Put Off the Old Man: General Rules of Life (Ephesians 4:17–21)

Having set out the ordering of the life of Christians, the Apostle writes rules for it: first 1) general rules for all Christians, in whatever state they may be, and then 2) particular rules, according to the various states.

1. General Rules Eph. 4:17–32, 5:1–20

In approaching the presentation of these rules, the Apostle places at their head: a) the chief principle for their derivation, and as a guide to life according to them — Eph. 4:17–24; and then sets forth b) the actual rules of the moral life of Christians as Christians — Eph. 4:25–32, 5:1–20.

A) The Chief Principle Eph. 4:17–24

This chief principle flows for him from what was just said before. He said before that the Lord gave to the Church and to the entire human race special persons for teaching people salvation and for guiding them on the path toward it—so that we, as human beings, might not be swept away by every wind of doctrine, might not live in human falsehood under the deceitful scheming of wiles, but, speaking the truth in love, might grow up all things into Christ, the head of the Church, since otherwise one cannot be a Christian. Following the flow of thought, it would have been natural to add: you have been called to this salvation and have entered upon the direct path to it. But since he had already mentioned this repeatedly, and hints at it here as well, and not lightly (v. 20 and following), he draws directly from it the conclusion: therefore you must no longer hold to those patterns of life from which you have been delivered, but must grow up all things into Christ. Since they had been pagans, the Apostle sketches briefly yet fully the wretchedness of pagan life in its moral and religious aspect—in order to clarify precisely what must be avoided (vv. 17–19). And what it means to grow up all things into Christ he clarifies through the change that grace works in the faithful at the very moment of their entry upon the path following Christ, through the sacraments that lay the beginning of life in Christ (vv. 20–24). Both come down to this: put off the old man and put on the new. This is what it means to put off paganism and to act as befits Christians. Such is the chief principle!

Eph. 4:17. This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you walk no longer as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind.

“This I say therefore…” As if to say: the whole point of my discourse is this. The purpose of my words is that you yourselves should see how you ought to live now. And so that no doubt should remain in you that this is indeed how it must be, I call the Lord as witness—“I testify in the Lord.” “I declare this with the Lord as witness” (Theodoret). “I set the Lord as witness that my word is not false” (Theophylact). Receive it therefore not as mine but as God’s—as though it proceeded from the very lips of the Lord. “Thus, in delivering true teaching, one must not only persuade, but also instil awe and commit the hearers to God” (Oecumenius)—reminding them that God Himself stands before them (Theophylact) and beholds where the dispositions of their heart incline at the teaching; and that therefore a mere outward nod of assent is insufficient—what is required is the reception of it with the whole heart.

“That you walk no longer as the rest of the Gentiles walk.” “Walk no longer”—“remembering the calling which is a call to holiness, do not return to the life you lived before the calling” (holy Damascene)—and which the uncalled Gentiles continue to lead. The Apostle could have said directly: do not live in such and such a way; but he pointed to the example of the Gentiles, because in an example the matter is clearer, and the speech can be briefer, leaving it to the hearers themselves to call to mind much that words have not captured—especially for the Ephesians, who knew by experience all the wretchedness of pagan life. This could also serve the purpose that, if anyone still held to something deserving reproof, he would take the lesson to heart under such a covering without bitterness (Oecumenius and Theophylact). The holy Chrysostom says: “He did not say ‘walk no longer as you yourselves walk,’ for that could have stung them; but he pointed to others, though he expressed the same thing. He does the same in the epistle to the Thessalonians, when he says to them: ‘not in lustful passion like the Gentiles’ (1 Thes. 4:5). You have abandoned pagan beliefs, he says—but that depended entirely on God; what I require is what depends on you—namely, a life and a walk according to God. This is your duty, and I call God as witness to my words—precisely to the fact that I have not kept silent, but have spoken as to how you must conduct yourselves.”

“Walk no longer… in the vanity of their mind.”

