Renewed in the Spirit of your Mind: A Meditation on Ephesians 4

This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, 

that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, 

in the vanity of their mind,

Having the understanding darkened, 

being alienated from the life of God 

through the ignorance that is in them, 

because of the blindness of their heart:

Who being past feeling 

have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, 

to work all uncleanness with greediness.

But ye have not so learned Christ;

If so be that ye have heard him, 

and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:

That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, 

which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;

And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

And that ye put on the new man, 

which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Wherefore putting away lying, 

speak every man truth with his neighbour: 

for we are members one of another.

St. Paul’s teaching to the church at Ephesus continued in chapter 4, to draw a distinction between the inner and outer lives of unbelieving Gentiles and believing Christians.  In verse 17 he began with a phrase concerning the vanity of the unenlightened mind, hardened and blinded against what is good and holy, given over to pursue the lustful desires which bring forth evil actions.  This state of being is ostensibly what many of the Christians in Ephesus had suffered prior having been born again by water and Spirit, through faith and repentance in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Before the dawn of saving grace had softened their hearts to perceive the love of God given to them through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, they had also surrendered themselves to the vain pursuit of empty passions, were aliens from the eternal life of God, and were marked by the evil thoughts and actions which chased them into death and hell.  Only after this regeneration were the Gentile Christians of Ephesus able to truly trust and love God, to not only do good works rather than evil, but to desire the good over the evil.

This distinction is highlighted when Paul pointed out that having learned rightly of Jesus, they would be given His Holy Spirit to believe and live in Him, putting off the “old man” which pursued selfish lusts and evil actions, and thus be renewed in the spirit of their mind, putting on the “new man” which is a new creation of God in Jesus Christ, informed and motivated by His love, righteousness, and holiness.  This conversion would be the work of God Himself, who came to them through His preached Word of Law and Gospel, and whose Holy Spirit would enliven and enlighten them by grace through faith in Jesus.  Instead of an unenlightened mind motivated by a fallen spirit whose highest pursuits were empty vanity, the Christian was given a renewed mind motivated and inspired by a renewed and sanctified spirit.  Thus Paul could show the Christians in Ephesus that their only path to holiness and eternal life was in Christ, who alone renewed both their soul and their intellect to love, trust, and follow Him.

As in Paul’s time, so in our own, there is a distinction between those who are motivated by a darkened and fallen spirit toward dark and evil passions, and those who have been renewed in their spirit and their minds to pursue love, peace, joy, righteousness, holiness, and truth.  Many Christians who were not raised to know Christ from their youth, were once those who used their darkened intellect to justify themselves and others in the breathless pursuit of vain things, sometimes even having the appearance of righteousness, but eventually being proved out by the false assumptions of their selfish ideals when the results were death, suffering, division,  enslavement, and destruction.  Even long time Christians who wander from the regular nourishment of God’s Word, or who become deceived by false teachers of false gospels, find themselves falling back into the same.  But whether a person comes to living faith in Jesus early or late in life, the distinction remains the same— those who live in Christ are new creations, whose spirit and mind are guided by the Spirit and mind of Jesus, who is the very Word of God made flesh; and those who pursue themselves, their falsehoods, and their twisted passions as they plunge willfully or ignorantly into eternal destruction.

The dialogue between the Church and the world is helped greatly by remembering what St. Paul taught the Christians at Ephesus, as is the conversation between various Christians concerning how we should walk together.  While the history of Christian thinkers, writers, philosophers, and theologians has shown repeatedly the intellectual integrity and rigor of Biblical life and doctrine, conversion is not accomplished by the work of one intellect convincing another.  Apologists at their best expose the irrationality and inconsistency of attacks against Christian faith and life, while showing the intellectual superiority of God’s Word over the shifting vanities of human speculation.  But the real conversion of a person happens through the work of the Holy Spirit, moving through His Word and Sacraments, giving faith to repent, believe, and live in Jesus.  Thus the conversion of the world which would precipitate the improvement of their motives and moral actions among each other, is accomplished not by the gymnastics of human reason or effort, but by the Word and Spirit of God alone.

Therefore, St. Paul concludes, let us speak truth to one another, for we are all member of each other; the various factions of Christians among themselves, the whole of humanity as one human race, and the whole of creation in which we were placed.  That truth, which is Jesus and His Word, is the common link which unites us all, seeks to save us all, and calls us all into life forever in our Creator.  Only there, in Jesus, do we find the renewing of our spirits which also informs our intellect, and thus reforms our lives and deeds among one another to be guided not by selfish desire, but by divine love.  Only there, in Jesus, do we find the common language which speaks to our salvation from the dark pathways of death, and to our reconciliation with the eternal Author of Life.

Hear the Word of the Lord come to you this day, calling you away from the vanities of your own fallen mind as well as the vagaries of fallen social luminaries, that you might receive His free gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation by faith in Him.  Hear Him call to you, be you barbarian or Greek, free or oppressed, Christian or pagan or humanist or any other distinction under the sun— that He might renew the spirit of your mind through His Word and Spirit, and create in you a new person whose life is forever guarded and kept in Him.  Amen.