Dale Partridge - Bible Blueprint： Block Diagram of Ephesians 4_17-24

00:00:00.000 Welcome to this edition of the Bible Blueprint. My name is Dale Partridge. We're going to be doing a block diagram of Ephesians 4, 17 through 24.

00:00:08.800 A block diagram is a method of scriptural observation, to look at the grammar, to understand and extract the meaning of the text

00:00:20.280 by looking at clauses and prepositional phrases and looking at different words and pronouns

00:00:30.400 and identifying the antecedents and just really having a closer look at what the text is doing

00:00:37.340 so that we don't project our own interpretation or desired interpretation upon the text,

00:00:45.180 but we extract really what the writer was saying.

00:00:48.000 we keep main clauses on the left and then we put the prepositional phrases beneath the word that

00:00:55.100 they modify prepositions are of in through to above below a lot of directional phrases you're

00:01:05.000 going to see this here in a second but let's go ahead and start and the way that i always start

00:01:09.300 is by just putting spaces where there is punctuation.

00:01:18.220 This really gets us a head start.

00:01:19.580 We always want to keep our verse numbers on the left-hand side as well.

00:01:23.040 But let's just take these commas and semicolons and periods

00:01:28.280 and start breaking up the text a little bit.

00:01:32.140 And that really helps just get a head start to what we're going to be doing here.

00:01:37.220 and this is kind of a bigger chunk than what's typical and that's okay usually we would do a

00:01:47.340 shorter section but you guys will get a chance we'll try to knock this out pretty quick maybe in

00:01:51.820 20 25 minutes or so and let's get here we almost have a couple more here I think that's it so we

00:02:01.140 want to identify our main clauses, and every sentence in English has a main clause. It's the

00:02:07.200 subject, a verb, and the object. And so, John hit the ball, right? So, John is the subject, hit is

00:02:16.300 the verb, and the ball is the object. And so, we need to figure out where that is in this situation.

00:02:24.260 Now, it doesn't always start the sentence off with a main clause, and that's what's going on here.

00:02:30.100 It says, now this I say, it sounds like a main clause.

00:02:36.160 You almost want to put this I say as the main clause, but it's not.

00:02:40.460 Now this I say and testify in the Lord.

00:02:45.480 So we're going to put in the Lord.

00:02:47.520 Where does he testify or how does he testify?

00:02:49.580 He does it in the Lord, which has some interpretive background there that you could really break down.

00:02:58.260 But this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk.

00:03:07.000 So that becomes, this is a demonstrative pronoun.

00:03:12.660 We also have our subject right here.

00:03:15.860 And so you must no longer walk.

00:03:21.280 So this looks like it's going to be our main clause.

00:03:25.640 So we're going to push this.

00:03:26.560 This is going to be to the left.

00:03:28.260 And I'm going to push this in just a smidge, just so we can kind of get out of the way.

00:03:33.200 But we can realize right here that you must no longer walk.

00:03:38.920 And so I'm going to take my highlighter here and just, you must no longer walk.

00:03:46.780 And so we'll leave that there.

00:03:48.200 And so you must no longer walk.

00:03:50.380 How should we no longer walk? 1.00

00:03:53.320 As the Gentiles do. 1.00

00:03:55.260 you must no longer walk is it in the futility of their minds no because we have the pronoun 0.97

00:04:06.020 their minds which implies that this is talking about the antecedent of their which is gentiles 0.63

00:04:14.420 so we must no longer walk as the gentiles do and how do they walk in the futility of what 0.92

00:04:23.000 And of is always a preposition in the futility of their minds. 0.99

00:04:30.260 They are darkened in their understandings.

00:04:36.420 So we have another opportunity here for a main clause.

00:04:40.380 They are darkened.

00:04:44.120 I believe this is, so we have they, which is our subject, are darkened.

00:04:50.340 we have our verb there, but it says in their understanding. So I want to put in their

00:05:01.600 understanding below it because it's showing how they're darkened, where they darkened in their

00:05:06.540 understanding. So I'm going to put this as our main clause here. They are darkened. So again,

00:05:13.880 We have two main clauses that have been identified so far.

