Sword in the Fire

Ephesians 4 part 2 (4:17-32) - Paul is going to contrasts two types of life in the next passage. One outside of Christ and one in Christ. In doing so he asks them to remember their previous life before Christ. He calls the life outside of Christ, the Gentile life. In speaking this way he is not talking about ethnicity, but those outside God’s people. Those inside the church are neither Jew nor Greek but a new man. -The next thing to notice is that the difference between the lifestyles is not merely outward but inward. In verse 17 and vs. 23, he begins with the “mind”. This word in Greek is “nous” and does not refer to our rational mind that reasons and thinks. It is a reference to the inner man. It is the part of man that is able to communicate with God. -St. Maximos concerning the “nous” says that the “great battle which is waged by the demons is to capture the nous and to attract it to impassioned thoughts.” By defeating the “nous,” as St. Maximos says, the demons “lead it to sin in ...