“How Do You Identify Yourself?”
Ephesians 4:17-32
We are reading through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. We have made it up to chapter four. At this point we have crossed through what I would call a boundary line in the book. Most of the letters in the New Testament have some point where you are reading through the first few chapters and then there is a turning moment. It turns from where the topic is about Jesus and what He did to how we are supposed to live in response.
Okay, here’s the metaphor. Think about the book of Ephesians in relation to a big front door, like those at the front of the church. In order to open them, they swing on hinges. The hinges are what we read at the beginning of chapter four, verse one,
“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”
So we have Paul the Apostle, he has begun a number of churches, specifically that he is writing to and so he is personally writing to these people about becoming a church. He spent the first three chapters of Ephesians, telling the story of the good news about Jesus. And how Jesus is forming a new multi-ethnic family, of people who have placed their faith in Him and whose identity is grounded in Him.
This is where Paul swings the door on its hinges and says,
“Then, now that you are following Jesus according to His grace, I urge you to live a life that is worthy of this calling and of this story that you have been invited into.”
Chapters 4-6, is like the backside of the door. From this point on Paul is going to make the rubber meet the road. Paul will be presenting real life topics for us to grapple with and put to the test. We will need to ask ourselves, “What does it really mean to live out in day to day life circumstances, the reality of this Gospel, that has called us together as a family of people, called the Church, the new humanity?
Paul uses the rest of his letter to take on this question and place it into every aspect of our daily life and rethink it in light of the good news about Jesus. He’s going to talk about anger, sex, marriage, parenting, he’s going to talk about money and about lying and truth telling, kindness, and about your work ethic. He will look at everything in our lives with the expectation that we rethink them in light of the good news about Jesus.
For the next few chapters Paul will be providing us with moral objectives or moral demands. This is where many people compartmentalize what has been written. We have all heard the labels, they are the “thou shalt” and the “thou shalt not” parts of the Bible. Some see Paul challenging us and helping us to step up to the plate. Others see this as Paul at his worst. They think of Paul as like a helicopter parent, hovering as the moral police over the lives of Christians, telling them what to do or not do.
Paul does seem to have a way of identifying the truth and then somehow getting into our business and telling us what to do. That is why many stop reading Ephesians at this point and go back to reading the Gospel of John. But we are going to stick with Ephesians, however we are going to do so, with the understanding that Paul’s behavior or understanding is not just to tell people what to do.
Rather, what Paul is most concerned about is the core sources and motivation of people’s behavior. It’s Paul’s conviction that our behavior is just a surface phenomenon. The actual surface behavior comes from deep, deep character issues inside of us. The family systems theory of today. Paul doesn’t take the surface actions at face value but focuses on our source of identity. Paul believes the way you behave stems from who you think you are.
Your identity –
The kind of person you think you are
The kind of values you believe you have
What makes you who you are?
Paul would say, the real question should be,
In light of the Gospel, who are you?
And if who you are is changing, because of the Gospel, then Holy Cow, your behavior should follow.
This is the mindset I would like us to have as we read through what Paul has written. Look at verse 17,
“So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.”
Paul is so cunning in his approach. At first reading of this we could easily read right over the subtleness of Paul’s approach. Check it out. Paul is insisting the people he is writing to must no longer live like, whom?
The Gentiles.
This is not a term we use in our day to day language, but in the time Paul was writing this, and based on who Paul was, the word Gentile, referred to an ethnic category. The word was generated in the Jewish community, and referred to every ethnic group that was not Jewish. Actually, most of humanity.
Let’s think this through, who is Paul writing to?
Well, go back to the first sentence of chapter 3,
“For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—”
Look at chapter 2, verse 11,
“Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth…”
Paul is writing this letter to a group of Gentiles, and yet at the beginning of chapter 4 he tells them not to live like the Gentiles anymore.
Can you sense the readers of this letter may have been puzzled?
Paul doesn’t want us to live like Gentiles?
But that is who I am?
It would be like Paul writing us a letter and telling us not to live like an American anymore.
But, wait, I live in America?
What is Paul saying?
Based on everything that Paul has written in chapters 1-3, technically whatever our birth and ethnicity provides us, is not valid.
