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This is the second segment of my sermon on Ephesians 4:17-25, entitled "A New Kind of Human", delivered to Marion Park 7/11/09.
Before you read on make sure you've read Ephesians 4:17-25.
I. The Characteristics of the Old Human
Ephesians 4:17-19:
"17Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18They 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. 19They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity."
1. Their Walk is as the Gentiles
"17Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18They 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. 19They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity."
1. Their Walk is as the Gentiles
2. Their Minds are Futile
3. Their Understanding is Darkened
4. Their Ignorance Alienates them from the life of God
5. Their Hardness of Heart Keeps them Ignorant
6. Their Callous Hearts Abandon themselves to Sensuality
7. Their Greed leads to all kinds of Impurity 1. Their Walk is as the Gentiles
-The old humanity is the regular state of mankind as split up into many nations. The word 'Gentiles' simply means 'nations'. And so what Paul is talking about is the way of life, the walk, of all the nations of people, who don't know God. Everybody grows up in a godless world and is taught to walk as little babies in accordance with that godless world. Nobody is born as a Christian. Nobody comes out of the womb a new human. I've heard people say to me, "Oh my boy, he's just always had such a spiritual connection with God from when he was very little. Oh my niece, she's such a spiritual person, always been just naturally praying from when she was a child." My response is: Oh okay maybe that's so, but that doesn't mean they are new humans, that doesn't mean they've experienced the new birth. Everybody's born an old human, in Adam. This is the regular state of the nations. Old humans are going to walk in this way, they're going to stay old humans unless something radical happens.
-The old humanity is characteristic of the way of humans without God. Normally in scripture the term 'Gentiles' is used to refer to those outside Israel. The irony here is that Paul is telling a bunch of Gentiles, no longer to walk as the Gentiles do, as if they weren't part of that group anymore. You see what Paul's saying is, remember in the OT how all the nations were without God and their thoughts were only evil continually, and then God took this one man Abraham and made him leave his native land, and promised to make him into a great nation, and then after 400 years of captivity God rescued Israel from Egypt with a mighty hand and took them into the desert. And then he gave them a law, saying "You're not supposed to be like all the other nations around anymore! I'm making you completely different. Obey my laws and be different and I will bless you! And you will be my own special people for my own possession and I will be your God!" What Paul is saying is, "That's what's going on now! God is now fulfilling his purpose for Israel in you Gentile believers in Ephesus. So don't be like the people around you. They are the Gentiles and you're Israel. So don't be like the nations around you. They all walk like Gentiles."
-The old humanity is the regular state of mankind as split up into many nations. The word 'Gentiles' simply means 'nations'. And so what Paul is talking about is the way of life, the walk, of all the nations of people, who don't know God. Everybody grows up in a godless world and is taught to walk as little babies in accordance with that godless world. Nobody is born as a Christian. Nobody comes out of the womb a new human. I've heard people say to me, "Oh my boy, he's just always had such a spiritual connection with God from when he was very little. Oh my niece, she's such a spiritual person, always been just naturally praying from when she was a child." My response is: Oh okay maybe that's so, but that doesn't mean they are new humans, that doesn't mean they've experienced the new birth. Everybody's born an old human, in Adam. This is the regular state of the nations. Old humans are going to walk in this way, they're going to stay old humans unless something radical happens.
-The old humanity is characteristic of the way of humans without God. Normally in scripture the term 'Gentiles' is used to refer to those outside Israel. The irony here is that Paul is telling a bunch of Gentiles, no longer to walk as the Gentiles do, as if they weren't part of that group anymore. You see what Paul's saying is, remember in the OT how all the nations were without God and their thoughts were only evil continually, and then God took this one man Abraham and made him leave his native land, and promised to make him into a great nation, and then after 400 years of captivity God rescued Israel from Egypt with a mighty hand and took them into the desert. And then he gave them a law, saying "You're not supposed to be like all the other nations around anymore! I'm making you completely different. Obey my laws and be different and I will bless you! And you will be my own special people for my own possession and I will be your God!" What Paul is saying is, "That's what's going on now! God is now fulfilling his purpose for Israel in you Gentile believers in Ephesus. So don't be like the people around you. They are the Gentiles and you're Israel. So don't be like the nations around you. They all walk like Gentiles."
2. Their Minds are Futile
-Their thinking is vain or futile, without any real purpose, life is void of meaning for them. Do you know people like this? Really the whole world is like this. If you go up to anybody on the street and ask them, "What's the meaning of your life? What's it all about? What is the reason for your existence?" They don't know. :Just passing through." They're like a passing vapor that goes nowhere rather than a steady wind that's going somewhere. They have no ultimate aim or goal, or if they do it is not the type of goal that's worth devoting a life to. "I just want to improve my golf swing." "I just want to get a promotion." "I just want to get enough money to get a new iphone." "I just can't wait to retire and go lie on a beach somewhere."
