Brought to Life; Brought Together
Walking Worthy: Fleeing Futility
Ephesians 4:17-21
April 19, 2020
David Taylor
We are back in our series in Ephesians, Brought to Life; Brought Together. As a recap, chapters one through three describe what God has done for us in Christ while chapters four through six call us to live out what God has done for us, which we are calling Walking Worthy. The first half of chapter four describes walking in unity as church (4:1–16). The rest of chapter four can be described as walking in holiness. Today’s passage consists of two sections. In 17-19, Paul challenges us to no longer live as unbelievers but as believers, striving to walk in a life holiness, a life of obedience to Christ (20-24).
Big Idea: Those who have been freed from a life of futility must flee from that life of futility.
1. Freed from a Life of Futility (17-19)
Paul challenges us, stop living as the Gentiles do, that is, as unbelievers (2:1-3). Some individuals in the church evidently were not walking worthy of their calling, living in a life of holiness or obedience to Christ. You have been freed from your past so flee from your past.
He describes unbelievers in grim terms. Secular humanists tell us that humanity is basically good but the bible describes humanity in much darker terms. That is not to say that all people are equally bad or as bad as they could be but sin has so corrupted and tainted every aspect of human nature, whether we are moral or immoral, religious or irreligious. Paul describes unbelievers as living in the futility of their minds (17). Human life is futile apart from God’s purposes for us in Christ (Rom 1:21-23). Unbelievers can accomplish so much good but apart from God’s eternal purposes in Christ, life is ultimately meaningless.
Then Paul explains what he means by futility. First, unbelievers are darkened in their understanding and alienated from God’s life (18). We are born spiritually blind and alienated from the life of God so we cannot see spiritual reality because we are spiritually dead. Sin has corrupted and permeated every aspect of human nature that we are blind us to spiritual truth. Apart from the life giving and eye opening work of the Spirit all of us are "dead in trespasses and sins" (2:1). No matter how healthy, active, happy, productive, and creative people are, all of us are severed from the life of God and blinded to spiritual truth and reality. His diagnosis runs deeper still, giving two us reasons for our darkness and alienation.
The darkness is because of ignorance which in turn is due to their hard heart (18). Spiritual ignorance is not from a lack of evidence or knowledge of the truth. The human heart is hardened toward the knowledge of God that is available and the ignorance is because we instinctively suppress the truth (Rom 1:18). Instead of embracing the true God, we create gods in our own image that are like us, agrees with us, and accept us as we are. But do you have any relationship who will accept you no matter what and always agrees with you?
Then Paul moves from describing the inner life of unbelievers to how they live. A hard heart manifests itself in callousness and a giving themselves over to sensuality (19). Callousness is an insensitivity, a numbness to sin and God, not necessarily all sin but toward sin in general. Giving themselves up to sensuality is removing restraint and self-control and living for the senses and desires that drive us. The purpose of giving themselves up to sensuality is that they are greedy to practice every kind of impurity (19). No self-control nor desire to restrain oneself. The only way anyone can escape such futility is the gospel, fleeing our sin and fleeing to Christ. And if God has made you alive, then Christ has freed you from this futility so flee this life (20-21).
2. Flee From a Life of Futility (20-21)
“But” draws a contrast, do not live as an unbeliever but instead live as a believer, a follower of Christ. Listen to what Paul says, but that is not the way you learned Christ, assuming you have heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus (20-21). Christ’s call to follow him, become a Christian, was and is a call to repent of your sin and turn toward Christ in faith for salvation. Not a one-time choice but a life of repentance and turning to Christ in faith. That is a daily struggle because following Christ is a daily fight for holiness. If the Spirit of Christ is in us, the power of Christ is available to us, so as we fight the fight of faith, over time we will become more like Christ. The New Testament expects disciples to become like Christ.
The phrase learned Christ is talking about being a student, a disciple, of Christ, his person and his work centered around the gospel (Col 2:6-7). Following Christ is modeled by the early disciples. We do not follow Jesus around like the twelve did but we follow him by being students of his like they were. That means giving serious attention to his teaching, striving to become like him, and taking up his mission. Even those beyond the twelve disciples were serious about his teaching and obeying him. Too many falsely believe that obeying Jesus is optional (Mat 28:19). The New Testament teaches just the opposite (7:15-27). The New Testament teaching can be summarized as, since you have been freed from sin flee from sin toward Christ. That is what Jesus taught. Next week we will look more specifically at 22-24, how change is possible.
Life Group Questions:
1. Why does Paul use the language of walking worthy for following Christ in holiness?
2. Do you see your life before Christ as a life of futility? Why or why not?
3. How can people do so much good yet Paul has such a grim outlook on the human condition?
4. Is it possible for Christians to have hard hearts too?
5. How does maturity related to my discipleship?
6. How is this message speaking to me?
7. How does being freed and fleeing a life of futility help me in my own discipleship to Jesus?
8. How does this message help me in making disciples?
