“As we have so learned Christ”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Monday, January 3, 2022
Ephesians 4:17-32 (Forward, p. 66) CEV p. 1224
In verse 20 of today’s passage, the apostle Paul says something quite riveting, quite challenging, to his readers in Ephesus. He says, in the King James Version, ”But ye have not so learned Christ”. He is talking about the new life that we are expected to live and is contrasting it with the life that we lived previously. Interestingly, that new life has interior components, personal ones, as well exterior or corporate ones.
He categorizes those who do not know Christ as those whose minds are in the dark and whose thoughts are worthless. They are completely ignorant and stubborn. They have lost all feelings of shame and have given themselves over to vice and do all sorts of indecent things without restraint. He identifies these things are foolish and deceitful desires, desires which will only lead to their destruction.
By way of contrast to these, he implores them to let their minds and hearts be made completely new. “Let the Spirit change your way of thinking and make you into a new person.” We must put on a new self. After all, we were ‘created to be like God’.
And not only does this ‘new life’ manifest itself in terms of interior changes, but also in terms of exterior behaviour. We must no longer lie or steal. We must not allow anger, even if justified, to lead us into sin. We are to dispense with all smutty or harmful talk and speak only such words as are helpful to the upbuilding and encouragement of others. And we are to leave off bitterness, resentments, inflamed passions, rudeness, or insulting or hateful words. Instead, we are to be kind, tender-hearted, merciful and forgiving to each other, even as God in Christ has done so with each of us. And, surely, is this not the way that we have learned Christ? Is not God’s behaviour towards us, Christ’s behaviour, exactly what we should be living, we should be imitating, in our own selves? Is this not an ideal goal or aim or resolution for our new year: to be more like Christ, both within ourselves, and without? I think so. Amen.
Forward notes: “You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (verses 22-24).
“I haven’t always been a follower of Jesus. I struggled with how to give myself completely to Jesus. What if I gave Jesus my heart, and he didn’t show up when someone walked out of my life, yet again? I wondered: Where was Jesus when I needed to be held and comforted?
“Years later, I realized that Jesus was right there, holding me all along. He was there, tugging a friend’s heart to quickly come to my side and offer support. He was there, assuring my friend arrived safely. Jesus was there when no one else was, helping me peel off an old life of hurt and pain and put on new garments of love and holiness.
“When I walk alongside Jesus humbly, mercifully, and aware, I feel a renewed sense of purpose in living out my call. I am a new person clothed in dignity and worth. My past is a moment in time and not an all-consuming way of life.”
Moving Forward: “What old ways of life do you need to put away?
