Ephesians 4:23

And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(23) And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.—The word translated “renewed” is not the same as the word “new” below. It is properly “to be made young again,” and the process of recovery is described as the natural effect of putting off the decrepitude of the old man, and the decay engendered by fleshly lusts. The effect is seen in “the spirit of the mind”—that is, “in the spiritual nature of the inner man.” The “spirit” of man is the mind or inner man, considered in its true relation as quickened and sustained by the Spirit of God. (See Romans 8, and especially Ephesians 4:16.) We note, in Colossians 2:18, the opposite condition of “the mind of the flesh,” in those who do not “hold the Head.” This spirit is spoken of as regaining its undying youth, as it were, naturally, when “the muddy vesture of decay” is cast off.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

4:17-24 The apostle charged the Ephesians in the name and by the authority of the Lord Jesus, that having professed the gospel, they should not be as the unconverted Gentiles, who walked in vain fancies and carnal affections. Do not men, on every side, walk in the vanity of their minds? Must not we then urge the distinction between real and nominal Christians? They were void of all saving knowledge; they sat in darkness, and loved it rather than light. They had a dislike and hatred to a life of holiness, which is not only the way of life God requires and approves, and by which we live to him, but which has some likeness to God himself in his purity, righteousness, truth, and goodness. The truth of Christ appears in its beauty and power, when it appears as in Jesus. The corrupt nature is called a man; like the human body, it is of divers parts, supporting and strengthening one another. Sinful desires are deceitful lusts; they promise men happiness, but render them more miserable; and bring them to destruction, if not subdued and mortified. These therefore must be put off, as an old garment, a filthy garment; they must be subdued and mortified. But it is not enough to shake off corrupt principles; we must have gracious ones. By the new man, is meant the new nature, the new creature, directed by a new principle, even regenerating grace, enabling a man to lead a new life of righteousness and holiness. This is created, or brought forth by God's almighty power.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And be renewed - That is, it is necessary that a man who has been following these should become a new man; see the notes on John 3:3 ff., compare the notes on 2 Corinthians 4:16. The word used here - ἀνανεόω ananeoō - does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament; but it has the same meaning as the word used in 2 Corinthians 4:16, and Colossians 3:10. It means to make new, and is descriptive of the work of regeneration. This was addressed to the church, and to those whom Paul regarded as Christians; and we learn from this:

(1) that it is necessary that man should be "renewed" in order to be saved.

(2) that it is proper to exhort Christians to be renewed. They need renovated strength every day.

(3) that it is a matter of "obligation" to be renewed. People are "bound" thus to be renovated, And,

(4) that they have sufficient natural ability to change from the condition of the old to that of the "new" man, or they could not be exhorted to it.

(See the supplementary Romans 8:7, note; Galatians 5:17, note.)

In the spirit of your mind - In your temper; your heart; your nature.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

23. be renewed—The Greek (ananeousthai) implies "the continued renewal in the youth of the new man." A different Greek word (anakainousthai) implies "renewal from the old state."

in the spirit of your mind—As there is no Greek for "in," which there is at Eph 4:17, "in the vanity of their mind," it is better to translate, "By the Spirit of your mind," that is, by your new spiritual nature; the restored and divinely informed leading principle of the mind. The "spirit" of man in New Testament is only then used in its proper sense, as worthy of its place and governing functions, when it is one spirit with the Lord. The natural, or animal man, is described as "not having the Spirit" (Jude 19) [Alford]. Spirit is not in this sense attributed to the unregenerate (1Th 5:23).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

And be renewed; viz. more and more, being already renewed in part.

In the spirit of your mind; i.e. in your mind which is a spirit: see 1 Thessalonians 5:23 2 Timothy 4:22. He means the superior powers of the soul, where regeneration begins, and which the philosophers magnified so much, and thought so pure.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Or by the Spirit that is in your mind; that is, by the Holy Spirit; who is in the saints, and is the author of renovation in them; and who is the reviver and carrier on, and finisher of that work, and therefore that is called the renewing of the Holy Spirit, Titus 3:5 or rather the mind of man, which is a spirit, of a spiritual nature, immaterial and immortal, and is the seat of that renewing work of the Spirit of God; which shows, that the more noble part of man stands in need of renovation, being corrupted by sin: and this renewing in it, designs not the first work of renovation; for these Ephesians had been renewed, and were made new creatures in Christ; but the gradual progress of it; and takes in, if not principally intends, a renewal, or an increase of spiritual light and knowledge, of life and strength, of joy and comfort, and fresh supplies of grace, and a revival of the exercise of grace; and in short, a renewal of spiritual youth, and a restoration of the saints to that state and condition they were in, in times past: and the exhortation to this can only mean, that it becomes saints to be concerned for such revivings and renewings, and to pray for them, as David did, Psalm 51:10 for otherwise, this is as much the work of the Spirit of God, as renovation is at first; and he only who is sent forth, and renews the face of the earth, year by year, can renew us daily in the Spirit of our minds.

