Eph-80-81 - Lesson 30 - Ephesians 4: 17-24
Publication Date: 04-29-1981
Victor Paul Wierwille (December 31, 1916 – May 20, 1985) dedicated his life to the research and teaching of the Bible. In his quest for truth he consulted and worked with some of the most outstanding individuals in Biblical studies and Christian living; including Karl Barth, Joseph Bauer, Glenn Clark, Karl J. Ernst, Joseph Friedli, Louis C. Hessert, Elmer G Homrighausen, E. Stanley Jones, George M. Lamsa, Richard and Reinhold Niebuhr, K. C. Pillai, Paul Tillich, Ernst Traeger, and many others.
Dr. Wierwille received his Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Theology degrees from present day Lakeland College, and conducted graduate studies at the University of Chicago and Princeton Theological Seminary. It was at Princeton that Wierwille earned the Master of Theology degree in Practical Theology. He later completed his Doctor of Theology degree at Pike's Peak Bible Seminary and Burton College in Manitou Springs, Colorado.
Dr. Wierwille was the author of numerous books in the field of Biblical research, including Are the Dead Alive Now?; Receiving the Holy Spirit Today; Jesus Christ Our Passover; and Jesus Christ Our Promised Seed. Additionally, he developed and taught several comprehensive classes directed toward helping people to understand the Bible and to increase the power of God in their lives, such as the Power For Abundant Living series, Living Victoriously, and the University of Life courses. Dr. Victor Paul Wierwille was the founder and president of a world-wide Biblical research, teaching, and fellowship ministry for forty years; as well as the founder and president of several Biblical research centers, colleges, leadership training, and Christian outreach programs associated with it.
Victor Paul Wierwille served the Lord with unending joy all the days of his life as he travelled continuously throughout the world to hold forth the Word of God. He reached thousands of people during his lifetime through his live presentations, numerous radio and television broadcasts, film and video classes, and recorded teachings. And countless others continue to enjoy and be enriched by his books and hundreds of hours of recorded works, many of which are available in the public domain. A detailed listing of his work, as well as more information about his life and teachings can be found at Eternally Blessed (www.eternallyblessed.org).
We' re into a section of the Word of God in chapter four, tonight, where... the section of Ephesians, chapter four. In order to put the whole thing together, you have to begin with verse 17 and go through verse 24. And perhaps you will understand this as I teach it, because after verse 24, we get away. .. get started on the things you ' put away with' and later on, ' the things you put on;' they' re interspersed.
And we' ll see some of this tonight. It' s, just again, an unbelievable privilege to teach the Word and the greatness of Ephesians in here just makes you stand in utter amazement.
And I heard Vince refer to a statement that I make in the Advanced Class which is still literally true: they laugh at people who say they ' hear from God.' But ifl didn' t hear from God every day, I'd quit. Have to. Then He' s dead or I'm not living it; then I'd better get to living it. So I expect to walk that way and it' s just a wonderful privilege to work the Word. Again I'm real thankful for our Research Department. Wonderful men and women and their faithfulness. It' s just a wonderful privilege to be on that Research Team and to work the Word and have the privilege of working it and putting it together from a language point of view.
I closed last week in Lexington with verse 16 of chapter four and I did it deliberately because I knew we' d have to start this new section and I wanted to teach it as a section.
:17 This I say therefore, is King James, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind.
The state of the Gentiles... walk not as other Gentiles walk. It' s real interesting. Eight different things that I've seen in here.
