Ephesians 4:17

NET Bible® (New English Translation)

Live in Holiness So I say this, and insist in the Lord, that you no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

Τοῦτο οὖν λέγω, καὶ μαρτύρομαι ἐν Κυρίῳ, μηκέτι ὑμᾶς περιπατεῖν καθὼς καὶ τὰ λοιπὰ Ἔθνη περιπατεῖ, ἐν ματαιότητι τοῦ νοὸς αὐτῶν,

Transliteration

This oun I legō, and martyromai in Kyriō, no longer you to peripatein kathōs also the rest Ethnē peripatei, in mataiotēti of the noos of them,

Grammar Details

• *oun*: inferential particle - therefore/then
• *legō*: present active indicative, 1st singular - I say/tell
• *martyromai*: present middle indicative, 1st singular - I testify/affirm
• *Kyriō*: dative masculine singular - in Lord
• *peripatein*: present active infinitive - to walk/conduct oneself
• *kathōs*: adverb - just as/even as
• *Ethnē*: nominative neuter plural - Gentiles/nations
• *peripatei*: present active indicative, 3rd singular - walks/conducts itself
• *mataiotēti*: dative feminine singular - in vanity/futility
• *noos*: genitive masculine singular - of mind/understanding

Word Meanings

• *legō*: say/tell/speak
• *martyromai*: testify/affirm solemnly
• *Kyriō*: Lord/master
• *peripatein*: walk/conduct oneself/live
• *Ethnē*: Gentiles/nations/pagans
• *mataiotēti*: vanity/futility/emptiness
• *noos*: mind/understanding/intellect

Referenced Verses

• Rom 1:21 : 21 For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were darkened.
• Eph 2:1-3 : 1 New Life Individually And although you were dead in your offenses and sins, 2 in which you formerly lived according to this world’s present path, according to the ruler of the domain of the air, the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom all of us also formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest…
• Col 2:4 : 4 I say this so that no one will deceive you through arguments that sound reasonable.
• 1 Pet 4:3-4 : 3 For the time that has passed was sufficient for you to do what the non-Christians desire. You lived then in debauchery, evil desires, drunkenness, carousing, drinking bouts, and wanton idolatries. 4 So they are astonished when you do not rush with them into the same flood of wickedness, and they vilify you.
• 1 Pet 1:18 : 18 You know that from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors you were ransomed– not by perishable things like silver or gold,
• Eph 1:22 : 22 And God put all things under Christ’s feet, and gave him to the church as head over all things.
• 2 Pet 2:18 : 18 For by speaking high-sounding but empty words they are able to entice, with fleshly desires and with debauchery, people who have just escaped from those who reside in error.
• Col 2:18 : 18 Let no one who delights in false humility and the worship of angels pass judgment on you. That person goes on at great lengths about what he has supposedly seen, but he is puffed up with empty notions by his fleshly mind.
• Eph 4:22 : 22 You were taught with reference to your former way of life to lay aside the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires,
• 1 Thess 4:1-2 : 1 A Life Pleasing to God Finally then, brothers and sisters, we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received instruction from us about how you must live and please God(as you are in fact living) that you do so more and more. 2 For you know what commands we gave you through the Lord Jesus.
• 1 Thess 4:6 : 6 In this matter no one should violate the rights of his brother or take advantage of him, because the Lord is the avenger in all these cases, as we also told you earlier and warned you solemnly.
• 1 Tim 5:21 : 21 Before God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels, I solemnly charge you to carry out these commands without prejudice or favoritism of any kind.
• 1 Tim 6:13 : 13 I charge you before God who gives life to all things and Christ Jesus who made his good confession before Pontius Pilate,
• 2 Tim 4:1 : 1 Charge to Timothy Repeated I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom:
• 1 Cor 1:12 : 12 Now I mean this, that each of you is saying,“I am with Paul,” or“I am with Apollos,” or“I am with Cephas,” or“I am with Christ.”
• 1 Cor 15:50 : 50 Now this is what I am saying, brothers and sisters: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
• 2 Cor 9:6 : 6 My point is this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously.
• Gal 3:17 : 17 What I am saying is this: The law that came four hundred thirty years later does not cancel a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to invalidate the promise.
• Gal 5:3 : 3 And I testify again to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law.
• Neh 9:29-30 : 29 And you solemnly admonished them in order to return them to your law, but they behaved presumptuously and did not obey your commandments. They sinned against your ordinances– those by which an individual, if he obeys them, will live. They boldly turned from you; they rebelled and did not obey. 30 You prolonged your kindness with them for many years, and you solemnly admonished them by your Spirit through your prophets. Still they paid no attention, so you delivered them into the hands of the neighboring peoples.
• Neh 13:15 : 15 In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath, bringing in heaps of grain and loading them onto donkeys, along with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, and bringing them to Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. So I warned them on the day that they sold these provisions.
• Ps 94:8-9 : 8 Take notice of this, you ignorant people! You fools, when will you ever understand? 9 Does the one who makes the human ear not hear? Does the one who forms the human eye not see? 10 Does the one who disciplines the nations not punish? He is the one who imparts knowledge to human beings! 11 The LORD knows that peoples’ thoughts are morally bankrupt.
• Jer 42:19 : 19 “The LORD has told you people who remain in Judah,‘Do not go to Egypt.’ Be very sure of this: I warn you here and now.
• Acts 2:40 : 40 With many other words he testified and exhorted them saying,“Save yourselves from this perverse generation!”
• Acts 14:15 : 15 “Men, why are you doing these things? We too are men, with human natures just like you! We are proclaiming the good news to you, so that you should turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything that is in them.
• Acts 18:5 : 5 Now when Silas and Timothy arrived from Macedonia, Paul became wholly absorbed with proclaiming the word, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.
• Acts 20:21 : 21 testifying to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus.
• Gal 5:19-21 : 19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, murder, drunkenness, carousing, and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God!
• 1 Cor 6:9-9 : 9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, passive homosexual partners, practicing homosexuals, 10 thieves, the greedy, drunkards, the verbally abusive, and swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God. 11 Some of you once lived this way. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
• Rom 1:23-32 : 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor their bodies among themselves. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, 27 and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed in their passions for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. 29 They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 senseless, covenant-breakers, heartless, ruthless. 32 Although they fully know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but also approve of those who practice them.
• Col 3:5-8 : 5 So put to death whatever in your nature belongs to the earth: sexual immorality, impurity, shameful passion, evil desire, and greed which is idolatry. 6 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience. 7 You also lived your lives in this way at one time, when you used to live among them. 8 But now, put off all such things as anger, rage, malice, slander, abusive language from your mouth.