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Sermon preached on Ephesians 4:17-21 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 04/12/2026 in Petaluma, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
When you came to know Jesus Christ, a radical change took place in our hearts. This change not only affects our heart but gives us a new identity. Before, we lived and thought like the rest of the fallen world. Now, we are born again and have become a disciple of Jesus and have a new life to live. Today’s passage reminds us of our former fallen state with its total depravity before our regeneration. It calls us to live now in the new way we have been taught in Christ. Now, if you are someone who has grown up in the church and can never remember a day in which you didn’t know Jesus, then praise the Lord! But even in that case, you surely have seen how the world lives and thinks to be able to relate to today’s message. And all Christians still need this reminder that we are called to live differently than the world. Today’s passage helps us reflect on this, giving opportunity for some self-examination that is very fitting before we come to the Lord’s Supper.
So then, today we will look on verses 17-21 which focus on our new identity in Christ, especially in contrast to what we used to be as a Gentile. Next week, we’ll look at verses 22-24 and consider further about the new life that Jesus is discipling us into. For today, then, we’ll work through verses 17-21 in order, with the following three points. First, we’ll look at verse 17 about Paul’s command to no longer walk as the Gentiles do. Second, we’ll look at verses 18-19 about the ignorance of the Gentiles. Third, we’ll look at verses 20-21 about learning Christ. These verses paint the story of our life, what we used to be before becoming saved, and what we are now having come to know Jesus. They describe not only what were and now are, but also how we used to live versus how we are now supposed to live. Let’s dig in.
We begin then in our first point with verse 17. Paul there says, “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.” Let us appreciate Paul’s serious tone here when he says, “Now this I say and testify in the Lord”. He is using the language of solemn attestation, like he’s a witness in a courtroom. Remember, we are in the imperative section of Ephesians, to see how we are commanded to live a new life. Paul is emphasizing how important it is to live consistent to our new identity in Christ. His serious tone brings out that emphasis. As we’ll continue to see in this passage, it is at complete odds with our new life in Christ to continue to live like an non-born again heathen. Our faith in Christ solemnly calls us to more. This is not to preach works righteousness, by any means. Nor is it to think that once we become a Christian we can reach sinless perfection in this life – we won’t. But it is to say that true faith recognizes what we’ve been saved from and what we are being saved to. Paul, on Christ’s behalf, solemnly testifies to us that we should no longer walk like the Gentiles walk. Their way is futile.
Now let us further appreciate what’s here in verse 17. For Paul to say that we are to no longer walk as the Gentiles speaks to the change that’s taken place in us Christians. Why did we used to walk like the Gentiles do? Because we were Gentiles. Now this is an interesting statement, because it really does speak to how our identity has gone through a fundamental change. Let me remind you that the word in the Greek for Gentiles is really a term that means “nations”. In fact, the Greek word is “ethnos”, which is where get the word ethnicity from. So then, understand how the Scriptures use this language. Scripture likes to speak of the nations as lost, people who are totally depraved, godless, and without the hope of eternal life. We’ll see some of that in our second point for today. But you see this passage, considers that a Gentile who becomes a Christian is no longer a Gentile, spiritually speaking. True, they are still physically of whatever nation and ethnicity they are according to the flesh. But their identity has so changed, that Paul can talk in these terms. We are to no longer live like the nations who are in their spiritual ignorance in their fallen condition. We instead are to live Christ having come to know the truth that is in Christ.
That means that we identify with something greater than our earthly allegiances and national or ethnic identities. We may be Americans, or some other citizenship. But first and foremost we are Christians. And however Americans live or however whatever secular or worldly group we are a part of lives, we must seek to live as Christ calls us, and not how fallen humans live.
Now the fundamental, inner problem with the Gentiles is presented there at the end of verse 17. It describes them as being in the futility of their minds. The word futility can also be translated as vanity, worthless, or purposeless. Now when it talks about the mind here, it’s not really talking about the organ of the brain but about the thinking and understanding of our soul. This means our thinking is affected by our spiritual condition.
The thoughts of fallen humans, if not born again, have no true, ultimate purpose. Yes, the nations do strive after many things, and they would speak in terms of pursuing purpose in life. But a life lived apart from looking to glorify and enjoy God, a life apart from Christ, is not actually a life of purpose. Not as God evaluates things. Thus, for the world, their thoughts without God are truly vanity.
