Monday, August 6, 2018

Hopelessly Confused

Monday, August 6, 2018
With the Lord’s authority I say this:  Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused.  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.  They have no sense of shame.  They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.  But that isn’t what you learned about Christ.  Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.  Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.  Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.  Ephesians 4:17-24(NLT)
Hopelessly confused!  Minds full of darkness, closed and without shame.  It sounds like Paul held little optimism for the Gentiles to find any peace or sense and purpose in life.  But Paul didn’t reserve that bleak outlook exclusively for the Gentiles; elsewhere he wrote essentially the same thing about the Jews, that they were acting as people of darkness, despite the light God had given them.  Paul expressed heartbrokenness to the extent that he would give up his own eternal life if it were possible to save them.
Now, if Paul expresses this hopelessness for both Jews and Gentiles, who’s left?  The short answer is…nobody!  To the Jews, there was no other perspective from which to view things – you were either inside the covenant, or outside; you were a son or a slave.
And, truth be told, the Bible presents no middle ground where that is concerned.  When you consider the terminology of judgment passages, there is either lost or saved; those two categories do not have a common meeting place!
So, what is Paul’s point?  Actions are important; they tell you what is going on within the person who acts.  It’s not that actions create eternal life within, but actions announce whether the second birth has actually occurred.  Paul says to the believers at Ephesus:  If you really did surrender your life to Christ, where is the change of your behavior that is consistent with life; why are you still acting as if you’re dead in sin?
The apostle takes these disobedient Christians to task for their dimness of holy living; he ushers them into Heaven’s dressing room.  Take off the old garment of sinful living which is tattered and threadbare…that which can’t keep you warm and is not fit for you to wear before God; put on the new garment, your holy nature, knitted by the Holy Spirit, which clothes you in righteousness.  Let the Spirit direct your path.
For Paul, there is no confusion, no hopelessness when you’re in Christ…except if you say you believe, go through the ritual of believers in worship and fellowship with Christ’s church, but then say the opposite with a life that is largely unchanged. 
In short, Paul lowers the common-sense hammer:  New life is a changed life.
In Paul’s day, as in ours, there were plenty of people who claimed they’d been saved, born-again from above…and, yet, their actions spoke so loudly that no change had taken place, you cannot help but doubt their words.  Perhaps many were serious…wanting to be included in God’s eternal glory…but were just not willing to let go of earth’s lust and darkness.  It’s strange when you put it out there just that way, but what else can you say about it?  Well…here’s what Jesus said about it:
And the judgment is based on this fact:  God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil.  All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.  But those who do what is right come to the light, so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”  John 3:19-21(NLT)
For You Today
If your light has grown a little dim, and that Christian wardrobe looks a little dated, perhaps it’s time for renewal.  Nobody has to stay hopelessly confused.
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com

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