- They were vain in mind - verse 17
- Darkened in understanding - verse 18
- Alienated to God' s life or alienated from God' s life - verse 18
- Ignorant of God - verse 18
- Blind in heart - verse 18
- Past feeling - verse 19
- Lustful - verse 19
- Homosexual - verse 19
- (Have nine instead of eight) Greed - verse 19
They're all interesting words again in the verse, like every verse is. But the words ' in the vanity' are really significant, especially that word ' vanity.' It' s not some antique that you look in that has a mirror. The Greek word is mataiotes, m-a-t-a-i-o-t-e-s. It' s used only three times in the New Testament. Without God and a true knowledge of the Word of God and God at the center of a man' s life, all of man' s thoughts and actions are vain. And this Greek word not only means ' vain,' but it means ' futile.' It means ' fruitless' from the point of producing good fruit. It' ll have fruit, but it will
not be good fruit. It will be fruitless. And it' s ' profitless.' It means ' they are without a genuine, real, true, purpose in life.'
And when a man is in this condition, man builds erroneous religious systems that are based on the doctrines and the commandments of men. The way out of this dark and bleak existence is powerfully set forth in the Book of Ecclesiastes in chapter 12:13 and 14. And here in Ephesians chapter {verse} 24, where it really begins with verse 25 through verse 31. And then in chapter five with verse three it starts again.
This word is used only three times. The first is in Romans 8:20, For the creature was made subject to vanity. Profitless, fruitless, vain, so forth. II Peter 2:18, For when they speak great swelling words of vanity... vain, profitless, futile, fruitless words. The word ' vanity,' Corps, is often connected with idols in the Old Testament , Septuagint. Idols are included in the word, but not limited to idols only.
The literal translation of Ephesians 4:17 is as follows: Therefore I say this and solemnly witness to it in the Lord's name that you quit walking as the unsaved Gentiles who walk by the egotistical perverseness of their minds.
The expanded translation is as follows. Remember verse 16 talked about the edifying of itself in love, last week: This, this - edifying itself in love - this, including everything I have said before, I am saying further and I am bearing a solemn witness in the Lord as a sold-out doulos that now you will no longer be walking as the unsaved Gentiles are walking in the deceiving egotism of their minds without any profitable fruit. That is a wonderful verse of scripture.
As I've told the Corps before, every week they place into my hands translations by the Biblical scholars. Seven of them. One by Murdock, Lamsa, The Revised Standard, New English, Weymouth, Rotherham and Darby. Of verse 17, only two are worth considering.
The first is the New English. The New English says, This then is my word to you and I urge it upon you in the Lord' s name, give up living like pagans with their good-for-nothing notions. I think that' s a pretty good translation.
And the other one is by Weymouth. Therefore I warn you and I implore you in the name of the Lord no longer to live as the Gentiles in their perverseness live.
Of the two, the second is more accurate.
Now we go to verse 18. Having the understanding darkened , is King James, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart.
' In your understanding, having been darkened,' they were darkened in their understanding. You don' t go back to where you were after you have been born again. This 'having the understanding darkened' is a figure of speech spelled a-n-t-i-p-r-o-s-o-p-o-p-o-e-i-a. Person's are given the attributes of a physical object. In this verse, the understanding, a part of the life of man is changed to a physical object that can be darkened. Often a physical illustration will point out a spiritual reality with a greater clarity than any other possible explanation. That' s the power in this figure of speech.
' Blindness' in that verse, ' blindness' is used... this word, Greek word, is used regarding the process where the extremities of fractured bones are reunited by a callus, c-a-1-1-u-s. It's used metaphorically of' dulled spiritual perception.'
Robertson says that it's used by Hippocrates of a callused hardening. In the previous Ephesians class, I taught that it was, equals ' hardnessor paralysis of the heart.'
' The blindness of their hearts' is again that figure I gave you previously a-n-t-i-p-r-o-s. A physical illustration of a spiritual reality.
In the Aramaic, the figure of speech is metonymy. It' s only in the Aramaic.
A literal statement would be 'blindness of the eyes' however ' eyes' have been replaced by an adjunct to which the ' eyes' are related, which is ' the heart.' The heart receives the information from the eyes. Both the figures in this verse combine to give a telling picture of one who does not believe.
Now the literal translation of verse 18 according to usage is as follows: Having the thoughts of their minds in darkness and alienated from the life of God because of their refusal of knowledge and hardness of mind.
