Spiritual Warfare in Paul’s Letter to Ephesus (5)

• Posted on sdgale
• in 'CHOP Talk' Blog
• on December 14, 2012
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(This article is the sixth in a series tracing the theme of spiritual opposition in Ephesians.)

Kingdom Allegiance

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:17-24

Paul transitions from foundation to formation in Ephesians 4 with the call to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”  Prior to our being made alive in Christ, we were dead men walking (2:1).  We, along with all who shared in Adam’s transgression, were sons of disobedience.  Our ruler was the prince of the power of the air.

Now as ones alive in Christ and freed from sin’s bondage we are to walk in a way worthy of the name of Christ (4:1).  We are to no longer walk as the Gentiles do (4:13).  We are now spiritual Jews, the Israel of God (Rom. 9:6-8; Gal. 3:7-9).  The election of Romans 9 is presented as the predestination of Ephesians 1.  Our walk is now to imitate God, as His beloved children, a love explained by the kingdom charter of the Sentence of Ephesians 1 (1:3-14).  We are to look carefully how we walk (5:15) because the days in which we sojourn are evil. Though we are no longer of the world, we remain in it.

We are to walk worthy in the face of spiritual opposition that would have us walk unworthy.   The church has the job of training us in sound doctrine (4:12-16) and equipping us for assault on the kingdom of darkness.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Ephesians 4:11-14

Basically, our call is a summons to kingdom allegiance. We are to know, honor and serve our Lord, Jesus Christ.  It is His name we bear.  It is His name we serve, His kingdom we seek.

Paul urges us to no longer walk as the Gentiles.  The description of the Gentiles’ character is found in Ephesians 2:1-3.  Their practice that flows from their bondage in sin is given us in 4:17-19.  Theirs is a life controlled by error, deceit and immorality—all those things consistent with the fallen kingdom of darkness.

But by God’s grace we have not learned Christ that way (4:20).  We have been delivered from the dominion of darkness and are to put on our new selves in Christ, created after the likeness of the God we are to imitate (5:1) in keeping with our calling.  Holiness, righteousness, truth, love are now to describe us as children of God.

Already we see suggestion of spiritual conflict.  Right in the thick of the examples of putting off the old man dead in sin and putting on the man new in Christ, we read of giving “opportunity to the devil” (4:27).  To borrow from Galatians, we walk by the Spirit so we will not carry out the deeds of the flesh.

When Paul says not to “grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption,” (4:30) he is issuing a call to kingdom fidelity.  We must remain true to who we are in Christ, showing all those traits that belong to the redeemed of the Lord, both personally and in community.

Our Christian walk is conducted against the flow.  The tone of Ephesians 4 speaks soberly against spiritual opposition, both from the sin that remains in our flesh, the world with its pagan principles, and an opportunistic enemy ready to trip us up at every point.

God’s call to us in Ephesians 1:18 to know the glory of our hope in Christ is to manifest itself in a daily walk worthy of that call in Christ in 4:1.  Our enemy the devil is present and active to try to make us walk unworthy, returning to his rule from which we have been delivered.

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Note: Those interested in a more general study of spiritual warfare will find an brief overview in What is Spiritual Warfare? (Basics of the Faith Series).  My book, Warfare Witness: Contending With Spiritual Opposition in Everyday Evangelism, addresses evangelism from the perspective of spiritual warfare.  A study guide to the book is available under CHOP resources.