Put On the New Man; Put Away Lying (Ephesians 4:22–26)

Eph. 4:22. That you put off, concerning your former manner of life, the old man, who is corrupted according to the deceitful lusts.

Since this putting off has already taken place in the baptized, and the old man has died, the phrase “put off” must be understood not as a command but as a notification of something already accomplished. That is the truth concerning Jesus—that you put off the old man the moment you draw near to Him and are baptized.

In this regard the opening words—“But you have not so learned Christ…” — will carry yet another meaning: you have not learned Christ for nothing, you have not merely received knowledge about Him or borrowed His name alone, but you have been utterly changed, utterly made new; that old man by whom you used to live has died in you, you have put him off. And this seems to be the Apostle’s direct thought, flowing from the very obligation to grow up into Christ in all things. For after saying this, he immediately added: “This” I “say”—that you should not live as the pagans do. Why not? — Because that life, he says, has already died in you the moment you drew near to Christ. You did not come to know Christ “just so”—with nothing at all—but something happened to you: you put him off.

But this does not happen in any sort of mechanical way. It is preceded by a decision of the will, which is then sealed by grace; from this flows moral renewal, both recognized and felt. One who feels this no longer submits to lust, but tramples it underfoot and repels it as something alien to himself. The Apostle was telling the Ephesians: this is what you have already experienced in Him. A moral lesson still follows from this: you see how unseemly it is for you to touch your former life again, for freedom is not taken away by the new birth.

What precisely was put off is clear from what has gone before. Two new features are added: corruption and deception. Or a third as well—oldness. “The old man” is defined by the former manner of life. “Manner of life” — αναστροφη— everything in which one formerly moved, both inwardly and outwardly, as St. Paul depicted above. If the Apostle had said only “you put off the old man,” someone might have wondered what this old man is; but when alongside that expression stands “concerning your former manner of life”—the manner in which every one of those who heard the word had himself moved—then it was plain to all what this old man is. Plain to them also is what it means to “put off,” for they were conscious and felt how that oldness had fallen away from them—fallen away, as the scales of leprosy fall from a healed leper—and their notions, tastes, impulses, plans, everything former, had fallen away as though it had never been. They looked back and regarded it as a cast-off garment—as something almost foreign to themselves.

St. Paul defined the former life in paganism as a life in the vanity of the mind, in blindness, carelessness, and insensibility, and in complete slavery to the passions, especially carnal lust. This is the old man. He now adds that such a man is being corrupted. The egotistical life of self-indulgence and passion decomposes, exhausts, and consumes human nature. For then a person is not in his own atmosphere. Just as one who breathes infected air corrupts his life more and more, so does he who lives in sin and passion destroy his own nature. Yet he corrupts, but is never fully destroyed. The gnawing corruption penetrates him ever more deeply, consuming and devouring him. So it is throughout all of life—and so it shall be throughout all eternity, if he does not repent and is not renewed in Christ.

The old man corrupts himself in lusts. The word “lust” suggests the thought of carnal pleasures, which in the old man stand out more vividly than his other weaknesses. But under this word one may also understand all the passions in which the habitually self-indulgent person lives. Lust is any self-gratifying desire in the satisfaction of which nothing is intended but to comfort and delight oneself. These lusts are deceitful because they entice, promising mountains of happiness, yet give nothing when one acts under their influence; and they are deceitful also, and especially, because they know how to conceal their deception, so that the one who is left unsatisfied does not blame the lust for the deception but reproaches himself for not knowing how to make proper use of it. It is this delusion that keeps everyone in the power of lusts, without noticing or feeling the ruinous nature of such a life and without feeling the weight of the yoke of slavery imposed by the passions. St. Chrysostom says: “Lust corrupts and destroys the very existence of man. The love of glory is ruinous, pleasures have destroyed many, lust has deceived. However, none of these constitute genuine pleasure; they are bitterness, deception, fraud, and shadow. The outward appearance of these things is alluring, but in themselves they are nothing other than a heavy burden, dragging after it great poverty, emptiness, and destitution. And if you strip away this mask from them and reveal their true face, you will see the deception. For deception consists precisely in this: when something appears to us as other than what it is, presenting itself as what it does not have—and this is what causes false judgments about one or another object.”