The mind is the highest aspect of human nature—where consciousness and will reside, or where freedom and self-activity are. This word encompasses the entire ordering of moral and religious life: that in which a person acts by his consciousness and freedom—the established pattern of his thoughts, the rules of life, hopes, aims, undertakings, means and methods, the whole circulation of life beyond which a person does not go either in thought or in desire. Looking at the Gentiles from this side, the Apostle finds that vanity of mind is what characterises them. The mind, by its original purpose, ought—by cultivating the fear of God—to move a person to be faithful to his conscience in the hope of a blessed future life. But after the Fall, whose power was revealed in its full extent among the Gentiles, the mind did not fulfil this purpose. Among the Gentiles God was forgotten, customs took the place of conscience, and present goods were pursued instead of future ones. They sought to build paradise on earth—a sensory paradise, of sensory goods, by their own available means. Everything was directed toward this. Since this is illusory, it is rightly called vanity of mind. The mind began to pursue what is empty, unstable, and unsatisfying, instead of what is essential. It bustles about, yet to no avail—not only for the future, but even in the present, in which it chases to grasp a phantom of happiness that always eludes it.

The holy Chrysostom gives a fine portrayal of this state. “What is vanity of mind? Occupation with vain things. And what is vain, if not what is present, of which Ecclesiastes says: ‘Vanity of vanities… all is vanity’ (Eccl. 1:2)? — But someone may say: if such-and-such is vain and leads to vanity, then why does it exist? And if it is moreover the work of God’s hands, how can it be vain? And there are many similar objections on this subject. But listen, beloved! Ecclesiastes did not call the works of God vain—by no means: the sky is not vain, the earth is not vain—no! — Neither the sun, nor the moon, nor the stars, nor our body. For all this is ‘very good.’ What then is vain? — Let us hear what Ecclesiastes himself calls vanity: ‘I planted vineyards for myself… I provided singers and singing women for myself… I made pools of water for myself… I acquired herds and flocks, more than all who were before me… I gathered silver and gold for myself… and’ I saw ‘that all was vanity’ (Eccl. 2:4, 6–8, 11). Hear also what the Prophet says: ‘He heaps up riches and does not know who will gather them’ (Ps. 38:7)! Therefore, vanity of vanities—splendid buildings, abundance and excess of gold, crowds of slaves noisily running after you in the public square, pride and vainglory, haughtiness and arrogance—all of this is vanity, for it did not come from God but was produced by people. Why, however, is it vain? — Because it has no good purpose. Money is vain when it is squandered on pleasures, but not vain when it is used to help the poor. When you use it for pleasures, let us see what consequence follows: obesity of body, headache, sloth, internal fever, weakness throughout the body. As one who poured water into a vessel full of holes would labour in vain, so the person who gives himself over to pleasures pours water into a vessel full of holes. — Further, impossible ambitious schemes are called vain; and they truly are vain, unreliable, senseless; in general, what is good for nothing is called vain. Consider now, are not human affairs of this kind? — ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die’ (1 Cor. 15:32). And what follows from this, tell me? — Corruption. We clothe ourselves in costly garments and adornments: and what use is this? — Nothing. Some even among the Greeks thought this way—but to no effect. They led a strict life, yet pointlessly, having no useful goal in view, acting so out of vainglory, to gain honour from the crowd. But what is honour? — Nothing. — Do you see that all is vanity? — Therefore the Apostle said (of the Gentiles): ‘in the vanity of their mind.’” — After this the holy Chrysostom depicts the vanity of the pagan faith—that they worshipped as God trees, stones, fire, water, the sun. All of this, he says, is the Gentiles’ vanity of mind. — “Moreover,” he then adds, “here the Apostle expressed himself thus about their life. The Gentiles give themselves to fornication and adultery—which is just what one ought to expect from their faith. Having invented such gods for themselves, they act accordingly in everything. If they can conceal their actions from human eyes, there is nothing left that can hold them back from evil deeds. Can the teaching of the resurrection have any force for them, when they consider it a fable? — And what of the torments of hell? — For them this too is a fable. And note the satanic suggestion here. When people tell them of the licentiousness of their gods, they do not call this a fable, but believe it. But when they are told of punishments, they say that poets invented all such fables in order to disturb the happy order of life everywhere. But the philosophers, they say, have invented something fully worthy of attention and better than these fables. And who are these philosophers? — Surely not those who invented fate and assert that everything exists without Providence, that there is no creative Providence, that everything was composed of atoms? But, they say, others recognised God. Who are these others, tell me? — Is it not those who derive human souls from the souls of dogs and assure people that at a certain time one or another of them was a dog, a lion, a fish? — How long will you not stop your babbling?!”

Eph. 4:18. Darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their hearts.