00:05:18.720 They are darkened in their understanding.

00:05:24.380 It doesn't make sense to go, they are darkened, alienated.

00:05:27.720 So they're darkened in their understanding, alienated from, okay, so they're alienated

00:05:35.660 from something, alienated from the life of God.

00:05:42.500 and so from is a preposition so from the life of god so we can determine is life of god one thing

00:05:52.680 like a noun i don't think it is i think that it's operating in this context is from the life

00:05:59.440 of god because of the ignorance that is in them so they are darkened

00:06:10.700 And why are they darkened? Because of the ignorance that is in them. And so because

00:06:18.940 of the ignorance that is, again, you want to, you could put in them here.

00:06:28.280 So you have this interesting thing here, right? I testify in the Lord,

00:06:32.200 the ignorance that is in them. So it's showing this kind of union element here that we start

00:06:37.680 to notice here. Uh, so, and because of the ignorance that is in them, because the ignorance

00:06:46.220 that is, that is in them due to their hardness of heart. And so we have this going on here,

00:06:59.720 right? So we have the hardness of heart. Um, and I just want to read this over one more time.

00:07:06.880 Now this I say and testify. So you can almost do now this I say and testify. So you can kind of

00:07:22.740 break this up. And I know that just messed up our, we can just grab my eraser and go boop.

00:07:28.640 So this I say and testify. And I think it's better to do that because what we get here is

00:07:35.520 that we realize there's two things and this is a coordinating conjunction and right it's

00:07:40.760 representing two equal parts of a sentence um our coordinating conjunctions are and or but nor

00:07:47.800 and so we know that this and right here is and testify so he says and testifies in the lord that

00:07:57.980 you must no longer walk we'll get back into those main clauses in a little bit you must no longer 0.88

00:08:03.360 walk as the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They are darkened. How are they darkened 1.00

00:08:12.340 in their understanding? Alienated. They are alienated from the life of God. Well, I think

00:08:21.920 that actually they are darkened in their understanding, which is the cause, which I think

00:08:25.640 alienation is the cause of their darkening. And so I believe these two are connected, alienated

00:08:31.420 from the life of god they're alienated because of the darkness of their understanding um and so

00:08:38.460 they're alienated from the life of god they are darkened because of the ignorance that is in them

00:08:48.700 due to um their hardness of heart they are darkened you know i'm gonna go this way check

00:08:58.740 this out, guys. And again, this is just, it's not a complete science. It's an art. And my

00:09:06.600 keyboard wants to take forever. There we go. So they are darkened due to their hardness of heart

00:09:12.120 or are they darkened because of the ignorance that is in them?

00:09:18.580 That's an interpretive question. Are they darkened in their understanding,

00:09:24.240 alienated from the life of God? Are they darkened because of their ignorance?

00:09:27.360 now i think that this is actually this way okay so they are darkened

00:09:31.480 in their understanding alienated from the life of god

00:09:35.040 and why are they alienated alienated because of the ignorance that is in them

00:09:42.140 that is in them

00:09:44.700 and they're alienated because the ignorance that is in them because the ignorance due to their hardness

00:09:54.100 of heart. So is the hardness of heart

00:09:58.680 due to the hardness of heart, is that modifying ignorance? That's the question we have to ask is

00:10:07.420 due to their hardness of heart, is that why they're ignorant? Are they ignorant because 1.00

00:10:13.620 of their hardness of heart? I think so. So we're going to place due to their hardness of heart 1.00

00:10:19.500 under ignorance. I think that's right. Next, we have a new sentence here, verse 19.

00:10:29.720 They have become callous. So we have, have become, is our verb callous is operating as a

00:10:43.640 adjective slash could be yeah because it's not saying that they have well it could be saying

00:10:49.860 that they have become callous like a noun but they have become callous

00:10:54.060 they have become callous and we have a coordinating conjunction here and have

00:11:02.780 given themselves up so given themselves up to what to sensuality that's what they've given

00:11:13.420 themselves up to. And we know that this is, again, our main clause here, callous. So that's a good

00:11:20.460 mark to remember. They have given themselves up to sensuality. They have become, oops, 0.72

00:11:29.380 they have become callous, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

00:11:43.420 We've got a new main clause here, but that is not the way you learned Christ.