Eph. 4:23. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

The truth in Jesus is that in Him you put off the old and are renewed in the spirit of your mind. What does “the spirit of the mind” mean? Since he says “the spirit of your mind,” it is evident that St. Paul does not mean here the Holy Spirit, but something belonging to man himself. The higher aspect of human nature is called now the mind, now the spirit. Here both names are joined together: the spirit of the mind—that is, the spirit, the rational faculty within you. Man was created to live in God by means of the spirit, or mind. Had he not fallen away from God, he would have lived always in God by his spirit. God would have given strength to his spirit to reign over all the faculties of soul and body and to govern all their needs. But when man fell away from God, his spirit lost its strength, and the faculties of soul and body came to rule over it, multiplying a host of passionate lusts. If, as we have seen, for the Apostle this lustful, passionate, bodily-and-soulish life constitutes the old man who is put off in Christ Jesus, then clearly by renewal in the spirit of the mind he points to the restoration of our spirit to its rights according to creation—its liberation from the yoke of the passions and the return to it of authority over all the faculties of human nature, on the condition that it itself is now reunited with God in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Toward the concept of what the spirit of the mind is, the expressions common among us may also lead—for example, “the spirit of a particular writing.” By this are meant the essential, characteristic features of that writing. One may suppose that the spirit of the mind likewise denotes the essential, characteristic properties of the mind. Judging by this, the Apostle’s words—“you are renewed in Christ Jesus in the spirit of your mind”—will mean: to your mind, in Christ Jesus, are restored the essential, characteristic features granted to it by God in creation and lost by it in the fall. Is this not what St. Chrysostom means when he says: “The spirit of the mind—that is, the spirit which is in your mind”? But in Theodoret it is stated directly: “By the spirit of the mind he named the spiritual striving of the mind.” The mind, or spirit, by nature is our highest faculty, wholly turned toward the Divine. In it is concealed an immediate knowledge of what God is, with a sense of total dependence upon Him from every side and with an awareness of the obligation to submit to Him through strict fulfillment of His will—which is also inscribed in that same Spirit, or mind, constituting the tablets of the law of conscience; by fulfilling which it hopes ever to be pleasing to God and ever to find blessedness in Him, not only in time but still more in eternity—wherefore it finds satisfaction in nothing created, even if it possessed the whole world. All these characteristics of the mind, or this spirit of the mind, were lost through the fall, but in the Lord Jesus Christ are restored—in other words: by this spirit of the mind, man is renewed in Christ Jesus and begins to live always before God, always in strict faithfulness to His will, by a conscience enlightened by the commandments, always with detachment from everything created and with the sure hope of blessedness in the future. The grace of the Holy Spirit restores it through union with the Lord. In this act there is also returned to it its natural authority over soul and body, by virtue of which it begins to govern everything that is its own—both inward and outward.

Eph. 4:24. And that you put on the new man, who after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

The truth in Jesus is that you do not merely put off the old, but also put on the new man. Who this new man is can be seen by contrast with the old—and also from the preceding reference to the renewal in the spirit of the mind. But the Apostle defines him more fully here: in his origin, in his properties, and in the directions of his activity. The new man is newly created, or re-created, regenerated through a supernatural path. Grace comes to the mind darkened by vanity and awakens in it the fear of God; the fear of God quickens the conscience; the awakened and troubled conscience strikes with hopelessness and compels it to seek reconciliation. The Gospel points to it in Christ Jesus: Christ is embraced by faith and united with the believer in the font of baptism; He fills him with the grace of the Spirit in chrismation. Thus, the one who has drawn near to the Lord is reconciled with God and consecrates himself to His service, feeling that he has received the power that pertains to life and godliness. So begins the new life—a life according to God, in righteousness and true holiness.

“Created according to God” is the same as created according to the image of God (Col. 3:10). Just as in the beginning man was created according to the image of God, so now he is re-created in that same image—re-made according to God—and afterward lives according to God; that is, in his life the first concern is the preservation of right relations with God, or the fear of God, so as always to maintain peaceful communion with God and have boldness and access to Him. The new man lives in spirit in God. Being grounded in God, he descends also into the sphere of life and appears there as fully righteous, zealously fulfilling every “righteousness”—every known determination of God’s will—so as not to err before Him in anything or cloud his conscience in any way. In this disposition he is “upright,” as the first man was originally created. It is said: “created in righteousness”—not “toward righteousness,” but already “in righteousness.” Thus, the new man comes forth from the font into the light with such an inner constitution as to zealously fulfill every righteousness, in the sense of the strength poured into him by grace. “In true holiness” means the same as “in righteousness.” Holiness befits one who in all perfection fulfills what is fitting. “What is holiness?” asks St. Chrysostom, and answers: “That which is pure and in accord with the demands of duty.” Or perhaps “righteousness” denotes more the active side of virtue, and “holiness”—more the inner purity and blamelessness of feelings and dispositions. “Of truth” relates to both righteousness and holiness, and shows that the new man is re-created in true righteousness and true holiness—not merely appearing to be such, but actually so, not only before men but before God as well. In the old man everything is deceit (v. 22), everything is illusory, but in the new man everything is true, everything is as it should be and as Truth itself—God—ordains.