When the mind—the spirit—thus fell and became wholly entangled in vanity, it was natural that all the powers of the soul, whose life, by the ordering of our nature, is in the spirit, should not only take a perverted direction but should become numb. And numb they did become. The life of the rational power is the light of knowledge. When the mind fell into vanity, this light was extinguished and the understanding was darkened. Sound conceptions of oneself fell away from it—of one’s final goal, of what this present life is for, of what awaits one in the future: all this was forgotten, and God Himself was forgotten, and one’s own relationship to Him. In their place crept in convictions—not expressed in words, but all the more strictly held—that the present life is everything, that its means are ready to hand, that a person is himself, with his own reason and powers, the maker and guardian of his own lot, and that nothing more is needed: stand for yourself, protect yourself, feed yourself—and that is enough. Such and similar convictions form the guiding principles for those in whom the mind has fallen into vanity, in whom the spirit has fallen and been stifled. The holy Chrysostom says that whatever kind of life a person lives, dogmas of the same kind are devised to match. And since all such dogmas are false, and falsehood is darkness, they surround a person with darkness. “Just as, having plunged deep into water, we cannot see the sun—because the water above us forms, as it were, a kind of wall—so also in the mind’s eyes” darkening occurs from the perverted conceptions filling the head. And at the same time “the multitudinous press of worldly affairs darkens the clarity of the mind and keeps us in darkness.” — Such is the meaning of: “darkened in their understanding.”

This darkening manifests itself especially in the matter of preserving and securing one’s life. Having taken it upon themselves to guard themselves and to provide for themselves, those whose mind has fallen into vanity are, despite all their powerful means, in a constant state of fear. The holy Chrysostom gives an extended portrayal of this condition—the fruit of darkening superstition placed in the stead of divine Providence. “Those who have fallen into vanity of mind say and do everything, both in their dogmas and in their life, as though they were in darkness. A person surrounded by darkness sees nothing before him: he takes a rope for a creeping serpent; or, entering a dark place, he thinks that a man or a demon is about to seize him. And how much fear and agitation there is! — And the (Gentiles) fear similar things. ‘They were afraid,’ it is said, ‘where there was nothing to fear’ (Ps. 13:5); yet what they ought to have feared, they do not fear. Just as children in the arms of their nurses thoughtlessly reach out their hands to fire and boldly grab at a lighted lamp, yet are afraid of a man dressed in goat’s-hair cloth—so these Greeks are like real children, as someone said of them: ‘Greeks are always children.’ They fear what is not a sin—such as bodily uncleanness, a bed on which a dead man has lain, the burial of the dead, ill-omened days, and the like. But what constitutes real sin—such as passionate love for boys, adultery, fornication—they do not think to count as sin. You may see how a pagan washes himself after (contact with) a dead body, but from dead deeds he never washes himself. He takes great pains to acquire money, and at the same time thinks that a hen crowing like a rooster can influence his fortune. So they are ‘darkened in their understanding.’ They have many omens that frighten them. For example, one says: such-and-such a man was the first I met when leaving the house—a thousand misfortunes will surely come upon me. Today the hateful slave, handing me my sandals, offered the left one first—great disasters and calamities are in store. As I myself was leaving the house, I stepped over the threshold with my left foot—this too portends misfortune. These are the domestic mishaps. When I had gone out of the house, my right eye twitched—that portends tears. Likewise the women—when in weaving one thread catches against another, or a sound is made—they count this as a presage of misfortune. And a thousand other laughable superstitions they have. Whether a donkey brays or a rooster crows, whether someone sneezes—whatever happens, everything disturbs them, so that they, as I said, seem to be bound by a thousand chains and dwell in darkness and in far greater bondage than slaves. But let us not be such; rather, laughing at all such superstitions, as children of light, as citizens of heaven who have nothing in common with earth, let us count as dreadful only sin and offending God. And if we keep away from sin and strive not to offend God, we shall laugh at everything else, as well as at the first author of sin—the devil.”

“Alienated from the life of God”—that is, “from life according to God” (Theophylact). “The Apostle denounces the lawlessness of their life, for by ‘the life of God’ he named the virtuous life” (Theodoret). When the light of truth illumines the rational sphere of a person, the path of true life is made plain by that light, and this powerfully arouses the energy of the active powers to press forward along that path. But when the understanding is darkened, the path of true life is closed off, and the energy to walk along it falls away. Those darkened in their understanding naturally do not live the true life either—they become estranged from it, they abandon it.

