Ephesians

Put Off Old Lusts and Urges

How do we do this? Paul comes to grips with this question. Please read Ephesians 4:22-24. You can’t put it any plainer than that: Put off the old and put on the new. Paul begins with a recognition that the old life constantly tugs at us. The old self, the former way of life, can find its way back into our lives through deceitful desires. It is not merely evil deeds that we must watch for, but the old outlooks, attitudes, and corrupt desires.

The apostle Paul makes his point abundantly clear with these two phrases, “put off’ and “put on.” If you have a soiled garment, you put it off and put on something new. He uses the simplest of terms to illustrate a profound truth. We must reject those basic assumptions that lead to error and destruction, just as you would put off a pair of dirty work jeans. From these wrong attitudes comes corruption.

Paul goes on to explain how to recognize the attitudes we must put off: by the way they operate. They are “deceitful desires.” Paul uses the word “desire” in a broad sense, meaning any urge or basic drive. These deceitful urges are constantly coming to us as we react to various situations in which we find ourselves.

These urges may include sex urges, of course, but they can also refer to our desire to acquire, which is expressed in an orgy of spending. We are self-deceived when we think we can make ourselves happy by owning more things. There is the urge to use others for our own advantage—the urge to manipulate people to do what we want, or the urge to hurt people through backbiting and gossip. There is the desire for power and fame, the urge to attain mastery and status in the political world, the business world, or the church. There is the urge to lie or cheat to get by, to gain an advantage, to avoid responsibility. There is the urge to criticize and blame others, the urge to indulge in self-pity, the urge to explode in anger or impatience with others, the urge to react defensively and abrasively when things don’t go our way. There is the urge to attack and undermine those who are different from us or who do not do things the way we do or think the way we think. There is the urge to appear holier and better than others around us. These are some of the urges and desires Paul warns against in this passage.