For Paul, if you are following Christ, your identity is no longer based on your ethnicity, nationality, place of birth, gender, occupation, political beliefs, you name it. Paul is saying that is not who you are anymore.
Your primary identity is some other category. We are not Jewish, or Gentile, or American, but in a few sentences, Paul is going to call us the “New Humanity.” Which began with the new human, named Jesus, who died, was raised again and because of His grace we can be transformed.
Here we have Paul significantly challenging our sense of identity. He will go from this into being really practical with how we behave, whether we lie, what we do in our anger, etc.
Paul makes a point in stating that we are Christians,
that just happen to be Gentiles.
We are Christians that just happen to live in America.
But please, don’t make the mistake of making your nationality who you actually are. Your nationality is relative,
If you are following Christ,
who you are is a new human, in Jesus.
This may seem petty, but this is such a significant piece of what Paul thinks about our Christian life. It is the core of where he draws all of what he will be writing from this point on. Society makes this mistake quite often. They look at the Christian community and think it is all about being moral police and having behavior changes. Doing the do’s and not doing the don’ts and for Paul that would be like, “Wow, that is not what it is all about at all.”
The whole point of Christianity is that it is a change of who we are. There comes a transformation of behavior which develops and grows as we grow in Christ.
This is Paul’s mantra, we are to become who we actually are, children of the King, Christians.
Paul’s core conviction is that fundamental change happens to us when our sense of who we are is completely revolutionized. Once this sinks in, behavior follows our sense of identity.
Mr. Howell – 8th grade math
We are going to read through the rest of chapter four with this new lens, that we are all new kinds of humans now. As Christians, you have entered this New Humanity. If you don’t feel like it, you need to remind yourself of it everyday, because that’s who you really are.
Back to chapter 4 of Ephesians, Paul writes to those who were born Gentiles and tells them,
“that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.”
Paul paints a bleak picture of what these Christians are NOT where he gives lots of connections to chapter 2 with his diagnosis of the human condition. This is not about how intelligent Christians are, it has to do with their moral actions, their moral knowledge and moral sensitivity.
Check out verse 19, he’s describing
Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.”
This is the story of someone who has become morally callous. Remember, Paul is writing this letter from prison. There were probably lots of people around him that demonstrated this behavior. And yet, the question arises. How does someone get to the place where something that is clearly morally wrong,
or clearly destructive to themselves,
their body or to people around them, and yet.
They are fine with it? And they think it’s okay.
The Greek word Paul uses here actually translates better as “callous.” If any of you have ever attempted to play the guitar you know the meaning of callous.
In order to play the guitar you need to practice and it just so happens that the very tips of our fingers have soft pads that don’t like to strike steel strings. But if you can work through the pain, you begin to develop calluses on your fingers and eventually it no longer hurts. This is what Paul is describing.
How does this happen to people morally? Someone gets to the place where they are hardened to the well being of other people, or themselves so that their moral decisions are no longer determined sensually.
Paul says it starts in your mind, in your thinking. It has to do with your mindset. There is some darkening where the lights are turned off and your ability to make connections are damaged. This is where people begin to declare their ability to determine right from wrong for themselves, ultimately they become their own god.
Slowly as we determine good and evil in ways that conveniently ignore our own flaws and failures and highlight the hypocrisy in everybody else it becomes messed up. Switches turn off and we begin to make compromises that benefit ourselves until we discover we are in a place we would have never dreamed we would have been a few years earlier.
It’s what Paul calls, moral callousness.
Let’s face it, we all form these callouses in different ways. Paul says it begins with our thinking. Paul also goes on to remind the Ephesians, and us, verse 20 & 21,
“That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.”
Paul reminds them that once they heard the story of Jesus, its truth has the power to invade their reality.
You began with a mindset that you are fine, you can make it through the world, you’re the captain of your own ship. Then, the Gospel comes along and says, the truth is you are really messed up. The depth at which you are selfish, compromised and self focused is so deep, you have no idea.
