Ephesians 4:17–24 — Don’t Live Here Like You Don’t Love Him
Speaker: Adam Pursel
In this week’s sermon from Ephesians 4:17–24, the main idea was simple, direct, and deeply practical: Don’t live here like you don’t love him. In this passage, the Apostle Paul gives Christians a clear command: you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do. In other words, if we belong to Jesus, our daily lives should not look like the lives of people who do not know and love Jesus.
The sermon centered around one key question: How’s your walk? Paul uses the language of “walking” to describe how we live — our path, our patterns, our habits, our day-to-day lives. A Christian’s walk should increasingly reflect trust in Jesus, love for Jesus, and obedience to Jesus. The old way of life no longer fits someone who has been made alive in Christ.
Christians Have a New Walk
One of the first emphases of the sermon was that Christians are called to live differently because they are different. Earlier in Ephesians, Paul says that believers were once dead in their trespasses and sins, but God made them alive together with Christ. That means Christians are no longer who they once were. They have been rescued, redeemed, and made new. Because of that, their walk should no longer be patterned after people who are still spiritually dead.
The sermon also emphasized that every Christian faces a real choice in how they live. We can pattern our lives after Jesus, or we can drift into patterns shaped by people who do not know him. Paul’s command is straightforward: do not live like that anymore.
The Old Life Is Spiritually Dark and Empty
Paul describes the life of those outside of Christ in sobering spiritual terms. He says they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, ignorant because of the hardness of their hearts, and callous in their pursuit of impurity. The sermon carefully explained that this does not mean every non-Christian looks equally bad on the surface. Some are openly rebellious. Some are outwardly moral and respectable. Some are deceptive and manipulative. But whatever the outward appearance, the underlying spiritual condition is the same: outside of Christ there is spiritual death, confusion, and alienation from the life that only God can give.
That helps explain why people chase sin, pleasure, status, approval, or control. Human beings were made for life in God. When that life is rejected or absent, people still crave meaning, joy, peace, love, and purpose, and they go searching for those things somewhere else. But apart from Christ, those pursuits become distorted. Sin makes promises it cannot keep. It offers satisfaction, but delivers corruption. It offers freedom, but produces bondage.
That Is Not the Way You Learned Christ
At the center of the passage is one of Paul’s most beautiful statements: “But that is not the way you learned Christ.” The sermon highlighted how personal that phrase is. Paul does not merely say believers learned a list of facts or doctrines. He says they learned Christ. Christianity is not only about knowing true things about Jesus, though it certainly includes that. Christianity is about coming to know a Person — the risen Lord himself.
Because believers know Christ, they are no longer supposed to live like people who do not know him. That old way of life no longer matches reality. It no longer fits who they are in him.
Put Off the Old Self
Paul’s first instruction is that believers must put off the old self. The old self belongs to the former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires. The sermon emphasized that these desires are deceitful because they lie to us. They promise joy, meaning, comfort, or identity apart from God, but they cannot deliver what they promise. Following those desires does not lead to life; it leads to corruption.
To put off the old self means refusing to continue in old patterns, old sins, old ways of thinking, and old habits that marked life before Christ. Christians are not called to make peace with those patterns. They are called to take them off, like old clothes that no longer belong to them.
Be Renewed in the Spirit of Your Minds
Paul’s second instruction is that believers must be renewed in the spirit of their minds. The sermon pointed out that this command is both humbling and hopeful. It is humbling because it reminds us that we cannot ultimately renew ourselves. God is the one who does that by his Spirit. But it is hopeful because God does in fact renew his people. Christians are not stuck. They are not trapped in the old life forever.
So how do believers obey the command to be renewed? The sermon’s answer was simple: seek the Lord. We seek his renewing work through prayer, through time in his Word, through gathered worship, through repentance, and through ongoing dependence on him. None of those things function like a machine where we control the outcome, but they are real means by which believers seek the face of the God who renews them.
Put On the New Self
Paul’s third instruction is that believers must put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. This means Christians are not simply trying to stop doing bad things. They are learning to live out the new identity they have already been given in Christ. God has made them new, and now they are called to walk in that newness of life.
