Ephesians 4:23 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And be renewed in the Spirit of your minds;— "This saving knowledge of Christ excites and binds you, not only to mortify your corruptions, but also to abound in all grace and holiness, that you may press after a still further renovation, through the sanctifyinginfluences of the Holy Spirit, in the inmost powers of the soul, which is of a spiritual nature, but is naturally all over depraved by the fall; and particularly after a growing renovation in your understanding, that superior and leading faculty, as well as in your will and affections, which are, or ought to be, under its conduct." As the Apostle supposed that there Ephesians had learned Christ, and been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus, Ephesians 4:20-21 he could not but consider them, in the judgment of charity, as already regenerated, or born again; and therefore renewing in the spirit of their mind, must relate, not to the first grand work of the Spirit in their conversion, but to a progressiveness in those holy principles and dispositions that were wrought in them by heart-changing grace.