17 This I say,
therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest
of[a] the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, 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 4:17-18
Personal Mission - Be a man of God
Personal Vision - Lead like Christ, Walk
with Christ, Love my wife and children in a way that they understand
We continue today to
examine the word, "walk," one
of the active words from my personal vision statement. In this passage it is still the Greek word is
peripateo which means conduct my life,
regulates one life, make progress, make use of opportunities, be occupied
with. We'll continue to use the inductive study
W.O.R.D. acrostic for this study: Worship, Observe, Reveal, and Determine.
Dear heavenly
Father, please take away any distractions from my study today. Help me to focus on You and Your
scriptures. Help me not to taint my
understanding of this passage with what I want it to say. Let the Scripture speak to me. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
For this study, we
are in the book of Ephesians. Ephesus
was a center of culture in the Asian world during Roman times. They're pride was one of the seven wonders of
the ancient world, the Temple of Artemis.
Artemis was considered a goddess of fertility and most of the priests in
the temple were women. In this letter to
the churches of this region, Paul is talking to the Gentiles about how to live
their lives.
The passage starts
with "therefore" instructing us to examine the preceding
paragraph(s). In Ephesians 4:11-16, Paul
points out that the Gentile believers should "no longer be children"
fooled by "the trickery of men."
Paul "speaking the truth in love" that they may "grow
up" in all things Christ. They
believe so their lives should reflect a change.
Understanding the
context of the passage, let's delve deeper into the specific words. Remember, the Bible was written in Greek not
English. By understanding the depth of
key words and phrases, we can discover more about the passage. The Bible translation that I use for my blog
is the New King James Version (NKJV).
Other translations may use different words.
Looking at different
translations (NIV, NASB, ESV, NLT, Amplified) of the key words that I
identified, only one word really used different words. Alienated was also excluded, separated,
wander, and banished. The Greek word is apallotrioo which means estranged, excluded,
shut out.
Let's examine some
of the Greek words for deeper meaning.
First, let's understand Gentiles.
The Greek word is ethnos meaning
a race, people, heathen world, unbelieving, common culture, foreign nations not
worshipping God. Gentiles are common,
more abundant than believing Christians.
The word identifies the fallen, sinful, blinded world.
Some other words of
interest are futility, mind, understanding, darkened, ignorance, blindness and
heart. The Greek word for futility is mataiotes or aimless due to lack of purpose of
anything meaningful, vanity, emptiness, unreality. Mind is nous
or reasoning faculty, intellect, receiving God's thoughts through faith. Understanding is dianoia or insight, balanced conclusions, moral
understanding. Darkened is skotoo is spiritual obscurity. Ignorance is agnoia or willful blindness
especially of things divine, closed minds.
Blindness is porosis which is
obtuseness, callousness, dulled perception, stupidity. Finally, heart is kardia or inner self, character, capacity of moral preference,
inner man, feelings.
Paul instructs us to
no longer live like the common, heathen, unbelieving world. The world is aimless without direction or
moral compass due to its lack of purpose.
The world can't recognize evil and is blind to balanced thought, closed
minded to the Truth or any other belief that isn't common.
How does this apply
to my life? I need to be opposite of the
world. My purpose is to live for God and
not myself. I need a softened inner self
that is open to hear both sides of the story to help determine what is good and
what is evil. Not so much "Fair and
balanced" as understanding Truth being compassionate towards unbelievers to
come to balanced God-centered conclusions.
How do I accomplish this? By studying His Word and viewing the world
through God's eyes.
The Christian’s Walk
17 So this I
say, and solemnly affirm together with the Lord [as in His presence], that you
must no longer live as the [unbelieving] Gentiles live, in the futility of
their minds [and in the foolishness and emptiness of their souls], 18 for
their [moral] understanding is darkened and their reasoning is clouded; [they
are] alienated and self-banished from the life of God [with no share in it;
this is] because of the [willful] ignorance and spiritual blindness that is
[deep-seated] within them, because of the hardness and insensitivity of their
heart.
Amplified Bible
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