00:11:48.760 Okay, this is an odd sentence to come up with a main clause.

00:11:53.620 I'm going to say, that is not the way you learned is the, you learned what?

00:12:08.800 You learned Christ.

00:12:09.400 And so I think this is operating as our main clause.

00:12:13.560 So I'm going to just, I'm just going to highlight.

00:12:15.620 Ooh, that is not what I wanted to do.

00:12:18.440 I'm going to highlight that real quick.

00:12:20.620 I think that's going on because you're going, well, where's your subject?

00:12:25.400 I think that is the subject.

00:12:29.420 And what's the subject?

00:12:30.900 It's a demonstrative pronoun, the word that.

00:12:34.620 And what is the that?

00:12:36.320 well it's this you've become callous and given yourselves up

00:12:39.800 all the stuff that's above here right it's they're darkened they walk in the

00:12:46.100 futility of their minds they're alienated from god

00:12:48.140 that is so basically it's a it's basically a it's a pronoun

00:12:55.700 representing the antecedent which is all the stuff above so

00:12:58.980 that's your subject that is not the way

00:13:02.740 you learned Christ. So let's go back to diagramming here. Assuming

00:13:11.860 that is not the way you learned Christ. Oh, I guess this is kind of almost operating as a

00:13:22.000 new main clause here. Assuming that you have heard, you have heard. That's going to be our

00:13:33.280 next main clause right there. So I'll just mark that real quick. You have heard. Oh, we don't

00:13:42.180 want that. We want you have heard. That's our main clause, right? You have heard. Have is a state of

00:13:49.260 being verb. You have heard about him. Okay, so let's get back to our, you have heard what? About

00:13:59.600 him and coordinating conjunction and we're taught. What were you taught? In him.

00:14:12.980 um assuming that or as the truth as is in jesus assuming that you have heard

00:14:23.480 is it saying assuming you have heard as the truth is in jesus or is it saying assuming

00:14:29.540 you have heard

00:14:31.760 about him and we're taught in him as the truth is in jesus i think that

00:14:37.720 we're talking about truth and we're talking about teaching taught.

00:14:42.520 So I'm going to,

00:14:42.960 I'm going to say that the truth is in Jesus.

00:14:49.900 I think that's probably what's going on to put off your old self.

00:14:55.920 You were taught in him.

00:14:57.600 Okay.

00:14:58.280 You have heard.

00:15:00.480 It's not saying you have heard to put off your old self.

00:15:03.700 Sure.

00:15:04.280 Assuming you have heard about him because this is a parenthetical phrase here.

00:15:07.720 Um, I think actually what we're going to say is that you have heard about him. I'm going to say

00:15:15.780 that it's likely that we're dealing with, uh, another main clause here. So to, I'm going to,

00:15:25.160 I'm going to do this and kind of just insert a U because it's an implied subject. You put off your

00:15:33.580 old self. And so I'm going to just, again, you can make this, and you could do, you put off

00:15:40.860 your, yeah, no, I think this is right. You put off your old self. I think that's what's going on

00:15:47.220 there. Which belongs, the old self, right? Which belongs to your former manner of what?

00:16:03.580 of life. And coordinating conjunction is corrupt through, so through is a preposition,

00:16:16.300 and a lot of people often miss that, but it is a preposition. Through

00:16:23.220 deceitful desires. And to be renewed, let's go, I think this goes right here. So which belongs to

00:16:39.020 your former manner of life and to be renewed. Yeah. Renewed how? In the spirit. In the spirit

00:16:47.360 of what? In the spirit of your minds. So we're going to get that over there too. Okay. In the

00:16:54.280 spirit of your minds and to put on the new self. And so this is a hard one because you want to

00:17:05.500 make it a main clause and you put on the new self. But I still believe that this whole thing

00:17:12.620 is kind of modifying, put off your old self and then put on your new self. So I think it's actually

00:17:18.200 part of this. And we know that there's no sense, there's no period in the Greek there.

