In this message we shall consider Eph. 4:17-21, with special attention to verses 20 and 21, which speak of learning Christ as the truth is in Jesus.
In Eph. 4:1 Paul beseeches us to walk worthily of the calling with which we are called. The first item of a walk worthy of God’s calling is to keep the oneness, and the second is to grow up into Christ the Head. The third item is to learn Christ as the truth is in Jesus.
Verse 17 of chapter four begins a new paragraph. The first two items of a worthy walk are put together in the first paragraph in this chapter. The reason for this is that growth in Christ is intimately related to the keeping of the oneness; they cannot be separated. In verses Eph. 4:1-16 the living and the function of the Body are dealt with. Now in verses Eph. 4:17-32 the daily life is touched. Verses 17 through 24 give us the principles of our daily walk, and verses 25 through 32 give us the details.
Verse 17 says, “This therefore I say and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the nations also walk, in the vanity of their mind.” This word indicates that what the apostle is about to say is not only his exhortation, but also his testimony. What he exhorts is what he lives. Because he himself lives the kind of life he intends to describe, in his teaching he gives us a testimony.
Paul’s exhortation is to “no longer walk as the nations...walk in the vanity of their mind.” The nations, the Gentiles, are the fallen people, who have become vain in their reasonings (Rom. 1:21). They walk without God in the vanity of their mind and are controlled and directed by their vain thoughts. Whatever they do according to their fallen mind is vanity; it is all without reality. The life of fallen mankind is a walk in the vanity of the mind. All the worldly people today walk in such vanity. In the eyes of God and in the eyes of the Apostle Paul, whatever the people in the world think, say, and do is nothing but vanity. None of those things is real or solid — everything is empty. As believers, we should no longer walk in the vanity of the mind. Instead, we must walk in the reality of our spirit.
According to verse 18, the nations who walk in the vanity of the mind are “darkened in their understanding.” When the mind of fallen people is filled with vanity, their understanding is darkened regarding the things of God.
The nations are also “estranged from the life of God” (v. 18). This life is the uncreated, eternal life of God, which man did not receive at the time of creation. After being created, man with the created human life was placed before the tree of life (Gen. 2:8-9) to receive the uncreated divine life. But man fell into the vanity of his mind and became darkened in his understanding. In such a fallen condition, man is not able to touch the life of God until he has his mind turned to God, until he repents and believes in the Lord Jesus to receive God’s eternal life (Acts 11:18; John 3:16).
God’s intention in His creation of man was that man would partake of the fruit of the tree of life and thereby receive the eternal life of God. But in the fall, Satan’s evil nature was injected into man. As a result, man had to be barred from the tree of life. According to Genesis 3:24, the Lord “drove out the man: and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” Thus, man was estranged from the life of God. The cherubim, the flame, and the sword signify God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness. These three things kept sinful man from receiving eternal life. When the Lord Jesus died on the cross, He fulfilled all the requirements of God’s glory, holiness, and righteousness. Therefore, through the redemption of the Lord Jesus, the way has been opened for us to contact the tree of life once more. This is the reason Hebrews 10:19 says that we have “boldness for entering the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus.” The tree of life is in the Holy of Holies. As believers in Christ, we have been brought back to the tree of life. Now the divine life in the Holy of Holies may be our daily enjoyment. The nations, however, are still estranged from the life of God.
One reason for this estrangement is “the ignorance which is in them” (v. 18). Ignorance here means not only lack of knowledge, but also not wanting to know. Fallen man does not approve of knowing the things of God (Rom. 1:28) because of the hardness of his heart. Due to this, his understanding is darkened that he cannot know God.
The unbelievers have no knowledge of God or of spiritual things. Furthermore, they are not willing to gain this knowledge. What a mercy that we not only have the proper knowledge, but also have the desire to know! It is a great blessing to have within us the desire to know God, to know life, and to know spiritual things. Before we were saved, we did not have this desire. We, like the nations, lacked both the knowledge and the willingness to know. But now we hunger and thirst to know God. The more we can know of Him and of the divine life, the better it is. Any Christian who does not seek to know the Lord cannot be happy or satisfied. To seek the Lord and to seek to know life and the things of God is a source of great happiness. This is the reason we are so happy in the church meetings. It is also the reason that I have an inward joy when I minister the Word to the Lord’s people. Something of the Lord has been sown into us to give us the desire to know Him.
Another reason the nations are estranged from the life of God is the hardness of their heart. The hardness of fallen man’s heart is the source of the darkness in his understanding and the vanity of his mind. Before we were saved, we also were hard of heart. We seemed to be impenetrable, and God’s words could not enter into us. This is the situation of unbelievers today.
Furthermore, in his thorough diagnosis of the condition of fallen man, Paul points out that the nations have “ceased from feeling” (v. 19). The word feeling here refers mainly to the consciousness of the conscience. Hence, “having ceased from feeling” means not to care for the conscience. After man’s fall, God ordained that man should be under the rule of his conscience. But rather than regard his conscience, fallen man gave himself over to unsatisfied lust. Because the unbelievers refused to care for the feeling of their conscience, eventually the conscience stopped functioning. Therefore, the feeling within them ceased.
Moreover, they give “themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanness in greedy unsatisfied lust” (v. 19). They are given over to lusts that cannot be satisfied. If we look at the situation in the world today, we shall see that unbelievers have given themselves over to lewdness to work uncleanness in their unsatisfied lust.