The expanded translation is: Having their minds blacked out and alienated from the life God gives because they have refused to accept the true knowledge available because of the callused hardness of their idol-worshipping minds.
If you will remember the city of Ephesus had the great temple of the goddess Diana of the Ephesians .. ..you know Acts... to whom the whole world worshipped. This had had a tremendous influence upon the people of Ephesus. That's why because of the callused hardness of their idol worshipping minds.
Verse 19 in King James reads, Who being past feeling... past feeling, and I'm sure even those words must communicate to you... past feeling, insensitive, hardened, callused. Nothing bothers them. God, there are a lot of people like that today in life. A lot in government service, top echelon. They' re past feeling. Find them in your next door neighbor, too. Right at home area. Have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
The Research Department in the background study of this, these words, ' lasciviousness,'
' uncleanness,' and ' greediness' gave me the following and I think it's a tremendous piece of work.
First of all, the Greek word for ' lasciviousness ' is spelled a-s-e-l-g-e-i-a, aselgeia. And means 'unrestrained by any rules of morality.' Man, that's really having it, isn' t it? Unrestrained, unrestrained. Anything goes, any which way, satisfy yourself, don't make any difference what you do to anybody else. Unrestrained. Sounds about like what Playboy is advocating, or anybody, a lot of other groups. Sounds like we better build a cathedral to the Diana of the Ephesians again, or something.
Unrestrained by any rules of morality. Because you ' re an adult, adult, and whatever you want to do, do it. Don't make any difference. That' s the teaching. That's the meaning of the word
' lasciviousness.'
'Their minds being callused.' Well, we got a scripture along that line someplace. To the point, they' re just totally unrestrained. Don't we have a scripture like............ seared with a hot iron. Where is that? {I
Timothy 4:2} I Timothy 4:2. I should have put that in here. That' s a good one. They live without any moral standards or laws.
The word 'uncleaness' is a-k-a-t-h-a-r-s-i-s. A cathartic is something that cleans. This has the ' a' in front of it. No cleaning. Unclean. Unclean morally. And it's interesting that this word is used of devil spirits in Luke 8:29. And it's used of homosexuality in Romans 1:24. That' s the destination of every man who is unrestrained by any rules of morality. They'll always get possessed by devil spirits and they will be destined to hit rock bottom because they' ll go the way of all flesh.
'Covetousness' is the word spelled p-l-e-o-n-e-x-i-a, which means ' insatiated greedy desire for more,' 'never can get enough.' When any individual lives with unbridled lust, his desires in life are unclean and based... base, unclean and base. And there will always be associated with it, the covetous desire of more and more and more. Without the hope of the return of Christ and an accurate knowledge of God's Word, man will continue to live by his unbridled lust aimed toward filthiness with a constant yearning for more and more uncleanness. And this pathway is broad and it is always downhill. It is easy to go down the drain.
These words ' being past feeling' means ' hardened,' ' callused. ' They are the people who will rationalize their positions.
The word ' lust' does not just mean ' sex' or ' immorality ' from a sexual point of view. The word ' lust' includes idol worship. Three Gods: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, is idol worship. And they fit into this category.
The literal translation of verse19 is as follows: Who having cut themselves off from the Hope having surrendered themselves to unbridled lust to practice all uncleanness with a covetous desire for more.
The expanded one is: Having cut off their Hope, are insensitive to truth, feel no pain in being wrong, having surrendered themselves to all moral and spiritual lusts, to practice all uncleanness, desiring more and more.
There are three verses that were translated.
The first one by Murdock of this verse 19, which he translates: They have cut off their Hope and have given themselves over to lasciviousness and to the practice of all uncleanness in their greediness. That ' s a pretty good translation.
The New English is worth considering. Dead to all feeling, they have abandoned themselves to vice and stop at nothing to satisfy their foul desires.
And the one by Darby is good. Who, having cast off all feeling, have given themselves up to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greedy, unsatisfied lust.
