Old man, New man.
(A change in Attitudes and Actions)
 

Ephesians 4:17-32
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. 
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. 
25  Therefore, putting away lying, "Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbour," for we are members of one another. 
26  "Be angry, and do not sin": do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 
27  nor give place to the devil. 
28  Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labour, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. 
29  Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. 
30  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 
31  Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 
32  And be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.
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The gospel of Jesus Christ tells us that when one recognises their sin, sin that separates from God and they repent of their sins and turn to Christ in faith believing, then that person is born again of the Spirit of God.
A new birth and a new life in Christ.

The Apostle Paul tells us this in 2 Corinthians 5:17

2Co 5:17  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 

Paul relating to his previous statement in Ephesians 4:16:
 16  from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

Because of this fact, this is what I, Paul, urge you to do.
 

17. This I say, therefore: and testify in the Lord,

Paul is saying, I am saying these things but it is not I but the Lord.
Because of all that I have told you previously, all the spiritual blessings (Eph 1) in Christ and the fact that now, you belong to Christ and are part of the body of Christ, you should walk in this newness of life.

17b. that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 

Put aside the way that you used to walk, don’t continue in the way that the Gentile unbelievers do in the futility of their minds. (thinking that they know best). The unbeliever is separated from God because of the darkness of their understanding. They are in ignorance through their blindness and this causes them to act in an unclean way.
 
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. 

This is not where the Ephesian believers are and neither are we, who have trusted Christ.

20  But you have not so learned Christ, 

We know different now, having seen the light, having the scales removed from our eyes and put our trust in Christ. We are different now.

21  if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 

If indeed you have heard Him.

There are those who say they have heard and follow Christ. However there are those that have heard and not acted on it. They believe in the head but it has never dropped to the heart.
There is a great difference between one who says, “I believe in God” or “I am a Christian” and one who has truly repented of their sins and trusted Christ for their salvation. This is not just in the head but has been experienced in the heart.

This is why the Apostle Paul in another scripture says:

2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.
 

This is the test of our faith. “If indeed you have heard”.

In another scripture Colossians 3:
Col 3:1  If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 

Col 3:2  Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 

Col 3:3  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 

This is how we know that we are in Christ, by the way we act. There will be a change in attitude and actions.
Put off the old man, the old nature.

22  that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 

Paul in Romans tells us that if we are in Christ, then we must put on Christ.

Romans 13:14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil its lusts.
 

This is the only way that we can defeat the lusts of the flesh.

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. 

The old man is the flesh in all its weakness. The new man is in Christ.
Whilst we remain in the fleshly body, we remain susceptible to sin. However there is a new man in us now and we must feed the new man and starve the old man, so that we can overcome the desires of the flesh.
The strongest will be the nature we feed most.

Rom 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 

Rom 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. 

Praise God for the renewing of the mind. We may have victory over certain past sins and in the strength of Christ be able to resist the temptations of the flesh. However it is a different thing to forget the things we did.
Satan often reminds us of our past sins and so we need the renewing of our minds, which has a transforming effect, which in turn can give us victory over our mind.
We are able in the power of Christ through the Holy Spirit to resist the temptations of the flesh.
So, in light of this, Paul says:

25  Therefore, putting away lying, "Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbour," for we are members of one another. 

Who would hurt his own body? We should not do these things, for when we do, we hurt ourselves.

26  "Be angry, and do not sin": do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 

There is nothing wrong with being angry in the right place.
We would be wrong not to be angry when we see abuse and acts of violence but our anger should not cause us to take revenge or hate.
And when we do experience anger and sometimes feel like exercising our wrath, we should bring it before God in prayer.
We should not give the devil inroads, on the contrary we are told:

James 4:7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Eph 4: 27  nor give place to the devil. 

All the old habits and actions we must stop. Don’t steal, instead, work.

28  Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labour, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. 

Don’t lie, don’t curse, don’t use filthy language or filthy communication. Don’t deliberately offend.
Don’t disgrace the name of Jesus. Instead, say the things that edify and build up and might impart grace to those who hear you.

29  Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. 

We may do and say things that would grieve our mother, our father, our spouse or our children.
Grieve: to cause to suffer : distress.
This is not good. Even more so the Holy Spirit.

30  And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 

When we neglect the things of God, we grieve the Spirit.  

Spurgeon said:
“I think I now see the Spirit of God grieving, when you are sitting down to read a novel and there is your Bible unread… You have no time for prayer, but the Spirit sees you very active about worldly things, and having many hours to spare for relaxation and amusement. And then he is grieved because he sees that you love worldly things better than you love him.”

The Holy Spirit’s grief is not of a petty, oversensitive nature. “He is grieved with us mainly for our own sakes, for he knows what misery sin will cost us; he reads our sorrows in our sins… He grieves over us because he sees how much chastisement we incur, and how much communion we lose.”.

What are the things we like to hear from others. How do we like people to react to us and treat us?
Jesus said the second greatest commandment is “to love your neighbour as yourself”.
Who is your neighbour?? Who is your brother, your sister?

31  Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 
32  And be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you.

We do have the capability to do all this in Christ.

1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. 

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