NOTES for Eph 4:17-32
17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, |
18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: |
19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. |
20 But ye have not so learned Christ; |
21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: |
22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; |
23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; |
24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. |
25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. |
26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: |
27 Neither give place to the devil. |
28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth. |
29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. |
30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. |
31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: |
32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. |
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Calling the Ephesian Christians to a normal, full spiritual life, Paul speaks of their need to be renewed by the "breath" ("spirit") of the mind so that they may become different, new people, capable of living a righteous life in accordance with God's plan for humanity and its purpose. This new life is what the apostle considers Christian life in the proper sense of the word (vv. 20-24). Such an appeal fully corresponds to the ideas about spiritual life generally accepted in Paul's day in the rabbinic environment. Their quintessence is expressed in the well-known command to love God "with all your heart, with all your being ("all your soul"), and with all your strength" (Deut 6:5). A person's spiritual life is determined by the choice of the heart, which in the language of the Bible denotes the center of the human person where choices are made and decisions are taken that determine a person's relationship with God and with people, and where the system of values that determines his whole life is formed. In Greek, already from ancient times, this center came to be called the "mind," and the Greek philosophers connected with the concept of "mind" what the biblical authors writing in Hebrew placed in the concept of the "heart." It was precisely the spiritual influence ("spirit") of this "mind-heart" that renewed a person, and first of all his inner world, what the Bible usually calls the "soul," by which here is meant not the personal principle familiar to us, but the inner life force.
In this sense Paul speaks of the "renewal of the inner man," which is no surprise: a person's spiritual renewal always begins from within, although in the normal case it is never limited to his inner world alone. And the apostle, speaking of the renewal of the "inner man," also believes that it must be followed by a change in the whole life of the one who has turned to God. It is no accident that he contrasts two ways of life: the former one, which many Ephesian Christians evidently lived before their conversion (vv. 17-19), and the new one to which Paul calls them (vv. 25-32). But if before Christ came into the world the matter was the choice or rejection of the path of righteousness, now the matter is the choice or rejection of the Kingdom and salvation. And the apostle once again calls the faithful to remain faithful to the end, having chosen the Kingdom.
Readings for 17 July 2025
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