This then sets us up to now turn to our second point and understand more fully why the nations in their fallen state live in such a deplorable way. I summarized this at the start as the ignorance of the Gentiles. We could also call it their unregenerate state. Or we could describe it as their fallen nature. Likewise, we could say it is their hard hearts. All of this is getting at the same truth we find spelled out in verses 18-19. Here, we find the description of all people who have not yet been born again and come to know Christ in faith. Let me read verses 18-19 again. “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.”
So then, verse 18 describes their fallen estate, and verse 19 relates that to their fallen living. Let’s begin with verse 18’s description of their fallen estate. It says, “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.” The first half describes their state and the second half explains the reason. First then, it says they are darkened in their understanding. This describes how their minds are not able to think properly in their fallen condition. It’s as if they are trying to see in the dark, there is no light of the truth shining inside them. Thus, they are blinded, spiritually speaking. This very much pairs with the second half’s statement when it says “because of the ignorance that is in them.” Let us slow down and appreciate what this is saying. The ordinary person who is not yet born again, has a deep sense of ignorance. This does not mean that they have a low IQ. It does not mean that they would not necessarily be bad at trivia. They might actually have an academic knowledge of a lot of things. Take it one step further, and they might even know the content of the Bible and be able to tell you what the Biblical gospel is. But the ignorance described here is not absence of mere head knowledge. It is to not truly know God in Christ through faith. It’s the difference between knowing of the gospel and knowing the gospel as one saved through it by trusting your life to Christ. I’ve met scholars who know the Scriptures but don’t have a real, personal, saving knowledge of God.
Related to this is when verse 18 says that the unregenerate are alienated from the life of God. Of course, this life does not refer to the physical life that all living humans possess. This refers to the life that is truly life. It refers to that spiritual life God creates in us by the Holy Spirit. This he begins in our new birth, when our souls are reborn. In this life, we start to truly live as God intended. This life is what is growing into spiritual maturity to ultimately produce a person that is conformed to Christ’s image. But the nations have not known this life. They are alienated from it. Their sin and rebellion has alienated them. This very much pairs with the clause in the second half of verse 18 that says “due to their hardness of heart.” Those who are not born again are stubborn and defiant in their sin. Even though the call goes out for them to repent and be saved, they won’t listen. Even though the promise of eternal life is offered to any who would turn in faith to Jesus, yet they won’t come. Their heart is hardened in their fallen nature. So, because of this, they have not yet been reconciled to God in Christ. They remain at enmity with God, and thus alienated, separated from the life he gives, strangers to the hope that we have.
This is the doctrine of total depravity. No one can believe in Jesus unless they are born again. No one will know eternal life until the Holy Spirit regenerates them. It is the Holy Spirit who brings new life to dead souls. It shines the light into a heart to give spiritual eyes to see the truth. The Spirit softens their hearts and renews their wills so they truly repent of their sin and turn to God in Christ through faith. They begin to know God in Jesus in a way that they didn’t know in their former ignorance.
So then, the ignorance described is not an excuse for why someone doesn’t live for the Lord. It’s not an excuse, but it is an explanation. Because in their fallen nature and hard heart they have never come to know God in Jesus Christ. This is why they live the way they live. That’s why verse 19 goes on to describe their living in light of their fallen estate. Verse 19 says, “They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.” In their hardened estate, they give themselves up to all forms of sin. This sensuality describes living without any moral restraints. The greed referenced here is covetousness. Their calloused hearts covet and crave what they don’t have but what their lusts desire. So, unhindered by God’s moral law, they allow themselves to indulge in whatever suits their lusts.
Now let us acknowledge that there are many non-Christians who do not live a fully hedonistic life that just seeks personal pleasure as their top aim. But we are talking about people who have an ignorance when it comes to God. If they do not truly know God as their Father and Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they will not truly know how to please him or have any genuine interest in doing so. Even a life by an unbeliever that is relatively ethical is not truly done to please God, and so it must have other motivations that still fall under the concern raised here in verse 19. But the point is that verse 19 paints the logical trajectory of a life without God. Even if an unbeliever leaves a relatively ethical life, a fully consistent life without God is described here as one where sinful hearts seek to satisfy their sinful cravings. This godless, self-centered trajectory ultimately leads to death and damnation.
So then, in our second point, we’ve recognized that the nations apart from being born again and coming to know Christ are fallen creatures, with a sinful nature. They have not come to know the things of the Lord in Christ. They have not had their hearts softened and brought to the truth by the Holy Spirit. That is why the unbelieving world will live however they decide to live, because they have not come to know the truth and life in Jesus. That leads us to our third point which describes what it means to learn Christ.
