Get Naked

...to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires (Eph 4:22).

I had just finished working outside.  I was hot, sweaty and absolutely the filthiest I've ever been.  As I came in the house, my wife took one look at me and screamed, "Stop right there!  You're not coming in our clean house in those nasty clothes.  Before you take another step, drop'em!"  Ninety-nine times out of 100 when my wife asks me to get undressed, it's a good thing.  But today this was for my own good.  It was time to get naked.  It was time to take a shower and put on clean clothes.

Here in his letter to his Ephesian friends, Paul reminds them to make sure to take off their old sinful duds and never put them on again.  Once Jesus makes us new we must "to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires" (v22).  You can't simply pull on your new duds over your ratty old rags.  You've got to take them off.

Get naked.

Paul explains what you and I were taught if we learned the genuine Gospel, i.e. that we "were taught in Him" (Eph 4:21).  Our previous wardrobe was contaminated by "sensuality" and we "were greedy to practice every kind of impurity" (Eph 4:19).  Yeah, that's as disgusting as you think it is.  But there's a problem.  We pull these crappy clothes back on.  Once Christ gets ahold of us, He has a whole new wardrobe for us.  But before we get dressed in God's finest, we need to get out of our grimy, grubby gear.

The apostle tells us to "put off" those clothes and get rid of them.  He uses the Greek verb apotithemi, which means to throw off, get rid of, put away, cast off, lay down or be done with something.  It's a compound word literally meaning "throw" (-tithemi) "from" (apo-) or lop off.  It's how Dr. Luke describes hotheaded Pete whacking off Malchus’ right ear at Jesus' arrest (Lk 22:50).  Just before they stoned Steve, folks "laid down" (Gr. apotithemi) their jackets at the coat check table with Saul (Acts 7:58).  Paul uses the same term when he tells us to shed sinful behaviors (Rom 13:12).  Don't just take them off.  Throw them away.

Get naked.

Now that Jesus has done for you what you could never do for myself, you don't need a wardrobe "which belongs to your former manner of life" (v22).  The apostle uses the term anastrophe, that describes our way of life, conduct and behavior.  Paul didn't hide anything from the folks in Galatia who knew all about his "former life (Gr. anastrophe) in Judaism" (Gal 1:13).  He was transparent with other believers about where he was before Jesus mugged him outside of Damascus.  He had nothing to hide about who he was before.  He got naked.

So just how nasty and disgusting are these old clothes that we keep putting back on?  they are "corrupt with deceitful desires" (v22).  This is the Greek verb phtheiro (hmm, looks like we need to buy a vowel, doesn’t it?).  It means to defile, pervert, destroy, corrupt, ruin, waste or cause to become filthy.   It also describes to seduce and lead to moral destruction.  In John's spectacular vision of God's glorious end game, the huge crowd sang of God's bringing the pain on "the great prostitute who corrupted (Gr. phtheiro) the earth with her immorality" (Rev 19:2).  Paul warned the Corinthians that just as the satanic snake duped Eve, they need to be on red alert so not to be "led astray (Gr. phtheiro) from Jesus" (2Cor 11:3).

Paul wrote to the Colossians at the very same time he wrote to the Ephesians.  Because these believers faced very similar situations, the apostle gave very similar instruction.  Make sure to "put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator" (Col 3:9-10).  You can't put on your spectacular wardrobe without taking of those disgusting duds that are smeared with sin.  You're gonna have to get naked.  Drop your drawers.  Slip off your sin.  Only then can we "put on the new self" (Eph 4:24).  Only then can we put on Jesus.  But first we've gotta take off our filthy threads.  

Get naked.

Here's the good news about the Good News.  Paul is simply encouraging us to do what God has already done for us.  He's transformed us from the walking dead to "alive together with Christ" (Eph 2:4-5).  We didn't have to do a dad-gum thing.  He saved us through His grace (Eph 2:8-9).  There's no reason to brag about what we've done.  Because we're with Jesus and in Jesus, the Father sees us AS Jesus.  Smart dudes who tuck in their shirts call this "imputed righteousness."  That simply means that we get Jesus' goodness and He takes our badness in one of the most unfair deals the universe has seen.  The sinless Christ actually became our very own sin so that we could "become the righteousness of God" (2Cor 5:21).  When we place our trust in who Jesus is and what He's already done for us, He takes away our grungy gear and gives us a spectacular new wardrobe.  

Paul simply reminds us to stop pulling our cruddy clothes out of the hamper everyday and putting them on again.  Stop it.  We need Jesus and His righteousness each and every stinkin' day.  I've gotta get out of these filthy old duds.

  

Get naked.