00:17:23.280 And so we're going to just operate this as a coordinating conjunction. So in the spirit and

00:17:34.280 to put off or to put on the new self on the new self and hopefully we don't run out of room here

00:17:44.880 and how is the new self being modified well the new self is created

00:17:54.160 so we'll do right here created

00:17:56.340 after that's a preposition created after the likeness let's get it over here come on space

00:18:06.500 bar you got this created after the likeness of god we're getting really close guys

00:18:14.500 hang with my space bar here the likeness of god

00:18:19.340 in true right so we have in true righteousness and holiness so the after the likeness of god

00:18:31.820 in true okay i'm gonna just put it here entry righteousness and then we'll do

00:18:39.360 um really that's as far as you get me i don't know why it won't let me tab over more

00:18:44.980 i wish it would john piper does those great videos but he actually created a custom app

00:18:51.580 for him to do those um look at the book videos i would love to have a custom app but it'd probably

00:19:00.700 take five grand to develop it or something so all right in true righteousness and holiness okay so

00:19:08.280 we got a good diagram here, guys. Now let's start breaking it down a bit and see how that is

00:19:19.780 progressing. Sorry, I had to look at the time here. So now I say this, let's start, let's pull

00:19:25.860 down our, whoops, let's not do that. Why is it doing that? How about I use my finger instead?

00:19:32.640 Okay, now I say this and testify in the Lord.

00:19:36.460 So let's just start doing our main clauses.

00:19:40.740 You must no longer walk.

00:19:43.220 They are darkened.

00:19:46.980 They have become callous.

00:19:50.620 And you know what?

00:19:52.120 I'm going to...

00:19:53.500 They have become callous is probably what you should do,

00:19:58.620 but I'm not going to disrupt this whole thing right here.

00:20:01.200 So I'm going to say they have become, no, I don't know.

00:20:06.100 I'll just put it in there.

00:20:06.900 Okay, you guys can deal with it however you want to see it.

00:20:08.980 But they have become callous and given themselves up.

00:20:12.380 It's a coordinating conjunction.

00:20:13.460 So callous is also kind of the object of the sentence.

00:20:16.300 So you get to kind of make your own interpretation there.

00:20:20.340 They have become callous and given themselves up.

00:20:22.840 So we have this really unique trend here, right?

00:20:24.900 So we have, you must no longer walk.

00:20:27.260 They are darkened.

00:20:28.940 They have become callous.

00:20:30.720 That is not the way you learned.

00:20:32.820 You have heard, put off your old self.

00:20:35.900 Okay, so you got a little bit of a grammatical theme that's revealed here.

00:20:42.020 And so you have some structure that we can start extracting what Paul is trying to say.

00:20:48.100 And so now I want to go through and I want to get my clauses and I'm going to do that in green.

00:20:52.680 And so I want to mark my clauses. 1.00

00:20:53.960 So 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. 1.00

00:21:07.000 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God. 1.00

00:21:12.200 I mean, this is actually like a directional clause, like it's something's happening from going from one place to another.

00:21:20.240 that's something that you might want to mark life of God because okay this is a causal clause

00:21:26.700 and you want to make sure it's because why are they alienated because of the ignorance

00:21:31.400 that is in them due to so due to is the hardness of heart that's a result clause

00:21:39.800 there as a result of their hardness of heart so you can remember that so they have become callous

00:21:49.140 and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

00:21:57.860 And so I don't think I see anything there, but we have one right here.

00:22:02.480 So this is a contrast clause.

00:22:04.580 So, right.

00:22:05.980 So you have all of these, the stuff up here, you know, that let's just say we take this section here.