Such is what Christians become in Christ Jesus by the truth of Jesus Christ.

“By the new and the old man is meant the moral and religious character of a person, not some special persons separate from the man himself. The man is one, but at one time he lives in self-indulgence and passions, and at another time consecrates himself to God and zealously seeks to please Him in all things. In the first case he is the old man, in the second—the new man. St. Chrysostom: “Lest someone should think that he is inventing a different person when speaking of the new and old man, he says: “be renewed.” Renewal takes place when what has grown old takes on a different form, so that the object remains one and the same, but a change occurs in its accidental properties. — “And put on the new.” — Do you see that the object is one, yet there are two garments: one that is put off and one that is put on? — Why does he represent man under the name of virtue? And also under the name of vice? — Because in order to define the character of a man, one must point to his activity. Thus, a man’s actions no less than his natural properties show whether he is good or not. Just as it is easy to undress a man, so too is it easy to see his character through his virtue or vice.” — The same thought is found in Theodoret: By ‘the old man’ the Apostle named not nature itself, but the working of sin. For the one being baptized does not put off his body, but the defiled garment of sin; and by the new man he named one who lives according to the evangelical law. And he called both virtue and vice ‘man’ because they are performed by men.”

Blessed Jerome says that to put on the new man is to put on Jesus Christ (Rom. 13:14), for He is truly the new man. And he adds: “Therefore, whoever imitates His life and manifests all His virtues in himself—being meek as He was meek and humble in heart, and laying down his soul for his friends as He laid it down for His sheep; when struck, not answering back, and when reviled, not reviling in return, but overcoming pride with humility—such a one has put on the new man and can say with the Apostle: ‘I live… yet not I, but Christ lives in me’ (Gal. 2:20). And: ‘Be followers of me, even as… I also am of Christ’ (1 Cor. 11:1). Such a one fulfills also the words of John the Theologian: ‘He that says he abides in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked’ (1 Jn. 2:6).”

St. Chrysostom, having explained what Christians are clothed in at baptism and how, adds that the Apostle’s intention in these words is to urge everyone “to live no longer according to the pull of deceitful lusts, but according to the commandments of God. — Our duty is to strip from ourselves no more this garment of justification, which the Prophet calls the garment of salvation (Isa. 61:10), so that we might become like God. The Apostle wants us to remain in virtue not for one day, not for two or three, but always, and never to take off this garment. For it is not as unseemly for a man to be naked in body as it is to be stripped of virtue. In bodily nakedness his unseemly condition is seen by fellow servants, but there—it is seen by the Lord and the Angels. — How then will God forgive us if we destroy this garment? — Let us strip ourselves of money, so that we may not be stripped of righteousness. The garment consisting in money damages the garment of justification. Sensual inclinations also deprive us of this garment, for they are fire, and such fire burns up this garment. Wealth too is a moth: and as a moth eats everything and does not even spare silk garments, so wealth does not spare our true garment. Therefore let us leave all this, so that we may be righteous, so that we may put on the new man. Let us keep nothing old, nothing transitory, nothing perishable. Virtue is not heavy, not impossible to fulfill. Do you not see those who pass their lives in the mountains? — They leave their homes, their wives, their children, and all their occupations, and withdrawing from the world, they clothe themselves in sackcloth, they shut themselves in narrow cells… They exhaust themselves with fasting and continual hunger. If I now proposed this to you, would not all of you refuse such a proposal? — But I do not say this… What more shall I say? — Use the baths, take care of your body, go to the market, have a house, have servants, use food and drink—only drive avarice away from everything. And do not say to me that those (hermits) had special strength for such a strict life, for many, far weaker than you, and richer, and more accustomed to luxury, entered into that austere life. But what do I say about men? — Virgins, brought up in luxury—these virgins, being suddenly seized by the fire of Christ, left all their luxury and splendor, and forgetting their delicacy, like brave wrestlers, entered the arena of struggle. — Such is the power of the fire of Christ, so far does a good resolution surpass nature itself! — Yet I require nothing of the sort from you, because you wish women to outpace you on the path of godly life. At the very least, do what is not difficult: keep your hand from what is forbidden, abstain from shameless looks. What is difficult about this, tell me? What is burdensome? Be just, wrong no one—neither the poor nor the rich, neither the seller nor the hired hand. Enter into marriage, have children. Great indeed is the struggle (of the hermit), high is that cliff… and you are unable to climb it? — Then at least have something less and attain to a lower level. You cannot give away your money? — Do not steal what belongs to others, at least, and do not wrong anyone else. You cannot fast? — Do not give yourself over to self-indulgence, at least. You cannot lie on a reed mat? — Do not furnish yourself with beds overlaid with silver, at least, but use a plain bed and a couch made not for show but for rest; likewise, do not set up beds of ivory; restrict yourself. If you live a modest life, you will fear nothing: neither envy, nor thieves, nor intrigues. — I am not telling you: serve the sick yourself; at least instruct your servant to do so. Do you see how little this is?”