Verse 20, King James. But ye have not so learned Christ. It's a short one.
The Greek word for ' learned' here is the word e-m-a-t-h-e-t-e. And this word comes from the root word m-a-n-t-h-a-n-o, manthano, which means ' to learn,' ' to be taught,' 'to increase one's knowledge.' It is closely akin to the Greek Word mathetes, m-a-t-h-long-e-t-long e-s. Who is a disciple who learns from a didaskalos, a teacher. And if you really want to develop this in your life, you go to the 4th Corp's research project which should be in the library entitled, Born Again to Serve, where they handled this so beautifully.
The literal translation according to usage of verse 20 is: But you learned living differently when you were taught about Christ.
The expanded translation is: But you were not taught in that manner, but differently when you were born again by the power of God which is Christ in you.
Of all the translations of the other seven, there is only one I felt was worth considering and that is Dr. Lamsa's where he translates this verse: But that is not what you have been taught about Christ. Which I think is good. May I have a cup of coffee, please?
Now, verse 21, King James. If so be that ye have heard Him, and have been taught by Him as the truth is in Jesus.
You can immediately see that verses 20 and 21 have to just fit together. And they do beautifully. Markus Barth makes this statement, and of course all of us know this is true. It' s like that scripture, isn't it in Thessalonians where Paul thanks God that when you heard the Word which you heard of us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the Word of God.. . Isn't that in Thessalonians? [Yes] What chapter? [I Thessalonians 2:13]. I Thessalonians 2:13. Thank you.
Now what was I saying about it, when I asked that... ? [Markus Barth] Oh yeah. I was going to tell you what he said. Ye have heard him, those words, 'ye have heard him' does not mean those at Ephesus heard Christ directly when he was upon earth. It assumes that Christ himself speaks in those proclaiming him. That's right. Good.
'Ye have heard him' means ye have heard those speaking of, and for, and about him. And by the way, the word ' him' is emphatic in this verse.
These words ' in Jesus' refer to his earthly walk. The truth was in him. He always did the Father' s will. He fulfilled the law. That is the truth. All the others you can work easily on your own.
So, the literal translation according to usage of verse 21 is: In as much as you heard him with understanding and were taught by him even as the truth is in what Jesus taught.
It is interesting that in verse 20, you have ' Christ.' In verse 21, you have ' Jesus.' And you knowing the difference in those words and their usage in the Word should really turn you on.
The expanded translation of 21 is: In as much as you heard to the end of believing Christ and understood and were instructed according to the truth of, and in Jesus.
Now I use both the word ' Christ' and ' Jesus ' in the verse, in the expanded one, because ye heard to the end of believing. And when you believe you get who in you? [Christ] Right. And then they were understood... they understood and were instructed according to the truth of Jesus which is on the horizontal level. That' s why I translated it that way.
Of the seven translations of others before me, there is only one I felt worth sharing with the Corps. And that is... of verse 21... and that' s the one that's done by Lamsa. And he translates it as follows, verse 21. If you have truly heard him...If you have truly heard him, if you would truly hear him, you would believe, right? I think it' s a fine translation. If you have truly heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is found in Jesus.
Verse 22 in King James reads, That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts.
The ' putting off is a figure of speech very familiar to us called hypocatastasis, where the main idea, which is only implied from the context, is replaced by an imported object or image to which it is being compared.
The verb ' put off implies ' clothing' by association. The old man actions are to be put off as one puts on clothing. They' re put off like you put off clothing and you put on like you put on clothing. You were taught by him, by Jesus, to put off from yourself the old man according to the former behavior. You wouldn't want to put on a new dress over the top of an old tattered and torn and filthy dress. I wouldn' t want to put on a new shirt over the top of an old shirt. So when you put on the new, you automatically .. .or not automatically... but willfully put off the what? Old, see.
