INTRO: We have been looking at the second part of the practical section of this letter. The first section dealt with unity and the second dealt with the instruction not to walk like other Gentiles walk. What we had in this section was first their conversion. So let us look at the contrast that is to happen in conversion. In verses 17-19 we have a description of how they walked before they were converted. Paul said:
17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind,
18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;
19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
But this is what is to happen now that they have been saved according to verses 20-24:
20 But you have not so learned Christ,
21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus:
22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,
23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
So Paul says in Corinthians, "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away, behold all things become new." And again in Galatians, "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me. |
