Be renewed in the spirit of your minds. – Ephesians 4:23
Ephesus was a major trading and multi-cultural center in the first century. Although around five miles inland today, it was a port city at that time. Sediment from the river has since filled its harbor. It was known as a great place of learning. The lecture hall could seat more than 1,000 people and was a busy hub with teachers of philosophy, astronomy, the Artemis cult, and other religions of the region. It would be another hundred years before its great library would be constructed, but the people of Ephesus wrote, sold, and bought books, ever seeking to challenge their minds and expand their thinking.
It was not until his third missionary journey, roughly in A.D. 54, that the Apostle Paul went to Ephesus. He found believers in Christ there already, having been taught by others like Apollos, Priscilla, and Aquila. Paul would spend three years with the people there, preaching in the synagogue and teaching at the great lecture hall and the school of Tyrannus. He challenged the “futility of their minds” and the “darkness of their understanding,” encouraging the people to discover a new way of thinking, be renewed spiritually, put on a new self, and be led by the Holy Spirit.
The spiritual battles you face begin in your mind. Renewing your mind—embracing God’s ways of thinking—is a daily occurrence. “Our inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16). Be intentional about your prayer life, staying in and adhering to God’s Word. Discard old ways of thinking and wear your new nature like new garments. Invite the Holy Spirit to continue to help you in any areas of weakness. Pray for members of Congress to find new thinking in Christ, and abandon the futile, dark lies of culture.
Today’s Verse: Ephesians 4:23
and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Recommended for further reading: Ephesians 4:17-32
17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
25 Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. 28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
