Ephesians 4:17 - Forerunner Commentary

Ephesians 4:17

15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the ^ahead—Christ—

16 ^afrom 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.

The New Man

17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should ^ano 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 ^ablindness of their heart;

19 ^awho, being past feeling, ^bhave given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

20 But you have not so learned Christ,

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Articles, Bible studies, and sermons that contain Ephesians 4:17:

Ephesians 4:17-18

We are not in quite the same type of situation today. In its spiritual sense, a Gentile is the opposite of a Jew. Who is a Jew? Romans 2 and 3 says a Jew is a person who is converted. A Gentile is simply the unconverted. So what is the New Man? The New Man is a spiritual Jew. He is in the process of conversion. His heart, his mind, is being changed.

Is a person who is alienated from God sensitive to God? Is his life centered on God? Is his life, is his heart, is his conscience hardened toward God? Does he care about God's law? Only marginally, at best. It is not really a part of his life. That person's mind is hardened. What do you expect that person's conscience is going to be like? Is it going to be the same as the converted person's conscience? Impossible! It cannot be, because by the miracle of conversion the converted person's mind, his heart, his sensitivity toward God, has been softened.

Remember this true principle, that a conscience, converted or unconverted, will progress in the direction that it is exercised. It will intensify toward evil, or it will intensify toward good, depending on the way it is exercised. Can you understand why there is so much in the Bible about being righteous?

If we are growing in conversion, our conscience is going to become ever more sensitive about right and wrong. It is going to become ever more tender. That conscience is never condemned by an action which we do, because the converted person will understand that the conscience is going to adjust in the direction it is exercised. If it is exercised in the wrong direction, what is going to happen? Your conscience is going to condemn you for what you allowed yourself to do. We are going to see how important this is in a little bit.

What did we say at the beginning that conscience is dependent upon? It is dependent upon education and experience, and how it is exercised. Their minds are alienated and darkened because of the ignorance that is in them because of the hardening of their heart. Verse 19 gives a warning from the apostle about why we had better exercise our conscience in the right direction.

Excerpted from Conscience (Part 2)

Ephesians 4:17-21

The truth is in the Person. We can say the truth is in the example. He is the one that we have to be fixated on. And what He tells us, what we need to do,

Excerpted from Jesus in the Feasts (Part Two): Firstfruits

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