Ephesians - Change Your Mind! - Ephesians 4:20

We have learned Jesus. That means much more than learning about Him. It means that His mind becomes our mind. We have the mind of Christ. We think spiritual truth. We resist lies.

And now, before we open the word to Ephesians 4:20, we pause to pray. Father, once again we come to hear Your voice. Do speak to our hearts. May we not be man-taught, may we be Spirit-taught today. May the Holy Spirit of God say far more to us than the teacher says. May our hearts be open to Your Spirit's instruction and illumination. I ask in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.

Paul is telling us to change our minds. If you want to change your life, you have to change your mind. You are what you think. You say, well, I have thoughts in my mind that nobody knows anything about. Wait long enough and they will, because thoughts are powerful, ideas have consequences, and God has so made us that as we think, so we are. Proverbs 23:7.

Paul describes the rebellious mind of the unsaved person in Ephesians 4:17-19. "This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk." In other words, your life is to be changed. You are now a new creature in Christ Jesus, and your walk ought to change. How did they walk? In the futility, the aimlessness, of their mind. Now, here's the first characteristic of the rebellious mind: it is lost. It's aimless. There's no purpose. This word "futility" or "vanity" harks back to Ecclesiastes where forty times you find it: "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." The aimlessness, the helplessness, the purposelessness of the unsaved mind. They cannot think straight. They cannot think the thoughts of God.

We find this described in Ephesians 2:1-3. "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as others." Not only is the unsaved person lost because of the vanity of his mind, but he's ignorant, having their understanding darkened. Spiritual ignorance because they resist the truth of God. God's truth is all around them. You can see it in the heavens, you can see it in your own body. There is a Creator who is wise and powerful, whose providences meet our needs. Oh, why don't people see it? But Romans 1 tells us why. "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools." And as a consequence, they moved into the vanity of false thinking. Lost, ignorant, and dead. Alienated from the life of God. Why? Because of the ignorance that's in them, because of the hardening of their heart. And the consequence, of course, is a godless life. Past feeling, licentiousness, uncleanness, greediness. This is the rebellious mind.

Now, I pointed out that these three characteristics are illustrated in Luke 15, the parable of the Prodigal Son. This young man asked his father for what he wanted, and he got it. He came to his father and said, "Father, give me." Well, that's selfishness, isn't it? Here we have a person who is past feeling. He doesn't concern himself about his father's feelings. When he said, "Father, give me my inheritance," it was as though he said, "Father, I wish you'd die." Past feeling. Well, he got what he wanted, went off to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living, wasteful living. And, of course, he ran out of money after a while, and finally he had to go to work in the fields taking care of pigs. That's an awful job for a Jewish boy because a pig was an unclean animal. He was dead, he was lost, he was ignorant. Did you notice that? When he finally came home, the Prodigal Son heard the father say, "This my son was lost, he's found again. He was dead and now he's alive." And I notice in Luke 15:17, it says, "And when he came to himself." He was ignorant. Then he finally got smart. Now, that's the condition of every unsaved person: lost, ignorant, dead, because they don't think right.

Now, Paul tells us in verses 21 and 22 of Ephesians 4 about the repentant mind. How can we change all of this? Here we have the slavery of sin. They have given themselves over to licentiousness, unrestrained occupation with lust, to work all uncleanness with greediness. How do you change this? Notice Ephesians 4:20: "But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus." Here's an interesting thing: he brings this word "but." "But you." It reminds me of Ephesians 2. In Ephesians 2:1-3, he describes the terrible plight of the unsaved person, and then he says in Ephesians 2:4, "But God." Now he says, "But you." You to whom I am writing, you Christians, have not so learned Christ. Not learned about Christ, but learned Christ. You've come to know Jesus Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus.

