Today's version of church is only playing church, a church of hypocrisy because we are not close to being a true Church. This is a hard pill for many deceived people to swallow and believe because of the brainwashing that has been in effect for well over 1500 years. The peoples in the churches of the world are sickly and dying because of this hypocrisy and the practicing of all kinds of evil, in the name of Christ.
Ephesians
2:2a
"Wherein
in time past ye walked according to the course of this world,..."
What does Paul mean by that? Their everyday life’s experience, they way they lived life just as we live life today's with little if any difference. Before believing this Gospel, and the course they walked. Coming back to chapter 4, and verse 17, our walk
now is to be as a member of the Body of Christ. Paul tells us not to walk
as those pagan Gentiles do. Today there is not much difference between those who profess to be, what they by practice are not and those of worldly sort. There is NO! difference between them. When we are sharing Scripture, we try
to remember the circumstances in which Paul lived and wrote. We guess
it was never so graphically brought home to us as it was a couple of
years ago when. We were watching a program on the area of Asia Minor
out there near Turkey, Pompeii I think it
was. When
we saw the proof of that corrupt city, the ungodliness and the
wickedness that was evident even in the ruins.
So
what must it have been like in it’s hay day? The evil was still seen, so that was the kind
of a city into which Paul walked. He didn’t have the convenience
of evangelists today. Most of them have help with all kind of
publicity, they have the counselors ready, prayer warriors in place,
but all Paul had was the Holy Spirit and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul would come
in pretty much alone into these pagan cities. Sometimes he would have a
companion such as Luke or Timothy, but he had this Gospel, and he
proclaimed it. He would bring these people out of that abject,
pagan, immoral, lifestyle.
You
know we feel so sorry for our young parents trying to raise kids in
this culture of ours today, where they are bombarded with these same kind
of things as an incitement. We have billboards, TV, movies and all sorts of vile things being said and in print, with NO regard for young people let alone adults who do not want to hear such things. And it was terrible in Paul’s day. Look
what he says.
Ephesians
4:17a
"This
I say therefore*, and testify in the Lord, that ye
henceforth..."
*remember
when Paul says therefore, he’s referring back to what he has just
covered.
Once
we have come into the Body of Christ, we are to be different, we are to be
totally different. Not that we are to be odd balls. Oh it just
gripes me when some Christians are just odd balls, that is not what
God wants. God does not want somebody that the world would say, "If
that is being a Christian, then I’m glad I’m not one." The
world should be able to look at us, and say, "I wish I had what
they have. I wish I had their joy and happiness, and their
outlook on life." Always remember, when you come into certain
positions, the world out there expects somebody to be worthy of that
position, that is a given. Well, it is the same way here, when
we come into our position as a member of the Body of Christ, it
becomes a given that we are to be different. And look what Paul
says.
Ephesians
4:17b
"...walk
not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind."
That word walk
is a unique Pauline term. We saw that in chapter 2, and Paul is
always referring to walk,
and here it is the same kind of description, but in a
different setting. Then he says “in
the vanity of their minds”
what does that mean? We do not like to us people or especially close
relatives but this last weekend we held another family reunion at our
home. Then this one afternoon, while my wife and I were reminiscing over
the weekends events, something struck me, which fits this thought. Most
of the conversations were nothing but vanity of the carnal mind.
People vented about relationships, work, traffic and travel and of
course the families past. And what does that have to do with this, not
one comment other than the ones the Lord lead us to engage in, where
of a spiritual nature. And then even those which were spiritual, if
taken in the wrong way, were also counted as vanity. Most
conversations were empty, idle talk and inflation
of mind upon slight grounds; empty pride, inspired by an overweening
conceit of one's personal attainments or decorations. All these are
but vanity of our minds, when our minds are not renewed to the things
of the Spirit and our hope in that which is yet to come, our eternal home.
Ephesians
4:17
"This
I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not
as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind."
In
other words, they had no comprehension of what God expects. They just
lived according to the appetites of the flesh. This is what we
noticed by way of a living reality after rehearsing the conversations
of this past weekend. This is not to put any one down or in a mean
spirit but is only for our learning. Now verse 18, and in this verse
is the other Gentiles that Paul is referring to.
Ephesians 4:17-19
"This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 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: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness."
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