“So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you
walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,
being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of
the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and
they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the
practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.” (Ephesians 4:17–19,
NASB95)
Living as if God does not exist opens the door for living in
any way an individual might choose to live. Because to live otherwise
recognizes in some way that there is a standard and if there is a standard
there must be some form of standard giver. Ravi Zacharias, a well-known and
highly regarded apologist (or one who makes reasoned arguments) has answered
thousands of questions and engaged in hundreds of forums and debates. He is
quoted responding (on more than one occasion and in various formats) to the
common objection, “There cannot be a God, because there is too much evil in
this world.” “Here's the problem with that objection. When you say there's too
much evil in this world you assume there's good. When you assume there's good,
you assume there's such a thing as a moral law on the basis of which to
differentiate between good and evil. But if you assume a moral law, you must
posit a moral Law Giver, but that's Who you're trying to disprove and not
prove. Because if there's no moral Law Giver, there's no moral law. If there's
no moral law, there's no good. If there's no good, there's no evil. —Ravi
Zacharias
We don’t have to look hard to see how this type of godless
living has worked its ways into the very thread of our culture. In fact, its
fingers are turning into fists and are forcing their ways and their views upon
us. Paul continues writing to the Ephesians believers next, after having told
them to grow in Christ and His truth, to exhort them or warm them not to slip
back into old practices. We are no longer slaves to sin, and we are not to live
as if we are. We are no longer children of the devil and we have no obligation
to listen to his voice. We are no longer lost in our trespasses and sins, but
we have been set free from them in Christ, and this is how we are now supposed
to live. These are not just Paul’s
words, this is the word of Christ spoken through Paul and of which he is in
full agreement. For anyone to take the Bible and scale things based upon who
said them is to deny the inspired or God-breathed nature of His Word. The Bible
is not a collection of writings by men who thought God had a good thing going
and who wanted to expand on His thing by sharing their own thoughts. Paul
himself wrote in 2 Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is God-breathed….” (NIV) Peter
wrote, “for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by
the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” (2 Peter 1:21, NASB95)
As believers we are to embrace the word of God and hide it in
our hearts. It is to be, as we read in Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp to
my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105, NASB95) To live in any other
way is to live in conflict with our identity in Christ. The reality is,
however, that we all live this way at times, and God’s Word is full of
instruction leading to correct thinking and living. We don’t need to live in
guilt because the blood of Christ has cleansed us from all of our sins. What we
need to do is own up to it, admit it to God, and commit to living according to
His ways in the future. And when we stumble again we do the same thing.
Recognizing this pattern though is not an excuse to go on sinning, but a
reminder of the great love of God shown to us and an encouragement for us to
return that love through lives fully given to Him in worship, obedience and
service.
As for the world, they are going to do what the world does.
Here Paul speaks to their great delusion which is found in the hardness of
their own hearts. We read that they walk in the futility of their minds. Futile
means without benefit or vain. In the end, all that they chase after will be
burned up and prove just how worthless it is. Their grandiose ideas and
theories will crumble in the face of God’s unchanging truth.
And then as they walk this way they will enter deeper and
deeper into their own darkness, a darkness which we read in 2 Corinthians that
the devil is whole heartedly behind. “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is
veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has
blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of
the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Corinthians
4:3–4, NASB95) They prove just how far they are from God by the ignorance that
spews from their own mouths. And according to the hardness of their hearts they
have become callous to that which God calls true, right, and honorable. They
exchange the things of God for a thick-skinned striving after pleasure and
impurity with their own best being the end goal.
I’m sure we met lots of what we would call “good people” in
the world who seem to do good things, but the reality is that all of their
goodness from our perspective won’t save them. All of us have sinned and all of
us have fallen short of God’s glory. God’s only means to salvation is to
receive His Son who was sent as light and life into the world.
Paul wrote in Romans chapter 1, “For I am not ashamed of the
gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is
revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “But the righteous man shall
live by faith.” For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in
unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them;
for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His
invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly
seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without
excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give
thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart
was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory
of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of
birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them
over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be
dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and
worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed
forever. Amen.” (Romans 1:16–25, NASB95)
The contrast is pretty clear. Paul will lay out
for us a plan for how to walk appropriately in the next verses of chapter 4.
Read ahead in Ephesians 4:20-24.
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