It is like introducing light; what happens to the darkness? It disappears. I was going to bring in a new shirt Mrs. Wierwille bought me. But I thought I'd get to myself and you might not like that, so. But it' s a neat one. I'll wear it sometime. But I want to tell you, when I wear it, I won't have another old shirt underneath it, because it is pure silk. And to have a pure silk shirt, Oooh wow wow! And I thought of it, when she bought it, of that TV show, The Price is Right. The only reason she bought it. Ha. I guess they couldn' t sell it to anybody else or something. So they finally reduced it down to where Mrs. Wierwille thought she could afford to buy it.
But, I'll tell you, when I wear that beautiful shirt, I'm not going to have some tattered, torn, underwear underneath it, or have one of those shirts I wore out in the woods this week underneath it. See. [Laughter] It's so simple, it's so tremendous, too.
And we're right here in some of the great teaching of the Way Ministry in the Foundational Class, I think. The new birth, then the renewed mind, all of that is right here in this great section of Ephesians. It' s just an exciting night in the Word, kids.
Well, I was going to show you... tell you something else here. ' Which is corrupt' that corrupt business. Another usage of that word is ' decayed.' Ha ha. The old man according to the former behavior: decayed, corrupted, decayed according to the lusts of deceit. It is utter corruption.
The phrase ' according to the desire' is here of...what's it say? ' According to the deceitful lusts ' that phrase. The literal according to the Greek would be ' lusts of deceit.' The King James translators translated it, you know, ' deceitful lusts.' And that removes the emphasis rather severely.
This is not the figure of speech which some of the teachers have taught in the past, that it' s antimeria. It' s not that figure. It is a metonomy of effect figure. The effect is put for the cause. The cause is the deceiver, who is the Devil.
Well now, for the literal according to usage of this great verse, 22: Now you stop your former behavior of the old man, corrupted according to the passionate desires of the deceiver. That' s it. You stop your former behavior of the old man, corrupted according to the passionate desires of the deceiver.
The expanded one is sort of interesting: Now, you lay aside, strip off.. .you know, you go take a shower, you strip. ' Strip off,' ' tear off is another usage... and stop your former behavior and way of life which is still the old man which is rotten according to all the deceptive desires of the deceiver, the Devil.
Verse 22, according to these translators, there are three that I felt were worth sharing with the Corps.
Namely, the one by Lamsa, Lay aside all your former practices, that is to say the old man which is degenerated with deceitful lusts.
The New English, That leaving your former way of life you must lay aside that old human nature which deluded by its lust is sinking towards death.
And the one by Weymouth, To put away your original evil nature as displayed in your former mode of life, a nature which is doomed to perish as befits it misleading impulses.
Track two
Now we go to Ephesians {verse} 23. ' And be renewed in the spirit of your mind,' is King James. The fantastic piece of work on the accuracy of Romans 12:1 and 2 that Reverend Cummins did in the Way Magazine of May/June 1974 must be read and understood to really get blessed with this verse, too. This verse 23, also. How' s that.
In this piece of work, Rev. Cummins says the word ' renewing' is the Greek word anakainosis ,
a-n-a-k-a-i-n-o-s-i-s, which is a combination of two words, ana, which means ' up.' I guess that's the meaning of ana, ' up.' Girl' s name. We got a few around, haven' t we? And kainosis, which means
' new.' Up new. To renew our minds, we must get a new mind in an upward fashion. Going up. That indicates God. Not down, with those passionate desires and the deceit of the adversary. The word kainosis refers to ' that which is different from what it was formerly.' It means ' new in quality.' It is never used in a negative sense, but always where the individual is better in quality than he was before.
Another Greek word, neos, n-e-o-s means ' new in time,' ' new in age,' ' young,' ' new in years,'
' as being recently different.' When Henry Ford developed a new automobile, he developed a new project which was new in time, which no one had used before. It was a neos car. If we were to find a completely unused Model A Ford under wraps in someone's barn, it would still be new, but it would be kainos , new in quality.
