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Ephesians 4:17-5:2 - Learning Christ: The Old Life Put Off, the New Life Put On

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Paul has just described the Church growing into Christ through the work of every member. Now he shows what can either nourish or wound that Body. Falsehood cannot remain private when “we are members of one another.” Anger can open a breach. Work can become generosity, and the mouth can either corrode a hearer or give grace. The passage begins with desire grasping at what it wants and ends with Christ giving Himself for us. Between those two ways of living stands Paul’s decisive sentence: “you have not so learned Christ.”

To learn Christ is more than to know Christian rules. He is the One heard, the One in whom believers are taught, and the One in whom truth is found. His life gives the pattern and power of the new humanity. Paul therefore calls the Church to put off the former conduct, receive renewal in the mind, and put on what God has created. The change reaches habits close enough to expose us: the story we alter, the resentment we feed, the labor we keep only for ourselves, the word we send, and the mercy we withhold. It reaches its fullness in a life made filial and cruciform: beloved children walking in the love of the Son who offered Himself to the Father.

No Longer Walk in Futility (Ephesians 4:17-19)

17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no 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 blindness of their heart; 19 who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

The repeated word “walk” joins this warning to the whole letter. Humanity once walked according to the fallen age; God then created His people in Christ for good works; Paul called them to walk worthy of their calling. Here “no longer” marks a real departure. Those who have received life in Christ must cease living as though alienation from God were still their home.

“Gentiles” must be heard within that call to converts. Paul is not turning ethnicity into a moral insult. He is addressing believers from the nations and commanding them to abandon their former manner of life. His target is the old walk of alienation, not a people or culture to be despised. The Church can tell the truth about sin only as a people who remember the darkness from which mercy brought them.

Paul traces a descent. Futility in the mind becomes darkened understanding; darkness is joined to alienation from God’s life; hardness then reaches the moral senses until uncleanness is pursued “with greediness.” Sin is more than an isolated violation. It distorts what the heart judges worth wanting. A person can repeat a false desire until conscience no longer protests and appetite begins to demand more. The final word, “greediness,” exposes the grasping direction of the old life: created things and even other persons are treated as material for consumption.

This is a moral and spiritual diagnosis within Paul’s argument, not a label for depression, trauma, disability, or any other condition of suffering. “Lewdness” and “uncleanness” must be taught with moral seriousness, yet never used to humiliate a repentant struggler or heap shame on someone harmed by another person’s sin. Nor does “past feeling” place the sinner beyond Christ’s call. Verse 20 will open the door at once: the opposite of this numbness is not humiliation but learning Christ. Paul names the darkness so that the Church may leave it and return to the life of God.

The Church’s Voice in Worship ⛪

The Coptic lectionary assigns Ephesians 4:17-32 as the Pauline reading for Wednesday of the fourth week of Great Lent.1 The range ends at 4:32; it does not include Ephesians 5:1-2. Its Lenten force is searching. Fasting cannot be reduced to restraint at the table while the tongue feeds on another person’s failure, anger is stored overnight, or forgiveness is refused. The reading carries renunciation inward to the mind and outward into the common life of the Church.

Learn Christ: Put Off and Put On (Ephesians 4:20-24)

20 But you have not so learned Christ, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

“But” interrupts the descent. Paul does not say merely that the believers learned a better code. The Greek construction places “Christ” Himself as the object of “learned”: emathete ton Christon, “you learned Christ.” Hearing Him and being taught in Him join doctrine, discipleship, and life to the Lord’s own person. “If indeed” carries the force of an appeal to what they truly received, not suspicion that they have never heard Him. The conduct that follows is the visible form of “the truth … in Jesus.”2

The next three phrases explain the content of that teaching: put off, be renewed, put on. The old man, or old humanity, is the person as governed by “former conduct” and deceitful desires. Paul is not commanding hatred of the body, personality, ancestry, or created self. The desires are deceitful because they promise life while deepening corruption. They tell us that vindication will heal anger, possession will quiet greed, indulgence will satisfy appetite, or one more cutting word will secure the victory. The promise fails, but the habit grows.

