

As opposed to the wrong way.

Friends, there is a wrong way to teach Christ and based on Ephesians 4 that wrong way includes, teaching that becoming a Christian is simply living your old life + Jesus added in. Nope. The equation is Jesus – old life = new life in Jesus.

You–Ephesians–you were not taught Christ in “this way”…this false and flawed way where you can remain who you were and how you were. You know better. You know that life in Christ is the death and crucifixion of the old man, the old ways, the old sins, thoughts, habits, and hurts. You know that life in Christ is transformative from old to new, a new creation to be holy like God.

Therefore

I love how clear that is and how confrontational it is to our culture of “I can be whatever I want to be in Jesus.” No. You can’t. You can be in Jesus. You can be apart from Jesus. Period. Those are the two choices. You can live YOUR LIFE or HIS LIFE. But the two do not coexist.

Paul’s next words are even zingier! Ephesians 4:25, “THEREFORE…Stop telling lies and tell your neighbors the truth.” The “New Man” in Jesus, is a truth-teller. We tell the truth because it damages others and the Body especially, when we don’t. We tell the truth because we are imitators of Christ. Do it in love. But do in fact, do it…tell the truth.

We don’t get to say nothing to the same-sex couple with children via surrogate, Chip. And it denies the sinner’s need and opportunity for salvation when we do. It creates confusion amongst Believers when we remain silent.