Verses 17 through 19 are a dark background for what Paul says in verse 20: “But you did not so learn Christ.” The New Testament strongly indicates that we should live Christ. In Philippians 1:21 Paul declares, “To me to live is Christ.” But here in Ephesians 4:20 we are told that we have learned Christ. Notice that Paul uses the past tense in speaking of our learning Christ. He also uses the past tense in the next verse, which says, “Since indeed you have heard Him and been taught in Him as the truth is in Jesus.” This matter of learning Christ as the truth is in Jesus is difficult to comprehend, and we need to consider it very carefully.
Christ is not only life to us, but also an example (John 13:15; 1 Pet. 2:21). We learn from Him (Matt. 11:29) according to His example, not by our natural life, but by Him as our life. According to the New Testament, the Lord Jesus did not come into us as life directly. Rather, after living on earth for thirty years, He ministered for another three and a half years. During the thirty-three and a half years of His life on earth, He set up a pattern, a mold, a model. This is a matter of great significance. One reason the four Gospels were written was to show the pattern of the life that God desires, the mold of the life that can satisfy God and fulfill His purpose. For this reason, the New Testament gives us a unique biography, the biography of the Lord Jesus, written from four directions. After the Lord Jesus set up the pattern revealed in the Gospels, He was crucified on the cross and then He entered into resurrection. It is in resurrection that He comes into us to be our life.
According to the New Testament, to be saved is to be put by God into Christ. First Corinthians 1:30 says, “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus.” When God put us into Christ, He put us into the mold. Just as a sister shapes dough into the form of a mold, so God intends to form us into the mold of Christ. Hence, Romans 8:29 indicates that we are to be conformed to the image of Christ, the Firstborn among many brothers. To be conformed is to be molded. The Firstborn is the pattern, and the many brothers of the Firstborn are those who are to be conformed to this pattern. To learn Christ is simply to be molded into the pattern of Christ, that is, to be conformed to the image of Christ.
By means of baptism God has put us into Christ, who is the pattern. To be baptized is to be placed into Christ as the mold. Both Romans 6:3 and Galatians 3:27 speak of being baptized into Christ. To be baptized into Christ is to be buried into Him. The tomb of this baptism is the pattern, the mold. In God’s eyes, we were put into this mold when we were baptized. Through being placed into the mold we have put off the old man and have put on the new man. By being buried into Christ, we have been brought out of Adam and the old creation. By baptism we have been put into Christ, who is both our life and our pattern. This explains why Paul uses the past tense in speaking about learning Christ. We learned Christ when we were buried into Him in baptism. This means that to learn Christ is to be put into Christ as the mold. It is to be molded into the pattern set up by Him during His years on earth.
After Christ established the pattern, He was crucified and then He entered into resurrection, becoming in resurrection the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). It is as the Spirit that He comes into us to be our life. We have pointed out that at the time we believed in Christ and were baptized in Him, God put us into Him as the pattern, the mold. Therefore, Paul could tell the Ephesians that they “did...learn Christ.” According to the light of the New Testament and according to our experience, to learn Christ is to be placed into Christ by God. On God’s side, He has put us into Christ. On our side, we have learned Christ by being put into Him.
After a person is saved, deep within him he desires to live a life in the pattern established by the Lord Jesus. However, many either ignore this desire or cultivate it in a mistaken way, thinking that by self-effort they can succeed in imitating Him. It is a mistake to think that we can imitate Christ by the exercise of our natural life. The believers in Christ should imitate Him, but they should not do so according to their natural life.
The truth in Jesus is the real situation of the life of Jesus as recorded in the four Gospels. In the godless walk of the nations, the fallen people, there is vanity. But in the godly life of Jesus there is truth, reality. Jesus lived a life always doing things in God, with God, and for God. God was in His life, and He was one with God. This is the truth in Jesus. We, the believers, regenerated with Christ as our life and taught in Him, learn from Him as the truth is in Jesus.
We have pointed out that it is a mistake to endeavor to imitate Christ by the efforts of our natural life. We have also seen that when we believed in the Lord Jesus and were saved, God put us into Christ as the mold. This mold is the life of Jesus recorded in the four Gospels, a life absolutely according to truth. Truth is the shining of light, the expression of light. Since God is light (1 John 1:5), truth is the expression of God. Every aspect of the life of Jesus recorded in the Gospels is an expression of God. In everything He said and did, He expressed God. This expression of God is the shining of light; hence, it is the truth. This life of Jesus according to truth is the pattern in which God has placed us. In this pattern we have learned Christ as the truth is in Jesus. This means that we have learned Christ according to the truth shown in the Gospels, that is, according to the life of the Lord Jesus, which was wholly according to God’s truth. This life is the shining of light. The shining of the light is truth, and truth is the expression of God. Therefore, in the life of Jesus there is truth. The essence of the pattern set up by the Lord Jesus is truth. This means that the essence of the life of Jesus is truth. We have learned Christ as the truth is in Jesus.
The truth, the reality, in Jesus in verse 21 is in contrast to the vanity of the mind in verse 17. The nations walk in the vanity of their mind, but we believers live a life as the truth is in Jesus. When the Lord Jesus was living on earth, He never walked in vanity. Rather, He always walked in truth, that is, in the shining of the divine light. This means that the Lord Jesus lived and walked in the expression of God. We have learned Christ according to this very truth that is in Jesus.
