Ben Shiller Jacob
With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused. 18 Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him. 19 They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.
Ephesians 4:17-20
We see a strong distinction in the walk of true believers of Christ from unbelievers. True believers once they were like everyone of the world, practiced what their mind say, followed their passion of the system of the world. However, at a point of time, they had this encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ that changed their mind, began a new journey to the eternal life solely by the influence of the mercy, grace and love of the Son of the living God which transformed the thinking patterns, resulting a life full of life and light. However, those who don’t accept and believe that Christ Jesus was sent by the Father in heaven in order to restore the whole creation to Himself will remain in the darkness. They are unable to see the loving kindness and truth of the Father God, having a life of death.
Apostle Paul speaks in Ephesians 4 17-24 about heathens, who don’t believe Jesus is the Son of God and the Christ or Messiah (Anointed One), Christians who genuinely believe Jesus is the Son of God and the Christ or Messiah (Anointed One) and their contrasting lifestyles.
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.
Colossians 1:20
We as believers of Christ know how evil we were once and wondered how addicted we were to certain sins which were deeply rooted within our nature. Unrighteousness was our first nature. We pondered evil in our heart. We found pleasure in wickedness. We acted and lived according to all the immoralities. Many times, we hoped there was any way out of this dead life, from habitual sins, iniquities and transgressions. It was then, Yahweh in His love, chose us for Himself through His only begotten Son, Christ Jesus. His love delivered us from all unrighteousness and sins and made us righteous before the Father God through Christ’s crucifixion.
But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation
Colossians 1:21
A life without Christ
17 Therefore I say this, and I bear witness in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the heathens walk in the futility of their minds, 18 since they have been darkened by being in their understanding, because they have been alienated from the life of God through the ignorance which is in them, because of the insensibility of their hearts, 19 who, when they became callous, gave themselves over to licentiousness in practice of every impurity, with a desire to have more.
Ephesians 4:17-19, The One New Man Bible
In The One New Man Bible Translation, it is clearer how a person becomes slave to sins.
The defective nature and attitude of a man attribute sin to be habitual in his life.
We know the power of practice. In order to be excellent in a particular task, one needs to practice it repeatedly. It’s so true when one says, ‘practice makes everything perfect’.
This is applicable in our day-to-day relationship with our heavenly Father. When we got saved through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ, there remains an unfinished work of faith from our side. For that reason, all the apostles in the New Testament warn the believers of Christ Jesus to pray unceasingly. Why? It is because we never had a habit of conversing with Heavenly Father before. Prayer is not in our blood. In other words, an act of prayer is not one of our traits. Because of this very reason, we need to build this trait in our very being to be an authentic, effective, unwavering believer of Christ Jesus. How do we do that? Apostle Paul has the answer to the question,
Always be joyful. 17 Never stop praying. 18 Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Apostle Paul advices the congregation of God to have above mentioned three things:
- Always joyful,
- Incessant prayerfulness and
- Having a grateful heart in every situation
These are choices we should deliberately make every single day to make them habitual or first nature. If we don’t, even the experienced, long-standing minister of God could fall away from faith and grace by ongoing various deceptions and lies of our enemy. No one is exempted from his trap. Believers could live the old, deceptive life if we don’t renew our mind daily by constant communion of the Holy Spirit.
Having said that, I want to point out how those who don’t have Christ in their life walk take pleasure in every form of evil practices and how these ungodly practices enslave them.
- Following the futility of their minds
- Being in one’s understanding causes darkness
- Innate ignorance results alienation from God
- Insensibility that leads to callousness of one’s heart
- Licentiousness in doing every ungodly works
- Craving to do them repeatedly – become slave or addicted to them
- Following the futility of their minds
Apostle Paul talks about how nonbelievers lead ungodly lifestyles. People who don’t have Christ in their life walk according to the futility of their minds.
Here, futility1 means pointless or worthless. It’s literal meaning is ‘leaky’. When we say ‘that’s ‘futile or pointless’, it means there is no outcome that action would generate. We know no good could come out of it, yet we do it.
The heart of a ‘Christless’ man doesn’t have a purpose or vision in life. Their life is pointless. Their life goal is blurred by the lies of Satan, the devourer of man’s soul. They don’t know where they are heading to. They are unaware of the importance of their life. They are in great deception. They take everything that comes along their way of life. Since they are leaky, they won’t be full of the things that come in their way. They never say never because they are unsatisfied with the things of the world. About them, Agur says,
14There is a generation whose teeth are like swords,
And whose fangs are like knives,
To devour the poor from off the earth,
And the needy from among men.
15 The leech has two daughters—
Give and Give!
Proverbs 30:14-15
- Being in one’s understanding causes darkness
Our Heavenly Father is Light. He lives in the realm of Light. This light is entirely different from the light we see in our physical world such as light from the sun, stars etc. Our world was under the power and influence of the kingdom of darkness due to Adam’s sin. Before rebellion occurred in the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were given authority and rulership over the whole creation. However, when Adam and Eve were deceived and sinned by the serpent, their authority and power was stolen from them. Thus, the destiny of whole humanity ended up in darkness as satan is the prince of darkness. For this very reason, Yeshua, the only begotten Son of God came to the world in flesh to enlighten the world as He has eternal life, and this life was full of light that eradicate the darkness from whole creation.
12 Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”
John 8:12
When John, the apostle, begins his Gospel, he explicitly says, that the world under existing darkness couldn’t comprehend or overcome the Light, Jesus Christ.
4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
John 1:4-5, NLT
Those who don’t accept and not in Jesus Christ are in darkness. When the Scripture says, in Jesus was life, this life means a different kind of life than what we perceive. John is talking about the eternal life that a person needs other than natural life. Eternal life is needed for every spirit being. By now, we know, a man is a spirit being. Since the spirit of a man is limitless, yet it endures two outcomes: eternal life and eternal damnation. Whoever takes hold of Yeshua, the Messiah, receives eternal life. The Life in Yeshua carries a supernatural Light that can eradicate the darkness and death of spirit man being separated from the Father of Life. When people in darkness ignore to accept Yeshua, the Light in Him is rejected and thereby their spiritual death cannot be exposed and lead into spiritual damnation which means permanent separation of a spirit being from Heavenly Father.
Stay tuned for the next part of this series…