Put Off the Old Self, Put On the New

Scripture: Ephesians 4:17–32

Read Ephesians 4:17–32 before proceeding. Keep your Bible open throughout this session.

You were taught with reference to your former way of life to lay aside the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and to put on the new man who has been created in God’s image—in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth.

(Ephesians 4:22–24)

No Longer As the Gentiles Walk

Having called the saints to walk worthily in verses 1–16, Paul now sharpens the call. He insists “that you no longer live as the Gentiles do.” The verb is again peripateō, walk. There is a way the Gentiles walk (a way the unconverted live, a way Paul’s readers themselves once lived), and the saints are no longer to walk that way. The contrast is stark. The Christian life is not just a slight improvement on the pagan life. It is a different walk altogether.

Paul does not soften the diagnosis of Gentile life. The language echoes 2:1–3, where he had named the saints’ former condition as death in offenses and sins. He returns to that diagnosis now, but with a different emphasis. There he focused on what the dead were spiritually: under this world’s present path, under the ruler of the domain of the air, under the cravings of the flesh. Here he focuses on what the dead think and how they live.

Paul names four things about the Gentile mind and four things about the Gentile life. The four things about the mind: it operates in futility (in vain reasoning, leading nowhere); it is darkened in its understanding (cannot see what is real); it is alienated from the life of God (cut off from the only true source of life); and it is marked by an ignorance rooted in the hardness of their hearts (a willful not-knowing). The four things about the life: the Gentiles have become callous (no longer feel the moral weight of their actions); they have given themselves over to indecency (active surrender to their own appetites); they practice impurity in every form; and they do so with greediness (insatiably).

This is dark territory. It is also accurate. The pagan world Paul lived in was visibly characterized by what he describes: sexual chaos, casual cruelty, religious confusion, the ordinary human capacity to harden the conscience until nothing causes shame. Paul has seen it. He has lived in it. He has watched the Gentiles around him (the ones who had not yet heard the gospel), and he can describe their walk with sorrowful precision.

But notice what he is not doing. He is not condemning the Gentiles outside the Church as if they were a separate category of human being from the saints. The Christians in Ephesus had been Gentiles too, before the gospel reached them. They knew this walk from the inside. Paul’s command is not “look down on those people.” His command is “do not walk that way anymore.” The walk the saints are leaving is the walk they themselves once knew. They have not become a different species. They have been pulled out of one walk and placed in another.

Lutheran theology reads this passage with great care to maintain that distinction. The Christian is not by nature better than the unbeliever. The Christian is by grace placed in a new walk. The diagnosis of the Gentile life is, at its root, the diagnosis of every human life apart from Christ, including the Christian’s own life before the Spirit brought her to faith. Knowing this guards the Christian against contempt for those still walking in darkness, and it keeps her humble about her own present standing in the light.

We turn now to what makes the difference.

Put Off, Put On

In verses 20 and 21, Paul names what changes everything. The saints have learned Christ.

The phrase is unusual. The NET renders verse 20 “But you did not learn about Christ like this,” but Paul’s Greek, emathete ton Christon, has no word for “about.” Paul does not say they have learned about Christ, or learned doctrine concerning Christ, or learned facts of Christ’s life. He says they have learned Christ. Christ Himself is what they have learned. The gospel is not a body of information that points to Christ; the gospel is the giving of Christ Himself. To learn Christ is to be given Christ: by hearing Him (the NET says “heard about him,” but again the Greek simply says “heard him”), by being “taught in him,” by receiving the truth that is in Jesus.

Read in a Lutheran key, this is a statement about the means of grace. Christ is not learned by detached study or self-cultivation. Christ is learned where Christ delivers Himself: in the Word preached, in the waters of Baptism, in the Supper of His body and blood. The saints in Ephesus had learned Christ because Christ had been given to them in those means. They had been brought into His life through the gifts He had given to His Church.

And this learning, this gift of Christ Himself, produces a new pattern of life. Paul names the pattern in three movements that organize the rest of the chapter: lay aside, be renewed, put on.

The image is of clothing. The Greek verb for laying aside, apotithēmi, is used for taking off clothes. The saints are to lay aside “the old man” the way a person takes off a worn-out garment. (Many translations say “old self”; the Greek is palaios anthrōpos, the old man.) The old man is the person they were before Christ: the Gentile in the flesh, the dead in offenses and sins, the one walking in futility and darkness. That old man has been condemned at the cross of Christ. He has no future. The saints are to take him off.

And the saints are to put on “the new man” the way a person puts on a clean garment. The new man is what they have become in Christ: a new humanity, “created in God’s image,” in righteousness and holiness that comes from the truth. This new man has been given to them in their Baptism. He is real. He is theirs. They are to wear him.

Between the laying aside and the putting on, Paul names a third movement, “to be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” The mind, which the Gentile walk had darkened and twisted, is to be renewed. The renewal is the Spirit’s work. The saint is not idle in it: the one whom the Spirit has renewed hears the Word, receives the Sacraments, and orders her thoughts according to what God has revealed in Christ. Yet even this she does by the new powers the Spirit has given her, not by her own, as the Formula of Concord, Article II, teaches. The renewed mind is the mind that has been brought back into alignment with reality, with truth, with what God has done. It is the opposite of the futile mind Paul described in verse 17.

This three-part rhythm (lay aside, be renewed, put on) is the architecture of Christian sanctification. And it is a daily rhythm, not a one-time event. Luther understood this with particular clarity. In the Small Catechism, on the meaning of Baptism, he confessed that the Old Adam in the Christian should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever. That is exactly what Paul is describing here. The Christian life is a daily laying aside and putting on. Every day the Old Adam is to be drowned in the waters of Baptism. Every day the new man is to come up out of those waters and walk into the day.

This is not perfectionism. The Christian does not lay aside the old man once and never have to do it again. The old man has been condemned, but he has not yet been removed. He will not be finally removed until death and the resurrection. Until then, the saint lives in a daily struggle: drowning the old, raising the new, walking in what she has been given. The Lutheran tradition has called this the life of simul iustus et peccator: at the same time righteous and sinful. The Christian is fully a saint in Christ; she is also still, in this age, contending with the old man who has not yet been finally laid aside. The struggle is real, but it is not hopeless, because God Himself has clothed her in the new man, and Christ is her righteousness.

Paul will now name the specifics. Having given us the framework, he gives us the actual moral content. The chapter does not float in abstraction. It descends to the floor of human life.

The Specifics

Paul lists pairs. Each old thing he names is matched by a new thing. The Christian’s life is not a stripping down. It is a changing of clothes.

Lay aside falsehood. Speak the truth. The first pair concerns speech. Lying is to be laid aside. Truthful speech is to be put on. And Paul gives a striking reason: “because we are members of one another.” The body of Christ is held together by truth. When one member lies to another, the body itself is wounded. Truthful speech is not just a personal virtue. It is the substance of Christian community. The Lutheran tradition has read this in connection with the Eighth Commandment: that we should not betray, slander, or lie about our neighbor, but should defend him, speak well of him, and put the best construction on everything.

Be angry and do not sin. The second pair is about anger. Paul does not forbid anger. He recognizes that righteous anger exists: anger at injustice, anger at sin, anger at the harming of the innocent. What Paul forbids is anger that turns into sin: anger that nurses a grudge, anger that festers into bitterness, anger that opens a door to the devil. He gives a vivid pastoral instruction: “do not let the sun go down on the cause of your anger.” The day’s anger should be brought to resolution before the day ends. The saint should not carry her anger into bed, into sleep, into tomorrow. Unresolved anger gives the enemy an opening; “do not give the devil an opportunity.” In Lutheran practice this points to the daily examination of conscience and to the gift of confession and absolution: the means by which the day’s wounds are brought to the cross before night falls.

Honest work for the sake of others. The third pair concerns labor. The thief is not just to lay aside stealing; she is to put on honest work. And Paul names the purpose of the work in a way that rings unusual to modern ears: not so that the worker may have for herself, but “so that he will have something to share with the one who has need.” The Christian works not primarily for her own consumption but for her neighbor’s good. This is the Lutheran doctrine of vocation in compact form. Daily labor is service. The Christian’s job, whatever it is, is one of the means by which God provides for the neighbor.

Speech that builds up. The fourth pair returns to speech, this time more broadly. The “unwholesome word” (the kind of speech that breaks down, that demeans, that gossips, that wounds) is to be laid aside. In its place: speech that is “beneficial for the building up of the one in need,” speech that gives “grace to those who hear.” The standard is high. Paul does not say some of the saint’s speech should build up. He says only what builds up. This is hard. It is also the speech of the new man. Christians who fall short of this (and we all do) are called to confess the failure, receive forgiveness, and try again tomorrow.

These specifics are not exhaustive. They are samples. Paul is showing the saints what the lay-aside / put-on rhythm looks like in actual practice. The whole of the Christian life is to be lived in this rhythm: old things noticed, named, laid aside; new things received, worn, walked in.

Do Not Grieve the Holy Spirit

In verse 30, Paul interrupts the moral specifics to name the One who is most affected by them.

The Holy Spirit, Paul says, can be grieved: “do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.” This is striking. The Spirit is personal, not an impersonal force, not a power, not an abstract energy. Scripture’s language of grief is true and must not be explained away. When the saint lies, she grieves the Spirit. When the saint nurses anger, she grieves the Spirit. When the saint speaks unwholesome words, she grieves the Spirit. The Christian’s sin is not merely the violation of a rule. It is resistance to the Holy Spirit who dwells among His people and has come to dwell in her.

And then Paul names the promise: this is the Spirit “by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” We met this seal in 1:13. The Spirit is “the down payment of our inheritance,” the pledge that she is God’s, the mark by which God claims her as His own. One sinful act does not mechanically erase the Spirit’s gracious work. The penitent believer should hear Christ’s promise and return to Him without fear. Yet willful, settled sin against conscience is not spiritually harmless. Scripture and the Confessions warn that such sin grieves the Spirit, that the Spirit can be lost, and that faith can be extinguished (the Augsburg Confession, Article XII; the Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, Article II). Therefore repentance is not an optional follow-up to grace but the daily return to the God who forgives for Christ’s sake. The Christian who has grieved the Spirit by her sin does not look inward to measure what is left of her faith. She comes to Him in confession and repentance and hears again the promise He attached to her Baptism: she is still God’s.

This is one of the most pastorally important verses in the chapter. The Christian who reads the moral specifics of verses 25–29 and finds herself convicted (and she will, because we all fall short) is not to despair. Her comfort does not rest on how firmly she holds on, but on Christ’s external promise, spoken to her in Baptism and again in the absolution. The Spirit she has grieved is also the Spirit who calls her back through that Word. The terrified conscience is comforted there; the secure conscience, which would make the promise a license, is warned. In confession and absolution the grieving is healed, and the walk continues.

The Standard of Forgiveness

Paul ends the chapter with a final pairing, the one that holds all the others together. He names six dispositions of the old man that are to be put away, and three of the new man that are to be put on, and then he gives the climactic standard for it all.

The list of things to put away is comprehensive: “all bitterness, anger, wrath, quarreling, and slanderous talk—indeed all malice.” Bitterness: the long-held grudge that has soured into resentment. Anger: the explosive flash of rage. Wrath: the simmering hostility. Quarreling: the shouting and verbal violence. Slanderous talk: the wounding speech aimed at another’s reputation. Malice: the settled ill will. These are the speeches and dispositions of the old man. They have no place in the body of Christ.

The list of things to put on is shorter, but it is enough: “be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another.” Kindness: the disposition that wants the neighbor’s good. Compassion: a heart that can be moved by the neighbor’s suffering (the Greek word, eusplanchnoi, which older translations render “tenderhearted,” points to the inmost parts). Forgiveness: the active release of the offense, the refusal to hold what has been done.

And the standard for all of this is given in the climactic comparison Paul makes at the very end of the chapter: “just as God in Christ also forgave you.” The saints forgive because they have been forgiven. Their forgiveness is not original; it is responsive. They are extending to others what God in Christ has already extended to them.

This is the heart of all Christian ethics. The vertical reality (what God has done for us in Christ) produces the horizontal reality (what we are to do for one another). We forgive because we have been forgiven. We are kind because God has been kind to us. We are compassionate because God has been compassionate toward us in Christ. The Christian life flows out of the gospel; it does not produce it. The saint who forgets the gospel will find herself unable to forgive. The saint who remembers the gospel will find herself freed to forgive, because she has herself been forgiven so much.

The Lutheran tradition has insisted on this connection at the deepest level. The Lord’s Prayer itself contains it: that we ask the Father to forgive us as we forgive those who have sinned against us. The fifth petition of the Lord’s Prayer and the closing exhortation of Ephesians 4 are the same gospel logic. Forgiveness given is the form forgiveness received takes in the saint’s life with her neighbor.

The section ends here. The old man is to be laid aside. The new man is to be put on. The mind is to be renewed. The specifics are to be lived: truthful speech, righteous anger bounded, honest work, words that build up, kindness, forgiveness. The Spirit who dwells in the saint is to be honored, not grieved. And forgiveness, the master image, is the mark of the new man.

The saints in Ephesus, hearing this read aloud, would have known what was being asked of them. So do we. So we walk.

For Discussion

1. Paul describes the Gentile walk as marked by futility, darkness, alienation, and ignorance. He is describing the saints’ own former condition. Where in your own life do you see the residue of that walk? Where has the Spirit’s renewing of the mind made a clear difference?

2. Paul’s Greek says the saints have learned Christ, not merely learned about Christ. Read in a Lutheran key, this is a statement about the means of grace, where Christ Himself is given. Where in your week is Christ being given to you? Where are you tempted to substitute information about Him for the gift of Him?

3. Luther’s Small Catechism describes a daily rhythm of drowning the Old Adam and raising the new man, rooted in Baptism, much like Paul’s laying aside and putting on. Where is the daily laying aside most necessary in your life right now? Where is the daily putting on most needed?

4. Paul gives concrete specifics about lying, anger, stealing, and talk. Pick one of the four pairs and consider it in your own life this week. Where is the old still being worn? Where could the new be put on?

5. Paul says the Holy Spirit can be grieved. He is a Person, not a force. How does it change your understanding of your own sin to know that it grieves the Person who dwells in you? Why does Paul point a grieving saint to the seal God has given, rather than to the strength of her own faith? And why must that comfort never become a license for sin?

6. The chapter ends with forgiveness rooted in God’s forgiveness of us in Christ. Where is forgiveness most needed in your life right now? Where do you need to remember the gospel in order to extend forgiveness to another? Where do you need to receive forgiveness yourself?

Closing Prayer

Heavenly Father, by the gift of Your Son and the indwelling of Your Spirit, You have brought us out of the futile walk of the Gentiles into the new walk of the saints. Drown the Old Adam in us today by Your Word and Your Baptism. Raise the new man in us today by the same Word and the same Baptism. Renew our minds. Give us truthful speech, righteous anger that does not become sin, honest work for the sake of our neighbors, and words that build up rather than tear down. Do not let us grieve Your Holy Spirit. Keep us in the seal You have placed upon us in Christ. And teach us to forgive one another as You in Christ have forgiven us, for that is the standard, and that is the source, and that is the new man walking in the world. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Looking Ahead

Next session we read Ephesians 5:1–21. Paul has called the saints to lay aside the old man and put on the new. Now he turns the same call into two evocative metaphors. The saints are to “live in love” (5:2) and to “live like children of light” (5:8); both times Paul’s verb is again walk. The two walks are the same walk (the new walk Paul has been describing), but he names them in turn so that the saints can see the same life from two angles.

The walk in love is rooted in imitation. Paul calls the saints to be imitators of God as dearly loved children, and to walk in love after the pattern of Christ’s own self-giving love for them. The walk as children of light is rooted in identity. The saints are no longer darkness; they are light in the Lord. They are to walk as what they have been made to be.

Then in the second half of the passage, Paul turns to wisdom and to the Spirit. The saints are to “consider carefully how you live,” taking advantage of every opportunity, understanding what the Lord’s will is, “filled by the Spirit,” “speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs,” “always giving thanks to God the Father for all things,” and “submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” The saints are to be a people of psalms.

Before next session, read Ephesians 5:1–21 at least twice. Read it once for sense. Read it a second time noticing the contrast Paul keeps making between the walk of the world and the walk of the saints, and how he keeps grounding the contrast in what the saints have become in Christ.