I have some old t-shirts in my dresser that I just haven’t been able to part with. Two of them are from when I was in the Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary choir and we went on tour in the spring of 2010 and 2012. Each of those times we made a custom shirt for all the choir members to commemorate the trip. I have some good memories there, but I have to admit that the shirts are showing their age. I’ll probably get rid of them. Sometime soon. After I hold onto them just a little longer.
Getting rid of things can be very difficult to do. We don’t want to be wasteful. We don’t want to throw things out that we might find a good use for. But if we aren’t careful and just keep everything, well, pretty soon we won’t be able to find anything because we’ll be drowning in so much stuff. So eventually the times comes when you need to clean out your storage. You need to take off the threadbare shirt. You need to get rid of the old junk.
This is the sort of picture that Paul uses in Ephesians 4 as he admonishes us to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which we have been called, in Christ. Except he’s not talking about taking off an old shirt. No, what he’s describing here is actually much more difficult, but much more important. He tells us to take off the old self.
Just before our lesson for today Paul wrote about the blessing of being united in the body of Christ and how Jesus blesses us through the church and through his servants in the church so that we mature in the faith and in godly living. Where our lesson picks up he contrasts this new life in Christ with the former things, with the old t-shirt. He begins by writing this:
17So I tell you this and testify to it in the Lord: Do not walk any longer as the Gentiles walk, in their futile way of thinking. 18They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, due to the hardness of their hearts. 19Because they have no sense of shame, they have given themselves over to sensuality, with an ever-increasing desire to practice every kind of impurity.
This is a serious matter and Paul calls special attention to it. “I tell you this and testify to it in the Lord,” he says. As Jesus’ apostle everything in his letters is to be read as words not ultimately coming from Paul, but from Jesus, with Paul as his messenger or ambassador. So why call special attention to what he is about to say here? Because this is a serious matter that we so easily make light of. “Do not walk any longer as the Gentiles walk, in their futile way of thinking.”
In a few different places in this chapter Paul refers to this life as a walk, a journey. That’s a good way of thinking about life because we aren’t just helplessly swept along, like a boat in a river. And we don’t stay put in one place. All through life we’re making decisions – should I turn right or left, or go straight ahead? - we’re putting in effort, sometimes working hard, other times taking things slow. The question is where are we going, and how are we going about it?
Paul says, “Do not walk as the Gentiles walk.” That term “Gentiles” can be a loaded term in Scripture. It’s often synonymous with “the pagans,” those ungodly idol-worshippers, in contrast with the Jews, the chosen people of God. Certainly the Christian congregation in Ephesus included people who were Gentiles, and who had been living that pagan lifestyle. But this isn’t just for those people. It’s for everyone, including the Jewish Christians in Ephesus, and including us today. It’s for everyone who might be tempted by that futile way of thinking.
Paul says that they walk “in their futile way of thinking,” and “They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, due to the hardness of their hearts.” There’s something really important to realize here. Paul doesn’t say that these people are dummies. He doesn’t call them stupid. Their heads aren’t empty. It’s just that their way of thinking doesn’t lead them anywhere good. They are darkened in understanding and alienated from the life of God, why? Because they are under the power of the Devil, who is no dummy. And their hearts are hardened by sin, making them ignorant of the truth of God’s Word.
What Paul describes here is just as evident and obvious in the world today as it was back then, nearly 2,000 years ago. Where does this futile way of thinking lead? He says, “They have no sense of shame.” “They have given themselves over to sensuality.” “They have an ever-increasing desire to practice every kind of impurity.” We don’t even need to debate that. Just turn on the TV and look at what sorts of things are considered acceptable to display to the world. There’s been all sorts of outrage lately over parts of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. What is supposed to be about representatives from nations all over the world coming together in friendly competition instead involved shameless celebrations of sensuality, and enough complaint was made that the Olympics officially apologized.
But while it is disappointing and disgusting to see every kind of impurity in the world, Paul isn’t writing to the world. We should expect it out there. It’s what that futile way of thinking will lead to. Paul isn’t writing to them, he’s writing to us. God is speaking to us, to warn us. Don’t start patting yourself on the back. Don’t congratulate yourself for having left the world and its impurity behind. That ratty old shirt is still in your dresser drawer. That old corrupt self is still there, still warring against God’s will, still longing for every empty, self-centered pleasure that leads to hell.
20But you did not learn Christ in that way, 21if indeed you have heard of him and were taught in him (since the truth is in Jesus). 22As far as your former way of life is concerned, you were taught to take off the old self, which is corrupted by its deceitful desires, 23and to be renewed continually in the spirit of your mind, 24and to put on the new self, which has been created to be like God in righteousness and true holiness.
You, as someone who has been called by God out of that futile way of thinking, don’t revel in sin. You know that it doesn’t lead anywhere good, that all it results in is hell, in spiritual death in this life and eternal death, forever cut off from God and his good and gracious will. But still that old self is there, dogging you with its corrupt and deceitful desires.
“Take it off!”, Paul says, but how do you do that? In our self-help age we like to think that we can just change anything we want if we just put ourselves to it. And in some things we can. Maybe you want to get healthier, so you really set your mind to it and you start eating better and exercising. Or maybe you’re having money trouble so you become determined to stick to a budget. Or maybe you want to learn a new skill and so you start practicing every single day. That kind of thing can work and so it’s easy to think that maybe it works that way for everything in life and if I really put myself to it I can clean out my old sinful ways, I can take off my old self like with an old t-shirt, I can declare myself to be a new person, a reinvention of myself, and I can just stop sinning.
And so you do it. You tell yourself you’re done with those sins, those ones that you always look back at with shame and frustration and anger and say, “Why did I do that? That’s not what God wants. It’s not loving to my neighbor. It’s not how I want to be.,” “This time,” you say, “I’m really done. I’m done for good.” Until it happens again.
But that is not what your Lord is telling you here. You learned Christ. You were taught in him. The truth is in Jesus. You were taught to take off the old self and it’s the teaching of Jesus, the gospel, which is how this is accomplished. He’s the one who renews you with his forgiveness. He is the one who has created for you a new self, like God, in righteousness and true holiness.
The Christian life is the baptismal life. Martin Luther wrote in his Small Catechism:
What does baptizing with water mean?
Baptism means that the old Adam in us should be drowned by daily contrition and repentance, and that all its evil deeds and desires be put to death. It also means that a new person should daily arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.
Taking off the old self is nothing other than living in baptismal repentance. It means that every day you look to your baptism, which is God’s sure promise to you, and say, “I don’t need that ratty old self. Lord Jesus, take it away. Forgive my sins for the sake of your cross.”
And there in that same Gospel is the assurance that the one who takes your sins away is the same one who gives you a new life, a new self, like God. It’s like God because it’s from God. Jesus came to take your place and so in him and in his baptism God’s decree “This is my Son whom I love, in him I am well-pleased” now is his decree for you.
You’ve been set free from your old self. You have been released from that futile thinking. You are no longer bound to impurity and deceitful desires. Take off that old self and put on the new. You are baptized into Christ. You can’t get a robe better than that. Treasure your baptism. Hold to his word. Give thanks to God for his righteousness that he has made yours. Amen.
— Pastor Seth Georgson