Putting on the New Self
The rules surrounding advertising for the tobacco industry have changed drastically in recent years. In years gone by, cigarettes were advertised as promoting good health and as the doorway to a glamorous lifestyle. All that has changed. Governments now require cigarette companies to put health warnings on their packages. Companies now put visual warnings of the effects of smoking on their packaging—images of diseased lungs, for example. The visual warnings reveal a reality we don’t always see, and that shocks the general public into revulsion and appropriate caution. In Ephesians 4, Paul provides a warming of the ugly realities of the “old self”—the self apart from Christ—and they might just surprise you.
We often look on at our non-Christian neighbors and friends and see much that is good in their lives. We see happy relationships and productive careers. We see much that is very attractive, and we may feel that they live upright and respectable lives. Of course, there is much good in our society and in the people around us. But Paul wants to warn us that, despite whatever good we see, there is a fundamentally unhealthy reality within the unbelieving heart and life. And to drive home that warning, he sets before us a very disturbing “health warning” – an image of disease and decay. He explains that those who do not know Christ – who have not been born again and given the gift of the Spirit – are “darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.” (v. 18)
The unbeliever, Paul insists, has lost their moral compass—their sensitivity to right and wrong. He describes their lifestyle in this way: “They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.” Paul’s verdict of the “old self” which is “corrupt through deceitful desires” (v. 22) might be a little surprising. Of course, in God’s grace and kindness, God does restrain evil in the world and He does produce much good in our wider culture. There are many unbelievers who do some kind and noble things. Many are wonderful parents and good friends. But Paul explains that the basic reality of human society--and the human heart apart from Christ-- is a grim reality. Those apart from Christ actually live according to the “futility of their minds” (v. 17).
But with this warning ringing in our ears, Paul shows us something radically different – something pure, clean and bright—the wholesome reality of the “new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (v. 24). Paul wants us to remember that we’ve learned something new – or, more specifically, we’ve learned someone new. We’ve come to learn Christ (v. 20). Paul writes, “…you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus” (v. 21). Notice that Paul switches from speaking of “Christ” in verse 20 to “Jesus” in verse 21. Paul is emphasizing that we have learned, not an idea or a concept, but a person.
Have you come to know Jesus personally? If so, Paul encourages you to “be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self” (vv. 23-24). Be encouraged today: when we “learn Christ” (v. 20) – when we come to know Jesus personally– we learn Him as the One who comes to live within us. We are “in Him” (v. 20), which means that we are united to Jesus by His Spirit. If we belong to Jesus, He is “in” us, and we are “in” Him—and so there is now a new power at work in the heart of the believer. Thanks be to God!