-Their minds are futile, because their gods are futile. Their minds can rise no higher than forms of things that are actually less than themselves: a golf swing, a promotion, comfort. They are worshiping created things rather than the Creator, and so their mind can have no substance to raise to the level of the image of the Creator God. If you worship an animal, then you're not going to take your mind very seriously. If you worship only your own comfort, then anything higher or of more value than your comfort will be squashed under it. They can't raise to the level of God and so they must sacrifice one aspect of the image of God in them to another aspect of it.The image of God remains in them, yes, but it is made futile because it is defaced by sin and unbelief.
-Their thinking is vain or futile, without any real purpose, life is void of meaning for them. Do you know people like this? Really the whole world is like this. If you go up to anybody on the street and ask them, "What's the meaning of your life? What's it all about? What is the reason for your existence?" They don't know. :Just passing through." They're like a passing vapor that goes nowhere rather than a steady wind that's going somewhere. They have no ultimate aim or goal, or if they do it is not the type of goal that's worth devoting a life to. "I just want to improve my golf swing." "I just want to get a promotion." "I just want to get enough money to get a new iphone." "I just can't wait to retire and go lie on a beach somewhere."
-Their minds are futile, because their gods are futile. Their minds can rise no higher than forms of things that are actually less than themselves: a golf swing, a promotion, comfort. They are worshiping created things rather than the Creator, and so their mind can have no substance to raise to the level of the image of the Creator God. If you worship an animal, then you're not going to take your mind very seriously. If you worship only your own comfort, then anything higher or of more value than your comfort will be squashed under it. They can't raise to the level of God and so they must sacrifice one aspect of the image of God in them to another aspect of it.The image of God remains in them, yes, but it is made futile because it is defaced by sin and unbelief.
3. Their Understanding is Darkened
-Since their eyes are clouded over no light can pierce through the darkness of their idolatry, and their understanding of the nature of the world and of their own existence suffers. Both in true knowledge of self and knowledge of God they are sadly lacking, because the windows of their mind are shuttered to the bright day of God's Spirit. Though some knowledge remains for them, they live as prisoners in the dim light of their shuttered house, with nothing but flickering lamps inside. They operate well enough indoors, and many have great levels of specialized knowledge of earthly things, but their frame is sickly for want of proper exercise and fresh air and exposure to the heavenly sun. The understanding of members of the old humanity is darkened.
-Since their eyes are clouded over no light can pierce through the darkness of their idolatry, and their understanding of the nature of the world and of their own existence suffers. Both in true knowledge of self and knowledge of God they are sadly lacking, because the windows of their mind are shuttered to the bright day of God's Spirit. Though some knowledge remains for them, they live as prisoners in the dim light of their shuttered house, with nothing but flickering lamps inside. They operate well enough indoors, and many have great levels of specialized knowledge of earthly things, but their frame is sickly for want of proper exercise and fresh air and exposure to the heavenly sun. The understanding of members of the old humanity is darkened.
4. Their Ignorance Alienates them from the life of God
-Because their eyes cannot reach above the horizon but they are ever occupied only with things under the sun, they remain ever strangers and aliens to the God who made it all. They are aliens to the covenant and the promises, they know nothing of the moral injunctions of Israel's God, nor do they care for his offer of relationship with himself. Prayer is to them either a ritualistic manipulation of their idol or something with which they have nothing to do. Prayer means nothing to them. God is a strange entity, that may or may not exist, the main point is that they don't care. He's a stranger and they have no desire to get to know him. No interest in really pursuing a relationship with him. They like their country, their way, their existence, their life, and the life of God is completely uninteresting to them.
-Because their eyes cannot reach above the horizon but they are ever occupied only with things under the sun, they remain ever strangers and aliens to the God who made it all. They are aliens to the covenant and the promises, they know nothing of the moral injunctions of Israel's God, nor do they care for his offer of relationship with himself. Prayer is to them either a ritualistic manipulation of their idol or something with which they have nothing to do. Prayer means nothing to them. God is a strange entity, that may or may not exist, the main point is that they don't care. He's a stranger and they have no desire to get to know him. No interest in really pursuing a relationship with him. They like their country, their way, their existence, their life, and the life of God is completely uninteresting to them.
-My fiance told me about how when she was in Malibu for this Voice Program she was talking with this one girl, who said she was sort of a Christian, but she was dating a non-Christian, and Ashley wasn't sure if there was really any life there for this girl. Well, one of the things this girl said was that she just loved meeting interesting people. But she didn't seem to think my fiance was interesting. Now I'm biased but that sure didn't get her on my good side. But more than that Ashley wondered about what she meant by that. Because who isn't interesting? I mean people are so incredibly interesting! They're people. And yet the real kicker was, this girl was not at all interested in talking about her faith with Ashley, she didn't want to talk about Christianity or her church or God or any of it. Apparently even God was not interesting to this girl. Well, God is the most interesting being in existence! That's a characteristic of the old humanity, not the new humanity. Their ignorance alienates them from the life of God.
