Ephesians 4:17-29

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Paul is reminding the Ephesians that they have a new nature (New Man) that is fashioned after Christ. Matthew used the illustration of the train manager he met that used to be a part of King's, that had to handle a difficult situation of delay and frustration for hundreds of people. This train manager acted in accordance with his duties, he wasn’t trying to be a train manager, he was a train manager, and so he was responsible for keeping things calm. So too are we not in the process of becoming a new man in Christ, but it has already happened if we believe in Him.

However, Paul is raising the point that a lot of ‘old ways’ that are not part of our new nature can still dog us. Similar to throwing out old furniture that has no place in a new apartment, we need to identify old habits and ways that belong to yesterday’s nature and throw them out too! We need to renew our minds daily, aligning our thoughts with Christ by reading his ways in scripture, and allowing the Holy Spirit to fashion us.

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Discussion points on this section

• It is important that we understand what has already happened and what is still our responsibility to continue to do; what the bible calls Justification and Sanctification. Talk about the difference between what Paul was reminding them HAD happened (past), and the things he was asking them to do now (present and on going).
• Try and be personal about behaviour and ways that you have had to throw out, and things you have kept or brought in and are continuing to do.

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Paul is very aware that this is a new community of fashioned new creatures in Christ, and he is admonishing them to watch how they speak to each other, their behaviour towards one another, and also how they handle anger. Paul talks about old ways where they lied to each other or spoke falsehood, compared to speaking the truth in love.

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Further discussion

• Try and share why this behaviour is so important and why in our culture we find this so difficult. Talk about yourself, and why you tend to not always speak the truth in love to your friends.

• Interestingly Paul doesn’t say that anger is part of the old nature, in fact he says ‘Be angry'. As Christians we can find this incongruous, partly because we haven’t seen many models growing up where anger was expressed in a helpful/constructive way. Discuss

Finish by praying in pairs for each other that we would live according to our new nature, being specific about some things that we need to discard and others that we need demonstrate more.