Walk No Longer, Eph, 4:17-19

We're going to proceed directly into the passage this morning, and with a brief look back at last week. And we asked the question, what are the imperatives there for? We introduced the fact that we've been going on for months, no, better than a year, talking about our position in Christ. And Paul is turning a point here, a corner, and that is that he's going to be coming into imperatives. These are words that in the Greek are conveyed sometimes variously in the English, but in the Greek have the sense of must. It's built into the word. We said that the imperatives are there not to give us some sort of Christian law, not to tell us, you must do this or you will be under penalty of condemnation, or you must not do that or you'll be subject to the law. and the penalty, therefore. No, it's there to describe what the life of Christ looks like in the believer, in real life.

Paul will use both negative terms, and sometimes he will use, as we'll see here this morning, use it in a block of text. Sometimes it'll be a brief phrase. He will tell them, for example, later on in Ephesians, don't be fools, but be wise. sometimes more at greater length, like we'll see this morning. Also positive terms as well. One of the things that this is intended to do, it'll cover things in the life of the Christian that involve everything from family relationships to civic duties. And so we will touch on a number of different things, and so will we as well.

At the end of that, the intent is that God is glorified. according to His eternal purpose. We're not out there living out these things so that we're glorified, so that we look good, so that we can stand before the Lord and the Lord said, good, you tried really hard, not too bad. Grading on the curve, you're somewhere around a little bit above average. No. So the Lord is glorified.

It's His life and His glory that counts here. We'll want to keep remembering as we proceed through these imperatives, Paul is not giving us the end result and saying, give your best effort in order to have this final end result. No, that's not what he's trying to do. He's not saying, here's the law, the Christian law, you behave as best you can according to that standard. He is describing instead what the power and the life and the righteousness of Jesus Christ looks like lived out in the believer. That's what he's spelling out for us. So as we go into this passage here, Paul is going to do as he will proceed through the rest of the passage to do.

He's going to play red light, green light. Ever play that with the kids? Sort of, that's what he'll do. What he's going to do is this. He's going to first say, here are the things I want to make sure that you understand. This is the way it's not to be anymore. And then he's going to give the green light. He's going to say, and this is what it's supposed to look like. So you'll understand.

Not like this, but like this. The not like this is intended to help clarify. So that we have the positive description and the negative description. Not like this. He does not want to leave us confused. He's also not trying to convey to us law, which the traffic lights could easily convey. So what he's going to do is, he's in the passage we're looking at this week, and he gave us the red light portion.

This is the portion that says, no longer like this. And then as we look at the passage next week, we'll have the green light portion, the portion that says, all right, no longer like this, but like this. This is what I'm telling you. This is what it looks like in positive terms. Okay. So we'll look at that next week. This morning, as we look at this passage here, we'll want to step through it a little at a time as we do.

And one of the things we noticed first off is that Paul keeps talking about walking. Paul addresses this walk, and he has been doing so already in Ephesians. We saw in 4.1 that the walking was an urging, that you walk according to the calling that you have. We'll see not only in the verse we have here, but in verses to come in chapter 5. He'll address it several times.

4.17, however, is unique. He makes note of the difference between the Gentiles' walk and the believers' walk. He's made that contrast, and that'll be unique to the entire book here. The basis of that difference is not, we've got a different set of laws than they do. We try harder, okay? It's none of these campaign slogans, okay?

It's instead a deep difference between the believer and the unbeliever, and the difference is in the believer's position and in the unbeliever's position. As Paul keeps talking about walking here, He's going to talk about how the Gentiles walk, and that means their lifestyle, that the believers should no longer walk like that, and he has good reason for it. In Ephesians 4, 20-32, we'll get to that, starting into it next week, he's going to tell how the believer ought to walk, and that means the life of Christ and the saint. What does that look like? The believer is in Christ and therefore has a different spiritual history and a different spiritual future.