Renewal reaches “the spirit of your mind,” the inward source from which judgment and desire take direction. The Greek “be renewed” is passive in form, placed between the active calls to put off and put on. The grammar alone does not establish a complete doctrine of divine-human cooperation, yet Paul’s whole sequence is clear: God creates the new humanity, God renews, and the believer must answer that grace in embodied repentance. Ascetic struggle is neither self-creation nor passive waiting. We remove the garments of the former conduct and put on the life God gives.3

The clothing language naturally received a baptismal depth in the Church. St John Chrysostom connects the new man with the clothing received in baptism and then insists that this gift must appear in daily deeds. He also guards the continuity of the person: the human subject remains, while the manner of life is renewed. Baptismal belonging therefore becomes a daily renunciation and a daily putting on. We do not invent a new self; in Christ we learn to live as the human person God created us to become.

Gems from the Fathers 💎

Chrysostom reads Paul’s phrase with bracing simplicity: true knowledge of the Lord must become a true life. “This then surely is to learn Christ, to live rightly.”4 This does not reduce Christ to ethics. It refuses to separate communion with Him from the conduct His truth creates. Prayer that never reaches the tongue, the hands, or the treatment of a neighbor has not yet been allowed to teach the whole person.

Renewal Among Members (Ephesians 4:25-32)

25 Therefore, putting away lying, “ Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another. 26 “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 27 nor give place to the devil. 28 Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. 29 Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

“Therefore” carries new creation into the life shared by actual people. Paul repeatedly replaces a corrupt use of human power with its healed use. The liar becomes truthful. Anger is brought under obedience and turned toward peace. Hands that took begin to work and give. The mouth that spread decay learns to build. Bitterness yields to kindness, and vengeance to forgiveness. Repentance is not complete when the harmful act stops; grace redirects the person toward the neighbor’s good.

Truth comes first because “we are members of one another.” A lie told within Christ’s Body is like one part of the body sending false pain or false comfort to another. It damages the communion by which members serve together. Truthfulness includes more than avoiding factual lies. It means surrendering the edited account that protects our image, the selective detail that recruits an ally, and the pious explanation that conceals our share of blame. Because the neighbor is a member and not an audience to manage, truth must serve communion.

Paul then treats anger with both realism and urgency: “Be angry, and do not sin.” Anger may register that something is wrong, yet it quickly seeks permission to accuse, exaggerate, punish, and rehearse the offense. The setting sun gives the command a daily edge. Resentment must not be fed as a cherished possession. “Place” in verse 27 translates topos, room or opportunity. Anger nursed into enmity opens a breach in which slander and distorted judgment can work. The warning calls for sober watchfulness over enmity, not fascination with demons or suspicion toward every conflict.5

The command does not require a wounded person to restore access before sunset, conceal abuse, or accept danger in the name of reconciliation. Safety, truthful reporting, protection of the vulnerable, and accountable boundaries can be acts of love. Paul’s demand is that anger not become allegiance to malice or vengeance. Before sleep, the believer can at least bring the wound into Christ’s presence, refuse the pleasure of rehearsed accusation, and ask for the next truthful and safe step toward peace.

Verse 28 shows the full shape of repentance in the hands. The former thief does more than stop taking. He labors at what is good so that “he may have something to give him who has need.” Work is healed from possession into mercy. Paul does not condemn those unable to work or those who need aid; the needy person is expressly the beneficiary. He addresses the person who took and trains those hands to produce, share, and restore. Honest labor reaches its Christian purpose when another person’s need enters the use of what we earn.

The mouth undergoes the same conversion. The Greek sapros logos means corrupt or rotten speech: words that spread decay. Paul opposes it with speech suited to “necessary edification,” language fitted to the hearer’s actual need so that it may “impart grace.” A sentence can be accurate and still be rotten if truth is used to expose, dominate, entertain, or wound. Edifying speech is not flattery, and it does not silence necessary correction or the disclosure of harm. It tells the truth in a form ordered toward protection, repentance, and the building up of a member of Christ.6

Verse 30 places the whole matter before the Holy Spirit. The Spirit who seals the Church for the day of redemption is grieved when her common life is poisoned. Paul has moved from the mouth to the Spirit because Christian speech is never spiritually neutral. Yet the verse gives no one permission to label every disagreement an offense against the Spirit; Paul’s concern is the destructive conduct named around it. Chrysostom presses this into the Church’s worship: the mouth that calls God Father, gives Him praise, and approaches the holy mysteries cannot be casually surrendered to reviling a brother. His application goes beyond Paul’s explicit wording, but it draws out the ecclesial weight of being sealed by the Spirit. The tongue belongs to prayer and communion.

