Ephesians Devotionals
Bob Morris
Futile Thinking Leads to Futile Living (Ephesians 4:17-19)
So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed.
Up till now, Paul has been talking about the cosmic reality of what Christ has done in the “heavenlies”, that invisible region of time and space where he reigns supreme and the church enjoys something of the fullness of Christ. Now, he speaks directly to the reality of “flesh-space” as opposed to cyberspace. This is the stuff of everyday life, and Paul is not shy about saying categorically how we should live.
In a postmodern context we are not used to people telling us how to live, but Paul appeals to the authority he has “in the Lord” to insist that we behave differently from the Gentiles (pagans) around us. Clearly, there are noble and respectable people outside of the body of Christ, but Paul is generalizing about the typical behaviour of people who are separated from the life of God. Fifty years ago in North America, society as a whole reflected Christian values of behaviour in a way they don’t today. A young friend of mind says that back then Christians could do nothing, meaning Christian behaviour was defined as “not worldly”. Today’s generation of Christians can do everything, he went on to say, and those who want to live Godly lives have to establish very different rules for themselves than those that govern the wider society’s behaviour.
Paul is implying that the root problem of a pagan lifestyle begins with attitude. Hardened hearts lead to ignorance which results in darkened understanding which in turn separates us from the life of God, which leads to a loss of all sensitivity. The inevitable result is self-indulgence – giving themselves to sensuality, impurity and greed. Greed?! Where did greed come from? Apparently greed describes the if-it-feels-good-do-it kind of lifestyle. The point of the slogan is, “If it feels good to me, who cares what it does to anyone else!”
This analysis of pagan lifestyle implies that if we want to engage pagans in spiritual conversations we will do better to interact with their mind-maps rather than their lifestyles. Peter told his readers that he wrote both his epistles to “stimulate you to wholesome thinking” (2 Pet.3: 2). Paul told the church at Rome to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom. 12: 2). I still recall coming to university as a cultural Christian, in the sense of having learned to behave as my evangelical church expected, but not having a clue about thinking “Christianly”. As godly upperclassmen took us freshmen through C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity, both my mind and heart were transformed and I came to a living faith in Christ.
Gracious Father, thank you for intellects that can be transformed by your word, written and spoken. Lord Jesus Christ be in my ears and in my hearing, Christ be in my eyes and in my seeing, and Christ be in my mind and in my thinking.
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