Now, ever sit down and tell somebody your life story? Well, guess what? Paul has told you your life story. As a believer, you have a different history now than what you thought you had. Why? Having believed, you were identified with Christ, right? In his death, in his burial, his resurrection, his ascension and his seeding. You have a different history because of having been identified with Christ. That's right. Not yours. You have Christ's history in those things. And we have a different future. What he's saying is, you have a different history, you have a different future.

I'm telling you, that makes a difference right now. The present is different, and he's calling them to that, isn't he? Paul begins by shifting the believer's perspective in his position to conveying these imperatives. He does so on apostolic authority. He has the authority of an apostle to say so. To use that authority is not abusive. He's not just throwing something at them. It's indeed the Lord's granted authority. The Lord is the one who gives authority. And he is appropriately exercising it. He's telling us, I'm telling you as I ought. These are the things that the Lord intends for me to convey. It's because he is an apostle, a special messenger, that he's authorized to say these things.

Now, the New American Standard, which is what we've been using on the overhead, says, affirm together with the Lord. In fact, here, the Greek phrase is similar to what we've been seeing earlier, in him. And actually, the King James Version is probably a better rendering of this particular phrase there, where it says, and testify in the Lord. and is more consistent with the Greek text. Paul is writing from his eternal position and his perspective that he has in view that he is in Christ. He is writing from that authority. One of the things we see is we see, in the Lord, or in curio, okay? It's translated consistently in these other verses in Ephesians, and there you see it in the Lord, in the other passages.

Romans 9.1, Paul gives an example of this kind of appeal. I am telling the truth in Christ, he says there to the believers. In 2 Corinthians, by the way, that's one of the best kept secrets in the New Testament. 2 Corinthians, fantastic book. I'm really glad they're doing an elective on it. Okay. As from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God. See that? Similar pattern and appeal.

And then he says in 1st Thessalonians 4.1, finally then brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus. This manner of appeal was something that Paul used repeatedly.

We could add to that 1st Timothy 5.21, 2nd Timothy 2.14 and 4.1. Similar basis of appeal. He appeals, he appeals as a testimony. He does it in the Lord, in Christ, from the perspective and position that he has in the Lord. That's where the authority comes from.

The special place of His position in the Lord Then he says there that you walk and here is his appeal He's told you the basis of his appeal now. He's telling you this is the appeal This is what I'm saying that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk Let's look at these words walk. There's a pair of them there Paul continues to talk about walking He says walk no longer as the Gentiles also walk, okay? Back in Ephesians chapter 2, first few verses, he says we first heard Paul using this word walk, peripateo, in the Greek. It's nothing about a pair of potatoes. Peripateo.

It was a word that was used in the Greek Old Testament. The Jews were brought up with it. The Greeks actually rarely used it that way. It was a Jewish way of using the word. The way you order your life is a walk, and it was used consistently that way throughout the Old Testament. We have a few examples here in Exodus. The believers in the past walked the same way as unbelievers, as the Gentiles did. That was the way everybody thought you were supposed to walk. That was the way that you did it. That was the way you did things. The Gentiles had been walking that way, and the believers, as unbelievers previously, had been walking in the exact same way.

Paul comes out, makes it clear. He doesn't say, you kind of need to phase out of that. He doesn't say, hey, consider this. like you to ponder the option. No, he says no longer. Now the verbs here, walk, that we see in this set of words in front of us here, they're in the present tense. That you now walk, no longer, as the Gentiles also walk right now. They're walking that way now, now you no longer walk that way. He isn't expecting that eventually down the road, later on, that they'll walk that way, but he says now.

Present tense. His exhortation is about their present manner of life. The believers are to be different. Now. But, it's not just out of thin air that he's saying that. Now that you've joined us, you're a part of our group. Now that you've got a membership in our particular little society. They have a position that has changed, and there is no logical conclusion to be reached about their daily condition other than what he said here. They are no longer to be Gentiles. Next week we'll talk about what they are to be instead.

Now, we brought up in Ephesians chapter 2, Paul said formerly, Ephesians 2, 1-3, you were like this before you were believers. Now that you are believers, at the point of having put trust in Christ, he spells that out in Ephesians 2, 4 through 10. What are the consequences now that you believe? Formerly you were like this. Now your position is this. That's the change in position that's taken place.