By the life of God the Apostle could not have meant the life of grace; rather he meant that life according to God which the Gentiles could have had, had they followed the indications given them by the remnants of the image of God in fallen humanity. The mind—or spirit—of a person is originally appointed for life in God and according to God. After the Fall it was weakened, but not destroyed. The conviction that God exists and that one ought to please Him remained in all, and where it was not stifled it bore its fruits. All Gentiles were capable of living under the influence of the fear of God, according to the requirements of conscience, in hope of future reward. — In this consists the essence of natural religion and the life in God possible for all outside of grace. And whoever does not have it is guilty. In this guilt the Apostle convicts all, because the predominant spirit of pagan life was such. They forgot God, paid no heed to conscience, and lived only for the present—as though God and another life did not exist. Such also is the life of those who serve sin and the passions even among Christians. Entire cities and communities can be such. And then the apostolic word will apply to them as well: “alienated from the life of God.”

“Because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardening of their hearts.” Some say: the darkening of understanding is because of ignorance, and the alienation from the life of God is because of hardening of hearts. But the darkening of understanding and ignorance are one and the same. It is therefore better to refer both to the alienation from life—as its cause, contributing factor, or punishment. Alienation from the life of God followed from ignorance and hardening of heart as its consequence. When such alienation began, ignorance and hardening of heart helped to entrench it; and when it had become entrenched, God also confirmed it upon them as a punishment: “God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done… He gave them over to the lusts of their hearts… He gave them over to dishonourable passions” (Rom. 1:28, 24, 26). But, properly speaking, all three of these—darkening of understanding with ignorance, alienation from the life of God, and hardening of heart—go together as the direct consequence of the mind falling into vanity, or of the spirit being stifled. The clarity of understanding, or the knowledge of truth, falling upon the heart, arouses in it sympathy for itself and forms in it motivations toward life according to truth, or according to God. When the understanding is darkened and truths fall away from it, the heart, receiving no impressions, gives forth no impulses toward life—and life comes to a standstill, and its paths are closed. The alienation from life thus begun hardens the heart; and the hardening heart in turn strengthens the alienation from life and thickens the darkness in the understanding. Thus each is maintained by the other, and the circulation of life—not according to God—ripens. What belongs to God becomes incomprehensible, unwelcome, and does not enter into one’s plans. The spiritual life has frozen. This deadness is most evidently expressed in the hardening of the heart, yet everything else is present there as well. The holy fathers express this condition as the concurrence of ignorance, negligence, and insensibility. Those who awaken from such a life suffer most of all from insensibility. — O when will the deadened heart come back to life!

Such is the inner life of the Gentiles, and in general of persons without grace—those who have not received grace or who have stifled it within themselves by a life incompatible with it. But as is the inner ordering, so is the outward life—the deeds and conduct. The holy Apostle depicts it thus:

Eph. 4:19. Who, having become callous, gave themselves up to licentiousness, to the practice of every kind of uncleanness in greediness.

“Having become callous”—in Greek among the holy fathers this is expressed by a word that signifies hardening in evil—the extreme limit of negligence and carelessness about what is good. “Having become callous” — απηλγηκοτες — “that is, having grown utterly slothful, unwilling to do anything good, having lost all fear and compunction, as though they had gone numb” (Theophylact). Every feeling—both moral and religious—had died away. “He grew fat, he became thick, he was enriched; and” he forgot “God” (Deut. 32:15). “There is no fear of God before his eyes” (Ps. 35:2). “The fool has said in his heart: there is no God”—and gave himself over to every kind of depravity together with others: “they were corrupt and behaved abominably in their deeds” (Ps. 13:1). The holy Chrysostom says: “The heart becomes hardened when no fear troubles the soul. This comes from insensibility. When any member of the body becomes insensible, you may burn it or cut it—whatever you do to it, it feels nothing. So also the Gentiles—after having fallen once and for all into carelessness, whatever you say to them, threaten them with fire or sword—nothing will affect them, nothing will persuade them. For their heart has died once and for all. And until you destroy this insensibility in it, until your touch upon it is as perceptible as upon healthy members—until then all your efforts will be in vain.”

