Beware: Old Self and Old Way | Ephesians 4:17-24 | 1/25/26

Education

in the 20th century

underwent a pretty significant

transformation and I won't go into the

history and the reason why but one way

in which we could see that education

evolved is that it emphasized what we

might call an input output model. It was

about trying to put as much information

into a student and then that was the

input and then assess whether they were

able to accurately memorize all the

things that were put in. And if that's

the model, well, the model's about to be

subverted. And it it's there there's

always been risk of subversion through

all the different forms of cheating like

plagiarism or having people write your

papers for you uh anonymously. uh but in

light of generative AI large language

models things like chat GPT and Gemini

uh students don't have to read books

anymore and students when they do share

say they don't read books anymore

because if your only goal is information

then Gemini can give you a very thorough

information of the most complex books

and again this isn't new we were doing

this when I was a student uh back in the

day they had cliffs notes remember that

the the yellow cliff's notes you don't

have to read Shakespeare the cliff's

notes will tell you I I think they

changed later. There's another brand,

Sparks Notes, uh later on because I I

talked to students. I said, "Cliff's

notes." And they're like, "What are you

talking about, old man?" Like, "Oh, uh,

Sparks Notes." Uh, but but now Gemini

will do an even better job. You don't

have to read a thing and you'll be able

to gain all the information that you

want. And it's it's going to get worse

or maybe some of you might think better

because we do have access to basically

any information that we want through a

phone. But it might come to the point

where you don't even need a phone

anymore. You just have to think it and a

Siri like device in your head will pop

out the answer. If you're not aware of

Neuralink um we're on the verge of

basically having Siri put into our head.

Uh I I just saw that the the most recent

uh Neuralink broke. It was malfunction.

But diff later iterations and I'm sure

different kinds of companies. The point

is supposed to be we'll have every

single information that we want. If the

point of education is to get

information, it's now bankrupt.

Or we go back to the way in which

education was originally conceived,

which was in terms of formation,

character formation. After all, the

language of education literally means to

lead out, to bring yourself out. Part of

education then is growing and maturing

to becoming a certain kind of person. So

if you have modern education that's

about information and a sort of one-way

street, one of the problems of modern ed

education that CS Lewis pointed out in

the abolition of man is what he calls

that creating men without chests. What

he means is this kind of education will

produce humans who have heads but a

malformed heart. People whose intellect

can be impressive. Allah Silicon Valley

engineers but whose hearts are so

malformed it will be about cold

calculation.

But education has to be about

transformation of the head and of the

heart.

Because if education is about

transformation, then Christian education

is about being transformed into the

likeness of Christ. And it's so easy

sometimes for us to see Christians who

might emphasize one over the other. We

meet the Christian who seems to have

every single theological answer pat

down, but who has no heart,

who where all of their bright shiny

answers seem to give them no love for

those who are hurting. On the other

hand, we've seen the other error where

we see a Christian who is heart

oriented. But in the second great

awakening, we see how bankrupt that is

as well. When you don't have a head, an

intellect, that helps guide where your

passions lie and it leads to emotional

manipulation. And we've seen lots of

errors. If the aim of Christian

education is to make us more like Christ

and if we look in the Gospels, we see

that Christ was a man with sublime

intellect. His head was wellformed but

also of deep and profound emotions. His

heart is wellformed. Then we need to

cultivate a transformation and an and a

focus on both cultivating the right head

and the right heart. Now why am I

talking about this in light of going

through the book of Ephesians? Well, let

me just give a quick recap for why this

matters.

So far since especially the last couple

of weeks, Paul has been talking about

the church growing. Last week, Josh

said, "The purpose, the aim, the design

of the church is to have us to grow in

maturity and into the likeness of Christ

to secure unity."

In that sense, then I think what Paul's

up to, his so-called ethical instruction

here is about education. It is about

growing up and maturing with the aim of

maturing into the likeness of Christ.