He's already talked about their former and present position. Now he's going to talk about their present condition. That's why he uses the present tense. The comparison he's made is, here is the unbeliever walking in trespasses and sins, the lust of the flesh. The believer, he says, positionally, is in Christ. That's the stance that he's talking about.

So now, as he's saying, no longer walk as the Gentiles, it's not on the basis of just, this is Paul's best idea, or I'd really like it if you did this. But they have an eternal position that provides the only foundation for this behavior that he's about to describe. both believers and unbelievers walk. So he talks about unbelievers walking, lifestyle, remember, and he talks about the believers walking. The difference is the spiritual source for the outward walk, not the outside rules to which we conform, but the spiritual source for the outward walk.

For the unbeliever, there is one source, the flesh. The unbeliever has no choice. They can try to behave nicely, they can try to behave un-nicely. It really doesn't matter. The source is still the flesh, the sin nature. In Ephesians, we see here a repeated description. We also saw it in Colossians, this word walking showing up. Now, Paul continues to describe the source of the unbelieving Gentiles' behavior.

And he has six points here. The futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart, and a summary statement, and they having become callous. And then he introduces the next thought. We'll step through these six points one at a time. Let's start with the first one. The futility of their mind. Futility comes from this Greek word, Mataiotes.

It has the idea of not being able to reach the intended goal. You just can't get there. The unbeliever's mind is unable to get there. It can't reach it. This is, by the way, and I need to be quick to underscore, this is not insulting the intelligence of the unbeliever. There are unbelievers that you will meet, and that I have met, and will meet, who are phenomenally intelligent, as the world measures that. But the ability to see and discern and sort out things in the spiritual realm is not there. That's what Paul is addressing.

The mind is translated from nous, and it includes the intellectual capacity in the spiritual realm, plus the feelings and the will that go along with it. It's a big word. It's an all-encompassing word. The whole mental process and all the feelings and motivations and determinations of will are all mixed into that word. It's a big word.

The unbeliever's mind is like scissors, but just singular. Scissor. Scissor. Something. Anyway, it's missing something. Again, this is not intending to insult them mentally. in terms of their earthly intellectual capacity. They may be brilliant beyond belief. We're talking spiritual capacity here. There's an aspect of the mind which is not purely earthly intellect. It's like a wrench that just can't grab the nut and the bolt. Or a moose that just has a tough time. Too short, too long legs.

It just doesn't get there. Now, being darkened in their understanding, this darkness that overwhelms the spiritual perception, and we have to underscore that, the spiritual perception of the unbeliever, won't let him see what is certainly and clearly there. Just can't see it. Can't make it out. Inability to see and visualize and understand it. Just can't do it. Is it an eye problem? Not these. I've got eye problems. But, it's not these.

As Paul prayed in Ephesians 1.18, he wanted those believers to have their eyes open to see increasingly what the Lord had done. The unbeliever is simply unable to do that. Cannot see in the spiritual realm. He has this word here, this understanding, the Greek word is dionoia. Now, see these? See these things? The Anoia! Alright, there we go.

Now, the Anoia is an activated mind. Now, what do I mean by an activated mind? The activated mind is a mind in motion. The activated mind is a mind thinking. The unbeliever just can't get his brain in gear when it comes to these things. Are they intelligent? They may very well be. They may have dizzying intelligence. That's not the point. Spiritually speaking, they cannot get their mind in gear. They can't get their mind around the spiritual reality.

We saw the word in Ephesians 2.3 and also in Colossians 1.21. The contrast to that, very interestingly, here's 2 Corinthians again, that marvelous, understudied book. We have the mind, same word, nous, of Christ.

2 Corinthians 2.16.

Now, being darkened in their understanding. This Greek word is a perfect passive. When you have a passive, the darkness is coming from the outside. The darkness settles in on their minds from the outside. They cannot see because of an external darkening that's taking place.