Having arrived at such a state, they “gave themselves up to licentiousness, to the practice of every kind of uncleanness.” — They gave themselves over to every manner of satisfying fleshly lust. There are two opposites within us—spirit and flesh. When the spirit dies away, the flesh runs wild. A person gives himself over to every kind of sensory pleasure and gratification. “They first suffered from lawlessness; then, having slipped into a lawless life, they soon began to suffer from insensibility. Then, fearing nothing, they boldly ventured upon every sin, giving themselves over to a depraved life to the point of satiation” (Theodoret).

The holy Chrysostom says: “Their life was such by their own carelessness and negligence. ‘They gave themselves up,’ he says. So when you hear that ‘God gave them over to a depraved mind’ (Rom. 1:28), recall also the present saying, that they themselves ‘gave themselves up.’ How then did God give them over, when they themselves gave themselves over? And if they themselves gave themselves over, how did God give them over? — You may think there is a contradiction here. But the word ‘gave over’ means ‘permitted.’ — ‘To the practice of uncleanness’ they gave themselves up. Do you see how the Apostle deprives them of excuse by speaking of the practice of uncleanness? Not by external compulsion, he says, did they sin; they themselves contrived and carried out all these criminal actions. ‘In every kind of uncleanness’ they lived. Uncleanness encompasses all adultery, fornication, passionate love for boys, and every form of intemperance. — Among them, he says, this manner of life became as it were a rule.”

The word “in greediness” is understood by some as meaning that alongside their impure deeds they gave themselves over to the passion for acquisition as well—which in the vain worldly life is no less powerful than the first. The holy Damascene writes: “Love of gain is a necessary consequence of love of the flesh. They desire acquisitions so as to have wherewith to spend on pleasures.” Others understand by this word a thirst for ever greater and greater pleasures—the insatiability of fleshly self-indulgence. “By ‘greediness’ the Apostle named lack of measure” (Theodoret). In the flow of his speech, this means lack of measure in self-indulgence of the flesh. — But in the holy Chrysostom one finds the thought of lacking measure in anything—whether in the acquisition of money or in an effeminate life. “They could have made moderate use,” he says, “both of money and of pleasures and of every gratification. But since they did not maintain moderation in this, they ruined everything.” The same thought is found in Theophylact. — Oecumenius writes: “He says ‘in greediness’ to indicate that they gave themselves over to two passions: licentiousness and love of gain—which more than other passions stand out in sinful life and govern it; or to indicate that they gave themselves over to licentiousness and uncleanness excessively and greedily.”

Eph. 4:20. But you have not so learned Christ.

Having pointed to the shameful life of the pagans and shown what must not be found in the life of Christians, the Apostle now shows what must be there; and since everything in the Christian life comes from Christ the Lord, he directs our attention to Him. “But you have not so learned Christ.” To have learned—that is, to have believed, to have cleaved to Him, to have been united with Him in the mysteries, to have received His commandments and entered upon the path of life according to Him—to have already learned by experience what it means to be a Christian, to be with Christ. “Have learned”—in Greek stands εμαθετε,—studied, mastered, as one studies and masters lessons. This denotes not a bore, intellectual knowledge of Christ, but a familiarization with Him, a living acquaintance with Him. “You have not,” he says, “so learned Christ in such a manner”—your knowledge of Christ does not bind you to the kind of life I have just described among the pagans; nothing of that sort can be tolerated in you. “You did not come to know Christ for such works” (St. Chrysostom).

Or “not so” means—not in vain. He points to the great promises in Christ Jesus, as if to say: you have been received into the Church of Christ, His truths have been communicated to you, holy baptism has been given, the forgiveness of sins has been granted, and the sure promise of the Kingdom has been secured for you—was all this given to you for nothing? Having received all this, do you not wish to lift a finger? Are you all too ready to go on living as before? — No, this cannot suit you. “You did not receive Christ on such terms as to remain in your former life” (St. Chrysostom). In this lies the whole essence of Christianity (the truth concerning Jesus)—to put off everything old and begin to live entirely according to the new law and order.

Eph. 4:21. If so be that you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus.