And so that's how I want us to be

thinking about this passage this morning

in Ephesians chapter 4. It it's easy to

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

think Ephesians, you start with theology

and then you end with ethics and that

they kind of are two separate

categories. Actually, I think the whole

book is unified. It began with Paul

talking about God and what God is up to

in all of creation and specifically in

the Gentiles, bringing them into God's

people and then calling them to a

certain way of life and desiring that

they grow and mature. And now he's going

to talk about potential threats to them.

The threats being about the ways in

which it may stunt their growth into

maturity and where it might bring about

disunityity. And I think the rest of

this chapter, while there's a lot of

ethical instruction, we have to think

about that context that Josh talked

about last week, growth into maturity

into the likeness of Christ. What are

these things then? These specific

warnings and issues. They are threats to

that. And and next week, we'll go into

very specific versions. This morning,

it's a little bit more on the general

side. So, if you have your Bibles, turn

to Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

And and maybe to put as you turn there

to kind of put this in sloganering

fashion, the kind of ethical instruction

I think Paul is giving here is not just

a list of rules. If it's just a list of

rules, it's going to be antithetical to

the way in which Paul conceives growth

and maturity in other letters. After

all, go see Galatians and Romans. In in

one sense, to put it in the slogan way,

it's not about what to do. Rather, it's

about who are you becoming like. It's

not about what, it's about who. And

that's why if we just think of these as

lists and rules, we'll go back to the

kind of phariseaical temptation of just

checking off the box, doing our duties,

but having no love in our hearts. If

Paul wants us to grow,

to be educated, to become ethical, if we

want to use that term, the idea is about

transforming our head and our hearts

into the likeness of Christ. So if you

have a Bible, Ephesians chapter 4, and

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

we're going to just read severing

from the letter to the Ephesians.

Now this I say and testify in the Lord

that you must no longer walk as the

Gentiles do. In the futility of their

minds, they are darkened in their

understanding,

alienated from the life of God because

of the ignorance that is in them due to

their hardness of heart.

They have become callous and have given

themselves up to sensuality, greedy to

practice every kind of impurity.

But that is not the way you learned

Christ.

Assuming that you have heard about him

and were taught in him as the truth is

in Jesus

to put off your old self which belongs

to your former manner of life and is

corrupt through deceitful desires.

and to be renewed in the spirit of your

minds and to put on the new self created

after the likeness of God in true

righteousness and holiness. The word of

the Lord.

My exhortation to you this morning is

just straight from what we just read.

put off the old self. Put on the new

self.

And what I want to unpack this morning

is to see the way in which Paul

characterizes the old self and then he

highlights the root and the fruits of

the old self and then he characterizes

the new self. So let's talk about the

old self and the way that Paul

characterizes it. So if you look, Paul

is very urgent here. So he's been

talking in a very grandiose way. You've

been called by God, Gentile Christians.

First you gentile Christians were out of

the people of promise, and now you've

been grafted in, and you've been called

to live a certain kind of life, a life

that's worthy of the calling for which

you have been called, a a a life that

leads to unity and maturity and likeness

of Christ.

And then he says something urgent. He

says,"I say this and testify in the

Lord. It's a sense of urgency here. Have

you been here long enough where you've

heard Josh say,"Listen to me."

[laughter] That's one of my favorites. I

I know something really important is

about to happen. Uh that's what he's

doing. This is a kamacho. Listen to me.

Say, "Hear me out." So Paul Paul wants

to get clear on their attention here.

Listen to me.

no longer walk as the Gentiles do. Now,

this might seem weird because as we've

seen in chapter 2 and chapter 3, Paul's

main audience is probably Gentile

Christians, meaning non-Jewish people

who converted into disciplehip to Jesus.

So, when Paul says, "Don't walk as the

Gentiles do," there might be some

confusion here. Maybe one way of

thinking about that is say um then are

they supposed to live like Jewish

Christians that can't be right for

reasons I think that are in this uh

letter but also to what Paul teaches in

other letters. He says look Jewish and

Gentile Christians you've been brought

together and you Gentile Christians uh

you don't have to be circumcised. You

can still eat bacon. That's my

paraphrase, right? But you don't have to

live as Jews because you come to the

covenant people not through becoming

Jewish, not through circumcision, but

through faith in Christ. A much love for

for Jewish Christians, by the way. Yeah.