It is a perfect, and perfect means a completed past action, ongoing results into the future. It implies permanence unless some other action is deliberately stated as taking place to change it. They're stuck in that mode unless the Lord steps in and allows them to see.

2 Corinthians, wow, amazing book. Here is, even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case, those who are perishing, the unbeliever, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they may not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. See that? Phenomenal distinction.

Now, it also says they're excluded from the life of God. Now, we've had two prior phrases that have talked about the state of mind of the unbeliever. This one changes course a little bit, because here you have an addressing of the relationship to God. He is excluded from the life of God.

We have there a couple of spigots. You see one is full-on flowing, and the other is just all knotted up. To the believer, Christ says, I am constantly giving them life. And by the way, that constantly may not find your English translation. It is implied by the present tense of the Greek. The default, barring some other clarification, is right now continuing. So we can say, I am constantly, or I'm right now continuing to give them life. That's Jesus' statement about the sheep. Or, in Colossians 3, 4, which we studied, Christ who is, present tense, our life.

How about the situation with the unbeliever, separate from Christ, we saw in Ephesians 2.12, or here, Ephesians 4.8, excluded from the life of God.

You know what the problem with the unbeliever is? His hose is all knotted up. That's the problem, okay? That's the problem. The unbeliever's hose is just all knotted up. They are excluded from the life of Christ. There's nothing flowing through there.

Now, so we have a question here before you. Should you tell an unbeliever, your problem is your hose is all knotted up? Okay? So that's a good question. I would suggest to you, you might want to consider holding off on that statement. This guy might not like it. Okay? And this young lady might not understand it. Okay? They'll both think different things, and neither one of them they're likely to respond to real well. So think of some other way to say it. But I can tell you, their hose is all knotted up.

Okay. excluded from the life of God. That's really the key point, isn't it? As believers, we're told repeatedly by the Lord Himself, by the Apostle Paul, Christ who is our life. Christ says, I'm constantly giving them life. To the unbeliever, excluded. None. Cut off. They're missing something. We're going to look at that in more depth here in a bit. One of the points that comes through sharply, and we've pointed out before, being dead spiritually means separation.

Here we saw in Ephesians 2.12, you are at that time separate from Christ, being aliens, same word as we have here.

Ephesians 4.8, excluded from the life of God.

Apallatriao is the Greek word there, and that also showed up in Colossians 1.21, you are formerly alienated. Okay? Separated, cut off, set aside, excluded, pushed out. There was no connection there. Excluded from the life of God.

Here's our passage here, which continues to underscore the point. Now, death of separation is also taught in a number of New Testament scriptures, and one of the things you repeatedly see is dead to, alive to. Dead to, alive to. And you continue to see this pattern, and what it's talking about The dead to and alive to is talking about relationship. Separated, dead in relationship to, or alive to, alive in relationship to.

It's about relationship. That's the key point. We'll see that pattern again. It's not just Paul's writing. Peter's got the idea. For Christ also died for sins once for all. That's hapax. Once given, perpetually valid. so that he might bring us to God. That prosago, bring us to God. Why does he need to bring us to God? Because before we were excluded, before we were separated, before there was spiritual death, we didn't have the life of Christ available to us. We were excluded. Now, Christ having died for our sins, those who believe, we are brought to God. The exclusion, the separation, the alienation is no longer there.

1 Peter 2.24 died to sin, alive to righteousness. Spiritual death and scripture is all about separation. It is not termination, annihilation, and cessation. Spiritual life is all about establishment of relationship. Christ is the sole source. That's it. The sole source. One available source of life.

Now, he says in the next phrase, because of the ignorance that is in them. The Greek word translated ignorance here, from the same family of Greek words, we get our English word agnostic, don't know, just don't know. Now, it might be a sense of, you know, sort of a, hello, anybody home? Okay. But the point here is again, not to insult the physical earthly intelligence.

The unbeliever may be brilliant. but it is a spiritual intelligence Paul is talking about, the inability to see, to grapple with, reason with, and sort out things in the spiritual realm. That's what he's talking about. When it comes to spiritual information, the unbeliever just doesn't know, but there's an important clarification we have to make in that. The unbeliever doesn't know, but they do not have an innocence in that.

