Ephesians 4:23

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 toyour 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 "bythe 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."