Ephesians 4:20

“But ye did not so learn Christ”: “Far different is the lesson you learnt from the Christ” (TCNT). “But that isn't the way Christ taught you!” (Tay). “But”: This repudiates everything about the lifestyle described in Ephesians 4:17-19.

The process of spiritual change is started by learning about Christ. Christianity does not produce ignorance, selfishness, self-centeredness, seared consciences and lack of self-respect. The world promotes the ignorance, not Christ. Learning Christ involves much more than merely learning who He is. “It involves applying that knowledge. It involves realizing what it means to follow Christ. It implies that we have embraced all that the word ‘Christ' stands for and all that He is (His person, His word and His character)” (Caldwell p. 199). Therefore the various religious groups which claim that one can serve Christ, and yet still engage in some sin condemned in the Bible is. religion that does not teach Christ. Learning Christ means that one "learns" the worthlessness of the pagan way of life. It means that one "learns" the value of unselfishness, self-sacrifice and self-denial (Matthew 16:24). Hence one has not really "learned" much about Christ until one learns to live unselfishly (1 Peter 2:3). Since Christ was. servant and completely unselfish,. "selfish Christian" (follower of Christ) is. contradiction. Boles points out, “While dualism in Greek philosophy taught that the actions of the body had no effect on the inner man, no such folly is taught in Christ. The mind and the body are inseparably connected in acts of immorality (1 John 3:7)” (pp. 286-287). “The Christ whom the Ephesians had learned was calling them to standards and values totally at variance with their former pagan life” (Stott p. 179).