Walk True In 2022
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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. But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Introduction
Introduction
This passage contains an astounding truth—believers are neither Gentiles nor Jews; they are a third race of people. Therefore, they are not to walk like men; they are to walk like Christ.
The believer is not to walk after the Gentiles, or after men (vv. 17–19).
The believer is not to walk after the Gentiles, or after men (vv. 17–19).
The believer is to walk after Christ (vv. 20–24).
The believer is to walk after Christ (vv. 20–24).
The believer is not to walk as the Gentiles, that is, as ungodly men.
This is very significant.
Remember: Paul is writing to Gentiles.
The church at Ephesus was a Gentile church. Now note the verse.The believers are told to no longer walk as “other Gentiles” walk. That is, believers are set off and set apart from other Gentiles.
Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:
Who then are believers? The point being made is that they are a new creation; the creation of a new body of people, a new nation, a new race. They are the children of God who are to inhabit the new heavens and earth.
Christians are “a new race,” a race distinct from Jews and Greeks.
And he answered and said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it.
Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God; And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
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.
The point is this:
Believers are not to walk as other men walk.
Believers are not to walk as other men walk.
Because believers are new creatures in Christ Jesus, and the walk of other men does not please God.
Because believers are new creatures in Christ Jesus, and the walk of other men does not please God.
What is it that other men do that does not please God?
This passage gives five traits about unbelievers that displease God. Remember: believers are to have nothing to do with any of these.
They are never to return to the paths of their former life.
Unbelievers walk in the vanity of their mind
Unbelievers walk in the vanity of their mind
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
The mind includes the ability to will and to do the truth as well as know the truth; it includes morality as well as reasoning and understanding.
We might understand it as “mentality” or “state of mind”.
We might understand it as “mentality” or “state of mind”.
The word “vain” means empty, futile, senseless, aimless, unsuccessful, worthless.
The word “vain” means empty, futile, senseless, aimless, unsuccessful, worthless.
When men push God out of their minds, their minds are void and empty of God and of His truth and morality.
God is not in their thoughts.
Their minds are ready to be filled with some other god or supremacy, that is, with the things of the world:
⇒ worldly pleasures
⇒ worldly possessions
⇒ worldly power
⇒ worldly position
⇒ worldly religions
⇒ worldly ideas
⇒ worldly honor
⇒ worldly gods
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, That they are vanity.
These six things doth the Lord hate: Yea, seven are an abomination unto him: A proud look, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, Feet that be swift in running to mischief, A false witness that speaketh lies, And he that soweth discord among brethren.
The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord: But the words of the pure are pleasant words.
Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The Lord seeth us not; the Lord hath forsaken the earth.
The mind of man walks after these things, neglecting, ignoring, and rejecting God. The believer must never return to the walk of an empty mind; he must never again allow his mind to become empty of God.
Unbelievers walk with their understanding darkened
Unbelievers walk with their understanding darkened
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:
To understand means to grasp, comprehend, perceive.
To understand means to grasp, comprehend, perceive.
To be darkened means to be blinded, and unable to see.
To be darkened means to be blinded, and unable to see.
The unbeliever does not grasp or understand God; his understanding is darkened and blinded, and unable to see God.
He often understands this world and the things of this world, and he gives his life over to the things of this world.
But he is not able to understand God and His eternal plan for the world through the Lord Jesus Christ.
The believer is not to allow his understanding to become darkened.
He is not to return to the world of the spiritually blind, the world of those who walk with darkened understanding.
They know not, neither will they understand; They walk on in darkness: All the foundations of the earth are out of course.
Who leave the paths of uprightness, To walk in the ways of darkness;
The way of the wicked is as darkness: They know not at what they stumble.
For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
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:
Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Unbelievers walk alienated from the life of God.
Unbelievers walk alienated from the life of God.
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:
Unbelievers are spiritually dead and doomed to eternal death.
Alienated means to be estranged, separated, cut off, detached.
Alienated means to be estranged, separated, cut off, detached.
There are always unfriendly or hostile feelings involved in alienation.
The unbeliever is alienated from the life of God.
He is …
• estranged from God with unfriendly or hostile feelings
• separated from God with unfriendly or hostile feelings
• cut off from God with unfriendly or hostile feelings
• detached from God with unfriendly or hostile feelings
Why?