The sermon tied this to Ephesians 2, where Paul says believers have been created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that they should walk in them. The point is that the Christian life is not aimless self-improvement. It is a new life given by God and lived out in dependence on him.
Saved by Grace, Called to Walk Differently
The sermon also took care to clarify what this passage does not mean. Paul is not saying that Christians earn God’s love, forgiveness, or acceptance by walking well. Salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. There is nothing believers can do to make God love them more or to earn what Christ has already won for them through his death and resurrection.
But that grace does not leave believers unchanged. Those who have been saved by grace are now called to live like people who truly love the Savior who rescued them. The command is not, “Live this way so that God will save you.” The command is, “Because God has saved you in Christ, do not keep living like someone who does not know him.”
Conclusion
The sermon ended by returning to the main challenge: How’s your walk? Because believers have been made alive in Christ, they should no longer live like people who do not love Jesus. The call of Ephesians 4:17–24 is both serious and hope-filled: put off the old self, seek the Lord’s renewing work, and put on the new self. In short, don’t live here like you don’t love him.
Lifegroup Leader Guide
Passage: Ephesians 4:17–24
Big idea: Don’t live here like you don’t love him.
Main question: How’s your walk?
Opening Prayer
Father, thank you for making us alive in Christ. Help us hear your Word clearly, repent where needed, and walk in a way that reflects love for Jesus. Renew our minds and strengthen us to put off the old self and put on the new. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Icebreaker
What is one habit or pattern in life that is hard to break once it gets established?
Read the Passage
Read Ephesians 4:17–24 together.
Sermon Summary
This week’s sermon focused on Paul’s command that believers must no longer walk as the Gentiles do. In other words, Christians should not live like people who do not know and love Jesus. Paul describes the old life as spiritually dark, alienated from the life of God, and driven by deceitful desires. But that is not the way believers learned Christ. Instead, Christians are called to put off the old self, be renewed in the spirit of their minds, and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God. The core challenge of the sermon was simple: don’t live here like you don’t love him.
Discussion Questions
1. How’s your walk?
- When you hear that question, what comes to mind first?
- Why do you think Paul uses the language of “walking” so often to describe the Christian life?
2. The old life outside of Christ
- What stands out to you from Paul’s description of those who are alienated from the life of God?
- Why is it important to remember that not all non-Christians look the same on the outside?
- How does this passage explain why people chase sin, pleasure, or meaning apart from God?
3. “That is not the way you learned Christ”
- What do you think Paul means by saying believers “learned Christ”?
- How is learning Christ different from simply knowing facts about Christianity?
4. Put off the old self
- What are “deceitful desires,” and why are they deceitful?
- What old patterns, habits, or ways of thinking are Christians often tempted to keep wearing?
5. Be renewed
- Paul commands believers to “be renewed.” Why is that both comforting and humbling?
- What are some practical ways believers seek the Lord’s renewing work?
6. Put on the new self
- What does it mean to “put on the new self”?
- How does remembering that we are made new in Christ help us fight sin and pursue holiness?
Leader Notes
- Help the group see that Paul is not teaching salvation by works. He is teaching that those who are saved by grace should now live like people who belong to Jesus.
- Keep the distinction clear between non-Christians and Christians who sometimes drift. The sermon made room for the reality that believers can lose their way at times, but they are called back to joyful, faithful obedience.
- This is a good week to press for honest self-reflection. Where are people tempted to live like they do not love Jesus?
- Don’t let the discussion stay abstract. Move toward concrete examples of what it looks like to put off the old self and put on the new.
Application
Have each person answer these two questions:
- What is one old pattern or habit I need to put off?
- What is one practical way I can seek the Lord’s renewing work this week?
Prayer Time
Pray that:
- believers would walk in a way that reflects love for Jesus,
- the Lord would renew minds and soften hearts,
- people would put off the old self and put on the new,
- and Lifepoint would be full of joyful, faithful followers of Christ.