Matthew 9:17 Neither do men put new, neos, wine into old bottles, else the bottles break, and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new, neos, wine in new, kainos, bottles, and both are preserved. It's a great usage. The new wine was freshly made wine. The new bottles were not necessarily newly constructed, but they still retained their new quality.
Colossians 3:9 to 11 states, ' Lie not one to another, seeing that ye put off the old man with his deeds. And have put on the new, neos, man which is renewed, anakianosis, in knowledge after the image of him that created him. Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor circumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
The word ' new' in the 10th verse of Colossians 3 is neos, indicating ' new in time or age' The old man is man of body and soul, the flesh part of man. The new man is that inner man which is holy spirit, which is Christ in you. It is certainly new in years as opposed to the man of the flesh. We are told to put on the inner which is new in time. It is a start for us in life. That new man must be put into our minds. This renews our minds. This renewing is in ' quality' as indicated by anakainosis. We start by putting on new things in our mind which match up to that new man on the inside. As we put on this new quality in our minds, in an upward fashion, we renew our minds and become transfigured. We get a new figure in our minds. As we do this, we prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. The early apostles renewed their minds and proved what is that good and acceptable will of God. That, I think, is a very beautiful way of stating it.
The literal translation according to usage of verse 23 is as follows: And you will be renewed in your life, that is to say, in your mind. . .no, that is to say, your mind.
{And you will be renewed in your life, that is to say, your mind.}
The expanded one is, And you will become a new person in your life, because of your renewed mind.
Now the last verse for tonight, the great 24th verse. You know we put off, now we' re told to put on the new man, in King James, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. The
' putting on' is this figure hypocatastasis. Again hypocatastasis.
The ' new man,' it intrigued me, that the words in the Aramaic are 'son of man new,' 'son of man new.' The believers are told to clothe themselves with a new man because the words ' to put on,' the verb literally means ' to clothe.' It implies the putting on of clothing. It' s similar to ' we' re made an inheritance,' that' s used 1:11 of Ephesians.
' The new man is created after the pattern of what God is,' Weust says, or Wuest. W-u-e-s-t, German man, which would be pronounced the ' w' like a ' v.' Wuest. After the pattern of what God is. And that of course agrees with what I' ve taught you through the years, with Christ in you the hope of glory.
' True holiness.' The Aramaic word for ' holiness' is not the word, ifl remember correctly, that would speak of God. It is the word... Aramaic word spelled k-s-y-o-t-h-a. ksyotha , meaning ' venerable' also ' purity.' And that' s what I want you to remember: purity. This Aramaic word is the word that ' s used in the title of honour when it's applied to a bishop, or to the pope when they say, ' your holiness,' or
' your reverence.' And that is the word, also, that we use many times when we speak in Protestantism about reverend , or any other reverend.
This word is not related to the word hagios , the Greek word, ' holiness,' h-a-g-i-o-s. It' s a figure of speech 'true holiness,' spelled, a-n-t-i-, anti, p-t-o-s-i-s , ptosis, which is an exchange of cases.
A literal expression of this 'true holiness' figure of speech would be ' holy truth.' By antiptosis,
' truth ' is changed to the object of a preposition. And the adjective ' holy' is changed to the noun
' holiness.' And this emphasizes the nature and quality of the new man: that its holiness is based on truth.
Now the literal according to usage of verse 24: And to clothe yourself with the new man which by God was created in righteousness and pure truth.
I didn' t give you verse 23 a little while ago from any of the translations, did I? My reason is, there isn' t any good enough to give you. I wrote across the top ' not good enough for the Corps.' Verse 23, nobody hit it at all.
I'm now in verse 24. To clothe yourself with the new man which by God was created in righteousness and in pure what? [Truth] Boy that is a tremendous translation of it.
The expanded one: And put on your spiritual clothing once and for all, which is the son of God, the inner new man that which God created, and this is righteousness which is truth in all its purity.
