Let’s review: Prior to hearing about God and Messiah and the Good News about salvation, the Gentiles in Ephesus were dead in their trespasses and sins. They did not remain within proper boundaries. They crossed moral and spiritual boundaries that should not have been crossed. Something essential about them was dead. They were missing something essential of the Spirit and of life. Their fallen human nature was satanically allied and diabolically empowered!
They did many bad things. They used to live the same way as the rest of humanity that is in rebellion against God, opposing the Lord and His good ways. They also lived according to and in agreement with the prince of the power of the air, the evil spirit being who wields power and authority over the region between Earth and Heaven. They were naturally inclined toward the Adversary and his ways, values and priorities.
They were sons of disobedience disobedient children, consistently rebelling against the will of the Supreme Monarch. This disobedience affected the way they indulged the desires of their flesh and minds. They routinely gave into those cravings connected to the physical: overdoing good sensual pleasure, or yielding to bad sensual desires – things like inappropriate sexual activity, drinking too much, drugs abuse and gluttony.
They indulged the desires of the mind – mental sins like thoughts of murder, adultery and coveting. They cultivated false ideologies and philosophies and religions. They meditated on thoughts that were pleasing to the mind, but were false and contradict the Word of God.
All this made them by nature children of wrath, human beings who were made in the image of God, but who became worthy of the extreme displeasure, and the anger of a perfectly righteous and infinitely holy and pure God, who loathes sin with an intense hatred.
They were separate from Israel’s matchless Messiah, excluded from citizenship in Israel with all it the great benefits that citizenship provided; they were foreigners to the covenants of the promise – the tremendous agreements that God made that offered so many good things; they were without hope and without God. They were Christless, Jewless, covenantless, godless and hopeless.
But all of this changed when they came to know, believe in and trust the God of Israel and the Messiah that He sent. They were wonderfully saved by the grace of God. They were given the unearned ability to respond to God’s unmerited goodness with belief and trust in God and Messiah and the Good News!
Gentiles who believe in Messiah are no longer far, but near God – so near that He is living in them, and they are living in Him; near to Messiah, so near that He also is living in them, and they are living in Him; near to the nation of Israel and the benefits that connectedness to Israel brings; near to the wonderful covenant promises of blessing and salvation; near to a real hope of salvation and everlasting blessing and rewards and eternal life!
Instead of children of wrath, they became God’s beloved sons and daughters. Instead of being dead in their trespasses and sins, they were indwelt by God’s Holy Spirit and were given new life – God’s life. Instead of being sons of disobedience, they were being transformed from within into the likeness of Messiah. Their new challenge was to learn to live in ways that were obedient to God, and pleasing to the Righteous One.
So this I say (Paul, this great emissary of the Lord, who knows what he is talking about), and affirm together with the Lord (Paul was in perfect agreement with the Lord, here, as he was in all of his writings). And what did the Lord and His representative both teach? That you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk. To walk means to live. The Lord’s people must not live like people live who are part of a godless world.
And, how did the Gentiles, those nations and peoples other than Israel, how did they live? They lived in the futility of their mind. They lived in ignorance about the one, true, holy and righteous Creator. Their thinking about truth and God and the meaning of life was futile, ineffective and nonproductive. Being darkened in their understanding: they way they looked at ultimate reality was dark, wrong, confused and chaotic.
They were excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them. You have heard the phrase, “ignorance is no excuse.” Do you think this would work in a court of law? “But your honor, you don’t understand. I didn’t know the speed limit on that road was only 30. That’s why I was doing 65 and crashed into that other vehicle, hurting its occupants. I’m innocent, right your honor?” The judge says, “Wrong! Ignorance is no excuse. You are responsible to know the rules of the road, and the speed limit on the streets you are on. You are guilty.”
Ignorance is no excuse when it comes to the laws of man, and ignorance is no excuse when it comes to the law of God. We are responsible to search after, find out and come to know the truth about God and salvation and the right way to live. We can’t blame our parents, our religious leaders, our culture or anyone else for our failures. Ultimately we are individually responsible to seek the truth.
Knowledge is good. Knowledge is necessary. If a person has no knowledge about anything, they are helpless and will die if not constantly cared for. True knowledge about God is also necessary, is essential for reestablishing the life of God that we lost because of the Fall, sin and death. Understanding about God and truth is necessary for salvation. The information is here. Knowledge and understanding are easily available. Truth is accessible!
You Jewish person who rejects Messiah, you are excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in you.
You Moslem, you are excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in you.
You Hindu, you are excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in you.
You atheist, agnostic and God-ignorer, you are excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in you.
Gentiles were excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance in them and the because of confusion in their minds. Also contributing to this exclusion from the life of God was the hardness of their hearts. And they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. Like a hard callous that covers a softer area, and as a result that area loses some of its sensitivity, the inner most being of the Gentiles were insensitive to God and to morality. They were not soft hearted, tender toward the only true God and toward morality. They had lost sensitivity to the differences between right behavior. They greedily engaged in every kind of wrong behavior, and never satisfied, they wanted those illicit pleasures more and more.
Doesn’t that remind you of so many in our society today? Insensitive to the need to keep sexual activity limited to the husband and wife relationship. Hard hearted toward the issue of vulnerable little human beings growing in their mother’s wombs and being killed. Tough about not taking the name of the Lord our God in vain.
How about you? Are you tender toward God Himself? Are you sensitive to His still small voice speaking to you, “It is I. Seek My face. Draw closer to Me so that we can be better friends. Don’t do that. It’s wrong. It is not part of righteousness. It displeases Me, the Holy God?” Are you sensitive to your conscience when it whispers to you, “you know better than to do that. That isn’t right?”