Look again then at verses 20-21. In contrast to the fallen ways of the Gentiles, it says, “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.” Take that in. If Gentiles are in spiritual ignorance, the Christian is one who has learned Christ. Let us rejoice in how this describes the object of our learning is Jesus. This doesn’t say we learn about Jesus. It says we learn Jesus. This is why we talk about pastors not just preaching about Christ, but that we preach Christ! Christ is the object of our learning. We preach Christ so that, by the Holy Spirit, Christ is formed within us. We come to learn Christ, to know Christ, to understand Christ, to think Christ, to speak Christ, to desire Christ, to love Christ, you get the point.
Now this is not to say that we don’t preach about Christ as well. Indeed, look there at verse 21. It describes in three different ways how we learn Christ. We do have to “hear about him”, so there is information to convey. We also have to be “taught in him”, which is union language which speak to how we learn and grow in our communion with Christ as part of that personal relationship we have with him. And we also have to learn that the truth is in Jesus. There are so many sources of so-called truth, claims to truth, sadly even false doctrines spread, but by the Spirit we discern that we find the truth ultimately in Jesus. So while verse 20 can summarize by saying that we need to learn Christ, verse 21 further goes into all the manifold ways we go from that spiritual ignorance we used to have before we were born again to truly begin to know the Son of God and the light he shines in our hearts and the power of his salvation and the life he gives.
Now I think it is important to point out that the Greek word in verse 20 about “learning” is from the same root where we get the word “disciple”. The New Testament really emphasizes that becoming a Christian and growing as a Christian is becoming a disciple of Christ. A disciple, by definition, is a student who is learning from his teacher. Your teacher, is ultimately Jesus. So then, Jesus teaches us, and he teaches us of himself. That is why when talking about discipleship, he says, “Follow me.” As we think about today’s message, one way to think about it is in terms of discipleship. Paul has been reminding us that the Christian life is one that began by becoming a disciple of Christ where we start to follow Jesus. That is why we are to no longer follow the ways of the world. Instead, we seek to follow the way of Christ.
Now, verse 21 has an interesting word to start that sentence. In our pew bible it is translated “assuming”. Other translations have the word “if”. What Paul is doing here is getting you to do some self-examination. He says we should no longer live like the unsaved world. We should live as those born again in Christ, as those who have come to learn Christ. That’s when he says “assuming” or “if”. He says we should live out our new life in Christ, assuming that you have actually come to know that new life which is in Christ. We walk in the way of Christ, if we have come to know that way in Christ. Verse 21 suddenly becomes very pastoral and evangelistic. Have you come to know this truth that is in Christ alone?
I said at the start of the sermon that when we became a Christian, a radical change took place. But that is assuming you have come to truly know Christ. If you examine your life and do not see something notably different between how you think and how a non-Christian thinks, then you should ask yourself if you have come to know Jesus. And by extension, if you are just living the same way that non-Christians live, then you should ask yourself if you have come to know Jesus. Yet, if you are beginning to think different than the world, and are beginning to act differently, then Paul would remind us to continue that trajectory consistent with a life that is being taught Christ.
Again, this is not saying that you earn your salvation. Nor is this saying that born again Christians don’t still fight against their old sinful nature. We will still struggle with sin in this life. But this does say that if you have come to believe in Jesus, then you have begun to have a knowledge of Christ and that will be transforming how you think, desire, speak, and act. Let us strive by the grace of God to continue to grow and to learn Christ. Now maybe you are hearing this today, and my call for self-examination. Maybe you are feeling some doubt about your state before the Lord. If that is you, then that sounds promising to me! That sounds like you are learning Christ even right now. It sounds like Christ is calling you to truly turn to him in faith and come to know him and the life that he has in store for you. Confess your sin to Christ and ask him to forgive you of your sins and save you. Begin to truly follow him and be taught the truth that is in him. That is what we are all endeavoring to do here, even as we gather each week as the church of Jesus Christ.
In conclusion, may we all as Christians today be excited that we have come to truly know the Lord as he is teaching us and training us as his disciples. As we follow him, we know that we will not be perfected yet in this life. But we will one day, when he returns. So then, we keep walking in faith and using the means of grace he gives us for our growth. Next week we will delve further into a great tool he gives us, the put off, put on dynamic that Jesus uses in our sanctification. Until then, let us continue to walk by faith in following our Lord unto the glory he has in store for us.
Amen.
Copyright © 2025 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