We point out here in Romans 1, 18-21, The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." Ah! They know not, not because it has not been revealed to them, but because the truth that has been revealed has been pushed down, pressed out of the way. Someone who claims to be an atheist is a phony. They may, in fact, claim with what appears to be sincerity, but God says otherwise.

The truth has been revealed in them. This passage here says it's been revealed in the things that have been made and in their own hearts. We have numerous revelations to us, and this one here in Romans 1, 18 through 21 spells out the revelation in the world around us and the revelation within the heart of man. Both those revelations are pushed away and pushed down. Because of the hardness of their hearts, here we have the illustration of just a big boulder.

There is a hardness there, a complete insensitivity. You go up and knock on the rock, no response. You try to penetrate it, you'll hurt your knuckles before you'll hurt the rock. Hardness. The Greek word here has the idea of meaning stone and so the What's conveyed there in the New American Standard seems to be a little bit more fitting here, because it is a hardness.

Now, and they having become callous, Paul is saying that unbelievers come to a point of just being insensitive. And he uses this illustration of callous, past feeling in the King James there. And you may have been through that experience yourself or seen others and have just unbelievable callouses.

I know working back on the farm, you know, it seems these days I don't, you know, computers just doesn't do it and standing up here doesn't do it. So my tongue, if anything, gets calloused. But anyway, work out in the fields there and work, you know, driving fence posts and cutting wood and building houses, things like that. Those have developed lots and lots of calluses. Cutting trees and that sort of thing. So develop heavy calluses and insensitivity. Inability to feel things and sense things at the same level. Insensitive to the truth. That's the unbelievers standing there.

It's a perfect active verb. It means they're stuck in that mode and they're doing it deliberately. They are willfully stuck in a rut, whether you see it as walking, riding a bike, or in some sort of vehicle. They are willfully in the rut. They say, I like the rut. I prefer to stay in this rut. I am deliberately in this rut, and that's where I'm going to be. That's the mind and heart of the unbeliever with respect to spiritual truth. I strongly prefer this rut. I willfully and deliberately continue to walk, ride, and drive in this rut.

Paul used the same word here now, having given themselves over. He used that word also in Romans 1.18 and now beyond the passage you looked at before into verse 32. There's no conflict between the passage, by the way, because here it says they gave themselves over and in Romans 1 it says he gave them over. What you see here is the unbeliever gives themselves over and the Lord doesn't block that or stop it. He says, I will let you have your way. And so they do.

We see here in Romans the passages where, places where that word shows up. And what's interesting is there are also additional words in common between this Romans 1 passage and the one we're looking at right now. If we looked at synonyms, there would be even more.

Okay. Finally, they gave themselves over to what? To sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. Let's look at the diagram here. I think this will help get the illustration across. Here is the believer. There is a physical realm, there is a spiritual realm. You ever think of it this way?

You are a unique creation in the sense that you have, as a believer, a point of connection between the spiritual realm and the physical realm. There is a point of connection and ability to communicate and hear what God is saying and talk to the Lord and have relationship there. That is a unique thing. You, as a believer, are unique in all of creation in that respect.

We receive spiritual food. Scripture often talks about the teaching from Scripture as milk or meat. And we receive spiritual food from the Word. We receive the very life of Christ, as we've seen, continuously. Isn't that interesting? From the physical realm, God's Word, we receive spiritual food. We also receive spiritual life from the spiritual realm.

The unbeliever is in a different position. We just saw Paul's summary of the unbeliever. Notice that we've got a shaded spiritual realm there. To the unbeliever, it's murky. Nothing is distinguishable. Nothing can be discerned. Nothing can be seen. This is what the believer sees in the spiritual realm. The same place. That's what the unbeliever sees. Can't make anything out. What are you talking about? God? Jesus? Seated in the heavenlies? You must be kidding.

