Ephesians

Christians in a World of Worldlings

We see the next step of Paul’s analysis: “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” (Ephesians 4:19). Paul makes the same point in Romans 1:28, “Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.” He goes on in that passage to list the awful crimes humanity commits on a daily basis, and they sound as if they are culled from the pages of your morning newspaper. Why do people do such things? Because human beings are futile in their thinking.

The good news of the gospel is that God reaches even these kinds of people. He penetrates and softens human hearts. Rather than blaming those around us with darkened minds, we must remember that we, too, had the same mind, the same outlook on life. As Paul says in Colossians 1:21-22, “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you…” Our minds were once darkened, too, and it is only because God’s love reached out to us that we have the light of truth. So we have no right to be judgmental. Darkness and ignorance are the basic human conditions to which the gospel makes its appeal.

There is a story of a boy who thought he would teach some sparrows to sing like a canary. So he put the sparrows in a cage with the canary, hoping the canary would teach them to sing. In a few days he found the canary chirping like the sparrows! We must not be like that canary. While we live in a sparrow-filled world, we must retain our canary-like thoughts, our canary-like ways, our canary-like life. We are Christians in a world of worldlings—and we must not allow ourselves to be absorbed back into the darkened existence of worldliness.