00:22:15.540 and this is really clearly you know what i'm gonna do i'm gonna make that not blue i'm gonna

00:22:23.280 make it red because i usually do it in red so this is one section for sure right this is

00:22:31.400 now this i say to you right you must no longer walk they are darkened

00:22:37.520 they become callous but contrast clause that is not the way you learned christ assuming

00:22:45.320 that you have this is again a parenthetical statement assuming that you have heard about

00:22:51.380 him and were taught in him as the truth is in jesus to put off your old self which belongs

00:23:01.640 to your former manner of life uh and is corrupt through deceitful desires and this word to be

00:23:14.560 renewed most translations will translate it just be renewed and so this is the nasb and they're

00:23:22.000 often a little wooden when they translate greek to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to

00:23:29.460 put on the new self created after the likeness of god in true righteousness and holiness so this and

00:23:40.220 be, uh, like if this was here, if I'm and be and to be, I'm going to say that is a contrast clause

00:23:48.960 also, you know, um, and be renewed. Um, actually, no, that's not a contrast clause. Um, it says,

00:23:58.140 which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires and be renewed.

00:24:04.380 I guess it's showing, it's demonstrating this way and then that way.

00:24:09.780 And so I'm just going to mark it here.

00:24:12.740 And then we can see a couple things that I want to mark.

00:24:18.160 So now I'm going to just start observing the text.

00:24:21.280 And I'm going to start from the top here.

00:24:25.320 And I want to identify a couple other things.

00:24:30.040 I'm going to do one more thing here before I start marking the text.

00:24:32.280 now this, okay, I want to know all of the antecedents. Now this, what's the this? Now this

00:24:39.160 I say, okay, what's he saying? That you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do. I want to know 1.00

00:24:46.760 who the Gentiles are in the futility of their minds, right? Whose minds, right? So we know that 1.00

00:24:52.540 these are connected to each other. They are, so we have they, right, are darkened in their

00:24:59.920 understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to

00:25:05.780 their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality,

00:25:15.280 greedy to practice every kind of impurity, but that is not the way you, so who's the you,

00:25:20.700 learned Christ, assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth

00:25:30.240 is in Jesus. So we know who the him is. To put off your old self, I guess you can even kind of

00:25:40.520 say old self. What's the old self? What's that? Which belongs to your former manner of life

00:25:49.200 and again you can almost say that this is a pronoun former manner of life and is corrupt

00:25:58.720 through deceitful desires and to be renewed in the spirit who's the spirit of your minds and to

00:26:06.540 be put on the new self created after the likeness of god and true righteousness and holiness okay

00:26:15.240 so we got our, our pronouns are marked now, and now I want to start just doing a little bit of

00:26:19.560 interpretation. Sorry, not interpretation, some more observation. Now, this I say and testify

00:26:26.440 in the Lord. Okay, I want to know, is he saying an oath before the Lord? What's happening there?

00:26:34.760 Is that like a, is that an oath? That you must no longer walk. Lots of discussion about walking

00:26:43.860 here. I want to know that. I think it's peripatomai or something like that in Greek.

00:26:51.180 So I want to know what he means by walk. As the Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. 1.00

00:26:57.840 So futility is a big word, you know, means useless, 1.00

00:27:04.540 meaningless, right? They are darkened in their understanding. I think about first Corinthians,

00:27:11.740 not able to understand i think it's first corinthians i'm gonna say 214 i think

00:27:18.960 and they're understanding alienated

00:27:22.240 so let's fix that there alienated um that seems like stranger

00:27:32.540 or separated uh when i think about separated right when we think about death as separation

00:27:41.920 so they're they're separated from the life of god we talked about that in the podcast a couple

00:27:50.240 episodes back spiritual life spiritual death death is separation in the bible and so understanding

00:27:56.400 alienated from the life. What do they mean by from the life

00:28:00.320 of God? They're not

00:28:03.400 born again. It's probably what I think

00:28:08.380 Paul is saying. Not born again

00:28:12.580 because of the ignorance 0.92

00:28:15.180 that is in them due to their hardness of 0.97

00:28:20.260 heart. So this is kind of this major

00:28:23.420 problem, right? Hardness of heart. I think what's going on here is that we have a couple things.

