No
excuse in ignorance and the radical break from the old life...
There's
a lot to be said of Ephesians 4:17-24, but I want to touch on two things I thought
of as a brother preached on this passage today.
Before
the first thing, the passage: "Now this I say and testify in the Lord,
that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their
minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God
because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They
have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to
practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming
that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus,
to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is
corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your
minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true
righteousness and holiness." (Ephesians 4:17-24 ESV)
First,
when I read the phrase "...because of the ignorance in them..." I do
not think of someone who simply does not know something. This ignorance is
willful. Frankly, I think of Romans 1:19-21. There we learn that God has showed
up and showed out very plainly and very clearly. It was not that someone could
not understand; it is that someone refuses to understand. In his letter to the
believers in Ephesus, Paul continues, "...due to their hardness of
heart." There you go. People see God --or, at least they see something
beyond the confines of simple human experience-- but they don't want to
recognize it or honor it or give themselves over to it. Though God makes
Himself plain, they refuse God.
I
know that feeling! I know that fact! I would say I believed God existed my
entire, cognizant life -- from toddlerhood! I believe He existed, but I did not
yield to Him. I WOULD NOT yield to Him! I dare not claim it was ignorance of
His existence! It was preference for my will!
So
many, I believe, are just like that.
Secondly,
I believe there is something in us that knows to honor God means to willfully
choose a radical break from our former way of thinking and living. The
"Gentiles" Paul refers to cannot be explained by simply saying
"non-Jewish." Paul is referring to a fruitless way of living and
thinking that is not under the covenant of God, directed by the way of God,
empowered by the Spirit of God and being lived for the ends and glory of
God.
When
a person is "saved", they are adopted into true Israel and the entire
course of their lives is to change, not just the end of their future. It is a
complete release of futile living; self-centered and self-oriented living.
Instead of being centered on self and sensitive to self, the redeemed person
becomes centered on God and sensitive to the leading of God and the needs of
others.
There's
no fooling around, mingling things of the old life with things of the new.
There's no cross purposes, only purposes of the Cross.
Make
no mistake, the redeemed no longer claims ignorance or indifference. They are
made alive by God and are about His business. It's radical in the world, but
it's just normal in the Lord.
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