“Walk worthy of you calling”—that’s a tall order. But this is God’s command in Ephesians 4:1. How do we change from an unworthy walk to a worthy walk? How do we grow to be like Christ, leaving behind sinful habits that have long plagued us? (Ephesians 4:13) Where does change begin? Once begun, how can we sustain that change? The apostle Paul gets to the heart of these questions in Ephesians 4:17–24.
The Heart Before Salvation
The apostle Paul exposes the unworthiness of our pre-salvation way of life, cutting through our deeds to the motivations behind them (Ephesians 4:17–19). He emphasizes our inner life—our thinking and our heart—as the basis of our behavior. Paul speaks of the futility of our minds, our darkened understanding, and the blindness of our hearts. He describes us as being “past feeling,” insensitive and calloused to spiritual things as we barrel headlong through life in a greedy addiction to our own insatiable lusts.
The Heart After Salvation
Then, Paul contrasts our behavior before salvation with what Christ has taught us after salvation, and once again, he points to our inner life (Ephesians 4:20–24). Sandwiched between putting off the old life and putting on the new life lies a critical step—the constant renewal of our spirit.[1] He commands each believer to “be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” God intends for this renewal to be ongoing each day (2 Corinthians 4:16). We must yield to His Spirit as He works in our spirit through the Word of God (Colossians 3:10).[2] Only as we are being renewed, can we experience the change to the “true righteousness and holiness” desired by God (Ephesians 4:24; Romans 12:2).
The Heart of Change
The heart of change is a change of heart. Our behavior will not change if our thinking is not changing to be like Christ. As believers, we have a choice of how we are going to walk. Will we walk worthy of our calling? (Ephesians 4:1) Or will we walk as the unbelievers around us walk? (Ephesians 4:17) The condition of our heart will determine which path we walk.
[1] Though not in the scope of this article, the past tense of both the “put off” and “put on” refer to the positional change at the moment of salvation when we become new creatures in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). We have already put off the old man and put on the new man (Colossians 3:9–10; Romans 6:6). However, Ephesians 4, emphasizes that we must bring our position into practice—we must live like who we are in Christ, putting off the old and putting on the new through the renewing of the Holy Spirit.
[2] The Greek present tense indicates the continual nature of the action. The passive form shows that this renewal is something done to us by Someone else as we yield to Him.
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