But but the point is supposed to be

Gentile Christians are now allowed in

through a different kind of channel, a

channel that is ubiquitous to every

Christian, both Jewish and Gentile

Christians. You are brought in through

faith. And so he can't mean stop being

Gentiles. Well, what does he mean? Well,

the problem with that word gentile is

it's just a it's a loose ambiguous term.

It just means the nations. And almost

everybody here who's now a Christian,

unlike us who grew up in the church for

some of us, for a lot of them, they were

all converts. Many of them adult

converts. So, they remember the gentile

way of life, their former way of life,

and they see their neighbors doing it.

And if you want to look at what life was

like in Greco Roman society, it was

pretty grotesque and dark and ugly. And

so they were supposed to be removed from

that life. But that's the life that

still surrounds them. And I think Paul

then is making an assumption here.

Here's the assumption

that some of these Christians

are either falling back into their old

way of life or they are tempted to do

so. And what's the old way of life?

Well, if you go back to chapter 2, what

did Paul say about their situation? They

were once dead.

When I preached on that passage, I said

they were zombies. They looked alive,

but they were dead. And God had called

them out. But that way of life was the

way of sin, the way of trespass and

influenced by the prince of the power of

the air. Meaning it was demonic. It had

hold of the devil. That sinful way of

life then was making them dead. And some

of these Christians are tempted to go

back into it. And why would they?

Because sin is enticing.

And so I think this is why Paul wants to

talk about here. Yes, you are now

brought into the family of God. But some

of you have either fallen back or you're

tempted to do so. And I get it. It looks

really nice. Sleeping around and

gratifying sexual lust feels very good.

Getting lots of accolades and praise for

your accomplishments, whether real or

imagined, feels very good. Owning lots

of things and having lots of pleasures,

feels very good. So you could see why

one might be enticed to the old way of

life. And Paul is urging them, don't go

back to this way. And I like his

strategy

here. He gives a strategy. He

characterizes

what that former old way of life is to

show just how bad it really is and how

unfulfilling it really is. And he

doesn't I don't think he does this in a

systematic way. So, so this isn't like a

systematic uh analysis of what the

former life is, but I think he's just

doing this through observation. He's

he's been around in his missionary

journey looking at different gentile

Christians, seeing the neighbors around

them, and he's noticing patterns, and

he's reminding them of the patterns that

they should have seen. And I think he

picks out four here. Not that these are

exhaustive, not that these are the most

important, but he's trying to help them

see why living in the former way of

life, the old self, is so bad. So here's

the first thing he says in verse 17.

They're living in the futility of their

minds.

That word futility

would raise up connotations of

Ecclesiastes.

It's vain. It's empty. It's not

worthwhile.

When they when you look at your

neighbors, it's it's so easy to think

that what your what your work is about

or what your projects are on are the

most important thing. In some sense,

despite the tragedy of death, an enemy

that God has conquered and has converted

into a friend. It now serves for us as a

reminder of what really matters.

We might think certain kinds of

promotions really matter. uh certain

football teams winning really matter

certain kinds of bets might matter

and then you realize if death is it then

what does it matter imagine too if

there's no god and this is all there is

where eventually to the best of our

guess this is just one guess to the best

of our guess when every star goes out

and the universe exhibits heat death and

all we have are fundamental particles

expanding forever, world without end.

What will it matter whether you became a

CEO or not or went on a lot of vacations

or not? What will any of that matter

when all there is is a world of nothing

that began from nothing and ends in

nothing.

And that's the futility of their minds.

It's shocking when I talk to some of my

work people, my other work, not not

church, this isn't Josh. Um

[laughter]

I have to clarify just in case uh where

whether their life is going well or not

is grounded on whether their career is

going well or not. How feudal

and it's tempting to do so.