B) The specific rules of moral life for Christians as Christians in general Eph. 4:25–32, 5:1–20

Eph. 4:25. Therefore, having put away lying, speak truth, each one with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.

St. Paul places truthfulness in speech in the first position. He connects his words with what has gone before. There he said: you have put on “the” “new” “man, created according to God in righteousness and true holiness.” Now he takes occasion from those words and speaks about truthfulness in speech: “Therefore, having put away lying, speak truth.” The basis for this rule he takes not from what preceded, but from the fact that we “are members of one another.” There is a rule in logic that thought cannot form itself if the mind does not represent every object as identical (the law of identity), always equal to itself, one and the same. Likewise, a human community cannot come into being if each person in practice is other than what his words say. The chain binding people together is mutual trust. This trust cannot take root if there is not truthfulness in speech among all. To the degree that the confidence in mutual truthfulness is strong—to that degree the union of people is also strong; and, conversely, to the degree that untruthfulness is tolerated—to that degree the union is weak. Christians form one living, intimately joined body. Consequently, truthfulness in speech already characterizes them: otherwise such a union could never have come together. The Apostle speaks as if to say: do not place yourselves in contradiction with what you are. This reference to mutual membership also suggests the thought that if we are members of one another, then each one should regard another as himself. And who lies before himself? — Even if one wished to, he could not, for the conscience is the same both in the one who lies and in the one before whom the lie would be told. And the Apostle used such a word: speak “truth to your neighbor”—to the one who is close to you, and to whom you are close. Can the tongue bring itself to say a lie to such a person? But members ought to stand in precisely such a relation to one another. — To say “you are members of one another” is the same as to say: among you sincere love must reign. Where there is love, a lie is impossible.

St. Chrysostom says: “Having set forth the general teaching concerning the old man, the Apostle then describes it in detail, because teaching about any subject that touches its particulars is more readily understood. What then does he say? — ‘Therefore, having put away lying.’ What lying? Does he mean idols? — No. For although idols too are a lie, the speech here is not about them, since the Ephesians had no fellowship at all with idols. He speaks to them about falsehood in relation to one another—that is, about guile and deception: ‘speak truth, each one with his neighbor,’ he says, and presents the chief motive for this: ‘for we are members of one another.’ Notice how everywhere the Apostle puts them to shame by pointing to the mutual faithfulness of the bodily members. The eye, he says, does not deceive the foot, nor the foot the eye… If the eye sees a serpent or a wild beast, will it deceive the foot? Will it not immediately give it warning? And the foot, having learned this from it, will then go more cautiously. Likewise, when neither the eye nor the foot has the means to detect a harmful poison, but everything depends on the sense of smell—will the sense of smell lie to the mouth? — By no means. Why? — Because in that case it would destroy itself as well. On the contrary, it reports exactly what comes to its attention. Does the tongue deceive the stomach? Does it not cast out what it finds disagreeable? Such is the mutual exchange of services and the mutual assistance among the members of the body. Observe how faithfully, and moreover, so to speak, sincerely, this mutual forewarning is carried out. So let us also not lie, if we are members of one body. This will be a sign of our friendship, and the contrary—of enmity.”

Eph. 4:26. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger.