I don't see anything. They don't see it. The unbeliever is stuck in this realm. And because everything in the spiritual realm is murky, where does the unbeliever go to find life? Where do they look? They're desperate for it. Where do they go to find life? Physical food and physical sensation. It's the things in the physical realm. They look in the spiritual realm and say, I don't see anything. Dark is all get out to me. so they turn to where they can see and sense things in the physical realm.

That's the only place left for them. From there, in a world that has fallen, where the ground is cursed, they seek life in a place that lives under a principle of spiritual death. Spirituality? Yes, they know spirituality. It's a phony substitute for what should be there.

And notice that much of the spirituality, the false spirituality, presented to the unbeliever comes in the form of either indulgence in or denial of things in the physical realm. Oh, you'll be holy as long as you don't eat this. Or, we're going to have a grand feast, eat a lot of that. Or, don't do this, or do a lot of that. Some manipulation of the physical realm ends up being real spiritual. On the spiritual side, the false spirituality is at best an acknowledgment of Satan and the demons, if not pure fantasy.

The unbeliever is stuck with looking to everything in the physical realm for life. Sensuality, practicing impurity, they do not have the life of Christ, greediness. Now that greediness isn't just looking for money. The unbeliever is in a spiritual vacuum. They have an intense, driving need for life. God built that into them. They fill it with spiritual death, all the time thinking that that's life. Sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. The unbeliever is absolutely driven to turn to things in the physical realm to find life. because there isn't any true spiritual sensation there. They're callous. Can't feel anything. Can't see anything. You're kidding me. What do you say is there? Ah, you must be dreaming. I can't see it. I can't feel it.

The practice of purity comes from Christ's life. So his, that is, the unbeliever's practice is impure. The intense need for spiritual satisfaction drives the unbeliever's growing Greed. It is from that side that many addictions follow. But even if we don't call it an addiction, it's still there. He's desperately seeking life from a world that's ruled by a principle of spiritual death. That's the greed. That's the need. It's desperate.

We'll look at Ephesians 4, 20-24 next week and see Paul's positive statement. Now that he's said, no longer is the Gentiles now, What instead? He's going to take us from the red light to the green light. What does this look like on the positive side? Now, we're going to look at expanded and explained.

So, the following things which I am about to say with apostolic authority are said with the perspective that I am in the Lord and speaking from the position that I am in Christ, that each of you conduct yourselves in a lifestyle that is from this point onward no longer in complete conformity with the lifestyle of the unsaved Gentiles, as many of you were, and whose lifestyle example you see every day, and the inability of their mind to reach a sound spiritual conclusion.

Being morally and spiritually darkened to the point of lack of discernment and visibility in their spiritual understanding, excluded by nature and position, from the essential life of God, which is through Christ, because of the spiritual ignorance that is in each and every one of them, because of the hardness of their heart, which is a profound spiritual insensitivity to the stimulus and input which comes from God himself. And these pagan Gentiles, having become willingly unresponsive and insensitive to God's stimulus and input into their hearts, have actively given themselves over to abject slavery to addictive physical sensuality, for the continually degrading and corrupting practice of every kind of moral and spiritual impurity, which is contrary to the nature of God and the life of Christ, with greediness which is fueled by an intense spiritual vacuum, while the great spiritual need remains as God instilled in them." The unbeliever is stuck in that mode. Do you see the sense that the unbeliever has?

They are driven out of desperation to seek life in the things that this world presents before them. Ah, this is life. You'll see your television will advertise those kinds of false offerings every day. You'll get life if you buy this car. You'll have deep spiritual satisfaction if you eat our cookies. You'll have that gnawing hunger satisfied if you'll just come to our diet place.

So figure this out, okay? No, Paul's telling us the truth here, isn't he? And he's going to give us the rest of the story next week. Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this set of truths laid out before us here, we have a renewed appreciation for what you have done to satisfy us, and a renewed heaviness of heart in one way for the unbeliever and Lord we're caused for those who don't know you to pray for them but even more for boldness for for the believer and appropriateness of word and voice to tell them the truth and we thank you for the position that we have in you not to our own credit but because of your marvelous grace in Jesus name Amen.