Uh it it's sometimes hard having

multiple vocations and and I have some

people say you actually should stop

doing church because when I meet people

for coffee or lunch that takes time away

from writing and writing is where I'll

get my prestige. And so hearing you talk

about your problems and your spiritual

struggles for that hour and a half takes

time from me doing the thing that really

matters. And then I talk to people who

are grown and mature and they say, "All

that writing means nothing."

When you talk to older and mature

Christians, you remember what really

matters. Uh I I predict I will cherish

that hour and a half lunch and breakfast

with you, you pouring out your heart to

me and us establishing our friendship

way more than me finishing any writing

project I have in mind. But when you

start focusing on the world's agenda,

then my projects really matter. and

whether or not my life is going well

depends on whether I'm accomplishing

what I want. Until we are able to be a

bit soberminded and focused and remember

so feudal. It's not as those things are

bad. Don't don't hear me incorrectly.

Those things may be good but the old

self idolizes those things. So that's

the first characterization futility of

mind. Look at the next one in verse 18.

They are darkened in their

understanding. And later in the verse,

because of ignorance, there's a sense in

which they don't know where to go.

Darkened in their understanding is being

confused about the things that really

matter. Why is it that they think their

work is so important? Their earthly

projects are so important. They're

important, but not relative to ultimate

things. Why is that? Because their

understanding has been darkened. It's

not a matter of lack of information. The

problem isn't that they don't know

anymore. The problem is they don't know

the big picture. Understanding is seeing

the big picture. How things hang

together and what really matters in the

big picture. And Paul gave you a sketch

of that in Ephesians chapter 1 and

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

chapter 2. That's the big picture here

of what God is up to. And if you are

separated from God in your old self, you

won't know what God is up to. And so

you'll forget what really matters. See,

information is like having a map. But if

you're in the dark, that map is worth

nothing. When I was in high school,

somebody took our youth group to a hike

and we went into a cave and we walked

far enough that for the first time, if

you turned off all of the flashlights,

you saw nothing. I've never experienced

that before. So, it's completely pitch

black and

like a foolish 15, 16year-old, you just

start walking. You hear splashes. Next

thing you know, the the guide says,

"Don't walk any further because you

don't know where you're going to be."

And I realized I didn't know where the

voice was coming from because you're in

a cave. Everything's echoing. Was that

voice going from there, from there, from

there? I didn't know.

Dark. You don't know where to go. Part

of the problem then of the old self is

you won't know from up or down.

H [sighs] I cited Milton the last time I

preached. I I fear I'm citing him too

much. But Milton has this with regards

to Satan where Satan's famous expression

is evil be thou my good.

When you're upside down and you don't

know which way to go, what kind of moral

compass are you going to have? That's

the second way he characterizes it.

Here's the third one still in verse 18.

They are alienated from the life of God.

They're cut off from the life of God.

What does that mean here? That that word

life in in in Greek, there's two

different words for life. One is the

kind of typical biological notion where

plants, puppies, and people are alive.

And then there's another word for the

kind of life that means like energy,

ability, power. It's it's the kind of

life that God has. God doesn't have the

biological kind of life, but he has the

other kind of life that brings about

people's power and is the source of that

power. When you are cut off from God's

life, you are cut off from that ability

and power and energy and source of

vastity. And what is that source for?

Well, go back in chapter two. What are

you supposed to do now that you were

made alive, though you were once dead?

You are alive to perform good works that

were prepared for you beforehand, that

you should walk in them. We are made for

the kind of works that imitate God. We

are called to live a life that is

worthy. And the only way to do that is

to have the power, the ability, the

energy that comes from God. And when you

are in your old self, you have cut

yourself off from that source and

energy. You are unable to do those very

things.

Here's the last way he characterizes it.

And it's later down in the passage in

verse 22.

The old self is corrupt through

deceitful desires.

That old way of life is broken through

deceitful desires. desires that promise

you goods that it can never deliver.