Imagine telling your friend that today. Okay, if this is your message, at this point one wouldn’t think that is good news to hear. But here’s where the Gospel is unique. At the same time it tells us how messed up we are and exposes all of our failures, it also exposes this decision of God. He chooses to love us, and commit Himself to us in spite of our deep flaws and brokenness. Paul reminds the Ephesians that they had been taught about Jesus and the implications of following Jesus, and it opened up a completely different way of living.
Check in time.
How many of us, when we heard the Good News, when we understood the message of Jesus Christ and what He had done for us remember being taught a completely different way of living? This is where the do’s and don’ts come in. How many of us remember being told in Sunday School what good Christians do and what they don’t do? That’s not what Paul is telling the Ephesians. For Paul it came down to three things, verses 22-24:
“You were taught,
Notice these teachings are with regard to your former way of life, to
- put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
- to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to
- put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
The Greek word Paul used for “self” was “anthropos” where we get the word “anthropology.” He is referring to our old “humanity.” Paul says we need to “take off,” just like you take off a dirty shirt, we are to take off our old humanity.
Easier said than done.
Why should we take this off?
Because, our old humanity is “being corrupted by its deceitful desires.” The desires we have are not bad, in fact most of them are actually pretty good. Like the desire to be in relationships with others, the desire to be known and to know others, the desire to have sex, the desire to have my basic needs cared for. These are all good. However, in the old humanity, where humans are the judges of what is right and what is wrong, the desires will trick you, they are deceitful. The desires will make you think they are ultimate ends in themselves.
If I could just get that job, or be in that relationship, or achieve that status, I will be worth something, my life will have value, I will be secure and okay.
Paul is warning us,
don’t believe it,
don’t buy into the illusion.
Those desires will never give you what you are looking for, you will not find your identity, meaning or worth, by following your desires.
We are to see it for what it is, worthless,
take it off and no longer allow it to be our identity.
Paul doesn’t say, take it off and say the sinner’s prayer.
Instead, we are to be remaking our mind. Whatever patterns you were given growing up, ways you were given on how to evaluate yourself, how you understood your identity, the worth and the value your life has, needs to be reevaluated. Paul tells us we need to reshape our thinking and that process begins at ground zero. This means, you need to start looking at yourself in the light of who Jesus is and what He has done for you, not in the light of your family systems, or our culture’s systems. Taking into account what we have already read in chapters 1-3, our minds get transformed when we recognize how messed up we are, we own it and then we take it to the foot of the cross and leave it there. Because God’s love and grace towards people like you and me is so permanent, and because Jesus was able to live the human life we could never live, and because He was resurrected from the dead, our sin doesn’t get the last word.
This remaking of our mind doesn’t happen in a day.
This is a perpetual renewal of your mind. As we adopt this new identity, where we pick up and put in our old self’s place the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” It’s the version of you that is able to reflect the image of God. This is powerful, this is where we should be going. As Christians, we should be allowing the attributes of Jesus to dwell in us richly. For Paul this is an act of faith and trust. In Jesus, He has become the version of me that I cannot become for myself. We need the courage to trust that by faith I get to put on the version of me that I could only dream of becoming. And because Jesus is present with me every day He helps me reshape my thinking and helps me go there.
This is it: If you are grabbing on to Jesus, what is true of Him is now true of you. You may not “feel” like it. It may take a while for your feelings to “catch up.” That’s why it’s called “faith.” Hebrews 11:1,
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
Before we close, I employ you to stop right now and think.
How do you identify yourself?
If you come up with an answer other than Jesus, and want to live a life of fulfillment with Jesus, you are going to need to take that old life off.
Then, as an act of the will, by the renewing of your mind, you need to put on the new self. The one that resembles Christ. The best place to find what that looks like is to go back to Matthew 5-7 and re-read the Sermon on the Mount. By putting our minds on that which is of Christ, our lives will change.
Try it out. This week, turn your focus to what Jesus would do. Whatever your weak spot is, anger, or having integrity I challenge you to remember who you are in Jesus.
Turn your thoughts on your new identity. How do you see Jesus in you responding to those situations where your old identity takes over? Keep re-thinking, until it’s real.
Next week we will continue and see where we can practice these three steps in our daily conduct.
Let’s pray.