Now, these Ephesian Christians had not personally heard the Lord Jesus Christ. They had not been in Jerusalem or Nazareth to hear the Lord. How then could they learn Christ? How could they hear Him? How could they be taught by Him? They heard Paul. They heard the other Christians who preached the Word of God to them. The Holy Spirit of God on earth takes the word of the Lord, the truth as it is in Jesus, and presents that word to the lost sinner. We have here the repentant mind. What does it mean to repent? It means to change your mind. It is a deliberate act of the will whereby I say, "I am going to think differently about God." Now, up till now, some of these Gentiles had been walking according to idolatry and the immorality that always goes with idolatry. Now they say, "We are going to think of the true God. We're going to change our mind about God. God is the only true God. He is a holy God. He will judge our sin, but He is a gracious God. He will forgive us if we call upon Him. We're going to change our mind about man." Man is not his own god. Man cannot control his own life and get away with it. We're going to change our mind about sin and about judgment.

Paul mentions a number of sins in this passage. Ephesians 4:25: lying. Ephesians 4:26: anger. Ephesians 4:28: stealing. Ephesians 4:29: corrupt speech and slander. Ephesians 4:31: evil speaking and wrath. He names sin. And to the average person, what's wrong with lying? After all, the end justifies the means. What's wrong with stealing, as long as you don't get caught? What's wrong with anger, does you good to express yourself occasionally? What's wrong with filthy speech, why, telling a few dirty jokes doesn't bother anybody? Paul says you'd better change your mind. Hear the word of the Lord. The Spirit of God works repentance in the heart of the unsaved person.

Now, this is what happened to the prodigal. It says "he came to himself." Up till then, he'd been beside himself. He'd not been his true self as one made in the image of God. Something happened to his heart. He got homesick. Yeah, he was hungry, I know that. He was perishing, I know that. But he came to himself and he said, "How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger?" I wonder if people realize that they are perishing. If you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, you are perishing. You say, "Well, other people do this." You're thinking the wrong kind of thoughts. You're doing the very thing that Paul tells us not to do: don't walk as the rest of the unsaved walk in the futility of their mind. Don't think godless thoughts. That's where trouble begins. Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. What's the counsel of the ungodly? The way ungodly people think.

Christians start to think the way the unsaved think, they'll start to live the way the unsaved live. Oh, you say, an unsaved person has to do that, but Christians—Christians can't think that way. Really? Do you remember when the Lord Jesus told His disciples He was going to go to the cross and die? Matthew 16:22. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, "Far be it from You, Lord, this shall not happen to You." But He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men." Now, if a great apostle like Peter would start thinking like Satan and start thinking like godless humanity, where does that leave the rest of us? I have been in committee meetings, I have been in congregational meetings where people got up and made speeches that sounded just as spiritual as Peter's speech in Matthew 16:22, but it was of the devil. It was a stumbling block. It was an offense. People are thinking like men, not thinking the way God wants them to think. It's a dangerous thing to start walking in the counsel of the ungodly.

Well, the Prodigal Son's heart got homesick and his body was hungry and he was perishing. Something happened to his mind. He came to himself. He came to himself. He got a new appreciation of his father. "How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare? My father is a good and generous man." This is Romans 2:4, isn't it? It's the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. Not the badness of man, the goodness of God. He said, "I will arise and go to my father." You see, true salvation involves a convicted heart, a convinced mind, and a courageous will. A convicted heart—he wanted something better. He knew he was wrong. A convinced mind—he came to himself and said, "I'm a fool living like this." He had new thoughts about his father. He changed his mind about himself. He changed his mind about his environment, about his future. But until it comes to the point where you say, "I will, I will arise and go," there really is no hope.

The repentant mind. Let's notice that he was lost, he was ignorant, and he was dead. Jesus said in John 14:6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by Me." The prodigal was lost, but he came to his father—Jesus is the way. The prodigal was ignorant, but he came to his father—Jesus is the truth. The prodigal was dead spiritually, but he came to his father—Jesus is the life. And the only way you and I can come to the Father is through Jesus Christ.

Now, in Ephesians 4:22-24, we have the renewed mind. When you have repented of sin and come to the Savior, something happens to your mind. Verse 22: "that you put off," that means once and for all, put off, "concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind." If you want to grow in the Christian life, there has to be a changed mind. Romans 12:2: "Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." And that you put on the new man which was created according to God in righteousness and true holiness. You've got to make a choice between the old corruption or the new creation.