5. Their Hardness of Heart Keeps them Ignorant
-Just in case we might be tempted merely to pity their ignorance, and suppose that all old humans need is to be instructed in how interesting God really is, for instance, and then they would be fine, Paul makes clear that its their own hardness of heart that keeps them ignorant. They are deliberately ignorant. They remain in the ignorance of the old humanity into which they were born chiefly due to the hardness of their own hearts. They deliberately shut out the light that would expose them, because they inwardly acknowledge the wickedness of their own deeds. They seek to hide in their ignorance, assuming it to be bliss rather than the hell-hole it actually is, and so they do not come out into the light of day.
-Just in case we might be tempted merely to pity their ignorance, and suppose that all old humans need is to be instructed in how interesting God really is, for instance, and then they would be fine, Paul makes clear that its their own hardness of heart that keeps them ignorant. They are deliberately ignorant. They remain in the ignorance of the old humanity into which they were born chiefly due to the hardness of their own hearts. They deliberately shut out the light that would expose them, because they inwardly acknowledge the wickedness of their own deeds. They seek to hide in their ignorance, assuming it to be bliss rather than the hell-hole it actually is, and so they do not come out into the light of day.
-John 3:19-21: "And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God."
6. Their Callous Hearts Abandon themselves to Sensuality
-In the callousness of their hearts they deny their higher nature, forfeiting the higher life which they have the capacity for, and instead, like unthinking beasts, they plunge themselves into their baser instincts. The wisest among them lack foresight, and the psychologist among them cannot diagnose himself. Without hope of understanding themselves they abandon themselves to their own passions and desires, leading to all sorts of licentiousness and sensuality and depravity. They go from high to high, party to party, accomplishment to accomplishment, pleasure to pleasure, leaving a trail of tears in their wake. Everything revolves around their needs, their wants, their dreams, and though they may not like it because it makes them feel bad, they have no choice but to step on the needs, wants and dreams of others in order to get their own.
-In the callousness of their hearts they deny their higher nature, forfeiting the higher life which they have the capacity for, and instead, like unthinking beasts, they plunge themselves into their baser instincts. The wisest among them lack foresight, and the psychologist among them cannot diagnose himself. Without hope of understanding themselves they abandon themselves to their own passions and desires, leading to all sorts of licentiousness and sensuality and depravity. They go from high to high, party to party, accomplishment to accomplishment, pleasure to pleasure, leaving a trail of tears in their wake. Everything revolves around their needs, their wants, their dreams, and though they may not like it because it makes them feel bad, they have no choice but to step on the needs, wants and dreams of others in order to get their own.
7. Their Greed leads to all kinds of Impurity
-Since they have abandoned themselves to their desires, they soon find that their lust for more has no bounds. In them is a cavernous hole of thirst that will not be filled, and so they have no recourse but to be greedy for more and more and more. How much will be enough you ask them? And they always reply, "Just a little bit more. Just a little bit more."
-And so addictions of all kinds enslave them. Money, food, sex, human applause, power, success, possessions. They are always trying to find something to feed that voracious hunger inside. And so they go to extremes of impurity in all of these: sacrificing their children to get more money, abusing their bodies with more and more food, feeding the appetite for sex with porn or adultery to the destruction of those they said they loved, jettisoning all their convictions for a chance in the spotlight, manipulating others for their own gain, loading their houses full of stuff that they can neither use nor anymore find, but that chains them down. In all these things they are prisoners of the greed in their own hearts.
-Since they have abandoned themselves to their desires, they soon find that their lust for more has no bounds. In them is a cavernous hole of thirst that will not be filled, and so they have no recourse but to be greedy for more and more and more. How much will be enough you ask them? And they always reply, "Just a little bit more. Just a little bit more."
-And so addictions of all kinds enslave them. Money, food, sex, human applause, power, success, possessions. They are always trying to find something to feed that voracious hunger inside. And so they go to extremes of impurity in all of these: sacrificing their children to get more money, abusing their bodies with more and more food, feeding the appetite for sex with porn or adultery to the destruction of those they said they loved, jettisoning all their convictions for a chance in the spotlight, manipulating others for their own gain, loading their houses full of stuff that they can neither use nor anymore find, but that chains them down. In all these things they are prisoners of the greed in their own hearts.
Well, thankfully, Paul doesn't leave us there, but he goes on to give us all the characteristics of a new kind of human.
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