That's the pattern that Paul wants these

Christians to see. I know it promises

you good things.

In fact, that's the message of the

nations around us, of the people around

us without God. If you leave your spouse

for the younger, better model, your life

will be better.

If you go hopping from one position to

another in order to secure more funds so

that you can save more, so you can

retire early, so that you can vacation

more, then your life will be better. It

keeps promising you more and more. And

the more that we see it, the more we

realize it fails to deliver. If sexual

pleasures and gratification, if money,

if power, prestige, possessions made you

happier, then the world's elites would

be happier.

And yet, where do we see things like

people ending their lives happen a lot?

People who are miserable and unhappy. It

promises you things. And we could just

do that for ourselves. We don't have to

look at others. Just look at it for

ourselves. I remember when I was

younger, getting a Super Nintendo was

going to make me the happiest person in

the world. I told my mom, "You buy me

that Super Nintendo, I'm dating myself a

little bit. Once you buy that for me,

you never have to buy me anything ever

again."

Well, my mom can tell you I was wrong

about that.

Uh, I was also a romantic in my 20s. I

thought once I get married, all the

movies told me then then the credits

end. I was waiting when I saw Alyssa

walk down the aisle. I I the credits

started to roll. Everything went into

soft focus.

And then there's the next morning and

the next morning after that and the next

morning after that. Even the good things

of this world do not fully satisfy

because that's not what they were meant

for.

And the way of the old self says those

things will satisfy you and bring you to

your end. And that is the way of

deception. The old self then is

characterized in these kinds of ways.

Now, it's specific to what Paul is

saying in these gentile Christians in

the regions that he's been traveling to,

but it's also true for us. And so I give

you this warning. Watch out for the way

of sin and of death. It will be

enticing.

I I I assume narcotics feel really good.

I I don't know, right? Josh can tell you

more about it, but I assume it's really

good. But but I am deeply tempted by

sexual gratification. I am deeply

tempted by vain glory and accolades of

how great one is and one's

accomplishments. I am tempted by greed.

You don't have to have lots of money. I

probably make way less than you do. And

yet I am tempted by greed and

possessions because I want more. And I

actually think if I have more, I will be

happier. And I have to remember the

Super Nintendo didn't gratify me. My own

wonderful marriage didn't gratify me.

The way of the world leads to empty

gratification.

All right, let's now switch over to

Paul's further characterization as he

looks at the root and the fruits of the

old self. Meaning the root, the source,

and the fruits, some of its consequence.

And so what's the root? Look at what he

says in verse 18. All of this because of

the hardness of heart. The hardness of

heart. I started this message talking

about the importance of heart

transformation. The heart can impact the

head. Information can't be enough.

It's why people will read science

articles and think, "Oh, yeah, I have

all the information, but if you don't

know how to think about confirmation

theory or decision theoretic procedures,

it's not going to be useful to you. Info

is not enough."

Similarly, head is not enough. You need

some of the heart. And I I want to

clarify here. Josh and I have elaborated

on this before, but just as a reminder,

heart doesn't just mean feelings.

The heart in this time would mostly be

used to talk about the center of

yourself and the source of your actions.

They they would have used the word

emotion but in a very specific meaning.

Uh just go to the etmology of emotion.

Emotion, moving out. It's the thing that

motivates you or moves you into action.

What does hardness of heart mean?

That source of action is stuck, frozen.

I imagine as there's crazy storms

happening in the United States and

people have their cars outside. I know

nothing of cars. Sorry, Tim and John

Wood, but uh I imagine that when engines

are frozen over, nothing moves. The car

doesn't move. If your heart is hardened,

if it's stuck, frozen, nothing will

move. That is what a hardened heart is.

The idea then is a hardened heart is the

source, the reason why the old self

becomes the way that it is.

While Paul doesn't say it here, and this

is going to be a little bit speculative,

I think the reason why he regards the

heart in this kind of way is being a

good Jewish Christian, he knows his Old

Testament and he realizes that in order

for there to be any change, it has to be

the work of the spirit. If you go back

to Ezekiel, what's the problem with the

people? They have hearts made of stone.

