Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

4:17-18 Paul affirms most solemnly in the Lord that his Gentile readers, as part of the new creation, should no longer live as the Gentiles do (vv. 22-24; Col. 3:9-10). futility of their minds . . . darkened. Both in antiquity and today, people who reject the knowledge of God think of themselves as "enlightened" (cf. Heb. 10:32). Their ignorance here is not lack of general education; some are brilliant in their own way, but such brilliance is all wasted and futile in the end when combined with hardness of heart toward the truth of the gospel in Christ (cf. Matt. 13:14-15; John 12:40; Acts 28:26-27; Rom. 11:8).

4:22 put off your old self. As Christians seek to do this, God makes it a reality, as seen in Col. 3:9-10. Even Paul's Gentile readers can be part of the new creation in Christ. (As the ESV footnote indicates, "self" is the generic Gk. for "man" or "human"--perhaps an allusion to Adamic man apart from Christ.) Ephesians 4:22 describes the negative side of regeneration, while vv. 23-24 point to the positive side. corrupt. People need inner transformation because their hearts are "deceitful above all things, and desperately sick" (Jer. 17:9).

4:23 renewed. Paul expressed the negative side of the new creation in v. 22 as putting off the "old self," while vv. 23-24 express the positive side as an entire transformation of believers' inner selves, focusing here on their minds (see also John 3:3-6; Col. 3:9-10). Christians sometimes distinguish between knowledge of head and of heart, but the Bible shows that they should love and serve the Lord with all that is in them, including their minds, at all times (Deut. 6:5; 10:12; 13:3; Matt. 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27). The "renewal" or "transformation" of the mind (Rom. 12:2) is a process in which believers begin to think in new and right ways as they meditate on the truths of God's Word.

4:24 put on the new self (lit., "man"; see note on v. 22). Paul focuses on the individual aspect of the corporate "new man" as described in 2:15. Believers are created anew in Christ (see also 2:10). Created after the likeness of God further shows the connection with the original creation in Genesis, where "God created man in his own image" (Gen. 1:27; cf. 1 Cor. 15:49).