The New Creation
THE NEW CREATION
EPHESIANS 4:17-24
It cannot get much clearer than this: do not give yourself to immorality, greed and impurity, but put on righteousness and holiness.
Paul began the second half of his letter by calling his readers to lead a life consistent with God’s call to them to experience his grace. The implications of what a “worthy” life entails are described in 4:17-24. There must be a sharp break with the pagan past. In the sobering portrait Paul paints of the futility and depravity of life without God, we see its confusion, separation and callousness in the reckless exploitation of other people and in an endless and empty quest for meaning to life. This empty quest is demonstrated today in the existentialism found in contemporary literature and drama. Paul’s readers experienced the emptiness that he describes in their recent past (see 2:1-3; 5:8). Paul tells them they must not act as if they were still trapped in a life where total abandonment to immorality makes them obsessed with the sordidness of a world separated from God.
Christians cannot act as they did before their conversion because they have come to understand the true meaning of life (4:20f.). To “learn” Christ is to listen to him until one becomes possessed by his mind and his will and regards life through his eyes (see 1 Corinthians 2:16; 2 Corinthians 10:5). This involves a radical renewal of one’s personality by the Holy Spirit, so that the whole direction of a person’s will is controlled by Christ. God created people to be like himself in righteousness and holiness (Genesis 1:26), but humanity desired to be “like God” in knowledge and freedom. The result was the debasement that Paul found displayed in the immorality of Gentile life.
The apostle calls his readers to live out their new selves in “true righteousness and holiness,” which the new creation makes possible.