Not because of God.
The Bible is clear about this issue.
Unbelievers are alienated from God because of their own willful ignorance and hardness of heart.
Unbelievers are alienated from God because of their own willful ignorance and hardness of heart.
The word blindness is translated darkened or hardness, as well.
Note the words “in them.”
The cause is “in them”:
⇒ They choose to be ignorant within their minds—choose to be ignorant of God.
⇒ They choose to harden their own hearts.
Unbelievers are responsible for their own death.
Unbelievers are responsible for their own death.
God has provided the fountain of youth for man, the way for man to live forever. God has given His life, that is, eternal life, to man.
The only way man can miss God’s gift of eternal life is to reject God and His gift.
The only way man can miss God’s gift of eternal life is to reject God and His gift.
This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
But she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.
The wicked are estranged from the womb: They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
Thus saith the Lord, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?
That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.
Unbelievers are past feeling.
Unbelievers are past feeling.
Unbelievers have reached a point where they no longer have feelings for God and His standard of morality.
Unbelievers have reached a point where they no longer have feelings for God and His standard of morality.
To be past feeling means to become callous, insensible, hardened. The more a person walks without God the more callous a person becomes to God.
The more a person walks in sin, the more callous his conscience becomes to righteousness. Sin becomes more and more acceptable. The person’s conscience no longer bothers him. He reaches a point of being past feeling.
The believer is not to return to sin. He is not to walk as other men walk—in sin, becoming callous and insensitive to God.
The believer is not to return to sin. He is not to walk as other men walk—in sin, becoming callous and insensitive to God.
For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.
Unbelievers give themselves over to lasciviousness
Unbelievers give themselves over to lasciviousness
In other words to all forms of sensual living
Lasciviousness is filthiness, indecency, shamelessness.
Lasciviousness is filthiness, indecency, shamelessness.
A chief characteristic of the behavior is open and shameless indecency. It means unrestrained evil thoughts and behavior.
It is giving in to your basest and lustful desires, a readiness for any pleasure. It is a man who knows no restraint, a man who has sinned so much that he no longer cares what people say or think.
It is something far more distasteful than just doing wrong.
It is something far more distasteful than just doing wrong.
The man who sins usually tries to hide his wrong, but a lascivious man does not care who knows about his sin or shame.
The man who sins usually tries to hide his wrong, but a lascivious man does not care who knows about his sin or shame.
He wants; therefore, he seeks to take and gratify. Decency and opinion do not matter.
Initially when he began to sin, he did as all men do: he did it in secret. But eventually, the sin got the best of him—to the point that he no longer cared who saw or knew. He became the subject of a master—the master of habit, of the thing itself.
Men become the slaves of such things as unbridled lust, wantonness, licentiousness, outrageousness, shamelessness, insolence, wanton manners, filthy words, indecent abody movements, immoral handling of males and females, public display of affection, carnality, gluttony, and sexual immorality.
And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them, in like manner giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:
Unbelievers indulge in all uncleanness with greediness.
Unbelievers indulge in all uncleanness with greediness.
The word uncleanness means to be dirty and filthy; to be infested with every kind of unclean, immoral, dirty, and polluted behavior.
It is the most immoral behavior imaginable.
It is the most immoral behavior imaginable.
But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.
Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
The word greediness means avarice, coveting, craving, grasping, desiring to have more and more; hoarding all one can get and still craving more.
The word greediness means avarice, coveting, craving, grasping, desiring to have more and more; hoarding all one can get and still craving more.
It is being enslaved and held in bondage by the things of this earth: for example, food, drink, and a host of fleshly sins and self-centered behavior.
Believers are not to walk in such a life.
Believers are not to walk in such a life.
They are not to walk as other men walk.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s.
For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.
And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.
And they covet fields, and take them by violence; And houses, and take them away: So they oppress a man and his house, Even a man and his heritage.
Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, That he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil!
And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:
Conclusion
Conclusion
The point is this: We as believers are not to walk as other men walk.
Why? Because believers are new creatures in Christ Jesus, and the walk of other men does not please God.
Maybe last year derailed you… It is time to get up dust yourself off and make the decision to repent and
Walk True In 2022
Walk True In 2022