The "Covid Fifteen" has hit our family with a vengeance! Clothes that used to comfortably fit us are suddenly too snug and tight. We've had to buy some new clothes to accommodate our larger proportions!
In Ephesians 4:17-24, Paul exhorts his readers to "take off" the clothes of their old life that no longer fit them and to "put on" the clothes of their new life in Christ. Like us today, the Ephesians frequently felt the pull of their old life, calling them back to unhealthy, destructive ways of living. They lived in a prosperous, busy commercial port, with easy access to all the pleasures money could buy.
Yet Paul is inviting them to be transformed. Contrary to our American notions of self-sufficiency and rugged individualism, Paul is clear here about a couple of things: 1) that transformation is an inside job, and 2) that transformation happens through community, through the help of others. It is God's Spirit working in us who produces genuine, lasting life change. It is God teaching us through others that helps us to think new thoughts and gain new insights that eventually lead to new behaviors.
Like an apprentice learning from a great master, Paul is inviting us to sit at Jesus's feet and learn his ways, to be changed from the inside-out.