Now make your choice. Make your choice. Put off that old life once and for all. What does that mean? Just like changing clothes. In the early church, when new converts were baptized, they were given a white robe. It was symbolic of their new position in Jesus Christ. And they were buried with Christ in baptism and raised to walk in newness of life. And that white robe symbolized you've taken off the old life, and now you're walking in newness of life. Well, instead of walking in vanity, we start living for God's will and God's purposes. Instead of walking in ignorance, we start living for God's Word and God's truth. Instead of walking in spiritual death, we have spiritual life. Christ lives in us. Christ teaches us. He guides us. We have the truth as it is in Jesus. We are created according to God in righteousness and true holiness, which can be translated "the holiness of truth." Whenever you believe a lie, it leads to sin. Whenever you believe the truth, it leads to holiness. Lies and truth are battling each other in this world, and the believer who gets ahold of a lie is going to end up doing things he shouldn't do. That's why Paul emphasizes the renewed mind.

We must center our minds in Jesus Christ. That means the Word of God. That means prayer. That means the trials of life where we share in the fellowship of His suffering. Put off, put on, once and for all. Take off the grave clothes and put on the grace clothes. This always reminds me of Lazarus in John 11. Lazarus was dead. Once we were dead in trespasses and sins. Ephesians 2:1. Lazarus was raised from the dead. We have been raised from the dead. Lazarus was loosed from the grave clothes. "Loose him and let him go," said the Lord Jesus. And He says to us, "Put off your former conduct. Take off those dirty grave clothes. Leave them in the grave. You've been raised to walk with Jesus." He was dead, he was raised from the dead, he was set free from the grave clothes, and in John 12, the next thing you find Lazarus doing, he is seated with the Lord Jesus at a feast. And we are seated in Jesus Christ and with Jesus Christ in the heavenlies. We are now a part of a new creation, a new person. Ephesians 2:10: "We are created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before prepared that we should walk in them."

Now, having laid this foundation of a renewed, transformed mind, then Paul starts talking about godly Christian living. Put away lying, speak truth. If you're going to be angry, don't sin—there is a righteous anger. Don't give place to the devil. Stop stealing, start giving. Clean up your vocabulary. Don't grieve the Spirit of God. Now, what's the basis for all of this? You have put off once and for all your old man. You are putting on the new person. You are a part of the new creation. Therefore, walk in newness of life. How do you describe the mind of the unsaved person? Despair, futility, darkness, death, defilement. Ah, but that's not the mind of the saved person. Oh no, we have learned Jesus. That means much more than learning about Him. It means that His mind becomes our mind. We have the mind of Christ. We think Bible. We think spiritual truth. We resist lies. Perhaps it's time that you come to yourself like the prodigal. Put off that old life once and for all, and let God through His Word by His Spirit renew your mind. I'll say it again: when God transforms your mind, He will transform your life.

[Interview] Up next, Warren talks with Arnie Cole, CEO of Back to the Bible International.

Warren, Ephesians 5:15 tells us to walk wisely and make the best use of our time because the days are evil. What are some of the best uses of our time these days?

Actually, we should have more time because we have more time-saving gadgets than we've ever had. Time is something we have to invest. We can waste it, we can spend it, or we can invest it. And I prefer to invest my time in that which is going to, number one, be obedient to the Lord, number two, bring Him glory, and number three, help other people. The best thing I can do in this world is help somebody. Sometimes it seems like a burden, but it isn't, to help somebody. So I don't waste a lot of time on the newspaper. I don't waste a lot of time on television. I'm not saying that these things are wrong. When people phone me, I try not to hang on too long, for their sake, not just mine. Every day I have to start the day with the Lord and give Him, Lord, here's my schedule. Now, get rid of what You don't want there, add what You do want. And He's done that. I've seen my whole day rearranged, but it was the best way. So I think we need to read the Word of God every day. We need to pray every day. We need to ask God to help us to help somebody else today. And most of all, always ask ourselves the question: am I glorifying Jesus? It's amazing how the Christian life doesn't waste time if we are following the Lord. He's got something for us to do, even if it's only to help somebody across the street.