Geneva Study Bible

And be renewed in the {f} spirit of your mind;

(f) Where there ought to have been the greatest force of reason, there is the greatest corruption of all, which gradually weakens all things.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Ephesians 4:23. Positive side of that which is truth in Jesus: that ye, on the other hand, become renewed in the spirit of your reason.

ἀνανεοῦσθαι] passive, not middle (renew yourselves, Luther), since the middle has an active sense (1Ma 12:1; Thuc. v. 18, 43; Polyb. vii. 3. 1, and often). The renewal is God’s work through the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:1 f.; Titus 3:5), and without it one is no true Christian (Romans 8:9; Galatians 5:15), consequently there can be no mention of ἀλήθεια ἐν τῷ Ἰησοῦ. Respecting the distinction between ἀνανεόω (only here in the N.T.) and ἀνακαινόω, recentare and renovare, as also respecting ἀνα, which does not refer to the restitution of human nature, as it was before the fall, but denotes the recentare in reference to the previous (corrupt) state, see on Colossians 3:10.

τῷ πνεύματι τοῦ νοὸς ὑμῶν] The genitive is at any rate that of the subject; for instead of simply saying τῷ πνεύματι ὑμῶν,[241] Paul makes use of the more precise designation in the text. But the τῷ πνεύματι may be either instrumental or dative of reference. In the former case, however, we should, with Oecumenius, Castalio, and others, including Ch. F. Fritzsche in his Nov. Opusc. p. 244 f., and Fritzsche, ad Rom. II. p. 28, have to understand the Holy Spirit, who has His seat in the νοῦς of the man on whom He is bestowed, and through whom (dative) the ἀνακαίνωσις τοῦ νοός, Romans 12:2, is effected, so that now the old ματαιότης of the νοῦς (Ephesians 4:17) no longer occurs, and the καινότης, which, on the other hand, has set in (Romans 4:4), is a καινότης τοῦ πνεύματος. Comp. Titus 3:5. But, in opposition to this view, we may urge, first, that the Holy Spirit bestowed on man is never in the N.T. designated in such a way that man appears as the subject of the Spirit (thus never: τὸ πνεῦμα ὑμῶν and the like, or as here: τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ νοὸς ὑμῶν); and secondly, that it was the object of the apostle to put forward the aspect of the moral self-activity of the Christian life, and hence, he had no occasion expressly to introduce the point, which, moreover, was obvious of itself: through the Holy Spirit. Accordingly, there remains as the right explanation only the usual one (dative of reference), according to which the πνεῦμα is the human spirit, different from the divine (Romans 8:16). Consequently: in respect of the spirit of your νοῦς, that is, of the spirit by which your νοῦς is governed. The πνεῦμα, namely, is the higher life-principle in man, the moral power akin to God in him, the seat of moral self-consciousness and of moral self-determination. This πνεῦμα, which forms the moral personality of man, the Ego of his higher ζωή turned towards God, has as the organ of its vital exercise—as the faculty of its moral operation—the νοῦς, that is, the reason in its ethical quality and activity (comp. on Romans 7:23), and puts the νοῦς[242] at the service of the divine will (Romans 7:25), in an assent to the moral practice of this divine will revealed in the law and a hatred of the contrary (Romans 7:14 ff.). But, since this Ego of the higher life, the substratum of the inward man—the πνεῦμα, in which the νοῦς has its support and its determining agent—is under the preponderant strength of the power of sin in the flesh non-free, bound, and weak, so that man under the fleshly-psychical influence of the natural character drawing him to sin becomes liable to the slavery of immoral habit, the πνεῦμα τοῦ νοός needed renewal unto moral freedom and might, which consecration of power it receives in regeneration by means of the Holy Spirit, in which case, however, even the regenerate has always to contend against the σάρξ still remaining in him, but contends victoriously under the guidance of the divine πνεῦμα (Galatians 5:16-18).

