Ephesians

Darkened Understanding

Next, Paul analyzes the problem at the core of the world’s faulty mindset. Why is human thinking futile and pointless? Paul explains: “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” (Ephesians 4:18). The mindset of worldlings is futile because their understanding is darkened.

Just as a cloud may pass across the sun and darken its light, so the thinking of man in his fallen state is obscured and darkened. Scripture continually uses these terms—light and darkness—as metaphors for truth and ignorance. Truth is light; ignorance is darkness. Here, Paul declares that human thinking is shadowed with ignorance. It is pointless because it stems from ignorance.

Why are we human beings ignorant? Because there is a part of our being that does not function—our spiritual life. The human spirit is blank, darkened, and obscured. In our natural state, apart from God, there is a part of our being—the part that God intended at creation to be the key to life—where nothing takes place. The spirit of humanity, lost in sin, is dead. As a result, all human knowledge is broken, unrelated, incomplete. That is the picture Paul draws.

We tend to take pride in our great civilization with its accomplishments, knowledge, and technological wonders. But we have to ask ourselves: What has this vaunted civilization really done for us? Do we feel safe on our streets at night? Have we solved the problems of crime, political corruption, racism, immorality, and war? Are we any happier as a society than the ancient Egyptians, the ancient Mayans, the ancient Greeks? If so, why are so many of us going to psychiatrists, taking drugs, getting drunk, getting divorced, battering spouses and children, and committing suicide?

We see the darkened understanding of humanity in talk of moral relativism, of “tolerance” for sexual perversion and promiscuity, in the declining level of moral and ethical behavior among our leaders, and a general attitude of “if it feels good, do it.” People are increasingly becoming slaves to animal passions, addicts to pleasure, faithless to commitments and covenants. This is the darkening of the fallen mind.

In their ignorant blindness, human beings think they are okay in their own strength, in their own goodness, and God is of either marginal importance to their lives or no importance at all. As a result, says Paul, they are “separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them” (Ephesians 4:18). Paul is not blaming or condemning humanity—he is simply analyzing the human condition. He is not criticizing—he is simply stating a fact.

By ignoring or rejecting God, we cut ourselves off from the one thing we need to be fully human. Both nature and Scripture concur that humanity is incomplete without God. We were designed and created to be the dwelling place of God. It is God in us that makes us fully human as God intended us to be. This fact is demonstrated by the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was the indwelling of the Spirit and His moment-by-moment dependence upon the Father that enabled Jesus to be fully human as God intended Him to be. The life of God is essential to our humanity, and without the life of God being lived through us, we are blinded, weak, and ignorant.

But there is yet another level of depth to Paul’s great analysis. If humanity was cut off from God because of ignorance alone, humanity could well be excused. We cannot be held accountable for a truth we have never been informed of—but ignorance is not the end of the human story. Humanity is born ignorant and cut off from the life of God—but humanity remains in that condition only because of the hardness of the human heart. Human beings are “separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them,” Paul goes on to say, “due to the hardening of their hearts” (Ephesians 4:18, italics added).

A young Christian once said to me, “Why do we have such a hard time selling the world’s greatest product?” It’s because humanity resists the truth, rejects the light, turns from God’s love, clings to error—and in the process, the human heart gradually grows harder and harder until it is completely unable to respond. All of these factors mark the darkened understanding and futile, empty thinking of the world.

Paul’s message to us as members of the body of Christ is clear: “You Christians must no longer think this way. You are in the world, but you must not think as the world thinks, nor live as the world lives. You must turn away from these dead attitudes and reflect the light of God’s truth.”