00:28:31.900 I'm going to say that we have the Gentiles are, you know, futility of their minds, I'm going to 1.00

00:28:40.000 say is number one. Their darkened understanding, I'm going to say is number two. Alienated from 1.00

00:28:49.040 the life of God is number three because of the ignorance that is in them before and due to their

00:28:55.740 hardest of heart is number five and so man my writing is bad but I think about this and you go

00:29:02.020 well okay um so because of their hardest of heart they're ignorant and they're alienated from the

00:29:12.060 life of God which means their understanding is darkened which means that their thoughts 0.98

00:29:18.920 are futile. And so I see the connection there, kind of a cascading connection. They have become

00:29:25.200 callous. So callous is another strong word. I want to know what callous means. I think of

00:29:32.780 callous as being not, not able to feel.

00:29:42.080 right not able to feel something that should probably be felt because they can't feel they've

00:29:50.880 given themselves up to what to sensuality and then greedy to practice so not just greedy and

00:29:58.960 they're not just practicing they're greedy to practice every kind superlative every kind of

00:30:04.480 impurity, but that is not the way you learn. So these are Christians, right? These are Christians 0.95

00:30:13.320 because we know the audience learned Christ, assuming that you have. So I want to just kind 0.88

00:30:22.400 of look at this and just go, okay, that's a kind of a parenthetical here. Like, all right,

00:30:30.200 just making sure that just because you profess Christ doesn't mean you possess Christ.

00:30:34.480 um we're taught in him as the truth is in jesus i think about i am the way the truth in the life

00:30:41.540 um to put off your old self right so this is a this is a maybe i have to look in the greek and

00:30:51.960 see if this is an imperative um get back to my blue here your old self which belongs belongs

00:31:00.740 That's an interesting way to say that to your former manner of life.

00:31:05.300 And so we know that our former manner of life is that.

00:31:10.480 That's our former manner of life and is corrupt means it's getting worse.

00:31:18.220 It's corrupt through deceitful desires and to be renewed.

00:31:22.840 So this is in the spirit of your minds.

00:31:27.280 And so that's one thing.

00:31:29.300 and to put on the new self.

00:31:32.420 That's two things.

00:31:34.540 So we have actually,

00:31:35.520 I'm actually going to take that back

00:31:37.020 and go like this.

00:31:38.480 We really have three things.

00:31:42.040 Oops.

00:31:43.760 Because we have put off the old self.

00:31:47.000 So this is one.

00:31:48.620 And then we have two.

00:31:50.720 And then we have three.

00:31:53.520 Created after the likeness of God

00:31:55.700 in true righteousness and holiness.

00:31:57.320 and so we were created after the likeness of god okay so we have lots of and then we can take our

00:32:05.320 red and realize that well we have you know two parts here right so this is this is definitely

00:32:12.940 our other section here and so what what's the meaning here it's i think about it as going well

00:32:23.080 there is a way that you used to walk. Don't walk the way that you used to walk.

00:32:29.960 Walk the way that you are now. So like, don't walk, don't walk in how you were.

00:32:39.140 Walk in how you are. So I think, I think about identity, identity,

00:32:46.800 and that identity equals walk.

00:32:58.000 Well, actually, I'm going to say identity equals activity

00:33:04.100 because that sounds cooler, right?

00:33:07.740 And so the way you are should determine

00:33:14.140 or who you are, should determine how you are. Don't walk in your old self, walk in Christ,

00:33:25.480 your new self, and your actions down here should represent what you learned over here. You learned

00:33:38.180 Christ. So, I think that's a good start on breaking down the text here, and I think I will have a good

00:33:45.840 time turning this into a great message on Ephesians 4, 17 through 24. So, if you want to hear the

00:33:53.760 teaching on this passage of Scripture, you can do that by just listening to the Real Christianity

00:33:59.220 Podcast. This will be the Ephesians Bible Study, episode number six, and I'll break down this text

00:34:06.060 there for you. Hopefully that was helpful for you guys that are learning how to block diagram.

00:34:11.460 Thanks for joining me here on the Bible Blueprint. My name is Dale Partridge,

00:34:14.600 and we'll see you next time.

Dale Partridge - January 21, 2022

Bible Blueprint： Block Diagram of Ephesians 4_17-24

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