… created to be like God …
Summary: The idea of being like God can feel a little intoxicating … to the old self. To the new self, being like God is to be like Jesus.
Continue reading “Ephesians 4:24b – Following Jesus”Ephesians 4:24a – Programmed for Life
… and to put on the new self,
Summary: Using a computer for a modern metaphor for a spiritual concept is helpful. We operate in a similar way. The one major difference is that unlike the computer, we get to choose our “programming.”
Continue reading “Ephesians 4:24a – Programmed for Life”Ephesians 4:23a – Attitude
… to be made new in the attitude of your minds;
Summary: The secular version of having a “positive attitude” is usually motivated by secular benefits. It is a way of controlling what happens in the world around us. Christianity uses a similar technique for very different reasons and with different results.
Continue reading “Ephesians 4:23a – Attitude”Ephesians 4:22b – Weed Killer for the Soul
… which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;
Summary: The “old self” is tricky. It wants to be liked so it plays tricks on us to make us think it is doing good.
Continue reading “Ephesians 4:22b – Weed Killer for the Soul”Ephesians 4:22a – Ego States
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self …
Summary: The language Paul uses to describe how belief in Jesus changes a person is remarkably similar to a modern psychoanalytic theory known as transactional analysis.
Continue reading “Ephesians 4:22a – Ego States”Ephesians 4:20-21 – The Bridge
That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.
Summary: With this passage, Paul shifts gears and leads us to his next main point.
Continue reading “Ephesians 4:20-21 – The Bridge”Ephesians 4:17b-19 – Garbage In, Garbage Out
… 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, and they are full of greed.
Summary: What we think has a big impact on what we do and who we are. Thinking there is no God is a faulty assumption that leads to faulty — and dangerous — conclusions.
Continue reading “Ephesians 4:17b-19 – Garbage In, Garbage Out”Ephesians 4:17a – A Kind of Test
So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do …
Summary: Paul’s problem is that people who believe in God act differently than people who don’t. Being the “Apostle to the Gentiles” carried with it the added burden of educating Gentile believers about this difference.
Continue reading “Ephesians 4:17a – A Kind of Test”Ephesians 4:16 – What if God Sneezed?
From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Summary: Paul continues with his description of the body of Christ, and with it, we continue our exploration of what that means.
Continue reading “Ephesians 4:16 – What if God Sneezed?”Ephesians 4:15b – What Will Jesus Do?
… we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
Summary: Today’s passage brings us to a place where we consider the body of Christ in a new light. If we are, in fact, the body of Jesus, what should we be doing?
Continue reading “Ephesians 4:15b – What Will Jesus Do?”