Put on your spiritual clothing once and for all. Once and for all. I want to explain that. I'm amazed that the Corps doesn' t understand this. If at any point in your life, you are being tempted and you still succumb to it, you have not put on your spiritual clothing once and for all. Because where we have renewed our mind it' s a one-time deal and for all. At that point, you will never need to renew your mind again, if you have really renewed your mind. I'm amazed the Corps didn ' t understand this.
You' re born again of God' s spirit like they were here at Ephesus. They had been instructed, but they had not yet, many of them, come to renew their minds. They were in the process, working, but they hadn' t come to that. That's why, next week when we go, we' ll find out what we have to put off, see.
Look at it in this light and I think it will give you understanding : You find a five dollar bill laying on the ground between here and the Snack Shop and you' re hungry. And you didn' t have any money before, but you find the five dollar bill laying on the ground and you' re hungry. And you pick it up and you take it and you go spend it at the greatest Snack Shop in America. It' s the quaintest one. Are you being honest? [No] Then you have not, at that point, renewed your mind for you' re still stealing. But if you are no longer tempted to steal, there 's money laying here, picked up over there, somebody's purse is left someplace, somebody' s Bible is left someplace, but you know stealing that' s the unforgivable, ha, as far as Way International's concerned, almost. You see, you are no longer tempted by that, then you have the renewed mind. It' s a once for all deal. That' s why I translated it
' and put on your spiritua l clothing once and for all.'
If you really put on that dress once and for all for tonight, do you take and change in between times? Drop the other one off and put the old one on? It' s a once and for all occasion. Likewise with the renewed mind. Once and for all. Put on your spiritual clothing. You put it on which is renewed mind once and for all which is the son of God, the inner new man, the son of God, the inner new man.
Remember, what I told you about the Aramaic translates it ' son of man.' Jesus Christ is the son of man in the Gospel of Mark and other places. He was the Son of God perpendicular, but he was the
son of man on an horizontal level. Now we have this Christ, capital ' S,' Son of God who was man in us. Christ in you the hope of glory. That which God created, that which God created and we' re still about the only spiritual group in the world that understands the word ' created. '
They get the word ' create,' ' formed' and ' made' all screwed up and I listened to someone the other week at the television station where we were reviewing the new production. And I asked her, the lady working there, what they did at that studio. And she told me five different things that they created there. I didn' t say anything because I knew she was not a PFAL grad. But if she had been, I might have said something. Like I talked the other morning about being something. Forget what.
Boy, this thing is just tremendous, ' which God created.' And what God created, this is righteousness. This is righteousness. You put it on, your spiritual clothing. You put it on, that which God created .
This is righteousness which is truth in all its purity. Well, those are the verses for tonight.
Now, I think what I want you to do is just sit back and let the chairs hold you. They' ve done pretty good so far. And just close your eyes and relax. And let me read to you the expanded translations and show you the beauty of the flow in them. And the great amount ofleaming that's available to those who have ears to hear. Talking about the edifying, the building up of this Body which is so beautifully joined together and compacted.
This, including everything I've said before, I am saying further. And I am bearing a solemn witness in the Lord as a sold-out doulos that now you will no longer be walking as the unsaved Gentiles are walking in the deceiving egotism of their minds, without any profitable fruit having their minds blacked out and alienated from the life God gives, because they have refused to accept the true knowledge available because of the calloused hardness of their idol worshipping minds, have cut off their hope and are insensitive to truth, feel no pain at being wrong, having surrendered themselves to all moral and spiritual lusts to practice all uncleanness, desiring more and more. But you were not taught in that manner, but differently, when you were born again by the power of God which is Christ in you. In as much as you heard to the end of believing Christ and understood and were instructed according to the truth of, and in Jesus.
Now, you lay aside , strip off, tear off, and stop your former behavior and way of life which is still the old man which is rotten according to all the deceptive desires of the deceiver, the Devil. And you will become a new person in your life because of your renewed mind. And put on your spiritual clothing once and for all which is the son of God, the inner new man, that which God created and this is righteousness which is truth in all its purity.