Bible Mastery - Ephesians 4:21-23

Thanks for listening to the Bible Mastery Podcast, brought to you by Teleios. In this episode, William and Jeanette Stewart will cover Ephesians 4:21-23.

The Bible Mastery Podcast brings you verse-by-verse teaching that’s clear, grounded, and life-changing. We take the Bible at its word—interpreting it in a normal, literal way—so you can uncover its deep truths about salvation, spiritual well-being, and daily living. Our goal is simple: to help you understand Scripture and equip you with the tools to interpret it confidently, without getting lost in noise or speculation.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello, and welcome to the Bible Mastery Podcast, sponsored by Telehost and hosted by co-founders Bill and Jeanette Stewart. Here, we give you verse-by-verse teaching from the truth of scripture that's clear, grounded, and life-changing. Our goal is to help you understand the Bible and equip you with tools to interpret it yourself confidently and correctly. Thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_03 0:34

Hi, I'm William Stewart, co-founder of Teleos here with my wonderful wife, Jeanette.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

Hello, everybody. Hi, Bill. Nice to be with you all today.

SPEAKER_03 0:44

Great to do the podcast with you, Jeanette, and uh to do this with our uh listeners. So again, welcome. We are in the book of Ephesians, the exciting chapter four. And as always, putting things in context, this is the Christian walk section of Ephesians, starting in chapter four, and that our Christian life is based on our salvation, the unity around how we love each other and the essential doctrines and God's word. And all that was a basis of our Christian life described in the first half of the chapter. Then Paul says, instead of describing our Christian life, what it is not. And now we come to a very important section, Jeanette, on how we live that Christian life and the power behind it. You know, Christians are often wanting to know how to get God's power. This really describes a lot of it today. It's a very uh exciting piece of scripture. But before we start, as a reminder, we're in Ephesians, because Ephesians is an epistle. And it's the epistles between Romans and Revelation chapter 3 that describe the wisdom, knowledge, and marching orders for the church. So all the Bible from Genesis to Revelation is the perfect word of God, but it's this section that describes what we do as Christians. You want to comment on that further? So such an important point.

SPEAKER_02 2:23

It is an important point. You know, all scripture is inspired by God and true, but there is continuing revelation as the knowledge progresses, and that you know, we depend on the Old Testament. Um, you know, the Old Testament in many ways, the prophecies and and the what they did foreshadowed. So it looked ahead to Christ's coming and gave good hints about it. But now Christ has come, and so we look backwards. And so these books, as you so nicely said, uh are really how we live our lives today.

SPEAKER_03 3:00

Yes, as I think you're saying salvation history progresses from Genesis into the epistles and it even into the revelation, the end times. And um yet it's in the epistles that especially Paul, but Peter and John describe what Christ did not have time to tell us about the Christian life, nor could the disciples understand at that point, as it says in the upper room discourse in John, uh, about um how we live. And uh, and this is it. Now it's we're in Ephesians because it's a compact, efficient, power-packed epistle about knowing about Christ's salvation, and the Christian walk. So, having said all that, let's get to this great section today. I think we're starting in verse 21. And Jeanette, please batter up.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

So we are starting in verse 21, and and just want to make one comment further, Bill. You mentioned that um right before this, uh, the scriptures talk about what we were, and it's always in the um epistles a really good thing to look for. God doesn't leave us in a vacuum, in a void. He goes, That's what you were, but now this is what you are. So there's always a contrast here, and that's where we left off in verse 20.

SPEAKER_03 4:24

He said, You have not learned added to that, and actually, I think you taught me this many years ago. Um, that you know, you just don't tell people not to do something, you replace it with what is good, so they they can do what is good and they're not thinking about what is bad. Yeah, I think that's uh really key to the Christian life.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

So it is key, yeah. And so that's where we left off um verse 20 last time. He said, you know, this is how the unbelievers are, and he goes, That's not how you learned Christ. And now in verse 21, he says, How we did. So he says, if so be that you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. So these are key words when it says you've heard him, it's it's um the the word acuo, where we get the English word acoustic, right? So this has come into our ears, so to speak.

SPEAKER_03 5:25

Yeah, I've never thought about that before. That's a good point. So kuo acoustic. So thanks.

SPEAKER_02 5:30

Oh, welcome.

SPEAKER_03 5:32

So any anything to help me remember.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

So I'll take it. Um so he says you've heard him, and and for Jewish um believers, and and there were obviously some Jews in the audience here, uh, the Jews understood when they heard God, it really meant to hear and obey. So this kind of is talking about our salvation here. He's contrasting the way we were as unbelievers. And he goes, that's not how you heard Christ. And you've been taught by him. Well, taught is the regular word um didasco, we're getting his word didactic. So he's basically saying when the gospel came to you and you heard it and understood it, it wasn't like what I just told you about the unbelievers. And then the part of the verse that I really love, he says, as the truth is in Jesus. So this word truth in Greek uh really had the idea of complete full disclosure. Um, so it's not like you can say the truth, say, but my fingers are crossed, so I leave something out that's important. It's full disclosure, it's everything true is in Jesus. And this is consistent with what Christ said of himself. He said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Uh 1 John uh talks a lot about truth and Christ. And so he's really making the point here that at salvation we heard the truth. Um, and it's very different from what he described for unbelievers. And then in verse 22, uh Bill, you'll give some more information about this. But do you have further comments on this verse?

