Ephesians Study
Chapter 4
Ephesians 4:17-19 — Burning Our Plows
Amplified Bible:
Verse 17: So this I say and solemnly testify in [the name of] the Lord [as in His presence], that you must no longer live as the heathen (the Gentiles) do in their perverseness [in the folly, vanity, and emptiness of their souls and the futility] of their minds.
Verse 18: Their immoral understanding is darkened and their reasoning is beclouded. [They are] alienated (estranged, self-banished) from the life of God [with no share in it; this is] because of the ignorance (the want of knowledge and perception, the willful blindness) that is deep-seated in them, due to their hardness of heart [to the insensitiveness of their moral nature].
Verse 19: In their spiritual apathy they have become callous and past feeling and reckless and have abandoned themselves [a prey] to unbridled sensuality, eager and greedy to indulge in every form of impurity [that their depraved desires may suggest and demand].
A quote from my last post: “Paul calls us to a higher standard of selflessness to edification of the whole body. He starts with speaking the truth in love and ends in verse 16 with the body maturing in love. It is love that compels. It is love that convicts and converts. It is love that cleanses us from unrighteousness. It is love that grows us to maturity. When we love, we do not want to hurt the Lord and those for whom He died…”
I start with this quote because there is such a huge jump from what Paul is calling us to and to what is expressed in this week’s verses. I have been looking at these verses since last weekend. What amazes me about them is the depth of knowing of the human spirit that Paul has. He is talking about other Gentiles, the unconverted, and really shows the difference between the old man of sin and the new man of recreation.
A heathen is one who is perverse in the folly, vanity and emptiness of their souls and the futility of their minds. Their understanding is immoral and darkened. Their reasoning is beclouded. They are self-banished from the life of God because of their deep-seated ignorance…due to their hardness of heart. In spiritual apathy, they have become past feeling and abandoned themselves (become a prey) to the senses.
These words leave me stunned because they are such a clear picture of the world of Paul’s time and the world of our time. No wonder Jesus said, “Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.” This is a description of those who in their spiritual apathy would not give Jesus Christ a second thought. And, yet, it can be a description of each of us. How often do we take communion without a heart felt understanding of rightly discerning the body and blood of Christ. In the living of life, has spiritual apathy made is prey to the sensual...TV, movies, books, magazines, conversation, feelings, (Romans 1:32).
We can be honestly ignorant…we don’t know something or Someone.
Or we can be ignorant because of the hardness of the heart. Think of pharaoh. The arrogance of ignorance.
Are you changed by being a Christ follower or are you not? Have we completely transitioned from the description of this week’s verses, or, are we bringing some of it with us into Christianity. Baptism alone does not make for this transition from old to new. Repeating the “sinner’s prayer” does not necessarily create of new heart.
These verses are shocking after we have read so much of what it means to be a new creature. The beauty of Oneness with the Lord is juxtaposed with the selfish, ego-centric descriptions in these verses. It is so easy to not see ourselves in this description.
There comes a time when, like God’s call to Abram {Genesis 12:1}, we are to leave the father’s house, our culture, who we think we are because it is not who we are called to be. An example of this can be found in the story of Elisha who burned his plow and offered a sacrifice upon it to follow Elijah. You might say that he burned his bridges behind him. There was no turning back to his old ways.
This transition is costly…economically (the rich young ruler went away sorrowing). It will cost us emotionally and in our belief system. Enhanced vision has a way of doing that. Are we ready, willing, and able to burn our plows? Are we ready to “leave” our culture behind? What about our money? Does it stand between us and the call of God? I do not mean that it is wrong to have money, but if it causes us to “go away sorrowing” when the Lord puts His finger on it, then that is idolatry.
It would have been so easy to write something that was all about the “other” instead of touching on these points of being “heathen.” All that resonates with the heathen, they will recognize in those who are calling themselves Christian. They do not see that what we believe or have makes any difference in our lives. Often, we major in minors which have little more substance than to give us a platform for argument…pride, arrogance, ego. It would have been easy to take these verses apart and discuss how this “heathenism” has infiltrated the church…so subtle. And yet, the below article says a great deal about how the world measures religion...the witness of Religion. Notice, I said religion…not Christ followers.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-0115-zuckerman-secular-parenting-20150115-story.html#page=1
Paul, in Romans 2:12-16, talks about those that are not Christian but have the law in their hearts. His comments mirror what the above article is saying. He is saying that Gentiles who do not know are better than the Jews with all their knowledge.
Paul, in Romans 2:12-16, talks about those that are not Christian but have the law in their hearts. His comments mirror what the above article is saying. He is saying that Gentiles who do not know are better than the Jews with all their knowledge.
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