Walking Worthy of the Calling – Part II (2)

 

 

Continuing with Ephesians 4:17, what does the word “Gentiles” mean in this context (see previous post)? Does it mean the same as it does in Ephesians 2:11-14? “Therefore, remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh…that you were at that time separate from Christ…but now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both [Jew and Gentile] into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall.”

 

In other words, is Paul including the Christian Gentiles who he is writing to, those who are the Temple of God (Eph. 2:17 – 22), in the group of Gentiles who are walking, “in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart, and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness” (Eph. 4:17 – 19).

 

Would the Christian Gentiles hearing Paul’s letter read have thought, “He’s talking about us”? Or would they have thought, “He is talking about the way we used to be before we were given new life in Jesus Christ. Because we are now the Temple of God, the People of God, the elect of God, holy and blameless (chapters 1 and 2) in Christ, we have been given a new Way of Life; Paul is writing about the peoples of the world right now (4:17ff), and he is reminding us that we are to “no longer walk as the peoples (Gentiles, ethnic groups, nations) walk, we are no longer to go on walkabout with them.”

 

Why is this important? Why does this matter today?

 

It matters because the Church is not the world and the world is not the Church; we are to be a City set on a hill, the Light of the world in Christ, and we are not to live as the world lives – we are, in Jesus Christ, to be distinct from the peoples and nations of the world. As we work through Ephesians 4:17 – 5:21 I hope we will see the glaring differences between the People of God and those who live according to the spirit of the age, “the prince of the power of the air,” (2:2).

 

Much preaching and teaching assumes there is no difference between the Church and the world. We have been seduced by materialism, politics, economics, earthly nationalism, entertainment, excessive sports, sensualism, gluttony, the academy, religious showmanship, spin and deceit, vitriol and anger, sloth, and profanity – I am sure you can add to this list.  (Ponder 1 John 2:15 – 17).

 

While Paul spends 1:1 – 4:16 establishing that we are the People of God from eternity past, and sharing the Grand Plan of God that Jews and Gentles come to be One People in Christ (2:13; 3:4 – 8), he also makes a foundational point in 2:1 – 3 that serves as both a cardinal truth regarding our redemption in Christ, and as a backdrop to 4:17ff:

 

“And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked [here is that world “walk” again] according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh and of the mind, and were by nature  children of wrath, even as the rest [of humanity].”

 

Thank God that what follows in Chapter 2 is that we have been “made alive” together in Christ, that we are no longer dead in our sins, and that we have been incorporated into the People of God, the Temple of the Living God.

 

There are really only two kinds of people on earth, those who are alive in Christ and those who are dead in trespasses and sins. Or we might say, those who live in Christ and those who live in the world. Or those who draw their life from Christ, and those who draw their life from the world.

 

Therefore, when Paul uses the term “Gentiles” in Ephesians 4:17 he is referring to the unregenerate peoples of the world, for once again, there are only two types of people on the planet, those who are spiritually alive in Jesus Christ and those who are dead in their trespasses and sins.

 

Furthermore, if we are not living in this awareness then we are not living with a Biblical understanding of who we are in Christ, along with our mission, and the condition of those who remain in the world.

 

Let’s be clear about this, those who are alive in Jesus Christ, who are His disciples, are not of the world. Can we hear the words of our Lord Jesus?

 

“If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.” John 15:18 – 19.

 

The Apostle John writes, “You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.” 1 John 4:4 – 6.

 

Is this the way we think and live? Is this the language we use in our congregations and small groups? If we do not see this then we will gloss over what follows Ephesians 4:17 – because we will not have eyes to see; our vision will be dimmed by what we think is Christianity, and it is a Christianity that is without distinction from the world, without obedience to Jesus Christ, without a sense of holiness and purity and their opposite.

 

O dear friends, when we fail to see the distinction between the  City of God and the city of man, between the Kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world, we will be seduced into ungodly alliances in politics, in earthly nationalism, in entertainment, in economics, in education, in sports, in business…in every conceivable aspect of life.

 

And sadly, so very sadly, we will offer our children to the world, and the next generation, and the next generation. The slippery slope has shot us into the abyss – and we are so accustomed to darkness that we don’t even know it.

 

Dare we gloss over Ephesians 4:17 – 5:21?

 

Dare I?

 

Dare you?