Eternity Daily Bible Study No. 245

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Living In Christ – 6

THE CHURCH IS TO BE RADICALLY DIFFERENT FROM THE WORLD

Ephesians 4:17-19
(17)  This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should not walk from now on as other nations (rest of the Gentiles) walk, in the vanity of their mind,
(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)  For they, being past feeling, have given themselves up to lust, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

The lifestyle of the Christian is not to be like the lifestyle of the spiritually ignorant. We are not to indulge in greediness, uncleanness and lust. We cannot just “blend in” with college parties, office affairs, wife-swapping in the neighborhood or financial corruption in the business world. The Christian must be morally and spiritually distinct from those around.

Christ changes us, Christ gives us a new way of thinking and a new moral sensibility. This is completely incompatible from the past life of the Ephesians. A clean break is demanded. Paul introduces verse 17 with two serious exhortations “I say and I testify in the Lord”, thus invoking his personal apostolic authority and the authority of God. He then writes “you should not walk from now on”. From the time they receive this epistle on - they are to change, and they are never to go back to their old ways.

Christians must break with the world and its ways and they must never go back. We can still have non-Christian friends but we cannot join them in their excesses. We are to never go back to lust, greed and uncleanness. 

Pagans behave like pagans because they are spiritually deficient. Paul uses five terms to describe this spiritual deficiency: (lit. = literal translation from the Greek)
1. the vanity of their mind – lit. inutility, futility, depravity of thinking.
2. having the understanding darkened – lit. the imagination and deep thinking is obscured.
3. being alienated from the life of God – lit a “non-participant” in true spiritual life.
4. through the ignorance that is in them – lit. indwelt by the quality of ignorance. 
5. because of the blindness of their heart – lit. stupidity or callousness of heart.

This may seem an extreme view of the non-Christian, but in areas where there is little or no Christian influence I have found it to be very true. In some developing nations I have worked in corruption and moral incomprehension abound and a kind of callous stupidity settles over all life and activity. 

People without light - fall over in the dark. The stumbling, the moral accidents, and the moral chaos is simply the result of an almost complete lack of spiritual light and truth. Consistent morality is not normal in a non-Christian environment; rather moral confusion is the order of the day.

Christians are NOT to live a morally confused lifestyle or to unthinkingly accept the values of those without God. Rather we are to break with such values and to walk “in the light”. As we will see in the next devotional we are to ”put on the new man” and this new self is created in righteousness and holiness.

Two errors in teaching are causing Christians to accept unbiblical levels of worldliness. 

Firstly we are being given a false view of grace, which teaches that we can sin all we like and God will forgive us. While I do not wish to minimize God’s forgiveness for those who truly need it and want it, grace is not a type of  “Get Out Of Jail Free” card. Grace is given to assist us in the task of becoming holy. Grace gives us the chance to start over in the task of being righteous and good and godly. Grace is not a dispensing with morality but an encouragement in being moral.

Secondly we are taught that we have to reach out to and accept non-Christians wherever they are and that we must not be “too overtly Christian”. Thus in a not-so-subtle way non-Christian values are given priority over Christian values. It is strongly implied that we should not offend non-Christians by living holy lives. 

But accepting non-Christians does not mean accepting their values as our own or participating in their immorality. We should accept and love non-Christians without adopting their ways or becoming morally confused ourselves. And there is nothing wrong with being “overtly Christian” if that means being righteous, holy and morally courageous.

Paul goes on to characterize the Gentiles as “past feeling” or apathetic, morally insensate. That is they lack the proper moral sentiments and outrage over sin. Stealing is seen as trivial, creative bookkeeping is viewed as a joke, adultery is glamorized and abortion is viewed as just a means of contraception. 

The Christian, on the other hand should have strong moral emotions that flow from deep spiritual values.  Powerful moral emotions characterize the men and women of God. Jesus was outraged at cruel hard-hearted Pharisees, the prophets thundered forth at injustice; Paul was grieved at the idolatry in Athens. A quick inspection of the biographies of the great Christians will soon find that they felt very deeply and profoundly about moral and spiritual issues. The Spirit-filled, bible-believing, born-again Christian should never be apathetic. Rather we should be alive and passionate and filled with the very emotions of God when we view the world around us.

If we have the light of God in our souls, and the truth of God in our hearts we must live lives that are clearly distinct from that of the society around us. We must make a clean break with lust, greed and uncleanness. We should develop a Spirit-filled Christian lifestyle of righteousness and holiness and have the deep passions of the Spirit that raise us above the apathy and moral disinterest of the world.

For more on Christian emotions see: http://www.aibi.ph/beq/ 

Blessings,

John Edmiston johned@aibi.ph

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