Gems from the Fathers 💎

Chrysostom explains the positive purpose of speech: “For to this end God gave you a mouth and a tongue, that you might give thanks to Him, that you might build up your neighbor.”7 His words sharpen Paul’s test. Before speaking or sending a message, we may ask whether the word belongs to thanksgiving and whether it builds the person who will hear it. Sometimes a clean silence is more truthful than an accurate sentence sharpened for injury.

Verses 31-32 gather the hidden root, the heated response, and the public outbreak: bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking, and malice. Paul wants “all” of it put away. Yet he does not leave an emptied heart. Kindness takes the place of malice; tenderheartedness takes the place of hardness; forgiveness answers the debt we still remember. As Chrysostom says, “It is not enough to abandon wickedness, but there must be abundant practice of that which is good also.”8

The ground of forgiveness is “even as God in Christ forgave you.” Christian mercy begins with received mercy. The wound need not be renamed as small, nor are trust and access restored automatically. Forgiveness relinquishes vengeance before God while truth, justice, accountability, and protection remain possible. When the heart cannot yet imagine tenderness toward the offender, it can begin by standing under the costly forgiveness of Christ and asking Him to remove the will to destroy.

A further echo joins verses 29 and 32. Speech is to “impart grace,” while the Greek verbs for forgiving in verse 32 belong to the same charis, grace, word-family. The senses are not identical, but the echo is fitting: a people who have been graciously forgiven learn both grace-shaped speech and gracious forgiveness. The mercy received from Christ passes through the mouth and into the bonds between His members.9

Walk in Love as Dear Children (Ephesians 5:1-2)

1 Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

The chapter division can hide the force of “Therefore.” Paul moves directly from God’s forgiveness in Christ to imitation of God. Believers imitate Him “as dear children”: not as rivals attempting divine status, but as children whose lives grow into resemblance to the Father by grace. The present command has a continuing force. The likeness must become visible again and again in the habits Paul has named.

Verse 2 defines this imitation through Christ. “Walk in love” could otherwise dissolve into sentiment, but Paul gives love a form: Christ “has loved us and given Himself for us.” The passage began with desires that grasp; it ends with the Son who gives Himself. This is the great reversal of learning Christ. The renewed person no longer asks how much can be taken from another while preserving a Christian appearance. In Christ, desire is healed toward gift.

“Offering,” “sacrifice,” and “sweet-smelling aroma” belong to the language of biblical worship. Paul looks at the Cross as the Son’s voluntary self-offering “to God” and “for us.” His sacrifice is unique and saving; our love does not repeat or replace it. Christian self-giving receives its shape and life from His offering. Nor can this verse be used to sanctify abusive control or preventable harm. Christlike love seeks the other’s salvation and good under the truth of God; it does not cooperate with evil or hand the vulnerable back to danger.10

The phrase also gathers the passage into worship. Truthful speech, reconciled anger, generous labor, grace-giving words, and forgiveness are more than respectable conduct. Offered in Christ, they become the daily obedience of beloved children. The altar is not an escape from ordinary relationships. The One offered for us teaches our hands, our mouths, and our memory of injuries to walk in His love.

Gems from the Fathers 💎

Chrysostom sees enemy-love as the point at which imitation becomes costly: “Do you see that to suffer for one’s enemies is ‘a sweet-smelling savor,’ and an ‘acceptable sacrifice’? … This it is to ‘imitate God.’”11 He adds the pastoral measure “as far as you are able,” directing the believer toward growth rather than pretense. The first act may be small: refusing retaliation, praying for the offender’s repentance, telling the truth without hatred, or entrusting judgment to God. Such love is possible because Christ first “has loved us and given Himself for us.”

