In the epic letter to the Ephesians, Paul does not address the personal behavior of the saints until chapter four. Then what is happening at the beginning of chapter 2, when Paul talks about "...being dead to your offenses and lusts in which once you walked"?

Here is the revelation: this IS about personal behavior, yes, but not in the standard Christians sense of pleasing God via fear-induced rule-following. Rather, this is a warning against a return to RELIGION (the nations had been beholden to false gods who ruled their behavior via threats) and vain attempts to "live correctly or else."

Almost everyone equates "lusts of our flesh" (verse 3) with the obvious catalogue of sins condemned in Christian churches every Sunday. But the lust of the flesh Paul refers to here is, indeed, the most insidious sin of all— a sin that stinks to high heaven in the nostrils of God: SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS.

This is a show you will never forget.