The Gentiles apart from Messiah were ignorant of God and immoral. But, the new non-Jewish Christians in Ephesus were a different story. But you did not learn Messiah in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Yeshua.
Before they heard about Messiah, they were ignorant about God and full of immorality. But, through the preaching and teaching of apostles, prophets, pastors teachers and evangelists they had heard about the Anointed Ruler that God has sent into this world. The were taught about the One who is the Truth that He is the source of ultimate reality. They learned about the life of Yeshua, and His teachings, and His righteous life, and His hatred of sin, and His love for God. They were taught the truths about God and salvation and the need for godly living.
Now, as new creatures of the truth, they must lead transformed lives, good and righteous and holy and God pleasing lives. That is what they were being taught by Paul, the master teacher of Tarsus: That, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
They needed a radical change of living. Not the old values, the old morality – really, the old immorality, giving into the lusts of the mind and body, being deceived by their promises of happiness. If you give into that temptation, you will be happy, content, be living the good life. But those allures are deceptive because they really end in unhappiness and ultimately in death.
The new Christians needed a new and better morality. They needed a radical transformation. They needed new and better values. It’s like they had been wearing an old, ugly, filthy rags and needed to put on a beautiful new clean set of clothes.
They needed to look at things a new way. They needed new thinking. And they were able to get these new attitudes by renewing their minds. How? By hearing, reading, studying, and considering the Word of God. Then, with the power of the Holy Spirit at work with them, and supported by the good teaching of their leaders and supported and encouraged by the rest of the community, they would embrace and practice new and godly values, a new and better morality.
God would be at work with them in this process of transformation and recreation. The Lord would be recreating them from within. They would not remain human beings who were merely created in the image of God, that image being marred by the Fall, but human beings who were recreated in the image of God. They would become men and women who are living the right way, separate from sin and impurity and evil, knowing and dedicated to the truth.
Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. It is easy for the old nature to lie. That comes naturally. But we must be transformed to be truth-tellers. Instead of telling falsehoods, we must be committed to knowing the truth, and telling the truth – especially to other Believers. We are members of the same community, like parts of one body. Why would one part of a body lie to another part? Why would the brain purposely give a false signal to nervous system? It doesn’t make sense if it is to function properly.
Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity. It is easy for the old nature to get angry and stay angry. That comes naturally. And, those who stay angry will often sin by saying harsh things while they are angry, and doing things that will make a situation worse. That gives the Adversary an opportunity to alienate us from one another, and break our precious unity. Be angry – when the situation calls for it. There is such a things as righteous anger, just cause for anger, like when you see an injustice, the stronger oppressing the weak, like the most vulnerable of a society like the pre-born, getting killed. But we must be transformed so that we control our anger, and it doesn’t control us, and we don’t act inappropriately out of anger.
If you are angry with a fellow believer, especially someone very close to you, like a child, or father or mother, or husband or wife, make a special effort to resolve that situation as quickly as possible. When I do premarital counseling, I tell couples that there will almost certainly be times in their marriage when they get angry with one another. They should try to resolve the situation by the end of the day, before the sun goes down on their anger, and they get up the next day still angry, and the cycle continues. Martha and I have tried to follow this wise advice in our marriage, and it has been a great help to us.
He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need. It is easy for the old nature to steal. That comes naturally. By nature humans are selfish. We are takers, not givers. But we must be morally transformed so that we do not steal. We must be transformed from thieves into workers, producers and givers, like God.
Giving is part of God’s nature. Love and goodness are two of the God’s attributes that define His nature, and love and goodness both imply giving. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. It is God’s nature to look outside of Himself and seek to give. When we become a giver, we become more like God. Truly it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. It is easy for the old nature to say foolish, insulting and crude things, things that tear down others, tear down what is decent and good and right. That comes naturally. But we must be transformed in the area of our speech, so that we are saying things that are good, wholesome, beneficial, things that are true, things that build other people up.
Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. It is easy for the old nature to grieve God’s Holy Spirit, who is a Person, since He can be grieved, and one can not grieve an impersonal force. The Spirit is holy – separate from sin and One who detests evil. We grieve God’s Spirit when we think, do, say anything that is wrong or unholy or not connected to the truth. That comes naturally to the old nature. But we must be transformed and please the Holy Spirit, by thinking, doing and saying things that are true and right and good.
And, aren’t we obligated to please Him, and not grieve Him? Shouldn’t we, out of gratitude for the Holy Spirit sealing us for the day of redemption, which means that the Holy Spirit will watch over us, and guard us and protect us from all harm so that one glorious day we are finally and fully redeemed – body, soul and spirit – out of gratitude and thankfulness and appreciation for His sealing and saving and protective and redeeming power, do the things that please Him?
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. It is easy for the old nature to hate, and become angry, bitter, and get into fights and say untruthful things about others. That comes naturally. But we must be transformed so that we are loving and gentle and full of peace and good will toward others.
Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Messiah also has forgiven you. It is easy for the old nature to be mean, unforgiving and hold resentments. That comes naturally. But we must be transformed so that our innermost being feels tenderness toward other people, and act we act toward them with kindness. We must be transformed so that we are quick to forgive each other. And, we can do this, knowing that God the Father, was quick and ready to forgive us. He was not reluctant to forgive, or unwilling for forgive sinful humanity. Instead, He took the initiative to forgive. He sent His Son, the Messiah, who at great cost to Himself, and with much pain and suffering, made atonement and forgiveness possible. We must strive to do the same.
Right knowledge leads to right living. Good theology leads to good living. Bad theology and erroneous ideologies results in bad living.
Do you know God and Messiah Yeshua?
Are you learning how to rethink your values and morals based on the Word of God?
Are you undergoing a moral transformation?
Are you learning and increasingly doing the things that please Him?
Are you part of and supported by a good spiritual community?
Are you being transformed from within?