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

Bring the edited story into the truth of the Body. Falsehood often appears as self-protection: leaving out the detail that exposes our fault, exaggerating another person’s tone, or telling the story only to those who will confirm us. Verse 25 places truth inside communion. Name before God the part of the account you keep rearranging. Where it is wise and safe, correct the false impression, confess your own action plainly, and speak to the person concerned rather than building a circle around the grievance.

Do not offer resentment a room for the night. Anger can become a private liturgy in which the injury is repeated until the heart knows every accusation by heart. Before sleep, pray without editing the wound: “Lord Jesus Christ, You see what happened and what is in me. Protect what must be protected; show me the truth; keep me from vengeance; lead me in the next faithful step.” Reconciliation may require time, help, boundaries, and accountability. The immediate obedience is to stop feeding enmity and surrender judgment to Christ.

Let work acquire a merciful destination. The heart can be honest in earning and still closed in possessing. Verse 28 asks what our hands can give to the one in need. Set apart a real portion of income, time, or skill before every desire has claimed it. Repair what you have taken where restitution is possible. If you are the one in need, receive help without shame: Paul’s renewed community includes both the hand trained to give and the neighbor worthy of care.

Place the mouth before the Holy Spirit. Rotten speech often gains entry through a respectable door: the true fact repeated for amusement, the correction delivered to humiliate, the private message written in wrath, or the parish complaint shared everywhere except where it can be addressed. Before speaking, test the word by verse 29: Is it sound? Does it meet a real need? Will it build or merely expose? Then speak truthfully, correct cleanly, protect the vulnerable when necessary, or keep silence. The sealed mouth is meant for grace.

Forgive from the mercy already received. Some wounds are too serious for a hurried feeling of release. Verse 32 begins deeper than feeling: “God in Christ forgave you.” Stand there first. In prayer and confession, ask Christ to separate forgiveness from denial, trust from access, and mercy from the surrender of justice. Then choose one act that refuses vengeance: cease rehearsing an imagined punishment, pray for the person’s salvation, maintain a truthful boundary without contempt, or entrust the debt again to God. The child learns the Father’s likeness by returning to the Son’s offering.

Footnotes

  1. Coptic Orthodox Diocese of the Southern United States, CopticChurch.net, readings for Wednesday, 11 March 2026, Wednesday of the fourth week of Great Lent, Pauline reading beginning at Ephesians 4:17. The page’s endpoint “4:33” is an evident reference defect: Ephesians 4 ends at verse 32. Accordingly, the verified biblical range is Ephesians 4:17-32, and it excludes Ephesians 5:1-2. ↩ ↩2

  2. Ephesians 4:20 Greek interlinear and Ephesians 4:21 Greek interlinear; see also St John Chrysostom, Homily 13 on Ephesians, New Advent, on the affirmative force of the appeal. ↩

  3. Ephesians 4:22, Ephesians 4:23, and Ephesians 4:24, Greek interlinear; St John Chrysostom, Homily 13 on Ephesians, New Advent. ↩

  4. St John Chrysostom, Homily 13 on Ephesians, on Ephesians 4:20-24, translated by Gross Alexander, New Advent. ↩

  5. Ephesians 4:26 Greek interlinear and Ephesians 4:27 Greek interlinear; St John Chrysostom, Homily 14 on Ephesians, New Advent. ↩

  6. Ephesians 4:29 Greek interlinear, for sapros, edification, and grace. ↩

  7. St John Chrysostom, Homily 14 on Ephesians, on Ephesians 4:25-30, translated by Gross Alexander, New Advent. ↩

  8. St John Chrysostom, Homily 16 on Ephesians, on Ephesians 4:31-32, translated by Gross Alexander, New Advent. ↩

  9. Ephesians 4:29 Greek interlinear and Ephesians 4:32 Greek interlinear, for the charis/charizomai word-family. ↩

  10. Ephesians 5:1 Greek interlinear and Ephesians 5:2 Greek interlinear, for the continuing command, Christ’s self-giving, and the offering and sacrifice language. ↩

  11. St John Chrysostom, Homily 17 on Ephesians, on Ephesians 4:32-5:2, translated by Gross Alexander, New Advent. ↩

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