Many of us are making resolutions as 2012 comes to a close. According to the goal-setting website, 43things.com, here are the top ten resolutions for 2013:
- Lose weight.
- Save money.
- Get a job.
- Fall in love.
- Travel.
- Be happy.
- Run a 5k.
- Volunteer.
- Quit smoking.
- Read 50 books.
Statistics show that most will fail at these resolutions. Real personal change is rare. Whole industries thrive on our repeated attempts and failures to improve ourselves. So how are we as Christians to think about personal change as we face a new year?
Ephesians 4:17-24 is directed to Christians who are in need of real change in their lives. We’ll see three things in this passage regarding change:
- Christians need change.
- Christians can change.
- Christians must change.
Christians Need Change
Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do… (4:17).
The Gentiles were the ones who historically were not God’s people. Yet we know that Paul was writing to Christians in this verse because he addresses this letter “to the saints” (1:1). So he’s dealing with Christians who are living like non-Christians, and he’s pointing out that their character and their behavior needs improvement.
Here’s is a glimpse at their character defects:
…no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous… (4:17-18)
The way they’re living is characterized by futile thinking, darkened understanding, alienation from the life of God, ignorance, hardness of heart and callousness (insensitive to the damage their sin is causing).
Here is a glimpse at their sinful actions:
…and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. (4:19)
Remember, these are Christians who are doing what feels good to them (sensuality) and craving more and more of it, even though it is wrong.
I’ve spoken to several people who have turned away from Christianity because the Christians they know are deeply flawed. “Hypocrisy!” they proclaim. But Christianity is not about being perfect. It is about knowing the Perfect One. A Christian is a deeply flawed person who knows it and is actively pursuing Jesus for forgiveness and transformation. So don’t expect perfection. Expect progress—which brings us to the really good news.
Christians Can Change
Many religions and self-improvement programs offer plans, supplements, encouragement, ideas and communities to help you change for the better. But Christianity provides the richest resource and incentive for personal improvement known to man: A brand new nature.
After addressing the aforementioned problem areas, Paul turns their attention to the fact that Jesus has established in them a new nature.
But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (4:20-24)
When you read Paul’s letters in the Bible, his technique for coaching real life change in his people is always to teach what is already true about Jesus and his work in their lives and then to tell them how to live accordingly. You just have to look for what I call the turn—when he turns from explaining what Jesus has done for us to explaining what we can do in response. Here are the easiest-to-spot examples.
- Romans 12
- Galatians 5
- Ephesians 4
- Philippians 2
- Colossians 3
Paul began Ephesians by outlining things God has done for us in Christ. Before you can think correctly about serious character or behavior change as a Christian, you must understand what Jesus has already accomplished for you. So, read closely and absorb these things as absolutely true:
In Christ, God has already:
- Given you every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (1:3).
- Chosen you before the foundation of the world that you should be holy and blameless before him (1:4).
- Predestined you for adoption as a son according to the purpose of his will (1:4-5).
- Redeemed you through Jesus’ blood (1:7).
- Forgiven your trespasses, according to the riches of his grace (1:7).
- Revealed to you the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he has set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him (1:8-10)
- Given you an inheritance (1:11).
- Sealed you by the Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of your inheritance (1:13).
- Brought you to life together with Christ (2:1-10).
- Seated you with Christ in the heavenly places (2:1-10).
- Lavished his mercy, love and grace upon you and promised to pour out even more in the future (2:1-10).
- Brought you near by the blood of Christ (2:13).
- Gave you bold and confident access to himself (2:18; 3:12).
- Made you citizens of his kingdom (2:19).
In Christ you are blessed, chosen, predestined, adopted, redeemed, forgiven, enlightened, secure, alive and brought near to God as a citizen of his kingdom. That is your new identity, now you get to live accordingly. This is the basis for Christian personal improvement.
2 Corinthians 5:17 says it this way, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
As a Christian, you’re like Captain America. In Captain America, this scrawny guy volunteers for a medical experiment by which he is transformed into an incredibly muscular soldier. Once he steps out of the machine, he doesn’t have to work out to become muscular, but just gets to live according to his new nature. Similarly, once you’ve become a Christian, get to live according to your new nature, “created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:24).
This is what Paul refers to in Romans 6, one of the first passages of scripture I memorized while in the heat of battle with my old self.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
It’s as though you are a tree covered with a parasitic vine. This vine is your old sinful nature. When you became a Christian, God destroyed that vine’s roots, killing it. However, the vine doesn’t immediately drop to the ground revealing a perfect tree. It dries up and peels off slowly over a long period of time as you grow out of it.
Now, do not take these facts (that the Bible acknowledges your imperfection and that Jesus has given you a new nature) as an excuse to sit back and relax regarding your personal improvement as a Christian. We cannot say, “Well, the old me is falling away over time, so I’ll just let it happen naturally.” No, these things make it absolutely necessary that we change in real, practical, everyday ways.
Christians Must Change
Look at the list of practical changes Paul mentions immediately after all he’s just said about our new nature. Perhaps some of these should become our new year’s resolutions for 2013:
- Words: Put away falsehood and speak the truth (4:25).
- Anger: Be angry and do not sin (4:26-27).
- Work: Stop stealing and work (4:28).
- Words again: Stop corrupting with your words and build people up (4:29).
- Holy Spirit: Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit (4:30).
- Relationships: Let go of meanness and be kind (4:31-32).
Conclusion
Christians need change. Christians can change. Christians must change. We need to change because we’re not yet perfect. We can change because in Jesus we have a new nature. Therefore we must change in real, practical ways.
Discussion Starters
- Read 4:17-19. How do Christians sometimes live in these ungodly ways today (futility of mind, darkened understanding, etc.)? What are some common examples?
- Have you hear people call Christians hypocrites? Do you think they were right or wrong in their charge? What’s the difference between being a hypocrite and being in-progress as a Christian?
- What are the implications of 4:20-21 for teaching in the church?
- What are some practical ways to obey 4:22-24?
- Read 4:25-32 together. Do these commands bring to mind any new year’s resolutions that you need to make, and that your group can keep you accountable for? Discuss these things together.
