“…till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head – Christ – from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.” Ephesians 4:13-16.
“This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord [I speak the truth], that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart…” Ephesians 4:17-18.
All of the above passages have been included to maintain context, and except for Ephesians 4:18 they have been examined in prior posts. We will begin here with verse 18.
“…having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart…” Ephesians 4:18.
“…having their understanding darkened” because they would not seek God out, but rather they turned knowingly away from Him, God allowed them to follow their lusts, God gave them over to the things they desired, things instigated by Satan.
“For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Romans 1:20-21.
Today, you can see this rejection of the clear evidence of God’s creative power any time you read an article, or look at the television or computer, evolution saturates the media.
While the theory of evolution is spoken of as a fact, science brings up new and inexplicable things daily which point to a Creator. DNA or the intricacies of the atom testify to how impossible it is for anything to evolve from nothing.
“…having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them…” Ephesians 4:18a.
The definition for the word alienated here means to be shut out from fellowship and intimacy with God.
Because of their rejection of the clear evidence of God, their understanding becomes darkened, which in turn alienates them, shuts them out from fellowship and intimacy with God.
And why is this so? Because of the ignorance that is in them. The rejection of God brings in superstition and ignorance. We place ourselves in the court of the devil where truth is stripped away and replaced with a lie.
When Jesus was speaking to the Pharisees and many of the Jews in the temple, He said the following.
“You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. But because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me? He who is of God hears God’s words; therefore you do not hear, because you are not of God.” John 8:44-47.
“The thief [Satan] does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John 10:10.
“…being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart…” Ephesians 4:18b.
Gentiles are alienated because of ignorance and, “…because of the blindness of their heart”. This too is of Satan, the adversary, the one who blinds.
“We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.” 1 John 5:19.
“But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Corinthians 4:3-6.
We know that God “…desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 1 Timothy 2:4.
“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9.
So it can be said that “…the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God”, shines on everyone at some point, but it is up to the individual to choose Christ or the world. And with every rejection, the individual becomes more hardened to the gospel of Christ until he has said no for the last time.
“…who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” Ephesians 4:19.
Sixteen words, but what an incredible statement they make, when added to the preceding verses this completes a picture of ungodly men run riot.
“…who being past feeling”, these are callous people who are insensible to emotional pain, past feeling shame or honor.
We have politicians like this who can have the filthiest most dishonorable things dredged from their past and like water off a duck’s back, they continue on as if nothing happened.
This is a good tool for the likes of these men and women because they do the same thing to a good man, they find something, and then accuse him of being the most unworthy of candidates for office.
They did this to an honorable black man a while back. His platform was a conservative one so he became a target for the muckrakers who looked into his marriage background and started to make allegations, whether true or not, I do not know, but to save his family he dropped out of the race.
This is how evil wins, it has no shame.
Ungodly people who are past feeling are like those whose consciences have been seared with a hot iron. A red hot poker on flesh destroys what it touches scarring and ruining what was and changes it forever.
“…speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron…” 1 Timothy 4:2.
These callous insensitive people who are past feeling “…have given themselves over to lewdness” in the King James Bible, the word lasciviousness is used instead of lewdness.
The word lasciviousness is described as unbridled lust, wantonness, and excess licentiousness.
The word licentiousness means, sexually unrestrained; lewd immoral, lawless.
Try to take this in and imagine what is being said here; “…who being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness” which is unbridled lust, wantonness; and excessive over the top sexually unrestrained behavior along with immorality, and lawlessness.
There was a woman in the news who won a multimillion dollar lawsuit against a hotel chain and a man who fits the description above perfectly.
This stalker found out which hotel the woman was staying at and then rented a room next to hers (with the hotel’s knowledge, though they say they did not know his intentions) this man bored a hole in her adjoining wall and took videos of her undressed. Not content to view these videos at his pleasure, he put them on the internet, humiliating her.
Sad to say, this is minor league compared to the filth and degradation that many women are subjected to on the internet without recourse, and often they are betrayed by boyfriends they trusted.
Ladies, a little non-judgmental advice on my part if I may, your morals are none of my business, even though I encourage everyone to seek to keep good ones, myself included.
Your everlasting soul on the other hand means everything to me. I want to meet you in heaven one day and say hi to a dear friend, that’s all.
So then, my advice is ladies, never, never let anyone take nude pictures of you even if you are in a sexual relationship, engaged, girlfriends, or even married.
There are many women who won in the divorce settlement and lost on the internet.
The same goes for angry ex-boyfriends, why write your phone number on a restroom wall when they can plaster your photos all over the internet, which is eternal I might add.
If someone is satisfied with seeing you, holding you, and being intimate with you, why do they need a provocative photo of you? If they need that to remind them of you then they need to be with you more often.
Though I do not know your situation I would like to extend my advice to the homosexual. If you enjoy living a nice quiet life why risk it by having your compromising photos smeared all over the internet. You too exercise caution my friend.
My motivation remains the same, perhaps one day I shall also meet you in heaven and say hi to my brother or sister in Jesus.
“…who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.” Ephesians 4:19.
These last two words, uncleanness, and greediness also have more meaning to them than meets the eye.
Uncleanness which is rendered impurity in the New American Standard Bible has in a moral sense, the uncleanness of lustful, luxurious, profligate living.
The latter word, profligate, is defined in the dictionary as; utterly and shamelessly immoral, thoroughly dissolute, or recklessly extravagant.
The only example that comes to mind immediately is from the story of Lazarus and the rich man, a short description of which is shown below. This, by the way, may be a true story not a parable.
“There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously [lived in luxury] every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table.” Luke 16:19-21a.
This is true callousness, this man did not even dump his leftovers in this man’s lap; just the garbage would have been an act of kindness. The leader of North Korea fits this model perfectly; he fares sumptuously daily while his citizens suffer hunger and privation. God will judge men like this.
Our last word, greediness lives up to its reputation; it means a desire to have more, covetousness which is connected to sensuality.
Sensuality has to do with the senses. Coveting the best musical sound systems, gourmet foods, the fastest or most luxurious cars are examples of unrestrained indulgence of things appealing to the senses. This is called hedonism and is a legitimate life philosophy for many.
If we look at these two words again you will see that they are connected, “uncleanness with greediness”. Put these together and we have, the impurity of lustful, luxurious, profligate living combined with sensual covetousness and the desire to have more.
This desire to have more does not necessarily have to be gotten in a legal manner.
The Christian is no longer to walk as ungodly Gentiles do. To do so is to grieve the Holy Spirit in you, and to dishonor the body of Christ before the world.
“Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Galatians 5:19-21.
Christ’s Body, Ephesians 4:18-19 taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 3-10-16, updated on 6-25-21.
Many of the definitions taken from: Strong’s Concordance, Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, Vine’s Expository Dictionary, and The Random House Dictionary.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.