The old self is corrupt, seeking sensuality. The new self is joyfully holy.

Class Outline:

Thursday September 1, 2022

If branches lack fruit, they are only fit to be burned, which is Jesus’ way of stating our worth apart from Him.

 

This will be the point of the message that Jesus will give to them all on the next day. They could all be the beneficiaries of His power to make bread, walk on water, calm storms, and even teach knowledge, but if they are not literally a part of Him, they can do nothing.

 

Life is not watching or dreaming, but doing.

 

The branches produce the fruit. The disciples, and ourselves, are not to do nothing, but work and serve knowing that the supply of energy and things will come from the one who can do miracles.

 

We have to be in Christ to live this way, in the fellowship of the Trinity. It’s not that we don’t watch or don’t dream - we do and we must, but if we’re not doing, actually walking the walk, then we’re nothing, dried up vine branches (JOH 15:6; 1CO 13:2).

 

In 1CO 13:1-3, Paul list various good things (spiritual insight, knowledge, faith to move mountains, giving, supreme sacrifice), all of which alone and isolated make for various religion, but, as Paul writes, if “I don’t have love I am nothing.” In other words, I’m not in for the whole treatment. We want the Lord to fix a few things, but not to make a whole new house. The old roof is fine, just fix some of the leaks. And remember, this takes time. None of us have finished the work, but that is not the question for you and me. The question is, are we in for all the work, to run the whole course, to lay aside “every” encumbrance?

 

In Christ, we are made completely new and so must live new.

 

EPH 4:17-24

This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality, for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. 20 But you did not learn Christ in this way, 21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, 22 that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

 

It is clear that we can walk like the nations (world) walk, meaning the general gist of our lifestyle. This is not impossible for a born again believer.

 

Think of all the ways that the people of the world walk. There are lifestyles of sensual pursuits, which include many objects as in sex, carousing, drinking, drugs, etc. There are pursuits of power and wealth. There are pursuits of fame. There are even ecumenical pursuits of piety that are only for self. I mention this, of which there are many more, for us to understand that we can be deceived in many ways. I may go to church, read my Bible, pray every day, and still walk like a Gentile because I am legalistic or rigid in a religion that only borrows some things out of the whole of Christianity. I may not be immoral, or rather, according to most people’s definition, I am quite moral, but I am absorbed with person success or comfort or entertainment and I haven’t got much time for God. I may lust for wealth, any amount will do, just more of it, while I’m known as a good person in the community, but like the success guy, I don’t have much time for God’s thinking.

 

If we walk the way of the Gentile, the dangerous result is a level of callousness, or hardness of heart, that propels us towards sensuality (bodily, materially).

 

The old self is always corrupt. (rather than “being corrupted”)

 

The use of “being” as a way to translate the participle “corrupt” is a bit strong in this case. It conveys the idea that the old nature hasn’t gotten as bad as it will, which idea is not here. What is here is the contrast between the new self and the old. The old self is the one that is always corrupt.

 

EPH 4:22

to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires. [ESV]

 

throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. [NLT]

 

But you have not thus learned Christ, or learned Christ this way. The verb learned is from the noun for disciple and has the nuance of learning as a student or learning by inquiry. So, we who have become students to learn of Christ are nothing like the pupils in the school of the world. We are in a completely different school.