SPEAKER_03 7:15

Oh, of course. So nice, nice description. Just two quick things. One is what you say about truth is so crude. I think for any Christian, you know, if you ask them, do you believe in Jesus? Yes, he's cruel. You know, is Jesus crew? Yes, is the Bible true? Yes, but it it's almost by rote and an assumption, and yet when Christians so often, and me too, are confronted, there's a temptation to back down when we're confronted by God haters to sort of cower or minimize ourselves because this truth is against society. And yet, if you really believe, I'm and I'm preaching to myself, if you really believe what the truth is and the gospel and who God is, you know, like you, if you have any fact, you stand up and say it. And you're proud to say it and you want to share information because it makes you look smart. We have the truth, and we need to act like it uh in front of other people and in our society, which hates God so much, and and really have confidence, and that it's um, you know, yes, we acknowledge it, but do we really believe it? Uh, do you want to comment further on that?

SPEAKER_02 8:33

That's such a good point. And you know, I think as healthcare professionals, um, you know, when you and I know something to be true, we don't um hide it or we don't not stand up for it. We stand up for it because we want the well-being of patients. And so we will correct their thinking and say, no, no, you got that wrong. This is what you really need to do for the good of your health, right? Same here with with the truth that's in Christ. We should correct people and and you know, allow them to know what is true.

SPEAKER_03 9:04

That's a very good analogy, I mean, because the gospel is helping them for eternity, and that's the truth. Yeah. Second point is uh what I would call Hebrewms, and you mentioned the word to hear for the Jewish people in the audience, and actually the Ephesian Ephesus didn't have a lot of Jews, though every large city back then in the Roman Empire had a Jewish diaspora. But I think I would extend that to say that probably about half, I haven't studied this scientific scientifically, half of the terms that have theological meaning in the epistles derive from the Old Testament. Now, I think this word to hear is important. Again, it's a word that's easy to disregard, but actually in Christianity it's vital. We don't, as it says in Hebrews 2, we don't yet see the risen Christ, the glorified Christ. So we have to hear and believe. And for the Jews, that the Hebrew word shema to hear, very common, but to them it meant belief. Otherwise, for a person, I I just note that the Israelites, this this sounds bad, but didn't have the intellectual pause on thoughts that the Jews had. And for the for the Greeks, they would hear, contemplate, believe, then act. For the Jews, to say that you heard, just sort of um smed your way through all those stops and you believed, and you did. Because you didn't stop and think about the Jews, were sort of a people of action, they didn't really have um even adjectives that describes who they were or put in terms of verbs, all their words come from verbs, and they when you hear that meant you believed, and uh skipping the intellectual processes, and you showed it by your actions um uh after you did hear and really uh took that in. So just a thought to expand. So thanks for listening.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

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SPEAKER_03 11:46

So, verse 22, flesh out for the comments?

SPEAKER_02 11:49

No, please.

SPEAKER_03 11:51

Okay, and and this is really important that you put off concerning the former conversation, and and really in the Greek here, it's behavior. And this is a King James translation for behavior and conversation. The old man, which is corrupt according to his peaceful, deceitful lust. So put off the old man, and what's that mean? I again we've talked before about regeneration uh and baptism, spiritual baptism, and this is another term which reflects on that. So when a person believes, and this is really key to understanding the Christian life, you just don't believe, but a lot of other things happen. There's a whole group of promises, and this is in our ebook uh on the website, toyasresearch.com, on salvation and security of salvation. But a person is regenerated by the Holy Spirit, Titus 3 5. And this is best described in chapter 6 of Romans. So you're identified the word baptism, this is spiritual baptism, with Christ's death and resurrection. So at salvation, the old person dies, that old man is but off. Okay, and they're identified with the resurrection, otherwise, we're resurrected with Christ to this new man. And so it's this new man that is seen by God as holy, so it gives us access in prayer, along with the forgiveness of our sins. We're holy people, but gives us the power, along with the spirit that indwells in us to live the Christian life. Romans 6, 12 through 16. So here it's describing this regeneration, this old man being put off. So again, another term for this, like the seed being born again. Um it's all throughout the epistles, um, different terms for this act of the spirit at salvation. So this is put off. Now, another important aspect of this, and this is also in verse 21, the verb tenses in the original Greek are in something called the eras. And again, this is important because amazingly, it means a one-time finished event, this error's tense. We don't have it in English, but it's present in the modern Slavic languages, at least Russian and Polish, probably the others, but I'm not certain. And that's important because the verb tenses that describe events at salvation in the epistles are in this era's tense, as opposed to the present tense, which is continuous, our Christian life is continuous, and those verb tenses describe the Christian life. So when we're saved, that event is one time and it's complete. So we learn about salvation in verse 21 and believe the truth that that's complete, and now we have put off this old man once at salvation, it's complete, and we move on to our Christian life, we don't go backwards. Let me repeat that we don't go backwards, and and Hebrews 6, uh verses 1 to 6 clearly describes this. We we cast off things about when we become a Christian, we don't consider the veins of salvation anymore because it's over. We're saved, we concentrate on living a Christian life, and what's it say to do? Um the uh well, I guess that's in verse 23, excuse me. But we're to put off that old man, that's complete, and it's the seat of the world, which brings us to 23, and that's your job, Stan. I almost stole it from you.

