Ephesians 4:18-24 English Standard Version (ESV)

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.

Key to verse 21 is “assuming that you have heard”. It is critical to understand that we have to do our own hearing of the Spirit of Truth. Others can only assume we hear, they cannot do that for us. One of the most telling statements heard in bible study is “I don’t get it!” That is a confession that they are having a difficult time hearing the Spirit of Truth.

The reason we assume others have heard is because when we accept Jesus into our hearts and make Him the Lord of our lives, the Father sends the Holy Spirit. We are mindful that He wants to be heard, He wants to lead us in truth. He also knows how best to reach each and every one of us in a way we are willing to accept. He will not force Himself on us. We need to be willing recipients. We do not know what is blocking anyone else’s ability to hear with those spiritual ears.

One blocker could be a wall of lies so ingrained in the mind that those walls need to be torn down brick by brick. Pink Floyd in the album The Wall identifies those bricks as thought control. They weren’t wrong.

John 16:13 English Standard Version (ESV) When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

What must be made clear is that we are all still human with human frailties, experiences, memories and emotions. The term “guide you into all the truth” does not mean we know all truth. It is meant to reassure us that He will guides us in nothing but truth. Because we are human we might not handle the truth rightly if it is presented to us before we are ready to use that knowledge properly.

A baby does not need to know he can cut steak with a knife. The baby is not capable of eating the steak and the knife is too dangerous to handle. While this is an over simplification of the idea of prepared to handle truth, let it be an example of more complicated truths.

Here is an important aspect of the Holy Spirit sharing truth. He only shares what Father God determines to be appropriate and necessary for us to receive. The Holy Spirit serves the will of God not our own self-interests. We might and often do inquire about spiritual truths that we are not mature enough to handle. This is part of our humanity, curiosity. We should seek God and accept anything He shares with gratitude and humility.

The second point to this verse is knowledge of things to come. It is not the gift of prophecy as one might think. It is a warning about the dangers that we will encounter if we continue to walk down this path we have chosen. We are to walk by faith not by will. So often our choices lead us to a point where we have to cry out for help because we did not listen to His warning.