Alienated from the Life of God?

Ephesians 4:17-19 ESV

“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.”

This passage of Scripture, like many others, gives us a good summary of what the message of the gospel of Christ is really all about. And this just happens to be one of my favorites, for it describes it so well. So, let’s dive into this passage of Scripture and see what it has for us.

If we no longer walk as the Gentiles do, what does that mean for us in all practicality? Well, first we might want to understand who the Gentiles are (or were). Under the Old Covenant, the Gentiles were the ungodly, the unregenerate, those who did not believe in the one true God. They were not God’s chosen people, like the Jews were. So, Gentile is a term used both to mean the ungodly and the non-Jew.

In this context, even though this is written to many Gentile Christians, it is intended to mean the ungodly. And we can tell that by the context, for it describes the ungodly as those who are darkened in their understanding, and who have hard hearts, and who give themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But the sad reality in this is that many professing Christians today live just like this, in practice.

Another term in the Scriptures used for Gentiles, in some translations, is “the nations,” i.e. the world. So, this is speaking of the people of this world who do not have genuine faith in Jesus Christ, who are living ungodly lives in sexual immorality, lying, cheating, and stealing, etc., in practice, and who are not walking in obedience to the Lord in living holy and godly lives. And this should not be how we are living if we believe in Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 4:20-24 ESV

“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.”

So, we should not have learned Christ in such a way as to give us permission to keep living in deliberate and habitual sin and in sensuality. But the sad reality here is that is what many people are being taught today, that they can believe in Jesus, have all their sins forgiven, be on their way to heaven, but that it doesn’t have to alter how they live. Some are even being taught that they don’t have to repent of their sins and that they don’t have to obey our Lord and his commands under the New Covenant.

But this passage of Scripture, and others like it, dispel that notion that we can live however we want and still have heaven secured for us when we die. For the truth that is in Christ Jesus is that we are to, in the power of God’s Spirit, put off our old sinful natures and habits, and we are to be renewed in the spirit of our minds, of the Spirit of God, and by God’s grace, and in his power, we are to put on the new self we have in Christ Jesus, which is created to be like Christ in true righteousness and holiness.

And, again, what this teaches us is the essence of the gospel message which is taught to us all throughout the New Testament. So, we must take this to heart. For, the Scriptures also teach us that if we continue in deliberate and habitual sin, and not in walks of righteousness and obedience to our Lord, that we will not have salvation from sin nor eternal life with God. And these Scripture passages I share are what teach us those truths:

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ubeqAi9REc

Caution: This link may contain ads

Seek the Lord  

An Original Work / July 20, 2012

Based off Isaiah 55

“Come to Me all you who thirst; come to waters.

Listen to Me, and eat what’s good today,

And your soul will delight in richest of fare.

Give ear to Me, and you will live.

I have made an eternal covenant with you.

Wash in the blood of the Lamb.”

Seek the Lord while He may be found; call on Him. 

Let the wicked forsake his way, in truth.

Let him turn to the Lord, and he will receive mercy.

Freely, God pardons him.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,

Nor are your ways My ways,”

declares the Lord, our God.

“My word that goes out of My mouth is truthful.

It will not return to Me unfulfilled.

My word will accomplish all that I desire,

And achieve the goal I intend.

You will go in joy and be led forth in peace.

The mountains will burst into song… before you, 

And all of the trees clap their hands.”

https://vimeo.com/379408296