The solution then is everybody needs a

heart transplant where the spirit can

take away the heart of stone and put it

in its place a heart of flesh, a soft

heart, a beating heart, a heart that

moves. So that's the source. What is the

fruit of the old self? He says two

different things. And again, I think

he's not doing anything systematic. I

think he's just observing the people

around him.

And he says, "Here's the first fruit of

the old self whose root is a hardened

heart characterized by futility and

ignorance and alienation from God's

power and corruption through deceitful

desires." The first fruit, he says, is

people end up callous.

People end up calloused. What does he

mean here? What he means here is that

they lack sense and they lack

sensibility. Sorry, nod to Jane Austin,

right? But if you look, the opening

characters of that novel lack sense and

sensibility. They don't know which way

is up or down and they are unbothered by

the things going around them. They have

no reason and they have no adequate

emotion that's responsive in the ways

that people are supposed to respond to

ordinary things. When you become

calloused, when you see people die,

you're unbothered. But it's because

you've seen hundreds of things die.

Whether they be real, like in movies

with normal people, or whether they be

orcs, I I do worry about uh showing my

children, even movies that I think are

good, even watching orcs die, because it

can desensitize you. Uh I I don't watch

Game of Thrones. I don't watch horror

movies. I I leave it to you. I don't

want to be legalistic. I leave it to you

to bear your own conscience of what you

shouldn't or shouldn't see. The reason

why I don't watch these things is not

because I think people will be prone to

doing them. That the problem of violent

things isn't that you will go and engage

in violence. The problem with them is

that you become desensitized to those

things.

That seems to me to be bad. that if we

see someone made in the image of God

undergoing horrifying things even if

it's fictional

and we are unbothered by it and I think

Paul says in that age in that era people

are witnessing all sorts of hor

horrendous things and they are

unbothered by it that is I think a fruit

of the old self here is the second fruit

of the old self

in verse 19 they've given themselves up

in sensuality, greedy to practice every

kind of impurity.

What he means there by sensuality

is

an inordinate, lustful desire without

constraints.

It's where you transgress boundaries

beyond what you might think is socially

normal till that feels normal to you.

It's unconstrained sexual perversion.

How in the world did the church of

Corenth

allow for incest?

You know, we we

communities are affected by the fruit of

the old self

where we start normalizing

and God forbid even celebrating

disgusting sexual practices that we all

partake. And this isn't a secret coded

message for other people. I feel this in

my own heart.

And virtually every man who's ever been

honest with me when we do go out for

coffee or lunch has shared the exact

same thing. How did we normalize this in

the United States and for us and here in

San Jose and even within our church

where even godly good men can allow

those sick twisted desires to impact

them.

That's what unconstrained sexual

perversion looks like. And I'm not

talking about people out there. I'm just

gonna focus on myself.

And then whereby we allow for leaders to

engage in such things and then we make

excuses for them. I am baffled that

within some Christian churches you have

pastors and elders and leaders who have

engaged in such horrifying practices and

then you see people trying to defend

them. May that never be at West Hills.

But that's the fruit of the old self.

That's how far you will go in

unconstrained ways. If Paul's strategy

is to show you just how bad and

unfulfilling it is, I think he

accomplished the task. And all I'm

trying to do is convey what I think Paul

is trying to do. Don't do it. It looks

good, right? I know she looks attractive

and if you leave your wife, you'll be

happier. I know if you just abandon your

church and do what's fun and spend the

money that you way the way that you

want, it'll be fun. It's I know it seems

enticing.

See its fruits. And then ask yourself,

is that what you want? Paul implores you

and I implore you. Don't put on the old

self. Take off the old self.

Now, let's look at what he says about

the new self.

He says in verse 20,

"But that is not the way you learned

Christ,

assuming that you have heard about him

and were taught in him as the truth is

in Jesus."

He's reminding them, you are Christians.

