Ephesians 4:17-24
Those who have learned Christ must put off the old self, be renewed in mind, and put on the new self created for righteousness and holiness.
17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,
18 being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their hearts.
19 They, having become callous, gave themselves up to lust, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
20 But you didn’t learn Christ that way,
21 if indeed you heard him, and were taught in him, even as truth is in Jesus:
22 that you put away, as concerning your former way of life, the old man that grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit,
23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
24 and put on the new man, who in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.
Those who have learned Christ must put off the old self, be renewed in mind, and put on the new self created for righteousness and holiness.
Paul commands believers not to live like the Gentiles in the futility of their thinking, but to live according to the truth learned in Christ by putting off the old self, being renewed in the attitude of the mind, and putting on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:17-24 follows the call to walk worthy of the calling in 4:1-6 and the description of Christ's gifts maturing the body in 4:7-16. Paul has just said that mature believers should no longer be children tossed by every wind of teaching, but should grow into Christ by truth in love. He now applies that maturity to the believer's old way of life. The repeated walking language ties this passage to 2:1-3, where believers formerly walked in transgressions and sins, and to 2:10, where they are created in Christ Jesus for good works to walk in them. Ephesians 4:17-24 also prepares for 4:25-32, where Paul gives specific commands about truthfulness, anger, work, speech, kindness, and forgiveness. The old self/new self framework becomes the theological foundation for the practical ethics that follow.
Ephesians 4:17-24 speaks to believers in a Gentile-majority environment where old patterns of thought, worship, desire, and moral practice would have remained culturally familiar. Paul does not merely tell Gentile believers to stop behaving badly; he diagnoses the deep structure of the old life: futile thinking, darkened understanding, alienation from God's life, ignorance, hardened hearts, and moral callousness. In Ephesus, a city marked by religious plurality, temple devotion, magical practices, commerce, and social patterns of honor and appetite, the call to no longer walk as the Gentiles do would require visible separation from former identities and practices. Yet Paul frames transformation not as cultural withdrawal alone, but as learning Christ and putting on the new self created according to God.
Walking Worthy: Unity, Maturity, and the New Life in Christ
Because God has made the church one new humanity in Christ, believers must walk worthy by preserving unity, growing to maturity, and putting on the new life created in righteousness and holiness.