“Be angry.” One cannot suppose that St. Paul gives permission to anger—especially since a few verses later he says: “let anger… be taken away from you” (Eph. 4:31), that is, let it be banished from among you so that there is no place for it there. It must be supposed that the Apostle took the very phrase as it is read in Psalm 4:5 (Ps. 4:5), but attached to it a thought that forbids anger, as if to say: as for anger—do not sin by it. — The law of moral imputation with regard to anger is the same as with regard to all other passionate movements. The initial assaults of passion are not imputed as sin. Imputation begins from the moment when, having noticed the movement of a passion, one yields to it—not only failing to resist it, but actually taking its side, fanning it, and helping it mount to an ungovernable state. But as soon as someone, having noticed the assault of a passion, arms himself against it and by appropriate efforts of thought and bodily posture strives to drive it away—this is imputed not as sin but as virtue. The same applies to irritation and anger. In the continual collisions with others, there is no counting the occasions for irritation. But when someone suppresses and drives away every rising of anger, he is angry—and yet does not sin. Not to be angry at all and never to feel any irritation is a gift of grace and belongs to the perfect. But in the ordinary course of things, the duty of all is not to yield to anger, so as not to sin by it. Oecumenius and Theophylact say: “It would be good not to get irritated at all, but if irritation has already broken out, do not let it reach the point of sin.” Suppress it within, so that it does not break out into word, expression, or some impulsive action.

But it sometimes happens that anger seizes a person in an instant, and before he has had time to catch himself, it has already broken out into word and gesture. Here too non-imputation is appropriate—but only up to the moment when one comes to his senses. The very moment the lapse is recognized, one must hasten to set things right through brotherly reconciliation. Consider someone walking among various objects arranged in different positions, and who by an incautious movement happens to knock some over and push others out of place—what does he do? — He turns back and sets everything in its place again, with an apology to the owner. The same applies to the collisions that commonly occur among us. A flare-up and a quarrel have occurred—hasten to restore everything to its former state through reconciliation. Reconciliation may be restored at once, but there may also be moments that intervene to delay it. In any case, make a beginning immediately; God will help, and you will come to terms. External circumstances, personal characters, and prior relations all matter greatly here. But none of this can justify or legitimize prolonging the irritation and estrangement. Sin began from the moment the fault was noticed but no resolution was made immediately in the soul to take steps toward reconciliation. But once such a resolution is made, the imputation of sin is averted. Every danger of imputation passes, however, when steps have also been taken in deed and peace has been restored.

The Apostle commands us to hasten in this matter and to strive by every means that the sun not go down in anger—that is, to make peace on the same day. Yet there may be no small number of circumstances that prevent this from being accomplished on the same day, and the sun may set before reconciliation is reached. But the Apostle does not write about reconciliation, but about the mutual irritation felt toward one another. The breaking of irritation is an interior matter. It can be accomplished in a single moment, whereas reconciliation requires time. He desires that inwardly the anger should be suppressed immediately and that the movement toward reconciliation should be begun at the same time—or at the very least, before the setting of the sun. Perhaps the Apostle’s words need not be taken literally. In any case, however, as is observed, there is a danger that at night, in solitude, a small displeasure may flare up into a flame and render the estrangement irreconcilable. Concerning sleep in relation to the body, it is said that it fixes in the body the new elements received in food during the day. The same may be said of it in relation to the soul—that it fixes within the soul the movements and thoughts that it has nurtured and gathered during the day. And anger too can become fixed in it. Therefore it is necessary to dissolve it before sleep, so that it does not become fixed and turn into irreconcilable enmity.

We cite the reasoning of St. Chrysostom on this subject. “It is good not to be angry; but if one falls into this passion, then at least not for a long time: ‘do not let the sun go down’ ‘on’ ‘your anger.’ You cannot restrain yourself from anger? — Be angry for an hour, two, three: but let not the sun go down, leaving us as enemies. By the Lord’s goodness it rose—let it not set after having shone upon the unworthy. For if the Lord sent it by His great goodness and has Himself forgiven your sins, and yet you do not forgive those of your neighbor—consider what evil there is in this. Besides, another evil can arise from it. Blessed Paul is concerned lest the night, catching alone a man who has suffered offense and is still burning with anger, should kindle this fire still more. During the day, while much still irritates you, it is permissible for you to give place to anger within yourself; but when evening comes, be reconciled and quench the evil that has arisen. If night overtakes you in anger, the next day will no longer be sufficient to quench the evil that may have grown in you during that night. Even if you destroy the greater part of it, you will not be able to destroy all of it, and in the following night you will give what remains the opportunity to grow stronger. Just as the sun, if the warmth of the day is not sufficient to dry and purify the air that has become filled with clouds and vapors during the night, thereby provides occasion for a storm, when the night, having caught the remnant of those vapors, adds yet more new vapors to them—so it is with anger as well.”