One of the common critiques of secular forms of counseling
therapy is that the definition of change is found in what amounts to behavior
modification. The smoker stops smoking. The adulterer stops fornicating. The
thief stops stealing. In this, success is declared. But, the Bible defines success
for change, or life transformation in much more dynamic terms.
Ephesians
4:17-25 provides for us a paradigm in which we can understand what is involved
if change is to be biblical. In verses 17-19, Paul explains to his audience the
condition of the Gentile, that is, the unbeliever. He explains briefly, yet
succinctly, how the unbeliever is both ignorant, and calloused to the life of
God. What’s more, the unbeliever is given to unrighteousness, and desires what
is sinful with increasing intensity. He exhorts his audience to not “walk,”
that is, think and act in this manner.
In the second portion of this passage,
verses 20-25, Paul gives his Spirit-inspired grid for understanding and
implementing Gospel-driven change. Four words serve as the hinge: put off (v.22) and put on (v.24). Keeping a biblical view of repentance in mind, Paul
calls his readers to a genuine, two-part process of change. Jay Adams writes
concerning why Paul gives a two-part, put off and put on process, “Putting off
will not be permanent without putting on. Putting on is hypocritical as well as
temporary, unless it is accompanied by putting off.”[1]
If Paul is clear
concerning what he calls his readers to put off (unrighteousness), then he is
explicit as to what they are to put on, “…the new self, created after the
likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (ESV). Still, this talk of
putting off and putting on can remain elusive if we do not grasp where Paul
desires the roots of change to be found.
Adams writes that, “Paul calls for
genuine change; change in the person. Not merely in his actions.”[2] Here, Adams is explaining
what Paul communicates when he writes about the heart and the mind throughout
the passage. In reading Ephesians 4:17-25, it is hard to not hear Paul’s
instruction in Romans 12:2, where he tells us to “be transformed by the renewing
of your mind.” This process of change is very much a part of the believer’s
life-long process of sanctification.
For the purposes of biblical counseling,
Wayne Mack writes, “For our instruction to be biblically accurate, we must not
merely tell people what they should not do but also what they should do…We need
to help them replace old, sinful habits with godly ones.”[3] This issue of
habituation is critical if we are to successfully pursue biblical change, that
is, if putting off and putting on are to be tangible in this life.
The human
capacity to form habits is illustrative of why repentance is so important.
Repentance requires an acknowledgement, confession, and a final turning away
from all sin as sinful, followed by a turning to Christ. Without this, there
will be no putting off of sin, and if there is no putting off of sin, there will never be a
putting on of the righteousness of Christ. All of this, Paul would advise us,
begins in the heart of man as a regenerating work of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:8-9; Phil. 2:12-13).
Finally, Adams writes that, “When Christ said, ‘take
up your cross daily and follow me’…He represented the Christian life as a daily
struggle to change.” As we pursue the instructions of Paul in Ephesians 4, and seek to make them our own, let us remember the words of Thomas Watson, who said, “Until sin be
bitter, Christ will not be sweet.”
In what areas are you struggling with sinful patterns and habits? How are these areas indicative of a refusal or failure to put off/put on?