SPEAKER_02 16:29

So, yes, isn't it nice to know that that former lifestyle uh which he says is corrupt, um, it's over and done with. And verse 23 he says, be renewed in the spirit of your mind. So this word renew, I really love this word. It could be um to renew or to make young, but it really means to renovate, okay. Your mind uh is renovated. So how does that happen? Well, at salvation, uh, we are uh regenerated people by the power of the Holy Spirit, but it produces a change in our mind and our mindset. So I think what he's saying here is your mindset also changes, you're a new person, and the word and is not chi, it's not an additional thought. He's saying this is um uh continuing the idea um that you are a new entity, uh, but also you have a new mind, a new way of thinking that the spirit has created in you, and that is what is renovated.

SPEAKER_03 17:49

So let me ask for clarification's sake. The old self is put on, but when it says renew here, are you saying this renewal is part of the of salvation, or is this something we do in our Christian life?

SPEAKER_02 18:03

Both. Is that an awful thing?

SPEAKER_03 18:06

What's the what's the emphasis here, you think?

SPEAKER_02 18:08

I think the emphasis here is our mind has been our our brain, our mind has been changed by the spirit. That gives us the ability to change how we look at things as believers. But I think this passage is primarily talking about salvation. How do you look at it?

SPEAKER_03 18:25

I think it's our Christian life, and the reason is because it's in the present tense. So, like I was describing in the last verse, heirs tense has to do with salvation. Now that we've built off that old man, we have that power to renew our mind. I think it's consistent with Romans 12.2, and in um uh the word for renewal in uh Titus 3.5, also in the present tense, to it's a lifestyle of renewing our mind. And I think we do that by being in scripture perspectively of learning and learning how to think like God and knowing what he wants us to do.

SPEAKER_02 19:12

I certainly agree with that, Bill. I how um and and be renewed here, is this active or passive in the verb form?

SPEAKER_03 19:23

It is passive again, it could be um also middle, so a renewal within yourself in reference to yourself, and so it could be translated in the active, so it really has to be taken in context, it's an infinitive though.

SPEAKER_02 19:39

I think that the idea of the passive tense is what leads me to say what I did, but but I think all the things that you said are true. This in my mind is the basis of it. We can't renew our mind on a daily basis, we can't do Romans 12 um if we haven't had a regenerated mind. So I think uh I don't think we're strongly disagreeing on this. I think both are really true. The spirit renews our, it gives us a new, he gives us a new mind when we're saved, and then after we're saved, we have to keep refreshing it with scripture, as you said.

SPEAKER_03 20:16

Yes, I agree with you. Certainly, the new mind comes from the spirit at and the regeneration at salvation. Okay, so what we talked about here, the important verses that we are, of course, we just spoke to we don't live like the Gentiles. We have the capacity to do that because we have put off the old man, and we'll know, Lord, next week that we put on the new man, and by that we have the power to live the Christian life. It's also part of the security of our salvation because there's no verse that says, once we have that new man put on, that we God, if he's mad at us, takes off the new man and gives us the old man back. That would be a bad day. You know, that doesn't happen. That old man, the non-Christian man, is in the replaced, yeah. Yeah, replaced.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:16

Okay, other further comments, uh, Jeanette. Great passage.

SPEAKER_02 21:20

It is a great passage, and I think next time when we come back, it's very exciting because as it talks about the old man being replaced with the new man, we're gonna see what that in how that impacts our lives. And we come to some very practical verses at the end of chapter four and in chapter five. You know, how does this all play out in reality? So lots more good stuff ahead.

SPEAKER_03 21:42

Yes, that's a good point. The sort of the whole basis of the positive Christian commands are are over here, and we we get to the the wisdom scripture for our daily life, just as you said. Okay. Thank you, Jeanette, and thanks to everybody who is uh in our audience. We'll Look forward to next time.

SPEAKER_00 22:01

Certainly we do. Thank you all. Bye for now. Thanks for listening to this episode of the Bible Mastery Podcast. Join us next week for another exciting episode.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

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