You have learned Christ. You know what's

really interesting about that passage

that a lot of people have noticed? It

doesn't say you learned about Christ. It

says you learned Christ.

We're so used to thinking of education

as learning information.

In the ancient world and even in the

Roman world, it would have been common

to think about it in terms of

cultivating virtue

and that you would have an exemplar, an

ideal model who is your source of

learning, but you also aim to become

like them. You see it in the stoicism.

You see it in Aristotilianism is very

very common way of thinking about

education. And he says you learned

Christ. You didn't just learn facts

about Jesus. You learned him. You were

united connected to him. A cristocentric

education then is one where Christ is

both the source and the end of the

education.

You learn from him. As Paul says, he is

the teacher and guide and he is also the

end. What will you look like if

Christian education has taken place? You

will have looked more like Christ. You

may not be a better physicist. You may

not be a better philosopher. But who

cares? You'll have known if your

education was better if by the end of it

you resemble Christ more. That is the

end and aim of education. Christian

education should not

resemble worldly education that focuses

on your career and getting a job. We'll

have known that we've done our job well

if by the end of it you look more like

Christ.

Notice what it says. It says, "And the

truth is in Jesus." The truth is in

Jesus. Last week, Josh talked about this

notion of truth. It's not just facts and

information.

It's about matching with the kind of

ideal. The person who is true blue, that

person who is a true friend. The truth

is in Jesus. Meaning Jesus is the match

of the ideal. That is what the ideal

human looks like. And our growing into

maturity is to look like him.

So put on the new self. That language of

putting off and putting on, Paul uses it

multiple times. other letters that he

wrote, he connects it with baptism. Does

does Paul mean baptism here? Maybe,

maybe not. I'm not going to take a stand

here. What is very common with the

language of putting off and putting on,

sort of taking off clothes and putting

on clothes, is oftentimes, even in the

Greor Roman world, you see it a lot in

Stoicism, is the idea of taking off

vices and putting on virtues.

See, virtues are habits or dispositions.

In other words, is it's your character.

When you have the character of

generosity, you don't have to fight your

way to it. You just sort of do it

automatically. You want to do it. The

generous person isn't the person who

goes, "Oh, I don't want to give, but ah,

fine." The generous person who just does

it freely. Sometimes even not uh without

thinking. It's sort of second nature, we

might say. Putting on Christ then is to

put on the kind of character that Jesus

has where we're not trying to fight for

it. And you get there through practice.

And Paul's going to talk about the

various practices that we can do to sort

of become the kind of person that has

the personality of Jesus. But I think

that's what's happening in this passage.

Imitate Jesus and specifically imitate

God. All that stuff in chapter one, go

read again. And I think what it's trying

to do in somewhat human terms is a paint

a picture of what God is like so that

you can imitate God. Next chapter, Paul

says that explicitly, imitate God. What

are you supposed to imitate? What did he

just talk about in chapters one and

chapters two? So

part of this then is becoming a certain

kind of person. And and I'm leaving it a

little bit generic because next week

Josh is going to go into way more depth

of some of the specifics that Paul has

in mind. But but notice how this passage

ends.

This new self was created after the

likeness of God in true righteousness

and holiness.

This new self is created.

It's a word that's not used a lot in the

New Testament, but the idea of it's not

made by us. It's made by God in us for

true righteousness and true holiness.

And sometimes we think of righteousness

and holiness as mere individual traits.

As you'll see in the coming passages,

it's actually about community,

cultivating and creating a community

that exemplifies righteousness and

holiness because all of its members and

participants look a lot like Christ. So,

I I want to end then to help us think

about this for ourselves. We've been

talking about Paul talking to these

gentile Christians.

And here's the first and most obvious

one. Put off the old self.

Don't be enticed by the world's

pleasures.

I know it will seem enticing to you. I

am enticed by them.

I'm I'm waiting to hear from a promotion

and it's really easy for me to think my

well-being is tied up with that. I I I I

do want people to give me

acknowledgement and that my sense of

well-being is tied up to it. There are

times where marriage is harder and if I

just were by myself, it would be way

easier.

