Be Changed
As we enter the spring months of the year, the weather is getting nicer, the grass is getting longer, and the kids are going outside to run and play. We have no shortage of children at our house, and it’s amazing how differently children see the world than we as adults see it.
A few times each week, without fail, the children come running into the house because somebody saw a bee or thought they heard one. As adults, while we don’t want to be stung, we understand that if we stay out of the bee’s way they’ll likely go about their business and leave us alone. Likewise, due to our many years of experience, we aren’t enthralled by the simple things in life anymore.
Just the other day my son was talking to me about caterpillars. The excitement in his voice reminded me of when I was his age and how I dreamed of catching a caterpillar, keeping it in a jar, and watching it grow into a butterfly. It’s really a simple yet miraculous thing that, once we become adults, we take for granted. When the time is right, this little, ugly worm makes a cocoon and emerges as a beautiful butterfly.
The butterfly is interesting, because while it’s very well-known, it’s metamorphosis is one of the most extreme. It’s so extreme that it’s often easy to forget that the beautiful creature flying around used to be a fuzzy worm. That fuzzy worm, if it’s going to live, must go through metamorphosis, if it fails to change, it doesn’t go on living as a caterpillar forever. If it fails to change, that’s the end of the line. As it begins that next chapter in its lifecycle, change is not an option.
As we continue in our study through the book of Ephesians, last week was kind of a turning point. Up to this point Paul has been speaking heavily about God’s love and God’s riches, the sacrifices that Christ made, and what that means for us. He spoke of the love that God showed to us and the inheritance that we have because of it. It’s been focused very heavily on grandiose ideas explaining our salvation and how important we are to God.
Last week began this turning point in chapter four. Paul’s attention begins to shift. Up until now it’s all been about God and what he’s done, the riches he’s given us, and his love for us. Moving forward, it all shifts away from God and to us. We started seeing that last week as we spoke of being worthy of this inheritance that we’ve been given in God’s kingdom and how it’s our responsibility to be unified in Christ, to be using our unique gifts for him, and to be continually growing in maturity. Paul continues down that same path as we look at Ephesians 4:17-24.
You can see here that Paul has shifted the emphasis from God and onto the person. We don’t like to talk about it much in church these days, but there was a time when in church there was a huge emphasis on how you act. In the Church of the Nazarene we did the same thing. In the Code of Christian Conduct in church manual we listed out do’s and don’t’s. We said, “If you are a good Christian, you don’t go to the movies. If you are a good Christian, you don’t swim in the same pool as someone of the opposite gender. If you are a good Christian, you don’t dance or wear jewelry, not even a wedding ring.” We laid out this list and said, “If you’re living a holy and pleasing life, this is what your life will look like.” But it became a problem. Many of the things that were labelled is wrong or sinful weren’t of themselves bad. Instead, they were things that could lead a person into a situation where they might be tempted but weren’t sinful in and of themselves, and so today we’ve shifted that emphasis. In many American churches we’ve swung the pendulum completely in the opposite direction to the point where we don’t want to tell you, “This is what you should do and this is what you shouldn’t do,” or, “This is right and this is wrong.” Instead we just tell you to live a life pleasing to God and leave it at that as if we’re supposed to know what that means.
We run a danger on either extreme. What I love about the book of Ephesians is that it covers the whole gamut. It covers from God’s love to our responsibility. It’s divided about half and half, but all of it is important.
If we shift to one extreme and only focus on our responsibilities in Christ, if we focus on how we are to live our lives, that’s a dangerous road to go down. It leads to a list of do’s and don’t’s. It leads to “you must act this way to be a Christian.” “A holy, Christian life looks like this,” quickly turns into, “If you’re a Christian you live like this, and if you don’t, you’re not a Christian.” We refer to that as legalism. It’s this idea that your salvation is dependent upon what you do, and if you can’t live up to that standard, you’re out of the family.
A religion like this is an empty religion. There are a number of religions in the world that will tell you how to live. Be kind to your neighbor. Don’t drink, smoke, cuss, or chew or go out with girls who do. Religion like that, solely based upon a list of rules, inevitably leaves you empty and frustrated, because no matter how hard you try to live up to that standard, you’ll inevitably fail. As soon as you fall, all that guilt and despair comes rushing in, that realization that you can’t do it of your own power. A life of solely do’s and don’t’s isn’t sustainable.
Then again, on the other side of the pendulum, a religion in which we speak, not of our responsibility, but only of God’s love, mercy, and grace, is empty as well. In a religion like that we are saved through faith alone in Christ alone, and while that is completely correct, we end up missing out. In focusing solely on Jesus’ sacrifice and solely on God’s riches and not looking at our responsibility, we cheapen God’s grace. God’s grace is suddenly just a Band-Aid to fix everything. You want to drink, smoke, cuss, and chew and go out with girls who do? It’s all okay, just ask for forgiveness afterward. You want to sleep around and live with your boyfriend? It’s all okay, just ask for forgiveness every day. Jesus loves you. Jesus forgives you. Don’t worry about that part where he said to live a holy and righteous life. Live your life however you want. As long as you say sorry it’s all good. That’s cheap grace.
Jesus didn’t die so that you can continue to live your life as you see fit. Both sides of the pendulum are too extreme, which is why in the book of Ephesians Paul covers the whole gamut. Yes, he focusses on God’s grace, but he also focusses on our responsibilities. He spells out that because of God’s grace, because of God’s mercy, because of the inheritance we’ve received, we have a responsibility to live a life that is worthy of our calling. That means we have to change. That means that we can’t continue to live our lives as we’ve always lived them. We can’t continue doing all the things that we did before. Paul says, “you must no longer live as the Gentiles do. […] They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.”
The natural response of new life in Christ, of experiencing God’s mercy and grace, is that we will be changed. No longer will we live as the Gentiles do, indulging in every kind of impurity with continual lust for more. That’s how this world lives. This world desires to satisfy itself. The more it does, the more violence, sex and drugs this world gets, the more it lusts for, the more it longs for, the more it desires, because that will never satisfy. Yet when we come to Christ and receive what he’s offering to us, we are a new person. Christ fills us when we ask him to fill us. No longer do we need to be filling our lives with the muck and impurity of this world. “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
It takes the whole picture, from God’s grace to our responsibility. When you look at the whole thing together you see that we must be changed. There is no other way, because if you have not been changed, if you are the same person that you were before you accepted Christ, something is wrong. If you have not been changed, then you have not been filled, because that’s what Christ does. When Christ comes into our lives, you are a new person. The old self is gone and you put on the new self. The temptations are still there, but you are a new person. That means that you will act different. You will put off the old self, the old self that was continually satisfying the desires of this world, and you put on the new self that was created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. This is the calling that we’ve received. Throughout the rest of Ephesians Paul begins to detail this more and more, but I want us to understand, as we move forward through Ephesians and Paul begins to lay out, “This is how you need to act,” we need to keep this in mind with the entire book. This isn’t a list of do’s and don’t’s. This isn’t legalism. This is looking at the whole picture.
Because of the grace and mercy and inheritance that God has given us, we must live a life worthy. We must be changed from what we were before, and going forward, this is what that looks like. We spoke last week about being worthy, and the last and most important way that we live a life worthy of our calling is through our maturity, everyday walking with Christ and maturing in him. Moving forward, Paul begins to outline what that maturity looks like. It’s not a list of rules. It’s not do this and don’t do that. Instead, as you have been changed and as you continue to be changed this is what that change looks like. But if you’re not being changed, then you need to go back to the source. If you’re not being changed, I dare to say that you haven’t truly accepted the inheritance that is being offered to you.