[241] He might have written, as in Romans 12:2, merely τῷ νοῒ ὑμῶν; but his conception here penetrates deeper, namely, to the fountainhead of the vital activity of the νοῦς, to the inner agent and mover in that activity.

[242] Bengel excellently puts it: “Spiritu mentis: 1 Corinthians 14:14, Spiritus est intimum mentis.” Delitzsch consequently errs (Psychol, p. 184) in thinking that expositors have here neglected to seek instruction from 1 Corinthians 14:14.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Ephesians 4:23. ἀνανεοῦσθαι δέ: and that ye be renewed. For ἀνανεοῦσθαι a few MSS. ([446]2 17, 47, etc.) and some Versions (Syr., Copt., Vulg.) read ἀνανεοῦσθε, while δέ is omitted by [447]. In such connections δέ expresses both addition and contrast. It introduces a statement connected with the foregoing but giving the other side of that. Here it is the positive change which must follow the putting off. As the middle of this verb has the active sense, ἀνανεοῦσθαι must be taken as passive here, = “be renewed,” not “renew yourselves” (Luth.). The verb expresses a spiritual change, a transformation from old to new. Whether it also conveys the idea of restoration to a former or a primal state is doubtful, so many compounds with ἀνά (ἀναπληροῦν, ἀνακοινοῦν, ἀνισοῦν, ἀνιεροῦν, etc.) expressing nothing more than change. For the supposed distinction between ἀνανεοῦσθαι as expressing renovation, making new, or giving a fresh beginning, and ἀνακαινοῦσθαι as referring to regeneration or change of nature, see Haupt and Ell. in loc., and Meyer on Colossians 3:10.—τῷ πνεύματι τοῦ νοὸς ὑμῶν: in the spirit of your mind. The position of the ὑμῶν gives it a measure of emphasis, “your mind,” “the mind that is in you,” unless it be taken (with Haupt) to be placed last because it qualifies not the νοὸς only but the whole idea in τῷ πνεύματι τοῦ νοός. This difficult sentence has been understood to refer to the Holy Spirit, the νοός being dealt with as some form of the poss. gen. or the gen. subj., and the πνεύματι as dat. instr. Thus the sense would be “renewed by the Holy Spirit bestowed on, or possessed by, your mind” (Œc., Theophy., Bull, Waterland, Fritz., etc.). This proceeds on the NT doctrine that it is by the Spirit of God that we are regenerated or renewed. But it leaves the point of the addition of τοῦ νοός obscure. This ancient interpretation has been adopted by some recent exegetes with certain modifications. Thus Ellicott is of opinion that the πνεύματι refers not to the Holy Spirit distinctly and separately as the Divine Agent, but to that Spirit as united with the human spirit. In this way he thinks the poss. gen. is in point, and the introduction of the νοός accounted for as the receptaculum of the πνεῦμα. But, while it is true that it is often difficult to say whether the regenerated mind of man or the Divine Spirit is particularly in view in the Pauline use of πνεῦμα, there seems to be no case in which the NT speaks of the Holy Spirit as man’s Spirit, or attaches to πνεῦμα in the sense of the Divine Spirit any such defining term as ὑμῶν or τοῦ νοὸς ὑμῶν. Nor can it be said that πνεῦμα, in the sense of the Divine Spirit in union with man’s spirit, has anywhere else any such designation as the one in the text. Nor, again, does the interpretation which turns upon this idea of union between God’s Spirit and our spirit, and not simply on the indwelling of the Divine Spirit in us, really account in any satisfactory way for the νοός. It is necessary, therefore, to take πνεῦμα here as = our spirit, and that as at once distinguished from and related to the νοῦς. The πνεῦμα, then, appears to be the higher faculty in man, the faculty that makes him most akin to God, the organ of his spiritual life and his fellowship with God, under the bondage of sin by nature, but set free from that and made fit for the purposes of the Divine life by the Holy Spirit. The νοῦς (cf. on Ephesians 4:17 above) is the faculty of understanding, feeling, and determining, distinguished by Paul from the πνεῦμα (1 Corinthians 14:14), represented as capable of approving the law, but incapable of withstanding the motions of sin (Romans 7:23), and itself the subject or seat of renewal (ἀνακαίνωσις, Romans 12:2). Further the regenerate human spirit and the Divine Spirit are described as distinct and yet co-operant (Romans 8:16). Here then the πνεύματι must be taken not as the instrumental dative (for renewal does not take effect by means of our spirit), but as the dat. of ref., and the νοός will be the gen. subj. Thus the sense becomes “renewed in respect of the spirit by which your mind is governed” (Mey.), that is, in respect of the spiritual faculty, the moral personality whose organ is the mind or reason. Some, holding by the interpretation of πνεῦμα as our spirit, take the νοός to be the gen. of appos. (e.g., August., de Trin., xiv., 16, spiritus quae mens vocatur), or the part. gen., = “the governing spirit of your mind” (De Wette). But the above construction is better, and it is the one adopted substantially by the AV and the other old English Versions, the RV, Mey., Haupt, Abb., and most commentators.