All of those will lead to fruit that is

disgusting and horrifying.

And when I look at the way in which that

life is characterized, it's feudal. It's

feudal. It'll be empty striving. It'll

be corrupt through deceitful desires. It

promises me things that just won't

deliver. And here's the reason why.

Uh I I believe in soulmates, but as

we're about to do premarital counseling

for someone some people at church, uh

their marriage partner is not their

soulmate. God is our soulmate. You have

an infinite longing in your heart. And

it can only be satisfied by an infinite

being. And if you try to put your spouse

there, your spouse will leave you high

and dry. If you try to put your career

there, it'll leave you high and dry. If

you try to put worldly pleasures there,

be it narcotics or sexual gratification,

it will leave you high and dry. That

what you were made for was God. As

Augustine put it, "You have made us for

yourself, oh Lord, and our hearts are

restless until they rest in thee."

The world's flaws and problems,

suffering and death, reminds us nothing

in this world satisfies us because we

were made for God. So don't believe the

lie that these things in this world will

make you happy.

Just look out. I I think scripture

teaches this, but I think we can learn

this from experience. Just look out and

you'll see it'll leave you high and dry.

Don't believe the lie. Take off the old

self and put on the new self.

Learn the way of Christ. Let me give you

two suggestions and then I'll close.

Here's the first suggestion.

Education if not by information then is

what? is to learn from and to become

like Christ. And so you need to know

Jesus.

And that's why this book is so uniquely

special. It's not the most interesting

book. I hope nobody like throws anything

at me for saying that, right? I mean,

like Dante's Divine Comedy is

structurally way cooler and more

sophisticated. And I I'm I'm tempted to

read Lord of the Rings more. What makes

this book different from every other

book is when I read it, I'm not just

learning things about God. I am

communing and fellowshipping with Jesus.

Read the Gospels so you can learn the

personality of Jesus so you can imitate

it. Read the rest of the New Testament

that explicates the way of Jesus. And

read the Old Testament because if you

read Luke 24, what does Jesus say? All

the law and the prophets, the Old

Testament is about who? He says it's

about me, about Jesus. So all of this is

your opportunity. This is why could

could you have Neuralink tell you all

the facts about the Bible? Could you use

Gemini to learn all bibl Bible trivia

and you win every trivia? Sure. But if

that's what you're trying to do when you

read the Bible, you've wasted your time

reading the Bible because the

opportunity of reading this book is that

you get to date Jesus. You get to spend

time communing and uniting yourself to

him whether you feel it or not. And so I

want to encourage you, do what you can

in reading this text. Read the Bible

slowly. I'm not

do some intentional reading with it. I I

know some of you are super busy and and

some of you have told me you read you

listen to scripture as you commute to

work. I think that's a wonderful thing

to do. But I want to also encourage you

spend some time whether reading and and

that can include listening but where

where you pause, right? One one nice

thing about reading slowly is you can

pause and reflect and meditate and where

it's undisturbed, right? You're not just

commuting to work. You're not just doing

it as a background activity where your

aim and your goal is to be with Jesus.

I want to encourage you to do that. And

here's the last thing I I want to say as

you put on the new self and try to be

like Jesus because in the coming verses,

a lot about speech is about to take

place.

And I want us to start thinking, how can

we engage in speech that is Christlike,

whether that's orally when we talk in

person or through social media.

After all, we're not supposed to be like

the nations. We're not supposed to be

like the way of the world. And if all of

this is encompassed with the theme of

unity, is my speech

producing unity or is it bringing about

disunityity?

As we've said many times, unity oriented

speech can still be critical and should

involve rebuke. Yay for criticism, yay

for rebuke. But if you look at the way

that Jesus does it, is it to antagonize

or is it to bring people in into

reconciliation with the father? I want

to encourage you as you read the gospels

and you see the way in which Jesus

lived, notice even the way that he

speaks. And do this with every aspect of

Jesus. Jesus is the source and the end

of our education.