EPHESIANS: Don’t Live That Way
EPHESIANS Number 48
Ephesians 4:17 (KJV)
17 This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
“Therefore” refers us to the gifts that God has given to the Church. The people who comprise the Church. The members who comprise the Body of Christ. The beloved ones, each with his or her own peculiar talents, skills, aptitudes, and proclivities.
“Therefore” also refers us to the unity of the faith, the building up and equipping of the saints and the spiritual maturity that yields.
In this part of Ephesians, the focus is on our walk, our manner of living. No doubt you will recall that at the beginning of chapter four, Paul urged that we walk, or live, in a manner worthy of our calling. Now the script is flipped, and we are cautioned against living in the manner of the unsaved, referred to here as “the [other] Gentiles.”
The people of the world live “in the vanity of their mind”, Because, as we read in Romans 1:21, “when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”
Peter says that we have been redeemed from such a lifestyle. In 1 Peter 1:18 he wrote, “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers.” This “vain conversation,” this futile manner of living, was inherent in us when we were still in Adam. Romans 5:25 declares that sin entered the world through Adam, and through that sin death came along for the ride.
We are being urged insistently not to live in this manner. It no longer suits us because it was part of the old manner of living to which we have died.
The ramifications of sin having entered the world are pervasive. Paul elaborates in Ephesians 4:18–19 (KJV).
18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
19 Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
Unpacking this we find that those in the world are truly lost because their understanding has been darkened. In Romans 1:21 we saw that their hearts were darkened. This darkness needs light to illuminate the awful state in which they exist. They are alienated from the Life of God. They are spiritually dead. Separated from His Life, they have no relationship with Him, and they don’t even know how bad off they are. How can they? Their hearts are blind to Him. For these people it is as if God does not exist at all.
No wonder so many deny God. No wonder so many go through the motions in their earthly lives thinking of spiritual things in moralistic performance terms if they think of such things at all. They cannot see because they are enshrouded in the shadow of death. Held captive there by the god of this world who “hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” as we read in 2 Corinthians 4:4 (KJV)
The outcome of this is that they have given themselves over to fleshly living because they think that is where they will find satisfaction. This is bondage of the worst kind. It is life in service to an evil master. It is slavery to sin. It can only end in death from which there is no resurrection.
It is from this sorry state that you were rescued. Jesus came and bought your freedom.
