Right Living in a World Gone Wrong…Studies in Ephesians
Are You Putting Me On?
Ephesians 4:20-24
When I was a college student, the cost of a year’s tuition, housing and books at St. Paul Bible College was an astounding $3500 per year…a monumental figure in 1976 – though it seems miniscule compared to the $20,000 per year that my daughter pays to go to the same college 30 years later! My parents couldn’t help me with my schooling, so I paid for it with a combination of student loans and work. During the summers of my freshman and sophomore years, a guy at my home church lined me up with a job that really helped. I worked for those two summers as the “worm hand” on an oilrig in Northeast Ohio.
The “worm” is the lowest man on the 4-man crew of a rig – hence the name. He gets to be the one who goes down in the mud pit to keep things flowing, and generally does the work no one else wants to do. In 1978-79, with gas prices quickly approaching 75 cents a gallon, there was lots of drilling going on, and it was paying big bucks. I made enough money in three months to pay for an entire year of school!
Of course, being a temporary worker for the summer only, I worked the graveyard shift – 10 at night to 6 in the morning, 7 days a week for the entire summer. The only way to get a day off was to convince someone from another shift to work a double and cover my post, which meant that I worked a double to repay the favor. It was hard, dirty work – but it was a great way to pay for my education.
I gotta tell you, when I finished an 8 or 16 hour shift at that job, I couldn’t wait to get those dirty stiff clothes off, and get in a shower! I have never been so dirty as those days on the rig. We would do our best to clean up at the site, before getting in the truck for the ride home, but it was pretty useless…When I got home from my first shift, at about 8am on a Monday morning, I was covered with mud, grease, oil and sweat. I went downstairs, took off my dirty clothes, climbed in the shower, then put my clothes in the wash so that I could wear them that night, and went to bed. When I woke up, my mom informed me that my clothes had been so dirty that they had stained her washing machine – the entire washtub was stained with mud and grease and it wouldn’t come out! So with my first pay check, I bought an old ringer washer to do my work clothes in!
You may have never been quite that dirty, but I would imagine that most of us have at one time or another been in dirty clothes that we couldn’t wait to get out of – after a long drive across country, a hard workout at the gym, or a long day on the job.
In John chapter 11, there’s an episode from Jesus’ life that focuses on a guy who was in some very repulsive clothes, and couldn’t wait to get out of them. Turn there with me if you would. John chapter 11 contains the story of one of Jesus’ closest friends, a guy by the name of Lazarus. At the beginning of the chapter, we read that Jesus got word that his friend was very ill. But Jesus chose to wait for two days before setting off to his side. When he arrived, Lazarus had died, and his two sisters, Mary and Martha, were overwhelmed with grief and surrounded by friends and family members who were likewise grieving.
I was at two funerals this week: one for a 72-year-old woman, and the other for a 47-year-old woman. Both of these women knew Jesus, which makes the funeral completely different. When a believer dies, the funeral becomes a celebration of the persons life and a time of rejoicing that they are with Him in Heaven. When a person dies who did not know Jesus, there is no hope, and the funeral is a time of despair and hopelessness. But even at the funeral of a follower of Jesus, there is grief – those of us left behind grieve because we miss the one who is gone – we know we won’t see them again until heaven, and there is a void left in us that can’t be filled, but over time will heal.
The same was true for Lazarus’ sisters. They were saddened by their loss, even though they trusted in Jesus and knew that one day they would be with their brother again. Jesus reassured them that this was the case, and reminded them that He was the source of life, and that anyone who believes in Him would never really die (verse 25). But Jesus had even better plans for Lazarus. After going to the grave/cave, where Lazarus had been laid, he called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” And his friend walked out of the grave! Jesus said, at the end of verse 44, “Take of the grave clothes and let him go.”
I would imagine that Lazarus couldn’t wait to get out of those grave clothes! First of all, they would have been very restrictive, wrapped tightly in strips of cloth, face covered with a cloth, arms strapped to his sides. Then there would be the smell! The tradition was to layer spices in the strips of cloth to counter the overwhelming stench of death – it had to be pretty powerful itself! And then there’s the stigma – who wants to invite a guy over for dinner who’s wrapped up like a mummy for their funeral?
Lazarus definitely wanted out of those grave clothes! Who wouldn’t?
You might be surprised.
In Ephesians chapter 4, Paul challenges the members of the church to get out of their grave clothes. Turn in your Bibles to that letter from Paul to the church at Ephesus, the fourth chapter, and verse 20. Paul has, in some of the strongest language he ever writes, insisted that believers in Jesus Christ live a life that is different than the surrounding world. He describes that world lifestyle in verses 17-19, which we looked at last week:
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. 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, with a continual lust for more.
He then writes this:
You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, 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.[i]
In this passage of Scripture, Paul calls us to take off, and put on. We are to take off the old, dead clothes of the past, and put on new, living garments. Just as Lazarus no longer belonged to the realm of the dead, and therefore should not be dressed like the dead – we no longer belong to this dead world – and should no longer be clothed in a lifestyle that reeks of death – take off the old and put on the new!
How do we do it? Three steps are shown in these 5 verses.
