Get A Life
Written by Ed Allen
Saturday, 13 January 2001 19:00
Ephesians: Christianity for Dummies
“All too often, if you’ve seen the world, you’ve seen followers of Jesus.”
- People of the world deceive one another
- They don’t handle their anger well
- They are sometimes lazy and presume on others
- They put one another down
- They have marriages that dissolve...
And it is the same with those of us who follow Jesus all too often. But the Bible says don’t live that way. If you are a follower of Jesus you’ve been given life -- real, dynamic, and free. The Bible says, “Do not lose your life,” and “Live the life you’ve been given.”
Ephesians 4:17-24
“(17) So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. (18) They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. (19) Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. (20) You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. (21) Surely you heard of him and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. (22) You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; (23) to be made new in the attitude of your minds; (24) and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
DO NOT LOSE YOUR LIFE:
- Hardening of the heart-- Means determined to do whatever it is you want to do. -- Old Testament parallels:
Psalm 95:8-9
“(8) Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the desert, (9) where your fathers tested and tried me, though they had seen what I did.”
Isaiah 6:8-10
“(8) Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” (9) He said, “Go and tell this people: “`Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ (10) Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
Jeremiah 17:23
“(23) Yet they did not listen or pay attention; they were stiff-necked and would not listen or respond to discipline.”
- Ignorance-- The word also means “unawareness”. It’s as if you don’t know better (huge debt, addicted to internet pornography, health is awful because of negative life patterns). But we are not innocent. This ignorance is because of a willful hardening of our hearts. We have determined to do other than God would dictate and the result is a kind of ignorance.
- Futility of their thinking-- (uselessness/vanity/purposelessness of their way of seeing things). This is given fuller explanation...
Darkened in their understanding-- cannot see the light. Notice how much of this focuses on the mind. God is not primarily concerned with a specific list of sins. He’s not making a list and checking it twice. God is concerned with a distortion and disorientation of our minds that ultimately results in the destruction our whole lives. Separated from the life of God -- “A Man for All Seasons”.
- Insensitivity-- means literally to develop a callous or a thick skin (like at the end of my fingers -- I can’t feel things well).
- Give themselves over to sensuality and impurity
This week...
- Have a heart exam. Are there places of hardness that should not be there -- toward wife/husband/family? Are there pockets of determination? Are there seeds of a plan to violate your conscience?
- Have a head exam. Do you seem ignorant to yourself or others? Are you unaware of how you got to where you are? What part of your thinking led you here? Maybe worse. Maybe you are purposeless. Maybe you feel completely cut off from God and the life He gives. Maybe in your own head, you’re living your life like a zombie.
- Stop it! Ask for help.
- If you’re alive today, be thankful. This is God’s gift to you. Do not lose your lives. Do not live like Americans do.
LIVE THE LIFE YOU’VE BEEN GIVEN
A new car does you no good if you don’t drive it. A new suit is of no benefit if you don’t wear it. Suppose you got a brand new operating system for your computer. Suppose it was better in every way than Windows or Macintosh. It never crashed. It is completely intuitive. How wonderful would that be? But that system would do you no good if you never used it. You would need to educate yourself in the new system and then use it everyday in order for it to benefit you. If you continue to use your old system, the new system would not help you. In fact, the Bible tells you to uninstall the old system and immerse yourself in the new one.
Old verse new -- one of the images Bible uses of change Christ makes. Radical, nothing less than a conversion is being described. The old is being corrupted by its deceitful desires. But the new is being renewed, with a new mental disposition. The new is being recreated to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. I like the way one author summarized this last section. “Take on an entirely new way of life,” he said. “It is a God-fashioned life, a life renewed from the inside and working itself into your conduct as God accurately reproduces his character in you.” Isn’t that fantastic? God is reproducing His character in us. But we’ve got to put it on everyday.
This section begins with a very interesting phrase. “You however did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.” “In the university of the new life, you didn’t take any courses in the downward spiral of sin. In fact, you majored in Jesus because he’s the center and source of the new life.” So how’s your coursework going?
This week...
- Have your character examined. Ask someone you trust how they have seen your character changed? Thank God for that change. Rejoice in it.
- If you are not a follower of Jesus, this is the first step.
Response questions:
- What part of this lesson speaks most directly to your life?
- How do you go about “putting off” and “putting on”?
- In the process of living the Christian life, are you making progress? How do you know?