[446] Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

[447] Codex Augiensis (sæc. ix.), a Græco-Latin MS., at Trinity College, Cambridge, edited by Scrivener in 1859. Its Greek text is almost identical with that of G, and it is therefore not cited save where it differs from that MS. Its Latin version, f, presents the Vulgate text with some modifications.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

23. be renewed] A present infinitive in the Gr. The idea is thus of progress and growth, the antithesis to the “corrupting” just above. The decisive fact of new position in and connexion with Christ was to result, and was resulting, in an ever developed spiritual experience, with its ever new disclosures both of need and of grace. Cp. 2 Corinthians 4:16.—We may paraphrase the clause (on the principle explained in the first note on Ephesians 4:22), “and with regard to your being renewed.”

in the spirit of your mind.] I.e., practically, “in your spiritual life and faculty, coming out in the phase of thought and understanding,” as distinct from e.g. the phase of emotion. “Spirit” can scarcely here refer to the Holy Ghost; and it cannot bear the vague modern sense of “sentiment,” or the like. It is the human spirit, as the substratum, so to speak, of every activity of the “inner man,” and now specially of the activity which sees and grasps truth (“your mind”). See above, last note on Ephesians 4:17.—The Gr. may be rendered “by the spirit of your mind,” as the instrument, or avenue, used by the Eternal Spirit in the process of renewal. And cp. Romans 12:2 for a good parallel. But usage is on the whole in favour of the rendering “in,” in the sense of “with reference to.”

Bengel's Gnomen

Ephesians 4:23. Τῷ πνεύματι τοῦ νοὸς, in the spirit of the mind) 1 Corinthians 14:14. The spirit is the inmost part of the mind.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 23. - And that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Between the first and second practical change, derived from being taught by Christ, the apostle inserts this counsel applicable to both. This renewal is the work of the Holy Spirit; how, then, can it be the subject of an exhortation to us? In this sense, that we are to prize, long for, encourage, watch, this work of the Holy Spirit, feeling it to be most vital and essential, not to be neglected without awful sin and danger. Usually the Holy Spirit works in us by stirring up our spirit to desire and endeavor after holiness; to resist these strivings of the Spirit, or even to be indifferent to them, is a deadly and most dangerous sin. Ephesians 4:23

Vincent's Word Studies

In the spirit of your mind (τῷ πνεύματι τοῦ νοὸς ὑμῶν)

The spirit is the human spirit, having its seat in and directing the mind. In the New Testament the Holy Spirit is never designated so as that man appears as the subject of the Spirit. We have Spirit of adoption, of holiness, of God, but never Holy Spirit of man. Furthermore, the apostle's object is to set forth the moral self-activity of the christian life. Hence πνεῦμα spirit, is here the higher life-principle in man by which the human reason, viewed on its moral side - the organ of moral thinking and knowing is informed. The renewal takes place, not in the mind, but in the spirit of it. "The change is not in mind psychologically, either in its essence or in its operation; and neither is it in the mind as if it were a superficial change of opinion either on points of doctrine or practice: but it is in the spirit of the mind; in that which gives mind both its bent and its materials of thought. It is not simply in the spirit as if it lay there in dim and mystic quietude; but it is in the spirit of the mind; in the power which, when changed itself, radically alters the entire sphere and business of the inner mechanism" (Eadie).