“If”—“if so be”—does not mean that the holy Paul did not know whether they had heard of the Lord Saviour: for otherwise, how would he have written to them all that has been written so far? Rather, it means that the conclusion: “you have not so” learned “Christ”—along with all that follows from it—they themselves ought to draw and hold in mind from what they had heard about Christ and from what they had been taught by Him directly; and still more from what they themselves had heard from Him and had been taught by Him directly, having received Him into themselves in the mysteries and having felt in their hearts what the truth in Him is. All this may be expressed thus: if you have rightly heard and been taught, you yourselves know that you must not live as the pagans do. It is understood, of course: but you did hear and were taught as you ought, and therefore you know how you ought to live. St. Chrysostom says: “The expression ‘if so be that you have heard Him’ does not indicate that he speaks with doubt; on the contrary, it shows his full confidence; in a similar way he expresses himself in another place: ‘Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you’ (2 Thess. 1:6). The knowledge of Christ consists precisely in living a righteous life. For he who lives an evil life does not know God and is not known by Him. Concerning this the Apostle says in another place: ‘They profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him’ (Tit. 1:16).”

The expression used here by the Apostle—“you have heard Him, have been taught by Him”—gives his thought a particular nuance of great importance, for it shows that Christians hear the Lord Himself and, in Him—by abiding in living communion with Him—are taught in Him. Not everyone who hears and is taught about the Lord from another person hears His word within himself and is taught in Him. For this, many additional conditions must supplement the first hearing—living faith, baptism, and readiness to live by the Lord’s commandments, sparing not even one’s life. But that in truth the Christian who fulfills all the ordinances does indeed hear Christ speaking within him—of this St. John the Theologian bears witness in the passage where he speaks of the anointing, that it teaches all things; for though the Holy Spirit is spoken of there, the Spirit and the Lord are one (1 Jn. 2:27). Whoever has attained to such a state that he can discern and understand the voice of Christ within himself has reached the full renewal and sanctification of his nature. Sin no longer has dominion over him; he walks in the newness of a luminous life—as luminous as the Risen Christ—and, by the very order of the life dwelling in him, is alien to everything pagan; the old man has already been put off, and the renewal of the mind in him is in full force. Holding this thought, we can see in the word “if so be…” the proper condition, without needing to have recourse to outside explanations.

Such is the thought of blessed Jerome. “If all those who appear to be obliged to hear Christ were truly to hear Him, the holy Apostle would in no way have said to the Ephesians, and to all in general to whom he disclosed the mysteries of Christ: ‘if so be that you have heard Him.’ To have learned Christ is the same as to know how to practice virtue, and the expression ‘to hear Him’ is no different from what one might say: to hear wisdom, righteousness, courage, temperance, and all else by which Christ is named. Whoever has thus heard Christ and studied Him will no longer walk in the vanity of his mind, will not walk with darkened understanding, will not be alienated from the life of God, but will have knowledge, and all blindness will fall from the eyes of his heart, because the light admitted into the inner darkness will dispel all ignorance within him. When he has attained this, he will no longer give himself over to debauchery, nor commit every kind of impurity in covetousness, transgressing the boundaries granted to him within marriage. But if it should happen at times that he is overcome by some passion, he will grieve over his wound and suffer the torments of conscience—for having lost his bold freedom and the purity of an undefiled mind. Let us therefore learn from Christ and listen to Him. Christ speaks to us in the Church through His word and through the shepherds of the Church. But we must not despair of reaching the point where He Himself will one day speak in our hearts and personally teach us, without employing any outside instrument for this: only let us not yield to sin, let us not permit lustful pleasures to gain mastery over our body.”

“As the truth” “is” “in Jesus.” “As” — καθως— how:—they were taught as the truth is in Jesus, “as the truth is in Christ Jesus” (St. Chrysostom); and what does it consist in? — In putting off the old man and putting on the new. The truth in Jesus is not a theory, but life and deed. Whoever has put off the old man and put on the new—that person has the truth in Jesus. In whom this is absent, in him the truth of Jesus is likewise absent. And the witness of this truth lies in the putting off of the one and the putting on of the other. This is accomplished in baptism—and not nominally, but actually. Whoever has received the power of baptism experiences in very deed that everything that was before in him has died, and something new lives—something he had not known or felt. The Kingdom of Christ—that which is given in Christ—is not word, but power. Here it is accomplished in deed: “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature” (2 Cor. 5:17). What then remains to be done after this? — To guard what has been given and to give it free scope to act and be realized, just as the duty in relation to Paradise was—to cultivate and to keep.