Ephesians 4:17-19
What is written? (ESV)
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. 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. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.
What does it say?
Therefore, I say with God’s authority, that you are to no longer behave as the Gentiles do in their foolishness. Their understanding is distorted. They are strangers to a life of God due to ignorance, which is due to their stubbornness. As a result, they are numb and have turned themselves over to carnal passions and a lust to practice every kind of sin.
What is its immediate context?
Paul, writing to the church in Ephesus, has just used a body metaphorically to describe the church. He transitions to encourage them as to how they are to behave by putting off their “old self” (vs 22).
How Ephesians 4:17-19 is applied across Bible answers
Can our free moral agency be lost?
Paul, just as he warned the Galatian Christians3, is encouraging Christians in Asia Minor not to fall back to being enslaved to sin like Gentiles who "have given themselves up to" a "practice of every kind of impurity".
Can repentance become impossible (Hebrews 6:4-6)?
Paul is encouraging Christians not to walk as the Gentiles who were stubborn ("hardness of heart") and are now numb ("callous") as they gorge on their fleshly passions and every kind of sin.
