EPHESIANS 4:17–24 – Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must 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 and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in 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.”
THEME OF THE DAY: THE REPLACEMENT PRINCIPLE. Today’s scripture is a clear and practical explanation on the process of spiritual growth in Christians. It involves learning and applying. That last statement is crucial. James would give us a warning about spiritual growth and the ease of being deceived. He wrote, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22). Just think for a moment how easy it is to fall into the condition James describes. Ever attend a Lord’s Day, listen to a sermon, but it never makes its way into our lives by application? Maybe not even remembering its truth by the time we get home for lunch. Same way with Bible studies and quiet times. We “listen” to the Word but never learn the Word because we don’t apply the Word. This is true; learning scriptural truth is only learned if it is lived.
The Apostle Paul begins with telling us that the Christian life is a life of learning and that through the Lord Jesus – But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus. The evidence we are learning from Christ is the application of what is learned – 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.
As we seek to apply this truth in the Christian life, we may call this “the replacement principle.” Go back to the previous paragraph and notice the actions required of us. There are three. We are to “put off” our old pattern of living and “put on” the new life given to us from God called the “new birth” – a new creation in Christ of true righteousness and holiness. And here is the most important part. We cannot do one without the other. For instance, if we attempt to “put off” our old habits in life prior to Christ and not “put on” the new life in the Spirit, all we are doing is practicing morality. We must do both and how does that occur? In our minds, our thinking.
We are further instructed that the “replacement principle” comes from our minds – be renewed in the spirit of your minds. This means a mind saturated with scripture (Colossians 3:16). A mind being transformed by the Word (Romans 12:1-2). We are rightly understanding the Christian life when we see it is about being taught by Christ through the mind to actively put off our old life and obediently put on the new one given by the Lord. The “replacement principle” defines the process of spiritual growth in the believer.
PRAYER: “Father, I praise You for the renewing power of Your Spirit and Word as both work to change my thinking.”
QUOTE: “The mind is the agent of change in the Christian life. All growth, all progress begins in our thinking.”
Because of Him,
Pastor Jim