1. Put off your old self (vs. 22).
This is an interesting phrase, especially since the Bible teaches that when we come to know Christ our old selves are replaced with a new self – 2 Cor. 5:17 makes that plain. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” God has done His work – it is finished! But it is clear that alongside God’s work of renewal there is a role for us to play. We have a part in the battle. We have a responsibility to work against our old desires and habits, to fight them, to resist the temptations. The verse depicts the old self as "being corrupted by its deceitful desires." And so we are to "put off this old self.”
How? How do we practically do this? Very briefly, I think we need to:
Recognize and admit where our temptations are. Stop rationalizing our sin, stop making excuses for it, stop thinking it is ok to "indulge" once in a while as long as we go to church or say a prayer or do some other "good" thing which we think balances the sin off.
Determine to do something about it. And I mean determine, not merely think it would be a good idea, but to actually resolve to change.
Recognize that it is only through Christ that we will find the strength to overcome, and thus commit the whole thing to God in prayer, asking for His forgiveness for the past and the strength to fight the temptations.
And (this one is crucial and is the one we generally leave out) find someone else to hold you accountable. Confess your sin to them, and ask them to help you in this particular
struggle.
2. Be made new in the attitude of your minds (vs. 23).
Once the old nature is "put off,” Paul next commands that we be made new in the attitude of our minds. This is fascinating. It addresses the main part of what is needed for us - a new way of thinking.
Putting off the old is to me a matter of the heart - of allowing God to get a handle on our
desires and get our sinful habits under God’s control. And then Paul immediately links
this to our minds, instructing us to have our attitudes and our minds made new. This fits
perfectly, because we have an amazing ability to deceive ourselves. We can so easily
rationalize our sin, we can so easily convince ourselves that it isn’t really bad and doesn’t
really harm anyone, we can so easily bring ourselves to thinking that our sin doesn’t
really matter. What Paul says is that we need to be renewed in the attitude of our minds.
We need to work with the Holy Spirit to retrain our thinking.
Once again, the key question is: How? There is an expression in the computer industry for programmers - "garbage in, garbage out.’1’ It means if what you put in is not good, what comes out will not be good either. The same is true of our minds. To cooperate with God in this renewal of our minds means that we begin to make sure that what we put into our minds is good, not garbage. Like what? Scripture, for starters.
In his commentary on this passage, Warren Wiersbe says this:
Conversion is a crisis that leads to a process. Through Christ, once for all, we have been given a new position in His new creation, but day by day, we must by faith appropriate what He has given us. The word of God renews the mind as we surrender our all to Him. As the mind understand sth truth of God’s word, it is gradually transformed by the Spirit, and this renewal leads to a changed life. Physically you are what you eat, but spiritually, you are what you think. That is why it is important for us as Christians to spend time daily meditating on the Word, praying, and fellowshipping with Christ.
Get a reading plan (many Bibles have one already in them) and ensure that every day you are spending time filling your mind with the Word of God. Spend time in prayer, seeking God and listening to Him and communing with Him. Make sure you attend a worship service regularly. Join a small group. Listen to Christian music instead of the radio. And eliminate the garbage - if it is movies or TV or people that have a negative influence and lead you into temptation, then eliminate those influences and replace them with the things above.
3. Put on the new self (vs. 24).
The clothing analogy continues here. We have discarded the old, sought a renewal of the mind, and now Paul tells us what to put on: the new self "created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness." The idea is echoed in Gal. 3:27 "for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ." That is why Paul can write that we will be like God in "true righteousness and holiness” - because it is Christ living in us, recreating us in God’s
image.
Here again we find some responsibility placed on us - this new self is something
we are commanded to "put on." This is reflective of the wonderful balance in Scripture
between what God does and what effort we need to make also. Of course it is only God
that can recreate us - it is only God who can make us truly righteous and holy. But we
have to participate also. We have to receive this new nature by faith - and then we have
to take hold of the promises and gifts of God and appropriate them for ourselves - in
essence "putting them on." We don’t put on the new nature – God gives us a new nature - we put on a new way of life that accurately reflects the new nature we have in Christ. This is our responsibility – to live "a life worthy of the calling we have received." It’s my responsibility as a follower of Christ and a recipient of His grace and mercy. It’s your responsibility, too.
Conclusion:
In the days to come we’re going to look specifically at some examples of what we need to put off and what we need to put on – but the process has been outlined here today. Each of us must recognize our duty as Christians to be living a life that is in keeping with our identity in Christ.
Two weeks ago, I invited you to join me in a 12-week effort to do an extreme spiritual make over. 20 or so people have indicated they want to do so. After the service today, we’re gong to meet in the cafeteria to receive the materials and talk about how it’s going to work.
For the next 12 weeks those who choose to are going to discipline themselves for godliness. Daily tracking their prayer and personal worship times, Bible study, growth efforts, use of their spiritual gifts in ministry, fulfillment of their mission to reach the lost, and accountability with another believer. It’s a personal plan to use to help make this “change of wardrobe” a reality.
If you’d like to be part of this effort, it’s not too late to get involved, just show up in the cafeteria and pick up a packet, and we’ll explain how it works. You don’t have to do it, you may be already involved in a discipleship plan that’s working for you – that’s great. You may choose to try another plan. You may choose not to do anything at all.
I would have never thought of sitting at the table in my parents house in those dirty clothes from the oil fields of Northern Ohio. Lazarus would never have hung out with his friend Jesus wearing the clothes of a dead man. Why are we so content to live our new lives in Christ still dressed in the clothes of the world. Get out of those grave clothes – put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness!