Stop Living Like the World | Ephesians 4:17-24
Christians are called to live their daily lives in a way that is starkly different from the world around them and from the lifestyle that characterized their pre-Christian past. Worldly thinking is futile, leading to an impure lifestyle and ultimate alienation from God. Paul wants the Ephesians’ lives to be determined by their relationship with Jesus Christ and the new identity they have in him. This will involve putting off their old self, renewing their minds by the Word and conforming to their new identity. In this lesson we learn that Christians are called to stop living like the world but to live according to the new self, created in the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
- A direct admonition: Stop living like the world (v. 17a)
- A confronting analysis: The world’s way is futile (vv. 17b-19)
- An instructing reminder: You have learned a better way (vv. 20-24)